Something To Think About Archive

Actress Helen Hayes, at age 83, once observed that “The hardest years in life are those between ten and seventy.”

It’s been said that “Everything is always impossible before it works.”

Former Harvard University President Derek Bok said, “If you think education is expensive, try ignorance.”

Rather than picking fights with our neighbors to the north and south, Ronald Reagan believed in a strong North America, stating that “We are neighbors by geography, but more than that, we must be partners by choice – in prosperity, in progress, and in peace.” That certainly doesn’t mean open borders where bad actors from all over the world can enter the country, but it does mean that we shouldn’t be threatening to make them 51^st states and that freer trade between the three countries does more good than harm.

Mark Twain claimed that “Providence protects children and idiots. I know,” said Twain, “because I have tested it.”

Henry Ford believed that “Even a mistake may turn out to be the one thing necessary to a worthwhile achievement.”

According to Garrison Keillor, “Some luck lies in not getting what you thought you wanted but getting what you have, which once you have got it you may be smart enough to see is what you would have wanted had you known.”

The U.S. national debt hit a record $37 trillion on August 8, less than eight months after passing the $36 trillion threshold for the first time in November and continues to surge past our Annual GDP. Tariffs, while bringing some money into the Treasury, are not the answer. Cutting expenses is the only solution to avoiding this fiscal cliff.

Author Ernest Heminway advised us to “Never mistake motion for action.”

It’s interesting to watch the recent hyperventilation by Democrats over the gerrymandering proposed in Texas especially considering that New York immediately threatened to do the same thing under its Democratic control, and Illinois has done it for decades under the control of Democrats.  Even California did the same thing in 2000, although that was supposed to be a bipartisan effort, given the Democratic control of the state it hardly was.

It’s been said that “The world is not interested in the storms you encountered, but whether or not you brought in the ship.”

It’s been said that “The world is not interested in the storms you encountered, but whether or not you brought in the ship.”

Playwright George Bernard Shaw once noted that “There are two tragedies in life. One is not to get your heart’s desire. The other is to get it.”

“Never despair;” advised Father of Conservatism Edmund Burke. “But if you do, work on in despair.”

Business executive Donald M. Nelson said: “… we must assume that there is probably a better way to do almost anything. “We must stop assuming that a thing which has never been done before probably cannot be done at all.”

Finally, thanks to the efforts of Assemblyman David Tangipa, after 15 years of overspending and under-delivering the California High Speed Rail Authority is being required to develop a detailed business plan that reviews any funding gaps or project delays. Unfortunately, it only addresses the initial phase from Merced to Bakersfield and does nothing for the rest of the boondoggle project. With his new-found fiscal sense of responsibility as he eyes the White House, Gavin Newsom signed the bill lauding its importance for accountability on the project. Too bad the bill didn’t kill it outright.

Writer and publisher Elbert Hubbard believed that “Self-discipline is the ability to make yourself do what you should do when you should do it, whether you feel like it or not.”

According to theologian John H.C. Newman, “A man would do nothing if he waited until he could do it so well that no one could find fault.”

Coach Vince Lombardi claimed that “Winning isn’t everything, but wanting to win is.”

“First health, then wealth, then pleasure,” said Catherine the Great, “and do not owe anything to anybody.”