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Greetings, Quotaholics:
I have always tried to keep RGQ apolitical. While there is a political
component to many of the pieces run here, we don’t get into the “rotten
Democrats, stinking Republicans” kind of thing here. I’ve always
believed there are millions of other places on the web for that sort
of thing, and RGQ is refreshing because it’s not part of the dialogue.
Occasionally I bring up an issue like electronic voting machines because
it transcends simple politics. We’re all affected by it, regardless
of ideologies. The current financial crisis certainly qualifies.
The unbelievably enormous figures of $700,000,000,000 to $1,200,000,000,000
that are being bandied about literally stagger the imagination.
The numbers are simply numbers. The enormity of what is spoken
of is truly inconceivable, and when they come for the money, it doesn’t
matter a whit whether you’re conservative or liberal, black or white,
young or old. They’re coming for it and they’ll get it.
Bloomberg.com is
reporting on another looming financial crisis that’s receiving scant
attention when it should be front page news. I’ll try to synopsize
it briefly, but it doesn’t look good for the home team (us).
In 1934, in the wake of the Great Depression, the Federal Deposit Insurance
Comnpany (FDIC) was
formed to prevent the runs on banks that occurred after the crash of
Oct. 1929. It required banks to pay insurance premiums to a government-backed
insurance company, and made it possible to guarantee the deposits of
individuals up to $100,000.
The Bloomberg report indicates that the FDIC itself now may fail, and
if it does, taxpayers may be on the hook for another $150,000,000,000.
I’m writing these figures with zeroes in order to try to demonstrate
how huge they really are.
This quote from Bloomberg is particularly distressing.
“By the end of 2009, about 100 U.S. banks with collective assets of
more than $800 billion will fail, predicts Christopher Whalen, managing
director of Institutional Risk Analytics, a Torrance, California-based
firm that sells its analysis of FDIC data to investors.”
What? We’re asked to put up as much as $1.2 trillion dollars in
September of 2008, we may have to put up another $150 billion to bail
out the FDIC, and even with all that, another $800 billion is going
down within a year?
Shouldn’t this all be part of the current debate? Don’t we have
the right to understand the full enormity of what is facing us?
And what should we do? What if we did nothing? Can this
country survive with this level of debt? After all, as individuals
we understand how crushing debt can be, when every penny you earn is
being demanded to pay for past expenses. Our tax money must first
go to paying off the debt before one nickel is left over for any current
spending. So we have to borrow more money to finance the defecit,
and the debt limit inexorably rises.
What about asking how this happened? Nowhere is it mentioned in
the press how we got here, except with bland, undefined terms like “mismanagement”,
and occasionally “greed”. Why isn’t that THE center of this debate?
After all, how can you fix something when you don’t understand what’s
wrong with it? Does it make sense to throw such incredible sums
to “save” something that seems beyond saving if those predictions are
correct? And does anyone believe that paying the current numbers
will end the bleeding? Do you know how the money is to be spent?
Because this has such incredible implications that affect everyone,
I’m going to suspend my ban on political comments, but only if you can
provide links and documentation to back up what you say. I’m not
taking blanket comments condemning one party or candidate or another
as stupid, dumb, corrupt, etc. I’m gonna play this as straight
as I can, but I need your cooperation, too. If you can offer factual
insight I want to hear what you have to say.
If you can’t back up a claim or prove a point, then don’t make it.
It’s really that simple. You’re welcome to write about your own
personal experiences, but we need to understand what the hell happened
and what it really means to real people. Others aren’t doing the
job for us. This is a serious crisis, and we need serious thoughts,
information, and suggestions.
Insolvently,
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it worth $1 a month to you to keep RGQ going? Please click the
link and direct your contribution to reallygoodquotes@yahoo.com.
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“When
the President does it, that means that it’s not illegal.” - Richard
M. Nixon
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“When
a man comes to me for advice, I find out what kind of advice he wants
and I give it to him.” - Josh Billings
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Bus Accident
[Thanks to Bonnie in Louisiana]
A woman went into a sporting goods store to buy a shotgun. “It’s for
my husband,” she told the clerk.
“Did he tell you
what gauge to get?” asked the clerk.
And she said, “Are
you kidding? He doesn’t even know yet that I’m going to shoot him!”
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“A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves.” - Edward R Murrow
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“I believe that more unhappiness comes from this source than from any
other - I mean from the attempt to prolong family connections unduly and
to make people hang together artificially who would never naturally do
so.” - Samuel Butler, English poet, satirist, painter, philosopher (1612-1680)
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“There are no exceptions to the rule that everybody likes to be an exception
to the rule.” - Charles Osgood
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E-Mail
the Imp
I love the Australian news services; they seem to be able to find interesting
news items that are also a bit bizarre. The latest article that I found
to be a bit strange concerns animal rights.
For several years there have been clashes over the use of animals in
medical experiments, abuse of animals in the entertainment industry,
and abuse of working animals. What one person or organization considers
abuse may just be the norm that has existed for years in that particular
area. The fur industry comes to mind. We…humans…have been stripping
the fur and hides off animals for tens of thousands of years but only
recently has it been considered abuse by some.
I think dressing your puppy or kitty up in cute outfits is animal abuse,
but I’m not going to run around trying to liberate dressed up Shih Tzus
or Chihuahas.
Switzerland has always seemed to me to be a stable country, with a population
that is level headed and not prone to the common idiocies that appear
in other European countries. Their government has also seemed to be
staid and not prone to making changes in policy or procedure based on
momentary whims of the public.
The government of
Switzerland has come up with legislation concerning animal rights
that has me wondering how much marijuana smoke seeped into the air conditioning
system of the Federal Assembly offices while this law was being conceived.
Not all of the law is explained in the artcle, but there’s enough explained
concerning fish, both wild and domestic, to make you think the legislative
body was high on weed or strung out on speed when they signed off on
it.
If you go fishing, you can’t use live bait. So bash your bait to death
and use it in chunks. They put a stop to recreational fishing, no more
“catch and release”. There was no information about how to handle fish
that were under sized…so I suppose you get to take them home also. I
suppose that if you catch something other than what you’re fishing for
yoy have to put that in your creel for take-home also. I can’t imagine
fishing for perch and getting stuck taking home some damned eels I didn’t
want.
As for those goldfish in your house, you can’t just flush them down
the toilet anymore. You have to knock them out, then kill them, then
flush them. Although the article doesn’t state it, I presume this procedure
would apply to all tropical fish pets.
This last bit makes me think of bizarre things. Will the sporting goods
companies be marketing miniature saps and billy clubs so you can knock
out your fish? Will the government be publishing a “How To” manual for
applying effective knock-out techniques for different fish species?
Will there be accepted methods for applying the coup de grâce? I can’t
imagine that such a caring legislative body would condone immolation,
electrocution, or stomping under one’s heel as a humane way to dispatch
a cherished pet.
Lastly, how will the government enforce this new law? How are they going
to police the fisherpersons who may practice “catch and release” clandestinely?
How will they monitor who is sneaking goldfish into the bowl with a
wad of toilet paper after a heavy dump? They’re either going to have
to hire a bunch of game wardens or mount a lot of surveillance cameras,
both inside and outside of homes, or both. Sure sounds a lot like the
CCTV surveillance in the UK and their
ubiquitous parking attendant gnomes.
The Bad Sied 
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Patty has some thoughts about being blind, and shares a humorous story
as well. Thanks Patty. Enjoy your 15 Minutes of Fame.
Well, now I have a sort of new/old topic to talk on today! Get ready
A-men corner!
I’m going to copy and paste an article I wrote for a different article
source and let yawl laugh along with the rest of every one else, and
then at the end, I have a question for you, if I can remember it after
I laugh again!
Well this after noon Rowdy and I took a nap in the sunshine. Then I
came in, and he finished his nap under the fan while I took a long soke
in the tub. Then I realized that we were out of dog food, and so I took
a long walk with Rowdy and ended up at Donnie’s knocking on the door.
When he opened it I said in Rowdy’s voice, “May I borrow a half a cup
of Dog Food or so”?
Donnie
laughed and got the food for him, and after we chatted a bit, and Cassie
and Rowdy sniffed and kissed each other, and Cassie hopped up and down
and said, “Daddy, let him in I want to play”! about ten thousand times,
we went along our way.
Once outside,
Rowdy just couldn’t wait to get into that Dog Food, and so I put some
out on the sidewalk and let him eat out for a change. Lol!
Any how
as I was leaving from there some guys stopped me at the bottom of the
ramp leading out to the main sidewalk.
One said, “You can’t make a Beagle Dog mind”. I laughed, a bit aggravated,
but nicely smiling, and said, “Sure I can, I do it every day”.
Then the
other dumber of the two said, “Are you blind”?
I again
while smiling nicely, and biting my tongue a bit said, “yes, all my
life”. I stopped myself from saying, “All my life, want to fight about
it”? LOL!
Anyhow,
then the other, almost dumber of the two says, “Does that work”?
I thought,
that I was gonna scream, but I asked, not really wanting to know, “Does
what work”?
He said,
“That stick”? (My Cane) I laughed and said rather meanly, “Depends on
what I use it for”!
That stopped
the conversation cold! LOL!
I love
it, ask a stupid question! I’ll be happy to answer in a way you’ll surely
understand! LOL!
Now, here’s
my question. After my article on Blind Pedestrians, and other things
like, when the police themselves did not know that I was blind, well
do people still not get it? Are blind persons, and other persons with
other disabilities ever going to be put out of the minority scene? Are
people ever going to know what a real guide dog looks like?
I mean
come on! Rowdy Dog is my sweetest Beagle Baby Dog! He’s my bestest friend
in the whole wide world, but he’s not a guide! He doesn’t have a harness!
He doesn’t wear a sign! He doesn’t get to go all places with me, and
he can not even ride the town bus system where I live because he’s nothing
more than a companion dog!
My point
is this, people ought to know just by looking at me, and my red and
white cane that I am blind, they ought to know by seeing Rowdy Dog and
his appearance and behavior that he is not a specially trained dog,
and people ought to have enough sense to not ask me stupid….ed! questions
like, “Does that work”? when referring to my cane. They ought to be
prepared to find out whether my stick works, and how it might have other
really neat uses! LOL! laughing so hard that I almost gotted lost with
this one!
My true
point is this! Here’s what I want yawl to know. Oct. is Blindness awareness
month. Please? Please? get a book from the library, go and visit a blind
workshop, go and visit a blind school in your state capital!
Oopsy?
Did you not know those existed? Oh! dear, did you think that blind kids
stayed at home and did not go to school? Oh! yeah, did you not know
that there were blind workshops? Did you ever wonder if that CRS person
on the other end of the line when you’re ordering your Christmas presents
from some catalog company might just be blind? Did you know that I can
work a phone system with five lines all ringing at once with no special
ring tones to separate them, and still keep them straight?
People
who have a difference in they way they see, walk, talk, and or hear.
Well, they’re not stupid, folks, they just do things differently than
you! Get a grip folks, and learn something new today! - Patty, Celine
Kitty, the Rowdy Dog, and the Tazz
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On this day in history, September
26, 1774: Environmentalist and folk hero John Chapman is born in Leominster,
Massachusetts. He was the second child of Nathaniel and Elizabeth Chapman
who were struggling farmers. A third child was born while Nathaniel was
serving as a carpenter during the Revolutionary War. John’s baby brother
and mother both died and John and his sister were raised by relatives
until after the war. Nathaniel remarried and he and his new wife had ten
more children. At age 18, John and his 11-year-old half-brother left home
and traveled west. He became a nurseryman and grew fruit trees.
By 1800, the Chapmans were in Licking County, Ohio and were growing trees
there. Revolutionary War veterans were granted lands in Ohio and Nathaniel
moved west to join his eldest son. John’s nurseries were doing well. He
took seeds and left his trees to go off further westward, planting groves
of trees and building fencing to protect them from livestock. He would
place a local farmer in charge of the trees and return every year or two
to check on progress. Trees could be sold and John would use the proceeds
to fund further plantings.
As John traveled farther afield, he told stories to the children and preached
a little gospel to the adults in return for permission to sleep on the
floor and food for the night. He was an early environmentalist, planting
trees across the frontier and caring for animals. His original nursery
in Ohio remained in his name and when he died his sister inherited over
1,200 acres worth millions of dollars. He is remembered by US children
as one who skips and sings through the countryside often wearing a saucepan
for a hat. Most of his trees have succumbed to old age, but one is said
to survive in Nova, Ohio. The legacy of Johnny Appleseed.
“You never know how many apples there are in a seed.” - unknown
“Every thought
is a seed. If you plant crab apples don’t count on harvesting golden Delicious.”
- unknown
“Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still
plant my apple tree.” - Martin Luther
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Email
Kirsten
“It’s
hard for me to get used to these changing times. I can remember when
the air was clean and sex was dirty.”
~ George Burns ~
You know you’re getting old when you start sentences with phrases like,
“In my day…” and “The trouble with the youth of today…”. I used
to swear high and low that I would never talk like this, but that was
a long time ago. It was back in the day when my Dad used to boast that
when he was a kid, he had to walk to and from school every day. Five
miles there and five miles back, barefoot in knee-deep snow. It somehow
failed to register on my young mind that since this was South Africa,
with an average snowfall of half an inch every twenty years, this story
was probably somewhat exaggerated. In my Dad’s case, though, this cliche
probably did have an element of truth. He and his two siblings were
raised by a single Mom in the years during and immediately following
World War Two - a set of circumstances invariably leading to financial
hardship.
Now that I am older, and arguably wiser, I find myself telling people
that when I was a kid, twenty cents would buy me candy, a comic book,
a bottle of Coke, a glow-in-the-dark yo-yo, an ice cream, and a ticket
to the zoo, and still leave me with enough to save ten percent of my
earnings. When my two boys are old enough to be regaled with my tales
of how cheap things used to be, they will no doubt groan and roll their
eyes and tell me that they will never engage in conversations like that
when they’re grown-up. Then, thirty years from now, they will be writing
an article similar to this one.
Every now and then something happens to remind me that I am firmly entrenched
in the “sandwich generation” (too old to be called young; too young
to be called old). There is the simple fact of the circumstances in
my life. I have almost twenty years’ experience in my industry; I have
one parent who is deceased and one who is over the age of 70; I am rapidly
approaching the age where I should undergo annual breast cancer screening;
my husband and I are frequently in conversations where someone says,
“You won’t believe who had a heart attack last week”.
Apart from all that, though, there are sometimes specific events that
remind me of my age. A couple of weeks ago, for instance, I was stopped
behind a school bus that was discharging passengers. They were rowdy
high school kids - maybe sixteen or seventeen years old. The girls were
clones of each other - long, straight hair that somehow looked immaculate
despite the wind that was blowing; flawless makeup; fashionable T’s;
jeans that stopped just short of being indecently tight. The boys were
either tall, gangly and awkward, as if they didn’t know what to do with
their long limbs, or they were short, muscular and compact. The last
person to get off the bus was a boy who was the ideal of physical perfection.
Tall, muscular, perfectly proportioned, warm easy-going smile. Before
I could stop the thought, I said to myself, WOW! I wouldn’t kick him
out of bed for farting!
As quickly as the thought arrived, I banished it, mortified at myself
for having allowed it to formulate in the first place. I mean, I’m old
enough to be this boy’s mother! Now, there’s a concept I was not comfortable
with. I’m actually old enough to be the mother of someone about to finish
high school. Ga-a-ack! Old age alert! OK, I appreciate that I’m not
old enough to be an exhibit in the Natural History Museum, but still.
Earlier this week as I was waiting to board a subway train during rush
hour, I felt someone pinch my backside. I turned around and saw a bevy
of schoolboys laughing raucously, trying not to make it obvious that
they were looking in my direction. They were about fourteen, and wore
identical uniforms with shirts half tucked in, identical bad haircuts,
and identical inane grins reminiscent of a stereotypical village idiot.
It was clear that one of them had pinched my butt as a dare, but since
they all looked the same, I had no way of identifying the culprit. Well,
this was just great. Now I’m old enough for my ass to be the subject
of a teenage boys’ dare.
I take comfort, though, from the fact that with age comes certain benefits.
Young people may have the vitality of youth and all that, but I’ve got
the kind of knowledge that can only come with life experiences, my car
insurance is lower than theirs, I don’t have to waste time keeping up
with the latest fashion trends, and I no longer have to navigate the
dating jungle.
Now, can you believe that a loaf of bread costs over two dollars now?
Back in my youth, we only paid… OK, I’ll shut up now.
Kaleidoscopically yours,
Kirsten
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That looks like
a normal 1/3 graph to you, doesn’t it? No real news there. I can post
a graph, but knowing what it means is a different story.
This is my spam
graph. Of the people that spam me, 1/3 of them have had their site
shut down (that’s the Suspensions). Another third are pending shutdown.
And the no action mean’s they could be legitimate sites now.
But I didn’t
do any of it. Well, I did. I signed up for KnujOn,
sent them my spam, and now I don’t get as much. From the above graph,
we can see that it isn’t smart to send me spam, from a business point
of view. There is a one in three chance a spammer’s web site will
be shut down. That’s not good odds for a business, so spammers have
pretty much stopped trying to bother me.
I did win five
million British pounds today, from Microsoft UK. These are the same
people that came up with the iLoo (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ReallyGoodQuotes/message/188
and http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ReallyGoodQuotes/message/191),
and they sent the e-mail to me twice. KnujOn can’t stop idiots like
that, but reasonable spammers (9/10 on ROKSO from my experience) will
respect their wishes.
I’m late with
my article again, so just send your spam to KnujOn
and we can talk about this next week
Just try it,
you’ll like it! Mikey did!
Tim a’Musing
Having a Ball with Spam
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Use paper bags rather than plastic to store lettuce and celery in
the crisper. They will stay fresh longer. - Peggy in Tonawanda, New
York
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A great turnout today!
Next opening line…
I haven’t yet learned how to tell…
Hints:
Here’s a great new rhyming/composition tool. http://www.writerhymes.com/
There’s also a great rhyming dictionary at http://www.rhymezone.com/
Limerick rules. http://freespace.virgin.net/merrick.sheldon/limerickrules.htm
Submit
Opening Line
Submit
Limerick
The
ranting and screaming began
about our big robbery plan.
To take from the bank,
we’d need a big tank.
But all Bob brought was a sedan. - Tony in Richmond |
The
ranting and screaming began
While I was sitting on the can.
She said she needed in
‘Cause she had drank too much gin;
I told her, no way, “make” it like a man! - Bonnie in Louisiana
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The
ranting and screaming began
Of drama I’m never a fan
I told them to quit
I’d nearly had it
So I just got up and I ran. - Maria in Illinois |
The
ranting and screaming began—
When I saw John was in the Klan—
I said “This is bull-shit”
And then I high-tailed it
I ran and I ran and I ran. - Cassandra in New York |
The
ranting and screaming began
From the wife strawberry who said, “Stan,
If you had been cool
Instead of a fool
W wound now not be in this jam.” - Anne Onimous |
The
ranting and screaming began
“Send out the call for Batman!
He’ll stop the Joker
For he is a broker
Who will save every Gotham man.” - Anne Onimous |
The
ranting and screaming began
From the kids in the back of the van.
They wanted attention
So mom thought she’d mention
If they didn’t stop, their hides she’d tan. - Anne Onimous |
The
ranting and screaming began
From the television pitchman:
“Our product will wow!
If you act right now
You can own this exciting dishpan!” - Anne Onimous |
The
ranting and screaming began
At the Hollywood prop man
For instead of blanks
In the gun of the tanks
They fired real shells at the stuntman. - E. Cole Aye |
The
ranting and screaming began
In the quaint country of Sudan
The peace there was ended
Someone got offended
When I couldn’t read from the Koran. - E. Cole Aye |
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Re: Transgender Rights
I think the judge is wrong. That act was passed to specifically help women
from being discriminated against. This person is not a woman. It was a
man who had his genitals removed. Did they implant a womb and ovaries?
Can it give birth like a natural born woman? No, it’s not a woman and
cosmetics (surgery and Avon) doesn’t make it a woman. This jerk reminds
me of Rene Richards, a male pro-tennis player who had sex change and then
demanded to be allowed to play against natural born women. There is nothing
natural or normal about wanting to have your genitals mutilated. I guess
they have the right but that doesn’t mean the rest of us have to play
along with their fantasies. Especially employers. - Margee
Good GOD, what the hell are
we coming to when political correctness has to dictate every policy.
When someone is working in a capacity of presidential security, counter-espionage
or terrorism it has got to be assured they are not susceptible to being
compromised by the enemy. Sexual issues create the most tenuous subjects,
and having been interviewed various times for friends who were going to
work in delicate environments I recognize that someone who can be tempted
to cross certain lines of decorum are not “good fits” for specific positions.
If you were going to be president, how secure would you be when you found
out that your primary security person butt-f*cks chickens and enjoys the
anal probes the aliens give him?
C’;mon America, if you get whiplash when you sit down your head is in
a dangerous place. - Bruce in Colorado
Re: Milk
Mike said: And on behalf of myself and the rest of the group I’d like
to say, the egg white comment might keep me from ever eating out again!
I worked in restaurants for years, and could tell you stories that would
curdle your stomach - believe me, the egg whites comment was tame. - Faithy
Well, I have a problem with
restaurants buying and using human breast milk. And it has nothing to
do with prudery. Who are these women? Do they smoke (tobacco or marijuana)
or drink? What is their medical history? Will this milk be pasteurized
before being used? - Margee
Now, as far as I can see, if it were carefully watched, and cleaned and
stuff then selling and drinking breast milk wouldn’t be any different
than drinking and selling cow’s milk or goat’s milk or any other type
of milk. Yes we stand a chance of getting nasty stuff in there now, but
things have to begin at the beginning.
When
people first started drinking and selling Cow’s Milk, there weren’t any
reggulations on it, this came with trial and error, and nothing more.
I think that first off people would have to get past the part about it
being human milk, then they’d have to be reassuring me, at least, that
it was clean and safe.
However
there was this friend of mine who had been diagnosed with cancer and was
told by a couple of doctors that breast milk had some sort of anti-bodies
that would indeed promote healing and other things for him. After alot
of wrangling and other problems he was able to find a safe source for
getting this, and he used it. He had his surgery and his treatments, including
his daily drink of breast milk, (Only could have so much) and now, voila!
He’s still alive.
At
first I was taken aback by his choice of treatment, but then I thought,
“Who am I to judge?”? So I left him to it. Turns out I’m not sure if it
helped or not, but he is still here when they told him he’d not survive.
He had stem cell cancer, and he did live!
So
think about this, Before you decide that every one who wishes to drink
human milk is crazy and needs to be locked away someplace, you just might
want to wait a bit and see what research comes along to back any claim
of success with this. - From Patty, Celine Kitty, the Rowdy Dog, and the
Tazz
I sure wouldn’t order yogurt
in a restaurant that used human milk in its preparations. - Lucille
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Disclaimer- All quotes printed in this publication are believed to be
accurately attributed, but no guarantees are made that some incorrectly
attributed, or even outright false quotes won’t get in here from time
to time. I assure readers that I will do my best to weed out incorrect
quotes, and will print a retraction as soon as I become aware of any errors.
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Click here to see the archives of past issues, or go to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/reallygoodquotes/messages.
If you run across something really outstanding when perusing the archives,
I’d appreciate it if you’d mail me at TheBestOfRGQ@yahoo.com
and point it out to me. I’m in the process of compiling an e-book
called, not surprisingly, The Best of RGQ, and I’d like to hear from you
which pieces impacted you the most. |
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Comments? Want to contribute a joke or a quote or an image? Feel free
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at reallygoodquotes@yahoo.com.
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