Ever hear of H.L. Mencken? I didn't think so. Mencken was a news paper reporter back in the 1920s who was known for his sharp tongue. Two of my favorite quotes are below"
"The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out... without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane, intolerable." " The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary." I think those quotes speak for themselves. Remember, Mencken wrote in the 20's, 30's and 40's. Even so, he nailed today's politics perfectly. Some things never change! Could you imagine a main stream reporter writing like that now? Nowadays, people get their panties in a bunch if someone even slightly disagrees with them. In fact, I think its comical when people cringe when someone says something that is even a little bit off color. A couple of times I have been asked if I thought something I said offended anyone. I always respond no, and then ask loudly if anyone around me was offended by what I had just said. No one has ever said they were. We have free speech in this country people. I may not like everything you have to say, but I really don't care if you say it. Mencken felt strongly about free speech too. His thought on it is below: "My belief in free speech is so profound that I am seldom tempted to deny it to the other fellow. Nor do I make any effort to differentiate between the other fellow right and that other fellow wrong, for I am convinced that free speech is worth nothing unless it includes a full franchise to be foolish and even...malicious" Was Mencken perfect? Of course not. He had his silly ideas and beliefs as well. What I have to admire, however, is that he wrote daily for nearly fifty years! Imagine having the ability to write something interesting every day...for fifty years. Wow! I would have to think that some of that stuff just wasn't worth reading. Even so, people read it, because they were never sure when something he wrote would be pure gold. A lot of what this man wrote was great so it was well worth reading his bad I would think. Anyway, I have prattled on enough for one day. Who knows, maybe Mencken was thinking about an article similar to this one when he wrote the quote below. "The capacity of human beings to bore one another seems to be vastly greater than that of any other animal." Nuf Said!
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