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Category: Thought of the Day

  • Trump- The latest attempt at fooling the public

    Trump’s teleprompted speech last night, didn’t include either of the words; sorry or apologize. Does he regret saying all those insulting, stupid and provocative things? He regrets them because the blowback was more than he could handle. The polls indicated a seriously deteriorating chance of even being competitive in the election. New people came in…

  • QUOTES (FROM MY PERSONAL COLLECTION)

    Yiddish Expressions: "What soap is to the body, laughter is to the soul." "Everyone is kneaded out of the same dough but not baked in the same oven."-     9/2016   When Casals (then aged 93) was asked why he continued to practice the cello three hours a day, Casals replied, "'I'm beginning to notice some…

  • No Mass Shootings in Australia in 20 Years: How Did They Do It?

    Mass shootings stopped in Australia after strict new gun laws passed, researchers reported Wednesday. And overall deaths from firearms have fallen since the 1997 law, which banned certain semi-automatic and pump-action weapons and forced owners to sell them back to the government, the team reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association. "Following enactment…

  • How We Feel

                                                                                               9/11 September 11, 2015 It has been 14 years. My, how the time goes by. Those who have personal memories feel it. Steven came in and slapped my back. Still here! Thank you, Steven. He has his own experience. Bob and I didn’t compare notes today. He and Mimi have their experiences. So do…

  • Our Embarrassment

    Don’t you find it odd that the Republicans in Congress were running at an 18 to 25% approval rating over the past two years, yet they were the politicians that so many voters ran too, to take control of Congress. Obstructionism has it’s allure, as does oblique racism. It troubled me that as soon as…

  • A BILLION HOURS

      A billion hours ago, modern Homo sapiens emerged. A billion minutes ago, Christianity began.A billion seconds ago, the IBM PC was released.A billion Google searches ago … was this morning. Courtesy of Hal Varian, chief economist of Google. “Beyond Big Data,”     2000-plus: Estimated number of times the online activity of an average internet user…

  • The Church In All Its Many Faces

    While the Church  provides a religious belief, it also provides structure and a family center, a sense of camaraderie, education, and care for the poor and infirm.  The Church, in it's self proclaimed role as intermediary to G-d, holds itself up to a higher set of standards, and asks it's followers to obey the strict…

  • A SHANK OR A PULL

    As the tee shot sailed high and off course, one of the golfer's buddies yelled to him that he hit a hell of an elephant's ass. The golfer turned to him and asked what he meant.  His friend replied "high and stinky".

  • CONTRARIAN’S ROADMAP

    Lotto Lotto tickets that print NOT A WINNER….. really, is  that the best we can do.  How about: BETTER LUCK NEXT TIME.  or                                                                   …

  • Customer Service Really

      An unintended consequence of off-shoring, customer service departments became less personal and more scripted than when they were located in the U.S.  Due to the difference in cultures and the language differences, an emphasis was placed on courtesy, but the lack of background in the technical areas created undue waiting times and less efficient…

  • Incredible

      Click To Enlarge     Do you really want to kill these animals for their tusks?  

  • Money And Security

    Identity theft, computer hacking, customized consumer advertising, and personal data accumulation, by every company we do business with, has become a part of every day life as tying our shoes or going to the store. Billboards have facial recognition and can change what they advertise to appeal to whoever is passing by them at the…

  • Donald Trump- An Embarrassment of American Culture

    C'mon man;  In his latest act of buffoonery, Trump has pulled out of his moderator's role in the Republican debate which all but two campaigners refused to attend in the first place.  Self promotion is what gets Donald Trump out of bed each morning. The fact that he initiated the debate to coincide with the release of a…

  • Bob Dylan- Excerpts of Interview 2010

    "A song is a prismatic thing, nonlinear. Writing songs, you are looking for rhymes that feel right—things that come to you even as you are singing. They come to you quick-like. Sometimes even in a scatological way. You don't have time to distill meanings or ideological fallout. You want to make sure that the feeling…

  • Occupy Wall Street Two Months In

    As one of the self appointed spokesmen for the 99%, I want the banks and brokerage houses to make a lot of money, but I want them to do it using talent and experience, not extreme leverage and shaky products that the public has to bail out if they don't work out.  The public is backstopping banks' massive…

  • Millionaires and Billionaires

     The president has taken it upon himself to try to rally the American populous, by frequently mentioning millionaires and billionaires as individuals who should be paying higher taxes.  Most Americans agree with this in principle.  However there is some blowback to this. It is in the American cultural fiber to admire millionaires.  The term millionaires signifies…

  • Some Thoughts on Politics, War and Peace

       "Americans can always be counted on to do the right thing… after they have exhausted all other possibilities."—Winston Churchill     "Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it , misdiagnosing it and then misapplying the wrong remedies."–Groucho Marx        "Peace is not an absence of war, it is a virtue,…

  • There’s Warren And Then There’s Everyone Else

    Excerpts from Warren Buffett's 2009 Letter to Shareholders. I have been in dozens of board meetings in which acquisitions have been deliberated, often with the directors being instructed by high-priced investment bankers (are there any other kind?). Invariably, the bankers give the board a detailed assessment of the value of the company being purchased, with…

  • A Part of Us

  • Bet You Didn’t Know This

    On this day in 1903, the world's first "light heavyweight" Boxing Championship was fought. A guy named Jack Root out-pointed a guy named Kid McCoy. So, naturally, Root entered the history books of America as the first champion. And the other guy McCoy was an asterisk, like who was on deck when Bobby Thomson hit his…

  • Voice From the past

                It is said that Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948) considered the seven deadly sins to be: Wealth without work   Pleasure without conscience     Knowledge without character       Commerce without morality          Science without humanity            Worship without sacrifice                            Politics without principle Extracted from Schott's Miscellany   Image from Gustave Dore's illustration of the Divine…

  • Looking for ways to spend money

    Infrastructure projects are varied in nature and size, ranging from municipal tennis courts and stadium parking lots to airports and flood management projects. Some are pork and some are vital to the growth and prosperity of the country.  Whatever the project, it should answer a long term need and be a boost to the economy in…

  • A Few Easy Fixes

    A clearing house for all derivatives would create transparency, increase liquidity, and let derivatives trade in a market place, much the same way as bonds, stocks and options already trade.  By derivatives, I mean credit default swaps( of which an estimated $40 – $60 trillion exists ), currency swaps, embedded derivatives, interest rate swaps and all…

  • A Curious Man

    It's difficult to publicize a man like H.L. Mencken. Viewed as a terrible anti-semite, in reality, a critic of everything, with a penchant for horrific hyperbole.  As one who showed a marked indifference to the ramifications of his diatribes, it is hard to deny his wit. "I never lecture, not because I am shy or…

  • Who Said Tackle

    Football has it's share of unpopular and controversial rules. There still is confusion over a reception when the ball partially hits the ground, whether a coach and the referee should be able to plan in advance a timeout before a field goal attempt and can you have pass interference if the pass is uncatchable. Some…

  • Flashpoint 9/28/07

    Oil and the Euro hit all time highs today!   Gold hit a 27 year high today!   Google, Apple and the casino stocks hit all time highs this week!   The stock market, as measured by the DJIA, is near all time highs and the yield on the 30 year treasury bond is about 1/2% point from…

  • Some Excellent Advice

    "Do not consider it proof just because it is written in books, for a liar who will deceive with his tongue will not hesitate to do the same with his pen." "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime."…

  • Some Thoughts on War And Peace

      "But could not our situation be compared to one of a menacing epidemic? People are unable to view this situation in its true light, for their eyes are blinded by passion. General fear and anxiety create hatred and aggressiveness. The adaptation to warlike aims and activities has corrupted the mentality of man;  as a…

  • Constructive Criticism

    The Attorney General spoke today about the inferior abilities of federal judges to decide terrorism cases.  In his address to a Washington think tank he said,"That, for example, a judge will never be in the best position to know what is in the national security interests of our country." When outlining criteria for selecting candidates…

  • Steal Big – Steal Small

    Maybe if corporate America had to pay the full amount on the tens of billions of dollars in settlements made with state and federal governments, they would be a little more reluctant to break the laws on such a regular basis. Unfortunately because these are called settlements rather than fines or penalties, they are tax…

  • Thoughts

                         "There are in the Middle East today two challenging ideas: old and new. The old ideas will vanish because they are weak and exhausted."–1920's—Kahlil Gibran "Optimism is a great thing-even if it takes a while to bear fruit!"  –RJB- "Now he has departed from this strange world a…

  • Legacy Redux

    So Don Rumsfeld leaves a memo. He reveals that the war is not going well. He thinks its time for a shift in strategy. He's leaving office in two days and wants the world to know that he has come up with a new plan. It also reveals, to an otherwise unsuspecting public that the…

  • A Rumpled Man

    If you sometimes get discouraged, Consider this fellow.      He dropped out            of grade school.    Went broke.                     Took five years to  pay off  his bills.  Took a wife.  Unhappy marriage.  Ran for House.  Lost twice.  Ran for Senate.  Lost twice.  Delivered speech  that became a classic.  Audience indifferent.  Attacked daily  by the press  and despised by…

  • Edison’s Way

    After 10,000 unsuccessful tries to find a filament that would work for his improvements to the electric light bulb, he didn't consider the effort a failure. Instead, he characterized the experience by saying it was a success because he now knew 10,000 things that wouldn't work.

  • A Shot of Adrenaline

    Most of us have seen the video of former President William Jefferson Clinton and Chris Wallace of Fox news. President Clinton did go into that interview prepared to respond to any mention of his failures to neutralize Bin Ladin.   He was prepared to go on the attack as he did. That his response has energized…