SO ... the context of this textual excision is ... what? I mean, was he quoting someone else or was this in the context of some larger issue. It can't have been just on its own without any context whatsoever.

Our 'rulers' seem increasingly to be corporations. Somehow this seems to escape notice.

It's a fact that Congress likes to ignore. And why not - They almost claim that God wrote the Constitution.

David is spot-on about this. Our forefathers were clearly aware that human nature often tends to go contrary to the common good and crafted a remarkable structure to accommodate that tendency. It was, after all the age of 'reason' as opposed to what we seem to be promoting today in which, I fear, we are tending towards an age of feuding sects.

Trite but long.

Sad but true - but how much more fun as well.

I myself plead guilty to this weakness far too often for my own taste.

It's ethnocentricity at its best. Keep those blinders on!

I guess I'd almost be willing to remove the "most likely" part of the quote given today's 'MORAL' climate.

Reasonable. let's hope we can keep sumptuary laws to a minimum. Sales tax would fall into that category insofar as it burdens lower income brackets more than it burdens higher income brackets. High income individuals are unlikely to use much more toilet paper per person than those of lower income hence, the tax imposes a proportionally higher burden on low income folks. It works the same way for all consumables.

Clearly in step with the lessons underlying the Sherman Antitrust Act and the banking and securities controls instituted after the 1929 market crash. These controls have been eroded beginning with and since the Reagan era to such an extent that Enron and Enron-like events will continue to emerge at an ever increasing rate. We have a short memory.

A parallel to "Many facts are against common sense. Common sense tells us the earth is flat and the sun goes around the earth."

Generally a good philosophical point. I think, however, that lacking the wherewithal to build my own 747 (or - pick your model), I'm still glad it exists to take me to and from places like, uh, well, Belize, for instance where I can pretend to not employ 'the machine' that makes my DEET.

Robert Welch, the founder of the John Birch Society - oh yeah! Has it escaped notice that the John Birchers were the bunch who spawned people like John Schmitz, who ran as the presidential candidate for the American Independent Party in 1972? Schmitz, an ardent promoter of 'family values', was subsequently exposed for his long-term affair with a former student, and fathering her two children, thus ending his political career. BTW, Schmitz was the father of Mary Kay Letourneau who seems to have followed in her father's footsteps. John Birchers seem to have cornered the market when it comes to hypocrisy but let's not pay any attention to that, ok?

It's becoming a bit clearer that this site has an agenda to promote. Has anyone received 'mailed' quotes that aren't in this vein yet? I haven't. I, of course, often rely on quotes from the pre-christian era in my evaluation of economic policy in the 21st century - ROFL!!!

I agree with Kevin in PA. It's becoming a bit clearer that this site has an agenda to promote. Has anyone received 'mailed' quotes that aren't in this vein yet? I haven't.

Hmmm, Communitarian Traditionalist eh? Is it becoming a bit clearer that there might be the promotion of an agenda here?

"If Congress can employ money indefinitely to the general welfare, ..." Well, it seems the definition of 'welfare' needs to be considered in regarding an opinion given in a context which couldn't have conceived of things as they are today. The AHD entry: | wel·fare (wµl“fâr”) n. 1.a. Health, happiness, and good fortune; well-being. b. Prosperity. | In this context our military exists, at least in part, to secure our 'welfare'. I'm not sure it would be prudent to yank all funding for that function in this day and age. I think it's important to avoid 'blanket' judgements insofar as they can sometimes lead to unintended results if acted upon in 'blanket' fashion.

Well, duhh! In a society obsessed with appearance the cosmetic is valued over the substantive every time. Ask Carl Rove.

Is anyone teaching this in school? It seems not.

Would someone please teach this in school already!

Is it any wonder that banking 'deregulation' has been so highly vaunted and prized by the business and corporate cheerleaders since the 'Reagan' era?

Insightful and obvious, even to Ronald Reagan who put us firmly on the path to corporate governance. Uh, that would be governance BY corporations, not governance OF corporations. Viva ENRON!

Trite but true.

Saying that Nazi & Allied soldiers acted in a such a way that "Morality had nothing to do with it" is like saying the observation of any religion other than Christianity has nothing to do with religion. It might be true that one's own morality is regarded as the only morality like one's own religion is regarded as the only 'true' religion. Most of what's called 'morality' is, at it's heart, 'morality of convenience'. Ask a Nazi.