People gave the "witch" a wide berth. It was a Farmers' Market day, so the Capitol Square was pretty crowded, mostly with people who didn't seem to be shopping for any new political ideas. But there was a woman standing under a black "Recall Walker" umbrella, and a man with a lot of 9/11 Truther paraphernalia.
Then there was this man with a "Decline of Western Civilization" poster. It's got this quote that's attributed to Alexander Fraser Tytler, a Scottish-born British writer who died in 1813.
The Wikipedia article says: Tytler "believed that 'a pure democracy is a chimera,' and that 'All government is essentially of the nature of a monarchy.'" The "Tytler Cycle" that appears on the poster is unlikely to have been written by Tytler. I'm not sure what political position the poster-holder is trying to take. He has a "you are here" pointer — see the enlargement — between "from Abundance to Complacency" and "from Complacency to Apathy." "Apathy" subsequently leads to "Dependence," which makes me think he's taking a right-wing position against the people becoming dependent on government. "Dependence" leads to "Bondage," which gets us back to the beginning of the cycle. But I'm going to assume that he means it in a left-wing way. Right?
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74 comments:
I'm pretty sure that statue is going "Heil, Hitler". Damned Nazis.
Don't tell Elizabeth Warren or she will claim to have provided the intellectual foundation for Total Confusion meeting Reality Distortion Field.
It is something like King Kong meets Godzilla.
You either have it or you don't, said Elizabeth.
The Scots are a pretty morose bunch. They should probably stay away from philosophy and stick to engineering and warfare.
All the same, I think the poster is over-optimistic. I think we're between Dependence and Bondage, but then I have a lot of Scottish blood.
But I'm going to assume that he means it in a left-wing way. Right?
Tytler-guy is talking to the Freakfest girl from yesterday. That might be a clue, but I didn't get her thing either.
So does a typical Saturday for a Madison person go like this?
A) Make coffee and eat my Wheaties
B) Go online to pay some bills
C) Make signs about things I am outraged about and stand out in public with the signs
D) Hit the grocery store
E) Clean out the basement.
In DC, and probably most cities, people who rant and/or wave nonsensical signs are called "crazy."
They can't even do a good witch.
They should have gotten The Blonde up there.
Hi Doves. In Salem, staying at The Hawthorne Inn for Halloween. Went to Lizzy Borden's house in Fall River.
New England this time of the year is so fab.
Hope you are all doing divine.
Toodles.
We just watched Hannibal.
So artsy yet disturbing.
Sort of off putting to think about Marching to Oakland with someone dressed like the Wicked Witch of the East.
WV: refat - what the women in Wisconsin are.
It must really be soul crushing to know that even the fattest and ugliest woman in Wisconsin wouldn't be caught dead fucking a sagging old coot like you. Without some serious talk about compensation ahead of time anyway.
So artsy yet disturbing.
I want to see that new Almodovar movie.. but I haven't had the chance.
Its always something.. it snowed big time here yesterday.
Boy, yesterday was a lot nicer day than today.
Not much of a demonstration. Probably more folks having lunch at State Street Brats.
@Shitty
Hey, at least I have a wife, and a had mother in the formative years, unlike the pack of wolves that raised you.
Witch, huh? Why am I not surprised at least some of these protesters are followers of pagan religions?
Ambience, s'il vous plait.
Garage, more like a pack of hyenas. Wolves are too noble, even if they do eat their own shit now and again.
The only thing that's really grabbed my attention ... is how many of the unemployed Wall Street "occupiers" ... are saddled with college debt. While they appear as the last people on earth a parent wants to see when they visit campuses ... And, the "cycle of debt" begins.
All media hype!
Similar to the words spent on the EURO which is destined to collapse, anyway.
Where has all the talent gone?
Back in the 1960's there was REAL TALENT out there.
In the 1950's? Hollywood provided cowboys on horses, with guitars. And, Arthur Godfrey plucked a banjo. Maybe, not every generation gets blessed with having talent within their midst?
Mito
I think you may be onto something. Hyenas are a matriarchal society are they not? That would explain Shitty's contempt for women that are smarter and dominant over him. Which would be most.
You should listen to Mitzie. She has a daughter who was a big game hunter in Africa. As well as being a soldier, corpseman, teacher, bus driver and astronaut.
wv: viles, what Mitzie really is in her heart of hearts
Are you stalking me Sixty Shits?That's weird ya know.
A Short History of Liberty
by Dean Russell
The Freeman - January, 1955
How far along the way is America?
From Biblical times onward, the history of liberty and progress among various peoples seems to have followed a remarkably similar pattern. There are exceptions, of course -- and the time element varies widely -- but the pattern may be generally described by ten key ideas in sequence:
I. BONDAGE. At some point in their histories, all peoples seem to have existed in some form of bondage or slavery -- frequently even to their own domestic rulers by their own votes or acquiescence. But when thoughtful persons finally become aware that they are no longer free men, they want to know why. When they ask themselves that question, they automatically turn to contemplation and soul searching. Out of this grows...
II. FAITH. If people in bondage have no faith -- either in a personal Creator or impersonal ideal -- they will remain slaves and eventually die out or be absorbed by another culture. But an intelligent faith will almost always develop into...
III. UNDERSTANDING. A person's faith needs to be buttressed by an understanding of why it is evil to force any peaceful person to conform to the will and ideas of another person. Otherwise, he is apt to remain a faithful slave or attempt to become a slave-owner. But the combination of faith and understanding results in the necessary...
IV. COURAGE. You may depend upon it, courageous men with faith and understanding will neither remain in bondage nor keep others in bondage. Even against great odds, this combination leads to...
V. LIBERTY. Liberty is a relationship among persons wherein no person molests any other peaceful person in his ideas, possessions, or actions. Liberty may also be viewed as the responsibility one assumes
for himself and recognizes in all others, for there can be no liberty where there is no responsibility. Liberty has never existed
completely among any people at any time; but where it has existed to a high degree, the resulting freedom to work, trade, choose, win, lose, and bargain has always meant...
VI. ABUNDANCE. But if an abundance of material things is the primary aim of a person, his life is devoid of any real meaning. For if the goal is abundance, its achievement logically results in...
VII. COMPLACENCY. Complacency and self-satisfaction (the "full barns" of the Biblical lesson) inevitably lead to...
VIII. APATHY. With apathy comes a dullness and a loss of interest -- a "let George do it" philosophy. And there will always be many political "Georges" around to accept this invitation to seize both the reins and the whip. This always degenerates into...
XI. DEPENDENCY. For a time, it is possible for dependents to be unaware that they are dependents. As they continue to shed the
personal responsibilities which ARE freedom, they also continue to delude themselves that they are still free people -- "We never had it so good." Or they may be deluded into believing that they are still free so long as they themselves are able to participate in the mechanical processes of selecting their rulers -- "We can still vote, can't we?" But dependents are at the mercy of the persons or groups or parties upon whom they depend for their housing, or security in old
age, or subsidies, or education, or medical care, or any of the other "aids" from political authority which cause persons to depend on others instead of themselves. Sooner or later, this dependency becomes known by its true name...
X. BONDAGE. Fortunately, the record shows that people can regain their faith, understanding, and courage. They can again become
persons and citizens who are responsible for their own welfare, rather than units and subjects identified by numbers for purposes of regimentation and subsidization. The record shows that people can, by their own intelligent actions, regain their liberty any time they want
it.
@ Dust Bunny Queen
"Sort of off putting to think about Marching to Oakland with someone dressed like the Wicked Witch of the East."
Concerned about falling real estate?
ba-dum-bump!
"Witch, huh? Why am I not surprised at least some of these protesters are followers of pagan religions?"
Wicca is what you make furniture out of...
ba-dum-bump!
In reality the whole Wiccan thing frankly just bored me. I'm supposed to worship who? Why? From my personal experience the whole thing basically devolves into an orgy at some point. Really it's nothing more than a bunch of over-indulged adults playing at something to shock the folks back home.
With garage and Mito it's the freaking Algonquin round table here. I'm like a fly on the wall while Geo. Kaufman and Dorothy Parker trade barbs.
Unsaturnine.
You must cease and desist Pogo. Just because you a long time poster here you are not allowed to critizie Mitzie or J or any of the new favorites of that Althouse woman.
J will report you wiccamormomtrailerparkswine!
Mitzie and Garage are the future of this blog. Get with the program sonny.
Liberals are known to be wiccans and satanists,they take this very seriously. I have witnessed a union meeting in which they performed black magic before a vote. I've seen witches steal hair from persons hairbrush to make a doll to cast spells with.
Ann wrote:
It's got this quote that's attributed to Alexander Fraser Tytler, a Scottish-born British writer who died in 1813.
That's a bit redundant. Only an American of Nordic heritage (or an Italian or a Wiki editor) would compose such a descriptive.
Tyrone Slothrop wrote:
The Scots are a pretty morose bunch. They should probably stay away from philosophy and stick to engineering and warfare.
Hey! The Scots have had some jim-dandy philosophers! The Scottish Enlightenment is full of them: Hume, Home, Campbell, Cullen, Smith, Reid, Turnbull, Stewart. Tytler was an historian, a lawyer and a professor, not a philosopher, if barristers had been university educated in those days he would have been a law professor. Nor did he sip caret of an evening with Hume, Home, Hutchinson and Reid. He mainly hung with other academics and Robbie Burns, of all people. All in all Lord Woodhouselee was a minor figure, probably not worth quoting (or more precisely misquoting) on a placard held aloft by a lumpen #OWS type.
Speaking of whom, I see he has a cute little arrow pointing to "Complacency" with the legend You Are Here. To be accurate he ought to have made another arrow pointing to "Dependency" bearing the legend I Are Here just so we're all clear on the matter.
Is it just me or do the others see these these occupiers as a mostly sad and uninspired lot of people who mostly like the unchallenging company of person just like themselves. A lot of them are complaining about expensive student loans. Judging from the placard guy and his ilk I can see why. I too would be peeved if I spent four years trying to fill a bottomless bucket.
Is it just me or do the others see these these occupiers as a mostly sad and uninspired lot of people...
If "pathetic and depressing" are close enough to "sad and uninspired", then it's not just you.
Guys remember that you can't ban users on blogger, so learn to live with the trolls. It's easy enough to scroll right past Ritmo/garage/Mitshit.
Mommy Mommy these liberals are being MEAN to me again. Whaa!
And I'm confident we'll be hearing a whole lot of whining next week as the Cain Train comes off the tracks.
Pogo wrote:
I'm like a fly on the wall while Geo. Kaufman and Dorothy Parker trade barbs.
The most pointed barbs flew between Dorothy Parker and Clare Boothe Brokow: Age before beauty... Pearls before swine.
garage mahal wrote;
And I'm confident we'll be hearing a whole lot of whining next week as the Cain Train comes off the tracks.
Best be more confident of discovering oil under your back garden. Rolling out the "inappropriate behavior" canard is an act of desperation orchestrated by Obama's minions.
Isn't interesting how normally strident and shrill lefty feminists get the vapours like a gaggle of fan-fluttering Aunt Pittypats whenever a black conservative gains a national quorum? "Oh! Those darkies! Unrighteous lusts stir in those loins. We should never have allowed those beastly Yankees to remove them from our paternal care."
I have been trying to migrate my music to a bigger drive.. and music keeps falling off the moving truck.
Its very very frustrating.. but I'm keeping it mellow and low key.
"This is snow, it's not going to kill us. What they're doing to us will kill us. What they're doing to our world."
Unreported Rapes at OWS
"Saturday's protest ambiance: mellow, low-key."
Killing Me Softly
"Saturday's protest ambiance: mellow, low-key."
All Night Long
America between the upper-middle class and the lower-middle class.
Murphys Law
For the longest I thought the liric in that song "Murphys law" was saying "life is hard"..
..and I still do. despite the intertubes lyrics to the contrary... unlike that volkswagen commercial.. I'm stiking with "Life is hard"
Even as a feminist, my whole life I’d been waiting for a man to love, who could love me.
Someone Like You
Maybe the "Oh wow" was a short for "the best is yet to come"
Herman Cain about the "smoking man" ad.
Dolphin
the delusion, built on the accidental smile
btw.. it appears as if Cain's sins are surfacing..
..dolphins are mammals.. like how I did that?
When I Goggled Cain, the live typing reference comes back "and Abel".
Cain killed his brother.. He is clearly.. unelectable based on that name alone ;)
.."modern means of communications are now so pervasive and penetrating they might as well be part of the air we breathe, and therefore they require tempered remarks from all sides. Otherwise, the air just becomes more and more toxic until it is suffocating."
Drive
Who's gonna tell you things Aren't so great
You can't go on
Thinking nothing's wrong
The Occupy Wall Street — or Occupy [Your City]
Wouldn't It Be Good
Queestor:--Hume...
Wow..Hume. How does Hume's ...philosophy square with your usual rightist-moralism, Q? It doesn't. Many consider Hume amoral or nihilistic because of his skepticism but he took issue with political corruption (including the Stuarts...Chas. II was no saint) and late in life gave to poorhouses. A bit too complex of a character and philosophy for you Q. (and.. Marx quoted Hume--A Smith's mentor-- with some approval at times)
(And the blowhard "Tyrone"-- a mentally ill piece of white trash from Sac aka Byro with dozens of names, stalking this site, and others--knows nothing about scottish history. It gets its "philosophy" from like Charlie Manson)
The protester probably doesn't realize he's quoting a..Tory historian (and lawyer) who had with little sympathy for leftist ideas (or democracy itself). Tytler's idea of political cycles bears some resemblance to Gibbon's Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire. --though the real question is (as with most grand historical ideas)--can it be proven? There do seem to be patterns of various sorts--something like power to affluence to dissolution, etc-- ...but hardly regular (Hegel might have been of some assistance to Lord Tytler).
J. Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, not Rise and Fall. The latter was about Hitler's Third Reich, The former about Roman history from before the Republic to its demise.
No shit, Mikey the proofer. Late night and and bad editing--and a rational person reads for content not for for superificial mechanical glitches. You don't understand the point either way, satanist.
Please don't feed the bears.
Please shut yr mouth Pogo. Yr the queer here, punk
Tytler, Gibbon, Hegel--all way beyond the pissants of A-house
Wonderful trip to Heber Springs,
Arkansas--great trout fishing on the little red, two great rounds of golf, and country dancing at the Cleburn county folklore society for their halloween dance. Once again I realize there are people who live life, and people who live on blogs--It is of course a balancing act--there are cretins like J whose life, apparently is seeing how big an asshole he can be, which in his case is a major undertaking, but there are others who seem relatively balanced.
Getting away during a beautiful fall does help to center you.
I don't think people are crying to Mommy about J. It is just that he is both destructive and dangerous to the future of the so called Althouse comments community.
He is homeless crazy person pissing in the street and throwing feces at passerbys. Why would you want to walk on that street if the police won't do their job.
Mitzie is just the typical liar and astro turfer like you Garage. Suitable to be mocked and ignored. She is not the problem as she spends most of her time writing letters to her nonexistant daughter in the Army.
J is the problem. Even someone as stupid as you should be able to see that.
J misremembers the name of a book he has not read and he wails about it. How odd
you're the danger, Mr Audie Murphy aka Byro--mansonite, not say uneducated, small-minded, paranoid,GOP ..and AIPAC byatch as well (note the usual MO--no blog, no posts, nothing--how irrational wicca scum works).
Okay. So let me get this straight.
Some people in Minnesota decided to have a little march to protest something they saw on TV from California.
What is it that they think they can possible !#^$& accomplish that way?
Will the Oakland PD be "shamed" by their pathetic spectacle?
Is there any explanation for this other than self-congratulatory mental masturbation?
Is there any plausible real-world effect these people can even pretend to believe will be made by their actions?
Is it anything other than pure theater for their own self-image and nothing else?
(Questions rhetorical; answer uniformly "no", except for hte first one, which is "I cannot even guess".)
you're the danger and the street scum, Mr Audie Murphy aka Byro--mansonite, not to say uneducated, small-minded, paranoid,GOP ..and AIPAC byatch as well (note the usual MO--no blog, no posts, nothing--how irrational wicca scum works. Back to AZ-time ,perp).
Mikey Ayn Rand---Ive read a good bit of Gibbon's DAFOTRE (like those parts where Caesar Hadrian breaks up the jews. sad). That you recall the title doesn't mean shit--just like with Pynchon--you don't even recognize "Tristero" but claim, that is lie, that you've read him. How A-house works--phonies, all the way down (tho' granted Queerster's..a smarter phony than most, but just as conservative..so Hume--Philo or Cleanthes?, Q)
But J I have a blog. I even posted a photo of you and linked back to your blog so everyone can do to you what you are doing here.
Maybe that will help you get page views and comments just like that Althouse woman is doing with your stellar contribution to the Althouse comments community.
You guys need to show AudieMurphy's Mom more respect.
Her son served in the military, so she has ultimate moral authority.
Right, Mitochondri-Allie?
Absolutely Fen.
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