Monday, January 8, 2007

Politics

A couple of my loyal readers (in other words, about three quarters of them) have written to ask why my political blogging has virtually stopped, and how I’m feeling about recent political events. I’ll answer with these words of wisdom…

Mark Twain: Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But then I repeat myself.

Winston Churchill: 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.

George Bernard Shaw: A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.

James Bovard: Democracy must be something more than two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner.

Douglas Casey: Foreign aid might be defined as a transfer of money from poor people in rich countries to rich people in poor countries.

P. J. O’Rourke: Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.

Frederic Bastiat: Government is the great fiction, through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else.

Ronald Reagan: 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.

Will Rogers: I don’t make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts.

P. J. O’Rourke: If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it’s free.

Voltaire: 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.

Pericles (in 430 B.C.!): Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn’t mean politics won’t take an interest in you.

Mark Twain: No man’s life, liberty, or property is safe while the legislature is in session.

Anonymous: Talk is cheap . .. except when Congress does it.

Winston Churchill: The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of the blessings. The inherent blessing of socialism is the equal sharing of misery.