09:01 – Not all politicians are liars, or at least not all the time. Occasionally, they accidentally tell the truth. For example, here’s my favorite quote from a politician: “Typhoid fever is a terrible disease. Either you die from it or you become an idiot. And I know what I’m talking about, I had it.” (Hint: No, it wasn’t Dan Quayle, although admittedly he did accidentally tell the truth more often than most politicians. Other than perhaps our current vice president.)
I remember some advice my mother gave me when I was a little fellow, back during the 1960 presidential campaign. Never, she said, believe anything good any politician says about himself or his own party; always believe anything bad a politician says about an opponent or opposing party. Which, I think, sums things up pretty well for the ages.
It’s still summer for a few more days, but autumn weather has already arrived in Winston-Salem. Yesterday, the high was in the upper 80’s (~ 30C). Today, the high is to be in the mid-50’s (lower teens C). There’s also a stiff breeze, which makes things feel considerably colder. I just took Colin for a short walk, and it was chilly enough that I wore my hoodie.
Speaking of autumn, I remembered to grab a specimen of the Acer rubrum (red maple) leaves from one of our trees, while the leaves are still green. I’ll do paper and/or thin-layer chromatography of an alcoholic extract of these leaves, along with other leaves I gather just as the leaves begin to change color and still other leaves I gather once the colors are fully developed. The chromatograms of A. rubrum leaves should illustrate that the intense green of chlorophyll conceals the yellow/orange color of carotenoid pigments that are present in leaves throughout the year, along with the presence of red/violet anthocyanin pigments, which develop only in late summer and early autumn as the leaves begin to change.
Right now, I’m writing up a lab session about plant population surveys. I’m using the front yard of the house across the street, which has been vacant for a couple of months. Species diversity is quite high for a residential yard. Although it’s not a plant, I found this spectacular fungi yesterday.
The cap is about 10 cm in diameter. It’s Amanita sp., but, not being a mycologist, I’m not certain which species. Whatever it was, it had disappeared this morning when I took Colin for his first walk.
15:45 – Oh, my. The troika have decided to withhold the next €8 billion tranche of the Greek bailout, which means Greece can’t receive any more funding until at least next month. For Greece, the rational decision is now to declare bankruptcy–possibly as early as today–and default on all of its sovereign and bank debt, whether euro-denominated or otherwise. Even if Greece fails to declare immediately, I’d expect a serious bank run, which should have the same effect on Greece’s banks. Greece may be faced with no immediate choice but to declare bankruptcy, default on all of its debts, and begin re-issuing the drachma, which will of course be worthless outside of Greece.
All of our Border Collies have had odd personality quirks. Kerry, for example was terrified of ceiling fans and AA cells. Not C cells or 9V batteries, you understand, nor even AAA cells. Just AA cells. Now Colin is exhibiting a quirk of his own. He dislikes my laser printers. When one of them fires up to print a page, he runs over and growls at it. When I remove the paper tray to refill it, he attacks the paper tray viciously. Very strange.
Yes, but once in a while there’s a rare politician who tells the truth deliberately. For example, Ronald Reagan saying the scariest words in the English language are, “I’m from the government, and I’m here to help.”
Speaking of whom, did I mention that I almost hung up on Ronald Reagan? Seriously.
During the 1980 presidential campaign, I was working at the Washington headquarters of the Libertarian National Committee. One day the phone rang and I happened to answer. The caller asked to speak to Ed Clark (our presidential candidate). I asked, “Who may I say is calling?”, and the caller replied, “Ronald Reagan”. “Yeah, right,” I replied, “and almost added, “this is Jimmy Carter speaking.” “No, really,” he said, “this is Ronald Reagan”. He actually sounded like Reagan, so I passed him off to the campaign director, fortunately. I didn’t much care for Reagan, a sentiment I shared with the rest of the LNC, but it wouldn’t have been polite to hang up on him.
Heh. In 1980 I didn’t pay much attention to politics, being some years short of voting age. (And being focused on dropping out of high school to go to college. There were no advanced programs, APs hadn’t come to hickville, I was bored, and the control freak retard jerk scumsucking bastard principal didn’t want me to go to college early admit. So I dropped out of high school and then had to jump through hoops to get into college as an underage dropout. No time for national politics even if I weren’t a self-centered teenage jerk (redundancy alert) at the time.)
Anyway, I don’t worship at the altar of Reagan, as many do nowadays. I will say, though, that he was a much better choice than his major-party opponent. Talk about a low bar, though.
People around him always claim that Reagan professed that no society that dropped the gold standard ever survived. And they say he was committed to getting the US back on the gold standard. But the fact is that he never made any effort towards that goal, and I have yet to see a direct quote of his claiming that as one of his goals. It always comes from people who were ‘around him’.
I enjoyed Reagan as a president. He seldom made the news, and that is as it should be. I have always said that the best place for a President is the golf course. They cannot do much damage there–except to their card.
“Typhoid fever is a terrible disease. Either you die from it or you become an idiot. And I know what I’m talking about, I had it.”
Please say it’s Obama!
No, actually it’s an Irish guy who was the president of France back in about 1880. I don’t remember his name, but I’ve always remembered his quote. Apparently, he was the 1880 French version of Yogi Berra.
I always liked Reagan, even when Time magazine was deriding him as a right wing extremist in the Seventies. Some of his policies were kooky, some of the people around him were *very* scary. But him? I really liked him. How can you hate a guy who likes jelly beans?
The mind wobbles.