Patriotism, the last refuge of a scoundrel

"He is no lover of his country, that unnecessarily disturbs its peace. Few errours and few faults of government, can justify an appeal to the rabble; who ought not to judge of what they cannot understand, and whose opinions are not propagated by reason, but caught by contagion."

"This practice is no certain note of patriotism. To instigate the populace with rage beyond the provocation, is to suspend publick happiness, if not to destroy it."

"Let us take a patriot, where we can meet him; and, that we may not flatter ourselves by false appearances, distinguish those marks which are certain, from those which may deceive; for a man may have the external appearance of a patriot, without the constituent qualities; as false coins have often lustre, though they want weight."

So spoke, Mr. Samuel Johnson (no relation) in his pamphlet "The Patriot", way back in 1774; probably more so than today, the political circus was not just "in town" but simply and pathetically out of control

Can anybody inform me why people actually take Donald "I'm rich" Trump seriously? Perhaps if they understood the reasons behind their idolatry we'd all be served.

Todays photo was discovered earlier this afternoon, it's an actual surviving piece of a steel beam/girder from One World Trade Center, Manhattan New York, a building that was destroyed on 11th September 2001

"A patriot is necessarily and invariably a lover of the people. But even this mark may sometimes deceive us."