Robert Frank:

The release of the latest Forbes 400 List of Americans is, once again, being billed as a triumph of self-made wealth.

Bill Gates, Warren Buffett and Larry Ellison – all self-made – topped the list, once again. And Forbes heralds that fact that “a record 70% of the Forbes listers are self-made.”

Yet their announcement obscures the fact that half of the top 10 on the Forbes list have inherited all or some of their wealth, making America’s billboard chart of opportunity look increasingly like the the lucky sperm club.

All of us need to be smarter consumers of the news. Ask the questions of the news hosts that they are not asking of themselves before you believe what they say.

– Lt. Col. Robert Bateman

Happy Pi Day!

(If you didn’t share Pi Day wishes with your friends and family last night you have another opportunity shortly before 2:00 this afternoon.)

Things happen in a democracy because we either make them happen, or because we allow them to happen. There is no third alternative.

–  Charlie Pierce

Noah Smith:

If we really want to get Putin, why don’t we just subsidize sales of natural gas to Europe? 🙂

Hey China, you could probably grab the Russian Far East right now and no one could do anything. Hee hee hee.

I’m glad I’m not a member of the Russian men’s hockey team.

Marketing is designed to discourage critical thinking.