Wednesday, March 16, 2011

I Love Cool Cal

 Cool Cal was such a great President. He is lost in history I think because liberal historians judge Presidential greatness on their excesses in the office. Calvin Coolidge took limited government and the Constitution seriously, and our nation experienced great success under his leadership. Coolidge stepped in as President in 1923 after the death of President Warren Harding and led the charge to roll back the excesses of the government perpetrated by the Woodrow Wilson administration. Cool Cal was not one to interject his nose into things that were not his Constitutional business. During his time our nation probably advanced more rapidly than most any time in history. The number of new patents given out in the 1920's was staggering. The breakthroughs in technology and medicine were phenomenal. Our current President has much in common with Woodrow Wilson--an uppity person that had disregard for the Constitution. I hope our next President and the Congress have much in common with Calvin Coolidge. The more I know about Coolidge the more he is becoming my favorite President.



A selection from Calvin Coolidge's Inaugural Address, March 4, 1925

The past and present show faith and hope and courage fully justified. Here stands our country, an example of tranquillity at home, a patron of tranquillity abroad. Here stands its Government, aware of its might but obedient to its conscience. Here it will continue to stand, seeking peace and prosperity, solicitous for the welfare of the wage earner, promoting enterprise, developing waterways and natural resources, attentive to the intuitive counsel of womanhood, encouraging education, desiring the advancement of religion, supporting the cause of justice and honor among the nations. America seeks no earthly empire built on blood and force. No ambition, no temptation, lures her to thought of foreign dominions. The legions which she sends forth are armed, not with the sword, but with the cross. The higher state to which she seeks the allegiance of all mankind is not of human, but of divine origin. She cherishes no purpose save to merit the favor of Almighty God.

The following are and assortment of Calvin Coolidge quotes.

The foundations of our society and our government rest so much on the teaching of the Bible that it would be difficult to support them if faith in these teachings would cease in our country.

Any man who does not like dogs and want them about does not deserve to be in the White House.

Collecting more taxes than is absolutely necessary is legalized robbery.

We do not need more intellectual power, we need more spiritual power. We do not need more of the things that are seen, we need more of the things that are unseen.
 
After all, the chief business of the American people is business. They are profoundly concerned with producing, buying, selling, investing and prospering in the world.
 
We need more of the Office Desk and less of the Show Window in politics. Let men in office substitute the
midnight oil for the limelight.

The business of America is business.

All growth depends upon activity. There is no development physically or intellectually without effort, and effort means work.

Those who trust to chance must abide by the results of chance.

Ultimately property rights and personal rights are the same thing.
 
Christmas is not a time nor a season, but a state of mind. To cherish peace and goodwill, to be plenteous in mercy, is to have the real spirit of Christmas.

Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb.

It takes a great man to be a good listener.
 
Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers. It may not be difficult to store up in the mind a vast quantity of face within a comparatively short time, but the ability to form judgments requires the severe discipline of hard work and the tempering heat of experience and maturity.

It is only when men begin to worship that they begin to grow.

Civilization and profit go hand in hand.

One with the law is a majority.
 
Don't expect to build up the weak by pulling down the strong.
 
Never go out to meet trouble. If you just sit still, nine cases out of ten, someone will intercept it before it reaches you.

Duty is not collective; it is personal.
 
Economy is the method by which we prepare today to afford the improvements of tomorrow.

Four-fifths of all our troubles would disappear, if we would only sit down and keep still.
 
Heroism is not only in the man, but in the occasion.
 
I have found it advisable not to give too much heed to what people say when I am trying to accomplish something of consequence. Invariably they proclaim it can't be done. I deem that the very best time to make the effort.
 
I have never been hurt by what I have not said.
 
I have noticed that nothing I never said ever did me any harm.
 
I sometimes wish that people would put a little more emphasis upon the observance of the law than they do upon its enforcement.
 
If I had permitted my failures, or what seemed to me at the time a lack of success, to discourage me I cannot see any way in which I would ever have made progress.
 
If you don't say anything, you won't be called on to repeat it.
 
If you see ten troubles coming down the road, you can be sure that nine will run into the ditch before they reach you.
 
In the discharge of the duties of this office, there is one rule of action more important than all others. It consists in never doing anything that someone else can do for you.
 
Industry, thrift and self-control are not sought because they create wealth, but because they create character.
 
Little progress can be made by merely attempting to repress what is evil. Our great hope lies in developing what is good.
 
Mass demand has been created almost entirely through the development of advertising.
 
Men speak of natural rights, but I challenge any one to show where in nature any rights existed or were recognized until there was established for their declaration and protection a duly promulgated body of corresponding laws.
 
No enterprise can exist for itself alone. It ministers to some great need, it performs some great service, not for itself, but for others; or failing therein, it ceases to be profitable and ceases to exist.
 
No man ever listened himself out of a job.
 
No nation ever had an army large enough to guarantee it against attack in time of peace, or ensure it of victory in time of war.
 
No person was ever honored for what he received. Honor has been the reward for what he gave.
 
Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb.
 
Patriotism is easy to understand in
America. It means looking out for yourself by looking out for your country.
 
Perhaps one of the most important accomplishments of my administration has been minding my own business.
 
Prosperity is only an instrument to be used, not a deity to be worshipped.

The government of the
United States is a device for maintaining in perpetuity the rights of the people, with the ultimate extinction of all privileged classes.
 
The man who builds a factory builds a temple, that the man who works there worships there, and to each is due, not scorn and blame, but reverence and praise.

The nation which forgets its defenders will be itself forgotten.
 
The right thing to do never requires any subterfuge, it is always simple and direct.
 
There is no dignity quite so impressive, and no one independence quite so important, as living within your means.
 
There is no force so democratic as the force of an ideal.
 
They criticize me for harping on the obvious; if all the folks in the
United States would do the few simple things they know they ought to do, most of our big problems would take care of themselves.
 
To live under the American Constitution is the greatest political privilege that was ever accorded to the human race.
 
We cannot do everything at once, but we can do something at once.
We draw our Presidents from the people. It is a wholesome thing for them to return to the people. I came from them. I wish to be one of them again.
 
When a great many people are unable to find work, unemployment results.
 
When large numbers of men are unable to find work, unemployment results.
 
When more and more people are thrown out of work, unemployment results.
 
When people are bewildered they tend to become credulous.
 
You can't know too much, but you can say too much.
 
You know, I have found out in the course of a long public life that the things I did not say never hurt me.

Reverse Thinking

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Prince at Ten -- Happy Birthday Princie Poo

My boy Prince is 10 years old today. He is my buddy--had him since 2005 when he was almost 4. He's a maltipoo.