Quotes of the Week

From the Light:

“Is it to the benefit of humankind to exist in, and be driven in all collective action by, perpetual and pervasive fear? The answer to that question is also the answer to the question of whether or not we need — or, indeed, can tolerate the continued existence of — the state.”
Thomas L. Knapp

“Helpless people take orders well, they don't have minds of their own, they are predictable, they won't surprise corporations or governments with resistance to the newest product craze, the newest genetic patent -- or by armed revolution. Helpless people can be counted on to despise independent citizens and hence they act as a fifth column in opposition to social change in the direction of personal sovereignty.”
John Taylor Gatto

“The ‘mainstream’ media simply can’t be trusted. That’s why newspapers are losing circulation at a rapid clip, and television news is fading in importance. It’s not the Internet that’s killing off the sainted mandarins of the "mainstream" – it’s their role as transmission belts for official propaganda, whether it be from the government or the partisan opposition. They’re shills, and everybody knows it.”
Justin Raimondo

“There’s no policy change that’s going to save us. There’s no election that’s going to put a halt to the onslaught of tyranny. It’s here already – this country has changed for the worse and will continue to change for the worse. There is now a division between the citizenry and the state. When that state is used as a tool against me, there is no longer any reason why I should owe any allegiance to that state.”
Nick Monahan

“It would seem though that the only way to ensure lack of government intervention is to limit government. Since even such a clearly written document as our constitution isn’t able to invoke the necessary integrity and morality in our federal civil servants, it’s clear that the only solution is to limit the federal government to nothing and allow the states to govern and trade amongst themselves and with other economic agents.”
Don Cooper

“From warrantless wiretapping to the suppression of information under cover of state secrets, and from the waging of imperialist wars of conquest to torture, the militarist mind-set driving capitalist elites at warp speed towards an abyss of their own creation, are signs that new political provocations are being prepared by America's permanent "shadow government" – the military-intelligence-corporate apparatus.”
Tom Burghardt

“It’s certainly encouraging that the public is concerned about the growth of government, but it’s also puzzling and discouraging that the objections do not seem based on principle. What the town hall meetings seem to be saying is, “I don’t want to jump into the fire, but I’m content to stay in the frying pan.” A lethal dose of poison is strenuously resisted, but a smaller dose is quite all right.
Any resistance to the growth of government is good, but how much better if it were based on the nature of man and the nature of government, and not on some annoying details.”
Paul Hein

“Today, Ben Bernanke is our tragic hero. His flaw is as obvious as his challenge. He thinks he can stop the world from turning.... stop the seasons...avoid the hard, correcting winter by tempting the sun with bailouts, stimulus and cheap credit. His arrogance is an affront to the gods.”
Bill Bonner

“Don't think "Taxation is theft" is merely a libertarian bumper sticker. No amount of spin, slant, cant, parsing, philosophizing or any other wordplay can turn government-imposed taxation into a voluntary activity.”
Garry Reed

“No service or product should be provided at the barrel of a gun. It’s that simple. There are no exceptions unless one believes people have no rights. If one believes people have no rights, then "government" is not "necessary" to "protect" what doesn’t exist. If you believe people have rights, then you don’t "protect" them without their freely given consent. Also, protection is not submission to the violent, unaccountable control of another, nor is violent domination a legitimate method of doing business. Would you hire people who don’t acknowledge you have property, to protect your property? I wouldn't…”
Marc Stevens

“The central government of the United States (that is, 9 unelected judges, a congressional majority of only 269, and 1 CEO) cannot manage the bloated and unwieldy empire that a century of ritualistic centralization has produced; nor will it ever relinquish power.”
George Kennan

“It’s time to stop the excuses and the pardons people keep doling out for the real terrorists; the real thieves and murderers – politicians and government bureaucrats. It’s time to put them out of business forever.”
Alex R. Knight III

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From the Darkness:

“Any nation as rich as ours ought to guarantee health coverage for all of its residents.”
Anonymous idiot writing for the NY Times

I will not personally travel in a state [Arizona] where civilians carry loaded weapons onto the sidewalks and as a means of political protest. I not only believe such practices are a threat to the future of our democracy, but I am firmly convinced that they would also endanger my own personal safety there.”
Arthur Frommer

"I know there are going to be some who say that this report [showing the government faces exploding deficits and mounting debt] proves that we can't afford health reform. I think that has it backwards."

US budget director Peter Orszag

"The documents released Monday clearly demonstrate that the individuals subjected to enhanced interrogation techniques provided the bulk of intelligence we gained about al Qaeda. This intelligence saved lives and prevented terrorist attacks. These detainees also, according to the documents, played a role in nearly every capture of al Qaeda members and associates since 2002.”
Dick Cheney

“May we honor the life and death of Sen. Edward Kennedy by laying aside the rancor, lies, fear, and even hate that has come to dominate the health-care debate in America this summer, and regain our moral compass by recovering the moral core of this debate: that too many Americans are hurting and suffering in a broken and highly inequitable health-care system, and that it is our moral obligation to repair and reform it — now.”
Jim Wallis, “Sojourners”

"The immediate release of these documents will destroy the board’s claims of exemption and right of appellate review. The institutions whose names and information would be disclosed will also suffer irreparable harm.”
A motion by the Federal Reserve to Manhattan Chief U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska to delay enforcement of her Aug. 24 decision that the identities of borrowers in 11 lending programs must be made public by Aug. 31