Will Rogers on civilization and war

You can't say civilization don't advance, however, for in every war they kill you in a new way.

~ Will Rogers, New York Times, December 23, 1929

Robert Higgs on the American empire

How can a government that maintains more than 800 military facilities in more than 140 different foreign countries be anything other than an imperial power?

~ Robert Higgs, “CENTCOM’s Master Plan and U.S. Global Hegemony,” July 22, 2008

American Empire
1942

Pope John XXX III on unity, liberty and charity

In necessariis unitas, in dubiis libertas, in omnibus caritas. (Translated from the Latin as "unity in necessary things; liberty in doubtful things; charity in all things")

~ Pope John Paul XXIII in his encyclical Ad Petri Cathedram. The thought has been communicated by earlier theologians back to the 17th century and is is widely quoted in defence of theological and religious freedom.

Lew Rockwell on statism

The truth is that the state must hide not only its wars but all of its activities. It hides its inflation. It hides the effects of its taxation and its protectionism. It fears anyone who draws the cause-and-effect connection between its activities and their deleterious consequences for the rest of us. It is the most destructive force in our world. Because that truth is so momentous, the state does everything possible to hide the smallest drop of blood.

~ Llewellyn H. Rockwell Jr., “The Seen, the Unseen, and the HiddenCosts of Statism,” July 28, 2008

Ted Rall: Is John McCain a war hero?

Why is the McCain-as-war-hero myth so hard to unravel? By most accounts, John McCain demonstrated courage as a P.O.W., most notably by refusing his captors' offer of early release. But that doesn't make him a hero.

Hell, McCain isn't even a victim.

At a time when more than a fourth of all combat troops in Vietnam were forcibly drafted (the actual victims), McCain volunteered to drop napalm on "gooks" (his term, not mine). He could have waited to see if his number came up in the draft lottery. Like Bush, he could have used family connections to weasel out of it. Finally, he could have joined the 100,000 draft-eligible males--true heroes, to a man--who went to Canada rather than kill people in a war that was plainly wrong.

When McCain was shot down during his 23rd bombing sortie, he was happily shooting up a civilian neighborhood in the middle of a major city. Vietnamese locals beat him when they pulled him out of a local lake; yeah, that must have sucked. But I can't help think of what would have happened to Mohammed Atta had he somehow wound up alive on a lower Manhattan street on 9/11. How long would he have lasted?

Maybe he would have made it. I don't know. But I do know this: no one would ever have considered him a war hero.

~ Ted Rall, "War Zero," July 17, 2008

Thomas Donlan on the mortgage mess and political capitalism

Fannie and Freddie and the whole mortgage mess represent capitalism at its worst - the Invisible Hand in the taxpayer's pocket. First, it pays out bonuses and benefits to politically connected big shots. Then, it takes money from some citizens to redress the bad investments of others. It's the classic ‘mixed economy,’ in which rewards are private and risks are socialized.

~ Thomas Donlan, Barron's

Nouriel Roubini on the Treasury plan to bail out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac

The treasury bail-out plan (the mother of all moral hazard social bail-outs) is socialism for the rich, well-connected, and Wall Street. It is the continuation of a corrupt system where profits are privatized and losses are socialized.

~ Nouriel Roubini, RGE Moniter, July 2008