Important news from JAPundit:

“Japanese man Akira Haraguchi has broken the world record for reciting the constant pi up to its 100,000th digit. The feat took Haraguchi more than 16 hours to complete, and shattered his own previous record which he set last year by reaching the 83,431st digit. Because of this, Haraguchi seems to think that adding a mere 16,500 digits was that big of a deal. ‘The figure 100,000 is just an extension of last year’s record, and I wasn’t really caught up with that particular number. I’m certainly no genius. I’m just an ordinary old guy,’ Haraguchi said. Haraguchi plans to submit his record to Guinness World Records.”

This item drew the following sour comment:

“With regard to this and similar ‘feats’ that get into the Guinness book, it really is astounding how much time and energy some people are prepared to put into something so utterly pointless. If only such people felt driven to direct their efforts into something for the common good.”

[Derb] Those of us blessed with a true conservative sensibility recognize the authentic diction of the liberal in that comment. We know that Mr. Haraguchi is one of us, stretching the boundaries of human ability (of how low soever a kind) while doing no harm to anyone; and we know, too, that most of the world’s evil, waste, tyranny, and folly arises from people who “direct their efforts into something for the common good.”