Slide Rule's Philosophy Page

On Marriage

A woman marries a man because she thinks he will change. A man marries a woman thinking she'll never change. They're both wrong.

On Aging

The nice thing about turning 50 is that you no longer have to worry about getting old. The nice thing about turning 60 is that you no longer have to worry you will die young.

On Capital Punishment

You can argue all you like about whether or not capital punishment is a deterrent to crime, I maintain it is effective against repeat offenses.

On Quantification of Crime

I suggested a quarter century ago that a criminal's record could be quantified and that criminal could be extinguished from society when his "worth" warranted it. I still feel to this day that such a scheme is workable. It goes something like this: All crimes are assigned a value, say from zero to 1000. For example, jaywalking is one point, while murder is 1000. With every conviction, the point value of the crime is added to the criminal's lifetime score card. When his aggregate total exceeds 1900, he is executed.

On Death

People should have the right to die. We piously declare they have the right to life, and then often enforce it against their will. I understand that people develop responsibilities to others (family, etc.) that cannot be shirked by an easy-death-copout, but beyond that, how about a state-issued death coupon that each American gets at birth? When you're ready to go, just hand in your coupon. You get the gas pipe and your remains are disposed of, at no cost to your estate, and at no extravagant burden on the socioeconomic system.

On Manners

Sometimes it's better to belch the belch and bear the shame than squelch the belch and bear the pain.

One line wisdom

There aren't any free lunches.

We have just one life to live, and this is no dress rehearsal.

Chrome won't get you home.

If you want more inches, stroke it.

Sometimes it's hard to be grateful for something you didn't want in the first place.

Just because you're chained to the porch doesn't mean you can't bark at the cars.

Some quotes from people I admire

"Eugenics, socialism, Keynesian economics, population control schemes, and helmet laws all turn on imposing the superior wisdom and virtue of the anointed to control and direct the otherwise dangerous irrationality of ordinary people. Often the anointed take it as axiomatic that they have greater knowledge than others and therefore can make better decisions. But this assumption is wrong and the conclusion a non sequitur. "Each individual knows his own values and tradeoffs better than any outsider." -Thomas Sowell (mostly) Thomas Sowell's personal home page

"It doesn't seem to me that this fantastically marvelous universe, this tremendous range of time and space and different kinds of animals, and all the different planets, and all these atoms with all their motions and so on, all this complicated thing can merely be a stage so that God can watch human beings struggle for good and evil, which is the view that religion has. "The stage is too big for the drama." -Richard Feynman About this quote Cargo cult science Feynman on the web Feynman on yahoo Hexaflexagons

Other people with things to say

Not necessarily my views