Sunday, June 24. 2018
A handful of classic Krauthammer quotes.
Here's another one:
" America is the only country ever founded on an idea. The only country that is not founded on race or even common history. It’s founded on an idea and the idea is liberty. That is probably the rarest phenomena in the political history of the world; this has never happened before. And not only has it happened, but it’s worked. We are the most flourishing, the most powerful, most influential country on Earth with this system, invented by the greatest political geniuses probably in human history."
Thursday, June 21. 2018
“The truth is, when all is said and done, one does not teach a subject, one teaches a student how to learn it.”
Jacques Barzun, from a collection of his observations
Wednesday, June 20. 2018
We all know that overeating causes more deaths than drugs do. If it’s in principle OK for the government to say you must not consume drugs because they’ll do you harm, why isn’t it all right to say you must not eat too much because you’ll do harm? Why isn’t it all right to say you must not try to go in for skydiving because you’re likely to die? Why isn’t it all right to say, “Oh, skiing, that’s no good, that’s a very dangerous sport, you’ll hurt yourself”? Where do you draw the line?
Milton Friedman (h/t Ace)
Monday, June 18. 2018
 It's a good quote and a true one, but Ben Franklin didn't say “Beer is proof God loves us and wants us to be happy.”
He did write this in a letter, translated from the French:
“We hear of the conversion of water into wine at the marriage in Cana, as of a miracle. But this conversion is, through the goodness of God, made every day before our eyes. Behold the rain which descends from heaven upon our vineyards, and which incorporates itself with the grapes to be changed into wine; a constant proof that God loves us, and loves to see us happy!”
Friday, June 15. 2018
Thanks, AVI
"I am a democrat because I believe in the Fall of Man. I think most people are democrats for the opposite reason. A great deal of democratic enthusiasm descends from the ideas of people like Rousseau, who believed in democracy because they thought mankind so wise and good that everyone deserved a share in the government. The danger of defending democracy on those grounds is that they’re not true. And whenever their weakness is exposed, the people who prefer tyranny make capital out of the exposure… The real reason for democracy is just the reverse. Mankind is so fallen that no man can be trusted with unchecked power over his fellows. Aristotle said that some people were only fit to be slaves. I do not contradict him. But I reject slavery because I see no men fit to be masters."
CS Lewis in his essay "Equality" 1943.
Friday, June 8. 2018
"Vita brevis, ars longa, occasio praeceps, experimentum periculosum, iudicium difficile."
That is the Latin translation of Hippocrate's first sentence in his medical text, "ars" - art - meaning the craft of medicine, is slow to learn given the brevity of life. I think the quote has been often misunderstood and misapplied.
It has always been interesting to me that the etymology of our use of "art" refers to "craft."
English: "Life is short, and (mastering a) craft slow, opportunity fleeting, experimentation perilous, and judgment difficult."
Tuesday, June 5. 2018
“If freedom makes social progress possible, so social
progress strengthens and enlarges freedom"~ Robert F. Kennedy
I was provided this quote today, and agreed with it at first. Then I realized it is problematic. "Social Progress" is a broad term, and the method of achieving "social progress" is not defined at all.
There is no doubt "social progress" does enlarge freedom. If that progress is achieved naturally, fluidly, organically. As communities and people come to accept new and interesting ideas and people, the scope of their capabilities and imagination for greater things is enlarged and improved.
Where this quote is badly flawed is applying it to law. Social progress does not occur with passing laws that force people to think, or behave, a certain way. Too many people believe that it is possible to nation-build, when virtually all attempts of it have failed. It should, therefore, come as no surprise that it's just as hard to 'community' or 'society' build using laws and regulations. Eventually the laws themselves act as catalysts for behaviors that undermine the original goal.
Friday, June 1. 2018
“Would you rather have a Princeton diploma without the Princeton education, or a Princeton education without a Princeton diploma?”
Austen Allred, via 6 Forces Disrupting Higher Education. It's a cute question, but I don't know what a "Princeton education" means. It could mean any one of a hundred things. I have a better idea of what a U of Chicago education means.
Wednesday, May 30. 2018
"I found out that it's not good to talk about my troubles. Eighty percent of the people who hear them don't care and the other twenty percent are glad you're having them."
Tommy LaSorda, LA Dodgers manager
Friday, May 25. 2018
"Most people today believe that “law” and “legislation” are synonyms for each other, and that the phenomena to which each refers are commands issued by the state – commands issued to determine the behaviors of individuals most of whom are either inert blobs or self-destructive fools, and the rest of whom are predators. The fact that regularly observed rules of behavior – laws – emerge spontaneously among individuals going about their daily affairs is unknown to most people. The common but incorrect notion today is that society is engineered by the state through the “laws” that it issues. The uncommon but correct understanding is that the state is incapable of making laws; it can make only legislation. And whatever you think of the state’s record of legislating, you fall into error if you believe that the state makes law."
Don Boudreaux, here
Thursday, May 24. 2018
Never argue with a fool; onlookers may not be able to tell the difference. — Mark Twain
Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou also be like unto him. — Proverbs 26:4 (King James version)
Tuesday, May 8. 2018
 “GATES APPEAL TO ME BECAUSE OF THE NEGATIVE SPACE THEY ALLOW. THEY CAN SHUT YOU OUT OR SHUT YOU IN. AND IN SOME WAYS THERE IS NO DIFFERENCE.”
Bob Dylan
Monday, May 7. 2018
 "Bring everything."
My sister's advice re packing for hiking trips. Also my advice re hunting trips.
Photo is from hiking in the Catskills this weekend - view is towards the Trapps. We got over there and did the circuit, total 12 miles.
Friday, May 4. 2018
"Respice finem."
Roman proverb, via David Warren
Monday, April 16. 2018
“The growth of the Internet will slow drastically, as the flaw in ‘Metcalfe’s law’—which states that the number of potential connections in a network is proportional to the square of the number of participants—becomes apparent: most people have nothing to say to each other! By 2005 or so, it will become clear that the Internet’s impact on the economy has been no greater than the fax machine’s.”
Nobel Laureate Paul Krugman, 1998, via Zero Hedge
Wednesday, April 11. 2018
Thursday, March 29. 2018
"The most difficult fitness exercise is dragging your lazy, useless ass to the gym."
My genius trainer.
Wednesday, March 28. 2018
Most people do not really want freedom, because freedom involves responsibility, and most people are frightened of responsibility.
Sigmund Freud
Tuesday, March 27. 2018
"In times of profound change, the learners inherit the earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists."
Eric Hoffer, via Althouse
Tuesday, March 20. 2018
“The worst thing in the world to be is the red part of a blue state.”
Joel Kotkin, via Insty
Monday, March 19. 2018
“Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people."
Theodore Roosevelt. He was referring to crony capitalism, but it might apply today to the megalithic permanent bureaucracies.
Saturday, March 17. 2018
"Shakespeare did not write his plays to torture adolescent children in school."
I don't know who said that. Furthermore, he did not write them to be read except by actors.
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