Month: November 2012

Hello Dolly

Yesterday at noon while driving to Mountain View to have lunch with a friend, I caught Dolly Parton on the radio. She was in conversation with Neal Conan, the host of Talk of the Nation on NPR (National Public Radio.) TotN is usually a delight to listen to but yesterday’s bit with Dolly was special. One gets the warm and fuzzies just listening to her talk. There’s something heartwarmingly genuine about her.
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“The immoral use of force is the source of man’s political problems.”

{This piece was published at NitiCentral.com last week.}

Ron Paul is retiring after serving in the US Congress for 23 years over a 36 year period. There’s a striking line in his farewell speech he gave on Nov 14th to the US Congress. “The immoral use of force is the source of man’s political problems.” It strikes me as the crux of practically all of humanity’s problems, not just political problems. All the manifest problems that we collectively face involve the immoral use of force or coercion. Look and you will find what lies beneath any problem is clearly an instance of someone or some organization using force to take what is not given freely.
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Understanding Economics

A while ago a non-economist friend who had read my book “Transforming India” said that as he did not understand economics would I write a book explaining some of the basic concepts of economics? It would be a “prequel” to the “Transforming India” book. That sounded like a good idea and over the last couple of months, I have spent some time on such a book. The working title is “Understanding Economics.” Not the most brilliant title but that will change to something more attractive by the time it is ready for publication.
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Thoughts on the Passing of Shri Balasaheb Thackeray

Balasaheb Thackeray
Balasaheb Thackeray

Shri Balasaheb Thackeray passed away today (Saturday afternoon India time) in Mumbai. Much of what I know about current events, I learn from the handful of people I follow on twitter. So I got to know of Balasaheb’s death through twitter. I noticed quite a few “RIP” messages. That prompted me to write a few tweets myself.
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The Cult of Ignorance

​There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there always has been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that “my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.” – Isaac Asimov​

Spreading the Message about Maino aka Sonia Gandhi

Spotted on the (information) highway. For those of you who don’t read Hindi, it reads (not a literal translation) “Sonia Gandhi, you are a disgrace & a shame.” Someone inform Diggy Raja.

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