Yes, Mama. But he was my dog. I’ll do it. — Old Yeller

There are some tasks that you just can’t delegate. When you have a responsibility, you have to be willing to step up and take care of it, no matter how unpleasant it is. You owe it to yourself and to those who depend on you to do what needs doing, and if you duck out of the important things, you are less of a person than you ought to be.

Give them nothing! But take from them everything! — 300

If you’re not willing to fight to win, why are you fighting?  If your goal isn’t 100% success, then what is your threshold for failure?  If a fight is worth getting into, then it’s worth winning.  Those who enter into a conflict with the express purpose of finding a compromise are advertising their willingness, their desire, to lose.   If you must negotiate, then negotiate from strength.

With enough courage, you can do without a reputation. — Gone With The Wind

I once had a conversation with my manager that boiled down to a requirement for me to work on my people skills, and a response from me that I didn’t come to work to make friends. I do what I do because I think it’s the right thing, and as long as I’m professional, then I’ve met “soft skills” expectations. To be honest, I’d rather be respected for getting the job done than liked for my boyish charm.  I try to be polite, but I usually fail spectacularly when I try to charm the birds from the trees.

I’ve never seen my sister this happy, Ian. If you hurt her, I’ll kill you and make it look like an accident. — My Big Fat Greek Wedding

I love my daughter. Someday, a boy is  going to break her heart, and I hope that I’m one of the people she turns to for comfort. When that happens, I’m going to have to learn a new level of self-control. All her life, I’ve had the papa bear instinct of “Destroy the threat to my offspring”, but in that circumstance, I will have to swallow hard, pat her back and let her get on with her life, and restrain myself from ripping someone limb from limb.

I want the people to know that they still have 2 out of 3 branches of the government working for them, and that ain’t bad. — Mars Attacks

Right now, I’d feel fortunate if we could be batting 1 for 3 when it comes to branches of government, but that’s beside the point.

I probably should have stayed up and watched the State of the Union address last night, but I just couldn’t. I’m going to read the news coverage and find a transcript, but watching it live just wouldn’t have been productive. Political cheerleading has lost its shine for me, no matter who is doing it. There really isn’t anything that President Obama could have said that would have been a surprise to me, or inspiring to me, or even interesting to me. After a while, all the speeches run together, and he’s the most speechifying president I’ve ever seen.  Familiarity may not have bred contempt in this instance, but it certainly has bred indifference.

No wonder you’re having nightmares. You’re always watching the news. — Total Recall

You may have noticed that I’m doing fewer “News Roundup” posts in the past few months.  I still read the news, but I’m enjoying it less and less.  Where I used to find current events interesting, now I find them depressing.  I don’t think that the world is doing any worse now than it has been doing for the past decade or so. Rather, I think it’s that I’m reaching saturation.  I know I’m in a bad place when I start to find things in the news comical, even if they’re not funny in any good way.

This is a challenge to me.  I think it’s one of the duties of a good citizen to stay informed about what is going on.  This keeps me in the know about what my elected representatives are up to and what challenges they face.  If I follow my instincts and just throw my hands up, I let myself and the country down in a small way.  Walking away from news sites and just looking at videos of kittens and college-age doofuses makes me less effective as a voter and citizen, and I owe myself, my friends, and my children more.

In short, the news is, to me, becoming depressingly gray and repetitive, but it’s important that I work through that and keep myself informed.  Don’t worry, I’m not going to turn away and ignore the world.  Some jackass has to be here to hoot and throw poo when politicians and the less than bright do something stupid, and that jackass might as well be me.

I’m um, this is my hospital. And my advice to you is, don’t get sick. — The Ghost And The Darkness

I always look to see if the people who work at a company not only recommend that you buy the product or use the service they provide, but also that they do as well.  If they don’t eat their own dog food, then why should you?  When someone comes out with the latest and greatest blastomatic or super-whiz-bang bullet for self-defense, I always want to find one of the guys who works the assembly line and ask if he would carry one of the pistols or use one of the bullets to keep his family safe.  I wouldn’t ask the guy who owns the company, or the guy who designed or tested the equipment.  They have too much wrapped up in success of the product, either financially or emotionally.  I mean the poor schlub who does his job and wants to go home safe at night.  If they don’t believe in the product, for whatever reason, then maybe there’s some reason you shouldn’t also.

Some magic’s real. — The Sixth Sense

Our world’s magic isn’t Merlin, but it’s there, and it’s important.  It’s the everyday things that remind us just how remarkable the world is.

Magic is a hard thing to explain.  I don’t mean illusions or slight of hand; I mean the real magic you find in the world.  The magic I see in a mother’s face the first time her baby looks at her, or the magic a boy feels the first time a pretty girl smiles at him.  The magic you feel the first time a fish grabs your lure, or when a deer walks into a clearing in front of you.  The magic of a hard job done well, or a bad problem made better.  The magic in the smile of a new shooter is remarked upon by many people I know.

Slow down, look around, and the world will show its magic to you.  You just have to pay attention to see it.

I didn’t come here to harass. I came here to reward. — Who Framed Roger Rabbit

“Beware of Greeks bearing gifts” should have mentioned government.  When you take Caesar’s coin, you become Caesar’s slave.

A tyrant who buys your subservience is more insidious and much more dangerous than one who kicks in the door and forces your submission.  By accepting their largess, you make yourself part of the problem, and it becomes hard for you to oppose tyranny once it finally goes so far that you can’t help but recognize it.  Nothing is free, and you will pay a lot for gifts from those who want your loyalty and subservience, even if they come wrapped up in a bow and delivered with a paternal smile.