Fwd: What have we learned in 2,066 years?


Subject: Fwd: What have we learned in 2,066 years?

De Oppresso Liber

 What
have we learned in 2,066 years?

"The  budget should be balanced, the Treasury should be refilled, public  debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands should be  curtailed lest Rome become bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance."
                           -  Cicero    - 55 BC

Evidently  nothing.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey Republicans: maybe you should try electing people who actually know who Cicero was. Cause I guarantee W and Palin have no clue what you're talking about.

Thx 4 Fish said...

According to a thread on Snopes this quote is from a work of ficiton, namely "A Pillar of Iron" (1965), Taylor Caldwell's fictionalized account of the life of Cicero. Why do they promote lies so casually (and stupidly)?

Marc with a C said...

Also: Carthage must be destroyed.

Anonymous said...

"Don't drink from lead pipes."

Hibryd said...

"Doctors and surgeons should wash their hands every now and then."

ferschitz said...

Thanks, Bebe. I don't have to do the homework.

That said, whether the quote is from Cicero (any bets that the vast majority of rightwingnuts who send these out have a clue who Cicero is???) or from Caldwell, it's NOT a bad idea.

So: when are Republicans going to practice what they're preaching here? I pretty much agree with it. Too bad George Bush, Dick Cheney, John McCain & Sarah Palin, etc, didn't get this message that the Tea Party base seems so eager to see enacted.

Any Tea Partiers gonna send this to Miss Mitch McConnell or Crybaby Agent Orange Boner??

Anonymous said...

Marc with a C said...

Also: Carthage must be destroyed.
_____________________________________
I believe that it was Cato the Elder, during the 3rd Punic War, who ended each peroration with "Carthago delenda est!" (Carthage must be destroyed). But Cicero probably felt the same way.

gruaud said...

Anon is right; it was indeed Cato the Elder.
"Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam."



Liberals are Carthaginians in a time of Romans.

ferschitz said...

High five to gruaud! Albeit, it's really the Iraqi's (and to a lesser extent, the Afghani's) who resemble Carthage in terms of USA imperialism.

Rome wanted to conquer Carthage in order to steal the land for Roman citizens' food needs:

"By the middle of the 2nd century BC, the population of the city of Rome was about 400,000 and rising. Feeding the growing populace was becoming a major challenge. The farmlands surrounding Carthage represented the most productive, most accessible and perhaps the most easily obtainable agricultural lands not yet under Roman control."

Plundering other nations in order to control their resources is, in essence, what Team USA is doing in the Middle East. It has little to do with "making the USA safer" or "controlling world terrorism."

Just had to check in with my usual "say." But I agree, gruaud, that the mega-wealthy in the USA (who manipulate conservative voters to do some of their dirty work) would love for nothing more than to grind USA liberals into oblivion. It's the heart of the Southern Strategy, and what Kissinger, Cheney, Rove, the Bush Crime Syndicate, et. al., have been engaging in for at least 3 decades, aided and funded by the mega-wealthy, such as the Kochs, the Scaifes, the Mellons, Bill Gates, etc.

Good history lessons, everyone!

sabina moon said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
 
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