This Week In Quotes: 11/22-11/28

In a 2012 presentation, Mr. Johnson, then still Penney’s CEO, said the company was selling fewer than one out of every 500 items at full price. Customers were receiving an average discount of 60%, up from 38% a decade earlier. The twist is they weren’t saving more. In fact, the average price paid by customers stayed about the same over that period. What changed was the initial price, which increased by 33%. — Suzanne Kapner

Real (inflation adjusted) median household income last year was $51,371, 4.44 percent lower than in 2009, the Census Bureau says. — Jack Kelly

I don’t think any serious person who pays attention to this situation has believed that Obama is going to defend Israel against the advent of Iranian nuclear weapons. — Ralph Peters

One of the best peace speeches I ever read was one delivered back in the 1930s – by Adolf Hitler! He knew that peace speeches would keep the Western democracies from matching his military buildup with their own, or attacking him to prevent his buildup from continuing. Peace speeches by Iran today serve the same purpose of buying time – until they can create a nuclear bomb. — Thomas Sowell

Because many of us make mistakes that can have bad consequences, some intellectuals believe that it is the role of government to intervene and make some of our decisions for us. From what galaxy government is going to hire creatures who do not make mistakes is a question they leave unanswered. — Thomas Sowell

“A society’s first line of defense is not the law but customs, traditions, and moral values,” wrote Professor Walter Williams a few years ago. “They include important thou-shalt-nots such as shalt not murder, shalt not steal, shalt not lie and cheat, but they also include all those courtesies one might call ladylike and gentlemanly conduct. Policemen and laws can never replace these restraints on personal conduct.” — Mark Steyn

A government that lies to its own citizens should command no respect. To accord them any is to make oneself complicit in their lies, which is unbecoming to a free people. — Mark Steyn

There’s no limiting principle in the principle they’re invoking, that is majorities should rule all the time. What this means is if in the spring of 2017 there’s a Republican president, which there could be, the Republicans still hold the House, and they have 51 Senators, they can repeal ObamaCare with 51 votes. And I’m not sure the people who did this today have thought this through. — George Will

Under natural law, we all have certain unalienable rights. The rights we possess we have authority to delegate. For example, we all have a right to defend ourselves against predators. Because we possess that right, we can delegate it to government, in effect saying, “We have the right to defend ourselves, but for a more orderly society, we delegate to you the authority to defend us.” By contrast, I don’t possess the right to take your earnings to give to another. Seeing as I have no such right, I cannot delegate it. The idea that one person should be forcibly used to serve the purposes of another has served as the foundation of mankind’s ugliest and most brutal regimes. Do we want that for America? — Walter Williams

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