Monthly Archives: April 2007
Japanese flashcard with audio
Programming for the webtop
When you are at the top of the world, don’t pull back.
It is funny when you are poor, when you are the underdog. You have nothing to loose! The risks are zero, and the opportunities real or imagined far out way the costs of zero risk.
But then you get a job, doesn’t pay much, but enough. You get out of debt, buy a house, get a car, start a family.Â
But a funny thing happens when you are no longer poor… You know have something to loose. Now the risks that you take have real costs and the opportunities seem more imagined than real.Â
This same thing happens with nations. Now, the US has all the industries, 200 years ago we were nothing but farm boys. But now, we have things to protect. Those people that got that job, started that family, bought that house, by the tens of millions are afraid of loosing it all with the next downsize, next downward turn in the business cycle.
But economic success is like sand in the hand. The hard you squeeze to keep it the more it will spill through your fingers. The best way to hold sand is with your hand open. Sure it exposed to the wind and a slight tilt of the hand will make it all spill out. But if you focus, you can hold more than you ever could with your hand closed.
Likewise, the surest way to loose our success as an economic power is to try to protect that economic power through artificial constraints. Instead, we should upon the flood gates of economic competition at all levels.
We should unilaterally end all trade restrictions. Let the world compete against each other in our markets. Sure they will compete against our industries, and many, many of our companies will go out of businesses. But the ones that survive will be able to compete against any company in the world. Also, remember that outputs of one industry is an input into another.
One of my favorite economic stories is about how India restricted trade on computer imports in order to protect their computer manufacturing industry. Then the real money in the late 90s and 2000s was in computer services. How much of lead would India have if computers were a lot cheaper and more widely available? But how could they have know? Likewise, how can we know what will be the next big thing?
We must open the flood gates to imports.
We must end subsidies. Same reason as above. No industry is worth protecting at the cost of inefficiencies. We need to open the gates of competition and those industries that stand, stand. Those that fall, free up resources to be used in a more useful way.
We must open up the people markets as well. If you want to come to the United States to study, can pay for it, and do not have a criminal background, then you should be welcomed here. We want the best minds here!
If you come to school here and then get offered a job, then you should get an automatic visa to work here.
If you are in another country, willing to come here and work, don’t have a criminal history, and someone offers you a job, then you should be granted a visa.
People might be like, are you crazy? Where will the Americans work? The point is that capital, production, the jobs will all go where it is cheapest. If we artificial limit competition for labor (intellectual and otherwise), then we limit the efficiencies of our economy. We want America to be the best place to work.
This would be good for the world. This would be good for America.
You have a product to sell? Sell it here in America! If you have a service, sell it here in America. If you want to go to school, then go to school here in America. If you want to work, then work here in America!
[BJEmail] art & war
[BJEmail] Two Chimpanzees and a Blonde
 A blonde lady motorist was about two hours from San Diego when she was flagged down by a man whose truck had broken down. The man walked up to
 the car and asked, “Are you going to San Diego?”
 “Sure,” answered the blonde, “do you need a lift?”
 “Not for me I’ll be spending the next three hours fixing my truck. My problem is I’ve got two chimpanzees in the back which have to be taken
 to the San Diego Zoo. They’re a bit stressed already so I don’t want to keep them on the road all day. Could you possibly take them to the zoo for me?”
 “I’ll give you $100 for your trouble.”
 “I’d be happy to,” said the blonde. So the two chimpanzees were ushered into the back seat of the blonde’s car and carefully strapped into their seat belts. Off they went.
 Five hours later, the truck driver was driving through the heart of San Diego when suddenly he was horrified!! There was the blonde walking down the street and holding hands with the two chimps, much to
 the amusement of a big crowd.
 With a screech of brakes he pulled off the road and ran over to the blonde.
 “What the heck are you doing here?” he demanded, “I gave you $100 to take these chimpanzees to the zoo.”
 “Yes, I know you did,” said the blonde, “but we had money left over—so now we’re going to Sea World……”
[BJEmail] dang! The D’s are growing a pair!
[BJEmail] from down under
Just to make you smile………From today’s Sydney Morning Herald
Â
EASTER has been celebrated around the world in the traditional manner.At the White House, President Shrub took the first ceremonial bite from a 181-kilogram hot cross bun baked by the Bible-Believing Halliburton Executives of America and called for world peace.
“This cookie is why, um, we got Eden and Eve in The Garden of, er, Adam and all that stuff,” the President said. “The United States will not leave Iraq till, um, them folks there get with the Bible good news.”
In Rome, pilgrims from around the world flocked into St Peter’s Square to hear the midnight Easter message from Pope Benzedrine. In a solemn ritual as old as Christianity itself, television cameramen battled to obtain a close-up shot of a pious but regrettably ugly nun clutching a candle.
Speaking in his native German and then a language Vatican officials believed might have been Swahili, the Pontiff called on the father of Anna Nicole Smith’s baby to come forward and confess.
“Zeigen Sie uns das Geld,” he told the crowd. “Show us the money.”Best xx
[BJEmail] Don’t Mess With Old Ladies – Wednesday’s Humor Contribution]
An older lady gets pulled over for speeding…
- Older Woman: Is there a problem, Officer?
- Officer: Ma’am, you were speeding.
- Older Woman: Oh, I see.
- Officer: Can I see your license please?Â
- Older Woman: I’d give it to you but I don’t have one.
- Officer: Don’ t have one?
- Older Woman: Lost it, 4 years ago for drunk driving.
- Officer: I see…Can I see your vehicle registration papers please.
- Older Woman: I can’t do that.
- Officer: Why not?
- Older Woman: I stole this car.
- Officer: Stole it?
- Older Woman: Yes, and I killed and hacked up the owner.
- Officer: You what?
- Older Woman: His body parts are in plastic bags in the trunk if you want to see
- The Officer looks at the woman and slowly backs away to his car and calls for back up. Within minutes 5 police cars circle the car. A senior officer slowly approaches the car, clasping his half drawn gun.
- Officer 2: Ma’am, would you step out of your vehicle please! The woman steps out of her vehicle.
[BJEmail] JFG – Monastery Life
Monastery Life
A young monk arrives at the monastery. He is assigned to helping the other
monks in copying the old canons and laws of the church by hand.He notices, however, that all of the monks are copying from copies, not from
the original manuscript. So, the new monk goes to the head abbot to question
this, pointing out that if someone made even a small error in the first copy, it
would never be picked up !  In fact, that error would be continued in all of
the subsequent copies.The head monk, says, “We have been copying from the copies for centuries,
but you make a good point, my son.”
He goes down into the dark caves underneath the monastery where the original
manuscripts are held as archives in a locked vault that hasn’t been opened for
hundreds of years. Hours go by and nobody sees the old abbot.So, the young monk gets worried and goes down to look for him. He sees him
banging his head against the wall and wailing, “We missed the ” R ” ! , we
missed the ” R ” !”His forehead is all bloody and bruised and he is crying uncontrollably.
The young monk asks the old abbot, “What’s wrong father ?”With A choking voice, the old abbot replies,
“The word was . . . CELEBRATE !”
– Author Unknown