Today, there are more people of Irish ancestry in the United States than in Ireland, more Jews than in Israel, more blacks than in most African count… - Thomas Sowell

Walter Williams figured out some years ago that the amount of money needed to move the poor out of poverty would be trivial compared to the amount of money that's spent on these damn programs that are supposed to help the poor but usually don't. But the poor are being used as human shields in the political battle. You put the poor up in front of you as you march across the battlefield and enemy troops won't fire, so you can expand your power, and raise taxes, and so forth.

The monumental tragedies of the 20th century — a world-wide Great Depression, two devastating World Wars, the Holocaust, famines killing millions in the Soviet Union and tens of millions in China — should leave us with a sobering sense of the threats to any society. But this generation's ignorance of history leaves them free to be frivolous — until the next catastrophe strikes, and catches them completely by surprise.

Freedom has cost too much blood and agony to be relinquished at the cheap price of rhetoric.