Michael Moore on the fire story: The Decline and Fall of the American Empire

[TonyMontana]

http://michaelmoore.com/words/mike-friends-blog/decline-and-fall-american-empire

As our infrastructure crumbles -- while Wall Street just had its best September since 1939 -- let's take another moment to honor that great Roman Crassus and how he became so wealthy:

Marcus Licinius Crassus Dives was an influential Roman politician from the Late Republic...

His rise to political prominence was primarily due to his enormous wealth. Crassus’ wealth was acquired through a combination of his silver mines, trafficking in slaves, and the purchasing of land and houses. The latter was the foundation for his reputation for greed, as his real estate acquisitions occurred under unsavory clouds. Under Sulla’s reign of terror, Crassus benefited by purchasing the property of proscribed citizens at cutthroat prices. Even worse, in the eyes of his fellow citizens, was his habit of buying burning homes. Rome had no fire department at the time, and Crassus maintained a personal firefighting force that would rush to the site of a burning building along with Crassus himself. Once there, Crassus would bargain for the fiery structure, as well as for the buildings surrounding it. Once he had made as many deals as he deemed profitable, his army went to work extinguishing the flames.

LOL

[joeybee12]

1. So apparently the Roman Empire didn't fall...it was just dormant and is

resurrecting itself here.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

3. You've finally nailed it.

[joeybee12]

6. I gotta tell you, it hurts to watch that guy clapping his hands so hard...

he's gonna take off the skin!

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

7. "That guy."

Good one.

[WingDinger]

2. FIRESTARTAH

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmin5WkOuPw

[fasttense]

4. How come banks seem to get their money out of governments

but the Fire Departments in TN can't?

I'm thinking some very strange arrangements are being made.

[JackRiddler]

5. I thought of the same example, however Crassus was a more reasonable guy...

When the homeowner begged to pay, he allowed it.