3ruce’s Blog

This reminds me of that Emo Phillips joke:

Once I saw this guy on a bridge about to jump. I said, “Don’t do it!” He said, “Nobody loves me.” I said, “God loves you. Do you believe in God?” He said, “Yes.” I said, “Are you a Christian or a Jew?” He said, “A Christian.” I said, “Me, too! Protestant or Catholic?” He said, “Protestant.” I said, “Me, too! What franchise?” He said, “Baptist.” I said, “Me, too! Northern Baptist or Southern Baptist?” He said, “Northern Baptist.” I said, “Me, too! Northern Conservative Baptist or Northern Liberal Baptist?” He said, “Northern Conservative Baptist.” I said, “Me, too! Northern Conservative Fundamentalist Baptist or Northern Conservative Reformed Baptist?” He said, “Northern Conservative Fundamentalist Baptist.” I said, “Me, too! Northern Conservative Fundamentalist Baptist Great Lakes Region, or Northern Conservative Fundamentalist Baptist Eastern Region?” He said, “Northern Conservative Fundamentalist Baptist Great Lakes Region.” I said, “Me, too!” Northern Conservative Fundamentalist Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1879, or Northern Conservative Fundamentalist Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1912?” He said, “Northern Conservative Fundamentalist Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1912.” I said, “Die, heretic!” And I pushed him over.

dsch1 comments on If you could push a button and make all religion disappear completely from human memory and psyche, would you?.

What a difference a year makes: Just a little more than 1 year ago Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) paid $100bn for ABN Amro (80% cash).

For this amount, RBS could today buy:

Citibank $22.5bn,

Morgan Stanley $10.5bn,

Goldman Sachs $21.0bn,

Merrill Lynch $12.3bn,

Deutsche Bank $13.0bn and

Barclays $12.7bn,

And still have $8bn change

A Mulligan on ABN AMRO Anyone? | Kevin Hoffberg’s Blog.

“I am the greatest!” the great boxer Muhammad Ali famously declared—later adding, “I said that even before I knew I was.”

Teen Self-Esteem May Be Too High | LiveScience.

“I’m with Stupid”

The dumb, dumb world of Malcolm Gladwell • The Register.

The Force is with us but let’s try to keep our heads. These things are certifiable: “The Empire Strikes Back,” George Lucas’s sequel to his “Star Wars,” the biggest grossing motion picture of all time, has opened. On the basis of the early receipts, “The Empire Strikes Back” could make more money than any other movie in history, except, maybe, “Star Wars.” It is the second film in a projected series that may last longer than the civilization that produced it.

‘The Empire Strikes Back’ Strikes a Bland Note.

golden-gate-bridge-xl.jpg (JPEG Image, 1280×1024 pixels) – Scaled (52%)

In 1976 Irving Kristol publicly worried that “populist paranoia” was “subverting the very institutions and authorities that the democratic republic laboriously creates for the purpose of orderly self-government.” But by the mid-’80s, he was telling readers of this newspaper that the “common sense” of ordinary Americans on matters like crime and education had been betrayed by “our disoriented elites,” which is why “so many people — and I include myself among them — who would ordinarily worry about a populist upsurge find themselves so sympathetic to this new populism.”

Mark Lilla on The Perils of Populist Chic | Kevin Hoffberg’s Blog

YouTube – Gore Vidal versus David Dimbleby.

In a climax, described by some as interesting, the McLaren car pointer crossed the chequered line in fifth place thereby finishing first and completing yet another day of abject humiliation for the world’s foreigners.
Roy Hobbs, who gets paid to talk about car pointing, said: “Hamilton has been destined for this moment ever since he learned which button made it go and which button made it stop.
“All he had to do then was work out the best way to point it using the steering thingy.”
Hobbs added: “But of course, the most important thing about car pointing is the car, and luckily the car he was pointing was faster than all the other cars being pointed this year.

HAMILTON WINS WORLD CAR POINTING CHAMPIONSHIP – The Daily Mash