tf2lobby:43759928

The government that governs least, governs best.



Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both. - Benjamin Franklin



The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamoring to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary. - H. L. Mencken


- Logical Reasoning Gone Wrong -

FIRST VILLAGER: We have found a witch. May we burn her?
ALL: A witch! Burn her!
BEDEVERE: Why do you think she is a witch?
SECOND VILLAGER: She turned me into a newt.
BEDEVERE: A newt?
SECOND VILLAGER (after looking at himself for some time): I got better.
ALL: Burn her anyway.
BEDEVERE: Quiet! Quiet! There are ways of telling whether she is a witch.
BEDEVERE: Tell me ... what do you do with witches?
ALL: Burn them.
BEDEVERE: And what do you burn, apart from witches?
FOURTH VILLAGER: ... Wood?
BEDEVERE: So why do witches burn?
SECOND VILLAGER: (pianissimo) Because they're made of wood?
BEDEVERE: Good.
ALL: I see. Yes, of course.
BEDEVERE: So how can we tell if she is made of wood?
FIRST VILLAGER: Make a bridge out of her.
BEDEVERE: Ah ... but can you not also make bridges out of stone?
ALL: Yes, of course ... um ... er ...
BEDEVERE: Does wood sink in water?
ALL: No, no, it floats. Throw her in the pond.
BEDEVERE: Wait. Wait... tell me, what also floats on water?
ALL: Bread? No, no no. Apples ... gravy ... very small rocks ...
BEDEVERE: No, no no,
KING ARTHUR: A duck!
(They all turn and look at ARTHUR. BEDEVERE looks up very impressed.)
BEDEVERE: Exactly. So ... logically ...
FIRST VILLAGER (beginning to pick up the thread): If she ... weighs the same as
a duck . . . she's made of wood.
BEDEVERE: And therefore?
ALL: A witch!