Quotation Saturday

Quotation Saturday

quotationsaturday1

Mamacita says:

1.  I believe that every individual is naturally entitled to do as he pleases with himself and the fruits of his labor, so far as it in no way interferes with any other men’s rights. – Abraham Lincoln

2.   Those who expect to reap the benefits of freedom, must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it. – Thomas Paine

3.   Liberty is always dangerous, but it is the safest thing we have. – Harry Emerson Fosdick

4.   The state in which the rulers are the most reluctant to govern is always the best and most quietly governed; and the state in which they are the most eager, the worst. – Anonymous

5.   It is much more important to kill bad bills than to pass good ones. – Calvin Coolidge

6.   To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors, is sinful and tyrannical. – Thomas Jefferson

7.   It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong. – Voltaire

8.   The war for freedom will never really be won because the price of our freedom is constant vigilance over ourselves and over our Government. – Eleanor Roosevelt

9.   Blessed are the young, for they shall inherit the national debt. – Herbert Hoover

10.   Give me liberty or give me death! – Patrick Henry

11.   First they came for the Jews, but I did nothing because I’m not a Jew. Then they came for the socialists, but I did nothing because I’m not a socialist. Then they came for the Catholics, but I did nothing because I’m not a Catholic. Finally, they came for me, but by then there was no one left to help me. – Pastor Father Niemoller (1946)

12.   Government at its best is a necessary evil, and at its worst, an intolerant one. – Thomas Paine

13.   There’s never been a good government. – Emma Goldman

14.   We must have government, but we must watch them like a hawk. – Millicent Fenwick (1983)

15.   Useless laws weaken the necessary laws. – Montesquieu

16.   A little government and a little luck are necessary in life, but only a fool trusts either of them. – P. J. O’Rourke

17.   Government never furthered any enterprise but by the alacrity with which it got out of its way. – Henry David Thoreau

18.  Reader, suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself. – Mark Twain

19.   There is no distinctly native American criminal class save Congress. – Mark Twain

20.   Talk is cheap – except when Congress does it. – Cullen Hightower

21.   You cannot adopt politics as a profession and remain honest. – Ambrose Gwinett Bierce

22.   [Political] offices are as acceptable here as elsewhere, and whenever a man cast a longing eye on them, a rottenness begins in his conduct. – Thomas Jefferson (1799)

23.   The single most exciting thing you encounter in government is competence, because it’s so rare. – Daniel Patrick Moynihan (1976)

24.   The most fundamental purpose of government is defense, not empire. – Joseph Sobran (1995)

25.   Governments harangue about deficits to get more revenue so they can spend more. – Allan H. Meltzer (1993)

26.  When important issues affecting the life of an individual are decided by somebody else, it makes no difference to the individual whether that somebody else is a king, a dictator, or society at large. – James Taggart (1992)

27.   No drug, not even alcohol, causes the fundamental ills of society. If we’re looking for the sources of our troubles, we shouldn’t test people for drugs, we should test them for stupidity, ignorance, greed, and love of power. – P. J. O’Rourke (1992)

28.   Here’s your enemy for this week, the government says. And some gullible Americans click their heels and salute – often without knowing who or even where the enemy of the week is. – Charley Reese (1998)

29.   The great virtue of a free market system is that it does not care what color people are; it does not care what their religion is; it only cares whether they can produce something you want to buy. It is the most effective system we have discovered to enable people who hate one another to deal with one another and help one another. – Milton Friedman

30.   The best government is the one that charges you the least blackmail for leaving you alone. – Thomas Rudmose-Brown (1996)

31.   If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it’s free. – P.J. O’Rourke (1993)

32.   The Government is like a baby’s alimentary canal, with a happy appetite at one end and no responsibility at the other. – Ronald Reagan

33.   Americans have the right and advantage of being armed – unlike the citizens of other countries whose governments are afraid to trust the people with arms. – James Madison

34.   The whole of the Bill [of Rights] is a declaration of the right of the people at large or considered as individuals … It establishes some rights of the individual as unalienable and which consequently, no majority has a right to deprive them of. – Albert Gallatin (1789)

35.   The Constitution shall never be construed … to prevent the people of the United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms. – Samuel Adams

36.  I should have loved freedom, I believe, at all times, but in the time in which we live I am ready to worship it. – Alexis De Toqueville

37.   I have sworn upon the altar of god, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man. – Thomas Jefferson (1800)

38.   I believe we are on an irreversible trend toward more freedom and democracy – but that could change. – Al Gore

39.   If you have ten thousand regulations, you destroy all respect for the law. – Winston Churchill

40.  Tyranny is always better organized than freedom. – Charles Peguy

41.   The preservation of the sacred fire of liberty, and the destiny of the Republican model of government, are justly considered as deeply, perhaps as finally staked, on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people. – George Washington

42.   A sword never kills anybody; it is a tool in the killer’s hand. – Lucius Annaeus Seneca, c. 4BC – 65AD.

43.   He that hath no sword, let him sell his garment and buy one. – the Bible, Luke 22:36.

44.   Among the many misdeeds of the British rule in India, history will look upon the act of depriving a whole nation of arms, as the blackest. – Mahatma Gandhi, in Gandhi, An Autobiography, p. 446

45.   Whenever is found what is called a paternal government, there is found state education. It has been discovered that the best way to ensure implicit obedience is to commence tyranny in the nursery. – Benjamin Disraeli, 1874

46.  These rights and freedoms may in no case be exercised contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations. – UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 29(3).

47.   The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of the blessings. The inherent blessing of socialism is the equal sharing of misery. – Winston Churchill

48.  There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences. – P.J. O’Rourke (1993)

49.   Government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it. – Ronald Reagan (1986)

50.  Foreign aid might be defined as a transfer from poor people in rich countries to rich people in poor countries. – Douglas Casey (1992)

#8 makes me think of the false Mad-Eye Moody.

#37 makes me think of NCLB and the blithering asses who thought it up.

#45  makes me think of NCLB and the doddering old fools who thought it up.

#48 is my favorite.  Protecting people from the consequences of their own actions is one of the sideshows of the bread and circuses we are becoming.

Quotation Saturday

The Things We Do For Love: Ebb Tide

motherandchild400x504I am realizing more and more that I do not like being the meat in the middle of the sandwich generation.

It is better, however, than not having a slice of bread on the TOP of the sandwich at all.

Being a desperately needed caretaker for someone who is supposed to be someone who takes of me, makes me grateful, humble, appreciative, frustrated, weepy, exhausted, sad, frightened, apprehensive, terrified, admiring, awe-inspired, disgusted, and did I mention “humble?” and all the words that match these in any thesaurus you might have lying around.

This goes against the natural order of things; our parents take care of us – we don’t take care of them.  We take care of our children – they don’t take care of us.

And yet, having this order reversed is, in a way, a kind of giving back, for all the sacrifices, all the sharing, all the care and concern and love and guidance and teaching and such. . . it’s not that we “owe” our parents; it’s that we now understand more about what they did for us, and wish to express that knowledge with loving kindness and care.

My mother is in good health right now, for which I thank God, fasting.  I will not be ready to give her up for a long, long time, say perhaps when I’m in my late eighties?

My MIL is the same age, and yet, her tide is ebbing.  We will never be ready to be without her. I love her.   I don’t like it when the tide ebbs; no matter how much treasure is left on the beach, it’s never enough to replace what we lost.  And yet, all aspects of the tide are beautiful, and it is also very true that there is a season, turn, turn, turn. . . .

I blame the moon.  Damn gravity.

No, I do not like being the meat in the middle of the sandwich generation.  I don’t like it a bit.  But I’m glad of the chance to be of service.  And, I’m glad there is still an intact sandwich.

(Are you watching, children?  This is how it’s done.  Take notes, if you would, please.  Put them in a safe place, for I hope you won’t need to use them until YOU’RE in your late eighties.)

You laugh, and think that’s a long way off and needn’t be bothered with for ages, but to tell you the truth, my loves, turn around twice and you’re there.

It’s an Einsteinian thing.

Quotation Saturday

Ten Things Tuesday

Ten Things TuesdayMamacita says:

1.  More snow, and more expected.  Hub got another day off, so he’s going to drive me to school in a few minutes.  I wonder if any of the students will be able to make it to town?

2.  Bare trees covered with snow are absolutely beautiful.

3.  The woods behind my house look like a big doily.

4.  I was going to say “antimacassar” but I figured you young ‘uns might not know what that was.

5.  Now you do.  It’s a big doily.

6.  “Doily” is a goofy word.  It makes me giggle.

7.  “Deduce” is one of our study words this week.  I think “deduce” is a goofy word, too.  Say it a few times.  It sounds like Joisey.  Deduce.  De joker.  De king.  Deduce.  Deduce.  Deduce.  It’s like ironing patterned fabric that makes you dizzy.

8.  I sort of remember this “ironing” thing of which some people still speak.  I once had an ironing board, but I gave it away. I kind of miss it; the extra storage shelf was handy.  My children never even saw it. The only ironing board in their growing-up years was my mother’s.  She used to iron everything.

9.  If you rescue the clothes from the dryer while they’re still hot, they’re not wrinkled.

10.  Nobody has ever called me a domestic goddess. It sounds vaguely offensive.

And now, I have to break a new path to the car.  We can’t put it in the garage because our son’s things are stored in there while he’s living in an efficiency apartment so he can finish his degree so our garage is full of furniture and big boxes of stuff, none of it ours.  And, the car is buried in snow.  Sigh.

If any students are able to get to the college, we’ll be talking about subject-verb agreement.  Surely that’s incentive for ANYBODY to drive on ice so thick and slick and lumpy with last week’s ice covered in last night’s new snow that it’s a lot like walking blindfolded across a Whack-A-Mole course.

I am Mamacita. Accept no substitutes!

Hitting the fan like no one else can...

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Scheiss Weekly by Jane Goodwin (Mamacita) is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.