FREEPER LOGIC: An Email from my Deranged Fundie Uncle

[Gonzo Gardener]

I found this steaming pile of crap stinking up my inbox tonight.

You can pick your friends, you can even pick your friends nose, but you can't pick your family.

'HOW LONG DOES THE USA HAVE?'

This is the most interesting thing I've read in a long time. The sad thing about it, you can see it coming.

I have always heard about this democracy countdown. It is interesting to see it in print. God help us, not that we deserve it.

How Long Do We Have?

About the time our original thirteen states adopted their new constitution in 1787, Alexander Tyler, a Scottish history professor at the University of Edinburgh , had this to say about the fall of the Athenian Republic some 2,000 years earlier:

'A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government.'

'A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury.'

' From that moment on, the majority always vote for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship.'

'The average age of the world's greatest civilizations from the beginning of history, has been about 200 years'

'During those 200 years, those
nations always progressed through the following sequence:

1. From bondage to spiritual faith;

2. From spiritual faith to great courage;

3. From courage to liberty;

4. From liberty to abundance;

5. From abundance to complacency;

6. From complacency to apathy;

7. From apathy to dependence;

8. From dependence back into bondage'

Professor Joseph Olson of Hemline University School of Law, St. Paul , Minnesota , points out some interesting facts concerning the 2000 Presidential election:

Number of States won by:
Gore: 19
Bush: 29

Square miles of land won by:
Gore: 580,000
Bush: 2,427,000

Population of counties won by:
Gore: 127 million
Bush: 143 million

Murder rate per 100,000 residents in counties won by:
Gore: 13.2
Bush: 2.1

Professor Olson adds: 'In aggregate, the map of the territory Bush won was mostly the land owned by the taxpaying citizens of this great country.
Gore's territory mostly encompassed those citizens living in government-owned tenements and living off various forms of government welfare...' Olson believes the United States is now somewhere between the 'complacency and apathy' phase of Professor Tyler's definition of democracy, with some forty percent of the nation's population already having reached the 'governmental dependency' phase.

If Congress grants amnesty and citizenship to twenty million criminal invaders called illegal and they vote, then we can say goodbye to the USA in fewer than five years.

If you are in favor of this then delete this message if you are not then Pass this along to help everyone realize just how much is at stake, knowing that apathy is the greatest danger to our freedom.

:yoiks:

[wtmusic]

1. Much to agree with here

"5. From abundance to complacency;
6. From complacency to apathy;
7. From apathy to dependence;
8. From dependence back into bondage"

4 out of 8 ain't bad

"apathy is the greatest danger to our freedom"

What I don't see is the total vote. If I'm not mistaken Al Gore won the election. And the fact that millions voted for W who will never give a crap about anyone but themselves doesn't impress me...at all.

[spoony]

12. Yes, a totally wrong conclusion from a germ of truth

But Bushies will do that, won't they? :P

[Amonester]

2. Which "gifts from the public treasury" his dictatortot hasn't got for himself

and his small circle of haves and have-more's yet?

Does he even have a short clue??
.

[Hong Kong Cavalier]

3. In this age of "cut and paste" functionaity how does this crap keep getting mispelled?

It's HAMLINE University.

Oh, wait. I think I know why.

It's because they're stupid and they lie.

Oh, and here's the Snopes link. Professor Olson didn't write any of that part.

http://www.snopes.com/politics/quotes/tyler.asp

[Berry Cool]

9. Actually I kinda like "Hemline University."

Is that where you go to learn to sew well enough to end up on Project Runway? Gotta trust their faculty on stuff like this.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

15. Yeah, that struck me funny, too!

:rofl:

Especially since I used to be a part-time instructor at HAmline University some 20 years ago.

[Gonzo Gardener]

17. Thank you, HKC. I'll send the snopes link with my reply to him! n/t

[MindPilot]

4. It's HAmline University

Prof Olson is most likely a Republican, but he didn't write it. Here you go from the man himself.

Joseph Olson
Professor

A.B., University of Notre Dame
J.D., (Distinction) Duke University School of Law
LL.M., University of Florida Law Center

"A business attorney is continually dealing with the future continually calculating and exercising foresight to counsel a client. The legal aspects of business demand effort, compel earnestness, require knowledge, and grease the wheels of industry."

Professor Olson is a leading authority on tax and business law. His treatise, Federal Taxation of Intellectual Property Transfers, was first published in 1986 and is updated bi-annually. He is a legal counselor's counselor, being called upon by colleagues for information on areas of business law.

He drafted the close corporation amendments to the Minnesota Business Corporation act and writes articles on corporate planning. He is a frequent lecturer and arbitrator in contractual disputes involving securities dealer-client and manufacturer-distributor issues. Professor Olson has served as administrative law judge for the state of Minnesota and has consulted with judges, state legislators, and municipal officials.

Prior to joining the faculty, Professor Olson was with Dorsey & Whitney. While in law school he was elected to the academic honor society Order of the Coif. He was an officer in the Air Force. Currently, Professor Olson is president of Academics for the Second Amendment, and serves on the board of directors of the National Rifle Association. He is past-president of The Corporate Counsel Association and has been on the Board of Minnesota Continuing Legal Education.

Professor Olson teaches Business Associations, Business Planning, Contracts, Corporate Finance, and taxation courses.

DISCLAIMER: There is an e-mail floating around the internet dealing with the 2000 Bush/Gore election, remarks of a Scotish philosopher named Alexander Tyler, etc. Part of it is attributed to me. It is entirely BOGUS as to my authorship. I've been trying to kill it for 3 years. For details see: http://www.snopes.com/politics/quotes/tyler.asp.

http://law.hamline.edu/joseph-olson.html

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

5. Them fundies...

Sure do love them email lies, don't they? So much for that commandment regarding false witness.

[MetaTrope]

6. And forwarding them to both you and three dozen others so you end up on a million spam lists

:eyes:

[Gonzo Gardener]

21. Thankfully, not in my case.

I've asked for him to respect my privacy by not disclosing my email address and name when he forwards to me.

Unfortunately, there is no way for me to set my email preferences to sort the majority of nonsense he sends from the few times he sends important family updates and photos of the cousins and their kiddies.x(

[okasha]

13. I wonder who wrote the part attributed to Tyler.

That's not eighteenth-century English.

[otohara]

19. Do Freepers NOT Know About Snopes.com?

Damn, that's the first place I go when something like this hooey pops up.

[silverojo]

7. When he's retired (if he's not already)

He'll be demanding his own chunk of "welfare": Social Security checks. :mad:

[Historic NY]

8. its debunked on snopes

http://www.snopes.com/politics/quotes/tyler.asp

I always love when they quote someone, usually not, pick a figure out of the blue like this guy, or say someone told them. MY big red flags on the falsehoods to follow, Gop'ers are really gullible because they don't check out false facts they except them.

[Toots]

10. Ask your uncle if he is one of the "haves" or one of the "have mores" that make up the GOP base

Empty land does not get a vote...only people get to vote

[alfredo]

14. They also found that the red states get more government handouts

than blue states. Blue states like New York add more to federal coffers, unlike red states that take more than they give. Who are the welfare leeches?

[Bigmack]

11. Even if all this was true...

I say even because we know - from snopes - that it's not......

He's dwelling on the election of 2000. I think it was a Turning Point In History, but haven't we had a few things happen since then?

Just like the Repubs to live in the past.

They still love to tell those Clinton blowjob jokes.

Send back Joe Galloway's "Good Riddance to Them All" It's a lot more relevant to today.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joe-galloway/good-riddance-to-them-all_b_73802.html?view=print

[scarletwoman]

16. Well, one has to question the veracity of a quote attributed to a Professor from a non-existent U.

Although, to be charitable, I suppose one could assume that "Hemline University" actually means "HAmline University".

In any case, thank goodness Prof. Olson isn't a math professor. Has no one noticed that under the category of "Number of States won by:" the numbers are 19 and 29? Which do not add up to 50?

And if he's basing his calculations on strictly the electoral vote outcome, then absolutely none of his numbers represent the actual empirical data of how many individual votes were cast where (geographically), and for which candidate.

If he's counting counties by simply adding up the number of counties in the states whose electoral votes went for bush, it's really a grave distortion -- because there were and are many "blue" islands in the states that went "red" electoral-vote-wise, and these islands tend to be the more densely populated urban areas and thus the more populous counties.

But of course, those perpetuating and touting Prof. Olson's specious humbuggery are not at all interested in empiricism, they are serving their higher truth no matter how many lies it takes.

sw

[mzteris]

18. snopes is your friend

http://www.snopes.com/politics/quotes/tyler.asp

[tabasco]

20. Thanks for your concern!

For your uncle, I mean.

[Gonzo Gardener]

23. You forgot the :sarcasm: tag.

After reading your subject line I was half expecting to see, "Nice post, Hitler" somewhere in the message.

Seriously, I am concerned about Uncle 'Fundie' and everyone like him who believe and propagate this kind of nonsense. These people, like my uncle, are incurious, undereducated, obstinate and they vote. There are too many of them here in Indiana for me to make a significant difference and some days it is absolutely maddening to watch them swallow this twisted BS repeatedly. One could definitely say that I am guilty of posting in an attempt to vent my frustration but not for a lack of concern for any one human being.

Thanks for stopping by.

[Perry Logan]

22. Tell him how glad you are that Hillary will have dictatorial powers. That'll cheer him up.

[JohnLocke]

24. Snopes.com debunks this

http://www.snopes.com/politics/quotes/tyler.asp