{"id":2191,"date":"2020-05-23T09:44:17","date_gmt":"2020-05-23T16:44:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jocularious.com\/?p=2191"},"modified":"2020-05-24T11:14:25","modified_gmt":"2020-05-24T18:14:25","slug":"item-3-on-my-bucket-list-join-a-think-tank","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jocularious.com\/?p=2191","title":{"rendered":"What Think Tanks, Fish Tanks and Armored Tanks have to do with World Naked Bike Ride Day"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Television news hosts are always introducing their guests as belonging to some \u201cThink Tank.\u201d  This impresses me.  It probably shouldn\u2019t.  I\u2019m not even sure what people do in a think tank.  I picture people sitting in a circle with their eyebrows furled with an intense expression signifying that they are deep in thought – or really have to go number two.  I also picture a lot of meerschaum pipes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The only tanks I know about are fish tanks and gas tanks.  There are armored tanks, of course, but I don\u2019t know much about them.  Speaking of armored tanks, it does make me wonder who would win if we put a Think Tank up against an Armored Tank.  My hunch is that we\u2019d never piece back together all those meerschaum pipes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But let\u2019s get back to ME, and my getting a job at a think tank.  I Googled \u201cThink Tank\u201d and this article popped up: \u201cThe 50 Most Influential Think Tanks in the United States.\u201d  Number 8 caught my attention \u2013 the CATO Institute.  This is primarily because I like to say the word \u201cCATO.\u201d  Try it.  It\u2019s fun!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to\nthis random article:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c\u2026Cato’s\nmission is \u2018to broaden the parameters of public policy debate to allow\nconsideration of the traditional American principles of limited government,\nindividual liberty, free markets, and peace.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Liberty?  Peace? \nSign me up!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This would\nbe a good think tank for me because its political orientation is\nLibertarian.  I am not what you\u2019d call a\n\u201cFull-Crackpot\u201d Libertarian, but I am a Libertarian sympathizer.  The reason I can\u2019t go full crackpot is it\nwould make me a hypocrite.  Some years\nago, I was walking along an ocean boardwalk in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, with my\nyoung daughter.  All of a sudden, we came\nupon a section of the sidewalk that had collapsed down into the ocean.  A half-moon piece of the sidewalk was missing.  You could look straight down onto the rock\nand swirling surf below.  No barrier, no\nwarning tape, no nothing!  I\u2019m lucky my daughter\nand I didn\u2019t plunge into the abyss.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was the\nfirst thing that came to my Libertarian mind? \nYou guessed it.  \u201cThere ought to\nbe a law!\u201d  This is why I am now only a \u201csympathizer.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s also worth noting that the CATO Institute\u2019s annual revenue is 29.1 million.  I don’t care who you are, or where you come from – That\u2019s a lot of pipe tobacco! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

My multimillion-dollar\nsalary aside, I do have a few questions before I get busy thinking:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Will my office have a couch?  I do my best thinking lying on a couch.  (Preferably, while eating a tasty snack).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Will they\nsend me to a tropical resort equipped with beachfront hammocks?  The only place I think better than lying down\non a couch is when I\u2019m in a beachside hammock.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. When we argue with other thinkers, and things get physical, does anyone ever call the police?  I want to join a think tank where we keep these little disagreements to ourselves.  (I\u2019m a big fan of the, \u201cNobody talks, everybody walks,\u201d philosophy.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4. How often\ndo we have to get together to think and slap each other upside the head when\nthey say something stupid?  I\u2019ve really\nbeen enjoying the flexibility of my Corona Beer Virus schedule, and I\u2019ve become\nquite a fan of the whole \u201csocial distancing\u201d thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the CATO Institute can\u2019t at least meet me halfway on these modest demands, I may simply move on to Bucket List item #4:  Participating in the World Naked Bicycling Day Parade.  You should have no trouble spotting me riding along in the crowd. I\u2019ll be the one smoking a meerschaum pipe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Please do me a\nfavor \u2013 Comment and share!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

______________________________<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also,\nbefore you leave \u2013<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Check out these great\nbooks:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Lawyer\u2019s Song: Navigating the legal wilderness<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Link below)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/buff.ly\/2K41Tax<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Seven Rules for the College Playground <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Link below)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/buff.ly\/2IqXxgn<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Seven Secrets You Need to Know to Hire the Right Lawyer<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Link below)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/buff.ly\/2roFIov<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Television news hosts are always introducing their guests as belonging to some \u201cThink Tank.\u201d  This impresses me.  It probably shouldn\u2019t.  I\u2019m not even sure what people do in a think tank.  I picture people sitting in a circle with their eyebrows furled with an intense expression signifying that they are deep in thought – or […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[941,942,943,940],"class_list":["post-2191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-humor","tag-cato-institute-humor","tag-cato-institute-think-tank","tag-meerschaum-pipe","tag-think-tank-humor"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jocularious.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jocularious.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jocularious.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jocularious.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jocularious.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2191"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/jocularious.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2191\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2201,"href":"https:\/\/jocularious.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2191\/revisions\/2201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jocularious.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jocularious.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jocularious.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}