(Excerpts from a February 12, 2009 column, Lincoln's birthday)

"I would not be truthful if I said that I was fully qualified for the office. I do not play the piano, I seldom play golf, and I never play touch football." — Barry Goldwater

"The function of liberal Republicans is to shoot the wounded after battle." — Sen. Eugene McCarthy

Abraham Lincoln, February 17, 1860 (Cooper Institute, New York City); caps in original):

"If any man at this day sincerely believes that proper division of local from Federal authority, or any part of the Constitution, forbids the Federal Government to control . . slavery in the Federal territories, he is right to say so, and to enforce his position by all truthful evidence and fair argument which he can. But he has no right to mislead others, who have less access to history, and less leisure to study it, into the false belief that 'our fathers, who framed the Government under which we live,' were of the same opinion — thus substituting falsehood and deception for truthful evidence and fair argument . . .

"A few words now to Republicans . . . Let us be diverted by none of these sophistical contrivances wherewith we are so industriously plied and belabored — contrivances such as groping for some middle ground between the right and the wrong, vain as the search for a man who should be neither a living man nor a dead man — such as a policy of 'don't care' on a question about which all true men do care . . . such as invocations to Washington, imploring men to unsay what Washington said, and undo what Washington did. . .

"LET US HAVE FAITH THAT RIGHT MAKES MIGHT, AND IN THAT FAITH LET US, TO THE END, DARE TO DO OUR DUTY AS WE UNDERSTAND IT."

CHARLES SCHUMER said in 2009 that the people don't care [what Congress does], and some Republicans seem to agree, but all "true men" still DO care! That's the point — enough is enough.

John Stuart Mill had three reasons that Free Speech should never be silenced: The opinion of the silenced person may be TRUE; the person's opinion may be FALSE; and, either way, silencing the person would just be WRONG, PERIOD. It was opinion of John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) that:

"If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind."

P.S. Dumb question: Since the death of Daniel Patrick Moynihan, has there been even one John Stuart Mill on the left side of the aisle in the Senate? Or in the Fourth Estate? Thank God for the "Information Superhighway," Someone said, "It is better to debate an issue without settling it than to settle an issue without debating it."

My nomination for the John Stuart Mill Honorary Column is one of Thomas Sowell's. The gist of it can be gleaned from four simple sentences:

"The biggest argument of the Left is that there is no argument — whether the issue is global warming, or whatever [such as border enforcement, I would add]."

"Some students may even imagine that they have already heard the other side because their teachers may have given them their version of other people's arguments or motives."

"A jury would never be impressed by having the prosecution tell them what the defendant's defense is. They would want to hear the defense attorney present that case."