George Mason, one of our unsung framers, responding to the question, “I ask, sir, what is a militia?” Mason answered, “It is the whole people, except for a few public officials.”
George Mason
Category Archives: Quote of the Day
Quote of the day–Francis L. Wellman
But as yet no substitute has ever been found for cross-examination as a means of separating truth from falsehood, and of reducing exaggerated statements to their true dimensions.
Francis L. Wellman
The Art of Cross-Examination
[I have lots of falsehood and exaggerated statements to wade through in the PNNL case. There is so much of it that there won’t be anything of substance left when I’m done with their so-called “evidence”. I disposed of probably half of it during my deposition. The rest will tossed in the trash during the course of discovery. It’s a very, very “target rich environment”.–Joe]
Quote of the day–James Huffman-Scott
No mercy. No quarter.
James Huffman-Scott
[After hearing of the unethical and illegal behaviors of PNNL in my lawsuit. I have substantial evidence they did not begin to comply with our interrogatory. My blogging will be light until I have taken them down. The trial is scheduled for the end of January.–Joe]
Quote of the day–Joe Lockhart
From the position of the federal government, we would acknowledge that there are limits to what we can do. But there certainly should be no limits to what we try to do.
Joe Lockhart
White House spokesman
April 22, 1999
Regarding Federal role in stopping school violence (two days after Littleton CO school shooting).
[No limits? Even if they try to violate the constitution? I’m get a really bad feeling about this kind of talk.–Joe]
Quote of the day–Doug Huffman
He can tell a lie more convincingly than I can tell the truth.
Doug Huffman
[Doug wasn’t talking about the lawyers I saw in court yesterday afternoon but he could have been.–Joe]
Quote of the day–Roger Lewis
They can have my opinions on the day they pry this keyboard from my cold, stiff fingers.
Roger Lewis
Quote of the day–Sean Flynn
Godspeed and good hunting, Joe!
Sean Flynn
April 11, 2007 9:58:55 PM
[In reference to my deposition in the PNNL case the next day (which was earlier today).–Joe]
[In reference to my deposition in the PNNL case the next day (which was earlier today).–Joe]
Quote of the day–Mac Johnson
It’s hard to argue with the mayor when one looks at the cold hard facts: today’s murder rate is just 26% higher than it was when the gun ban was put in place in 1978, down from a peak of just 128% higher in 1991 before a nationwide decline in crime driven by demographics took hold. With results like that, I’m not sure D.C. can afford to have its gun violence “decreased” any further.
Mac Johnson
Court Rediscovers 2nd Amendment, Liberals Fear Other ‘Rights’ May Soon be Found
March 15, 2007
[And the D.C. bigots are appealing the overthrowing of their gun ban.–Joe]
Quote of the day–Christopher Hitchens
What can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence.
Christopher Hitchens
October 30, 2003
Mommie Dearest in Slate
[Son James brought up this quote in a conversation we had this evening. While the quote in it’s original form was not about gun control the principle is sound in both domains. And it’s the concept is behind my Just One Question.–Joe]
Quote of the day–Sean Flynn
You’d be so much more dangerous after law school. Barb may have saved the world from… I’m not sure what. It would be scary.
Sean Flynn
April 9, 2007 17:28
[I once told Sean that I had briefly considered going to law school. That idea was quickly quashed when Barb threatened to divorce me if I did. She accuses me of already being too argumentative (I object to that accusation!).–Joe]
Quote of the day–Gun Guys
…it’s completely legal almost everywhere for any gun owner to sell a firearm to anyone else without any background check at all. If you have a gun, you can sell it at a gun show, through the newspaper, or even online, without any sort of background check at all.
It’s currently legal to own weapons like the .50 caliber sniper rifle, weapons that no civilian should ever be allowed to have.
…
Murder isn’t legal– unless you’re in a state with a License to Murder law, and you can claim that you “felt threatened” before you pulled the trigger.
In 48 states, it’s completely legal to tote around a loaded firearm beneath your clothes.
…
And yet none of these people have broken the law. They’re getting away with it– but because our laws are so loose, they’re doing it completely and totally legally.
Gun Guys
April 6, 2007
Via email with the subject: “Gun Guys: Getting Away With Not Breaking the Law”
[I find it very telling that he has a problem with people getting away with not breaking the law. It reminds me of this quote by Ayn Rand.–Joe]
Quote of the day–Thomas Jefferson
I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it.
Thomas Jefferson
[We have drifted so far from the inconveniences of too much liberty I find it difficult to imagine what those inconveniences would be.–Joe]
Quote of the day–Mark Philip Alger
A leftist idea can be recognized by three earmarks, It will be:
1) Founded in ignorance,
2) Focused on irrelevance,
3) Engaged in wishful thinking.
Mark Philip Alger
http://www.babytrollblog.com/
[Also found in the sidebar with the above:
4) “And threaten use of the coercive power of the state to extract compliance.”
–Arnold’s Corollary (ed.)
Yup, and the political right has it’s own set of faulty hypotheses (gay cooties for example) and follows up with the same number 4). This is why, in part, the U.S. Constitution only granted the government an enumerated set of powers. To protect the people against things the government has no business getting involved in. But virtually no one pays attention to the Constitution anymore.–Joe]
Quote of the day–Suresh Parameshwar
It’s not a build break until you have people baying for your blood in the morning.
Suresh Parameshwar
April 3, 2007
[From a technical perspective a “build break” occurs when computer source code will not compile (the automated process of converting human readable code into machine code). In almost every medium or larger sized project people check-in their code to a common computer which does the compile once per day/week/whatever. The resultant code is then installed on test machines and the testers go to work on it to see if they can find bugs. The developers also “sync up” with the common computer to get everyone else’s changes to use in their development for the next day. If the build breaks nearly all the testers and many of the developers are idle until the build is fixed. Hence, it’s a big deal if the build is broken.
I had checked in some code in the middle of the afternoon with a stupid mistake that broke things. Mike noticed it something like 40 minutes later and I fixed it within a few minutes–long before the morning build. Suresh was reassuring me it wasn’t a big deal, even though I was quite embarrassed.
Today Suresh was slightly embarrassed when I during a code review I pointed out one of his mistakes. But we’re not going to talk about that here.–Joe]
Quote of the day–Bob Allen
It was a day when men, recognizing the reality of evil, carried weapons that enabled them to stand in the gap for those being unjustly tormented and threatened. Virtually any man on the street could come to the aid of a victim like Clara.
That was then; this is now.
Bob Allen
April 4, 2007
How gun control trades life for death
[Clara is the woman killed in the CNN building yesterday.–Joe]
Quote of the day–Nicki Stallard
And you choose to be unarmed? To me, that just doesn’t make sense.
Nicki Stallard
Pink Pistols: The Gay Group That’s Getting Armed
Posted April 3, 2007
[Jeff Soyer, gay gun blogger at Alphecca, is quoted in this article as well.–Joe]
Quote of the day–Sun Tzu Wu
All warfare is based on deception.
Sun Tzu Wu
From The Art of War
[PNNL will love seeing this one today.–Joe]
Quote of the day–Mark Steyn
Back when nuclear weapons were an elite club of five relatively sane world powers, your average Western progressive was convinced the planet was about to go ka-boom any minute. The mushroom cloud was one of the most familiar images in the culture, a recurring feature of novels and album covers and movie posters. There were bestselling dystopian picture books for children, in which the handful of survivors spent their last days walking in a nuclear winter wonderland. Now a state openly committed to the annihilation of a neighboring nation has nukes, and we shrug: Can’t be helped. Just the way things are. One hears sophisticated arguments that perhaps the best thing is to let everyone get ’em, and then no one will use them. And if Iran’s head of state happens to threaten to wipe Israel off the map, we should understand that this is a rhetorical stylistic device that’s part of the Persian oral narrative tradition, and it would be a grossly Eurocentric misinterpretation to take it literally.
Mark Steyn
Facing Down Iran
[It is my belief we will “wake up” when Israel or an major U.S. city gets hit with a surprise nuclear attack. And although the “progressives” will whine about “it must have been our fault” we will finally take appropriate action. The question is how many 100’s of millions, on both sides, will die due us waiting so long? Thanks to my brother Doug for sending me the quote and the link.–Joe]
Quote of the day–Tamara K.
Can you imagine what would have happened if some wide spot in the road had kidnapped a boat full of ‘Er Majesty’s tars back in the days of Pax Britannia?
HMS Thunderer would have dropped anchor in the harbor of whatever pathetic hamlet they were being held captive. Royal Marines would have been disembarked. Crowds of Wogs would have been mowed down by Gatlings and run through with Martini bayonets. The local rajah would have forked over his prisoners, or he would have found his house burned to the ground and Tommy Atkins pissing on the ashes.
Tamara K.
March 30, 2007
England, ma’am. It’s where Great Britain used to be.
Quote of the day–Joe Waldron
The Personal Protection Act has succeeded in destroying the myth that legally-armed citizens are somehow a threat to the general public. We knew they were wrong, and now everybody else knows it, too.
Joe Waldron
March 30, 2007
Executive Director of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms
ANTI-GUNNERS WRONG (AGAIN) ABOUT MINNESOTA CARRY