In the language of the 17th century, license meant the abuse of freedom, or libertinage.

Sounds similar to "If you cannot dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bulls**t." You know how I despise Truman. This doesn't improve things.

That's putting it mildly.

Civilized peoples? Such as?

I would have voted for Will Rogers. Maybe I still will.

No, it is not reason that is overrated; it is man's ability to reason that is overrated.

Reason is overrated.

Oh, and sure, Reston, as long as the debt is only in the low trillions, I guess there's nothing to worry about.

In the United States, the richest, whose major income is from capital gains, pay a 15% tax on that. So there seems to be a bit of truth to the quote.

Maybe you cannot; but it sure doesn't stop them from trying.

Did you know that French Fries were invented in Belgium? Another example of French banditry.

A federal judge one day refused to consider, to look at, my evidence. Granted, I had three boxes full of documents, and he would have had to extend the hearing for several days, rather than the hour he gave, but, I mean, it was evidence, we were in court, and I was the complainant/plaintiff, against a federal manager. But the judge simply was not interested in evidence, or facts, or truth. It was an interesting experience. The judge died a couple of years after that, no fault of mine, but I cried not at all, as we had lost no great jurist.

I feel so depotentiated.

Yes, Reston, it has been proved that to shove the full length of a pen into ones ear can be fatal.

I was stopped in early 1975 for Jay-walking in San Diego, by two motorcycle cops, who actually tried to intimidate me with the possibility that I might be cited for the offense. They were serious. The really funny thing was that there was no traffic.

My brother was once arrested in Vermont for driving with a driver license he had not yet signed. When the cop took him to the station, though, they released him after a good laugh.

Straightforward, honest Benito.

I would trust no man on earth with such power, except myself.

Joe: The Falun Gong are pacificsts, and will not use weapons.

"...that is the vigilance required to preserve our rights here and ultimately abroad." Oh so now you favor preserving rights abroad? Since when? What methods do you approve? Archer: I approve preserving rights anywhere, so I guess I have to approve your right to flip-flop, rant, and use unfathomable grammar.

And as far as Cuba goes, I will give you a dollar for each of the 11 million Cubans in Cuba who agree with the Communist Manifesto. I probably have the required amount in my pocket.

Mike: Economic concerns are an issue for many who come here. But I do not think that one should discount the tyrannical aspect of starving political opponents (Cuba, Darfur, Somalia), or of monopolizing a nation's resources and land (many nations), just because it has to do with the amount of food permitted the population or the way property has become distributed. Artificially-induced famine is still violent tyranny. Forcing millions to perpetually live in abject poverty, by denying access to any possibility of working ones way out of it, is tyranny. And the 100,000 jailed members of Falun Gong and the 1,600 murdered members of Falun Gong (statistics from between 1999 and 2004), and the Falun Gong who have had the Chinese authorities forcibly remove their organs for transplants? And the millions of literal slaves, not to mention the millions more virtual slaves, in several countries, whose level of subsistence makes American tyranny seem like a country-club existence? I think it is hypocrisy to compare their lot with ours and state that we suffer tyranny, while they suffer economic need.

I suppose that the Wild West was a bit calmer than what we have today. In Miami, in about 1985, a man shot my unarmed brother-in-law to death. He spent less than three years in prison. He ran into another of my in-laws after being released and practically bragged about the murder. NYC police shoot and killed an unarmed man last week, again. Don't sneeze to loud in front of the Police Station in Hialeah, where to die by police response is legendary (around here). And several American cities have murder rates that rival that of Baghdad. The Wild West? A quiet period.

OK, Mike, I forgot about millions of slaves in the South. Joe, Mike, Archer: What are you ranting about? The quote does not apply today, when the evils of tyranny are seen by very many people most of the time, not only by those who resist it, but by all who have half a brain. You think of American government, perhaps, but it's a big world, in which billions of people would love to live under the tyranny of the American government, rather than the real tyranny you seem not to recognize.

When the war had ended, Truman deceived thousands of non-combatant refugees in order to hand them over to those in the Soviet Union who wished to kill them and did so. Truman was a liar, a genocide, and a betrayer of American ideals. Truman held back American generals who wanted to invade the Soviet Union, which would have avoided a half century of untold human suffering and millions of deaths of innocent people. Truman should have been hung. Truman was a perverse, evil man.