February 22, 2008 by Tom Armstrong.

I recently posted this concerning an argument between a coworker and myself. We have discussed it a little more since that post, but I seem to be winning. I always know when I’m winning, because I start to hear name calling. My coworker today sent me this in response to some economic theory I sent him:

Not much time but I will answer in part and fill in the rest later. I am
living in the real world. Unlike you I have over 50 years of real world
experience, unlike you who takes his book learning and tries to apply it
to the real world. You are what we laughingly call a nerd. Great ideas
in principal, sound great in books, (which is where you learned them),
but not enough real world experience to be taken seriously.

Here is my response to him:

So you think you’re right because you have more experience? I suppose, using that logic, that all people older than me must be correct and myself wrong. I guess, in that case, anyone older than you must make them right and you wrong. But if people older than you agree with me, does that then make me right? I, therefore, must be right by your logic of older is correct, because my ideas and opinions have been influenced by people even older than yourself. Thanks for proving me right.

Furthermore, you mean younger people can’t learn from the experience of their elders. I can’t learn from reading books, going to school, listening to the experiences of older people like you. Really? You might want to put a little more thought into this.

My books and listening to people older and smarter than myself is precisely why I tend to have good arguments. I listen to smart people with EXPERIENCE. I learn from their EXPERIENCE. Your EXPERIENCE does not trump the EXPERIENCE of all other people’s EXPERIENCE on Earth. As a well-learned, well-reasoned nerd, I can’t take your reasoning seriously.

By the way, this man wants to place health care and pretty much everything else in the commons. I guess the failed socialist experiments around the world he experienced in his lifetime did not teach him much. Experience means nothing without an open mind willing to learn and adapt. And does he really believe I and others can’t learn from the experience of others by listening to them and reading their work?

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February 22, 2008 by Tom Armstrong.

Here is a questionable quote:

A ten percent increase in the male graduation rate would reduce murder and assault arrest by 20 percent, motor vehicle theft by 13 percent, and arson by 8 percent.

Graduation from high school is implied. Well, I have a plan that can quickly and greatly reduce murder and assault arrests, motor vehicle thefts, and arson: let’s just graduate every male that enters high school. Yeah, that should do the trick.

It’s not graduation that promotes benefits for society;  it’s the efforts and skills learned in the graduation process that produce benefits for society, not the act of graduation itself.

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February 22, 2008 by Tom Armstrong.

The speeding freight train carrying toxic waste liability for makers, sellers and purchasers of compact fluorescent lightbulbs, or CFLs, was only faintly audible in the distance last spring when this column first warned of it. Now we’re beginning to see that environmentalist-stoked train speed toward its victims, whom President Bush and Congress just finished tying to the tracks.

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February 22, 2008 by Tom Armstrong.

From today’s WSJ. Excerpt:

Mr. Clinton has also been raising cash for the Clinton Foundation, which funds his charitable activities and Presidential library. The foundation has raised more than $500 million, but Mr. Clinton has refused to release a donor list.

What we do know is that Mr. Clinton has allowed donors to use his influence to advance their business interests. That was the case with Frank Giustra, a Canadian mining financier, who won a huge mining concession in Kazakhstan after Mr. Clinton flew all the way to Almaty to introduce him to President Nursultan Nazarbayev. Bloomberg reported this week that Mr. Clinton has also been a frequent flyer on Mr. Giustra’s corporate jet.

Mr. Giustra later donated $31.3 million to the Clinton Foundation and has pledged $100 million more.

…

Mr. Obama has released his tax returns and has suggested Mrs. Clinton do the same because “the American people deserve to know where you get your income from.” If the Clintons continue to keep his and her finances under wraps, the public would be wise, given their history, to assume they have something to hide.

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