The Stories and Novels By Derek Ward
If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen.
Many of us know Ben Franklin’s quote on liberty and temporary security, but I’m feeling a bit more confrontational. If Sam Adams was anything, it was confrontational.
H/t Reason
First a video from my friend, Kenn Blanchard:
Is today’s Boston the reservoir of strength and determination that made it the hotbed of revolutionary fervor? Could you actually see Sam Adams and his bunch standing meekly by as the King’s magistrates forced themselves into everyone’s house looking for a single criminal?
There were some amazing acts of heroism and selflessness during the immediate aftermath of the bombs. Not just first-responders, but ordinary people, trying to help the injured. Those people earned the “Boston Strong.”
Then the police state rolled in with all the force of a military occupation.
Only those essential to the police occupation were allowed out of their homes (including Dunkin Donuts workers – way to avoid stereotypes there!) Where were the indignant blog posts and demands for civil rights from the citizens of Boston, the ones that are Boston Strong? Where are the calls for investigations into why the police were allowed to storm into houses without a warrant or probable cause, instead of just doing a basic welfare check?
Oh yeah, everyone is too busy celebrating their release from occupation and the capture of a criminal. But Boston Strong!
“This is the horror which Robin Hood immortalized as an ideal of righteousness. It is said that he fought against the looting rulers and returned the loot to those who had been robbed, but that is not the meaning of the legend which has survived. He is remembered, not as a champion of property, but as a champion of need, not as a defender of the robbed, but as a provider of the poor. He is held to be the first man who assumed a halo of virtue by practicing charity with wealth which he did not own, by giving away goods which he had not produced, by making others pay for the luxury of his pity. He is the man who became the symbol of the idea that need, not achievement, is the source of rights, that we don’t have to produce, only to want, that the earned does not belong to us, but the unearned does….Until men learn that of all human symbols, Robin Hood is the most immoral and the most contemptible, there will be no justice on earth and no way for mankind to survive.†– Ragnar Danneskjold
From Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged
I know this is a long quote, but apt in light of this article from Politico. Over half of the population think it’s morally right to use force, in the guise of the government, to take from some people (who earn more) and give it to other people (who earn less).
Income inequality is only a useful measure when used in conjunction with a nation’s economic freedom. In a truly free economic system, I would expect to see a few at the top making very large sums due to their highly specialized skills and experience, while most people earn much less due to the more generally available skills.
I am, by education, an accountant. There are thousands of accountants across this nation. Some of us are paid extremely high salaries because of additional skills, expertise, and career choices. Some of us are paid much less because we have less additional skills and expertise as well as making different career choices. Do I deserve some of the money made by the senior partners at the Big Four because I chose not to obtain the skills and expertise or take the career path that would get me that salary?
H/t Reason
The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money.
Margaret Thatcher, former British PM
This is probably one of the quintessential pithy quotes against socialism. In very few cases can the government create value, and never as efficiently as the private sector.
Yes, the words of victims have special poignancy, but what they don’t have is any special truth. Grief drives us to look toward the heavens and demand an answer from any nearby Deity. Grief drives us to demand a solution to the fundamental insoluble problem, which is that the world is as it is. Bad things happen, often to good people, and grief drives us to…do something.
Michael Bane, RIVERDANCE With Blood
You should really RTWT. Michael really gets into how victims are harvested for political purposes. Humans have evolved with this belief in the story. It’s why witness accounts are desired in court, even though human beings tend to make lousy witnesses. It’s why companies fear bad reviews, even when the statistics say they have a better product or provide a better service. Stories have power in the human mind.
My condolescences to those who mourn the loss of this Great Lady.
Useless laws weaken the necessary laws.
Charles de Montesquieu, 18th-century political philosopher
Weakening the necessary laws leads to selective enforcement. Selective enforcement leads to disregard and disdain of the law. Three felonies a day. That’s what the average American commits as they go through their lives. How many of us even think about that until we have a prosecutor throwing every charge they can think of at us in order for us to plead down. Or we commit suicide.
First they came for the blacks, and I spoke up because it was wrong, even though I’m not black.
Then they came for the gays, and I spoke up, even though I’m not gay.
Then they came for the Muslims, and I spoke up, because it was wrong, even though I’m an atheist.
When they came for illegal aliens, I spoke up, even though I’m a legal immigrant.
Then they came for the pornographers, rebels and dissenters and their speech and flag burning, and I spoke up, because rights are not only for the establishment.
Then they came for the gun owners, and you liberal shitbags threw me under the bus, even though I’d done nothing wrong. So when they come to put you on the train, you can fucking choke and die.
Michael Z. Williamson, author
This quote came from this blog post. RTWT, because it rightly sums up how I feel when it comes to those considered to be “on the left” of our political spectrum.
When the Clinton AWB was passed, I was in the infancy of my awareness. I knew it was happening, but not how it would affect me. Now, I am fully aware of how the proposed legislation would affect me and those I care about.
Molon Labe, biotches.
We found that gun buyback programs have not shown to be effective….They’re rifles, shotguns, things like that. Less likely to be small handguns, which are really more likely the types of guns to be used in gun crime.
Matthew Makarios, assistant professor of criminal justice at the University of Wisconsin Parkside
The above quote was found in one of the local TV station’s investigation into the effectiveness of gun buybacks.
From the article:
We found that the vast majority of guns turned in aren’t the type of weapons typically used in crimes. We also found many cases where people turned in BB and pellet guns, guns that were visibly broken, and even a flare gun.
At two Clearwater Police Department buybacks in 2011, 20% of the guns turned in were BB and pellet guns. The Largo Police Department held their buybacks jointly with Clearwater, and 12% of the guns they took in were BB or pellet guns.
If this was a private organization sponsoring these gun buybacks, I really wouldn’t care. The problems is that it’s the local law enforcement agencies. That’s my money being used to buy and then dispose of those guns. Why should I be forced to pay for a program that doesn’t accomplish its stated goal and serves little point except for propaganda for gun control and the police?
What’s worse is some of these people are selling their property at far below their value in this gun market when they could really use the money. On a purely anecdotal basis, I told one of my co-workers about the buyback and she wanted to take some unused guns down. I convinced her not to and to let me take a look at them. I was pretty sure she could get more for them than what was being offered.
If we’re going to have a gun buyback, shouldn’t they at least be forced to pay market value? Kind of make it like Antiques Roadshow, the firearms edition.
From BoingBoing, an article about Games Workshop going apeshit about other science fiction using the term “space marines.”
From MCA Hogarth who is quoted in the article.
I used to own a registered trademark. I understand the legal obligations of trademark holders to protect their IP. A Games Workshop trademark of the term “Adeptus Astartes†is completely understandable. But they’ve chosen instead to co-opt the legacy of science fiction writers who laid the groundwork for their success.
This is utter bullshit that Games Workshop will get away with until they run into someone with the resources to legally tell them to go to hell. Or someone who like Simon Singh will become a cause celeb for science fiction.
My first love is writing military science fiction. I have dozens of unpublished stories with “space marines.” The feisty part of me wants to rush one of them to Amazon to bait Games Workshop. My accountant mind is telling me that I just don’t have the resources to go into an extended battle with a well-established gaming company.
I’m not into the Warhammer 40K universe, so my boycotting them will have no effect. If you do buy their products, please take this into account when doing business with them in the future.