Our Nation

This was sent to me by my boss's boss. I'm not necessarily agreeing with it, but thought I'd post it for possible debate:

In 1887 Alexander Tyler, a Scottish history professor at the University of Edinborough, had this to say about the fall of the Athenian Republic some 2,000 years prior:

"A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse over loose fiscal policy, (which is) always followed by a dictatorship."

"The average age of the world's greatest civilizations from the beginning of history, has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, these nations mostly progressed through the following sequence:

From bondage to spiritual faith;
From spiritual faith to great courage;
From courage to liberty;
From liberty to abundance;
From abundance to complacency;
From complacency to apathy;
From apathy to dependence;
From dependence back into bondage."
The Obituary follows:

Born 1776, Died 2008

Professor Joseph Olson of Hamline University School of Law in St. Paul, Minnesota, points out some interesting facts concerning the last Presidential election:

Number of States won by:
Obama: 19
McCain: 29
Square miles of land won by:
Obama: 580,000
McCain: 2,427,000
Population of counties won by:
Obama: 127 million
McCain: 143 million
Murder rate per 100,000 residents in counties won by:
Obama: 13.2
McCain: 2.1

Professor Olson adds: "In aggregate, the map of the territory McCain won was mostly the land owned by the taxpaying citizens of the country.

Obama territory mostly encompassed those citizens living in low income tenements and living off various forms of government welfare..."

Olson believes the United States is now somewhere between the "complacency and apathy" phase of Professor Tyler's definition of democracy, with some forty percent of the nation's population already having reached the "governmental dependency" phase.

If Congress grants amnesty and citizenship to twenty million criminal invaders called illegal's - and they vote - then we can say goodbye to the USA in fewer than five years.

 

I mean, that last sentence is plain idiocy.

 

Wow... crazy thing for *anyone* in management to ever send out... especially when most of it is false.

http://www.snopes.com/politics/ballot/athenian.asp

 

That is what worries me about Oregon's ballot measures... sometimes I think we ovte for things that sound good without considering where the money etc... will come from for it.

 

But isn't that always the issue left undefined by our politicians? It seems to me that there are plenty of well-meaning folks who have great ideas in government (only very few do I believe are craven and view increased government as increased power). The problem is they don't bother to ask two fundamental questions: 1) is it the role of government to engage in such a project? and; 2) how will the project be paid for?

It seems to me of those two questions were fully debated before any government program were enacted, we would all be much better off.

 

Good find. I was thinking of running it thru Snopes, but thought since it came from on high...

 

Agreed. Our revenue streams go up and down though also though... so it is hard to predict exactly what we have money for.

 

CHANGE... CHANGE !!! Oh yea give me some of that, don't know what it is but I want it!

Sometimes!?!? Try most the time, people are so Nice around here, appeal to their heart and their head goes out the window

 

The whole Chaca Nation should meet in the Great Kiva to decide the issues.

 

Think again. Snopes is a leftist website with its own agenda. I wouldn't consider it a source of objective truth.