Love it!  It's certainly refreshing to hear rather than blaming others and making demands.  Be somebody.  ;-)

That's the solution today, more rules (laws).  Got a problem?  New rules!  Doesn't fix the problem?  More rules.  When is a person to transition from following the rules, to making his own rules?  Why is it that we must either command or obey others?  Commanding oneself seems to be too much power to allow the common man.  'Telling people what to do' is the longest running racket in human history.

Without honor, one will eventually become lost in self-delusion.

Slavery is the number one racket in the world, far from being abolished, the conditions are merely improved in the 'civilized' nations.  Most demand their servitude/security.  Those that demand Liberty are called selfish and are bound even tighter as an example.  Self-sufficient, productive, and cooperative people are a threat to victim-consciousness (i.e. slave-consciousness).  Apparently people who wish to live free are 'radicals' — that's what they tell us on the boob tube.  I'm not sure how wanting to live up to the ideals of America is considered so dangerous by the oppressed masses, but here we are...

Jefferson inherited his slaves and they were already used as collateral and could not be freed without the debts being paid off.  Had his entry in the Declaration of Independence been accepted by the Southern states, slavery would have been abolished, and Jefferson's slaves would have been freed.

Where is 'hate speech' defined in the Constitution?  This is a European socialist concept.  Is 'hate' now a crime?  Who is to judge, and what is the punishment?  There certainly appear to be many exceptions that allow rioters to violently protest against 'hate' all the while exhibiting the most hateful displays and actions.  This is to censor and punish those that do not parrot the party line — how has the party of tolerance become so intolerant?  It is war, pure and simple, for your mind.

The power for subjects to defend themselves against the Crown has always been unconstitutional in monarchies.  Keeping the common person subservient and dependent is the business of ruling.  No oppressed people have ever freed themselves without fighting for it — this is why they are kept disarmed.

Make sure you are on the right side!  ;-)

Mob rule is encouraged by cultural Marxists.  If only the youthful masses actually knew the difference between communism, fascism, and a republican form of government...  Antifa is actually more fascist than not, and their tactics are straight out of the communist playbook.  Black Lives Matter the same.  This is collectivism off the rails where groups trump the individual, where diversity is conformity, where tolerance is confrontation, where victimization is collateral, and the media complicit in furthering violence and hopelessness.   

The judiciary is no less partisan than other branches of government, yet somehow, judges are considered to be impartial and are often appointed for life.  BIG mistake.  Statism cannot keep statism in check.  Courts are now blocking lawful Executive Orders (the leftist 9th Circuit comes to mind) placing themselves at the top of the hierarchy, yet over and over these injunctions are dismissed for lack of jurisdiction.  To conquer a nation, one must conquer the legal system, and that is precisely how socialism has been implemented piece by piece by redefining the meaning of words and treating we the people as subservient subjects of the State/Crown.

Just substitute the word 'weapons' with 'power.'  This is really what we are talking about.  The Bill of Rights was a prohibition on the regulating of POWER of the citizen.  On the contrary, the Constitution is the regulation of governmental power — We the People are the regulators of government, not the other way around. 

Power checks power, period.  The people were never expected to transfer their power to the government!  By doing so, the people become subservient wards of the state — called 'subjects' in monarchical societies.  Keeping the populace in poverty (powerlessness) is the goal while empowering the ruling class.  It's the same old racket for 10,000 years.  It really does take an enlightened people to live free.

Brilliant!!  Love it.  This is the basis for Independence and a republican form of government.  As true today as ever.

Indeed, because in the democratic-republic of the USA, each person is a sovereign being, self-determining, respectful and respectable to others.  The law/government cannot make people 'good' or honorable or productive — it must come from within the people themselves.  The entire premise of being self-governing absolutely requires honesty, temperance, self-discipline — without these it is simply might makes right and will devolve into a centralized and pyramidal power structure.  The whole success of this 'experiment' rests on the people to live up to the ideals of Liberty and the Responsibility that comes with it.

"What can I say and do that will make my people react the way I want them to?"  That's a rather basic tactic with people in general — ask any married couple. ;-)  Kids start doing that from day one as they figure out what works and doesn't work.  Teachers, bosses, anyone in a position of authority.  That's why I say the battle has always been for hearts and minds — the free thinker discovers his own programming and can correct false loops.  The solution is straight-forward: declare who I am, what I am about, and why I am here.  If I don't, someone else already has.

I don't think Hyaptia is talking about whether Tyrants thought but whether the common people thought about their 'duties' to them.  Same in the USA today — how many really think for themselves.  How many have asked the hard questions?  Propaganda, influence-peddling, opinion-making, 'common core' education, re-education, fake news ... There is a constant barrage of ready-made 'thoughts' to adopt as my narrative.  Dare I say, I have been the object of programming since a child.  Once again, it is the Truth that sets one free — the need to reason and discern, to think, is essential.

You can blame the Progressives for the corruption of the word Liberal.  Tolerance?  Today's liberals are as intolerant as they get.  Diversity in appearance only, not in philosophy or ideals.  Hate and hypocrisy — that is today's liberal.  Cultural Marxists masquerading as Liberals 'respectful of individual rights and freedoms.'  Today's liberals demand their 'fair share' of the Treasury without putting anything in.  They demand extraordinary treatment for classes (not individuals) or else rioting mobs.  They are all for elections if their candidate wins, but for a coup d'etat if they lose.  Democratic in name only.

For example, under zero tolerance laws, if someone is stopped driving their car and is found a marijuana seed, the car may be seized (asset forfeiture) for committing a crime.  Against whom?  So the legislature can make up a crime and the punishment can be to take everything the person has and/or lock him up. (!!)  Who has that power?  If the individual American cannot do it, then neither can his/her representatives/officers.  "It is not only vain, but wicked..."  Indeed!

The War on Drugs has been the single greatest cause of government corruption and war around the globe.  Should drug prohibition be ended now worldwide, the shakeup of the global power structure would be Earth shattering.  Police states around the world will have to go bust.  Less opportunities for corruption in government will drain the swamp.  Those addicted to street drugs will have access to legal medicine.  Remove the black market, and the entire financial structure is destroyed — you'll then see them come out of the woodwork to stop any effort to repeal drug prohibition, because it means money out of their pockets.  This is creating crimes in order to PROFIT from their being broken.

The Federalist Papers document the reasoning behind the Constitution's text, one need not go far to see through the eyes of the Founders.  The single most important aspect of American government that separates it from all the others is that it originates with a Declaration of Independence and a Constitution declared by the People themselves in their independent and thus sovereign capacity.  The statutes codified come from the authority of the People themselves, not a monarch or governor.  The fundamental rights of the People are declared to be inherent and a faculty of birth — we say they are the gifts of the God of Nature, which is to say, NOT a grant from another person.  This is the basis for American government, to protect those inalienable rights inherent in each individual.  All the rest were the rules for the government, not the people!  When Americans remember who we are, that is when we will throw off the yoke today's government has placed on us.  Which is why education is so important, and why it has been corrupted so to turn men into wards of the state.

Yes, it's a tough question:  when playing God, is there such a thing as going too far?  In Iran, theft is punished by cutting off a hand.  In the US, getting caught with a joint in your car can lead to incarceration and loss of the car and more.  Yet the big thieves like the Clinton's and others commit all sorts of heinous crimes with impunity.  The 'law' is in the hands of the rulers, and it is for 'regulating' the behavior of the populace — primarily to tax the people at every step and to keep them in their places.

[Sorry for the multiple posts] When we remember from whence the source of government authority comes, we must acknowledge that the government cannot do what the individual citizen cannot do.  In Nature, each has the 'right' and 'duty' to defend itself from predators.  But what may I do to the thief?  I suppose I could kill him at the moment or give him a good beating.  But do I then have the right to chain him up in the basement for a couple years?  It's neither Christian nor reasonable to assume this works.  And for that very reason, legislation is to be negativist (thou shall not do) rather than positivist (thou shall do) because the power to enslave is not to be used lightly.  While the punishment ought to fit the crime, the avidity to punish is to be kept in check.

Ingersoll's point is even stronger considering the majority of the US prison population is incarcerated for non-violent, victimless 'crimes' like marijuana possession in order to "trample out his manhood, by putting an indignity upon him.  You mark him.  You put him in stripes.  At night you put him in darkness.  His feeling for revenge grows.  You make a wild beast of him, and he comes out of that place branded in body and soul..." 

Urban black neighborhoods know very well "the Man" and is the source of great anger against police and 'authority.'  You can thank the Drug War for the rise of the Nation of Islam and Black Lives Matter.  Prisons are BIG business, and they lobby Congress constantly to keep these 'laws' on the books.  There's your justice for you!

"If you want less crime, you must change the conditions."  Does that mean build more prisons?  Gun control?  The old adage is still true: "A hungry man is dangerous."  What are the conditions in the most criminal neighborhoods?  Crime is the business of politicians — without it, they are unnecessary.  The police state thrives on 'crimes' with new crimes invented every day.

Crime is not born of sin, it is the sin.  Are all sins crimes? Are all crimes sin?  And where is the authorization of our government to legislate morality and punish sins?  This is nothing but a religion, then.  'Judge not lest ye be judged.'  Man playing God — the oldest racket in humanity.

'The truth will set you free.'  Isn't it interesting that Liberty is so intimately connected with Truth, and that Servitude is so dependent upon Lies.  The battle is the same as it has ever been: hearts and minds.  Again, it is the Truth that Liberates.  When the People seek and know the truth, it's a rebirth, a fresh beginning, and they are empowered.  Those trying to sell us the idea we are somehow unable to think and act for ourselves without guidance and permission from authorities are the liars.  They dare to answer the question of who we are for us, and we must PAY them as a result.  Is the next renaissance happening?  Are the people of the world awakening?  I think so...

Ken, you've managed to extend the definition further — very true!