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.

Benjamin Franklin Quotes

One of the Founding Fathers of the United States of America, a noted polymath, a leading author and printer, satirist, political theorist, politician, scientist, inventor, civic activist, statesman, and diplomat. In his day, Ben Franklin knew no boundaries.

All mankind is divided into three classes: those that are immovable, those that are movable, and those that move.

Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both.

There was never a good war, or a bad peace.

Beer is living proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.

Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.

Rebellion against tyrants is obedience to God.

The Constitution only gives people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself.

To lengthen thy life, lessen thy meals.

Take time for all things: great haste makes great waste.

To succeed, jump as quickly at opportunities as you do at conclusions.

Work as if you were to live a hundred years. Pray as if you were to die tomorrow.

Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain and most fools do.

When you're finished changing, you're finished.

A countryman between two lawyers is like a fish between two cats.

A good conscience is a continual Christmas.

A slip of the foot you may soon recover, but a slip of the tongue you may never get over.

All would live long, but none would be old.

As we must account for every idle word, so must we account for every idle silence.

Anger is never without Reason, but seldom with a good One.

At 20 years of age the will reigns, at 30 the wit, at 40 the judgment.

Be civil to all; sociable to many; familiar with few; friend to one; enemy to none.

Be slow in choosing a friend, slower in changing.

Never confuse motion with action.

Beware of the young doctor and the old barber.

Content makes poor men rich; discontentment makes rich men poor.

Do not anticipate trouble, or worry about what may never happen.

Guests, like fish, begin to smell after three days.

Drive thy business or it will drive thee.

Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.

Energy and persistence conquer all things.

He that speaks much, is much mistaken.

You can bear your own faults, and why not a fault in your wife?

Genius without education is like silver in the mine.

In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.

Glass, china, and reputation are easily cracked, and never well mended.

God heals, and the doctor takes the fees.

He is ill clothed that is bare of virtue.

Honesty is the best policy.

He that can have patience can have what he will.

He that falls in love with himself will have no rivals.

He that is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else.

He that is of the opinion money will do everything may well be suspected of doing everything for money.

Keep your eyes wide open before marriage, half shut afterwards.

He that would live in peace and at ease, must not speak all he knows nor judge all he sees.

Some people die at 25 and aren't buried until 75.

An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.

A Citizen's Letter to the White House

I am unable to vouch for the authenticity of this letter and its author, but I can certainly get behind the sentiment expressed. Maybe by “change” Obama meant that he would enrage us to the point that we would remember our Constitution and throw out his regime. Let’s make sure that none of us vote for any incumbent senators or representatives in Washington who have voted for any of the bailouts. That’s change I can believe in.

Link to letter here

The White House

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW

Washington, DC20500

Mr. Obama:

I have had it with you and your administration, sir. Your conduct on your recent trip overseas has convinced me that you are not an adequate representative of the United States of America collectively or of me personally.

You are so obsessed with appeasing the Europeans and the Muslim world that you have abdicated the responsibilities of the President of the United States of America. You are responsible to the citizens of the United States. You are not responsible to the peoples of any other country on earth.

I personally resent that you go around the world apologizing for the United States telling Europeans that we are arrogant and do not care about their status in the world. Sir, what do you think the First World War and the Second World War were all about if not the consideration of the peoples of Europe? Are you brain dead? What do you think the Marshall Plan was all about? Do you not understand or know the history of the 20th century?

Where do you get off telling a Muslim country that the United States does not consider itself a Christian country? Have you not read the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution of the United States? This country was founded on Judeo-Christian ethics and the principles governing this country, at least until you came along, come directly from this heritage. Do you not understand this?

Your bowing to the king of Saudi Arabia is an affront to all Americans. Our President does not bow down to anyone, let alone the king of Saudi Arabia. You don't show Great Britain, our best and one of our oldest allies, the respect they deserve yet you bow down to the king of Saudi Arabia. How dare you, sir! How dare you!

You can't find the time to visit the graves of our greatest generation because you don't want to offend the Germans but make time to visit a mosque in Turkey. You offended our dead and every veteran when you give the Germans more respect than the people who saved the German people from themselves. What's the matter with you?

I am convinced that you and the members of your administration have the historical and intellectual depth of a mud puddle and should be ashamed of yourselves, all of you.

You are so self-righteously offended by the big bankers and the American automobile manufacturers yet do nothing about the real thieves in this situation, Mr. Dodd, Mr. Frank, Franklin Raines, Jamie Gorelick, the Fannie Mae bonuses, and the Freddie Mac bonuses. What do you intend to do about them? Anything? I seriously doubt it.

What about the U.S. House members passing out $9.1 million in bonuses to their staff members - on top of the $2.5 million in automatic pay raises that lawmakers gave themselves? I understand the average House aide got a 17% bonus. I took a 5% cut in my pay to save jobs with my employer. You haven't said anything about that. Who authorized that? I surely didn't!

Executives at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will be receiving $210 million in bonuses over an eighteen-month period; that's $45 million more than the AIG bonuses. In fact, Fannie and Freddie executives have already been awarded $51 million - not a bad take. Who authorized that and why haven't you expressed your outrage at this group who are largely responsible for the economic mess we have right now?

I resent that you take me and my fellow citizens as brain-dead and not caring about what you idiots do. We are watching what you are doing and we are getting increasingly fed up with all of you. I also want you to know that I personally find just about everything you do and say to be offensive to every one of my sensibilities. I promise you that I will work tirelessly to see that you do not get a chance to spend two terms destroying my beautiful country.

Sincerely,

Michael Bryant