Saturday, June 26, 2010

Climate Change and AGW

I believe in climate change; it's man-made global warming (AGW, or "Anthropogenic Global Warming") I'm not so sure about.

For the most part, my hesitancy is based on consideration of exactly how much humans are to blame (100%, 80%, 50%, 20%, etc) and the knee-jerk response that we must [therefore] "do something" (which is always and ever the rallying cry of those trying to restrict our liberties, be they civil or economic).

As a conservative friend relayed to me last year, neocon talk show host Mark Levin once challenged a caller to "Tell me what the ideal temperature of the earth is."

Maybe he (Levin) is human after all...

Disclosure: I'm not a climate scientist, so I'm not going to pretend that I'm actually fluent with the scientific literature in this field.

I'm not particularly interested in meteorology or climate science, either... as I am in politics, economics, and law, so I'm also probably not going to go out of my way to read a lot of the literature of my own volition, like I do with the aforementioned subjects. Feel free to suggest some, though...

As I recently put it to a friend:

"I'm a skeptic (as opposed to denier), as I must be about any issue where special interests seek to use government to restrict individual liberty and I don't completely understand the science behind it... and that's probably about as honest of an answer as you're ever going to get from someone using that label."

I'm sorry (not really), but if you're going to use scare stories to restrict my liberty and/or push for more government involvement in (and control of) my life... it's incumbent upon you to make the case for it to my satisfaction.

The recent "Climategate" controversy is a good example of some of my skepticism.
(I couch the term in finger-quotes because I don't think it's nearly the controversy it's been made out to be)

After apparently keeping much of their internal operations close to the vest, someone hacked/cracked a bunch of emails from East Anglia's Climate Research Unit (CRU) and published them on WikiLeaks.

According to Newsweek and others, the criticism was unfounded. But for skeptics like me, questions still remain.

See the "Citations" section below (#s 3-8) for some of them.



Citations
  1. Greg Rico (2010:Jun.25). "Newspapers Retract 'Climategate' Claims, but Damage Still Done," Newsweek [blog].
    http://www.newsweek.com/blogs/the-gaggle/2010/06/25/newspapers-retract-climategate-claims-but-damage-still-done.html
  2. Response by the University of East Anglia to the Report by Lord Oxburgh’s Science Assessment Panel
    http://www.uea.ac.uk/mac/comm/media/press/CRUstatements/oxburgh
  3. Darren Pope (2010:Jan.28). "Climate change scientists at East Anglia University violated law by withholding information," Examiner.com: Columbia Independent Examiner.
    http://www.examiner.com/x-20909-Columbia-Independent-Examiner~y2010m1d28-Climate-change-scientists-at-East-Anglia-University-violated-law-by-withholding-information
  4. Darren Pope (2009:Nov.29). "CRU scientists admit they threw away key data used in global warming calculations," Examiner.com: Columbia Independent Examiner
    http://www.examiner.com/x-20909-Columbia-Independent-Examiner~y2009m11d29-CRU-threw-away-key-data-used-in-global-warming-calculations
  5. James Delingpole (2010:Jun.24). "How Lord Oxburgh of Persil washed the Climategate team whiter than white (pt 2)," London Telegraph [blog].
    http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/jamesdelingpole/100044687/how-lord-oxburgh-of-persil-washed-the-climategate-team-whiter-than-white-pt-2/
  6. Ben Webster (2010:Mar.23). "Lord Oxburgh, the climate science peer, ‘has a conflict of interest’," The Times (UK) [blog].
    http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article7071751.ece
  7. Declan McCullagh (2009:Nov.24). "Congress May Probe Leaked Global Warming E-Mails," CBS News' "Taking Liberties" blog.
    http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504383_162-5761180-504383.html
  8. Patrick J. Michaels (2010:Jul.12). "The Climategate Whitewash Continues," Wall Street Journal.
    http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704075604575356611173414140.html

Update1:

Update2:

Citations

THE EFFECT OF THE LEVEL AND DURATION OF UNEMPLOYMENT COMPENSATION ON THE LEVEL OF UNEMPLOYMENT, by Michael Douglas White (PhD, Economics, TTU, 1978)

David Codrea (2011:Jun.13). "Would Founders be ‘horrified’ by today’s firearms technology?" Examiner.com

Steve Ekwall (undated). "The Racist Origins of Gun Control Laws Designed To Disarm Slaves, Freedmen, And African-Americans," Black Man With A Gun.
[older version @ archive.org]

Clayton E. Cramer (1995). "The Racist Roots of Gun Control," Constitution.org
[reprinted from Kan. J.L. & Pub. Policy, Winter 1995, at 17]

Abhijeet Singh (undated). "Gun Ownership in India," abhijeetsingh.com
  • The first paragraph is called "Colonial Roots of Gun-Control"

David Codrea (2011:May 26). "Civil rights group opposes Brady Center on concealed carry," Examiner.com

Michael Giberson (2011:Feb.19). "The geography of ethanol’s support in Congress," Knowledge Problem.

Tom Diemer (). "Al Gore Mea Culpa: Support for Corn-Based Ethanol Was a Mistake," Politics Daily. [alt link at HuffPo]

Steven Rattner (2011:Jun.24). "The Great Corn Con," New York Times [Opinion].

Scott Adams (2010:Jun.05). "Betting On The Bad Guys," Wall Street Journal.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704025304575285000265955016.html

Room For Debate (2011:Jan.24). "Does College Make You Smarter?" New York Times.
http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2011/01/24/does-college-make-you-smarter

Glenn Greenwald (2011:Jan.23). "America's treatment of detainees," Salon.
http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2011/01/23/detainees/index.html

Roland Watson (2004:May.19). "Geneva accords quaint and obsolete, legal aide told Bush," The Times.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/iraq/article426900.ece

Matt Welch (2008:Dec.16). "I've abandoned free-market principles to save the free-market system," Reason.
http://reason.com/blog/2008/12/16/ive-abandoned-free-market-prin

Daniel Wagner & Marcy Gordon (2010:Jan.27). "Panel cites roots of meltdown, but does it matter?" Associated Press.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110127/ap_on_bi_ge/us_financial_crisis_inquiry

Nick Gillespie (2010:Aug.25). "The Official Koch Industries Reply to The New Yorker Hit Piece," Reason.
http://reason.com/blog/2010/08/25/the-official-koch-industries-r

Matt Welch (2010:Dec). "The Great Libertarian Conspiracy: Democrats campaign against people they don’t understand," Reason.
http://reason.com/archives/2010/11/08/the-great-libertarian-conspira

Radley Balko (2010:Nov.29). "The Nation Posts a Narrow Apology. And Publishes Another Error," Reason.
http://reason.com/blog/2010/11/29/the-nation-posts-a-narrow-apol

Matt Welch (2010:Aug.24). "In Which 'left-wing think tanks are nonpartisan watchdogs, but the free-market ones are part of some covert stealth nefarious plot'," Reason.
http://reason.com/blog/2010/08/24/in-which-left-wing-think-tanks

Supreme Court Ideology Project: Current Beliefs

Radley Balko (2010:Jun.04). "Once Upon a Time..." The Agitator.
http://www.theagitator.com/2010/06/04/once-upon-a-time/
(aka "Once Upon A Time In Afghanistan")

Bio of Warren Meyer (CoyoteBlog)
http://camprrm.typepad.com/about.html

Sarah Thompson, M.D. (2000). "Raging Against Self Defense: A Psychiatrist Examines The Anti-Gun Mentality," JPFO.
http://jpfo.org/filegen-n-z/ragingagainstselfdefense.htm

Donald J. Boudreaux (2009:Oct.). "Looking in the Mirror," The Freeman, vol.59:no.8 ("Thoughts on Freedom" column)
http://www.thefreemanonline.org/columns/thoughts-on-freedom/looking-in-the-mirror/

Tyler Cowen (2010:Oct.26). "The gridlock myth?" Marginal Revolution.
http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2010/10/the-gridlock-myth.html

Jon Stewart (2010:Jun.xx). "Respect My Authoritah," The Daily Show [monologue].
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/tue-june-15-2010/respect-my-authoritah

Glenn Greenwald (2010:Jun.16). "Jon Stewart on Obama's executive power record," Salon.com
http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/06/16/stewart

Nick Gillespie (2009:Jan.24). "Bush Was a Big-Government Disaster: He expanded the state, and the idea that the state is incompetent," Wall Street Journal.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123275512887811775.html

Nick Gillespie (2009:Jan.26). "Bush Was a Big-Government Disaster: He expanded the state, and the idea that the state is incompetent," Reason.
http://reason.com/archives/2009/01/26/bush-was-a-big-government-disa

Friedrich August Hayek (1960). "Why I Am Not A Conservative," in The Constitution of Liberty. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
http://www.liberalvalues.org.nz/index.php?action=view_article&article_id=246

Friedrich August Hayek (1974:Dec.11). "The Pretence of Knowledge," Lecture to the memory of Alfred Nobel (Prize Lecture).

Neal Knox (2000:Feb.15). "NRA Elections To Determine Your Gun Rights," Second Amendment Action Committee.

Michael Flynn & Adam B. Summers (2009:May). "Failed States: After a long spending binge, governors go begging for a handout. It won't be their last," Reason.

Jacob Sullum (2010:July). "Unfaithful Friend of Liberty: John Paul Stevens’ spotty record as a defender of individual rights," Reason.

Nathan Koppel (2010:Jun.28). "High Court Rules in Favor of Gun Rights," Wall Street Journal.

Mike Allen (2010:Jun.24). "The tick-tock: How President Obama took command of the McChrystal situation," Politico.

Jeff Wise (2010:Mar.13). "How the Brain Stops Time," in Extreme Fear: Getting a Grip on the Brain's Alarm System. Psychology Today.

Jeffrey Miron (2010:Jun.28). "The U.S. versus the G-20 on Spending: Should the U.S. slash spending?" in Libertarianism, from A to Z: A crash course in libertarian thinking. Psychology Today.

Christopher Ryan (2008:May 2). "An Inconvenient Truth: Sexual Monogamy Kills Male Libido: Human beings are evolved for sex lives full of novelty," in Sex at Dawn: Exploring the evolutionary origins of modern sexuality.

In Light Of BP’s Failures, Russian ‘Nuclear Option’ For Stopping Leak Gaining Traction
Anonymous NFL Player To Daily News: “This Is How You Handle Groupies And Mistresses”

Cutting the Pentagon Budget: Reductions in military spending are both necessary and possible.
http://reason.com/archives/2010/06/11/cutting-the-pentagon-budget

Steve Chapman (2010:Aug.5). "The Unaffordability of Endless War: Transforming distant nations is a costly luxury," Reason.
http://reason.com/archives/2010/08/05/the-unaffordability-of-endless
Money quote: "It's a shame to let accountants spoil the charming romance of war, but sometimes they insist. Recently the Congressional Research Service reported that our military undertakings in Iraq and Afghanistan have marked an important milestone. Together, they have cost more than a trillion dollars."

Michigan Court Says Drugged Driving Requires Drugs
http://reason.com/blog/2010/06/11/michigan-supreme-says-drugged
Given this reality, the court said, "Michigan citizens cannot be sure of what conduct will be deemed criminal."



Understanding why hot peppers are slimming
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/59930/title/Science_%2B_the_Public__Understanding_why_hot_peppers_are_slimming


Walter Williams: The pretense of superiority
http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/williams082498.html


The Implications of Velocity of Money on the Economy
http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article17866.html


Velocity of Money: Milton Friedman's Waterloo Battle
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=327680


Mauldin: The Velocity of Money, by Paul Kedrosky
http://paul.kedrosky.com/archives/2010/03/mauldin_the_vel.html


Dr. Paul S. Kedrosky
http://www.kedrosky.com/docs/bio.htm


Money supply and the velocity myth
http://www.brookesnews.com/052609velocity.html


Watch Out, Facebook: Politicians are ready to regulate the online giant, but the company has much more to fear from the creative destruction of the marketplace.
http://reason.com/archives/2010/05/19/watch-out-facebook

http://reason.com/archives/2009/10/07/from-guns-to-butter

Paul Krugman's Nostalgianomics
http://reason.com/archives/2009/05/26/nostalgianomics
http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=9941

Brink Lindsey, Jonah Goldberg & Matt Kibbe (2010:Aug/Sep). "Where Do Libertarians Belong? A Reason Debate," Reason.
http://reason.com/archives/2010/07/12/where-do-libertarians-belong

http://www.gunbanobama.com/Default.aspx?NavGuid=c3d25dd2-7abd-4f24-8efd-d62bd977d7c2&ID=11574&Type=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhL8aeIsTEo

Mark J. Perry (2010:Jul.13) "What About 'Farm Subsidy Inequality'?" Carpe Diem.
http://mjperry.blogspot.com/2010/07/what-about-farm-subsidy-inequality.html

George F. Will (2010:Jul.15). "The high price of American hubris," Washington Post.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/14/AR2010071404223.html

Don Boudreaux (2009:Jul.7). "Hubris Universal," Cafe Hayek.
http://cafehayek.com/2009/07/hubris-universal.html

Cathy Young (2010:Aug/Sep). "A Libertarian Rebel: Ridley Scott gets Robin Hood right," Reason.
http://reason.com/archives/2010/07/30/a-libertarian-rebel

Katherine Mangu-Ward (2010:Jul.1). "1 in 4 Kids Now Learning Online, Only 4 Percent of Teachers Meeting Them There," Reason.
http://reason.com/blog/2010/07/01/1-in-4-kids-now-learning-onlin

Nick Gillespie (2010:Jun.28). "Let's Not Forget Sen. Byrd's Negative Legacy," Reason.
http://reason.com/blog/2010/06/28/lets-not-forget-sen-byrds-nega

Mark Asch (2008:Aug.14). "Literary Sex Scenes Taking Place in Libraries," The L Magazine.
http://www.thelmagazine.com/TheMeasure/archives/2008/08/14/thursday-list-literary-sex-scenes-taking-place-in-libraries

USAA (2010:Jun.25). "6 Big Hits to Your Credit Score," USAA Website.

John Tamny (2010:Dec.21). "A Defense of the Market Speculators," RealClearMarkets.


http://reason.com/blog/2010/02/09/live-nude-economists

http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/2010/05/19/rand-paul-challenges-the-establishments

http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/presidential-campaign/98171-forget-sarah-palin-its-rand-pauls-moment-and-ron-pauls-opportunity

http://www.amconmag.com/blog/2010/05/19/rand-paul-and-the-zombies/

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columns/Byron-York/A-carefully-crafted-immigration-law-in-Arizona-92136104.html

http://www.forbes.com/2010/04/28/arizona-immigration-law-health-opinions-columnists-shikha-dalmia.html

http://reason.com/archives/2010/05/25/life-on-the-edge

http://reason.com/archives/2010/05/19/and-the-enlightened-tyrants-wi

http://forcechange.com/2009/01/06/geothermal-plant-in-hawaii-accidentally-strikes-liquid-hot-magma/

http://www.meritline.com/1-watt-led-adjustable-headlamp-silver---p-25401.aspx?source=s2010

Kingston 8GB Secure Digital High-Capacity (SDHC) Flash Card Model SD4/8GBET
http://www.newegg.com/

http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=liberal

http://www.babeled.com/2008/10/30/word-power-liberal/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/06/the-worst-paying-college_n_566518.html

http://www.buckeyefirearms.org/printable/node/7252

http://acluaz.org/10ToughACLUQuestionsFINAL0708.pdf

https://www.tsra.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=200%3Afirst-decade-of-the-millenium-in-the-rear-view-mirror&catid=55%3Atripp-talk&Itemid=113

http://www.doubletnation.com/2010/1/29/1282906/a-look-at-texas-tech-football

http://reason.com/archives/2010/05/14/the-cure-is-worse-than-the-dis

http://olegvolk.livejournal.com/811434.html

Radley Balko (May 11, 2010). A Drug Raid Goes Viral. Reason Magazine.
http://reason.com/archives/2010/05/11/a-drug-raid-goes-viral/

James Rennie (May 09, 2010). "Stasists"? No. "Deniers"? Yes. Rennie's Last Nerve.
http://tvjrennie.wordpress.com/2010/05/09/%E2%80%9Cstasists%E2%80%9D-no-%E2%80%9Cdeniers%E2%80%9D-yes/

Tony Hake (May 10, 2010). Many signatories of controversial letter on climate science not working in climate related fields. Examiner.com: Climate Change Examiner
http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-25061-Climate-Change-Examiner~y2010m5d10-Many-signatories-of-controversial-letter-on-climate-science-not-working-in-climate-related-fields

Matt Ridley (2010). Polarised on polar ice. TheRationalOptimist (blog)
http://www.rationaloptimist.com/blog/polarised-polar-ice

P. H. Gleick, et al (7 May 2010). Climate Change and the Integrity of Science. Science, v.328:no.5979, pp. 689-690.
DOI: 10.1126/science.328.5979.689
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/328/5979/689

http://reason.com/blog/2010/05/10/she-is-certainly-a-fan-of-pres

http://reason.com/archives/2010/05/12/the-914-presidency

http://reason.com/archives/2010/05/13/elena-kagan-on-free-speech-exe

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/may/13/my-gun-control/

http://reason.com/blog/2010/05/11/elena-kagan-and-the-gray-lady

http://reason.com/blog/2010/05/14/the-nation-elena-kagan-should

http://www.thenation.com/article/judging-elena-kagan

http://www.buckeyefirearms.org/printable/node/7252

http://acluaz.org/10ToughACLUQuestionsFINAL0708.pdf

https://www.tsra.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=200%3Afirst-decade-of-the-millenium-in-the-rear-view-mirror&catid=55%3Atripp-talk&Itemid=113


Gun Owners Caucus of the Texas Democratic Party
http://armedtexasdemocrats.blogspot.com/
Daniel Barnett, Chair
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=118x174833

Gun Owners Caucus of the Democratic Party of Oregon
http://bluesteeldemocrats.blogspot.com/

Democrats for the Second Amendment (post on DU)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x1573511

Democrats and the 2nd Amendment (article by Zak Johnson, one of the co-founders of the Gun Owners Caucus of the Democratic Party of Oregon)
http://www.blueoregon.com/2006/09/democrats_and_t/

Amendment II Democrats
http://www.a2dems.net/
http://www.facebook.com/amendmentiidemocrats

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article7125357.ece

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article7028598.ece

http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2009/12/do-not-insult-muslim-child-and-friends-beheading-man-while-praising-allah-video.html

http://lubbock.craigslist.org/vgm/1727888368.html

http://lubbock.craigslist.org/vgm/1740507012.html

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/may/14/the-first-amendment-under-progressive-siege/

ACLU Policy #47
http://www.lectlaw.com/files/con11.htm


David Henderson (2011:Oct.03). "Joshua Hall on the Decline of Conscription," EconLog.

Quotes

A collection of quotes... not all of which I agree with. This is a repository. I keep some of them around just as a reference.

"I've got buckets of money, a killer rack, and I'm a hoot and a half." -- Karen Walker


confirmation #
63270130


"I love bras. They're all lacey and frilly and come in pretty colors. It's like shoes for my tits."  -- XCRmonger
"I love bras. They're all lacey and frilly and come in pretty colors... [they're] like shoes for my [boobs]."


[Alexandra Paul's character]: "Thank you."
Dick Steele, Agent WD-40: "Awww, don't thank me, darling... the art of lovemaking takes two... sometimes three or four, depending on how well you do at the crap tables."
(Spy Hard)

Gregory Hines: "Say 'when'."
Nympho: "8:30."
(History of the World, Pt.I)


"Cogito, ergo armatum sum: I think, therefore I am armed." -- Anonymous

The liberties of a people never were, nor ever will be, secure, when the transactions of their rulers may be concealed from them.  -- Patrick Henry

"If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear." --George Orwell

“Speaking or writing without thinking is like shooting without aiming.”  -- Arnold Glasow

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. They may be more likely to go to Heaven yet at the same time likelier to make a Hell of earth. This very kindness stings with intolerable insult. To be "cured" against one's will and cured of states which we may not regard as disease is to be put on a level of those who have not yet reached the age of reason or those who never will; to be classed with infants, imbeciles, and domestic animals.
C.S. Lewis, "God in the Dock" (1948)
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Cs_lewis

On a somewhat-related note, can we get some modern semi-automatic pistols in the TSRA calendar?  A couple years back we had a 1911 for one month, and a Sig "two-fer" for another month.  IIRC, for the last two years, all of their calendar pics have been from historical museum collections.  Which is nice, but it's the Texas State Rifle Association, not the Texas State Historical Rifle Collector's Association!  (me)


"There ain't no party like a libertarian party cuz' a libertarian party is VOLUNTARY." -- Danial Shelton, SHSU Lovers of Liberty
#10libertarianpointsforme

Hard cases, as Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes cautioned in a 1904 Supreme Court opinion, make bad law. What ­Holmes meant is that cases with distasteful facts and unlikeable parties tempt judges to back into the desired outcome without regard for the broader legal principles at stake.

‎"An idea whose time has come cannot be stopped by any army or any government."  -- Ron Paul

"Calling Ron Paul an 'isolationist' is like calling your neighbor a hermit because he doesn't come over to your house and break your windows."

"Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, and you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost."  -- John Quincy Adams

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.  -- C. S. Lewis

You and I are going to have a conversation, and by conversation I mean ball torture.  -- Charles Loosen, via FB (friend of Carrie Young)

"It's amazing to me how many people think that voting to have the government give poor people money is compassion. Helping poor and suffering people yourself is compassion. Voting for our government to use guns to give money to help poor and suffering people is immoral self-righteous bullying laziness. People need to be fed, medicated, educated clothed and sheltered. If we're compassionate, we'll help them, but you get no moral credit for forcing other people to do what you think is right. There is great joy in helping people, but no joy in doing it at gunpoint."  -- Penn Jillette

One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors. -- Plato

An unarmed man can only flee from evil and evil is not overcome by fleeing from it. -- Col. Jeff Cooper


Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.  -- Carl Sagan (while not originally intended for rabid gun-banners... it fits!)

"How a politician stands on the Second Amendment tells you how he or she views you as an individual... as a trustworthy and productive citizen, or as part of an unruly crowd that needs to be lorded over, controlled, supervised, and taken care of." -- [former] Texas State Rep. Suzanna Gratia Hupp (TX-54, 1997-2007).

"That rifle on the wall of the labourer's cottage or working class flat is the symbol of democracy. It is our job to see that it stays there." -- George Orwell




"Son, When your in the dog house you just have to find a new place to bury the bone!!  -- spaceghost's grandpa

"You can't have in a democracy various groups with arms - you have to have the state with a monopoly on power."  -- Condoleeza Rice (she should know better)

"The Constitution may not be perfect, but it beats whatever the government is using."

"The firearm is a tool used to fight for freedom; blood is the price to purchase it; eternal vigilance is the debt we owe to preserve it. I have never defaulted on a debt and I’m not about to start." – Frank Antenori


I'm transplanted from TX to VA - an "open carry" state since 1607...  -- anonymous arfcom member

"The absolute worst laws take Democrats to pass them and Republicans to execute them... and vice versa."  -- Mary Syma (paraphrasing, as best and as close as I can remember)
"I am a libertarian with a small l and a Republican with a capital R. And I am a Republican with a capital R on grounds of expediency, not on principle." (friedman)

Just one final statement, I've been sitting here getting more and more fed up with all of this talk about these pieces of machinery having no legitimate sporting purpose; no legitimate hunting purpose. People, that is not the point of the Second Amendment. The Second Amendment is not about duck hunting. And I know I'm not going to make very many friends saying this, but it's about all rights, all of our rights to be able to protect ourselves from all of you guys up there. (hupp)


"In the year 2000.... Men will actually begin desiring women who have great personalities. In a related story, breasts will be renamed 'personalities'."

“The Framers [of the Constitution] knew that free speech is the friend of change and revolution. But they also knew that it is always the deadliest enemy of tyranny.”  -- Justice Hugo Black

"Tattoos aren't for everyone, but they're too damn good for some people!"  -- anon

"The only thing I expect out of lawyers is that they be back in their coffins by sunup."  -- unknown


"It is, it seems, politically impossible for a capitalistic democracy to organize expenditure on the scale necessary to make the grand experiments which would prove my case — except in war conditions” - John Maynard Keynes

Girls are like pianos.....when they're not upright, they're Grand!  -- Benny Hill

"One does not accumulate, but eliminate. It is not daily increase, but daily decrease. The height of cultivation always runs to simplicity."  -- Bruce Lee

We are so in debt to China that President Obama had to visit their president in his first year in office. It was an important meeting between the most powerful communist leader in the world and the president of China.  -- columnist Ron Hart, writing in The Daily Caller

Truth is, everybody is going to hurt you; you just gotta find the ones worth suffering for." -Bob Marley

Yes eggs will be broken and omlets, once again, will fail to be made

"Patriots are not revolutionaries trying to overthrow government. Patriots are counter-revolutionaries trying to prevent government from overthrowing the U.S. Constitution."

In the long run, we're all dead.  -- John Maynard Keynes

At least she spared us the tired old bromide about "wanting to spend more time with her family"...which would be who, the other two ladies in the first scene of "Macbeth"?  -- Dave Williams| 6.10.10 @ 1:22PM

"Hoka Hey! Today is a good day to die."  -- Crazy Horse

"The soul that sees beauty may sometimes walk alone." -- Goethe

"The more artificial taboos and restrictions there are in the world, the more the people are impoverished.... The more that laws and regulations are given prominence, the more thieves and robbers there will be."  -- Lao Tzu, father of Taoism, author of the Tao Te Ching (apocryphal), grandfather of Buddhism (apocryphal)

"We are fast approaching the stage of the ultimate inversion: the stage where the government is free to do anything it pleases, while the citizens may act only by permission; which is the stage of the darkest periods of human history, the stage of rule by brute force."  -- Ayn Rand14

"I wish people could make the distinction between what government has the authority to legislate and what they personally believe."  -- random insight from a commenter at Reason.com

If we wish to preserve a free society, it is essential that we recognize that the desirability of a particular object is not sufficient justification for the use of coercion. -- Friedrich August von Hayek

"Reason is a whore, the greatest enemy that faith has!"  -- Martin Luther

Well, it's rather brutal here. Right now we are advising all our clients to put everything they've got into canned food and shotguns.  -- Brainy gremlin from Gremlins II

Is ours a "government of the people, by the people, for the people," or a kakistocracy rather, for the benefit of knaves at the cost of fools?  -- James Russell Lowell

"Never grow a wishbone, daughter, where you backbone ought to be."

"The problem with a free market in currency is that it increases transparency and accountability. These may not be problems for you and me, but they are for people in power."  -- Nick Sorrentino of The Liberty and Economics Review

"Anarchy does not mean no rulers, it means chaos, according to... our rulers."

Chickenhawk n.: One whose thirst for war is inversely proportional to one's proximity to combat. Also see: Boortz, Neal; Hannity, Sean; Shapiro, Benjamin; Kristol, William; Limbaugh, Rush; O'Reilly, William; Podhoretz, John...

Neocons are people who desire war, but know nothing about it.

"You know when the media reports on something you know a lot about and it makes you angry that they got most of the important stuff wrong? Now stop and think that it's probably that way for EVERYTHING, you just don't know enough to be aware of it."

White House chief propagandist Robert "Goebbels" Gibbs was grilled by the press corps for the administrations continued lack of transparency.  When "Goebbels" was asked why the press wasn't allowed in, he responded:
"We'll have a nice picture from Pete (White House photographer) that will demonstrate that type of transparency."

"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it." -- Aristotle (attributed)

"Misquotation is, in fact, the pride and privilege of the learned. A widely- read man never quotes accurately, for the rather obvious reason that he has read too widely." —Hesketh Pearson

"Disingenuous or not, the Democratic Party needs to DROP the assault weapons ban; most of these embedded prohibitionists have the same attitude toward guns as "abstinence-only" folks have toward sex: ignorance is pure, knowledge is dirty."  -- SteveM, Democratic Underground

“If computers get too powerful, we can organize them into a committee - that will do them in”

Dr. Cox: You are, in fact, a perfectly healthy 26-year-old doctor who keeps whining about how horrible his father was.
J.D.: Well, he did some considerable emotional damage, so...
Dr. Cox: Every one of our parents does considerable emotional damage, and from what I've heard, it just might be the best part of being a parent. Now, if some guy ever does put a ring on your finger and you're lucky enough to pop out a youngster, I'm sure you'll understand. But for now, believe me when I tell you I wouldn't care if this was the first time you ever met your daddy. Because, in reality... well, he could have done a much, much worse job.

Dr. Cox: I became a doctor for the same four reasons that everybody does - chicks, money, power and chicks.

Dr. Cox: Boy oh boy, does it look like you pissed off the wrong guy there, crunchy! And trust me, he'll make ya pay.
Dr. Clock: Oh, Dr. Kelso's all bluster. Underneath it all, I'll bet he's a sweetheart.
Dr. Cox: No no, underneath it all, he is pure evil.
Dr. Clock: Perry, no one's pure evil! I mean, yes, some people have a hard outer shell, but inside, everybody has a creamy center.
Dr. Cox: There are plenty of people, here, on this particular planet who are hard on the outside and on the inside!
Dr. Clock: So they'd have more of a nougaty center?
Dr. Cox: Lady, people aren't chocolates. Do you know what they are mostly? Bastards. Bastard-coated bastards with bastard fillings. But I don't find them half as annoying as I find naive bubble-headed optimists who walk around vomiting sunshine.
Dr. Clock: [rubbing Dr. Cox's stomach and speaking in a sing-song voice] I'm touching your creamy center!

J.D.: You see, surgical and medical interns are kinda like two rival gangs. Not real gangs, more like those cheesy gangs you see in Broadway musicals.

Turk: This is the reason why your headache didn't go away: That's actually pronounced analgesic, not anal-gesic. Sir, the pills go in your mouth.

Dr. Kelso: Dr. Reid, this is not "Bring Your Problems to Work" Day. This is just "Work" Day.

Janitor: Some hooligan keeps disconnecting the alarm. I told Security to look into it. But no, no, they'd rather catch the guy who's stealing organs from the transplant ward.

Dr. Cox: Okay, think of what little patience I have as... oh, I don't know... your virginity. You always thought it would be there, until that night Junior Year when you were feeling a little down about yourself and your pal Kevin, who just wanted to be friends... well, he dropped by, and he brought a copy of "About Last Night" and a four-pack of Bartles & Jaymes and woo hoo hoo, it was gone forever - just like my patience is now.

Dr. Cox: ...And bam! The shine's off the apple. And that's when you find out that that pretty little girl you married isn't a pretty little girl at all. No, she's a man-eater. And I'm not talking about the "whoa-whoa, here she comes" kind of man-eater. I'm talking about the kind that uses your dignity as a dishtowel to wipe up any shreds of manhood that might be stuck inside the sink. Of course, I may have tormented her from time to time; but, honest to God, that's what I thought marriage was all about. So much so that, by the end of that relationship, I honestly don't know who I hated more - her or me? I used to sit around and wonder... why our friends weren't trying to destroy each other, like we were. And here, it turns out, the answer's pretty simple: They weren't unhappy. We were.

GD is the ARFCOM equivalent of Section 8 housing. What else would you expect from people in the projects? ~ TxLawDog

Do not call attention to yourself and invite the man into your life. ~ Bama-Shooter

As Mrs. Pelosi's senior health adviser, Wendell Primus, explained ... House Democrats would pass a series of 'fixes' to the Senate bill. The Senate would then pass the House reconciliation bill, sending amendments to President Obama to a bill that -- strictly speaking -- didn't exist, because it hadn't yet emerged from the House. The House would then retroactively pass the Senate bill as is. Democrats say this will all be kosher as long as Mr. Obama signs the Senate bill before he signs the reconciliation bill. 'There's a certain skill, there's a trick,' Mr. Primus conceded, 'but I think we'll get it done.' So even as Democrats themselves acknowledge that one reason the public hates ObamaCare so much is the corrupt tactics they have used to advance it through Congress, they still plan to try to land this Pelosian triple-handspring-quadruple pole vault to passage." --The Wall Street Journal

Virginia Tech spokesman Larry Hincker was happy to hear the bill was defeated. "I'm sure the university community is appreciative of the General Assembly's actions because this will help parents, students, faculty and visitors feel safe on our campus."
http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/wb/xp-50658

"No man can satisfy any woman on Valentines Day because they don't have a penis made of chocolate that is wrapped in money and ejaculates diamonds."

"Campaign finance laws are a bit like gun control statutes: actual criminals continue to possess large stockpiles of weapons, but law-abiding citizens are disarmed."  -- Glenn Greenwald, "What the Supreme Court got right," Salon, Jan 22, 2010. (http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/01/22/citizens_united/index.html)

"Here is a test to find whether your mission on earth is finished: If you're alive, it isn't." Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah - Richard Bach

"Elephants and Asses screwing the masses."  -- James William Maier, commenting on Brandi Duncan's photo, 01/24/2010 (http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=11021016&id=762675584&comments)

"In the year 2000.... men will actually begin desiring women who have great personalities. In a related story, breasts will be renamed 'personalities'."

"The bond that links your true family is not one of blood, but of respect and joy in each other's life. Rarely do members of one family grow up under the same roof." Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah - Richard Bach

"[The United States] can't be so fixed on our desire to preserve the rights of ordinary Americans..." - President Bill Clinton March 1, 1993 during a press conference in Piscataway, NJ.

"Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States repealing the Second Amendment to the Constitution." - H.J. Res. 81, Jan.27, 1993.

This thread is proof positive that crack doesn't smoke itself.  -- Quintin (arfcom)

"I have the pleasure of drinking too much in my post-menopausal incarnation. I like tequila, really expensive kinds … straightup. I hate alcoholics and AA… If you can't drink responsibly, don't drink at all. Don't go to meetings, whine about your character flaws and blame the fact that you are a sociopath on booze."  -- Roseanne Barr



Geez, no wonder it takes so long - your statute has 15 disqualifying factors, only a few of which have anything at all to do with carrying a handgun. Unpaid parking tickets are apparently enough to disqualify you and strip you of your Article 1 Section 23 right to armed self-defense!! Unbelievable!

How does a defaulted student loan, an unpaid parking ticket, or unpaid child support have anything to do "with a view to prevent crime?!?"

Whoever drafted this law royally screwed gun owners and the Texas Constitution - 411.177(b) is essentially rendered utterly meaningless by its subparagraph (3). What's the point, except for show, of imposing a deadline on bureaucrats if there's no mandate associated with the deadline?

Here in New Hampshire, they have to either issue the license by the 14th day, or deny it for cause. Period. If it takes them longer than 14 days to make a determination, tough luck - they must, by law, issue it on the 14th day regardless, and then revoke it if a disqualifying piece of information turns up.

Not only that, Texas views a CHL as a "benefit" - "anything reasonably regarded as economic gain or advantage" - not a right, in spite of Article 1 Section 23.

You guys should consider filing 39.03 "official oppression" complaints against these deadline-violators: "intentionally denies or impedes another in the
exercise or enjoyment of any right, privilege, power, or immunity,
knowing his conduct is unlawful;"
http://www.thefiringline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=296255

Not a blacksmith could be found in the whole land of Israel, because the Philistines had said, "Otherwise the Hebrews will make swords or spears!"
1 Samuel 13:19

Sec. 23.  RIGHT TO KEEP AND BEAR ARMS. Every citizen shall have the right to keep and bear arms in the lawful defense of himself or the State; but the Legislature shall have power, by law, to regulate the wearing of arms, with a view to prevent crime.



"People think it must be fun to be a super genius, but they don't realize how hard it is to put up with all the idiots in the world"

"The public cannot be too curious concerning the characters of public men." - Samuel Adams, November 4, 1775

"I don't care what other people think of me because what is important is what I think of them."  -- wganz, arfcom, quoting his grandfather

"We, the People are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts — not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow men who pervert the Constitution."  -- Abraham Lincoln

"Property is the fruit of labor...property is desirable...is a positive good in the world. That some should be rich shows that others may become rich, and hence is just encouragement to industry and enterprise. Let not him who is houseless pull down the house of another; but let him labor diligently and build one for himself, thus by example assuring that his own shall be safe from violence when built."  -- Abraham Lincoln

Don't think you aren't living under a tyranny just because your views coincide with the tyrant's.

"War is politics with blood; politics is war without blood," Gingrich said, citing Mao.

"Send me a fucking link now or suffer a fate so terrible entire libraries will have to be constructed to contain all the books your anguish will fill." --Dark Charisma


Originally Posted By Chas8008:
Originally Posted By damcv62:
If you killed it, dressed it, grilled it, and its sitting on a hot blondes bare ass drapped in bacon with a couple of full autos for arms, inside of your ammo fort, I'd say you would get 10's across the board.
Only if you use your own reloaded bullets.


"I think driving a deuce and a half with a load of strippers in the back to a Buger King drive thru to dine one the Dollar menu with a auto M-16 would work."  -- Chas8008 arfcom

"If you killed it, dressed it, grilled it, and its sitting on a hot blondes bare ass drapped in bacon with a couple of full autos for arms, inside of your ammo fort, I'd say you would get 10's across the board."  -- damcv62 arfcom



Originally Posted By Pat_Rogers:
A weapons mounted light will always have the advantages of:

Both hands on gun, just as in daylight
Reloading/malfunction clearance as in daylight
Faster to bring into action
Mounted coaxial with the bore

Any work guns i have use a weapon mounted light>
Additionally i have a hand held light for admin issues.



"Remember, a superior gunman is best defined as one who regularly uses his superior judgment and communication skills, so he doesn't find himself in situations which require the use of his superior gun and tactical skills!"  -- John Farnam

"The art of simplicity is a puzzle of complexity."  -- Douglas Horton

"Computers are useless. They can only give you answers."  -- Pablo Picasso

"There is a tremendous difference between shooting methods that work well when you're simply trying to put holes in the target and those that work well when the target is trying to put holes in you. Failing to understand this difference is a mistake that will get you killed if you ever have to use your handgun in a real armed confrontation."  -- Col Applegate

"In a moral point of view, the superiority of frugality over luxury is indisputable."  -- Frederic Bastiat, That Which Is Seen, and That Which is Not Seen, Ch.11 (2nd to last paragraph)

"One of the methods used by statists to destroy capitalism consists in establishing controls that tie a given industry hand and foot, making it unable to solve its problems, then declaring that freedom has failed and stronger controls are necessary." --Ayn Rand

"As an American I am not so shocked that Obama was given the Nobel Peace Prize without any accomplishments to his name, but that America gave him the White House based on the same credentials."  -- Newt Gingrich

"Tread softly because you tread on my dreams."  -- William Butler Yeats

I do not believe that having a firearm on my person 'invites' violence or trouble any more than simply carrying a wallet will some day cause me to be a millionaire.  -- JB, KTOG forum

"Wanting to be someone else is a waste of the person you are."  -- Kurt Cobain

Sometimes good people have to do bad things to bad people to prevent bad people from doing bad things to good people.

"With confidence, you have won before you have started."  -- Marcus Garvey

"I'm not fluent in the language of violence, but I know enough to get around in places where it's spoken."

"When they call the roll in the Senate, the Senators do not know whether to answer 'present' or 'not guilty.'" -- Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) 26th US President

"The art of simplicity is a puzzle of complexity."  -- Douglas Horton

"The only thing I expect out of lawyers is that they be back in their coffins by sunup."  -- unknown

"Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws."  -- Plato

"The greatest thing a Father can do for his children is to love their Mother."  -- Harold B. Lee

"It looks like we have accepted this notion [that] perpetual war leads to perpetual peace."  -- Ron Paul, 2:10-2:17
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEDQ-QXtXcg

"I can tell you one thing: If [Illinois] isn’t the most corrupt state in the United States, its certainly one hell of a competitor."  -- FBI special agent Robert Grant

"If it isn't the most corrupt state in the United States, it's certainly one hell of a competitor. Even the most cynical agents in our office were shocked." -- Robert Grant, special agent in charge of the FBI's Chicago office, quoted by the Chicago Tribune, characterizing Illinois' place "in the pantheon of political ...

"Only in politics would you bribe people to act, then declare that they'd better not be acting just to get the bribe."  -- Neal McCluskey

"Bipartisan usually means that a larger-than-usual deception is being carried out."  -- George Carlin

"If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?"  -- Albert Einstein

"Caucasians are not going to let their standard of living be destroyed by Negroes, Chinamen, Japs, or any other."  -- Samuel Gompers

"[The American Federation of Labor was] the most wicked machine for the propagation of race prejudices in the country."  -- early civil-rights leader A. Philip Randolph

"President Obama wants to put people in jail if they don’t buy health insurance. Give that man a peace prize!" -- Michael Cannon, article in Politico


NS: Do you have any advice for the nerds on how to get girls?

Phil Baroni: Do steroids, lift heavy weights, get contacts, go tanning. And stop playing all those gay f*cking video games. You can?t get pussy in front of a TV playing games with your geeky friends. Go out to night clubs and bars, hit the beach. If you got money, floss. Whatever you do, don?t be yourself.


"I don't care what the newspapers say about me, as long as they spell my name right."  -- P.T. Barnum

"A sword never kills anybody; it is a tool in the killer's hand."  -- Seneca (Seneca the Younger)

"The, uh, ethics of, uh, business... can be summarised in... Yeah, um... See... Ethics are, uh... You know, the... the thing about ethics..."  -- Eric, Billy Madison

1. "first do no harm"
2. "sometimes bad things happen and there is nothing you can do about it"

"The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine they can design."  -- F.A. Hayek, The Fatal Conceit

"So many things the government does are attempts to circumvent the bad things caused by something else they already do."  -- The curious task, by Russ Roberts on October 6, 2009, in Financial Markets (Cafe Hayek)


"Capitalists with government help…the worst of all economic phenomenon."  -- Ayn Rand

"The regulations are creating robber barons, they are creating capitalists with government help, which is the worst of all economic phenomenon."

"Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one." -- A.J. Liebling

"Technology is dominated by two types of people: those who understand what they do not manage, and those who manage what they do not understand"-Unknown

Karen, to Jack:  "Oh you'll do it. You'll do it the same way any self-respecting woman does. Get on your back, point your heels to Jesus and think of handbags."  -- Karen Walker to Jack [???], Will & Grace, episode ""

There he goes. One of God's own prototypes. Some kind of high powered mutant never even considered for mass production. Too weird to live, and too rare to die. - Hunter S. Thompson.


Originally Posted By 82ND-ABN:
I voted green but it appears I am incorrect.
http://www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=1&f=5&t=926509&page=4&#19391494

I think this shows that if the Democrats hope to turn ObamaCare into "KennedyCare" and get it passed, it's not going to work.

Let the ‘Dims’ start calling it what it real is ‘Mary Jo Kopechne Care’! It’s a plan were they crash the economy leave us to drown in debt as they ‘swim’ away to live out their lives in comfort on all the money they stole from us!

Reid-Obama-Pelosi (Representatives of Peace)™ hereby motion that Obamacare be designated as the Kopechne-Kennedy Act (Since like Ms. Kopechne, it will leave America underwater...)



“A politician will do anything to keep his job - even become a patriot” ~ William Randolph

"The popularization and cultural preoccupation with trivial people and mere 'entertainment,' do not bode well for a nation that relies on a well educated and informed electorate to exercise responsible self government."  -- David Codrea

"The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground."  -- Thomas Jefferson, letter to Edward Carrington, 1788. ME 7:37

"A lot of people run a race to see who is the fastest. I run a race to see who has the most guts."  -- Steve "Pre" Prefontaine

"We are not without accomplishment. We have managed to distribute poverty equally."  -- Nguyen Co Thach (1923-1998), Vietnamese foreign minister from 1980-1991 (whether this quote is verified or only attributed, I do not know for sure)


"MR. GERRY did not like the term National .... It brought to his mind some observations that had taken place in the Conventions at the time they were considering the present constitution. It had been insisted upon by those who were called anti-federalists, that this form of government consolidated the union; .... Those who were called anti-federalists at that time, complained that they were in favor of a federal government, and the others were in favor of a National one; the federalists were for ratifying the constitution as it stood, and the others did not until amendments were made [the Bill of Rights]. Their names then ought not to have been distinguished by federalists and anti-federalists, but rats and anti-rats."  --
http://www.volokh.com/posts/1164942383.shtml

"Those who were called Anti-Federalists at that time complained that they had injustice done them by the title, because they were in favor of a federal government, and the others were in favor of a national one; the Federalists were for ratifying the Constitution as it stood, and the others, not until amendments were made. Their names ought not to have been Federalists and Anti-Federalists, but Rats and Anti-Rats." –– Elbridge Gerry (1744–1814), fifth Vice President of the United States, under James Madison (quoted in "The constitutional history of the United States," by Francis Newton Thorpe)



"Fundamentals are the crutch of the talent-less."  -- Kenny Powers

"When you can measure what you are speaking about and express it in numbers, you know something. When you cannot do so your knowledge is meager and unsatisfactory."  -- Lord Kelvin

"Capitalism without Bankruptcy is like Christianity without Hell."  -- Frank Borman


“Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.”  -- Marcus Aurelius

"Tyranny is defined as that which is legal for the government but illegal for the citizenry."  -- Thomas Jefferson (attributed but not found in his works)
http://wiki.monticello.org/mediawiki/index.php/Tyranny_is_defined_as_that_which_is_legal_for_the_government...(Quotation)

Originally Posted By SonOfNorway:
Originally Posted By c130montana:
BTW - An observation about frying the Holy Bacon: Yup, about half-way done. Turn & scratch nut-sack for 3 seconds - -turn back - IT'S BURNED!!!
Bacon is like a jealous woman, if you divert your attention to some other matter for a few seconds, she'll burst into flames


"We're everywhere. We see everything. The eye of AR15.com is lidless."  -- SilentType, arfcom member


"Those who gauge the just price of an article by the labor, costs, and risks borne by the person who deals in or produces the merchandise are seriously mistaken; for the just price springs from the abundance or lack of goods, merchants, or money, and not from costs, labor, and risks."  -- Saravia de la Calle (quoted in Jesus Huerta de Soto's "The Austrian School: Market Order and Entrepreneurial Creativity)

"The value of an article does not depend on its objective nature but on the subjective estimate of men, even when this estimate is foolish."  -- Diego de Covarrubias y Leyva (quoted in Jesus Huerta de Soto's "The Austrian School: Market Order and Entrepreneurial Creativity)

"Socialism, like the ancient ideas from which it springs, confuses the distinction between government and society. As a result of this, every time we object to a thing being done by government, the socialists conclude that we object to its being done at all. We disapprove of state education. Then the socialists say that we are opposed to any education. We object to a state religion. Then the socialists say that we want no religion at all. We object to a state-enforced equality. Then they say that we are against equality. And so on, and so on. It is as if the socialists were to accuse us of not wanting persons to eat because we do not want the state to raise grain."  -- Frederic Bastiat, The Law


"Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws."  -- Plato

"The greatest thing a Father can do for his children is to love their Mother."  -- Harold B. Lee

"It looks like we have accepted this notion [that] perpetual war leads to perpetual peace."  -- Ron Paul, 2:10-2:17
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEDQ-QXtXcg

"I can tell you one thing: If [Illinois] isn’t the most corrupt state in the United States, its certainly one hell of a competitor."  -- FBI special agent Robert Grant

"If it isn't the most corrupt state in the United States, it's certainly one hell of a competitor. Even the most cynical agents in our office were shocked." -- Robert Grant, special agent in charge of the FBI's Chicago office, quoted by the Chicago Tribune, characterizing Illinois' place "in the pantheon of political ...

"Only in politics would you bribe people to act, then declare that they'd better not be acting just to get the bribe."  -- Neal McCluskey

"Bipartisan usually means that a larger-than-usual deception is being carried out."  -- George Carlin

"If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?"  -- Albert Einstein

"Caucasians are not going to let their standard of living be destroyed by Negroes, Chinamen, Japs, or any other."  -- Samuel Gompers

"[The American Federation of Labor was] the most wicked machine for the propagation of race prejudices in the country."  -- early civil-rights leader A. Philip Randolph

"President Obama wants to put people in jail if they don’t buy health insurance. Give that man a peace prize!" -- Michael Cannon, article in Politico

NS: Do you have any advice for the nerds on how to get girls?

Phil Baroni: Do steroids, lift heavy weights, get contacts, go tanning. And stop playing all those gay f*cking video games. You can?t get pussy in front of a TV playing games with your geeky friends. Go out to night clubs and bars, hit the beach. If you got money, floss. Whatever you do, don?t be yourself.

"I don't care what the newspapers say about me, as long as they spell my name right."  -- P.T. Barnum

"A sword never kills anybody; it is a tool in the killer's hand."  -- Seneca (Seneca the Younger)

"The, uh, ethics of, uh, business... can be summarised in... Yeah, um... See... Ethics are, uh... You know, the... the thing about ethics..."  -- Eric, Billy Madison

1. "first do no harm"
2. "sometimes bad things happen and there is nothing you can do about it"

"The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine they can design."  -- F.A. Hayek, The Fatal Conceit

"So many things the government does are attempts to circumvent the bad things caused by something else they already do."  -- The curious task, by Russ Roberts on October 6, 2009, in Financial Markets (Cafe Hayek)


"Capitalists with government help…the worst of all economic phenomenon."  -- Ayn Rand
"The regulations are creating robber barons, they are creating capitalists with government help, which is the worst of all economic phenomenon."

"Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one." -- A.J. Liebling

"Technology is dominated by two types of people: those who understand what they do not manage, and those who manage what they do not understand"-Unknown

Karen, to Jack:  "Oh you'll do it. You'll do it the same way any self-respecting woman does. Get on your back, point your heels to Jesus and think of handbags."  -- Karen Walker to Jack [???], Will & Grace, episode ""

There he goes. One of God's own prototypes. Some kind of high powered mutant never even considered for mass production. Too weird to live, and too rare to die. - Hunter S. Thompson.

“A politician will do anything to keep his job - even become a patriot” ~ William Randolph

"The popularization and cultural preoccupation with trivial people and mere 'entertainment,' do not bode well for a nation that relies on a well educated and informed electorate to exercise responsible self government."  -- David Codrea

"The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground."  -- Thomas Jefferson, letter to Edward Carrington, 1788. ME 7:37

"A lot of people run a race to see who is the fastest. I run a race to see who has the most guts."  -- Steve "Pre" Prefontaine

"We are not without accomplishment. We have managed to distribute poverty equally."  -- Nguyen Co Thach (1923-1998), Vietnamese foreign minister from 1980-1991 (whether this quote is verified or only attributed, I do not know for sure)


"MR. GERRY did not like the term National .... It brought to his mind some observations that had taken place in the Conventions at the time they were considering the present constitution. It had been insisted upon by those who were called anti-federalists, that this form of government consolidated the union; .... Those who were called anti-federalists at that time, complained that they were in favor of a federal government, and the others were in favor of a National one; the federalists were for ratifying the constitution as it stood, and the others did not until amendments were made [the Bill of Rights]. Their names then ought not to have been distinguished by federalists and anti-federalists, but rats and anti-rats."  --
http://www.volokh.com/posts/1164942383.shtml

"Those who were called Anti-Federalists at that time complained that they had injustice done them by the title, because they were in favor of a federal government, and the others were in favor of a national one; the Federalists were for ratifying the Constitution as it stood, and the others, not until amendments were made. Their names ought not to have been Federalists and Anti-Federalists, but Rats and Anti-Rats." –– Elbridge Gerry (1744–1814), fifth Vice President of the United States, under James Madison (quoted in "The constitutional history of the United States," by Francis Newton Thorpe)



"Fundamentals are the crutch of the talent-less."  -- Kenny Powers

"When you can measure what you are speaking about and express it in numbers, you know something. When you cannot do so your knowledge is meager and unsatisfactory."  -- Lord Kelvin

"Capitalism without Bankruptcy is like Christianity without Hell."  -- Frank Borman


“Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.”  -- Marcus Aurelius

"Tyranny is defined as that which is legal for the government but illegal for the citizenry."  -- Thomas Jefferson (attributed but not found in his works)
http://wiki.monticello.org/mediawiki/index.php/Tyranny_is_defined_as_that_which_is_legal_for_the_government...(Quotation)

"We're everywhere. We see everything. The eye of AR15.com is lidless."  -- SilentType, arfcom member


"Those who gauge the just price of an article by the labor, costs, and risks borne by the person who deals in or produces the merchandise are seriously mistaken; for the just price springs from the abundance or lack of goods, merchants, or money, and not from costs, labor, and risks."  -- Saravia de la Calle (quoted in Jesus Huerta de Soto's "The Austrian School: Market Order and Entrepreneurial Creativity)

"The value of an article does not depend on its objective nature but on the subjective estimate of men, even when this estimate is foolish."  -- Diego de Covarrubias y Leyva (quoted in Jesus Huerta de Soto's "The Austrian School: Market Order and Entrepreneurial Creativity)

"Socialism, like the ancient ideas from which it springs, confuses the distinction between government and society. As a result of this, every time we object to a thing being done by government, the socialists conclude that we object to its being done at all. We disapprove of state education. Then the socialists say that we are opposed to any education. We object to a state religion. Then the socialists say that we want no religion at all. We object to a state-enforced equality. Then they say that we are against equality. And so on, and so on. It is as if the socialists were to accuse us of not wanting persons to eat because we do not want the state to raise grain."  -- Frederic Bastiat, The Law


"If you analyze it I believe the very heart and soul of conservatism is libertarianism. I think conservatism is really a misnomer just as liberalism is a misnomer for the liberals -- if we were back in the days of the Revolution, so-called conservatives today would be the Liberals and the liberals would be the Tories. The basis of conservatism is a desire for less government interference or less centralized authority or more individual freedom and this is a pretty general description also of what libertarianism is." -- Ronald Reagan, from an interview published in Reason Magazine (July 01, 1975)

Texas - the only state to kick another country's ass! - USPcompact (formerly Boom's sig line)


"Dear Sir, There is a great hypocrisy in the morality arguments presented by most supporters of higher taxes on the rich. Most supporters are middle to low income citizens of wealthy countries. They envision a transfer of wealth from the rich to themselves. Their arguments would have a lot more moral authority if they advocated a transfer of wealth from the world’s rich to the world’s truly poor; say those living on less than $2000/year. So let me see people supporting that the tax on top US earners leaves America and goes directly to Africa, India and China. Ironically most of the supporters of high taxes do not even support a transfer of US money to India and China in exchange for products and services (“they took R jobs!”)."  -- user "Event Horizon" at the Economist Debate "Should the rich pay higher taxes?" (17/04/2009 07:33:21am)
http://www.economist.com/debate/overview/142&sa_campaign=debateseries/debate21/ads/house/728

"If you torture the data enough, nature will always confess."  -- Ronald H. Coase, "How Should Economists Choose?" Essays in Economics and Economists, p.27

"Nature undoubtedly responds to the theoretical predispositions with which she is approached by the measuring scientist."  -- Thomas S. Kuhn, quoted second-hand from Ronald H. Coase, "How Should Economists Choose?" Essays in Economics and Economists, p.27

"There are natural curative processes in markets... right?  Low prices are the cure for low prices.  At low prices, people produce less and they buy more.  Ergo, we're still not in the recession of 1991, we're still not in the Great Depression, so cycles are to a degree self-curing."  -- Jim Grant, CNBC (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rv2ApOhFt6Q), 03:47-04:07

"I think zero is the wrong rate for almost any economy."  -- Jim Grant, CNBC (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rv2ApOhFt6Q), 06:48-06:51

"There are no bad bonds, only bad prices."  -- Jim Grant, quoting an anonymous bond trader, CNBC (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rv2ApOhFt6Q), 07:50-07:55

"If the hairs on the back of your neck stand up when there's too much unanimity of opinion, then one begins to worry about this," he said. "The Fed has proverbially been late."  -- Jim Grant, CNBC (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rv2ApOhFt6Q), 10:13-10:23

Hamish: Where are you going?
William Wallace: I'm going to pick a fight.

"Let us redefine progress to mean that just because we can do a thing, it does not necessarily mean we must do that thing."  -- Federation President, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country

"It's a game of narcissist strip poker, and you're the thong."  -- CBS Sports columnist Gregg Doyel

"Capitalism can run, even flourish, in a society of selfish cynics. But a non-market economy cannot."  -- Paul Krugman

D.C.=District of Criminals  -- Charles T. Neighbors at 6:41pm June 15, 2009, commenting on Carl Jonathan Bunce's FB post (http://www.facebook.com/ext/share.php?sid=88367214073&h=HQ_Ld&u=WELiV&ref=nf)

When the federal government spends more each year than it collects in tax revenues, it has three choices: It can raise taxes, print money, or borrow money. While these actions may benefit politicians, all three options are bad for average Americans.  -- Ron Paul

Fathers day is to thank your dad for having sex with your mom! Mothers day is to thank your mom for not swallowing you

The next fascism will not say "I am the fascism", it will say "I am the anti-fascism". (Ignazio Silone)

"[T]hat what a man has honestly acquired is absolutely his own, which he may freely give, but cannot be taken from him without his consent." -- Mass. Circular Letter of 1768 (found in Edward S. Corwin's "The 'Higher Law' Background of American Constitutional Law")

"the State, which subsists on taxation, is a vast criminal organization far more formidable and successful than any 'private' Mafia in history." -M.N.Rothbard

"The great non sequitur committed by defenders of the State, including classical Aristotelian and Thomist philosophers, is to leap from the necessity of society to the necessity of the State." - M. Rothbard

"I'm a liberal -- a real liberal, not a Progressivist -- who harbors conservative, liberal, libertarian, voluntaryist, and anarchist sympathies, and who strongly believes in property rights, individual rights, and 'small-f' federalism."  -- me, on me

“The secret of all victory lies in the organization of the non-obvious.” ~ Marcus Aurelius

"I'm a dance on the bar and take'em all home kind of girl!" -- Tricia Quinn, on Facebook

"the State, which subsists on taxation, is a vast criminal organization far more formidable and successful than any 'private' Mafia in history." -M.N.Rothbard

"[T]hat what a man has honestly acquired is absolutely his own, which he may freely give, but cannot be taken from him without his consent." -- Mass. Circular Letter of 1768 (found in Corwin's "The 'Higher Law' Background of American Constitutional Law

The Humanitarian Face of the State, With Fangs
http://lewrockwell.com/rockwell/humanitarian-face-fangs.html

"But the state lies in all the tongues of good and evil; and whatever it talks about, it lies - and whatever it has, it has stolen. Everything about it is false; it bites with stolen teeth, and it snarls. Even its very entrails are false." - Friedrich Nietzsche

"I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it." - Thomas Jefferson

"All initiation of force is a violation of someone else's rights, whether initiated by an individual or the state, for the benefit of an individual or group of individuals, even if it's supposed to be for the benefit of another individual or group of individuals." - Ron Paul

"Government has nothing to give to anybody that it doesn’t first take from somebody else.” - Henry Hazlitt

"If voting changed anything, they'd make it illegal." -
Emma Goldman

"I don’t want to abolish government; I just want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into my bathroom and drown it in my bathtub." - Grover Norquist



"The great non sequitur committed by defenders of the State, including classical Aristotelian and Thomist philosophers, is to leap from the necessity of society to the necessity of the State." - M. Rothbard

"The only good bureaucrat is one with a pistol at his head. Put it in his hand and it's good-by to the Bill of Rights. " -H.L. Mencken

"It is not the business of the law to make anyone good or reverent or moral or clean or upright." - Murray Rothbard

All new states are invested, more or less, by a class of noisy, second-rate men who are always in favor of rash and extreme measures, but Texas was absolutely overrun with such men.  -- Sam Houston

Score another victory for Hope over Change.  -- Jordan, reasononline contributer

Definition of rock journalism: People who can't write, doing interviews with people who can't think, in order to prepare articles for people who can't read.  -- Zappa?

The direct use of force is such a poor solution to any problem, it is generally employed only by small children and large nations. ~ David Friedman

“When we are planning for posterity, we ought to remember that virtue is not hereditary” ~ Thomas Paine

"Where did our government goons get the right to field machine guns, if it wasn't delegated to them by the people? How could we delegate a right we don't have?" - Vin Suprynowicz

Executing a murderer is the only way to adequately express our horror at the taking of an innocent life. Nothing else suffices. To equate the lives of killers with those of victims is the worst kind of moral equivalency. If capital punishment is state murder, then imprisonment is state kidnapping and restitution is state theft. – Don Feder

For centuries the death penalty, often accompanied by barbarous refinements, has been trying to hold crime in check; yet crime persists.  -- ALBERT CAMUS, Resistance, Rebellion and Death

Government ... can’t be trusted to control its own bureaucrats or collect taxes equitably or fill a pothole, much less decide which of its citizens to kill.  -- HELEN PREJEAN, Dead Man Walking

"War was always here. Before man was, war waited for him. The ultimate trade awaiting its ultimate practitioner."

Anything that is too big to fail is too big to exist.  -- Simon Johnson

"With conventional monetary policy having reached its limit, any further policy stimulus requires a different set of tools." ~ Ben Bernanke, April 3.

The Federalist Papers wrote the Constitution... The Anti-Federalist Papers wrote the Bill of Rights.*
* not literally

"The mystery of government is not how Washington works but how to make it stop."  -- P.J. O'Rourke

"If someone has a gun and is trying to kill you, it would be reasonable to shoot back with your own gun."  -- The Dalai Lama

"Rifles, muskets, long-bows and hand-grenades are inherently democratic weapons. ...A simple weapon -- so long as there is no answer to it -- gives claws to the weak."  -- George Orwell

"If guns are outlawed, only the government will have guns. Only the police, the secret police, the military, the hired servants of our rulers. Only the government -- and a few outlaws. I intend to be among the outlaws."  -- Edward Abbey

"A free people ought not only to be armed and disciplined, but they should have sufficient arms and ammunition to maintain a status of independence from any who might attempt to abuse them, which would include their own government."  -- George Washington

"Among the many misdeeds of the British rule in India, history will look upon the Act depriving a whole nation of arms, as the blackest."  -- Mahatma Gandhi, Gandhi, An Autobiography, page 446

"An unarmed man can only flee from evil, and evil is not overcome by fleeing from it."  -- Col. Jeff Cooper

"Even God is for guns, he could have struck down Goliath but instead he made David shoot him."  -- unknown

"We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are."  -- Anais Nin

"Our youth can not understand why society chooses to criminalize a behavior with so little visible ill effect or adverse social impact... These young people have jumped the fence and found no cliff. And the disrespect for the possession laws fosters a disrespect for laws and the system in general... On top of this is the distinct impression among the youth that some police may use the marihuana laws to arrest people they don't like for other reasons, whether it be their politics, their hair style or their ethnic background."  -- Richard Nixon's National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse, "Marihuana: A Signal of Misunderstanding," March 1972

"Federal and state laws (should) be changed to no longer make it a crime to possess marijuana for private use."  -- Richard Nixon's National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse, "Marihuana: A Signal of Misunderstanding," March 1972

"State laws should make the public use of marijuana a criminal offense punishable by a $100 fine. Under federal law, marijuana smoked in public would merely be subject to seizure."  -- Richard Nixon's National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse, "Marihuana: A Signal of Misunderstanding," March 1972

"I worked hard to try to kill him. I authorized a finding for the CIA to kill him. We contracted with people to kill him. I got closer to killing him than anybody has gotten since."  -— Former President Bill Clinton, Sept. 24, 2006

Remember in the Debates they asked him- "What would you do before taking this nation to war"?
Romney said he would consult a bunch of Lawyers-...
Ron Paul said he would Consult Congress!
-- Mike Eskew, replying to Brandi Duncan's "NPR: March Madness" post on Facebook at 7:32am March 26

"Al Gore may have invented the internet (lol, what?), but Ron Paul owns it."  -- Chris Breaux, replying to Brandi Duncan's "NPR: March Madness" post on Facebook at 3:38am March 26, 2009

"The peculiar thing about drawing a line in the sand over the RKBA is that if you don't draw a line in the sand there, you will be unable to draw any lines in the sand ever again."  -- Frost7, arfcom

"The weapons' menacing looks, coupled with the public's confusion over fully automatic machine guns versus semi-automatic assault weaponsanything that looks like a machine gun is assumed to be a machine guncan only increase the chance of public support for restrictions on these weapons. In addition, few people can envision a practical use for these guns."  -- Josh Sugarmann, Violence Policy Center (VPC), writing in a September 1988 report on "assault weapons" that he prepared for the Education Fund to End Handgun Violence

"Curse Your Rockin' Tits!"  -- Kyle's dad, South Park

Technology has never been used to free the masses; always to further enslave them.

“You will never understand bureaucracies until you understand that for bureaucrats procedure is everything and outcomes are nothing.”

“If there is a way to delay in important decision, the good bureaucracy, public or private, will find it”

“The larger the state, the more callous it becomes... the colder its heart. It is also true that the bigger the corporation, the more callous its heart. But unlike the state, corporations have competition and have no police powers.”

"There is a class of colored people who make a business of keeping the troubles, the wrongs, and the hardships of the Negro race before the public. Having learned that they are able to make a living out of their troubles, they have grown into the settled habit of advertising their wrongs-partly because they want sympathy and partly because it pays. Some of these people do not want the Negro to lose his grievances, because they do not want to lose their jobs." -- Booker T Washington

"The problem with our economy is not that we're not borrowing and spending enough, and we need the government to do some more of that for us." –– John Cochrane, Economist, Vice-President of the American Finance Association, and Professor of Finance at University of Chicago's Booth School of Business.

"A trillion dollars..... is a terrible thing to waste." Sen. Robert Wicker (R-MS)

"When you borrow from Peter to pay Paul, you've gotta pay Peter some interest!" –– Alan Reynolds, Senior Fellow, Cato Institute; formerly Director of Economic Research at the Hudson Institute

"If bigger spending and more intervention was a recipe for economic growth, then France should be an economic tiger, and Hong Kong should be in the toilet, but instead it's the other way around." –– Daniel J. Mitchell, Senior Fellow, Cato Institute; formerly a Senior Fellow with The Heritage Foundation, and an economist for Senator Bob Packwood and the Senate Finance Committee

"Government is the number one growth industry." –– James A. Dorn, Cato Institute's Vice President for Academic Affairs and Professor of Economics at Towson University; Editor of Cato Journal, and Director of Cato's annual monetary conference; also served on the White House Commission on Presidential Scholars under Presidents Reagan and Clinton (all of Reagan's second term; first two years of Clinton).

"The Court must be living in another world. Day by day, case by case, it is busy designing a Constitution for a country I do not recognize." -- U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia (Dissenting in Board of County Commissioners, Wabaunsee County, Kan., v. Umbehr, 1996)

How come antigun groups with few rank and file members, but massively funded by a few leftwing billionaires are "grassroots organizations."
But the NRA, with millions of members who each contribute a few dollars is "the gun lobby."  -- Siobhra, Women & Guns forum

If Obama wants "childproof guns," let's see him mandate them for his Secret Service protection detail first. -- David Codrea

SHTF is long gun business. -- Augee, in a thread about SHTF handguns.

There is no chin behind Chris' beard, just another PMAG. -- Payback99, referring to Chris Costa

As for now we are not releasing any information on products that may or may not be in the works. We're always looking for new ways to improve on existing products and explore the boundaries of new ideas. Thanks.  -- DrDrake

As for now we are not releasing any information on products, beards, gotees, pants, shirts, jackets, sunglasses, socks, shoes, and, underwear that Travis and I may or may not be wearing or in the works. We're always looking for new ways to improve on existing products and Bling, Bling and explore the boundaries of new ideas. Thanks.  -- costa (Chris Costa)

"I don't have a lot of experience with vampires, but I have hunted werewolves. I shot one once, but by the time I got to it, it had turned back into my neighbor's dog." Dwight Schrute The Office (NBC)

"As for now we are not releasing any information on products that may or may not be in the works. We're always looking for new ways to improve on existing products and explore the boundaries of new ideas. Thanks."  -- Magpul standard response

"Whenever there is any doubt, there is no doubt. That's the first thing they teach you-

"I think it’s a scandal that this president (Bush) did not authorize a renewal of the assault weapons ban." -Barack Obama, 10-21-04
then contrast that with his "what works in cheyenne may not work in chicago" comment.

"It makes no difference what men think of war... War endures. As well ask men what they think of stone. War was always here. Before man was, war waited for him. The ultimate trade awaiting the ultimate practitioner." CM.

"When one gets in bed with government, one must expect the diseases it spreads." -- Congressman Ron Paul M.D.

The only thing that you can guess about a broken down old man... is that he is a survivor.

If nothing ever changed, there'd be no butterflies.

"Give me ten hours to cut down a tree and I will spend the first six hours sharpening the axe."  -- unknown

"International law is the law which the wicked do not obey and the righteous do not enforce."  -- Abba Eban

"If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, so that my children may have peace."  -- Thomas Paine

"The science of government it is my duty to study, more than all other sciences; the arts of legislation and administration and negotiation ought to take the place of, indeed exclude, in a manner, all other arts. I must study politics and war, that our sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. Our sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history and naval architecture, navigation, commerce and agriculture in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry and porcelain."  -- John Adams

The great rule of conduct for us, in regard to foreign nations, is in extending our commercial relations to have as little political connection as possible... Why, by interweaving our destiny with that of any part of Europe, entangle our peace and prosperity in the toils of European ambition, rivalships, interest, humor, or caprice?... It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world.  -- George Washington, from his farewell address

"Independent central banks that are not politically accountable undermine democracy," Joseph Stiglitz, Making Globalization Work


OBAMA: Let's be honest. Mr. Keyes does not believe in common gun control measures like the assault weapons bill. Mr. Keyes does not believe in any limits from what I can tell with respect to the possession of guns, including assault weapons that have only one purpose, to kill people. I think it is a scandal that this president did not authorize a renewal of the assault weapons ban.  -- Illinois Senate Debate #3: Barack Obama vs. Alan Keyes Oct 21, 2004


***** Hunter's and "Hunter Rights". How can ANYONE who has survived the past 8 years of near FACISM under Bush, possibly want THE GOVERNMENT to be the ONLY ones who have weapons?

The Best Reason since the creation of the firearm to own one, is George W. Bush. He started 2 false flag wars JUST to suspend Habeas Corpus and legalize illegal wire tapping. He locked up journalists who criticized him and allowed torture to be practiced secret prisons.

If you can live through that and NOT want the option to defend yourself, you deserve the death camp you'll be thrown into.
That's going to be my question in when we are all tossed into the American Gulag. "Were you Anti-gun after Bush?"
If you answer "Yes", you get shived!  -- Ratteler, on Digg


"My first priority will be to reinstate the assault weapons ban as soon as I take office. Within 90 days, we will go back after kitchen table dealers, and work to end the gun show and internet sales loopholes. In the first year, I intend to work with Congress on a national no carry law, 1 gun a month purchase limits, and bans on all semi-automatic guns."--Barack Obama, VPC Fund Raiser, 2007


Which of two kinds of fascism do you think is more dangerous - one stemming from a culture's or a people's feeling of inferiority, or one stemming a culture's  or people's feeling of superiority?

If a country possessing a fascism of inferiority got into a war with a country possessing a fascism of superiority, all else bemg equal, which do you think has a better chance of winning?


"You can be a good looking guy with a good job, nice car and clothes and still not get laid, whereas you can be an average looking women and have a decent chance to screw Charlie Sheen."  -- Adam Carolla, Love Line, ca. late '90s

"There is no cause to worry. The high tide of prosperity will continue." — Andrew W. Mellon, Secretary of the Treasury, September 1929

Bumper Sticker: "Driver carries more than $20 worth of ammunition.

"Each generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before it, and wiser than the one that comes after it." - George Orwell (1903 - 1950)

“The people of the United States are the rightful masters of both Congress and the Courts, not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution.”- ABRAHAM LINCOLN (17 September 1859)

"Ultimately, as I say in the book, that the Republican Congress swapped policy for power and.... in the end.... achieved neither."  -- Alan Greenspan


"Socialism, like the ancient ideas from which it springs, confuses the distinction between government and society. As a result of this, every time we object to a thing being done by government, the socialists conclude that we object to its being done at all.

"We disapprove of state education. Then the socialists say that we are opposed to any education. We object to a state religion. Then the socialists say that we want no religion at all. We object to a state-enforced equality. Then they say that we are against equality. And so on, and so on. It is as if the socialists were to accuse us of not wanting persons to eat because we do not want the state to raise grain."  -- Frederic Bastiat

"We spend way too much time considering caliber, projectile weight, MV, BC and type, and not anywhere near enough time considering that the terminal resting place of that projectile is more important than all the rest of it combined."  -- Pat Rogers, arfcom member

And if you don't do this and if I don't do it, one of these days, you and I are going to spend our sunset years telling our children, and our children's children, what it once was like in America.... when men were free.  -- Ronald Reagan

"You don't pay taxes - they take taxes."  -- Chris Rock



"If guns are outlawed, only the government will have guns. Only the police, the secret police, the military, the hired servants of our rulers. Only the government.... and a few outlaws. I intend to be among the outlaws."  -- Edward Abbey



"The more the state 'plans' the more difficult planning becomes for the individual."  -- Friedrich Hayek



Gladstone to Benjamin Disraeli: "Sir, you will either die on the gallows or of some unspeakable disease."

"That depends, sir," said Disraeli, "On whether I embrace your policies or your mistress."

"If you prepare for the worst, all surprises are pleasant."

"So in life you get what you deserve? Not always, a few of us devoutly hope. On the other hand, come the November elections, the Republican Party may get exactly what it deserves from disgusted voters -- namely, a swift kick in the pants. Whereas, on yet another hand (assuming any more are available), it is necessary to ask whether the voters deserve what they'd get by giving the Republicans what they deserve. The mind, as so often is the case in politics, boggles."  -- William Murchison, writing for Human Events, 05/09/2006
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=14678



"Neoconservatism is being rejected across the country, as those who supported the bailout are coming to find.  If the Democrats manage to get a landslide majority in Congress this November, it won't be so much a mandate for their beliefs as it will be a repudiation of false conservatism."  -- Matt Hawes, blogging for Ron Paul's Campaign for Liberty

"I mean, these guys don't have a clue.  Here we've got the Federal Reserve.... and, and Paulson.... who've made mistake after mistake after mistake and been wrong, wrong, wrong.... and we're going to them and saying 'Oh, what do we do now?' I mean, Bernanke said under oath, every year for the last two years, "There's no problem in the housing market."  Paulson said the same thing.  And now we're going to them and saying 'Oh, what do we do now?' Oh, please!"  -- Jim Rogers, on Bloomberg News


"Thank you, Congressman.  Um, first of all, I actually agree with you about the price-fixing in the Depression. I think there's a pretty wide consensus that the National Recovery Act and the setting of -- fixing of -- wages and prices was a counter-productive step and I agree with you there....."



"I think what we have here is a fleet of helicopters, and Ben Bernanke said that he could always re-inject credit into the market."  -- Ron Paul on Fox Business, Oct. 14, 2008 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qzUtPq8pLE)



John McCain and Barack Obama have been asked twice -- once in the Mississippi debate and again on Tuesday night -- what their priorities would be. McCain flat-out refused to choose, arguing that the United States can do it all. Obama mentioned energy, health care and education but did not acknowledge that he might have to choose among them.

Similarly, they declined to spell out what sacrifices they might have to ask Americans to make, beyond moderating their energy use or easing their demands for Washington-financed projects.

It was a stunning rejection of reality.  David Broder, "Running from Reality" (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/08/AR2008100802929.html)



"repudiation of the false conservatism of the Republican Party."



"Neoconservatism is being rejected across the country, as those who supported the bailout are coming to find.  If the Democrats manage to get a landslide majority in Congress this November, it won't be so much a mandate for their beliefs as it will be a repudiation of false conservatism."  -- Matt Hawes, Campaign for Liberty blog



“There are three reasons to own a gun. To protect yourself and your family, to hunt dangerous and delicious animals, and to keep the King of England out of your face.” ~ Krusty the Clown



Lisa:  The second amendment is just a remnant from revolutionary periods, it has no real meaning today
Homer:  You couldn’t be more wrong Lisa.  If I didn't have this gun the King of England could just come in here and start pushing you around.  Do you want that, well do ya?



“Prohibition goes beyond the bounds of reason in that it attempts to control a man's appetite by legislation and makes crimes out of things that are not crimes.”  -- ?



"The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the Federal Government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State Governments are numerous and indefinite. The former will be exercised principally on external objects, as war, peace negotiation, and foreign commerce;... The powers reserved to the several states will extend to all the objects, which, int he ordinary course of affairs, concern the lives, liberties and properties of the people, and the internal order, improvement, and prosperity of the state."  -- James Madison (from The Federalist, No. 45)


"It was a stunning rejection of reality."  -- David Broder, writing in the Washington Post, describing both candidates' refusal to comment on national priorities should they become President.

"He's got a groove, like he's walking down the aisle to marry the country."  -- some media numbnuts during the Inauguration

Terry Gilliam

People in Hollywood are not showmen, they`re maintenance men, pandering to what they think their audiences want.

Hollywood is run by small-minded people who like chopping the legs off creative people. All they want to do is say no.

It`s hard for me to worry about the studios losing money. I`m not very sympathetic to their money problems, because they certainly haven`t been sympathetic to mine.

My problem is I`m like a junkie. I want a good movie fix, and I never get that fix. I want to be taken into some place, some world, some idea that I haven`t thought of or imagined. And it doesn`t happen.

I do want to say things in these films. I want audiences to come out with shards stuck in them. I don`t care if people love my films or walk out, as long as they have a strong response.

(on future use of CGI in his films) "Nooo! Leave that to George Lucas, he` s really mastered the CGI acting. That scares me! I hate it! Everybody is so pleased and excited by it. Animation is animation. Animation is great. But it`s when you`re now taking what should be films full of people, living thinking, breathing, flawed creatures and you`re controlling every moment of that, it`s just death to me. It`s death to cinema, I can`t watch those Star Wars films, they`re dead things."

All I do is hunt. I want to be thrilled. And I`m not being thrilled at the moment. So I`m being old and bitter and curmudgeonly, because I want sensory buzz and I`m not getting it!

Terry Gilliam

"I finished filming on the last film last week. For the final shot I walked along a blue corridor with a blue background behind me talking to someone who wasn't there." Daniels said of his last scene as C-3PO





"We are all ambassadors of the bullet and if you don't play the part, you strengthen the stereotype and weaken us all."  -- crashburnrepeat (4/12/2005)

"People like you do more to hurt gun rights than ten democrats." -- THR-Thumper, chewing out an irresponsible young arfcommer (4/3/2005)


"Military men are dumb, stupid animals to be used as pawns for foreign policy."  -- Henry Kissinger, Nobel Peace Price recipient and all-around despicable human being

Janet Jackson said in an interview she’s supporting Hillary Clinton for president because she said it would show all those people who don’t trust a woman in the White House. But to be fair, when Hillary lived there, she didn’t trust women in the White House[, either]....  -- Jay Leno

“If Bill Clinton wishes in the future to complain about historical inaccuracies, I suggest he first answer one question: What handwritten notes, and by whom, were on the three copies of classified documents (out of five) that Sandy Berger chose to steal and cut up with scissors in 2003, smack in the middle of the 9/11 commission’s investigation? When we know the answer to that question, Bill, then and only then will you be entitled to complain about historical inaccuracies in the record.” —Maggie Gallagher

There are no such things as problems...... There are only unique opportunities for innovative solutions.  --Jake Syma.

------------------------------------------------

a clean desk is a sign of an empty mind........ unknown.

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My version of 911 in an emergency is preceded by a 'M1' and ends with 'A1'  --GrimStories, at survivalforum.com

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Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.  --Arthur C. Clarke, "Profiles of The Future", 1961 (Clarke's third law)


"The biggest problem encountered while trying to design a system that was completely foolproof, was, that people tended to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools." (Douglas Adams)

Mr. Madison, what you've just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.

"Work seven days a week and nothing can stop you."  --John Moores

"Immortality consists largely of boredom."  --Zefrem Cochrane

"Accept, adapt, and act. This is the key to everything."  --Pendekar Paul DeThouars

"Insufficient facts always invite danger."  --Spock

"A finite game is played for the purpose of winning; an infinite game is played for the purpose of continuing play." James P. Carse, Finite and Infinite Games

"Finite players play within boundaries; infinite players play with boundaries." James P. Carse, Finite and Infinite Games

"Rebels learn the rules better than the rule-makers do. Rebels learn where the holes are, where the rules can best be breached. Become an expert at the rules. Then break them with creativity and style."  --Kristine Kathryn Rusch, The Rules

"Deep in the human unconscious is a pervasive need for a logical universe that makes sense. But the real universe is always one step beyond logic."  --Paul Mua'd D'ib

"All vague notions must fall before a pupil can call himself a master."  --Bruce Lee

"We're gonna need a bigger boat."  --Roy Scheider, Jaws

"Hatred is an indulgence, a very inefficient emotion."  --Vice Admiral James Bond Stockdale

"Do or do not. There is no try."  --Yoda

"The fatal shortcoming of this age is that it has no heroes."  --Sho Fumimura, Sanctuary

"If you steal from one author, it's plagiarism; if you steal from many, it's research."  --Wilson Minzer

"I think and think for months and years. Ninety-nine times, the conclusion is false. The hundredth time I am right."  --Albert Einstein

"For hundreds of years, writers have been giving it away like warmhearted country girls in the big city, and it is not astonishing that their lovers (that is, the publishers) balk at giving a mink coat when a pair of nylons will do the job."  --Mario Puzo

"Having your book turned into a movie is like seeing your oxen turned into bouillon cubes."  --John LeCarre

"Those who beat their swords into plowshares must be content to spend their lives plowing for those who don't."  --Anonymous

"Don't ever let yourself think that reading equates with experience; the menu is not the meal."  --Jeff Mountjoy

"Humor is almost always anger with its makeup on, I think, but in little towns the makeup tends to be thin."  --Stephen King

"Everyone has talent. What is rare is the courage to follow the talent to the dark place where it leads."  --Erica Jong

"The price one pays for pursuing any profession or calling is an intimate knowledge of its dark side." James Baldwin

"You can discover what your enemy fears most by observing the means he uses to frighten you."  --Eric Hoffer

"There is no human problem which could not be solved if people would simply do as I advise."  --Gore Vidal

"Pick battles big enough to matter, small enough to win." Jonathan Kozol

"Be wiser than other people, if you can, but do not tell them so." Lord Chesterfield

"Rudeness is the weak man's imitation of strength."  --Eric Hoffer

"The question isn't, 'Are you paranoid?' but, 'Are you paranoid enough?'"  --Max Peltier

If you ignore the rules people will, half the time, quietly rewrite them so that they don't apply to you."  --Terry Pratchett

"The higher up you go, the more mistakes you're allowed. Right at the top, if you make enough of them, it's considered your style."  --Fred Astaire

"Much that passes for education is not education at all but ritual. The fact is that we are being educated when we know it least."  --David P. Gardner

"Nobody grows old by merely living a number of years. People grow old by deserting their ideals."  --Watterson Lowe

"A true poet does not bother to be poetical. Nor does a nursery gardener scent his roses."  --Jean Cocteau

"A work of art has an author and yet, when it is perfect, it has something which is anonymous about it."  --Simone Weil

"The person who knows how will always have a job. The person who knows why will always be his boss." --Terry Waldron

"Being right too soon is socially unacceptable." --Robert Heinlein

"At least once every human being should have to run for his life, to teach him that milk does not come from the supermarket, that safety does not come from policemen, and that news is not something that happens to other people."  --Number of the Beast, by Robert A. Heinlen

"In a crisis people do not rise to the occasion, but rather default to their level of training"  --Jeff Cooper

That is the real essence of the European constitution. It is not that people know that it will be used to promote "markets" or that they know it will be used to promote socialism. It is that they sense it will create a political entity whose actions cannot be predicted or controlled. That is the overall sense that actually seems to be uniting Europe, and uniting it in opposition to the constitution. The one thing you hear from both left and right -- from French socialists, Dutch euthanasia advocates, and British conservatives -- is the sense that the European constitution creates a political elite that is not accountable to its subjects.  --Robert Tracinski at TIA Daily (posted by forkum, of "cox & forkum" fame).

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The only difference between the living and the dead is that our judgment has been delayed.  --unknown

------------------------------------------------

We don't have states anymore. We have provinces fully subordinated to the authortiy of a central government. Our state representatives just don't realize it yet.  --1Andy2, arfcom member

"Power corrupts. Absolute power is kind of neat."  --John Lehman

"If you don't know where you are going, you will probably end up somewhere else."  --Laurence J. Peter

"If all the girls who attended the Yale prom were laid end to end, I wouldn't be a bit surprised."  -- Dorothy Parker

[to two members of the KKK]
Jim: Oh boys, lookee what I got heyuh.
Bart: Hey, where the white women at.

Jim (The Waco Kid), and Bart (Gene Wilder, and Cleavon Little, respectively), Blazing Saddles (1974)

-------------------

Mongo only pawn... in game of life.

Mongo (Alex Karras), Blazing Saddles (1974)

-------------------

Jim: You've got to remember that these are just simple farmers. These are people of the land. The common clay of the new West. You know... morons.

Jim (The Waco Kid), Blazing Saddles (1974)

-------------------

Charlie: They said you was hung.
Bart: And they was right.

Charlie and Bart (Charles McGregor and Cleavon Little, respectively), Blazing Saddles (1974)

-------------------

Taggart: Piss on you, I'm working for Mel Brooks.

Taggart (Slim Pickens), Blazing Saddles (1974)

-------------------

Jim: Another twenty-five years and you'll be able to shake their hands in broad daylight.

Jim (The Waco Kid), Blazing Saddles (1974)

-------------------

Hedley Lamarr: My mind is aglow with whirling, transient nodes of thought careening thru a cosmic vapor of invention.
Taggart: Ditto.
Hedley Lamarr: "Ditto"? "Ditto," you provincial putz?

Hedley Lamarr and Taggart (Harvey Korman and Slim Pickens, respectively), Blazing Saddles (1974)

-------------------

Henchman: We'll head them off at the pass.
Hedley Lamarr: Head them off at the pass? I hate that cliché.

Henchman and Hedley Lamarr (unknown and Harvey Korman), Blazing Saddles (1974)

------------------------------------------------

"It is the man who takes his time and uses his sights that wins the gunfight."  --Bat Masterson

William H. Bonney: You remember the stories John use to tell us about the the three chinamen playing Fantan? This guy runs up to them and says, "Hey, the world's coming to an end!" and the first one says, "Well, I best go to the mission and pray," and the second one says, "Well, hell, I'm gonna go and buy me a case of Mezcal and six whores," and the third one says "Well, I'm gonna finish the game." I shall finish the game, Doc.  --Emilio Estevez, Young Guns II

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"War is less costly than servitude. The choice is always between Verdun and Dachau." -Jean Dutourd

"God made all Men, Samuel Colt made them equal."

------------------------------------------------

Black Rifle Disease makes a heroin addiction seem like a vauge wish for something salty.

You're paranoid until it actually happens, then you're just prepared.....  --Dace, arfcom member

If no one among us is capable of governing himself, then who among us is capable of governing someone else?" -- Ronald Reagan

"Those damn Russians, they captured smarter Germans then we did!"  --[unknown American General] after the Soviets launched Sputnik

"Compared to war, all other forms of human endeavor shrink to insignificance" --Patton, but only in the movie version of his life

"Amateurs study tactics, professionals study logistics" --Omar Bradley

"A punch protects itself" --Rommel (?)

"If I must choose between peace and righteousness... I choose righteousness." --Teddy Roosevelt (?)

'From this day to the ending of the world, we in it shall be remembered. We lucky few, we band of brothers. For he who today sheds his blood with me shall be my brother.' --Henry V

'Ask anything of me but time' --Napoleon Bonaparte

"War is hell" --General William Tecumseh Sherman

"Be courteous to all, but intimate with few, and let those few be well tried before you give them your confidence. True friendship is a plant of slow growth, and must undergo and withstand the shocks of adversity before it is entitled to the appellation." --George Washington

"It is absurd, impolitic, and inhuman to burn a city you mean to occupy" --Henry Clinton

"It is no disgrace to be defeated. It is a disgrace to be surprised." --Frederick the Great

A little neglect may breed mischief: for want of a nail the shoe was lost; for want of a shoe the horse was lost; and for want of a horse the rider was lost. --Benjamin Franklin

Lean forward. It's always better to fall on your face than on your backside. --M. Cox

My logisticians are a humorless lot...they know if my campaign fails, they are the first ones I will slay. --Alexander

The tactics...no, amateurs discuss tactics,.... Professional soldiers study logistics. --Tom Clancy, Red Storm Rising

"I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but they've always worked for me" - Hunter S. Thompson

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Soylent Green is people! --Charlton Heston as Det. Robert Thorn, from the movie Soylent Green

Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence (I conjure you to believe me, fellow-citizens) the jealousy of a free people ought to be constantly awake, since history and experience prove that foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of republican government...............

.........Europe has a set of primary interests which to us have none; or a very remote relation. Hence she must be engaged in frequent controversies, the causes of which are essentially foreign to our concerns. Hence, therefore, it must be unwise in us to implicate ourselves by artificial ties in the ordinary vicissitudes of her politics, or the ordinary combinations and collisions of her friendships or enmities.............

..........Why forego the advantages of so peculiar a situation? Why quit our own to stand upon foreign ground? Why, by interweaving our destiny with that of any part of Europe, entangle our peace and prosperity in the toils of European ambition, rivalship, interest, humor or caprice?  --George Washington, from his farewell address (http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/washing.htm)

"this country started going to hell when people started shitting indoors"  --an old mountain man

"Politics is not the art of the possible. It consists in choosing between the disastrous and the unpalatable."
--John Kenneth Galbraith

"Much of the social history of the Western world over the past three decades has involved replacing what worked with what sounded good."
--Thomas Sowell

"You have to know how to accept rejection and reject acceptance."
--Ray Bradbury

"As you journey through life take a minute every now and then to give a thought for the other fellow. He could be plotting something."
--Hagar the Horrible

"The sad truth is that excellence makes people nervous."
--Shana Alexander

"The price one pays for pursuing any profession or calling is an intimate knowledge of its ugly side."
--James Baldwin (i always thought it was "dark side")

Texas has no public land. I visited Texas once, I was told that the State Tree of Texas is the NO TRESSPASSING sign.  --FightingHellfish, arfcom member

"America is at that awkward stage. It's too late to work within the system, but too early to shoot the bastards." -Claire Wolfe

“You know Dude, I myself dabbled with pacifism at one point. Not in Nam, of course”

Jumper Cable Owners are paranoid about dead batteries, just like Gun Owners are paranoid about criminals.

Hard work often pays off over time, but laziness pays off right now.

"How a politician stands on the Second Amendment tells you how he or she views you as an individual... as a trustworthy and productive citizen, or as part of an unruly crowd that needs to be lorded over, controlled, supervised, and taken care of." --Rep. Suzanna Gratia Hupp of Texas

"[The Second Amendment] is not a right granted by the constitution. Neither is it in any manner dependent upon that instrument for its existence." --United States v. Cruikshank, (1876)

“A system of licensing and registration is the perfect device to deny gun ownership to the bourgeoisie.” --Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

"Among the many misdeeds of the British rule in India, history will look upon the act of depriving a whole nation of arms, as the blackest." --Mahatma Gandhi (Autobiography, by M.K. Gandhi, p.446)

"If someone has a gun and is trying to kill you, it would be reasonable to shoot back with your own gun." --The Dalai Lama (May 15, 2001, The Seattle Times), speaking at the "Educating Heart Summit" in Portland, Oregon, when asked by a girl how to react when a shooter takes aim at a classmate

".... it is interesting to note that of the 150 or so law enforcement officers killed every year in the U.S., one in four is shot with his own weapon. The moral of that is: If you are defending yourself with a gun against someone bigger than yourself, be much less scrupulous about shooting him than police officers have to be." -- John Derbyshire

“If you have 10,000 regulations, you destroy all respect for the law.” --Winston Churchill

What secret knowledge, one must wonder, is breathed into lawyers when they become justices of this [U.S. Supreme] Court. Day by day, case by case, [the Court] is busy designing a constitution for a country I do not recognise.  --Scalia

... this [Supreme] Court has [assumed] the power, not merely to apply the Constitution but to expand it, imposing what it regards as useful "prophylactic" restrictions upon Congress and the States. That is an immense and frightening antidemocratic power, and it does not exist.  --Scalia, dissenting, Dickerson v. United States

We can't have SCOTUS Justices that make political rulings; they need to make legal rulings. As long as they continue to make political rulings, the process of appointing Justices will continue to be politicized.

Paul Revere? Ain't he the Yankee who had to go for help? -- Old Texas Joke.

"In tactics, it's not important whether you go left or right, It's important why you go left or right."

- Gen. A. M. Gray, USMC

"Any attempt to replace a personal conscience by a collective
conscience does violence to the individual and is the first
step toward totalitarianism." --Herman Hesse

"A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government."
--Edward Abbey

We have seen what happens when a few people take a stand - Ruby Ridge, Waco. The government doesn't use equal and opposite force to crush revolt, it uses massive and overwhelming force to make an example of those who dare take a stand.  --A_G, arfcom member.

"We [the media] are the ones that determine what the people's attitudes are. It's in our hands"
~ Ted Turner,

Most Americans don't want nor can they handle the full measure of liberty that is their birthright. and we must suffer for their foolishness

The US Government has been using "security contractors" aka mercenaries for many, many years. Many of the large defense contractors make most of their money doing some form of this, although they are usually more trainers/advisors than actual operators. In Iraq there's almost as many private security consultants as there are active military and they have taken about as many losses as the military. Contractors cause less political problems since there isn't nearly as much news coverage if they get killed and since they want to be there you don't have the familiy back home calling their congressman to complain that little johnnie can't make it home for Christmas.

The drive for robots:
"There is only one condition in which we can imagine managers not needing subordinates, and masters not needing slaves. This would be if every machine could work by itself, at the word of command or by intelligent anticipation."
- Aristotle, from his justification of slavery in Politics

"He's youthful, got a great head of hair. I don't use these words often, but he's a pretty man. But when those terrorists with their anthrax come riding over the hill on their saber-tooth tigers with Kerry-Edwards bumper stickers on their rumps, who do you want standing there? The lean mean killing machine (that's me)? Or your local news anchor?"  -- Darrell Hammond as Dick Cheney on SNL's parody of the Vice Presidential debate, referring to John Edwards (played by Will Forte)

------------------------

A whole herd of great quotes from the SNL skits "Florida Stop," aka "Kerry Campaign Stop, South Florida" (http://snltranscripts.jt.org/04/04aflorida.phtml) and "Tough Guy" (http://snltranscripts.jt.org/00/00ptoughguy.phtml).

"I will not compare the 'decision' to making sausage because it would excessively demean sausage makers."  -- excerpt from memorandum opinion of Senior United States District Judge Robert Propst, commenting on the Eleventh Circuit's reversal of his ruling in United States v. Robison (2007).  Instead of accepting the remand, he transferred the case to another district judge.







"The Constitution is not neutral. It was designed to take the government off the backs of people."  -- Justice William O. Douglas

Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies. -- Groucho Marx

One of the greatest delusions in the world is the hope that the evils in this world are to be cured by legislation. -- Thomas B. Reed (1886)

"My choice early in life was either to be a piano-player in a whorehouse or a politician. And to tell the truth, there's hardly any difference. -- Harry S. Truman, in Plain Speaking. [citation]

"Of all the weapons in the vast Soviet arsenal, nothing was more profitable than Avtomat Kalashnikova model of 1947. More commonly known as the AK-47, or Kalashnikov. It's the world's most popular assault rifle. A weapon all fighters love. An elegantly simple 9 pound amalgamation of forged steel and plywood. It doesn't break, jam, or overheat. It'll shoot whether it's covered in mud or filled with sand. It's so easy, even a child can use it; and they do. The Soviets put the gun on a coin. Mozambique put it on their flag. Since the end of the Cold War, the Kalashnikov has become the Russian people's greatest export. After that comes vodka, caviar, and suicidal novelists. One thing is for sure, no one was lining up to buy their cars."

"It is no crime to be ignorant of economics, which is, after all, a specialized discipline and one that most people consider to be a ‘dismal science.’ But it is totally irresponsible to have a loud and vociferous opinion on economic subjects while remaining in this state of ignorance.” -- Murray Rothbard, in Making Economic Sense (1995)


Obama to Holder:
"The time has come. Execute Order 66."

Ryan Smith, via FB: If Obama could sit in Rev Wrights church for 20 years and not hear anything racist then Ron Paul could publish a newsletter for 20 years and not read anything racist.

Women think they're so clever because they can fake an orgasm for the sake of a relationship, but men can fake a whole relationship for the sake of an orgasm.  -- Playboy, Nov. 2008

"[I]t was the Mayor’s NEPHEW, you illitterat!"  -- Gecko45

"We only got two things from prohibition: the NFA of 1934 and NASCAR... and I hate both."  sigline of markfall, arfcom member

‎"Rock and roll music, if you like it, if you feel it, you can't help but move to it. That's what happens to me. I can't help it." -- Elvis Presley


"Trusting your life to the benevolence of an armed criminal is not a strategy, it is stupid!"  -- shotar, arfcom member

"911 is a notification and dispatch system. Not instant help."  -- Bama-Shooter, arfcom member

"Why should I suppose that when someone has me in his power to take my purse, they wouldn't take my life, too?" -- Matsumoto Akimoya, paraphrasing Locke

"Never Forget, even for an instant, that the one and only reason anybody has for taking your gun away is to make you weaker than he is, so he can do something to you that you wouldn’t allow him to do if you were equipped to prevent it. This goes for burglars, muggers, and rapists, and even more so for policemen, bureaucrats, and politicians."  --  Alexander Hope

‎"I'm sorry I haven't written sooner. I have been too f*cking busy and vice versa." -- Dorothy Parker

"Brevity is the soul of lingerie." -- Dorothy Parker

"If all the young ladies who attended the Yale prom were laid end to end, no one would be the least surprised." -- Dorothy Parker

"The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity." -- Dorothy Parker

"All I need is room enough to lay a hat and a few friends." -- Dorothy Parker

"Heterosexuality is not normal, it's just common." -- Dorothy Parker

I like to have a martini,
Two at the very most.
After three I'm under the table,
after four I'm under my host.
-- Dorothy Parker

Dorothy Parker-related:


"I'd rather have whiskey than wealth, for riches bring thieves of great stealth. The wealthy drink wine and on pheasant they dine, but bring me a keg and fine turkey leg and I'll eat, drink, and toast to your health!" -- Poxy Boggards

"Why don't they pass a constitutional amendment prohibiting anybody from learning anything? If it works as well as Prohibition did, in five years Americans would be the smartest race of people on Earth." -- Will Rogers

“We can do to guns what we’ve done to drugs: create a multi-billion $ underground market over which we have absolutely no control.” -- G.L. Roman

"The pessimist in me looks disdainfully at the optimist in me, rolls his eyes, and mutters 'Hope springs eternal'..." -- Jake Syma

"If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, we have at least to consider the possibility that we have a small aquatic bird of the family anatidae on our hands." -- Douglas Adams

"Be naughty... save Santa the trip!" -- unknown

"Expecting the government to fight the deficit is like expecting the Mafia to fight crime." – Anonymous

"The worst thing that can happen to a good cause is not to be skillfully attacked, but to be ineptly defended." -- Frederic Bastiat

‎"In 100 years we have gone from teaching Latin and Greek in high school to teaching Remedial English in college." -- Joe Sobran

"Say what you want about Anonymous, but he's certainly donated a lot of money to charity." -- MosseyCade

"Be careful what you read on the internet - especially quotes, which are often made up or incorrectly attributed." -- Abraham Lincoln

‎"Corruption and hypocrisy ought not to be inevitable products of democracy, as they undoubtedly are today." -- Mahatma Ghandi

‎"'Isolationist' -- someone who would rather trade with foreigners than kill them with bombs." -- Radley Balko (via Facebook, 16 JUN 2011)
http://www.facebook.com/radley.balko/posts/10150207585517027

"Progress: People who once paid $5 to rent one movie they could only watch in a VCR are throwing fits about paying $6 more per month to stream unlimited movies from anywhere." -- Radley Balko (via Facebook, 13 JUL 2011)

"You would think that scientists would know to look at data, not anecdata." -- Anonymous poster (6/17/2011 09:16:00 AM) at FemaleScienceProfessor blog
http://science-professor.blogspot.com/2011/06/i-see-them-everywhere.html

"Flip... what the zip?!?" -- Finn, Adventure Time

"I love you, Everything Burrito." -- Jake, Adventure Time

"In the 1960s, Ballas opened Dance City U.S.A., a 43,000-square-foot Houston venue that he later called 'a supermarket of dancing with babes and booze and big bands all under one roof'."
Valerie J. Nelson (2011:Jul.03). "George Ballas dies at 85; intrepid inventor created the Weed Eater," Los Angeles Times [obituary].

"I've abandoned free-market principles to save the free-market system to make sure the economy doesn't collapse." –– George W. Bush (idiot)

"Better to try to rely on case law than to try and make it." -- Rep. Issa ~48:00 into Fast & Furious Hearing #1, 13 JUN 2011

"debunking something takes more time and effort than it does to simply say wrong things" -- Phil Plait, Discover Magazine's "Bad Astronomy blog ["No, a pole shift won’t cause global superstorms," Feb. 09, 2011]

“[S]cience progresses one funeral at a time.” -- Max Planck

"the lesson here is don't open your mouth in a public pool and always carry a weapon..." -- Patricia Quinn, Friday, May 13, 2011

"Sophisticated people have retirement plans; rednecks... play the lottery." -- Jeff Foxworthy

"When you're young and you get to choose between sleep and sex you take sex everytime. You start getting older, you get to choose between sleep and sex, you choose sleep and just hope you have a dream about sex." -- Jeff Foxworthy

"I hadn't been this excited since the last Victoria's Secret catalogue came in the mail." -- Jeff Foxworthy

“Suitable” means what’s suitable to the city, obviously. It’s just a word that’s formed by ink on paper and the ink is always interpreted by the state in a manner that justifies the state’s use of guns and cages. -- #56 | CB | July 7th, 2011 at 7:23 pm
http://www.theagitator.com/2011/07/07/does-michelle-obama-know-about-this/

"You could say that the Fannie-Freddie experience shows that regulation works.” - Paul Krugman, July 14th, 2008

“You know how you all think there are two kinds of lesbians. There's the kind on Cinemax that get it on and are really hot. Then there's the mean kind. Ms. Carol is neither of those.” -- Kenny Powers, Season 1, Chapter 5

"It is time to give prohibition a permanent vacation, it is of retirement age. Prohibition has been failing for almost a century. Let’s do an experiment and let the people smoke pot. Then Americans will be shocked to discover that Chicken Little was wrong all along; as the sky will remain perfectly intact. The sun will come up each morning, and life will go on just the same as it does today."
Vivian McPeak, in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer ["Marijuana, what does the word mean to you?" Mar. 26, 2011]

The Emperor: [to the Senate] In order to ensure our security and continuing stability, the Republic will be reorganized into the first Galactic Empire, for a safe and secure society which I assure you will last for ten thousand years.
[Senate fills with enormous applause]
Padmé: [to Bail Organa] So this is how liberty dies... with thunderous applause.

Obi-Wan Kenobi: [to Anakin] Only a Sith deals in absolutes.
[draws his lightsaber]

Supreme Chancellor: [now speaking as Darth Sidious] I AM the senate!

The Emperor: "Everything is proceeding as I have forseen..."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mLJ1zuW048#t=1m33

"This started out as a documentary on gun violence in America, but the largest mass murder in our history was just committed -- without the use of a single gun! Not a single bullet fired! No bomb was set off, no missile was fired, no weapon (i.e., a device that was solely and specifically manufactured to kill humans) was used. A boxcutter! -- I can't stop thinking about this. A thousand gun control laws would not have prevented this massacre. What am I doing?" -- Michael Moore

"If I could have gotten 51 votes in the Senate of the United States for an out-right ban, picking up every one of them... 'Mr. and Mrs. America, turn 'em all in,' I would have done it. I could not do that. The votes weren't here." Senator Dianne Feinstein, CBS-TV's "60 Minutes", February 5, 1995
  • more great gun control quotes here

"Foreign aid might be defined as a transfer from poor people in rich countries to rich people in poor countries." -- Douglas Casey

"Value is not intrinsic, it is not in things. It is within us; it is the way in which man reacts to the conditions of his environment. Neither is value in words and doctrines, it is reflected in human conduct. It is not what a man or groups of men say about value that counts, but how they act." -- Ludwig von Mises

"Any limitation on free speech is wrong, because, historically, guess what, it's the most offensive free speech that has been the most important, the most valuable to moving society forward." -- Arvin Vohra

"The central task of education is to implant a will and facility for learning; it should produce not learned but learning people. The truly human society is a learning society, where grandparents, parents, and children are students together." -- Eric Hoffer (1902-1983).

"The great virtue of a free market system is that it does not care what color people are; it does not care what their religion is; it only cares whether they can produce something you want to buy. It is the most effective system we have discovered to enable people who hate one another to deal with one another and help one another." -- Milton Friedman

"When one gets in bed with government, one must expect the diseases it spreads." –- Ron Paul

"I think people need to be educated to the fact that marijuana is not a drug. Marijuana is an herb and a flower. God put it here. If He put it here and He wants it to grow, what gives the government the right to say that God is wrong?" -- Willie Nelson

"My definition of a redundancy is an air-bag in a politician's car." -- actor Larry Hagman

“In reality all economic activity outside the stationary state is speculation” -- Ludwig von Mises

"I don't deny differences between a [x] and [y]. I assert similarities. One similarity doesn't contradict all differences." -- Martin Brock, commenting at Cafe Hayek

"The philosophy of gun control: Teenagers are roaring through town at 90MPH, where the speed limit is 25. Your solution is to lower the speed limit to 20." -- Sam Cohen (inventor of the neutron bomb)

Those who use arms well cultivate the Way and keep the rules. Thus they can govern in such a way as to prevail over the corrupt. -- Sun Tzu, The Art of War

"The price one pays for pursuing any calling or profession is an intimate knowledge of its dark side." -- ????

"When you think of the economy, think of a rain forest that you live in and study, not a machine that you fix.” -- Arnold Kling

"It Depends on what the meaning of the word 'is' is..." -- Bill Clinton [link]
  • more great Clinton quotes here

"The Fed has proverbially been late." -- Jim Grant, 6/10/2009 appearance on CNBC's "Squawk Box" [link]

"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible make violent revolution inevitable." -- JFK

"In the year 2000... men will actually begin desiring women who have great personalities. In a related story, breasts will be renamed 'personalities'." -- Conan O'Brien's "In The Year 2000" segment.

"In the year 2000... men will finally discover that the reason women go to the bathroom in pairs... is to make out." -- Conan O'Brien's "In The Year 2000" segment.
"All issues are political issues, and politics itself is a mass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred, and schizophrenia." -- George Orwell.

"Most economic fallacies derive from the neglect of this simple insight, from the tendency to assume that there is a fixed pie, that one party can gain only at the expense of another." -- Milton Friedman

"In questions of power, then, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution." -- Thomas Jefferson

"For the record,though I am an Orangeblood, I do care though that TT is now on a course for self-destruction. I would prefer they did not immolate themselves on a pyre of pride, which is exactly what is happening. Leach will find another job and will win against TT and get the money anyway. TT will drag it out in court, but in the end they get to pay Leach and his lawyers. If the old alums disliked the fact that Leach didn't want to hang out with them that is too fucking bad. The man made your team relevant. He took cast-offs and never-will-be players and scared the living shit out of everybody he played. Even when he lost he came to the game with a threat of stealing something, like any good pirate should." cactusflinthead, from the Comments section of:

Richie Whitt (Wednesday, Dec. 30 2009). "Mike Leach = Fired?! Arrrrrrrrrgh!" Dallas Observer Blog.
http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/sportatorium/2009/12/mike_leach_fired_arrrrrrrrrgh.php

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http://www.greatquotesmovie.com/

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Michael Snyder (2010:Dec.07). "Say What? 30 Bernanke Quotes That Are So Stupid That You Won’t Know Whether To Laugh Or Cry," DailyMarkets.

"No one hates capitalism more than capitalists." -- Steven Horwitz, "Horwitz's First Law of Political Economy" [source]

"If something cannot go on forever, it will stop." -- Herbert Stein, "Stein's Law" [source]

"State education is a mere contrivance for molding people to be exactly alike one another...in proportion as it is efficient and successful, it establishes a despotism over the mind, leading by a natural tendency to one over the body" -- John Stuart Mill

"How far can we ask ordinary people -- farmers and fishermen and teachers and doctors and nurses -- to shoulder the responsibility of failed private banks,” said Grimsson
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-11-26/iceland-faring-much-better-after-permitting-banks-to-fail-grimsson-says.html

"It's a little late to decide Capitalism is only fun when reaping gargantuan profits from highly leveraged mal-investment and fraud. Ireland, and indeed the world, will survive if all the vampire banks are liquidated. That is the end-state, and 'buying time' just increases the misery of the citizens who have been yoked to save their 'betters'."
Submitted by Charles Hugh Smith from Of Two Minds
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/guest-post-ireland-please-do-world-favor-and-default

"When men get in the habit of helping themselves to the property of others, they cannot be easily cured of it” --- New York Times editorial in 1909, commenting on the idea of a federal income tax

“The underlying motive of many Socialists, I believe, is simply a hypertrophied sense of order. The present state of affairs offends them not because it causes misery, still less because it makes freedom impossible, but because it is untidy; what they desire, basically, is to reduce the world to something resembling a chessboard.” -- George Orwell, in his novel The Road to Wigan Pier.

"A growing nation is the greatest ponzi game ever contrived." -- Paul Samuelson

"By a continuing process of inflation, government can confiscate, secretly and unobserved, an important part of the wealth of their citizens....The process engages all the hidden forces of economic law on the side of destruction and does it in a manner that not one man in a million is able to diagnose." -- John Maynard Keynes.

"Lenin is said to have declared that the best way to destroy the Capitalist System was to debauch the currency. By a continuing process of inflation, government can confiscate, secretly and unobserved, an important part of the wealth of their citizens. By this method they not only confiscate, but they confiscate arbitrarily; and while the process impoverishes many, it actually enriches some. – As the inflation proceeds and the real value of the currency fluctuates wildly from month to month, all permanent relations between debtors and creditors, which form the ultimate foundation of capitalism, become so utterly disordered as to be almost meaningless; and the process of wealth-getting degenerates into a gamble and a lottery.” -- John Maynard Keynes

Keynes himself made this point abundantly clear in The General Theory, his most famous book, published in 1936 in the midst of the Great Depression. “Pyramid-building, earthquakes, even wars may serve to increase wealth,” he wrote. “To dig holes in the ground, paid for out of savings, will increase, not only employment, but the real national dividend of useful goods and services.”

In 1940, Keynes concluded that war might be the only way that politicians in democratic nations could rationalize spending enough to bring about full employment. “It is, it seems, politically impossible for a capitalistic democracy to organize expenditure on the scale necessary to make the grand experiments which would prove my case — except in war conditions,” he wrote in The New Republic.
http://old.nationalreview.com/nrof_bartlett/bartlett200412220847.asp

"Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell." -- Edward Abbey

"Government does not solve problems. It subsidizes them." -- Ronald Reagan

“Soon or late the money to pay the State’s mounting bills will have to be found, and there is only one place to look for it. That is in the pockets of persons who earn the communal income by doing some sort of useful work. Politicians never earn it, and neither do the uplifters. It must always come, in the last analysis, from men who go to work in the morning and labor hard all day.” -- H. L. Mencken

"Never feel sorry for a man who owns a bank." -- Anthony Hopkins as bank owner Charles Morse in The Edge.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119051/

"For hundreds of years, writers have been giving it away like warmhearted country girls in the big city, and it is not astonishing that their lovers (that is, the publishers) balk at giving a mink coat when a pair of nylons will do the job." -- Mario Puzo

"In politics, never vote for something you wouldn't want your worst enemy enforcing/using against you." -- Mary Syma (my grandmother; she probably wasn't the first to say it, but that was the first place I ever heard it)

Incidentally, I am looking for one very similar that I also first heard from her... something to the effect of:
"It takes a Republican (or was it Democrat?) to pass the law, and a [whatever the other party was] to use (or take advantage of) it."

"We are not without accomplishment. We have managed to distribute poverty equally." -- Nguyen Co Thatch (Vietnamese foreign minister)

"There are only two strains of political philosophy... those rooted in individualism, and those rooted in collectivism."
(can't remember who said it first, but I'm pretty sure it's not original; it also may not be an exact quote... sorry)

"We must face the No. 1 critical issue of our day. It is youth crime in general and black-on-black crime in particular. There is nothing more painful to me at this stage in my life than to walk down the street and hear footsteps and start thinking about robbery. Then look around and see somebody white and feel relieved. After all we have been through, just to think we can't walk down our own streets, how humiliating." -- more context from TheStraightDope
On the one hand, after looking at the context, I don't think it's something he should have to apologize for; on the other hand, I don't see how it's too dissimilar from what Juan Williams said, either.

"The 'trick' of the intersection of economics and policy is truly about finding the right set of incentives." -- me, commenting on Reason Magazine's Facebook post, responding to a poster named Shannon.
I know someone said it before me, I just can't remember...


One girl wanted to know how to react to a shooter who takes aim at a classmate.

The Dalai Lama said acts of violence should be remembered, and then forgiveness should be extended to the perpetrators.

But if someone has a gun and is trying to kill you, he said, it would be reasonable to shoot back with your own gun. Not at the head, where a fatal wound might result. But at some other body part, such as a leg."

Hal Bernton (Tuesday, May 15, 2001). "Dalai Lama urges students to shape world." Seattle Times.
http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=20010515&slug=dalai15m0

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"As a supreme, if unintended compliment, the enemies of the system of private enterprise have thought it wise to appropriate its label." -- Joseph Schumpeter

"Classical liberalism is liberalism, but the current collectivists have captured that designation in the United States. Happily they did not capture it in Europe, and were glad enough to call themselves socialists. But no one in America wants to be called socialist and admit what they are." -- Leonard Liggio

"Beginning in the late nineteenth century, and especially after 1930 in the United States, the term liberalism came to be associated with a very different emphasis, particularly in economic policy. It came to be associated with a readiness to rely primarily on the state rather than on private voluntary arrangements to achieve objectives regarded as desirable. The catchwords became welfare and equality rather than freedom. The nineteenth century liberal regarded an extension of freedom as the most effective way to promote welfare and equality; the twentieth century liberal regards welfare and equality as either prerequisites of or alternatives to freedom. In the name of welfare and equality, the twentieth-century liberal has come to favor a revival of the very policies of state intervention and paternalism against which classical liberalism fought. In the very act of turning the clock back to seventeenth-century mercantilism, he is fond of castigating true liberals as reactionary!" -- Milton Friedman

The first lesson of economics is scarcity: There is never enough of anything to satisfy all those who want it. The first lesson of politics is to disregard the first lesson of economics. -- Thomas Sowell

Why, by interweaving our destiny with that of any part of Europe, entangle our peace and prosperity in the toils of European ambition, rivalship, interest, humor or caprice? --George Washington, from his farewell address (http://www.yale.edu

/lawweb/avalon/washing.htm)

The Constitution is over 200 years old and societies change. It has to change with society, like a living organism, or it will become brittle and break. But you would have to be an idiot to believe that. -- Justice Antonin Scalia

If any broad, unlimited power to hold laws unconstitutional because they offend what this Court conceives to be the '[collective] conscience of our people' is vested in this Court by the Ninth Amendment, the Fourteenth Amendment, or any other provision of the Constitution, it was not given by the Framers, but rather has been bestowed on the Court by the Court.... Use of any such broad, unbounded judicial authority would make this Court's members a day-to-day constitutional convention.... -- Justice Hugo Black, from dissent of Black and Stewart in Griswold v Connecticut, 381 U.S. 479 (1965)

I have expressed the view many times that First Amendment freedoms, for example, have suffered from a failure of the courts to stick to the simple language of the First Amendment in construing it, instead of invoking multitudes of words substituted for those the Framers used. -- Ibid.

When the freedom they wished for most was freedom from responsibility, then Athens ceased to be free and was never free again. -- Edith Hamilton

When money is no object - it's your money they're talking about. -- unknown/unremembered

My favorite uncle was Uncle Caveman. We called him that because he lived in a cave and every once in a while, he'd eat one of us. Later on we found out he was a bear. -- Jack Handey

I'm a limousine-riding, jet-flying, kiss-stealing, wheeling-dealing son of a gun, who's kissed all the girls and made them cry. -- "Nature Boy" Ric Flair

We will either find a way, or make one. -- Hannibal Barca (just prior to crossing the Alps)

"Another man's sword is your sword." - Yagyu Munenori

"The deepest cover story of the CIA it that is an intelligence organization." -- Bulletin of The Federation of American Scientists

Liberals want the government to be your Mommy. Conservatives want government to be your Daddy. Libertarians want it to treat you like an adult. -- Andre Marrou

There may be two libertarians in the world who agree on absolutely everything, but I am not one of them. -- Anonymous

More laws can't make us safe from the tragedies that are the inevitable result of freedom, and of living around other people. Life is real, life is uncertain, life is inevitably unsafe. Measures to make it safe at all costs come with dangers of their own. -- Brian Doherty

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The best things cannot be told, the second best are misunderstood. After that comes civilized conversation; after that, mass indoctrination; after that, intercultural exchange. -- Joseph Campbell

I’m completely in favor of the separation of Church and State. My idea is that these two institutions screw us up enough on their own, so both of them together is certain death. -- George Carlin

The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine they can design. -- Friedrich Hayek (The Fatal Conceit)

"Of liberty I would say that, in the whole plenitude of its extent, it is unobstructed action according to our will. But rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add 'within the limits of the law,' because law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the right of an individual." -- Thomas Jefferson to Isaac H. Tiffany, 1819. [source]

"The juvenile sea squirt wanders through the sea searching for a suitable rock or hunk of coral to cling to and make its home for life. For this task, it has a rudimentary nervous system. When it finds its spot and takes root, it doesn't need its brain anymore so it eats it! Kind of like tenure." -- Daniel Dennett (not independently verified; taken from a friend's Facebook)

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Frederic Bastiat Quotes:

"Government is the great fiction through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else."


A Confusion of Terms
"Socialism, like the ancient ideas from which it springs, confuses the distinction between government and society. As a result of this, every time we object to a thing being done by government, the socialists conclude that we object to its being done at all.

We disapprove of state education. Then the socialists say that we are opposed to any education. We object to a state religion. Then the socialists say that we want no religion at all. We object to a state-enforced equality. Then they say that we are against equality. And so on, and so on. It is as if the socialists were to accuse us of not wanting persons to eat because we do not want the state to raise grain."
http://bastiat.org/en/the_law.html#SECTION_G035




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Ayn Rand Quotes:

First, my standard Ayn Rand disclaimer. Like my favorite (living) politician, Ron Paul, I am wary of her cult-like following. I don't think she was a first-rate philosopher. I think she was dead-wrong on a number of things, and missed the mark on a lot of things. But I also think "When she was on, she was freaking on."

The smallest minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights, cannot claim to be defenders of minorities. -- Ayn Rand

"Capitalists with government help…the worst of all economic phenomenon." -- Ayn Rand

"The regulations are creating robber barons. They are creating capitalists with government help, which is the worst of all economic phenomenon."
1958 interview of Ayn Rand on the Mike Wallace Show (~06:33) | transcript
It is funny to watch Mike Wallace in his youth, with a cigarette in hand, billowing smoke...

An inventor is a man who asks 'Why?' of the universe and lets nothing stand between the answer and his mind.

Force and mind are opposites; morality ends where the gun begins.

Contradictions do not exist. Whenever you think that you are facing a contradiction, check your premises. You will find that one of them is wrong.

Civilization is the progress toward a society of privacy. The savage's whole existence is public, ruled by the laws of his tribe. Civilization is the process of setting man free from men.

It stands to reason that where there's sacrifice, there's someone collecting sacrificial offerings. Where there's service, there's someone being served. The man who speaks to you of sacrifice, speaks of slaves and masters. And intends to be the master.

I can say — not as a patriotic bromide, but with full knowledge of the necessary metaphysical, epistemological, ethical, political, and aesthetic roots — that the United States of America is the greatest, the noblest and, in its original founding principles, the only moral country in the history of the world.

There are only two means by which men can deal with one another: guns or logic. Force or persuasion. Those who know that they cannot win by means of logic, have always resorted to guns.

Every government interference in the economy consists of giving an unearned benefit, extorted by force, to some men at the expense of others.

When I say “capitalism,” I mean a full, pure, uncontrolled, unregulated laissez-faire capitalism—with a separation of state and economics, in the same way and for the same reasons as the separation of state and church.
1958 interview of Ayn Rand on the Mike Wallace Show (~03:40) | transcript
It is funny to watch Mike Wallace in his youth, with a cigarette in hand, billowing smoke...

All the reasons which made the initiation of physical force evil, make the retaliatory use of physical force a moral imperative.

Individual rights are not subject to a public vote; a majority has no right to vote away the rights of a minority; the political function of rights is precisely to protect minorities from oppression by majorities (and the smallest minority on earth is the individual).

Every coercive monopoly was created by government intervention into the economy: by special privileges, such as franchises or subsidies, which closed the entry of competitors into a given field, by legislative action.

Government "help" to business is just as disastrous as government persecution... the only way a government can be of service to national prosperity is by keeping its hands off.

Individual rights are not subject to a public vote; a majority has no right to vote away the rights of a minority; the political function of rights is precisely to protect minorities from oppression by majorities (and the smallest minority on earth is the individual).

The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws.

The question isn't who is going to let me; it's who is going to stop me.

There can be no such thing, in law or in morality, as actions forbidden to an individual, but permitted to a mob.

We are fast approaching the stage of the ultimate inversion: the stage where the government is free to do anything it pleases, while the citizens may act only by permission; which is the stage of the darkest periods of human history, the stage of rule by brute force.

A government is the most dangerous threat to man’s rights: it holds a legal monopoly on the use of physical force against legally disarmed victims.

Everyone has the right to make his own decisions, but none has the right to force his decision on others.

The Middle Ages were an era of mysticism, ruled by blind faith and blind obedience to the dogma that faith is superior to reason. The Renaissance was specifically the rebirth of reason, the liberation of man's mind, the triumph of rationality over mysticism -- a faltering, incomplete, but impassioned triumph that led to the birth of science, of individualism, of freedom.

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Even though I didn't necessarily agree with the decision, I liked the majority opinion in Michael M. (v. Superior Court of Sonoma County).
http://www.oyez.org/cases/1980-1989/1980/1980_79_1344

Either Rehnquist or Burger (IIRC) for the majority:
"Underlying these decisions is the principle that a legislature may not make overbroad generalizations based on sex which are entirely unrelated to any differences between men and women...'. Parham v. Hughes, 441 U.S. 347 (1979). But because the Equal Protection Clause does not 'demand that a statute necessarily apply equally to all persons' or require 'things which are different in fact ... to be treated in law as thought they were the same'. Rinaldi v. Yeager, 384 U.S. 305 (1966)."

And then Stewart, in his concurrence:
"[T]he Equal Protection Clause does not mean that the physiological differences between men and women must be disregarded. While those differences must never be permitted to become a pretext for invidious discrimination, no such discrimination is presented by this case. The Constitution surely does not require a State to pretend that demonstrable differences between men and women do not really exist."

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Pay attention to the dates...
"On the Lack of a Bill of Rights"

November 1, 1787

We find they have, in the ninth section of the first article declared, that the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, unless in cases of rebellion — that no bill of attainder, or ex post facto law, shall be passed — that no title of nobility shall be granted by the United States, etc. If every thing which is not given is reserved, what propriety is there in these exceptions? Does this Constitution any where grant the power of suspending the habeas corpus, to make ex post facto laws, pass bills of attainder, or grant titles of nobility? It certainly does not in express terms. The only answer that can be given is, that these are implied in the general powers granted. With equal truth it may be said, that all the powers which the bills of rights guard against the abuse of, are contained or implied in the general ones granted by this Constitution.

[snip]

Ought not a government, vested with such extensive and indefinite authority, to have been restricted by a declaration of rights? It certainly ought. So clear a point is this, that I cannot help suspecting that persons who attempt to persuade people that such reservations were less necessary under this Constitution than under those of the States, are wilfully endeavoring to deceive, and to lead you into an absolute state of vassalage.

Brutus (Robert Yates)
excerpt from Brutus #2 (aka Antifederalist No. 84)
http://www.constitution.org/afp/brutus02.htm


Up next, the Federal Farmer:

January 20, 1788.

The first point urged, is, that all power is reserved not expressly given, that particular enumerated powers only are given, that all others are not given, but reserved, and that it is needless to attempt to restrain congress in the exercise of powers they possess not. This reasoning is logical, but of very little importance in the common affairs of men; but the constitution does not appear to respect it even in any view. To prove this, I might cite several clauses in it. I shall only remark on two or three. By art. 1. sect. 9. “No title of nobility shall be granted by congress.” Was this clause omitted, what power would congress have to make titles of nobility? in what part of the constitution would they find it? The answer must be, that congress would have no such power—that the people, by adopting the constitution, will not part with it. Why then by a negative clause, restrain congress from doing what it would have no power to do?

-- The Federal Farmer (likely Richard Henry Lee or Melancton Smith)
excerpt from "Letters from the Federal Farmer to the Republican," No.16
http://www.constitution.org/afp/fedfar16.htm

Finally, we have Hamilton's duplicity:

May 28, 1788

It has been several times truly remarked, that bills of rights are in their origin, stipulations between kings and their subjects, abridgments of prerogative in favor of privilege, reservations of rights not surrendered to the prince. Such was Magna Carta, obtained by the Barons, sword in hand, from king John...It is evident, therefore, that according to their primitive signification, they have no application to constitutions professedly founded upon the power of the people, and executed by their immediate representatives and servants. Here, in strictness, the people surrender nothing, and as they retain every thing, they have no need of particular reservations.

[snip]

I go further, and affirm that bills of rights, in the sense and in the extent in which they are contended for, are not only unnecessary in the proposed constitution, but would even be dangerous. They would contain various exceptions to powers which are not granted; and on this very account, would afford a colorable pretext to claim more than were granted. For why declare that things shall not be done which there is no power to do? Why for instance, should it be said, that the liberty of the press shall not be restrained, when no power is given by which restrictions may be imposed? I will not contend that such a provision would confer a regulating power; but it is evident that it would furnish, to men disposed to usurp, a plausible pretense for claiming that power.

Publius (Alexander Hamilton)
excerpt from Federalist Number 84
http://www.constitution.org/fed/federa84.htm

In my childhood (that is, before reading the Antifederalist Papers a number of years ago), I had always given Alexander Hamilton the benefit of the doubt. I presumed him to be well-intentioned, but naive, regarding his insistence on our not needing a Bill of Rights.

After I read The Federal Farmer's counter to such protestations, based on logic and reason, my opinion of Hamilton shifted somewhat. I then wondered "How could someone as smart as Hamilton have missed that? Surely not..."

But look at the dates. The essays of Brutus and The Federal Farmer essay were published first, which strongly suggests that Hamilton knew of these arguments, yet deliberately chose not to address them.

By the time I got around to reading Brutus' essay, "On the Lack of a Bill of Rights," I found myself wondering if Brutus wasn't actually issuing a direct challenge to people like Hamilton in the last excerpted sentence, essentially calling them liars in the prose of the day.

Let's look at that again:

... I cannot help suspecting that persons who attempt to persuade people that such reservations were less necessary under this Constitution than under those of the States, are wilfully endeavoring to deceive, and to lead you into an absolute state of vassalage.