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.

Everyone, and especially political partisans, has trouble changing their minds when confronted with facts that don't fit their beliefs. In an ideal world, citizens would be able to maintain constant vigilance, monitoring both the information they receive and the way their brains are processing it. But keeping atop the news takes time and effort. And relentless self-questioning, as centuries of philosophers have shown, can be exhausting. Our brains are designed to create cognitive shortcuts — inference, intuition, and so forth — to avoid precisely that sort of discomfort while coping with the rush of information we receive on a daily basis. Without those shortcuts, few things would ever get done. Unfortunately, with them, we’re easily suckered by political falsehoods. Note to self: Question yourself.

So said a colleague at lunch and cleared up his own bafflement at why people follow others who proudly proclaim them dumbness.

I absolutely love disruptive reviews. My favorite is Matt Taibi's review of Thomas Friedman's "World is Flat". The review of the new Sex and the City movie linked here runs close. The fab four go to Abu Dhabi of all places and "stone sexism to death". At sexism's funeral (which takes place in a mysterious, incense-shrouded chamber of international sisterhood), the women of Abu Dhabi remove their black robes and veils to reveal—this is not a joke—the same hideous, disposable, criminally expensive shreds of cloth and feathers that hang from Carrie et al.'s emaciated goblin shoulders. Muslim women: Under those craaaaaaay-zy robes, they're just as vapid and obsessed with physical beauty and meaningless material concerns as us! Feminism! Fuck yeah! If this is what modern womanhood means, then just fucking veil me and sew up all my holes. Good night. *smile*. Good day everyone.

A fantastic (and balanced) essay about Ayn Rand and here books. Unsparing in critizing her where deserved. Like this piece about her brag about "not faking reality in any manner". Rand had periods of heavy use (of amphetamines) in the 1950s and '60s.... As anyone who has had the experience knows, a good way to get a really, really distorted sense of reality is to swallow a couple of Dexedrines. If you want to take them anyway, don't go around bragging that you never "fake reality in any manner." ... but the article also provides a credible and heartfelt explanation of why her novels are popular (and great) ...a heroic vision of a blue-collar worker doing his job... Critics often accuse Rand of portraying a few geniuses as the only people worth valuing. That's not what I took away from her. I saw her celebrating people who did their work well and condemning people who settled for less, in great endeavors or small; celebrating those who took responsibil...

Loranism for the day (About fly fishing): It is easier to kill trout with a baseball bat than it is to fly fish it. One wouldn't think fooling a fish with such a small brain would be so difficult. You have to prepare the bait just so, so it resembles some food available in that particular stream. Then you have to dangle the bait just so, otherwise the damn thing wont bit. And all the Republicans have to do is trot out Sarah Palin and they all vote. I don't get it!

The big banks (JP Morgan, BofA, GS) reported that they made a profit on every single trading day. The chances of this happening in a fair game are astronomically small. Probably smaller than the chance of you getting struck by an astroid as you are reading this post. So if you reading this and are still alive, it means the game is fixed. Prudence would seem to demand not playing the game. What am I missing?

Won in the last game against Topolov in a hard fought match.

God is in the air. Again. After Dawkin's God Delusion and Hitchen's God is not great left scorched earth (but no prisoners) in their wake, comes a more subtle book written by Rebecca Goldstein - 36 Arguments for the existence of God - A work of fiction , where the protagonist, an "atheist with a soul", contemplates the universe that has suddenly made him rich and famous after his public confession of atheism. Arguments about God, and the ripostes thereof, have been an ongoing (and mostly mundane) phenomena for many centuries. Things got a bit more interesting during Enlightenment . Voltaire lies in his deathbed and a worried priest comes up to him and tells him that it is not too late. He can yet renounce satan. "Now is no time to make new enemies." says Voltaire. And dies. Although things had turned interesting, it isn't until the twentieth century, and until both sides had fully heard out the other side, that the arguments became stylized. Th...

The review argues that Twilight is just a female mirror image of boy movies like Die Hard, and that the reason why there is so much vitriol aimed at it is because of its conspicuous lack of male following. The author suggests contemporary culture equates lack of male following as equivalent to lack of "universality", while the same is not true for movies that lack female following. A subtle point, but very true from what I can tell.

This gut wrenching New Yorker story details the execution of Todd Willingham who was executed for starting a fire that killed his three children. New investigations suggest that he should have been found innocent not only because of new evidence, but even by the evidence and standards that were available at that time. Clearly the justice system cannot prevent innocents from being murdered by the state. Scalia's assertion that not a single such case exists is rotten bullshit. Death penalty must be banned and Texas has a historic opportunity to start the process by acknowledging officially that the system made an unpardonable error.

One cannot help but think that both the emotional parties in the Jinnah debate (BJP and Pakistani establishment) have jumped the gun in judging the book. BJP is distraught with thoughts of betrayal while Pakistan is elated at the vindication. However, the book may be more subtle than that. Consider Jaswant's interview in outlook magazine. In the book, I question the two-nation theory. I am saying Jinnah is wrong to say Muslims had a separate homeland. I say look into the eyes of Muslims and see their pain. How have they benefited from Partition? While Jaswant seems to be sympathizing with the difficult position of Indian Muslims in general and Jinnah in particular, he also seems to be rejecting the whole "ideology of Pakistan" business that seeks to portray Partition as necessary and inevitable. I wonder how the tone is going to change on the two sides of the border once everyone has had a chance to read the book! I guess the more sensible elements on both sides will ...

People of Otjivero in Namibia lived in absolute poverty. Women prostituted themselves for food while men were either drunk or waited around doing nothing (70% unemployment). 42% of the children were malnourished. A new kind of aid agency came up with a different idea for development. Just give them money! No discrimination between rich or poor. No bureacracy to determine eligibility. Anybody who wanted money was given 100 Namibian Dollars a month. Some time down the line, malnourishment is down to 10%. Unemployment and crime are plunging. This is the perfect model for aid delivery in India. What more, it is populist too! Imagine a government promising 1000 rupees a month instead of stupid schemes like Rs. 2 rice that are ravaged by corruption and middlemen. Popular, more efficient and ultimately better. Why does it work? Because the general consensus is that "Africa's poor need to be educated first before they can be given the right of self-determination, and that t...

I watched the movie adaptation of Richard Yate's novel "Revolutionary Road". It kicked off a debate with Sandhya about suburban life and what it means to live and to merely exist. For those of you who have not seen the movie, Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet are a seemingly happy couple living the suburban dream in a nice house. Kate desperately wants to get out. She convinces her husband that they can use their savings to move to Europe. She wants to stop being a housewife and take up a job there. She wants him to stop working and figure out what he wants to do. However, an unexpected pregnancy causes doubts in Leonardo and consequent rage in Kate. It is a nice concept, but I think it is a typical 50s story. I think the more appropriate theme for our times would have been the consummation of the European desire and subsequent disenchantment with it. However, Sandhya felt differently. In any case, it was a considerable surprise for me to come across Richard Yate...

Everyone seems to agree that Prop 13 that limited property taxes in California is to blame for the crisis. There is however, a large majority that believes that the law requiring 2/3 majority for raising taxes was a good idea. Now consider what has happened. Instead of raising taxes on cigarettes, the legislature was forced to cut spending in health care. This is inspite of the the fact that cigarette tax would naturally lower health care costs. Cutting health care would in fact RAISE healthcare costs since more people will drop through the cracks and start visiting ERs. The 33% minority that blocked the cigarette tax must be held accountable for this travesty.

Sashi Taroor used to be a UN Technocrat and India's strong preference to take over the Secretary Generalship of that organization. He was also the insider and in all respects the ideal candidate for the job. However, his candidature was torpedoed by a US veto and heavy money fuelled diplomacy in favor of Ban Ki Mooon. I remember thinking this was a travesty and a tragedy. However, the world's loss may well prove to be India's great gain. Mr. Taroor has just been elected to the Indian Parliament from Trivandrum . It would not be a great surprise if he is given a minor portfolio in the Government in spite of his first term status.