“They well deserve to have that know the strong’st and surest way to get.” – William Shakespeare, The Life and Death of King Richard II 3.3
Category: Politics & Law
“If you and the other guy are serving chocolate pies, and the other guy’s pie is actually made of poop, the solution is not to add poop to your own pie. You can try to warn everybody about that pie, but sometimes E. coli has to be its own teacher.” – Marcie Jones, “Democratic State Leaders Prepare The Resistance,” Wonkette, November 11, 2024
“Let us sit upon the ground, and tell sad stories of the death of kings:—how some have been depos’d; some slain in war; some haunted by the ghosts they have depos’d; some poison’d by their wives; some sleeping kill’d; all murder’d:—for within the hollow crown that rounds the mortal temples of a king keeps Death his court.” – William Shakespeare, The Life and Death of King Richard II 3.2
“When law can do no right, let it be lawful that law bar no wrong.” – William Shakespeare, The Life and Death of King John 3.1
“Once on a time near Gnossus, the royal seat of Phaestia, there was a man called Ligdus, a modest freedman, simple and unknown, nor was his wealth enough to make him famous; his one distinction—he kept out of jail.” – Ovid: The Metamorphoses, trans. Horace Gregory
“It cannot be stressed enough that without Ukraine, Russia ceases to be an empire, but with Ukraine suborned and then subordinated, Russia automatically becomes an empire.” – Zbigniew Brzezenski (quoted by Tim Judah in “Ukraine on the Brink”)
“In my experience it is quite normal to refuse to believe that you are about to be engulfed by a cataclysm that will change your life forever—or kill you.” – Tim Judah, “Ukraine on the Brink”
“The load that Soldiers carry is an important planning consideration. How much Soldiers carry, how far, and in what configuration are critical mission considerations requiring command emphasis and inspection. Historical experience and research show that Soldiers can carry 30 percent of their body weight and retain much of their agility, stamina, alertness, and mobility.” – Combined Arms Doctrine Directorate, U.S. Army Combined Arms Center, ADP 3-90, Offense and Defense
“Surveillance is a systematic collection of information. It should be continuous, and it involves active and passive activities.” – Combined Arms Doctrine Directorate, U.S. Army Combined Arms Center, ADP 3-90, Offense and Defense
“Bold decisions that are adequately informed give the best promise of success.” – Combined Arms Doctrine Directorate, U.S. Army Combined Arms Center, ADP 3-90, Offense and Defense
“Success during operations depends on a willingness to embrace risk as opportunity rather than treating it as something to avoid. The best COA [course of action] may be the one with the greatest risk.” – Combined Arms Doctrine Directorate, U.S. Army Combined Arms Center, ADP 3-90, Offense and Defense
“In a democracy it is the duty of every citizen to think.” – James Russell Lowell, The Atlantic Monthly
“A marked tendency to overstate successes has been a consistent feature of Russian intelligence and military BDA [Battle Damage Assessments] and planning cycles during the period leading up to and then during the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. This is an almost unavoidable consequence of the way that the Russian political system works, where reporting what seniors wish to hear, reinforcing their previous decisions and inflating successes, is an absolute prerequisite for promotion to higher rank.” – Justin Bronk, et al., “The Russian Air War and Ukrainian Requirements for Air Defense”
“Public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment, nothing can fail; without it, nothing can succeed. Consequently he who molds public sentiment goes deeper than he who enacts statutes or pronounces decisions. He makes statutes and decisions possible or impossible to be executed.” – Abraham Lincoln, 1858
“Because one’s right to retreat into his or her home without unreasonable government interference is a core principle of the fourth amendment (Kyllo v. United States, 533 U.S. 27, 31, 121 S. Ct. 2038, 150 L. Ed. 2d 94 (2001)), law enforcement officers generally may not enter, much less search, a person’s home without a warrant absent exigent circumstances.” – Justice Burke, Appellate Court of Illinois, Second District, The People v. Slavin, 964 N.E.2d 150 (2011)
“Amongst the acts done by permission of the law, for the advancement of public justice, may be reckoned those of the officer who in the execution of his office, either in a civil or criminal case, kills a person who assaults or resists him. The resistance will justify the officer in proceeding to the last extremity. So that in all cases, whether civil or criminal, where persons have a right to arrest and imprison, and using the proper means for that purpose, are resisted, in so doing they may repel force with force, and need not give back, and, if the party making resistance is unavoidably killed in the struggle, this homicide is justifiable.” – Justice Craig, Supreme Court of Illinois, Lynn v. People, 170 Ill. 527 (1897)
“It is impossible to kill 7,000 to 8,000 people in the space of one week without methodical planning and substantial resources. Soldiers have to be mobilized to guard the prisoners, to move them from holding locations to execution sites, and to shoot them. Multiple locations to hold the prisoners and to execute them need to be identified and secured. Thousands of rounds of ammunition to shoot the prisoners need to be supplied. Numerous vehicles and hundreds of litres of fuel need to be commandeered to move the prisoners. A number of bulldozers and excavators need to be commissioned to dig their graves. During a state of war mobilizing such resources cannot be done at the whim of a few crazy soldiers. It needs to be ordered and authorized by commanders at high-levels.” – International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, “Facts about Srebrenica”
“Those who act out of revenge, or call on it in order to justify crimes, are dealing a blow to the rule of law, and thus to civilization itself.” – International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, “Facts about Srebrenica”
“Woe to that land that’s govern’d by a child!” – William Shakespeare, The Life and Death of King Richard III 2.3
“What makes robbers bold but too much lenity?” – William Shakespeare, King Henry VI – Third Part 2.6
“The social interest in the integrity and competence of the judicial process requires that courts and judges should not be shielded from wholesome exposure to public view, and if this interest is to be well served, then some latitude must be allowed for inaccurate and intemperate comment.” – People v. Goss, 10 Ill. 2d 533 (1957)
“Strong and effective extemporaneous rhetoric cannot be nicely channeled in purely dulcet phrases. An advocate must be free to stimulate his audience with spontaneous and emotional appeals for unity and action in a common cause. When such appeals do not incite lawless action, they must be regarded as protected speech. To rule otherwise would ignore the profound national commitment that debate on public issues should be uninhibited, robust, and wide-open.” – National Ass’n for the Advancement of Colored People v. Claiborne Hardware Co., 458 U.S. 886 (1982) (internal cites and quotation marks omitted)
“The mere tendency of speech to encourage unlawful acts is not a sufficient reason for banning it. First Amendment freedoms are most in danger when the government seeks to control thought or to justify its laws for that impermissible end. The right to think is the beginning of freedom, and speech must be protected from the government because speech is the beginning of thought.” – Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition, 535 U.S. 234 (2002)
“Criminal sanctions are retrospective in nature; they seek to punish a contemnor for past acts which he cannot now undo. Civil sanctions are prospective in nature; they seek to coerce compliance at some point in the future. That point might be immediate compliance in open court or whenever the contemnor chooses to use his ‘key’—namely, compliance—to open the jailhouse door.” – In re Marriage of Betts, 200 Ill. App. 3d 26 (1990) (emphases in original)
“The defense presented two witnesses: Dr. Dawna Gutzmann and Cordelia Parker, Johnson’s eighth-grade special education teacher. Both witnesses testified that Johnson had low intelligence and limited reading and comprehension skills.
“Parker testified that, when the 1992 school year began, Johnson was reading out of a third-grade reading book; however, she believed he had advanced to a fourth-grade reader by the end of the year. He passed a modified constitution test and graduated from elementary school pursuant to a Chicago Board of Education policy that required the promotion to high school of all students over 15 years of age. Parker acknowledged that her report on Johnson indicated that his ability to express himself verbally was adequate.
“Gutzmann testified she was appointed to interview Johnson and did so on separate occasions. The purpose of her initial examination was to form and render an opinion regarding Johnson’s ability to comprehend Miranda warnings and waive his constitutional rights. She first advised Johnson that what he said was not confidential and what he said could later be brought out in court. Gutzmann said she discovered that Johnson had not understood her initial explanation. After she repeated it several times, Johnson indicated he understood.
“In her first interview with Johnson, Gutzmann questioned Johnson about the meaning of key concepts regarding Miranda warnings. Johnson told her he had never signed a statement prior to the one at issue in this case. Gutzmann reviewed some pertinent psychological reports and learned that Johnson had a score of 57 on a verbal subtest of the Wechsler Intelligence Test. She noted that a complete IQ test involves more than just the verbal test.
“Based upon her initial interview, Gutzmann made a provisional diagnosis of major depressive disorder and mild mental retardation. She noted that a firm diagnosis would require additional information regarding Johnson’s adaptive functioning and a full IQ test. After her initial meeting with Johnson, it was her impression that he had dependent features to his personality which were manifest in a tendency to be deferential. Johnson seemed to have low self-esteem, and he appeared to be easily influenced by her authoritative position.”
– Justice Philip J. Rarick, People v. Johnson, 803 N.E.2d 405 (Ill. 2004), Illinois Supreme Court
“Our system of justice requires that a defendant’s guilt or innocence be determined based upon relevant evidence and legal principles, upon the application of reason and deliberation by a jury, not the expression of misdirected emotion or outrage by a mob.” – Justice Philip J. Rarick, People v. Johnson, 803 N.E.2d 405 (Ill. 2004), Illinois Supreme Court
“Every defect in a man, and in others’ way of taking him, our agreement that gold has value gives us power to rise above.” – Regina Corrado, “Unauthorized Cinnamon”, Deadwood
“You never regret being kind. I really believe that. I have regretted being sarcastic. I have regretted losing my temper. But I’ve never regretted being kind.” – Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer (interviewed by Nancy Kaffer, Detroit Free Press, July 7, 2024)
“We can never surrender to democracy’s enemies. We can never allow America to be defined by forces of division and hatred. We can never go backward in the progress we have made through the sacrifice and dedication of true patriots. We can never and will never relent in our pursuit of a more perfect union, with liberty and justice for all Americans.” – Representative Bennie G. Thompson, Chairman, Final Report, Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol
“For the first time in our Nation’s history, a grand jury has charged a former President with committing crimes while in office to overturn an election that he lost. In response, the defendant claims that to protect the institution of the Presidency, he must be cloaked with absolute immunity from criminal prosecution unless the House impeached and the Senate convicted him for the same conduct. He is wrong. Separation-of-powers principles, constitutional text, history, and precedent all make clear that a former President may be prosecuted for criminal acts he committed while in office—including, most critically here, illegal acts to remain in power despite losing an election.” – from “Introduction” by Special Counsel Jack Smith, et al., “Answering Brief for the United States”, Filed December 30, 2023, Circuit Court for the District of Columbia