To quote Charles Caleb Colton over and over and over and .....

Submitted by Roanman on Thu, 11/10/2011 - 06:36

 

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

 

He that thinks himself the happiest man really is so.  He that thinks himself the wisest is generally the greatest fool.

 

We hate some persons because we do not know them; and will not know them because we hate them.

 

There are truths some men despise because they have not examined, and which they will not examine because they despise.

 

Money is the most envied, but the least enjoyed. Health is the most enjoyed, but the least envied.

 

He that has energy enough in his constitution to root out a vice, should go a little farther, and try to plant in a virtue in its place. 

 

It is astonishing how much more anxious people are to lengthen life than to improve it.

 

The present time has one advantage over every other - it is our own.

 

Men will wrangle for religion; write for it; fight for it; die for it; anything but live for it.

 

War is a game, in which princes seldom win, the people never.

 

We ask advice, but we mean approbation. (praise)

 

Our wealth is often a snare to ourselves, and always a temptation to others.

 

Many speak the truth when they say that they despise riches, but they mean the riches possessed by others.

 

For one man who sincerely pities our misfortunes, there are a thousand who sincerely hate our success.

 

Our incomes are like our shoes, if to small, they will gall and pinch us, but, if too large, they will cause us to stumble, and to trip.

 

Those who have earned a fortune are usually more careful of it than those who have inherited one.

 

What we lend, we shall most probably lose.

 

It is always safe to learn, even from our enemies; seldom safe to venture to instruct, even our friends.

 

He who studies books alone will know how things ought to be, and he who studies men will know how they are.

 

We owe almost all our knowledge not to those who have agreed but to those who have differed.

 

Knowledge is twofold and consists not only in an affirmation of what is true, but in the negation of what is false.

 

To know a man, observe how he wins his object, rather than how he loses it; for, when we fail, our pride supports us, when we succeed, it betrays us.

 

In life we shall find many men that are great, and some that are good, but very few men that are both great and good.

 

He that is good will infallibly become better, and he that is bad, will as certainly become worse; for vice, virtue and time are three things that never stand still.

 

A youth without fire is followed by an old age without experience.

 

Liberty will not descend to a people, a people must raise themselves to liberty; it is a blessing that must be earned before it can be enjoyed.

 

Smokin' Joe Frazier

Submitted by Roanman on Tue, 11/08/2011 - 15:05

 

I was and am a Frazier guy.

Muhammad Ali may well be the greatest of all time, but Joe Frazier is the one true hero of my life.

I decided that I had something more important to do and passed on the field trip with F Troop to Cobo Hall for the closed circuit presentation of the "Thrilla in Manila".

Then I couldn't stand it and went down alone in order to get scalped at the door like you wouldn't believe.

I sat there on the edge of my seat along with the rest of the building completely astonished at the magnificent courage of these two men.

When Eddy Futch threw in the towel on the 15th round I had tears in my eyes.

I have tears in my eyes sitting here now just thinking about it some 35 years later.

People, mostly women but the occasional man as well, will sit there and tell each other, "Boxing is stupid.  Look what it did to Ali." 

Usually I mostly agree.

Boxing is stupid.

The UFC is stupid.

Hell, football is stupid.

If played at the highest levels, football takes years off a life and invariably negatively impacts to a greater or lesser degree the quality of the life that remains after football.

Except ....... and what these people can't possibly even begin to understand ..... there are few things in this life that bless like having stared into the mouth of the cannon, whatever that cannon might be ..... and lived. 

For Joe Frazier, that cannon was Muhammad Ali, and for Muhammad Ali that cannon was Joe Frazier.

And for each, that was one big damn terrible M&%^#$ F*#$^% of a cannon (French, I beg your pardon).

One of the greatest exchanges in the history of sports occured somewhere in the middle rounds of this fight as Joe Frazier having been pounded early is now up in Ali's grill doing some pounding of his own.

Ali, "Old Joe Frazier, they told me you were washed up"

Frazier, "They told you wrong pretty boy."

Joe Frazier can no longer tell you having succombed to cancer last night at age 67, but Ali while he can no longer form the words has and will tell you straight out in whatever fashion he is able, that what boxing and Joe Frazier did to him can't even begin to detract from what boxing and Joe Frazier did for him.

"I always bring out the best in the men I fight, but Joe Frazier, I'll tell the world right now, brings out the best in me. I'm gonna tell ya, that's one helluva man, and God bless him."

Rest in peace tough guy.

 

 

Click on the photo above for the Mark Kram account of the Thrilla in Manila which is widely and rightfully acclaimed as one of the 20th century's greatest examples of sports journalism.

Seriously great writing even if you hate boxing.

 

MF Global

Submitted by Roanman on Sun, 11/06/2011 - 16:31

 

You may be aware that some plus or minus 600 million dollars of client money is presently missing from trading accounts held at bankrupt MF Global.

Former Goldman Sachs great, United States Senator, Governor of New Jersey and well known Obama "bundler" John Corzine has resigned as CEO  of MF Global and has lawyered up.

The following is an advertisement that MF Global has recently run at Barron's among other publications.

 

 

To quote Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis over and over and ...

Submitted by Roanman on Sat, 11/05/2011 - 07:38

 

The most important political office is that of the private citizen.

 

Publicity is justly commended as a remedy for social and industrial diseases. Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants; electric light the most efficient policeman.

 

Those who won our independence... valued liberty as an end and as a means. They believed liberty to be the secret of happiness and courage to be the secret of liberty.

 

The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in the insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well meaning but without understanding.

 

Experience teaches us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government's purposes are beneficent.

 

To declare that in the administration of criminal law the end justifies the means to declare that the Government may commit crimes in order to secure conviction of a private criminal would bring terrible retribution.

 

If we desire respect for the law, we must first make the law respectable.

 

Our government... teaches the whole people by its example. If the government becomes the lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy.

 

If you would only recognize that life is hard, things would be so much easier for you.

 

In the frank expression of conflicting opinions lies the greatest promise of wisdom in governmental action.

 

Neutrality is at times a graver sin than belligerence.

 

Stuff

Submitted by Roanman on Fri, 11/04/2011 - 18:37

 

Cold, miserable weather must be settling in around the northern hemisphere as people have seemingly moved back indoors and have gone back to bombing us with stuff.

Sad, but good for us.

Here's some of the better stuff we were bombed with this week.

 

 

 

 

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