[a fool in paradise]

Beneath that bet were some very big sub-bets: that the world will cut the number of children who die before the age of five in half

Excluding those who die from abortion, of course.

[re_nortex]

You take Breaking Bad versus, I don't know, Leave it to Beaver, or Combat!, or The Wild, Wild West. -- Bill Gates

And such are the typical "thoughts" of an unhinged leftist. William Henry Gates III shows disrespect for the better America depicted in those wholesome programs of my young adult years. I guarantee you that Ward Cleaver was a far better father figure than Walter White. That anti-military liberal also thinks poorly of Combat!, a program that honored the greatest fighting force the world has ever known. I have no doubts that the next pronouncement from Gates, a hippie-type, will be to slam American Sniper since it also honors a better America than the one he prefers.

[a fool in paradise]

But look at IQ test capability over time. Or even take a TV show today and how complex it is — that's responding to the marketplace. You take Breaking Bad versus, I don't know, Leave it to Beaver, or Combat!, or The Wild, Wild West. You know, yeah, take Combat! because that was sort of pushing the edge of should kids be allowed to watch it. The interest and complexity really does say that, broadly, these tools have meant that market-driven people are turning out more complex things. Now, you can say, "Why hasn't that mapped to more sophistication in politics or something like that?" That's very complicated. But I don't see a counter trend where there's some group of people who are less curious or less informed because of the internet.

A "scientist" can go to work developing a cure for cancer (or placebos) or making meth.

It's the same with television programming and just as fruitless.

Ahmet Ertegün boasted of how impressed he was in Kid Rock when he saw him live in a club/party because he was rapping and playing drums and scratching records. Somehow that made him more talented in the eyes of the exec than all of the R&B greats who recored for Atlantic Records in the 40s-60s.

[a fool in paradise]

And the only good thing that can be said about Ebola is there's a chance, and just a chance, that we'll look at how slow we moved and the decisions that were made and get better prepared because the chance of something that's more infectious than Ebola coming along is high enough that it would be very wise to be prepared.

Such an aggressive and virulent threat would be short lived because if you isolate those infected, the virus soon runs out of hosts.

A "parasite" has to be careful not to kill the host.

[Zathras]

Clearly Gates is running America like he ran his company.
Clueless, overly complex and without a rudder.

[Captain Peter Blood]

I find it amazing that someone like Gates who made such a success in Capitalism then becomes a “Bloody” Damn Socialist and knows what is best for all.

Most of these people like Gates have some need to take their money and found these huge foundations which end up being run by Lefties so that their Egos are satisfied.

The greatest Philanthropist of all time, in my opinion, was Andrew Carnegie who helped give knowledge to people rather than tell them how to live their lives.

[GeronL]

Bill Gates? Seriously?

lol

[mad_as_he$$]

Bill(“640K ought to be enough for anybody.”) you have ZERO chance of wiping polio out.

Also, see Disneyland measles outbreak.

[cynwoody]

Today I learned that the internet is a major driver of the growth of cognitive inequality. This by following a moonbat link embedded in one of Ezra Klein's questions. Guess what? I. Don't. Care!

[x]

He does have a valid point. TV drama now is more complex and ambivalent and reflects a much "grayer" less "black and white" view of the world. Is there really any argument about that?

Whether it's a good thing for society or not, is another question. Arguably, it's a sign of a much more divided country or world with less consensus about basic values.

A country that can't condemn Walter White or Tony Soprano could have real problems (though long before HBO and AMC, Hollywood took an ambivalent view of mobsters).

Bill's question about why the complexity or ambivalence or nuance isn't reflected in today's politics is also a good one to mull over.

It could be that Bill Gates's thinking is flawed, though: stage drama and film fifty years ago weren't bad at portraying a complex world. Playwrights in the 50 and movie makers in the 70s were no slouches.

Today's teledramas may be better than the television Bill grew up with simply because TV is where the talent went when live theater declined and movies surrendered to the influence of video games.

[Talisker]

Bill Gates: The one problem of great importance that we don't address directly is the quality of governance in poor countries.

Because governance in rich countries is just fine by you, right Bill?

LOL

People who look to Gates for leadership are like cows who look to the slaughterhouse for shelter. Bill Gates wants only one thing, and it's not what you want.

In fact, its not even anything you can imagine wanting, for yourself or anyone else.