A timely quote I ran into:

[Odin2005]

"Political rights do not originate in parliaments; they are, rather, forced upon parliaments from without. And even their enactment into law has for a long time been no guarantee of their security. Just as the employers always try to nullify every concession they had made to labor as soon as opportunity offered, as soon as any signs of weakness were observable in the workers' organizations, so governments also are always inclined to restrict or to abrogate completely rights and freedoms that have been achieved if they imagine that the people will put up no resistance. Even in those countries where such things as freedom of the press, right of assembly, right of combination, and the like have long existed, governments are constantly trying to restrict those rights or to reinterpret them by juridical hair-splitting. Political rights do not exist because they have been legally set down on a piece of paper, but only when they have become the ingrown habit of a people, and when any attempt to impair them will meet with the violent resistance of the populace. Where this is not the case, there is no help in any parliamentary Opposition or any Platonic appeals to the constitution."

– Rudolf Rocker, German-American labor activist and writer

This is made all too clear with this TSA bullcrap.

[Odin2005]

1. kick

[TheKentuckian]

2. K&R

[Odin2005]

3. Thanks!

this quote needs exposure. It needs to sink in that we cannot take our hard-won freedoms and rights for granted.

[TheKentuckian]

7. More than welcome, Odin.

Bump

[pnorman]

4. Rudolph Rocker was an anarchist, specifically an anarcho-sindicalist.

I say that NOT in disparagement, but only to set the record straight. Much of his writing are on the web, and here is a good collection: http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/Anarchist_Archives/bright/rocker/rockerworks.html

[Odin2005]

5. I know he was, because I am an Anarcho-Syndicalist, too.

:hi:

[pnorman]

6. That's more or less where I've been coming from, most of my adult life.

And it's still my guiding philosophy. my Obama avatar? I offer NO apologies. It's my firm belief that we (and the rest of the world) are now a few minutes before midnight, with several critical tipping points in play. To "primary Obama out", in favor of another "more pleasing to our eyes", would be to GUARANTEE defeat in the next several presidential election cycles. We do NOT have that much time left!

Edited to add: :hi:

[Curmudgeoness]

8. A true statement has not been made. I had to contemplate this

and re-read it, and I love it. This is truth.

[Doctor_J]

9. Quite true

the inclusion of LImpballs on AFN should have been met with violent resistance of sane Americans. We've been way too appeasing, way too long.