Our contemporaries are constantly excited by two conflicting passions; they want to be led, and they wish to remain free. As they can not destroy either the one or the other of these contrary propensities, they strive to satisfy them both at once. They devise a sole, tutelary, and all powerful from of government, but … Read more
As many have warned in the past, freedom is unlikely to be lost all at once and openly. It is far more likely to be eroded away, bit by bit, amid glittering promises and expressions of noble ideals. – Dr. Thomas Sowell, Economics Professor, syndicated columnist, author (H/T: Cafe Hayek)
All Values are not the same, nor all impulses, nor all men. A Natural gradation teaches men to hold some sentiments dear and others cheap. Leveling radicalism endeavors to put all emotions and sensations on the same level of mediocrity, and so to erase the moral imagination which sets men apart from beasts. -Russell Kirk … Read more
It is easy enough to see why progressive doctrine should be attractive to our masters. Tyrannical ambition is nothing new, and throughout human history it has nearly always presented itself to men in the guise of idealism. We are all inclined to meddle in other people’s business; we are all inclined to think that we … Read more
Like too many western aid experts, Samuel Loewenberg misses the fundamental reason famines still ravage developing countries (“The Famine Next Time,” Nov. 27).The reason isn’t drought. Yuma, Arizona, gets vanishingly little rainfall, yet denizens of that city aren’t ever threatened with starvation. Nor is the reason a lack of Well-Researched Plans designed and implemented by … Read more
"There is all the difference in the world between treating people equally and attempting to make them equal. While the first is the condition of a free society, the second means, as De Tocqueville described it, “a new form of servitude.” – F. A. Hayek, economist, writer (H/T: Cafe Hayek)
Jim Hightower: "George H.W. Bush was born on third base and thought he hit a triple." "Obama wasn’t born on third base, but he does seem to think that he should get to run the bases after every strikeout." – Jonah Goldberg, syndicated columnist, National Review editor-at-large
Roosevelt transformed millions of Americans from citizens into clients. The direct effect of this was evil, and the indirect effect was even worse, for all these people were robbed of their self-respect. – H.L. Mencken And Obama is turning those clients into subjects….the Progressive philosophy squares the circle of feudalism: security at the price of … Read more
I saw videos of youths burning things in Oakland, but was told that it “was a small minority” and atypical of the protest. Not long ago I saw no clips of anyone spitting at black congresspeople wading into the Tea-Party demonstration, but was told they did and that it was typical of tens of thousands … Read more
“Hilary Clinton said you know, it takes a village to raise a child and somebody said it takes a village idiot to believe that … it is part of the whole thing of third parties wanting to make decisions for which they pay no price for when they’re wrong.” – Dr. Thomas Sowell, economist, professor, … Read more
Just for Steve on the 17th-century Scottish Highlanders: It is not strange that the haughty and warlike MacDonalds, despising peaceful industry, yet envying the fruits of that industry, should have fastened a succession of quarrels on the people of Inverness. In the reign of Charles the Second, it had been apprehended that the town would … Read more
But I am of the opinion that a centralized administration is fit only to enervate the nations in which it exists, by incessantly diminishing their local spirit. Although such an administration can bring together at a given moment, on a given point, all the disposable resources of a people, it injures the renewal of those … Read more
Here’s the thing: They’re the 1 percent, but we’re the 99 percent. Their wealth may be much more than ours, but 99 is a much bigger number than one. So we should just gang up and take their money. When one person takes the property of another, that’s tyranny, but when lots of people get … Read more
(Emphasis mine) The Occupy Wall Street demonstrators are demanding "people before profits" — as if profit motivation were the source of mankind’s troubles — when it’s often the absence of profit motivation that’s the true villain. First, let’s get both the definition and magnitude of profits out of the way. Profits represent the residual claim … Read more
One of the sad signs of our times is that we have demonized those who produce, subsidized those who refuse to produce, and canonized those who complain. – Dr. Thomas Sowell, economist
It covers the surface of society with a network of small complicated rules, minute and uniform, through which the most original minds and the most energetic characters cannot penetrate, to rise above the crowd. The will of man is not shattered, but softened, bent, and guided; men are seldom forced by it to act, but … Read more
“Oh I feel so delightfully white trash. Mommy, I want a mullet.” ~Stewie, on “The Family Guy” White Trash n. Offensive Slang 1. Used as a disparaging term for a poor white person or poor white people. 2. Used as a disparaging term for a white person or white … Read more
“But more importantly, it comes out of the fact that, during this century, intellectualism failed, and everyone knows it. In places like Russia and Germany, the common people agreed to loosen their grip on traditional folkways, mores, and religion, and let the intellectuals run with the ball, and they screwed everything up and turned the … Read more
The story of the human race has been a gradual spread of specialization and exchange…. Prosperity consists of getting more and more narrow in what you make and more and more diverse in what you buy. Self-sufficiency – subsistence – is poverty. – Matt Ridley
Cars didn’t shape our existence; cars let us escape with our lives. We’re way the heck out here in Valley Bottom Heights and Trout Antler Estates because we were at war with the cities. We fought rotten public schools, idiot municipal bureaucracies, corrupt political machines, rampant criminality and the pointy-headed busybodies. Cars gave us our … Read more