It is capitalist America that produced the modern independent woman. Never in history have women had more freedom of choice in regard to dress, behaviour, career, and sexual orientation
– Camille Paglia
|
|||||
|
Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under. – HL Mencken, US journalist. I would love to have seen him write about the likes of Bush, Blair and Gordon Brown. September 21st, 2007 | 10 comments - (Comments are closed)
 I say thank God for government waste. If government is doing bad things, it’s only the waste that prevents the harm from being greater – Milton Friedman September 15th, 2007 | 10 comments - (Comments are closed)
“I would never, ever use violence against one of my own children. I usually find that waving the gun around works.” (A line I remember – I think accurately – from the glorious Lock N’ Load CD by Denis Leary). September 14th, 2007 | 5 comments - (Comments are closed)
Andrew Keen: Are you comparing the Instapundit, the idiotic crazy libertarian ex-law professor, to Polly Toynbee and Robert Fisk? They are my heroes! Adriana Lukas: No, I am not comparing Instapundit to Polly Toynbee or Robert Fisk. That would be unfair to Instapundit. – Adriana Lukas, speaking at a debate at the Front Line Club. September 6th, 2007 | 23 comments - (Comments are closed)
In the next few days Pope Benedict plans to issue his second encyclical – the most authoritative statement a pope can issue – which apparently will focus on social and economic inequity in a globalized economy. In the statement, he is expected to denounce the use of tax havens as socially-unjust and immoral in cheating the greater well-being of society. According to the Times (UK) newspaper, the statement may have been inspired by a recent request to the Vatican by Romano Prodi, the Italian prime minister, who urged church leaders to speak out on tax evasion. – The delightful Corporate Accountability and Workplace website. Quite right, too. What higher moral authority could there possibly be than a Prime Minister of Italy? September 3rd, 2007 | 46 comments - (Comments are closed)
I believe taxes – of all kinds – should be kept as low as possible and that the pressure to get them down should be relentless… Taxes on income are taxes on effort, work and entrepreneurship. Taxes on capital are taxes on investment and risk taking. But it is effort, work, entrepreneurship, investment and risk taking that we need to continue to grow our economic base. – Charlie McCreevy, European Commissioner. September 2nd, 2007 | 10 comments - (Comments are closed)
The reason welfare is bad is not because it costs too much, nor because it “undermines the work ethic,” but because it is intrinsically at odds with the way human beings come to live satisfying lives. – Charles Murray, US author. (I greatly enjoyed his recent volume, Human Accomplishment) August 29th, 2007 | 44 comments - (Comments are closed)
The entire point of having a legal system, rather than vendetta, is to make justice depend on public principle, not on private feelings. Those feelings ought not to influence legal decisions at all. At present, victims and their families are urged to express strong emotions about verdicts and sentences in a way that encourages them to cultivate vindictive malice, since forgiveness is (rather strangely) much less popular. This habit is deeply injurious to them personally, as well as to the legal system, and it ought surely never to be allowed to influence the courts. – Mary Midgley August 25th, 2007 | 39 comments - (Comments are closed)
Go on, have a rich dessert…before Labour makes it illegal. – Michael Jennings, Samizdata contributor and epicure, at dinner earlier this week August 21st, 2007 | 3 comments - (Comments are closed)
I have little interest in streamlining government or in making it more efficient, for I mean to reduce its size. I do not undertake to promote welfare, for I propose to extend freedom. My aim is not to pass laws, but to repeal them. It is not to inaugurate new programs, but to cancel old ones that do violence to the Constitution or that have failed their purpose, or that impose on the people an unwarranted financial burden. I will not attempt to discover whether legislation is ‘needed” before I have first determined whether it is constitutionally permissible. And if I should later be attacked for neglecting my constituents ‘interests’, I shall reply that I was informed that their main interest is liberty and that in that cause I am doing the very best I can. – Barry Goldwater, the greatest president America never had. August 18th, 2007 | 38 comments - (Comments are closed)
Tabloids don’t sell movies or help anyone’s career. If that were true, every Lindsay Lohan movie would open to 80 million dollars. – Cameron Diaz, putting the much vaunted ‘power of the media’ into perspective. August 16th, 2007 | 25 comments - (Comments are closed)
|
   |
||||
All content on this website (including text, photographs, audio files, and any other original works), unless otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons License. |
|||||