Conservative Conversation + Podcasts

Bishop Wash

| July 7, 2020

12 COMMENTS

It is allowed on all hands, that the primitive way of breaking eggs before we eat them, was upon the larger end: but his present Majesty’s grandfather, while he was a boy, going to eat an egg, and breaking it according to the ancient practice, happened to cut one of his fingers. Whereupon the Emperor […]

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Quote of the Day: The Declaration of Independence

By Seawriter

Seawriter is a former Shuttle software engineer who successfully made the transition to the oil and gas industry as a technical writer after the end of the Shuttle program. It is not the first career

| July 4, 2020

20 COMMENTS

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

By OmegaPaladin

Moderator

OmegaPaladin

| June 28, 2020

44 COMMENTS

“Masks are a tool, useful in the right application. They’ve become a political fetish object for reasons that have nothing to do with their utility.” – Prof. Glenn “Instapundit” Reynolds

I never expected to hear this much debate over masks outside of a superhero comic convention. Posts here bounce back and forth between people who wear masks and those who oppose them. Then you have people who are constantly watching for someone to not wear their mask. It’s no longer just a layer of absorbent material worn over the nose and mouth, it is a symbol of fighting against the pandemic — a literal virtue signal.

By Seawriter

Seawriter is a former Shuttle software engineer who successfully made the transition to the oil and gas industry as a technical writer after the end of the Shuttle program. It is not the first career

| June 27, 2020

12 COMMENTS

“In America the young are always ready to give those who are older the full benefits of their inexperience.” — Oscar Wilde

Are we ever seeing examples of this over the last few weeks. In Seattle, the young (and privileged) set up an autonomous zone that immediately devolves from their intended socialist paradise to something out of Lord of the Flies. They tear down statues of Grand and abolitionist Union leaders because of slavery or something. They threaten to topple a statue of Lincoln – paid for and erected by former slaves because white racism, or something. They demand everyone think just like they do because truth, or something.

By Arahant

Corporate governance, process management and change management consultant, poet, alchemist, and writer.

| June 25, 2020

32 COMMENTS

Excluded at the insistence of Maximilien Robespierre from the Jacobin Club, he remained a foreigner in many eyes. When the Committee of Public Safety levelled accusations of treason against the Hébertists, they also implicated Cloots to give substance to their charge of a foreign plot. Although his innocence was manifest, he was condemned and subsequently guillotined on 24 March 1794. He incongruously followed Vincent, Ronsin, Momoro and the rest of the Hébertist leadership to the scaffold, in front of the largest crowd ever assembled for a public execution.—Wikipedia entry on Anacharsis Cloots (Emphasis mine.)

Cloots, by the way, was born as Jean-Baptiste du Val-de-Grâce, baron de Cloots. That’s right: Baron. An aristocrat cheering on the end of the aristocracy got himself shortened by a head. Ah, the French Revolution! Such a time to be alive. Puts a frisson in one’s blood, never knowing when that blood may be spilled. Sort of like the CHAZ or CHOP Zone today. Being one of the cheerleaders didn’t save Cloots, and it isn’t saving anyone today. It is easy to read about then and be appalled or even to have a bit of schadenfreude for those who went into the Revolution with full-throated cheers and came out through Madame Guillotine. It is not so funny as we watch the mobs in action in America today.

By OmegaPaladin

Moderator

OmegaPaladin

| June 22, 2020

3 COMMENTS

“No treaty is ever an impediment to a cheat.” —Sophocles ( Fragments, l. 671.) More

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Quote of the Day: Fatherhood

By Seawriter

Seawriter is a former Shuttle software engineer who successfully made the transition to the oil and gas industry as a technical writer after the end of the Shuttle program. It is not the first career

| June 20, 2020

10 COMMENTS

“Son, there are times a man has to do things he doesn’t like to, in order to protect his family.” – Ralph Moody

Tomorrow is Fathers’ Day. Fathers are pretty well despised in today’s popular culture. Probably for the reason given in this quote. A father does things he does not like to do to protect his family.

By Arahant

Corporate governance, process management and change management consultant, poet, alchemist, and writer.

| June 17, 2020

32 COMMENTS

The Quote of the Day is the easiest way to start a fun conversation on Ricochet. You don’t have to be intelligent, pithy, or eloquent yourself. You can share a written passage that you find interesting, or even something from a favorite movie. You can present the naked quote, or add your thoughts on how […]

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Quote of the Day: Freedom of Speech

By Seawriter

Seawriter is a former Shuttle software engineer who successfully made the transition to the oil and gas industry as a technical writer after the end of the Shuttle program. It is not the first career

| June 13, 2020

13 COMMENTS

“Freedom of speech and thought matters, especially when it is speech and thought with which we disagree. The moment the majority decides to destroy people for engaging in thought it dislikes, thought crime becomes a reality.” – Ben Shapiro

Are we there yet? Has thought crime become a reality? It seems that way. Our freedoms are now under siege as they never have been before. An NFL quarterback is made to apologize for issuing a patriotic thought. A distinguished legal scholar at a New York University is fighting to keep his job because he expresses doubts about the BLM movement. And people everywhere are made to deny what they are seeing before their eyes — that they are witnessing rioting and looting, not peaceful protests.

By Lilly B

Coolidge

Lilly B

Lilly B is a member of Ricochet.

| June 11, 2020

16 COMMENTS

“More than once I have tried to picture myself in the position of a boy or man with an honored and distinguished ancestry which I could trace back through a period of hundreds of years, and who had not only inherited a name, but a fortune and a proud family homestead; and yet I have sometimes had the feeling that if I had inherited these, and had been a member of a more popular race, I should have been inclined to yield to the temptation of depending upon my ancestry and my color to do that for me which I should do for myself. Years ago I resolved that because I had no ancestry myself I would leave a record of which my children would be proud, and which might encourage them to still higher effort.”

— Booker T. Washington, Up From Slavery, 1901

By JoshuaFinch

Coolidge

JoshuaFinch

| June 8, 2020

41 COMMENTS

“And all the king’s servants who were in the king’s gate would kneel and prostrate themselves before Haman . . . but Mordecai would neither kneel nor prostrate himself.” (Esther 3:2)

Lately we have seen more and more people getting down on one knee (or two) seeking forgiveness of the mob and some kiss the boots or wash the feet of its representatives. There are plenty of photos and videos you can access on this subject.

By Arahant

Corporate governance, process management and change management consultant, poet, alchemist, and writer.

| June 8, 2020

0 COMMENTS

Here is the May Quote of the Day Round-Up: 01-May Arahant—It’s May! More

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Quote of the Day: Unhappiness with Good News

By Seawriter

Seawriter is a former Shuttle software engineer who successfully made the transition to the oil and gas industry as a technical writer after the end of the Shuttle program. It is not the first career

| June 6, 2020

10 COMMENTS

“There are some Americans out there who are actually unhappy when what normal people would think of as good news is revealed. They are upset and even in denial when it turns out that a horrific gang rape at U. Va or by the Duke Lacrosse team never happened, or that a bunch of white kids didn’t surround and threaten a “Native American elder,” or that the Trayvon Martin case didn’t involve a white man shooting a black kid unprovoked, or that a deranged Israeli, not a dangerous white supremacist cabal, was responsible for a series of bomb threats to Jewish institutions, because they want reinforcement for their worldview that demands that the U.S. be a dystopian hatefest. These are some of the worst people in the United States.” – David Bernstein

We got some really good news yesterday: unemployment is way down.

By Arahant

Corporate governance, process management and change management consultant, poet, alchemist, and writer.

| June 1, 2020

14 COMMENTS

Yesterday’s Quote of the Day was Solzhenitsyn on China shared by @richardeaston. In the conversation that followed, @hangon replied:

If you follow Solzhenitsyn’s logic, no alliances would ever be formed since all countries and governments at some level have diverging interests. To defeat the Soviet Union, we tacitly allied with not only China but with fundamental Islam. (Remember them?) Solzhenitsyn’s idea is extremely naive.

By Seawriter

Seawriter is a former Shuttle software engineer who successfully made the transition to the oil and gas industry as a technical writer after the end of the Shuttle program. It is not the first career

| May 31, 2020

12 COMMENTS

“Every society rests on a barbarian base. The people who don’t understand civilization, and wouldn’t like it if they did. The hitchhikers. The people who create nothing, and who don’t appreciate what others have created for them, and who think civilization is something that just exists and that all they need to do is enjoy what they can understand of it—luxuries, a high living standard, and easy work for high pay. Responsibilities? Phooey! What do they have a government for?
“And now, the hitchhikers think they know more about the car than the people who designed it, so they’re going to grab the controls.

By Mim526

Mim526

Mim526 is a member of Ricochet.

| May 24, 2020

3 COMMENTS

Continuing ruminations on C.S. Lewis quotes regarding good/evil apropos to lockdown (first post here) we come to the question, What is good? Lewis’ writing is the product of a well-developed mind in a man who turned to Christianity in his thirties, which frames these brief thoughts on absolute good and the choice of good or evil: […]

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Quote of the Day: Courage

By Seawriter

Seawriter is a former Shuttle software engineer who successfully made the transition to the oil and gas industry as a technical writer after the end of the Shuttle program. It is not the first career

| May 23, 2020

32 COMMENTS

“A decline in courage may be the most striking feature, which an outside observer notices in the West in our days. The Western world has lost its civil courage, both as a whole and separately, in each country, each government, each political party, and, of course, in the United Nations. Such a decline in courage is particularly noticeable among the ruling groups and the intellectual elite, causing an impression of loss of courage by the entire society. Of course, there are many courageous individuals, but they have no determining influence on public life.” – Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

How much of our government today is marked by a lack of courage? We see it most clearly in the response to the COVID-19 epidemic. The states, counties, and cities whose leaders are most frightened are the ones maintaining the lockdown longest. Especially the politicians who fear the electorate and mistrust the common sense of the average person.

By Mim526

Mim526

Mim526 is a member of Ricochet.

| May 21, 2020

10 COMMENTS

Clive Staples Lewis is one of my favorites. The Chronicles of Narnia books were da bomb as a child (still are) and he’s a frequent font of wisdom as an adult. We could probably fill Quotes of the Day for years and not dry out his wisdom well, so deep and clear is his thinking. Not to worry, I picked just a handful I’ve been pondering during lockdown, interspersed with brief narrative tying them together to fill a few days this month. No need for explanation on the correlation between lockdown extremes and these first two:

The greatest evils in the world will not be carried out by men with guns, but by men in suits sitting behind desks.

By Arahant