Something To Think About Archive

Thomas Edison once observed that “We don’t know a millionth of one percent about anything.”

We get a little nervous when Bernie Sanders and the White House start singing from the same hymnal, that being the government taking stakes in businesses a la China, as Sanders is proposing in legislation that will give the government a 50% ownership stake in AI companies and their governing boards. To be fair, the White House started it by insisting that it get a piece of the action with the Intel bailout and approval of Nvidia and AMD export deals. But, can you imagine politicians, who can’t even balance the budget or build a train between the Bay Area and L.A., running high tech companies? Neither can we.

Tennis great Billie Jean King believes that “Everything you do, winning or losing, good or bad, it’s feedback, not failure.”

It’s been said that “Old age is when you realize that you will never own all the dogs you wanted to.”

According to Mark Twain: “Few things are harder to put with than a good example.”

Marcus Aurelis defined the “art of living” as “more like wrestling than dancing.”

“We must believe in luck.” Noted French poet and playwright Jean Cocteau, “For how else can we explain the success of those we don’t like?”

We thought that the big, beautiful ballroom at the White House was supposed to cost “only” $200 million? Now it’s $400 million and still supposedly fully paid for by private donors; including the security enhancements that the Administration is now seeking $1 billion from Congress to finish the project.

Publisher Malcom Forbes said: “Those who enjoy responsibility usually get it; those who merely like exercising authority usually lose it.”

According to psychologist and author Susan Jeffers, “There seems to be an automatic assumption that negative is realistic and positive is unrealistic.”

Mark Twain once noted that “It is easier to stay out than to get out.”

Pliny the Younger wrote: “The popularity of a bad man is as treacherous as he is himself.”

According to the late Hawaiian singer Iz: “You don’t need to be a rocket scientist. You don’t have to have a college degree, to know what is right and what is wrong.”

According to former Reagan speechwriter Peggy Noonan, state socialism doesn’t create, it allocates by those that favor their own interests and network. “American free-market capitalism generates,” notes Noonan. It allows things to be brough to life. Socialism merely distributes what is.”

Automotive pioneer Walter Chrysler said: “I feel sorry for the person who can’t get genuinely excited about his work. Not only will he never be satisfied, but he will never achieve anything worthwhile.”

Helen Keller believed that “When we do the best we can, we never know what miracles may result.”

“Never mistake a short distance for a clear view.”

According to the late Ted Turner “When you do something that’s never been done before, sail on uncharted waters and don’t know where you’re going, you’re not sure what you’re going to find when you get there, but at least you’re going somewhere.”

“Poor eyes limit your sight; poor vision limits your deeds.”

The Wall Street Journal’s Richard Rubin reports that total U.S. government debt, all $31 plus trillion of it, now eclipses the size of the entire U.S. economy. “Don’t worry,” says Rubin, “you don’t need to be an economist to understand the math. It’s bad. Real bad.” Over the past several decades, leaders and lawmakers from both parties have aggressively added to the deficit by spending much more money than they have brought in through taxes. The deficit in 2026 is projected to add another $1.9 trillion to it. The government can only sustain this by borrowing more money and it has to pay interest to borrow that money, at a current cost of $1 trillion a year. Roughly $1 out of every $7 spent by the government this year is going toward interest on the debt. And no, you can’t raise enough money taxing billionaires to cover it…