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Showing posts with the label Ben Franklin

John Ashcroft on Liberty and National Security

Former US Attorney General , US senator and Governor from Missouri, John Ashcroft , really got me thinking this week. Near the end of a 40 minute speech he made to the Young America Foundation, which was dated 19 Apr 2007 in the podcast on which I listened to it, he made two points about liberty in the US that I found to have profound implications. The first now, the second later… On the idea of a balance between liberty and security: First of all, as Michele Malkin rightly notes in her insightful post here , the Ben Franklin quote so often cited linking these two ideas is often cited wrong: Here's the paraphrase the left uses: Those who would sacrifice liberty for security deserve neither Here's the actual Ben Franklin Quote: Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. Did you note that Franklin conceived of some liberties as non-essential? I suppose it is a God-given human right to button your shirts fr...