Not quite true. It has been more a struggle between some interest groups to gain an advantage over all the others. Those groups with power care very little for those that don't. For example, today's race warlords have no interest in gaining equal treatment under the law for those they purport to represent. They simply want to perpetuate the special privileges they've extorted over the years.

Off of one bandwagon and on to another; and so it goes. Look at everyone walking down the street and remember: half have an IQ below 100.

A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds. ---Ralph Waldo Emerson

Down the memory hole....

Today's journalism is agenda driven propaganda. Most "journalists" are simply op-ed writers in disguise (and not a very good one at that).

The people by and large have become domesticated and will never bite the hand that feeds them (as long as it keeps feeding them). The rights of free speech, free press and free assembly are simply no longer a threat to government. Today, free speech and free press means Paris Hilton gets on the front page, and free assembly means people can get together to watch American Idol.

When we see crimes being punished more harshly because they are "hate crimes" and "hate speech" then we are seeing thoughts and communications being punished in addition to the action. It is becoming more common, therefore our society must be ever less free and our culture less creative.

Well said and true; and yet I wonder if he would also defend the right of a high school valedictorian to express himself in a speech at graduation if it included the word "God" (not used as a curse word)? Sometimes people have such sensitive earlobes, afterall.

Jack, I certainly can't read anyone's thoughts, but I have often noticed a certain sense of glee when an ACLU lawyer comes to the defense of someone whose "speech" is demonstrably damaging to others, yet they seldom seem to have the time of day for "speech" with which they don't agree. But, maybe I'm just a bit cynical myself.

This is the old "right to swing my fist until it gets to your nose."

So, I suppose this means I don't have a "right" to a home because this would deprive someone else of some part of their means to buy their own home? And of course the "right" to "free" healthcare would mean someone else would have their savings taxed from them to pay for it. It is no wonder we have to work nearly half the year to pay our taxes with all of these supposed "rights" around.

Well, Jack, you can see ACLU lawyers falling all over themselves to represent a hardcore pornographer on freedom of speech issues, but only crickets chirp in defense of some student who is not allowed to read a Bible in school. You may believe the Bible is nothing more than a dusty, old book of superstitions, but it is certainly the student's right to possess and read it. Thoreau is a bit cynical here, but correct.

This is a very complete listing of what makes up liberty. It is pretty obvious when one goes through this checklist that liberty is under attack from the so-called left and so-called right. In fact it is hard to tell the difference between left and right. They simply concentrate on destroying different liberties. We all become so caught up in our disdain for those currently in power that we forget the evils of the opposition, when we should be saying, "Hang them all!"

If we all had such true moral conviction we wouldn't ever pay an income tax, since the tax itself is immoral in that it is not applied to everyone equally. As for the war, EGL, do you find the war insufferable or is it just the administration?

Nonviolent resistance like Ghandi's and MLK's will only work against a society of people who have a conscience. If he had tried something like that in Mao's China or Breshnev's USSR, no one would have ever known his name. In the US at that time and place, it was very effective.

That has been true since a Cain picked up a rock and killed Abel. That has always been the nature of man, so we'd better get used to it.

I would say the surest way to destroy the liberties of a democratic nation is to allow true democracy to work its natural course. Allow the majority to vote itself a free living from a minority and take the free goodies offered by government The only price you have to pay is your self-determination.

I couldn't have said it better myself, AEGIS. Pragmatism keeps you alive in a dangerous world-not pie in the sky dreaming.

Peace doesn't require any sweat at all. All you have to do to achieve peace is surrender to your enemies and do what they want. The struggle comes in wanting to live your own life as you see fit.

This is a great libertarian quote. One is not truly free unless one has the freedom to make mistakes and has to live with the consequences.

Forgive for your own well-being, not for your enemies. On the other hand, the other way to avoid tit-for-tat reprisals is to utterly destroy your enemy at the beginning.

It is not innocence that causes people to abdicate their responsibilities to provide for themselves; defend their families, lives, and properties; and to make decisions on how to live every minute detail of their lives to government agencies. It is laziness.

To live without hypocricy is a worthy goal, and the real proof of one's belief is his actions. Words cost very little and the cost is intangible. Works and actions cost in real, measurable terms.

Three stars for being half correct. As Mike pointed out, he left out the most important part. Loving your neighbor is just the corrollary.

Perishing by the sword is not necessarily a terrible thing. It all depends on the cause for which you wield it. Would you rather die of old age, knowing that you've cowered in the face of evil all of your life? The quote is correct, however. Those who take up the fight take up the risk that goes with it.