Orts #863

Stopping gun violence by putting guns in the classroom makes as much sense as stopping stupidity by putting an idiot in the White House.
     — Andy Borowitz, in a Facebook post, Feb.25, 2018


Archie Bunker on Gun Control, 1972:
                                                      https://youtu.be/-lDb0Dn8OXE
"The more things change, the more the talking points stay the same. Just swap teachers for airplane passengers, and watch a silly sitcom punchline morph into real presidential policy."


   Just observe who are the most powerful in the cities and who do their jobs best: you will ordinarily find that they are the least able. It has happened to women, children, and madmen to rule great states just as well as the ablest princes. And the gross-witted, says Thucydides, succeed as rulers more commonly than the subtle.
     -- Montaigne, in an essay, Of the art of discussion


   The corruption of the age is produced by the individual contribution of each one of us; some contribute treachery, others injustice, irreligion, tyranny, avarice, cruelty, in accordance with their greater power; the weaker ones bring stupidity, vanity, idleness, and I am one of them. It seems to be the season for empty things, when harmful ones weigh upon us. In a time when it is so common to do evil, it is practically praiseworthy to do what is merely useless.
     -- Montaigne, in an essay, Of vanity