(Melchizedek Communique, MC060809) In his whimsical A History Of New York, Washington Irving (1783 - 1859, image shown) mentions one Charondas, a "locrian legislator" who ordained a "sage ordinance":

"...that whoever proposed a new law, should do it with a halter about his neck; so that in case his proposition was rejected, he was strung up -- and there the matter ended." [1]

A brief check finds there was indeed a person known as Charondas. "The laws of Charondas were, like those of many of the ancient legislators, in verse, and formed part of the instruction of the young." Charondas had made a law that no man should be allowed to come armed into the assembly of the people. Then, one day, absent-mindedly, Charondas broke his own law. Some one pointed out to Charondas he had come armed to the assembly and remarked to him, "You are violating your own law." His reply was, "On the contrary, by Zeus, I will establish it"; and he slew himself on the spot. [2]

Commenting on the Charondas ordinance, that those proposing a new law were to have a halter about their neck, Irving relates that the ordinance "had such an effect, that for more than two hundred years there was only one trifling alteration in the criminal code -- and the whole race of lawyers starved to death for want of employment." [1]

But in New Amsterdam, later called New York, "in a little while the blessings of innumerable laws became notoriously apparent. It was soon found necessary to have a certain class of men [lawyers] to expound and confound them..." [1]

Washington Irving's life spanned an era: Named after George Washington, Irving was fortunate enough to meet the founding father when Irving was 6 years old; and Washington Irving himself passed away in 1859, coincident to the start of the Abraham Lincoln times. [3]

In the previous Communique was noticed "frogs arising from falsity." [5] An example given, falsity as to the notion of a rift between President Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, upon reflection is deemed possibly not such a good example. Who knows? Maybe there really is a rift of some sort between Merkel and Obama. In the June 6, 2009 British Telegraph newspaper, Ambrose Evans-Pritchard mentions "Chancellor Angela Merkel lashed out last week at quantitative easing by the Fed, the Bank of England, and the European Central Bank..." [4]

A better example of "frogs" (reasonings/laws) arising from "the river of falsity" would be the Patriot Act, having arisen from the false explanation of the surrealist events of September 11, 2001 (9/11).

Soon the American legislators will be advancing yet even more laws. From the "global warming" river of falsity shall arise "frogs" (reasonings). The American legislators will not be wearing halters about their necks when they propose the new laws. But perhaps some, in the spirit of Charondas, wish our lawmakers would do so.

------- Sources -------
[1] A History Of New York, by Washington Irving. Book IV, Ch. 5
[2] "Charondas"
http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/Bios/Charondas.html
[3] "Washington Irving", Wikipedia, June 7, 2009
[4] "Merkel's inflationary fretting may wake the bears from hibernation", by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard. Telegraph (UK), June 6, 2009
[5] "...frogs arising from falsity": Melchizedek Communique MC060709
http://www.shout.net/~bigred/mc060709.html