Monday, June 12, 2017

Lost and Found: Our Most Regretted Statements

“Coraggio!” — My old friend said. And then he put The gun to his head. Coraggio —That’s what it took To kill the pain With a hunk of lead. 
Coraggio —
It’s no walk in the park.
The night is dark,  
And my friend is dead read more

My drawing is as close as it can be to my handwriting. It’s what comes out without too much thought.”

Corruption fighter Tony Fitzgerald part of plan to clean up Canberra



Supermax unit in prison to hold terrorists a 'dangerous path', criminologist says

 Is NYC Ready for Bioterror?

Aussie Conservative Andrew Bolt Fights Off Antifa Ambush
I predict that their culture, such as it is, won’t be around anymore, soon enough 

Biden was also in Manhattan Criminal Court in 2014, on charges of resisting arrest, obstruction of justice and harassment stemming from a dustup with her Tribeca roommate.
In that case, the silver-spoon Georgetown University graduate was accused of taking a swing at a female cop who responded in Sept. 2013 to a drag out fight over unpaid rent between Biden and her roommate.
“I shouldn’t be handcuffed!” cops said Biden railed at the time. “You don’t know who you’re doing this to!”
She was given another sweetheart deal in that case: a promise that the charges would be dismissed if she stayed out of trouble for six months.
The charges were eventually dismissed and sealed.
Biden didn’t even have to show up in court to get that deal — her then-lawyer James Liguori told another Manhattan judge that she was serving her second rehab stint at Caron Renaissance Ocean Drive, a posh inpatient facility in Delray Beach, Fla.


  • Lost and Found

    Long ago, I heard a lovely definition of creativity: “Finding what has been lost and making it new.”  I’ve never been able to track down the source of that definition, but it’s stuck with me.   ... read more
    AJBlog: Infinite CurvesPublished 2017-06-06



Worrying Can Be Good For You (Sometimes)


It can be a motivator to do what needs to be done, and (like banging your head against the wall) you can feel much better after you stop. The key, as usual, is moderation.

Why The Bank Of England Made Its Staff Study Dr. Seuss


“[Professionals at] the central bank analysed the children’s author after finding that just one in five people could read and understand its inflation report.” Said a former deputy governor there, “Dr. Seuss was a master at using simple language, at getting children to read.”



One person who called it … was Linh Dinh. The South Philadelphia writer and photographer has, over the last several years, become a premier chronicler of American decline. His new book, Postcards from the End of America (Seven Stories Press), is a travelogue of the desperation gripping some of the most deeply disinvested parts of this country, told from the window seats of cross-country Greyhound buses and over day trips to struggling towns and cities across this region. His cast includes a Senegalese man selling body oils on the street in Camden, a man whose paltry retirement income provides him just enough to drink himself to death in Riverside, N.J., a woman dying of cancer in Bensalem, and day-drinkers and addicts from Trenton to Chester.
My Most Regretted Statements, a symposium, contains these contributions:
Cass Sunstein begins: “I have said a lot of things that I regret.” And he ends: “A main job of academics is to float ideas and take risks, and if they do not make mistakes, or learn enough to change their minds, well, that’s really something to regret.”




The warning Australian Federal Police Commissioner Andrew Colvin received from a mentor on taking his first counter terrorism job shortly after September 11 has proven prophetic:
“I was told by a wise former UK Intelligence analyst who was working for the AFP – he said ‘be careful son, counter terrorism can consume your life.’ Well, that was two weeks before the first Bali bombing and I know he was not just speaking to me, but to the hundreds, if not thousands, of AFP officers who have had their lives consumed by this task ever since.  It is rewarding, but it is unforgiving.”

Another important principle Sir Robert Peel left us with was to reinforce that ‘the test of police efficiency is the absence of crime and disorder, not the visible evidence of police action in dealing with it.’  Numbers of police is only half of the equation.

(1) Ohio Gov. John Kasich hosted "The View" and Democrats complained that no one fact-checked him.   (2) It's official: the "fake news" usage recommendations published by the Associated Press are in the latest edition of its Stylebook. (3) CNN asks a congressman for a retraction of his statement on a retraction that never happened. (4) Twitter jumps into the debate over fake followers of @realDonaldTrump.  (5) Apple hires an editor-in-chief to help fight fake news. (6) The Center for Investigative Reporting's Reveal project has a new "fake news" guide.  (7) Apply to the African Fact-Checking Awards. (8) Here's a tweet for thought re: media outlets' responsibility to inform audiences of corrections and retractions. (9) U.S. election misinformation is doing very well indeed, thank you. (10) Zuckerberg is going to hear about "fake news" at Facebook's annual stakeholder meeting. (11) PolitiFact's Joshua Gillin profiles a prolific fake news publisher, a 45-year-old Maine man who umpires Little League games (maybe).









Taxation without Borders


IMF study on Caribbean: VAT can yield more revenue



IMF backs Bahamas VAT implementation



Gov'T 'Opening Pandora'S Box' With Vat Breaks Plan


Vat Tops 'Laundry List Of Complaints'


Image may contain: 5 people, people sitting, table and indoor