How about some politics....

[Duck_Bull]

I thought this was an interesting take on the state of the union...


>At about the time our original 13 states adopted their new constitution
>in 1787, a Scottish history professor by the name of Professor
>Alexander Tyler had this to say about "The Fall of the Athenian
>Republic" over 2,000 years previous to that date.
>
>
>"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can
>only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves
>largesse (generous gifts) from the public treasury. From that moment
>on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most
>benefits from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy
>always collapses over loose fiscal policy. It is always followed by a
>dictatorship."
>
>
>"The average age of the world's greatest civilizations 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
>complacency; from complacency to apathy; from apathy to dependence;
>from dependence back into bondage."
>
>
>Professor Joseph Olson of Hamline University School of Law, St. Paul,
>Minnesota, wrote this about the 2000 election:
> Population of counties won by Gore 127 million, won by Bush 143
>million.
> Sq.miles of country won by Gore 580,000, won by Bush 2,427,000.
> States won by Gore 19, by Bush 29.
> Murder per 100,000 residents in counties won by Gore 13.2...by Bush 2.1
>(not a typo).
>
>
>Professor Olson adds, "The map of the territory Bush won was (mostly)
>the land owned by the people of this great country. Not the citizens
>living in cities owned by the government and living off the government.
>Professor Olson thinks the US is now between the complacency and apathy
>phase of democracy although he believes that 40 percent of the nation's
>population has already reached the dependency phase.