Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Benjamin Franklin Quotes

One of the Founding Fathers of the United States of America, a noted polymath, a leading author and printer, satirist, political theorist, politician, scientist, inventor, civic activist, statesman, and diplomat. In his day, Ben Franklin knew no boundaries.


All mankind is divided into three classes: those that are immovable, those that are movable, and those that move.

Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both.

There was never a good war, or a bad peace.

Beer is living proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.

Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.

Rebellion against tyrants is obedience to God.

The Constitution only gives people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself.

To lengthen thy life, lessen thy meals.

Take time for all things: great haste makes great waste.

To succeed, jump as quickly at opportunities as you do at conclusions.

Work as if you were to live a hundred years. Pray as if you were to die tomorrow.

Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain and most fools do.

When you're finished changing, you're finished.

A countryman between two lawyers is like a fish between two cats.

A good conscience is a continual Christmas.

A slip of the foot you may soon recover, but a slip of the tongue you may never get over.

All would live long, but none would be old.

As we must account for every idle word, so must we account for every idle silence.

Anger is never without Reason, but seldom with a good One.

At 20 years of age the will reigns, at 30 the wit, at 40 the judgment.

Be civil to all; sociable to many; familiar with few; friend to one; enemy to none.

Be slow in choosing a friend, slower in changing.

Never confuse motion with action.

Beware of the young doctor and the old barber.

Content makes poor men rich; discontentment makes rich men poor.

Do not anticipate trouble, or worry about what may never happen.

Guests, like fish, begin to smell after three days.

Drive thy business or it will drive thee.

Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.

Energy and persistence conquer all things.

He that speaks much, is much mistaken.

You can bear your own faults, and why not a fault in your wife?

Genius without education is like silver in the mine.

In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.

Glass, china, and reputation are easily cracked, and never well mended.

God heals, and the doctor takes the fees.

He is ill clothed that is bare of virtue.

Honesty is the best policy.

He that can have patience can have what he will.

He that falls in love with himself will have no rivals.

He that is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else.

He that is of the opinion money will do everything may well be suspected of doing everything for money.

Keep your eyes wide open before marriage, half shut afterwards.

He that would live in peace and at ease, must not speak all he knows nor judge all he sees.

Some people die at 25 and aren't buried until 75.

An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.

Thursday, May 14, 2009

A Citizen's Letter to the White House

I am unable to vouch for the authenticity of this letter and its author, but I can certainly get behind the sentiment expressed. Maybe by “change” Obama meant that he would enrage us to the point that we would remember our Constitution and throw out his regime. Let’s make sure that none of us vote for any incumbent senators or representatives in Washington who have voted for any of the bailouts. That’s change I can believe in.


Link to letter here


The White House

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW

Washington, DC20500


Mr. Obama:


I have had it with you and your administration, sir. Your conduct on your recent trip overseas has convinced me that you are not an adequate representative of the United States of America collectively or of me personally.


You are so obsessed with appeasing the Europeans and the Muslim world that you have abdicated the responsibilities of the President of the United States of America. You are responsible to the citizens of the United States. You are not responsible to the peoples of any other country on earth.


I personally resent that you go around the world apologizing for the United States telling Europeans that we are arrogant and do not care about their status in the world. Sir, what do you think the First World War and the Second World War were all about if not the consideration of the peoples of Europe? Are you brain dead? What do you think the Marshall Plan was all about? Do you not understand or know the history of the 20th century?


Where do you get off telling a Muslim country that the United States does not consider itself a Christian country? Have you not read the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution of the United States? This country was founded on Judeo-Christian ethics and the principles governing this country, at least until you came along, come directly from this heritage. Do you not understand this?


Your bowing to the king of Saudi Arabia is an affront to all Americans. Our President does not bow down to anyone, let alone the king of Saudi Arabia. You don't show Great Britain, our best and one of our oldest allies, the respect they deserve yet you bow down to the king of Saudi Arabia. How dare you, sir! How dare you!


You can't find the time to visit the graves of our greatest generation because you don't want to offend the Germans but make time to visit a mosque in Turkey. You offended our dead and every veteran when you give the Germans more respect than the people who saved the German people from themselves. What's the matter with you?


I am convinced that you and the members of your administration have the historical and intellectual depth of a mud puddle and should be ashamed of yourselves, all of you.


You are so self-righteously offended by the big bankers and the American automobile manufacturers yet do nothing about the real thieves in this situation, Mr. Dodd, Mr. Frank, Franklin Raines, Jamie Gorelick, the Fannie Mae bonuses, and the Freddie Mac bonuses. What do you intend to do about them? Anything? I seriously doubt it.


What about the U.S. House members passing out $9.1 million in bonuses to their staff members - on top of the $2.5 million in automatic pay raises that lawmakers gave themselves? I understand the average House aide got a 17% bonus. I took a 5% cut in my pay to save jobs with my employer. You haven't said anything about that. Who authorized that? I surely didn't!


Executives at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will be receiving $210 million in bonuses over an eighteen-month period; that's $45 million more than the AIG bonuses. In fact, Fannie and Freddie executives have already been awarded $51 million - not a bad take. Who authorized that and why haven't you expressed your outrage at this group who are largely responsible for the economic mess we have right now?


I resent that you take me and my fellow citizens as brain-dead and not caring about what you idiots do. We are watching what you are doing and we are getting increasingly fed up with all of you. I also want you to know that I personally find just about everything you do and say to be offensive to every one of my sensibilities. I promise you that I will work tirelessly to see that you do not get a chance to spend two terms destroying my beautiful country.


Sincerely,


Michael Bryant

Sunday, May 3, 2009

Evolution

Evolution will always remain defeated by the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics. This Law predicts that a road-killed animal cooking on the side of the road will break down instead of rejuvenate. Likewise, it predicts that systems breakdown over time, which is basically the opposite of what Darwin hypothesized. Not that anyone is worried about the science behind the religion of evolution these days. And just in case someone wants to comment on open versus closed systems, please cite an example that exists outside of the biochemical and nuclear physics labs (in other words, natural).