quote of the day – Page 7

Quote of the Day, [Academia] Chose… Poorly edition. [UPDATE]

Glenn Reynolds, on ~~trial lawyers~~ [academics] and the way they’re getting kicked in the groin down in North Carolina right now:

…when you align yourself exclusively with one party, and weaponize yourself in that party’s cause, you’re going to pay the price when the other party is in power. That’s the price you pay for whoring yourself out.

A slightly harsher word than I might have used, but Glenn’s a law professor himself. He has a certain amount of leeway there. He’s also, of course, right.

[UPDATE: As Faithul Reader Mikey NTH noted in comments, this was about academic centers, not trial lawyers. Which I knew and should have noted, because I read about this story a couple of days ago. Ach, well. My bad, and at least I don’t actually have to change anything besides ‘trial lawyers.’ Even the ‘law professor’ bit still fits.]

Quote of the Day, This @SeanTrende Post Is Not Actually Alarming edition.

It should be, but it’s not. Sean Trende:

In 2016, Democrats have as their likely nominee possibly the single strongest candidate for putting the old Democratic coalition back together again. I think with an adequately strong economy and a campaign founded in progressive centrism[*], Hillary Clinton could very well put together a broader coalition than Obama’s, and a victory that eclipses his. Whether her party allows her to run such a campaign is probably the most important question of 2015; this book[**] explains why.

…And the reason is simple: the Democratic party will not allow Hillary Clinton to run such a campaign. The party elite may love Bill Clinton as an administrator, but their base will not tolerate being told that they will have to revert back to 1993-style ideological levels (i.e., move sharply to the Right). It’s going to be interesting to see how far they make it through the primary without anybody going furniture-chewing crazy.

Moe Lane

*Essentially, a kinder, gentler progressivism. Progressivism with a human face. Compassionate progressivism. …Have I given enough examples to give my largely Righty audience an idea why the Democratic base kind of hates that term?

**The Emerging Democratic Majority. I should note that Sean Trende has a much more favorable opinion than me on the use of this book. That’s a problem, because Sean is smarter than I am on this topic.

Quote of the Day, SING It, Brothers @EdDriscoll / @JonahNRO. Sing It edition.

This is a gem from a gem of an article on the enjoyable past-time of watching the Angry Left balefully eat itself:

…let me interject by noting that the moment anyone says to you “We are calling for an occupation of syllabi,” you can put your headphones back on and finish watching the latest episode of Gotham, because nothing that follows will be worth your time.

I should also note there that this is in response to a Berkeley protest complaining about Karl Marx being taught… because he’s a white dude. Once I was done laughing, I was reminded of something written by another dead white dude*: “Do not call up that which you can not put down.” Good advice: such a pity that the Left decided to ignore it.

Moe Lane

*Who, admittedly, was so racist that he’d be racist about me.

Quote of the Day, TANSTAAFL (Education) edition.

Really. There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch:

…paying for college out of tax dollars doesn’t make the cost go away; it just means you have to send a check to the IRS instead of the bursar’s office.

With the added caveat that the bursar’s office is probably going to be more efficient about processing the check. And can’t make your life a living hell if they lose said check. And the bursar can’t audit you within an inch of your life… I can go on, but you get the point.

Via Instapundit.

Moe Lane

PS: Yes, of course that means that ‘free’ community college is a middle-class tax hike. Why do you think that the GOP is being told to say ‘no?’

Quote of the Day, Arguing About The Things That Matter edition.

Jonah Goldberg:

As a proud member of the “don’t just do something, sit there” school of politics, I don’t fret much about partisanship and gridlock. Partisanship and gridlock aren’t bugs of our constitutional system, they’re features. And while everyone likes to see their preferred policies sail through Congress, on the whole I think we’ve been well served by those features for two centuries.

That said, in the spirit of compromise so lacking in Washington, I would like to offer a suggestion for how to fix the alleged dysfunction in Washington: Let’s have more partisanship about ideas and less about process.

I will raise a cheer for process-related partisanship – I find merit in the Republican party’s history, even when it was not unabashedly conservative* – but Jonah raised some interesting points. Read, as they say, the whole thing.

Moe Lane

*The GOP has always fallen back to embracing liberty. From the Civil War to civil rights to killing the Soviet Empire, once and for bloody all. And if that meant using the government to do it, well… there is still music in the sound of a shackle broken, and clattering to the ground.

Quote of the Day, The Point Was To Never To WIN edition.

Allahpundit, explaining the Wendy Davis campaign in three sentences:

I saw a lot of tweets on Friday after the wheelchair ad debuted asking, “What sort of people would come up with an ad like this?” Answer: Rich people, my friends. Rich people who know they’re going to lose.

Ayup. Also: click through if you’re a Texas voter who, somehow, still needs a reason to go to your polling place on Election Day and vote for every Republican that you can.

Quote of the Day, Larry Sabato Knows His Audience edition.

:Opening mouth:
:Closing mouth:

It’s true.

America has a love-hate relationship with polls. If you’ve clicked on this column, you likely cull through the latest survey numbers every chance you get.

They’re like Twinkies, really: tasty, not really good for you in large quantities, and made out of things that you almost certainly don’t want to see, close up and personal.

Quote of the Day, Wasn’t Immigration Supposed to Require REPUBLICAN Damage Control edition?

I mean, I could have sworn…

Democrats are in damage-control mode in the wake of the White House decision to postpone executive action on immigration until after November’s elections.

Immigrant rights advocates on and off Capitol Hill are up in arms over the delay, leading to Democratic concerns that the decision will alienate Hispanic and other immigrant voters — who tend to side with the Democrats — at the polls in November.

Well, now the Democrats know what happens when you let Barack Obama drive your strategy. Which is to say, Chaos and Old Night. I especially enjoyed watching Democratic politicians blame Barack Obama’s inability to keep his promise to act unilaterally (and quite imperially) with regard to immigration on… the Republican party, which is more or less simply a bemused spectator at this point. I don’t think it’s going to work this time, fellows.

Quote of the day, “a brooding and pervasive devotion to the secular” edition.

The US Court of Appeals, in the process of telling a bunch of insecure atheists* why they should sit down and shut up about the 9-11 Cross:

In short, neutrality is not so rigid and absolute a principle as to command “a brooding and pervasive devotion to the secular.”

Continue reading Quote of the day, “a brooding and pervasive devotion to the secular” edition.