Tuesday, November 29, 2011

government, democracy, and the will of the people

which is the higher goal of democratic government?
- to reflect the will of the people, or
- to protect from the will of the people?

Democracy - in my mind at least - has little meaning absent a bill of rights. As new democracies form around the world I wish more emphasis was given to the later.

Saturday, November 26, 2011

Interesting observation from Jeff Bezos of Amazon

"If everything you do needs to work on a three-year time horizon, then you’re competing against a lot of people. But if you’re willing to invest on a seven-year time horizon, you’re now competing against a fraction of those people, because very few companies are willing to do that. Just by lengthening the time horizon, you can engage in endeavors that you could never otherwise pursue."

Here's the Forbes interview - good stuff.

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Jinx

I think the post about trying to pay off the house caused the universe to reassert its primacy. Found out the main heating/cooling unit for the house needs replacement. ;-)