in article , C J Campbell at
wrote on 4/17/04 11:37 AM:


"Philip Sondericker" wrote in message
...


People still buy cigarettes.... How can anyone possibly explain why vast
numbers of people will continue to buy something that burns their mouths
and
lungs, makes the eyes sting, smells bad, makes food taste bad, is likely
to
burn themselves, their friends, and their possessions, and is deadly
poisonous to boot, and even claim that they 'enjoy' it? Perhaps
liberalism
is to politics what tobacco is to recreation.

Maybe JFK was right after all, when he claimed that he was a jelly
doughnut.
:-)

Okay, I was gonna stay out of this, but since people are comparing
liberalism to poison, cigarettes and other cancerous substances, it may be
time to remind everyone that our country was founded on some quite liberal
principles. Thomas Jefferson would likely be appalled to hear liberalism
likened to "poison".


Some people have no sense of humor. :-(

All right, you want to play it that way, Thomas Jefferson would likely be
appalled to hear what modern day liberalism espouses (socialism,
restrictions on freedom of speech on campus and in the press, restrictions
on the right to bear arms, restrictions on the right to practice your
religion, racial quotas, seizure of personal property for public use without
compensation, abandonment of morals, restrictions on campaign advertising
and financing, etc.). Thomas Jefferson liberals are what we call
conservatives nowadays.

Nonsense. If a free-thinking humanist like Jefferson were around today,
espousing things like the separation of church and state and the importance
of public education (which he all but invented), you'd probably dismiss him
as a left-wing whacko.

Most liberals hate Jefferson

I don't suppose you've got the slightest data to back up this assertion, do
you?

and tar his reputation and his principles
whenever they can. Modern day liberals portray Jefferson as an oppressive
white slave owner and rapist, an establishment figure tied to big money and
corrupt politics. If Jefferson is mentioned in public schools at all, it is
to highlight the shameful and oppressive past of the white male dictators
that established the United States. That is all most modern grade school
kids know about Jefferson.

This must be a relatively recent develepment, because I for one can't recall
ever being taught any such thing. You're basically just making this up,
aren't you?