Quote of the day - Livy

Indeed, that is the nature of crowds. The mob is either a humble slave or a cruel master.

Livy

Quote of the day - Thomas Sowell [tooth fairy]

You may scoff at the Tooth Fairy if you like. But the Tooth Fairy's approach has gotten more politicians elected than any economist's analysis.

Thomas Sowell

tooth fairy

Quote of the day - Ayn Rand

Individual rights are not subject to a public vote; a majority has no right to vote away the rights of a minority; the political function of rights is precisely to protect minorities from oppression by majorities (and the smallest minority on earth is the individual).

Ayn Rand

Quote of the day - Garet Garrett

We have crossed the boundary that lies between Republic and Empire. If you ask when, the answer is that you cannot make a single stroke between day and night: the precise moment does not matter. There was no painted sign to say: 'You are now entering Imperium.' Yet it was a very old road and the voice of history was saying: 'Whether you know it or not, the act of crossing may be irreversible.' And now, not far ahead, is a sign that reads: 'No U-turns.'

Garet Garrett (1952), [from The People's Pottage]



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Quote of the day - Ann Coulter

We've gone from a representative democracy to a monarchy, and the most appalling thing is — even conservatives just hope like the dickens the next king is a good one.

Ann Coulter (referring to the Supreme Court)

Quote of the day - Justice Janice Rogers Brown

We continue to chip away at the foundations of our success. We dismissed natural law and morality because its unverifiable judgments were deemed inferior to reason. But, then, we drove reason itself from the camp because the most significant of life’s questions defy empiricism. …Only natural law offers an alternative to might makes right and accounts for man’s “unrelenting quest to rise above the ‘letter of the law’ to the realm of the spirit.”

Justice Janice Rogers Brown

[IFJ speech at 15, 17]

Quote of the day - Janice Rogers Brown

A democracy is inevitably transformed into a Kleptocracy.

Janice Rogers Brown

Quote of the day - Justice Janice Rogers Brown

[T]he courts overcame these alleged limitations on their powers with ridiculous ease. How? By constitutionalizing everything possible, finding constitutional rights which are nowhere mentioned in the Constitution. By taking a few words which are in the Constitution like “due process” and “equal protection” and imbuing them with elaborate and highly implausible etymologies; and by enunciating standards of constitutional review which are not standards at all but rather policy vetoes, i.e., strict scrutiny and the compelling state interest standard.

Justice Janice Rogers Brown

[Libertarian speech at 7-8]

Quote of the day - Justice Janice Rogers Brown

Politicians in their eagerness to please and to provide something of value to their constituencies that does not have a price tag are handing out new rights like lollipops in the dentist’s office.

[Speech to Sacramento County bar Ass’n (May 1, 1996) at 6-7]

Justice Janice Rogers Brown

Quote of the day - Joe Sobran

Someone has said: "If voting could change anything, it would be illegal."

Joe Sobran

Quote of the day - Frederic Bastiat

The state is the great fictitious entity by which everyone seeks to live at the expense of everyone else.

Frederic Bastiat

Quote of the day - Joe Sobran

Brazen criminals are rare; a larger part of the population is law-abiding only because they are timid. If they can benefit from looting without the risk of being arrested, they will support it. This sub-criminal class is the soul of democratic politics.

Joe Sobran

Quote of the day - Justice Janice Rogers Brown

"The quixotic desire to do good, be universally fair and make everybody happy is understandable. Indeed, the majority’s zeal is more than a little endearing. There is only one problem with this approach. We are a court."

Justice Janice Rogers Brown



Because I am generally content with the current nominee, I will once again begin to use quotes from individuals other than Justice Brown. There is hopefully no need to show the contrast between Brown and the current nominee, as I would have done had the nominee been Clement. I still have a reservoir of quotes from Justice Brown that I will use in the future.

Quote of the day - Justice Janice Rogers Brown

[P]rivate property, already an endangered species in California, is now entirely extinct in San Francisco…I would find the HCO [San Francisco Residential Hotel Unit Conversion and Demolition Ordinance] preempted by the Ellis Act and facially unconstitutional. …Theft is theft even when the government approves of the thievery. Turning a democracy into a kleptocracy does not enhance the stature of the thieves; it only diminishes the legitimacy of the government. …The right to express one’s individuality and essential human dignity through the free use of property is just as important as the right to do so through speech, the press, or the free exercise of religion. [Dissenting opinion in San Remo Hotel L.P. v. City and County of San Francisco, 41 P.3d 87, 120, 128-9 (Cal. 2002)

Justice Janice Rogers Brown