Quote of the Day: 30 June 2017

"Hate speech is ill-defined because it cannot truly be defined with any degree of specificity. Demanding the suppression of 'hate speech' is to demand a world in which we all go silent because one person’s 'free speech' will always be another’s 'hate speech.'” -Frank Camp


[It is, and always has been, a question of who decides.]

Quote of the Day: 29 June 2017

"I'd like to empty my sinuses on the lapels of the legislators who restricted decongestants 'because meth.'" -PaperworkNinja

[And, because I live in Oregon where Sudafed (or its generic counterparts) is the equivalent of a prescription medication (you have to get a note from your doctor saying it's OK for you to purchase it) I feel this particularly strongly.]

Forest Grove Police Log Excerpt, 28 June 2017

The excerpt from this week's log of local police activity:

June 24

* A caller reported it sounded like someone was in their house. Officers found the residence secured and completed a search. A loud washing machine was found on, which may have been the source of the noise.

I don't know what kind of ignorance it takes to not realize what your own washing machine sounds like, but it makes for an interesting little town.

Quote of the Day: 28 June 2017

"The doctor has ordered me to lay off the exercise & radically boost my BBQ intake.

"Unrelatedly, I have begun calling myself 'the doctor.'" -Don Willett

[You have to respect a man who has his BBQ and exercise priorities in order.]

Quote of the Day: 27 June 2017

"For those of us who work in marbled halls, guarded constantly by a vigilant and dedicated police force, the guarantees of the Second Amendment might seem anti­quated and superfluous. But the Framers made a clear choice: They reserved to all Americans the right to bear arms for self-defense. I do not think we should stand by idly while a State denies its citizens that right, particularly when their very lives may depend on it." -Clarence Thomas

Quote of the Day: 26 June 2017

"Our individuality is as inescapable as our humanity. If we are to plan for people, we must plan for individuals, because that's the only kind of people there are." -Roger J. Williams (As quoted in this essay.)

[While people will tend to behave in certain ways collectively, this will never account for the actions of an individual. It is impossible to know what any given person will do when you seek to understand people from a collective viewpoint.]

Quote of the Day: 25 June 2017

"There is wishful thinking in Hell as well as on Earth." -C. S. Lewis

Quote of the Day: 24 June 2017

"If you didn't give the [government] so much power over your life, you wouldn't have to worry about the wrong people doing bad things to you." -Robb Allen

[I probably have several quotes in my database making the same point, but that's because I believe it so strongly.]

Quote of the Day: 23 June 2017

"Actually, there is no such distinction between property rights and human rights. The term property has no significance except as it applies to something owned by someone. Property itself has neither rights nor value, except as human interests are involved. There are no rights but human rights, and what are spoken of as property rights are only the human rights of individuals to property." -Paul L. Poirot

[It is for this reason that there is no true distinction between property rights and human rights; property rights are but a subset of human rights.]

Quote of the Day: 22 June 2017

"If you are a micromanager, you aren't a leader. You aren't even a [bad] leader. You're a busybody who likes to feel important by interfering with better people than yourself. If you have employees who need to be watched every second either you need to hire adults or, more likely they aren't the problem." -Rory Miller

[I hadn't heard it expressed like this before, but it gets to the heart of why I don't – and never have – deal well with micromanagement.]

Forest Grove Police Log Excerpt, 21 June 2017

This week's excerpt from the log of local police activity.

June 13* A patrol officer was flagged down by a woman who wanted a ride home because she was going to be late for the syndicated airing of "Walker, Texas Ranger." Missing a television program, no matter how legendary, is not considered valid grounds for courtesy transportation.

If only missing Chuck Norris in a family friendly drama were recognized for the hardship it actually is.

Quote of the Day: 21 June 2017

"[T]he choice must always be made, if not of the lesser evil, at least of the GREATER, not the PERFECT good; and that in every political institution, a power to advance the public happiness, involves a discretion which may be misapplied and abused." -James Madison, The Federalist No. 41

[Allowances must also be made for the case where the choice is not binary despite some people's insistence that it is.]

Quote of the Day: 20 June 2017

"Sometimes I really think people ought to have to pass a proper exam before they're allowed to be parents. Not just the practical, I mean." -Susan, Thief of Time

[Apropos considering it was Father's Day on Sunday.]

Quote of the Day: 19 June 2017

"The job of tyrants and busybodies is never done. When they accomplish one goal, they move their agenda to something else. If we Americans give them an inch, they'll take a yard. So I say, don't give them an inch in the first place." -Walter E. Williams

[I have been fond of the words of this author for over a decade now. He is as sharp as ever.]

Quote of the Day: 18 June 2017

"[W]e know that fatherhood is much more than a social construct or the product of evolution. The role of father is of divine origin, beginning with a Father in Heaven and, in this mortal sphere, with Father Adam." -D. Todd Christofferson

Quote of the Day: 17 June 2017

“Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book has been rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street and building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And that process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right. I know, of course, that the past is falsified, but it would never be possible for me to prove it, even when I did the falsification myself. After the thing is done, no evidence ever remains. The only evidence is inside my own mind, and I don’t know with any certainty that any other human being shares my memories.” -Winston Smith, 1984

[This process has commenced in our own lives. I pray we are able to reverse the trend. The elimination of history is a dangerous objective.]

Quote of the Day: 16 June 2017

"He's just ignorant. He doesn't know any better than to tell the truth." -G W McClintock, in McClintock!

[A great film, and an inadvertent bit of truth to boot.]

Quote of the Day: 15 June 2017

"This has gone so spectacularly wrong." -Jeremy Clarkson

[This is so much better devoid of context that you're getting none here.]

Forest Grove Police Log Excerpt, 14 June 2017

I live in a small city, though larger than you might think. The police department here provides a write up of some of the calls handled by the department and provides that to the media. Here is an excerpt from this week's log.

June 8* A caller complained that their neighbor had thrown a beer bottle onto their property. Before officers were able to launch an investigation, the caller reported  the neighbor had picked up the thrown bottle.

As you can see, we have very pressing issues for the police to deal with.

Quote of the Day: 14 June 2017

"When the people of the Colonies were defending their liberties against the might of kings, they chose their banner from the design set in the firmament through all eternity. The flags of the great empires of that day are gone, but the Stars and Stripes remain. It pictures the vision of a people whose eyes were turned to the rising dawn. It represents the hope of a father for his posterity. It was never flaunted for the glory of royalty, but to be born under it is to be a child of a king, and to establish a home under it is to be the founder of a royal house. Alone of all flags it expresses the sovereignty of the people which endures when all else passes away. Speaking with their voice it has the sanctity of revelation. He who lives under it and is loyal to it is loyal to truth and justice everywhere. He who lives under it and is disloyal to it is a traitor to the human race everywhere." -Calvin Coolidge

[It is Flag Day.]

Quote of the Day: 13 June 2017

"[I]f only we could get the incipient little totalitarians to understand that it’s possible to have more than one opinion about things, that total unanimity is not a sign you’re right but a sign you’re afraid (or voiceless), and that dissent is not some kind of crime in other more important areas, like national politics." -Sarah Hoyt

[Without checking the source, half the people who read these words will think it refers to their 'opponents.' I'm unsure if the other half just won't care, or if they'll even ponder what the possible meaning might be. Very few, I'm sure, will think that it could possibly have application for themselves.]

Quote of the Day: 12 June 2017

"The self-interest of people in government leads them to behave in a way that is against the self-interest of the rest of us." -Milton Friedman

Quote of the Day: 11 June 2017

"This rock of revelation is the source of knowledge concerning the things of God. It is the witness of the Holy Spirit that testifies of eternal truth, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against any man who seeks it, who accepts it, who cultivates it, and who lives by it." -Gordon B. Hinckley

Quote of the Day: 10 June 2017

"I understand the appeal of peace. I understand the waste of young men dying in battle. But I also understand that peace is not a unilateral choice and that humans being humans there will always be threats." -Sarah Hoyt

[So many people don't realize that peace is not a choice you get to make on your own. The other party has to agree to peace as well.]

Quote of the Day: 9 June 2017

"By our nature, hunters are driven to see what's on the other side—the other side of the hill, the forest, the marsh, or the world[.]" -John Zent

[The story this comes from was enjoyable to read. And the sentiment expressed is something I have felt myself. I would love to make the same trip the author did one day, and harvest my own deer in New Zealand.]

Quote of the Day: 8 June 2017

"With a Resource Predator, you can usually give up the resource–your money, your car, whatever–and the situation is resolved. With the process predator, what you would have to give up is yourself. No deal." -Rory Miller

[I am unable to easily distinguish the two. Therefore, I will have to decline to negotiate with whichever variety I encounter.]

Quote of the Day: 7 June 2017

"If I ever have to fight an animal I hope it's a frog...." -My financial advisor

[It's rational thoughts like this that let me know I can trust him to give sound advice about my money. (OK, really it's because we interviewed him and decided his investment philosophy matched our risk tolerance and financial goals, but this is funnier.)]

Quote of the Day: 6 June 2017

"The next time you say 'I have a right,' ask: 'Who has the duty?' If there is anyone who has a duty to do anything except refrain from interfering with you, ask: 'On what grounds do I claim a right to subordinate that person's will to mine?'" -Charles W. Baird

[Can we just dispense with the silly idea of positive rights? Please?]

Quote of the Day: 5 June 2017

"The world is made up of four elements: Earth, Air, Fire, and Water. This is a fact well known even to Corporal Nobbs. It's also wrong. There's a fifth element, and generally it's called Surprise." -Terry Pratchett

[And, boy, does it throw us for a loop when it makes itself known.]

Quote of the Day: 4 June 2017

"[T]he Present is the point at which time touches eternity." -Screwtape

[Though placed in the mouth of a demon, this is the absolute truth.]

Quote of the Day: 3 June 2017

"The plain fact is that government compassion is not the same as personal and private compassion. When we expect the government to substitute for what we ourselves ought to do, we expect the impossible and we end up with the intolerable. We don't really solve problems, we just manage them expensively into perpetuity and create a bunch of new ones along the way." -Lawrence W. Reed

[I never have, and never will understand why this concept is so hard to grasp. It seems so simple to me.]

Quote of the Day: 2 June 2017

"Justice is the end of government. It is the end of civil society. It ever has been, and ever will be, pursued, until it be obtained, or until liberty be lost in the pursuit." -James Madison, The Federalist No. 51

Quote of the Day: 1 June 2017

"I hope when I inevitably choke to death on gummy bears people just say I was killed by bears and leave it at that." -@markydoodoo