Quotes of the Week

From the Light:

“Never mind the possibility that the threat of “terrorism,” like that of “drugs,” is just used as an excuse for feeding their power lust. Never mind the likelihood that the state tracks our every movement for the simple reason that, like the rest of us, it wants to know where it’s stuff is–and we’re its stuff.”
Kevin Carson

“Persuasion is a long and onerous course to take. Tyranny, as advanced by the political system, is a much easier route to enforcing an otherwise unattainable agenda.”
Karen DeCoster

“What does society intend to do to those of us who won't (or can't) tolerate living under the surveillance and control of a police-state? Do the rulers expect that we will simply comply after some threats and punishment? Do they feel that our deaths are an acceptable price in order to implement their plans? Do they even consider our deaths worthy of notice at all? What if we don't agree? What if others who are on the fence begin to side with us? Will this be the straw that breaks the camel's back and brings down the Empire? The more the Empire tightens its grip, the more people will slip through its fingers.”
Kent McManigal

“The Pentagon’s first lesson learned was to avoid conscription, as the conscripted and their families will take to the streets. By using an army of volunteer suckers about whom nobody of importance cares, the military severs its wars from most of the country, which loses interest. The brass are then free to do as they choose.”
Fred Reed

“You and I are responsible – and accountable – for what we do, for one basic reason: you and I, alone, are in control of our energies and of how we choose to employ them. My children and grandchildren bear no responsibility for any actions of mine in which they did not participate. To think otherwise is to engage in the most primitive of mindsets: collectivism.”
Butler Shaffer

“Now, I'm not saying that we don't need rules in society. But the question of who makes the rules and on what basis becomes supremely important. Will the rule making flow from the matrix of voluntary exchange based on the ethic of serving others through private enterprise? Or will the rules be made and enforced by people wearing guns and bulletproof vests with a license to shock or kill based on minor annoyances?”
Jeffrey Tucker

“Everyone (including Bernie himself) agrees that Bernie Madoff was a crook. What is the correct term for the U.S. government, or does the word government tell us everything we need to know about the honesty, humanity, and justice of its actions?”
Robert Higgs

“Americans are going someday to have to live with the end of their empire. They will have to get it out of their system. This will be a very good thing, because a renaissance in American life at all levels will accompany a diminishment of American empire. Making the transition away from empire and back to a healthy society will be an important and tough challenge, far more so than sending a man to the moon, because this involves such deep changes in thinking and institutions at the personal, social, and political levels. Empire is in the blood of Americans. Purging it is going to be a traumatic experience.”
Michael Rozeff

“We should want to understand the phenomenon of the business cycle. But it is futile to expect the full understanding to jump out at us from a series of figures and charts or from a collection of anecdotes. It is only by means of economic theory that we can make sense of the figures and charts, which in the absence of theory are altogether inscrutable.”
Thomas E. Woods, Jr.

*******************************************

From the Darkness:

“I'm not going to have the windmills on my ranch: they're ugly."
T. Boone Pickens who wants to cover the Midwest with windmills.

"The IDF is one of the most ethical armies in the world, and acts according to the highest moral code."
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak

“Government deficits, mainly the result of automatic stabilizers rather than discretionary policy, are the only thing that has saved us from a second Great Depression.”
Paul Krugman

"Iran can become a constructive actor in the region if it stops threatening its neighbors and supporting terrorism. It can assume a responsible position in the international community if it fulfills its obligations on human rights. The choice is clear.”
Hillary Clinton

"I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life."
Supreme Court nominee, Sonia Sotomayer, in a 2001 speech.

“We get a lot of advice from the Council, so this will mean I won’t have as far to go to be told what we should be doing and how we should think about the future.”
Hillary Clinton, speaking to the Council on Foreign Relations.

"One of our American guests is missing."
Text on a leaflet being air dropped by the US military in Afghanistan, pleading for the release of a captured crusader.