First, I want to say thank you to everyone who participated in my little giveaway. The quotes you all offered were wonderful reminders of the wit, intelligence, and common sense of conservative thought. I'm listing my all time favorite quote, a runner up, and five honorable mentions. So here we go.
The winner of the Stimulus T-Shirt goes to Retired Military for his suggested quote by CS Lewis:
Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.
The runner up is Brad's suggested quote by Ayn Rand:
America's abundance was created not by public sacrifices to the common good, but by the productive genius of free men who pursued their own personal interests and the making of their own private fortunes.
Honorable mentions:
AJ's suggested quote by Ronald Reagan:
Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.
Dennis Robbin's suggested quote by Eric Hoffer:
Unity and self-sacrifice, of themselves, even when fostered by the most noble means, produce a facility for hating. Even when men league themselves mightily together to promote tolerance and peace on earth, they are likely to be violently intolerant toward those not of a like mind.
Iwogisdead's suggested quote by Alexis de Toqueville:
The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money.
Drew Wagner's suggested quote by PJ O'Rourke (I laughed out loud when I read it):
The free market is ugly and stupid, like going to the mall; the unfree market is just as ugly and just as stupid, except there is nothing in the mall and if you don't go there they shoot you.
Arthur's suggested quote by Margaret Thatcher:
The trouble with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.
Thank you again to everyone for participating! I had a great time hosting this giveaway, and I hope you all had a great time reading and enjoying the wit, wisdom, intelligence, and common sense of some great conservative, free market, and liberty-loving thinkers.
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Comments (14)
Congrats to Retired Militar... (Below threshold)1. Posted by Tom Blogical | February 20, 2009 8:30 PM | Score: 1 (1 votes cast)
Congrats to Retired Military!
1. Posted by Tom Blogical | February 20, 2009 8:30 PM |
Score: 1 (1 votes cast)
Posted on February 20, 2009 20:30
2. Posted by GarandFan | February 20, 2009 9:19 PM | Score: 1 (1 votes cast)
Awwwwwww Batshit! Tom beat me to it!
2. Posted by GarandFan | February 20, 2009 9:19 PM |
Score: 1 (1 votes cast)
Posted on February 20, 2009 21:19
3. Posted by Steve Crickmore | February 20, 2009 10:02 PM | Score: -10 (10 votes cast)
I must admit the winning quotations were a strange amalgam of praise for robber barons, (you missed Ponzi schemes), cupidity, the virtue of self-interest and selfishness (Ayn Rand) all in defiance self-sacrifice abd disinterested regulation.
It seems Alan Greenspan, Rand's most famous devottee or disciple has recently recanted, after his collision with the reality of the market crash which his policies helped create.
The free market hit an eleven year low today and George Soros said
3. Posted by Steve Crickmore | February 20, 2009 10:02 PM |
Score: -10 (10 votes cast)
Posted on February 20, 2009 22:02
4. Posted by hpb | February 20, 2009 10:21 PM | Score: 1 (1 votes cast)
'Grats everybody, there were lots of good'uns.
4. Posted by hpb | February 20, 2009 10:21 PM |
Score: 1 (1 votes cast)
Posted on February 20, 2009 22:21
5. Posted by Jay Tea | February 20, 2009 10:31 PM | Score: 8 (8 votes cast)
"We witnessed the collapse of the financial system," Soros said at a Columbia University dinner. "It was placed on life support, and it's still on life support. There's no sign that we are anywhere near a bottom."
...and was overheard to mutter "I love it when a plan comes together."
Steve, you realize quoting Soros around here is red meat at its purest...
And I see over at Blue that you're trying to drum up reader participation -- a caption contest, Hooson almost begging for a debate over the 2nd Amendment. Too bad your resident sociopath has banned so many. Must be closing in on a hundred so far...
J.
5. Posted by Jay Tea | February 20, 2009 10:31 PM |
Score: 8 (8 votes cast)
Posted on February 20, 2009 22:31
6. Posted by retired military | February 20, 2009 10:39 PM | Score: 2 (2 votes cast)
Thank you all.
6. Posted by retired military | February 20, 2009 10:39 PM |
Score: 2 (2 votes cast)
Posted on February 20, 2009 22:39
7. Posted by Steve Crickmore | February 20, 2009 11:43 PM | Score: -5 (5 votes cast)
Nice to hear from you, Jay. I understand George Soros is not a disintersested observer but..i really feel that the markets are in desperate shape..Even some Republican senators are talking about nationalization which is more severe than Fabian socialism, the anathema to conservatives on this page. There is a lot of cognitive dissonance about what has happened recently. The free market quotes seem pretty obsolescent now, undermined by what has happened in the last year.
Yes I would like to see things opened up but I'm writing so little at wizbangblue.
7. Posted by Steve Crickmore | February 20, 2009 11:43 PM |
Score: -5 (5 votes cast)
Posted on February 20, 2009 23:43
8. Posted by GarandFan | February 21, 2009 12:50 AM | Score: 3 (3 votes cast)
'The free market quotes seem pretty obsolescent now, undermined by what has happened in the last year."
Yeah, just wait for the reaction to the socialist market. Obama's just beginning to hear about that.
8. Posted by GarandFan | February 21, 2009 12:50 AM |
Score: 3 (3 votes cast)
Posted on February 21, 2009 00:50
9. Posted by bryanD | February 21, 2009 2:15 AM | Score: -7 (7 votes cast)
Iwogisdead's Toqueville quote was the best among the finalists. It is prescient and justly famous.
The winning C.S.Lewis quote OTOH reads as if written in the throes of a night sweat brought on by wolfing down too many pickles at a fete in summer heat.
Ergo Lewis' attempt to divide Tyranny with the falchion of Conscience. Lewis comes out against Conscience. Solomon he's not. If only he'd left that out then I could follow...Wait! Lewis comes out against Good Intentions, too.
Scheisse! Hitler 2, Aunt Bea 0
P.S. If my symbolic teams seem too broadly drawn for Lewis' thesis, reread the adjectives and adverbs contained in Lewis' first two sentences. It's whack. Bend them word meanings, C.S.! Twist, twist!
(pickles, I say!)
"Steve, you realize quoting Soros around here is red meat at its purest..."-jt
Jay Tea, you DO realize that George W Bush and George Soros were in business together at Harken Energy back in the day. Soros bailed out Bush from underneath Spectrum (I think) and place him on the board of his own company.
This is Basic 101 stuff. Of course "Soros" mostly is found only in comments at Bushblogs, if at all. Because I think the average well-intentioned Bushblog editor/contributor, fresh-faced and bushy-tailed, doing his due diligence, following leads, eventually stumbles across it, the "family" shame, and "YIKES!!!" To the fruit cellar with Soros with all of the fruit!
9. Posted by bryanD | February 21, 2009 2:15 AM |
Score: -7 (7 votes cast)
Posted on February 21, 2009 02:15
10. Posted by Spike | February 21, 2009 8:28 AM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
bryanD - Your comment about CS Lewis perhaps writing in the "throes of a night sweat" is applicable to everything he wrote. Unbeknownst to many, mostly "evangelical" Christians, he loved the occult! As a member of the Inklings and an admirer of Madame Blavatsky's "The Secret Doctrine" his words are not meant to say what he means and mean.
10. Posted by Spike | February 21, 2009 8:28 AM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on February 21, 2009 08:28
11. Posted by Gmac | February 21, 2009 11:00 AM | Score: 1 (1 votes cast)
Congratulations Retired Military, that was indeed a good quote.
BTW, wasn't it Soros that was doing everything in his power over the last 7 or 8 years to devalue the dollar?
11. Posted by Gmac | February 21, 2009 11:00 AM |
Score: 1 (1 votes cast)
Posted on February 21, 2009 11:00
12. Posted by bryanD | February 21, 2009 1:58 PM | Score: -1 (1 votes cast)
Interesting. It seems obvious that Lewis only wished by his writings to modify the disparate spiritualist/natural law doctrines (back)toward ancient scholasticsm (fusion within a painted Christian shell). Thus the high hopes felt for a conversion of Lewis amongst Lewis's Roman Catholic friends their way, the Roman church being the sponsor of scholastic doctrines since Constantius II, never mind Aquinas, et al. Perhaps his "Inkling" friends played counterpoint; center-left to center-right, in the mushy middle were Lewis seems to reside.
C.S.Lewis' popularity today in *Christianist* (public square Christian) circles is owed (I think) to his *avowed* Christian sympathies being weighed against the OPEN iconoclasts in British literary circles of the day. I'm thinking HG Wells, Arthur Conan Doyle, etc. In comparison, Lewis was *one of us*. I imagine Lewis might have been thinking of the Fabian Society when he derided Good Intentions. If so, why the fey opacity? Small wonder his legacy is found in allegorical childrens' literature. I don't brook his reputation in that field, though, because I judge things on their own terms.
12. Posted by bryanD | February 21, 2009 1:58 PM |
Score: -1 (1 votes cast)
Posted on February 21, 2009 13:58
13. Posted by THIRDWAVEDAVE | February 21, 2009 4:50 PM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
The giveaway was fun and I hope you have another soon. Great job, Kim. Congrats to Retired Military!!
13. Posted by THIRDWAVEDAVE | February 21, 2009 4:50 PM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on February 21, 2009 16:50
14. Posted by CharlieDontSurf | February 21, 2009 4:56 PM | Score: 2 (2 votes cast)
Some people write to inform, like those free market quotes, others write to impress.
To suggest our current economic situation is the result of a free market is not just wrong, it is dangerous stupid wrong.
As for Soros, he was among the first to short the market after 9/11...all I need to know about him.
14. Posted by CharlieDontSurf | February 21, 2009 4:56 PM |
Score: 2 (2 votes cast)
Posted on February 21, 2009 16:56