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“The stock market is pure capitalism. The stock you buy doesn’t know if you’re white or black, male or female, old or young, American or French. Prices are dictated by supply and demand and nothing else. It’s global, efficient, wildly volatile, always surprising: raw and beautiful.” Ken Fisher investment management chief and Forbes columnist. November 17th, 2007 | 5 comments - (Comments are closed)
 November 16th, 2007 | 10 comments - (Comments are closed)
A Muslim is somebody who believes that a man called Muhammad… passed on certain revelations and instructions directly from God Himself. By logic, a non-Muslim is somebody who does not accept that Muhammad was any such prophet, and thereby rejects his teachings as not having come from God… If, contrary to Muhammad’s claims (assuming he has been represented correctly), we do not believe that he was any such prophet from God, what do we truly think of the man? The answer must be one of three possibilities: either Muhammad was a liar, or he was deluded, or he was mad. These are the only possible conclusions of the intellectually honest non-Muslim. Let us ponder one of the three possibilities – that Muhammad was a liar. Would it be unreasonable then to posit that a man willing to deceive many thousands of people, perhaps out of hunger for power or self-aggrandisement, could be labelled as ‘evil’? If so, on what basis do we object to an extremely negative portrayal (either graphic or prose) of such an ‘evildoer’? Whether or not such a portrayal may appear ‘gratuitous’ or provoke widespread anger, it would nonetheless be a justifiable expression of dissent. Therefore, to place legal sanctions on any such piece of literature is to necessarily outlaw opposition to, and disagreement with, Islam to a logical denouement; this suggests we are implicitly calling for the abolition of the right to proclaim oneself a non-Muslim in clear and in certain terms. That is, one may still be a nominal ‘non-Muslim’ free of harassment, but one cannot explain and defend one’s position in any significant detail without committing the act of blasphemy. – from On the Right to Give Offence by Steve Edwards quoted today by David Thompson November 15th, 2007 | 51 comments - (Comments are closed)
“My faith in airport security has never been the same since I noticed that the man confiscating the shaving foam in my hand luggage (while leaving me with the razor) had the word HATE tatooed on his knuckles.” November 14th, 2007 | 35 comments - (Comments are closed)
November 13th, 2007 | 47 comments - (Comments are closed)
And anyway I wanted to see what it would feel like ordering a three hundred quid starter – Giles Coren, reviewing the St James’-Ukrainian restaurant Divo for The Times. The capacity at will to do something improbable (and quite possibly stupid) in order to find out what it feels like is to my mind the measure of a society worth living in. Mr Coren did not have to consult religious authorities about that starter, and no government inspector determined for him whether it was fair or appropriate fo him to do so, or insisted on him having counselling first, or afterwards. He is not confined in a fixed universe of approved experiences. For how long? The vigilantes are abroad, though they are coming for the poor first. And everyone ought to be free to be daft, not just oligarchs. November 11th, 2007 | 16 comments - (Comments are closed)
There has been a change in the policy on policies, and therefore all the policies have had to be rewritten in order to be in compliance with the new policies policy – A compliance officer at a large investment bank, during a compulsory compliance training seminar this week. November 10th, 2007 | 10 comments - (Comments are closed)
There is no society in human history that ever suffered because its people became too reasonable. – Sam Harris, rebutting the daft charge that a denial of belief in the afterlife or a supreme being must open the doors to hell on earth. November 7th, 2007 | 57 comments - (Comments are closed)
“The evidence is that when tariffs come down, tariff revenue tends to go up.” – Peter Mandelson, EU trade commissioner, on why poor countries should liberalise trade November 6th, 2007 | 10 comments - (Comments are closed)
About 120 years ago, Mme. Cadolle figured out that it made more sense for women’s breasts to be suspended from above than cantilevered from beneath. That is, she invented bra straps. So instead of walking around wearing the lingerie equivalent of the London Bridge, women could slide themselves into a Golden Gate. This was a huge relief – as anyone who has worn a strapless bra can tell you – because the London Bridge pretty much always falls down. – Belinda Luscombe in the course of asking Warren Buffet for better fitting bras – spotted by Amit Varma November 4th, 2007 | 10 comments - (Comments are closed)
Whatever happened to getting your head down and doing the damn job? Whatever happened to going bowling in your own time? You want to take some of the crew from work? Well, that’s nice, too. And if a more fruitful professional relationship between a close-knit group of employees is the result, well isn’t that peachy? But really, if we are all big about this, shouldn’t we be able to interact productively without the panacea of fake camaraderie or a day throwing up in a corporate box at the races? Some of the 7/7 bombers went white-water rafting before the event, you know; and what great team players they turned out to be. – Martin Samuel. I have never suffered a “team building” trip away from the office, thank god (my boss has better things to do). November 2nd, 2007 | 8 comments - (Comments are closed)
I’ve yet find an area that I’ve studied extensively where the arguments justifying the state stand up to historical evidence. I think the state’s takeover of these aspects of human life occur for different reasons than the reasons currently given for the state in those areas, and that what we see is a lot of ex post rationalisation to justify the state. I haven’t looked at every area, and certainly may find some where I wouldn’t make that argument. But I have yet to find one. – Bruce L. Benson (one of the speakers at the LA/LI Conference last weekend) talks about his work to Patrick Crozier – the whole thing lasts a little over 15 minutes October 30th, 2007 | 35 comments - (Comments are closed)
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