I was reading through all these NSA programs that Snowden has revealed, and one of the ones that fascinated me was that smart TVs can be used to look at you in your room. That is totally like the telescreen from 1984. It's not sort of like it, it's not a lot like it, it is it. And the ability of the NSA to turn on your cell phone, even if it's powered down, and listen to you in your home - that's insane to me. People had been warning that 1984 was just around the corner. Well, it has arrived, and Snowden has proven that.
Ted RallWhen I put together a graphic novel, I don't think about literary prose. I think about storytelling.
Ted RallBernie Sanders is an impressive guy. His authenticity and his credibility stem precisely from the fact that he has been marginalized from the mainstream political process for decades. He's been in the US Senate, yeah, he has had a life in politics for thirty years, but he's never really been able to get anything done. He's the only socialist in the US Congress. He's not a Democrat or a Republican, but he's always been saying the same things about income inequality, in particular.
Ted RallConservative humor is frankly harder than liberal humor. You get points for just being liberal. You can get more points if you make fun of your own side sometimes.
Ted RallFor an ordinary citizen, what is the common interaction you have with a police officer? When they pull you over for speeding, or when they write you a ticket for parking. The rest of the time is patrolling minority neighborhoods like an occupying army. It's suppression of blacks, and it's revenue enhancement. Surveillance is a Band-Aid. That's like saying, "Let's surveil the SS." No! Let's get rid of the SS!
Ted RallOrrin Hatch was the keynote speaker at the last meeting of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists. He sought me out because he was a fan. I was thinking he had confused me with someone else.
Ted RallWhen you have birds you stare at them a lot and their eyes are recessed on their head. When they look at something they tilt their head in a quizzical expression.
Ted RallI would like to fire every cop in America and start from scratch. We don't need as many of them, and the whole model of policing is completely off the rails. For the most part, the police are engaged in very little protection of the public. That's probably 5 percent of what they do. The rest of it is writing tickets.
Ted RallSilk Road to Ruin has all the analysis and it's structured very well. I rely on my notes more and I use direct quotes. But there's nothing like writing about it right away.
Ted RallAmericans are not terribly intelligent people. They need to read important things several times.
Ted RallSaddam Hussein, influenced by fascism, ordered the deaths of tens of thousands of people, fought two disastrous wars, turned his nation into an international pariah and ruined his country’s economy. In other words, his record is identical to George W. Bush’s.
Ted RallThere was an honorable tradition of using anonymous sources that was ruined by Jayson Blair.
Ted RallUp until 1995, I still had a day job that I hated. I was still personally involved in things in the 90s.
Ted RallThe experts who managed the original Marshall Plan say Afghanistan needs a commitment of at least $5 to $10 billion over 5 to 10 years, coupled with occupation forces of 250,000 Allied soldiers to keep the peace throughout the country.
Ted RallComics are too big. You can't say any kind or genre of comics is better than another. You can say so subjectively. But to say it like it's objective is wrong. It's wrong morally, because it cuts out stuff that's good.
Ted RallThe best thing about being a cartoonist is to walk into a bar or someone's apartment and they don't know you, but they've taped one of your pieces up.
Ted RallHere in the US, we've built this insane infrastructure of oppression. When it's not run by a Barack Obama - who, by the way, I don't think is a perfect president - but by someone who is off-kilter, like a Carly Fiorina, that could be dangerous.
Ted RallOver time, however, the endless war in Iraq began to play a role in natural selection. Only idiots signed up; only idiots died. Back home, the average I.Q. soared.
Ted RallIf I had to rank my skills, I have a long way to go before I can write a good graphic novel.
Ted RallLife is incredibly short, yet we're always told that change takes time. For a race of mortals, dicking around just isn't acceptable.
Ted RallI'm a better editorial cartoonist by default because so many editorial cartoonists out there are so awful.
Ted RallTrying to rebuild Afghanistan on the cheap has left the country in the hands of warlords and an impotent Northern Alliance puppet regime that runs Kabul and nothing else.
Ted RallWhat people don't seem to ever understand is that any infrastructure that exists under your regime, in your current government, will be appropriated and inherited by the next regime. I mean, the KGB came out of the NKVD which came out of the Tsarist version of the same thing. And now, the FSB operates out of the old KGB building in Moscow. The infrastructure remains exactly the same. There's a little bit of reshuffling of personnel, and that's it. The way to make sure that there's no FSB today would have been for the Tsar to not have built an infrastructure for it in the 1800s.
Ted RallThe word 'hero' has been bandied about a lot to refer to anyone killed in Afghanistan or Iraq. But anyone who voluntarily goes to Afghanistan or Iraq [as a soldier] is fighting for an evil cause under an evil commander in chief.
Ted RallDo our government's poorly paid contract killers deserve our 'support' for blindly following orders?
Ted RallImagine foreign troops sitting idly, laughing as hooligans trashed the Smithsonian, stole the gold from Fort Knox and burned down the Department of the Interior. That was us in Iraq.
Ted RallI never consciously do any work directly influenced from any movie, unless I'm doing a parody.
Ted Rall