From a speech delivered on the US Senate floor on May 18, 1856 by Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts:
"Take down your map, sir, and you will find that the Territory of Kansas, more than any other region, occupies the middle spot of North America, equally distant from the Atlantic on the east, and the Pacific on the west; from the frozen waters of Hudson's Bay on the north, and the tepid Gulf Stream on the south, constituting the precise territorial centre of the whole vast continent. To such advantages of situation, on the very highway between two oceans, are added a soil of unsurpassed richness, and a fascinating, undulating beauty of surface, with a healthgiving climate, calculated to nurture a powerful and generous people, worthy to be a central pivot of American institutions."
Monday, May 21, 2007
Michael Moore on my blog twice in one day?
Not ten minutes after I made a prior post that mentiond Michael Moore, I came across the following news story. Once again he's managed to shoot off at the mouth concerning something about which he is totally clueless. Imagine that.
http://www.thelocal.se/7363/20070521/
http://www.thelocal.se/7363/20070521/
Counterfeit Christian Church? How to tell
A list called 8 Characteristics of a Counterfeit Christian Church is available at:
http://www.mrm.org/topics/introductory-issues/8-characteristics-counterfeit-christian-church
Check your church against that list.
http://www.mrm.org/topics/introductory-issues/8-characteristics-counterfeit-christian-church
Check your church against that list.
Conservative inspiration from Michael Moore
An interesting article today in The Daily Standard.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/013/658rvful.asp
Academic freedom is in grave danger at most publicly-funded colleges and university.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/013/658rvful.asp
Academic freedom is in grave danger at most publicly-funded colleges and university.
On honesty
At a fast food place the other day, the guy ahead of me ordered water. The cup he was given is different from all the other cups, so I know that's what he ordered. When I got my food, I went over to the drink dispensers, and there he was, filling his "water" cup with Dr. Pepper.
In a small way, it's just the same as insurance fraud or lawsuit abuse. The big problem is that it raises the price of everything for everyone. One little cup of Dr. Pepper isn't going to break the restaurant, and that's certainly how his thinking went. But multiply it by a few thousand people across the chain, and it adds up to a "shrinkage" line on the books that has to be covered.
The one time our house was broken into, we ended up with nothing missing. Our TV had been disconnected, and was sitting in the middle of the living room floor, like the crooks had intended to take it. In a way, I wish they had. It was old, it was not working well, and we ended up replacing it within a few months of the break-in. Someone joked that I should have hauled it to the landfill and reported it as missing to the insurance company. At least I hope he was joking. Any time something is taken and not paid for, whenever an expense report is padded, any time an insurance claim is added to ... we all pay.
Come to think of it, we all pay in more ways than just the cost of the shrinkage, too. Have you seen the number of security cameras at the new Wal-Mart store? I once counted. When I'm in the parking lot, I can see 21 security cameras from one spot. And inside, there must be hundreds. It makes the place look like a prison. (And feel like one, too. Whenever I go in, I want to drag a tin cup across a set of bars, and yell "Let me out of here!") We've all paid for the cost of those cameras, their installation, and the salaries of all the people it takes to watch them. Every measure that has to be taken to prevent shrinkage and fraud costs us all money, too.
Just another rant about something I can't do anything about. Have a good Monday.
In a small way, it's just the same as insurance fraud or lawsuit abuse. The big problem is that it raises the price of everything for everyone. One little cup of Dr. Pepper isn't going to break the restaurant, and that's certainly how his thinking went. But multiply it by a few thousand people across the chain, and it adds up to a "shrinkage" line on the books that has to be covered.
The one time our house was broken into, we ended up with nothing missing. Our TV had been disconnected, and was sitting in the middle of the living room floor, like the crooks had intended to take it. In a way, I wish they had. It was old, it was not working well, and we ended up replacing it within a few months of the break-in. Someone joked that I should have hauled it to the landfill and reported it as missing to the insurance company. At least I hope he was joking. Any time something is taken and not paid for, whenever an expense report is padded, any time an insurance claim is added to ... we all pay.
Come to think of it, we all pay in more ways than just the cost of the shrinkage, too. Have you seen the number of security cameras at the new Wal-Mart store? I once counted. When I'm in the parking lot, I can see 21 security cameras from one spot. And inside, there must be hundreds. It makes the place look like a prison. (And feel like one, too. Whenever I go in, I want to drag a tin cup across a set of bars, and yell "Let me out of here!") We've all paid for the cost of those cameras, their installation, and the salaries of all the people it takes to watch them. Every measure that has to be taken to prevent shrinkage and fraud costs us all money, too.
Just another rant about something I can't do anything about. Have a good Monday.
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