TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: Re: British TV License (was America the Worst For Cell Rates)

Re: British TV License (was America the Worst For Cell Rates)

Mark Crispin (mrc@CAC.Washington.EDU)
Mon, 31 Jan 2005 08:58:21 -0800

On Sun, 30 Jan 2005, Paul Coxwell wrote:

> As I've seen quoted elsewhere, a pure democracy is a sheep and two
> wolves voting on what's for dinner. In a Constitutional Republic such
> as the United States, they still vote but the sheep has a Colt 45.

The quote is:
Democracy is two wolves and a sheep deciding what to eat for lunch.
Liberty is a well-armed sheep contesting the vote.

To which I would add:
The American way is wolves deciding that mutton is not at all
tasty, and if Brother Sheep just wants to eat grass and not take
any venison, that's more for wolves. So everybody's happy.

Maybe the ordinary British police are not routinely armed, but I saw
plenty of British officers (police? military?) armed with submachine guns
when I was in London. In fact, I saw far more subguns in one week in
London that I saw during my entire life in the US. The same was true in
Europe.

Given a choice between police with pistols (and we have pistols too) and
subgun-toting goons over a disarmed population, I'll take the former.
Europeans may think that this is crazy; but I think that Europeans are
crazy to willingly live in a society where their law enforcement carries
subguns.

-- Mark --

http://staff.washington.edu/mrc
Science does not emerge from voting, party politics, or public debate.
Si vis pacem, para bellum.

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