Ave, Jeff!

Dr. Hodges has a humorous take on the phrase "no quarter given," which has been in the news lately thanks to Senator Tom Cotton's recent Twitter call to give no quarter to "insurrectionists, anarchists, rioters, and looters." I imagine that a lot of the usual squawking and flapping about Cotton's statement has to do with the original meaning of the term, to wit: in battle, you take no prisoners and simply kill the enemy. Prisoners take up space because they're put in confined "quarters," in a manner of speaking. (See more about the origins of the word and concept here.) By killing the defeated, you don't put yourself in the position of being saddled with living bodies that require care. Your army can remain mobile.

Is Senator Cotton seriously calling for the US military to mow down criminal civilians, whatever rights those civilians may have? I doubt it. He probably meant "no quarter" in the more modern, diluted sense of "no mercy," i.e., once a criminal gets nabbed, he isn't let off the hook by some compassionate authority figure. Instead, he is punished to the fullest extent legally possible. I hope Cotton doesn't end up apologizing to the PC outrage mob. As far as I'm concerned, he didn't exaggerate or misspeak: if criminals show up and show your property (and possibly also your family) no mercy, then they in turn should be shown no mercy.