Still Trading

I really like Carter Worth of Oppenheimer. He is a great technician, who has been consistently right on about market direction over the last year and one half or so.

My fake million dollar portfolio has suffered over the last two months, partly because I missed this bear market bounce, and partly because I was just too busy to trade during tax season, so I didn't pay as much attention to it as usual. I stayed short many big names like MASTERCARD, AUTOZONE, and LOWES because even though they did very well during this bounce, they are WAY overvalued. You could also buy the ultra short financials ETF at this point. (only for a short term trade though)

However, I COMPLETELY agree with Carter here for many reasons. If you have enjoyed profits in this uptrend take them now.



On another note, I reconnected with my old managerial accounting professor from Carlson. He has his own consulting firm and does fabulous web design. Check out his blog: http://speroconsulting.com/blog/
Much of the thought processes I apply to problems I encounter today I learned from him. He often used the Socratic method in his courses. It made many an MBA who thought they would sail right through without much thinking squirm in their seat! Great thinker!

Obama: New Friends and Apologies

Strange bedfellows? Is he a peacemaker, or the worst kind of appeaser? Is he an apologist? Is it right of him to be traveling the world confessing America's sins? Decide for yourself.

http://www.forbes.com/2009/02/13/chavez-jews-referendum-opinions-contributors_0215_rowan_schoen.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/04/AR2008020402428.html

http://www.americanthinker.com/2006/09/democrats_and_the_antisemitism.html

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2007/01/2008525144836670455.html

http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2009/04/01/chavez_in_iran_obama_still_leads_empire/


Now, I know he couldn't do much about Chavez coming up to hand him a book. I really think Obama believes he can change the minds of America haters. I really think he cannot see that many humans are blinded by their hatred.

Some people are afraid of freedom. Freedom requires an enormous amount of self-confidence, personal responsibility, resilience, and determination. To many, the idea that they are personally responsible for their state of mind, which is what ultimately determines their quality of consciousness, and for the most part their quality of life, is liberating. To others, it is terrifying.

If they are responsible for their own mental and physical creations, for the state of their life and relationships, for the impact they have on those around them, and more, then it must follow that if they are unhappy, unfulfilled, depressed, or otherwise living in a state of resistance, it is their own fault. Guilt creeps in and they conclude it is much easier to be told what to to. It is much easier to be controlled and manipulated. Then, they have someone to blame for their unhappiness. This is the mindset of people like Hugo Chavez. America, the Jews, and well just about everyone else is to blame for their own personal hell. Men like him use the power of the word to make their populations feel like victims. Then, they swoop in and offer to be the saviour. The populace buys the idea of collective victim hood and hands over their freedom willingly. Sound familiar?

Another characteristic of this type of man? Their downright FEAR of the feminine. Why? Because powerful, freedom loving women threaten to take away their greatest source of power.... physical force. Earning the love of a woman who is your equal is in my opinion, the scariest thing men have to face in their lives. Few have the courage to do it. In America, (which is feminine in and of herself) this masculine fear and domination which has plagued the Earth for so long has been greatly diminished. Women are protected as equals by the law. Women are provided the same opportunities as men. Women have a much greater influence on the direction our society takes than in any other county on earth. (That I know of at least.) Look at what suppression of the feminine has done to the Middle East. Look at what is has done to Africa.

America herself threatens the mindset of dictators like Chavez, Amenidinijad, & Kim Jong-Il. America inspires the fear of anti-Semitic, anti-American, and anti-feminine terrorist leaders like Osama Bin-Laden. They hate America because she possesses something they haven't the courage to find within themselves. They hate America because its very existence challenges the systems of power they keep in place to control others.

Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. Very threatening indeed. Only to those who fear the dark side of themselves.

So, is it wrong, or bad of Obama to be kind and gracious to dictators? If it is done from a place of strength, (like Reagan with Gorbachev), the answer is no. If it is done as a penance for embracing freedom and defending freedom around the globe, I think it is a mistake. What and whom exactly is he apologizing for?

Oddly enough what got me thinking about all of this was a movie I happened to see on TV last night. It is called "Dangerous Beauty". A "courtesan" from Venice during the Inquisition is accused of sorcery and tried by fearful men. But some men, I believe the same kind of men who founded America, come to her defense. The fearful men who wish to kill her remind me of the modern day religious zealots that wish to destroy America. Her kind of confession is the only kind America should make.