Liberty, security, and death
--Patrick Henry, March 23, 1775
"Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety."
--Richard Jackson, motto on title page of An Historical Review of the Constitution and Government of Pennsylvania, 1759 (often attributed to its publisher, Benjamin Franklin)
"And I hear from time to time people say, hey, wait a second. We have civil liberties we have to worry about. But don't forget, the most important civil liberty I expect from my government is my right to be kept alive, and that's what we're going to have to do."
--Mitt Romney, Republican presidential candidate debate, September 5, 2007
(Also see the Reason blog on "Civil Liberties Check-Up.")
Posts
4 comments:
How about Senator Pat Roberts's "you don't have civil liberties if you're dead."
That one makes me want to gag.
Perhaps we need a modern version of Addison's Cato to inspire America again.
That might be a bit obscure, now that I think about it.
The founders grew up dreaming of being Roman statesmen (much like today's youth might dream of being an astronaut or sports star). One of their biggest heroes was Cato the Younger, and one of the biggest influences and inspiratations to them them was a play by Joseph Addison entitled Cato (A Tragedy in Five Acts)
Both the Patrick Henry and Richard Jackson quotes are essentially reworked lines from the play.
On third thought, I think I may be off about the Jackson quote.
I checked wikipedia and they mention the "I regret I have one life to give for my country" quote as coming from the play (which I've heard before) but it didn't mention the Jackson one. I hate when I don't write stuff like this down so my memory gets all fuzzy.
Mitt Romney, the man who will say anything and its opposite to get elected. He did in Massachusetts and then went around the country lying about what he said and did there. It should be remembered, as the fundamentalists in the Republican party use his Mormonism against him, that it was in relatively liberal Massachusetts where Mormons are rare as hens teeth that his religion was barely an issue.
Other than that, all the Republicans are fascists, the Republican party is a fascist party. That's undeniable after the Bush II years.
Post a Comment