Les Jones

Mark Twain’s Smith & Wesson

Wednesday, October 14th, 2009 | Guns, Quotes | Permalink | No Comments |

“My brother had a Colt’s Navy revolver, which he carried uncapped for safety. Mister Beemis had an Allen pepper-box revolver. And I was armed to the teeth with a pitiful little Smith and Wesson seven-shooter, which shot a ball the size of a homeopathic pill. It took all seven to make a dose for an adult.”
– Mark Twain, “Roughing It”

That little Smith & Wesson No. 1 is the subject of Tam’s Sunday Smith & Wesson.

Ayn Rand

Wednesday, October 7th, 2009 | Economics, Political Survival Kit, Quotes | Permalink | 4 Comments |

“When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion — when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing — when you see money flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors — when you see that men get richer by graft and pull than by work, and your laws don’t protect you against them, but protect them against you — when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice, you may know that your society is doomed.”
– Ayn Rand

I’ve picked up a couple of Ayn Rand novels and couldn’t stomach them. Occasionally I’ll read something like this and cheer, but wonder how the author of that snippet is the author I tried to read.

I looked up that quote. It’s apparently from Atlas Shrugged, and is part of the so-called “Francisco Money Speech.” That nugget above is buried in the ore of a long-winded polemic that no one could speak, much less listen to in its entirety. But that nugget really is golden.

Rich Hailey on Obama

Friday, October 2nd, 2009 | Quotes | Permalink | No Comments |

“Iran going nuclear, Afghanistan going to the Taliban, and the Olympics are going to Rio. Obama should try kicking ass instead of kissing it.”
– Rich Hailey on Facebook

Related: “The latest Fox News/Opinion Dymanic poll is chock-full of bad news for the president. But on foreign policy, the results are nothing short of stunning. On who they trust more to decide the next steps in Afghanistan, 66 percent say military commanders, while only 20 percent say the president. Even Democrats have more faith in the military commanders (by a 45 to 37 percent margin). On Iran, 69 percent say Obama has not been tough enough, including 55 percent of Democrats. Sixty-one percent favor a U.S. military action, if needed, to keep Iran from getting nuclear weapons. Fifty-one percent think Obama apologizes for American too much.”

Tags: obama

St. Augustine

Tuesday, September 29th, 2009 | Quotes | Permalink | No Comments |

“Do you wish to rise? Begin by descending. You plan a tower that will pierce the clouds? Lay first the foundation of humility.”
– St. Augustine

Hat tip to Mark Peacock.

All those articles by reporters going shooting for the first time

Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009 | Guns, Media Behaving Badly, Quotes | Permalink | 1 Comment |

“WTF? 39% of americans are gun-owners; 67% report having fired a gun. It’s not that unusual of an experience! By contrast, only 4-10% who are vegetarian, about 5% who are gay. How come there are no WaPo articles about what it’s like to eat organic cous cous for the first time? Or the first time cruising a truck stop?”
– Abdul on Reason

Too funny, though all of those articles about reporters firing a gun for the first time have been incredibly beneficial for gun owners. The experience tends to change the perspective of the reporters forever, and they almost invariably portray shooting in a positive light.

And the truck stop thing is stereotyping, which is wrong, except when it’s about white Southerners when they vote for Republicans.

Bernanke in 2007: economy positioned for recovery

Thursday, August 27th, 2009 | Economics, Quotes | Permalink | No Comments |

Hussman’s Weekly:

“Our forecast is for moderate but positive growth going into next year. We think that by the spring, early next year, that as these credit problems resolve and, as we hope, the housing market begins to find a bottom, that the broader resiliency of the economy, which we are seeing in other areas outside of housing, will take control and will help the economy recover to a more reasonable growth pace.”
– Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke

On Friday, investors took great cheer in an optimistic statement by Ben Bernanke suggesting good prospects for economic growth ahead. We might be inclined to place a sliver of credibility in Chairman Bernanke’s assessment – if not for the fact that the quote above wasn’t from last week at all, but rather, hails back to November 8, 2007, just before the recent recession began. You might recall that the S&P 500 was pushing 1500 at the time. The implosion of the global credit markets was still just a slight rumble.

Collect the whole set:

• Bernanke in 2005: no housing bubble to go bust
• Greenspan in 2004: fears of speculative bubble in housing prices exaggerated

Tags: the fed

Ted Kennedy

Thursday, August 27th, 2009 | Quotes | Permalink | No Comments |

“The problems of our economy have occurred not as an outgrowth of laissez-faire, unbridled competition.  They have occurred under the guidance of federal agencies, and under the umbrella of federal regulations.”
– Ted Kennedy, 1932-2009

Marko on government health care

Tuesday, August 11th, 2009 | Health Care, Political Survival Kit, Quotes | Permalink | No Comments |

“A mandatory public health care system is a universal adapter for unlimited Nanny State legislation, because there’s very little personal behavior that wouldn’t impact public health care costs in some way.”
– Marko Kloos

Karl Marx on “Peace”

Saturday, August 8th, 2009 | Quotes | Permalink | No Comments |

“The meaning of peace is the absence of opposition to socialism.”
– Karl Marx

Via Phil who puts it in context of recent events.

Jim Treacher on the Gates/Crowley/Obama dustup

Tuesday, August 4th, 2009 | Quotes | Permalink | No Comments |

“Obama is not a racist. He just judges people without having the facts, based on the color of their skin.”
– Jim Treacher

Tags: obama

A.A. Milne

Monday, August 3rd, 2009 | Quotes | Permalink | No Comments |

“The third-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking with the majority. The second-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking with the minority. The first-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking.”
  — A. A. Milne

Glenn Reynolds on the Henry Louis Gates dustup

Thursday, July 23rd, 2009 | Quotes | Permalink | No Comments |

“Perhaps, as we view this confrontation between an Harvard Prof who’s a friend of the President and a Cambridge cop, we can also have a national conversation about class?”
 – Glenn Reynolds

Tags: obama

Steve Chastain on making money with your camera

Thursday, July 16th, 2009 | Photos, Quotes | Permalink | No Comments |

“The quickest way to make money at photography is to sell your camera.”
– Steve Chastain

Henry David Thoreau on do-gooders

Wednesday, July 15th, 2009 | Quotes | Permalink | 3 Comments |

“If you see a man approaching you with the obvious intent of doing you good, you should run for your life.”
– Henry David Thoreau

Hat tip to Roberta X.

Other quotes of a piece with this one…

“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.”
- C.S. Lewis

“In the United States, doing good has come to be, like patriotism, a favorite device of persons with something to sell.”
– H.L. Mencken

“The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule.”
- H.L. Mencken

Marshall McCluhan on secrets

Tuesday, July 14th, 2009 | Quotes | Permalink | No Comments |

“Only the small secrets need to be protected. The big ones are kept secret by public incredulity.”
– Marshall McCluhan

John Kenneth Galbraith

Sunday, July 12th, 2009 | Economics, Quotes | Permalink | No Comments |

“It is my guiding confession that I believe the greatest error in economics is in seeing the economy as a stable, immutable structure.”
  — John Kenneth Galbraith

And this:  “The rescue operation brings to mind John Kenneth Galbraith’s dictum that in the United States, the only respectable form of socialism is socialism for the rich.”

Ever since October, 2008 we’ve had wealth redistribution from everyman to people who are richer than the everyman - bankers, insurance companies, stockholders, bondholders, car companies, and unions. I’m in favor of some amount of wealth redistribution from wealthy to less wealthy to form a social safety net, but the redistribution of wealth in the opposite direction is disgusting.

Ayn Rand on government interference in the economy

Wednesday, July 1st, 2009 | Economics, Political Survival Kit, Quotes | Permalink | No Comments |

“Every government interference in the economy consists of giving an unearned benefit, extorted by force, to some men at the expense of others.”
– Ayn Rand

Via Mark Peacock’s Facebook wall.

Lamar Alexander on executives vs. legislators

Tuesday, June 30th, 2009 | Political Survival Kit, Quotes | Permalink | No Comments |

“Governors are accustomed to solving problems rather than taking positions. When you get some people in a room who are accustomed to solving problems, you usually can do it. When you get people in a room, all of whom are accustomed to taking positions, you just get a lot of positions.”
– Lamar Alexander

Glenn Reynolds on drunken sailors

Tuesday, June 9th, 2009 | Quotes | Permalink | No Comments |

“I think the expression “spend like drunken sailors” is actually unfair to drunken sailors. Drunken sailors generally spend cash that they’ve already earned themselves, rather than running up debt to be paid by others. If our politicians started spending like drunken sailors, it would in fact represent a dramatic improvement.”
– Glenn Reynolds

Napolean on dogs

Tuesday, May 19th, 2009 | Quotes | Permalink | No Comments |

“This soldier, I realized, must have had friends at home and in his regiment; yet he lay there deserted by all except his dog. I looked on, unmoved, at battles which decided the future of nations. Tearless, I had given orders which brought death to thousands. Yet here I was stirred, profoundly stirred, stirred to tears. And by what? By the grief of one dog.”
 – Napolean Bonaparte

James Quinn’s great rant on our current situation

Monday, May 18th, 2009 | Quotes | Permalink | 1 Comment |

“The lies we’ve been told by government, corporate America, and the media are no worse than the lies we’ve told ourselves. We have tripled the size of our houses, and reduced the sense of community in our nation. Many have perfectly manicured lawns, polished appliances, 12 spotless rooms and dysfunctional, aloof, joyless lives. A McMansion, stainless steel appliances, 6 flat screens, and granite countertops do not guarantee happiness. When all of these items are bought on credit, you have a tragedy. America has degenerated into a materialistic, corrupt, me first, soul-less society. Nobody is right. Nobody is wrong. Everyone deserves to win, even if they made horrible decisions. Unless this changes soon, this country is doomed. By 2020 the United States will essentially be an old aged pension fund with an army.”
– James Quinn

Tags: rants

jwz’s take on time travel

Thursday, May 14th, 2009 | A&E, Quotes | Permalink | 1 Comment |

“If your story is not about time travel, but it has time travel in it, then your story sucks.”
– jwz

He expands:

For example. Stories that are about time travel:
Terminator, Back to the Future, Time Bandits, Bill & Ted, 12 Monkeys, Journeyman.
Their use of time travel is, at least, honest.

Stories that are not about time travel:
Star Trek, Stargate, Lost, Heroes.
Their use of time travel is a crutch or a gag, and all of their time travel episodes are stupid.

I think he’s onto something. I’ve often wished “Lost” hadn’t gone down the time travel rabbit hole beginning in season 2. It seems like it needlessly complicated a story that was already tied in knots. On the other hand Wednesday night’s season finale gave me some hope that time travel and repetition might be subsets of a much larger theme where they would make sense.

Tags: Lost

William Seidman 1922-2009

Thursday, May 14th, 2009 | Economics, Quotes | Permalink | No Comments |

“Instruct regulators to look for the newest fad in the industry and examine it with great care. The next mistake will be a new way to make a loan that will not be repaid.”
 – former FDIC Chairnman William Seidman

Trooper York on Woody Allen

Thursday, May 14th, 2009 | Quotes | Permalink | 1 Comment |

“I do think it is a shame and a crime that he has not yet been elected to the Overrated Hall of Fame.”
– Trooper York

An Overrated Hall of Fame. All in favor?

Louis Sabin on dogs

Monday, May 11th, 2009 | Quotes | Permalink | No Comments |

“No matter how little money you have and how few possessions you own, having a dog makes you rich.”
– Louis Sabin