OK folks, let's be realistic.

As much as the Roman Catholic Church talks about being created by Jesus and the Popes come straight down from God Him/Herself, the church consists of human beings. Human beings make mistakes, commit sins (both mortal and venial) and do things to which we should be ashamed.

That's as true in religion as it is in government, business, social services and every other element of human endeavor.

For too long, our Church has protected the institution of organized religion rather than the folks its supposed to protect -- the children of God. We've changed an awful lot in the last 150 years and inevitably, our church will change more as God reveals more to us. But to dump religious belief and the beauty that this belief is in its most basic form because of bad actors rejects a lot of what our world should be about.

As a practicing Roman Catholic, I still believe our church as a lot to learn about people and about what God has given us. But years ago, my high school was basically the center of priestly pedophilia while I was there. Several of my classmates were affected. But, there were so many fine people that I knew were incredible people of faith that I accepted their teaching and their view of the world, even as we knew some things were very wrong around us. Simply put, you can't throw the baby out with the bathwater!

I wouldn’t let a child be alone with a priest

Madison and Notre Dame were my safety schools.

ok, ok… I have to come clean. I did apply to UW. Back-up, for sure. Hilariously, I was accepted w/Red in about 10-days. MU? Not so fast, my friend! I think it was like 3 months before I was no doubt begrudgingly accepted! Some dude in the registrar’s office probably said…’look, he’s an idiot. Clearly he’ll be on academic probation…if he doesn’t flunk out altogether. But he’s Dental School connected. Let him in!’ 😂
37 yrs later I can confidently say…Better Dead, than Red

Leon Bond to Northern Iowa.

Fair enough, my source of concern comes from the rate of internal investment. It crashed in 2008-2009 and has not crept back up.

That plus consistent massive buy backs to juice stock prices has me concerned for the longevity of the robustness of our innovative economy. You can only wring a rag so much.

Buybacks do nothing for my view that short term growth investing decisions have all but completely encapsulated the economy at our longer term future expense.

I'm not sure about this statement, although in some ways I have the same question about buybacks as you do.  On the other hand, are not shareholders supposed to be rewarded for taking a risk on the performance of the company?  What better way to be rewarded than to share in the profits / earnings of the company through share buybacks and distribution of dividends? And what if AAPL believes it is investing the proper amount of capital into R&D for this moment in time?  They know much more than I do about how best to put the profits of the company to work.  Therefore, just like you, I have questions about the size of the AAPL buybacks, but I can't really fault them for their approach to date.  It has worked out really well for me and other shareholders, right? 

Derrick Wilson and Jake Thomas is Marquette's worst starting backcourt in a long, long time IMHO. And Buzz played them each 30 mpg. Another Buzz production.

I really liked Buzz as a coach for most of his time at Marquette, but he wasn't exactly the PG whisperer (or PG recruiter).