I’ll Tell You What…

I think it’s time to trade this body in for a new one.

Sometimes you read the most insightful things on Slashdot. It’s rare, I admit, but it does happen every once in a while. Here’s a quote from this morning that I can relate to in such an intimate way that it makes my heart sink.
It’s your job as a corporate drone to rate management’s […]

Here’s another one that is used every once in a while on the net. The word grok appears in the Robert Heinlein book, Stranger in a Strange Land and is part of the Martian language. One of the characters in the book explains it this way:
‘Grok’ means to understand so thoroughly that the […]

I saw this word used somewhere today and thought it was a strange one. The context in which it was used escapes me at the moment but I think it was used to describe something, eg, that is a meme. Anyway, I looked up the definition and it’s really quite cool.
WordNet over at […]

Who was Saint Nicholas and who was Santa Claus? Are they the same? I found a website (StNicholasCenter.org) that explains it all very well.

War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a […]

Here’s a list of some very good resources pertaining to the Thanksgiving holiday:

This is just an incredible speech. Unfortunately, I missed the broadcast of the Republican National Convention but Hal over at The Great Separation posted the speech in its entirety. I’m reposting it for the sake of convenience to my readers and exposure of the speech.
Click Read More… for the full text. It’s […]

You remember Stella Liebeck, don’t you? No, she’s not the “Where’s the beef?” lady from the Wendy’s commercial. She’s the elderly lady who spilled McDonald’s coffe in her lap and sustained 3rd degree burns on 6% of her body. The courts awarded her $2.9 million but it was later reduced to $600,000. […]

Here is an exceptionally well-written article by Rabbi Daniel Lapin. Wise words indeed.

One-time girlfriend of quirky California Gov. Jerry Brown in the ’70s, singer Linda Ronstadt has been busy lately. She dedicated her song “Desperado” to Michael Moore and his bogus-mentary, “Fahrenheit 911,” she got herself tossed out of the Aladdin casino in Las Vegas, and she gave an interview to a newspaper. Although I doubt this was her intention, she has actually taught us three lessons: One, she and many of her fellow entertainers do have a religion – I’d call it “secular fundamentalism.” Two, it’s open season on Christians, the last unprotected minority in America. Her third lesson, well, I’ll tell you that in a minute…

A 1917 quote from the Rev. William J. H. Boetcker, a Presbyterian clergyman and pamphlet writer:

• You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.
• You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong
• You cannot help the poor man by destroying the rich.
• You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.
• You cannot build character and courage by taking away man’s initiative and independence.
• You cannot help small men by tearing down big men.
• You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer.
• You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than your income.
• You cannot establish security on borrowed money.
• You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they will not do for themselves.

This is often mistakenly credited to Abraham Lincoln. See The Ten “You Cannots” Abraham Lincoln Did Not Say for more information.

Here’s a quote that’s as relevant today as it was 143 years ago:

The candid citizen must confess that if the policy of the government upon vital questions affecting the whole people is to be irrevocably fixed by decisions of the Supreme Court . . . the people will have ceased to be their own rulers.



–Abraham Lincoln, March 4, 1861