Breaking News: Trump shot

[Isaac]

You'd be like Bif.

to be totally honest, generosity is ..like...the only, singular virtue I think I was actually born with. a gift if you will.
if I won the lottery I would probably give away half of it and invest the rest in such a way that profits got given away essentially too.
beyond that, God can't trust me with much. As soon as things start going really well, I often drift away from Him and require a bit of pain to come back.

 

[Thales750]

to be totally honest, generosity is ..like...the only, singular virtue I think I was actually born with. a gift if you will.
if I won the lottery I would probably give away half of it and invest the rest in such a way that profits got given away essentially too.
beyond that, God can't trust me with much. As soon as things start going really well, I often drift away from Him and require a bit of pain to come back.

You know I was making a joke, right?
Generosity is a good one.

Gratefulness, and forgiveness, are the gifts I practice the most. But i think I'm working on kindness next. I've been giving it some thought lately.

For a thousand years or so, it has been my belief that honor is false, unless it can be tested in a way that requires personal sacrifice. And, when you think about it, kindness has a similar aspect. Being kind when everything is going well, is not really a challenge. It's when we are down-trodden, and our ability to be thankful is under assault, that we still have an opportunity to be kind to those around us.

Now that would be something.

 

[Isaac]

You know I was making a joke, right?
Generosity is a good one.

Gratefulness, and forgiveness, are the gifts I practice the most. But i think I'm working on kindness next. I've been giving it some thought lately.

For a thousand years or so, it has been my belief that honor is false, unless it can be tested in a way that requires personal sacrifice. And, when you think about it, kindness has a similar aspect. Being kind when everything is going well, is not really a challenge. It's when we are down-trodden, and our ability to be thankful is under assault, that we still have an opportunity to be kind to those around us.

Now that would be something.

So true. Yes, I knew you were making a joke, I just suddenly waxed serious for some reason.
Kindness when you are not flying high and on top of the world is tough. I like the Catholics emphasis on being 'charitable' to people despite the circumstances, yes, that would indeed be something.

Gratefulness is another excellent one, and necessary to get "out of" a lot of bad situations in life. Works like ivermectin or bleach - just pour it on anything!

 

[Pat Hartman]

3%

Is a huge drop for a couple of days. Actually the IRAs were hit less since they have less exposure to the volatile stocks on the NASDAQ. It was my grandchildren's account which is very high risk because it looks for long term growth that took the biggest hit and my private funds which still look for growth although I changed the mix to more fixed income and less common stocks last year so it could have been worse I have professional management and they do a pretty good job. Far better than I could do because I don't have the time or inclination to do the necessary research to actually win in the game of the stock market. They earn their fee and year over year, I'm still up a lot.

 

[Pat Hartman]

to be totally honest, generosity is ..like...the only, singular virtue I think I was actually born with. a gift if you will.
if I won the lottery I would probably give away half of it and invest the rest in such a way that profits got given away essentially too.
beyond that, God can't trust me with much. As soon as things start going really well, I often drift away from Him and require a bit of pain to come back

It is an excellent virtue and I admire it. I give time and money to various charities. I also spend a lot of time helping people in the Access forums which is more than we can say about many of the people in this thread. I also provide a cushion for my brother living on minimal SS as well as a lifelong friend who has fallen on hard times. So, even though I live on a fixed income, a fair chunk of it goes to others less fortunate. It is because I have a cushion that I can do this and also help my brother and my friend occasionally.

It is only the government that is not charitable. It is just not their money to give. I know it is hard for you to get your head around that. It is hard for others too which is why the government gets away with it. It is sometimes hard for me. They have convinced most people that their theft is somehow charity and we are evil if we don't agree. That is how Socialism grows and grows and we don't have the will to stop it because no one likes being called names. Well, someone has to mention that the Emperor has no clothes. Looks like it's me. The problem though is huge. How do you unwind the federal mess of welfare and somehow privatize it? Some of it is necessary and maybe some should stay with the Feds. You can't just dump these people who are dependent so you have to have a plan to do it gradually. But first, there must be a will to make this happen. And that will will never evolve unless people actually understand that federal programs are not charity because they are distributing YOUR money since they have none of their own.

I still remember the jaws dropping. I was in a meeting of department managers who were working on defining for me at a high level how they wanted to handle certain types of assets. The company was unusual in that the physical property (buildings and land) belonged to the Army and so did some of the office equipment and manufacturing machinery but my employer was a private company. So, we're building an asset management system. Some of the assets are actually ours but some belong to the Army. At some point, one of the managers said "we don't have to worry about that. That's government money." Much to my own surprise, out of my mouth came "but that's my money". After they closed their mouths, they agreed that we did need to handle "the government property" as well as we did our own.

My husband and I used to figure out how we would split our big lottery win whenever we bought a lottery ticket for a big jackpot. It was fun.

 

[Isaac]

yeah the government's functions should be limited, charity should come from the people on a volunteer basis.

this all goes back to changing things in society. in past years, most people were connected to a Church of some kind at least. They could go there for help when needed. Now people are more disconnected, floating in the wind with whatever doctrine of thought is on tiktok or instagram or what a politician says - and they then start to see the Gub'mint as being their savior. Of course like you said, it's essentially stealing from others.

Don't get me wrong - every church I've belonged to in the past 25 years has been EXTREMELY generous, giving away tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars doing good deeds per year to help people.
Still, as the unchurched population grows, there goes a major solution we used to have in the USA.

Sad really. Get back to lifetime marriages, families with Mom and Dad both present, throw in some basic moral values and BOOM--you'd have the same generally happy, healthy, stable, educated, and extremely successful people that you see in, Hmm, I dunno - any major Mormon community? Since they're still doin' the deal.

Gilbert AZ has made headlines around the nation for its rise in prominence as a best suburb to live in. The reason is pretty simple - good governance. It's 75% mormon. They never seem to lack for anything, families are together, kids are confident and purposeful, everyone's educated, making money, staying out of trouble. I'm not Mormon but it doesn't take a rocket scientist to put all this together..

 

[Pat Hartman]

Charity in the past frequently came from an affinity group. The church was only one group. All of the major immigrant population groups had their national group and those groups would do a lot to help newcomers integrate into society. Those groups don't seem to have the same importance that they used to and that is probably because the source of the immigrants has changed but the new immigrants don't have the same charitable ethic that earlier groups had and so they don't form new groups to help their fellow countrymen assimilate. We have a lot fewer Italians, Germans, and Irish immigrating each year now than we did a hundred years ago when there was no welfare system. All they had were friends and relatives who preceded them, their church and their country's affinity group.

Today, legal immigrants are pretty much on their own and are only allowed to immigrate if they are not going to be a burden on society. But illegal immigrants are somehow allowed to suck at the teat of our welfare system. What is wrong with that picture and why are the legal immigrants not totally p***** off about the whole totally unfair situation?

 

[Uncle Gizmo]

Breaking News - Biden Shot....











It happened three weeks ago and they've only just noticed

 

[AccessBlaster]

 

[Mike Krailo]

View attachment 115219

That is a very good observation.

 

[Steve R.]

View attachment 115219

And along those lines, Fox pundits noted that those supporting Trump. after he was shot, did not go out to burn down neighborhoods, loot, and kill people.

 

[AccessBlaster]

 

[conception_native_0123]

what is that image supposed to mean AB?

 

[The_Doc_Man]

Adam, in case you didn't recognize him, post #112 is Hulk Hogan, a frequently over-the-top, blustering, loud-mouthed cham-peen-ship wrassler (you have to say it country/red-neck style) who apparently supports Trump and Vance.

Let's see.... over-the-top? Check. Blustering? Check? Loud-mouthed? Check. Perfect match to the public image of DJT.

EDITED BY The_Doc_Man: My cheap keyboard's letter M is giving me trouble. Sorry 'bout getting your name wrong, Adam.

 

[AccessBlaster]

Ada, in case you didn't recognize him, post #112 is Hulk Hogan, a frequently over-the-top, blustering, loud-mouthed cham-peen-ship wrassler (you have to say it country/red-neck style) who apparently supports Trump and Vance.

Let's see.... over-the-top? Check. Blustering? Check? Loud-mouthed? Check. Perfect match to the public image of DJT.

Yeah, he's no George Clooney, or the rest of the Dems waiting to stab their dear friend in the back, just because he had "ONE" bad night at the debate.

 

[Mike Krailo]

Perfect match to the public image of DJT.

Not after that speech he just gave. Other networks are so worried about positive comments, so they turned off the comments on the video. We cannot have anyone liking trump.

 

[AccessBlaster]

That was the first convention I watched (mostly) from start to finish. I used CNN as my translator for all things Trump, I wasn't disappointed. Looking forward to the DNC version.

 

[Isaac]

why are the legal immigrants not totally p***** off about the whole totally unfair situation?

I think they ARE - and that's why you have Latino vote continually increasing for Trump, despite his strong immigration positions

 

[conception_native_0123]

Vance

didn't know who he was until I just looked him up. 39 years old eh? WOW. quite a contrast to trump's 78!

 

[Isaac]

I read a scathing article from MSNBC about his book, Hilbily Elegy, which then made me really want to read the book (knowing then that it was good) so just ordered from Amazon for $7