Quotes

Thanks to David Michaels for this one.

The Harry Schultz Newsletter Junior came out today.

I'm not going to recommend it only because his is a pay site and Mr. Schultz is very frail and is in the process of transferring his fine newsletter to the Aden Sisters whom I do highly recommend.

Anyway, Mr Schultz references the following quote which has been popping up with accelerating frequency lately and attributes it to Benjamin Franklin.

With all due respect, I don't think this is a Ben Franklin quote, but I can't find evidence one way or the other.

Which of course doesn't change the fact that I believe every last word of the following to be absolute truth.

This goes double for members of Congress, Senators, the entirety of the United Nations, many Mayors and City Council members, political hacks in general, most pundits, and for damn sure every single last scum sucking piece of excrement within the upper management of the world's largest banks (past, present and future).

Just my opinion.

“Never look down on anybody unless you're helping him up.”

“Your children need your presence more than your presents.”

“If you run, you might lose. If you don't run, you're guaranteed to lose.”

“If my mind can conceive it, and my heart can believe it, I know I can achieve it.”

“It is time for us to turn to each other, not on each other”

“No one should negotiate their dreams. Dreams must be free to fly high. No government, no legislature, has a right to limit your dreams. You should never agree to surrender your dreams.”

“The burden of being black is that you have to be superior just to be equal. But the glory of it is that, once you achieve, you have achieved, indeed."

You can't vote against healthcare and call yourself a black man.”

“Today's students can put dope in their veins or hope in their brains."

You must know, it is not your aptitude but your attitude that will determine your altitude.”

“When the doors of opportunity swing open, we must make sure that we are not too drunk or too indifferent to walk through.”

“When we're unemployed, we're called lazy; when whites are unemployed it's called a depression.”

"There is nothing more painful for me at this stage in my life than to walk down the street and hear footsteps and start thinking about robbery -- and then look around and see somebody white and feel relieved."

“Capital punishment turns the state into a murderer. But imprisonment turns the state into a gay dungeon-master.”

“Great things happen in small places. Jesus was born in Bethlehem. Jesse Jackson was born in Greenville.”

I like The Velvet Underground a lot.

Loaded is one of the many records I've owned in every format every invented.

I always thought of Moe Tucker as a solid professional drummer.

This week the drummer in Andy Warhol's favorite band came back for her second, maybe third fifteen minutes, in a big way.

Having been spotted at a tea party gathering earlier this summer, she gave an interview to Mike Applestein last weekend which has since gone viral.

Click anywhere on the quote below for the entire interview.

No country can provide all things for all citizens. There comes a point where it just isn't possible, and it's proven to be a failure everywhere it's been tried. I am not oblivious to the plight of the poor, but I don't see any reason/sense to the idea that everyone has to have everything, especially when the economy is so bad. I see that philosophy as merely a ploy to control.

My family was damn poor when I was growing up on Long Island. There were no food stamps, no Medicaid, no welfare. If you were poor, you were poor. You didn't have a TV, you didn't have five pairs of shoes, you didn't have Levi's, you didn't have a phone; you ate Spam, hot dogs and spaghetti. We all survived! I am not against food stamps, welfare or Medicaid, if only they would oversee these programs properly!

I am also against the government taking over the student loan program, car companies, bailouts and the White House taking control of the census (what the hell is that all about?); [about] any First Lady telling (I know, I know, "suggesting to") us what to eat, the mayor of New York City declaring "no salt" (screw you, pal!), the mayor/city commissioners of Anytown, U.S.A. declaring you can't fly a flag, can't say the Pledge of Allegiance and can't sing the National Anthem. I'm against a President dismissing any and all who dare to disagree; the water being turned off in (central) California, at [an] area where they've turned off the water because they want to save a one-inch fish -- turning that huge area of farming land into another dustbowl -- the insipid start of food supply control methinks! The government deciding what kind of lightbulbs we can use (all you "think green" people, three objections to this b.s.: 1) Those bulbs give off the light of a candle; 2) They're veryexpensive; 3) They have mercury in them - how the hell are we supposed to dispose of them?).

I am against the government now thinking about bailing out unions. The unions made the contracts which include insane pensions; the U.S. government didn't. I'm against the government closing down offshore drilling in the Gulf with one hand and with the other giving (lending?) Brazil money to help them do way deeper offshore drilling -- rather curious. I'm against a government that will not defend our borders; and on and on and on.

Applestein - What are your feelings about the online reactions? Many people seem upset or outraged.

Maureen Tucker - I'm stunned that so many people who call themselves liberal yet are completely intolerant. I thought liberals loved everyone: the poor, the immigrant, the gays, the handicapped, the minorities, dogs, cats, all eye colors, all hair colors! Peace, love, bull! Curious they have no tolerance whatsoever for anyone who doesn't think exactly as they do. You disagree and you're immediately called a fool, a Nazi, a racist. That's pretty f%#d up!!

“Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.”

“There are two ways to live: you can live as if nothing is a miracle; you can live as if everything is a miracle.”

“We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.”

“Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.”

“If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough”

“If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?”

“The world is not dangerous because of those who do harm but because of those who look at it without doing anything.”

“The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at once.”

“I have no particular talent. I am merely inquisitive.”

“It's not that I'm so smart , it's just that I stay with problems longer .”

“Never do anything against conscience, even if the state demands it”

“The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education.”

 “Anyone who doesn't take truth seriously in small matters cannot be trusted in large ones either.”

“Force always attracts men of low morality.”

“If you want to live a happy life, tie it to a goal, not to people or things.”

“In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.”

“No amount of experimentation can ever prove me right; a single experiment can prove me wrong.”

“The most powerful force in the universe is compound interest”

“Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value.”

“When you sit with a nice girl for two hours, it seems like two minutes. When you sit on a hot stove for two minutes, it seems like two hours that's relativity.”

 “The wireless telegraph is not difficult to understand. The ordinary telegraph is like a very long cat. You pull the tail in New York, and it meows in Los Angeles. The wireless is the same, only without the cat.”

“Intellectuals solve problems, geniuses prevent them.”

“An empty stomach is not a good political adviser.”

“If A equals success, then the formula is A equals X plus Y and Z, with X being work, Y play, and Z keeping your mouth shut.”

“I am convinced that He (God) does not play dice.”

“What really interests me is whether God had any choice in the creation of the world.”

“I want to know how God created this world. I am not interested in this or that phenomenon, in the spectrum of this or that element. I want to know His thoughts; the rest are details.”

“All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree.”

“If there is any religion that could respond to the needs of modern science, it would be Buddhism.”

“You can't blame gravity for falling in love.”

“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

“Most people say that is it is the intellect which makes a great scientist. They are wrong: it is character.”

“Women marry men hoping they will change. Men marry women hoping they will not. So each is inevitably disappointed.”

“In my experience, the best creative work is never done when one is unhappy.”

“The discovery of nuclear reactions need not bring about the destruction of mankind any more than the discovery of matches”

“I lived in solitude in the country and noticed how the monotony of a quiet life stimulates the creative mind”

“Only two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the the universe.”

“The American lives even more for his goals, for the future, than the European. Life for him is always becoming, never being.”

“Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth.”

“Bureaucracy is the death of all sound work”

“I do not believe in the God of theology who rewards good and punishes evil.”

“If my theory of relativity is proven successful, Germany will claim me as a German and France will declare that I am a citizen of the world. Should my theory prove untrue, France will say that I am a German and Germany will declare that I am a Jew.”

“Relativity applies to physics, not ethics”

Cheri frequents the Justthinking.us Facebook page.

Last week in the midst of an unfortunate dustup over there: the result of my introduction to the post having to do with Indian women consulting their astrologer over when to schedule their C-sections, she offered the following thought.

She then asked the following question, 

"Tell us what you think about women in India using astrology to determine the best date for a Ceasarian birth.

I'd really like to hear your thoughts on that.

Seriously."

I've heard that question an easy 25 or 30 times from the regulars over here who slogged through all of the "Bradley Model" posts and the "Summer of Doom" series without ever ..... ever (with the continued exception of Kluck, and EricO, that's never) posting a comment.

No ........ they have to call or email or worse yet barge into my office without an appointment offering all kinds of speculation regarding my general mental health, likely paranoia and questions of competency, only because I have challenged their comfy little view of the world.

You know who you are...

Anyway, here's what I think.

 As previously discussed.

1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

2 The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was[a] on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
3 Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.

4 And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness .........

.......... 14 Then God said, “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years;

Here's what else I think.

Ecclesiastes 1 To everything there is a season, A time for every purpose under heaven:
2 A time to be born, And a time to die; A time to plant, And a time to pluck what is planted;
3 A time to kill, And a time to heal; A time to break down, And a time to build up;
4 A time to weep, And a time to laugh; A time to mourn, And a time to dance;
5 A time to cast away stones, And a time to gather stones; A time to embrace, And a time to refrain from embracing;
6 A time to gain, And a time to lose; A time to keep, And a time to throw away;
7 A time to tear, And a time to sew; A time to keep silence, And a time to speak;
8 A time to love, And a time to hate; A time of war, And a time of peace.

Now, I will cheerfully admit here that my world view is somewhat different from that of most people.

I believe this to be the result of my having the more common than you might think "Germanic Genetic Funk Mutation" wherein I have possessed from birth almost incredibly good rhythm ....... for a white boy.

More common than you think in that this gene is has also been found in Axel Zwingenberger, Tibor Grasser, Martin Pyrker, as well as all of the individual members of Kraftwork.

Life moves in rhythm.

The Earth and the Sun provide your daily and yearly rhythm.

We know that both the human mind and body feels the effect of changes in the various radiations emanating from the Sun.

The Moon provides the rhythm within your months.

We know that the gravitational pull of the moon drives the tides.

We also know that the human body is predominately made up of water (about 60% in adult males, 55% in females).

If the movement of the moon drives the tides, is it outlandish to suspect that it may promote changes within the human body?

All of the planets and their respective moons emit or reflect a variety of forces and/or emanations which ebb and flow as they make their way around the Sun.

Nothing in life is static.

Our lives are influenced by countless cycles.

Fibonacci surrounds us.

The Sun heats up, it coooools down.

When something gets in it's way ..... sorry ..... I just couldn't help myself there.

Up north here, we all know that the days lengthen in the spring and that summer is on it's way as the Earth rotates on it's axis.

South of the equator at the very instant you are basking in the knowledge that summer is on it's way, someone is mourning it's passing.

Is it that outlandish to suppose that the single most profound of all of those cycles that surround us, the respective orbits and rotations of the planets that make up our solar system, has an effect on our world, our bodies, our lives?

I don't think so.