User:SpartHawg948

About Me
My name is William, I am 26, and I am a Staff Sergeant (SSgt) in the US Air Force Reserve, moonlighting as a security consultant for a major Silicon Valley pharmaceuticals company. I live in Santa Clara, California, and I LOVE Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2!!! I aim to do whatever I can to improve this site, as I feel it's a great resource. Also, I am an Bureaucrat (both here and at a secret side project...), so if anyone has any questions or needs help with anything, please just let me know!

Also, not to put too fine a point on it, but I have no patience whatsoever with crybabies, whiners, speculators, and boors. If you are going to be rude to someone else, plant purely speculative info, or insult others but then start crying when someone calls you on it, you WILL be hearing from me.

Now that the seriousness is taken care of, it's my goal to make this the most informative site possible, while also keeping it a nice, friendly environment for users. Any assistance in furthering that goal is, of course, greatly appreciated, and I try to acknowledge people for their efforts as much as possible. So I hope you all enjoy the site, and hopefully you'll be hearing from me (for something good, of course!)

Words to live by

 * "Let him who desires peace prepare for war"- Publius Flavius Vegetius Renatus (more commonly known as Vegetius) from De Re Militari
 * "An armed society is a polite society"- Robert A. Heinlein
 * "The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings. The inherent vice of Socialism is the equal sharing of miseries"- Winston Churchill
 * "Communism is the death of the soul. It is the organization of total conformity- in short, of tyranny- and is committed to making tyranny universal."- Adlai Stevenson
 * "The best laws cannot make a constitution work in spite of morals; morals can turn the worst laws to advantage."- Alexis de Tocqueville
 * "The world is not going to be saved by legislation."- William Howard Taft
 * "A man has to live with himself, and he should see to it that he always has good company."- Charles Evans Hughes

Featured Quote
This section will just be for quotes I like that aren't necessarily as concise and pithy as the ones featured above. They don't even necessarily have to be relevant to anything, I may just choose quotes from sources I like (such as George S. Patton, who provides the first of these) or works I like (such as the Anabasis by Xenophon). Good times!

Special event time! - So, the Clare Boothe Luce Policy Institute, an outstanding organization founded in memory of a truly extraordinary woman, labels January "Protect Life" month. Being of a similar mindset, I'd like to do my small part to help. Now, I know abortion is a contentious issue. If you disagree with me (or rather, with the persons and entities I quote) and wish to express this on my talk page, go right ahead, just be respectful about it. That said, let's see how some great luminaries throughout history felt about the subject, shall we? Update: So, I decided that for the rest of the month, I'll add a new quote each day. I could have filled the section with quotes from the usual suspects like the Pope, Ronald Reagan, George Bush, etc, but I tried to get some real variety here, and am particularly pleased to feature quotes from a number of notable feminists!

Feminists today often decree abortion a fundamental right for women. Let's start by seeing how some of the "Founding Mothers" of feminism in America felt about it:


 * "Abortion is the ultimate exploitation of women." -- Alice Paul, one of the most outspoken, well-respected, and successful of the suffragettes. Paul was one of the key players in securing the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, securing the right for women to vote. (In an aside, if you wish to learn more about Alice Paul, I highly recommend watching the film Iron Jawed Angels. Great flick.)

I'm actually just going to keep going, get a cumulative thing, get quotes upon quotes. So we've seen what the most important feminist you've never heard of, Alice Paul, had to say about abortion (well, okay, you've heard of her, after reading this!), but what about the big lady herself, the biggest name in feminism? The original suffragette herself? Let's see:


 * "All the articles on this subject that I have read have been from men. They denounce women as alone guilty, and never include man in any plans for the remedy. . . Guilty? Yes. No matter what the motive, love of ease, or a desire to save from suffering the unborn innocent, the woman is awfully guilty who commits the deed [abortion]. It will burden her conscience in life, it will burden her soul in death; But oh, thrice guilty is he who drove her to the desperation which impelled her to the crime! -- Susan B. Anthony. It's hard to find a bigger name in feminism. The woman who I'll be quoting next may just be that bigger name.


 * "When we consider that women are treated as property, it is degrading to women that we should treat our children as property to be disposed of as we see fit." -- Elizabeth Cady Stanton, the godmother of feminism in America. Stanton is widely considered to have initiated the organized woman's rights and woman's suffrage movements in America with her Declaration of Sentiments of 1848.


 * "Infanticide is on the increase to an extent inconceivable. Nor is it confined to the cities by any means. Androscoggin County in Maine is largely a rural district, but a recent Medical Convention there unfolded a fearful condition of society in relation to this subject. Dr. Oaks made the remark that, according to the best estimate he could make, there were four hundred murders annually produced by abortion in that county alone....There must be a remedy for such a crying evil as this." -- Elizabeth Cady Stanton (Editors note: Just to clear this up, in case it causes any confusion - Elizabeth Cady Stanton considered abortion a form of infanticide, and as such, used the terms interchangeably, as we see here.)


 * "Women...sacrificing to lasciviousness the parental affection...either destroy the embryo in the womb, or cast if off when born. Nature in every thing demands respect, and those who violate her laws seldom violate them with impunity." -- Mary Wollstonecraft. Now, if Elizabeth Cady Stanton is the godmother of feminism in America, Mary Wollstonecraft is the godmother of feminism, period. (No pun intended, of course.) Wollstonecraft was an Eighteenth century British philosopher and writer. She wrote several notable books, but her most famous work is without a doubt A Vindication of the Rights of Woman.


 * "The rights of children as individuals begin while yet they remain the foetus." -- Victoria Woodhull, a leading American suffragette who, in 1872, became the first woman to run for President of the United States. Woodhull ran as the candidate for the Equal Rights Party, with former slave turned abolitionist Frederick Douglass as her running mate.

Well, I think that's enough of the noted femenists for now. Pretty illustrious group though, wasn't it? Leaders and founders of the movement, the first woman to run for president, all sorts of good stuff! Well, now let's keep on keeping on! I did choose two religious figures to take quotes from. Or, more accurately, one religious figure and one political figure to whom religious or spiritual significance is often applied. And both are, as it just so happens, most commonly associated with India. Let's get us some quotes!


 * [T]he greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion, because it is a direct war, a direct killing - direct murder by the mother herself... because if a mother can kill her own child, what is left for me to kill you and you to kill me? There is nothing between." -- Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, more commonly known as Mother Teresa. Now, I probably don't need to tell you who Mother Teresa was, but here goes: Mother Teresa was the noted Catholic missionary (born in the Ottoman Empire, ethnically Albanian) who is best known for founding the Missionaries of Charity in 1950. She ministered to the sick and poor, and for her work, received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979.


 * If there is a child that you don't want or can't feed or educate, give that child to me. I will not refuse any child. I will give a home, or find loving parents for him or for her. We are fighting abortion by adoption and have given thousands of children to caring families. And it is so beautiful to see the love and unity that a child brings to a family." -- Mother Teresa. This is one of my favorites, as I'm a big proponent of adoption as an alternative to abortion.


 * *[I]t seems to me as clear as daylight that abortion would be a crime." -- Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (also known as the Mahatma Gandhi), noted leader of the Indian independence movement and advocate of non-violent resistance.

Well, now we've had the religious/spiritual/peace advocate angle, so let's move on, shall we? How about U.S. Presidents? And, just to keep it interesting, as promised, there will be none of the "usual suspects" like Reagan or either of the Presidents Bush. One quote will be from a Democratic-Republican, and the other from a progressive Republican turned third-party candidate. Let's see what we've got!


 * The care of human life and not its destruction is the first and only legitimate object of good government." -- Thomas Jefferson, principle author of the Declaration of Independence, first Secretary of State of the United States, second Vice President of the United States, and third President of the United States.


 * "[A] physician of wealth and high standing had seduced a girl and then induced her to commit abortion-I rather lost my temper, and wrote to the individuals who had asked for the pardon, saying that I extremely regretted that it was not in my power to increase the sentence." -- Theodore Roosevelt, 25th Vice President and 26th President of the United States of America.

Now we're going to get into the random quotes: Historical perspectives and laws, constitutions of major Western nations renowned for human rights, major scientific studies, and a quote from one of my favorite (and most unique) talk radio hosts. Let's start by looking at the original version of a famous oath:


 * "I will give no deadly medicine to any one if asked, nor suggest any such counsel; and in like manner I will not give to a woman a pessary to produce abortion." -- the Hippocratic Oath. That's right, the Hippocratic Oath (the original version, pre-political correctness) forbade healers and doctors from aiding a woman in procuring an abortion. One wonders what Hippocrates would think of modern abortion "doctors", among other things...


 * "If one strikes a pregnant woman or gives her poison in order to procure an abortion, if the foetus is already formed or quickened, especially if it is quickened, he commits homicide." -- Henry de Bracton, renowned 13th century English jurist and legal scholar, from his seminal work, De Legibus et Consuetudinibus Angliae (On the Laws and Customs of England), published circa 1250 AD.


 * "The State acknowledges the right to life of the unborn and, with due regard to the equal right to life of the mother, guarantees in its laws to respect, and, as far as practicable, by its laws to defend and vindicate that right." -- the Constitution of the Republic of Ireland. Being of Irish descent myself, I like to see what the mother country is up to, and (thanks in no small part to the influence and importance of the Catholic Church on Irish society) the mother country is refreshingly conservative on social matters. Ireland is also known as one of the best countries in the world as far as human rights, freedom of the press, economic freedom, and political freedom are concerned.


 * "I’m shunned by the gay community because I’m not the right kind of gay. I’m rejected by the feminist establishment for the same reasons. . . There is no room for dissent on the left. The moment you give into their framework, you surrender your individualism. . . Abortion is a failure of the feminist establishment. With every kind of birth control available in the world, abortion is not something to be proud of. If you need an abortion, you’ve failed." -- Tammy Bruce, one of my all-time favorite talk-radio hosts. She's great because: A) She's entertaining to listen to; B) She's usually right (at least IMO); and C) She's impossible to pigeonhole. She describes herself as a "gay, pro-choice, gun owning, pro-death penalty, Tea Party Independent Conservative" who "worked on a number of Democratic campaigns in 1990s, including the 1992 Boxer and Feinstein senate races and the Clinton for President campaign" and "also has a history of supporting Republicans as well, including President Reagan, both Presidents Bush and, quite reluctantly, John McCain during the 2008 presidential campaign." (taken from her bio on her website) Oh, and D) She's a looker! :P


 * "Victim of rape or incest: 1%" --from the study "Why Do Women Have Abortions" by Aida Torres and Jacqueline Darroch Forrest, published by the Guttmacher Institute in Family Planning Perspectives. I end with this sobering figure to underscore a simple and tragic fact. So many people talk about the need to keep abortion legal, if for no other reason than for victims of rape and incest. Well, this is how many people seek abortions for those reasons. One percent. Here's another number. 75%. What does that number mean? 75% of women seek abortions because having a baby would interfere with their work, school, or social life. That's right. Their social lives. So it comes down to a matter of convenience. A life is extinguished because it just isn't convenient for that person to continue living. This is the world we live in, folks. It's all about me, me, me, and instant gratification. Convenience stores, and convenient deaths.

Featured Bio
Sorry folks, "Featured Bio" is on a temporary hiatus. We'll (probably) be back in February.

Tongue-in cheek thought of the, ah, who am I kidding? I'm not gonna change this daily...

 * Random thought that's going through my head at the moment: So, I have a (well deserved) reputation as being no fan of the English royal family. That said, I thought I'd change things up and list my favorite English monarchs (and my least favorite, in the interests of fairness and whatnot). My three favorites are (in chronological order) King Richard I, Queen Mary I, and King James II. (Btw, my favorite English royal family? The Stuarts.) My three least favorite English monarchs? Easy: King Edward I, King Henry VIII, and Queen Elizabeth I. I'm well aware of the fact that my list largely the exact opposite of what many English people would come up with, but frankly, I couldn't care less! :) SpartHawg948 09:10, March 1, 2011 (UTC)
 * Also, one week till Dragon Age II releases! YAY! SpartHawg948 09:10, March 1, 2011 (UTC)
 * And lastly (for now), yesterday was the NHL trade deadline, and while my Blue Jackets didn't make out quite as well as I'd hoped (that rascally Brad Richards eluded us!), we did pretty well, though sadly, the sole remaining original Blue Jacket, Rusty Klesla, is now a Phoenix Coyote. Still and all, it went well, and I hope it pays off for us. Good job, Scott Howson and Scott Arniel! SpartHawg948 09:10, March 1, 2011 (UTC)
 * Oh, and I'll get a new FA whipped up later today, after class and all that nonsense. SpartHawg948 09:12, March 1, 2011 (UTC)
 * For those in need of a good laugh, I strongly recommend taking the 'Charlie Sheen or Muammar Gaddafi' quiz. It's ten quotes, and you have to decide whether it was the crazy American actor or the crazy Libyan dictator who said it. When I took it, I got a 7 out of 10. Then I looked at the answers, so now I can't take it again, as that would be cheating. It's pretty funny though. SpartHawg948 08:30, March 4, 2011 (UTC)
 * So, it's been a while since I recommended any TV shows, and it is a bit of a slow spell on the boob tube, so here's my recommendation. I've been watching a lot of Californication at the moment. It's currently in its fourth season. The first is available for instant streaming on Netflix, and you can catch up on the season 4 episodes that have already been aired on Showtime's website (and S4 EP1 is also on Hulu). As for two and three, your best bet is DVD. I dunno about you folks, but I'm a big David Duchovny fan (he plays the main character, writer and, as of season 3, sometime professor Hank Moody), and he is HILARIOUS! Oh, and I mentioned the "boob tube", right? Well, it's a Showtime show, and you know what that means, it means lots and lots of breasteses!!! :D SpartHawg948 08:58, March 6, 2011 (UTC)
 * Also, before I start swearing and cussing because the Columbus Blue Jackets' chances of making the playoffs are diminishing by the day (it's still possible for us to make it, but is it probable? Right now, I'm saying 'no'. Not unless the team gets back on that winning tear they were on before the currently four-game losing streak commenced), I want to say that our new head coach, Scott Arniel, who joined the team midseason, is AWESOME!!! He'd never coached an NHL team before, having been the head coach of the AHL's Manitoba Moose before coming to the Jackets, but he's been doing a bang-up job, as evidenced by the recent winning streak. I really like the direction he's taking our defense in, too. SpartHawg948 05:23, March 7, 2011 (UTC)
 * Darn... our budding young vandal appears to be done. Too bad. I don't think people like that get it, but they really aren't bothering me at all. One of the best parts of being an admin is getting to block people like that for stupid and childish vandalism. It's like a fun little game, kinda like whack-a-mole. And I never miss. It got pretty funny there at the end, with him demanding I accept it because "YOU CANT HIDE THE TRUTH SPARTHAWG". I gotta say though, for all his talk of the truth, and not being able to hide it and whatnot, this guy is no Fox Mulder. Oh well... like all good things, this game of whack-a-vandal had to come to an end sometime. SpartHawg948 07:44, March 9, 2011 (UTC)
 * You people are letting me down. Earlier someone edited an article, and changed the words 'a noise behind him' to 'a noise at his door him'. "[A]t his door him." Seriously? And this went (apparently) unnoticed for nearly nine hours. Three of the users I trust most to find and remove nonsense like this made edits during that time. And none of them caught 'at his door him.' I won't name names, but this makes me sad beyond words. SpartHawg948 06:08, March 19, 2011 (UTC)
 * OMG everyone! Tomorrow will be the first day in about two months where I have nothing going on and nowhere to be! No work and no school! (In all fairness, I did have Tuesday off from work and school as well, but had to take the cat to a vet appointment, so I had somewhere to be then.) So expect to see more of me tomorrow! (also next Tuesday and Thursday, most likely) SpartHawg948 05:47, March 24, 2011 (UTC)