Quotes of the Week

Enlightened insights taken from the past week’s reading:

"Why do men gain delight in killing? Why do they not question their actions before it is too late? Why do some men kill and then regret it, while others revel in it? While those who murder are always wrong, some are lied to by the state, and are fooled into believing in a false cause. But those who continue to kill, and justify this killing due to the orders of others, are evil. Those who do so without conscience are soulless."

Gary D. Barnett

"I believe I first heard the term 'political correctness' used on a Saturday Night Live show back in about 1980. And I thought it was just a joke – like most of the things on SNL. But it turned out to be a real thing, and it’s been building momentum, for at least the last two generations. Where is it going to end? I’m not sure, but it’s just one more termite eating away at the foundations of Western civilization itself. People that go along with this stuff aren’t just crazy. They’re actually evil. They’re the same types who rallied around Robespierre during the French Revolution, Lenin during the Russian Revolution, Hitler in ’30s Germany, and Mao in China. It’s a certain personality type."

Doug Casey

"Information, evidence, opinion are all now subject to the preferences of 'those in charge,' who of course 'only have the best interests of The People at heart.'  Sure.

The reality is: when there is something called official science, then unofficial science must be trampled on and stamped out—the word 'official' tells you that authorities are pushing lies down on people’s heads and those lies must be maintained and never doubted.  Unofficial science becomes dangerous.  It contains repressed truth.

I’ve learned that first-hand over the past 35 years working as a reporter.  All my major investigations have been 'unofficial,' and in every one of those cases, there was someone standing in the middle of the road behind barricades shooing people away and warning that there was nothing OFFICIAL to see by going farther."

Jon Rappoport

"With the 2020 presidential circus arising, the true believers in the ideologies of collective power once again loose upon a dupable public a gaggle of nearly two dozen men and women who share an ignorance of history as well as an economic illiteracy. Those whose intellects rise no higher than to mouth empty bromides or engage in name-calling, find a faux intellectual respectability in such socialistic sloganeering as 'justice,' 'fairness,' 'equality,' and 'free' goods and services of every stripe. With so many candidates appearing from the left bird of prey, I suspect there will be a determined effort from some to advocate ever more absurd positions designed to grab the attentions of the millions who comprise the boobeoisie, and are eager to associate themselves with even more absurd groupings. Perhaps we shall see the resurrection of the Luddites, who arose during the Industrial Revolution to engage in machine-breaking riots in factories that were alleged to be located in the bowels of hell."

Butler Shaffer

"Reparations advocates make the unchallenged pronouncement that United States became rich on the backs of free black labor. That’s utter nonsense. While some slave owners became rich, slavery doesn’t have a good record of producing wealth. Slavery existed in the southern states and outlawed in most of the northern states. Buying into the reparations argument suggests that the antebellum South was rich and the slave-starved North was poor. The truth is just the opposite. In fact, the poorest states and regions of our country were places where slavery flourished: Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia. And the richest states and regions were those where slavery was absent: Pennsylvania, New York and Massachusetts."

Walter Williams

"Within the DC Beltway something ominous and malignant has emerged. 

While the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe has moved over the past 29 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall towards building multiparty political systems, we in America have been suckered into a one-party government, rule by the incumbents and only by the incumbents.

Politicians have but one firm goal — re-election. And robbing Peter to buy the vote of Paul is the surest way to this goal. It is the shared doctrine of nominal Republicans and Democrats alike.

Day by day, their meaningless stands on inflammatory and diversionary social issues such as slavery reparations, illegal immigration, or marijuana legalization have merged until little distinction remains. They are now but factions in the one true political party in America — the incumbent party.

Despite all posturing and pretense, their only real dispute concerns whose clients will get the loot . . . and whose the bill."

Charles Burris

"The world makes a lot more sense when you peel away the lens from your eyes which perceives life in neat little Hollywood-shaped narratives with protagonists and antagonists and clear beginnings, middles and ends. Because it turns out that we’re all actually a bunch of confused primates doing the best we can with the wildly unique and incredibly complex sets of conditioning we’ve been dealt by our individual birth circumstances and life events. The 'good guys versus bad guys' dichotomy is just imaginary conceptual overlay on top of a giant biological storm which carries on in cool indifference to our puny little egocentric narratives.

Atoms swirl, cells cluster, and life lifes away as this strange new species stumbles around trying to make sense of the world with its recently evolved extra gray matter and the capacity for abstract thought which comes with it. It has some successes and many failures in trying to figure out how to make living on this spinning rock a little more harmonious, and it will either succeed or it will fail. It’s egoically comfortable to slice this dance up into a narrative about heroes and villains, good guys and bad guys, but it’s really all one twirling, churning, chaotic and beautiful dance."

Caitlin Johnstone

"Thanks to years of propaganda combined with 12 (or more) years of indoctrination at the hands of the public (non)education system, most Americans are under the false belief that the U.S. government is an agent of good in the world and its federal agencies want to protect citizens from harm. Americans by and large have become statists: They believe that every transaction, every contract, every aspect of human behavior must be regulated for 'fairness' and that only the state is capable of regulating 'fairly.'

They have abandoned republicanism in favor of the sweet sound of democracy. In doing so, they have embraced fascism and tyranny."

Bob Livingston

"So you want to make a million dollars! That is the most commendable of all worldly goals. Why commendable? 

Because it means you want to provide goods and services worth a million dollars — you want to do a million dollars’ worth of good for your fellow citizens. This is not just a symbol of accomplishment. It is a sign of virtue. It is a sign of orientation toward the needs of others.

Because make no mistake: If you are chiefly focused on your own needs, it will be nearly impossible for you to gain your million. Why? 

In a reasonably free economy, where you cannot readily bilk or steal your million — or induce politicians to give it to you after seizing it from your peers — you will have to serve others. They will have to voluntarily award you your million dollars.

So your success cannot depend on your self-serving desires. It depends on your understanding of the world and your imaginative response to the wants and needs of others. Of course, you may invest the fruits of previous services or borrowings premised on new service. 

But in the end you must provide new things to the economy.

This is important because it underscores a critical point. The need to supply goods and services in exchange for your million dollars suggests that, in itself, money is not wealth. Instead, money measures wealth."

George Gilder

"All U.S. military personnel stationed overseas should be told to pack up their things and come home. All U.S. Navy ships should sail home. All U.S. Air Force planes should fly home. All foreign U.S. military bases should be closed. All the DOD golf courses in Japan should be turned over to the Japanese.

And just what should these U.S. troops do once they come home?

How about secure American borders, patrol American coasts, guard American shores, watch over American skies, and stand ready to defend the America in the event of a real threat. Isn’t that the real purpose of the U.S. military? If so, then why do conservatives who clamor for a 'strong national defense' object to this?"

Laurence Vance

"The Declaration of Independence, whether penned by Thomas Jefferson or Thomas Paine, is as elegant a jeremiad against tyranny as has been written. The relationship between the Declaration and the Constitution is the same as the one between the crucifix and the vampire. They stand as opposite documents embracing wholly different visions of freedom. One cannot be consonant with the other because their aspirations are antithetical to the other."

Bill Buppert

"American exceptionalism has led to a country that is exceptionally un-self-aware."

Peter Thiel

"I like people who think outside the box but can you stay within the universe?"
Comedian Nick Di Paolo, commenting on Emperor Wannabe, Marianne Williamson