In Voltaire's day the church was the government and the government was the church. Kings derived their divine right to dictate from the church who crowned the king. In that light the church was an infamous thing because it collaborated in crushing the individual. Beware of anyone who advocates for the greater good. It's not the greater good of the individual they want, it's the greater good of the ruling class. The greater good always involves keeping the peasants under control, distracted with envy and infighting. The surest way to guarantee a world of strife, envy, racism, and sexism is for government to subsidize it, encourage it, and continue it; all the while ensuring their own power.

There may be a time when we're grateful to be allowed to even breathe. Please, sir, can I have some more?

There are too many people who have the "perfect" solution in search of a problem. Therefore a problem must be created to put the solution to use. Never let a crisis go to waste.

The Constitution is ignored by all three branches of government. They interpret and twist the meanings and intentions of the constitution until they conform to their desires and they can enact any law or regulate anything they want. I'm sure when they want they can find some penumbra or emanation in the Constitution that would even support loading people onto cattle cars and stoking up the ovens. The social compact between the government and the people has been broken. There is no longer any moral obligation to obey the federal government's laws or regulations. There is only the pragmatic fear of getting caught that causes anyone to pay any attention to them at all. If there are tax cheats in the Congress and Administration who openly get away with it (and they are), the people will also cheat on their taxes if they can get away with it. The danger is that lawlessness breeds lawlessness. Property rights have no meaning when the government can steal your property. The right to life and liberty have no meaning when the government can take them with impunity. Ignoring natural law destroys nations, societies, and individuals and eventually leads to a dark age where only the law of the jungle, of might makes right, is left. The poor and the weak won't stand a chance and the left will have brought it about (with a little help from their faux-right cohorts).

Silver is rare. Gold is more rare. It can't be faked and the market cannot be easily flooded because it is rare. What use is it? Silver has many industrial uses especially in electronics. It has value to the manufacturers of electronics because electronics have a value to customers. Gold on the other hand, is shiny and pretty and women in particular adore it. Men in particular adore women. As long as women like pretty, shiny things and men like women, gold will have value. We could have a currency based on any number of commodities like wheat or oil or diamonds (which happen to be a girl's best friend I hear and like gold, gets men what they want, i.e. women).

Waffler is an IRS lackey. The truth is out.

I am an eminently peaceful man and anyone is free to avoid a conflict with me by not running their nose into my fist.

It is the freedom without the accompanying responsibilities and duties that leads to the libertine society. More than anything I want liberty, i.e. the complete package of freedom and responsibility, rather than freedom alone.

Ignorance is in antagonism with everything except chaos. Has anyone noticed how chaotic things seem lately?

It's just so hard for people who know what's best for everyone else to leave them alone. It's about time we stop taking the busybodies' nonsense. When they poke their nose in our business, it needs to be met with a fist.

Governments of any type have their bureaucracies which are perpetually ungrateful. That is the nature of bureaucrats with their petty fiefdoms.

This quote from the man who denied human nature! Man as a Noble Savage? I don't think so. Man as a savage perhaps. As for the quote, nature is not always obvious. There are subtleties in nature that take a lifetime, or many lifetimes, to ferret out.

Sagacious, erudite, and prolix.

The perversion of the commerce clause has been a quiet revolution in which the power mad have twisted the clear meaning of the Constitution to their own advantage. It will continue as long as we allow it. There will come a time, however, when outrageous laws will simply be ignored and punishing taxes will not be paid. The powers that be are forcing a lawless, black-market society by perverting the law for their own gain.

There was a time when this kind of thinking among politicians was not so rare (if not extinct). Imagine it! A politician who's actions are actually limited by a Constitution! Of course we don't have politicians so much as dictators anymore. My, we are 'Progressing'.

Slavery is the rotten fruit of dependency.

It is not merely your right to oppose despotism, it is your duty as a human being (with a human being's natural rights) to oppose it. It is your duty not just to yourself or your fellow citizens, it is your duty to posterity who cannot defend themselves from the present abuses. Fight evil where evil is found. "Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God."---T.J.

It's amazing how brainless people try to pass themselves off as caring.

It is always a bad idea to choose symbol over substance. I can almost imagine a crowd waving flags and gleefully singing patriotic songs as they're being marched off to a concentration camp.

Justin, Elkland, I agree that I've taught myself much more than the government has taught me. However, the government has taught me some very valuable lessons: it has taught me that it is dangerous, manipulative, corrupt, ineffectual, and never to be trusted. Those are certainly very valuable lessons, though I'm sure government never intended they be learned.

To pledge allegiance to the Republic (that is, public rule) is all fine and dandy if only we still had a Republic to pledge allegiance to. It seems we have rulers now instead of public servants, and masters instead of employees. To a great extent we are controlled and manipulated rather than living free, productive lives. Perhaps it is the Republic that ought to be pledging allegiance to the individual, sovereign citizen, and not the citizen to the Republic.

"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things: the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth a war, is much worse. ... A man who has nothing which he is willing to fight for, nothing which he cares more about than he does about his personal safety, is a miserable creature who has no chance of being free, unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself." - John Stuart Mills

Q. Why do we keep putting greedy, narcissistic politicians into positions of authority and power?! A. Because they're the only ones who want the job.

Principles are always black and white. That is what makes them principles. That would make those who think everything is some shade of gray what? Unprincipled perhaps. Pragmatism is the deal with the devil that turns black and white into gray, and the less deal making with the devil the better. In turn that would mean the least socialism possible is for the best because socialism necessarily means a loss of freedom and an increase in dependency; that is, less humanity. Robert, you seem to have some view that everyone who disagrees with you is one of the uneducated masses. I would suggest you read some Jefferson, Washington, Franklin, Locke, and Voltaire. Throw in a little John Stuart Mill for good measure. That would give you a better idea of where this country is coming from. Put down your Howard Zinn high school history book that taught you what socialism is, and read the history of the Russian revolution. That is the ultimate outcome of socialism. Marx, Hegel, and Rousseau tell you so.

The function of socialism is to make elitist intellectuals our masters, running their little social experiments on us. They could care less whether they are masters of the poor or the rich, just as long as they are the masters.