As Sun Tzu said, when you go to war unleash every possible avenue of force at your disposal until the enemy is completely exterminated. "No poor bastard ever won a war by dieing for his country. You win a war by making the other poor bastard die for his. Period." --George Patton-- The side that tries to fight politically correct and make war into sunshine and rainbows always loses. War is Hell, don't try to turn it into anything else. Fight with everything you've got and get through it as fast as possible.

GunnyCee is right, man is incapable of peace. The only real way to acheive peace is to surrender to whatever enemy arises, give in to whatever demands are made. I'd rather fight than abandon my rights and ignore my principles. I would rather die on my feet than live on my knees. War is hell, but sometimes there are no alternatives.

Reston, VA US...Outlawing parents from being able to educate their children or at least see to their education through private schools of their choosing is of the most oppressive measures any government can impose. That's not liberty and justice, its tyranny. I have the right to raise and educate my children as I see fit. Anyone who tries to take that right from me and sink their communist claws into my children will be met with every ounce of resistance that I can muster from my mind and body. You are far too trusting of the government. No government is, ever will be, or even can be perfect. Therefore it can never be trusted with as much power as you constantly call to give it. You are far too arrogant. You have consistently dismissed the ideas of the many martyrs of history quoted on this site. You are not more intelligent or wiser then they were. You have not faced the oppression they did or sacrificed as they did to keep freedom alive. Men like Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, Madison and Adams would kick your ass just for making a statement like the one you have above. The defecation that spews from your mouth is nothing more than a hindrance to anyone having heard it. Being a free person, you have the right to express your own ideas but you also have the responsibility to come up with some that are worth listening to.

Archer...You are correct that Freedom does require a great deal of responsibility. All of the things that you have listed that we must liberate ourselves from are indeed fights that we must win to continue in liberty. But in doing so, we are not claiming liberty from someone else or from government; we are defending the freedom that was first given to us by God and at times lost by man. We do not have to learn how to be free, we have to learn how to keep freedom. We must learn how liberty has been lost throughout history, what methods and measures have been taken to defend it, and what threatens it today. Each of us are free until we decide for ourselves that we are not, until we make the decision to bow to tyranny rather than stand for the rights we were endowed with. We are all free, standing on our own two feet until we decide to live on our knees. And we have the freedom to make either choice.

I agree with Jefferson that there should be a library in every county, but like Anonymous from Raleigh, I have certain drawbacks to the "well-chosen books" part. I also agree with Archer that anything chosen by Jefferson would be a benefit to any reader. The problem is that Jefferson wouldn't be choosing today, Obama and Pelosi would be and God only knows who would be choosing tomorrow.

We are all born as free thinkers. We make our own decisions. At times we must decide between obedience or resistance; to do what you are told or do what you know is right. The very act of making either choice is an act of liberty. If you make the wrong choice, it will be your final one. Liberty is not something that can be denied or taken away by a powerful and victorious aggressor; it can only be lost, given up, by a cowardice and ignorant people.

Anon from Grenada...The very ability to make a choice between the current subjectives or replacing them with your own is the very act of freedom. Every living person has this freedom. We can all choose to reveal what we believe our rights are and defend them or stand idle and allow those rights to only exist in our fantasies. This decision does not come without consequences, millions that have chosen to defend their freedom have payed the ultimate price doing so. But every one of them died free, refusing to walk the line drawn by a few "intellectual elites".

Homeschooling can be a powerful tool for educating your children. However, you must make every effort to ensure that they have adequate time with peers of their age so that they do not become social outcasts. They must also be exposed to authority figures other than their parents so that they may learn for themselves how to judge whether the autority should be followed or disobeyed. Some homeschool children only obey their parents, others obey everyone. I've seen it many times and I'm still not sure which is worse. You can indeed teach your children everything they need to know from the textbooks at home, but there are some things that they must learn from their own experiences, by themselves, outside of the home. In most cases, it is better for them to learn these lessons while they are young in a public school setting than when they are older and the stakes are much higher.

The Federal Department of Education should be completely and ultimately disolved. Education in this country has been going down hill ever since the invention of the DOE. Schools should be operated by local communities and overseen by the individual state in which it resides. Instead of having all of our eggs in one basket, one federal supreme scheme, we would have 50 different programs from 50 different states. They would be able to collaborate, expand and improve on each others ideas and learn from each others mistakes. The chances of finding the most superior means of education would increase exponentially and the citizens would have greater control of the education of their own children.

This is the most romantic idea of education ever written. This educational goal would produce not indoctrinated followers but free thinking leaders that always aspire to learn more and improve further. Such a society could overcome any obstacle, the sky is truly the limit. To produce a learning people - lifetime students - should be the ultimate goal of any educational system, anywhere in the world.

We ARE born free with inalienable rights endowed by the Almighty God Himself. We are at first ignorant of the designs and mechanisms used by man to enslave others. We must learn not how to become free but how to keep freedom, how to throw off the yoke and break the chains of oppressive and overbearing measures set by our peers and passed down from the previous generation. Examing, ordering, classifying, defining, and distinguishing in the most minute particulars are the actions of a despotic and tyrannical government not the work of a representative republic of free people.

"Wisdom begins with the fear of God."

We must remember that complete liberty is not inherited. Liberty is always only one generation from extinction; it does not unconditionally flow through our veins. If we wish to preserve freedom for ourselves we must pay the price that it requires. Only then can we pass the torch of freedom to our children. It is then their responsibility to keep it burning. Whatever society emerges in this land, it will receive the government that it deserves. If it accepts its responsibility and does its duty, it will earn freedom; if not, it will be punished with tyranny and oppression. John Adams once said that once liberty is completely lost, it can never be regained. I hope that he is wrong and I pray that we never have to find out.

Very true! Never argue with a fool. He'll bring you down to his level, then beat you with experience.

Yes, example is the best media of learning. So should we follow the example set forth by Washington, Jefferson, and Franklin or the one by Marx, Lenin, and Stalin. The capitalist economy that created the most prosperous civilization known to mankind or the socialist one that lies in the ash pile of history.

Waffler...You are correct in that people should obey the law. But - an unjust law is no law at all. That is why the founders gave us jury nullification. Thats what Jefferson meant when he said that a jury should judge not only the suspected criminal but also the law he is accused of violating.

"Socialism is a political and economic system in which all wealth and production is owned, controlled, and regulated by the state." This is a totalitarian principle in which the state will at the very least appear to redistribute the wealth equally throughout its constituents. Redistribution means TAKING from some and giving to others. Is it morally right to take the product of one man's hard work and give it to another. This is theft, plain and simple. Is that what America is becoming? A nation of thieves so lazy that we get the government to do our stealing for us? Is that what our veterans have fought for and our heroes died for? What happens when everyone catches on and decides to take the free ride of government assistance? Production will slow down and the state will run out of people to steal from. That's when the giving will stop and brutal force will begin.

Waffler...You have said here,"Parents who might refuse to teach their chldren should be denied their children...". Parents who refuse to teach their children what? Who decides what the parent is supposed to teach, what material is to be covered? You have mentioned something about the parents assembled. Well, who assembles them? How large is this assembly or this community, a town? a county? a state? or the entire country? What is it that makes the individual parent so wrong and this assembly so right? And most importantly, what right does any other parent have over the education of my children? What makes them more worthy of choosing what I should teach to my children?

This is not education. Its indoctrination disguised as education. It has forever been the greatest tool of tyrants. Throughout history they have used it to oppress their people and aggrandize themselves. It is most shocking that people like those in the soviet union were so foolish to allow their children to be trained in the art of servitude. And it is alarming that We are following in their footsteps. I ask you, "Who is the most foolish, the fool, or the one who follows?" Are We the People of America so foolish that we actually believe we can achieve better results by following the same path that has led others to slavery? Things need to change in this country starting with education. We must take the power over the classroom from the federal government and give it back to the teachers, the schools, the districts, and the states.

There you have it liberals, the poster-child of evil advocating the same economical system you wish to force upon the American People. You have forgotten the principles this nation was founded on, and you have become completely ignorant of the true cause of liberty and the meaning of justice. You should be ashamed of yourselves, just as I am to call you my fellow countrymen.

RBE...Why would you trust the government to completely control the entire economy under the system of socialism when, right now, it can't even balance its own checkbook? Why would you advocate expanding the government when it can't even maintain itself at the size it is today without incurring unsustainable debts? Many of those in power, through corruption and waste, have skillfuly and unlawfully squandered our own fortunes and gained riches for themselves at the expense of their constituents. The solution is not to give them the complete control of socialism, for they are common men and women that can make honest mistakes and can even be corrupted. They, like anyone else, cannot be trusted with such immense power.

A socialist is someone who reads Marx and Lenin, and hangs their hopes on empty promises. A capitalist is someone who trully understands Marx and Lenin, and gets as far from this "sharing of misery" as possible.

Popeye...How are we not there yet? These "shadow persons", Blacks, Indians, Women and the propertyless can all vote, can all serve as officials in every state government and the federal government. In fact there is a black man currently serving in the highest office in the land; who by the way, won the popular vote. So the majority of citizens in this country believe that all men are created equal. Find me a single right in the Federal or any State Constitution that a white man has and a black, indian, woman, or propertyless person doesn't.

Yes, government is but a necessary evil so why is it that many wish to make it larger and more powerful? Why do socialists trust that this "necessary evil" can control the economy better than We the People? This government can't even balance its own checkbook so I'm damn sure not going to trust it with mine!

Keep going Ron. "You were bought with a price; do not become slaves of men." 1Corin 7:23