Crimes And Vices

  I have thought about this so many times, but I never realized that in trying to protect people, 
government was invasive of freedom.  However, another thing to consider is this: if your lifestyle
causes sickness, is the government then responsible for your treatment?  The answer is yes and 
no.  At least that is how it has been historically.  By "government," I really mean the taxpayer.   
Freedom is the issue.  The question then arises:  Is government responsible for the consequences 
of poor choices?  Again, the answer is yes and no.  Here are 3 quotes regarding this matter.  RD

 "Prohibition goes beyond the bounds of reason in that it attempts to control a man's appetite by 
legislation,and makes a crime out of things that are not crimes."     
Abraham Lincoln  (1809-1865) 16th US President

"In Europe, when tobacco was first introduced, it was immediately banned.  In Turkey, if you got 
caught with tobacco, you had your nose slit.  China and Russia imposed the death penalty for 
possession of tobacco."          Andrew Weil, MD   (1942- )  American author and physician                 

"Vices are those acts by which a man harms himself or his property. Crimes are those acts by 
which one man harms the person or property of another. Vices are simply the errors which a man 
makes in his search after his own happiness. Unlike crimes, they imply no malice toward others, 
and no interference with their persons or property. In vices, the very essence of crime—that is, the 
design to injure the person or property of another—is wanting. It is a maxim of the law that there can 
be no crime without criminal intent; that is, without the intent to invade the person or property of another.
 But no one ever practices a vice with any such criminal intent. He practices his vice for his own happiness 
solely, and not from any malice toward others. Unless this clear distinction between vices and crimes be
made and recognized by the laws, there can be on earth no such thing as individual right, liberty, or 
property, and the corresponding coequal rights of another man to the control of his own person and 
property."             Lysander Spooner   (1808-1887) Political theorist, activist, abolitionist



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