As usual Carleton cares nothing about facts. His attitude is why we are and we will remain forever in debt. Regardless of who is President or what party is in power the debt is ours. We need to stand up like Patrick Henry and take responsiblity NOW. The debt rounded to the nearest trillion was as follows from 9/30/2000 to 9/30/2009 Clinton/s last year 6, Bushes 8 years in went 6, 6, 7, 7, 8, 8, 9, 10, Obamas 1 1/2 year in went 11, 13. Clinton was the only man in modern times to have balanced budgets and guys like Carleton want us to return to polcies like Bushes go figure. Carleton please explain how going from 10 to 13 is a tripling of anything.

Susan I vote for inalienable. But I will check the utimate authority. Wikepedia.

Sadly we have not been unanimous about anything since then.

While loving the song and the sentiment I also understand and appreciate RBESRQ's timely reminder that we are very much less than perfect. The question that we failed to ask then and now is "what are we doing wrong". Like unsafe oil drilling practices, asking future generations to pay higher taxes and shirking our own responsibilites. My father is a direct descendant of a man who came to Massachusetts in 1625, my great-great grandfather was killed at Chancellorsville on the Southern side, his son my grandfather Martin Van Buren Reidling was wounded there. Numerous members of my family and myself have served in the US Military. Happy fourth to all!

Saturday Senator Saxby Chambliss said "we are now making a situation whereby future generations will have to pay higher taxes". What he gutlessly failed to say is that "we should be paying higher taxes NOW and thus be responsible for our present and future". That kind of statement would be in keeping with the realism expressed in this quote. P. Henry did not leave the fight for freedom only to the future but took it up himself. If all Fed spending stopped at midnight tonight we would still be 13 trillion in debt (most of that from Bush) it is time for the American people to stand up to our responsibilities on this debt and thus Honor the realism of Patrick Henry.

Yes July 4th, 1776 was the beginning of a New World Order and may new world orders continue to come as long as they are as good as 1776 and 1989 (the collapse of the Berlin Wall). Happy fourth!

Carlton the New World Order was when the Berlin Wall came tumbling down and the Soviet Empire collapsed. So it had nothing to do with the success of communism but with its demise. Now will there be future events that will change the course of history and relationships among nations, of course there will be. When radical Islam collapses and the Middle East finds peace that will be a new world order. Get a grip man get a grip and hold on tight. The times they are a changing and with them the world order. This ain't for wimps and the faint of heart.

Good for you Mike, I am glad to see you can be ambiguous at times. To be ambiguous is to be free and to ponder. Carol I think what Judge Hand is getting at is that we are not so free that we can ignore each other or that a small savage group can lord it over the rest. It is not ruthless unbridled will (ala Hitler). For example in the old west who were the freedom loving people, the cowboys and outlaws that rode into town once a monthg and shot the place up or the towns people who passed laws limiting the guns in town and in the bars. The cowboys savagely took away the towns sense of decorum, peace and tranquility, while the towns people took away the cowboys free spirit. I think this is what Hand is getting too, that freedom and liberty weighs every ones interests not just your own.

The thumbs down folks are probably also against the concept "free thinker" the concept "new world order". If you are against free thinking and against new then you are agaisnt LIBERTY.

To be stuck to a Constitution written over 225 years ago is not liberty at all.

Talk about double speak or double rating schizo, Mike goes from a four to a one. Don't know your own mind eh Mikey? The thumbs down folks above who claim to know what liberty is and claim it was discovered exactly on July 2 or 4th or which ever it was 1776 are all a lost crowd. If you you can not think for yourself you have not liberty. If Janice really knew our Constitution it says that we can change it any time we wish to. Now that is a great Constitution and that is Liberty.

Good deep, honest thinking and causes thinking in others. Thinking freely is liberty to me.

True Justin, ture. The quote just sort of struck me the other way. If our only purpose is to procreate (for posterity) and look back to honor and learn from our ancestors, is their any time for us to live our own lives. You got anyting against muskrats and potted plants, They to just like you have their place in the world.

For this quote alone he is Great in by book even though an absolute monarch.

Hey we need more stars for this one! I have many friends and acquaintances that only watch Fox because they like that it contradicts and cofuteds what they don't like. Some of them even admit that it is mostly BS but they still like it because it does those two things. Carlton is on the right track today,

There has to be more to life than looking backwards and forwards, how about living for today or for the moment. You are just as important in the scheme of things than were your ancestors or will be your posterity.

I got it and my answer is succint. He says nations go bad inherently. I said America is different because we can change anything we want to. What exactly do you not understand Justin.

The quote I think is true. So like zero based budgeting we should and of a truth we are free to change the laws and the incremental increase in law at any time. A free people have the right to make these changes. Now are Constitution is a relatively conservative document only allowing changes by a super majority 2/3 of the states, but the fact remains as Jefferson said every generation should have its own revolution and make laws and governance that suits them. And I respectfully suggest that in the USA we do or we leave the old law alone as best suits us.

Okay Mike now what tyranny have those you named suffered? And if I and all of the rest of us have suffered it equally is it tyranny. I mean tyranny is injustice of one or a group over another one or another group. If we all one group and have inflicted upon ourselves certain "injustices" equally can it be described as tyranny. Now as we know it Rwanda one tribe a minority exercised tyranny over another tribe, is that what you believe exists here. What tyranny do you suffer my friend, other than being required to stop at a stop sign which you so much abhor.

Mikr I think Mr. O is doing just the right thing. First his enemies attacked for not doing anything about the oil brouhaha. Then he secured a guarantee of $20 billion and his enemies attacked him and the government for doing something or for doing to much. Don't you really think there is really something wrong with these enemies of the Prez. I mean really, truly. who are the bums? And what does Carol mean when she says "Remember in November". What I will remember is "Drill Baby Drill" and "there is no such thing as global warming or cliamte change" I'll remember people like Michell Backman, and Sarah Palin, and Rush Limbaugh. and Ron and Rand, ad nauseum. These are the bums whose politcal demise I see and will work for and will struggle against. And I will work to destoy those who are against cruising.

Words worthless words. Name a person that is victim to tyranny as Mike claims that they are. Did this tyranny just start a year and a half ago with the change of a President and his party. Who are the bums. I thought we threw the bums out a year and a half ago. Does anyone have any specifics for anything they say. Carol reads garbage and calls it research, Bush the first used the phrase New World Order and people went nuts. We have discussed this befoe Carol, their has been a New World Order since the time immemorial. Every time a child is born or an oldster dies there is a new world order. The world and its' societires are not static straight jacketed things made to fit your pre determined definitions or ideas of how they should be.

Good stuff. In actuallity liberty may not truly exist without government.

Sounds like the America we have achieved to me, achieved and striving for, both! I really don't know where folk come form with their tyrranny comments.

He wrote this 4 years before the Civil War. The war was undertaken by the Feds against those in various states who would never give in to freedom for all. We still need to be orgainized and vigilant against those who would deny us clean air, energy etcetera. Some however want as in the South of yore want the freedom to enslave, dirty the environment and do what ever they wish in total disregard of the earth or their fellow man. These are the ones we must struggle against.

If cruising and being pampered is not the pursuit of happiness, I don't know what is!