Obvioulsy Archer I was not talking about your parents or grandparents. There are many multitudes of strories of children who have exceeded the knowledge level and thinking level of their parents. This does not happen by home schooling or by only learning what your parents know. There are millions who have been positively influenced by a village, or city or community school teacher. Again obvvoulsy in Archer's narrow inward looking world of mom/dad grandma/grandpa such a large and wondrous view of the universe and its vast knowledge never occurred.

I did not say that Cal. I said parents don't always care whether the kid can read or write. Society does. So society (the state if you will. that is you and I) mandates that children below the age of 16 or whatever it is be educated. Private schools also must teach a basic curriculum mandated by "us", "the state". "society" choose what ever word you wish As far as society, state or village schools they are as old as the planet or at least the human race..

Most people wish for the kids to fare well. Thus they will give to their kids and grand kids fare of all kinds but especially money is appreciated. The further away from the feelings of family a person is the less this sense of caring about faring well exists. Eventually the feeling may become one of "oh go to hell". Now there are some classes of people who care about how every body fares even half way around the world and will give "welfare" to them even to a fault. Now I am not saying yes or no to helping people, all I am saying is your child no more earned the right to handouts from you (inheritance) than did the kid in Rwanda or Afghanistan. Inheritance is predicated on the idea that you want your kid to fare well. It is unearned by the receipeint either way. And I agree that recieving unearned and unmerited largess is bad whether it is from society, government or mom and dad. While I agree that ones wealth belongs to hisself I beg the question as to who is the group. I don't question the right of the individual I question the value of receiving hand outs whether or not it is from society or from mom and dad. Inheritance is unearned welfare!

Mike you have become the real waffler. What BS you have written. I took my handle as an effort at humour. You actually live the waffling life style. Again little Mikey contray to this anglofile hater of all races and ethnicities except Englishmen, this shallow writer of dictionaries, I take joy out of learning of others bursts of freedom and liberty, while they are sometimes fleeting and short lived, democratically elected governments for example give me pleasure to learn about. It is a shallow self-centerd man indeed that can only enjoy his private liberty and not understand the universal liberty of all.

True. Deer and other wild life know this best when they try to cross the new roads. Otherwise this is a great quote for a dynamite talking point. So what are the tradeoffs, when are the possibilities better than the restrictions? The possibilities of liberty tree quotes to foster intelligent interacton are great but the restrictions of the medium are also great.

A star for humour. But no one is forced. You can be physical, you can toss the TV, the lawn mower, the central heat, live in a cabin, etc. Toss out the trappings of modern life if you choose. Americans have chosen the lives they lead through free chosen, the invisible hand of Adam Smith. If we have been plucked it has been by that invisible hand which most people at admire.

Left to their own parents did not educate their children. They kept them ignorant and on the farm. Slowly most saw the good of the three R's and the better life that it brought. And not knowing about private school, or not being able to afford it, they banned together in communities and hired school marms to teach their kids. Is this what Ward is talking about. We have no "state" education in the Ameridca in which I live we have community schools. What planet is this guy on! The community in some cases teaches a broader range of subjects like science and stuff while the private may teach creationism, voodoo and stuff like that so if that is what he means about responsibility to society maybe he is correct about that part.

Yup there are professional classes everywhere. Like have you ever heard of the Italian American Club, Polish American Club etcetera. While the statement is true the phenomenon is not unique to the Negro race. They learned it will from all of the others amd while offensive and unpleasant they have all served a purpose. Ever heard of AIM The American Indian Movement.

I stand for private liberty for all, and since it is for ALL it is therefore universal. Johnson was an anglophobe. In his 1755 dictionary he defined Oats as: A grain eaten by horses in England and by people in Scotland. He was a shallow self centered bombast, although brilliant. Brillance without a few other qualities is not very appealing.

Johnson apparently disliked America and the idea of America and its idea about "liberty". In the 1770's he wrote a pamphelt called "Taxation No Tyranny" defending the Coercive Acts and attacking the First Continental Congress. In 1783 upon the signing of The Treaty of Paris ending the fight with Britain he was deeply disturbed over the coming of American independence and its concomitant idea of liberty. Now you know the rest of the story about Dr. Johnson. The above I am sure will be considered "off topic" by Mike of Norwalk.

What is the topic Mike, pray tell? What do the words "All men are created equal with certain inalienable rights among these are ....liberty" mean if not universal liberty. If we researched it we might fight that Johnson was actually railing against the Declaration. And what exactly on earth is your point, I see no point to your post whatever.

Plague on both the professional left and professional right. They both wish to muzzle us.

Interesting and thought provoking but alas I think untrue. I enjoy the fact that for example places like Iraq vote and elect their leaders rather than have a dictator. And I enjoyed immensely when the Berlin Wall came down etcetera. What is that saying about the dictator taking your neighbor and you say nothing about it and then he comes and takes you. I give it a one for interesting but no more because it is very shallow and extemely self-centered like was Dr. Johnson.

Archer you misread, I am not surprised. All I was saying is what can of real liberty or freedom do you have if you cannot ever relax. Most folk ban together and set up sentries to be vigilant and then they take turns in relaxing and having fun. I think you take yourself a bit to seriously Archer. Again for me my liberty and freedom which by the way I enjoy emensely is to do what I want to when I want to and I am not so knee jerky that I have to be always vigilant. Some in this country "at least know they are free" and they enjoy it. I don't think you know it or enjoy it.

Good converstation y'all. and love seeing my handle brought up so often. I ask you again are we all decendent from just a few people. If Bill Gates could come back in two hundred years do you think he would recognize, know or give a damn about some snot nosed kid that inherited a billion dollars from him. I know people who have had 8 children, they have no idea how many great grand children they have and would not recoginze them in a line up of 5 people. Yet this great grandchild should inherit a free hand out. If you are for people being strong and working for themselves then why do you defend inhertitance so much. Alaskans and Kuwait's share the oil revenue of their "states". Does that make Sarah Palin a Communist. She increased the oil dole to the Alaskan people. I don't hate the uber rich, I admire Gates, Buffett and many others. My grandmother (died at 100) had a boyfriend who died a millionaire. People above who attack me know me not at all but they attack instead of thinking for themselves.

When a great-great-great-great grandchild inherits say a billion or even a hundred million from there forebearer do you think they are really any different than anyone who walks the street as far as relationship to the ancestor. We are all related. We all came from just a few forebearers. Should not to some extent we all share in the goodness of this earth and thus it should not be squirreld away entirely for just a few.

I understand Mike's conundrum with this quote. There is a freedom in which you are totally on your own for better or worse and there is also the freedom from worry about the worse part. That freedom or peace of mind is called insurance. Now with persons being required to provide that insurance for themselves view the new health care law the rest of us can have some peace of mind that some if not all of the freeloaders will get off the public health dole.

Archer is the perennial victim, down and out all of the time. There are 1,011 billionaires in the world 40% of them in the US. Ask them about the worthless dollar Archer. They are not in awe of governmental power. They do their own thing and make money. You Archer have a psychologicla disorder of some kind of your own making. The world is a friendly place to do business and make money, government has helped to made it so. On a clear day get out (of your cave) and look around you and you may just find out who you are, and carpe diem. Quit being a professional victim.

I long for the day when the American people can be free of debt. I long for the day that the American people stand up and become vigilant about paying their debt rather than passing it on to their children. We have been slack and unvigilant about our finances.

Maybe true but oh so sad. If we have to be eternally vigilant are we not a slave to this thing called liberty. If a slave and unable to relax, have fun, etc is it worth having? Does eternal vigilance take away the very thing that we really desire? Heck every one needs to have a little R and R.

So Jim why did tax revenue go down when Bush cut the taxes. If your logic is correct then if we eliminated the income tax would not the revenue go up exponentially. Again Champliss (a darling of the Republicans) said that our children and grandchildren will have to pay higher taxes than us. Now do feel that is fair. When will one generation of Americans stand up to their fiscal responsibilities. I suggest that we be that generation of courage and face our responsibilites. Cal if we cut all government spending we would still be in 13 trillion of debt. We have sent our children to die in wars that we have refused to pay for, for far to long. At least Johnson had a 10% surtax to pay for Vietnam, but Bush-Chenny and their rich friends simply got richer by buying US Bonds and getting a war dividend while the yourng died.

The Patriot Act has served to protect us and has traced a lot of terroist money. Again like all of the right wing fund raisers folk always complain about "they" want our guns etcetera. Because the so called conservatives have no leadership and no agenda they have nothing left to do but to attack folk who are trying to make this a better world. The only freedoms I know of that have been restricted are the freedoms to pollute, the freedom to deny people in a same sex relationship the right to live free and unfettered lives, the freedom to deny people the right to vote or to drink out of a public water fountain or eat in a restaurant or sleep in a hotel. Now if this is what Bork is referring to, then yes I agree with him. Most of the people I know would not like to return to those old "freedoms" of the past. I suugest but am not positive that it is generally people towards the left that got rid of those old bad freedoms and people on the right who hated to see them go.

Eureka moments are great. To be aware that is the wonderful thing. The other day Senator Saxby Chambliss said "Our children and grandchildren are going to have to pay higher taxes." He failed to say "because we are not paying enough", "because the Bush tax cuts were the dumb thing to do" etcetera. So this kind of political BS is what we need to be aware of and being aware will set us free form it. The strips of paper Dave refers to have provided me housing, transportation, etcetera so I am totally unawre of what he is talking about. Or on the other hand aware that it seems like BS what he is talking about. He should get on Chambliss' team. They are both slaves to unawareness.

Name one. Under Carter deregulation occurred widely. Created mayhem but alas expansion of and cost reduction in the airline industry. Good or bad who knows. I would have preferred staying on the ground and in the train. Lack regulation in the S&L Industry led to the Keating Five scandal that included John McCain. Can anyone remember the Wall Street fiasco. Again Mike name a constriction of your liberty that your parents or grandparents would be shocked to live under.

I give it one for being true but drivel.