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I believe it is a good thing to get rid of Gaddafi. But does America have to do everything?

Barney Frank

If Bob Barr (conservative republican congressman from Georgia) caught on fire and I was holding a bucket of water, it would be great act of discipline to pour it on him. I would do it, but I’d hate myself in the morning.
BARNEY FRANK

Fire Hate Morning
A leader can`t move a country that`s not ready. You can`t make the waves, but when you see them coming, you can help direct them.
BARNEY FRANK

Country Leader Moving
In a free society, a large degree of human activity is none of the government’s business. We should make criminal what’s going to hurt other people and other than that we should leave it to people to make their own choices.
BARNEY FRANK

Government Hurt People
I do not believe that the federal government should treat adults who choose to smoke marijuana as criminals.
BARNEY FRANK

Believe Government Marijuana
The Moral Majority supports legislators who oppose abortions but also oppose child nutrition and day care. From their perspective, life begins at conception and ends at birth.
BARNEY FRANK

Care Children Day Party
The public is ready now for a safety net for the middle class, something not just for the poor, but for everyone who will need help, from time to time, in order to own a home, educate their kids, keep themselves healthy or have something to retire on.
BARNEY FRANK

Home Kids Order
And unless you think there is a serious chance you’re going to jail, don’t listen to your lawyer.
BARNEY FRANK

Jail Serious Thinking
The issue is not that morals be applied to public policy, it’s that conservatives bring public policy to spheres of our lives where it should not enter.
BARNEY FRANK

Issues Moral Spheres
The fact that theyre a congressionally chartered group should no more incline people to give to that group than the fact that its National Pickle Month should make them eat more pickles.
BARNEY FRANK

Giving Groups People
Take free speech: most of the tough cases on free speech involve very unpleasant people saying very obnoxious things.
BARNEY FRANK

People Speech Tough
Moderate Republicans are reverse Houdinis. They tie themselves up in knots and then tell you they can’t do anything because they’re tied up in knots.
BARNEY FRANK

Knots Republican Ties
I’m used to being in the minority. I’m a left-handed, gay Jew. I’ve never felt, automatically, a member of any majority.
BARNEY FRANK

Gay Hand Left Majority
There are no moderate Republicans left, with the exception of a few who would vote with us when it doesn’t make any difference,” Frank said. “It’s the most rigid ideological party since before the Civil War. … The bumper sticker I’m going to have printed up for Democrats this year is, ‘We’re not perfect, but they’re nuts.’
BARNEY FRANK

Party War Years
There is an irony that the most active anti-gay groups are Al-Qaeda and the American Right wing.
BARNEY FRANK

Gay Groups Wings
Regarding homophobia in general, the good news is that there is a lot less of it than there used to be. The bad news is that it ever existed in the first place, and the worse news is that it remains far stronger than is healthy for a society dedicated in theory to equality under the law.
BARNEY FRANK

Diversity Equality Under Justice Law
Today, many people take for granted the notion that people whose lives are going to be very heavily affected by public policies should have a say in how they are formulated and carried out.
BARNEY FRANK

Affected Grant People Policy Public
The best antidote to prejudice is reality.
BARNEY FRANK

Antidote Prejudice Reality
Ridicule is about the most powerful weapon possible.
BARNEY FRANK

Politics Powerful Weapons
NATO was a wonderful idea. It was formed in 1949. We are as far away from NATO as NATO was when it was done in time from the presidency of Grover Cleveland.
BARNEY FRANK

Cleveland Done Ideas
Conservatives believe that from the standpoint of the federal government, life begins at conception and ends at birth.
BARNEY FRANK

Believe Birth Government
For most of my life, I have eaten to deal with stress.
BARNEY FRANK

Dealing Eaten Life Stress
It is because the fight against the harshest aspects of unrestricted capitalism is therefore a political problem and not an intellectual one that community action remains so essential.
BARNEY FRANK

Aquarium Community Fighting
But when others suggested that the poor should not simply be the objects of these programs but also the subjects – that they should be actively involved in shaping the programs, making decisions about how to spend the money etc. – some of the previous supporters reconsidered.
BARNEY FRANK

Decision Etc Poor Subject Sugegst
People are entitled to the presumption of innocence.
BARNEY FRANK

Entitled Innocence People Presumption
I hope we will not so characterize religious people as being so narrow and so biased towards people not of their own religion that they cannot even work with them in this common cause to which you say they are committed.
BARNEY FRANK

People Prejudice Religious
It seems to me that politicians ought to use the same words as other people.
BARNEY FRANK

People Politician Use
Donald Trump has done more for getting people to understand the importance of public policy that respond to public needs in an affirmative way than anything we could have done on our own.
BARNEY FRANK

Done Importance People

I believe it is a good thing to get rid of Gaddafi. But does America have to do everything?

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I believe it is a good thing to get rid of Gaddafi. But does America have to do everything?

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