Socrates Teaches about Gossip

In ancient Greece, Socrates was widely lauded for his wisdom.


One day an acquaintance ran up to him excitedly and said, "Socrates, do you know what I just heard about Diogenes?"

"Wait a moment," Socrates replied, "Before you tell me I'd like you to pass a little test. It's called the Triple Filter Test."

'Triple filter?" asked the acquaintance.

"That's right," Socrates continued, "Before you talk to me about Diogenes let's take a moment to filter what you're going to say. The first filter is Truth. Are you absolutely sure that what you are about to tell me is true?"

"No," the man said, "Actually I just heard about it."

"All right," said Socrates, "So you don't really know if it's true or not. Now let's try the second filter, the filter of Goodness. Is what you are about to tell me about Diogenes something good?"

"No, on the contrary..."

"So," Socrates continued, "You want to tell me something about Diogenes that may be bad, even though you're not certain it's true?"

The man shrugged, a little embarrassed. Socrates continued, "You may still pass the test though, because there is a third filter, the filter of Usefulness. Is what you want to tell me about Diogenes going to be useful to me?"

"No, not really."

"Well," concluded Socrates, "If what you want to tell me is neither True nor Good nor even Useful, why tell it to me or anyone at all?"

The man was bewildered and ashamed. This is an example of why Socrates was a great philosopher and held in such high esteem.




It also explains why Socrates never found out that Diogenes was banging his wife.

Dec 25

Be Safe during the Holidays

Very graphic but very powerful Aussie Ad campaign. Please be safe this holiday season.



http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=Z2mf8DtWWd8






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For Beth

Bennett

Not appropriate in the slightest, but hilarious:

http://textsfrombennett.tumblr.com/




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Flash Mobs

I love Flash Mobs... I've never been part of one and I've never seen one in real life... but i LOVE the idea of Flash Mobs... assuming, of course, that they are not disruptive...

So I had to share this one for the Christmas season :)

http://www.carlsonschool.umn.edu/holiday11/






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Sewer backup

This is an interesting outlook...




This rather brilliantly cuts thru all the political doublespeak we get...........


. U.S. Tax revenue: $2,170,000,000,000


. Fed budget: $3,820,000,000,000

. New debt: $ 1,650,000,000,000


. National debt: $14,271,000,000,000


. Recent budget cuts: $ 38,500,000,000


*Let's now remove 8 zeros and pretend it's a household budget:

. Annual family income: $21,700

. Money the family spent: $38,200

. New debt on the credit card: $16,500

. Outstanding balance on the credit card: $142,710

. Total budget cuts: $385



Got It ?????****






*OK now Lesson # 2:


Here's another way to look at the Debt Ceiling:


Let's say, You come home from work and find there has been a sewer backup in your neighborhood....your home has sewage all the way up to your ceilings.


What do you think you should do?

Raise the ceilings, or pump out the muck?

Your choice is coming Nov. 2012

Natural born citizen

During times of arguing and debate, we still need a little humor sprinkled around...
Here's some of that humor for you I received in an email:

You, who worry about democrats versus republicans -- relax, here is our real problem.

In a Purdue University classroom, they were discussing the qualifications to be President of the United States. It was pretty simple. The candidate must be a natural born citizen of at least 35 years of age.

However, one girl in the class immediately started in on how unfair was the requirement to be a natural born citizen. In short, her opinion was that this requirement prevented many capable individuals from becoming president. The class was taking it in and letting her rant, and not many jaws hit the floor when she wrapped up her argument by stating ,
"What makes a natural born citizen any more qualified to lead this country than one born by C-section?"

Yep, these are the 18-year-olds that are now voting in our elections! They walk among US. Lord -- we need more help than we thought we did!

Situational Assessment

My uncle sent this to me...

Situational assessment.............

The producers of this beer commercial borrowed a small 150 seat cinema playing a popular film, and filled 148 of its seats with rough-looking, tattooed bikers, leaving only two free seats in the middle of the theater. They then allowed theater management to sell tickets for the last pair of tickets to several young couples.

What would you do?

Watch till the end ..... http://www.theinspiration.com/2011/09/carlsberg-stunt-in-cinema/





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Tattoos

Some of these made me giggle...