Evil Knows No Distance

State or local tyranny is no better than Federal tyranny. Local evil is just as evil as distant evil. - Lyle

It is just as important to vote on local issues as national ones.

Targeted

When giant bureaucracies set targets for others to reach, they intend not so much to procure improvement as to impose control. - Theodore Dalrymple

An they make themselves look compassionate while butting into other people's business.

There's A Rhino In The Room

If a rhinoceros were to enter this restaurant now, there is no denying he would have great power here. But I would be the first to rise and assure him that he had no authority whatever. - G. K. Chesterton

The IRS has the power because you give them the authority.

Lunch Menu

Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote! - Benjamin Franklin


Defend the rights of the lamb.

Lamb Power!

A democracy is two wolves and a small lamb voting on what to have for dinner. Freedom under a constitutional republic is a well armed lamb contesting the vote. - Benjamin Franklin


Think of this when the under-educated refer to our system as a democracy.

Caring For Your Own

What is common to many is least taken care of, for all men have greater regard for what is their own than what they possess in common with others. - Aristotle

..... Pretty good case against governmental ownership.

On The Dole

Corruption, like a cancer … eats faster and faster every hour. The revenue creates pensioners, and the pensioners urge for more revenue. The people grow less steady, spirited, and virtuous, the seekers more numerous and more corrupt, and every day increases the circles of their dependents and expectants, until virtue, integrity, public spirit, simplicity, and frugality become the objects of ridicule and scorn, and vanity, luxury, floppery, selfishness, meanness, and downright venality swallow up the whole of society. - John Adams

..... What was corruption in John's day is now public policy.

Celebrate Citizenship

America represents something universal in the human spirit. I received a letter not long ago from a man who said, 'You can go to Japan to live, but you cannot become Japanese. You can go to France to live and not become a Frenchman. You can go to live in Germany or Turkey, and you won't become a German or Turk.' But then he added, 'Anybody from any corner of the world can come to America to live and become an American.' - Ronald Reagan

..... Few events are celebrated as much as an individual gaining their citizenship.

Accomplishment?

We are not without accomplishments. We have managed to distribute poverty equally. - Nguyen Co Thach

..... Success is in the eye of the beholder.

Sounds Good

Much of the social history of the Western world over the past three decades has involved replacing what worked with what sounded good. In area after area - crime, education, housing, race relations - the situation has gotten worse after the bright new theories were put into operation. The amazing thing is that this history of failure and disaster has neither discouraged the social engineers nor discredited them. - Thomas Sowell

..... Only education can make what used to sound good, sound bad.

Decisions

There's always a difference! This is between 'bad' and 'worse'--which is much sharper than between 'good' and 'better.' - Robert Heinlein

Tireless Minorities

It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people's minds. - Samuel Adams


The vocal minority will always be a factor, no matter which side you are on.

Perfect Bureaucrats

The perfect bureaucrat everywhere is the man who manages to make no decisions and escape all responsibility. - Brooks Atkinson


Remember, public school teachers are essentially bureaucrats.

Tyrants

... the tyrant also has those who associate with him in a humble spirit, which is a work of flattery. Hence tyrants are always fond of bad men, because they love to be flattered, but no man who has the spirit of a freeman in him will lower himself by flattery; good men love others, or at any rate do not flatter them. Moreover, the bad are useful for bad purposes; 'nail knocks out nail,' as the proverb says. It is characteristic of a tyrant to dislike every one who has dignity or independence; he wants to be alone in his glory, but any one who claims a like dignity or asserts his independence encroaches upon his prerogative, and is hated by him as an enemy to his power. Another mark of a tyrant is that he likes foreigners better than citizens, and lives with them and invites them to his table; for the one are enemies, but the others enter into no rivalry with him.  - Aristotle


Use this to size up your country's leaders.

Perspective

We live in an age when pizza gets to your home before the police. - Jeff Marder

  If you want to resolve this problem just put pizza parlors in the public sector.

Liberty Contest

The contest, for ages, has been to rescue Liberty from the grasp of executive power. - Daniel Webster

  Only government can deny you liberty*. When he says "executive power" he's not talking about a corporate CEO.


*Individuals can deny you freedom, not liberty.

Generosity is Not Altruism

Being generous is inborn; being altruistic is a learned perversity. No resemblance... - Robert Heinlein

  People are naturally generous but are forced into altruism (slavery by a nicer name).

Hell's Fury

Hell hath no fury like a bureaucrat scorned. - Milton Friedman


  Bureaucracies have no separation of powers. They make the rules, they police the rules, and they "prosecute" the violators.

For Themselves

Men are not against you; they are merely for themselves. - Gene Fowler

Men, women, classmates, neighbors, politicians are all the same; out for themselves though their actions, on the surface, may look otherwise.

No There Shouldn't

Where you find the laws most numerous, there you will find the greatest injustice. - Arcesilaus

Remember that when you are tempted to say "There ought to be a law."