Tag: Quotes – Redux Srcs

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Second-Hand Thinking…..

RJ Walters

A man in the country does his own thinking, but you get him into town and he soon will be thinking second-handed. – May 1, 1926  Will Rogers Second hand thinking seems so prevalent today especially in our nation’s capital. Each political persuasion has their own set of key words that must be spoken during any discussion of their ideology. Most of these words come from their party leaders or other talking heads such as Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity. They have honed their lists of words that cause the highest emotional response (especially fear) and they use those words as … Continue reading Second-Hand Thinking…..

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Being a Writer….

RJ Walters

You can’t stop a person if he gets it in his head he can write. – June 11, 1933  Will Rogers You got me pegged Will! Although I am not an “official” published author in the old sense of the word I do have it in my head that I can write. My teachers over the years, both in high school and college, told me I could write. I certainly enjoy putting the virtual pen to paper as they say. Now that I am older I have more experiences to use as sources so I think maybe I have more … Continue reading Being a Writer….

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A Mind Is a Terrible Thing To Waste…..

RJ Walters

When a fellow don’t have much mind it don’t take him long to make it up. – November 3, 1935  Will Rogers As Will mentions here it doesn’t seem like many today have much mind and what they have is most often closed. They are fixated on one tunnel vision world view and absolutely nothing will shake them from that view. They have made up their minds long ago that their view of the world is the only valid one. It is almost like that guy about one hundred years ago that tried to shut down the U.S. patent office … Continue reading A Mind Is a Terrible Thing To Waste…..

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No Good Horse Traders…..

RJ Walters

All there is to politics is trading. That’s why politics is not as good as it was years ago. They don’t have as many old-time horse traders in there. These we got are just amateurs. They’re crude with their trades. There is really no “finesse.” You might not get that. “Finesse” is a French word and it means sneaking it over. — Will Rogers Maybe Will, as usual is on to something here. Maybe our problems with politics today is that all the current office holders are just amateurs at horse trading.  An alternative way I might mention on this … Continue reading No Good Horse Traders…..

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History Is…..

RJ Walters

History ain’t what it is. It’s what some writer wanted it to be.  – Will Rogers Oh Will you sage!! How did so many wise things come from your lips?  Another way of saying this is that “history belongs to the victor. Will Rogers, like me to a lessor degree, was part native American. He grew up in Oklahoma which was where most of the native American tribes ended up by the early 1900s. So, I’m sure Will had his ancestry in mind when the wrote these words. We native Americans have always been portrayed as those filthy savages in most of … Continue reading History Is…..

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If You Can’t Be Good….

RJ Walters

If you can’t be good, be different. – April 29, 1928  Will Rogers Can any of us really be good for any extended period of time? I don’t think so. So, that leaves just one alternative; being different.  All of us at times want to stand out from the crowd.  None of us want to be vanilla flavored.  Teenagers in particular go to extremes to be “different”. So much so that they end up looking and acting like all their classmates. That is the ‘catch 22’ of trying to be different when you really aren’t.  If everyone wants to be … Continue reading If You Can’t Be Good….

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Cleaner Minds….

RJ Walters

What we need is cleaner minds and dirtier fingernails. – February 28, 1928  Will Rogers This quote came to mind recently while I was reading an article on the USA Today website. As usual the comments at the end of the article were 95% dissing either the author of the article, the content, or other commentors.  I seldom wander below the bottom of most articles for this reason but for this one I was inclined to put a comment there. It would have been a constructive criticism. But after a quick review of what was already there I decided my … Continue reading Cleaner Minds….

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Daring ’em to Make Good…

RJ Walters

We elect our Presidents, be they Republican or Democrat, then go home and start daring ’em to make good. – April 1, 1935  Will Rogers Sometimes I can really get down to that deep thinking. I mean the pure foundational stuff.  I think what Will said above is foundational stuff for a democracy. We elect our presidents and all the other people’s representative and then go home and dare them to get it right!  This worked pretty well for the first two centuries of our existence. There were a few duds during that period but generally the people we elected … Continue reading Daring ’em to Make Good…

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Its Got To Come From Somewhere….

RJ Walters

  The difference between the rich and the poor grows greater every year. Our distribution of wealth is getting more uneven all the time. A man can make a million and he is on every page in the morning. But it never tells who gave up that million he got. You can’t get money without taking it from someone.  – 1933 Will Rogers This is one of the most provocative quotes I have in my collection from Will Rogers. Given the statistics that show in the last ten years that the wealth of the 1%ers has more than doubled while … Continue reading Its Got To Come From Somewhere….

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Make Getting Married as Expensive as Divorce….

RJ Walters

I maintain that it should cost as much to get married as it does to get divorced. Make it look like marriage is worth as much as divorce, even if it ain’t. That would also make the preachers financially independent like it has the lawyers. – May 15, 1928  Will Rogers In Will’s day divorce was almost unheard of but that doesn’t mean that it didn’t happen :)  Today the majority of marriages end that way.  Our current solution to this problem seems to be not to even bother getting married!  That solution isn’t making either preachers or lawyers financially independent. I … Continue reading Make Getting Married as Expensive as Divorce….

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Paying the Fiddler…

RJ Walters

This would be a great world to dance in if we didn’t have to pay the fiddler. – June 27, 1930  Will Rogers I haven’t heard the phrase “Its time to pay the fiddler” in years. When I looked it up on Wikipedia it was shown to be a country music song sung by Ernest Tubb among others. It goes something like this: Well it’s time to pay the fiddler And it’s sad to know we’ve danced it all away But the warm night’s disappearing Leaving nothing but the cold hard light of day Since “paying the fiddler” is in … Continue reading Paying the Fiddler…

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Stopping wars….

RJ Walters

I have a scheme for stopping war. It’s this – no nation is allowed to enter a war till they have paid for the last one. Will Rogers This goes in line with a previous post about paying for wars. We seem to always be ready to point out other countries problems to them and part of our solution is to teach them how to do it right. Bullets seem to be our most frequent teaching aid. It is widely acknowledged that we have spent over $1 trillion on our latest wars.  The way Mr. Bush funded them was to … Continue reading Stopping wars….

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All I Know…Less Taxes, Less Regulation….

RJ Walters

Less taxes and less regulation is the constant mantra that Republican party sees as a way to bring down the unemployment rates in this country. Everything else to them is seems to be utter nonsense. But let’s look at the facts around these two issues. Less Taxes — Taxes are currently the lowest they have been in 36 years, especially for the top 10% of income levels.  Most of this reduction came about almost eight years ago and yet there has been no significant blip on the employment levels in this country. Less Regulation – I don’t think anyone would … Continue reading All I Know…Less Taxes, Less Regulation….