"The arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and assistance to foreign hands should be curtailed, lest Rome fall."
Cicero, 55 B.C.
A society that puts equality ... ahead of freedom will end up with neither equality nor freedom ... [A] society that puts freedom first will, as a happy byproduct, end up with both greater freedom and greater equality.
- Milton Friedman
To my Democrat friends:
Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low-stress, non-addictive, gender-neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasion and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all. I also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2011, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make America great. Not to imply that America is necessarily greater than any other country nor the only America in the Western Hemisphere . Also, this wish is made without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith or sexual preference of the wishee.
To my Republican friends:
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
"There is now 8,719 news articles that talk about an 'estate tax cut'. The estate tax is going from 0% this year to 35% next year. And that's being portrayed as a cut because it could have been 55%.
If I were to gain 35 pounds but I could have gained 55 pounds, can I count it as a 20 pount loss? NO! It's not a cut. It is not a cut. It's a hike in the estate tax; it's a hike by 35%."
- Stu Burguiere, 12/13/2010