A Second Hand Conjecture

Many of us, when we hear the phrase “risk and reward” think of Wall Street.  Or business in general.

But in reality, “risk and reward” affect us throughout our lives.

Our parents take a risk when they conceive us.  They hope that we will provide them with more joy and satisfaction than heartache and pain.  They pray that we will be born relatively healthy rather than sickly.

As we get older, parents do their best to provide a fine environment for us to learn and grow.  What some adults seem to have forgotten, however (if they ever knew at all) - is that all gain requires some risk.  It is impossible to achieve rewards without taking on chances of failure.  Parents want to keep us safe.  Yet, too many protections and too much removal of risk can oddly enough produce difficulties.

My time at the Nebraska Regional was super.  Our team won three of the four Knockout Events, was second in a shorter “Compact” Knockout - then struggled to 13th place in the last day’s Swiss Team, although we were in second place with only 3 rounds to go.  Still, our performance was enough to place each of our team members as tied for the best showing overall.  We bridge players are competitive animals; this is our goal!

What attracted you to your spouse?  Was it his devilish sense of humor?  Her warmth and abilities to be a fine mother?  His strength and intelligence?  Her beauty and sexiness?

Today, we find couples tying the knot for another reason:  excellent health insurance.

Bo and Dena McLain of Milford, Ohio, eloped in March so he could add her to his group policy because her nursing school required proof of insurance. Corey Marshall and Kim Wetzel, who had dated in San Francisco for four years, moved up their wedding plans by a year so she could switch to his policy after her employer raised premiums.

We can argue what exactly we should do to change it all.  But, are there very many out there who disagree with the proposition that our entire system of health care and insurance is in dire need of complete overhaul?

Who wants to hear their adult child phone home and breathlessly announce:  “Mom and Dad; I found my future spouse!  He has Blue Cross/Blue Shield with no deductible!”

Oy.

Few of us approve of marital indiscretions.  Personally, however, I hesitate to toss too many stones.  Knowing what occurs in the confines of a marriage is difficult, if not impossible, to know.  Some marriages are marriages of convenience, be it due to sexual orientation, power, money, parenting - or an array of other issues.  Sometimes the other spouse is well aware of what is happening - and actually condones it.  Many of us also know of marriages where, should we be in shoes of a long suffering partner, we, too, might well be tempted to stray.  In any case - it is never easy to judge from the outside looking in.

Of course, all that being said, when high profile celebrities or politicians have affairs, all bets are off.  And when the “wronged” spouse is a woman battling cancer as she treks around the nation supporting her running-for-President husband, sympathy for the philanderer is in shorter supply than center court tickets for Wimbledon finals.

You might wonder:  what could be worse?  Well, I shall tell you.  Read this article about the woman with whom John Edwards risked all as he attempted to earn the candidacy for the most powerful position in the world.

I struck up a conversation with the woman at the next event, as we waited outside. She told me her name and asked me what my astrological sign was, which I thought was a little unusual. I told her. She smiled, and began telling me her life story: how she was working as a documentary-film maker, living with a friend in South Orange, N.J., but how she’d previously had “many lives.” She’d worked, she said, as an actress and as a spiritual adviser. She was fiercely devoted to astrology and New Age spirituality. She’d been a New York party girl, she’d been married and divorced, she’d been a seeker and a teacher and was a firm believer in the power of truth.

She told me that she had met Edwards at a bar, at the Regency Hotel in New York. She thought he was giving off a special “energy.”

Ugh.  It’s enough to make me lose my cookies.  Can you imagine that a man who would be attracted to an airhead like this almost was the Democrat candidate for President?  While I realize that we choose different people with whom to fall in love than we do to be our Secretary of State or our bridge partner - still.

Our nation dodged a bullet.  No matter who gets elected come November, we will have a President infinitely superior to the man who gave off “a special ‘energy’”.

Occasionally I have arguments with my liberal friends about which party was responsible for what actions throughout history.  Some liberals think, for instance, that it was always the Democrats who battled for civil rights and against Jim Crow.  Yet, for periods of our history, Republicans were far more the friends of blacks and the party that fought to achieve real freedom.

Some seem to think that political parties are fixed entities.  I’ll hear people say:  “Your party is corrupt” or “Our party fights for freedoms.”  At any given time, they may be accurate.  Over the long haul, however, the people who make up each party change, and the actions and nature of each party alter.

Republicans advertised themselves as the party of lean government and low spending.  Yet, too often, Republicans were anything but.  What will the Republicans of 2008 and beyond be?

As a Realtor, I often am able to congratulate folks on a move to a wonderful new home.

Today, good wishes are extended to Professor Keigh Burgess-Jackson on his new abode.  The Professor won’t be cooking in his new home, and he will not need to clean out the gutters nor scrub the tub.  Nevertheless, I am certain it will be a delightful spot in which his thoughts can reside.

May both Keith and his readers enjoy his new home!

Do you ever find yourself holding views that are mutually exclusive?  If so, do not despair.  My experience is that virtually all of us do this, even if very rarely.  With the thousands of issues and millions of details pertaining to those issues, it would not be shocking to note that at times, some of what we hold to be so conflicts.

Still, if you are like me, you do your best to review your beliefs frequently.  If you see that some positions are illogical, you analyze and reconsider.

Should a number of liberals do this vis a vis evolution and “saving the planet”?  In my opinion, fer sure.  Most liberals I know scream bloody murder if anyone offers a shred of a doubt that evolution isn’t settled fact.  Yet, when it comes to practice with Our Earth - underlying notions of evolution seem to fly out the window.

I am not an Ann Coulter fan.  Sometimes, however, you must give the woman her due.

Growing up means accepting responsibility for your actions and attempting to make wise decisions as much as possible.  Peter Pan rejected this; he didn’t want to grow up and lose the carefree, irresponsible days of youth.

Too often, it appears that America today has accepted the mantle of a Peter Pan society.  Adults choose poorly, or do little investigating prior to actions - and then expect the government to save them, over and over and over.  The worst of it?  The government does seem to step up to the plate, again and again.

When people are rewarded for bad behavior and never need to face the consequences of irresponsibility, do they then learn that these activities should not be repeated?  I think not.

Professor Mankiw examines the upcoming mortgage bailout.  Although Larry Summers is a very smart guy, I’m with Dick Armey on this one.

Sleeping dogs or flying cockatiels?  Matters not.  Each of us has our particular pets that we adore.

My best friend from first grade, Roxane Gilbert, shares a similar political viewpoint to my own.  Yet, we recognize that we can all hold disparate views - and still be friends.  Thanks to Rox for pointing out at Critter Blog what a nice lady Susan Estrich is.

UPDATE: If you want to see what a thoughtful woman Susan Estrich is, read this.

Want to stay youthful?  No magic potion, pill nor surgery will deliver it to you.

But, you can follow this prescription to ward off Father Time:  keep active and working!

Thanks to my friend and very smart guy Mitch Perlstein at the Center of the American Experiment for this fine column.

You might note that Mitch cites both conservatives and liberals who are following their passion, irrespective of their ages.  You might also note that in my own life, my dad has been an exceptional role model.  Despite hitting his 87th birthday a week ago, Dad still remains busy throughout the day.  An industrial realtor for scores of years, he continues to manage properties.  On a volunteer basis, Dad daily assists friends and strangers throughout my parents’ community with all kinds of technical issues:  computers, printers, DVD’s and the like.  He has served on the Board at their association and done mentoring in local inner city schools.

My mom sometimes wishes he would slow down.  I maintain that part of why Dad is in such fine shape is due to his constant motion and giving!

Is it really too late for him to be a candidate?

Too bad. Mankiw’s platform surely would be our nation’s best.

Mankiw coyly calls it “pandering.”  I call it a breath of fresh air - along with refreshing rationality.

No wonder most of it doesn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of getting implemented.

When I leave for an international tournament, my friends wish me good luck - and tell me to have a lovely, relaxing vacation.

Huh?!

A bridge tournament is about as far as one can possibly get from relaxing!

Here it is, almost 4AM - and I have not yet been able to sleep.  I’m trying to determine why one tournament, I seem to be a rising star . . . and a few months later, this game seems to confound me at every turn.  It is the nature of the beast.  While assuredly good sense, people reading, statistics, memory, concentration and far more weigh in - luck of the draw plays a role, too.  Some days the heavens seem to be tilting in your direction.  Other days?  Hold on.

I doubt I will ever stop loving this game.  But - that doesn’t mean that on any given day, I am not frustrated to the hilt with it, either!

And now?  Some photos of my friends from around the world that this stupendous game has delivered to me.

Cross posted at What If?

As anyone who reads my blog knows, I love competition.  Bridge is all about using your mind and creativity to best advantage - and then hoping that you can best the opponents due to it.

In America, we’ve always been a nation of competitors.  We try to learn more than the previous generation, invent more, expand more.  Most people like to win.  Yet, without the ability to fail, “winning” has no meaning.

Uber-free market afficianado Larry Kudlow is well familar with this philosophy.  Let the master expound.

Why do so many deny parents the ability to chose a superior education for their child?

The straight talk on education.

“Parents ask only for schools that are safe, teachers who are competent, and diplomas that open doors of opportunity,” he said. “When a public system fails, repeatedly, to meet these minimal objectives, parents ask only for a choice in the education of their children. Some parents may choose a better public school. Some may choose a private school.

“Many will choose a charter school.  No entrenched bureaucracy or union should deny parents that choice and children that opportunity.”

If Democratic congressmen choose private schools for their kids - shouldn’t those with less financial resources have some choice, too?

And this:

Perhaps turning food into transportation fuel would make sense if massive amounts of grain spoiled every year from a lack of demand, but that certainly isn’t the case. Farmers love the higher prices that come from the new demand to fill gas tanks, but higher prices have consequences for poorer nations that have just begun to be felt. Morally speaking, shouldn’t we feed people before we feed cars?

What makes this even more absurd is ethanol itself. It burns cleaner, but has significant problems as a transportation fuel. It has only two-thirds the potential energy of gasoline, which means more of it has to be used to get the same mileage. Ethanol has to be shipped by truck as it cannot be pumped through a pipeline, so much more energy has to get expended just to bring it to market. In order to use more than just a small amount in a mixture, car engines have to be designed differently to use it, which means more energy and resources have to go into producing the vehicles.

Every fill of the tank with ethanol uses the same amount of corn a child would eat in a year, and let’s not even talk about the amount of potable water used to grow the corn in the first place. Given the above, which is the better use of the corn?

One of my girlfriends is smart as a whip and a talented artist to boot.  Cathy is also hard of hearing.

While Cathy can read lips and she also has a device that allows her to converse in very small groups, she is unable to hear in most other settings.  Last year, the two of us attended a fundraiser for Rudy Giuliani.  As we watched Rudy live on TV, I quietly “translated” what he was saying for Cathy.  Many of the other people in attendance thus realized how unfortunate it was that there weren’t closed captions for Cathy and people like her.

Elise Knopf, of the Minnesota Commission Serving Deaf and Hard of Hearing People wants the state of Minnesota to pass a law making it mandatory to have closed captions in political ads.  As you all know, my philosophy is to urge small government, and I’m not quite certain that people should be forced to include closed captions.  Nevertheless, I am very sure that the captions should be included in these ads - not to mention most everything else on TV!  Cathy has explained to me that the cost to do so is minimal - and that the captions can be invisible to those who do not need them.

Including those among us who cannot hear well or at all has a simple solution.  Let’s apply it.

At least on this topic.

Economists in general oppose a tax holiday because it would encourage consumption of gasoline at a time of soaring demand.

Billionaire oilman T. Boone Pickens, a longtime Republican donor, criticized Sen. McCain’s policy in an interview with The Wall Street Journal and other news organizations last week.

Mr. Pickens said suspending the federal gas tax “sends a signal that we have plenty of gasoline and diesel, and that’s not the case.”

Yep; what Boone said.