GRANTS DICTIONARY of AMERICAN POLITICS

Foreword

The battle for the world is the battle for definitions . . . Thomas Szasz

activist: (1) one willing to authoritatively impose their dogma upon others [Felix Adler]; (2) a partisan who will stand firm in inclement weather and often in the face of superior logic;

alliance: the union of two governments who have their hands so deeply inserted in each other's pockets that they cannot separately plunder a third [Ambrose Bierce];

ambassador: a person who, having failed to secure an office from the people, is given one by the Administration on condition that he leave the country [Ambrose Bierce];

American Civil Liberties Union: ACLU; (1) an activist organization obsessed with protecting both diversity and equality, and distorting the First Amendment; (2) body of activists determined to play god while simultaneously working to convince us that He doesn't exist; (3) activists who claim religious behavior is unconstitutional because it might give secular behavior a bad name [William F. Buckley];

American free enterprise system: seen by legislators and bureaucrats as a cash cow to be milked to provide for their annual redistribution of trillions of dollars among the citizens of the world;

anarchy: formerly unthinkable social condition that might be worth re-evaluating in light of the torture, imprisonment, death, famine, mental anguish and theft visited upon the people of the world in the 20^th century by politicians and bureaucrats given a monopoly on the use of force in the name of "socialism" or "democracy";

animal rights activist: one who might be called an "extremist" if that term were not already reserved for those who express libertarian concepts;

aphorism: a one-line novel [Leonid Sukhorukov];

appeaser: (1) one who feeds a crocodile hoping it will eat him last [Winston Churchill]; (2) one who believes that if you keep throwing steaks to a tiger, it will become a vegetarian. [Heywood H. Broun];

authoritarian: (1) one generally inclined toward government restraint of both the economic and social freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution; (2) 97.6 percent of all politicians and bureaucrats;

beltway: nickname for Washington DC . . . probably because that is where federal laws are made with such regularity and in such abundance that they appear to be coming off a conveyor belt;

Bible: a collection of writings by 44 authors that the ACLU thinks should be banned from public schools, based upon their interpretation of the First Amendment which guarantees freedom of speech and press;

"big lie": technique used by politicians who supported the nations involvement in Iraq to convince 57 percent of the public that they did not support the nations involvement in Iraq;

bigotry: making broad assumptions about people . . . like assuming they are too indolent to carry the personal responsibility for their retirement, wage and rent negotiation, or child raising; or assuming they will become addicts if drugs are legalized;

Bill of Rights: (1) the first ten amendments to the Constitution that, if placed before Congress today, would not even get out of committee [F. Lee Bailey]; (2) once respected document that placed the individual and certain self-evident truths above the needs of the state;

Borked: when the Senate denies a judicial appointment to the bench because the judge under consideration is either too activist, not activist enough, or too partisan to suit a particular activist, partisan Senate majority;

budget deficit: (1) public debt arising from a prevailing notion among legislators that governments claim to private property extends to money not yet earned and taxes not yet levied or collected; (2) the difference between the amount of money the government spends and the amount it has the nerve to collect. [Sam Ewing]; (3) the engine of inflation;

budget surplus: a technical impossibility because legislators cannot leave a financial surplus alone any more than an alcoholic can leave a fresh bottle of whiskey untouched in the cupboard [Ron Paul];

bureaucrat: (1) an employee of the government hired to fuzzify, profundify and drivelate, and particularly skilled at pondering when in charge, mumbling when in doubt, and delegating when in trouble [Jim Boren]; (2) one specially trained to consider people acting in their own enlightened and rational self-interest ominous and dangerous. [W. G. Hill];

bureaucracy: airport security and FEMA are good examples;

buzz: what a media blitz is supposed to create;

campaign finance reform: an act passed by Congress to muzzle free speech and protect incumbent politicians;

campaign promise: synonym for insincerity [Paul Greenberg];

capitalism: (1) free market theory of producing wealth which has never been popular with politicians, particularly those with totalitarian leanings; (2) an economic concept about which Republicans only talk, and of which Democrats are either ignorant or phobic;

capitalist: (1) swear word coined by Karl Marx for any individual who accumulates wealth by producing something that satisfies a consumer demand, or by discovering new markets for existing products; (2) a convenient source of envy and hate for demagogues in that they can always blame successful entrepreneurs for poverty, low incomes and high prices rather than the actual cause . . . the government regulations they legislate into law;

career politician: (1) politician, only worse; (2) one who has dedicated their life to making one part of the nation do what it does not want to do, in order to please and satisfy the other part of the nation (3) one committed to the prolonged sacrifice of the rights of some persons at the bidding of, and for the satisfaction of other persons. (4) a person ruled by the idea that others exist for the purpose of being made to serve his ends, if he can get power enough in his hands to force those ends upon them [Auberon Herbert];

centrist: (1) one generally inclined toward selective government restraint of the economic and social freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution; (2) a moderate; (3) a populist;

charity: (1) reaching into ones own pocket to assist ones fellow man; (2) an act of giving, the purpose of which is to put the recipient in a state where he no longer needs the gift [ C. S. Lewis];

chicken-hawk: a hawk who "had other priorities" when their time came to serve in the military;

Christian right: religious "conservatives" preoccupied with the murder of abortion, and fornication between homosexual partners, while apparently oblivious to the covetousness and theft of "redistribution," and adultery among heterosexual partners;

chutzpa or hutxpah, n.: what any person who voted for Bob Dole must have in order to tell someone that they wasted their vote on Harry Browne;

civilization: (1) the triumph of persuasion over force [Mark Skousen]; (2) a limitless multiplication of unnecessary necessaries [Mark Twain];

collectivism: (1) the antitheses of individualism; (2) political ideology that the group is more important than the individuals within the group. (3) concept that the individual is of no importance in comparison with the existence of the nation, and that the position of the individual is conditioned solely by the interests of the nation as a whole [Adolf Hitler];

collectivist: 21^st century name for 20^th century liberal, 19^th century progressive, 18^th century utopian, and 17^th century mercantilist, all of whom confuse money with wealth, put the cart of consumption before the horse of production, and believe that inflation, debt, and government extravagance are a recipe for greater prosperity;

commerce clause: (1) Article 1, Section 8, clause 3 of the Constitution . . . "To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes"; (2) interpreted by judicial activists and politicians to mean the right of federal government to regulate everything and anything it pleases;

communism: (1) socialism in a bigger hurry [Lenin]; (2) one who hath yearnings for equal division of unequal earnings [Ebenezer Elliott];

confirmation process: a political quest for legislative outcomes;

Congress: a body of legislators typically preoccupied with defending their errors as if they were defending their inheritance [Edmund Burke];

conscription: (1) a government euphemism for slavery; (2) an act of government wherein children are taken from their parents and parents from their children, and compelled to serve government at a wage and rank established by the government, even to the extent that they are compelled risk their lives in war, whether it be in defense of the country or something instigated by legislation or executive order [Daniel Webster];

consensus: what lots of people say collectively that nobody believes individually [Abba Eban];

conservative: (1) oxymoron describing big government policy that intrudes in people's lives, usurps their rights and responsibilities and confiscates their money; (2) one who believes poor morals and harmful habits can be cured by legislation; (3) one who generally favors industry and personal responsibility over welfare, but cannot overcome their infatuation with big government and struggles to grasp the concept of liberty; (4) a liberal who has been mugged by reality [Daniel Lapin]; (5) right or right wing ; (6) usually a Republican Party partisan;

conspiracy theory: attempt to decipher hidden agenda and motives rather than accurately assess what the legislature did to screw things up;

constituent: (1) the apple of a politicians eye; (2) usually one who expects their elected representative to take care of all their financial, health, safety and child-rearing needs, and to lock up their neighbors for intemperance, or raise their taxes, or both;

Constitution: (1) a legal instrument to restrain government, lest it come to dominate our lives and interests [Patrick Henry]; (2) a document to guard the people against the dangers of good intentions [Daniel Webster]; (3) a document drawn up to tell the government what is and is not its business; (4) not just a good idea, it happens to be the law [Michael Badnarik]; (5) something that poses no threat to our current form of government [Joseph Sobran]; (6) a document that has shown itself incapable of protecting liberty, but capable of being used to justify offenses against it;

constitutional republic: (1) the form of government our Founders established; (2) a state in which supreme power is held by the people and their elected representatives, and which has an elected president (administrator) rather than a monarch; (3) a form of government in which the wolves are forbidden from voting on what's for supper, and the sheep are well armed [Benjamin Franklin]; (5) a system of government designed by geniuses so it can be run by idiots; (4) see "federalism";

Contract with America: Its the Constitution, stupid;

convention: a delegation of political partisans meeting to try and change the way of somebody else's life [Will Rogers];

conventional wisdom: popular beliefs or dogma that results when lies and distortions of fact are repeated often enough [James Monroe];

Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFÉ): legislation that gave birth to the SUV while killing the station wagon;

corrupt administration: (1) obligatory accusation made by partisans whose presidential candidate lost the last election; (2) usually a true accusation due to the fact that roughly two thirds of the spending in Washington DC is unconstitutional [Walter E. Williams];

crisis: something we have more to fear from government crisis management than crisis itself;

deconstructionism: the antithesis of constructionist and "original intent";

deficit: (1) a metaphor that government uses when it is running on I.O.U.s; (2) a metaphor that conservatives use to say that spending should be lower; (3) a metaphor that liberals use to say that taxes should be higher;

demagogue: a politician who not only attempts to appeal to common desires and prejudices, but seeks to create those common desires and prejudices;

demagoguery: something that beats factual data every time [Dick Armey];

democracy: (1) rule by majority vote (see political power); (2) the bludgeoning of the people, by the people, for the people [Oscar Wilde]; (3) the great fiction, through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everyone else [Frederic Bastiat]; (4) an indispensable step to

socialism [Lenin]; (5) a political device that ensures we shall be governed no better than we deserve [George Bernard Shaw]; (6) mob rule orchestrated by an elitist group with immense financial holdings [R. J. Rummel]; (7) a government of bullies tempered by editors [Ralph Waldo Emerson]; (8) a temporary government that exists only until a majority of voters discover that they can vote themselves largess out of the public treasury [Alexander Tyler]; (9) a political system that gives an aura of legitimacy to acts that would otherwise be deemed criminal [Sheldon Richman];

Democrat: (1) party partisan usually associated with left wing, liberal, collectivist, or progressive political ideology; (2) often one who fancies themself pro-labor and, somehow, anti-employer, and struggles with the concepts of charity and the free market; (3) one who is likely to believe that, since government can correct many abuses, it can also create jobs, mandate higher wages, and lift/lower everyone into the middle class; (4) one who generally believes government should control what goes on in the boardroom, but not in the bedroom; (5) one who is heavily under the influence of a third rate mind, Karl Marx [H.G. Wells]; (6) one who wants government so big it blots out the sun and has its own gravitational field [James Lileks];

Department of Education: federal agency that protects freedom of education by regulating and supervising what is taught in public schools;

diplomat: one who should either aggressively represent their countrys best interest or just be a good shmoozer, depending on who you are talking to;

division of labor: (1) specialization; (2) social evolution leading to higher production and living standard, in that the inborn inequality of people, geography, land, climate and natural resources are put to each ones highest and best productive use, as opposed to self-sufficient economic isolation; (3) an economic practice that has served us well for 200 years at the national level which Labor Unions fear and "progressives" can not visualize happening on the international level; (4) part of the over-all laissez faire concept; (5) what makes friends out of enemies, peace out of war, society out of individuals [Ludwig von Mises];

economic growth: the gross domestic product (GDP) ignored by politicians who find it more convenient to report it as spending rather than production;

economics: (1) subject matter, like Einsteins theory of relativity, that few people grasp . . . like the complicated "no free lunch" theory; (2) science that represents how the world actually works, rather than how people (and particularly politicians) would like the world to work;

editor: one whose job it is to separate the wheat from the chaff, then print the chaff. [Adlai Stevenson]

education: (1) to enlighten the people generally, so that tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish [Thomas Jefferson]; (2) not the states responsibility or right [Thomas Jefferson]; (3) not to be confused with "public education"; (4) the best provision for old age [Aristotle]; (5) what begins to occur when we abandon our belief in the superior wisdom of the ignorant [Daniel Boorstin];

election: (1) an advance auction sale of stolen goods [H.L. Mencken]; (2) an opportunity . . . always lost . . . for the voter to liberate oneself, ones offspring, and ones neighbors from the grasp of government; (3) an opportunity . . . always taken . . . for the voter to sell oneself, ones offspring, and ones neighbors into slavery for government freebies; (4) means of persuading the powerless to stand in line to prove their gullibility [Doug Herman];

electoral college: see "The Electoral College";

eminent domain: law interpreted by the U. S. Supreme Court to mean government has the right to force you to sell your house to them so they can sell it to your neighbor if it means a net tax revenue increase or, what local government considers, a "community improvement";

employment: what happens when politicians decide that job opportunities will further their career more effectively than exploiting employers;

entitlement: politically correct term for or "welfare."

environmentalist: (1) an activist, frequently emboldened by half-truth and junk science to be particularly intolerant of anyone who challenges their vision of the physical world; (2) usually a member of the Green religion which worships the creation, rather than the Creator;

envy: a character flaw that demagogues use to exploit ones economic ignorance and perpetuate their power;

equality: (1) a material condition that cannot coexist with freedom [Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn]; (2) what is to 21^st century politics as "motherhood and apple pie" was to 19^th century politics;

Estate Tax: a blatantly socialist scheme to convert private property into government property;

ethnic riots: the result of socialism at home and appeasement abroad;

existentialism: (1) term that rightfully describes the framers of our Constitution but was hijacked by the hippies in the 60s; (2) a philosophical theory which emphasizes the existence and importance of the individual person as a free and responsible agent;

extremist: a label the left pins on anyone who goes about repeating the very phrases which our founding fathers used in the struggle for independence [Charles A. Beard];

fact: (1) a stubborn thing that, no matter our wishes, our inclination, or the dictates of our passions, cannot alter the evidence [John Adams]; (2) a truth that challenges the conceit of those in power [Ludwig vonMises]; (3) a troublesome bit of information that makes the bearer hated by autocrats and demagogues; (4) something that does not cease to exist because it is ignored [Aldous Huxley]; (5) anything that has been repeated on TV or in the newspapers enough times;

fanatic: one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject [Winston Churchill];

fascism: (1) a merge of state and corporate power [Benito Mussolini]; (2) the absorption of all spontaneous economic and social effort by the State . . . similar to socialism and communism in that they all have emotional appeal to the type of personality that takes pleasure in being submerged in a mass movement and submitting to governmental authority [Ludwig von Mises]; (3) often used as a swear word by those who apparently have no idea what the term means, since they openly advocate it themselves as a system of political economy;

fatwa; a religious decree that may or may not be credible, but rarely amusing;

fear: (1) the foundation of political power and government [John Adams]; (2) emotion that plays right into the hands of legislators that use good intentions, whether sincere or conjured, to usurp individual freedoms and parley them into collective power [R. Lee Wrights];

federalism: (1) integral aspect of the "constitutional republic" our Founders established; (2) refers to a system of government in which the several states form a unity but remain independent in internal affairs;

Federal Reserve Chairmanship: an office that automatically makes the holder wonderful, revered, and deeply essential to the world economy . . . at least in the eyes of some [Murray Rothbard];

foreign aid: (1) government to government welfare particularly noted for its waste, fraud, and abuse, and for diverting earnings away from families and domestic industry, and tax dollars away from charitable causes close to home; (2) the progressives concept of foreign relations;

foreign policy: something that sensible Americans would prefer the government do overseas rather than here at home [P. J. O'Rourke];

foreign relations: protocol that promotes the disarmament of U.S. sovereignty and national independence, and our submergence into an all powerful, one world government [Chester Ward];

founding fathers: (1) those who fought for and won independence from the British, and for the principle that a people who have no power to curb government's appetite for money and power would soon be reduced to servitude; (2) a group of Americans (circa 1775) who believed every citizen to be responsible for his own freedom and welfare, as well as the liberty of the generations to come;

framing: (see spin);

free lunch: absurd notion that something has no cost if it is provided by the government;

free market economy: (1) a "tree" that grows wherever there is peace, as soon as there is peace, and as long as there is peace [Ralph Waldo Emerson]; (2) the only economy in which the customer must always prosper if the entrepreneur is to prosper [Frederic Bastiat]; (3) an indispensable means toward the achievement of political freedom and to restrain the power that one person can have over another [Milton Friedman]; (4) the only economy in which the consumer is the sovereign whose buying or abstention from buying ultimately determines what should be produced and in what quantity and quality [Ludwig von Mises]; (5) an essential component of freedom itself; (6) an aspect of freedom disdained by many politicians and intellectuals because free markets do quite well without their supervision [George Will];

free society: (1) to a socialist: freedom from personal responsibility . . . freedom from the landlord, the employer, and the forces of nature that do not automatically provide all the comforts and essentials of life . . . entitlement to free services provided by others, such as medical care and schooling; (2) to a libertarian: freedom to face personal responsibility . . . freedom to work, to be secure in ones property, to educate ones self and ones offspring, to seek ones own health care, to freely act so long as one does not commit crimes against others . . . a society in which the only legitimate function of a government is to protect its citizens from force, fraud, theft, and breach of contract, and that government otherwise ought not to interfere with its citizens' dealings with one another, either to make them more economically equal or more morally virtuous;

free trade: (1) something governments claim to establish by writing 2000 pages of law; (2) something people do as naturally as breath when governments leave them alone;

freedom of speech: (1) our First Amendment right guaranteed to the people to make up for the freedom of thought which they avoid [Soren A. Kierkegaard]; (2) a fundamental right that protects not only the ideas you like, but the ideas you hate [Oliver Wendell Holmes]; (3) a right that everyone acknowledges, but few elites are willing to put up with the bother of it [Daniel P. Moynihan];

freedom: (1) the right to be wrong, not the right to do wrong [John G. Diefenbaker]; (2) a social condition that is, by nature, incompatible with material equality [Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn]; (3) a difficult path that involves risk, difficulty, moral dilemmas, self-discipline and great responsibilities . . . that is why most men dread it [George Bernard Shaw]; (4) a classical choice described in the Bible as that between slavery and the wilderness [Alan Keyes]; (5) a political condition that depends on five boxes: the soap box, the ballot box, the jury box, the witness box, and the cartridge box [Doug Newman]; (6) a condition in the external life of man that renders him independent of the arbitrary power of his fellow man [Ludwig von Mises];

"general welfare": what Joseph Stalin and Adolph Hitler, of course, thought they were promoting;

gerrymander: a clever device politicians invented to choose voters instead of the voters choosing them;

globalization: imprecise abstraction that has become one of the great buzzwords of our age;

government: (1) the worst thing in this world, next to anarchy [Henry Ward Beecher]; (2) an institution that perpetuates itself by breaking your legs and then giving you a pair of crutches. [Rob Moody]; (3) an institution typically monopolized from age to age, by the most ignorant and vicious of the human race [Thomas Paine]; (4) a dangerous servant and a fearful master [George Washington]; (5) an institution that can only make mankind poorer, never richer [Ludwig von Mises]; (6) an abstraction that really only possesses the power of legal plunder [Ron Paul]; (7) a self-perpetuating, self-aggrandizing political body that is inept at solving problems, good at creating problems, wasteful of the nation's resources, immune to common sense and subject to pressure from every half-organized bouquet of assholes [P. J. O'Rourke]; (8) a protection racket, not much different in kind from an organized crime syndicate [Anthony Gregory]; (9) the Entertainment Division of the military-industrial complex [Frank Zappa];

government appointment: bureaucratic post bestowed upon someone woefully unqualified by someone equally so [Doug Herman];

government intervention: an action that, no matter how slight or obscure, will always require more government intervention [John Stossel];

government program: (1) something that is sure to be unconstitutional [Joseph Sobran]; (2) the only eternal thing, besides God [Ronald Reagan];

gravitas: what my candidate has that yours lacks;

greed: (1) a common human impulse that inspires entrepreneurs in a beneficent way, but always a maleficent trait when found in politicians and bureaucrats; (2) the logic behind a market economy, capitalism, and a higher standard of living; (3) the driving force behind socialism, fascism, communism and other forms of government expansion;

Green: (1) a third party; (2) see environmentalist;

guiding vision: metaphor for the personal ambitions of every politician currently in power [Ron Paul];

gun control: (1) law based on the premise that guns kill people like pencils misspell words or matches commit arson; (2) legislation that has nothing to do with guns and everything to do with control; (3) the most essential step for government growth and control [Adolf Hitler]; (4) another prohibitionist pursuit that will do to guns what it has done to drugs . . . create a multi-billion dollar underground market over which we have no control; (4) government policy that makes the job of a criminal safer;

hate crimes: law that attempts to penalize ideas . . . bad ideas . . . but ideas nonetheless [Don Feder];

hawk: (1) politician or bureaucrat who does not recoil from the use of the military to achieve a political, economic or national defense purpose; (2) a bird that can see things from a long way off [Charles Moore];

home; real estate: private property that your fellow citizens cannot take from you, but they can buy it from the government after the government forces you to sell it to them . . . see "eminent domain";

Homeland Security: cardboard castle created to instill a false sense of security [Doug Herman];

homophobia: politicians and college administrators fear of gay activists [Mike Adams];

human rights activists: (1) to a socialist: those who believe in the socialists concept of a "free society"; (2) to a libertarian: the nations Founders . . . the framers of the Constitution and Bill of Rights;

humanist: (1) one who has more faith in government than conservatives have in God; (2) man's second oldest faith, whispered in Eves ear [Whittaker Chambers]; (3) one who accepts that it is okay to lie, steal, cheat or murder so long as these activities are part of ones value system, and one has clarified these values for oneself;

ideology: (1) visionary theorizing; (2) a systematic body of concepts, especially about human life and culture; (3) the only thing (even including Party affiliation) that should distinguish one candidate for office from another;

ignorant: how people are born . . . not to be confused with "stupid" . . . they have to be made stupid by public education [Bertrand Russell];

illegal immigrant: the "Dred Scott" if this generation, because politics and government have changed so much since Dred Scotts generation;

income tax: (1) a tax tailored to have the just man pay more than the unjust man on the same amount of income [Plato]; (2) a tax that penalizes workers for their entrepreneurial and professional success; (3) taxation by confession [Hugo Black];

Independent: (1) non-partisan voter registration; (2) one who, having heard the Republicans and Democrats accuse each other of ruining the country, has come to the conclusion that both parties are correct;

individualism: (1) the concept that citizens must be recognized in their value as individuals rather than as an amorphous social blob [Ayn Rand]; (2) tantamount to a four-letter word in the political mainstream; (3) a philosophy that champions the smallest minority on earth . . . the individual; (4) a concept that is wholly incompatible with most, if not all, "social contracts"; (5) a concept that must be decisively abolished [Nikita Khrushchev];

inequality: (1) the equal treatment of unequals [Felix Frankfurter]; (2) a condition found in abundance throughout nature, particularly in association with freedom; (3) an accusation usually made by a person or group that seeks unequal treatment;

inflation: (1) taxation without legislation [Milton Friedman]; (2) the twin millstone adjacent to taxation that will crush "the middle class" [Lenin]; (3) the cruelest "tax" because it hits the people on a fixed income hardest [Paul A. Volcker]; (4) what no politician . . . not even the most avid "human rights advocate" . . . wants to stop because it would curtail government spending; (5) a basic ideology of our time [Hans F. Sennholz];

inheritance Tax: taxation without respiration [Steve Forbes];

insanity: voting the major party lines, over and over again, and expecting different results [Albert Einstein];

intellectual property: personal property that is so easy to steal that the general public cannot comprehend that taking it is stealing . . . similar to the way the law considers an unlocked car with a key in the ignition;

Internal Revenue Service (IRS): government agency that is inflexibly strict on the way Americans keep their books and still can not, themselves, pass a financial audit [Ted Stevens];

international trade: an oxymoron . . . nations don't trade, people trade [Garry Reed];

interventionist: (1) one who believes it is the duty of the government to support, subsidize, and grant privileges to some group(s) and regulate others . . . a different idea about common good than that held by the nations founders; (2) see "statist";

intolerance: (1) a term popularized by "progressives" who will not tolerate any lack of acceptance of their statist agenda; (2) early third millennium buzzword describing the lack of acceptance of everything progressives tell us we should accept; [Brent Bozell];

Iraqification: the invasion and conquest of the cradle of civilization in order to civilize it.

Islamic extremism: a totalitarian ideology that hates freedom, rejects tolerance and despises diversity and dissent;

isolationist: name given by the "mainstream" to anyone who feels that our domestic and international policy should not be determined by the European Union or the United Nations [Sterling Rome];

judicial activism: practiced by judges and legislators who believe that judges should have the power to declare what a law should have been, and which laws must not be, based on careful consideration of their personal beliefs and the beliefs of other well-connected overeducated urban intellectuals that make up their circle of influence . . . as well as the fact that they may consider foreign law, law trends, stuff the Constitution neglected to mention, celebrity opinions, and how they would like their obituary in The New York Times to read [Mac Johnson];

judicial activist: (1) a highly sought-after appointment by partisan legislators in order to avoid democratic debate on the floor of Congress to implement laws they know would otherwise be defeated; (2) a judge who interprets the Constitution to mean what it would have said if he, instead of the Founding Fathers, had written it [Sam Ervin]; (4) last refuge of politicians and special interest groups who cant pass their legislation through legitimate means [Mark Alexander]; (5) one who practices judicial activism;

judicial constitutionalist: (1) conservative judge who endeavors to interpret the Constitution according to the original intent of its framers (see original intent); (2) one who practices judicial restraint;

judicial restraint: practiced by judges who believe that laws should be written by a democratically elected legislature, and that the job of judges is to interpret those laws faithfully and apply them on a case-by-case basis . . . In other words, abiding by the belief that voters should choose who makes the law . . . and judges, no matter how smart or progressive or beneficent or caring or well-intentioned they are . . . should simply apply law as it is written, unless there is a very compelling conflict with another law [Mac Johnson];

jury nullification: jury discretion; (1) the citizens power to nullify bad laws and special-interest legislation which tramples his or his neighbors rights; (2), the right and duty of the jury to find the verdict according to his own best understanding, judgement, and conscience, though in direct opposition to the direction of the court [John Adams]; (3) a basic right of which the juror will never be informed by the judge, and rarely by an attorney; (4) the only anchor yet imagined by which the individual citizen can hold government to the principles of the Constitution [Thomas Jefferson];

Laffer curve: (1) a graph developed by Prof. Arthur Laffer to illustrate how government can maximize tax revenue by moderating the degree of slavery it imposes upon its citizens; (2) the moral and rational basis for supply-side economic theory;

laissez faire: economic argument that production, trade, jobs and living standard grow naturally and quite well without any government interference; (2) a concept that, thanks to active demagoguery, is as difficult for the general population to grasp as particle physics;

law: (1) intended by the Founders to protect Life, liberty, and property . . . not to grant life, liberty, and property [Frederic Bastiat]; (2) too frequently a make-work plan for the bureaucracy;

Law of Opposites, The: a variation of the Law of Unintended Consequences; assumes that whenever government attempts a certain goal ... like , "make the world safe for democracy," as started in 1919 ... the opposite will happen ... like, more people being enslaved and killed by their government in the 20^th Century than any other time in history [Ron Paul];

left, or left wing: (1) one who is generally inclined toward government restraint of the economic freedom guaranteed by the Constitution, while being confused regarding the social freedom guaranteed by the Constitution; (2) a political position that generally focuses its attention on dividing wealth, rather than producing it; (3) political position often taken by those who think people have no control over, and are therefore not responsible for their behavior or economic status; (4) that part of America that trusts "world opinion" more than it trusts the American people [Dennis Prager]; (5) a liberal, progressive collectivist, or socialist; usually a Democratic Party partisan;

left-liberal Republican: fundamentally the same as a left-liberal Democrat;

legislature: the "politicians" who make our laws;

legislation: (1) work devoted to correcting the effects of previous legislation and government mismanagement [Milton Friedman]; (2) a hypocritical debate over whether to raise taxes or lower taxes while both sides agree to increase government spending: (3) the compromise, bribery and arm-twisting it takes to make laws [The Economist]; (4) one of the greatest delusions in the world about curing evil [Thomas Reed]; (5) a process where lawyers are given the opportunity make laws . . . which makes as much sense as allowing doctors to create diseases;

liberal: (1) oxymoron describing big government policy that intrudes in people's lives, usurps their rights and responsibilities and confiscates their money; (2) a person who, having observed flaws in human nature, distrusts spontaneous order and places their faith in government solutions envisioned and managed by the same species in which they observed flaws [W. James Antle]; (3) a person willing to use the taxing, spending, regulatory, and policing powers of government to redistribute wealth and to control behavior [Clifford F. Thies]; (4) people who like to apportion riches in a manner they deem fair, but never seem to understand or care how or why the riches were acquired in the first place [Michael Medved]; (5) one who believes that all the problems of the world can be cured by either a treaty, a new federal agency, or a tax increase; (6) one who has no problem with using the government to impose their cultural beliefs on others as long as it is never suggested that that is what they are actually doing [Jonah Goldberg]; (7) one who considers government the source of first resort when seeking solutions to any problem ... real or imagined ... facing our country [Markos Moulitsas]; (8) one hold us individually responsible for nothing but collectively responsible for everything [Thomas Sowell] (9) left or left wing, collectivist, statist, progressive . . . usually a Democratic Party partisan;

libertarian: (1) one who holds the view that the only legitimate function of a government is to protect its citizens from force, fraud, theft, and breach of contract, and that government otherwise ought not to interfere with its citizens' dealings with one another, either to make them more economically equal or more morally virtuous [Edward Feser]; (2) one who believes that the power of human choice aided by the logic of economic laws that operate without any bureaucrat's permission are our best source of hope for the future [Llewellyn H. Rockwell Jr]; (3) a radical; (4) occasionally a Libertarian Party partisan;

liberty: (1) frustrating social-political concept, in that one is equally exposed to danger whether the government has too much or too little power [James Madison]; (2) condition that cannot exist without law [John Locke]; (3) emancipation from the arbitrary rule of other men [Mortimer Adler]; (4) free to choose, and not to be chosen for, the unalienable ingredient in what makes human beings human [Isaiah Berlin]; (5) something paid dearly for that still costs less than the price of repression [W. E. B. Du Bois]; (6) something that no one can take from you . . . not what someone gives to you [Ramsey Clark];

lie: something that gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on [Winston Churchill];

living Constitution: the notion that the rules of government are similar to, say, "living" poker rules . . . were three-of-a-kind might beat a flush, if that happens to be the opinion of some key players sitting at the table [Walter E. Williams];

lobbyist: a person that is supposed to not only help, but pay a politician to make up his mind [Will Rogers];

logic: the art of thinking and reasoning in strict accordance with the limitations and incapacities of human misunderstanding [Ambrose Bierce];

looting: (1) a relatively infrequent occasion when people behave as governments routinely behave . . . that is, forcibly take the property of another without any moral right to do so; (2) what rioters and legislators do for fun and profit [Robert Novak];

Lottery: a tax on stupidity;

mainstream: (1) populist; (2) going with the flow even if it means down the drain;

majority rule: (1) unfettered democracy; (2) something that, in strict practice, could mean that every meal would be pizza [P. J. ORourke];

market economy: (same as "free market economy)

market failure: litany used by those who insist on imposing higher taxes on consumers and increased tariffs and regulations on businesses [Steven Titch];

media: (1) governments lap dogs; (2) activists absorbed with protecting the First Amendment, obliterating the Second, and totally ignoring the Tenth [Rich Galen];

media blitz: what the media feel should be of interest or importance . . . like a rock star on trial as a pedophiliac;

Michael Moore: talented and successful film editor whose brain is 98.7 percent fecal matter;

middle class: see "the middle class";

minimum wage law: (1) anti-poverty nonsense that no legislator really believes works . . . if it did, Haiti, Bangladesh, Somalia, Ethiopia and other impoverished countries could immediately lift themselves out of poverty by merely passing minimum wage law [Walter E. Williams]; (2) prohibits, by force of law, anyone from being hired at the wage which would profit his employer to hire him [Murray N. Rothbard]; (3) a program of interference in voluntary transactions between a job seekers and employers [N. Joseph Potts];

moderate: (1) a Republican that shares liberal concepts, or a Democrat that shares conservative concepts; (2) one who stands in the middle of the road and wonders why they are getting knocked down by traffic going both ways [Margaret Thatcher];

money: private property that your fellow citizens cannot take from you without using the legislature as their agent;

moral relativism: (1) believing that popularity is enough to legitimize any behavior [Brent Bozell]; (2) the asinine notion that only government knows right from wrong;

moral indignation: jealousy wearing a halo [H. G. Wells];

morality: the thing that makes people behave themselves even if nobody is watching [Walter E. Williams];

multiculturalism: (1) the notion that we should encourage immigrants and their children to maintain and celebrate their own culture apart from the national culture; (2) something that seemed to make sense until Islamic extremism stepped up to the plate; (3) a liberal illusion that went up in smoke along with a thousand Peugeots [Jack Kelley]; (4) societal Stockholm syndrome [Mark Steyn];

multilateral: something that involves or accommodates more than one partisan group;

nation-building: conquest and occupation of one nation by another, for its own good [Doug Herman];

national debt: what happens when we mistake servitude with liberty, confusion with economy, comforts with necessities, allow our representatives to load us with federal programs, and waste the peoples labor under the pretense of caring for them [Thomas Jefferson];

neocon; neoconservative: (1) a politician who has grasped the "pro-family" label as an instrument of state control that, in reality, threatens both the natural institution of the extended family and the dignity of the individual; (2) redistributionist who, under the garb of conservatism, continues to loot society to fund invasions and regime changes to create a world that fits their view of global hegemony;

No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB): federally mandated public education standards that increased the unconstitutional Department of Education budget from $33.9 billion to $70.9 billion without having measurable effect on academic proficiency;

non-judgmental: (1) the notion that a person without judgment should be considered good, even thought the person making that conclusion is, in fact, being judgmental; (2) political-speak that sounds good to anyone who does not use judgement;

non-partisan: (1) voter who abstains from party membership in an attempt to hamstring the Democratic and Republican Party big-government alliance, and prevent the country from totally running amuck; (2) one who believes both Democratic and Republican Party shills when they say the other party will ruin the country;

North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA): 2000 pages of regulations "allowing" the citizens of Canada, the United States, and Mexico to do what they would naturally do if their governments left them alone;

oppression: something exercised for the good of the victim by omnipotent moral busybodies who torment people for their own good and with the approval of the oppressors conscience [C. S. Lewis];

original intent: (1) also called originalism; (2) a practice followed by some judges ("originalists" or "constructionalists") who actually rule on constitutional law, instead of reinterpreting the law to suit their personal agenda; (3) simply means that the judge must discern from relevant materials (i.e., debates at the Constitutional Convention, the Federalist Papers and Anti-Federalist Papers, newspaper accounts of the time, debates in the state ratifying conventions, and the like) the principles the ratifiers understood themselves to be enacting, then applying those principles to unforeseen modern day circumstances [Robert Bork];

originalist judges: see "original intent";

Osama Bin Laden; AKA: Usama or OBL; ascetic Muslim, mastermind terrorist and worlds most-wanted criminal, who may possess superhuman powers, including the ability to become invisible since he is well over six feet tall and able to thwart all efforts by the FBI, CIA, NORAD and the Pentagon to find him [Doug Herman];

partisan: (1) one who thinks the only reason government doesnt work is because their political party is not in control; (2) a hypocrite who thinks the party in control is stupid, misguided, or corrupt, when it does exactly the same thing their own party did the last time it was in control; (3) one who thinks they can make their own house look better by burning down their neighbors house [Lou Holtz]; (4) almost all registered Democrats and Republicans;

patience: despair disguised as a virtue [Ambrose Bierce];

patriot: (1) someone who is always ready to defend his country against his government [Edward Abbey]; (2) one who has contempt for the United Nations, mistrusts the World Court, thinks little of the world's media and academic elites, and regards "world opinion" as morally confused and left-wing media manipulated [Dennis Prager]; (3) a radical trying to prevent government from overthrowing the U.S. Constitution;

patriotism: often a misguided notion that one must consent to a nation's government simply because one lives within that nations borders;

peace: what happens when there is virtue, a state of mind, a disposition for liberty, benevolence, confidence and justice; [Baruch Spinoza];

political debate: a public format where two or more candidates for the same office attempt to rearrange the prejudices of their opponents supporters.

political power: (1) something that corrupts absolutely [Lord Acton]; (2) something that gives one the opportunity to be irresponsible with public money because the power to tax lowers the sovereign's cost of making mistakes; (3) something made possible by the ignorance, fear and character weakness of the politicians constituents; (1) the currency of corruption [Ron Paul];

politically correct: (1) the only written or spoken words protected by the First Amendment as interpreted by the ACLU; (2) a subjective list of things one must, or must not think, say, or do, put together by an elite few in order to rule the many [Mark Berley]; (3) a form of thought management, typically a tyrants weapon of choice [Frederick Douglass]; (4) doctrine promoted by progressives who think freedom of speech only applies to those who have nothing controversial to say;

politician: (1) one who can make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and give an appearance of solidity to pure wind [George Orwell]; (2) a person who will promise to build bridges even when there are no rivers [Nikita Khrushchev]; (3) one adept at impertinent interference with another's affairs and will advocate laws and programs to control our lives [H. L. Mencken]; (4) one willing to sell their soul for the sake of expediency and what certain individuals and what certain groups think about them [Otis Chandler]; (5) one who robs Peter to pay Paul so he can count on Pauls vote [George Bernard Shaw]; (6) one who relies on short memories to stay in office [Will Rogers]; (7) a person who thinks whatever is popular must also be true [Jonah Goldberg];

politics: (1) inevitable element of democracy that thrives on the votes of the terminally gullible by keeping them in a perpetual state of alarm and clamorous to be led to safety [H. L. Mencken]; (2) conflict of interests masquerading as a contest of principles [Ambrose Bierce]; (3) the art of taking as much money as possible from one party of the citizens to give to the other [Voltaire]; (4) the possession of and distribution of power [Benjamin Disraeli]; (5) the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies [Ernest Benn]; (6) an area of social discourse one should never discuss . . . not because it is boorish, but because it is futile; (7) the systematic organization of hatreds [Henry Brooks Adams];

popular consent: the silly idea that a vote for a candidate indicates consent to anything the candidate may do in office;

populist: (1) one who seeks political appeal by expressing "mainstream" ideas; (2) an ignoramus who is attracted to politicians who express "mainstream" ideas; (3) one who thinks that if 100 million people favor a bad idea it must be a good idea;

pork: (1) what the rest of us call "a bribe;" (2) what politics is all about . . . government grants and programs to benefit political constituencies; (3) what's for dinner in Washington D.C. and every state capitol;

Potomac fever: (1) a condition that afflicts politicians who stay in Washington D.C. too long . . . the compulsion to fix things that aren't broken, and knee-jerk buck passing [Jonah Goldberg];

poverty: (1) a condition that soon comes to those who ignore self-discipline or fail to heed correction [Proverbs]; (2) the mothers milk of politics; (3) a condition brought about by someone elses wealth, according to your typical demagogue; (4) economic station in American life known as "poor," which, in fact, would have qualified as "upper middle-class" a century ago, and "royalty" three centuries ago [Michael Medved];

pressure group: (1) a large group of voters who want to attain for themselves special privileges at the expense of the rest of the nation; (2) what U. S. politics has reduced itself to; (3) see "voting block"; (4) members may, or may not, be "activists";

price controls: (1) what demagogues and populist politicians who avoided Economics 101 in school recommend to placate their constituents who also avoided Economics 101 in school; (2) policy that ultimately creates shortages of supply and all the problems that follow that . . . i.e., black markets and the need for more bureaucratic and police control . . . to the delight of politicians and bureaucrats;

private property: (1) the soil in which the seeds of freedom are nurtured and in which the autonomy of the individual and ultimately all intellectual and material progress are rooted [Ludwig von Mises]; (2) a confusing concept . . . like "Economics 101" . . . of which the general public cannot seem to put up with its bother; (3) the "radical" concept that an individuals land, improvements, and belongings should be free of the state; (4) the enemy of equality and the ally of equity [James Q. Wilson]; (5) also see "money" or "home" or "intellectual property";

pro-choice: one who favors Roe vs. Wade . . . a ruling that denies states the right to choose;

profiling: selection made on the basis if race or ethnicity . . . not allowed in law enforcement, but a favored criteria for job or college placement, or corporate operation in the U. S.;

pro-life: one who opposes Roe vs. Wade . . . a ruling that denies them an opportunity to oppose or support their own states law regarding a womans right to have an abortion vs. an unborn childs right to live;

progress (1) innovative, beneficial change; (2) often a source of agitation and discomfort to "progressives" and others with established interests and political agendas;

progressive: (1) one who never forgets and never admits that control over others is what they are all about [George F. Smith]; (2) corporation fearing, government worshiping control freak who considers freedom cruel and property rights greedy; (3) a person who has more government solutions than there are problems [Hubert Humphrey]; (4) one who thinks the Constitution is a "living" document that can be altered, reinterpreted or ignored to accommodate any real or imagined need or social agenda, but a weapons treaty with a foreign tyrant, or membership in the UN, is sacrosanct and irrevocable; (5) a reactionary;

prohibition: (1) legislation that goes beyond the bounds of reason in that it attempts to control a man's appetite by making a crime out of things that are not crimes; (2) law that strikes a blow at individual freedom, the very principle upon which our government was founded [Abraham Lincoln];

propaganda: (1) persuading people to make up their minds while withholding some of the facts from them [Harold Evans]; (2) a form of, if not the same as "spin"; (3) seldom fools the critical thinker but gives moral cowards an excuse not to think at all [Michael Rivero];

protectionist: political practice whereby legislators and administrations shield favored industries ( i.e., their political supporters) from foreign or domestic competition by taxes, tariffs and onerous regulations.

protest march: a venue available to those who cant read or write to petition government to redress a grievance

public interest: (1) a myth perpetuated by collectivists; (2) an abstract notion, incompatible with human freedom, that says the interest of a group of individuals, called "the public," supersedes the interests of the individuals who make up "the public;" (3) see "collectivism";

public education: (1) an instrument of the ruling class to sway the emotions of the masses [Albert Einstein]; (2) the foundation of every state [Diogenes]; (3) vital government program to insure the ease with which the many are governed by the few [David Hume]; (4) the absolute right of the state to supervise the formation of public opinion [Joseph Goebbels]; (5) when begun in the nursery, the best way to insure implicit obedience [Benjamin Disraeli]; (6) a government program designed to teach children not to question the wisdom and authority of government [Neal Boortz]; (7) a safe haven where realities are effectively concealed or distorted to eliminate any source of displeasure that might be brought on by honest examination [Kingman Brewster]; (8) how politicians and high-level bureaucrats obtain low accountability standards from the public, and more power and control over American lives [Walter E. Williams]; (9) a government program to conceal the understanding of sound economic principles so the people will not start a revolution [Henry Ford]; (10) a state monopoly; (11) an institution designed to replace empty minds with open ones [Malcolm Forbes]; (12) not to be confused with "education";

racism: (1) using race as criteria . . . for anything; (2) a pathological tendency to interject race into situations where it is not relevant, merely for personal gain [Mike Adams];

radical: one who goes about repeating the very phrases which our founding fathers used in the struggle for independence [Charles A. Beard];

reactionary: (1) one who would deny that all men are created equal under the law, that they are endowed with inalienable rights, that governments derive their just power from the consent of the governed [Calvin Coolidge];

recycling: political approach to "saving the environment" based on the 3M principle: misconceptions, myths and mandates . . . rather than the S & E principle: science and engineering;

red-necks: people who dislike gays and racial minorities like liberals dislike the rich and successful.

redistribution: (1) law passed by legislators, usually in the form of "charitable" programs, to forcibly take the earnings of one group of citizens to give to another group of citizens; (2) a redistribution of power from the individual to the State, condoned, if not promoted, by everyone except libertarians [Bertrand de Jouvenel];

redistributionists, shortened version of "redistributionist-Trotskyite": a socialist ;

republic: government by the peoples elected representatives (see "Constitutional republic" and federalism");

Republican: (1) party partisan usually associated with right wing or conservative political ideology; (2) typically a God fearing, flag waving, advocate for reducing the size of government, who consistently avoids nominating or voting for anyone who might actually do that; (3) one who is likely to believe that, since government can correct many abuses, it can also create righteousness [Herbert Hoover]; (4) one who generally believes government should control what goes on in the bedroom, but not in the boardroom; (5) one who publicly applauds promises of small government but secretly wants a government just like the Democrats;

right, right wing: (1) one who is generally inclined toward government restraint of selective social freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution, while generally advocating the economic freedom guaranteed by the Constitution; (2) conservative; (3) a political position that generally focuses its attention on producing wealth, rather than dividing it; (4) a political position usually taken by those who think people have control over, and are therefore responsible for, their behavior; (5) a political position taken by many who think social behavior can and should be legislated;

right: (1) something that is inherently due a person; (2) something no individual or group, and certainly no government, can bestow . . . it comes from the hand of God, not the state [John F. Kennedy]; something that exists naturally and simultaneously among all people and imposes no obligation on another person [Walter E. Williams];

Roe vs. Wade: (1) U. S. Supreme Court decision that denied Texas the right to choose; (2) popular activist issue regarding a womans right to have an abortion as opposed to an unborn childs right to live . . . see "pro-choice" and "pro-life";

Second Amendment: (1) an individual right, protected by our founding document, based on the premise that political power grows out of the barrel of a gun [Mao Tse-Tung]; (2) item drafted by the framers to insure that future politicians dont ignore the other items they drafted in the Constitution;

secular humanist: same as "humanist";

separation of church and state: (1) activist movement on the part of 0.1 percent of the population to rescue the nation from theocratic oppression that 99.9 percent of the population are neither aware of nor concerned about; (2) an interpretation of the First Amendment's phrase about "free exercise of religion" to mean that you are not free to exercise your religion if atheists or members of other religions say that they are "offended";

session of Congress: a period during which no mans life, liberty, or property is safe [Gideon Tucker];

shortfall: political metaphor for budget deficit.

social contract: (1) the idea that all members of a society have in some way agreed to bind themselves to certain standards and laws for the common good [Jim Davies]; (2) see "collectivist", "statist", "socialist":

social justice: an attitude masquerading as a principle [Thomas Sowell];

Social Security: (1) federally mandated inter-generational theft; (2) a combined welfare and tax scheme in which active workers are duped to support retired workers under the guise that they are contributing to a "trust fund" for their own retirement;

socialism: (1) politics on Viagra [Michael Peirce]; (2) a "gateway drug" to either communism or fascism [Lenin]; (3) a particularly attractive idea to ambitious leaders, politicians, bureaucrats and constituents who are either ignorant of history and economics or do not pay taxes; (4) a plan for raising a nations standard of living that is as practical as standing in a bucket and lifting ones self up by the handle [Winston Churchill]; (5) the popular notion that government can raise one "boat" by sinking another; while, at the same time, draining the harbor [John F. Kennedy]; (6) political concept that has limited success as long as there is someone to feed and clothe it;

socialist: (1) one who serves, either consciously or unwittingly, some potential tyrant by advocating a centrally planned welfare state to deprive all other individuals of their rights and free will, and to establish ones own, and his friends', unrestricted omnipotence [Ludwig von Mises]; (2) often used by conservatives (Republicans) as a derisive term to describe liberals (Democrats) even though neither seem to understand exactly what socialism is;

sovereignty: something our government grants to foreign governments, but no longer to its own citizens;

spin: (1) a hope dressed up as an observation [George Stephanopoulos]; (2) twisting a story, concept, or explanation of some event or data to further ones own political agenda; (3) framing; (4) what this dictionary does;

State: a political entity that has a monopoly, or at least claims the right to a monopoly, over the use of coercion within its political borders;

statist: (1) one who believes the Commerce Clause is an eight-lane highway leading to the federalization of everything [John Leo]; (2) one who has no faith in the individual or individual responsibility and consequently little respect for the Bill of Rights [Diane Alden]; (3) a person who, having observed flaws in human nature, distrusts spontaneous order and places their faith in government solutions envisioned and managed by the same species in which they observed flaws [W. James Antle]; (4) another name for a "liberal", a "progressive", a "collectivist", an "interventionist";

stem cell research: politically controversial science curiously opposed by the same people who favor sending healthy adults to die half way around the world in order to save lives and alleviate suffering, but do not want see an embryo die to save lives and alleviate suffering;

success: something that comes before "work", only in the Dictionary [Vince Lombardi];

suicide bomber: a terrorism specialist with no prior experience;

supply-side economics: (1) theory that the less government enslaves its citizens with tax burdens the more they will work and produce, and that modest tax rates will result in more government revenue; (2) theory ridiculed by those on the left who favor government power, resent diversity in financial success, and distrust economic freedom;

Supreme Court: a constitutional convention in perpetual session;

talk show: (1) a format for public discourse where the loud drives out the reasoned; (2) similar to a town-hall meeting;

taxes, taxation: (1) a revenue source for the state, which is a political entity that has a monopoly over the use of coercion within its political borders [Mark Brandly]; (2) a coercive, non-contractual transfer of definite physical assets [Hans Hoppe]; (3) the legislatures power to destroy [John Marshall]; (4) a transfer of power from the individual to government;

tax cut: (1) what the people in Washington consider a hand out; (2) when politicians allow citizens to keep what is rightfully theirs in the first place;

taxpayer: someone who works for the government without having to take a civil service examination [Ronald Reagan];

tax reform: when citizens are allowed to use a shorter form to pay the same amount of tax;

term limits: (1) the hopeless notion that career politicians might legislate law to prevent career politicians from being career politicians; (2) an fair election;

television: artless entertainment for morons, by morons and about morons, contrived to sell consumer products to over-indulged morons and wash the publics mind out with soap operas [Doug Herman];

terrorist: see xenophobe;

The Electoral College: a means to protect the minority of citizens who occupy 79 percent of the nation from having their lives and property controlled by the majority of citizens who occupy 21 percent of the nation;

the middle class: the working family . . . the back-bone of society and the economy . . . those who lack the self-indulgence to live on permanent welfare;

third party: any political party other than Democrat or Republican;

tolerance: (1) attitude of those who do not believe in anything [G. K. Chesterton]; (2) respect for views and behavior you dont respect [Daniel Lapin]; (3) respect for the other fellows ideas in the sense and to the extent that we respect his theory that his wife is beautiful and his children are smart [H.L. Mencken]; (4) when practiced by a progressive, not tolerating any group or individual who does not tolerate the groups or individuals that you tolerate [Mark Steyn]; (5) culture-wide rule against saying that anything is right or wrong;

totalitarianism: the overriding notion that government, not individuals, know best [Diane Alden]; (2) blind obedience and unqualified submission to any human or collective societal power, whether civil or ecclesiastical [Angelica Grimke];

town-hall meeting: see talk show

trade agreement: government-managed trade motivated by political favoritism rather than economics [Ron Paul];

treaty: (1) according to the Founders, a document that can not infringe individual rights; (2) frequently involving trade, in which case it is always a protectionist device that allows countries to justify, on grounds of reciprocity, limits on trade that would otherwise make no economic sense.

truth: (1) what politicians occasionally stumble over, then pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened [Winston Churchill]; (2) something that passes through three phases: first it is considered absurd; then it is seen as dangerously misguided; then it is accepted as self-evident [Arthur Schopenhauer]; (3) something one cannot tell without first accepting that it exists [Mike Adams];

tyranny: (1) strength without justice [Blaise Pascal]; (2) something timid men prefer to the boisterous sea of liberty [Thomas Jefferson]; (3) see totalitarianism;

Union: (1) a source of strength, even of very sorry men [Homer]; (2) an organization which seldom, if ever, uses its power to insure better work, but devotes most of it toward safeguarding less productive workers [H. L. Mencken];

United Nations; UN: (1) a federation of nations that cannot create peace or end terrorism, but can vastly expand its power over the lives of U.S. citizens; (2) the mother of all bureaucracies . . . a government comprised of governments [Ron Paul];

values voter: all voters . . . whether they are voting for more liberty and less taxes, or bigger government, more regulations, or the preservation or expansion of the welfare state.

victim: someone who earns less than their neighbor, or lives in a smaller house, or drives an older car, or does not have insurance on something, or married an ugly woman or a lazy husband, or got lower grades in school than their harder working classmates;

vote: (1) the instrument and symbol of a freeman's power to make a fool of himself and a wreck of his country [Ambrose Bierce]; (2) a citizenship right that the legislature would make illegal if elections changed anything [Emma Goldman];

voter: (1) one who believes the purpose of government . . . and particularly the current administration . . . is to give people things, or enforce the behavior of others, or protect everyone from financial setbacks and natural disasters, or all for the aforementioned; (2) a person who usually thinks the purpose of government is the antithesis of what was the Founding Fathers idea of the purpose of government;

voting block: (1) a large group that votes together on specific issues; (2) see "pressure group";

vouchers: (1) a concept that would allow parents to use their own tax money to send their kid(s) to any school they choose; (2) a concept that is energetically reviled by liberals, teacher unions, and the majority of those who usually refer to themselves as "pro-choice;"

war: (1) an act of national aggression due to the official reason, the real reason, and the myriad explanations given to sell the former and obscure the latter [Stefan B. Herpel]; (2) something in which we must occasionally engage ourselves that we may live in peace [Aristotle]; (3) one more big government program [James Q. Wilson]; (4) the pursuit of politics by other means [Karl von Clausewitz]; (5) Gods way of teaching Americans geography [Ambrose Bierce];

War on Drugs: (1) a policy that uses billions of tax dollars to finance armies in places like Columbia, and to raise huge bureaucracies at home to ensure that a powder worth ten cents per pound will be worth billions of dollars on the street [Jorge Batlle]; (2) how we treated insane people 100 years ago [Gene Roddenberry]; (3) a government program to which politicians, bureaucrats and enforcement agencies have become addicted; (4) making drugs illegal for everyone so parents wont have the bother of disciplining their own kids; (5) government program designed after that complete disaster, liquor prohibition;

War on Poverty: (1) a welfare plan to hire bureaucrats to put 25 cents in the hands of the needy for every dollar they take from the taxpayers, and to make it profitable for poor women to have babies out of wedlock; (2) a government program that politicians and bureaucrats have become dependent upon for their welfare;

Washington DC: (1) a place void of industrious endeavor where nothing of value is created and no useful product is produced [Jean-Paul Sartre]; (2) where baby boomers go to fritter away the freedoms established my our Founders and everything that was won by the Greatest Generation [Pat Buchanan];

wealth: (1) the criteria secular humanists use for success and happiness; (2) how much one is worth if they have lost all their money [Bernard Meltzer];

welfare: (1) politically correct term for charity; (2) reaching into someone elses pocket to assist ones fellow man;

welfare state: (1) politically correct term for socialism; (2) a job program for bureaucrats; (3) an inadvertent assault on the extended family [Adam Martin]; (4) a system designed to keep people in perpetual childhood by providing security and necessities, assuming responsibility for their concerns, and managing their work and happiness, where the bureaucracy is the sole agent and judge of what that should be [Alexis de Tocqueville]; (5) the initial step toward totalitarianism [Ayn Rand];

windfall profit: term used to denote a profit made by someone else . . . not the sudden $100,000 increase in the value of your house [George Will];

work: the key to success and social integration . . . the moral way for the able bodied to avoid poverty;

world government: (1) an effort to remove from the minds of men, their individualism, loyalty to family traditions, national patriotism and religious dogmas [G. Brock Chisolm]; (2) see United Nations;

World Trade Organization: (1) a protectionist device; (2) see treaty;

xenophobe: having an irrational dislike or fear of a different religion or people from another country . . . e.g., an Islamic extremist;

911: government sponsored Dial-a-Prayer.

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