They NEVER got paid a day in their life to be sick like I can.
All well and good, but Government didn't give you any of those things. I real terms, citizens lives in this country have never been so regulated or government so overbearing as today.
I don't want to lose any of this either, and I think the dog sniffing ruling (and current attempts in the Texas Lege to get DWI checkpoints) are horrendous and need to be pushed back.
Well, on that point we certainly agree.
Well, again, as we peel the onion we may agree more than first imagined. I think goverment certainly does create a drag on me, again, primarily through taxes, but of course, also in other ways. Federal regulation on credit cards or prescriptions is certainly heavier than it was then, but it's a constraint on trade that maintains its function, and I certainly can't imagine a private version of that function taking hold without going Enron on us...
But when the Federal Government threw us into WWII, or even the massive spending to dismantle the USSR, the Federal Government created a safer world where my freedoms can flourish in real tangible terms.
So I know that my inalienable rights come from God, and that governments tend to constantly try to erode them. OTOH, I know that if Nazi Germany or the Soviets had won then I would be in a jail cell with Natan Sharansky, or worse, to this day.
In that perspective, the Federal Government has given me quite a bit.
I'm not seeing it reversing itself, either.
In any country in the world.