Wake Up!

if you were really awake, you wouldn't be telling anyone to wake up.

Affordable Tax Raises My Premium

Just got a surprise in the mail.
My health insurance bill for January 2014
With a healthy increase of $149 a month
which apparently is to cover taxes imposed by the
Affordable Care Act.
Makes it less affordable for my family
to the tune of $1,788 a year.

very sad

as if we weren't paying enough already

Asteroid Warning System

here is a simple practical solution to the asteroid problem

early warning system

devote internationally perhaps a billion dollars a year to predicting asteroid impact
and just give people the heads up!
six months warning would be great


EVACUATE!
evacuate Madrid or Sydney or Los Angeles

and update the prediction every day!

this could save a lot of lives and yet not cost a lot
maybe a billion is way off
maybe ten million per year would be enough!
It would not save the buildings
but it might save the people/

The Affordable Recession

It looks like we may have tipped over into recession this quarter.
Is this negative growth?
It will take a long time to know.
But if it is a new recession I propose calling it the Affordable Recession, because the Affordable Care Act implementation may be the straw breaking this economy's back.

Syria

what a sad situation. is there anything that could be done to make it better?

My perspective

it was a mistake for other governments to encourage the rebellion,
that was a mistake that has led to this humanitarian disaster

No matter how bad Assad was, is it better now?
Is the right way to deal with bad dictators to take up arms against them?

So what about the future?

Let nature take its course without interfering. That is what I believe in.
Ultimately there will be a victor and there will be peace. Picking sides does not help that to happen.Unfortunately, helping the rebels is prolonging the struggle.

It would be better at this point to let Assad regain control.

Here is something I heard. This is really about the oil pipeline that the Saudis wanted to run through Syria.
This pipeline would lessen the power of Russia over Europe. Right now Russia is the main supplier of oil to Europe. They are able to threaten Europe with supply disruptions.
So the people who want Assad out have this big ulterior motive. I am heart sick over this.

But what is the truth? I don't really know. There are so many motivations.
But the choice to be violent is an individual choice.
We can each choose to stop being violent.

Great Economy

So what is right with this economy?
What is making stocks go up and up and real estate go up and up?
There is a lot of complaining about the moderate growth rate and the high unemployment rate.
But those things go together with low interest rates and a low rate of inflation.

Here are the positives in a nutshell

low interest rates
sluggish growth
abundant cheap labor
unemployment rate of around 7%
an aging population
new technology
good international trade relations


All these things are powerful enough to overcome the negative of government interference

New Entitlements

People need things. Lots of things. And the government needs to guarantee that everybody gets these things.

Clothing

Internet

Mobile internet with unlimited data

pets, dogs, cats, fish, birds

vacations to Europe

automobiles!! and good ones!! luxury autos for sure

furniture

nice furniture!

lessons, like tennis and piano and yoga etc.

dining out! at good restaurants!

air conditioning

landscaping

big weddings

big funerals

legal services

and there are so many more
These are all RIGHTS
everyone has a right to all these things and more and the government needs to get to work right now and make sure everyone has them

Hard Choices

I run a mile every day no matter what.
This is a task I set myself long ago and I still am at it.
There is no end to this task. It is every day forever...
And this is not easy! It is hard! It is a hard choice that I make every day!

JFK said it well

"We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too."

What were the other things?

Joseph J. Oliva born 10/3/1906

Born in Tyndall, South Dakota
Attended Tyndall High School from 1920 to 1924
Was captain of state champion track team in 1924.
President of Student Association in his Senior year.
Shared the Pike Memorial Prize with Joe Kass

Moved to Cal;ifornia with his parents and sister Irene in 1924
Graduated UCLA

Died April 16, 1999 at age 92

YOU are source supply is INFINITE

you are your own subjectivity
we are each trapped in our own subjectivity
there is no outside of it
it is complete and whole already
right now

but not trapped in a negative way, just really there... with no possibility of not being there...
eternal and real and yet entirely subjective

just look at what your subjectivity is and you will see that it is already infinite
there is no lack

thanks to Natalia

and understand that there is no other source for your subjectivity than your own subjectivity.
it is a miracle, a paradox, a blessing,
it is wonderful and beautiful

it is YOU
it is INFINITE

The Cure

there is no cure
and there's nothing to be cured
everything is just fine

some people are always looking for a cure
always looking for something that needs to be cured
let them
leave them alone

does the moon need to be cured?
does the sun need to be cured?
do the stars need to be cured?
are they sick?

sickness is imaginary
we have imagined it
and that is its only existence

10 Goals

love

live

prosper

make beautiful music

be fit

be straight with people

avoid vice

spread good cheer

be thrifty

use all your gifts wisely

 

Legs At The Beach

here is something artistic and beautiful from an old negative around the year 1926 at the beach in Santa Monica

Repose

REPOSE

I am not right

You are not wrong

I am not wrong

You are not right

Above is truth

below are lies

below is truth 

above are lies

gracefully dancing

falling twisted

the full range

the icy pallette

the million colors

the one clear light

all the same

when fragmented or together

inspired despair

to false love

to truth

lying on the flower bed

or lying to your face

still really one together

now and forever

All Disease

is vice

all disease is vice

very radical statement

VICE

ALL! DISEASE IS

VICE!!

all disease is vice

live with that for a moment
try it on
what does it mean
is it useful?

Correction At Last?

A big sell off is happening right now.
About 4% off the market in two days.
Looks like a normal thing.
How much more? Another 6% and we would have a nice 10% correction.
How long will it take?
Maybe two weeks.
So I will make a wild guess that a bottom will be made around June 6

I am curious to see if this pans out.

Suicide Note

This was written in acting class as an independent activity. The imaginary circumstance is a husband who has lost his wife and has adult independent children. In the scene he has already taken poison and knows he has only a few minutes of life remaining to him. He writes a suicide note, but it is written to his late wife.


My love! My eternal love!
I have tried to stay in this world, but soon I will join you. 
A year I have gone on, each day more painful than the last.
Now for the first time I have hope because I know I will join you,
soon. Just a few minutes and I will be with you, joy to be reunited.
Please understand why I have done this. The pain was too much to bear. My only hope is to be with you again, or oblivion, much better than this living death I have endured.


    

Are Fruit Trees Selfish?

Are people really just selfish and phony and liars? Who knows?
Maybe those are the wrong questions. Hung up on that stuff when the real point is to learn to be happy and loving.
Think of people like fruit trees. Are the trees selfish. Yes! They give fruit in order to spread their seed. So they do have an ulterior motive! But what is the motive of spreading seed? Isn’t that unselfish? What good does it do ME to have descendants?

Bad Moods

Do I have a right to be in a bad mood?
If I could choose, would I choose to be in a bad mood or a good mood?

Is being in a bad mood a sort of entitlement?
Is it OK as long as you don't hurt anybody? But doesn't it almost automatically hurt people?
Is it just selfishness?
Or is it sickness?

Or do we owe it to our community to cultivate a good mood?

OK, so everybody gets in bad moods. What should you do about it?

Maybe the only wise course is to excuse yourself from the scene until the mood passes.
The problem is that you can't always get away. Sometimes you must work with others in spite of the bad mood. I can't work with you because I am in a bad mood so I will go by myself and relax and goof off!

Let everyone know you are in a bad mood and ask for tolerance?
Sounds manipulative. Sounds like shirking.
I can't work well with you because I am in a bad mood so you must accept my sub par performance.

How often are you in a bad mood?
How can you cultivate good moods?

This is a big field for study.

Roaring Bull Market

Do bulls roar? Do markets roar?

I don't know what to do in this market. I don't understand it.
It scares me.
Too high!
Why is it shooting up today?
Is it a short covering rally? All the people who sold short expecting a May correction are now wildly covering and driving the market up and away?

Or is it reasonable.
Markets have a long way to go now.
We have really had a stagnant market for 10 or 15 years and now markets can double
DOUBLE
and it would not be unreasonable.

What am I doing?
I am scared.
I am sitting with cash. Option premiums are very low.
The odds in my mind favor a continued move up. But there is the fear of a correction or a crash.

Here is how I am thinking

10% continued rapid rise
10% crash
10% correction
20% slow rise
50% nothing to write home about.

Corrections are usually short and bitter.

So sitting in cash I fear I will miss the 30% chance of good gains over the next two years.

I  really don't have any good ideas right now.

Mind The Manic

Laura came up with a clever phrase to put up on our kitchen bulletin board.

MIND THE MANIC

It is a reminder to not get too excited and happy and crazy around the house.
Good advice
Notice when things are getting a little too big and cool down 

reminds me of 

RELAX

take a deep breath

we have been reminded of mindfulness

anyway I like the phrase

MIND THE MANIC
how about mind over manic?





 

 

The Doomsters Are Wrong

There is a bunch always predicting economic collapse.
But they leave something out of their equations.

They leave out the improvement in productivity that is happening now and
has been happening and will continue to happen!

Of course, government tends to do things that obstruct productivity such as
price controls and taxes and entitlements,

BUT

the forces of improving productivity are so powerful
that government really can't stop it!!

So we are not going to collapse

We are going to continue to get richer and richer

That is what is really happening in our global economy.

Days End by David Morton

Days End
by David Morton

Is there no different way the light may learn
To leave these hills at every evening’s close
Save turning as a lovely ghost would turn
To leave a house and hearthstone that she knows
In such a wise that these same stars appear
One after one, to gaze across the dark
On rooms abandoned to the windy year
That keep no single sweet familiar mark?

I have seen all too much of lonely things,
Of lovely slow departures in this wise,
And the long, listening stillness that it brings
Where lonely hills are left to lonely skies,
And stars incredulous that stare and stare
Into the empty hush that gathers there.


I found this poem hand written in an old dtexbook my father owned when he was attending
UCLA around 1928. It was a business textbook! The poem must have meant something to him
for hum to take the trouble to write it out at the front of his book. It is a sad wistful expression of loneliness. The lonely college student.

Adventures of Mr. Finity

Mr. Finity is feeling bad, as usual, even as MR. INFINITY tries to cheer him up by offering him a
beautiful ball.

Meet Mr. Finity

Mr. Finity is very finicky

Unlike his neighbor Mr. Infinity who is very tolerant.

Malice

There is no malice
In the cosmos

There is only Love
And Joy and Play

They look out
From behind
Every mask

Smaller Government Is Good For Business

The dreaded sequester is here and the market reacted this morning by setting a new record high in the DOW 30.
Business knows that government spending is a drag on the economy. Government is an obstacle that must be overcome in order to produce.
Business knows that we are better off with less government.

The miracle of the marketplace unleashed will raise everyone up. Just keep cutting government.

God

 The pain of this all goes so very deep.
 It is beyond the beyond. 
 All I can do is trust God.  If God is for us, then we have nothing to fear.  If God is against us, then there is no hope.  We cannot stand against God.  We must believe that God is good.  We must say, "My trust is in God."

Among The Marbles

Stumbling around in the
dark
caught up in a messed up
maze

borrowing phrases from
retired writers who
mangled language

to shock
to get a rise
to surprise

Where is the light switch?
Where are my keys?
down on my knees
among the marbles, Did
these fall out of my head?

and the moral is
quit asking so many questions

New Economy Muddling Through

We look at the national debt rising toward 20 trillion dollars and pessimists predict catastrophe in the form of hyper inflation. They reason that this debt will be monetized, that government will run the printing presses, and gold and real estate and tangibles will rise as the dollar sinks.

And there is some truth in this

But realistically we are in a new type of economy that is very sensitive. The slightest acceleration brings higher prices which slow things which brings lower prices. 

I see a wonderful future of moderate growth, low inflation, low interest rates, and a gradual lessening of the debt problem.

Debt will continue to go up, but as the economy grows, it can sustain more debt.
Debt is not such a bad thing. Debt is just money.

Is the solution to have less money? I don't think so.
What has been working well is a gradual increase in the supply of money.

Right now another small real estate bubble is forming. But I don't expect it to continue. Gold has been in a downtrend for more than a year.

Sensible people are seeing that it is better to buy a bag of seeds than to buy a bag of gold

It is better to hold income property or a healthy business rather than unproductive land.

Virtue will be rewarded.
We will muddle through.
This is a new economy, a smart economy.

Maybe This Is A Recession

Growth stalled in the last quarter of 2012.
Who expected this?

What does it mean?

There are plenty of negatives for our society.
Where is our attention? A lot of it is on tax avoidance. A lot is on how to deal with government.
The drag of government.

New rules.

Little stuff that adds up.

In California there is a new rule about CO alarms. They are now required in all rentals.
They cost money. They must be installed and inspected and maintained.
They are a small drag on the rental business, a small increase in the cost of doing business.

And there is no real perceptible improvement of the quality of housing. It remains to be seen whether this will actually save lives or improve health. These alarms sound like a good idea but how much good do they really do? Will the rate of CO poisoning be lower in 2013 that it was in 2012?

This is one example of a new regulation taking time and energy and money that might be used elsewhere.

I am sure there are hundreds more. Our energy gets directed by government. Damn the cost!
All this leads to increasing inefficiency and a sort of lack of mindfulness.

When I am forced to do what the government requires, it makes me less able to do what I think is required.

And that means required for the good life, for health, for safety, for peace of mind.

Robbed of peace of mind by government overreaching. And the economy is stalled because of government overreaching.

A Good Time

what most people consider to be a good time, isn't.

College Degree

What is the point of getting a college degree?
A diploma?
Of graduating from college? Of being a college graduate?

Of EARNING a degree?

It is evidence of intelligence and responsibility
In order to earn a degree you must have some intelligence and you must be able to negotiate the system.
Not easy
The point of the degree is that you did something difficult over a sustained period of time.

The point is to earn a degree

to EARN it

Then other people you meet in the world, regardless of what sort of relationship you need, will know that you had what it took to earn a degree. That is all.

And it does make a difference where you get your degree.
How impressive is it to say you are a Harvard graduate?
Prestige is important.

Is it about what you learn in classes? Not exactly.
It is that you are capable of learning and of demonstrating proficiency in something.


And there is more

a bachelor's degree is often a requirement for another position, a job, a higher degree

so it is worth a lot
the college degree
the diploma
being a college graduate

Justice Racket

American justice is not justice at all.
It is just a con that makes lawyers rich.

We are all made poorer by the devious behavior of attorneys.
They are the masters.
We are the slaves.

There is a better way.

Avoid the lawyers and the courts and the lawmakers
just be kind and generous and careful and responsible and forgiving and
don't be greedy or grasping
and then the lawyers,
like the devil,
can't get you

Syria Revolution 60,000 DEAD

so far

it is not over yet

are violent revolutions a good idea?

who encouraged this? who helped the rebels? who gave them support and money and weapons?

who is responsible for the deaths?

60,000 deaths and untold misery and who is responsible?

plenty to go around

words do matter
stop with words of anger and hatred and injustice and fighting and threats and so on

it does not help to threaten and call out for justice and revenge
I have a simple idea

FOUR Cs

crisis
compassion
communication
cooperation

when there is a crisis, and they are always going on, it is just another word for change

but always start with compassion, look at the other guy with compassion and
do your best to work on establishing communication and dialogue
listen to what they have to say, say what you need to say, and listen and keep listening
until you can arrive at understanding and start to cooperate to help all parties

this is not that difficult
much easier than going to the hospital
easier than killing or getting killed

we should all stop fighting and talk through our differences patiently
stop with deadlines and ultimatums and just keep talking until we reach understanding and peace