Lust for the future but treasure the past...

Jimmy Buffett..................................................Barometer Soup



Follow in my wake
You've not that much at stake
For I have plowed the seas
And smoothed the troubled waters
Come along let's have some fun
The hard work has been done
We'll barrel roll into the sun
Just for starters

Just for starters
Barometer's my soup
I'm descended from a deckhand on a sloop
I travel on the song lines
That only dreamers see
Not known for predictability

Come and follow in our wake
You've not that much at stake
For we have plowed the seas
And smoothed the troubled waters
Come along let's have some fun
Seems our work is done
We'll barrel roll into the sun
Just for starters

Sail the main course
In a simple sturdy craft
Keep her well stocked
With short stories and long laughs
Go fast enough to get there
But slow enough to see
Moderation seems to be the key

Constantly searchin'
Oh my eyes have seen some horizons
And I've crossed the ocean for more than just thrills
No I'm not the first
Won't be the last
You lust for the future
But treasure the past

Follow in my wake
You've not as much at stake
For I have plowed the seas
And smoothed the troubled waters
Come along let's have some fun
The hard work has been done
We'll barrel roll into the sun
Just for starters
We'll barrel roll into the sun
Just for starters
We'll barrel roll into the sun
Just for starters

Opening paragraphs.........................

     Ben Hogan found the secret first.  The other golfers of the time looked at Hogan with a mixture of wonder and pity.  He practiced golf.  He practiced swinging a golf club mornings, afternoons, evenings, and well into darkness.  He practiced until his hands bled, even hard scabs formed, and then until they bled again.  Years later, when people talked about how much Hogan suffered for his craft, he corrected them.  "I did not suffer," he told them.  "I loved it all."  How could he explain this?  Hogan loved to practice more than he loved playing the game itself.


-Joe Posnanski,  The Secret of Golf:  The Story of Tom Watson and Jack Nicklaus

A worthy goal................................

Modern warfare........................

via

On beating the market...........................

"And maybe the hardest part of all is that it’s much easier to do something rather than nothing even when doing nothing is the right move the majority of the time."
-Ben Carlson


Or, as Charlie Munger says, “People calculate too much and think too little.”  

About that self-sufficiency...............

     In a modern economy, no one is self-sufficient.  Instead, people are specialized.  The work you do probably does not produce something you could consume.  Even more striking is the fact that almost everything you consume is something you could not possibly produce.  Your daily life depends on the cooperation of hundreds of millions of other people...

We carry on our lives not really conscious of the complexity of that specialization.  In fact, when it enters our minds, we often resent it.  We praise ourselves for our urban gardens and our do-it-yourself home projects.  We urge on another to "buy local," and we berate business executives for moving jobs overseas.  Of course, if we took such sentiments to their logical conclusion and tried to eliminate commerce with strangers entirely, we would have to return to primitive hunting and gathering.

-Arnold Kling,  Specialization and Trade:  A Re-Introduction to Economics

Having shared beers...........................

...............on multiple occasions with both men, trust me when I tell you that they are good men and friends worth having.

Only if you wanted to win....................

I SHOULD’VE CHANGED MY NAME TO “NONE OF THE ABOVE” AND GOTTEN ON THE BALLOT IN 50 STATES
-Instapundit

Mad..............................

Speaking of downtown Newark..........

At the top of the photo:  the Square's second completed roundabout.  Only two more to go.

At the bottom of the photo:  the war zone moves to the front of our office.

The adventure continues.

You be in me and I'll be in you....

Jimmy Buffett..........................Wondering Where The Lions Are




Sun's up, uh huh, looks okay
The world survives into another day
And I'm thinking about eternity
Some kind of ecstasy got a hold on me

I had another dream about lions at the door
They weren't half as frightening as they were before
But I'm thinking about eternity
Some kind of ecstasy got a hold on me

Walls windows trees, waves coming through
You be in me and I'll be in you
Together in eternity
Some kind of ecstasy got a hold on me

Up among the firs where it smells so sweet
Or down in the valley where the river used to be
I got my mind on eternity
Some kind of ecstasy got a hold on me

And I'm wondering where the lions are...
I'm wondering where the lions are...

Huge orange flying boat rises off a lake
Thousand-year-old petroglyphs doing a double take
Pointing a finger at eternity
I'm sitting in the middle of this ecstasy

Young men marching, helmets shining in the sun,
Polished as precise like the brain behind the gun
(Should be!) they got me thinking about eternity
Some kind of ecstasy got a hold on me

And I'm wondering where the lions are...
I'm wondering where the lions are...

Freighters on the nod on the surface of the bay
One of these days we're going to sail away,
going to sail into eternity
some kind of ecstasy got a hold on me

And I'm wondering where the lions are...
I'm wondering where the lions are...

-Bruce Cockburn

Learning to love climate change............

 via

Chumps.................................

As excerpted from this Seth Godin blog post:

When a population gets played, the responsibility lies with the liar, with the con man, with the person so craven that they'll trade trust and productivity and a bit of civilization for some power and authority.

But the chump also has to take responsibility. Responsibility for looking for the shortcut, giving into the fear and for eagerly believing the big lie, ignoring the clues that are all around.

Chumps aren't restricted by nationality, by education, by income. Chump is an attitude and a choice.

We're not chumps. Not if we don't choose to be.

trivia hypnosis......................

25.   Keep in mind what is really important:  don't get trivia hypnosis.

-Nicholas Bate, as culled from here

Beauty...........................

The view from my office desk..............

...............as the sanitary and storm sewer separation project in downtown Newark comes to our neighborhood:

 

Shape............................

Habits are powerful, but delicate.  They can emerge outside our consciousness, or can be deliberately designed.  They often occur without our permission, but can be reshaped by fiddling with their parts.  They shape out lives far more than we realize - they are so strong, in fact, that they cause our brains to cling to them at the exclusion of all else, including common sense.

-Charles Duhigg,  The Power of Habit:  Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business

The year was 1822.....................

     What kind of nation was America to be?  Virtually all Americans believed that their country was different in nature from the nations of Europe, for it had been founded in principle, not conquest.*  How as a principled power to behave in an unprincipled world?   The United States would not seek colonies, as European powers did?  Would it permit them to survive on its own continent?  Would it seek to evict them?  America's great and successful experiment with republicanism had inspired brave men to fight for their freedom elsewhere in the world.  What would Americans say when they asked for help?   "Go thou and do likewise!," John Quincy Adams had proclaimed at the end of his July 4 oration - go, that is, and seize power from tyrants.  Adams would confine America to the role of spectator of this great drama.  But prudent circumspection was not very much in the American grain.  Henry Clay and many other leading figures believed that the United States could and should play a transformative role in the world.

-James Traub,  John Quincy Adams:  Militant Spirit

* Ed. note:  As a side note, the history major in me believes that maybe this land was already occupied when the country was established, plus there wasn't there a French & Indian War thing?

The view from my home desk.............

A few notes from Corelli's Mandolin......

     Make a note, I want a salary freeze to keep inflation under control.  Increase family subsidies by fifty percent.  No I don't think the latter will cancel out the effects of the former.  Do you think I don't understand economics?  How many times do I have to explain, you dolt, that Fascist economics are immune from the cyclic disturbances of capitalism?  How dare you contradict me and say it appears that the opposite is true?  Why do you think we've been going for autarky all these years?  We've had some teething problems, that's all, you zuccone, you  sciocco, you balordo.  Send Farinacci a telegram saying that I'm sorry he's lost a hand, but what else do you expect when you go fishing with a hand grenade?  Tell the press it was because of something heroic.  We'll have an article about it in Il Regime Fascista on Monday.  Something like 'Party Boss Injured in Valiant Action Against Ethiopians'.  Which reminds me, how are the experiments with poison gas going?  The ones against the wog guerrillas?  I hope the rifiuto die slowly that's all.  Maximum agony.  Pour encourager les autres.  Shall we invade France?  How about 'Fascism Transcends Class Antagonisms'?  Is Ciano here yet?  I've been getting reports from all over the country that the mood is overwhelmingly anti-war.  I can't understand it.  Industrialists, bourgeoisie, working classes, even the Army, for God's sake.  Yes, I know there's a deputation of artists and intellectuals waiting.  What?  They're going to present me with an award?  Send them straight in.

-Louis De Bernieres,  as excerpted from the chapter "The Duce" in Corelli's Mandolin

Just following instructions................

Pardon me, while I.....................

That vision thing...................

Especially with a side of bacon........

Those were the days my friend..............