John T. Reed’s news blog

Copyright 2010 by John T. Reed When a mugger points a gun at you and demands the $174.83 in your pocket, he gets $174.83 and you are out $174.83. When burglar steals $3,600 worth of stuff from your house, you are out $3,600 and he gets that amount less his fence’s margin. But when theft is committed by getting an illicit commission, the cost to you is far, far greater. Why has no one ever written about this? Take the so-called savings and loan debacle of the 1980s and 1990s. It cost U.S. taxpayers around $160 billion. Did the criminals...

Copyright by John T. Reed When Tim Russert died unexpectedly, I was moved to name others who I feel are living human treasures whom we do not appreciate enough. These are talented, diligent men and women who are successful enough that we have heard of them. But they stand above other prominent people for their character. They seek position and ratings and raises, but not at the cost of doing what’s right. Their highest priority is doing what’s right, not what gives them status or money or fame. They comply with the ideal set forth in the Frank Sinatra song...

Copyright by John T. Reed A Virginia Tech senior went on a rampage there on Monday, April 16, 2007 and killed 32 students and teachers before killing himself. I have nothing to add to the usual trite statements about what a senseless tragedy it was and all that. But I question two aspects of it. A lone gunman shooting multiple people has happened before. One was in a law office on California Street in San Francisco. Another guy shot up a McDonalds in San Ysidro. The thing I am surprised is missing is that people who cannot escape do not...

Carly is getting too much credit and too much of a pass on her resume. Her claim to fame is that she was CEO of Lucent and HP. She spins those jobs as huge successes caused by her and that her firing from H-P was wrong. Her main enemy at H-P now says he was wrong and she’s brilliant. She is fundamentally what I call an external validation seeker. That is, she spent her entire adult life going hat in hand to various boards and committees and commissions asking them the anoint her or promote her. Two did. The other businessman...

The media demand that Trump correct an audience member who said, “We know Obama’s a Muslim.” They contrast his behavior with that of John McCain in the 2008 campaign when he corrected a questioner who said that. McCain lost. I have a question for the media who are doing that. Why would it need to be “corrected?”   Is there something wrong with being a Muslim? Would Trump need to correct an audience member who said Obama was gay? Or who said Obama was Italian?   Gotcha