January 31, 2012
Tuesday AM

193 AD: The Praetorians ran out upon the ramparts and in a loud voice proclaimed that the Roman world was to be disposed of to the best bidder by auction... It reached the ears of Didius Julianus who began to bid for "the purple" at the foot of the rampart. Edward Gibbon, in The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire... now Romney is buying the purple.

"Whenever the rich prepare a solemn and popular entertainment [election], whenever they celebrate with profuse and pernicious luxury their private banquets, the choice of the guests is the subject of anxious deliberation. The modest, the sober, and the learned are seldom preferred; and the nomenclators [media and insiders], who are commonly swayed by interested motives, have the address to insert in the list of invitations the obscure names of the most worthless of mankind."  Edward Gibbons on "The Character of The Roman Nobles."

Not against the rich... but "buying the Presidency of the United States of America" is what Mitt Romney is... IS doing. This isn't about him being smarter than Newt Gingrich, or more stable... it is about buying an election with huge sums of money in advertising and support of those who want to ensure "NOTHING WILL CHANGE."

Laugh if you will at Newt's big ideas, going to the moon? How many laughed at Christopher Columbus? They've made numerous movies about that and we were all sympathetic to those big ideas! Or the Wright Brothers... "if God had wanted men to fly he would have made their bones as empty as their heads." We aren't talking about emptying the treasury to make this inevitability happen immediately. Big things happen one step at a time by people with imagination and guts.

My wife made a serendipitous point this morning that stopped me with a quick nod... "Why are we sending $ Billions to support the military forces of foreign countries who hate us [Pakistan - Egypt] and cutting back on our own military spending? Are we stupid? Suicidal? You might not like Newt, the Establishment are scared of him [good!], Republicans and Democrats, and not to leave out the News Media... that list of names of prominent talking heads are almost universal. And Bob Dole, loser... John McCain... loser, why would we listen to the RNC? Hey... TEA PARTY? Are you awake or have you gone back to sleep? Last chance... Vote for the contrarian who perhaps doesn't have the DNA of a "bow & scrape - ring kisser", vote for Newt Gingrich!

Otherwise... sit down and read The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, because all this has happened before....

"A nation of slaves is always prepared to applaud the clemency of their master who, in the abuse of absolute power, does not proceed to the last extremes of injustice and oppression." Edward Gibbon, 1737-1794.

Ken Bylund
Ketchikan, AK

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