VINDICA

Mani Shankar Aiyer is unhappy. He thinks India should not be spending so much money on the Commonwealth games when it has so many poor people to take care of. Suresh Kalmadi, the Chairman of the games, considers this unpatriotic (I am sure he was referring to the opposition to the games, not concern for the poor). Instead of being unhappy, Aiyer should focus on the positives. It has been revealed that the games committee bought toilet paper for $80 a roll. The athletes can at least expect a great arse wiping. If you think that $80 is too much for a roll of toilet paper, then you should know that this is just a trick. They are trying to find the supplier who will actually cut corners and supply crappy (no pun intended) paper to make more money on a $80 roll. This supplier will be honored on national TV as the future of Indian business.

My company had a bumper quarter and is giving away an iPad to all employees. I finally understand how this whole stimulus business works. The stimulus money basically makes its way into iPads given away to people who dont want them and who can afford them anyways. This in turn creates jobs (in China) reduces cost to the consumer. The next stimulus package can then buy even more iPads for even less money. We just have to keep iterating on this until we can get infinite iPads for no money, at which point, we are done, since all those iPads can be used as bricks for propping up the housing sector which caused the recession in the first place.

Lately, I have become a fan of P. J. O'Rourke, whose politics I would probably find objectionable, but whose columns I find hilarious and illuminating. I had linked earlier to his article about how newspapers can resurrect sales by writing orbituaries of living people who are as good as dead (like Harry Reid in his column!). He now has a new column about Afghanistan and how he became an expert on the country in 72 hours flat. It contains some great gems like this one: The more voluble mullah explained, “Since the time of Adam until now there are four books from God.” (Muslims, like Jews, divide the Pentateuch from the rest of the Old Testament.) “This is our constitution.” It’s a little long, I suppose—even longer than the proposed EU constitution. But there are worse documents by which to live and govern—the proposed EU constitution for example.

A review of a new book on the two sides of the Churchill. The dark side being the Imperialist Churchill with visceral hatred of colored people in general and Indians in particular "they are a beastly people with a beastly religion". And the bright side being the Leader Churchill who saw the Nazi threat way ahead of his contemporaries. The review also touches on the Great Bengal Famine of 1943, where Churchill refused to do anything claiming that it was the fault of the Indians for "breeding like rabbits". Modern studies by respected economists, including Amartya Sen have shown how the famine was largely the result of British Incompetence. Due in large part to the famine, it can be easily said that Churchill killed far more Indians than he did Nazis. A bust of Churchill was installed in the Oval office by Bush. I am glad Obama chose to return it to England. The British can rightfully cherish Churchill's memory for the good things he did for their country,

A great article about wealth and happiness. It goes beyond the cliched "money does not make you happy" and makes a more interesting point. If money is not making you happy, then you are not spending it right! The article argues that it is better to spend on leisure (vacation, sport, hiking) than on material things (couch, handbag, house). It explains the concept of Hedonistic Adaptation, where our brain is hard wired to moderate both the positive and negative emotions associated with a material change in our life. When we buy a new house, we are very happy, but our brain moderates that happiness over time. We need new house to be just as happy. In comparison, a vacation or a similar "memory making" exercise will become embellished and better in our minds than it actually was when we were doing it! It is an interesting idea and one that I feel fits me well.