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Cato Institute | 5/13/02 | P8riot

[Billthedrill]

I'm going to buy a couple hundred more in the next few days so as to have a stock on hand for this coming 4th of July, where I will don my tricorn hat, colonial woodsman's vest, and canvas haversack, and carry these along the parade route, handing them out to anyone and everyone who wants one...

A BTT for the best idea I've heard in a long time!

I have one - fits in your pocket and it's the most subversive document the world has ever seen. I last used it to show an unbelieving young woman that yes, dear, women did in fact have the vote before 1960. She was serious, and a soon-to-be graduate of a nearby university whose name will not be mentioned but which was named after a very important guy who was our first president. No, not Marx.

[P8riot]

I wasn't criticizing your post. Just the subject of your post. I didn't think that I was being that vague.

[nicollo]

You are very welcome criticize a post, especially the "subject" of a post, Lol!.
Yes, I was telling you not to be vague.

Now, get to it.

[nicollo]

Another thread reminded me of this one from Taft in 1912. He said it just before leaving office:

I have succeeded in securing the adoption of a new set of rules for equity proceedings in the United States courts. I hope to be able to secure new rules to govern proceedings at common law and if I succeed in my efforts in that direction I shall have accomplished more for so-called social justice than all the hollering and hysteria of the professional reformers could achieve in a thousand years.

x, I thought you'd have fun with some of these quotations.
P8riot, I promise I'll go away now... !

[Huck]

if I succeed in my efforts in that direction I shall have accomplished more for so-called social justice than all the hollering and hysteria of the professional reformers could achieve in a thousand years.

Like the other Taft quote, this one is quite Menckenesge in tone. "Hollering and hysteria of the professional reformers"? Sounds like the old sage to me.

[nicollo]

You're gonna force me into Mencken. I DON'T HAVE TIME, dammit! My FR ventures are my only down time, and now you're gonna add to my desparately long reading list.

Ok, I give in. Where should I start?

I wonder what Mencken's take was on the Taft administration? He would have been in his thirties. A quick websearch says he was writing for the Balt. Herald Tribune until 1906, and then the Sun . The Tribune was pro-Taft. The Sun , I dunno.

He was probably of the progressive set. Maybe that's why he turned cynical. He seems to me to have the contempt of a former believer.

Back to the Library of Congress I go... Thanks, Huck.

[Huck]

Mencken, as far as I can tell, was simply convinced that most of humanity's problems were unsolvable, and attempts at solving them were folly. At worst, they were gross attacks on human dignity, at best, they were terrificly funny. You, nicollo, must find some time for Mencken, just for his writing style and humor alone.

Go to the library, and find a collection that contains "On Being an American" and "Sahara of the Bozart." I have to run. More later.