Quotes of the Week

Enlightened insights taken from the past week’s reading:

"With a few exceptions, it would hard to detect any regionalism among the current crop of 535 members of Congress. As Americans move and consume, we become a less independent and more plastic people dominated by a Midwestern Yankee Puritanism. Recent studies have shown that children who move frequently are less likely to excel in school or in a social environment. They aren’t from anywhere and have no real culture. This is by design. Nationalization creates a crop of drones with an 'Americanism' that suggests saying the Pledge of Allegiance makes you an American and that Abraham Lincoln and Hamilton’s state capitalist dream are the greatest parts of American history. We have replaced Billy’s Grocery, Harvey Lumber Company, and Daniel Appliance with Publix, Home Depot, and Best Buy respectively. Buy your American flag at the Home Depot with your credit card during our Presidents’ Day sale in every town USA. Let’s do this."

Brion McClanahan

"Everyone once took for granted that the goal was to seize the federal apparatus and impose their vision on the country.

How about just abandoning this crazy, inhumane task?

Why not admit the differences are irreconcilable, and simply go our separate ways?

Is this not obviously the most humane solution?

Or is there some expectation that somehow, down the road, we'll all be reconciled?

How?

I'm serious about that question: how would this ever happen?

To the contrary, it's only going to get worse.

Pointlessly forcing these irreconcilable parties to continue along in this way is what normal people would call 'extremist.'

Radical decentralization and secession, on the other hand, is what our betters call 'extremist.' Yet these are the obvious and humane solutions."

Tom Woods

"Here’s the critical thing: the socialists have positioned themselves as the good guys, the ones doing the moral thing. And nobody, with the exception of Ayn Rand – and libertarians – has ever defended capitalism on a moral basis. Which is actually the way it should be defended. But their arguments are intellectual, not emotional. So they’re totally lost on the average chimp."

Doug Casey

"The indifference concerning war in this country is a double-edged sword. While ignoring the horrors of U.S. foreign policy is the easy way out, especially when that indifference can be shielded from scrutiny behind the shadow of false patriotism, it does not erase guilt by involvement. No war can be sustained by the state unless consent of the people is given, regardless whether it is informed or implied. Blood is not just on the hands of soldiers hired to murder for the state, it is also on the hands of the people who do nothing to stop it."

Gary D. Barnett

"Exaggeration in every sense is as essential to newspaper writing as it is to the writing of plays: for the point is to make as much as possible of every occurrence. So that all newspaper writers are, for the sake of their trade, alarmists: this is their way of making themselves interesting. What they really do, however, is resemble little dogs who, as soon as anything whatever moves, start up a loud barking. It is necessary, therefore, not to pay too much attention to their alarms, and to realize in general that the newspaper is a magnifying glass, and this only at best: for very often it is no more than a shadow-play on the wall."

Arthur Schopenhauer

"With the invention of 'hate speech,' whatever that is, it was inevitable that some views would not be tolerated by our increasingly authoritarian rulers. Flinging 'Nazi' at your opponents is fair game, and now apparently punching them is, too. If it’s considered acceptable to just walk up and punch someone because they 'offend' you, then we are no longer a civil society. As long as they are 'Nazis,' or 'racists,' or 'neo-Nazis' or 'white supremacists,' or 'white nationalists,' that is. But don’t shoot a robber- that’s against the law.

Adolph Hitler never had any idea what he created."

Donald Jeffries

"Change agents understand that the people will accept almost anything, no matter how immoral or absurd, if it is instituted gradually, first as unofficial public policy and then as official public policy. People accept their conditioning over time no matter what it is. Even the most absurd of notions come to be accepted over a long enough time frame. Gradualism is the key to defining deviancy down."

Bob Livingston

"It’s the ultimate in hubris to believe climate revolves solely around human activity. Yet politicians, rather admitting the obvious, that we don’t know far more than we do know, blame an ever-changing climate on everything from flatulent cows to processed meats.Much like the Russian collusion hoax, the left creates a narrative to fit their agenda, putting conclusions before research and discovery. Instead they would be better served by applying the scientific method of observing, formulating a hypothesis, testing it against observations, modifying and refining the hypothesis, until after extensive testing it accurately predicts future events.Otherwise it’s just more blather and fear mongering, just as we heard for over two years with Russian collusion fantasies that turned out to be nothing. Just as late April snow, in the eyes of the left, is further evidence of a warming planet."

Brian C. Joondeph

"I am certain that many Americans who bear no inbred ill-will toward minorities will develop much resentment and worse if they are forced into paying so-called reparations. It will be a natural response. There already is resentment aroused by the trillions in wealth transfers that have already occurred and the favoritism of affirmative action programs. This is especially the case when after 50 years of this, white people are more than ever accused of being racists by ungrateful spokesmen who have made it their livelihood to be race hustlers. From this angle, reparations are simply one more highly divisive issue that will inflame hostility. Sum it up this way: Enough is enough."

Michael Rozeff

"Emotions, like thoughts, come and go.  

Sometimes we know why -- unresolved issues, conflicts, and desires -- other times we don’t.  

The real problem with 'trigger warnings' and 'microaggressions' is they imply that individuals are powerless over their reactions to how they feel -- harkening back to a time of unbridled religiosity, when we thought we were just playthings of the Gods.  

It’s an act of sacrificing your personal agency to the irrational whims of Zeus, rather than standing in your own power and showing why certain thoughts and ideas are harmful and unjust.  

The real danger is that this idea is slipping into politics.  

More and more, individuals are falling prey to this new axiom: 'I feel, therefore I am.'  

Even worse…  

'If I feel a certain way, it means that you must affirm my feelings… no matter how absurd the conclusion I make from them.' 

If you don’t, of course, I can claim 'violence' on my person by saying you inflicted pain, suffering, and discrimination.  

You attacked the very foundation of who I am  -- my feelings."

Chris Campbell

"Please remember that guilt plus politics is a toxic mixture.  It serves to dethrone reason and transfer power to clever abusers. Don’t concede good intentions to people who wield this weapon against you They aim to chop things down, not to repair them.

Let me make this very clear:

Guilt mixed with politics is poison. It’s a weapon designed to destroy Western civilization.

So, repair your errors and then reject the guilt."

Paul Rosenberg