Freind of mine (who is a British emigrant) sent me this:

[dorminWS]

I'm not going to SNOPES it, because I know Kreutz or somebody like him will.
.................................................................................................
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 always 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 2011

It doesn't hurt to read this several times.
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: 13.2McCain: 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.

[Chingon]

Interesting read. Thanks for the post.

[jdonovan]

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

I was going to just enjoy the read, but but you did kinda ask for it.

[dorminWS]

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

I was going to just enjoy the read, but but you did kinda ask for it.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

I've seen/heard others question the impartiality of Snopes before, but never really paid much attention. However, the writer of the evaluation you just posted really does seem to be busting every gut he/she has to discredit something that still comes across as substantially or at least largely correct - even if it isn't accurate down to three decimal places. Much of it appears to me to be picking on minor innacuracies such as the numbers tallied before certain states were called, etc. And the argument that is made concerning the murder rates by county is pretty ludicrous; and I say that as a person with some knowledge of statistical analysis. Similarly, the refutation of the contribution-to-taxes-paid issue at the end of the piece, while too cursory and turgid to allow precise analysis, seems to me to be possibly comparing apples to oranges.

And after all that, the best argument that they could make amounted to "it's not as bad as they said it was".

It doesn't matter to me whether the fact-based subject matter of the post was totally correct or not. I disclaimed it to begin with; and the overall point of the post is, I think, well made and obviously true even if you just left out all the Bush-vs-Gore stuff. So I really don't feel that I have a dog in this race. But reading that SNOPES report on the matter posted did more to undermine my confidence in SNOPES than in the matter SNOPES was commenting on.

[jdonovan]

I agree snopes ins't what it once was, but it does help quickly spot some of the more commonly forwarded emails/forum posts.

[ShotgunBlast]

I like the top part about the average age of world civilizations.

[ratherfish]

I agree snopes ins't what it once was, but it does help quickly spot some of the more commonly forwarded emails/forum posts.

What was it initally? Yet to be revealed liberal bias?

[MrSmitty]

I don't care what snopes says...I dislike Obama, and I didn't vote for him, I will not vote for him, and I wouldn't pee on him if he was on fire!

[Excelsior]

This...

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.

...is the only part that matters.