Just because you can watch half-nude women on afternoon television or gay men kissing on the streets of nearly any major city does not mean America is free, as complacent liberals might think, much less too free, as conservatives often suggest. Just because most dissidents are left alone doesn't mean there is no police state, for that would be convenient indeed for the police statists: the idea that people ought not complain so long as they have the right to do so.

Brute force is not our salvation, especially as directed by State central planning and done with little regard for the innocents.

The struggle between centralization and decentralization is at the core of American history.

The real triumph of civilization is the extent to which coercion is banished from human relations.

The most destructive thing governments do is divide people against each other, all in competition over the reins of the state.

Just because you can watch half-nude women on afternoon television or gay men kissing on the streets of nearly any major city does not mean America is free, as complacent liberals might think, much less too free, as conservatives often suggest. Just because most dissidents are left alone doesn't mean there is no police state, for that would be convenient indeed for the police statists: the idea that people ought not complain so long as they have the right to do so.

Today most habeas involves the federal courts overriding state convictionswhere it used to be mostly the reverse.