CLOSED CASKET--no flowers........

Guests at the Wake | 2-27-2003 | Nemesis Funeral Home

[LaBelleDameSansMerci]

"....We the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish the Constitution for the United Sates of America............

[independentmind]

...Some say the same of Iraq today. They are mistaken. (Applause.) The nation of Iraq -- with its proud heritage, abundant resources and skilled and educated people -- is fully capable of moving toward democracy and living in freedom. (Applause.)

Serious question, Palpatine. Do you think this is really going to happen?

The world has a clear interest in the spread of democratic values, because stable and free nations do not breed the ideologies of murder. They encourage the peaceful pursuit of a better life. And there are hopeful signs of a desire for freedom in the Middle East....

One could easily look at history and say that the "spread of democratic values" has produced nothing of the kind. The Weimar Republic was a democracy, wasn't it?

I suspect that a stable and free nation is the necessary condition for a successful democracy (or republic). To suggest that democracy actually produces stability and/or freedom may be inverting the relationship between the two.

[LaBelleDameSansMerci]

...Me thinks your agenda is showing...

As I'm out in the noon-day sun wildly flashing it around on the blinding snow, I should hope so.

Better an adgenda showing than a bra strap , I always say...

[Amerigomag]

I'm out in the noon-day sun wildly flashing it around on the blinding snow

Enjoy the day!

[Chancellor Palpatine]

I'll try this again so my system doesn't crash.

First, I think Iraq is capable, maybe even more so than any nation in that corner of the world besides Syria - mainly because that country has the needed institutions in place, and without the cruel thugs gaming it, they have a chance.

You know as well as I do that "democratic values" in this context is a general concept and not a term of art - it includes universal sufferage which includes women and minorities, the ability to speak out politically without reprisal, and a system of government that allows average citizens a participatory voice. Griping about the Weimar Republic is a strawman at best - German citizens voting for a man that destroyed the very institutions that gave them a political voice doesn't exactly strike me as a ringing denunciation of participatory governments.

[DaughterOfAnIwoJimaVet]

To quote a favorite Freeper of mine: "Damn. Just damn."

[Commander8]

I think I understand, you're mourning the Republic.
Am I right?

[Askel5]

---

Nowhere is man so insignificant as in a democracy.

... Powerlessness is never better concealed than when people place themselves in the shadow of a great leader, those momentous personas with whom the people can identify.

... There are almost no limits to the generosity and the hopes but also to the deceptions – that the democratic masses invest in their leaders, their father figures. The self-esteem of the masses is here raised to sublime heights. If the possibilities of identification between the leaders and their followers are sufficiently strong, then every feeling of powerlessness is obliterated.

... In democratic leadership we see manipulation and the psychological phenomenon of projection at the highest level. The leader will be the incarnation of the volonté générale, the bearer and executor of what is said to be the people's inner "will."

... there are no stable points, no supports; the absolute is replaced by the relative, the qualitative is replaced by the quantitative. In the art of governing, man has a new means of administration: statistics; and a means of power: voting. The world is placed, willy-nilly, under a principle of power.

More implacable than God's will under a millennial creed is the present domination of the majority over the minority. For God's will was always linked with caritas, with forgiveness, grace, and compassion. The will of the majority, on the contrary, is unconditional; it requires unconditional surrender.

To the pseudo-metaphysical dimension of this "trinity," the City of Man, and to its existential dimension, modernism, we must now add a third: naked political and physical power – democracy. For in this modernistic, democratic City of Man, we must vote on everything, even on virtue [4] and righteousness.

And what then of the righteous minorities?

---

Unconditional Surrender to the Volonté Générale

[Askel5]

another attempt at pretention designed to make you seem brilliant to your short list of hangers on. But do please continue - they'd be upset if they weren't treated to your version of "deep thoughts" (not unlike Jack Handey from SNL).

Jack who? Forgive my "pretention" but I have no idea what you're talking about.

If you mean to continue implying LaBelle and I are one and the same -- THANKS!

[DaughterOfAnIwoJimaVet]

Since you brought it up, here's a favorite from Jack Handey (I love Jack Handey):

A good way to threaten somebody is to light a stick of dynamite. Then you call the guy and hold the burning fuse up to the phone. "Hear that?" you say. "That's dynamite, baby."

P.S. What the hell is this thread about, anyway?

[Askel5]

FREEDOM

Comrade - Democrats
Ivan and Uncle Sam

[Chancellor Palpatine]

I'm somehow flooded with the mental image of Dick Vitale or Billy Packer saying that - I don't know why.

[DaughterOfAnIwoJimaVet]

I remember that one fateful day when Coach took me aside. I knew what was coming. "You don't have to tell me," I said. "I'm off the team, aren't I?" "Well," said Coach, "you never were really ON the team. You made that uniform you're wearing out of rags and towels, and your helmet is a toy space helmet. You show up at practice and then either steal the ball and make us chase you to get it back, or you try to tackle people at inappropriate times."

It was all true what he was saying. And yet, I thought something is brewing inside the head of this Coach. He sees something in me, some kind of raw talent that he can mold.

But that's when I felt the handcuffs go on.

[Chancellor Palpatine]

I remember that one fateful day when Coach took me aside. I knew what was coming. "You don't have to tell me," I said. "I'm off the team, aren't I?" "Well," said Coach, "you never were really ON the team. You made that uniform you're wearing out of rags and towels, and your helmet is a toy space helmet. You show up at practice and then either steal the ball and make us chase you to get it back, or you try to tackle people at inappropriate times." It was all true what he was saying. And yet, I thought something is brewing inside the head of this Coach. He sees something in me, some kind of raw talent that he can mold.

But that's when I felt the handcuffs go on.

ROFLMAO - Yes, that does seem to describe our friend, doesn't it?

[DaughterOfAnIwoJimaVet]

; )

[Alain Chartier]

...we have dreamed of unifying the world; we are unifying it--against us...
That line stood out for me too.

Another shot of Jeffers, perhaps more palatable than the first two, but just as subversive.

NEW YEAR'S DAWN, 1947

Two morning stars, Venus and Jupiter,
Walk in the pale and liquid light
Above the color of these dawns; and as the tide of light
Rises higher the great planet vanishes
While the nearer still shines. The yellow wave of light
In the east and south reddens, the opaque ocean
Becomes pale purple: O delicate
earnestness of dawn, the fervor and pallor.
--Stubbornly I think again: The state is a blackmailer,
Honest or not, with whom we make (within reason)
Our accommodations. There is no valid authority
In church nor state, custom, scripture nor creed,
But only in one's own conscience and the beauty of things.
Doggedly I think again: One's conscience is a trick oracle,
Worked by parents and nurse-maids, the pressure of the people,
And the delusions of dead prophets: trust it not.
Wash it clean to receive the transhuman beauty: then trust it.

[dixierose]

P.S. What the hell is this thread about, anyway?

I was wondering the same thing...if you find out, please let me know :-)

[DaughterOfAnIwoJimaVet]

Don't hold your breath. : )

[Terriergal]

Above all we don't cotton to political discussions about the sacred words that fall from the lips of Our Heavenly Mole.

"I think that all right-thinking people in this country are sick and tired of being told that ordinary, decent people are fed up in this country with being sick and tired. I'm certainly not! But I'm sick and tired of being told that I am."

[Terriergal]

I mean no offense, but what are you trying to say?

After reading that 'article' you expect a coherent answer?

[Terriergal]

"Now go away or I shall taunt you a second time!"