rants and ramblings of utter randomness

"Democracy... while it lasts is more bloody than either aristocracy or monarchy. Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There is never a democracy that did not commit suicide."

"Fear is the foundation of most governments; but it is so sordid and brutal a passion, and renders men in whose breasts it predominates so stupid and miserable, that Americans will not be likely to approve of any political institution which is founded on it."

"....we should be unfaithful to ourselves if we should ever lose sight of the danger to our liberties if anything partial or extraneous should infect the purity of our free, fair, virtuous, and independent elections."


Happy Birthday, Mr. President!

Interesting (and embarrassing and sad) list:

Which U.S. Presidents owned slaves?.

A common argument is that they were a "product of their times". Bad argument, because this guy, and people like him, were a product of their times, too.

This moment in US history brought to you by my current reading of Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong, which should be required reading in all US high school history classes. Everyone needs to read this book, especially every American.