The strange eating habits of Steve Jobs by Melissa Dahl FROM CNBC News

Richard Branson Recalls 'Bizarre' Lunch With Revenge-Obsessed Trump by Alexander Kaufman FROM Huffington Post

The Real Churchill BY Adam Young FROM Mises.org

From the conclusion of this eye-opening essay:
"With his lack of principles and scruples, Churchill was involved in one way or another in nearly every disaster that befell the 20th century. He helped destroy laissez-faire liberalism, he played a role in the Crash of 1929, he helped start WWI, and by bringing in America to help, prolonged the war and created the conditions for the rise of Nazism, prolonged WWII, laid the groundwork for Soviet domination, helped involve America in a cold war with Russia, and pioneered in the development of total war and undermining western civilized standards.
Chris Matthews described Churchill as the "man who save[d] the honor of the 20th century." Rather than this great accolade, Winston Churchill must be ranked with Karl Marx, Woodrow Wilson, Vladimir Lenin, Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Herbert Hoover and Franklin Roosevelt as one of the destroyers of the values and greatness of Western civilization."

The Real Thatcher and the Symbolic Thatcher by Jesse Walker FROM Reason.com

ONLY BEGIN READING AT "In A Restatement of Economic Liberalism" 

Just the last 3 paragraphs!!

2005 Stanford Commencement Address by Steve Jobs

This is the text of the Commencement address by Steve Jobs, delivered on June 12, 2005.

I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories.

I would suggest reading Jobs' own words!

Steve Jobs Obituary FROM The Economist

“[Bill Gates would be] a broader guy if he had dropped acid [do drugs such as LSD] once or gone off to an ashram [Indian spiritual place] when he was younger”. -- Steve Jobs

Roy Raymond - Founder of Victoria's Secret FROM NNDB [Short]

"An MBA graduate from Stanford, Raymond thought that there would be a market for a shop where customers wanting something sexy, skimpy, or silky need not feel embarrassed."

The Politics of Johann Wolfgang Goethe [the author's choice for European of the millennium]

 "At various times, Goethe's duties as a member of the Privy Council involved the supervision of the Duchy's 600-strong army (he reduced its size to 293), the construction of its roads and mines, the management of its finances (he cut taxes) . . . ."

George Washington, Book Review FROM The Economist

"Washington’s catalogue of accomplishments as president was breathtaking. He virtually invented the executive branch of the new government, its institutions, its mechanisms and above all its spirit."

Karmic conservatives FROM The Economist

"Mr Haidt goes on to argue that, as conservatives see it, since the New Deal, liberals in power have been trying to suspend the karmic laws of cause and effect, insulating individuals from the injurious effects of vice and poor judgement."

Exorcising The Ghost of Che Guevara by Nick Gillespie FROM Reason Magazine

"When he became the effective czar of the Cuban economy and attempted to create a 'new man and woman,' or workers fueled by revolutionary ideals rather than conventional workplace incentives, his plans failed catastrophically and helped make Cuba the economic basket case it remains to this day."

Raising Bill Gates By ROBERT A. GUTH FROM The Wall Street Journal

"The future software mogul was a headstrong 12-year-old and was having a particularly nasty argument with his mother at the dinner table. Fed up, his father threw a glass of cold water in the boy's face.

'Thanks for the shower,' the young Mr. Gates snapped."

Randy Pausch Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams FROM Carnegie Mellon University

"Carnegie Mellon Professor Randy Pausch (Oct. 23, 1960 - July 25, 2008) gave his last lecture at the university Sept. 18, 2007, before a packed McConomy Auditorium. In his moving presentation, 'Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams,' Pausch talked about his lessons learned and gave advice to students on how to achieve their own career and personal goals. For more, visit www.cmu.edu/randyslecture. "

Huntington's clash FROM The Economist

"Samuel Huntington thought that all this was bunk. In “The Clash of Civilisations?” he presented a darker view. He argued that the old ideological divisions of the Cold War would be replaced not by universal harmony but by even older cultural divisions. The world was deeply divided between different civilisations. And far from being drawn together by globalisation, these different cultures were being drawn into conflict."

Interview with casino developer Steve Wynn

A wonderful challenge (8:57)

CNN's Anjali Rao talks to billionaire casino tycoon Steve Wynn, about his vast financial empire.

The Skeleton Closet

See http://www.realchange.org/ or click on above title.
Unfortunately this site has some dirt on my favorite candidate.

a skeleton in the/someone's closet: a secret that would cause embarrassment if it were known. [from the freedictionary.com]

I haven't verified the information, but he does give sources.

The website says it offers :

All the Dirt on All the Candidates for President
--Since 1995--
Because character DOES matter.

You've come to the right place for dirt, attitude and
opinionated character reviews of all the presidential candidates.

Felled by Scandal, Spitzer Says Focus Is on His Family By DAVID KOCIENIEWSKI and DANNY HAKIM FROM The New York Times

Gov. Eliot Spitzer, whose rise to political power as a fierce enforcer of ethics in public life was undone by revelations of his own involvement with prostitutes, resigned on Wednesday, becoming the first New York governor to leave office amid scandal in nearly a century.

Lunch with the FT: Charles Koch

"Few outside the US business community would be able to pronounce Koch’s surname correctly (it is ”coke”, like the drink) or identify the lanky 71-year-old as the man who has built the world’s largest privately owned company."

Gamblers Die Broke, from Steve Leslie

When anyone talks about the greatest poker players of all time, Stu Ungar's name will surface immediately. If it doesn't, it should. His accomplishments in poker are legend. He is considered by many to be the greatest No Limit Hold'em player of all time.

He is a three-time World Series of Poker Champion winning his first championship at the age of 24 in 1980. He repeated as champion the next year and again in 1997 after essentially disappearing from the game for seven years, the last time he competed. Out of 30 major poker events he won 10 of them.

As great as he was in poker, he was better at Gin Rummy. Gin, at one time, was The Game that high stakes gamblers played. He started playing gin in New York moved to Miami and ultimately to Las Vegas. He was so good at the game, that eventually no one would play him.

He was virtually barred from playing blackjack anywhere forcing casinos to eliminate single deck blackjack, as he had a genius IQ and a photographic memory. He could count down multiple decks of cards a feat he would replicate upon demand or for a wager.

He never held a real job. From the age of 14 his was a life of high stakes cards and games of chance. He would gamble on anything and lived for the action. It was not uncommon for him to win a million dollars in cards and lose a million shooting dice.

On the surface, his was a marvelous life, a seductive life one of gambling, action and living. Some will suggest that he made over $30 million playing poker. There was virtually nothing he could not do at a poker table and seeing him at a final table, others resigned themselves to picking up the "left over change".

Unfortunately, there is not a happy ending to this story. After 20 years of leading a storied life of incredible ups and downs of fantastic swings in capital, it all came to a crashing halt in a cheap downtown Las Vegas motel. On November 22nd, 1998 Stu Ungar was found dead and broke. The coroner's report revealed a combination of cocaine, methadone and percodan caused a massive heart attack. All at the age of 42. What a complete waste of a life. Possibly the greatest natural card talent ever completely destroyed before middle age. Imagine what could have been. Where all that talent could have taken him. He could have traveled the world, done incredible things, could have had a life that but a small percentage can only dream of.

I tell this story because it is humbling and to illustrate that the battle in life is ultimately waged not on a card table, or on a quote machine or a trading floor, but within ourselves and within our minds. It is the balanced one, the one who keeps an even keel and a steady approach to life who becomes the victor instead of the victim the living and not a weak faded memory.