What's it gonna be ?
Give up meat or give up booze ??
http://the-classic-liberal.com/nation-pioneers-nation-sheep/
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"Every friend of freedom must be as revolted as I am by the prospect of turning the United States into an armed camp, by the vision of jails filled with casual drug users and of an army of enforcers empowered to invade the liberty of citizens on slight evidence." -- Milton Friedman
(1912-2006) Nobel Prize-winning economist, economic advisor to President Ronald Reagan, "ultimate guru of the free-market system"
http://quotes.liberty-tree.ca/quote_blog/Milton.Friedman.Quote.A812
"Democrats and Republicans alike support the "War on Drugs." Federal, state, and local police make more than a million drug arrests yearly. Drug cases clog the courts. More than 60% of federal prison cells and about 30% of state prison cells hold drug offenders. No-knock drug raiders nullify the Fourth Amendment every day. Yet illicit drugs continue to pour onto the market, and they are readily available throughout the land. Looks like another failed policy. But politicians say more money will win the war. For fiscal 1996, President Clinton has requested a record $14.6 billion for this exercise in futility. State and local government will also spend huge sums. Who benefits? Posturing politicians and puritanical zealots, of course, but also the Drug Enforcement Administration, Customs Service, Coast Guard, FBI, and the rest of the drug warriors. Police love the drug war, because the forfeiture laws it inspired allow them to seize and keep private property with impunity. Corrupt cops get fabulous bribes, and corruption therefore runs rampant." -- Robert Higgs (1944- ) American economic historian, economist of the Austrian School Source: The Myth of “Failed” Policies, THE FREE MARKET, June 1995.
http://quotes.liberty-tree.ca/quote_blog/Robert.Higgs.Quote.DBA9
"Now it is one thing to say (I say it) that people shouldn’t consume psychoactive drugs. It is entirely something else to condone marijuana laws, the application of which resulted, in 1995, in the arrest of 588,963 Americans. Why are we so afraid to inform ourselves on the question?" -- William F. Buckley, Jr. (1925-2008) American author and journalist, founded 'National Review' Source: October 21, 1997
http://quotes.liberty-tree.ca/quote_blog/William.F..Buckley.Quote.71B3
[T]he drug prohibition laws have led to wholesale destruction of civil liberties. The War on Drugs has now become a War on the Constitution, and the American people have become, in the eyes of their government, a society of suspects. -- David B. Kopel American author, attorney, political science researcher. contributing editor to several publications Source: Crime and Punishment Symposium: A System in Collapse: Peril or Protection? The Risks and Benefits of Handgun Prohibition, 12 ST. LOUIS U. PUB. L. REV. 285, 319 (1993).
http://quotes.liberty-tree.ca/quote_blog/David.Kopel.Quote.66AA
"[A]fter 20 years on the bench, I have concluded that Federal drug laws are a disaster. It is time to get the Government out of drug enforcement. ... If the possession or distribution of drugs were no longer a Federal crime, other levels of government would face the choice of enforcement or ... decriminalizing. ... The variety, complexity and importance of these questions make it exceedingly clear that the Federal Government has no business being involved in any of them. What might be a hopeful solution in New York, could be a disaster in Idaho, and only State legislatures and city governments, not Congress, can pass laws tailored to local needs. ... It [Congress] should repeal all Federal laws that prohibit or regulate their distribution ..." -- Judge Whitman Knapp (1909-2004) US Federal Judge (U.S. Dist. Ct., South. Dist. of N.Y.)
Source: May 9, 1993, letter to editor, New York Times.
http://quotes.liberty-tree.ca/quote_blog/Whitman.Knapp.Quote.21DB
"It is becoming increasingly apparent that many -- arguably most -- of the problems that plague our nation have been aggravated rather than alleviated by federal intervention. In one area after another, massive infusions of tax dollars have been squandered on false solutions which, when they fail to achieve their stated objectives, are cited to justify even more spending on other futile schemes that result in bigger government. Examples include programs and laws supposedly intended to reduce racial animosity which have instead heightened race-related tensions; welfare schemes that, rather than reducing poverty, have enticed millions of Americans to become dependent on Washington for their daily bread; federal funding (and control) of education, which has spawned a monumental education crisis; a "war" on drugs which has done little to curb drug traffic, but which has eroded many personal liberties; a health-care finance system that has deteriorated as government meddling and regulation have increased; and a masochistic immigration policy larded with false "solutions" that, while failing to stop the inflow of illegal aliens, have paved the way for further government intrusion into the lives of nearly all Americans." -- Robert W. Lee Source: Danger of Government Intrusion, THE NEW AMERICAN, February 19, 1996, p. 53.
http://quotes.liberty-tree.ca/quote_blog/Robert.Lee.Quote.983E
"The sentiment that modern day ordinary Canadians do not need firearms for protection is pleasant but unrealistic. To discourage responsible deserving Canadians from possessing firearms for lawful self-defence and other legitimate purposes is to risk sacrificing them at the altar of political correctness." -- Don Demetrick Alberta Provincial Court Judge
http://quotes.liberty-tree.ca/quote_blog/Don. Demetrick.Quote.486A
"When you disarm your subjects, however, you offend them by showing that either from cowardliness or lack of faith, you distrust them; and either conclusion will induce them to hate you." -- Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527) Italian Statesman and Political Philosopher Source: The Prince
http://quotes.liberty-tree.ca/quote_blog/Niccolo.Machiavelli.Quote.EEE1
"Pity the poor opponents of the right to keep and bear arms! They must distrust just everybody except criminals and except the tyrant to whom they concede the armed monopoly of their protection." -- Pierre Lemieux Source: LIBERTY Magazine Nov. '97
http://quotes.liberty-tree.ca/quote_blog/Pierre.Lemieux.Quote.1CF0
There is simply no escaping the fact that the fate of the Constitution is in our hands -- as voters, representatives, justices. If we allow ourselves to abuse the tradition of higher lawmaking, the very idea that the Constitution can be viewed as the culminating expression of a mobilized citizenry will disintegrate. After all, the American Republic is no more eternal than the Roman -- and it will come to an end when American citizens betray their Constitution’s fundamental ideals and aspirations so thoroughly that existing institutions merely parody the public meanings they formerly conveyed. -- Bruce Ackerman (1943-) American constitutional law scholar, Sterling Professor at Yale Law School Source: We The People: Foundations, p.291 (1991)
http://quotes.liberty-tree.ca/quote_blog/Bruce.Ackerman.Quote.F765
"Our federal government, which was intended to operate as a very limited constitutional republic, has instead become a virtually socialist leviathan that redistributes trillions of dollars. We can hardly be surprised when countless special interests fight for the money. The only true solution to the campaign money problem is a return to a proper constitutional government that does not control the economy. Big government and big campaign money go hand-in-hand." -- Dr. Ron Paul (1935-) American physician, US Congressman (R-TX), US Presidential candidate Source: Why Is There So Much Money in Politics?, February 4, 2002
http://quotes.liberty-tree.ca/quote_blog/Ron.Paul.Quote.4211
"If I give you a forty five percent chance at lethal injection, a fifty percent chance at the electric chair, and a five percent chance for escape which are you going to vote for? The electric chair, because you're likely to win?" -- Michael Badnarik (1954- ) American software engineer, political figure, and former radio talk show host
http://quotes.liberty-tree.ca/quote_blog/Michael.Badnarik.Quote.2B2B
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My comments at
by tim_lebsack 1 minute ago
re: "What purpose does this serve?"
I often ask candidates for non-partisan offices where there political allegiance lies. Even if the office is designated non-partisan, no candidate I've met has been able to divest his allegiance, therefore always betraying his bias which will affect his decision making.
I choose the libertarian option - What purpose to giving away your power to these elected officials? There is an option, created by the founding fathers, whereby the problems of your complaint are minimized.
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There is nothing economically special about international trade as compared to intranational trade – save, of course, for the sorry fact that politicians and rent-seeking producers find it easy to demagogue for their own greedy, narrow purposes. --
Don Boudreaux
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My comments at
tim_lebsack says:
Apparently you got what you wanted, though I’m not understanding how these election results are synonymous with Tea Party ideas of small government, low taxes. What am I mis-understanding ?
Please send me a list of the government programs that will be eliminated over the next two years because of this Tea-nami. Even better, let us wager a weeks pay based on my asking you to show me and your readers, on Election Day 2012, proof of smaller government, low taxes because of the Tea-nami.
Delete
Libertarians are working to rescind all of these roadblocks to progress.