THINGS I WISH I HAD SAID

What is Libertarianism?

Libertarianism is the philosophy which says that you can run your life better than the government can, and you have the right to be left alone in order to do it. -- Anonymous

Other people are not your property. -- Roderick T. Long

A Libertarian Limerick

There once was a man from Nantucket,
Who wanted to sell me a bucket,
But he couldn't, because,
There were too many laws,
So he threw up his hands and said, "Vote Libertarian!" -- Anonymous

More Libertarian Poetry

Where Is True Liberty?

Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women. When it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can save it. -- Judge Learned Hand

The Constitution is ink on paper. It doesn't stop injustice. It doesn't enforce itself. And if the ideas expressed in it are not put into practice, what protection does it give anyone? None. Not a shred. -- Larken Rose

If Only I Could Be So Succinct:

If you're going to sin, sin against God, not the bureaucracy. God will forgive you but the bureaucracy won't. -- Admiral Hyman G. Rickover

Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun. -- Mao Tse-Tung

I would rather be governed by 2000 people selected at random from the Boston telephone directory, than by the 2000 faculty members at Harvard. -- William F. Buckley (Please forgive any Yale partisanship.)

Those people who are not governed by God will be ruled by tyrants. -- William Penn

Everything the government touches turns to crap. -- Ringo Starr

People riot for two reasons: fun and profit. -- Robert Novak

Beware, Americans, that they who cannot fight you out of your liberties, be not suffered to lie you out of them. -- New Jersey Gazette, July 4th, 1781

Putting uniforms and badges on criminals doesn't make them good. -- Amos Vaden

Most conservatives come to Washington knowing that it's a sewer. The trouble is, most of them wind up treating it like a hot tub. -- Stan Evans

This is supposed to be the land of free enterprise. It seems to be more and more, the land of the government do gooders doing no good! -- Kevin Zahrte

The welfare of humanity is always the alibi of tyrants. -- Albert Camus

Live free or die. -- New Hampshire license plate

Television is a drug with a plug. -- Bill Quain

Consensus means that lots of people say collectively what nobody believes individually. -- Abba Eban

If man will only realize that it is unmanly to obey laws that are unjust, no man's tyranny will enslave him. -- Mahatma Gandhi

There is no constitutional right to be protected by the state against being murdered by criminals or madmen. -- Bowers v. DeVito, 686 F.2d 616, at 618 (7th Cir. 1982)

Too many naked emperors, too little time. -- Cat Farmer

Life, liberty, and the pursuit of all who threaten them. -- U.S. Navy recruiting poster

If a politician promises to help you by hamstringing your neighbor, it's a pretty good bet he just told your neighbor the same thing about you! -- Dave Dawson

To commit our children to the care of irreligious people is to commit lambs to the superintendency of wolves. -- Timothy Dwight, President of Yale, 1795-1817

You can not reason a man out of a position he didn't reason himself into in the first place. -- Jonathan Swift

Internet search engines are the bathroom wall of society. -- Greg Duncan

If I can control a nation's money supply, I care not who makes its laws. -- Meyer Rothschild

Government cannot make you richer, but it sure can make you poorer. -- Chuck Bates

Two words you should know if you really want to be an honest journalist: Governments Lie. -- Howard Zinn

The truth must be said, even when saying it may cause a scandal. -- Jose Marti

Zero tolerance equals zero intelligence. -- Tom Gresham

Secular nations have one thing in common -- mass graves. And the reason is that they believe the government is the final arbiter of right and wrong and good and evil. -- Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore

The government that gives a lot, takes a lot. -- David Brownlow

A society of sheep must in time beget a government of wolves. -- Bertrand de Jouvenal

There should be a sign outside every institution of higher learning saying "Beware: what happens here could be harmful to your life, if you do what we teach you." -- Ron Puryear

There is not a dime's worth of difference between Republicans and Democrats. -- George Wallace

Remember, when Jesus came there were numerous political and religious parties in Israel. Which one of them did he join? -- Warren Baldwin

Freiheit stirbt in kleinen Teilen. (Freedom dies in little pieces.) -- German proverb

Because "we have to do something" is not a reason to do something stupid. -- Taxpayers Against Congestion (opposing the expansion of light rail in Denver)

If people behaved like governments, you'd call the cops. -- Kelvin Throop

It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our Banking and Monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a Revolution before tomorrow morning. -- Henry Ford

Of two evils choose neither. -- Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts. -- Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan

If we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all.  -- Noam Chomsky

War is the health of the state. -- Randolph Bourne

The more you read the more you realize you don't know anything except for what some guy knew in 1702. -- Dean Kosage

We simply cannot keep the country in readiness to fight an all-out war unless we are willing to turn our country into a garrison state and abandon all [its] ideals of freedom. -- Senator Robert A. Taft (R-Ohio)

Politics is a strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. -- Ambrose Bierce

Government programs are the only sign of eternal life on earth. -- Cal Thomas

When the president does it, that means it's not illegal. -- Richard Nixon

Three groups spend other people's money: children, thieves, politicians. All three need supervision. -- Congressman Dick Armey

If ten percent is good enough for Jesus, it ought to be enough for Uncle Sam. -- Ray Stevens

A man that would expect to train lobsters to fly in a year is called a lunatic; but a man that thinks men can be turned into angels by an election is a reformer and remains at large. -- Finley Peter Dunne

I think politics is more akin to baseball [than football]. Both teams use the same plate and have the same goals. The only difference is that they want to score while preventing the other team from scoring. -- Al Newberry

The draft is slavery. It is worse than slavery. Forcing a man or woman to work your fields is bad enough, forcing them to kill and die is another. -- Mary Starrett

I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. What I can do, I should do and, with the help of God, I will do! -- Nathan Hale

Freedom is strangely ephemeral. It is something like breathing; one only becomes acutely aware of its importance when one is choking. -- William E. Simon

Simple, clear purpose and principles give rise to complex, intelligent behavior. Complex rules and regulations give rise to simple, stupid behavior. -- Dee Hock, Founder and CEO Emeritus of Visa Corporation

A democratic government that respects no limits on its own power is a ticking time bomb, waiting to destroy the rights it was created to protect. -- James Bovard

Once the government becomes the supplier of people's needs, there is no limit to the needs that will be claimed as a basic right. -- Lawrence Auster

Every actual state is corrupt. Good men must not obey laws too well. -- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Government machinery has been described as a marvelous labor saving device which enables ten men to do the work of one. -- John Maynard Keynes

Okay, joke's over... Bring back the Constitution. -- Lisa Trainor

Americans used to roar like lions for liberty. Now they bleat like sheep for security. -- Norman Vincent Peale

Half of the modern drugs should be thrown out the window, except that the birds might eat them. -- Dr. Martin Henry Fischer

Washington needs adult supervision. -- Senator Barack Obama

There are no aims of education. The aim is education. If—and only if—you seek it…education will find you. -- Andrew Abbott

Truth must count. Innocence must matter. -- Richard Epstein

An unarmed people are subject to slavery at any time. -- Huey Newton

Anyone who believes America is winning the drug war must be high. -- Stephen Littau

The World Wide Web is the only thing I know of whose shortened form takes three times longer to say than its long form. – Douglas Adams

We know of no spectacle so ridiculous as the British public in one of its periodic fits of morality. -- Lord Thomas Macaulay

The world is not the way they tell you it is. -- Adam Smith

The news and truth are not the same thing. -- Walter Lippmann

People do not like to think. If one thinks, one must reach conclusions. Conclusions are not always pleasant. -- Helen Keller

Fifty men have run America and that's a high figure. -- Joseph Kennedy, Sr.

The enormous gap between what US leaders do in the world and what Americans think their leaders are doing is one of the great propaganda accomplishments of the dominant political mythology. -- Michael Parenti

The world is governed by very different personages to what is imagined by those who are not themselves behind the scenes. -- Benjamin Disraeli

Whoever controls the media, controls the (people's) minds. -- Jim Morrison of the Doors

As Americans we must always remember that we all have a common enemy, an enemy that is dangerous, powerful and relentless. I refer, of course, to the federal government. -- Dave Barry

We federalize everything that walks, talks or moves. -- Senator Joseph Biden

I think the internet is probably going to save this country ... it (and not Sam Colt's revolver) is the Great Equalizer -- one of the most important inventions in history. -- Kevin Tuma

When fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross. -- Sinclair Lewis

Power is the ability to force compliance with one’s demands; authority is the ability to command voluntary obedience. -- Hannah Arendt

Most Christians would not recognize the harlot of Babylon if she gave them a lap dance. -- James Lloyd

A democracy is a volcano which conceals the fiery materials of its own destruction. These will produce an eruption and carry desolation in their way. -- Fisher Ames

Did you kill these people as an act of self-defense? Were they threatening your life or your family? Were they on your shores, about to enslave you? -- Leonard Read

Whoever would overthrow the Liberty of a Nation, must begin by subduing Freedom of Speech... Without Freedom of Thought, there can be no such Thing as Wisdom; and no such Thing as publick Liberty, without Freedom of Speech... -- Cato

Lying is done with words and also with silence. -- Adrienne Rich

Foreign aid might be defined as a transfer of money from poor people in rich countries to rich people in poor countries. -- Douglas Casey

If you don't trust gold, do you trust the logic of taking a pine tree, worth $4,000-$5,000, cutting it up, turning it into pulp, putting some ink on it and then calling it one billion dollars? -- Kenneth J. Gerbino

When evil men make bad laws, righteous men disobey them. -- Pastor Butch Paugh

God blessed America, and look what we did with it. -- Donna Marsh O'Connor, whose daughter was killed on 9/11 and who does not at all buy the official lies

Can anything be stupider than that a man has the right to kill me because he lives on the other side of a river and his ruler has a quarrel with mine, though I have not quarreled with him? -- Blaise Pascal

Torture is no more about learning the truth than rape is about sex. -- Michael Winship

America is like a healthy body and its resistance is threefold: its patriotism, its morality, and its spiritual life. If we can undermine these three areas, America will collapse from within. -- Josef Stalin

You couldn’t get a clue during the clue mating season in a field full of horny clues if you smeared your body with clue musk and did the clue mating dance. -- Edward Flaherty

If every life is a biography, what will yours reflect? -- Devvy Kidd

What is one to do when, in order to rule men, it is necessary to deceive them? -- Helena Blavatsky

If we understand the mechanism and motives of the group mind, it is now possible to control and regiment the masses according to our will without them knowing it. -- Edward Bernays

Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value: zero. -- Voltaire

Obama is my Jesus. I've officially been saved, and soon, whether they like it or not, the rest of the country will be too. I will follow him. -- Maggie Mertens, Smith College

Never give your friend any power which your enemy might someday inherit. -- Paul Weyrich

Truth does not change because it is, or is not believed by a majority of the people. -- Anonymous

Error runs down an inclined plane, while Truth has to laboriously climb its way up hill. -- Anonymous

Japan accomplished far more with Toyota and Panasonic than it did with Pearl Harbor. -- Anonymous

There might be two libertarians somewhere in the world who agree on everything, but I am certainly not one of them. -- Anonymous

Those who beat their swords into plough shares shall plough for those who don't. -- Anonymous

Nothing is more dangerous than an idealist with a machine gun. -- Anonymous

Can't feed'em? Then don't breed'em. -- Anonymous

If you play hard, prepare to pay hard. -- Anonymous

Our freedoms depend on five boxes: the soap box, the ballot box, the jury box, the witness box, and the cartridge box. -- Anonymous

Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will eat for the rest of his life. -- Anonymous

A gun in the hand beats a cop on the phone. -- Anonymous

There's no government like no government. -- Anonymous

Letting lawyers make laws is like letting doctors make diseases. -- Anonymous

A government that can give you everything you want must first take away everything you have. -- Anonymous

It is dangerous to be right when your government is wrong. -- Anonymous

Legalize Freedom: Vote Libertarian. -- Anonymous

The Constitution is the Contract with America. -- Anonymous

There may be two libertarians in the world who agree on absolutely everything, but I am not one of them. -- Anonymous

God made Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve. -- Anonymous

Hetero is bettero. -- Anonymous

186,000 miles per second. It's not just a good idea, IT'S THE LAW! -- Anonymous

My freedom is more important than your great idea. -- Anonymous

If you can remember the sixties, you weren't there. -- Anonymous

Ignorance of my rights is no excuse. -- Anonymous

When dildos are outlawed, only outlaws will have dildos. -- Anonymous

The Supreme Court is a constitutional convention in perpetual session. -- Anonymous

If you're happy and you know it, clank your chains. -- Anonymous

The study of politics is the most superficial of the social sciences. -- Anonymous

Economics without private property is like football without rules. -- Anonymous

Those who trade principle for power are pragmatists, and are slaves to whatever group of incompetents who will trade a vote for a chain, as long as they are empowered by it. -- Anonymous

Little minds control. Littler minds obey. -- Anonymous

If you stand for nothing you will fall for anything. -- Anonymous

The worst kind of liberal is a liberal who talks like a conservative. -- Anonymous

George W. Bush and John Ashcroft are the Blues Brothers: They are on a mission from God. -- Anonymous

Love your country, but fear your government. -- Anonymous

Save a kid. Shoot your television. -- Anonymous

Fear is a weapon of mass destruction. -- Anonymous

If ignorance is bliss, why aren't more people happy? -- Anonymous

Nothing can defend a society against its top 100,000 people. -- Anonymous

Selecting the lesser of two evils is like selecting the best turd in the toilet. -- Anonymous

Jesus didn't ride into town on an elephant. -- Anonymous

Bipartisanship: I'll hug your elephant if you kiss my ass. -- Anonymous (Lest anyone be offended, this term is used dozens of times in the King James Bible to refer to a not-too-horribly-brilliant beast of burden.)

The conspiratorial view of history is also the Biblical view of history. Try Psalms 2 for starters. -- Anonymous

Saying that guns cause crime is like saying that cameras cause pornography. -- Anonymous

A small group of people hijacked baseball and turned it into a pharmaceutical arms race. -- Anonymous

One of the great paradoxes of Communism is that when everybody owns everything, nobody owns anything. -- Anonymous

If you will believe absurdities, you will commit atrocities. -- Anonymous

God wants spiritual fruits, not religious nuts. -- Anonymous

Fiat currency works about as well as the Fiat automobile. -- Anonymous

Voting rights: gone with the push of a button. -- Anonymous

Don't get God started. -- Anonymous

Two from Harry Browne

Government doesn't work. -- Harry Browne

Would you give up your favorite government program if you never again had to pay income tax? -- Harry Browne

When They Came...

In  Germany , they came first for the Communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.  
Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.  
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Trade Unionist.  
Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant.  
Then they came for me, and by that time, no one was left to speak up. -- Reverend Dr. Martin Niemoeller  

When they came for the Fifth Amendment,
I did not say anything because I had done nothing wrong.
When they came for the Fourth Amendment,
I did not say anything because I had nothing to hide,
When they came for the Second Amendment,
I did not say anything because I did not own a gun,
When they came for the First Amendment,
I could not say anything. -- Anonymous

An update of this concept, with the  United States in mind, would go like this:
First they burned the house of the Symbionese Liberation Army and killed all of their members. Most of us did not object because we did not believe in the same things as the Symbionese Liberation Army.
Then they dropped a bomb on the building of the Philadelphia MOVE group, and destroyed two city blocks, and killed 11 members. Most of us did not object because we did not believe in the same things as the MOVE group.
Then they burned a house to kill Gordon Kahl, a tax protester, and killed him. Most of us did not object because we did not believe in the same things as Gordon Kahl.
Then they burned a house to kill Robert Matthews, leader of "The Order," and killed him. Most of us did not object because we did not believe in the same things as Robert Matthews.
Then they conducted a siege and a raid of 80-member Covenant of the Sword and Arm of the Lord religious group. Most of us did not object because we did not believe in the same things as the Covenant of the Sword and Arm of the Lord.
Then they conducted a siege and a raid of Randy Weaver's family, and killed or wounded nearly everyone present; even including a baby and the dog. Many of us did not object because we did not believe in the same things as Randy Weaver's family.
Then they burned the church of the Branch Davidians and killed nearly all of them. A few of us did not object because we did not believe in the same things as the Branch Davidians.
And then they kidnapped Elian Gonzalez ... -- John Perna 

Eight from Ben Franklin

In the beginning of the Contest with Great Britain, when we were sensible of danger we had daily prayer in this room for the divine protection. Our prayers, Sir, were heard, and they were graciously answered. All of us who were engaged in the struggle must have observed frequent instances of a superintending providence in our favor. To that kind providence we owe this happy opportunity of consulting in peace on the means of establishing our future national felicity. And have we now forgotten that powerful friend? Or do we imagine that we no longer need His assistance? I have lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth - that God Governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid? We have been assured, Sir, in the sacred writings, that "except the Lord build the House they labour in vain that build it." I firmly believe this; and I also believe that without His concurring aid we shall succeed in this political building no better, than the Builders of Babel. -- Benjamin Franklin

Those who would sacrifice liberty for security deserve neither. -- Benjamin Franklin

Sell not virtue to purchase wealth, nor liberty to purchase power. -- Benjamin Franklin

There never was a good war or a bad peace. -- Benjamin Franklin

A nation of well informed men who have been taught to know and prize the rights which God has given them cannot be enslaved. It is in the region of ignorance that tyranny begins. -- Benjamin Franklin

A republic, if you can keep it. -- Benjamin Franklin, when he was asked whaat kind of government the Framers of the Constitution had given us.

Eight from Mark Twain

I left these shores, at Vancouver, a red-hot imperialist. I wanted the American eagle to go screaming into the Pacific ...Why not spread its wings over the Philippines, I asked myself? ... I said to myself, Here are a people who have suffered for three centuries. We can make them as free as ourselves, give them a government and country of their own, put a miniature of the American Constitution afloat in the Pacific, start a brand new republic to take its place among the free nations of the world. It seemed to me a great task to which we had addressed ourselves. But I have thought some more, since then, and I have read carefully the treaty of Paris, and I have seen that we do not intend to free, but to subjugate the people of the Philippines. We have gone there to conquer, not to redeem. It should, it seems to me, be our pleasure and duty to make those people free, and let them deal with their own domestic questions in their own way. And so I am an anti-imperialist. I am opposed to having the eagle put its talons on any other land. -- Mark Twain

The only difference between a tax man and a taxidermist is that the taxidermist leaves the skin. -- Mark Twain

What if you were an idiot, and what if you were a member of Congress? But I repeat myself. -- Mark Twain

Three from Robert Heinlein

An armed society is a polite society. -- Robert Heinlein

A dying culture invariably exhibits personal rudeness. Bad manners. Lack of consideration for others in minor matters. A loss of politeness, of gentle manners, is more significant than is a riot. -- Robert Heinlein

Four from Plato

The penalty good men pay for indifference to public affairs, is to be ruled by evil men. -- Plato

This and no other is the root from which a tyrant springs; when he first appears he is a protector. -- Plato

Two from George W. Bush

If this were a dictatorship, it'd be a heck of a lot easier ... just as long as I'm the dictator. -- George W. Bush

Some Thoughts on Patriotism

Patriotism is not a short and frenzied outburst of emotion but the tranquil and steady dedication of a lifetime. -- Adlai E. Stevenson, Jr.

This impostor, this detestable fraud and rapist and murderer, is American nationalism. It births its crimes in a flag, baptizes them with the anthems of bands, and seals them with 21-gun salutes and the rantings of wealthy demagogues who have come no closer to a battlefield than a television camera or studio microphone.

This impostor is not patriotism, though it would pervert that too. The patriot says, "I love my country," works for its good, and defends it if necessary – against enemies within and without. He strives and prays not primarily that God will bless his country, but that his country will bless God. The nationalist, meanwhile, says, "My country is better than yours." "My country is the greatest there has ever been." "The greatest nation on God’s green earth." "They hate my country because it is so good." -- John Dwyer

Prayer for Obama

Bailouts Backfire

I see the Senate passed the deadbeat homebuyer and Wall-street corrupt banker bailout bill.

This marks the beginning of the end for this country. Today, the government said that instead of rewarding hard work and savings, we are going to reward debt and irresponsible spending. Instead of figuring out how to reform government and Wall Street, the government said that we can print money and spend our way out of this problem. Today, the government said that the same thing that got us into this mess -- easy credit and spending - will get us out of this mess.

It won't work and we will all be poorer for it.  Next year, there will be another bill asking for another $700B.  We have spent, borrowed, and printed our way into oblivion. Our fate is sealed. Like Daniel's handwriting on the wall, God has numbered this kingdom and finished it. -- RD

To Be Governed

To be GOVERNED is to be watched, inspected, spied upon, directed, law-driven, numbered, regulated, enrolled, indoctrinated, preached at, controlled, checked, estimated, valued, censured, commanded, by creatures who have neither the right nor the wisdom nor the virtue to do so. To be GOVERNED is to be at every operation, at every transaction noted, registered, counted, taxed, stamped, measured, numbered, assessed, licensed, authorized, admonished, prevented, forbidden, reformed, corrected, punished. It is, under pretext of public utility, and in the name of the general interest, to be place under contribution, drilled, fleeced, exploited, monopolized, extorted from, squeezed, hoaxed, robbed; then, at the slightest resistance, the first world of compliant, to be repressed, fined, vilified, harassed, hunted down, abused, clubbed, disarmed, bound, choked, imprisoned, judged, condemned, shot, deported, sacrificed, sold, betrayed; and to crown all, mocked, ridiculed, derided, outraged, dishonored. That is government; that is its justice; that is its morality. -- P.J. Proudhon

Oh Yes It Can Happen Here

Two from Frank Zappa

The United States is a nation of laws: badly written and randomly enforced. -- Frank Zappa

Two from Andrew Jackson

Gentlemen, I have had men watching you for a long time, and I am convinced that you have used the funds of the bank to speculate in the breadstuffs of the country. When you won, you divided the profits amongst you, and when you lost, you charged it to the bank. You tell me that if I take the deposits from the bank and annul its charter, I shall ruin ten thousand families. That may be true, gentlemen, but that is your sin! Should I let you go on, you will ruin fifty thousand families, and that would be my sin! You are a den of vipers and thieves. I intend to rout you out, and by the eternal God, I will rout you out. -- Andrew Jackson

Two from Edward R. Murrow

A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves. -- Edward R. Murrow

We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. We must remember always that accusation is not proof, and that conviction depends upon evidence and due process of law. We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason, if we dig deep in our history and our doctrine, and remember that we are not descended from fearful men, not from men who feared to write, to speak, to associate, and to defend causes that were for the moment unpopular. -- Edward R. Murrow

Acknowledging the Truth

A: It's nonsense. B: It is not important. C: I always said it was a good idea. D: I thought of it first. -- Arthur C. Clarke

Four from Phil Murphy

We have no national conscience anymore. It was bought out in a hostile takeover after we began to downsize our morality. -- Phil Murphy

Whether it's refusing to show Oskar Schindler arming "his" Jews or digitally doctoring "ET" by removing all of the agents' sidearms, Steven Spielberg is constantly selling us revisionist history. I'm certain "Pol Pot: The Musical" will be his next feature film. -- Phil Murphy

Paper buys time. Steel buys freedom. -- Phil Murphy

A personal note to the Founding Fathers: We're sorry. We blew it. You made it possible for us to live free and we blew it. We've given up nearly every personal liberty in the name of a false sense of security sold to the masses by the same type of maniacal government about which you warned us and against which you fought so bravely. We now have to ask permission to take a leak on an airline flight. We never deserved you. -- Phil Murphy, 7/4/2002

Two from Will Rogers

The difference between death and taxes is that death doesn't get worse every time Congress meets. -- Will Rogers

A General Should Know

Three from Dwight Eisenhower

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together. -- David Eisenhower, 1961 Farewell Address

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children...This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower

Eisenhower's Crystal Ball

Three from General Robert E. Lee

I believe that the maintenance of the rights and authority reserved to the states and to the people … are the safeguard to the continuance of a free government … whereas the consolidation of the states into one vast republic, sure to be aggressive abroad and despotic at home, will be the certain precursor of that ruin which has overwhelmed all those that have preceded it . -- General Robert E. Lee

Two from Thomas Sowell

Asking liberals where wages and prices come from is like asking six-year-olds where babies come from. -- Thomas Sowell

If They Did to Animals what They Do to Humans

Three from Eric Hoffer

Those in possession of absolute power can not only prophesy and make their prophecies come true, but they can also lie and make their lies come true. -- Eric Hoffer

Absolute power corrupts even when exercised for humane purposes. The benevolent despot who sees himself as a shepherd of the people still demands from others the submissiveness of sheep. -- Eric Hoffer

Two from Franklin D. Roosevelt

In politics, nothing happens by accident. If it happens, you can bet it was planned that way. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt

Two Views of History

There are two views of history
1: History happens by accident or
2: It is planned.
The general public is taught that history happens by accident. However, the upper echelons know that history is planned. -- R.E. McMaster, Jr.

Politics in a Nutshell

Two from Pastor Gregory Boyd

When Christians entangle themselves with the kingdoms of the world, they become worldly in the very worst way. -- Pastor Gregory Boyd

Six from Lew Rockwell

To rule is to destroy. -- Lew Rockwell

With this comes a belligerent and blind nationalism that has affected the whole culture in one degree or another. But then, in an empire, the people must become "hollow dummies," said Orwell. They must believe they are superior to others, and have a right to tell others what to do. Americans seem to go beyond even this. They believe that other countries actually want to be invaded and occupied and shaped into mini-Americans by the United States. All we have to do is "get their dictators off their backs, and the men will start building shopping malls and the women dressing like Britney Spears." -- Lew Rockwell

The modern institution of the presidency is the primary political evil Americans face, and the cause of nearly all our woes. It squanders the national wealth and starts unjust wars against foreign peoples that have never done us any harm. It wrecks our families, tramples on our rights, invades our communities, and spies on our bank accounts. It skews the culture toward decadence and trash. It tells lie after lie. Teachers used to tell school kids that anyone can be president. This is like saying anyone can go to Hell. It’s not an inspiration; it’s a threat.

The presidency – by which I mean the executive State – is the sum total of American tyranny. The other branches of government, including the presidentially appointed Supreme Court, are mere adjuncts. The presidency insists on complete devotion and humble submission to its dictates, even while it steals the products of our labor and drives us into economic ruin. It centralizes all power unto itself, and crowds out all competing centers of power in society, including the church, the family, business, charity, and the community. I’ll go further. The US presidency is the world’s leading evil. It is the chief mischief-maker in every part of the globe, the leading wrecker of nations, the usurer behind Third-World debt, the bailer-out of corrupt governments, the hand in many dictatorial gloves, the sponsor and sustainer of the New World Order, of wars, interstate and civil, of famine and disease. To see the evils caused by the presidency, look no further than Iraq or Serbia, where the lives of innocents were snuffed out in pointless wars, where bombing was designed to destroy civilian infrastructure and cause disease, and where women, children, and the aged have been denied essential food and medicine because of a cruel embargo. Look at the human toll taken by the presidency, from Dresden and Hiroshima to Waco and Ruby Ridge, and you see a prime practitioner of murder by government. -- Lew Rockwell

I will gladly pile the bodies high in Iran, Obama told government officials in Israel, to protect your nuclear monopoly. I will obliterate homes, businesses, charities, mosques, whole towns and cities. I will kill babies, children, women, men, the sick and the elderly. I will tear them limb from limb, and laugh as they die in agony. I will create cripples in huge numbers. I will even unleash the radioactive lightning of my terrible swift sword, if the Iranians do not bow to my imperial will, and be subservient and vulnerable.

Of course, that is NOT what Obama said. He said "no option is off the table." But that is what he meant. -- Lew Rockwell

Big Crock Obama

Nine from George Washington

Government is not reason; it is not eloquence; it is force! Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master. -- George Washington

A free people ought not only to be armed and disciplined, but they should have sufficient arms and ammunition to maintain a status of independence from any who might attempt to abuse them, which would include their own government. -- George Washington

When firearms go, all goes -- we need them every hour. -- George Washington

Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence (I conjure you to believe me, fellow-citizens,) the jealousy of a free people ought to be constantly awake; since history and experience prove, that foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of Republican Government. But that jealousy, to be useful, must be impartial; else it becomes the instrument of the very influence to be avoided, instead of a defence against it. Excessive partiality for one foreign nation, and excessive dislike of another, cause those whom they actuate to see danger only on one side, and serve to veil and even second the arts of influence on the other. Real patriots, who may resist the intrigues of the favorite, are liable to become suspected and odious; while its tools and dupes usurp the applause and confidence of the people, to surrender their interests. -- George Washington

A free people ought not only to be armed and disciplined, but they should have sufficient arms and ammunition to maintain a status of independence from any who might attempt to abuse them, which would include their own government. -- George Washington

Without looking forward to an extremity of this kind, (which nevertheless ought not to be entirely out of sight,) the common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it. It serves always to distract the Public Councils, and enfeeble the Public Administration. It agitates the Community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms; kindles the animosity of one part against another, foments occasionally riot and insurrection. It opens the door to foreign influence and corruption, which find a facilitated access to the government itself through the channels of party passions. Thus the policy and the will of one country are subjected to the policy and will of another. -- George Washington

Three from William Norman Grigg

Granted, there is one thing Bush could do to help roll back tyranny. He could resign immediately and surrender himself to be prosecuted for his crimes against our Constitution. His trial could wait until after he had brought our troops home and personally visited the home of every family – American, ally, or Iraqi – that has been deprived of a child or a parent to plead, on his knees, for their forgiveness.

But we already know, from both his words and his gestures, what the man thinks of those of us upon whom he has built his throne. -- William Norman Grigg

Question: If a cannibal says grace, does the prayer sanctify his meal? -- William Norman Grigg

Philosopher Hannah Arendt, one of the most astute analysts of totalitarianism, observed: “Power is the ability to force compliance with one’s demands; authority is the ability to command voluntary obedience.”

As Mark 1:22 recounts, Jesus taught His disciples “as one having authority....” As God Incarnate, Jesus certainly had the power to compel compliance, but He chose instead to exercise authority by teaching and exemplifying what the Epistle of James called “The Perfect Law of Liberty.”

In a free society, power is used only to protect the persons, property, and rights of the innocent, and then only after an appeal to authority fails. In contemporary America, however, practically every social institution has become infected with the plague of power, with the State claiming the role of enforcing “laws” regulating behavior, speech, and even individual attitudes.

We suffer from a surfeit of power, and a critical lack of legitimate authority – and a growing inability on the part of Americans to distinguish between the two. -- William Norman Grigg

Creeping Taxes

Civil Liberties and Bumper Stickers

Destroying civil liberties is like letting the terrorists win. -- From a bumper sticker

Oh, well. I wasn't using my civil liberties anyway. -- From a bumper sticker

Ignore your rights and they will go away. -- From a bumper sticker

The Only Purpose of Power

Void for Vagueness

Four from Fred Reed

Without men, civilization would last until the oil needed changing. -- Fred Reed

Now, any time I refer to the United States as a democracy, I get mail, from people vaguely remembering high-school civics, who tell me that the US is not a democracy but a constitutional republic. In fact is neither. A democracy is of course any governmental system in which ultimate power rests with the people; direct democracies, parliamentary democracies, and constitutional republics are all examples of democracy. In America, the people are nearly powerless, in large part without knowing it. The trick has been done by giving them furiously fought elections that don’t mean anything. This distracts them and gives them a sense of participation, while maintaining their proper role as consumers.

The United States is not the country it thinks it is. It moves fast toward a curious comfortable despotism. This is of course precisely what people want. -- Fred Reed

On examination, most of the measures purportedly taken to stifle Terror don’t. Opening mail without a warrant? It’s pointless once the terrorists know you are doing it, but effective in intimidating honest citizens. The same is true of warrantless wiretaps and searches. Does the gutting of habeas corpus make us safer against terrorists? Or merely suppress dissent by citizens?

The whole business looks remarkably like malign vaudeville, like mummery intended to accomplish two things. The first is to persuade the foolish that the nation is At War. Actually only the president is at war. The second, and I would like to be wrong about this, is to train the public to obedience. The formula is simple: Keep’em scared and you can do anything. It works. Americans are rapidly becoming accustomed to Soviet-style surveillance, to the state’s power to search and spy without restraint, to being barked at and ordered about by low-level federal employees. People deserve what they tolerate. -- Fred Reed

Two from Albert Jay Nock

So it strikes me that instead of sweating blood over the iniquity of foreign States, my fellow-citizens would do a great deal better by themselves to make sure that the American State is not strong enough to carry out the like iniquities here. The stronger the American State is allowed to grow, the higher its record of criminality will grow, according to its opportunities and temptations. If, then, instead of devoting energy, time, and money to warding off wholly imaginary and fanciful dangers from criminals thousands of miles away, our people turn their patriotic fervor loose on the only source from which danger can proceed, they will be doing their full duty by their country. -- Albert Jay Nock

Three from George Bernard Shaw

A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul. -- George Bernard Shaw

Englishmen will never be slaves. They are free to do whatever the government and public opinion allow them to do. -- George Bernard Shaw

Who Really Governs?

Shortly after our return to America the New York Times sent a reporter to ask me the names of the "rulers of America." Sitting in my office that afternoon, I gave the reporter a list. They amounted finally to fifty-two, and of course, as Ferdinand Lundberg says in his book Sixty Families, it was quite evident that I added some personal friends to the list.... Of course my list of "rulers" referred to economic headship, but it was taken generally to mean the men who ruled America not only economically but politically. -- James Gerard

Eight from Chuck Baldwin

Instead, pro-war neo-cons sit in their comfortable, air-conditioned offices and send other husbands, other wives, other parents, other children, other people to incur the "scourge" of war. But the neo-cons who trumpet war, who promote war, and who finance war never actually experience war. -- Chuck Baldwin

Ladies and gentlemen, please wake up! Under the leadership of President George W. Bush, rights and freedoms that have been lost to you include your right to an attorney, your right to know the charges being levied against you, the right to a speedy trial, the right to trial by a jury of your peers, the right to not be subjected to torture, the right to not have your home and personal items searched and seized without warrant, the right to not have your personal conversations (including letters and email) intercepted without court order, and the right to not incriminate yourself, just to name a few. And now we learn that our government has authorized and is planning to build "concentration camp facilities."

When is the last time you heard a sermon on hell or judgment? When is the last time you heard a preacher call sin by its first name? Most notable mega-churches proudly say that they never use the word "sinner." Lost, unredeemed souls are now called "pre-Christian" people. Words such as "repentance" have been removed from the vocabulary of the average pulpit in America today.

Yet, without sin and judgment, there is no grace and forgiveness. Without hell, there is no heaven. No repentance, no faith. No wrath, no mercy. No cross, no crown. No conviction, no Holy Spirit. No serpent, no Paradise. No transgression, no Gospel. -- Chuck Baldwin

G. W. Bush is an elected politician. He was elected President of these United States. Nothing more; nothing less. He has no more divine "anointing" than any other elected politician.

Where was all this "anointing" talk when Bill Clinton was elected President? The same God that permitted Bush to become President permitted Clinton to become President. Yet, Christian conservatives called Clinton the Anti-Christ, whereas they now want to add Bush to the Holy Trinity. -- Chuck Baldwin

Did Moses violate God's principle of submission to authority when he killed the Egyptian taskmaster in defense of his fellow Hebrew? Did Elijah violate God's principle of submission to authority when he openly challenged Ahab and Jezebel? Did David violate God's principle of submission to authority when he refused to surrender to Saul's troops? Did Daniel violate God's principle of submission to authority when he disobeyed the king's law to not pray audibly to God? Did the three Hebrew children violate God's principle of submission to authority when they refused to bow to the image of the state? Did John the Baptist violate God's principle of submission to authority when he publicly scolded King Herod for his infidelity? Did Simon Peter and the other Apostles violate God's principle of submission to authority when they refused to stop preaching on the streets of Jerusalem? Did Paul violate God's principle of submission to authority when he refused to obey those authorities who demanded that he abandon his missionary work? In fact, Paul spent almost as much time in jail as he did out of jail.

Remember that every apostle of Christ (except John) was killed by hostile civil authorities opposed to their endeavors. Christians throughout church history were imprisoned, tortured, or killed by civil authorities of all stripes for refusing to submit to their various laws and prohibitions. Did all of these Christian martyrs violate God's principle of submission to authority?

So, even the great prophets, apostles, and writers of the Bible (including the writer of Romans Chapter 13) understood that human authority--even civil authority--is limited. -- Chuck Baldwin

The Scourge of War

Two from G.K. Chesterton

America is a nation with the soul of a church…the only nation in the world that is founded on a creed. That creed is set forth with dogmatic and even theological lucidity in the Declaration of Independence. -- G.K. Chesterton

Two from Chief Justice John Marshall

The power to tax is the power to destroy. -- Chief Justice John Marshall

The general rule is that an unconstitutional statute, though having the form and name of law, is in reality no law, but is wholly void ... unconstitutional law bears no power to enforce, it purports to settle as if it never existed, for unconstitutionality dates from the enactment of such a law and not such time as branded in an open court of law ... it confers no rights; it imposes no duties; affords no protection; it creates no office; it is in legal contemplation, as inoperative as though it had never been passed. No courts are bound to uphold it and no persons are bound to obey it. 16 Am Jur 256. (and)

...[W]hat shall be the supreme law of the land...only laws that are made in pursuance of the constitution have that rank...All laws repugnant to the Constitution are void of law. -- Chief Justice John Marshall, Marbury v. Madison 5 US 137 at Sec. 180, (1803)

It's the Stupidity, Stupid!

You cannot legislate stupidity. -- Jesse "The Governing Body" Ventura

If 50 million people say a stupid thing, it's still a stupid thing. -- David Severn

The two most common commodities in the universe are nitrogen and stupidity. -- Anonymous

Life is tough. It's even tougher if you're stupid. -- John Wayne

Decision Time

Two from George Carlin

I think I figured out why Americans are so stupid. Think about how stupid the Average American is. Well, HALF of 'em are stupider than THAT! -- George Carlin

Three from Albert Einstein

Two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity. And I am not sure about the former. -- Albert Einstein

Nationalism is an infantile disease. It is the measles of mankind.-- Albert Einstein

The Price You Pay

Two from Walter Williams

Government is about coercion. Limiting government is the single most important instrument for guaranteeing liberty. We're working on a third generation which has little in the way of education about what our Constitution means and why it was written. Thus, we've fallen easy prey to charlatans, quacks, and hustlers. -- Walter Williams

The liberal civil rights establishment is the Klan with a tan. -- Walter Williams

Three from Michael Badnarik

The Constitution: It's not just a good idea, IT'S THE LAW! -- Michael Badnarik

On September 11, America was attacked by terrorists. On September 12, the American people became suspects. -- Michael Badnarik

People are usually surprised to discover that I hate the phrase "constitutional rights." I hate the phrase because it is terribly misleading. Most of the people who say it or hear it have the impression that the Constitution "grants" them their rights. Nothing could be further from the truth. Strictly speaking it is the Bill of Rights that enumerates our rights, but none of our founding documents bestow anything on you at all [...] The government can burn the Constitution and shred the Bill of Rights, but those actions wouldn't have the slightest effect on the rights you've always had. -- Michael Badnarik

The Most Basic Right of All

The right of self-defense is founded in the law of nature, and is not, nor can be, superseded by any law of society. If your enemy or oppressor has a bomb, then get yourself a bomb. -- Sir Michael Foster

Two from Louis Brandeis

The makers of the Constitution conferred, as against the government, the Right to be left alone; the most comprehensive of rights, and the right most valued by civilized men. -- United States Supreme Court Justice Brandeis, Olmstead v. United States (1928)

Fools and Traitors

A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banners openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their garments, and he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of a city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to be feared. -- Marcus Tullius Cicero

Litmus Test for Freedom

Six from Vin Suprynowicz

A well-regulated population being necessary to the security of a police state, the right of the Government to keep and destroy arms shall not be infringed. -- Vin Suprynowicz

A few fans of totalitarianism, having been coached by the slyest of lawyers and union schoolmarms, will point out that the preamble to the Constitution advises us the purpose of the document is to "promote the general welfare," whereupon they will contend this plainly means the Congress is allowed to enact any law and do anything which a temporary majority of the two houses shall determine tends to "promote the general welfare."

But if that were the case, surely the whole document need take up only 28 words: "The Congress may enact any law which the majority of both houses shall determine to their own satisfaction tends to 'promote the general welfare'; have a nice day." -- Vin Suprynowicz

Pretend with me that you’re an old German on your deathbed today. Would you rather tell your grandchildren, "I voted for the Nazis because they seemed better than the Communists and no other party could win"? Wouldn’t you rather be able to rise up and say, "I publicly denounced the Nazis and the Communists? We were a minority – 1 or 2 percent – but we stood up for the truth and we were right! We proved not all Germans were mindless torchbearers for tyranny! We were ridiculed, we were beaten and jailed, but we saved this nation’s soul. Now children, go and live your lives in a way to make me proud"? -- Vin Suprynowicz

First, not voting is OK. Choosing the new ruler who will decide how much of our money and property to "allow" us to keep from among two or three Republicrat lawyers who've already piled up hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of obligations to the big developers, law firms and casinos resembles assisted suicide.

Which candidate on Tuesday's ballots would close the compulsory government youth propaganda camps (cutting our tax burdens in half, setting our children free to apprentice in useful trades and mature at a far earlier age, allowing a return to the kind of real literacy demonstrated by folks like Ben Franklin, who quit school at 10)? Which would sue the federal government for claiming to "own" most of Nevada, throw out all the unconstitutional gun laws and re-legalize all medicinal plant extracts? Not a one. -- Vin Suprynowicz

If we have two different major parties, tell me which one, placed in power, would quickly end the War on Drugs; pull our troops out of 103 nations overseas; restore the Second Amendment right to own a machine gun without having to sign your name or show a photo ID; end the actuarially bankrupt and constitutionally unauthorized Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security Ponzi schemes; shut down the Federal Reserve Board and put us back on a sound, non-inflating dollar made of gold and/or silver. Tell me which one would declare that children belong to their parents, shutting down the state "Child Protection" kidnapping racket (kids have been kidnapped and killed for an offense as minor as mom not "getting them their shots" -- see Cameron Justin Demery, Oct. 14, 1996) and the vastly expensive Government Youth Propaganda Camps which are dumbing down our children into quasi-literate sociopaths.

That would be "change." And the One Party has none to offer. -- Vin Suprynowicz

Tyrants Near and Far

Why They Hate Us

Two from Martin Luther King, Jr.

Never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal. -- Martin Luther King, Jr.

Consent of the Governed, One More Time

Three from P.J. O'Rourke

If you think health care is expensive now, just wait until it is free. -- P.J. O'Rourke

The drug war has also taken a toll on an institution that's even more noble and venerated than our wallet. Drug-control zealotry has led to what constitutional scholar Roger Pilon calls "the drug exception to the Bill of Rights":

I. Freedom of religion - except for religions involving peyote.

II. Right to keep and bear arms - except when you point one at ninja-dressed members of a SWAT team that breaks through the wrong door at 3 A.M.

III. Quartering soldiers in our houses - to be fair, I haven't noticed any soldiers actually in the house, but some National Guard helicopters have been hovering over my backyard marijuana patch.

IV. No unreasonable searches and seizures - except mandatory random piss tests.

V. No self-incrimination - except that urine in the bottle.

VI. Right to counsel - except if the government suspects your lawyer is being paid with drug money.

VII. Right to trial by jury - except in the case of RICO property forfeitures.

VIII. No cruel or unusual punishments - except to those caught selling 'shroorns at rock concerts.

IX. The enumeration of certain rights shall not be construed to deny others - except when it looks like you might have drugs in your car.

X. The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution are reserved for the DEA. -- P.J. O'Rourke

Two from Henry Kissinger

Military men are dumb, stupid animals to be used as pawns for foreign policy. -- Henry Kissinger

Six from Al Cronkrite

As I stand in the grocery store line and watch the person in front of me pay with food stamps it always strikes me that the vote of such a person will cancel mine.  Democracy is a charade! -- Al Cronkrite

Essays attempting to inform a complacent and unteachable citizenry about their loss of freedom and impending subjection to a despotic state no longer serve a utilitarian purpose; tyranny is already functional in America. Those who wield the power are bent on enslaving the world, puny protests mean nothing to them and those who are subjected to the power have proved to be beyond redemption. -- Al Cronkrite

I am always amazed at the belligerence of church going, ostensibly Christian Americans. Many support wars that involve bombing innocent women and children and believe that all inmates of our prisons deserve to be tortured. I receive numerous favorable comments on the tough prison policies of Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio. (Read about Joe Arpaio here.) There are hundreds of thousands of Americans who support the War in Iraq. They believe it is our right to invade a nation that never threatened us and occupy a land that does not belong to us. The monstrous evil of killing masses of innocent civilians in the process evades them. They have lost all affinity for God’s Laws and are quick to bring their sinful judgment to bear on others.

Falling into the jurisdiction of the United States legal system puts a defendant at the mercy of circumstances that involve a host of considerations other then guilt or innocence and a conviction, though it may be unjust, is almost impossible to reverse. -- Al Cronkrite

President George W. Bush has arguably been the worst president in United States history.  He has allowed a group of secular Zionist intellectuals to commandeer our government, sullied our image by supporting torture and aggressive warfare, engineered the potential collapse of the dollar by creating more debt than any other regime in history, peppered his administration with homosexuals, prayed to foreign gods, lied to the people, exported our industry, diminished our standard of living, abolished Posse Comitatus, allowed our infrastructure to collapse, siphoned our wealth to foreign nations, passed tyrannical laws, and through it all has swaggered like a third world dictator.

President George W. Bush, like the infamous leader of the Third Reich, received much of his support from rightwing Christians. -- Al Cronkrite

Democrats and Republicans

Democrats want government to be your mommy. Republicans want government to be your daddy. Libertarians think you are an adult and want government to treat you as such. -- Anonymous

Democrats can never get any sleep because they are afraid somebody somewhere is making too much money. Republicans can never get any sleep because they are afraid somebody somewhere is having too much fun. -- Anonymous

Make no mistake, the Democratic Party is corrupted beyond redemption, but the Republican Party can be even more dangerous, in that it combines deceptive rhetoric with fascist law enforcement... The Republicans sound like Libertarians, but they work like Fascists. -- Lexrex

Our Post-9/11 Soul

The Drug War Doesn't Work

Democracies and Republics

In a democracy, two wolves and a sheep take a majority vote on what's for supper. In a constitutional republic, the wolves are forbidden on voting on what's for supper, and the sheep are well armed. -- Anonymous

Representative Democracies and Representative Republics

A Republic is a government by law.

A Democracy is a government by majority rule.

A Representative of a Republic (Congressman etc.) is an elected official whose duty it is to make up the laws.

A Representative of a Democracy is an elected official who is to do, as hose who elected him want him to do.

Under a Representative Republic the most important qualification for election is to be a moral man so he can uphold the law and understand hat would make a good law. Good laws are based on morals.

Under a Representative Democracy the most important qualification for election is that the one running for election be solely interested in serving the public welfare and that he have no interest above the public welfare.

Under a Representative Republic the representative is to uphold that which is right regardless of what the majority wants.

Under a Representative Democracy the representative is to do what the people want regardless of what’s right.

Under a Representative Republic you are looking for the most moral man.

Under a Representative Democracy you are looking for an amoral man. That is, a man who would not have morals standing in the way of the majorities will.

Although this country is supposed to be a Representative Republic, the people have been made to believe it is a Representative Democracy. In the recent past when the people have gone to the polls they have looked for the man who promised he would give the people what they wanted. The moral man who said, “You can’t have what you want because we would have to steal it from someone else.” Didn’t have a chance.

So if you wonder why we no longer have statesmen for representatives, it's probably because you haven’t been looking for statesmen but have been looking for so called “public servants” who are one step away from common criminals looking for the opportunity to serve themselves.

This is a Republic not a Democracy. Look for the moral man. -- Richard Cure

The Perils of Democracy

A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising them the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over a loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's great civilizations has been 200 years. These nations have progressed through this sequence:

From bondage to spiritual faith; From spiritual faith to great courage;
From courage to liberty; From liberty to abundance;
From abundance to selfishness; From selfishness to complacency;
From complacency to apathy; From apathy to dependence;
From dependence back into bondage.
-- Alexander Fraser Tyler, Scottish economist, 1776

Two from Oscar Wilde

Democracy means simply the bludgeoning of the people, by the people, for the people. -- Oscar Wilde

The Perils of Conformity

Democracy, Socialism and Communism

Democracy is indispensable to Socialism. -- V. I. Lenin

Democracy is the road to Socialism. -- Karl Marx

The goal of Socialism is Communism. -- V. I. Lenin

Communism is Socialism in a hurry. -- V. I. Lenin

The Truth about Taxes

America Has No Free Press

The Lesser of Two Evils

Some people tell me that the reality is that one of the two major parties is going to win each major election. God gave us free will (Genesis -- the apple...) -- the ability to choose ggood or evil. Do these people really want to stand before their maker and explain to him that the candidate they really thought best to govern them didn't have a chance, so they voted for the lesser of two evils? If we continue to vote for the lesser of two evils, we still vote for evil. And what does that make us as a country? Let's all start voting for who we "really" want in office - and stop telling everyone else that they're throwing their vote away if they don't vote for the lesser of two evils. -- Richard Randall

Be Vigilant

Liberaler and Liberaler

The chief liberal gains in the past generally remain on the statute books when the conservatives recover power...liberalism grows constantly more liberal, and by the same token, conservatism grows constantly less conservative. -- Arthur Schlesinger

Six from Thomas Paine

These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed, if so celestial an article as Freedom should not be highly rated. -- Thomas Paine

Society in every state is a blessing, but government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one; for when we suffer or are exposed to the same miseries by a government, which we might expect in a country without government, our calamity is heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which we suffer. -- Thomas Paine

In America, the law is King. For as in absolute governments, the King is law, so in free countries the law ought to be king; and there ought to be no other. -- Thomas Paine

Seven from Ronald Reagan

Politics is supposed to be the second oldest profession. I have come to realize that it bears a very close resemblance to the first. -- Ronald Reagan

Even many of us who believe in free enterprise have fallen into the habit of saying when something goes wrong: "There ought to be a law." Sometimes I think there ought to be a law against saying there ought to be a law. -- Ronald Reagan

The federal government has taken too much tax money from the people, too much authority from the states, and too much liberty with the Constitution. -- Ronald Reagan

Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free. -- Ronald Reagan

I am going to talk of controversial things. I make no apology for this.

It's time we asked ourselves if we still know the freedoms intended for us by the Founding Fathers. James Madison said, "We base all our experiments on the capacity of mankind for self-government."

This idea that government was beholden to the people, that it had no other source of power is still the newest, most unique idea in all the long history of man's relation to man. This is the issue of this election: Whether we believe in our capacity for self-government or whether we abandon the American Revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite in a far-distant capital can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves.

You and I are told we must choose between a left or right, but I suggest there is no such thing as a left or right. There is only an up or down. Up to man's age-old dream-the maximum of individual freedom consistent with order or down to the ant heap of totalitarianism. Regardless of their sincerity, their humanitarian motives, those who would sacrifice freedom for security have embarked on this downward path. Plutarch warned, "The real destroyer of the liberties of the people is he who spreads among them bounties, donations and benefits."

The Founding Fathers knew a government can't control the economy without controlling people. And they knew when a government sets out to do that, it must use force and coercion to achieve its purpose. So we have come to a time for choosing.

Public servants say, always with the best of intentions, "What greater service we could render if only we had a little more money and a little more power?" But the truth is that outside of its legitimate function, government does nothing as well or as economically as the private sector.

Yet any time you and I question the schemes of the do-gooders, we're denounced as being opposed to their humanitarian goals. It seems impossible to legitimately debate their solutions with the assumption that all of us share the desire to help the less fortunate. They tell us we're always "against," never "for" anything.

We are for a provision that destitution should not follow unemployment by reason of old age, and to that end we have accepted Social Security as a step toward meeting the problem. However, we are against those entrusted with this program when they practice deception regarding its fiscal shortcomings, when they charge that any criticism of the program means that we want to end payments....

We are for aiding our allies by sharing our material blessings with nations which share our fundamental beliefs, but we are against doling out money government to government, creating bureaucracy, if not socialism, all over the world.

We need true tax reform that will at least make a start toward I restoring for our children the American Dream that wealth is denied to no one, that each individual has the right to fly as high as his strength and ability will take him.... But we can not have such reform while our tax policy is engineered by people who view the tax as a means of achieving changes in our social structure....

Have we the courage and the will to face up to the immorality and discrimination of the progressive tax, and demand a return to traditional proportionate taxation? ... Today in our country the tax collector's share is 37 cents of every dollar earned. Freedom has never been so fragile, so close to slipping from our grasp.

Are you willing to spend time studying the issues, making yourself aware, and then conveying that information to family and friends? Will you resist the temptation to get a government handout for your community? Realize that the doctor's fight against socialized medicine is your fight. We can't socialize the doctors without socializing the patients. Recognize that government invasion of public power is eventually an assault upon your own business. If some among you fear taking a stand because you are afraid of reprisals from customers, clients, or even government, recognize that you are just feeding the crocodile hoping he'll eat you last.

If all of this seems like a great deal of trouble, think what's at stake. We are faced with the most evil enemy mankind has known in his long climb from the swamp to the stars. There can be no security anywhere in the free world if there is no fiscal and economic stability within the United States. Those who ask us to trade our freedom for the soup kitchen of the welfare state are architects of a policy of accommodation.

They say the world has become too complex for simple answers. They are wrong. There are no easy answers, but there are simple answers. We must have the courage to do what we know is morally right. Winston Churchill said that "the destiny of man is not measured by material computation. When great forces are on the move in the world, we learn we are spirits - not animals." And he said, "There is something going on in time and space, and beyond time and space, which, whether we like it or not, spells duty."

You and I have a rendezvous with destiny. We will preserve for our children this, the last best hope of man on earth, or we will sentence them to take the first step into a thousand years of darkness. If we fail, at least let our children and our children's children say of us we justified our brief moment here. We did all that could be done. -- Ronald Reagan, A Time for Choosing (1964)

Two from Aristotle

A tyrant must put on the appearance of uncommon devotion to religion. Subjects are less apprehensive of illegal treatment from a ruler whom they consider god-fearing and pious. On the other hand, they do less easily move against him, falsely believing that he has the gods on his side. -- Aristotle

The high-minded man must care more for the truth than for what people think. -- Aristotle

Jury Rights

The biggest and most powerful law enforcement agency in the United States has the absolute, non-negotiable power to ignore laws, judges and prosecutors, to keep people out of prison, to make any jury trial come out the way they want it, and to keep our government honest. What is this agency? A fully informed jury. -- The Fully Informed Jury Association

Turning in Their Graves

You need only reflect that one of the best ways to get yourself a reputation as a dangerous citizen these days is to go about repeating the very phrases which our founding fathers used in the struggle for independence. -- Charles A. Beard

Who Are the Militia?

Two from Lew Goldberg

If you feel driven to feed the poor, get your checkbook out and keep your tyrannical mouth shut about it. -- Lew Goldberg

...every Democrat, and almost every Republican in Congress today, if held to the standards expected of legislators in post-revolutionary America, would be guilty of treason and hung by the neck until dead. We are a nation of prostitutes in the sense that as long as we are fat, warm, and dry we don't care what Congress does. The few of us who complain regularly are simply spoiling the party.

... the American Colonists under King George III had it pretty good compared to us. They would wonder why we haven't taken up arms and seceded yet. -- Lew Goldberg

Change

We Ought to be Ashamed

The Berlin Wall has fallen; the Romanian people dragged President Ceaucescu and his wife into a public square and riddled them with bullets, and laughed for days at the putrefaction, and rightly so. Even Putin's suspect Russia has adopted a fair flat-taxation system, of roughly 13% across-the-board. Much of the world admires the Founders' accomplishments, and yet We The Sheeple cower.

Did Thomas Jefferson waste his time? -- Todd Brendan Fahey

Three from George Mason

The laws of nature are the laws of God, whose authority can be superceded by no power on earth. A legislature must not obstruct our obedience to Him from whose punishment they cannot protect us. All human laws which contradict His laws we are in conscience bound to disobey. -- George Mason

That no free government, nor the blessings of liberty, can be preserved to any people but by ... a frequent recurrence to fundamental principles. -- George Mason

Liberals and Conspiracies

There does exist, and has existed for a generation, an international Anglophile network which operates, to some extent in the way the radical Right believes the Communists act. In fact, this network, which we may identify as the Round Table Groups, has no aversion to cooperating with the Communists, or any other groups, and frequently does so. I know of the operation of this network because I have studied it for twenty years, and was permitted for two years, in the early 1960s, to examine its papers and secret records.... [I]n general my chief difference of opinion is that it wishes to remain unknown... -- Carroll Quigley, Bill Clinton's mentor at Georgetown

Two from Woodrow Wilson

I am a most unhappy man. I have unwittingly ruined my country. A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is concentrated. The growth of the nation, therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of a few men. We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated Governments in the civilized world - no longer a Government by free opinion, no longer a Government by conviction and the vote of the majority, but a Government by the opinion and duress of a small group of dominant men. -- Woodrow Wilson

Twelve from H.L. Mencken

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed -- and thus clamorous to be led to safety -- by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary. -- H.L. Mencken

An election is a sort of advance auction on the sale of stolen goods. -- H.L. Mencken

The most popular man under a democracy is not the most democratic man, but the most despotic man. The common folk delight in the exactions of such a man. They like him to boss them. Their natural gait is the goosestep. -- H.L. Mencken

Under democracy one party always devotes its chief energies to trying to prove that the other party is unfit to rule -- and both commonly succeed, and are right. -- H.L. Mencken

If a politician learned he had cannibals for constituents, he would promise them missionaries for dinner. -- H.L. Mencken

The notion that a radical is one who hates his country is naive and usually idiotic. He is, more likely, one who likes his country more than the rest of us, and is thus disturbed more than the rest of us when he sees it debauched. He is not a bad citizen turning to crime; He is a good citizen driven to despair. -- H.L. Mencken

Five years of Prohibition have had, at least, this one benign effect: they have completely disposed of all the favorite arguments of the Prohibitionists. None of the great boons and usufructs that were to follow the passage of the Eighteenth Amendment has come to pass. There is not less drunkenness in the Republic, but more. There is not less crime, but more. There is not less insanity, but more. The cost of government is not smaller, but vastly greater. Respect for law has not increased, but diminished. -- H.L. Mencken

No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public. -- H.L. Mencken

The men the American people admire most extravagantly are the greatest liars; the men they detest most violently are those who try to tell them the truth. -- H.L. Mencken

Sixteen from Joseph Sobran

The Constitution poses no threat to our current form of government. -- Joseph Sobran

It would be a healthy exercise for every politician to look in the mirror every morning and remind himself that he holds office only because, in a two-man race against another mediocrity, a modest majority of those half-informed people who imagined that their votes mattered reckoned that he was the lesser evil. And they weren't too sure about that. -- Joseph Sobran

One of the odd things about our mistakes is that after we commit ourselves to them, it becomes difficult even to perceive them as mistakes. We adapt to them, justify them, become dependent on them, and forget the alternatives to them, until we no longer have the mental detachment we had before we made them. They become almost impossible to disown, and we sacrifice our judgment to them.

And over time, our wrong turns are normalized and exalted as steps in the epic of progress. Anyone who proposes to correct them is given the standard homily:

"We can't turn back the clock!"

It's amazing how seldom societies ask themselves, before making a fateful decision, some simple questions:

What if this turns out to be a disastrous mistake? Will we be able to undo it? -- Joseph Sobran

The only thing George Bush did better than Ronald Reagan was pick a running mate. -- Joseph Sobran

Anything called a "program" is unconstitutional. -- Joseph Sobran

If you favor federal intervention at home, you're a liberal. If you favor federal intervention abroad, you're a conservative. If you favor both, you're a moderate. If you favor neither, you're an extremist.-- Joseph Sobran

As a spender of the taxpayer’s money, Bush is to Lyndon Johnson as Barry Bonds is to Babe Ruth. He has rewritten the record book. Some want him impeached; I’d settle for mandatory steroid testing. Weight-training alone can’t explain this man. -- Joseph Sobran

"Need" now means wanting someone else's money. "Greed" means wanting to keep your own. "Compassion" is when a politician arranges the transfer. -- Joseph Sobran

In one century we went from teaching Latin and Greek in high school to offering remedial English in college. -- Joseph Sobran

People who create things nowadays can expect to be prosecuted by highly moralistic people who are incapable of creating anything. There is no way to measure the chilling effect on innovation that results from the threats of taxation, regulation and prosecution against anything that succeeds. We'll never know how many ideas our government has aborted in the name protecting us. -- Joseph Sobran

What is the purpose of government? I will tell you.

It is to protect us from violence and fraud. And to ensure peace, here and around the world. And to manage the economy, promoting prosperity and full employment. And to abolish poverty. And to redress historical injustices. And to see to it that everyone is educated, preferably college educated. And to make sure we don't ingest harmful substances. And to guarantee fair compensation for farmers and laborers. And to provide assistance for artists. And to care for the homeless. And to preserve the environment. And to guarantee safe working conditions. And to protect minorities from discrimination. And to manage parks and forests. And to foster scientific research. And to build streets and highways. And to subsidize small businesses. And to send people into outer space.

In short, anything and everything is the government's proper concern.

Just the other day, for example, armed FBI agents raided five Indian reservations in Arizona to crack down on gambling. One of our government's many purposes -- somehow I forgot to include it in my list -- is to protect us from Indian gamblers. -- Joseph Sobran

Two From Gary Fallon

Jesus turned water into wine at the wedding at Cana (John 2:1-11) -- without a liquor license or a park permit, and that wine was most likely served to people under the age of 21. Modern day politicians would have thrown Jesus into jail for making alcohol without a license, distributing alcohol without a permit, and serving to underaged children. -- Gary Fallon

I don't mind losing elections as much as I mind losing my freedom. -- Gary Fallon

Fear and Change

Do not fear the government that fears the informed citizen. Become informed and change it.
Do not fear the government that fears the armed citizen. Become armed and change it. -- Joseph L. Hodge

Keep Your Hands to Yourself

Turn Off, Tune In and Clue In

Ron Paul Is Right

Why is that such a far-fetched idea? Yes, I know it’s nicer to think that in playing our self-appointed role of “global cop,” we are on the side of God and justice. But many people in the world hate us, and it’s not simply because they oppose our money and freedom. Many European countries also enjoy money and freedom yet mind their own business. Why don’t we see more terrorist attacks in those countries? -- Randy Braun

How Far We Have Fallen

Income tax day—when government agents command we submit to their ever-increasing demands for the money we earned—will soon be here again.

How far we have fallen from our heritage of freedom!  How meekly we cower before the implied threats of those who should be our servants!  How silently we tolerate their overt and arrogant squandering of our families' treasure!

Collectivists in every level of government—federal, state, county, city, school and other districts—oppose the fundamental principles of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Holy Bible.

God commanded, “Thou shall not steal.”  Taxation is theft.  Democracy—a political system whereby two wolves and one sheep vote on what’s for dinner—doesn’t alter the evil nature of taxation one iota.

Income tax day—when the IRS commands us to serve and support the smothering state—symbolizes shameful submission to the socialistic demons that disobey God’s laws.

The Founding Fathers would revolt at the servile cowardice of their progeny if they knew how readily we comply with the onerous demands of the devilish thieves who inhabit the dens of government. -- Steve Gresh

The Obamanthem

I find Republican/Conservative criticism of Obama as "messiah" to be fascinating and a whole lot hypocritical. Where were these Republicans when George W. Bush was hailed as the savior of mankind, the vanquisher of evil for all time and the one who would set all the captives free? Where were they when at least one church in Orange County, California, told its Sunday school students in 2004 that if Bush isn't re-elected, Jesus couldn't come back and the rapture couldn't happen? And where were they when adulating crowds yearned for Sarah Palin as God's anointed to lead the United States?

Obama's followers are motivated by religious (or religious-like) fervor -- they want to heal the world and let justice roll down like waters. The Kingdom of God that they seek is an earthly one they build with their own hands. They read prophetic commands for justice and think we human beings are capable of being just. But I find them little different than rightists who are seeking a Kingdom of God built by American military power and domination of the world, in which God's anointed one rules from the White House.

It should be remembered, God does the anointing, and not us. In Isaiah 45, God proclaims that Cyrus, the shahanshah of Persia, "his anointed one" even though Cyrus "does not know" God. And is not even one of God's people.

Four from Alan Stang

What do I mean by “corporate Christianity?” I mean the mega-churches and groups, often associated with the name of a man, whose name could even appear in big letters on the side of the meeting-hall. I mean the prosperity place, where you go not so much to worship and celebrate Jesus as to perfect your own purpose, the smiley place where Satan is hardly ever mentioned, with the inevitable result that evil is so hard to recognize. -- Alan Stang

Wasn’t Paul a notorious jailbird? Wasn’t Peter? Wasn’t Jesus a criminal? He must have been, according to today’s pansy preachers, because the government—the Sanhedrin and the Romans—said He was. Didn’t He destroy property and use violence when He kicked the moneychangers out? Didn’t He break the law Himself?

If you preach that the government can do no wrong and must be obeyed blindly whatever it does, that is where you must wind up. Romans 13 means that you must obey and defer to government as long as it does what God installed it to do. When government stops doing what God installed it to do—stops clearly and incontrovertibly—your obedience is no longer required. Weren’t our Founding Fathers criminals?

Is God a Nazi? That is the question. If you subscribe to the preaching of today’s pansy preachers, you believe He is. You believe you must obey Hitler because he is the government. You believe you must defer to whatever crimes the government commits because of what some pansy preacher says about Romans 13. -- Alan Stang

Prohibition Doesn't Work

A vivid example is the so-called "War on Drugs". People say they don't want their children to be given or sold drugs. They don't want those who maintain civilization—bus drivers, brain surgeons—to use drugs, either. Secretly, they're afraid they might try drugs themselves and like them. So because they lack the character to do it themselves, they ask government to keep their kids in line, certify among those offering professional services, and help them avoid temptation.

With government "help" of course, the drug problem is worse than ever. Every year, it's reported that younger and younger children are using drugs, and that, despite the unspeakable practice of demanding that prospective employees meekly offer up their bodily fluids for scrutiny (a demand amounting to rape), nothing seems to stop not only the widespread use of traditional drugs, but the invention of many newer ones. The fact that drugs (like weapons) are plentiful and cheap in prisons—a completely supervised and controlled environment—shows exactly how effective we can expect any kind of prohibition to be.

Thanks to government activity in this area—increasing the risks involved, and creating artificial shortages of what would otherwise be extremely cheap agricultural or chemical products—the manufacture, transport, distribution, sale, and use of illegal drugs has become one of the largest industries in Western civilization, subsidized, in effect, by the influence that government has on the market, and vastly more competitive and rewarding than anything else happening in the economy.

And because the manufacture, transport, distribution, sale, and use of drugs is so competitive and rewarding—and at the same time, illegal—civilized means of protecting one's business and settling disputes with customers and competitors are unavailable, leading to turf wars, drive-by shootings, and all of the other crimes we once associated with alcohol Prohibition and now see associated with drug laws. -- L. Neil Smith

Prohibition goes beyond the bounds of reason in that it attempts to control a man's appetite by legislation, and makes a crime out of things that are not crimes. -- Abraham Lincoln

Vices are not crimes. -- Lysander Spooner

Whores of a Different Color

Keeping Track...

Hmmmm, we have mind control, population control, weather control, and gun control. What's next?

How about people control?

How about a chip for everyone, either in their right hand or in their forehead, to make sure no one gets away with anything? Problem is, the Bible has a very strong warning not to do any such thing in Revelation 13, and who would want such a thing in the first place? I mean while "they" are keeping track of us, who will be keeping track of "them"? -- Cheryl DeJesus

All There Is to Know about Gun Control in 96 Words

Five from Martin Luther

Do not suppose that abuses are eliminated by destroying the object which is abused. Men can go wrong with wine and women. Shall we then prohibit and abolish women? -- Martin Luther

I am much afraid that schools will prove to be great gates of Hell unless they diligently labor in explaining the Holy Scriptures, engraving them in the hearts of youth. I advise no one to place his child where The Scriptures do not reign paramount. Every institution in which men are not increasingly occupied with the Word of God must become corrupt. -- Martin Luther

"Suppose my lord were wrong in going to war." I reply: If you know for sure that he is wrong, then you should fear God rather than men, (Acts 4:19, 5:29), and you should neither fight nor serve, for you cannot have a good conscience before God. "Oh, no," you say, "my lord would force me to do it; he would take away my fief and would not give me my money, pay and wages. Besides, I would be despised and put to shame as a coward, even worse, as a man who did not keep his word and deserted his lord in need." I answer: You must take that risk and, with God’s help, let whatever happens, happen. He can restore it to you a hundredfold, as he promises in the gospel, "Whoever leaves house, farm, wife, and property, will receive a hundredfold," etc. (Matthew 19:29) -- Martin Luther

Six from Patrick Henry

The great object is that every man be armed. Everyone who is able may have a gun. -- Patrick Henry

Show me that age and country where the rights and liberties of the people were placed on the sole chance of their rulers being good men without a consequent loss of liberty! I say that the loss of that dearest privilege has ever followed, with absolute certainty, every such mad attempt. -- Patrick Henry

Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace -- but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death! -- Patrick Henry

Political Definitions

Three from Pat Buchanan

He invaded Kuwait, a sandbox half the size of Denmark, and got tossed out after a 100-hour ground war. His country has been overflown 40,000 times by U.S. and British planes, and he has not been able to shoot a single plane down. He has no navy, a fourth-rate air force, and a shrunken, demoralized army. His economy is not 1 percent of ours.

No, senators, this is not the Fuehrer and the Republican Guard is not the Wehrmacht. As Marx said, history repeats itself – first as tragedy, then as farce. -- Pat Buchanan

The dynamiting of the King David Hotel convinced the British to accelerate their departure from Palestine. Zionist terror ended. Mau Mau terror ended when the Brits left Kenya. When De Gaulle cut Algeria loose, FLN terror ended. When Reagan withdrew his Marines from Beirut, anti-American terror ended in Lebanon.

Lesson? The price of empire is terror. The price of occupation is terror. The price of interventionism is terror. -- Pat Buchanan

Three from Benjamin Rush, M.D.

Unless we put medical freedom into the Constitution, the time will come when medicine will organize into an undercover dictatorship ... To restrict the art of healing to one class of men and deny equal privileges to others will constitute the Bastille of medical science. All such laws are un-American and despotic and have no place in a republic ... The Constitution of this republic should make special privilege for medical freedom as well as religious freedom. -- Benjamin Rush, M.D.

I lament that we waste so much time and money in punishing crimes and take so little pains to prevent them…we neglect the only means of establishing and perpetuating our republican forms of government; that is, the universal education of our youth in the principles of Christianity by means of the Bible; for this Divine Book, above all others, constitutes the soul of republicanism.

Let the children who are sent to those schools be taught to read and write and above all, let both sexes be carefully instructed in the principles and obligations of the Christian religion. This is the most essential part of education” The great enemy of the salvation of man, in my opinion, never invented a more effectual means of extirpating [removing] Christianity from the world than by persuading mankind that it was improper to read the Bible at schools. -- Benjamin Rush, M.D.

Five from John F. Kennedy

We are not afraid to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts, foreign ideas, alien philosophies, and competitive values. For a nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people. -- John F. Kennedy

Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable. -- John F. Kennedy

The very word “secrecy” is repugnant in a free and open society; and we are as a people inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths and to secret proceedings. We decided long ago that the dangers of excessive and unwarranted concealment of pertinent facts far outweighed the dangers which are cited to justify it. Even today, there is little value in opposing the threat of a closed society by imitating its arbitrary restrictions. Even today, there is little value in insuring the survival of our nation if our traditions do not survive with it. And there is very grave danger that an announced need for increased security will be seized upon by those anxious to expand its meaning to the very limits of official censorship and concealment. That I do not intend to permit to the extent that it is in my control. And no official of my Administration, whether his rank is high or low, civilian or military, should interpret my words here tonight as an excuse to censor the news, to stifle dissent, to cover up our mistakes or to withhold from the press and the public the facts they deserve to know.

For we are opposed around the world by a monolithic and ruthless conspiracy that relies primarily on covert means for expanding its sphere of influence–on infiltration instead of invasion, on subversion instead of elections, on intimidation instead of free choice, on guerrillas by night instead of armies by day. It is a system which has conscripted vast human and material resources into the building of a tightly knit, highly efficient machine that combines military, diplomatic, intelligence, economic, scientific and political operations.

Its preparations are concealed, not published. Its mistakes are buried, not headlined. Its dissenters are silenced, not praised. No expenditure is questioned, no rumor is printed, no secret is revealed. It conducts the Cold War, in short, with a war-time discipline no democracy would ever hope or wish to match.

Without debate, without criticism, no Administration and no country can succeed–and no republic can survive. That is why the Athenian lawmaker Solon decreed it a crime for any citizen to shrink from controversy. And that is why our press was protected by the First Amendment– the only business in America specifically protected by the Constitution -- not primarily to amuse and entertain, not to emphasize the trivial and the sentimental, not to simply “give the public what it wants”–but to inform, to arouse, to reflect, to state our dangers and our opportunities, to indicate our crises and our choices, to lead, mold, educate and sometimes even anger public opinion. -- John F. Kennedy

Ten from Daniel Webster

If we and our posterity...live always in the fear of God and shall respect His Commandments...we may have the highest hopes of the future fortunes of our country....

But if we...neglect religious instruction and authority; violate the rules of eternal justice, trifle with the injunctions of morality, and recklessly destroy the constitution which holds us together, no man can tell how sudden a catastrophe may overwhelm us and bury all our glory in profound obscurity. -- Daniel Webster

God grants liberty only to those who love it, and are always ready to guard and defend it. -- Daniel Webster

Good intentions will always be pleaded for any assumption of power. The Constitution was made to guard the people against the dangers of good intentions. There are men in all ages who mean to govern well, but they mean to govern. They promise to be good masters ... but they mean to be masters. -- Daniel Webster

While I trust that liberty and free institutions, as we have experienced them, may ultimately spread over the globe, I am by no means sure that all people are fit for them; nor am I desirous of imposing or forcing our peculiar form upon any other nation that does not wish to embrace them. -- Daniel Webster

Of all the contrivances for cheating the laboring classes of mankind, none has been more effectual than that which deludes them with paper money. -- Daniel Webster

We are in danger of being overwhelmed with irredeemable paper, mere paper, representing not gold nor silver; no, Sir, representing nothing but broken promises, bad faith, bankrupt corporations, cheated creditors, and a ruined people. -- Daniel Webster

Two from Noah Webster

Men, from the beginning of the world, have been devising forms of government best adapted to secure their safety, property, peace, justice and liberty. Numerous forms have been tried: monarchy, aristocracy and democracy. After all their efforts, a perfect government has not yet been found. In the best form hitherto devised, defects have been discovered, which have frustrated the hopes of the founders. And what is the reason? Why, the reason is comprised in a few words: Men have not obeyed God's precepts. This is the reason, the prominent cause of all political evils. Rulers, when hereditary, are often corrupt men, indulging in all sensual vices, ambition, selfishness, war; in short, they seek their own pleasure and grandeur, rather than the happiness of their subjects. In republics, in which rulers are elected by the people, or some portion of them, the case is sometimes better; but in this form of government men have hitherto been disappointed. Corrupt, selfish men, are often elected, and such men abuse their authority, neglect or violate the laws and occasion great public evils. -- Noah Webster

Freedom or Security? Which Will It Be?

The Road to Hell...

Most of the major ills of the world have been caused by well-meaning people who ignored the principle of individual freedom, except as applied to themselves, and who were obsessed with fanatical zeal to improve the lot of mankind-in-the-mass through some pet formula of their own. The harm done by ordinary criminals, murderers, gangsters, and thieves is negligible in comparison with the agony inflicted upon human beings by the professional do-gooders, who attempt to set themselves up as gods on earth and who would ruthlessly force their views on all others - with the abiding assurance that the end justifies the means. -- Henry Grady Weaver

Three from Malcolm Muggeridge

Only as children of God are we equal; all other claims to equality -- social, economic, racial, intellectual, sexual -- only serve in practice to intensify inequality. -- Malcolm Muggeridge

The efforts that men make to bring about their own happiness, their own ease of life, their own self-indulgence, will in due course produce the opposite, leading me to the absolutely inescapable conclusion that human beings cannot live and operate in this world without some concept of a being greater than themselves, and of a purpose which transcends their own egotistic or greedy desires. Once you eliminate the notion of a God, once you eliminate the notion that the creator has a purpose for us, and that life consists essentially in fulfilling that purpose, then you are bound, as Pascal points out, to induce the megalomania of which we've seen so many manifestations in our time. -- Malcolm Muggeridge

No Just War Or Wise War

For God's sake, do not drag me into another war! I am worn down, and worn out, with crusading and defending Europe, and protecting mankind; I must think a little of myself. I am sorry for the Spaniards -- I am sorry for the Greeks -- I deplore the fate of the Jews; the people of the Sandwich Islands are groaning under the most detestable tyranny; Baghdad is oppressed, I do not like the present state of the Delta; Tibet is not comfortable. Am I to fight for all these people? The world is bursting with sin and sorrow. Am I to be champion of the Decalogue, and to be eternally raising fleets and armies to make all men good and happy? We have just done saving Europe, and I am afraid the consequence will be, that we shall cut each other's throats. No war, dear Lady Grey! -- No eloquence; but apathy, selfishness, common sense, arithmetic! I beseech you, secure Lord Grey's swords and pistols, as the housekeeper did Don Quixote's armour. If there is another war, life will not be worth having.

May the vengeance of Heaven overtake the Legitimates of Verona! but, in the present state of rent and taxes, they must be left to the vengeance of Heaven. I allow fighting in such a cause to be a luxury, but the business of a prudent, sensible man is to guard against luxury.

There is no such thing as a just war, or at least, as a wise war. -- Sydney Smith to Lady Grey, 1832

The Old Paths

Crime did not pay;
  Hard work did;
  And people knew the difference. 

Moms could cook;
  Dads would work;
  Children would behave.. 

 Husbands were loving;
  Wives were supportive;
  and children were polite.

Women wore the jewelry;
  and Men wore the pants.
  Women looked like ladies;
  Men looked like gentlemen;
  and children looked decent. 

 People loved the truth,
  and hated a lie;
  they came to church to get IN,
  Not to get OUT! 

 Hymns sounded Godly;
  Sermons sounded helpful;
  Rejoicing sounded normal;
  and crying sounded sincere. 

Cursing was wicked;
  Drinking was evil;
  and divorce was unthinkable

The flag was honored;
  America was beautiful;
  and God was welcome! 

We read the Bible in public;
  Prayed in school;
  And preached from house to house
  To be called an American was worth dying for;
  To be called a Christian was worth living for;
  To be called a traitor was a shame! 

Sex was a personal word.
  Homosexual was an unheard of word,
  and abortion was an illegal word.

Preachers preached because they had a message;
  and Christians rejoiced because they had the VICTORY!
  Preachers preached from the Bible;
  Singers sang from the heart;
  and sinners turned to the Lord to be SAVED!

A new birth meant a new life;
  Salvation meant a changed life;
  Following Christ led to eternal life. 

Being a preacher meant you proclaimed the word of God;
  Being a deacon meant you would serve the Lord;
  Being a Christian meant you would live for Jesus;
  And being a sinner meant someone was praying for you! 

Laws were based on the Bible;
  Homes read the Bible;
  and churches taught the Bible. 

Preachers were more interested in new converts,
  than new clothes and new cars.
  God was worshiped;
  Christ was exalted;
  and the Holy Spirit was respected. 

Church was where you found Christians
  on the Lord's day, rather than in the garden,
  on the creek bank, on the golf course,
  or being entertained somewhere else. 

I still like the old paths the best! -- Anonymous

Lost Individuality

Have you nothing of your own?  Nothing to stand on that is not provided, defined, delineated, stamped, sanctioned, numbered and approved by others?  How can you be expected to fight for someone else when you haven't the barest idea of who you are? -- Sebastian, the Inquisitor from Babylon 5

Ze ID Please

Framing the Question

Five from Jay Leno

They keep talking about drafting a Constitution for Iraq. Why don't we just give them ours? It was written by a lot of really smart guys, it's worked for over 200 years, and we're not using it anymore. -- Jay Leno

In his speech the other night President Bush called for the National Guard to patrol the U.S.-Mexican border. The guard will track down and find illegals. I don’t know, that’s not really what the guard’s job is. They’re trained to fight, not track and find people. Lets be honest, the guard couldn't track and find President Bush when he was in the National Guard. -- Jay Leno

Is anybody really that surprised that Hillary Clinton is running for president? I'm not surprised. I mean, if you were married to Bill Clinton ... wouldn't you want to be able to tap his phone, read his mail, and torture him? -- Jay Leno

Who's in Charge?

Two from Paul Proctor

... those who refuse the government leash, regardless of their good behavior, are considered dangerous and should be demonized and destroyed for the good of society. This is why the Davidians were burned alive in Waco.....an offering to the gods of globalism, courtesy of Big Bubba. -- Paul Proctor

The Apex of the Pyramid

Glory is Fleeting

California, 1850

Eight from Winston Churchill

If you will not fight for right when you can easily win without bloodshed; if you will not fight when your victory is sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival. There may even be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves. -- Winston Churchill

America should have minded her own business and stayed out of the World War. If you hadn’t entered the war the Allies would have made peace with Germany in the spring of 1917. Had we made peace then there would have been no collapse in Russia followed by Communism, no breakdown in Italy followed by Fascism, and Germany would not have signed the Versailles Treaty, which has enthroned Nazism in Germany. If America had stayed out of the war, all of these "isms" wouldn’t today be sweeping the continent and breaking down parliamentary government, and if England had made peace early in 1917, it would have saved over one million British, French, American and other lives. -- Winston Churchill

Socialism is the philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy. Its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery. -- Winston Churchill

Truth is incontrovertible, ignorance can deride it, panic may resent it, malice may destroy it, but there it is. -- Winston Churchill

The Why of Taxes

If "A", then "B"

Control's real name is bondage. The logical conclusion would be, if giving up some rights produces a better society, then by giving up all our rights we could produce a perfect society. -- Citizens' Rule Book

Seven from Charley Reese...

Utopians are like a rhinoceros trying to stamp out a forest fire. All too often in its frustration it becomes dangerous. Instead of realizing that their schemes are flawed, they begin to see their perfect society being frustrated by people. If we can get rid of only those people, then the scheme would work, they say, and the blood begins to flow. -- Charley Reese

The universal franchise is a bad idea. The notion that the destiny of the nation should be put in the hands of ignoramuses, parasites, boobs, party hacks and idiots is absurd on its face. -- Charley Reese

I wish there were some way we could gather up all these chicken hawks, put them on a plane with rifles and parachutes and dump them out over Fallujah. If they're so enthusiastic about war, they ought to participate in it. Instead, they are like a bunch of kids urging someone else to fight so they can be entertained. There is hardly a more contemptible role a human being can play than being a vicarious warrior. -- Charley Reese

Just keep in mind that no terrorist has an army; no terrorist controls a country or even a city. Terrorists are nothing more than criminal gangs scattered about and perpetually on the run. When they occasionally draw blood, it is usually at the cost of their own lives. However magnified they might be in Cheney's murky mind, they are in reality losers, doomed to die for lost causes. -- Charlie Reese

The intention is often to intimidate those who disagree with them. Nobody who claims to be an American should ever allow himself to be intimidated by anybody for any reason. To forfeit the right of free speech out of fear should be unacceptable in the United States. A million or more Americans didn't give their lives so Americans could become sheep. It is especially shameful to be a sheep in America, because nothing bad is going to happen to you for speaking out. You may be slandered or questioned, but you won't be tortured, shot or imprisoned.

How'd you like to be standing in a long line before God on Judgment Day hearing the stories of people who confronted evil and paid for it with their lives? And all the time knowing that when your turn comes, you'll have to say, "Well, I never spoke out against the wrongs or injustices I saw in my country because I was afraid somebody would call me a bad name or not invite me to tea."

People who live in a free society but don't avail themselves of their freedom are like people dying of thirst while standing in a pool of sweet water. You are free. You have unalienable rights. Use them. If you don't use them, you might as well not have them. They exist only in use. Even dictatorships will let you babble on about trivial matters such as sports and entertainment.

But the men who pledged their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor to the concepts of freedom expressed in the Declaration of Independence were not taking those risks so people could gossip about inconsequential matters. They did not write the First Amendment for the benefit of pornographers and nude dancers or dirty-mouthed comics. The First Amendment is there to ensure a free discussion of political and other ideas that are important to establishing a civil society, and to pursue truth. -- Charley Reese

Liberals Used to Get It

Two from William Pitt

The poorest man may, in his cottage, bid defiance to all the forces of the Crown. It may be frail, its roof may shake; the wind may blow though it; the storm may enter; the rain may enter; but the King of England may not enter; all his force dares not cross the threshold of the ruined tenement. -- William Pitt

Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human liberty; it is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves. -- William Pitt

Power Like a River

The Morphing of Christianity

Pity the Fool

Pity the Partisan Fools

Of course, it’s all a fraud, designed to distract people from the overriding reality of political life, which is that the state and its principal supporters are constantly screwing the rest of us, regardless of which party happens to control the presidency and the Congress. Amid all the partisan sound and fury, hardly anybody notices that political reality boils down to two “parties”: (1) those who, in one way or another, use state power to bully and live at the expense of others; and (2) those unfortunate others.

The Gathering Storm

Gangsta Politicians

I have started referring to the two gangster parties as Crips (Blue) and Bloods (Red). As in,

Nancy Pelosi (Crip-CA)
John McCain (Blood-AZ) -- Adam Muntner

Seven from Adolf Hitler

Make the lie big, make it simple, keep saying it, and eventually they will believe it. -- Adolf Hitler

What luck for rulers that men do not think. -- Adolf Hitler

The victor will never be asked if he told the truth. -- Adolf Hitler

It is thus necessary that the individual should finally come to realize that his own ego is of no importance in comparison with the existence of his nation; that the position of the individual ego is conditioned solely by the interests of the nation as a whole...that above all, the unity of a nation's spirit and will are worth far more than the freedom of the spirit and will of an individual...we understand only the individual's capacity to make sacrifices for the community, for his fellow man. -- Adolf Hitler

Only force rules. Force is the first law. -- Adolf Hitler

What an Awful Business Politics Is

Two from Jacob Hornberger

In 1787, the Framers brought into existence the U.S. federal government, a government whose powers were expressly restricted by the Constitution. Our ancestors understood what all too many Americans today fail to appreciate -- that the biggest threat to people’s lives, liberties, and fortunes lies with their own government, which is precisely why they used the Constitution to severely constrain the government’s powers.

Our ancestors brought into existence the freest society in history, slavery notwithstanding. No income tax. No Federal Reserve. No welfare. No Social Security. No Medicare or Medicaid. No public schooling. No paper money. No gun control. No immigration controls. No trade protectionism. No drug war. No military-industrial complex. No foreign empire. No foreign wars. Minuscule government spending and borrowing. Sound money. Unlimited accumulation of wealth. Free markets. Liberty of contract. Private enterprise free of government control or regulation. -- Jacob Hornberger

Five from Robert Jackson

It is not the function of the government to keep the citizen from falling into error; it is the function of the citizen to keep the government from falling into error. -- United States Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson

These rights, I protest, are not mere second-class rights but belong in the catalog of indispensible freedoms. Among deprivations of rights, none is so effective in cowing a population, crushing the spirit of the individual and putting terror in every heart. Uncontrolled search and seizure is one of the first and most effective weapons in the arsenal of every arbitrary government. -- United States Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson, Brinegar v. United States

You Will Never Take Our Freedom

Fight and you may die, run and you'll live - at least a while. And, dying in your beds many years from now, would you be willing to trade all the days, from this day to that, for one chance, just one chance, to come back here and tell our enemies that they may take our lives, but they will never take OUR FREEDOM!!! -- William Wallace

What's the Difference between Legal and Right?

Right is right no matter who's against it.  Wrong is wrong, no matter who's for it.  Legal simply means that more people and politicians are for it than against it.

Of all the lessons history teaches, this one is plainest:  the person who tries to achieve ends through force is always unscrupulous and is always cruel.

We should remember this in an age where morality seems to be disappearing and is being replaced by politics. -- Eustace Percy

Two from Milton Friedman

A society that puts equality... ahead of freedom will end up with neither equality nor freedom. -- Milton Friedman

Seven from Laurence Vance

Throughout the twentieth century, interventionism, at home and abroad, was the guiding principle of the U.S. government under either political party. The 9/11 attacks were just the beginning of a worldwide revolt against U.S. imperialism and empire. Christians, of all people, should know the truth and speak the truth about the evils of U.S. wars and foreign policy. They should see Bush’s rhetoric about extending "the benefits of freedom across the globe" and enlarging "the realm of liberty" for what it is: plain, old-fashioned interventionism, pure and simple. Only a Jeffersonian foreign policy of peace, commerce, friendship, and no entangling alliances can cut the tentacles of U.S. global interventionism. Can any Christian honestly say that Bush’s principles are better than Jefferson’s principles? -- Laurence Vance

One of my readers came up with a great (but sad) description of the Christian lust for war:

"I have had good Christian people cheering 'shock and awe' and emailing around videos of US snipers blowing people apart with .50 cal sniper rifles. I like to call it 'War Porn' as it seems to give them perverse pleasure like some folks get by passing pornography around." -- Laurence Vance

Back in 1964, Strom Thurmond left the Democratic Party for the Republican Party, saying, among other things, that the Democratic Party was "leading the evolution of our nation to a socialistic dictatorship."

And to my critics, I should also say that I would take it a step further. I believe the Republican Party is leading the evolution of our nation to a faith-based, compassionate, fascist dictatorship.

Down with the whole rotten two-party system. Neither party is the lesser of two evils. -- Laurence Vance

No soldier in any of the world’s other 193 countries is supposed to follow an order to fire a weapon at an American soldier, sink an American ship, shoot down an American plane, drop a bomb on American territory, invade American soil, mine an American harbor, occupy an American city, torture an American, or kill an American. Those that do are considered terrorists, insurgents, and enemy combatants, all worthy of torture. -- Laurence Vance

The day is long past (if it ever existed) when the function of the U.S. military was limited to what it should be: defending the United States, securing U.S. borders, guarding U.S. shores, patrolling U.S. coasts, and enforcing no-fly zones over U.S. skies – not defending, guarding, patrolling, attacking, invading, or occupying other countries. And not providing disaster relief, dispensing humanitarian aid, supplying peacekeepers, enforcing UN resolutions, nation building, spreading goodwill, launching preemptive strikes, changing regimes, enforcing no-fly zones, rebuilding infrastructure, reviving public services, promoting good governance, stationing troops in other countries, garrisoning the planet with bases, and killing foreigners in their countries and destroying their property.

A military not strictly for defense of U.S. borders, shores, coasts, and skies is nothing more than the president’s personal attack force staffed by mercenaries willing to obey his latest command to bomb, invade, occupy, and otherwise bring death and destruction to any country he deems necessary. -- Laurence Vance

Uncommon Man's Creed

I do not choose to be a common man. It is my right to be uncommon -- if I can. I seek opportunity -- not security. I do not wish to be a kept citizen, humbled and dulled by having the state look after me. I wish to take the calculated risk; to dream and to build, to fail and to succeed. I refuse to barter incentive for a dole, I prefer the challenges of life to the guaranteed existence; the thrill of fulfillment to the stale calm of utopia. I will not trade freedom for beneficence, nor my dignity for a handout. I will never cower before any master, nor bend to any threat. It is my heritage to stand erect, proud, and unafraid, to think and act for myself, to enjoy the benefit of my creations, and to face the world boldly and say, "this I have done." All this is what it means to be an American. -- Anonymous

Nine from C.S. Lewis

The State exists to promote and to protect the ordinary happiness of human beings in this life. A husband and wife chatting over a fire, a couple of friends having a game of darts in a pub, a man reading a book in his own room or digging in his own garden -- that is what the State is there for. And unless they are helping to increase and prolong and protect such moments, all the laws, parliaments, armies, courts, police, economics, etc., are simply a waste of time. -- C.S. Lewis

A man may have to die for our country: but no man must, in any exclusive sense, live for his country. He who surrenders himself without reservation to the temporal claims of a nation, or a party, or a class is rendering to Caesar that which, of all things, most emphatically belongs to God: himself. -- C.S. Lewis

He who converts his neighbour has performed the most practical Christian political act of all. -- C.S. Lewis

What I want to fix your attention on is the vast overall movement towards the discrediting, and finally the elimination, of every kind of human excellence -- moral, cultural, social or intellectual. And is it not pretty to notice how "democracy" (in the incantatory sense) is now doing for us the work that was once done by the most ancient dictatorships, and by the same methods? The basic proposal of the new education is to be that dunces and idlers must not be made to feel inferior to intelligent and industrious pupils. That would be "undemocratic." Children who are fit to proceed may be artificially kept back, because the others would get a trauma by being left behind. The bright pupil thus remains democratically fettered to his own age group throughout his school career, and a boy who would be capable of tackling Aeschylus or Dante sits listening to his coeval's attempts to spell out A CAT SAT ON A MAT. We may reasonably hope for the virtual abolition of education when "I'm as good as you" has fully had its way. All incentives to learn and all penalties for not learning will vanish. The few who might want to learn will be prevented; who are they to overtop their fellows? And anyway, the teachers -- or should I say nurses? -- will be far too busy reassuring the dunces and patting them on the back to waste any time on real teaching. We shall no longer have to plan and toil to spread imperturbable conceit and incurable ignorance among men. -- C.S. Lewis

Whichever he adopts, your main task will be the same. Let him begin by treating the Patriotism or the Pacifism as a part of his religion. Then let him, under the influence or partisan spirit, come to regard it as the most important part. Then quietly and gradually nurse him on to the stage at which the religion becomes merely part of the "Cause", in which Christianity is valued chiefly because of the excellent arguments it can produce in favor of the British war effort or of pacifism. The attitude which you want to guard against is that in which temporal affairs are treated primarily as material for obedience. Once you have made the World an end, and faith a means, you have almost won your man, and it makes very little difference what kind of worldly end he is pursuing. Provided that meetings, pamphlets, policies, movements, causes, and crusades, matter more to him than prayers and sacraments and charity, he is ours - and the more "religious" (on those terms), the more securely ours. I could show you a pretty cageful down here. -- C.S. Lewis

That brings us right up against the real snag in all this drawing up of blueprints for a Christian society. Most of us are not really approaching the subject in order to find out what Christianity says: we are approaching it in the hope of finding support from Christianity for the views of our own party. -- C.S. Lewis

I Am Not Afraid

• It means that you do not participate in the public hysteria when terrorists attack, but instead react proportionally, placing the terrorist act in its proper place in the vast scheme of crimes, accidents, disease, natural disaster, and generic tragedy that is man's lot on earth.
• It means that you do not permit the politicians to feel terror on your behalf. It means that you discourage them from fomenting and exploiting hysteria to expand their own power at the expense of traditional American principles.
• It means that you view terrorism as a matter for international police work, under the rule of law, and not a justification for bloated government programs, reckless wars, or the shredding of the Bill of Rights.
• It means that you recruit others to adopt your war winning strategy of not being afraid.
• The biggest obstacle to implementing this strategy is the politicians, for two interlocking reasons . . .

• First, the politicians are afraid of public opinion. They're scared to look weak and uncaring by not doing something big and noticeable to fight terrorism, no matter how overblown or counterproductive.
• Second, they love the opportunity to exploit public fear to expand their own power and importance.

There is one solution to these two problems. Tell Congress that you've already won your war on terror, and that you've done so by not being afraid. Use the form below to send Congress the following message:

“I am not afraid of terrorism, and I want you to stop being afraid on my behalf. Please start scaling back the official government war on terror. Please replace it with a smaller, more focused anti-terrorist police effort in keeping with the rule of law. Please stop overreacting. I understand that it will not be possible to stop all terrorist acts. I accept that. I am not afraid.” -- Courtesy of Downsize DC

So This Is Freedom?

Let's look at how well laws protect freedom. In the U.S., a person is completely free to live his or her life ... as long as he or she doesn't mind:

• needing a piece of paper to officially exist or cease to exist;
  needing a government number to perform many essential tasks;
  being limited in the goods and services he or she is allowed to purchase;
  being told how much the approved goods and services should cost;
  waiting to be an approved age to purchase certain goods or services;
  choosing from a certain set of colors to paint a house or fence;
  being spied on and reported as he or she conducts various state-approved financial transactions;
  getting government permission to build on his or her land, or change an existing building;
  having his or her property taken because a "law enforcement officer" decides it's committed a crime;
  being told what kinds of romantic relationships are acceptable;
  needing a piece of paper in order to hold a certain job;
  wondering whether something he or she says is a "hate crime";
  being told who it's acceptable to vote for;
  needing a piece of paper to be able to drive, or travel in general;
  being told what pets are acceptable to own;
  needing a permission slip from a state-approved health care provider to buy most medicines;
  being told how he or she should rule when serving on a jury;
  getting a piece of paper to be able to carry his or her preferred self-defense tool;
  giving a substantial portion of the money he or she earns to someone else to give to others;
  and of course, paying for the pieces of paper and other "services" related to all the above.

I sure feel free after compiling that list -- which could be much longer if I'd have invested a few minutes into thinking about the laws I'm aware of.  --Sunni Maravillosa

Germany 1935, America 2005

By Any Other Name

In the U.S. their followers would use language as their first line of attack and deceit. They would wear no badge nor socialist label, but were to call themselves “liberal,” “progressive” and even “moderate.” Words were the weapon of choice for this new war. By changing and shifting word meanings the socialists could cover their true purpose. Everything would be done under the banners of “reform” and “social justice,” suggesting all was for the public good, for humanitarian reasons, for true democracy -- and finally -- for the children. The buzzwords of socialism were then, and are today, “social” and “democracy” (i.e. social science, social studies and socialization of the child). Robert Conquest observed, “a communist never does anything under his own name that he can do under someone else's.” -- Joe Larson

The American people will never knowingly adopt socialism, but under the name of liberalism, they will adopt every fragment of the socialist program until one day America will be a socialist nation without ever knowing how it happened. -- Norman Thomas

I have not believed the immediate threat is Communism. The outright confiscation of property, and the overnight destruction of liberty are not likely. The danger today is something else. It is creeping collectivism.

...The progress will be gradual but the end inevitable. There will be no sudden coup d'etat. The march will be step by step, and by muffled tread. It will move under the smoke-screen of laudable 'objectives' to its hidden goal. That goal is National Socialism.

...We are yet a long way from National Socialism of the Hitler species. We will probably never get that variety. But that we are moving toward some form of National Socialism and away from our form of government seems hard to not believe.

...What is really at stake in America today is our form of government. The issue is "Freedom or Feudalism." -- Samuel Pattengill

Hypocrites, All!

Kansas Senate Prayer

Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask your forgiveness and to seek your direction and guidance. We know Your Word says, "Woe to those who call evil good," but that is exactly what we have done. We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and reversed our values. We confess that:
We have ridiculed the absolute truth of Your Word and called it Pluralism.
We have exploited the poor and called it the Lottery.
We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare.
We have killed our unborn and called it choice.
We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable.
We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self-esteem.
We have abused power and called it politics.
We have coveted our neighbor's possessions and called it ambition.
We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of speech.
We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment.
Search us, Oh, God, and know our hearts today; cleanse us from every sin and set us free. Guide and bless these men and women who have been sent to direct us to the center of your will and to openly ask these things in the name of Your Son, the living Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. -- Pastor Joe Wright
The response was immediate. A number of legislators walked out during the prayer in protest. In 6 short weeks, Central Christian Church, where Reverend Wright is pastor, logged more than 5,000 phone calls with only 47 of those calls responding negatively. The church is now receiving international requests for copies of this prayer from India, Africa, and Korea. Commentator Paul Harvey aired this prayer on his radio program "The Rest of the Story" and received a larger response to this program than any other he has ever aired. With the Lord's help, may this prayer sweep over our nation and wholeheartedly become our desire so that we again can be called, "...one nation under God..."

The Ten "Cannots" of Political Economy

You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.
You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
You cannot help small men by tearing down big men.
You cannot help the wage-earner by tearing down the wage-payer.
You cannot further the brotherhood of mankind by encouraging class hatred.
You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.
You cannot establish sound security on borrowed money.
You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than you earn.
You cannot build character and courage by taking away man's initiative.
You cannot help man permanently by doing for them what they could do and should do for themselves. -- Although often attributed to Abraham Lincoln, he did not say this. The exact origin of this quote is unknown.

States Rights for Dummies

Which Came First?

It can't be repeated too often that, in the Declaration of Independence, our Founding Fathers asserted the revolutionary and "self evident" truth that "men...are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights." The Founders went on to assert, "to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men." Note the logical sequence: 1) God exists; 2) God creates man and endows him with rights; and 3) Man creates government to protect those rights. The individual precedes and is superior to government. Our Constitution is not a body of law to govern the people; it was formulated to govern the government, to make government the servant and not the master of the people. -- William F. Jasper

You the People

Our country is in danger, but not to be despaired of. Our enemies are numerous and powerful; but we have many friends, determining to be free, and heaven and earth will aid the resolution. On you, depend the fortunes of America. You are to decide the important question, on which rest the happiness and liberty of millions yet unborn.

Act worthy of yourselves. -- Joseph Warren

Six Miracles of Socialism

There is no unemployment, but no one works.
No one works, but everyone gets paid.
Everyone get's paid, but there is nothing to buy with the money.
No one can buy anything, but everyone owns everything.
Everyone ones everything, but no one is satisfied.
No one is satisfied, but 99 percent of the people vote for the system. -- Anonymous

A New Pledge

I pledge allegiance to the ideals,
Upon which this country was founded.
Not one nation indivisible,
But millions of sovereign individuals,
Trading peacefully among themselves.
With liberty and justice for all. -- John deLaubenfels

How Dumb Can We Be?

If you are ready for the adventure of a lifetime,

TRY THIS:

Enter Mexico illegally. Never mind immigration quotas, visas, international law, or any of that nonsense.
Once there, demand that the local government provide free medical care for you and your entire family.
Demand bilingual nurses and doctors.
Demand free bilingual local government forms, bulletins, etc.
Procreate abundantly. Deflect any criticism of this allegedly irresponsible reproductive behavior with, "It is a cultural USA thing. You would not understand, pal."
Keep your American identity strong. Fly Old Glory from your rooftop, or proudly display it in your front window or on your car bumper.
Speak only English at home and in public and insist that your children do likewise.
Demand classes on American culture in the Mexican school system.
Demand a local Mexican driver license. This will afford other legal rights and will go far to legitimize your unauthorized, illegal presence in Mexico.
Drive around with no liability insurance and ignore local traffic laws.
Insist that local Mexican law enforcement teach English to all its officers.
Good luck! You'll be demanding for the rest of time or soon dead.
Because it will never happen. It will not happen in Mexico or any other country in the world except right here in the United States, Land of the naive and stupid, idiotic politically correct politicians.
If you agree, pass it on. If you don't, go ahead and try the above in Mexico or Iran. -- Anonymous

Beware of Psychology

The danger is that these psychologies may, to one degree or another, replace Christianity without most people even noticing that any substitution has taken place. -- Christianity Today, 1994

In August 2003, the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) announced the results of their $1.2 million taxpayer-funded study. It stated, essentially, that traditionalists are mentally disturbed. Scholars from the Universities of Maryland, California at Berkeley, and Stanford had determined that social conservatives, in particular, suffer from "mental rigidity," "dogmatism" and "uncertainty avoidance" together with associated indicators for mental illness. -- Beverly Eakman

It (psychology) is not merely a religion that pretends to be science, it is actually a fake religion that seeks to destroy true religion. … psychotherapy is a modern, scientific-sounding name for what used to be called the “cure of souls” … with the decline of religion and the growth of science in the eighteenth century, the cure of (sinful) souls, which had been an integral part of the Christian religions, was recast as the cure of (sick) minds, and became an integral part of medicine. It is customary to define psychiatry as a medical specialty concerned with the study, diagnosis, and treatment of mental illness. This is a worthless and misleading definition. Mental illness is a myth. … the notion of a person “having a mental illness” is scientifically crippling. It provides professional assent to the popular rationalization – namely, that problems in living experienced and expressed in terms of so-called psychiatric symptoms are basically similar to bodily diseases. -- Thomas Szasz

Kleptocracy

The Source of America's Greatness

I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her commodious harbors and her ample rivers, and it was not there; in her fertile fields and boundless prairies, and it was not there; in her rich mines and her vast world commerce, and it was not there. Not until I went to the churches of America and heard her pulpits aflame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because America is good. And if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great. -- Alexis deTocqueville

Two from Mark Gilmore

Thieves have the guts to do the job themselves.
Thieves don't steal in the name of "justice".
Thieves don't masquerade as "liberals".
Thieves don't comprise a unified political mob of millions.
Thieves don't loath freedom and individuality.
Thieves don't undermine the Constitution.
Thieves don't promote mind control via "political correctness" and "hate" crimes.
Thieves don't own/control the "establishment" media.
Thieves don't indoctrinate our children to be unquestioning drones of the state.
Thieves can be arrested. -- Mark Gilmore

Gun registration is a gateway drug. -- Mark Gilmore

Two from R.J. Rummel

Power kills. Absolute power kills absolutely. -- Professor R.J. Rummel

{During the 20th century}…170 million men, women, and children have been shot, beaten, tortured, knifed, burned, starved, frozen, crushed, or worked to death; buried alive, drowned, hung, bombed, or killed in any other of the myriad ways governments have inflicted death on unarmed, helpless citizens and foreigners. -- Professor R.J. Rummel

Rating Minds

Useful Idiots

Take your example from the good housewife who finds use for even a broken shoestring. A good Communist finds use for everything and nothing is more useful than a useful idiot. -- V.I. Lenin

The Bush Presidency in 53 Words

Three from Aldous Huxley

Dictators can always consolidate their tyranny by an appeal to patriotism. -- Aldous Huxley

Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored. -- Aldous Huxley

Decline and Fall

Not a Dime's Worth of Difference

I'm glad there are still people out there that are willing to point out Bush's unconstitutional agenda. I once thought that if Gore had been elected as president we would have a second American Revolutionary War before his term was over. Now I think we need one! -- Michael Scherback

No Other Gods

By its very nature, government is hostile to any authority higher than itself. God, being that authority, will eventually be removed from all subjects in order to lift up the state by marginalizing or eradicating the reality of God. -- Elizabeth Farah

Stand in the Place Where You Publish

Retreat is no longer an option. But neither is appeasement. Neither is holding the line. Neither is 'conserving' the past. The only option is fighting back, telling the truth without embarrassment or shame. -- Joseph Farah

Wake Up, American Christians!

The apocalyptic narcissism of American evangelical leaders and their misguided zeal to isolate Israel, thus fulfilling the end-times prophecies, blinds them to geopolitical truth. These leaders, and their neoconservative political power broker partners, accepted and promoted lie after lie to sell the Iraq invasion to the American public. Good hearted, but misinformed, Americans swallowed these lies, thinking they were being patriotic Christians by supporting their “Christian” president.

Now Iran is in their crosshairs, and the familiar marketing campaign has begun. Now is the time for American Christians to wake up, educate themselves, and resist the next campaign of lies. Do not be afraid of being branded a liberal or anti-American.  Political labels and “unpatriotic” branding are favorite tactics of neoconservative narcissists; ignore them and instead live your faith. Real patriotism means speaking difficult truth to power, and real faith means worshiping God and helping bring dignity to all of God’s children. If your faith is too easy and comfortable, you’re not following Jesus. Chose to follow Jesus.

 God will not be manipulated like some pawn on a geopolitical chessboard. -- Alan Homcy

Blind Loyalty

Ten from James Madison

We have staked the whole future of American civilization, not upon the power of government, far from it. We have staked the future of all of our political institutions...upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God. -- James Madison

If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy. -- James Madison

Americans need never fear their government because of the advantage of being armed, which the Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation. -- James Madison

Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes; and armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few. In war, too, the discretionary power of the Executive is extended; its influence in dealing out offices, honors, and emoluments is multiplied; and all the means of seducing the minds, are added to those of subduing the force, of the people. . . . [There is also an] inequality of fortunes, and the opportunities of fraud, growing out of a state of war, and . . . degeneracy of manners and of morals. . . . No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare. . . .  -- James Madison

It will be of little avail to the people, that the laws are made by men of their own choice, if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood; if they be repealed or revised before they are promulgated, or undergo such incessant changes that no man, who knows what the law is today, can guess what it will be tomorrow. Law is defined to be a rule of action; but how can that be a rule, which is little known, and less fixed?...

Every new regulation ... presents a new harvest to those who watch the change, and can trace its consequences; a harvest, reared not by themselves, but by the toils and cares of the great body of their fellow-citizens. This is a state of things in which it may be said with some truth that laws are made for the FEW, not for the MANY. -- James Madison

Four from John C. Calhoun

The error is in the assumption that the General Government is a party to the constitutional compact.  The States formed the compact, acting as sovereign and independent communities. -- John C. Calhoun

The Constitution has admitted the jurisdiction of the United States within the limits of the several States only so far as the delegated powers authorize; beyond that they are intruders, and may rightfully be expelled. -- John C. Calhoun

The government of the uncontrolled numerical majority, is but the absolute and despotic form of popular government... -- John C. Calhoun

If we do not defend ourselves none will defend us; if we yield we will be more and more pressed as we recede; and if we submit we will be trampled underfoot. -- John C. Calhoun

Two from Ayn Rand

We are fast approaching the stage of the ultimate inversion: the stage where the government is free to do anything it pleases, while the citizens may act only by permission; which is the stage of the darkest periods of human history, the stage of rule by brute force. -- Ayn Rand

From North of the 49th Parallel

The Bible or the Bayonet?

The Tyranny of the Bankers

Two from John Locke

Whenever the legislators endeavor to take and destroy the porperty of the people, or to reduce them to slavery under arbitrary power, they put themselves into a state of war with the people, who are thereupon absolved from any further obedience. -- John Locke

The Citizen as Slave

The ideal citizen of a tyrannical state is the man or woman who bows in silent obedience in exchange for the status of a well cared for herd animal. Thinking people become the tyrant's greatest enemy. -- Claire Wolfe

Tax Prophecy

Four from Samuel Adams

It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people's minds. -- Samuel Adams

If ye love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude greater than the animating contest for freedom, go home from us in peace. We seek not your counsel, nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you. May your chains set lightly upon you; and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen. -- Samuel Adams

The general principles upon which the Fathers achieved independence were the general principals of Christianity. I will avow that I believed and now believe that those general principles of Christianity are as eternal and immutable as the existence and attributes of God. -- Samuel Adams

Nine from John Adams

I must study politics and war, that my sons may have the liberty to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history, and naval architecture, navigation, commerce, and agriculture, in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry and porcelain. -- John Adams

The Revolution was effected before the War commenced. The Revolution was in the minds and hearts of the people; a change in their religious sentiments of their duties and obligations ... This radical change in the principles, opinions, sentiments, and affections of the people, was the real American Revolution. -- John Adams

Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other. -- John Adams

Remember democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide. -- John Adams

You have rights antecedent to all earthly governments: rights that cannot be repealed or restrained by human laws; rights derived from the Great Legislator of the universe. -- John Adams

Five from John Quincy Adams

In the seventh century of the Christian era, a wandering Arab of the lineage of Hagar [i.e., Muhammad], the Egyptian, [.....] Adopting from the new Revelation of Jesus, the faith and hope of immortal life, and of future retribution, he humbled it to the dust by adapting all the rewards and sanctions of his religion to the gratification of the sexual passion. He poisoned the sources of human felicity at the fountain, by degrading the condition of the female sex, and the allowance of polygamy; and he declared undistinguishing and exterminating war, as a part of his religion, against all the rest of mankind. THE ESSENCE OF HIS DOCTRINE WAS VIOLENCE AND LUST. TO EXALT THE BRUTAL OVER THE SPIRITUAL PART OF HUMAN NATURE.... Between these two religions, thus contrasted in their characters, a war of twelve hundred years has already raged. The war is yet flagrant ... While the merciless and dissolute dogmas of the false prophet shall furnish motives to human action, there can never be peace upon earth, and good will towards men. -- John Quincy Adams

Why is it that, next to the birthday of the Savior of the world, your most joyous and most venerated festival returns on this day the Fourth of July? Is it not that, in the chain of human events, the birthday of the nation is indissolubly linked with the birthday of the Savior? That it forms a leading event in the progress of the Gospel dispensation? Is it not that the Declaration of Independence first organized the social compact on the foundation of the Redeemer's mission upon earth? That it laid the cornerstone of human government upon the first precepts of Christianity? -- John Quincy Adams

The Law given from Sinai (The Ten Commandments) was a civil and municipal as well as a moral and religious code. -- John Quincy Adams

Duty is ours. Results are God's. -- John Quincy Adams

Two from Alexander Hamilton

I have carefully examined the evidences of the Christian religion, and if I was sitting as a juror upon its authenticity I would unhesitatingly give my verdict in its favor. I can prove its truth as clearly as any proposition ever submitted to the mind of man. -- Alexander Hamilton

People as Inventory

Pharmaceutical Hypocrisy

But, heaven help the elderly who dare to buy their prescription drugs from a Canadian or Mexican pharmacy.  That's called un-American!  And you think the pharmaceutical companies don't have a powerful lobby?  Think again! -- Anonymous

Two from Paul Craig Roberts

As the growing emphasis on feelings crowds out reason, facts will play a smaller role in public discourse. -- Paul Craig Roberts

Brainwashed "conservatives" are so accustomed to denouncing federal judges for "judicial activism" that Cheney’s charge of overreach goes down smoothly. Vast percentages of the American public are simply unconcerned that their liberty can be revoked at the discretion of a police or military officer and that they can be held without evidence, trial or access to attorney and tortured until they confess to whatever charge their torturers wish to impose.

Americans believe that such things can only happen to "real terrorists," despite the overwhelming evidence that most of the Bush regime’s detainees have no connections to terrorism.

When these points are made to fellow citizens, the reply is usually that "I’m doing nothing wrong. I have nothing to fear."

Why, then, did the Founding Fathers write the Constitution and the Bill of Rights?

Godless

Secular, Christless conservatism — even when it is supposedly “compassionate” — will not defeat secular, Christless liberalism because to God they are two atheistic peas-in-a-pod and, thus, predestined to failure. -- John Lofton

Two from Herbert Spencer

A man's liberties are none the less aggressed upon because those who coerce him do so in the belief that he will be benefited. -- Herbert Spencer

Fruit of the Spirit

They love one another; they never fail to help widows; they save orphans from those who would hurt them; if they have something they give it freely to those who have nothing; if they see a stranger, they take him home and are happy as though he were a real brother. -- A Roman official describing First Century Christians to Emperor Hadrian

True Support for the Troops

May I please express my concern for the men and women wearing the military uniform of the United States of America? I am one who believes that you can support the troops even if you do not support the action or the purpose of the action they've been ordered to undertake.  Pray for: all aspects of their mission to be only righteous; their actions to be just, harming no innocents; and their safe delivery home. Is that not support?

I also believe that you CANNOT support the troops by sending them into combat without a very definite, well-defined, properly constituted declaration of war that is supported by the just, full backing of the United States Congress which commits all of our resources to their victory. If troops are to pay with blood, we are to pay with everything we can to ensure their just victory.  When Congress abdicates its authority and sends troops into combat with anything less, THEY and the President, who also commands the action, show disrespect -- not support -- for the troops. -- Mike Smith

Six from Frederic Bastiat

Socialism, like the ancient ideas from which it springs, confuses the distinction between government and society. As a result of this, every time we object to a thing being done by government, the socialists conclude that we object to its being done at all. -- Frederic Bastiat

And now that the legislators and do-gooders have so futilely inflicted so many systems upon society, may they finally end where they should have begun: May they reject all systems, and try liberty; for liberty is an acknowledgment of faith in God and His works. -- Frederic Bastiat

The claims of these organizers of humanity raise another question which I have often asked them and which, so far as I know, they have never answered: If the natural tendencies of mankind are so bad that it is not safe to permit people to be free, how is it that the tendencies of these organizers are always good? Do not the legislators and their appointed agents also belong to the human race? Or do they believe that they themselves are made of a finer clay than the rest of mankind? -- Frederic Bastiat

The law perverted! And the police powers of the state perverted along with it! The law, I say, not only turned from its proper purpose but made to follow an entirely contrary purpose! The law become the weapon of every kind of greed! Instead of checking crime, the law itself guilty of the evils it is supposed to punish!

If this is true, it is a serious fact, and moral duty requires me to call the attention of my fellow-citizens to it.  -- Frederic Bastiat

The Church's Mission to the State

Two Cents: What Matters?

For those of you who may 'hate George W. Bush', at least consider these facts. -- Michael Peroutka

Six from James Garfield

I love agitation and investigation and glory in defending unpopular truth against popular error. -- James Garfield

Poverty is uncomfortable; but nine times out of ten the best thing that can happen to a young man is to be tossed overboard and compelled to sink or swim. -- James Garfield

The truth will set you free, but first it will make you miserable. -- James Garfield

E-Mail Disclaimers

NOTICE: Due to Presidential Executive Orders, the National Security Agency may have read this email without warning, warrant or notice. They may do this without any judicial or legislative oversight. You have no recourse nor protection save to call for the impeachment of the current President. -- Anonymous

Roadmap to Middle East Peace

Two from David Rockefeller

All we need is the right major crisis and the nation will accept the New World Order. -- David Rockefeller

Who Really Runs Things

We Are in This Together

Adventures at Jury Selection

Not long ago I was invited to serve on the jury at the County Court House in Mercer, Pennsylvania. While the process of choosing /rejecting jurors was going on, the judge called me to the bench. I had written on my juror card that I believed that jurors have the right and duty to consider "both the facts and the law." Neither the judge nor the attorneys like that, so the judge asked if I would be willing to forego my claim. I stated that I would not, and that I would explain why if the judge was so inclined. He agreed, so this is what I told him:

Sir, we live in the State of Pennsylvania which was founded by William Penn. Years before William Penn came to America, he was arrested in Britain for preaching the Gospel of Christ, which at that time was an illegal act for an unlicensed person to do; and the penalty was death. But some members of the jury felt that the death penalty for preaching the Gospel was too severe, and they refused to render a "guilty" verdict, even though they were subjected to severe threats of punishment. In short, they applied the legal principle of "Jury Nullification." And the result was that William Penn survived the ordeal to found this State of Pennsylvania. Thus, for many, many years juries in America were recognized as having the power and the right to consider both the facts and the law in performing their court duties.

When I finished, the judge replied with a slight show of irritation, "Well, today in the State of Pennsylvania, it is the judge who considers the law, not the jury!" For the rest of the week, every time my name came up to serve on a jury, the judge smiled at me and pleasantly said, "Mr. Rose, we will excuse you!" -- Tom Rose

Dr. Seuss Couldn't Say It So Well

License me, tag me, take all my pay.
Tell me what to do, tell me what not to say.
Take all my money, take all my stuff.
I'll give it all to you, though it's never enough.
You can search me all over, I will never complain.
Nor fight you, contradict you, no matter what pain.
Tell me again I can't think on my own.
I need you to tell me I can't own my own home.
Take all my guns, take all my pride.
I will not defend myself, I'll only subside.
Give me the chip, give me free food.
I know you're here to help us, so we know you are good.
Give me the gas chamber.
I will not ask why.
You're only doing what's best for us.
We know you won't lie.
We worship you oh state.
You care for our needs.
We know you just love us.
And aren't thinking of greed.
Tell us what to do, where to go, what to say.
We'd better get on our knees and really start to pray.
Our freedoms are leaving and some don't know why.
They don't have the time to care and it makes me cry. -- David & Linda Elston

Tax Poem

The Lessons of Iraq

Government Should Just Butt Out

Becoming Illegal

As a native Marylander and excellent customer of the Internal Revenue Service, I am writing to ask for your assistance. I have contacted the Department of Homeland Security in an effort to determine the process for becoming an illegal alien and they referred me to you.

My primary reason for wishing to change my status from U.S. Citizen to illegal alien stem from the bill which was recently passed by the Senate and for which you voted. If my understanding of this bill's provisions is accurate, as an illegal alien who has been in the United States for five years, all I need to do to become a citizen is to pay a $2,000 fine and income taxes for three of the last five years. I know a good deal when I see one and I am anxious to get the process started before everyone figures it out.

Simply put, those of us who have been here legally have had to pay taxes every year so I'm excited about the prospect of avoiding two years of taxes in return for paying a $2,000 fine. Is there any way that I can apply to be illegal retroactively? This would yield an excellent result for me and my family because we paid heavy taxes in 2004 and 2005.

Additionally, as an illegal alien I could begin using the local emergency room as my primary health care provider. Once I have stopped paying premiums for medical insurance, my accountant figures I could save almost $10,000 a year. Another benefit in gaining illegal status would be that my daughter would receive preferential treatment relative to her law school applications, as well as "in-state" tuition rates for many colleges throughout the United States for my son.

Lastly, I understand that illegal status would relieve me of the burden of renewing my driver's license and making those burdensome car insurance premiums. This is very important to me given that I still have college age children driving my car.

If you would provide me with an outline of the process to become illegal (retroactively if possible) and copies of the necessary forms, I would be most appreciative. Thank you for your assistance.

Your Loyal Constituent -- Anonymous

Two from Larry Bigham

P-athetic
A-sinine
T-hickheaded
R-abble
I-gnoramuses
O-pposing
T-ruth
They'd rather swallow government propaganda! -- Larry Bigham

What to Do about Illegals

Put a bird feeder in your yard and fill it with bird seed.
It doesn't take long before the birds learn that a free meal is in the offing.
They come by the hundreds. Now, empty the feeder.
What happens? No more birds.
Take away the free medical care. Take away the free schooling. Take away the free welfare. Take away the jobs.
What happens? No more illegals.
WOW! What a simple solution!
No need for a border fence at the cost of hundreds of millions of tax dollars. -- Anonymous

More Than One Way to Burn a Book

Whose Side Shall We Take?

Politics and Cows

Taxman

Should five per cent appear too small,
Be thankful I don't take it all,
'Cause I'm the taxman, yeah I'm the taxman.

If you drive a car, I'll tax the street,
If you try to sit, I'll tax your seat,
If you get too cold, I'll tax the heat,
If you take a walk, I'll tax your feet.

Don't ask me what I want it for,
If you don't want to pay some more,
'Cause I'm the taxman, yeah, I'm the taxman.

Now my advice for those who die,
Declare the pennies on your eyes.
'Cause I'm the taxman, yeah, I'm the taxman.

And you're working for no one but me. -- John Lennon & Paul McCartney

Murder by Numbers

Cult of Personality

Neon lights, a Nobel Prize,
The mirror speaks, the reflection lies,
You don't have to follow me,
Only you can set me free,
I sell the things you need to be,
I'm the smiling face on your T.V.,
I'm the Cult of Personality,
I exploit you still you love me.

I tell you one and one makes three,
I'm the Cult of Personality,
Like Joseph Stalin and Gandhi,
I'm the Cult of Personality,
Cult of Personality,
Cult of Personality

Neon lights a Nobel Prize,
A leader speaks, that leader dies,
You don't have to follow me,
Only you can set you free.

You gave me fortune,
You gave me fame,
You me power in your God's name,
I'm every person you need to be,
I'm the Cult of Personality. -- Living Colour

Two from U2

The God I believe in isn't short on cash. -- Bono (Bullet the Blue Sky, live version)

I went out walking through the streets paved with gold,
Lifted some stones,
Saw the skin and bones,
Of a city without a soul,
I went out walking under an atomic sky,
Where the ground won't turn,
And the rain it burns,
Like the tears when I said goodbye.

Yeah I went with nothing,
Nothing but the thought of you,
I went wandering.

I went drifting through the capitals of tin,
Where men can't walk,
Or freely talk,
And sons turn their fathers in,
I stopped outside a church house,
Where the citizens like to sit,
They say they want the kingdom,
But they don't want God in it.

I went out with nothing,
Nothing but the thought of you,
I went wandering.

I went out walking,
Down that winding road,
Where no one's trusting no one,
And conscience...a too heavy load,
I went out riding, down that ol' eight lane,
I passed by a thousand signs,
Looking for my own name.

I went with nothing,
But the thought you'd be there, too,
Looking for you.

I went out there in search of experience,
To taste and to touch and to feel's as much,
As a man can before he repents.

I went out searching, looking for one good man,
A spirit who would not bend or break,
Who could sit at his father's right hand,
I went out walking with a bible and a gun,
The word of God lay heavy on my heart,
I was sure I was the one,
Now Jesus, don't you wait up,
Jesus, I'll be home soon,
Yea I went out for the papers,
Told her I'd be back by noon.

Yeah I left with nothing,
But the thought you'd be there too,
Looking for you...
Yeah I left with nothing,
Nothing but the thought of you...
I went wandering. -- U2 (Vocals by Johnny Cash)

Silent Running

Somebody's Watching Me

I'm just an average guy with an average life
I work from nine to five, hey hell I pay the price
But I want is to be left alone in my average home
But why do I always feel like I'm in the Twilight Zone

I always feel that somebody's watchin' me
And I have no privacy
I always feel that somebody's watchin' me
Is it just a dream?

When I come home at night
I bolt the door real tight
People call me on the phone I'm trying to avoid
Well, can the people on TV see me or am I just paranoid

I always feel that somebody's watchin' me
And I have no privacy
I always feel that somebody's watchin' me
Is it just a dream?

When I'm in the shower, I'm afraid to wash my hair
I might open my eyes and find someone standing there
People say I'm crazy, just a little touched
But maybe showers remind me of Psycho too much
That's why...

I always feel like somebody's watching me
Who's playing tricks on me
I always feel like somebody's watching me
Tell me it can't be

I don't know anymore
Are the neighbors watching me
Well is the mailman watching me
And I don't feel safe anymore, oh what a mess
I wonder who's watching me now?
Who? The IRS?

I always feel like somebody's watching me
Who's playing tricks on me
I always feel like somebody's watching me
I can't enjoy my tea! -- Rockwell

Clampdown

What are we gonna do now?
Taking off his turban, they said, Is this man a Jew?
’Cos working for the clampdown,
They put up a poster saying we earn more than you!
When we're working for the clampdown,
We will teach our twisted speech,
To the young believers,
We will train our blue-eyed men,
To be young believers.

The judge said five to ten but I say double that again,
I'm not working for the clampdown,
No man born with a living soul,
Can be working for the clampdown,
Quick over the wall 'cause government's to fall,
How can you refuse It?
Let fury have the hour, anger can be power,
D'you know that you can use It?

The voices In your head are calling,
Stop wasting your time, there's nothing coming,
Only a fool would think someone could save you,
The men at the factory are old and cunning,
You don't owe nothing, so boy get running,
It's the best years of your life they want to steal.

You grow up and you calm down and,
You're working for the clampdown,
You start wearing the blue and brown and,
You're working for the clampdown,
So you got someone to boss around,
It makes you feel big now,
You drift until you brutalize,
You made your first kill now.

In these days of evil president,
Working for the clampdown,
But lately one or two has fully paid their due,
For working for the clampdown,
Ha! Gitalong Gitalong!
Working for the clampdown,
Ha! Gitalong! Gitalong!
Working for the clampdown.

Yeah I’m working hard In Harrisburg,
Working hard In Petersburg,
Working for the clampdown,
Working for the clampdown,
Ha! Gitalong! Gitalong!
Begging to be melted down,
Gitalong, gitalong,
Work,
Work,
And I give away no secrets – ha!
Work
More work
Work
Work. -- The Clash

With God on Our Side

Two from Simon & Garfunkel

A man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest. -- Simon & Garfunkel

For Lack of Knowledge

Is It American?

Is It "American" to write "hate crimes" laws In violation of the First Amendment to silence those our government wishes to silence?

 

Is It "American" to write "lobby laws" to silence critics of our government's newly-acquired paranoia thereby justifying authoritarian and totalitarian solutions?

 

Is It "American" or "Mirandan" not to allow a prisoner to make at least one phone call, or to consult a lawyer, or to ask for a statement of charges, or to inquire as to probable cause, or to even ask for a speedy trial by peers relating to the charges government has brought against one?

 

Is It "American" to allow "free speech" zones within concertina razor wire-confined areas patrolled by "police" with machine-guns?

 

Is It "American" to allow one individual to "decide" for 300 million Americans to "sacrifice" US and our children Into one war after another without bothering to consult Congress or the American people?

 

Is It "American" to attack other nations that have not attacked US?

 

Is It beyond any modicum of doubt that such a government would also easily plan and carry out a manufactured terrorist event and kill Its own people In order to posture Itself for such total control over Its citizens? -- Ted Lang

Three from Deanna Spingola

Those not Interested In politics will forever be ruled by those who are. -- Deanna Spingola

A Visitor from the Past

I had a dream the other night, I didn't understand.
A figure walking through the mist, with flintlock In his hand.
His clothes were torn and dirty, as he stood there by the bed.
He took off his three cornered hat, speaking low he said:

We fought a revolution, to secure our liberty.
We wrote the Constitution as a shield from tyranny.
For future generations, this legacy we gave.
In this, the land of the free and the home of the brave.

The freedom we secured for you we hoped you would always keep.
But tyrants labored endlessly while your parents were asleep.
Your freedom gone, your courage lost, you're no more than a slave.
In this, the land of the free and the home of the brave.

You buy permits to travel, and permits to own a gun,
Permits to start a business, or to build a place for one.
On a land that you believe you own you pay a yearly rent.
While you have no voice In choosing how the money Is spent.

Your children must attend a school that doesn't educate.
Your Christian values can't be taught according to the state.
You read about the current news, In a regulated press.
You pay a tax you do not owe to please the IRS.

Your money Is no longer made of silver or of gold.
You traded In your wealth for paper so your life can be controlled.
You pay for crimes that make our Nation turn from God In shame.
You've taken Satan's number as you've traded In your name.

You've given government control to those who do you harm,
So they can padlock churches and steal the family farm,
And keep our country deep In debt, put men of God In jail,
Harass your fellow countrymen, while corrupted courts prevail.

Your public servants don't uphold the solemn oath they've sworn.
Your daughters visit doctors so their children won't be born.
Your leaders ship artillery and guns to foreign shores,
And send your sons to slaughter fighting other peoples wars.

Can you regain the freedom for which we fought and died?
Or don't you have the courage to stand with faIth and pride?
Are there no more values for which you'll fight to save?
Or do you wish your children live In fear and be a slave?

Sons of the republic, arise and take a stand!
Defend the Constitution, the Supreme Law of the Land!
Preserve our Great Republic and each God Given Right!
And pray to God, to keep the torch of freedom burning bright!

As I awoke he vanished, In the mist from which he came.
His words were true, we are not free, we have ourselves to blame.
For even now as tyrants trample each God Given Right.
We only watch and tremble, too afraid to stand and fight.

If he stood by your bedside In a dream, while you were asleep.
And wonders what remains of our Rights he fought to keep.
What we be your answer If he called out from the grave?
"IS THIS STILL THE LAND OF THE FREE AND THE HOME OF THE BRAVE?" -- Thelan Paulk

Four from George Will

The first task of government: to establish a monopoly on violence. -- George Will

The Chicago Cubs are America's answer to Soviet agriculture. -- George Will

You cannot have a moral duty to do what cannot be done. -- George Will

Independence

Schooling vs. Education

Two from Herbert Hoover

Every collectivist revolution rides in on a Trojan horse of "emergency." It was the tactic of Lenin, Hitler, and Mussolini. In the collectivist sweep over a dozen minor countries of Europe, it was the cry of men striving to get on horseback. And "emergency" became the justification of the subsequent steps. This technique of creating emergency is the greatest achievement that demagoguery attains. -- Herbert Hoover

Different Kinds of War

But America is not at war. There are no electricity cuts on Valdosta (State's) warm green campus, with its Spanish style department blocks and its narrow, beautiful church. There is no food rationing. There are no air-raid shelters or bombs or "jihadists" stalking these God-fearing folk. It is the US military that is at war, engaged in an Iraqi conflict that is doing damage of a far more subtle kind to America's social fabric.

Off campus, I meet a gentle, sensitive man, a Vietnam veteran with two doctor sons. One is a lieutenant colonel, an army medical officer heading back to Baghdad this week for Bush's "surge", bravely doing his duty in the face of great danger. The other is a civilian doctor who hates the war. And now the two boys - divided by Iraq - can hardly bring themselves to speak to each other. -- Robert Fisk

Two from Rick Fisk

Values voters have strange values. -- Rick Fisk

Is Bush Worse than Clinton?

Truth is treason in the empire of lies. -- Congressman Dr. Ron Paul, MD (R-TX)

If we stuck to the Constitution as written, we would have no federal meddling In our schools, no Federal Reserve, no U.S. membership In the UN, no gun control, and no foreign aid. We would have no welfare for big corporations or the "poor", no American troops In 100 foreign countries, no NAFTA, GATT, or "fast-track",  no arrogant federal judges usurping states rights, no attacks on private property, no Income tax. We could get rid of most of the agencies and most of the budget. The government would be small, frugal, and limited. -- Congressman Dr. Ron Paul, MD (R-TX)

It's a bad Idea.

There's no need for It.

There's great danger In doing It.

America Is against It, and Congress should be.

The United Nations Is against It.

The Russians, the Chinese, the Indians, and the Pakistanis are against It.

The whole world Is against It.

Our allies are against It.

Our enemies are against It.

The Arabs are against It.

The Europeans are against It.

The Muslims are against It.

We don't need to do this.

The threat Is overblown.

The plan Is an hysterical reaction to a problem that does not yet exist.

Hysteria Is never a good basis for foreign policy.

Don't we ever learn?

Have we already forgotten Iraq?

The plan defies common sense.

If It's carried out, the Middle East, and possibly the world, will explode.

Oil will soar to over $100 a barrel, and gasoline will be over $5 a gallon.

Despite what some think, It won't serve the Interests of Israel.

Besides – It's Illegal.

It's unconstitutional.

And you have no moral authority to do It.

We don't need It.

We don't want It.

So, Mr. President, don't do It.

Don't bomb Iran!

The moral of the story, Mr. Speaker, Is this: If you don't have a nuke, we'll threaten to attack you. If you do have a nuke, we'll leave you alone. In fact, we'll probably subsidize you. What makes us think Iran does not understand this? -- Congressman Dr. Ron Paul, MD (R-TX)

When one gets in bed with government, one must expect the diseases it spreads. -- Congressman Dr. Ron Paul, MD (R-TX)

War is never economically beneficial except for those in position to profit from war expenditures. -- Congressman Dr. Ron Paul, MD (R-TX)

Our country's founders cherished liberty, not democracy. -- Congressman Dr. Ron Paul, MD (R-TX)

Justifying conscription to promote the cause of liberty is one of the most bizarre notions ever conceived by man! Forced servitude, with the risk of death and serious injury as a price to live free, makes no sense. -- Congressman Dr. Ron Paul, MD (R-TX)

We will take our marching orders from the Constitution. -- Congressman Dr. Ron Paul, MD (R-TX)

There's nobody in this world that could possibly attack us today... I mean, we could defend this country with a few good submarines. If anybody dared touch us we could wipe any country off of the face of the earth within hours. And here we are, so intimidated and so insecure and we're acting like such bullies that we have to attack third-world nations that have no military and have no weapon. -- Congressman Dr. Ron Paul, MD (R-TX)

We ... disavow and declare to be most false and unfounded, the doctrine that the compact, in authorizing its federal branch to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises to pay the debts and provide for the common defence and general welfare of the United States, has given them thereby a power to do whatever they may think or pretend would promote the general welfare, which construction would make that, of itself, a complete government, without limitation of powers; but that the plain sense and obvious meaning were, that they might levy the taxes necessary to provide for the general welfare by the various acts of power therein specified and delegated to them, and by no others. -- Thomas Jefferson

I have ever deemed it fundamental for the United States never to take active part in the quarrels of Europe. Their political interests are entirely distinct from ours. Their mutual jealousies, their balance of power, their complicated alliances, their forms and principles of government, are all foreign to us. They are nations of eternal war. All their energies are expended in the destruction of the labor, property and lives of their people. -- Thomas Jefferson to James Monroe, 1823

The true theory of our Constitution is surely the wisest and best, that the States are independent as to everything within themselves, and united as to everything respecting foreign affairs. Let the General Government be reduced to foreign concerns only, and let our affairs be disentangled from those of all other nations, except as to commerce, which the merchants will manage the better, the more they are left free to manage for themselves, and our General Government may be reduced to a very simple organization, and a very inexpensive one; a few plain duties to be performed by a few servants. -- Thomas Jefferson

I am not among those who fear the people. They, and not the rich, are our dependence for continued freedom. And to preserve their Independence, We must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. We must make our election between economy and liberty or profusion and servitude. If we run Into such debt, as that we must be taxed In our meat and In our drink, In our necessaries and our comforts, In our labors and our amusements, for our calling and our creeds as the people of England are, our people, like them, must come to labor sixteen hours In the twenty-four, give the earnings of fifteen of these to the government for their debts and daily expenses; and the sixteenth being insufficient to afford us bread, we must live, as they now do, on oatmeal and potatoes; have no time to think, no means of calling our mis-managers to account but be glad to obtain subsistence by thinking ourselves to rivet their chains on the necks of our fellow-sufferers Our land-holders, too, like theirs, retaining Indeed the title and stewardship of estates called theirs but held really In trust for the treasury, must wander, like theirs, In foreign countries, and be contented with penury, obscurity, exile, and the glory of the nation. This example reads to us the salutary lesson, that private fortunes are destroyed by public as well as by private extravagances. And this Is the tendency of all human governments. A departure from principle In one Instance becomes a precedent for the second; that second for a third; and so on, till the bulk of society Is reduced to be mere automatons of misery, to have no sensibilities left but for sinning and suffering. Then begins, Indeed, the bellum omnium in omnia, which some philosophers observing to be so general In this world, have mistaken for the natural, Instead of the abusive state of man. And the fore-horse of this frightful team Is public debt. Taxation follows that, and In Its train wretchedness and oppression. -- Thomas Jefferson

Two from Stonewall Jackson

National sins must be punished in this life as there are no nationalities beyond the grave. -- Thomas Jonathan (Stonewall) Jackson

For All Those Born before 1940

We are the survivors!!! Consider the changes we have witnessed.

We were before television, before penicillin, before polio shots, frozen foods, Xerox, contact lenses, frisbees and the pill.

We were before radar, credit cards, split atoms, laser beams and ballpoint pens; before pantyhose, dishwashers, clothes driers, electric blankets, air conditioners, drip-dry clothes and before man walked on the moon.

We got married first and then lived together. How quaint can you be?

In our time, closets were for clothes, not for “coming out of.” Bunnies were small rabbits and beetles were not Volkswagens. Designer Jeans were scheming girls named Jean or Jeannie and having a meaningful relationship meant getting along well with your cousins.

We thought fast foods were what you ate during Lent and outer space was the back of the Riviera Theater.

We were before househusbands, gay rights, dual careers, computer dating and computer marriages. We were before day care centers, group therapy and nursing homes. We never heard of FM radio, tape decks, electric typewriters, artificial hearts, word processors, yogurt and guys wearing earrings. For us, timesharing meant togetherness, not computers or condominiums. A chip meant a piece of wood, hardware meant, well, hardware and software wasn’t even a word.

In 1940, “Made in Japan” meant junk and “making out” referred to how you did on the exam. Pizzas, McDonalds and instant coffee were unheard of.

We hit the scene when 5 and 10 cent stores were where you bought things for 5 and 10 cents. Sanders’ or Wilson’s sold ice cream cones for a nickel or a dime. For one nickel, you could ride a street car make a phone call, buy a Pepsi or enough stamps to mail one letter and two postcards. You could buy a new Ford Coupe for $600. But who could afford one? A pity too, because gas was only 11 cents a gallon.

In our day, cigarette smoking was fashionable, grass was mowed, coke was a drink and pot was something you cooked in; rock music was a Grandma’s lullaby and AIDS were helpers in the principal’s office.

We were certainly not before the different sexes were discovered, but we were surely before the sex change; so we made do with what we had. And we were the last generation that was so dumb as to think you needed a husband to have a baby.

No wonder we are so confused and there is a generation gap today.

But we survived. What a better reason to celebrate! -- Anonymous

Hometown

The Great Dictator

I'm sorry but I don't want to be an Emperor - that's not my business - I don't want to rule or conquer anyone. I should like to help everyone if possible, Jew, gentile, black man, white. We all want to help one another, human beings are like that.

We all want to live by each other's happiness, not by each other's misery. We don't want to hate and despise one another. In this world there is room for everyone and the earth is rich and can provide for everyone.

The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed, the bitterness of men who fear the way of human progress: the hate of men will pass and dictators die and the power they took from the people , will return to the people and so long as men die [now] liberty will never perish. . .

Soldiers - don't give yourselves to brutes, men who despise you and enslave you - who regiment your lives, tell you what to do, what to think and what to feel, who drill you, diet you, treat you as cattle, as cannon fodder.

Don't give yourselves to these unnatural men, machine men, with machine minds and machine hearts. You are not machines. You are not cattle. You are men. You have the love of humanity in your hearts. You don't hate - only the unloved hate. Only the unloved and the unnatural. Soldiers - don't fight for slavery, fight for liberty.

You the people have the power, the power to create machines, the power to create happiness. You the people have the power to make life free and beautiful, to make this life a wonderful adventure. Then in the name of democracy let's use that power - let us all unite. Let us fight for a new world, a decent world that will give men a chance to work, that will give you the future and old age and security. By the promise of these things, brutes have risen to power, but they lie. They do not fulfil their promise, they never will. Dictators free themselves but they enslave the people. Now let us fight to fulfil that promise. Let us fight to free the world, to do away with national barriers, do away with greed, with hate and intolerance. Let us fight for a world of reason, a world where science and progress will lead to all men's happiness.

Soldiers - in the name of democracy, let us all unite!

Look up! Look up! The clouds are lifting - the sun is breaking through. We are coming out of the darkness into the light. We are coming into a new world. A kind new world where men will rise above their hate and brutality.

How to Live

Whether seventy or sixteen, there Is In every being's heart the love of wonder, the sweet amazement at the stars and the starlike things and thoughts, the undaunted challenge of events, the unfailing childlike appetite for what's next, and the joy and the game of life.

You are as young as your faith, as old as your doubt; as young as your self-confidence, as old as your fear, as young as your hope, as old as your despair.

So long as your heart receives messages of beauty, cheer, courage, grandeur and power from the earth, from man, and from the Infinite, so long you are young. -- Samuel Ullman

There was a very cautious man who never laughed or played,
He never risked, he never tried, he never sang or prayed,
And when one day he passed away, his insurance was denied,
They claimed that since he never lived, he never really died. -- Anonymous

What's the best age in life? Age is irrelevant. Opportunity, health, relationships, and state of mind are the best predictors of genuine contentment . Age is not important unless you are a cheese. -- Helen Hayes

Two from Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Your America is doing many things in the economic field which we found out caused us so much trouble. You are trying to control peoples' wages and prices -- peoples' work. If you do that you must control peoples' lives. And no country can do that part way. I tried and it failed. Nor can any country do it all the way either. I tried that too and it failed. You are no better planners than we. I should think your economists would read what happened here. -- Hermann Goering

Two from Joseph Goebbels

The rank and file Is usually much more primitive than we Imagine. Propaganda must therefore always be essentially simple and repetitious. The most brilliant propagandist technique will yield no success unless one fundamental principle Is borne In mind constantly... It must confine Itself to a few points and repeat them over and over. -- Joseph Goebbels

Maybe I'm getting paranoid in my old age, but I don't think George Bush is planning on leaving DC next year.  There are a couple of things I can point to with proof, such as his signing statements, giving himself dictatorial powers in the case of national emergencies ... which he can define.  There's some of the conspiracy theory type stuff - most of which, when looked at one at a time, can have sensible explanations, but when they're all looked at together, create something more than mere coincidence.  The existence of Blackwater and the fact that our government has attempted to downplay the use of them in Iraq and in New Orleans after Katrina, The billions being spent on "FEMA camps" - I've seen supposed footage of some of these and they're eerily reminiscent of NAZI concentration camps.  One of these "camps" is complete with brand new large furnaces, which I guess could be used to incinerate contaminated clothing etc., or dissidents.  Lastly, I have things which can only be classified, from my perspective, as rumors.  That GWB's staff had been looking into ways to forestall elections since as far back as 2004, that we're due for an economic downturn, (possibly planned), in October, when congress is in recess.  Combine that with the rumors of a Gulf of Tonkin incident and it seems as if the stage has been set.  Light the Reichstag fire and let Heir Bush usher in WW3.  I'd rather be wrong.  I'd rather look back at all this three years from now and be able to belittle my past foolishness, but I have a wife and kids to think about and I don't think ignorance is going to be an acceptable excuse to them, if I'm right and didn't at least do what a believer in not initiating violence can do.  I think most people who read this will chalk it up as nonsense and go about their business, but I hope that just a few will at least look into these possibilities.  I believe my children's future makes it worth at least putting our nose in the wind. -- Bryan Morton

According to the Bush administration waterboarding Is not torture. It Is just an efficient means of extracting accurate information. If they really believe this, then I think that Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Pearle, Rowe, Rice and the rest of the Bush administration should voluntarily undergo waterboarding while being questioned about the motives behind 9/11, Iraq and Afghanistan. They've already said that waterboarding It's not torture. I'm sure that Bush, as a Christian, would not have done unto someone else what he would not have done unto himself, and, like the Statists are so fond of saying, If he has nothing to hide, he has nothing to fear. It's a no brainier. Waterboarding Is the perfect method of learning the truth. Since no harm Is done and they're not lying who could, with any moral consistency, be against It? -- Bryan Morton

Our Government,
Which art In Washington,
Inculpable be Thy actions.

Thy empire come.
Thy will be done,
Around the globe
As It Is In the US.

Give us this day
Our daily bread,
Free retirement, healthcare,
Environmental protection,
Transportation, education,
Protectionist tariffs,
Security, regulation,
Fiat currency, and anything else
the majority of registered voters wants.

And go more Into debt,
As we become more debtors.
And lead us Into blind obedience,
As we give up our freedom.

For Thine Is the Empire,
and our Incomes and the military,
and police powers, and the glory, forever.

Or until the loose fiscal policy, borrowing money,
and creating the fiat currency necessary to,
sustain the socialistic paternal State combines
with the Insurmountable cost of defense against
the global unrest caused by poor foreign policy
and brings the whole PonzI scheme crashing to Its knees.

Amen. -- Bryan Morton

The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them. -- George Orwell

During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act. -- George Orwell

Creeping Fascism

Courage to Cowardice

My Calling

I am a minister. My mission field is the largest on earth. I minister to children.

My calling is sure. My challenge is big. My vision is clear. My desire is strong. My influence is eternal. My impact is critical. My values are solid. My faith is tough. My mission is urgent. My purpose is unmistakable. My direction is forward. My heart is genuine. My strength is supernatural. My reward is promised. And my God is real.

In a world of cynicism, I offer hope. In a world of confusion, I offer truth. In a world of immorality, I offer values. In a world of neglect, I offer attention. In a world of abuse, I offer safety. In a world of ridicule, I offer affirmation. In a world of division, I offer reconciliation. In a world of bitterness, I offer forgiveness. In a world of sin, I offer salvation. In a world of hate, I offer God's love.

I refuse to be dismayed, disengaged, disgruntled, discouraged, or distracted. Neither will I look back, stand back, fall back, go back, or sit back. I do not need applause, flattery, adulation, prestige, stature, or veneration. I have no time for business as usual, mediocre standards, small thinking, outdated methods, normal expectations, average results, ordinary ideas, petty disputes, or low vision. I will not give up, give in, bail out, lie down, turn over, quit or surrender.

I will pray when things look bad. I will pray when things look good. I will move forward when others stand still. I will trust God when obstacles arise. I will push when the task is overwhelming. I will get up when I fall down.

My calling is to reach boys and girls for God. It is too serious to be taken lightly, too urgent to be postponed, too vital to be ignored, too relevant to be overlooked, too significant to be trivialized, too eternal to be fleeting, and too passionate to be quenched.

I know my mission. I know my challenge, I also know my limitations, my weaknesses, my fears and my problems. And I know my God. Let others get the praise. Let the church get the blessing. Let God get the glory.

I am a minister. I minister to children. This is who I am. This is what I do. -- Anonymous

The Fellowship of the Unashamed

My past Is redeemed. My present makes sense. My future Is secure. I'm done and finished with low living, sight walking, small planning, smooth knees, colorless dreams, tamed visions, mundane talking, cheap living and dwarfed goals.

I no longer need preeminence, prosperity, position, promotions, plaudits, or popularity. I don't have to be right, or first, or tops, or recognized, or praised, or rewarded. I live by faith, lean on His presence, walk by patience, lift by prayer and labor by Holy Spirit power.

My face Is set. My gait Is fast. My goal Is heaven. My road may be narrow, my way rough, my companions few, but my guide Is reliable and my mission Is clear. I will not be bought, compromised, detoured, lured away, turned back, deluded or delayed. I will not flinch In the face of sacrifice or hesitate In the presence of the adversary. I will not negotiate at the table of the enemy, ponder at the pool of popularity or meander In the maze of mediocrity.

I won't give up, shut up, or let up until I have stayed up, stored up, prayed up, paid up and preached up for the cause of Christ. I am a disciple of Jesus. I must give until I drop, preach until all know and work until He comes. And when He does come for His own, He'll have no problems recognizing me. My colors will be clear! -- Author anonymous. Found amidst the papers of a martyred African pastor.

The One We Serve

In chemistry, He turned water to wine.
In biology, He was born without the normal conception;
In physics, He disapproved the law of gravity when He ascended into heaven;
In economics, He disapproved the law of diminishing return by feeding 5000 men with two fishes and five loaves of bread;
In medicine, He cured the sick and the blind without administering a single dose of drugs,
In history, He is the beginning and the end;
In government, He said that he shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Prince of Peace;
In religion, He said no one comes to the Father except through him;
So? Who is He?  He is Jesus!
Join me and let's celebrate him; He is worthy.
The eyes beholding this message shall not behold evil, the hand that will send this message to everybody shall not labor in vain, and the mouth saying amen to this prayer shall smile forever.  Remain in God and seek his face always.  Amen!
In God I've found everything!
The Greatest Man in History!
Jesus had no servants, yet they called Him Master.
Had no degree, yet they called Him Teacher.
Had no medicines, yet they called Him Healer.
Had no army, yet kings feared Him.
He won no military battles, yet He conquered the world.
He committed no crime, yet they crucified Him.
He was buried in a tomb, yet He lives today.
Feel honored to serve such a Leader who loves us. -- Anonymous