February 24, 2016
OK, Hillary has a firewall against the Bern in South Carolina because of that state’s Black & Hispanic populations.
Her popularity with Blacks is part historical for Democrats, part a residual from Bill Clinton and part from President Obama’s 90% approval rating among Blacks:
Source: Gallup
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I get that.
And, I hear Hillary & Bernie ranting about income inequality, implying that it’s all the Republican’s fault.
They seem to be forgetting that President Obama has been riding herd on the economy for 7-1/2 years.
Yes, he inherited the “worst recession since the Depression”, but look what has happened since the recession ended.
Median household income for Whites has pretty much leveled out.
But, median household income for Blacks has continued to fall off.
In fact, the median household income gap between Blacks & Whites has widened since the end of the recession under President Obama’s watch.
Source: CNBC
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So tell me, why the sky-high approval rating and Hillary’s firewall?
I must be missing something.
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Posted in Clinton, Hillary, Income Inequality, Obama Administration | Leave a Comment »
February 23, 2016
We’re not talking Apple building a backdoor to access your encrypted info, we’re talking ordinary old cyber-criminals intercepting messages, seizing account numbers and passwords, and taking remote control of cell phones.
According to Knowledge @ Wharton …
By 2015, more Americans are expected to access the Internet through a mobile device than a PC.
And, 45% of surveyed users do not see cybersecurity on their mobile devices as a threat in the same way as they see it on their computers.
The 55% couldn’t be more wrong.
Here’s why …
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Posted in Cybersecurity - cybercrime, Mobile devices, Privacy | Leave a Comment »
February 22, 2016
Answer: Around 200,000
The numbers skyrocketed from the 1970s to about 2005.
The growth rate slowed a bit until 2010.
Since then, the pace has picked up again.
Since 1970, over 2 million MBAs have been conferred..
Source: ”Digest of Education Statistics”
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February 19, 2016
Interesting article on Quartz.com tracking how “the internet’s power to unbundle content sparked a rapid transformation of the music industry” and arguing that “it’s doing the same thing to higher education today.”
Let’s start with the recorded music industry.
It’s no surprise that
The unbundling of albums in favor of individual songs was one of the biggest causes of the music industry’s decline.
It cannibalized the revenue of record labels as 99-cent songs gained popularity over $20 albums.
What did surprise me is that recording industry revenues have dropped by half from the $14 billion in 2000.
The eroding revenues and and internet dynamics have “changed the way music labels had to operate in order to maintain profitability.”
“The traditional services of labels: identifying artists; investing in them; recording, publishing, and distributing their work; and marketing them—are now increasingly offered a la carte.”
And, talk about the top 1% and distribution of riches …
Being a recording artist these days is a hard gig …
Pressure from labels then had downstream effects on content creators, specifically artists.
The top one 1% of artists now take home 77% of revenue, and the rest is spread across an increasing number of artists.
The pain of the record labels is forced on artists through smaller royalty payments.
Ouch.
Now, what’s the parallel to higher education?
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Posted in Digital Media, Disruptive Innovation, Education - Academics, Music | 1 Comment »
February 18, 2016
According to the latest research, IQ accounts for what portion of career success?
a. 50 to 60 percent
b. 35 to 45 percent
c. 23 to 29 percent
d. 15 to 20 percent
The answer …
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Posted in EQ - Emotional Quotient, IQ - IQ Scores, Left brain - right brain, Whole brain | Leave a Comment »
February 17, 2016
Believe it or not, this topic came up in a chat with students … so, I decided to reprise it.
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Business Week ran an article titled “Keeping the Mystery Out of China’s Meat”
Can’t explain why I decided to read it.
But, I did … and here’s what caught my eye.
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Posted in Food & Drink, Laughs, Walmart | 2 Comments »
February 16, 2016
According to Pew Research …
Overall, 33% of Americans say they do their own taxes while 56% say someone else prepares their taxes.
- Note 1: 11% don’t know who does their taxes or were befuddled by the question
- Note 2: The folks in the 11% get to vote in Presidential elections (ouch!)
A majority of Americans (56%) have a negative reaction to doing their income taxes 1 in 4 say they hate doing them.
Among those who dislike or hate doing their taxes, most cite the hassles of the process or the amount of time it takes:
About a third (34%) say they either like (29%) or love (5%) doing their taxes.
Here are some details re: the “likers” and lovers …
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Tags: Pew Research
Posted in Polls & Surveys, Taxes | Leave a Comment »
February 12, 2016
A couple of weeks ago, there was a local bruhaha.
One lady sent a snitty email late at night to a club mailing list.
One of the recipients – who had been sipping wine all night – took offense, and shot back a nuclear-rated reply… to the whole list, of course.
A major cat-fight broke out … wasn’t pretty.
.Got me thinking more generally about about late night emails …
And, by coincidence, the Harvard Business Review just published an article on the topic.
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Posted in Digital behavior, Email, Workplace | Leave a Comment »
February 11, 2016
Cruz, Bush & Rubio were only separated by about 1 percentage point and each of the 3 walked away with the same number of delegates.
Kamikaze Christie trailed Rubio by more than 3 percentage points and headed back to NJ with no delegates …
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Bernie Sanders shot some hoops before his victory speech.
Whatever Bernie eats, I want some.
That dude has stamina ….
…………
And, a couple of pics that sum up the final election ….
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Posted in 2016 Campaign, Clinton, Hillary, Trump, Donald | 1 Comment »
February 10, 2016
Talk about about a smackdown …
Clinton camp was hoping to keep the margin within single-digits … didn’t happen.
New Hampshire voters were feelin’ the Bern, for sure.
Ranting more credibly against Wall Street’s 1-percenters and offering even more stuff for free than Hillary, Sanders coasted.
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Here are a couple of voting details that caught my eye …
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February 9, 2016
We’re covering market definition in class this week, so it’s time to pull from the archives …
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Sounds like an easy question with an obvious answer, right?
Not really.
Sometimes, properly defining the market is a stumbling block for strategists.
Harvard guru Clayton Christensen tries to cut to the crux with a simple principle:
People “hire” products to do “jobs”
The jobs are situation-specific problems that customers have to resolve.
Christensen says that the best way to define (and segment) is based on “jobs to be done”.
He calls the approach “milkshake marketing” …. the 5-minute video explains why.
Here’s a more rigorous definition of the “Jobs to be DOne” Framework …
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February 8, 2016
Disclaimer: I’m a Rubio fan since he has brains & stage presence (usually) … which should translate to electability.
So, I was stunned that he was under-prepped for Saturday’s debate … and got steam-rolled by Christie.
Christie’s points re: accomplishments, accountability and leadership are legitimate … and certainly should have been expected.
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Obviously, Marco could have handled the onslaught more effectively.
Here’s how …
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Posted in 2016 Presidential Election, Christie, Gov. Chris, Debates, Rubio, Marco | Leave a Comment »
February 5, 2016
Making the email rounds: the state mainstream print media …
1. The Wall Street Journal is read by the people who run the country.
2. The Washington Post is read by people who think they run the country.
3. The New York Times …
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Posted in Mainstream Media - MSM, Newspapera | 1 Comment »
February 4, 2016
I know that this doesn’t matter from a political perspective… Bernie stands zero chance of winning the nomination.
But I think that the math is interesting … made me dust off my recollections of combinatorial probabilities.
Just in case you’ve been asleep for the past couple of days (or get all of your news from the NY Times), Hillary squeaked by Bernie in Iowa … I mean, really squeaked.
The ending tally was that Hillary got credit for 701 delegates and Bernie got credit for 697.
How those final totals were concocted is very interesting.
Here’s the scoop … and the stats.
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Posted in 2016 Campaign, Statistics - Probabilities | Leave a Comment »
February 3, 2016
This week, a poll finally asked a question that really cuts to the chase:
Which better describes how you feel about the way things are going in the world these days?
- a) Things are going to hell in a handbasket
- b) Everything will be alright
- c) Don’t know
Started me wondering:
What’s up with a goofy idiom like “going to hell in a handbasket”?
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Posted in Idioms, Language - Slang, Polls & Surveys | 2 Comments »
February 2, 2016
Ok, he didn;t say it (but he should have).
And, Hillary didn’t say it (but she could have).
And the NY tabloids didn’t say it (a missed opportunity).
The NY Daily News did demonstrate some good old NY values in their headline today:
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And, in my opinion, the NY Post hit the nail on the head:
Couple of quick takes:
Conventional wisdom was that Cruz blew it with his “New York values” remark … especially when Trump cleverly tied it to 9-11.
It wasn’t about 9-11, it was about pushy arrogance … you know, bullying … the “we’re smart, rest of America is dumb” bravado.
Geez, the mainstream media missed that one …. but the dumb folks in Iowa picked up on it.
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Then there’s the sophomoric “born in Canada” rift.
Trump probably figured that slight would work … after all, he killed Bush by simply characterizing him as” low energy’ … being born in Canada has got to be worse than that, right?
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Speaking of Bush … here’s a grand irony.
Trump buried any hopes Jeb had to become President.
So, what does Jeb do?
He spends 10s of millions of dollars trying to scorch Rubio.
What’s the outcome?
Well, the attack ads were probably just enough to keep Marco from beating Trump out for the #2 finish.
If Trump had finished 3rd, it might have been fatal to his “I’m a winner” campaign pitch.
But, as 1st runner-up, he lives to campaign another day.
So, it may turn out that Jeb was a king-maker … with the crown going to his nemesis.
Ironic, right?
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February 1, 2016
This is from the HomaFiles archives – one of my favs.
The original WSJ article was inspired by Clinton’s win over elder Bush (the Perot factor), younger Bush’s win over Gore (the Nader factor), and Jesse Ventura’s gov win in Minnesota.
The analysis has relevancy these days, given the way that the not-Trump vote is being carved thin among many GOP presidential contenders.
Let’s see how Iowa turns out tonight …
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Tags: 3rd parties, elections, multiple candidates, not-Romney, Romney, splinter votes, voting
Posted in Election - 2012, Elections - General, Politics - General | Leave a Comment »
January 29, 2016
I’ve been reading a book called How Not to Be Wrong: The Power of Mathematical Thinking by Jordan Ellenberg
The author recounts a classic stock advisor scam that goes like this …
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One day, you receive an unsolicited newsletter from an investment advisor, containing a tip that a certain stock is due for a big rise.
A week passes, and just as the Investment advisor predicted, the stock goes up.
The next week, you get a new edition of the newsletter, and this time, the tip is about a stock whose price the adviser thinks is going to fall.
And indeed, the stock craters.
That’s good, but it gets even better …
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January 28, 2016
Here’s an interesting twist: what if Michael Bloomberg runs as a 3rd party candidate and siphons some electoral votes from, say Clinton and Trump, keeping them both from attaining the necessary 270 electoral votes.
Could create a very interesting situation.
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So, what happens if none of the presidential candidates gets 270 electoral votes?
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Tags: 269 eleectoral votes, What happens if presidential candidate are tied in electoral votes?, what if the presidential election is a tie?
Posted in 2012 Campaign, 2016 Campaign, Electoral College | Leave a Comment »
January 26, 2016
Lots of chatter around whether Michael Bloomberg will run as 3rd party candidates.
Raises a logical question …
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Has any 3rd party presidential candidate ever won any electoral votes?
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January 25, 2016
First, a good news story.
After about 5 hours of snow blowing & shoveling (12 hours if you count yesterday, too), I finally got to the heap of snow left by the snow plows at the bottom of our driveway.
I hacked away at for quite awhile and then … you guessed it … the plow came back and deposited another a new gargantuan pile of snow, re-blocking the driveway
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Believe it or not, I was able to just laugh it off … and, the Lord rewarded me.
A couple of minutes later, the plow returned … the driver honked for me to back away … then proceeded to maneuver his plow like a sports car … totally removing the pile he had previously deposited.
He honked and waved.
I gave him a thumbs up … my faith in mankind temporarily restored.
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Of course, the incident reminded of my pick for the best commercial ever …
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January 22, 2016
Here’s a chart that caught my eye re: the value of a college degree …
Since the mid-60s, the real wages of a worker holding a bachelor’s degree have increased by about 40%.
The increase for workers with a graduate degree is even greater …. almost 90%
That sounds formidable, but even it is only about 1.3% per annum.
Source
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Dragging the numbers down further …
During the same period, real wages for high school grads only increased about 15% … about 1/4% per annum.
And, real wages for workers without a high school degree stayed flat … or arguably, fell.
Of course, those small percentage differences in growth rates have a dramatic compounding effect …
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January 21, 2016
The NY Times ran a piece by Harvard Prof Greg Mankiew summarizing his views re: high and increasing college tuitions.
One of Mankiw’s identified causes is “Baumol’s Cost Disease”
Many years ago, the economist William Baumol noted that for many services — haircuts as well as string quartet performances — productivity barely advances over time.
Yet as overall productivity rises in the economy, wages increase, so the cost of producing these services increases as well.
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Education is a case in point …
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Posted in Education - Academics, Productivity, Tuitions | Leave a Comment »
January 20, 2016
Interesting piece in Politico …
Let’s start with a quick test.
Imagine yourself as a parent.
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Would you prefer that your children be:
- respectful or independent
- obedient or self-reliant
- well-behaved or considerate
- well-mannered or curious
Pick one from each of the above pairs.
Let’s see how ‘authoritarian’ you are …
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Posted in 2016 Presidential Election, Behavioral analytics, Demograhics, Trump, Donald | Leave a Comment »
January 19, 2016
Starting up my strategy course and pitching some stuff from strategy guru Michael Porter.
In the spirit of full disclosure, I feel obligated to remind folks that the consulting outfit started by Porter – went bankrupt a couple of years ago and got acquired by Deloitte.
How ironic … an uber-strategist’s own company goes belly up.
Here’s the scoop …
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Posted in Consulting - Consultants, Porter, Michael | 3 Comments »
January 15, 2016
Remember the post-San Bernardino revelation that DHS doesn’t check social media before granting visas because applicants might think that their privacy is being violated.
Well, guess what.
Employers don’t feel the same need to tread lightly when vetting job applicants.
To that point. according to a 2015 Harris poll, a majority of employers (52%, to be precise) use social networking sites to screen job candidates during the hiring process. Source
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Specifically, what are employers looking for?
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Posted in Background checks, Employers, Social Media & Networking | Leave a Comment »
January 14, 2016
Last night’s Powerball payoff was $1.6 billion.
Even at Powerball’s ridiculous odds – 1 chance in 250 million of winning – that’s a good bet statistically, right?
Let’s go thru some math.
In econ-speak, the nominal expected value of the payoff is $1.6 divided by 250 million … about $6.
Since each PB ticket costs $2 … and $6 is way greater than $2 … that’s a good bet, right?
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As Mr. Miyagi would tell the Karate Kid: “Not so fast, Grasshopper”
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Posted in Behavioral Economics, Econ, Economics, Expected value, Powerball | 2 Comments »
January 13, 2016
According to the WSJ …
9 out of 10 business owners surveyed by the American Association Colleges and Universities said that recent college graduates as poorly prepared for the work force in such areas as critical thinking, communication and problem solving.
“Employers are say that they don’t care about all the knowledge you learned because it’s going to be out of date two minutes after you graduate … they care about whether you can continue to learn over time and solve complex problems.”
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Are employers being too critical?
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Posted in College life, Education - Academics | Leave a Comment »
January 12, 2016
Each year, United Van LinesUnited Van Lines published a report indicating the number of net moves made into and out of states.
Here’s the summary …
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And, here are the details re: states with the highest outflows and inflows …
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Posted in Migration - State-to-state, Moves - inbound & outbound, State & local taxes, Taxes | 1 Comment »
January 11, 2016
The most recent former mayor of Philadelphia was named Michael Nutter.
His successor – the current Philly mayor – is James Kenney.
Channeling President Obama, Mayor Kenney hit the airwaves on Friday to declare that the shooting of a Philly cop “had nothing to do with being Muslim”.
click to view video
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Say, what?
The Mayor’s comments followed a police new conference announcing that the shooter said that he “had pledged allegiance to ISIS and that he targeted an officer because police defend laws that are contrary to the Quran.”
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And, that’s not all …
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Posted in Political correctness, Stop saying, War on Terror | 1 Comment »
January 8, 2016
Let’s end the week with something from the you-can’t-make-this-stuff-up file …
There has been an epidemic of burglaries in DC.
The DC police chief chalks it a change in criminals’ organization structure:
“We used to say that violence was neighborhood-based … now criminal street gangs are organized around armed robberies.
They’re involved in a high number of robberies and they don’t just do it in one neighborhood.”
In MBA-speak, they used to be organized geographically … now they’re organizing functionally.
Hmmm.
Recognizing the problem, Mayor Muriel Bowser did the what mayors do ….
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Posted in Crime, Government & Politics, Laughs | 1 Comment »
January 7, 2016
Hot topic these days is how wages have remained stagnant for a long, long time … while productivity – think output per labor-hour has soared.
The political explanation: over-sized paychecks to greedy CEO’s have been draining the coffers.
That may be a part of the answer, but I bet it’s statistically insignificant.
I haven’t run the nums, but I bet that zeroing all CEO compensation wouldn’t budge the below chart.
In addition to greedy CEO’s, the batch of suspects usually includes: automation (shifting jobs to machines & computers), globalization (moving jobs to low wage areas), immigration (an influx of cheap labor).
In other words, the supply of labor and the demand for labor are out of whack.
OK, I get that.
But nobody seems to ever mention a pretty obvious bump in the supply of labor ….
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Posted in Economics, Labor force participation rate (LFPR), Wages | 3 Comments »
January 6, 2016
Over the past couple of weeks, there has been an endless series of media spots about some Pew Research data demonstrating, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that the middle class is shrinking.
A common headline played off the rich are getting richer. theme:
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Pretty dire, right?
Not so fast.
Digging deeper into the Pew numbers paints a different picture…
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Posted in American Dream, Income & Wealth, Income Inequality, Pew Research | Leave a Comment »
January 5, 2016
The mainstream media loves to bash big business and praise big government, but guess what … the American people don’t seem to buy it.
Each year, Gallup asks which is the bigger future threat: big business, big government or big labor.
For 50 years, big government has won that horse race … usually by a pretty big margin.
But, post 9-11 and during the Obama honeymoon period, the government-as-a-threat numbers dipped a bit.
That improvement was short-lived.
Most recently, the numbers have hit historic highs with about 70% thinking that big government is the biggest threat.
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The breakdown by political party affiliation has a few surprises to offer …
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January 4, 2016
In a prior post, we opined that the Fed’s 1/4% rate increase shouldn’t have a material effect on business investment or consumer mortgage rates.
For details, see Fed Watch: Is 1/4 of 1 percent a big number or a little number ?
But it will have a BIG impact on the cost to service the U.S. Debt … which is now over $18 trillion.
A basic math principle: A little number times a very big number results in another very big number.
In this specific case, $18 trillion times .25% equals $45 billion.
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That said, I don’t think that the Fed discount rate is the right number to watch … especially if you’re a stock market watcher.
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December 24, 2015
This short slide show was sent to me by a friend.
It really resonated with me, so it has become a Christmas tradition for me to share it with you.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all !
… back with you after the New Year
* * * * *
click picture to launch (best with audio on)
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December 23, 2015
Let’s end this week on a lighter note (<= pun intended).
Loyal readers know that I’ve been a long-standing of airlines charging by the pound rather than having a flat fare that is applied to all passengers – small, big and supersized.
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December 22, 2015
I’m sure you’ve noticed that gas prices have come down at the pump.
If you follow the economy or the stock market, you’ve certainly noticed that oil prices have come down … a couple of years ago it was selling for over $130 per barrel … now it’s selling for under $35.
Most pundits chalk it up to slowing economic growth in China.
But, that sounded too simple to me, so I started asking some questions … why’s it happening? who’s getting helped or hurt?
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Here’s my current theory of the case …
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Posted in Climate change, Energy, Gas Prices, ISIS, Oil & Energy | 1 Comment »
December 21, 2015
Last week, I built a partial Cabinet from the current cast of GOP Presidential candidates.
HHS – Dr. Ben Carson
Commerce – Ms. Carly Fiorina
State – Sen. Marco Rubio
Justice (AG) – Gov. Chris Christie
V.P. – Gov. John Kasich
For details & rational, See Let’s build a cabinet ….
OK, I’m ready to declare my pick for the top spot.
It’s a long-shot, especially since he’s not a declared candidate.
But I can dream, can’t I ?
I hoping that since the current field – on both sides – doesn’t have a president-ready candidate, that this guy will ride in on a white horse … or, be dragged in …. I don’t really care.
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Here’s his top line bio:
Education: William & Mary, University of Chicago Law School (doubt that he studied under Prof. Obama)
Gov’t experience: DOJ under both GOP and Dem administrations
Business experience: Worked in both the defense sector and the financial sector (not just a political hack)
Proven track record: Has been demonstrably successful in everything he has done
High Integrity: Consistently praised by both ends of the political spectrum — not for being bi-partisan, but for being non-partisan
Apolitical: He’s clearly “in the game” for the right reasons – to serve the country and its people.
Independent: Earned enough FU-money in his real world jobs that he can’t be bought or swayed.
Orientation: “Gets it” regarding the war on terror … realistic, aggressive
Strong leadership: When the guy talks, I think he’s telling the truth and glad that he’s got a hand on the tiller (think, the polar opposite to Obama’s speech after San Bernardino.)
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Pretty solid, right?
So, who’s my pick?
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December 19, 2015
A couple of weeks, we posted: Why does he persist in calling it “ISIL”?
The central observation was that EVERYBODY else (including the Washington Post and New York Times) called the terrorist group ISIS, but Obama continued to use the more arcane term ISIL
According to Wiki :
“The usage of the term “Levant” has been relegated to academia in the fields of archeology and literature, but there is a recent attempt to reclaim the notion of the Levant as a category of analysis in political and social sciences.”
For a detailed explanation of the nuanced differences, see ISIS, ISIL,Islamic State, etc.
We asked “Why?” … and hypothesized that the President was playing a card right out of the “Power Personna” playbook.
Rule #3: Establish superiority through language, e.g.
“I’m way smarter than you are, so I’ll call it ISIL (especially since you don’t call it that and you’re stupid)”
Well, well, well …
At his press conference last Friday, President Obama finally broke down and called the terrorist group ISIS.
Hmmm
Let’s recount the bidding ….
The HomaFiles takes the President to task for using arcane academic language to appear superior to the masses.
Days later, the self-proclaimed ‘gifted’ orator changes course and starts talking like all of rest of us folks … blurting out the phrase ISIS.
Coincidence?
What’s next “Radical Islamic Terrorists”?
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December 18, 2015
During this week’s GOP debate, the obvious became clear to me.
Like many (most?) people, I have trouble envisioning any of the candidates sitting behind the desk in the Oval Office (or standing at a podium in front of the desk).
But, there’s premium lemonade that can be squeezed from the cast of characters.
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Specifically, if these boys and girl can modify their behavior to swallow their egos and play nice-nice with one another, I think a powerful cabinet can be put together .
Here’s the team I’d put on the field …
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December 17, 2015
Ok, the Fed finally hiked rates by a whooping 1/4% ….
A common view: “geez, is the economy so bad that it can’t absorb a measly 25 bps increase in interest rates?”
Obviously, .25% isn’t enough to sway many corporate investment decisions … most corporate investments are projected to return mucho above the firm’s cost of capital … not mere quarters of a point. Reality is that firms have hurdle rates way above their cost of capital, reflecting implicit risk and organizations’ limited implementation capacity.
So, what’s likely to be the major impact?
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Here’s my take…
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Posted in Federal Reserve, Interest rates, Law of big numbers, Numbers - big & small | 1 Comment »
December 16, 2015
There was a “must read” opinion piece in the Washington Post last weekend.
The article was penned by left-leaning GWU law professor Jonathan Turley
Turley has long been warning that Dems may think it is clever and appropriate when Obama circumvents the Congress and courts to implement his partisan policies, that they should be forewarned that what goes around, come around.
Specifically, he says:
Democrats have supported President Obama’s claims of unchecked authority in a variety of areas.
Obama has been particularly aggressive in his unilateral actions.
From health care to immigration to the environment, he has set out to order changes long refused by Congress.
Thrilled by those changes, supporters have ignored the obvious danger that they could be planting a deeply unfortunate precedent if the next president proves to be a Cruz rather than a Clinton.
While the policies may not carry over to the next president, the powers will.
The Obama model will be attractive to successors who, although they may have a different agenda, have the same appetite for unilateral decisions.
Here are some specifics that he cites:
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Posted in Exec, Executive Orders, Obama, ObamaCare, Turley, Jonathan | Leave a Comment »
December 15, 2015
Trump’s plan to temporarily halt visas for Muslims “until we figure out what’s going on” was met with broad-scale indignation.
To summarize the outcry: “It’s unconstitutional … and, even if it isn’t, it’s just not who we are.”
Oh, really?
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Let’s dive a bit deeper on the constitutionality and the “who we are” arguments …
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Posted in Not who we are, Stop saying, Trump, Donald | 1 Comment »
December 14, 2015
No, I’m not talking about the Paris Accords … I’ll get to them later.
I’m talking about Christmas shoppers strolling the streets of DC in shirtsleeves with temps in the 70s.
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I heard a lot of comments like “This is sweet” and “Who needs Florida?”
I didn’t overhear anybody saying “But, what will happen to the earth 10,000 years from now?” or “How about those Paris Accords?”
So, I feel obligated to draw attention to the “historic” Paris Climate Change Accords.
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Posted in Climate change, Energy, Paris Accords (Climate Change) | 1 Comment »
December 11, 2015
The press & politicos have been excoriating Syed Farook’s neighbors for not alerting the authorities that a gaggle of Muslim-looking guys were frequently gathering in Farook’s garage.
“If they had only called, the San Bernardino massacre might not have happened at all”
It sounds pretty straightforward, doesn’t it?
But, let’s take a test …
What do you see in the below picture?
If this were laid open at, say, an airport or school, would you “say something”?
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Do you know what happened to the folks who thought the item was pretty suspicious and decided to “say something”?
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Posted in "See something, say something", Dumb stuff that people say | 2 Comments »
December 10, 2015
I got a few questions and comments after the post earlier this week asking about President Obama:
Once again, let’s answer the question: what’s the difference among all those names?
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Posted in ISIL, ISIS, Obama | Leave a Comment »
December 9, 2015
Pundits are struggling to explain Donald Trump’s continued strong — and arguably strengthening — position in the Presidential race.
It’s simple Watson.
Just imagine him as a Cuban boxer.
Many of you may be too young to have witnessed and remember, but…
In the 1972 Olympics, the polished U.S. boxing team was predicted to sweep the competition.
But, something happened on the way to the medals’ platform that shocked the sporting world.
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Here’s the story and why Trump jogged my memory of the 1972 Olympics …
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Posted in Boxing, Cuba - Cuban, Olympics, Sports - Games - Recreation, Trump, Donald | Leave a Comment »
December 8, 2015
OK, I know that “Levant” refers to a broader area than Iraq and Syria.
My point: if you’re trying to communicate clearly, it usually helps to speak in the jargon of the listeners.
Even, media shills refer to the terrorists as ISIS … and, they even do it to help readers — translating what Obama means when he says “ISIL”.
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To get a bit more technical, Wiki says:
“The usage of the term “Levant” has been relegated to academia in the fields of archeology and literature, but there is a recent attempt to reclaim the notion of the Levant as a category of analysis in political and social sciences.”
Hmm.
An arcane academic usage … being reclaimed by politicos.
But, for what reason?
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Posted in Obama, Power plays, Speeches | 2 Comments »
December 7, 2015
The terrorist murders in California last week were a horrendous tragedy.
Can you imagine being one of the family or friends of the innocent victims?
For me, it evokes the feelings I had when attending the funeral wake of one of my former students who was killed on 9-11.
I will never forget the look on his mother’s face as she tried to stay strong while standing in front of her dear son’s coffin.
That scene permanently framed my reaction to terrorists and their cold-blooded murderous actions.
With that as a backdrop, I was stunned by some of the outrageous (and dumb) things that were said following the killings ….
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Posted in Media Bias, Obama Administration, Terrorism | 1 Comment »
The Homa Files 