Was he referring to a vicious dog or the lawyers in our congress ?

This quote sounds as though Jefferson was talking about the current U.S. Supreme Court.

Mike summed it up.

With crazies like Pelosi and Reed running the show, anything is possible.

A great quote and Mike and Anon are right on.

I suspect that many intellectuals think that socialism would work if only they were in charge. Our college campuses are over run with these birds whose only contribution to the country is to brainwash students with socialistic non-sense. In the outside world, most of them would be lost.

I understand that the congress has a bill before it to make 20% of charitable contributions tax deductable instead of the 100% we have now. Face it, much charitable giving is encouraged by the tax deductable feature. If passed, this bill would destroy many charities. Another example of government gone crazy. This congress just might pass this thing,

If only we had "free enterprise". Instead we have government interference in and control of commerce through tariffs,subsidies,licensing,etc. It will get worse under the Obama, Pelosi, Biden, and Reed gang.

J Carlton summed it up well.

Komrad Waffler ,Milton Friedman a political hack, are you completely insane ? For political hacks, just look at all the old Clinton re-treads that Obama has appointed. Political hacks would be a compliment to that bunch.

I agree with Anon, however Lincoln only freed some of the slaves, not all. Read "Lincoln Unmasked" for the details. Lincoln never really cared about freeing slaves, the war was about secession, not slavery.

With the current crowd running the government, it's goodbye capitalism, hello socialism. Kudos to Anon and J Carlton.

And what government does to people is usually not too pleasant. As in the Soviet Union, Nazi Germany, Maos China, Rawanda, Cuba, the list goes on. Could this be where we are headed with our Marxist president?

I'm in total agreement with mike.

There are two kinds of government, bad and worse. Ours is definitly in the worse department. Perhaps government could be described as a necessary evil.

The proof is in Washington inside the beltway.

I suspect that George Soros could name the owners of our government, and he is one of them. How a non descript Illinois senator could suddenly become the president is interesting, to say the least.Not to mention the fact that he had plenty of money backing him. I suspect that George Soros and his gang of lefties are pulling the strings.

As usual, PJ is right. Governments cause the opposite of affluence unless you are one of our "leaders".

For the true sense of the peoples fear of this administration, just check out the stock market. It's down over 2000 points since the election of Obama.

Waffler, are you for real. The Constitution gives the federal government very limited powers, the rest is up to the individual states. Our federal government has been exceeding it's powers for many years with no let up in sight. In fact, under B.O. , Nancy and the gang, it will get much,much worse.

Lyndons "War on Poverty" with it's "Urban Renewal" was a total fiasco and we are still paying for it. For our Canadian friend , I suggest a little book called "A Texan Looks at Lyndon, a Study in Illigitament Power", by J. Evatts Haley. You may still be able to get it on Amazon.com.

Bush screwed up by not vetoing 95% of the bills initiated in congress. As to passing bad bills, just watch what the liberals running things do in the next 4 years. Bush was bad but you ain't seen nothing yet.

Anonymous summed it up pretty well. Another example of governments violation of personal liberty is the so-called "War on Drugs". Cops, agents of the government, can take your property with no due process of law and not even charge you with a crime. See the books, "Drug Crazy" or "Bad Trip" for the details, available from Amazon.com. The War on Drugs has enriched drug lords, increased crime in our streets, made drugs cheaper and more potent, corrupted cops and judges,made drugs easily available to children, and filled our jails with non-violent people.We pay 70 billion or more each year in taxes for this monstrosity. See LEAP.CC for more information.

To prove this quote, just observe what goes on in D.C.

This quote is a perfect description of Obama. He is coming, however, not as big brother but more like the most high and holy Messiah and we are his subjects.