Quotable Wisdom

Abraham Lincoln -- "It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt."

John Tabin (Twitter) -- "Contemplating the merits of the Oxford comma as I head down to Florida to see my parents, Donald Trump and Marco Rubio."

Kevin Williamson was asked on Twitter why he doesn't vote and he replied (I'm paraphrasing) -- "The expressive value of not voting is greater than the instrumental value of doing so."

If Trump gets the nomination, I will utilize this principle for myself on November 8.

Williamson -- "Pope Francis, who as an economist is one hell of a theologian, insists that we can have capitalism if we will care for the people, which gets it exactly backward: We can care for the poor if we have capitalism."

BTW, The article from which this came is KW's look at voluntary charity - the ethical and most effective way to do philanthropy. Link to it here --

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/432559/silicon-valley-philanthropists-are-successful-capitalists

Williamson -- “The Democrats inflicted upon this republic a so-called constitutional scholar who abuses and subverts the Constitution at every turn — we’ll answer with a guy who doesn’t even know how a bill becomes a law, or care!”

Jonah Goldberg -- "When John Ashcroft warned Americans that conjuring false fears of lost liberties helped the enemy, the entire New York Times editorial board got its dress over its head. But when Obama and his fans routinely say that “Republican rhetoric” is a recruiting tool for ISIS, they all nod like a crate of bobbleheads in an earthquake."

Goldberg -- "Obama has complete confidence in the (immigration) screening procedures. Well, okay. He also had complete confidence in the IRS, the VA, and the team building Healthcare.gov. When Obama declares complete confidence in a government agency, that’s a good time to buy gold."

Goldberg -- "My very short, partial, explanation for why the system seems rigged for the benefit of rich people has to do with the fact that complexity is a subsidy. The more rules and regulations the government creates, the more it creates a society where people with resources — good educations, good lawyers, good lobbyists, and good connections — can rise while those without such resources are left to climb hurdles on their own."

Goldberg -- (From the latest G-File - The invasion of the conservative body snatchers...)

"I’m losing the will to rebut Donald Trump’s “arguments” because he really doesn’t make any."

"...If you listen to Trump’s answers to almost any question about how he will fix a problem, he uses up the first 95 percent of his time explaining, re-explaining and demagoguing about how bad the problem is. (That is, if he’s not talking about polls.) Then in the last few seconds, he says we’ll fix the problem by being really smart or by winning or by hiring the best people. In other words, he has no idea how to fix it."

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/432708/donald-trump-media-supporters-principles-conservatism

Jay Nordlinger -- "Years ago, I worked briefly for a man who seemed to be a classic one-percenter. He was employed in a prestigious law firm and had been to the best schools: Princeton, Oxford, and Harvard, I believe, and in that order. One day, I asked him about his earlier life. And my eyes widened as he talked. He was from West Virginia. His family didn’t have running water, as I remember. He himself didn’t have proper shoes until he was 14. He didn’t have any books, either. But a prominent man in town — I think it was a banker — let him use his private library. And that helped this kid, Michael, a lot. Later, when the world looked at him, I’m sure they saw nothing but “white privilege.” But they knew nothing. Absolutely nothing."

Nordlinger -- "The loser in 2012, in my judgment, was not Mitt Romney but the American people: who were stupid enough to opt for Obama over Romney. Mitt Romney is one of the most capable, most intelligent, most experienced, and most decent men ever to run for president. That Americans opted against him said more about them (us) than about him."

Katherine Timpf -- "When allegations of sexual misconduct emerged during Bill’s 1992 presidential run, she’s reported to have said “Who is going to find out? These women are trash. Nobody’s going to believe them.” Multiple people also report that she called the women “sluts” and “whores” — you know, for daring to be raped. A private investigator named Ivan Duda claims that, after Bill lost his second governor’s race, Hillary told him: “I want you to get rid of all these b****** he’s seeing . . . I want you to give me the names and addresses and phone numbers, and we can get them under control.”

George Will -- "The argument for progressive taxation must demonstrate this: such taxation does not do more harm by slowing economic growth than faster economic growth would do good by its distributive effects."

"...The arguments for progressive taxation range from the feeble to the sinister. The case for it is not uneasy, it is nonexistent."

Will -- "President Franklin Roosevelt was right to say: “The process of collective bargaining, as usually understood, cannot be transplanted into the public service.”

Will -- "If, however, Donald Trump’s vitriol pumps up the number of voters, this will at least lay to rest the canard that high voter turnout is a sign of social health."

Winston Churchill -- “The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.”

Joseph Rago -- "Drinkers can also no longer enjoy “Donald J. Trump: The World’s Finest Super Premium Vodka, Success Distilled,” which was discontinued in 2011, though it is unclear if anyone ever enjoyed it. A connoisseur at the website Vodkaphiles compares the flavor to “gas station burritos, slightly expired 2% milk, hard boiled eggs, and canned pears.”

Nate Silver -- "If a year ago you'd drawn up 1000 scenarios and ranked them from best to worst possible outcome for the GOP, this would be like No. 997."

From a conservative on Twitter -- "Watching Rubio in a townhall. He's so good. We're so stupid. We're so very stupid."

Edmund Burke -- “He that sets his home on fire because his fingers are frostbitten can never be a fit instructor in the method of providing our habitations with a cheerful and salutary warmth.”

Mona Charen uses Burke's quote in an article detailing what Republican primary voters are throwing away by supporting Donald Trump. Very good piece. Here are some excerpts.

"The Republican party is choosing an odd time to commit suicide. Obama’s two victories were painful setbacks, but in the Obama era the Democrats lost 13 U.S. Senate seats, 69 House seats, 910 legislative seats, eleven governorships, and 30 legislative chambers. All that stood between Republicans and real reform at the federal level was the White House — and the Democrats were sleep walking toward nominating the least popular major player in American politics."

"...Here are a few words of praise for the Republicans. The Republican party has become more reform-minded and more conservative over the past 30 years. The Arlen Specters and Bob Packwoods are pretty much gone. In their places are dynamic, smart, and articulate leaders such as Tom Cotton, Ben Sasse, Cory Gardner, Bobby Jindal, Scott Walker, Paul Ryan, Tim Scott, Nikki Haley, Ted Cruz, Susana Martinez, and Marco Rubio. The party has become more conservative and more ethnically diverse.

Between 2008 and 2014, when Republicans were the minority in the Senate, they blocked cap and trade, the “public option” in Obamacare, and card check. Republicans declined to give President Obama universal pre-K, the “Paycheck Fairness Act,” expanded unemployment benefits, a higher federal minimum wage, varieties of gun control, mandatory paid sick leave, a tax on multinational corporations, higher taxes on individuals, and more. They passed bills authorizing the Keystone pipeline (which was vetoed) and trade promotion authority (the one issue Obama is not wrong about). They endorsed entitlement reform."

Charen leaves out that they also repealed Obamacare. (Which Obama vetoed).

"...Those who encouraged the “burn it down” mania and who popularized the narrative that a malign Republican “establishment” was responsible for the state of the nation may be many things but they are not conservative. Conservatives respect institutions and traditions. They understand that process is ultimately more important than policy outcomes because it guarantees legitimacy and political stability. Laws can be repealed. That is why Obama’s worst offenses were not Dodd/Frank, the stimulus bill, or Obamacare, as bad as those were. His worst offenses were against Constitutional constraints. He governed by executive fiat and got away with it, thus undermining the rule of law."

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/432627/donald-trump-republican-establishment-burn-it-down-suicide

Christina H. Sommers -- "Want to narrow the gender wage gap? Women should major in petroleum engineering instead of psychology or education."

Another reason for the mythical gender wage gap? Men do risky occupations. Women, not so much. --