Fortune

"And when we come to examine their actions and lives, they do not seem to have had from fortune anything other than opportunity. Fortune, as it were, provided the matter but they gave it its form; without opportunity their prowess would have been extinguished, and without such prowess the opportunity would have come in vain."

- Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince p.18

Slavery in Europe!

"In order to obtain financial means for this trip, Mehmedbasic granted liberation to the last two kmets his family owned." 

- Vladimir Dedijer, The road to Sarajevo p. 282

Joke of the month

Eileen and her husband Bob went for counseling after 25 years of marriage. When asked what the  problem was, Eileen went into a passionate, painful tirade listing every problem they had ever had in the 25 years they had been married. She went on and on and  on: neglect, lack of intimacy, emptiness, loneliness, feeling unloved and unlovable, an entire laundry list of unmet needs she had endured over the course of their marriage.  
Finally, after allowing this to go on for a sufficient length of time, the therapist got up, walked around the desk and after asking Eileen to stand, embraced her, unbuttoned her blouse and bra, put his hands on her breasts and massaged them thoroughly, while kissing her passionately as her husband Bob watched with a raised eyebrow!
Eileen shut up, buttoned up her blouse, and quietly sat down while basking in the glow of being highly aroused.
The therapist turned to Bob and said:
"This is what your wife needs at least three times a week. Can you do this?"
Bob thought for a moment and replied:
"Well, I can drop her off here on Mondays and Wednesdays, but on Fridays, I play golf."

What a great country!

"Isn't it great to live in a society where the penalty for lying to
a congressman can be up to 30 years in jail, but the penalty for a
congressman lying to you is another two years in office."

- Peter Schmuck (on Roger Clemens' indictment)

Life Instructions

If all the cells in all the living creatures have their genetic instructions that have been passed from a parent onto a child, who from and how did the very first cell got it's instructions as to what to do?

The Batle

One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people. 
  
He said, "My son, the battle is between two 'wolves' inside us all."

"One is Evil. -  It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego."

"The other is Good. -  It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith."

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather: "Which wolf wins?"

The old Cherokee simply replied: "The one you feed." 

Advertising

"The art of convincing people to spend money they don't have on something they don't need."

- Will Rogers

Joke of the Month

There were four buddies named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody, and Nobody. 

They had an important job to do and Everybody was sure Somebody would do it. 

Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it. 

Everybody got angry about that, because it was Somebody's job. 

Everybody thought Anybody could do it, but Nobody realized that Everybody wouldn't do it. 

It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have done..

Financial Analysts

Their title speaks for itself.
If they were any good at predicting, they would be called fortune tellers. Until then they are just analysts: people who analyze things that already happened.
So, why is it that this same bunch ventures into telling us what is going to happen next and where are we suppose to invest our life savings? 
More so, accepting the above statement as true, why do we trust them?

Where Have All The Flowers Gone

"Where have all the flowers gone?

Long time passing

Where have all the flowers gone?

Long time ago

Where have all the flowers gone?

Young girls have picked them everyone

Oh, when will they ever learn?

Oh, when will they ever learn?

Where have all the young girls gone?

Long time passing

Where have all the young girls gone?

Long time ago

Where have all the young girls gone?

Gone for husbands everyone

Oh, when will they ever learn?

Oh, when will they ever learn?

Where have all the husbands gone?

Long time passing

Where have all the husbands gone?

Long time ago

Where have all the husbands gone?

Gone for soldiers everyone

Oh, when will they ever learn?

Oh, when will they ever learn?

Where have all the soldiers gone?

Long time passing

Where have all the soldiers gone?

Long time ago

Where have all the soldiers gone?

Gone to graveyards, everyone

Oh, when will they ever learn?

Oh, when will they ever learn?

Where have all the graveyards gone?

Long time passing

Where have all the graveyards gone?

Long time ago

Where have all the graveyards gone?

Gone to flowers, everyone

Oh, when will they ever learn?

Oh, when will they ever learn?

Where have all the flowers gone?

Long time passing

Where have all the flowers gone?

Long time ago

Where have all the flowers gone?

Young girls have picked them everyone

Oh, when will they ever learn?

Oh, when will they ever learn?"

- Pete Seeger

U.S. Economy

Our economy is like an athlete on steroids: in order to continue achieving results we chose to get doped, consequently making the whole thing so artificial that we do not even know what is right from what is wrong.

Economy is an exact science, where every action is known to produce exact reaction, and does not allow for any artificial or foreign elements to enhance it's performance.

The real question at this point in time is how do we take ourselves off of performance enhancing stimulants. And the answer can be found in real life, observing any athlete that is making an attempt to clean himself, and the result is: he will neither be a successful athlete anymore nor will he cleanse his body to the point of being able to get back to normal life. He is ruined.

So, we have two choices: keep taking steroids and in order to sustain the profit race keep blowing the bubble (that will eventually explode), or go cold turkey and quit doping ourselves, which will take us a couple of decades back and will make the bubble look shriveled and parched. The latter one can not be done peacefully. The first one will result in loss of peace.

I'm sure every athlete that was ever taking steroids is asking himself that same stupid question: "Why in the hell did I do that?" All too late.

Democracy

"Sail on, sail on
O mighty Ship of State!
To the Shores of Need
Past the Reefs of Greed
Through the Squalls of Hate
Sail on, sail on, sail on, sail on.
I'm sentimental, if you know what I mean
I love the country but I can't stand the scene.
And I'm neither left or right
I'm just staying home tonight,
getting lost in that hopeless little screen.
But I'm stubborn as those garbage bags
that Time cannot decay,
I'm junk but I'm still holding up
this little wild bouquet:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A."

- Leonard Cohen