On this day set aside to honor the great warrior for the rights of Americans to be free of oppression by their government I like to reflect on the great struggle of the ’60s and remember the sacrifices made in the name of Constitutional Rights.
Happy Robert E. Lee’s birthday!
Mike Brown
January 21, 2008
Lewiston Pistol Club Email Discussion List
[If others can bring up John Moses Browning today then I figure Mike is within his rights to put even a little more twist into it.–Joe]
We will be in a struggle with the Islamic world for the next 100 years.
Sen. Richard Shelby
R-Alabama
January 19, 2008
Athens Alabama
[The Islamic world has been at war with Western Civilization for the last 700 years, so what is another 100 years? We do what we have to do.–Joe]
The U.S., fortunately, is still on a demographic expansion wave and will be till at least 2050. But if the Islamists achieve their dream of nuking “crusader” cities, they’ll make crusaders out of the U.S., too. And this time, a West with a chauvinized America at its head would smite the Saracen with weapons that would destroy entire populations and fuse Mecca into glass. The horror of our victory would echo for a thousand years.
I remain more optimistic than this. I think there is still an excellent chance that the West can recover from suicidalism without going through a fevered fascist episode and waging a genocidal war. But to do so, we have to do more than recognize Stalin’s memes; we have to reject them. We have to eject postmodern leftism from our universities, transnational progressivism from our politics, and volk-Marxism from our media.
Eric Steven Raymond
February 11th, 2006
Gramscian damage
[This quote is nearly two years old but with the current situation of having blantent communists having good chances of winning the White House this fall and Islamic extremists still wanting to nuke our cities Raymond’s excellent post deserves more attention.–Joe]
Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote.
Ben Franklin
[I have heard many variations of this and so few give credit to Franklin that I’m not certain it is he that deserves it. For example see the following quote from a (now deceased–his gun inventory is available) friend of mine. In any case, this quote is a follow up to yesterdays QOTD.–Joe]
Democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner.
Liberty is two wolves attempting to have a sheep for dinner and finding a well-informed, well-armed sheep.
Lance 07/SOT
Lance Haserot
gunrunnr@moscow.com
May not have been original from Lance.
He did use it as his signature in email on 10/31/97
They are Blue citadels and bastions of power, pure and simple, and the ultimate effect of this proposal is that it exploits the “states making side deals” blind spot in our constitution to implement a bald power grab on the part of the cities.
Having studied history carefully, I’ve got to say that this is the sort of thing that future historians may well file under chapters with grim titles.
geekWithA.45
Converting a Republic to A Mere Majoritarian Exercise…
[There are far to many history chapters with grim titles. Majority rule without “checks and balances” is responsible for a lot of them.–Joe]
I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.
Thomas Jefferson
[And I predict future unhappiness if we continue down this superhighway to socialism.–Joe]
We are so concerned to flatter the majority that we lose sight of how very often it is necessary, in order to preserve freedom for the minority, let alone for the individual, to face that majority down.
William F. Buckley
[Sadly the majority doesn’t want freedom for themselves let alone the minority.–Joe]
Democracy and socialism have nothing in common but one word, equality. But notice the difference: while democracy seeks equality in liberty, socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude.
Alexis de Tocqueville
[Kevin’s post reminded me of this. And how ironic that Kevin’s inspiration for this post, Markadelphia, claims corporations oppress people. Governments have a near monopoly on force while corporations have can only use force, via the court system, to enforce contracts and monopolies (such as patents) granted to them by the government. The more power that is granted the government the more oppression that is possible and inevitably occurs. People that advocate more government control are, by their very nature, advocating oppression.–Joe]
Liberty is always unfinished business.
American Civil Liberties Union
[I have some “issues” with the ACLU, but not with this quote. This quote selection was to augment my next post.–Joe]
It is also significant that the Second Amendment refers, not to “a right of the people,” but to “the right of the people to keep and bear Arms.” The Framers’ use of the definite article indicates that the Amendment was intended to secure a pre-existing right rather than to create a new one.
[…]
The Court should affirm that the Second Amendment, no less than other provisions of the Bill of Rights, secures an individual right, and should clarify that the right is subject to the more flexible standard of review described above. If the Court takes those foundational steps, the better course would be to remand.
Stephen R. Rubenstein
January 2008
Chief Counsel Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Department of Justice
Washington, D.C. 20226-0001
Brief for the United States as Amicus Curiae
[This is from a brief filed in favor of D.C. in the Heller case. If I read it correctly they are concerned that the ATF could be put out of a job because they might no longer be able to regulated the manufacture and sale of firearms and maintain their registry of machineguns. Hence, they want to be left with some power to regulate firearms. I’m not a friend of the ATF (individuals at the ATF is something different) but D.C. surely cannot consider them much of a friend either.–Joe
Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.
P. J. O’Rourke
U.S. journalist. Parliament of Whores
Preface, “Why God is a Republican and Santa Claus Is a Democrat” (1991).
There are many men of principle in both parties in America, but there is no party of principle.
Alexis de Tocqueville
[Tocqueville died in 1859. Some things never change.–Joe]
They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
Benjamin Franklin
[Yeah, I know. Everyone has heard this one before. That is most of the reason I have never used it directly before. Today is special however. Check out my next post, Runnin’ With the Devil, people compromised with the Devil to gain temporary “safety” and the ink hasn’t dried before they are pushing for the “next step”.–Joe]
Many people want the government to protect the consumer. A much more urgent problem is to protect the consumer from the government.
Milton Friedman
[The U.S. Constitution with its enumerated powers and the Bill of Rights was supposed to do the bulk of the protecting. But of course these days it’s rare that any of the three branches of government even look at the Constitution as a mild suggestion of limits to its reach.–Joe]
Every step we take towards making the State our Caretaker of our lives, by that much we move toward making the State our Master.
Dwight Eisenhower
[My guess is that this year there are only about two or maybe three presidential candidates, none of which are likely to win, that even have a glimmer of this fundamental truth.–Joe]
Americans are so enamored of equality, they would rather be equal in slavery than unequal in freedom.
Alexis de Tocqueville
[I find this very odd. It’s certainly true today, but I would have thought it was different in his time (the mid 1800’s).–Joe]
The best defense against usurpatory government is an assertive citizenry.
William F. Buckley
[It’s impossible to be truly assertive unless you have some means to back it. When the government usurps your ability to vote you have very few options in asserting yourself except by the force of arms. This is why respect of the 2nd Amendment is essential for a free society and why any who attempt to infringe it must be vigorously opposed. This applies to all, except Richardson, of the current Democrat candidates for president and some of the Republicans.–Joe]
A little patience, and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their spells dissolve, and the people, recovering their true sight, restore their government to its true principles. It is true that in the meantime we are suffering deeply in spirit, and incurring the horrors of a war and long oppressions of enormous public debt…If the game runs sometime against us at home, we must have patience till luck turns, and then we shall have an opportunity of winning back the principles we have lost, for this is a game where principles are at stake.
Thomas Jefferson
[The results in Iowa reminded me of this.–Joe]
Only those with a vested emotional interest in seeing through on the promise of total gun confiscation continue to hang onto the false hope of gun control. After years of being convinced of the righteousness of their cause they are blinded to reality and have begun to believe their own lies. That is the only way to explain how they can still be pushing their failed agenda.
If it wasn’t such a serious issue the determination of anti-gun proponents would border on the laughable. Since their misguided ways have led to untold numbers of people being left at the mercy of armed thugs, it takes all the humor out of their laughable ways.
Still, their determination has brainwashed them to believe in their cause at all costs. I also proves that they are incapable of creating a conspiracy with the anti-gun establishment media. The sad sorry truth is they actually believe this crap.
Gerard Valentino
Buckeye Firearms Association Central Ohio Chair
January 3, 2008
There is No Leftist Anti-Gun Conspiracy – They Really Believe This Crap
[The conspiracy theory model explains a lot but ends up with more questions than answers. I’m with Valentino, as implausible and counter factual as their belief system is I think they actually believe it.–Joe]
Sometimes people call me an idealist. Well, that is the way I know I am an American. America is the only idealistic nation in the world.
Woodrow Wilson
[It’s interesting to contrast the ideals of this Democrat to the Democrat, and most Republican, politicians of today.–Joe]