[The FRugitive]

The chief characteristic of the true conservative is a willingness to let other people be what they are, for good or ill, just as the chief characteristic of the modern liberal is the compulsion to make others conform to his ideas of what's good for them.

Well said! And you'll note he said TRUE conservatives, not the liberal nanny state loveing neo-cons that seem to have developed as the mainstream around here.

[The FRugitive]

"Government is not the solution to our problem; government *is* the problem." - Ronald Reagan

"I don't believe in a government that protects us from ourselves." - Ronald Reagan

"If you analyze it, I believe the very heart and soul of conservatism is libertarianism .... The basis of conservatism is a desire for less government interference or less centralized authority or more individual freedom and this is a pretty general description also of what libertarianism is." - Ronald Reagan