Quote of the Day: 6 July 2017

"'You're thinking of your own safety. But think, for a moment, about the system.' Leaning over, she stubbed out her cigarette and funbled in her purse for another. 'Which means more to you—your own personal safety or the existence of the system?'

"'My safey,' Anderton answered, without hesitation.

"'You're positive?'

"'If the system can survive only by imprisoning innocent people, then it deserves to be destroyed. My personal safety is important because I'm a human being.'" -Philip K Dick, The Minority Report

Forest Grove Police Log Excerpt, 5 July 2017

There's got to be at least bit of lack of mental function when you do what is reported here.

June 28* A man used the after-hours dispatch phone located outside the police station to report that the Forest Grove Police Department had tried to kill him and that Forest Grove, Beaverton and Hillsboro police stole his property. The man had first encountered the department's off-duty outreach specialist near the bus stop, whom he asked "Where the pigs lived because they had tried to kill him." Officers arrived at the station to contact the man but they were unable to locate him.

I'm glad I live in a small city, where things like this are big enough to warrant inclusion in the weekly police log.

Quote of the Day: 5 July 2017

"This business of 'giving something back' simply becuase you earned it amounts to manufacturing mystical obligations where none exist in reality. It turns the whole concept of 'debt' on its head. To give it 'back' means it wasn't yours in the first place, but the creation of wealth through private initiative and voluntary exchange does not involve the expropriation of anyone's rightful property." -Lawrence W. Reed

Quote of the Day: 4 July 2017

"July 4, 1776, was a day of history in its high and true significance. Not because the underlying principles set out in the Declaration of Independence were new; they are older than the Christian religion, or Greek philosophy, nor was it because history is made by proclamation or declaration; history is made only by action. But it was an historic day because the representatives of three millions of people there vocalized Concord and Lexington and Bunker Hill, which gave notice to the world that they were acting, and proposed to act, and to found an independent nation, on the theory that 'all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.' The wonder and glory of the American people is not the ringing declaration of that day, but the action, then already begun, and in the process of being carried out in spite of every obstacle that war could interpose, making the theory of freedom and equality a reality. We revere that day because it marks the beginnings of independence, the beginnings of a constitution that was finally to give universal freedom and equality to all American citizens, the beginnings of a government that was to recognize beyond all others the power and worth and dignity of man. There began the first of governments to acknowledge that it was founded on the sovereignty of the people. There the world first beheld the revelation of modern democracy." -Calvin Coolidge

Quote of the Day: 3 July 2017

"[B]ad training can make situations worse. If the person believes that he or she doesn't have what it takes, that can become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

"The obvious solution is to instill confidence. Become a cheerleader. Tell your students they can do anything. That cure is almost as bad as the problem. It is far easier to instill confidence than competence.

"Instill competence. Train hard. If you play hard with actual moving bodies, actual impact, if you take hard hits and give them, you might still have this doubt before the fight ... but once the fight is on, hoo-boy.... If the competence is there, trust that the confidence will come." -Rory Miller

[I have yet to achieve this as I would like, but I trust that this is true. Confidence does seem to be bred of both competence and achievement.]

Quote of the Day: 2 July 2017

"If the work of the Lord is to go forward, it must be done by such as you and me. There is a constant need for men in this church to fill positions of responsibility. They must be taken as they are. And the marvelous thing is that as they serve, taking advantage of the great training programs and magnified by the Spirit of God, they become effective and powerful." -Gordon B. Hinckley

Quote of the Day: 1 July 2017

“We’re going to teach you soldiering. The world’s noblest profession. When we’re done with you, you’ll be able to slaughter your enemies like civilized men.” -Daniel Dravot, The Man Who Would Be King [The movie, and not the story, since I haven't read the story.]