The Vicous Cycle of Tidying.

When we tidy each place separately, we fail to see that we're repeating the same work in many locations and become locked into a vicious cycle of tidying. To avoid this, I recommend tidying by category.  [My bold]

Thus says Ms. Kondo in her The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, which Amazon describes as the "#1 Best Seller in Zen Philosophy." 

Please tell this lady that no one in our house is caught in that cycle, especially me.

WSJ's Best Online Tools for Navigating Retirement: Here's Life Planning for You, Kid.

In the Encore section of today's WSJ, the front page article is entitled "The Best Online Tools for Navigating Retirement" and its complete with a photo of a couple contemplating retirement, a photo right out of the 50s.  So I guess that we baby-boomers have become our parents.  I mean I love(d) my parents, but that's pretty depressing, even though I look in the mirror each morning shaving and I see my dad.  Thanks a lot.

Anyway, since this article is behind the pay-wall, I'll just list the "best on-line tools" in a series of posts and give you a short description.  This is my first post in that series.

LifePlanningforYou.com.  Here is this site's welcome:

Welcome to your path to freedom. That is what financial Life Planning is all about—the freedom to find your dreams, and to bring them alive. Life Planning helps you reorganize your relationship to money so that your financial resources are dedicated to supporting your life of greatest value, meaning and purpose. 

This sounds vaguely religious.  Yet this is the WSJ's "favorite." It "offers a free series of introspective exercises," probably because us boomers are pretty flabby with that sort of thing, introspection I mean.  We are notoriously outwardly directed when we are not smoking pot. We've got to get in touch with our inner selves or risk defaulting to the Villages. The site also provides links to "financial planners trained in 'life planning.'"  Life Planning "focuses on helping clients clarify their goals, values and priorities before planning their finances." 

Actually, the couple in the photo appear to be happy.  (Although it disturbs me that they are not holding hands - its sort of a knuckle-bumping walk into retirement, I guess.)  Maybe they have their future pretty much squared away.  Probably because they saved a lot of money over the years buying their clothes at Goodwill.

Investing vs. Leveraged Speculation

[A]ll individuals can still choose to do what most professionals no longer can: Invest for the long run without having to measure their performance moment to moment in a mad race to beat the market.

But if, instead, you use borrowed money to speculate in markets you don’t understand, you have taken your basic advantage and distorted it into a lethal disadvantage.

-Jaxon Zwieg, in an article entitled "Still Want to Trade Currencies?" in today's WSJ. (Behind the pay-wall.)

Althouse Posts on Decluttering (UPDATED)

Here.

I have a relatively small office at the firm.  Each business day at the office, I spend at least an hour (or should) doing what I call a "sweep."  By that I mean looking at every piece of paper that has wandered out of place and either discarding it, scanning it, posting the subject matter on a to-do list, or otherwise putting it where it needs to go, where God intended for it to be.  Cf. 1 Cor. 14:33.

Now and then, I walk into the office the morning after a complete de-clutter (usually on a Monday, after I've spent the better part of my day Saturday doing the sweep, requiring the balance of that day to be spent in a long nap) and I feel a sense a joy.  I think that is what first walking (floating? rematerializing?) into heaven must feel like.  (Or maybe heaven is simply having the time and energy to declutter.)

This is not exactly the same thing that Althouse posts about, but it is very close.

We are always misplacing things at home, and often they cannot be found for years.  There is an entire set of Barth's Church Dogmatics that disappeared amongst the clutter several years ago.  We still don't know where it is.  We refer to where it went as "the sock hole."  There are lots of things we would like to retrieve from that place, but we can't find the portal.  When the kids arrive after we've gone to heaven, they will finally unpile everything - like the lady in the Althouse link . They will discover the entrance to that Lewis Carroll kind of place, and they will have a good laugh.

UPDATE:

I had to get back into this post because the link didn't work to the Althouse blog.  It is fixed, but I read the blog again.  You will see that Ann reviews the book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing and includes a YouTube video of its author, Marie Kondo, discussing the book.  Ms. Kondo advises keeping only the things that give you joy.  Hmm.  Well, Carol is certainly on the list.  Now what else?

Living to 96?

The WSJ for this weekend has a worthwhile article (behind a pay wall) entitled, "The 15 Numbers Every Investor Should Know."  Among those numbers is one's life expectancy, that is, the age to which the subject should assume he or she will live.  (Obviously, savers and investors should be interested in this number.)  The article links to a website called "Living to 100," which includes a "Living to 100 Life Expectancy Calculator." By answering a few multiple choice questions, the calculator will give you the last anniversary of your birthday.  Mine is 96.

The site will give you not only the age to which you can expect to live, but also a set of comments and suggestions in light of your answers to the multiple choice questions.  Most of the comments and suggestions make sense, but there is one that is troubling.  Because I answered that I consume very few dairy products per week, there is a recommendation that I consume more to avoid osteoporosis.  Apparently, the author of the calculator, Thomas Perls MD, MPH, FACP, did not get Dr. McDougall's memo.  A diet full of vegetables and a life with periodic exercise should result in enough calcium to keep one's bones strong.

Wealth and Siblings

The print edition of the Miami Herald this morning features on the front page of its business section an AP article by Bernard Condon that the Herald headline writer entitled "Wealth gap deepens sibling rivalries."  It features Jayson and his sister Jackie, Jason materially successful and Jackie not so much.  Jayson is college educated, in his mid-thirties and single. Jackie has no-college (yet), is in her late twenties, and she married her high-school boyfriend.  But if you read to the end of the article, you see these two people moving toward each other in their views and growing in their respect for each other. 

The article on the AP website (and on the Herald's own website) has a more accurate headline: "How wealth gap complicates sibling relationships."

The Herald headline, however, advances the newspaper's agenda:  that we should all have the same outcome regardless of the choices we make and that government should make it so.

I concede that that the article also includes quotes from a psychotherapist who "says she's never had so many clients troubled by sibling wealth."  However, a sample taken from a lone psychotherapist's practice hardly makes the case promoted by the Herald headline.  Nor do Jason and Jackie. 

This camel verse.

This week's Bloomberg Businessweek announces the issue's theme of "good business" with this cover.  You probably can't see it, but in the lower right hand corner is the scripture reference: Matthew 19:24.  "Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the Kingdom of God," the third page of the magazine announces in very large letters.

The fourth page of the issue, in addition to setting forth a table of contents, has a column entitled "Cover Trail" on "How the cover gets made."  There is a sort of dialog there between two people, one of whom proposes the cover and its scripture and the other of whom never heard of the scripture, to the consternation of the person making the proposal.  The ignoramus states, "I was Raised Roman Catholic, went to church and Sunday school every week, and also went to a Jesuit high school where I had religion class all four years, and I still have never heard this camel verse."  The proposer states, "Something tells me you paid zero attention to any of those things."  "Fine, you win," answers the ignoramus.  "Joyeux Noel!"

I don't really think its about winning.

Movie Recommendation: "Everlasting Moments"

Carol and I viewed this film on Amazon Prime last night.  Wonderful and, in a way, so counter-cultural in its values, especially now.

UPDATE:  Here is Roger Ebert's review. (Thanks, Carol.)

"Grow Your Savings" - What a Joke

Carol pointed out an ad in this week's Gazette by Compass Financial Federal Credit Union (headquarters, Medley, FL) which trumpets "Grow Your Savings" and features a "Special 15 month CD 1.10% APY" with a "Minimum Deposit of $25,000."

The Inflation rate for the 12 month period ending October 31, 2014 was 1.7%.  If that should be the rate going forward, then there would be a negative actual return on that CD of -.4%.  But that's not all.

The 1.10% that the CD would "earn" is subject to the income tax.  Let's assume one is in a 25% bracket.  After taxes, then, the rate is .825%.

Now add in the inflation, and the negative return is -1.225%.

If one hides the cash in his mattress, the negative return is -1.7%, so there is a bit of an advantage to the CD.
But you are hardly growing your savings.

Thus, the stock market booms. Vanguard's 500 Index Fund (VFIAX) returned 16.81% for the 12 month period ending November 30, 2014.

Our nest egg is invested 60% in stocks and 40% in bonds.  Even our trusty investment adviser is now suggesting we increase the allocation to stocks, because the fixed-income sector is paying so poorly and the equity sector so well.  He's late to that party, obviously.  Does his arrival presage a stock market bust?

College Football: But Money is the Issue

Normally, money isn’t an issue at Florida, but the [UF]UAA could be on the hook for nearly $14 million — Muschamp’s and McElwain’s buyouts — before the Rams coach ever begins roaming the sidelines for the Gators. 

-from this morning's Miami Herald.  Muschamp is the UF coach that the Gators just fired.  McElwain is the Colorado State coach the Gators want.  To make this change, the Gators must pay Muschamp $7.5 million and Colorado State about $6.5 million.  That's a bump in the road that the Gators are grappling with today.

To think that the players can't even sell their autographs without bringing down the wrath of the NCAA.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/sports/college/sec/university-of-florida/article4267572.html#storylink=cpy

More on Not Complaining; Finding a Job

In my recent post on Jack Downey, I commented that it is a good practice not to complain to the people who have you under their control.

This was more or less the view of one of my mentors at Smathers & Thompson, Roland Parent, a seasoned litigator and former FBI special agent.  I'm sure he didn't mean to discourage what we now call respectful "push-back" in a given situation, where the subordinate has something to say to the superior that is important to resolving the situation.

But his view was that if you don't like the situation you are in, then start looking around for somewhere else to work.  He had this view about compensation.  He thought that if you didn't like your raise or bonus, (or lack of those things) then get ready to leave and then leave.  This wasn't all that one-sided, because in terms of raises and bonuses he was generous.  He didn't want to give any room for well-founded disappointment.

Several years ago, a friend of ours from overseas had just received his Green Card.  He was looking for a particular job for which he was well prepared.  There were few of those jobs in Florida.  I told him about the shale boom in North Dakota.  He was from a Northern European country about the same latitude as North Dakota.  There would be plenty of jobs there, I said - or least look and see.  He thought I was kidding.  People get set in a place, comfortable there, and there they want to sit.

And this is advice from someone who has lived nearly all his life in Miami Springs!  But I was fortunate in finding a good job early on.  We don't usually have to tell a person to stay where he is  happy enough, although we can tell him to make the most of it there.

What is "enough?"  That's another question.  I suppose it depends on the extent and nature of one's ambition - and ambition is a very complex element of one's character.  Furthermore, the nature and extent of one's ambition circles back on whether he is happy enough.

NY Times writes on World Magazine

Now and then they get something close to right.  (Thanks, Mary.)

Evolutionary Creation

In World Magazine's November 29, 2014, issue, writer Daniel James Devine reports on the work of the BioLogos Foundation, whose president, Deb Haarsma,

former chair of Calvin’s physics and astronomy department, says churches that support evolution will be more effective witnesses in a culture that reveres science, and will help college students avoid a crisis of faith when biology professors argue for evolution. The BioLogos website states, “Genetic evidence shows that humans descended from a group of several thousand individuals who lived about 150,000 years ago.” 

Thus, BioLogos is, according to Devine, 

now spending now spending $3.6 million (primary funder [sic]: Templeton) on thirty-seven projects in the United States and around the world, with grants ranging from $23,000-$300,000.  According to the BioLogos website, funds go to "projects that explore consonance between evolution and Christian faith."  Projects must not "reject the conclusions of mainstream science (e.g. old Earth, common descent, etc.)."

The Biologos website is worth examining.  On the home page, it quotes N.T. Wright, as follows:

Christians and secularists alike are in danger of treating 'Darwin vs the Bible' as just another battlefront in the polarized 'culture wars'. This grossly misrepresents both science and faith. The BioLogos Foundation not only shows that there is an alternative, but actually models it. God's world and God's word go together in a rich, living harmony.

The site includes an article entitled "Pope Francis view on Evolution, Creation, and Magic" (an interesting progression - or regression) in which the Rev. Nicanor Pier Giorgio Austriaco, O.P., writes, in part, that

In his speech to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences on October 27, Pope Francis made several comments on evolution and creation that have generated significant controversy. As a priest and scientist, I would like to make two observations about the Pope’s comments to put them into perspective.

First, the Pope’s proposal that Christian faith is compatible with an evolutionary understanding of life’s history is not as radical as the mainstream media is suggesting. In fact, the Pope’s comments are in continuity with a papal tradition, at least sixty years old, that affirms the legitimacy of evolutionary creation.

Obviously, there are some heavy hitters arrayed on the side of "evolutionary creation."  

My working take on the controversy is that the traditional view of creation is a necessary position in a Reformed Christian theology.  Others, obviously, would disagree, at least if one defines "a Reformed Christian theology" broad enough.  Here are questions that one might ask in exploring this controversy.  Could God make creation, perhaps with important evolutionary aspects, and then set man in it, that is, set a couple in it, Adam and Eve?  I think that one has to answer yes to that question, putting aside the question of what God actually did.  The next question is, Would God proceed in such a way?  This puts us in the position of second guessing God's wisdom, it seems to me.  But I make that comment from the point of view of a traditional Protestant.  From an "objective" point of view, one might answer simply, "Why not?," although I am not sure how far that gets us.  At least that answer doesn't serve to limit God, and it may well be worth exploring.

Then we get to the question, Did God proceed in such a way?  Scripture says that he did, and we rely very heavily on scripture - that is, Scripture we hold to be the very Word of God.

Finally, we get to the question addressed by BioLogos:  Just How did God proceed in the way described by Scripture?  Those who subscribe to evolutionary creation have an alternate view to the plain meaning of the text of Genesis.

I think it is probably worth examining the case for EC.  But just because one is a very bright Christian, even certified bright by academia, various Christian communities, and the market place, does not mean that he or she is without hubris.  I concede that is an ad hominem statement, but knowing how people are - especially people on top of their respective heaps, I have to make it.

I think of one characteristic of God that is not much discussed,  that of his unknowability, although knowable sufficiently through his Word.  The Word applies to his creation in a special way, as he spoke it into existence.  So, of course, science is a worthy study.  But the Word through which he spoke is the Son, and Scripture is the testimony of that.  So, fine, we are to explore the creation side of the How.  But cuidado.

"I just pulled myself together and said, 'Enough of this crap.'"

From the Washington Post obit for John Downey, the CIA agent captured and held prisoner in Communist China for 20 years.  The context of the quote is as follows:

Based on an internal CIA documentary that was ultimately made public, a turning point in his psychological state occurred after about four years of captivity.

“I just pulled myself together and said, ‘Enough of this crap,’ ” he later told the filmmakers. “I really found the most pernicious thing in prison was feeling sorry for yourself.”

I would say that the most pernicious thing out-of-prison is also that feeling.

He and Fecteau [his CIA colleague who was captured with him] also told the CIA that they learned not to complain about treatment. When Fecteau said tomatoes gave him indigestion, he’d get more tomatoes. If he said the weekly bath didn’t have enough water, he’d get less water next time.

As a rule, complaining about what is handed to you by those who control you is probably not a good policy on the outside either.

The CIA documentary is on the CIA Website.  It is entitled "Extraordinary Fidelity."

There is also a written narrative on the website about the captivity of Downey and Fecteau here.

Zuckerman Hosts Cruz

Drudge links to this article in The New York Observer, entitled "Sen. Ted Cruz, ’16 Presidential Hopeful, Woos New York Jewish Donors."  From the article:

Another surprise is that Mort Zuckerman, the developer and owner of the New York Daily News who usually backs moderate Democrats, hosted Mr. Cruz for a lunch yesterday before the ZOA [Zionist Organization of America] dinner.

Carol and I watch The McLaughlin Group regularly, and Zuckerman is my favorite panelist on that show.  It has been interesting to watch him move away from Obama over the last six years. Zuckerman, a moderate Democrat, initially supported Obama with a great deal of hope and, to my mind, uncharacteristic naivete.  But he certainly is a very bright and informed person with an ego healthy enough to allow himself to change his mind, unlike the other Democrat to McLaughlin's right. 

Amazon in the 'hood

The new [Amazon] facility, at 1900 NW 132nd Pl., in the far western reaches of Miami-Dade County, [12 miles from our house] opened Oct. 31 and has about 300 employees with a goal of expediting deliveries in densely populated South Florida.

Amazon customers’ orders arriving from fulfillment centers — or giant warehouses — in places such as Tampa are sorted and consolidated by ZIP code for final delivery, according to Amazon spokeswoman Nina Lindsey. Packages then are delivered to the U.S. Postal Service, which makes the deliveries to customers seven days a week. 

-from this morning's Miami Herald.

Can Amplifier be far behind?

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/business/article4125518.html#storylink=cpy

A Criminal Defense Lawyer who is a Muslim becomes a Muslim Defense Lawyer

One of us on the "Keeping the Faith" panel was a Muslim, Khurrum Wahid, a distinguished criminal defense lawyer.  The moderator asked him what made him decide to go to law school.  He didn't exactly answer the question, but he did say that, as we "undoubtedly already knew," if one is a young person from a South Asian family (he referred to himself as a Pak-Asian, as his family was apparently from Pakistan), then of course you go to medical school.

But not him.

He said there was great consternation in his family and his faith community with his decision.  An uncle said to him that, "Back home, lawyers are liars."  (As the American public seems to preceive lawyers, we obviously have more in common with the Pakistani public than we might think.)  But Khurrum went to law school anyway, and from there into criminal defense work.

Then, he said, 9-11 occurred.  He overnight went from being a criminal defense lawyer who was a Muslim to a Muslim criminal defense lawyer.  Mothers, wives, sisters, daughters called him because their male family members had been "detained" by federal agents - not arrested, because that would have required charges to be filed - but "detained."   Suddenly, his family and community were very glad to have a lawyer in the midst.

I discovered that one can laugh and be appalled at the same time.  One can laugh at the irony.  And be appalled at what the government did.   I'm also glad that Khurrum went to law school.

Nasty Business, Probate Litigation

I had a case once where the beneficiaries of a large estate were at war with one another.  The housekeeper of the decedent, a person who had faithfully worked for the decedent for many years and who served the decedent well during a long illness before the decedent died, turned out to be an "illegal."  While she was here, she had married someone, had a family, house, car, paid taxes - the American dream, except for the Citizenship or Green Card.

One of the beneficiaries perceived - wrongly - that the housekeeper was on the side of the other beneficiary in their bitter, bitter fight.  So he called the immigration authorities.  They picked up the housekeeper, and took her to "Krome," the name around here of the federal detention center where "illegals" were warehoused.  I don't know whatever happened to her, but the whole thing made me sick.

A Very Pleasant Time at the FIU College of Law "Keeping the Faith" Panel

Here are two photos from the FIU College of Law Keeping the Faith Panel event today.  The first photo is of me standing with three students from the Religious Studies  program.  A number of them attended and the chairperson of the Religious Studies department, Erik Larson, moderated.  (Do read Dr. Larson's bio at the link.  Amazing man.)

The second photo is of the panelists, the moderator, the student association representatives who planned the event (one from each of the Muslim, Roman Catholic, Jewish, and CLS law student organizations), and Gary Cameron, the IVCF staff member for the FIU graduate programs, who is an adviser for the CLS group.

It has been many years since my last visit to the FIU Campus.  The place is simply transformed!  Dr. Larson told me that there are over 54,000 FIU students and the university is number 5 on the list of America's largest public universities.

The College of Law has a very impressive building, all its own.

The President of the CLS chapter at the FIU College of Law is Jesica Geevarghese, who is Indian Orthodox.  (She is second from the left in the second photo.) She told me that the Indian Orthodox Church is from the Eastern side of Christendom and has a history that goes back to the Apostle Thomas.  Her church in Broward is St. Thomas Orthodox Church.

"Give us some real world advice: what is in store for us, as persons of religious faith, once we graduate and start practicing? Does being a person of faith make it easier or harder to be a good lawyer? What advice would you give a new, beginning lawyer?"

To my mind, being a person of faith makes it easier to be a lawyer. We are not all alone in dealing with reality. God is a God of Love. He created us with a purpose. He loves us. He has made provision for our shortcomings by sending his son, Jesus, so that we could, despite those shortcomings, be transformed through the work of the Holy Spirit into the sort of person, even the sort of lawyer, God meant us to be.

Here is some advice I might give:

1. Be a part of a faith community, study the Word, and have an active prayer life.

2. Study hard while one is in law school, and work hard in the profession.

3. Find a practice situation where there are older lawyers who can mentor you and whom you can admire, both as practitioners and people.

4. Get out of a practice situation in which you are unhappy as soon as you can.

5. Live a modest life, spend only what you must. Live below the standard of living at which you might otherwise be able to live or at which your peers appear to live. Do not borrow money to support an immodest life-style.

4. If God brings a person into your life who would make a supportive spouse and a good parent and who shares your faith, then by all means get that person to marry you and then, after a reasonable period of time, start a family with that person. God calls most of us into marriage and direct family formation. However, he calls some very special people into singleness. Jesus himself was single, as was the Apostle Paul.