[poconopundit]

Thanks for sending along this great Edmund Burke passage which I found in full on the Wikiquote.org site.  If the King has listened to Burke's wise counsel, the Revolutionary War may have been avoided.

Now heeding Emerson's lesson "a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds", I revised Burke's words somewhat to make them (hopefully) more powerful to modern ears:

"In other countries, the people are simpler and of a less mercurial cast, and thus the harm in bad government decisions is only seen after the damage is felt.

But Americans anticipate the evil of bad government by recognizing the malignant principle behind the stupid decision.

Thus they portend government corruption and snuff out the flames in the kindling before they turn into a wildfire.  Their noses sniff the approach of tyranny in every tainted breeze."

Edmund Burke, Second Speech on Conciliation with America (1775)

Or as Trump says, "You don't hand matches to an arsonist." :- )

[rlmorel]

Great quote...