Oldie but Goodie

Another one of those ubiquitous but profoundly important emails:

How Long Do We Have?

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 illegal's and they vote, then we can say goodbye to the USA
in fewer than five years.

If you are in favor of this, then by all means, delete this message. If you
are not, then pass this along to help everyone realize just how much is at
stake, knowing that apathy is the greatest danger to our freedom.

I have a simple and guaranteed solution: Voting Reform.

1) Anyone who does not pay NET taxes, may not vote.
If you get back all your withholding at the end of the year, you have not PAID TAXES.
If you make so little that you do not have a tax liability, you are not a TAXPAYER.
If you use loopholes and tax dodges to avoid paying any taxes, you are not a TAXPAYER.
Only people who actually pay tax should be allowed to decide how those taxes are spent.

2) Anyone who receives government (taxpayer) money, may not vote.
No exceptions: Anyone who received a check from any government entity.
Government workers
Welfare recipients
Grant recipients
Financial Aid recipients
Unemployment benefits
Medicare recipients
Medi-Cal recipients
Social Security recipients (once they have exceeded the amount they have contributed)

That'll put the brakes on wild and irresponsible spending pretty damn quick.

The Gunslinger