Dance like nobody’s watching; love like you’ve never been hurt. Sing like nobody’s listening; live like it’s heaven on earth.
~~ Mark Twain ~~ (1835 - 1910)
That will be the way to live a happy life! Most of us are always too conscious of what we say or do as we are looking for approval from others about everything we say or do. And we concentrate so much on our problems, disappointments and failures that we usually ignore the moments of happiness that come by.
Considering that each of us is here on earth for a very short period of time (most of us live less than 100 years which is negligible compared to earth which has been around for billions of years), we should heed Mark Twain’s advice; keep our spirits uplifted in spite of disappointments and failures we may encounter and enjoy the ride of life with all its ups and downs. After all, it’s only a short ride! :-)
How did Bush go from being an alcoholic bum to the most powerful figure in the world?
~~ Oliver Stone ~~
Oliver Stone is making a movie to attempt to answer the above question.
I don’t think it’s that difficult to figure this out. Here are the main reasons:
- Possession of tons of money. Money is by far the best ‘friend’ anybody could have to achieve anything in this world. It’s the root without which a tree can not grow. In this case it’s not a tree but a bush! LOL
- Powerful connections. If you got the dough, establishing powerful connections is a cinch. In Bush’s case it was even easier because his father was an ex-president. Not surprisingly, many people in his administration were the same who held positions in his father’s administration as well! Sort of all in the family affair. :-)
- Very friendly judiciary with right wingers in majority, mostly appointed by his father!
- Voter apathy. A lot of voters think, and rightly so, that one politician is just as bad as the other, and don’t bother to go out and vote.
With all these factors in his favor, it is not a surprise that this alcoholic bum went on to become the most powerful figure in the world. Politics is, indeed, a funny business!
It’s not true that I had nothing on. I had the radio on.
~~ Marilyn Monroe ~~ (1926 - 1962)
Good answer by Marilyn to her detractors! They were obviously being untruthful in accusing that she had nothing on while she had the radio on! LOL
Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.
~~ Winston Churchill ~~ (1874 - 1965)
It’s true; life is a sum total of successes and failures. After one or two or even some successes, the life does not stop; it keeps on going. Same applies to failures. The only difference is that it’s a bit easier to carry on after success than it is after a failure.
Failures act as valuable lessons and experience for those who have the courage not to give up and continue their pursuit. They analyze the causes of the failure so as not to repeat the same mistakes again. Success and failure go hand in hand; almost every successful person fails a few times and some fail several times before they finally succeed. So one must always keep the courage to keep on going forward and expect that successes and failures will be encountered along the way.
Money is only loaned to a man. He comes into the world with nothing and he leaves with nothing.
~~ William Crapo Durant ~~
Not exactly true. While it’s true that one comes into the world with nothing and leaves with nothing, the money is only loaned to you if you are born to rich parents, marry a rich person or win a lottery! Since you don’t have much choice in who you are born to, you may want to try your hand at the other two options. LOL. If nothing works for you, then you just have to go out and grab some money to survive.
As would be expected, some are able to grab more money than others. Some even manage to create money (wealth) through their ingenuity and hard work. Some grab it through tricks and treachery. And most of us work our butts off and live from pay cheque to pay cheque. And when it comes time to leave this earth, we wonder: where did the time go? :-)
I think it’s a good thing that we can’t take our money with us (actually I think we don’t go anywhere, it’s just dust to dust but that is a different topic). There is so much turmoil in the world over money in spite of the fact that we can’t take it with us; can you imagine what a hell hole this world would be if we could actually take our money with us?
The invasion of Iraq in 2003 was a tragedy - for Iraq, for the U.S., for the UN, for truth and human dignity.
~~ Hans Blix ~~
Hans Blix, the former United Nations chief weapons inspector, wrote the above quote in his opinion piece for The Guardian. As you may remember, he asked many times that the UN inspections be given a chance to establish if WMD (Weapons of Mass Destruction) exist before any military action is taken but was repeatedly over-ruled by the Bush administration.
The war was certainly a tragedy for Iraq and U.S., and still continues to be so with no end in sight. But it was a godsend for ‘private’ security firms, re-construction firms and the like who made a fortune and still continue to make millions. I’m sure ‘they’ don’t consider war to be such a bad thing. They probably wish there were more wars so that they could get some extra business!
In my view, so far as the prevention of wars is concerned, UN is pretty much a useless body; it has no teeth, its decisions are made based on politics rather than facts and the decisions are usually ignored. Or even worse, its decisions are used as a pretext to start a war.
So?
~~ Dick Cheney ~~
This was U.S. Vice-President Dick Cheney’s response when Martha Raddatz, ABC’s White House correspondent, told him about a poll showing that most Americans do not believe the Iraq war was worth fighting.
It’s not a surprise considering that Mr. Cheney and his colleagues in this U.S. administration don’t really care much about what Americans think or say about their actions. They justify their actions by saying that an administration can’t govern by following public opinion. And, to an extent they are right; once the Americans elect their president then that president and his administration are free to pursue any policies they deem fit and are not bound by the public opinion.
However, what the elected president and his administration can’t do and shouldn’t do is blatantly mislead the public, disregard the constitution and break every law in the book. And this administration has done all of this; so much so that practically nobody believes them anymore and American credibility in the world has suffered a lot.
While everybody in the world feels that invading Iraq was a terrible mistake or mis-calculation, this administration keeps on insisting that invading Irag was the right thing to do! And the ‘So?’ answer of Mr. Cheney shows that they don’t give a damn that hundreds of thousands of people (American and Iraqi) have been killed or maimed in this foolish adventure.
What a shame!
