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Crony Capitalism

This was in my inbox from Newt:

There’s a term that’s commonly applied to the economic systems of some Asian and Latin American countries. It’s “crony capitalism.”

Crony capitalism is when government controls significant parts of the economy. Under this kind of bureaucratic micromanagement, politicians - not the free market - call the shots. And that means that the decisions that control the economy are of necessity political decisions, not economic ones.

Crony capitalism is bad for government. Economic power in the hands of politicians breeds corruption.

Crony capitalism is bad for democracy. Individuals and businesses outside favored industries have an unequal voice in self-government.

Crony capitalism is bad for business. Politicians wedded to the status quo stifle growth and innovation.

And there’s one more thing about crony capitalism: It’s come to America.

It’s the nature of crony capitalism to expand; for government to acquire more and more of the economy.

The agents of this expansion are elected officials. Call them “predatory politicians.”

Crony capitalism practiced by predatory politicians is at the root of the current financial meltdown.

In exchange for campaign cash and support for favored constituents, predatory politicians aided and abetted the government-backed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as they created and fed the subprime mortgage market.

And to fix the mess they created, what have predatory politicians turned to? Why, more crony capitalism of course.

First, they designed Wall Street bailouts in which a former chairman of Goldman Sachs got a blank check to disburse hundreds of billions of dollars to his former colleagues on Wall Street.

Then they took over an insurance company at a hugely inflated cost.

Now predatory politicians want taxpayers to fund a bailout of three bloated, stagnant companies that have been losing money for years, one of which is currently hemorrhaging over $1 billion a month.

To reward the unions that helped produce its electoral victory, the newly empowered Democratic Congress is proposing that American taxpayers pony up $25 billion to bail out the Detroit Three automakers, Ford, GM and Chrysler.

Democrats are using the current financial crisis as their excuse to bailout the autos. But in fact, the Detroit three were unprofitable long before the current crisis hit.

According to one economist, GM and Ford made more money-losing investments in the 1980s than any other U.S. companies. And the Detroit money pit only got deeper in the ensuing two decades. Since 1998, GM has been losing an astonishing $1.5 billion a month.

That’s an investment only a predatory politician would propose.

One of the things that makes crony capitalism so profitable for politicians is that Washington exempts itself from the economic and financial rules it imposes on private industry.

For example, in 2003, federal regulators discovered that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had engaged in Enron-style accounting fraud. But while executives at private companies who engaged in similar fraud went to prison — and Congress responded by imposing the draconian and business-killing Sarbanes-Oxley bill on private businesses — Fannie and Freddie executives barely received a slap on the wrist.

One of the reasons was House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.). Frank fought tenaciously against the regulation that would have held Fannie and Freddie executives accountable and might have averted the financial crisis.

Now Chairman Frank wants to bring his particular style of crony capitalism to the auto industry.

On “Face the Nation” this Sunday, Chairman Frank announced that not only would he push for a taxpayer bailout of the Detroit Three during the special session of Congress this week, but he would also create a government oversight board for the three companies — in effect, a board of directors made up of predatory politicians.

I believe that it would be a mistake for the taxpayers to be forced to bail out Detroit. Companies at which union workers make $71 an hour in wages and benefits — compared to just $47 an hour at Toyota’s U.S. plants — are not going to be saved by a $25 billion government check.

But if Democrats do find the votes to bring crony capitalism to Detroit, Americans should at the very least insist that any government board of directors created for the auto industry be subject to the criminal penalties and lengthy prison sentences in Sarbanes-Oxley.

What’s fair for the rest of us is fair for predatory politicians.

A Chance For President-Elect Obama to Deliver Real Change

The solution to our economic problems, be they in Detroit or on Wall Street, isn’t more crony capitalism; it’s economic growth.

While politicians in Washington are constantly calling on taxpayers to put up more and more money to bail out flagging businesses, there are practical things that wouldn’t cost the taxpayers a penny that we could do to make America a better place to create jobs.

One of these things is to repeal Sarbanes-Oxley. As my wife Callista and I outline in more detail in this video, Sarbanes-Oxley has had the unintended consequences of stifling innovation, killing new business start-ups and driving listings overseas.

President-elect Obama won an historic victory two weeks ago on the promise of delivering change to the American people. Bailing out the Detroit auto dinosaurs is not change. It is crony capitalism in service of a failed status quo.

President-elect Obama should stand up to congressional Democrats and say “no” — “no” to saddling future generations of Americans with the bill for today’s crony capitalism.

That would be change we could believe in.

The Bridge

Time, He’s Coming to an End

A rare video of Phil Keaggy with his song, Time, which has thought-provoking lyrics.

Well He hasn’t always been around
And He won’t always be.
But He’s on the move at this moment
Measuring life for you and me.

I fear we all submit to him
Existing anxiously,
And no one is able to turn him off
Except the Lord who holds the key.

When the Lord stops him, that’ll be it,
Too late for apologies.
Too late to forgive your brother,
Too late to get on your knees.
When the Lord stops him, that’ll be it,
Too late to help the needy
And worst of all it’s too late to turn
You must face eternity.

His name is Time and he’s coming to an end.
His name is Time where will you be my friend?
His name is Time and he’s coming to an end.
His name is Time where will you be my friend?

Most people think he’ll never stop
He’ll go on perpetually,
But old man time is running out
And he’ll cease eventually.

When the Lord stops him, that’ll be it,
Too late for apologies.
Too late to forgive your brother,
Too late to get on your knees.

When the Lord stops him, that’ll be it,
Too late to help the needy
And worst of all it’s too late to turn
You must face eternity.

His name is Time and he’s coming to an end.
His name is Time where will you be my friend?
His name is Time and he’s coming to an end.
His name is Time where will you be my friend?

Unique Christmas Gift Ideas

I have already dusted off my Christmas songs, and there are signs in the stores that the season is fast coming upon us. We will also celebrate a little early this year with Enric, Miranda, and Silas visiting us the first of December.

So, I thought it might be fun to dig into some of my merchants that I advertise for, and find some very different and unique gifts this first time out with some gift ideas… These come under the “Things You Never Knew Existed” theme

I thought of Grit for some reason when I found this one…

Gun Egg Fryer Gun Egg FryerStart your day with gun-shaped eggs. Stainless steel mold has a convenient handle so you don’t burn your trigger finger. Use it for pancakes, cookies or pizza too! About 8″ long.

 

 

The Talking 14 Language Portable Translator. The Talking 14 Language Portable Translator.This is the portable device that articulates 32,200 phrases and 280,000 words into any one of 14 languages. At the touch of a button, you can access translations for pre-programmed words or travel phrases in English (uses the New Oxford American English Dictionary), German, French, Spanish, Italian, Arabic, Hebrew, Greek, Russian, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Dutch, and Portuguese. The backlit LCD shows the word or phrase, pronunciation, and script for non-Latin alphabets, then speaks the word or phrase in your language of choice. Converts eight currencies and calculates between metric and Imperial measurements; provides local and world time. With calculator, calendar, eight travel games (including Sudoku), address/phone book, carrying case, and earbuds. Includes two AAA batteries. 1/2″ H x 3 1/4″ W x 6″ L. (8 oz.) In Stock

 

Jeep Alarm Clock Jeep Alarm ClockWith Lights, Horn, And Reveille Alarm. Classic military Jeep model doubles as your personal wake up call. Open the hood, set the alarm and awaken to a bugle playing “Reveille,” your favorite song. Press on the steering wheel to hear the horn beep, pull on the gear shift to flash the headlights. Clock features bugle alarm or civilian-style beeping alarm and 5 min. snooze. Clock folds into engine compartment and windshield folds down. Clock uses 1 “AA” battery, not included. Horn and lights use 2 “AAA” batteries, not included. 11.5″L.

 

 

Howling Wolf Throw Howling Wolf ThrowBring a little of the natural world indoors with this luxurious Howling Wolf Throw. 100% acrylic ultra-warmth throw captures the strength and majesty of a wolf running with the pack. Throw looks great as wall hanging or draped across your couch or bed. Machine wash/dry. Imported. 50″ x 60.”

 

Monitor Holiday Lights Monitor Holiday LightsTime to be festive! Decorate your computer with this adjustable 17″ USB wreath that has 18 red LED’s. Also straightens into a 56″ long strand for desktop decoration. Includes 5 adhesive hooks.


 

Indiana Jones Hat Indiana Jones Hat

With its distinctive pinched sides and dented top, this Indiana Jones™ Fedora Hat looks great whether you’re on the trail of ancient artifacts, the secret of eternal life, or a beautiful spy. Features include 100% brown wool felt, grosgrain trim with brass pin, satin lining, and 2.5″ brim. To determine hat size, measure in inches the circumference around the head. See 2nd image for Size Chart.


 

Stay tuned, more ideas to come!

 

Houston, We Have a Problem

For some reason, a huge issue in this country was largely ignored in this past election campaign. Not the media, nor neither of any of the candidates touched on the issue of illegal immigration.

Not too long after the election is over and settled, comes the latest headline, something we haven’t heard about in months.

Thousands of inmates admit they’re in the U.S. illegally, but even those convicted of violent crimes are often released right back onto Houston’s streets.

Federal immigration officials allowed scores of violent criminals — some ordered deported decades ago — to walk away from Harris County Jail despite the inmates’ admission to local authorities that they were in the country illegally, a Houston Chronicle investigation found.

A review of thousands of criminal and immigration records shows that Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials didn’t file the paperwork to detain roughly 75 percent of the more than 3,500 inmates who told jailers during the booking process that they were in the U.S. illegally.

Although most of the inmates released from custody were accused of minor crimes, hundreds of convicted felons — including child molesters, rapists and drug dealers — also managed to avoid deportation after serving time in Harris County’s jails, according to the Chronicle review, which was based on documents filed over a period of eight months starting in June 2007, the earliest immigration records available.

•In 177 cases reviewed by the Chronicle, inmates who were released from jail after admitting to being in the country illegally later were charged with additional crimes. More than half of those charges were felonies, including aggravated sexual assault of a child and capital murder.
•About 11 percent of the 3,500 inmates in the review had three or more prior convictions in Harris County. Many had repeatedly cycled through the system despite a history of violence and, in some cases, outstanding deportation orders.

More Here…

Suddenly this is front page news again?

It’s the governments first priority to protect its own people. Ours isn’t doing it, and hasn’t for a long time.
Those “cases” alluded to in the article, have VICTIMS. American people. Us. Children molested, women raped, and drugs entering our country. Apparently women and children are expendable and have no rights here in the U.S. anymore.

Perhaps the media treatment of Hillary, Sarah Palin, and her daughter show us exactly what the mindset is in this country. Color of skin and different cultures comes way before anything else.

 

Scrabble for One (Continued)

After blogging sometime back about an online game of Scrabble Solitaire, I didn’t remember about it much until I saw in my stats people finding my site looking for the game. Which made me revisit the site and play a new game. I was happy to have bested my previous scores!

scrabble solitaire

Give it a try HERE

Who Needs God Anymore?

This appeared today on the news and my daughter’s reaction was very interesting. She said, “I guess they DO give Santa god-like qualities, I mean, think of the words, ‘he sees you when you’re sleeping, he knows when you’re awake.’ ”

That was very insightful I thought.

FoxNews Reported:

Ads proclaiming, “Why believe in a god? Just be good for goodness’ sake,” will appear on Washington, D.C., buses starting next week and running through December. The American Humanist Association unveiled the provocative $40,000 holiday ad campaign Tuesday….

Last month, the British Humanist Association caused a ruckus announcing a similar campaign on London buses with the message: “There’s probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life.”

If most of us really think about it… in the eyes of God we’d like to believe we are GOOD. An honest self evaluation would tell us different.

I like the way Neil puts it, have a read at his blog here, Christmas, Humanists, and Being Good

Terragen and Tim Janis

Some nice lady once told me, as she was looking over my Terragen Art, “You know, your terragen landscapes compiled with Tim Janis music would be a very pleasing thing.”

“Tim who?” I asked.
I am so glad I learned about his music. Stirring, soothing, and inspirational all at once. Enric and Miranda also had one of his pieces played at their wedding.

I never acted on those words of the nice lady till yesterday, some 3 years later.

Please click here to see the Animoto Slide show
Terragens with Tim Janis music

 

_________________________

Some Tim Janis music (On video, CD, and Sheet music) that might make some wonderful Christmas Gifts:

 

Janis T-Tim Janis-Beautiful America Janis T-Tim Janis-Beautiful America

Janis T-Tim Janis-Beautiful America


 

Tim Janis Coastal America Tim Janis Coastal America

Tim Janis Coastal America


The Music of Tim Janis The Music of Tim Janis

By Tim Janis. Piano Solo Composer Collection. 128 pages. Published by Hal Leonard.


Tim Janis: across Two Oceans Tim Janis: across Two Oceans

Tim Janis: across Two Oceans


The New 100 Years War?

No matter what your opinion is of the Iraq War, no matter what your opinions are of Obama and McCain, how far should we allow teachers to indoctrinate or belittle students who are pulling for a candidate other than theirs? At what point is it too far?

I remember in 6th grade we had a mock election and I do remember our Social Studies teacher  had some definate leanings, and was surprised when the majority voted against his candidate. He had some ways of belittling students, including me, on many subjects. So this subject is rather personal to me.

This came back to me when I saw on the news today the following video. A fifth grade teacher giving a student a little lesson on WHY she SHOULDN’T pull for McCain. She carelessly told the little girl that the war could go on for another 100 years, knowing full well the girl had a daddy in Iraq.

 

In spite of what the teacher did, the parents are not making trouble for her, as the teacher later apologized, and they more than accepted the apology.

However, forgiven isn’t where it should end. I feel the teacher should have some discipline, serving notice to her and any other teacher on this path of belittling students.

Another Lesson from Gilmore Girls

Regarding today’s politics, maybe Lorelei from Gilmore Girls says it all in a scene from season six. She is preparing to sneak a dog chain on her dog, Paul Anka, so that he can spend the night with Sookie.

Sookie and Lorelai with Paul Anka the dog, Gilmore Girls

SOOKIE: Hi! Paul Anka! You want to come have a sleepover at my house? Huh? [To Lorelai] What are you doing?

LORELAI: [As she sneaks the dog leash behind her back] Uh, he freaks out if he sees his leash. You have to make sure you hide it from him and make sure he doesn’t see you putting it on him.

SOOKIE: How is he once he’s on the leash?

LORELAI: Oh, he’s totally fine having his personal freedom slowly stripped away, as long as he’s completely unaware that it’s happening. Just like a true American.

 

Health

Health has been a big issue in the family for the past few weeks or so.
So I decided to look up some quotes on the subject…

The I in illness is isolation, and the crucial letters in wellness are we.  ~Author unknown, as quoted in Mimi Guarneri, The Heart Speaks: A Cardiologist Reveals the Secret Language of Healing

The trouble with always trying to preserve the health of the body is that it is so difficult to do without destroying the health of the mind.  ~G.K. Chesterton

There’s lots of people in this world who spend so much time watching their health that they haven’t the time to enjoy it.  ~Josh Billings

The greatest wealth is health.  ~Virgil

I reckon being ill as one of the great pleasures of life, provided one is not too ill and is not obliged to work till one is better.  ~Samuel Butler, The Way of All Flesh, 1903

Life expectancy would grow by leaps and bounds if green vegetables smelled as good as bacon.  ~Doug Larson

Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.  ~World Health Organization, 1948

The power of love to change bodies is legendary, built into folklore, common sense, and everyday experience.  Love moves the flesh, it pushes matter around…. Throughout history, “tender loving care” has uniformly been recognized as a valuable element in healing.  ~Larry Dossey

Eat right, exercise regularly, die anyway.  ~Author Unknown

Health nuts are going to feel stupid someday, lying in hospitals dying of nothing.  ~Redd Foxx

As a people, we have become obsessed with Health.  There is something fundamentally, radically unhealthy about all this.  We do not seem to be seeking more exuberance in living as much as staving off failure, putting off dying.  We have lost all confidence in the human body.  ~Lewis Thomas, The Medusa and the Snail, 1979

In order to change we must be sick and tired of being sick and tired.  ~Author Unknown

The best six doctors anywhere
And no one can deny it
Are sunshine, water, rest, and air
Exercise and diet.
These six will gladly you attend
If only you are willing
Your mind they’ll ease
Your will they’ll mend
And charge you not a shilling.
~Nursery rhyme quoted by Wayne Fields, What the River Knows, 1990

He who takes medicine and neglects to diet wastes the skill of his doctors.  ~Chinese Proverb

If I’d known I was going to live so long, I’d have taken better care of myself.  ~Leon Eldred

Be careful about reading health books.  You may die of a misprint.  ~Mark Twain

Red meat is not bad for you.  Now blue-green meat, that’s bad for you!  ~Tommy Smothers

They claim red meat is bad for you.  But I never saw a sick-looking tiger.  ~Chi Chi Rodriguez

Physical ills are the taxes laid upon this wretched life; some are taxed higher, and some lower, but all pay something.  ~Lord Chesterfield

If the pain wanders, do not waste your time with doctors.  ~Mignon McLaughlin, The Neurotic’s Notebook, 1960

The… patient should be made to understand that he or she must take charge of his own life.  Don’t take your body to the doctor as if he were a repair shop.  ~Quentin Regestein

Joy and Temperance and Repose
Slam the door on the doctor’s nose.
~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

If I had my way I’d make health catching instead of disease.  ~Robert Ingersoll

Sickness comes on horseback but departs on foot.  ~Dutch Proverb, sometimes attributed to William C. Hazlitt

Like everybody else, when I don’t know what else to do, I seem to go in for catching colds.  ~George Jean Nathan

Diseases of the soul are more dangerous and more numerous than those of the body.  ~Cicero

If you have health, you probably will be happy, and if you have health and happiness, you have all the wealth you need, even if it is not all you want.  ~Elbert Hubbard

People who are always taking care of their health are like misers who are hoarding a treasure which they have never spirit enough to enjoy.  ~Laurence Sterne

To feel keenly the poetry of a morning’s roses, one has to have just escaped from the claws of this vulture which we call sickness.  ~Henri Frederic Amiel

The longer I live the less confidence I have in drugs and the greater is my confidence in the regulation and administration of diet and regimen.  ~John Redman Coxe, 1800

A good laugh and a long sleep are the best cures in the doctor’s book.  ~Irish Proverb

Fresh air impoverishes the doctor.  ~Danish Proverb

There are two things in life that a sage must preserve at every sacrifice, the coats of his stomach and the enamel of his teeth.  Some evils admit of consolations, but there are no comforters for dyspepsia and the toothache.  ~Henry Lytton Bulwer

Water, air, and cleanliness are the chief articles in my pharmacopoeia.  ~Napoleon I

In minds crammed with thoughts, organs clogged with toxins, and bodies stiffened with neglect, there is just no space for anything else.  ~Alison Rose Levy, “An Ancient Cure for Modern Life,” Yoga Journal, Jan/Feb 2002

Men that look no further than their outsides, think health an appurtenance unto life, and quarrel with their constitutions for being sick; but I that have examined the parts of man, and know upon what tender filaments that fabric hangs, do wonder that we are not always so; and considering the thousand doors that lead to death, do thank my God that we can die but once.  ~Thomas Browne

What some call health, if purchased by perpetual anxiety about diet, isn’t much better than tedious disease.  ~George Dennison Prentice, Prenticeana, 1860

Illness is the most heeded of doctors: to goodness and wisdom we only make promises; pain we obey.  ~Marcel Proust

When it comes to eating right and exercising, there is no “I’ll start tomorrow.”  Tomorrow is disease.  ~V.L. Allineare

My own prescription for health is less paperwork and more running barefoot through the grass.  ~Leslie Grimutter

We drink one another’s health and spoil our own.  ~Jerome K. Jerome

In a disordered mind, as in a disordered body, soundness of health is impossible.  ~Cicero

I think you might dispense with half your doctors if you would only consult Dr. Sun more.  ~Henry Ward Beecher

Health is a state of complete harmony of the body, mind and spirit.  When one is free from physical disabilities and mental distractions, the gates of the soul open.  ~B.K.S. Iyengar

Sickness is the vengeance of nature for the violation of her laws.  ~Charles Simmons

The appearance of a disease is swift as an arrow; its disappearance slow, like a thread.  ~Chinese Proverb

Nature does require
Her time of preservation, which perforce
I her frail son amongst my brethren mortal
Must give my attendance to.
~William Shakespeare

A healthy body and soul come from an unencumbered mind and body.  ~Ymber Delecto

Adam and Eve ate the first vitamins, including the package.  ~E.R. Squibb

Our body is a machine for living.  It is organized for that, it is its nature.  Let life go on in it unhindered and let it defend itself, it will do more than if you paralyze it by encumbering it with remedies.  ~Leo Tolstoy

Gold that buys health can never be ill spent.  ~Thomas Dekker, Westward Ho, 1604

Disease is somatic; the suffering from it, psychic.  ~Martin H. Fischer

Health of body and mind is a great blessing, if we can bear it.  ~John Henry Cardinal Newman

Diseases crucify the soul of man, attenuate our bodies, dry them, wither them, rivel them up like old apples, make them as so many Anatomies.  ~Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy

Sometimes I get the feeling the aspirin companies are sponsoring my headaches.  ~V.L. Allineare

A healthy body is the guest-chamber of the soul; a sick, its prison.  ~Francis Bacon

An imaginary ailment is worse than a disease.  ~Yiddish Proverb

Health is a large word.  It embraces not the body only, but the mind and spirit as well;… and not today’s pain or pleasure alone, but the whole being and outlook of a man.  ~James H. West

Preserving the health by too strict a regimen is a wearisome malady.  ~François Duc de la Rochefoucauld

From the bitterness of disease man learns the sweetness of health.  ~Catalan Proverb

If man thinks about his physical or moral state he usually discovers that he is ill.  ~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

It’s bizarre that the produce manager is more important to my children’s health than the pediatrician.  ~Meryl Streep

An illness of the mind is an illness of the body, and vice versa.  ~Madrianne Arvore

Just because you’re not sick doesn’t mean you’re healthy.  ~Author Unknown

Every man’s disease is his personal property.  ~Alonzo Clark

Know, then, whatever cheerful and serene
Supports the mind supports the body too.
~John Armstrong

If you don’t take care of yourself, the undertaker will overtake that responsibility for you.  ~Carrie Latet

The most important thing in illness is never to lose heart.  ~Nikolai Lenin

The scientific truth may be put quite briefly; eat moderately, having an ordinary mixed diet, and don’t worry.  ~Robert Hutchison, 1932

If by gaining knowledge we destroy our health, we labour for a thing that will be useless in our hands.  ~John Locke

To avoid sickness eat less; to prolong life worry less.  ~Chu Hui Weng

When the head aches, all the body is the worse.  ~English Proverb

Healthy people are invalids who don’t know it.  ~Jules Romains, Dr. Knock, 1923

After these two, Dr. Diet and Dr. Quiet, Dr. Merriman is requisite to preserve health.  ~James Howell

The deviation of man from the state in which he was originally placed by nature seems to have proved to him a prolific source of disease.  ~Edward Jenner

There is something in sickness that breaks down the pride of manhood.  ~Charles Dickens

Bacteria keeps us from heaven and puts us there.  ~Martin H. Fischer

Health and cheerfulness naturally beget each other.  ~Joseph Addison

It is a lot harder to keep people well than it is to just get them over a sickness.  ~DeForest Clinton Jarvis

Life is not merely to be alive, but to be well.  ~Marcus Valerius Martial

Without health, there is no point.  To anything.  ~Everett Mámor

Confidence and hope do more good than physic.  ~Galen

Live in rooms full of light
Avoid heavy food
Be moderate in the drinking of wine
Take massage, baths, exercise, and gymnastics
Fight insomnia with gentle rocking or the sound of running water
Change surroundings and take long journeys
Strictly avoid frightening ideas
Indulge in cheerful conversation and amusements
Listen to music.
~A. Cornelius Celsus

My inner advisor is dying to heal me.  ~Astrid Alauda

Everyone who is born holds dual citizenship, in the kingdom of the well and in the kingdom of the sick.  Although we all prefer to use only the good passport, sooner or later each of us is obliged, at least for a spell, to identify ourselves as citizens of that other place.  ~Susan Sontag, Illness as Metaphor, 1977

Half the modern drugs could well be thrown out the window, except that the birds might eat them.  ~Martin H. Fischer

How sickness enlarges the dimension of a man’s self to himself!  ~Charles Lamb, Last Essays of Elia

Doctors are always working to preserve our health and cooks to destroy it, but the latter are the more often successful.  ~Denis Diderot

Sickness is poor-spirited, and cannot serve anyone; it must husband its resources to live.  But health or fullness answers its own ends, and has to spare, runs over, and inundates the neighborhoods and creeks of other men’s necessities.  ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

If you wish to keep as well as possible, the less you think about your health the better.  ~Oliver Wendell Holmes, Over the Teacups, 1891

First need in the reform of hospital management?  That’s easy!  The death of all dietitians, and the resurrection of a French chef.  ~Martin H. Fischer

In the face of such overwhelming statistical possibilities hypochondria has always seems to me to be the only rational position to take on life.  ~John Diamond

He who has health has hope; and he who has hope has everything.  ~Arabic Proverb

A bodily disease, which we look upon as whole and entire within itself, may, after all, be but a symptom of some ailment in the spiritual part.  ~Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter

Happiness lies, first of all, in health.  ~George William Curtis, Lotus-Eating

If you resolve to give up smoking, drinking and loving, you don’t actually live longer; it just seems longer.  ~Clement Freud, The Observer, 27 December 1964

If you start to think about your physical or moral condition, you usually find that you are sick.  ~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Proverbs in Prose

If you do everything you should do, and do not do anything you should not do, you will, according to the best available statistics, live exactly eighteen hours longer than you would otherwise.  ~Logain Clendening

It’s no longer a question of staying healthy.  It’s a question of finding a sickness you like.  ~Jackie Mason

May you live as long as you are fit to live, but no longer! or, may you rather die before you cease to be fit to live than after!  ~Philip Dormer Stanhope, 1749

What linguistic genius
set up the sneeze and wheeze
To rhyme so very perfectly
with the word for allergies?
~Charlie N. Abbers

I refuse to spend my life worrying about what I eat.  There is no pleasure worth forgoing just for an extra three years in the geriatric ward.  ~John Mortimer

So many people spend their health gaining wealth, and then have to spend their wealth to regain their health.  ~A.J. Reb Materi, Our Family

Nothing is more fatal to Health, than an over Care of it.  ~Benjamin Franklin

The only way to keep your health is to eat what you don’t want, drink what you don’t like, and do what you’d druther not.  ~Mark Twain

 

Oxford’s List of Top Ten Irritating Phrases

The top ten most irritating phrases:

1 - At the end of the day

2 - Fairly unique

3 - I personally

4 - At this moment in time

5 - With all due respect

6 - Absolutely

7 - It’s a nightmare

8 - Shouldn’t of

9 - 24/7

10 - It’s not rocket science

 

(I sure agree with #1, you hear it often on political talk shows).

Scource

Yes We Can - Taxes!

Lifted from a very funny blogger, HockeyDino

Obama just spent $650,000,000 to get a job that pays $400,000. Yes we want him to fix the economy!

CAPITAL GAINS TAX

MCCAIN

0% on home sales up to $500,000 per home (couples). McCain does not propose any change in existing home sales income tax.

OBAMA

28% on profit from ALL home sales. (How does this affect you? If you sell your home and make a profit, you will pay 28% of your gain on taxes If you are heading toward retirement and would like to down-size your home or move into a retirement community, 28% of the money you make from your home will go to taxes. This proposal will adversely affect the elderly who are counting on the income from their homes as part of their retirement income.)

DIVIDEND TAX

MCCAIN

15% (no change)

OBAMA

39.6% - (How will this affect you? If you have any money invested in stock market, IRA, mutual funds, college funds, life insurance, retirement accounts, or anything that pays or reinvests dividends, you will now be paying nearly 40% of the money earned on taxes if Obama becomes president. The experts predict that ‘Higher tax rates on dividends and capital gains would crash the stock market, yet do absolutely nothing to cut the deficit.’)

INCOME TAX

MCCAIN
(no changes)

Single making 30K - tax $4,500
Single making 50K - tax $12,500
Single making 75K - tax $18,750
Married making 60K- tax $9,000
Married making 75K - tax $18,750
Married making 125K - tax $31,250

OBAMA (reversion to pre-Bush tax cuts)

Single making 30K - tax $8,400
Single making 50K - tax $14,000
Single making 75K - tax $23,250
Married making 60K - tax $16,800
Married making 75K - tax $21,000
Married making 125K - tax $38,750
Under Obama, your taxes could almost double

INHERITANCE TAX

MCCAIN

- 0% (No change, Bush repealed this tax)

OBAMA

Restore the inheritance tax
Many families have lost businesses, farms, ranches, and homes that have been in their families for generations because they could not afford the inheritance tax. Those willing their assets to loved ones will only lose them to these taxes.

NEW TAXES PROPOSED BY OBAMA

New government taxes proposed on homes that are more than 2400 square feet.
New gasoline taxes (as if gas weren’t high enough already)
New taxes on natural resources consumption (heating gas, water, electricity)
New taxes on retirement accounts, and last but not least….
New taxes to pay for socialized medicine so we can receive the same level of medical care as other third-world countries

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