Posted on 09/06/2002 8:17:16 AM PDT by BADJOE
History teaches some very good lessons. They are hard to learn but our forefathers did a great job.
From the beginning of time man has overthrown one form of centralized government only to re-establish another one in its place. Our forefathers understood this far better than anyone ever had. They said governments are the eternal enemy of free men. They said that in order for man to remain free it would take a bloody revolution every other generation, unless you bound down (bastard) government with the chains of the constitution.
On another site this week a poster asked if anyone else hated government as much as he did. I replied to him
"Hell !! I thought you were not a good American if you didn't love our country and hate our government.
At least that is how I have always felt about it"
I think our forefathers had the same attitude that I have now. And I think it is inherent in the average Americans attitude to distrust and have disdain for any government, including ours. One of the hardest conclusions I had to arrive at as a young man, after having been a product of the public school system, was that our government was not on our side. As James Forrestahl, former secretary of the Navy, who suffered a mysterious death, once said about our State Department's foreign policy, " Stupidity is never a mark of consistancy. If they were merely stupid, they would occasionally make a mistake in our favor".
Newt Gringrich put it in a humourous manner when talking about the attitude of Europeans. He related the following story. If you go to Europe and drive on the Autobahn, you feel pretty good cruising down the highway at 100 mph when some some German passes you doing 140 mph. Now he said if the Bundestag passed the 55mph speed limit law, every German would dutifully obey that law, untill the next election. They would vote the 55 mph crowd out of office and the no speed limit crowd in. In America Newt said "A speed limit sign is a benchmark of opportunity.
It is obvious that Yankees and Euros have entirely different attitudes about government's edicts. There are darn few Americans who do not break the speed limit laws everyday.
Now we come to the Free Republic. Once a free wheeling, joyful site for news and discussion of politics, economics, philosophy, ethics and morals. I could not understand the transformation that has taken place in the last six months. Camaraderie, the sense of family, and cooperation seems to have disappeared. Are the Freepers exhibiting the same disdain for the new FR as Americans have for our government?
The whole damn operation might come crumbling down.
PA judge gives it an 8.2
1. I'm hoping Mudboy Slim is NOT drunk, and is really giving away a signed copy of slander.
2. I like watching when good freepers go bad.
3. My tin-foil hat broke and I'm scared to move.
4. The issues being discussed are very series, indeed.
5. I figure if we waste enough bandwidth they'll lock it.
6. The crevo threads are over my head.
7. The MO/magic of the ATHEIST--EVO taliban... missing--Butchered dove(TRUTH/SCIENCE/CONSTITUTION)--- appearing rabbit(RATS)/...(courtesy f.christian)
8. Dysfunction can be a good thing.
9. It's the liberals that's our enemies.
And number 10 is....
Whoops! Hold on...gotta jump in the shower...I'll get back to ya!
10) The Free Republic MasterCard with a low 9.9% interest rate and 15% off all potassium iodide pills and Geiger counters
9) The chance to hang out with real Americans such as these.
8) The monthly fee I get from Jim Robinson to, ah, keep things right, shall we say, with the Bilderburgers.
7) The knowledge that FR has never been as good as it used to be since they day after it launched.
6) The secret Women With Guns porn forum.
5) The love, awe and wonder we all share of the greatest singer on the planet: Miss Barbra Streisand!
4) The Schadenfreude I feel when I beat someone else by five seconds in posting the latest Drudgeism, and then hitting "Report Abuse" on the slowpoke's thread.
3) That, as a CIA agent, I know every single one of your names, addresses, social security numbers, credit ... Oh, nothing to see here. Skip this one. Move along.
2) FR considers tinfoil one of the four major food groups.
And the number one reason why I'm still a happy freeper....*drum roll*
1) Cheese, glorious cheese!
Obviously there were deductions for Bork's correct capitalization and punctuation. Let's remind everybody ONCE AGAIN ... rants need to be lower case and structured without taint by grammarical, phonetic or punctuation distractions. Lower case, with oomph, like a bat of hell.
Silly
buddy.
( ;
Kewl...I'm an amigO...MUD
I recommend you get that list on your homepage somehow, Physicist; it is too, too funny. I am very impressed with your knowledge of what is going down on Free Republic and your ability to put everything in such neat order. If I were the Teacher for the Day I'd give you an A+, big guy. (And I hope YOU win the contest! After reading your post, buddy, I ain't even tryin'!)
Ann's WRONG here...I'm a full-fledged libertarian and that's becuz I believe the Federal Leviathan could be shrunk down to 6%-8% from its high of almost 25%!! Non-PrescriptionDrugLaws are but the the tip of the iceberg, IMHO.
FReegards...MUD
FR needs a toll meter to charge the world to see all the fools make fools of themselves!
This would be a gold mine!
Buy cyber cards for all the hits---laughs!
Free anything is a misnomer...except for trouble---dumb/losers!
Try not to make yourself out to be quite so ignorant, my dear "Government Lover".As one who stood alongside Joe (not so close I too was spit on, mind you) at the DC Press Corps FReep in '99 and who was there bright and early to help him and Bob J set up (first ones there, last ones to leave as a rule), I find your dismissal of him as some credit card processor an affront.
It's my understanding that while all the keyboard commandos and partiers were whooping it up at the Ball, Joe barely got to go to the bathroom, busy with the business of trying to make ends meet at the door.
Unlike the left, Stalker/Howlin, there are those of us who do not believe truth is a matter of majority opinion.
I doubt very seriously it bothers Joe (or any of us) in the least that we're now in the minority where the "will of the people" is concerned.
You certainly are entitled to your opinion where the Mods are concerned ... just as you are entitled to your opinion that socialized healthcare is a good thing, that abortion must needs be respected as the "law of the land" and Bush's decision to use already-been-killed "Excess" human embryos for taxpayer funded human research is a Necessary and Hopeful function of government.
Likewise, Joe is entitled to his opinion of our government's place and the FR Mods' performance. Barring some evidence that you too have been privy to the Mod process, it's possible some of us are willing to grant Joe's opinion a little more weight than yours.
I too believe that if Jim is happy with the Mods, that's all that matters where this particular piece of private property is concerned.
And now that he's outted himself as a government hater, I'd venture to say 90 percent of the people on here don't agree with him on THAT either, present company excluded, of course.
The use of "hate" was another poster's. To be quite honest, hate's a stupid and self-debilitating emotion. I loathe and fear my government. I don't see how any man of conscience who's watched closely their actions could possibly embrace as "good" or "true" our present federal leviathan who picks and chooses the "moral" wars it fights -- against foreigners and its own citizenry -- with its so-called Clean Hands.
You can only claim a percentage if I win. You get the Cheney book...hehhehhe
Bring on the Anti-BushWhacker Babes...MUD
Global distruster #9849570 checking in......
Ah, evidently you missed THIS cut and paste:
59. To: oibl (#1)
Hell !! I thought you were not a good American if you didn't love our country and hate our government.
At least that is how I have always felt about it.
Badjoe posted on 2002-09-04 19:47:16
To be quite honest, hate's a stupid and self-debilitating emotion.
Your characterization, not mine.
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