Quotes of the Week

From the Light:
“I’m no conservative, and I’m no liberal. I’m not a Democrat or a Republican. And I’m not a green or a libertarian, or a socialist or an anarchist. I’m not even an independent.
All I am is me, and all I want is to live free.”
Michael Boldin

“If it is generally and historically accepted that self-defense is a right of all individual human beings before the sheer lunacy of government-creation even begins, doesn’t it qualify, rather, as mere common sense (partial apologies to Thomas Paine) rather than something that must be legislated and then endlessly challenged, interpreted, and intersticed with myriads of exceptions and special qualifications?”
Alex R. Knight III

“At some point, those presuming to rule us won't be satisfied merely to fleece their increasingly bedraggled flock. That's when the options for the sheep will be clarified into a stark and unmistakable choice between revolt and slaughter.”
Will Grigg

“As spontaneous order in nature gets studied more, and hopefully understood better, perhaps educated people will begin to understand what wise people have known all along: that left alone, things will generally work themselves out in a beneficial way. And if they don't, imposing control wouldn't have made the situation any better anyway.”
Kent McManigal

“Conservative, n.: A statesman who is enamored of existing evils, as distinguished from the Liberal, who wishes to replace them with others.”
Ambrose Bierce

“A free, orderly, and productive society is held together not by the armed might of the police and military, nor by the dictates of rulers or the edicts of judges, but by a shared sense of the conditions that foster rather than inhibit life. At the core of such thinking is a belief in the innate worthiness and inviolability of each person, an attitude that manifests itself in terms of respect for one another’s property boundaries, within which each of us is free to pursue our respective self-interests. Peace and liberty are the inevitable consequences of living in a society so constituted.”
Butler Shaffer

“The idea that invoking “the rules” against a government will force it to lie down obediently at one’s feet and accept a leash around its neck is beyond superstitious — it’s foolhardy. There are no magic words. There is no secret formula. The relationship between government and governed is inherently adversarial. Even the most determined efforts to make it otherwise have historically failed (usually sooner rather than later). Appealing vainly to those efforts rather than accepting the reality (that it’s them or you) and acting accordingly is a fool’s errand.”
Thomas L. Knapp

“Yesterday we obeyed kings and bent our necks before emperors. But today we kneel only to truth, follow only beauty, and obey only love.”
Khalil Gibran

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From the Darkness:

"There is no space between the United States and Israel when it comes to Israel's security."
Joe Biden

“Every Coloradan who buys an item from an online merchant like Amazon.com already, under current law, owes the tax on that item. Our Colorado Retail Council members collect the sales tax for the government and firmly believe that Internet retailers should too. The General Assembly set these tax laws long ago – we are just playing by the rules. It’s a matter of fairness.”
Colorado Retail Council President Christopher Howes

“We all know that (carbon taxes and other fundraising methods) will take time and we don’t have this time. So we need something which looks like an interim solution, which will bridge the gap between now and the time when those carbon taxes will be big enough to solve the problem. And that is exactly what the IMF proposal is dealing with.”
International Monetary Fund head Dominique Strauss-Kahn, calling for a huge global warming slush fund to be established as an interim measure before carbon taxes are implemented.

"It's the nub of solving the immigration dilemma politically speaking."
Sen. Chuck Schumer, describing his plan for a national biometric identification card all American workers would eventually be required to obtain.

“The implication of the lowering of the price is that’s devaluing the black doll. While it’s clear that’s not what was intended, sometimes these things have collateral damage.”
Thelma Dye, the executive director of the Northside Center for Child Development, commenting on Walmart’s decision to cut its price on the black Barbie Doll.

“God knows it’s taken us a long time to even get our toe in the door. … If somebody like Kucinich wants to block that, I find that completely reprehensible. I’m going to hold people like Dennis Kucinich responsible for the 40,000 Americans that die each year from a lack of health care.”
Markos Moulitsas, of the Daily Kos blog, criticizing Congressman Dennis Kucinich for refusing to tow the party line on government run health care.

“Prohibition On Salt; Restaurants. 1. No owner or operator of a restaurant in this state shall use salt in any form in the preparation of any food for consumption by customers of such restaurant, including food prepared to be consumed on the premises of such restaurant or off such premises.”
Text of a salt ban billed introduced in the New York Assembly.