A Word of Kindly Advice to the Politically Ambitious:

When availing oneself of a PhotoOp, one should never fail to take careful note of the backdrop before which one is about to stand.

Hat Tip to a very dear friend who shall remain nameless

God is not mocked. The Law of Unintended Consequences 
is Forever at Work.

The Irreconcilable Conflict Between the Concepts of Liberty and Equality

Voltaire (1694-1778)

What has been lacking all along is the EQUAL DEGREE of RESPECT and APPRECIATION all of us owe each other for the various roles we play, however humble, –– ALL of which are necessary in order to maintain a flourishing society.

Any way you choose to view it, "government" always has –– and always will -- function as an agent of FORCE –– i.e. COERCION.

The very fact that most acknowledge a need for SOME form of government constitutes a tacit admission among those capable of thought that the vast majority in any given population can NOT benefit from LIBERTY, because they have neither the wisdom, the knowledge, the moral fiber, nor a sufficient degree of piety to prevent themselves from abusing freedom, thus making a travesty of Liberty.

The Achilles Heel, as it were, in our Founding lies in the unfortunate, ill-consiered phrase "all men are created equal."

What the Founders might have meant there was either lost, ignored –– or deliberately thrown away long ago –– in a series of willful, agenda-driven populist-socialist-communist, utopian, pseudo-egaliarian initiatives.

The Ascent of the Common Man has brought little but Grief, –– escalating conflict on a formerly unprecedented scale, and ever-increasing carnage to this always troubled sphere.

It should be painfully obvious to anyone with a modicum of intelligence that the populace in this ––and every other society in recorded history -- is most decidedly NOT comprised of individuals of equal beauty, brains, talent, motivation or animal magnetism, better known these days as "charisma."

In Auguries of Innocence the eighteenth-century poet, artist and mystic, William Blake observed:

... Every night and every morn

Some to misery are born. 

Every morn and every night 

Some are born to sweet delight. 

Some are born to sweet delight, 

Some are born to endless night. ... 

Of course, he was not content to leave it at that, and went on to urge the pursuit of a more perfect understanding of God to find peace in the reconciliation of one's true place in the Universe with one's dreams and desires. Salvation –– better understood as Fulfillment of one's potential –– may be achieved NOT through obtaining the mythical state of literal "EQUALITY" for all, but through Understanding, Acceptance, and dutiful Performance of whatever role one is best suited to play in The Great Scheme of Things.

In plain English it would be preferable for all concerned to be a good trash collector than a bad bank president or a corrupt mayor.

What has been lacking all along is the EQUAL DEGREE of RESPECT and APPRECIATION all of us owe each other for the various roles we play, however humble, –– ALL of which are necessary in order to maintain a flourishing society.

Voltaire got it right in Candide when he claimed it would be better for each of us to tend his own garden than to try to change the world to suit our peculiar notions of what may be right, good and true.

Voltaire seems to have had a lot in common with Bilbo Baggins here, doesn't he? ;-)

“Life is too short, 

and time too valuable 

to spend it in telling what is useless.”

François-Marie Arouet(1694-1778)

Jimmy Buffett Got it Right  All the Way Back in  2009
LISTEN UP!!!

To hell with all this intellectual crap. 

It's high time we got back to basics.

Now ain't that about as basic  as you could ever hope to get?

"Those who expect to reap the blessing of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it."

"It is he duty of the patriot to protect the country from its government."

~ Thomas Paine (1737-1809)

Prospero giving his final oration - The Tempest

Our revels now are ended. These our actors, 

As I foretold you, were all spirits and 

Are melted into air, into thin air: 

And, like the baseless fabric of this vision, 

The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces, 

The solemn temples, the great globe itself, 

Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve 

And, like this insubstantial pageant faded, 

Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff 

As dreams are made on, and our little life 

Is rounded with a sleep.

Shakespeare - Prospero, The Tempest

D-Day, June 6, 1944

Lincoln Revisited, Revised and Updated

[Two-hundred-thirty-eight] years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

[Once again] we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of [clashing theories and opposing philosophies of governance]. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a ... place [to pause and give thought to] those who ... gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate –– we can not consecrate –– we can not hallow –– [any calendar date or mere piece of] ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled [fought and died, left maimed blinded or deranged], have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. 

The world will little note, nor long remember what we say ..., but it can never forget what they did .... 

It is for us the living, rather, to ... [dedicate ourselves to complete] the unfinished work which they who fought ... have ... so nobly advanced ... –– that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion –– that we here [today] resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain –– that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom –– and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.