John Gardner - On Life and Everything Else (Page 4)

Batman v Superman

This trailer is really well done. Pitting Supes as the badguy is an interesting tactic and I'm excited to see how it turns out... hopefully we'll get more of Affleck's Argo and The Town performances and less Daredevil (Sidenote, the Daredevil Netflix series is addictively good). Here's hoping!

Sports

Skeffington and the Pawsox

Skeffington and the new Pawsox ownership group are trying to take RI'ers for a ride. They claim they'll pay the $85M to build a new stadium in Providence but they want the taxpayers of the state to pay them $120M over 30 years -- $4M/yr. They claim with the

Politics

Memories Pizza and the RFRA

Huge outcry over the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and a business called Memories Pizza. At issue is the pizzeria owner's stance that they're more than happy to serve anyone who enters their restaurant but would refuse to cater a homosexual's wedding. While religious people claim these laws are about protecting

Technology

Cutting the Cable Cord is Painfully Close

I don't know about you, but I can't wait until the day I can cut the cable cord. With all the taxes, fees and other nonsense my cable bill is just about $150/mo, so when I heard Dish Network has made Sling TV available to the masses, I was

Politics

Obama and the Clinton Emails

Judge Andrew Napolitano neatly sums up the state of our government by asking a rhetorical question in his latest opinion piece: Mr. President, is it true that there are standards of behavior for Bill and Hillary Clinton and their friends and other standards for the rest of us?It seems

Technology

Net Neutrality is Hurting the Internet

Net neutrality is both a convenient buzzword and a Trojan horse. Its supporters fascinate me because they claim they want a regulation-free internet but cry to the gov't for regulations on the internet. The future of the internet isn't in your ability to stream Netflix. How we interact with applications

Politics

We're Broke and Congress Just Admitted It

The Federal Government is broke. Our debt is larger than our entire economy, and our outstanding liabilities (money we've promised but haven't spent yet) make our debt look like change between the couch cushions. To people who've been paying attention, this is nothing new. To the rest of us, and

Pop Culture

A Smallville Man

For so many reasons, including Foo Fighters being used as the background, I really enjoyed this fan made interpretation of Superman.

Sports

Ray Lewis Should Stop Speaking

The only reason we know who Tom Brady is, because of a tuck rule.Ray Lewis has made a habit of making comments that immediately make you think of Ray Lewis' past. He should stop that. A post at The Cauldron makes the case.

Politics

If You Prefer Torture

If [torture is] what you want to defend, so be it. For me, I want professionals who live by a code of honor and ethical conduct. We may have to swim in the sewers but we should not enjoy the taste of shit. ~ Larry JohnsonA number of critics think the

Business

Let Seinfeld Teach You Economics

Economics is the study of human behavior as it pertains how people address their wants and needs given there isn't enough of anything in the world to satisfy everyone who wants it. Economics is important, and I'm not just saying that because I have a degree in it. Even a

Politics

Rhode Island Post-Election Thoughts

Midterm election results are in for Rhode Island. I was hoping the voters would exercise their brains but that only occurred in 1 instance, which means it was probably an accident and not a sign of changing times. In the Governor's race, Allan Fung, the Republican, lost with 36% of

Politics

ObamaCare's Failure is not an Accident

Before and after the passage of his signature legislation the President promised the American people time and time again that under ObamaCare if you like your insurance plan you can keep it. There were no caveats, no qualifications. By now it's clearly understood the President was lying. And when pressed

Business

Time is a Money Value

It's a phrase I've heard countless times from our company's oldest salesman. And he's absolutely right. We may not think about it, but we constantly talk about time in terms of money -- how we save it, spend it or waste it; how productive or unproductive we are with it.

Economics

The Miracle and Morality of the Market

Richard Ebeling writes an absolutely epic piece about the the free market. It is one of the best writings in defense of the morality of the free market I've ever read. I will be writing a followup to this piece soon about the single worst, in my opinion, intervention into

Economics

What Would Ending the Fed Actually Look Like?

The Federal Reserve. Most people have no idea what it is or how it functions, but it is at the root of what's wrong with our economy. The Federal Reserve is why the pack of gum that cost a nickel when your grandpa was a child now cost $1.00.

Personal

"Slut-Shaming"? Give me a Break

Let's set the record straight on a few items before I get to the heart of the matter: There is nothing inherently wrong with taking intimate pictures of yourself and/or other consenting adultsThere are lots of things wrong with accessing accounts without permission and publishing the contents onlineThere is

Personal

#IceBucketChallenge

I was challenged to dump a bucket of ice water over my head as part of the Ice Bucket Challenge. Now, this isn't to slight the person who issued the challenge, an individual whom I consider to be one of my best friends, or ALS or any of that, but

Technology

White House Cybersecurity Head Proud He's Clueless

White House cybersecurity coordinator -- the highest such position in the nation, appointed by and reporting to President Obama -- Michael Daniel, not only admits he knows absolutely nothing about his job, he thinks it's an advantage. You don't have to be a coder to really do well in this

Politics

What it Takes to Avoid a Police Beatdown

[H]ere is the bottom line: if you don’t want to get shot, tased, pepper-sprayed, struck with a baton or thrown to the ground, just do what I tell you. ~ Sunil DuttaHe calls it cooperation; I call it submission. Prof Dutta claims that it would be easier for everyone

Business

How Amazon Would Price E-Books

E-books should be sold to maximize profit. Without all the costs associated with physical books, e.g. printing, shipping, stocking, etc... there is no reason they should be priced the same as the physical book. Amazon also takes such a stance, noting they found a book was purchased 1.74

Religion

Valhalla

I was eating lunch with a couple coworkers recently and one of them asks us to guess where the PGA Championship tournament is being played. After a number of guesses, he lets us know that it's being played at Valhalla Golf Club. The conversation soon pivoted to the Norse origin

Politics

Everything that's Wrong with Rhode Island

Describing everything that is wrong with Rhode Island, Aaron Renn delivers an in-depth and interesting history of the Ocean State. While I don't think if the situation was reversed and Republicans ran this state for decades we'd be all that better off, dumb ideas are not relegated to a single

Technology

Robot Cars and the Value of Life

It may not seem that way, but I would bet within the lifetimes of Gen Y we will see self-driving cars dominate road travel in this country. With that evolution comes some pretty serious moral conundrums, especially concerning accidents and who lives or dies. David Weinberger does a good job

Politics

Cantor's Loss Changes Nothing

David Brat's primary election victory over sitting House Majority Leader Eric Cantor changes nothing according to Simon Black over at the Sovereign Man blog. While I'd like to disagree with him, that the removal of an incumbent is virtually always cause for celebration, Simon makes a pretty convincing argument that