Cicero got it right about tyranny and tyrants:

[marmar]

A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murder is less to fear.


And we thought he was talking about ancient Rome...... :scared:

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

1. Ancient Rome holds many lessons for us now. K & R, the esteemed Cicero.

:kick: MKJ

[stellanoir]

2. We are falling. . .

the very same way every imperialistic power has fallen throughout recorded history.

through our own hubris. . .

[Kurovski]

3. K&R. (nt)

[leveymg]

4. "Beware, the Ides of March"

[genie_weenie]

5. The problem is Freepers would contend this

describes the democrats, especially Clinton, Edwards, Murtha, Pelosi and Reid.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

6. Read what a guy named Julius Caeser had to say about tyranny.

"Beware the leader who bangs the drums of war in order to whip the citizenry into a patriotic fervor, for patriotism is indeed a double-edged sword. It both emboldens the blood, just as it narrows the mind. And when the drums of war have reached a fever pitch and the blood boils with hate and the mind has closed, the leader will have no need in seizing the rights of the citizenry. Rather, the citizenry, infused with fear and blinded by patriotism, will offer up all of their rights unto the leader and gladly so. How do I know? For this is what I have done. And I am Caesar." - -Julius Caesar

[leveymg]

7. Quote actually was attributed to Shakespeare, but may be modern

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A29583-2002Oct1.html

It's all quite true, no matter who said it first.