The Fall Of Democracy?

Something to think about:

At about the time our original 13 states adopted their new constitution, in the year 1787, Alexander Tyler (a Scottish history professor at The University of Edinborough) had this to say about “The Fall of The Athenian Republic” some 2,000 years prior.
“A democracy is always temporary in nature; it Simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, (which is) always followed by a dictatorship.”

“The average age of the worlds greatest civilizations from the beginning of history, has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, these nations always progressed through the following sequence:

From Bondage to spiritual faith;
From spiritual faith to great courage;
From courage to liberty;
From liberty to abundance;
From abundance to complacency;
From complacency to apathy;
From apathy to dependence;
From dependence back into bondage.”


Professor Joseph Olson of Hamline University School of Law, St. Paul, Minnesota, points out some interesting facts concerning the most recent Presidential election:
Continue reading

Tri Update

Today, I was back in the saddle of the bike I know and love. It did take a bit of adjustment since my bike is better -er- different than the MT bikes i used in Guatemala. For instance, I almost lost it when i slammed on the brakes and discovered significantly more gripping power than I had become accustomed to during the last week.

My ride was progressing nicely, I was easily staying at 18-19 mph during the straight-a-ways and keeping my average speed above 17 mph which would give me a time of under 32 minutes. Unfortunately, it had rained and cutting a corner to avoid a jogger onto a bridge caused me to invent the wooden slip’n slide. The wreck nicely bruised my right hip and ripped my rear derailer completely off my bike. The fun part was then carrying my bike back the mile and a half to where I had parked. Hopefully it won’t take too long to get my bike fixed.

6 Mile Bike Time – 32:00 pace

UPDATE: The bike shop had to order parts so I won’t get my bike back until Aug 2nd.

Tri Update

I’m back! Trying to take advantage of the “blood-packing” that naturally takes place at higher altitudes, I went for a 2 mile run today. It definitely took longer for my breath to get heavy and I recovered much quicker than previously, but I was hoping for even more progress. Perhaps the long journey back caused some back sliding.

2 Mile Run Time – 18:34

Hello From Guatemala 2

Got internet again. the shift key on this thing sucks so i’ve stopped using it. yesterday we kiyaked or however you spell that. And that was pretty much it so i went for a 25 min run in the afternoon. the villagers got a kick out of the crazy gringo running down the dirt road. today we did a half day hike up “golden hill”. it was steep with really loose dirt so it was interesting. then we hike around the city as a tour — oh yes and we got to ride in the back of a toyota pickup which is apparently a taxi down here.