RBESRQ The issues are not being confused. The author is talking about all governments and counties. It is no different than interpersonal relationships. If someone decides to fight with you, you are in a fight, whether you want to be or not. Political interventions can be either internal or external.

I have never known of a tariff that did not hurt more than it helped. In Texas we have sugar workers. We protect them with tariffs so they do not have to compete. We loose tons of jobs in the candy industry because they can no longer compete or they refuse to lower quality with corn sugar as a substitute. Bush gets worried about the politics of cheap steel coming in so he puts a tariff on it to help the steel workers. That put a huge hit on our struggling auto manufactures and threatened more jobs there than were threatened by the cheap steel. The market always corrects itself. The dishonest need government interventionism to stay in business. With out the governments help they would have to clean up their act or they would be run out of business by their competitors. If China makes it impossible to compete in making cheap crap then we will put everyone to work making quality products. The pay would be better anyway. This can only work if the interventionist system that we have is abolished and we once again have a free enterprise system in this country. If that happened the rest of the world would have to follow our lead or be left in the dust. The government restricts, it never helps. That is the nature of government. There are necessary restrictions but they have to be kept at a minimum. Better to err on the low side. Don't fall for those who say the government "helps" by subsidies and tax breaks. Those actions always are at the expense of others. We may think that subsidizing lowers cost of some item but we more than pay for it in other ways. When it comes to government less is always more.

Good quote, but I partially agree with Reston. I think he is a bit too isolationist for me. I think we need more like him in Washington to keep a balance within the Republican Party but not as a majority. I think that if his ideas ruled it would cause some serious problems. Unfortunately those problems would pale in comparison to what the Whitehouse has created for us and our coming generations.

Something is very wrong with any one that calls government wastefull spending an investment.

Ted C., if Reagan said you were a great guy you would give him a thumbs down.

Cal. You should have been paying attention to all that came out of Iraq. The "he has no weapons of mass destruction' was a tactic to keep the insurgents from knowing what we had found and were keeping under wraps. Continuing reports of mustard and nerve gas being found were shelved and not heard more than once for each discovery that was leaked out. No telling how much was actually found. I was totally confused by this because most presidents would have been making a big deal about it to justify his actions. Bush did not. It did not become clear till April of 2008 when Iraq sold Canada 550 metric tons of weapons grade uranium to be converted for reactor use. It was obvious that protecting these things from falling into the wrong hands was more important to Bush than the political fall out that resulted from hiding them and pretending that they did not exist. If you had been paying attention you would have known this. He had every thing he needed to build nukes. He had the plans, the trigger material, and the yellow cake. We dodged a very big bullet. Thank god you were not making the decisions. Thank god we had someone with the integrity and wisdom to do the right thing in the White House at the right time. I shudder to think what could have happened if Gore, Clinton, or Jimmy had been in a position to make those decisions. I have no doubt what would have happened if Obama was in that position. He would have sat on his hands.

Yep, he used terrorism very well to drive his people and those he conquered. Fortunately we have not had leaders to do this yet. As for the press, they do not call terrorists terrorists. You have to be really bad, much worse than a terrorist to be called a terrorist by the press. Maybe like a tea party member or something like that.

Chicago politics have gone national.

I easily pegged it for a lie when I first read it here. I looked it up and again it was obviously a baseless piece of propaganda. Now it has been confirmed to be made up. It is amazing how this stuff is so typical of the left but so few seem to ever catch on. Thankfully the press makes sure the right can't get away with the same thing. Too bad they do not do the left the same service. Of course if they did the left would fade away into oblivion because lies are all they ever have on their side.

What kind of idiot believes that Al Qaeda and Saddam were not bosom buddies? The ignorance in here is some times incredible.

`Obviously a joke. Anyone including me would have said the same thing. I can't understand how Bush would scare anyone. He may have been a bit too liberal but he was an honest man. That is hard to find in politics.

Nothin but a bunch of reactionaries. dang you have to know what he was talking about but you choose to stuff meanings of your own into it.

Yes Publius he is ignorant. Once in a while he has a point but I have always assumed that those occasions were purely accidental.

the state treats it as a privilage for the conservatives and a right for the left.

Yep, Waffler is traveling in space as usual.

Good Waffler.

Spoken like a true Maoist there Waffler. Don't try to make sense out of Waffler folks. Value your sanity.

Lincoln was a great man. He did what he deemed necessary in a difficult time. He did what was needed to save the country. With out the strong centralized government he created we would have been destroyed. Do not blame him blame the people and the institution of slavery that forced the situation to get out of control.

Right on Lee!!! Waffler- as always plays the fool. Any elected official that ignores the constitution makes himself illegitimate. Same goes for any appointed official.

Guess the times have changed a bit.

Socialists are the greediest bastards on the earth. The rich are the most generous. You do not get rich by greed. That would just destroy you or land you in jail. Wealth comes from doing something well along with hard work. Few people have it handed to them. Those that do use class envy to try to prevent others from climbing up the ladder. This is the old money versus new money battle. Liberal old money trying to prevent conservative new money. That is what the tax structure is all about. Prevention of new wealth.

Yes the attacks should only help to prove the superiority of true intellect. Unfortunately in these times true intellect is just drowned in a sea of lies.

Waffler is a fantasy writer. I guess he thinks fantasy trumps Sci Fi. .

Why are we insulting pygmies? I would espect them to do a better job than the Obama appointees. Particularly if they were straight from the jungle and had no education or training.

A. Adams- Is it not a hoot reading Waffler? Be careful though. If you try to make sense out of his crap, it can drop your IQ.