Ever read any [Friedrich] Hayek? He's great. The Road To Serfdom is like... I'm not a big political-science reader, but I actually dog-eared my copy. I ended up going back through it and writing a prรฉcis, I was so impressed by this book. It's all about what happens when government tries to make everything right.
P. J. O'RourkeGetting down on all fours and imitating a rhinoceros stops babies from crying. (Put an empty cigarette pack on your nose for a horn and make loud "snort" noises.) I don't know why parents don't do this more often. Usually it makes the kid laugh. Sometimes it sends him into shock. Either way it quiets him down. If you're a parent, acting like a rhino has another advantage. Keep it up until the kid is a teenager and he definitely won't have his friends hanging around your house all the time.
P. J. O'RourkeIf you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it's free.
P. J. O'RourkeRepublicans are the party that says government doesn't work, and then they get elected and prove it.
P. J. O'RourkeSome women want the strong silent type, so they can tell him to shut up and rearrange the furniture.
P. J. O'RourkeWealth is, for most people, the only honest and likely path to liberty. With money comes power over the world. Men are freed from drudgery, women from exploitation. Businesses can be started, homes built, communities formed, religions practiced, educations pursued. But liberals aren't very interested in such real and material freedoms. They have a more innocent - not to say toddlerlike - idea of freedom. Liberals want the freedom to put anything into their mouths, to say bad words and to expose their private parts in art museums.
P. J. O'Rourke