"...you
took your gun with you, just in case, as you always did..."
- Christopher Robin, Winnie the Pooh
"Christopher Robin, you must shoot the balloon with
your gun. Have you got your gun?"
"Of course I have," you said.
- Winnie the Pooh
"The project of disciplining all the militia of the United States is as
futile as it would be injurious, if it were capable of being carried into
execution. A tolerable expertness in military movements is a business that
requires time and practice. It is not a day, or even a week, that will suffice
for the attainment of it. To oblige the great body of the yeomanry, and of
the other classes of the citizens, to be under arms for the purpose of going
through military exercises and evolutions, as often as might be necessary
to acquire the degree of perfection which would entitle them to the character
of a well-regulated militia, would be a real grievance to the people, and
a serious public inconvenience and loss. It would form an annual deduction
from the productive labor of the country, to an amount which, calculating
upon the present numbers of the people, would not fall far short of the whole
expense of the civil establishments of all the States. To attempt a thing
which would abridge the mass of labor and industry to so considerable an extent,
would be unwise: and the experiment, if made, could not succeed, because
it would not long be endured. Little more can reasonably be aimed at, with
respect to the people at large, than to have them properly armed and equipped"
-Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No.2
Small minds discuss people.
Regular minds discuss events.
Great minds discuss ideas.
Why is this taking so long? I should have been famous a minute ago!
- Dexter
One of the most fashionable notions of our times is that social problems
like poverty and oppression breed wars. Most wars, however, are started by
well-fed people with time on their hands to dream up half-baked ideologies
or grandiose ambitions, and to nurse real or imagined grievances.
- Thomas Sowell
"The poorest man may, in his cottage, bid defiance to all the forces of
the Crown. It may be frail, its roof may shake; the wind may blow through
it; the storm may enter; the rain may enter; but the King of England may
not enter; all his force dares not cross the threshhold of that ruined tenement."
- William Pitt
A daydream underlies all Marxism: that a thing might somehow be worth
other than what people will give for it.
- P.J. O'Rourke
"He's got a knife!"
"Of course he's got a knife! We've all got knives. It's 1185 and we're barbarians."
- The
Lion in Winter
You are the star of the show when you are the only one speaking.
- Anthony Hopkins (quoting a director correcting him when he flubbed his lines
in a play)
Now, one day back at Data General, his weariness focused on the logic
analyzer and the small catastrophes that come from trying to build a machine
that operates in billionths of a second. On this occasion, he went away from
the basement and left this note on his terminal: I'm going to a commune
in Vermont and will deal with no unit of time shorter than a season.
- Tracy Kidder, The
Soul Of A New Machine
Consider that last year there were more than 14 million Americans who
bought licenses to hunt deer in the country. 14 million-- that's a number
greater than the largest five professional armies in the world combined.
Consider also that those deer hunters are not only armed, but they own items
of military utility-- everything from camouflage clothing to infrared "game
finders", Global Positioning System devices and night vision scopes.
- Mike Vanderboegh, "What good can
a handgun do against an Army?"
The Roman Republic failed because they could not successfully answer the
question, "Who Shall Guard the Guards?"
- Mike Vanderboegh
All truth is one.
In this light, may science and religion endeavor together for the steady
evolution of Mankind:
From darkness to light,
From narrowness to broadmindedness,
From prejudice to tolerance,
It is the voice of life that calls us
To come and learn.
- Anonymous, quoted by Cliff Stoll
You know, 'surprised' can be an alarmingly inadequate word.
- Michael M. McDermott @
I dislike death, however there are some things I dislike more than death. Therefore, there are times when I will not avoid danger.
Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.
"Give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. Give him the URL of a fishing supply and trivia site, and he'll not eat for days!.... but at least he's left you alone..."
"You have the ground you encamp on, and you have no more. The cantonments
of your troops and your dominions are exactly of the same extent. You spread
devastation, but you do not enlarge the sphere of authority."
- Edmund Burke to the Sheriffs of Bristol, April 3, 1777
In the collective Palestinian memory, the summer of 1982 in Beirut was
a period of supreme bravery. Arafat likes to recall how his fighters lasted
for three months - with RPG launchers and AK-47s - under fire from the world's
most advanced weapons: planes, missile boats, tanks and cannons.
- Ha'aretz Daily
Newspaper
"I not only use all the brains I have, but all I can borrow."
As nightfall does not come all at once, neither does oppression.
In both instances there is twilight.
And it is in such twilight that we all must be aware of change in the air,
however slight, lest we become unwitting victims of the darkness.
- Justice William O. Douglass
"The Constitution is either a superior, paramount law, unchangeable by
ordinary means, or it is on a level with ordinary legislative acts and, like
other acts, is alterable when the legislature shall please to alter it. If
the former part of the alternative be true, then a legislative act contrary
to the Constitution is not law; if the latter part be true, then written constitutions
are absurd attempts, on the part of the people, to limit a power in its own
nature illimitable." Thus, the constitution is either The Supreme
Law of the Land, superceding all other laws, or the Constitution is a worthless
piece of paper. If the latter, government can do as it pleases. If the former,
tyrants have seized sovereignty illegally, it is the duty of the people to
put them in their proper place in history.
- Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, John Marshall - 1803
Necessity is the plea for every infringment of human liberty. It is the
argument of tyrants, it is the creed of slaves.
- William Penn
No man cries so loudly for justice as he who would have no part in its
establishment.
- Terrence Beard
"If there is no final place for civil disobedience, then the government
has been made autonomous, and as such, it has been put in the place of the
Living God."
- Dr. Francis A. Schaeffer
"The promotion of "self-esteem" in our schools has been so successful
that people feel free to spout off about all sorts of things -- and see no
reason why their opinions should not be taken as seriously as the views of
people who actually know what they are talking about."
- Thomas Sowell
@
"It would be the greatest mistake, certainly, to think that concessions
mean peace. Nothing of the kind. Concessions are nothing but a new form of
war."
- V. I. Lenin
In the recent rifle class a question was posed as to at what age should
you introduce your son to his rifle. The Countess came up with the perfect
answer (as she usually does), which was, "when his voice changes." The next
question was, what do you mean by introduce? As I see it, the young man should
be given his weapon, thoroughly instructed in it, and then made responsible
for it. By choice he should keep it in his room and maintain it spotlessly
clean and ready for inspection at all times. It should become his "Linus blanket"
to provide him with moral support when skies are dark. This program, of course,
implies properly raised children, which seems to be confusingly rare today.
Joe Foss, the authentic hero, tells a tale upon himself. When he was given
his first rifle he was allowed to take it out and use it by himself, though
not in company. Tempted beyond resistance, he let go and fractured a ceramic
insulator on a power line. For this sin he was grounded for a year - a truly
awesome penalty. At age 14 a year is forever, and Joe had full time to ponder
upon his precious rifle locked away in his father's closet. It is not necessary
to use tranquilizers to "train up the child in the way he should go."
- Jeff Cooper @
For all your days prepare. And meet them all alike: When you are the anvil,
bear- When you are the hammer, strike.
-Edwin Markham, 1950, "Preparedness"
The ultimate aim of the martial arts is not having to use them.
- Miyamoto Musashi
Moral Values and the Warrior Ethic in Modern Society
I am asked frequently why I practice and teach classical warrior skills and
adhere to a philosophy that appears antiquated to many. The sword has defined
the warrior for thousands of years. It has defined the power, ethics, duty,
and self defense of a class of people that have shaped the face of civilization
on this planet. The skill, exercise, mental development, and sheer pleasure
of using a sword is unique. Hand to hand combat with edged weapons is the
most demanding of human physical combat. It not only demands the most skill,
both physical and mental, it develops in the adept abilities that separates
him from others and elevates intuition, reflexes, and technique to the highest
ddegree. For the warrior the sword represents his honor and responsibility.
The emotional tie is stronger than with other weapons and the training for
it's use strengthens his spirit. Jesse and I formed Bugei Trading Company
because of our love for the warrior ideal and ethic. We feel that any society
that loses these warrior virtues is a poorer one and will soon be a society
who's freedoms are lost. The male has a prime directive to protect and defend.
Every man is responsible for defending every woman and every child. When the
male no longer takes this role, when he no longer has the courage or feels
the moral responsibility, then that society will no longer be a society where
honor and virtue are esteemed. Laws and government cannot replace this personal
caring and commitment. In the absence of the warrior protector, the only
way that a government can protect a society is to remove the freedoms of
the people. And the sons and daughters of lions become sheep.
- "James" of Bugei Trading Company
A Democracy: Three wolves and a sheep voting on dinner.
A Republic: The flock gets to vote for which wolves vote on dinner.
A Constitutional Republic: Voting on dinner is expressly forbidden, and the
sheep are armed.
Federal Government: The means by which the sheep will be fooled into voting
for a Democracy.
Freedom: Two very hungry wolves looking for dinner and finding a very well-informed
and well-armed sheep.
"You can not reason a man out of a position he did not reach through reason."
Jesus said to them, "Who do you say that I am?"
They replied, "You are the eschatological manifestation of the ground of our
being, the kerygma of which we find the ultimate meaning in our interpersonal
relationships."
And Jesus said, "What?"
"If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better
than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not
your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May
your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our
countrymen"
- Samuel Adams, speech at the Philadelphia State House, August 1, 1776.
"Freedom isn't something you take away because you don't like others having theirs."
"We need violence and we need tragedy. I'm sorry to inform people of this,
but that's how we got here. We beat the crap out of everybody else all up
the evolutionary tree. That's why we have dominion over this planet now. You
don't wring that out of your DNA in just a couple of generations because people
are uncomfortable with where things came from. We are some ethnocentric, murderous
mf's."
- Drew Markham, creator of computer game Kingpin: Life of Crime
"People can't expect President Clinton to sit there in front of a camera
and say, 'Tonight I have declared martial law.' You'll just find out about
it when you try and get on the main highway and there's a humvee with a soldier
who says, 'Turn back.' And when you ask why, he puts his gun into ready position
and says, 'I'm only following orders. Please turn back.' You can challenge
that. You can say they -- the commander or the soldier -- have no constitutional
authority for this, and you may be correct. But you will be arguing on the
wrong side of a barbed wire fence. They can simply do it. It will not be debated."
- Larry Pratt @
"A permanent standing military seeks causes for its continued existence
and resources to maintain itself. A citizen army--an army of the people--participates
in the debate as to why it exists, what threat it must repel, and how and
where it may be used. For a democratic republic, there is a world of difference
between these two institutions."
- Gary Hart @
"There are some ideas so preposterous, only an intellectual could believe
them."
- George Orwell
"Littleton SWAT team: more proof that the police are not there to protect you. (They stayed outside a school, listening to kids die, until the gunmen killed themselves. Only then did SWAT go in, apparently to clean up the mess.)"
"On the way over to Whittington, the staff decided to define 'The Four
Wimps of the Apocalypse,' as follows: Timidity, Avarice, Sensitivity, and
Ignorance. We got into some discussion about the matter of sensitivity, since
it seems to be definable in several ways. We do feel, however, this exaggerated
social tenderness manifest in the school system definitely deserves a place
on the list."
- Jeff Cooper @
"Don't take the filthy Continentals as being 'mature' either. France is on their 5th Republic, Italy on their 56th government since 1945, Germany has been a monarchy, a republic, a Nazi dictatorship and now a federal republic in just this century. America's system is older than all of them. They have no bloody idea what the hell they're talking about."
"A right, to be truely so, must be right in itself, yet many things have
obtained the name of rights, which are originally founded in wrong."
- Thomas Paine, 1780
"A pacifist with a machine gun is not armed, he's just holding on to a machine gun."
"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher
a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build
a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate,
act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a
computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently and die gallantly. Specialization
is for insects."
- Robert A. Heinlein
"To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation
of opinions which he disbelieves, is sinful and tyrannical."
- Thomas Jefferson
"Better that a thousand guilty men go free than one innocent man be inprisoned."
"The climate record shows that current temperatures are a little below the mean for the past three thousand years, and that temperatures during those three millennia have often been higher - sometimes by more than 20 centigrade. No climate catastrophe is recorded in the history of those periods."
$1 trillion. For that kind of money you could buy the nuclear stockpiles
of the old Soviet Union, blow it all off in your backyard, and fill the hole
with Tamagotchis.
- Harvey Robbins & Michael Finley
"I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government
from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking
care of them."
- Thomas Jefferson
You are intrigued. You want to be a part of it. You are determined to be bored by it before any of your friends.
A rolodex is a wonderful substitute for actual knowledge.
- Robert Bork, on George W. Bush
If you think that's ridiculous, then you haven't seen Tae-Bo.
This is the current hot fad, advertised extensively on TV by perspiring mutants.
As I understand it, Tae-Bo is based on martial arts; the difference is that
martial artists actually learn to defend themselves, whereas Tae-Bo people
throw pretend punches and kicks strictly for fitness purposes. While they're
busy kicking air and checking their abdominals, an actual mugger could walk
right up and whack them with a crowbar.
- Dave Barry @
What lies before you and what lies behind you are tiny matters compared
to what lies within you.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
It is not the answer which enlightens, but the question.
- Eugene Ionesco
An invasion of armies can be resisted, but not an idea whose time has
come.
- Victor Hugo
No, I did not attend his funernal; but I wrote a very nice letter approving
of it.
- Mark Twain
It's amazing what a large group of stupid people can accomplish.
A group of stupid people MUST accomplish something intelligent, otherwise they negate themselves. Only by the contrast of something intelligent can they be stupid; hence, a conclusion of complete incompetence falsifies the premise. Only when they produce something truly brilliant can they be considered truly stupid.
The "postmodern" condition of alienated, disjointed late-20th-century
humanity was officially upgraded to "pre-apocalyptic" Monday, when new findings
from leading postmodernist theorist Richard Rorty were published in the new
issue of Semiotexte. "I was flipping through the cable channels the other
night, trying to get an abstract sense of the way emergent processes of change
and transformation generated by contemporary high-tech society are challenging
cultural assumptions regarding diverse aesthetic forms to create a novel state
of history," Rorty said, "when, all of a sudden, I realized that everything
I was looking at was the biggest load of unimaginably horrific crap ever."
At this point in the socio-cultural discourse, Rorty said, the key question
is no longer whether or not social fragmentation, cultural meta-juxtaposition
and socioeconomic problematics require new modes of experience and interpretation,
but rather, "When will the seven-headed dragon of the End Times descend upon
us all in unholy fury?"
- Bruce Sterling
"Before 1912, when there was no 'gun control' in this nation and machine
guns could be purchased through the mail, foreign visitors found America
one of the most peaceful and polite nations on earth."
- Vin Suprynowicz
"Did you really think that we want those laws to be observed?" said Dr.
Ferris. "We *want* them broken. You'd better get it straight - that it's not
a bunch of boy scouts you're up against - then you'll know that this
is not the age for beautiful gestures. We're after power and we mean it.
You fellows were pikers, but we know the real trick, and you'd better get
wise to it. There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government
has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough
criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that
it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation
of law-abiding citizens? What's there in that for anyone? But just pass the
kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced nor objectively interpreted
- and you create a nation of law-breakers - and then
you cash in on guilt. Now that's the system, Mr. Rearden, that's the game,
and once you understand it, you'll be much easier to deal with."
- Ayn Rand, _Atlas Shrugged , Ch. III, "White Blackmail" (Dr. Ferris)
"The people of the various provinces are strictly forbidden to have in
their possession any swords, short swords, bows, spears, firearms, or other
types of arms. The possession of unnecessary implements makes difficult
the collection of taxes and dues and tends to foment uprisings."
- Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1536-1598), Japanese shogun, Tensho 16, Seventh Month,
8th Day [August 29?, 1588], quoted in _Sources of Japanese Tradition,_ Ryusaku
Tsunoda, ed. (Columbia University Press, 1958), p.329
If you bring a stick to a fist fight, then it's a stick fight, and your
opponnent is under-equiped. So you bring a knife to that. That makes
it a knife fight, Which you are supposed to bring a gun to. That
makes it a gun fight, Which you are supposed to stay out of. Simple
huh?
- Pasha <travii@Kipshouse.org>
If guns are outlawed,
Can we use swords instead?
"I suppose I could have blown up a few trucks, put bad food back on the
deli counter or accused the military of nerve-gassing deserters and kept my
journalistic integrity throughout. But I realized early on, it is easier to
sleep at night if you can say at every step that you reported the truth as
you knew it."
- Matt Drudge
"When you're good, you don't have to be violent. The technique almost
takes the volence out of it."
- Announcer of the '94 Ultimate Fighting Championship
"One of the common failings among honorable people is a failure to appreciate
how thoroughly dishonorable some other people can be, and how dangerous it
is to trust them."
-- Thomas Sowell
"I think it's plain that the president should resign and spare the country
the agony of this impeachment and removal proceeding. I think the country
could be spared a lot of agony and the government could worry about inflation
and a lot of other problems if he'd go on and resign."
-- Bill Clinton, referring to President Richard M. Nixon, Aug 8, 1974.
Man it's so dangerous here that even the Police have to carry guns!
"There are precious few horror films that couldn't be cut well short by
a single loaded 12 ga and someone with the sense to use it."
-- K.R. Murphy
99.8% of gun owners don't get in trouble with their guns any given year.
Of the 2/10ths of 1% who do get in trouble, 6% are responsible for 70% of
violent crime involving firearms. This 6% of the 2/10ths of 1% who commit
70% of firearms crime tend to have a long criminal history and are usually
felons. For the rest of firearms use regarding crime in this country, a firearms
is four times more likely to be used to prevent a crime than commit one.
- Jacob Rieper
The world is filled with violence. Because criminals carry guns,
we decent law-abiding citizens should also have guns. Otherwise they
will win and the decent people will lose.
- James Earl Jones
(From a "the government is doing X for a good cause" thread:)
"Let's just put this yellow star on your shirt. There's a good fellow.
Now if you'll just put out your arm so we can put this little tatoo number
on you. Thank you so much. Here are your papers. Be sure
to carry them with you at all times so that you can show them to the officials
whenever they wish to see them. Now, to be sure that you are free from
any diseases and contaminants, would you please step over to these showers?
Your family will also be treated, but in a different location. They
are stepping into that railroad car at this moment. Don't worry.
Their luggage is well marked, and will be kept safely for their return."
- inigo@montoya.net (D. P. Roberts)
"False is the idea of utility that sacrifices a thousand real advantages
for one imaginary or trifling inconvenience; that would take fire from men
because it burns, and water because one may drown in it; that has no remedy
for evils except destruction. The laws that forbid the carrying of arms are
laws of such a nature. They disarm only those who are neither inclined
nor determined to commit crimes. Can it be supposed that those who have
the courage to violate the most sacred laws of humanity, the most important
of the code, will respect the less important and arbitrary ones, which can
be violated with ease and impunity, and which, if strictly obeyed, would put
an end to personal liberty --so dear to men, so dear to the enlightened
legislator-- and subject innocent persons to all the vexations that the guilty
alone ought to suffer? Such laws make things worse for the assaulted
and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent
homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than
an armed man. They ought to be designated as laws not preventive but
fearful of crimes, produced by the tumultuous impression of a few isolated
facts, and not by thoughtful consideration of the inconveniences and advantages
of a universal decree."
- Thomas Jefferson
"The smallest minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny
individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities."
-Ayn Rand
Avoid the legal nets
That entangled Bernie Goetz,
Just shout "Help! Help! Police!"
Like Kitty Genovese...
"The fact that something 'boggles the mind' merely says something about the mind, not the something."
"For every complicated problem, there is a simple solution -- and it is wrong."
"There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has
is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals,
one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes
impossible to live without breaking laws".
- Ayn Rand, _Atlas Shrugged_
Gun control: the theory that Black people will be better off when only Mark Fuhrman has a gun.
'If someone comes to kill you, arise quickly and kill him.'"
- Standard Jewish interpretation of verses in Exodus, Chapter 22
"While showing the impact of firearms legislation on violent crime may
be difficult, the recent experience of Great Britain demonstrates how such
legislation affects law-abiding firearms owners. Since the enactment of extremely
restrictive gun controls in 1988, the number of legal gun owners has dropped
by almost 19 percent. During the same period, the rate of robbery with a firearm
has more than doubled, and the overall violent crime rate has increased by
29 percent."
- Gary Mauser, "Gun Control Is Not Crime Control," Fraser Forum Supplement,
1995, The Fraser Institute, 626 Bute Street, Vancouver, BC, V6E3M1
Prior to January 1978 when Bill C-51 came into effect, Canada had very liberal gun laws. From 1977 to 1991, Canada's violent crime rate has increased 89% (583 to 1099 violent crimes per 100,000 population) compared to a 59% for the US in the same period. (476 to 758 violent crimes per 100,000 population).
Among the many misdeeds of the British Rule in India, history will look
upon the act of depriving a whole nation of arms as the blackest.
- Mahatma Gandhi
Strange how much human accomplishment and progress comes from contemplation
of the irrelevant.
- Scott Kim
Only somone who has mastered violence can truly choose to be non-violent.
The taoists and buddists who developed the eastern martial arts understood
this. Ignoring the problems of violence do not make them go away.
- Kit Lewis
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_
"The empty hand corrects your children, chastises your dog, and defends
you when you are taken naked and by surprise in the bath. The rest of the
time you should be carrying something."
- Maha Guru Victor de Thouars
"The Paul Vunak video I have illustrates students practicing [knife techniques]
at different distances while he taps out rythym on drums. It is all exercises.
At the end he selects a knife (an Emerson) and slices a large leg of beef
to demonstrate what a knife can do to the human body, then ends the tape by
admonishing viewers to run like hell, and avoid a knife fight if at all possible.
If you're trapped, then attempt to defend yourself."
- Bud Lang
Recent experience here in Australia with severe gun laws and the current
rumblings about knife-related violence suggest that the meek are, indeed
inheriting the Earth.
- brian w edginton
"Technology adds nothing to art. Two thousand years ago, I could tell
you a story, and at any point during the story I could stop, and ask, Now
do you want the hero to be kidnapped, or not? But that would, of course,
have ruined the story. Part of the experience of being entertained is sitting
back and plugging into someone else's vision. The fact of the matter is,
since the beginning of time, you could buy a Picasso and change the colors.
That's trivial. But you don't because you're buying a piece of Picasso's
$&#**^% soul. That's the definition of art: Art is one person's ego trip."
- Penn Jillette
"Our Constitution was made only for a moral and a religious people, it
is wholly inadequate for the government of any other."
- J. Adams
Gun contol advocates would prefer to see a woman in an alley stripped
of her clothes, raped, with her panty hose about her neck, than to see her
with a gun in her hand defending herself. Those who would disarm us are allied
with our enemies, the criminals, gang bangers and creeps.
- Unknown
"People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men
stand ready to do violence on their behalf."
- George Orwell
"Corruptisima republica plurimae leges." (The more corrupt the state,
the more numerous the laws.)
- Tacitus, Annals III 27
"I do believe that where there is a choice only between cowardice and
violence I would advise violence."
- Mohandas Gandhi
How come our society glorifies a TV movie punk who shoots a Glock sideways
at mostly innocent bystaders and villifies me when I take a kid to a rifle
range and teach him how to use one correctly and responsibly?
- suecon@gte.net
"The ruling class doesn't care about public safety. Having made it very
difficult for States and localities to police themselves, having left ordinary
citizens with no choice but to protect themselves as best they can, they
now try to take our guns away. In fact they blame us and our guns for
crime. This is so wrong that it cannot be an honest mistake."
- former U.S. Sen. Malcolm Wallop (R-Wy.)
s