Malcom Gladwell in his book The Tipping Point discusses the 80/20 rule. The idea is that in so many things 80% vs 20% is a percentage factor. For years I’ve seen references to this percentage rule applied to sports and many other areas of life. Gladwell says economists often talk about the 80/20 principle. That in any situation roughly 80% of the work is done by 20% of the people involved. In most societies 20% of the criminals commit 80%…
I’ve written about the oppressive policies of the Bush administration and that of Woodrow Wilson before https://paulluverajournalonline.com/weblog/2007/02/p.html. But, I was primarily describing the pre World War I situation and the Palmer raids. In fact, the situation did not improve after the start of war in 1917, and instead became much worse. Not unlike the situation in this country after the Bush Administration rammed the Patriot Act through Congress. The Sedition Act was passed in 1918 while Wilson was president and…
Larry Tye has written a fascinating book Rising From The Rails which gives the history of black railroad porters and the profound influence they had as a result of what they learned from their contact with white passengers. They picked up the newspapers or books the passengers left on the train and read them. They listened to conversations about business, education and the affairs of people and applied the lessons in their own families. Their good influence had a ripple…
I’ve previously written about the world’s major religions https://paulluverajournalonline.com/weblog/2006/11/outline_of_the_.html. Former Secretary of State under President Bill Clinton, Madeleine Albright wrote a book The Mighty & The Almighty which I read when it first came out, but recently read some excerpts I had saved from the book. In a chapter Learning about Islam she reminds us that in 636 Christians fought Muslims over Jerusalem resulting in the death of 70,000 Christians and Islamic control of Jerusalem. In 1099 crusaders retook the…
Basketball legend, Coach John Wooden has written about the fundamentals of basketball and living a worthwhile life. Here are a few of his suggestions for succeeding which I think are worth considering: These are Coach Wooden’s suggestions: Fear no opponent, but respect every opponent Be more interested in character than reputation Be quick, but don’t hurry Understand that the harder you work, the more luck you will have Failing to prepare is preparing to fail He lists what he calls…
The Reverend Robert Schuller once wrote some prose that capture the feeling I have as get older: "Spring is past, Summer is gone, Winter is here, and my song that I was meant to sing is still unsung. I have spent my days stringing and unstringing my instrument" The other poem, whose author is unknown to me, describes the same regret at not having already accomplished the many things I intended to do, but haven’t yet done: Just Do it…
I read with interest in the New England Journal of Medicine (http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/357/4/328) about the two year old cat Oscar. Dr. David Dosa says Oscar was adopted by staff members at a nursing home in Providence, Rhode Island as a kitten. After about six months the staff noted that he would make his own rounds of patients. He’s go in, sniff, observe and either leave or stay. If he stayed, the staff realized he had an uncanny ability to know when…
These are random thoughts from my recent trip to Wyoming. I’ve spent this week at the Spence Trial College teaching trial lawyers. But, the truth is, they teach me far more then I teach them. On the plane I was reading an interview of an actor who spoke of his recovery from drinking, but the comments really struck a chord with me regarding our fears and demons. He said: "My recovery was a slow process, rather like my decline. Recovery…
President Harry Truman, who defeated Dewey in 1948, took delight in attacking the Republican controlled 80th Congress for their lack of action. He called Congress the "do-nothing" Congress and pointed out how little they accomplished in any meaningful legislative action. The same epitaph of a "do-nothing" Congress can be applied to the Democrats. Talk about "wasting political capital," the Democrats were elected in reliance on their promise to take action to bring the troops home and get America out of…
I’ve commented before about the Pope Benedict’s arch conservative background and the moderate position he seemed to assume after his election, but which soon began to be abandoned and his true conservative posture exposed. (See post 4/21/07) When he did say something that caused controversy, the Vatican would immediately offer a clarifying statement afterwords to mollify the protests. Time published an article about this entitled "Pope Benedict: "What I meant to say…" The mask regally began to slip on September…
