Archive for the ‘Quote of the Day’ Category

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Thursday, August 26th, 2010

Global Warming Freakout.

Most of the federal government hangs on the Commerce Clause. Here’s how that happened.
[Via Curmudgeonly and Skeptical.]

1848 Daguerreotypes Bring Middle America’s Past to Life
Got any old Daguerreotypes lying around? Look at them under a magnifying glass — or even a 60x microscope. You might find surprising detail.

Smug asshole Schumer wants to kill political speech.

EPA wants to ban lead ammo.
Quote of the Day in bold:

Naturally, the NSSF stresses the reasonable, Fudd angle, telling you to write your unaccountable, unfireable, unelected EPA bureaucrat and tell them:

* There is no scientific evidence that the use of traditional ammunition is having an adverse impact on wildlife populations.

Which is, I suppose, more diplomatic than what I would want to write, which would be more along the lines of

* There is anecdotal evidence that the banning of traditional ammunition would have an adverse impact on government bureaucrat populations.

Say Uncle says gives the other QotD, the core definition of being a gun nut:

If you fuck with me bad enough, I’ll kill your ass.

He elaborates. Read the whole thing. And see this at Smallest Minority.

Best Investment Advice. Roughly speaking: pay off consumer debt, and put your assets in cash. The tsunami is coming, folks.

If this is true, then everybody involved at the IRS must be fired.
Immediately. No excuses.”
Oh,yes. Oh, very yes indeed. If your group is pro-Israeli, you will be singled out for extra scrutiny on your application for tax-exempt status “to determine whether the organization’s activities contradict the Administration’s public policies.” Blatant tyranny. These policies “constitute an explicit admission of the crudest form of viewpoint discrimination, and one which is both totally un-American and flatly unconstitutional under the First Amendment.”

Overheared at Office Depot

Wednesday, July 28th, 2010

Girl voice from about four feet off the floor:

Mommy, this opened itself by accident.

QotD: Humility and Hubris

Wednesday, July 28th, 2010

Just something I needed to make a note of:

Two things, however, are clear about any religion that might derive from cybernetics and systems theory, ecology and natural history. First, that in the asking of questions, there will be no limit to our hubris; and second, that there shall always be humility in our acceptance of answers. In these two characteristics we shall be in sharp contrast with most of the religions of the world. They show little humility in their espousal of answers but great fear about the questions they will ask.

Gregory Bateson, Angels Fear

QotD: “If You Have to Tread on the Freedoms of Innocent People To Catch the Lawless You’re Doing It Wrong.”

Sunday, June 13th, 2010

From Jaded Libertarian at Samizdata, repeated in full because people need to be rousted out of bed by armed guards, herded into stadiums, and forced to listen to it being blared over and over through PA horns turned up to eleventy…oh, wait. No they don’t. But it does need to be spread far and wide, because our whole modern way of life is being perverted by the idea this article rejects.

I read in the paper today that after subjecting 500,000 people to mandatory face to face interviews, the government denied passports to eight for fraud.

This is the thing that most do not get. The small good does not justify, never justifies, the big evil. Causing inconvenience, misery and transgressing the privacy of half a million people in order to catch eight fraudsters is absurd.

And our society is full of such absurdities. Millions of adults are denied the “gift of giving” into their children’s lives by “child protection” policies. There is this assumption that any adult watching children swim is potentially sexually aroused, for example.

I would contend that the people who make such laws have dirty minds. I find it nobler and better to live life as though perverted degenerates do not even exist, for they are thankfully rare. And on the rare occasions where monsters abuse society’s trust, why, we should quickly and simply hang them in the town square and then return to life as before.

This is the model for transgressing only the liberties of the lawless, and not those of society at large. If you have to tread on the freedoms of innocent people to catch the lawless you’re doing it wrong.

“If it stops one fraudster, if it saves one life and if it protects one child it will all be worth it” the statists cry. These thoughts are supposed to make us feel warm inside as we queue to be inspected by the passports office, as security cameras follow us down the street and as police demand to know what we are doing for no particular reason. We are to lay our personal freedom on the alter of society in the name of the common good, and feel heartened by our sacrifice. As bizarre as it may sound, there are “true believers” in this cult – I see them all the time.

Down that road lies 24 hour policing of the entire population, and lives that are not worth living for all but the party elite. Basically 1984 made real.

And it all began when we passed that first law that mildly inconvenienced many in order to wheedle out the wicked few…

[Bold mine; Corrected as noted by the author in Samizdata comments.]

Whip O’ The Day: The Big O

Saturday, May 29th, 2010

Tom Maguire at JustOneMinute:

This Wouldn’t Be Happening If Obama Were President!

That may be the single cruelest truth I’ve ever seen concerning anyone’s effectiveness.

It’s not enough to get the votes, [pretend to] take the oath, sit in the Oval.

You actually have to Be President, and Zero isn’t. He’s a good actor, but that’s not enough. It would help if he had competent advisers, but all he’s got are sycophants and blue sky *spit* experts.

Via Jules Crittendon.


…and then, immediately after posting the above, I click on the next tab in my browser and find The Anchoress saying this in response to Chris Matthews’ remark that “. . . this idiotic cerebral meritocracy has got to step aside and let the people who do things take over….”

And that is the problem in a nutshell. Our government is top-heavy with people who have never “done” anything.

The Obama administration is loaded down with academics and lawyers who have spent their lives theorizing about things like economics, markets, social order and crisis management–and criticizing methods with which they disagree–but who have little practical experience in doing.

The Anchoress’ remarks indicate a certain sympathy with Chris Matthews: “…it seems that Chris Matthews’ heart is breaking, too.” No sympathy here. He’s one of the reasons Barry Hussein Zero is in office; I blame him, and frankly, I rejoice in his heartbreak. He deserves far worse.

She also has a very moving clip of Rep. Charles Melancon (D-LA) breaking down as he reads a statement concerning the oil spill. There are still some in Washington, even Democrats, who understand the tremendous burden they accepted when they took office.

She also has this, from the Republican Senatorial Committee:

Yeah, it’s good. Yeah, I agree with all of it.

No, they still don’t get one thin dime, not so much as a yard sign.

They could have stopped this with an effective campaign for a strong Republican candidate. They wimped. They tried to be weak Democrats. They couldn’t even handle a marginally acceptable Vice-Presidential candidate like Palin.

They carry their share of the blame. I’m holding them accountable, all right.

QotD: “Deserve’s Got Nothing to Do With It”

Tuesday, May 25th, 2010

Monty at Ace of Spades posts the crucial clip from Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven, and says of it, “William Munny speaks the creed of our age.”
[Fuller cut of the last scene here.]
There’s some chatter in the comments there, questioning Munny’s assessment of “deserve”. The general consensus is that Little Bill deserved what he got; why’s Munny neglecting that?

My reply:

No question, Bill needed to be put down, like the rabid dog he was. And like Bill, a rabid dog may not deserve what’s happening to him.

Bill, and the rabid dog, are positive hazards to those around him. Bill’s an active threat, and needs to be stopped.

But Munny’s not passing judgment on Bill’s character. He himself doesn’t have the standing to do that; he knows he’s no better than Bill. (In the extended scene, he admits to having killed women and children, “just about everything that walks or crawls”.) Maybe, given their respective past, Bill’s the better man in the balance. “Got nothing to do with it,” now.

Munny knows what needs to be done, but knows that he, too, is…unforgiven.

I only wish that were the “creed of the age”.

The liberal mistake is precisely having imperfect humans trying to decide who deserves what, rather than deciding what right and wrong actions are, based on which actions cause undue harm to others.

Bill pleads rule of Man. Munny enforces the rule of Law.

QotD: “At Some Point, You’ve Grabbed Enough Power”

Friday, April 30th, 2010

Ladies and gentleman, Scott at Powerline:

The Founders of the United States were deep students of politics and history, and they shared Aristotle’s concern. Up through their time, history had shown all known democracies to be “incompatible with personal security or the rights of property.” James Madison and others held that the “first object of government” was to protect the rights of property. Numerous provisions of the Constitution and Bill of Rights were incorporated to protect the property rights of citizens from the power of the government.

Whatever else might be said about him, President Obama operates on a different philosophy of government from that of the Founders. As Michelle Malkin observes, he spoke the most revealing and clarifying 10 words of his administration this week: “I think at some point you have made enough money.”

The Founders thought that at some point the government had enough power. Obama, however, is a devout believer in unlimited government. The common denominator among so-called health care reform and financial regulatory reform as well as Obama’s other big proposals is the augmented power they confer on the government in general and the executive branch in particular.

[Bold mine]

Via Rand Sindberg, who reminds us, “But don’t call him a socialist.”

That “You have made enough money,” coming from a guy who reported five million bucks on his last income tax return (no telling how much he’s gotten under the table, not to mention the many perks he receives as Dear Leader) is the most honest, transparent, revealing thing the man currently occupying the Oval Office has ever said.

Barry Soetoro, you statist pig, eat my shit.

QotD: “Drive Them Mad. Drink Their Tears.”

Monday, March 29th, 2010

Gabe at Penny Arcade explains how to deal with all manner of game-breakers, from crackheaded thugs to commie tyrants to jihadist reavers.

PennyArcade-DM101-822499307_WRZkv-L-w[click for full size.]

Understand:

Lie to them. Rob them. Drive them mad. Concoct impossible scenarios whose only outcome is their death. And then, when their eyes glisten in shame and rage, drink their tears.

These are the tactics our enemies use against us. For them, negotiation, pleas for mercy, capitulation, all are not deterrents, but invitation for further depredation.

That is how they try to break our game, that is the definition of a game-breaker.

That is the game we must beat them at.

Whip Of The Day: Exit Interview

Thursday, March 25th, 2010

Transterrestrial to David Frum:

Don’t Let The Door Hit You In Where Your Head Is.”

More info, if you’re interested, here.

I don’t care, I just like the line.


Then there this exchange in comments to Sindberg’s post of this video of Congressman Weiner weaseling over whether or not the IRS is effectively the enforcement arm for collecting individual “contributions” to the new federal health care plan (answer: yes, of course, you lying Democratic wiener.)

Rep. Weiner would make a perfect character in a 1984 remake.

You’re soaking in it! — Madge, the Palmolive Lady

QotD: “The American People Voted For Socialism”

Monday, March 22nd, 2010

At least, according to Al Sharpton, that’s what they did when they voted for Obama.

I’ve seen several comments in various venues to the effect that claims that the Health Care Deform bill and other Obama policies are socialistic are pure bunk, spouted only by those who oppose Obama because they are racist haters.

But now we have an Obama associate saying it right out loud.

So, either Obama is socialist, or Sharpton is a racist determined to smear him . Pick one, I don’t care.