Maggie's Farm

"Any organization not explicitly right-wing sooner or later becomes left-wing."

Robert Conquest, via  Z-man's The Church of Cuck

Arnold Kling on American politics:

 The dominant strategy of the outsiders is to focus on the negative, exposing and denouncing the failures, imperfections, and corruption of the insiders. On the left, this means heaping blame on the institutions of capitalism and free markets. On the right, this means heaping blame on the institutions of government. Neither side will propose, much less implement, an effective reform agenda.

Economists are vocal proponents of the simplistic scientific method.  If they can’t present their work as experimental, they strive to label it “quasi-experimental.”  But if you read an introductory economics text, virtually none of the content is based on experiments.  Instead, good economics texts are packed with truisms based on calm observation of humanity: incentives change behavior, trade is mutually beneficial, supply slopes up, demand slopes down, excess supply leads to surpluses, excess demand leads to shortages, externalities lead to inefficiency.  These lessons are as undeniable as “the heart pumps blood” and “the stomach digests food.”  But they’re nevertheless supremely insightful and useful.  Designing social institutions without considering incentives is as absurd trying to stuff food down people’s lungs.

Brian Caplan, via Cafe Hayek 

My ideal citizen is the self-employed, homeschooling, IRA-owning guy with a concealed-carry permit. Because that person doesn't need the goddamn government for anything.

Grover Norquist

By far the most difficult skill I learned as CEO was the ability to manage my own psychology.

Ben Horowitz, via Marginal Rev

I like to learn but I do not want to be taught.

Winston Churchill 

Now (Max) Weber was a very learned and intelligent scholar.  After all, he gave us the true definition of government, namely, a monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force within a given territory.  It is a definition as full and accurate as it is sadistically useful for torturing our mild social democratic friends in Sweden or Massachusetts, who like to believe that the government is a festival of kindly collectivism, sort of like a loving family.

- Deirdre McCloskey, via Cafe Hayek

Following the Faust-type legend that has been repeated in many forms over the millennia, government entails doing something bad to achieve what the actor regards as a greater good.  In the liberal political setting, government entails the use of an instrument of evil, the imposition of force over people, in the hope or presumption that damage done by the force will fall short of the good that is done.

Economist Robert Wagner 

Pressure is a privilege.

- Billy Jean King 

However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.

Sir Winston Churchill