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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: CYBERKEN who wrote (559026)	4/2/2004 9:08:21 AM
From: Bill	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

I'd like to pay Senators $1 per year salary plus $200K bonus, payable only if the budget is balanced.

To: CYBERKEN who wrote (559026)	4/2/2004 9:12:54 AM
From: GROUND ZERO™	Respond to of 769670

This is interesting, regardless of political inclinations... Subject: History Date: Thu, 12 Feb 2004 At about the time our original 13 states adopted their new constitution,in the year 1787, Alexander Tyler (a Scottish history professor at The University of Edinburgh) had this to say about "The Fall of The Athenian Republic" some 2,000 years prior. "A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of overnment. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, (which is) always followed by a dictatorship." "The average age of the worlds greatest civilizations from the beginning of history, has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, these nations always progressed through the following 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, points out some interesting facts concerning the most recent Presidential election: Population of counties won by: Gore=127 million Bush=143 million Square miles of land won by: Gore=580,000 Bush=22,427,000 States won by: Gore=19; Bush=29 Murder rate per 100,000 residents in counties won by: Gore=13.2 Bush=2.1 Professor Olson adds: "In aggregate, the map of the territory Bush won was mostly the land owned by the taxpaying citizens of this great country. Gore's territory encompassed those citizens living in government-owned tenements and living off government welfare..." Olson believes the U.S. is now somewhere between the "apathy" and complacency" phase of Professor Tyler's definition of democracy; with some 40 percent of the nation's population already having reached the "governmental dependency" phase. (NOTE: Actually, nearly 70% depend on government for all or part of their income) GZ