Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Living the High Life or (Borrowing from the kids)

According to this Bloomberg article, Greek pensioners (retired government workers) receive about 96% of the salary they did when they were working.

Nice if you can get it. Something seems terribly out-of-wack with that setup.

No doubt it is legal. One can legalize theft and call it "right", but laws don't make things right or wrong. Piling up debt and obligations for others to pay only makes sense to me in a very few instances (like infrastructure projects). But what consequence is there (other than the scorn from those left holding the bill)?

Maybe the volume should be turned up on the scorn.

Monday, June 28, 2010

Clear - like Clarity

(Warning: Politics)

Dennis Prager is a radio talker out of L.A. He is a thinker, and he thinks about all sorts of things. I especially like that he takes an hour a week (every week) to talk about the subject of Happiness. (Just typing that makes me smile.) He also has an Ultimate Issues hour and a Male/Female hour. While I don't get to listen as much as I've been able to in the past (I'm more employed now), I still get a chance now and then to glean from his insightful talks.

Here's part of a speech he gave in Denver.


Monday, June 21, 2010

Hooligans

It used to be that soccer brought out the worst in people who loved their sports teams. It's not the only sport, however, that brings this out.

The recent victory in basketball of the LA Lakers saw wild celebrations like the one in the video.



While I simply don't understand the celebratory nature of the festivities depicted I do understand that people could get hurt and in serious trouble for doing what they did. Shooting off machine guns into the air is another kind of celebration in another part of the world I don't understand. What goes up, must also come down - and countless people have been 'shot' (what goes up must also come down) by the same bullets used to express joy at a victory or an enemy's downfall.

Why do people do this? What does it tell us about ourselves?

Monday, June 14, 2010

Cheating Teachers

This is the era of high-stakes tests. No Child Left Behind (Bush) followed on the footsteps of Goals 2000 (Clinton) in trying to raise the bar for graduation standards. Maybe, one of the more unexpected roles that the teachers and school officials had to play as a result: Security Guard to those tests.

But the students are not the only ones under pressure. Sometimes the teachers and administrators have important contractual incentives to have their students do well. Sometimes the temptation for the teachers to cheat is too much. More here.

Sunday, June 13, 2010

Four Times a Day

Reminder from Rich:

Saturday, June 12, 2010

Funny BP parody

(warning: some colorful language)

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Logo Contest - For Real

BP needs a new Logo as they need to rebrand themselves. You can help. Go here to enter a contest for real money - or see some of the very creative entries.

Or you could read through this top 10 story about the contest.


Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Coming Soon ...

to a theater near you. (Unless you have Netflix. Then you'll have to wait even longer.)

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

See the Official Site

Since he died recently, Gary Coleman will not be playing Reepacheep.


Excellent Ad

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Friday, June 4, 2010

They lied?

Now Hungary joins the PIIGS (Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece, and Spain) as 'troubled economies' in Europe.

But the world is aghast because "a previous government lied about the economic situation". Clutch the pearls. Say it ain't so. A government actually put forward something untrue.

While reprehensible (shame on them) can we ever get to the "so I'm not going to trust government" (so we can avoid the shame on me)?

Don't let the Hungary PIIGS eat you.

Mandatory list of Birthday wishes

My wife insists that I post my wish list for my birthday. (How else would she know what to get me for that special day?)

So, with a lot of foot-dragging:

People to play board games with.

Books:
Thomas Sowell (any - for all his works are worthwhile)

If you decide that you're going to purchase something from the above list, please comment about it so I don't get 2 of them. Thank you for listening.