Gaius Octavius

Once upon a time there was a bank named 'State Bank of Albany'. It paid a 2% stock dividend each year, and an increasing cash dividend each year. That was my kind of investment. Alas, it was sold off to Fleet which in turn was taken over by the alleged Bank of America. Need I say more?

In my opinion, there should be a steady growth in both value and dividends. That's what 'we' pay managers for. Citigroup can't run a bank, so who asked the managers to have 'off balance sheet' items, or an insurance company? Microsoft needs Yahoo vs paying a few paltry pennies in dividends? Motorola now has to sell or spin off its cell phone business.?! G.E. seems to be the only one that succeeds in a melange of businesses, but its value and dividends go no where. We own these businesses for income and not to have to sell them to realize income. Traders make markets; investors are supposed to earn income. Options for management rule. Ever hear of managers having to return their bonuses for failure? Remember Hacksaw Al @ Sunbeam? I don't like 'mega' corps; they seldom succeed. Moon, we are as one on this.

The Rhine was of no particular concern to the Romans. Caesar built a bridge across it in (12?) days. Engineers recently attempted to match this feat. Failed. Had their been a profit to be found in Germany, the Romans would have taken it - easily. Teutoborg notwithstanding. At this time, the Germans were eating soup out of their hands. The only temptation for Rome would have been the amber of the Baltic, but this they got through trade via the Danube.

Will severely chastise present sender!

One ringy dingy; two ringy dingy.... Hahlow. (beep. For your protection, this survey will be recorded. Press or say one for Urdu; two for Malay; three for Tamil...beep seven for English.) Eight. Thank you, sir. This is Stinky Parcel. We are conducting a customer satisfaction survey. Would you participate? beep No! Thank you sir. What is your ring finger size? Fifteen. beep Thank you sir. Are you happy with our E-Z service? Go &*^# yourself. beep Thank you sir. Who is your favorite TV character? Joe Stalin. Thank you sir. How many parcels were you going to send? beep 666. Thank you sir. Where were they going to? The bloody blazes. Where is that, sir? beep Iraq. What was in them, sir? Bombs, fish & chips, and a porta cabin. beep Thank you sir. Did you wish to insure them? Who the hell are you? I can't give you that information sir, but my employee ID is 472950631. beep For taking this survey, we have a special gift for you, sir. beep Is it any good? Oh, yes sir. Then stick it where the sun doesn't shine. beep Good things won't hurt you. Thank you, sir. beep (Para continuar en espanol, presso numero ocho....) beep; clunk

http://www.agiasofia.com/emperors/conpaleo.html Do a Google search. There is lots of imfo on her.

The Association of Southern Schools has decided to pursue some of the seemingly endless taxpayer dollar pipeline through Washington designating Southern slang, or y'allbonics, as a language to be taught in all Southern schools. The following are excerpts from the Y'allbonics/English dictionary: HEIDI - (noun) -Greeting. HIRE YEW - Complete sentence. Remainder of greeting. Usage "Heidi, Hire yew?" BARD - (verb) - Past tense of the infinitive "to borrow. "Usage "My brother bard my pickup truck." JAWJUH - (noun) - The State north of Florida. Capitol is Lanner. Usage "My brother from Jawjuh bard my pickup truck." BAMMER - (noun) - The State west of Jawjuh. Capitol is Berminhayum. Usage "A tornader jes went through Bammer an' left $20,000,000 in improvements." MUNTS - (noun) - A calendar division. Usage "My brother from Jawjuh bard my pickup truck, and I ain't herd from him in munts." THANK - (verb) - Cognitive process. Usage "Ah thank ah'll have a bare." BARE - (noun) - An alcoholic beverage made of barley, hops, and yeast. Usage "Ah thank ah'll have a bare." IGNERT - (adjective) - Not smart. See "Arkansas native." Usage "Them bammer boys sure are ignert!" RANCH - (noun) - A tool used for tight'nin' bolts. Usage "I thank I left my ranch in the back of that pickup truck my brother from Jawjuh bard a few munts ago." ALL - (noun) - A petroleum-based lubricant. Usage "I sure hope my brother from Jawjuh puts all in my pickup truck." FAR - (noun) - A conflagration. Usage "If my brother from Jawjuh don't change the all in my pickup truck, that thing's gonna catch far." TAR - (noun) - A rubber wheel. Usage "Gee, I hope that brother of mine from Jawjuh don't git a flat tar in my pickup truck." TIRE - (noun) - A tall monument. Usage "Lord willin' and the creek don't rise, I sure do hope to see that Eiffel Tire in Paris sometime." RETARD - (verb) - To stop working. Usage "My grampaw retard at age 65." FAT - (noun), (verb) -- a battle or combat; to engage in battle or combat. Usage "You younguns keep fat'n, n' ah'm gonna whup y'uh." RATS - (noun) - Entitled power or privilege. Usage "We Southerners are willin' to fat for are rats." CHEER - (adverb) In this place. Usage "Just set that bare rat cheer." FARN - (adjective) - Not domestic. Usage "I cuddint unnerstand a wurd he sed ... must be from some farn country." DID - (adjective) - Not alive. Usage "He's did, Jim." ARE - (noun) - A colorless, odorless gas Oxygen. Usage "He cain't breathe...give 'im some ARE!" BOB WAR - (noun) - A sharp, twisted cable. Usage "Boy, stay away from that bob war fence." JEW HERE - (noun) and (verb) contraction. Usage "Jew here that my brother from Jawjuh got a job with that bob war fence cump'ny?" HAZE - a contraction. Usage "Is Bubba smart?" "Nah...haze ignert. He ain't thanked but a minnit'n 'is laf." SEED - (verb) -- past tense of "to see". VIEW - contraction (verb) and pronoun. Usage "I ain't never seed New York City ... view?" GUBMINT - (noun) - A bureaucratic institution. Usage "Them gubmint boys shore is ignert."

Stock Options. Top management manages to churn them out to themselves as if they were toilet paper. Give themselves a good price, and even back date them when necessary. As they pump the options out, the company (via the efforts of top management) has share 'buy backs'. I've never seen a company statement, where a share buy back occurred during the year, that showed fewer shares outstanding at the end of the year than at the beginning. I don't believe that a loss shows up on the books, (at least I can't find one), when the options are executed, but the original shareholders' equity is diluted. Now if the company wanted to be honest with the shareholders, they would go to the 'free' market; buy the shares (Treasury Shares); and then pass them out at bargain basement prices. But, then the loss would show up on the books. (Maybe!) Or, they could pay out the 'excess' cash as dividends. These alleged 'returns' on shares of 10-50+ percent a year are baloney. You can only get these returns if you sell your stock. Why would I want to sell stock in a winner? I'm in 'business' for an actual return, i.e., dividends. Well, I got that off of my chest. Guess that I am giving good reason to buy gold - with the 'tax refund'. ------------------------------------------ I agree that corporations have a great tendency to run their regulators. The revolving door.

Wasn't there a thread about the water system, and something to the effect that the lead and other impurities were sublimated in cisterns before it got to the users?

Were these kings from Eastern Europe/ the Balkans? This is not off topic, as it implies that even in the middle ages there was some currency in the idea that the barbarian successor kings were - at least in the ceremonial sense - governors of Roman provinces in their own eyes. I believe that Western European kings got their authority from the Pope. I really can't remember, but I think that it was all of continental Europe at one time.

MPC, I am no more a patron of monarchy than you are. The object of my colloquies with you has been to try to demonstrate that the Republic, by the time of Caesar and Augustus, was no more a democracy than the principate. It was no more representative of the People Supreme than the principate. To take another quote from Ursus' review, (Which quote most certainly need not be understood as the definitive answer to our colloquy.): "Chapter one is a short introduction entitled "From Republic to Empire." In it the author dismisses a commonly held view that the Republic fell because its government was ill suited to imperial pressures: "...autocracies are not, ipso facto, better at running large states than democracies." Matyszak points out the empire was largely a loose federation of urban centers requiring minimal oversight from the center, whatever form of government it manifested. He also states that the political machinery of the Republic was not dismantled but adapted for the Empire, with the one major change being the imperial family rather than the Senate at its head. Instead he points to the vicious competition between the Republic's leading families and the resulting corruption as the death knell of the Republican order:...." Bold face mine. Did the Senate not rely on the war-lords when it was in their interests to do so? Do I make any inroads into your most erudite thoughts?

I hope that all the members will please accept my most humble apologies. As a novitiate, I was unaware of a non-connection between Augustus and the Fall of the Republic. I erroneously replied to an earlier response (#22). As you may see, the source had nothing to do with Augustus. Mea culpa. Mea maxima culpa.

Perhaps, a bit off topic, but I believe that mediaeval kings sought sanction for their crowns from the Emperor at Constantinople.

deer mister coldrail# watz wit dese swindlerz! du u wnat mor oar wood u lik to sen dem to me! most uv mine r in the slamer now & de rest r on the wa? eye cud use som more swindlerz. yur pal, dubya

You might think about Vercingetorix.

To be sung extremely loud: We are the gang from Dear P. I. You bring the whiskey, We'll bring the rye. Send those freshmen out for gin, Don't let a sober sophomore in. We never stagger, We never fall. We sober up on wood alcohol. When we yell, We yell for the glory of Dear P. I. or While our loyal faculty, Lies drunk on the bar room floor.

I surrender, you Evil Eyed person!

P.Q. Varus and Crassus were daring commanders. In my opinion, neither gambling nor temerity are the way to win wars. A well thought out strategy is. "The battle is won before it is fought." Sun Tzu. (And Nicolo Macchiavelli)

And so, my dear Caldrail, that is why he is reckoned one of the greatest men in history! Well, you and that 'other party' notwithstanding.

Caldrail: Not securing a line of supply, in my opinion, is a blunder. Not securing your base is a blunder. The Romans, in their fear, air mailed his brother's head to him. His senate did not want that war. They weren't helping him. This was a private revenge war. Don't you think that he should have called it a day when all his victories gained him nothing but the destruction of southern Italy (to this day)? After 17 years, the only thing that he gained was the loss of his country. He needed mercenaries to conduct his private war. He didn't provide a viable fleet to resupply him. After crossing the Alps, and considering the losses he suffered, shouldn't he have thought the problem out a little further? Did he consider the well known Roman pluck or the fact that the Romans could put more fighters in the field than he could? His tactics may have been brilliant, but his strategy was doomed from its inception.

I think that you make my case. Scipio didn't make that blunder. Panic - yes; surrender - no. Roman traders were trading the land under Hannibal's feet at that time.

Not if you play in your unlucky and doomed warehouse chicken field!

Deer mister coldrail? Were iz sout karolineuh! were iz pushy pratt! duz deze plasez hav al kida or terrorizimists or liberillizmissts! i stil hav som girl skouts that i kan send over 2 u. They kan bring fredom $ demokrazy 2 dose plasez! Kum on down 2 the ranch & u kan b mi nu best frend? r u a kompasshunist konservvatimizmist! if u luze 2 dose spitkraft bad guyz il hav mi supremz fiks the skore! r u playying poool@ luk il b owt of a jobb sune! ikan run doze plasez. dubya

If you haven't seen the Nova program - go out of your way to see it. You won't regret it. Check the G-Man's schedule.