Democracy’s Death Spiral

(Hat tip: KimR) - On Monday, Puerto Rico missed a payment on $422 million worth of bonds. If the United States doesn’t come to the rescue, this will be only the first of many defaults to come. In all, the island has $72 billion in debt and an additional $46 billion in unfunded pension liabilities – totaling more than the country’s annual GDP. As debt mounts, potential taxpayers are fleeing: 84,000 Puerto Ricans moved to the United States just last year alone. Read more at Townhall.com Read More......

Putin: Do you realize what you have done?

Russian President Vladimir Putin told the U.N. on Monday that those who supported democratic revolutions in the Middle East are to blame for the rise of a globally ambitious Islamic State. --"Instead of the triumph of democracy and progress, we got violence, poverty and social disaster — and nobody cares a bit about human rights, including the right to life," Putin said through a translator. "I cannot help asking those who have forced that situation: Do you realize what you have done?"

Read more at CNBC
(Hat tip: KimR) Read More......

Obama’s Harvest of Violence

Democracy, freedom, self-determination, human and individual rights are values that Arab liberals like myself thought we shared with the United States. That’s what you told us. For years, we’ve received training and attended workshops on democracy and freedom of expression sponsored by international NGOs and NGOs funded by the United States and the Europeans.  We’ve been preached to by visiting American diplomats and think-tankers and journalists about the virtues of citizenship and democracy. We took plenty of notes. We’ve been told that if we speak out to defend our rights, we will be supported by America. And now we’ve been betrayed.

Read more at The Tablet
(Hat tip: KimR) Read More......

“A Republic—If You Can Keep It”

PERSONAL LIBERTY DIGEST, 6/18/2010 by Chip Wood (Hat tip: Stella Guenther) - At first I couldn’t believe my eyes. ∴ In fact, I had to look away and blink a couple of times before reading the email again. But it still said the same thing: “Benjamin Franklin said, ‘We have given you a democratic-republic… if you can keep it.” ∴ No, he didn’t! ∴ I had to face the fact: A Straight Talk reader had fallen victim to 100 years of liberal brainwashing. What he said was such a gross perversion of the truth—and the difference is so incredibly important to preserving what liberties we have left—I hope you’ll indulge me in a brief history lesson this week. Read more at www.personalliberty.com...

Good examples as to why the Founders rejected democracy. --bc Read More......

How Long Do We Have?

Apparently this article, which has circulated on the Internet since 2000, is favored by conservatives and, although Barbara Mikkelson and team at Snopes.com have not researched the quotes and data, they have included research information submitted by contributor, Mike Powell of Kennewick, WA, who disputes some data and to whom quotations in the article are attributed. Despite these disputes, which seem plausible, logically, it's difficult to find fault with the sequential progression from bondage... back to bondage, and the effect of an escalating voting block of citizens who rely on public welfare. It seems obvious that the second to last paragraph regarding 'amnesty to illegal immigrants' was added recently to this article. Even so, the estimates presented in "How Long Do We Have?" --sound about right. And 'apathy' is dangerous.

Isn't it odd that the disputes don't deal with the meaning of the quotes or the probability of the eight steps but only that 'the words' cannot be pinned to the stated author or the likely Professor Titler?

How Long Do We Have?
Received via email
Status: "Multiple" at Snopes.com
Author Unknown

About the time our original thirteen states adopted their new constitution in 1787, Alexander Tyler, a Scottish history professor at the University of Edinburgh, had this to say about the fall of the Athenian Republic some 2,000 years earlier:

"A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government."

"A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury."

"From that moment on, the majority always vote for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship."

"The average age of the world's greatest civilizations from the beginning of history, has been about 200 years"

"During those 200 years, those nations always progressed through the following sequence:

1. from bondage to spiritual faith;
2. from spiritual faith to great courage;
3. from courage to liberty;
4. from liberty to abundance;
5. from abundance to complacency;
6. from complacency to apathy;
7. from apathy to dependence;
8. from dependence back into bondage"

Professor Joseph Olson of Hamline University School of Law, St. Paul , Minnesota, points out some interesting facts concerning the 2000 Presidential election:

Number of States won by:
Gore: 19
Bush: 29

Square miles of land won by:
Gore: 580,000
Bush: 2,427,000

Population of counties won by:
Gore: 127 million
Bush: 143 million

Murder rate per 100,000 residents in counties won by:
Gore: 13.2
Bush: 2.1

Professor Olson adds: "In aggregate, the map of the territory Bush won was mostly the land owned by the taxpaying citizens of this great country. Gore's territory mostly encompassed those citizens living in government-owned tenements and living off various forms of government welfare..." Olson believes the United States is now somewhere between the "complacency and apathy" phase of Professor Tyler's definition of democracy, with some forty percent of the nation's population already having reached the "governmental dependency" phase.

If Congress grants amnesty and citizenship to twenty million criminal invaders called illegals and they vote, then we can say goodbye to the USA in fewer than five years.

Please pass this along to help everyone realize just how much is at stake, knowing that apathy is the greatest danger to our freedom.

Notes:
"A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury." ["When the people find they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the Republic." — Benjamin Franklin]

See Why Democracies Fail! at J.A.I.L. News Journal [Judicial Accountability Initiave Law]
, May 8, 2004 Read More......

Laura's Appeal: 'Don't Fire on Your People'

Voice of America News, September 26, 2007 - Paula Wolfson wrote,

The first lady sat down for the interview as people in Rangoon reported clashes between protesters and police. Mrs. Bush urged Burma's [Burma/Myanmar] military government to remember that innocent lives are at stake.

"I want to say to the armed guards and to the soldiers: Don't fire on your people," she said. "Don't fire on your neighbors. Join this movement."

The first lady said she is awed by the courage of the Burmese people. She spoke of the Buddhist monks who have been leading the protests, which began after the government doubled fuel prices, and have grown into the largest challenge to the military leaders in 20 years, amid calls for freedom and democracy. Mrs. Bush said she is not surprised that the monks have been at the forefront of the protests.

"Well, I think they are the ones who can take the lead, because they are revered, and because Buddhist monks are known for peace, for wanting peace," she said. "So, I think it is very, very important. Their addition to the protests has made a huge difference, and it is one of the reasons why the world has paid a lot of attention."

The Irrawaddy website shows a video grab of detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi (center-light-coloured top) paying respects to monks at the gates of her home in Rangoon, 22 Sep 2007.

She said she was moved by a tiny picture she saw of Aung San Suu Kyi - the Burmese pro-democracy leader and Nobel Peace prize laureate - who came to the gate of her home, where she is under house arrest to greet monks who were allowed to pass by there earlier this week. Mrs. Bush spoke of Aung San Suu Kyi's long years under house arrest, noting her husband died in Britain, while she was confined to her home in Rangoon.

"All of that really shows the sacrifice that she is making for the people of Burma and the hopes that she has and the dreams that she has, to have free and democratic Burma that can join the rest of the world, and can flourish with all the resources Burma has," Mrs. Bush said.

She said Aung San Suu Kyi shows the power of women to make a difference in the world. She said that, as countries emerge from oppression, women can help lead the way. She said she saw it first when she traveled to Afghanistan following the ouster of the Taleban in 2001.

"All of the things we saw in Afghanistan made me then move on to look at other countries around the world, and, particularly, at the way women are treated in some of these countries," she said. "And, these countries can't succeed, unless everyone - both men and women - has a chance to contribute to their society."

She said, in Afghanistan and in Burma, despite enormous problems, there is hope. She said she sees it in the faces of the Burmese who are taking to the streets to push their demand for freedom.

"There is hope - absolutely, there is hope for Burma," Mrs. Bush said. "And, I think that is one of the feelings we all get as we look at these images - this very cautious hope that, this time, the people have turned a page."

Mrs. Bush said the Burmese have told the world they can no longer tolerate oppression, and the nation must move on.

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American Exceptionalism

American Enterprise Institute, Short Publications: American Exceptionalism by James Q. Wilson
Excerpt

America differs from other democratic nations in many ways, some material and some mental. It has a more rapidly growing economy than most of Europe and a deeper sense of patriotism than almost any other country with popular rule. A recent survey of 91,000 people in fifty nations, conducted by the Pew Research Center and reported on by Andrew Kohut and Bruce Stokes, outlines our political culture and shows how different it is from that in most other democracies. Americans identify more strongly with their own country than do people in many affluent democracies. While 71 percent of Americans say they are "very proud" to be in America, only 38 percent of the French and 21 percent of the Germans and the Japanese say they are proud to live in their countries. Americans are also much more committed to individualism than are people elsewhere. Only one-third of Americans--but two-thirds of Germans and Italians--think that success in life is determined by forces outside their own control. This message is one that Americans wish to transmit to their children: 60 percent of Americans say that children should be taught the value of hard work, but only one-third of the British and Italians and one-fifth of the Germans agree. Over half of all Americans think that economic competition is good because it stimulates people to work hard and develop new ideas; only one-third of French and Spanish people agree. Americans would like their views to spread throughout the world: over three-fourths said this was a good idea, compared to only one-fourth of the people in France, Germany, and Italy, and one-third in Great Britain. Read the entire essay...

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