Dave Barry Quotes

Dave Barry

"The only way to get elected to Congress is to raise a bunch of campaign money, and pretty much the only way to do that is to already be a member of Congress."


"Congress, after years of stalling, finally got around to clearing the way for informal discussions that might lead to possible formal talks that could potentially produce some kind of tentative agreements."


"Congress shall also create a tax code weighing more than the combined poundage of the largest member of the House and the largest member of the Senate, plus a standard musk ox."


"The question is: What can we, as citizens, do to reform our tax system? As you know, under our three-branch system of government, the tax laws are created by: Satan. But he works through the Congress, so that's where we must focus our efforts."


"Here's my proposal, which is based on the TV show "Survivor": We put the entire Congress on an island. All the food on this island is locked inside a vault, which can be opened only by an ordinary American taxpayer named Bob. Every day, the congresspersons are given a section of the Tax Code, which they must rewrite so that Bob can understand it. If he can, he lets them eat that day; if he can't, he doesn't.

Or, he can give them food either way. It doesn't matter. The main thing is, we never let them off the island."

Patriotism vs. Nationalism

No doubt I've listed a few of these quotes on this blog in the past, but it pays to repeat, especially on such an important topic.

From thomasmc.com

There is a lot of talk these days about patriotism and dissent. Most Americans have confused Patriotism with Nationalism, though the two are often diametrically opposed. Waving a flag is Nationalism. Dissent is Patriotism. "My country, right or wrong" and "USA: Love it or Leave it" is Nationalism. Pointing out dangerous flaws in government policy is Patriotism. Telling people to "Shut up and get in line with the President" or "If you don't like it, move to France" is the antithesis of Democracy. For a better understanding of Dissent and Patriotism, I leave you with these words from some of the greatest patriots in history:

"It is the duty of the patriot to protect his country from the government.
- Thomas Paine

"A President is impeachable if he attempts to subvert the Constitution".
- President James Madison

"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither."
- Ben Franklin

"If ever time should come, when vain and aspiring men shall possess the highest seats in government, our country will stand in need of its experienced patriots to prevent its ruin."
- Samuel Adams

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."
- Edmund Burke

"This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or exercise their revolutionary right to overthrow it."
- President Abraham Lincoln

"In the beginning of a change, the patriot is a scarce and brave man, hated and scorned. When his cause succeeds however, the timid join him, for then it costs nothing to be a patriot."
- 'Mark Twain'

"Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the President."
- President Theodore Roosevelt

"The President is merely the most important among a large number of public servants. He should be supported or opposed exactly to the degree which is warranted by his good conduct or bad conduct, his efficiency or inefficiency in rendering loyal, able, and disinterested service to the nation as a whole. Therefore it is absolutely necessary that there should be full liberty to tell the truth about his acts, and this means that it is exactly as necessary to blame him when he does wrong as to praise him when he does right. Any other attitude in an American citizen is both base and servile. To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. Nothing but the truth should be spoken about him or any one else. But it is even more important to tell the truth, pleasant or unpleasant, about him than about any one else."
- President Theodore Roosevelt, 1912

"I love America more than any other country in this world, and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually."
- James Baldwin, Notes of a Native Son

"So long as we have enough people in this country willing to fight for their rights, we'll be called a democracy."
- Roger Baldwin

"Disobedience, in the eyes of any one who has read history, is man's original virtue. It is through disobedience that progress has been made, through disobedience and through rebellion."
- Oscar Wilde

"Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it."
- George Bernard Shaw

"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort, and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy."
- Dr. Martin Luther King

"Throughout history, it has been the inaction of those who could have acted; the indifference of those who should have known better; the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most; that has made it possible for evil to triumph."
- Haile Selassie

"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter."
- Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.

History may be written by the winners, but the losers aren't going to tell it right either.

Quote regarding the federal government's response to the Katrina disaster in New Orleans.

"If the government responded like Wal-Mart responded we wouldn't be in this mess."
--Jefferson Parish President, Aaron Broussard

Full transcript of his interview.

The War on Poverty creates more poverty.
The War on Drugs creates more drugs.
The War on Terror creates more terror.

Why do we have a federal government?

Systems

Systems

Nothing makes my day like figuring out ways to save money. And I write this as I'm watching one of my stocks decline on the market today. *Grrr*

I have what faux doctors call an intentional bad memory. I tend to not retain stuff, let's call it, hard drive space in my brain. Space I want to keep available. It's not that I don't think most information isn't important, I just think I can survive without it. So I tend to forget easily to keep my brain clutter free. Driving on the computer theme, you know how on a PC running Windows, over the years, you try new programs, some good, some bad, but over time, with all of the information you've installed, the PC starts to slow down, gets bogged down by things you've wanted to try over the years then forgot about or soon realized you no practical use for. That is how I view my brain and I don't need a lot of data in there that I'm not going to use. I believe in garbage in, garbage out. So I will intentionally ignore or allow to forget stuff that I know won't be of any use to me soon after storing it.

Since I've decided to impose a bad memory for myself, in order to keep from losing my house, car or whatever else I might default on because I forgot to pay bills, I have to impose systems for me.

Systems are something I will remember not unlike the concept of a mathematician would have a need for a formula. This mathematician could memorize the sum of every number in combination with every other number in existence or he could memorize one formula to figure it out whenever he needs the answer. What I call systems are my formulas. I put my systems into place, forget everything else and wait for the savings to roll in.

For example, I have a cell phone. I have my anytime minutes and my night time and weekend minutes. I also have a program on my cell plan that enables my phone with Internet access. I love my net access on the go. I have to have it and when you hear me say I have to have something, that means, it saves and/or makes me money. Think I'm greedy? Not if you know what money truly represents, but that is another topic for another day.

Now I am not hurting financially, but if you can save and not knock yourself out doing it, why not do it? I looked at my cell phone plans and for six years, I've been paying for unlimited net access at $10 a month. So I started to wonder, how much of that unlimited time do I actually use? Infinite time at $10 a month is quite a bargain, sure, but I don't even come close to using infinite time on this plan. Not even a fraction of a fraction of infinite. So I was curious how much a per minute rate would cost me. It turns out it's a per kilobyte cost of one penny per kilobyte. Well how many kilobytes do I use on average? I found out that I use about $5 per month's worth. As high as $7 one month but as low as $3 another month. $5 a month? That's $5 savings. I'll take it. So I dropped the unlimited plan and went with the rate. Now I'm done with that. I don't ever have to think about it again and it only cost me a little bit of time, something I'll make back in the first month of savings.

Was I hurting by spending $10 a month? Did my child starve? Was I evicted from my house? Did I have a long history of bouncing checks? No. But my formula says if it's cheaper and especially if it doesn't put you out, take what's behind door number two and implement those savings baby! If I had implemented this six years ago and assuming my usage always averaged $5 per month, that would've saved me $360. It adds up.

Another example of this. Thanks to my cell phone, a couple of years ago I started to wonder why I needed a land line? I mean, I essentially had two phones and hardly even use one. It's actually closer to zero. Through most of my life, I use near zero phones. So I wondered, what would happen if I dropped the land line? It's blasphemy right? I mean people have always had phones since dinosaurs rules the earth. It's still a marvel of a technology to most. People struggle to keep their phone line active on a regular basis. They're convinced they can't live without it because it's always been that way and cell phones, well that's just something you use when you're not at home worshiping your phone shrine. And they may feel they can't live without phone service. Well I can live without it and a couple of years ago, we dropped our land line service, relying strictly on our cells and let me tell you, we have not missed it one bit. I got to save $40/month there. In almost two years, I've saved a cool grand and counting. Done thinking about that. Good times. Pass the pina colada.

Unfortunately, it seems to me that most people don't think like this. They don't know they need a system. They don't know to take stock of what they have and throw out what they don't need. Some are ok with wasting money. I've already admitted I would be just fine if I wasted money. But why? The little bit I save adds up over years and though I may never realize it or be able to trace the source of it, it literally makes me richer. But I don't have to know where it comes from. It's automatic. My brain has that valuable real estate that I don't want to store junk in. I just need the resident systems I've developed to take care of me and it does. I save me money? That's good enough for me. Keep it up.

At the risk of going off topic, many people waste money on things they just don't need. I mean absolutely don't need. All things are relative, but if you have absolutely no use for it, get rid of it, especially if it's costing you. It's hard for people to imagine life without that it, like the phone example, but you have to take the risk.

Realize this, you could be housed in a cardboard box living in gutters on the street, and you will be ok. Most of you will survive, you might even find some happiness with no responsibility, no one relying on you, no stress so life may even be good for you. If you can do that, take a quick spin around where you live and know that everything that your eye saw, you can live without. Now start taking inventory of the things you can live without and get rid of it. It will actually improve your mood. Material items weigh on your conscience. It's just another thing to take care of. Think of it as having children. Each item you own is a child that needs to be cared for. Guess what, you're running a foster home. Do your best to keep things to a minimum, donate that child to charity or sell it in a garage sale and it will save you tons financially not to mention mentally.

You might think I'm a bit obsessive about money. Obsession is an unhealthy amount of time devoted to one thing or idea. First of all, I don't see how saving money is ever unhealthy, second of all, I no more devote my time or my thoughts to this than you might thinking about what to have for lunch. Once you're trained in this style of thinking, it becomes that system, then it's automatic for the people. Just remember to be (shiny) happy (people). Possessions don't make you happy. They are indeed fleeting. People make you happy. You're people too, so this includes you. You can get happy from self satisfaction of your contribution in the world. (Man, I got way off topic, but that's the beauty of a journal) Your contribution supplies your need for self actualization (Research Maslow on this).

An exercise I like to do frequently is picture what the world would be like if everyone were like me. Besides it being a boring with nothing new happening and a certain bout of extinction setting in because adaptation to changing environment is lost, what kind of an effect would my personality times six billion have on life? If the answer scares you, you're not happy. If you think the answer is awesome, you're in denial. Feeling the need to contribute positively to those around you is rooted in taking responsibility. If you don't deal well with taking responsibility for your actions, you're not gonna get it. This is what it means to give and you shall receive.

Anyway, a post of this ilk was long over due. Also, the monthly snapshot has been MIA for awhile. Here it is.

Market:
DJI 10387, NASDAQ 2129, SP5 1207

#1 Movie at the box office:
40 Year Old Virgin

Last movie I saw at the theater:
Batman Begins

Last movie(s) I saw not at the theater:
Immortel (dvd)
Kung Fu Hustle (dvd)
Sin City (dvd)
A few from James Bond marathon (tv)

Books I'm currently reading:
Speaking of Liberty by Llewellyn H. Rockwell Jr.
American Gods by Neil Gaiman

Albums (cd/mp3) I'm listening to:
Audioslave - Out of Exile
Richard Cheese - Aperitif for Destruction
Velver Revolver - Contraband
Gorillaz - Demon Days
Black Eyes Peas - Elephunk
Lot of trance/techno

Video games I'm playing:
Resident Evil 4 (Looooove this game)
Empire Earth
Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast
Halflife 2
Halo 2

Price I'm paying for gas:
$2.50/gallon. ($42 to fillup)

The government sells security and the best way to sell security is to create insecurity.

It Was A Jungle Out There

It Was A Jungle Out There

After over a couple of weeks of neglecting it, I finally got around to mowing my back yard and boy, were the nested swamp bugs pissed. They came flying out in full attack mode like bats out of cave. The grass was so tall, the mower was choking. To look at the yard now, it looks like a field of hay and I keep thinking a tractor pulling a baler is going to plow through.

Peaceful, Relaxing, Gory Video Games

Peaceful, Relaxing, Gory Video Games

Since I finished Grant Theft Auto: San Andreas, which is now a collector's item thanks to the recent ratings change based on newly discovered content I can't access anyway, I resumed my Resident Evil 4 game. I think I got about 1/3 of the way through the game until San Andreas was released then I got sidetracked for a couple of months with carjacking, pimping, mass killing, gambling - basically being a virtual entrepreneur.

Note to self, don't play a horror game with excellent graphics right around bed time. The night time setting of the living room is a nice environment to play a great scary game but the side effect is that your blood is pumping, you're edgy, jumpy, sometimes cowering, sometimes crying and when you're done for the night, good luck getting right to sleep.

10 reasons why people can't let go of their government

10 reasons why people can't let go of their government

Article written by Michael S. Rozeff.
The full article, Reflections on the State can be found at LewRockwell.com

1. Error of identification. People long to be identified as something, an American or a Frenchman or a Russian. These are matters of nation, country, society, custom, language, group, religion, culture, not State. Yet in many people’s minds, they merge. The State comes to represent what a person is. The State gains loyalty by blurring the lines between itself, country and society. Patriotism, a love of country, overlaps with love of State.

2. Error of attribution. People make the logical error of attributing progress achieved by the country to the State: Cum hoc, ergo propter hoc. If a horse wins a race despite a 5-pound handicap, it wins despite the extra weight not because of it.

3. Illusion of order. People fear anarchy. They think that the power of the State to suppress and keep order is better than exposure to unnamed and unseen anarchic forces. Fear of one’s fellow man sows the seeds of support of the State. This solution to the problem of order is an illusion that is based on contradiction, however. If one fears men, and the rulers are men, then the rulers are also to be feared. In fact, the State to whom one gives such great power is even more to be feared. There is no security of life when one turns one’s life over to one’s jailer.

4. Illusion of security. People want security, insurance against the trials of life, a father that is there to feed and house them when they have troubles. It is illusion to think that the State can provide comfort. The State has no resources of its own, so it must draw them from the citizens themselves. In the process, much waste occurs, insecurity of rights is fostered, and the overall productivity of the people is reduced. In its external relations, which are frequently aggressive, the State wastes still more resources. Hence, the State makes people less secure.

5. Vicarious pleasure. Many identify with the State’s power. They feel good when the State uses its power. Death and destruction do not bother them. They like the idea of wars and armies marching, big tanks, missiles and rockets, and space ships flying to the moon. If the State is a superpower, all the better.

6. Hunger for power and wealth. Many people benefit from the State. Perhaps they rule, or gain subsidies or laws that favor them.

7. Philosophy. There are those like Hegel who justify the State and replace God with the State.

8. Miscalculation. Many people think the State is a good deal. These people can’t count or calculate. They give up $1 and get back $0.80 and do not know it. Sometimes they underestimate the costs they bear now and in the future. Sometimes they overestimate the benefits. Of course, the State does what it can to help them miscalculate.

9. Hope. This is a kind of misplaced faith. People irrationally hope and believe that the State’s power will ameliorate various evils, usually in a social context. When the State’s programs fail, these people are incapable of analyzing the reason for the failure because of the complexity of social situations and because of their biased hopes.

10. Gullibility and propaganda. The State encourages illusions about its powers and abilities.