Friday, July 30, 2004
So this lady says to me the other day, "So, I hear you are a republican?"
"Well, actually, I vote for the person not the party." After a pause, I add, "But this year I'm thinking of voting for Nader."
"So you're just giving the election to Bush"
I guess some people don't even listen to themselves. If I'm a "republican" then I'm taking votes away from Bush. Shouldn't she be happy about that? Then there's the old arguments. How he's caused the economy to turn sour. I reply with my opinion that this merely the tech bubble bursting. There are still many great opportunities in the stock market. Take Chico's Fas for example. (You don't actually have look at that horrible line chart. This isn't an investment post.) Some one recommended it to me just over two years ago. It was about to split and was just below 20 dollars. He has doubled his stock and it sits right at about 40 dollars a share. That's a growth of about four hundred percent. That's not bad.
Of course, I didn't buy it. I was concerned about the fact that they didn't pay dividends, but what do I know? It's hard to watch the financial channels and not see this stock mentioned once a week. He's a pretty smart guy who has the patience to wade years of financial reports to find companies to invest in. He's good at it. He's actually so far into smart though, that he approaches stupid from the other side. He's like that friend that can tell you how figure out the speed of light only using a shaving mirror and stopwatch, but sometimes forgets to put pants on before leaving the house.
Anyway, this democrat brought up the argument that Bush is paying people to go overseas. (What like ambassadors? She didn't catch my sarcasm. Of course she meant jobs.) The problem is that Bush isn't paying anyone to move jobs overseas. The problem is that the companies that we know and love are doing it themselves in search of the almighty dollar. Oh we'd like to stick it to them. We've even found a few fall guys to make ourselves feel better about the whole thing. The truth is that we just love our stuff to much to do what it really takes to stick it to these people. Stop spending our money on them. (Of course, as a "republican" I'm willing to understand the idea the if we aren't willing to make our money sowing up the beanie babies that we love so much, then we ought let some one else have the job.)
The one problem is that this democrat never used the one argument that she might have won, the war in Iraq. I can't say whether or not we need this war. I'm pretty sure that Saddam is a pretty bad guy, but there have been many, pretty bad guys that we let exist for too long. Maybe it's that fact that he's not our, pretty bad guy. I can't help but feel that this war will just start off a whole new army of pissed of people. We also can't let people influence our thinking by pushing us around. It's hard to walk the fine line between bully and sissy.
Anyway, there was a couple of stories in the news today about Arabs. I thought they were interesting. You can read them here and here. Of course, it makes me wonder if Michael Moore has a point. I haven't seen F9/11 but have thought about it. I don't care much for the man, but do have enough of an open mind to listen. Of course as being some one who has dealt with the patriot act a little, I wonder just how far it will go. I had to speak with the bank manager once as I withdrew $5,000 to pay for a tax deed. As I seem to recall they have to report transactions of $10,000, but it seems that I read somewhere that it had been lowered to $5,000.
And speaking of Michael Moore, I also read where Castro interrupted the Thursday night Movie on Cuban television to show F9/11. (Read more.) The rumor is that he interrupted Herbie Rides Again. Even if we are not sure of his efforts here at home, at least Mr. Moore is doing a great service for somebody. (Okay, I made that last part up. You caught me.)
Later folks.
"Well, actually, I vote for the person not the party." After a pause, I add, "But this year I'm thinking of voting for Nader."
"So you're just giving the election to Bush"
I guess some people don't even listen to themselves. If I'm a "republican" then I'm taking votes away from Bush. Shouldn't she be happy about that? Then there's the old arguments. How he's caused the economy to turn sour. I reply with my opinion that this merely the tech bubble bursting. There are still many great opportunities in the stock market. Take Chico's Fas for example. (You don't actually have look at that horrible line chart. This isn't an investment post.) Some one recommended it to me just over two years ago. It was about to split and was just below 20 dollars. He has doubled his stock and it sits right at about 40 dollars a share. That's a growth of about four hundred percent. That's not bad.
Of course, I didn't buy it. I was concerned about the fact that they didn't pay dividends, but what do I know? It's hard to watch the financial channels and not see this stock mentioned once a week. He's a pretty smart guy who has the patience to wade years of financial reports to find companies to invest in. He's good at it. He's actually so far into smart though, that he approaches stupid from the other side. He's like that friend that can tell you how figure out the speed of light only using a shaving mirror and stopwatch, but sometimes forgets to put pants on before leaving the house.
Anyway, this democrat brought up the argument that Bush is paying people to go overseas. (What like ambassadors? She didn't catch my sarcasm. Of course she meant jobs.) The problem is that Bush isn't paying anyone to move jobs overseas. The problem is that the companies that we know and love are doing it themselves in search of the almighty dollar. Oh we'd like to stick it to them. We've even found a few fall guys to make ourselves feel better about the whole thing. The truth is that we just love our stuff to much to do what it really takes to stick it to these people. Stop spending our money on them. (Of course, as a "republican" I'm willing to understand the idea the if we aren't willing to make our money sowing up the beanie babies that we love so much, then we ought let some one else have the job.)
The one problem is that this democrat never used the one argument that she might have won, the war in Iraq. I can't say whether or not we need this war. I'm pretty sure that Saddam is a pretty bad guy, but there have been many, pretty bad guys that we let exist for too long. Maybe it's that fact that he's not our, pretty bad guy. I can't help but feel that this war will just start off a whole new army of pissed of people. We also can't let people influence our thinking by pushing us around. It's hard to walk the fine line between bully and sissy.
Anyway, there was a couple of stories in the news today about Arabs. I thought they were interesting. You can read them here and here. Of course, it makes me wonder if Michael Moore has a point. I haven't seen F9/11 but have thought about it. I don't care much for the man, but do have enough of an open mind to listen. Of course as being some one who has dealt with the patriot act a little, I wonder just how far it will go. I had to speak with the bank manager once as I withdrew $5,000 to pay for a tax deed. As I seem to recall they have to report transactions of $10,000, but it seems that I read somewhere that it had been lowered to $5,000.
And speaking of Michael Moore, I also read where Castro interrupted the Thursday night Movie on Cuban television to show F9/11. (Read more.) The rumor is that he interrupted Herbie Rides Again. Even if we are not sure of his efforts here at home, at least Mr. Moore is doing a great service for somebody. (Okay, I made that last part up. You caught me.)
Later folks.
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