Walter Williams is my hero

A discussion arose today on Buttface Facebook, during the course of which several self-described conservatives were extolling the virtues of several government programs, and bewailing the inevitable apocalypse that would result if government kept its nose out of the business of its citizens.

This is why I refuse to call myself a conservative; it's meaningless these days. I know too many people who call themselves "conservative" that are quite "liberal" with the money I earned and which was stolen from me via taxation... as long as it's not going to fund something they dislike, such as abortion or health care. The way I see it, the Republican party today is just as bad as the Democrat party when it comes to curtailing personal liberty. Let's not forget, it was "conservative" Republicans that gave us the TSA and the Patriot Act (which the newly-minted "conservative" Tea Party congressmen just reauthorized); and as for the impending economic armageddon, it was "conservative" Republicans that started the current orgy of corporate welfare with TARP.

Anyway, my ranting aside, this particular lecture by Walter Williams is 52 minutes long, but it is well worth your time, assuming you actually care to understand the true impact of government intervention in the private sphere.