By this time tomorrow night your daughter will be a married woman.
Barbara Scott
July 6, 2007
[That would be our daughter; Kimberly Joe Huffman-Scott. In case you didn’t know, my full name is Joseph Kim Huffman.–Joe]
Category Archives: Quote of the Day
Quote of the day–Tamara K.
In his article, Westen proudly displays his passport from Bizarroland, a place superficially similar to planet Earth, but where drooling idiots with hearts full of hate run amok absent guidance from their spiritual and intellectual betters in politics and academe.
…
I was waiting for the lizardoids to show up around paragraph seven or so and symbolically rape Gaia while carrying off Al Gore to be a slave on their homeworld, Karlrovia.
Tamara K.
July 5, 2007
*sniff* It’s a thing of beauty.
[And so is Tam’s snark a thing of beauty. I find myself quite pleased at all the attention given to The Gun Guy (Gonzo) email and the book and article by Drew Weston which was the basis of Gonzo’s claim that emotion is what wins gun control arguments–not facts and logic. Here is a quick, perhaps partial, list of the chain of postings Gonzo’s email triggered:
- Validation from the Left.
- *sniff* It’s a thing of beauty.
- Call To Arms: Fight Fire With Fire
- Unforgiven
- Pants-shitting hysterics v. facts
- Facts are pesky things
- YGTBKM – Gun “Control” Edition
- Fisking More Self-Satisfied Crap
And from looking at my log files I see where Gonzo himself visited to see where I quoted him. The web is a wonderful thing.–Joe]
Quote of the day–Bruce Schneier
…is security just an excuse for any random thing these days?
Bruce Schneier
July 5, 2007
School Uniforms to Enhance Security?
[Yes. Look at gun control, unconstitutional and ineffective searches at our airports, national ID cards, etc.–Joe]
Quote of the day–The Gun Guys
Emotion is what wins arguments, and there is a tremendous amount of emotion among those fighting to reduce gun violence — there always is when someone gets hurt or must go through the tragedies that we experience in this country as a result of gun violence.
…
That is important emotion, and it will do more for the argument for stronger gun laws than any facts or figures ever will.
…
We have to show legislators the human side of this issue, too, and force them to base their own decisions and policies off of that emotion…
The Gun Guys (actually the paid anti-gun, anti-freedom, activist Gonzo)
Email from June 26, 2007
[There you have it. Just what we have been saying for years. The facts don’t really matter. What matters is emotion. They know the facts don’t support their agenda. The number of innocents dead, wounded, raped, and robbed is irrelevant as long as someone feels good about removing the tools of self defense from those victims. And they need to force legislators to base their decisions off of that same sick mindset.–Joe]
Quote of the day–Cam Edwards
If you want to try and impose the Fairness Doctrine, then just admit you’re not a big believer in capitalism and the free marketplace of ideas.
Cam Edwards
June 27, 2007
The Nanny Doctrine
[The advocates for the McCain-Feingold Act should admit the same thing.–Joe]
Quote of the day–Rick Butte
I feel like a school boy anticipating his first piece of tail.
Rick Butte
June 29, 2007
[Referring to his anticipation of Boomershoot 2008.–Joe]
Quote of the day–Colleen Lawson
Just a few short months ago, I was still caught between the walls of the positive-thought-is-all-we-need-to follow box; Now I am a gun owner, and I am positively far more capable of making sure no uninvited violence enters my home. Without the freedom to reach for a weapon of my choice, I play a less-than-active part against violence; with that freedom, I get to participate in my own life, and in those of those I love.
Colleen Lawson
June 24, 2007
Don’t Call Me a Gun Lover
Via Kevin’s post But I Will Call You My Ally.
[She has some things to say about Jesse Jackson too.–Joe]
Quote of the day–Mahatma Gandhi
Freedom is not worth having if it does not connote freedom to err. It passes my comprehension how human beings, be they ever so experienced and able, can delight in depriving other human beings of that precious right.
Mahatma Gandhi
[Closely related is Erich Fromm’s “There can be no real freedom without the freedom to fail.” Those that advocate gun control or claim health care is a right need to study a bit more philosophy.–Joe]
Quote of the day–National Counter Terrorism Security Office
Terrorists generally select targets where they can cause most damage, inflict mass casualties or attract widespread publicity. VBIEDs can be highly destructive.
National Counter Terrorism Security Office (U.K.)
Police explosives experts prevent carnage at the Tiger Tiger Club
[Just in case you have forgotten, I gave you the minimum evacuation distances for Vehicle-Borne Improvised Explosive Devices (VBIEDs) here. It’s only a matter of time before we see them in the U.S. You should be prepared.–Joe]
Quote of the day–Otto von Bismark
Politics is the art of the possible, the attainable… the art of the next best…
Otto von Bismark
[This is probably more true than I like to acknowledge. It also applies to engineering, as in this quip, “There comes a time to shoot the engineers and ship the product.” As freedom activists we want perfection but that is seldom possible. If we want any action in our favor we probably must accept far less than our ideal. When fighting a restriction on our freedom we are sometimes better off working to make the proposed legislation less onerous than we are to fight a losing battle against a greater infringement. That is achieving what is attainable rather than what should be.–Joe]
Quote of the day–Ambrose Bierce
Peace: In international affairs, a period of cheating between two periods of fighting.
Ambrose Bierce
The Devil’s Dictionary
[I don’t know if it’s wisdom or just cynicism, but as I get older I’m more and more inclined to believe that fighting is the normal state of affairs in the interaction between large groups of people.–Joe]
Quote of the day–Jonathan Ryan
I want to shoot the black rifle!
Jonathan Ryan
Age 9
June 26, 2007
Me giving instructions to my nephew Jonathan. Photo by my daughter Kim.
[And so he did. It was interesting to me that he came up with the name of “The Black Rifle” on his own. We were shooting lots of other firearms but the kids all seemed to like the AR-15 the best. Scott, age 18 and with lots of shooting experience, said it was the most fun to shoot gun he had ever shot. Yeah, they are pretty fun to shoot.–Joe]
Quote of the day–Rev. Jesse Jackson
I think people have the right to bear arms at a hunting reserve. But you’re not hunting deer with semi-automatic weapons. We’re going to keep protesting until America becomes more conscious of the domestic terrorism allowed by guns.
Rev. Jesse Jackson
Arrest motivates Jackson to fight for gun control
[Interesting. I’ve read the 2nd Amendment many times, as well as several state constitutions. It’s only been in recent years, and in just a few states, that I’ve seen any mention of a right to hunt. Jackson must be living in some other reality. But I suppose it could depend on his definition of “hunting reserve”. If you define “hunting reserve” as all 50 states with no bag limits on government employees then he is in line with the true meaning of the 2nd Amendment.–Joe]
Quote of the day–Mac Johnson
What the left does not get about the 2nd Amendment is that it is not about the National Guard, or sporting firearms or gun collections. It does not guarantee the government an army, nor does it guarantee civilians the right to hunt and shoot skeet. It’s about the right of the people to maintain some portion of the ultimate power of government — violence — to themselves.
Mac Johnson
Court Rediscovers 2nd Amendment, Liberals Fear Other ‘Rights’ May Soon be Found
March 15, 2007
Quote of the day–Xenia Huffman-Scott
Then why are we going?
Xenia Huffman-Scott
June 23, 2007
When informed that our vacation location did not have cell phone service or an Internet connection.
Quote of the day–Bruce Schneier
The reality of security is mathematical, based on the probability of different risks and the effectiveness of different countermeasures. We can calculate how secure your home is from burglary, based on such factors as the crime rate in the neighborhood you live in and your door-locking habits. We can calculate how likely it is for you to be murdered, either on the streets by a stranger or in your home by a family member. Or how likely you are to be the victim of identity theft. Given a large enough set of statistics on criminal acts, it’s not even hard; insurance companies do it all the time.
We can also calculate how much more secure a burglar alarm will make your home, or how well a credit freeze will protect you from identity theft. Again, given enough data, it’s easy.
But security is also a feeling, based not on probabilities and mathematical calculations, but on your psychological reactions to both risks and countermeasures. You might feel terribly afraid of terrorism, or you might feel like it’s not something worth worrying about. You might feel safer when you see people taking their shoes off at airport metal detectors, or you might not. You might feel that you’re at high risk of burglary, medium risk of murder, and low risk of identity theft. And your neighbor, in the exact same situation, might feel that he’s at high risk of identity theft, medium risk of burglary, and low risk of murder.
Or, more generally, you can be secure even though you don’t feel secure. And you can feel secure even though you’re not. The feeling and reality of security are certainly related to each other, but they’re just as certainly not the same as each other. We’d probably be better off if we had two different words for them.
Bruce Schneier
February 28, 2007
The Psychology of Security
[In a large part this is the battle gun rights activists are fighting. The probabilities are on our side and to a large extent the anti-gun bigots have a lock on the feelings. As you read the essay you realize why it’s so important to make guns familar and common. Part of Boomershoot is making the public comfortable with guns and thus help people reduce their negative feelings towards firearms. Do your part and come out of the closet as a gun owner.–Joe]
Quote of the day–Marilyn the Patriot Matchmaker
I’ve always liked the kind of guys who’ll get me shot.
Marilyn the Patriot Matchmaker
Originally from http://www.westword.com/1996/112896/news1.html as of January 22, 1999
Currently this link is valid: http://www.hcn.org/servlets/hcn.PrintableArticle?article_id=2988
Quote of the day–Henry David Thoreau
Government is at best but an expedient; but most governments are usually, and all governments are sometimes, inexpedient. The objections which have been brought against a standing army, and they are many and weighty, and deserve to prevail, may also at last be brought against a standing government.
Henry David Thoreau
(1817-62), U.S. philosopher, author, naturalist.
Letter, 31 July 1849, to Ellen Emerson (then 10 years old), eldest child of Ralph Waldo Emerson (published in The Correspondence of Henry David Thoreau, 1958).
Quote of the day–G. B. Shaw
Democracy is a form of government that substitutes election by the incompetent many for appointment by the corrupt few.
G. B. Shaw
Quote of the day–Don Kates
Unfortunately, an almost perfect inverse correlation exists between those who are affected by gun laws, particularly bans, and those whom enforcement should affect. Those easiest to disarm are the responsible and law abiding citizens whose guns represent no meaningful social problem. Irresponsible and criminal owners, whose gun possession creates or exacerbates so many social ills, are the ones most difficult to disarm.
Don Kates
GUNS AND PUBLIC HEALTH: EPIDEMIC OF VIOLENCE OR PANDEMIC OF PROPAGANDA?