Republican Party Reptile: The Confessions, Adventures, Essays and (Other) Outrages of P.J. O'Rourke

Republican Party Reptile: The Confessions, Adventures, Essays and (Other) Outrages of P.J. O'Rourke

by P. J. O'Rourke
Republican Party Reptile: The Confessions, Adventures, Essays and (Other) Outrages of P.J. O'Rourke

Republican Party Reptile: The Confessions, Adventures, Essays and (Other) Outrages of P.J. O'Rourke

by P. J. O'Rourke

Paperback

$14.00 
  • SHIP THIS ITEM
    Qualifies for Free Shipping
  • PICK UP IN STORE
    Check Availability at Nearby Stores

Related collections and offers


Overview

"I think our agenda is clear. We are opposed to: government spending, Kennedy kids, seat-belt laws, busing our children anywhere other than Yale, trailer courts near our vacation homes, all tiny Third World countries that don't have banking secrecy laws, aerobics, the UN, taxation without tax loopholes, and jewelry on men. We are in favor of: guns, drugs, fast cars, free love (if our wives don't find out), a sound dollar, and a strong military with spiffy uniforms. There are thousands of people in America who feel this way, especially after three or four drinks. If all of us would unite and work together, we could give this country. . . well, a real bad hangover." "To say that P. J. O'Rourke is funny is like saying the Rocky Mountains are scenic-accurate but insufficient. At his best he's downright exhilarating . . . Republican Party Reptile is as rambunctiously entertaining as a greased pig catching contest. If you can find a funnier writer than P. J. O'Rourke, buy him a brandy, but don't lend him the keys to your pickup." — Chicago Tribune; "Republican Party Reptile is hilarious. I laughed so hard reading this book that my armchair needs reupholstering. P. J. O'Rourke has got to be the funniest writer going, and boy does he go. This is high-octane wit, S. J. Perelman on acid." — Christopher Buckley.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780871136220
Publisher: Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
Publication date: 09/29/1995
Series: O'Rourke, P. J.
Pages: 220
Sales rank: 637,037
Product dimensions: 5.50(w) x 8.25(h) x (d)

Read an Excerpt

Republican Party Reptile

Essays and Outrages
By P. J. O'Rourke

Grove Atlantic, Inc.

Copyright © 1987 P. J. O'Rourke
All right reserved.

ISBN: 0-87113-622-8


Chapter One

As once anything was excusable in the name of patriotism, now anything is excusable in the name of safety. We will kiss some low place on every dishtowel-head in the Levant rather than have a single breeder reactor on our shores. We will make every lube artist in America learn Japanese rather than produce an enjoyable automobile ... This is treason. America was founded on danger. How many lifeboat drills were held on the Mayflower? Where were the smoke detectors in the Lincoln family cabin? Who checked to see whether Indian war paint was made with Red Dye No. 2? It was the thrilling, vast, wonderful danger of America which drew people here from all over the world-spacious skies filled with blizzards and tornadoes, purpled mountain majesties to fall off, and fruited plains full of snarling animals and armed aborigines. America is a dangerous country. Safety has no place here.

In fact, safety has no place anywhere. Everything that's fun in life is dangerous. Horse races, for instance, are very dangerous. But attempt to design a safe horse and the result is a cow (an appalling animal to watch at the trotters). And everything that isn't fun is dangerous too.... Death was invented so we could have evolution. Theprocess of Darwinian selection does not work on things that don't die. If it weren't for death we would all still be amoebas and would have to eat by surrounding things with our butts.

(Continues...)



Excerpted from Republican Party Reptile by P. J. O'Rourke Copyright © 1987 by P. J. O'Rourke. Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

From the B&N Reads Blog

Customer Reviews