Life is a long lesson in humility

James M. Barrie

In 1965, Robert M. Manry, a copy editor for the Cleveland Plain Dealer, sailed from the United States to England in a 13-foot sailboat — 3,200 miles across the North Atlantic in a boat so small you'd hesitate to take it out on Lake Michigan or Long Island Sound as small-craft warnings were flying.

For 78 days, Manry and his tiny 36-year-old sailboat battled one of the toughest stretches of saltwater on earth. Gales blew the boat on its side. Manry tried to nap during the day and sailed at night so that he could try to avoid being run down and chopped into kindling and hamburger by great ocean-going steamers. On several occasions, he was washed over the side in heavy seas. Each time he would haul himself back aboard by a lifeline he kept tied to himself in the boat. He suffered terrible hallucinations, the result of having to take so many pep pills to stay awake during the long nights.

Why? What made him do it? It wasn't publicity; he went about the whole thing so quietly — practically no one knew what he was up to. He thought no one would pay attention to him, and that was fine with him.

The reason was that he had dreamed of sailing the Atlantic ever since he had been a small boy. He bought the dinky old boat for $250. He completely rebuilt her, taught himself navigation, and practiced long-distance sailing on Lake Erie.

He told his wife the real reason for his embarking on so incredible a journey in so vulnerable a craft. He said to her, "There is a time when one must decide either to risk everything to fulfill one's dreams or sit for the rest of one's life in the backyard."

http://www.nightingale.com/

 

Ultra vires/Intra vires

I avoided all news over the weekend.  Yet I knew about the weekend Senate vote.  One piece that is especially troubling to wake up this morning was Senator Landrieu.  If you haven’t seen it yet, there is enough on the internet.  For those that don’t care, I don’t know what to say.  Barry Ritholtz from a recent trip to Berlin “In European’s eyes, the US populace seems terribly uninformed about most political matters — and vote accordingly. Europeans seem to be able to debate an issue without the vitriol and rancor that accompanies the rabid partisanship in the US.”

For those not familiar with bribery:  Definition - Bribery is an attempt to influence another person's actions, usually a government or public official employee, by offering a benefit in exchange for the desired decision.  Rich Galen is eloquent as ever “Three hundred million in return for a vote to proceed. If walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck”.  And given his political background, his imaginary discussion is probably close to the mark.

Imaginary - but very possible - transcript of a phone call between a Senior Administration Official and Senator Landrieu:

Mary, either you accept our offer or I will have researchers from the Democratic National Committee sent down to Louisiana to make certain that every death of every patient who dies for lack of care anywhere in the state will be called a death caused by the "Landrieu Legacy."

I am fully prepared to back this up with paid advertising. Every time. You know my reputation, I would advise you not to test me.

www.mullings.com

I will correct something. It's not $100 million, it's $300 million, and I'm proud of it and will keep fighting for it.

Senator Mary Landrieu

It has been frequently remarked, that it seems to have been reserved to the people of this country, by their conduct and example, to decide the important question, whether societies of men are really capable or not, of establishing good government from reflection and choice, or whether they are forever destined to depend, for their political constitutions, on accident and force. If there be any truth in the remark, the crisis, at which we are arrived, may with propriety be regarded as the æra in which that decision is to be made; and a wrong election of the part we shall act, may, in this view, deserve to be considered as the general misfortune of mankind

Alexander Hamilton