QUOTE OF THE DAY. TRIPPS ORIGINAL

[Stanley]

Don't know Richard. Sounds like a particularly rabid member of the NRA!
Did I just hear on Today that it was our esteemed leader? I looked it up and found it LINK. Safe pair of hands, or just a motor-mouth who should put his brain in gear before speaking? Tragic level of rhetoric.

[Bruff]

Yes as Tizer notes, I'm afraid it was our esteemed leader.

Deary, deary me.......

Richard Broughton

[Tardis]

All Governments would rather raise taxes than actually govern

Grover Norquest #BBCR4Today

[plaques]

I wonder if Mohamed Morsi is thinking ..

The People have spoken – the bastards*
*A quote from Dick Tuck's concession speech following his loss in the 1966 California State Senate election;

[PanBiker]

He's probably thinking - Best not try to argue with a tank!

[Tripps]

From Robin Page (One Man and his Dog)) - farmer, writer, and 'peasant'. Plugging his latest book......

First I was thrown out of the Combined Cadet Force, “because I was allergic to orders.

[Stanley]

David, my biggest problem in the army was that, on the whole, I was allergic to the officer class....

[Tripps]

The Met Office 18th June 2013

"Britain faces ten more years of wet summers, after the Met Office revealed the country is in the midst of a rare weather cycle that increases the prospect of summer rain and could last for two decades."

Cue drought.......

[Stanley]

"It is one thing to shew a man he is in error. It is another to put him in possession of the truth". John Locke.

[Tripps]

Andrew Marr said that was ‘not quite an answer to the question I asked,

Mr Cameron told him: ‘Well, that’s the answer that you are getting.’

[Tardis]

Bad officials are elected by good citizens who do not vote

George Jean Nathan

[plaques]

There are known knowns; there are things we know that we know.
There are known unknowns; that is to say, there are things that we now know we don't know.
But there are also unknown unknowns – there are things we do not know we don't know. ”
—United States Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld

[Tripps]

Intriguing - I think he adapted it from Darius the Persian who's quote I posted in May....

He who knows not and knows not he knows not: he is a fool-shun him.
He who knows not and knows he knows not: he is simple-teach him.
He who knows and knows not he knows: he is asleep-wake him.
He who knows and knows he knows: he is wise-follow him.

I amuse myself occasionally by putting people into those categories. I think we have all of them on here.

[plaques]

Not quite a quote but more of a series of statements. Could be applicable to almost 90% of events today.

Laws of Stupidity
Carlo Maria Cipolla, an economic historian, is famous for his essays about human stupidity, such as "The Fundamental Laws of Human Stupidity". He viewed stupid people as a group, more powerful by far than major organizations such as the Mafia and the industrial complex, which without regulations, leaders or manifesto nonetheless manages to operate to great effect and with incredible coordination.
These are Cipolla's five fundamental laws of stupidity:
1. Always and inevitably each of us underestimates the number of stupid individuals in circulation.
2. The probability that a given person is stupid is independent of any other characteristic possessed by that person.
3. A person is stupid if they cause damage to another person or group of people without experiencing personal gain, or even worse causing damage to themselves in the process.
4. Non-stupid people always underestimate the harmful potential of stupid people; they constantly forget that at any time anywhere, and in any circumstance, dealing with or associating themselves with stupid individuals invariably constitutes a costly error.
5. A stupid person is the most dangerous type of person there is.

[Tripps]

"Carlo Maria Cipolla

I suppose it isn't relevant, but Cipolla is Italian for onion. So his name translates as "Charley Mary Onion". Told you - utterley irrelevant.

[Stanley]

Cipolla is quite right. I think I worked this out for myself a long time ago and have always said that we should never underestimate the capacity of humans to act in a stupid manner.

[Tardis]

Is Cipolla the patron saint of H&S and Loss Control Executives?

[Tizer]

5. A stupid person is the most dangerous type of person there is.

Likewise, all we have to fear is ignorance.

[Stanley]

FDR was right then and it still applies. Someone should read his acceptance speech to the Cabinet.....

[Tizer]

FDR, full marks Stanley!

[Stanley]

Here's a LINK to the text. One of the finest political speeches ever made. Well worth reading again. Some things never change and it's as pertinent now as it was then.

[Tardis]

“If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door.” – Milton Berle

[Tizer]

It's remarkable how much of FDR's 1933 Inaugural Address could have been written now in response to our present situation. For example:
"Nature still offers her bounty and human efforts have multiplied it. Plenty is at our doorstep, but a generous use of it languishes in the very sight of the supply. Primarily this is because the rulers of the exchange of mankind’s goods have failed, through their own stubbornness and their own incompetence, have admitted their failure, and abdicated. Practices of the unscrupulous money changers stand indicted in the court of public opinion, rejected by the hearts and minds of men. [Perhaps we should have the bankers read the Address first thing every morning.]

"True they have tried, but their efforts have been cast in the pattern of an outworn tradition. Faced by failure of credit they have proposed only the lending of more money. [Witness the current UK Government's schemes to boost lending.] Stripped of the lure of profit by which to induce our people to follow their false leadership, they have resorted to exhortations, pleading tearfully for restored confidence. They know only the rules of a generation of selfseekers. They have no vision, and when there is no vision the people perish.

"The money changers have fled from their high seats in the temple of our civilization [Fred the Shred and some of his contemporaries.] . We may now restore that temple to the ancient truths. The measure of the restoration lies in the extent to which we apply social values more noble than mere monetary profit."

And then:
"...and there must be an end to a conduct in banking and in business which too often has given to a sacred trust the likeness of callous and selfish wrongdoing. Small wonder that confidence languishes, for it thrives only on honesty, on honor, on the sacredness of obligations, on faithful protection, on unselfish performance; without them it cannot live."

And:
"Finally, in our progress toward a resumption of work we require two safeguards against a return of the evils of the old order; there must be a strict supervision of all banking and credits and investments; there must be an end to speculation with other people’s money, and there must be provision for an adequate but sound currency."

FDR wasn't in awe of the banking industry - we need our Government to be likewise.

[Stanley]

Good stuff Tiz and worth noting that the US Glass-Steagall Act was passed to rein the banks in and all was well until the advent of Milton Friedman and the Chicago School of economists who pressured the politicians to water down and eventually abandon the GS Act and that was when our troubles started in the 1960s culminating in the collapse of the system in 2008. Tragedy is that most governments and in particular the Tories are still fans of the free market..... They have put themselves in a position where they cannot function without the support of free market economics and banking. I am always banging on about looking at the mistakes of the past and am told by some that the history has no relevance. Total rubbish! (and I have the consolation I am in good company, look up Schama on banking....) (LINK) (LINK)

[Stanley]

"But there are large and uninhabited and desolate areas. Certainly in part of the North East where there's plenty of room for fracking, well away from anybody's residence, where we could conduct without any kind of threat to the rural environment." Lord Howell, in a Lord's debate on July 30 2013.