2005-07-19
Let the Penalty Fit the Crime
I believe the vast majority of successful business people are honest. This posting is about a small, but influential, minority..
Martha Stewart
5 months soft prison time, 5 months house arrest, 2 years probation for inside trading ImClone stock then lying about her misdoings to prop up her own stock. She knew exactly what she was doing. In Martha's previous career she was a Wall Street stock broker, and in recent years held a seat on the board of the New York Stock Exchange.
- Martha Stewart, from her high school yearbook
Bernie Ebbers, Forbes listed his net worth at $680, 000,000.
A couple days ago, Bernie was sentenced to 25 years in prison. While CEO of WorldCom, a huge telecom company, Bernie engineered an 11 billion dollar accounting fraud, the biggest fraud in US business history, leading to the largest bankruptcy in US history.
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Now, I see lots of pinheads on TV saying that Martha's and Bernie's sentences are too harsh. I wonder the opinion of the person(s) who bought the ImClone stock Martha sold. I wonder the opinion of the investors who, after listening to Martha lie, went out and bought Martha Stewart Living stock just before it's 70% plunge.
2005-07-18
American Revolution in Iraq
I saw Christopher Hitchens on the Charlie Rose show last night. He had what I think is an interesting observation - the ideas of the American Revolution are still alive, and the ideas of other political revolutions are dead.
The French Revolution, a poor copy of the American Revolution, was punctuated with mobs running around chopping and burning. The Communist Revolutions of Russia and China, also bloodbaths, have been discredited, along with Mao's "cultural revolution" and other cruel revolutionary purges in Russia and China. Castro's revolution in Cuba has left a legacy of oppression, dependency on Soviet aid, and now poverty. The Fascist revolutions in Spain, Germany and Italy were debacles lasting on only a dozen or so years each. The Iranian and other political-religious revolutions in the Muslim world have oppressed women and minorities, stymied education and crippled economies. Their re-creations of 6th century Arabia have been dismal failures, their only significant "contribution" to the world being suicide terrorism, a concept foreign to 6th century Arabia.
But the ideas that fueled the American Revolution are thriving today. The Declaration of Independence spells them out.. equality of all (wo)men, unalienable rights, the rule of law, the power of government comes from the consent of the governed, the right and duty of a people to remove despots that abuse their laws and rights. Those ideas were important to American colonists in late 18th century, and to Americans and Iraqis in the 21st century.
2005-07-16
Public vs Private Education
NEA Prez, VP, Secty-Treas, Exec Dir
New York Times, 2005-07-16
"DES MOINES, July 15 - A large majority of high school students say their class work is not very difficult, and almost two-thirds say they would work harder if courses were more demanding or interesting, according to an online nationwide survey of teenagers conducted by the National Governors Association."
I'm hoping the National Education Association (NEA) will take note and encourage its members to demand more of students. One of the NEA's stated goals is "..to improve student achievement and close the achievement gaps.." In spite of that declaration I suspect they can't tear themselves away from complaining about..
There are many great public schools. But let's face it, you want to send your kid to the best school you can. And if you've got the money, that school is almost always a private school. It's not just true at the elementary and secondary level, but also in higher education - Harvard, Stanford, Princeton, Yale. The real acid test is where would you send your child? Bill and Hillary, Ted Kennedy, Al Gore and many other public school advocates made the smart choice for their own children.
New York Times, 2005-07-16
"DES MOINES, July 15 - A large majority of high school students say their class work is not very difficult, and almost two-thirds say they would work harder if courses were more demanding or interesting, according to an online nationwide survey of teenagers conducted by the National Governors Association."
I'm hoping the National Education Association (NEA) will take note and encourage its members to demand more of students. One of the NEA's stated goals is "..to improve student achievement and close the achievement gaps.." In spite of that declaration I suspect they can't tear themselves away from complaining about..
- a lack of our tax money that can filter into NEA hands
- privatization that threatens the NEA membership base
- attempts to hold teachers accountable, teachers who'd rather not be graded on their school work
- Getting more no-strings-attached government (our) money
- Thwarting school vouchers and any other school-choice initiative that empowers parents
- Ridiculing those who believe that if you give someone money to do something, you want that someone to meet a performance standard
When I think back------------------------
On all the crap I learned in high school
It’s a wonder
I can think at all..
Kodachrome, Paul Simon
There are many great public schools. But let's face it, you want to send your kid to the best school you can. And if you've got the money, that school is almost always a private school. It's not just true at the elementary and secondary level, but also in higher education - Harvard, Stanford, Princeton, Yale. The real acid test is where would you send your child? Bill and Hillary, Ted Kennedy, Al Gore and many other public school advocates made the smart choice for their own children.
2005-07-14
Green outclasses Yellow
I used to be a big fan of Lance Armstrong. What's not to like? He's one of the world's fittest athletes, extremely disciplined, a cancer survivor, and 6-time winner of the most grueling contest in sports. But he's a failure as a family man. Lance was married to Kristin Richard. They had three children, a boy and twin girls. Four and a half years into the marriage they divorced. Only Lance and Kristin know the reasons for their divorce. Nevertheless, I'm going to go out on a limb and assume that Lance's absence from home was a contributing factor. You can't be much of a husband and father if you're not around. To his absence I'll add a desire to rub elbows with really cool people like his pal Robin Williams and of course his main squeeze these days, Sheryl Crow. So, instead of spending time with Kristin and his three children, Luke, Isabelle and Grace, Lance is hanging with Sheryl Crow and her crowd.I remember, as a kid, hearing my parents talking about some family friends who were probably going to get a divorce. Divorce was a bad word, a word with lots of shame attached. Not any more - especially in the lifestyles of the rich and famous. So when Lance retires after winning his 7th and last Tour de France the Hollywood crowd will swell with pride that such an extraordinary athlete is one of their own, and the Entertainment Tonight, VH-1 and MTV crowd will wallow in the coverage of Lance and Sheryl. A husband and wife sitting around watching E.T. and thinking to themselves -- "Man, wouldn't it be great to be Lance and hang with Sheryl Crow?" "If I were Sheryl, Lance Armstrong would take me shopping in Paris."
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Well, today, Jack Nicklaus, one wife, father or five, grandfather of many, competes in his last Tour-nament, the 2005 British Open.
Jack and Barbara Nicklaus at 1972 Masters.
You've built strong bonds within your family. How difficult was this, having to be away from home so often in your career? "It was not difficult at all, because I made family my top priority. Golf always came second to family. I have had a rule throughout my career that I would never be away from my family for more than two weeks. I broke that rule once, and that was when my wife Barbara and I went to South Africa many, many years ago, and stayed for some 17 days. Even then, we took Barbara's parents with us."Jack attends little league games and recitals, always has. Jack's son Jackie caddied his dad to the 1986 green jacket. I bike way more than golf but I've always been a big fan of Jack Nicklaus.
2005-07-07
Terror in London
There is big time evil in the world. The kind of evil that obeys no laws, not even their own. They make up the rules as they go along. We know what Islamic terrorist are against - democracy, world trade, women's rights, religious diversity, and most all other forms of freedom. But what of value are they for?
2005-07-06
Paris Looses Olympic Bid to London
Paris lost its bid for the 2012 Summer Olympics to London. Paris should have won out over London, don't you think? Didn't the selection committee understand that French society, culture and organizational skills far surpass the British? By choosing London the visiting delegations and fans are going to miss out on France's overpriced wine, language-centric snobbish waiters, frequent nationwide labor strikes, over-rated cuisine, a history-denying failing foreign policy, and of course France is the motherland of turned-up-noses. It's sad to think that our basketball players from the Bronx, wrestlers from rural Nebraska, and swimmers from Toledo will miss the experience of food made for anorexic fashion models, wine inferior to Californian, and waiters who won't accept "see view play". They'll also miss federal train workers striking for 10 weeks paid annual vacation. They'll miss France's progressive culture, a culture ungrateful to the hundreds of thousand of English speaking men and women who freed Frenchie from brutal dictators twice in the last century. You know if it weren't for the English-speaking Brits, Yanks, and Canucks Shirac would be eating sauerkraut and goose stepping between forced labor camps. But, today the French don't really need a reasonable stance on tyrants. After all, the English-speaking peoples will send their young men and women to Frenchie's rescue if his sorry defenses collapse again. Or will we?
During Chirac's lifetime how many healthy British men and women gave their last breath liberating French soil? Yet, here's what French President Jacques Chirac said last weekend to the laughing successors of Hitler and Stalin: (from BBC http://newsrss.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4649007.stm and ITN World News http://www.itn.co.uk/news/1869604.html)
"The only thing they (the English) have ever done for European agriculture is mad cow," Mr Chirac quipped, according to the paper, prompting laughter from Mr Schroeder and Mr Putin.
During Chirac's lifetime how many healthy British men and women gave their last breath liberating French soil? Yet, here's what French President Jacques Chirac said last weekend to the laughing successors of Hitler and Stalin: (from BBC http://newsrss.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4649007.stm and ITN World News http://www.itn.co.uk/news/1869604.html)
"The only thing they (the English) have ever done for European agriculture is mad cow," Mr Chirac quipped, according to the paper, prompting laughter from Mr Schroeder and Mr Putin. According to the paper Mr Chirac also took a snipe at British food, saying: "You can't trust people who cook as badly as that. After Finland, it's the country with the worst food."
2005-07-02
Health Club Etiquette
I'm in my health club whirlpool and in to join me from the locker room comes this sweaty guy straight from changing out of his workout clothes. He sits himself down within eyeshot of a sign that says - "SHOWER POLICY, Please shower before entering the swimming pool, whirlpool, sauna, and dry heat room." So what do I do?
- A) Ignore him. Everybody knows that whirlpools are no better than toilets anyway.
- B) Say, "Yuck" and quickly exit the pool.
- C) Look directly at him then look directly at the sign, making sure that he notices me.
- D) Report him to the club staff.
- E) After he dips his head in the pool I say, "I wouldn't put my head underwater here, some people don't shower before entering this pool.
- F) Tell him, "Uh, maybe you didn't notice but it's club policy to shower before entering the pools."
- G) Look him directly in the eye and say, "Look pal, I don't pay my hard earned dues at this club to soak in a swirl of your sweaty rancid body sluffoff."
- H) Threaten him with, "Hey. If I ever see you again enter this pool, or for that matter any pool, without first showering, me and my buddies are going to drag your sorry #ss to the showers and demonstrate how to scrub a scumbag clean with brillo. Do I make myself clear?"
- I) Just go berserk and drown the vile rat.
- J) Strike up a conversation with him, befriend him, and then try to sell him Amway stuff.
