Here's yet another tragic story of an elderly couple terrorized by gangs of local thugs in Chicago.With her husband already asleep, 84-year-old Anna Jakymek was just turning out the lights when she heard loud noises at the back and front doors about 11:30 p.m.Her initial thought was that her 89-year old husband had fallen out of bed, but she realized something else was … [Read more...] about They Should Have Rung the Bell
Pledge Allegiance or Go to Jail
I've always been a bit wary of extremely overt flag-waving patriots. Maybe it's just a reaction I have after watching the hoards of people forced to wave Soviet flags while at gunpoint, or the coerced crowds joining in the celebrations of Mao's Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution by furiously whipping little Chinese flags to and fro.Some of those people … [Read more...] about Pledge Allegiance or Go to Jail
I Must Have Missed That Class
In graduate school I had the most trouble staying awake in finance lectures. I always thought finance had to be just about the most boring topic ever.French MEP Rachida Dati, when discussing finance in France, recently said:I see some [foreign investment funds] looking for returns of 20 or 25% at a time when fellatio is close to zero.I guess I was just doing finance wrong. … [Read more...] about I Must Have Missed That Class
Why Philosophers Shouldn’t Argue Physics with Stephen Hawking
The Wall Street Journal ran an op-ed by Roger Scruton, an English philosopher, titled "Memo to Hawking: There's Still Room for God". (Sorry, it's behind a paywall.) He attempts to refute Hawking's premise that no God is needed to create a universe from nothing.Immanuel Kant, who believed that Newton's laws of gravity are not merely true but necessarily true, … [Read more...] about Why Philosophers Shouldn’t Argue Physics with Stephen Hawking
Powers of Ten
I first saw the Powers of Ten short on Carl Sagan's Cosmos. (If you don't know who Carl Sagan was, please don't tell me. It will just make me feel terribly old and sad.) Way back in the ancient mists of time the Museum of Science and Industry setup a kiosk looping the video and I stood watching it over and over for as long as I could. That video had a big impact on how I viewed … [Read more...] about Powers of Ten