A Speech Worth Reading November 10, 2003March 25, 2012 If you are interested in your liberties as an American and missed Al Gore’s speech yesterday, click here to read it. There is no small irony in this. Just as it’s not clear to me why Republicans are so ready to add trillions of dollars to the national debt (weren’t they not long ago against deficits?) . . . and why they are so eager to overturn California‘s medical marijuana and Oregon’s assisted suicide referenda (weren’t they not long ago the party of state’s rights?) . . . and why they were angry that the Supreme Court struck down laws regulating the behavior adults may engage in at home in bed (weren’t they once the party of individual rights and small government?) . . . so it’s hard not to wonder what Barry Goldwater – say – would have made of some of the more far-reaching provisions of the Patriot Act, and related Bush policies. It’s worse than you thought. Read the Gore speech and see if any of it troubles you.