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Henry
September 11, 2014, 8:12pm Report to Moderator

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Yep -- He is correct on all 5 points.

"The government is us; we are the government, you and I."  Theodore Roosevelt




So you believe the majority has the right to overrule others rights, you believe someone you didn't vote for has the power to tell you what you can consume in your own body? Well the government does just that DVOR, so I guess you believe your body is NOT your property. So who owns your body DVOR? Obama, box a rox, me, Pelosi?


"In the beginning of a change, the Patriot is a scarce man, brave, hated and scorned. When his cause succeeds, however, the timid join him, for then it costs nothing to be a Patriot."

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DemocraticVoiceOfReason
September 11, 2014, 8:34pm Report to Moderator

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Quoted from Henry


So you believe the majority has the right to overrule others rights, you believe someone you didn't vote for has the power to tell you what you can consume in your own body? Well the government does just that DVOR, so I guess you believe your body is NOT your property. So who owns your body DVOR? Obama, box a rox, me, Pelosi?


I never said that or even suggested that.  Of course, you know that but are purposely trying to suggest otherwise.
We have a Bill of Rights and other Constitutional amendments and provisions that protect individual rights.  And NOTHING in what I have said or what was said in the video suggests that anyone's Constitutional rights should be taken away by the "government" (which is US) or any one else.
Libertarians have forgotten (maybe never knew it) but the people -- the voters -- are responsible for the elected government that they select.  That is why some Libertarians suggest that people shouldn't vote -- which is quite honestly .. the stupidest thing to suggest .. and the most dangerous thing to suggest in a democratic republic.  The moment the people forget that THEY are the government - forget that THEY have not only the right but the DUTY to be informed participants in the political process -- that is when we can kiss our rights and liberties good bye.
Oh -- and don't hold your breath waiting for me to apologize to Libertarians. IMHO -- they are just as bad as the extreme conservatives and the extreme liberals.    


George Amedore & Christian Klueg for NYS Senate 2016
Pete Vroman for State Assembly 2016[/size][/color]

"For this is what America is all about. It is the uncrossed desert and the unclimbed ridge. It is the star that is not reached and the harvest that is sleeping in the unplowed ground."
Lyndon Baines Johnson
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CICERO
September 11, 2014, 8:48pm Report to Moderator

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Libertarians have forgotten (maybe never knew it) but the people -- the voters -- are responsible for the elected government that they select.  That is why some Libertarians suggest that people shouldn't vote -- which is quite honestly .. the stupidest thing to suggest .. and the most dangerous thing to suggest in a democratic republic.  The moment the people forget that THEY are the government - forget that THEY have not only the right but the DUTY to be informed participants in the political process -- that is when we can kiss our rights and liberties good bye.


Extend your theory that government is "us" to the end. If nobody votes, who is taking away our so-called rights and liberties?


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DemocraticVoiceOfReason
September 11, 2014, 9:05pm Report to Moderator

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Quoted from CICERO


Extend your theory that government is "us" to the end. If nobody votes, who is taking away our so-called rights and liberties?


It isn't a theory -- It is a fact.  Ask the Founding Fathers, Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt.  

It is also a red herring to ask "if nobody votes."  Unless you are as naive as the video's author believes Libertarians to be than you know that if most people don't vote -- the only people who will vote are the ones that will call the shots .. and soon we would get despots/dictators in power .. who would repeal the Bill of Rights and pass laws to end all our liberties.

in a democratic republic EVERY individual must be INFORMED and PARTICIPATE in order to ensure the safeguarding of our rights and liberties.  The fewer people who participate the more imperiled are our rights and liberties.  

The fact that libertarians don't seem to get that -- suggests to me -- that they are really not concerned about individual rights and liberty ... and are most likely dupes for some nefarious movement with the real intention of destroying America, its rights and liberties and its democratic republic.  


George Amedore & Christian Klueg for NYS Senate 2016
Pete Vroman for State Assembly 2016[/size][/color]

"For this is what America is all about. It is the uncrossed desert and the unclimbed ridge. It is the star that is not reached and the harvest that is sleeping in the unplowed ground."
Lyndon Baines Johnson
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CICERO
September 11, 2014, 9:24pm Report to Moderator

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It is also a red herring to ask "if nobody votes."    


It's not a red herring.  It's question of legitimate government.  

Ok, instead of nobody votes, let's say there is 30% participation in voting. The candidate or party that wins gets 16%.  Is a government with 16% support legitimate?  Is it a government "of the people"?


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sanfordy2
September 11, 2014, 9:50pm Report to Moderator

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Quoted from CICERO


It's not a red herring.  It's question of legitimate government.  

Ok, instead of nobody votes, let's say there is 30% participation in voting. The candidate or party that wins gets 16%.  Is a government with 16% support legitimate?  Is it a government "of the people"?


nope....and never will be again  
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CICERO
September 11, 2014, 10:17pm Report to Moderator

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I never said that or even suggested that.  Of course, you know that but are purposely trying to suggest otherwise.
We have a Bill of Rights and other Constitutional amendments and provisions that protect individual rights.  And NOTHING in what I have said or what was said in the video suggests that anyone's Constitutional rights should be taken away by the "government" (which is US) or any one else.
Libertarians have forgotten (maybe never knew it) but the people -- the voters -- are responsible for the elected government that they select.  That is why some Libertarians suggest that people shouldn't vote -- which is quite honestly .. the stupidest thing to suggest .. and the most dangerous thing to suggest in a democratic republic.  The moment the people forget that THEY are the government - forget that THEY have not only the right but the DUTY to be informed participants in the political process -- that is when we can kiss our rights and liberties good bye.
Oh -- and don't hold your breath waiting for me to apologize to Libertarians. IMHO -- they are just as bad as the extreme conservatives and the extreme liberals.    


But the democrats when in the majority changed senate rules to pass Obamacare by a simple majority, and force EVERYBODY to puchase health insurance or get fined(I know, they call it a tax)

The bill of rights is gone.  It only took 225 years.  The Constitution and republic failed.


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Libertarian4life
September 11, 2014, 10:18pm Report to Moderator

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The problem is that we have all been born already in debt, thanks to government spending.

We did not create the debt.

We did not approve the spending.

We have absolutely no say in how much is spent.

We only have our useless vote, that allows us to vote from pre-selected candidates that the political machine has chosen for us.

Obama was for change.

What has he changed?

He made it mandatory for everyone to shell out money to corporations for health care.

Because we had 30 million uninsured people.

He could have simply have given them coverage and skipped the corporate profiteering, thereby saving billions.

People don't choose candidates, corporations do.

Growing up, we couldn't believe the way elections were done in the Soviet Union.

You get to choose which party gets to extort your money and restrict your freedom.

These are not real choices.


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Libertarian4life
September 11, 2014, 10:21pm Report to Moderator

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Libertarian4life
September 11, 2014, 10:26pm Report to Moderator

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Voting As Political Narcotic

By Joel S. Hirschhorn

Fast forward to Election Day 2008: Network anchors, cable pundits, and state and local election officials are going nuts as evening hours pass and voter turnout is hardly approaching 20 percent nearly everywhere. “What’s going on?” everyone is asking incredulously. TV and computer screens all over the planet show Americans in streets celebrating and shouting things like “We’ve had enough political corruption. We’re not going to take anymore!”

In contrast, news anchors are grim and aghast with little help from spin-fatigued and stammering Democratic and Republican spokespeople. At 2 A.M. on NBC Brian Williams sits with Tim Russett and Keith Olbermann, and sums up: “Americans have spoken and American politics have changed forever.” “It’s like the nightmare of entertainers: nobody shows up for their event,” says bemused Olbermann. Russett grimly observes, “We should have seen this coming; people have been fed up with both parties for a long time.” Meanwhile, the Internet is buzzing with talk of voiding the presidential and congressional election results, that President Bush may declare a national state of emergency, and that the Supreme Court might step in again. Did anyone think that the Constitution required a minimum voter turnout to make elections legit?

***

America’s political system is a large and complex criminal conspiracy. Most voters enable it without benefiting from it. Voting is a ploy of the two-party power elites to keep the population docile, delusional and duped. Our government has been hijacked in plain sight, despite elections. We cannot get it back by voting. All the main candidates are part of the conspiracy. Voting only encourages them. In our fake democracy corrupt politicians use doses of voting as a political narcotic. We must free more Americans of the addiction. Otherwise they will keep hallucinating that some Democratic or Republican President or controlled Congress will actually give us the changes we crave for.

Attempts to hold the government accountable have failed and will continue to fail. The system is rotten to the core. It sustains itself both by preventing major political reforms and undermining those that get passed to temporarily placate the public. Arrogant power elites feel no obligation to be accountable to the public. Elections are not a threat to the status quo. Elections are distractive entertainment, a political narcotic.

Voting became a political narcotic when it stopped working to improve government and became used to legitimize a corrupt, two-party failed government.

Voting—especially lesser-evil voting—sustains our fake democracy more than any other citizen action. It lets politicians claim that they represent the sovereign people. It tells the world that our elected government has public support. Voting sends the wrong message to everyone. No matter who you vote for, voting says the political system is fair. It is not.

Power elites own the government and use it to serve their interests and protect a corporate plutocracy. Though a numerical minority—probably about 20 million Americans—an Upper Class easily manipulates the remaining 280 million by controlling the consumer economy, the distractive culture, and government policies and spending.

This is what America’s political freedom has morphed into: Dissidents free to protest (to make us feel good). Elites free to control (to maintain corruption). Conned citizens free to vote (to keep the system looking democratic). And most Americans free to borrow, spend and consume (to stay hooked on work, antidepressants, sleeping pills, alcohol, sports, computers, religion, gambling and illegal drugs). Where do you fit in?

In our drugged fake democracy, Americans replace objective reality with illusions. The US does not excel in nearly any statistical measure of democracies. Our voter turnout is a disgrace. We imprison more people than all other nations combined. We do not provide universal health care or affordable prescription drugs. Our primary education system is mostly awful. Economic inequality is incredible—with the top one percent owning 21 percent of the nation’s wealth—and getting worse. People are made addicted to consumption and borrowing, then left to suffer from crippling debt. Painful economic insecurity blinds the submissive middle class whose belief in the American dream is akin to expecting to win a lottery.

In a nation that supposedly prizes competitiveness there is no real political competition. The two major parties maintain a collusive stranglehold on our government. Third party candidates are purposefully disadvantaged. Incumbents can thwart opponents. Worse, though the two major parties shout their differences, they are merely two sides of the same coin, two heads of the same beast, two servants of the Upper Class, and two protectors of the corporate plutocracy. They are criminal co-conspirators. Superficial differences between candidates keep voters entertained, manipulated and rooting for “their” team in the political game that the mainstream corporate media (more co-conspirators) make tons of money from.

In this charade minor, maverick primary season presidential candidates contribute to the illusion of a competitive system. Their loyalty to party trumps their commitment to major political reforms. They do not tell their supporters that if they do not receive the nomination “stay home” rather than vote for one of their opponents. No, those they opposed in the primary season are seen as lesser evils than anyone from the other party. This protects the two-party system.

In America’s fake democracy citizens are fooled by personal freedoms. It is a fake democracy because the will of the people is not respected by those elected to run the government, the rule of law is routinely violated by those in power, the Constitution is regularly dishonored and disobeyed by elected officials and judges, and all but the wealthy are sold out through government-assisted corporate globalization.

No wonder that America is a joke to much of the world’s population. Foreigners envy our materialism, not our government. With horrendous hypocrisy we use military power to impose democracy abroad despite having a flawed democracy at home. Foreigners’ disgust with our government is one thing, but they like Americans. Yet Americans enable and sustain the detested government by voting, then blame those elected rather than fix the broken system. A few crooked politicians and corporate bosses go to jail. But the criminal system remains. Nothing but token reforms are made. Corruption continues.

Few Americans are dissidents. Many more block the painful truth that their cherished democracy is a fraud. The land of the free is no longer the home of the brave. Foreign enemies are used to keep people from bravely fighting domestic tyrants.

Like magicians using slight of words and misdirection through lies, politicians (and those that own them) have trivialized the fact that about half of the electorate does not vote. Nonvoters have been blamed when the corrupt system is at fault. Rather than see nonvoters as apathetic we should see them acting rationally because voting is unproductive. Nonvoters should never feel guilty, only proud to have sent a none-of-the-above rejection message.

But voter turnout has not been sufficiently low to forcefully discredit, dishonor and de-legitimize American democracy. Though low, it has become an accepted norm, allowing the manufactured myth to continue – that we live in the world’s greatest democracy, though nothing could be farther from the truth.

With false hope, voters believe that the right Democrat or Republican will do what none of their predecessors has done, and that campaign rhetoric and promises will actually translate to post-election action and policy. Voters fail to understand the depth of our culture of dishonesty that has also invaded the voting process.

Held secretly in private hands is proprietary source code that instructs the voting machines on to how to count the vote. More than 1/3 of all votes cast in our nation are made on touch screen machines driven by proprietary source code and 90 percent of all votes cast are counted by software that’s unverifiable.

No sane American should trust the political system, the politicians, and the voting process. And when you cannot trust all three, you have a fake democracy. Many of us thirst for major change, but mainstream politicians simply exploit this and lie. By voting for any of them we ensure no serious change. The way to shake up the system is to boycott voting.

In sum, despite personal freedoms we also have political tyranny as oppressive in its own way as any authoritarian, dictatorial government. Americans have lost the revolutionary spirit of their ancestors. Americans are unable to revolt, despite revolting conditions. They have accepted the tyranny of taxation with MISrepresentation. The political criminal conspiracy has successfully used cultural genetic manipulation to replace the DNA of revolutionary courage with the DNA of distractive, self-indulgent consumerism. Our primary freedom is to borrow and spend. Our currency should read “In Greed We Trust.” We have populist consumerism, not populist politics. Divisive politics keeps people fighting each other rather than uniting against the rotten system.

Delusional prosperity is what our delusional democracy creates for the majority. Many millions of Americans are hurting from loss of good jobs, crippling health care costs, staggering debt, unaffordable college education, imminent foreclosure or bankruptcy, rising economic insecurity, working two lousy jobs, time poverty, dependence on food stamps and charity. Millions more are angry about endless political corruption and bipartisan incompetence, the inability to get a new 9/11 investigation, uncontrolled illegal immigration, and our national debt. The rebellion needs all of them. And they need the rebellion.

True, we have plenty of passive nonvoters, a good head start. Now we need active, vociferous nonvoters – proud protestors and dissidents urging others to join the civil disobedience to reach the tipping point for revolutionary change. After we achieve major political reforms we should pursue mandatory voting – when voting once again has civic meaning.

Massive, unprecedented nonvoting has the power to produce systemic political reform by defiantly discrediting, dishonoring and de-legitimizing America’s fake democracy. When I choose not to vote I do not make the votes of others more important. Their votes already serve an evil system. The critical choice is to vote or not vote, not picking a particular Democrat or Republican. When I choose not to vote I embrace an honorable, patriotic rebellious act of civil disobedience. I no longer buy the BIG LIE that there still is an American democracy worth participating in. As James Madison said, “Conscience is the most sacred of all property.”

Mass nonvoting sends the message of rejection – as powerful as using guns. The Second American Revolution begins with this recognition: We must work together to drive voter turnout down to abysmal levels – so low that everyone gets the rejection message. We must let the world know – and America’s power elites fear – that we sovereign Americans intend to take back our government. But how?

It begins with a boycott of voting. See it as a populist recall of the federal government that makes our Founders proud. It is followed by demanding what the Founders gave us in our Constitution for exactly the conditions we now have: an Article V convention of state delegates that can propose constitutional amendments, especially ones to reform our political system to make it honest and trustworthy. Learn more at http://www.foavc.org.

Why have we not had one in over 200 years? Why has Congress been allowed to disobey – actually veto a part of the Constitution and violate their oath of office? There is only one logical explanation: An intensely watched convention could wreck the political status quo and take away the power of those running and ruining our nation. That so many Americans fear a convention just shows the success of the social conditioning and political narcotics the elitist plutocracy has imposed for decades. Imagine an amendment that required at least 90 percent voter turnout for federal elections to produce a winner.

When it comes to our nation our choice is not to love it or leave it, but to accept the painful truth and take responsibility for restoring American democracy – because we love it. Let’s move forward with this slogan: “Don't vote--it only encourages them.”
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Henry
September 12, 2014, 5:02am Report to Moderator

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in a democratic republic EVERY individual must be INFORMED and PARTICIPATE in order to ensure the safeguarding of our rights and liberties.  The fewer people who participate the more imperiled are our rights and liberties.  
  


Right there you throw away the very meaning of "Rights", in a free society voting shouldn't matter because the government or the majority should have no control over you, that was actually the purpose of a Republic and why we didn't choose a full blown democracy. But as you see even you just admitted we are no longer a republic and you admit our rights could be eliminated by whatever government the majority or even the minority chooses.


"In the beginning of a change, the Patriot is a scarce man, brave, hated and scorned. When his cause succeeds, however, the timid join him, for then it costs nothing to be a Patriot."

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DemocraticVoiceOfReason
September 12, 2014, 5:46am Report to Moderator

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The FACT is that in a democratic republic, WE are the government.  If 70% of the people are too lazy or apathetic or whatever their lame excuse is to vote, than the people who are elected (by the 30%) is still a legitimate or legal government.  The non-voter's laziness, apathy or lame excuse does not render the political process illegitimate.
There is no logic to the libertarian way of thinking.  It is not really a political philosophy.  It really is -- what the author of the video stated -- very similar to a little child saying "i want it my way."  
I'll go one step further -- libertarians are not just childish, selfish, naive, arrogant, illogical ---- they are lazy cowards.
Too lazy to vote - too lazy to participate - too cowardly to fight to defend the rights and liberties that they claim to want to protect.
I may disagree with JoeBoxer on some issues but I will always respect that he was willing to fight to defend our rights and liberties.   It is disgraceful -- actually pathetic and sickening -- that so-called libertarians continuously attack him for his service to our country and for defending THEIR sorry asses and THEIR liberties.  Believe me, if I ever met you in public and heard you attacking any of our current or former men and women in military service .. I would be very happy to spit in your eye and tell you where you can go.


George Amedore & Christian Klueg for NYS Senate 2016
Pete Vroman for State Assembly 2016[/size][/color]

"For this is what America is all about. It is the uncrossed desert and the unclimbed ridge. It is the star that is not reached and the harvest that is sleeping in the unplowed ground."
Lyndon Baines Johnson
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Libertarian4life
September 12, 2014, 6:30am Report to Moderator

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if I ever met you in public ..... I would be very happy to spit in your eye and tell you where you can go.


You are a peculiar pro-lifer.

You want to spit on people who don't want flag waving supporters of death claiming they do it for us?

That must have been some seminary school.

You see, I love that you express yourself openly.

Yet you despise real pro-lifers that don't want government employees terrorizing the world in our name.

Is this more of your, 2 people typing is the problem with everything in the world, nayboob theory?

You honor those that kill, knowing full well that in almost every conflict more innocent people die than soldiers.

I guess it isn't violating the commandment as long as you don't call it murder, because you can justify it.

There is no justification for murder.

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Box A Rox
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Quoted from Henry
1 Selfish- How is it selfish to want others to have full control over the fruits of their labor and allow them to do what they think is best for themselves and others. When is taking from others by the threat of violence and imprisonment to give to other considered generous, if I robbed box at gunpoint most would agree I committed a crime, yet when the State does it is it now ok because the majority said so, wasn't this the 1st thing that was taught to us about the dangers of democracy?

2 Government is the problem- Well yes because history has proven it true throughout the history of mankind. I ask people to look into democide, can governments be fixed its hard to say, the best we can do today is to not encourage our governments by not electing and not participating in their past, present, and future murders.

3 Libertarianism in history- Well lets put it this way, mankind has lived longer without governments then with them and yet we somehow survived. I ask others to really ask themselves if they really need a politician to tell them how to live or how to spend their money. If you answer yes then what can I say you haven't grown up yet and have no understanding of responsibility.

4 Smugness- What can I say other then I hope so, if one truly believes in their beliefs they should feel more then willing to speak their mind without being afraid of being politically correct. Me, Cicero, L4L, and a couple others here may come of as a$$holes but that is because we aren't afraid to be different, we aren't afraid to tell the truth even when the truth is hard to swallow. One of the biggest problems today is many need to fit into one group, it is either all or nothing so they mold their beliefs just to feel a part of something bigger, because of that it easy to crush you guys because we know all the talking points that will be used in advance.

5 Naive- Naive about free markets, maximum freedoms, you mean the very pillars this country was founded on and became the shining example of why people wished to come here, has anyone here actually talked to people outside this country on the phone or the net, wake up call they are laughing at what America has became because we abandoned what actually made us different. Ask others what they think of the land of the free because the truth is they are actually more informed and pay more attention then most Americans. They laugh about our police state, prison system, what used to be rights. This guy in the video is in denial because like I posted above he molded himself into something he thought was bigger, but as the saying goes bigger isn't always better.

YUP! Henry  fits the description, and he's proud of it!


The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral
philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.

John Kenneth Galbraith

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senders
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Quoted Text
Famous Quotes of the American Revolution

"I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy." -- John Adams
"[L]iberty must at all hazards be supported. We have a right to it, derived from our Maker. But if we had not, our fathers have earned and bought it for us, at the expense of their ease, their estates, their pleasure, and their blood." -- John Adams, 1765


"Let justice be done though the heavens should fall." -- John Adams in a letter in 1777


"A general dissolution of principles and manners will more surely overthrow the liberties of America than the whole force of the common enemy. While the people are virtuous they cannot be subdued; but when once they lose their virtue then will be ready to surrender their liberties to the first external or internal invader." -- Samuel Adams, 1779
"We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately." -- Benjamin Franklin at the signing of the Declaration of Independence


"They that can give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." -- Ben Franklin, 1759


"I am for doing good to the poor, but I differ in opinion of the means. I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it. In my youth I travelled much, and I observed in different countries, that the more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer." -- Ben Franklin, 1766


"I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country." -- Nathan Hale's last words before being hanged by British


"There! His Majesty can now read my name without glasses. And he can double the reward on my head!" -- John Hancock after signing his name in large letters on the Declaration of Independence


"The distinctions between Virginians, Pennsylvanians, New Yorkers, and New Englanders are no more. I Am Not A Virginian, But An American!" -- Patrick Henry in 1774 after the Boston Tea Party.


"Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God. I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!" -- Patrick Henry


"The battle, Sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave. Besides, Sir, we have no election. If we were base enough to desire it, it is now too late to retire from the contest. There is no retreat but in submission and slavery! Our chains are forged! Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston! The war is inevitable; and let it come! I repeat, Sir, let it come!" -- Patrick Henry


"They tell us Sir, that we are weak -- unable to cope with so formidable an adversary. But when shall we be stronger? Will it be the next week, or the next year? Will it be when we are totally disarmed, and when a British guard shall be stationed in every house? Shall we gather strength by irresolution and inaction? Shall we acquire the means of effectual resistance by lying supinely on our backs, and hugging the delusive phantom of hope, until our enemies shall have bound us hand and foot? Sir, we are not weak, if we make a proper use of those means which the God of nature has placed in our power." -- Patrick Henry


"Three millions of people, armed in the holy cause of liberty, and in such a country as that which we possess, are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us. Beside, sir, we shall not fight our battles alone. There is a just God who presides over the destinies of Nations, and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us." -- Patrick Henry


"That these are our grievances which we have thus laid before his majesty, with that freedom of language and sentiment which becomes a free people claiming their rights as derived from the laws of nature, and not as the gift of their chief magistrate." -- Thomas Jefferson, 1774


"Our properties within our own territories [should not] be taxed or regulated by any power on earth but our own." -- Thomas Jefferson, 1774


"I have not yet begun to fight!" -- John Paul Jones
"I wish to have no connection with any ship that does not sail fast; for I intend to go in harm's way." -- John Paul Jones, 1778


"One of the most essential branches of English liberty is the freedom of one's house. A man's house is his castle." -- James Otis, 1761


"These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their county; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny like hell is not easily conquered yet we have this consolation with us, the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly; it is dearness only that gives everything its value." -- Tom Paine after the Declaration of Independence


"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it." -- Tom Paine


"If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace." -- Tom Paine, 1776
"Don’t fire unless fired upon, but if they mean to have a war, let it begin here." -- Captain John Parker, 1775
"Don't fire until you see the whites of their eyes! Then fire low!" -- Israel Putnam at the Battle Of Bunker Hill
"Patriotism is as much a virtue as justice, and is as necessary for the support of societies as natural affection is for the support of families." -- Benjamin Rush, 1773


"Yonder are the Hessians. They were bought for seven pounds and tenpence a man. Are you worth more? Prove it. Tonight the American flag floats from yonder hill or Molly Stark sleeps a widow!" -- John Stark at the Battle of Bennington in 1777


"Nevertheless, to the persecution and tyranny of his cruel ministry we will not tamely submit -- appealing to Heaven for the justice of our cause, we determine to die or be free." -- Joseph Warren, 1775


"We began a contest for liberty ill provided with the means for the war, relying on our patriotism to supply the deficiency. We expected to encounter many wants and distressed… we must bear the present evils and fortitude…" -- George Washington in 1781


"Our own Country's Honor, all call upon us for a vigorous and manly exertion, and if we now shamefully fail, we shall become infamous to the whole world. Let us therefore rely upon the goodness of the Cause, and the aid of the supreme Being, in whose hands Victory is, to animate and encourage us to great and noble Actions -- The Eyes of all our Countrymen are now upon us, and we shall have their blessings, and praises, if happily we are the instruments of saving them from the Tyranny mediated against them. Let us therefore animate and encourage each other, and show the whole world, that a free man contending for Liberty on his own ground is superior to any slavish mercenary on earth." -- George Washington, 1776


"The hour is fast approaching, on which the Honor and Success of this army, and the safety of our bleeding Country depend. Remember officers and Soldiers, that you are free men, fighting for the blessings of Liberty -- that slavery will be your portion, and that of your posterity, if you do not acquit yourselves like men." -- George Washington, 1776


"Unhappy it is, though, to reflect that a brother's sword has been sheathed in a brother's breast and that the once-happy plains of America are either to be drenched with blood or inhabited by slaves. Sad alternative! But can a virtuous man hesitate in his choice?" -- George Washington in a letter to a friend


...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......

The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.


STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS

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