ALAN FRANKLIN WRITES: In the past, nations like the USA and Great Britain often elected real statesmen, as well as the usual scoundrels. At a time when both our countries are hurtling full tilt into state socialism - aka Marxism - here's a blast from the past: wise words from Senator Daniel Webster, who knew the dangers big government posed to freedom.
Just in case anyone misses the point, I have just spent an annoying half hour trying to send a small sum of money by bank transfer in Britain. The fact that I have banked at this institution for 40 years and they all know me well cuts no ice; they require me to prove my identity. Driving licence with microchip attached? That won't do. The fact that my signature is on my bank card, and it is my money I want to transfer? This cuts no ice. They all used to be readers of a newspaper I edited, where my picture adorned a weekly column. They know this. However, thanks to ever more all-embracing red tape, this still doesn't prove I am who I claim to be. I may, according to our imbecelic but all pervasive government, be a terrorist money launderer. In the end I sent the money by making the sum one penny short of a thousand pounds.That's as much as you are allowed to "launder." Of course, I could have sent the same again tomorrow without proving anything. Duh. Give me strength...Meanwhile, here's Daniel Webster.
"I apprehend no danger to our country from a foreign foe ... Our destruction, should it come at all, will be from another quarter. -- From the inattention of the people to the concerns of their government, from their carelessness and negligence, I must confess that I do apprehend some danger. I fear that they may place too implicit a confidence in their public servants, and fail properly to scrutinize their conduct; that in this way they may be made the dupes of designing men, and become the instruments of their own undoing. Make them intelligent, and they will be vigilant; give them the means of detecting the wrong, and they will apply the remedy." --U.S. Senator Daniel Webster (1782-1852)
