Seeing Things At 40: A Very Sick America!

Today is one of those days when there are things you just don't want to think about. But you must acquiesce.

And then, there are some things you can reflect on that really make you smile; things like the good friend who, like me, is contemplating our age, now that we are 40. We are sharing a sort of "mental journey" here but I think we'll be fine. As far as I am concerned, getting older ought to bring new opportunities, a renewal of sorts too.

I am hoping that she will join me and the wife for coffee this weekend, but I doubt it since there is so much else to do this weekend. It is cold and damp. The wife is joining some college friends at a reunion. I may grab an old Joseph Campbell book. Who knows, maybe I'll turn on the news and hear that Mark Foley swallowed cyanide capsules.

How do we Americans think that we are so much better than the rest of the world, when all we do is abuse our children? How is that?

My friend and I recently talked about this moron of a congressman, Mark Foley, who stepped down after news surfaced about him instant messaging this 16 year old page with very sexually explicit messages. Now we hear that Mr. "Sicko" actually chaired a congressional commission on missing and exploited children!

It is true that as you get older, you are suppose to become wiser and maturer, save a certain congressman. Indeed, this is why my longtime friend and I are perplexed that Republicans are at the forefront on ethics and values, but often turn out to be morally bankrupt (e.g., closet homosexuals). This does not exonerate the Democrats, just because a liar like Bill Clinton received blow jobs from a intern. I would argue that Clinton alone probably opened the floodgates of a new wave of unprecedented sexual deviant behavior in this country never seen before.

After the Clinton debacle, I talked to a number of people who dismissed it with comments like, " no one's perfect..." Unbelievable. The leader of the most powerful country in the world committs perjury and adultery, one the most influential leaders in the black community commits adultery and gives the welfare rolls a love child and all people can say is "no one is perfect"? And oh, by the way, if you criticize Jesse Jackson for exacerbating the single-parent problem in the black community and you "aint" black, then you will be dismissed as a racist.

But for Mark Foley, the congressman, I would say there is something really awful, when you have an elected official, who chairs an organization that is supposed to protect children, asking a 16 year old kid, if his private part is "limp or growing..." and writing this kid telling him that he is "as hard as a rock.." This is a Republican congressman. Wonder what dinner is like at his house nowadays.

I remember several year ago in 1990, I recently moved into an apartment - my first - and I wasn't familiar with the train stops etc. So, I caught a train that went pass my stop - just one stop past mine. It was a cool Fall evening and I knew I had to go to the other side and wait for another train heading back the other direction. I asked two gentlemen if they knew what time the next train would arrive since the ticket office had closed. The one man said he did not know and said goodbye to the other man. But the other man said, "I don't know either, but if you want, I could drop you off.." What? Is he crazy, I thought.

Naturally, I told him, "no thank you, I'll be fine..." and just waited...gradually moving a way...hell, I didn't want to end up in his freezer that night carved up into little pieces, f__kin' sicko'!

First of all, this pervert, did not know me. Secondly, I was very young and I look younger than I am anyway. And furthermore, why would any man offer to drop a stranger - young looking boy - off ? People are sick.

I am not a crime profiler, but here is what I have concluded. Black male criminals tend to rob and steal cars and shoot people. White male criminals will kill 5 plus people over time, and have sex with corpses and members of the same sex and are more than likely to be suspects in child pornography stings. These are not racist comments, they are more than likely statistical probabilities.

Throughout my blog, I have repeated it again and again, that this country is a very sick country. It is not un-American to point out a riveting truth. It saddens me to see such a pillar of the world be reduced to an immoral imperialistic and arrogant empire. But, "it is, what it is..." as they say.

Who Loses $5 Billion In Less Than A Month?

My wife and I unloaded an oil exploration company position we held recently for rebalancing purposes. If you have no sell discipline, no rebalancing feature in your game plan, then you are not an investor.

Americans are day trading their retirement accounts, exchanging Exxon for Ford. THE AMERICAN CAR INDUSTRY IS DONE. OKAY? OKAY?

At work, I am still wondering why a client put in an order to buy $80,000 worth of Ford stock, after selling Exxon. Just because a stock trades near the price of the local paper, it doesn't mean that it is a bargain! Ford announces that they are cutting their dividend, their bonds tank, they are having job cuts and this degenerate, thinks he Warren Buffet. "Oh, before you put the order in, what's it at now...?"

But the biggest bloodbath is reserved for the 32 year old Connecticut hedge fund master, Brian Hunter, who managed to lose a colossal $5 billion since the start of September by making risky bets on natural gas prices, according to MSN. I am glad I don't have to send out that statement! Hedge fund managers always win because of the fees they charge. Hunter took home around $75 million in compensation last year, so telling his investors that they lost $5 billion won't be very painful for him.

If you want to learn something about risk and reward, google Harry Markowitz and the "efficient frontier" of portfolio theory.

Failing Automakers & A Big Mouth Pope

Gee, so much can happen in a matter of two weeks.

I wanted to talk about this new position I have - and some of the people at the office - but with Ford and Chrysler back in the news and now the Pope opening his big mouth, possibly inciting the Muslim world, I would say I have enough to comment on.

I will save my comments on the Pope for later.

Ford is cutting thousands of jobs. With the orders I was getting to buy Ford stock, you would think that Ford was announcing a merger or an optimistic outlook. But then again, most investors are usually on the wrong side of the bet; they buy when the professionals are selling, thinking that they are getting a bargain; and they sell when professionals are buying. It is a key element of a loser's game.

American products, in general, tend to be inferior to others. This we know.

What concerns me is that when investors see an opportunity to trim back on their holdings or to consult with their adviser about their positions, they don't. They merely see "a buying opportunity" just because a stock is falling. Never mind the fact that when a company is cutting their dividend and the bonds are tanking that these are key signs that you should stay away.

There are two industries where the transfer of wealth happens so rapidly that it is mindboggling; the investment industry and the casino business.

In case you don't get my point, here is what it boils down to:

If a stock you like has fallen to a level where you think is a tremendous bargain and the company has announced job cuts, while slicing or eliminating their dividend, then you should stay away from that stock.

Moron Of The Day

1. I think the Mayor of Houston, Texas should be reminded that he is an elected official - a public servant - and that he does not own Houston, Texas. Therefore, he does not have the right to recommend or suggest that the Hurricane Katrina evacuees go back to Louisiana.

2. I also think that crime is a normal phenomenon in any urban area, so trying to suggest that Hurricane Katrina evacuees are creating some sort of crime wave in Texas is, at the least, unfair.