I'm not going to try to explain the basics of how a free market works to someone with as many preconceived notions as you have. Dissecting all the misconceptions in this one post would take me all afternoon. Suffice it to say, I've studied this subject for thirty years, and I know a thing or two about it.

If you're not interested in theory, look at results. Across the globe, regardless of race, history or culture, the most prosperous societies are those which have the most economic freedoms. Political freedom goes hand-in-hand with this. As centralized control of an economy increases, so does oppression.

The liberal takes as a matter of faith that some braying jackass lawyer who manages to convince fifty-one percent of whichever bunch of people bothered to vote somehow becomes "anointed," and uniquely qualified to run every detail of the lives of millions of citizens at least as smart as he is. Why anyone thinks this should be true is beyond me.

The jackass himself, is of course firmly convinced of his own superiority, of the stupidity and ineffectiveness of the masses, and of his divine right to control them in every aspect of their lives.

I wouldn't let Ted Kennedy change a tire on my car. I certainly wouldn't let him drive it. What gives him the right to wield the power of a dictator?

The original Constitution recognized the basic problem of government by mere human beings, and responded by imposing checks and balances, and above all, severe restrictions on what our elected representatives could do. At the same time the Constitution allowed maximum freedom for citizens to make their own decisions.

The entire Constitution consists of listing those things government should be allowed to do, and it's a short list. Everything else is intended to be left up to the individual citizen and private organizations. The Ninth Amendment was intended to pound this concept home.

This radical new idea was long ago discarded, and we are now treated to the jackasses in Washington telling me, among thousands of other stupid mollusc-minded edicts, how much water is okay for me to use in my goddam john, regardless of how much water is available where I live. This from people who probably couldn't tell you the chemical formula for water at the point of a gun.

Don't you realize that if they can legitimately tell you to do this, they can tell you to do just about anything? Can you think of anything beyond their reach? Smoking has fallen to their axe. There are already trial balloons going out on what you will be allowed to eat and drink, and what you will be allowed to drive. What's next? Nothing surprises me any more.