Education, Part II

Those of you who read my prior education post may think that I am in agreement with Rick Santorum regarding education. Not so, said he. The more education available, the better. And the more help by grants or other ways of encouraging education are more than appropriate, perhaps necessary. But in the present state of affairs where how tall you are and how high you jump may be one of the limited ways to get scholarships, and with the extraordinarily expensive cost of higher education, one should not despair. With curiosity and the massive amount of reading available, particularly on the internet, one can reach Mecca by a different route.

Great Reads

I have enjoyed the following two books and am passing on my thoughts as to each. 

The biography of Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson is the fascinating story of the rather bizarre Steve Jobs from barefoot boy who rarely bathed to the head of the world’s biggest company, Apple. It is little known that Jobs was not a particularly good engineer, but he had an indefinable something which this book elucidates. It’s a book that shows the important part that serendipity plays in our lives. It is extraordinarily well-researched and written, and great fun to read for whatever message one takes from it. For example, there are many ways to get to the top, not necessarily by being “the best.” How many know that Jobs rarely bathed, wandered around barefoot with robes while deeply involved with Zen Buddhism? Having been abandoned by his father, he in turn abandoned his daughter. Kind of an interesting psychological puzzle.

 

Another great read is The Good and the Ghastly by James Boice. Esquire magazine reviewed the book saying  that it was a great book. It is the tale of one Junior Alvarez’s striving to become a great man of power and prestige in 34th century American society where Visa is king, and the interactions between the people living in that era.

What great books have you read lately?

Only in New York

Today I was walking along Park Avenue and noticed something strange in a black limousine. Its windows were closed. The driver was inside the limousine. I looked more closely and noticed that he was playing a trumpet. No one could hear it because the windows were closed…..ONLY IN NEW YORK!

I was told a story today about "New York's Finest," the NYPD. A friend of mine was walking with his wife on Lafayette Street in lower Manhattan. He noticed that someone was breaking into cars. The thief seeing a couple pulled out a pistol, loaded it, and pointed it at the couple. They ducked around the corner and called the police. The police showed up quickly in a police car. The couple pointed out the direction in which the thief was going. The police, as efficiently as one might expect from the NYPD, turned to the police car to get in and make the chase, but–-believe it or not–-the police had locked themselves out of their car. It could've been a Jim Carrey film; but it wasn't. …..ONLY IN NEW YORK!

At 5 o'clock in the morning I looked out my window on 93rd St. and noticed an old lady with 5 massive plastic bags filled with cans and bottles scouring the garbage. As if this were not strange enough, there was a man several feet away from her, also with massive plastic bags who appeared to be competing with her for the best garbage…. ONLY IN NEW YORK!

To be continued....

Have your own Only in New York situation? Please share it in the comments!

Angelina Jolie

An example of powerful distortions by media is Angelina Jolie. Her manipulation of media is close to unprecedented. How else could one explain the description of her as beautiful from head to toe and her rise to a position of the lead sex goddess in America if not the world? With the temerity to stick out a leg at the Oscars, this husband-stealing shrew deserves to be taken off her perch. More is said about the media who’ve bought in to her pandering and illustrates the shallowness of our media.

Politicians

Politicians are not held in great regard by the public, and for good reason. The public statements by politicians are not at all their opinions and are spoken or written only to get votes.  Aside from this grotesque picture of the average politician who tempers his/her views to whatever he/she thinks the voters want he/she is a prisoner of our supposedly democratic country. What counts is who pays the freight. Obviously, a politician who is able to run a campaign (and campaigns cost lots of money) seeks support from special interests. In order to get elected and reelected the politician must pander to them. To make it worse, the recent Supreme Court decision which opened the doors to unlimited financial support for candidates is shameful.

Those who believe that “the law is the law” should understand how “the law" works. Take the Bush/Gore 5-4 decision by the Supreme Court. It just so happens that the five judges who voted were the right wing of the court. The law is what the judges say it is. When a judge says the law is the law is the law, does that mean it's true?

No matter how you slice it, Gore got the majority of votes cast (excluding Ralph Nader)—while the absurd farce of using electoral votes led to the election of minority president George W. Bush. The farce of a decision by a kangaroo court resulted in the election of George Bush and the most disastrous foreign policy in American history. We are now and will always be suffering the consequences of this Supreme Court decision and the election of a dumb-dumb. We also owe the Supreme Court for the curse of the King of Waterboarding and the man behind the throne, Dick Chaney, whose only virtue was the support of gays not the least of reasons was for this was the fact that his daughter was gay.

Celebrities for Hire

It is shameful and outrageous that celebrities are selling their souls for money by selling their names to the highest bidder and appearing on commercials for products they know nothing about with the purpose of inducing the public to buy. There is another name for people who sell their souls for money, and it ain’t pretty. Tommy Lee Jones, Tom Hanks, Jerry Stiller, are simply examples who have put money before principle to act as shills for dubious enterprises and engage in shameful money-grubbing. Their agents negotiate the highest price. They have no idea what they are recommending. Have they no sense of decency? Have they no sense of personal shame?

Education

One would think that as an educated man—Yale Law School, University of Pennsylvania, Naval Officers’ Supply School—that I would be in favor of college education. Not so, says he. Look at Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and many others who never went to college or dropped out and were enormously successful. Of course, college is a necessity for certain occupations such as doctors. Abe Lincoln had no formal education, became a lawyer without going to law school, and we know the rest of that story. The main secret to education is the desire to learn. This can be done by reading or on the job training. In addition, education by parents at home can be far more valuable than formal education.