- William Rees-Mogg
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Quote of the Day
When a leader arrives, people are full of panic, uncertain what to do and defeatist about the future. When the authentic leader has spoken, they have been given back their courage.
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
"Outrageous History"
This place has always been majestic, awe-inspiring and dangerous.
The people who came here, and continue to arrive, are strivers, connivers and survivors. What follows are some of the outrageous characters who made Arizona what it is today.
Read the rest of the True West magazine article here.
The Unbeaten Path to the Better Mousetrap
An "old lawyer in a very small firm" is absolutely correct when it comes to the virtues of WordPerfect.
I started using Word after using WordPerfect for years. Today, despite additional years of using Word almost exclusively, my conclusion is that WordPerfect is greatly superior due to its ease of use, especially by those of us who do not want to spend hours with a technical manual. If our clients had not switched to Word, we'd still be using it.
When History Tales Were on Prime Time
Look at this listing of some television shows that ran from 1949 to 1970:
26 Men, Adventures of Jim Bowie, Adventures of Kit Carson, The Alaskans, Annie Oakley, Bat Masterson, The Big Valley, Black Saddle, Bonanza, Boots and Saddles, Branded, Brave Eagle, Broken Arrow, Bronco, Buckskin, Buffalo Bill Jr., The Californians, Casey Jones, Cheyenne, Cimarron City, Cimarron Strip, The Cisco Kid, Colt 45, Custer, Dakotas, Davy Crockett, Death Valley Days, Deputy, Dundee and the Culhane, Frontier Doctor, Fury, Gene Autry, The Gray Ghost, Guns of Will Sonnett, Gunslinger, Gunsmoke, Have Gun Will Travel, High Chapparal, Hondo, Hopalong Cassidy, Iron Horse, Johnny Ringo, Judge Roy Bean, Klondike, Lancer, Laramie, Laredo, Lawman, Law of the Plainsman, Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp, Loner, The Lone Ranger, Mackenzie's Raiders, Maverick, Men from Shiloh, Northwest Passage, Range Rider, Rawhide, Sgt Preston of the Yukon, Sheriff of Cochise, Stagecoach West, Steve Donovan - Western Marshal, The Rebel, Restless Gun, The Rifleman, Rin Tin Tin, Riverboat, Road West, Roy Rogers, Rough Riders, Stoney Burke, Sugarfoot, The Swamp Fox, Tales of the 77th Bengal Lancers, Tales of the Texas Rangers, Tales of Wells Fargo, Tate, Temple Houston, Texas John Slaughter, Tombstone Territory, Trackdown, Union Pacific, The Virginian, Wagon Train, Wanted Dead or Alive, Wild Bill Hickok, Wild Wild West, Wichita Town, Yancy Derringer, Zorro.
I bet that many of you grew up watching at least seven of those shows. Setting aside the issue of historical accuracy, there was a lot of history on prime time in those days.
It is a shame that we've moved so far away from those subjects.
Some Perspective: When We Were a Territory
On February 14, 1912, Arizona became a state.
That's not that long ago.
My grandfather came to Arizona when it was still a territory. He jumped a freight train to get here, picked cotton, sold vegetables from a cart, delivered mail and later, shortly before statehood, started farming.
The place is still, in various respects, a frontier state but we've come a long way from the days when people slept outdoors at night to beat the summer heat and the local irrigation canals doubled as swimming holes.
What a difference a mere century makes.
First Paragraph
Lloyd shoves off the bedcovers and hurries to the front door in white underwear and black socks. He steadies himself on the knob and shuts his eyes. Chill air rushes under the door; he curls his toes. But the hallway is silent. Only high-heeled clicks from the floor above. A shutter squeaking on the other side of the courtyard. His own breath, whistling in his nostrils, whistling out.
- From The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman
"Studies Show"
Forgive me if I don't genuflect at the words "Studies show."
I've seen what is behind many studies and the picture is not pretty. Poor samples, biased questions, and illogical or sweeping conclusions are just a few of the problems. This does not mean, of course, that there are no worthy studies, but a healthy suspicion of research is, to my mind, a sign of street smarts.
Oh, they are citing experts? Aren't there some equally impressive experts on the other side?
They reached consensus? That's especially scary given the dangers of groupthink. How did they do so? Who picked the participants? There many ways to cherry-pick evidence and shape an outcome. Let's see if a consensus really exists or if the dissenters have been exiled or smothered.
"Studies show" should not be a debate's ending. It should be the part of the beginning.
Quote of the Day
Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it.
- Song of Solomon 8:7
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