Liberals tend to want a utopia of equal outcomes for the masses. Of course there will also need to be a ruling elite to administer all of this "equality", and they will have the most "equality" of all.

Not only have many Americans not embraced the ideals of the founders, they have consciously rejected them and have volunteered to be obedient sheep. They have chosen temporary safety over lasting freedom and the price they pay is bowing down and licking the hand that feeds them. These two groups that exist in America today, lovers of safety vs. lovers of freedom, cannot coexist. One or the other will meet a fatal end. I'm afraid I know which one it will be.

Cynical, but SO true.

It is the masses of humanity that allow themselves to be herded around like cattle by bureaucrats that put the rest of us most at risk.

Human intentions are seldom noble. Human beings are most often motivated by their ability to aquire power over the world (and people) around them. That is the truest intent. If any politician actually came out and said that, I might vote even vote for him. At least I would have found the one politician that can tell the truth.

But whatsoever...you find to be kind, conducive to the good, the benefit, the welfare of all beings -- that doctrine believe and cling to, and take it as your guide. ************************************* I'd rather believe, cling to, and take as my guide the truth, whether it benefits anyone or not. You never gain any benefit by believing a lie.

It is easy to find willing "scholars" to lie for the powerful. All one has to do is buy them. Never take the experts' word at face value. Always use your own eyes and common sense to see the truth. The anthropogenic global warming myth is probably the biggest example today of bought and paid for science, scientists, and other assorted experts.

Religion should be separate from our schools, including the religion of socialism and humanism. Words like "diversity" and "social conscience" should never be uttered in school, not to mention pseudo-science like human caused global warming. Stop brainwashing children and teach them to think. Like the old hippies used to say, question authority.

Ah, yes. The product of public education-plastic robots.

If only the goal of the education system was to educate children, then Will might be right. That 'hooey' will never be removed because the goal is to indoctrinate children at any price.

The goal of public education: ignorant slaves.

Voltare said, "If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him." Rights have to be kept sacrosanct. They must be beyond the reach of governments or societies, or they are no rights at all. They are merely indulgences from the powerful. Socialists delight in "living" constitutions, penumbra, and emanations and other léger de la main designed to cheat the gullible out of their God given rights.

Can anyone say, "Affirmative Action?" Everyone is equal, but some are more equal than others.

Who are the robbers and oppressors today? Is it liberal or conservative local governments that are using eminent domain to take land from people to give to developers for increased tax revinue? If you look you'll see they are so-called "liberals". It is also liberal governments which enact land use laws and regulations which render once usable land worthless. Liberals use government to oppress the little man much more often than conservatives. In fact, I don't recall ever being oppressed by anyone other than a liberal. Liberals, of course, only rob us for our own good so I guess it's OK.

Mr. Reston has a point as the definition shows...... REASON: PHILOSOPHY intellect as basis for knowledge: the ability to think logically regarded as a basis for knowledge, as distinct from experience or emotions.....The opposite of reason is an emotional response, something which I is often observed in liberals; for example, tax the rich even if it hurts the economy and the poor. The fact that it causes pain for the rich is all that matters to the liberal-an emotional response. The rest of Paine's quote is astute. The revolutionary French government ran on excessive emotion. The revolutionary American government, for the most part, ran on reason.

Society is characterized by neighbors helping neigbors, charity from individuals, churches or other free associations of people, to the needy. Government is characterized by taking goods from one segment of society at the point of a gun, and distrubuting the loot to the select group or individual. Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe is the ultimate in government.

Government doesn't take from one group to GIVE to another. Government takes from one group to BUY votes from another.

Sadly, all I can say is, "Baaahhhh!"

Human nature is such that if anyone is given power, they will eventually abuse it, no matter how good their original intent. Human beings are not altruistic or benevolent, and they are certainly not Rousseau's "noble savage". They are naturally mean and greedy busy-bodies, who want to control others for their own benefit. It is only the power of the social fabric (including traditions, religion, and customs) that holds people to a higher standard. When these break down, the end is near.

Perfect, real world examples of this concise observation can be found in any social sciences department of almost any liberal arts college in the country. Academics tend to live in environments protected from the real world by tenure and unions. They dream up theories of human nature because they never have to interact with the real thing, then they try to impose their postulates on real world human beings who just want to be left alone. Unintended consequences always follow.

I think Reston may have had an epiphany! The GOP of today is not the conservative, right wing everyone on the left thinks they are. They have morphed over the years into the Democratic party of twenty years ago.

Well, it is certainly easy to see whose votes have been bought and paid for around here! By the way, as has been pointed out a plethora of times, forced charity is no charity at all. Government robs us not only of our wealth (to buy votes), but of our opportunity to demonstrate our compassion for those in need. It also eliminates the necessity for the recipients of charity to be good members of society as well. Their government checks will come whether they're loving and compassionate or the worst SOB's in town..

The highest purpose of the federal government is national defence. That is protecting the lives of individuals. When people propose that it is fairer for the rich to proportionately owe more for the defence of his and his family's lives, then they are implying that a rich man's life is worth more than a poor man's life. That has to be the case, since he owes more of his life to the government.

At some point taxes will cause Atlas to shrug. Then comes the revolution and the parasites won't like it one bit. I was blessed by not starving to death as a child because my father got up every morning at 0430 and went to work logging in the forests of the Northwest. When it came time for me to go to university, I brought home some loan and grant applications. My father threw them in the trash and told me he would pay for my education. He was not going to have me depend on government before family. Between my cutting firewood and selling it in my spare time, and my father working (and paying taxes so Anonymous could go to school) I left college educated and flat broke, beholden to nobody but my parents.

It is strange that most people are blinded by their envy of people who have things and riches for which they have worked. They think that their position in the world is the result of their being cheated by some amorphous, evil rich. They can never admit to themselves where they are in life is a result of their own poor choices, their own stupidity, and their own greed. They choose to spend all in a moment of glory and self-indulgence now, rather than save for a better tomorrow. Self delusion its worst.