No Left Turns - The Ashbrook Center Blog

Published in Quote of the Day

Quote of the Day

Quotation du Jour

Posted in Quote of the Day by Richard Adams

In light of the Left's conniption fit about the possibility that Obamacare might be ruled unconstitutional by the court, I thought it might be worth reposting this pearl of wisdom form Professor Tribe:

Whenever I suggest in these essays, for want of space or of humility, that one or another decision seems to me "plainly right" or "plainly wrong," or that some proposal or position is "clearly" consistent (or inconsistent) with the constitution, I hope my words will be understood as shorthand not for a conclusion I offer as indisputably "correct" but solely for a conviction I put forward as powerfully held.

Categories > Quote of the Day
5:33 PM / April 10, 2012
Link to this entry | Trackbacks | Discuss (0) | Share | RSS

Quote of the Day

Quotes of the Day

Posted in Quote of the Day by Richard Adams

In honor of Rick Santorum.

Thomas Jefferson:

 Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just: that his justice cannot sleep for ever: that considering numbers, nature and natural means only, a revolution of the wheel of fortune, an exchange of situation, is among possible events: that it may become probable by supernatural interference! The Almighty has no attribute which can take side with us in such a contest

And John Winthrop:

There is now set before us life and good, death and evil, in that we are commanded this day to love the Lord our God, and to love one another, to walk in his ways and to keep his commandments and his ordinance and his laws, and the articles of our covenant with him, that we may live and be multiplied, and that the Lord our God may bless us in the land whither we go to possess it. But if our hearts shall turn away, so that we will not obey, but shall be seduced, and worship other God-our pleasures and profits-and serve them , it is propounded unto us this day, we shall surely perish out of the good land whither we pass over this vast sea to possess it: Therefore let us choose life, that we and our seed may live by obeying His voice and cleaving to Him, for He is our life, and our prosperity.

Categories > Quote of the Day
6:53 PM / February 22, 2012
Link to this entry | Trackbacks | Discuss (7) | Share | RSS

Quote of the Day

Quotation du Jour

Posted in Quote of the Day by Richard Adams

From Spengler:

"Egypt's crisis was the easiest market call since Moses warned Pharaoh about the frogs."

Categories > Quote of the Day
1:03 PM / January 25, 2012
Link to this entry | Trackbacks | Discuss (1) | Share | RSS

Quote of the Day

Quotation du Jour

Posted in Quote of the Day by Richard Adams

George Washington on party unity:

It is too interesting not to be again repeated, that if principles, instead of men, are not the steady pursuit of the Federalists, their cause will soon be at an end. If these are pursued, they will not divide at the next Election of a President; If they do divide on so important a point, it would be dangerous to trust them on any other; and none except those who might be solicitous to fill the Chair of Government would do it.

A fitty homily for the primary season.

Categories > Quote of the Day
8:03 PM / December 1, 2011
Link to this entry | Trackbacks | Discuss (5) | Share | RSS

Quote of the Day

Statistics du Jour

Posted in Quote of the Day by Richard Adams

Robert Bryce in the Wall Street Journal:

Over the past decade, carbon-dioxide emissions in the U.S. fell by 1.7%. And according to the International Energy Agency, the U.S. is now cutting carbon emissions faster than Europe, even though the European Union has instituted an elaborate carbon-trading/pricing scheme. Why? The U.S. is producing vast quantities of cheap natural gas from shale, which is displacing higher-carbon coal.

Meanwhile, China's emissions jumped by 123% over the past decade and now exceed those of the U.S. by more than two billion tons per year. Africa's carbon-dioxide emissions jumped by 30%, Asia's by 44%, and the Middle East's by a whopping 57%. Put another way, over the past decade, U.S. carbon dioxide emissions--about 6.1 billion tons per year--could have gone to zero and yet global emissions still would have gone up.

A few years ago, I heard a Cal Tech climate science guru give a talk.  He arranged it so that no questions were allowed, which was disappointing.  He said that according to the prevailing science, which he said he supports completely, we have a handful of years to change course, or the earth will be alterted forever.  His proposed solutions were to cut emissions radically.

Had questions been allowed, I would have said something like, I study politics, not science. As a student of politics, I can almost guarantee that the kinds of hair shirt cuts he demands will never happen, almost certainly not in any major country, and certainly not in all of them.  If that's the case, the challenge for science is, to paraphrase Publius, how to manage the effects of human actions, rather than impose the kind of tyranny that it would take to tackle the causes.  Still a relevant observation, it seems to me. 

(I would also add, that we need also to be sure we know what we're doing.  Sciences are at their most speculative in their infancy.  Such is the study of the enviornment.  That being the case, my guess is that scientists are guessing, more than they like to admit, about the consequences of human actions on the environment across the globe.

P.S. Why do Progressives think it is reasonable to think we can control mankind's global carbon footprint, but also think that it is impossible for most individuals to control their sex drives?

Categories > Quote of the Day
4:24 PM / October 6, 2011
Link to this entry | Trackbacks | Discuss (2) | Share | RSS

Quote of the Day

A Physicist on Human Beings

Posted in Quote of the Day by Robinson O'Brien-Bours

The dolphin discussion below inadvertently reminded me of a commencement address given at Ashland a few years ago by Dr. Julian Earls of NASA. Having attended quite a few commencements, I think it was the best address I have heard. Brilliant, eloquent, and understanding. At one point he addressed the subject of human beings:

It's not often that physicists get asked to address non-technical topics. But the reason we don't falls squarely on our shoulders because so often we forget the real reason we're here on this earth. That was made crystal clear to me a few years ago when our oldest son was in high school. He asked me for the definition of a human being, but he wanted it in engineering terms.

The definition I gave him was: A human being is a completely self-contained totally enclosed power plant, available in a variety of sizes and colors, and reproducible in quantity. Humans are relatively long-lived, have major components in duplicate, and science is rapidly making progress towards solving the spare parts problem. Humans are waterproof, amphibious, operate on a wide variety of fuels, enjoy thermostatically-controlled temperatures, circulating fluid heat, evaporative cooling, have sealed and lubricated barriers, auto and optional directional range finders, sound and sight recording, audio and visual communications, and are equipped with the sophisticated control center called 'The Brain.'

And when I was through with that description, it became significant to me for what has been omitted. What goes beyond the mere fact of this robot's existence and turns it into a human being? What makes it different from such mechanical marvels as the Viking Lander, the Pathfinder Lander, or the Spirit and Opportunity Rovers on Mars? Ladies and gentlemen, the meaning of being human is the most significant of all subjects. Science will never be able to reduce the value of human commitment to a formula. It will never be able to reduce the value of respect one for another, love one for another, support one for another, to arithmetic. The challenge of accomplishment in living, the depth of insight, the inter-beauty and truth-- these things shall always surpass the scientific mastery of Nature.

Or, as I tell my colleagues, you can have all the technical knowledge in the world at your fingertips, but if you aren't a caring human being, you're the most dangerous creature on Earth, and the most unfulfilled.


Good stuff.
Categories > Quote of the Day
12:06 PM / October 1, 2011
Link to this entry | Trackbacks | Discuss (2) | Share | RSS

Quote of the Day

Quotation du Jour

Posted in Quote of the Day by Richard Adams

From John Adams, Defence of the Constitutions:

Such severe frugality, such perfect disinterestedness in public characters, appear only, or at least most frequently, in aristocratical governments. Whenever the constitution becomes democratical, such austerities disappear entirely, or at least lose their influence, and the suffrages of the people; and if an unmixed and unchecked people ever choose such men, it is only in times of distress and danger, when they think no others can save them. As soon as the danger is over, they neglect these, and choose others more plausible and indulgent.

Categories > Quote of the Day
5:49 PM / September 9, 2011
Link to this entry | Trackbacks | Discuss (1) | Share | RSS

Quote of the Day

Quotations du Jour

Posted in Quote of the Day by Richard Adams

In light of the barbarism in England, a couple of choice quotes from John Adams might be in order, reminding us of how Anglo-American law used to understand the rights of men:

"We talk of liberty and property, but, if we cut up the law of self-defence, we cut up the foundation of both."

Adams also noted that "If a robber meets me in the street, and commands me to surrender my purse, I have a right to kill him without asking questions." 

If only Jack Benny had been carrying . . .

Categories > Quote of the Day
5:24 PM / August 10, 2011
Link to this entry | Trackbacks | Discuss (2) | Share | RSS

Quote of the Day

Quotation du Jour

Posted in Quote of the Day by Richard Adams

Everyone is noting that Vice President Biden called the Tea Party "terrorists," but I think Representative Doyle's comment is more illuminating:

"We have negotiated with terrorists," an angry Doyle said, according to sources in the room. "This small group of terrorists have made it impossible to spend any money."

That says wonders about how Congressional Democrats see their job.

Categories > Quote of the Day
8:09 PM / August 1, 2011
Link to this entry | Trackbacks | Discuss (0) | Share | RSS

Quote of the Day

Headline du Jour

Posted in Quote of the Day by Richard Adams

From Ann Coulter: "

NEW YORK TIMES READER KILLS DOZENS IN NORWAY."

She also notes:

True, in one lone entry on Breivik's gaseous 1,500-page manifesto, "2083: A European Declaration of Independence," he calls himself "Christian." But unfortunately he also uses a great number of other words to describe himself, and these other words make clear that he does not mean "Christian" as most Americans understand the term. (Incidentally, he also cites The New York Times more than a half-dozen times.)

Had anyone at the Times actually read Breivik's manifesto, they would have seen that he uses the word "Christian" as a handy moniker to mean "European, non-Islamic" -- not a religious Christian or even a vague monotheist. In fact, at several points in his manifesto, Breivik stresses that he has a beef with Christians for their soft-heartedness. (I suppose that's why the Times is never worried about a "Christian backlash.")

A casual perusal of Breivik's manifesto clearly shows that he uses the word "Christian" similarly to the way some Jewish New Yorkers use it to mean "non-Jewish." In this usage, Christopher Hitchens and Madalyn Murray O'Hair are "Christians."

Categories > Quote of the Day
12:51 PM / July 28, 2011
Link to this entry | Trackbacks | Discuss (6) | Share | RSS

Quote of the Day

Quotation du Jour

Posted in Quote of the Day by Richard Adams

From David Bernstein's Rehabilitating Lochner: "[Learned] Hand and [Felix] Frankfurter both wrote unsigned editorials for The New Republic calling for the repeal of the Firth and Fourteenth Amendments' due process clauses. Privately, Justice Brandeis supported the repeal of the entire Fourteenth Amendment."
Categories > Quote of the Day
2:06 AM / June 8, 2011
Link to this entry | Trackbacks | Discuss (1) | Share | RSS

Quote of the Day

Cleese on Terror

Posted in Quote of the Day by Justin Paulette

You may have heard it before, but it bears repeating.

The English are feeling the pinch in relation to recent Terrorist threats and have therefore raised their security level from "Miffed" to "Peeved." Soon, security levels may be raised yet again to "Irritated", or even "A Bit Cross." The English have not been "A Bit Cross" since "The Blitz" in 1940 when tea supplies nearly ran out. Terrorists have been re-categorized from "Tiresome" to "A Bloody Nuisance."  The last time the British issued a "Bloody Nuisance" warning level was in 1588, when threatened by the Spanish Armada.

The Scots have raised their threat level from "Pissed Off" to "Let's get the Bastards."  They don't have any other levels.  This is the Reason they have been used on the front line of the British army for the last 300 years.

The French government announced yesterday that it has raised its terror alert level from "Run" to "Hide."  The only two higher levels in France are "Collaborate" and "Surrender."  The rise was precipitated by a recent fire that destroyed France's white flag factory, effectively paralyzing the country's military capability.

Italy has increased the alert level from "Shout Loudly and Excitedly" to "Elaborate Military Posturing."  Two more levels remain: "Ineffective Combat Operations" and "Change Sides."

The Germans have increased their alert state from "Disdainful Arrogance" to "Dress in Uniform and Sing Marching Songs."  They also have two higher levels: "Invade a Neighbor" and "Lose."

Belgians, on the other hand, are all on holiday as usual; the only threat they are worried about is NATO pulling out of Brussels.

The Spanish are all excited to see their new submarines ready to deploy.  These beautifully designed subs have glass bottoms so the new Spanish navy can get a really good look at the old Spanish navy.

Australia , meanwhile, has raised its security level from "No worries"  to "She'll be right, Mate."  Two more  escalation levels remain:  "Crikey! I think we'll need to cancel the barbie this weekend!" and "The Barbie is canceled."  So far no situation has ever warranted use of the final escalation level.

- John Cleese, British writer, actor and tall person

Categories > Quote of the Day
11:11 PM / May 25, 2011
Link to this entry | Trackbacks | Discuss (1) | Share | RSS

Quote of the Day

Alligators in the Moat

Posted in Quote of the Day by Justin Paulette

In my earlier post on Obama's appeal to Latinos, I missed his slap at Republicans:

Even though we've answered these concerns, I've got to say i suspect there's still some who are trying to move the goal posts on us one more time. You know, they said 'we needed to triple the border patrol.' Well, now they're going to say we need to quadruple the border patrol, or they'll want a higher fence. Maybe they'll need a moat. Maybe they'll want alligators in the moat. They'll never be satisfied. I understand. That's politics. But the truth is the measures we put in place are getting results

While he's obviously wrong about having met Conservative's concerns, the bit about the alligators is pretty funny. And not an entirely bad idea, actually . . . .

UPDATE: See Jim Dimint's article at NRO for a detailed response to Obama's speech.

Categories > Quote of the Day
6:09 PM / May 10, 2011
Link to this entry | Trackbacks | Discuss (4) | Share | RSS

Quote of the Day

Quotation du Jour

Posted in Quote of the Day by Richard Adams

In Edward Corwin's famous, "'Higher Law' Background of American Constitutional Law," Corwin notes:

The opinion of a Massachusetts magistrate in 1657 holding void a tax by the town of Ipswitch for the purpose of presenting the local minister with a dwelling house. Such a tax, said the magistrate, "to take from Peter to give it to Paul," is against fundamental law.

Categories > Quote of the Day
7:25 PM / April 13, 2011
Link to this entry | Trackbacks | Discuss (4) | Share | RSS

Quote of the Day

Quoation du Jour

Posted in Quote of the Day by Richard Adams

Gandhi on Mussolini in Andrew Roberts' review of a new biography of Gandhi:

Gandhi and Mussolini got on well when they met in December 1931, with the Great Soul praising the Duce's "service to the poor, his opposition to super-urbanization, his efforts to bring about a coordination between Capital and Labour, his passionate love for his people."

No enemies on the Left?

Categories > Quote of the Day
7:32 PM / March 27, 2011
Link to this entry | Trackbacks | Discuss (4) | Share | RSS

Quote of the Day

Statistic du Jour

Posted in Quote of the Day by Richard Adams

Mickey Kaus quoting Nicholas Kristof:

47 percent of America's kindergarten through 12th-grade teachers come from the bottom one-third of their college classes (as measured by SAT scores).

Categories > Quote of the Day
2:26 PM / March 14, 2011
Link to this entry | Trackbacks | Discuss (6) | Share | RSS

Quote of the Day

Quotation du Jour

Posted in Quote of the Day by Richard Adams

From Angelo Codevilla's The Ruling Class:

The U.S. labor movement now consists almost exclusively of government employees, employees of companies doing government contracts, or companies that are subsidized by government.

I know the majority of Americans in Unions nowadays are government employees, but how accurate is the rest of the statement?   Whatever the exact number in that group is, we ought to add the last two categories to the majority of union workers who work directly for the government when discussing the future of unions in the U.S.

Categories > Quote of the Day
5:16 PM / March 5, 2011
Link to this entry | Trackbacks | Discuss (16) | Share | RSS

Pop Culture

Gaddafi vs Sheen

Posted in Pop Culture by Robinson O'Brien-Bours

The Guardian has a little quiz of ten quotes, and you get to choose whether or not the quotes belong to mad dictator Muammar Gaddafi or crazy actor Charlie Sheen. Comparing the tyrant to the actor highlights well his egomania and delusions, and further illustrates why Gaddafi was a ticking time bomb for eventually lashing out at his people as he is now.

I only got 5/10 correct.
Categories > Pop Culture
9:11 AM / March 3, 2011
Link to this entry | Trackbacks | Discuss (0) | Share | RSS

Quote of the Day

Quote of the Day: Obama vs Reagan

Posted in Quote of the Day by Robinson O'Brien-Bours

Well, the United States has finally moved to freeze all of Gaddafi's assets (several days after the Swiss had already decided to do so). This is what President Obama had to say about the Colonel in his statement today: "By any measure, Muammar el-Qaddafi's government has violated international norms and common decency and must be held accountable."

Yes, we are freezing his money because he is not normal or decent by international standards (a vague statement that could be applicable to many of the world's leaders). That is the extent of his commentary on Gaddafi himself, saving the rest of his statement for the less personal "government of Libya."

President Reagan referred to Colonel Gaddafi as the "mad dog of the Middle East" and gave this address from the Oval Office as he ordered airstrikes on Libya. "Colonel Gaddafi is not only an enemy of the United States. His record of subversion and aggression against the neighboring states in Africa is well-documented and well-known... He has sanctioned acts of terror in Africa, Europe, and the Middle East, as well as the Western hemisphere... Despite our continued warnings, Gaddafi continued his reckless policy of intimidation, his relentless pursuit of terror. He counted on America to be passive. He counted wrong."

At that time Gaddafi wasn't even slaughtering his own people. When nations like France, Germany, and Luxembourg (whose foreign minister simply referred to Gaddafi as a "dictator who shoots at his own people") are taking a harder rhetorical line against this bloody villain than the American president, there is an issue. We don't need to go bombing or invading Libya, but President Obama should at least have the, to use his words, "common decency" to call a tyrant a tyrant and a murderer a murderer.
Categories > Quote of the Day
10:45 PM / February 25, 2011
Link to this entry | Trackbacks | Discuss (6) | Share | RSS

Quote of the Day

Quote of the Day

Posted in Quote of the Day by Robinson O'Brien-Bours

"Meticulous attention should be paid to the special relations and obligations of public servants to the public itself and to the Government...The process of collective bargaining, as usually understood, cannot be transplanted into the public service. A strike of public employees manifests nothing less than an intent on their part to obstruct the operations of government until their demands are satisfied. Such action looking toward the paralysis of government by those who have sworn to support it is unthinkable and intolerable."
~Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Categories > Quote of the Day
11:10 AM / February 19, 2011
Link to this entry | Trackbacks | Discuss (4) | Share | RSS

Quote of the Day

Quotation du Jour

Posted in Quote of the Day by Richard Adams

Henry Adams, uber-realist?  "Chaos was the law of nature; Order was the dream of man."
Categories > Quote of the Day
10:45 PM / February 16, 2011
Link to this entry | Trackbacks | Discuss (3) | Share | RSS

Quote of the Day

Quotation du Jour

Posted in Quote of the Day by Richard Adams

Since this has come up in a comments section, I thought it would be worth quoting John Quincy Adams' comments, on moving some resolutions on the Louisiana Purchase.  

By the treaty with France we have  acquired all the rights of sovereignty over the inhabitants of Louisiana which France could impart; but as, to use the language of our declaration of independence, the just powers of a govern­ ment can be derived only from the consent of the governed, the French Republic could not give us the right to make laws for the people of Louisiana, without their acquiescence in the transfer. I never considered this as an objection against the ratification of the treaty, because I did not deem it indispensable that this con­sent of the ceded people should precede the conclusion of the com­pact. That would indeed have been the most natural and most eligible course of proceeding, had it been practicable, and such was the opinion of our own executive before the negotiation of the treaty. But theoretic principles of government can never be carried into practice to their full extent. They must be modified and accommodated to the situations and circumstances of human events and human concerns. But between those allowances necessary to reconcile the rigor of principle with the resistance of practice, and the total sacrifice of all principle, there is a wide difference. If in the Louisiana negotiation our government had insisted on obtaining the consent of the people before the con­clusion of the treaty, in all probability the treaty itself never could have been concluded. A momentary departure from the inflexible rigor of theory was, therefore, perfectly justifiable, and in con­cluding the treaty we acquired a power over the territory and over the inhabitants which requires, so far as relates to the latter, one thing more to make it a just and lawful power. I mean their own consent. For although the necessity of the case right excuse us for not having obtained this consent beforehand, it could not absolve us from the obligation to acquire it afterwards.

(My text is from elsewhere, but the only online link I can find is here.  Goto p. 25 for the full thing.)

Categories > Quote of the Day
6:54 PM / February 11, 2011
Link to this entry | Trackbacks | Discuss (5) | Share | RSS

Quote of the Day

Quotation du Jour

Posted in Quote of the Day by Richard Adams

George Friedman on Dennis Prager's show last week.  Prager asked Friedman about the trade deal with Columbia. No big deal, he said "Columbia's not the country it was twenty years ago."  Then he paused, and added, "Mexico's the country Columbia was twenty years ago."
Categories > Quote of the Day
1:40 PM / January 30, 2011
Link to this entry | Trackbacks | Discuss (1) | Share | RSS

Quote of the Day

Quotation du Jour

Posted in Quote of the Day by Richard Adams

Ann Althouse reminds us of what The New Republic had to say about civility when Obama became President:

Obama should save the civility shtick for Republicans he'll have to work with. As for the guy retiring to Texas, the new administration should ensure he remains the useful foil he was during the 2008 campaign. That starts with letting nothing--not public amnesia, not nostalgia, and certainly not a statesmanlike gesture from the White House--lift him from the PR cellar. When the new crew opens up the books on Bush's government, they ought to let every embarrassing detail out....
Democrats ran against Herbert Hoover for decades; Republicans kicked around Jimmy Carter for a dozen years. If Bush's successors play their cards right, Democrats could use his legacy as a thumb on their side of the scale for a generation....
Categories > Quote of the Day
3:52 PM / January 17, 2011
Link to this entry | Trackbacks | Discuss (2) | Share | RSS

Quote of the Day

Statistics du Jour

Posted in Quote of the Day by Richard Adams

From Alan Abelson's column in the latest Barron's:

The annual tab for homeowners' insurance is up some 108% since the turn of the century. During this period, yearly taxes on real estate have climbed 77%. A gallon of heating oil costs a whopping 150% more. The average electricity bill is 50% higher. And filling up your rig at the friendly neighborhood service station is more that twice as much per gallon. Monthly Medicare Part B premiums have climbed 143%. A humble potato goes for 67% more than it did 10 years ago, an equally humble egg 93% more, and the price of a loaf of plain old white bread is up a decidedly unappetizing 50%.

Categories > Quote of the Day
1:55 PM / January 5, 2011
Link to this entry | Trackbacks | Discuss (1) | Share | RSS

Journalism

Quote of the Day

Posted in Journalism by Justin Paulette

From Matt Miller in today's Washington Post:

If we keep taxes low on America's high earners, the terrorists win.

Categories > Journalism
6:35 PM / December 16, 2010
Link to this entry | Trackbacks | Discuss (0) | Share | RSS

Quote of the Day

Quotation du Jour

Posted in Quote of the Day by Richard Adams

From FDR brain truster Rexford Tugwell, on the New Deal and the constitution: "To the extent that these new social virtues developed, they were tortured interpretations of a document intended to prevent them."

Categories > Quote of the Day
6:14 PM / December 15, 2010
Link to this entry | Trackbacks | Discuss (0) | Share | RSS

Quote of the Day

Quotation du Jour

Posted in Quote of the Day by Richard Adams

From President James Madison's veto of the Bonus Bill in 1817:

"The power to regulate commerce among the several States" can not include a power to construct roads and canals, and to improve the navigation of water courses in order to facilitate, promote, and secure such commerce without a latitude of construction departing from the ordinary import of the terms strengthened by the known inconveniences which doubtless led to the grant of this remedial power to Congress.

To refer the power in question to the clause "to provide for common defense and general welfare" would be contrary to the established and consistent rules of interpretation, as rendering the special and careful enumeration of powers which follow the clause nugatory and improper. Such a view of the Constitution would have the effect of giving to Congress a general power of legislation instead of the defined and limited one hitherto understood to belong to them, the terms "common defense and general welfare" embracing every object and act within the purview of a legislative trust. It would have the effect of subjecting both the Constitution and laws of the several States in all cases not specifically exempted to be superseded by laws of Congress, it being expressly declared "that the Constitution of the United States and laws made in pursuance thereof shall be the supreme law of the land, and the judges of every state shall be bound thereby, anything in the constitution or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding." Such a view of the Constitution, finally, would have the effect of excluding the judicial authority of the United States from its participation in guarding the boundary between the legislative powers of the General and the State Governments, inasmuch as questions relating to the general welfare, being questions of policy and expediency, are unsusceptible of judicial cognizance and decision. . . .

I am not unaware of the great importance of roads and canals and the improved navigation of water courses, and that a power in the National Legislature to provide for them might be exercised with signal advantage to the general prosperity. But seeing that such a power is not expressly given by the Constitution, and believing that it can not be deduced from any part of it without an inadmissible latitude of construction and reliance on insufficient precedents; believing also that the permanent success of the Constitution depends on a definite partition of powers between the General and the State Governments, and that no adequate landmarks would be left by the constructive extension of the powers of Congress as proposed in the bill, I have no option but to withhold my signature from it, and to cherishing the hope that its beneficial objects may be attained by a resort for the necessary powers to the same wisdom and virtue in the nation which established the Constitution in its actual form and providently marked out in the instrument itself a safe and practicable mode of improving it as experience might suggest.

Categories > Quote of the Day
1:38 PM / December 14, 2010
Link to this entry | Trackbacks | Discuss (0) | Share | RSS

Quote of the Day

Quotation du Jour

Posted in Quote of the Day by Richard Adams

Since some Progressives have been suggesting that amending the constitution to block the nationalization of health care is un-conservative, I thought it might be wise to post a bit from President Washington's Farewel Address:

You have improved upon your first essay, by the adoption of a constitution of government better calculated than your former for an intimate union, and for the efficacious management of your common concerns. This government, the offspring of our own choice, uninfluenced and unawed, adopted upon full investigation and mature deliberation, completely free in its principles, in the distribution of its powers, uniting security with energy, and containing within itself a provision for its own amendment, has a just claim to your confidence and your support.

Categories > Quote of the Day
9:50 PM / December 11, 2010
Link to this entry | Trackbacks | Discuss (2) | Share | RSS

Quote of the Day

Quotation du Jour

Posted in Quote of the Day by Richard Adams

The wisdom of Franklin:

Men I find to be a sort of beings very badly constructed, as they are generally more easily provoked than reconciled, more disposed to do mischief to each other than to make reparation, much more easily deceived than undeceived, and having more pride and even pleasure in killing than in begetting one another; for without a blush they assemble in great armies at noonday to destroy, and when they have killed as many as they can, they exaggerate the number to augment the fancied glory; but they creep into corners, or cover themselves with the darkness of night, when they mean to beget, as being ashamed of a virtuous action. A virtuous action it would be, and a vicious one the killing of them, if the species were really worth producing or preserving; but of this I begin to doubt.

Categories > Quote of the Day
8:52 PM / December 4, 2010
Link to this entry | Trackbacks | Discuss (0) | Share | RSS

Quote of the Day

Quotation du Jour

Posted in Quote of the Day by Richard Adams

Assuming this link is correct, here's an excerpt form the textbook at issue in the Scopes Trial:

The Races of Man. - At the present time there exist upon the earth five races or varieties of man, each very different from the other in instincts, social customs, and, to an extent, in structure. These are the Ethiopian or negro type, originating in Africa; the Malay or brown race, from the islands of the Pacific; the American Indian; the Mongolian or yellow race, including the natives of China, Japan, and the Eskimos; and finally, the highest race type of all, the Caucasians, represented by the civilized white inhabitants of Europe and America. . . .

Improvement of Man. - If the stock of domesticated animals can be improved, it is not unfair to ask if the health and vigor of the future generations of men and women on the earth might be improved by applying to them the laws of selection. This improvement of the future race has a number of factors in which as individuals may play a part. These are personal hygiene, selection of healthy mates, and the betterment of the environment�.

Eugenics. - When people marry there are certain things that the individual as well as the race should demand. The most important of these is freedom from germ diseases which might be handed down to the offspring. Tuberculosis, syphilis, that dread disease which cripples and kills hundreds of thousands of innocent children, epilepsy, and feeble-mindedness are handicaps which it is not only unfair but criminal to hand down to posterity. The science of being well born is called eugenics.

The Jukes. - Studies have been made on a number of different families in this country, in which mental and moral defects were present in one or both of the original parents. The "Jukes" family is a notorious example. The first mother is known as "Margaret, the mother of criminals." In seventy-five years the progeny of the original generation has cost the state of New York over a million and a quarter dollars, besides giving over to the care of prisons and asylums considerably over a hundred feeble-minded, alcoholic, immoral, or criminal persons. Another case recently studied is the "Kallikak" family. This family has been traced back to the War of the Revolution, when a young soldier named Martin Kallikak seduced a feeble-minded girl. She had a feeble-minded son from whom there have been to the present time 480 descendants. Of these 33 were sexually immoral, 24 confirmed drunkards, 3 epileptics, and 143 feeble-minded. The man who started this terrible line of immorality and feeble-mindedness later married a normal Quaker girl. From this couple a line of 496 descendants have come, with no cases of feeble-mindedness. The evidence and the moral speak for themselves!

Parasitism and its Cost to Society. - Hundreds of families such as those described above exist to-day, spreading disease, immorality, and crime to all parts of this country. The cost to society of such families is very severe. Just as certain animals or plants become parasitic on other plants or animals, these families have become parasitic on society. They not only do harm to others by corrupting, stealing, or spreading disease, but they are actually protected and cared for by the state out of public money. Largely for them the poorhouse and the asylum exist. They take from society, but they give nothing in return. They are true parasites.

Remember, many of the people who supported teaching this stuff denounced those who disagreed for being anti-scince, and backward.  Willian Jennings Bryan defended Christianity against Darwin, but he also turned to a more basic language when he called it a "barbarous doctrine." When science makes claims beyond its legitimate realm, and uses its authority to denounce those who disagree, it is science, not religion, that has crossed the line.

Categories > Quote of the Day
2:07 PM / December 2, 2010
Link to this entry | Trackbacks | Discuss (10) | Share | RSS

Quote of the Day

Quotation du Jour

Posted in Quote of the Day by Richard Adams

From President Jackson's Bank veto message:

It is maintained by the advocates of the bank that its constitutionality in all its features ought to be considered as settled by precedent and by the decision of the Supreme Court. To this conclusion I can not assent. Mere precedent is a dangerous source of authority, and should not be regarded as deciding questions of constitutional power except where the acquiescence of the people and the States can be considered as well settled. So far from this being the case on this subject, an argument against the bank might be based on precedent. One Congress, in 1791, decided in favor of a bank; another, in 1811, decided against it. One Congress, in 1815, decided against a bank; another, in 1816, decided in its favor. Prior to the present Congress, therefore, the precedents drawn from that source were equal. If we resort to the States, the expressions of legislative, judicial, and executive opinions against the bank have been probably to those in its favor as 4 to 1. There is nothing in precedent, therefore, which, if its authority were admitted, ought to weigh in favor of the act before me.

If the opinion of the Supreme Court covered the whole ground of this act, it ought not to control the coordinate authorities of this Government. The Congress, the Executive, and the Court must each for itself be guided by its own opinion of the Constitution. Each public officer who takes an oath to support the Constitution swears that he will support it as he understands it, and not as it is understood by others. It is as much the duty of the House of Representatives, of the Senate, and of the President to decide upon the constitutionality of any bill or resolution which may be presented to them for passage or approval as it is of the supreme judges when it may be brought before them for judicial decision. The opinion of the judges has no more authority over Congress than the opinion of Congress has over the judges, and on that point the President is independent of both. The authority of the Supreme Court must not, therefore, be permitted to control the Congress or the Executive when acting in their legislative capacities, but to have only such influence as the force of their reasoning may deserve.

Categories > Quote of the Day
3:32 PM / November 30, 2010
Link to this entry | Trackbacks | Discuss (6) | Share | RSS