http://www.worldnetdaily.com/bluesky_mcmillan/19990805_xccmc_dying_laug.shtml
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>"One day, early in 1925, I sat down on a concrete
bench on the Columbia campus, facing a little Greek
shrine and the statue of my old political hero, Alexander
Hamilton. ... There ran through my mind the only lines I
remember from the history textbook of my second go at
college. ...'The Roman Empire is filled with misery, but it
is luxurious. It is dying, but it laughs'" (Whittaker
Chambers, Witness, 1952).
With a DOW that only knows "up," unemployment that
goes only down, retirement accounts bursting at the
seams and an economy that is perpetually expanding,
many people ask, "Can things ever get any better?" And
if they are particularly thoughtful, they may ask those
around them, "Who do you think will make the DOW
rise faster and higher -- Bush or Gore?"
Oh, there are dissenters, of course. But they are all on
the fringes: the religious right, China-haters and national
security freaks, prolife protesters, homeschoolers,
gun-owners, homophobes, Clinton-haters,
white-supremacists and, perhaps somewhere in the
archives a few aging Black Panthers. Overseas they
have names like Milosevic, North Korea, Afrikaners,
and Orthodox Jews.
Their views don't matter -- because they don't hold a 51
percent majority. When times are good they can be
humored; with their frantic gestures, actual belief in their
cause, and stark, intense facial expressions they can be
quite amusing when they appear briefly on the evening
news.
Of course, one must be careful not to make too much
fun of them. When provoked, they can become violent.
We should all be grateful, therefore, that government has
assumed the role of protector and guarantor of our
rights! FBI mandates that require telephone companies
to provide for the simultaneous tapping and recording of
three percent of the nation's telephone calls at any given
time are for our protection. It's also a good thing that
our intelligence services have expanded into domestic
spying: by entering the names of those with politically
undesirable views into their vast databases, recording
their telephone calls, intercepting their mail, reading their
faxes and email, cataloguing their website visits and
planting informers among them, such dangerous people
can be arrested and brought to justice before they can
actually commit a serious crime.
But that is not to say that life is perfect. With illegal
immigrants sneaking into the country and deadbeat dads
evading child-support payments, it was fortunate that the
Social Security number was added as a federal
requirement for most state drivers' licenses. Funds can
be withheld from states to bring them into compliance.
Now we finally have a national database of all workers.
With employers reporting where we live, work, and
how much we make, it will be a lot harder for these
socially irresponsible individuals to escape detection.
And with drug-dealing the major problem that it is, it
only makes sense to have banks trace all cash deposits
and withdrawals. If people don't have a good
explanation for why they have the cash, they are
probably up to no good. Of course it makes sense for
banks to furnish account information for all their
customers to state and federal authorities; that way
computer matches can be run against Social Security
numbers to find deadbeat dads and tax delinquents.
Everyone's got to do their part!
Meanwhile, back at the Bush vs. Gore discussion at the
water cooler, some hot news arrives. "Hey Dave! Did
you see the police come and haul Fred out of his cubicle
at work? Wow -- guns drawn, the whole bit! Scuttlebutt
has it that he sent off for some white supremacist
literature. ..."
Dave calls home to give Mary the hot story. "You
should have seen the police nab old Fred down in
programming today --" But Mary cuts him off.
"That's nothing, sweetheart," she says. "The police
raided the Jones' house today! They were all dressed in
black uniforms and held Stan and Missy at gunpoint, flat
on the ground, while they carted Stan's gun collection
away! Child Protective Services came and took their
three kids. ..."
"I've got to go, Mary. The boss is waving me into his
office." Dave weaves his way between the cubicles and
into the boss' office. "Dave," the boss begins, "we got a
letter today from state Social Services. They said you
owe 57 thousand dollars in back child support. They've
attached your bank accounts, and our vice president
doesn't want this kind of thing happening around here."
He looks up at you from his desk. "I'm sorry -- you are
terminated."
"But I don't --"
"Dave, we can't have the authorities on our case."
"But my kids are home! I live with them, Marty!"
"Then you've got nothing to worry about, Dave," says
the boss. He gestures for someone to come into the
room. You turn to see two uniformed officers and a
Child Protective Services caseworker.
"He's a little distraught, officer," the boss says as they
handcuff you. "We've terminated him. Feel free to go
through his desk and computer, if you like. We don't
want any trouble."
"The dying world of 1925 was without faith, hope,
character, understanding of its malady or will to
overcome it. It was dying but it laughed. And this
laughter was not the defiance of a vigor that refuses to
know when it is whipped. It was the loss, by the mind of
a whole civilization, of the power to distinguish between
reality and unreality, because, ultimately, though I did
not know it, it had lost the power to distinguish between
good and evil" (Whittaker Chambers, Witness, 1952).[/quote]
------------------
"Quis custodiet ipsos custodes"
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>"One day, early in 1925, I sat down on a concrete
bench on the Columbia campus, facing a little Greek
shrine and the statue of my old political hero, Alexander
Hamilton. ... There ran through my mind the only lines I
remember from the history textbook of my second go at
college. ...'The Roman Empire is filled with misery, but it
is luxurious. It is dying, but it laughs'" (Whittaker
Chambers, Witness, 1952).
With a DOW that only knows "up," unemployment that
goes only down, retirement accounts bursting at the
seams and an economy that is perpetually expanding,
many people ask, "Can things ever get any better?" And
if they are particularly thoughtful, they may ask those
around them, "Who do you think will make the DOW
rise faster and higher -- Bush or Gore?"
Oh, there are dissenters, of course. But they are all on
the fringes: the religious right, China-haters and national
security freaks, prolife protesters, homeschoolers,
gun-owners, homophobes, Clinton-haters,
white-supremacists and, perhaps somewhere in the
archives a few aging Black Panthers. Overseas they
have names like Milosevic, North Korea, Afrikaners,
and Orthodox Jews.
Their views don't matter -- because they don't hold a 51
percent majority. When times are good they can be
humored; with their frantic gestures, actual belief in their
cause, and stark, intense facial expressions they can be
quite amusing when they appear briefly on the evening
news.
Of course, one must be careful not to make too much
fun of them. When provoked, they can become violent.
We should all be grateful, therefore, that government has
assumed the role of protector and guarantor of our
rights! FBI mandates that require telephone companies
to provide for the simultaneous tapping and recording of
three percent of the nation's telephone calls at any given
time are for our protection. It's also a good thing that
our intelligence services have expanded into domestic
spying: by entering the names of those with politically
undesirable views into their vast databases, recording
their telephone calls, intercepting their mail, reading their
faxes and email, cataloguing their website visits and
planting informers among them, such dangerous people
can be arrested and brought to justice before they can
actually commit a serious crime.
But that is not to say that life is perfect. With illegal
immigrants sneaking into the country and deadbeat dads
evading child-support payments, it was fortunate that the
Social Security number was added as a federal
requirement for most state drivers' licenses. Funds can
be withheld from states to bring them into compliance.
Now we finally have a national database of all workers.
With employers reporting where we live, work, and
how much we make, it will be a lot harder for these
socially irresponsible individuals to escape detection.
And with drug-dealing the major problem that it is, it
only makes sense to have banks trace all cash deposits
and withdrawals. If people don't have a good
explanation for why they have the cash, they are
probably up to no good. Of course it makes sense for
banks to furnish account information for all their
customers to state and federal authorities; that way
computer matches can be run against Social Security
numbers to find deadbeat dads and tax delinquents.
Everyone's got to do their part!
Meanwhile, back at the Bush vs. Gore discussion at the
water cooler, some hot news arrives. "Hey Dave! Did
you see the police come and haul Fred out of his cubicle
at work? Wow -- guns drawn, the whole bit! Scuttlebutt
has it that he sent off for some white supremacist
literature. ..."
Dave calls home to give Mary the hot story. "You
should have seen the police nab old Fred down in
programming today --" But Mary cuts him off.
"That's nothing, sweetheart," she says. "The police
raided the Jones' house today! They were all dressed in
black uniforms and held Stan and Missy at gunpoint, flat
on the ground, while they carted Stan's gun collection
away! Child Protective Services came and took their
three kids. ..."
"I've got to go, Mary. The boss is waving me into his
office." Dave weaves his way between the cubicles and
into the boss' office. "Dave," the boss begins, "we got a
letter today from state Social Services. They said you
owe 57 thousand dollars in back child support. They've
attached your bank accounts, and our vice president
doesn't want this kind of thing happening around here."
He looks up at you from his desk. "I'm sorry -- you are
terminated."
"But I don't --"
"Dave, we can't have the authorities on our case."
"But my kids are home! I live with them, Marty!"
"Then you've got nothing to worry about, Dave," says
the boss. He gestures for someone to come into the
room. You turn to see two uniformed officers and a
Child Protective Services caseworker.
"He's a little distraught, officer," the boss says as they
handcuff you. "We've terminated him. Feel free to go
through his desk and computer, if you like. We don't
want any trouble."
"The dying world of 1925 was without faith, hope,
character, understanding of its malady or will to
overcome it. It was dying but it laughed. And this
laughter was not the defiance of a vigor that refuses to
know when it is whipped. It was the loss, by the mind of
a whole civilization, of the power to distinguish between
reality and unreality, because, ultimately, though I did
not know it, it had lost the power to distinguish between
good and evil" (Whittaker Chambers, Witness, 1952).[/quote]
------------------
"Quis custodiet ipsos custodes"