$3584.01

The budget (of course to me a budget is where the ins & outs equal; i.e., reducing spending to come out even when have less money than expenses or to plan for some savings) deficit is over $1,100,000,000,000 thru June this year. With 306,918,649 people (according to the population clock) this means that we are each (every adult & child in the US) $3584.01 in debt thru the first half of the year.

But the democrats have a plan to fix this: spend more money, tax energy, & take over health care. I wish Washington would get a clue!

“A man in debt is so far a slave.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Debts and lies are generally mixed together” Francois Rabelais

“Some debts are fun when you are acquiring them, but none are fun when you set about retiring them” Ogden Nash

budget (n) 1 an estimate of income and expenditure for a set period of time
• an annual or other regular estimate of national revenue and expenditure put forward by the government, often including details of changes in taxation.
• the amount of money needed or available for a purpose
2 archaic a quantity of material, typically that which is written or printed.
ORIGIN late Middle English : from Old French bougette, diminutive of bouge ‘leather bag,’ from Latin bulga ‘leather bag, knapsack,’ of Gaulish origin. Compare with bulge . The word originally meant a pouch or wallet, and later its contents. In the mid 18th cent., the Chancellor of the Exchequer in the UK, in presenting his annual statement, was said “to open the budget.” In the late 19th cent. the use of the term was extended from governmental to private or commercial finances.

Argentina

A popular song from the musical "Evita" states "Don't cry for me Argentina."

I would like to tell president Obama "Don't apologize for me!" P.O. is going around apologizing for all of America's evils like protector of the free world, a financial generator, the country which people try to get into, etc. I find it amazing that a person elected to presidency hates his country so much. He really seems to believe that the reason we are "hated" is because we are evil; we are not; we are free & a free country allows people to succeed! So P.O. "Don't apologize for me!"

“Patriot: the person who can holler the loudest without knowing what he is hollering about.” Mark Twain



“It is lamentable, that to be a good patriot one must become the enemy of the rest of mankind.”
Voltaire



“A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government.” Edward Abbey

PATRIOT, (n) One to whom the interests of a part seem superior to those of the whole. The dupe of statesmen and the tool of conquerors (DD)

Those silly ancients...

We look at the ancient people who believed that the sun rotated around the earth, etc. as so ridiculous. How could anyone be so ignorant?

OK, how does electricity get to the switch to light your lamp? How do you know the earth rotates around the sun? We have brilliant people who can predict the weather (well at least almost 50% of the time).

Ancient people knew their knowledge via the education from their scholars; how different are we? We know what we know because we were told it in school. Some of the knowledge that is prevalent today has contradicted my early education.

A university is what a college becomes when the faculty loses interest in students. - John Ciardi

An expert is a man who has made all the mistakes which can be made, in a narrow field. - Niels Bohr

Education is a method whereby one acquires a higher grade of prejudices. - Laurence J. Peter

An expert is one who knows more and more about less and less. - Nicholas Murray Butler

Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance. - Will Durant

ACADEME, (n)An ancient school where morality and philosophy were taught.
ACADEMY, (n( [from ACADEME] A modern school where football is taught. (DD)

If at first...

P.O. is considering a second stimulus (Pork) bill. After all, the first one has failed so another is bound to work!

If at first you don't succeed (P.O. said he did not misread the situation he didn't have the appropriate info [why is it so hard for politicians to admit a mistake?]), try try again. After all my grandkids don't need any money when they grow up!

“If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Then quit. There's no point in being a damn fool about it.” W. C. Fields

“The Internet "browser"... is the piece of software that puts a message on your computer screen informing you that the Internet is currently busy and you should try again later.” Dave Barry

FAITH, n. Belief without evidence in what is told by one who speaks without knowledge, of things without parallel. (DD)

2 Team Town

Chicago is a 2 baseball team town. The AL team is the White Sox & NL is the Cubs.

I find that the Sox fans hate the Cubs, but the Cub fans tend to not care about the Sox. I listen to a lot of sports radio, 1 station is the Sox broadcaster, another the Cubs (more of a news station), & the third broadcasts none. I am from MI so my teams are the Detroit teams, so I root against the Sox & sort of for the Cubs.

The Sox won the World Series in 2005 & the Cubs last in 1807 or so. (My Tigers have won it twice in my lifetime & were in the WS once but lost.) So it is interesting how some of the Sox fans have a inferiority complex; the Cubs basically sell out every game & the Sox tend to play to 1/2 to 2/3 full houses. The Sox fans don't go to the games if their team is playing bad but the Cubbies fill their Wrigley Field no matter what.

The Sox fans tend to be extremely high or low depending on how the Sox played in the last game (IMO listening to the radio); whereas, the Cub fans tend to support their team & expect them to get better. This year the Cubs were a favorite to win their division but the Sox were expected to be in the running because of the weakness of their division.

It is an interesting sociological phenomenon to listen to the fans of each.

We picked the Red Sox because they lose. If you root for something that loses for 86 years, you're a pretty good fan. You don't have to win everything to be a fan of something.
Jimmy Fallon

“What good are fans? You can't eat applause for breakfast. You can't sleep with it.” Bob Dylan

“Chicago Cubs fans are ninety percent scar tissue.” George F. Will

fanatic (n) a person filled with excessive and single-minded zeal, See note at zealot .
• [often with adj. ] informal a person with an obsessive interest in and enthusiasm for something
ORIGIN mid 16th cent. (as an adjective): from French fanatique or Latin fanaticus ‘of a temple, inspired by a god,’ from fanum ‘temple.’ The adjective originally described behavior or speech that might result from possession by a god or demon, hence the earliest sense of the noun [a religious maniac] (mid 17th cent.).

4th of July

Declaration of Independence

The first, largest, and most famous signature is that of John Hancock, President of the Continental Congress. The youngest signer was Edward Rutledge (age 26). Benjamin Franklin (age 70) was the oldest. Two future presidents signed: John Adams (second President) and Thomas Jefferson (third President).

Signers:

Delaware • George Read • Caesar Rodney • Thomas McKean

Pennsylvania • George Clymer • Benjamin Franklin • Robert Morris • John Morton • Benjamin Rush • George Ross • James Smith • James Wilson • George Taylor

Massachusetts • John Adams • Samuel Adams • John Hancock • Robert Treat Paine • Elbridge Gerry

New Hampshire • Josiah Bartlett • William Whipple • Matthew Thornton

Rhode Island • Stephen Hopkins • William Ellery

New York • Lewis Morris • Philip Livingston • Francis Lewis • William Floyd

Georgia • Button Gwinnett • Lyman Hall • George Walton

Virginia • Richard Henry Lee • Francis Lightfoot Lee • Carter Braxton • Benjamin Harrison • Thomas Jefferson • George Wythe • Thomas Nelson, Jr.

North Carolina • William Hooper • John Penn • Joseph Hewes

South Carolina • Edward Rutledge • Arthur Middleton • Thomas Lynch, Jr. • Thomas Heyward, Jr.

New Jersey • Abraham Clark • John Hart • Francis Hopkinson • Richard Stockton • John Witherspoon

Connecticut • Samuel Huntington • Roger Sherman • William Williams • Oliver Wolcott

Maryland • Charles Carroll • Samuel Chase • Thomas Stone • William Paca

No Taxes on Families Earning Under $250k

P.O. has said & pledged that families making under $250,000 per year will see no more taxes under his "plan" (how John Kerry of him).

I guess that is correct if they do not use gas or electricity or public transportation or buy products that are produced / transported with oil products! When you raise energy taxes; this taxes everyone even those making under $250,000.

One thing that I find interesting is that when P.O. does something he gives a speech denying / condemning it & how he isn't doing it.

A forked tongue is a tongue split into two distinct ends at the tip; this is a feature common to many species of reptiles. Reptiles smell using the tip of their tongue, and a forked tongue allows them to sense from which direction a smell is coming.


The image has given rise to the expression "to speak with a forked tongue", meaning to say one thing and mean another or, in more general terms, to act in a duplicitous manner.


Hummingbirds also have tongues that split at the tip. Galagos (bushbabies) have a secondary tongue, or sublingua, used for grooming, hidden under their first. WikiPedia

Energy

To make any product requires energy. To transport any product requires energy. To buy any product requires energy.

P.O. has proposed to raise energy costs via a tax on Carbon. The Congress (House of Reps) has passed this monstrosity (with 8 republicans including an IL congressman Kirk who was our rep until a redistricting a couple of years back). The only thing standing between raising gas prices (50-75%), electric rates (50%-100%), food prices (use energy mainly oil fuels to raise / transport / buy), etc. is our extremely liberal Senate (which just got a filibuster proof Dem majority today [that joke Al Franken was declared the winner in MN]).

We can afford the rise in prices since our needs are not that great; it would mean cutting back on making some "fun / unnecessary" purchases; but there are many people on fixed incomes who will not be able to afford it. This bill will also cost jobs. When companies are faced with higher costs for electricity and other energy costs plus selling fewer widgets they will reduce their workforce especially with people reducing their purchases of other items.

It will be a disaster for our nation; but it will reduce our carbon footprint by 5-7% (or more as people can not afford to use energy). However, China & India will not reduce their use of energy and will take away more jobs!

My mother believes that P.O. is smart. To me this bill proves just the opposite!

“There is not the slightest indication that energy will ever be obtainable from the atom” Albert Einstein

“Love is like energy. It can never be created nor destroyed...it is just always there. You just have to realize that fact and you have to learn that as soon as you stopped loving him in the way you did that love left to somewhere else. Now all you have to do is find out where that love went. That love went to whoever the next person in your life will be. That next person could be one of your friends or someone you might dislike, you just have to find that out.” Ian Philpot

“It's a waste of energy to be angry with a man who behaves badly, just as it is to be angry with a car that won't go” Bertrand Russell

ELECTRICITY, (n) The power that causes all natural phenomena not known to be caused by something else. It is the same thing as lightning, and its famous attempt to strike Dr. Franklin is one of the most picturesque incidents in that great and good man's career. The memory of Dr. Franklin is justly held in great reverence, particularly in France, where a waxen effigy of him was recently on exhibition, bearing the following touching account of his life and services to science:

        "Monsieur Franqulin, inventor of electricity.  This
 illustrious savant, after having made several voyages around the
 world, died on the Sandwich Islands and was devoured by savages,
 of whom not a single fragment was ever recovered."

Electricity seems destined to play a most important part in the arts and industries. The question of its economical application to some purposes is still unsettled, but experiment has already proved that it will propel a street car better than a gas jet and give more light than a horse. (DD)

Shorts

I like to wear shorts. Probably because they are comfortable & I have OK legs (probably my best physical quality).

I like shorts that are "short"; to me shorts that go to the ankles or lower than the knees are not shorts but longs! I wonder why people like longs since it is getting harder & harder to get shorts. Why not wear long pants & get it over with. Another problem is what I call the elephant legs; shorts that would fit around my waist at the bottom. I sometimes buy shorts on line & have ended up with semi-elephant leg shorts.

Of course being an old fogey, I think that pants that fall below the butt crack are ridiculous also but that is another story.

Success sometimes can really bite you in the shorts Donny Osmond


It's a dog-eat-dog world, and I'm wearing Milk Bone shorts. Kelly Allen


You only have to look around on a hot day to see ancient ladies in short shorts, and you'll realise that many women are extraordinarily - inexplicably - confident about their bodies. If anything we should hold back a little bit. Sian Phillips


shorts (n) short pants that reach only to the thighs or knees

Ms.

My daughter sent me a lovely Father's Day card. We (& I assume her) get a lot of address stickers; it seems that every Charity in the world send them out & since many Charities exchange mailing lists; we get more than enough address labels.

What stuck me was that my daughter's label was Ms. then her name. My wife does not particularly like the term "Ms." & I was wondering if my daughter noticed the name. If she is like me, I look & look for labels with just my name or both our names or some other combination (since we have so many each with different variations of our names) and can only find ones with my wife's name or other incorrect combination.

For us "Baby boomers", Ms. has a very women's lib meaning. If you are liberal & a feminist then Ms is a badge of honor; but not necessarily for happily married women like my daughter & wife.

“If Miss means respectably unmarried, and Mrs. respectably married, then Ms. means nudge, nudge, wink, wink.” Angela Carter

“Modern life is confusing - no "Ms take" about it.” Geraldine A. Ferraro

Ms. (n) a title used before the surname or full name of any woman regardless of her marital status (a neutral alternative to Mrs. or Miss)
• humorous used before an invented surname to imply that someone has a particular characteristic
ORIGIN 1950s: combination of Mrs. and miss