Tuesday, December 5. 2006
Wherever there is a jackboot stomping on a human face there will be a well-heeled Western liberal to explain that the face does, after all, enjoy free health care and 100 percent literacy. John Derbyshire H/t, Rhymes with Right. Precisely. What are we, cattle?
Monday, December 4. 2006
Standing on the tiny deck of the Arabella in 1630 off the Massachusetts coast, John Winthrop said, "We will be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us, so that if we deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken and so cause Him to withdraw His present help from us, we shall be made a story and a byword throughout the world." h/t, Sisu
Friday, December 1. 2006
Giving government money and power is like giving car keys and whiskey to a teenage boy. P.J. O'Rourke
Thursday, November 30. 2006
To grasp the true meaning of socialism, imagine a world where everything is designed by the post office, even the sleaze. P.J. O'Rourke
Wednesday, November 29. 2006
The Democrats are the party that says government will make you smarter, taller, richer, and remove the crabgrass on your lawn. The Republicans are the party that says government doesn't work and then they get elected and prove it.
P.J. O'Rourke
Tuesday, November 28. 2006
Being willing to give away other people's money is not really a sign of personal compassion. Betsy, in a piece on charity and political orientation
Freedom is not empowerment. Empowerment is what the Serbs have in Bosnia. Anybody can grab a gun and be empowered. It's not entitlement. An entitlement is what people on welfare get, and how free are they? It's not an endlessly expanding list of rights -- the "right" to education, the "right" to food and housing. That's not freedom, that's dependency. Those aren't rights, those are the rations of slavery -- hay and a barn for human cattle. There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences. P.J. O'Rourke
Friday, November 24. 2006
A fellow told me he spent twenty years looking for the perfect woman before he finally found her. The only problem was that she was looking for the perfect man. Attributed to Warren Buffet (thanks, Tom)
Wednesday, November 22. 2006
"The Clinton administration launched an attack on people in Texas because those people were religious nuts with guns. Hell, this country was founded by religious nuts with guns. Who does Bill Clinton think stepped ashore on Plymouth Rock? Peace Corps volunteers? Or maybe the people in Texas were attacked because of child abuse. But, if child abuse was the issue, why didn't Janet Reno tear-gas Woody Allen?" P.J. O'Rourke (h/t to our cousin and brother in sporting arms Mr. Free Market for a nice basket of PJ quotes)
One of the annoying things about believing in free will and individual responsibility is the difficulty of finding somebody to blame your problems on. And when you do find somebody, it’s remarkable how often his picture turns up on your driver’s license. P.J. O'Rourke
Tuesday, November 21. 2006
Observe our national politics. Observe politics around the world. Observe politics through the ages. Does it look like God’s handiwork? When it comes to having a role in politics, that would be the Other Fellow. P. J. O'Rourke
Monday, November 20. 2006
Gratitude … goes beyond the “mine” and “thine” and claims the truth that all of life is a pure gift. In the past I always thought of gratitude as a spontaneous response to the awareness of gifts received, but now I realize that gratitude can also be lived as a discipline. The discipline of gratitude is the explicit effort to acknowledge that all I am and have is given to me as a gift of love, a gift to be celebrated with joy. Henry J. M. Nouwen h/t, And Rightly So
A feature of the Orwellian state is the destruction of the language and along with it, common sense and rational thinking. Hence, the use of state force translates into the idea of “support”, and “we, the community” becomes larger than the individual components that make the thing what it is in the first place. Lisa, at Dust My Broom, in a piece about the Brit nursery rhymes
Monday, November 6. 2006
If you think dogs can't count, try putting three dog goodies in your pocket, and give him only two of them. Phil Pastoret
Thursday, November 2. 2006
Only two defining forces have ever offered to die for you: Jesus Christ and the American G. I. One died for your soul, the other for your freedom. Rebecca Wiltshire
The Stone Age did not end for lack of stone, and the Oil Age will end long before the world runs out of oil. Sheikh Yamani (h/t, Anchor Rising)
Wednesday, October 25. 2006
When asked by Parliament members why be believed so much in America, Tony Blair said: "A simple way to take measure of a country is to look at how many want in, and how many want out."
Tuesday, October 24. 2006
The appropriate age for marriage is eighteen for girls and thirty seven for men. Aristotle
Monday, October 23. 2006
The truth shall set ye free, but first it shall make ye miserable. Soren Kirkegaard (h/t, Stumbling)
Friday, October 20. 2006
A witty saying proves nothing. Voltaire
Thursday, October 19. 2006
Your actions, and your action alone, determines your worth. Evelyn Waugh (h/t, Samiz.)
Tuesday, October 17. 2006
He who is not every day conquering some fear has not learned the secret of life. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Monday, October 16. 2006
...many people believe that you must first somehow decide whether or not God exists before joining a religion, but the opposite is true. One becomes religious so as to make God present in one’s life. Whether or not God exists is a separate issue. The important point is to make him present and real, and thus inhabit the space where our true humanness emerges. Gagdad Bob (link here.)
Thursday, October 12. 2006
There were all kinds of things I was afraid of at first, ranging from grizzly bears to 'mean' horses and gun-fighters; but by acting as if I was not afraid I gradually ceased to be afraid. Teddy Roosevelt
Wednesday, October 11. 2006
Ideas are more powerful than guns. We don't allow our enemies to have guns, why should we allow them to have ideas? Joseph Stalin
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