*Some Chicago Boyz know each other from student days at the University of Chicago. Others are Chicago boys in spirit. The blog name is also intended as a good-humored gesture of admiration for distinguished Chicago boys including those pictured above (we claim no affiliation), and others who helped to liberalize Latin American economies.
"Restore(s) a little sanity into current political debate" - Kenneth Minogue, TLS "Projects a more expansive and optimistic future for Americans than (the analysis of) Huntington" - James R. Kurth, National Interest "One of (the) most important books I have read in recent years" - Lexington Green
Yesterday I heard about the death of Georgia’s Nodar Kumaritashvili. He was doing a training run on the luge when he lost control, went airborne, and slammed into a pole at a speed of approximately 90 mph. There is video, but I will not link to it. You can find it if you want. It is somewhat disturbing.
And how would I know that the video is disturbing? Because NBC, while crying their crocodile tears, showed this guy dying over and over and over last night. I had my children in the living room to have a peaceful night of watching the Opening Ceremonies and had to scramble for the remote while NBC kept showing the replay of the unfortunate athlete’s death. Read the rest of this entry »
Ann Althouse links to a great video if you have an extra hour and a half this weekend. Justice Thomas does a very interesting Q and A with students from the U of Florida Law School. It isn’t all about law, and the law they talk about is easy to understand for non lawyers like myself.
I was struck by some of the things that Thomas said. He says the word “honesty” quite often. Also, he mentions “doing things right” a lot. I can really identify with both of those concepts.
One other thing that struck me was a concept he brought up of “things aren’t always as they seem”. I don’t want to spoil the whole video so I will leave it to you to see in what context he uses it in. It was a real eye opener and hit home with me.
I have ordered Justice Thomas’s book from Amazon (only $11 for hardcover) and look forward to posting a review here in a few weeks.
In general, I am always impressed when I hear the Supreme Court Justices speak and write. They seem to be the only ones above the fray as far as our governmental structure goes. Even though I disagree with the viewpoints of some of the justices, I really do respect them for the job they do.
Well, the talk is that my oldest will be getting braces soon. She needs them. Her mother and father both went through it so it was pretty much expected. She also has an overbite which will need to be corrected. Back to this in a minute or two.
Have you ever had a person in your life that seemed to drop out of the blue, but affected you in an interesting way? Henry Rollins did. In his essay Iron, he speaks of Mr. Pepperman, who took pity on a scrawny, dorky kid, and taught Rollins how to lift weights. This gave Rollins a sense of accomplishment. It is a great essay and very motivational. I carry a copy of Iron in my briefcase and read it when I need a swift kick in the pants. Whenever I am sore or tired and don’t feel like going to the gym or running or biking or whatever training I need, I read Iron, strap it on, and get to work. Read the rest of this entry »
A few days ago on the way to work I was listening to Dirk Van’s show and he posed an interesting question to the listeners. Is the space program worth it?
Most said that it was, for a variety of reasons. Some of them posed were national pride, research that is done, and there were others.
I remember visiting the Kennedy Space Center several years ago. I loved the museums filled with the rockets and equipment used to explore space. I also was able to walk through the area where they were working on the International Space Station. I was with my father and he said to me “this has got to be a black hole of money here”. I couldn’t argue. I assume that NASA is run like any other government program, and is rife with waste.
The benefits of the space program are many. So many of the things that we use every day that we take for granted have been either invented or improved due to the space program.
But can’t we build a structure that can hold a perfect vacuum here on earth for a LOT cheaper and do the research there? Like for say, a billion dollars? For fiscal year -09, NASA’s budget was almost $18bb!
Do we need the weightless part to get the good research done?
Can’t private industry or individuals look for life on other planets?
I would love to hear from some of our scientists who read the blog as well as others on this subject.
A few days ago I put up a post that showed exactly how important it is for Americans to know their rights under the Fifth Amendment. The post had to deal with the Tiger Woods incident. Today, not so serious. This animation of the incident, even though it may or may not be true, is pretty funny to me (I actually laughed out loud at my desk here at work, which is very unusual for me). I am guessing it is from Taiwan, but maybe some of our more knowledgable readers could clue me in better than that. (HT Lou).
Way back in May of 2008 I linked a very interesting video that was done by an attorney, at this post. Unfortunately the link is now dead.
In essence, the attorney was pleading with people to protect their fifth amendment rights by NOT speaking with the police after an incident unless you have your attorney present, ever. In the video there was a police officer who also said that you should never speak with the cops without an attorney present even if you are IN THE RIGHT.
The attorney said that even if you are in the right, things you tell the police can get twisted and turned around (intentionally, or not), and could incriminate you.
I was thinking of this as the Tiger Woods situation unfolded. I will never know what really happened outside of Mr. Woods’s house in those early morning hours last week. But as I was reading coverage on it I kept seeing that the police kept wanting to come to his house to ask him questions and they were denied. Florida law only states that in this type of investigation that Woods give his license, registration and proof in insurance and apparently that is all that he gave. Finally, Mr. Woods hired an attorney.
It is possible that Mr. Woods hired an attorney right after the incident and got good advice not to speak to the cops, but this episode is a great example of someone who clearly knew his rights and decided to exercise them. Any interview with the police would have hurt Mr. Woods, even though he might have done nothing wrong and just merely had an accident.
Update: Commenter Andrew has a link to the video here.
I have written many times about how amazing I think it is that wildlife can thrive in urban settings. In my industrial park I have seen all types of crazy things that seem certainly out of place. This time of year the geese show up, migrating from the north. We are near several bodies of water and I think they use this area to take a break from flying.
I have seen woodchucks, skunks, tons of rabbits, squirrels, racoons, coyotes, deer, ducks (etc.) and just last week a couple more (big photos under the fold). Read the rest of this entry »
It has been written here many, many times that is getting more and more difficult to build base generation power plants in the USA. I can’t imagine what it would take to actually start up a nuclear power plant right now. Besides the billions and billions of dollars your company will spend, it will be dragged through the courts over and over and over again by land owners, environmentalists and others. I simply don’t have the stones for that constant harassment.
Today I heard a story about a proposed wind farm in West Virginia. Seems that the environmentalists there are trying to stand in the way of the wind farm to save a bat – the Indiana bat to be precise.
So I guess I am wondering that if WIND isn’t even clean enough energy, where would the environmentalists say that we should get our energy from? Electricity doesn’t exactly just drop out of the sky (unless you could harness a lightning bolt somehow). Or is the end game simply the destruction of any and all forms of commerce as we know them? All in the name of a bat that may or may not be harmed. Hard for me to tell what the real agenda is anymore.
I don’t typically wade into politics with my posts, but I just can’t help myself. The other day I was driving around in a town to be unnamed and stumbled upon the building you see in the picture below.
It looks like a typical warehouse that you would find in any of a million industrial parks in the United States.
But upon further investigation I found something quite different. This is the warehouse that the left uses to store it’s papier mache heads, sign making materials and other props for protest marches. Upon sniffing around it for a bit, I noticed that is was packed to the brim. It looked to me as they had contracted with a local lumberyard to supply the wood for their signage.
All humor aside, does the left not think that we haven’t noticed a certain…well…silence over Obama’s policies? It is OK for Obama to not only not decrease troop levels, but increase them as he is doing in Afghanistan? Why isn’t Gitmo closed? What the hell, even Iraq even has troops there that represent the Great Satan ™ as of now. I know because I am still sending care packages to them (unlike ANY of the protesters who claim they support the troops).
So just exactly what am I to think of the left? That these wars are OK as long as the President and Congress have a D by their names? Puhleeeze.
I listen to Bloomberg radio on XM most days when I am riding to work. They give a quick snapshot of the major markets and typically have interesting discussions that are not the usual shouting matches that you will find on the major networks.
Today in their news segment they reported some news that I had hoped I would see one day. I let out a cheer – what a great way to start out my week.
I understand that this will be a long fight, but at least it is a start.
Acorn has filed suit against the young filmmakers, who took video of Acorn employees helping them with plans on setting up whorehouses for minors. They have also sued Breitbart for distributing the video.
A few years ago I read a couple of books containing letters and replies to and from Ronald Reagan. I was fascinated by these writings and was quite surprised that the leader of the free world would take the time to actually reply to some of the mail he got. It opened up another side of Reagan to me – a more personal side.
Last week I was strolling through DFW and happened upon Cancel Your Own Goddam Subscription by William F. Buckley Jr. As I posted that last link to Amazon I notice that I paid $4 too much at the airport. Oh well, I had to have it for that flight.
Certain words, when used over and over again seem to lose their meaning.
When I was growing up, if I would have been asked to take out the trash and I woud have uttered the phrase “this sucks”, it would have been met with a bar of soap in my mouth and more than likely several lashes with my dad’s leather belt. Today, if someone has a little sniffle or a cold, I would say to them “that sucks” and everone would go on their way without blinking an eye. In general, from what I have experienced, I would say that we have become more vulgar in a big way over the last few decades.
Another word that has lost much of it’s intended meaning is “racism” or “racist”. This morning I passed a van on the way to work. On the side were these words:
“Eliminating Racism, Empowering Women”. I will let you guess the organization before the fold. Read the rest of this entry »
by William F. Buckley Jr. As I posted that last link to Amazon I notice that I paid $4 too much at the airport. Oh well, I had to have it for that flight.