Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. They may be more likely to go to Heaven yet at the same time likelier to make a Hell of earth.

This very kindness stings with intolerable insult. To be “cured” against one’s will and cured of states which we may not regard as disease is to be put on a level of those who have not yet reached the age of reason or those who never will; to be classed with infants, imbeciles, and domestic animals.

-C. S. Lewis

If you want to find out what a man is to the bottom, give him power. Any man can stand adversity — only a great man can stand prosperity.

-Robert G. Ingersoll

Not in this post, true, but in pretty much all her other ones.

The reason for the ban is still stupid though.

But they do? Along with any other animal that happens to be nearby.

That is the one insect I will go out of my way to kill.

I’d say yes… except he does it to smart and digital watches too.

My snake likes to wrap around and ‘strangle’ watches. Not bracelets, just watches.

He didn’t say ‘ancient alien theorists’, he said ‘racists’.

I always thought the fact that turning our heads too fast can give us strokes was rather inconvenient.

Yeah, but at least most of those still have multiple toes to spread the weight around. Horses decided to get rid of that completely.

The question I get asked by religious people all the time is, without God, what’s to stop me from raping all I want?

And my answer is: I do rape all I want. And the amount I want is zero. And I do murder all I want, and the amount I want is zero.

The fact that these people think that if they didn’t have this person watching over them that they would go on killing, raping rampages is the most self-damning thing I can imagine.

I don’t want to do that. Right now, without any god, I don’t want to jump across this table and strangle you. I have no desire to strangle you. I have no desire to flip you over and rape you.

-Penn Jillette

Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.

Some animals can figure it. At the nursery I used to work at, the new nursery cat decided to take a nap in a customer’s truck, and woke up in the nearby town (still several miles away).

She started to walk back, got part of the way, realized she didn’t know the rest of the way, and waited at an intersection. Then, when a local family stopped to put up some signs for a town festival, she accosted them and wouldn’t let them leave until they took her with them.

They recognized her and brought her back to the nursery.

I’m sure people said that about passenger pigeons too at one point.

See, Britain just needs Ugly Laws, like what America had up until 1974! Then they could just have the guy arrested!

In all seriousness what the fuck. What goes through a person’s head that they think treating someone that way is even remotely okay?

I’m going to give this loon a bit more charitable interpretation and guess they meant we blew up our own buildings in order to have an excuse to go to war in the Middle East so we could get the gold in Nimrod’s tomb.

Which… is even crazier than the tomb being under the twin towers. We killed all those people and destroyed all that real estate to start a very expensive war… for some gold.

I mean, boy, that tomb better be like Smaug’s lair in that case, or our government tripped over a dollar to pick up a dime.

‘Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?’

I first saw it as ‘coop’ and immediately thought, ‘hell yes, I’d support a community-owned coop, but only if there were lots of fluffy chickens and a 24/7 camera on them’.

Then I realized what you really meant. Which I’m also not opposed to, if it was set up well.

People following the story of a former Olympic runner: First time?

They’re doing it too much though. Lots of onroads are being forced to work 10-14 hour days, multiple days in a row. They cut support staff so those few people have to do more.

And they’re not firing/retaining by who does a good job or who has more skills. They’re doing it randomly. One guy I know, one of the best dispatchers in his center, got kicked out because they drew lots on who to fire.