You never know what we'll churn up in cleaning a stall
It is of great importance in a republic, not only to guard the society against the oppression of its rulers; but to guard one part of society against the injustices of the other part. Different interests necessarily exist in different classes of citizens.
James Madison in Federalist No. 51
… the liberties of Rome proved the final victim to her military triumphs … A standing force therefore us a dangerous, at the same time that it may be a necessary provision. One the smallest scale, its has its inconveniences. On an extensive scale, its consequences may be fatal.
James Madison in Federalist No. 41
The first is, that the Convention must have enjoyed in a very singular degree, an exemption from the pestilential influence of party animosities, the diseases most incident to deliberative bodies, and most apt to contaminate their proceedings. The second conclusion is, that all of the deputations composing the Convention, were either satisfactorily accommodated by the final act; or were induced to accede to it, by a deep conviction of sacrificing private opinions and partial interests to the public good, and by a despair of seeing this necessity diminished by delays or by new experiments.
James Madison in Federalist No. 37
… in the federal republic of the United States … the society itself will be broken into so many parts, interests and classes of citizens, that the rights of individuals or of the minority, will be in little danger from interested combinations of the majority.
James Madison in Federalist No. 51
In a free government, the security for civil rights must be the same as for religious rights.
James Madison in Federalist No. 51
I’m thinking of those ridiculous online ads that purport to be something about Maine but show us images of urban Arizona or maybe Miami, the furthest opposites to where I live yet purporting to be local for here. You know, most affordable housing or food delivery or the ten best restaurants or plumbers in Eastport. We don’t have nearly that many. Got it?
Many of them somehow zero in on tiny East Machias or, for our weather almanac, as St. John, New Brunswick, or Halifax, Nova Scotia. Do note that East Machias is not Eastport. They’re an hour apart.
There’s also the Microsoft ab that proclaims “Eastport light traffic,” which is truly baffling. There are only three or four traffic lights in the entire county, OK? Heavy traffic, apart from road construction, is usually three or four vehicles.
These are even worse than the late-night TV commercials that couldn’t come close to properly pronouncing where we lived in the Pacific Northwest.
A good government implies two things; first, fidelity to the object of government, which is the happiness of the people; second, a knowledge of the means by which that object can be best obtained.
James Madison in Federalist No. 62
The House of Representatives … can make no law which will not have its full operation on themselves and their friends, as well as on the great mass of society. This has always been deemed one of the strongest bonds by which human policy can connect the rulers and the people together. It creates between them that communion of interests and sympathy of sentiments of which few governments have furnished examples; but without which every government degenerates into tyranny.
James Madison in Federalist No. 57
Do we really have to wait another year for the new Interstate 395 leg from Maine Route 9 to I-95 itself to open?
It’s only a few miles and minutes but eliminates a lot of aggravation in getting from here at the eastern edge of the country to most of the rest of the USA. That half-hour of narrow roadway competing with Canadian tractor-trailers on icy pavement plus small-town radar speed traps is an aggravating bottleneck, believe me, even before you factor in all of the Acadia National Park seasonal crush. The new route will ultimately get us around Bangor/Brewer more swiftly and maybe save us ten minutes or so at most, but on a five-hour drive that can be huge.
As it is falls back into a Trump-era vision of what’s supposed to be good at least as the fireworks and firearms retailers along the way declare.
What’s the biggest traffic hang-up you hate?
Ambition must be made to counteract ambition.
James Madison in Federalist No. 51
