Abigail, honor is in the eye of the beholder. The 3 people you mention are honorable to YOU, perhaps, but are not according to most people or they would already be leading the country. Their ideas are anathema to most of us. Decency mustn't be confused with honor. After all there is honor among thieves.

The founders have to be turning over in their graves. Perpetual war, occupiers of foreign nations, inability or unwillingness to control finances, haters of immigrants, both legal and illegal.

If Douglas MacArthur had ever been elected president I have no doubt he'd have done exactly what he ranted about in this commentary of his. It's how the military mind works, doncha know?

Ronald campaigned on less government but actually grew 'gubmint' when he became president. The Dept. of Education was what he aimed at dissolving. Instead it grew because he placed his 'good soldiers' in the department. All administrations need places for rewarding their 'helpers'. Another example is the CIA. Most people there are simply taking up space.

The problem with news journalism today is that reporters want/need access to their subjects and so 'accommodate' them by being less than open about the truth. We are depending more and more on independent investigatory organizations like Wikileaks for truth.

Spooner nailed it: some men are more equal than others. The road to Hell is paved with good intentions and our constitution proves it.

Apparently both presidents Pierce and Cleveland didn't understand the Preamble to the Constitution: ,,,"promote the general welfare".

I wonder why we have had so many stellar grads from our state colleges if state ed. is so terrible. I graduated from a state college and was never, ever indoctrinated with communist/socialist dogma. I hear this nonsense all the time and it is ridiculous. Probably all but two of the respondents come across as Radical Rightwingers who despise anything having to do with the State. Our daughter and granddaughter are school teachers in the public system. They are Republican conservatives.

If this Twain quotation appeals to you then you must read his LETTERS FROM EARTH...absolutely hilarious.

The people who wrote the constitution were few and included no farmers or teachers or 'ordinary' citizens. The people were, by and large, uneducated or undereducated and so those who were took over. Understandable, of course. But Lysander Spooner was absolutely right in any case.

Bourne makes perfectly clear that there is a difference between Nation and State: Diplomacy is used while the States are recuperating from conflicts in which they have exhausted themselves. It is the wheedling and the bargaining of the worn-out bullies as they rise from the ground and slowly restore their strength to begin fighting again. ME: Bourne was on to something here as witness the most recent pres. election. Barack Obama is fresh, young and ready for battle...this time the battlefield will be expanded by sending in more Men (I doubt women will go there) into Afghanistan. BOURNE: The State, acting as a diplomatic-military ideal, is eternally at war.

I would suggest that Nathan and other "Believers" here read Mencken's TREATISE OF THE GODS" before criticizing him as unknowing. "Religion was invented by man just as agriculture and the wheel were invented by man, and there is absolutely nothing in it to justify the belief that its inventors had the aid of higher powers, whether on this earth or elsewhere..."I concur.

The Churches of both Rome and America are the enemy of liberty. By its very nature Church is designed to foment fear in The People thus keeping them in line. Is this concept changing? You betcha!

While the Fundies quote Jefferson very often, I've never heard one of them acknowledge this quotation of his.

Bryon Morton: you have pegged Alan Greenspan exactly right. As soon as He was Fed Head he forgot what he'd written about Gold way back when. Alan Greenspan is as guilty of the monetary problems as anyone else, if not more. It was Greenspan, along with Bob Rubin and Larry Summers who fought regulations of the derivatives. All three of these men fought off their critics. Reckless, willful and arrogant, all three of these men. But Greenspan is the worst. It's interesting, I think, that Greenspan's wife, who works at NBC/MSNBC never, ever brings up Greenspan's name nor do any of the people who work there. Andrea Mitchell is her name. The gal's got power it appears.

It doesn't matter WHO said it, it's true...and that it's been more prominent under a so-called conservative administration is rather interesting. I doubt the fools in charge even recognize what they've done. In fact, I doubt most of us understand the reality of what's happened in the last month and who is responsible.

Yes, the 13 states were (at first) sovereignties but that was only until the founders figured that there couldn't be 13 different variations on dealing with other nations or issuing coinage, etc. There had to be a central government and Alexander Hamilton was prime mover of this philosophy. His opinion prevailed. The states (all 50 of them) acquiese to the Federal government... The 10th Amendment, like so many of the amendments is open to discussion depending on the topic. More and more states rights are overidden by the Federal gov't.

Yes, the way a president behaves has ramifications. President George W. Bush is leaving a legacy of distrust, dishonesty, and an abominable inability to understand how to conduct himself in public. I am thoroughly ashamed that he is my president and I voted for this bully in 2000. Never again!

I doubt that John Adams actually knew whether ALL Americans could read and write. He assumed it. He did not Know.

WHO made that statement? J. Edgar Hoover? Was he in charge? No matter. It is a ridiculous charge. Alcohol is a far worse drug than marijuana and our prisons aren't filled with drunks. Methinks that the entire marijuana nonsense is a waste of time and money...ah, politically, it's a winning issue.

The constitution is a guideline. It is not The Law. It is up to all those following the adoption of the document to interpret depending on circumstances. Thomas Jefferson opined thusly: "Some men look at the Constitutions with sanctimonius reverance and deem them like the Ark of the Covenant: to sacred to be touched...laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind." Keep in mind that the final version of the national constitution was based on the separate state constitutions thus the "s" and the "them" in Jefferson's quotation.

I doubt there's one pres. candidate out there who gives a Tinker's damn about the constitution...Cheney's quote is no exception. All of them are full of themselves.

No, we don't need government telling us what to do EXCEPT when our neighborhoods flood and we're standing on the roofs waiting to be rescued BY GOVERNMENT! No, we don't need government except when our homes go into foreclosure and we need a bailout. I've heard Neil on the subject and while he has a point it only applies when it isn't affecting us personally.

Mr. Sobran hasn't been observing the Bush administration for IT has made central government it's absolute goal. I hope the mess Bush/Cheney have made is 'fixable'. Or that the Newbies will be able to do anything very much about it.

Neil Boortz is a flaming rightwinger who once tried passing himself off as a libertarian. He is wrong in dismissing public education as somehow stifling free thought. It does no such thing. How else does he think that he and I and millions of others became independent thinkers?