Fortuna Faveat... may fortune favor us

A standing military force, with an overgrown Executive will not long be safe companions to liberty. The means of defense against foreign danger, have been always the instruments of tyranny at home. Among the Romans it was a standing maxim to excite a war, whenever a revolt was apprehended. Throughout all Europe, the armies kept up under the pretext of defending, have enslaved the people.James Madison
Founding Father, Fourth President of the United States

Thanks, Justin!

An Administrative Review Board has reviewed the information about you that was talked about at the meeting on 02 December 2005 and the deciding official in the United States has made a decision about what will happen to you. You will be sent to the country of Afghanistan. Your departure will occur as soon as possible.The United States Government

As Roger Cohen puts it in his New York Times op-ed, “That’s it, the one and only record on paper of protracted U.S. incarceration [at Guantanamo Bay]: three sentences for four years of a young Afghan’s life, written in language Orwell would have recognized.”

I’ve been on line since yesterday morning…Unnamed Wal-Mart Shopper

This is what was uttered when a shopper was told to leave the store because a Wal-Mart seasonal employee was just trampled to death by a horde of 2,000 Black Friday shoppers (including the speaker) on Long Island. You know, I’m sure Sam Walton’s vision for America was the looming threat that any of his stores could turn into a crime scene immediately following a celebration of thanksgiving.

This is disgusting. We are literally willing to kill each other to save a few bucks at retail. We are just one step away from the Colosseum, people. Grab the reins!

…I do not want you to follow me or anyone else; if you are looking for a Moses to lead you out of this capitalist wilderness, you will stay right where you are. I would not lead you into the promised land if I could, because if I led you in, some one else would lead you out. You must use your heads as well as your hands, and get yourself out of your present condition.Eugene V. Debs
Union Leader, Presidential candidate (1900, ‘04, ‘08, ‘12, ‘20)

On the change in tone of the McCain campaign:

During that [second] debate, while he was wandering around the stage, you almost expected to hear him start muttering: “We wants it. We needs it. Must have the precious.”Gail Collins
New York Times Op-Ed Columnist

This may be old news, but I’m playing catch-up and wanted to make sure everyone can see it next to the truth:

Thankfully, the truth was revealed there in that report that showed that there was no unlawful nor unethical activity on my part.Sarah Palin
Governor of Alaska, GOP VP Candidate

So, that is what Palin said. Now, the truth about that report (and the report itself, if you are interested):

For the reasons explained in section IV of this report, I find that Governor Sarah Palin abused her power by violating Alaska Statute 39.52.110(a) of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act.Stephen Branchflower
Legal Consultant, Alaska Legislative Council

That’s right, folks. She was found to have been both in violation of the law and unethical. She lied to our faces. Full stop.

Water, water, every where,
And all the boards did shrink;
Water, water, every where,
Nor any drop to drink.Samuel Taylor Coleridge
from “Rime of the Ancient Mariner”

This crisis underlines the excesses and uncertainties of a casino capitalism that has only one logic — lining your pockets. It also shows the bankruptcy of ‘law of the jungle’ capitalism that no longer invests in companies and job creation, but instead makes money out of money in a totally uncontrolled way.Martin Schulz
German lawmaker; chairman of the Socialists, EU assembly

Watch money. Money is the barometer of a society’s virtue. When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion–when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing–when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors–when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don’t protect you against them, but protect them against you–when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice–you may know that your society is doomed.Ayn Rand
From Atlas Shrugged

Thanks, Justin!

America is Amerika, and throughout Washington a socialist rallying cry echoes: Politicians and lobbyists of the world unite! — unite to rescue Wall Street capitalists with a $700 billion taxpayer bailout.

Though socialism seems new in the U.S., it isn’t. Using public resources and government power to control the economy is as Amerikan as the Pentagon and the Patent Office. And the problem is not socialism itself, but our uniquely destructive version of it. Amerika’s is not the democratic socialism of many countries. Ours is kleptocratic socialism — the objective is theft.
…
Close a factory in socialist Denmark, and workers get immediate government help, along with their free health care.

Shutter one in Ohio, and workers get nothing, except politicians saying their jobs are never returning and national health care is “unaffordable.” But if investment banks teeter, those same politicians quickly find billions for bailouts.David Sirota