The Guild 8-11-04 What Would Ben Franklin Think of John Kerry?

The Quotable Franklin ^ | 8-11-04 | pubmom

[pubmom]

According to Benjamin Franklin himself, many of the proverbs and aphorisms found in "Poor Richard's Almanack" were gleaned from the "wisdom of the ages and nations." In the dictums and maxims that follow, one hears echoes of the Bible, the ancients, and collections of proverbs readily available in Franklin's own time. Yet, in recrafting many older sayings, Franklin, who was among other things an inventor and musician, brought new design and melody to timeworn truisms. Franklin once created a list of 13 virtues to live by. This baker's dozen included temperance, silence, order, resolution, frugality, industry, sincerity, justice, moderation, cleanliness, tranquility, chastity, and humility. The reader will see these virtues emphasized again and again in these quotes culled from Franklin's "Poor Richard's Almanack."

Did Franklin himself listen to Poor Richard's advice? Sometimes. Sometimes not.

"Be temperate in wine, in eating, girls, and cloth, or the Gout will seize you and plague you both," Franklin wrote. Franklin relished his food, basked in the company of women, and at times used items of apparel to influence the way people perceived him. And, indeed, gout plagued Franklin for much of his life.

One thing that makes these aphorisms so compelling is that Franklin, while divine in apprehension, was in action very much a mortal. Take these morsels in moderation -- Franklin would have it no other way.

They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.

Eat to live, and not live to eat.

After three days men grow weary, of a wench, a guest, and weather rainy.

Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead.

Fish and visitors stink after three days.

To err is human, to repent divine; to persist devilish.

Those who in quarrels interpose, must often wipe a bloody nose.

What you seem to be, be really.

Tim was so learned, that he could name a horse in nine Languages. So ignorant, that he bought a cow to ride on.(This made me think of Teraaayzza.)

People who are wrapped up in themselves make small packages.

He that speaks much, is much mistaken.

Glass, China, and Reputation, are easily crack'd, and never well mended.

Silence is not always a Sign of Wisdom, but Babbling is ever a folly.

To be proud of virtue, is to poison yourself with the Antidote.

[daisyscarlett]

"We must get the word out to every veteran we know!"

All the Viet Nam vets I know have been anti-Kerry for months; the four months served is what really riles them. I know guys who crawled around in the jungle for months. I have even gotten two anti-Kerry emails lately from a gal I met in a class during the Lewinsky affair. She was pro-Clinton, hated Ken Starr, thinks he is a sexual pervert (Starr not Slick). She is also socially very Liberal as in "No politician is going to tell her or her two daughters what to do with their bodies". Well, we have been email buddies but have never sent each other political stuff till now. I figured out why: her hubby was in Viet Nam. She is flooding her email buds with Swift Boat stuff...love it...love it...

[Diver Dave]

"We must get the word out to every veteran we know!"

Yep!

Spoke to one just the other day. Wasn't gonna change his mind though - He's gonna leave the country if Kerry wins. :)

Evenin' ladies.

[Iowa Granny]

Good Morning. 54 degrees here at 5:30 am.

[lodwick]

Well, that's too cold for crops.

Good morning, everyone.

Today should be spent readying the place for a week away at Lake Cumberland, KY...no tellie, no internet, just family getting away from most of it.

[lodwick]

From another thread, re: eff'n:

He is the true example when the Lord talks about a double minded man and when he said the lie he told was seared in his mind!

James 1: 8
A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.

3,377 posted on 08/19/2004 7:53:29 PM CDT by restornu

[lodwick]

John Kerry's Cambodia fantasy

---

Posted: August 20, 2004
1:00 a.m. Eastern



By Joseph Farah

---

© 2004 WorldNetDaily.com

For more than 30 years, John Kerry has been telling a lie about his experiences in Vietnam.

The lie has only two purposes – increasing his own self-importance and condemning his own country's policies in Southeast Asia in the 1960s.


By now, most people have heard Kerry's fable about being in Cambodia during Christmas 1968. In the most celebrated telling of this story before the U.S. Senate in 1986, Kerry said:


I remember Christmas of 1968 sitting on a gunboat in Cambodia. I remember what it was like to be shot at by Vietnamese and Khmer Rouge and Cambodians, and have the president of the United States telling the American people that I was not there; the troops were not in Cambodia. I have that memory which is seared – seared – in me.


Kerry and his presidential campaign have been forced to back down from this lie for obvious reasons:



not one crew member – even the few who now support Kerry for president – back Kerry's contention that he or his swiftboat ever ventured into Cambodia;

the president in 1968 was Lyndon Baines Johnson, a Democrat, who has never been accused of sending troops to Cambodia and certainly never denied it;

Kerry's whereabouts on Christmas 1968 are not a matter of dispute;

Now Kerry's campaign says he just got his dates wrong – that this memory that was "seared – seared" in him, was about another time, perhaps a month later when Richard Nixon entered the White House.

Of course, the lies continue. Richard Nixon did not send troops into Cambodia in his first 10 days in office. He sent them more than a year later. Kerry was out of Vietnam before the end of March 1969. Yet, through his lying, morally bankrupt surrogates, he continues to insist he actually was ordered into Cambodia and carried out illegal military missions.

In an earlier version of this lie, written in Kerry's own hand and published in the Boston Herald in 1979, in the context of a review of Francis Ford Coppola's "Apocalypse Now," he offered even more embellishment.


On more than one occasion, I like Martin Sheen in "Apocalypse Now," took my patrol boat into Cambodia. In fact, I remember spending Christmas Eve of 1968 five miles across the Cambodia border being shot at by our South Vietnamese allies who were drunk and celebrating Christmas. The absurdity of almost being killed by our own allies in a country in which President Nixon claimed there were no American troops was very real.


Let's count the lies in this written statement:



Kerry says he made this trip "on more than one occasion." Now we are to believe that this was a regular practice by Kerry and his crew, none of whom share any such memory.

The already discredited "Christmas in Cambodia" claim was being made already in 1979 – perhaps being floated for later use in the U.S. Senate.

Kerry impugns our Christian South Vietnamese allies by suggesting they were drunk and attacking U.S. troops.

He suggests in this version that he was nearly killed in Cambodia.

He repeats the lie that Richard Nixon was president at this time – a true absurdity.

Why am I making so much of this lie repeated by Kerry over the years?

Because I think it is very revealing of the man's basic character.

He has no respect for the truth. He lies when there is no reason to lie. He makes up stories out of whole cloth for his own personal aggrandizement and to score cheap political points against his adversaries.

Remember, Kerry wasn't speaking extemporaneously. He thought about this statement and wrote it down for publication. Similarly, he made another statement before his colleagues in the U.S. Senate.

I worry about people who play so fast and loose with the truth. I would never consider entrusting power to someone who so misrepresents the facts. With a track record of distortions like that, I would never take seriously anything the man says.

Why should we believe what Kerry says about the future when he can't be trusted to represent the past accurately?

[lodwick]

Funny, Bobby Fischer thread

[daisyscarlett]

Thanks for the link to that very funny Bobby Fischer thread.

And have a great time relaxing at the Lake.

[Timeout]

Don't want to jinx anything, but.....

Stewart's leading!

[They'reGone2000]

We'll all be cheering for you Stewart!

(Actual caption: An English spectator enjoys a beer and falls asleep while watching a men's hockey game between Great Britain and Spain at the 2004 Olympic Games (news - web sites) in Athens.)

[mountaineer]

Wow, he shot a 63! We'll be watching and pulling for him.

And now, for today's news of the wacky:

A doctor who told reporters he had an affair with a man accusing Gov. James E. McGreevey of sexual harassment was arrested at his Livingston home and is scheduled to be arraigned Friday. Officers took Michael David Miller into custody about 11:30 p.m. Thursday, the Essex County Sheriff’s Office said Friday morning. Miller was reportedly charged with impersonating an FBI officer and causing false public alarm. rest of story

I can't figure out whether this is good for McGay or not, but don't really care, either.

[mountaineer]

This is pathetic - he actually had to bring in a minor league team to play catch with him. Gee, I hope he made it worth their while. I say, Teresa, do you have a few quid I might give these lads for participating in this silly photo op? Thanks, lovey.

ACTUAL CAPTION: Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry plays ball with a local baseball minor league team as he prepares to leave Manchester, New Hampshire. The White House strongly rejected accusations by Kerry that President George W. Bush had used a front group to attack his Vietnam war record(AFP/Hector Mata)

What does the second sentence have to do with the photo?

[lodwick]

ALL RIGHT!

Someone tell that woman that it's a tad early in the day for pops.

[They'reGone2000]

The Kerry Files: The Young Opportunists Handbook

A long read, but worth it. Thread.

[Timeout]

"Get Fuzzy" has really been on a roll lately...

[lodwick]

I think I've OD'ed on eff'n - this guy's gonna end up making Dukakis look Presidential.

Back to packing and Mt.Laundry...ack.

[lodwick]

Remember the book 'Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus?' Well, here's a

prime example offered by an English professor at Penn.



"Today we will experiment with a new form called the tandem story.



The process is simple. Each person will pair off with the person sitting to

his or her immediate right. One of you will then write the first paragraph

of a short story. The partner will read the first paragraph and then add

another paragraph to the story. The first person will then add a third

paragraph, and so on back and forth. Remember to re-read what has been

written each time in order to keep the story coherent. There is to be

absolutely NO talking and anything you wish to say must be written on the

paper. The story is over when both agree a conclusion has been reached."



The following was actually turned in by two of my English students:



Rebecca -last name deleted, and Gary - last name deleted.

---

STORY:



(First paragraph by Rebecca)



At first, Laurie couldn't decide which kind of tea she wanted. The

chamomile, which used to be her favorite for lazy evenings at home, now

reminded her too much of Carl, who once said, in happier times, that he

liked chamomile.

But she felt she must now, at all costs, keep her mind off Carl. His

possessiveness was suffocating, and if she thought about him too much her

asthma started acting up again. So chamomile was out of the question.

---

(Second paragraph by Gary)



Meanwhile, Advance Sergeant Carl Harris, leader of the attack squadron now

in orbit over Skylon 4, had more important things to think about than the

neuroses of an air-headed asthmatic bimbo named Laurie with whom he had

spent one sweaty night over a year ago. "A.S. Harris to Geostation 17, he

said into his transgalactic communicator. "Polar orbit established. No sign

of resistance so far..." But before he could sign off, a bluish particle

beam flashed out of nowhere and blasted a hole through his ship's cargo

bay. The jolt from the direct hit sent him flying out of his seat and

across the cockpit.

---

(Rebecca)



He bumped his head and died almost immediately but not before he felt one

last pang of regret for psychically brutalizing the one woman who had ever

had feelings for him. Soon afterwards, Earth stopped its pointless

hostilities towards the peaceful farmers of Skylon 4. "Congress Passes Law

Permanently Abolishing War and Space Travel," Laurie read in her newspaper

one morning. The news simultaneously excited her and bored her. She stared

out the window, dreaming of her youth, when the days had passed unhurriedly

and carefree, with no newspapers to read, no television to distract her

from her sense of innocent wonder at all the beautiful things around her.

"Why must one lose one^s innocence to become a woman?" she pondered

wistfully.

---

(Gary)



Little did she know, but she had less than 10 seconds to live.

Thousands of miles above the city, the Anu'udrian mothership launched the

first of its lithium fusion missiles. The dim-witted wimpy peaceniks who

pushed the Unilateral Aerospace Disarmament Treaty through the congress had

left Earth a defenseless target for the hostile alien empires who were

determined to destroy the human race. Within two hours after the passage of

the treaty the Anu'udrian ships were on course for Earth, carrying enough

firepower to pulverize the entire planet. With no one to stop them, they

swiftly initiated their diabolical plan. The lithium fusion missile entered

the atmosphere unimpeded. The President, in his top-secret Mobile submarine

headquarters on the ocean floor off the coast of Guam, felt the

inconceivably massive explosion, which vaporized poor, stupid, Laurie and

85 million other Americans. The President slammed his fist on the

conference table.

"We can't allow this! I'm going to veto that treaty! Let's blow 'em out of

the sky!"

---

(Rebecca)



This is absurd. I refuse to continue this mockery of literature. My writing

partner is a violent, chauvinistic semi-literate adolescent.

---

(Gary)



Yeah? Well, you're a self-centered tedious neurotic whose attempts at

writing are the literary equivalent of Valium. "Oh shall I have chamomile

tea? Or shall I have some other sort of F*CKING TEA??? Oh no, I'm such an

air headed bimbo who reads too many Danielle Steele novels."

---

(Rebecca)



Asshole.

---

(Gary)



Bitch.

---

(Rebecca)



Wanker.

---

(Gary)



Slut.

---

(Rebecca)



Get f*cked.

---

(Gary)



Eat sh*t.

---

(Rebecca)



F*CK YOU - YOU NEANDERTHAL!!!

---

(Gary)



Go drink some tea - whore.

---

(Teacher)



A+ - I really liked this one.

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[Hillary's Lovely Legs]

I hope I don't get banned for this, but..........


Tuesday I will be meeting with Vice President Cheney in Waterford, Michigan. I will have a private meeting and photo session with him, and the White House just confirmed that he will be acknowleging me and my campaign on stage.

It's all good. :)

[Aggie Mama]

I am grinning from ear to ear for you!

[They'reGone2000]

Enjoy the twinkle in his eye and that soothing voice! Both will give you strength for the "home stretch".