July 2010
5 posts
Recovery from a patient's perspective →
Having a catastrophic illness (the term gives me a slight thrill) is an interesting experience if it doesn’t see you off, albeit one you wouldn’t wish for. You learn a lot: about yourself, about your friends, family and colleagues, what matters and doesn’t. But mainly you learn about the grind of illness and recovery. If you’re the sort of person who has only ever had to...
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard →
The 20th Century was a horrible litany of absurd experiments and atrocities committed by intellectuals, or by elite groupings that claimed a higher knowledge. Simple folk usually have enough common sense to avoid the worst errors. Sometimes they need to take very stern action to stop intellectuals leading us to ruin.
The root error of the modern academy is to pretend (and perhaps believe, which...
June 2010
6 posts
Watch
Kicked out of office? Go straight to Wall Street →
Wall Street has dramatically expanded its influence on Capitol Hill over the past year, using a lobbying army that includes nearly 1,500 former federal employees and 73 former members of Congress who have been deployed during debate on financial reform legislation….
Of the 73 lawmakers-turned-lobbyists touting Wall Street’s interests, 17 served on congressional banking committees during...
May 2010
25 posts
Thomas Sowell →
Once you buy the argument that some segment of the citizenry should lose their rights, just because they are envied or resented, you are putting your own rights in jeopardy – quite aside from undermining any moral basis for respecting anybody’s rights. You are opening the floodgates to arbitrary power. And once you open the floodgates, you can’t tell the water where to go.
“Politicians are like diapers. They both should be changed regularly,”
– Marc Coleman 41, a Philadelphia primary voter.
“It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on...”
– Upton Sinclair
iPhone Deconstruction →
Free Markets: Pro-Rich or Pro-Poor →
Restricted, regulated and monopolized markets are especially handicapping to people who are seen as less preferred, latecomers and people with little political clout. For example, owning and operating a taxi is one way out of poverty. It takes little skills and capital. But in most cities, one has to purchase a license costing tens of thousands of dollars. New York City’s taxicab licensing...
“Mother’s Day Proclamation
Arise, then, women of this day!
Arise, all...”
– Julia Ward Howe 1870
A Mother Speaks for Peace
Sovereign Debt →
Once again the vast majority fails to see a crisis in the making, even as it stares at them from close range. Just as market observers in 2007 told us that the credit crisis would be confined to the subprime mortgage market, current analysts tell us that sovereign debt problems are confined to Greece, Spain, Portugal, and perhaps Italy. They were wrong then, and I believe that they’re wrong...
America, Hello From Soggy Nashville
john:
jimreams:
America, we had a pretty bad flood happen here in Nashville. We noticed that you didn’t notice. That’s OK, there was a bomb that didn’t explode in Times Square and and oil spill in the Gulf. It took up all the news space. Seriously, it’s OK.
Here’s the deal with our town. We have one particular industry here, the music industry, which isn’t really that big in the grand scheme...
AA and Government Debt →
This is basic for properly understanding economists. If you do not understand this, you will not understand why economists, who should see the devastating cumulative effects of government debt, invariably say that things are not beyond the point of no return. For an economist, now is not the day of salvation. That day is always in the future. For an economist, there is always enough time for...
correction
There was a typo in my last post. It said 4000,000. It should have read 400,000 (4 hundred thousand). I added one too many zeros before the comma. My mistake.
Statistical Scam →
It sounds dreadful. After drifting down consistently since last fall, the unemployment rate has suddenly shot up again, from 9.7 percent in March to 9.9 percent in April. But don’t despair: A rising unemployment rate is actually one of the best signs yet that the economy is bouncing back.
The unemployment rate rose for the right reason. Instead of shedding jobs, employers added 290,000 jobs...
Joint Venture:2 →
Limits of Power →
Most slaves performing most tasks were of course not paid, but were simply forced to work by the threat of punishment. That was sufficient for galley slaves or plantation slaves. But there were various kinds of work where that was not sufficient.
Tasks involving judgment or talents were different because no one can know how much judgment or talent someone else has. In short, knowledge is an...
April 2010
15 posts
Al Gore's new house →
6 fireplaces. I hope they’re all just decorative. That’s a lot of carbon Al!
Time Bank →
So how does TimeBank work?
First of all, there’s no money involved — only time. It all comes down to time credits and debits, which are recorded on the TimeBank Web site. The site is administered by Thompson.
The idea is that for every hour you spend helping someone, you’ll get an hour credit for something you need help with. The hope is that people will take it upon themselves...
Knowing the Price of Everything and the Value of...
brucehopperjrmd:
Check out the comments. http://www.john-goodman-blog.com/knowing-the-price-of-everything-and-the-valu…
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Posted via email from Physician Free...
Vacuum Assisted Wound Closure on the cheap →
No one really knows why, but for an open wound, simply applying suction dramatically speeds healing times. (The theory is that the negative pressure draws bacteria out, and encourages circulation.) But for almost everyone, that treatment is out of reach—simply because the systems are expensive—rentals cost at least $100 a day and need to be recharged every six hours.
No more. Danielle...
Stand on one leg while you brush your teeth →
Simple things to make you healthier
Sad State of Affairs
This morning I came in to work to see one of my patients at the Dayton VA Medical Center. The main entrance was cordoned off with yellow crime scene tape. After talking with a few people I found out that an American, 28 year old Afghanistan war veteran had taken his life outside the VAMC this morning. I don’t know all of the specifics. I do know that this is extremely sad. This man was...
Tax Day →
So let’s just exempt the bottom 60% from paying federal taxes. It might actually be in the interest of the top 40% earners…
Finally, given all the work that goes into tracking 60% of Americans that provide just 14% of the tax revenue, one wonders if the economy as a whole might actually come out with a net benefit due to lower paperwork and tracking costs. The government could surely...
Should we forcibly redistribute blood? →
Your blood type is not the result of hard work or ingenuity. Taking some of your blood, unlike taking some of your money, won’t affect your incentive to work. Therefore, we could redistribute this repeatedly.
It is only fair that those who have better blood through no credit of their own and who could safely give some of it up, be forced to do so, to redistribute it to those who need blood...
