Last Night's Lessons

My favorite liberal after Christopher Hitchens Sara helped me regain control of my computer. She had me crawl around in the Jefferies Tubes (Dooooork!) of my HP, until I clicked the right button. IE works, iTunes works.

Problem is now I have a world of 99 cent choices and I don't know where to begin. I looked at the menu presented and didn't know what I wanted...so I just clicked off until I could confer with The Divine Mrs. M. That's economics!

The fundamental problem of economics is dealing with scarcity: Guns or butter, what do you want? 99 cents really isn't much of a price - almost free really. I buy a 20 oz Coke for a penny more and it's gone in 15 minutes. I also have an iPod that handles 120 songs. This weekend I spent 2 hours ripping songs off my cds I want to hear while at the gym. I'm tapped at about 40 - I still have 80 more songs to go.

I look out my office window and can count 20 places where I can eat cheap. None sound interesting. It's like that Springsteen song.

We are closing in on a world without scarcity - at least for capitalist. Is this utopia?

Who cares: I finally have Radar Love without the other 14 songs that suck on that CD.

After the computer was fixed I went to help Daughter #1 with her homework. She said she only had spelling to study so that should be quick, but when I opened her book, she had reading also. She immediately broke down into tears. She forgot her reader! Punishment from teacher Mrs. P is lose of 5 funny bucks (I'm not sure how that monetary system works, but Mrs. P is the Fed Chairman and decides the level of liquidity of the system) and 10 minutes of recess time on "the Fence."

After 20 minutes of her weeping and my calm reassure, I came up with the following solution.

"Look, I'll have you read something harder than what you normally do, I'll sign the homework book as normal and what Mrs. P doesn't know won't hurt her."

But she'll know, she'll know.

"Then have her call me. I'm the one making this decision."

More weeping. I've introduced moral uncertainty and a potential conflict of authority figures into her mind.

"That's the only solution I have for you and I think it's not a bad one so that's the way it is."

More weeping.

I pick up the homework book and The Divine Mrs. M has already signed off on it - oh, I realize, - we were looking at the wrong week. This was from a month ago. There is no reading tonight.

I then tried a lesson on overreacting and making sure problems really do exist (a lesson I have yet to learn) but she didn't really want any of it. She wanted to know why I made the mistake of looking at the wrong page to begin with. The lesson she is learning is that Fraudian daddy is not God thing. Daddy makes mistakes. I thought kids learned this lesson early on, but apparently it takes a while.

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It's All About Culture, Cracker!

You should have read Thomas Sowell's piece yesterday in the Journal. If you haven't, go do it.

One reason to read the piece is that it's an excellent example of writing. Great writing. Very nice. Very scary. I'm so jealous.

But the main reason to read the piece is what he writes. He doesn't attribute the disparity in minority achievement between blacks and other to genetics, racism, or slavery, but culture. That group's culture. But he doesn't limit it to blacks.

Disparities between Southern whites and Northern whites extended across the board from rates of violence to rates of illegitimacy [stereotypes are stereotypes for a reason]. American writers from both the antebellum South and the North commented on the great differences between the white people in the two regions. So did famed French visitor Alexis de Tocqueville.

Then later:

The culture of the people who were called "rednecks" and "crackers" before they ever got on the boats to cross the Atlantic was a culture that produced far lower levels of intellectual and economic achievement, as well as far higher levels of violence and sexual promiscuity. That culture had its own way of talking, not only in the pronunciation of particular words but also in a loud, dramatic style of oratory with vivid imagery, repetitive phrases and repetitive cadences.

This is a very nice way of saying what my very southern grandparents use to say, "a white person can just as easily be a n_____ as a black person." I've never been a big fan of the southern (white) culture I saw as a kid. It was mostly an attitude of - oh, I don't know - petulance(?), I guess. It was almost as if those people thought "I know what's the right thing to do but I'm not doing just to show you I don't have to do what you think I should do." Growing up in this type of family was simply exhausting.

But back to Sowell. Why do black suffer disproportionately more?

While a third of the white population of the U.S. lived within the redneck culture, more than 90% of the black population did. Although that culture eroded away over the generations, it did so at different rates in different places and among different people. It eroded away much faster in Britain than in the U.S. and somewhat faster among Southern whites than among Southern blacks, who had fewer opportunities for education or for the rewards that came with escape from that counterproductive culture.

Here in Northern Kentucky, the Appalachian communities have many of the same problems that black communities everywhere have. Race and racism isn't the cause. Persisting in maintaining a culture that promotes illiteracy, violence, and promiscuity does.

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Hand Holdin'

What's Bush thinking here? Does he have to hold hands with a man who is at best a benevolent dictator? I know we gotta get along with some bad people sometimes, but we don't have to hold there hands? Do we?

I like Jonah Goldberg's take on this when informed of Arab customs:

However, we have customs here too. Dudes rarely hold hands, and when they do it's usually because they're cops and one cop couldn't complete his rooftop leap across an alley while chasing a perp and his partner has to grab his hand to pull him up. Also acceptable is when your buddy has been shot by a Columbian drug lord and you hold his hand as you promise to look out for his wife and kids and you vow to exact revenge on Mendoza and his entire organization. When life flickers out of your buddy's eyes, you may continue to hold his hand as you shout heavenward "Mendozzzaaaaaaa!" at the top of your lungs. But most times men rarely hold hands. Even Butch and Sundance grabbed an ammo belt rather than hold hands when they jumped off the cliffside. I have searched the manual and there seems to be no exception for holding the hand of a theocratic Islamic potentate. But I may not have gotten the latest monthly supplements.

So does Bush have to hold this guy's hand? Hold hands with a guy wearing a dress? In Texas? Does he? I don't think so.

Please, Mr. Bush, you don't have to humiliate yourself just so I can enjoy $1.90 a gallon gas. Unless, unless, oh yes, here's where our Western Masculinity is saved. Maybe Bush is trying prison tactics. He's saying "Look World, I'm holding his hand. That's cause he's my bitch. I even made him wear this long heavy dress in Texas to make him look more girly. Now just watch, she'll start pumping oil or she'll get another thumpin'."

Yeah, that's it. It's not sucking up to the guy by suffering a little humiliation at all.

Could be worse.

I Hate Apple

Yes, really I do. After last weekend's ordeal with getting this I-Pod to work, I thought I was done. But somewhere in all the clicking that they asked me to do before they told me to buy an Apple mini, I clicked something that has really screwed me up.

At first last weekend after I learned how to use my I-Pod with Winamp, I noticed that I couldn't get I-Tunes to work. I'd like to buy the songs even if I can't get the I-Tunes to talk to the I-Pod. I kept getting a "cannot connect error/timed out". I then loaded Napster and it couldn't connect and timed out. I thought screw it; I've got plenty of CDs that I can't put on my I-Pod. This weekend, I tried to do a live update for my Norton's Antivirus and now its won't connect. What else won't connect? Microsoft Interet Explorer. Mozilla Firefox, however, seems to work fine (especially with the new bitchin' pimped theme.)

I google every combination of problem I have all to no avail. Finally, I call Apple. I threw myself at their mercy. I received none in return. "Will you look through the notes and see if there's a click in there somewhere that would stop this from happening?"I asked. Shakira said, "No, you must contact your own support person since this is not a I-Tunes-only problem." "But," I retort, "everything was fine before I called Apple. Before I bought this I-Pod." She apologized for not being able to help further. So finally I said, "Shakira, you sound nice and I'm sure I would like you very much, but at this point in time..I..HATE...APPLE. It has totally screwed me up." I think I actually heard her spit out her drink laughing before she hit the mute button.

So let the word carry forth to all the lands in all the blogoshere. I HATE APPLE. and if you have any idea how to get this problem fixed. Please let me know. I have Windows XP SP2. And yes, this is a direct challenge to Sara who is not named Shakira or Ramesh or Patel.

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Allahu Akbar

By the way, Allahu Akbar to our friends in the religion of peace.

I'm sure that prominent muslim cleric - What's his name? You know the one. He's always on the news denouncing beheadings and such. Oh, that's right: There isn't one! - will be on the news tonight denouncing this.

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Pre-ordination

Yes, so yesterday's post was a little silly; maybe a little unfair, but if I had died would it have ruined your day? Your morning? Nah. That's life in the blogosphere.

The one part I was uncomfortable with was writing about what my daughters would do in the future. I don't like parents imposing (transferring) their hopes and ambitions to their children. I do hope they have a happy and successful life with a minimum of pain, but with the strength to deal with any pain that does come their way.

But I do know that I - to a large extent - do predetermine their lives. I see too much of it my Daughter No. 1's school. Illigitimate kids, divorced moms and dad, dads who take off never to be seen, dads who stick around and cause even more problems.

I don't fool around on my wife, I don't drink to excess too often. I go to work every day, I pay bills twice a month, I don't beat the wife or molest the kids. I try to show love while dealing with my own screwed up head. I read them books every night. I do this because you can't tell me that this doesn't give them an infinitely better chance at that strength and happiness that I desire for them over their friends who don't remember their dads but do remember mom's last 3 live-in loser boyfriends over the last 5 years.

What got me ranting about this was this article in the Cincinnati Equirer. Sad story about a man's murdered adult daughter. The writer builds up the happy childhood of the woman:

Jim Perry's home is filled with happy pictures of his daughter growing up. A portrait of her on Santa's lap. A photo of her mugging in her Girl Scouts uniform. A snapshot of her on the observation deck of the Empire State Building.

But later we read how this woman's life did end up (besides being murdered):

Perry [the father] said he didn't report his daughter missing (whaaaat?) because she had a history of marrying men who abused her and then leaving. He believes (believes?) his daughter had been married to four different men.

I know you will think I'm mean as hell, but you can't tell me that this aggrieved father had nothing to do with his daughter's life choices that unfortunately put her in the path of a kill. I know this in my bones and won't be able to live with myself if it happens. Many are strong enough to overcome the crap mom and dad put them through, but why should they have to be that strong?

Now cut to John Mayer:

on behalf of every man
looking out for every girl
you are the god and the weight of her world

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Howard L. McEwen, RIP

Howard McEwen died peacefully in his sleep last night. A Northern Kentucky-based financier, he earned acclaim by investing the proceeds of his vast wealth into innovative and risky start-up companies whose vision and products have come to dominate the American economy. At the same time he lived simply in his beloved Bellevue, Kentucky on the now famous Anspaugh Avenue. He also funded various academic chairs and think-tanks whose work have helped to mold the way Americans think heading in the 22nd century.

Mr. McEwen's vast empire began by offering exceptional financial planning services to middle income families in the Cincinnati area. As word spread of his simple, easy to understand way of explaining the world of financial markets and how to utilize the base principals to increase family wealth, more and more clients were attracted to his practice. Althought his clients devotion to Mr. McEwen has at times been called "cultish," it is noted on his companies website that none have ever complained ...nor ended up in poverty.

He is survived by his wife Alicia, namsake of the Nemetiz class Aircraft Carrier U.S.S. Ali Ann for her devotion to American military preparedness. Ms. McEwen first gained the nation's attention during her Ambassadorship to the former United Nations. It was she who gave the order to have the building evacuated after seeing a mouse and then leveling it - the scrap metal of which was used to build several Bolton-class tanks that have kept far more piece than that former silly organization. The late Mr. McEwen is said of have leapt for joy 20 feet into the air from his lunar hangout known to the shuttle-set as "The Mc-bar-b-quen Pit"

Surviving children include Dagny McEwen the pultizer prize winning writer for art and equine stories whose beauty and wit yet impossibly high standards is said to have inspired the suicide of 23 men when their affections were rebuffed and Harper McEwen, currently an ex-patriate under indictment for instigating a coup d'etat in the African country of Zairbawbe where she installed herself "Queen for Life."

Writing your obit is suppose to give you some perspective.

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Is the Pope Catholic?

That's what my mom would say instead of "Does a bear crap in the woods?" Apparently the answer is lost on all of media. I was going to comment on this, but like so many other times, someone says it better. Here's a bit o' Lileks:

I’m still astonished that some can see a conservative elevated to the papacy and think: a man of tradition? As Pope? How could this be? As if there this was some golden moment that would usher in the age of married priests who shuttle between blessing third-trimester abortions and giving last rites to someone who’s about to have the chemical pillow put over his face. At the risk of sounding sacreligious: it’s the Catholic Church, for Christ’s sake!

And further on;

I am always amazed by people who want the church to accommodate their thoughts, their new beliefs, their precarious and ingenious rationales, instead of ripping themselves from the bosom and seeking a congregation that doesn't make them feel like a heretic banging thier head on Filarete's doors.

Me? When it comes right down to it, I don't care. But Benedict v.16 does seem to piss off the right people and that's usually a good litmus test of who I like.

I do have an interest, though. My town is Catholic right down to it's 7 Sacraments. Daughter No. 1 is in Catholic second grade. Daughter No. 2 will follow. Will this new Pope affect her? Will they call her out as a Lutheran heretic? No. The fathers, sisters and teachers are just trying to get by.

I think they know the deal. It's this: I don't like welfare - sorry - public schools. (I'm a conservative and as such it would be pretty hypocritical of me to send my kids to school on the dole - that's what it really is don't, you know. Nice 80+-year old Mrs. Roell next door's property taxes are pretty high because she's helping to educate the kids of the stoner down the street)

Back to the deal: The deal is that they give my kid an education - a nice one - for a few grand a year. The cost is subsidized by the Church. In return, they get a crack at her eternal soul. If they do a good job and she stays in town, she'll probably end up marrying a Catholic boy and convert and know her rosary (she has three hanging from her bed post now), and her sacraments, etc. If she moves away, she might find solace in the arms of the Catholic Church. I was raised Baptist and Country Club Christ and I don't care. Hell, I'll send her to the local Hebrew school if it's better and I can afford it.

At least she'll be educated.

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I-Pod Nation

Thanks to all those who endured my tax-payer induced rage and gave me the "Happy Birthdays". 35 isn't sooo bad.

I did buy myself an I-Pod shuffle on Saturday. I got the baby I-Pod because 1) I don't really know if I'll use this thing, 2) things tend to get lost with 2 kids around, 3) the larger ones had too much stuff for me to fiddle with. I don't need to fiddle. I need to pass the time on the eliptical machine.

The decision was just the beginning of my I-Pod story. I took the cute little thing home and installed the software and encountered my first error message. Well, that's to be expected. Isn't it. These are complicated products.

This exactly describes my problem. I went to the Apple support site and spent about 7 hours the night of my birthday doing and re-doing the tech instructions all to no avail. Back to Best Buy to test the I-Pod itself. "AAAh, this fixes it", they said. Back home, it doesn't work. Take computer tower and I-Pod to Best Buy. 1 hour and 45 minutes later their Geek Squad, they still can't get the computer to talk to the I-Pod. (In fact, there general attitude is this is what I deserve for buying a shuffle) They throw up there hands and hand me Apple's support number. There's an Apple support number?

Sunday night I call tech support. 3 hours later I get to a product specialist. She starts having me do the same thing I've been doing for the past 24 hours. Finally, she asked me find out about a ShellInstall error and call her right back. I do so about 20 minutes later - they are closed.

I call again on Monday night and spend about 45 minutes with a product specialist. End result. Go buy an Apple, Austin suggests. If you don't want to do that, back up my data and reinstall Windows XP. First off, that is so above my head I don't even want to think about it. Second off, this is for a $100 toy. Bugger off, Apple. (BTW: Call me a racists, but when I call a tech line I want a Ramesh or a Patel or a Gupta - not an Austin or a Kristi. I can't take tech advice from an Austin or a Kristi.)

That's when I learn the wonders of Google. If I ever give up worshiping Jesus, I'll worship Google. Blessed be thy algorythms. Thy market share come, thy stock price rise never be done. I typed in "Using Ipod without Using I-tunes" and it led me to this site and 20 minutes later I have music off of one of my CD's and on my I-Pod.

All Praise Google. Now let's eat fajitas!

Update: I almost forgot - I'm trying to eat better due to the 35 deal, but yesterday I received a birthday present from a wholesaler (i.e. a guy trying to get me to sell his stuff to my clients) a package of the finest products from Ghirardelli. Eating better was delayed one day. It's all gone now.

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Happy Birthday to Me!

35 today. Half way to 70. I think I'm doing ok. I've done alot in 35 years and those first 5 or so were mostly wasted.

Anger over taxes is gone. Watched Kiss Me Kate with Daughter #2 while The Divine and Daughter #1 sleep in this morning. Now I must take D2 to dance class, a birthday party, then go buy myself an I-Pod Shuffle at the Apple Store with in-law's birthday money (thanks).

Enjoy your weekend.

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Tax Night

The Divine Mrs. M. and I went to the gym. We did an hour of arm and chest free weights. It's 9:30. We just double checked to make sure we have enough in our accounts and now we are going to drive to the downtown post office and drop off our payment.

I know it's irresponsibly to pay this late. Our taxes were done two weeks ago, but as The Divine Mrs. M. said, "F&^K 'em!"

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Tax Day

I'm pissed off, wondering how the f&^k I'll ever get ahead and then I have to write a few grand to the Internal Revenue Service today.

Being a good student of von Mises, Hayek, the Friedmans, I'll know that the funds will at best be wasted and at worst be used against me.

No comments will be accepted regarding this post. thepureinvestor.blogspot.com has instituted martial law. Anyone telling me what I'm paying in taxes is ok or that I should pay more (damn you to hell!) shall be summarily shot. Failing that, go read The Road to Serfdom. If you went to publik skools, maybe you can make it through this.

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One Mean Mother

OK, so I'm no bullfighter. But at least my mother never told me I should have been aborted.

That's what one Wilder couple is telling their kid here in Kentucky. Story here.

You can't tell me that we are not embracing a culture of death when a couple in Kentucky start using the phrase "Wrongful Birth."

The Divine Mrs. M. has put in alot of time with the mentally disabled and knows the usefulness and joy that they can experience and provide. When Alicia was pregs with our daughters, we declined some of the tests simply because it wouldn't have made a difference. We couldn't abort the kid just because he might have been retarded. It would have been rough raising the kid, but we didn't even think that aborting was a choice. It seemed a bit, forgive the phrase, Hitlerian. Terminating the genetic undesireables. At what point do we start aborting the blind or deaf or bi-polar or ugly or homosexual or anything else that would make a child potentially inconvenient?

Furthermore, just as John Edward acted the Pied Piper and drove out the obstetricians from North Carolina and spiked the rate of C-sections in this country, this suit will have that legendary chilling effect on performing these genetic abnormality tests. The test that The Divine Mrs. M decided to do were the ones where early detection could help by doing various drug therapies. Let's say goodbye to those. They're about to be litigated away.

Finally, don't get the idea that these are some backwoods Kentucky couple from the hollow. Wilder isn't so much a city as a collection of housing developments for attorneys, physicians, and corporate middle-managers. Here's a map from Bellevue (No, the Ohio is not that blue). Here's the house next door to these Parents of the Year. They go for $550-$600k. Not bad. They seem to be doing ok (sorry, that was the class warrior coming out in me).

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I'm Not a Bull-fighter, Yet

In the summer of 1986, my father, grandfather and I drove to the family lake in Ontario. I was 16 and as usual at that point, was hiding in the back of my dad's Camaro reading a book and trying to ignore everyone and everything. We were to be at the lake for a week. I took all Hemingway. An Ernie-palooza. Early in The Sun Also Rises, I came across this quote from one of the characters,

"Nobody ever lives their life all the way up except bull-fighters."

I compared the life of a bull-fighter to the two guys in the front seat and my own and resolved to be a bull-fighter (metaphorically speaking, of course).

Where am I now? I'm not a bull-fighter. I'm a guy whose stomach churns with worry. I worry about taxes and bills, getting the kids teeth fixed, where my next client is coming from. I hear a creak in the floor and figure the foundation must be crumbling. To often, I'm compelled by fear and motivated by anxiety.

I am not a bull-fighter.

Late one night last week I picked up The Sun Also Rises for the first time in a long time. I had forgotten about that quote. It hit me between the eyes. I'm not a bull-fighter. I'm not much of a risk-taker. I'm too much of a fretter.

How do I fix this?

Maybe it's time to step into the ring and face the bull?

God, that bull looks big.

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Doctor Update

I got a call from the office at 3:15. I don't have AIDs - Yeah! What I do have is extremely low cholesteral (the good kind).

Total is 132
HDL is 17
LDL is 88
Triglycerides are 134

By what I can tell via webmd, the HDL needs to be higher and the doctor wants me to go pick up some Niaspan. I'm already on high blood pressure medicine. Right now I'm leaning towards changing eating habits to raise my HDL and lose weight which might even eliminate the need for my blood pressure meds. I do eat alot of high carbohydrate foods so maybe lowering that will shed the pounds?

BTW, there was no mention of the fax from earlier.

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Doctor, Doctor, Give Me The News!

If I don't hear from my doctor's office by 11:00 am EST this morning, the following will be faxed to his office. Let's see how long it takes to get a response.

Hello,

I hope you are having a nice day.

I am writing trying to find out when you guys will get your act together. Should I go to another practice?

Here’s my concern:

I was asked at my last blood pressure check-in to have blood work done at the following one. Dr. Middendorf wanted to make sure my cholesterol was in good order. Six months pass and I call to see when a phlebotomist will be there in the morning so I don’t have to fast too long. The scheduler told me, “Uh, I don’t know. I don’t know if we have one. I think she quit. Maybe you should call back next week?” I called back the following week and received the same answer. Since my prescription needed refilling I went ahead and made the appointment figuring I would ask at the appointment how I go about getting my blood work done.

I have this appointment on April 6^th and luckily there’s someone there to do the blood draw (she was very nice).

On Friday, April 8th at approximately 5:00 pm my wife calls me at my office saying your office left a message saying you needed me to call about my blood-work. Your message was left at 4:55 pm. Being a loving wife, she was very concerned so I called your office immediately and discovered that the person who called (Jennifer, I believe) is gone for the day and no one there can help me. Was there a problem with the test? Do I have dangerously high cholesterol? Do I have some hematological deficiency that will cause my teeth to fall out? Do I have AIDs? I don’t know. I figure I will leave a message, worry the weekend away, and I’ll get a call back on Monday.

No call back on Monday. I leave two messages throughout the day. On the second call back a lady is very nice and says that she will handle this for me right away, but then calls back to say she can’t find my file. Can she call back tomorrow?

I told her sure. I’m a pretty calm guy plus I don’t want my blood pressure to go up too much or I’ll have to double down on the Cardia, but it would be nice if you guys got your act together and let me know what you need. If you don’t plan on getting your act together, let me know so I can explore other opportunities in medical care.

Patiently Waiting Any Response Whatsoever,

Howard McEwen, CFA

Update: As of 2:00 pm - no response.

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The BIG News

It's at least BIG for me.

First off, this site will soon have a new home. At Christmas time I was given the gift of my very own domain name by a person I don't know in a city I've never been to whose political views are contrary to my own. Only in the blogosphere. Currently M.I.A. Somewhatsilent Sara gave me thepureinvestor.com. I've finally found a host and set it up and installed WordPress, but I will take some time to transfer my blogger entries over because....

The Divine Mrs. M and I will be launching a new venture. It is called Signature Communication. That site is being build on an as-I-have-time basis. It's a new business for me. While I shall never abandon my investment clients, I do like to write and I do like to make money so this was the natural conclusion. I sort of fell into writing my book and then I sort of fell into freelance journalism so now I'm falling head-over-ass into copywriting and editing for business and individuals. Have an important e-mail or report to turn in at work? Run it by us. Want to place an ad in the paper, but haven't a clue where to start? Give us a call. Want to send your paramour some erotic poetry? We'll give it a shot. There once was an old man from nantucket.....

In my capacity of branch manager for a national broker-dealer I get to see lots of letters and advertising to clients written by investment advisors. The general rule of thumb is that they suck. Oftentimes, it's embarrasing. But they blithly keep on sending this crap out to their clients who have to be wondering "I'm paying this functional illiterate how much?" This is where I come in. We will be having a slow launch. We have some general ideas of how we want to proceed but are restricted by current job and business and children. I will have to confine much of the work to weekend/late night hours so wish me luck.

Ok, that's the BIG News. Howard Out.

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Friday Miscellany

I'm all Pope'd out.

In Kentucky, someone is stealing alot of panties. It's not me. I can only imagine they were stolen for re-sale. What women out there is going to buy panties that "fell off a truck." What else could a guy (you know it's a guy) do with 250 pair of panties. Oh, wait. Nevermind.

Baseball's opening day was this week. At Daughter #1's school, they stopped listened to the first few innings on the radio. When the Red's hit an early home run, the teach threw open the windows so the kids could listen to the fireworks from the stadium. Cool kid memory. Later on, Ryan Freel got all liquored up and arrested here in Bellevue. This is my town Ryan. We have our own problems. The incident occurred here. My house is just off to the east of where the map ends. Poor Ryan apologzied and now he's being told he's great for how he has handled this. Sorry. He was drunk and driving through my neighborhood. Die, rich boy, die!

Ok, that's it. I need a good weekend. Things have been getting dark for me lately. A sunny weekend is well deserved. If all goes well there will be BIG ANNOUNCEMENTS next week and BIG NEWS made on the pure investor's site.

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Delay-ed Bergers

Ok, so before this happened I thought a Sandy Berger was something I had to eat when I had too much to drink at the beach.

That's the jokes folks!

Anyway, something about this let-Sandy-Berger-0ff decision doesn't smell right. A guy who should know better takes documents from the National Archives while researching his part for a Congressional commission in the biggest tradgedy for our country since Pearl Harbor. He then does a head slap (how do I get them back) and decides to shred them. He's this sloppy and dumb? Really?

Now my beloved Wall Street Journal editorial page is defending the decision.

Just to be bipartisan. I think it's time to torch Tom DeLay. I don't like giving in when the hounds are after you, but sometimes you gotta take one for the team (to use a corporate-you're-about-to-be-screwed metaphor). Like so often, I think Mr. DeLay's main sin is that of class. While discussing Bush, VDH goes into the class thing a bit here.

My main gripe with DeLay as the Speaker for that matter are a matter of style. They have none. Don't these Republican leaders look terrible? Not ugly, but it looks like they don't try. I cannot understand why someone would strive to reach the pinnacle of world political power and still look like an exterminator from Texas (see here scroll to bottom right, ahhh) or a teacher from Illinois (heart attack?).

Isn't there someone in Washington to give these guys a good haircut, teach them to wear a suit, and wear contacts. Maybe this is shallow, but I think not dressing the part belies a certain arrogance. By dressing "down" they don't look serious on tv and thereby hand their enemies a club. People haven't the time to study what's going on, they think, "he looks bad so chances are he is"

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Blog Buddies

Sara had a nice post over at her site asking what to call people she's familiar with in the blogosphere. I thought it tied in with my post regarding friends in adulthood. My philosophy: "I don't have friends. I have a wife and assholes I work with."

People whose blog I read and who read my blog: I call them blog buddies. That's where most of you who are reading this are bookmarked on my browser - the Blog Buddies tab.

You're not acquiantances because I think I know you better than that. You guys have put up some forthright stuff about childhood abuse and sex lives. I've heard about stints in the netherworld of unemployment and other frustrations. I personally don't tell acquiantances crazier political thoughts that I riff on here. They'd think I was a nut.

But you guys still aren't friends. I'd be more than happy to met at the airport bar the next time any of you guys have a layover in Cincinnati, but I'd also be afraid of what we'd have to talk about after the first 10 minutes. And you still have how many hours til your flight to Dallas? Also, don't friends require more? Maybe a test of the relationship? Maybe a heightened responsibility that just isn't available via blog?

Honestly, when I see one of my favorite bloggers going into a topic I know I'm bored with - I move on. Click, Gone! If a friend stops by, you have to put up with them eating your food, switching the tv channel, and eating up your time. Blogging? I just move on. There's no feigning of committment here.

Also, I hit-and-run. I have my browser open at work and if I'm making a call and on hold I hit this site and that blog to just check if there's something new. I'm sure I look like an on-line stalker to some of your haloscans, but I'm not. Sorry if I throw your site counter off. I'm just waiting for someone to take me off of hold. You can't kick in a friend's door, see if there's something fun going on and - if not - get the hell out. That's effectively what I do with my blog buddies.

Maybe there's a new word to be discovered out there. The blogosphere may be creating new relationships and opening new outlooks. You aren't my acquintances, you aren't my friends....you're my blog buddies.

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High Speed

I've joined the 21st century. I now have high-speed at home!

First website browsed? Something to make me feel better about myself.

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REPUBLICANISM SHOWN TO BE GENETIC IN ORIGIN

A friend sent me the following e-mail. I know she sent as a joke and a poke at me. Everyone enjoys a little goosing now and then. I don't know what she is, but she knows that I lean right.

REPUBLICANISM SHOWN TO BE GENETIC IN ORIGIN

The discovery that affiliation with the Republican Party is genetically determined was announced by scientists in the current issue of the journal NURTURE, causing uproar among traditionalists who believe it is a chosen lifestyle. Reports of the gene coding for political conservatism, discovered after a decades-long study of quintuplets in Orange County, CA, has sent shock waves through the medical, political, and golfing communities. Psychologists
and psychoanalysts have long believed that Republicans' unnatural disregard for the poor and frequently unconstitutional tendencies resulted from dysfunctional family dynamics -- a remarkably high percentage of Republicans do have authoritarian domineering fathers and emotionally distant mothers who didn't teach them how to be kind and gentle. Biologists have long suspected that conservatism is inherited. "After all," said one author of the NURTURE article, "It's quite common for a Republican to have a brother or sister who is a Republican."

The finding has been greeted with relief by Parents and Friends of Republicans (PFREP), who sometimes blame themselves for the political views of otherwise lovable children, family, and unindicted co-conspirators.

One mother, a longtime Democrat, wept and clapped her hands in ecstasy on hearing of the findings. "I just knew it was genetic," she said, seated with her two sons, both avowed Republicans. "My boys would never freely choose that lifestyle!" When asked what the Republican lifestyle was, she said, "You can just tell watching their conventions in Houston and San Diego on TV: the flaming xenophobia, flamboyant demagogy, disdain for anyone not rich, you know." Both sons had suspected their Republicanism from an early age but did not confirm it until they were in college, when they became convinced it wasn't just a phase they were going through. The NURTURE article offered no response to the suggestion that the high incidence of Republicanism among siblings could result from their sharing not only genes but also psychological and emotional attitude as products of the same parents and family dynamics. A remaining mystery is why many Democrats admit to having voted Republican at least once -- or often dream or fantasize about doing so. Polls show that three out of five adult Democrats have had a Republican experience, although most outgrow teenage experimentation with Republicanism.

Some Republicans hail the findings as a step toward eliminating conservophobia. They argue that since Republicans didn't "choose" their lifestyle any more than someone "chooses" to have a ski-jump nose, they shouldn't be denied civil rights which other minorities enjoy. If conservatism is not the result of stinginess or orneriness (typical stereotypes attributed to
Republicans) but is something Republicans can't help, there's no reason why society shouldn't tolerate Republicans in the military or even high elected office -- provided they don't flaunt their political beliefs. For many Americans, the discovery opens a window on a different future. In a few years, gene therapy might eradicate Republicanism altogether. But should they be allowed to marry?

What got me going about this e-mail is that it came right after the last post about physical attacks on conservatives (and Pat Buchanan).

Just a couple of quick notes: I've been told I'm hard-hearted, mean-spirited, a Nazi, etc before, but I'm not. Really. I don't have anything against poor people. I'd like them to become wealthy people. The facts bear out that this usually happens. As well as wealthy people becoming poor people. The phrase "shirt-sleeves-to-shirt-sleeves in 3-generations" is usually true. But my questioning the failure of 60+ years of government spending on a war of poverty with no results is maybe hurting the poor and maybe we should try something different is construed as evil.

That being said, if the Klan wanted to hurt the poor and minorities, they could never have done any better than Lyndon Johnson's Great Society. I drive through the end result of that every day. It's not nice. David Duke & Bull Connor would have signed up for that.

The ultimate proof I think is Charles Murray's (devil) trendline test:

His solutions, as he outlines them here, have a logical appeal if not an ideological one. Some he defends by exposing them to what he calls "the trendline test." He challenges his readers to "plot the proportion of Americans below the official poverty line from World War II (scholars have worked out the figures back that far) to the present, then superimpose on that graph the amount of money that government has spent trying to help the poor."

Do the same thing with the relevant figures that reflect progress in education, health care, safety, income or "deaths per 100 million vehicle miles traveled" on the nation's highways. In every case, he insists, the greatest improvement occurred before the government got involved with some program. For example, "the good effects of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 were bumps on top of a much larger, more powerful and healthier trend that was occurring in civil society and would have continued if the government had done nothing.")

Another thing that I think all people should beware of is the genetic aspects of homosexuality. If being a homosexual is genetic, then dread the day when the gay gene is found. A pre-natal homosexual holocaust would ensue. I predict that the homosexuality community will then become very pro-life.

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The Intolerance of the Right

I am honestly a little tired of being a conservative and thus being labeled a National Socialist (NAZI).

I have never understood it. I'm for limited government - taking power away from the Feds in all it's forms (less taxes, less regulation, less trade restrictions). Yet, I am referred to as equivalent to one of the more malevolent forces of the past century (besides the other Socialists). I told I trample free speech and all that also. When the left complains about the right trampling free speech it usually is because someone of the right questioned some lefty's government funding.

Why am I a little pissy?

Stories like these: Pat Buchanan (who I don't think is a conservative, but most think he is) gets attacked with salad dressing (ok, that's kind of funny). Bill Kristol (who is a conservative - the hard way) is hit with a pie. Our beloved Ann got one late last year. I know there are more I could google, but I have to work.

From the stories, each handled the incident with grace and decorum. But it won't be long before these pies turn to bullets. Then we are in trouble. Maybe there are examples of some YAFfers tossing a Boston creme at some left. If so let me know. But I don't think so. For conservatives, it's just not done. Sortof like marching in the streets (until lately) - just not done. Besides we have jobs. And I also don't think there's many examples because if Al Franken had a cupcake tossed at him, I'm sure we would have had a Nightline on "The Chilling Effect of Political Discourse" but since Pat, Bill, and Ann are on the right, well...(the media thinks) they kind of deserve it.

BTW: I get high-speed on Monday.

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