Quotes of the Week

From the Light:

“The metamorphosis of an agrarian republic birthed in the violent dismissal of British rule to the Sovietized monstrosity we labor under today is the result of both domestic dynamics and the creation of the national security/garrison state to project power and influence overseas. I would submit that war is the unacknowledged silent partner of the leviathan state.”
William Buppert

“If the survival of a species depends upon its success in adapting to changed conditions, how much more burdensome is the task when members of that species must overcome conscious sabotage placed in their way in the name of intelligent planning? We are too much at war with the processes by which life sustains itself to be assured of our continued presence on earth. People whose minds are dominated by mechanistic linear thinking and a desire to structure all human behavior represent a lemming-like force that may make mankind the first known species to destroy itself by collective suicide.”
Butler Shaffer

“The gang of government servants has its own dress code, gang signs – which are often presented as authority-granting seals – and they even have their own territories. Gang territories, demarcated under the auspices of jurisdictions, are strictly enforced by fear of reprisal from competing gangs or by an agreement of mutual benefit derived from their continuation of the existing jurisdictional cartel. The Federal gang is the largest, most extortive and ruthless of all gangs. If any other gang would dare to overstep its boundaries and meddle in the affairs of the Federal gangs’ jurisdiction, there would be a battle over ‘turf‘!"
Patrick Ryan O’Neill

“The Apollo program was funded by tax money extracted from Americans who would otherwise have spent their money on unmemorable goods and services. These goods and services would have been higher on their list of priorities than the Apollo project. That is why it took coercion to fund the program.
This inherent and inescapable ignorance regarding the paths not taken subsidizes all government programs. Voters do not count the costs of these projects because they do not count the costs of the benefits foregone.”
Gary North

“Where did we get the idea that a group of mostly undistinguished men and women–absurdly claiming to be our representatives and sitting in what is surely the ultimate ivory tower–should make blanket rules for everyone (except perhaps for themselves), regardless of time, place, and circumstance? It certainly has not protected liberty. Why don’t more people realize how poorly this simpleminded procedure serves a complex society?”
Sheldon Richman

“The mythology of our age is not religious, but political, and its chief myths seem to be “representation” of the people, on the one hand, and the charismatic pretension of political leaders to be in possession of the truth and to act accordingly, on the other.”
Bruno Leoni

“The unenacted common law provides us with rules that facilitate peace and cooperative activities. Government legislation provides us with rules that facilitate the exploitation of the politically powerless by the politically dominant. The former bring order to society; the latter tendto produce strife. Hence, not only is government not necessary to create the basic rules of social
order, it is precisely the rules that the government does create that tend to undermine that order.”
John Hasnas

“The virtues of steadfastness, valor, bravery, and the impulse to make a dent in the universe, and never, never, never give in (Churchill) are tragically associated with the death and destruction of war, but free enterprise provides a means by which these impulses can be channeled toward creative purposes.” Jeffrey A. Tucker

“The biggest thing is recognizing the folly of central planning. The bigger is better, everybody line up, and one-size fits all, conformist type of thinking does not enhance the survival of individuals, much less promote prosperity in a society. Individual planning, however, typically leads to cooperation that requires collective planning on at least some small scale. The “I can do it,” “let me help,” and “let’s all do what we can do” type attitude is what gets things done. Not regulations, by-laws, bureaucrats, politics or queen bees."
Mark Davis

“To follow orders instead of doing what you know is right is not honorable. If it is, then I want nothing to do with honor. There is nothing good or right about man's inhumanity to man, carefully plotted out throughout the history of WWII. "Honorable" men killing "honorable" men means that they are killing honor.”
B. R. Merrick

“When private individuals go treasure-hunting, they bear all the risks, costs, and consequences themselves. When states are used as tools of plunder, the profits go to the decision-makers and their allies, the risks fall on the soldiers and the invaded population, and the costs are passed on to taxpayers.”
J.L. Bryan

“I do not need privileges granted by the collective, since I have rights by virtue of being born human.”
Kent McManigal

“Altruism means sacrificing your own values and welfare for those of someone else, which is always a bad idea. A sacrifice means giving up a greater for a lesser good — otherwise it wouldn't be a sacrifice but a price paid for a greater value. So making a sacrifice should be morally repugnant to any self-respecting individual. Don't confuse concepts like economy, or trading the pleasure of the moment for something better later on, with a sacrifice.”
Doug Casey

“Children are never too young to be taught to despise the State, to distrust its agents, and to avoid cooperating in any way with the mechanism of official plunder, deception, and coercion.”
Will Grigg

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

From the Darkness:

“I want to be clear. If, when the facts are in, we find out that through some convoluted chain of events, he really was captured by the Taliban, I’m with him. But, if he walked away from his post and his buddies in wartime, I don’t care how hard it sounds, as far as I’m concerned, the Taliban can save us a lot of legal hassles and legal bills."
Retired Army Lt. Col. Rakph Peters, on the US solider boy captured by the Taliban in Afghanistan.

"It is important to assure the public and the markets that the extraordinary policy measures we have taken in response to the financial crisis and the recession can be withdrawn in a smooth and timely manner as needed, thereby avoiding the risk that policy stimulus could lead to a future rise in inflation. We are confident that we have the necessary tools to implement that strategy when appropriate."
Ben Bernanke [Past performance may not be indicative of future results….]

“I don’t know.”
Ben Bernanke, when asked which foreign banks were the recipients of Federal Reserve credit swaps.

"Your Rose Revolution will only be complete when government is transparent, accountable, and fully participatory."
Joe Biden, speaking to Georgia President Saakashvili.[Gee, Joe, when do we get to see that “transparent” and “accountable” government back here in the Fatherland?]

"I don't see any limitations on the horizon. It's not time to be concerned about that.
I don't see any need to use them in the near future. But it's good they are there."
Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz, asked about US loan guarantees to Israel, despite a dispute with Washington over building in East Jerusalem or in West Bank settlements.

“It is unacceptable that books are for sale on Amazon.de that normally are only available under the counter in far-right extremist shops. We cannot let the spread of internet sales erode laws that ban Holocaust denial and incitement to hatred of minorities in Germany.”
The American Jewish Committee, suing the German branch of online retailer Amazon for selling books which it said questioned the Holocaust and “trivialised” the Nazis.