Since I Haven't Been Political in a While...

All this bullshit rhetoric bouncing around in political talk about sovereign wealth funds (pools of investment money owned by foreign governments) is really starting to get on my nerves. The politicians are constantly talking about changing the rules for, or putting onerous restrictions on sovereign wealth funds, often citing 'national security' concerns.

If a foreign government takes a large stake in a U.S. company, even one that's involved in our national security, they can't possibly get technical information from that investment. It's a financial transaction. Even if they managed to get a seat on the board of directors, that's only one vote, never mind the fact that directors are generally just concerned with big-picture business issues. Now I'm no detective, but it would look rather strange to me if a corporate director representing a foreign government started poking around asking questions about our latest military toys and other sensitive technology. There's an FBI office near you! Pick up the phone and call them.

People get so pissed about foreigners buying U.S. real estate and making investments in our publicly-traded companies. BIG DEAL. Before our Yankee lira (dollar) fell off the proverbial cliff, our mutual funds and hedge funds were buying huge stakes in foreign companies all the time, if not buying them outright. Free trade is free trade. It's not like the foreigners can take the companies or real estate back home with them...

Now THAT Would be Your Rigid Frame...

The ABS system makes up for the bumpy ride!

What a Way to Start the Year

With a Missouri Tiger victory in the Cotton Bowl vs. the Arkansas Razorbacks....

(insert Dr. Evil laugh here)

Happy New Year to all.

Update and Random Quote of the Week

Sorry to my regular readers for the lack of posting this month. I have no good excuse (well, I actually do, but it would be flimsy), so I'll just jump back in with the usual worthless commentary and observations:

Since my last post, the University of Missouri Tigers were, for one glorious week, number one in the nation in football. It didn't last, but what a great time. I've been waiting for a season like this for twenty years, now it's finally happened. Just gotta beat the Razorbacks now in the Cotton Bowl....

Hugo "The Ass" Chavez lost his referendum on Constitutional change in Venezuela, which makes me happy. A temporary setback in his plans to turn the country into the next failed attempt at achieving a worker's paradise... Many people are saying that this effectively buries Chavez politically, but I disagree. Never underestimate the desire of a power-hungry socialist idiot to seize all the power he can. I predict he will make a more bold move before his term as President is up.

And finally, a random quote of the week:
In the day of prosperity we have many refuges to resort to; in the day of adversity only one.--HORATIUS BONAR.

Warren Buffett is a Hypocrite

In terms of his take on the estate tax. I have to clarify that quickly, before the Buffett groupies out there decide to dispense some vigilante justice towards me for such heresy...

If keeping the estate tax is such a good and fair situation for the citizenry, then why did The Oracle give away most of his assets to the Gates foundation? Did he think that Uncle Sam might not spend that money as wisely as he? Perhaps only those people who are society's elites should be able to determine how their estate will be spent, but not the rest of us. We should just give up that money to Uncle Sam, and blindly trust the smartest people in the universe (Congress) to spend it well.

From the linked article:
"Instead of the free market determining when assets are bought or sold, the death tax makes that determination," said Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley. "There is something fundamentally wrong when the government swoops in after a funeral to take a cut of what that person had worked their whole life for, and has already paid taxes on at least once."

You said it, sister. Remember: actions always speak louder than words. Buffett says the estate tax is necessary, but shielded the bulk of his own estate by giving it away as a charitable contribution. Strange that Uncle Sam won't be taking "a little more out of the hides" of guys like him. Food for thought.

Random Quote of the Week

The distinguishing trait of people accustomed to good society is a calm, imperturbable quiet which pervades all their actions and habits, from the greatest to the least. They eat in quiet, move in quiet, live in quiet, and lose their wife, or even their money, in quiet; while low persons cannot take up either a spoon or an affront without making such an amazing noise about it.--LYTTON.

For Those of You

who are financial types (aren't we all), check out prosper.com. You can actually make some money in micro loans. Be careful, however, because the loans are unsecured... Click this button, you'll get extra $ if you sign up:

Note to Self

Copper is a very good conductor of electricity! I recently read on Reuters that a German man was electrocuted and burned to a crisp attempting to steal copper from some sort of electrical substation... I've said it before, good riddance! Go mine the stuff if you want copper, or better yet, buy mining shares...

Not-so-Random Quote of the Month

Speaks for itself:

Many politicians are in the habit of laying it down as a self-evident proposition, that no people ought to be free till they are fit to use their freedom. The maxim is worthy of the fool in the old story, who resolved not to go into the water till he had learned to swim.--MACAULAY

The Hammer of Truth

Sometimes, a mirror can be your harshest critic. Michael Moore should invest in one. I had to reprint this post from Rife's Torch (see blogroll), entitled "What About You, Mike?" Enjoy.


Filmmaker and throughly disingenuous huckster Michael Moore has asked Presidential candidates to pledge to go without health insurance should they be elected.
This is almost as stupid and pointless as the candidates’ pledges to work for the minimum wage during their tenure as Executive, but my question is this: What about you, Mike? How about you drop your health insurance, since you’re so in touch with the American proletarian? Given both your net worth and obesity (I’m sorry, but the sight of a 350lb man bitching about the evils of American excess is just too full of humor and irony to pass up mentioning), it would seem that this is the closest you will be able to get to the experience of the “little guy.”
In fact, I think that everyone who supports Mike’s prescription for health care reform - which is notably high in facile, blanket, idiotic assumptions, and notably low in substance and connection to reality (”free, universal health care for life” sounds great, but so does a free Lexus every year - neither is feasible nor morally justifiable) - should ditch their health insurance in protest. Along the same lines, I think that those who are inclined to use force to distribute money from one group of people to another (regardless of purpose) should start with their own damn bank account. After all, why should some of us have health care while others do not? Isn’t this an affront to justice? Isn’t that what the movie is about: the assumption that positive rights do exist and should be enforced by the government?
I haven’t yet seen Moore’s latest propaganda piece (it’s on my list of things to watch via. BitTorrent as soon as I get a chance to run to the liquor store), but I would like for someone, somewhere to tell me just why the hell we’re supposed to assume that when a well-known American filmmaker shows up with a full crew and requests health care from the Cuban government, they will treat him and the poor souls he dragged with him any differently than the most prominent member of the Communist Party? Are we really supposed to believe that this is anything less than blanket propaganda (it is my understanding that the hospital he visited in the film serves dignitaries and high Party officials almost exclusively)? Oh, I see! The Cuban system must be just swell; this is why so many Americans brave shark-infested waters to leave their homes and families and migrate to this worker’s paradise.
So either put up or shut up, Michael. Or just tell me why you should have health care and others should not? Isn’t that the question of the hour?
(The answer, by the way, is “because he can afford it,” but I can guarantee you that in this area, Moore will exhibit the same amount of intellectual honesty presented in his films.)