Quotes of the Day

"They say that patriotism is the last refuge
To which a scoundrel clings.
Steal a little and they throw you in jail,
Steal a lot and they make you king."

Bob Dylan: Sweetheart Like You.

"If you owe the bank $100, that's your problem. If you owe the bank $100 million, that's the bank's problem."

J. Paul Getty

"We face a demographic tsunami" that "will never recede," David Walker tells a group of reporters.

Sadly, it's no laughing matter. To hear Walker, the nation's top auditor, tell it, the United States can be likened to Rome before the fall of the empire. Its financial condition is "worse than advertised," he says. It has a "broken business model." It faces deficits in its budget, its balance of payments, its savings - and its leadership.

Speaking of Rome...

The Army said on Tuesday it was looking into whether U.S. forces in Iraq put prisoners in a cage with lions in 2003, but Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld called the accusation by two Iraqi men "far-fetched."