George Carlin Quotes
Why should it be illegal to sell something that's perfectly legal to give away?
Carlin, George. Brain Droppings. Hyperion, 1997.
Friedman was an advocate for the legalization of illicit drugs, claiming that the harm that is done by making drugs illegal is greater than that which would occur if drugs were legalized. He also observed that alcohol kills times the number of Americans than does illegal drugs and tobacco kills four times as many as alcohol.
His antigovernment views were so extreme that he even opposed having the government control poisonous and other dangerous consumer products and instead leave it to the free market where the consumer would have to make safety decisions often without information or worse with deceptively false information.
The President had decided to aggressively push for railroad regulation to end the rate rebate abuses that were used to support the monopolies like Standard Oil. In vintage Roosevelt tactics, he gave his first major speech on the subject in the setting and forum that would be most opposed to it. The Union League Club of Philadelphia in included the wealthiest men in the area where were most opposed to any Federal Regulation of anything. All the major railroad executives and stock owners and traders were also members. The President wanted to persuade the opponents to change their positions, and sometimes he did. He also was driven by his concept of sports and athletics so that the “opposition” should have “fair notice” for the contest ahead.
[The metaphor of the stone tablets revers to Moses coming down the mountain and his interaction with God, carrying the 10 Commandments carved in stone tablets.]
George Denis Patrick Carlin was an American stand-up comedian, actor, social critic, and author. Regarded as one of the most important and influential stand-up comics of all time, he was dubbed "the dean of counterculture comedians". He was known for his dark comedy and reflections on politics, the English language, psychology, religion, and taboo subjects. His "seven dirty words" routine was central to the 1978 United States Supreme Court case F.C.C. v. Pacifica Foundation, in which a 5–4 decision affirmed the government's power to censor indecent material on the public airwaves.
