May 5, 2010 -- “Billionaire Warren Buffett said he has studied the civil fraud charges against investment bank Goldman Sachs and has no problem with the transaction involved. Buffett, who is Berkshire Hathaway’s chief executive [and a major investor in Goldman], said yesterday that he thinks he understands the allegations against Goldman better than most people, and he does not believe the Abacus deal at the center of the case constitutes fraud.” So says an Associated Press report published on May 3. Unfortunately, I do not believe that Goldman’s chances of prevailing in court are as good as Warren Buffett thinks they are.
February 6, 2010 -- A war of pies broke out recently over one of Canada’s most unpopular practices: hunting seals. On Monday, January 25..
April 30, 2010 -- Stephen Hawking has a warning for humankind. First of all, the celebrated theoretical physicist believes that there
It’s appropriate that for Earth Day a British court has essentially confirmed Gaia’s status as a goddess who is worshiped by eco-acolytes.
Fred Miller is professor of philosophy and executive director of the Social Philosophy and Policy Center at Bowling Green State University.
Arizona has enacted a law that makes illegal immigration to the U.S. a state crime. As the top state for border-crossings from Mexico...
Aristotle originated the kind of literary theory that emphasizes the objective features of texts and the authorial intentions that those....
There are people whose jobs require some degree of worst-case thinking. I am one of them. Whole teams of threat assessment practitioners in my firm Gavin de Becker and Associates, spend their time developing contingency plans and responses to cover a variety of unfavorable outcomes. For example, making arrangements for a controversial public figure to give a speech at a rally about an emotionally charged political issue calls for contingency plans about many kinds of things that could happen, but we put more effort into those possibilities that are most likely. An assassin in the audience, at the vehicle arrival area, or along the foot-route from the car to the holding room, a sniper in the distance, a bomb that was placed a week before the event, someone trying to strike the public figure, even a pie attack—all these things and more are on our list during the days of planning leading up to such an appearance. I do not oppose contingency planning. I do oppose time-wasting, however, and in my firm, in my life, and in your life, everything we give energy to takes energy away from something else. Accordingly, we are wisest to put our resources where they’ll be most likely to return some benefit.
What should become of “Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group”? Should it go to Hertz? Should it go to Avis? How will this affect competition with Enterprise? I have no idea. Neither does the FTC, of course. But that it will not prevent it from issuing a decree obviating the judgment of the market. (Incidentally, this report from Reuters was written by Bijoy Koyitty in Bangalore--remarkable testimony to the globalization of business and business commentary.) spiderID=515
Dr. Stephen Hicks is chairman of the philosophy department at Rockford College, and executive director of the Center for Ethics and....
Maria Montessori, the first woman to graduate from the University of Rome Medical School, became a doctor in 1896. Her first post was in the
The philosophy of mathematics is the philosophical study of the concepts and methods of mathematics. It is concerned with the nature of....
March 26, 2010—It used to be that someone who regularly drank or ate to excess was simply considered a glutton. A person who tried to get
March 6, 2010--Lewis Carroll’s beloved Alice in Wonderland books have just been given a 3-D facelift by oddball director Tim Burton. In the
June 19, 2009 -- When I first saw the “Boycott UPS!” group on Facebook, I must admit that I was ready to believe the worst. After being
April 24, 2009 -- As Congress returns from spring recess and gets to work hammering out a health care reform bill, that dreaded statistic
September 5, 2009 -- As if we needed more proof, the ongoing dustup over health care reform in the United States has made it painfully
As the U.S. Senate argues about how best to take over the American health care industry, it is worth taking a look at how government health
April 13, 2010 -- Little more than one hundred years ago, women did not have the right to vote anywhere on Earth. Over the course of the twentieth century, this measure of women’s second class status faded away, and women’s suffrage gradually became all but universal. Today, every frontier is open to women—including the final frontier, as at this very moment, a record four women are circling our planet aboard the International Space Station. Given the advancement of women’s rights, it is hard to understand why any woman living in a free country would voluntarily cover her face in public. Yet some tiny minority of Muslim women living in the West do choose to wear the niqab, a full face veil. A Quebec law proposed late last month, Bill 94, would interfere with that choice. It would entrust top government administrators with the power to forbid public sector employees, as well as those using government services, from covering their faces if “reasons of security, communication or identification warrant it.” The controversial proposal has touched off a fierce debate within and without the Canadian province on what it means to be modern, tolerant, and free.
Ayn Rand and Mises knew each other, and they were on good personal terms, though never close friends. There is reason to think Rand read....
May 5, 2010 -- “Billionaire Warren Buffett said he has studied the civil fraud charges against investment bank Goldman Sachs and has no problem with the transaction involved. Buffett, who is Berkshire Hathaway’s chief executive [and a major investor in Goldman], said yesterday that he thinks he understands the allegations against Goldman better than most people, and he does not believe the Abacus deal at the center of the case constitutes fraud.” So says an Associated Press report published on May 3. Unfortunately, I do not believe that Goldman’s chances of prevailing in court are as good as Warren Buffett thinks they are.
February 6, 2010 -- A war of pies broke out recently over one of Canada’s most unpopular practices: hunting seals. On Monday, January 25..
April 30, 2010 -- Stephen Hawking has a warning for humankind. First of all, the celebrated theoretical physicist believes that there
It’s appropriate that for Earth Day a British court has essentially confirmed Gaia’s status as a goddess who is worshiped by eco-acolytes.
Fred Miller is professor of philosophy and executive director of the Social Philosophy and Policy Center at Bowling Green State University.
Arizona has enacted a law that makes illegal immigration to the U.S. a state crime. As the top state for border-crossings from Mexico...
Aristotle originated the kind of literary theory that emphasizes the objective features of texts and the authorial intentions that those....
There are people whose jobs require some degree of worst-case thinking. I am one of them. Whole teams of threat assessment practitioners in my firm Gavin de Becker and Associates, spend their time developing contingency plans and responses to cover a variety of unfavorable outcomes. For example, making arrangements for a controversial public figure to give a speech at a rally about an emotionally charged political issue calls for contingency plans about many kinds of things that could happen, but we put more effort into those possibilities that are most likely. An assassin in the audience, at the vehicle arrival area, or along the foot-route from the car to the holding room, a sniper in the distance, a bomb that was placed a week before the event, someone trying to strike the public figure, even a pie attack—all these things and more are on our list during the days of planning leading up to such an appearance. I do not oppose contingency planning. I do oppose time-wasting, however, and in my firm, in my life, and in your life, everything we give energy to takes energy away from something else. Accordingly, we are wisest to put our resources where they’ll be most likely to return some benefit.
What should become of “Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group”? Should it go to Hertz? Should it go to Avis? How will this affect competition with Enterprise? I have no idea. Neither does the FTC, of course. But that it will not prevent it from issuing a decree obviating the judgment of the market. (Incidentally, this report from Reuters was written by Bijoy Koyitty in Bangalore--remarkable testimony to the globalization of business and business commentary.) spiderID=515
Dr. Stephen Hicks is chairman of the philosophy department at Rockford College, and executive director of the Center for Ethics and....
Maria Montessori, the first woman to graduate from the University of Rome Medical School, became a doctor in 1896. Her first post was in the
The philosophy of mathematics is the philosophical study of the concepts and methods of mathematics. It is concerned with the nature of....
March 26, 2010—It used to be that someone who regularly drank or ate to excess was simply considered a glutton. A person who tried to get
March 6, 2010--Lewis Carroll’s beloved Alice in Wonderland books have just been given a 3-D facelift by oddball director Tim Burton. In the
June 19, 2009 -- When I first saw the “Boycott UPS!” group on Facebook, I must admit that I was ready to believe the worst. After being
April 24, 2009 -- As Congress returns from spring recess and gets to work hammering out a health care reform bill, that dreaded statistic
September 5, 2009 -- As if we needed more proof, the ongoing dustup over health care reform in the United States has made it painfully
As the U.S. Senate argues about how best to take over the American health care industry, it is worth taking a look at how government health
April 13, 2010 -- Little more than one hundred years ago, women did not have the right to vote anywhere on Earth. Over the course of the twentieth century, this measure of women’s second class status faded away, and women’s suffrage gradually became all but universal. Today, every frontier is open to women—including the final frontier, as at this very moment, a record four women are circling our planet aboard the International Space Station. Given the advancement of women’s rights, it is hard to understand why any woman living in a free country would voluntarily cover her face in public. Yet some tiny minority of Muslim women living in the West do choose to wear the niqab, a full face veil. A Quebec law proposed late last month, Bill 94, would interfere with that choice. It would entrust top government administrators with the power to forbid public sector employees, as well as those using government services, from covering their faces if “reasons of security, communication or identification warrant it.” The controversial proposal has touched off a fierce debate within and without the Canadian province on what it means to be modern, tolerant, and free.
Ayn Rand and Mises knew each other, and they were on good personal terms, though never close friends. There is reason to think Rand read....