Photo Of The Day

Alaska has a rawness that strips away unneccesary glamour.

Flash Mob - Ode an die Freude ( Ode to Joy ) Beethove

Trying To Understand Why One Might Demonize Milton Friedman's Theories.

Milton Friedman's miniseries, "Free To Choose" in the late 60s put economics on the layman's radar and introduced the underlayment of forces behind out daily lives. I propose that there was healthy prosperity for decades before the dark forces of corruption hobbled and ultimately closely annihilated this fragile house of cards we call society. By the time any strategy has hit it's sunset region it's natural for finger pointing, since no one would have believed that such a brilliant beginning would end in "x"!

Every successful strategy has a logical core principle that has a limited horizon of effectivity. There is a bandwidth aspect, a delay factor of full implementation owing to critical mass components (the bell curve comes to mind) and interrelationships with other interactive theories and implementations; messy, to say the least, and intrinsically limited in timeline because the forces of human nature without clear leadership seek to corrupt rather than raise the bar as a desired ratchet "upwards" is sought for the good of society when leadership is effective. Unfortunately, the good of society struggles against dark forces intent on their own aggrandizement. So you see, I'm optimistic in a cynical, way. Good leadership instills pursuit towards a greater good, instilling a sense of duty to do the right thing, while bad leadership leaves the good thinking vulnerable to the greedy and self serving. Meet Wallstreet in a period of rudderless leadership; squabbling behind people's backs as they try to recover what they think they lost after the last bubble, because the path to a new bubble is ever building and written on a wall just beyond the horizon, since leadership is weak and lacking definition. Overzealous regulators don't help either. They are just added weight assuming business leader's brilliance is a given. How big is that faction that feels it needs to get before it's taken?

Good leadership would snap our society back into a healthy outlook much like a sail snaps full of wind when it's on a good heading. Harnessing the wind creates the value. The rest are just hanger's on.

Letter to a friend on Wall Street

Thanks for the display of success on Solar City's stock.

  Elon Musk started Paypal, Tesla, SpaceX and has now taken over SolarCity; a problem solver with bold ambitions, but not strictly for personal gain. Elon Musk is one of the most forward thinking, practical, bold and adventurous thinkers who has ever lived. He's got the golden touch because hardly anyone else has leadership skills anymore, such as Charles, your brother.

 Everyone in power in Washington, the place we Americans yearn for and expect practical leadership, is up for short term gains while covering their asses. Their audacity displays itself in a way that shocks us at their greed and avarice (greed squared) as they appear so powerful that they don't see us as anyone who will interfere with their CYA tactics. If gun laws are such a great thing, prove it in Chicago! Show us and convince us with a track record....No that would be too transparent, because they're full of it and don't care if they flaunt it in front of us, because they have absolutely no respect for us. We are just cash cows to set up a platform for the cool kids. And more than half the country is glad to get a replacement for Jacky-O in Camelot. Why did I stick my head in that sewer when I started out praising a leader?  Please recognize that the Chicago way may work in Chicago but reconsider for the country, please?  Chicago is one of the most beautiful and fun cities I've been to.  Visiting in the winter and seeing the ice build up on the edge of the lake is an added bonus.

 Elon's modesty while in practical problem solving mode is appealing. His attention is on where the rubber meets the road, solving problems.  Who ever would have thought a private enterprise could improve on rocket fuel engines that NASA spent years and billions maintaining and has figured out how to reuse a rocket shortly after it has landed? But he's moved on to the next problem because praise is the last thing on his mind. He just wants to get the next thing done! That is the American spirit and that's why he's here!

 Then there's Paypal: Years before anyone saw a need, he had filled it.

Self agrandizement drives many of our so called leaders who, with a smooth and cool manner, lure us in. We can be overwhelmed from time to time and willing to let someone else pick up the slack on their expertise.  We don’t have very many Will Geers or Mark Twains to protect us from ourselves in our hectic lives.  But with a lack luster economy we can feel as though we're slowly sinking in a morass, with  family values pushed to the back burner.  Of course, families are going about their business engendering good values while the visible leadership is hindered by trying too hard to claim the moral high ground to pad re-election campaigns.

 So I thank you for reminding me there are true clear thinkers, Elon Musk, Sergy Brin, Thomas Sowell, Steve Jobs, Larry Elder who ignore the limelight while they're out creating. It was a good tip in more ways than I can describe

Love what's happening with RC Quads these days!

And Now A Word From Somebody Or Other's Sponsor

Beautiful Monuments Abandoned In Yugoslavia

I stumbled upon these magnificent structures on the net; fitting because the internet captured these images randomly as someone had presented them on a blog named "cracktwo.com" .