I am glad we have agreed J. It is great to dialogoue and come to mutual understanding.

Archer gives the quote a five. The quote says that what is wrong with the country is due to what is wrong with us. He says that he agrees in his first sentence by saying True Enough! but then disagrees with my derelect remaks. Either he thinks that everything is great thus most people are great or at everything is not so great then many people are not so great etcetera. Whoever really knows what Archer thnks or writes!

You must have a different hearing mechanism Abigail, I cannot understand a word Mike ever posts.

Yes J he did say seldom. But I suggest you quibble. Relgious dogma has every thing to do with it if you are of that religion. The thought that people especially young people can and do make mistakes and are not always virtuous and yet can never go straight or be good is a sad way to think I believe. Ever heard of a second chance. The Bible says none are perfect, no not one. Locke here believes or espouses a perfect that I do not believe exists.

Anonymous the defendant probably went to jail for not filing, then the IRS through their benevolent kindness filed for the defendant and the judgement was then entered for the amounts determined to be due and owing. What is wrong with that? The government is ready and willing and helpful to file your return for you if you do not do it yourself. Lying can be much more than a knowingly wrong assertion, it can be leaving out significant details and giving only parial or misleading information. Be aware that it is done all fo the time on this site. That you may not see this and that the two J's fell for your half story above has really made me feel bad and sad this morning. But still the best of the day to you all, and may it be one of enlightenment for you.

If Locke were a Biblical writer which the quote says he was not, he would have known of the availability of forgiveness and a return to the fold of the virtuous. Since he apparently did not know about it I give him only one star. That a man of his caliber can believe that a loss of virtue is unrcoverable is in a word unbelievable.

A perfectly healthy democracey is humility personified. It gives no room for a politician to be arrogant. If the issues of the day are voted upon by the citizens at large politicians are OUT of BUSSINESS! Mike is as usual totally missing the point.

Mike a response to your inquiry the other day. I said that I thought Americans were derelect. You said who "the majority or the minority". You always seek to divide the country and its people, I said Americans period. There is enough derelection to go around for all of us. Does that answer your question?

Comments and facts yeah reminds me of Obama's retort to a congressman at last weeks Republican House Conference. He said, "Your comments may make for good politics but they are simply wrong." Oh if we only had more facts and less comments and politics, more sacredness and less BS.

Goes along with the old saw, "Never is a man so big as when he stoops to help a child.". The charitable spirit is its' own reward, it gets us out of the God awful worship of SELF.

We are derelict as a body politic sense we are in 10 trillion dollars of debt. We as a people are derelect. The only solution to derelection is force. Mike we are also derelect with our borders, our law enforcement, and our environment.

I think the American people are mostly derelects.

Use force only with the unreasonable! Quote is not well constructed and thus the drift of the write is not clear. Like when a cop or IRS agent says "Are you going to come along peacefully or volutarily tax yourself or do we have to lock you up or do it for you." Reason and force, carrot and stick so what is new.

A lousy construction for sure. A wise man will stand for the right regarless of the majority but always have the faith that his right opinion will eventually be the majority opinion, I know that I do. And a fair man will be patient with the majority knowing that there are many wise men and women among them and that they will come to see the right. In the mean time and in between time the majority is always "right". This is democracy, lousy but better than anything else.

In a recent previous quote you guys all rejoiced over the quote that said money is liberty and acquiring money is glorious now you say you don't know where this guy is coming from. He is saying that it is the struggele not the result that is important. This has been discussed throughtout philosopy. Check out "The Myth of Sisyphous" or the poem "If" by Rudyard Kipling, in it he states, "If you can lose all that you have and start over again at your beginnings and not breathe one word about your loss" then you are a man my son. He syas like the guy above "that failure and success are both imposters.

The guys above obviously prefer despotism and absolutism. Their incapacity to discuss, analyse and yes think, about things shows in their thumbs down approach to this wonderful quote. Saddams's Iraq is the perfect proof of the accuracy of Lippmans analysis of democracy versus despotism.

I always thought Ken, Archer, Carlton, Jim K and others were really coming from a love of money background in their comments on this site. Now at least they have shown their true colors. I feel sorry for them that they think that is what life is all about. The MSNBC series "Americna Greed" should interview these guys.

If this is true and many above seem to think so, and it is arguamble that Americans are among if not the richest people on earth yet the same folk above often if not always bitch about how lacking we are in freedom and liberty in this country. Is it just like Carlton, Jim K and the like are lacking in money is that it. I don't get these guys. I met an Italian immigrant that came here in the early '50's, he became a successful contractor with a fabulous home, he said he was happier after the war living in a flat with many others but they would walk down the street after work singing and enjoying their impoverished liberty. This quote sucks. As Socrates said being rich is using things not owning things.

Sumner and this quote was before the Fed existed.

Good stuff Judith. And yes Rush L. is the pits, truly the pits. Intelligensia Ken is anybody with enough sense not to listen to him and his BS.

This was obviously written two centuries ago (21, 20, 19th) and Sumner never learned of the Fed or the succes of US monetary policies. Most or at least many knowledgeable folk say that the bailouts here and abroad saved the world from financial disaster and have led to a recovery. So Sumner is wrong and he gets and F here.

Banking is based on credit. Without credit we would have to save all of the purchase price for a home or car before we buy it. Credit is based on the youth, ability and skill of the borrower to earn and repay at interest. Without banks a person may live at home or borrow from parents or grandparents or get a hand out form them. Credit is based on our faith in the future and in each other. We could slow every thing down by reverting to the old grandparent, parent, child system, and see how far that takes us. I am not repelled or repulsed at all, I think faith in each other and the futrue is a wonderful thing.

This type of idiocy is the same thing former Senator Domenici was talking about last night on the tube. He and others have formed a "non-partisan" group to handle the deficit. He said, "Our leaders have misled the America people." He is so right and when men get elected by saying "No Taxes" and then go borrow from China they should be arrested.

Mr. Birum is not in any biography that I can find. His name might as well be Joe Smerdly or better yet Mike of Norwalk. As far as I am concerned he has no standing to be quoted here. On the other hand he might have the understanding of these things that any no nothing or red neck might have. That being said cental banking is practiced all over the world, from the Bundesbank in Germany, to the Bank of England etcetera. Central Banks all operate on basically the same prinicples. Get over with it people and let us move on. You can tell the time of the year or season when liberty.quotes repeat these inocuous and idiotic quotes. Editor can't we do better than this and can you tell us who H.L. Birum, Sr. is or was. I could not find him by googling. This guy is in the same class as Dick Cheney who gave us, "Defictis don't matter" now every one is worried about deficits.

Reston I like your construction and I agree that Government is the People, we have been derelect in following false leaders you get elected by saying "read my lips no new taxes" then spend spend spend and borrow borrow borrow. So thus here we are today right where we put ourselves by following idiots like Reagan.