One of them, at least.
Update: We’ve added an excellent line from Peggy Noonan’s December 26th, weekly column, as it fits so perfectly with our theme.
We spent a recent noon-time distributing year-end, holiday, bonus checks to a group of care-givers and their managers.
It was very gratifying, especially since it wasn’t our money. We’re joking, of course. It would likely […]
Regular readers will know that we often criticize the stupid application of mathematical models, especially ones related to finance and economics; ergo, our firm’s motto, “Thought Before Calculation.”
In that light, we note that in last Friday’s The Wall Street Journal (November 7) the editors excerpted a speech that Michael Crichton gave at Cal Tech in 2003, entitled ‘Aliens Cause Global Warming.’ […]
Or—to seriously mix our metaphors—falling head-over-heels for the wolves’ claims that the “sky is falling.”
Our favorite line from the play and movie, A Man for All Seasons, is Saint Thomas More’s statement at his trial in which he gently belittles one of his perjuring accusers, Richie Rich:
“Why Richard, it profits a man nothing to give his soul for […]
On Monday in a post, A Better Solution (than a government takeover), we proposed a serious, alternative solution to the financial liquidity crisis that is decentralized and free-market oriented. In addition, it could quickly be implemented with a few changes to the tax code. The main idea: permit private buyers of distressed securities to immediately expense the […]
For those readers unfamiliar with web argument styles, there is something known as Godwin’s Law that states as an on-line discussion groups gets larger, it will be increasing likely that one discussant will compare another one to Adolph Hitler. Thus, Godwin’s Law is related to the older notion of reductio ad hitlerum>, which at times is expressed as argumentum […]
We heard an amusing story today about a local church festival that we feel compelled to repeat.
Like many other churches, this one holds a day-long, fund-raising festival in the late summer/early autumn, and it is centered around serving chicken dinners. 1 There is a lot of work involved in the preparation, serving, and cleanup of the meals as well as […]
We’ve always advised our children to stick to sports that aren’t subjectively judged. While being cheated out of a medal does teach life lessons, they are too frustrating, and one’s participation in such contests implicitly condones such immoral behavior, and that’s not good. It never is.
Moreover, with biased feedback, the child never learns how to change or how to improve.
As […]
As we mentioned below, Friday’s (August 15th) Taste page in The Wall Street Journal have three columns worth commenting upon here. In the Houses of Worships space, David Skeel comments on C.S. Lewis and more recent Christian apologists in Apres Lewis. (By the way, a Christian apologist isn’t someone who apologizes for Christianity, rather it […]
On Tuesday, the Chairman walked into the office and asked whether we thought the losses and uncertainty in the financial markets were winding down. We replied that we doubted it and, in addition, we hoped not.
Our response was not out of envy or due to any schadenfreude. Instead, it was based upon what we believe to be our mature, […]
Yesterday, we read the quote below while donating blood. (We can’t think too much about the actual process.) We liked the quote so much, we decided to post it on our Quotes page at the first opportunity. Several of our essays, like
When watching interviews of “scientists” or researchers on television—whether on the news or a nature show—we often count and remark upon the number of times the word “believe” is used. We are surprised because we thought that many of these scientists have given up soft beliefs to deal only with hard facts and truth.
Sometimes, the interviewee might […]
