#states

It doesn't happen to me anymore, because a fresh generation of Africans and Asians has arisen to take over the business, but in my early years in Washington, D.C., I would often find myself in the back of a big beat-up old cab driven by an African-American veteran. I became used to the formalities of the mise-en-scène: on some hot and drowsy Dixie-like afternoon I would flag down a flaking Chevy. Behind the wheel, leaning wa-aay back and relaxed, often with a cigar stub in the corner of his mouth (and, I am not making this up, but sometimes also with a genuine porkpie hat on the back of his head) would be a grizzled man with the waist of his pants somewhere up around his armpits. I would state my desired destination. In accordance with ancient cabdriver custom, he would say nothing inresponse but simply engage the stickshift on his steering wheel and begin to cruise in a leisurely fashion. There would be a pause. Then: 'You from England?' I would always try to say something along the lines of 'Well, I'm in no position to deny it.' This occasionally got me a grin; in any case, I always knew what was coming next. 'I was there once.' 'Were you in the service?' 'I sure was.' 'Did you get to Normandy?' 'Yes, sir.' But it wasn't Normandy or combat about which they wanted to reminisce. (With real combat veterans, by the way, it almost never is.) It was England itself. 'Man did it know how to rain… and the warm beer. Nice people, though. Real nice.' I would never forget to say, as I got out and deliberately didn't overtip (that seeming a cheap thing to do), how much this effort on their part was remembered and appreciated. ↗

— Christopher Hitchens

#england #united-states #world-war-ii #business

One of the embarrassing problems for the early nineteenth-century champions of the Christian faith was that not one of the first six Presidents of the United States was an orthodox Christian. ↗

— Mortimer Adler

#christian #christian faith #early #embarrassing #faith

In the United States today, we have more than our share of the nattering nabobs of negativism. ↗

— Spiro T. Agnew

#our #share #states #than #today

When you look at the world, everyone in the world who cares about his or her family wants to have a major portion of their assets in the United States because we are the growth country and the freedom loving country. ↗

— Arthur Laffer

#assets #because #cares #country #everyone

Your generous part in my liberation is taken by the world for the revelation of the fact, that the United States are resolved not to allow the despots of the world to trample on oppressed humanity. ↗

— Lajos Kossuth

#despots #fact #generous #humanity #liberation

Apartheid education, rarely mentioned in the press or openly confronted even among once-progressive educators, is alive and well and rapidly increasing now in the United States. ↗

— Jonathan Kozol

#among #apartheid #confronted #education #educators

The inequalities are greater now than in '92. Some states have equalized per-pupil spending but they set the 'equal level' very low, so that wealthy districts simply raise extra money privately. ↗

— Jonathan Kozol

#equal #extra #extra money #greater #inequalities

Iraq does not pose an imminent threat to the United States of any of its neighboring nations. ↗

— Dennis Kucinich

#does #imminent #imminent threat #iraq #nations

The United States did not keep its promise to help us fight for freedom and it was in the same fight that the United States lost 50,000 of its young men. ↗

— Nguyen Van Thieu

#fight #freedom #help #keep #lost

Despite the negativity coming from the President's opponents, the United States remains fully committed to assisting the Iraqis in restoring security and rebuilding their nation. ↗

— Craig L. Thomas

#coming #committed #despite #fully #iraqis