Something to Know - 16 March

1.  I really hate to upset some of you, but Capitalism is really being looked at as a failed concept.   Right now in my college politics class that I am auditing, I am struggling to read "The Wealth of Nations"  by Adam Smith...well it is really called An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, but who is paying attention?  It is a struggle because it is over 900 pages long, but the inquiries and causes are a bit silly and trite by today's examples of economics.  Nevertheless, it was an important document in its day.  However, the concept and the subject matter are under scrutiny, since its purest forms are sorely lacking in many respects, just as pure forms of socialism are.   This is an interesting article in the WashPost to tickle your imagination, or ire, depending on the openness of your mind:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/is-capitalism-moral/2013/03/15/a9ed66d4-868b-11e2-999e-5f8e0410cb9d_print.html

2.  The button-down mind of George Will ventures into the status of gay, or same sex marriages, and he comes to interesting conclusions:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/george-will-the-shaky-science-behind-same-sex-marriage/2013/03/15/ccdbe82a-8cc9-11e2-9f54-f3fdd70acad2_print.html

3.  If you missed the conversation between Senators Feinstein and Cruz (Joseph McCarthy, re-incarnated), here is your chance to catch up from the perspective of Gail Collins:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/16/opinion/collins-the-dread-that-is-ted.html?ref=opinion&_r=0&pagewanted=print

I would like to make more news entries, but as I said, I have a long book to try and read.  College has changed a lot.  This course has 11 assigned books and assorted "assigned readings" of which the tome by Adam Smith is jut one of the "assortments" for one semester.

--

Juan

"Just in terms of allocation of time resources, religion is not very efficient. There's a lot more I could be doing on a Sunday morning."
       -- Bill Gates