Thought for Today

"Adam Smith [once] said, 'Mercy to the guilty is cruelty to the innocent.' That lesson seems to have been forgotten in America ... where so many people seem to have been far more concerned about whether we have been nice enough to the mass-murdering terrorists in our custody than those critics have ever been about the innocent people beheaded or blown up by the terrorists themselves. ... Those who are pushing for legal action against CIA agents may talk about 'upholding the law' but they are doing no such thing. Neither the Constitution of the United States nor the Geneva Convention gives rights to terrorists who operate outside the law. ... So many 'rights' have been conjured up out of thin air that many people seem unaware that rights and obligations derive from explicit laws, not from politically correct pieties. If you don't meet the terms of the Geneva Convention, then the Geneva Convention doesn't protect you. If you are not an American citizen, then the rights guaranteed to American citizens do not apply to you. That should be especially obvious if you are part of an international network bent on killing Americans. But bending over backward to be nice to our enemies is one of the many self-indulgences of those who engage in moral preening. But getting other people killed so that you can feel puffed up about yourself is profoundly immoral. So is betraying the country you took an oath to protect."

~~~~~ Thomas Sowell

Thought for Today

"Liberals never, ever drop a heinous idea; they just change the name. 'Abortion' becomes 'choice,' 'communist' becomes 'progressive,' 'communist dictatorship' becomes 'people's democratic republic' and 'Nikita Khrushchev' becomes 'Barack Obama.' It doesn't matter if liberals start calling national health care a 'chocolate chip puppy' or 'ice cream sunset' – if the government is subsidizing it, then the government calls the shots. And the moment the government gets its hands on the controls, it will be establishing death panels, forcing taxpayers to pay for abortions and illegal aliens, rationing care and then demanding yet more government control when partial government control creates a mess. Which happens to be exactly what liberals are doing right now."

~~~~~ Ann Coulter

Thought for Today

"Principle – particularly moral principle – can never be a weathervane, spinning around this way and that with the shifting winds of expediency. Moral principle is a compass forever fixed and forever true."

~~~~~ Edward Lyman

Thought for Today

"The entire edifice of moral relativism, a foundation of leftist ideology, is built on the notion of feelings deciding right and wrong. … The unprecedented support of liberals for radically redefining the basic institution of society, marriage and the family is another product of feelings – sympathy for homosexuals. Thinking through the effects of such a radical redefinition on society and its children is not a liberal concern. … For liberals, the entire worth of the human fetus is determined by the mother's feelings. If she feels the nascent human life she is carrying is worth nothing, it is worth nothing. If she feels it is infinitely precious, it is infinitely precious. … Far more conservative positions are based on 'What is right?' rather than on 'How do I feel?' That is why a religious woman who is pregnant but does not wish to be is far less likely to have an abortion than a secular woman in the same circumstances. Her values are higher than her feelings. And that, in a nutshell, is what our culture war is about – Judeo-Christian values versus liberal/leftist feelings."

~~~~~ Dennis Prager

Thought for Today

"It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies."

~~~~~ C.S. Lewis (1898-1963)

Thought for Today

"Of those men who have overturned the liberties of republics, the greatest number have begun their career by paying an obsequious court to the people; commencing demagogues, and ending tyrants."

~~~~~ Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 1

Thought for Today

"Barack Obama's escapes from his own past words, deeds and associations have been escapes worthy of Houdini. Like other magicians, Obama has chosen his distractions well. The insurance industry is currently his favorite distraction as scapegoats, after he has tried to demonize doctors without much success. ... Obama even gets away with saying things like having a system to 'keep insurance companies honest' -- and many people may not see the painful irony in politicians trying to keep other people honest."

~~~~~ Thomas Sowell

Thought for Today

"And what is a good citizen? Simply one who never says, does or thinks anything that is unusual. Schools are maintained in order to bring this uniformity up to the highest possible point. A school is a hopper into which children are heaved while they are still young and tender; therein they are pressed into certain standard shapes and covered from head to heels with official rubber-stamps."

~~~~~ H.L. Mencken (1880-1956)

Thought for Today

"You know, the one thing that I learned from this last election is that if you have a young, hip, likable, historic candidate, and you promote him through CBS, ABC, NBC, CNN, MSNBC and all the rest, not to mention stand-up and late night comedy, the entire music industry, university, high school and even elementary school teachers, just about every major movie and television star ... and run against the oldest candidate in the history of the Republic, despised by the base of his own party, a man unwilling to take the fight to the only fields in which he can win, and representing the incumbent party responsible for two unpopular wars, a two-term President with historic disapproval ratings, in the middle of the 'worst economy since the Depression...' Well, you put all of those forces in harness and you, sir, will attain 53% of the vote! Just think about that for a second. Think about how many things have to go perfectly for Liberals to eke out a bare majority. This leads me to think that their entire edifice doesn't need a whole lot of demolition to swing the tide. One or two planks ought to do nicely and then the rest of it will collapse under its own weight. One of those planks is marketing and packaging. The Obama example is a case of horrible content beautifully packaged. Conservatism, on the other hand, is a beautiful message horribly packaged, and if we ever hope to win again we'd better get in this game and right quick."

~~~~~ Bill Whittle

Thought for Today

"When it comes to civil liberties, liberals are often distrustful of government power. But, for reasons that baffle me, they are quite comfortable with Uncle Sam getting into the business of deciding, or providing 'guidance' on, which lives are more valuable than others. A government charged with extending life expectancy must meddle not just with our health care, but with what we eat, how we drive, how we live. A government determined to cut costs must meddle not just with how we live, but how we die. That sounds scary and un-American to me."

~~~~~ Jonah Goldberg

Thought for Today

"The election over, the warming glow of those armies of supporters gone, [Barack Obama's] capacity to tolerate criticism and dissent from his policies grows thinner apace. His lectures, explaining his health-care proposals, and why they'll be good for everybody, are clearly not going down well with his national audience. ... The president has a problem. For, despite a great election victory, Mr. Obama, it becomes ever clearer, knows little about Americans. He knows the crowds -- he is at home with those. He is a stranger to the country's heart and character. He seems unable to grasp what runs counter to its nature. That Americans don't take well, for instance, to bullying, especially of the moralizing kind, implicit in those speeches on health care for everybody. Neither do they wish to be taken where they don't know they want to go and being told it's good for them. Who would have believed that this politician celebrated, above all, for his eloquence and capacity to connect with voters would end up as president proving so profoundly tone deaf? A great many people is the answer -- the same who listened to those speeches of his during the campaign, searching for their meaning. It took this battle over health care to reveal the bloom coming off this rose, but that was coming."

~~~~~ Dorothy Rabinowitz

Thought for Today

"How did it happen? How did our national government grow from a servant with sharply limited powers into a master with virtually unlimited power? In part, we were swindled. There are occasions when we have elevated men and political parties to power that promised to restore limited government and then proceeded, after their election, to expand the activities of government. But let us be honest with ourselves. Broken promises are not the major causes of our trouble. Kept promises are. All too often we have put men in office who have suggested spending a little more on this, a little more on that, who have proposed a new welfare program, who have thought of another variety of 'security.' We have taken the bait, preferring to put off to another day the recapture of freedom and the restoration of our constitutional system."

~~~~~ Barry Goldwater (1909-1998)

The Barber and the Kid

A young boy enters a barber shop and the barber whispers to his customer, "This is the dumbest kid in the world. Watch while I prove it to you."

The barber puts a dollar bill in one hand and two quarters in the other, then calls the boy over and asks, "Which do you want, son?" The boy takes the quarters and leaves.

"What did I tell you?" said the barber. "That kid never learns!"

Later, when the customer leaves, he sees the same young boy coming out of the ice cream store. "Hey, son! May I ask you a question? Why did you take the quarters instead of the dollar bill?"

The boy licked his ice cream cone and replied, "Because the day I take the dollar, the game's over!"

Hat tip: Patriot Humor, a publication of the Patriot Post.

Thought for Today

"Any serious discussion of government-run medical care would have to look at other countries where there is government-run medical care. As someone who has done some research on this for my book 'Applied Economics,' I can tell you that the actual consequences of government-controlled medical care is not a pretty picture, however inspiring the rhetoric that accompanies it. Thirty thousand Canadians are passing up free medical care at home to go to some other country where they have to pay for it. People don't do that without a reason. But Canadians are better off than people in some other countries with government-controlled medical care, because they have the United States right next door, in case their medical problems get too serious to rely on their own system. But where are Americans to turn if we become like Canada? Where are we to go when we need better medical treatment than Washington bureaucrats will let us have? Mexico? The Caribbean?"

~~~~~ Thomas Sowell

Thought for Today

"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power."

~~~~~ Abraham Lincoln

Thought for Today

"'Eternal vigilance is the price of freedom.' We have heard that many times. What is also the price of freedom is the toleration of imperfections. If everything that is wrong with the world becomes a reason to turn more power over to some political savior, then freedom is going to erode away.... If you think government should 'do something' about anything that ticks you off, or anything you want and don't have, then you have made your choice between Utopia and freedom."

~~~~~ Thomas Sowell

Thought for Today

"After many a disappointment with someone, and especially after a disaster, we may be able to look back at numerous clues that should have warned us that the person we trusted did not deserve our trust. When that person is the President of the United States, the potential for disaster is virtually unlimited. Many people are rightly worried about what this administration's reckless spending will do to the economy in our time and to our children and grandchildren, to whom a staggering national debt will be passed on. But if the worst that Barack Obama does is ruin the economy, I will breathe a sigh of relief. He is heading this country toward disaster on many fronts.... This is a president on a mission to remake American society in every aspect, by whatever means are necessary and available. That requires taking all kinds of decisions out of the hands of ordinary Americans and transferring them to Washington elites -- and ultimately the number one elite, Barack Obama himself. Like so many before him who have ruined countries around the world, Obama has a greatly inflated idea of his own capabilities and the capabilities of what can be accomplished by rhetoric or even by political power."

~~~~~ Thomas Sowell

Thought for Today

"If, from the more wretched parts of the old world, we look at those which are in an advanced stage of improvement, we still find the greedy hand of government thrusting itself into every corner and crevice of industry, and grasping the spoil of the multitude. Invention is continually exercised, to furnish new pretenses for revenues and taxation. It watches prosperity as its prey and permits none to escape without tribute."

~~~~~ Thomas Paine, Rights of Man, 1791

Thought for Today

"There are just two rules of governance in a free society: Mind your own business. Keep your hands to yourself."

~~~~~ Ludwig von Mises

Thought for Today

"Those of us who want to see racism on its way out need to realize that others benefit greatly from crying racism. They benefit politically, financially, and socially. Barack Obama has been allied with such people for decades."

~~~~~ Thomas Sowell

Thought for Today

"Every doctor knows, as I did when I practiced years ago, how much unnecessary medical cost is incurred with an eye not on medicine but on the law. Tort reform would yield tens of billions in savings. Yet you cannot find it in the Democratic bills. And Obama breathed not a word about it in the full hour of his health-care news conference. Why? No mystery. The Democrats are parasitically dependent on huge donations from trial lawyers."

~~~~~ Charles Krauthammer

Thought for Today

"There is no vice so mean, so pitiful, so contemptible; and he who permits himself to tell a lie once, finds it much easier to do it a second and a third time, till at length it becomes habitual; he tells lies without attending to it, and truths without the world's believing him. This falsehood of the tongue leads to that of the heart, and in time depraves all its good disposition."

~~~~~ Thomas Jefferson

Thought for Today

"The statesman who should attempt to direct private people in what manner they ought to employ their capitals, would not only load himself with a most necessary attention, but assume an authority which could safely be trusted, not only to no single person, but to no council or senate whatever, and which would nowhere be so dangerous as in the hands of a man who had folly and presumption enough to fancy himself fit to exercise it."

~~~~~ Adam Smith (1723-1790)

Perhaps a man such as the one presently occupying the White House?

Thought for Today

"As was the case with Ronald Reagan, who was also dismissed as a less than serious type, Sarah Palin has a quality that appeals to a broad base of Americans who sense the country is headed in the wrong direction. She has that much in common with another charismatic figure on the American scene – Barack Obama – even if his political and cultural leanings are quite the opposite of hers. The moral of the story: Politics, like Sarah Palin herself, is just full of surprises."

~~~~~ Paul Greenberg

Thought for Today

"It is inaccurate to say I hate everything. I am strongly in favor of common sense, common honesty, and common decency. This makes me forever ineligible for public office."

~~~~~ H.L. Mencken

Thought for Today

"Ludwig Von Mises, that great economist, once noted: 'People must fight for something they want to achieve, not simply reject an evil.' Well, the conservative movement remains in the ascendancy because we have a bold, forward-looking agenda. No longer can it be said that conservatives are just anti-Communist. We are, and proudly so, but we are also the keepers of the flame of liberty. And as such, we believe that America should be a source of support, both moral and material, for all those on God's Earth who struggle for freedom. Our cause is their cause, whether it be in Nicaragua, Afghanistan, or Angola. When I came back from Iceland I said – and I meant it – American foreign policy is not simply focused on the prevention of war but the expansion of freedom. Modern conservatism is an active, not a reactive philosophy. It's not just in opposition to those vices that debase character and community, but affirms values that are at the heart of civilization."

~~~~~ Ronald Reagan

Thought for Today

"This is a wonderful, decent nation, brimming with millions of people who take people as they find them and do what is right because that is their character. Moreover, the United States is chock-a-block with institutions, customs, and most of all families that encourage and foster good character as an end in itself."

~~~~~~~ Jonah Goldberg

Thought for Today

"So why does President Obama so often get history wrong, so often call for utopian schemes he would hardly adopt for himself, and so often distort by misinformation and incomplete disclosure? Partly the culprit is administrative inexperience, partly historical ignorance. But mostly the disconnect comes because Barack Obama believes he is a philosopher-king, whose exalted ends more than justify his mendacious means."

~~~~~ Victor Davis Hanson

Thought for Today

"Politics and morality are inseparable. And as morality's foundation is religion, religion and politics are necessarily related. We need religion as a guide. We need it because we are imperfect, and our government needs the church, because only those humble enough to admit they're sinners can bring to democracy the tolerance it requires in order to survive."

~~~~~~~ Ronald Reagan

Thought for Today

"I've noticed that everyone who is for abortion has already been born."

~~~~~~~ Ronald Reagan

Thought for Today

"I doubt whether there are many Americans who think Congress has either the right or competency to choose where they live, what clothes they wear or what cars they drive. Yet many Americans stand ready to allow Congress to decide what doctors they go to and what treatments they receive. We forget that once we have government-sponsored health care, it can be used to justify almost any restraint on liberty."

~~~~~ Walter E. Williams