Quote of the Day: Eric Cantor on the Stimulus Bill

House Republican Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) on the haste in voting on the $800 billion or so stimulus plan less than 24 hours after being released. (If you're counting, it was released at 9 pm, contains 1,1419 pages, and is being tabled at 9 am, but what's a few hours between friends!)

Those in favor of speed over commonsense may just be afraid of letting the People know what they are ramming through.

Quote of the Day: Stanford at the Olympics

From a newsletter by Ajit Dayal, Quantum Funds:

An interesting statistic: students (former and existing) of Stanford University in USA won 25 Olympic medals in China, of which 8 were gold, 13 were silver, and 4 were bronze. If Stanford were an independent country, it would have ranked as the 9th in terms of gold medals won and 11th in terms of total Olympic medals won.

Quote of the Day: Hamburger Offsets

Environmental humorist Lou Bendrick on the idea of buying carbon offsets to compensate for the global warming pollution caused by our actions:

You get to sin, but you get to buy your way out of it. It's sort of silly. It's like buying tofu offsets to be able to eat a hamburger.

Quote of the Day: Angela Kelley

Angela Kelley of the National Immigration Forum on the Newshour, addressing criticism that the new immigration bill on the Hill amounts to amnesty:

What's the alternative, Ray? We deport 12 million people? We spend $240 billion a year over the next five years to do that? That's more than the DHS [Department of Homeland Securitty] budget.

Quote of the Day: Thomas Jefferson

First up, sorry for not blogging more often. Personal circumstances have prevented me from being as active as I'd like, and it's likely my blogging might remain spotty for the better part of the next month.

I was in Washington, DC with my parents last weekend, and was really struck by the following quote by Thomas Jefferson. At a time when we seem to obsess about what the Founding Fathers had in mind, it's interesting that one of those men certainly hadn't intended the stubborn dedication to their thoughts and views. This inscription is on the Jefferson memorial, along with more famous quotes:

I am not an advocate for frequent changes in laws and constitutions, but laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths discovered and manners and opinions change, with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also to keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors.

Quote of the Day: Judge Gung-Ho

While trying to tag my old posts (something I've been putting off for a while), I came across an old post on Judge Gung-Ho, a bankcruptcy court judge and anti-credit card advocate. The post I liked then really struck a chord, and so I chose to post it as today's Quote of the Day:

The rule that I like to use is if it's $10 or $20, pay cash for it. If you can eat it or drink it, pay cash for it. And the best example of that is reported in the Wall Street Journal. When McDonald's started to allow people to use credit cards instead of paying cash, the average sale went from $4.75 to $7. Need I say more?

Quote of the Day

Stephen Colbert, comedian and host of the Colbert report, on Bush's healthcare proposal to allow tax deductions to encourage greater access to health insurance among the uninsured:

It's simple. Most people who can't afford health insurance also are too poor to owe taxes. But if you give them a deduction from the taxes they don't owe, they can use the money they're not getting back from what they haven't given to buy the healthcare they can't afford.

Movie of the Day

The Boys of Baraka, an incredible story of a group of boys who were taken from their crime-ridden school in Baltimore to an experimental school in Kenya, and the dramatic turnaround in their lives. Without giving anything away, it's a damning indictment of the opportunities we afford our kids from the ghetto, and I think really makes a case for the voucher system.

While on the topic, here's a related quote of the day:

One of the most reliable predictors of whether a boy will succeed or fail in high school rests on a single question: does he have a man in his life to look up to? Too often, the answer is no. High rates of divorce and single motherhood have created a generation of fatherless boys. In every kind of neighborhood, rich or poor, an increasing number of boys—now a startling 40 percent—are being raised without their biological dads.

Be a mentor! You can't replace a dad, but if you can make a tiny bit of a difference in someone's life, then yours is a life worth living!

Quote of the Day: The World's Happiest Man

Matthieu Ricard, 60, a French academic-turned-Buddhist monk, interpreter to the Dalai Lama, labelled the 'world's happiest man' after MRI images of his brain showed extraordinary left pre-frontal cortex activity associated with positive emotions, and suppressed activity for the right side associated with negative emotions. (The results were consistent with, although much more prominent than, images for other meditators)

The mind is malleable. Our life can be greatly transformed by even a minimal change in how we manage our thoughts and perceive and interpret the world. Happiness is a skill. It requires effort and time.

Quote of the Day

To show that the quote of the day need not be inspirational, but can also be an indication of the retardness and partisan nature of our leaders, I give you Madame Speaker Nancy Pelosi:

The president knows that because the troops are in harm's way, that we won't cut off the resources. That's why he's moving so quickly to put them in harm's way.

Quote of the Day

Jagdish Bhagwati, professor at Columbia University and author of the book 'In Defense of Globalization', on the fear of the deficits with China, and calls for tariffs on Chinese goods:

The Chinese surplus is cited as the cause of the U.S. deficit. This is a non sequitur. If they were to revalue, and our excess spending through the budget deficit were to continue, our deficit would continue but be directed to other nations than China. China, and also India, are such large countries and rapidly growing economies that they inculcate unjustified fear.

Quote of the Day

Vahan Janjigian in his blog, MoneyMasters, on Google's stock price:

One valuable lesson I have learned over the years is that overvalued stocks can get a whole lot more overvalued before coming back to earth.... Google makes good money. But is it really worth 15 times sales and 45 times projected earnings? Amazon.com might provide a basis for comparison. At its peak, the stock was selling for 30 times sales. Today it sells for only 1.5 times sales.

Quote of the Day

Keith Whyte of the National Council on Problem Gambling, on the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act:

I think the best way to sum up this bill is that it makes illegal what is illegal and it legalizes what is legal ... So, really, the prohibition of this bill -- it's illegal to gamble on the Internet in states where it illegal to gamble on the Internet. And in states where it is legal or that might want to legalize it, it's perfectly allowable.

I found the discussion on the Newshour on this Act very interesting - you can read the transcript or watch it online here.

Quote of the Day

Former House Speaker and architect of the GOP's Contract with America, Newt Gingrich on Democrats and their bloggers:

This is a core problem [the Democrats] have. ... I don't think you can write a Contract with Vermont and San Francisco. ... Al Gore has refused to endorse his vice presidential running mate [Lieberman]. A party which is so driven by its left that—I don't know if you saw the blogger meeting in Las Vegas? From the standpoint of an average American, some of that stuff was weird. Candidates out there run a risk of resembling the people they're trying to appeal to. Normal people I think become distanced by that stuff. I think the Republican Party has few allies more effective than the Daily Kos. It puts them into an echo chamber of listening to each other. There was a reason [2004 Democratic presidential nominee John] Kerry looked normal—because Howard Dean looked so strange. So you have Dean as national chair, you have Gore coming back as a true left winger to Hillary's left, you have Lieberman unacceptably pro-national security, you have Nancy Pelosi from San Francisco... Let's drop Nancy Pelosi into a typical exurban swing district and see how she does. You listen to her talk and it's all about the counterculture, unilateral disarmament type of babble.

Quote of the Day

Syndicated columnist Mark Shields duscussing his reaction to the flag burning amendment, which failed in the US Senate, on the Newshour with Jim Lehrer:

It made me angry, because I listened to those speeches. I listened to the people advocating it, and they talked about our fighting men and women. If they really were remotely authentic or sincere about our fighting men and women and honoring them, how about body armor? How about armoring Humvees? How about not cutting veterans' benefits? How about not putting our troops in a position where they're ordered to perform torturous acts? How about sending enough troops into battle? I mean, I just -- I mean, this was hypocrisy at its worst.

Quote of the Day

I read this in a column on investing, dealing with panic of the lay investor due to losses in the stock markets, but this quote by the Frenchman Joseph Joubert ring true for so many aspects of life:

When you go in search of honey you must expect to be stung by bees.

Quote of the Day

I've found myself reading more history recently, especially the history of the American Revolution. One of the great writers of that era, Thomas Paine had this to say about the turmoils of that day (and maybe this one too?)

These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.

Quote of the Day

Senator Hillary Clinton, critizing the new immigration bill on the floor of the House, that would make it a criminal activity to help an illegal immigrant, even at a homeless shelter.

This bill would literally criminalize the Good Samaritan and probably even Jesus himself.

Random Quote of the Day

I was watching an old video of a NOW interview of Bill Gates, when host Bill Moyers quoted George Bernard Shaw, refering to the fact that Gates was so affected by the stats of the deaths of millions of children in the developing world due to preventable diseases:

The sign of a truly educated man is to be deeply moved by statistics

Judge Gung-Ho on Credit Cards

This story about Judge John Ninfo talking about the people who come to his bankruptcy court because of credit card debt seemed to be the usual rant about our consumer society, something every sensible person rants about and yet seemingly many continue to indulge in. But this quote caught my eye:

The rule that I like to use is if it's $10 or $20, pay cash for it. If you can eat it or drink it, pay cash for it. And the best example of that is reported in the Wall Street Journal. When McDonald's started to allow people to use credit cards instead of paying cash, the average sale went from $4.75 to $7. Need I say more?

Hmm, the implication is that it might be the small things that add up, rather than the big ticket items. I have been using my Citibank Dividends card to accrue cashback for my monthly expenses, and always pay my balance in full, but I wonder if I should go on a one-month trial paying cash instead(for everything - grocery store included) to see if my expenditure drops.