Sunday, November 16, 2008

"A court of equity will not assist a person in extricating himself or herself from the circumstances that he or she has created."

Doc and I were just discussing maxims. He believed he had just come up with one. Observe:

Upon reentering the garage after an al fesco whiz, Doc declares, "I have just come up with a new maxim."

"Oh?"

"You should never piss on your own firewood."

"A maxim, huh?"

"Yes," he replied.

"It's really more of common sense, don't you think?" I asked.

"Well, that's what a maxim is..."

"Huh...but I'm not so sure..." I replied as I headed off to look it up.

Long story short: This is a maxim.

What was particularly interesting was an example of a legal maxim, which became the title of this post:

"A court of equity will not assist a person in extricating himself or herself from the circumstances that he or she has created."

And yet we bail out Wall Street.

"If the courts were handling this shit, they'd say, 'Let 'em dangle," I said. "But think about who's handling this: The current government."

"And who's been in Big Business' pocket for eight years? W..." Doc said.

"Right...him and those fuckers in the Senate...excepting one, of course...he ain't been there long enough to be invested. But now that they're on the way out, Big Business is calling up and saying, 'We want our money back."

So, after this discussion, I'm thinking, "Don't piss on your own firewood" would be a pretty good maxim to hand over to the new administration. 'Cause when you pee on your own firewood, the odor will haunt you. Or maybe, "Don't shit where you eat." Or are those aphorisms...

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5 Comments:

Blogger SkylersDad said...

I believe you nailed it when you said it is really more of common sense. But it just isn't so common these days, eh?

Sunday, November 16, 2008 8:54:00 AM

 
Blogger Cormac Brown said...

I like it and it won't make as many people wince like "don't shit where you eat" does.

Sunday, November 16, 2008 7:12:00 PM

 
Blogger Cap'n Ergo "XL+II" Jinglebollocks said...

when you start generating enigmas wrapped up in riddles, I wanna be there to be part of the conversation!!

How about Burt Reynold's line, "I dont like a man pissin' on my boots and tellin' me it's rainin'", where does THAT fall, I wonder??

And what about the people who call me up on the hotline and then yell at me for tryin' to help 'em out??

And what about the folken calling Spooky up at work because they've got a $90k loan they don't understand & it's somehow her fault??

Ooooh, it's all a muddle...

Tuesday, November 18, 2008 9:11:00 AM

 
Blogger Cap'n Ergo "XL+II" Jinglebollocks said...

Oh, and Garrison keillor once had a character say "don't crap in your own nest", and I like that one too...

Tuesday, November 18, 2008 9:12:00 AM

 
Blogger Joe said...

Maxim or aphorism, it's still good advice.

Tuesday, November 18, 2008 5:58:00 PM

 

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