A tale of two quotations

Two "quotations" from Thomas Jefferson from both sides of the political spectrum.

Left side

"The end of democracy and the defeat of the American Revolution will occur when government falls into the hands of lending institutions and moneyed incorporations."

Right Side 

"The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not."

Both are not really quotations from Jefferson, while the right's version is obviously false.  Let's face it, Jefferson was a slave owner: talk about taking from people who work for a living without proper compensation!

The exact quotation used by the Left also has not been found in the writings of Thomas Jefferson. It may be a mistaken amalgamation of the author's comments in the above 1994 reference with a real Jefferson quotation. Jefferson wrote in 1825 to William Branch Giles of "vast accession of strength from their younger recruits, who having nothing in them of the feelings or principles of ’76 now look to a single and splendid government of an Aristocracy, founded on banking institutions and monied in corporations under the guise and cloak of their favored branches of manufactures commerce and navigation, riding and ruling over the plundered ploughman and beggared yeomanry."

This gets to what exactly were the real reasons for the American War for Independence?  If it was based upon free trade and an end to monopolies (i.e. The British East India Company), then the legacy would be one which is more left leaning than the current right wing appropriation of the "Tea Party" title would have us believe.


The problem with the period of the War of Independence is that it has become part of the US National myth.  It is romanticised and not seen in its proper historical context.  Instead of creating a utopia, it created anarchy and economic ruin which was only fixed by the adoption of the Constitution.

People need to reassess that period of Early American history in a new light.  I would hope that it would help extinguish the insurrectionist nonsense that has become common which none of the founders would tolerate.

Not really a quote of the day...

I once saw a bumper sticker which misattributed this to Thomas Jefferson:

"The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not."

Amusing to have someone who owned slaves make a statement like that one.  Although, this is a more realistic rendition of the above comment.

You may be more of a socialist than you realise.

How can you run a public policy based upon fiction?

In this case, a bogus quote from George Washington:

I guess not basing arguments on actual facts is part of Conservativism 101.

The words are part of a well-worn favorite conservative passage known as the "Liberty Teeth" quote. It reads in its entirety:

Firearms stand next in importance to the Constitution itself. They are the American people's liberty teeth and keystone under independence. The church, the plow, the prairie wagon, and citizen's firearms are indelibly related. From the moment the Pilgrims landed, to the present day, events, occurrences, and tendencies prove that to ensure peace, security and happiness, the rifle and pistol are equally indispensable. Every corner of this land knows firearms, and more than 99 99/100 percent of them by their silence indicate they are in safe and sane hands. The very atmosphere of firearms anywhere and everywhere restrains evil interference; they deserve a place of honor with all that's good. When firearms go, all goes; we need them every hour.

The quote is a hoax, and a well-known one. As Extra! pointed out ("The Right's Library of Fake Quotes," 4/10). It has been widely debunked, including in Playboy magazine, where it had been quoted (12/95) and subsequently become the subject of a lengthy correction  (12/95), after the editor of the Papers of George Washington project at the University of Virginia called it "either a complete fabrication or a case of misattribution.

The "liberty teeth" quote is so well known as a fraud that the pro-gun Second Amendment Foundation, in inveighing against the use of bogus quotes as "counterproductive," to the cause, cites it as the prime example, and "perhaps the most infamous bogus saying attributed to a Founding Father."

Knowing how to source check is a research basic!

Great NRA Misquotations

Wayne LaPierre's miquotation of FDR's "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself" that he attributes to Winston Churchill, which makes it only more laughable...

if people were able to see beyond their fear and ignorance that what he is saying is obvious bullshit.



Here is the actual speech made by FDR (his first inaugural address):



This is a good analysis of the use of fear to manipulate people.  LaPierre wants people to be afraid since he knows scared people don't think very well. 

FDR, on the other hand, is making a speech of reassurance and hope.  FDR is trying to do the exact opposite of what LaPierre is doing (which probably would also be the case if Churchill had made such a speech--he would want people to be confident, not afraid).

The reality is that this is such blatantly obvious propaganda and fear mongering that this post should be unnecessary.

Unfortunately, it is necessary.

Propaganda is the use of emotions (in this case fear) to cause people to short circuit their intellect.

You're being played.

You would know that if you would sit back and use critical reasoning skills.

See also:

• Franklin D. Roosevelt: First Inaugural Address. U.S. Inaugural Addresses. 1989
• Surprise: New Study Pinpoints The Root Of Right Wing Ideology

Misquoting Yamamoto

It's fun how the gunloon lives in a world of alternative history.
Perhaps the most often used bogus quote is attributed to Adolf Hitler. Usually, the questionable passage reads as follows:

1935 will go down in History! For the first time, a civilized nation has full gun registration! Our streets will be safer, our police more efficient and the world will follow our lead to the future!

Note: This passage sometimes features different punctuation and slight wording changes including a beginning of, ‘For the first time in history, a....’ Various citations include: Adolf Hitler, April 15, 1935, in address to the Reichstag; Adolf Hitler 1935 'Berlin Daily' (Loose English Translation) April 15th, 1935 Page 3 Article 2 by Einleitung Von Eberhard Beckmann -"Abschied vom Hessenland!". "Adolf" is sometimes misspelled as ‘Adolph’ on the Internet.
While the above 'quote' makes a nice T-shirt, there are numerous problems with this alleged statement. (1) It violates the rule of not beginning a sentence with a number. (2) It isn’t phrased in Hitler’s style. (3) Major changes to the German gun laws occurred in 1928 and 1931 (under the Weimar Republic) and in 1938 (under the Nazi’s). No significant changes happened in the gun registration laws in 1935. Furthermore, the changes in 1928 and 1931 were designed to disarm the Nazis and Communists and therefore it is doubtful that Hitler would trumpet the success of any law aimed at his goon squads.
Unfortunately, the major problem is that the first "civilized nation" that required anyone wanting to purchase or own a firearm or ammunition to obtain a firearm certificate was Great Britain with 1920 Firearms Act. Strangely enough, there hasn't been a genocide in the UK.
Likewise, advocates of gun rights often argue that in World War II Japan was deterred from invading the U.S. mainland by a fear of American citizens with guns in their closets. They frequently quote Japan’s Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto as saying: "You cannot invade mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind each blade of grass."
FactCheck.org looked into this quotation and determined that:

this quote is unsubstantiated and almost certainly bogus, even though it has been repeated thousands of times in various Internet postings. There is no record of the commander in chief of Japan’s wartime fleet ever saying it.

According to Wikiquote, the blade of grass quote is one of two incorrectly attribute to Admiral Yamamoto.

Abusing Federalist Paper No. 46: "the advantage of being armed, which the Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation"

One thing that proponents of the "individual right" like to do is take quotations out of context, misquote, and generally play fast and loose with actual history: in this case Federalist Paper No. 46.

Madison's purpose in Federalist Paper No. 46 was to respond to Antifederalist fears of a strong central government and their strident opposition to ratification of the Constitution. He was not making cogent arguments in political theory. There is no implication in the passage below that Madison meant a individual right to be armed outside of accountability to public authority. Madison was describing a balance of power between state government and federal government, not Sue Wimmershoff-Caplan's "armed citizen guerrillas" and any and all government. The militiamen, commanded by officers, were beholden to state government. The favorite words that are lifted out of context are in bold:

The only refuge left to those who prophesy the downfall of the State governments is the visionary supposition that the federal government may previously accumulate a military force for the projects of ambition. The reasonings contained in these papers must have been employed to little purpose indeed, if it could be necessary now to disprove the reality of this danger. That the people and the States should, for a sufficient period of time, elect an uninterrupted succession of men ready to betray both; that the traitors would, throughout this period, uniformly and systematically pursue some fixed plan for the extension of the military establishment; that the governments and the people of the States would silently and patiently behold the gathering storm and continue to supply materials until it should be prepared to burst on their own heads must appear to everyone more like the incoherent dreams of a delirious jealousy, or the misjudged exaggerations of a counterfeit zeal, than like the sober apprehensions of genuine patriotism. Extravagant as the supposition is, let it, however, be made. Let a regular army, fully equal to the resources of the country, be formed; and let it be entirely at the devotion of the federal government: still it would not be going too far to say the State governments with the people on their side would be able to repel the danger. The highest number to which, according to the best computation, a standing army can be carried in any country does not exceed one hundredth part of the whole number of souls; or one twenty-fifth part of the number able to bear arms. This proportion would not yield, in the United States, an army of more than twenty-five or thirty thousand men. To these would be opposed a militia amounting to near half a million of citizens with arms in their hands, officered by men chosen from among themselves, fighting for the common liberties and united and conducted by governments possessing their affections and confidence. It may well be doubted whether a militia thus circumstanced could ever be conquered by such a proportion of regular troops. Those who are best acquainted with the late successful resistance of this country against the British arms will be most inclined to deny the possibility of it. Besides the advantage of being armed, which the Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation , the existence of subordinate governments, to which the people are attached and by which the militia officers are appointed, forms a barrier against the enterprises of ambition, more insurmountable than any which a simple government of any form can admit of. Notwithstanding the military establishments of the several kingdoms of Europe , which are carried as far as the public resources will bear, the governments are afraid to trust the people with arms. And it is not certain that with this aid alone they would not be able to shake off their yokes. But were the people to possess the additional advantages of local governments chosen by themselves, who could collect the national will and direct the national force, and of officers appointed out of the militia by these governments and attached both to them and to the militia, it may be affirmed with the greatest assurance that the throne of every tyranny of Europe would be speedily overturned in spite of the legions which surround it. Let us not insult the free and gallant citizens of America with the suspicion that they would be less able to defend the rights of which they would be in actual possession than the debased subjects of arbitrary power would be to rescue theirs from the hands of their oppressors. Let us rather no longer insult them with the supposition that they can ever reduce themselves to the necessity of making the experiment by a blind and tame submission to the long train of insidious measures which must precede and produce it.

Of course, people who are ignorant are happy to just repeat the misquotations--only to make fools of themselves.