aren't these guys the same people who printed up The Continental?

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"In a society in which it is a moral offense to be different from your neighbor your only escape is to never let them find out."

-- Robert A. Heinlein

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As Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “The greatest homage one can pay to the truth is to tell it.”

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Next time you are about to turn away in disgust, remember:

"It is a fair summary of history to say that the safeguards of liberty have been forged in controversies involving not very nice people."

— Felix Frankfurter, United States v. Rabinowitz

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Democracy and Self-Determination:

"No country thinks of putting these principles into practice, but somehow they seem to be worth fighting for."

Francis Neilson, 1915 http://www.mises.org/store/How-Diplomats-Make-War-P461.aspx

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"Do not be desirous of having things done quickly. Do not look at small advantages. Desire to have things done quickly prevents their being done thoroughly. Looking at small advantages prevents great affairs from being accomplished" .

... Confucius

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The more one governs, the less one achieves the desired result.....The more restrictions and prohibitions there are in the world, the poorer the people will be......The more laws are promulgated, the more thieves and bandits there will be.

When taxes are too high, people will go hungry; When the government is too intrusive, people lose their spirit. Act for the people's benefit. Trust them, leave them alone.

Governing a large country is like frying a small fish; you spoil it with too much poking.

by Lao Tsu founder of Taoism 2500 years ago as quoted in For Good and Evil, The Impact of Taxes on the Course of Civilization by Charles Adams

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Societies can be junkies too. We used to speak about the German "collective insanity" when Hitler was at the helm and thought we understood the metaphor.

Karl


"The junkie's dilemma, whether we're talking about crystal meth, heroin or cheap credit, is that the spiral of addiction inevitably overwhelms any reasonable judgment about what constitutes a "cure." That is precisely why a junkie can never be relied upon to offer up an honest, sensible path to good health. No matter what treatment or plan is offered, the only goal is to get the supply to the beast... at all costs."

… Kevin Depew
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"Nothing so completely baffles one who is full of trick and duplicity himself, than straightforward and simple integrity in another."

... Charles Caleb Colton, author and clergyman (1780-1832)

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"Truth, like gold, is to be obtained not by its growth, but by washing away from it all that is not gold." … Leo Tolstoy
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"Greenspan was considered a master," "Now we must ask ourselves whether he is not, after [Osama] bin Laden, the man who hurt America the most. . . . It is clear that what is happening is a disease. It is not the failure of a bank, but the failure of a system. Until a few days ago, very few were willing to realize the intensity and the dramatic nature of the crisis."

… Giulio Tremonti, Italian Finance Minister

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"If a loose monetary policy and rapid asset price inflation were the route to economic prosperity, Argentina would be the richest country in the world by now."

Albert Edwards
Co-Head, Global Cross Asset Strategy
Societe Generale
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[At the turn of the last century Argentina and the US were about equal. Both were resource rich. Both were largely agrarian. Both had ethnically European populations, though some put forth the politically incorrect argument that the mix was significantly different.

Why did one prosper more than the other? Both followed socialist paths. The US called its socialism "progressive." Argentina went the Peronista route of overt fascism. Have the two paths converged? It begins to look that way.]

Karl