A little out of date, considering the extra powers given to law enforcement and homeland security since 9/11...
Nothing taken away form the IRS, but now we have every other state, local, and federal law enforcement agency abusing the same set of powers.

So, is the author's complaint that welfare pays too much, or that secretaries, entry level teachers, and computer programmers get paid too little ?

True, there is no 'Right' to a job. What there is instead is a necessity for society to provide means of gainful employment for all able citizens. This is necessary because the unemployed will eventually out of necessity if not inclination turn to crime to provide for their basic needs and the luxuries they see others possessing. In addition, unemployment = unutilized capacity for economic growth, so unemployment eventually harms the unemployed, the employed, and the capitalists as well.

Good thinig he was not 'the father of modern English'. I think (and the other commenters obviously think, without exception) that what he means is: There's nothing so absurd that if you repeat it often enough people will [not] believe it.

Sounds a lot to me like Ben has been reading Machiavelli. A couple of senetences sound like almost a direct quote... And Cal, yes, our forefathers were greater, but we will be greater again soon. The people are beginning to awaken. Now the only question is whether the police and army are sufficiently well armed to put down a popular rebellion. In that we are at a disadvantage compared to our forefathers, who, in terms of armaments, were more or less at parity with their oppressors.

"Every man and woman should know that their conversations, correspondence, banking, and health records are open to government and private scrutiny at all times, and should act accordingly. Never put anything in an email that you wouldn;t want your mother to hear repeated from the witness stand." Kim L. Ground 1950 -- witness to the decline of American civil liberties