I Voted; You Should Too

Posted November 3, 2015, 10:27 a.m.

I voted. And if you are eligible to do so, you should too.

Here in Virginia, there are many important state and local issues in contention. The entire Virginia General Assembly—both the House of Delegates and the Senate—are on the ballot. In Loudoun County, and many others, we are also selecting our local Board of Supervisors and School Board. Local counties and cities are choosing their constitutional officers, like the sheriff and the court clerk.

While much of America is focused on a presidential election that is still a year away, these state and local elections are more likely to have real, noticeable impacts on your life, and they deserve your attention.

Here on Off on a Tangent, I will be covering the results live as they come in for my local races, and will be commenting in a liveblog on any newsworthy votes in Virginia and elsewhere. Stay tuned! Coverage begins at 6:30 p.m.

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

There’s an old saying in Tennessee . . . I know it’s in Texas, probably in Tennessee . . . that says, fool me once, shame on . . . shame on you. Fool me . . . you can’t get fooled again.

And the simple step of a simple courageous man is not to partake in falsehood, not to support false actions.

Since the general civilization of mankind, I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power, than by violent and sudden usurpations. . . .

[Groos] well says that children are young because they play, and not vice versa; and he might have added, men grow old because they stop playing, and not conversely. . . .

If the body of the people will not govern themselves, and govern themselves well too, the consequence is unavoidable . . . a few will, and must govern them.

It is only afterward that a new idea seems reasonable. To begin with, it usually seems unreasonable.

We are governed, our minds molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of.

Upon the whole, I came to the conclusion that the optimist thought everything good except the pessimist, and that the pessimist thought everything bad, except himself.

Left entirely to men, the church ought to have perished at many points in her long history.

If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.

War is like fishing with a golden net; the loss risked is always greater than the catch can be.

A smile or a tear has no nationality. Joy and sorrow speak alike in all nations. . . .

The neurotic always wishes people would let him alone—until they do.

Totalitarians are fond of saying that Christianity is the enemy of the State—a euphemistic way of saying an enemy of themselves.

Words calculated to catch everyone may catch no one.

Memory is a net; one finds it full of fish when he takes it from the brook; but a dozen miles of water have run through it without sticking.

It is obvious that tradition is only democracy extended through time. It is trusting to a consensus of common human voices rather than to some isolated or arbitrary record.

Nothing is easier than to falsify the past. Lifeless instruction will do it. If you rob it of vitality, stiffen it with pedantry, sophisticate it with argument, chill it with unsympathetic comment, you render it as dead as any academic exercise.

If ever the free institutions of America are destroyed, that event may be attributed to the unlimited authority of the majority, which may at some future time urge the minorities to desperation, and oblige them to have recourse to physical force.

If you want to become invaluable in a workplace—in any community—just do the useful things no one else is doing.

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