Quips and Quotations

"Nor is the question before us whether the market is a force for good or ill. It's power to generate wealth and expand freedom is unmatched, but this crises has reminded us that without a watchful eye, the market can spin out of control--and a nation cannot prosper long when it only favors the prosperous. The success of our economy has always depended not just on the size of our gross national product, but on the reach of our prosperity; on our ability to extend opportunity to every willing heart--not out of charity, but because that is the surest route to our common good.

"As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals. Our founding fathers...our found fathers, faced with perils we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, a charter expanded by the blood of generations. Those ideas still light the world, and we will not give them up for expediency's sake. And so to all other peoples and governments who are watching today, from the grandest capitals to the small village where my father was born: know that America is a friend of each nation and every man, woman, and child who seeks a future of peace and dignity, and that we are ready to lead once more.

"Recall that earlier generations faced down fascism and communism not just with missiles and tanks, but with sturdy alliances and enduring convictions. They understood that our power alone cannot protect us, not does it entitle us to do as we please. Instead, they knew our power grows through its prudent use; our security emanates from the justness of our cause, the force of our example, the tempering qualities of humility and restraint."

--President Barack Obama, inaugural address.

(Don't mistake this for a wholesale endorsement of Obama's speech. Much of it made me either yawn, sigh, or roll my eyes...but I did like this part--KJ)