Is Ron Paul a "whack job"?

[ugarte]

[quote krose][quote Josh '99]What, as opposed to all the rest of us freedom haters?[/quote]
In my experience, most people don't understand what freedom really is.  They only understand what a lifetime of nationalistic government propaganda tells them freedom is.

Freedom is very simple: it's the right to be left alone to pursue happiness without interference from others, as long as you respect others' rights to do the same.

It seems pretty clear to me that you don't need 40,000,000 words/100,000 pages/150 copies of The Lord of the Rings---that is, the size of the US Code---to describe that.[/quote]
A good portion of those 40,000,000 words are necessary to enforce the "respecting other people's rights to be left alone" part of the equation. History teaches that people disagree a lot about what that means.

[Beeeej]

[quote ugarte][quote krose][quote Josh '99]What, as opposed to all the rest of us freedom haters?[/quote]
In my experience, most people don't understand what freedom really is.  They only understand what a lifetime of nationalistic government propaganda tells them freedom is.

Freedom is very simple: it's the right to be left alone to pursue happiness without interference from others, as long as you respect others' rights to do the same.

It seems pretty clear to me that you don't need 40,000,000 words/100,000 pages/150 copies of The Lord of the Rings---that is, the size of the US Code---to describe that.[/quote]
A good portion of those 40,000,000 words are necessary to enforce the "respecting other people's rights to be left alone" part of the equation. History teaches that people disagree a lot about what that means.[/quote]

Does not.

[KeithK]

[quote ugarte][quote krose][quote Josh '99]What, as opposed to all the rest of us freedom haters?[/quote]
In my experience, most people don't understand what freedom really is.  They only understand what a lifetime of nationalistic government propaganda tells them freedom is.

Freedom is very simple: it's the right to be left alone to pursue happiness without interference from others, as long as you respect others' rights to do the same.

It seems pretty clear to me that you don't need 40,000,000 words/100,000 pages/150 copies of The Lord of the Rings---that is, the size of the US Code---to describe that.[/quote]
A good portion of those 40,000,000 words are necessary to enforce the "respecting other people's rights to be left alone" part of the equation. History teaches that people disagree a lot about what that means.[/quote]
I'd bet that very few of the words in the US code have much to do with that.  Most of them have to do with telling people how to live their lives and businesses and with achieving various social goals that the majority (or at least the majority of leaders) have decided are valuable.

Whether the structure of our government is a good thing or not is certainly a valid subject for debate.  But if you accept Kyle's definition of freedom and that preserving this freedom should be the highest goal of society it's hard to argue the efficiency and utility of the US code.

[Beeeej]

[quote KeithK]Whether the structure of our government is a good thing or not is certainly a valid subject for debate.  But if you accept Kyle's definition of freedom and that preserving this freedom should be the highest goal of society it's hard to argue the efficiency and utility of the US code.[/quote]

If you accept that preserving freedom should be the only goal of society, it's hard to argue the efficiency and utility of the US code.

Hell, it's hard to argue the efficiency of the US code, period.  But that's a different story.

[RichH]

[quote KeithK]Whether the structure of our government is a good thing or not is certainly a valid subject for debate. [/quote]

But what IS a good thing is that it's free cone day at Ben & Jerry's!!!

Threadjacked you back, bitches.   ::crazy::

[David Harding]

[quote Josh '99][quote Rita]You do not have to pay for the utilities if you don't want to have electricity and the like in your home.[/quote]Isn't that the same as it is everywhere?  I stop paying Con Edison, they stop giving me electricity?[/quote]Most places you can't get a certificate of occupancy if you don't have electric power, water, and so forth.