Milton Friedman

Columbus did not seek a new route to the Indies in response to a majority directive.

Concentrated power is not rendered harmless by the good intentions of those who create it.

Governments never learn. Only people learn.

History suggests that capitalism is a necessary condition for political freedom. Clearly it is not a sufficient condition.

I am favor of cutting taxes under any circumstances and for any excuse, for any reason, whenever it's possible.

Most of the harm that comes from drugs is because they are illegal.

If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in 5 years there'd be a shortage of sand.

Inflation is taxation without legislation.

Many people want the government to protect the consumer. A much more urgent problem is to protect the consumer from the government.

Most economic fallacies derive from the tendency to assume that there is a fixed pie, that one party can gain only at the expense of another.

Most of the energy of political work is devoted to correcting the effects of mismanagement of government.

Nothing is so permanent as a temporary government program.

One man's opportunism is another man's statesmanship.

Only government can take perfectly good paper, cover it with perfectly good ink and make the combination worthless.

The black market was a way of getting around government controls. It was a way of enabling the free market to work. It was a way of opening up, enabling people.

The government solution to a problem is usually as bad as the problem.

The Great Depression, like most other periods of severe unemployment, was produced by government mismanagement rather than by any inherent instability of the private economy.

The greatest advances of civilization, whether in architecture or painting, in science and literature, in industry or agriculture, have never come from centralized government.

The most important single central fact about a free market is that no exchange takes place unless both parties benefit..

The only way that has ever been discovered to have a lot of people cooperate together voluntarily is through the free market. And that's why it's so essential to preserving individual freedom.

The power to do good is also the power to do harm.

The problem of social organization is how to set up an arrangement under which greed will do the least harm, capitalism is that kind of a system.

There's no such thing as a free lunch.

Underlying most arguments against the free market is a lack of belief in freedom itself.

Universities exist to transmit knowledge and understanding of ideas and values to students not to provide entertainment for spectators or employment for athletes.

We have a system that increasingly taxes work and subsidizes nonwork.

Real Strength

Judges 15:14-15

As he (Sampson) approached Lehi, the Philistines came toward him shouting, and the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him, and the ropes that were on his arms became as flax that was burnt with fire, and the ropes dropped off his hands.

And he found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, and grabbed it, and slew a thousand men with it.

Full Size!

I drive a pickup truck and I don’t care about my carbon foot print, or how many natural resources it takes to make one. Just build it and people like me will come…. but I would like better gas mileage if it’s possible.

I drive a pickup because it is the only tool available for the job. There is no other vehicle that can tackle the demands that work and life bring to my doorstep. Sure, I could have several vehicles, one for moving people and groceries, one for hauling and towing, one for camping and fishing. Some of the small sport utilities, that so-called environmentalists despise, are close to the mark, but you can’t get much work out of them. They are just not big enough; life demands full size for me.

Most people can only afford one vehicle for all those tasks, and it remains and always has been a pickup truck. A large enough SUV or mid-size pickup can haul a small boat, a load of firewood, or all the ingredients for a football tailgate party. But only a full size can haul several atvs for the trail, or tow a 30 foot camper. And no, I am not interested in changing my lifestyle just to drive something that symbolically saves the planet while some how attracting all those bumper stickers.

The most environmentally friendly vehicle you can buy is anything “used.” A used pickup that gets 12 miles to the gallon is way more “green” than a new Prius. No energy went into building the truck; it was already built. Technically, that makes it 100 percent recycled. If you buy something with a big cab, you can car pool while towing the four atvs. Try doing that in a Volkswagen. Oops, well maybe now you can…

Electric vehicles? Those are a bad joke and they barely get out of their own way, much less haul a family of four to grandma’s house at Thanksgiving. And forget about carrying a cooler of food and the big turkey. At some point, all those batteries wear out and end up in a land fill, so the jury is still out on just how environmentally superior electric cars really are. By the way, electric power means coal or gas power.

Obviously, I am not alone in recognizing the value and near perfection of the full size pickup as a modern day horse and wagon. There is a reason that ½ ton trucks like the F-150 have been the best selling vehicles for over 30 years: they are what people NEED. If all you need is a 4 cylinder pavement pounder, then exercise your freedom and be happy. The rest of us will actually live life and move mountains… or at least get our hands dirty trying.