As IF Times

link Al Gore stands to gain about $70 million after selling Current TV to al-Jazeera – Washington Post.

I actually applaud Al Gore for making the wise business decision; he sold out.  Hmm, maybe that didn’t come out right.  Apart from his political career, Albert Gore is at heart a businessman and a very good one if you look at the record.  Despite an undistinguished political career, he wound up being invited to the boards of Google and Apple, both gigs that soothed the hurt of not being elected President.  I don’t think we can begrudge somebody who starts humbly and then and builds himself a business empire worth hundreds of millions.  Well that’s not true, Mitt Romney was begrudged.   If you acquire you wealth through fortuitous marriages like John Kerry or Nancy Pelosi, there’s much less stigma attached to your wealth,  there’s more dignity to it.

I’m sure it must have galled Al that he didn’t receive perpetual lifetime royalties  for inventing the Internet.   Despite this setback, he was still able to get into the film business, made an eco fantasy movie and received a Nobel prize for doing so.  Heck, if Michael Moore can make money off fantasy films, so can he.  But Nobel money only goes so far when you have expenses such as private planes, limos and beach houses to upkeep.  You can’t spread the gospel about wasting resources and global calamity in a dogsled living in a two-wide trailer.   A guy starts an enterprise which, from the beginning was predicated on a ridiculous premise, makes no money at it and then sells it off for $500 million dollars?  That’s sheer genius.

In the wake of this recent successful business coup, staffers at the soon to be renamed Current TV are bewildered at what they perceive as the blatant hypocrisy and mercenary actions taken by their fearless leader.  Selling eco sensitive Current TV to Al Jazeera is akin to selling  a veggie restaurant to KFC.  Dennis Miller said it best when he noted that Gore profited greatly from the prophet business.   Staffers should have gotten a clue that something was up when the Christmas bonus included some free gas cards and prayer mats.

Keen business school students should stay tuned for Al’s next great adventure.  We don’t know what calamity will soon befall all earthlings, but you can bet it will be lucrative.

link Judge Clears United Airlines in a 9/11 Collapse – NYTimes.com.

Really?  We needed the measured wisdom of a judge to determine that United Airlines was not responsible for the twin towers’ destruction? Didn’t anyone have a newspaper?  It’s this kind of clear legal thinking that separates us from chaotic third world countries.  The fact that only 11 years have passed since the event is irrelevant, at least now we have the final, official word on culpability.  For the 11 years leading up to this verdict, I’m sure the world was on pins and needles awaiting the conclusions.  It’s quite possible that this learned judgement was the result of thousands of hours of sifting through documents, affidavits and reports.  It’s also quite possible that this task was given to the junior judge as a test, as in “let’s see if he can get this one right”.

As a society, the west has fallen irretrievably into the rathole of the legal blame trap.  Everything that happens whether natural or orchestrated is seen to have some kind of root cause, which most importantly have  legal and therefore financial consequences attached.  The most pedestrian events are now subjects of legal rulings, edicts and compensatory consequences.  The most obvious events are the subject of interminable scrutiny and post mortem analysis.  Let’s not forget; someone pays for all of this high level thinking.

As people cede more and more of their activities to various government proxies , they open the door for more and more idiots to get into the business of managing them.  In fact they encourage them.  We used to assume that anyone elected to positions of public responsibility would, at the very least, have some measure of common sense whatever their partisan biases may be.  That assumption is tossed out a 20 storey window when one observes the headlines that pass through on the newswires.  Exhibit A:

“Montreal By-law requires dogs understand commands in both official languages”  a proposal put forth by councilor Benoit LaDouce of that city.  http://www.cbc.ca/thisisthat/blog/2012/12/12/montreal-bylaw-requires-dogs-to-understand-commands-in-both-official-languages/

Or, getting back to the 911 events, the ongoing tragedy which are the ‘security’ measures surrounding airport security and the TSA:

“TSA detains ‘explosive’ laced girl in wheelchair”  http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2012/12/14/tsa-detains-explosive-laced-girl-in-wheelchair/

A theory was offered as to why the very basic human trait of common sense is now a resident of milk cartons and missing posters.  A Stanford study posits that:  “…we are losing our intellectual and emotional capabilities because the intricate  web of genes which endows us with our brain power is particularly vulnerable to  mutations – and these mutations are not being selected against our modern  society because we no longer need intelligence to survive…”  see article here:  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2231924/Are-getting-stupid-Researchers-claim-longer-need-intelligence-survive.html

Whatever the reason, the declining use of common sense while being replaced by what passes as intelligent analysis in people’s lives will only lead to a society in which everything is governed by some official edict.  May as well be fans at a Madonna concert.  When mass exodus of common sense occurs, we wind up with a population that would allow someone like a Benoit LaDouce to be elected to office….or much worse.   Getting back to our learned judge at the top of the article, he’s looking forward to his next big case.  The OJ Simpson mystery.