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It is not anti government to have a desire to shrink an already intrusive , bloated government, contrary to what those folks with less intelligence than yourself might think.

Indeed. But I think part of the problem is that, when you enunciate the anti-Statist position, there are always those who - uncognisant of the distinction between a properly construed government (which assigns itself nothing beyond protecting her citizens from criminals at home - real criminals, please, not mere vicemongers - and enemies and attacks from abroad) and an improperly consecrated State (which assigns itself as the source of her citizens' rights and, indeed, lives and livings, as remains assuredly the case today for these United States and only too many of the several states thereof) - assume that when you speak against the State you are speaking against any sort of government and, therefore, against any sort of civilised society, as if the sole legitimate soil from which any sort of civilised society springs is government. (Government, properly construed, is what is established to protect civilised societies; civilised societies are not established by the hand and light of government.)

As often as not, it is because they, or someone within their orbit, are an explicit beneficiary of the State's largesse without the slightest comprehension or concern for the plain enough fact that no one receives a benefit from the State which the State did not previously steal from someone else. Or, perhaps, it is because - their having seen little enough of the genuine alternative - they have known little much else beyond the State's having assumed for itself the arbitration of not merely our protections but indeed our very morals, ethics, and faculties for thought and reason (which is, I grant, something like expecting that we should permit our fiduciary responsibilities to be overseen by the James Gang) even where it is clearly beyond the State's competence or properly construed Constitutional mandate to do so.

And should you point forth the latter, you know as well as I that you are liable often as not to be jumped as an obvious moral miscreant, and never mind that time very much was when to the church or synagogue did we assign the tending of our moral and ethical gardens while to the properly construed government did we assign the business of tending such protection of our property and our lives as we could not tend ourselves as individuals.

And, it is simply impolite in too many places to say so (you notice how there are those among us here who all but explode, when you have construed one or another position of theirs as being obviously enough a position which tends to consecrate rather than undermine Statism), even in places which you might presume to be at least hospitable to the anti-Statist argument.

""And, it is simply impolite in too many places to say so (you notice how there are those among us here who all but explode, when you have construed one or another position of theirs as being obviously enough a position which tends to consecrate rather than undermine Statism), even in places which you might presume to be at least hospitable to the anti-Statist argument.""

My dear friend, it happens all too often here! I have to admit it saddens me somewhat, when I think of how well this country COULD be run, were it not for the well meaning cowards, and outright scoundrels we are currently stuck with in Congress. The prime function of our federal government should be to PROTECT us from our enemies, both here and abroad. The TRILLIONS our government has burned under the guise of Statist faux noblesse oblige is maddening,destructive, and, of course, ever expanding even under Bush.I also fear the constant usurpation of our individual rights, hiding inside the den of political correctness.There are too many posters here who posit the mantra"Thou shalt not criticize the President, ever!" Well, I for one believe that President Bush's policy on education is a billion dollar boondoggle, ripe to benefit only the NEA. And his morbid obsession with befriending the president of Mexico, scares the hell out of me.