1. Individual investors tend to chase performance. To a layperson it may seem counterintuitive, but institutional trustees, upon seeing one of their investments start to significantly outperform the rest, tend to start withdrawing money from that investment, whereas individual investors, following their intuitions, tend to start pouring money into that investment. Trustee behavior may seem counterintuitive, but it is smart; Dravo points out that, "History shows today's high-performing funds are tomorrow's laggards, so individual investors are choosing investments that are likely to disappoint. Similarly, research shows that individual investors tend to sell securities that will have the highest future returns."
2. Individual investors tend to be less critical of themselves, and unlikely to purge bad investments from their portfolios; trustees are more likely to unload underachieving funds (the fact that trustees will avail themselves of professional investment advice may be a factor here).
3. Finally, trustees are more likely to act rationally in their investment decisions because they are accountable to outside interests; legally trustees owe a fiduciary duty to manage the trust corpus responsibly and can be found legally liable for a failure to do so. On the other hand, individuals are responsible only to themselves, and as a result they aren't "running scared" with respect to their investment decisions.

1. Ok I've never read Godot, but I have seen it performed; that ought to count for something; after all it is a play.


2. One of my favorites, not only because Cervantes includes a delightful little story which incorporate's Russell's Paradox literally centuries before Russell "discovered" it.


3. Read this one when I went through a Kafka phase in college (wound up buying a couple of volumes of Kafka in the original German, while I was doing my college German courses; that was a trip!). My favorite Kafka reference is to Metamorphosis, and it appears in Mel Brooks's classic flick, The Producers. Goes by really fast though; if you're not paying attention you'll miss it.


4. Started this one a couple times; never finished it. One day I'm going to make good on that.


5. The great American novel. There's no other candidate (IMHO) that comes even close. If I have a favorite novel (I'm not sure I do), this is a strong candidate.

Lillian drank a cup of black coffee as she watched Bull inelegantly consume a plate of eggs, biscuits, and country ham.

"Do you ever think of the men you've killed in combat, darling?" she said, trying to begin a conversation. Bull's mind was fixed on other things.

"What?" he answered.

"Do you think of the men you killed?"

"Negative. No sense boo-hooing over dead slants."

"Don't you ever think about their wives and mothers? Or if they had children? Or if they liked to fish or enjoyed a stiff drink?"

"After I set 'em on fire, Lillian, none of those things makes any difference."

"I wish you wouldn't say things like that, sugah. I makes me feel funny to hear you say things like that. It's so strange that I'm married to a man with so little reverence for human life."

"I've got lots of concern for human life as long as it was born between the Atlantic and the Pacific Ocean, and just north of Mexico and just south of Canada. That's why I would love to drop a few bombs on Cuba. I"ve never killed a round eye in my whole career. I've majored strictly in slants."

• The Baseball Widow. I'm especially happy about this one, since I nominated TBW to RTB membership. The blog's devoted to "The frustrations of a woman who will always be second in her husband's heart . . . He follows the game, and I follow him." Rather than doing something destructive about it, like enrolling in law school (actually, she is a law student at UTK and has Glenn "InstaPundit" Reynolds for her ConLaw prof this semester, but we won't hold that against her), getting a boyfriend, spending her husband's money on cheap booze, or taking her frustrations out on the TV, instead she gives us very interesting posts about baseball and life in general. Well worth reading daily (well, she would be if she blogged daily, but Real Life™ has a tendency to intervene).
• Cas Walker's Coonhunter's Journal. I'm not from east Tennessee, so I can't speak about Cas, but apparently during his lifetime he was something of an institution over there in The Opposing End of the Volunteer State; apparently he's now back from the beyond to enlighten us as only he could.
• The Nashville Files Blog: no longer a member in waiting, but a full fledged member of the RTB.

While at Yale

Kerry
Enlisted in the US Naval Reserves. Feb. 18, 1966

Bush
Bush received student deferments until June 1968; that year marked the height of the Vietnam draft. [Washington Post, 7/28/99]

Applied for spot in Texas Air National Guard in January of 1968, before graduation. Before he graduated, Bush personally visited Col. Walter "Buck" Staudt -- the commander of the Texas Air National Guard -- to talk about the Guard.

After Bush met with Staudt, he applied and was quickly accepted -- despite a waiting list of over 150 applicants.

Contrary to Bush's denials of special treatment, it was later disclosed that a personal friend of Bush's father had secured the spot in the Guard for Bush.

Bush later acknowledges he entered Guard to avoid going to Vietnam: "I was not prepared to shoot my eardrum out with a shotgun in order to get a deferment. Nor was I willing to go to Canada. So I chose to better myself by learning how to fly airplanes." [Houston Chronicle, 5/8/94]

After Graduation

Kerry
Enters and Completes Officer Training School

Bush
Bush joined the Texas Air National Guard after his student deferment ran out when he graduated from Yale in 1968.

"His score on the pilot aptitude section, one of five on the test, was in the 25th percentile, the lowest allowed for would-be fliers." [Dallas Morning News, 7/4/99]

Bush received a direct appointment, allowing him to become a second lieutenant right out of basic training without having to go though officer candidate school. The direct appointment also cleared the way for a position in pilot training school. [Houston Chronicle, 10/10/92; Los Angeles Times, 7/4/99]

On Bush's application to the 147th Fighter Group at Ellington Air Force Base in Texas, Bush was asked what his "Area Assignment Preferences" were. Bush checked the box beside "Do Not Volunteer" for overseas duty. [Application for Extended Duty With The United States Air Force, 5/27/68]

First Assignment

Kerry
Deployed to Western Pacific to Support Operations in Vietnam

Bush
In the summer of 1970, Bush moved into the Chateaux Dijon apartment complex, "a popular spot for singles, it offered fancy street lamps and striped awnings and six pools filled with ambitious secretaries, students and young businessmen. Bush relished his bachelor life there. He played hard, plunging into all-day water volleyball games, but left frequently for 24-hour flight duty in the alert shack at Ellington Field." [Washington Post, 7/28/99]

Request for Second Post

Kerry
On Feb. 10, 1968, Kerry requests duty in Vietnam. He lists his first billet preference as an Officer in Charge of a swift boat and his second as a patrol officer in a River Patrol Boat (PBR) squadron.

Bush
In May 1972, Bush gets a job on an Alabama Senate Campaign. He leaves Houston and requests transfer to the 9921st Air Reserve Squadron in Alabama. Although Bush notes his aeronautical rating as "flying status," his request is turned down because the 9921 was a postal unit. His transfer is later approved to a different Alabama unit. [AF 1288--Bush signature, 24 May 72; Approved: 26 May 72]

Second Assignment

Kerry
Kerry leaves his post on the Gridley, and becomes a student at the Naval Amphibious Base, in Coronado, California in preparation for service on a swift boat in Vietnam. He is promoted from Ensign to Lt. JG and extends his active duty commitment by six months.

While in Vietnam Kerry is involved in more than a dozen missions receiving hostile fire.

He is wounded three times and decorated with three Purple Hearts, a Bronze Star and a Silver Star. Kerry is ordered by Naval regulations to return home after being wounded three times.

Bush
During Bush's service in Alabama:

He is suspended from flight status for his failure to take required annual medical exam. [Washington Post, 2/15/02; Aeronautical Orders, Number 87, 29 Sept 72; AFM 35-13, Para 2-29m]

He attends the Republican National Convention in Miami, Florida with his father. [Bill Minutaglio, First Son, p. 144].

Pay records released by the White House show that he was paid for 2 days service during the six-month period covering the Blount campaign. [White House Release: Bush Pay Records]

Bush's superior officers were unable to complete his annual evaluation for 1972 because, "Lt. Bush has not been observed at this unit during the period of report." [AF-77, 2 May 73]

Additional Service

Kerry
Completes Full Active Duty Commitment

Bush
According to records released by the White House itself, Bush may fallen short on minimum requirements expected for Guard members. Bush served 25 days of combined active and weekend Guard duty between May 27, 1972 and May 26, 1973, even though minimum requirements were one weekend a month--24 days a year--plus another 15 days of active duty. Moreover, in 1973 Bush received 15 extra (called "gratuitous") points toward the 50 points needed each year toward his retirement. Guard members commonly received such extras if they had already met the minimum 50 points each year without the additional points. Bush only earned 41 points during the 1972-3 year. According to Wayne Rambo, who was chief administrative officer of the Alabama unit to which Bush was assigned, "that would have been a decided violation of the norm" because extra points were meant "only as a reward to reservists for meeting their bottom line." [Boston Globe, 2/11/04; Memphis Flyer, 2/16/04]

Kerry:
Intelligent, mature and rich in educational background and experience, Ens Kerry is one of the finest young officers I have ever met and without question one of the most promising.

Bush:
Lt. Bush has not been observed at this unit during the period of report.

Which religion considers your killed ones innocent and our killed ones worthless? And which principle considers your blood real blood and our blood water? Reciprocal treatment is fair and the one who starts injustice bears greater blame.

Team            W       L         PCT  GB
Chicago  	1  	0  	1.000  	-  	
Milwaukee 	1 	0 	1.000 	- 	
Pittsburgh 	1 	0 	1.000 	- 	
Cincinnati 	0 	1 	.000 	1.0 	
Houston 	0 	1 	.000 	1.0 	
St. Louis 	0 	1 	.000 	1.0

Things not to say to the cop who just pulled you over

• "Here. Hold my beer."
• "What? Is my radar detector unplugged?"
• "Aren't you that guy from the Village People?"
• "Man, you must have gone 120 to catch me. Good job!"
• "Which one are you? Andy or Barney?"
• "When did they stop requiring physicals?"
• "You're not gonna check my trunk, are you?"
• "Remember: I pay your salary!"
• "Gee, thanks officer! The last guy let me off with a warning, too!"
• "I was trying to keep up with traffic... Yes, I know there's not another car in sight; that's how far behind I am!"
• "Phew! Have you been drinking?"
• "Wha'sa matter? Doughnut shop closed?"