On 1/22/07, Dave Sherohman <esper@sherohman.org> wrote:
On Mon, Jan 22, 2007 at 10:25:23AM -0600, John C wrote:
> >I would rather be exposed to the inconvenience attending too much
Liberty
> >than those attending too small degree of it.
> > - Thomas Jefferson
[snip]
> By the way, I do love the quote. :-)
So did I, as soon as I saw it. There are a lot of similarly great
quotes from Jefferson and his friends, but this is one of the few that I
can fit into a 4-line .sig. :)
I would respectfully differ. This sort of thing is stirring but
somewhat content-free. We all agree that giving up too much liberty
for too little security is a really Bad Idea, and we also all agree
that giving up a bit of liberty for increased security is essential
(does anyone believe that nuclear weapons should be commercially
available and totally unregulated?). The great political questions are
ultimately those of degree, which of course does not mean that they
aren't profoundly important. I make the same objection to the famous
Ben Franklin quote about "those who would give up essential liberty"
[0].
Celejar
[0] http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Benjamin_Franklin