5 stars is not enough for one of the best quotes from one of the wisest men in history.

And the ship that is in port forever is useless. It would be just as well to the rest of the world if it never existed.

Welfare is justifiable not by law from government but by conviction from God. God is the overseer of welfare; it is He who decides who needs help, who can help and commands them to do so. Whenever any government attempts this, it will always screw it up.

"Our democracy shall cease when we remove the labors of those who worked for it, and give to those who would not." --Thomas Jefferson-- Welfare and Inheritance are two completely different objects. Welfare is when a living group is forced to give a portion of their wealth to the state who redistributes it to those whom it decides are "less-fortunate" (often those labeled as less-fortunate are done so by their own design). Inheritance is when a person chooses who receives the wealth, that they have earned throughout their life, after their death. In a free country, people can spend their money as they wish, so why should I not be allowed, at the time of my death, to invest my wealth on the future of my children?

My fellow countrymen, do not throw in the resignation of your rights, do not let liberty die, do not turn your back on justice. All men lead desperate lives. We are all clinging to the pursuit of happyness, to prosperity, to freedom, to what we believe is right. The best avenues for each of us to reach this goal are liberty and justice. In desperate times when freedom is elluding our grasp, every citizen has two choices, acceptance or defiance; roll with the punches or stand and throw a few of your own; bow down to throne and kiss the feet of the tyrant, or stand and look him in the eye. It is our duty to our fellow countrymen and to God to stand and fight for liberty and justice. If we don't, if we allow these sacred founding principles to die, our children will be born wearing the chains of tyranny. If this occurs, than may the future generations forget we ever existed and may God have mercy on our souls.

Mike, I agree. If the individual is not free, all also cannot be free. How can the embodiment of citizens posses a right when a single individual does not? In politics, there is no such thing as "all", because there will never be a time when everyone aligns themselves to one belief or agenda no matter what the issue is. What "all" actually means is majority. What the majority wants is regarded as what everyone wants. That is a democracy. But America was not founded as a democracy that is swayed by the interest of an oppressive and overbearing majority. America is a Republic, founded with the purpose of establishing justice and securing the blessings of liberty to each and every INDIVIDUAL.

A land in which all inhabitants can do anything they please is acctually not a free country. The strong will rule the weak; the majority will enslave the minority; factions will arise and wars for power will ensue. In a truly free country, each citizen has equal rights. Your rights end where others begin. You cannot freely take from another because he has the equal right to property. You cannot murder another because he has the right to life. If you have rights and you (and everyone else) are not free to trespass on the rights of another, you live in a free country.

TRUE. The Bill of Rights are known as amendments to the Constitution but several states only ratified the Consititution after it was agreed that a Bill of Rights would be added. If the government formed by this Constitution ignores the Bill of Rights, it betrays the trust of the American People and nullifies the agreement that put it in power. Often our government twist the text of the Consititution and the Bill of Rights until they come up with something that is completely unrecognizable and contrary to liberty. We the People must force our government to abide by the original meaning of these sacred documents and the spirit in which they were passed. My fellow citizens, do not be fooled; there is no need to interpret, the Constitution means exactly what it says.

The same God that gave us life, gave us liberty. It is an inalienable right. Only God Himself can rightfully take this right from a law abiding citizen (that is laws that fall within the realm of justice). To take liberty from an innocent person is to assume power that only belongs to the Lord God Almighty. Those who do this had better pray that He has mercy on their souls.

This is argueably the most noble and important right of a free society. A jury of peers must speak for the People. In speaking for the People, they must decide if the accused is guilty or not guilty and if the law is oppressive or justified. If the jury is powerless in either of these points, the People have no voice in judgement and liberty does not exist.

The People are nearly as responsible as the Court that oppresses them. Freedom is the responsibility of he who posseses it. It is the People's responsibility to know the law, to know justice, and to be aware of jury nullification. Those placed in the sacred position of being in a jury of peers must look upon the accused as just that, an accused peer, not a guilty lower party. They must make the evidence change their minds; guilt must be proven. If we the peers disregard justice, which is the higher calling for which the law is meant to be, than we decide not only the fate of the accused, but our own fate as well as the fate of our children. Liberty depends on the People's knowledge of its principles. We must get educated of what liberty truly is and how to defend it; of what justice is and how to administer it. If you do not know what your rights are - than you have none. If you do not know what justice is - than you won't get it.

"An unjust law is no law at all" --St. Augustine--

Robert, Sarasota....The reason that more people in the U.S. are killed by their own guns is because of suicides. In 2005, suicides accounted for 55% of gun deaths. And they did not commit suicide because of the gun, it was just the way they chose to do it. People that want to kill themselves are not going to give up on the idea just because some government says they can't have a gun. They, like criminals, don't care about governments, laws, or justice; they only care about themselves. They're going to end their own lives whether they have a gun or not. Force cannot prevent suicide, if anything, it will only increase it.

RBESRQ...I'm affraid that the state of mankind does not move forward or backward. Is today's man any less greedy than yesterday's? Is selfish ambition no longer present in society? People throughout history have endeavored to steal and pilage other nations and even their fellow countrymen to aggrandize themselves with greater power. Anyone who builds a fortune will have to defend it from someone else. Today, nothing has changed. Caesars, Hitlers, Al Capones, and Ted Bundys are still alive today and they will be replaced with each generation just as they have been since the birth of mankind. You comment on the present intellect of the human race, but intellect does not lead one to choose justice (most serial killers were very intellegent). It only increases the effectiveness of their plan, whether their intentions are good or evil. Men will always disagree; religions, cultures, ethnicities, differences will always exist and will often clash; and at some point most men will resort to passion rather than reason. This was true the first time the sun rose on civilization and its just as true today. Morally, the human race has not moved forward since the first man, and nothing in history suggest that mankind is even capable of such movement. We are imperfect beings, and we always will be. Evil will exist as long as we live and we will always have to defend ourselves from it. So the possesion of arms will always be necessary.

Waffler...You are mistaken. It is the government's duty to protect and serve each individual. A government that is established for the people at large in totality will only benefit the majority. Those that find themselves in the minority, no matter what the issue is, will lose and in the end become slaves to an overbearing, oppressive majority. Justice calls that each INDIVIDUAL be represented, counted, and given equal rights and protection. Look at the Bill of Rights. All of them, except maybe the ninth and tenth guarantee rights to each individual.

Democracy is mob rule. Only the strong survive. "Democracy is like two wolves and a sheep voting on what is for dinner. Liberty, on the other hand, is a well armed sheep fighting for its rights."----Ben Franklin----

Archer...Today's Democratic Party claims to trace their origins to Jefferson's Democratic-Republican Party. It is said to be the same party after a name change. But you are correct, Jefferson was a conservative that once said that bad government comes from too much government, which is far from the belief of today's Democrats. I don't believe Jefferson despised political parties (Washington sure did). TJ once said that it was natural for society and government to be split into two parties, one attempting to limit the power of the government while to other attempts to expand it. Also, the first two political parties in America originated from the contest between Jefferson and Hamiliton.

Bob...I agree. But you say the elected officials must turn to God. A government can only be as good as its citizens. So it is We the People that must first turn to God and elect officials that have done the same. Many believe that we must shake things up in Washington, but we must first shake things up in our own communities and within our own hearts. The solution begins with us, the American citizens, not the government.

Anyone who prefers the tranquility of servitude over the ultimate contest of freedom is a coward that is unfit for the blessings of liberty. By allowing political suppression, cowards foolishly play a game that cannot be won.

Archer...Much of the reason why Congress does not declare war is because the Congressmen are spineless. They fear that the war will go too long and the People will become discontented and vote them out because they are the ones who declared war. They would rather fight the war in a manner in which they have a scapegoat to blame the war on (the president) and so they may be able to pull the plug when the polls are not in their favor. In many cases the Congressmen believe in the necessity of the fight. When they preach against it and lay the blame on the oppossing party or the president, they often have no intention of ending the war, they are just playing political games.

No matter how moderate or polite a nation is, it cannot elude the evil agenda of evil people. War is often inevitable. America engages in war in seperate corners of the earth in order to prevent that war from meeting us here at home. We would rather play in their back yard than let them come into ours. In the past, America has been guilty of crimes throughout the World. We often walk a fine line between what is justified and what is not. But not when it comes to Afgahnistan. There, terrorism has been alive and well years before 9/11. Clinton and even pre-9/11 Bush were moderate when it came to bringing justice into this region. Our moderacy was interpreted by them as a weakness that they endeavored to exploit. These terrorist today call us heathens, infedels, and criminals, but they are not calling us weak and they are not attacking us here at home. It is, to some degree, true that we went there to gain more world power, but it cannot be refuted that the common American citizen here at home is safer because of it.

Anonymous, Rumford...I am afraid that you are terribly mistaken. These people were in fact conducting monetary business in the Temple of God. They turned a place of worship into a market. You are correct in that we must never put our own ambition of wealth or power above our duty to God, however, the Lord was not teaching that free trade was sinful. Remember the parable in which an employer paid different employees different wages for the same amount of labor? When the employees complained, the employer said that they received the amount that they agreed to. Research it, its in atleast one of the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John). Also, Paul once said that Christians must work diligently and "eat their own bread." This appeals more to capitalism in which everyone only receives the value of their own labor and no one elses. In the book of Deuteronomy, God laid out the principles in which governments should be established. He called for a government which today would be defined as a republic in which the people elect officials within their regions to represent them. Here, He listed the duties of government but He never once gave it the power over industries, labor, or wages or condemned free trade. And Jesus during that time, was not a populist. Most people did not follow Him. This is evident by the amount of opposition He received as well as Him being crucified. All of His disciples were also eventually executed because of the unpopularity of their beliefs.

Yes Carlton...If you declaw the cat, he will neither survive nor reproduce unless his master allows him to do so. I will not be a servant to anyone but my Maker. I will live in a land of liberty or I will fight for one. Either way, whether my last breath is lieing in a bed or standing in a battlefield, it will be one of pure freedom.

The debts that the Lord Christ speaks of is not only money, its any trespass upon a person by someone else; its an injustice done to one by another. We should forgive people when they insult us or even cause us harm, but that does not mean that we should pervert justice. Everyone must sew what they reap, everyone must be punished for their crimes, and everyone should pay back any money they borrow. You can punish someone for their crimes or hold them to their debts without having malice or hatred toward them. And RBESRQ, the problem with America is not that we take the Bible literally, its that too many of us, like you, don't take the Word at all. If you believe that Jesus Christ had anything wrong and you are right; that you are somehow wiser and more rightous than the Lord of Lords and King of Kings, than I pray that you receive forgiveness for your blasphemy and I pray for your salvation. We have a disagreement, you and I; you believe God doesn't exist and I believe the contrary and worship Him. If I am wrong and you are right, we shall both meet the same fate. But if you are wrong and I am right, you will be cast into a lake of fire where there is fierce cries of pain and gnashing of teeth. Please review your choice because you are betting more than you can possibly imagine on a mere theory.

GunnyCee...I have recently heard that Christianity is the fastest growing religion in China. I'm not sure of the source or its factuality, but I hope its true. If were true within our borders, we would be far more capable of combating the evils we face today. God Bless America and Merry Christmas!