In a message dated 01/19/2003 2:55:35 PM Eastern Standard Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:


>
> I've known this for a long time but had forgotten it -- and now I can't
> even remember its source. Is it by anon or does it have a known author?
> In any case it's a wonderful epigram.
>
> Carrol
>

It's from an old English folk poem, and I've only ever seen it attributed to
the famous Anon.  Here's the whole thing:

They hang the man and flog the woman
That steal the goose from off the common,
But let the greater villain loose
That steals the common from the goose.

The law demands that we atone
When we take things we do not own
But leaves the lords and ladies fine
Who take things that are yours and mine.

The poor and wretched don't escape
If they conspire the law to break;
This must be so but they endure
Those who conspire to make the law.

The law locks up the man or woman
Who steals the goose from off the common'
And geese will still a common lack
Till they go and steal it back.


 jb...


They hang the man and flog the woman
That steal the goose from off the common,
But let the greater villain loose
That steals the common from the goose.

Constant apprehension of war has the same tendency
to render the head too large for the body.  A standing military
force with an overgrown executive will not long be safe.
companions to liberty.  -- Thomas Jefferson


"America is a quarter of a billion people totally misinformed and disinformed
by their government. This is tragic but our media is -- I wouldn't even say
corrupt -- it's just beyond telling us anything that the government doesn't
want us to know."

Gore Vidal