Maggie's Farm

We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.

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Monday, February 12. 2007

QQQ

The shepherd drives the wolf from the sheep for which the sheep thanks the shepherd as his liberator, while the wolf denounces him for the same act as the destroyer of liberty. Plainly, the sheep and the wolf are not agreed upon a definition of liberty.

Abraham Lincoln

Posted by Bird Dog in Quotidian Quotable Quote (QQQ) at 15:54 | Comments (18) | Trackbacks (0)

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Gosh, I love Lincoln. Even tho he invaded my country and forced it back into the same nation as the current senators from Massachusetts.
#1 buddy larsen on 2007-02-12 16:13 (Reply)
Happy birthday Mr. Lincoln and thank you for staying the course when all around you felt you were an idiot.
Your address at Gettysburg speaks to all humanity, and though you fought to save the Union and your emancipation of the slaves was a political move as unpopular in the north as in the south it was the right thing to do and now the world looks back and knows that without question.
I am a southerner but this nation would never have achieved the greatness it has if the south had won. I am sorry it cost you an appreviated life.
#2 Habu on 2007-02-12 16:40 (Reply)
not to advocate PC relativism,
but what ultimate liberty
does the shepherd provide the sheep??
#3 gumshoe on 2007-02-12 17:04 (Reply)
that's about the size of it--
#4 buddy larsen on 2007-02-12 17:05 (Reply)
Depends, gumshoe--can the sheep escape the flock?
#5 buddy larsen on 2007-02-12 17:08 (Reply)
"can the sheep escape the flock?"

buddy,i'd guess: No.


my original intent,
stated another way:

the sheep
the wolf
and the shepherd
all view liberty from different perspectives.
#6 gumshoe on 2007-02-12 17:29 (Reply)
Gum:

All view liberty differently, or all view life differently?
#7 Bird Dog on 2007-02-12 17:40 (Reply)
All view liberty differently, or all view life differently?

PC says "both",BD.

although,techincally, i doubt wolves and sheep spend much time contemplating either "Life" or "Liberty" as concepts.

i was just modernizing Abe's initial thought.

maybe the PETA ads have gotten to me.
#8 gumshoe on 2007-02-12 17:54 (Reply)
Liberty.
To do what? Be what?
One could easily argue that we have no meaningful liberty.
One look at the Corpus Juris Secundum. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corpus_Juris_Secundum

If you can find liberty in it good luck. But then all we do is discuss the semantics of liberty as we do capitalism.

This country hasn't seen capitalism since the early 1900's, and then it was too raw in it's application.
Teddy Roosevelt took care of the Robber Barons and "modifications" were set in place. If he hadn't done that we'd have a really really uber-rich vs common joe country.
FDR of course finally killed off capitalism. The stats show we were coming out of the Depression when he instituted the alphbet departments and socialized America.

I wouldn't worry too much about capitalism. We have a socialist-capitalist system ,complete with a government Ponzi scheme, Social Security, and enough regulations on everything imaginable. Thank G*d we don't have marginal tax rates in the 90% range anymore, but we are still a country, like all countries in one form or another that work on the Marxist dictum, "from each according to his abilities to each according to his needs"....we just tinker around the edges with capitalism and liberty.
We're government controlled, local ,state, and federal 100%.
#9 Habu on 2007-02-12 17:58 (Reply)
Government-controlled, by folks we (generically) voted for, who represent all sorts of wants and interests. There's the rub. All would be much more free if I were King.
#10 BD on 2007-02-12 18:03 (Reply)
you wouldn't like the hours,BD.
#11 gumshoe on 2007-02-12 18:05 (Reply)
BD.
The most excellent point.
The caveat is that even that has been defiled. Term limits.
Why shout I be arbitrarily denied the right to vote over and over for a great Governor or councilman or President.

But their aren't enough words in the dictionary to convince me that our government at all levels isn't just a wealth transfer system. And we haven't even touched the Supreme Court's KELO decision which was a certitude once Midkiff was decided.
#12 Habu on 2007-02-12 18:57 (Reply)
Two K's --Kelo & Katrina, should've been watershed wake-ups about the federal government. The lesson from Kelo is "all for the One" and the Katrina lesson is "then 'the One' ruins you" (the hurricane just brought the cameras).
#13 buddy larsen on 2007-02-12 19:16 (Reply)
And they both eat the sheep. It's really just a fight between two predators, and the sheep are too witless to realize it. As Will Rogers said, politics is applesauce. Ideology too. It's all just one long "Nature" documentary, minus the sonorous narrator intoning as snapping jaws close on the neck...

Introduce sheepdogs (managed wolves) into the system and you have what politically?
#14 retriever on 2007-02-12 21:33 (Reply)
Politically you have a media driven wolf. A wolf who dulls the sheepdogs and lulls the sheep to sleep. Until the jaws snap tight and all realize something isn't right. It is the torch that keeps things alight trough the night. Though dimmed nowadays.
#15 Luther McLeod on 2007-02-12 21:48 (Reply)
And now for something completely different, the sheep's revenge: (Monty Python, who brought us anarcho-syndicalist communes_:

"Ratcatcher Well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, well, how very nice. Allow me to introduce myself. I am Leslie Ames, the Chairman of the Test Selection Committee, and I'm very pleased to be able to tell you that your flat has been chosen as the venue for the third test against the West Indies.
Mrs Concrete Really?
Ratcatcher No, it was just a little joke. Actually, I am the Council Ratcatcher.
Mrs Concrete Oh yes, we've been expecting you.
Ratcatcher Oh, I gather you've got a little rodental problem.
Mrs Concrete Oh, blimey. You'd think he was awake all the night, scrabbling down by the wainscotting.
Ratcatcher Um, that's an interesting word, isn't it?
Mrs Concrete What?
Ratcatcher Wainscotting ... Wainscotting ... Wainscotting ... sounds like a little Dorset village, doesn't it? Wainscotting.
Cut to the village of Wains Cotting. A woman rushes out of a house.
Woman We've been mentioned on telly!
Cut back to Concretes' house.
Ratcatcher Now, where is it worst?
Mrs Concrete Well, down here. You can usually hear them.
Indicates base of wall, which has a label on it saying 'Wainscotting'.
Ratcatcher Sssssh
Voice Over Baa ... baa ... baa ... baa ... baa ... baa...
Ratcatcher No, that's sheep you've got there.
Voice Over Baa ... baa.
Ratcatcher No, that's definitely sheep. A bit of a puzzle, really.
Mrs Concrete Is it?
Ratcatcher Yeah, well, I mean it's (a) not going to respond to a nice piece of cheese and (b) it isn't going to fit into a trap.
Mrs Concrete Oh - what are you going to do?
Ratcatcher Well, we'll have to look for the hole.
We follow them as they look along the wainscotting.
Mrs Concrete Oh yeah. There's one here.
She indicates a small black mousehole.
Ratcatcher No, no, that's mice.
He reaches in and pulls out a line of mice strung out on a piece of elastic. Then he lets go so they shoot in again. The ratcatcher moves on. He moves a chair, behind which there is a three-foot-high black hole.
Ratcatcher Ah, this is what we're after.
The baa-ings get louder. At this point six cricketers enter the room.
Cricketer Excuse me, is the third test in here?
Mr Concrete No - that was a joke - a joke!
Cricketer Oh blimey, (exeunt)
Ratcatcher Right. Well, I'm going in the wainscotting.
Cut to 'Wains Cotting' woman, who rushes out again.
Woman They said it again.
Back to the sitting room.
Ratcatcher I'm going to lay down some sheep poison.
He disappears into the hole. We hear:
Voice Over Baa, baa, baa.
A gunshot. The ratcatcher reappears clutching his arm.
Ratcatcher Aagh. Ooh! It's got a gun!
Mrs Concrete Blimey.
Ratcatcher Now, normally a sheep is a placid, timid creature, but you've got a killer.
Poster: 'Wanted For Armed Robbery - Basil' with a picture of a sheep. Exciting crime-type music. Mix through to newspaper headlines: 'Farmers Ambushed in Pen', 'Merino Ram in Wages Grab'. Eerie science fiction music; mix through to a laboratory. A scientist looking through microscope and his busty attractive assistant.
Professor It's an entirely new strain of sheep, a killer sheep that can not only hold a rifle but is also a first-class shot.
Assistant But where are they coming from, professor?
Professor That I don't know. I just don't know. I really just don't know. I'm afraid I really just don't know. I'm afraid even I really just don't know. I have to tell you I'm afraid even I really just don't know. I'm afraid I have to tell you... (she hands him a glass of water which she had been busy getting as soon as he started into this speech) ... thank you ... (resuming normal breezy voice) ... I don't know. Our only clue is this portion of wolf's clothing which the killer sheep ...
Cut to Viking.
#16 retriever on 2007-02-12 22:01 (Reply)
That 3' hole in the wainscotting would've alerted me that all was not usual.
#17 buddy larsen on 2007-02-12 22:14 (Reply)
They could've brought in Mr. Beamish, who is not so squeamish.
#18 buddy larsen on 2007-02-12 22:24 (Reply)

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