25 Statements On Politics And Government

You can double-check the sourcing on these, but I think I have them right (Those who don’t know history are destined to repeat it. – Edmund Burke)

1. In my many years I have come to a conclusion that one useless man is a shame, two is a law firm and three or more is a congress.–John Adams
2. If you don’t read the newspaper you are uninformed, if you do read the newspaper you are misinformed–Mark Twain
3. Suppose you were an idiot.. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But then I repeat myself.–Mark Twain
4. I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.–Winston Churchill
5. A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.–George Bernard Shaw
6. A liberal is someone who feels a great debt to his fellow man, which debt he proposes to pay off with your money –G. Gordon Liddy
7. Democracy must be something more than two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner–James Bovard, Civil Libertarian (1994)
8. Foreign aid might be defined as a transfer of money from poor people in rich countries to rich people in poor countries.–Douglas Casey (Classmate of Bill Clinton at Georgetown University)
9. Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.–P.J. O’Rourke, Civil Libertarian
10. Government is the great fiction, through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else.–Frederic Bastiat, French economist(1801-1850)
11. Government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it.. If it keeps moving, regulate it.. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.–Ronald Reagan (1986)
12. I don’t make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts–Will Rogers
13. If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it’s free–P.J. O’Rourke
14. In general, the art of government consists of taking as much money as possible from one party of the citizens to give to the other–Voltaire (1764)
15. Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn’t mean politics won’t take an interest in you!–Pericles (430 B.C.)
16. No man’s life, liberty, or property is safe while the legislature is in session.–Mark Twain (1866)
17. Talk is cheap except when Congress does it.–Anonymous
18. The government is like a baby’s alimentary canal, with a happy appetite at one end and no responsibility at the other.–Ronald Reagan
19. The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of the blessings. The inherent blessing of socialism is the equal sharing of misery.–Winston Churchill
20. The only difference between a tax man and a taxidermist is that the taxidermist leaves the skin.–Mark Twain
21. The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools.–Herbert Spencer, English Philosopher (1820-1903)
22. There is no distinctly Native American criminal class save Congress–Mark Twain
23. What this country needs are more unemployed politicians.–Edward Langley, Artist (1928-1995)
24. A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have.–Thomas Jefferson
25. We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office.–Aesop

Lost and Found – January 1st Edition

What to remember about January 1st…

• 1781  1500 Patriot troops under General Anthony Wayne mutiny over not being paid; they march off on their own to capture Princeton
• 1808  As the 20-year constitutional prohibition against legislation in relation to slavery expires, Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves goes into effect in any U.S. jurisdiction
• 1863  As promised, President Lincoln signs the Emancipation Proclamation freeing all slaves in rebellious America; Union army is instructed to liberate any they find
• 1892  Federal immigration receiving station opens on Ellis Island
• 1934  Law for the Prevention of Genetically Diseased Offspring goes into effect in Nazi Germany; court ordered sterilization
• 1942  President Roosevelt and Minister Churchill issue proclamation at end of the Arcadia Conference vowing to create United Nations
• 1958  At San Quentin Johnny Cash plays his 1st prison performance; inmate Mearle Haggard is inspired to change his life
• 1959  Communist led by Fidel Castro force Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista to flee the country for the Dominican Republic
• 1962  United States Navy’s Sea, Air, and Land Teams (SEALs) are established
• 1966  Advance units of 1st Marine Division arrive in Vietnam; by march 20,000 Marines will be in country
• 1984  As a result of 1974 anti-trust lawsuit brought by Justice Department, AT&T is broken into 7 holding companies known as “Baby Bells”
• 2004  Roman Catholic and Protestant Boy Scout organizations reunite after almost a century of division

Lost and Found – November 30th Edition

What to remember about November 30th…

• 1804   Signer of the Declaration of Independence Samuel Chase is 1st and only Supreme Court Justice to be impeached; acquitted of all charges in 1805
• 1835  American author and humorist Samuel “Mark Twain” Clemens is born in Florida, Missouri (d. 1910)
• 1864  Assault by General Hood’s Army of Tennessee at Battle of Franklin leave Confederates with disastrous losses
• 1874  Nobel laureate and British WWII Prime Minister Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill is born (d. 1965)
• 1947  Civil War breaks out in British controlled Palestine with escalating Arab attacks on Jewish settlers, Brittain prepares to withdraw
• 1954  In Sylacauga, Alabama a sleeping woman is struck by the Hodges Meteorite; only documented case of human hit by object from space
• 1993  President Clinton signs Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Bill into law
• 2001  Green River Killer is arrested in Reston, Washington; Gary Ridgeway believed to have murdered more than 70 women

Lost and Found – November 28th Edition

What to remember about November 28th…

• 1777  John Adams is appointed commissioner to France by Continental Congress
• 1785  Signer of the Declaration of Independence for New Hampshire, William Whipple dies riding circuit as a judge (b. 1730)
• 1925  Country and western music goes national with 1st radio broadcast of the Grand Ole Opry
• 1943  President Franklin Roosevelt, Prime Minister Churchill, and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin meet at Teheran Conference
• 1964  NASA launches Mariner IV spacecraft to perform 1st successful flyby of the planet Mars
• 1987  New York teenager Tawana Brawley falsely claims she was kidnapped, held for 4 days, and raped by 4 whites, 1 a policeman
• 1994  Cannibal and serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer is beaten to death by a fellow inmate claiming God told him to do it
• 2002  Palestinian terrorists detonate suicide bomb targeting hotel for Israeli tourists; 13 killed and 80 injured
• 2010  Canadian-born American comedian and actor Leslie Nielson dies of pneumonia in Florida (b. 1926)

Lost and Found – July 17th Edition

What to remember about July 17th…

• 1744  Elbridge Gerry born (d. 1814); signer of the Declaration of Independence and Vice President to James Madison; inventor of “gerrymandering” of electoral districts for political advantage
• 1815 Napoleon Bonaparte surrenders to the British at Rochefort
• 1938  Douglas “Wrong Way” Corrigan makes non-stop flight across the Atlantic “accidentally”
• 1945  Potsdam Conference convenes with President Truman, Prime Minister Churchill, and Secretary Stalin; determine fate of Germany
• 1955  Disneyland unveiled to the public; opens the next day
• 1975  Apollo and Soyuz spacecraft launch for rendezvous to be made in orbit 2 days later; last manned spaceflight until Space Shuttle
• 1989  1st flight of the B-2 Spirit Stealth Bomber
• 2007  Atlanta Falcon’s football quarterback Michael Vick and 3 others indicted by federal grand jury for dog-fighting and gambling enterprise
• 2009 Jemaah Islamiyah, an al-Qaeda-linked group detonates 2 suicide bombs in Jakarta, Indonesia; 9 killed and over 50 wounded

Lost and Found – June 4th Edition

What to remember about June 4th…

• 1783  The Montgolfier brothers complete 1st successful public demonstration of their hot-air balloon
• 1794  Congress passes Neutrality Act, bans Americans from waging war against any country at peace with the United States
• 1896  Henry takes his 1st Ford through streets of Detroit
• 1919  Senate passes 19th Amendment to US Constitution (Women’s Suffrage) and sent to the states; ratified April 18,1920
• 1939  MS St Louis is refused landing in U.S.; 963 Jewish refugees forced to return to Europe; many will die in death camps
• 1940  Winston Churchill speech “We shall not flag or fail”
• 1942  Battle of Midway begins; Japan’s 1st major defeat in WW II; USS Yorktown abandoned – sinks June 7
• 1944  US 5th Army liberates Rome; U-505 captured by US Navy
• 1982  “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan” released in USA
• 1989 People’s Liberation Army opens fire on peaceful protestors to end pro-democracy demonstrations in Tiananmen Square; hundreds killed and foreign press banned from China
• 1998  Terry Nichols is sentenced to life in prison for his role in the Oklahoma City bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Building
• 2010  SpaxeX launched Falcon 9 rocket on maiden flight

Lost and Found – May 19th Edition

What to remember about May 19th…

• 1795 American patriot, physician, and signer of the Declaration of Independence Josiah Bartlett dies in Kingston, New Hampshire (b. 1729)
• 1795  American entrepreneur and philanthropist Johns Hopkins is born in Maryland (d. 1873); founder of hospitals, universities, and schools
• 1848  Mexico ratifies Treaty of Hidalgo ending Mexican-American War; United States is ceded most of the Southwest for $15 million
• 1864  President Lincoln writes to Congress urging that widows and orphans should be treated equally regardless of race
• 1943  President Franklin Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill set May 1, 1944 as date for Allied invasion at Normandy; D-Day set in motion
• 1962  Actress and singer Marilyn Monroe sings “Happy Birthday Mr. President” at gala celebrating upcoming 45th birthday of John F. Kennedy
• 1986  President Reagan signs Firearms Owners Protection Act prohibiting federal government from keeping a registry of firearms owners
• 1994  Former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis dies at home of cancer (b. 1929); wife of President John F. Kennedy
• 2001  The 1st Apple stores open their doors; they are located in Tysons Corner, Virginia and the same day in Glendale, California
• 2011  President Obama gives speech stating that Israel must revert its borders back to the pre-1967 borders to resolve Israeli-Palestinian conflict

Lost and Found – May 13th Edition

What to remember about May 13th…

• 1607  100 colonists land on the James River in Virginia to found 1st permanent English colony in North America; Jamestown will be its name
• 1861  Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom issues proclamation declaring neutrality and recognizing rebellious states
• 1863  General Grant splits his army to win control of the Mississippi; half advance to take Jackson while the rest pin defenders in Vicksburg
• 1865  More than a month after surrender of the Confederacy, last skirmish of the civil war ends with rebel victory in Battle of Palmito Ranch in Texas
• 1940  In accepting position as Prime Minister, Winston Churchill declares Britain will “wage war, by sea, land and air, with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us; to wage war against a monstrous tyranny”
• 1963  SCOTUS rules in Brady v. Maryland that the prosecution in a criminal trial must reveal exculpatory evidence; “Brady disclosure” is established
• 1971  11-year-old Steveland Hardaway Morris signs contract with Tamla Records; “Stevie Wonder” will become Motown Records defining artist
• 1981  Turkish assassin attempts to murder Pope John Paul II
• 1985  Police confront radical cult MOVE in Philadelphia dropping bomb on building roof to end siege; ensuing fire kills 11 and destroys a city block
• 2010  State of Hawaii enacts law permitting officials to ignore requests to view the birth certificate of  President Barack Hussein Obama II

 

Lost and Found – May 10th Edition

What to remember about May 10th…

• 1775  Patriot forces under Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold capture Fort Ticonderoga; captured cannon give Continental Army artillery they lacked
• 1801  Pasha of Tripoli declares war on the United States after President Thomas Jefferson refuses to pay $225,000 in tribute
• 1865  Confederate President Jefferson Davis is captured in Georgia while attempting to flee the country
• 1869  Golden spike is driven to ceremonially connect final segment of the 1st transcontinental railroad at Promontory, Utah
• 1872  Suffragette Victoria Woodhull is nominated for President of the United States by the newly formed Equal Rights Party
• 1877  President Rutherford B. Hayes has the White House’s first telephone installed; the phone number was “1”
• 1940  Winston Churchill is selected to replace Neville Chamberlain as prime minister of Great Britain
• 1960  Nuclear submarine USS Triton completes 1st underwater circumnavigation of the earth
• 1994  Convicted serial killer John Wayne Gacy is executed by lethal injection in Illinois for the murders of 33 young men and boys
• 2002  F.B.I. agent Robert Hanssen is sentenced to life in prison for selling secrets to Russia for $1.4 million in cash and diamonds

Lost and Found – May 6th Edition

What to remember about May 6th…

• 1816  Christian abolitionists found the American Bible Society
• 1861  State of Arkansas secedes from the Union; Richmond, Virginia is declared capital of the Confederacy
• 1882  President Arthur signs the Chinese Exclusion Act suspending immigration from China and excluding resident aliens from U.S. citizenship
• 1889  Eiffel Tower officially opens to the public at the Universal Exposition in Paris, France
• 1935  1st flight of the Curtis P-36 Hawk fighter aircraft
• 1937  German airship Hindenburg explodes as it arrives in Lakehurst, New Jersey; 36 die in fiery crash of world’s largest dirigible
• 1941  1st flight of Republic Aviation’s P-47 Thunderbolt
• 1942  All American forces in the Philippines are forced to surrender to invading Japanese Army
• 1954  25-year-old medical student Roger Bannister cracks “unbreakable” four-minute mile at Oxford, England
• 1970  Students across the nation join protests after 4 demonstrators killed at Kent State on May 4th  when National Guard Troops open fire
• 1992  Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev gives speech at site of Winston Churchill’s 1946 “Iron Curtain” talk; declares Cold War is over
• 1994  31 mile long “Chunnel” tunnel under the English Channel is officially opened by English Queen and French President
• 1994  Former Arkansas state worker Paula Jones files lawsuit against President Bill Clinton; alleges that he sexually harassed her in 1991