Monday, January 06, 2014

More on the Rand Paul Quote.

If someone comes out of a liquor store with a weapon and $50 in cash, I don't care if a drone kills him or a policeman kills him.

Sen Rand Paul on the proper use of domestic drones
It reminded me of a remark from twenty years ago in Ron Paul's newsletters. I don't know if actual authorial attribution is provided, I've only seen scans of pages of them and not had an entire issue in my hands to look for bylines and attribution, but they have Ron Paul's name on them, so that's who I'll say they belong to.

Anyway, this is what then-Rep Ron Paul (R-TX) "wrote":
If you have ever been robbed by a black teen-aged male, you know how unbelievably fleet-footed they can be.
This perhaps provides a justification of why a drone might be a better choice for gunning them down. Same desired Paul-approved result (whichever Paul you want), but much more efficiently and effectively done. Also, more libertarian, as it doesn't require paying a police officer or, most importantly, a pension.

Sunday, January 05, 2014

Political Quote of the Year

Some (more or less odious) political quotes that amused me from this year.

  • "If someone comes out of a liquor store with a weapon and $50 in cash, I don't care if a drone kills him or a policeman kills him." Rand Paul.
  • "The law is not a breast that fills itself with milk." Rafael "Ted" Cruz.
  • "Yes, I have smoked crack cocaine." Rob Ford.
  • "People with conventional views must repress a gag reflex when considering the mayor-elect of New York — a white man married to a black woman and with two biracial children." Richard Cohen (columnist for the Washington Post).
  • "Whatever you may think of the value of IQ tests, it is surely relevant to a conversation about equality that as many as 16% of our species have an IQ below 85. While about 2% have an IQ above 130." Boris Johnson.
  • "We’re not going to be disrespected. We have to get something out of this. And I don’t know what that even is." Marlin Stutzman.
  • "I can give assurances to the publics in Europe and around the world that we’re not going around snooping at people’s emails or listening to their phone calls." Barack H. Obama. His famous "lie of the year" properly belongs to another year.
  • "For every one who’s a valedictorian, there’s another hundred out there that weigh 130 pounds and they’ve got calves the size of cantaloupes because they’re hauling 75 pounds of marijuana across the desert." Steve King. It was hard to choose just one for this guy.
  • "As I answered before, congressman, we will be open for open enrollment Oct. 1. We are on track to meet the Oct. 1 deadline." Kathleen Sebelius.
Nicer quotes:
  • "You are Cumberpeople." Benedict Cumberbatch.
That's all I've got. Nothing good ever happens.