From the Notable & Quotable of the Wall Street Journal

I am always enchanted with this post in the WSJ. I find in there something that expresses my thoughts on current politics, ethics and morals. How nice that can bathe in the soothing, cleansing waters poured forth by great minds. And so it happened again last Sunday, March 19, 2011. Whom did they quote but St. Augustine of Hippo(354-430), in "The City of God." Augustine goes all out by accusing governments: "Justice taken away, then, what are kingdoms but great robberies? For what are robberies themselves, but little kingdoms. Ouch!! Augustine's knife cuts straight to the hart of the matter. When we are governed without laws we are governed by robbers! When government defies the will of the majority of its citizens, forcing upon them a system of health care, taxes and rules that the people abhor, it is nothing but a band of robbers enslaving citizens by brute force.

Augustine ended his admonitions thus: "Indeed, that was an apt and truly reply which was given to Alexander the Great by a pirate who had been seized. For when that king had asked the man what he meant by keeping hostile possession of the sea, he answered with bold pride, "What thou meanest by seizing the whole earth; but because I do it with a petty ship, I am called a robber; whilst thou who dost it with a great fleet art styled emperor."

How clever and how true. The difference between the robber or the pirate and the emperor is embodied only in the law and the administration thereof. Without ethical and moral codes in government, citizens are nothing but victims of robbery.