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  ... the EU has said Greece has wasted funds on extravagant social welfare programs, raising mandatory minimum wages for all employees and allowing union workers to retire early on generous pensions that Europe can no longer subsidize. Many Greeks say they should not be forced to pay for a crisis they believe politicians have caused. Associated Press USA Today, Wednesday, June 29, 2011; p 6A
Postmodern politics: the characterization of others refusal to agree with your desire to eat them as irrational intransigent dogmatism. Fred Bartlett from this ROR Thread
No matter how mad the plan is—Fraternité, the ‘New Soviet Man,’ the Master Race, the Great Leap Forward, the Cultural Revolution, Building a New Society, ObamaCare—a mob will believe it.Ann Coulter Demonic
Is there a Constitutional right to self-defense?Judge Sonia Sotomayor http://www.askheritage.org/sotomayors-record-promises-judicial-activism-you-can-believe-in-2/
And, once upon a time we had a good group in place - from the founding fathers on through most of our history we had adequate people in place, until the Fabian Socialists got our schools all turned around and we came to find ourselves a dumbed down nation of entitlement whiners and elitist control freaks.Steve Wolfer http://rebirthofreason.com/Forum/GeneralForum/1715.shtml#11
Maybe they'll need a moat. Maybe they want alligators in the moat!President Barack Obama http://nation.foxnews.com/president-obama/2011/05/10/obama-republicans-want-moat-alligators-border
They want to give people like me [millionaires] a two hundred thousand dollar tax cut that's paid for by asking thirty three seniors to each pay six thousand dollars more in health costs. That's not right, and it's not going to happen as long as I'm President.President Barack Obama http://www.whatisworking.com/2011/04/obama-budget-they-want-to-give.html?amp&
Or they suggest that we can somehow close our entire deficit by eliminating things like foreign aid, even though foreign aid makes up about 1% of our entire budget. ... So here's the truth. Around two-thirds of our budget is spent on Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and national security. Programs like unemployment insurance, student loans, veterans' benefits, and tax credits for working families take up another 20%. What's left, after interest on the debt, is just 12 percent for everything else. That's 12 percent for all of our other national priorities like education and clean energy; medical research and transportation; food safety and keeping our air and water clean. ... Up until now, the cuts proposed by a lot of folks in Washington have focused almost exclusively on that 12%. But cuts to that 12% alone won't solve the problem.President Barack Obama http://www.whatisworking.com/2011/04/obama-lets-be-honest-about-whats.html
"The fourth step in our approach is to reduce spending in the tax code. In December, I agreed to extend the tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans because it was the only way I could prevent a tax hike on middle-class Americans. But we cannot afford $1 trillion worth of tax cuts for every millionaire and billionaire in our society. And I refuse to renew them again."Barack H. Obama
I said, 'You want to repeal health care? Go at it. We'll have that debate. You're not going to be able to do that by nickel-and-diming me in the budget. You think we're stupid?President Barack Obama http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_theticket/20110415/ts_yblog_theticket/obama-caught-on-audio-slamming-gop
The 'America' that I know is a generous one.President Barack Obama President's April 13, 2011 speech on fiscal policy at George Washington University
My finely honed political instincts tell me that almost nobody believes that they should be paying higher taxes.President Barack Obama President's April 13, 2011 speech on fiscal policy at George Washington University
"The fact is, close to five years after 9/11 and fifteen years after the breakup of the Soviet Union, the United States still lacks a coherent national security policy. Instead of guiding principles, we have what appear to be a series of ad hoc decisions, with dubious results. Why invade Iraq and not North Korea or Burma? Why intervene in Bosnia and not Darfur?...Are we committed to use force wherever there's a despotic regime that's terrorizing its people—and if so, how long do we stay to ensure democracy takes root?...Perhaps someone inside the White House has clear answers to these questions. But our allies—and for that matter our enemies—certainly don't know what the answers are. More important, neither do the American people. Without a well-articulated strategy that the public supports and the world understands, America will lack the legitimacy—and ultimately the power—it needs to make the world safer than it is today."Barack H. Obama Barack Obama, "The Audacity of Hope", page 302.
"It is my contention that limited government is a floating abstraction which has never been concretized by anyone; that a limited government must either initiate force or cease being a government; that the very concept of limited government is an unsuccessful attempt to integrate two mutually contradictory elements: statism and voluntarism. Hence, if this can be shown, epistemological clarity and moral consistency demands the rejection of the institution of government totally, resulting in free market anarchism, or a purely voluntary society ... Suppose that I were distraught with the service of a government in an Objectivist society. Suppose that I judged, being as rational as I possibly could, that I could secure the protection of my contracts and the retrieval of stolen goods at a cheaper price and with more efficiency. Suppose I either decide to set up an institution to attain these ends, or patronize one which a friend or a business colleague has established. Now, if he succeeds in setting up the agency, which provides all the services of the Objectivist government, and restricts his more efficient activities to the use of retaliation against aggressors, there are only two alternatives as far as the "government" is concerned: (a) It can use force or the threat of it against the new institution, in order to keep its monopoly status in the given territory, thus initiating the use of threat of physical force against one who has not himself initiated force. Obviously, then, if it should choose this alternative, it would have initiated force. Q.E.D. Or: (b) It can refrain from initiating force, and allow the new institution to carry on its activities without interference. If it did this, then the Objectivist "government" would become a truly marketplace institution, and not a "government" at all. There would be competing agencies of protection, defense and retaliation – in short, free market anarchism."Roy A. Childs, Jr. "Objectivism and The State: An Open Letter to Ayn Rand"
... the United States represents approximately 5% of the world's population but has created more new wealth than all the rest of the world combined.Ronald M. Mann The 5000 Year Leap; ISBN 10: 0-88080-148-4
"Mass democracy leads to control of government by its 'employees.' But wait ... there are many more voters than there are persons on the government payroll. How could it be possible for employees to dominate under such conditions? The welfare state emerged to answer exactly this quandry. Since there were not otherwise enough employees to create a working majority, increasing numbers of voters were effectively put on the payroll to receive transfer payments of all kinds. In effect, the recipients of transfer payments and subsidies became pseudogovernment employees who were able to dispense with the bother of reporting every day to work."James Dale Davidson "The Sovereign Individual", page 126
There's a lot of college students who all want to be Ayn Rand and soon they'll ... grow up and become conservatives. ... and in the end those college students and their buddies ... in the end will vote for the republican candidate, whoever he is, in November 2012.Charles Krauthammer http://rebirthofreason.com/Spirit/Videos/227.shtml
He [Obama] hasn't advocated the abolition of private property; only of individual control over it. A distinction in search of a difference.Fred Bartlett http://rebirthofreason.com/Forum/ArticleDiscussions/2247.shtml#5
It is time to leave behind the divisive battles of the past. It is time to move forward as one nation.President Barack Obama President's State of the Union Address; Jan. 2011
The lesson of history is that, in the long run, super-elites have two ways to survive: by suppressing dissent or by sharing their wealth. It is obvious which of these would be the better outcome for America, and the world. Let us hope the plutocrats aren’t already too isolated to recognize this. Because, in the end, there can never be a place like Galt’s Gulch.Chrystia Freeland http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2011/01/the-rise-of-the-new-global-elite/8343/#
The difference between capitalism and 'democratic socialism' is like the difference between choosing to patronize different restaurants based on their value to you; and that of voting-in a live-in cook who, for 4 years, literally force-feeds you foods he chooses at prices he dictates -- in complete and total disregard of your preference and even of your tolerance.Edward D. Thompson Ed Thompson
So, let me get this straight. You want me to violate his God-given civil rights in the name of some murky sense of the "greater good," is that right? ... [heads nod] ... Well, all right. I'm game.Annie Corlie [playing the part of Judge Laura Burch] 2009 movie: Law Abiding Citizen
There is one simple truth that many politicians, on both sides of the aisle do not seem to understand: You cannot be for jobs but against those who create them. Reread that sentence and let it sink in. You cannot give speeches about job creation and simultaneously vilify those who do the creating.Glenn Beck Broke, page 342
"'Sympathetic as I am to those who prefer a fight over compromise,' Obama explained, it would be the wrong thing to do.' 'Wrong thing,' as in 'impossible thing.' With Republicans coming, tax rates were going to stay the same or rise for everyone. 'Sympathetic,' as in 'I wish we could use reconciliation or some other procedural ruse to cram this tax hike through, but oh, yeah, we already did that to pass the most contentious domestic legislation in memory.'"David Harsanyi And This Is the Thanks Obama Gets?
"President: We should have pointed out not everyone goes through the new machines, and only a minority get patted down. SAR [Special Assistant for Reality]: Mr. President, if you'd told people, 'Hello, there's only 1 chance in 3 you'll be molested at the airport today' most people wouldn't think, 'Oh good, I like those odds.'"Peggy Noonan "The Special Assistant for Reality"
"President Obama took to urban radio to reassure his base and whine his case. He said he does not get enough credit for all he has done. He took a situation that was in trouble and in terrible disrepair two years ago and brought it back from the brink of destruction – referring, of course, to the Republican Party."Ron Hart OCregister.com, "Ron Hart: The Audacity of Nope Brings Hope"
"Not only is it highly unlikely, for paradox-of-voting reasons, that yours will be the crucial vote, but even if it is, it will have elected a candidate who is then highly unlikely to be the crucial vote on any proposal of interest, and who cannot even be relied upon to vote the right way if he is. So given the generally lower level of stakes, an election like this one is likely to be a happy hunting ground for protest votes ... I know that there are some souls in the grip of the model who probably would vote for a policy of exterminating X puppies over a policy of exterminating X+1, but it seems pretty clear that there is some point at which it becomes obvious that a morally and politically valid response is simply to declare that the fundamental basis of the implied contract has broken down, and that it’s a reasonable choice to simply refuse to participate further ... [if you don't] vote for the candidate you think is the best ... the expected value of your vote is very small indeed, and the costs of it are the psychological toll on your own morale, plus the opportunity cost of whatever else you might have done with the time."Daniel Davies CrookedTimber.org, "On Not Being Obliged to Vote Democrat"
If Latinos sit out the election instead of saying, 'We're gonna punish our enemies and we're gonna reward our friends who stand with us on issues that are important to us,' ...President Barack Obama http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39839069/ns/politics/?utm_source=web&utm_medium=twitter
We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution. Abraham Lincoln
I think I'm going to go all "Ayn Rand."Glenn Beck Glenn Beck (radio) Program; 10/20/ 2010
The left accuses the right of not really wanting to accomplish the altruistic goal, and so they question their motives. The right can't question the motives of the left, so they have to claim that they are well meaning but their approach has problems. And that is how most of the political debate goes. We're in a unique position of understanding that altruism is taken for granted by the left and the right, since we don't accept it ourselves. So we can understand why they talk past each other, and why the right will always seem heartless and the left will always seem brainless.Joseph Rowlands http://rebirthofreason.com/Forum/GeneralForum/1661.shtml#10
But the Objectivist view is that government shouldn't violate our rights. We're not interested in small government. We're interested in strictly limited government. We're not limiting it because we think someone could abuse it. We're limiting it because a government that initiates force is already bad. Illegitimate power is not something that can be abused. Its very use is wrong from the start, and abuse is just people's way of saying that it isn't being used the way they prefer.Joseph Rowlands http://rebirthofreason.com/Forum/GeneralForum/1661.shtml#3
I'm always suspicious of politics dividing people instead of bringing them together.President Barack Obama Albuquerque Community Meeting; http://tv.breitbart.com/obama-on-immigration-debate-im-always-suspicious-of-politics-dividing-people-instead-of-bringing-them-together/
"When your child is a little older, you can teach him about our tax system in a way that is easy to grasp. Offer him, say, $10 to mow the lawn. When he has mowed it and asks to be paid, withhold $5 and explain that this is income tax. Give $1 to his younger brother, and tell him that this is "fair." Also, explain that you need the other $4 yourself to cover the administrative costs of dividing the money. When he cries, tell him he is being "selfish" and "greedy." Later in life he will thank you."Joseph Sobran "Teach Your Children Well" at LewRockwell.com
Some conservative legal thinkers like Justice Scalia and Justice Thomas think that the Constitution means what it originally meant. That means we should understand the document by going into a kind of ‘Time Machine’ and capturing the public understanding of the public that ratified the document a century or more than a century ago.Cass Sunstein http://notalemming.wordpress.com/2010/09/26/cass-sunstein-most-conservatives-view-of-the-constitution-requires-a-time-machine/
I'd rather vote for a witch than a MarxistBill O'Reilly Spoken on the O'Reilly Factor TV show 9-20-2010
... the shared values that we all hold so dear. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, endowed with certain inalienable rights, life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That's what makes us unique. That's what makes us strong. The ability to recognize our common humanity.President Barack Obama http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kd7ZQZxDhjk
"I too am not holding my breath on 50.1%+ of the "representatives", effectively elected by a little as a single-digit percentage of the people residing in their district or state, voluntarily relinquishing their grasp on power and giving back to me the natural rights I own simply by existing. One can not expect slaveowners to voluntarily release their slaves from bondage -- and let's not kid ourselves, the slaveholder-slave relationship is literally and precisely the relationship that exists between virtually every elected official and their "constituents". That the slavery is not 100%, but perhaps 50% or so, does not change that fact in the slightest. So, the only recourse, other than meek acceptance of that servitude, is for us serfs to quietly revolt and refuse to cooperate with the state as much as possible without provoking their retaliatory use of their monopoly of force. They will not give us our freedom. We must seize it every day, in every way we can. We must either acquiesce to their illegitimate rule, or non-violently refuse to cooperate whenever and however we can."Jim Henshaw private email, Libertarian Party of Hawaii discussion group
Fathom the odd hypocrisy that Obama wants every citizen to prove they are insured, but they don't have to prove they are citizens.Ben Stein
"'How will we pay for the tax cut?' I laugh when I hear that question because it’s so obviously illogical. If the government were to cut taxes, say, by lowering rates or outright repeal, people would simply be free to hold on to money they otherwise would have sent to the IRS under threat of punishment. Allowing them to keep that money requires no expenditure ... In the most basic sense, a tax cut costs nothing. What people who ask that question really mean is: How will the revenue forgone be made up? Why do they care? Because they don’t want the government to have to cut spending. Tax cuts don’t cost money; government programs do. The demand that tax cuts be paid for rests on the claim that government distribution of other people’s resources – euphemistically called “spending” – is sacrosanct ... This is important because when we talk the language of paying for tax cuts we adopt an outlook to which statists implicitly (and sometimes explicitly) subscribe, namely, the view that all income belongs to the State and that any measure that lets us keep some is just another form of spending."Sheldon Richman " Paying for Tax Cuts? Whose money is it?", The Freeman Online
“There are times where you can afford to redecorate your house, and there are times where you need to focus on rebuilding the foundation.” President Barack Obama Barack Obama, February 2009
Charitably speaking, this means leading by persuasion and example, always going the last mile for peace, giving others (or, "the other") the benefit of the doubt and so on. The real-world benefits are supposed to flow naturally from there, but if they don't, so what? Doing right is its own reward. [break] Uncharitably speaking, this is what might be called the Paula Abdul theory of foreign policy, after the famously forgiving former judge on American Idol. Never mind that you can't sing, or that you're letting yourself be played for a sucker: What counts is that you feel good about yourself, presumably because you're doing something good. Another name for this kind of thinking is moral narcissism.Bret Stephens http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703369704575461283206035848.html
Tonight, we gather to affirm the greatness of our nation - not because of the height of our skyscrapers, or the power of our military, or the size of our economy. Our pride is based on a very simple premise, summed up in a declaration made over two hundred years ago.President Barack Obama http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/b/barack_obama_3.html
What I worry about would be that you essentially have two chambers, the House and the Senate, but you have simply, majoritarian, absolute power on either side. And that's just not what the founders intended.President Barack Obama http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/b/barack_obama_4.html
"The [Republican] party's Senate candidate in Nevada wants to privatize Medicare and Social Security ... I could go on, but you get the point. Democrats may be facing a tough fight this fall, but Republicans are giving them plenty of material to work with. The big political story of the year may turn out to be the consequences of the GOP's foray into extremism and wackiness." Eugene Robinson "With Friends Like These", RealClearPolitics.com
Nancy Pelosi keeps talking about how she was going to "drain the swamp." This is unfair to swamps.Daniel Henninger WSJ, 5 August: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703545604575407632023079038.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop
Elites may have more brilliance, but those who make decisions for society as a whole cannot possibly have as much experience as the millions of people whose decisions they pre-empt. Thomas Sowell http://www.theatlasphere.com/columns/100729-sowell-smart-sacrifice.php
"We are sort of a mongrel people ... I mean we're all kinds of mixed up. That's actually true of white people as well, but we just know more about it."Barack H. Obama The Hill.com
"Those who survived the San Francisco earthquake said, 'Thank God, I'm still alive.' But, of course, those who died, their lives will never be the same again."Barbara Boxer Brainyquote.com
... the long-running debate between big government and small government misses the point; it isn’t relevant to today’s challenges.President Barack Obama http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/07/13/president-obama-announces-a-new-omb-director-jacob-lew
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