[fight_truth_decay]

Away with the whims of governmental administrators, their socialized projects, their centralization, their tariffs, their government schools, their state religions, their free credit, their bank monopolies, their regulations, their restrictions, their equalization by taxation, and their pious moralizations!

And now that the legislators and do-gooders have so futilely inflicted so many systems upon society, may they finally end where they should have begun: May they reject all systems, and try liberty; for liberty is an acknowledgment of faith in God and His works.-- THE LAW by Frederic Bastiat, 1850

[fight_truth_decay]

But.. the grass is still greener on our side of the fence.

[firewalk]

good post

[HankReardon]

Just today, after waiting and watching a man (with a mechanics fingernails, grease underneath) and woman each pay for their food with seperate state welfare cards and leave together ( I know, don't assume, they may have been brother and sister), the cashier asked me, "How are you today?" I replied, "Generous", She smiled and said, "I say if you can cheat the government, go for it". I told her I'd be thinking of her remark as I write my 4 figure check this month. Get the country out of the charity business! .60 on the dollar goes to run it. Then how much of the .40 is cheated out? It's susposed to suck to be poor, let it, then people will be quicker about doing things for themselves. Am I off topic? Just wanted to vent, maybe get some input.

[arasina]

We can retain and re-establish our freedoms by NOT voting for legislators who "progressively" whittle them away and by demanding that our president reduce government regulations.

[Colofornian]

How often have you been casually driving along & spotted a police car in your mirror, grabbed for you{r} seat belt, worried if you had your license, registration, proof of insurance, "your Papers" in order. Is that really freedom? I wonder how many car wrecks causing death & injury result from that tyranny.

All right, all right, we have enough to put up w/by the liberals bandying about that term of "tyranny." What you're describing is "tyranny"? I'm reminded of when Richard Wurmbrand, author of TORTURED FOR CHRIST as a Romanian pastor under communist rule...was asked about pro-lifers suffering in the late 80s when they peacefully sat in front of abortion clinics if they were indeed a persecuted lot. Wurmbrand's response was, "Tortured? Maybe inconvenienced {for Christ}."

Anyone describing the " 'your Papers'" in order" scenario as tyrannical has not experienced true tyranny. It reminded me of the Knight Ridder article that ran in my local newspaper Sunday 23, "Demanding to be heard: To disagree is an American right, but dissenters often drowned out."

Knight Ridder article excerpt: "Critics of this war on Iraq have discovered the truth of what Alexis de Tocqueville, the French commentator, observed about America 160 years ago, that 'the tyranny of the majority' often 'represses not only all contest, but all controversy.' "

So, there you have it: The liberal media observing that when we boycott Natalie Maines of the Dixie Chicks or label the Columbia University prof as a marxist that America is engaging in outright tyranny.

Traditional left-wing double standard: The left can dissent from support of the war; but dare anybody dissent--separate by distance--from the dissenters and, look out, tyranny is running amok.

Somehow, liberal doctrine preaches that there is a protective sanctuary for dissenters. It's OK for them to verbally attack any and all institutions, but, somehow, they are free from verbal combat.

I recall our local paper doing the same thing after 9/11, running a Dallas Morning News article on 10/1/01 that there were "Dissenters under attack"...Woah! Really? Wow! That's bad! "Why, that's rarely happened before in modern times. Normally, we dissenters can get away with saying anything wacky that we want to and now, you mean, somebody just might hold us accountable for what we say?"

In that Dallas Morning News article back in '01, it quoted National Review editor Jonah Goldberg as saying "Dissenters now have an obligation to think twice about saying some the stupid stuff they say in peacetime."

The Dallas Morning News then went on to whine about a University of Texas prof who wrote a letter to the editor in the Houston Chronicle that the 9/11 terrorists were on par with the "massive acts of terrorism the U.S. government has committed during my lifetime."

The response? That prof received 2,500 e-mails in two weeks time--"Many were filled with obscene denunciations...while others called him traitorous and un-American." And the prof's (Robert Jensen) response to those e-mails?

"What does it mean," he asked "to be an American if not to talk and argue? This has revealed the impoverished political culture we have in general. People don't know how to dissent."

It sounds to me, Mr. Jensen, that close to 2,500 (and more that ensued) did know how to argue (not all of them richly) and dissent from your opinion. You just couldn't stand acknowledging that your prized right to dissent doesn't stop upon your presumed final word!

[Reaganwuzthebest]

The USA can't be that bad otherwise why would everyone and their brother be trying to immigrate here? Even so I'd say political correctness, which is the real problem that's going on today is way worse than it's ever been with no sign of going away.

[taxtruth]

I find it strange that there are few replies on this thread.

[sinkspur]

I asked myself as Bernice left the office the other day just how many people die from heart attacks, strokes, panic attacks and suicide every year due to government intervention.

The breathless stupidity of this article is overwhelming, to say nothing of the author and his goofy business associates!

I think I am right, but the Libertarian message is looking better to me all the time.

Yep. Those Libertarians are so cool! Why, if we listened to the Libertarians, Saddam Hussein would still be jerkin' Hans Blix around and making fools of the civilized world.

[Revolting cat!]

The author is right even if he don't know how to pluralize the word "Iraqi" (inexcusable, if you axe me!) His comparisons are right on target too. Political freedoms ain't everything, and today in America they mean we can publicly b!tch and B!tch with no consequences one way or another! Recall our successful and inconsequential b!tchin' fest during the impeachment fiasco or the recent Estrada confirmation no-confirmation!

I've had people who came here from Communist countries tell me they hadn't seen this much government intrusion into the citizens' lives in their native lands. It's hard to accept, isn't it, but the truth is, as tyrannical and bureaucratic those governments were, as human organizations they weren't as mature and advanced as ours are today! Most of the immigrants these days are economic immigrants and you see how many refuse to assimilate, living here with the point of reference of their lives outside the borders of America. In the meantime, the law factories in the state capitals and in DC just keep churning out new absurd laws, new insane regulations, new taxes. Many here expected Dubya to roll back some of the gubmint and are now deeply saddened (so to speak)! They should have remembered Ronald Reagan's "successes" implementing the same project.

[Revolting cat!]

THE MESSAGE OF THIS THREAD:

Never criticize, never compare, stay ignorant of the world, this is paradise, or almost it, make it better, nirvana, if you don't like it, go back to Cuba!

Lame, ignorant, chauvinistic, predictable responses. Stay stupid, or go back to Cuba!

[F.J. Mitchell]

Yes, our system is less than perfect-but it is more perfect than all the rest. Becoming more like "them", will sure as h*ll not be an improvement.

[kstewskis]

liberate the US from....LIBERALS!

[Badray]

Great post. While there is some literary license with some of the references, it's basically true. We have become a bureaucratic dictatorship. Everything and everyone is regulated and taxed to death. Some people, though, just like to whistle past the grave yard and pretend that there is nothing wrong just because it is better here than a lot of other places in the world. That fact doesn't mean that we can't be better off by being less regulated. Or taxed.

[U S Army EOD]

Then it's MOAB for the IRS.

[WhatHappenedtoAmerica]

"I just want my freedom back. I don't want to overthrow the government, start a civil war, protest in the streets or terrorize my fellow Americans. I just want my freedom back!"

Which is why this character will not get his freedom back.

[Publius6961]

Hard to find fault with the observations, but I seriously question the timing of this article and hence its real intended purpose.

Call me suspicious.

One war at a time...

[MrLeRoy]

"free college education"

There's no such thing---SOMEBODY pays for each and every college education.

[cmak9]

More people are incarcerated in America then red China and Russia combined

I dunno...I kind of doubt this.

[WhiteGuy]

Liberate America FIRST

[Centurion2000]

BUMP