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(Always adding more) fundamental ills of society. If we're looking for the source of our troubles, we shouldn't test people for drugs, we should test them for stupidity, ignorance, greed and love of power." -- P.J. O'Rourke "Show me a young conservative and I'll show you a man without a heart. Show me an old liberal and I'll show you a man without a brain." He who dares not offend cannot be honest: Thomas Paine Our problem is that numbers of people all over the world have obeyed the dictates of the leaders of their government and have gone to war, and millions have been killed because of this obedience. . . Our problem is that people are obedient all over the world in the face of poverty and starvation and stupidity, and war, and cruelty": Howard Zinn ================================================ Athenians finally wanted not to give to society but for society to give to them, when the freedom they wished for was freedom from responsibility, then Athens ceased to be free."- Edward Gibbon (1737-1794)Source: Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, 1909 government program. government and I'm here to help. before voting no. doesnt have to take the civil service examination. phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it. one end and no sense of responsibility at the other. And suppose you were a member of Congress.... But then I repeat myself. -Mark Twain I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle. -Winston Churchill A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul. -.George Bernard Shaw A liberal is someone who feels a great debt to his fellow man ....which debt he proposes to pay off with your money. -G Gordon Liddy Democracy must be something more than two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner. -James Bovard, Civil Libertarian (1994) Foreign aid might be defined as a transfer of money from poor people in rich countries to rich people in poor countries. -Douglas Casey, Classmate of Bill Clinton at Georgetown University Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys. -P.J. O'Rourke, Civil Libertarian Government is the great fiction, through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else. -Frederic Bastiat, French Economist (1801-1850) Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it. -Ronald Reagan (1986) I don't make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts. -Will Rogers If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it's free! -P.J. O'Rourke In general, the art of government consists of taking as much money as possible from one party of the citizens to give to the other. -Voltaire (1764) Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn't mean politics won't take an interest in you! -Pericles (430 B.C.) No man's life, liberty, or property is safe while the legislature is in session. -Mark Twain (1866) Talk is cheap...except when Congress does it. -Unknown The government is like a baby's alimentary canal, with a happy appetite at one end and no responsibility at the other. -Ronald Reagan The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of the blessings. The inherent blessing of socialism is the equal sharing of misery. -Winston Churchill The only difference between a tax man and a taxidermist is that the taxidermist leaves the skin. -Mark Twain The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools. -Herbert Spencer, English Philosopher (1820-1903) There is no distinctly Native American criminal class...save Congress. -Mark Twain What this country needs are more unemployed politicians. -Edward Langley, Artist (1928 - 1995) A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have. -Thomas Jefferson Demanding that people who do not accept Muhammad's teachings should refrain from drawing him is not a request for respect but a demand for submission." -- Ayaan Hirsi Ali You pay peanuts you get monkeys ——– - Henry Kissinger, quoted in "Kiss the Boys Goodbye: How the United States Betrayed Its Own POW's in Vietnam " collapse through excessive consumption than it is to behave like a species that wishes to survive." MPR and more closely, the inner soul of the people, On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron." - H.L. Mencken unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public…Theodore Roosevelt. better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen. - Samuel Adams, speech at the Philadelphia State House, August 1, 1776. They'll have enough to eat, a bed and a roof over their heads." --President Dwight D. Eisenhower - Hermann Goering - William Blum, Killing Hope (1995) There is no appeal, and execution is carried out automatically and without pity." Robert A. Heinlein "TIme Enough For Love" than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsel or your arms. Crouch down and lick the hands of those who feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you. May posterity forget that ye were our countrymen." - Samuel Adams http://www.apfn.org There can be no such thing as a necessary evil. For if a thing is really necessary, it cannot be an evil. And if it is an evil, it is not necessary. ================================================ Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; Courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen. ================================================ Men have been wise in many different modes; but they have always laughed the same way. ( Samuel Johnson ) ================================================ We must laugh at man to avoid crying for him Napoleon Boneparte ================================================ Success is getting what you want; Happiness is wanting what you get. ( Dale Carnegie ) ================================================ Much can be analyzed of a man's character by noting what excites his laughter. ( Robert C. Savage ) ================================================ Children are unpredictable. You never know what inconsistency they're going to catch you in next. ( Robert C. Savage ) ================================================ Getting what they deserve doesn't satisfy many people. Dying is the last thing I ever intend to do. ================================================ The hands of those I meet are dumbly eloquent to me. I have met people so empty of joy that when I clasped their frosty fingertips it seemed as if I were shaking hands with a northeast storm. Others there are whose hands have sunbeams in them, so that their grasp warms my heart. It may be only the clinging touch of a child's hand, but there is as much potential sunshine in it for me as there is in a loving glance for others. ( Helen Keller ( pure in sight )) ================================================ Perhaps I know best why it is man alone who laughs: He suffers so deeply that he had to invent laughter. ( Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche ) ================================================ Several have defined man as "an animal that laughs." They might equally well have defined him as an animal that is laughed at. ( Henri Bergson ) ================================================ A sign of greatness is to be able to laugh at yourself with others -- and enjoy it as much as they do. Great minds ... discuss ideas. Average minds ... discuss events. Small minds ... discuss people. ================================================ The most certain sign of wisdom is a continual cheerfulness; her state is like that of thins in the regions above the moon, always clear and serene. ( Michel de Montaigne ( 1580 )) ================================================ All men have happiness as their object: there is no exception. However different the means they employ, they all aim at the same end. ( Blaise Pascal ) ================================================ A man doesn't know what true happiness is until he gets married. Then it's too late. ( Milton Berle ) ================================================ If we could forget our troubles as easily as we forget our blessings, how different things would be ..... ..... Laughter is heard farther than weeping. ================================================ Money can't buy you happiness. I just helps you look for it in more places. ( Milton Berle ) ================================================ Democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner. Liberty is two wolves attempting to have a sheep for dinner and finding a well-informed, well-armed sheep. ================================================ Edmund Burke said: "The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing." ================================================ seeing is opening up the question again. Knowing what is going on is the end goal. Believing is simply the lack of thought. Tom Ivers ================================================ Since EveryThing in Life is but an Experience, Perfect in BEing What-It-Is, having nothing to do with Right or Wrong, Good or Bad, Acceptance or Rejection; I might as well burst out Laughing!!! ---Long Chen Pa---- ================================================ He who knows not, And knows not that he knows not, Is a fool - shun him. He who knows not, And knows that he knows not, Is a child - teach him. He who knows, And knows not that he knows, Is asleep - wake him. He who knows, And knows that he knows, Is wise - follow him. ================================================ If I like it, it's mine. If it's in my hand, it's mine. If I can take it from you, it's mine. If I had it a little while ago, it's mine. If it's mine, it must never appear to be yours in any way. If I'm doing or building something, all the pieces are mine. If it looks just like mine, it is mine. If I saw it first, it's mine. ================================================ "If every person has the right to defend - even by force - his person, his liberty, and his property, then it follows that a group of men have the right to organize and support a common force to protect these rights constantly." THE LAW, by Frederic Bastiat, Paris, 1850 ================================================ A university creative writing class was asked to write a concise essay containing these four elements: - religion - royalty - sex - mystery The prize-winning essay read: "My God," said the Queen. "I'm pregnant. I wonder who did it?" ================================================ "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." -Benjamin Franklin ================================================ "The history of liberty is a history of the limitations of governmental power, not the increase of it." - Woodrow Wilson ================================================ Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it. - George Bernard Shaw ================================================ "Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power." Abraham Lincoln "Our government has no character." ================================================ As for believing what I write--I don't believe anything. I either know it, or I'm still thinking about it. Tom Ivers ================================================ "Goldwynisms" as: "An oral contract isn't worth the paper it's written on." "Anyone who goes to a psychiatrist ought to have his head examined." "I had a great idea this morning, but I didn't like it." "Gentlemen, include me out." "A hospital is no place to be sick." "If I could drop dead right now, I'd be the happiest man alive." "I read part of it all the way through." "If I look confused it's because I'm thinking." "That's the trouble with directors. Always biting the hand that lays the golden egg." "Never make forecasts, especially about the future." And perhaps the best of them all: "I don't want yes men around me. I want everyone to tell the truth, even if it costs them their jobs." ================================================ "Do you have the right to free speech?" "Yes." "Do you own a gun?" "No." "Shut up." ================================================ "The most effective way of making people accept the validity of the values they are to serve is to persuade them that they are really the same as those which they...have always held, but which were not properly understood or recognized before. And the most efficient technique to this end is to use the old words but change their meaning. Few traits of totalitarian regimes are at the same time so confusing to the superficial observer and yet so characteristic of the whole intellectual climate as the complete perversion of language, the change of meaning of the words by which the ideals of the new regimes are expressed." -- F. A. Hayek ================================================ I have to agree with: Judge Learned Hand when he summed up the principal > of liberty: > > "I often wonder whether we do not rest our hopes too much upon > constitution, upon laws and courts. These are false hopes, believe me, > these are false hopes. Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when > it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can even do much to help > it. While it lies there it needs no constitution, no law, no court to save > it." Quoted from The Big Bluff, by Marvin Cooley =============================================== Truth is violated by falsehood but outraged by silence! ================================================ It's never too late by Charley Reese and find the right road to travel Commentary public-opinion poll or the Dow Jones industrial average is the food-court test. mall that has one, buying a cup of coffee or a Coke, and observing the faces of the people around you. anxiety or sadness, then you know, that regardless of what the experts or the statistical indices say, not all is right in Camelot. If Americans, of all people, cannot be happy in the midst of an opulent market while they eat, then something is seriously wrong. The last few times I checked the food court, the sea was definitely troubled. the spirit, and, like a lot of common sayings, that's true. The four main ideas of the 20th century that were offered in lieu of religious faith were materialism, skepticism, the cult of the will and subjectivism. All collapsed. empty. After one has gotten stuff, stored it, moved it, maintained it, insured it, one gets to the final stuff, a cemetery lot and headstone, where all the stuff has to be abandoned. I don't remember the declensions of nouns or the conjugation of verbs from my Latin classes, but I do remember what a Roman said about stuff. A man becomes a slave to his possessions. the myth of perpetual growth. Inevitably that led to the idea of disposable stuff, such as cheap furniture and appliances that one buys, uses for a while and then dumps in order to buy more. It has led to the drug culture. It's no wonder Americans consume drugs because the whole idea of health care in America is fundamentally created by the pharmaceutical industry. a headache? Take a pill. A muscle ache? Take a pill. Whatever, take a pill -- preferably one that the manufacturers have marked up 1,200 percent. As one observer once put it, if a doctor can't drug it or cut it, he doesn't know what in the heck to do. fertile country our ancestors were politically incorrect enough to take from the people who lived in it, blessed with wealth beyond the dream of ancient kings, nevertheless seem to be increasingly neurotic, grumpy, irritable and unhappy. wrong road, going ahead isn't progress. Progress is going back until you find the right road that takes you where you want to go. property-based capitalism built around self-sufficient farms and small towns and took the road toward giant industrialism and finance capitalism. We took another wrong turn away from a life grounded in faith toward a false utopia run by science. We took yet another wrong turn when we left the belief in mysteries for the belief in something even more preposterous -- reason. We got further lost when we abandoned a federal republic of sovereign states and chose instead the European model of the centralized state. pointy-heads say can't be done -- turn back the clock and retrace our steps. If we stay on the current path, we will end up in a hell of our own creation. Instead of a shining city on a hill, it will be a nightmarish Gotham run by Big Brother and his goon squads. with joy rather than with mockery and embarrassment. A good society values people more than stuff, honor more than fame, beauty more than luxury, morality more than wealth. |