How do we preserve our rights?

Free men can never rely upon courts alone for the preservation of their freedom. Courts can give warning of danger. But they are really powerless to protect us from ourselves. They can remind us of our heritage. But they cannot preserve that heritage for us.

— Alan Barth, The Rights of Free Men [1984]

Why do we get more truth from comics than from the news?

A new National Intelligence Estimate report recently leaked to the New York Times says the war in Iraq has made the overall terrorism problem worse, and has spread Islamic radicalism further than before. Now that sounds bad, but remember, this is from a U.S. intelligence report. Take it with a grain of salt.

— Jon Stewart, The Daily Show

Speaking of the evolution of religion

“Religion has not civilized man, man has civilized religion”
Robert Green Ingersoll

HA HA

Washington is the place where nobody believes in rumor until it has been officially denied.

— Phillip's Treasury of Humorous Quotations

Forsighted founder

“Some day, following the example of the United States of America, there will be a United States of Europe”
George Washington

Government is force

The "private sector" of the economy is, in fact, the voluntary sector; and ... the "public sector" is, in fact, the coercive sector.
Henry Hazlitt

Government is force and they collect taxes at the point of a gun. If you don't believe that, just refuse to pay your taxes and then defend your property. DKS

Ain't this the truth. The biggest crooks in the world have the worlds biggest economy to prey on.

It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly American criminal class except Congress.
Mark Twain

Sept 10, 2006

There is a danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty.

— John Adams, Notes for an Oration at Braintree [Spring 1772]

Sept 9, 2006

When you let people do whatever they want, you get Woodstock. When you let governments do whatever they want, you get Auschwitz.
- Doug Newman

Sept 8, 2006

The State is and ought to be nothing whatever but community force organized, not to be an instrument of oppression and mutual plunder among citizens, but, on the contrary, to guarantee to each his own, and to cause justice and security to reign.

— Frederic Bastiat

Sept 7, 2006

“Kindness is the sunshine in which virtue grows.”
Robert Green Ingersoll

Sept 4, 2006

A great part of that order which reigns among mankind is not the effect of government. It had its origin in the principles of society and the natural constitution of man. It existed prior to government, and would exist if the formality of government was abolished. The mutual dependence and reciprocal interest which man has upon man, and all parts of a civilized community upon each other, create that great chain of connection which holds it together. The landholder, the farmer, the manufacturer, the merchant, the tradesman, and every occupation, prospers by the aid which each receives from the other, and from the whole. Common interest regulates their concerns, and forms their laws; and the laws which common usage ordains, have a greater influence than the laws of government. In fine, society performs for itself almost every thing which is ascribed to government. — Thomas Paine, Rights of Man [1791-1792]