Spiro Agnew and the Great Man Theory

Spiro Agnew (11/9/1918-9/17/1996) was truly a great American we can all be proud of. A champion of free speech and freedom of the press, he changed his name from Spiros Anagnostopoulos to Spiro Theodore Agnew, weaseled his way into becoming Republican governor of Maryland in 1966, took wads of cash in envelopes as kickbacks and bribes, became Richard M. Nixon's running mate in 1968, became Vice President of the United States in 1969, mouthed words for TV conjured up by William Saffire and Pat Buchanan, was forced to resign for tax evasion in 1973, moved around among his three estates in secrecy, resurfaced as head of Global Research International in the 1980s, sold cattle prods to Saudi Arabia for torturing prisoners and brokered deals to sell uniforms and equipment to Saddam Hussein, and then died -- two years after Nixon.


The Gospel According to Spiro T. Agnew

"A spirit of national masochism prevails, encouraged by an effete corps of impudent snobs who characterize themselves as intellectuals."

"An intellectual is a man who doesn't know how to park a bike."

"Confronted with the choice, the American people would choose the policeman's truncheon over the anarchist's bomb" (-- this one sounds like Pat Buchanan).

"I didn't say I wouldn't go into ghetto areas. I've been in many of them and to some extent I would say this: if you've seen one city slum, you've seen them all."

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

And today all we have is Dick Cheney? The more things change. . . . .


Today's rune: Possessions.

Bon Appétit!