WE NEVER LEARN

I heard a very interesting discussion on TV last night concerning the Syria decision to "go in" or not go into a conflict of any kind with this country, SYRIA.  It seems that the President plans to choose one of these options but hopefully Congress (that's the Senate and House of Representative for you public schoolers) will be deeply involved.  Joe Biden, the current Vice President said in the past that if Bush, when he was President, went into a similar conflict without Congressional approval he, then Senator Joe Biden would push for impeachment.  So, it would be a good thing to get consensus not only in our own elected government but also at the U.N.  And also, not to be a bunch of Hypocrites in which you shoot your mouth off as a Senator threatening Impeachment, and then as Vice President you clam up when an identical situation arrises and your President acts without Congressional approval. Hypocrisy is not cool.  Hip Hop is not either.      

The point brought up by the two retired military officers whose careers were in "intelligence" is that it is impossible to pick sides in Syria.  The government is an amoral bunch lead by a man who has no problem using poison gas on his own people, including women and children, the most innocent of citizens (possibly believing that those kids will grow up to be the next generation of Jihadists since they are uneducated and hungry).  The rebels are, more of less, the same people who attacked us on 9-11, Muslim Brotherhood, Hezbollah, Hamas, you know the folks who hate us and want us all to die a horrible death.  So these military men suggested that we not take sides at all and let the two sides kill one another.  They likened it to having Japan attack Germany in the 1940s and then we jump in one the side of one of them when it would be best to let them duke it out while we watch. For those of you educated in America's high schools in recent times, I am referring to World war 2.  It happened a very long time ago, way before the birth of Beyonce' and Miley Cyrus.  

VENTUNO Restaurant NANTUCKET Reviewed

We went once last year and were not impressed.  We went once this year, last night and this is my experience.  We started off with some red wine since the motif was Italian and the menu was laid out like a high-end Italian restaurant.  There were some wines by the glass but since there were 5 of us, we ordered a bottle.  It was a bottle of La Mailina Gertrude that they sold for $14 dollars a glass.  The waiter told us that the bottle price would be 5 times the individual glass price or  $70.  We agreed and when it was brought out, we tasted it, it was "fine" and he poured most of the bottle into our 5 glasses.  Since this is the 21st Century and we are all iPhone users at the table, we searched for the retail price of the wine by scanning the barcode on the back...an easy thing if you have the APP.  It was $11 a bottle.  It must have been considerably less wholesale, the price the restaurant paid for this $70 bottle of wine.  It could have been $7 which would make the MARK UP 10 X ( Ten Times) the wholesale cost.  Not a good start value-wise.

We ordered salads which were typical restaurant salads at typical Nantucket (New York-ish) prices.  They were tasty.  Everyone got a different main course.  They were all rated as delicious by the individual diners at our table including mine except I did not actually see any eggplant.  Not the best ever eaten but tasty.  My choice was a macaroni with eggplant, cheese, and something else.  The picture above was what I got for $34.  Essentially the same entre' at my favorite local restaurant in Sarasota Florida would have been $7 and it would have included a salad and a soft drink with unlimited refills.  We chose to be in Nantucket and at this restaurant and know the prices up here are steep. We can afford to pay the prices and I am not complaining about the quality of the food.  The owner and chef have a perfect right to price their meals any way they wish.  Cuisine is like art.

The dessert was yummy.  A Ricotta cake individually cooked in an iron skillet in the oven.  Retrospectively I should have had a couple of them for dinner.

Overall I give the restaurant a 6/10 on service, 8/10 on ambiance, 8/10 on food deliciousness, and a "typical" on price, except for the wine.  Based on more than one of us doing a quick check on the bottle we ordered using different scanning APPs,  if one could buy a bottle of TWO BUCK CHUCK from Trader Joe's at VENTUNO, it would cost $21 there.  I don't know what they call that where you come from but in my other island in Florida, it is a RIP-OFF.  The table cloths were covered with white freezer paper with the ends folded in.  The owner (I believe) was not apparently a graduate of the Dale Carnegie  School.  Either that or when he asked "how was the wine" and I answered "Usurious" he did not know what that meant.

A I K I D O the OTHER OPTION

There is an asian martial art called Aikido in which the goal is self defense without excess damage to your opponent.  It turns the energy of the assailant against him not in a "knocking-heads" way but by redirection of force and  skillfully deflecting the attack.  I use this art as a metaphor for dealing with life when I am not wearing my diametrically different other hat of confrontational-man.  In the long run, when dealing with assault of any variety, Aikido has proven a better friend than the violent impact  reminiscent of  two 300 pound lineman banging into one another in American football.   It feels good for a moment to whack your opposition like sacking the quarterback but then there is the inevitable regret if someone is hurt, or if after all the exertion you get nowhere.  How much better is it to absorb the energy of the oncoming problem and redirect it to your own best use.

Some of my recent posts in which I lambast the other political philosophy or those who are gaming the system feel intellectually satisfying but then the feeling comes over you like you would get if you were clubbing a baby seal.  I then reconsider my actions and my head-butting ways, put on my yin-yang hat, and mellow out.  In the long run, Aikido as a self defense art and a way of dealing with adversity, real and perceived, serves me better.  That is not to say that Rhino toughness is not a plus.  There is a difference between being tough and being pig-headed.

LIBERAL WHINE AND CHEESE PARTY

IT IS NOT our president that is thin skinned but rather his loyal followers.  It seems our president has had to have developed more intestinal fortitude than to complain about some poor rodeo clown wearing an Obama mask that is just doing his job.  His followers,  liberal victims of this and that of course have to blame everyone else for everything that is wrong with their lives.  They also live vicariously through the perceived offenses against their hero. Anyone who worked as a community organizer or made it through law school, like Mr. Obama, has been on the receiving end of much worse. I'm sure he's tough enough to take it. Get on with your own lives, boys and girls, and let him defend himself.   His sycophants are all incensed by some rodeo clown doing what he has done with masks of several previous presidents and never got any whining from (Reagan, Bush, Clinton) them or their supporters.

What is it about liberals in general that makes them such pussies and wimps? They are victims in search of an offense and find racism and misogyny under every rock.  What the Hell do they expect the  clown's mask to look like if it is to represent  President Obama?  Should it be white, or half-white like he is, genetically?   Our president is a self-declared black man and to represent him it is reasonable to have a mask in his skin tone.  Comedians and clowns are supposed to do what this guy did.   I am not being critical of the President or his office. How could a country that elected a black man president twice in a row be racist...the accusation made by his defenders? I AM being critical of the folks who make a religion out of whining and complaining that the world owes them something, maybe everything, because they are members of whatever class of unfortunate they think they are. Poor pitiful us, we can't make it because of our color, poverty, parents, rich people, or we have Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Fibromyalgia, bad hair, or have two X chromosomes.  So, call me anti-whiner, I'm sure you Lefties have created a neologism to describe that.  Whineist? Antislackeritic?

Man,  if you can't make it in America where everything is free to those who can find their way to a government office as well as they can find their way to a voter booth, then get down on your knees and thank God that you don't live anywhere else.  If you were in Africa, the Middle East, or most of Asia or South America, your whining ass would be dead of starvation by now if you did as little for yourselves as you do here. If you blamed others for your lot in life and waited for the government to bring your food stamps to your door, the chances that the secret police would come to your door would be more likely.   We have reached the point in America where those who work for a living are outnumbered by those who VOTE for a living.  Go buy some Brie to go with your whine and get over it.

INVESTING WISDOM

I am not a stock market professional but I have been around the block a few times as an investor and this is something I personally believe.  If you are going to turn your hard earned money over to a financial planner, wealth manager, or some other licensed individual, you have to hold them to a high standard.  They will be charging you, somehow, for their services.  These expensive services should be of value to you.  That value could be a feeling that someone is watching over your money (though they will never care as much as you do) and they will get a return on your investment that exceeds what you could do by yourself by investing in a Total Market Index fund.  Any number of companies have products like Vanguard's  ETF or fund (VTI) that are suitable. Those index funds you buy directly have very low expenses as compared to your manager who will charge somewhere around 1% of the total value of your portfolio whether they are losing your money or making you more.  

The return you get on your money is called Total Market Return because using a complicated formula they buy shares in the the whole market and yield an average that reflects the performance of all stocks traded in the U.S.  (more of less).  This would be the benchmark of performance that you should expect out of the person managing your money.  If he or she does not do as well and yields LESS than this number, they are not worth their cost (remember to figure in their fees when comparing their performance to the index).  If they do the SAME they are still not worth the trouble of all that buying and selling, commissions, management fees, tax consequences of short and long term capital gains, and the meetings about sectors, strategy, etc.  Remember to include the dividends you get over the year, which are additional to the market yield.  For the Total Market Index, dividends are currently about 1.7%.  You expect them to make your stocks yield MORE in total for the year than the index and by at least a percentage point or two.  This is referred to as Alpha (the amount by which you beat the benchmark).  What's the point if they don't?

At least after a year, maybe sooner, of working with your chosen and trusted manager (January to December works best for an easy comparison) see if they are doing the job you are paying them for.  It is easy. Insist that they don't dazzle you with smoke and mirrors or B.S.  Just compare the % yield of the entire pile of money you gave them to manage (unless you set aside a portion for bonds because you were nervous then don't count this part) to the yield in the same time period of the Total Market Index. Their number will either be LESS, the SAME. or MORE.  Like they say about a forward pass in football, of these three things that can happen, two of them are bad.  Accept no excuses even if the manager is the nicest guy in the world,  holds your hand, and buys you flowers.  Many really smart wealthy people put the equity (Stock) portion of their wealth in these index funds and don't touch it for years.  If you are a long term investor, this could be right for you.  In the short term, or if you will need the money right away, maybe the whole STOCK investing thing isn't right for you at all. That is the subject for another day.  

Don't use this advice for anything but its entertainment value and remember, the Oracle is an amateur investor who has made all the mistakes one can make and is just telling you this after learning many lessons the hard way.  Oh, and I am a surgeon, so take that into account. 

AMERICA the UNREASONABLE

UNREASONABLE

The Democrats and the political left are whining and complaining about the RACIST unfair Republicans and the political right.  It seems that the most unfair thing in the world is to require that a person wishing to participate in that most sacred of all American activities “voting” show some identification to prove that they are entitled to do so.  OMG, can you believe the insurmountable hurdle that has been placed in the way of the poor black and Hispanic community and others?

Of course if you want to board an airplane, or cash a check, or attend the Democratic National Convention, just to name a few activities, you need to show a government issued I.D.  All the other countries on the planet with whom we are constantly being compared because their health care system or educational system is better than ours, require a government issued I.D. to vote.  Canada, Mexico, and Germany come to mind. You can check it out.  Mexicans have to have I.D. to vote in Mexico where they are citizens but not in the U.S. where they could be illegal and no one can challenge their citizenship by requiring I.D.

One more reason why the U.S. is doomed to become one of those countries that used to rule the world.  Portugal, Spain, Italy (Rome), and England.  In our rush to be overly fair to folks that can get everywhere they want including driving without a license and insurance (in Florida, uninsured motorist auto insurance is a must for YOU to buy)  if necessary, we call it an unfair requirement that they have to leave their home to get an I.D. card to vote.  Anyone can get a free government I.D. in the same place as they would get a driver’s license. You don’t have to speak English you just have to bring in something to prove you are a citizen. The requirements are pretty slim. 

Of course, if you are the Democrat party and you depend on a huge turnout of voters who are not entitled to vote in order to win more elections, you would do whatever you could to prevent the I.D. requirement.   You will stoop as low as you can to accomplish this including playing the race card, the “Republicans hate the poor” card, and Granny, who was pushed over the cliff in the last election, won’t be able to get to the driver’s license office or her wheelchair won’t fit through the door, or something. Oh, puleeeze.  It’s not a poll tax, it’s a requirement you show you are a citizen.  They have to do it in our neighbor to the north and the other one to the south (that’s Canada and Mexico for those who went to high school in Detroit).  The current U. S.. administration can’t wait to have Canada’s health care and gun control, or to get a lecture from Mexico’s president about how to deal with our border, but when it comes to voting, we are the FAIR country.     

Are you a RHINO or a COW?

RHINO through life or just Moooo?

About 30 years and 2 million books ago, Scott Alexander, then 20 years old, wrote a book called Rhinoceros Success.  In this book he wrote that 95% of people are cows, willing to moo and complain and hang around all day chewing their cud, rationalizing why they are victims of this or that and doing nothing to change their lot in life.  About 5% of us are RHINOs, the powerful beasts of the jungle whose thick skin protects them as they charge straight ahead at their goals, unperturbed by the actions of others.

In America today, it has become a state policy to prevent people from becoming RHINOs.  It’s not “fair” that some people have more than others so let’s redistribute the wealth. (Except for politicians who leave office and get a million dollars to give one speech)  You should sacrifice your own welfare for the sake of the hive, like a social insect.  It’s easier to control cows than Rhinos. The entire system from the woefully underperforming school system controlled by self-serving teachers unions, to the bread and circus distraction offered to the people through mass media.  There is nothing on Dancing with the Stars, The Batchelor, or American Idol…on televised sports of any kind…or on social media that will advance your life.  It is all designed to keep you stupid and content as the economy falters, joblessness increases, and the moral fabric of America erodes. 

We accept this as NORMAL today:

A 50% graduation rate from high school in some big cities where money has been thrown at the problem for years by the truckload? 

A 73% illegitimacy rate. children born to unwed mothers, in one racial group?

More murders in Chicago than there are deaths in an all-out war in the Middle East?

Twelve million illegal immigrants living in America and nobody cares?

All your emails and phone calls are intercepted by the government?

50 million people on food stamps?

A congress that can’t figure out how to balance a budget and would rather address trivial issues affecting a tiny minority  than our entire economy that is killing our country?

The list is endless and we  accept it all as if it were inevitable.  As long as we have the same clowns leading our country it probably is. 

We have a President who had this “outstanding academic career” yet nobody who is paying attention can figure out how a mediocre student in an ordinary college managed to transfer to Columbia, then get into Harvard Law, then law review, and none of his classmates can be found to tell us what he was like in school? We still haven't seen any of his transcripts? Well, I guess we are in a country where education is so far into the crapper this is not important to most people, certainly not the Media who are only interested in selling papers, TV ad time, and their own prejudices. 

Anyway, you will have to continue to stand by and watch the RHINOs charge straight ahead while the COWs stand by, chew their cud (that’s a wad of grass for you graduates of American secondary education)  and watch 8 hours of TV every day numbing your minds from the miserable existence you accept.  It is a life brought to you by a government that promises you everything and delivers nothing other than distractions from what is important. It is not the rich man, or the white man, or the man at all that is at the root of failure for those who are not making it in America.  No country has more advantages than ours and fewer people availing themselves of them.  Food stamps and welfare and Aid to Dependent Children are not advantages, they are safety nets, to be used by those who are disabled, and those truly unable to get by, not millions of people who are COWs standing around complaining about how unfair life is when they did nothing and are still doing nothing to improve their lives. Get off your ass and do your part.  Mooooooo. 

POLITICAL CORRECTNESS

I was typing something on my computer this morning and I used "their" instead of "his" and my word processor flagged it as worthy of grammar checking.  Over time we have been taught by the P C police that the pronoun "He" or possessive pronoun "His" is a sexist misogynistic term that excludes women.  One should never use the expression " Everyone must put on his own life vest." when addressing a mixed group of men and women, and presumably "other". Some bright bulb even came up with the term Wimyn, which eliminates the word "men" from within the female gender term.  My word processor knows it is wrong to use "their" but society imposes bad grammar on us to satisfy the femiNazis and gender-benders.

This week, The California Legislature passed a law, and Governor Moonbeam signed it, that allows children and young adults to decide which gender they want to be, and it can change from moment to moment.  They can enter into the restroom or locker room of their choice or participate on the sports team that is the team of the biologically other sex or gender.  Girls can be on the men's basketball team even if they have a team of their own, and vice versa. Biology, internal and external primary and secondary sexual characteristics mean nothing.  It is all about what you, at that instant feel you are... as in "I am feeling like a girl today, or a boy today," Sheep was not mentioned in the statute.
 
I am recommending a strategy for those parents on the Left Coast to resist this insanity.  Tell your sons to go into the girls locker rooms and showers and use them at a time when they are filled with females. Use the girls bathrooms and leave the seat up (it is not popular when I do this at home)  each and every time, or maybe just pee on the seat a little.  Lets see what happens to this attempt at eliminating gender as a differentiation in school facilities.

How paradoxical, in a world of increasing hyphenization and purposeful racial and ethnic division that a basic biological difference can be intentionally ignored in the interest of gay transexual and transgender choices. Changes that can be momentary, changeable, and obviously will cause the  elimination the laws against indecent exposure, at least in schools, from the California PENAL (no pun intended) code.  How could you have both a prohibition of exposing ones "Stuff" to a member of another biologically different gender when you are just as entitled to be naked in that shower as he, she or it is?   After Jerry Brown completes his term, maybe Anthony Wiener can move out there and run for Governor.  He would be right at home. Tweet me if you agree.

OFF ROAD VEHICLES

There is a hierarchy among off road style vehicles.  The really tough ones that go on safari or into the Outback, the Rubicon Trail, or in some mud bog are usually 4-wheel drive.  They use a system that you have to shift into in order for all your wheels to do their work of gaining traction against the earth beneath. Those same vehicles usually have solid axles like a full size pickup truck that make off-roading better but give you an uncomfortable ride on the highway.  Land Rovers and Jeep Wranglers fall into this category. They often have full frames that run the entire length of the vehicle.

When you say that your BMW or Mercedes is 4-wheel drive, and many of them are including their passenger cars, you really mean ALL-wheel-drive.  The system is on all the time to all four wheels to some degree determined by computer, according to which wheel needs traction. It is instantaneous.  They usually have independent suspension to all four wheels without an axle that runs from one side of the vehicle to another. They are often unibody construction without a full steel frame underneath.  SUVs and passenger cars like the German, Japanese, and Korean brands are usually All-wheel-drive (AWD).  They are considered inferior off road but offer a smoother bounce-free highway experience.

Most of us would prefer the latter because we seldom really go off road and our traction needs are related to snow (not a problem in Florida usually) wet weather, and accidentally getting off the pavement into the sandy or muddy shoulder of the road.  We spend most of our time on city streets and highways where "Going up the side of a mountain" traction is not a priority.   Yet, we see lots of Jeep Wranglers everywhere.  They are real off road vehicles, especially if additionally equipped with oversize tires and wheels with aggressive tread patterns. Predictably, they ride poorly on the highway even with their 4-wheel drive (4WD) systems disengaged.   On top of that, the short wheelbase ones with two doors can wander all over the highway at the expense of maneuverability in tight places.  When well equipped, JEEP applies a "TRAIL RATED" badge to the front fender.  It means that you can safely go out on the trail or back woods and will probably be able to get out of most low traction conditions.  Some folks say that it just entitles you to get stuck in more inaccessible places.

Even with all that, and owning a Mercedes GLK-350 SUV with All-wheel-drive, considered by the in-crowd of 4-wheel-drivers to be "MALL RATED" or instead of an off-roader, pejoratively referred to as a SOFT-roader, I still am lusting for a Wrangler.  Why?  They just look cool and remind me of my childhood and the TV show Rat Patrol. Practicality be damned.

The lesson here...in so many situations in life, we collect data, learn all there is to know about our options, and make choices from our hearts and souls that make no sense.  Think of other areas in life that we do this.  It is a common occurrence.

G R A T I T U D E

We had dinner with friends last night.  By common consent, before dinner, we attended a free (it was worth a lot more) lecture by a man named Jerry Posner, whom I had never heard of before.  His work is motivational speaking.  His twist, or schtick if you will, is simple... you don't have to go to a monastery in Tibet or spend a weekend with Wayne Dyer or learn everything there is to learn about Positive Psychology...just follow a few simple "suggestions."  Ask yourself: What is important? What is Meaningful? What is right for me? What do I want most?

The title of his talk was "Making Miracles Happen." or something like that.  He suggested that to do that (and the definition of miracle is different for everyone) there are a few steps...
Visualize the outcome and the path to it
Desire it
Anticipate it, expect it, believe in it
Ask for assistance, accept when offered
Put your "miracle" on your to-do list and review daily
Choose optimism and remember motivation
Give yourself permission
Make a plan and adjust as necessary

There were many other interesting and insightful things that he shared with our intimate group but one of the "take aways" (make sure you always have a couple of important points to take away from every meeting or why have a meeting at all) is WRITE A GRATITUDE JOURNAL.  What is that you ask?  It is a simple list, written anywhere, the "NOTES" app on an iPhone works great, listing 5 things or whatever number you feel comfortable with that you are grateful for today.  Research by real medical experts specifically in the field of Positive Psychology tells us that the simple act of WRITING this stuff down will make your life better.  Remembering the good things overshadows the insults, injuries, and perceived injustices that bombard us every day. There is no need for me to tell you the things I am grateful for (for which I am grateful, grammatically speaking) you have your own list.  Suffice it to say, I am writing my 5 things down every morning.  One thing for certain...my days are waaaaay better when I start with positive thoughts rather than the 50 ways that our government is screwing us, lying to us about Benghazi, or secretly recording all our conversations.  Give it a try.  As an iPhone user, for the first few days until I got into the habit, I set a calendar reminder for myself every morning. "Write gratitude journal" at 7 am.  

GREY LADY

Nantucket is known as the Grey Lady because it is so often cloaked in fog, and possibly because all the houses are the same color regardless of price, faded cedar..gray or grey (which is it anyway?)  Here is a view of the Old North Wharf and some cottages at the end that belong to some prominent residents and are in some cases for rent. On the day I took this photo, there was not a cloud in the sky.  The temperature was in the low 70s, Flowers were blooming.  Many of the days here are like this and even when they are overcast, and there is fog, it is a special place.  I love it most when everyone else has gone back to what is known on island as "America." It is earlier  in the season or later in the fall and jackets and sweaters are welcome additions to the wardrobe.  I get on my scooter, "Daisy" and ride everywhere seeing almost nobody else on the road.  I can go to Something Natural, my favorite sandwich place, and not have to wait a half hour to be rewarded with a culinary delight.  Restaurants, could exist in July and August with an unlisted phone number though they charge New York prices for ordinary fare, because they can, and really have to because the season is so short.  In late or early season, some cut their prices by half, and there are specials everywhere.

The natural beauty is still here in September and October but the young have returned to some level of school. Your chances of running into or being run into by a tourist on a bicycle wearing an iPod and earphones coming from a keg-stander at the beach, is far reduced.  People who are generally always nice, become nicer.  About 10,000 people live on island (you say "on island" not on THE island if you are in the know) all year 'round.  I am not one of them and the weather change drives me south like a Goose in the winter.  I guess I am a migratory Oracle, from this island to my winter home, another island in Florida.  It is probably a little early to think about fall, but on some days, especially on the weekends when the ferry disgorges a throng of day tourists with t-shirts from the last place they visited, I do get nostalgic for the quieter days.

WIDOW

Colonial Penn life insurance company advertises on TV.  In this ad, 4 women working at a cafeteria line are discussing the benefits of having bought the right life guaranteed life insurance on their husbands because they would have been up the proverbial creek without a paddle if they had not.  Please notice the conspicuous absence of men in this picture.  One is lead to conclude that women outlive men (100% in this picture) and it is important that men have life insurance to cover the additional years women have on Earth after their demise.  I really am at a loss for what to say about this.  Political correctness comes to mind.  Can you imagine the outcry of there were an advertisement in which a bunch of men were at a job site or worse yet at a ball game being grateful that they had bought insurance on their wives?  I did not think so.  So much for equality.