Don't worry, they're on our side: 1932

Germany; the Nazis have joined the Communists in a strike. This is what happens to one person who doesn't participate:

The Nazis were carrying rolled banners with spikes on their ends. They stabbed the young man in the face and left him with one eye probably blinded. Half a dozen policemen stood a few yards away, ignoring the incident.

--From Christopher and His Kind--

When the police are on someone's side, and not the side of law and order, that is when we all need to worry.

Obama to gays: if you want equal rights, become a Republican

"Instead, the Department of Justice argued that the immediate effect of her decision should be to prohibit the military from discharging openly gay service members who belong to the Log Cabin Republicans."

--From Reuters, via Drudge--

With incentives like this, how can any homosexual be a Democrat, or like myself, an Independent? The writing is on the wall people, we must become Republicans and join the Log Cabin! Look at the benefits!

UPDATE:

I've filled out my change of party application and sent it in. I may have overdone the postage, but the purple-heart stamps seemed especially appropriate:



It's only safe to be "out" in the Republican Party.

One week you're in, the next you're out: 1807

The Queen of Etruria (November):

When Bonaparte had ascended the imperial throne, it is reported that he sent Engenius de Beauharnais to ask the hand of the royal widow; who returned a polite refusal.

Secured from the fear of foreign enemies by the same hand that has overturned and created kingdoms, this Princess dedicates all the blooming hours of her youth to a strict performance of the duties of her station, and all her cares to the prosperity of her subjects and the education of her children.

--From La Belle assemblée--

The Queen of Etruria (December, 4th):

...yesterday evening, the queen (to whom other states are to be assigned) departed hence with a train of between forty and fifty carriages, containing baggage and private property; after which the Etrurians were discharged from their oath of allegiance, and the government declared to be dissolved...

--From American register--

The news: 1919

If I stop to add up all the so-called important affairs of state that I have either witnessed or heard about during that time [the past six years], there have been quite a few at that. And yet, not one has left so much as a trace in my memory, and as for their influence on me, it has only been to increase my stock of bad temper.

--From Cheering From the Sidelines--

Current events are like vegetables: adults seem to like consuming them and make their kids join in, they're insubstantial, and they're not something you'd want to live on.

---

Political speeches: 1350

Says the Prime Minister:

Henceforth, those of you genuinely concerned for our kingdom's ultimate fate must vigorously attack my errors and hold me responsible for my failures.

--From the Romance of the Three Kingdoms--

It's hard to imagine an ordinary person, let alone a politician, saying something like that today.

Departmental meetings: 1350

...but Zhang Fei objected. "There's no such thing as a good banquet or a good conference," he asserted flatly.

--From the Romance of the Three Kingdoms--

All those bureaucrats together in one room, how can they help but conspire over something? At best they'll just waste of money.

Falun Gong: 1350

..."Don't you really belong to the Yellow Scarves, Zhang Jue and his ilk?"...

..."The man is a sorcerer," Sun Ce replied. "He uses his arts to mislead the multitude and must be eliminated."...

--From the Romance of the Three Kingdoms--

The Yellow Scarves, like the Red Eyebrows, and the Boxers, were groups responsible for great upheaval and revolution in Chinese history, and they all had mystical ties. So it's no wonder the Chinese government moved to repress Falun Gong, a modern day society with mystical practices.

Compare China's reaction to America's, where groups like the Tea Party, modeled after a revolutionary group, go about their business with only rhetorical government interference.

Thomas Paine: 1662

...They believed that since they held the power over benefit and harm, there was nothing wrong in taking for themselves all the benefits and imposing on others all the harm. They made it so no man dared to live for himself or look to his own interests...

...Thus he who does the greatest harm in the world is none other than the prince....

...Now men hate their prince, look on him as a "mortal foe," call him "just another guy."...

--From Waiting for the Dawn--

You can even have this problem in a Democracy, because "the people" are an abstract concept. Everyone can tell if a prince is being enriched, but who can say for sure if "the people" are benefiting from their governance?

I suppose in lieu of a prince we have to look at the representatives and beurocrats who run a country. Do they have a sense of entitlement and hubris or of humbleness and thrift? That I think, is a good way to judge any government's worth.

Snarkiness: 750

We have everything good government could possibly want now but good government.

--From The Selected Poems of Tu Fu--

It's not the comment sections of blogs that brings it about, but government.

Human nature: 1761

As to Government in general, it is no wonder, that it is so productive of evil, since its very nature consists of power trusted in the hands of such imperfect and vicious creatures as men, and exercised over others as imperfect and vicious as themselves; in which there must be pride, avarice, and cruelty on one side; envy ignorance, and obstinancy on the other; and injustice and self-interest on both. Its origin also arises from the same impure source of human imperfection; that is, men, being neither wise nor honest enough to pursue their common or mutual interests without compulsion, are obliged to submit to some, in order to secure their lives and properties from the depredations of all...

--From The Universal Magazine--

The only reason politicians talk about how "good" they think people are, or worry aloud about the "tone" of society, is because they want us to forget that they, like us, are jerks and shouldn't be trusted with any power whatsoever, let alone be trusted to solve problems.

Cold War: circa 400 BC

If you were really able to establish a reputation for righteousness in the world and attract the other rulers by your virtue, then it would be no time before the whole world had submitted to you...

...If one is merciful and generous, substituting affluence for want, then the people will surely be won over. If one substitutes good government in one's state for offensive warfare, then one will achieve manifold success.

--From The Mozi--

Winning a war by focusing on improving your citizen's standard of living and eschewing offensive warfare, when has that worked?

Democracy: 2010

The governor of my state, Charlie Crist, announced he would make a political announcement today, so I decided to go. There was a lot of security around:



Also, there were a lot of reporters:







There were probably as many reporters, campaign staff, and security people as regular citizens who showed up. Here is a view early on:

After Crist supporters, the biggest group by far, were people with very generic signs, trying to save local health departments. I'm guessing they were given the day off to go and "protest" here.



There was one person against oil drilling:



One person for pot:



And some people for clean energy:



An independent thinker:



And a conservative for Crist:



Most of them seemed nice and cheerful, but some of the USF students were shouting things like "Muslim President!" and "Socialism!", being in support of those things.

There were some signs for teachers for Crist and women for Crist. I thought there were a lot, but at one point I was up on the stage:



And they told everyone to get off who wasn't a teacher (and invited), and it turned out there were only about ten of them.

I assume they filled out the stage with campaign workers. This guy was is a suit handing out signs and he ended up holding a sign on stage:



When Crist came, he shook his hand.

I'm guessing there were 300 people there, including reporters and security. Here's a video where I spun around:

Eventually Crist shows up, and I got to see his ear:



He gives a speech and announces he's running for Senate as an Independent. It was a strange announcement, because he didn't pause to allow people to clap, or really "announce" anything. It was more like he mentioned his running as an Independent in passing.

At one point he talked about how we need "a new tone", how people should be able to disagree while still being civil. As he goes on people start chanting "Crist! Crist! Crist!" and I chant "Rubio!" (his Republican opponent) and boo. I'm not a Republican, I just don't like Crist. And I'm not going to apologize for booing, because this was an event open to the public, for a politician who loves to say how he's always listening to the people. Well, I had something to say, and I booed. It's how I express myself, *swear word* *swear word*.

I was called a "moron", someone pushed me (accidentally?), one of the teachers on stage turned around and told me to shut up; someone even made a crack about how there were lots of idiots like me where he came from, Alaska. So much for "a new tone".

I think I was the only person up there booing. There were a few people with Rubio signs off in the distance.



I asked one, why they weren't up there booing and they said they weren't a rabble-rouser. I guess that means I am one.

Here's a shot I took right after Crist left; I think it captures pretty well how many people were there:



Anyway, I had fun exercising my right to free expression. Yay Democracy!

Change: 1663

And so his ministry came to an end, after a sort of a reign of much violence and injustice: for he was become very imperious. He and his company were delivered up to so much excess, and to such a madness of frolic and intemperance, that as Scotland had never seen any thing like it, so upon this disgrace there was a general joy over the kingdom: though that lasted not long; for those that came after him grew worse than ever he was like to be.

--From History of his own Times--

People often say they want change, believing things can't get any worse; but that belief is really just a hope, one that isn't always fulfilled.

Insurance: 1661

The king was inclined to restore the lord Lorn; though much pains was taken to persuade him, that all the zeal he had expressed in his service was only an artifice between his father and him to preserve the family in all adventures: it was said, that had been an ordinary practice in Scotland for father and son to put themselves in different sides.

--From History of his own Times--

Always have some members of your family publicly hold views opposing your own. It allows you to plausibly say you were persuaded by them (and not circumstances). Also, in a worse-case scenario, they can take over if your career is prematurely ended.

Reflections on partisanship: 1662

...for thus it may be said, the world goes mad by turns.

--From History of his own Times--

I wonder why it seems like this sometimes: one crazy party replaced by another, each over-reaching and full of excess. Perhaps because when a party achieves victory over its opposition, they assume they have won a victory that can't be overturned. They forget that they are just as replaceable as the people they've replaced.

The perils of advice: 1661

The earl of Lauderdale was not sorry to see him commit errors; since the worse things were managed, his advices would be thereby the more justified.

--From History of his own Times--

Sometimes advisors don't speak up when they hear other people giving bad advice to the person they work for. They want the bad advice to be followed and for bad things to happen, so the people who gave the bad advice are gotten rid of. Just something to think about it you have lots of people trying to help you.

Government secrets: 1661

Yet he was a very vicious man: and that perhaps made him the more considered by the king, who loved and trusted him to a high degree. No man had more credit with the king; for he was on the secret as to his religion, and was more trusted with the whole design that was then managed in order to establish it, than any man whatsoever.

--From History of his own Times--

If you are in charge of a nation and have some secret ideology you want to convert it to, best to ask yourself why you need to keep your ideology a secret in the first place.

The religion of kings: 1660

But when he talked freely, he could not help letting himself out against the liberty that under the reformation all men took of inquiring into matters of religion: for from their inquiring into matters of religion, they carried the humour farther, to inquire into matters of state. He said often, he thought government was a much safer and easier thing where the authority was believed infallible, and the faith and submission of the people was implicit...

--From History of his own Times--

Eminent domain: 1628

In the third year of his reign the earl of Nithisdale... ...was sent down with a power to take the surrender of all church lands, and to assure all who did readily surrender, that the king would take it kindly, and use them all very well, but that he would proceed with all rigour against those who would not submit their rights to his disposal. Upon his coming down, those who were most concerned in those grants met at Edinburgh, and agreed, that when they were called together, if no other argument did prevail to make the earl of Nithisdale desist, they would fall upon him and all his party in the old Scotish manner, and knock them on the head.

--From History of his own Times--

 And that is how democracy works.

Economy: 1888

False ambition is one prolific source of false economy, and it is truly pitiable to see the woeful ignorance that exists regarding true economy....

People coming up with big schemes, ostensibly to save money, that end up wasting money. What does that remind me of? Pretty much everything now-a-days.

...A lack of a knowledge of true economy keeps many a family in squalor and filth. True economy consists in a рrореr adjustment of time, strength and money. It does not consist solely in saving money; it may consist in spending it.

The difference between economizing and economics is that economizers will talk about both saving and spending money while economists will only talk about spending it. It's no wonder the government hires all sorts of the latter, but not a single one of the former.

--From Good Housekeeping--