The author of J-walkblog.com threw out the suggestion on his website that if we had taken the 200 billion dollars used to free Iraq saving maybe 100,000 lives a year and instead put that money to foreign aid for starving countries; we could have saved 20 million lives a year instead. Well it certainly sounds nice on paper. But an African economist put his finger on the problem of that kind of thinking. ( hat tip little green footballs)

A Kenya-based economist begins to see the way out of Africa�s self-reinforcing tragedy: Economist Blames Aid for Africa Famine.

DAKAR, Senegal - In Niger, a desert country twice the size of Texas, most of the 11 million people live on a dollar a day. Forty percent of children are underfed, and one out of four dies before turning 5. And that�s when things are normal. Throw in a plague of locusts, and a familiar spectacle emerges: skeletal babies, distended bellies, people too famished to brush the flies from their faces.

To the aid workers charged with saving the dying, the immediate challenge is to raise relief money and get supplies to the stricken areas. They leave it to the economists and politicians to come up with a lasting remedy. One such economist is James Shikwati. He blames foreign aid.

When aid money keeps coming, all our policy-makers do is strategize on how to get more, said the Kenya-based director of the Inter Region Economic Network, an African think tank.

They forget about getting their own people working to solve these very basic problems. In Africa, we look to outsiders to solve our problems, making the victim not take responsibility to change.

JB here: If you don't understand the inherent greed and corruption of the human heart you'll always believe in the possibility of utopia. Wouldn't it be nice of 200 billion dollars American money actually provided food to the impoverished. But that NEVER HAPPENS. The rulers, dictators, kings, princes and politicians end up with the money; not the people. To give foreign aid is to simply further the corruption of the already corrupt. The poor NEVER benefit from the largesse.

I've liked Eric Clapton and his music for a couple of decades now. I don't know a darn thing about the man and I've never been to a concert but his persona always appeared to be a genial, likeable, possibly even humble guy. Now I wasn't a huge CREAM fan but the later, more mature Clapton has been very good at times.

Click on his website HERE and you'll hear a song from his latest album. It's alright. JB

Here we have, from the pen of Martin Luther (but translated into the English Americans understand) his insight on the little New Testament book of Galations. The first couple of paragraphs are really boffo!

Galatians 1:1-3
__________

VERSE 1. Paul, an apostle, (not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised him from the dead).

St. Paul wrote this epistle because, after his departure from the Galatian churches, Jewish-Christian fanatics moved in, who perverted Paul's Gospel of man's free justification by faith in Christ Jesus.

The world bears the Gospel a grudge because the Gospel condemns the religious wisdom of the world. Jealous for its own religious views, the world in turn charges the Gospel with being a subversive and licentious doctrine, offensive to God and man, a doctrine to be persecuted as the worst plague on earth.

As a result we have this paradoxical situation: The Gospel supplies the world with the salvation of Jesus Christ, peace of conscience, and every blessing. Just for that the world abhors the Gospel

JB here: Of course to many, it's not just the world that abhors the Gospel, but there are many who would be self-described Christians who also abhor this same Gospel. They would not mind burning Martin Luther at the stake either. That's what blows my mind.

The LONE Blog RANGER

The LONE Blog RANGER

Here's somebody else's thoughts on my lack of blogging fame. I claim to be casting priceless pearls before the reading swine; other family members suggest I'm confusing dung and pearls. Hmm. Luckily for me my thick wall of narcicism keeps me from actually examining the facts of my fame. JB

Read on Adrian Warnock's blog who references the Evangelical Outpost blog who references the original blog, Catez. And then I reference them.

Blogging without authority and the "anti-success" bias

Evangelical Outpost [says Adrian]pointed me to a great post by Catez who says:

"The Romans built the 1st century equivalent of a highway system throughout the Empire. It meant people could travel faster from one place to another, and therefore news, information and opinion travelled faster too. The Roman roads made it possible to travel to places that a person might previously never travel to. It became not only a faster track for merchants but an information highway and a means of cross-cultural encounters and communication. That was what I was thinking when I started my blog.......

Despite my initial floundering I enjoyed the blog - there were no walls. The highways were there and it was interesting finding the different roads. Now here's what I want to get to - no-one much read my blog for months. I didn't mind. I thought it was fun to gather together links to other bloggers and did it because I liked their blogs and wanted to share the links with others. Trust me, I was nobody. No-one emailed asking me to link them. No-one called me prominent or influential or anything like that. The joy of the lone traveller out on the highway who stops here and there to talk to small groups of other travellers - that was me.

Here's my unconfessed secret - I'm still the same. And the wall I want to push back today is the popularity myth. Recently I've seen posts in which the conclusions drawn are that if more than a certain number of people read a blog, or a blog appears in a certain position on a list of blogs, then this is a popular blog and this is not good. I've even seen comments saying that these popular bloggers are like Pharisees because they are prominent and therefore are not humble. Well it's pointless to set about trying to prove one's humility - proving one's humilty is a contradiction in terms. So let me push back that wall first. Guess what? I'm not humble enough. I'm not loving enough either. I'll go the whole hog - I'm woefully imperfect......"

JB: I confess I wish I was getting 500 reads a day on my blog. That would be nice. Of course as certain family members point out; I'm not actually writing new material, I'm posting new material from other sources. In defense, I could never provide all the insights, great writing, word-smithing and thoughts of the people who's works I post.
I post them because I think they have something to say of great interest. The fact that I post them indicates my belief that they should be read.
Within the first couple of months of starting my blog I put a counter in. But the count was so low I took it out. I couldn't bear to see the count, I was embarrassed to let anybody else see the count either. Maybe, one day, I'll put it back in.
But for now I cheerfully blog in my own -- point to the sources -- way.
" Heigh Ho and Away!" says the LONE Blog RANGER

(Hat Tip; albertmohler.com)

The Sexual Revolution -- What Really Happened?

( Writes Mohler) "Author Theodore Dalrymple, a British doctor serving in an inner-city hospital, writes of the cultural revolutions of the last decades of the twentieth century in Our Culture, What's Left of It [Ivan R. Dee, 2005]. Addressing the sexual revolution, Dalrymple offers insights worthy of careful attention:"

Revolutions are seldom spontaneous mass upheaval of the downtrodden, provoked beyond endurance by their miserable condition, and the sexual revolution was certainly no exception in this respect. The revolution had its intellectual progenitors, as shallow, personally twisted, and dishonest a parade of people as one could ever wish to encounter.

They were all utopians, lacking understanding of the realities of human nature; they all thought that sexual relations could be brought to the pitch of perfection either by diversing them of moral judgment that traditionally attached to them; all believed that human unhappiness was solely the product of laws, customs, and taboos. They were not the kind of people to take seriously Edmund Burke's lapidary warning that "it is ordained in the eternal constitution of things that men of intemperate minds cannot be free": on the contrary, just as appetites often grow with the feeding, so the demands of the revolutionaries escalated whenever the last demand was met. When the expected happiness failed to emerge, the analysis of the problem and the proposed solution were always the same: more license, less self-control. By 1994, John Money, perhaps the most influential academic sexologist of the last third of the twentieth century, was still able to write in all seriousness that we live in an anti-sexual and taboo-ridden society. Get rid of the remaining taboos, he implied, and human unhappiness will take care of itself.

Another rhetorical technique the sexual revolutionaries favor (apart from the appeal to a fantasy of limitless eroticism) has been to try to dissolve sexual boundaries. They preached that all sexual behavior is, by nature, a continuum. And they thought if they could show that sex had no natural boundaries, all legal prohibition or social restraint of it would at once be seen as arbitrary and artificial and therefore morally untenable: for only differences in nature could be legitimately recognized by legal and social taboos.

Dalrymple's central point is clear -- the prophets of the sexual revolution promised a utopia of unrepressed sexuality that would produce true human happiness. Where are they now? What they produced was not a utopia, but a dystopia of sexual anarchy.


JB: Sexual Freedom, Unlimited Power, Unlimited wealth! If I have all of that, won't I be happy and content? Short Answer: NO

Profound modern day example: Ozzie Osbourne - among many, many others

London was either lucky or God intervened to thwart more severe loss of life.

Progress in Britain

The arrest of one of the failed London bombers apparently has been a breakthrough, as nine more people were arrested earlier today, all in south London. It was also revealed that police found twelve unexploded bombs, some packed with nails, and four detonators in a car belonging to one of the terrorists who died in the July 7 attack. powerlineblog.com

From THE CORNER in nationalreview.com by Jonah Goldberg. He is soooo right!

THE OVULAR OFFICE [Jonah Goldberg]

Here's the problem with the emotional intelligence thing Warren, though I agree with you and John fully. To the extent that the Democratic Party has become the "Mommy Party" it'salready all about "emotional intelligence" and all that junk. The idea that a female liberal president would be more "feminine" than Bill Clinton is absurd, laughable, factually untrue. Bill Clinton was weepy, huggy and at all times pain-feeling. He'd wax eloquent on the glories of talk and empathy. At the end of one marathon meeting which accomplished nothing, he stretched out in his chair and said "That was great" as if he was about to light a cigarette. Feminists declared him the first female president. He talked of security not in the sense of blowing up terrorists but of leaving no children behind. Lip-biting, soul-searching, Caf� Vienna moments, let-me-say-this-about-that-Oprah femininity was the order of the day under Bill Clinton. And, sad to say, it was so successful that George W. Bush and Karl Rove copied it with their treacly "compassionate conservatism." It took 9/11 to remind George W. Bush why Republicans are called the Daddy Party.

They've always said the cleanliness is next to Godliness. According to Tammy Bruce in an article found in Frontpagemag, this may well be true. For your reading pleasure

During my time with the National Organization for Women one of the (many) things that disturbed me during national board meetings was the fact that many of the women seemed to be allergic to bathing, and especially frightened of the concept of grooming.

The simplest things reveal you are in a room full of unhappy people; many were significantly overweight, and by grooming I mean engaging in the simple act of running a brush though your hair, brushing one's teeth, visiting a dentist if need be (at least on occasion), and simply caring enough about yourself to at least attempt to appear healthy.

When I would dare to bring up the issue of appearance (as gently as one could imagine), that notion, of course, was rejected as surrendering to the male dominated view of female beauty. Hey, how about surrendering to not being repulsive? That helps every cause, whatever it may be.

Yes, I think Wizbang has the exact angle on racial profiling

Yesterday, the New York Times published an editorial on subway safety. They reluctantly endorsed searches of passengers, but with a few caveats. The main one is that the police must, at all costs, make certain no single group is singled out for special attention. The selection process for searches must be perfectly random, such as every 5th or 12th person, carefully balanced to be applied evenly to all races and sexes.

That is a good theory, but it has a weakness: the terrorists have, so far, not been evenly distributed among the races and sexes. So far two have been men of Jamaican ancestry (Richard Reid, the would-be "shoe bomber" and one of the London bombers), one accused terrorist has been Hispanic (Jose Padilla), and nearly all the rest have been Arabic men. So a random search really won't work too well.

So, how do we resolve this problem? More importantly, how do we resolve it in a way that both improves public safety and will meet with the New York Times' approval?

It's simplicity itself. We need to sue the terrorists.

The United States has very stringent anti-discrimination laws, especially in the area of employment. Any group whose membership is that racially skewed is almost certainly practicing racial and sexual discrimination. We need to haul the terrorists into court and place them under a consent decree to increase their diversity and open themselves to all would-be terrorists, regardless of age, sex, race, creed, or color. ...................

I found this prayer of A.W. Tozer (early 19th century) on albertmohler.com.

It is a remarkable prayer! Perhaps ALL preachers should pray it on a regular basis.
Maybe even people like myself; not a preacher yet spending my life engaged with the populace. JB



A. W. Tozer was one of the great Christian writers of the last century -- a man whose pen was both eloquent and courageous. Here is an excerpt from his prayer as a preacher seeking God's power and glory:

Lord Jesus, I come to Thee for spiritual preparation. Lay Thy hand upon me. Anoint me with the oil of the New Testament prophet. Forbid that I should be come a religious scribe and thus lose my prophetic calling. Save me from the curse that lies dark across the modern clergy, the curse of compromise, of imitation, of professionalism. Save me from the error of judging a church by its size, its popularity or the amount of its yearly offering. Help me to remember that I am a prophet - not a promoter, not a religious manager, but a prophet. Let me never become a slave to crowds. Heal my soul of carnal ambitions and deliver me from the itch for publicity. Save me from bondage to things. Let me not waste my days puttering around the house. Lay Thy terror upon me, O God, and drive me to the place of prayer where I may wrestle with principalities and powers and the rulers of the darkness of this world. Deliver me from overeating and late sleeping. Teach me self-discipline that I may be a good soldier of Jesus Christ.

I accept hard work and small rewards in this life. I ask for no easy place. I shall try to be blind to the little ways that could make life easier. If others seek the smoother path I shall try to take the hard way without judging them too harshly. I shall expect opposition and try to take it quietly when it comes. Or if, as sometimes it falleth out to Thy servants, I should have grateful gifts pressed upon me by Thy kindly people, stand by me then and save me from the blight that often follows. Teach me to use whatever I receive in such manner that will not injure my soul nor diminish my spiritual power. And if in Thy permissive providence honor should come to me from Thy church, let me not forget in that hour that I am unworthy of the least of Thy mercies, and that if men knew me as intimately as I know myself they would withhold their honors or bestow them upon others more worthy to receive them.

And now, O Lord of heaven and earth, I consecrate my remaining days to Thee; let them be many or few, as Thou wilt. Let me stand before the great or minister to the poor and lowly; that choice is not mine, and I would not influence it if I could. I am Thy servant to do Thy will, and that will is sweeter to me than position or riches or fame and I choose it above all things on earth or in heaven.

Though I am chosen of Thee and honored by a high and holy calling, let me never forget that I am but a man of dust and ashes, a man with all the natural faults and passions that plague the race of men. I pray Thee, therefore, my Lord and Redeemer, save me from myself and from all the injuries I may do myself while trying to be a blessing to others. Fill me with Thy power by the Holy Spirit, and I will go in Thy strength and tell of Thy righteousness, even Thine only. I will spread abroad the message of redeeming love while my normal powers endure.

Winston Churchchill on Mohammedanism (tip: Powerlineblog and Little Green Footballs)
( The words speak for themselves. JB)

Here is what Churchill said, in its entirety about the horrific battle to wrest the Sudan from the jihadists of the 19th century:

How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy. The effects are apparent in many countries. Improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live. A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and refinement; the next of its dignity and sanctity. The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property, either as a child, a wife, or a concubine, must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men. Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities - but the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science, the science against which it had vainly struggled, the civilisation of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilisation of ancient Rome.

Sir Winston Churchill, from The River War, first edition, Vol. II, pages 248-50 (London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1899).

CONGRATULATIONS LANCE ARMSTRONG: CONGRATULATIONS U.S.A.

Congrats to Lance and Team Discovery as he notched his 7th straight (and final) Tour De France victory. Before Lance's 7 in a row; the longest win streak was 5 in a row.

Tidbit: Lance is now the oldest competitor to ever win the Tour at the ripe old age of 33. (Just found out this is incorrect. Previous to WW II a 35 year old won the Tour.)

Thank You's to U.S. Postal for actually making the dominance of Lance's teams possible. To have a winning team requires money; a lot of it. While there can be serious debate whether or not the U.S. Post Office should put money into sponsoring a team in the Tour De France; they did and the results were spectacular.

Thank you Discovery Channel for picking up where U.S. Postal left off and for exhibiting a willingness to support the American Team for some years to come. We'd love to see a native son standing number one on the platform next year. I'm not sure it will happen but you never know.

Thank You George Hincapie. You poured yourself out over the last 7 years to enable Lance to win. This year you showed us what a great rider you are in your own right. You won THE TOUGHEST STAGE all on your own. May yours be a fabled name in Biking History in the years to come.

To Kris Armstrong: Kudos. We don't know the details of the marriage/divorce but we know the 3 children you had with Lance were in Paris today for their father's victory. That was important for them though the taste of Lance's victory may have been bitter for you. I assume some graciousness and generosity on your part for the children to be present. They are very young, you are their Mom and you were probably nearby.
I'll take class and grace over country-singer stardom any day! You may well have exhibited class and grace.

To OLN TV! You guys put yourself on the TV cable map with your willingness to cover from start to finish the magnificence that is the Tour De France. May you prosper and be quite financially profitable with the Tour coverage.

To the country of France! Can I blow you a big RASBERRY? Ah, how you've hated Lance and his American teams. French pride has been deeply ( but deservedly) wounded. It couldn't happen to a nicer country as far as I'm concerned. It's not JUST that you didn't recognize and support the U.S.A. as we began the battle against Islamic Terrorism. You actually attempted to use your influence to keep other country's from supporting us.
Jonah Goldberg said it so well when referring to your country; "Cheese eating surrender monkeys from Hell."
May France NEVER win another of their own race.

Jan Ullrich! You're an extraordinary rider. If there wouldn't have been Lance you might have won 5 or 6 yourself. Did you complain? NO. Were you always a man about your losses?
YES! Best to you next year Jan!

Finally, to the injured who had to drop out of the race. Our own David Zabriskie who threatened to give Lance the competition of his life but was felled by an accident. To Josef Beloki who took a terrible fall 2 years ago while in second place; your courage in coming back and being competitive until the aftermath of your injuries forced you to quit. And then the young rider (unluckily I can't remember his name) who beat Lance up the first of the mountain climbs but then had to drop out due to tendonitis. You scared us to death. It looked like you had what it takes to beat Lance. But the "Tour gods" were against you.
Manual "Triki" Beltran - Lance's teammate. Your fall was bad enough that when you got up off the asphalt you didn't even know what direction to take. But you grabbed your bike; hopped on and pedaled down the road 'til the doctors, realizing you suffered a concussion, forced you to abandon the race. You'll be back Triki!
All you soldiers; you were amazing.

To Levi Leipheimer, Floyd Landis, Bobby Julick and Chris Horner. You're ours. May one of you win the Tour next year. JB

There is a difference between Good & Evil

( I hope the more liberal element of Western society has gotten smarter but I'm not at all sure. TOLERANCE has been taken to mean that there's no difference between Good and Evil. But we know that's the way to death by the absolutely intolerant -- those adherents of Islam. Be not fooled, it is a religion that lends itself to suicide and death.)

Mark Steyn: Mugged by reality?

July 25, 2005

WITH hindsight, the defining encounter of the age was not between Mohammed Atta's jet and the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, but that between Mohammed Atta and Johnelle Bryant a year earlier. Bryant is an official with the US Department of Agriculture in Florida, and the late Atta had gone to see her about getting a $US650,000 government loan to convert a plane into the world's largest crop-duster. A novel idea.

The meeting got off to a rocky start when Atta refused to deal with Bryant because she was but a woman. But, after this unpleasantness had been smoothed out, things went swimmingly. When it was explained to him that, alas, he wouldn't get the 650 grand in cash that day, Atta threatened to cut Bryant's throat. He then pointed to a picture behind her desk showing an aerial view of downtown Washington - the White House, the Pentagon et al - and asked: "How would America like it if another country destroyed that city and some of the monuments in it?"

Fortunately, Bryant's been on the training course and knows an opportunity for multicultural outreach when she sees one. "I felt that he was trying to make the cultural leap from the country that he came from," she recalled. "I was attempting, in every manner I could, to help him make his relocation into our country as easy for him as I could."

So a few weeks later, when fellow 9/11 terrorist Marwan al-Shehhi arrived to request another half-million dollar farm subsidy and Atta showed up cunningly disguised with a pair of glasses and claiming to be another person entirely - to whit, al-Shehhi's accountant - Bryant sportingly pretended not to recognise him and went along with the wheeze. The fake specs, like the threat to slit her throat and blow up the Pentagon, were just another example of the multicultural diversity that so enriches our society.

For four years, much of the western world behaved like Bryant. Bomb us, and we agonise over the "root causes" (that is, what we did wrong). Decapitate us, and our politicians rush to the nearest mosque to declare that "Islam is a religion of peace". Issue bloodcurdling calls at Friday prayers to kill all the Jews and infidels, and we fret that it may cause a backlash against Muslims. Behead sodomites and mutilate female genitalia, and gay groups and feminist groups can't wait to march alongside you denouncing Bush, Blair and Howard. Murder a schoolful of children, and our scholars explain that to the "vast majority" of Muslims "jihad" is a harmless concept meaning "decaf latte with skimmed milk and cinnamon sprinkles".............

VOWS & COMMITTMENT

Captain Ed points to a troubling story

Sometimes And Whenever

Fox News reports this morning on a trend in weddings that not only demonstrates the slide away from commitment in our culture, but the erosion of confidence in what used to provide the apex of optimism in the confluence of private and community living. Instead of vowing to remain together "until death do us part," nuptials now include such tenuous promises as "until our time together is over":

Vows like "For as long as we continue to love each other," "For as long as our love shall last" and "Until our time together is over" are increasingly replacing the traditional to-the-grave vow; a switch that some call realistic and others call a recipe for failure.

"We're hearing that a lot; 'as long as our love shall last.' I personally think it's quite a statement on today's times; people know the odds of divorce," said New Jersey wedding expert Sharon Naylor, author of "Your Special Wedding Vows," who adds that the rephrasing is also part of a more general trend toward personalizing vows.

It's not that marriage isn't hard; it is. It's not that marriage can be perfect; it can't. It is that a vow before God and man should mean something. And this vow, not a contract, has the power to overcome differences and adversity and bring great blessings in the course of a lifetime. Making and keeping vows; the proof of wisdom and maturity. JB

There's this website that will generate a picture of a tombstone with whatever you wish to write upon it.

I consider it wise to always keep your future tombstone in view. The message on your tombstone will last a whole lot longer than who you were, what you did and how much money you made.

Mine says:
J. Brown
Not Much of a Rabbi
Not Much of a
Philosopher
Currently Chatting w/ Jesus

I thought this was cute. We can only hope it won't turn out to be true! JB

Windows Vista Defined (Found on J-walkblog.com)

Veggiedude at The Vegblog, figured out why Microsoft chose Vista as the name for the next version of Windows:

1. Viruses
2. Infections
3. Spyware
4. Trojans
5. Adware

The Era of Random Bombings

The word came yesterday that there had been a couple of bombings in a resort in Egypt. First a couple of bombs, then maybe 4 or 5; now maybe more.

Then the deaths: Everytime I check Yahoo to read the headline the number of deaths grow. First number seemed to be about 25. The most recent number 83 (now adjusted to 88). Sadly it will probably go up.

The Genie is out of the box. The carnage will continue -- perhaps worsen.

FAVORITE PREACHER?

Adrian Warnock, a British Christian psychiatrist has asked his readers to list their favorite preacher and then link to his blog.

My favorite preacher remains John McArthur of Grace Community Church is Southern California. The first time I heard him was at a high school banquet for graduates from my church. This was probably circa 1965. He was enjoyable and insightful then; nothing has changed.

I was privileged to hear him in person last year; he was visiting in Florida and spoke at a local church. A) He was great. B) He's not so young anymore.

May the Lord continue to use and bless John McArthur; a truly gifted expositor of ancient Scriptures. JB

MY ANCIENTS

So I'm trying to talk to this not so old but quite confused lady out in the smoking area. A male companion looks at my shoes and says:
"I had a pair just like that but somebody stole 1 of them. Now why in the world would they steal only 1 shoe?"
He goes on to say: "Obviously I'm looking for a 1 legged man. Otherwise he would have stolen both shoes."

I had to have a big grin at that comment.

a) In case you didn't know, there are a LOT of 1 legged people in nursing homes. DIABETES is the cause and the curse. Sooner or later a toe has to be taken off; then maybe a foot. Later on the leg is removed. There is a lot of that.

b) Theft and confusion: A lot of stuff goes missing from patient's rooms. Unluckily it's quite hard to assess the cause. Patient's memories are generally pretty faulty. So they lose things, or misplace them or give them away. Who knows for sure. Unluckily theft by the nursing aides is a MAJOR problem. Most things of value are taken sooner or later. Family members quickly learn to NOT buy nice clothes for the person in the nursing home. Also, never give them more than 5 or 10 dollars. It too will disappear - quickly.

If you like material things; don't end up in a nursing home. JB

Let me just admit this upfront. I like the Jerry Seinfeld show. There was some great writing and the characters matured into wonderful sources for insight into the human condition.

Below are some of their best interchanges: (thanks to Joe Carter of the evangelicaloutpost.com)

"I wanted to talk to you about Dr. Whatley. I have a suspicion that he's converted to Judaism purely for the jokes."
"And this offends you as a Jewish person?"
"No, it offends me as a comedian."
- Jerry and Father Curtis, in "The Yada Yada"


"You are still afraid? You are not a man."
"Well, then what are all those ties and sports jackets doing in my closet?"
- Gina and Jerry, in "The Suicide"


"I still can't believe you're going out on a blind date."
"I'm not worried. It sounds like he's really good looking."
"You're going by sound? What are we, whales?"
- Jerry and Elaine, in "The Wink"


"Wait. Those are the clothes from the bag!"
"The guy never came back."
"He asked you to watch them, not wear them."
"I'm still watching them."
- Jerry and George, in "The Muffin Tops"

"What if something happens?"
"What could happen?"
"What if it felt good?"
"It's supposed to feel good."
"I don't want it to feel good."
"Then why get the massage?"
"Exactly!"
- George, discussing a massage given by a male masseuse, with Elaine, in "The Note"

"No doctors for me. A bunch of lackeys and yes-men all towing the company line. Plus, they botched my vasectomy."
"They botched it?"
"I'm even more potent now!"
- Kramer and Jerry, in "The Andrea Doria"


"So, what you are saying is that ninety to ninety-five percent of the population is undateable?"
"Undateable!"
"Then how are all these people getting together?"
"Alcohol."
- Elaine and Jerry, in "The Wink"


"What is it about sex that just disrupts everything? Is it the touching? Is it the nudity?"
"It can't be the nudity. I never got into these terrible fights and misunderstandings when I was changing before gym class."
- George and Jerry, in "The Deal"


"All bald people look good in hats."
"You should have lived in the twenties and thirties, you know men wore hats all the time then."
"What a bald paradise that must have been. Nobody knew."
- George and Elaine, in "The Parking Spot"


"Well, behind every joke there's some truth."
"What about that Bavarian cream pie joke I told you? There's no truth to that. Nobody with a terminal illness goes from the United States to Europe for a piece of Bavarian cream pie and then when they get there and they don't have it he says, 'Ah, I'll just have some coffee.' There's no truth to that."
- Sheila and Jerry, in "The Soup Nazi"

"God would never let me be successful. He'd kill me first. He'll never let me be happy."
"I thought you didn't believe in God?"
"I do for the bad things."
- George and his therapist, in "The Pilot"

"I've been lying about my income for a few years. I figured I could afford a fake house in the Hamptons."
- George, in "The Wizard"

"What are you saying?"
"I'm not saying anything."
"You're saying something."
"What could I be saying?"
"Well, you're not saying nothing. You must be saying something."
"If I was saying something, I would've said it."
"Why don't you say it?"
"I said it."
"What'd you say?"
"Nothing."
- Jerry and Elaine, in "The Red Dot"

"It's a write-off for them."
"How is it a write-off?"
"They just write it off."
"Write it off what?"
"Jerry, all these big companies, they write off everything."
"You don't even know what a write-off is."
"Do you?"
"No, I don't."
"But they do. And they're the ones writing it off."
"I wish I had the last twenty seconds of my life back."
- Kramer and Jerry, in "The Package"