Trades - April 30th, 2009

Increased FAZ position today by (another) 25%. Bought at 7.67 this morning.

Mark Cuban On Blogs, Etc.

All of this I essentially knew, but Mark Cuban summed it up succinctly:

In the beginning , blogs were the easiest way to communicate an opinion. Then as with now, writing a blog doesn’t mean that anyone would take the time to read it, but sometimes people did.

Blogging today, is not the same as it was 5 years ago. In the early days of blogging, it served as much as mini social networks as a publishing tool. Many used blogs as a way to communicate with family and friends. I don’t see that as the case any longer. Social Networks have become the primary means of keeping in touch with those close to you. Friendster for a minute, then Myspace and now Facebook are the primary means for people to keep each other up to date. Pictures and privacy have made the biggest difference. Facebook its a quick and easy way to share pictures, videos and updates only among those people you want to see them. It has become a unique utility, which for many people eliminated the need to blog.

Beyond personal communications, blogs have also been used as a broadcast medium by public figures, consultants and corporate executives. Blogs have been the most expedient means to share a point of view, a quick thought , factual reporting and whatever else someone else wants to share to a potentially unlimited audience. RSS feeds have advanced so that it has become incredibly easy for people to subscribe to blogs and quickly determine from the RSS headline or full feed whether or not they want to commit to reading the full post. However that is changing as well.

Enter Twitter. Twitter has quickly changed the nature of "broadcast texting". While Blogs have been a great way to offer complete stories, Twitter, with its 140 character limit, by its nature is the best suited of options for short bursts of content. The size constraint makes “tweets” far less intrusive and easy to receive and read on a phone. Twitter works for what it is designed to do, however its future is not a slam dunk.
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Five years ago blogging was a big step. Now, the internet has become such a stable home and mobile platform for text and graphics, we are going to see a rush of derivative products that we will strain to keep up with, but benefit from as we integrate them

Off and on I toy with the notion of adding MySpace and Facebook dimensions to this blog but invariably decide not to. Presently, a *blog* more than fulfills all of my needs.

As one who's tried, quite unsuccessfully, to get many others to write and/or contribute to blogs, I say from experience that social networking is just *dumbed down* blogging. Facebook and Myspace are to the web what cavity-backed clubs were to the game of golf - open doors for the unskilled, lazy masses.

And who has time to write a blog anyway?

It's a whole lot easier to simply respond to the ramblings of others than it is to collect and articulate one's own thoughts. Not to mention, it's also a whole lot safer for one's own intellectual ego!

I remember at *math camp* some 18 years ago, at the end of the three week session, the director lectured us *geniuses*:

DrGeorge - Now you're all tremendous problem solvers....you're the best around at that....but how many of you know anything about *problem posing*?

I, and I am sure most of the other, much bigger geeks, were stupefied over this line of inquiry. While we learned how to rapidly solve all of the questions from myriad competitions over the last 20 years or so, we never once thought about where these problems originated from. Someone had to *pose* them, right? And a whole lot of deep thought must have gone into framing simple, original questions that invited attainable and elegant solutions.

Sunday night I got into bed with a sheet of paper on my nightstand. In no time at all I had 21 *blog ideas* scribbled down.

Not long ago, it would have taken me hours to brainstorm so efficiently - but over four years of blogging, of PRODUCING CONTENT, my creativity muscles have been found, awakened, and exercised.

It's in all of us. We've just been socialized to passively consume lessons, entertainment, news, and opinions.

As bad as our outsourcing of grunt work (cleaning, cooking, etc.) is, the outsourcing of out mind work has been so much more destructive.

I KNOW that I've gotten many of my readers to, if not venture down the homeschooling route, at least to give it and education in general serious consideration.

But I've been far less successful at inspiring others to write or even contribute to blogs. And that's a darn shame.

Because that's where it all started. I never even heard of homeschooling until my wanderblogging led me to an essay by John Taylor Gatto nearly three years ago.



Y'all need to break free and become the lead actor in your own play.

Dumb Kid Versus Wild

Read the follow-up to Another Massachusetts Moron and watch the video news coverage here.

He sank several times into mountain runoff that was hidden beneath waist-deep snow.

"The runoff was about 2 1/2 feet deep and probably running 30 mph," he said. "The guides confirmed I could have gotten sucked in if I had fallen all the way in, and I would have been gone."

Saturday and Sunday nights, Mason crawled beneath snow-covered pine trees and hunkered down in a bivvy sack, a waterproof sleeping bag shell. To keep warm, he started fires with a hand sanitzer gel.

"You can put it right on what you are burning, and even on the snow you can make a fire," he said. "I was able to make a fire just because I ripped down some big evergreen branches."

Three feet of snow sounded pretty dangerous to me....but on top of semi-frozen rapids??? Holy poop!

If the *Vesus Wild* reference is lost on you...

Read my posts - Man Versus Wild and Man Verus Wild Versus Captious Fools.

Chauvinistic Phrenology

phre⋅nol⋅o⋅gy  [fri-nol-uh-jee, fre-]
–noun a psychological theory or analytical method based on the belief that certain mental faculties and character traits are indicated by the configurations of the skull.

Would you date this girl? Marry this girl? Would you be happy if your brother married this young lady?

....And what would your pasty 90 year old grandmother think?!?!?!

How much can one possibly, and reasonably, infer from a mere picture.

A *friend* of mine just sent me the above pic of his current squeeze. He'd been *absent* for a while and I just knew there was a love interest to blame. Like a normal guy, I didn't ask her name, where she was from, what she was like, or any other such TRIVIAL information.

I asked for a picture.

You see, real men don't talk about serious relationships with their buddies. No, we don't, ever.

I have a very, very good friend who was dating a particular broad for three years; and they even got engaged (which fell through). Yet although I saw him regularly and we lived within a couple hours drive of each other, I never once met the chick. And we never discussed the issue either. This is how real men roll. (Taylor take special note.)

Now if someone snags a shapely floozy at the bar....that'll certainly be roundly discussed.

But the serious ones, well, how can dudes comfortably talk about impending death??? Because that's what a superseding female presents to non-homosexual male friendship.

So here she is again:



Nice teeth, heh?

The jewelry says she ain't Muslim (unless she's spying).

Obviously the body type has to be imagined/inferred but we have plenty to work with here.

Her hair is nicely kempt; eyebrows outstanding; facially she's quite comely. This is rather important over the long haul which indiscriminately ravages female bods.

Judging by the softness of her neck, she doesn't scream *athletic*; which would be fine for me. In my book, the worst looking females are hard, team athletes - think softball and basketball. Ballet and yoga would be ideal, but above all, there must be palpable femininity.

Her ethnicity is a mystery to me so I won't even guess. Body hair might be a potential concern for some of you illiberal types.

How old is she? A snorer? Any odors? Does she have a plethora of female friends? What does her mother look like and exactly how crazy is she???? Because that's what this young lady will turn into.

Can she cook and weave? Are her hips *sturdy*....for spitting out babies?

(By the way, my wife's uncle once said that to one of her college friends. Imagine being a 20 year old girl and having some 'old coot' tell you your hips were *sturdy*. He meant it as a compliment. Just take a stab at how she took it.)

Whom did she vote for? Can she dance? I believe a woman who can't dance is also a red flag in these matters.

The factual answers to these questions....I could give two sh*ts about. There'll be another chick in a few months for sure. And hopefully I'll get another picture from which we can discuss upticks and downticks....in the fertile ground of my imagination.

By the way, my request for a picture was only half-serious. Just the fact that he sent one has dire implications in itself.

Totally Racist News Coverage!

Not Trading Update - April 28th, 2009

Haven't done anything in a while - except piss away some money on expiration day puts in GE.

So I'm still riding out massive losses in my shorts, particularly FAZ and SRS.

Though until today, I hadn't looked at the stock market in six full days - seriously. It was tough to *not notice* a quote given as much time I spend at the computer but I did quite well sheltering myself from harsh reality.

Regardless, I pretty much sensed that I was still getting squeezed good. Most media outlets only mention the markets when they are plummeting - and I caught wind of nothing.

One idea I have been toying with, however, is dumping my TBT, (leveraged short long-term Treasury) position and adding but more to the short financials and short REIT blackholes.

I figure if the long bond tanks, that'll finally push pretenders like BAC, WFC, JPM, SPG, etc. over the edge and back to reality.

But what the heck do I know?

Note that in the pre-spin of so-called bank stress tests:

People close to the situation said both Citi and BofA were contesting some of the conclusions made in the stress tests. Citi executives, led by finance chief Ned Kelly, are believed to have told regulators the estimates for losses on credit cards – based on rising unemployment – are too high.

I have already been somewhat proven correct.

I recently asserted in My Own Stress Test that this sham would be focused on small beer, like *unemployment* instead of mortgage rates.

Watch your Treasuries; watch your TBT going forward.

Another Massachusetts Moron

Mason left the Appalachian Mountain Club's Pinkham Notch Visitor Center near Gorham at about 8:30 a.m. Saturday after telling staff there that he planned to hike 17 miles in one day along the Appalachian Trail, over the summits of Mount Washington and Mount Madison.

link

17 miles in one day over two mountains?

The article also said at one point he had to wade through *3 feet of snow*.

If it wasn't unseasonably warm (90 in Boston today, 85 or so on Saturday and Sunday), mightn't this dumb kid be dead?

Maybe he knew the forecast going in?

Whatever....I just don't see the risk/reward for this crap. Can't he tote a GPS device or a cell phone or something? Or would that be considered *cheating*?

It's one thing to risk *money*, quite another to risk *life and limb*.

See also - Unconscious Morons.

Socialization - Lesson 1

I submit that amongst humans:

Lemma - You don't want to be anybody's ONLY FRIEND.

These relationships never end well. A *lack of friends* always implies that something is awry - and it's only a matter of time before discovery.

Also along these lines:

Lemma - Beware of the female that has no female friends.

All of us neanderthals can appreciate the chick who's into football, drinking beer, poker, farting, around whom we generally don't have to modify our behavior...

BUT, as far as longer term, relationshippy stuff goes, in my experience a woman who can't get along with her catty gender-mates always turns out to be a bit of a whack-a-doo.

Since mass government schooling has anti-socialized most of y'all, some irreparably, I've taken it upon myself to commence socialization lessons - even if I have....like no friends myself!

But seriously, this is no joke. I could teach my kids all about history, trigonometry, and entrepreneurialism.....but if they end up smitten and married to the wrong people, their lives will surely be ruined. We've all seen it too many times, right?

Who amongst y'all has ever researched *socialization*? Or, more to the point, studied the course of your own social lives?

When it's all said and done, with whom we chose to associate with will have played a major role in our life's legacy on this overheated planet.

This facet of our lives most certainly merits serious contemplation and analysis.

Boston Globe - A New Nadir

It may have happened to me before SOMEWHERE on the web, SOMETIME in the past 4 years of my very active (and feisty!) blogging career, but right now I simply can't remember an instance. Today the Boston Globe *censored* my pretty darn innocent comments on a stupid article - that probably no one even read - on McMansions.

Mostly, my comments were on-topic. The one thing I said that may have been deemed *defamatory* as per their *comments policy* was this:

This article is propagandistic bunk. When was the last time the Globe gave a platform to a born-again Christian? To a homeschooling parent? Or to a libertarian?

What diversity?

They can't even stomach that?

The other possibility is that something they found on my blog may have flagged me for muzzling.

I can't blame them. Even though I've seen scores of far more *defamatory* comments under their articles, if I were them, I'd CENSOR me as well.

Newspaper Fossils

Last Friday my wife brought PrincessC-Nut into work. That was one of my daughter's rewards for potty training graduation.

Mrs. C-Nut informed me that on the train ride in, our 2.83 year old daughter pointed to a queer 'old coot' on the train reading a newspaper and asked:

What's that?

Now an extended answer to that question might have mentioned: a *dejected wage slave*, an *empty skull* who's researching *what he's supposed to think*, or a calcified *creature of habit*.

But my daughter was really just curious about what the large paper object was.

I do consider my daughter's ignorance of newspapers a victory of parenting. My father used to tote his local agitprop all the way out to my house but I forbade him from taking it out of his car. Seriously. The idea that my own father, an unwitting statist supporter, PAID everyday an organization to DEFORM his mind and SUPPRESS his life politically and economically remains tough for this son of his to swallow.

And man, have newspapers gotten a pass on *tree killing* over the years or what?

So, in conclusion, if your little ones grow up aware of newspapers....that could explain while they'll lag mine on both standardized and non-standardized tests.

I've Broken Through!

I've just received word that someone we know is going to name their son after me!

Well, I'm not 100% sure that I was the inspiration, but they do know me and they are still going with my baptized name for their newborn. And that's the first instance out of many, many possibilities.

My original name is very common; it's biblical for crying out loud. Yet, I must have ruined the name in the minds of everyone I've come into contact with because I wasn't even getting *middle name* consideration.

How many baby names did you and your spouse irrationally cross-off because of an insufferable acquaintance?

Now just think, how many others have utilized your own name. Count'em up and ponder the likelihood that you may have done unto others what you have done to them!

Meanwhile, there's probably a whole preschool army out there of Kobe's, Lebron's, and Wentworth's.

Been Beach Bumming

The past two days have been unseasonably warm so I have been donning my banana hammock and basking in the sun at the local beach. They are forecasting 89 degrees for tomorrow so I'll be there again with yet another six-pack of wine coolers.

Now, regardless of this recent burst of sunshine, this Spring has outright sucked. Out of the first 40 days, there might have been 2 or 3 nice ones. If it was warm....it invariably rained. If it was sunny....we got freezing winds. Typical Massachusetts weather!

Here's one beach sub-population that merits Marginalization:

How about those knuckleheads who just have to face the sun at all times? I can't stand going to the beach and seeing half of the people with their backs to the ocean. If they want to sit and face a *parking lot*, then why not just lay out in their back yard?

Pagan sun-worshippers....that's what they are.

And the delicious irony is that these Morons in love with *having color*, in love with their skin will spend their outgoing years as wrinkled as a prune!



I don't know how true this is, but I once heard that the ONLY THING that causes 'old coots' and 'old bags' to wrinkle is the volume of sun exposure over their lifetimes.

A Useless Rally - Except For Its Bashablility

For a minute yesterday, I considered going down to Faneuil Hall to heckle the Boston Globe clowns....but I refrained.



I am originally and currently a Boston guy (much to my chagrin) and I am certainly basking in the demise of the Boston Globe....

But first and foremost, this blog's vocation is to Marginalize Morons.

So I want to highlight this asinine quote from yesterday's Boston Globe wake/rally:

"Today we’re here to talk about free speech," Totten said. "We’re also here to tell the New York Times that the Boston Globe remains in Boston and belongs in Boston. The Globe is too important to New England to ever be placed in jeopardy by the New York Times or anybody else."

Say what?

Free speech? Placed in jeopardy?

Oh man are these Globies dumb. Good riddance!

By the way, the Globe's speech hasn't been free in any respect. It's bled tens of millions of dollars....and it hasn't exactly been a fount of *intellectual diversity*.

By rights I should have gone down there and unleashed deserved vitriol - and kicked a few supine union a$$clowns. But what can I say, I'm incorrigibly derelict on *civic duty*.

See also what I wrote yesterday.

My Own Stress Test

Right now there's some sham propagated by our government where it's ostensibly *stress testing* the nation's banks - particularly the large ones - for financial integrity.

Let's put aside the silly notion that as highly regulated entities, this kind of auditing should have been going on all along by our elected officials.

Without even researching what these so-called stress tests are examining, I presume they are ignoring the most significant variable of them all - low interest rates which derive from sky-high Treasury prices. This, long-time readers know, I've been saying for a while now. And note that EVEN WITH nominally low mortgage rates, housing is still spiraling down the toilet!

I submit that if the Treasury market dumps, and mortgage rates scream past 7% and 8%, that all these banks will be roasted by their mortgage books - no matter what the *employment rate* - no matter what the level of *reserves* - no matter what the current *spread margin*.

So I just don't get the mad rush today for banks like Wells Fargo and Bank of America to go hog-wild selling *refi's* and effectively expanding their mortgage books. It doesn't well matter what home prices are - whatever home A is with 5% rates, its marginal cost of ownership and therefore its market price, can arguably go down another 19% with an uptick from 5% to 7% in mortgage rates.

You see, it's been proven that the number one cause of mortgage default is actually *negative equity*. Loan type, geography, demographics,....that's almost all irrelevant. This is a point that Mr. Mortgage, Mark Hanson, has been trying for a while to drive home.

These banks think that since their current borrowing costs are near zero, that they can write 5% loans with abandon to *those with good credit*. I think they are completely out of their minds.

The fact is, if the US Government could borrow money at 3% for 10 years - as it can today - then why hasn't it been doing so all along?

Because it can't. All the clowns are mistaking an anomaly for the new and permanent baseline.

Prepare yourselves for interest rate mean-reversion, even if your banks and Big Government aren't doing so.

More On Earth Day

Above is Ira Einhorn one of the founders of Earth Day. Click here to read his interesting story.

What a holiday!

It's The Small Things In Life....

That's the screenshot of bostonhearld.com today.

And the paper version has this hilarious picture on its cover:



Just for a refresher.....the Boston Globe is dying. It's on pace to lose $85 million this year and its parent, The New York Times, has given it a deadline for $20 million in union concessions. Obviously, the Boston Herald, is basking in its snooty rival's demise.

This morning Howie Carr wrote about today's noontime *rally* to save the Boston Globe:

Globies Plan Own Wake, Call It A Rally

To all you silly-billies at the Globe - enough already with the groveling. Self-pity is not good box office. Stop weeping into your brandy Alexanders and start looking for a job - a real job.

And no, I won’t be at your "Solidarity" rally today at Faneuil Hall. But I can imagine the signs - "In Barney Frank We Trust," "Viva Fidel, Hugo y Teddy!" and of course, "Hands Off My Trust Fund."
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You think I’m kidding? Check this out from the Globe in 2003:

"If she had lived, Mary Jo Kopechne would be 62 years old. Through his tireless work as a legislator, Edward Kennedy would have brought comfort to her in her old age."

That’s not journalism, that’s hagiography, which means, lives of the saints.

Sorry Globies, but your death throes are nothing less than the popping of a festering, pus-filled boil on the gluteus maximus of Massachusetts. To quote, Oscar Wilde, "It would take a heart of stone not to laugh."

All these years, the Globe has been telling us how evil capitalism is. Now they really know. They were against corporate welfare - until now. They were for corporate democracy - except for their masters at The New York Times [NYT], where incompetent heirs filled up the newsrooms with their fellow clueless rich kids as they steered their dreary left-wing sheets right over the cliff.

While the organs of statism are in steep decline....

The damage is already done and may be irreparable.

The cheering, the gleeful schadenfreude from yours truly and the clowns at the Boston Herald, may be analogous to a touchdown dance in the fourth quarter when one's team is down 52-14.

See also - The New York Times And Its Suicide Fart.

Driving Thru

So today I pulled into the drive-thru at McDonalds. Usually I just order two Happy Meals which my kids barely touch but today I was desperate and ordered a salad, chicken sandwich, and iced tea for myself.

The bags I was handed seemed light so I inquired, "Do you have everything in here?" - and she responded in the affirmative.

Experienced in these matters, I pulled over in the parking lot and did a purchase inventory. They had completely forgotten my salad. So I went in, elbowed my way through the lunchtime line and asked for my salad. A minute later I got it and then went over to the condiment bar to scrounge for a fork which I couldn't find. Back at the counter, I had to wait some more until they handed me some utensils.

CaptiousNut - Is the dressing in here?

McDonaldsPerson - Yes. Definitely, it's under the salad.

So I went back to the car, and just for good measure I emptied out the bag. There was no dressing anywhere to be found and thus I had to barge back inside and up to the counter again (and wait another minute). Would any of y'all eat a dry salad?

I wasn't really that upset as I'm not one of those people - you know, the type that think bottom-barrel prices can be delivered with top-line service. Plus, as my original pullover implied, I've encountered this *drive-thru* issue before.

Heck I've almost seen fisticuffs in the backseat when I was a teenager in a car-full of teenagers, after McDonalds left us short a few sandwiches.

And more recently, I've endured the agony of driving a mile away from the drive-thru short one Happy Meal toy. Bear in mind, that's the ONLY REASON we go there!

The drive thru experience was sufficiently captured by Joe Pesci eleven years ago in Lethal Weapon 4. Caution - adult language.



I always wondered how Mel Gibson and Danny Glover got along off the set. One's a total moonbat and the other a total wingnut.

Joe Pesci's line at 7:12 in that clip may be one of the all-time funniest in Hollywood history.

Dinner Parties Getting More Boring

Mixed company is hard enough to bear as it stands. Religion and politics have long been off-limits - along with unwhispered *male humor*.

But now, one can't even talk about the economy or the stock market. Sure, everyone wanted to converse about (their) home prices on the way up....

However now, in the Greater Depression, it's a different story. Wage slaves and ovine, passive investors would very much like to remain in complete denial about what's going on. And this goes even for those economically literate enough to have a clue about reality. So don't you dare say anything at a dinner party like *well, I don't think the market is going to bounce back* or *job losses have really JUST BEGUN*.

Nobody wants to hear that sh*t....so just sit there quietly, stuff your face, pound that wine, and stick to approved topics like: that new restaurant in town, the weather, and kindred small talk. And be grateful you're *out* for a night!

My *dinner party* behavioral policy has come full circle, sort of.

I used to swing freely, offending everyone without even realizing it.

Then, for a couple of years I experimented with personal growth and went into total *make nice* mode.

But recently I've concluded that others' sensitivities are in fact THEIR OWN PROBLEMS - not mine. I'll walk on egg shells no longer - though my jabs these days are deliberate, targeted, and more refined than in the past.

In fact, I'm pretty darn good at what I do.

Foreclosure Flip

That's 5171 Mahogany Ridge Drive in Naples, FL.

Built in 2006, never lived in, 3,845 square feet on a rare 2.5 acre lot.

A month ago, it sold as a foreclosure for $350,000.

My real estate agent buddy down there tells me the buyer just flipped in for about $550,000. Nice scalp, huh?

Apparently the flipper hangs out at the courthouse day and night waiting for opportunities like this to fall through the cracks.

It's a dangerous game - buying a foreclosure - but there's certainly profit potential in it for those flush, intrepid souls who know what they're doing.

Who's Your Daddy?

LAST CHILD SUPPORT CHECK!!!

Today my baby girl's 18th birthday I be so glad that this be my last child support payment! Month after month, year after year, all those damn payments! So I call my baby girl, LaKeesha, to come to my house, and when she get here, I say, "Baby girl, I want you to take this check over to yo momma house and tell her this be the last check she ever be gettin' from me, and I want you to come back and tell me the 'spression on yo mama's face."

So, my baby girl take the check over to her momma. I be anxious to hear what she say, and bout the 'spression on her face. Baby girl walk through the door, I say, "Now what yo momma say 'bout that?"

She say to tell you that "you ain't my daddy" .... and watch the 'spression on yo face!

Woe Is Knee

Last year the Boston Celtics traded away their future - budding star Al Jefferson - for an aging, and overpriced Kevin Garnett ($20 million per season). I thought it was a mistake. At best the Celts, IMO, were going to have a year or two of good ball, then watch Al Jefferson play 12 great years in Minnesota.

While last year, the Green did win the title.... A couple of months ago, KG blew his knee out.

Then last week, one of Garnett's back-ups, Leon Powe blew his knee out.

And, ironically, Al Jefferson torn his ACL this winter as well.

Not long ago, no pro athletes recovered from ACL tears. Nowadays, they seemingly all make comebacks. Why is that? Well, I believe the surgery has gotten less invasive. Also, a PT in Brooklyn told me that these athletes suck down an unhealthy amount out anti-inflammatories to expedite the recovery. Who really knows?

But seldom do these gladiators come back at full strength? Remember Penny Hardaway? Or Terrell Davis?

Although I consider *sports* an over-hyped religion, it's nonetheless somewhat tragic when one of these guys essentially has their life's work pulled out from under them with a knee injury.

By the way, five years ago I had my right knee reconstructed. I went with the *graft* - I think they call it. My new ACL came from a cadaver. The doctor said *they messed up*. The sent him an ACL from a black guy who was 6 feet 7 inches or so; I'm only 5'10.5. Regardless, the orthopedic surgeon jammed the ACL in my leg and ended up stapling the *extra* ligament.

On the plus side, after my rehab, with my ebonic bionic knee I can now dunk AND dance more rhythmically....

On the weird side, for the past five years I've had an insatiable hunger for orange soda.

Earth Day Agitprop Versus Me = No Contest

So twice last week my 4.46 year old son moanfully inquired:

PrinceC-Nut - Dad, is it Earth Day yet?

The first time I played deaf. And the second time I responded:

CaptiousNut - Where did you learn about Earth Day? At school?

PrinceC-Nut - No....on TV (Nickelodeon).

No doubt many of y'all would have GULPED on that one.

But I had a great retort to Nickelodeon's agitprop.

CaptiousNut - Well, Earth Day isn't really a holiday. You won't get any gifts. No one is going to come visit you. There's no cake or candy. AND, you have clean up the entire house!

Seriously, that's what I said.

And I haven't heard a word about *Earth Day* since.

Here are a few Earth Day blasts from the past:

My Unhappy Earth Day

Happy Earth Day, You Heathen Socialists! What about Your Externalities?

And from my post Share The Earth I want to highlight this revelatory nugget:

From Socialist Party USA's 2005 Earth Day statement,

On Earth Day, concerns over capitalism's stewardship of Mother Earth or lack thereof take center stage for a day in ecological conscious circles, among left-leaning progressives and the working class. The well-being of our Mother Earth and the mere existence of our human race should lead all of us to seriously recognize what kind of "miracle," if any, we intend to bequeath to future generations if we don't organize locally, nationally and internationally to end capitalism's profit-driven exploitation of our natural environment and resources.

Join the Socialist Party USA as we work towards the restoration of the integral bond between humanity and Mother Earth and recognize that the mechanisms in capitalism that oppress and alienate humans are the same mechanisms that destroy the environment.

And one more factoid for y'all....

Earth Day was actually only invented in the 1970s. AND, it was meant to coincide with Lenin's birthday!

For that, see the tail-end of the this ancient post - April Fools.

Armando Rodriguez - A Crook

This guy down in Naples refinanced *his house* five times over the 2002-2007 period.

It looks like the home is currently *bank owned* and going to sell for a mere 80k or so (down from a peak of approximately 250k).

Note all five of the lenders: Indymac, Oak Street Mortgage (twice), People's Choice Home Loan, and Option One are all now bankrupt.

Just for kicks I did a People Search on Armando. I figured I'd wield my Spanish cuss words and mess with him a bit. I believe the word for thief is ladrón. ¿No?

But alas, Armando has now moved to 2520 Tropicana Blvd, Apt A where he's no doubt delinquent on his rent; is commiting credit card fraud; and probably urinates without lifting the toilet seat!

More Over-The-Pond Talent

Click here to see another popular performance from this season's Britain's Got Talent.

I found it a trifle corny but millions of others have busted a gut watching it.

My favorite part was the kid's retort at the beginning to judge Piers Morgan - "I'm not obliged to answer that."

Quite snappy for a 12 year old!

Clever And Effective

The USA - Frayed At The Edges

Ann Coulter's column on the so-called Tea Parties this week posited a foreboding Californian analogy:

In June 2002, the liberal American Prospect magazine called California a "laboratory" for Democratic policies, noting that "California is the only one of the nation's 10 largest states that is uniformly under Democratic control."

They said this, mind you, as if it were a good thing. In California, the article proclaimed, "the next new deal is in tryouts." As they say in show biz: "Thanks, we'll call you. Next!"

In just a few years, Democrats had turned California into a state -- or as it's now known, a "job-free zone" -- with a $41 billion deficit, a credit rating that was slashed to junk-bond status and a middle class now located in Arizona.

Democrats governed California the way Democrats always govern. They bought the votes of government workers with taxpayer-funded jobs, salaries and benefits -- and then turned around and accused the productive class of "greed" for wanting not to have their taxes raised through the roof.

Having run out of things to tax, now the California legislature is considering a tax on taxes. Seriously. The only way out now for California is a tax on Botox and steroids. Sure, the governor will protest, but it is the best solution ...

California was, in fact, a laboratory of Democratic policies. The rabbit died, so now Obama is trying it on a national level.

That's what the tea parties are about.

Now I haven't been to California that much so all I can go on is what I read - which isn't too good.

The sense that many have is that California is on many levels already a Third World nation.

Could that happen on a national level? Dear God let's hope not.

Incidentally, Californians have always represented this blog's largest readership - so the state can't be all bad.

(I did read Mexifornia three years ago. See my take here.)

Modern Slavery - Coercion-Free!

Invariably, whenever in the past few months I have mentioned to anyone that I took the family to Florida for the month of January I've had to endure:

Yeah, that's great. You gotta take advantage of that now while the kids are young....before they're in school and you can't do that.

No one fully comprehends the *slavery* of outsourcing the education of their brats. Homeschoolers can do whatever they want. Many travel extensively and on a whim. Just think what your family could do if unburdened from the *school year*.



Of course, schools are only half-responsible for modern slavery. The other taskmaster is Corporate America. Most all of us are, to a degree, wage slaves for big corporations. In fact, some of my best friends are wage slaves! (As is Mrs. C-Nut.)

Young people today need to be taught and warned about these *chains* waiting for them to voluntarily step into.

They need to visualize an ideal life based upon self-employment and self-education. Because without seeing the real possibility and full bounty of unfettered living, without a target the kids have nothing to aim for. They'll be like us, sheep following a Moron in front and leading a another fool at the rear.

Think about it. Schools co-opt your kids, your family for 180 days per year. Or, you could argue they take up 10 out of 12 calendar months. So, minimally, between 50% and 83% of the parent/child relationship has been expropriated by Big Education - an institution that was actually designed for that very purpose. Read John Taylor Gatto.

And the Corporate prison is even worse. What do most wage slaves get for time off? Three to five weeks per year? And that has to be held against all of the *overtime* - like business travel and the Blackberry tether. After we break free from the grips and fetters of Big Education, why do we so eagerly shackle up for a new master?

Because they pay us? Or is it because everyone else is doing it?

Well, hopefully my homeschooled kids will have experienced the thrill of making money and the windfall of *free time* long before the age of 22.

That way, they won't be so nonchalant about forfeiting their personal liberties.

Still Zonked

Still dealing with taxes (mini-audit of 2007), family members popping in, clean-up from Easter, and the onset of golf season (played a bunch of times already this year).

So I'm really beat and haven't even thought much about posting - even though my idea notepad is overflowing at the moment.

Tomorrow morning I have *help* in the way of grandparents so I should be able to churn out some morsels for my flock.

Marginalizing Animals

Animals, animals, animals...

Seemingly all these schools and pre-schools push are turtles, bunny rabbits, and lions.

I'm sick of it. Why should I send my son to an entire museum class on frogs? Why does his twice-a-week preschool keep making *crafts* of dinosaurs and turkeys?

My wife told me to settle down.

But here's my most trenchant argument.

The problem with this line of *education* is two-fold:

1) The animal focus comes as a backdoor into pagan Earth worship - aka *environmentalism*. Introduce them to Father Earth and they'll fall in love with it - or so the rationale must be.

2) The animal fetish is another base *infantilization* of the curriculum. They think the children so childish that all they can come up with for study are whales, insects, and furry creatures.

Elaborating, these *schools* could just as easily do a fun and edifying class on say *how a car works* or *running a lemonade stand*....but they refrain.

And if it's not animals it's *plants* - pussy willows and foliage....another dumbed-down backdoor into you-know-what.

Education ought to minimally be about life preparation. I want to ask y'all how integral, how valuable knowledge of reptile/amphibian distinctions has been in the course of your sad existences?

I really, really, wish I had learned about lemonade stands at a tender young age. See my classic post - Sheep To Slaughter.

Politicians with a smattering of brains and an iota of integrity are a full-fledged ENDANGERED SPECIES whose extinction we should all be scared to death of!

Meanwhile, elites want your kid losing sleep about the spotted owl and *climate change*....lest your kids otherwise find out how to design an engine, become an entrepreneur, or learn to think independently.

Google Search Suggestions - Who Is....???

So my son and I are learning about fiat currency. He was badgering me yesterday for the names of everyone on each coin and each bill. Do you know who is on a 1,000 bill? I couldn't remember....I mean I didn't know.

Straight to the computer we went. As I typed in "who is..." I got the above Google search suggestions.

First of all, who the heck is Robert Pattinson. I've never heard of the bloke.

Secondly, what is this business with *big papa*? I can infer - even though I've never heard of it - that the *real housewives of atlanta* is some cable reality show. What channel it's on....I couldn't tell you (without cheating).

From the show's Wikipedia entry:

Kimberleigh "Kim" Zolciak -- She is a Connecticut native and Johns Creek resident, a divorced mother of two who is attempting to pursue a career as a country singer while half-heartedly attempting to quit smoking. She had a "sugar daddy", whom she mysteriously referred to as "Big Poppa", who chose not to be aired on the show for personal and privacy reasons. In October 2008, Jezebel reported that "numerous blind items and internet rumors" had identified him as entrepreneur Lee Najjar.[1] He funded her somewhat lavish lifestyle, buying her $14,000 in diamonds and a $60,000 Cadillac Escalade. Kim and "Big Poppa" broke up in the last episode of season one. Since the end of the first season, Zolciak has linked in media reports to billionaire Dr. Stefan Lemperle[2] and Girls Gone Wild founder Joe Francis.[3] The show was originally planned to follow the lives of five black women, but Zolciak, who is white, introduced by Leakes, impressed the producers with her personality.

After a quick glance, because that's even more than it deserves, it looks like these *real housewives* are all divorced deadbeat whores - though someone else will have to confirm.

How pathetic that *big papa* has made it to the top of the Google search suggestions!

THIS is what piques the curiosity of the lumpen masses?



And how pathetic that after all my Marginalizing - 4 years and 1,200 blog posts - one has to practically type out my complete moniker for Google to suggest CaptiousNut!

I guess my goal should be to steadily move up the results of *morons*. Currently my blog comes up on the fourth page.



By the way, it's Grover Cleveland's mug on the thousand dollar bill. See the rest of the big bills here.

What's Wrong Here?

That reminds me of these Morons who actually think they don't pay income taxes because they get a $500 refund or something....

Who Is Susan Boyle?

I had seen the name a couple of times with my *peripheral vision* on news sites and whatnot. And then today my golf buddy mentioned her. So I just had to google her and find out.

Watch the clip here. (Sorry, YouTube is not allowing embedding with this gal.)

Simon's comment (at 5:30 or so) was uproarious - as usual.

It looks like Susan Boyle had a predecessor. Check out 2007 contestant Paul Potts here. That clip has received a mere 45 million stinkin' hits so far!

Who's Teaching Your Kid?

So the other night I was out boozing locally....

There was a band, and some tattooed, whack-a-do chick-a-dee in our proximity who let it be known (to us) that she was one of their gals.

In fact, after a few drinks and over the din of the live music, she confessed (bragged?) that she had slept with each of the band members. She even told us about one band member's anomalous testicle count. What a lady!

So whatever, right?

Later that night, as the barkeep was kicking me out at closing, and after most everyone had left, one of that chick-a-dee's friends informed me that her skanky friend was a teacher at one of the most expensive and *prestigious* pre-schools around.

Hah! Man did I get a good laugh out of that.

And so have all fifty *moms* at the parks with whom I've charitably shared that gossip.

You see, the commoners love to deprecate what they can't afford or have.

While I enjoy deprecating them all.

Bill Simmons Said What?

The Sports Guy wrote today:

First, it's going to be near-impossible to win a Game 7 in Cleveland with the way LeBron James feeds off a frenzied crowd that's in "Maybe if we shower him with love, he won't leave in two years mode" (like a high school junior who starts putting out because her boyfriend is leaving for college in a few months).

Boy, Disney (ESPN's parent) sure has come a long way from Mickey Mouse and innocent family fun!

Now he has a four year old daughter Zoe and has just given her, if she does her *homework*, the ultimate retort to a scolding father for when she's a teenager and gets caught sneaking out to see her older boyfriend.

SportsPrincess - But Dad, you once wrote that....

But in all seriousness, Simmons' making light of, well, what he referenced, has to be considered inappropriate and also unnecessary for that column.

Having just read his Wikipedia entry, apparently Bill Simmons has already had a handful of run-ins with ESPN management over *adult content* and such.

He ought to tread lightly here. If ESPN fires him, it's not exactly as if he can go elsewhere as ESPN is the only game in town now.

Remember those last couple of talking-head sports upstarts?

Max Kellerman?

And Jim Rome?



I'd say the career of Bill Simmons is an easy short.

The Dollar Ain't Worthless, Yet

I'm 34.83 years old and I just did go into my first *dollar store*. I checked out a brand new Dollar Tree in Weymouth, MA this afternoon.

I must say that there is definitely some good cheap stuff in there, I think. I purchased some Rubbermaid plastic containers for 50 cents a piece. I can't even imagine they're that cheap at Wal-Mart. Now I can tell my wife to throw them in the garbage after she eats her lunch at work - though she certainly won't. [I find these things, along with *Gladware*, a real pain in the butt to wash - oil and grease adhere to them, they get water stuck in the lids and don't dry off,....]

And there seemed to be other useful junk in there as well though I couldn't really focus. I had my two urchins with me and my son was wandering the store with his dollar bill. The store is a good teaching ground for my son since we're currently doing Kumon's Dollars and Sense book. Also, I'm trying to teach him the transitory property of money. In other words, if he spends his $1 on the water pistol at Dollar Tree then he won't be able to rent that DVD (Redbox) at the supermarket.

There were a bunch a books at Dollar Tree that had price tags on them for $17 or so. It was only on my way out, after asking the cashier, that I discovered those books still only cost $1. There were a ton of anti-Bush and anti-Iraq books to put it mildly. Standing out among them was this one:



You know why these *pamphlets* are getting liquidated for $1 each?

Because they were over-supplied and under-demanded to begin with. A full audit of book publishers *losses* would no doubt expose a mountain of *bias* in terms of what books got seeded and which ones made money.

This would be the ignominious risk of writing a book - i.e. seeing it at a *dollar store*, or, like Frank Rich's book, seeing it offered used for a mere 1 cent on Amazon!



As you can see from the above chart, *dollar stores* are, along with pawnshops, repossession firms, credit counselors, etc., one of the beneficiaries of the Greater Depression - for the time being anyway.

I do wonder about the business aspect of these retailers. Is their inventory all of the liquidation variety? Or do manufacturers, like Rubbermaid, develop products specifically for them?

Make Them Walk!

So recently, while taking my daughter out for a ride to induce a nap, I got stuck behind the local school bus.

Within about 400 yards, it made 5 STOPS!!!

It was literally a door-to-door limousine service. Why couldn't it just stop once in the middle and make the brats walk for 30 seconds or so?

I really didn't mind because I was in no hurry at all. Just the pure inanity of it chafed me.

Then, maybe two weeks later, I got stuck behind a school bus in the adjacent tony town. Likewise, this bus also stopped every few feet to let kids out RIGHT ON THEIR DOORSTEP even though the span was also a mere couple hundred yards, and even though there was a full-fledged sidewalk they could have utilized.

So where does this movie star treatment come from? From the parents? Or from the school that will no doubt claim *insurance reasons*?

Regardless, this is just another example of the gross infantilization of government schools.

Just when my father thought the schools couldn't descend any further from his *time* when he had to walk to school uphill in the snow - BOTH WAYS!

[I, myself, was walking a mile to and from school by the 1st grade - though admittedly, it was only uphill on the way there.]



So schools are going to spend millions on nutrition education and BMI tests for obese school children.....meanwhile they should just make the darn kids walk A LITTLE!

And then we have these parents that *pick-up* their kids at the bus stop via car. I have parents waiting at the end of my driveway for their kids each afternoon in a minivan - EVEN THOUGH I could literally hit their house with a 6 iron (167 yards) from here.

Boston Globe - Pathological Partisanship

Just as I presumed, there would be no mention of the nationwide *Tea Party* demonstrations in the Boston Globe. Above is a screen shot of the front page which however had the space to mention stabbings, sports, weather, American Idol, and ketchup theft.

I checked the *News* section as well and found nothing.

Supposedly 2,000 people rallied on the Boston Common to express disgust with Washington DC. And locally it could only be read about in the Boston Herald.



I do think the protests were a waste of time and energy - but they are still *news* worth reporting.

And the Boston Globe still thinks the *internet* is what did them in as opposed to unions and partisanship!

See also - The New York Times And Its Suicide Fart.

Tentatively Marginalizing John Holt

So I just finished John Holt's book Learning All The Time. He was a famous educator and author - who can probably best be described as an advocate of *unschooling*. Check out his Wikipedia entry.

Unschooling is a hands-off approach; let the kids learn WHATEVER and WHENEVER they want to learn. And it can be punctuated by an extreme lack of criticism.

For example, what that means is when a child is reading and mispronounces a word, the adult mustn't correct them. The theory being that *corrections* damage the self-esteem and learning enthusiasm of tender brats; that the kids will in due time correct themselves anyway....with precious egos intact!

Although I found much of the book interesting and somewhat enlightening, this is where I part ways with John Holt - as y'all would expect any CaptiousNut to do so. (Look up captious if you haven't already.)

From his book:

We are fooling ourselves if we think that by being nice about it we can prevent corrections from sounding like reproofs. It is only in exceptional circumstances and with the greatest tact that you can correct an adult without to some degree hurting his feelings. How can we suppose that children, whose sense of identity or ego or self-esteem is so much weaker, can accept correction equably? I would say that in ninety-nine cases out of one hundred, any child will take correction as a kind of reproof, and this matter how enthusiastic, pleasant, relaxed, or stimulating we may happen to be. I am ready to be about as dogmatic about this as about anything I know of; I have seen it too often with my own eyes.

On one premise - that the supermajority of today's adults are incorrigible and insecure when rudely confronted with facts - I couldn't agree more. Over two years ago I learned this and disabused myself of the fanciful notion that I was EVER going to truly convince ANYONE of ANYTHING. Whew! How liberating to be rid of that potential burden!

But I contend that grown-ups are so obtuse in fact because of their pronounced under-education. Most people are lapsed-learners and are *fronting*. That's why they react with such discomfort to trenchant intrusions.

But in my view, children have a whole lot less ego at stake. I just don't see them as more emotionally unable to deal with realizations of personal ignorance (and *shame*) that might be provoked by *corrections*.

That entire quote sheds some light on Mr. John Holt. He's *as dogmatic about this as anything* so he's essentially going all-in on the kid-glove treatment.

I understand he's done more work in the field - and seen far more children than I have.

But right now I have to stand opposed.

I would almost take it as a personal insult if a friend, family member, or teacher of mine allowed me to make a repeated mistake without correcting me. For my feelings?

Hah!

How compassionate is it to let someone embarrass or harm himself, again and again, when you could have prevented it?

I've been a self-taught golfer for 20 years now. Some of the things I recently learned; some of the mistakes I've recently diagnosed were surely pointed out to Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus when they were 5 and 6 years old by well-paid professional instructors. Sure I'm a decent single-digit handicap player today but that's only because I've spent an inordinate amount of effort and energy on my game. I could have been a much better player - so much sooner if the right people had BOTHERED me with helpful advice.

Then if you look at my father and his horrible golf game....

He too is an auto-didact in this endeavor - only with a horrible teacher and a worse student!

He really thinks he enjoys the game notwithstanding his 3 digit scores and constant cursing. On some level he may be right. But that doesn't change the fact that if he stopped flipping his hands throughout EVERY swing, his scores would drop and his enjoyment would rise to inexperienced levels. But go ahead and try to get him to change something; this 'old coot' insists that *practice* actually makes him play worse!

Do you think a sensitive 8 year old could concoct such a ridiculous excuse?

Me neither.

The same goes for trading. It took me a full ten years of *fighting the tape* to grasp the reality that I should be playing momentum. In fact I still might not have even fully digested this truth that none of my bosses or colleagues have ever taught me. Compare that with the pedigree of one Michael Davey. (click the link)

The fact is, instruction, including FEEDBACK and CORRECTION, matters greatly because it sets learning curve trajectories.

And the kid-glove treatment can turn humans into mice!

Though I'm not convinced John Holt is totally wrong. I'm going to have to contemplate his theses some more.

What You Can Learn From Park Moms

So yesterday I was at the park and I bumped into a mom-chick that I had once met before.

Like me, she had been prowling for sanely-priced real estate in the area for years to no avail. She even did my frugal pragmatism one-up - she rented in what would be considered a *worse* or *undesirable* adjacent town.

Mom-chick was absolutely bubbly this Monday. She informed me that she had recently bought a foreclosure in Norwell, MA. Now Norwell is still a notch below the two tony oceanside towns that I straddle, but it's still a pretty nice place to call home. It doesn't have a beach and it has a worse commute to Boston, BUT it does have really *good schools*!!!

This mom-chick paid just under 400k for 3,000+ sq foot home on 2.5 acres - probably 300k less than she would have had to ante up for something similar in her/my ideal target towns today.

I was really taken aback by this young lady's grasp of the housing market. It's a rare event I meet anyone with a clue....but from among the homemaker set???

Wow.

Furthermore, as I pressed for details about the foreclosure bidding process I realized that despite all my research, she knew a little bit more about the subject than I did!

She told me that the first thing you have to do is check with the town about unpaid taxes. I mistakenly thought that the *lending bank* was on the hook for those but she told me that the foreclosure buyer might have to pay them. This I'll have to double-check.

Also, she told me to research unpaid federal taxes on the deadbeat owner. The feds have something like a month to put some type of lien on a home after a foreclosure sale. This I'll also have to research.

The place she ended up buying had been put up for auction in September 2008. Two minutes before the bidding, the owner showed up with a declaration of personal bankruptcy. That legal ruse cancelled the proceeding and allowed him to stay another 6 months! This tactic I'd actually known about since *credit counselors* recommend it on the web. It really is amazing how long it takes to kick a delinquent squatter out of a bank-owned property. How much do any of y'all wanna bet that my slimy landlord files a last minute bankruptcy as well?

The mom-chick told me she actually did get a look inside the home. She randomly popped-in and the resident was nice enough to give her a walk-through that most foreclosure buyers can't procure. She said the inside looked great except for papered-walls - which are about the easiest part of a house to *correct*. Though the septic is a problem and she'll be on the hook for that one.

As for my house buying these days....

I'm not even looking. From an affordability standpoint (considering unemployment and interest rates), houses are almost as expensive as they were in 2005-2006!

"Most men appear never to have considered what a house is, and are actually though needlessly poor all their lives because they think that they must have such a one as their neighbors have."

That's Henry David Thoreau in Walden, about 100 years ago.

Movie Rec - Michael Clayton

I give it 3.5 out of 5 stars.

By rights, with George LOONEY, no *SSC*, minimal action/violence, and a slow, gloomy tone, it should have been a snoozer - but somehow this flick captivated me.

Trades- April 14th, 2009

Now that my taxes are paid, the inlaws gone, and the house almost clean....I can get back to work. [Note to heathens - it just was Easter the other day.]

Though honestly, I'm trying not to look at the market (my computer). I'm extremely short - and bleeding at the moment. If it were possible to fast-forward life a couple of months I'd take it in a second. In other words, I'm long-term confident in my position but I'm not exactly enjoying the ride thus far. There's simply no difference between being *early* and being *wrong* when trading.

Today I increased my FAZ by another 33% at 8.90.

And tomorrow I will try, yet again, not to look at the market all day.

Trades - April 9th, 2009

Today Wells Fargo claimed to have made $3 billion in the current quarter. How'd they do that?

They just reserved $3 billion less for loan losses than they did last quarter. Easy enough, right?

Flashback to last July, as Wells was getting its butt handed to it, in a show of false bravado they decided to raise their dividend. The stock rallied from the low 20s to eventually 44.00 in part on that BS lying. Then of course, only a month ago, they reduced their dividend essentially to zero - from 38 cents to a mere 5 cents per quarter....and the stock fell below $8.00 per share.

I also read that Wells actually made half of this alleged $3 billion on a Rohm & Haas stock position. That may be real money, but it's also a one-time charge. I'll need verification on this point.

Wells also lied about loan loss provisions and got caught in the fall. See - Wells Fargo Number Fudging.

So with that (recent) history, I say good luck to anyone buying the stock today at $19.00!

Here's the first of what'll probably be 100 articles this weekend calling BS on Wells.

Last year I got caught short WFC and that single position almost wiped me out. In the end, I didn't make that much money on the stock trade; however, I made a bunch of dough buying Jan 30 and April 30 puts when they were OTM, covering at around $14.00 early this year.

Today I averted my eyes all morning. I just knew something bad was going to happen. I saw the market up 155 points on the television at McDonalds around noon. Then later on I came home from the park and witnessed the damage to my account up close. My profits for the year are now whittling down to almost nothing.

This afternoon I tripled up my FAZ position at 11.65.

Bullets are running low....

More Establishment Attacks On Blogs

Click that graphic to enlarge or click here for full article.

The gist is that some judge in Kfell's libertarian paradise - New Hampshire - ordered a website to out its anonymous sources even though:

1) The plaintiff didn't prove *defamation*.
2) The plaintiff didn't prove the leaked info was *confidential*.
3) The plaintiff is a scumbag mortgage company.
4) Big Media newspapers and magazines are almost never molested by judges despite their copious use of anonymous sources.

Here's all you need to know about the litigant - The Mortgage Specialists:

From their website:

The Mortgage Specialists has been a leader in mortgage lending in New England for the last twenty years. We have been recognized by Fannie Mae nationally and have won their most prestigious award "The Platinum Award."

Recognized by Fannie Mae???

Hah!

That means their entire business model is most likely based upon STEALING MONEY from us taxpayers. (Sue me for that statement, please!)

For just one example of this institutionalized fraud, check out that post I wrote the other day, if you haven't already - Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac....Killing US!.

I can't wait to see Kfell spin this one! How about "that judge is originally from Massachusetts"???

Or "he was educated in Boston"???

Mr. Mortgage, Found

He left ml-implode.com and jawboned going over to Barry Ritholtz's blog....but he somehow got lost.

It must have taken me a full 10 minutes to find his new launching pad - Field Check Group.

Here's his latest blog entry - California Foreclosures About To Soar.

Y'all ought to bookmark his blog!

Marginalizing Road Races

So there was a 10k road race in my town this weekend. And there'll be another in the adjacent town in a couple of weeks. Then there'll be a local triathlon. And the Boston Marathon. A kayak race. And someone put a flyer in my mailbox yesterday advertising a road race in Quincy....

ENOUGH already!

I have no problem with the real competitors of these races. I take issue with the rest of the clowns. Some local chicks asked my wife to run/walk with them for Sunday's 6 mile *race*. What the heck is that?

And look at that POSEUR above. If he's really running in full stride, why do all the other runners participants seem to be walking?

With his knee-knocking form, I'd say he looks more like a BI-athlon kind of guy anyway!

I have some well developed theories on why *road races* are all the rage up here in the worst State in the Union.....but haven't time to discuss.

Personally, I always hated running. I could beat almost everyone around the track once, but never developed any stamina. Only recently did I figure out why - I was a total mouth breather; I didn't ever use my nasal passage to aid respiration. So I was dusting people, over short distances anyway, with essentially half my lungs tied behind my back!

I still think running stinks. Swimming, yoga, basketball, racquetball,....do something else to break a sweat and get your heart rate up. These days I reluctantly run maybe 1.5 times per week and never for more than one mile. My knees and broken back just can't take the impact.

Then just today I found a flyer on my car advertising the Hyannis road race on Cape Cod.

Argh!!!

It's all part of this amorphous *culture* of Boston.

Whatever *they* do....I'll stand opposed.

[Here's where I got the inspiration for that line - *to stand opposed*. CAUTION - profanity]

Golf - A Great Game, An Irrational Business

Above is allegedly some failed Greg Norman golf/housing *development* in Bakersfield, CA. It was called McAllister Ranch and the interesting story is here.

And here's a great article on the plight of Central Massachusetts golf courses and country clubs - Economy Plagues Plenty Of Courses.

The *money* quote:

The good news is if you have the money, you can probably join any golf club you’d like. The bad news is you most likely don’t have the money.

And even beyond that reality, country club memberships, in the Northeast anyway, make ZERO financial sense.

Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac....Killing US!

For $37.52 a square foot, y'all could buy this foreclosed Naples, Fl condo - 7985 Preserve Circle #1114. (It's right across from Arrowhead GC on Immokolee, a track I happened to play in January.)





Less than 2.5 years ago, this condo sold for a whopping $310,000.

The loan underwriter - Freddie Mac!!!

My real estate guy down there informs me that this condo may have theoretically been worth 200k at the peak - but never 310k by any stretch.

AND, he tells me that condo would sell for close to 60k today. So Freddie Mac will have gotten ripped off at both ends.

Check that. Us taxpayers will have been ripped twice on this property!

See also - Fannie Mae Reincarnated - It's Called FHA.

Addendum - What's interesting about this 1,250 square foot condo is that its annual upkeep of $8,263 (condo fees + taxes) vastly outweighs the purchase carrying cost since a 50k house can currently be financed for less than $300 per month, or $3,600 per year.

In other words, owning this condo will cost almost $12,000 per year - EVERY YEAR - and that's fantastically presuming fees and taxes NEVER RISE. Why would anyone commit to those payments when they can seasonally rent for so much cheaper? Remember the place I leased in January was bigger, nicer, in a far superior location, and only cost $2,200 for the entire month.

Conclusion - the real, rational, market value of the that condo could soon be $0, or less.

Massachusetts - The Dumbest State, QED

From US Highway Deaths At Lowest Levels Since 1961:

Seat belt use in 2008 climbed to 83 percent, a record. Fourteen states and the nation's capital had rates of 90 percent or better. Michigan had the highest seat belt use rate with 97.2 percent, followed by Hawaii with 97 percent and Washington state at 96.5 percent. Massachusetts had the lowest rate, 66.8 percent, while it was under 70 percent in New Hampshire and Wyoming.

I'm telling you - from being the only state to opt for McGovern in 1972:



To an astounding super-majority voting TO TAX THEMSELVES:



And now to this list we'll add being the least seat-belted state in the country!

The biggest threat to our lives and our family's lives remains on the roadways. You just have to be an absolute Moron not to buckle up.

I could be wrong, but I suspect it's mostly 'old coots' and 'old bags' that refuse to utilize seat-belts (and we have a boatload of them!). They complain that belts are *too uncomfortable*. I don't know about the rest of y'all, but when I'm not fastened in I feel pretty darn uncomfortable.

See Massachusetts - More Morons Than Your State and also my old yet oft-visited post Marginalizing Bad Drivers.

Trades - April 3rd, 2009

You know, when you lose as much money as I've lost in the past 3-4 weeks, you can't help but wax philosophical. It's only money, right?

On Friday I started cursing. The SRS is getting squeezed and squeezes are irrational and pretty darn scary for those of us on the wrong end. Seemingly, they take forever to end; and that's if they ever do. Take a look at Netflix or Treasuries. Nonetheless I increased my SRS position by 55% after the close at 38.24.

My taxes for this year are just about done - except for the *paying* part, which is going to hurt big time; and probably force me to reduce my trading positions.

AND, on Thursday , I got another letter from the IRS about my 2007 return. They already hassled me with this last year and robbed me of 40 hours of time dealing with the issue, i.e. their mistake. That was *resolved*, or so I thought, with me getting back $800.

But this new letter, accuses me of underreporting my capital gains, THE SAME CAPITAL GAINS THAT I'VE ALREADY REPORTED TO THEM TWICE NOW, and demands a response by April 29th. They want another $19,700 or else....

So I've been hit with a deluge of agony these past few weeks.

And then I got word yesterday that my old man got light-headed, fell down, and split his head open a bit. He's been at the hospital for *tests* the past three days. They've ruled out *cardiac* causes but I we all know these doctors are Morons.

My father's father died young of a heart attack. And my old man, healthwise, is a mess. He's got one banged up body through which rivers of alcohol and transfats have flowed for decades. A chip clip? What's that? Just try to tell my father that when he opens a bag of potato chips he needn't polish it off. He used to eat on of those large Wise bags every single night. They had to be the greasiest chips ever, right?

On top of all that I've been pretty busy. I played golf twice this weekend - needing four layers today to survive the 30+ mph winds. Smashed every single tee shot down the middle save one, but still ended up with a 91. No one can putt, not Tiger Woods nor even a robot, in the wind.

Also, my wife took a new job (within the same firm) and can't really skate on *Fridays from home* just yet. So I have to watch the kids a bit now an extra day. That's a 25% increase in my duties!

And we had a Christening....and a long Palm Sunday mass to got to.....

Jim Cramer - "The Worst Is Over!"

The next time I post him.....he'll be in tears, again.

The New York Times And Its Suicide Fart

I just got the great news today out on the golf course that the New York Times has threatened to shut down the Boston Globe without significant union concessions.

The New York Times Co. has threatened to shut The Boston Globe unless the newspaper's unions swiftly agree to $20 million in concessions, union leaders said yesterday.

Executives from the Times Co. and Globe made the demands Thursday morning in an approximately 90-minute meeting with leaders of the newspaper's 13 unions, union officials said. The possible concessions include pay cuts, the end of pension contributions by the company, and the elimination of lifetime job guarantees now enjoyed by some veteran employees, said Daniel Totten, president of the Boston Newspaper Guild, the Globe's biggest union, which represents more than 700 editorial, advertising, and business office employees.

The newspaper industry, which had already been struggling as readers and advertisers moved to the Internet, has been hard hit by the recession, and the Globe is no exception. The newspaper's advertising revenues have declined sharply in recent years; once robustly profitable, it is now losing money.

This week, the Globe newsroom completed cutting the equivalent of 50 full-time jobs. But the deteriorating economy has made the Globe's financial outlook much worse. Management told union leaders Thursday that the Globe will lose $85 million in 2009 unless serious cutbacks are made, according to a Globe employee briefed on the discussions. Last year the paper lost an estimated $50 million, the employee said.

HAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHHAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now there's so much material here that I could write 50 blog pages on the matter. But why would I waste my precious time doing such a thing?

All I wanted to do was highlight one point.

As you can see in the penultimate quote above, these newpaper dinosaurs just continue to blame everyone and everything but themselves. Sure it was just the economy and internet. It had nothing to do with bad management, specifically the terrible business decision to systematically muzzle and offend half of would-be customers!!!

And the NYT/Globe's woes have NOTHING at all to do with unionization and pensions!!!

They are asking for the *elimination of lifetime job guarantees* for some employees??? Who're the Morons who allowed them in the first place?

And why the bleep are newspaper delivery truck drivers unionized....in the first place?

The thing is, their unions probably did them in as much as anything. So a paper that spews agitprop all day long, for decades, met the fate of all statist enterprises. What irony! What justice!

There's a wonderful expression describing this.

No, not schadenfreude, that characterizes my feelings.

It's *hoist on one's own petard*.

I always mistakenly assumed that this referred to *hanging oneself*.

But it actually means to *blow oneself up with one's own bomb*.

And more accurately, a petard is a fart - according to its French etymology.

So yes, the NYT/Boston Globe did *hang itself*....

But that verbiage wouldn't properly capture the aroma we've had to take in all these years.



HAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHHAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The First Russian Gangsta Spinoff

Due to the sheer hilarity of this post....

TallDude would henceforth like to be known as PrivateCaller, seriously.

Come to think of it, Taylor needs a more interesting moniker too. How about EricTheClown?

A while back, I actually tried to, well not rename, but add an another identity myself. I started posting on Rich Karlgaard's blog as AirFreshener and lobbed some *positive* comments.

Yet the undiscerning 'old coots' there didn't even notice.

Bar Talk

So I got this text message yesterday at 5:36 PM from a buddy who was in Detroit for the Final Four:

I am talking to iverson at the bar right now, he is drinking corona!!

So why was this joker drinking at that time, during the final stretch of the season?

I chuckled and wasn't surprised a bit. When I lived in Philly, AI was a daily fixture at the bar at TGIFs - the one on Cityline Ave if I remember correctly. Once there his posse tried to pick up this really obese girl I knew - when her husband went to the bathroom. They told her that Allen really wanted to meet her.

Yeah, right. Those scrubs were the ones interested....

A couple hours later, I got a another text saying that AI was still there - and he was throwing them back.

Then I went home and learned why:



So at least this one time anyway, the gangsta had a legit excuse.

By the way, this buddy of mine goes to the Final Four every single year, and occasionally the Superbowl. Tough life he has, no?

Google Gobbling, Again

Man these things happen fast. I just heard about Twitter a couple of months ago. Now it's all everyone is talking about. I'm sure Google deprecated it at first, just like me, just like they pooh-poohed YouTube before that gobbled that one up.

Hah, what do ya know!

Google did dismiss Twitter recently, calling it "A poor man's email system" according to this PC World article.

This rumored move by Google, like the YouTube one, reaks of *defensiveness*.

A billion bucks doesn't sound like a lot. I'd think that Microsoft would also be willing to pay that much for upstart Twitter.

Me, as of now I have no plans to *Tweet* - though I did think about tweeting all of my nasty bodily functions if for no reason other than to mock these clowns who've nothing better to do than indulge in such rank voyeurism!

Man, has it really been 2.5 years since Google bought YouTube?

See Google And YouTube.

Trades - April 2nd, 2009

Today I added FXP at 23.00.

And I bought some FAZ, some SRS, and some QID in my wife's retirement account - at 16.91, 50.69, and 43.35 respectively. Unfortunately, this is her *small* retirement account. The big one, through her employer, only allows mutual fund purchases.

I've got a post on retirement account trading on the agenda.

Movie Rec - 300

Last night, I made the mistake of putting on a movie around midnight. I give it 3.5 out of 5 stars. But I wouldn't recommend watching 300 if you plan on falling asleep anytime soon or you've a weak stomach. Some of the storyline is a bit on the hyperbolic side nonetheless it's still very watchable for the special and dramatic effects. Oh yeah, the cinematography was also tremendous - whatever that is.



Note the Battle of Thermopylae was indeed an historical event.

Money, An Easy Sell

The other day, I slapped down a quarter and three pennies on the table in front of my 4.33 year old son and asked him to count it.

"27 cents," he fired back.

"WRONG," and I snatched the money and walked away.

My mother was horrified. How cold, how cruel she insinuated.

Here's the deal I have with Prince C-Nut - every time I get change, I hand it to him. If he can add it up correctly, then he's allowed to keep the money.

For the past 2-3 years my son, like every other kid, has badgered me for candy, toys, or whatever else he fancied in store aisles. And for 2-3 years my response has mostly been the same, "Did you bring your money?" - to which he invariably groans. I believe most parents either simply say "no" or "yes".

Learning about money with my son has not only been really fun - it's a great reinforcement of addition and multiplication AND the foundation of a most important life skill.

I was just contemplating how many millions of parents with kids on the cusp of this level of arithmetic (no matter what their age), simply put the change in their pocket and waste a most *teachable moment*.

SRS Fundamentals

That's merely one page of a fifty page report you can read here.

Of course, none of this is news to us SRS holders....

See also - On The SRS.

Word From Naples

I'm told there are 11,000 homes for sale in the Greater Naples area.

Of those 2,600 are *short sales* - in other words they are distressed, upside-down,..., listed below the total mortgage debt on the property.

My insider down there tells me that right now, 85% of *short sales* eventually turn into REO - or full-blown bank-owned foreclosures.

So despite all the hoopla about *brisk sales* nationwide (esp. in California and Florida), the pipeline of coming inventory is still backed up with no end in sight.

And what people have to remember is that the Northeast (and places like Silicon Valley) hasn't even really had its real estate prices decline much - if at all, yet.



Check out the house above that's not far from me and theoretically a target of mine. It got re-listed today (after a few month hiatus) for $750,000.

But it sold AT THE PEAK, in December of 2005, for $702,500!

So 3.25 years later, after a stock market crash, a nationwide housing collapse, a Communist elected President, and skyrocketing unemployment, THEY WANT MORE MONEY THAN ITS BUBBLE PRICE!

This house may be 2,900 square feet and look nice, but it's on a busy street, has incredibly low ceilings, AND abuts the train tracks.

The total capital cost of a $700,000 house at 6% mortgage rates is $4,200 per month, EVERY MONTH, FOR 30 YEARS.

There just aren't enough people earning the money needed to afford that kind of *shelter* expense.

Not even close.

See also Morons Bidding Against Themselves and The Morons Are Still Winning.

Trades - April 1st, 2009

Got pretty frustrated today. Even though I have been saying since the initial squeeze two weeks ago that it would take at least 4 weeks for the market resume its toilet spiral, I had a sneaking suspicion that it may come sooner.

Today's rally disabused me of all delusional suspicion and all hope. It'll be another week or two, or three.

Look at my CDE anyway (on graphic)!

I bought it at .75 on February 17th. Though I wish I bought a whole lot more....

Made no trades today. Tomorrow, if this crappy market continues to rally I may add more short ETFs in my retirement accounts.