Category Archives: Quote of the Day

Quote of the day—Ted Cruz

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Statists invariably have talented people drawn to politics because they believe in power. And they’re very effective at defending government control of the economy in our lives.

Ted Cruz
(Then candidate for) U.S. Senator
October 17, 2011 Issue of National Review
[H/T to Kevin for the video from which I was alerted to this quote.

This is very similar to a message in The Road to Serfdom by F.A. Hayek. Power abusing people are drawn to powerful government positions. These people work to increase that power.

This can also be related to the line, “Because that’s where the money is” falsely attributed to Willie Sutton when asked why he robbed banks.

Banks vaults are built strong because they are subject to repeated and determined attacks. The U.S. Constitution was intended to be analogous to a vault for liberty. By limiting government to specific enumerated power people who would abuse government power would be prohibited from doing so because government was not given power to abuse on a wide scale.

But unlike a bank vault those that attack and/or defeat the Constitutional “vault” through illegitimate means are almost never caught and punished for their crimes. I believe this to be the greatest failing of our form of government and I believe it will result in the collapse of our government.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Wraith

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The Constitution doesn’t matter.  The law doesn’t matter.  We live in de facto anarchy, where it all comes down to who’s got the biggest gang, the most guns and the most sociopathic outlook on life.

Seriously, folks–that’s how it is.  This country won’t even follow Iceland’s lead in prosecuting the plutocrat banksters.  It won’t hold any Proglodyte accountable for their actions, but will hold every one of us accountable for the actions of others.  It’s never been plainer that it’s Who You Are or Who You Know that determines whether you’re subject to the law of the land.

So if you expect even one politician to face any consequences at all for their treasonous actions, you’re dumber than Joe Biden.  Period.

Wraith
March 21, 2013
Comment to Quote of the day—Magpul Industries Corp.
[He’s got a point.

I’ve been recently thinking that even true anarchy with people contracting with private firms and individuals for dispute resolution, and construction and/or maintenance of common resources (roads, forests, lakes, rivers, etc.) might be a better “government” model than what we have now.

What we have now is that some subset of the people adhere to the rules simply because they are the rules and those people end up being at a severe disadvantage to those that don’t play by the rules with a very low risk of punishment.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Robert Gebbia

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If you can make it difficult at that moment when they are serious about taking their lives, you get that chance to intervene.

Robert Gebbia
Executive director of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.
March 21, 2013
New Colorado gun control law could help prevent suicides
[This was while referring to the requirement that there be background checks for all firearm transfers.

Governor Hickenlooper came in a close second for QOTD in the same article with:

However many homicides we have each year with handguns, we have about 20 percent more suicides. That number drops significantly when you have universal background checks.”

Citation needed.

If that were actually true then it would be parroted by every anti-gun person in every debate. It hasn’t been. I attribute the statement to Hickenlooper doing what politicians do, which is making up stuff to fit their agenda.

But let’s look at Gebbia’s statement and indirectly show why Hickenlooper statement is almost for certain false.

The only way Gebbia’s statement makes sense is if all of the following are true:

  • A significant number of suicides are committed by people with a gun.
  • Those people only had possession or access to a single gun.
  • That gun was obtained via a private transfer.
  • The private transfer occurred in the previous few hours or at most days.
  • The FFL doing the background check also does a mental health evaluation at the same time.
  • The FFL has some sort of authority to intervene and turn them over to mental health professions before they pursue an alternate suicide method.

Will FFL’s be required to have suicide detection training? Or will the ATF just add another check box on the 4473?

My hypothesis is that neither will happen. All that is going to happen already has. And that is that Robert Gebbia just demonstrated he has crap for brains.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership

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The State of New York has resorted to a “turn in your neighbor” program, for enforcement. Knowing that people will not willingly comply, the state has resorted to a tried and true tactic of turning the citizens upon each other to aggrandize the power of the state.

Does this strike a responsive historical cord, in anyone???

Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership
March 20, 2013
And so it begins
[I have nothing to add.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Magpul Industries Corp.

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We have said all along that based on the legal problems and uncertainties in the bill, as well as general principle, we will have no choice but to leave if the Governor signs this into law. We will start our transition out of the state almost immediately, and we will prioritize moving magazine manufacturing operations first. We expect the first PMAGs to be made outside CO within 30 days of the signing, with the rest to follow in phases.

Magpul Industries Corp.
Facebook statement, March 18, 2013.
[H/T David Hardy.

What gun owners did to politicians in 1994 over the AWS should happen to the legislators and governors of states that even attempted to implement these repressive laws. Then they should be considered politically untouchable and used as examples to others for the rest of their lives as if they were Grand Wizards of the KKK.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Senator Orrin Hatch

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If gun laws in fact worked, the sponsors of this type of legislation should have no difficulty drawing upon long lists of examples of criminal acts reduced by such legislation. That they cannot do so after a century and a half of trying … that they must sweep under the rug the southern attempts at gun control in the 1870-1910 period, the northeastern attempts in the 1920-1939 period, the attempts at both Federal and State levels in 1965-1976 … establishes the repeated, complete and inevitable failure of gun laws to control serious crime.

Senator Orrin Hatch
In a 1982 Senate Report
[Senator Hatch said this over 20 years before I tried to say essentially the same thing with Just One Question.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Nina Knorr

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Quote of the day–William R Tonso & David B. Kopel

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According to Mr. Schindler’s wife Maria, when Schindler decided to liberate his Jewish workers, he handed them all semiautomatic weapons so they could fight the Nazis.

In today’s politically correct Hollywood, Steven Spielberg probably would have ruined his chances for an Oscar by telling the whole story about Oskar Schindler’s devotion to freedom.

William R Tonso & David B. Kopel
August 24, 1994
Gun Bans and “Schindler’s List”

Quote of the day—Kevin Baker

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She should get a fucking Ferrari and a mansion to park it in.

Kevin Baker
March 15, 2013
Motherf*%&ers!
[I respectfully disagree. I think justice would be better served with a different settlement.

My suggestion is a truck from each of the police officers involved. The police officers involved would then drive her trucks at no charge, including fuel and maintenance, for the rest of their lives. They would be required to deliver whatever legal cargo she asked them to. It would be free income for life because of their massive screw up.

I would then offer her suggestions on particularly noxious farm waste that needed to be delivered to the cops homes once a month or so.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Todd Vandermyde

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We think it’s a civil right that deserves a single uniform standard across the state. No matter whether you’re from Decatur, or from Chicago or from Moline to Lansing, it’s a fundamental right.

Todd Vandermyde
February 22, 2013
Heated testimony at hearing on state’s concealed carry law
See this and much, much more at Video Weekend, Part II: Todd Vandermyde.
[I found it enlightening that no matter how many times and how many ways Vandermyde explained this the legislators, most, if not all of them lawyers, questioning him couldn’t seem to get it. They would even say, “We respect the Second Amendment” then in the next breath say they had an obligation to deny that right to the people they were representing in the interests of protecting them.

Vandermyde would ask questions like, “Well then do you think you should let the police search people without a warrant? Or should the police be able to ignore their Fifth Amendment rights?” Apparently these people could not understand the point he was making.

These people are bigots and should be treated as such. They, as Federal judges have said, are thumbing their noses at the U.S. Constitution, the Federal judges, and the rights of the people they supposedly represent. This is no different that the people in the deep south that abused the rights of people of color 50 years ago and I would not feel the slightest bit of sympathy for them if the Feds used similar methods to enforce their rulings upon them. Send in the National Guard to protect a parade of individuals openly carrying guns down the main streets of Chicago and Federal Marshalls arresting any city or state government employee that attempted to interfere with people peaceably exercising their right to bear arms in public.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Geoffrey Canada

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The Wild West was never as wild as many communities in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Boston, (and on and on) are.

Geoffrey Canada
Fist Stick Knife Gun: A Personal History of Violence
[I haven’t looked up the actual numbers but I suspect his statement is true as long as you don’t regard the Hollywood Western as the definition of “Wild West”. In which case we have a good comeback for those anti-gun people who claim we don’t need guns anymore because “the Wild West doesn’t exist anymore.”

I finished this book recently and need to review/fisk it. I believe Canada has some excellent insights, is a good person, is making a positive difference in the lives of countless people, and came to his anti-gun views honestly. But I think his conclusions about guns are incorrect and misguided.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Robert Slaughter

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Robert Slaughter (@bobslaughter)
Tweeted on March 12, 2013 in response to More stalker activity.
[If he only knew the total sum of crazy people in my life he would think I have a herd of recruiters out looking for crazy people and sending them my way.

I actually asked my counselor why there were so many crazy people attracted to me and why I was, in many cases, attracted to crazy women. With her help I think I have solved the later problem. I suspect there is no practical, moral, and legal solution to the first problem.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Clayton E. Cramer

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Trying to argue abstract concepts like right and wrong or constitutionality with most Americans is a waste of time. Few believe in right or wrong, and fewer still have any conception of the Constitution as a contract between the generations.

Clayton E. Cramer
January 18, 2013
Comment to Does ‘Gun Show Loophole’ Actually Result in Gun Crime?–Statistics do not point to criminals using this tactic.
[I can’t say that I disagree. But to agree with him sucks me into depression and despair. If right and wrong are beyond most Americans then are not also facts and fallacies, truth and falsity beyond them as well? Unfortunately I have substantial data to back up that claim.

See also Philosophy: Who Needs It (The Ayn Rand Library Vol. 1). A case can be made, as Rand does, that what Cramer states as fact can be explained by the lack of sound philosophy being taught to our children for the last 50 or more years.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Jola Mehmeti

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Am I the only one convinced that once scientists figure out how to fix small penises/masculinity issues, the NRA will dissipate? #GunControl

Jola Mehmeti (@JolaMehmeti)
Tweeted on January 11, 2013
[It’s another Markley’s Law Monday! Via still another Tweet from Linoge.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Béla Nagy, et al

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A combination of an exponential decrease in cost and an exponential increase in production would make Moore’s law and Wright’s law indistinguishable, as originally pointed out by Sahal. We show for the first time that these regularities are observed in data to such a degree that the performance of these two laws is nearly the same. Our results show that technological progress is forecastable, with the square root of the logarithmic error growing linearly with the forecasting horizon at a typical rate of 2.5% per year. These results have implications for theories of technological change, and assessments of candidate technologies and policies for climate change mitigation.

Béla Nagy
J. Doyne Farmer
Quan M. Bui
Jessika E. Trancik
2012
Statistical Basis for Predicting Technological Progress
[I have two observations.

One; This is awesome! A variation of Moore’s Law applies to, apparently, all technology.

Two; It looks as if they had to make a tie in “climate change” to get National Science Foundation grant money. That’s really messed up. Government grants should not exist. The politics of research should succeed or fail using the money of someone other than that taken by gunpoint via taxes.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Gayle Trotter

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Young women are speaking out as to why AR-15 weapons are their weapon of choice. The guns are accurate, they have good handling, they’re light, they’re easy for women to hold. And most importantly, their appearance. An assault weapon in the hands of a young woman defending her babies in her home becomes a defense weapon. And the peace of mind that a woman has as she’s facing three, four, five violent attackers or intruders in her home with her children screaming in the background. The peace of mind from having a big, scary-looking gun gives her courage when she’s facing hardened, violent criminals.

Gayle Trotter
Independent Women’s Forum Senior Fellow
January 30, 2013
Best lines from the gun violence hearing
[It’s bigger than a handgun but not so big as a shotgun which can be cumbersome in close quarters.

Think of it as a Goldilocks gun. It’s not too big. It’s not too little. It’s just right.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Dan Baum

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When you’re wearing a gun, you do not get upset if someone takes your parking space, or if someone cuts you in line. You have this quite noble sense of being the sheepdog, being the protector.

Dan Baum
March 6, 2013
What Liberals Need to Understand About ‘Gun Guys’
[H/T to Cargosquid for the email.

I don’t agree with everything he said in the article but I come close enough that I don’t think it is worth squabbling about. The above quote really resonated with me. I said essentially the same thing years ago and I’m pretty sure it was in a Massad Ayob book that I read something similar as well.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Ted Harvey

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What we are trying to do here tonight is not to protect ourselves from violent crime. What we are trying to do here tonight is prevent students and teachers from feeling uncomfortable by you carrying a gun to protect yourself.

Every witness that has come up here tonight, they want to feel unintimidated and feel free to debate freely on a college campus. And having you have the right to defend yourself against a violent attacker weighs more for them than for you and the right to self-defense. And for that, I apologize.

Ted Harvey
Colorado Republican state Senator.
March 4, 2013
COLORADO DEM TO RAPE SURVIVOR: A GUN WOULDN’T HAVE HELPED YOU AGAINST RAPIST BECAUSE ‘STATISTICS ARE NOT ON YOUR SIDE’
[Some people are taking this statement out of context and using just the first paragraph. I too did this on Facebook. I now believe this is wrong.

Taken in the context of this lead in to the quote above things take on a different flavor:

Republican state Sen. Ted Harvey took a shot at Democrats’ gun control efforts, telling Collins that the point of Colorado’s proposed ban on firearms on campus is to make sure people aren’t “uncomfortable.”

Hence it appears to me that Harvey was explaining the stupid, callus, and indefensible position of the anti-gun people. Many people claim they have a right to not be offended or that gun owners make them uncomfortable and government should ease their discomfort. And this was the case in the hearing and Harvey was justified in calling them out for it.

You don’t have a right to not be offended. You have no more business asking the government to make you feel better by restricting the rights of gun owners than you do asking the government to forbid people of color from using the same water fountains, restrooms, and swimming pools or mixed race couples from using the same restaurants as you.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Ned Crabb

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As one who came to America from a socialist country at the age of 18, I find it terrifying that elected officials would challenge the legitimacy of rights granted by our Constitution.

When I moved here those many years ago, I was promised my freedom by a Bill of Rights unlike any document ever written previously. It was a liberating experience.

Yet today, I once again feel threatened and intimidated by my government. I implore our elected officials to put emotion aside and ponder the consequences of restricting people’s right to own guns. If there is no regard for those rights, they will be lost forever.

To me as an immigrant, this issue isn’t about guns. It’s about freedom. We can argue all day over statistics and theories, but the real issue is our liberty. Using untruths about something to get it banned or restricted is disingenuous and ignores the rights of all Americans.

Ned Crabb
March 5, 2013
An immigrant’s perspective on the gun control debate
[That should be “rights guaranteed by our Constitution.” But other than that I like what he has to say and his perspective from which to say it.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Jason Thibeault

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There’s no denying that guns and gun culture are toxically macho. They are tied into masculinity to such an absurd degree that some of the most iconic figures in popular culture that men are expected to identify with are gun-toting maniacs: Tony Montana, for instance, or Rambo, or any of a thousand other power fantasy men with a “license to kill” and a womanizing bent.

…

Gun culture should be stopped.

Jason Thibeault
February 23, 2013
Gun control, pinkification, and splash damage
[I just “love” how people start out asserting some absurd assumption and insist “there’s no denying” it. One could spend 30 minutes providing data and reason to the entire house of cards built upon it but it’s easier just to say, “There’s your problem!” and let the house of cards collapse on it’s own.

H/T to Oleg for the email.—Joe]