Category: Quote O’ The Day

When a government controls both the economic power of individuals and the coercive power of the state…this violates a fundamental rule of happy living: Never let the people with all the money and the people with all the guns be the same people. –P. J. O’Rourke

If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a government that is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself. — JAMES MADISON

Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated. I also want to make Twitter better than ever by enhancing the product with new features, making the algorithms open source to increase trust, defeating the spam bots, and authenticating all humans. Twitter has tremendous potential. I look forward to working with the company and the community of users to unlock it. —Elon Musk

Are we at last brought to such humiliating and debasing degradation, that we cannot be trusted with arms for our defense? Where is the difference between having our arms in possession and under our direction, and having them under the management of Congress? If our defense be the real object of having those arms, in whose hands can they be trusted with more propriety, or equal safety to us, as in our own hands?
— Patrick Henry

“Every collectivist revolution rides in on a Trojan horse of “emergency”. It was the tactic of Lenin, Hitler, and Mussolini. In the collectivist sweep over a dozen minor countries of Europe, it was the cry of men striving to get on horseback. And “emergency” became the justification of the subsequent steps. This technique of creating emergency is the greatest achievement that demagoguery attains.”
– President Herbert Hoover

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About the Declaration there is a finality that is exceedingly restful. It is often asserted that the world has made a great deal of progress since 1776, that we have had new thoughts and new experiences which have given us a great advance over the people of that day, and that we may therefore very well discard their conclusions for something more modern.

But that reasoning can not be applied to this great charter.
If all men are created equal, that is final.
If they are endowed with inalienable rights, that is final.
If governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, that is final.
No advance, no progress can be made beyond these propositions.

If anyone wishes to deny their truth or their soundness, the only direction in which he can proceed historically is not forward, but backward toward the time when there was no equality, no rights of the individual, no rule of the people.

Those who wish to proceed in that direction can not lay claim to progress.
They are reactionary.
Their ideas are not more modern, but more ancient, than those of the Revolutionary fathers…………………

—Calvin Coolidge, Address at the Celebration of the 150th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia on July 5, 1926.

 

Israeli Special Forces Disguised as Palestinian Refugees for Hostage Rescue

Israeli special forces were disguised as Palestinians looking for a place to live when they rescued hostages from Gaza during the weekend, two Israeli security sources told ABC News.

Special forces were already in position near the hostages before being given the “go” command, which was given at 11a.m. local time.

The helicopters carrying the hostages and wounded officers landed at Sheba Medical Center in Israel a bit later.

The hostages were in “good medical condition” when they were rescued, according to IDF officials.

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“I believe in freedom and a level playing field of competition. If you want to change that playing field to your advantage, you have basically given me license–through your example–to do what I need to do. Because when I come back at you, I’m going to destroy your side of the playing field.”
– Marvin Heemeyer

BLUF & Quote O’ The Day
Having Constitutional Carry is rapidly becoming the bright line that separates free states from those run by would-be totalitarians.

South Carolina Prepares to Join the Ranks of ‘Constitutional Carry’ States

Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry signed into law Tuesday a bill that removes all permit requirements for state residents who can possess firearms to carry them openly or concealed without a permit. The law goes into effect on July 4. This system, called constitutional carry to reflect the right of American citizens to “keep and bear arms,” is now the law of the land in 28 states.

“Louisiana lawmakers and Gov. Landry have taken a bold step for public safety,” [Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms] Chairman Alan Gottlieb said. “Meanwhile, legislatures and governors in the remaining 22 holdout states are signaling that they do not trust their citizens with the most fundamental right of all, the right of self-defense. What a shameful message to telegraph to the people they are elected to serve.”

 

As a victory was being sealed in Louisiana, another was about to happen in Columbia, SC.

South Carolinians may soon be able to openly carry a weapon.

State lawmakers in both the House and Senate officially passed the Second Amendment Preservation Act, also known as South Carolina Constitutional Carry. The bill allows anyone who can legally own a gun to carry it openly.

The bill is headed to Governor Henry McMaster, who is expected to sign the bill.

Few things make Leviathan more terrified than free people.

“This is a permitless carry,” Sen. Margie Bright Matthews said. “Why are we going to allow people to carry more guns, and this time without a [concealed weapons permit]? Why? I submit to you that the only reason why this was done and this was passed in this chamber on a partisan vote mostly is because this is an election year.”

“Why are we going to allow people” just drips with contempt for the people this person was elected to serve.

As Charles C. W. Cooke notes at National Review:

Constitutional carry does not allow excluded people to buy, possess, or carry firearms; those people remain just as prohibited as they were before. Nor does it prevent the police from checking to see if an arrested person is allowed to carry a gun.

To believe that to remove the permitting process for eligible citizens is to make life more dangerous for the police is thus to believe either (a) that law-abiding people will suddenly become more dangerous if they aren’t required to apply for a permit, or (b) that the sort of convicted criminal who is willing to shoot a cop might somehow be dissuaded from doing so by the requirement that he apply for a small piece of laminated plastic that he is legally unable to obtain in the first instance.

Neither of these arguments is persuasive to me — or, it seems, given the remarkable spread of permitless carry, to many other people, either.

The permitting process doesn’t make anyone safer. It is more properly seen as a bulwark to prevent the “lower orders” from exercising a constitutional right. In my state of Maryland (haaack…ptoooie!) it runs about $500 to jump through all the hoops of training, fingerprinting, and getting a weapons permit. That is a deliberate decision that keeps people who live in dangerous areas from arming themselves or running the risk of becoming felons if they have to resort to self-defense.

Having Constitutional Carry is rapidly becoming the bright line that separates free states from those run by would-be totalitarians.

On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.
– H. L. Mencken

The nation is arming. What are they arming for if it isn’t that they are so distrustful of their government? They’re afraid they’ll have to fight for their liberty in more Second Amendment kinds of ways.
-Sharron Angle