Instructions for use: open mouth, look stupid

John Hawkins, at Right Wing News, has put together a funny and infuriating list he’s called “The 40 Most Obnoxious Quotes of 2007.” It’s a refresher course in the idiocies that emerge from the ideologically blind, the desperate, the opportunistic, the angry, the malevolent and the just plain stupid. A few examples of statements you wish you could forget:

36) “(News of killings is) not good for us, but it also keeps the New Orleans brand out there, and it keeps people thinking about our needs and what we need to bring this community back.” — Democratic Mayor of New Orleans, Ray Nagin, explains the upside of murders in his city

[snip]

34) “Perhaps the outpouring of sympathy for [the falsely arrested Duke lacrosse players] Reade Seligman, Collin Finnerty and David Evans is just a bit misplaced….As students of Duke University or other elite institutions, these young men will get on with their privileged lives….They are very differently situated in life from, say, the young women of the Rutgers University women’s basketball team.” — Nightline co-anchor Terry Moran explains how the men falsely accused of rape got off light compared to the women who were called “nappy headed hos”

33) “I do believe that it’s the first time in history that fire has ever melted steel. I do believe that it defies physics that World Trade Center tower 7 — building 7, which collapsed in on itself — it is impossible for a building to fall the way it fell without explosives being involved. World Trade Center 7. World Trade [Center] 1 and 2 got hit by planes — 7, miraculously, the first time in history, steel was melted by fire. It is physically impossible.” — Rosie O’Donnell talks Trutherism

[snip]

29) “Well, because the Arabs who were involved in 9/11 cooperated with the Zionists, actually. It was a cooperation. They gave them the perfect excuse to denounce all Arabs. It’s a racist sort of thing, really racist – you know, picking out these 19 or 20 terrorists – they were terrorists – and saying all the Arabs are like them.” — Former Democratic Senator James Abourezk on Hizbullah TV

[snip]

13) “Now the people in the Administration of George Bush better remember their Miranda rights, because when I’m elected President I’m going to see that they are arrested. I’m not kidding here!” — Democratic Congressman Dennis Kucinich

12) “I have zero doubt that if Dick Cheney was not in power, people wouldn’t be dying needlessly tomorrow….I’m just saying if he did die, other people, more people would live. That’s a fact.” — Bill Maher