Friday, December 12, 2008
Monday, November 24, 2008
Sunday, November 23, 2008
American carmakers
Car company Execs jumping onto their corporate Jets to fly down to Washington to beg for a $25 billion hand out needed because they can't compete with foreign car makers speaks loudly of their Imperialistic attitude of superiority to the average taxpayer.
I'd like to shout, "Off with their heads!" But they'll get their handout because we are plain frightened not to give them some help. Their bad management has been punished by the "Invisible Hand' of Capitalism worshipped in America. Now like good Socialists they want the people to pay!
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Friday, November 21, 2008
Michael Coren: Obama courts trouble with dubious decision to appoint Emanuel
Michael Coren: Obama courts trouble with dubious decision to appoint Emanuel - Full Comment: "Michael Coren: Obama courts trouble with dubious decision to appoint Emanuel
Posted: November 18, 2008, 9:00 AM by Kelly McParland
Euphoria is by its nature transitory and unreliable, and never more so than when induced by political celebrity and media hysteria. Oh the disappointment when the holy icon comes down from the wall and is revealed as just another mediocre portrait. They wanted him to Barack their world, but in his first major appointment the President-elect has sent the dreamers back to their barracks. He asked Rahm Emanuel to be the White House Chief of Staff, thus alienating those domestic political opponents he claimed he wanted to include in his new America and, perhaps more importantly, outraging the Arab and greater Muslim community.
Emanuel’s entire political career as a Bill Clinton staffer and a congressman has been characterized by extreme partisanship and personal attacks. He has cultivated the reputation of political pit bull, relished the much-told stories of how he screamed at friends as well as enemies and stabbed knives into tables as he listed critics who would be “dead, dead, dead.” Beyond the obvious hypocrisy of Obama’s first major act being the selection of one of the least conciliatory figures in Washington politics, Emanuel’s intimate ties to, and support for, Israel have caused consternation and anger in even moderate and pro-Western Arab circles.
He is the son of a leading revisionist Zionist family, his father Benjamin being a former member of the Irgun, otherwise known as Etzel or IZL. Revisionism was an alternative and more militant form of Zionism, offering a different path to that of the more socialistic and pragmatic mainstream. Its tough nationalism produced two underground military organizations, the Irgun and LEHI or The Stern Gang. They fought both the local Palestinians and the British Army and police between 1931 and 1948.
Regarded by the occupying British, the Arabs and by many in the rest of the Jewish community in pre-Israel Palestine as terrorists, the Irgun was involved in attacks on British soldiers and Palestinian civilians that are even now deeply disturbing and divisive. When I was working on my university thesis on LEHI, I was shocked by the hostility shown toward these organizations by other Israelis, some of whom had served in commando units, known as the Palmach, in the 1940s in Palestine. Their dedication and sacrifice was beyond question, as was their rejection of what they saw as the self-serving violence of the Irgun.
This, of course, was the father and not necessarily the son, but it is far from unreasonable to assume that the new Chief of Staff has been influenced by his beloved father’s ideas and the context of his precise kind of Jewish nationalism. Just recently, in an interview with an Israeli newspaper, Benjamin Emanuel is said to have replied, when asked about his son’s appointment, “Obviously he will influence the president to be pro-Israel. Why wouldn’t he be? What is he, an Arab? He’s not going to clean the floors of the White House.”
This may be the apparent racism of an older generation, but it hardly inspires confidence. Rahm Emanuel himself was born with dual Israeli and American citizenship due to his father, but renounced his Israeli nationality before entering politics. He also served briefly as a civilian volunteer for the Israeli military in 1991 during the Gulf War, has spoken numerous times to pro-Israeli rallies and organizations and is an active campaigner for the Jewish state. None of which is in any way surprising or inappropriate for an average Jewish person in North America. Only a bigot or a fool would see conspiracy or malice where there is loyalty, courage and commitment.
But Rahm Emanuel is not ordinary and is not in an ordinary position. How, for example, would the world in general and the Jewish world in particular react to an active supporter of the Palestinian cause whose father was a member of a nationalist Arab group with terror links being appointed to a senior position in the White House? The answer is as obvious as the question is rhetorical. This is not an issue of placating Arab and Muslim fanatics but of rebuilding a relationship of trust with responsible leaders and secular pragmatists who, together with the West, can carve out a workable peace in the Middle East.
Already dozens of informed editorials and opinion columns in the Arab press have expressed incredulity at the Emanuel appointment, pointing out that it plays into the hands of the absolutists who detest the prospect of a new Middle East where Israel is considered a partner and the United States an ally. Frankly, it also bad for even hard-line supporters of Israel. The State Department, the diplomatic corps and overall American policy should be, for moral reasons if nothing else, supportive of Israel’s security. Now their statements will be perceived in the Arab mind through the prism of the real or imagined sway of the chief of staff.
The apologists have been quick to explain and justify. Writing in The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg, a close friend of Emanuel, replied to attacks that have actually seldom been made in an American media as reluctant to criticize Obama as it is to explore the new chief of staff’s credentials. “Rahm, precisely because he’s a lover of Israel, will not have much patience with Israeli excuse-making, so when the next prime minister tells President Obama that as much as he’d love to, he can’t dismantle the Neve Manyak settlement outpost, or whichever outpost needs dismantling, because of a) domestic politics; b) security concerns, or c) the Bible, Rahm will call out such nonsense, and it will be very hard for right-wing Israelis to come back and accuse him of being a self-hating Jew.”
Hardly. It’s rash politics, poor government and short-sighted policy. Can we pose as an enlightened radical but behave with less decorum, empathy and understanding of the external world than even our predecessor? Apparently so. Or to put it another way, Yes we can.
National Post
www.michaelcoren.com
Posted: November 18, 2008, 9:00 AM by Kelly McParland
Euphoria is by its nature transitory and unreliable, and never more so than when induced by political celebrity and media hysteria. Oh the disappointment when the holy icon comes down from the wall and is revealed as just another mediocre portrait. They wanted him to Barack their world, but in his first major appointment the President-elect has sent the dreamers back to their barracks. He asked Rahm Emanuel to be the White House Chief of Staff, thus alienating those domestic political opponents he claimed he wanted to include in his new America and, perhaps more importantly, outraging the Arab and greater Muslim community.
Emanuel’s entire political career as a Bill Clinton staffer and a congressman has been characterized by extreme partisanship and personal attacks. He has cultivated the reputation of political pit bull, relished the much-told stories of how he screamed at friends as well as enemies and stabbed knives into tables as he listed critics who would be “dead, dead, dead.” Beyond the obvious hypocrisy of Obama’s first major act being the selection of one of the least conciliatory figures in Washington politics, Emanuel’s intimate ties to, and support for, Israel have caused consternation and anger in even moderate and pro-Western Arab circles.
He is the son of a leading revisionist Zionist family, his father Benjamin being a former member of the Irgun, otherwise known as Etzel or IZL. Revisionism was an alternative and more militant form of Zionism, offering a different path to that of the more socialistic and pragmatic mainstream. Its tough nationalism produced two underground military organizations, the Irgun and LEHI or The Stern Gang. They fought both the local Palestinians and the British Army and police between 1931 and 1948.
Regarded by the occupying British, the Arabs and by many in the rest of the Jewish community in pre-Israel Palestine as terrorists, the Irgun was involved in attacks on British soldiers and Palestinian civilians that are even now deeply disturbing and divisive. When I was working on my university thesis on LEHI, I was shocked by the hostility shown toward these organizations by other Israelis, some of whom had served in commando units, known as the Palmach, in the 1940s in Palestine. Their dedication and sacrifice was beyond question, as was their rejection of what they saw as the self-serving violence of the Irgun.
This, of course, was the father and not necessarily the son, but it is far from unreasonable to assume that the new Chief of Staff has been influenced by his beloved father’s ideas and the context of his precise kind of Jewish nationalism. Just recently, in an interview with an Israeli newspaper, Benjamin Emanuel is said to have replied, when asked about his son’s appointment, “Obviously he will influence the president to be pro-Israel. Why wouldn’t he be? What is he, an Arab? He’s not going to clean the floors of the White House.”
This may be the apparent racism of an older generation, but it hardly inspires confidence. Rahm Emanuel himself was born with dual Israeli and American citizenship due to his father, but renounced his Israeli nationality before entering politics. He also served briefly as a civilian volunteer for the Israeli military in 1991 during the Gulf War, has spoken numerous times to pro-Israeli rallies and organizations and is an active campaigner for the Jewish state. None of which is in any way surprising or inappropriate for an average Jewish person in North America. Only a bigot or a fool would see conspiracy or malice where there is loyalty, courage and commitment.
But Rahm Emanuel is not ordinary and is not in an ordinary position. How, for example, would the world in general and the Jewish world in particular react to an active supporter of the Palestinian cause whose father was a member of a nationalist Arab group with terror links being appointed to a senior position in the White House? The answer is as obvious as the question is rhetorical. This is not an issue of placating Arab and Muslim fanatics but of rebuilding a relationship of trust with responsible leaders and secular pragmatists who, together with the West, can carve out a workable peace in the Middle East.
Already dozens of informed editorials and opinion columns in the Arab press have expressed incredulity at the Emanuel appointment, pointing out that it plays into the hands of the absolutists who detest the prospect of a new Middle East where Israel is considered a partner and the United States an ally. Frankly, it also bad for even hard-line supporters of Israel. The State Department, the diplomatic corps and overall American policy should be, for moral reasons if nothing else, supportive of Israel’s security. Now their statements will be perceived in the Arab mind through the prism of the real or imagined sway of the chief of staff.
The apologists have been quick to explain and justify. Writing in The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg, a close friend of Emanuel, replied to attacks that have actually seldom been made in an American media as reluctant to criticize Obama as it is to explore the new chief of staff’s credentials. “Rahm, precisely because he’s a lover of Israel, will not have much patience with Israeli excuse-making, so when the next prime minister tells President Obama that as much as he’d love to, he can’t dismantle the Neve Manyak settlement outpost, or whichever outpost needs dismantling, because of a) domestic politics; b) security concerns, or c) the Bible, Rahm will call out such nonsense, and it will be very hard for right-wing Israelis to come back and accuse him of being a self-hating Jew.”
Hardly. It’s rash politics, poor government and short-sighted policy. Can we pose as an enlightened radical but behave with less decorum, empathy and understanding of the external world than even our predecessor? Apparently so. Or to put it another way, Yes we can.
National Post
www.michaelcoren.com
Tucker Torpedo
After World War II, entrepreneurs like Henry J. Kaiser and Preston Tucker saw an opportunity to enter the automobile market. The United States government was auctioning off surplus factories and giving preference to startup companies rather than the large corporations that had benefitted from war production.
Tucker_torpedo_patent.png (PNG Image, 1004x661 pixels)
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Friday, November 14, 2008
Warren Buffett
Business Feed Article | Business | guardian.co.uk
What is interesting is the stock Eaton Corp. was featured on Mad Money!
What is interesting is the stock Eaton Corp. was featured on Mad Money!
Remember Arlo Guthrie?
Photo
What follows is a quote from Seth Godin's daily letter:
What happens when we organize?
Most power occurs because one side is better organized than the other. Labor is usually less well
organized than management, criminals are usually less well organized than the police and customers are
always less well organized than producers.
The internet promises to change that. It does it occasionally, sort of randomly. Sometimes, users will rise
up and complain (as they did at Facebook). Or voters will organize online and hurt (or help) a politician
or candidate.
Wikipedia works because so many contributors figured out how to self-organize into a group that
produced something far more useful than a traditionally organized document.
I think we're at the earliest possible beginning of the changes we're going to see because of this sort of
grass roots coordination.
Simple example: the Starbucks in Larchmont, NY keeps their thermostat at 64 degrees. And the stores
in Breckenridge, Colorado keep their doors wide open all winter. If you're raging mad about energy
waste, you could say something. And nothing would happen. But if customers organized and ten people
said something or a hundred people said something... boom, new rules.
The system doesn't know what to do with a movement.
What follows is a quote from Seth Godin's daily letter:
What happens when we organize?
Most power occurs because one side is better organized than the other. Labor is usually less well
organized than management, criminals are usually less well organized than the police and customers are
always less well organized than producers.
The internet promises to change that. It does it occasionally, sort of randomly. Sometimes, users will rise
up and complain (as they did at Facebook). Or voters will organize online and hurt (or help) a politician
or candidate.
Wikipedia works because so many contributors figured out how to self-organize into a group that
produced something far more useful than a traditionally organized document.
I think we're at the earliest possible beginning of the changes we're going to see because of this sort of
grass roots coordination.
Simple example: the Starbucks in Larchmont, NY keeps their thermostat at 64 degrees. And the stores
in Breckenridge, Colorado keep their doors wide open all winter. If you're raging mad about energy
waste, you could say something. And nothing would happen. But if customers organized and ten people
said something or a hundred people said something... boom, new rules.
The system doesn't know what to do with a movement.
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Sunday, November 9, 2008
Friday, November 7, 2008
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Monday, November 3, 2008
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Hopeful Comments
The New York Times
Printer Friendly Format Sponsored By
October 17, 2008
Op-Ed Contributor
Buy American. I Am.
By WARREN E. BUFFETT
Omaha
THE financial world is a mess, both in the United States and abroad. Its problems, moreover, have been leaking into the general economy, and the leaks are now turning into a gusher. In the near term, unemployment will rise, business activity will falter and headlines will continue to be scary.
So ... I’ve been buying American stocks. This is my personal account I’m talking about, in which I previously owned nothing but United States government bonds. (This description leaves aside my Berkshire Hathaway holdings, which are all committed to philanthropy.) If prices keep looking attractive, my non-Berkshire net worth will soon be 100 percent in United States equities.
Why?
A simple rule dictates my buying: Be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful. And most certainly, fear is now widespread, gripping even seasoned investors. To be sure, investors are right to be wary of highly leveraged entities or businesses in weak competitive positions. But fears regarding the long-term prosperity of the nation’s many sound companies make no sense. These businesses will indeed suffer earnings hiccups, as they always have. But most major companies will be setting new profit records 5, 10 and 20 years from now.
Let me be clear on one point: I can’t predict the short-term movements of the stock market. I haven’t the faintest idea as to whether stocks will be higher or lower a month — or a year — from now. What is likely, however, is that the market will move higher, perhaps substantially so, well before either sentiment or the economy turns up. So if you wait for the robins, spring will be over.
A little history here: During the Depression, the Dow hit its low, 41, on July 8, 1932. Economic conditions, though, kept deteriorating until Franklin D. Roosevelt took office in March 1933. By that time, the market had already advanced 30 percent. Or think back to the early days of World War II, when things were going badly for the United States in Europe and the Pacific. The market hit bottom in April 1942, well before Allied fortunes turned. Again, in the early 1980s, the time to buy stocks was when inflation raged and the economy was in the tank. In short, bad news is an investor’s best friend. It lets you buy a slice of America’s future at a marked-down price.
Over the long term, the stock market news will be good. In the 20th century, the United States endured two world wars and other traumatic and expensive military conflicts; the Depression; a dozen or so recessions and financial panics; oil shocks; a flu epidemic; and the resignation of a disgraced president. Yet the Dow rose from 66 to 11,497.
You might think it would have been impossible for an investor to lose money during a century marked by such an extraordinary gain. But some investors did. The hapless ones bought stocks only when they felt comfort in doing so and then proceeded to sell when the headlines made them queasy.
Today people who hold cash equivalents feel comfortable. They shouldn’t. They have opted for a terrible long-term asset, one that pays virtually nothing and is certain to depreciate in value. Indeed, the policies that government will follow in its efforts to alleviate the current crisis will probably prove inflationary and therefore accelerate declines in the real value of cash accounts.
Equities will almost certainly outperform cash over the next decade, probably by a substantial degree. Those investors who cling now to cash are betting they can efficiently time their move away from it later. In waiting for the comfort of good news, they are ignoring Wayne Gretzky’s advice: “I skate to where the puck is going to be, not to where it has been.”
I don’t like to opine on the stock market, and again I emphasize that I have no idea what the market will do in the short term. Nevertheless, I’ll follow the lead of a restaurant that opened in an empty bank building and then advertised: “Put your mouth where your money was.” Today my money and my mouth both say equities.
Warren E. Buffett is the chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway, a diversified holding company.
Printer Friendly Format Sponsored By
October 17, 2008
Op-Ed Contributor
Buy American. I Am.
By WARREN E. BUFFETT
Omaha
THE financial world is a mess, both in the United States and abroad. Its problems, moreover, have been leaking into the general economy, and the leaks are now turning into a gusher. In the near term, unemployment will rise, business activity will falter and headlines will continue to be scary.
So ... I’ve been buying American stocks. This is my personal account I’m talking about, in which I previously owned nothing but United States government bonds. (This description leaves aside my Berkshire Hathaway holdings, which are all committed to philanthropy.) If prices keep looking attractive, my non-Berkshire net worth will soon be 100 percent in United States equities.
Why?
A simple rule dictates my buying: Be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful. And most certainly, fear is now widespread, gripping even seasoned investors. To be sure, investors are right to be wary of highly leveraged entities or businesses in weak competitive positions. But fears regarding the long-term prosperity of the nation’s many sound companies make no sense. These businesses will indeed suffer earnings hiccups, as they always have. But most major companies will be setting new profit records 5, 10 and 20 years from now.
Let me be clear on one point: I can’t predict the short-term movements of the stock market. I haven’t the faintest idea as to whether stocks will be higher or lower a month — or a year — from now. What is likely, however, is that the market will move higher, perhaps substantially so, well before either sentiment or the economy turns up. So if you wait for the robins, spring will be over.
A little history here: During the Depression, the Dow hit its low, 41, on July 8, 1932. Economic conditions, though, kept deteriorating until Franklin D. Roosevelt took office in March 1933. By that time, the market had already advanced 30 percent. Or think back to the early days of World War II, when things were going badly for the United States in Europe and the Pacific. The market hit bottom in April 1942, well before Allied fortunes turned. Again, in the early 1980s, the time to buy stocks was when inflation raged and the economy was in the tank. In short, bad news is an investor’s best friend. It lets you buy a slice of America’s future at a marked-down price.
Over the long term, the stock market news will be good. In the 20th century, the United States endured two world wars and other traumatic and expensive military conflicts; the Depression; a dozen or so recessions and financial panics; oil shocks; a flu epidemic; and the resignation of a disgraced president. Yet the Dow rose from 66 to 11,497.
You might think it would have been impossible for an investor to lose money during a century marked by such an extraordinary gain. But some investors did. The hapless ones bought stocks only when they felt comfort in doing so and then proceeded to sell when the headlines made them queasy.
Today people who hold cash equivalents feel comfortable. They shouldn’t. They have opted for a terrible long-term asset, one that pays virtually nothing and is certain to depreciate in value. Indeed, the policies that government will follow in its efforts to alleviate the current crisis will probably prove inflationary and therefore accelerate declines in the real value of cash accounts.
Equities will almost certainly outperform cash over the next decade, probably by a substantial degree. Those investors who cling now to cash are betting they can efficiently time their move away from it later. In waiting for the comfort of good news, they are ignoring Wayne Gretzky’s advice: “I skate to where the puck is going to be, not to where it has been.”
I don’t like to opine on the stock market, and again I emphasize that I have no idea what the market will do in the short term. Nevertheless, I’ll follow the lead of a restaurant that opened in an empty bank building and then advertised: “Put your mouth where your money was.” Today my money and my mouth both say equities.
Warren E. Buffett is the chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway, a diversified holding company.
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Judas Goat
The Judas goat is trained to associate with sheep or cattle, leading them to a specific destination. In stockyards, a Judas goat will lead sheep to slaughter, while its own life is spared. Judas goats are also used to lead other animals to specific pens and on to trucks.
Monday, October 6, 2008
Fed Bail-Out
Merrill Lynch statement today indicates that the Credit Contraction being experienced is of a secular credit contraction nature versus a less painful and quicker cyclical credit crunch.
Europe, China and the Far East all share in the financial suffering.
Overnight trading produced dramatic drops in all markets as the crisis spreads!
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Television News
The world is in a massive financial crisis and it seems like reporters of the news add to the terrible anxiety already present in this situation.
With few exceptions Pot is not legal to possess or cultivate in Canada, while on the other hand,
our society has promoted noxious cigarettes and a powerful mind altering substance that is known to lead to aggressive and violent behavior in users.
And turns a blind eye to the farming of opium in Afghanistan. Canadians are fighting to liberate this country from an oppressive regime. Heroin production finances the terrorists and exports death and addiction to our country.
Vancouver Island News
Canada gave serious thought to legalizing marijuana but received such an outcry from our neighbor to the south that the proposal was dropped. We put people in jail for involvement with a commonplace recreational drug and we should come to our senses.
Bumper crop of bud expected
Outdoor plots are on the increase say police and weather has helped out
Dustin Walker
The Star
Wednesday, October 01, 2008
After a couple years of dismal outdoor marijuana harvests due to rainy weather, Vancouver Island could see a bumper crop of bud this fall.
Some growers have already harvested their pot plants, often hidden away in secret gardens deep in the woods, but the optimal time to harvest marijuana is normally the first week of October, said Ted Smith, who teaches a free course about hemp and Cannabis -- called Hempology 101 -- at the University of Victoria.
He thinks that if current weather holds for the next couple weeks, this season will mark the start of the crop's recovery on the Island.
Vancouver Island's mild climate often provides ideal conditions for growing marijuana, but the past two years have been hit with rainy summers and little sunlight, which can cause plants to rot.
This has led to more people growing pot indoors, instead of going through the hassle of tending to an outdoor crop concealed within a forest, said Smith.
"There haven't been a lot of new people getting into (growing pot outdoors).
"There might be more next year, with this year kind of recovering," said Smith.
In the Nanaimo area, police have noticed more outdoor marijuana-growing operations this year compared to previous years, said Const. Gary O'Brien.
In July, police busted an 800-plant outdoor growing operation in the Bowser area.
"It was quite a significant year for outdoor grows," he said.
"Weather was a factor this year."
Although indoor operations can lead to fires and other hazards, said O'Brien, outdoor operations aren't any safer.
Hikers can stumble onto booby-traps left by growers to protect their crops, he said.
But Nanaimo marijuana advocate Richard Payne said organized gangs are usually the only ones who go to such lengths to protect massive crops.
The "common guy" who grows pot on the Island would usually have just 20-30 plants hidden in the bush.
"All around this time you'll have different people who are harvesting," said Payne, who is trying to set up a marijuana-buyers club for sick people in Nanaimo.
"It think it's probably been a pretty good season so far."
Both Smith and Payne said people who grow marijuana outdoors worry more about animals munching on their plants or thieves finding them than police confiscating the pot.
"Far more plants are stolen every year by thieves than police actually get.
"The bush in general is seeing a lot more people out and about," said Smith.
"It's a really stressful thing, growing, at times because you're always worried about who's going to rip you off," said Payne.
Although it has its challenges, Smith said people will never stop growing marijuana in the forests of Vancouver Island.
"Outdoor is always going to have its fans. It's easy, you don't need to be paying rent and deal with a whole bunch of other factors."
© Harbour City Star 2008
Just Try.
Failure is the foundation of success, and the means by which it is achieved.
____ Lao Tzu
Setbacks are simply evidence of a need for change and a chance to learn. If you want to be successful, double your failure rate. Learn from your mistakes.
A vision without a task is but a dream, a task without vision is drudgery, a vision and a task are the hope of the world.
____ Lao Tzu
Setbacks are simply evidence of a need for change and a chance to learn. If you want to be successful, double your failure rate. Learn from your mistakes.
A vision without a task is but a dream, a task without vision is drudgery, a vision and a task are the hope of the world.
Saturday, October 4, 2008
Friday, October 3, 2008
Thursday, October 2, 2008
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