Thread: Where Do We Draw The Line?

Originally Posted by gugi

Yes, the famous Cincinnatus, they wrote books and sang songs about him, and to this day little boys want to grow up to be just like him.


Online Library of Liberty - CHAPTER XXV.: of the poverty of cincinnatus, and that of many other roman citizens. - The Historical, Political, and Diplomatic Writings, vol. 2 (The Prince, Discourses on the First Ten Books of Titus Livius, Thoughts of a

I don't know about all of that....but we did name a city after him. And isn't it wonderful that we don't try and keep our citizens in poverty...well unless you consider all of the reckless entitlement/ bailout spending resulting in trillions of dollars of national debt that will likely bury our grandchildren. But I digress...

Let's not allow an ad hominem attack at Cincinnatus to divert our attention away from one thing he did that was virtuous and honorable and to which all elected officials should aspire.

Originally Posted by honedright

And isn't it wonderful that we don't try and keep our citizens in poverty...

Is it? Don't we? I would think may be time to take a real hard look at the real reason behind all that downfall I keep hearing about...

Originally Posted by honedright

But let's not allow an ad hominem attack at Cincinnatus

Ad hominem attack? I thought his name first came on the first pages of 'The Prince' the part with the dedication.

Originally Posted by honedright

to divert our attention away from one thing he did that was virtuous and honorable and to which all elected officials should aspire.

Right on!!!
Better yet, let's all get together and elect the meek and the poor, those who are running for high office for nothing less than the great honor of forfeiting their riches and power, tax shelters, offshore accounts....

Originally Posted by gugi

Is it? Don't we? I would think may be time to take a real hard look at the real reason behind all that downfall I keep hearing about...


Ad hominem attack? I thought his name first came on the first pages of 'The Prince' the part with the dedication.


Right on!!!
Better yet, let's all get together and elect the meek and the poor, those who are running for high office for nothing less than the great honor of forfeiting their riches and power, tax shelters, offshore accounts....

I think you got your works of Machiavelli's mixed up. Cincinnatus is mentioned in "The Discourses" not "The Prince." Either, or, makes little difference to the virtue demonstrated by Cincinnatus.

My point is that to wish for something is one thing, to be able to do it is another, and to actually do it is completely different.

Originally Posted by gugi

My point is that to wish for something is one thing, to be able to do it is another, and to actually do it is completely different.

Yes, to wish for something is called having a dream, to be able to do it requires training, strength, courage and virtue, to actually do it is why we honor heroes. Good point Gugi.

Yes, like Cincinnatus

Originally Posted by HNSB

Speaking of tax money and projects...

What happened to all the "shovel-ready" projects we paid for a few years ago?
I had the impression at the time that it would be WPA v2, but it doesn't seem to have happened...

Where did that money go?

Obama was asked about those shovel ready jobs last year. He LAUGHED, and said I guess those jobs weren't as shovel ready as I thought.

I don't think we have a clear idea where all of it went.

A good part of it was wasted on loans to doomed "Green" jobs like Solyndra, Ener1, and Fisker.

WKRP in Cincinnatus.

Did Cincinnatus have a friend? What was his name again....? Biggus something....? One of is gweatest fwiends in Wome?

James.

Originally Posted by honedright

We pay tax dollars for services. We assume that because our tax dollars are spent publicly that federal entities will somehow perform services to a higher degree or standard. But is that necessarily true? Why isn't it just as feasible that a private entity will perform those same services to the same standard, or even better?

There are many many things that are important and we use in our daily lives that came out of the space program. If a private outfit had been doing everything all those inventions would either have been salted away and kept secret of sold off to the highest bidder and all the products would cost multiples of what they do now. That's how private industry works.