Don’t give up the ship! James Lawrence Tradition has it that …

Don’t give up the ship!
James Lawrence
Tradition has it that Capt. James Lawrence said these heroic words after being mortally wounded in the engagement between his ship, the U.S. frigate Chesapeake, and H.M.S. Shannon on 1 June 1813. As the wounded Lawrence was carried below, he ordered ‘Tell the men to fire faster! Don’t give up the ship!’ Although the Chesapeake was forced to surrender, Captain Lawrence’s words lived on as a rallying cry during the war. Oliver Hazard Perry honored his dead friend Lawrence when he had the motto sewn onto the private battle flag flown during the Battle of Lake Erie, 10 September 1813. (William S. Dudley, ed., The Naval War of 1812: A Documentary History [Washington, D.C.: Naval Historical Center, 1992] 2: 559)

If all of this seems like a great deal of trouble, think …

If all of this seems like a great deal of trouble, think what’s at stake. We are faced with the most evil enemy mankind has known in his long climb from the swamp to the stars. There can be no security anywhere in the free world if there is no fiscal and economic stability within the United States. Those who ask us to trade our freedom for the soup kitchen of the welfare state are architects of a policy of accommodation. They say the world has become too complex for simple answers. They are wrong. There are no easy answers, but there are simple answers. We must have the courage to do what we know is morally right. Winston Churchill said that ‘the destiny of man is not measured by material computation. When great forces are on the move in the world, we learn we are spirits, not animals.’ And he said, ‘There is something going on in time and space, and beyond time and space, which, whether we like it or not, spells duty.’ You and I have a rendezvous with destiny. We will preserve for our children this, the last best hope of man on earth, or we will sentence them to take the first step into a thousand years of darkness. If we fail, at least let our children and our children’s children say of us we justified our brief moment here. We did all that could be done. Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan, October 27, 1964

In an attempt to improve his technological image, Vice-President Al Gore …

In an attempt to improve his technological image, Vice-President Al Gore unveiled the world’s fastest computer at a White House event on 10/28/98. However, during a campaign trip to a Pittsburgh valve factory, the Vice-President ‘smiled and admitted that he has trouble turning on a computer-let alone using one.’ Al Gore
‘Gore Touts Job-Training Programs at Pittsburgh Factory,’ Associated Press, September 4, 1998

I am not a destroyer of companies. I am a liberator of …

I am not a destroyer of companies. I am a liberator of them. The point, ladies and gentlemen, is that greed — for lack of a better word — is good. Greed is right. Greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed in all of its forms, greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge, has marked the upward surge of mankind.

the movie, Wall Street

In assembling a staff, the conservative leader faces a greater problem than …

In assembling a staff, the conservative leader faces a greater problem than does the liberal. In general, liberals want more government and hunger to be the ones running it. Conservatives want less government and want no part of it. Liberals want to run other people’s lives. Conservatives want to be left alone to run their own lives…Liberals flock to government; conservatives have to be enticed and persuaded. Richard M. Nixon
Richard M. Nixon, Leaders, 1994