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The Lie Piebrary is a collection of factually inaccurate viral emails that are currently in circulation. Rest assured, if you find it in the Lie Piebrary, it is demonstrably false. But don't take our word for it--check it yourself!
| Good Old Harry Truman |
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Lie Pie Title: Good Old Harry Truman Editor's note: This viral email is quite an oddity. First off, it is mostly accurate, with a few minor exceptions that landed it in the "lie sandwich" category. I can't vouch for all those Truman quotations at the bottom, either, honey, so don't bet on them. Secondly, it is very complimentary of a politician, and a liberal one at that. I don't think I've ever seen a viral email that is flattering of any democrat. I wouldn't have believed such a thing existed if I hadn't seen it with my own two eyes. I may have to call in a cryptozoologist to have a look at it. I'm liable to run into Bigfoot next. --Granny, 4/17/2010 WATCH YOUR STEP: STEAMING VIRAL EMAIL B.S. STARTS HERE Harry S Truman was a different kind of President. He probably made as many important decisions regarding our nation's history as any of the other 42 Presidents. However, a measure of his greatness may rest on what he did after he left the White House. The only asset he had when he died was the house he lived in, which was in Independence Missouri. His wife had inherited the house from her mother and other than their years in Washington, they lived their entire lives there. When he retired from office in 1952, his income was a U.S. Army pension reported to have been $13,507.72 a year. Congress, noting that he was paying for his stamps and personally licking them, granted him an 'allowance' and, later, a retroactive pension of $25,000 per year. After President Eisenhower was inaugurated, Harry and Bess drove home to Missouri by themselves. There were no Secret Service Agents following them. When offered corporate positions at large salaries, he declined, stating, "You don't want me. You want the office of the President, and that doesn't belong to me. It belongs to the American people and it's not for sale." Even later, on May 6, 1971, when Congress was preparing to award him the Medal of Honor on his 87th birthday, he refused to accept it, writing, "I don't consider that I have done anything which should be the reason for any award, Congressional or otherwise." As president he paid for all of his own travel expenses and food. Modern politicians have found a new level of success in cashing in on the Presidency, resulting in untold wealth. Today, many in Congress also have found a way to become quite wealthy while enjoying the fruits of their offices. Good old Harry Truman was correct when he observed, "My choices in life were either to be a piano player in a whorehouse or a politician. And to tell the truth, there's hardly any difference!" I say dig him up and clone him!! TRUMAN QUOTES A bureaucrat is a Democrat who holds some office that a Republican wants. A leader in the Democratic Party is a boss, in the Republican Party he is a leader. A pessimist is one who makes difficulties of his opportunities and an optimist is one who makes opportunities of his difficulties. A politician is a man who understands government. A statesman is a politician who's been dead for 15 years. A President cannot always be popular. A president either is constantly on top of events or, if he hesitates, events will soon be on top of him. I never felt that I could let up for a moment. A President needs political understanding to run the government, but he may be elected without it. Actions are the seed of fate deeds grow into destiny. All my life, whenever it comes time to make a decision, I make it and forget about it. All the president is, is a glorified public relations man who spends his time flattering, kissing, and kicking people to get them to do what they are supposed to do anyway. Always be sincere, even if you don't mean it. America was not built on fear. America was built on courage, on imagination and an unbeatable determination to do the job at hand. Any man who has had the job I've had and didn't have a sense of humor wouldn't still be here. Art is parasitic on life, just as criticism is parasitic on art. Being too good is apt to be uninteresting. Carry the battle to them. Don't let them bring it to you. Put them on the defensive and don't ever apologize for anything. Experience has shown how deeply the seeds of war are planted by economic rivalry and social injustice. I do not believe there is a problem in this country or the world today which could not be settled if approached through the teaching of the Sermon on the Mount. I had faith in Israel before it was established, I have in it now. I believe it has a glorious future before it - not just another sovereign nation, but as an embodiment of the great ideals of our civilization. I have found the best way to give advice to your children is to find out what they want and then advise them to do it. I have no desire to crow over anybody or to see anybody eating crow, figuratively or otherwise. We should all get together and make a country in which everybody can eat turkey whenever he pleases. I never did give anybody hell. I just told the truth and they thought it was hell. I remember when I first came to Washington. For the first six months you wonder how the hell you ever got here. For the next six months you wonder how the hell the rest of them ever got here. I would rather have peace in the world than be President. I've said many a times that I think the Un-American Activities Committee in the House of Representatives was the most un-American thing in America! If I hadn't been President of the United States, I probably would have ended up a piano player in a bawdy house. If I'd known how much packing I'd have to do, I'd have run again. If you can't convince them, confuse them. If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen. In my opinion eight years as president is enough and sometimes too much for any man to serve in that capacity. In reading the lives of great men, I found that the first victory they won was over themselves... self-discipline with all of them came first. Intense feeling too often obscures the truth. It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit. It is understanding that gives us an ability to have peace. When we understand the other fellow's viewpoint, and he understands ours, then we can sit down and work out our differences. It sure is hell to be president. It's a recession when your neighbor loses his job; it's a depression when you lose yours. It's plain hokum. If you can't convince 'em, confuse 'em. It's an old political trick. But this time it won't work. Men make history and not the other way around. In periods where there is no leadership, society stands still. Progress occurs when courageous, skillful leaders seize the opportunity to change things for the better. Most of the problems a President has to face have their roots in the past. My choice early in life was either to be a piano-player in a whorehouse or a politician. And to tell the truth, there's hardly any difference. My father was not a failure. After all, he was the father of a president of the United States. Nixon is one of the few in the history of this country to run for high office talking out of both sides of his mouth at the same time and lying out of both sides. Richard Nixon is a no good, lying bastard. He can lie out of both sides of his mouth at the same time, and if he ever caught himself telling the truth, he'd lie just to keep his hand in. Study men, not historians. The atom bomb was no "great decision." It was merely another powerful weapon in the arsenal of righteousness. The best way to give advice to your children is to find out what they want and then advise them to do it. The buck stops here! The human animal cannot be trusted for anything good except en masse. The combined thought and action of the whole people of any race, creed or nationality, will always point in the right direction. The Marine Corps is the Navy's police force and as long as I am President that is what it will remain. They have a propaganda machine that is almost equal to Stalin's. The only things worth learning are the things you learn after you know it all. The President is always abused. If he isn't, he isn't doing anything. The reward of suffering is experience. The United Nations is designed to make possible lasting freedom and independence for all its members. The White House is the finest prison in the world. There is nothing new in the world except the history you do not know. This administration is going to be cussed and discussed for years to come. Those who want the Government to regulate matters of the mind and spirit are like men who are so afraid of being murdered that they commit suicide to avoid assassination. To hell with them. When history is written they will be the sons of bitches - not I. Upon books the collective education of the race depends; they are the sole instruments of registering, perpetuating and transmitting thought. Washington is a very easy city for you to forget where you came from and why you got therein the first place. We shall never be able to remove suspicion and fear as potential causes of war until communication is permitted to flow, free and open, across international boundaries. Well, I wouldn't say that I was in the great class, but I had a great time while I was trying to be great. When even one American - who has done nothing wrong - is forced by fear to shut his mind and close his mouth - then all Americans are in peril. When you get to be President, there are all those things, the honors, the twenty-one gun salutes, all those things. You have to remember it isn't for you. It's for the Presidency. When you have an efficient government, you have a dictatorship. Whenever a fellow tells me he's bipartisan, I know he's going to vote against me. Whenever you put a man on the Supreme Court he ceases to be your friend. You and I are stuck with the necessity of taking the worst of two evils or none at all. So - I'm taking the immature Democrat as the best of the two. Nixon is impossible. You can always amend a big plan, but you can never expand a little one. I don't believe in little plans. I believe in plans big enough to meet a situation which we can't possibly foresee now. You can never get all the facts from just one newspaper, and unless you have all the facts, you cannot make proper judgments about what is going on. You know that being an American is more than a matter of where your parents came from. It is a belief that all men are created free and equal and that everyone deserves an even break. You want a friend in Washington? Get a dog.
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