Whom do you think he might be referring to today?

Booker T. Washington:

"There is a class of colored people who make a business of keeping the troubles, the wrongs, and the hardships of the Negro race before the public. Having learned that they are able to make a living out of their troubles, they have grown into the settled habit of advertising their wrongs--partly because they want sympathy and partly because it pays. Some of these people do not want the Negro to lose his grievances, because they do not want to lose their jobs." Gosh, I really can't think of any body...

I'm starting to think they had crystal balls

Once again, one of the Founding Fathers sounds rather prescient:

"[D]emocracy will soon degenerate into an anarchy, such an anarchy that every man will do what is right in his own eyes and no man's life or property or reputation or liberty will be secure, and every one of these will soon mould itself into a system of subordination of all the moral virtues and intellectual abilities, all the powers of wealth, beauty, wit and science, to the wanton pleasures, the capricious will, and the execrable cruelty of one or a very few." -- John Adams (An Essay on Man's Lust for Power, 29 August 1763)

He exists and loves us

Maury McCown:

[A]nother way I'm convinced He exists and loves us -- on the most base of levels -- is that He hasn't simply wiped us off the face of the earth. I don't struggle with the whole "why does God let bad things happen" -- that's simple to dismiss, and maybe I will here one day. What I'm getting at is that He has such enormous self-control -- if I were Him, there would only be a scant few humans left on the planet.

It's one of two things: He loves as much as He says He does, or He doesn't give a rat's behind about us. With much thanks I know wholeheartedly that the latter isn't true, so once again I'm amazed at how patient God is with us, and how He loves us, though we pain Him so.

When is a recession not a recession?

The Patriot Post, 08-06 Digest:

Traditionally, however, Wall Street defines a recession as two consecutive quarters of falling Gross Domestic Product. By this definition, even the one-quarter "recession" in 2001 was hardly that. The National Bureau of Economic Research says a recession involves "a significant decline in economic activity spread across the economy, lasting more than a few months," and Congress' Joint Economic Committee, which boasts a 60-year track record of successfully predicting recessions, ranked the probability that the U.S. was in a recession in December at 35.5 percent. In January, a mere six percent. [Emphasis added. --R]

A timely reminder

"It is the madness of folly, to expect mercy from those who have refused to do justice; and even mercy, where conquest is the object, is only a trick of war; the cunning of the fox is as murderous as the violence of the wolf." -- Thomas Paine (The American Crisis, No. 1, 19 December 1776)

Reference: Thomas Paine: Collected Writings, Foner ed., Library of America (97) Just seems like something to keep in mind regarding our jihadist enemies...

"Ouch" is right

Tony Woodlief:

I never thought I would have to hold a package of frozen peas on my son's penis. They don't tell you this may be a possibility in parenting class. It's all breathing and learning to count to ten and not freaking out when they get a diaper rash. But penis bruises? Nowhere in the manual.

I would love to witness a conversation like this

Another nugget from Sheriff Bell:

Here a year or two back me and Loretta went to a conference in Corpus Christi and I got set next to this woman, she was the wife of somebody or other. And she kept talkin about the right wing this and the right wing that. I aint even sure what she meant by it. The people I know are mostly just common people. Common as dirt, as the sayin goes. I told her that and she looked at me funny. She thought I was sayin somethin bad about em, but of course that's a high compliment in my part of the world. She kept on, kept on. Finally told me, said: I dont like the way the country is headed. I want my granddaughter to be able to have an abortion. And I said well mam I dont think you got any worries about the way the country is headed. The way I see it goin I dont have much doubt but what she'll be able to have an abortion. I'm goin to say that not only will she be able to have an abortion, she'll be able to have you put to sleep. Which pretty much ended the conversation.

"If it aint too late."

Some keen cultural insight, courtesy of Sheriff Bell in Cormac McCarthry's No Country For Old Men (complete with McCarthy's trademark non-punctuation):

I read in the papers here a while back some teachers come across a survey that was sent out back in the thirties to a number of schools around the country. Had this questionnaire about what was the problems with teachin in the schools. And they come across these forms, they'd been filled out and sent in from around the country answerin these questions. And the biggest problems they could name was things like talkin in class and runnin in the hallways. Chewin gum. Copyin homework. Things of that nature. So they got one of them forums that was blank and printed up a bunch of em and sent em back out to the same schools. Forty years later. Well, here come the answers back. Rape, arson, murder. Drugs. Suicide. So I think about that. Because a lot of the time ever when I say anything about how the world is goin to hell in a handbasket people will just sort of smile and tell me I'm gettin old. That it's one of the symptoms. But my feelin about that is that anybody that cant tell the difference between rapin and murderin people and chewin gum has got a whole lot bigger of a problem than what I've got. Forty years is not a long time neither. Maybe the next forty of it will bring some of em out from under the ether. If it aint too late. [Emphasis added. --R]

Patriot Day

Day of Terror: A September 11 Retrospective

"September 11, 2001, was a defining moment in American history. On that terrible day, our nation saw the face of evil as 19 men barbarously attacked us and wantonly murdered people of many races, nationalities, and creeds. On Patriot Day, we remember the innocent victims, and we pay tribute to the valiant firefighters, police officers, emergency personnel and ordinary citizens who risked their lives so others might live. After the attacks on 9/11, America resolved that we would go on the offense against our enemies, and we would not distinguish between the terrorists and those who harbor and support them. All Americans honor the selfless men and women of our Armed Forces, the dedicated members of our public safety, law enforcement and intelligence communities, and the thousands of others who work hard each day to protect our country, secure our liberty and prevent future attacks. The spirit of our people is the source of America's strength, and six years ago, Americans came to the aid of neighbors in need. On Patriot Day, we pray for those who died and for their families. We volunteer to help others and demonstrate the continuing compassion of our citizens. On this solemn occasion, we rededicate ourselves to laying the foundation of peace with confidence in our mission and our free way of life." --President George W. Bush


"[A]s we approach the sixth anniversary of Sept. 11, there are suggestions that we should begin to forget the worst terrorist incident in America's history. Recently, a front-page story in The New York Times suggested it is becoming too much of a burden to remember the attack, that nothing new can be said about it and that, perhaps, Sept. 11 'fatigue' may be setting in.

[...]

"9/11 forces us to be serious, not only about those who died and why they died at the hands of religious fanatics, but also so that we won't forget that it could very well happen again and many of today's living might end up as yesterday's dead. That is the purpose of remembering 9/11, not to engage in perpetual mourning. The war goes on and to be reminded of 9/11 serves as the ultimate protection against forgetfulness. Terrorists have not forgotten 9/11. Tape of the Twin Towers is used on jihadist Websites for the purpose of recruiting new 'martyrs.'

"What's the matter with some people? Does remembering not only 9/11 but the stakes in this world war interfere too much with our pursuit of money, things and pleasure? Serious times require serious thought and serious action. In our frivolous times, full of trivialities and irrelevancies, to be serious is to abandon self-indulgence for survival, entertainment for the stiffened spine.

[...]

"Not to remember 9/11, is to forget what brought it about." --Cal Thomas


"Last week The New York Times carried a story about the current state of the 9/11 lawsuits. Relatives of 42 of the dead are suing various parties for compensation, on the grounds that what happened that Tuesday morning should have been anticipated. The law firm Motley Rice, diversifying from its traditional lucrative class-action hunting grounds of tobacco, asbestos and lead paint, is promising to put on the witness stand everybody who 'allowed the events of 9/11 to happen.' And they mean everybody--American Airlines, United, Boeing, the airport authorities, the security firms--everybody, that is, except the guys who did it.

"According to the Times, many of the bereaved are angry and determined that their loved one's death should have meaning. Yet the meaning they're after surely strikes our enemies not just as extremely odd but as one more reason why they'll win. You launch an act of war, and the victims respond with a lawsuit against their own countrymen. But that's the American way: Almost every news story boils down to somebody standing in front of a microphone and announcing that he's retained counsel...[T]hose 9/11 families should know that, if you want your child's death that morning to have meaning, what matters is not whether you hound Boeing into admitting liability but whether you insist that the movement that murdered your daughter is hunted down and the sustaining ideological virus that led thousands of others to dance up and down in the streets cheering her death is expunged from the earth

[...]

"On this sixth anniversary, as 9/11 retreats into history, many Americans see no war at all." --Mark Steyn

On being a wall

[Tony Woodlief](a href="http://www.tonywoodlief.com/archives/001260.html), author of the great Raising Wild Boys Into Men:

Sometimes as a parent you feel like a wall. One side of you is hard chipped stone. The side facing these little ones is smoothed, its cracks spackled as best you can manage. Sometimes your child will run a finger along one of those cracks, and when he does this you know you can go on standing, no matter the weight, until he is strong and ready to beat back the world with his own muscle and bone and faith.

Victims of tyranny?

John Farnam had this quote in a recent post on his mailing list, and I thought it significant.

In a state of tranquillity, wealth, and luxury, our descendants will forget the Art of War and the noble zeal which made their ancestors invincible. Every corruption will be employed to loosen the bond of union which renders our resistance formidable. When the spirit of liberty, which now animates our hearts and gives success to our arms, is extinct, our numbers will accelerate our ruin and render us easy victims to tyranny. --Sam Adams

Today's head-smacker

Overheard by Jeff Harrell earlier today:

Wouldn't it be great if the people who made the iPhone also made a computer? Really? Really?!?

"Steve Jobs officially owns June 29."

So sayeth Jeff Harrell, upon the realization that Ratatouille opens nationwide today as well.

On innovation

"I wish developing great products was as easy as writing a check. If so, then Microsoft would have great products." --Steve Jobs, Apple, Inc. shareholders meeting, 2007

The more things change...

"Quemadmoeum gladuis neminem occidit, occidentis telum est." --Lucius Annaeus Seneca, circa 45 AD Translation: "A sword is never a killer, it is a tool in the killer's hands." Just thought this might be somewhat relevant to political and cultural debates we're having two thousand years later.

Quote of the day

Stef: In fact, if the weather gets better, Jeff and I were thinking of breaking in our new picnic basket tomorrow.
Jeff: Yeah. We have a secret spot, so if you come with us, we'll have to blindfold you.
Eddie: Yeeeeaaah, well, unless that's followed by a gunshot, I wouldn't count on it. That is why you should be watching 'Til Death.

Quote of the day

"I've got the attention span of a 2 year old on crack today." --Eric Blair