I wrote:
That is why lazy, towel-snapping gentleman's C- dolts and frat-boys
such as G. W. Bush and Al Gore managed to get into -- and out of --
Harvard Business School, and why they still end up being the
president of the United States. See:
http://www.cs.umass.edu/~immerman/play/opinion05/WithoutADoubt.html
I do not think this file requires registration, by the way, even
though it appeared in the New York Times. It describes the
"affirmative action" helping hand that super-rich white boys get, no
matter how badly they screw up. Anyone who thinks there is a level
playing field in U.S. society has no clue how the world works. QUOTE:
Rubenstein described that time to a convention of pension managers in
Los Angeles last year, recalling that Malek approached him and said:
''There is a guy who would like to be on the board. He's kind of down
on his luck a bit. Needs a job. . . . Needs some board positions.''
Though Rubenstein didn't think George W. Bush, then in his mid-40's,
''added much value,'' he put him on the Caterair board. ''Came to all
the meetings,'' Rubenstein told the conventioneers. ''Told a lot of
jokes. Not that many clean ones. And after a while I kind of said to
him, after about three years: 'You know, I'm not sure this is really
for you. Maybe you should do something else. Because I don't think
you're adding that much value to the board. You don't know that much
about the company.' He said: 'Well, I think I'm getting out of this
business anyway. And I don't really like it that much. So I'm
probably going to resign from the board.' And I said thanks. Didn't
think I'd ever see him again.''
The guy quoted here is on the board of directors at the Carlyle
Group, a $39 billion investment firm.
(http://www.carlyle.com/eng/index.html) can you believe that someone
in his position with his level of responsibility would be willing to
put someone on the board of a corporation because the guy "needs a job"?!?
Note that in the halls of power you would never hear anyone say
"because SHE needs a job."
This is directly relevant to cold fusion. The Carlyle Group is the
kind of institution that should be investing in cold fusion. Assuming
it is still run by people who promote towel-snapping dolts who happen
to "need a job," we can surmise it is unlikely the management will
have enough acumen to see that cold fusion is real and potentially
the most profitable investment in history. As Harry Truman used to
say, these Washington elite characters (and big investment firm
bigwigs) usually do not have enough sense to pound sand down a rat hole.
The DVD documentary "Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room" will also
disabuse you of any notions that the business elite knows something
you do not know. I highly recommend it. After you see these people up
close, in action, you wonder how they manage to walk and chew
bubblegum. Their only proven ability is to engineer and operate run
history's largest kleptocracy. Look at the cast of this documentary:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0413845/
- Jed
