soapbox

This afternoon I found an article that does a good job (better than I could) of explaining what I meant about how Warren Buffett is no saint. Yes his donation is staggering, and out-does Rockefeller/etc even when scaled for inflation, but he’s also screwed more rich guys than Paris Hilton.

But let’s be honest: Warren Buffett is not making the sacrifice, say, that one does who devotes his or her life to work in the slums of Calcutta, or becomes an aid worker in Liberia as a colleague in the prime of his life recently did where I work… Those are the people who should be celebrated rather than ignored by a culture that holds wealth and fame above compassion and duty.  Buffett simply is a businessman and investor — perhaps the best at both. Neither is an entirely noble profession, having, as both do, greed at the core. But few professions are completely free of the deadly sins.

Last month the VA managed to “lose” sensitive data on up to 26.5 million veterans and military personnel. Somehow an employee was able to take home a number of files, and as if that’s not enough, they later reported that their house had been burgled and the laptop containing the files was stolen…

anyway, the laptop has been found and the FBI “has determined that the data base remains intact and has not been accessed since it was stolen.” More tests were planned, however.

“This has brought to the light of day some real deficiencies in the manner we handled personal data,” [gee, you think?]VA Secretary Jim Nicholson said. “If there’s a redeeming part of this, I think we can turn this around,” he said.

Climate change/global warming is no joke. As Gore says, it’s not a political issue, it’s a moral issue.

Hooray Science!

Hooray Beer!