Category: Friday Quote

Friday Quote – Col. Jeff Cooper

December 21, 2012 / / 0 Comments

The rifle itself has no moral stature, since it has no will of its own. Naturally, it may be used by evil men for evil purposes, but there are more good men than evil, and while the latter cannot be persuaded to the path of righteousness by propaganda, they can certainly be corrected by good men with rifles.

Col. Jeff Cooper, firearms pioneer

I will not play the game of “if there had been someone with a gun” game with the current tragedy, but the truth remains that armed citizens do deter crime and stop violence. Guns are not magical talismans, but they are powerful tools. Like any tool, like a car or a lawn mower, they can be used to hurt people or to make people’s lives better. That can only be done by the person wielding the tool.

Friday Quote – Christopher Hitchens

December 14, 2012 / / 0 Comments

I try to deny myself any illusions or delusions, and I think that this perhaps entitles me to try and deny the same to others, at least as long as they refuse to keep their fantasies to themselves.

Christopher Hitchens, writer, commenter, and renown atheist and skeptic

I am surrounded in my daily life by some very devout Christians. If they want to believe in an all-powerful deity and beg for his intercession in their lives, so be it. I think they’re wrong and foolish and missing out on the true grandeur of the natural world, but they are competent adults. Generally, my relationship with them is more important than my activism. That is, until one starts to preach to me. If they are not dissuaded by my stating that I’m an atheist and don’t want to broach the topic, well then the battle is joined. I will feel no compunction about attempting to shatter their illusions.

I’m less restrained with people who I don’t need to keep a strong relationship. These would include street proselytizers, salespeople pushing junk, and loud-mouthed fellow customers in line. (This may have happened on occasion.)

H/t to the Brother for finding the quote for me

Friday Quote – Thomas Sowell

December 7, 2012 / / 0 Comments

“Four things have almost invariably followed the imposition of controls to keep prices below the level they would reach under supply and demand in a free market: (1) increased use of the product or service whose price is controlled, (2) Reduced supply of the same product or service, (3) quality deterioration, (4) black markets.”

Thomas Sowell

Many of my readers may think I’m putting this quote up because of Obamacare and socialized medicine in general. While applicable, the two real reasons is because I’ve been listening to Dr. Sowell’s Basic Economics and because I was taking with one of my co-workers about price gouging during an emergency.

Some of the people I talk to are surprised when I tell them that there is no such thing as price gouging and oppose laws that try to dictate prices, even during an “emergency.” If anything, those prices keep “scarce resources” (as Dr. Sowell refers to them in his works) available for those who truly value them. Most people wouldn’t pay $20 for a can of milk, but a mother of an infant in the middle of a disaster will. By charging that high price, the scarce resource is held for the person who highly values it. Also, the high profits from such trade invites competition into the market, which will bring down the price.

“That’s nice, but what about those who can’t afford those demand-driven prices and are in desperate need?” This is where I veer sharply away from the objectivists. I do believe in charity. I do believe this is where focused non-governmental organizations (NGOs) can have their biggest impact by making sure that resources that are scarce within the emergency area are brought in from areas with surpluses and directed to those who can’t obtain them.

I’m also a believer in protecting scavengers during an emergency situation. People trying to find supplies in abandoned stores should not be prosecuted. By supplies, I mean items essential to survival. Coming out of a Best Buy with four flat screen TVs is not scavenging. That’s looting. You shoot looters, you help scavengers. At some point, I’m willing to compromise on property rights to save lives. I’m human, I’m allowed some mental contradictions.

Friday Quote – Captain America & J. Michael Straczynski

November 23, 2012 / / 1 Comment

Doesn’t matter what the press says. Doesn’t matter what the politicians or the mobs say. Doesn’t matter if the whole country decides that something wrong is something right. This nation was founded on one principle above all else: the requirement that we stand up for what we believe, no matter the odds or the consequences. When the mob and the press and the whole world tell you to move, your job is to plant yourself like a tree beside the river of truth, and tell the whole world — *”No, you move.”*

Captain America, in Amazing Spider-Man 537, written by J. Michael Straczynski

I first read this quote and felt inspired. When writing about topics that are not popular with large segments of the population, sometimes it feels like I’m standing alone against a wave of ignorance. Of course, every other person fighting for their beliefs are doing the same thing. To them, they are also fighting against those dark forces of ignorance and malevolence. So, it’s up to me to make damn sure that my armor of ideals have been tempered in the cauldron of research and introspection.

Friday Quote – H.L. Mencken

November 16, 2012 / / 0 Comments

Government is a broker in pillage, and every election is a sort of advance auction in stolen goods.

H.L. Mencken

Continuing the libertarian trend for Friday quotes with the reminder that government can’t create wealth for the society. Government can only affect wealth in two ways: creating the regulatory/judicial environment. and forcibly transferring wealth from one segment of the population to another. The best that a modern government can do is foster a legal/regulatory environment that is good for business opportunities and not steal too much wealth to hand out to its supporters.

Pre-Friday Friday Quote – Alexis de Tocqueville

November 7, 2012 / / 0 Comments

A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations has been 200 years.

Alexis de Tocqueville, 19th century political commentator and philosopher

This quote has been bouncing around the gun blogs and podcasts in regards to the presidential election. To a degree, there is truth that the looters have come out to protect those that loot in their name.

The truth is that the presidential election was lost by the Republican leadership. As far as I can tell, the Republican leadership has two major defects. 1) They are more concerned with maintaining their own positions of power than winning elections. 2) They are far more interested in looking good in the Beltway than doing good for the rest of the nation. If the Republicans want to become more than a permanent opposition party, they are going to have to rid themselves of the parasites and focus on what the voters were telling them. Focus on fiscal conservatism and leave the social crap alone.

I don’t expect the Republican leadership to pull their heads out of their asses, and I don’t expect the Tea Party wing of the party to full-up revolt and seize the leadership. This is part of the reason I refuse to return or give money/support to the Republican Party. I might be willing to support individual Republicans, but the party needs major reform before they will have my backing.

Friday Quote – Neil deGrasse Tyson

November 2, 2012 / / 0 Comments

To be scientifically literate is to empower yourself to know when somebody is full of shit.

Neil deGrasse Tyson, on the Nerdist posdcast for 10/31/12

Maybe it’s people blaming scientists for not warning of an earthquake, or believing that water has “memory,” or that cheap consumer items can affect how the basic particles of the universe operates, but it absolutely amazes me how little people understand of how science works. What’s worse, this lack of understanding is causing harm to them and to those under their care.

Friday Quote – Ayn Rand

September 14, 2012 / / 0 Comments

(The Doctrine of Original Sin) declares that (man) ate the fruit of the tree of knowledge – he acquired a mind and became a rational being. It was the knowledge of good and evil – he became a moral being/ He was sentenced to earn his bread by his labor – he became a productive being. He was sentenced to experience desire – he acquired the capacity of sexual enjoyment. The evils for which (the preachers) damn him are reason, morality, creativeness joy – all the cardinal values of his existence.

Ayn Rand, author and creator of the Objectivism philosophy

Ayn Rand’s *Atlas Shrugged* was one of the guiding works in my becoming an atheist. One of the big parts that led me to reject my Christian faith was the idea of Original Sin. Why in this instance would I as an individual, accept guilt, shame, and blame for an act I didn’t commit? Why is the gaining of knowledge a sin? This was one part in a series of philosophical quandaries that led me to conclude that religion is a lie perpetrated on men by men for the purposes of control – either out of benevolent or malfeasance.

For the record, I am not a devout follower of Rand. I think her eschewing of charity is wrong, for example. Still, I will give her and her works credit for helping me shape my beliefs and giving voice to the doubts that were running through my head.

Friday Quote – Neil Armstrong

September 7, 2012 / / 0 Comments

“It was never a concern…I know that somebody is going to go fly back up there and pick up the camera I left.”

Neil Armstrong on people believing the moon landing was hoaxed.

This is such an understated, but brilliant, comment. The more and more you think about it, the better it becomes. It certainly ranks up there with some of my favorite quotes from Winston Churchill.