Quotes of the Week

From the Light:

“The mad Roman emperor Caligula had his horse made a consul. This act had a distant echo in Lincoln’s fateful decision of 1861: Confederate troops at Fort Sumter fired on Union forces, killing a single horse, and Lincoln took the occasion to launch a war that killed over 600,000 young men. I think we may consider Lincoln’s horse amply avenged.”
Joe Sobran

“Governments, by their nature, are invariably agencies of aggression. This is our excuse for having them; they can be employed against the "other fellow" to compel him to provide the money for our schemes, to compel him to do or not to do in accordance with our wishes.
But to the degree that we rely on government, which is our agency of aggression, to this degree do we reject civilization. If we can learn to recognize the merit of non-aggression, and hence of voluntary action, we will begin to employ the market place to a fuller degree and ultimately we may be able to abandon government reliance totally.”
Robert LeFevre

“Any enemy of the Constitution should immediately become the enemy of those sworn to defend it. Nowhere in the oath is a commitment to support the government.”
Michael Gaddy

“Prohibition laws just make things more interesting for businessmen.”
Cristina C. Espina

“As any system of government matures, more and more people are able to get a purchase on it. It could be a tax break...a licensing requirement that keeps out competitors...a tariff...a subsidy...a job...free food or a welfare check. And as more and more people get something from the government, more and more have a stake in making sure the government stays in business. This phenomenon contributes to the stability of the institution in the short run...in the long run, it guarantees its failure. For each little hustle is a cost...like a leech on the back of a water buffalo. The animal may be strong and fit; but put enough leeches on him and he'll wither like a dried up grape.”
Bill Bonner

"Voters did not pick me to buy loss-making car factories."
Swedish Prime Minister, Fredrik Reinfeldt, while rejecting a bailout for GM-owned Saab.

From the Darkness:

"No wonder so many would-be Wolverines in the right blogs are talking about stocking up on assault rifles and ammo – they've got ransackers running wild in their imaginations too. I urge these people to confront their racial fears.”
James Wolcott, Vanity Fair

"That's why I want to create a global 'green new deal' that will pave the way for a low-carbon recovery and to help us build tomorrow's green economy today."
Gordon Brown, British Prime Minister

“Regulation, government grants and direct government activity may have been unfashionable in the boom years, but they are the only way we can 'green' the economy in the midst of bust."

UK Trades Union Congress deputy general secretary, Frances O’Grady

"I showed up about 10 minutes ago, so if I seem a little dazed and confused, you'll know why."
Nancy-Ann DeParle, to lead the White House Office for Health Reform [Sounds like you have your excuses all made out in advance of your impending, miserable failure.]

"I have never understood multiparty democracy.
It is hard enough with two parties to come to any resolution, and I say this very respectfully, because I feel the same way about our own democracy, which has been around a lot longer than European democracy."
Hillary Clinton, apparently unaware that Europe traces back its democratic tradition thousands of years to the days of classical Greece.

"That is what we can do and must do today. And I am absolutely confident that is what we will do."
Master Obama, believing that one can create prosperity with words. [Declare it so, and it will be!]