Quote of the Day – Billy Beck Edition (Paraphrased)

It is training and doctrine that have stripped people of the power to reason to a moral conclusion on their own powers. They are forbidden to think, this is why they now exist on the same moral plane as abject animals.

From a Facebook comment to this story about police shooting dogs, but it’s applicable pretty much to all “Zero Tolerance” and other “RESPECT MAH AUTHORITAH!” B.S. foisted on us by our “Civil Masters.”  The Book says “Do X,” so that’s what they do.  They can’t get in trouble for doing what the book says, and it’s easier than thinking.

Quote of the Day – Damning with Faint Praise Edition

I’m actually considering the latest Transformers film. Howard Tayler, author of the webcomic Schlock Mercenary, says it “…fails to clear the Threshold of Disappointment.”

But that’s not the QotD. This, from the Road & Track magazine review of the film is:

The Wahlberg/Pelz/Reynor triangle, incidentally, is an exact clone of the Bruce Willis/Liv Tyler/Ben Affleck relationship from Bay’s Armageddon. He makes it work. At no point did I actively root for any of them to die as I did through three Shia LaBeouf Transformer movies.

Given that glowing recommendation, I think I may go see it!

Quote of the Day – Cultural Conflict Edition

In response to this question over at Quora.com:

How many victims of a mass shooting would there have to be before an actual discussion of gun laws would be an appropriate reaction?

Comes this answer I wish I’d written myself:

When the number of gun deaths approaches the number of deaths by abortion, then gun owners will take anti-gun people as seriously as pro-choice people take pro-life people. Which is to say, not much.

Quote of the Day – Wish I’d Said That Edition

MiddleAgedKen left this zinger of an Education QotD as a comment to the P.J. O’Rourke QotD from a few days back:

To be minimally fair, a good high-school education is still essential, and college is (if you’re lucky) where you go to get one.

I’ve said it before somewhere, if not in here, that a high-school diploma used to mean you were ready for the workforce. Now it’s a BA. A high-school diploma just means you were bodily present long enough that they had to give you a piece of paper to make you go away.