Does this mean that in the daytime they watch a different news than ordinary Americans, watching the same news as the rest only at night?

Reston and Robert: When the forces now being prepared to attack your nation, forces determined to destroy America and its democratic allies, start bombing your house, will we see you on your knees praying for peace, or promoting kindness and understanding, rather than shouting for their blood? War is terrible, and extremely terrible is to struggle for survival under a totalitarian regime. One third of the world is enslaved by totalitarianism. Are you next? ..........Human rights invented America, but so did greed, apathy, lust, hypocrisy, and hate.

Mike: Amen

Clinton is really the one who set up the conditions under which the deficit exploded. And He is the one who was not removed by impeachment by a single vote. And he is the one who has a record of criminality unequaled by any other president. Just the facts.

Politics is imperfect by definition. Most religion is the invention of men, and whatever was invented by men is likely to bring degradation and suffering, once men with twisted agendas gain control of it. Congress still has the power to do something useful to counter the effects of the Federal Reserve's sacking of America, but why should they rock the boat? After all, no one, but no one, interferes with congressional salary increases and perks. Most of Congress is bought and paid for. Am I a socialist for saying so? I still prefer the degrading system we have to the impostions of so-called communist regimes, which are not what they claim. Socialism is evil and degrading, as is capitalism, when it is abused; but at least the capitalists let you eat and complain.

Not all democrats are socialists, but all socialists are democrats.

In some ways we are equal, in other ways we never could be. In some ways we are free, in other ways we never could be. Justice does not preclude kindness, but it does not always demand it. But if it were not for kindness, none of us still would be breathing.

My how word meanings change so much over a few decades.

Driving under the influence is prohibited for very good reasons. It results in many more deaths each year than those caused by gun-related accidents, as well as many more severe injuries. Driving under the influence is neither a right nor an entitlement, but a reckless disregard for life.

Thank you, Mike

"The great object of my fear is the federal judiciary. That body, like gravity, ever acting, with noiseless foot, and unalarming advance, gaining ground step by step, and holding what it gains, is ingulfing insidiously the special governments into the jaws of that which feeds them." -- Thomas Jefferson (letter to Judge Spencer Roane, 9 March 1821)

In a nation where all of the land is under the control of an oligarchy or powerful groups, if you insist that arable land be available to plant foodstuffs for the people, who otherwise have no place to grow food crops, are you violating the rights of those who monpolized ownership and deny use of the land to the people who are starving to death? This is a real-world situation.

Do drivers have the right to drive (or operate heavy machinery or prepare food in a restaurant or fill prescriptions or pilot airplanes or perform surgery or go hunting) under the influence of marijuana, cocaine, methamphetamine, or some other narcotic or pschotropic substance?

This seems to imply that the problem lies, not in deterring crime, but in doing so without regard to the peculiar nature of the criminal; so as not to hurt anyone's feelings. in other words, if you tend to let certain types of people get away with crime, you are unfairly discriminating against the ones you punish for committing the same crime, making the discrimination a worse offense than the original crime itself. I cannot help but feel that this quote is sophism, though discrimination on the grounds mentioned is wrong.

Very catchy quote. Hey, she got her image onto a dollar.

It was not the politicians that imposed archaic standards on women, but a large portion of the male population.

An unbalanced point of view.

Notice that he said "...to your death..." and not "...to MY death..." More sarcasm from Voltaire?

Logan: Which part of the income tax is unfair? Should there be any income tax at all? Should there be any government services or functions at all? If so, who should pay for them, and from what source or type of tax? If not, why not? How much of the tax revenue goes to support people who could support themselves? The theory seems to be that the tax is unfair because it is given to the poor, but that is not what happens to most of it, is it?

Equality is so general a term, as undefined as liberty, that you must place it in a limited context to discuss it rationally. The quote does not succeed in doing that, and so becomes "dangerous rubbish," as Don wrote. The is one type of equality that should be honored and maintained, but another type that never existed and never will. Perhaps the larger context of Durant's writing deals with this, although the quote does not.

Real freedom is not available in this world.

Our free society should tolerate a wide variety of opinion, but it should draw the line where the opinion being advanced intends to promote or achieve the destruction of the general liberty. Democratic republics cannot afford to tolerate communist ideology, since the stated goals of communism include the destruction of freedoms common to non-communist societies.

The last one, meaning that you get to exercise it just before they eliminate you.

And yet it seems that we as a species are a bit too self-congratulatory, and perhaps exaggerate the total sum and effect of all the great ideas that have come about.

The progress the world has known has taken place largely in the area of technology, and very little in the area of spiritual advancement. Many of the technological innovations have resulted in a dubious "progress," accompanied by much contamination, ruination, and degradation.