Q&A: Iraqi Election

Posted January 28, 2005, 12:36 p.m.

With the Iraqi election taking place on Sunday, I thought you all might be interested on learning exactly what the Iraqis get to vote for. The BBC’s Q&A on the Iraqi election is the best I’ve stumbled upon.

It will be interesting to see how this works out, but I’m optimistic. After there is a legitimate, sovereign, elected government running Iraq, I think we’ll see all the attacks and chaos start winding down. God willing, we should be able to start significantly lowering our troop commitment within a year.

One can always hope!

Regardless, I wish the Iraqi people the very best on the eve of their first true chance to exercise political freedom.

Q&A: Iraqi election (BBC News).

Scott Bradford has been putting his opinions on his website since 1995—before most people knew what a website was. He has been a professional web developer in the public- and private-sector for over twenty years. He is an independent constitutional conservative who believes in human rights and limited government, and a Catholic Christian whose beliefs are summarized in the Nicene Creed. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Public Administration from George Mason University. He loves Pink Floyd and can play the bass guitar . . . sort-of. He’s a husband, pet lover, amateur radio operator, and classic AMC/Jeep enthusiast.

Quotes

Good things and bad, life and death, poverty and wealth, come from the Lord.

[Pure] democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property; and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths.

It is characteristic of all deep human problems that they are not to be approached without some humor and some bewilderment.

We need intellect, and there is no reason why we should not have it together with character; but if we must choose between the two we choose character without a moment’s hesitation.

Too many people get credit for being good, when they are only being passive. They are too often praised for being broadminded when they are so broadminded they can never make up their minds about anything.

America seeks no earthly empire built on blood and force. . . . The higher state to which she seeks the allegiance of all mankind is not of human, but of divine origin. She cherishes no purpose save to merit the favor of Almighty God.

In manufacturing, we try to stamp out variance. With people, variance is everything.

Any people anywhere being inclined and having the power have the right to rise up and shake off the existing government, and form a new one that suits them better.

When I say ‘follow your heart,’ it’s actually shorthand for ‘follow your heart unless your brain makes a reasonable objection.’

When I die, I want to go peacefully like my Grandfather did, in his sleep—not screaming, like the passengers in his car.

An automaton cannot arouse the public interest. A leader, a fighter, a dictator, can.

One man may prefer a routine job with much time off for basking in the sun to a more exacting job paying a higher salary; another man may prefer the opposite. If both were paid equally in money, their incomes in a more fundamental sense would be unequal.

Nothing would be done at all if a man waited until he could do it so well that no one would find fault with it.

Anyone who idolizes you is going to hate you when he discovers that you are fallible. He never forgives. He has deceived himself, and he blames you for it.

Better to be disliked than pitied.

If liberty and equality, as is thought by some, are chiefly to be found in democracy, they will be best attained when all persons alike share in the government to the utmost.

If you are what you ought to be, you will set fire to all Italy, and not only yonder.

The organizer knows that it is a human characteristic that someone who asks for help and gets it reacts not only with gratitude but with a subconscious hostility toward the one who helped him.

I had anger but never hate. Before the war, I was too busy studying to hate. After the war, I thought, What’s the use? To hate would be to reduce myself.

If we want limited government, as we should, and a level of taxation that is not unduly burdensome, we need healthy institutions of civil society, beginning with a flourishing marriage culture that supports family formation and preservation.

Tangent Theme:	26.0.48
Tangent Plugin:	6.0.111

Go to Top	`tt`
Go to Bottom	`tb`
Search	`ts`
Main Content	`tc`
Open Gallery (if present)	`tg`
Open Flagpole	`tf`
Keyboard Shortcuts	`tk`
Site Information	`ti`

Main Menu

X

Site Information

Keyboard Shortcuts