Not A Lot Of Laughs In This One
I heard a radio talk show host kick this around the other day & now I’m going to kick it your way.
There was a time long ago (when I was young) that Americans would have too much pride to do what they are doing as described in the bullets below. I wish that there were only a few of us doing this but it appears there is an awful lot of people who are saying... I might as well take what I can. That’s what it’s for, right?
- Handicapped Stickers used by people who are not handicapped.
- People who have an income around $500,000 still taking subsidized housing payments in big cities because they qualified long ago when they were making less than $67,000.
- People bringing Comfort Animals into public places saying they get comfort from their comfort animals. These companions are not just dogs. Some are getting comfort from Rabbits, Snakes, Pigs, etc.
- People are getting Disability Payments who are in no way Disabled.
- People on the Welfare Rolls who have lots of other income that the Government is not aware that they have.
- A one-time respected oncologist who was caught lying to patients about their health, telling some who did not have cancer that they did have cancer in order to give them unnecessary chemotherapy treatment just so he could bill Medicare for the procedures.
This is the part of my blog where I would normally say something cute or play around with words. Not this time. I will turn this one over to someone a lot smarter than the Smartfella...
At about the time our original 13 states adopted their new constitution, in the year 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 prior.
"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 that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes 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, these nations always progressed through the following sequence:
From Bondage to spiritual faith;
From spiritual faith to great courage;
From courage to liberty;
From liberty to abundance;
From abundance to complacency;
From complacency to apathy;
From apathy to dependence;
From dependence back into bondage."
Would Mr. Tyler kid u?
Smartfella
Lagniappe:
In a “Jaywalking” sketch on The Tonight Show, comedian host Jay Leno asked random people on the street to name one of the Ten Commandments. The most popular response given was "God helps those who help themselves."
Two “nos” & one “but” are applicable here... No, the phrase is not one of the Ten Commandments & No, the phrase does not come out of the Bible & But, it appears to be fast becoming one of the most popular “Commandments”.
