"We must welcome the future remembering that soon it will be the past. And we must respect the past, remembering that once it was all that was humanly possible."
-George Santayana
Thursday, March 8, 2012
On money in politics.............
Craig Newmark notes that in the old days it was not illegal to bribe
politicians. Pictures of Jim Fisk, Jay Gould, the Erie Railroad, and
the New York State legislature come to mind. While bribery is no
longer preferred, the money spent influencing the game continues
to increase, despite all efforts to staunch the flow. He offers this
solution:
".....anybody who wants the money out of politics has only
one reasonable way to proceed: make the government smaller
and less powerful. Put differently: nobody spends a lot of time
and money trying to influence the local government's dog
catcher. John notes beautifully in the abstract, 'The irony is
that those who seem most concerned about the level of
campaign expenditures are also frequently the ones who
most strongly support increasing the size of government.'"
Might one suggest that a "flat tax" system is another way to reduce
the money spent trying to influence Congress? I suspect the
number of lobbyists seeking preferential tax treatment for their
"special interest" group is an overwhelming percentage of the total
number of lobbyists. From the hinterlands, it certainly appears
that Congress has figured out that tinkering with the tax code is a
great way to generate campaign contributions. Wouldn't it be
interesting if the tax code was used solely to raise revenue for
the operation of government, and not used to reward, punish,
or manipulate behavior? Hey, a guy can dream, can't he?
politicians. Pictures of Jim Fisk, Jay Gould, the Erie Railroad, and
the New York State legislature come to mind. While bribery is no
longer preferred, the money spent influencing the game continues
to increase, despite all efforts to staunch the flow. He offers this
solution:
".....anybody who wants the money out of politics has only
one reasonable way to proceed: make the government smaller
and less powerful. Put differently: nobody spends a lot of time
and money trying to influence the local government's dog
catcher. John notes beautifully in the abstract, 'The irony is
that those who seem most concerned about the level of
campaign expenditures are also frequently the ones who
most strongly support increasing the size of government.'"
Might one suggest that a "flat tax" system is another way to reduce
the money spent trying to influence Congress? I suspect the
number of lobbyists seeking preferential tax treatment for their
"special interest" group is an overwhelming percentage of the total
number of lobbyists. From the hinterlands, it certainly appears
that Congress has figured out that tinkering with the tax code is a
great way to generate campaign contributions. Wouldn't it be
interesting if the tax code was used solely to raise revenue for
the operation of government, and not used to reward, punish,
or manipulate behavior? Hey, a guy can dream, can't he?
Fears vs. Dreams..............
"The easiest way for a nation to destroy itself is to make national security its highest value. Indeed, people are never more insecure than when they become obsessed with their fears at the expense of their dreams, or when the ability to fight becomes more important that the things worth fighting for."
-Norman Cousins, Human Options
-Norman Cousins, Human Options
Contraception contretemps..........
Avik S. A. Roy, hanging out at The Atlantic, is shocked, shocked that the Drug Companies might be the big winner in the recent tussle over the dictates of our friends in Washington. Full post is here. Excerpt here:
"If you were surprised that PhRMA, the pharmaceutical trade group, backed Obamacare, now you can see why: the HHS contraception mandate alone will be a multi-billion-dollar boondoggle for the pharma industry. If your health insurance plan allowed you to buy a television, of any price, without any cost-sharing on your part, would you buy a 13-inch CRT or a 60-inch flat screen?
"This gets us to a broader question: how the definition of insurance has lost any meaning in the context of American health care. Insurance, traditionally defined, is meant to protect us from the risk of unexpectedly incurring catastrophic costs. Car insurance, for example, protects us against collisions, but doesn't cover our purchase of wiper fluid or gasoline. Homeowner's insurance doesn't cover the cost of air conditioning. And yet, now, we have a federal law that forces health insurance to cover something that is even cheaper than gasoline or air conditioning."
"The contraception contretemps is a case study in how thoughtless laws and policies drive up the cost of health care, making it less accessible to those who are most in need. The path to truly affordable health care involves moving in exactly the opposite direction: restoring the notion that health insurance is meant as protection for catastrophic costs, and letting people buy birth-control pills for themselves."
"If you were surprised that PhRMA, the pharmaceutical trade group, backed Obamacare, now you can see why: the HHS contraception mandate alone will be a multi-billion-dollar boondoggle for the pharma industry. If your health insurance plan allowed you to buy a television, of any price, without any cost-sharing on your part, would you buy a 13-inch CRT or a 60-inch flat screen?
"This gets us to a broader question: how the definition of insurance has lost any meaning in the context of American health care. Insurance, traditionally defined, is meant to protect us from the risk of unexpectedly incurring catastrophic costs. Car insurance, for example, protects us against collisions, but doesn't cover our purchase of wiper fluid or gasoline. Homeowner's insurance doesn't cover the cost of air conditioning. And yet, now, we have a federal law that forces health insurance to cover something that is even cheaper than gasoline or air conditioning."
"The contraception contretemps is a case study in how thoughtless laws and policies drive up the cost of health care, making it less accessible to those who are most in need. The path to truly affordable health care involves moving in exactly the opposite direction: restoring the notion that health insurance is meant as protection for catastrophic costs, and letting people buy birth-control pills for themselves."
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
Couldn't have said it any better myself...
"The danger seems to come from misalignment, which is usually caused by the systematic risk associated with arcane revenue-driven production models and reward systems that obfuscate risk alignment. When reward is predicated strictly on production, qualitative metrics are compromised regardless of the ability to generate better analytics afforded by nifty new technologies. Anyone who has played golf is painfully aware that all the new innovations in club and ball technology cannot overcome operator error."
-Fred Cordova
The above quote was taken from Fred's recent New Nexus blog post about investing, cycles, technology, judgment, and a few other things. Full post is here. It is well worth the time.
-Fred Cordova
The above quote was taken from Fred's recent New Nexus blog post about investing, cycles, technology, judgment, and a few other things. Full post is here. It is well worth the time.
On learning and risk........
"One of the most quoted aphorisms in literature is Alexander Pope's: 'A little learning is a dangerous thing.' T. H. Huxley pondered its implications. 'Where is the person,' he asked. 'who has enough of it to be out of danger?'
"Learning, in this sense, is not without risk; there is always more to be learned. But it is a glorious risk. The only time the risk becomes fierce and unacceptable is when one seeks to avert it."
-Norman Cousins, Human Options
"Learning, in this sense, is not without risk; there is always more to be learned. But it is a glorious risk. The only time the risk becomes fierce and unacceptable is when one seeks to avert it."
-Norman Cousins, Human Options
Pet Sounds................
The Beach Boys....................................God Only Knows
Wouldn't It Be Nice if the embedding wasn't disabled
for this classic, but since it is, go here
The Beach Boys....................................Sloop John B
Wouldn't It Be Nice if the embedding wasn't disabled
for this classic, but since it is, go here
The Beach Boys....................................Sloop John B
Step out of line.........
"It is difficult for people to come to the understanding that only a small minority of the people ever really get the word about life, about living abundantly and successfully. Success in the important departments of life seldom comes naturally, no more naturally than success at anything - a musical instrument, sports, fly fishing, tennis, golf, business, marriage, parenthood, landscape gardening.
"But somehow people wait passively for success to come to them - like caterpillars going around in circles, waiting for sustenance, following nose to tail - living as other people are living in the unspoken, tacit assumption that other people know how to live successfully.
"It's a good idea to step out of the line every once in a while and look up ahead to see if the line is going where we want it to go. If it is, it could be the first time."
-Earl Nightingale
"But somehow people wait passively for success to come to them - like caterpillars going around in circles, waiting for sustenance, following nose to tail - living as other people are living in the unspoken, tacit assumption that other people know how to live successfully.
"It's a good idea to step out of the line every once in a while and look up ahead to see if the line is going where we want it to go. If it is, it could be the first time."
-Earl Nightingale
About history..........
"The history of the world is the record of a man in quest of his daily bread and butter."
-Hendrik Willem van Loon
"The history of the great events of this world are scarcely more that the history of crimes."
-Voltaire
"Human history is in essence a history of ideas."
-H.G. Wells
"History is a bath of blood."
-William James
"History is the crystallisation of popular beliefs."
-Donn Piatt
"History is an accumulation of errors."
-Norman Cousins
"A lot of history is just dirty politics cleaned up for the consumption of children and other innocents."
-Richard Reeves
"History is only a confused heap of facts."
-Lord Chesterfield
"History is a post-mortem examination. It tells you what a country died of. But I'd like to know what it lived of."
-Finley Peter Dunne
"History is principally the inaccurate narration of events which ought not to have happened."
-Earnest Albert Hooten
"History is a tangled skein that one may take up at any point, and break when one has unravelled enough."
-Henry Adams
"History, n. An account mostly false, of events mostly unimportant, which are brought about by rulers mostly knaves, and soldiers, mostly fools."
-Ambrose Bierce
"History is the witness that testifies to the passing of time; it illumines reality, vitalizes memory, provides guidance in daily life, and brings us tidings of antiquity."
-Cicero
-Hendrik Willem van Loon
"The history of the great events of this world are scarcely more that the history of crimes."
-Voltaire
"Human history is in essence a history of ideas."
-H.G. Wells
"History is a bath of blood."
-William James
"History is the crystallisation of popular beliefs."
-Donn Piatt
"History is an accumulation of errors."
-Norman Cousins
"A lot of history is just dirty politics cleaned up for the consumption of children and other innocents."
-Richard Reeves
"History is only a confused heap of facts."
-Lord Chesterfield
"History is a post-mortem examination. It tells you what a country died of. But I'd like to know what it lived of."
-Finley Peter Dunne
"History is principally the inaccurate narration of events which ought not to have happened."
-Earnest Albert Hooten
"History is a tangled skein that one may take up at any point, and break when one has unravelled enough."
-Henry Adams
"History, n. An account mostly false, of events mostly unimportant, which are brought about by rulers mostly knaves, and soldiers, mostly fools."
-Ambrose Bierce
"History is the witness that testifies to the passing of time; it illumines reality, vitalizes memory, provides guidance in daily life, and brings us tidings of antiquity."
-Cicero
On freedom...............
"Freedom is not merely the chance to do as one pleases; neither is it merely the opportunity to choose between set alternatives. Freedom is, first of all, the chance to formulate the available choices, to argue over them - and then the opportunity to choose. That is why freedom cannot exist without an enlarged role of human reason in human affairs."
-C. Wright Mills
-C. Wright Mills
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Some books................
"Crafty men condemn studies; simple men admire them; and wise men use them: for they teach not their own use: but that is a wisdom without them, and above them, won by observation. Read not to contradict and confute; not to believe and take for granted; nor to find talk and discourse; but to weigh and consider.
"Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested; that is, some books are to be read only in parts, others to be read, but not curiously; and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention. Some books also may be ready by deputy, and abstracts made of them by others; but that would be only in the less important arguments, and the meaner sort of books; else distilled books are like common distilled water, flashy things. Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact man. And, therefore if a man write little, he had need have a great memory; if he confer little, he had need have a present wit; and if he read little, he had need have much cunning, to seem to know that he doth not."
-Sir Francis Bacon
"Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested; that is, some books are to be read only in parts, others to be read, but not curiously; and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention. Some books also may be ready by deputy, and abstracts made of them by others; but that would be only in the less important arguments, and the meaner sort of books; else distilled books are like common distilled water, flashy things. Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact man. And, therefore if a man write little, he had need have a great memory; if he confer little, he had need have a present wit; and if he read little, he had need have much cunning, to seem to know that he doth not."
-Sir Francis Bacon
Mulling it over.............
"Keep reading books, but remember that a book's only a
book, and you should learn to think for yourself."
-Maxim Gorky, nee Alexei Maximovich Peshkov
"At the heart of all his work was a belief in the inherent worth and potential of the human person (личность, 'lichnost'). In his writing, he counterposed individuals, aware of their natural dignity, and inspired by energy and will, with people who succumb to the degrading conditions of life around them. Both his writings and his letters reveal a "restless man" (a frequent self-description) struggling to resolve contradictory feelings of faith and skepticism, love of life and disgust at the vulgarity and pettiness of the human world."
-Wikipedia entry on Gorky
Not sure how to square that description with the fact
that "Gorky" translates "bitter." Oh, well.
We are not so simple...........
"There are many who lust for the simple answers of doctrine or
decree. They are on the left and right. They are not confined
to a single part of society. They are terrorists of the mind"
-A. Bartlett Giamatti
decree. They are on the left and right. They are not confined
to a single part of society. They are terrorists of the mind"
-A. Bartlett Giamatti
Truth....................
"You can always get the truth from an American statesman
after he has turned seventy, or given up all hope for the
Presidency."
-Wendell Phillips
after he has turned seventy, or given up all hope for the
Presidency."
-Wendell Phillips
About that repetition.....
"The chief value of history, if it is critically studied, is to break
down the illusion that peoples are very different."
-Leo Stein
down the illusion that peoples are very different."
-Leo Stein
The Mighty E. has inducted.................
............Dave Mathews into his Cool Hall of Fame. A well
deserved honor. Enjoy Dave and his amazing band as they
cover All Along the Watchtower better than most:
deserved honor. Enjoy Dave and his amazing band as they
cover All Along the Watchtower better than most:
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