The rich don’t need to rely on government for parks or education or medical care or personal security—they can buy all these things for themselves. In the process, they become more distant from ordinary people, losing whatever empathy they may once have had. They also worry about strong government—one that could use its powers to adjust the balance, take some of their wealth, and invest it for the common good. The top 1 percent may complain about the kind of government we have in America, but in truth they like it just fine: too gridlocked to re-distribute, too divided to do anything but lower taxes.

Joseph E. Stiglitz

Behavioral Economist, Dan Ariely

via TED

~ Tomi Lebrero
~ La Blogotheque

The typical Congressional subcommittee chairman or cable news anchor or syndicated columnist can’t really imagine not being able to afford to take his child to a doctor, or being wrongly convicted of a crime, but he is quite capable of imagining being on a Paris to New York flight that’s blown out of the sky. And while it’s true the risk he faces of suffering this fate are very close to zero, they are not, as they are for a poor person, literally zero.

Paul Campos at "Lawyers Guns and Money"

And therefore, uncle, though it has never put a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket, I believe that it has done me good, and will do me good; and I say, God bless it!

"A Christmas Carol" ~ Charles Dickens

Fifty People, One Question

While most economists spent the 1950s and 1960s toiling over mathematical models, Minsky pursued research on poverty, hardly the hottest subfield of economics.

Stephen Mihm, Boston Globe Correspondent

Patrick Watson ~ Man Like Me

There were once twin brothers who, as young men, received from their parents a mountain meadow on which to live. The meadow was divided evenly between them. One side was rockier than the other but had a creek running through it. This was the half that was given to the first born twin. The other side, given to the latter born twin, was more suitable for planting and rainfall sustained it. The younger man frequently enjoyed harvests more plentiful than his need and he shared his excess with his brother in return for water from the creek. Eventually, however, a drought fell upon them. While the creek slowed to a trickle, still it flowed – but the younger twin’s land dried and cracked. Soon he had nothing. He appealed to his brother for water but since he had nothing to trade, his brother refused him and he died from thirst. The older twin was able to survive the drought on his own meager harvest and inherited his brother’s half of the meadow. When the rain finally came again, he prospered.

Who said it?

Buzz Aldrin

Rush Limbaugh

"You can't mandate the creation of new technologies from Washington. There's nobody there that knows how to do it. It happens in the private sector when there's a market need for it."

24/7

"What is that?"

MovieTeller films

Fredo Viola ~ The Turn

The Cass County Boys in "Riders of the Whistling Pines", 1949

"I don't apologize. Ever. Of course, it helps that I'm never wrong." Rush Limbaugh

"All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence; then success is sure." Mark Twain

Broadcast 2000 ~ Get Up and Go

"These accounts harrow me beyond description. These incarnate demons say in great composure, that 'humanity is a Yankee virtue, but that they are governed by policy.' Is there any policy on this side of hell that is inconsistent with humanity? I have no idea of it. I know of no policy, God is my witness, but this, piety, humanity, and honesty are the best policy. Blasphemy, cruelty and villainy have prevailed and may again. But they won't prevail against America in this contest, because I find the more of them are employed the less they succeed."

John Adams (in a letter to his wife, Abigail, during the American Revolution)

Jonathan Mann ~ #109

Russell Morris ~ The Real Thing (1969)

"Who I'd like to meet:  everyone, so if you all could just form a line, we could get started"

Steven Kotler

(on his myspace page)

Mogwai ~ Mogwai Fear Satan

video: La Blogotheque

Tom Jones ~ We Got Love

video: La Blogotheque

Who said it?

Chief Joseph

Rush Limbaugh

"Say we use 25% of the world's resources -- I don't even believe it, but let's accept it as true for the sake of it. You know why we do? 'Cause we can! And the others can't! And what we do with it is in the interests of the betterment of all mankind!"

24/7