Trapping Monkeys

We have heard how to trap a monkey. Put a treat inside a coconut shell and cut a hole just large enough for the monkey’s hand but too small for his fist holding he treat. The monkey will be caught because he will not let go of the treat. For us the treat we will not let go is excess government spending requiring constant increases in public debt. But we are smart monkeys so we know that constantly increasing the nation’s debt cannot be sustained and will soon drag us down. The thing is, we are smart enough to see the answer but lack the willpower to overcome our desire for more treats.

Another gem of movie script writing.

From the movie "3:10 to Yuma". The outlaw Ben Wade (Russel Crowe) tells this story to Dan, his captor. "Did you ever read the Bible Dan? I have. When I was 8 years old my Dad got killed over a drink of whiskey. My Mom said we were going to move back East. She took me to the train station, sat me down and handed me a Bible. She said read this until I get back. It took me 3 days to read it. She never came back."

Classroom anarchy, killers in school uniform and how a generation is being betrayed

From the Daily Mail (UK) By Max Hastings
Last updated at 2:02 AM on 29th March 2010

The murder of 15-year- old Sofyen Belamouadden is an especially shocking gang crime because it was carried out in the midst of Victoria station, by boys apparently wearing school blazers.
It is tragically easy to imagine the horrors of life in the sort of classrooms the murderers come from.

We have grown accustomed to the existence of feral children - violent, amoral, unteachable and later unemployable - in many parts of Britain.

It is easy to identify their immediate victims, fellow teenagers who are bullied and occasionally killed. But beyond these, a much larger host pays the price: millions of children who want to equip themselves to lead decent lives.
Indiscipline and violence are viruses, which infect all those around them. In classrooms up and down the land, they make it impossible for many teachers to teach and their pupils to be educated.

Many prisoners, few solutions | The Indianapolis Star

The Indianapolis Star editorial of 20Feb2010 laments The fact that Indiana has one of the highest rates of incarceration. Below is my response.

The public does not want, and does not deserve, to have thugs, thieves and murderers loose in their community. Prisons are not for the inmates benefit...they are for our, society's, benefit. If the prisons are full, build more. If there are not enough judges and prosecuters, hire more. Social programs and rehabilitation should be continued but the truth is they mostly do not work. Public safety should be our top priority.

Heaven and Hell in Europe

In a European Heaven-
• The French are the cooks,
• The EngLish are the police,
. The Germans are the mechanics,
• The ItaLians are the Lovers and
• The Swiss organize everything.

In a European Hell-
* The EngLish are the cooks,
• The Germans are the police,
• The French are the mechanics,
• The Swiss are the Lovers and
• The ItaLians organize everything!

Mahatma Gandhi Quotes

Mahatma Gandhi Quotes:
Seven social sins:
1. Politics without principles
2. Wealth without work
3. Pleasure without conscience
4. knowledge without character
5. Commerce without morality
6. Science without humanity
7. Worship without sacrifice.

War of the Worlds, 1898-2007

Spielberg's version of War of the Worlds opens with a microscope view of a drop of water. We see what appears to be DNA and as the camera pulls back we see bacteria, etc. At the end of the movie the voice-over quotes the following from the original 1898 novel...(the Martians)slain, after all man's devices had failed, by the humblest things that God, in his wisdom, has put upon this earth. For so it had come about, as indeed I and many men might have foreseen had not terror and disaster blinded our minds. These germs of disease have taken toll of humanity since the beginning of things-- taken toll of our prehuman ancestors since life began here. But by virtue of this natural selection of our kind we have developed resisting power; to no germs do we succumb without a struggle...By the toll of a billion deaths man has bought his birthright of the earth, and it is his against all comers; it would still be his were the Martians ten times as mighty as they are. For neither do men live nor die in vain.


I recall reading that Smallpox alone killed 100 million people between 1900 and 2000.  The Plague in Medievel times killed 1/3 of the population of Europe.


Saw this movie at the theater. Great special effects. The sound the Martian machines make is awesome. That sound was described in the original book (ca 1900). The side plot about the dysfunctional family did not add anything. I was curious to see how Spielberg would do the film. It appears he borrowed from the original book as well as the 1953 film. Gene Barry and his female co-star from he 1953 film make a cameo appearance in this film.
You can read the original book on-line at the link below.
The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells: A searchable online version at The Literature Network

The limits of Socialism

I don't know who Dr. Rogers is but this makes sense:
Dr. Rogers is quoted:
"Friend, you cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the
wealthy out of freedom. And what one person receives without working
for, another person must work for without receiving. The government
can’t give to anybody anything that the government does not first take
from somebody. And when half of the people get the idea they don't
have to work because the other half are going to take care of them, and
when the other half get the idea it does no good to work because
somebody’s going to get what I work for, That, dear friend, is about the
end of any nation."

Margret Thatcher (former UK PM) said it this way: "Socialism works until you run out of other people's money."

Crooks on Wall Street

The following is a quote from the columnist Larry Elder regarding events on Wall Street:
“Add the name Bernard Madoff to the pantheon of big-time thieves. The legendary billionaire hedge fund manager…now stands accused of running a massive Ponzi scheme…. To many, the Madoffs of the world confirm this "truism": the rich get rich not through hard work, risk-taking or crafty assumptions about the future. No, the rich get rich the old fashioned way: They steal. They profit through inside information, use their clubby network of eyes and ears, get a heads-up when storm clouds appear, and plunder the unsophisticated, and thus cleverly dodge the common misfortunes suffered by the "little guy."”

This columnist is not attacking free enterprise. He goes on to say: “… most rich folks do it the hard way. They get up early, bust their tails, and work harder than their subordinates. They treat their staff…with respect. In return, employees…work hard for a boss who shows his appreciation. Decades of work later, the boss suddenly wakes up rich.”

Honesty, the free enterprise system, education, the rule of law…we must believe in these in spite of the Bernard Madoffs of Wall Street.

Ltr to H-T 12/08

Good Financial Advice

October 17, 2008
Op-Ed Contributor
Buy American. I Am.
By WARREN E. BUFFETT
Omaha

THE financial world is a mess, both in the United States and abroad. Its problems, moreover, have been leaking into the general economy, and the leaks are now turning into a gusher. In the near term, unemployment will rise, business activity will falter and headlines will continue to be scary.

So ... I’ve been buying American stocks. This is my personal account I’m talking about, in which I previously owned nothing but United States government bonds. (This description leaves aside my Berkshire Hathaway holdings, which are all committed to philanthropy.) If prices keep looking attractive, my non-Berkshire net worth will soon be 100 percent in United States equities.

Why?

A simple rule dictates my buying: Be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful. And most certainly, fear is now widespread, gripping even seasoned investors. To be sure, investors are right to be wary of highly leveraged entities or businesses in weak competitive positions. But fears regarding the long-term prosperity of the nation’s many sound companies make no sense. These businesses will indeed suffer earnings hiccups, as they always have. But most major companies will be setting new profit records 5, 10 and 20 years from now.

Let me be clear on one point: I can’t predict the short-term movements of the stock market. I haven’t the faintest idea as to whether stocks will be higher or lower a month — or a year — from now. What is likely, however, is that the market will move higher, perhaps substantially so, well before either sentiment or the economy turns up. So if you wait for the robins, spring will be over.

A little history here: During the Depression, the Dow hit its low, 41, on July 8, 1932. Economic conditions, though, kept deteriorating until Franklin D. Roosevelt took office in March 1933. By that time, the market had already advanced 30 percent. Or think back to the early days of World War II, when things were going badly for the United States in Europe and the Pacific. The market hit bottom in April 1942, well before Allied fortunes turned. Again, in the early 1980s, the time to buy stocks was when inflation raged and the economy was in the tank. In short, bad news is an investor’s best friend. It lets you buy a slice of America’s future at a marked-down price.

Over the long term, the stock market news will be good. In the 20th century, the United States endured two world wars and other traumatic and expensive military conflicts; the Depression; a dozen or so recessions and financial panics; oil shocks; a flu epidemic; and the resignation of a disgraced president. Yet the Dow rose from 66 to 11,497.

You might think it would have been impossible for an investor to lose money during a century marked by such an extraordinary gain. But some investors did. The hapless ones bought stocks only when they felt comfort in doing so and then proceeded to sell when the headlines made them queasy.

Today people who hold cash equivalents feel comfortable. They shouldn’t. They have opted for a terrible long-term asset, one that pays virtually nothing and is certain to depreciate in value. Indeed, the policies that government will follow in its efforts to alleviate the current crisis will probably prove inflationary and therefore accelerate declines in the real value of cash accounts.

Equities will almost certainly outperform cash over the next decade, probably by a substantial degree. Those investors who cling now to cash are betting they can efficiently time their move away from it later. In waiting for the comfort of good news, they are ignoring Wayne Gretzky’s advice: “I skate to where the puck is going to be, not to where it has been.”

I don’t like to opine on the stock market, and again I emphasize that I have no idea what the market will do in the short term. Nevertheless, I’ll follow the lead of a restaurant that opened in an empty bank building and then advertised: “Put your mouth where your money was.” Today my money and my mouth both say equities.

Warren E. Buffett is the chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway, a diversified holding company.