The Tytler CycleAlexander Fraser Tytler, Scottish Historian (1747 — 1813)
A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising them the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over a loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world’s great civilizations has been 200 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 dependence; From dependence back into bondage.

ObservationsForwarded by H. L., a prisoner.
•

Never blame a legislative body for not doing something.
When they do nothing that doesn't hurt anybody. When they do something is when they become dangerous.
—Will Rogers
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The life of the nation is secure only while the nation is honest, truthful, and virtuous.
—Frederick Douglass
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The United States was supposed to have a limited government because the founders knew government power attracts demagogues and despots as surely as horse manure attracts horseflies.
—Rick Gaber
PolicyHermann Goering, at the Nuremberg Trials
Of course the people don't want war. But after all, it's the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it's always a simple matter to drag the people along whether it's a democracy, a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism, and exposing the country to greater danger.

Some Additional Thoughts About GunsOriginal Source Unknown. Forwarded by Steve, of Pomona, California.
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Free men don’t ask for and don’t need permission to bear arms.
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Seventy-two million gun owners
didn’t kill anybody yesterday.
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You don't shoot to kill.
You shoot to stay alive.
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Criminals and terrorists love gun control. It makes their jobs easier and safer.

Stray ThoughtsSam Aurelius Milam III •

The ability to vote for your master doesn’t make you any less a slave.
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Politics is when you do something for the wrong reasons.
•
Government and
fascism are synonyms.
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The more people there are in a group, the lower is the effective level of intellignence of the group.

Gibbs’
Rule Number 39Sam Aurelius Milam III
A human survival bottleneck,
or something that seems to have been a human survival
bottleneck, happened about 140,000 years ago. Another such event happened about 70,000 years ago. The timing suggests
that such events might happen about every 70,000 years. It’s
been about 70,000 years. Maybe it’s time for another one.

Yellowstone exploded about 2.1 million years ago. It exploded again about 1.4 million years ago, and again about 700,000 years ago. The timing suggests that Yellowstone explodes about every 700,000 years. It’s been 700,000 years. Maybe it’s time for another explosion.

For the entire history of our species, and considering the normal variations that naturally occur in an animal population, the human population of the world seems to have been reasonably constant or, at least, to have changed gradually. Given the 2 or so million years during
which our species has allegedly existed, the current increase in
human population, happening in just a few hundred years, can be
viewed as virtually instantaneous. Considering the time span,
the term
population explosion is a reasonable description.
The important thing that we need to understand about explosions is that, in an explosion, the first thing that’s destroyed is the explosive.

So, we have three situations
that are completely unrelated to one another, or at least seem to be completely unrelated to one another, all of which could happen simultaneously, considering the time scale involved, and any one of which, by itself, could possibly result in the extinction of our species.

Ah heck, don’t worry, it’s probably all just a coincidence.

