War Archives - Scott Bradford: Off on a Tangent

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

To this end we ought to take every precaution to prevent legislators becoming mere office-men; choose them frequently, make them recallable, establish rotation among them, make them ineligible to offices, and give them as small a share as possible in the disposal of them.

I don’t believe anything, but I have many suspicion

I was walking around one day trying to figure out what the meaning of life was. I figured it was something that would come to me easily while walking around, but I didn’t actually figure it out until I sat down.

A popular author is one who writes what the people think. Genius invites them to think something else.

Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.

Our government is still clothed in the garb of a republic, but more and more our representatives behave as if they are the American sovereigns and are un-bound by any limits on their authority.

The central conservative truth is that it is culture, not politics, that determines the success of a society. The central liberal truth is that politics can change a culture and save it from itself.

[The First Amendment] requires the state to be a neutral in its relations with groups of religious believers and nonbelievers; it does not require the state to be their adversary.

The present age men are not very ready to die in defense of their opinions, but they are rarely inclined to change them; . . . there are fewer martyrs as well as fewer apostates.

The British Empire is typically characterized as an overwhelmingly negative force in history, but a comparison with the rival imperialism of Islam provides a corrective to this view.

[Man] can survive in only one of two ways—by the independent work of his own mind or as a parasite fed by the minds of others. The creator originates. The parasite borrows.

Universal evidence unmistakably shows that the best results are always obtained in healthful commercial competition.

Beware you be not swallowed up in books! An ounce of love is worth a pound of knowledge.

Without religion this world would be something not fit to be mentioned in polite company, I mean Hell.

The ultimate victory over radical Islam will have to come from civilized Islam.

I find it hard, as a liberal, to see any justification for graduated taxation solely to redistribute income. This seems a clear case of using coercion to take from some in order to give to others and thus to conflict head-on with individual freedom.

Because we are so scientific now—and so determinedly materialistic—it is very difficult for us even to understand that other ways of seeing can and do exist.

Our defense is in the preservation of the spirit which prizes liberty as the heritage of all men, in all lands, everywhere. Destroy this spirit, and you have planted the seeds of despotism around your own doors.

Broadly speaking, human beings may be divided into three classes: those who are toiled to death, those who are worried to death, and those who are bored to death.

Abstract verbalizations about personal liberty, freedom of the press, and so on, will not be convincing in most parts of the world. In many areas they will not even be comprehensible.

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Tag: War

Civil War? Less Likely Now

Hiroshima and the Laws of War

Cuba, Iran, and Diplomacy

So-Called Journalism

Torture and the Rule of Law

The Thanksgiving Proclamation

Malaysian Airliner Shot Down in Ukraine

What To Do About Crimea?

What To Do About Syria?

Syria and Chemical Weapons

North Korea Vows to Re-Cancel 1953 Armistice

U.S. Ambassador Killed in Libya

Justice in Afghanistan

An Act of War . . . Against Pakistan

Gadhafi Dead; Libya to Declare Liberation

The War in Iraq: Ten Myths

Recognize Palestine (and Hold the PNA Accountable)

SPR Drawdown: Unnecessary; Counterproductive?

Presidents Aren’t Dictators

Bin Laden’s Death: Three Things

Osama bin Laden is Dead

U.S. Fires Missiles Against Libyan Military

SPR Draw-Downs: Not Necessary (Yet?)

Speaking of Censorship . . .

N. Korea Attacks; S. Returns Fire