Government proposes, bureaucracy disposes. And the bureaucracy must dispose of government proposals by dumping them on us.
P. J. O'RourkeRead
The interesting thing about staring down a gun barrel is how small the hole is where the bullet comes out, yet what a big difference it would make in your social schedule.
Interpretation
The quote humorously highlights the stark contrast between the small size of a gun's barrel and the significant impact it has on a person's life.
P. J. O'Rourke’s quote plays on the irony of how a small physical object, like the barrel of a gun, can have such a profound influence on someone's life and relationships. It suggests that the fear and danger associated with firearms can drastically alter one's social interactions and priorities, underscoring the weight of seemingly minor things that can have major consequences.
In practice
In a stand-up comedy routine discussing the absurdity of everyday life.
Government proposes, bureaucracy disposes. And the bureaucracy must dispose of government proposals by dumping them on us.
Always read something that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it.
Predicting innovation is something of a self-canceling exercise: the most probable innovations are probably the least innovative.
I spend my days kneeling in the muck of language, feeling around for gooey verbs, nouns, and modifiers that I can squash together to make a blob of a sentence that bears some likeness to reason and sense.
Anyone who thinks he has a better idea of what's good for people than people do is a swine.
The idea of a news broadcast once was to find someone with information and broadcast it. The idea now is to find someone with ignorance and spread it around.
Our comedies are not to be laughed at.
Ben Franklin was a little stout later in life and it was said that in Paris a young woman, tapping him on his protruding abdomen, said,"Dr. Franklin, if this were on a woman, we'd know what to think." And Franklin replied,"Half an hour ago, Mademoiselle, it was on a woman, and now what do you think?"
A countryman between two lawyers is like a fish between two cats.
Right now I'm having amnesia and deja vu at the same time... I think I've forgotten this before.
Why anybody gets my sense of humor I never know, but I do know that when they do, I keep them as close as I possibly can.
People thought I was funny, so I kind of took entertaining for granted... it was inevitable that I'd start giving little performances.
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