Monday, March 30, 2009

You Know You're Famous When...

An obituary appeared in the Anderson Independent for Lou Saban who passed away on Sunday. Lou had a great career in sports
Saban played football at Indiana University and for the Cleveland Browns of the NFL before embarking on an unmatched head coaching career that included stops with the Boston Patriots and Buffalo Bills of the old American Football League and the Denver Broncos and Bills after the AFL merged with the NFL in 1970, along with college jobs at Miami, Army, Northwestern and Maryland.

Saban, who was 95-99-7 in 16 seasons of pro football, also was president of the New York Yankees from 1981-82 and coached high school football from 1987-89.
I hope his life was as full as it sounds. However, the fame of another man named Saban is so great that it will not allow Lou to rest in peace without intruding itself into his passing:
Saban shared the last name of another prominent football coach, Alabama's Nick Saban. Joyce Saban said the two men might have been second cousins, but said the families weren't exactly sure whether they were related. [emphasis added]
This was placed in paragraph six in a nineteen graph obit.

Friday, March 27, 2009

On Selective Interpretation

Matthew 18:9 And if your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell.

It is kind of funny that we would take the Hell portion of these verses literally, but not the dismemberment part. Some of us don't think it's too much for Jesus to be describing a place of eternal torment, but we do think it's too much for him to actually mean we should cut off our limbs. There's something backwards in that.

terri at Wheat Among Tares

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Liberal vs Conservative

Liberal: A person whose goal is to use government to make it as if Free Markets never existed.

Conservative: a person whose goal is to create a world glorifying a Free Market that never existed in the first place.*

*- one without monopolies, information asymmetries, irrational behavior or serendipity driven success.

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Faith vs. Evidence

For that reason, Bill’s four pieces of evidence are completely irrelevant. There cannot be historical probability for an event that defies probability, even if the event did happen. The resurrection has to be taken on faith, not on the basis of proof. [emphasis added]

Bart Ehrman - Debate vs William Craig 2006

(ht:

Friday, March 13, 2009

Why Obstacles Will Remain to Switching Jobs

American firms will actually lose profitability if health insurance is taken from their greedy grimy clutches. At present people are working 45-60 (or even 70) hour weeks for the base pay that is supposed to be compensation for a 40 hour week. They do these extra hours for the same pay because they fear losing health care coverage as they lose their jobs.
Blog Comment
Anything that increases employees ability to move bewteen jobs (IOW, improve economic efficiency) is going to be opposed by business. The conflict between the interest of the worker and those of the employer have not disappeared nor will they. I have worked for too many companies that tried to game the system - hiring two employees for the same position and firing one after a few months, trying to track exempt employees hours and dock their pay if hours slip for a given week. Consider the ferociousness of efforts to prevent employees from sharing salary information.

Thursday, March 5, 2009

Quote of the Day

If common sense were a reliable guide, we wouldn't need science in the first place.
Amanda Gefter - How to spot a hidden religious agenda