Faith-based crime

Religion-related fraud getting worse

Between 1984 and 1989, about $450 million was stolen in religion-related scams, the association says. In its latest count — from 1998 to 2001 — the toll had risen to $2 billion. Rip-offs have only become more common since.

"The size and the scope of the fraud is getting larger," said Patricia Struck, president of the securities association and administrator of the Wisconsin Department of Financial Institutions, Division of Securities. "The scammers are getting smarter and the investors don't ask enough questions because of the feeling that they can be safe in church."

Random yet pithy quotes

Okay, sure. From skylarker via cakmpls using the Random Quotes Generator, which is always fun anyway, the goal is to keep regenerating the page until you have five (or however many you feel appropriate) quotes to post. (I got five in three pages, so kept going.) I haven't added anything to my quotefile except lines from The Daily Show in a long time. Herein are some quotes that might be .sigs at some point. I will add the further fillip that I must not have heard the quote before (or forgotten if I have).

"Few people can see genius in someone who has offended them."
-- Robertson Davies

"Another belief of mine: that everyone else my age is an adult, whereas I am merely in disguise."
-- Margaret Atwood (1939 - ), Cat's Eye, 1988

"Typos are very important to all written form. It gives the reader something to look for so they aren't distracted by the total lack of content in your writing."
-- Randy K. Milholland, Something Positive Comic, 07-03-05

"Unfortunately, the balance of nature decrees that a super-abundance of dreams is paid for by a growing potential for nightmares."
-- Peter Ustinov (1921 - 2004)

"He is indebted to his memory for his jests and to his imagination for his facts."
-- Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751 - 1816)

"To be amused by what you read--that is the great spring of happy quotations."
-- C. E. Montague, "A Writer's Notes on His Trade"

"Speak the truth, but leave immediately after."
-- Slovenian Proverb

"We can have facts without thinking but we cannot have thinking without facts."
-- John Dewey (1859 - 1952)

"Only the mediocre are always at their best."
-- Jean Giraudoux (1882 - 1944)

"My favorite thing about the Internet is that you get to go into the private world of real creeps without having to smell them."
-- Penn Jillette (1955 - ), in a Compuserve chat