what if?

A Cool Game in a Cool State

I have a new blog!

Minnesota Bridge made its debut about a month ago.  For about half a dozen years, I was the editor of Minnesota's newsletter.  Although I enjoyed my stint, the MN Bridge Blog represents an opportunity to do far more for our state's communications than the dead tree version ever could. 

While I know that many of my readers are unfamiliar with the game, trust me; it really is the finest mind competition there is.  Please stop by, whether you're a bridge addict or not!

The War We Cannot Win

No, I'm not talking about the war in Iraq.  I'm talking about the drug war.

See what Bill has to say about it.  As is always the case, his comments are wise, thoughtful and worth your time to read.  As an appetizer, one excerpt:

Legal or illegal, drugs are subject to the same abuse risks as alcohol. There are people who will become addicted. There are people who will abuse them on a binge basis and harm themselves and others. However, given the public awareness of the much greater risk of drug use, I think the actual usage will be hardly more than current levels.

In saying this, I am considering that the use of illegal drugs is actually greater than public awareness, and once they are legalized many users would come out of the closet, so to speak. Actually legalization might have as a fringe benefit the awareness that some people we trust are actually not as trustworthy as we think, due to their use of drugs.

Birds of a Feather Flock Together

Local parrots having a hot time in the city.

My thanks to fellow parrot-parent Margaret Martin for the link.

Back

My thanks to those who noticed that I had been MIA for the last couple of weeks.  Although I took my laptop with me to our national bridge tournament in Hawaii, I didn't realize how difficult the time adjustments would be for me.  It's one thing to manage to stay awake at 11PM Hawaii time, when your brain is convinced that it's really 3AM.  But it's something else altogether when you try to play championship bridge under those circumstances.  Sometimes I rose to the occasion; other times, as one of my bridge partners said, I merely faded away.  As always, I had a fabulous time competing with and against the top competitors in the world.  Still; had my gray matter been at its best, more fun would have been had by yours truly.

In any case - that is my explanation for no blogging while in the 50th state!

Now that I've been back a couple of days (and had 10 hours of sleep last night), I'm ready to post a bit.  This item, from one of my favorite blogs, Discriminations, struck me as worthwhile.

A Legend in his Own Time

Milton Friedman is dead.  Larry Kudlow extolls the virtues of this diminutive man - but an economic giant.

As an aside, his daughter, Jan Martel, and her husband Chip, happen to be bridge acquaintances of mine and very fine players.  My condolences to them.

Bizzie Bodies, II

Andy Tobias may be the treasurer of the DNC - but, do not hold it against him!    Andy is one smart cookie when it comes to markets, and, well.... Managing Your Money.

My thanks to Andy to provding a link to this most worthwhile speech from John Bogle, of Vanguard Group.  I cannot excerpt the speech, as it is in PDF form.  But - please do read it all.  Bogle's words highlight how way too many business people have been abdicating their moral responsibility in carrying out their business affairs. 

Yes, this is no typo; business people, like everyone else in society, have a moral role to play.  When they fail to do it, they harm others, and actually threaten the very system which they are currently exploiting.

This is a topic I have long been contemplating.  As a believer in free markets, but also a believer in the rape of these markets by some, I look forward to solutions that do not have the force of government. 

When we act rightly, and of our own free will, it is far superior to acting rightly because of threats.

Thanks, Andy - and John Bogle.

Bizzie Bodies

Shay at Booker Rising links to an excellent speech by one Peter Klein, libertarian economics professor.  Klein muses as to why it is that those in the ivory tower of universities have far less love for market forces than those down in the trenches of business.

Hayek argues that exceptionally intelligent people who favor the market tend to find opportunities for professional and financial success outside the Academy (i.e., in the business or professional world). Those who are highly intelligent but ill-disposed toward the market are more likely to choose an academic career. For this reason, the universities come to be filled with those intellectuals who were favorably disposed toward socialism from the beginning.

This also leads to the phenomenon that academics don't know much about how markets work, since they have so little experience with them, living as they do in their subsidized ivory towers and protected by academic tenure. As Joseph Schumpeter explained in Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy, it is "the absence of direct responsibility for practical affairs" that distinguishes the academic intellectual from others "who wield the power of the spoken and the written word." This absence of direct responsibility leads to a corresponding absence of first-hand knowledge of practical affairs. The critical attitude of the intellectual arises, says Schumpeter, "no less from the intellectual's situation as an onlooker — in most cases also as an outsider — than from the fact that his main chance of asserting himself lies in his actual or potential nuisance value."

And there is more about subsidies for education versus working in a market environment.  Do read it all.

Larry Summers was Right

That, and other fascinating discoveries about our brains.

In 1995, after a 10-year study, Dr. Witelson published findings showing that on average the packing density of neurons was 12 percent greater in the adult female brain than in the adult male brain in the language region of the temporal lobe. A subsequent study of the frontal lobes, soon to be published, revealed similar sex differences.

On first interpretation, she said, this might lead to the conclusion that a woman’s brain is more tightly packed with neurons simply to make up for the well-documented fact that the average female brain is 10 percent smaller than the male brain.

“But that’s not correct,” she said, “because only some of the cortical layers show the difference.”

Layers 2 and 4, those important in processing the input of information, exhibited the differences in neuron capacity.

“Knowing that,” Dr. Witelson said, “one can ask the question of whether the processing of speech sounds could be related to the anatomy, and in fact that’s what we’re doing now.”

Sex differences also turned up in a number of other studies.

In 2005 Dr. Witelson and her colleagues reported that verbal ability was correlated with brain volume, but more strongly in women than in men. And they announced findings indicating that extremely premature birth affects the brain development of boys more adversely than girls.

Though she says the differences among female and male brains should not be discussed in terms of “better” and “worse,” they cannot be denied.

When Bill Speaks....

People should listen.

I may be a bit too busy to produce anything of substantive quality.  My friend Bill, however, is doing yeoman's work.  See below.

Because I come from immigrant stock, I understand the need for immigrants to keep our country alive and vital. I also know we cannot give the privilege of citizenship away. It must be earned. Only those willing to earn it deserve it. To be a US citizen is a great honor, the greatest honor in the world. We who are born to it, must be taught to appreciate it. Those who earn it, know it, because they had to work and understand it to obtain it. I was fortunate. I had teachers who taught me the reasons why the US is great. They made me learn why we are what we are. I feel sorry for the boomers and after. The education system in general has betrayed the US and everything it stands for. No longer do our children learn of the sacrifices and principles by which this country was built. Instead they are taught we were invaders, evil beings, and that we destroyed some Rousseauian primitive culture. Nevermind it was a culture of slavery, barbarism, and ill-health. Yes, we treated the Native Americans badly, but that does not negate what else we accomplished. It only creates a debt that we need to clearly delineate and repay. At which time our relationships with the remaining Native American populations can become guilt-free.

And, as they say - please read the whole thing.

Early Thanksgiving Visitor?

My apologies for light blogging.  Between lots of bridge, and preparation for a national tournament come Wednesday, work, and Life in General - just not so much time.  Plus, I must admit that I'm a bit dispirited with politics at present.  At times, I'm filled with a "what's the point" sort of feeling.

Late this afternoon, however, a visitor on my deck perked me up!  Living in the woods, all sorts of wildlife appears at any given time.  Today, sitting on the pipe raling of my contemporary, what did I see but a wild turkey!  This was shot through glass windows, so the quality is not the greatest.  Nevertheless, you can see my early Thanksgiving visitor as we surprise one another.

Amazingly, there were loads of them in the surrounding trees.  I counted at least eight!

Can't We All Just Get Along?

While surfing this evening, I came across this plaint at Crescat Sententia:

The NY Times had a story a while back about how friends of different persuasions had stopped talking politics because they disagreed. The article struck me, because I've always found exactly that to be the great difference between American and European politics. When I was in college and grad school, for example, most of my friends were out and out socialists, with the occasional actual, real, live, communist thrown in. So what if they thought I was a barbarian? And so what if they wanted to bring down freedom? We could have really great discussions, without worrying that we were somehow offending each other.

And yet here at home, with the tiny differences in philosophy between our right and left, there's all this really puzzling anger, which spills over into all kinds of unexpected arenas. In fact, I've run into a large number of people here who won't date political opponents, which I find especially puzzling. I suppose there's some sense in thinking that you can't share your life with someone who thinks taxes ought to be lower, but it seems a strange position to deny that rational, smart, people can come to different conclusions than you have.

It sure does.  But I frequently run into friends (former friends?) who literally cannot be in the same room with me if I do not agree with the issues they hold most dear.

Sad, sad, sad.

The American Experiment

The Center of the American Experiment is an organization to which I've belonged for many years now.  This conservative/libertarian think tank focuses on ideas rather than personalities, and on what will ultimately be in the best interests of our nation.

Its president, Mitch Perlstein, is a thoughtful, positive and energetic fellow.  Here is Mitch's wish following the election - and I second it.

More on Affirmative Action

My most frequent commentor, Greg, asked me more questions about my views of affirmative action.  Greg is a proponent; I am not, except in very limited situations.

Greg wanted to know what is wrong with selecting a female or a racial minority from a group of "equally qualified" candidates.

First, let me state that almost never are candidates utterly equal.  Few items are selected based upon test scores only.  So, one can always examine written essays, personalities, earlier achievements, barriers and hurdles faced in life, and so forth. 

All that being said, in the "theoretical" scenario of equally qualified candidates, if it appears that people have been discriminated against because of race or sex, then I actually think there is nothing wrong with attempting to correct prior wrongs by selecting someone from one of these groups.  I am a believer that our endeavors are enhanced when we are exposed to people who are dissimilar from ourselves.  Thus - most groups are improved if they aren't completely homogeneous.  Most benefit from different perspectives.

What if people are "slightly" less qualified than others?  Myself, I do not like to rely soley on something like a test score.  Some people don't test as well as others, or perhaps don't have as much knowledge in certain areas as others.  Nevertheless, they have skills and strengths that would cause them to do well.  Irrespective of their race or sex - I would hope that these people would be given a chance.

A Respite

My liberal friends are exhultant and celebratory.  My conservative friends are morose, concerned for the future - and not too happy with what the Republicans have been dealing to them lately.

Rather than add to the din, instead I offer a respite of photos.

 

Lake Geneva, perhaps the prettiest spot in the nation to hold a bridge tournament.

The Best Intentions

Supporters of affirmative action seem to have the best of intentions.  Nevertheless, intention aside - these supporters remain wrong, and ultimately harmful, to the very goals they profess to reach.

John Rosenberg offers a fine column in City Journal by Harry Stein with the details.

Saturday Matinee

For your viewing pleasure.

What Is Our Goal?

As a small child, I discovered racism and prejudice.  That people were capable of treating others as abhorently as they did then - and some still do today - never fails to distress and amaze me. 

The good news is, however, that the laws of our land were changed in my childhood.  Odius practices like Jim Crow were abolished.  Today, people are still free to hate someone else based upon the color of their skin.  Yet if they put that hate into practice in a variety of ways, now they are lawbreakers.  Thank God.

Still, a way too large segment of our population believes strongly in discrimination.  This segment is not the group that hates due to race - but it is a segment that believes discrimination to "right wrongs" is appropriate.  People like myself, and Scott Johnson, at PowerLine, among others, strongly disagree.