Freedom is not empowerment. Empowerment is what the Serbs have in Bosnia. Anybody can grab a gun and be empowered. It's not entitlement. An entitlement is what people on welfare get, and how free are they? It's not an endlessly expanding list of rights -- the "right" to education, the "right" to health care, the "right" to food and housing. That's not freedom, that's dependency. Those aren't rights, those are the rations of slavery -- hay and a barn for human cattle.
There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences...
...There are just two rules of governance in a free society:
Mind your own business.
Keep your hands to yourself.
Direct and succinct. The difference between liberty and tyranny explained in a few short words. This is so simple even the typical college student can understand it.
We have a group of incredibly silly people in the White House right now, people who think government works. Or that government would work, if you got some real bright young kids from Yale to run it.
We're being governed by dorm room bull session. The Clinton administration is over there right now pulling an all-nighter in the West Wing. They think that, if they can just stay up late enough, they can create a healthy economy and bring peace to former Yugoslavia.
The Clinton administration is going to decrease government spending by increasing the amount of money we give to the government to spend.
Health care is too expensive, so the Clinton administration is putting a high-powered corporate lawyer in charge of making it cheaper. (This is what I always do when I want to spend less money -- hire a lawyer from Yale.) If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it's free.
The Clinton administration is putting together a program so that college graduates can work to pay off their school tuition. As if this were some genius idea. It's called getting a job. Most folks do that when they get out of college, unless, of course, they happen to become governor of Arkansas.
And the Clinton administration launched an attack on people in Texas because those people were religious nuts with guns. Hell, this country was founded by religious nuts with guns. Who does Bill Clinton think stepped ashore on Plymouth Rock? Peace Corps volunteers? Or maybe the people in Texas were attacked because of child abuse. But, if child abuse was the issue, why didn't Janet Reno tear-gas Woody Allen?
You know, if government were a product, selling it would be illegal.
Government is a health hazard. Governments have killed many more people than cigarettes or unbuckled seat belts ever have.
Government contains impure ingredients -- as anybody who's looked at Congress can tell you.
On the basis of Bill Clinton's 1992 campaign promises, I think we can say government practices deceptive advertising.
And the merest glance at the federal budget is enough to convict the government of perjury, extortion, and fraud.
There, ladies and gentlemen, you have the Cato Institute's program in a nutshell: government should be against the law.
Term limits aren't enough. We need jail.
Wow. If you want to see the Leftist-Progressive-Faux Liberal mindset reduced to its core, P.J. O'Rourke has done it. The answers to the sophomoric bleats of your Leftist co-worker are right here. Have fun watching their heads spin.
The Liberty Manifesto P.J. O'Rourke Cato Institute: Speeches
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