A sad commentary on the current state of affairs

[j2k4]

You start a thread mourning loss of honor, then you justify the lack of honor by using precedents.

I started a thread mourning loss of honor?

After gallivanting around the entire galactic periphery of irrelevence, you choose now to remind me that I have gone astray?

Surely you joust.

Who justified what?

I just stated one of the principles of leadership.

That it has been exercised since time immemorial is exactly on point, and recalling Presidents who have apologized when they saw no recourse does not disprove the tenet.

[j2k4]

no it's not

precedent
1.
1. An act or instance that may be used as an example in dealing with subsequent similar instances.
2. Law. A judicial decision that may be used as a standard in subsequent similar cases: a landmark decision that set a legal precedent.
2. Convention or custom arising from long practice: The President followed historical precedent in forming the Cabinet.

I think you've been had, vid.

[vidcc]

I think you've been had, vid.

you think?

[j2k4]

you think?

You could always ask, if you're not sure...

[vidcc]

You could always ask, if you're not sure...

It's been said before, people will judge by what they read.

I have only what is in front of me

[hobbes]

Looks like Vidcc has been spared the hook.

[j2k4]

Looks like Vidcc has been spared the hook.

For the nonce...

[manker]

It's spelt Presidents.

Spelt is wheat :wink:

[Snee]

One of the most intriguing characters in American history is Alexander Stephens, the vice president of the Confederacy. Stephens was a shriveled little man and a notorious hypochondriac, though nevertheless a brilliant lawyer and an outstanding orator. After the war, he was elected governor of Georgia and got into a dispute with another individual.

Vice president of the confederacy?

Forgive me if I'm wrong but this is the same confederacy that made the bulk of their money by, what shall we call it...unorthodox employment of labour, to facilitate for maximal profits in production of raw materials for textile manufacture?

Someone who'd condone those kinds of goings on might be called a lot of things, a paragon of honour doesn't strike me as being the first on the list, tho'.

[Cheese]

Vice president of the confederacy?

Forgive me if I'm wrong but this is the same confederacy that made the bulk of their money by, what shall we call it...unorthodox employment of labour, to facilitate for maximal profits in production of raw materials for textile manufacture?

Someone who'd condone those kinds of goings on might be called a lot of things, a paragon of honour doesn't strike me as being the first on the list, tho'.

I like this version of his little knife-fight story better:

In 1848 he had a personal encounter with Judge Cone, of Greensboro, which illustrated the physical courage for which he had been noted from youth--the courage that comes, not from principle or duty, but from utter indifference to consequences. The difficulty grew out of a quarrel on the Clayton compromise of 1848. Cone cut Stephens terribly with a knife and cried : "Now, ---you, retract, or I'll cut your throat." The bleeding, almost dying Stephens said : "Never !--cut," and grasped the swiftly descending knife-blade in his right hand. That hand never again wrote plainly. Few of the witnesses of the affair, which occurred on the piazza of Thompson's hotel, Atlanta, expected him to recover.

Source