Short China

The World Health Organization or WHO announced today that “the worst is over” regarding the SARS epidemic in Vietnam, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Canada.  WHO pronounced Vietnam for being the first country to eradicate the disease, and praised it for doing so transparently, quickly, and efficiently.

One reason Vietnam was able to do so is because it closed its border with China.  For notably absent in the WHO announcement was any praise for China.  The worst is not over for China.  The worst — far worse — is yet to come.

90% of SARS cases worldwide to this day are (more…)

Still Not Eaten by the Leopard Seal

When penguins in Antarctica get hungry, they get nervous.  Grouped together on an iceberg, none of them wants to be the first to jump in the water and go fishing — because there just might be a leopard seal waiting for them.  There’s nothing in the sea a leopard seal finds more tasty to eat than fresh penguin.

So the waddle (on land or ice, a group of penguins is a waddle;  in the water, it’s a raft) bunches together, the ones in the back pushing forward, the ones in the front backing up away from the ice edge.  When (more…)

Completely Out of the Box

Jack Wheeler
Strategic Investor, July 2001

The origin of the phrase “thinking out of the box” comes from an intelligence test called the Nine Dot Box.  Imagine three rows of three dots, each equally spaced some distance apart on a regular piece of paper.  The task is to connect the dots with a  minimum number of lines drawn by a pen or pencil.  The only rules are:  you must draw a line through every dot once and only once, all lines must be straight (no curves), and your pen/pencil cannot leave the paper. 

Most people cannot figure out how to do (more…)

Why the Clinton White House Went After Microsoft

Early last October, a senior White House henchman, let’s call him Richard Head, paid Janet Reno a visit.  The conversation went something like this. 

Head:  Ms. Reno, the president is very concerned that you do the right thing regarding criminal investigations of his administration. 

Reno:  That’s reassuring, Richard — may I call you Dick? 

Head:  Yes — so we at the White House would like you to prosecute Bill. 

Reno (spilling her coffee):  Prosecute the president?  But I thought no matter how massive the evidence against him, I was to stonewall… 

Head:  No, Ms. Reno, that’s the wrong Bill — (more…)

PROUDER THAN EVER

[Written ten days after the start of The War in Iraq, March 31, 2003]

Let me say it straight. I am almost sixty years old, and I have never in my life been prouder to be an American than I am today.

I was talking to my friend Tony Blankley, editorial editor of the Washington Times, the other day, and when I compared George Bush to Ronald Reagan, Tony replied, “It may turn out to be the other way around.”

I first met Ronald Reagan in 1965, and for all of us who were with him in his original campaign for California Governor or worked with him in the White House, the depth of (more…)