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Showing posts from September, 2018

The Persistence of a Memory

It was March 1980, and I was at the Statler-Hilton Hotel in New York City. I was at a party, but I was bored and on the whole pretty miserable. I was at the hotel as part of the National High School Model United Nations ( NHSMUN ). After a successful run in 1979 representing Nigeria, this time I'd been tapped for a coveted Security Council spot representing France. There, I got to support France's pro-nuclear energy stance, in the aftermath of Three Mile Island. 38 years later, that's about all I can remember of my positions that week. I also remember one of the delegates from the USA and the USSR, but only because we all went to the same college a few months later. In 1979, the delegation from my high school had been somewhat small. But I'd met up with my old camp friend Andy the first day, he was working the event on "security," and we had skipped out across the street one evening to sit courtside for a Knicks game. That was fun even though the Spurs go

Kavanaugh's Wealth

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I've been considering Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court a bit, lately. It's been discussed a great deal, and his confirmation could have significant consequences for the court, for a long time. Democrats have tried pretty much anything they could come up with, to delay or derail the confirmation. Not easy, of course, when they have no power to stop it. Today, Senator Feinstein reported a letter apparently alleging misdeeds of Kavanaugh while he was in high school. But I'm considering Kavanaugh's documents, the ones he released voluntarily. Back in July, Tim Mullaney at Marketwatch asked a question: "Brett Kavanaugh has saved almost nothing -- so does he actually understand business?" . From the article:"he has $15,000 to $50,000 in the bank, no reported stock, bond or fund holdings, and a 401(k) retirement account held by his wife that holds less than $15,000." In a word, that's pathetic. Sure, Kavanaugh has a salary ov