Poco - Pickin' Up the Pieces

Such a great band then and their music is still great now . . . makes you appreciate how truly magical the Buffalo Springfield were . . . read this recent review of Poco's first LP click here

Yellowstone Caution

Several years while visiting Yellowstone, I found a tee shirt with language that poked fun at how foolish visitors to the park have been.

Divisive Media Blowhards

Steve Lopez at the LA Times has really summed it up in his recent op-ed piece on the craziness from Rush to Beck, et al. Stuart Spencer, who ran four successful campaigns for the late governor and president, laments the state of politics and punditry. The Republican California political guru who crafted four successful Ronald Reagan campaigns, two for governor and two for president, does not watch Fox News or its conservative bobblehead pundits. read it here

Healthcare around the world

Sick Around the World was presented on Frontline some time ago and is the result of research conducted by T. R. Reid. If you would like to see the comparisons, click here

Randy Pausch

Randy Pausch's last lecture is wonderful, you can find it on YouTube. Here's one of the pearls, "don't bail; the best gold is at the bottoms of crap."

annoying telephone calls?

go to this website and post the number and what type of call it was. this is also a good place to start if you want to know more about a caller that you suspect is not known to you

click here for CallFerret

Is the recession over? Bernanke thinks so . . . . who cares?

from Barry Ritholz - - -

Ben Bernanke has declared the recession over.

This leads to one simple question: Why should you care what his recession forecasts are?

Based on his track record as a forecaster and his acumen in identifying economic problems before they exploded, his views on starts and finishes of recessions are, to be blunt, irrelevant.

Recall it was Mr. Bernanke who described the sub-prime situation as “Contained;” it was he who believed Housing would not spill over to the broader economy; and it was he who somehow thought the Bear Stearns situation was a one-off.

I don’t wish to single out Mr. Bernanke; After all, he is an economist, and if you were paying attention, you will note that the entire profession missed the oncoming recession, credit crisis and market collapse. You may also find it helpful to ignore what the profession that cannot forecast yesterday thinks about tomorrow.

Even now, the Federal Reserve Chairman said the recession was “very likely over” as consumers showed some of the first tangible signs of spending again. Never mind that all this retail activity has been driven by government subsidies.

Now, as an investor, you do want to be mindful of the Fed Chief’s economic views, particularly how they pertain to his interest rate policies. The ed has made it clear rates are staying low for the foreseeable future, so this becomes a non-issue in this context.

But his economic forecasts? Don’t bother.

Note that I have not been a particularly harsh critic of the Fed Chair. While he may not be Paul Volcker, he is also (thankfully) not Alan Greenspan. And we could have done much worse than having a student of the Great Depression, who is also an out-of-the-box thinker as Fed Chief.

But as a prognosticator? He is no better than his predeccessor . . .

Libertarian or Conservative

I know what a Libertarian is . . . that's someone who believes that less government is better except for running services that benefit the greater good . . . . . like regulating water, air, highway systems, defense.

It’s a bit harder to define a conservative. Is it someone who atavistically just wants to conserve the existing order of things (either now, or perhaps as they perceived them 50, or 100, or 200, or however many years ago)? Or is a conservative someone who believes in limiting social freedoms (generally that means suppressing things like sex, drugs, outré clothing and customs, and bad- mouthing the government) while claiming to support economic freedoms (although with considerable caveats and exceptions)? It’s unclear to me what, if any, philosophical foundation conservatism, by whatever definition, rests on.

Insomnia explained

Psychiatrist Milton Erickson recognized that insomnia is basically a sleep slump. Once insomniacs start thinking and worrying about their lack of sleep, they can no longer relax and enter the frame of mind needed to naturally drift off. In one famous case, Erickson advised an insomniac to get out of bed when he couldn’t sleep and meticulously scrub his kitchen floor with a toothbrush. Willing to try almost anything, the patient followed the therapist’s advice and promptly became so dulled by the tedious task that he dragged himself to bed for a good night’s sleep. The task broke the cycle in which thinking about sleeping interfered with the process of falling asleep.

Some funnies

1. The roundest knight at King Arthur's round table was Sir Cumference. He acquired his size from too much pi.

2. I thought I saw an eye doctor on an Alaskan island, but it turned out to be an optical Aleutian.

3. She was only a whiskey maker, but he loved her still.

4. A rubber band pistol was confiscated from algebra class because it was a weapon of math disruption.

5. A dog gave birth to puppies near the road and was cited for littering.

6. A grenade thrown into a kitchen in France would result in Linoleum Blownapart.

7. A hole has been found in the nudist camp wall. The police are looking into it.

8. Atheism is a non-prophet organization.

9. Two hats were hanging on a hat rack in the hallway. One hat said to The other, 'You stay here; I'll go on a head.'

10. I wondered why the baseball kept getting bigger. Then it hit me.

11. A small boy swallowed some coins and was taken to a hospital. When His grandmother telephoned to ask how he was, a nurse said, 'No change yet.'

12. The short fortune-teller who escaped from prison was a small medium at large

13. A backward poet writes inverse.

14. When cannibals ate a missionary, they got a taste of religion.

15. Don't join dangerous cults: Practice safe sects!

Courage as described by Lance Armstrong

Things take place, there is a confluence of events and circumstances, and we can’t always know their purpose or even if there is one. But we can take responsibility for ourselves and be brave. We each cope differently with the specter of our deaths. Some people deny it. Some numb themselves with drugs or alcohol. We are tempted to do a little of each of those things. But I think we’re supposed to try to face it straightforwardly, armed with nothing but courage.

The definition of courage is: the quality of spirit that enables one to encounter danger with firmness and without fear.

Lance Armstrong . . . It’s Not About the Bike

Video - Bell, Book and Candle -

Another clip from the same film but this time with Jimmy Stewart and Ernie Kovacs . . .

Video - Bell, Book and Candle - Ernie Kovacs

Ernie Kovacs and Jack Lemmon . . . .

Legalizing Marijuana

Once again I heard another talk show host have a 3 hours debate over the legalization of marijuana. It's so ridiculous a topic because the discussion always focuses on leaf product of marijuana. I've never heard one of these discussions mention the real alternative which is Marinol, a legally produced available form of THC, the chemical that gives you the high. Make Marinol available to people who claim that only marijuana (THC) can help them with their medical condition and let's stop this debate about legalizing the leaf marijuana click here for more info on Marinol.

Over 60? Don't worry about Swine Flu

According to the Center for Disease Control - no one over 60 years of age has contracted swinw flu, they don't know but hey, don't look a gift horse in the mouth.

Confusing this with that

Too many people confuse knowledge with wealth. Just because someone is wealthy doesn't mean they are smart.

Fame

Fame should never be confused with accomplishment.

My new mandolin is ready

Tomorrow I get my new mandolin made by Craig Wilson, it's a beauty. You can see at Mandolin Cafe click here

The Scientific Method

One of the greatest legacies of the European Enlightenment is a scientific methodology that allows us to make increasingly accurate observations about the world around us. This methodology is based on the assumption that all we need in order to comprehend nature is a solid understand of the laws and processes that we can observe and test in the natural world. The supernatural does not enter the equation, because it does not rovide us with any explanations that can be test empirically.

This morning at 4:05:06

You probably weren't up when this happened but at 5 minutes and 6 seconds after 4 A.M. the time was: 04:05:06 07-08-09

THIS WILL NOT HAPPEN AGAIN UNTIL THE YEAR 3009!!