"The most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the government and I'm here to help." ---Ronaldus Magnus Reagan

Fortunately for Cromwell his beheading by the Royalists came only after his death, burial, and exhumation. I'm sure he didn't mind much at that point. As far as Cromwell's republic goes, you could exercise all of your natural rights as long as you agreed with Comwell. Otherwise, you just might find yourself being drawn and quartered: not a perfectly shining light for liberty. It took Americans to show the world what a republic should look like. I rate the quote 5 stars; the man somewhat fewer.

Unfortunately, perverting words is not strange at all. Oh, I long for the days when being "liberal" meant being a lover of individual freedom.

All I can say is, "Blood for oil!, Blood for oil! No WMD, No WMD, Bush lied, People died!", etc., etc. These lies certainly work well on primitively simple minds.

I wouldn't even trust myself with unlimited power, because I know I would end up wanting to kill someone.

In fact, it one might be better off only having to deal with one despot rather than a mob of them. Would you rather be beaten and robbed by one bully or a hundred?

It seems the prophet Samuel said much the same thing---- This will be the manner of the king that shall reign over you: He will take your sons, and appoint them for himself, for his chariots, and to be his horsemen; and some shall run before his chariots. 12And he will appoint him captains over thousands, and captains over fifties; and will set them to ear his ground, and to reap his harvest, and to make his instruments of war, and instruments of his chariots. 13And he will take your daughters to be confectionaries, and to be cooks, and to be bakers. 14And he will take your fields, and your vineyards, and your oliveyards, even the best of them, and give them to his servants. 15And he will take the tenth of your seed, and of your vineyards, and give to his officers, and to his servants. 16And he will take your menservants, and your maidservants, and your goodliest young men, and your asses, and put them to his work. 17He will take the tenth of your sheep: and ye shall be his servants. 18And ye shall cry out in that day because of your king which ye shall have chosen you; and the LORD will not hear you in that day.

The very business of government is to govern, regulate, control, and direct, and that means to limit the actions of individuals "sometimes very narrowly." The more government you ask for, the more governed you become. It matters very little if the cwazy liberals or the eeeviill conservatives are in charge. Even if a libertarian were to somehow magically come to governent power, he would exercise it on his fellows. The only difference is the size of government that we are forced to live with, and the amount of control we allow over the minutae of our lives.

This is a very familiar quote that has a corrollary: "Never let them get your guns!" I would add something to that one as well: "Don't be afraid to use them." Often speaking up is not enough to stop evil.

It matters very little to me whether I am robbed in the name of liberty, the children, God; or for a drug high and whores. My wallet is still gone, and robbery is a crime. Both should be prosecuted.

Politics is in part a systematic organization of hatreds. It is also a systematic organization of greed, bribery, extortion, theft, and in the end if the individual doesn't accept the government sanctioned hatred, greed, bribery, extortion, and theft, murder will soon follow.

You are right about the bread and circuses, Mike. See if this sounds familiar: "...Augustus won over the soldiers with gifts, the populace with cheap corn, and all men with the sweets of repose, and so grew greater by degrees, while he concentrated in himself the functions of the Senate, the magistrates, and the laws. He was wholly unopposed, for the boldest spirits had fallen in battle, or in the proscription, while the remaining nobles, the readier they were to be slaves, were raised the higher by wealth and promotion, so that, aggrandised by revolution, they preferred the safety of the present to the dangerous past. Nor did the provinces dislike that condition of affairs, for they distrusted the government of the Senate and the people, because of the rivalries between the leading men and the rapacity of the officials, while the protection of the laws was unavailing, as they were continually deranged by violence, intrigue, and finally by corruption." --The Annals of Tacitus (109 A.D)

I read a book years ago that posited the theory that animal domestication is an evolutionary path that benefits the animals. The sheep and their young are protected, fed, cared for when they are sick and are therefore more likely to survive to pass on their genes to the next generation. The only price they have to pay is submitting to a yearly shearing and sacrificing one of their fellows to the roasting spit occasionally. There seems to me that there are two varieties of human beings in this world: domesticated and wild. Most of us are somewhat domesticated, but some of us have a wild streak that just can't be tamed.

Why stop with a card? Why not just tatoo a barcode on your forehead or hand? Where have I heard that before?

How dare all of you freedom lovers question the authority of the State to regulate your every bodily function. Don't you know you belong to the state and are just cogs in the machine of society? You have no individual worth, afterall. Accept your fate. Submit.

These miserable elitists and pseudo-intellectuals are a danger to everyone. Why bother with licensing? Why not just have forced sterilizations for the undesirables among us? Of course this was done to many uneducated "hicks" of the Appalachians in the '30's who were looked upon as a little less than human. In fact some in my own family would have been prime targets for these government eugenics programs had they not lived so far back in the mountains. It seems we can never get rid of all the Aloph Eichmanns.

Maybe the government can set up some kind of breeding program where those with the most beneficial genes are matched up. Then the government can put the children in government operated creches so that they can get the perfect nutrition and indoctrination they need for optimal performance for the greater good of society. Come to think of it, I think someone tried that before didn't they? As for home schoolers, as I recall Thomas Jefferson and the other founders were "home schooled". Maybe that's why government always want to discourage homeschooling. Thomas Jeffersons can be troublesome.

I'll have to agree with you David. If Social Security operated like a pension fund, things would be much different and secure. The goal of Social Security is not security, however, but dependency on government.

If only medical insurance and other benefits were not linked to employment and tax policy was not linked to marriage and children. If only the government would stop trying to socially engineer us into dependent, docile subjects, then it wouldn't matter so much to each other how we lived our lives. When you force me to subsidize your lifestyle with government (any lifestyle) then I will resist and resent it. When you want me to endorse the idea that the mentally ill should be able to adopt children, I will resist and resent it. As for the Amish, I read just yesterday that Geauga county in Ohio created an Office of Family Stability for the purpose of getting the Amish to take foods stamps that they don't want. I respect the Amish, they take care of themselves.

What, no living, breathing Constitution? When a judge can rule the people by whim, then he is a tyrant no less than the leader of some banana republic junta. Why does the left find it necessary to shop activists judges? Because the majority of people are not with them, and there only path to power is through a tryrant. The ballot box just doesn't work for them anymore, no matter how many of the dearly departed they dig up. As far as social security goes, it was a bad idea 70 years ago that we are stuck with now. It is a pyramid scheme that is doomed to fail because of the demographic realities of a low birth rate. GWB is trying to solve the demographic problem with immigration. It won't work. When it gets to the brink, look for the idea of euthanasia for the disabled, weak, and old to rear its ugly head as a solution, just like in present day Europe. Those who tout the virtues of social security and "programs" will someday have to face this reality, maybe when they're being carted off for their "final treatment".

Yes, even Commie Carter can mouth beautiful and correct sentiments, even though he has a perverted definition of human rights.

It has always amazed me how the left can successfully redefine words. Equality shifts from opportunity to outcome. Rights, which once came from God, now are privileges and perquisites granted by government. Voltaire said that, "if there was no God it would be necessary to invent him." The right has their God, and the left has their Government to provide all their needs. One doesn't have to look far to see which one is more vengeful. Don't pay your taxes and you'll find out too.

Those ideals applied, and do apply, to everyone. They always have and always will. That is why they are "ideal". It is the law that did not apply equally to everyone because human beings and their governments are imperfect. It is our individual duty to strive for the perfect society even though we will never reach it.

Robert, it seems that old saw about pots calling kettles black is still true. From my perspective, I see conservative speakers on college campuses being physically assaulted, mobs storming stages and shouting down speakers with whom they disagree. Typical brownshirt tactics. Who are the Fascists? The liberalism of Jefferson et. al. was about freedom to speak one's mind without fear of being physically attacked. Classical liberalism can indeed work if left alone, but liberalism was hijacked decades ago by communists and socialists, and individual freedom is the furthest thing from their minds.

Since Amiel is Swiss, I would assume that he is speaking about the French revolutionary model of Liberte, Fraternite, Egalite, and its outcome. In that sense, liberty and equality enforced by a guillotine are indeed bad principles. The prisoners of the most repressive regimes have the liberty to share in their equal misery and fear. Justice is the protection of individual rights of the weak from the powerful who would abuse them. If that is not kindness, it could certainly be confused with it when one's head is saved from the chopping block.