Confessions of a warhawk: defending the American Empire

Enter Stage Right - A Journal of Modern Conservatism ^ | November 26, 2001 | Jackson Murphy

[LSJohn]

annalex: Puhleeeze don't read this . . . . . I'm exhausted already.

[AUgrad]

is using this national tragedy to consolidate power and impose their wishes on an unwilling populace

Maybe I should have said "unsuspecting populace"

[LSJohn]

I love my country but I fear my government.

Good luck with convincing more than about 5% of our associates here.

[AUgrad]

Good luck with convincing more than about 5% of our associates here

All we can do is try. I'm afraid my fears will be vindicated before too very long.

[WALLACE212]

Typical county club Republican, doesn't give a damn unless it is money related. They will happily march off to the Gulag as long as the lobster bisque is good and the Wall Street Journal is on their porch every morning.

[annalex]

Puhleeeze don't read this

I didn't, really. Appears to be close to what I would say.

[LSJohn]

If you're not joking, you should. It's pretty good despite my many disagreements with it.

[Captain Kirk]

I stopped reading this when the author had the gall to claim that we are freer today than ever before. What hogwash!

[Sandy]

[Libertarians] are worried that the terrorism has concentrated powers of the president, may erode civil liberties, and could end up returning the big government of the past.

Lost me right there. Returning the big government? Returning? Big government of the past? What is this guy smoking?

[SusanUSA]

Where does one begin??

~First they are worried that the terrorism has concentrated powers of the president, may erode civil liberties, and could end up returning the big government of the past.

What an insolent LIE! It should be insulting to everyone reading this that he would think he could get away with it!

~"It's worth pointing out that we've been told that we are on a slippery slope for more than two centuries.

It's worth pointing out that that statement is TRUE!

~And yet, from the moment the Declaration of Independence was signed to the moment you eat your turkey dinner on Thanksgiving Day 2001, Americans have become more, not less free.

Please, tell THAT to those that have lost their homes and livilihoods due to "imminent domain". Tell that to those farmers in Oregon or the citizens who have had the voice of their vote declared mute by Ashcroft! Tell that to the lumber and steel workers! Tell that to parents who have to wonder what their kids will be asked by their family doctor or their teacher at school! Shall I go on? I could.

~Maybe not on a month-to-month basis but the trendline is undeniable.

Yet it's the MONTHS that make up the YEARS...the DECADES...

And THIS??

~Liberty cannot be placed ahead of life

Does he not remember ANYTHING?

I know of no way of judging of the future but by the past....
What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? 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!

I'm sorry, Patrick Henry.

[AUgrad]

Liberty cannot be placed ahead of life

I guess WWII was just for grins.

[Twodees]

Jonah thinks that being out of Lucianne's house is freedom. I think she made him stay in his room for 30 years.

[Twodees]

Consider the source, ma'am. This guy is a 20something Canadian. He's probably been to an opera in New York once or twice.

[Dan De Quille]

Jonah is such a dunce that he thinks freedom is owning a washing machine and a car.

Jonah is conflating 'liberty' with 'freedom'.
My own rule of thumb regarding these terms is this:

liberty is freedom from (state) control
freedom is liberation from (social) constraints

I think one could argue that our freedoms have expanded over the years, but that our liberties have contracted. Hell, you can't even burn a pile of leaves nowadays without a govt. permit.

[SusanUSA]

I guess WWII was just for grins.

I wonder what he would answer if asked that question.