I don't make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts.
Will RogersRead
This country has come to feel the same when Congress is in session as when the baby gets hold of a hammer.
Interpretation
The quote compares Congress in session to a child playing with a hammer, implying chaos and potential danger.
Will Rogers uses this quote to express his frustration with Congress, suggesting that their actions often resemble the reckless and unplanned behavior of a child wielding a tool without understanding its purpose. This analogy highlights concerns about the effectiveness and responsibility of political leaders, implying that their decisions may lead to unforeseen negative consequences for the country.
In practice
During a debate about government dysfunction, one could use this quote to illustrate the perceived incompetence of lawmakers.
I don't make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts.
People who fly into a rage always make a bad landing.
Why don't they pass a constitutional amendment prohibiting anybody from learning anything? If it works as well as prohibition did, in five years Americans would be the smartest race of people on Earth.
The 1928 Republican Convention opened with a prayer. If the Lord can see His way clear to bless the Republican Party the way it's been carrying on, then the rest of us ought to get it without even asking.
Let advertisers spend the same amount of money improving their product that they do on advertising and they wouldn't have to advertise it.
The man with the best job in the country is the vice-president. All he has to do is get up every morning and say, 'How is the president?'
This government has been informed that a Jewish state has been proclaimed in Palestine, and recognition has been requested by the provisional government thereof. The United States recognizes the provisional government as the de facto authority of the new State of Israel.
I have been struck by the pervasive frequency of pompously patriotic ads for the defense industry, usually accompanied by deferential salutations to our men and women who are heroically sacrificing their lives in our defense. Do we really need all of that for our security?
The foulest damage to our political life comes not from the 'secrets' which they hide from us, but from the little bits of half-truth and disinformation which they do tell us. These are already pre-digested, and then are sicked up as little gobbits of authorised spew. The columns of defense correspondents in the establishment sheets serve as the spittoons.
U.S. Government propaganda tries to give the impression that aerial bombardment achieves near-surgical accuracy, so that military targets can be destroyed with minimal effect on civilians. Technical documents give a different picture.
It is always a disappointment to turn from forthright consideration of some subject - whether from the Left or the Right, a poet or a plumber - to the Beltway version, in which the only aspects of the issue that matter are the effects it will have on the fortunes of the two parties and the various men in power.
Theodore Roosevelt's policy to build a two-ocean navy confirmed that the old-style isolationism of the founders had not survived the modern, increasingly globalized world.
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