How Long Do We Have?
        
        About the time our original thirteen states adopted their new
constitution in 1787, Alexander Tyler, a Scottish history professor at the
University of Edinburgh , had this to say about the fall of the Athenian
Republic some 2,000 years earlier:

        "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 they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public
treasury."

        "From that moment on, the majority always vote for the
candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the
result that every democracy will finally collapse due to 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, those nations always progressed
through the following sequence:

        
        1. from bondage to spiritual faith;
        
        2. from spiritual faith to great courage;
        
        3. from courage to liberty;
        
        4. from liberty to abundance;

        5. from abundance to complacency;
        
        6. from complacency to apathy;
        
        7. from apathy to dependence;
        
        8. from dependence back into bondage"

        

        Professor Joseph Olson, St. Paul,  Minnesota, points out some
interesting facts concerning the 2000  Presidential election:
        
        Number of States won by: Democrats: 20 Republicans: 30
        
        Square miles of land won by: Democrats: 580,000 Republicans:
2,427,000
        
        Population of counties won by: Democrats: 127 million
Republicans: 143 million

        Murder rate per 100,000 residents in counties won by:
Democrats: 13.2 Republicans: 2.1

        

        Professor Olson adds: "In aggregate, the map of the
territory Republican won was mostly the land owned by the taxpaying citizens
of this great country. Democrat territory mostly encompassed those citizens
living in government-owned 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 illegals and they vote, then we can say goodbye to
the  USA in fewer than five years.
        
        If you are in favor of this, then by all means, delete this
message.  If you are not, then pass this along to help everyone realize just
how much is at stake, knowing that apathy is the greatest danger to our
freedom.

One cannot give to someone else that which the someone else does not know they need......

opening the country's store houses to appease the sheep just sets up the scenario of Pavlov's dog and the apple pie when folks dont even remember
what an apple is......

Thanks for the cheer! UGGGGGGHHHHHH....

Forgive me, but this whole thread has some serious problems.  Our (liberal?) friends at snopes take issue with it.



Seems like more synthesized 'facts' are being thrown up here moment by moment.

It's good to believe in something, be it a cause, or a position, or a person, or an idea.  However, when a belief is the result of a sintering process rather than one of reason, then it re-rails itself into a form of religion, and by its very nature, religion disallows thoughtful consideration, but instead compels unquestioning obedience.  Such religions need no name, no priests or imams, no buildings, nor even other members of the congregation.  All that is required is the desire to believe, and once that becomes the driving force, mere reasoning stands no chance.

Instead of sticking with the script, so to speak, I'll submit another example citing November 22, 1963.  I have watched nothing with such devotion as carefully as I have the evolution of theories revolving about the assassination of JFK.  The reason for this is that he was 'my' president.  He was elected the day that I enlisted, and killed before my tour was over.  Beyond that, I'm the only person I've ever met who read the entire multi-volume compilation known as the Warren Commission Report from cover to cover, and it is one tedious read.  The state library has a copy. it's nearly four feet long - have a go at it.

From the day after the report was released, conspiracy theorists began their work.  Earliest among the theories was that the Mannlicher rifle used and the man using it were incapable of performing the three shots in the required time.  So, in 1968 (69 maybe?) CBS took on this chore, and selected ten people who had varying degrees of marksmanship ability.  Instead of requiring that all ten replicate exactly what had taken place, they used a much more logical framework.  They allowed all ten to fire three rounds from a similar rifle at a target moving along an identical path at an identical velocity and angle-to-the-shooter.  Then they drew a circle around wherever the first round struck that was the same diameter as the circle formed by the shots in Dallas.  The result was that only one of the ten failed to meet both the time constraints, and the circle constraint.  This was the one shooter with no weapons experience at all.  The other nine easily met the time and accuracy requirements, thus ending that aspect of the theorists.

Undaunted by failure, a litany of arguments grew to where a second Congressional Commission was seated, re-investigated, and re-evaluated.  That second commission unearthed only one additional piece of information that the Warren Commission had not found - an internal FBI note that read, "Lee Oswald is working in Dallas."  Given the sheer volume of such traffic that went on (sort of like internal email today) it's amazing that the piece of paper was ever found.  However, because it fit into a clump of many thousands of such inter-office notes, it carried no real significance, so it being given no priority at all meant nothing to that commission, which is the precise level it should have been given.  The second body wound up with the same conclusions as its predecessor had - no conspiracy, and Oswald acted alone.

In what was to be his final greatest moment, Peter Jennings got ninety minutes of air time to attack the conspiracy theorists, and did a surpassing job of it.  He reduced each and every contention ad absurdum.  No stone was left unturned, and by using 21st century technology, he reduced to ruins every possible theory out there.  It was his grand finale, and one devastating blow.

So, I obtained a copy of this airing and delivered it to the most devout conspiracy theorist I know - my son-in-law.  To date, he remains unconvinced.  Oh, and he also refused to watch Jennings presentation out of hand.  It wasn't worth the time, according to him.  

Such is the nature of personal religion.  There is no room for fact, information, or rational discussion.  So any such presentations on any subject are not the substance of message boards, but better suited to 'blogs' where the presenter has total control over both content and feedback.

Personally, any religion lacking review of beliefs is unsuitable, and I haven't found one that does yet.

Kind of like the 'polls' of the media......it all depends on the phrasing(content) of the questions asked, what time of day, what day, etc etc.......

From reading the article in Snopes many of the facts are very close to being true only a few of the facts seem to be way off.

yup,,,,,,,just like the polls......

Democracy - How long will it last?

submitted by Dan Myers

Note:  recently updated

This was sent to me by a friend and former classmate at Vanguard University, Costa Mesa, CA. Dan Myers is presently serving as the President of the Alumni Association at VU.

Very interesting.  Don Hall
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A warning ... circa 1787 re  the fall of the Athenian Republic:

"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves money (generous gifts) from the public treasury. From that moment on the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most money from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, (which is) always followed by a dictatorship."

"The average age of the world's greatest civilization has been two hundred years. These nations have progressed through this sequence.

From bondage to spiritual faith;
from spiritual faith to great courage;
from courage to liberty;
from liberty to abundance,
from abundance to selfishness;
from selfishness to complacency,
from complacency to apathy,
from apathy to dependency,
from dependence back into bondage."

=====================================

2000 election factoids for consideration:
  

*  Population of the counties won by Gore 127 million  -  won by Bush 143 million
[ we looked into this and concluded it is essentially true.
See:  http://www.usatoday.com/news/vote2000/cbc/map.htm - or see below]

*  Sq. miles of country won by Gore 580,000  -  won by Bush 2,427,000

[ also true.  same sources ]

*  States won by Gore 20  -  by Bush 30

[ this is true ]