Bewqre of vested interests

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As I've watched this whole saga unfold and as we approach the "endgame", I'm reminded of previous thoughts on vested interests. I don't know who this shoe fits (certainly not everybody), but the casual observer should bear in mind that all high-visibility y2k pollys and doomers are playing a very high stakes game monetarily speaking. Expert witnesses, a much sought after commodity next year if we don't go past a 9, will be very well paid. If I were a company in a serious court battle, names such as Cory Hamasaki, Lane Core, Ed Yourdon, Paula Gordon, Peter de Jager, and even Paul Milne might be batted about in the strategy meetings. (Absolutely no offense is intended here. If you guys I've named are not thinking along these lines, maybe some of you should. $500 per hour from the minute you leave your house might sound pretty good next year (or any other year). In contrast, I can't envision some legal beagle saying, "They're coming at us with the dreaded Flint, Hoffmeister, and Doomers@suck.com! We've got to go hire Big Dog, Zoobie, and the King of Spain! We're gonna lose a lot of men on this one!"

-- Dave (aaa@aaa.com), September 08, 1999

Answers

You're sounding kinda sexist there, kiddo. What about Diane & Maria. {Hark, hark. Is that thy fair Rey of Spain purring "Meow, meow"?}

Dave,

Do you like to needlepoint?

-- flora (***@__._), September 08, 1999.


I thought about Diane, but she doesn't seem to aspire to the national scene but rather behind the scenes. I did include Paula (token chick from a sexist?). Of course there's Corrine, but nobody knows what Corrine is (it may be even a little ambiguous to Corrine). As to the unusable witnesses, the babes (woof! woof!) don't seem to pick creative names.

-- Dave (aaa@aaa.com), September 08, 1999.

Ah yes, Corrine.

Actually Dave, it's Corrinne 1. Or is that Cory anyone?

Where is the little temptress?

-- flora (***@__._), September 08, 1999.


Sorry Dave,

I didn't mean to kill off a perfectly good thread. I should know better than to start so early in the game. Serious discussions have been floated about future consulting fees for some of the experts that you named above. When you listed the Unmitigated Mr. Milne my imagination went kablooey! Spindoc posted an intersting mix of folks for a meeting in a dark bar last night.

Now, back to the babes. The smart money is obviously on Old Git in her winkle pickers. Git, you yourself know that this is the true reason why His Majesty has yet to propostion you. He's just working up his...uh...nerve, yeah, that's it.

Lisa has postulated that Y2K Pro is a femme, I believe. Don't forget Polly Esther and her five o'clock shadow.

-- flora (***@__._), September 08, 1999.


With respect to the original title of this thread; you're implying Clinton has no "vested interest" in maintaining his "status quota" of happy face "good news" poll numbers? His entire term in office is based on the latest stock market prices and a "bubble" of spin from the liberal media.

-- Robert A. Cook, PE (Marietta, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), September 08, 1999.


I certainly did not mean to imply anything favorable about the feds. If you want my view on them, check Hoffy's thread a couple higher than this.

-- Dave (aaa@aaa.com), September 08, 1999.

I will indeed be available for expert witness duty...with a sliding scale (less for consulting, more for actual court time), payable in gold.

-- Mad Monk (madmonk@hawaiian.net), September 08, 1999.

Dave,

Everybody's got something to sell, even if it's just a point of view. It's part of the survival instinct. It's not necessarily the people who are right, the most often, who get the goods, it's the people who convince the greatest number of people that they're right, who come out on top. Succeed at that, and you get lots of followers; fail and you get left in the dust. It won't even matter, if you're proven right, in the long run. The people who doubted you, will almost never come crawling back to you, begging forgiveness for their doubt. They will most likely hate you, for not trying harder to convince them.

I don't worry about who has vested interest, because we ALL have vested interest. Anyone who says otherwise is either a liar, or woefully out of touch with their inner nature (IMHO, of course). You have to eventually go beyond reason, and into faith, for your final decision. Logic works well for the rough draft, but it eventually comes down to what you believe is true. Something inside that says, "Yeah! This the REAL goods!" I know that sets up a paradox - how can ANYTHING ever be reasoned out - but attempting to resolve that paradox is one of the things that makes life fun.

Even the most accomplished and intelligent computer experts cannot see into every computer in the world and make infallible predictions about how they will behave. Even they have to say at some point, "I have seen enough so that I believe this is what will happen, at rollover".

I know I'm rambling a bit, but just because someone is making a buck off of this, neither builds nor destroys their credibility with me. If I worried about someone gaining something from my faith in their words, I'd never listen to anyone.

-- Bokonon (bok0non@my-Deja.com), September 08, 1999.


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