“The state — or, to make matters more concrete, the government — consists of a gang of men exactly like you and me. They have, taking one with another, no special talent for the business of government; they have only a talent for getting and holding office. Their principal device to that end is to search out groups who pant and pine for something they can’t get, and to promise to give it to them. Nine times out of ten that promise is worth nothing. The tenth time it is made good by looting ‘A’ to satisfy ‘B’. In other words, government is a broker in pillage, and every election is a sort of advanced auction on stolen goods.”

― H.L. Mencken

Birthdays:

1848  Paul Gauguin, French Post-Impressionist artist.

1867 Luigi Maurizio Tedeschi, Italian composer. Elegia Op. 22 for Harp and Violin in A minor

MISCELLANY:

FOCUSED PROTECTION: The Great Barrington Declaration

SCIENCE, ETHICS, AND THE NUREMBERG CODE: Declaration of Canadian Physicians for Science and Truth

RELATED: Collateral Global