Quotes of the Week

From the Light:
“Politics isn’t just random slogans or feel-good catchphrases and cool policies that make the world a happy place of rainbows and sugarpops. No, politics is about playing the system and using force against others to get what you want.”
Marcel Votlucka

“The only moral approach to change is to bring it about yourself and stand tall knowing it is your own work, whether in success or defeat. The coward hides behind smoke screens, representatives with fancy titles, and faceless, anonymous systems that carry out their deeds. The former is the radical, the free spirit, and the entrepreneur; the latter is simply the cheat, the fraud, and the crook--in democratic terms, the politician and voter.”
Per Bylund

“The individual rights of the lowest, most dastardly member of society always trump the authority of any agent of government. Once people begin to truly understand this, civilization can once again begin to advance.”
Kent McManigal

“Deviations from the ‘rule of law’ are best dealt with in collective fashion by those who share not only common values but also a common interest in such a resolution. Giving a criminal element, whether in the form of al-Qaida or a drug lord, the status of community or nation by waging “war” against it represents a failure to define the problem properly, leading inevitably to solutions that solve nothing. The answer to 9/11 is not war, but rather the ‘rule of law.’ Until this underlying premise is recognized and adopted by U.S. policymakers, the psychosis of war will continue to corrupt American policy, and with it American society."
Scott Ritter

“Assume the worst of politicians and their weapon of choice, ‘laws‘- enforced by thugs with guns paid for by the very people they are assaulting and threatening, and you will rarely be wrong. I'm not saying you shouldn't pay attention at all, I'm just thinking it is not healthy to obsess too much. You have enough to think about in living your own life and taking care of your own business. You do that and the rest will take care of itself.”
Kent McManigal

“All the election reform in the world won’t solve the problem of Big Business’s influence in government. The only thing that will solve that problem is eliminating the power of government — to put a finer point on it, eliminating government itself. As long as government power exists, people will attempt to use it to increase their own wealth and power … and the people best positioned to use it in that way are the people who are already wealthy and powerful. Government, any government, is inherently and progressively plutocratic.”
Thomas L. Knapp

“Solidarity – acting cooperatively according to a commonality of purpose – does not rely on authority. Revolutionary solidarity is necessary to end the conflicts in which authoritarians use us as pawns to gain power. The state is that institutionalized authority which labels subjugation by paramilitaries “peace” and calls accepting the place that’s been designated for you ‘unity'.”
Darian Worden

“Governments must, like parasites, find a productive economic host to tax and leech dry in order to survive. Otherwise, left bare to true market forces, they would wither and die in a day. No one would voluntarily support the poison they offer.”
Alex R. Knight III

“The truth is that charity means nothing in the eyes of God or in terms of moral and ethical principles when the money comes from the government. It only has meaning when it comes from the voluntary and willing heart of the individual. That’s why the only assistance that is genuine, in a moral and religious sense, is that which comes from the private sector — that is, assistance that comes from the voluntary choices of individuals deciding on what to do with their own money.”
Jacob Hornberger

“In Germany at the end of the Second World War, war criminals were tried and summarily delivered to the gallows for invading small defenseless countries and killing countless people.
In America, they retire and write books.”
Kurt Nimmo

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From the Darkness:

"Salt and asbestos. Clearly, both are bad for you."
NY Mayor Michael Bloomburg, calling for a voluntary 25 percent reduction of salt in products by the food industry.

"They were under the heel of the French, you know Napoleon the third and whatever. And they got together and swore a pact to the devil. They said 'We will serve you if you will get us free from the prince.' True story. And so the devil said, 'Ok it’s a deal.' And they kicked the French out. The Haitians revolted and got something themselves free. But ever since they have been cursed by one thing after another."
Pat Robertson, explaining the earthquake in Haiti.

“Most of the talk about these geo-engineering techniques say they should be saved until we get to an emergency situation. Well, the people of the Arctic might say they are in an emergency situation now.”
Mike MacCracken, climate conference organizer, defending the kooky ideas to block the sun to be discussed at the next climate summit.

“Our analysis clearly indicates that the United States needs an SPF [Stability Police Force] or some other way to accomplish the SPF mission. Stability operations have become an inescapable reality of U.S. foreign policy. Establishing security with soldiers and police is critical because it is difficult to achieve other objectives—such as rebuilding political and economic systems—without it.”
From a report by the Rand Corp. for the US Army.

"We want our money back."
Comrade Obama, who wants to slap a tax on banks to recoup the money that the American public spent on bailing out large financial institutions on the brink of collapse. [Your money? How do I get back the money you stole?]

“Companies have to concretely increase the ability of Internet media to guide public opinion in order to uphold Internet safety.”
Wang Chen, Chinese official, responding to Google’s threat to leave the country.

“The challenge for the Department of Defense is to prepare more effectively for a constantly changing environment. The department’s security posture for tomorrow must be more agile and adaptive.”
From a Pentagon review of the Ft Hood murders. [How about just letting trained killers arm and defend themselves?]

"But when we start the rebuilding effort ... we want to be a place where people can know their money will be well spent."
Bill Clinton, on rebuilding Haiti after its earthquake. [And of course, we all know how well government gangsters do that.]

“I hope we seize this particular moment because the threat of what happened to Haiti is the threat that could happen anywhere in the Caribbean to these island nations, you know. They're all in peril because of global warming, they're all in peril because of climate change and all of this....
When we look back at what we did at the climate summit in Copenhagen, this is the response, this is what happens, you know what I'm saying? But we have to act now.”
Danny Glover

"I think that in general the American people, while obviously this is very difficult financially for us, will continue to support the troops that are there and the Congress will reflect that."
Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin, giving his approval to an additional $33 billion for Obama’s wars.