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This is a recipe for disaster. Everybody in the past thought they lived in "modern times". 250 years from now, people will be laughing at us and at our utter stupidity and hubris. We are a very arrogant nation. We think we live in "modern times" and the past is past. What exists today will always exist. Civilizations don't fall anymore. The way it is now, is the way it will always be. Most importantly, let people do whatever they want, as long as "nobody gets hurt". This is a recipe for disaster. Everybody in the past thought they lived in "modern times". 250 years from now, people will be laughing at us and at our utter stupidity and hubris.

I agree completly. People in this country do not care about history, they care about the here and now. They don't care about the fact that we are funding China's build-up, they only care about getting their cheap crap at Wal-Mart.

People don't care about supporting the companies that hire illegals, whether it's lawncare or construction, they only want it done cheap.

Politicians, including Republicans all the way up to the White House don't care about the consequences of their actions in making criminals "guest workers" and "future American citizens", they care only the money/donations, perks, and "fact-finding" trips coming from the lobbyists representing those companies whose bottom lines benefit from illegal aliens, and they only care about votes at the ballot box and the polls.

I don't like to make the comparison to the Romans for one reason - we generally aren't empire builders (I know we have military bases and personnel in God knows how many countries, but that's beside the point). The problem is, the comparison is apt in so many other ways. The Romans became complacent, fat, greedy, etc. They relied on cheap labor (albeit slaves) and many-times welcomed people coming into the Empire, regardless of how they entered (although at times the Romans recognized that very large groups could drain the local resources and would try to keep them out). They allowed their bureacracy to grow far too large.

It's easy to say "this group or that group attacked the Empire, and that's why they fell" but that's only part of the story. The Empire fell from within. Had it not been corrupted by internal forces, it would have been able to withstand external forces for who knows how long.

Such a comparison bothers many people, especially some Republicans, but there is so much to be learned from the Roman Empire, as well as later empires (such as Britain).

At some point, we are going to have to realize that our government is far too large, has far too much power, and that they are making far too many foolish decisions, and that we ourselves are making foolish decisions as a nation. Unfortunately I don't think too many Americans alive today care about any of that.