Quotes of the Week

Enlightened insights taken from the past week’s reading:

"Robin Hood’s qualm was with tyranny, not wealth.  

He detested arbitrary power and oppression, not income inequality.  

And, finally, he did it for the thrill, not to be an overinflated, virtue

signaller.  

He was more indignant than he was a soapbox yodeller."

Chris Campbell

"Identity Politics is based on the accusation that the white male is a racist and a misogynist. This is inconsistent with the belief that Washington, totally in the hands of white males, chose to fight a bloody civil war in order to bring human rights to black slaves. If white males are this idealistic and willing to make such a sacrifice for blacks, how is it that the white males are racists?"

Paul Craig Roberts

"Political elites are primarily, and sometimes exclusively, composed of sociopaths. It’s not just that they aren’t normal human beings. They’re barely even human, a separate subspecies, differentiated by their psychological qualities. A normal human can mate with them spiritually and psychologically about as fruitfully as a modern human could mate physically with a Neanderthal; it can be done, but the results will be problematical."

Doug Casey

"The US Secretary of State has demanded that Iran 'act like a normal country' or the US would continue its pressure until Iran’s economy crumbles. How twisted is US foreign policy that Washington considers it 'normal' to impose sanctions specifically designed to make life miserable – or worse – for civilians!

Is it normal to threaten millions of people with starvation if their leaders refuse to bow down to US demands? Is the neoconservative obsession with regime change 'normal' behavior? Is training and arming al-Qaeda in Syria to overthrow Assad 'normal' behavior? If so, then perhaps Washington’s neocons have a point. As Iran is not imposing sanctions, is not invading its neighbors, is not threatening to starve millions of Americans unless Washington is 'regime-changed,' perhaps Iran is not acting 'normal.'

So what is normal?"

Ron Paul

"Whenever we undertake any significant endeavor -- buying a house, for example -- we fill out countless forms spelling out exactly what we are agreeing to and indicating our express consent.

No one buys or sells a car, or offers or accepts employment, on the basis of 'tacit' agreement. Everything is explicit and clearly spelled out.

And yet government, which can seize arbitrary portions of our income and even send us to our deaths in its wars, simply declares our consent to its rule -- on the basis of 'tacit consent,' another way of saying we haven't actually consented at all.

Where did this odd approach -- one we would be horrified by in any other aspect of life -- come from?"

Tom Woods

"Some extraordinary persons will always rekindle the light of freedom. Even if these suppressed should not know freedom as a reality, they can imagine it and feel the spirit of liberty. These human beings, although robbed of their freedom, know that it does exist. Isolated from each other, each of them is lost in his own spiritual world, yet when he or she gets the means to communicate with one another, the end of tyranny has come."

Antony P. Mueller

"Since the basis for this groupthink paradigm begins at an early age, it is imperative that any solution sought to remedy this psychotic collective mentality should begin by abolishing compulsory schooling. A daunting task indeed, but necessary if individual intelligence, common morality, and entrepreneurial spirit are to be restored. There is genius in the free individual but only ignorance in the collective mind.

When individualism is replaced by collectivism, sanity and intelligence are sacrificed for false safety and chaotic ignorance. What remains is emptiness and slavery."

Gary D. Barnett

"Like the 'one ring' in Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, many people think that in the right hands, their hands, government can be used for good. But the power of government corrupts, and those with honorable intentions inevitably lose their moral compass. Establishment elites, organized narcissistic sociopaths, pass the one ring from one side of the political spectrum to the other. They then sit back and watch as it putrifies and corrupts the souls of the participants. Whether left or right, each side thinks they have the power to change the world when they control government. The reality is they have no power, and only the elites benefit."

Brandon Smith

"Capitol Hill has become one vast congressional clip-joint, where members 'service' their constituents the way a second-story man 'services' a luxury condo. This lies at the root of every economic ill plaguing the country — Wall Street bailouts, massive foreign and domestic debt, Pentagon plunder — the list could go on and on.

Because of this thievery, your income is 60 percent of what it should be. The other 40 percent is forcibly taken by politicians and given to tax-consuming special interests. The parasitical profiteers return some of the ill-gotten gains to their benefactors in the form of campaign contributions, gifts or fees.

Here is how the ruse works in detail: Politicians allocate (steal) taxpayer funds for programs under the guise of alleviating the plight of the poor, the homeless, the sick, the elderly and the unemployed, and serving the 'public interest” or “national security.' Yet it is not the mother’s milk of human kindness and compassion which lubricates the intricate gears of political machinery. It is the snake oil of expediency."

Charles Burris