"Hey, what's that river down there?" Emperor Bu$h asks his batman.

[DemoTex]

"It's called the Rubicon, Mr. President."

Some folks out there might not be familiar with the phrase, so as a quick refresher…

The Rubicon was the Roman name of a river in northern Italy which marked the border of between the closest Roman province, and the Roman motherland itself.

Roman Law absolutely forbade the crossing of that river and bringing a standing army into the heart of Rome and into the area that was explicitly and exclusively under the jurisdiction of the Senate. Julius Caesar broke that law and led his army into the sacred center of Rome – supposedly declaring ¨iacta alea est¨ or “the die is cast”, and igniting a civil war.

“Crossing the Rubicon” has come to generally mean committing irrevocable to any sort of reckless or risky course of action, but it originally and specifically meant to turn your military power against your own country in defiance of the law. (More ..)

http://driftglass.blogspot.com/2006/01/hey-whats-that-river-down-there.html

Excellent piece from Driftglass.

[DemoTex]

1. Shameless kick for the night crew

Mac

[nemo137]

2. There's a book on Roman history called Rubicon

It's quite scary, and draws some fairly explicit parallels between today and the fall of the Roman repulic.