Quotes of the Week

From the Light:

“Anti-terrorism laws are not meant for terrorists; they're for people that governments don't like. That's why they have a conviction rate of less than 2%. They're just a means of putting inconvenient people away without bail for a long time and eventually letting them go.”
Arundhati Roy

“Israel doesn’t seem to understand that superior power doesn’t buy security as long as the adversary’s grievance lingers.”
Ivan Eland

“These elites, and the corporate system they serve, have ruined the country. These elite cannot solve our problems. They have been trained to find “solutions,” such as the trillion-dollar bailout of banks and financial firms, that sustain the system. They will feed the beast until it dies. Don’t expect them to save us. They don’t know how. And when it all collapses, when our rotten financial system with its trillions in worthless assets implodes and our imperial wars end in humiliation and defeat, they will be exposed as being as helpless, and as stupid, as the rest of us.”
Chris Hedges

“The recognition of the insuperable limits to his knowledge ought indeed to teach the student of society a lesson of humility which should guard him against becoming an accomplice in men's fatal striving to control society — a striving which makes him not only a tyrant over his fellows, but which may well make him the destroyer of a civilization which no brain has designed but which has grown from the free efforts of millions of individuals.”
F.A. Hayek

“Every dead American soldier is a hero. What a beautiful word is that word, hero. The more hideous the death, the more beautiful name it is necessary to find for it.”
Laurence Vance

“Honor means nothing more than prickly infantile vanity dressed up, usually, in desperate class-consciousness. Of all the symptoms of a weak ego, honor is the most embarrassing, and the most harmful. In a right-minded society it would be made a capital offense.”
Fred Reed

"The most serious threat to the United States is not someone hiding in a cave in Pakistan or Afghanistan, but our own fiscal irresponsibility."
David Walker, former Comptroller General of the United States
"The truth is that the only way out of this mess is less government, more savings, and increased production."
Peter Schiff

“We have explained why bailouts don’t work. You can’t solve a problem caused by too much debt by adding more debt. The ‘hair of the dog’ technique won’t work – not even if you throw in the whole pooch.”
Bill Bonner

“I am an agnostic regarding the claim that the State of Israel, as it presently exists, is the fulfillment of the pious desires of ancient prophets and martyrs. But I am convinced to the point of moral certainty that Israel has no legitimate claim on our tax dollars or military aid, and that Washington’s subsidy of Israel has been an unalloyed disaster for both Israel and the region.”
“Those in charge of the Israeli State, and those who aspire to run the embryonic Palestinian State, simply find the conflict too politically and materially profitable to abandon, despite the horrors it inflicts on the victims of their misrule.”
Will Grigg

“Those who understand and cherish individual liberty should never allow themselves to become the agents of another person's will.”

Will Grigg

From the Darkness:

"We are close to achieving most of our objectives [in Iraq] We have a significant reduction in the overall level of violence."
Dick Cheney [Ummm…Who created the violence in the first place?]

\"The vulgar trend has deeply harmed the mental and physical health of the young generation ... Many parents are calling out: 'Save our children'. They want the government to take drastic action."
The Chinese Information Office, commenting on its crusade to make the Internet safe for its young population to surf without encountering pornography.

"A strong government that deals forcefully with the Palestinians will bring international condemnation and sanctions against Israel, but the Lord will uphold his people despite world opinion."
Pat Robertson

“Many will focus on the upfront cost of this legislation. While we are not discussing small sums, focusing on the price tag alone ignores the cost of inaction and the real payoff in terms of job creation and increased revenues to our Treasury."
Nancy Pelosi, House speaker. [Spending trillions you don’t have, while already trillions in debt, to erase trillions in debt. Orwellian economics at its best.]

“And we know that our recovery and reinvestment plan will necessarily add more. My own economic and budget team projects that, unless we take decisive action, even after our economy pulls out of its slide, trillion-dollar deficits will be a reality for years to come.”
The Man With Melanin, commenting on the projected deficit.

"It is very difficult in circumstances like Gaza, which is a very densely populated area. I might note it's also an area in which Hamas participates in activities like human shields, using buildings that are not designated as military buildings to hide their fighters. So it's hard. I was encouraged that Prime Minister (Ehud) Olmert, after an extensive conversation we had, agreed to open a new humanitarian corridor."
Condoleeza Rice, commenting on Israel’s slaughter of civilians in Gaza. [Humanitarian corridor? What’s to keep them from bombing that too?]

“Now, what my point is that I don’t think anybody saw it coming.”
Dick Cheney, on the current financial crisis.