Posted on 11/24/2022 11:15:18 AM PST by ChicagoConservative27
The JoeTatoe can jam it up his full diaper.
I wouldn’t trust Manchin...or Sinema for that matter. After all, they are democrats.
I wouldn’t trust Manchin...or Sinema for that matter. After all, they are democrats.
They probably read this in eighth grade.
PART NINE (BOOK EIGHT) IMPERFECT SOCIETIES
6. DEMOCRACY
Equality of political opportunity and freedom for the individual to do as he likes are, for Plato and Aristotle, the salient characteristics of democracy. Plato is writing, of course, about democracy in the ancient city-state, and has Athens particularly in mind. (cf. Introduction, p. 22f); but translation into terms of modern experience is not difficult.
‘Our next subject, I suppose, is democracy. When we know how it originates, and what it is like, we can again identify and pass judgement on the corresponding individual.’
‘That would be consistent with the procedure we’ve been following.’
‘Then doesn’t oligarchy change into democracy because of lack of restraint in the pursuit of its objective of getting as rich as possible?’
‘How does that happen?’
‘Because the Rulers, owing their power to wealth as they do, are unwilling to curtail by law the extravagance of the young, and prevent them squandering their money and ruining themselves; for it is by loans to such spendthrifts or by buying up their property that they hope to increase their own wealth and influence.’
‘That’s just what they want.’
‘It should then be clear that love of money and adequate self-discipline in its citizens are two things that can’t co-exist in any society; one or the other must be neglected.’
‘That’s pretty clear.’
‘This failure to curb extravagance in an oligarchy often reduces to poverty men born for better things.’
‘Yes, often.’
‘Some of them are in debt, some are disenfranchised, some both, and they settle down, armed with their strings, and with hatred in their hearts, to plot against those who have deprived them of their property and against the rest of society, and to long for revolution.’
‘Yes, they do.’
‘Meanwhile, the money-makers, bent on their business, don’t appear to notice them, but continue to inject their poisoned loans wherever they can, and to demand their high rates of interest, with the result the drones and beggars multiply.’
‘A result that’s bound to follow.’
‘Yet, even when the evil becomes flagrant they will do nothing to quench it, either by preventing men by disposing of their property as they like, or by other suitable legislation.’
‘What Legislation?’
‘It’s only a second best, but it does compel some respect for decent behavior. If contracts for a loan were, in general, made at the lender’s risk, there would be a good deal less shameless money-making and a good deal less of the evils I have been describing.’
‘Much less.’
‘But as it is the oligarchs oppress their subjects as we have said, while as for themselves and their dependents – their young men live in luxury and idleness, physical and mental, and lose all their energy and and ability to resist pain or pleasure; and they themselves care for nothing but making money, and have no higher moral standards than the poor.’
‘True’.
‘Such being the state of rulers and ruled, what will happen when they come up against each other in the streets or in the course of business, at a festival or on a campaign, serving in the navy or army? When they see each other in moments of danger, the rich man will no longer be able to despise the poor man; the poor man will be lean and sunburnt, and find himself fighting next to some rich man whose sheltered life and superfluous flesh make him puff and blow and quite unable to cope. Won’t he conclude that people like this are rich because their subjects are cowards, and won’t he say to his fellows, when he meets them in private, ”This lot are no good; they’ve had it”?’
‘I’m quite sure he will.’
‘When a person’s unhealthy, it takes very little to upset him and make him ill; there may even be an internal cause for dis-order. The same is true of an unhealthy society. It will fall into sickness and dissension at the slightest external provocation, when one party or the other calls in help from a neighboring oligarchy or democracy; while sometimes faction fights will start without any external stimulus at all.’
‘Very true.’
‘Then democracy originates when the poor win, kill or exile their opponents, and give the rest equal rights and opportunities of office, appointment to office being as a rule by lot.’
‘Yes,’ he agreed, ‘that is how a democracy is established, whether it’s done by force of arms or by frightening its opponents into retreat.’
‘What sort of a society will it be?’ I asked, ‘and how will it be run? The answer, obviously, will show us the character of the democratic man.’
‘Obviously’.
‘Would you agree, first, that people will be free? There is liberty and freedom of speech in plenty, and every individual is free to do as he likes.’
‘That’s what they say.’
‘That being so, won’t everyone arrange his life as pleases him best?’
‘Obviously.’
‘And so there will be the greatest variety of individual character?’
‘There’s bound to be’
‘I dare say that a democracy is the most attractive of all societies’, I said, ‘The diversity of its characters, like the different colors in a patterned dress,make it look very attractive. Indeed,’ I added, ‘perhaps most people would, for this reason, judge it to be the best form of society, like women and children who judge by appearances.’
‘Very likely.’
‘And, you know, it’s just the place to go constitution-hunting. It contains every possible type, because of the wide freedom it allows, and anyone engaged in founding a state, as we are doing, should perhaps be made to pay a visit to a democracy and make his choice from the variety of models it displays, before he proceeds to make his own foundation.’
‘It’s a shop in which he’d find plenty of models on show.’
‘Then in democracy,’ I went on, ‘there’s no compulsion either to exercise authority if you are capable of it, or to submit to authority if you don’t want to; you needn’t fight if there’s a war, or you can wage a private war in peacetime if you don’t like peace; and if there’s any law that debars you from political or judicial office, you will none the less take either if they come your way. It’s a wonderfully pleasant way of carrying on in the short run, isn’t it?’
‘In the short run, perhaps’
‘And isn’t there something rather charming about the good temper of those who’ve been sentenced in court? You must have noticed that in a democracy men sentenced to death or exile continue, none the less, to go about among their fellows, who take no more notice of them than if they were invisible spirits.’
‘I’ve often seen that.’
‘Then they’re very considerate in applying the high principles we laid down when founding our state; so far from interpreting them strictly, they really look down on them. We said that no one who had not exceptional gifts could grow into a good man unless he were brought up from childhood in a good environment and given a good training; democracy with a grandiose gesture sweeps all this away and doesn’t mind what the habits and background of its politicians are, provided they profess themselves the people’s friends.’
‘All very splendid.’
‘These, then, and similar characteristics are those of democracy. It’s an agreeable, anarchic form of society, with plenty of variety, which treats all men as equal, whether they are equal or not.’
‘The picture is easy to recognize.’
He should start in Afghanistan
He’s admitting defeat before he starts by using the word “try” twice now. He’s just ‘trying’ to buy off the gun-grabbers until he can blame Republicans for no anti-gun legislation.
Would someone tell these morons that “assault rifles” are already regulated and have been since the 1930s. Also clue them in that an AR is not an assault rifle any more than my Marlin model 60 .22 rifle.
Would someone tell these morons that “assault rifles” are already regulated and have been since the 1930s. Also clue them in that an AR is not an assault rifle any more than my Marlin model 60 .22 rifle.
And This:
And “non-binary this:
He needs to borrow Huner’s bong for a few hits.
Nonetheless, we’ll have to be all over the Senate Republicans, because you can assume that there might be enough weak sisters to help get such a disaster to cloture.
Yes, a simple, brief one or two sentence, extra precise definition. Anything longer and it might open doors for further definition/inclusion "creep".
And, IIRC the original definition of an "assault rifle" is that of a light rifle that is switchable between auto and semi-automatic fire, n'est ce pas? Corrections invited.
Joe’s just gotta be the equivalent of that one crazy relative who spoils the Thanksgiving dinner for the whole family.
Assault rifles are defined in the National Registry of firearms. They are illegal for almost everyone to own.
Assault weapons are like National Popular Vote, they don’t exist, they are a media creation.
“What is the actual definition of an “assault rifle”?”
When the Feds buy them for themselves....they are called “personal defense weapons” in the RFP’s.
And in their hands, they are indeed “weapons of war”.
It’s amazing how one man is legal, and the other not legal, based upon the clothing he’s wearing...
there. fixed it.
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What ever the gun grabbers what it to be
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