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Are We Rome? Tu Betchus!
New York Times ^ | October 11, 2008 | Maureen Dowd

Posted on 10/12/2008 4:50:22 PM PDT by NCjim

With modernity crumbling, our thoughts turn to antiquity.

The decline and fall of the American Empire echoes the experience of the Romans, who also tumbled into the trap of becoming overleveraged empire hussies.

As our sand-castle economy washes away under the tide of bad gambles and debts, this most self-indulgent society lurches toward stoicism (even bankrupt Iceland gives us the cold shoulder and turns to a solvent superpower). It’s going to require more than giving up constant infusions of stocks, Starbucks and Botox.

As Seneca, the Roman Stoic who advised treating the body “somewhat strictly,” wrote in a letter: “Avoid whatever is approved of by the mob, and things that are the gift of chance. Whenever circumstance brings some welcome thing your way, stop in suspicion and alarm ...They are snares. ... we think these things are ours when in fact it is we who are caught. That track leads to precipices; life on that giddy level ends in a fall.”

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: dowd; maureendowd
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To: mike182d

Sounds like a plan. I nominate a tract of land near Wichita for the construction of New Washington (we can rename it [first notable leader in the new capital]-opolis later).

The ‘red states’ can go on for another thousand years after what passes for civilization in the ‘blue states’ collapses.


21 posted on 10/12/2008 5:35:08 PM PDT by The_Reader_David (For real change stop electing lawyers: Fighter-Pilot/Hockey-Mom '08.)
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To: NCjim
Are We Rome? Tu Betchus!

No Maureen, we are not any more Rome then Catherine Zeta Jones is a bitter washed up columnist drunkenly filing stories full of inane stupidities.

22 posted on 10/12/2008 5:38:11 PM PDT by Harmless Teddy Bear (Just say No to Lawyers! Palin '08! (oh and McWhatshisname too. I guess))
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To: NCjim
Whenever circumstance brings some welcome thing your way, stop in suspicion and alarm ...They are snares. ... we think these things are ours when in fact it is we who are caught. That track leads to precipices; life on that giddy level ends in a fall.”

So, let me guess - even though that quote is easily seen as a prescient warning against submitting to the excesses of Obamania, Dowd's narrow political blinders prevent that interpretation from getting anywhere close to her keyboard...

23 posted on 10/12/2008 5:46:06 PM PDT by Zeppo (Every mighty mild... seventies child... Beats me (Metric - Combat Baby))
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To: NCjim
In high school, I translated swatches of Julius Caesar?s ?The Battle for Gaul? from Latin to English while nibbling cheese crackers. To boost the felicitous new trend toward Latin, I enlisted Gary D. Farney, an associate professor of history at Rutgers University, to translate (loosely and creatively) from English to Latin

Not just a pseudo intelligentsia but a borrowed pseudo intelligentsia. What a poseur!!
24 posted on 10/12/2008 6:04:48 PM PDT by RedMonqey
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To: NCjim

As Stanley, the great wit and fairly expensive plumber said, “Those who do not learn from history are bound to become newspaper writers”.

Not only was Stanley profound, he could set a stool pretty well too.


25 posted on 10/12/2008 6:43:11 PM PDT by count-your-change (You don't have be brilliant, not being stupid is enough.)
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To: NCjim

“Oh, the Roman was a rogue,

“He erat was, you bettum!

“He ran his automobilis,

“And smoked his cigarettum.

“He wore a diamond studibus,

“An elegant cravattum,

“A maxima cum laude shirt,

“And such a stylish hattum!”

;^)


26 posted on 10/12/2008 11:08:03 PM PDT by elcid1970 ("O Muslim! My cartridges are dipped in pig grease!")
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To: NCjim

As some droppable name lamented, “O tempura! O morays! O, for f***’s sake!”


27 posted on 10/12/2008 11:19:46 PM PDT by dighton
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To: Alouette

Best....FR Rule....Ever....


28 posted on 10/15/2008 11:04:06 AM PDT by JamesP81 (George Orwell's 1984 was a warning, not a suggestion)
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