“To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.” — Theodore Roosevelt

“When facism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross.” — Sinclair Lewis

“If our nation is ever taken over, it will be taken over from within.” — James Madison

“America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.” — Abraham Lincoln

“It is a quite special secret pleasure, how the people around us fail to realize what is really happening to them.” — Adolf Hitler

“When a stupid man is doing something he is ashamed of, he always declares that it is his duty.” — George Bernard Shaw

“Liberty means responsibility, that is why most men dread it.” — George Bernard Shaw

“We cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home.” — Thomas Jefferson

“A society whose citizens refuse to see and investigate the facts, who refuse to believe that their government and their media will routinely lie to them and fabricate a reality contrary to verifiable facts, is a society that chooses and deserves the police state dictatorship it’s going to get.” — Ian Williams Goddard

“The evils of government are directly proportional to the tolerance of the people.” — Frank Kent

“A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves.” — Edward R Murrow

“Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear.” — Harry Truman

“When tyranny and oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign foe.” — James Madison

“The means of defense against foreign danger historically have become the instruments of tyranny at home.” — James Madison

“A state of war only serves as an excuse for domestic tyranny.” — Alexander Solzhenitsyn

Once slavery in America was not seen as radical. It became, instead, a revolutionary idea that slaves should be freed. When we have lived under a pernicious power long enough, no matter how oppressive, we grow so accustomed to the yoke that its removal seems frightening, even wrong. — Gerry L. Spence, “From Freedom To Slavery”

Anyone who has ever tried to convince a non-believer that no government, or even smaller government, would be a positive change can surely relate to encountering that knee-jerk reaction of fear of change.

This has probably circled the internet and email loop, but I enjoyed it, so I’m copying it here.

Lovers of peace

“If someone has a gun and is trying to kill you, it would be reasonable to shoot back with your own gun.” — The Dalai Lama, May 15, 2001, at the “Educating Heart Summit” in Portland, Oregon

“Unfortunately, it happens that the need to render the aggressor incapable of causing harm sometimes involves taking his life. In this case, the fatal outcome is attributable to the aggressor whose actions brought it about, even though he may not be morally responsible because of a lack of the use of reason.” — Pope John Paul II, EVANGELIUM VITAE, 1995

“It is criminal to teach a man not to defend himself when he is the constant victim of brutal attacks. It is legal and lawful to own a shotgun or a rifle. We believe in obeying the law.” — Malcolm X

“Among the many misdeeds of the British rule in India, history will look upon the act of depriving a whole nation of arms, as the blackest.” — Mahatma Gandhi

Losers

“We can’t be so fixated on our desire to preserve the rights of ordinary Americans.” — Bill Clinton, USA Today, 1993.11.3, p.2a

“A system of licensing and registration is the perfect device to deny gun ownership to the bourgeoisie.” — Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

“Gentlemen, comrades, do not be concerned about all you hear about glasnost and perestroika and democracy in the coming years. These are primarily for outward consumption. There will be no significant change within the Soviet Union, other than for cosmetic purposes. Our aim is to disarm the Americans and let them fall asleep.” — Gorbachev 1989

Leaders

“Those who beat their swords into plowshares will plow for those who don’t.” — Thomas Jefferson

“The best we can hope for concerning the people at large is that they be properly armed.” — Alexander Hamilton

“Firearms stand next in importance to the Constitution itself. They are the American people’s liberty, teeth and keystone under independence. The church, the plow, the prairie wagon and citizens’ firearms are indelibly related. From the hour the pilgrims landed to the present day, events, occurrences and tendencies prove that, to ensure peace, security and happiness, the rifle and pistol are equally indispensable. Every corner of this land knows firearms, and more than 99 and 99/100 percent of them by their silence indicate that they are in safe and sane hands. The very atmosphere of firearms anywhere and everywhere restrains evil influence. They deserve a place of honor with all that’s good. When firearms go, all goes. We need them every hour.” — George Washington

“How a politician stands on the Second Amendment tells you how he or she views you as an individual… as a trustworthy and productive citizen, or as part of an unruly crowd that needs to be lorded over, controlled, supervised, and taken care of.” — Representative Suzanna Gratia Hupp (TX)

“All our liberties are due to men who, when their conscience has compelled them, have broken the laws of the land.” — William Kingdom Clifford

Lecturers

“A fear of weapons is a sign of retarded sexual and emotional maturity.” — Sigmund Freud

“If those states which did not have right-to-carry concealed gun provisions had adopted them in 1992, approximately 1,570 murders; 4,177 rapes; and over 60,000 aggravate assaults would have been avoided yearly.” — Professor John Lott, http://deepwaterweb.com/gunstudy.htm

“The average man’s love of liberty is nine-tenths imaginary. It takes a special sort of man to understand and enjoy liberty and he is usually an outlaw in democratic societies.” — H.L. MENCKEN

“That rifle on the wall of the labourer’s cottage or working class flat is the symbol of democracy. It is our job to see that it stays there.” — George Orwell

“I have carried a revolver; lots of us do, but they are the most innocent things in the world.” — Mark Twain

Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert, has nicely summed up his thoughts (and mine) on the concept of flag burning.

But symbols are personal things, and everyone is free to interpret them however they see fit. For me, a flag that I’m NOT allowed to burn is a symbol that the government is too intrusive in my life. And it’s an insult to anyone who died to defend freedom. But that’s just me. You might prefer your symbols of freedom to have as many restrictions as possible.

It seems to me that the great thing about the flag is that it symbolizes something inherently indestructible: the concept of freedom. You can burn the flag as many times as you want and the concept of freedom is not only still there – it’s stronger.

(emphasis mine, props to the Bonehead of the Day for the find)

The first idiotic quick fix of the summer that springs to mind is ABC’s “How to Get the Guy” (10 p.m. Mondays) — a show that would more accurately be called “How to Get A Guy, Any Guy” or better yet, “How to Cast a Great, Big, Wide Net Like the Soulless, Whoring Sea Donkey That You Are.”

— Heather Havrilesky (From her Salon.com article “I Like to Watch“)