I am quite pleased to receive what I consider to be a highly credible "third party" endorsement of my recent insurance reform entry from Walt Olson, who is a regular contributor to PointOfLaw.com. For those of you who are not familiar with PointOfLaw.com, this weblog is published by the Manhattan Institute and it is an excellent source of information and opinion on the U. S. civil justice system.
Risk management has become so popular that even George Costanza has become an "expert" (Windows Media).
A national directory of cell phone numbers will be published soon, which will open the door to solicitors calling your cell phone and using up your minutes. Fortunately, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has set up a national "do not call" cell phone registry.
There are two ways to register your cell phone:
1. Online: https://www.donotcall.gov/register/Reg.aspx (the procedure is obvious)
2. Offline: You must call 1-888-382-1222 FROM the cell phone you wish to register.
If you are interested in listening to the MP3 file which I played in class today, go to http://129.62.162.212/fin4366/johnkerr.mp3.
Also, you'll want to be sure to view the Club for Growth's ad concerning the dangers of "changing one's mind" (Windows Media | Real Player | Quicktime).
As of today, the Department of Finance, Insurance and Real Estate has a new website which lists career and internship opportunities for students majoring in Finance, Financial Services & Planning, Real Estate, and Risk Management & Insurance. The address for this website is http://129.62.162.212/jobs. Also, it can be accessed directly from the FIRE Department's home page, which is located at http://finance.baylor.edu. If you are in the market for a career or internship opportunity, be sure to check this website out. I have previously posted such information on the class weblog, but from this point on I will refrain from doing so; no sense in duplicating efforts!
I would like to encourage everyone to exercise their rights as U.S. citizens and vote in the upcoming November 2 election. As a technical detail, in order to vote in the upcoming November 2 election, you need to be a registered voter. The last day you can register for this election is Monday, October 4.
The Internet makes it that much easier to register. If you have established residency in Waco or some other community in the state of Texas, then you can register for the vote by visiting the Texas Secretary of State website. Once you get there ,you can print out a registration form and mail it to the voter registrar in your county of residence.
If you are not currently a registered voter, please take a few minutes to register so that you can exercise your right to vote on November 2!
In the highly unlikely case that you are not aware of the CBS document scandal (which may be the most highly reported and blogged bit of news in the history of Western thought and culture), James Taranto's OpinionJournal entry from this past Monday is definitely worth a read, particularly so that you can watch the animated GIF file, which compares the CBS document with the same words typed using Microsoft Word (12 point Times New Roman font, default tab-stop and margin settings).
PBS has produced a superb 4-hour television documentary based upon Armand Nicholi's stimulating course at Harvard, and it is to be aired on Sept. 15th and 22nd in two 2-hour segments. The inspiration for the PBS series of the same name, The Question of God does not presuppose which man -- Freud, the devout atheist, or Lewis the atheist-turned-believer -- is correct in his views. Rather, viewers are invited to join Nicholi and his students in their inquiry and decide for themselves. For details on the coming production, see http://www.pbs.org/previews/questionofgod/
Armand Nicholi is Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard University. For more than thirty years, Professor Nicholi has taught a very popular upper division undergraduate course at Harvard comparing the philosophical arguments of C. S. Lewis with those of Sigmund Freud. In April 2002, Nicholi's book, based on the course, was published and has sold quite well. Entitled The Question of God: C. S. Lewis and Sigmund Freud Debate God, Love, Sex and the Meaning of Life, Dr. Nicholi presents the writings and letters of Lewis and Freud, allowing them to "speak" for themselves on the subject of belief and disbelief. Both men considered the problem of pain and suffering, the nature of love and sex, and the ultimate meaning of life and death -and each of them thought carefully about the alternatives to their positions. The 20th century produced, a generation apart, these two brilliant men with two diametrically opposed views about the question of God. While they never actually met, Nicholi has done a great service in offering us their arguments in one volume, placed side by side and contrasted, for the very first time.
It is important that as a consumer, one be aware of the various scams that are being perpetrated on the Internet. The latest scam which is genuinely harming consumers is a practice known as "phishing". Quoting from the official website of the Anti-Phishing Working Group, "Phishing attacks use 'spoofed' e-mails and fraudulent websites designed to fool recipients into divulging personal financial data such as credit card numbers, account usernames and passwords, social security numbers, etc. By hijacking the trusted brands of well-known banks, online retailers and credit card companies, phishers are able to convince up to 5% of recipients to respond to them."
As promised, here is today's Austin American Statesman article entitled "Baylor football a bear market".
In case if you missed its airing on Saturday Night Live, I highly recommend the video entitled "Straight Talk about Today's Markets"!