Saturday, January 24, 2009

Quotes of the Week

From the Light:
“Of course today’s teens don’t act like they have the most brainpower in society. How could they? They are isolated in government schools away from adults and given no responsibilities – they are infantilized. Infantilized by the many laws restricting young people: curfew laws, tougher driving laws, teen wage laws, laws curtailing sexual activities, free speech restrictions at school, censorship of educational activities, dress codes, smoking and drinking laws, ad infinitum.”
Doug French

“Is it that state socialism is the cockroach of government species? Certainly state socialism seems able to survive, and even thrive. But state socialism, corporate capitalism, or fascism are not variants of the cockroach, a hardworking creature who adapts readily, and plays fairly, on its own merits. Instead, these are parasitic systems, and as parasites, they are below average, because they too quickly weaken and destroy the viability of the host.”
Karen Kwiatkowski

“If you see Palestinians as something less than civilized human beings: as "barbarians" -- just as if you see Americans as infidels warring with God or Jews as sub-human rats -- then it naturally follows that civilian deaths are irrelevant, perhaps even something to cheer. For people who think that way, arguments about "proportionality" won't even begin to resonate -- such concepts can't even be understood -- because the core premise, that excessive civilian deaths are horrible and should be avoided at all costs, isn't accepted.”
Glen Greenwald

“All nationalists have the power of not seeing resemblances between similar sets of facts. A British Tory will defend self-determination in Europe and oppose it in India with no feeling of inconsistency. Actions are held to be good or bad, not on their own merits, but according to who does them, and there is almost no kind of outrage — torture, the use of hostages, forced labour, mass deportations, imprisonment without trial, forgery, assassination, the bombing of civilians — which does not change its moral color when it is committed by ‘our’ side ... The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, but he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them.”
George Orwell

“America will not experience a revival or redirection toward liberty and free markets until Americans reject – fully, firmly, and consciously – the premises of the New Deal, for it was the New Deal that codified and institutionalized the American rejection of liberty and its exchange for collectivism and fascism. Before that can happen on any large scale, the alternative of liberty has to have broad appeal as an alternative to government supported by religion and made into a quasi-religious institution.”
Michael Rozeff

“Even in the face of uncertainty, there are some attributes which must be possessed by any moral code worthy of the name. Banning mass murder of innocents is one – and if God can order otherwise, then how could we worship Him as "just, merciful, and loving?"
Joshua Katz

"Worse than thieves, murderers, or cannibals those who offer compromise slow you and sap your vitality while pretending to be your friends. Compromisers are the enemy of all humanity, the enemies of life itself. Compromisers are the enemies of everything important, sacred and true."
L. Neil Smith



From the Darkness:

“The fight against Islamic radicals always seems to come around to whether or not they can, in fact, be deterred, because it's not clear that they are rational, at least not like us. But to wipe out a man's entire family, it's hard to imagine that doesn't give his colleagues at least a moment's pause. Perhaps it will make the leadership of Hamas rethink the wisdom of sparking an open confrontation with Israel under the current conditions.”

Michael Goldfarb, editor of the Weekly Standard


"Microsoft's tying of Internet Explorer to the Windows operating system harms competition between web browsers, undermines product innovation and ultimately reduces consumer choice.”
The European Commission, announcing a preliminary decision to force Microsoft sto sotp bundling Internet Explorer with Windows.


"With the challenges and crises we face right now, we cannot afford to divide this country by race or class or region; by who we are or what policies we support. There are no real or fake parts of this country. We are not separated by the pro-America and anti-America parts of this nation - we all love this country, no matter where we live or where we come from."
Barack Obama [If you don’t support his policies you’re anti-American.]

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