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League of American Voters - League of American Voters Petition

2010-07-27T12:24:00.000-04:00

League of American Voters - League of American Voters Petition

If you care about how we are taxed, take a look...

7 Weeks

2008-09-29T16:25:00.007-04:00

Bird season in Georgia is about 7 weeks away. By birds, I mean quail. Time to get the dogs polished up on some commands, and day dream about days afield not too far away...

Jake might be smelling birds from the truck

Casting about...

Belle with the retrieve...

Photos from a 2006 hunt just around Thanksgiving...

Gubmint Bailouts

2008-09-23T13:00:00.000-04:00

I don't think I am smart enough to figure out a way out of the current economic morass. Apparently a lot of other people aren't smart enough either, since it happened and there are supposed to be a whole lot of smart people making sure these things don't happen.

Well, another thing, a large percentage of people are not as smart as they think they are. Not everybody scored in the 90th percentile on their standardized testing. That's why it's the 90th percentile. If you scored that high, you probably went to Harvard, or Yale, or some other fine institution which grooms the financial leaders of tomorrow. People in the lower percentiles who are good looking go into television media, the ones who have a face for radio do their thing, and the rest of us blog. There's just not enough smart people to go around. It's not the Media's fault...how could you explain Calculus to a four year old when you yourself couldn't grasp fractions?

In fact, maybe there are people smart enough out there, but they have been too busy making money. So busy in fact that they couldn't pause long enough to realize that what they were doing would lead to economic collapse. Or maybe they were really smart and figured out that all of the other people who went to Harvard and Yale but had family money and went into Politics would write a $700 Billion government check. The first group, the money-makers, looked at all the risks and contingencies. In fact, they analyzed, they ruminated, they ran what-if scenarios, and ultimately, they knew their classmates would write that check.

What about holding indivduals accountable for their actions? I am not talking about criminally liable, I am talking about financially liable. I am talking about all those too stupid or too bold or both to realize that they stuck themselves in a place they shouldn't be. Why should we, the taxpayer, subsidize stupidity of people who borrowed more than they could ever repay? Why not let it collapse, re-value, go through a market-correction, and let some good old fashioned natural selection financially trim some of the fat.

Pretty hard & cold I know. But what happens after you spend the $700 Billion to bail out the homeowners, the financiers, the insurance companies, the credit card holders and the rest of the motley crew? Has any learning taken place?

Yes there has been some learning. They learned that it doesn't matter what I do, Uncle Sam will take care of me. And so they'll charge ahead, literally, leveraging everything again, and create a bigger fiasco than before. Meanwhile, the government will slap so much regulation on Wall Street that it will be impossible for you and I to ever realize any kind of return out of the market.

I don't think you can fight it...there are too many stupid people and too many willing to subsidize the stupidity and hamper the capitalist engine along the way. So, I just want to know, where do I line up and where do I sign to turn over my mortgage and my credit card debt to the government so I can start over too.

Nobama '08

2008-09-22T17:14:00.011-04:00

'Nuff Said.

Well maybe not. In general, as a rule, I don't care for politics, or politicians. Every 4 years I go to the polls asking myself if these 2 clowns are the best we have to offer up? The question is of course, no. These are the best 2 clowns that had enough money and connections to make it through the political process and be nominated for President of the United States, and leader of the Free World. I have a feeling there is some dude sitting in a cabin in Idaho or Montana, that would make a fantastic president, but he doesn't have the millions required to run a campaign.

I carry a strong suspicion that the Republicans and Democrats are playing the public to keep themselves elected for life. How many Representatives or Senators take themselves out of the game after 4 years and go back to being productive members of society? Maybe more than I am aware of, but in general, it seems politics is a lifelong avocation.

In fact, I am so suspicious, I imagine back in the day, the likes of Ted Kennedy and Newt Gingrich get together in some Georgetown bar and decide which elements of society they will patronize in order to get elected and stay elected. Newt decided to take anti-abortion and Teddy took Pro-Choice. Teddy wanted the black vote, so Newt took the whites. Teddy took on the mantle of tax and spend while Newt decided espouse Reaganomics. Etcetera Etcetera, Ad Nauseum. Even now, I am sure Nancy Pelosi sits down with someone and divvies up the country's votes.

When Gore was running against George W., I asked myself who I would rather hang out with. In addition to agreeing with some of what he was about, Bush was the Lesser of Two Evils. At least you had the sense he would kick ass when needed, and wouldn't back down. Texas is always better than Tennessee anyways. A lot of Texans trace their lineage to people who had the good sense to migrate out of Tennessee in the first place.

Gore is a tool. He is also apparently unstable. All the pot heads I knew years ago didn't handle stress very well, and Gore was no exception. I just googled images for a photo that came out after his post hanging-chad-election meltdown. Couldn't find it after a 30-second ADD search, but he looked like a mountain man that had been raped in prison. Not the kind of guy to be running the country. At least the terrorists are scared of Dubya, even if he's not a great public speaker. Who cares anyways, we all probably sound stupid in Arabic.

Remember the Mother of All Battles boast by Saddam? He sounded like a moron in English, but I bet it was a pretty scary statement in Arabic. Just something lost in translation. All it did for us was give birth to the MOAB-Mother of All Bombs, and we know what happened to Smack-Talking Saddam.

Anyhoo, back on point...Gore was RAISED to be president. His dad was a Senator from Tennessee. Gore is what most people refer to as a Legacy, like Flounder in the movie Animal House. Based on what I can tell, Gore was a pot-smoking fun-loving college student with a girlfriend named Tipper. Word is they weren't exactly saints back in the day. Then they straightened up, got respectable, and then rose to political stardom. Gore then lost the election, and went off the deep-end for a few weeks, emerging in his caveman disguise. Remember too that he claimed to have invented the Internet. Now he is jetting around the world, crusading against global warming, leaving perhaps the largest carbon footprint of anyone on the planet.

For me, I say Nobama '08 because Obama is More Gore. He has been raised, groomed, and prepped for the Presidency with no experience to boot, so he is worse than Gore. Media darling, sound bites, slick talking, and I have to admit, a heck of a speech giver. He has the Clinton-esque ability to tell you something you can't stand to hear, yet he charms you into listening- a gift indeed. Obama is hailed as a savior, and propped up by the Democratic party as the panacea to all things Bush & Cheney which have ruined this country (if you believe it), but at least Gore had been in the system a while. Gore was like an automaton with programming for every scenario, only he had no program for losing the election he was supposed to win. Gore was predictable, but thank God it was Bush in charge to react to the 9-11 Attack. Lord only knows what would have happened with Gore in office. We probably would have seen Caveman Gore. However, we have no idea what Mr. Obama would do in a crisis or national emergency or God-forbid an attack that surpasses Pearl Harbor and 9-11. He has said he would open up dialogue. I don't want dialogue, I want someone that would open up a whole case of whoop-ass. It makes our enemies think twice about trying to poke us in the eye, or worse. Say what you will, but 9-11 was a direct cause-effect of weak US policy towards terrorist activity and attacks in the previous 8 years leading up to the election of 2000.

People with no experience in leadership scare the crap out of me. Forget that I disagree with Obama on the whole socialism issue and taxation. If you want all that, there are lots of countries in Europe to choose from and Canada is real close. Forget also that I disagree with Obama on just about every other issue too, and I think he would say anything to get elected, catering the message to each audience he addresses. If he deigned to try and personally convince me to vote for him, he would probably wax eloquent on quail hunting, extol the virtues of youth football, and tell me what an all-around great guy I am and that he wants the same things I do.

And true, there are some things I don't like about McCain. but if anything, the President is the Executive and Commander-In-Chief and if that's what the President is supposed to be , then in my opinion, McCain is the man for the job. Barack Hussein Obama as Commander-In-Chief does not make me sleep well at night and feel good about my children's future on this planet. There are a lot of people that don't like the United States, and a fair amount of them are clamoring for Obama. Some of them live here in the US. For me, this time, its a clearer choice.

And if not enough people see it my way, Plan B is to move to Mexico where there are tons of quail and a little cash goes a long way.

PS I am so, so glad that Cheney is not running, because if he was, there is no wrath like that reserved for a man that shoots another bird hunter.

Going Out On My Own

2008-05-19T13:30:00.005-04:00

Well, I've finally done it...

The corporation I work for offered some voluntary packages a while back. In fact, this is the most recent voluntary package in a series of many. Some were immediately post-9/11, others along the way, preceding a corporate bankruptcy. I lived through all of this for ten years, and this is the first time I seriously considered a "package".

Being what most people would consider middle-aged I guess, with a mortgage, wife, 3 kids, 4 dogs and all that goes on with those things, I would expect most people would think I was nuts for quitting my job, however, almost to a person, everyone has wished me well and expressed good thoughts on my potential future success. All except 3 people, 2 of those being my parents who I am sure were hyper ventilating and thinking of how much money I would ask them for in 3 months...

I have always wanted to do this. I thought that at some point in my life, I would invent something, open a small firm to market or manufacture it, and be an Entrepreneur. As it stands, I have never invented anything to my knowledge, but I have built up a base of experience, contacts and a little knowledge which makes an opportunity for me to become a consultant.

I am officially jacked sideways about the opportunity to be my own boss, that my success or failure rests squarely on my shoulders and not some Black Box that is a modern American Corporation. The idea is a little daunting, but with all the positive reception I have gotten I am not too apprehensive. Granted, positive response doesn't pay the bills, but the couple contracts that are currently either signed or about to be inked, coupled with the severance package, make a unique opportunity to start a business...

My thought process involved a lot of talking with my wife. We calculated when we would actually starve to death. It was nice to hear her say she trusted me. I thought of the severance package as a Small Business Grant. I also talked to a lot of folks on the "outside". There were a lot of positive conversations, and a few that resulted in actual work. I now have several contracts lined up that will likely lead to additional work. There are a few more contacts that have something, but nothing definite yet. I figure that if one contact in 100 results in work, then I will be in good shape.

I have never considered any of the packages before now. For me the watershed moment was standing in the hall discussing the newly announced package with a colleague, and then noticing the poster on the wall celebrating profit sharing that had just occurred from the First Quarter 2008. The date on the poster was a month to the day prior. I thought to myself, how can we go from bankruptcy, to profit sharing, to cutting and taking losses again in such a short span. I resolved I didn't have a another 3-5 year down cycle in me. I decided to leap out into the unknown.

So here I am. Wish me luck, the light is green and I have stepped in the door, about to jump into the night. Of course, I think there is a parachute, and I have a reasonable idea of where I want to land. I think that with this, and a lot of hard work, we might just make this fly.

The Politically Incorrect Armchair Economist

2008-03-23T00:52:00.005-04:00

The text below was a rambling response to a forwarded email. The gist of the email chain was the sorry state of the economy right now, the dollar, and the real-estate market. Some names have been changed or substituted to protect the hapless. Most of this is tongue in cheek, but I get cranked up towards the end. I think my politics probably defy explanation and I likely don't fit the ideal of any of the political parties currently in existence.

Short-term, Diversify your portfolio and buy Euros on the foreign exchange. The 1.45 vs. 1.57 quoted below is an 8.2% increase in one month CPI last month was flat.

If you had placed the family fortune in currency futures you'd be able to spend the summer in the South of France.

NAFTA has caused US Dollars to flee from our shores along with the industrial base. Buy American.

How much US currency passes into the hands of illegals to be sent home south of the border. Billions are flooding into Mexico and beyond never to return. The US is a service provided, no longer an industrial giant. The nouveau riche of these now developing "3rd World" countries are becoming the consumer that Americans were in the 1950's. The expatriated US dollars are fueling foreign economies that produce durable goods. China, Asia, Latin America will be laughing all the way to the bank.

What propelled the US to its former glory, now fading? Defeat and destruction of the rest of the industrial world in WW2 coupled with factories facing the prospect of closing doors or producing consumer products. The Military-Industrial complex no longer drives a large portion of our economy. The military is smaller and supposedly more fiscally responsible, although we are as actively engaged as we were in the 60's. Japan's post-war star fades on their bizarre banking. We may be teetering on the brink as well without some fundamental changes.

Our enemies are destroying from within. They cannot defeat the might of the US Military in a stand up fight, but they can crumble the infrastructure and ruin the economy. Until the thieving and give-aways are stopped, our slide will continue. Policies need to change. Become the tyrant the rest of the world blames us for being anyways.

As far as housing, Foreign Investment in US real estate will ultimately buoy prices in the US market.

Absent Panic, the housing market will improve over the course of several years and the sub-standard mortgage crisis will stabilize. As long as sensible growth replaces the euphoria that got us into this mess in the first place, we should be OK in 5-10 years.

Meanwhile, the war in Iraq is costing 10+ Billion a month. Federalize the oil producing area of Iraq until the war debt is paid off and subsidize US oil production with cut rate oil. Prices will drop for the consumer, but the big oil companies can preserve their margin and still make BILLIONS. No one will do it because they don't have the brass ones-but that's what needs to happen. If others accuse us of acting like an empire then we ought to benefit from being an empire.

To be a benevolent tyrant, promise a revenue share to the Iraqis IF they can get themselves together on self-governance, national security and domestic peace instead of acting like a bunch of hooligans and thugs. F the Russians, F the Chinese, and F Mother-Effin OPEC. Chavez can lump it. If the Chinese get too froggy, appease them with cheap oil or drop another round of Bird Flu and SARS on them.

Tax the oil companies to produce cost-effective oil alternatives by 2020 because only with independence from foreign oil will we be able to be self-determinant and truly powerful again. The rest of the world will have to follow because the petroleum resources will run out and by 2040 we can be selling them first generation oil-free technology and keep them beholden to us for round two.

20 Years of Turkey Hunting

2008-03-22T22:59:00.006-04:00

If there's anything I like as much as quail, its spring gobbler hunting.

I am a non-committal deer hunter these days. I used to deer hunt literally non-stop. I think this is what makes me crave deer hunting less now. We would hunt from before sun-up to after sun-down, staying on stand all but maybe 1 hour of the day. We killed a lot of deer, and really killed my enthusiasm for it too. Sitting 15 or 20 feet up in a tree in 30 degree weather for six or seven hours straight tends to dampen your ardor for just about anything, including deer hunting. When I was younger, it was a test of will power. Now, I am purely disinterested. The last deer hunt I went on was to take my boys on their first. This was a great pleasure, and hints that one day the fire will return. But for now, you can have your deer hunting. I'll take the turkeys, thank you very much.

For me, like for so many other poor unfortunate souls, turkey hunting is like an obsession. Once turkey season starts, I really can't think of much else. Yard work goes untended. My marital bliss deteriorates-so much so it doesn't really get fully repaired till deer season arrives. I stumble bleary eyed though the Spring-others attribute it I am sure to the new baby or pollen. Only I know the truth-waking up to meet the crack of day instead of sleeping in on Saturday morning after a long week of work.

I guess that I am somewhat of a purist. For me, the ultimate is the early morning ritual of gobblers on the roost. I know you can kill turkeys at later parts of the day, but for me, the waking of the woods is a magical time, and it revitalizes me. When I sit on a deer stand all the pressures of life creep into my brain, haunting my time in the woods. When I am standing on some high point in the dark, listening to whippoorwills and other early morning birds, waiting for that first gobble, I feel completely free. When that first bird sounds off, proclaiming his majesty to all of nature, it sends a thrill through me every time-just like a covey rise.

This morning, March 22nd, was the opening day in Georgia. I have passed 20 seasons hunting turkeys in my home state. I have hunted both public land and private. I have hunted morning, mid-day and afternoons. I have called up turkeys in all manner of places and times, using a variety of calls. Like most turkey hunters, I have called up far more birds than I have killed. Some guys have the knack to drop the hammer on a gobbler every time they get one in range. Not me-Murphy is a constant companion when I am in the turkey woods.

I think I remember more vividly the birds that gave me the slip. There was a gobbler that came running his goofy side to side gait up the little woods road to the old well. With every stride his paint-brush beard swayed ponderously. He stopped next to an ancient pine, stuck his head out and gobbled so loud it felt like it shook my hair. He had stopped short looking at my decoy. He gobbled over and over again, going into a half-strut and gobbling at my decoy which sat there motionless and unimpressed. He puffed up into a strut, showing off for my frigid female. She remained passionless. He finally got fed up and side-slipped around me, then disappeared behind some brush. The whole time I had a bead on him, but thought he was beyond effective range. After he'd been gone a while, I walked over to where he'd put on the show and was amazed and shocked to realize it was less than 30 yards. It had all happened so fast I hadn't gotten a good judge of the range.

Another time in the mid-day I had been sitting on a ridge top calling down into a bottom. A hen had come up to investigate me and given me a valuable hen talk lesson. I was dozing off in the warm sun. Some of the best sleep I've had was on the forest floor during turkey season after an early rise. Suddenly I heard a bird gobbling on the loading deck behind and below me. I flipped my position around on the same tree and faced up-hill. The lip of the ridge and a little logging road was 15 yards away and concealed the bird. He seemed like he was gobbling in the loading deck and getting no closer. I made the command decision to belly crawl up to the lip of the road where there was a berm formed by a dozer for a better look. I froze half-way there when I heard him stepping in the leaves on the road. He must have heard me GI-crawling through the leaves and thought it was the hen he'd heard. I was prone with my shotgun up, ready to fire-but then I inspected the berm a couple of yards to my front. I still couldn't see the tom, but I could see all kinds of rocks in that berm. Then the tip of a white skull-cap appeared above the berm, followed by a blue head and keen eyes, then the blood red neck and wattles. I had my shotgun bead on the kill zone, but then my mind flashed to all those rocks in that berm-what if stray pellets hit those rocks and richoted back? I decided to wait for the bird to move to the left or right of the berm. He peered over the edge, seeming to look past me, down into the wide open oak bottom below us. There was no hen in sight and rather than go right or left, he made an about face and walked away. To add insult to injury, he gobbled one more time down on the loading deck and then departed for parts unknown. I had lain patiently awaiting him to come back, and then eased up to the berm when I heard him gobble from the loading deck, but once I could spy from the top of the berm, he was gone.

That story happened on public land, national forest land, during Spring Break when I was in college. All my friends thought I was nuts, spending the week in the woods chasing turkeys rather than chasing bikinis on the beach. But, they'd come back, telling stories of getting arrested and zip tied by the cops and I'd just sit quietly and listened and wouldn't have traded my stories for one of theirs.

That was almost 20 years ago, and today is the anniversary. My future Father-In-Law took pity on me and introduced me to the turkey woods, ruining me for life and much to the chagrin of his daughter. We hunted a lot, and I missed a lot of sleep but it was all worth it. We started out on the Oconee National Forest down close to Lake Jackson. We called in a lot of turkeys, but I never killed one on public land, even to this day. My first turkey came a few years later on a private lease and it was a text book hunt. Matter of fact, I have killed all my turkeys within the first hour of daylight. I have called up a lot more after that, just never connected. I think because I've never connected on one in my old haunt, I keep going back.

Last year I took a good friend from out west on his first Eastern gobbler hunt. He'd killed turkeys before, in Texas with a rifle. I assured him this was like kissing your sister compared to spring gobbler hunting. We heard two different gobblers at daylight. I asked him which one he wanted to chase & he said it was my choice. I picked the one that seemed to be in a more familiar place & we jogged off to get him as he sounded about a half-mile distant. We got closer and set-up in a pretty oak hillside bordered by a creek. I wanted him to get the shot and made sure the set-up was such that he had a high probability to have the gobbler appear on his front. That bird continued to gobble and double gobble on the roost. He gobbled so much I worried someone else would hear him and maybe spoil the hunt. Then when I called I could tell he was on the ground-I whispered here he comes. The bird cut me off when I called and I turned to my friend and told him this bird really wants to get killed. He came closer and closer, gobbling every time I called. I whispered "Get ready, he's coming". The bird was within 100 yards of us by the sound of him, but we still hadn't spotted him. We were on a little slope with some very mature oaks and little ravines here and there. About 60 yards to my left was a screen of brush. Then, by the sound of him the bird had veered to my left, away from the designated shooter. We started arguing over who was going to take the shot. I insisted he do it as my guest and he finally relented. Then I saw the bird coming and whispered to my friend to get ready. He tried to tell me to take the shot. The bird was hidden by a giant oak trunk. I had my gun on the trunk, but was hoping the bird would swing around so my guest could take his first Eastern. Then, the bird moved to the left of the trunk, placing me in the line of fire. I would have to take the shot or wait for him to move either further behind us or down in front more. I waited. The gobbler got suspicious, like they always do when they see wide open woods with no hen. He putted a few times, then took off behind us like a track star. There was no opportunity to shoot for my friend. Once out of sight, the bird gobbled at us a couple of times, then moved off. We tried to call him back, but to no avail-he'd had enough of invisible hens for one morning.

Despite the fact we didn't get a bird, this is one of my most memorable hunts. I was able to spend a beautiful morning in the woods with a great friend and we got outsmarted by a bird with a brain the size of a walnut. What could be better?

So, I celebrated my 20 year turkey anniversary this morning. I hunted the same spot. I heard a gobbler a few times on the way in...down close to the creek. But I was intent to get to the same spot. He answered a crow call, but not my hen calls. Maybe its still a little too early. I came out, once again, with no bird. But I enjoyed the solitude and the beauty immensely. The air was clean and cool, the walk was good, and I heard a gobbler.

I had promised my wife I'd be back before noon. I got out early, and drove some of the forest service roads I've hunted up and down over the years. I though to myself that now I am "that guy". The one I used to wonder why he drove up and down the roads when turkeys were just about to get cranked up again at ten-thirty or eleven after their hens have left them. But like I said, I'm a purist and I'd rather get one at daylight-plus I'd promised to be back. Now I know why that guy drove out so early-he probably had a wife and three small kids and work to do before everyone comes over to the house for Easter. So, as I passed each car or truck parked at an old logging road, I thought to myself, enjoy it-I've had my time like your having yours now. My time is different now, but I wouldn't have it any other way. My kids were delighted to see me and my wife tried to act put out with me for leaving her and going hunting, but that's an act she's been putting on since before we were married, since I started turkey hunting, twenty years ago this day.

Superstar

2008-01-27T20:36:00.001-05:00

This is Belle. I have no papers on her. I think she was the runt of the litter and she's no bigger than a minute. She's what most people would call a meat dog. But in my mind she's a superstar. The reason being, when my other dogs come unglued, or can't find birds
, Belle will come through for me.

The photo is from the day before Thanksgiving last year (2006). By this time of day it had gotten almost hot, and my big male pointer Jake was having a hard time in the heat. I was under some pressure because I was introducing my boss at the time to his first quail hunting experience. My 11-year old-reliable Brittany Maddie had done her part in the cooler early hunt, but she was now done for the day (little did I know that she would be dead by April 1). But Belle looks pretty intense-I think she was winding birds even before we left the truck.

Belle has always been a "winder". I've seen her dance about on her hind legs only, stretching her little black nose high into the air. She's never fiddled around with ground scent. In fact, sometimes she's looked like she wasn't fiddling with any scent at all-she runs through the woods and fields like her tail's on fire. Once while hunting with my vet, straight out of the truck she took off like the proverbial scalded dog. He, being the polite gentleman and dog-man that he is, began to comment "Do you think she's going a little fast..." and BAM! Belle went from 90 miles an hour to a dead stop, whirling around in a text-book point and held the birds until we could flush them. After the shot, I commented to him that I don't mind a dog with a motor as long as she's got a set of brakes.

Belle has all that. Drive and good ground race and a choke-bored nose. She's got the motor and four wheel disc brakes with anti-lock even. She was broke at six months old. On New Year's Eve day of 2001 I shot 7 birds over her and every contact was handled flawlessly. It was at that point Belle, just a little bitty thing, barely on the earth for a blink of an eye, convinced me she was a bird dog.

If I keep writing, I'll jinx myself and the next 2 months she'll make me a fool every time I go.

Not that she is without faults. She is a non-committal retriever, partly because I am a very poor retriever trainer. The way I look at it, either retrieving is in them, or it isn't. I know force fetch works, but I just don't like it. I'd rather have a dog that doesn't retrieve than one that looks like it's being punished when it picks up a bird. She hunts dead very well, will indicate for you a fallen bird, and only really retrieves in a highly competitive situation.

She's also quit me and flipped me off on occasion. For one brief stint, she took to running up birds. This started when I was hunting her without a brace mate with some older gentlemen who were slow to move up on a point (we generally fairly sprint to a point). The birds started moving off on her and she ran them up. One had even run across the little dirt track we were on to join its covey mates and this must have unnerved her. She ran up birds until I put her up that day.

She seemed to have had her fill of running up birds. Then one afternoon with my vet and another good friend who had never killed a wild quail, I had Belle and Maddie down along with one of the vets fine pointers and we were working an area we knew held birds with all 3 dogs. We walked up on a point by Maddie and the vet's dog, just on the edge of a green winter wheat field and some open oak woods. As we were walking in on the point, admiring the aesthetics, a white streak came in ran between both dogs and straight into the covey. It was pure cussedness. Earlier in the day, Belle had acted like she hadn't heard me on a few calls for her to come in, almost flipping her nose at me in rebellion. But this time, I knew she smelled those birds and saw the other dogs point. I ran her down and administered some discipline the old fashioned way, but it nearly killed me. I was beside myself as my 2 friends, at my insistence, went off to pursue the singles from the busted covey. I ended this hunt with Belle tied to my waist on a check cord, and even missed a point and flush of another covey because I couldn't navigate the brush fast enough to get up on the point.

This series of incidents prompted me to investigate the e-collars. I had a dog that was 4 years old, knew all the ropes, and suddenly began acting like a heathen. It was embarrassing and frustrating, but I had always viewed the e-collar as somewhat inhumane. I even actively resisted the suggestions by others. An impasse remained until a bird-hunting friend of mine with similar e-collar views told me he had the same problems with his 11-year old pointer. He broke down and strapped the e-collar on her and in his words it was like "tapping her on the shoulder, reminding her you are there". At this I broke down and got a Tri-Tronics e-collar.

Now, after working with her, and giving some gentle taps on the shoulder, Belle is back to being a superstar. Most of the quail on the tailgate were from her work a couple of weeks ago. She still runs like a deer, but now her manners on birds are flawless. She comes back in when called. All this has saved me sprinting through the woods at break-neck speed to catch a little devilish pointer. It's probably saved me from breaking my leg off at the knee in a stump hole too.

A little more on Gates and Capitalism...

2008-01-27T19:56:00.000-05:00

For another look at Gates' call for modifications to Capitalism, check out Declan McCullagh on C-Net by clicking the title above.

Bill Gates Calls for Modification to Capitalism

2008-01-24T21:20:00.000-05:00

Of course he does, he's already made HIS Billions.

I wonder how Mr. Gates would feel about his proposal if I told him I just perfected a time machine in my basement, went back to 1973 before he made his fortune and implemented changes to the capitalist system. However, due to this, he never became wealthy and never got laid. How would you feel about that Bill?

I am curious to hear what some of the finer minds I know have to say about this. My first cut, but I need to read it again, is Crackpot Gates Scraps Capitalism after he's accrued a fortune that not even Brewster could blow.

Plus Melinda Gates is a HOTTIE! She looks like she's channeling Busta Rhymes in the photo.

From the WSJ article

javascript:vlaunch('http://www.marketwatch.com/tvradio/player.asp?guid={F45FABF8-F917-4D3F-B3CC-B08A7D15BD3F}'); (http://www.emailthis.clickability.com/et/emailThis?clickMap=viewTopTenItem&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Fwsjgate%3FsubURI%3D%252Farticle%252FSB120113473219511791-email.html%26nonsubURI%3D%252Farticle_email%252FSB120113473219511791-lMyQjAxMDI4MDIxNDEyMzQ0Wj.html&title=WSJ.com+-+Bill+Gates+Issues+Call+++For+Kinder+Capitalism&articlePartnerID=150&response=Y),

To a degree, Mr. Gates's speech is an answer to critics of rich-country efforts to help the poor. One perennial critic is Mr. Easterly, the New York University professor, whose 2006 book, "The White Man's Burden," found little evidence of benefit from the $2.3 trillion given in foreign aid over the past five decades.

Mr. Gates said he hated the book. His feelings surfaced in January 2007 during a Davos panel discussion with Mr. Easterly, Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and then-World Bank chief Paul Wolfowitz. To a packed room of Davos attendees, Mr. Easterly noted that all the aid given to Africa over the years has failed to stimulate economic growth on the continent. Mr. Gates, his voice rising, snapped back that there are measures of success other than economic growth -- such as rising literacy rates or lives saved through smallpox vaccines. "I don't promise that when a kid lives it will cause a GNP increase," he quipped. "I think life has value."

Brushing off Mr. Gates's comments, Mr. Easterly responds, "The vested interests in aid are so powerful they resist change and they ignore criticism. It is so good to try to help the poor but there is this feeling that [philanthropists] should be immune from criticism."

The old adage "Give a man a fish and he eats for a day, teach a man to fish and he eats for a lifetime" is apropos. But perhaps some of the Gates foundation money is mis-applied.

I applaud Mr. Gates for engaging in philanthropic activity. It looks like from his chart above that the lions share of the cash goes to "Global Health". I would assume that the needs in the poor areas he refers to are such that the basics of Maslow's hierarchy of needs need to be met before any significant progress can be made in development. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow's_hierarchy_of_needs).

I hope the disproportionate amount of cash going to Global Health is as a stopgap measure to set the table for future economic development. Granted, its hard to surf the Internet gleaning stock picks if you're starving or dying of smallpox. The basic needs must be met before one can expect to progress to the higher levels with any chance of success. I would hope to see in future years that the balance of the money shifts to Global Development. In my opinion, the most effective way to combat Poverty is to teach the man to fish.

And, as a final note, I have done some traveling myself. Some of it has been to extravagant destinations, but some of it has been to some of the most poverty stricken places on the planet. You would be surprised to find that some of the most impoverished areas are right here in the United States. Clearly there is opportunity here, readily available, in the United States. There may not be truly equal access to all the benefits, yet we are all born into different circumstances and our lot in life is to determine how to overcome the obstacles in our way. I wouldn't disagree that it is easier to overcome obstacles in the U.S. than it is say in Somalia or Bangladesh or Greenland. But the fact that there is abject poverty here in these United States, supposedly the richest country in the world, begs the questions what is the nature of Poverty, what is its vector? Why does it exist? Certainly, no one wants to be poor. However, I also don't believe that as some people might try to tell us that its a case of the man trying to keep his brother down.

I don't have the answers. But it is thought-provoking, as is the WSJ article that spawned this blog.

Whatever the common ground and views may or may not be, Mr. Gates philanthropic use of his Billions for the greater good is laudable. But Bill, leave the Capitalist system alone until I am right up there with you hanging out at the World Bank and making speeches.

Morning Start up

2008-01-24T17:57:00.001-05:00

Yeah Come On Brothers!

I can smell the mesquite on the moist morning breeze before the hot Mexican Sun burns off the mist. Out in the disappearing gloom a quail whistles his other-worldly morning assembly call, and all the hunters look expectantly in that direction-"There's one more covey" they all whisper and nod to one another.

The last minute preparations of each hunter donning chaps or boots or vests, loading up with shells, is reminiscent of a combat platoon preparing for a long patrol.

Its still so dark that a photograph turns out all black, but one can see 150 yards of Buffle Grass stretching out past the cortina in the grey-light of the morning. On each side, still invisible to the eye, are the arrow-straight tangled boundaries of the pasture, marking out the playing field where we are about to do battle. This is where the quail will fly when we wake them from their sleep and they explode in a whir, hurtling themselves to the safety of the thick hedgerows guarded by thorns and rattlers.

But for now four or five coveys sit bunched up in their little knots of eyes, blinking at the morning light, waiting for us to rudely roust them from bed.

Quivering pointers whine in the truck box, looking like track stars waiting their turn to run a heat. Who will be first? Who will strike the first covey? Pointers are eternal optimists, and they all look wide-eyed like a freshman wanting to get in his first game-standing taut at the sideline all suited up & ready to go-every turn of the coach is attended with absolute attention.

The guide moves around the truck; all the pointers lean and look as he moves, shifting and scuffling to stay in his view. He reaches for a door, out shoot Bud & Sally-winding the quail before they hit the rank floor of buffle grass. They work fast and careful, taking in scent like a vacuum on a pendulum, arcing towards the point that will produce the first covey of the morning.

As we step off, individually we convince ourselves the dogs will point, the birds will make a perfect covey rise, 3 shotguns will bark twice and six birds will fall. We walk on, following the lead of the dogs who really only seem to be toying with the quail, zig zagging back and forth, all the time knowing exactly where the birds are roosted.

Then suddenly Sally hammers them, cast in iron, every muscle tight and still, tail pointing to the grey sky. Bud immediately slams to a halt, honoring the point. A ball of quail boils up through the thick grass with a thousand fairy-drum beats, coming apart as they rise. "QUAIL" rings out and a series of pops, a measured shot, then a pause and another shot nailing the sleeper that always waits for the rest of the covey to flush.

Feathers float down on the breeze and lodge in the brown grass tops. Calls of "Two down in front", "I got one on the left" and a mumbled curse from the one that emptied both barrels at thin air shock the time back into a normal pace. Several still warm birds are gathered, and the skirmish line marches on.

"One of the sanest, surest, and most generous joys of life comes from being happy over the good fortune of others." - Archibald Rutledge

Bird Boys

2008-01-24T17:56:00.003-05:00

I can hear it now...

El General barks out "Straight Line, Straight Line"

The skirmishers carry their doubles at port arms and step into the waist high buffle grass. Bird boys "Oishe" and swish mesquite sticks in the brush.

Suddenly, a huge covey whirrs from underfoot like a swarm of angry yellow jackets. Some go high, some go low, some left or right, and a few behind, and as shotguns bark, some go back into the bufflegrass. The survivors regroup in the air and light 150 yards away to our right and dumps into the buffle grass just a shade behind us as the last shots fade.

Burnt powder drifts on the breeze, the left ear stops ringing and El General is heard commanding "Turn around to the right".

From the far end, a tall distinguished gentleman in a knee brace fitted over his brush pants and snake boots yells out "You know what we're going to do? We're going to wheel F**k 'em!"

YEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH

More on Rattlesnake Chaps

2008-01-24T17:35:00.001-05:00

From an email to a friend...

Subject: chaps

Probably thought you'd never see the subject line above from me, but you did ask about what kind of chaps I wear. I assumed you meant the bird-hunting ones.

Here is the kind I use…nothing gets through them, not even prickly pear at Mach 2.0. That first year glorious year in San Fernando I wore just my regular brush pants on the first day and my legs felt like they were full of shrapnel from an airburst of German 88mm guns.

My knees in particular took some hits and my right knee swelled up from a Granejo sniper shot to the outside, just beyond the wimpy cordura on my totally inadequate brush pants.

However, the next day was Coturniz Heaven because my Rattlers Brand Snake Chaps were on the job and eventually my green-thorn impregnated basket-ball sized knee began to loosen up after about the 6th hour of pounding the ground while I sated my blood feud with our nefarious quarry.

http://www.rattlersbrand.com/snakechaps/originalrattlerschaps.html

Here they are at Bass Pro
http://www.basspro.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10151&catalogId=10001&langId=-1&partNumber=47887&hvarTarget=search&cmCat=SearchResults

I think the key is the thick weave cordura (1000 dernier-I have no idea what that means, it just sounds cool, despite being of French origin. I think it has something to do with the thread count and density of the fabric).

Maybe some seasoned brush busters in Texas can give you some other brands or tips, but I know that since one of the Mexicans was asking me for my chaps they are the real deal. There might be a lighter weight solution that works as well, but I just wear them now with a pair of carhart pants. The chaps themselves are heavier than brush pants, and you can sweat in them, but they turn the thorns and there are few things worse than hobbling along with 48 prickly pear spines in your knee cap, scraping on the inside of your pants every time you take a step.

Besides, the heat generated from the Carhart-Snake Chap-Snake Boot combo keeps the hammies and the calves loose and ready to rock and roll for the next assault on Cactus Mountain. An added bonus is that the 48 pound per leg combination of snake boot and chap turns my gelatinous stems into fat-free rippling cords of steel while the un-chapped rest of my body pushes into the 30% body fat realm.

My snake boots have a heavy leather boot foot to them and anything above the ankle is doubly protected by chaps & boots. And after seeing that dang rattler last year I am thinking of going 100% coverage head to toe 1000 dernier cordura, even my skivvies.

A Cordura Banana Hammock would probably induce some serious chafing, but I am not real fond of rattlers with baseball sized heads zapping me in my privates either. Risk vs. Reward brother. Come to think of it, I might add a cup to my repertoire of protective gear…there's no way I want a giant Rattler hitting me in the Jimmy and once he gets a feel of my Johnson, decides to make Sweet Snake Love with it.
I
am forwarding to Big Bad Bill the W'Fer in case he wants to go all Georgia Wussy on the cactus this year too. If you dudes from Texas want to tough it out in blue jeans and regular brush pants, that's fine but I don't want to hear any whining when your sac is impaled on a Mesquite or your knees look like you lost a bar fight with a 200 pound Bobcat on steroids.

I don't mind admitting to being a pansy when it comes to thorns. The worst thing we have here is called Cat Claw Briers, wickedly curved, 3/8 Inch talons of the devil. But we have nothing that approaches the length of some of that thorny crap you guys call brush. My first purview of quail habitat in Mexico made me think I was looking into one of those Biohazard trash cans full of hypodermic needles, and once I waded in after it looked like everybody else was going in without blinking, it felt like it too. The bird boys were yelling Oishe Oishe, El General was barking at us to stay in a straight line, and I had run full speed into what felt like a bed of nails in a torture chamber.

The only thing that kept me from screaming like a little girl and crying like a baby was all the quail rocketing out of that infernal combination of foliage and some shred of pride that welled up out of my deep recesses to be regarded as a man among men. Texas Men. Men that tackle brush wearing blue jeans. Either you all have no feeling in your lower extremities, aren't smart enough to realize you are in pain, are insanely motivated to pursue quail like madmen, or have some Matrix like trick up your sleeves to weave through the stickers unscathed.

I'll keep wearing the chaps.

Stocks and The Seven Deadly Sins

2008-01-24T16:18:00.000-05:00

Hieronymus Bosch's The Seven Deadly Sins and the Four Last Things The painting is presented in a series of circular images. Four small circles, detailing "Death", "Judgement", "Hell", and "Glory", surround a larger circle in which the seven deadly sins are depicted: wrath at the bottom, then proceeding clockwise, envy, avarice, gluttony, sloth, extravagance (later, lust), and pride. At the centre of the large circle, which is said to represent the eye of God, is a "pupil" in which Christ can be seen emerging from his tomb. Below this image is the Latin inscription Cave Cave Deus Videt ("Beware, Beware, God is Watching"), implying that no sin goes unnoticed (this last paragraph and art above is from Wikipedia, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_deadly_sins).

The 2% C H I N G A L E.

That's what a good friend of mine from Texas named my get-rich-quick stock scheme.

But it's not a really a get-rich stock scheme. It's not a buy and hold scheme either. It's a formula for wealth-building that I am testing with some experimental capital. Real money to be sure, but money that was "found" basically.

The source of my capital was a small amount of stock awarded to me by my company. Knowing only the most rudimentary aspects of stocks, trading, investing, etc. I proceeded to watch my vested stock award go down like a darted rhino. I was tired of my equity getting beat up like a tied up goat. I started reading, doing some research, and educating myself about the stock market. In the process I embarked upon a psychological journey that resulted in an epiphany for me.

My goal is 2% a day. I achieved that today (24-January-2008) with Nokia (NOK). Actually I exceeded it, with a 4.4% growth of my capital assets today. The 2% Chingale is alive and well.

I was getting close to despair after the recent sell-off on Wall Street, and the associated world-wide market ripples. However, the rally from the past 2 days has put me back on track. For the record, my MTD since 3-January-2008 is 116.7% increase on my capital. Compare that to your Dad's favorite mutual fund, or the S&P 500 for that matter. (At the same time, my YTD on my 401K with an "expert" allocation of mutual funds is -14.9%. I need to look at that later)

If you're at all math inclined, run for yourself what a compounded 2% return per day on your capital will get you in a month (20-22 days of trading). In a 2 month period, or a quarter. Then sit-down with some oxygen and figure your annual return in about 220 days of trading. This even gets you 30 weekdays off a year-like France. The market trades about 250 days a year. All work and no play will make you very dull and probably frazzled too. The point is you can start with a small sum of money and by being disciplined and not really super-smart you can end up with a much larger sum of money.

I think I quote Warren Buffett in writing "Never lose money in the stock market". This is as fundamental as buy low sell high. Ridiculously simple in theory, but oh so hard in practical application. One of my own rules which I try to enforce on myself with iron will is "Get out of losing positions immediately". The reason is that to erase a 5% daily loss takes several days of 2% performance (Obvious). But the name of the game is to preserve your capital. I see no reason to take a five or ten or fifteen percent loss in a day as has been common in recent times. Even a 1% loss for me is likely too much. Set your limit for a loss, say $100 or whatever for a given position and stick to it. Just like your grades in high school or college, or your prom date, stocks go down really fast but come up a lot slower. Emotion or loyalty has no place in what I am doing. So far the stocks don't seem care that I am really rooting for it to go up 20 cents.

Unfortunately, I don't really follow my own rules very rigidly. I have taken some real poundings in January 2008. At one point very early on my capital was up 143.9%. Yes, you read that right. Even more unbelievable is that happened in the first 6 trading days of this year. But since then, by hoping against hope, making some bad choices and failing to act when I needed to get out, I lost a lot of money. That's why I am back to only +116.7%. I have learned this lesson over and over again, yet seem to continue to make the mistake of staying in a position too long. It happened at the end of December 2007, where I essentially erased all the gains I had made in my first, experimental month. And I have allowed it to happen to me on several occasions this January as well, thus erasing a lot of my gains. When I was up more than 140%, I was joking to myself that I should take the rest of the month off because I had exceeded my capital appreciation goal for the first month in the first 6 days. But Greed crept in...

So really the lesson for today is Protect Your Capital. You have got to ripcord out of a losing position as fast as you can.

"Fortune Favors The Bold" - Virgil

This goes both ways-bold into a position because you believe in why you are buying the stock and bold out of a position because you predetermined your exit point and you are disciplined enough to stick with it. The exit point discipline applies in either situation-exiting a win and exiting a loss.

Don't get greedy and don't be envious when you miss out on additional gains. Remember that all we need is 2% per day, compounding every day to make some pretty impressive returns.

You must be disciplined because Greed and Envy are two of the Seven Deadly Sins. Both will cause your ruin.

Good luck in your own wealth-building quest.

Attention: Animal Rightists

2008-01-24T13:31:00.000-05:00

Occasionally on this blog you will find references to hunting, eating meat, wearing leather (shoes, you perverts), and perhaps the occasional recipe that involves the preparation of animal flesh for human consumption.

If you are inclined to support Animal Rights, and fancy yourself an Activist, please heed this warning. I am a stubborn, vindictive and virulent foe. However, you & I arguing about whether we should hunt, consume meat, wear animal skins, etc. is going to be totally fruitless and a waste of your time. As such, I will spend about as much time discussing your asinine viewpoint as I would if you proposed the Sky is Green.

For the record, I think PETA stands for People Eating Tasty Animals. In fact, there is a website dedicated to such:

http://mtd.com/tasty/

And, at the risk of blatant plagiarism, because I have heard this somewhere else before so I am sure someone wrote it down: If God didn't want us to eat animals, He would not have made them out of meat.

In short, don't bother flaming me for my conservationist viewpoint and consumptive attitude towards the fauna of the earth. My opinion on this is like Nomex or a fire-resistant gun safe, your small-minded and emotional pleas stand no chance of penetration into my thick-headed viewpoint.

PS For you rabid vegetarians out there, don't try changing me because I will not waste one breath trying to change you. More power to you in your convictions, but remember I can hear the asparagus screaming.

Quail Hunting in Mexico

2008-01-24T10:01:00.001-05:00

Quail hunting in Mexico ranks up near the very top of my favorite experiences in life. I think the only events that are higher are the births of each one of my kids and the day I got married.

This is my third time going down to Mexico for a hunt and in many ways, so far the best.

I don't know if it looks like it to you, but that is a genuine smile on my face. I call it the Perma-Grin. It starts before I leave for the trip and it doesn't end until work stresses erase it a few weeks after I return. It takes that long for the good mojo to wear off. It returns from time to time when I reminisce, like right now as I write this I am grinning like an idiot. If anybody saw me they'd probably wonder what was wrong with me or what did I just do.

Of course, there are dangers in Mexico...I almost stepped on this one. Snake boots are a must. I go overboard perhaps and wear full-length snake resistant chaps by Rattlers. They are a little heavy and can be hot, but worth the peace of mind.

We lost a dog to a rattler on day 3. She was bit in the evening and dead, or muerte, by the next morning despite treatment. It was a sad event and the only downside to the whole trip.

An added bonus is that the snake chaps turn most of the thorns in the brush. Wearing plain old brush pants will make you feel like your are running naked through a needle factory. Before I went to Mexico, I thought our briers and brush in Georgia were bad. Mexican Flora is the Devil's Garden on Steroids. Every plant in Mexico has something that can stick you. Its an infernal conglomeration of vegetation that no human would likely ever venture into, except a bunch of crazy quail hunters. Walking in in on the twentieth point of the day, somehow you don't notice the multiple spines that penetrated your patellar tendon until you get home at night and realized your knee is swollen like a football.

I want to try some Snake Armor TurtleSkin Chaps, supposed to be much lighter than the heavy Cordura chaps I wear. I am curious to see Turtle Skin is adept at deflecting the hypodermic inferno that quail inhabit in Mexico. I will probably wait until my stock investment plan pays off since I think the $225 for the Total Protection Chaps is better spent right now on baby formula and diapers. https://www.turtleskin.com/store/category.aspx?categoryID=1&referrer=GoogleAdWords&gclid=CLmqksSkj5ECFQFclwodhTNtHg

I picked up my Rattlers brand chaps for $5 at a garage sale years ago, but they can be had here:

http://www.rattlersbrand.com/snakechaps/originalrattlerschaps.html

At left is a Scaled Quail. Its the only one I've ever seen up close, and of course this will likely launch me on a quest for the Quail Slam. Up to this point I'd only shot Bobwhites, but now I think I need to travel around and experience some other quail hunting in other parts of the country.
Another genuine bunch of smiles, and my Perma-Grin grows. Good companions make the trip so enjoyable. Its a real pleasure how this diverse group gets along like Peas & Carrots.

I have been blessed with some good friends who are great to travel with and are as passionate about quail hunting as I am. Good people make for a good trip. The other guys are all native Texans but they don't seem to mind a Georgia boy tagging along.

Some tired quail hunters at days end. Also note the habitat. The part of Mexico we hunt is miles and miles and miles of endless habitat. There is a lot of diversity in the habitat as well. It ranges from lightly grazed pasture to the left, with bufflegrass planted for forage and interspersed with native grasses to thorny brush taller than your head, basically waste areas or old gr0wn-up pastures. There are also hedgerows and agriculture (mostly milo for livestock feed) on a grand scale. You don't see much center-pivot irrigation nor is there really such a thing as a clean fence-line. Clearly their farms are very productive, but they are also quail friendly.

It doesn't all look this wide open. Watching dogs work in this cover is a real joy and a lot different shooting in this wide open area than in the pines of Georgia. Some of the cover is pretty rough, but the shooting is just open enough to make it worth your while.

All in all, we found 113 coveys in 2-1/2 days of quail hunting. That is not a typo. One Hundred Thirteen Coveys in two full days and one afternoon of hunting over dogs. On the first day we hunted afternoon only and shot into 29 coveys. On day two, we hunted all day, including taking lunch in the field, and shot into 40, (Yes FORTY!) coveys. I nearly passed out from cardiac arrest. On day three we bested day two by shooting into 44 coveys. There was one stretch in the morning, with a single, excellent brace of Pointers (Bud & Sally you are Immortals!) where we shot into 11 coveys BEFORE Nine in the morning. This was certainly a hunt of legendary and epic proportions. I almost don't believe it writing it down here and now, but I was there and it is the real deal!

There was just some absolutely phenomenal dog work, but you would almost expect that with some much wild bird contact. If a man had this many quail and poor working dogs, he ought to be shot. Either he was victimized by some really bad breeding and genetics, or he doesn't know the first thing about bird dogs. Our guide and his staff however clearly know exactly what they are doing and they do it extremely well. I cannot compliment the guides, outfitter and dogs enough. There were times when we had a dry, stiff wind blowing pretty hard, yet these pointers were able to handle the coveys and we did not bust a single one because of flawed dog work.

I can't wait to go back. Its an annual pilgrimage that thankfully that is becoming a tradition. I feel truly blessed to have had the opportunity to experience quail hunting that is BETTER than the old days with a group of fine companions. Next year I hope to sport another Perma-Grin, Lord willing.

Pigmy's don't eat elephants in one bite.

2008-01-23T16:38:00.001-05:00

There will be more to come on this exact topic, but if there is one truism you can take to the bank, literally, its that you will never get rich working for the man. More specifically, your wealth building capability will be limited if your income is based on the amount of time you spend on a task.

Think about it, doctors or lawyers are generally regarded as wealthy people. However, many of the same professionals whose portfolios and bank accounts we all envy work an enormous amount of time. Those that don't likely built a practice and sold it, or developed a system for creating more wealth, either purchasing medical equipment and renting it out for use, or some other scheme that generates income without them necessarily being in the room. The same is true of lawyers. There are only so many hours per day and this will never change, so as long as your income is limited by the price you can charge for the billable hour, there is a finite limit to the income you can generate.

I am an engineer by trade. Engineering is another one of the professional disciplines that can offer multiple avenues to wealth. I guess I always thought somewhere along the way I would discover/invent/copyright or patent something that could then be sold. I was committed to the idea of residual income, but unclear how to get it. My career as an inventor of something unique has so far been unsuccessful. Perhaps it is because I am in a discipline that harbors "nothing new under the sun" as Solomon says. Perhaps it is because I was too dense and self-absorbed to recognize the opportunity.

However, I have discovered something that has been in existence for a long time, the proverbial American Dream. I am referring to the stock market. Without referring to all the gory details, only recently had I ever considered actually investing in stocks, or trading for that matter. However, one day I had an epiphany that perhaps I might be able, with a little effort, to best the long term average for mutual funds, S&P 500 , etc. Most folks will tell you that investing for the long haul is the only way to go and if you get perhaps a 12% return on your money annually you are doing very well.

I thought to myself that $10,000 at the end of one year would be about $11,200 and it did not excite me in the least bit. I started running some numbers, I had been watching stocks nearly the entire 4th Quarter of 2007. I noticed some patterns. I started making hypothetical trades the night before and the next night checking my results. I found that one can, with discipline, achieve a better than 12% annual return.

Let me warn you that I am a rank amateur. This blog is in no way going to cover all the in's and out's of investing, taxes, day trading, etc. And I absolutely promise you that I will never offer a stock pick or advise you to invest in pork bellys. I am merely offering a different point of view.

But reader, hearken to my results. Between January 3, 2008 and January 10, 2008 I was able to increase my principal 143.9%, and the same time the S&P500 was down -1.85% (if my calculations are correct). Then commenced a time up until today (23-January 2008) that can be characterized as a bloodbath. In that period, I had some losses, and a few gains, but erased a lot of my earlier growth. I did this mostly by violating my own rules and becoming slightly giddy and greedy. However, in this apocalyptic time, when the headlines screamed recession and largest DOW losses since Black Tuesday in 1987, I am still up +111.8% on my original principal, while at the same time the S&P500 is down -9.1%.

It is still too early to tell if I am on to something. But if I am, expect to see more posts in the near future and likely they will be written from somewhere tropical. My friends, I think I have finally found my gateway to residual income.

And its not as if I am making wild trades, attempting to time the market and guess that golden stock that will double overnight. I am targeting modest gains with my system, and minimizing losses. It turns out that sometimes those modest gain stock picks turn out to be big gainers. And there have been some occasions that supposed gainers were real losers and I did not exit on hopes of a rally. The key is discipline and absence of greed and emotion.

I am hopeful that this will work out, and I can at some time share with confidence with others what I am doing to increase my residual income. If I espoused my system now I fear I may lead others astray in my ignorance. I am a mere babe in the woods at this point, flush with success, but slightly conscious that this success may be blind luck. Let me risk my capital for one quarter and report back to you. If I meet or exceed my personal goals, I would be more apt to share the beginnings of my system.

A piece of the PIE-How to Advance in Corporate America?

2008-01-22T17:05:00.000-05:00

A Question many of us ask ourselves when examining our own career: Why am I not where I want to be? Some of us ask that over and over again. We all struggle with it at least once, and most of us on several occasions.

I remember years ago, at one of the corporations I worked for, the HR folks would espouse PIE: PERFORMANCE-IMAGE-EXPOSURE. Advancing in your career was thought to be 1 part Performance, 1 part Image, and 1 part Exposure-but maybe not all equal parts.

Lately I have witnessed that image, and the cultivation of image via exposure is paramount in the corporate world. A shock I know, but I have optimistically held out that performance was paramount. I have always, to my detriment, eschewed Politics for the most part, participating in only the most rudimentary activities. Clearly corporate politics are important, but I always wanted to remain above petty jealousies, intrigues and sycophantic behavior.

It was only much later that I realized you cannot remain above these undesirable conditions because in Corporate America one is literally swimming in it.

There are people in this world whom I admire, if only for their political deftness. They may not have a bit of character, at least in my definition. Integrity may be a four letter word to them. Ethics might be OK as long as its expeditious. Their performance, and the performance of the business unit they lead may appear very ugly and substandard in the harsh light of day, yet somehow, these Politicos are able to maneuver through the shoals and find safe harbor every time. It is truly a wonder.

Ruminating on this, I thought to myself it's not Performance in the absolute sense, as in performance to plan, achievement of business goals, or excellent operating results. Witness the latest mortgage melt-down and credit crisis in the U.S. Financial entities are writing down Billions of dollars of losses, yet at the same time there are some executives cashing enormous checks, banking millions in stock while the results sour the U.S and World Economy.

It is rather, performance, as in a play or theatrics. It is not how well you have performed your job and led your people and achieved positive results, it is how can you sell whatever the results were, no matter how poor, and find willing buyers for your wares. Thus, Performance really melds into the Image and Exposure pieces of the PIE.

I often thought to myself that there was some truth to "good things come to those who wait". Another one of my favorites is "Do good and fear no man" (seen in a restaurant in Fort Worth, Texas). It seems these sentiments and others like them are not enough.

Of course, there needs to be some ownership of ones career rather than sitting around awaiting a promotion to be handed down from on high. It will rarely happen if you are not an active manager of your own career. Ultimately, you are in charge of your own destiny and have no one to blame but yourself.

However, its turned out that job performance is not weighted as heavily a I thought. I think its much the same in most corporations, but I have worked in three, and the other two definitely put, at the very least, equal weight to Performance, oftentimes much more weight. My most recent employment experience has taught me that to excel in your career is not one in the same as delivering excellent results. Rather, what kind of performance can you deliver to convince your audience and critics that what you show them represents something worthy of applause. It's all about theatrics. The audience sees what the thespian wants them to see.

Think about it; new spins on the nouns and verbs in the career game...performance, show, promotion. Business has become less X's and O's and a winning score, and more of an art exhibition, tapping much more heavily into feelings than tangible results.

Perhaps I am naive in my almost 39 years on this planet. Maybe I am still too idealistic. Perhaps I am too stubborn too have my optimism worn down to a nub. I still want to believe its the substance and the results that drive businesses rather than what a charlatan or snake oil salesman can convince an audience to buy.

"I am the great and powerful Oz..." or are you? Be careful wizard, someday somebody might see behind the curtain.

So, the skeptic in you says sour grapes. Maybe. I lament the fact that we have to resort to gamesmanship and its how you play the game, not whether your company wins or loses that's most important. Odd I would say. Yes, relationships are important, but not more so than results. I worked for a company that relationshiped itself into bankruptcy. Let me tell you, it was painful to watch and live through.

I agree, results should be gotten with an eye to relationships. One cannot roll about on the deck like the proverbial loose cannon, claiming that the ends justifies the means, but alienating everyone around you along the way.

Clearly, Ethical and Legal considerations should be sacrosanct. If you become ethically unsound, you really are treading some very dangerous ground and I think you would deserve any calamity that may befall you.

Conversely, business performance should not be sacrificed on the altar of personal friendship in the name of single-minded career mongering. I would say this is one of the highest forms of treason in business today. It ranges from business contracts awarded more on friendship and less on economics, to cronyism at promotion time.

How to make all this negativity positive? I am getting close to old and set in my ways, but if you're 24 years old and reading this perhaps its not too late for you. Some ideas for you to consider:

Decide if you are going to play the game. If so, understand the rules and how to win. If not, don't cry because your career suffers. Own your decision.

I would encourage you prepare to play the game, with an end in mind, but make sure you are good at both kinds of performance.

Become a thespian, but one that can back your soliloquies with solid business results.

Find a sponsor. Preferably someone who takes a personal interest in you, is motivated to develop and promote you, and has the power or position to do so. Steve in the cube next to you is not your best choice for a sponsor, right now. But stay on his good side, Steve may vault to prominence and bring you along with him.

Seek a mentor. Mentors and sponsors can be one in the same, or they can be different people entirely. However, mentors can be anyone you meet. In this case, Steve in the cube next to you may be a great mentor.

Never tell anyone something you don't want them to tell anyone else. Consider your words carefully and always keep in mind that even the person whom you deem most trustworthy may not be able to keep your confidence. There are always keys to the vault.

Be aware that you will encounter at least 1 person whose main goal is their career and they will do anything to further it, including betray you.

Finally, be true to yourself.

As you can probably tell, I struggle with some of these things. We all have to overcome some parts of our genetic make-up and the environment in which we developed. Don't despair. If you have the DESIRE, you can win at this game. And remember, as a wise man once told me, "Pick Your Spot".