But what is liberty without wisdom, and without virtue?
It is the greatest of all possible evils; for it is folly, vice, and madness, without tuition or restraint.
(Reflections on the Revolution in France - 1790)
Circumstances...give in reality to every political principle its distinguishing colour, and discriminating effect.
The circumstances are what render every civil and political scheme beneficial or noxious to mankind.
(Ibid.)
The people never give up their liberties but under some delusion.
(Speech at a County Meeting of Buckinghamshire, 1784)
When bad men [and women] combine, the good must associate;
else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.
(Thoughts on the Present Discontents, 1770)
The temper of the people amongst whom he [or she] presides ought therefore to be the first study of a Statesman [or Stateswoman].
And the knowledge of this temper it is by no means impossible for him [or her] to attain, if he [or she] has not an interest in being ignorant...
(Ibid.)
Constantin François de Chassebœuf, comte de Volney; 1757 – 1820
At first, in the savage and barbarous state of the first human beings (this inordinate desire
in its nature taught rapine, violence, and murder) the progress of civilization was for a long time at a stand.
Afterwards, when societies began to be formed, the effect of bad habits communicated to laws and governments,
corrupted their institutions and objects, and established arbitrary and factitious rights, which depraved the ideas of justice,
and the morality of the people.
(The Ruins, Or, Meditation on the Revolutions of Empires: And the Law of Nature)
Henry Louis Mencken, 1880 - 1956
Democracy is also a form of worship. It is the worship of jackals by jackasses.
If a politician found he [she] had cannibals among his [her] constituents, he [she] would promise them missionaries for dinner.
For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong.
The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety)
by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.
No one in this world, so far as I know — and I have searched the records for years, and employed agents to
help me — has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people.
Nor has anyone ever lost public office thereby.
--FREEDOM AIN'T FREE--
...At Times, Some Lives Don't Matter...
Bonhomme Richard vs. HMS Serapis - 1900 Hours (Local) 23 Sept 1779; Off Flamborough Head, England
USS Constitution vs. HMS Guerriere - 1820 Hours (Local) 19 Aug 1812; Aprox. 400 nmi SE of Halifax, Nova Scotia
USS Monitor vs. CSS Virginia - 9 Mar 1862; Hampton Roads, Virginia
USS Enterprise CV-6; Battle of Santa Cruz - 1008 Hours (Local) 26 Oct 1942; Aprox. 403 nmi NE of Guadalcanal
USS Enterprise CVAN-65 & USS Hassayampa AO-145 - 1973; South China Sea
HAZE GRAY AND UNDERWAY
SQUARED AWAY
What does a liberal want to take from me?
My right to own a state-of-the-art firearm to be used in my defense from tyranny/crime
My right to state my opinion in public
My right to deny the confiscation of my money/property to establish and fund a permanent leftist voting underclass
My right to a national border secure from alien intrusion
My right to effective law enforcement against riot and plunder
My right to an educational system that celebrates an American culture that learns from its mistakes and gives everyone a square deal
My right not to endure continuing unconstitutional threats to my life, liberty and happiness such as: crooked elections, ever increasing
federal debt, fomenting and exploiting racial tensions etc...
What do I want from the liberal?
Beyond adherence to the Constitution as amended... I want very little...just some common sense...
And that's the difference between liberals and conservatives.
Gibbon's Reasons For Rome's Fall--Sound Familiar?
1. The decay of religion, fading into a mere form, losing touch with life, losing power to guide the people... 2. Higher and higher taxes; the spending of public money for free bread and circuses for the populace... 3. The mad craze for pleasure; sports becoming every year more exciting, more brutal, more immoral... 4. The undermining of the dignity and sanctity of the home, which is the basis of human society... 5. The building of great armaments when the great enemy was within... 6. The decay of individual responsibility...
(Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire...published 1776-1789 by Edward Gibbon)
