Dave Barry Quotes
Without computers, the government would be unable to function at the level of effectiveness and efficiency that we have come to expect. . . . Today's government uses computers which are capable of cranking out millions of documents per day without any regard whatsoever for their content, thereby freeing government employees for more important responsibilities, such as not answering their phones.
Barry, Dave. Dave Barry in Cyberspace. Crown Publishers, 1996, p. 24.
The conservative newspaper was describing a leading Congressional conservative, Tom Delay. Delay had been cited three times by the bipartisan House Ethics Committee. He was also accused of many other unethical activities and he was under criminal investigation in his home State of Texas for violation of the campaign finance laws. The Beltway refers to the Beltway highway around Washington DC within the bounds of which most politicians and lobbyists work and live.
He confuses modernity and religion. Muslims who live in a modern world have the same degree of bureaucracy then the Christians, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists and other religions do. The Muslims of America have the same degree of paperwork as other Americans, and the Turkish bureaucracy has as much filing and other paperwork as countries where the majority of people are of different religions. Historically, when England and France and other Christian countries were in the Dark Ages, Islamic bureaucrats kept Western and Eastern knowledge alive, and when the Ottoman Empire ruled most of the known world, they almost collapsed under their very heavy bureaucracy.
David McAlister Barry is an American author and columnist who wrote a nationally syndicated humor column for the Miami Herald from 1983 to 2005. He has also written numerous books of humor and parody, as well as comic novels. Barry's honors include the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary (1988) and the Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism (2005).
