Quotes of the Week

From the Light:

“In 1960, when I came out of prison as an ex-convict, I had more freedom under parolee supervision than there's available... in America right now.”

Merle Haggard

“Government doesn’t 'create' jobs, nor does it 'save' them. It doesn’t perform miracles. Rather, it performs stage magic. It makes things — things like money and jobs — disappear (into its lovely assistants’ pockets) through sleight-of-inefficiency. This is not done for the benefit of the audience.”
Thomas L. Knapp

“Government is the only institution in our civilized society that is able to cover its coercion (and its use of threats) in a shroud of mystique and legitimacy There are other individuals and groups in society that use force: individual criminals (the lone burglar, rapist, etc.), and groups of criminals (the Mafia or gangs of thieves, etc.). But none of these claim their activities are proper and useful. Government is the only one of these coercive groups that claims its use of force is legitimate and necessary to everybody's wellbeing.”
Carl Watner

“A more rational definition of "Obamaism" would describe it as a pathology, rather than an ideology. It is an alloy of impervious credulity and militant leader-worship that reveals itself in the tendency to invest one's hopes in a figure who supposedly embodies hope and change.”
Will Grigg

"Politicians lie. Voters believe. This is the great symbiotic relationship of democratic politics."
Gary North

“Instead of directly having a warlord killing off his rivals (the standard excuse against self-responsible, non-coercive living- ‘anarchy‘), with voting there is another layer of camouflage to hide the reality. You have a mob voting on who the warlords, collectively referred to as ‘government‘, will kill next; whose rights will be violated, whose choices will be criminalized, whose value as a human will be marginalized simply because they are in the minority.”
Kent McManigal

“Humanity has passed the tipping point – economically, culturally and environmentally. The ‘consuming and killing’ model embraced by Americans as cultural norm is, in reality, a cultural aberration. It is destroying everything and everyone in its wake – including those who are fighting and dying to preserve it. In accepting such a model – often without question – Americans have become victims of their own complacency.”
Sandy Leon Vest

“Shifting power from one group of usurping thugs to another constitutes nothing of any value at all. Voting and elections will not eliminate taxation. It will not increase individual liberty. These endless despicable goings-on can only and exclusively produce the opposite result. To lend any legitimacy to political government in any form – by voting or otherwise – is to essentially endorse bullying, thievery, kidnapping, and outright murder – so long as those committing such tyrannical atrocities are in the employ, at taxpayer expense, of course, of a government.”
Alex R. Knight III

“Our military, which swallows half of the federal budget, is enormously popular—as if it is not part of government. The military values of hyper-masculinity, blind obedience and violence are an electric current that run through reality television and trash-talk programs where contestants endure pain while they betray and manipulate those around them in a ruthless world of competition. Friendship and compassion are banished.”
Chris Hedges

“It appears, then, that among the critical difficulties of restraining the growth of government is the obvious fact that even when restraints are enacted into law, the government will not obey that law. Needless to say at this point, constitutional amendments are not worth the parchment on which they are inscribed. After all, the Constitution still contains the Ninth and Tenth Amendments. With those amendments and three or four bucks, you can get a latté at Starbucks.”
Robert Higgs

“Men who are possessed by the passion for physical gratification generally find out that the turmoil of freedom disturbs their welfare before they discover how freedom itself promote it. If the slightest rumor of public commotion intrudes into the petty pleasures of private life, they are aroused and alarmed by it. The fear of anarchy perpetually haunts them, and they are always ready to fling away their freedom at the first disturbance.”
Alexis de Tocqueville

“Amid all the shock [about the Ft Hood massacre], and certainly shock is warranted, I, like so many here, wonder if seemingly obvious questions about not only this event, but the totality of military action such as that in Afghanistan and Iraq, will be asked. How can our society remain ignorant of the fact that statist violence is only capable of generating evil? The expansion of violence cannot provide a logical remedy for the failure of violence. Simply put, killing people to illustrate that killing people is wrong doesn’t work.”
Wilton Alston

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From the Darkness:

“In office for a mere nine months, Obama is now a full-blown 'ism.' And Obamaism—the idea that there must be shared global responsibility for virtually every problem we face—makes some obvious sense.”
Howard Fineman, Newsweek

“We have less than 50 days to save the planet.”
Gordon Brown, joining in the climate change hysteria

“Concerns exist that a more severe pandemic outbreak than 2009’s could cause large numbers of people staying home to increase their internet use and overwhelm internet providers’ network capacities.”
From a report, which was prepared by the US Government Accountability Office

“It’s a transformation … from something really twisted and ugly. I’m proud that our military is using that steel.”
Rosaleen Tallon, commenting on the USS New York naval assault vessel, whose bow include 7 ½ tons of steel recycled from the World Trade Center.

“The real winner is the people of Afghanistan. I am congratulating the people of Afghanistan.”
Hamid Karzai, in his acceptance speech, after being declared the winner of the Afghanistan presidential election.

“I firmly believe it is not too late for Congress to consider a carbon tax as the better policy approach for addressing the risks of climate change.”
Rex Tillerson, Exxon Mobil chief executive [proving that climate change opponents are NOT in the pockets of the oil industry.]

“Our most important strategy is to deploy people who know their neighbors and who are known by them...We want to make people aware that they can trust the census. It's safe. It's important. It matters to them. It matters to their neighbors. It matters to their family, and it matters to the city.”
Harriet Tregoning, D.C. Planning Director

“World markets need global governance. Their regulation, which is currently too bogged down, has it’s roots in national sovereignty. We should be adopting a new system of control, which would simultaneously satisfy the interests of all countries. The system can then decide which of the financial organizations become too large and require a division, there must also be new rules to control the movement of capital.”
George Soros

"Am I killing? Yes, I am. I know that, I'll ask that the spirit of this pregnancy be returned to God with love and understanding."
Curtis Boyd, the only doctor in North Texas who will perform late-term abortions to women up to six months pregnant.

“You don't have the right to resist a legal arrest and it's that simple.”
Milwaukee Police Officer (Ret.) Mark Zupnik