John Keyes

The Shirky Principle declares that complex solutions (like a company, or an industry) can become so dedicated to the problem they are the solution to, that often they inadvertently perpetuate the problem. Unions, or example. Unions were a brilliant solution to the problem of capital management which tended to exploit uncapitalized workers. But over time as capital increased in complexity, unions complexified as well, until unions needed management. The two became one system – union/management. So now the problem with unions is that they are locked into the old framework, the old system. They inadvertently perpetuate the continuation of the problem (management) they are the solution to because as long as unions exists, companies feel they need management to offset them, and so the two became co-dependent. In effect problems and solutions tend become a single system.

—The Technium: The Shirky Principle

Is NAMA unconstitutional?

Madam, – In relation to the banking crisis, and the solution proposed by the Government, has anyone thought of the implications of Article 45.2 (iv) of our Constitution? The State shall, in particular, direct its policy towards securing: “That in what pertains to the control of credit the constant and predominant aim shall be the welfare of the people as a whole”. – Yours, etc,

From: Johnny Rants

One cardinal rule of marriage should never be forgotten: GIVE LITTLE, GIVE SELDOM, AND ABOVE ALL, GIVE GRUDGINGLY. Otherwise what could have been a proper marriage could become an orgy of sexual lust.

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Clever wives are ever on the alert for new and better methods of denying and discouraging the amorous overtures of the husband. A good wife should expect to have reduced sexual contacts to once a week by the end of the first year of marriage and to once a month by the end of the fifth year of marriage.

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As soon as the husband has completed the act, the wise wife will start nagging him about various minor tasks she wishes him to perform on the morrow.

From: The Madison Institute

Just surfacing for a bit. I’ve spent the last few weeks in family mode, as we welcomed a new boy to the family.

It’s been 3 years since we experienced this last, and how quickly the memories fade.

The lows of being woken for the third time in an hour to the highs of just holding this new life in your hands and listening to him breathing.

I’ve just finished reading tonights bedtime story to our three year old, and I think I just felt the house leave out a little contented sigh.