Tag: QotD

Quote of the Day – Education Edition

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From Theodore Dalrymple’s speech at the Harvard Club, November 2001:

One of the things that has happened in Britain, as I said, is that people are radically disconnected from their past – from the past of the country in which they live. To such an extent, as I’ve suggested to you, that the vast majority of people don’t even know when the Second World War was. Out of hundreds of sixteen to twenty year-old patients whom I’ve seen, very few – in fact, I think about three – have known with any degree of accuracy when the Second World War took place, and they’re not even capable of deducing from the fact that there was a Second World War that there was a First World War.

And in the circumstances, I regard it as a triumph when they tell me that the Second World War took place in the eighteenth Century, because that means that they know that there was another century. And quite often if I ask them anything about history, not just of their own country, but of the entire world, what they say is, “I don’t know because I wasn’t born then.” As if one could not be expected to know anything other than by personal acquaintance. And our educators, I think, have a lot to answer for because they have suggested that education should be of relevance to the children’s lives as they are lived, and of course the whole point of education is to make the world beyond that relevant, and of course interesting and important to them, otherwise they are utterly enclosed in the indescribably miserable world in which they find themselves.

Quote of the Day – Dr. Zero Edition

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All of collectivism’s dreams are crumbling to dust before the eyes of people who spent their whole lives clinging to them out of desperation, or arrogance. The alternative to ambition and commerce is not “social justice,” but widespread poverty. The absence of growth brings collapse, not sustainability. The Constitutional rights of free people cannot exist alongside “positive rights” provided through redistribution. Abandoning the security of our borders does not produce a melting pot of happy immigrants. The government cannot repeal the laws of supply and demand. The freedom to vote does not render all other freedoms inconsequential. Prosperity for millions cannot be designed by a central committee. Social justice cannot be created by administering controlled viral doses of injustice.

Waking up from these dreams is not easy.

Wrong metaphor, but otherwise accurate.

Quote of the Day – NWO Edition

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From reader GrumpyOldFart in a comment thread:

As I write this, a black President is speaking at the funeral for a Senator famous for his ties to the KKK. I, who have never been eligible for any of the adjectives used above, feel certain that each of them have firmly believed most of their lives that they were doing the best they could for this improvement of their country and the betterment of their fellow man. This even though not only were the differences between the two quite stark, but I have rarely agreed with either of them.

And in a multitude of ways both foreseen and unforeseen, we are both better and worse off for their efforts.

My how the worlds turns…

It is well that war is so terrible

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“It is well that war is so terrible, or we should get too fond of it.” – Robert E. Lee

From the Navy Times:

But there are several things Petraeus can and should do as he takes command in Kabul to turn the corner in this war:

• Clarify the rules of engagement and ensure that the interpretation of those rules are consistent throughout the combat zone.

Troops from every service complain that the current rules tie their hands, put Americans and others at risk and are too easily exploited by the enemy.

Petraeus must seize the opportunity created by his arrival to craft clearer and more logical rules for how and when they can use lethal force — while still minimizing civilian casualties and collateral damage.

The current rules are simply too restrictive. Frustrations over those rules — which affect artillery fire, airstrikes and even mortar attacks — are intensifying as casualties rise. And in that department, June was shaping up as one of America’s worst months in Afghanistan.

Petraeus must walk delicate ground on this issue; loosening the rules of engagement will not play well with Afghan officials whose cooperation is essential to the war effort.

But that concern is overshadowed by the need to ensure that the U.S. troops putting themselves in harm’s way every day have the confidence they need to do their jobs effectively.

I’m currently reading Bernard Cornwell’s take on the King Arthur legend. I’m in book three of the trilogy, Excalibur. The protagonist of the series is one of Arthur’s followers, Lord Derfel, and in a scene just before a major battle he has this to say:

Only a fool wants war, but once war starts then it cannot be fought half-heartedly. It cannot even be fought with regret, but must be waged with a savage joy in defeating the enemy, and it is that savage joy that inspires our bards to write their greatest songs about love and war. We warriors dressed for battle as we decked ourselves for love; we made ourselves gaudy, we wore our gold, we mounted crests on our silver-chased helmets, we strutted, we boasted, and when the slaughtering blades came close we felt as though the blood of the Gods coursed in our veins. A man should love peace, but if he cannot fight with all his heart then he will not know peace.

I think Cornwell has the right of it, and not much has changed in 1500 years on this topic.

Quote of the Day – Tam Edition

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In sum total, what you people did was drive someplace where there wasn’t a problem, complain about something you don’t fully understand, get in the way of people who may actually be performing a function, and then do nothing, en masse, except hope that someone else notices your little snit and makes it all better.

My god, if there’s a more perfect metaphor for the modern progressive movement, I’ve never seen it. — Tam, And joining hands, they made a metaphor…

Honestly, I need to take a week off from work and do nothing but mine Tam’s archives for this kind of gem-quality snark. It’s the richest vein in the blogosphere.

It’s Not Just Here

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Quote of the day:

With their notorious sense of the absurd, Channel 7’s Sunrise program ran the online poll. It asked simply: “Who would you vote for?” and listed Kevin Rudd, Tony Abbott, Bob Brown and Mr Don Key (independent). To avoid confusion the poll carried photographs of the leaders, including a distinguished-looking donkey with handsome ears and a greying muzzle.

But with all the silliness these results have a serious point. They should be enough to provoke one of those infamous Rudd-rants and send Abbott in search of a long hard run.

The Opposition Leader polled 24 per cent, the Prime Minister 20 per cent and Senator Brown from the Greens 12 per cent. The donkey won in a trot, with 44 per cent. And nobody in the real world would be the least surprised.

It seems unlikely that Australia has ever gone into an election campaign with such a poor selection. Kevin Rudd is disliked. Tony Abbott is not trusted. And Bob Brown is seen as inhabiting a planet that most of us have never visited or wanted to visit.

There’s a serious crisis of political credibility in Australia, and the donkey is looking good. Political leadership has never been so evasive, nor has it ever been so blatantly dishonest. What’s disturbing is that voters may have become so numbed by the spin and lies they’ve become accepting of mediocrity.

— Neil Mitchell in the Australian newspaper the Herald Sun, Our leaders fail the test

Found at Jigsaw’s Thoughts

Quote of the Week – Illegal Immigration Edition

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(P)oliticians often argue they’re just too busy to read all these bills they’re voting on and commenting on. Busy doing what, though? Don’t they get paid hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to make laws and enforce laws? Wouldn’t you think part of that generous salary would be maybe reading those laws? What exactly do they do all day to earn their money? They already have these useless jobs where just sit around and talk and occasionally vote; is it really so much to ask they do some honest work and read these important bills? The Arizona one they’re all freaking out about isn’t even that long.

Maybe we should write all our bills in Spanish. Then we can hire illegal aliens to read them since apparently that’s yet another one of those jobs Americans won’t do.

— FrankJ, Reading is Hard at IMAO

Quote of the Day – Law Enforcement Edition

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Polite, efficient and responsive policing is a luxury that can only be afforded by states not drowning in politically motivated entitlement spending. The rest of the world gets by with surly, low paid constables and paper-checkers who exist to serve the needs of the state and not the citizenry, and sooner rather than later, we will find out what that’s like here. – Papa Delta Bravo, What Civil Collapse Looks Like

This is a good place to repost Sir Robert Peel’s Nine Principles of Modern Policing from all the way back in the nineteenth century:

1. The basic mission for which the police exist is to prevent crime and disorder.

2. The ability of the police to perform their duties is dependent upon public approval of police actions.

3. Police must secure the willing co-operation of the public in voluntary observance of the law to be able to secure and maintain the respect of the public.

4. The degree of co-operation of the public that can be secured diminishes proportionately to the necessity of the use of physical force.

5. Police seek and preserve public favour not by catering to public opinion but by constantly demonstrating absolute impartial service to the law.

6. Police use physical force to the extent necessary to secure observance of the law or to restore order only when the exercise of persuasion, advice and warning is found to be insufficient.

7. Police, at all times, should maintain a relationship with the public that gives reality to the historic tradition that the police are the public and the public are the police; the police being only members of the public who are paid to give full-time attention to duties which are incumbent on every citizen in the interests of community welfare and existence.

8. Police should always direct their action strictly towards their functions and never appear to usurp the powers of the judiciary.

9. The test of police efficiency is the absence of crime and disorder, not the visible evidence of police action in dealing with it.

Looks like Philadelphia is failing #9.