Quotes

"Fascism and communism both promise "social welfare," "social justice," and "fairness" to justify authoritarian means and extensive arbitrary and discretionary governmental powers." - F. A. Hayek"

"Life is a Bungling process and in no way educational." in James M. Cain

Jean Giraudoux who first said, “Only the mediocre are always at their best.”

If you have ten thousand regulations, you destroy all respect for the law. Sir Winston Churchill

"summum ius summa iniuria" ("More laws, more injustice.") Cicero

As Christopher Hitchens once put it, “The essence of tyranny is not iron law; it is capricious law.”

"Government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it." Ronald Reagan

"Law is where you buy it." Raymond Chandler

"Why did God make so many damn fools and Democrats?" Clarence Day

"If I feel like feeding squirrels to the nuts, this is the place for it." - Cluny Brown

"Oh, pshaw! When yu' can't have what you choose, yu' just choose what you have." Owen Wister "The Virginian"

Oscar Wilde said about the death scene in Little Nell, you would have to have a heart of stone not to laugh.

Thomas More's definition of government as "a conspiracy of rich men procuring their own commodities under the name and title of a commonwealth.” ~ Winston S. Churchill, A History of the English Speaking Peoples

“Laws are like cobwebs, which may catch small flies, but let wasps and hornets break through.” ~ Jonathon Swift

Thursday, October 4, 2012

Mala tempora currunt! Did Magna Carta Die in Vain?

John Bull on "Letterman"?
What was Cameron trying to prove? How small the base of knowledge is everywhere.
Letterman didn't know them either, a producer fed him answers. This was just as Tom Brokaw was made to look smart through his hidden ear piece or teleprompter, though he really wasn't. He was just telegenic. m/r

 By the way, "Rule, Britannia!" is a British patriotic song, originating from the poem "Rule, Britannia" by James Thomson and set to music by Thomas Arne in 1740.[1] It is strongly associated with the Royal Navy, but also used by the British Army.[2]

The American Spectator : Did Magna Carta Die in Vain?

By  on 10.4.12
It does appear so, if David Cameron's cluelessness is any indication.
It's rare that an interview by David Letterman gives you deep insight into a troubling problem, but his interview with British Prime Minister David Cameron last week certainly did. Letterman did part of his usual shtick, asking the Prime Minister a series of quiz questions about British history. He failed to answer two of them correctly. One was, "Who wrote Rule Britannia?" -- which is not generally known. More troublingly, he also missed, "What is the literal translation of Magna Carta?" The fact that the Prime Minister of Great Britain did not know that the answer was "The Great Charter" is deeply worrying -- and should serve as a warning to America.
Britons have always taken some amusement in the fact that such an important part of their nation's history has a Latin name, which very few people have ever been taught. British political commenter Mark Wallace found a good illustration of that, in this clip in which comedian Tony Hancock asks, "Does Magna Carta mean nothing to you? Did she die in vain?"
David Cameron went to an extremely good school -- Eton College -- where Latin is taught as a matter of course, and much of social media buzz lamented the state of Latin teaching at Eton. But for once, Cameron's privileged upbringing was not the point. The problem with his answer isn't the state of Latin instruction at elite British academies. It is that not knowing that Magna Carta is the Great Charter displays a fundamental lack of constitutional understanding.
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