Mr.Piffka's Quotes

"The federal budget, already a mess before Katrina, is now a laughable document."
E. J. Dionne, Jr.
Washington Post "End of the Bush Era"

"War against a foreign country only happens when the moneyed classes think they are going to profit from it."
George Orwell (1903-1950)

Hello right back at ya msolga!

Hope you are well and happy.

jj

"If only lies left semen stains..."
Jon Stewart, The Daily Show, 10/31/2005

Yes, that would be so handy, Piffka!

Liars are usually caught out in the end. (You can see it in their eyes.)

But the semen evidence would be far more damning!

... and a laundry problem.

I don't want to damn people who lie; I want them to STOP LYING. (Is that so much to ask??)

No, it isn't, Piffka. I'll second that!

Thanks, Olga.

While I see "not lying" as truth, I remind myself to call it reality since "truth" has an unfortunate context of personal subjectivity:

We associate truth with convenience, with what most closely accords with self-interest and personal well-being, or promises best to avoid awkward effort or unwelcome dislocation of life.

John Kenneth Galbraith (1908- )

Good quote Piffka, with many resonances today.

Hey McTag, thanks. Aren't you heading to India soon?

For Tuesday:
"There are only two things we should fight for. One is the defense of our homes and the other is the Bill of Rights. War for any other reason is simply a racket."
Gen. Smedley Butler (1881-1940)

I couldn't post Monday's quote -- it was Ted Rall's cartoon from May 16, 2005 and his website was down. Here it is this morning:

To India soon I will indeed be going. Had my shots, got my pills.
Looking forward to it.

I'll bet you have a fantastic time, too. Looking forward to reading about it, McT.

"A strong nation, like a strong person, can afford to be gentle, firm, thoughtful, and restrained. It can afford to extend a helping hand to others. It's a weak nation, like a weak person, that must behave with bluster and boasting and rashness and other signs of insecurity."

Jimmy Carter (1924- )

Pif,

In boot camp every marine attends classes on Marine Corps history and traditions.
It is a big deal.
We learn of the men who fought the Barbary Pirates in Tripoli with Lt
Presley O'Bannon; we learn how the red stripe on the dress blue trousers comemorates blood copiously shed at the Battle of Chapultepec (Mexico, September 13, 1847) where Marines captured 'The Halls of
Montezuma'; and we learn about the bravest of the brave, men like
Smedley Butler -one of the two Marines who received TWO Medals of Honor for separate acts of outstanding heroism.
Anyway, here is another (longish) Smedley Butler quotation. It is an exerpt from a speech he gave in 1933:


"...I helped make Mexico, especially Tampico, safe for American oil interests in 1914.... I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in... I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefits of Wall Street.
The record of racketeering is long.
I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown
Brothers in 1909-1912... I brought light to the Dominican Republic for
American sugar interests in 1916... In China I helped to see to it that
Standard Oil went its way unmolested..."


PS today is the 300th birthday of the U.S. Marine Corps

"Nothing is less productive than to make more efficient what should not be done at all."

Peter F. Drucker (1909- )


Hi Jjorge!

I always wondered about that red stripe. (So, what's the story of the bright blue pants and the navy blue jacket? First time I saw the uniform I thought somebody was going to be in trouble for mixing it all up.)

Happy Birthday, USMC, and a friendly wave to all Marines (once a Marine, always a Marine, yes?). It wasn't their fault that they so often ended up supporting big business vs. truth, justice and honor.
Piff

"From the first moment I looked into that horror on Sept. 11, into that fireball, into that explosion of horror, I knew it. I knew it before anything was said about those who did it or why. I recognized an old companion. I recognized religion."

Monsignor Lorenzon Albacete
Catholic priest and professor of theology
St. Joseph's Seminary in New York

"Firstly you must always implicitly obey orders, without attempting to form any opinion of your own regarding their propriety. Secondly, you must consider every man your enemy who speaks ill of your king; and thirdly you must hate a Frenchman as you hate the devil."

Horatio Nelson (1758-1805)



Previous quotes from the weekend:
Saturday --
"This and no other is the root from which a tyrant springs; when he first appears he is a protector."

Plato (428-347 BCE)


Sunday --
"In memory of William French
Son to Mr. Nathaniel French, who
Was shot at Westminster, March ye 13th., 1775,
By the hands of the cruel Ministerial tools
Of Georg ye 3d, in the Corthouse at 11 o'clock
At night in the 23d year ofd his Age.

"Here William French his Body lies
For Murder his Blood for Vengeance Cries
King Georg the third his Tory Crew
That was a Bawl his head Shot threw
For liberty and his Country's Good
He Lost his Life his dearest blood."

- inscription on William French's headstone, Old East Parish Cemetary, Wesminster, Vermont. French was the celebrated victim of the "Westminster Massacre" of March 13, 1775, by which he is claimed to be the first martyr to American Independence.

John Edward Frost
William French

(Ed. note: William French was my --that is, Mr.Piffka's-- great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather.)

My, my that's a good one. Numerous examples come to mind.



Mr Piffka must be PROUD of his great, great great,great, great great.....GF!