Relevant "Quotes Of The Day"

In the course of human events there are times when each of us experiences self doubt and ones thought processes come to a screeching halt. Today when attempting my latest in a long line of incredibly overdue blog posts, I was planning on penning my own opinionated tome on the current public debate on health care "reform" being proposed by Comrade Obama. Unfortunately the incessant monotonies of life crashed in on me and squashed any hope of creating an intelligently written post on the subject. In response to this failure I chose the most rational direction to proceed. That direction was to the dreaded "Quote of the Day". I must say, however that these quotes are especially relevant to the current political climate of the country.

I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like
A man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.
-- Winston Churchill

Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But
Then I repeat myself..
-- Mark Twain

Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys
To teenage boys.
-- P.J. O'Rourke, Civil Libertarian

Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short
Phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it
Stops moving, subsidize it.
-- Ronald Reagan (1986)

If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it
Costs when it's free!
-- P.J. O'Rourke

No man's life, liberty, or property is safe while the legislature is in
Session.
-- Mark Twain (1866)

The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to
Fill the world with fools.
-- Herbert Spencer, English Philosopher (1820-1903)

What this country needs are more unemployed politicians.
-- Edward Langley, Artist (1928-1995)

AND LASTLY...
A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong
Enough to take everything you have.
-- Thomas Jefferson

Quote Of The Day

Government exists to protect us from each other. Where government has gone beyond its limits is in deciding to protect us from ourselves.

Ronald Regan

Currently Applicable Jeffersonian Quotes - and a Mark Twain thrown in for good measure

"When we get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe,
we shall become as corrupt as Europe."

"The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those
who are willing to work and give to those who would not."

"It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes.
A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world."

"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."

"My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government."

"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms."

"The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government."

"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants."

"To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical."

Thomas Jefferson said in 1802:

"I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around the banks will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered."

Unfortunately the following quote is a truism about the industry in which I work.

"If you don't read the newspaper you are uninformed, if you do read the newspaper you are misinformed."
-Mark Twain

Sharing Some Wisdom

Today I'll not berate the sparse few who have meandered over to this diminutive corner of the series of tubes called the internets. I will take it upon myself to impart some wisdom. Unfortunately that wisdom is gleened from the minds of others. I know I have some but I think I misplaced it somewhere. A mind, that is.

I'll start with the quote below that is specifically intended to describe the current political atmosphere here in Amerika.

Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive.

C. S. Lewis

For my buddy, Joe

If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were precisely those who thought most of the next. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this.

C. S. Lewis

and...

"Atheism turns out to be too simple. If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning..."

--from "Mere Christianity" by C.S. Lewis

Joe and I can probably agree on this one as well. Only we come from different perspectives.

"Of all bad men religious bad men are the worst."

--Reflections on the Psalms, C.S. Lewis

Atheist Plaque Next to Nativity Scene in Washington

The post title links to the article of the same name posted at OneNewsNow.com. The paragraph that jumped out at me and makes an incredible amount of sense is the following;

“I don’t believe in unicorns, so I just go about my life as if there are no unicorns. You’ll notice that I haven’t written any books called The End of the Unicorn, Unicorns Are Not Great, or The Unicorn Delusion, and I don’t spend my time obsessing about unicorns. What I’m getting at is that you have these people out there who don’t believe that God exists, but who are actively attempting to eliminate religion from society…There has to be more going on here than mere unbelief.”

That's a quote from Dinesh D'Souza in an interview for Salvo magazine. My buddy Joe would disagree with the premise if I'm not mistaken.

Today's Quotes

This first quote from Samuel Adams is aimed specifically at Barack Obama and his associations that are rightly being called into question -

"He who is void of virtuous attachments in private life is, or very soon will be, void of all regard for his country. There is seldom an instance of a man guilty of betraying his country, who had not before lost the feeling of moral obligations in his private connections." --in a letter to James Warren, Nov. 4, 1775--

This too, is directed at Obama in regards to his "spread the wealth" viewpoint he expressed to Joe the Plumber

The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.
- Thomas Jefferson

This one can definitely be said of most of the recent sitting Congress'

In my many years I have come to a conclusion that one useless man is a shame, two is a law firm, and three or more is a congress.
- John Adams

The next two just happen to be for Joe. I know he'll give me a bucket of chum in return. I expect it and welcome the banter.

We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge or gallantry would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution is designed only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for any other.
- John Adams

It is when people forget God that tyrants forge their chains.
- Patrick Henry

An appropriate quote in regards to the current financial meltdown throughout our country and the world.

History records that the money changers have used every form of abuse, intrigue, deceit, and violent means possible to maintain their control over governments by controlling the money and its issuance.
- James Madison

Corrupt or incompetent men will be appointed to execute the laws; the public revenues will be squandered on unworthy men; and the rights of the citizens will be violated or disregarded.
- Noah Webster (the father of public education in America)

The Founders Knew Not To Raise Taxes

So why doesn't Obama understand the concept? Joe was in agreement with me that Obama's statement regarding "spreading the wealth" made him cringe. I not only cringed, I hypothetically ran sreaming down the street pulling my hair out. Why don't people see Obama as the socialist that he is? Today's "voters" form their opinions on a 30 second TV commercial that says nothing. They listen to the alphabet soup networks proclaim him as the messiah and fall in lock step with the other drooling sheeple that get all their information from the idiot box. I really think that if you want to vote, you should be required to take a basic test of your understanding of the issues and players. If you haven't been paying attention, you don't get to play along.

This Howard Stern "Man on the Street" interview of Obama supporters in Harlem shows how clueless the electorate that I am describing, is.


Back from the tangent here and on to notable quotes from the founders about taxes.

Alexander Hamilton
1787 - Federalist No. 21

If duties are too high, they lessen the consumption; the collection is eluded; and the product to the treasury is not so great as when they are confined within proper and moderate bounds. This forms a complete barrier against any material oppression of the citizens by taxes of this class, and is itself a natural limitation of the power of imposing them.

Here's Thomas Jefferson denouncing Obama's recent "spread the wealth" statement to Joe the Plumber nearly 200 years ago.

Thomas Jefferson
1816 - letter to Joseph Milligan

To take from one, because it is thought his own industry and that of his fathers has acquired too much, in order to spare to others, who, or whose fathers, have not exercised equal industry and skill, is to violate arbitrarily the first principle of association, the guarantee to everyone the free exercise of his industry and the fruits acquired by it.

James Madison makes a point in regards to Obama seeming to think that those that make more money should pay more in taxes as a percentage of their income.

James Madison
1792 - Essay on Property

A just security to property is not afforded by that government, under which unequal taxes oppress one species of property and reward another species.

Hey Kids, Listen Up!

Remember that song on Sesame Street that goes, "One of these things is not like the other things. One of these things just doesn't belong"?
Well, that's not the case in the quotes below. They are identical and dangerous ideologies.

From each, according to his ability; to each, according to his need

-Karl Marx

“…when you spread the wealth around, it’s good for everybody.”

-Barack Obama

Obama Quote Regarding ACORN

Obama telling ACORN during a speech to the group in December 2007, that "before I even get inaugurated, during the transition, we're going to be calling all of you in to help us shape the agenda."

In November of last year, he told them... "I've been fighting alongside ACORN on issues you care about my entire career. Even before I was an elected official, when I ran Project Vote voter registration drive in Illinois, ACORN was smack dab in the middle of it, and we appreciate your work."

He accepted their endorsement in 2008.

Come clean Barack, stop the lies.

See the Obama ACORN Tree

Obama Spreads False Claims

Here's the story from the Secret Service

Quote of the Day - "Senator Government"

It could be classified as a "gaffe" for Senator McCain in last nights debate but I see it literally as a Freudian slip. He was responding to one of Obama's acusations and he referred to him as Senator Government instead of Senator Obama. He is as he's being described. He wants government to take over the healthcare industry (boy, that would work really well!) and create a Nanny State where all American's could nurse at the federal government teat. He wants the sheeple to rely on government for all of their wants and needs because government knows best. Obama mocked McCain's healthcare plan saying healthcare costs are on average $12,000 a year and McCain will only be giving a tax credit of $5,000 towards that. Obama wants to foot the healthcare bill for everyone while giving 95% of the people a tax cut. What drug is he still smoking?? How are 95% of American's going to get a tax cut if 40% of Americans DON'T PAY ANY TAXES! Here's how...those 40% of Americans who don't pay taxes will receive a check, courtesy of the 60% of Americans who DO PAY TAXES!! Tell me that's not socialism and the redistribution of wealth. We don't pay taxes to fund a Marxist charity program, we pay them to fund the military, protect our borders and provide specific needed services (police, fire, etc).

Congressman Barney Frank

Just came across this picture of one of our fearless leaders (insert extreme sarcasm here). Barney Frank, whom I loathe as a human being, seen here with one of his "constituents". Photo poached from the fabulous thereturnofscipio.com. Here's a brief snippet of the accompanying essay.

We need to keep in mind several things about allowing likeminded creatures to rule over us. Frank has admitted to doing things—such as allowing a ephebophilic and homosexual prostitution ring to run from his apartment—that, if any school teacher had done them, would have resulted in his dismissal, arrest and prison. Yet Frank carries along unscathed, essentially above and beyond the law moral or otherwise.

A question: Why do we—or more accurately, the good and true folks who inhabit Massachusetts—put in power a man who is essentially an outlaw? What sort of society will the rulings of this man create? An answer: The very society we live in today.

And imagine this—but only if you have not eaten in awhile—that what the NAMBLA-mad Frank does to young men is fairly well the same thing he is doing to our nation.

I love the headline from the story in the Boston Globe on 9/28/08 that says "Frank's fingerprints are all over the financial fiasco". To put some icing on the cake, watch Bill O'Reilly go ballistic on Frank after reading the Boston Globe article. Scipio injects a portion of a classic John Adams quote that wholly applies to Barney Frank.

Our Constitution is designed only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for any other.

Newsweek Columnist Sam Harris Displays Sexism, Religious Bigotry

Elitist bigot Sam Harris believes Sarah Palin is not qualified to run as a candidate for VP because, in a nutshell, she is a regular person and has religious beliefs. Her beliefs are tantamount to lunacy.

He writes, " If anyone could make Christian theocracy smell like apple pie, Sarah Palin could."

Why is it whenever a candidate on the right has religious beliefs of any type they are steering our country towards a fanatical religious theocracy? I hear no fears from the left that Obama will do that. He supposedly has a twenty year association with a racist extremist pastor and nobody bats an eye. This pastor stands in the pulpit preaching "God Damn America" and no one on the left flinches. The reason? The left are in agreement. Obama only distanced himself from Pastor Wright when he absolutely had to because the story was mushrooming out of control. When he did finally speak out he made it sound like this was the first time Wright ever made any inflamatory remarks by saying, "Obviously, whatever relationship I had with Rev. Wright has changed as a consequence of this". What would "this" be? The exposure of Wright as a racist. You cannot attend a church for twenty years and not know something like this about your pastor. The left was defending Wright the entire time. In fact an editorial in the Kansas City Star calls the concern over Jeremiah Wright's racist sermon's a "made-up issue"

Harris deems Sarah Palin to be ignorant because she expresses confidence. Yet if an elitist, Harvard educated male unswervingly said, "I'm ready, willing and able", Harris would be seen cheering in the crowd. He would not be asking, "Why is he so willing to do the job?" Here he provides a ridiculous scenario as an example of his viewpoint.

"What is so unnerving about the candidacy of Sarah Palin is the degree to which she represents—and her supporters celebrate—the joyful marriage of confidence and ignorance. Watching her deny to Gibson that she had ever harbored the slightest doubt about her readiness to take command of the world's only superpower, one got the feeling that Palin would gladly assume any responsibility on earth:

"Governor Palin, are you ready at this moment to perform surgery on this child's brain?"

"Of course, Charlie. I have several boys of my own, and I'm an avid hunter."

"But governor, this is neurosurgery, and you have no training as a surgeon of any kind."

"That's just the point, Charlie. The American people want change in how we make medical decisions in this country. And when faced with a challenge, you cannot blink."

Harris displays a frightening stance on Palin's minor daughter's pregnancy.
He espouses a position that a mother should not have any control of her minor daughter's unplanned teen pregnancy. The only topic he touches on is abortion. One track mind.

"We know, therefore, that Palin believes that she should be the one to decide whether her daughter carries her baby to term. Based on her stated position, we know that she would deny her daughter an abortion even if she had been raped."

He goes on to explain that she is ignorant because she is a regular person.

"What doesn't she know about financial markets, Islam, the history of the Middle East, the cold war, modern weapons systems, medical research, environmental science or emerging technology? Her relative ignorance is guaranteed on these fronts and most others, not because she was put on the spot, or got nervous, or just happened to miss the newspaper on any given morning. Sarah Palin's ignorance is guaranteed because of how she has spent the past 44 years on earth."

Read the whole editorial by clicking here.

Great Bumper Stickers

Why in the Hell should I have to "Press 1 for English"?


To anger a Conservative, lie to him. To anger a Liberal, tell him the truth.


It will be a great day when all children go to private schools and the money wasted on public education will go to building bombers


**Here's a particularly edgy one....

I wish Hillary had married OJ

While in poor taste it is slightly humorous (more so to those with twisted humor senses)


Government: Getting nothing done, expensively

I Chose The Stairs

I Chose The Stairs
Originally uploaded by sharkzfan

Not really having the "daring-do" to find out the meaning of the inscription, I took the stairs to the ground floor. To read the graffiti on the elevator doors you need to view the picture in a larger format. Click the links below the picture.

To: Bay Area Municipality "Leaders"

From: Senator John Kyl (R-AZ), On So-Called Sanctuary Cities:

"Localities that fail to cooperate with DHS (Department of Homeland Security) in identifying criminal aliens in their custody may end up paying a steep price. They ensure that criminal aliens who could otherwise be deported, are released back into the community to commit further crimes, which they do at an astonishing rate. A Government Accountability Office study found that 55,322 criminal aliens were arrested a total of at least 459,614 times, averaging over eight arrests per alien. The Department of Justice expressed its surprise at the 'extremely high' rate of re-arrests for criminal aliens when it found that that 73 criminal aliens in a study group were arrested a total of 429 times. Localities that adopt 'sanctuary' policies, in an effort to be welcoming to both legal and illegal immigrants, need to consider whether such policies have the effect of attracting and incubating crime."

Amen, brother!

Pertinent Quote For Today

In the struggle against evil, there is no shame in defeat -- only in not fighting.

-Steven Hart

More On the Immigration Issue....

....I have to whole heartedly agree with President Theodore Roosevelt. I have published this quote before on the blog but I think it is fitting to revisit it in this current time of heightened awareness of immigration issues.

"[W]e should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the man's becoming in very fact an American, and nothing but an American...
There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag... We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language for we intend to see that the crucible turns our people out as Americans, of American nationality, and not as dwellers in a polyglot boarding-house; and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people."

-- Former President Theodore Roosevelt, in a letter to the president of the American Defense Society dated January 3, 1919, three days before Roosevelt's death

Power, Freedom, War and Presidents

More applicable quotes after perusing The Quotes Page. A leisurely stroll through random authors jump starts my thought process on pertinent subjects.

Nancy Pelosi and her pathetic attempt to wrestle power from the President using the Emergency Spending Bill would be well served reading just a few quotes from Abraham Lincoln.

The probability that we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just.

Abraham Lincoln

Of course Pelosi and the Dems don't feel the Iraq war is just so this quote would be meaningless to them. The focus would be on the failure portion of the quote. They believe we cannot win and that we have already failed.

War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.

John Stuart Mill (1806 - 1873)

That quote seems indicative of the anti-war leftists. They have no idea how precious their right to denounce all that is happening on the war stage or how expensive a price was paid. They complain about the mistakes being made and throw in the arm-chair quarterback analysis. Never providing their ideas on how to win, they only tell us how to quit, get out, surrender, run away.

Never, never, never believe any war will be smooth and easy, or that anyone who embarks on the strange voyage can measure the tides and hurricanes he will encounter. The statesman who yields to war fever must realize that once the signal is given, he is no longer the master of policy but the slave of unforeseeable and uncontrollable events.

Sir Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965)

Notable Quotes and Some Questions Regarding Humor

Perusing The Quotations Page is always an enlightening jaunt. I came across a relevant quote from Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. that really encapsulates the dialogue in the media over the course of the last week in regards to the Don Imus brouhaha.

We should be eternally vigilant against attempts to check the expression of opinions that we loathe.

Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

A distasteful opinion should not be squelched but debated vigorously. A distasteful joke should be ignored and frowned upon, not avenged. Heard any of Chris Rock's stand up comedy? (caution: not for the easily offended) This should have you wondering if Imus' comments didn't receive a bit of over-reaction. Would Al and Jesse pay to go see Chris do his stand-up routine? Could they handle being the butt of one of his jokes? Maybe it's just that Chris Rock is funny and Don Imus isn't? Hopefully a bad sense of humor won't be a criminal offense anytime in the not too distant Orwellian future. One last immortal quote....

Can't we all just get along?
Rodney King