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Thoughts - Part 1

A. Waste your time! Lots of it.  Some of my most productive moments have come when I was wasting time.

B. Rules of Email. Does someone read your email?  The answer is yes.  For most of us it amounts to an application of data mining by dedicated robots by dedicated servers, but serving whom?

1. Never publish anything on email you don't want the world to see. Never publish to friends or family items you do not wish others to see.
2. Never publish anything that has racist, sexual, or political overtones.
3. Publish only plain commentary such as daily business to family or friends.
4. Publish only political stuff that has no personal connection with your affairs.

C. Information corrupts integrity; it justifies inspection; it validates commercial gain; it indemnifies politicians.  Information provides the predictive analytics of our time.

D. Suicide terrorists are nothing more than contract killers with an ecclesiastical contract and having an arbitrary target.

E. Tax loopholes, the big ones, will always be with us.  The ultra rich on both sides of the aisle count on them too much.  Raise the tax rate, they rejoin, knowing they are financially safe.

F. On Education, Teachers, and Unions.

1. You cannot entertain your way to an education.  Just now and then you must work; just now and then you must think.
2. Paying more for something does not make it better.
3. Standardized tests will not go away and they will not get better.

G.  Currently, there are more than 200 big issues requiring American attention. Some are political, some social, some practical, some financial, some medical, some scientific, some fanciful, and more, but for each one there is a constituency for which it is the most important.  (More later.)

H. No one, no company, no entity will invest in a future not perceived or believed to be possible.  People will not invest in personal  education (e.g. California).  Corporations will not invest in facilities.  The government will not invest in infrastructure. All will fritter away their resources on the inconsequential.

I. While idleness is the devil's playground, weak leadership is the devil's host.

J. He is a weak man with power, and such men are dangerous. Alternatively, he is a strong but naive man with power.  Equally dangerous.
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