Clinton explained his reasons for the Marc Rich pardon in a New York Times op-ed over the weekend. The question that remains for me is why, if Rich’s case for innocence was so strong, did he flee the country? He could have hired a legal dream team and gone before a jury like most other innocent people do. Needless to say, critics of the pardon are having their say today.
Check out [www.whithouse.org](http://www.whithouse.org/), a bizarre site obviously run by enraged Cubans living in America. [www.whitehouse.org](http://www.whitehouse.org) is a spoof of the real White House web site.
Rob Neyer’s latest column is ostensibly about baseball, but in fact reveals a weakness common to nearly every human being – the inability to get past one’s preconceived notions and think in a systematic, rational manner. It’s one of the key reasons why we have bad government and bad companies. Rather than looking at the numbers and seeing what they reveal, people come up with a notion and look for numbers to back it up. The classic real life example is crime, few people look at crime statistics and draw conclusions based on them. Rather they come up with some conclusions and then mine for statistics that seem to substantiate their position. It’s lazy, sloppy, and counterproductive. That said, I’m probably as guilty of it as anyone.