Every dollar spent to punish a drug user or seller is a …

Every dollar spent to punish a drug user or seller is a dollar that cannot be spent collecting restitution from a robber. Every hour spent investigating a drug user or seller is an hour that could have been used to find a missing child. Every trial held to prosecute a drug user or seller is court time that could be used to prosecute a rapist in a case that might otherwise have been plea bargained. Randy E. Barnett
Randy E. Barnett, Curing the Drug-Law Addiction

Today the word hero has been diminished, confused with celebrity. But in …

Today the word ‘hero’ has been diminished, confused with ‘celebrity.’ But in my father’s generation the word meant something. Celebrities seek fame. They take actions to get attention. Most often, the actions they take have no particular moral content. Heroes are heroes because they have risked something to help others. Their actions involve courage. Often, those heroes have been indifferent to the public’s attention. But at least, the hero could understand the focus of the emotion. However he valued or devalued his own achievement, it did stand as an accomplishment. James Bradley
(Flags of Our Fathers, James Bradley, 2000)

If you analyze it, I believe the very heart and soul of …

If you analyze it, I believe the very heart and soul of conservatism is libertarianism. The basis of conservatism is a desire for less government interference or less centralized authority or more individual freedom – and this is a pretty general description also of what libertarianism is. I think that libertarianism and conservatism are traveling the same path. Ronald Reagan

All of us need to be reminded that the Federal Government did …

All of us need to be reminded that the Federal Government did not create the States; the States created the Federal Government. Now, so there will be no misunderstanding, it is not my intention to do away with government. It is, rather, to make it work-work with us, not over us; to stand by our side, not ride on our back. Government can and must provide opportunity, not smother it; foster productivity, not stifle it. Ronald Reagan
First Inaugural Address, Jan 20, 1981

It is a mistake to think one limits one’s risks by …

It is a mistake to think one limits one’s risks by spreading too much between enterprises about which one knows little and has no reason for special confidence. … One’s knowledge and experience are definitely limited and there are seldom more than two or three enterprises at any given time in which I personally feel myself entitled to put full confidence. John Maynard Keynes
British economist, often wrong, but not always. 1934 letter

Individual Rights and Today's Issue