Better a cruel truth than a comfortable delusion.
Edward Abbey
[This is something the gun banners apparently cannot and/or will not understand. They refuse to answer Just One Question.–Joe]
Category Archives: Quote of the Day
Quote of the day–Thomas W. Malone
The new information tools symbolized by the Internet are radically changing the possibility of how we can organize large-scale human efforts.
For most of human history, people have lived in small tribes where everything they did was known by everyone they knew. In some sense we’re becoming a global village. Privacy may turn out to have become an anomaly.
Thomas W. Malone
Director of the M.I.T. Center for Collective Intelligence
November 29, 2008
You’re Leaving a Digital Trail. What About Privacy?
[I am concerned that our shrinking privacy are just one component in an increasingly socialist and tyrannical world and the associated lowered standard of living.
Let me explain.
Capitalism was coincident with the greatest advancement in the human standard of living. I have to wonder if privacy is an essential part of capitalism and what the consequences of no privacy of association will be. If your business competition is friends with “big brother” any business deal you try to work on can be torpedoed. It won’t be the market that decides which company is the most successful. It will be who has the best connections to the watchers. And socialism apologists are all for government watching.
And certainly lack of privacy means a lack of freedom. Your ability to escape an abusive relationship or government will be severely impacted.
See also this QOTD.–Joe]
Quote of the day–Terry
Liberals absolutely cannot deal with facts. Cannot weigh evidence. In a place far away geographically and in the past a liberal would not believe me, and stood up, and was cut in half by NVA machine gun fire. This poor fools last words prior to committing suicide was “…they won’t shoot at us if we wave to them.”
Terry
November 26, 2008
From a comment to Kevin’s Quote of The Day for November 26, 2008
[I could have pulled quotes from the comments for my collection for an hour and it was inspiration for a future post that I would spend several hours writing if I ever get around to it. There was some really good stuff in there.–Joe]
Quote of the day–Mahatma Gandhi
As I proceeded further and further with my inquiry into the atrocities that had been committed on the people, I came across tales of Government’s tyranny and the arbitrary despotism of it’s officers such as I was hardly prepared for, and they filled me with deep pain. What surprised me then, and what still continues to fill me with surprise, was the fact that a province that had furnished the largest number of soldiers to the British Government during the war, should have taken all these brutal excesses lying down.
Mathatma Gandhi
An autobiography. The story of my experiments with Truth. There are many versions but I have this one.
[H/T to Ry who has the background on another, more famous quote, from Gandhi. Gandhi is no stranger to my QOTD posts either:
- QOTD October 8, 2007
- QOTD June 30, 2007
- QOTD December 18, 2006
- QOTD September 11, 2005
- QOTD July 8, 2005
- QOTD June 30, 2005
- QOTD April 5, 2005
- QOTD December 20, 2004
–Joe]
Quote of the day–Boyertown Berk Montgomery News
People get so caught up in their right to have a gun that they lose sight of what is important: Public safety.
I know there are some legitimate hunters who think they are allowed to have semi-automatic guns too. It is ridiculous to call yourself a sportsman if you need to use a semi-automatic gun. Each shot should be carefully calculated, not just haphazardly shot repeatedly in seconds in the approximate direction of an animal.
These guns, the ones that should never hit the streets, are getting into the hands of criminals and innocent people are dying. Why? Because guns get stolen.
In my opinion, there is no legitamate use for civilians to use a semi-automatic weapon.
Boyertown Berk Montgomery News
November 27, 2008
Gun restrictions are inevitable in today’s violent climate
[Reading the article I kept thinking, “This could have been written by a sixth grader.” I’m not surprised they didn’t put their name on it. It was pathetic in organization, illogical, and obviously had no basis in fact. I guess he or she is just another bigot proselyting.–Joe]
Quote of the day–Timothy Lynch
A new generation of young people who have never heard of Ruby Ridge are now emerging from the public school system and are heading off to college and will thereafter begin their careers in business, education, journalism, government and other fields. This generation will find it hard to fathom that the federal government could have killed a boy and an unarmed woman and then tried to deceive everyone about what had actually occurred and, in some instances, rationalize what did occur. That is why it is important to remember Ruby Ridge. Someone needs to remind the young people (and everyone else) that it really did happen — and that it will happen again if the government is not kept on a short leash. No one will learn about the incident when they tour the FBI facility in Washington. It goes unmentioned for some reason.
Timothy Lynch
August 21, 2002
Remember Ruby Ridge
[Read the whole thing if you don’t understand why we are outraged.–Joe]
Quote of the day–Tonya Payne
Who really cares about it being unconstitutional? This is what’s right to do, and if this means that we have to go out and have a court battle, then that’s fine … We have plenty of dead bodies coming up in our streets every single day, and that is unacceptable.
Tonya Payne
Pittsburgh City Councilwoman
November 24, 2008
Litigation likely on weapons measure City wants missing guns reported to police in 24 hours
[H/T to Sebastian.
Forget about her crap for brains for thinking the proposed law would reduce crime in any way, this statement should be sufficient grounds for the Feds to immediately arrest her along with her co-conspirators and to get a conviction for an 18 USC 242 violation.–Joe]
Quote of the day–William Clayton
The dumber people think you are, the more surprised they’re going to be when you kill them.
William Clayton
[There are more than one William Clayton I found on the net and none are particularly good candidates for this quote. But he is the only one I found this quote attributed to.–Joe]
Quote of the day–Greg Hamilton
Recently I was told “well you guys are all Glock guys” “you all just like glocks” we are surely NOT “glock guys” I don’t shoot glocks because I like them. I like them because they do for me what I want. They have the combination of reliability and longevity I want; in a reasonable package size, for a reasonable price. Funny things is a lot of people pick Glocks because of how much ammo they carry, that wasn’t really in my criteria at all. The only way that would fit into my decision making is if two guns were equal in ALL other areas and one carried more ammo, then sure I’ll always take more for no trade off.
Greg Hamilton
Founder and Chief Instructor Insights Training
Insights Email List: October 25, 2008 12:21 PM Subject: Random Thoughts
[I frequently get asked “What gun should I buy?” My response is typically a heavy sigh. It depends on what you are going to use it for, how often you are going to shoot, and probably a dozen other things. The Insights instructors mostly shoot Glocks but their criteria is a little different than mine. And my criteria is a little different than the last five people that have asked me what gun to buy.
I advise new shooters to buy something fairly cheap and shoot it until they are fairly certain they are shooting better than the gun or they understand their needs well enough to buy something more appropriate. My first rifle was a SKS I paid $125 for. I put over 1000 rounds through it before I had a need for a better rifle. But I knew the rifle was holding me back and a better rifle would get better results. My first handgun was a Ruger P89. I put about 30,000 rounds through it. I even won a few steel and USPSA matches with it. By that time I knew the P89 was holding me back and I knew why. I then bought my STI Eagle because it would overcome the weaknesses for my uses I had exposed in the P89.–Joe]
Quote of the day–Alan Gottlieb
The mayor is beating his chest trying to make a statement that he’s anti-gun. The mayor and violent criminals in this case have something in common this time — neither of them have any respect for the law.
Alan Gottlieb
November 21, 2008
Nickels expects December start to city gun ban
[Seattle Mayor Nickels says he is going to defy state law and prohibit guns by executive order on city property. The Washington State Attorney General says state law prohibits him from doing that. A public hearing is scheduled for 6:30 PM, December 15, at City Hall.
You can read the proposed rules and comment on them here. See also the Citizen’s Committee to Keep and Bear Arms news release. Be polite, run your comments through spelling and grammar checkers, and ask someone else to read them before submission. You might also consider get yourself into the proper State of Mind, and/or thinking about Just One Question before writing your comments.–Joe]
Quote of the day–Milton Friedman
History suggests that capitalism is a necessary condition for political freedom. Clearly it is not a sufficient condition.
Milton Friedman
[It’s really sad that people are:
- Unaware of this
- Unwilling to accept this
- Or, most likely and saddest of all, don’t want political freedom
For those interested in political freedom I would like to suggest the First, Second, Fourth, Fifth, and 13th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution would be good additions to capitalism toward achieving political freedom. Although if the Second is uninfringed then the 13th pretty much should be taken care. Isn’t it ironic that our first president with a skin color strongly correlated with slavery in our country wants to continue the infringements that kept those people in slavery? And furthermore the first infringements upon that right in this country were enacted to keep people of that skin color from obtaining and using firearms? Condi Rice gets it. Barack Obama doesn’t. What makes the difference?–Joe]
Quote of the day–Daniel G. Jarcho
The handgun ban is a reasonable restriction, because handguns constitute a unique class of firearm that have an unmatched ability to cause violence and kill human beings.
Daniel G. Jarcho
Brief of Violence Policy Center and the police chiefs for the cities of Los Angeles, Minneapolis, and Seattle as amici curiae in support of petitioners in D.C. v. Heller.
[Handguns cause violence? Unmatched in their ability to kill human beings?
And all this time I would have thought it was atomic bombs (super novas probably outperform A-Bombs but they haven’t actually been demonstrated on human inhabited planets that I know of) that were unmatched in their ability to implement violence and kill human beings. And that is why I was accepting of “reasonable restrictions” on atomic weapons. But now that the Supreme Court says handguns are protected by the Second Amendment and, according to Mr. Jarcho, atomic bombs are less dangerous than handguns I guess that means atomic bombs should be protected as well.
I’m glad Mr. Jarcho was able to clear that little misunderstanding up for me. I’ll be consulting his work more frequently from now on to make sure I don’t make some future similar mistake in my classification of weapon systems. Now, where is a nearby public range where I can rent an atomic capability artillery piece and buy some ammo for it? I want to evaluate some possibilities for the next Boomershoot.–Joe]
Quote of the day–Cedric T
Guns got to go! Too many redneck, bible toting racist with them. There honestly is no need for anyone to have a gun, for any reason. Hunting included. Obama said he would get rid of guns and he will. Last season for hunters. Enjoy while you can.
Cedric T
THE AGENDA: GUN CONTROL
November 19, 2008 10:05 AM
Chicago, IL
[Μολὼν λάβε Cedric. Μολὼν λάβε!–Joe]
Quote of the day–Herbert Marcuse
Self-determination, the autonomy of the individual, asserts itself in the right to race his automobile, to handle his power tools, to buy a gun, to communicate to mass audiences his opinion, no matter how ignorant, how aggressive, it may be.
Herbert Marcuse
An Essay on Liberation, ch. 1 (1969)
[Some people don’t want to be liberated. And a great many more don’t want others to be liberated either.–Joe]
Quote of the day–John Ross
President-elect Obama, I wish you all good fortune as you embark on your Presidential career. I suspect that you will come to realize (if you haven’t already) that Socialism and Communism don’t work, that we can’t tax our way into prosperity, and that punishing motivated people who succeed on their own by forcing them to support those with little or no ambition is a recipe for disaster. If you don’t figure those things out, that’s okay too. We might have to wait for the midterm elections of 2010, but one way or another, because of you, the nightmare of Socialism will finally be over for America.
John Ross
November 8, 2008
Hallelujah! The Nightmare Is Over!, or Thank You, Mr. Obama, for Putting So Many Bad Things Behind Us
[If it were only so easy. Maybe he’s right. But Barb tells me I always optimistic and I’m not optimistic in our present situation. Is this the way it has ever been? People elect a socialist to the top spot, he or she takes the country down the toilet and everyone realizes it was a terrible mistake and becomes capitalistic overnight (two years)? Show me an example where that has been the case and maybe I can be optimistic again.–Joe]
Quote of the day–Edward Abbey
A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government.
Edward Abbey
(1927 – 1989)
[Among other accomplishments, such as his books, Abbey inspired the formation and associated with the members of Earth First! I find it very interesting how the words of one set of extremists can match the words of their opposites.–Joe]
Quote of the day–Sick in the U. P.
I won’t apologize for concluding that anyone who supports the free and unfettered possession of deadly weapons is sick in their head. Why in God’s name should the Democratic party, or any organization dedicated to improving the lives and future of Americans, give up on the idea of gun control? Has mental illness spread so far in our country that the concept of curbing violent death by gun is no longer viable?
Here’s my take: all gun owners should immediately submit themselves for psychiatric examination, to determine the extent of their illness and begin treatment before they do harm to someone.
Rifled, single-shot hunting weapons aside, this country should immediately consider laws making the possession of any handgun or assault weapon evidence of serious and dangerous mental illness, and anyone having such a weapon on their possession should be subject to immediate immobilization, hospitalization and confinement for treatment. The sale of — or display with intent to sell — any handgun or assault weapon to a private citizen should result in that person’s inventory being seized and immediately destroyed, and the seller hospitalized immediately for treatment. Any factory producing handguns or assault weapons caught selling their product to private citizens should be closed, their corporate officers hospitalized, and the inventory destroyed.
Sick in the U. P.
Oct 27, 2008 06:07 PM
In a comment to this article: Why we all need the Democrats to abandon gun control
[Sounds like some people are in full support of sending us for an extended stay in the reeducation camps. I wonder if he realizes what it would entail to get 80 million (or even a significant fraction) armed people to the camps. I would like to suggest it is they that need to seek psychiatric help.–Joe]
Quote of the day–Alan Korwin
He says “these” firearms (Clinton included normal magazines like police use for protection), belong on “foreign battlefields.” God help us if they’re needed on domestic battlefields against a government confiscating rights. Mr. Obama — I know these people. Disarm criminals, mobilize robust support, disarm the public, mobilize robust resistance. Please choose wisely.
Alan Korwin
November 13, 2008
Hope for Obama’s Gun Bill
[“Battlefields” appear to be a theme recently. I wonder why.–Joe]
Quote of the day–Fred LeBrun
I have absolutely no use for protecting those trafficking in illegal guns. Even those who would do so on principle. Street guns, slithering from state to state, do too much harm.
Fred Lebrun
November 12, 2008
Lock, load and try taking aim at the illegal handguns
[This is from a guy that claims to support gun ownership. This was the first instance I had heard of guns slithering. I would have thought they sort of hopped when the slide release was disengaged. But maybe this “street gun” he talks about is some new type that I’m not familiar with.
Regardless of their mode of locomotion Lebrun has a very naive viewpoint of the world. He thinks the following would somehow be a good idea and wouldn’t be a problem for gun owners:
…a national identification system for handguns. A computerized system that would be accessible to all law enforcement agencies, and that would standardize the requirements for handgun ownership coast to coast.
What he apparently doesn’t understand is there is already a Federal standard requirement for handgun ownership coast to coast. It’s called the Second Amendment. And even with that there are people who been chipping away at that with waiting periods (the original Brady Act), restrictions on who can purchase (age, prior felony convictions, prior domestic violence convictions and accusations), storage requirements, and types of handguns (“junk guns”, “Saturday Night Specials”, “armor piercing”, too powerful, too concealable, too many rounds). This incremental approach is what the people of the UK bought into which ultimately resulted in their complete loss of handguns.
It appears he is suggesting universal registration of handguns. He is hopelessly naive if he believes this will fly. He need look no further than Canada to see their gun registration failure. Then he should try to answer Just One Question.–Joe]
Update: Jeff and Sebastian both have posts up about the same article.
Quote of the day–Hal Herring
For two decades, many liberals have thrived on despising the NRA and its members. Those who believe in gun control often hold enormous prejudice against those who don’t. But there are already reams of laws pertaining to the use, abuse, purchase and sale of firearms. What new regulations would the gun-controllers create, and how would they work to address the problem of gun violence? Do they want to prohibit private ownership of firearms altogether? Many would like to ban handguns, without considering just what this would entail, what inequities of power would result, and what new, potentially dangerous, powers would have to be awarded to government to accomplish it. Like activists who want to ban pit bulls, the gun-control advocates remain relentlessly unspecific about what they hope to achieve. It has become clear, too, that these advocates hold a double standard regarding the U.S. Constitution: The First Amendment is vital to the health of a free nation, as is the Fourth, but the Second is respected only by the un-evolved and the violent. Only the parts of the Constitution that their side respects are valid, in this view.
Hal Herring
October 27, 2008
Why we all need the Democrats to abandon gun control
[H/T to Jeff who has a still better quote from the comments to this same article.–Joe]