Get your sticky fingers out of my pocket!

There's an interesting piece in today's WSJ OpinionJournal which echoes the late Milton Friedman's condemnation of corporate philanthropy (or "corporate social responsibility", in Newspeak) as nothing more or less than socialism. I've never been fond of the practice myself, and find it interesting that the closer a company is to the actual nuts and bolts of the economy (for example, energy and coal companies) the less patience they have for this kind of socialist bullroar. I have patience for this notion of "stakeholders". Either you have stock or you don't, and if you're the kind of person who buys five shares so you can show up and harangue the directors, you get treated with the respect you deserve, i.e. none. This is also why I'm in favor of suing the pants of any muddle-headed pension fund manager who uses the fund's clout to bludgeon a company into pursuing goals that have more to do with the manager's notions of "global thinking" or "social responsibility" than with making the maximum profit consistent with the law and good business practices. The Evil Banking Neighbor, unfortunately, spends a lot of time and effort on this sort of thing; I suppose some of it can be justified as good PR and a decent exploitation of the tax laws. However, I have a hard time getting my head around their participation in this sort of nonsense. One good thing about getting into the teaching business will be having my summers off to hector management about this. I'll have pretty close to a thousand shares, and I plan to make them heard.

Meanwhile, a couple of Thanksgiving-related posts. First, somebody who needs to cut the kids some slack - there'll be time enough for them to become cynical when they reach puberty. (Rachel) Next, is there any way we can get this jerk a job reclassification from "history professor" to "illiterate fucktard"? (Volokh Conspiracy, via Instapundit).

Later today, time permitting: a post on how the Great American Holidays correspond to the Seven Deadly Sins. Particularly appropriate as we waddle ponderously forth from the Feast of Gluttony to the Season of Avarice.

Get your sticky fingers out of my pocket!

There's an interesting piece in today's WSJ OpinionJournal which echoes the late Milton Friedman's condemnation of corporate philanthropy (or "corporate social responsibility", in Newspeak) as nothing more or less than socialism. I've never been fond of the practice myself, and find it interesting that the closer a company is to the actual nuts and bolts of the economy (for example, energy and coal companies) the less patience they have for this kind of socialist bullroar. I have patience for this notion of "stakeholders". Either you have stock or you don't, and if you're the kind of person who buys five shares so you can show up and harangue the directors, you get treated with the respect you deserve, i.e. none. This is also why I'm in favor of suing the pants of any muddle-headed pension fund manager who uses the fund's clout to bludgeon a company into pursuing goals that have more to do with the manager's notions of "global thinking" or "social responsibility" than with making the maximum profit consistent with the law and good business practices. The Evil Banking Neighbor, unfortunately, spends a lot of time and effort on this sort of thing; I suppose some of it can be justified as good PR and a decent exploitation of the tax laws. However, I have a hard time getting my head around their participation in this sort of nonsense. One good thing about getting into the teaching business will be having my summers off to hector management about this. I'll have pretty close to a thousand shares, and I plan to make them heard.

Meanwhile, a couple of Thanksgiving-related posts. First, somebody who needs to cut the kids some slack - there'll be time enough for them to become cynical when they reach puberty. (Rachel) Next, is there any way we can get this jerk a job reclassification from "history professor" to "illiterate fucktard"? (Volokh Conspiracy, via Instapundit).

Later today, time permitting: a post on how the Great American Holidays correspond to the Seven Deadly Sins. Particularly appropriate as we waddle ponderously forth from the Feast of Gluttony to the Season of Avarice.

With the pockets of my suitcase full of cards I never sent

The TX is doing quite nicely as a replacement for the late, lamented Carbon. The screen is easier to read, of course, and it's easier to jump straight to something I want to hear without wading through a bunch of menus; this may not be quite so easy when I swap the present 1GB card out for its 4GB replacement. Tiger Direct has those on sale for $40 after an unspecified rebate, so unless a better deal presents itself that's probably where I'll wind up getting it. Don't hesitate to point me at something better/faster/closer, people.

I thought about taking the bus to work this morning, but that wasn't a really good plan. First of all, the Black Friday bus schedule for the 576 was pretty screwed up, and secondly, since I'm going to thaadd's after work taking the bus would have meant either busing back out to the P&R to get the truck or an extremely long ride out there from Dinkytown. Neither of those appeals to me, frankly, so I'm paying for the Gaviidae parking. It's almost redundant to point out that the commute in was ludricrously fast.

With the pockets of my suitcase full of cards I never sent

The TX is doing quite nicely as a replacement for the late, lamented Carbon. The screen is easier to read, of course, and it's easier to jump straight to something I want to hear without wading through a bunch of menus; this may not be quite so easy when I swap the present 1GB card out for its 4GB replacement. Tiger Direct has those on sale for $40 after an unspecified rebate, so unless a better deal presents itself that's probably where I'll wind up getting it. Don't hesitate to point me at something better/faster/closer, people.

I thought about taking the bus to work this morning, but that wasn't a really good plan. First of all, the Black Friday bus schedule for the 576 was pretty screwed up, and secondly, since I'm going to thaadd's after work taking the bus would have meant either busing back out to the P&R to get the truck or an extremely long ride out there from Dinkytown. Neither of those appeals to me, frankly, so I'm paying for the Gaviidae parking. It's almost redundant to point out that the commute in was ludricrously fast.