Via Random Act of Kindness, a place called Drug War Rant. Blogger Pete Guither shares this quote:
A prohibition law strikes a blow at the very principles upon which our government was founded... Prohibition goes beyond the bounds of reason in that it attempts to control a manīs appetite by legislation, and makes a crime out of things that are not crimes.
-- Abraham Lincoln
I hadn't heard that one before.
Posted by Walter at August 26, 2003 07:53 PMOne of my favorites:
Prohibition was introduced as a fraud; it has been nursed as a fraud.
It is wrapped in the livery of Heaven, but it comes to serve the devil.
It comes to regulate by law our appetites and our daily lives.
It comes to tear down liberty and build up fanaticism, hypocrisy, and intolerance. It comes to confiscate by legislative decree the property of many of our fellow citizens. It comes to send spies, detectives, and informers into our homes; to have us arrested and carried before courts and condemned to fines and imprisonments. It comes to dissipate the sunlight of happiness, peace, and prosperity in which we are now living and to fill our land with alienations, estrangements, and bitterness.
It comes to bring us evil-- only evil-- and that continually. Let us rise
in our might as one and overwhelm it with such indignation that we shall never hear of it again as long as grass grows and water runs."
Roger Q. Mills, 1887
"It comes to confiscate by legislative decree the property of many of our fellow citizens." - He got that right, in spades.
More people should have listened to him.
That's a great quote, Kevin. And amazingly relevant today.
Walter, thanks for the mention, and for letting me know about your site. I like it!
Posted by: Pete Guither at August 27, 2003 07:58 AM