Blog 3984 – 10.21.2026

Putting Words In Famous People’s Mouths

Today’s picture quote is another of those great quotes wrongly attributed to a famous person to give it more credence. I used one of these recently and even spelled out in the blog that is was falsely attributed and had someone comment that I should check my facts and I wanted to reply that they should read the whole piece before commenting, but I did not. I do read the comments, yet seldom reply to them whether they agree or disagree.

Putting words in other peoples mouths besides being unsanitary is disingenuous. Our thoughts, ideas, and opinions should be well thought out and sound enough to stand on the own two feet without our claiming Einstein, Moses, or Jesus actually uttered them first.

I happen to believe that public elective office was never envisioned by the Founders of our great nation as a career opportunity. I think that they, to a man, intended such public service to be temporary and voluntary to promote general welfare. I recently used a picture quote in a blog that had President Harry Truman saying, “Show me a man who gets rich by being a  politician and I’ll show you a crook.” I checked that one out and Harry really said that.

We have too many crooks in politics who have feathered their own nests at the expense of the public. Lobbies, corporations , billionaire donors, and one trillionaire in particular (There is only one trillionaire so far and much of that wealth came from government contracts, go figure) have made sure that we have the best government that money can by.

All of my life I have heard politicians talk about term limits and promise to only serve one or two terms and then go back on those promises and run again and again and again. 

Early voting has already begun in many states including my state of Texas. I intend to vote this morning and hopefully help give a few crooks their walking papers and give a new crop of freshman a chance to prove they deserve a second term, but no more. 

A law was enacted in the early nineteen fifties to limit the President to two terms. I think that a two terms limit should apply to all elected offices and that even judges elected and appointed up to and including the Federal Supreme Court should be limited two term or in the case of appoint justices no more that eighteen years. One of my favorite jokes when folks tell me they have been married a long time is: “You can kill a person and not get that long a sentence.” I think that even Supreme Court Justices do not deserve life sentences. And while I am at it, I think elected offices and appointments should have not just a minimum age requirement but a maximum age requirement as well. I think seventy-five should be the cut off. 

Hey, and I did not have to attribute those ideas to a famous person to sell them. And I am sure they are not original to me, but others have thought the same things for a long time.

Your friend and fellow traveler,

David James White