Quote of the Day

Best explanation of what's wrong with Communism I have seen.

"Of course you might understand," said Sue, "but unless you've actually lived there- It's just that they have something like a mafia there, only it runs the whole country. If you belong to it you're absolutely safe, because it protects its own-"
...
"I meant it's a kind of mafia," said Sue. "That's what everyone calls it, although the official name for it is the Communist Party. Like the mafia, it's a law unto itself."
...
"Are the police on the take, the way they are in the States?"
"No, not exactly. The police are just extremely well paid, better than most people, and have all kinds of bonuses and privileges. They obey orders. Occasionally one faction of the mafia- I mean the Party- uses the police to get rid of another which is losing ground. Once they even hanged twelve of them, all at once-"

From The Return of Lieutenant Boruvka by Josef Skvorecky. "There" is Czechoslovakia, back in the bad old days.

I picked this one up because it looked like a light murder mystery, it's only 159 pages long, but the plot keeps going in circles and I have become completely confused. I will probably have to read it again just so I can get it straight in my head.

Someday I will learn enough html to indent paragraphs. Right now it appears you have to get into the header for the whole page, which I am not willing fool with.