Virtue Pays

They say that virtue is its own reward.
And that is surely the truth.
But in addition I would propose that in the long run and on average the virtuous have much better lives in every respect.

And that opens the question, what is virtue and how can one attain it?

Not easy being virtuous

but sometimes your conscience will alert you when you are not being virtuous.

for me the simple answer is to take care

take care of yourself
and your environment
the people around you
take care

Short Squeeze

market up a lot this week today 400 points up and I am glad not to be short this market

short sellers take a big risk and when things turn they must cover and it drives prices up rapidly

trading range is the story
seven months of trading range
up and down and down and up never breaking out either up or down

how long will this last?

until there is a clear frontrunner for president and I mean either Obama or the republican

and then which way will it break?
I still expect it to break out to the upside eventually
I see a bull market that should go on for years and give healthy returns

but I am an optimist

but I would be very careful about shorting because the upside breakout could happen any time
in other words
I would not short this market!

Cause

everything arises spontaneously from the infinite void

so actually

there is no such thing as cause

nothing causes anything else

you might say the cause of anything is everything but why bother

everything just is

you might try this

why not a computer?
why not a sunrise?
why not a lover?
why not dirt?
why not crows?

things do not come from why
they come from why not?

Dwolla What's In It For Me?

dwolla is a lovely idea
no credit card and thus no fees just 25 cents per transaction
but what is the incentive for the consumer to go this way?
Right now the consumer does not pay the fees. The business pays the fees.
In fact, the consumer often gets little rebates or bonus points when they use the credit card
plus they get to use the money for free usually for almost a month as long as they pay off the total balance each month.
so right now the credit cards are a great deal for consumers
what would motivate them to use dwolla?
dwolla is lovely for business, but I see no reason as a consumer to switch.

Who Knows?

Lately I have been thinking about how much I don't understand about what goes on. I really don't understand much at all, and I suspect no one else does either.

We are all pretty much operating in the dark. It is frightening, except things generally seem to go pretty well. For our purposes as long as we are out of trouble it doesn't seem to matter what we know.

But suppose there really is some catastrophe looming in the future that will wipe us out. Is it inevitable? No species lives forever.

But our species isn't what is the most important. Our spirit is important. Will our spirit live forever? Will anything live forever? It looks as though nothing will live forever!

Rats or Men?

Stocks have been sinking again.
How low this time? Is this the next leg down? Will there be a crash at some point?
A rush for the exit?
Be calm and remember we live in a community! Don’t be rats abandoning the ship! Be humans who work together to solve all problems!

This is a perfect world.
Supply is infinite.
Let the green grass grow.
Take time for imagination.

Peace Peace Peace

patience

kindness

dialogue

keep talking until you reach consensus

and another thing.....
don't overextend yourself
people tend to destroy their own peace of mind by taking on too much by trying to do too much
as if we are here to do too much
as if the measure of our lives is how many mountains we have climbed
and how big were the mountains

peace will come with simplicity

take a nice deep breath and peace is here right now