They showed a piece of paper saying “eminent domain.” —Buckner and Garcia, Wreck It, Wreck-It Ralph (2012) Think about it: What the Court said was that the government can take your property from you and give it to someone else simply if it believes that someone else will make better use of it. —Malcolm Gladwell, “The Nets and NBA Economics” (2011) Wreck-It Ralph Disney’s latest hit, Wreck-It Ralph (2012), shows us the behind-the-scenes life of arcade game characters.  The protagonist, not-yet-hero, is Wreck-It Ralph, “a giant of a man.”  In the game he spends all
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In a moment of irritation I insisted that the historic Jezebel was not particularly wicked and was, if anything, a good wife. —Elijah Baley in Isaac Asimov’s Caves of Steel (1954) She was a powerful, complex woman whose courage and dignity even her fiercest detractors would have no option but to acknowledge. —Leslie Hazleton, Jezebel:
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Caine: What is the best way to deal with force, teacher? Teacher: As we prize peace and quiet above victory, there is a simple and preferred method—run away. —Kung Fu, Warner Brothers (1972) One should not employ force if he may save himself by flight…. —Francis Schaeffer, A Christian Manifesto (1981) “Run Away” For three seasons in the mid-70s, Kwai Chang Caine wandered the American West, righting wrongs and defending helpless underdogs. Caine was a Shaolin priest and a master of the martial arts. The series was called Kung Fu (ABC). We learned through flashbacks
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 Not the Church becoming State, but the State becoming Church, mark that well. —Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov (1880) I am King and Priest. —Leo III, emperor of Byzantium (8th Century) When Sacrifice Is Sin The enemy had assembled his forces: 30,000 chariots, 6,000 horsemen, and foot soldiers “as the sand which is on the seashore for multitude” (1 Sam. 13:5).  God’s people were terrified.  Many fled their homes and took refuge in caves and pits; some fled beyond Jordan to the land of Gilead.  King Saul knew he needed Yahweh’s blessing to see this
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We see a tall person and we swoon.  —Malcolm Gladwell, Blink (2007) A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people. — The Declaration of Independence (1776) The Warren Harding Effect Malcolm Gladwell has argued that good looks and an imposing stature are a decided political advantage.  It’s not that we consciously vote for tall, handsome men, but something beneath our conscious mind associates a certain look with leadership.  “We have a sense of what a leader is supposed
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To hold one’s own life as one’s ultimate value, and one’s own happiness as one’s highest purpose are two aspects of the same achievement. —Ayn Rand, “The Objectivist Ethics” (1964) We are not our own… —John Calvin, The Institutes of the Christian Religion (1536) Jesus or Ayn Rand? Politics has long made strange bedfellows. Ayn
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