We've been losing our freedom for a long time. Now we're losing our money. Tomorrow we'll lose our comfort, and we'll be living in the natural state of man - "nasty, brutish, and short."

There are fewer and fewer Americans who amount to anything.

The Whiskey Rebellion is a good example of a central government not being able to stifle the entrepreneurial spirit by unfair, heavy taxation and regulation. The government never was able to enforce the tax on small producers who were simply out of reach of the government because the people were on the producers side, and the tax was soon repealed. Prohibition never stifled the entrepreneurial spirit of Al Capone either. Taxes and regulation can have very serious unexpected consequences. People will do what they have to do be it rebellion or organized crime if they are left with no legal alternative to make a living.

Both men and women marry for money all the time. In the eighteenth century they were just a little more honest about it and called it a dowry. A marriage is in essence a business contract. As long as both parties get their fair compensation, so what? Q'est-ce que ca peu vous faire?

It's never been practiced because the slave master (i.e. government) benefits from the control of the slave and the product of his labor. Slavery itself is very inefficient in the aggregate compared to a free market economy of creative destruction and entrepreneurial invention, but the slave economy is still very comfortable...for the slave owner: not so much for the slave.

Soon there might be many voting with their feet, or voting to not work those extra weekends. When that happens, who's going to pay for all of those tax cuts for the middle class. Like I said, the government can pound sand because I can live off of much less than I currently make. I'll just sit on the deck and wait for my welfare check otherwise known as a tax rebate. When you tax something you get less of it. That goes for income too.

Almost anything that is done by government and paid for by taxes could be done at least as well and usually much better than government. Government by design is inefficient. Competition breeds efficiency, and monopolies, like government, breed contempt for their customers. Those who use the service ought to pay for it, and private enterprise can supply it. The individual retains the choice about what to purchase and when. Government using the taxing authority to purchase things for the common takes away the individual's choice to make economical decisions. When it comes to buying and selling with my own money, I am "pro-choice." Why aren't liberals? Or is it liberals are only pro-choice when the choice is something they want?

Now, not only can you be considered charitable by paying exorbitant taxes, you can consider yourself a true patriot as well as our next VP pointed out. By the way, Waffler, I don't consider the government (or the lord 0bama) to be a god as you apparently do. If God wants my money, he can ask for it and I'll give it freely. The government can pound sand.

Subsidies actually entail taking one citizen's money and buying another citizen's submission and vote. Don't we all just love subsidizing tobacco, ethanol, sugar, and on and on...It's funny; subsidies certainly don't make anything cheaper.

It's a safe bet that 0bama has been bought and paid for many times over, just like all the rest, and I agree SRQ, the intolerance and fundamentalist Marxism of the left is nearly intolerable.

Who did the nominating this time? George Soros? And who's pulling the strings of the next White House puppet?

We have been witnessing a classic example of projection from the left for years. Because they are so willing to cheat and intimidate their opposition, they believe everyone is likely to behave that way. If you think this election was any "cleaner" than any other, you are delusional. Thievery has a long tradition at the ballot box, from buying votes, to cartoon characters, to the undead, and felons voting.

If we're going to get on the highway to hell, we'd might as well get in the fast lane. How long before BO's adoring, worshipful masses realize they've been had? I'll give it until this time next year when we've gone from recession to 0bama inspired depression after the tax increases and the raids on retirement savings, and 0 invades Pakistan as he promised. Last stop: Armageddon.

It is a poor conception of democracy. Neither wanting to be slave or master is simply the application of the Golden Rule - do unto others as you would have them do unto you, and is basic human decency. Is it any less morally wrong when someone is forced to be a part time slave through taxing the hard worker to support the lazy?

Democracy is the process by which 51% of the population (including a few ACORN registered cartoon characters, pets, and dead people) forces the other 49% to put up with a power hungry narcissist with a god complex who thinks he can fix the holes in our souls with higher taxes.

A "civil liberty" that is extended to only a select few is not a liberty at all. It is a privilege, a payoff, a bribe, or a combination of all of those. We are quickly moving to a place where the Constitution, in becoming a so-called living document, in fact dies. We are left then with no guaranteed liberties at all. Everything becomes illegal and we are then granted exceptions at the whim of government which become the final arbiter in what is allowed or not allowed, even eventually to whether we will be allowed to live at all.

Whether it is a group or an individual that tries to live off of the sweat of someone else's brow, inevitably it will first lead to resentment and then to bloodshed. People will not tolerate slavery forever and justice will not wait forever. Is it just me or does it feel like Atlas is about to shrug?

The few are not always corrupt nor are they always competent. Anyone who is not competent to run their own lives shouldn't have a vote; that is, a welfare beggar should have no say in how responsible people spend the fruits of their labor.

The poor generally choose to be poor. If you don't want to be poor, don't get pregnant in high school, finish high school, don't get a credit card, and get a job. Anybody can become wealthy if they want to work for it. Anybody. Who are the "wealthy" in America? They are the small business owners, most of whom have only a high school education and don't come from old money. They do have one thing in common: they are willing to work 80 hours a week to get their business off the ground, they are willing to take risks, and they are willing to risk failure. Those are the people who will be taxed so that 95% of the American people can get a tax cut. In fact that "tax cut" is welfare in the form of a refundable tax credit to half of those 95% who don't and never will pay taxes. They are the lazy and unindustrious that the rest of us are going to be forced to support. Subsidize something and you get more of it: more laziness, more foolish, stupid decisions, more "poor" people. Let's just break a few more windows, then everybody can have a job.

I feel like I'm watching "Atlas Shrugged" unfold before my very eyes. It is uncanny. How long before the producers throw in the towel, disappear, and tell the moochers and looters to go to hell? Who is John Galt?

I think it may not be long before we are on a beans, rice, guns and ammo standard. The entire fiat currency system was created to stabilize the economic boom/bust cycles that had happened every ten to twenty years. That was how it was sold, anyway. How has that worked out for us? A fiat currency is designed to inflate, and inflation is simply taxation without representation. Reserve systems worldwide can print at will with no accountability whatsoever, and it becomes a tax on everyone who saves or risks capital to produce goods and services. It is a tax on the producers, the creators of jobs, the creators of all the necessities of life as well as the luxuries we have come to expect. When you tax something, you get less of it: fewer savings, fewer goods and services, and fewer jobs.

I used to do some business travel to the Schenectady area several years ago but none lately. I don't think I'd like to volunteer for Wat Tyler duty, though. If you want to, I've got your back.;-)

Central planners never make their plans for the benefit of the people, they simply plan on controlling the people; and I don't accept that any of them are high minded or public spirited. It doesn't matter if the planners plan the financial system, industrial production, food production, or anything else. It is always about taking free choice away from individuals and controlling their behavior for the planners' benefit. Liberalism is the ultimate social disease.

No committee, group, or individuals making up the Reserve system can be so inept as to repeatedly make the same mistakes. If nobody can be so incompetent, it must be intentional. When too many people start collecting sufficient financial assets to make them independent, those assets must be made to evaporate away through subterfuge and theft so that those presumptuous commoners can brought down and under control.

The Peasant revolt was 1381 and ended when Wat Tyler went alone to Smithfield to negotiate with Richard II, the Mayor of London, and various other dignitaries for reform. Tyler ended up stabbed to death. The lesson is when you go against powerful government dignitaries, always take someone to watch your back and never trust the government because you will inevitably end up like Wat Tyler.