Chris Meisenzahl reminds us of these perspicacious statements from the founding fathers in the comments section of my recent post:
“Democracy is the most vile form of government...democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention: have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property: and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths.” - James Madison
Very nice Slate article by Tim Wu, Does YouTube Really Have Legal Problems? How the Bell Lobby helped midwife YouTube. A few choice excerpts:
The recent flow of funds data released by the Fed shows that a level of private debt continues to soar. For instance, home mortgages as a percentage of disposable income rose to 97.9% in Q2 from 97% in the quarter before. The non-financial debt-to-nominal-GDP ratio stood at a record 2.1 in Q2 the same figure as in the previous quarter.
I-565 is a splendid 8-laned, limited access highway we Huntsvillians enjoy due to the generosity of US taxpayers. We feel especially buoyant as we cruise this expressway since most of the cost was extracted from Kansas, California, Maine, etc. taxpayers. There’s nothing so sweet as stolen fruit. Well, it can be rationalized. You never know when some sharing Kansan may visit our fair town and enjoy the benefits of his tax money. Sounds fair to me. Besides the thrill of something for nothing, it’s an exhilerating fun ride because the billboards are unusually entertaining.
The AARP advises you not to vote. That is, until you know where the candidates stand on the issues. But, go to their website and you won’t find out where the candidates stand. Only links to campaign propaganda. So, I guess they really don’t want you to vote after all.
My wife and I were going to have some friends over so we picked up some snacks and a case of beer. When it was time to pay, the cashier asked to see not only my ID but also my wife’s ID. This was puzzling; it had not happened before in places where we had lived before.
At first I thought that it would a new “progressive” store policy, but something didn’t feel quite right. Thus, we decided to ask the cashier about it.
Being a University of Florida Sophomore, the Rolling murders strike very close to me. Yesterday evening the state of Florida put to death the notorious murder Danny Rolling. Though there is little evidence that Rolling didn’t murder the students, there is still much debate with respect to capital punishment. Capital punishment is by no means the most gruesome form of state punishment.
