STEP 1: Cook up some pasta, of your choice. For this dish I like small elbows, or sometimes flat egg noodles. Single serving is 4-5 ounces dry. Pour cooked pasta into collander to drain.
STEP 2: In that same saucepan, pour two 'blorts' of Caesar dressing (the brand that I use is Ken's Steak House). Bring fire up to medium high, to boil away ('reduce') the liquid. Also add one tablespoon of butter.
Chop a package of Buddig deli meat, such as ham or beef. Add to saucepan.
Chop one green onion; chop one Roma tomato. Optional: chop a few black olives. Add all to the saucepan. Add drained pasta to the saucepan.
STEP 3: Keep stirring over medium-high heat, until liquid is reduced. Add 1/4 cup parmesan or romano cheese to thicken further.
STEP 4: Serve on a dinner plate. Serve with a glass of red wine if you were a 'good kid' today.
Monday, February 27, 2012
Saturday, February 25, 2012
Root Cause of High Gas Prices
An email yesterday from Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida clarified the root cause of today's high gas prices, in just one short sentence: "Congress deregulated oil traders in December 2000."
On December 14 in 2000, Republican Senator Phil Gramm of Texas pushed through the Commodity Futures Modernization Act, deregulating all derivatives trading, which was signed into law by President Clinton on December 21.
That law was a major cause of The Enron Scandal in 2001, and also deregulated petroleum futures traders, the cause of rising gas prices ever since.
The price at the pump was $1.29 when George W. Bush became President in January of 2001, and is now a nationwide average of $3.63 – nearly three times higher. The prediction for the Summer of election year 2012 is that gas is likely to be $5.00 per gallon.
I figured this could be blamed on Newt Gingrich, but he was replaced as House Speaker in January 1999 by Republican Dennis Hastert of Illinois. Senator Phil Gramm is currently a full-time lobbyist for Union Bank of Switzerland.
The Republican propaganda machine will, of course, point the finger at President Obama. But the factual root cause of high gas & oil prices remains Republican Senator Phil Gramm and the fascist Republican agenda of deregulation.
Copyright 2012 by G.E. Nordell, all rights reserved
On December 14 in 2000, Republican Senator Phil Gramm of Texas pushed through the Commodity Futures Modernization Act, deregulating all derivatives trading, which was signed into law by President Clinton on December 21.
That law was a major cause of The Enron Scandal in 2001, and also deregulated petroleum futures traders, the cause of rising gas prices ever since.
The price at the pump was $1.29 when George W. Bush became President in January of 2001, and is now a nationwide average of $3.63 – nearly three times higher. The prediction for the Summer of election year 2012 is that gas is likely to be $5.00 per gallon.
I figured this could be blamed on Newt Gingrich, but he was replaced as House Speaker in January 1999 by Republican Dennis Hastert of Illinois. Senator Phil Gramm is currently a full-time lobbyist for Union Bank of Switzerland.
The Republican propaganda machine will, of course, point the finger at President Obama. But the factual root cause of high gas & oil prices remains Republican Senator Phil Gramm and the fascist Republican agenda of deregulation.
Sunday, February 19, 2012
February 2012 Quotations
"At this point, the Republican candidates for U.S. President in 2012 can be referred to as 'The Four Stooges'."
~~ G.E. Nordell
"I cannot believe in a God who wants to be praised all the time."
~~ Friedrich Nietzsche [1844-1900]
"True religion is the life we lead, not the creed we profess."
~~ lawyer Louis Nizer [1902-94]
"The desire of the man is for the woman, but the desire of the woman is for the desire of the man."
~~ Madame de Stael [1766-1817]
"Democrats would never win if we took away women's right to vote."
~~ Ann 'The Man' Coulter
"If we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all."
~~ Noam Chomsky
"Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves."
~~ British prime-minister William Pitt [1759-1806]
"You can’t wake a person who is pretending to be asleep."
~~ Navajo Proverb
“We have learned to fly the air like birds and swim the sea like fish, but we have not learned the simple art of living together as brothers and sisters.”
~~ Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. [1929-68]
"If you can find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn't lead anywhere."
~~ Frank A. Clark [1911-91]
"All ideals are dangerous: because they debase and brand the actual; all are poisons, but indispensable as temporary cures."
~~ Friedrich Nietzsche [1844-1900]
"A woman's chastity consists, like an onion, of a series of coats."
~~ Nathaniel Hawthorne [1804-64]
"The most effective way to do it, is to do it."
~~ aviator Amelia Earhart [1897-1937]
"The problem with the gene pool is that there is no lifeguard."
~~ comedian Steven Wright
"I had, out of my sixty teachers, a scant half dozen who couldn't have been supplanted by phonographs."
~~ Don Herold [1889-1966]
"Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts."
~~ Richard P. Feynman [1918-88]
"Getting old is not for sissies."
~~ actress Bette Davis [1908-89]
"I make my pictures for people, not for critics."
~~ Cecil B. DeMille [1881-1959]
"Mass incarceration on a scale almost unexampled in human history is a fundamental fact of our country today – perhaps the fundamental fact, as slavery was the fundamental fact of 1850."
~~ Adam Gopnik
"Since the 1980s, the great American principle that we're all free to start our own business has been deliberately distorted into an ideology that labels as 'socialist' any regulations that block businesses from lying, stealing, polluting, maiming, or even killing our citizens."
~~ Laura Sanchez of Los Lunas, New Mexico
"Facts and truth really don't have much to do with each other."
~~ William Faulkner [1897-1962]
"Don't you walk away from that vote! People died for the right to vote!"
~~ Rev. Jesse Jackson, in 1984 speech
"It takes two to speak truth, one to speak and another to hear."
~~ Henry David Thoreau [1817-62]
"How can [our] society that is so undemocratic claim to be a model of democracy for others?"
~~ comment on IMDb by 'green elephant' of Canada
"I'm not concerned about the very poor."
~~ candidate Mitt Romney
"The only thing new in this world is the history we don't know."
~~ Harry S. Truman [1884-1972]
“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”
~~ Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. [1929-68]
"Wit has truth in it. Wisecracking is merely calisthenics with words."
~~ Dorothy Parker [1893-1967]
"It's impossible not to take advantage of the people. The trick is to take advantage of them in their own best interest."
~~ Ralph Ellison [1914-94]
"They call it the American dream because you have to be asleep to believe it."
~~ George Carlin [1937-2008]
"Expectation is the root of all heartache."
~~ Wm. Shakespeare [1564-1616]
"Words are like money. There is nothing so useless, except when put to use."
~~ Dr. Samuel Johnson [1709-84]
"We cannot control the evil tongues of others, but a good life enables us to disregard them."
~~ Cato the Elder [234-149 B.C.E.]
"Discussion is an exhange of knowledge; an argument is an exchange of ignorance."
~~ journalist Robert Quillen
"It's a small world, but I wouldn't want to have to paint it."
~~ comedian Steven Wright
"Actions define character, not the other way around."
~~ G.E. Nordell
"Rejection slips, or form letters, however tactfully phrased, are lacerations of the soul, if not quite inventions of the devil - but there is no way around them."
~~ Isaac Asimov [1920-92]
"A healthy pessimism may be better than a suicidal optimism."
~~ Chilean filmmaker Raúl Ruiz [1941-2011]
"Battling ignorance and apathy and magical thinking is a full-time job."
~~ G.E. Nordell
"In the end, I want you to join my gang. I do not want to join yours."
~~ poet Vachel Lindsay [1879-1931]
{each set of posted quotations are then posted at the Working Minds website, alphabetical by author}
~~ G.E. Nordell
"I cannot believe in a God who wants to be praised all the time."
~~ Friedrich Nietzsche [1844-1900]
"True religion is the life we lead, not the creed we profess."
~~ lawyer Louis Nizer [1902-94]
"The desire of the man is for the woman, but the desire of the woman is for the desire of the man."
~~ Madame de Stael [1766-1817]
"Democrats would never win if we took away women's right to vote."
~~ Ann 'The Man' Coulter
"If we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all."
~~ Noam Chomsky
"Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves."
~~ British prime-minister William Pitt [1759-1806]
"You can’t wake a person who is pretending to be asleep."
~~ Navajo Proverb
“We have learned to fly the air like birds and swim the sea like fish, but we have not learned the simple art of living together as brothers and sisters.”
~~ Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. [1929-68]
"If you can find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn't lead anywhere."
~~ Frank A. Clark [1911-91]
"All ideals are dangerous: because they debase and brand the actual; all are poisons, but indispensable as temporary cures."
~~ Friedrich Nietzsche [1844-1900]
"A woman's chastity consists, like an onion, of a series of coats."
~~ Nathaniel Hawthorne [1804-64]
"The most effective way to do it, is to do it."
~~ aviator Amelia Earhart [1897-1937]
"The problem with the gene pool is that there is no lifeguard."
~~ comedian Steven Wright
"I had, out of my sixty teachers, a scant half dozen who couldn't have been supplanted by phonographs."
~~ Don Herold [1889-1966]
"Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts."
~~ Richard P. Feynman [1918-88]
"Getting old is not for sissies."
~~ actress Bette Davis [1908-89]
"I make my pictures for people, not for critics."
~~ Cecil B. DeMille [1881-1959]
"Mass incarceration on a scale almost unexampled in human history is a fundamental fact of our country today – perhaps the fundamental fact, as slavery was the fundamental fact of 1850."
~~ Adam Gopnik
"Since the 1980s, the great American principle that we're all free to start our own business has been deliberately distorted into an ideology that labels as 'socialist' any regulations that block businesses from lying, stealing, polluting, maiming, or even killing our citizens."
~~ Laura Sanchez of Los Lunas, New Mexico
"Facts and truth really don't have much to do with each other."
~~ William Faulkner [1897-1962]
"Don't you walk away from that vote! People died for the right to vote!"
~~ Rev. Jesse Jackson, in 1984 speech
"It takes two to speak truth, one to speak and another to hear."
~~ Henry David Thoreau [1817-62]
"How can [our] society that is so undemocratic claim to be a model of democracy for others?"
~~ comment on IMDb by 'green elephant' of Canada
"I'm not concerned about the very poor."
~~ candidate Mitt Romney
"The only thing new in this world is the history we don't know."
~~ Harry S. Truman [1884-1972]
“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”
~~ Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. [1929-68]
"Wit has truth in it. Wisecracking is merely calisthenics with words."
~~ Dorothy Parker [1893-1967]
"It's impossible not to take advantage of the people. The trick is to take advantage of them in their own best interest."
~~ Ralph Ellison [1914-94]
"They call it the American dream because you have to be asleep to believe it."
~~ George Carlin [1937-2008]
"Expectation is the root of all heartache."
~~ Wm. Shakespeare [1564-1616]
"Words are like money. There is nothing so useless, except when put to use."
~~ Dr. Samuel Johnson [1709-84]
"We cannot control the evil tongues of others, but a good life enables us to disregard them."
~~ Cato the Elder [234-149 B.C.E.]
"Discussion is an exhange of knowledge; an argument is an exchange of ignorance."
~~ journalist Robert Quillen
"It's a small world, but I wouldn't want to have to paint it."
~~ comedian Steven Wright
"Actions define character, not the other way around."
~~ G.E. Nordell
"Rejection slips, or form letters, however tactfully phrased, are lacerations of the soul, if not quite inventions of the devil - but there is no way around them."
~~ Isaac Asimov [1920-92]
"A healthy pessimism may be better than a suicidal optimism."
~~ Chilean filmmaker Raúl Ruiz [1941-2011]
"Battling ignorance and apathy and magical thinking is a full-time job."
~~ G.E. Nordell
"In the end, I want you to join my gang. I do not want to join yours."
~~ poet Vachel Lindsay [1879-1931]
{each set of posted quotations are then posted at the Working Minds website, alphabetical by author}
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Windows Mail cleanup tip
I got to doing some backups of very old data files from my hard-drive to a storage area on my website, whose server moves around but seems to be in New York nowadays.
The plan was to backup all my Windows Mail files, then delete the very old stuff on my hard-drive, those not really of use unless I needed to revisit some communication from several years ago, such as when I uploaded my detective novel to the publisher in 2005.
During my first attempt to upload the data offsite, the FTP software crashed and I found that there were hundreds of null files stored among my real emails, mostly at the top. Each null file had an encrypted name (and thus a directory entry) but size of zero. So I figured no harm in deleting the null files, and removed the ones FTP'd off site, then removed the original null files on my hard drive.
That process got rid of 7500 directory entries from my hard drive, and if each one took 100 bytes to store the name of nothing, then I removed 750K bytes that has been loaded to my RAM every time that I opened Windows Mail.
Two days since I did that, Windows Mail seems to run faster (hard to tell), so today I deleted the 7500 null files from my Recycle Bin too.
So here is how to find the files on your harddrive, knowing of course that my Windows Vista system can easily be different than your Windows system files.
Drill down from your *user name* to AppData then Local then Microsoft then Windows Mail – Local Folders will display the same folder structure as what you see inside your personal Windows Mail. The null files are simple to spot: encrypted name and size of zero. Be very careful not to include any file with non=zero size, but otherwise all you have to do is highlight & Shift-Down, then Delete the file groups in chunks.
(And don't forget to clear the Recycle Bin, which you should be doing on a regular basis anyway.)
Copyright 2012 by G.E. Nordell, all rights reserved
The plan was to backup all my Windows Mail files, then delete the very old stuff on my hard-drive, those not really of use unless I needed to revisit some communication from several years ago, such as when I uploaded my detective novel to the publisher in 2005.
During my first attempt to upload the data offsite, the FTP software crashed and I found that there were hundreds of null files stored among my real emails, mostly at the top. Each null file had an encrypted name (and thus a directory entry) but size of zero. So I figured no harm in deleting the null files, and removed the ones FTP'd off site, then removed the original null files on my hard drive.
That process got rid of 7500 directory entries from my hard drive, and if each one took 100 bytes to store the name of nothing, then I removed 750K bytes that has been loaded to my RAM every time that I opened Windows Mail.
Two days since I did that, Windows Mail seems to run faster (hard to tell), so today I deleted the 7500 null files from my Recycle Bin too.
So here is how to find the files on your harddrive, knowing of course that my Windows Vista system can easily be different than your Windows system files.
Drill down from your *user name* to AppData then Local then Microsoft then Windows Mail – Local Folders will display the same folder structure as what you see inside your personal Windows Mail. The null files are simple to spot: encrypted name and size of zero. Be very careful not to include any file with non=zero size, but otherwise all you have to do is highlight & Shift-Down, then Delete the file groups in chunks.
(And don't forget to clear the Recycle Bin, which you should be doing on a regular basis anyway.)
Wednesday, February 08, 2012
News Factoids for December 2011 & January 2012
"At this point, the Republican candidates for U.S. President can be referred to as 'The Four Stooges'."
~~ G.E. Nordell
Notice arrived that I am getting a C.O.L.A. increase (Cost of Living Adjustment) of $40 on my monthly Social Security check, which started in January – after no increase for the last three years. Thank you, President Obama!
About a third of all land on the planet is now desert, almost 20 million square miles, which increases every year.
~~ per New Yorker Magazine
If you are looking for a replacement for WebRing, try Nexus Links
Apparently, the Gingrich gang are paying to destroy Romney by promoting the half-hour docufilm "King of Bain: When Mitt Romney Came To Town". What I've seen of the film is all anti-Romney and does not promote anything or anyone on the Republican fascist side of U.S. politics.
The percent increase in [people on food stamps] during Mr. Bush's presidency was higher than it has been under Mr. Obama.
~~ CBS News, January 2012
General Motors sold only 7,671 Chevy Volt hybrid electric vehicles in 2011, and Nissan sold only 8,729 Leaf electric cars.
~~ news item
Copyright 2012 by G.E. Nordell, all rights reserved
~~ G.E. Nordell
Notice arrived that I am getting a C.O.L.A. increase (Cost of Living Adjustment) of $40 on my monthly Social Security check, which started in January – after no increase for the last three years. Thank you, President Obama!
About a third of all land on the planet is now desert, almost 20 million square miles, which increases every year.
~~ per New Yorker Magazine
If you are looking for a replacement for WebRing, try Nexus Links
Apparently, the Gingrich gang are paying to destroy Romney by promoting the half-hour docufilm "King of Bain: When Mitt Romney Came To Town". What I've seen of the film is all anti-Romney and does not promote anything or anyone on the Republican fascist side of U.S. politics.
The percent increase in [people on food stamps] during Mr. Bush's presidency was higher than it has been under Mr. Obama.
~~ CBS News, January 2012
General Motors sold only 7,671 Chevy Volt hybrid electric vehicles in 2011, and Nissan sold only 8,729 Leaf electric cars.
~~ news item
Friday, January 27, 2012
January 2012 Quotations
"The people have a right to the truth as they have a right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."
~~ Frank Norris [1870-1902]
"I was friends with President Ronald Reagan and he once said to me, 'I don't know how anybody can serve in public office without being an actor'."
~~ Warren Beatty
"While there is a lower class, I am in it, and while there is a criminal element I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free."
~~ Eugene V. Debs [1855-1926]
"You were sick, but now you're well, and there's work to do."
~~ Kilgore Trout character, in "Timequake" novel by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. [1922-2007]
"It's discouraging to think how many people are shocked by honesty and how few by deceit."
~~ Noël Coward [1899-1973]
"Capitalism without failure is like religion without sin. It doesn't work."
~~ economist Allan Meltzer
"The most miserable possession [that] a man can have is the thing [that] he hurt somebody to get."
~~ writer & cartoonist Frank A. Clark [1911-91]
"No one changes the world who isn't obsessed."
~~ Billie Jean King
"It is impossible to go thru life without trust. That is to be imprisoned in the worst cell of all, oneself."
~~ Graham Greene [1904-91]
"Law is not an instrument of politics but the other way around."
~~ octogenarian Russian activist Sergei Kovalyov
"Ask not what America can do for women, but ask what women can do for America."
~~ Geraldine Ferraro [1935-2011]
"The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion."
~~ Albert Camus [1913-60]
"The man who dies ... rich dies disgraced."
~~ Andrew Carnegie [1835-1919]
"Truths are illusions [that] we have forgotten are illusions."
~~ Friedrich Nietzsche [1844-1900]
"People wish to be settled; only as far as they are unsettled is there any hope for them."
~~ Ralph Waldo Emerson [1803-82], in "Circles" 1841
"Flying may not be all plain sailing, but the fun of it is worth the price."
~~ Amelia Earhart [1897-1937]
"You can get assent to almost any proposition so long as you are not going to do anything about it."
~~ Nathaniel Hawthorne [1804-64]
"Ambition is a dream with a V-8 engine."
~~ Elvis Presley [1935-77]
"The only difference between Hitler and Bush is that Hitler was elected."
~~ Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. [1922-2007] in 2004
"Opportunity is not a lengthy visitor."
~~ Stephen Sondheim
"A simple way to take measure of a country is to look at how many people want in ... and how many people want out."
~~ Tony Blair
"I honestly think that it is better to be a failure at something [that] you love than to be a success at something [that] you hate."
~~ George Burns 1896-1996]
"Let your life lightly dance on the edges of time like dew on the tip of a leaf."
~~ Nobel laureate poet Rabindranath Tagore [1861-1941]
"The only truly serious questions are the ones that even a child can formulate."
~~ Milan Kundera
"Any girl can look glamorous. All she has to do is stand still and look stupid."
~~ actress/inventor Hedy Lamarr [1913-2000]
"Expressing anger is a form of public littering."
~~ Prof. Willard Gaylin
"Moral indignation is just jealousy with a halo around it."
~~ H.G. Wells [1866-1946]
"What we once enjoyed and deeply loved we can never lose, for all that we loved deeply becomes part of us."
~~ Helen Keller [1880-1968]
"It may be true that the law cannot change the heart, but it can restrain the heartless."
~~ Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. [1929-68]
"[The internet] is a vanity press for the demented, the conspiratorial, or the merely self-important."
~~ Lars-Erik Nelson [1941-2000], New York Daily News reporter
"I find the argument that we need lower taxes to create jobs mystifying, because we've had the lowest taxes in this decade and about the worst job creation ever."
~~ Warren Buffett
"Experience declares that man is the only animal which devours his own kind, for I can think of no milder term to apply to ... the general prey of the rich on the poor."
~~ Thomas Jefferson [1743-1826]
"Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And when you look long into an abyss, the abyss also looks into you."
~~ Friedrich Nietzsche [1844-1900]
"Hope is the raw material of losers."
~~ Fernando Flores
"Every act of love is a change in the universe."
~~ Aleister Crowley [1875-1947]
"Enough is better than too much."
~~ French proverb
"The biggest thing [that] you can do for kids is [to] give them the ability to figure things out."
~~ musician Frank Zappa [1940-93]
"Lying about the future produces history."
~~ Umberto Eco
"When I am happy I am always good, but when I am good I am seldom happy."
~~ Oscar Wilde [1854-1900]
"It is said that paradox is a Truth standing on its head to attract attention."
~~ Allan W. Watts [1915-73]
{each set of posted quotations are then posted at the Working Minds website, alphabetical by author}
~~ Frank Norris [1870-1902]
"I was friends with President Ronald Reagan and he once said to me, 'I don't know how anybody can serve in public office without being an actor'."
~~ Warren Beatty
"While there is a lower class, I am in it, and while there is a criminal element I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free."
~~ Eugene V. Debs [1855-1926]
"You were sick, but now you're well, and there's work to do."
~~ Kilgore Trout character, in "Timequake" novel by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. [1922-2007]
"It's discouraging to think how many people are shocked by honesty and how few by deceit."
~~ Noël Coward [1899-1973]
"Capitalism without failure is like religion without sin. It doesn't work."
~~ economist Allan Meltzer
"The most miserable possession [that] a man can have is the thing [that] he hurt somebody to get."
~~ writer & cartoonist Frank A. Clark [1911-91]
"No one changes the world who isn't obsessed."
~~ Billie Jean King
"It is impossible to go thru life without trust. That is to be imprisoned in the worst cell of all, oneself."
~~ Graham Greene [1904-91]
"Law is not an instrument of politics but the other way around."
~~ octogenarian Russian activist Sergei Kovalyov
"Ask not what America can do for women, but ask what women can do for America."
~~ Geraldine Ferraro [1935-2011]
"The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion."
~~ Albert Camus [1913-60]
"The man who dies ... rich dies disgraced."
~~ Andrew Carnegie [1835-1919]
"Truths are illusions [that] we have forgotten are illusions."
~~ Friedrich Nietzsche [1844-1900]
"People wish to be settled; only as far as they are unsettled is there any hope for them."
~~ Ralph Waldo Emerson [1803-82], in "Circles" 1841
"Flying may not be all plain sailing, but the fun of it is worth the price."
~~ Amelia Earhart [1897-1937]
"You can get assent to almost any proposition so long as you are not going to do anything about it."
~~ Nathaniel Hawthorne [1804-64]
"Ambition is a dream with a V-8 engine."
~~ Elvis Presley [1935-77]
"The only difference between Hitler and Bush is that Hitler was elected."
~~ Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. [1922-2007] in 2004
"Opportunity is not a lengthy visitor."
~~ Stephen Sondheim
"A simple way to take measure of a country is to look at how many people want in ... and how many people want out."
~~ Tony Blair
"I honestly think that it is better to be a failure at something [that] you love than to be a success at something [that] you hate."
~~ George Burns 1896-1996]
"Let your life lightly dance on the edges of time like dew on the tip of a leaf."
~~ Nobel laureate poet Rabindranath Tagore [1861-1941]
"The only truly serious questions are the ones that even a child can formulate."
~~ Milan Kundera
"Any girl can look glamorous. All she has to do is stand still and look stupid."
~~ actress/inventor Hedy Lamarr [1913-2000]
"Expressing anger is a form of public littering."
~~ Prof. Willard Gaylin
"Moral indignation is just jealousy with a halo around it."
~~ H.G. Wells [1866-1946]
"What we once enjoyed and deeply loved we can never lose, for all that we loved deeply becomes part of us."
~~ Helen Keller [1880-1968]
"It may be true that the law cannot change the heart, but it can restrain the heartless."
~~ Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. [1929-68]
"[The internet] is a vanity press for the demented, the conspiratorial, or the merely self-important."
~~ Lars-Erik Nelson [1941-2000], New York Daily News reporter
"I find the argument that we need lower taxes to create jobs mystifying, because we've had the lowest taxes in this decade and about the worst job creation ever."
~~ Warren Buffett
"Experience declares that man is the only animal which devours his own kind, for I can think of no milder term to apply to ... the general prey of the rich on the poor."
~~ Thomas Jefferson [1743-1826]
"Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And when you look long into an abyss, the abyss also looks into you."
~~ Friedrich Nietzsche [1844-1900]
"Hope is the raw material of losers."
~~ Fernando Flores
"Every act of love is a change in the universe."
~~ Aleister Crowley [1875-1947]
"Enough is better than too much."
~~ French proverb
"The biggest thing [that] you can do for kids is [to] give them the ability to figure things out."
~~ musician Frank Zappa [1940-93]
"Lying about the future produces history."
~~ Umberto Eco
"When I am happy I am always good, but when I am good I am seldom happy."
~~ Oscar Wilde [1854-1900]
"It is said that paradox is a Truth standing on its head to attract attention."
~~ Allan W. Watts [1915-73]
{each set of posted quotations are then posted at the Working Minds website, alphabetical by author}
Saturday, January 07, 2012
2011 Websites Statistics
The editing software on Blogger does not work well with table structure code, so the prior attempts to display the annual statistical accomplishments on my two main domains were pulled away from the blog back in April 2008 and consolidated on www.genordell.com/webstats.htm.
The stats for 2011 are now posted on that page. In summary: Ye Olde Webmaster created 142 new pages & coded 2,571 new covers (books, albums, DVDs, etc.) during the calendar year 2011.
The stats for 2011 are now posted on that page. In summary: Ye Olde Webmaster created 142 new pages & coded 2,571 new covers (books, albums, DVDs, etc.) during the calendar year 2011.
Monday, December 26, 2011
2011 Year-End Bonus Quotations
"One of the good things about modern times: If you die horribly on television, you will not have died in vain. You will have entertained us."
~~ Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. [1922-2007]
"All human evil comes from a single cause, man's inability to sit still in a room."
~~ Blaise Pascal [1623-62]
"Talent hits a target [that] no one can hit; genius hits a target [that] no one can see."
~~ Arthur Schopenhauer [1788-1860]
"You're only given a little spark of madness. You mustn't lose it."
~~ Robin Williams
"The best diet is having to pay for your own groceries."
~~ Aaron Karo
"When your work speaks for itself, don't interrupt."
~~ Henry J. Kaiser [1882-1967]
"I'm tired of all this nonsense about beauty being only skin-deep. That's deep enough. What do you want, an adorable pancreas?"
~~ Jean Kerr [1922-2003]
"Progress isn't made by early risers. It's made by lazy men trying to find easier ways to do something."
~~ Robert A. Heinlein [1907-88]
"God may have had fun at creation, but he really didn't think things through."
~~ filmmaker Lars von Trier
"It's impossible for a white person to believe in capitalism and not believe in racism."
~~ activist Malcolm X [1925-65]
"Equality with whites will not solve the problems of either whites or Negroes if it means equality in a world society stricken by poverty and in a universe doomed to extinction by war."
~~ Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. [1929-68], from "Where Do We Go From Here", 1968
"In Hollywood, you're as good as your last picture. If you didn't have one in production within the last three months, you're forgotten, no matter what you have achieved [before] this."
~~ Erich von Stroheim [1885-1957]
"Food is an important part of a balanced diet."
~~ Fran Lebowitz
"There is no such thing as society. There are individual men and women."
~~ Margaret Thatcher
"Art is what we do. Culture is what is done to us."
~~ minimalist sculptor Carl Andre
"Circumstances make man, not man circumstances."
~~ Mark Twain [1835-1910]
"The pleasure which is at once the most pure, the most elevating, and the most intense is derived, I maintain, from the contemplation of the beautiful."
~~ Edgar Allan Poe [1809-49]
"Wanting to meet an author because you like his books is like wanting to meet a duck because you like pâté."
~~ Margaret Atwood
"Frequently the more trifling the subject, the more animated and protracted the discussion."
~~ Franklin Pierce [1804-69]
"He who laughs has not yet heard the terrible news."
~~ Bertolt Brecht [1898-1956]
"Newt Gingrich embodies the vanity and rapacity that make modern Washington repulsive."
~~ conservative columnist George Will
"Asking a writer what he thinks about critics is like asking a lamp post how it feels about dogs."
~~ Ann Landers {Eppie Lederer 1918-2002}
“In the war of ideas, it's not enough just to be against something; you have to be for something that is sound as well.”
~~ Lech Walesa
"The role of a comedian is to make the audience laugh, at a minimum of once every fifteen seconds."
~~ Lenny Bruce [1925-66]
"Having your book turned into a movie is like seeing your oxen turned into bouillon cubes."
~~ John Le Carre
"Always make the audience suffer as much as possible."
~~ Alfred Hitchcock [1899-1980]
"I have a foolproof device for judging whether a picture is good or bad. If my fanny squirms, it's bad. If my fanny doesn't squirm, it's good."
~~ Hollywood mogul Harry Cohn [1891-1958]
"Capitalism must be holy because religion is a business."
~~ minimalist sculptor Carl Andre
"Saving is a very fine thing. Especially if your parents have done it for you."
~~ Sir Winston Churchill [1874-1965]
"Character is much easier kept than recovered."
~~ Thomas Paine [1737-1809]
"Standing in the middle of the road is very dangerous; you get knocked down by the traffic from both sides."
~~ Margaret Thatcher
"Intelligence requires that you don't defend an assumption."
~~ physicist David Bohm [1917-92]
"Wishes cost nothing unless you want them to come true."
~~ cartoonist Frank Tyger
"No democracy can long survive which does not accept as fundamental to its very existence the rights of minorities."
~~ Franklin Delano Roosevelt [1882-1945]
"The man who does more than he is paid [for] will soon be paid for more than he does."
~~ Napoleon Hill [1883-1970]
"One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well."
~~ Virginia Woolf [1882-1941]
"Advice is like castor oil, easy enough to give but dreadfully uneasy to take."
~~ Josh Billings [1818-85]
"Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old."
~~ Franz Kafka [1883-1924]
{each set of posted quotations are then posted at the Working Minds website, alphabetical by author}
~~ Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. [1922-2007]
"All human evil comes from a single cause, man's inability to sit still in a room."
~~ Blaise Pascal [1623-62]
"Talent hits a target [that] no one can hit; genius hits a target [that] no one can see."
~~ Arthur Schopenhauer [1788-1860]
"You're only given a little spark of madness. You mustn't lose it."
~~ Robin Williams
"The best diet is having to pay for your own groceries."
~~ Aaron Karo
"When your work speaks for itself, don't interrupt."
~~ Henry J. Kaiser [1882-1967]
"I'm tired of all this nonsense about beauty being only skin-deep. That's deep enough. What do you want, an adorable pancreas?"
~~ Jean Kerr [1922-2003]
"Progress isn't made by early risers. It's made by lazy men trying to find easier ways to do something."
~~ Robert A. Heinlein [1907-88]
"God may have had fun at creation, but he really didn't think things through."
~~ filmmaker Lars von Trier
"It's impossible for a white person to believe in capitalism and not believe in racism."
~~ activist Malcolm X [1925-65]
"Equality with whites will not solve the problems of either whites or Negroes if it means equality in a world society stricken by poverty and in a universe doomed to extinction by war."
~~ Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. [1929-68], from "Where Do We Go From Here", 1968
"In Hollywood, you're as good as your last picture. If you didn't have one in production within the last three months, you're forgotten, no matter what you have achieved [before] this."
~~ Erich von Stroheim [1885-1957]
"Food is an important part of a balanced diet."
~~ Fran Lebowitz
"There is no such thing as society. There are individual men and women."
~~ Margaret Thatcher
"Art is what we do. Culture is what is done to us."
~~ minimalist sculptor Carl Andre
"Circumstances make man, not man circumstances."
~~ Mark Twain [1835-1910]
"The pleasure which is at once the most pure, the most elevating, and the most intense is derived, I maintain, from the contemplation of the beautiful."
~~ Edgar Allan Poe [1809-49]
"Wanting to meet an author because you like his books is like wanting to meet a duck because you like pâté."
~~ Margaret Atwood
"Frequently the more trifling the subject, the more animated and protracted the discussion."
~~ Franklin Pierce [1804-69]
"He who laughs has not yet heard the terrible news."
~~ Bertolt Brecht [1898-1956]
"Newt Gingrich embodies the vanity and rapacity that make modern Washington repulsive."
~~ conservative columnist George Will
"Asking a writer what he thinks about critics is like asking a lamp post how it feels about dogs."
~~ Ann Landers {Eppie Lederer 1918-2002}
“In the war of ideas, it's not enough just to be against something; you have to be for something that is sound as well.”
~~ Lech Walesa
"The role of a comedian is to make the audience laugh, at a minimum of once every fifteen seconds."
~~ Lenny Bruce [1925-66]
"Having your book turned into a movie is like seeing your oxen turned into bouillon cubes."
~~ John Le Carre
"Always make the audience suffer as much as possible."
~~ Alfred Hitchcock [1899-1980]
"I have a foolproof device for judging whether a picture is good or bad. If my fanny squirms, it's bad. If my fanny doesn't squirm, it's good."
~~ Hollywood mogul Harry Cohn [1891-1958]
"Capitalism must be holy because religion is a business."
~~ minimalist sculptor Carl Andre
"Saving is a very fine thing. Especially if your parents have done it for you."
~~ Sir Winston Churchill [1874-1965]
"Character is much easier kept than recovered."
~~ Thomas Paine [1737-1809]
"Standing in the middle of the road is very dangerous; you get knocked down by the traffic from both sides."
~~ Margaret Thatcher
"Intelligence requires that you don't defend an assumption."
~~ physicist David Bohm [1917-92]
"Wishes cost nothing unless you want them to come true."
~~ cartoonist Frank Tyger
"No democracy can long survive which does not accept as fundamental to its very existence the rights of minorities."
~~ Franklin Delano Roosevelt [1882-1945]
"The man who does more than he is paid [for] will soon be paid for more than he does."
~~ Napoleon Hill [1883-1970]
"One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well."
~~ Virginia Woolf [1882-1941]
"Advice is like castor oil, easy enough to give but dreadfully uneasy to take."
~~ Josh Billings [1818-85]
"Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old."
~~ Franz Kafka [1883-1924]
{each set of posted quotations are then posted at the Working Minds website, alphabetical by author}
Sunday, December 04, 2011
December 2011 Quotations
"Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will."
~~ Frederick Douglass [1818-95]
"Action will remove the doubts that theory cannot solve."
~~ Tehyi Hsieh [1884-1972]
"One person speaking up makes more noise than a thousand people who remain silent."
~~ Thom Hartnett
"Only one letter divides the comic from the cosmic."
~~ Vladimir Nabokov [1899-1977]
"Can anybody remember when the times were not hard and money not scarce?"
~~ Ralph Waldo Emerson [1803-82]
"We often take for granted the very things that most deserve our gratitude."
~~ novelist Cynthia Ozick
"Life doesn't run away from nobody. Life runs at people."
~~ boxing champion Joe Frazier [1944-2011]
"The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools."
~~ Herbert Spencer [1820-1903]
"It is a miserable thing to live in suspense; it is the life of a spider."
~~ Jonathan Swift [1667-1745]
"When morality comes up against profit, it is seldom that profit loses."
~~ Shirley Chisolm [1924-2005]
"The past is strapped to our backs. We do not have to see it; we can always feel it."
~~ journalist Mignon McLaughlin [1913-83]
"Being a celebrity is probably the closest to being a beautiful woman as you can get."
~~ Kevin Costner
"Our government is in our education."
~~ H.G. Wells [1866-1946]
"If we are to reach real peace in this world, we shall have to begin with the children."
~~ Mahatma Gandhi [1869-1948]
"It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men."
~~ Frederick Douglass [1818-95]
"Your silence will not protect you."
~~ Audre Lorde [1934-92]
“In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”
~~ George Orwell [1903-50]
"Patriotism is supporting your country all of the time and your government when it deserves it."
~~ Mark Twain [1835-1910]
"True peace is not merely the absence of tension: it is the presence of justice."
~~ Martin Luther King, Jr. [1929-68]
"As individual fingers we can be broken, but together we make a mighty fist."
~~ Native American leader Sitting Bull [1831?-1890]
"Make cornbread, not war."
~~ Charleston, South Carolina chef Sean Brock
"If people actually knew what was happening, they would be really pissed off. They should be."
~~ activist Barbara A. Brenner
"Old age is not a disease, it is a triumph."
~~ Maggie Kuhn [1905-95], founder of the GrayPanthers
QUIDQUID LATINE DICTUM SIT, ALTUM VIDETUR
("Anything said in Latin sounds profound")
DIEM DULCEM HABES ("Have a nice day")
"Virtue is necessary for the good life but not sufficient for the good life."
~~ Aristotle [384-322 B.C.E.]
"Money is necessary for the good life but not sufficient for the good life."
~~ mis-attributed to Aristotle
"We are moving from a world created by privilege to a world created by community ... Global themes are emerging in response to cascading ecological crises and human suffering."
~~ eco-activist Paul Hawken
"The best way to be boring is to leave nothing out."
~~ Voltaire [1694-1778]
"It is better to live rich than to die rich."
~~ Dr. Samuel Johnson [1709-84]
"There's no such thing as bad weather, only inappropriate clothing."
~~ explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes
"He who fights for his rights can lose; he who does not fight has lost already."
~~ German labor slogan
"The freedom of Mankind does not lie in the fact that [we] can do what we want, but that we do not have to do that which we do not want."
~~ per Jean-Jacques Rousseau [1712-78]
"You are master of your words, but, once spoken, they control you."
~~ author uncertain
"Life is a four-letter word."
~~ Lenny Bruce [1925-66]
{each set of posted quotations are then posted at the Working Minds website, alphabetical by author}
~~ Frederick Douglass [1818-95]
"Action will remove the doubts that theory cannot solve."
~~ Tehyi Hsieh [1884-1972]
"One person speaking up makes more noise than a thousand people who remain silent."
~~ Thom Hartnett
"Only one letter divides the comic from the cosmic."
~~ Vladimir Nabokov [1899-1977]
"Can anybody remember when the times were not hard and money not scarce?"
~~ Ralph Waldo Emerson [1803-82]
"We often take for granted the very things that most deserve our gratitude."
~~ novelist Cynthia Ozick
"Life doesn't run away from nobody. Life runs at people."
~~ boxing champion Joe Frazier [1944-2011]
"The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools."
~~ Herbert Spencer [1820-1903]
"It is a miserable thing to live in suspense; it is the life of a spider."
~~ Jonathan Swift [1667-1745]
"When morality comes up against profit, it is seldom that profit loses."
~~ Shirley Chisolm [1924-2005]
"The past is strapped to our backs. We do not have to see it; we can always feel it."
~~ journalist Mignon McLaughlin [1913-83]
"Being a celebrity is probably the closest to being a beautiful woman as you can get."
~~ Kevin Costner
"Our government is in our education."
~~ H.G. Wells [1866-1946]
"If we are to reach real peace in this world, we shall have to begin with the children."
~~ Mahatma Gandhi [1869-1948]
"It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men."
~~ Frederick Douglass [1818-95]
"Your silence will not protect you."
~~ Audre Lorde [1934-92]
“In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”
~~ George Orwell [1903-50]
"Patriotism is supporting your country all of the time and your government when it deserves it."
~~ Mark Twain [1835-1910]
"True peace is not merely the absence of tension: it is the presence of justice."
~~ Martin Luther King, Jr. [1929-68]
"As individual fingers we can be broken, but together we make a mighty fist."
~~ Native American leader Sitting Bull [1831?-1890]
"Make cornbread, not war."
~~ Charleston, South Carolina chef Sean Brock
"If people actually knew what was happening, they would be really pissed off. They should be."
~~ activist Barbara A. Brenner
"Old age is not a disease, it is a triumph."
~~ Maggie Kuhn [1905-95], founder of the GrayPanthers
QUIDQUID LATINE DICTUM SIT, ALTUM VIDETUR
("Anything said in Latin sounds profound")
DIEM DULCEM HABES ("Have a nice day")
"Virtue is necessary for the good life but not sufficient for the good life."
~~ Aristotle [384-322 B.C.E.]
"Money is necessary for the good life but not sufficient for the good life."
~~ mis-attributed to Aristotle
"We are moving from a world created by privilege to a world created by community ... Global themes are emerging in response to cascading ecological crises and human suffering."
~~ eco-activist Paul Hawken
"The best way to be boring is to leave nothing out."
~~ Voltaire [1694-1778]
"It is better to live rich than to die rich."
~~ Dr. Samuel Johnson [1709-84]
"There's no such thing as bad weather, only inappropriate clothing."
~~ explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes
"He who fights for his rights can lose; he who does not fight has lost already."
~~ German labor slogan
"The freedom of Mankind does not lie in the fact that [we] can do what we want, but that we do not have to do that which we do not want."
~~ per Jean-Jacques Rousseau [1712-78]
"You are master of your words, but, once spoken, they control you."
~~ author uncertain
"Life is a four-letter word."
~~ Lenny Bruce [1925-66]
{each set of posted quotations are then posted at the Working Minds website, alphabetical by author}
Friday, November 25, 2011
News Factoids for November 2011
Due to the small crop (global warming!), U.S. peanuts tripled in price this Fall; expect the price of peanut butter to double or worse before the end of the year.
Use this free online refinance calculator to see what future interest rate will be the optimal one for refinancing your old fixed-rate mortgage:
zwicke.NBER.org/refinance
Last year, total U.S. student loan debt exceeded U.S. credit card debt for the first time ever. — Time Magazine
The cost of college has increased 538 percent over the past 30 years.
— Time Magazine
There are around 5,000 privately-owned Bengal tigers in the U.S., more than the 3,600 that are living in the wild in Asia. — Xian Science Monitor
Just 147 interlocking companies control 40 percent of the world economy; the top 25 companies include Barclays Bank, JPMorgan Chase, Vanguard Group, United Bank of Switzerland, Merrill Lynch, Deutsche Bank, Walton Enterprises, Bank of New York Mellon, Goldman Sachs, T. Rowe Price Group, Morgan Stanley, and Bank of America. — per New Scientist Magazine, Oct 2011
Several U.S. Senators & candidates are promoting a Constitutional amendment that would declare that only humans are 'persons' under U.S. law.
'Reverse Citizens United' Constitutional Amendment
Income for the poor rose 18 percent between 1979 and 2007 (in inflation-adjusted dollars), while middle-class income rose 40 percent and the income of the top one percent rose 275 percent.
— Congressional Budget Office report, October 2011
Commercial helium gas is extracted from natural gas, mostly in Texas and China. At the present rate of consumption, we will reach peak supply in twenty years, after which the supply will drop sharply.
Movie attendance dropped to a 17-year low in Summer 2011, and more viewers chose 2-D tickets over 3-D for expected blockbusters "Pirates of The Caribbean" #4, "Harry Potter" #8, "Green Lantern", and "Kung Fu Panda 2".
Information on the Occupy Movement
Progressivism / 'Occupy Movement' at Working Minds Philosophy website
There are 65 nuclear power plants operating in the U.S.A.; 48 of them are leaking radioactive tritium.
— two federal reports, 2011
Copyright 2011 by G.E. Nordell, all rights reserved
Use this free online refinance calculator to see what future interest rate will be the optimal one for refinancing your old fixed-rate mortgage:
zwicke.NBER.org/refinance
Last year, total U.S. student loan debt exceeded U.S. credit card debt for the first time ever. — Time Magazine
The cost of college has increased 538 percent over the past 30 years.
— Time Magazine
There are around 5,000 privately-owned Bengal tigers in the U.S., more than the 3,600 that are living in the wild in Asia. — Xian Science Monitor
Just 147 interlocking companies control 40 percent of the world economy; the top 25 companies include Barclays Bank, JPMorgan Chase, Vanguard Group, United Bank of Switzerland, Merrill Lynch, Deutsche Bank, Walton Enterprises, Bank of New York Mellon, Goldman Sachs, T. Rowe Price Group, Morgan Stanley, and Bank of America. — per New Scientist Magazine, Oct 2011
Several U.S. Senators & candidates are promoting a Constitutional amendment that would declare that only humans are 'persons' under U.S. law.
'Reverse Citizens United' Constitutional Amendment
Income for the poor rose 18 percent between 1979 and 2007 (in inflation-adjusted dollars), while middle-class income rose 40 percent and the income of the top one percent rose 275 percent.
— Congressional Budget Office report, October 2011
Commercial helium gas is extracted from natural gas, mostly in Texas and China. At the present rate of consumption, we will reach peak supply in twenty years, after which the supply will drop sharply.
Movie attendance dropped to a 17-year low in Summer 2011, and more viewers chose 2-D tickets over 3-D for expected blockbusters "Pirates of The Caribbean" #4, "Harry Potter" #8, "Green Lantern", and "Kung Fu Panda 2".
Information on the Occupy Movement
Progressivism / 'Occupy Movement' at Working Minds Philosophy website
There are 65 nuclear power plants operating in the U.S.A.; 48 of them are leaking radioactive tritium.
— two federal reports, 2011
Friday, November 11, 2011
November 2011 Quotations
"Blessed are the young, for they shall inherit the national debt."
~~ President Herbert Hoover [1874-1964]
"Trying to determine what is going on in the world by reading newspapers is like trying to tell the time by watching the second hand of a clock."
~~ Ben Hecht [1894-1964]
"Progress is man's ability to complicate simplicity/"
~~ adventurer Thor Heyerdahl [1914-2002]
"An expert is [someone] who has made all the mistakes which can be made in a narrow field."
~~ physicist Niels Bohr [1885-1962]
"When dealing with people, remember [that] you are not dealing with creatures of logic, but with creatures of emotion, creatures bristling with prejudice, and motivated by pride and vanity."
~~ Dale Carnegie [1888-1965]
"Finance, like Time, devours its own children."
~~ Honoré de Balzac [1799-1850]
"Story is the shortest distance between people."
~~ Jeffrey Courion
"I fly because it releases my mind from the tyranny of petty things."
~~ Antoine de St-Exupéry [1900-44]
"Aeronautics was neither an industry nor a science. It was a miracle."
~~ Igor Sikorsky [1889-1972]
"Whether outwardly or inwardly, whether in space or time, the farther we penetrate the unknown, the vaster and more marvelous it becomes."
~~ Charles A. Lindbergh [1902-74], in 'Autobiography of Values' 1978
"God gave us memories that we might have roses in December."
~~ J.M. Barrie [1860-1937]
"Knowledge speaks, but wisdom listens."
~~ rock legend Jimi Hendrix [1942-70]
"Don't declare victory at halftime."
~~ Stephen Windwalker
"Why should we believe [that] the private sector will take care of poverty? It never has in our history."
~~ Gene Nichol
"Inequality hardens society into a class system. Inequality divides us from one another. ... Inequality undermines democracy."
~~ George Packer, columnist at The New Yorker Magazine
"[The United States is] a dysfunctional plutocracy serving the biggest corporations and the billionaires behind them."
~~ Dave Johnson, Campaign For America's Future blogger
"The creative process is a process of surrender, not control."
~~ Julia Cameron
"Two dangers threaten the universe: order and disorder."
~~ French poet Paul Valéry [1871-1945]
"Everybody wants to save the earth. Nobody wants to help Mom do the dishes."
~~ P.J. O'Rourke
"The only true voyage of discovery would not be to visit strange lands but to behold the universe thru the eyes of another."
~~ Marcel Proust [1871-1922]
"We always want the best man to win an election. Unfortunately, he never runs."
~~ Will Rogers [1879-1935]
"The key to success isn't much good until one discovers the right lock to insert it [into]."
~~ Chinese author & lecturer Tehyi Hsieh [1884-1972]
"Success is a public affair. Failure is a private funeral."
~~ Rosalind Russell [1907-76]
"All are lunatics, but he who can analyze his delusions is called a philosopher."
~~ Ambrose Bierce [1842-1914]
"If there were no bad people, there would be no good lawyers."
~~ Charles Dickens [1812-70]
"Don't get it right, just get it written."
~~ James Thurber [1894-1961]
"Hollywood is a place where they'll pay you $50,000 for a kiss and 50 cents for your soul."
~~ Marilyn Monroe [1926-32]
"The clowns have finally taken over the circus ... [The Republican Party] is now overwhelmed by its own nonsense."
~~ Timothy Egan, in The New York Times
"If I could explain it to the average person, I wouldn't have been worth the Nobel Prize.
~~ Richard P. Feynman [1918-88]
"In this country, everything is possible."
~~ Shakira
"The lure of flying is the lure of beauty."
~~ Amelia Earhart [1897-1937]
"Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year."
~~ Ralph Waldo Emerson [1803-82]
{each set of posted quotations are then posted at the Working Minds website, alphabetical by author}
~~ President Herbert Hoover [1874-1964]
"Trying to determine what is going on in the world by reading newspapers is like trying to tell the time by watching the second hand of a clock."
~~ Ben Hecht [1894-1964]
"Progress is man's ability to complicate simplicity/"
~~ adventurer Thor Heyerdahl [1914-2002]
"An expert is [someone] who has made all the mistakes which can be made in a narrow field."
~~ physicist Niels Bohr [1885-1962]
"When dealing with people, remember [that] you are not dealing with creatures of logic, but with creatures of emotion, creatures bristling with prejudice, and motivated by pride and vanity."
~~ Dale Carnegie [1888-1965]
"Finance, like Time, devours its own children."
~~ Honoré de Balzac [1799-1850]
"Story is the shortest distance between people."
~~ Jeffrey Courion
"I fly because it releases my mind from the tyranny of petty things."
~~ Antoine de St-Exupéry [1900-44]
"Aeronautics was neither an industry nor a science. It was a miracle."
~~ Igor Sikorsky [1889-1972]
"Whether outwardly or inwardly, whether in space or time, the farther we penetrate the unknown, the vaster and more marvelous it becomes."
~~ Charles A. Lindbergh [1902-74], in 'Autobiography of Values' 1978
"God gave us memories that we might have roses in December."
~~ J.M. Barrie [1860-1937]
"Knowledge speaks, but wisdom listens."
~~ rock legend Jimi Hendrix [1942-70]
"Don't declare victory at halftime."
~~ Stephen Windwalker
"Why should we believe [that] the private sector will take care of poverty? It never has in our history."
~~ Gene Nichol
"Inequality hardens society into a class system. Inequality divides us from one another. ... Inequality undermines democracy."
~~ George Packer, columnist at The New Yorker Magazine
"[The United States is] a dysfunctional plutocracy serving the biggest corporations and the billionaires behind them."
~~ Dave Johnson, Campaign For America's Future blogger
"The creative process is a process of surrender, not control."
~~ Julia Cameron
"Two dangers threaten the universe: order and disorder."
~~ French poet Paul Valéry [1871-1945]
"Everybody wants to save the earth. Nobody wants to help Mom do the dishes."
~~ P.J. O'Rourke
"The only true voyage of discovery would not be to visit strange lands but to behold the universe thru the eyes of another."
~~ Marcel Proust [1871-1922]
"We always want the best man to win an election. Unfortunately, he never runs."
~~ Will Rogers [1879-1935]
"The key to success isn't much good until one discovers the right lock to insert it [into]."
~~ Chinese author & lecturer Tehyi Hsieh [1884-1972]
"Success is a public affair. Failure is a private funeral."
~~ Rosalind Russell [1907-76]
"All are lunatics, but he who can analyze his delusions is called a philosopher."
~~ Ambrose Bierce [1842-1914]
"If there were no bad people, there would be no good lawyers."
~~ Charles Dickens [1812-70]
"Don't get it right, just get it written."
~~ James Thurber [1894-1961]
"Hollywood is a place where they'll pay you $50,000 for a kiss and 50 cents for your soul."
~~ Marilyn Monroe [1926-32]
"The clowns have finally taken over the circus ... [The Republican Party] is now overwhelmed by its own nonsense."
~~ Timothy Egan, in The New York Times
"If I could explain it to the average person, I wouldn't have been worth the Nobel Prize.
~~ Richard P. Feynman [1918-88]
"In this country, everything is possible."
~~ Shakira
"The lure of flying is the lure of beauty."
~~ Amelia Earhart [1897-1937]
"Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year."
~~ Ralph Waldo Emerson [1803-82]
{each set of posted quotations are then posted at the Working Minds website, alphabetical by author}
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
News Factoids for October 2011
Albertson's and Walgreen's have already put out a row of Xmas decorations, in the middle of October! The Halowe'en candy has been on the shelves for weeks, so long by now that it is probably already stale.
The Film News Briefs free weekday newsletter is full of information that is useful for anyone in the movie or TV business, or wanting to be. There is so much info on new movies and casting deals (I skip the TV deals and the executive hiring announcements) that I am often a day or two behind in updating that data to my various websites. free signup here
"The average real weekly earnings of a typical [American] blue-collar worker are lower today than in 1964." == Time Magazine
Taxes at the end of the Reagan administration were 18 percent of GDP; today taxes are 15 percent of GDP. Spending under Reagan averaged 22.4 percent of GDP "well above the 1971-2009 average of 20.6 percent", while spending today is 24 percent of GDP. == per Time Magazine, August 2011
The wealth gap between white and black American households doubled in the last two decades, to a ratio of twenty to one. == per a Pew Study, 2011
Internet Explorer’s overall share dropped from 56% in July to 54% in August while Firefox’s market share increased from 19% to 20% and Safari’s share grew one point to 9%. Between July 2010 and July 2011, however, Microsoft’s browser share remained steady at 56%.
The world human population reached 7 billion sometime during the month of October 2011.
Median income of U.S. college graduates declined 9.6 percent since 2000, a difference of more than $4,000 in salary. == per Time Magazine
"The U.S. collects less tax as a percentage of national income than any other leading economy." A graphic showed Denmark at the top with 48 percent and the U.S. at #16, with half that rate. == per Time Magazine
The U.S. Postal Service announced that the price of a basic stamp is going up a penny, to 45¢ on January 22 in 2012.
Copyright 2011 by G.E. Nordell, all rights reserved
The Film News Briefs free weekday newsletter is full of information that is useful for anyone in the movie or TV business, or wanting to be. There is so much info on new movies and casting deals (I skip the TV deals and the executive hiring announcements) that I am often a day or two behind in updating that data to my various websites. free signup here
"The average real weekly earnings of a typical [American] blue-collar worker are lower today than in 1964." == Time Magazine
Taxes at the end of the Reagan administration were 18 percent of GDP; today taxes are 15 percent of GDP. Spending under Reagan averaged 22.4 percent of GDP "well above the 1971-2009 average of 20.6 percent", while spending today is 24 percent of GDP. == per Time Magazine, August 2011
The wealth gap between white and black American households doubled in the last two decades, to a ratio of twenty to one. == per a Pew Study, 2011
Internet Explorer’s overall share dropped from 56% in July to 54% in August while Firefox’s market share increased from 19% to 20% and Safari’s share grew one point to 9%. Between July 2010 and July 2011, however, Microsoft’s browser share remained steady at 56%.
The world human population reached 7 billion sometime during the month of October 2011.
Median income of U.S. college graduates declined 9.6 percent since 2000, a difference of more than $4,000 in salary. == per Time Magazine
"The U.S. collects less tax as a percentage of national income than any other leading economy." A graphic showed Denmark at the top with 48 percent and the U.S. at #16, with half that rate. == per Time Magazine
The U.S. Postal Service announced that the price of a basic stamp is going up a penny, to 45¢ on January 22 in 2012.
Thursday, October 20, 2011
October 2011 Quotations
"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}
~~ 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 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}
Subscribe to:
Comments
(
Atom
)