Quotes of the Week

From the Light:

“If the average American were asked his opinion of congressmen, among the more polite terms you'll hear are thieves and crooks, liars and manipulators, hustlers and quacks. But what do the same people say when our nation faces a major problem? "Government ought to do something!" When people call for government to do something, it is as if they've been befallen by amnesia and forgotten just who is running government. It's the very people whom they have labeled as thieves and crooks, liars and manipulators, hustlers and quacks.”
Walter Williams

"Socialism was a confused and hybrid movement because it tried to achieve the liberal goals of freedom, peace, and industrial harmony and growth – goals which can only be achieved through liberty and the separation of government from virtually everything – by imposing the old conservative means of statism, collectivism, and hierarchical privilege. It was a movement which could only fail, which indeed did fail miserably in those numerous countries where it attained power in the twentieth century, by bringing to the masses only unprecedented despotism, starvation, and grinding impoverishment.”
Murray Rothbard

“Precisely because men are not angels anarchists are opposed to the state. The crushing power and machinery of nation-states makes it possible for weak, narrow minded people to inflict widespread violence upon countless others far beyond what they could possible do absent the deadly apparatus of an existing state at their command. Furthermore, that superior force, which is the defining attribute of a nation-state, tempts people with aggressive aspirations and violent dispositions to grasp the reins of government.”
Ned Netterville

“Homeland / Fatherland / Motherland... the terms are slightly different, but the statism behind them all is the same. It is the authoritarian attitude that the State is of prime importance and must be protected from freedom at all costs. Individuals are only useful as a lubricant on the gears of the state. Stop being useful as lubricant, and you will be burned as fuel.”
Kent McManigal

“Government can’t create jobs, it can only create busy-work. Government can’t even create money. Not real money. It can print big president heads on paper and stamp birds and buffaloes on metal but if there is nothing to buy because farmers haven’t farmed and manufacturers haven’t manufactured and businesses haven’t busied, the stuff that government calls money is just paper and metal.”
Garry Reed

“I consider those in power as I do any other criminal. I would never turn over my weapon to the bank robber, murderer or rapist, therefore, I will never relinquish my right to keep and bear arms, nor my wonderful memories and experiences involving firearms to a bunch of bottom feeders in three-piece-suits or uniforms and badges.”
Michael Gaddy

“Isn't he [Madoff] the biggest financial scammer of all time? Well...he's the title-holder now. But he has a lot of competition close on his heels. Bernie's crime was taking money from people under false pretenses...and then being unable to give it back to them. How is that different from the financing activities of the US government? “But, what is the point of keeping Madoff in prison? He represents no threat. Rather than pay $30,000 per year to keep him locked up, we suggest that he be forced to do community service work. He should be pressed into service as the next head of the Federal Reserve after Ben Bernanke's term expires in December. With Madoff in the big office, there would be no longer any illusions about what sort of bank the Fed is running.”
Bill Bonner

“If it is accepted that individuals initiating physical violence against other individuals is wrong (e.g. men hijacking airplanes and flying them into buildings is wrong), how then can it be right to enact behavior that also involves individuals initiating physical violence against other individuals (e.g. men and women dropping explosives out of airplanes is right)?”
Daniel J. Lakemacher

“Minarchists, I love you like I love a pet that just won’t potty-train. I know you’re trying your darnedest, but it sure is frustrating.”
Dale Everett

“Yes, many Muslims use the Qur’an to rationalize terrorism, just as many Christians use the New Testament to rationalize their own warmongering. But corrupt humans will use just about anything to justify their behavior. This is hardly the fault of religion, which has been a tremendous boon to humanity, the source of untold acts of love and kindness. Contrary to Bill Maher, it seems that our fate might very well depend on our ability, not to rid ourselves of God, but to start taking him seriously.”
Don Emmerich

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From the Darkness:

“I challenge terrorists to attack any police station. We are now the stronger side."
Iraqi Defence Minister Abdel- Qadir al-Ubaidi [Is this another, "Bring it On?"]

“And as I watched the deniers make their arguments, I couldn’t help thinking that I was watching a form of treason — treason against the planet.”
Paul Krugman, responding to those opposed to the Waxman-Markey climate-change bill.

“Bloggers don’t go to jail for their work. They simply aren’t held accountable like real reporters….It could be said the blogosphere is all eyeballs and no insights. In the blogosphere, of course, the mainstream media is always found wanting. It really is time this myth was blown apart. Blogs, and a large number of comment sites, specialise in political extremism and personal vilification. Radical sweeping statements without evidence are common.”
John Hartigan, the CEO of Rupert Murdoch’s News Limited

"We're going to be with the people. We're not going to drive to work. We're going to walk to work."
Brig. Gen. Lawrence D. Nicholson, describing the U.S. military's new counter-insurgency strategy in Afghanistan.

"You're going to change the world this summer and it starts this morning. The United States and the world are watching. Their expectations are enormously high during this summer of decision."
Lieutenant Colonel Christian Cabaniss, talking to troops that set out on Thursday to wrest control of Afghanistan's southern Helmand province away from the Taliban. [The summer of “decision” is for the Afghans- either do what the US military tells you or they send you to Hell.]

"Just being able to talk to the troops before July the Fourth, and just always pumping them up, is one of the reasons that I do travel overseas."
Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (TX). [Get ‘em pumped up KayBay- Kill! Kill!]

“Expanding copyright law to bar online access to copyrighted materials without the copyright holder's consent, or to bar linking to or paraphrasing copyrighted materials without the copyright holder's consent, might be necessary to keep free riding on content financed by online newspapers from so impairing the incentive to create costly news-gathering operations that news services like Reuters and the Associated Press would become the only professional, nongovernmental sources of news and opinion.”
Richard Posner