"The creator's concern is the conquest of nature. The parasite's concern is the conquest of men."

Obama Versus Bush (and Everyone Else) on Debt Spending

Blog of Note

John Stossel now blogs, and he is very very good at it.

"The life we've led since 1945 in the Western world is very rare in human history. ..."

Our children are unlikely to enjoy anything so placid and may well spend their adult years in an ugly and savage world unless we decide that who and what we are is worth defending.

Mark Steyn, America Alone: The End of the World As We Know It

Tyranny and Folly

Bonhoeffer:

Folly is a more dangerous enemy to the good than evil. One can protest against evil; it can be unmasked and, if need be, prevented by force. Evil always carries the seeds of its own destruction, as it makes people, at the least, uncomfortable. Against folly we have no defence. Neither protests nor force can touch it; reasoning is no use; facts that contradict personal prejudices can simply be disbelieved — indeed, the fool can counter by criticizing them, and if they are undeniable, they can just be pushed aside as trivial exceptions. So the fool, as distinct from the scoundrel, is completely self-satisfied;...

Lewis:

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may 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. They may be more likely to go to Heaven yet at the same time likelier to make a Hell of earth. Their very kindness stings with intolerable insult. To be ‘cured’ against one’s will and cured of states which we may not regard as disease is to be put on a level of those who have not yet reached the age of reason or those who never will; to be classed with infants, imbeciles, and domestic animals.

Can anyone doubt that the tyranny of the busybody is a tyranny born of folly?

Going for a Run...

... about 20 years ago.