Here’s a C SPAN video from a 1996 speech at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution. Here are some outtakes:
A lucid understanding of the nature of government is the first line of defense for individual freedom.
Freedom is increasingly seen as simply another government handout akin to food stamps and subsidized subway tokens.
Attorney Gen. Janet Reno told federal lawmen: “You are part of a govt. that has given its people more freedom… than any other govt. in the history of the world.
President Clinton claims that Americans have a duty to think positively – especially about the politicians who domineer their lives.
If you want to use your own land, increasingly you have to beg, bribe, and grovel to the nearest government bureaucrat.
The expansion of government power is increasingly like the invasion of a foreign army into our own lives.
Simply because we are members of this society doesn’t mean we have pledged to be vassals of politicians and bureaucrats.
It is time for Americans to stand up and reclaim our liberties that have been seized lie by lie, fraud by fraud.
Some of the riffs in this speech later appeared in my 1999 book, Freedom in Chains –
Ok, I’m on board. Is there a plan to roll this back?
Yes, keyboarding, pontificating, and bullshitt babbling
at all costs until the end of time.
Nothing more.
Glad you enjoyed the speech.
I never thought I’d be looking back at Janet Reno with a bit of wistfulness… but here we are.
These are indeed peculiar times when one of my favorite hardline writers gets wistful for Janet “Rent-a-Tank” Reno!
Wow… you not only remember me, but consider me one of your favorites?! You just made my year.
But back to the point: just a tiny bit of wistfulness. Barely a glimmer.
Not only do I recall your writings – but I also have pleasant memories of meeting you at that conference in Phoenix in 2005. You were one of the most dynamic folks there.
I’m not wistful for Reno but holy shizam, the 1990s were practically a golden age for civil liberties compared to the post-9/11 world.
As usual, Jim, you cut to the meaning of my comment. But saying that isn’t nearly as much of an eye-catcher as expressing anything remotely approaching a positive emotion for our Janet…