My Surgery Went Well

To my friends and readers some good news. I had a minor surgery today and all went well. As a consequence of the surgery, I can only sit so long and may not be able to post much; but, I am thrilled to have it over.

UPDATE:

I put out a couple of quick posts, I hope you find them of value. Now I want to talk about BOOTY.

I am trying to keep my mind off of my pain. LOL. I have been watching America's Got Talent and there are a couple of young men that I have been rooting for. A tremedous attitude and a great shtick. They are called "Tone the Chiefrocca". This is a couple of really nice kids who had a great idea. They aspire to be one hit wonders. They did a fantastic job at playing their gig out and my hat goes off to them. I want to posts some links to how they evolved on the show and their incredibly gracious approach towards not making it to the finals. The best part of their joke is that they get it is a joke and played it masterfully.

YouTube - Tone The Chiefrocca, 27 ~ AGT 2013 Los Angeles Auditions

YouTube - Tone The Chiefrocca BOOTY America's Got Talent 8 Live Show - 30 July 2013

nbc.com - Week 2 Eliminations: Judges' Elimination

Please watch the nbc video, these two young men have the greatest attitude in the world. They know they are playing a big joke and it went further then the expected and the truth is, it is not a great song; but, they sure are fun. They said they just want to have one hit, I think they have the presence and the humor to have a career. I think they should consider doing other people's songs or doing Rap comedy songs. I wish them well.

Following this line of thinking. As I was having my bottom worked on today, I used an old line from a movie with my doctor as the operation was being done.

YouTube - "Alright Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up".

I don't know if it is a good idea to make your doctor laugh while he is doing a medical procedure in a sensitive area; but, I am the Pimpernel and it helps me through such times. I had considered singing "Getting to Know You" during the operation; but, the other thought just came out, so to speak.

It is sort of strange being in a dress and naked from the waste down with a lovely young nurse (she was so fantastic) and an Asian doctor both looking deep inside me. The poor nurse couldn't figure out why with my blood pressure I hadn't been hospitalized more often. ROFL. Heck, she couldn't figure out why I wasn't hadn't had more heart attacks. It is just not my time yet. The doctor was fantastic also. He was gentle and had a great "bedside" manner. After the procedure, I left as quick as I could.

I don't like medical things and certainly not when they are on me. I cannot tell you how nice it was to get so much support from my co-workers. They have seen me go through much and this was relatively nothing. What do I say about people who actually care about how my rear end is doing and me? I had a minor procedure with an 80% chance of complete success. If it fails, I may have to have another. Okay, the truth is, I will have to have another anyways because they can only do so much at a time; but, I was dealing with cancer and got off easy. My primary doctor likes to tell me how I dodged a bullet a while back, he says I had a heart attack but didn't die. I already knew that because I am still writing.

For my dear readers, I went five years hiding from doctors and am now following their suggestions, mostly. As I go down this path, I have some more procedures to follow. By the way, I smoke and they x-rayed my lungs and they are in great condition. It seemed to annoy my primary doctor. He is so sincere and I am so cavalier about things. He does not know of this blog and I will not tell him, he is too sincere. He wants to scare me, in a nice way, and I really like him and there is no scaring me.

I am going to continue seeing my doctors even though my reason for going in has been worked on today; but, I will go in for the things that really scare them. I will not do everything they tell me, it is my body and I intend to be involved in the decisions. Thanks for being here.

The Death of Investigative Journalism

This blog did not start out with talking about news stories. In fact, it began talking about philosophy, religion and metaphysics. It was not intended to be instructional, it was more about just asking questions and looking at he possible answers. Once I felt I had exhausted those issues, I destroyed all of the posts. I couldn't even begin to tell you what the second version was about and eventually destroyed that version. The current version seems to be about the news.

I read the news and look for stories that others might not have paid attention to. Frequently the stories, in and of themselves, are not very exciting. It requires looking at the possible implications that is much more interesting. While reading news from around the world to find things that might affect us in the future, I discovered that the mainstream media is failing miserably and says pretty much the same thing in every city, every state and even most western countries. What I do not see anymore is what used to be called Investigative Journalism except from alternative media which tends to be so heavily biased as to lose credibility.

According to EBiz which looks at internet traffic monitoring sites, it shows what the top 15 news sites are. eBizMBA - Top 15 Most Popular News Websites | July 2013. Yahoo News ranked number one. I often link to Yahoo News and find it a good collector of articles; but, the vast majority of it's articles are simply republications from other sites. The next most popular are CNN, MSNBC, Google News, the New York Times, Huffington Post, Fox News, Washington Post, LA Times, Mail Online, Reuters, ABC News, USA Today, BBC News and Drudge Report.

All these sites are in a competition to get out the news quickly and more and more I notice that they are not having editors check what goes out and make many foolish spelling and grammar mistakes. I have no editor on my blog; but, lets face it, this is not a newspaper, has no budget, sells nothing and has no advertisements. You cannot really expect me to hire an editor.

It used to be that newspapers and news magazines would do investigative journalism and drill down into the headlines. People like Edward R. Murrow would do lengthy pieces on things that they spent months investigating. You don't really see that much anymore and when you do it is from the alternative media that frequently has a political agenda such as Alex Jones. We now have more access to news than ever in history and faster access; but, no in depth analysis. I cannot find ONE of the top 15 who predicted either the housing bubble crash or the stock market crash. That should concern us.

YouTube - Fox - 8/18/2007-One Of Peters' Favorites: Flashback Of Peter Schiff Vs. Ben Stein & Friends. Prior to the big crash in housing, some people were discussing it; but, they would always be outnumbered and ridiculed by people who really should have know what was coming.

YouTube - Ron Paul questions Alan Greenspan at joint economic hearing in 2004

YouTube - Jim Rogers "Housing will be a disaster" 5-20-2006.

There were people out there saying that the housing market was doomed; but, Greenspan and Bernanke said the market would have a soft landing right up until it crashed. The media spent more time reporting that and having wars of talking heads than doing any real analysis themselves or at least reporting what real analysis would have shown. Part of the reason is because the people reporting the news merely repeat the words of the person they believe is in charge. Mainstream media has just become porn focused on stories about some celebrity or tragedy.

The reason this is all a problem is because eventually, we don't believe any of the news and that is the same as not knowing what is going on. When an investigative journalist researches something, we should come away with information that they have independently verified and not just them repeating what they have been told. Another problem is that we focus on charts and graphs.

The financial news is the worst at using charts and graphs as they distract one away from asking the real questions about the innate value of a company. It would be like asking the Captain of the Titanic to predict how his trip would go. He would show all the charts and graphs which proved it was the best ship and all of the safety features being greater than other ships that had survived all types of problems. The same is true of the twin towers, their graph would show how they were better built than other buildings that had been hit by and survived plane crashes.

Because the media has become so ignorant, biased and centralized they have to explain how every tragedy could not have been foreseen. In Economics they have come to call these "Black Swan" events. The black swan is the idea that if you have only ever seen white swan then you could not predict that a black swan might exist and if you only bet on white swans then when a black swan showed up, you would lose all your money. It is a garbage theory and that is why we have contingency planners, they plan for the unthinkable. We have doctors who plan on fighting diseases that do not currently exist by asking what could be created, same thing.

Detroit, an analogy

So lets say that you are an underwater homeowner. You cannot afford to pay your mortgage and your property is worth less than you paid for it. At the same time, you have four kids living at home and only one has a job which pays minimum wage. Would your solution be to buy a swimming pool? That is what Detroit is doing. Rather than pay their mortgage or even feed their kids, they are going to build a $450 million hockey arena.

No News is No News, Watch the Stock Market

Still adjusting to my blood pressure medicine. Since starting it two weeks ago I find I am very tired and my brain is slow. I am pretty sure I will adjust and when they tested me today they saw real improvement although more tests to come. In the meantime I thought I might make a couple of comments.

In January the Federal Reserve will be getting a new chairman as Mr. Bernanke leaves. There are three ways this could go down. Firstly, the Fed might cut back on their bond purchases in September, three months before he leaves giving his replacement an chance to decide to continue the QE and say he wasn't responsible for the consequences. Secondly, his replacement can immediately reduce the QE and claim he never was a supporter in the first place. Thirdly, he can wait three months and then just end it. Those are all distinct possibilities.

Here is what we should keep an eye out for even more that Wall Streets volatility while this is all being discussed. Lets say that the Federal Reserve stops QE in any of the three scenarios I outlined above. Well, they are not the only ones doing it. China, Japan, the European Union and England are all actively having their central banks do just about the same thing. In fact, the Federal Reserve has loaned hundreds of billions of dollars to foreign banks. All of these currencies have been commingled. What happens if we stop QE; but, the other countries continue or vice versa? The stock market is just one market, what happens when the currency markets fail?

This is a video talking about the rigging of the aluminum market and QE. YouTube - Keiser Report Royal Goldman Household E475

I am stunned and really bored. Detroit.

I woke up, am getting ready to go back to bed and see my doctor today. I read this article and laughed. New York Times - Detroit Looks to Health Law to Ease Costs. I thought they told us Obamacare was more expensive than regular health insurance. Read the article and go back and read my posts, they are just lying and I said what would happen. LOL. Oh my gosh, Obamacare may save the municipal governments, what a surprise. LOL. Just imagine, everyone will love Obamacare when it means your retired civil servants get less than you promised them.

The Stock Market and Investing - Very Basic

So some guy bought some stock in some company 5 years ago at $2 a share. The company is doing well and is giving a 50 cent dividend for the year which is a 5% return based on it's current stock value of $20 and a 25% for the year on the guy who bought stock 5 years ago if he doesn't sell. That is the essence of the genius of Warren Buffet. He buys companies, does not give a dividend and has the companies stock valuation rise by reinvesting in the companies. By doing this, his stock has had a 25% increase in value for each of the last 45 or so years.

In 2003 the Dow Jones Industrial Average sat at 8,000 and ended at 10,000. Today it is at around 15,000. That is a 50% increase in ten years. If you just put your money on one of the index funds, that is how much you would have made. That is how pension funds should invest, betting on the long term. The housing market traditionally worked the same. It averaged 5% appreciation a year for the past 200 years and that is what the average for inflation was also.

Here is wisdom for investing. If inflation sits at 5% a year and a company which invests in itself appreciates at 10% or better a year, you win. You beat inflation and your investment is compounding. Remember that this means putting about $85 a month in your retirement. That is only a buck an hour at minimum wage. Investing pension money is simple. Lets say you work for a company for 30 years. Each year, $1,000 is put into your pension. The first $1,000 would now be at $4,300 or so. The total contribution at a thousand a year is now worth about $69,000 just by doing 5% a year in appreciation.

Lets try this logic with a house. If I bought a house in 1983 for $100,000, it should be worth about $250,000 today. I am not trying to get into fancy math, just simple numbers. 5% a year inflation and appreciation. Mind you, the cost for 30 years of that mortgage is about $300,000 at 5% interest. The extra $50,000 is the interest you pay for the loan. Still, with tax right offs and such, buying a house was the best investment you could make because, you cut out a lot of expenditures at the end of the 30 years. You don't have to invest; but, you do have to have a place to live. In it's simplest terms this is why financial advisers have said to eliminate all debt and then buy a house for the average person.

I have done a really bad job of explaining this. Let me try again. If you put $1,000 a year in the bank and get 0% interest, in 30 years you will have $30,000. I know that makes sense. If you get 5% a year in interest then the money you put in 30 years age will be worth about $4,000 because it compounded interest. The thousand you put in last year would only be worth about $1,050. It only had a year to compound. That is easy to understand I hope. A house does about the same thing except it eventually becomes an expense that you don't have to pay anymore. I hope that made it simple.

Now, lets look at retirement. A house should be about 40% of your costs. If you retire with your house paid off, you should be able to live on 40% less. Again simple math. A depression is claimed to be when the stock market loses 20%. The housing market never lost 20% nationwide in history until the crash of 2007 came. This is why the value of your house does not matter. If you can pay off your house in 30 years and retire, you have cut your expenses by 40%. Simple math. In fact, if you take out a loan on a house and pay it for 30 years, while getting a 5% a year pay increase, inflation, at the end of 30 years your house payment is even less of your income as a percentage. That is what it means to be middle class. It means that if you are a good boy or girl, invest in your retirement and do your job, you should be able to retire because you own your home and have paid enough in to your pension to live on 40% less while doing better each year,

Here is Deming in action. If I promise to let you retire in 35 years, if you commit to my company and make us keep up with inflation or perhaps surpass it, would you? That is his theory. Mutual gain and mutual prosperity. I am still adjusting to my medicine and see the doctor today. Oh, boy, what fun. Best wishes.

Going to Bed, Have a Doctors Appointment and Penn Jillette

I have had the very great pleasure of being on stage with Penn and Teller, I have also had the pleasure of meeting them in person. M. Jillette is a very big man and I am rather small. He is also incredibly kind, quiet and gentle in my experience. Mr. Jillette is also an atheist. I disagree with him. I want to post two videos where he talks about what he believes and talk about his mistake, at least in my mind.

YouTube - Piers Morgan Is A Dick To Penn Jillette (Part 1 of 2)

YouTube - Piers Morgan Is A Dick To Penn Jillette (Part 2 of 2).

Now, I shall correct his basic fallacy and what he says, "You may already be an Atheist. If God (however you perceive him/her/it) told you to kill your child - would you do it? If your answer is no, in my booklet your an Atheist." Watch the video, it is 30seconds in, his words not mine. Moses told God no. Abram should have when asked to kill his child. Mr. Jillette is mistaken as are most christians. God told us to be good slaves and that we have free will. How does one reconcile the two comments? He clearly does not believe in a God who allows free will and responsibility. I do. You cannot blame the Devil or God for your choices, you can only blame them for the options you were given and you have to face all options to define yourself, not just the easy ones.

I shall simplify, what Mr. Jillette was referencing was where God told Abraham to kill his son, Jacob. Abraham agreed to do so and in stealth went to do so; but, when he got to the mountain, God stopped him and told him that he wasn't the type of God who required such things. This is often used by some to show that God wants our complete zombie like obedience; but, what if Abraham had said no? We have an example of that, we have Jonah. He told God no and God had a tree grow and shade Jonah and told him why he wanted him to do a certain thing (preach to Nineveh). God did not kill Jonah for saying no or even punish him for it. Mr. Jillette assumes that if you tell God no, you are an Atheist; but, Jonah said no and knew God, he was no atheist. Both Mr. Jillette and most Christians misunderstand the meaning of the stories because they assume God wants them to be brain dead followers rather than free will people who care about one another.