Curtis Dahlgren
The Rule of Law RULES (except when it doesn't?)
By Curtis Dahlgren
[IN LIEU OF A NEW COLUMN, AFTER DALLAS, HERE ARE A FEW NUGGETS FROM MY FIVE PREVIOUS COLUMNS.]
"Et tu, Brute? But for what?" – Julius Caesar, 44 BC (paraphrased)
"President Lincoln assassinated; feds investigate John Wilkes Booth's motive" – imaginary headline (April 15, 1865)
"It may take years to investigate the motive or motives of the Orlando shooter(s)." – your Attorney General (paraphrased)
"We are working to determine the precise motivation for the attack on our mission." – your Secretary of State (after Benghazi)
USA TODAY, June 13, 2016: "MASSACRE; [Orlando] Shooter pledged allegiance to ISIL" [Islamic State in the Levant]
Was that a Freudian slip or a plain old gaffe? Or the plain Truth? People are still debating the motive for the JFK assassination; never mind that the Kennedys were capitalists and Lee Harvey Oswald was a Marxist.
Oh, just one more thing, ma'am. They never fail to question the motives of a police officer immediately! Just a minute. Just the facts, ma'am. This is the city. I work here. I work the night shift. I work to keep the peace. At least that's what my job description said. So what's with all the TV cameras and inflammatory rhetoric encouraging these so-called protesters to riot, ma'am? Just because they steal TV sets doesn't mean you'll have more viewers. Just report the news, ma'am; don't encourage it! There's nothing in it for you to do that. Just the facts, ma'am.
"Common sense is in spite of, not as the result of, education." – Victor Hugo
"Such as have reason, understanding, or common sense, will, and ought to make use of it in those things that concern themselves and their posterity, and suspect the words of such as are interested in deceiving or persuading them not to see with their own eyes." – Al Sidney
"Wisdom is the power to see behind a tree." – old Indian chief
"Common sense is the widest understanding possible of the relationship of common things and our relationship to them." – William Dempster Hoard (1836-1918)
"Men have often speculated as to what Hoard would have been had he had the advantages of a college education . . Dean H.L. Russell of the Wisconsin College of Agriculture once [said]: 'Might it not have spoiled him in many ways? Might it not have destroyed that imaginative quality and philosophic insight which is so often a native talent and which so frequently is dulled and rendered commonplace by the rut into which the mind may sink when it is made to follow an outlined curriculum?' . . .
"Hoard claimed that the present educational system is built from the top downward instead of from the bottom up. . . The little 'red schoolhouse' or the 'people's college,' as he called it, must receive first and every consideration from those in charge of our educational work . . .
"He appreciated fully the meaning of being an American citizen, for he understood the price that has been paid for the opportunity; the struggle of humanity to secure liberty; the tyranny of kings; and he believed in the rights of the masses and not in the privileges of the classes . . .
"The only aristocracy he recognized was the aristocracy of intellect. He had no patience with those who constantly boast of their ancestry; he said they reminded him of the potato plant, the best part of which is under the ground' . . "
"Common sense is a flower that doesn't grow in every garden." – UPmag.net
WHICH BRINGS US BACK TO: The sometimes over-specialized and/or over-educated people who "are interested in deceiving or persuading [YOU] not to see with [your] own eyes."
Maybe Dallas was just "workplace violence," eh?
"We declare it is the first responsibility of the federal government to protect the freedoms of citizens equally against attack and tyranny from without or within . . . " – Thomas Jefferson
"I can inform ten men easier than I can reform one." – Gov. W.D. Hoard (Wisconsin, 1888)
P.S. Instead of spending money investigating "motives" ("wicked men will always find an excuse for evil doing"), we ought to be investigating our public schools for their failure to inculcate GOOD motivation into students from day one of kindergarten. And investigate "the schools of education" that are full of crap such as "white privilege studies" and so on.
"The moral principles and precepts contained in the Scriptures ought to form the basis of all our civil constitutions and laws. All the miseries and evils which men suffer from vice, crime, ambition, injustice, oppression, slavery, and war, proceed from their despising or neglecting the precepts contained in the Bible." – Noah Webster
IT'S FUNNY BUT WHY DO WE ALLOW PEOPLE TO READ THE BIBLE ONLY AFTER THEY LAND IN PRISON?
PPS: Oh, just one more thing, ma'am. They question the motives of a police officer immediately! Just a minute. Just the facts, ma'am. This is the city. I work here. I work the night shift. I work to keep the peace. At least that's what my job description said. So what's with all the TV cameras and inflammatory rhetoric encouraging these so-called protesters to riot, ma'am? Just because they steal TV sets doesn't mean you'll have more viewers. Just report the news, ma'am; don't encourage it! There's nothing in it for you to do that. Just the facts, ma'am.
Speaking of motivation, a police officer asked Bonnie and Clyde why they robbed banks. Clyde said:
"That's where the money is."
© Curtis Dahlgren
July 8, 2016
[IN LIEU OF A NEW COLUMN, AFTER DALLAS, HERE ARE A FEW NUGGETS FROM MY FIVE PREVIOUS COLUMNS.]
"Et tu, Brute? But for what?" – Julius Caesar, 44 BC (paraphrased)
"President Lincoln assassinated; feds investigate John Wilkes Booth's motive" – imaginary headline (April 15, 1865)
"It may take years to investigate the motive or motives of the Orlando shooter(s)." – your Attorney General (paraphrased)
"We are working to determine the precise motivation for the attack on our mission." – your Secretary of State (after Benghazi)
USA TODAY, June 13, 2016: "MASSACRE; [Orlando] Shooter pledged allegiance to ISIL" [Islamic State in the Levant]
Was that a Freudian slip or a plain old gaffe? Or the plain Truth? People are still debating the motive for the JFK assassination; never mind that the Kennedys were capitalists and Lee Harvey Oswald was a Marxist.
Oh, just one more thing, ma'am. They never fail to question the motives of a police officer immediately! Just a minute. Just the facts, ma'am. This is the city. I work here. I work the night shift. I work to keep the peace. At least that's what my job description said. So what's with all the TV cameras and inflammatory rhetoric encouraging these so-called protesters to riot, ma'am? Just because they steal TV sets doesn't mean you'll have more viewers. Just report the news, ma'am; don't encourage it! There's nothing in it for you to do that. Just the facts, ma'am.
"Common sense is in spite of, not as the result of, education." – Victor Hugo
"Such as have reason, understanding, or common sense, will, and ought to make use of it in those things that concern themselves and their posterity, and suspect the words of such as are interested in deceiving or persuading them not to see with their own eyes." – Al Sidney
"Wisdom is the power to see behind a tree." – old Indian chief
"Common sense is the widest understanding possible of the relationship of common things and our relationship to them." – William Dempster Hoard (1836-1918)
"Men have often speculated as to what Hoard would have been had he had the advantages of a college education . . Dean H.L. Russell of the Wisconsin College of Agriculture once [said]: 'Might it not have spoiled him in many ways? Might it not have destroyed that imaginative quality and philosophic insight which is so often a native talent and which so frequently is dulled and rendered commonplace by the rut into which the mind may sink when it is made to follow an outlined curriculum?' . . .
"Hoard claimed that the present educational system is built from the top downward instead of from the bottom up. . . The little 'red schoolhouse' or the 'people's college,' as he called it, must receive first and every consideration from those in charge of our educational work . . .
"He appreciated fully the meaning of being an American citizen, for he understood the price that has been paid for the opportunity; the struggle of humanity to secure liberty; the tyranny of kings; and he believed in the rights of the masses and not in the privileges of the classes . . .
"The only aristocracy he recognized was the aristocracy of intellect. He had no patience with those who constantly boast of their ancestry; he said they reminded him of the potato plant, the best part of which is under the ground' . . "
"Common sense is a flower that doesn't grow in every garden." – UPmag.net
WHICH BRINGS US BACK TO: The sometimes over-specialized and/or over-educated people who "are interested in deceiving or persuading [YOU] not to see with [your] own eyes."
Maybe Dallas was just "workplace violence," eh?
"We declare it is the first responsibility of the federal government to protect the freedoms of citizens equally against attack and tyranny from without or within . . . " – Thomas Jefferson
"I can inform ten men easier than I can reform one." – Gov. W.D. Hoard (Wisconsin, 1888)
P.S. Instead of spending money investigating "motives" ("wicked men will always find an excuse for evil doing"), we ought to be investigating our public schools for their failure to inculcate GOOD motivation into students from day one of kindergarten. And investigate "the schools of education" that are full of crap such as "white privilege studies" and so on.
"The moral principles and precepts contained in the Scriptures ought to form the basis of all our civil constitutions and laws. All the miseries and evils which men suffer from vice, crime, ambition, injustice, oppression, slavery, and war, proceed from their despising or neglecting the precepts contained in the Bible." – Noah Webster
IT'S FUNNY BUT WHY DO WE ALLOW PEOPLE TO READ THE BIBLE ONLY AFTER THEY LAND IN PRISON?
PPS: Oh, just one more thing, ma'am. They question the motives of a police officer immediately! Just a minute. Just the facts, ma'am. This is the city. I work here. I work the night shift. I work to keep the peace. At least that's what my job description said. So what's with all the TV cameras and inflammatory rhetoric encouraging these so-called protesters to riot, ma'am? Just because they steal TV sets doesn't mean you'll have more viewers. Just report the news, ma'am; don't encourage it! There's nothing in it for you to do that. Just the facts, ma'am.
Speaking of motivation, a police officer asked Bonnie and Clyde why they robbed banks. Clyde said:
"That's where the money is."
© Curtis Dahlgren
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