"The main purpose of the stock market is to make fools of as many men as possible."
~~ financier Bernard Baruch [1870–1965]
"It's just amazing how long this country has been going to hell without ever having got there."
~~ TV curmudgeon Andy Rooney
"Sentiment without action is the ruin of the soul."
~~ eco-activist Edward Abbey [1927-89]
"You will not become a saint thru other people's sins."
~~ Anton Chekhov [1860-1904]
"A great truth is a truth whose opposite is also a truth."
~~ Thomas Mann [1875-1955]
"The accomplice to the crime of corruption is frequently our own indifference."
~~ Bess Myerson
"The expression 'as a matter of fact' precedes many an expression that isn't."
~~ Laurence J. Peter [1919-90]
"You are made in the image of what you desire."
~~ Thomas Merton [1915-68]
"Our doubts are traitors and make us lose the good [that] we often might win, by fearing to attempt."
~~ activist Jane Addams [1860-1935]
"We must try to contribute joy to the world. I didn't always know this and am happy [that] I lived long enough to find it out."
~~ Roger Ebert, in 2011
"Racecar spelled backwards is racecar."
~~ Kevin Kennedy
"I do want to get rich, but I never want to do what there is to do to get rich."
~~ Gertrude Stein [1874-1946]
"History keeps repeating itself. That's one of the things wrong with history."
~~ Clarence Darrow [1857-1938]
"Character is like a tree and a reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing."
~~ Abraham Lincoln [1809-65]
"There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you."
~~ Maya Angelou
"The proper time to influence the character of a child is about 100 years before he is born."
~~ theologian Wm. Ralph Inge [1860-1954]
"Being right half the time beats being half-right all the time."
~~ Malcolm Forbes [1919-90]
"There are some days I practice positive thinking, and other days I'm not positive [that] I am thinking."
~~ John M. Eades
"Age is mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter."
~~ Mark Twain [1835-1910]
"To have joy one must share it."
~~ George Gordon, Lord Byron [1788-1824]
"An idea that isn't dangerous is hardly worth calling an idea at all."
~~ Oscar Wilde [1854-1900]
"Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold. / Mere Anarchy is loosed upon the world. / ... / The best lack all conviction, while the worst / Are full of passionate intensity."
~~ W.B. Yeats [1865-1939], in "the Second Coming" 1919
"If someone thinks that he does not live by a philosophy, then what he really lives by are the scraps and tail-ends of other people's broken and discarded philosophies."
~~ G.K. Chesterton [1874-1936]
"The blackest despair that can take hold of any society is the fear that living honestly is futile."
~~ Italian journalist Corrado Alvaro [1895-1956]
"There can be no happiness if the things [that] we believe in are different from the things [that] we do."
~~ Freya Stark [1893-1993]
"The charm of fame is so great that we like every object to which it is attached, even death."
~~ Blaise Pascal [1623-62]
Zuckerberg's Law: "The amount of sharing by a Facebook user roughly doubles each year."
"Be like a postage stamp. Stick to one thing until you get there."
~~ Josh Billings [1818-85]
"[Steve Jobs] revolutionized six industries: personal computers, animated movies, music, phones, tablet computing, and digital publishing."
~~ biographer Walter Isaacson
"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life."
~~ Steve Jobs [1955-2011], in 2005
"The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about."
~~ Oscar Wilde [1854-1900]
"The next best thing to being clever is being able to quote someone who is.”
~~ Mary Pettibone Poole [?-??]
"Hóka-héy, today is a good day to die!"
~~ Sioux leader Crazy Horse [c. 1840-1877]
"The only good Indian is a dead Indian."
~~ General Phillip Sheridan [1831-88]
{each set of posted quotations are then posted at the Working Minds website, alphabetical by author}
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Thursday, October 13, 2011
The U.S. Beer Monopoly
The United States ranks 13th in per capita beer consumption at 81.6 liters, and is second in total volume against #1 China.
Beer accounts for roughly 85% of all alcohol volume sold in the United States and annually generates over $91 billion in retail sales. South African Breweries-Miller became the largest brewing company in the world when it acquired Royal Grolsch in 2002; InBev was then the second-largest beer-producing company in the world, and Anheuser-Busch was third.
But when Anheuser-Busch acquired InBev in November 2008, the new Anheuser-Busch InBev company became the largest brewer in the world.
2010 statistics from Beverage Industry Magazine, March 2011
Anheuser-Busch InBev places first:
#1 Bud Light – 28.5% market share
#2 Budweiser – 11.4% market share
#5 Natural Light – 6.0% market share
#6 Busch Light – 4.0% market share
#7 Busch – 3.6% market share
#10 Natural Ice – 1.9% market share
— for a total of at least 55.4 percent share of the U.S. beer market
Molson Coors places second:
#3 Coors Light – 10.2% market share
#9 Keystone Light – 2.6% market share
— for a total of 12.8 percent share of the U.S. beer market
SAB-Miller places third:
#4 Miller Lite – 9.1% market share
#8 Miller High Life – 2.7% market share
— for a total of 11.8 percent share of the U.S. beer market
... which adds up to three corporations controlling at least 80 percent of the U.S. beer market.
Copyright 2011 by G.E. Nordell, all rights reserved
Beer accounts for roughly 85% of all alcohol volume sold in the United States and annually generates over $91 billion in retail sales. South African Breweries-Miller became the largest brewing company in the world when it acquired Royal Grolsch in 2002; InBev was then the second-largest beer-producing company in the world, and Anheuser-Busch was third.
But when Anheuser-Busch acquired InBev in November 2008, the new Anheuser-Busch InBev company became the largest brewer in the world.
2010 statistics from Beverage Industry Magazine, March 2011
Anheuser-Busch InBev places first:
#1 Bud Light – 28.5% market share
#2 Budweiser – 11.4% market share
#5 Natural Light – 6.0% market share
#6 Busch Light – 4.0% market share
#7 Busch – 3.6% market share
#10 Natural Ice – 1.9% market share
— for a total of at least 55.4 percent share of the U.S. beer market
Molson Coors places second:
#3 Coors Light – 10.2% market share
#9 Keystone Light – 2.6% market share
— for a total of 12.8 percent share of the U.S. beer market
SAB-Miller places third:
#4 Miller Lite – 9.1% market share
#8 Miller High Life – 2.7% market share
— for a total of 11.8 percent share of the U.S. beer market
... which adds up to three corporations controlling at least 80 percent of the U.S. beer market.
Thursday, October 06, 2011
A Walter T. Foster Story
Walter T. Foster published a series of large-format books about art, such as "How To Draw Horses". The books were priced at a dollar each in the 1940s and 1950s, were displayed on racks at hobby and stationary stores, and were so popular that he became very wealthy. His daughter Margaret was my mother's best friend, and Margaret and her son Lyle lived only a few miles away from us in Culver City, California. (Lyle was the age of my two younger brothers, so he and I never connected.)
Walter Foster was a character. He made his fortune and allowed himself to indulge himself in fun ways. He had a Christmas list, and my mother was on that list. I remember one year Walter sent out a limited edition phonograph record of him singing Christmas carols, backed by something like a 25-piece orchestra. The platter itself had to be 78rpm and was about ten inches across and made of clear red plastic, sorta like ruby glass. (I do not remember any impression of Walter's singing.)
Another year he sent out limited edition prints of a watercolor by one of the artists presented in his art books, mailed in a tube. My father was a cabinet maker and he liked the print, so he framed it under glass and the picture hung in my parents' hallway for many years.
The painted portion is on ecru? paper; measures twenty-one inches wide and 14 inches high; and the signature is in red in the bottom right corner. The subject is a road in India, the trees look like California sycamores, and three oxcarts are moving along the sun-dappled road. Dad scotch-taped a label from 'Walter Foster Art Services' on the back, with the handwritten date 1962.
When I was in the Air Force, my permanent station was Las Vegas, Nevada (with visits to Thailand and VietNam), and when I was discharged, I got a job as the systems programmer for Howard Hughes (the I.B.M. 360 was brand new then). At some point during that two years, the artist of my parents's watercolor print had a one-man showing in Las Vegas, and I went one afternoon. I do not remember where that event was, but I can see the house and the driveway, it was a commercial gallery that appeared to be adobe and was in a residential neighborhood. The artist was there, a medium-size man from India; he was surrounded by art people and I was not very comfortable in that setting, so I did not speak to him. His other paintings on display were very good. That would have been in 1969 or 1970.
Around 1980, Margaret and Walter died close together in time and Lyle inherited the company and hated being an executive, so eventually he sold it to a corporation and moved to Northern California and became a taxidermist.
Fast forward. Mom was changing the decor at the house, one of her hobbies, and she asked me if I wanted the Foster watercolor, and I agreed and that print has been in my possession ever since. After I moved to New Mexico, I hung the framed picture in my hallway; I began to wonder what it is that I have, but cannot decipher the signature, which seems to contain the initial letters G and something and A and R. I began wondering what the picture might be worth during one of my visits to Santa Fe, which is infested with art galleries of all types. (I figure that identifying the artist will shorten the door-to-door hunt up Canyon Road, etc.)
I tried emailing the present company, but got no reply. The official website boasts of their 88-year history, and they are keeping up to date with such products as an iPad app about drawing with digital software. I might also be able to identify the artist by slogging thru the books about watercolor, but I do not have access, nor is the website anywhere near complete in presenting old issues.
I plan to (and did) take a photo of the framed painting and a close-up of the signature, so that there are now two yellowish hotlinks in this sentence.
ADDED May 2017:
One of the very neat things about the internet is that people keep adding stuff. I did some googling today and I seem to have found the answer.
My guess of the signature as g.o. Aversanoj was not far off: the artist is Gideon D. Arulraj who was born in 1925 and died in June 1972 while visiting India. Arul had a studio (and gallery?) in Laguna Beach in the 1960s and 1970s.
Detail from this painting was used for the cover of "From India: Paintings by Arul Raj (Foster How To Series #74)" [1960], which is described as ‘vintage Walter T. Foster 'How to Paint' book by Indian artist Arul Raj’ (several of which are available used on Amazon & eBay & Etsy).
Copyright 2011 & 2017 by G.E. Nordell, all rights reserved
Walter Foster was a character. He made his fortune and allowed himself to indulge himself in fun ways. He had a Christmas list, and my mother was on that list. I remember one year Walter sent out a limited edition phonograph record of him singing Christmas carols, backed by something like a 25-piece orchestra. The platter itself had to be 78rpm and was about ten inches across and made of clear red plastic, sorta like ruby glass. (I do not remember any impression of Walter's singing.)
Another year he sent out limited edition prints of a watercolor by one of the artists presented in his art books, mailed in a tube. My father was a cabinet maker and he liked the print, so he framed it under glass and the picture hung in my parents' hallway for many years.
The painted portion is on ecru? paper; measures twenty-one inches wide and 14 inches high; and the signature is in red in the bottom right corner. The subject is a road in India, the trees look like California sycamores, and three oxcarts are moving along the sun-dappled road. Dad scotch-taped a label from 'Walter Foster Art Services' on the back, with the handwritten date 1962.
When I was in the Air Force, my permanent station was Las Vegas, Nevada (with visits to Thailand and VietNam), and when I was discharged, I got a job as the systems programmer for Howard Hughes (the I.B.M. 360 was brand new then). At some point during that two years, the artist of my parents's watercolor print had a one-man showing in Las Vegas, and I went one afternoon. I do not remember where that event was, but I can see the house and the driveway, it was a commercial gallery that appeared to be adobe and was in a residential neighborhood. The artist was there, a medium-size man from India; he was surrounded by art people and I was not very comfortable in that setting, so I did not speak to him. His other paintings on display were very good. That would have been in 1969 or 1970.
Around 1980, Margaret and Walter died close together in time and Lyle inherited the company and hated being an executive, so eventually he sold it to a corporation and moved to Northern California and became a taxidermist.
Fast forward. Mom was changing the decor at the house, one of her hobbies, and she asked me if I wanted the Foster watercolor, and I agreed and that print has been in my possession ever since. After I moved to New Mexico, I hung the framed picture in my hallway; I began to wonder what it is that I have, but cannot decipher the signature, which seems to contain the initial letters G and something and A and R. I began wondering what the picture might be worth during one of my visits to Santa Fe, which is infested with art galleries of all types. (I figure that identifying the artist will shorten the door-to-door hunt up Canyon Road, etc.)
I tried emailing the present company, but got no reply. The official website boasts of their 88-year history, and they are keeping up to date with such products as an iPad app about drawing with digital software. I might also be able to identify the artist by slogging thru the books about watercolor, but I do not have access, nor is the website anywhere near complete in presenting old issues.
I plan to (and did) take a photo of the framed painting and a close-up of the signature, so that there are now two yellowish hotlinks in this sentence.
ADDED May 2017:
One of the very neat things about the internet is that people keep adding stuff. I did some googling today and I seem to have found the answer.
My guess of the signature as g.o. Aversanoj was not far off: the artist is Gideon D. Arulraj who was born in 1925 and died in June 1972 while visiting India. Arul had a studio (and gallery?) in Laguna Beach in the 1960s and 1970s.
Detail from this painting was used for the cover of "From India: Paintings by Arul Raj (Foster How To Series #74)" [1960], which is described as ‘vintage Walter T. Foster 'How to Paint' book by Indian artist Arul Raj’ (several of which are available used on Amazon & eBay & Etsy).
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
September 2011 Quotations
"Spouting Tea Party propaganda does not make you a patriot, the same as getting athlete's foot does not make you an athlete."
~~ G.E. Nordell
"Privatization is fascism, period."
~~ G.E. Nordell
"There are no rules in filmmaking, only sins. And the cardinal sin is dullness."
~~ Frank Capra [1897-1991]
"I was born not knowing and have had only a little time to change that here and there."
~~ Richard P. Feynman [1918-88]
"Man is the only animal that blushes. Or needs to."
~~ Mark Twain [1835-1910]
"Man is the only animal that plays poker."
~~ Don Herold [1889-1966]
"Politicians are people who, when they see the light at the end of the tunnel, go out and buy more tunnel."
~~ London banker Sir John Quinton
"The actions of men are the best interpreters of their thoughts."
~~ John Locke [1632-1704]
"All excess, as well as all renunciation, brings its own punishment."
~~ Oscar Wilde [1854-1900]
"Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something is more important than fear."
~~ beat writer Ambrose Redmoon {real name James Neil Hollingworth} [1933–96]
"The meaning of life is the most urgent of questions."
~~ Albert Camus [1913-60]
"The great accomplishments of man have resulted from the transmission of ideas of enthusiasm."
~~ Thomas J. Watson [1874-1956], founder of I.B.M.
"In Art, as in love, instinct is enough."
~~ Anatole France [1844-1924]
"I thought drama was when the actors cried. But drama is when the audience cries."
~~ Frank Capra [1897-1991]
"Thunder is impressive, but it is the lightning that does all the work."
~~ Mark Twain [1835-1910]
"Didn't we settle the question of Divine Right in 1776?"
~~ Susan S. Pastin of Chicago, Illinois (in a Letter to Time Magazine, August 2011)
"Cynicism ... follows whenever malefactors of great wealth escape the consequences of their deeds."
~~ Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor & publisher of The Nation Magazine
"Know the true value of time; snatch, sieze, and enjoy every moment of it. No idleness, no delay, no procrastination; never put off until tomorrow what you can do today."
~~ Philip Stanhope, Lord Chesterfield [1694-1773]
"Sometimes it's necessary to go a long distance out of the way in order to come back a short distance correctly."
~~ playwright Edward Albee, in "Zoo Story", 1958
"I will keep working until every [American] who wants to work has a job."
~~ Congressman Martin Heinrich [Dem-NM01], Labor Day 2011
"When writing a novel, a writer should create living people; people not characters. A character is a caricature."
~~ Ernest Hemingway [1899-1961]
"You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club."
~~ Jack London [1876-1916]
“At least half the mystery novels published violate the law that the solution, once revealed, must seem to be inevitable.”
~~ Raymond Chandler [1888-1959]
"Hatred is the coward's revenge for being intimidated."
~~ George Bernard Shaw [1856-1950]
"There is no labor [that] a person does that is undignified, if they do it right."
~~ Bill Cosby
"Confidence is what you have until you understand the problem."
~~ Woody Allen
"What we think or what we know or what we believe is, in the end, of little consequence. The only thing of consequence is what we do."
~~ John Ruskin [1819-1900]
"I think I can safely say that nobody understands quantum mechanics."
~~ Richard P. Feynman [1918-88] (in 1965)
"I intend to live forever - so far, so good."
~~ comedian Steven Wright
"It takes a great deal of courage to stand up to your enemies, but even more to stand up to your friends."
~~ J.K. Rowling
"If life were predictable it would cease to be life, and be without flavor."
~~ Eleanor Roosevelt [1884-1962]
"All men make mistakes, but married men find out about them sooner."
~~ Red Skelton [1913-97]
"Charm is the ability to make someone else think that both of you are pretty wonderful."
~~ novelist Kathleen Winsor [1919-2003]
"History is not merely what happened. It is what happened in the context of what might have happened."
~~ historian Hugh Trevor-Roper [1914-2003]
"If moderation is a fault, then indifference is a crime."
~~ Jack Kerouac [1922-69]
"What the American public wants in the theater is a tragedy with a happy ending."
~~ William Dean Howells [1837-1920]
"The drought in New Mexico is so bad that the big-ticket show at the arena in Albuquerque last month was 'Disney On Dirt'."
~~ G.E. Nordell
{each set of posted quotations are then posted at the Working Minds website, alphabetical by author}
~~ G.E. Nordell
"Privatization is fascism, period."
~~ G.E. Nordell
"There are no rules in filmmaking, only sins. And the cardinal sin is dullness."
~~ Frank Capra [1897-1991]
"I was born not knowing and have had only a little time to change that here and there."
~~ Richard P. Feynman [1918-88]
"Man is the only animal that blushes. Or needs to."
~~ Mark Twain [1835-1910]
"Man is the only animal that plays poker."
~~ Don Herold [1889-1966]
"Politicians are people who, when they see the light at the end of the tunnel, go out and buy more tunnel."
~~ London banker Sir John Quinton
"The actions of men are the best interpreters of their thoughts."
~~ John Locke [1632-1704]
"All excess, as well as all renunciation, brings its own punishment."
~~ Oscar Wilde [1854-1900]
"Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something is more important than fear."
~~ beat writer Ambrose Redmoon {real name James Neil Hollingworth} [1933–96]
"The meaning of life is the most urgent of questions."
~~ Albert Camus [1913-60]
"The great accomplishments of man have resulted from the transmission of ideas of enthusiasm."
~~ Thomas J. Watson [1874-1956], founder of I.B.M.
"In Art, as in love, instinct is enough."
~~ Anatole France [1844-1924]
"I thought drama was when the actors cried. But drama is when the audience cries."
~~ Frank Capra [1897-1991]
"Thunder is impressive, but it is the lightning that does all the work."
~~ Mark Twain [1835-1910]
"Didn't we settle the question of Divine Right in 1776?"
~~ Susan S. Pastin of Chicago, Illinois (in a Letter to Time Magazine, August 2011)
"Cynicism ... follows whenever malefactors of great wealth escape the consequences of their deeds."
~~ Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor & publisher of The Nation Magazine
"Know the true value of time; snatch, sieze, and enjoy every moment of it. No idleness, no delay, no procrastination; never put off until tomorrow what you can do today."
~~ Philip Stanhope, Lord Chesterfield [1694-1773]
"Sometimes it's necessary to go a long distance out of the way in order to come back a short distance correctly."
~~ playwright Edward Albee, in "Zoo Story", 1958
"I will keep working until every [American] who wants to work has a job."
~~ Congressman Martin Heinrich [Dem-NM01], Labor Day 2011
"When writing a novel, a writer should create living people; people not characters. A character is a caricature."
~~ Ernest Hemingway [1899-1961]
"You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club."
~~ Jack London [1876-1916]
“At least half the mystery novels published violate the law that the solution, once revealed, must seem to be inevitable.”
~~ Raymond Chandler [1888-1959]
"Hatred is the coward's revenge for being intimidated."
~~ George Bernard Shaw [1856-1950]
"There is no labor [that] a person does that is undignified, if they do it right."
~~ Bill Cosby
"Confidence is what you have until you understand the problem."
~~ Woody Allen
"What we think or what we know or what we believe is, in the end, of little consequence. The only thing of consequence is what we do."
~~ John Ruskin [1819-1900]
"I think I can safely say that nobody understands quantum mechanics."
~~ Richard P. Feynman [1918-88] (in 1965)
"I intend to live forever - so far, so good."
~~ comedian Steven Wright
"It takes a great deal of courage to stand up to your enemies, but even more to stand up to your friends."
~~ J.K. Rowling
"If life were predictable it would cease to be life, and be without flavor."
~~ Eleanor Roosevelt [1884-1962]
"All men make mistakes, but married men find out about them sooner."
~~ Red Skelton [1913-97]
"Charm is the ability to make someone else think that both of you are pretty wonderful."
~~ novelist Kathleen Winsor [1919-2003]
"History is not merely what happened. It is what happened in the context of what might have happened."
~~ historian Hugh Trevor-Roper [1914-2003]
"If moderation is a fault, then indifference is a crime."
~~ Jack Kerouac [1922-69]
"What the American public wants in the theater is a tragedy with a happy ending."
~~ William Dean Howells [1837-1920]
"The drought in New Mexico is so bad that the big-ticket show at the arena in Albuquerque last month was 'Disney On Dirt'."
~~ G.E. Nordell
{each set of posted quotations are then posted at the Working Minds website, alphabetical by author}
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
News Factoids for August & September 2011
U.S. ECONOMIC NEWS
The percentage of Americans living below the poverty line in 2010 was 15.1 percent, the worst since 1993.
~~ per New York Times, 9/2011
Meanwhile, Rick Perry brags about his policies as Texas governor, and 18.4% of Texans were living below that same poverty line in 2010, up from 17.3% a year earlier – 21.9 percent above the national statistic!
How's the economy? Game hardware and software sales were down 26 percent in July over July a year ago, and down 23 percent in August over August 2010.
~~ per Zach Epstein of Boy Genius Report blog and The N.P.D. Group
Here in New Mexico, the Valencia County Building Inspection Department has shut down, due to lack of housing starts this year (less than a dozen, from hundreds per year before Bush); any new permits will be handled by the state, with the regular inspectors (plumbing, electrical) keeping an eye out for non-permit work.
"Between 2004 and 2009 median net worth of white households in America fell 24 percent, [while] median net worth of black households fell 83 percent."
~~ per Economic Policy Institute, in 2011
"Eleven states earned more revenue from lotteries than from corporate income taxes in 2009." ~~ Reuters
"They [the energy industry] claim that the economy is being smothered by regulations designed to keep our air and water safe. No iota of evidence is being offered, and in fact the record profits of big energy companies indicate a spectacular lack of suffering."
~~ Miami Herald journalist Carl Hiaasen
About one-fourth of the world's aluminum is stored in Goldman Sachs warehouses in Detroit, Michigan; the raw materials are being released as a daily trickle that has shortened the supply and driven up the price. Goldman Sach makes $165 million in storage fees per year, as well as profits from trading the essentially-cornered commodity. ~~ per Reuters, July 2011
3-D movies made $6 billion worldwide in 2010, which is 20% of box office revenue.
ECOLOGY & CLIMATE CHANGE NEWS
"U.S. electric utilities [use] seven times more water than all U.S. homes, 1-1/2 times the water used by all the farms in the country. In fact, 49 percent of all water use in the United States is for power plants ... And 16 percent of water pumped into water mains by U.S. utilities simply leaks away, back into the ground."
~~ Charles Fishman
U.S. POLITICAL NEWS
Eric Cantor outlined the Republican vision in a recent memo – they will gut environmental regulations, repeal health care reform, and attack workers.
~~ Guy Cecil
Republican hypocrisy: Newt Gingrich's campaign T-shirts are made in China, and Herman Cain's campaign T-shirts are made in Honduras.
91% of donations to Karl Rove’s American Crossroads this year came from billionaire donors bent on destroying unions and the democratic process: Texas oilman Trevor Rees-Jones, Texas billionaire Robert Rowling, Ohio billionaire Carl Linder, and billionaire TV exec Jerry Perenchio. ~~ per various news sites in June 2011
John Ashcroft, formerly U.S. Attorney general under George W. Bush, was hired in June by Xe Services (formerly Blackwater) as their 'ethics chief'.
BOOK INDUSTRY NEWS
Retail bookseller Borders Group filed bankruptcy in February, and began liquidating their stores in July.
Books-A-Million, now the second-largest bookseller, reported an 11 percent decrease in sales in the last quarter.
B&N reported that key indicator 'revenue in stores open at least one year' fell 1.6% at regular stores and 1.8% at college bookstores. ~~ per Reuters
Barnes & Noble's sales of the Nook device rose 140 percent last quarter, and Toys & Games showed large increases, but the overall sales results were still negative.
If on January First you had decided to invest $100 in Amazon, $100 in Barnes & Noble, and $100 in Books-A-Million, your investments would now stand at: Amazon up 14.75%, B&N down 26.20%, and Books-A-Million down 55.63%.
Copyright 2011 by G.E. Nordell, all rights reserved
The percentage of Americans living below the poverty line in 2010 was 15.1 percent, the worst since 1993.
~~ per New York Times, 9/2011
Meanwhile, Rick Perry brags about his policies as Texas governor, and 18.4% of Texans were living below that same poverty line in 2010, up from 17.3% a year earlier – 21.9 percent above the national statistic!
How's the economy? Game hardware and software sales were down 26 percent in July over July a year ago, and down 23 percent in August over August 2010.
~~ per Zach Epstein of Boy Genius Report blog and The N.P.D. Group
Here in New Mexico, the Valencia County Building Inspection Department has shut down, due to lack of housing starts this year (less than a dozen, from hundreds per year before Bush); any new permits will be handled by the state, with the regular inspectors (plumbing, electrical) keeping an eye out for non-permit work.
"Between 2004 and 2009 median net worth of white households in America fell 24 percent, [while] median net worth of black households fell 83 percent."
~~ per Economic Policy Institute, in 2011
"Eleven states earned more revenue from lotteries than from corporate income taxes in 2009." ~~ Reuters
"They [the energy industry] claim that the economy is being smothered by regulations designed to keep our air and water safe. No iota of evidence is being offered, and in fact the record profits of big energy companies indicate a spectacular lack of suffering."
~~ Miami Herald journalist Carl Hiaasen
About one-fourth of the world's aluminum is stored in Goldman Sachs warehouses in Detroit, Michigan; the raw materials are being released as a daily trickle that has shortened the supply and driven up the price. Goldman Sach makes $165 million in storage fees per year, as well as profits from trading the essentially-cornered commodity. ~~ per Reuters, July 2011
3-D movies made $6 billion worldwide in 2010, which is 20% of box office revenue.
ECOLOGY & CLIMATE CHANGE NEWS
"U.S. electric utilities [use] seven times more water than all U.S. homes, 1-1/2 times the water used by all the farms in the country. In fact, 49 percent of all water use in the United States is for power plants ... And 16 percent of water pumped into water mains by U.S. utilities simply leaks away, back into the ground."
~~ Charles Fishman
U.S. POLITICAL NEWS
Eric Cantor outlined the Republican vision in a recent memo – they will gut environmental regulations, repeal health care reform, and attack workers.
~~ Guy Cecil
Republican hypocrisy: Newt Gingrich's campaign T-shirts are made in China, and Herman Cain's campaign T-shirts are made in Honduras.
91% of donations to Karl Rove’s American Crossroads this year came from billionaire donors bent on destroying unions and the democratic process: Texas oilman Trevor Rees-Jones, Texas billionaire Robert Rowling, Ohio billionaire Carl Linder, and billionaire TV exec Jerry Perenchio. ~~ per various news sites in June 2011
John Ashcroft, formerly U.S. Attorney general under George W. Bush, was hired in June by Xe Services (formerly Blackwater) as their 'ethics chief'.
BOOK INDUSTRY NEWS
Retail bookseller Borders Group filed bankruptcy in February, and began liquidating their stores in July.
Books-A-Million, now the second-largest bookseller, reported an 11 percent decrease in sales in the last quarter.
B&N reported that key indicator 'revenue in stores open at least one year' fell 1.6% at regular stores and 1.8% at college bookstores. ~~ per Reuters
Barnes & Noble's sales of the Nook device rose 140 percent last quarter, and Toys & Games showed large increases, but the overall sales results were still negative.
If on January First you had decided to invest $100 in Amazon, $100 in Barnes & Noble, and $100 in Books-A-Million, your investments would now stand at: Amazon up 14.75%, B&N down 26.20%, and Books-A-Million down 55.63%.
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
WM Essay #96 "U.S. Corporations Hoarding Profits"
Capitalism is here defined as the creation of jobs, products, and services. This does not include the anti-capitalism practices of union-busting, off-shoring, asset-stripping, down-sizing, or cash hoarding that is claimed as the Divine Right of the Robber Barons who have the sheeple convinced that feudal economics is capitalism.
George Dubya Bush's economic Great Recession continues to deplete America's net worth, while increasing the share of the Oligarchs (top one percent) and the Wealthy Class (top twenty percent) and shrinking the net worth of the rapidly-disappearing Middle Class.
The Revolution is never over, the Class War is perpetual. And the Oligarchs are winning. (Because they lie and cheat, and it works.)
The Master Class is intentionally hoarding their unearned profits, both within domestic corporations and in foreign bank accounts, because they already make plenty of money churning trades on the Stock Market Casino (40 percent of G.D.P.!). By keeping capital in short supply they can charge higher interest and also prevent the Middle Class small business person from producing anything (thus no profit to them) and also prevent small businesses from hiring fear-driven workers.
* * * * * * * *
This data is based on a January 2011 Atlantic Monthly article and other sources; revenue and profit figures are a consensus of projections for 2011. Notice that the Top Ten are made up of three banks, three computer companies, two oil companies, one drug company, and Wal-Mart.
Exxon Mobil
Projected 2011 profits of $32.3 billion on revenue of $417.6 billion equals 12.93%
Exxon Mobil also has $35 billion in untaxed foreign profit
Per Fortune Magazine, Exxon Mobil does so much international business that over 80% of its 2009 profit came from overseas. Due to excess profits at the pump, Exxon Mobil, while second to WalMart in total revenue, nonetheless managed a 2010 net profit nearly double that of Walmart's – $30.5 billion to $16.4 billion.
Microsoft, Inc.
Projected 2011 profits of $21 billion on revenue of $73.4 billion equals 28.6%
Microsoft also has $29.5 billion in untaxed foreign profit
Chevron
Projected 2011 profits of $19.8 billion on revenue of $247.23 billion equals 8%
JPMorgan Chase
Projected 2011 profits of $19.1 billion on revenue of $101.57 billion equals 18.8%
Pfizer
Projected 2011 profits of $18.3 billion on revenue of $66.09 billion equals 27.7%
Pfizer also has $48.2 billion in untaxed foreign profit
Apple, Inc.
Projected 2011 profits of $18.2 billion on revenue of $103.3 billion equals 17.6%
Bank of America
Projected 2011 profits of $16.3 billion on revenue of $109.7 billion equals 14.9%
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
Projected 2011 profits of $15.7 billion on revenue of $444.2 billion equals 3.53%
I.B.M.
Projected 2011 profits of $15.6 billion on revenue of $103.15 billion equals 15.12%
I.B.M. also has $31.1 billion in untaxed foreign profit
Wells Fargo & Co.
Projected 2011 profits of $15.3 billion on revenue of $84.8 billion equals 18%
* * * * * * * * There are, of course, large and even smaller corporations that are making huge profits percentage-wise without being on this list. Such companies in the 'also ran' category include:
AT&T
AT&T had higher net profits than Wal-Mart in 2010
AT&T reported 2010 profits of $19.86 billion on revenue of $124.3 billion equals 16%
Cisco Systems
Cisco Systems is hoarding $31.6 billion in untaxed foreign profit
Citigroup
Citigroup is hoarding $32.1 billion in untaxed foreign profit
General Electric
General Electric paid NO U.S. corporate income tax for 2010 on revenue of $150.2 billion
Goldman Sachs
2010 profits of $8.4 billion on revenue of $39.16 billion equals 21.45%
Merck
Merck is hoarding $40.4 billion in untaxed foreign profit
Procter & Gamble
Procter & Gamble is hoarding $30 billion in untaxed foreign profit
* * * * * * * * There is right now a gigantic pile of cash stashed away by U.S. corporations in European banks and elsewhere, waiting for another 'free pass' like the Bush Administration set up for them in 2004. Instead of paying the then-current 35% corporate income tax rate, $362 billion was repatriated at a 5¼ percent tax rate, at a loss to tax payers of $70 billion. But, as is typical of shenanigans devised by the fascist Oligarchy, the stated purpose for the special rate of hiring more workers did not happen: virtually the entire low-tax repatriation of 2004 resulted in payouts to executives and shareholders (and a few purchases of treasury shares) - no jobs were created.
The Oligarchs are singing the same song and dance this time; anyone who believes them is a fool. And since the hoard is much larger – estimated at one trillion dollars of the pharmaceutical industry, one trillion dollars of the banking & finance industry, and one trillion dollars of the insurance industry – the loss to taxpayers could be as much as $900 billion.
[copyright 2011 by Gary Edward Nordell, all rights reserved]
George Dubya Bush's economic Great Recession continues to deplete America's net worth, while increasing the share of the Oligarchs (top one percent) and the Wealthy Class (top twenty percent) and shrinking the net worth of the rapidly-disappearing Middle Class.
The Revolution is never over, the Class War is perpetual. And the Oligarchs are winning. (Because they lie and cheat, and it works.)
The Master Class is intentionally hoarding their unearned profits, both within domestic corporations and in foreign bank accounts, because they already make plenty of money churning trades on the Stock Market Casino (40 percent of G.D.P.!). By keeping capital in short supply they can charge higher interest and also prevent the Middle Class small business person from producing anything (thus no profit to them) and also prevent small businesses from hiring fear-driven workers.
One element of the Reason-Based Taxation proposal is that corporations be taxed at a rate of FIFTY percent for profits in excess of 10 percent of revenue. Reason-Based Taxation encourages actual Capitalism by providing the incentives of raising wages, lowering prices, domestic expansion, or buying treasury shares as simple methods to reduce profits below that 10 percent boundary. What you will see below is the extant of the greed that is today in violation of the Reason-Based Taxation proposal parameters.
This data is based on a January 2011 Atlantic Monthly article and other sources; revenue and profit figures are a consensus of projections for 2011. Notice that the Top Ten are made up of three banks, three computer companies, two oil companies, one drug company, and Wal-Mart.
Exxon Mobil
Projected 2011 profits of $32.3 billion on revenue of $417.6 billion equals 12.93%
Exxon Mobil also has $35 billion in untaxed foreign profit
Per Fortune Magazine, Exxon Mobil does so much international business that over 80% of its 2009 profit came from overseas. Due to excess profits at the pump, Exxon Mobil, while second to WalMart in total revenue, nonetheless managed a 2010 net profit nearly double that of Walmart's – $30.5 billion to $16.4 billion.
Microsoft, Inc.
Projected 2011 profits of $21 billion on revenue of $73.4 billion equals 28.6%
Microsoft also has $29.5 billion in untaxed foreign profit
Chevron
Projected 2011 profits of $19.8 billion on revenue of $247.23 billion equals 8%
JPMorgan Chase
Projected 2011 profits of $19.1 billion on revenue of $101.57 billion equals 18.8%
Pfizer
Projected 2011 profits of $18.3 billion on revenue of $66.09 billion equals 27.7%
Pfizer also has $48.2 billion in untaxed foreign profit
Apple, Inc.
Projected 2011 profits of $18.2 billion on revenue of $103.3 billion equals 17.6%
Bank of America
Projected 2011 profits of $16.3 billion on revenue of $109.7 billion equals 14.9%
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
Projected 2011 profits of $15.7 billion on revenue of $444.2 billion equals 3.53%
I.B.M.
Projected 2011 profits of $15.6 billion on revenue of $103.15 billion equals 15.12%
I.B.M. also has $31.1 billion in untaxed foreign profit
Wells Fargo & Co.
Projected 2011 profits of $15.3 billion on revenue of $84.8 billion equals 18%
AT&T
AT&T had higher net profits than Wal-Mart in 2010
AT&T reported 2010 profits of $19.86 billion on revenue of $124.3 billion equals 16%
Cisco Systems
Cisco Systems is hoarding $31.6 billion in untaxed foreign profit
Citigroup
Citigroup is hoarding $32.1 billion in untaxed foreign profit
General Electric
General Electric paid NO U.S. corporate income tax for 2010 on revenue of $150.2 billion
Goldman Sachs
2010 profits of $8.4 billion on revenue of $39.16 billion equals 21.45%
Merck
Merck is hoarding $40.4 billion in untaxed foreign profit
Procter & Gamble
Procter & Gamble is hoarding $30 billion in untaxed foreign profit
The Oligarchs are singing the same song and dance this time; anyone who believes them is a fool. And since the hoard is much larger – estimated at one trillion dollars of the pharmaceutical industry, one trillion dollars of the banking & finance industry, and one trillion dollars of the insurance industry – the loss to taxpayers could be as much as $900 billion.
[copyright 2011 by Gary Edward Nordell, all rights reserved]
Sunday, August 14, 2011
Snowjob and The Seven Dwarfs
The debate in Iowa this week between the eight Republican presidential candidates displayed what can only be described as 'Snowjob and The Seven Dwarfs'. On that same day, Texas Governor Rick Perry announced that he is running for the 2012 G.O.P. nomination – fellow Texans describe him as "dumber than George W. Bush". And Sarah Palin flits around the country, cheerleading for the Tea Party fools. Not one of the bunch can manage a two-year-old, much less a bankrupt country. This does not mean that Barack Obama will win a second term, because there are more idiots in America than there are sentient voters.
Thursday, August 11, 2011
August 2011 Quotations
"What's the difference between Congress and the Boy Scouts? The Boy Scouts have adult supervision."
~~ variation on an old joke
"The United States has many problems at the moment: a high-and-stubborn unemployment rate, a foreclosure catastrophe, a slowing economy that has not recovered and will not recover from the Great Crisis, and the ongoing challenges of infrastructure, energy and climate change."
~~ James K. Galbraith
"The greatest beauty is organic wholeness, the wholeness of life and things, the divine beauty of the universe."
~~ Robinson Jeffers [1887-1962]
“In a rational society we would want our presidents to be teachers. In our actual society we insist [that] they be cheerleaders.”
~~ Steve Allen [1921-2000]
"Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself."
~~ John Dewey [1859-1952]
"The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet."
~~ Aristotle [384-322 B.C.E.]
"Women are not in love with me but with the picture of me on the screen. I am merely the canvas upon which the women paint their dreams."
~~ Rudolph Valentino [1895-1926]
"Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school."
~~ Albert Einstein [1879-1955]
"He who opens a school door, closes a prison."
~~ Victor Hugo [1802-85]
"Education’s purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one."
~~ Malcolm Forbes [1919-90]
"Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing worth knowing can be taught."
~~ Oscar Wilde [1854-1900]
"I learned that ruling poor men's hands is nothing. Ruling men's money [is] a wedge in the world. But after I'd split it open a crack I looked in and saw the trick inside it, the filthy nothing, the fooled and rotten faces of rich and successful men."
~~ Robinson Jeffers [1887-1962]
"The only ends for which governments are constituted, and obedience render'd to them, are the obtaining of justice and protection; and they who cannot provide for both give the people a right of taking such ways as best please themselves, in order to [affect] their own safety." ~~ Algernon Sidney [1623-83] in 1672
"A man who fears suffering is already suffering from what he fears."
~~ (Michel Eyquem de) Montaigne [1533-92]
"Falling out of love is chiefly a matter of forgetting how charming someone is."
~~ Iris Murdoch [1919-99]
"There are few things more liberating in life than having your worst fear realized."
~~ Conan O'Brien
"Progress is not created by contented people."
~~ cartoonist Frank Tyger
"There are people who want to be everywhere at once, and they get nowhere."
~~ Carl Sandburg [1878-1967]
"Life is the art of drawing without an eraser."
~~ John W. Gardner [1912-2002]
"Action speaks louder than words, but not nearly as often."
~~ Mark Twain [1835-1910]
“I think it’s bad to talk about one's present work, for it spoils something at the root of the creative act. It discharges the tension."
~~ Norman Mailer [1923-2007]
“You know who the critics are? The men who have failed in literature and art.”
~~ Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield [1804-81]
"A hunch is creativity trying to tell you something."
~~ Frank Capra [1897-1991]
"Take the course opposite to custom and you will always do well."
~~ Jean-Jacques Rousseau [1712-78]
"A pun is the lowest form of humor, unless you thought of it yourself."
~~ columnist Doug Larson
"The value of an idea lies in the using of it."
~~ Thomas Alva Edison [1847-1931]
"All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware."
~~ Martin Buber [1878-1965]
"Where men are the most sure and arrogant, they are commonly the most mistaken."
~~ David Hume [1711-76]
"All great innovation is built on rejection."
~~ Louis-Ferdinand Céline [1894-1961]
"All writing is a sin against speechlesssness."
~~ Samuel Beckett [1906-89]
"Corporations are people, my friend. Of course they are." ~~ leading fascist presidential candidate Mitt Romney, in August 2011
"A great deal more is known than has been proved."
~~ Richard P. Feynman [1918-88]
"The only problem with country music is that it kills plants."
~~ former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson, trailing presidential candidate
{each set of posted quotations are then posted at the Working Minds website, alphabetical by author}
~~ variation on an old joke
"The United States has many problems at the moment: a high-and-stubborn unemployment rate, a foreclosure catastrophe, a slowing economy that has not recovered and will not recover from the Great Crisis, and the ongoing challenges of infrastructure, energy and climate change."
~~ James K. Galbraith
"The greatest beauty is organic wholeness, the wholeness of life and things, the divine beauty of the universe."
~~ Robinson Jeffers [1887-1962]
“In a rational society we would want our presidents to be teachers. In our actual society we insist [that] they be cheerleaders.”
~~ Steve Allen [1921-2000]
"Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself."
~~ John Dewey [1859-1952]
"The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet."
~~ Aristotle [384-322 B.C.E.]
"Women are not in love with me but with the picture of me on the screen. I am merely the canvas upon which the women paint their dreams."
~~ Rudolph Valentino [1895-1926]
"Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school."
~~ Albert Einstein [1879-1955]
"He who opens a school door, closes a prison."
~~ Victor Hugo [1802-85]
"Education’s purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one."
~~ Malcolm Forbes [1919-90]
"Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing worth knowing can be taught."
~~ Oscar Wilde [1854-1900]
"I learned that ruling poor men's hands is nothing. Ruling men's money [is] a wedge in the world. But after I'd split it open a crack I looked in and saw the trick inside it, the filthy nothing, the fooled and rotten faces of rich and successful men."
~~ Robinson Jeffers [1887-1962]
"The only ends for which governments are constituted, and obedience render'd to them, are the obtaining of justice and protection; and they who cannot provide for both give the people a right of taking such ways as best please themselves, in order to [affect] their own safety." ~~ Algernon Sidney [1623-83] in 1672
"A man who fears suffering is already suffering from what he fears."
~~ (Michel Eyquem de) Montaigne [1533-92]
"Falling out of love is chiefly a matter of forgetting how charming someone is."
~~ Iris Murdoch [1919-99]
"There are few things more liberating in life than having your worst fear realized."
~~ Conan O'Brien
"Progress is not created by contented people."
~~ cartoonist Frank Tyger
"There are people who want to be everywhere at once, and they get nowhere."
~~ Carl Sandburg [1878-1967]
"Life is the art of drawing without an eraser."
~~ John W. Gardner [1912-2002]
"Action speaks louder than words, but not nearly as often."
~~ Mark Twain [1835-1910]
“I think it’s bad to talk about one's present work, for it spoils something at the root of the creative act. It discharges the tension."
~~ Norman Mailer [1923-2007]
“You know who the critics are? The men who have failed in literature and art.”
~~ Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield [1804-81]
"A hunch is creativity trying to tell you something."
~~ Frank Capra [1897-1991]
"Take the course opposite to custom and you will always do well."
~~ Jean-Jacques Rousseau [1712-78]
"A pun is the lowest form of humor, unless you thought of it yourself."
~~ columnist Doug Larson
"The value of an idea lies in the using of it."
~~ Thomas Alva Edison [1847-1931]
"All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware."
~~ Martin Buber [1878-1965]
"Where men are the most sure and arrogant, they are commonly the most mistaken."
~~ David Hume [1711-76]
"All great innovation is built on rejection."
~~ Louis-Ferdinand Céline [1894-1961]
"All writing is a sin against speechlesssness."
~~ Samuel Beckett [1906-89]
"Corporations are people, my friend. Of course they are." ~~ leading fascist presidential candidate Mitt Romney, in August 2011
"A great deal more is known than has been proved."
~~ Richard P. Feynman [1918-88]
"The only problem with country music is that it kills plants."
~~ former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson, trailing presidential candidate
{each set of posted quotations are then posted at the Working Minds website, alphabetical by author}
Thursday, July 07, 2011
July 2011 Quotations
"There is justice in the truth because they are the same thing."
~~ Ross Macdonald [1915-83] in "The Three Roads", 1948
"There's class warfare, all right, but it's my class, the rich class, that's making war, and we're winning."
~~ Warren Buffett
"I will not accept if nominated and will not serve if elected."
~~ Gen. William T. Sherman [1820-91] on 5 June 1884
"It's our job to know what people want before they do."
~~ Steve Jobs
"I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."
~~ Maya Angelou
"Film has stopped being central to American life."
~~ Stuart Klawans, The Nation Magazine film critic, in April 2011
"The problem with Fox [News] is not that it's conservative. It's that it lies."
~~ Eric Alterman
"One of the greatest discoveries a man makes, one of his great surprises, is to find he can do what he was afraid he couldn't do."
~~ Henry Ford [1863-1947]
"It is really rather pathetic how simple the big things like love and war seem until you start to go into detail."
~~ Ross Macdonald [1915-83] in "The Three Roads", 1948
"Learning makes the wise wiser and the fool more foolish."
~~ English naturalist John Ray [1627-1705]
"No one really listens to anyone else, and if you try it for a while you'll see why."
~~ journalist Mignon McLaughlin
"Silence is of different kinds, and breathes different meanings."
~~ Charlotte Bronté [1816-55]
"The real menace in dealing with a 5-year-old is that in no time at all you begin to sound like a 5-year-old."
~~ writer Jean Kerr [1922-2003]
"Sports is the toy department of life."
~~ sportswriter Jimmy Cannon [1909-73]
"It's not enough for journalists and broadcasters to see themselves as mere messengers without understanding and revealing the hidden agendas of the message and the myths that surround it. We ought never to be agents of power, always of the people."
~~ John Pilger, British journalist
"God created man with a penis and a brain, but only gave him enough blood to run one at a time."
~~ Stephen E. Ambrose [1936-2002]
"The heart of another is a dark forest, always, no matter how close it has been to one's own."
~~ Willa Cather [1873-1947]
"A country without a memory is a country of madmen."
~~ George Santayana [1863-1952]
"The man who can smile when things go wrong has thought of someone else [that] he can blame it on."
~~ author Robert Bloch [1917-94]
"Loneliness is the poverty of self, solitude is the richness of self."
~~ poet May Sarton [1912-95]
"Happiness is a perfume [that] you cannot pour on others without getting a few drops on oneself."
~~ Ralph Waldo Emerson [1803-82]
"Strive not to be a success but rather to be of value."
~~ Albert Einstein [1879-1955]
"True irreverance is disrespect for another man's god."
~~ Mark Twain [1835-1910]
"If Jesus is a Jew, why does he have a Mexican name?"
~~ John Lahr
"If you've seen one redwood tree, you've seen them all."
~~ Ronald Reagan [1911-2004]
"Love is only a dirty trick played on us to achieve the continuation of the species."
~~ W. Somerset Maugham [1874-1965]
"The time [that] you enjoy wasting is not time wasted."
~~ Bertrand Russell [1872-1970]
"Everyone does better when everyone does better."
~~ W.F. Hightower
"No man is ever free, and he couldn't stand it if he were."
~~ William Faulkner [1897-1962]
"Some people see things that are and ask Why? Some people dream of things that never were and ask Why not? Some people have to go to work and don't have time for all that."
~~ George Carlin [1937-2008]
"We relish news of our heroes, forgetting that we are extraordinary to somebody too."
~~ actress Helen Hayes [1900-93]
"Pessimism is an excuse for not trying and a guarantee to a personal failure."
~~ Bill Clinton
"The only way to let your dreams come true is to wake up."
~~ Paul Valéry [1871-1945]
"The strongest argument for religion is not that it is in touch with God but that it puts us in touch with one another."
~~ Adam Gopnik
"We are all fighting for our sanity in this crazy age of the disposable person."
~~ Michael Vansickel of Pontiac, Illinois
"Paul Ryan's ['Path To Prosperity'] plan is both ridiculous and cruel."
~~ Paul Krugman
“Another flaw in the human character is that everybody wants to build and nobody wants to do maintenance.”
~~ Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. [1922-2007], in "Hocus Pocus", 1990
"My life is an ashtray."
~~ Airman Hal London, circa 1968
"The role of a writer is not to say what we all can say, but what we are unable to say."
~~ Anaïs Nin [1903-77]
{each set of posted quotations are then posted at the Working Minds website, alphabetical by author}
~~ Ross Macdonald [1915-83] in "The Three Roads", 1948
"There's class warfare, all right, but it's my class, the rich class, that's making war, and we're winning."
~~ Warren Buffett
"I will not accept if nominated and will not serve if elected."
~~ Gen. William T. Sherman [1820-91] on 5 June 1884
"It's our job to know what people want before they do."
~~ Steve Jobs
"I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."
~~ Maya Angelou
"Film has stopped being central to American life."
~~ Stuart Klawans, The Nation Magazine film critic, in April 2011
"The problem with Fox [News] is not that it's conservative. It's that it lies."
~~ Eric Alterman
"One of the greatest discoveries a man makes, one of his great surprises, is to find he can do what he was afraid he couldn't do."
~~ Henry Ford [1863-1947]
"It is really rather pathetic how simple the big things like love and war seem until you start to go into detail."
~~ Ross Macdonald [1915-83] in "The Three Roads", 1948
"Learning makes the wise wiser and the fool more foolish."
~~ English naturalist John Ray [1627-1705]
"No one really listens to anyone else, and if you try it for a while you'll see why."
~~ journalist Mignon McLaughlin
"Silence is of different kinds, and breathes different meanings."
~~ Charlotte Bronté [1816-55]
"The real menace in dealing with a 5-year-old is that in no time at all you begin to sound like a 5-year-old."
~~ writer Jean Kerr [1922-2003]
"Sports is the toy department of life."
~~ sportswriter Jimmy Cannon [1909-73]
"It's not enough for journalists and broadcasters to see themselves as mere messengers without understanding and revealing the hidden agendas of the message and the myths that surround it. We ought never to be agents of power, always of the people."
~~ John Pilger, British journalist
"God created man with a penis and a brain, but only gave him enough blood to run one at a time."
~~ Stephen E. Ambrose [1936-2002]
"The heart of another is a dark forest, always, no matter how close it has been to one's own."
~~ Willa Cather [1873-1947]
"A country without a memory is a country of madmen."
~~ George Santayana [1863-1952]
"The man who can smile when things go wrong has thought of someone else [that] he can blame it on."
~~ author Robert Bloch [1917-94]
"Loneliness is the poverty of self, solitude is the richness of self."
~~ poet May Sarton [1912-95]
"Happiness is a perfume [that] you cannot pour on others without getting a few drops on oneself."
~~ Ralph Waldo Emerson [1803-82]
"Strive not to be a success but rather to be of value."
~~ Albert Einstein [1879-1955]
"True irreverance is disrespect for another man's god."
~~ Mark Twain [1835-1910]
"If Jesus is a Jew, why does he have a Mexican name?"
~~ John Lahr
"If you've seen one redwood tree, you've seen them all."
~~ Ronald Reagan [1911-2004]
"Love is only a dirty trick played on us to achieve the continuation of the species."
~~ W. Somerset Maugham [1874-1965]
"The time [that] you enjoy wasting is not time wasted."
~~ Bertrand Russell [1872-1970]
"Everyone does better when everyone does better."
~~ W.F. Hightower
"No man is ever free, and he couldn't stand it if he were."
~~ William Faulkner [1897-1962]
"Some people see things that are and ask Why? Some people dream of things that never were and ask Why not? Some people have to go to work and don't have time for all that."
~~ George Carlin [1937-2008]
"We relish news of our heroes, forgetting that we are extraordinary to somebody too."
~~ actress Helen Hayes [1900-93]
"Pessimism is an excuse for not trying and a guarantee to a personal failure."
~~ Bill Clinton
"The only way to let your dreams come true is to wake up."
~~ Paul Valéry [1871-1945]
"The strongest argument for religion is not that it is in touch with God but that it puts us in touch with one another."
~~ Adam Gopnik
"We are all fighting for our sanity in this crazy age of the disposable person."
~~ Michael Vansickel of Pontiac, Illinois
"Paul Ryan's ['Path To Prosperity'] plan is both ridiculous and cruel."
~~ Paul Krugman
“Another flaw in the human character is that everybody wants to build and nobody wants to do maintenance.”
~~ Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. [1922-2007], in "Hocus Pocus", 1990
"My life is an ashtray."
~~ Airman Hal London, circa 1968
"The role of a writer is not to say what we all can say, but what we are unable to say."
~~ Anaïs Nin [1903-77]
{each set of posted quotations are then posted at the Working Minds website, alphabetical by author}
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
News Factoids for May & June 2011
"Cats kill about 500 million birds each year in the United States – more than 1,000 times the number killed by power-generating wind turbines."
~~ per New York Times
After President Obama announced the death of terrorist leader Osama bin Laden in Pakistan, the 'Osama Clock' on this blog's front page was moot (and thus removed). The clock displayed the fact that bin Laden was eliminated 3,513 days (9½ years!) after feckless President George Dubya Bush swore to get bin Laden 'dead or alive'.
In 1961, college students reported studying for an average of 25 hours per week; the average is now 12 to 13 hours per week, with more than a third of the students reporting that nthey spent less than five hours per week studying.
~~ per book by Arun & Roksa
In the first quarter of 2011, the number of 'smart phones' that were sold surpassed for the first time the number of computers sold.
~~ per Time Magazine
On 20 June 2011, the U.S. Supreme Court struck another blow for fascism and against freedom and liberty in the Dukes v Wal-Mart Stores [2000-2011] case by eliminating class action lawsuits against corporations.
The war in Afghanistan is now the longest in U.S. history and has cost $445 billion (not including debt on money borrowed). 1,400 American soldiers have been killed, and 10,000 were wounded.
~~ per Center For Strategic & International Studies, 3/2011
Got a problem with the mandate for energy-efficient flourescent lightbulbs? First, you can't blame Obama because the bill was signed into law by George Dubya Bush in 2007. Only the 50-watt & 75-watt incandescent bulbs are being phased out, gradually over some years. The law requires manufacturers to produce bulbs that are 25% more efficient than currently, so a switch to halogen incandescent technology is solving that problem. Stockpile incandescents if you want, but there really is no need.
GLOBAL WARMING UPDATE
Researchers say that Greenland's ice sheet shrank four times faster between 2004 to 2009 than it did in the five years beginning in 1995.
More than 600 tornadoes were reported in the U.S. in April 2011, the most-active month ever recorded, causing 369 deaths, the worst since 1925.
After the Joplin Tornado on May 22nd, it took the Joplin South Post Office three weeks to clean up and reopen. In two days they received 4,000 change of address forms.
GROCERY DISCOUNTS
Just discovered that the Albertsons grocery chain (at least here in New Mexico) has a new policy giving ten percent discounts to shoppers on certain days: on First Wednesdays the discount is for Seniors, and on First Saturdays the discount is for Veterans (with V.A. etc. ID).
THE ENEMY HAS NOT SURRENDERED
Coal Education Development and Resources foundation, known as CEDAR, offers a video to teachers called "The Greening of Planet Earth", which says that 'our world is deficient in carbon dioxide, and a doubling of atmospheric CO2 is very beneficial'. Mainstream scientists widely dispute that assertion.
REPUBLICAN HYPOCRISY
In June, The Washington Post revealed that at least 30 new G.O.P. congresspeople are carrying more than $50,000 of personal debt, and at least seven freshmen have credit card debt exceeding $15,000. Politico and C.B.S. News confirmed that pseudo-candidate Newt Gingrich owed Tiffany Jewelers at least $300,000 (as of 2007).
JOBS & THE ECONOMY
The United States lost 5 percent of jobs from 2007 to mid-2010.
~~ per Mother Jones Magazine graph 6/2011
"Paul Ryan's ['Path To Prosperity'] plan is both ridiculous and cruel."
~~ Nobel-winner Paul Krugman
"The percentage of two-earner families (in which the husband and wife [were] employed in a given year) doubled from 2007 to 2010."
~~ Louis Uchitelle
"The number of millionaire households rose 14 percent worldwide in 2009 to include 11.2 million people, and China alone saw a spike of 31 percent."
~~ per Boston Consulting Group
Median pay for CEOs of large U.S. corporations rose 27% in 2010, per federal data, while pay increases for all workers in private industry averaged 2.1%
During the critical first 100 days of the Republican-led 112th Congress, they neither proposed nor passed a single job-creation bill.
Copyright 2011 by G.E. Nordell, all rights reserved
~~ per New York Times
After President Obama announced the death of terrorist leader Osama bin Laden in Pakistan, the 'Osama Clock' on this blog's front page was moot (and thus removed). The clock displayed the fact that bin Laden was eliminated 3,513 days (9½ years!) after feckless President George Dubya Bush swore to get bin Laden 'dead or alive'.
In 1961, college students reported studying for an average of 25 hours per week; the average is now 12 to 13 hours per week, with more than a third of the students reporting that nthey spent less than five hours per week studying.
~~ per book by Arun & Roksa
In the first quarter of 2011, the number of 'smart phones' that were sold surpassed for the first time the number of computers sold.
~~ per Time Magazine
On 20 June 2011, the U.S. Supreme Court struck another blow for fascism and against freedom and liberty in the Dukes v Wal-Mart Stores [2000-2011] case by eliminating class action lawsuits against corporations.
The war in Afghanistan is now the longest in U.S. history and has cost $445 billion (not including debt on money borrowed). 1,400 American soldiers have been killed, and 10,000 were wounded.
~~ per Center For Strategic & International Studies, 3/2011
Got a problem with the mandate for energy-efficient flourescent lightbulbs? First, you can't blame Obama because the bill was signed into law by George Dubya Bush in 2007. Only the 50-watt & 75-watt incandescent bulbs are being phased out, gradually over some years. The law requires manufacturers to produce bulbs that are 25% more efficient than currently, so a switch to halogen incandescent technology is solving that problem. Stockpile incandescents if you want, but there really is no need.
GLOBAL WARMING UPDATE
Researchers say that Greenland's ice sheet shrank four times faster between 2004 to 2009 than it did in the five years beginning in 1995.
More than 600 tornadoes were reported in the U.S. in April 2011, the most-active month ever recorded, causing 369 deaths, the worst since 1925.
After the Joplin Tornado on May 22nd, it took the Joplin South Post Office three weeks to clean up and reopen. In two days they received 4,000 change of address forms.
GROCERY DISCOUNTS
Just discovered that the Albertsons grocery chain (at least here in New Mexico) has a new policy giving ten percent discounts to shoppers on certain days: on First Wednesdays the discount is for Seniors, and on First Saturdays the discount is for Veterans (with V.A. etc. ID).
THE ENEMY HAS NOT SURRENDERED
Coal Education Development and Resources foundation, known as CEDAR, offers a video to teachers called "The Greening of Planet Earth", which says that 'our world is deficient in carbon dioxide, and a doubling of atmospheric CO2 is very beneficial'. Mainstream scientists widely dispute that assertion.
REPUBLICAN HYPOCRISY
In June, The Washington Post revealed that at least 30 new G.O.P. congresspeople are carrying more than $50,000 of personal debt, and at least seven freshmen have credit card debt exceeding $15,000. Politico and C.B.S. News confirmed that pseudo-candidate Newt Gingrich owed Tiffany Jewelers at least $300,000 (as of 2007).
JOBS & THE ECONOMY
The United States lost 5 percent of jobs from 2007 to mid-2010.
~~ per Mother Jones Magazine graph 6/2011
"Paul Ryan's ['Path To Prosperity'] plan is both ridiculous and cruel."
~~ Nobel-winner Paul Krugman
"The percentage of two-earner families (in which the husband and wife [were] employed in a given year) doubled from 2007 to 2010."
~~ Louis Uchitelle
"The number of millionaire households rose 14 percent worldwide in 2009 to include 11.2 million people, and China alone saw a spike of 31 percent."
~~ per Boston Consulting Group
Median pay for CEOs of large U.S. corporations rose 27% in 2010, per federal data, while pay increases for all workers in private industry averaged 2.1%
During the critical first 100 days of the Republican-led 112th Congress, they neither proposed nor passed a single job-creation bill.
Saturday, June 25, 2011
WM Essay #95: “How Bankrupt Is America?”
U.S President George Dubya Bush ran up more debt than any other person in the history of Mankind. The Republican National Debt stands today at 25 TRILLION dollars, which is not being discussed anywhere. The hooferaw about the annual U.S. Budget Deficit is a diversion, so that the population of America has no clue that they are Indentured Servants to the fascist Oligarchy.
* * * * * * * *
SOME HISTORY
The U.S. National Debt stood at $1 trillion dollars when Ronald Reagan became President in 1981. That figure included the entire VietNam War.
At the end of the twelve-year Reagan-Bush Era, the National Debt had been quadrupled, to $4 trillion. (The Republicans complain about imaginary ‘tax and spend’ policies while their actual program is to cut taxes and borrow and spend.)
Bill Clinton’s first term saw the National Debt increase slowing down to only 25 percent, and in his second term, he produced a balanced budget AND a budget surplus.
Republicans cannot get around these facts as facts, so they yell and scream about false ‘smokescreen’ issues such as the annual budget and abortion and gay marriage and Social Security.
When Dubya became President the official Republican National Debt stood at $5.7 trillion. The official U.S. National Debt is today $14.8 trillion. So how is the Republican National Debt up to $25 trillion?
Simple.
The Reagan-Bush-Bush team stole all the money from Social Security. They stole $2.7 trillion from the very solvent Social Security fund. The reason the Republicans scream (falsely) that Social Security is bankrupt is because they traded the money for Treasury Bills, which must eventually be paid back. Somebody has to pay that debt, and if the Republicans shut down Social Security, then the Oligarchy won’t owe a dime to the U.S. Treasury.
The September 2008 bailout of quasi-governmental mortgage lenders Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac left the U.S. government holding $5.4 trillion in bogus loans. The Republicans’ solution is of course to blame Barack Obama, who wasn’t even elected to be President yet.
So far that makes a mere $22.9 trillion dollars of Republican National Debt.
The bailout of Wall Street of $700 billion became law in October 2008, and helped Obama get elected. The bailout of the U.S. automobile industry was $1 trillion, mostly between Barack Obama’s election and him being sworn in as President. (The Republicans blame him anyway, and that works because the Sheeple are willfully ignorant.)
That makes $24.6 trillion of Republican National Debt on the day that Barack Obama became President. This does not include consumer debt, real mortgage debt, or various off-the-books debt run up by Dubya, such as the cost to bring troops and equipment back from Iraq and Afghanistan, or the $3 trillion that Bush refused to spend to repair U.S. infrastructure. It also does not include the $3 trillion debt of local and state governments, or the $1 trillion in shortfalls on state & local pension funds.
MEANWHILE
The interest on that $25 trillion Republican National Debt (over-simplified calculation of 4% per year) comes to a minimum of $1 trillion each year, thus $2.5 trillion so far in interest added to the Republican National Debt.
The interest itself is merely extortion money paid to the Oligarchy. Their lobbyists prevent levying the taxes necessary to pay down the Republican National Debt, and we hand the Oligarchy a trillion dollars a year – for nothing in return.
RECAP
President Bush 43 arrived at the White House with $5.7 trillion in National Debt on the books and when he left the White House he handed debt of at least $24.6 trillion to Barack Obama. That increase of $18.9 trillion is indeed the all-time record.
The total of $25 trillion debt can only be paid down from revenue received by the U.S. Treasury. There is no option to default: The American and Chinese and Saudi oligarchs will not permit any such thing. So the U.S. taxpayer is stuck with ‘paying the piper’.
The ultimate solution is Reason-Based Taxation, but that is not yet in force, and in fact is little known. Which leaves the decimated U.S. Middle Class and-or the U.S. Wealthy Class to pay that bill.
* * * * * * * * Or how about making the Republicans pay off all that debt racked up by Dubya?
There are just over 300 million people in the United States - men, women, and children; Working Class, Middle Class, Wealthy Class, and Oligarchs.
Simple division results in a figure of $417,000 per Republican voter, $167,000 per Republican citizen, or $83,000 owed by every man, woman and child in America.
Yup, that includes hospitalized seniors, imprisoned felons, toddlers, illegal aliens, Aryan skinheads, members of Congress, and the fascist Oligarchs – and every Libertarian and Communist and Green and Democrat and Republican voter, and every non-voter, too.
Every single resident of the United States is an Indentured Servant, and the Republican National Debt grows by a trillion dollars each year because the real issue of a bankrupt America is getting no attention by our government, nor by our media, nor by We The People.
Your children and your grandchildren today each owe a minimum of $83,000 as their share of the Republican National Debt. Plus accrued interest until the debt is paid off.
Go ahead, tell your kids and grandkids this fact. And be sure to tell them how your vote for Republican candidates pro-duced this legacy. The hard part is going to be telling them how YOU are going to pay off YOUR $83,000 share.
No idea how? Corporations now pay ten percent of the taxes that they paid during the Fifties economic boom. The net worth of the Oligarchs grew by thirty percent since the Bush Tax Cuts began.
Reason-Based Taxation starts from the premise that since the Wealthy Class (of every country) owns 85 percent of everything, they should pay for 85% of the government’s activity.
The Wealthy Class has all the money, so the People have the right to bill them for the Republican National Debt. Republicans whine, but there is no recourse. If the folks with all the money do not pay the debt, how can the folks with no money pay it?
Oh, yeah: Indentured Servitude! A return to feudalism, with the aristocracy getting all the benefits and the peasants working hard their whole lives with no end in sight, no relief – their children and grandchildren doomed to the same and worse.
We already have rollbacks on the right to unionize, roll-backs on health and safety laws, rollbacks on pollution stan-dards, assaults on Medicare and Social Security and health care and pensions, rollbacks of personal bankruptcy law.
The fascist U.S. Supreme Court is cancelling the Bill of Rights and class action lawsuits – there is no way to stop their Federalist & P.N.A.C. agenda short of impeachment. (Revolution is necessary, violence is wrong!)
And the Republican agents of the Oligarchy have plans to cut the minimum wage in half, and to eliminate the Department of Education, shut down the Environmental Protection Agency – pollution is good? – and defund the Food & Drug Administration - E. Coli for all!
Given that the Republican Party ran up all this debt and avoids any possible solution by shouting about their ‘smoke-screen’ issues, the knee-jerk response is to shout back. Not a bad idea, but not enough either. Congress shouts back and forth, delaying official appointments, fiddling with the budget and cutting funds for the starving poor, for returning veterans, for fire & police & libraries – they have earned the label ‘Do Nothing Congress’.
The Republican Party will not listen, their attention is on campaign funding from the Oligarchs, and their shouting drowns out legitimate and fact-based commentary, while the Oligarchy happily racks up more trillions.
* * * * * * * *
The Gross Domestic Product of the United States of America is running just under fifteen trillion dollars per year. Comparing that figure to the 25 trillion of the Republican National Debt gives the outstanding debt as 165% of G.D.P.
The problem? If you have an annual gross income of $50,000, the equivalent would be unsecured debt of $83,000; if you have annual gross income of $100,000, then your equivalent unsecured debt would be $165,000.
In either case, you will never pay that off from your existing income. You can no longer file for bankruptcy. And neither can the U.S. of A. So the U.S. must bring in revenue from new sources – regardless of the annual budget – and the Oligarchy and the Wealthy Class are the folks who have all the money.
We The People have to wake up. We must Speak Truth To Power. The Class War is perpetual, and to do nothing is to surrender.
Copyright 2011 by G.E. Nordell, all rights reserved
SOME HISTORY
The U.S. National Debt stood at $1 trillion dollars when Ronald Reagan became President in 1981. That figure included the entire VietNam War.
At the end of the twelve-year Reagan-Bush Era, the National Debt had been quadrupled, to $4 trillion. (The Republicans complain about imaginary ‘tax and spend’ policies while their actual program is to cut taxes and borrow and spend.)
Bill Clinton’s first term saw the National Debt increase slowing down to only 25 percent, and in his second term, he produced a balanced budget AND a budget surplus.
Republicans cannot get around these facts as facts, so they yell and scream about false ‘smokescreen’ issues such as the annual budget and abortion and gay marriage and Social Security.
When Dubya became President the official Republican National Debt stood at $5.7 trillion. The official U.S. National Debt is today $14.8 trillion. So how is the Republican National Debt up to $25 trillion?
Simple.
The Reagan-Bush-Bush team stole all the money from Social Security. They stole $2.7 trillion from the very solvent Social Security fund. The reason the Republicans scream (falsely) that Social Security is bankrupt is because they traded the money for Treasury Bills, which must eventually be paid back. Somebody has to pay that debt, and if the Republicans shut down Social Security, then the Oligarchy won’t owe a dime to the U.S. Treasury.
The September 2008 bailout of quasi-governmental mortgage lenders Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac left the U.S. government holding $5.4 trillion in bogus loans. The Republicans’ solution is of course to blame Barack Obama, who wasn’t even elected to be President yet.
So far that makes a mere $22.9 trillion dollars of Republican National Debt.
The bailout of Wall Street of $700 billion became law in October 2008, and helped Obama get elected. The bailout of the U.S. automobile industry was $1 trillion, mostly between Barack Obama’s election and him being sworn in as President. (The Republicans blame him anyway, and that works because the Sheeple are willfully ignorant.)
That makes $24.6 trillion of Republican National Debt on the day that Barack Obama became President. This does not include consumer debt, real mortgage debt, or various off-the-books debt run up by Dubya, such as the cost to bring troops and equipment back from Iraq and Afghanistan, or the $3 trillion that Bush refused to spend to repair U.S. infrastructure. It also does not include the $3 trillion debt of local and state governments, or the $1 trillion in shortfalls on state & local pension funds.
MEANWHILE
The interest on that $25 trillion Republican National Debt (over-simplified calculation of 4% per year) comes to a minimum of $1 trillion each year, thus $2.5 trillion so far in interest added to the Republican National Debt.
The interest itself is merely extortion money paid to the Oligarchy. Their lobbyists prevent levying the taxes necessary to pay down the Republican National Debt, and we hand the Oligarchy a trillion dollars a year – for nothing in return.
RECAP
President Bush 43 arrived at the White House with $5.7 trillion in National Debt on the books and when he left the White House he handed debt of at least $24.6 trillion to Barack Obama. That increase of $18.9 trillion is indeed the all-time record.
The total of $25 trillion debt can only be paid down from revenue received by the U.S. Treasury. There is no option to default: The American and Chinese and Saudi oligarchs will not permit any such thing. So the U.S. taxpayer is stuck with ‘paying the piper’.
The ultimate solution is Reason-Based Taxation, but that is not yet in force, and in fact is little known. Which leaves the decimated U.S. Middle Class and-or the U.S. Wealthy Class to pay that bill.
There are just over 300 million people in the United States - men, women, and children; Working Class, Middle Class, Wealthy Class, and Oligarchs.
Simple division results in a figure of $417,000 per Republican voter, $167,000 per Republican citizen, or $83,000 owed by every man, woman and child in America.
Yup, that includes hospitalized seniors, imprisoned felons, toddlers, illegal aliens, Aryan skinheads, members of Congress, and the fascist Oligarchs – and every Libertarian and Communist and Green and Democrat and Republican voter, and every non-voter, too.
Every single resident of the United States is an Indentured Servant, and the Republican National Debt grows by a trillion dollars each year because the real issue of a bankrupt America is getting no attention by our government, nor by our media, nor by We The People.
Your children and your grandchildren today each owe a minimum of $83,000 as their share of the Republican National Debt. Plus accrued interest until the debt is paid off.
Go ahead, tell your kids and grandkids this fact. And be sure to tell them how your vote for Republican candidates pro-duced this legacy. The hard part is going to be telling them how YOU are going to pay off YOUR $83,000 share.
No idea how? Corporations now pay ten percent of the taxes that they paid during the Fifties economic boom. The net worth of the Oligarchs grew by thirty percent since the Bush Tax Cuts began.
Reason-Based Taxation starts from the premise that since the Wealthy Class (of every country) owns 85 percent of everything, they should pay for 85% of the government’s activity.
The Wealthy Class has all the money, so the People have the right to bill them for the Republican National Debt. Republicans whine, but there is no recourse. If the folks with all the money do not pay the debt, how can the folks with no money pay it?
Oh, yeah: Indentured Servitude! A return to feudalism, with the aristocracy getting all the benefits and the peasants working hard their whole lives with no end in sight, no relief – their children and grandchildren doomed to the same and worse.
We already have rollbacks on the right to unionize, roll-backs on health and safety laws, rollbacks on pollution stan-dards, assaults on Medicare and Social Security and health care and pensions, rollbacks of personal bankruptcy law.
The fascist U.S. Supreme Court is cancelling the Bill of Rights and class action lawsuits – there is no way to stop their Federalist & P.N.A.C. agenda short of impeachment. (Revolution is necessary, violence is wrong!)
And the Republican agents of the Oligarchy have plans to cut the minimum wage in half, and to eliminate the Department of Education, shut down the Environmental Protection Agency – pollution is good? – and defund the Food & Drug Administration - E. Coli for all!
Given that the Republican Party ran up all this debt and avoids any possible solution by shouting about their ‘smoke-screen’ issues, the knee-jerk response is to shout back. Not a bad idea, but not enough either. Congress shouts back and forth, delaying official appointments, fiddling with the budget and cutting funds for the starving poor, for returning veterans, for fire & police & libraries – they have earned the label ‘Do Nothing Congress’.
The Republican Party will not listen, their attention is on campaign funding from the Oligarchs, and their shouting drowns out legitimate and fact-based commentary, while the Oligarchy happily racks up more trillions.
The Gross Domestic Product of the United States of America is running just under fifteen trillion dollars per year. Comparing that figure to the 25 trillion of the Republican National Debt gives the outstanding debt as 165% of G.D.P.
The problem? If you have an annual gross income of $50,000, the equivalent would be unsecured debt of $83,000; if you have annual gross income of $100,000, then your equivalent unsecured debt would be $165,000.
In either case, you will never pay that off from your existing income. You can no longer file for bankruptcy. And neither can the U.S. of A. So the U.S. must bring in revenue from new sources – regardless of the annual budget – and the Oligarchy and the Wealthy Class are the folks who have all the money.
We The People have to wake up. We must Speak Truth To Power. The Class War is perpetual, and to do nothing is to surrender.
Saturday, June 04, 2011
June 2011 Quotations
"In politics, stupidity is not a handicap."
~~ Napolean Bonaparte [1769-1821]
"Self-development is a higher duty than self-sacrifice."
~~ Elizabeth Cady Stanton [1815-1902]
"Screenwriting is no more complicated than old French torture chambers, I think. It’s about as simple as that."
~~ James L. Brooks
"Sex and television are the opium of the people."
~~ Ross Macdonald [1915-83] in "The Barbarous Coast" [1956 novel]
"It isn't that jazz musicians die young, it's that they get older quicker."
~~ Geoff Dyer
"Men change, but seldom do they."
~~ old saying
"Earth provides for every man's need, but not for every man's greed."
~~ Mahatma Gandhi [1869-1948]
"There is a time for work and a time for love. That leaves no other time."
~~ Coco Chanel [1883-1971]
"Those only are happy who have their mind fixed on some object other than their own happiness."
~~ John Stuart Mill [1806-73]
"Solitary trees, if they grow at all, grow strong."
~~ Sir Winston Churchill [1874-1965]
"Truth, like gold, is to be obtained not by its growth, but by washing away from it all that is not gold."
~~ Leo Tolstoy [1828-1910]
"A Nation is a society united by a delusion about its ancestry and by a commnon hatred of its neighbors."
~~ Wm. Ralph Inge [1860-1954]
"Don't bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself."
~~ William Faulkner [1897-1962]
"A healthy adult bore consumes each year one and a half times his own weight in other people's patience."
~~ John Updike [1932-2009]
"History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage doesn't need to be lived again."
~~ Maya Angelou
"A good listener is not only popular everywhere, but after a while he knows something."
~~ playwright Wilson Mizner [1876-1933]
"Don't judge each day by the harvest [that] you reap but by the seeds that you plant."
~~ Robert Louis Stevenson [1850-94]
"Maybe when Obama gets back from Ireland he can chase the snakes out of Washington, DC."
~~ G.E. Nordell
"There is a great deal of difference between an eager man who wants to read a book and a tired man who wants a book to read."
~~ G.K. Chesterton [1874-1936]
"A book is the only place in which you can examine a fragile thought without breaking it, or explore an explosive idea without fear it will go off in your face. It is one of the few havens remaining where a man’s mind can get both provocation and privacy."
~~ broadcast journalist Edward P. Morgan [1910-93]
"I regard the brain as a computer which will stop working when its components fail. There is no heaven or afterlife for broken-down computers. That is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark."
~~ Stephen W. Hawking
"A house without books is like a room without windows."
~~ Heinrich Mann [1871-1950]
"Never judge a book by its movie."
~~ J.W. Eagan
"Books serve to show a man that those original thoughts of his aren’t very new after all."
~~ Abraham Lincoln [1809-65]
"What, O Lord, was the point?"
~~ Anthony Lane
"My painting is what I have to give back to the world for what the world gives to me."
~~ painter Georgia O'Keeffe [1887-1986]
"It is best to act with confidence no matter how little right you have to it."
~~ playwright Lillian Hellman [1905-84]
"The biggest human temptation is to settle for too little."
~~ Thomas Merton [1915-68]
"Almost all absurdity of conduct arises from the imitation of those whom we cannot resemble."
~~ Dr. Samuel Johnson [1709-84]
"Doing the best at this moment puts you in the best place for the next moment."
~~ Oprah Winfrey
"If we wait for the moment when everything, absolutely everything, is ready, we shall never begin."
~~ Ivan Turgenev [1818-83]
"The nice thing about being a celebrity is that, if you bore people, they think it's their fault."
~~ Henry Kissinger
"Sorrow makes us all children again, destroys all differences of intellect. The wisest know nothing."
~~ Ralph Waldo Emerson [1803-82]
{each set of posted quotations are then posted at the Working Minds website, alphabetical by author}
~~ Napolean Bonaparte [1769-1821]
"Self-development is a higher duty than self-sacrifice."
~~ Elizabeth Cady Stanton [1815-1902]
"Screenwriting is no more complicated than old French torture chambers, I think. It’s about as simple as that."
~~ James L. Brooks
"Sex and television are the opium of the people."
~~ Ross Macdonald [1915-83] in "The Barbarous Coast" [1956 novel]
"It isn't that jazz musicians die young, it's that they get older quicker."
~~ Geoff Dyer
"Men change, but seldom do they."
~~ old saying
"Earth provides for every man's need, but not for every man's greed."
~~ Mahatma Gandhi [1869-1948]
"There is a time for work and a time for love. That leaves no other time."
~~ Coco Chanel [1883-1971]
"Those only are happy who have their mind fixed on some object other than their own happiness."
~~ John Stuart Mill [1806-73]
"Solitary trees, if they grow at all, grow strong."
~~ Sir Winston Churchill [1874-1965]
"Truth, like gold, is to be obtained not by its growth, but by washing away from it all that is not gold."
~~ Leo Tolstoy [1828-1910]
"A Nation is a society united by a delusion about its ancestry and by a commnon hatred of its neighbors."
~~ Wm. Ralph Inge [1860-1954]
"Don't bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself."
~~ William Faulkner [1897-1962]
"A healthy adult bore consumes each year one and a half times his own weight in other people's patience."
~~ John Updike [1932-2009]
"History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage doesn't need to be lived again."
~~ Maya Angelou
"A good listener is not only popular everywhere, but after a while he knows something."
~~ playwright Wilson Mizner [1876-1933]
"Don't judge each day by the harvest [that] you reap but by the seeds that you plant."
~~ Robert Louis Stevenson [1850-94]
"Maybe when Obama gets back from Ireland he can chase the snakes out of Washington, DC."
~~ G.E. Nordell
"There is a great deal of difference between an eager man who wants to read a book and a tired man who wants a book to read."
~~ G.K. Chesterton [1874-1936]
"A book is the only place in which you can examine a fragile thought without breaking it, or explore an explosive idea without fear it will go off in your face. It is one of the few havens remaining where a man’s mind can get both provocation and privacy."
~~ broadcast journalist Edward P. Morgan [1910-93]
"I regard the brain as a computer which will stop working when its components fail. There is no heaven or afterlife for broken-down computers. That is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark."
~~ Stephen W. Hawking
"A house without books is like a room without windows."
~~ Heinrich Mann [1871-1950]
"Never judge a book by its movie."
~~ J.W. Eagan
"Books serve to show a man that those original thoughts of his aren’t very new after all."
~~ Abraham Lincoln [1809-65]
"What, O Lord, was the point?"
~~ Anthony Lane
"My painting is what I have to give back to the world for what the world gives to me."
~~ painter Georgia O'Keeffe [1887-1986]
"It is best to act with confidence no matter how little right you have to it."
~~ playwright Lillian Hellman [1905-84]
"The biggest human temptation is to settle for too little."
~~ Thomas Merton [1915-68]
"Almost all absurdity of conduct arises from the imitation of those whom we cannot resemble."
~~ Dr. Samuel Johnson [1709-84]
"Doing the best at this moment puts you in the best place for the next moment."
~~ Oprah Winfrey
"If we wait for the moment when everything, absolutely everything, is ready, we shall never begin."
~~ Ivan Turgenev [1818-83]
"The nice thing about being a celebrity is that, if you bore people, they think it's their fault."
~~ Henry Kissinger
"Sorrow makes us all children again, destroys all differences of intellect. The wisest know nothing."
~~ Ralph Waldo Emerson [1803-82]
{each set of posted quotations are then posted at the Working Minds website, alphabetical by author}
Monday, May 16, 2011
Recipe of The Day: Oatmeal Float
OATMEAL FLOAT
Make a steaming bowl of oatmeal. Drop in a large scoop of vanilla ice cream. Eat.
OATMEAL SUNDAE
Make a steaming bowl of oatmeal. Drop in a large scoop of vanilla ice cream. Add chocolate syrup. Then eat.
OATMEAL BANANA SPLIT
Make a steaming bowl of oatmeal. Drop in a large scoop of vanilla ice cream. Add chocolate syrup and banana pieces and whipped cream and a cherry. Then eat.
Copyright 2011 by G.E. Nordell, all rights reserved
Make a steaming bowl of oatmeal. Drop in a large scoop of vanilla ice cream. Eat.
OATMEAL SUNDAE
Make a steaming bowl of oatmeal. Drop in a large scoop of vanilla ice cream. Add chocolate syrup. Then eat.
OATMEAL BANANA SPLIT
Make a steaming bowl of oatmeal. Drop in a large scoop of vanilla ice cream. Add chocolate syrup and banana pieces and whipped cream and a cherry. Then eat.
Monday, May 09, 2011
WM Essay #94: Wal-Mart Bad, Local Businesses Good
Radio entertainer and author Garrison Keillor said awhile back that "Wal-Mart kills small towns like we used to kill the buffalo", and Wal-Mart has not stopped.
The imminent closing of the Alco store in Belén, New Mexico is directly related to Wal-Mart's policies. The Alco store in nearby Socorro closed just months after the Wal-Mart opened there in 2005.
We can't blame Wal-Mart for everything, though. The three car dealers in Belén disappeared two years ago – Baca Auto shut down, Auge Brothers sold their showroom and service building to the school district, and Tillery moved from Rio Communities to Los Lunas on the I-25.
But empty store fronts do indeed abound in Valencia County, due to the economic policies of Wal-Mart and the Bush administration. Family-owned businesses teeter as county residents patronize the enemy – to the detriment of their friends and neighbors. And the local stores that are still open rarely have full parking lots.
Why is Wal-Mart under constant attack or resistence by pro-labor, pro-America, and pro-fair deal folks? Here is a sampling:
•• Wal-Mart imports often-shoddy goods from China, made by slave labor, which intentionally eliminates jobs for American workers.
•• Wal-Mart's policy is to play King Kong and demand special incentives from local governments to build facilities. That all took place in Valencia County before I moved here, but whichever city and county officials gave away our local tax revenues should be ashamed.
•• When opening new stores, Wal-Mart policy is to undercut prices until local businesses collapse, then pull their advertising from the local paper so that it too folds, preventing the people from having access to freedom of opinion. (That likely did not happen here simply because there is no local radio and TV media in Valencia County for Wal-Mart to bully by threatening to cancel their ads.)
•• Wal-Mart's labor policies are notorious, and readers here have no doubt heard tales from their neighbors and family of the workers fired for saying the word 'union' or because they had too many raises. (Wal-Mart practice is to fire longtime loyal employees and replace them with untrained and scared new employees at minimum wage and zero benefits.)
•• One Wal-Mart policy that is seldom understood is that each and every Wal-Mart store sucks money out of the local economy. The recent hoohaw about New Mexico Gov. Martinez and film production incentives pointed to the residual effects of movie dollars spent here, with the usual statistic being that each dollar spent repeats thru the economy 10 to 12 times. Wal-Mart policy is that the local economic effect of store revenue repeats zero times.
Every dollar paid at the counter at every Wal-Mart store on all 365 days of the year is sent by pouch to headquarters in Arkansas. Every day, every store, every dollar. Bills like electric and water and taxes are paid from Arkansas. Payroll checks draw on Arkansas banks. (Readers who have paid Wal-Mart by check can read the bank of deposit on the back of each cancelled check.)
The intention is that all revenue is kept out of the local economy. As local businesses dry up, Wal-Mart expects to rule more and more of the economy.
* * * * * * * *
It is always sad to see a local gas station or clothing store or restaurant close, especially if one knows the owners or employees. But the larger problem is that Wal-Mart is only the locally most visible of the robber baron corporations.
The national economy is likewise being sucked dry. The price of gas for every reader's car has given the oil companies record-breaking profits – extortion without representation.
There is a pile of three trillion dollars in cash (likely invested in gold and eurodollars) sitting in European banks, keeping American wages low and keeping loans tight and keeping taxes unpaid.
One trillion belongs to the insurance industry, another trillion belongs to the pharmaceutical industry, the third trillion belongs to the financial industry (banks and Wall Street hooligans.).
The last such 'tax holiday' was in 2004, when U.S corporations were allowed to pay a mere 5¼% levy (instead of 35%) on $362 billion in repatriated foreign profits. The 80% tax reduction cost U.S. tax payers $70 billion.
These trillions of offshore dollars are being held hostage while lobbyists and the fascist U.S. Chamber of Commerce pressure Congress to reduce taxes paid on cash brought to America by corporations. Their record-breaking unearned wealth is swelling on the backs of labor, and all that ill-gotten gain is not enough.
* * * * * * * *
The invisible managers of the Belén Supercenter Store #1414, the Los Lunas Supercenter Store #3596, and Distribution Center No. 6084670 in Los Lunas may choose to rebut this letter (in the local newspaper), but they had better supply verifiable facts. "We never do that" statements are merely public relations spin in the face of cold, hard facts, which we can expect to be supplied by fellow readers.. (What do you want to bet: The newspaper will recieve a P/R letter from Arkansas with no factual content.)
Meanwhile, the best thing that Valencia County residents - and others across America and across the Planet - can do for the local economy is to boycott Wal-Mart – that is, not set foot in their stores – and buy from local businesses. The dollars can then percolate 10 to 12 times thru the local economy and increase tax revenue and create jobs, all of that.
Wouldn't it be cool if Wal-Mart shut down and Alco and Bealls and all the rest re-opened?
Copyright 2011 by G.E. Nordell, all rights reserved
The imminent closing of the Alco store in Belén, New Mexico is directly related to Wal-Mart's policies. The Alco store in nearby Socorro closed just months after the Wal-Mart opened there in 2005.
We can't blame Wal-Mart for everything, though. The three car dealers in Belén disappeared two years ago – Baca Auto shut down, Auge Brothers sold their showroom and service building to the school district, and Tillery moved from Rio Communities to Los Lunas on the I-25.
But empty store fronts do indeed abound in Valencia County, due to the economic policies of Wal-Mart and the Bush administration. Family-owned businesses teeter as county residents patronize the enemy – to the detriment of their friends and neighbors. And the local stores that are still open rarely have full parking lots.
Why is Wal-Mart under constant attack or resistence by pro-labor, pro-America, and pro-fair deal folks? Here is a sampling:
•• Wal-Mart imports often-shoddy goods from China, made by slave labor, which intentionally eliminates jobs for American workers.
•• Wal-Mart's policy is to play King Kong and demand special incentives from local governments to build facilities. That all took place in Valencia County before I moved here, but whichever city and county officials gave away our local tax revenues should be ashamed.
•• When opening new stores, Wal-Mart policy is to undercut prices until local businesses collapse, then pull their advertising from the local paper so that it too folds, preventing the people from having access to freedom of opinion. (That likely did not happen here simply because there is no local radio and TV media in Valencia County for Wal-Mart to bully by threatening to cancel their ads.)
•• Wal-Mart's labor policies are notorious, and readers here have no doubt heard tales from their neighbors and family of the workers fired for saying the word 'union' or because they had too many raises. (Wal-Mart practice is to fire longtime loyal employees and replace them with untrained and scared new employees at minimum wage and zero benefits.)
•• One Wal-Mart policy that is seldom understood is that each and every Wal-Mart store sucks money out of the local economy. The recent hoohaw about New Mexico Gov. Martinez and film production incentives pointed to the residual effects of movie dollars spent here, with the usual statistic being that each dollar spent repeats thru the economy 10 to 12 times. Wal-Mart policy is that the local economic effect of store revenue repeats zero times.
Every dollar paid at the counter at every Wal-Mart store on all 365 days of the year is sent by pouch to headquarters in Arkansas. Every day, every store, every dollar. Bills like electric and water and taxes are paid from Arkansas. Payroll checks draw on Arkansas banks. (Readers who have paid Wal-Mart by check can read the bank of deposit on the back of each cancelled check.)
The intention is that all revenue is kept out of the local economy. As local businesses dry up, Wal-Mart expects to rule more and more of the economy.
It is always sad to see a local gas station or clothing store or restaurant close, especially if one knows the owners or employees. But the larger problem is that Wal-Mart is only the locally most visible of the robber baron corporations.
The national economy is likewise being sucked dry. The price of gas for every reader's car has given the oil companies record-breaking profits – extortion without representation.
There is a pile of three trillion dollars in cash (likely invested in gold and eurodollars) sitting in European banks, keeping American wages low and keeping loans tight and keeping taxes unpaid.
One trillion belongs to the insurance industry, another trillion belongs to the pharmaceutical industry, the third trillion belongs to the financial industry (banks and Wall Street hooligans.).
The last such 'tax holiday' was in 2004, when U.S corporations were allowed to pay a mere 5¼% levy (instead of 35%) on $362 billion in repatriated foreign profits. The 80% tax reduction cost U.S. tax payers $70 billion.
These trillions of offshore dollars are being held hostage while lobbyists and the fascist U.S. Chamber of Commerce pressure Congress to reduce taxes paid on cash brought to America by corporations. Their record-breaking unearned wealth is swelling on the backs of labor, and all that ill-gotten gain is not enough.
The invisible managers of the Belén Supercenter Store #1414, the Los Lunas Supercenter Store #3596, and Distribution Center No. 6084670 in Los Lunas may choose to rebut this letter (in the local newspaper), but they had better supply verifiable facts. "We never do that" statements are merely public relations spin in the face of cold, hard facts, which we can expect to be supplied by fellow readers.. (What do you want to bet: The newspaper will recieve a P/R letter from Arkansas with no factual content.)
Meanwhile, the best thing that Valencia County residents - and others across America and across the Planet - can do for the local economy is to boycott Wal-Mart – that is, not set foot in their stores – and buy from local businesses. The dollars can then percolate 10 to 12 times thru the local economy and increase tax revenue and create jobs, all of that.
Wouldn't it be cool if Wal-Mart shut down and Alco and Bealls and all the rest re-opened?
Monday, May 02, 2011
May 2011 Quotations
"There are no passengers on Spaceship Earth. We are all crew."
~~ Marshall McLuhan [1911-80]
"Vote for the man who promises least; he'll be the least disappointing."
~~ Bernard Baruch [1870-65]
"The best form of communication – the most powerful – is Action; the second best form of communication is Telling The Truth; the third best form of communication is Listening."
~~ G.E. Nordell
"The world is governed by far different personages than what is imagined by those not behind the scenes."
~~ Benjamin Disraeli [1804-81]
"For every action there is an equal, and opposite, government program."
~~ David Veal
"A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is concentrated. The growth of the nation and all our activities are in the hands of a few men. We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated governments in the world – no longer a government of free opinion, no longer a government of conviction and vote of the majority, but a government by the opinion and duress of small groups of dominant men."
~~ Woodrow Wilson [1856-1924]
"Politics is a strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles."
~~ Ambrose Bierce [1842-1914]
"Laughter is the corrective force which prevents us from becoming cranks."
~~ Henri Bergson [1859-1941]
"The rank and file are usually much more primitive than we imagine. Propaganda must therefore always be essentially simple and repetitious."
~~ Joseph Goebbels [1897-1945], Nazi Propaganda Minister
"The most brilliant propagandist technique will yield no success unless one fundamental principle is borne in mind constantly . . . it must confine itself to a few points and repeat them over and over."
~~ Joseph Goebbels [1897-1945], Nazi Propaganda Minister
"The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers."
~~ Wm. Shakespeare [1564-1616]
in "Henry VI", Act IV, Scene II: spoken by Dick the Butcher
"Obviously, a man's judgment cannot be better than the information on which he has based it. Give him the truth and he may still go wrong when he has the chance to be right, but give him no news or present him only with distorted and incomplete data, with ignorant, sloppy or biased reporting, with propaganda and deliberate falsehoods, and you destroy his whole reasoning process, and make him something less than a man."
~~ Arthur Hays Sulzberger [1891-1968], American newspaper publisher
"If you wish the sympathy of the broad masses, then you must tell them the crudest and most stupid things."
~~ Adolf Hitler [1889-1945], in "Mein Kampf" [1925-26]
"Of all forms of caution, caution in love is perhaps the most fatal to true happiness."
~~ Bertrand Russell [1872-1970]
"Happiness is not the absence of problems but the ability to deal with them."
~~ Montesquieu [1689-1755]
"Laziness is nothing more than the habit of resting before you get tired."
~~ Jules Renard [1864-1910]
"Whenever there's chaos, there's ambiguity, and where there's ambiguity, there's fear. And fear gets manipulated."
~~ Robert Redford
Napier's Maxim: "When you have a bottle of champagne, you will have something to celebrate."
"The greater danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it."
~~ Michelangelo [1475-1564]
"Is there no place safe from the white man?"
~~ Western author Tabor Evans {real name Harry Whittington} [1915–89]
"To the scientist there is the joy in pursuing truth which nearly counteracts the depressing revelations of truth."
~~ H.P. Lovecraft [1890-1937]
"God must have loved the plain people, he made so many of them."
~~ Abraham Lincoln [1809-65]
"Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally."
~~ Abraham Lincoln [1809-65]
"Where all think alike, no one thinks very much."
~~ Walter Lippmann [1889-1974]
"It takes less time to do a thing right than to explain why you did it wrong."
~~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow [1807-82]
"I am a believer in punctuality, though it makes me very lonely."
~~ Edward Verrall Lucas [1868-1938]
"The free flow of information is the oxygen of democracy."
~~ Walter Isaacson
"The job that we’re here to do is to learn how to live in a way that we’re not terrified all the time."
~~ David Foster Wallace [1962-2008]
"Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd."
~~ Voltaire [1694-1778]
"To succeed in this world it is not enough to be stupid, you must also be well-mannered."
~~ Voltaire [1694-1778]
"Maturity of mind is the capacity to endure uncertainty."
~~ John Finley
"Knowledge is an unending adventure at the edge of uncertainty."
~~ Jacob Bronowski [1908-74]
"The true engines of economic growth [are] human ingenuity and productivity."
~~ economist George Horwich
"Those who say [that] they give the public what it wants begin by underestimating public taste and end by debauching it."
~~ T.S. Eliot [1888-1965]
"The worst possible outlook is indifference... Behaving like that deprives you of one of the essentials of being human: the capacity and the freedom to be outraged."
~~ Stéphane Hessel [b. 1917]
"To create is to resist. To resist is to create."
~~ Stéphane Hessel [b. 1917]
"Truth isn't always beauty, but the hunger for it is."
~~ Nadine Gordimer
"In quantum mechanics, the Universe, at its most elemental level, is random, an idea that tends to upset people."
~~ Rivka Galchen
"Our imagination is stretched to the utmost not, as in fiction, to imagine things which are not really there, but to comprehend those things which ARE there."
~~ Richard P. Feynman [1918-88]
{each set of posted quotations are then posted at the Working Minds website, alphabetical by author}
~~ Marshall McLuhan [1911-80]
"Vote for the man who promises least; he'll be the least disappointing."
~~ Bernard Baruch [1870-65]
"The best form of communication – the most powerful – is Action; the second best form of communication is Telling The Truth; the third best form of communication is Listening."
~~ G.E. Nordell
"The world is governed by far different personages than what is imagined by those not behind the scenes."
~~ Benjamin Disraeli [1804-81]
"For every action there is an equal, and opposite, government program."
~~ David Veal
"A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is concentrated. The growth of the nation and all our activities are in the hands of a few men. We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated governments in the world – no longer a government of free opinion, no longer a government of conviction and vote of the majority, but a government by the opinion and duress of small groups of dominant men."
~~ Woodrow Wilson [1856-1924]
"Politics is a strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles."
~~ Ambrose Bierce [1842-1914]
"Laughter is the corrective force which prevents us from becoming cranks."
~~ Henri Bergson [1859-1941]
"The rank and file are usually much more primitive than we imagine. Propaganda must therefore always be essentially simple and repetitious."
~~ Joseph Goebbels [1897-1945], Nazi Propaganda Minister
"The most brilliant propagandist technique will yield no success unless one fundamental principle is borne in mind constantly . . . it must confine itself to a few points and repeat them over and over."
~~ Joseph Goebbels [1897-1945], Nazi Propaganda Minister
"The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers."
~~ Wm. Shakespeare [1564-1616]
in "Henry VI", Act IV, Scene II: spoken by Dick the Butcher
"Obviously, a man's judgment cannot be better than the information on which he has based it. Give him the truth and he may still go wrong when he has the chance to be right, but give him no news or present him only with distorted and incomplete data, with ignorant, sloppy or biased reporting, with propaganda and deliberate falsehoods, and you destroy his whole reasoning process, and make him something less than a man."
~~ Arthur Hays Sulzberger [1891-1968], American newspaper publisher
"If you wish the sympathy of the broad masses, then you must tell them the crudest and most stupid things."
~~ Adolf Hitler [1889-1945], in "Mein Kampf" [1925-26]
"Of all forms of caution, caution in love is perhaps the most fatal to true happiness."
~~ Bertrand Russell [1872-1970]
"Happiness is not the absence of problems but the ability to deal with them."
~~ Montesquieu [1689-1755]
"Laziness is nothing more than the habit of resting before you get tired."
~~ Jules Renard [1864-1910]
"Whenever there's chaos, there's ambiguity, and where there's ambiguity, there's fear. And fear gets manipulated."
~~ Robert Redford
Napier's Maxim: "When you have a bottle of champagne, you will have something to celebrate."
"The greater danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it."
~~ Michelangelo [1475-1564]
"Is there no place safe from the white man?"
~~ Western author Tabor Evans {real name Harry Whittington} [1915–89]
"To the scientist there is the joy in pursuing truth which nearly counteracts the depressing revelations of truth."
~~ H.P. Lovecraft [1890-1937]
"God must have loved the plain people, he made so many of them."
~~ Abraham Lincoln [1809-65]
"Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally."
~~ Abraham Lincoln [1809-65]
"Where all think alike, no one thinks very much."
~~ Walter Lippmann [1889-1974]
"It takes less time to do a thing right than to explain why you did it wrong."
~~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow [1807-82]
"I am a believer in punctuality, though it makes me very lonely."
~~ Edward Verrall Lucas [1868-1938]
"The free flow of information is the oxygen of democracy."
~~ Walter Isaacson
"The job that we’re here to do is to learn how to live in a way that we’re not terrified all the time."
~~ David Foster Wallace [1962-2008]
"Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd."
~~ Voltaire [1694-1778]
"To succeed in this world it is not enough to be stupid, you must also be well-mannered."
~~ Voltaire [1694-1778]
"Maturity of mind is the capacity to endure uncertainty."
~~ John Finley
"Knowledge is an unending adventure at the edge of uncertainty."
~~ Jacob Bronowski [1908-74]
"The true engines of economic growth [are] human ingenuity and productivity."
~~ economist George Horwich
"Those who say [that] they give the public what it wants begin by underestimating public taste and end by debauching it."
~~ T.S. Eliot [1888-1965]
"The worst possible outlook is indifference... Behaving like that deprives you of one of the essentials of being human: the capacity and the freedom to be outraged."
~~ Stéphane Hessel [b. 1917]
"To create is to resist. To resist is to create."
~~ Stéphane Hessel [b. 1917]
"Truth isn't always beauty, but the hunger for it is."
~~ Nadine Gordimer
"In quantum mechanics, the Universe, at its most elemental level, is random, an idea that tends to upset people."
~~ Rivka Galchen
"Our imagination is stretched to the utmost not, as in fiction, to imagine things which are not really there, but to comprehend those things which ARE there."
~~ Richard P. Feynman [1918-88]
{each set of posted quotations are then posted at the Working Minds website, alphabetical by author}
Saturday, April 16, 2011
April 2011 Quotations
"You may think [that] your actions are meaningless and that they won't help, but that is no excuse, you must still act."
~~ Mahatma Gandhi [1869-1948]
"The deterioration of a government begins almost always by a decay of its principles."
~~ Montesquieu [1689-1755]
“The desire to gain wealth and the fear to lose it are our chief breeders of cowardice and propagators of corruption."
~~ William James [1842-1910]
"Self-made men are most always apt to be a little too proud of the job."
~~ Josh Billings [1818-85]
"The last Christian died on the cross."
~~ Friedrich Nietzsche [1844-1900]
"Be kind to dumb people."
~~ Don Herold [1889-1966]
“The true law of the race is progress and development. Whenever civilization pauses in the march of conquest, it is overthrown by the barbarian.”
~~ William Gilmore Simms [1806-70]
“At the end of the game, the king and the pawn go back in the same box.”
~~ Italian Proverb
“At any given moment, life is completely senseless. But viewed over a period, it seems to reveal itself as an organism existing in time, having a purpose, trending in a certain direction.”
~~ Aldous Huxley [1894-1963]
“He whose ranks are united in purpose will be victorious.”
~~ Sun Tzu [544?-496? B.C.E.]
“I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use.”
~~ Galileo Galilei [1564-1642]
“An error doesn’t become a mistake until you refuse to correct it.”
~~ Orlando A. Battista [1917-95]
“You cannot fashion a wit out of two half-wits.”
~~ Baron Neil Gordon Kinnock
“Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws.”
~~ Plato [428?-327? B.C.E.]
“The intelligence of the world is a constant. The population is increasing.”
~~ Unknown
“We didn’t lose the game; we just ran out of time.”
~~ Vince Lombardi [1913-70]
“The meaning of life is that it stops.”
~~ Franz Kafka [1883-1924]
“Knowledge speaks, but wisdom listens.”
~~ rock legend Jimi Hendrix [1942-70]
(When asked if fascism could come to America) “Yeah, but it’ll come calling itself anti-fascist.”
~~ Huey Pierce Long, Jr. [1893-1935]
“Everyone is a genius at least once a year; a real genius has his original ideas closer together.”
~~ Georg Lichtenberg [1742-99]
“I used to think that the brain was the most wonderful organ in my body. Then I realized who was telling me this.”
~~ comedian Emo Phillips
“When I am working on a problem I never think about beauty. I only think about how to solve the problem. But when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong.”
~~ R. Buckminster Fuller [1895-1983]
“When I gave food to the poor, they called me a saint. When I asked why the poor were hungry, they called me a communist.”
~~ Dom Hélder Pessoa Câmara [1909-99]
“Men and nations behave wisely once they have exhausted all the other alternatives.”
~~ Abba Eban [1915-2002]
“Opportunities multiply as they are seized.”
~~ Sun Tzu [544?-496? B.C.E.]
“Fascism: The conservative notion that killing people makes them work harder.”
~~ Anonymous
"[The U.S.A.] is awash in wealth and cash. It's just that it's not in your hands. It has been transferred, in the greatest heist in history, from the workers and consumers to the banks and the portfolios of the über-rich. Today just 400 Americans have more wealth than half of all Americans combined. Let me say that again. 400 obscenely rich people ... now have more loot, stock and property than the assets of 155 million Americans combined."
~~ filmmaker Michael Moore, March 2011 speech in Madison, Wisconsin
"[Social Security ] is not in crisis at this stage. Leave Social Security alone. We have a lot of other places we can look that is in crisis. But Social Security is not."
~~ U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid [Dem=NV] in March 2011
"Give me a woman who loves beer and I'll conquer the world"
~~ Kaiser Wilhelm I [1797-1888]
"Any salaried employee who works more that forty hours per week is anti-labor and a willing victim of corporate greed."
~~ G.E. Nordell
“If you obey all the rules you miss all the fun.”
~~ Katharine Hepburn [1907-2003]
“Reality leaves a lot to the imagination.“
~~ John Lennon [1940-80]
"Foreign aid might be defined as a transfer from poor people in rich countries to rich people in poor countries." ~~ economist Douglas Casey
"It is not the function of our government to keep the citizen from falling into error; it is the function of the citizen to keep the government from falling into error."
~~ Robert H. Jackson [1892-1954], U.S. Supreme Court Justice 1941-54
{each set of posted quotations are then posted at the Working Minds website, alphabetical by author}
~~ Mahatma Gandhi [1869-1948]
"The deterioration of a government begins almost always by a decay of its principles."
~~ Montesquieu [1689-1755]
“The desire to gain wealth and the fear to lose it are our chief breeders of cowardice and propagators of corruption."
~~ William James [1842-1910]
"Self-made men are most always apt to be a little too proud of the job."
~~ Josh Billings [1818-85]
"The last Christian died on the cross."
~~ Friedrich Nietzsche [1844-1900]
"Be kind to dumb people."
~~ Don Herold [1889-1966]
“The true law of the race is progress and development. Whenever civilization pauses in the march of conquest, it is overthrown by the barbarian.”
~~ William Gilmore Simms [1806-70]
“At the end of the game, the king and the pawn go back in the same box.”
~~ Italian Proverb
“At any given moment, life is completely senseless. But viewed over a period, it seems to reveal itself as an organism existing in time, having a purpose, trending in a certain direction.”
~~ Aldous Huxley [1894-1963]
“He whose ranks are united in purpose will be victorious.”
~~ Sun Tzu [544?-496? B.C.E.]
“I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use.”
~~ Galileo Galilei [1564-1642]
“An error doesn’t become a mistake until you refuse to correct it.”
~~ Orlando A. Battista [1917-95]
“You cannot fashion a wit out of two half-wits.”
~~ Baron Neil Gordon Kinnock
“Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws.”
~~ Plato [428?-327? B.C.E.]
“The intelligence of the world is a constant. The population is increasing.”
~~ Unknown
“We didn’t lose the game; we just ran out of time.”
~~ Vince Lombardi [1913-70]
“The meaning of life is that it stops.”
~~ Franz Kafka [1883-1924]
“Knowledge speaks, but wisdom listens.”
~~ rock legend Jimi Hendrix [1942-70]
(When asked if fascism could come to America) “Yeah, but it’ll come calling itself anti-fascist.”
~~ Huey Pierce Long, Jr. [1893-1935]
“Everyone is a genius at least once a year; a real genius has his original ideas closer together.”
~~ Georg Lichtenberg [1742-99]
“I used to think that the brain was the most wonderful organ in my body. Then I realized who was telling me this.”
~~ comedian Emo Phillips
“When I am working on a problem I never think about beauty. I only think about how to solve the problem. But when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong.”
~~ R. Buckminster Fuller [1895-1983]
“When I gave food to the poor, they called me a saint. When I asked why the poor were hungry, they called me a communist.”
~~ Dom Hélder Pessoa Câmara [1909-99]
“Men and nations behave wisely once they have exhausted all the other alternatives.”
~~ Abba Eban [1915-2002]
“Opportunities multiply as they are seized.”
~~ Sun Tzu [544?-496? B.C.E.]
“Fascism: The conservative notion that killing people makes them work harder.”
~~ Anonymous
"[The U.S.A.] is awash in wealth and cash. It's just that it's not in your hands. It has been transferred, in the greatest heist in history, from the workers and consumers to the banks and the portfolios of the über-rich. Today just 400 Americans have more wealth than half of all Americans combined. Let me say that again. 400 obscenely rich people ... now have more loot, stock and property than the assets of 155 million Americans combined."
~~ filmmaker Michael Moore, March 2011 speech in Madison, Wisconsin
"[Social Security ] is not in crisis at this stage. Leave Social Security alone. We have a lot of other places we can look that is in crisis. But Social Security is not."
~~ U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid [Dem=NV] in March 2011
"Give me a woman who loves beer and I'll conquer the world"
~~ Kaiser Wilhelm I [1797-1888]
"Any salaried employee who works more that forty hours per week is anti-labor and a willing victim of corporate greed."
~~ G.E. Nordell
“If you obey all the rules you miss all the fun.”
~~ Katharine Hepburn [1907-2003]
“Reality leaves a lot to the imagination.“
~~ John Lennon [1940-80]
"Foreign aid might be defined as a transfer from poor people in rich countries to rich people in poor countries." ~~ economist Douglas Casey
"It is not the function of our government to keep the citizen from falling into error; it is the function of the citizen to keep the government from falling into error."
~~ Robert H. Jackson [1892-1954], U.S. Supreme Court Justice 1941-54
{each set of posted quotations are then posted at the Working Minds website, alphabetical by author}
Friday, April 08, 2011
News Factoids for March & April 2011
Part 1 of the long-awaited movie version of Ayn Rand's classic Objectivist novel "Atlas Shrugged" is due in theaters on April 15th. Further details on the Ayn Rand Film Festival at Magic Lantern.
-----------------
WISCONSIN PROTESTS
The outgoing Democratic governor of Wisconsin left a $100+ million budget surplus for fiscal 2011; the new G.O.P. governor used the G.O.P.-controlled legislature to hand over $180 million to the Wealthy Class in three bills in his first month in office -- sound familiar? Then Gov. Walker reported that the $137 million budget shortfall was caused by greedy union members, and refused to enter contract talks with public sector unions, even cancelling the Memo of Agreement that allowed state employees to continue working without a contract.
The G.O.P. legislature forwarded a bill ending state employee pension funding to the State Senate. After 30,000 or more worker and citizen protesters (plus many supporters from out of state) massed in the state capitol of Madison, the Democratic members of the state Senate went into hiding, eliminating the quorum needed to vote on the new anti-union bill. Gov. Wanker has two obvious options: call out the National Guard or concede defeat.
Wisconsin does not allow recall elections until an official has been in office for a year; Gov. Wanker will be recalled next year, but meanwhile, the election for Supreme Court went Democratic, the turnout April 4th set records, and the signatures accrue steadily for the 4 to 8 recalls of legislators (only 3 seats need be turned Democratic to return to constitutional rule).
-----------------
'WE ARE ONE' PROTESTS
As a reaction to the idiocy in Wisconsin and Ohio and elsewhere, a new movement has appeared, the 'We Are One' Movement, whose website is the oddly-spelled www.we-R-1.org. The group was formed to honor Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s last speech, in which he used the phrase 'we are one' to generate support for the sanitation workers' strike in Memphis, Tennessee; but he was assassinated the next day, on 4 April 1968.
On 4 April 2011, the We Are One organization generated 1,000 rallies held across America in support of all unions (especially beleaguered public unions). The timing is handy: The 2012 election will begin soon enough and We Are One is poised to hold their second annual national rally day amidst caucus fever on 4 April 2012. It will be rather like participating in Earth Day Two, decades ago.
-----------------
ECONOMIC ISSUES
2010 third-quarter U.S. corporate profits of $1.6 trillion represented the biggest one-year jump in history.
According to the U.S. Commerce Department, construction of new homes {'housing starts') in February 2011 dropped by 22.5 percent from January; the statistic was also down 20.8 percent from the same period a year prior.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce spends more money on political campaigning than the Republican and Democratic National Committees combined, and it spends more money on lobbying than the next five biggest lobbyists combined. == per eco-activist Bill McKibben, March 2011
The all-time high average U.S. gasoline pump price of $4.11 per gallon occured in July 2008; in April 2011, the average U.S. pump price has risen to 3.71 per gallon - for no actual reason and with no end in sight.
-----------------
Home Depot has changed their policy on the veteran's/military discount: Now the 10% discount on everything at checkout is given only to active duty folks (with ID) and to veteran's with a V.A. card that shows 'service connected'.
Some Congresses deserve their very own name, such as the 80th 'Do Nothing' Congress of 1947-48. The present idiocy of the 112th Congress, with Republican Speaker John Boehner drunk at the helm, should be called the 'Bonehead' Congress.
-----------------
I am about to celebrate six years living here in rural New Mexico. I am proud to say that I never signed up for trash pickup here, and have recycled 95 percent of all my trash, by driving it to the yard behind Los Lunas City Hall, or even the 40 miles up to Albuquerque, whenever I went up for some other reason (movies, Mensa, Landmark). What I am unable to recycle - avocado peels, egg shells, some packaging - is put in a plastic grocery bag and taken to the trash can where I buy gas for the car, which amounts to a bag smaller than my head every week or two.
Six years times 12 months times $50 per month adds up to $3,600 that did not get paid out of pocket to the Big Green corporation. Many of you can do the same, and should. (However, if you live in an incorporated city, this may not be an option, as most cities and towns who provide trash service either bill each resident or fund from tax receipts).
But then I take it even further: I pick up other people's trash & litter, such as beer & soda cans or bottles in parking lots (tossing'em in the back of my car to avoid D.W.I. problems), or armloads of empty plastic water bottles at the gym, and recycle them, too. With the solar array in my back yard paying me money each month, and being 'Negative To The Landfill' as far as trash (I recycle more than my own stuff), my carbon footprint is almost as tiny as Ed Begley Jr.'s.
Copyright 2011 by G.E. Nordell, all rights reserved
-----------------
WISCONSIN PROTESTS
The outgoing Democratic governor of Wisconsin left a $100+ million budget surplus for fiscal 2011; the new G.O.P. governor used the G.O.P.-controlled legislature to hand over $180 million to the Wealthy Class in three bills in his first month in office -- sound familiar? Then Gov. Walker reported that the $137 million budget shortfall was caused by greedy union members, and refused to enter contract talks with public sector unions, even cancelling the Memo of Agreement that allowed state employees to continue working without a contract.
The G.O.P. legislature forwarded a bill ending state employee pension funding to the State Senate. After 30,000 or more worker and citizen protesters (plus many supporters from out of state) massed in the state capitol of Madison, the Democratic members of the state Senate went into hiding, eliminating the quorum needed to vote on the new anti-union bill. Gov. Wanker has two obvious options: call out the National Guard or concede defeat.
Wisconsin does not allow recall elections until an official has been in office for a year; Gov. Wanker will be recalled next year, but meanwhile, the election for Supreme Court went Democratic, the turnout April 4th set records, and the signatures accrue steadily for the 4 to 8 recalls of legislators (only 3 seats need be turned Democratic to return to constitutional rule).
-----------------
'WE ARE ONE' PROTESTS
As a reaction to the idiocy in Wisconsin and Ohio and elsewhere, a new movement has appeared, the 'We Are One' Movement, whose website is the oddly-spelled www.we-R-1.org. The group was formed to honor Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s last speech, in which he used the phrase 'we are one' to generate support for the sanitation workers' strike in Memphis, Tennessee; but he was assassinated the next day, on 4 April 1968.
On 4 April 2011, the We Are One organization generated 1,000 rallies held across America in support of all unions (especially beleaguered public unions). The timing is handy: The 2012 election will begin soon enough and We Are One is poised to hold their second annual national rally day amidst caucus fever on 4 April 2012. It will be rather like participating in Earth Day Two, decades ago.
-----------------
ECONOMIC ISSUES
2010 third-quarter U.S. corporate profits of $1.6 trillion represented the biggest one-year jump in history.
According to the U.S. Commerce Department, construction of new homes {'housing starts') in February 2011 dropped by 22.5 percent from January; the statistic was also down 20.8 percent from the same period a year prior.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce spends more money on political campaigning than the Republican and Democratic National Committees combined, and it spends more money on lobbying than the next five biggest lobbyists combined. == per eco-activist Bill McKibben, March 2011
The all-time high average U.S. gasoline pump price of $4.11 per gallon occured in July 2008; in April 2011, the average U.S. pump price has risen to 3.71 per gallon - for no actual reason and with no end in sight.
-----------------
Home Depot has changed their policy on the veteran's/military discount: Now the 10% discount on everything at checkout is given only to active duty folks (with ID) and to veteran's with a V.A. card that shows 'service connected'.
Some Congresses deserve their very own name, such as the 80th 'Do Nothing' Congress of 1947-48. The present idiocy of the 112th Congress, with Republican Speaker John Boehner drunk at the helm, should be called the 'Bonehead' Congress.
-----------------
I am about to celebrate six years living here in rural New Mexico. I am proud to say that I never signed up for trash pickup here, and have recycled 95 percent of all my trash, by driving it to the yard behind Los Lunas City Hall, or even the 40 miles up to Albuquerque, whenever I went up for some other reason (movies, Mensa, Landmark). What I am unable to recycle - avocado peels, egg shells, some packaging - is put in a plastic grocery bag and taken to the trash can where I buy gas for the car, which amounts to a bag smaller than my head every week or two.
Six years times 12 months times $50 per month adds up to $3,600 that did not get paid out of pocket to the Big Green corporation. Many of you can do the same, and should. (However, if you live in an incorporated city, this may not be an option, as most cities and towns who provide trash service either bill each resident or fund from tax receipts).
But then I take it even further: I pick up other people's trash & litter, such as beer & soda cans or bottles in parking lots (tossing'em in the back of my car to avoid D.W.I. problems), or armloads of empty plastic water bottles at the gym, and recycle them, too. With the solar array in my back yard paying me money each month, and being 'Negative To The Landfill' as far as trash (I recycle more than my own stuff), my carbon footprint is almost as tiny as Ed Begley Jr.'s.
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
March 2011 Quotations
"The American government is a rule of the people, by the people, for the bosses."
~~ Austin O'Malley [1858-1932]
"If you want to build a ship, don't drum up the people to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea."
~~ Antoine de Saint-Exupéry [1900-44]
"Secrecy is the freedom [that] tyrants dream of."
~~ Bill Moyers
"The third-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking with the majority. The second-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking with the minority. The first-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking."
~~ A.A. Milne [1882-1956]
"Everything that needs to be said has already been said. But, since no one was listening, everything must be said again."
~~ André Gide [1869-1951]
"The marketplace is democratic."
~~ John Perkins
"A bureaucrat is the most despicable of men, though he is needed as vultures are needed, but one hardly admires vultures whom bureaucrats so strangely resemble. I have yet to meet a bureaucrat who was not petty, dull, almost witless, crafty or stupid, an oppressor or a thief, a holder of little authority in which he delights in possessing a vicious dog. Who can trust such creatures?"
~~ Marcus Tullius Cicero [106 B.C.E. – 43 B.C.E.]
"I do not always drink beer, but when I do, I drink Moose Drool." He is ... Annoying Man. His latest exploit? "He goes ballooning ... with his pet bald eagle."
~~ G.E. Nordell
“More harm was done in the 20th century by faceless bureaucrats than tyrant dictators.”
~~ Dennis Prager
"Bureaucracy is the death of all sound work."
~~ Albert Einstein [1879-1955]
“There are two laws of the universe — gravity, and everyone likes Italian food.”
~~ Neil Simon
"Patience is a minor form of despair disguised as a virtue."
~~ Ambrose Bierce [1842-1914]
"Anything [that] you're good at contributes to happiness."
~~ Bertrand Russell [1872-1970]
"The great thing about unrequited love is that it's the only kind that exists."
~~ Allison Pearson
"Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months."
~~ Oscar Wilde [1854-1900]
"The young man knows the rules, but the old man knows the exception."
~~ Oliver Wendell Holmes [1809-94]
"[A movie] that stays with you is made up of a hundred or more hidden things. They're things that the audience is not conscious of, but that accumulate."
~~ Vincente Minnelli [1903-86]
"In the beginning was nonsense, and the nonsense was with God, and the nonsense was God."
~~ Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche [1844-1900]
"The desire to take medicine is perhaps the greatest feature which distinquishes man from animals."
~~ William Obler [1849-1919]
"Poverty of course is no disgrace, but it is damned annoying."
~~ William Pitt [1759-1806]
"The people have nothing to do with the laws but to obey them."
~~ Edgar Allan Poe [1809-49]
"What no wife of a writer can ever understand is that a writer is working when he's staring out the window."
~~ Burton Rascoe [1892-1957]
"What garlic is to salad, insanity is to art."
~~ Augustus Saint-Gaudens [1848-1907]
"Which is it? Is man one of God's blunders, or is God one of man's blunders."
~~ Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche [1844-1900]
"Man has made his bedlam; let him lie in it."
~~ Fred Allen [1894-1956]
"Do not put off till tomorrow what can be enjoyed today."
~~ Josh Billings [1818-85]
"Invention is the mother of necessity."
~~ Samuel Butler [1835-1902]
"Bad officials are elected by good citizens who do not vote."
~~ George Jean Nathan [1882-1958]
"A physicist is just an atom's way of looking at itself."
~~ Niels Bohr [1882-1965]
"A nation of well informed men who have been taught to know and prize the rights which God has given them cannot be enslaved. It is in the region of ignorance that tyranny begins."
~~ Benjamin Franklin [1706-90]
"Bad laws are the worst form of tyranny."
~~ Edmund Burke [1729-97]
"I consider trial by jury as the only anchor yet devised by man, by which a government can be held to the principles of its constitution."
~~ President Thomas Jefferson [1743-1826]
"God means us to be free. With divine daring, He gave us the power of choice."
~~ Cecil B. DeMille [1881-1959]
{each set of posted quotations are then posted at the Working Minds website, alphabetical by author}
~~ Austin O'Malley [1858-1932]
"If you want to build a ship, don't drum up the people to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea."
~~ Antoine de Saint-Exupéry [1900-44]
"Secrecy is the freedom [that] tyrants dream of."
~~ Bill Moyers
"The third-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking with the majority. The second-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking with the minority. The first-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking."
~~ A.A. Milne [1882-1956]
"Everything that needs to be said has already been said. But, since no one was listening, everything must be said again."
~~ André Gide [1869-1951]
"The marketplace is democratic."
~~ John Perkins
"A bureaucrat is the most despicable of men, though he is needed as vultures are needed, but one hardly admires vultures whom bureaucrats so strangely resemble. I have yet to meet a bureaucrat who was not petty, dull, almost witless, crafty or stupid, an oppressor or a thief, a holder of little authority in which he delights in possessing a vicious dog. Who can trust such creatures?"
~~ Marcus Tullius Cicero [106 B.C.E. – 43 B.C.E.]
"I do not always drink beer, but when I do, I drink Moose Drool." He is ... Annoying Man. His latest exploit? "He goes ballooning ... with his pet bald eagle."
~~ G.E. Nordell
“More harm was done in the 20th century by faceless bureaucrats than tyrant dictators.”
~~ Dennis Prager
"Bureaucracy is the death of all sound work."
~~ Albert Einstein [1879-1955]
“There are two laws of the universe — gravity, and everyone likes Italian food.”
~~ Neil Simon
"Patience is a minor form of despair disguised as a virtue."
~~ Ambrose Bierce [1842-1914]
"Anything [that] you're good at contributes to happiness."
~~ Bertrand Russell [1872-1970]
"The great thing about unrequited love is that it's the only kind that exists."
~~ Allison Pearson
"Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months."
~~ Oscar Wilde [1854-1900]
"The young man knows the rules, but the old man knows the exception."
~~ Oliver Wendell Holmes [1809-94]
"[A movie] that stays with you is made up of a hundred or more hidden things. They're things that the audience is not conscious of, but that accumulate."
~~ Vincente Minnelli [1903-86]
"In the beginning was nonsense, and the nonsense was with God, and the nonsense was God."
~~ Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche [1844-1900]
"The desire to take medicine is perhaps the greatest feature which distinquishes man from animals."
~~ William Obler [1849-1919]
"Poverty of course is no disgrace, but it is damned annoying."
~~ William Pitt [1759-1806]
"The people have nothing to do with the laws but to obey them."
~~ Edgar Allan Poe [1809-49]
"What no wife of a writer can ever understand is that a writer is working when he's staring out the window."
~~ Burton Rascoe [1892-1957]
"What garlic is to salad, insanity is to art."
~~ Augustus Saint-Gaudens [1848-1907]
"Which is it? Is man one of God's blunders, or is God one of man's blunders."
~~ Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche [1844-1900]
"Man has made his bedlam; let him lie in it."
~~ Fred Allen [1894-1956]
"Do not put off till tomorrow what can be enjoyed today."
~~ Josh Billings [1818-85]
"Invention is the mother of necessity."
~~ Samuel Butler [1835-1902]
"Bad officials are elected by good citizens who do not vote."
~~ George Jean Nathan [1882-1958]
"A physicist is just an atom's way of looking at itself."
~~ Niels Bohr [1882-1965]
"A nation of well informed men who have been taught to know and prize the rights which God has given them cannot be enslaved. It is in the region of ignorance that tyranny begins."
~~ Benjamin Franklin [1706-90]
"Bad laws are the worst form of tyranny."
~~ Edmund Burke [1729-97]
"I consider trial by jury as the only anchor yet devised by man, by which a government can be held to the principles of its constitution."
~~ President Thomas Jefferson [1743-1826]
"God means us to be free. With divine daring, He gave us the power of choice."
~~ Cecil B. DeMille [1881-1959]
{each set of posted quotations are then posted at the Working Minds website, alphabetical by author}
Monday, February 07, 2011
February 2011 Quotations
“The cure for capitalism's failing would require that a government ... rise above the interests of one class alone.”
~~ Robert L. Heilbroner [1919-2005]
~~ Robert L. Heilbroner [1919-2005]
“Mankind must put an end to war or war will put an end to mankind.”
~~ John F. Kennedy [1917-63]
"Darrell Issa is the most evil man I ever met."
~~ Franklin Porath, former business partner
"Nothing gets done in the United States because it's the right thing to do; it gets done because it's the profitable thing to do."
~~ Zane Fischer, Santa Fe Reporter columnist
"The thing that impresses me most about America is the way [that] parents obey their children."
~~ Edward, Duke of Windsor [1894-1972]
"[The NRA's interpretation of the Second Amendment] is one of the greatest pieces of fraud – I repeat the word 'fraud' – on the American public by special interest groups that I have ever seen in my lifetime."
~~ former Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren Burger, in 1991
"Every absurdity has a champion to defend it."
~~ Oliver Goldsmith [1728-74]
"When the people contend for their liberty, they seldom get anything by their victory but new masters."
~~ George Savile, Marquis of Halifax [1633-95]
"Jehovah has always seemed to me the most fascinating character in all fiction."
~~ Oliver Herford [1863-1935]
"If you would civilize a man, begin with his grandmother."
~~ Victor Hugo [1802-85]
"Nature, when she invented, manufactured, and patented her authors, contrived to make critics of the chips that were left."
~~ Oliver Wendell Holmes [1809-94]
"Pretty much all the honest truthtelling there is in the world is done by children."
~~ Oliver Wendell Holmes [1809-94]
"A director makes only one movie in his life. Then he breaks it into pieces and makes it again."
~~ Jean Renoir [1894-1979]
"The two most engaging powers of an author are to make new things familiar and familiar things new."
~~ Dr. Samuel Johnson [1709-84]
"The best you get is an even break."
~~ Franklin P. Adams [1881-1960]
"It is easier to fight for one's principles than to live up to them."
~~ Alfred Adler [1870-1937]
"An associate producer is the only guy in Hollywood who will associate with a producer."
~~ Fred Allen [1894-1956]
"It is a socialist idea that making profits is a vice; I consider [that] the real vice is making losses."
~~ Sir Winston Churchill [1874-1965]
"Learn all the rules, every one of them, so that you will know how to break them."
~~ Irvin S. Cobb [1896-1944]
"The art of taxation consists in so plucking the goose as to obtain the largest amount of feathers with the least amount of hissing."
~~ Jean Baptiste Colbert [1619-83]
"Truth is the object of philosophy, but not always of philosophers."
~~ John Churton Collins [1848-1908]
"All modern men are descended from wormlike creatures, but it shows more on some people."
~~ Will Cuppy [1884-1949]
"Death is not the biggest fear we have; our biggest fear is taking the risk to be alive and express what we really are."
~~ Don Miguel Ruiz
"He who controls others may be powerful, but he who has mastered himself is mightier still."
~~ Chinese philosopher Lao-Tzu [IVth Century B.C.E.]
"Seize the moment of excited curiosity on any subject to solve your doubts; for if you let it pass, the desire may never return, and you may remain in ignorance."
~~ educator William Wirt [1874–1938]
"As scarce as truth is, the supply has always been in excess of demand."
~~ Josh Billings [1818-85]
"Wine is the drink of the gods, milk the drink of babies, tea the drink of women, and water the drink of beasts."
~~ John Stuart Blackie [1809-95]
"God is always on the side which has the best football coach."
~~ Heywood Broun [1888-1939]
"The better part of valor is indiscretion."
~~ Samuel Butler [1835-1902]
"I spent a year in that town, one Sunday."
~~ Warwick Deeping [1877-1950]
"Judge a man not by his clothes, but by his wife's clothes."
~~ British distiller Thomas Robert Dewar [1864-1930]
"There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics."
~~ Benjamin Disraeli [1804-81]
"All generalizations are dangerous, even this one."
~~ Alexander Dumas, fils [1824-95]
"YouTube ... is a kind of Special Olympics for show-offs."
~~ critic James Wood
"We are all geniuses up to the age of ten."
~~ Aldous Huxley [1894-1963]
"Whenever I feel like exercise, I lie down until the feeling passes."
~~ Robert Maynard Hutchins [1899-1977]
"It is inexcusable for scientists to torture animals; let them make their experiments on journalists and politicians."
~~ Henrik Ibsen [1828-1906]
{each set of posted quotations are then posted at the Working Minds website, alphabetical by author}
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