I think it was good to be a radical and a liberal under Sowells rules or definition but sad to be a racist under his rules if I entirely get his drift.

Inane IRS jokes are no more funny than is Jeff Foxworthy jokes. You think you are suppose to laugh and therefore you do. Doing your tax return brings you face to face with your society and its law. And most of us find society and law to be absurd. This reaction is simply a childish unthinking one.

Archer I posted a rejoinder to your comment at the Edwin Way Teale quote of Friday 3/20/2009. You should read it.

If you want to be powerful and influential gain knowledge and intellect on a given subject. Al Gore did not become a scion of the environmental issue by being ignorant of it. Those who are jealous of power are generally those who have no knowledge and facts concerning the issues. Compare to Archer on this site.

Mike can you name a product that you are denied access to because of a controlled market? Can you describe the controls that are hampering the desires of your heart?

Not all men have the courage to sit by the side of a pond for a year!

Greatest quote yet. I think this is the opposite of the conspiritorial view of history mindset so often seen expressed by commentators on this site. The mindset of those who believe that The Fed and The World is controlled by a few and we are but puppets on a string. No not at all. There are rules and laws to play by but push the envelope, live your life, use your circumstances as a spring board not as a ball and chain.

I don't know that I am an "intellectual" although I do hunger for knowledge and respect it in others. It is a great burst of light to learn something new. To me that is what using your intellect means. If an intellectual is some one who knows facts and figures and issues and to be non intellectual is to disparage the same things then yes I am an intellectual.

The fact that some high percentage of Americans see Obama favorably flies in the face of Archer's talking about a furture of gloom and doom. The heavy favorable ratings would do not go with a prophet of gloom and doom. Regardless of what the future may or may not bring most people do not see Obama as talking gloom and doom. Just another example of how out of step and unaware Archer is of the environment in which he lives.

You and I are the government Archer.

Winston had American relatives and this quote proves he also had a taint of American pragmatism. The ideologues should not really like this quote. But this quote shows Winston's sensitivity to the human dialogue started by Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle "which way is best for humanity to live".

Thank God for incrementalism, those of you who do not like it should just go back and live as if you were in the middle ages. All humnan activity experiences incrementalism, check out science, music, engineering and tell me that progress or change or improvement is not effected by incrementalism..I agree however that ones attitude towards change is a fundamental concept between so called conservatives and those who are not. Skeptics and people with little faith in the future tend to be agaisnt change or improvement etcetera. I think it is probably some how their own selves or their own intellect that they fear the most. If it were not for incrementalism where would computer software be?

This quote should read "any man who wishes to make himself appear to be decent will attack the government he lives under". The little mind and the little man in order to make himself feel important will attack those he perceives to be above or over him. The world is full of small men or small minds trying to knock others off of what they percieve to be a pedastal. Since Mencken is stating what he believes to be a universal comcpet it has no bearing or reference to the US, its Constitution, its present or past state of affairs. It applies to all men and all governments anywhere and at all times. He is stating a sad human condition not an indictmen of any government. I give it a five for I believe it to be a correct insight into the depravity of the human spirit. .

I probably used the phrase flippantly. What I meant is all people everywhere at all times usaully complain about taxes. They always want them to disappear. They never do and we always have them. So lets move on to a discussion of how much we need, and where to apply them etcetera. The discussion to do away with the IRS, taxes etc is a little childish don't we think?

With your logic Jim K if taxes were reduced to zero Washington would be overflowing in money, ha ha ha. You are partly right but as usual only partly. I repeat taxes have and always will be to high, whether they are 1% ot 50%. Again I beg of you to name a time when taxes were not to high. The Swedes seem to get along fairly well with the highest tax rates in the world, aroung 50% so what is the big deal about rates.

Thanks J Carlton for clarifying who it is that are blind. The fact that England, Canada, Australia, etcetera not to mention the rest of the world are being blind it must therefore have nothing particular to do with The US Constitution or the US Federal Reserve Bank. It is a world wide phenomenon not an American one. Thus are arguments and discussions on this issue should rise to a different level not a constitutional or Jeykell Island level. Anon I posted the links for you previously you must read your own facts that you research yourself. Obviously you are not going to believe my post. Again Google "Tax Gap" and you will get a wealth of information.

The numbers involved in national finance have always been astronomical. Read the history of the Civil War and what polite society thought of Lincolns extortionary income tax or read what polite society thought of the reinstituted tax in 1913 when it was pegged at 2% on a very small percentage of the people. Name a time when "the people" did not think taxes were to high. Don't you see it is a "games people play". The issue should be can we do things a different way. Other very successful and happy nations have taxes much higher than ours. Ours are not high enough to balance the books. I give it a five, it is refreshing to see a phyicist with a sense of humour.

(Anon have you ever located the "Tax Gap" information I told you about.) I really don't understand the robbed blind comments. First of all does J Carlton live in Calgary, Canada. I know of no other Calgary. If he does to whom does he refer when he says "We". Is he being robbed blind in Canada. Wasn't Rothschild an English banker, are they being robbed blind. Carlton are you saying the whole world is being robbed blind. Anon rest assured that their will be world government. You must be blind if you do not see that history of mankink includes greater and greater contact between societies and nations, mergers like the European Union, North American Free Trade, etcetera. The world through communication and transportation is becoming smaller and smaller and more and more united. An intergrated world society will bring a form of world government. Because of all the questions this quote raises I give it a thumps down. Give me som facts, please.

I agree with Anonymous that within a given context there is much truth. Many believe the discussions about the National finances of the USA is rampant with opinion, untruth, or just loose speculation. That is not correct. Issues like the tax gap or annual shortfall of taxes due to cheating, the exact figure of the defict and the National Debt are hard fast numbers. We are all entitled to our opinions we are never entitled to our own facts! In these discussions unfortuantley feelings, emotions are generally given more weight than intellect which is facts and knowledge.

Don't be a fool Logan. The correct middle term is Animals. All cats and all alligators are animals. In my value system I have never equated "liberty and freedom" with economic interest. I may be wrong and out of step with many here but the economic implications of "liberty and freedom" never crossed my mind. To me it was always about freedom of thought, expression, religion etcetera, human rights that is. Being rich or poor, distribution of wealth etcetera is just a practical or pragmatic science. For practical purposes if one man owns everything and controls our every move economically it will probably not be a very pleasant world.

Anon I did respond to your inquiry about the Tax Gap. I an sorry you missed it. I even gave you a site. If you would google "Tax Gap" you should be able to find it very easily. Our government is very open and transparent to those who are interested. You may also go to "Bureau of the Public Debt". Under Bush the budget has grown to 3 trillion dollars. The taxes have been bringing in about 2.7 trillion. The tax gap is therefore about 10 percent. More enforcement action could narrow this amount. I am being straight with you Anon, google this and research it and you will find it to be true. You are correct that bond purchasers be it you and I, the public, or foreign governments are stepping in and filling the need for Uncle Sam to borrow cash. He has to stop borrowing and acquire the cash in the only correct way for any self respecting Government to do so. That is by taxation.

Knowledge driveth away all fear. Those who panic about the current states of affairs be it about education, national finance, etcetera are failing to remember how we have been led in the past to our greatness as a society and nation. In short they are being superstitious. "Those who believe in things they don't understand" are crazy.

Pilgrim you may be right about Eve Dirksen but a more recent Illinois son of the praire the last Speaker of the House, that guy from Yorkville, Illinois did the same thing. I can't think of his name but he bought up farms surronding a proposed clover leaf for a highway that no one wants. Increasing the national debt or budget does not increase the size of the currency. If that were true we would have not 500 billion in circulation but 10 trillion. I give the quote a three for succinctness.

Wow I am getting honorable mention by Mike when I have yet to even comment. Anonymous has it correct. If anyone would study the history of mankind you will find that groups, clans, tribes, villages etcetera came to together to educate their young in whatever it was necessary to educate them be it spear chucking, fire building or later reading and writing. Since all parents had an interest in such activity it was natural for them to all get together. The concept of "rule of the many" gave them all a voice in their childrens education. Educating children should not be a charitable endeavour but one of our and societies top priorities. If this endeavour is given or contracted out to a "private business" it should be watched and monitored very carefully. A private business owes its top priority to enhancing the bottom line and maximizing return on investment to its owners. Not exactly what education is about.

Your a good man Logan I appreciate that you recognize the logic of A=B and C=B then B must also equal A. Since Republic and Democracy both equal "rule of the many" then Republic and Democracy are one and the same thing or equal meanings. Now if you and Mike wish to disemble, vary, and twist miserably in the wind over subtleties that is the chose of small minds in my view. Unlike your learned self Logan I do not profess to be a scholar of those Greek guys though I have dabbled some. If you believe this is a place for know it all types I think you are on the wrong site. As far as all republics not being democracies in the present age that is true. The words as you should very well know have been twisted with the ages. Toady as we have discussed before the word republic only means that a given geographic unit is free and independint within its borders, the form of that government is a matter for it only without outside interference, it may be dictatorship, monarchy, or possibly a democracy.