"God gives money to the rich . . .

"Because if they didn't have it, they would starve." -- Barbara Kingsolver, "The Lacuna"

It's a great novel, full of little zingers like that.

Bullseye pads for dogs -- Hilarious ad!

Not as elegant as Ike's warning about the MIC, but here goes:

"Here's a secret Intel bulletin for y'all who've never left Yoknapatawapha County and imagine the United States is constantly on the precipice of enemy invasion -- the only way this country is ever going to surrender its liberty to a foreign power is if it keeps electing corrupt officials who auction it away to multinational corporations and overseas government interests in exactly the fashion that southern star chambers have been doing to their own people throughout their entire dyspeptic history." -- Chuck Thompson, "Better Off Without 'Em"

Dear RWers who think kicking people off unemployment is a great idea for some reason:

Even the dreaded Muhammad puts you to shame:

"He is not a perfect Muslim who eats his fill and lets his neighbor go hungry." -- Muhammad

Don't you think Jesus would agree?

The Wise Woman's Stone

A wise woman who was traveling in the mountains found a precious stone in a stream. The next day she met a fellow traveler who was hungry, and the wise woman opened her bag to share her food. The hungry traveler saw the stone and asked the woman to give it to him. She did so without hesitation.

The traveler left, rejoicing in his good fortune. He knew the stone was worth enough to give him security for a lifetime. But a few days later, he came back to return the stone to the wise woman.

"I've been thinking," he said. "I know how valuable the stone is, but I give it back in the hope that you can give me something even more precious. Give me what you have within you that enabled you to give me the stone."

-- Indian parable

Chumlee ninja!

Chumlee from "Pawn Stars" got busted (via security camera) for breaking stuff in their warehouse because he was goofing off. Rick put the resulting tape on youtube.

A little screed on Christmas by a certain character in a certain Christmas tale:

"There are many things from which I might have derived good, by which I have not profited, I dare say . . . But I am sure I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come around -- apart from the veneration due its sacred name and origin, if anything belonging to it can be apart from that -- as a good time: a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time: the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely and to think of people below them as if the really were fellow-passengers to the grave and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys. And therefore, uncle, though it has never put a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket, I believe it has done me good, and will do me good; and I say, God bless it!"

-- Scrooge's nephew

AL man again avoids prison for series of rapes.

As one commenter put it, "Welcome to the United States of India."

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/12/23/alabama-man-rape-prison/4180963/

Older DUers: Remember those great department store window displays at Christmas?

Back then, there were actually department stores in downtown areas. We used to go to Columbus OH to see them.

About that hardshell baptist preacher in "Matewan":

While he was ranting about "beezelbub," and "socialist, Bolshevik, union man!" Did anyone else wonder how much the coal operators had paid him to do that? Considering how the companies apparently owned the state for all practical purposes, maybe they really did that. They did bribe law enforcement and politicians with impunity, it seems.