Octopodial Chrome

Walter E. Williams writes about miscellaneous oddities. Among them:

• Why is it alright for you & I to shop around for the lowest price on pears,but wrong for corporations to shop around for the lowest price on labour?
• If insurance companies charge higher rates for cigarette smokers, who have a life expectancy shorter by 3–7 years than non-smokers, why don’t they do the same for homosexuals, whose median age of death is 42 (for everything but AIDS)?
• How could a man be awarded $1,750,000 and a Winnebago for not realising that cruise control is not an autopilot?

Things that make one think.

Thomas Sewell writes cogently on the importance of wealth, as illustrated by the differing death tolls of two earthquakes: one in California with single-digit deaths and one in Iran with tens of thousands. He also mentions the interesting fact that race makes less of a difference than does marital status when it comes to such phenomena as education, crime, poverty and infant mortality. A worthwhile article.

I used to have a corporate Diner’s Club card (fortunately, we got rid of them and now use American Express like sane people), and for the past two years they have owed me $2.98. Every month they would send a notice informing me that I was owed my two dollars & 98¢, and that if I did not incur further charges then a refund cheque would be sent within seven months. And for two years I never received a cheque.

Well, today I did. Woo-hoo. Or something like that.