Religious discrimination in the military.
(Marine Combat Training)
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.
“
| — | Tenth Amendment, Bill of Rights, U.S. Constitution (1791) |
Serve in Heaven?
So the consensus on Christian views of “Heaven” and “Hell” are that believers go to Heaven and spend eternity worshiping their deity. Non-believers go to Hell and spend eternity being punished for their failure to believe and obey.
Does this not strike anyone else as a bit egotistical and totalitarian? God makes a bunch of these creatures named humans, then demands that either they worship him unconditionally for eternity or they will be punished for disobeying his will for eternity.
Am I the only one that, given these theological concepts, even if true, would rather stand resolutely rebellious and free-willed and be punished for using his free-will than spend an eternity on his knees as a praising slave?
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
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| — | First Amendment, Bill of Rights, U.S. Constitution. (1791) |
Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.
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| — | Ronald Reagan |
It is not the business of government to make men virtuous or religious, or to preserve the fool from the consequences of his own folly. Government should be repressive no further than is necessary to secure liberty by protecting the equal rights of each from aggression on the part of others, and the moment governmental prohibitions extend beyond this line they are in danger of defeating the very ends they are intended to serve.
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| — | Henry George (1839-1897) - American Economist and Author (via phabian) |
What sort of society do you think we’d have if you had people saying that ‘It’s the state’s job to find me a job, it’s the state’s job to house me, it’s the state’s job to look after my family’? … Freedom is inseparable from personal responsibility…
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| — | Margaret Thatcher |
Deciding which politician to support has long been frustrating for libertarians. Both the liberal and conservative perspectives conflict with cherished libertarian views, so few Democrats or Republicans present a package that libertarians can embrace with enthusiasm. Libertarians do find common ground with conservatives on some issues, and with liberals on others. Roughly, libertarians are economic conservatives and foreign and social policy liberals. So, depending on the pressing issue of the day, libertarians can sometimes identify one candidate or another as “the lesser of the evils.” Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, however, have presented libertarians with a more fundamental dilemma: when judged by actions rather than rhetoric, both are anti-libertarian on almost every issue.
We are fast approaching the stage of the ultimate inversion: the stage where the government is free to do anything it pleases, while the citizens may act only by permission; which is the stage of the darkest periods of human history, the stage of rule by brute force.
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| — | Ayn Rand |
Individual rights are not subject to a public vote; a majority has no right to vote away the rights of a minority; the political function of rights is precisely to protect minorities from oppression by majorities (and the smallest minority on earth is the individual).
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| — | Ayn Rand |
As I writhed under it, I would at times feel that learning to read had been a curse rather than a blessing. It had given me a view of my wretched condition, without the remedy.
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| — | Frederick Douglass [From his narrative] |
‘Now,’ said he, ‘if you teach that nigger (speaking of myself) how to read, there would be no keeping him. It would forever unfit him to be a slave. He would at once become unmanageable, and of no value to his master.”
[…]
“I was gladdened by the invaluable instruction which, by the merest accident, I had gained from my master. Though conscious of the difficulty of learning without a teacher, I set out with high hope, and a fixed purpose, at whatever cost of trouble, to learn how to read.
[…]
“I was gladdened by the invaluable instruction which, by the merest accident, I had gained from my master. Though conscious of the difficulty of learning without a teacher, I set out with high hope, and a fixed purpose, at whatever cost of trouble, to learn how to read.
“
| — | Frederick Douglass [From his narrative] |
