[CHARLITE]

I apologize for my typo on the date of this splendid, erudite article.

It was published on September 1, 2001

[drt1]

"Nothing but evil can come from a society bent upon coercion, the confiscation of property, and the degradation of the productive"

That is one quote from this article that really stuck out and with which I have strong agreement - Like something out of an Ayn Rand story.

Unfortunately our Society appears to be doing this and something else that I think warrants inclusion in the Quote. It could read:

Nothing but evil can come from a society bent upon coercion, the confiscation of property, and the degradation of the productive and the exaltation of the manipulative

[Antoninus]

I apologize for my typo on the date of this splendid, erudite article.

While I agree with some of this author's premises, I found the article to be full of some rather sketchy scholarship. He only tells half the story, as far as I'm concerned, putting too much emphasis on certain things, and leaving out others that might disprove his point.

The main reason the Empire fell is because the Romans didn't follow the advice which the Emperor Septimius Severus gave to his sons on his deathbed: "Live in peace with one another, enrich the soldiers, and ignore everyone else." They allowed the Goths to basically take over the army from within, they lost their military rigor and discipline which is what built the empire in the first place, and they had a long succession of military mediocrities as emperor.

And contrary to this gent's thesis, the Roman Empire didn't fall in 476 AD. It continued on with its capital at Constantinople for another 1,000 years. Of course, this unfortunate fact is a bit too inconvenient to be included.

[Syncro]

I think Sept 1002 was the first ^year this was published on the internet.

:>)

A good and fitting story to see again. Glad to see it posted, thanks.