Buy, Oh Fool

‘The LORD their God is with them, and the shout of a king is among them.’  ~ Numbers 23:21b

 

• My friends and family will be pleased to discover that the anniversary present my lovely wife gave me the other day displays both her thoughtfulness and her utilitarian mindedness—she gave me ‘Grilling for Dummies.’ (Hopefully, this means no more ‘blackened’ chicken.)

 

 

 

• ‘Albert Jay Nock wrote, “The only element in Judean society that was particularly worth bothering about was the Remnant. Isaiah seems finally to have got it through his head that if anything substantial were ever to be done in Judea, the Remnant would have to do it. This is a very striking and suggestive idea; but before going on to explore it, we need to be quite clear about our terms. What do we mean by the masses, and what by the Remnant?”’

 

 

 

Doc Holliday: ‘And you must be Ringo. Look, Darling, Johnny Ringo. The Deadliest pistolier since Wild Bill, they say. What do you think, darling? Should I hate him?’

 

Big Nose Kate: ‘You don’t even know him.’

 

Doc: ‘Yes, but there’s just something about him. Something around the eyes, I don’t know, reminds me of… me. No. I’m sure of it, I hate him.’ ~ Tombstone

 

 

 

• ‘As farmers plant more corn to in order to take advantage of federal subsidies, they use more land, fertilizer and water, pushing up the prices of all other crops up as well. The government corruption of market prices signals – starting with corn subsidies – fans out through the economy, resulting in yet another terrible misallocation of resources. Corn is grown to burn as destitute peasants on the other side of the world starve to death. And why? Because powerful politicians pander to special interest groups that stand to reap huge benefits at the expense of the rest of us.’

 

 

 

• So—is Paul dead or not?!!

 

 

 

• Oh, Cana-duh! A prepubescent Quebecois has succeeded in having a judge overturn her father’s grounding of her from using the Internet. Parents in Canada beware—you’re country is crazy!

 

 

 

No. You know, I know, everybody watching this show knows that four years from today, whichever of them is elected, government will be bigger, more expensive, more obtrusive, and more oppressive. If you vote Republican or Democrat, you are giving up. You’re saying ‘I’m never going to be free. America will never be a free country again. I will never get smaller government. So I’m just going to vote for the one I think will take me to hell at the slowest-possible rate. ~ Harry Browne

 

To-day’s 1980’s Moment is brought to you by: Ferris Bueller (and the Beatles):

 

Just…War

‘ He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry.’  ~ Ezekiel 37:2

  

 

 

• The campaign comes to an end but the r3VOLution presses forward! 

 

 

 

• As it turns out, weapons inspector Scott Ritter was right: ‘Time after time, I backed my opposition to the Bush administration’s “case” for war on Iraq with hard facts, citing evidence that could be readily checked by these erstwhile journalists had they been so inclined. Instead, my integrity and character were impugned by these simple recorders of “fact”, further enabling the fiction pushed by the administration into the mainstream, unchallenged and unquestioned, to be digested by the American public as truth.’ 

 

 

 

‘They who are shocked at a single murder on the highway, hear with indifference of the slaughter of a thousand on the field. They whom the idea of a single corpse would thrill with terror, contemplate that of heaps of human carcasses mangled by human hands, with frigid indifference.’  ~ Jonathan Dymond

 

 

 

• ‘Full of fun and mischief, Josephine and Zac Onions are ordinary, healthy children.  But there is something extraordinary about Josephine, five, and her three-year-old little brother-they are both still breastfeeding.’ 

 

 

 

• Whenever I hear the Beatles songs ‘Paperback Writer’ or ‘Penny Lane‘ I find myself back behind the wheel of the 1969 Ford Mustang I bought when I was 17.  (I must have burnt through three cassettes of their 20 Greatest Hits.)  Interestingly, a scientific research project is currently underway related to memories one has that are tied to the Beatles.  I’ve submitted my memory to the web site-have you? 

 

 

 

• I’m thinking about getting these for Ashlee for her birthday.  What do you think?

 

 

 

• ‘It’s breakfast time, you five-pound bass!’ 

 

 

 

• ‘Secondly, liberalism was lulled to sleep with the seductive lure of evolutionism-the doctrine of Social Darwinism, which saw history as an ever-ascending spiral of progress. According to this theory, the triumph of liberty is inevitable because Reason, Science, and Enlightened Thinking are on our side. The history of the 20th century would soon refute this.’ 

 

 

 

• I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again-DO NOT count Hillary Clinton out of the presidential race.  Ever.  [UPDATE: His birth certificate has been released.  Beware, however, that you still don’t count Hillary out.]

 

 

 

• My Irish blood loves to hear of my kinsmen rising up in defiance to the European Leviathan.  Erin go bragh!  [UPDATE: Yee-haw!]

Franc-ly My Dear…

‘As they emptied their sacks, behold, every man’s bundle of money was in his sack.  And when they and their father saw their bundles of money, they were afraid.’ ~ Genesis 42:35

• ‘The dollar fell below parity with the Swiss franc for the first time on Friday as fears about more credit turmoil and a U.S. recession sparked broad selling of the U.S. currency. The dollar fell to an all-time low of 0.9987 Swiss francs, according to electronic trading platform EBS. It last traded at 1.0026 francs.’

• ‘Harvard University economist Martin Feldstein, a member of the group that dates business cycles in the U.S., said the nation has entered a recession that could be the worst since World War II.’

So, tell me more about this ‘Money.’