Justin Verlander

Was thinking last night about how great Justin Verlander has been these past couple of seasons. He's the reigning AL Cy Young award winner and is second in odds to win it again this year. His 16-3 record and 1.84 ERA is pretty impressive but will it be enough to overcome Dylan Cease's excellent season for the White Sox. 

Also couldn't help but think of how Verlander was taken with the second pick of the 2004 MLB draft behind Matt Bush who was taken by San Diego first overall. Bush never made it to the major leagues. Can you imagine how the fortunes of the Padres may have been much different if they had gone with Verlander instead?

Also to top it off - Verlander is married to Kate Upton (pictured above).

Do We Spend Too Much on the Military?

Wednesday Flotsam and Jetsam

Have a new miscellaneous thoughts and observations post up on Substack.

We're coming to your city. So if you want a little bang in your ying yang please subscribe, hit the Like button, or share with others. 

Yeah - That's About Right

Via

Quotes for Today

Some quotes that I hope may resonate with you.

"Dignity does not consist in possessing honors, but in deserving them." - Aristotle

"In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock." - Thomas Jefferson

"It is remarkable how much long term advantage people like us have gotten by trying to be consistently not stupid, instead of trying to be very intelligent." - Charlie Munger

"Those things that hurt, instruct." - Benjamin Franklin

Johnny Cash and a Kitten

Berthold Woltze's The Irritating Gentleman, 1874

This 19th century painting puts the irritating gentleman on a train. The modern irritating gentleman would be a sports talk radio host. And if he was both annoying and irritating he'd be a Boston sports talk radio host the week after the Patriots lost and the Red Sox are in last place.

Guards' Complaints Against Spartacus

Classic piece from Jack Handey.

From the archives. 

Quotes for Today

Here are some quotes that I hope may resonate with you.

"Energy and persistence conquer all things." - Benjamin Franklin

"To get better outcomes, learn to do the boring work no one wants to do when no one is watching." - Shane Parrish

"You can avoid reality, but you cannot avoid the consequences of avoiding reality." - Ayn Rand

"Party labels don't mean anything anymore. You can draw a line right down the middle. On one side are the Americans, on the other are the Communists and Socialists." - George Murphy 1948

Find Something Beautiful Today

Lightning storm in the Grand Canyon. (Photo via) Headline stolen borrowed from Execupundit.

Life Lessons from Daniel Boone

Some nuggets of wisdom from Robert Morgan's book Boone: A Biography:

"Boone knew that the secret of hunting, as in many other pursuits, was not just in marksmanship, but in attention, preparation, watching and listening, before one made a move."

Luck favors the prepared mind. Couldn't help but think this is excellent advice for poker players.

"In his midthirties a man either reaches out toward risk and glory or stays within the routines of the expected and ordinary. It is an age when men leave safe homes and jobs and go on voyages, odysseys, perform transforming sacrifices. It is an age when Whitman wrote Leaves of Grass and Columbus started to plan his voyage to the Indies. It is the age which visionaries become prophets or explorers or inventors, or make fools of themselves trying."

Very true but people find their ways at all ages - as long as they decide to reach out towards the risk and not try to remain in safe harbor.

"Two years may be the time to takes to leave behind one's old self and see the the world in a larger, clearer way. It would be the time Thoreau spent in his cabin at Walden, the definitive period of his life. It was the time Goethe spent in Italy in 1786-88, in a visit that transformed his vision of himself and his future."

Two-years was the time Daniel Boone spent in Kentucky by himself and that time in the wilderness helped make him a legend.

Hell's Club

It’s Supposed To Be Hard

Morgan Housel post on things worthwhile being hard to attain. Reminds me of this quote: 

"If you accomplish something good with hard work, the labor passes quickly; but the good endures; if you do something shameful in pursuit of pleasure, the pleasure passes quickly, but the shame endures." - Gaius Musonius Rufus

Quotes for Today

Some quotes that I hope may resonate with you.

"The problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubts, while the stupid ones are full of confidence." - Charles Bukowski

"There have to be reasons that you get up in the morning and you want to live." - Elon Musk

"Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons, can be beaten." - Neil Gaiman

"You can't shoot an idea with a gun." - Thomas Dewey

We Choose to Go to the Moon

JFK gave his "We choose to go to the moon" speech 60-years ago today.

Still My Favorite Tom Brady Courtroom Drawing

I laugh way too hard at that. Every time!

9/11

Choosing Happiness

The two types of happiness and choosing to be happy. Truly agree that happiness is a choice. But also with the great man that said happiness needs courage:

"The secret of happiness is freedom, and the secret of freedom is courage." - Thucydides

It takes courage to choose to be happy and to take the actions required.

HT Steve Layman

The Fakery of “Fighting Inflation”

Some interesting points made here. Some nuance may be oversimplified but in the whole I agree with the argument. 

In government and at the Federal Reserve it should be the same as with doctors - first do no harm. But instead the bankers feel they must tinker to show they're doing something. And generally there's no repercussions for when their tinkering goes wrong.

HT Stephen Landry

Heh Heh

HT Some It's Just as Well