JadziaDax

"A democracy cannot survive as a permanent form of government. It can last only until its citizens discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority (who vote) will vote for the candidates promising the greatest benefits from the public purse, with the result that a democracy will always collapse from loose fiscal policies, always followed by a dictatorship.

The average age of the world's greatest democratic nations has been 200 years. Each has been through the following sequence:

• From bondage to spiritual faith.
  
• From faith to great courage.
  
• From courage to liberty.
  
• From liberty to abundance.
  
• From abundance to complacency.
  
• From complacency to selfishness.
  
• From selfishness to apathy.
  
• From apathy to dependency.
  
• And from dependency back again into bondage.

Can we escape this fate?"

-- Lord Thomas B. Macaulay, 1857

Liquor Dealer

Jadz - while many of the comparisons that have been made between the United States and the Roman Empire are scary there are also many fundament differences that separate us. The things that scare me most is the appeal that socialism has to many and the loss of industry to foreign countries. The extreme liberalism of many Democratic party politicians is almost an invitation to loot the public treasury. There are fruitcakes in both parties but people like Kennedy scare me. Areas that re-elect people over and over with these views scare me. Extreme conservatism scares me almost as much as does the ideas of the ultra-liberals. Change is going to have to take place or we could place ourselves in line with what has caused the fall of many governments. The American people, because of the form of government we use, are almost totally in charge of picking their own destiny. Let's hope they make wise decisions.

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Life isn't always a bowl of cherries, sometimes it's more like a jar of Jalapenos --- what you say or do today might burn your ass tomorrow!!!

Pacifier

oh, and what always is forgotten is that every empire think that they will last "eternally"
(or at least for 1000 years... )
"those things will never happen to us.....we are strong...."

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"It seems to me that the idea of a personal God is an anthropological concept which I cannot take seriously. I also cannot imagine some will or goal outside the human sphere. Science has been charged with undermining morality, but the charge is unjust. A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties and needs; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death
— Albert Einstein

Simple_Min

Hmm. Of course you realize there are plenty of people (mainly black Americans and or non white Americans) who disagree with you here. Dating back to the 2000 election, but more generally dating back to the beginning of America and it's domestic racial policies that continue in one form or another to this day.