Samizdata

We are not going to put our players in a situation where they have to shake hands with the president of Zimbabwe.
–Tim Lamb – chief executive of the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB)

“You teach people that it’s wrong to care. You tell them that the right course of action is to “not get involved”. When they see a crime being committed, then if they try to stop it they may end up in prison, but there’s no punishment for looking the other direction and not seeing. And thus fewer people will get involved.”

– Steven Den Beste writing on what happens when you punish people for killing robbers. Emphasis added by me.

When I hear the words “new push” I always think of a) the First World War, and b) the Soviet Union. It’s what people do when their systems aren’t working – apply more mindless force. So, no surprise to find that schools are being instructed to do more new pushes. Next they will be going over the top and introducing Five Year Plans.
– Alice Bachini (in her new blog Rational Parenting yesterday)

There is no margin for error about a monstrosity that was created for the alleged purpose of preventing wars by uniting the world against any aggressor, but proceeded to unite it against any victim of aggression. The expulsion of a charter member, the Republic of China [Taiwan]—an action forbidden by the U.N.’s own Charter—was a ‘moment of truth,’ a naked display of the United Nations’ soul. What was Red China’s qualification for membership in the U.N.? The fact that her government seized power by force, and has maintained it for twenty-two years by terror. What disqualified Nationalist China [Taiwan]? The fact that she was a friend of the United States. It was against the United States that all those beneficiaries of our foreign aid were voting at the U.N. It was hatred of the United States and the pleasure of spitting in our face that they were celebrating, as well as their liberation from morality—with savages, appropriately, doing jungle dances in the aisles.
– Ayn Rand (at the top of the UNisEvil.com website)

One of the Georges – I forget which – once said that a certain number of hours’ sleep each night – I cannot recall at the moment how many – made a man something, which for the time being has slipped my memory. Baxter agreed with him. It went against all his instincts to sit up in this fashion, but it was his duty and he did it.
– P. G. Wodehouse (in Something Fresh: A Blandings Story, 1915)

Spiritual movements are revolts of thought against inertia, of the few against the many; of those who because they are strong in spirit are strongest alone against those who can express themselves only in the mass and the mob, and who are significant only because they are numerous
– Ludwig von Mises