Political Bias?

After I overcome my bias against Mormons I have to overcome my bias against anyone named Mitt.

- CarlD

Do Maximum Harm

In response to a Yahoo! Answers question, I answered:

MDs use the ethic; Do no harm.

Lawyers, political scientists and tax collectors use the ethic; Do the maximum damage that you can get away with.

A doctor of philosophy, a lover of knowledge, should understand the distinction.

These are the MaxiDams -- those whose function is to cause Maximum Damage.

- CarlD

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080127183606AAhQhxU&r=w&pa=FZptHWf.BGRX3OFPgTVRWZ90aB1OR.3YL.Ym8LUzvH0yNh7x3Q--&paid=answered#E8JRKDr.MDfydGaYiK_h

French Trader Loses 7 Billion in One Year

I'm still conjuring a punchline.

Should I pick on the fact that he's French? Maybe they'll put his statue in front of the Louvre.

Should I point out that he's encroaching on the function of governments? Over here we call that a stimulus package.

- CarlD

http://www.forbes.com/2008/01/24/societe-generale-trader-face-cx_ll_0124autofacescan01.html

Barack Obama vs Dos Clintons

Both Bill and Hillary are ganging up on Barack.

Barack should reply, If I can beat two Democrats I certainly can beat one Republican next Fall.

- CarlD

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/us_elections/article3234696.ece

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/23/opinion/23dowd.html?em&ex=1201323600&en=8e8c5758443935b1&ei=5087%0A

No History is Good History

One of the new political dynamics is the advantage of having no political history.

Shows like The Daily Show, a news satire show, thrive on playing historical clips which contradict new positions.

Inevitably, there are awkward flips and flops.
- CarlD

Michael Moore Interviewed Charlton Heston

Michael Moore halfway made his point when he interviewed Charlton Heston in Bowling for Columbine.

Here's a sharper analogy.

Dick Cheney and his associates take the view that we must sacrifice some basic rights in order to stop terrorists. We must abandon the Geneva Convention, condone warrantless wiretaps, and so on.

This suggests that conventional law enforcement methods lack the backbone to stop terrorists.

YET Charlton Heston and the National Rifle Association argue that law enforcement can deal with the proliferation of hand guns and assault rifles. "Guns don't kill people, people kill people" implies that law enforcement needs only to find and control the bad people and do nothing to control sale and possession of the weapons.

- CarlD

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Ben Franklin's Birthday - Man of 3 Sciences

Jan 17 is Benjamin's birthday.

In tribute I credit him with developing 3 major branches of science and contributing to 3 other fields, usually not considered to be sciences.

1) Oceanography. He plotted the Gulf Stream by sampling water temperatures along the trans-Atlantic routes.

2) Electricity. His kite experiment demonstrated that lightning was the same phenomenon as static electrity, but on a larger scale.

3) Quality control. Franklin's primary source of income through his later years was a business that re-cast lead characters used by newspapers and printers. He often quoted a version of this maxim:

For want of a nail the shoe was lost.For want of a shoe the horse was lost.For want of a horse the rider was lost.For want of a rider the battle was lost.For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.

4) Government structure. Franklin may have penned the phrase "we hold these truths to be self-evident" in emulation of Euclid's Elements which built geometry on postulates, an earlier form of self-evident truths.

5) Philosophy. In Franklin's day, philosophy embraced all knowledge, from math to astronomy, from government to physics.

6) Diplomacy. Who but Franklin could have persuaded France to finance and support the American Revolution? As with everything, Franklin handled diplomacy as a form of science.

- CarlD
January 13, 2008

Is Barack Obama black enough?

Pundits have asked, is Barack Obama black enough?

For that matter we need to know, is Hillary Clinton man enough?

- CarlD