Thought For The Day

“Once men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free. But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them.” 

Frank Herbert, Dune

I have been wondering if the Butlerian Jihad is going to begin earlier, and look different, than Herbert thought... 

QOTD, Wifely Wisdom Edition

As mentioned in the previous post, we have some show set at the Bronx Zoo running.

Being a tiger means never having to say you're sorry
Mrs. Drang

QOTD, Blast From The Past Edition

Reviewing some more old posts, and found this one (The Clue Meter: Definition of the Day, 03/28/2010):

Sunday, March 28, 2010
 
Definition of the Day, 03/28/2010

So, there I was, trying to craft a really deep, profound, post on the nature of "human rights" and how to define what is, and is not, a human right.
Still struggling with it.
So I go to Google Reader and start reading... reading... Gun Blogger IV participant's blogs... reading... What's Chuck up to...?
Damn it, he summed it up better than I could.

A great litmus test is this:  Does this right have to be provided by someone or something?

If the answer is yes, then it isn't a right.

OK, so a "litmus test" is not a definition, but still.  

 The topic of  "The nature of human rights" came up recently in a Pistol-Forums thread a week or so ago, I may have to seek that thread out and post there...

QOTD, Blast From The Past Edition

Going back through old posts and saw that, on Tuesday, March 9, 2010, Tamara won the Internetz again with this:

The problem is that the .gov acts like there was strong encryption on the Constitution and they don't have the right key to read it.

 Really, it's been her Internetz all along and she just lets us use it, too. 

QOTD, 01/13/16

It’s nice to elect the right people, but that’s not the way you solve things. The way you solve things is by making it politically profitable for the wrong people to do the right things.

Milton Friedman

 Via Instapundit.

The Blood Dance

Or: What Do Progressives Do When The Narrative Collapses?

QOTD worthy, from Tamara:

Today show is wall-to-wall "workplace violence mass shooting"as they cut off the legs of jihad to fit it into the Procrustean bed of the gun control narrative.

Meanwhile, as Tamara and Bobbi both also address, the definition of "mass shooting" has been redefined again, to now mean "four people shot, not necessarily killed." Because now they can claim "more mass shootings than days in 2015!" Ignoring the reality that most of these involve gang bangers, usually of the same (non-European) ethnic background, and quite frequently many are winged but few are killed.

Naturally, His Imperial Majesty Barack Hussein Obama, in Paris to deal with the number one existential threat to modern civilization(anthropogenic climate change, in case you missed it) got up on his hind legs, ran his suck, and once again made the claim that "these things don"t happen in other coutnries." 

In Paris.

Three weeks after ISIS slaughtered over a hundred.

The French press, apparently, called him an asshole. (Although I'm not as confident of that translation as the person reporting it is. Then again, insults and swear words often just sound silly, not insulting, in translation...)

Meanwhile, this seems to have been planned: Couple Kept Tight Lid on Plans for San Bernardino Shooting - The New York Times, although the Noo Yawk Slimes still insists a motive is unknown...

A good article: Obama’s inconsistent claim on the ‘frequency’ of mass shootings in the U.S. compared to other countries - The Washington Post

QOTD, 10/03/2015

Perhaps...

What we should stop doing in the wake of any attack from anyone is listening to the "talking" points of academics, politicians, or psychologists who have no real world experience in most anything let alone contending with dangerous armed men bent of committing evil. And instead listen to dangerous, armed men who are committed to preserving society.

 By Matthew at StraightForward in a Crooked World: Perhaps...

QOTD, 07/31/2015

Quote of the day, seen at Thoughts from the ammo line | Power Line

George Orwell was a cockeyed optimist.

Alas,I see no reason to think that Ammo Grrrll* is wrong.


*Three n"r"s and two "l"s, I counted. Twice.

QOTD, 06/30/2015

To understand the workings of American politics, you have to understand this fundamental law: Conservatives think liberals are stupid. Liberals think conservatives are evil.
Charles Krauthammer
July 26, 2002

QOTD

From User AuricTech on Bill Quick's Emergency Preps forum:

Minds are like parachutes.  If yours isn't fully functioning within about four seconds of encountering a developing emergency situation, you need to implement Plan B.

QOTD, 03/30/2015

Do I contradict myself? Very well, then I contradict myself, I am large, I contain multitudes. Walt Whitman

QOTD, 3/16/15

Seen on Michael Z. Williamson's Facebook page:

Time travel is a 4-Edged Sword
Bill Dunbar

QOTD, I-594 Edition

Followed this link (Monopolies, Mercantilism, Illegal Buttons, and Saltpeter Men | Libertarianism.org*) on facespace to one of these new-fangeled podcast thingies -- don't partake, as I just don't do the things folks do where listening to podcasts would be appropriate --  because this salient quote was the lead-in:

An absurd law, precisely because it is absurd, will generate widespread contempt and noncompliance among the people. This makes enforcement difficult for a government, which can impose its will only through draconian measures. Laws may be humorous, but their enforcement rarely is.
George H. Smith

Seems that the crafters of law should keep this in mind.

*"George H. Smith offers a glance at a few economic regulations throughout history."

QOTD, 08/28/2014, Cisbellum Movie Edition

Me, I kinda relish gettin' old. Takes the bother outta livin'.
James Whitmore, The Outriders

For a while, anyway...

For a generation James Whitmore is best known for flogging some gardening nostrum or other. 

To me, he will always be SSG Kinnie, the platoon sergeant in Battleground.

QOTD, One Giant leap Edition

I always knew I'd see the first man on the moon.  I never dreamed I'd see the last.
Jerry Pournelle

QOTD, 05/23/2014, Breathtaking Hypocrisy Edition

When he was an ambitious state senator in Illinois, Barack Obama despised White House power grabs. It was so Washington. “The biggest problem that we’re facing right now,” he said in 2008, “has to do with George Bush trying to bring more and more power into the executive branch and not go through Congress at all, and that’s what I intend to reverse when I’m president of the United States of America.”

Also noted in my previous post.

Source: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/may/19/editorial-squeezing-the-gunsmiths/#ixzz32Z12yByS
Follow us: @washtimes on Twitter

QOTD, 01/12/2014

Gun geek humor, As Seen On Facebook:

Marshall A Willis: Is it true that BATFE does not classify the Chauchat as a Class III weapon?

QOTD, 10/24/2013

Quite possibly Quote of the Decade.

From Mike Williamson on Facespace:

Let us hope the administration doesn't try to implement a nationwide energy policy. I suspect they can find a way for us to lose knowledge of fire.

QOTD, 05/03/13

Watch out for the fellow who talks about putting things in order! Putting things in order always means getting other people under your control.

Denis Diderot, Supplement to Bougainville's 'Voyage,' 1796
French author, encyclopedist, & philosopher (1713 - 1784)

RIP, Baroness Thatcher -- Updated

Margaret Thatcher - Wikipedia

Quotes:

• I wish I could say that the Chancellor of the Exchequer had done himself less than justice. Unfortunately, I can only say that I believe he has done himself justice. Some Chancellors are macro-economic. Other Chancellors are fiscal. This one is just plain cheap. 
• If a Tory does not believe that private property is one of the main bulwarks of individual freedom, then he had better become a socialist and have done with it.  
• And I will go on criticising Socialism, and opposing Socialism because it is bad for Britain — and Britain and Socialism are not the same thing. (...) It’s the Labour Government that have brought us record peace-time taxation. They’ve got the usual Socialist disease — they’ve run out of other people’s money. 
•  A man's right to work as he will, to spend what he earns, to own property, to have the State as servant and not as master: these are the British inheritance. They are the essence of a free economy. And on that freedom all our other freedoms depend. 
• I hate extremes of any kind. Communism and the National Front both seek the domination of the state over the individual. They both, I believe crush the right of the individual. To me, therefore, they are parties of a similar kind. All my life I have stood against banning Communism or other extremist organisations because, if you do that, they go underground and it gives them an excitement that they don't get if they are allowed to pursue their policies openly. We'll beat them into the ground on argument... The National Front is a Socialist Front. 
• To those waiting with bated breath for that favourite media catchphrase, the U-turn, I have only one thing to say: You turn if you want to. [laughter] The lady's not for turning.  

UPDATE: That last may be her most famous, of course, but I like this one, which I've seen at a couple of other sitres:
"If you just set out to be liked, you would be prepared to compromise on anything at any time and you would achieve nothing."  - 1989, commenting on her 10th anniversary as prime minister.