You don't know how much I wanted to put this in my header

But I can't bring myself to delete the great wisdom of the original Old Whig.
 
Responsibility, not to a superior, but to one's conscience, the awareness of a duty not exacted by compulsion, the necessity to decide which of the things one values are to be sacrificed to others, and to bear the consequences of one's own decision, are the very essence of any morals which deserve the name.
-- Friedrich A. Hayek, The Road to Serfdom [1944]
 
Thanks to The Future of Freedom Foundation.
 
I think that the first book of Hayek's that I got was The Fatal Conceit, and I had a hard time reading it, because I was accustomed to the straightforward writing of Ayn Rand.  I had to give up on it for a while and read The Road to Serfdom, which was damn direct.  Then I read The Constitution of Liberty, which I've done a sorry-assed job of reviewing for Amazon, before I got back to The Fatal Conceit; subtitled The Errors of Socialism.  My father-in-law, the DFLer, demanded to know what the errors of socialism were, and, to give him credit, he gave me time to answer (most people don't), and I said, "No man, taking thought, can add one cubit to the economy."  Of course, by that I mean that he can't if that is his intention...in the long run.  A man can certainly add to the economy by creating or improving a product or a service that makes life better for his fellow citizens.
 
I like to think that I improve life by fulfilling my clients' needs for tools with which to effectively defend themselves against attacks.  I should make that my mission statement.