The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one's time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all.
- Henry Louis Mencken
More like this
tags: freedom of speech, freedom of publishing,
Isn't it charming how the most contemptibly corrupt scoundrels are so pious?
Those scoundrels at Deep Sea News narrowly beat us to this story. But the video is spectacular! Click here to watch it, and read their much-better-informed-than-ours-would-have-been description.
After some torrential rain in Pinellas County, Fla, residents were treated to some friendly neighborhood walking catfish.
I haven't seen that quote from Mencken. Very interesting don't you think? I find it noteworthy that he uses the word scoundrel...since we have a tendency to link a host of "negative" behaviors to that word.
Are you familiar with the philospher Theodorus? Here's a link
Briefly, he thought this: "He taught that there was nothing really disgraceful in theft, adultery, or sacrilege; but that they were branded only by public opinion, which had been formed in order to restrain fools" Therefore, similar to Mencken in some respects.
As a former E/BD teacher I found behaviors of learners, I was charged with minimizing or maximizing, were the result of public opinion...and it always made me wonder if indeed I was doing the proper thing or should I be doing anything at all since I find the public's behavior, generally to be barbaric.
Which brings me to the final point: have you read Thorstein Veblen? He wrote Theory of the Leisure Class and positions the wealthy as manipulating most social and individual behaviors. I've got to get some sleep. Nice blog, I'll be back.
This quote is excellent. So true with what we face with human rights tribunals here in Canada.