Another pervasive — and dangerous — sign of the mushy thinking of our time …

Another pervasive — and dangerous — sign of the mushy thinking of our time are the flagrantly fraudulent phrases that pass muster in the media and in politics. None is more fraudulent than the word ‘asking’ in discussions of public policy issues.Liberals love to say things like, ‘We’re just asking everyone to pay their fair share.’ But government is not about asking. It is about telling. The difference is fundamental. It is the difference between making love and being raped, between working for a living and being a slave.The Internal Revenue service is not asking anybody to do anything. It confiscates your assets and puts you behind bars if you don’t pay. Thomas Sowell
Forbes July 1994,(1930- ) American writer, scholar and economist, Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institute,Stanford, California