"Our out-of-control budget also erodes personal freedom. When government grows, as Thomas Jefferson once famously put it, 'liberty yields.' Dollar by trillion dollar we are voluntarily giving up our liberties for a government that promises us, in return, a blanket of protection from cradle to coffin. Republicans are steering us in the direction of the 'workers' paradise' of a European socialist welfare state. The reply from the Democrats is 'faster, faster.'" --Stephen Moore (Club for Growth)

If we assume that the individual has an indisputable right to life, we must concede that he has a similar right to the enjoyment of the products of his labor. This we call a property right. The absolute right to property follows from the original right to life because one without the other is meaningless; the means to life must be identified with life itself. If the State has a prior right to the products of one's labor, his right to existence is qualified. Aside from the fact that no such prior right can be established, except by declaring the State the author of all rights, our inclination (as shown in the effort to avoid paying taxes) is to reject this concept of priority. Our instinct is against it. We object to the taking of our property by organized society just as we do when a single unit of society commits the act. In the latter case we unhesitatingly call the act robbery, a malum in se. It is not the law which in the first instance defines robbery, it is an ethical principle, and this the law may violate but not supersede. If by the necessity of living we acquiesce to the force of law, if by long custom we lose sight of the immorality, has the principle been obliterated? Robbery is robbery, and no amount of words can make it anything else. -- Frank Chodorov, Out of Step: The Autobiography of an Individualist [1962]

"California made '03 a fun year and also made history by kicking out its hapless governor in mid-term and installing in his place muscle man, movie star and gold-medal groper Arnold Schwarzenegger. Belying the shrill forebodings of his critics, Arnie is fitting seamlessly into his new role and, more to the point, he courageously abandoned the old discredited fiscal scheme of spending and borrowing in favor of a bold new approach of borrowing and spending." [Alan Abelson, Barron's Magazine. December 29, 2003]

-- Benjamin Franklin

Ever wonder why some people hate America so?
by Thomas Sowell

“You and I are told increasingly that we have to choose between a left [liberal, i.e., socialist] or right [coercive moralist], but I would like to suggest that there is no such thing as a left or right. There is only an up [libertarian, i.e., freedom and personal responsibility] or down [authoritarian or fascist] -- up to a man’s age-old dream, the ultimate in individual freedom consistent with law and order -- or down to the ant heap totalitarianism, and regardless of their sincerity, their humanitarian motives, those who would trade our freedom for security have embarked on this downward course.” --Ronald Reagan

THE SPECTERS THAT HAUNT THE WORLD TODAY

Power and authority, as substitutes for performance and rational thought, are the specters that haunt the world today. They are the ghosts of awed and superstitious yesterdays. ... Politics, throughout time, has been an institutionalized denial of man's ability to survive through the exclusive employment of all his own powers for his own welfare. And politics, throughout time, has existed solely through the resources that it has been able to plunder from the creative and productive people whom it has, in the name of many causes and moralities, denied the exclusive employment of all their own powers for their own welfare.

Ultimately, this must mean that politics denies the rational nature of man. Ultimately, it means that politics is just another form of residual magic in our culture--a belief that somehow things come from nothing; that things may be given to some without first taking them from others; that all the tools of man's survival are his by accident or divine right and not by pure and simple inventiveness and work.

Politics has always been the institutionalized and established way in which some men have exercised the power to live off the output of other men. But even in a world made docile by these demands, men do not need to live by devouring other men.

Politics does devour men. A laissez-faire world would liberate men. And it is in that sort of liberation that the most profound revolution of all may be just beginning to stir. It will not happen overnight, just as the lamps of rationality were not quickly lighted and have not yet burned brightly. But it will happen--because it must happen. Man can survive in an inclement universe only through the use of his mind. His thumbs, his nails, his muscles and his mysticism will not be enough to keep him alive without it.

The late Karl Hess, Sr.,
writing in PLAYBOY,
March 1969, page 185]

- Wendy McElroy, Liberty Magazine, January 2004

"I have little interest in streamlining government or in making it more efficient, for I mean to reduce its size. I do not undertake to promote welfare, for I propose to extend freedom. My aim is not to pass laws, but to repeal them. It is not to inaugurate new programs, but to cancel old ones that do violence to the Constitution, or that have failed in their purpose, or that impose on the people an unwarranted financial burden. I will not attempt to discover whether legislation is 'needed' before I have first determined whether it is constitutionally permissible. And if I should later be attacked for neglecting my constituents' interests, I shall reply that I was informed their main interest is liberty and that in that cause I am doing the very best I can."

- Barry Goldwater, "The Conscience of a Conservative"

"If we're looking for the source of our troubles, we shouldn't test people for drugs. We should test them for stupidity, ignorance, greed, and love of power." — P.J. O'Rourke

Are you tired of Democrats and Republicans
fighting over how to spend YOUR money?

I am Dale F. Ogden. I live in San Pedro and am running for California State Senate because I want to dramatically reduce the size and scope of state government (and the federal government, too). I want California to return to a part-time citizen legislature, abolish the state income tax, and cut spending so that no new taxes are needed. I want to abolish abolish most regulatory and licensing agencies, and restore our inalienable rights to life, liberty, and property by getting the government out of education, out of medicine, and out of other personal matters. My top priorities are to:

• abolish the state income tax (state income taxes generate only 40%-50% of total state revenues);

• cut spending at least 50% (NOT difficult to do, despite the Governator's wimpy budget cuts) so that no new taxes are needed;

• make the State Legislature part-time, perhaps meeting only a few weeks every other year (as Judge Gideon J. Tucker said in 1866, "No man's life, liberty or property are safe while the legislature is in session.");

• abolish most licensing and regulatory agencies: most licensing agencies were formed to prevent blacks, asians, or other minority races from entering and competing with whites. When such racism became politically incorrect, the bureaucracies just   "reinvented" themselves, and changed their alleged purpose "to protect" us.  Government bureaucrats can't keep an incompetent doctor or a crooked lawyer (both of which are all too common) from preying on the public. How can they keep us from getting a bad haircut? Let people work. Let people start new businesses. Get the government out of their way.

• end the war on drugs: prohibition never works; crime rates would drop dramatically if drugs were decriminalized. And worse still is the fact that violent criminals, convicted for armed robbery, assault, even murder, are set free to make room for non-violent drug offenders. Most drug-related arrests are for possession of marijuana. Does anyone really fear a pot-head? The excessive profits that result from drug prohibition also fund other criminal and terrorist activies, just like the prohibition of alcohol, gambling, and prostitution made organized crime rich and powerful.

• abolish asset forfeiture laws: under the guise of the war on drugs, police steal people's property, 85% of whom are never even charged with a crime, a crystal clear violation of the United States Constitution. The police have become the criminals we most fear. Organized crime was never as dangerous as the police.

• abolish laws against victimless crimes, such as gambling and prostitution. Did I say that prohibition never works? Yes, I did. These vices have always existed and always will. Their prohibition just gives the police more victims to extort and makes them more dangerous.

• repeal all gun control laws: the 2nd Amendment is very clear in affirming our right to self-defense: "...the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed."

• affirm the rights of individuals to keep and bear arms: pass amendments to the California State Constitution to affirm the inalienable rights to self-defense and to keep and bear arms and to prohibit any political subdivision of California from passing laws to prevent any citizen who has not been convicted of a *violent* felony from owning and carrying a weapon (concealed or otherwise) for self-protection; citizens do not and should not need permission from the local authorities to carry a weapon; and

• formally recognize jury nullification and require all judges in California to instruct juries that they have the right to judge not only the facts of a case but the law and that jurors may vote for acquittal if they find the law to be unjust.

• reform the tort system to eliminate frivolous lawsuits, penalize those individuals and (especially) those attorneys who file frivolous lawsuits, legislatively reverse many of the decisions of liberal judges over the past thirty years, and restore our tort system to one where there is liability only when there is fraud or negligence and legitimate damages.

• make participation in the state workers compensation system voluntary for employers, allowing them (as does Texas) to make alternative provisions for their employees (such as disability income insurance); and

• restore the ability of individuals to contract freely for whatever goods and services they may wish to exchange without the threat that the courts may decide their contract is not consistent with public policy.

We need more restrictions on government
and more restrictions on government agents,
NOT more restrictions on our citizens.

People should be able to live their lives as they see fit. They should not need permission from the government. When the government licenses or regulates any activity, we lose choices; it means that some politician or bureaucrat makes the decision for us. Who do you trust to make personal decisions for you? Do you trust coke-heads like Bill Clinton or George W, or a pot-head like Al Gore, or Newt Gingrich? Do you trust the politicians and bureaucrats in Sacramento and Washington? Or would you rather decide for yourself where to send your children to school or to educate them at home, what hospital or doctor to use, what treatments to pursue, what medicines to take, whether to buy insurance or how much insurance to buy, whether and whom to marry, and so on and on?

Libertarians are pro-choice on all aspects of life.

Government does not create wealth; it takes money from its citizens and uses it to interfere in their lives. I believe in:

• separation of government and education;

• separation of government and commerce;

• separation of government and medicine;

• separation of government and charity; and

• separation of government and religion.

The State budget continues to grow at double or triple the rate of inflation and population growth, yet what do we get? Certainly not protection of our rights; instead we get more bureaucracy and more infringements of our rights. When there was a recession in the early 1990's, state income taxes and sales taxes were increased and our homes were encumbered with billions of dollars of bond debt. A booming economy has now caused tax revenues to grow and created a huge surplus, yet the legislature and the governor fight over tiny tax decreases because they want to spend our money on their pet projects, all of which are little more than payoffs to their friends and supporters, especially the plaintiff lawyers and teachers’ unions.

"There is only one way to kill capitalism:
by taxes, taxes, and more taxes."
— Karl Marx

New Chemical Element Discovered

A major research institution has recently announced the discovery of the heaviest chemical element yet known to science. The new element has been tentatively named Governmentium. Governmentium has 1 neutron, 12 assistant neutrons, 75 deputy neutrons, and 224 assistant deputy neutrons, giving it an atomic mass of 312.

These 312 particles are held together by forces called morons, which are surrounded by vast quantities of lepton-like particles called peons. Since governmentium has no electrons, it is inert. However, it can be detected easily as it impedes every reaction with which it comes into contact. For example, a minute amount of governmentium causes one reaction to take over 4 days to complete when it would normally take less than a second.

Governmentium has a normal half-life of 3 years; however, it does not decay. Instead, it undergoes a reorganization in which a portion of the assistant neutrons and deputy neutrons exchange places. In fact, governmentium's mass will actually increase over time, since each reorganization will cause some morons to become neutrons, forming isodopes.

This characteristic of moron-promotion leads some scientists to speculate that governmentium is formed whenever morons reach a certain quantity in concentration. This hypothetical quantity is referred to as Critical Morass.

— T.S. Eliot, 1950

Giving money power to government is like
giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.
– P.J. O'Rourke

No man's life, liberty, or property is safe
while the legislature is in session.
– Mark Twain

The term "bipartisan" usually means
some larger-than-normal government
deception is taking place.