How The Con Works

Atop the table on the sidewalk are three cups.

The man puts a ball under the cup labeled "Iraq".
Next to it are "Iran" and "Korea".

"The first round is free!" he says. "It'll pay for itself! Trust me!"

So you say, ok, I'll play.

He moves the cups around, back and forth.
When they stop, you pick "Iraq".
OK, the ball's there.

"Ready to play?"

So you plonk down the ante.
$100 Billion dollars.
100,000 cases of PTSD
10,000 wounded.
1000 dead.

America's safety goes under a cup. He moves them around and around.

Pick the cup.

Wait! It's not there!
Try another cup?

"Sure, ante up again."
More dollars.
More PTSD
More wounded.
More dead.

Missed again! But now you see how he does it.

Ante up again.
Missed it again!
But next time, you will win for sure!

The game goes on.
It will go on as long as you care to play.

Why?

You are an honest, decent citizen.
You do not understand how cons work.
The ball is not under any of the cups.
The ball is in his hand all the time.

As long as the game continues, you keep giving him money.
Why would he want the game to stop?

Why do you want to keep playing his game?

Republican Party to Quit the GOP

Washington (AP) - Faced with a complete abandonment of traditional conservative principles and a revolt among the rank-and-file, the Republican Party announced today that it is leaving the GOP.

"We can no longer remain in an organization headed by a President who believes in large, intrusive government," said a spokesman. "The GOP has lead America into a morass of costly foreign adventures and no-knock warrants. We don't stand for that."

White House spokesman Tony Snow dismissed the statement. "George W Bush has never been a member of the Republican Party, regardless of what those liberals want you to think."

Lawrence of Arabia Said...

"Do not try to do too much with your own hands. Better the Arabs do it tolerably than that you do it perfectly.

It is THEIR war, and you are to help them, not to win it for them.

Actually, also, under the very odd conditions of Arabia, your practical work will not be so good as, perhaps, you think it is."

T.E.Lawrence, August 20, 1917

Facebook picture change

 

LOOKING BACK IN TIME: On this day, I changed my Facebook photo to this. It is a picture of myself looking through a piece of stone art - I think it's at Kubota Gardens - that I persuaded Kris to take. Obviously I moved in the stonework in the image a bit for reasons I don't recall -- REW 2023-09-09