Economics

"Now the only symbol which tells us where we can make the best contribution is profit. In fact by pursuing profit we are as altruistic as we can possibly be because we extend our concern to people who are beyond our range of personal conception."

-- Friedrich August Hayek

"The engine which drives enterprise is not thrift, but profit"

-- John Maynard Keynes

1776

The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more. You will think me transported with Enthusiasm but I am not. I am well aware of the Toil and Blood and Treasure, that it will cost Us to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these States. Yet through all the Gloom I can see the Rays of ravishing Light and Glory. I can see that the End is more than worth all the Means. And that Posterity will triumph in that Days Transaction, even although We should rue it, which I trust in God We shall not. - John Adams

(The Book of Abigail and John: Selected Letters of the Adams Family, 1762-1784, Harvard University Press, 1975, 142).

hartsfield's landing

Town Clerk Rick Erwin says the northern
New Hampshire town is proud of its tradition, but says,
"the most important thing is that we exemplify a 100 percent vote."
http://www.seacoastonline.com/articles/20081103-NEWS-81104001

"What I can't stomach are people who're
out to convince people that the educated
are soft and privileged and out to make
them feel like they're less, then, you know,
he may be educated, but I'm plain-spoken, just like you."
- aaron sorkin, "hartsfield's landing"

show up

this tuesday would be a good day to show up.

I just want to mention that at several points
during the evening, I was referred to as both
a liberal and a populist, and a fellow fourth
from the back called me a socialist,
which is nice, I haven’t heard that for a while.

Actually, I’m an economics professor.
My great-grandfather’s great-grandfather
was Dr. Josiah Bartlet, who was the New Hampshire
delegate to the second Continental Congress,
the one that sat in session in Philadelphia
in the summer of 1776 and announced to the world
that we were no longer subjects of King George III,
but rather a self-governing people.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, they said,
that all men are created equal. Strange as it may seem,
that was the first time in history that anyone
had bothered to write that down.
Decisions are made by those who show up.

- aaron sorkin, "what kind of day has it been"

potential

lately i've been absorbed listening to
christopher hitchens and richard feynman;
recently i happened upon "god said ha" --
didn't know about "letting go of god"
till just this now.

i sometimes call this curiosity.

politics lends itself to self-serving acts.
but at some point the world needs better --
i wonder about potential -- not feymanesque
potential-energy but the potential of what a
person has learned, how they think, and what
they can do to move society forward.

palin has mass appeal with seemingly zero
gravity of thought; mccain has the height
and stature of a hero but seems to have
little mass appeal; so i calculate their
potential as approaching zero.

i'd ask god to help us when they get elected
but christopher hitchens -- and now i suspect
julia sweeney -- would scold me.

the means of the enemy

A decision must be made
in the life of every nation...

at the very moment
when the grasp of the enemy is at its throat.

Then it seems that the only way to survive
is to use the means of the enemy...

to rest survival upon what is expedient,
to look the other way.

The answer to that is: Survival as what?
A country isn't a rock.

It's not an extension of one's self.

It's what it stands for.

It's what it stands for when standing
for something is the most difficult

- abby mann, "judgment at nuremberg"

scott mcclellan puzzlement

some are puzzled because scott mcclellan wasn't in the loop.

some are puzzled, because, being in the loop, knowing
such things. scott mcclellan should have resigned.

some are puzzled why the administration
allowed someone, who was speaking for
the president, not to be in loops.

Is a puzzlement
When my father was a king
He was a king who knew exactly what he knew,
And his brain was not a thing
Forever swinging to and fro and fro and to.
Shall I, then be like my father
And be willfully unmovable and strong?
Or is it better to be right?...
Or am I right when I believe I may be wrong?
Shall I join with other nations in alliance?
If allies are weak, am I not best alone?
If allies are strong with power to protect me,
Might they not protect me out of all I own?
Is a danger to be trusting one another,
One will seldom want to do what other wishes;
But unless someday somebody trust somebody
There'll be nothing left on earth excepting fishes!

There are times I almost think
Nobody sure of what he absolutely know.
Everybody find confusion
In conclusion he concluded long ago
And it puzzle me to learn
That tho' a man may be in doubt of what he know,
Very quickly he will fight...
He'll fight to prove that what he does not know is so!

Oh-h-h-h-h-h Sometimes I think that people going mad!
Ah-h-h-h-h-h! Sometimes I think that people not so bad!

But not matter what I think I must go on living life.
As leader of my kingdom I must go forth,
Be father to my children and husband to each wife
Etcetera, etcetera, and so forth.
If my Lord in Heaven Buddha [Jesus] , show the way!
Everyday I try to live another day.

If my Lord in Heaven Buddha [Jesus], show the way!
Everyday I do my best for one-more day!
But...Is a puzzlement!

- oscar hammerstein ii, "the king and i"

supreme court: no harm no foul

prove it?! we can't wait for mushroom clouds
v.
prove it; then we'll talk about it ...

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/apr/30/whitewashing-vote-fraud/

thanksgiving choices

sitting on a bench behind me at the mall were four folks
chatting about which to choose this winter -- among
paying for oil for heat, health insurance, or food.

they looked to be middle-class maybe of world-war ii
era age; not low income enough to consider anything
other than their social security payments might allow;
they mentioned social security more than once.

so, the question i have -- if you had to choose,
which would you choose this thanksgiving season ...

mash in oak

the water of life meets the mujahideen -- scary.

'Charlie Wilson's War' Trailer

psychology, b. f. skinner, et. al.

science is neither for or against religion;
one may attempt to apply science to interactions
within religious groups -- but that is not,
and should not be, at all the same act, as being
fair or balanced with respect to such groups.

if scientists were interested in the fair
and balanced treatment of religion they should
most probably seek another profession.

there may be obvious connections between
cognitive dissonance theory and how people
are susceptible to the social pressures of
joining groups; but any fair or balanced
notion of a particular group doesn't apply --
except in the context of a particular experiment.

the fair and balanced notion of science
is simply that science is uncertain.

what we should strive for is not the mixing of
religion into science -- but the goal of allowing
the humility of the spirit that is religion
and the humility of the intellect that is science
to coexist, stand apart, mutually unafraid.

echo JFB | sed 's/B/K'

john f. burns, near the end of his "charlie rose" interview,
gave a trepidatious nod to the notion that, in the end,
iraq would be understood through the voice of fiction.

i thought this daft; but by happenstance,
not a moment later, i read this:

When power leads man towards arrogance,
poetry reminds him of his limitations.
When power narrows the areas of man’s concern,
poetry reminds him
of the richness and diversity of his existence.
When power corrupts, poetry cleanses.
For art establishes the basic human truth
which must serve as the touchstone of our judgment.
-- John F. Kennedy

True North

ayn rand meet dr. phil;
horatio alger meet socrates;
what the world needs now
is rich people who need people --
not that there's anything wrong with that;
but i fear leadership has been usurped
by new rules of authentic salesmanship:
authentically sell soap;
authentically sell leadership;
authentically sell outso...global partnerships;
authentically sell war.
the book "true north" may describe
literally all the exceptions to those rules.

poignantly ironic is the books's cover
flaunting a compass to represent "true north"
when the magnetic north of a compass
differs by some 5 degrees from "true north" --
"true north" being an imaginary line.

Thought

A man may die, nations may rise and fall,
but an idea lives on.  -John F. Kennedy

The only man who never makes a mistake
is the man who never does anything.  -Teddy Roosevelt

Information is the oxygen of the modern age.
It seeps through the walls topped by barbed wire,
it wafts across the electrified borders.  -Ronald Reagan

Feckless Thug

Cruciatus in crucem!
Tuus in terra servus nuntius fui
officium perfeci.
Cruciatus in crucem.
Eas in crucem!
    - Aaron Sorkin,The West Wing, "Two Cathedrals"