CHANGE whether you want it or not

NO, not that kind of change, rather societal and technological change that can shock the system of those of us who are old and fixed in our ways.  The list of things that are different today is endless.  A few that come to mind immediately include the disappearance of land-line telephones and the ubiquity of Cell Phones.  I can barely watch an old movie anymore.  The first time the detective has to pull his car over and drop a dime in a pay phone to call the station house, I lose interest.  His trusty 6-shot revolver is an antique compared to a Glock semi-automatic with an 18 round capacity that most police officers carry today.

Moore's law says that technology doubles every 2 years.  That's why my laptop has 250 GIGAbytes of storage and costs the same as my computer of many years ago that had 64 MEGAbytes...(there are 1000 megabytes in one gigabyte).  My 6 year old grandchildren send me text messages and photos they take on their mother's iPhone.  The iPhone has more computing power than an IBM mainframe of my youth.

If you had stomach ulcers 30 years ago, it would not be uncommon to have surgery for the partial or complete removal of your stomach. Science has since discovered that most ulcers come from a bacteria in the stomach called Helicobacter Pylori, and the treatment is now a brief course of an antibiotic and some acid reducing drugs like the ones you can buy over the counter...Prilosec for example.  When and if cardiac, abdominal, or gynecological surgery is done, it is often done through small puncture holes, or by threading a catheter into an artery.  Doctors are administratively punished for keeping their patients in the hospital too long.

In my youth, pornography was a blurry photo of a naked woman on a wrinkled old postcard from France that someone stole out of their father's night table.  Today it's no-holds-barred, free, and High Definition all over the internet.  Speaking of the internet, We used to have to go to the library and use the card catalog to search for books that help us write a term paper or do research.  Today, even my older friends use the internet search engines like we used to use the library without leaving the comfort of home.

Our people are different too.  There was a time when someone who graduated from Medical school, for example, would find a town he or she liked, move there and open a practice.  Doctors put in 100 hour weeks, made house calls, and did everything from colds to delivering babies.  Today, doctors join big groups so they don't have to manage the business side of a practice, and specialize in things like Geriatric-neuro-radiology or after 5 years of residency and fellowship, something like Hand surgery or Glaucoma rather than ophthmology.  If you call a doctor's office after 5 pm the phone is not answered by an answering service but rather you hear "If this is an emergency, please hang up and call 911."  Now we have Obamacare and many people will not be able to choose anything about their medical care, from the Doctor to the Hospital or pharmacy, therapist, x-ray facility, and... your doctor will have to use the artificial hip or knee joint that the government says he must use, or only certain drugs, and the "panel" decides whether a patient is too old to get the surgery or care the doctor and patient would like.

The societal changes are a whole other topic.  It was unimaginable that millions of people would be complacent enough to be on unemployment insurance for 99 weeks, food stamps, get free medical care and housing, and get a free cell phone.  Even if they are not even citizens of this country and are here illegally there is no end to freebies.  Most people got married before they had children.  Kids played outdoors.   More about this on another day.

BREAK the HABIT

I watch Bill O'Reilly on FOX News most weekday nights. He is in my opinion, the best commentator on TV.  That is however akin to saying "He is the tallest of the 7 dwarves."  TV commentators are habit forming and if not a TOTAL waste of time, are close. It's not like my opinion will change America one way or the other about this or anything political.  I am not being socially irresponsible by turning off these news shows.  You can get all the news you need in about 15 minutes a day from any number of sources.  I can't recommend any specific one, just try not to believe everything you hear. They all have an agenda.   Last night, Mr. O'Reilly announced that he was going on Christmas hiatus and would not be back "On" until 2 January, 2014.  This means two things: I won't be able to watch his show for 2 weeks, and I won't have to watch his show for 2 weeks.  I appreciate the fact that I am somewhat accustomed to watching these shows. I am not a news "junkie" but my name is Islandoracle and I have a habit.

I plan to begin the 12 step program to break the O'Reilly habit over the holidays.  The fact that he is not being broadcast will make it easier.  Hopefully I will have kicked the habit by the time he returns. He would then have one fewer viewer.  There are plenty of more active things I can do during that hour rather than passively sitting on the sofa in a state of osmosis.  I am not planning anything dreadful like an hour on the treadmill, for example, but I am thinking that playing the piano or guitar would be pretty cool.  I know how and I just don't play much.  I think this will also help me practice the Serenity Prayer more meaningfully.

God grant me the serenity
To accept the things I cannot change
Courage to change the things I can
And wisdom to know the difference










 

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.