Sailing the Last Voyage with Newton and Pascal
About two years ago I quoted the French poet Edouard Haraucourt and his line "Partir, c´est mourir un peu" (to leave is to die a little) relative to the Episcopal (or any) church. That quote is what struck me in Charles Rubin's summary of the IRS' rules on Americans who become expatriates: The Code requires …
Continue reading "To Leave is to Die a Little. From the U.S., It’s Expensive."
I rest my case against those who insist that only those who excel academically (and of course those who go to the right schools) are worthy to direct our society with this, from (of all places) the New York Times: “The financial system nearly collapsed,” he said, “because smart guys had started working on Wall …
Continue reading "When Academic Achievement is a Disaster (When It’s on Wall Street)"
Our President is really in the tank this time: Venezuela's socialist leader Hugo Chavez said on Sunday that U.S. President Barack Obama had done nothing beyond wishful thinking to earn the Nobel Peace Prize. Chavez, who has mixed praise for Obama personally with criticism of his government's "imperialist" policies, said he thought it was a …
Continue reading "Hugo Chavez: “What has Obama done to deserve this prize?”"
My brother and I were committed Anglomaniacs. This was inevitable. Growing up in Palm Beach can be a decidedly unAmerican business; being raised in the "English" church only made matters worse. When he died, the only cash he had on his person was a pound note. (My mother had squirrelled away one too.) People talk …
I spent the summer of 1973 doing two things: listening to the Watergate hearings while draughting for my family business, and listening to Jethro Tull's new, controversial, "concept" album, A Passion Play. The combination of the two doubtless contributed to the malaise that overshadowed me as I started college (Watergate itself was something of a …
Originally posted July 2005. Since that time we've had a war in Gaza, so my optimism about relinquishing that may have been premature. But the whole system of settlements and how the State of Israel administers the West Bank continues to be a source of difficulty in its own right. Back in the late 1970's, …
Continue reading "If You’re Going to Take the Land, Take It"
One of the most complicated transactions I have ever been involved in was the purchase of the rights for a Russian concrete pile cutter (shown at left.) The patent had around a dozen inventors and two research institutes, spread out from Moscow to Vladivostok. The sheer logistics of getting everyone to agree to this, to …
In early 1994 I went to Russia for the purpose of visiting a factory in Bryansk, which is located at the meeting point of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine. This was not a factory producing high tech military hardware, but something more prosaic but important for our modern world: diesel pile driving equipment, used in the …
Outpouring (Community Of The Cross) 1979 When I was first introduced to "Jesus Music" in the 1970's, one of the first frustrations I encountered is that too much of it sounded alike. (The fact that some of it had a C&W sound didn't help either!) It took some time but I found that there was …
Marietta, June 19th Morning Dear Son = On yesterday all day we had heavy fighting on the left. Walker’s (Maj Genl William Henry Talbot Walker, KIA Atlanta July 22, ’64)) division suffered a good deal the 53 & 54 Geo had a good many killed wounded but none from Fort Valley. Mrs Mims had a …
