Friday, October 25th, 2013
When the Reverend Jim Jones told his followers they were all going to drink Kool-Aid and go to a happier place, they all lined up and drank it. The Reverend Jones was their God. Like many leaders who gain their position through the power of their own charisma, the Reverend Jones highly overestimated his own
Wednesday, October 23rd, 2013
Thomas Hobbes said that words are wise men’s counters, but the money of fools. This is as true today as it was 400 years ago when Hobbes said it. Using words is very different from taking words...
Tuesday, October 22nd, 2013
Saul retired to Phuket, Thailand from New York City at the age of 40. He already had under his belt a master’s degree in Business Administration from New York University, three years of therapy with a strict...
Friday, October 18th, 2013
All around the world, food availability, income, and life span are up, while disease, child mortality, and violence are down. Though the world is still far from perfect, nearly everything is more affordable, not always in dollar...
Wednesday, October 16th, 2013
Auburn Alabama prides itself on friendship and civility. So it was a bit of a shock when that Southern charm was smashed over a few weeks, in which friend turned against friend, becoming antagonists and enemies. Politics....
Tuesday, October 15th, 2013
The curious affair of Fred Mudgeon began in 2015 when he, age 67 and largely blind, walked onto the field of the Washington Miquetoasts, the capital’s football team, and announced that he wanted to try out for...
Monday, October 14th, 2013
It was two weeks ago today that Obamacare was rolled out to the public. Perhaps this would be a good time to check in and see how it is going. From the few reports surfacing, the answer...
Friday, October 11th, 2013
When someone says, “that’s cool,” it is a signal that all thinking has ceased. Therefore ‘cool’ has become a national addiction, for getting things done, that really don’t need doing. Take NASA for instance. It wasn’t so...
Wednesday, October 9th, 2013
In all the finger-pointing over the so-called government shutdown, whoever ‘points loudest,’ wins. What do they win? The minds of the public, in deciding who to blame. President Obama’s strategy seems to be to maximize people’s pain—and...
Wednesday, October 2nd, 2013
Imagine that you could pay for anything with an IOU that you scribble on a piece of paper. Wouldn’t that be great? New car? IOU. New house? IOU. All the tea in China? IOU. All the oil...
Tuesday, October 1st, 2013
It’s a shame that smacking people upside the head is socially unacceptable, since suitable occasions so often present themselves. Yesterday was one such occasion, when I overheard a conversation that went like this: “Did you hear that...
Monday, September 30th, 2013
“Breaking rocks in the hot sun. I fought the law and the law won.” That’s how the song goes. And many men find themselves working for nothing, by ignoring the law. But most had no idea “what”...
Thursday, September 26th, 2013
Dr. Doug Nunamaker, a family doctor based in Wichita, Kansas had had just about enough. After five years of dealing with hassles from health insurance companies, and having to hire people just to deal with the paperwork,...
Wednesday, September 25th, 2013
Long before the word was invented, the world has been “multicultural.” And what’s more, it’s been multicultural in a real and meaningful way. Different peoples going about their lives in different ways. Each culture emphasizing a unique...
Thursday, September 19th, 2013
In my work, I sometimes rub elbows with the rich and powerful. Not long ago, I was doing some work for a multinational corporation based in Mexico and discovered something that perplexed me. The founder of this...