What really causes large price changes................

http://www.santafe.edu/research/publications/workingpapers/04-02-006.pdf

Maturity.............

is when the hair in your nose and in your ears grows far faster than the hair on your head. One of the nicest birthday presents was a nose hair trimmer that even works in the shower.

Big Numbers..........

Maybe the markets are due for a correction one of these years. The head dude at Goldman Sachs was awarded well over $50,000,000 in pay this year. The guy at Morgan Stanley who has only been there maybe 18 months has already made close to $70,000,000. Nothing wrong with either picture. Both stocks have done well. I hear the average bonus for employees at Goldman will be in the $600,000 range. Chump change really when compared to the $600,000,000 our man, Michael Milken, at my old firm of Drexel Burnham Lambert made in 1986.

Christmas addition .....

PNC Financial services every year counts up how much it would cost to buy everything in the 12 days of Christmas song. This year it would cost $18,920, which is up 3.1% from last year. Nice dancing ladies cost $4,759.

Life at 53 ...........

Birthdays are overdone..........we didn't do anything to obtain one, why we get presents is beyond me. I mean really, aren't we all just by-products of fleeting moments in time? Life should be celebrated every day. Every sun rise, every sunset. The lives of our children. All of the fleeting moments of the day. The bad days make the good ones that much better. We learn far more from the bad days which makes life easier for the great days ahead. For me at 53, the best is yet to come. It's good and it's getting better.

House of Morgan......Discover some arbitrations...........

Morgan Stanley is going to sell DISCOVER to pay for the 1,200 arbitration suits that will be reopened after the NASD gets done with their suit. How do you hide millions of emails is beyond me. It appears the NASD caught them and Mack, the $40 million dollar man, has tried to appease the regulators. Let justice prevail. Just more of the same when dealing with Wall Street. Small investors getting fleeced. As I always say, where there's smoke there's fire. This one will be a real blaze!

GOOGLE

Seldom do I mention individual stocks. Usually because the "never-made-a-mistake" crowd is quick to harp when one breaks down fairly soon after getting into the trade, which still happens often enough. When you play in the small-cap, momentum space it happens. Life isn't fair. To some, mattresses are for their cash and to lay on and worry about their lot in life. Yesterday, all of the shares we controlled in GOOGLE were dumped at the 474-475 mark. For all of you who yacked trash when we got into the trade at the 350 mark maybe you'll give me a couple of your winning ideas that will generate 125 points fairly quick. I'm waiting.

Pork, ethics, Wall Street............

The politico's in Washington can't spend it fast enough. The last-minute spending by Congress on pet projects was apalling. Sickening. Fraud on the American taxpayer. They can't police themselves. Off-loading the responsibility to police their ranks is admitting failure of their own ethics. And the law coming down on Franklin Raines of FannieMae fame is a pleasant surprise. Years late but better late than never. Now to get some of the corporate honcho's that have played the options-backdating game to the tune of hundreds of millions. No wonder Wall Street stockbrokers are held to the same levels of trust and integrity as used car salesmen by the public. Wall Street wouldn't do it, the SEC doesn't do much. Spitzer got it done.

Native American

I am a very guilty party. Politically correct types would call me guilty of conduct unbecoming the top dog at a suburban Atlanta money management firm. Frankly, I care less. Some big wigs lunch at the Capital Grill, others at Bones or the myriad of eateries around Atlanta that cater to the power lunch crowd. Me? I get into the Carhartt's and go check traps. Beaver traps, bobcat traps, fox traps, coyote traps. Lunch is trail mix and a Gatorade. It's close to Christmas in Dixie and there's fur to be had in the pines.

Beware of Deer Antlers......................

FORT PIERCE, Fla. (Dec. 14) AP Newswire- Two men were arrested on battery charges Thursday after a road rage incident led one to attack the other with deer antlers and then a handgun, authorities said. Ronny White, 35, and Keith Ransford, 23, both of Ft. Pierce, were booked at the St. Lucie County jail for alleged aggravated assault. Both were later freed on bond, said sheriff's Sgt. Andy McIntosh. A telephone message left for White was not immediately returned on Thursday. Ransford's telephone rang unanswered. "They got into a first altercation and the one guy tries to attack the second guy with deer antlers," McIntosh said. "It's not an everyday occurrence." White and Ransford allegedly got into an altercation while driving along U.S. 1 in Ft. Pierce, McIntosh said. The men stopped, and White allegedly attempted to attack Ransford with the deer antlers. Both men got back in their cars, crashed into each other, then stopped again about a block away, according to the sheriff's report. Ransford then allegedly rammed his vehicle into White's car. White pulled out a handgun and fired one shot into Ransford's vehicle, the report stated. Neither men suffered serious injuries. An investigation was ongoing.

from environmental writer, Michael Casey of the AP

Asia's economic boom has caused a surge in car and motorcycle sales, undercutting efforts to promote public transport in the region and clean up its dirty skies, delegates told a pollution conference Thursday.
While some Asian governments were praised for toughening vehicle emission standards, and most have phased out leaded gasoline, many of the region's big cities are doing little to enforce laws or establish effective bus and train networks, they said.
"Transport is growing faster in most cities so transport emissions are a big part of the problem," Lew Fulton, a transport expert with the U.N. Environmental Program, told the three-day Better Air Quality Conference 2006 in Yogyakarta.
The meeting — one of the biggest air quality conferences in the region — comes at a time when Asia has begun to address the bad air that has resulted from double-digit economic growth rates, especially in India and China. Soot from coal-fired power plants, greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles and haze caused by slash-and-burn land clearing activities have all helped turn the region into the world's most polluted.
The World Health Organization said increased pollution in Asia is estimated to be causing as many as 537,000 premature deaths each year, as well as a rise in cardiopulmonary and respiratory illnesses. It is also having economic ramifications, with China saying it is cutting into its growth and Hong Kong fearing its foul air is scaring off investors.
Transport is taking center stage mostly because it is growing so fast, conference delegates said, causing massive traffic jams in many cities and contributing as much as 60 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in the next 20 to 30 years.
"The speed of motorization is so fast in Asia. For example, vehicle fleets double in about five years in an average Asian country," said Cornie Huizenga, head of the Clean Air Initiative for Asian Cities which helped organize the three-day conference, attended by 900 government officials, researchers and activists.
The number of vehicles in China could grow by as much as 15 times in the next 30 years to more than 190 million, according to a study released Thursday by the Asian Development Bank, while the growth could be up to 13 times in India.
Correspondingly, carbon dioxide emissions from on-road transport can be expected to rise by 3.4 times in China and 5.8 times in India in the same period, the report said.
In less-developed countries such as Vietnam or Indonesia, the problem is motorbikes. Hanoi has gone from almost no motorcycles 10 years ago to 1.5 million today, according to the Swiss Vietnamese Clean Air Project. Indonesia's fleet has doubled in the past five years to 33 million, according to the government, dwarfing car ownership, which has also doubled to around 7.4 million.
With no sign of vehicle growth slowing, delegates called on governments to boost fuel efficiency standards. They also called for more spending on public transport projects such as bus ways in Indonesia or newly designed roadways to accommodate bicycles and pedestrians that are being considered in India.
More importantly, many experts said governments need to establish programs to test and enforce vehicle emission standards, limit the import of secondhand vehicles and consider taxes that would make new vehicles more expensive.
"There are a lot of laws that have been passed to improve the environmental conditions of cities but they need to be backed up by enforcement to ensure the desired effects are developed," said Jamie Leather, an ADB transport expert.
Indonesia reflects the challenges many countries are facing. They have enacted emission standards but have no system for emission testing. As a result, spot checks found that only 60 percent of gasoline powered and 10 percent of diesel powered cars met the standards, the government said.
"If we enforce the regulations, all these cars will have be garaged," said Ridwan Tamin, an assistant deputy for mobile source emissions for the Ministry of Environment. "So we have a social issue, you see. This gives you an idea of how much we have to do to curb this situation."

Up....................

Since the market bottom in August, the S & P 500 has averaged a gain of 2% every 3 weeks.

8.3 million acres...........

of water in the Outer Continental Shelf are now open for drilling. This acreage holds an estimated 5,800,000,000,000 (for those of you in Mandaree that is 5.8 trillion) cubic feet of natural gas. Think your natural gas bill might go down?

193 countries on the planet...........

and the nut running Iran openly decries the eradication of Israel. Enough is enough. Light the candle George. Better sooner than later.

Minerals Management Service...........

Let me give just another great example of how the Federal Government is shirking its trust responsibility to Native American tribes. A draft report released last week by the inspector generals office fo the U.S. Department of the Interior confirms suspicionsthat extractive industries have been cheating the federal government for years, and government officials have looked the other way. The Minerals Management Service is a department of the Department of Interior (just like the Bureau of Indian Affairs) and is charged with collecting, accounting for and distributing royalties from about 28,000 leases. To spur oil exploration in teh Gulf of Mexico, Congress directed that deep-water oil and gas leases be exempted from federal royalty payments of 12.5%. However, if oil prices ever rose above $36 a barrel, which they have, the payments were to be reinstated and those funds then credited to the reservations wehre the drilling occurred. Over the past decade, the Interior Department signed agreements with oil and gas companies that failed to include the provision intended to protect taxpayers if oil and gas prices moved up. The mistake was discovered at least 5 years ago, but Interior covered it up. Compounding the errors were repeated failures by the MMS to conduct thorough audits which of course is nothing new to Native Americans.

These transgressions are further evidence that the Cobell litigation must be settled in an expedient manner and damages awarded for the amounts that are rightfully owed to Indian Country.

Cold Winter...................

It was October and the Indians on a remote reservation asked their new Chief if the coming winter was going to be cold or mild. Since he was a Chief in a modern society he had never been taught the old secrets. When he looked at the sky he couldn't tell what the winter was going to be like. Nevertheless, to be on the safe side he told his tribe that the winter was indeed going to be cold and that the members of the village should collect firewood to be prepared. But being a practical leader, after several days he got an idea. He went to the phone booth, called the National Weather Service and asked, "Is the coming winter going to be cold?" "It looks like this winter is going to be quite cold," the meteorologist at the weather service responded. So the Chief went back to his people and told them to collect even more firewood in order to be prepared. A week later he called the National Weather Service again. "Does it still look like it is going to be a very cold winter?" "Yes," the man at National Weather Service again replied, "it's going to be a very cold winter." The Chief again went back to his people and ordered them to collect every scrap of firewood they could find. Two weeks later the Chief called the National Weather Service again. "Are you absolutely sure that the winter is going to be very cold?" "Absolutely," the man replied. "It's looking more and more like it is going to be one of the coldest winters ever." "How can you be so sure?" the Chief asked. The weatherman replied, "The Indians are collecting firewood like crazy."

Elsie Meeks speaking the truth.......................

For the past 20 years or so, my job and calling has been to promote economic development by assisting tribal community members with starting businesses. I have worked for many years at the grass-roots level on my home reservation of Pine Ridge, through the work of the Lakota Fund, the first-of-its-kind Native Community Development Financial Institution. For the past six years through my work at Oweesta, I have had the chance to work with tribes and Native communities all over the nation assisting them with starting CDFIs. These organizations are instrumental in helping community members start businesses or buy homes, and are crucial to boosting Native economies. Recently I had the opportunity to spend a couple of days with an American Public Media reporter who was doing a story on Native entrepreneurs. There is nothing like spending a couple of days with an inquisitive journalist to help a person view the situation with an outsider's eye. We spent time at the Cheyenne River and Pine Ridge Reservations in South Dakota where entrepreneurship is off to a good start, thanks primarily to the efforts of two Native CDFIs - Four Bands Community Fund and the Lakota Fund. Progress has been made, but trying to explain why our communities are still so economically far behind our neighboring off-reservation communities was a challenge. In some ways it goes beyond reason. We blame bad federal policy. We blame poverty. We blame the BIA, and we even blame our tribal council. However, as we are well aware, no amount of blame will fix the problem. Over the years I have had the opportunity to visit many other tribes and I currently have the great pleasure of sitting on the Board of Governors of the Harvard Project on Indian Economic Development Honoring Nations Program. Through these experiences, I have seen first-hand a number of tribes that have made enormous progress by making important changes in governance and tribal management in spite of poverty, the BIA, governmental structure and all the other issues that continue to afflict my tribe. Changes such as separating the judicial system from the tribal council and improving the court systems so that they are culturally appropriate but demand accountability can have a tremendous impact on creating a climate in reservation communities that is conducive to economic development. Others include the separation of business development from tribal council, adopting secured transaction codes and increasing government support of institutions like Native CDFIs that help individuals obtain economic self-sufficiency. The list goes on and on as to what tribes can do to improve their economic viability and that of their tribal community members. The question is - if one tribe can do it, why can't my tribe? The reporter and I talked about this for several days and, of course, having lived and worked at Pine Ridge I have many opinions about what it will take to change. But my thinking has changed over the last five years or so. This is a bold statement and will probably make a few people mad at me, but here it is: I don't think we really want to change! Of course, change is hard and it would take a great and deep effort on the part of many people. And, to be fair, there are a number of people that would like to bring about change. I would say that most of the tribal council members want change when they first get elected but, given the complexity of the issues, they are not in the least equipped to do it. Not many people are. They face an uphill battle fighting systems and engrained attitudes that won't allow change to happen. I said my thoughts about bringing about change have changed over time, and this is how. We need to find a starting place. I believe that the message is the starting point: a message about self-sufficiency and not dependency on the federal or tribal government, a message about individuals building wealth and assets, a message that says when we operate in ways that are responsible and accountable we will bring success to ourselves as individuals and to the tribe as a whole. How do we do this? By organizing like-minded people in each community and setting goals around these messages, with the ultimate outcome being the creation of private assets for our people. This is not another short-term fix. We have tried those for a century or so, and in my opinion things have gone from bad to worse. This is about creating lasting change. Even reflecting on my work at the Lakota Fund over the years, I believe that had our goal been to help people achieve and strive for wealth, we would have made different choices along the way. Our strategies may not have changed, but our techniques would have. I believe we would have worked more closely with the schools to promote personal financial management and job and business skills, and we would have implemented the same within the Lakota Fund's programs. As I said, we have made progress and there are more Lakota tribal member entrepreneurs on Pine Ridge than I see in many other Native communities, but they continue to struggle because many lack financial management and business management skills. They also operate their businesses in an environment that does not nurture small businesses. Make no mistake about it - waiting for treaties to be upheld will not move us down the road to self-sufficiency. Treaties should be upheld, but we have to begin this process of self-sufficiency and wealth building ourselves. Sovereign, independent nations cannot be built unless we have economically sovereign people. At the end of the day, it should be the job of our tribal leaders to provide the opportunities and a nurturing environment so that people can come to believe the message of hope. We have ''sold'' poverty for far too long. Let's begin selling opportunity. Elsie Meeks, Lakota, is the executive director of First Nations Oweesta Corporation in Rapid City, S.D. Visit Oweesta.org or Ournativecircle.org for more information.

Moon Shot..............

This boondoggle that NASA is embarking on is another testament to the expansion and out-of- control growth that the Federal Government under the Bush Administration is laying on the American taxpayer. It was George W.'s lasting legacy to his NASA pals in Texas. We don't need to lay out over $100,000,000,000 for this nonsense. For those of you in Mandaree that is one-hundred billion dollars.........not really chump change, even for a politician. Not now, not in your lifetime, not ever. Let's get these engineers to work on securing our borders, improving mass transit, making America a better place. And then spend some serious cash on things like finding cures for cancer and making dramatic and much-needed changes for Native Americans on reservations.

Catoosa 2006

Friday morning dawned with extreme "quiet" in the canyons of Catoosa. Except for the rushing water in the drainage below things were very still. I dislike being in the vicinity of other hunters on these public hunts and try to get back in to some of the areas where I've never encountered other hunters. It seems most just won't put in the effort to get into some remote areas where there are a lot of oaks and zero access for quads. My thought was that if the wind were to continue on Friday like it blew on Thursday I wanted to be above the leeward side of some of the canyons covering routes to thick cover and close proximity to heavy acorns. It was frankly impossible to get into the ridges without making so much noise. The frozen leaves were crackling afoot as I moved to the light of my GPS well before daylight. I didn't know the temperature as I have a Garmin GPS that is probably archaic to many of you and it doesn't give the temperature but growing up in very cold climates I knew it was cold and I had dressed appropriately.

When it was light enough to shoot I could hear the sound of hogs well ahead rummaging in the leaves for acorns on a narrow ridge. The sound carried much farther than I thought. Thoughts of emptying my BAR .243 at a nice band of hogs were in my head as I heard some good hog sounds but as I tried to quietly move closer they moved off the ridge in single file by their tracks and headed down into the thick timber that pine beetles have put on the ground in Catoosa. Nature sure has a funny way of thinning out the pines to continue the life cycle of acorn production for the food sources that depend on mast. It is not an overnight process either.

As the sun moved higher, the land of woodpeckers came alive in the morning light and flock after flock of the gutteral croaking birds called sandhill cranes filled the air as the artic blast of cold air moved them south on their winter migration. I heard a couple of volleys of shots way off in the distance and figured either a big buck was on the ground or a coyote had met its fate. It was a great morning to be in the wilds of Catoosa. I put in my time and effort and came out in the middle of the afternoon without firing a shot. My trail-mix, jerky and Snickers bars had served me well in keeping some fuel in my belly. I often think what Catoosa may have looked like a couple of hundred years ago when there were few trees on the land. I happened on some graves of people who had died about 150 years ago and put the location into my GPS in case I ever get my boys back in there and let them see the old headstones with names hand carved into the rock.

For the day, I saw one doe. It wasn't meant to be but there wasn't a place in TN I would rather have been. Was it worth the $20 stamp? Absolutely. Will I do it again next year? Absolutely.

Bottom line, it was just another great hunt.

--------------------
Dean T. Parisian
NRA Life, MN Trappers-Life, GA Trappers-Life, TN Fur Harvesters-Life.
Baiting is a signficant condemnation of a shooters ability to hunt.

Today...............

On this day in 1960, the Arctic National Wildlife Range was created in Alaska, north of the Arctic Circle. It was renamed the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Today, more than 19-million acres of land are protected and many Alaska Natives disagree on oil drilling in the range.

Listen to Pine Ridge......................

Paste this in your browser...........

http://www.live365.com/stations/lakotacom?site=lakotacom

If there's a dollar involved Goldman Sachs will be there.............

Goldman Sachs has become the first bank to create a hedge fund replication tool in a move that could lead to a shake-up of the $1,300bn hedge fund industry.

The platform will greatly undercut the notoriously high fees of the hedge fund sector. Those investing through a fund of funds can end up paying annual charges of 4-7 per cent, with up to 50 per cent of their returns eaten up by fees. Goldman will charge a flat 1 per cent.

Goldman’s Absolute Return Tracker index (Art), is set to be among the first of a flood of hedge fund cloning products likely to be launched in a revolution being compared with the arrival of index trackers in the mutual fund world a generation ago. “There is a lot of dead wood in the industry – people who should not be running hedge funds,” said Harry Kat, professor of risk management at London’s Cass Business School, who has just launched his own hedge fund replication tool.

“A lot of them will leave the business, because people are smartening up. Index replication is going to become as important as it is in traditional long-only investment, with 30-40 per cent of the market.”

Replication strategies are based on academic research that suggests hedge fund performance is largely driven by movements in underlying markets, such as equity, bond and commodity prices, rather than the intrinsic skill of managers.

Goldman has spent two years developing the algorithm that underpins its platform. The performance characteristics of thousands of hedge funds will be fed into the system monthly and Art is designed to decompose these data and calculate the aggregate position of the hedge fund universe. This position can then be replicated, potentially allowing Goldman to generate hedge fund performance at a fraction of the cost.

Clones such as Art avoid the negative selection bias that bedevils existing investible hedge fund indices and funds of funds, due to the fact that few of the better hedge funds are open to new investment.

It will be far more liquid, with trading available on a daily basis.

“This may be ideal for any large institution that has been looking at hedge funds but doesn’t like the fact that it takes six months to put money [in] and to take it out again,” said Edgar Senior, executive director in Goldman’s fund derivatives structuring team.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2006

Huge numbers .....

Capital markets in the United States have $375 trillion in derivatives whose trading volume is half a quadrillion dollars per quarter. How’s that for madness?

Sanity in our markets is history. By way of comparison, US annual GDP is $12 trillion. In our markets 90% of NYSE trades are black box trades, not Mom and Pop in Mandaree loading up on Exxon and McDonalds. We have offshoring and outsourcing under the title of free trade and globalization dampening our economy. GM and Ford are on the edge of bankruptcy. Ford is shutting 15 plants and laying off another 45,000 workers making $31.64 an hour who will now make $10.00-$12.00 an hour if they can find work.

Big, real big numbers. And bigger questions.

So you want to manage your money like a hedge fund?

Have at it.

The ones people copy most are Appaloosa, Greenlight Capital, Lone Pine, ESL, and Icahn Partners. You can copy them by looking at their 13-F reports.

Appaloosa's 3 biggest holdings are Oracle, Micron, and Applied Materials, recent addition AMR, recent sale Mirant.

ESL's 3 biggest are Sears, AutoZone, and AutoNation. no recent additions, no recent sales.

Greenlight's 3 biggest are Ameriprise, Microsoft, and Hospira. Recent addition of First Data, recent sale of Live Nation.

Icahn's 3 biggest are TWX, Imclone, and American Railcar. Recent add of Hilton, recent sale of Symantec.

Lone Pine's 3 biggest are Brookfied Asset, GOOG, and Comcast. Recent add SLB, recent sale Research in Motion.

Or just call Chippewa Parners.

First "Pamelot" buck

I was in alot of great country this fall and took some great animals but this one may perhaps be the most memorable of 2006 simply because it was on our farm and was the first buck ever taken on it. I loaded my rifle in the driveway in the garage light and started walking in the dark. When first light came this youngster ran to me chasing a doe. It may be the last deer I ever shoot on the farm as my boys will be doing some damage to the whitetails in years to come but one thing is certain. You always remember your first.

Milton High School

I had the privilege this weekend to chaperone the Milton High School swim team to a swim meet up in Chattanooga, TN. What a great experience.

The student swimmers were the best. Fun, energetic and mature.

They are a credit to the school and their parents. Little did they know that it was motivating to see their dedication and team spirit at work. I was also proud of the MHS swim coaches. They took the right road when they had to. It was a job well done by all.

Did you know...................

There is a pretty cool Wine service called Vintrust. You buy wine, and store it at their facility. Then, you can trade wine back and forth with people, and all it does is require the moving of the barcode on the bottles. They have about 2 million bottles under management.

Native immigration issues............

Recently someone was browsing through the 40th Anniversary Issue of Reader's Digest (dated Feb. 1962), and came across this reprint from the Washington News. Quite interesting considering our current debates!

The quote: "Vice President Lyndon Johnson received the following message from an Indian (Native American) on a reservation: "Be very careful with your immigration laws. We were careless with ours."

Sand Creek..............

During this week in 1864, the Sand Creek Massacre took place in south-eastern Colorado. U.S. soldiers slaughtered more than 150 Cheyenne and Arapahoe people.

Did you know................

December is a generally good month in the stock market averaging about a 1.5% rise in the S&P 500 index, and having declined only 7 out of the last 26 years since 1979.

Cecelia Fire Thunder is a true warrior.............

The American Heritage Dictionary defines a warrior as ''one who is engaged in or experienced in battle.'' Even though American Indians no longer flock to battles on horseback to protect their sacred lands, the warrior spirit prevails within individuals who are willing to stand up for Native causes on all levels in the contemporary world.

the Georgia rut......in full swing

I took this dandy buck this morning in Turner County, Georgia

I like this restaurant..............

www.casadice.com

O.J.

What the hell is wrong with Fox in putting this killer on TV?

Regarding the NYMEX Holdings IPO

Watching CNBC and the NYSE specialists post with all the floor brokers gathered to make their commissions when trading opens up on this stock makes the case for all electronic trading. How can you have a fair and orderly market with orders lined up all the way down the hall at the NYSE?

Another thing that no one ever talks about is the problems that stem from the deliberate overpricing of new shares which creates a huge wealth transfer from a newly public company to the major customers of an investment bank. Shareholders are much better off in the long run with a higher net worth than with an artificial and temporarily high stock price. Remember that IPO’s are allocated to clients who pay big commissions, Steinhardt and Cramer come to mind. Those responsible for completion of an IPO are the lead underwriters. If the brokers were held liable for the tremendous carnage inflicted on early buyers of IPO’s the mispricings would end. Those responsible for a company are the directors. If directors were held liable for the eradication of corporate assets by allowing for an IPO to go out at say half the opening price, the mispricings would end. Why should a firm leave so much on the table for Wall Street to pocket?

The Degree of GREED...........

Wall Street is up to their old tricks again. The pricing of this New York Mecantile Exchange IPO is like old times again. Between the private equity guys, the hedgies running public companies like hedge funds (can anyone say fast Eddie Lambert?), and Thains article in todays WSJ, I'd say it's about time for the weekend to quell my fears.

Makes me wonder how many hedge funds with long exposure to crude are under water?

Quiz for the day................

Spend three minutes taking this short quiz consisting of 4 simple questions................. 1. How do you put a giraffe into a refrigerator?................ The correct answer is:.............. Open the refrigerator, put in the giraffe and close the door................................. This question tests whether you tend to do simple things in an overly complicated way................ 2. How do you put an elephant into a refrigerator?................ Wrong Answer: Open the refrigerator, put in the elephant and close the refrigerator.................. Correct Answer: Open the refrigerator, take out the giraffe, put in the elephant and close the door................... This tests your ability to think through the repercussions of your actions............................ 3. The Lion King is hosting an animal conference. All the animals attend except one. Which animal does not attend?............... Correct Answer: The Elephant. The Elephant is in the refrigerator. This tests your memory. OK, even if you did not answer the first three questions, correctly, you still have one more chance to show your abilities.............................. 4. There is a river you must cross. But it is inhabited by crocodiles. How do you manage it?........... Correct Answer: You swim across. All the Crocodiles are attending the animal Meeting This tests whether you learn quickly from your mistakes.

Capstone Turbine

Capstone Turbine is trading up after announcing it would partner with Agile Turbine Technology and Brayton Energy in order to further develop a series of intercooled recuperated gas-turbine commercial-vehicle engines.

The ICR 225 will be the first of these products, the Chatsworth, Calif.-based company said. The product's distinguishing characteristic will be a patented technology rendering the engine's generator equally efficient whether utilizing all of its 225 kilowatts of power or only 75 kilowatts -- in other words, whether the vehicle using it is flying down a highway or churning slowly through traffic. Shares are up 12.6%.

Feeling the IRS pinch?

Federal Revenues, from Bloomberg:

Fed Budget Revenues

2406.4560 Billion on 12/31/06

12/06 2406.456
12/05 2154.305
12/04 1879.783
12/03 1782.108
12/02 1853.173
12/01 1991.194
12/00 2025.218
12/99 1827.454
12/98 1721.798
12/97 1579.292
12/96 1453.062
12/95 1351.830
12/94 1258.627
12/93 1154.401
12/92 1091.279
12/91 1055.041

Over the past 15 years, Federal revenues have increased a full 128%, more than double the increase in CPI over that span, and more than seven times the rate of population increase.

Big Three Auto Stocks.........

The 3 Chiefs went to Washington DC looking for handouts.

Maybe they should pull up a stock chart of Toyota and try to figure out what the American consumer wants in a car. Toyota seems to be doing some things right.

The unions are on the ropes and don't even know it.

This is why the liberal Democrats control Congress.............

Americans don't like foreign wars, especially those where the natives are not willing to do any of the fighting.

Two Wolves

One evening an old Chippewa told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people.

He said, "My son, the battle is between two "wolves" inside us all. One is Evil. It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego. The other is Good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith."

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather: "Which wolf wins?"

The old Chippewa simply replied, "The one you feed."

Bull Mountain Buck -- 2006

Mussellshell Madness --- Muleys in the Bulls

I woke up after 1 am and couldn’t sleep. Having gone to bed around 11 pm I knew it would be a long day but didn’t want to chance missing our flight to Billings, Montana. I roused my long time hunting pal and friend, Ron Branch at 3:30 am and we headed to the Atlanta airport for our early morning flight. Arriving in Billings is always a treat and this trip was no exception. The Yellowstone River sparkled as the pilot banked the plane to the west and we landed on the airstrip just as Air Force One had done the day before as President Bush stumped for the Republican Senator Conrad Burns. Little did I know then that we would speak to each other 8 days later after he lost his Senate seat to the Democratic challenger. Change may be afoot in the halls of Congress but I’m elated to know that nothing has changed in the Mussellshell River country and beautiful Bull Mountains that we would cover over the next week in my quest for a big buck and cow elk. The elk gods had failed me again in the MT lottery drawing for a bull elk tag in the Bull Mountains.

We picked up the necessities of water, trail mix and toilet paper as we headed out to the ranch of some long time friends after sighting in our rifles at the local gun range. Something I always do after traveling with firearms. My gun was right on and shooting perfectly. I had been hunting in this area since 1983 and know many of the locals. You can’t find a finer bunch of Americans anywhere than in this tiny town on the Mussellshell River. It was my first hunting trip back in the area since my long time friend, Creel Poole had went on ahead and as I glanced up into the timber above his old home I felt a twinge of sadness. A rugged stout man in his day and blind in one eye he was a gentle giant with a great sense of humor and smarts. His gift to me months before he passed will be with my family forever.

The deer population in this part of Montana is in good shape. Maybe even better than I had dreamed it would be. Whitetails and muleys were everywhere. Hundreds of them. Lots of bucks for sure. If only the Montana Department of Game, Fish & Parks could persuade the state’s politicians to change the law and stop the hunting of mule deer during the latter stages of the rut. Tradition dies hard in the West and those rules may be hard to change. It would be best for the deer herd and long term, probably better for hunters. I hope it happens sooner than later even if it means less rut hunting for me. I know the outfitters would fight it and they hold sway with the politicians. Money still talks.

The first morning dawned as usual. Priceless fiery orange colored the morning sky as we worked out an area right at daylight. Ron had misunderstood the nonverbal direction we were going to hunt out and it was my fault as I said the word, “southwest” instead of “southeast”. Our GPS units held points in both directions and we were soon far apart in moving to what we thought was a predetermined meeting point. I saw a couple of bucks feeding in an old burn about 8:30 and the clouds had moved in as the wind picked up. It was great getting the kinks out and moving in the hills once again. A far cry from the nasty snowy conditions I endured two weeks prior in the Gore Range of Colorado looking for one of the giants muleys in Eagle County. Ron and I made radio contact and determined we had not been on the same wavelength. We agreed we would meet at a water tank at 11:30 for some jerky and trail mix and I shut off the radio as a muley doe walked into view. About 15 seconds later I heard a bugle. Upwind in either of two canyons I knew I was fairly close. With the wind out of the northwest I had figured the elk to be in the canyon closest to me and where I figured they were due to the thickness of the timber. I worked so slow, so careful. Having topped out at the head of the canyon without nary an elk hair in sight I headed back south. It was well past 11:30 and I thought I should quietly make radio contact with Ron and tell him I was late to our meeting. Ron said he had spooked two small bulls out of the canyon north of the well and I figured they were the elk making all the noise as I headed back downwind on the ridge overlooking the other canyon. How wrong I was. I heard the first “blowing” sound of elk on the move as that tawny color moved by through the thick timber. The herd was blowing up the canyon upwind as I ran to the top of the ridge to find a decent vantage point. It was simply a bull bonanza. Bull after bull after bull. I thought every age of elk was represented in that herd with some huge bulls bringing up the rear. I picked out a calf who was away from the herd and moved out to the very end of a precarious rock outcropping for a better shot. It was too late as the tall timber was in the way and my feet were up against a 30 foot drop. If it was to be a cow elk or sudden death the choice was easy.
I listened to the galloping herd top the ridge and drop into a massive maze of canyons that were on my check list of places to hunt out the following days. It was to be my first time in that particular drainage and I knew those elk were headed there with reckless abandon. I figured given enough time we would find them again. Little did we know that it would be at first light the following morning when another herd came into view.

We were about a mile from the trailhead we were going to take back into the hills when Ron said, “what’s that”. I said, “elk” as we moved to the bottom of the draw and I shut off the truck. They were still a long ways off headed south moving across an open field coming from a water tank and I knew we could catch them if we moved up the draw and into some finger draws to try and intersect them. We bailed out of the truck and moved hard and fast, as fast as we could anyway. Both of us in our 50’s and in relatively good shape helped but it wasn’t as fast as my days in the hills of the Dakota’s chasing mule deer by a long shot. Ron and I have spent a lot of great time hunting together and this was his 4th trip to the Big Sky state, his first for an elk. I had cautioned Ron to make absolutely sure we would be firing at only cows and to be certain no bulls were behind any cows. I would have hated to have a bullet pass through a cow and kill a bull standing behind any cow.

As usual, these nomads of the hills were moving faster than I had thought. As we topped the hill it was now or never. Instinctively, I glanced at a big elk on the left, at the back-end of the herd and sized for horns. Nothing. The report of Ron’s rifle was still echoing as I pulled the trigger of my .243 a nanosecond later. The herd bolted and I ran to the ridge. Ron’s elk, the lead cow lay kicking in a death-throw and my elk was nowhere to be seen so I took off in the direction of the herd. Down and up I crested the hill and heard a running animal and saw the elk come to a halt broadside about 140 yards away. I put the rifle up next to a tree and touched off. At the sound of the “smack” the cow hit the ground. It doesn’t take long to shoot 1,300 pounds of cow elk but it does take a lot longer to load it into a pickup. We had a time of it but the job was done. We were two elated hunters as we pulled into the processing plant a mere 70 miles away that afternoon.

Taking those elk early in the hunt was nice. The pressure was off on the elk tags and we had plenty of time now to find some great bucks. Rutting activity looked to be on the rise but the weather didn’t want to cooperate. I only wore a hunting jacket once in a week. Very un-Montana like, warm wet weather was the forecast. A big full moon with a light drizzle and warm humid days probably aren’t conducive to great buck hunting and surely not great rutting activity. Over the next few days we saw hundreds of deer. We figured we saw at least 200 deer a day and probably one buck for every 10 does and perhaps one “maybe last day shooter” buck for every 25 bucks that we saw. We spotted a great buck and Ron wanted me to try to get him if we saw him and his doe group again. The next day they finally showed around mid-day working their way out in the open. It was wet and my boots were heavy with that famous brown gumbo clay as I made my stalk. As I was down on all fours and creeping to the top of the hill I could see the deer spread out across the hillside, all except for that big buck. He was behind the only tree on the hillside and one of the does spotted me as the wind had died and the midday calm was unusual. As they moved up the hill my shot presented itself. Easy Dean, just breathe and kill him right there. I squeezed so gently and at the rifle crack the buck stood there. On the second shot I knew I had a scope problem. He should have been on the ground. I kept firing. After 5 shots and still running for the hills I knew it wasn’t to be my buck. After a dejected walk back to the truck I knew my next order of business was back to the firing range. Pronto. As the drizzle continued, the answer to missing that great buck was obvious. The shooting range work showed my rifle to be shooting over 20 inches high. My rifle had taken a bad fall the night or two before when I leaned it up against a chair in the bedroom which I thought to be a stationary chair. It turned out to be a swivel chair which when it swiveled, dropped my gun against the concrete floor with the scope hitting the floor first. I knew I may have had a problem after the spill it took and I didn’t do anything about it. It cost me that beautiful big 4x4 mule deer. Such a gorgeous typical buck with such great front forks and all because I was careless, may it be a lesson to all.

As always, the week went by way too fast. The number of deer on the river was stunning. For all of the whitetail bucks we never, ever, once saw a 10 pointer. The Mussellshell 8, the standard 4x4 or 8-point horn structure was all we could find. Hundreds of them. What’s up with that?
The number of eagles on the river was eye-catching. Goldens and balds filled the air. Prairie dogs are not in any danger of extinction for the next 100 hundred years either. Muskrats, beaver and rabbits were numerous on the river bottom as well as a great pheasant crop. Geese lifting off the river were loud. Turkeys were numerous and big as fawns. We saw only 2 coyotes all week and Ron had a great view as he walked up on a couple of bobcat kittens playing in a tree. One ran off and the other stayed in the tree looking down on him. And as usual, a priceless memory in front of him and no camera in the fanny pack to record the moment. The hospitality of our hosts was as always, full of fun and good food. The locals are a hardy bunch and always with an optimistic attitude and friendly smile, maybe it has something to do with the fact there is no cell phone coverage in the area. We needed the weather to change and get the rut going again. I tired of working the hills and sweating in the light rain. Day 6 was ahead and the weather forecast promised the temperatures to drop near the freezing mark. I figured our time was near and I figured right. The grass was greening with the moisture over the previous few weeks and the warmer temps were getting the grass on the rise. We were finding deer everywhere it was green and we spent a lot of time glassing the bottom of canyons looking for green. And speaking of canyons, there is something magical about picking your way through those remote rims ever so slowly, always thinking there is a lion watching you and some Native Americans making camp in the next bottom. Being up there with the eagles is a wonderful experience. Looking into holes that could harbor a monster grey ghost is always fun and looking at trees that were saplings a mere 200 years ago, brings the term, “long-life” into reality. The sunsets are priceless for it is indeed the Big Sky state.

I luckily bumped into my buck in the early afternoon. It was cool and cloudy and bucks were still roaming. Ron had taken a wide 27 inch buck that morning a few miles south and I had to get back to some country that I knew had bucks and hadn’t covered yet. I got back just in time. I came up a steep ridge and broke out on top and there were 3 bucks hounding a hot doe and I kept looking for a bigger buck to show. I hit the deck and got my binocs up. The doe was keeping all of them busy and excited. I saw the big guy come out of the timber to the right of the action with his head down and the dark mass immediately caught my attention. It doesn’t take long for me to know a “shooter” after 6 days behind great binocs and a spotting scope, maybe a couple of nanoseconds. In fact after I made sure he had both sides of his rack and was a solid 4x4 I pulled my scope up on him to deliver a small chunk of metal going about one mile per second his way. It hit him and he took off before going down slow. He tried to get up and I knew that if he made it over a near ridge he would have tumbled a long way and I knew I better finish his life before he could make me drag him straight up out of a deep canyon. The neck shot was all it took. As I walked up slowly I knew he was worthy and deserving of my thanks. I am glad I passed on so many marginal bucks and there was a reason I missed that first brute. Things in life work out for a reason. Hard work and keeping my eyes open served me well in taking this great deer. In life, you miss 100% of the shots you never take. I’m glad I took the shot. And I’m glad my Dad long ago taught me to hunt and lucky for the love and support of my wife and two sons who, God willing, will someday work those hills with their Dad. May there be plenty of great shots ahead.

Vision................

It is a pox on both parties. My mailbox is jammed full with negative campaign ads. It's disgusting. The mainstream press can only produce sound bites from politicians spouting venom about the opposite party. Who cares what Kerry said? I care about our country. Where we are going and when. How we're going to get there. No one wants to discuss the issues. If terrorism is such a bad thing perhaps America should institute a mandatory 2 year government service requirement for young adults.

I am neither Democrat nor Republican. Call me an independant conservative. Perhaps you fit in that category yourself. The unsolicited taped phone calls coming in are over-the-top. When will it end?

Best bumper sticker today.........

"Paddle faster, I hear banjo music"

Accenture..................

NOVEMBER 6, 2006
The Other Indian Outsourcer

Accenture and the Umatilla tribes' bold plan


It's the only board presentation Accenture (ACN ) Managing Director Randall L. Willis has ever made in a trailer, wearing shorts and flip-flops, surrounded by a buffalo hide and photos of Native American chiefs. During a vacation last August, Willis, who is Native American, stopped by the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation to visit a family friend and throw out a business idea.

Accenture Ltd. needed low-cost places to fill the growing demand for outsourced work performed in the U.S. The Umatilla tribes, based in northeast Oregon, needed jobs and a way to diversify their gaming- and government-dependent economy. Would the tribes be interested in teaming up? Within minutes, Willis' friend ushered him into a tribal board meeting already in session, led by Chairman Antone Minthorn.

While the pitch to the board was impromptu, the idea wasn't. For the past year, Willis had been researching Native American tribes to find an appropriate partner. And on Oct. 6, Accenture announced a five-year agreement to manage Cayuse Technologies, an outsourcing business owned by the Umatilla tribes that will offer call center, document preparation, and software programming services. While Accenture will not share in Cayuse revenues, it will be paid a nominal management fee -- and have a ready place to turn for low-cost onshore work. Demand, says Willis, is "tremendous" as government agencies require that more outsourced work be done in the U.S. and as private-sector companies seek cheap local options. "Whether it's cost concerns or security, a number of industries would like to keep it in the U.S," he says.

Call them the other Indian outsourcers. While a handful of tribes have set up outsourcing operations, Accenture's efforts mark the first time a major global tech-services firm has joined forces with tribes to create a low-cost domestic alternative. Native American tribes are similar to rural communities in that they have a very low cost of living and, therefore, much lower wages and real estate costs. Gartner Inc. (IT ) Vice-President for Research Frances Karamouzis estimates that rural-based outsourcing work, and by extension, Native American outsourcers, offer at least a 10% to 30% savings on outside work performed in urban U.S. markets.

Working with the tribes may offer additional advantages. Their 17% unemployment rate, says Umatilla Economic Development Director and Cayuse board member Bill Tovey, is not high by Native American standards, but it still offers a population that's both in need of jobs and fairly stable, thanks to the ties the tribes have to the reservation. And because they don't pay corporate income taxes, the tribes can, potentially, charge lower rates. Eventually, they hope to qualify for a Small Business Administration program that confers special status when competing for government contracts. Analysts say subcontracting to the tribes will attract some clients looking to fill requirements to work with minority-owned businesses. "I'm surprised nobody else has looked at this yet," says Forrester Research Inc. (FORR ) government industry analyst Alan E. Webber. "I think it has a high potential to work -- if they can develop the quality [workforce] that's necessary."

COACHES AND TRAINERS
That's the same risk Willis sees in the venture, which will soon begin to train workers and could eventually hire 250 people. Most employees will have had little or no relevant experience, and Accenture's five-year contract puts it in charge of ensuring that the work is up to par. It will place coaches and Accenture managers on site, as well as provide longer training periods (up to nine months for some programming jobs). Whether or not the plan succeeds, Accenture can walk away after its contract is up.

Of course, Willis, who is also co-chair of the National Council of the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian, hopes the venture takes off. Eventually he would like to see a few more Accenture-affiliated tribal outsourcing locations. Plus, Willis feels more than just a professional responsibility to the venture's success. Not only is he an Oglala Lakota, his wife is a member of one of the Umatilla tribes. "The last thing I wanted, from a personal perspective, was to have this thing fail."


By Jena McGregor

Copyright 2000- 2006 by The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc.

CNBC..................

The powers at GE just don't get it. They still think that the floor traders make the buy and sell decisions for trillions of dollars and hence want America to think that is where all the cerebral brain power resides. Reporting from the NYSE floor will be a thing of the past. The floor is in a death spiral. The quiet is deafening. Maybe they should get a camera up to Greenwich. Inside SAC.

Sheer terror.............

A local Georgia company, symbol WITS, was noted in yesterdays rag for having been involved in dating options. We sold every last share immediately.

When these fleas make from $1 to $100 million a year and have the gall to back-date it is time to move on. Who needs chieftains feeding on the owners?

2006 Colorado Hunt.............

We were fortunate to be drawn for the first rifle hunt for the 2006 deer season. Our plan was to hike for 2 days up into the Eagles Nest Wilderness Area which harbors some great country and good genetics for mulies. This area is due north of Vail, Colorado in Eagle County which holds the largest number of Colorado record book entries for muleys to this day. I thought our planning was excellent and our strategy laid out with most variables addressed, all except for the weather.

The Wilderness Area doesn't allow any mechanized vehicles, which was what we were trying to avoid. Much of Colorado, at least public land, is being run over by quads. It frankly is out of hand and not much is being done about it. We couldn't find anyone to rent us horses for the week and as a DIY'er (do-it-yourselfer) the thought of paying an outfitter to get us to a drop camp wasn't part of our agenda. Only one party was camped higher than us and that was some guys from ND who were after elk and went in a day earlier and had horses and a mule.

We set up our tents at base camp at 9,431 feet elevation and hunted higher. It was extremely tough going as many of you may have read about all the snow Colorado has gotten the past 3 weeks. We saw more moose than we did elk, more sheep than we did moose and more deer than sheep. I never saw a shooter. Plenty of does and some dink bucks but nothing what I was after which was at or near the 30 inch mark. The big brutes were still way up in the quakies and the migration hadn't started for the move to winter range. The rut is still weeks off. It was a tough nasty week. The thin air takes it toll. Snowshoes wouldn't have made a difference. I've got a combination cow elk/deer tag for Montana and am leaving Friday for a week. Maybe the muley gods will be shining on me closer to the rut up there and have some bigger bucks moving about. America is a beautiful place with plenty of great country to hunt. The trick is to just do it, to make it happen, to work hard and some day, some time, that 30 incher will be close enough. Maybe next week in Montana.

If anyone would like my packing list/food/water purification/sleeping bags/tent/bino information I would be happy to share it. Just email to the address found at www.chippewapartners.com.

Change the color to RED and challenge Native America

A Challenge to the 21st Century Black Man

Black men I challenge you to unleash your full potential. Can you handle the task? Prove it.

By Peggy Butler

As night draws near, and the city dissipates into its nocturnal ritual, millions of Black men ponder their fate. Pausing briefly, I observe the man seated across the aisle, and note the confusion in his eyes. It is a look I've seen many times before. Only now it is more subtle, and tinged with an uncanny alliance of fear and serenity. What exactly are you thinking Brotha? Are you sad, happy? Do the two emotions evolve into one leaving you restless and confused?

For several minutes you engage in a cat-and mouse game of Why, What and How. As your mind swerves from one question to another, your thoughts trickle in fast and furious, each more horrifying than the other. Why Am I Here? As a Black Man Why Am I So Misunderstood? And so it goes.

Finally the man drifts into a blissful sleep, where dreams are the only elements veering between sanity and desperation. Five hours later he awakens to the sound of dripping water. Alone in the dark with his thoughts, he becomes conscious of the drip. Plip, Plop, each drop resonates with the sound of fury. Fast forward to the present: Arise my Brotha! The next time these thoughts enter your head, I invite you to take My Challenge.

Now, before you get your boxers in a wad, allow me to give you a brief synopsis of this provocation. It was created solely for Black Men. Moreover, its purpose is to help you become the person you are capable of becoming, despite your present circumstances. Now Brotha without further interruption, here is my challenge to you.

1. I challenge you to stop subscribing to the theory that you are weak, lazy and inadequate.

2. I challenge you to attain a quality education and use your skills wisely.

3. I challenge you to take pride in your race and become conscious of your heritage. Hey guys, have you forgotten that you are descendants of kings and queens?

4. I challenge you to wrap yourself in the fragrant embrace of hope, and stop exhibiting signs of weakness.

5. I challenge you to stop letting western civilization dictate your true value and self-worth.

6. I challenge you to free your mind from the pity, anger and hatred deeply ingrained in your psyche.

7. I challenge you to refrain from the self-destructive behavior (criminal activity) that has led to your selection on the heavily populated Crooks R-US roster.

8. I challenge you to release all resentment, stop living in the past, and stand on your own two feet.

9. I challenge you to get off the street corners and seek gainful employment.

10. I challenge you to combine the exultation of your soul, mind and body, and walk with your head high. By doing this, you will let the world know that you are no longer influenced by biased criticism.

11. I challenge you to refrain from all thoughts of despondency. Instead, fill your mind with hope, faith and assurance.

12. I challenge you to choose wisely, live honorably and always anticipate the best.

13. I challenge you to assert your constitutional rights and become optimistic about the future.

14. I challenge you to be a leader, despite your present circumstances.

15. I challenge you to submit your mind to a Higher Authority. With God's help you can gravitate to a state of true happiness.

16. I challenge you to reclaim your role as "head of household," a phrase used to describe a man who is capable of providing food, clothing and shelter for his family.

Aren't you sick and tired of the media referring to you as the "non-supportive" parent who makes babies, but is incapable of taking care of them?

Lastly, Black Men, I encourage you to commit yourself to these challenges. Only through mutual understanding and in-depth analysis, can you reach your full potential.

Happy times are NOW...........

Did you know there were 170 million prescriptions for anti-depressants last year, in addition to an uncounted number of people self medicating through the use of legal and illegal means. While we are living longer and enjoying the immense benefits of throw-away razors, Monday Night Football and Splenda it would seem that little progress is being made at mastering the pursuit of happiness.

You best believe that the best is yet to come. Live today.

Robertson Davies said...............

"Happiness is always a by-product. It is probably a matter of temperament, and for anything I know it may be glandular. But it is not something that can be demanded from life, and if you are not happy you had better stop worrying about it and see what treasures you can pluck from your own brand of unhappiness."

DOW 12,000

Well boys and girls, here it is. A nice fat round number. And to think it will double from here in my lifetime. You can count on it or put it in stone. Long term, (listen carefully here Geno) the market only goes one way. Believe it.

I've been planning on this number being reached exactly today (go ahead, you can laugh at that, I am) for about 2.5 years so I am going to take a break from my daily duties and recharge my senses, refuel the spirit and fire it up once again on the Continental Divide in Colorado. May the mule deer gods shine down on me.

God willing I'll be back on Halloween with plenty of fresh ideas and a whole lot of fresh air behind me. Take good care of your health, it's still the largest component of your net worth, say your prayers for your lot in life, enjoy your place amongst your other 300,000,000 neighbors and continue to dream big dreams.

The best is yet come. Believe it.

Corporate shenanigans.........

For those of you in Mandaree, stock options are awarded or granted or even "earned" by employees of publicly traded companies to motivate and retain, key, and sometimes all personnel. These options give their recipients the right to buy stock at a strike price that most companies tell the shareholders will be the fair-market value on the day of the grant. Many of these corporate scoundrels have been involved in backdating, which is where the companies secretly pretend the option grant was at an earlier date so that the strike price can be lower and the profits greater.

There is a company called UnitedHealth that has a guy by the name of Dr. William McGuire still at the helm. I dont' think there is a human alive who has made more money playing games with options grants. No wonder investors get so fed up with this never-ending crapola. Where is the SEC in protecting the little guy? Spitzer started it off right and got the investigations rolling. Who will finish it when he's gone off to politics?

T.O.

Tremendous athlete.

And everything about what's wrong with pro football.

DOW High-Water.........

My thesis over the past weeks and months that the market runs higher by year-end seems to have some legs after todays action. Small-cap's came to life. About time. In cowboy terms, when 30 critters break out of a large herd you usually wind up losing the entire bunch and starting over. Likewise, when thirty big names (the DOW) move up to new high ground, the rest will follow.

It just takes some time.

This is a MUST-SEE for Americans........

www.louvreatlanta.org

Carnage

BALTIMORE, Maryland (CNN) -- War has wiped out about 655,000 Iraqis or more than 500 people a day since the U.S.-led invasion, a new study reports.

Violence including gunfire and bombs caused the majority of deaths but thousands of people died from worsening health and environmental conditions directly related to the conflict that began in 2003, U.S. and Iraqi public health researchers said.

"Since March 2003, an additional 2.5 percent of Iraq's population have died above what would have occurred without conflict," according to the survey of Iraqi households, titled "The Human Cost of the War in Iraq."

The survey, being published online by British medical journal The Lancet, gives a far higher number of deaths in Iraq than other organizations.

Researchers randomly selected 1,849 households across Iraq and asked questions about births and deaths and migration for the study led by Gilbert Burnham of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, Maryland.

They extrapolated the figures to reflect the national picture, saying Iraq's death rate had more than doubled since the invasion.

Iraqis "bear the consequence of warfare," the report said, comparing the situation with other wars: "In the Vietnam War, 3 million civilians died; in the Congo, armed conflict has been responsible for 3.8 million deaths; in East Timor, an estimated 200,000 out of a population of 800,000 died in conflict.

"Recent estimates are that 200,000 have died in Darfur [Sudan] over the past 31 months. Our data, which estimate that 654,965 or 2.5 percent of the Iraqi population has died in this, the largest major international conflict of the 21st century, should be of grave concern to everyone."

The researchers estimated that an additional 654,965 people have died in Iraq since the invasion above what would have been expected from the pre-war mortality rate.

Georgia troopers.........

Why are there so many state troopers guarding college football coaches on game day than you ever see on the roads? Does it have anything to do with getting a good view of the game ? How do you protect a coach from a flying hot dog?

Or a loss?

Columbus Day..........

This holiday is not celebrated in Native America. Nor by Chippewa Partners.

Meth problems in Indian Country???

Here is a partial solution.............

www.hythiam.com

Yesterday at Six Flags...............

We spent a gorgeous day at Six Flags celebrating my son's 10th birthday with his posse of pals. It didn't come cheap.

What a hoot and no shortage of tats, piercings and mullet haircuts. Just like North Korea, everyone is trying to make a statement.

The parking lot at the end of the day looked like a garbage dump. Park patrons just throw all their McDonalds trash out in the lot. And that trash surely has a "ton" to do with the size of the patrons. It was an amazing exhibit of obesity waddling around at Six Flags. Scary. The lady who got stuck in the turnstile exiting the park was a highlight. There weren't that many people at the park for such a beautiful day. Talladega was running and that probably kept half of Alabama occupied. As for the boys, as one said to me on the way home, it was "the greatest day of his life"! It's still tough to beat a roller coaster ride for sheer thrills!

Japan.............

The Japanese may not sleep well with North Korea doing their nuclear testing. The worlds thugs and bullies are having a field day.

More from the worlds greatest thug....Mr. Putin

A Russian journalist known for her critical coverage of the war in Chechnya was shot to death Saturday in the capital, police said.

Anna Politkovskaya's body was found in an elevator in an apartment building, a duty officer at a central Moscow police station told The Associated Press. A pistol and four bullets were found in the elevator, the Interfax news agency reported, citing police officials.

Politkovskaya was respected for her critical, in-depth coverage of the Russian government campaign in Chechnya.

Is help on the way in Canada?

The 1-800 hotline established to help Ontario's addicted gamblers is being inundated with thousands of calls from people looking for winning lottery numbers, prompting the government to rethink the way it advertises the telephone number.

So too, it is the untold story in the Native American gambling saga.

Life at 50

I watched snow clouds whip across Mt. McKinley. I gave the eulogy at my Mothers funeral. I viewed the magnificent Ware Collection of Glass Flowers at Harvard University. I watched two healthy sons come into the world. I have seen the pristine beauty of New Zealand. I waded into the “crowd” on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. I hunted elk in the Big Horn Mountains above Yellow Tail Dam with Robert Yellow Tail. I hunted dinosaur fossils in the Badlands. I stood at Michael Milkens X-shaped trading desk in the Beverly Hills office of Drexel Burnham Lambert. I have shot 10-point bucks in their beds. I was accepted into 5 law schools. I have eaten in the lobster houses of Baja. I know the thrill of Space Mountain. I looked down from the Eiffel Tower. I caught fish in Canada till my arms ached. I walked the Salomon Brothers trading floor in 7 World Trade before the 9/11 disaster. I have seen the treasures of King Tut. I know the biggest components of net worth are great health and the ability to function. I asked my wife to marry me at the Golden Gate Bridge. I made long ocean swims in the cold. I looked down from a helicopter over Yankee Stadium. I learned that if it is a problem about money it is not really a problem. I felt the heat and humidity in Tahiti. I still want to be the winning jockey on the winning horse in the Kentucky Derby. I was in the Swiss Banks in Geneva. I have seen the Crown Jewels. I watched schools of tuna in a feeding frenzy. I watched 3 space missions blast off. I sipped scotch at the Ritz in Paris. I walked the most beautiful beaches in the world. I have eaten shrimp the size of lobsters and octopus the size of shrimp in Australia. I bucked off bucking horses. I know the best hugs come from your own children. I am still pained by the massacre at Wounded Knee. I saw aurora borealis so bright I thought I was seeing heaven from earth. I have heard the primordial howling of coyotes across many sunsets. I partied in the original Hotel California. I have seen death in many forms. . I looked Mona Lisa in the eye. I sailed from Catalina Island to the mainland. I was awarded a college degree. I learned I chose excellent parents. I admired Mt. Blanc from Café di Midi”. I trapped hundreds of fox. I shot antelope at 600 yards and missed coyotes at 8 steps. I have been in planes that have landed on ice, on water and in pastures. I have ridden a motorcycle across much of America. I identified hundreds of different birds. I have been lost in the Louvre. I watched the Challenger explode on TV. I have had more fun than any man should have. I have broken bones. I have been to the diamond cutters in Amsterdam. I grew up in the poorest county in America and lived in LaJolla. I marched as a cadet at the United States Military Academy at West Point. I know leverage works both ways in the stock market. I lost my best friend to a lightning strike. I miss my grandparents more every year. I saw two million birds in one flock. I learned that success has nothing to do with money and everything to do with how you feel about yourself. I never smoked a cigarette. I have felt the roar of a rushing Minnesota river in the spring. I danced in Studio 54. I know the beauty of Diamond Head. I know the laughter of friends and the spite of enemies. I know the power of big surf. I trapped coyotes in Montana’s Bob Marshall Wilderness. I looked into the crater of Mt. Saint Helen’s. I have been to two Olympic Games. I still dream big dreams. I know the gurgle of the Mississippi River headwaters. I married the best “life partner” that any man could. I know Native American racism. I have owned my share of winning stocks. I always questioned my dentist. I fined a large brokerage firm $1,000,000. I remember the Blizzard of 1975. I nearly capsized by migrating whales. I only eat sushi with chopsticks. I ate breakfast at Harry’s in LaJolla and lunched at Harry’s on Wall Street. I was on the flight deck of the USS Kitty Hawk during F-14 training operations. I looked down on Chamonix from the French Alps. I have become a better trader every year. I know that a house is not a home without family. I know the real party is in Heaven.

Nancy Ann Parisian Kaehler

Happy Birthday sis.........from 50 it's alot more uphill than down!!

The Lord and the Biker...............

A Biker was riding along a California beach when suddenly the sky clouded above his head and, in a booming voice, the Lord said, "Because you have tried to be faithful to me in all ways, I will grant you one wish."

The biker pulled over and said, "Build a bridge to Hawaii so I can ride over anytime I want."

The Lord said, "Your request is materialistic, think of the enormous challenges for that kind of undertaking. The supports required to reach the bottom of the Pacific! The concrete and steel it would take! It will nearly exhaust several natural resources. I can do it, but it is hard for me to justify your desire for worldly things. Take a little more time and think of something that would honor and glorify me."

The biker thought about it for a long time. Finally he said, "Lord, I wish that I could understand my wife. I want to know how she feels inside, what she's thinking when she gives me the silent treatment, why she cries, what she means when she says nothing's wrong, and how I can make a woman truly happy."


The Lord replied,

"You want two lanes or four on that bridge?"

Reform the "earmarking".........

For those of you in Mandaree, "earmarking" is the sponsorship, Congressional voting and spending of Americans income tax money on pork barrel projects that are simply WASTE. Eradication of "earmarking" should be a TOP FIVE priority in the next election. Does anyone running America have a vision for America? To make our country a better country? Or is current "leadership" only concerned about the next 15 minutes of whatever CNN or FOX is reporting on the most recent transgressions of their respective political party?

Indomitable

means incapable of being subdued or overcome.

May the PA Amish community which suffered such loss be of indomitable spirit.

Accenture doing right for Native America

Scholarships Provide More Than $100,000 to Support Graduate and Undergraduate Education

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Ten American Indian students from across the United States will continue their education with the help of scholarship funding from Accenture's American Indian Scholarship Fund. The students will be honored this evening at a celebration event being held at the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) in Washington DC.
More than 140 students applied for this year's Accenture scholarship program, which sought out the highest-achieving American Indian and Alaska Native students seeking degrees and careers in technology, professional and business fields. Candidates were evaluated based on academic excellence, leadership ability, and a commitment to American Indian culture and community. Candidates were also required to provide proof of enrollment in a federally recognized American Indian/Alaskan Native tribe.

"Accenture is honored to contribute to the higher education of these exceptional women and men," said Randy Willis, Senior Executive Sponsor of Accenture's American Indian interest group. "While there were many deserving candidates, these students stood out as future leaders in the American Indian community."

Six Accenture Scholars will receive undergraduate scholarships toward completing four-year baccalaureate degrees:

Laura J. Graveley, (Muscogee) of Okmulgee, OK, will attend Stanford University
Nolan Smith-Kaprosey, (Bay Mills Chippewa) of Fort Snelling, MN, will attend Yale University
Gary L. Richards Jr., (Oglala Lakota Sioux) of Pine Ridge, SD, will attend Creighton University
Brittnea S. Nemecek, (Choctaw) of Durant, OK, will attend East Central University
Jana V. Lekanoff, (Qawalangin) of Unalaska, AK, will attend Cornell University
Terra L. Branson, (Muscogee) of Okmulgee, OK, will attend Dartmouth College
Four Accenture Fellows will receive graduate scholarships towards completing advanced or professional degrees:

Jon P. Swan, (Chippewa-Cree Rocky Boy's) of Box Elder, MT, will attend the Harvard Kennedy School of Government
Jay H. Calhoun, (Cherokee) of Tahlequah, OK, will attend Dartmouth College
Jeri A. Azure, (Turtle Mountain Chippewa) of Belcourt, ND, will attend the University of North Dakota
Dana R. Arviso, (Navajo) of Fort Defiance, AZ, will attend the University of Washington
In addition to the scholarships, these recipients will be eligible for summer internships with Accenture as first-year graduate students or junior-year undergraduate students.

"I am pleased to be a part of this evening's presentation and proud to see two students from Eastern Oklahoma bestowed with this honor," U.S. Rep. Dan Boren, Oklahoma, said. "Education is the best investment we can make and I want to commend Accenture for playing a part in that."

These scholarships are one part of Accenture's commitment to the American Indian community in the United States and part of its global corporate citizenship program. Accenture's American Indian Scholarship Fund was created in September 2004, at the same time that Accenture supported the opening of the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, DC. Accenture acts as a management consultant and information technology services advisor to the Museum.

About Accenture

Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company. Committed to delivering innovation, Accenture collaborates with its clients to help them become high-performance businesses and governments. With deep industry and business process expertise, broad global resources and a proven track record, Accenture can mobilize the right people, skills and technologies to help clients improve their performance. With more than 126,000 people in 48 countries, the company generated net revenues of US$15.55 billion for the fiscal year ended Aug. 31, 2005. Its home page is www.accenture.com.

The way things are headed................

We spent 5 days on the Beaver unit here in Utah during the muzzleloader hunt. I have to say, if Utah was my only option as a place to hunt deer, I honestly think I would retire from deer hunting. Things have sure changed in the past 15 years. 15 years ago, a guy could find a few really good bucks in the area. Now, you're hard pressed to find a 2 year old buck.

The elk are doing great down there! Lots of what I consider Big Bulls, but obviously my idea of big is far different than most and the UDWR, because although there are many 6x6 bulls that will die of old age, there are still very few tags available.
Management by inches. Maybe with so many 400+ bulls being killed, we'll see 1-2 more tags in some of these better elk units???

In 5 days, I saw only one 4 point buck. I will admit, I saw lots of does, fawns, and yearling bucks. BUT, with ATV trails and roads everywhere, I would imagine that most of those yearling bucks will be spending the winter in someones freezer.
Roads & ATV trails everywhere!! It's crazy!

I hate to see it!! I was down there helping dad find a big bull, but all I could think about was the deer and how things have changed. It's hard to hear about all the GIANT bulls that are being killed on the mountain, while seeing that the deer quantity and quality has tanked so much over the past 15 years.

Brian Latturner
MonsterMuleys.com


And look at the cost of a deer tag compared to that of an elk tag.

Idaho- non-resident
deer- 258.50
ELK- 372.50


Nevada- non-resident

deer- 240.00
ELK- 1200.00......Someone please tell me this is wrong!

Wyoming- non-resident

deer- 261.00
ELK- 481.00

Congress.............

Sneaking a bill through last week to outlaw ONLINE GAMBLING was hilarious. It just allows the losing gamblers to "lose" their money to established entities.

As if online gambling was a bad thing, well, it is but I'll leave that for another day. Does Congress think that Americans believe that Las Vegas, Indian casino's, horse racing and state lotteries are far worse than gambling on a PC in the confines of ones own residence or is it all about collecting taxes in the United States?

Maybe they should look into the largest gaming enterprise in America.....down at the corner of Wall and Broad.

Prescient is.....................

knowing or anticipating the outcome of events before they happen.

Dis-spiriited...........

I am a Republican. I didn't grow up Republican. My Dad still votes "the DFL ticket" in MN to this day. What I am is a dis-spirited, disgruntled Republican.

The gigantic increase in our federal spending, the lack of any downsizing in government, the lack of any meaningful income tax reform, the lack of addressing the social security problem, immigration concerns, the stalemate between the Government and the IIM accounts in the Cobell case, the NASA boondoggle, it just doesn't end.

I think we have too many people who live in America who don't care about America. Who don't give a rats ass about their America. And too many people in Congress who frankly don't know right from wrong, something they probably could have learned in kindegarten. I will be looking around for a place to put my vote in November.

But then the BILLION bucks a day spent on lobbying efforts there are hard to compete with for my vote too. I don't think I am alone in my feeling.

And I never even mentioned Iraq.

It should be illegal..........

for anyone to come on CNBC and tell the viewers that it is going to "be more of a stockpickers market".

Our first defeat...........

The Alpharetta Grey Eagles suffered our first defeat on a bright Saturday afternoon on the Astroturf on Field 1 at North Park. Our defense didn't get it done. As a coach you hate to see that first defeat on your 9-year old players faces.

We'll beat them in the play-offs. Count on it.

For now, it's back to work for coaches and players.

Ringgold Tigers Marching Band..........

Give credit where credit is due. This band put together one beautiful performance Saturday night at the White Columns Invitational.

Ringgold is in northwest Georgia and probably better known for it's blue-collar carpet manufacturing and meth addiction problem than its marching band.

The school, band and community can be very proud of such a great performance.

Indeed.................

Diplomacy is the art of saying "nice doggy" until you find a big stick.

19 days away from Grizzly country??

The Colorado Division of Wildlife (DOW) is investigating a report of a grizzly bear sighting. The DOW has occasionally received reports of grizzly bears in the past, but to date, no report has been confirmed. The most recent report was made by two hunters who have past experience with both grizzlies and black bears. The sighting took place on Sept. 20 in the San Isabel National Forest near Independence Pass.

The two hunters reported watching a female grizzly bear and two cubs at a distance of about 80 yards for approximately a minute through binoculars and a spotting scope. The bears were observed in a clearing. The hunters were unable to find tracks or scat after the bears moved on.

On Sept. 23, three DOW officers searched the site on foot for physical evidence. No evidence confirming the presence of a grizzly bear was found. DOW personnel will make another attempt to follow up on the report later this week.

Based on a 1979 event, the DOW cannot discount the possibility of grizzlies existing in Colorado. On Sept. 23, 1979 an outfitter on an archery elk hunt, was attacked by a female grizzly in the San Juan National Forest. He survived the attack, but the grizzly was killed. Prior to that incident, it was commonly believed that grizzlies had been extirpated from Colorado.

For more information on grizzly bears please visit:
The Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks’ Bear Identification Program
http://fwp.mt.gov/bearid/
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
http://mountain-prairie.fws.gov/species/mammals/grizzly/
Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee
http://www.fs.fed.us/r1/wildlife/igbc/

Short motorcycle ride through life....................

$10,000

06' Suzuki GSXR 1000

Farmington, UT 84025 - Aug 7, 2006

2006 Suzuki 1000. This bike is perfect! It has 1000 miles and has had its 500 mile dealer service. (Expensive) It's been adult ridden, all wheels have always been on the ground. I use it as a cruiser/commuter. I'm selling it because it was purchased without proper consent of a loving wife. Apparently "do whatever the f*** you want" doesn't mean what I thought. Call me, Steve. (801)867-8292

Grandstanding..........

CNBC is covering the Congressional hearings of the H-P debacle this afternoon. Watching and listening to these Congress men and women grill the H-P honcho's is rather disgusting. These are the same men and women who sponsor and siphon hundreds of millions of dollars of pork barrel projects every year out of taxpayer coffers. Listening to their discussion of morality and ethics with a Board that was doing its best to rid itself of a cancer is oxymoronic. Surely our Congress has far bigger problems to contend with without TV coverage.

Maybe the investigation should be on Congress and the lobbyists who "feed" it by corporate chieftains who have to pay corporate tax with shareholder assets.

Without guns, crime runs rampant..............

A handful of Gun Rights activists gathered at City Hall in New York City on Monday to hold the first "NYC Rally for Illegal Guns", an attempt to draw attention to Mayor Bloomberg's scheme to eviscerate Americans' Second Amendment Rights under the guise of fighting 'illegal gun' crime.

On a beautiful sunny day, the activists held giant black cardboard-cut out pistols emblazoned with pro-gun rights slogans and handed out educational literature and campaign flyers to hundreds of passers-by walking in the city's financial and legal districts bordering the halls of government.

Early today, WorldNetDaily. com, covering the rally, wrote, "Protesters carried giant-size cutouts of guns as they rallied yesterday in New York City in support of the constitutional right to bear arms, which, they say, Mayor Michael Bloomberg is trying to destroy."

The WorldNetDaily article went on to quote the website of one of the rally's participants, Jeffrey Russell, the Libertarian Party candidate for United States Senator: "On his website," WorldNetDaily writes, "he says the right to self-defense is the most fundamental of all civil rights. 'Without it, we have no rights,' Russell said. 'Government should not make self-defense a crime. Merely possessing a firearm should not be a crime, and using a firearm in self-defense should not be a crime. The bad guys will always have access to weapons. The police cannot protect everyone, everywhere, all the time. We must allow and encourage the people to be responsible for themselves.' "

When will it end?

Stockbrokers love switching mutual funds. They don't love it for the client, they love it for the commissions. The beat still goes in fine fashion. With such large mutual fund complex's that offer such a wide variety of asset classes and diversified funds there is nearly ZERO reasons for switching out of one fund family and moving to another. Don't believe the brokers pitch when he/she calls giving you a variety of reasons why your money should be moved to a "better" fund.

Wall Steet has scant interest in fixing this mess. In theory, we should be entering a golden age of investment advice, with stockbrokers helping all of the baby boomers to manage their retirement money. Yet, rather than helping investors, Wall Street is more intent on profiting from them. The brokers aren't fiduciaries, they aren't looking out for the best interests of the clients with a fiduciary duty.

As an arbitrator for the NASD and the NYSE for over a decade you can take that to the bank.

Take note............

From March of 2000 to August of 2006 inflation in the United Staes has increased by 19%.

Rational or irrational?

The following news report brings back memories of the Richard J. Dennis debacle at my old firm of Drexel Burnham Lambert. I will never forget when Mr. Dennis, after wiping out the limited partners equity in such short order in a public commodities fund said wryly that the markets were "not rational". Obviously, Mr. Dennis creamed so many investors so fast it was rather startling. Mr. Hunter of Amaranth fame should make out alright if reports that he made over $75,000,000 last year are anywhere near true. Maybe the attorneys will get some of it or imagine, even a limited partner or two who lost it in the first place.

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- The founder of Amaranth Advisors LLC, Nick Maounis, told investors in a conference call Friday that the markets turned against the hedge fund in September, leaving it no choice but to sell its entire energy portfolio to other firms at a huge loss. Maounis said that "highly unusual market behavior," not just the usual price moves, virtually eliminated the firm's access to liquidity.
"We did not expect that the market would move so aggressively against our positions," he added. Amaranth, a multistrategy hedge fund that had assets of $9.2 billion at the end of August, lost $6 billion earlier this month after massive natural-gas bets went awry.

Yes.............!

When: 12:30pm, Monday, September 25th, 2006
Where: Outside Gates at City Hall on Broadway, Downtown Manhattan, New York City
Event: “The NYC Rally for Illegal Guns”

New York City Gun Rights activists, Constitutional and civil libertarians, Human Rights activists, and pro-Liberty supporters will hold a rally on Monday, September 25th at 12:30pm outside City Hall in Manhattan to support so-called “illegal guns” and the thousands of decent, responsible New York State citizens and residents who own and carry them to preserve their Freedom and protect themselves from criminals, terrorists and other violent people, contrary to what NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg claims in his current campaign against “illegal guns”.

“Mayor Bloomberg is attacking our Gun Rights across the country, teaming up with big-city mayors and other powerful elitists to erode our self-defense rights and privacy rights under the guise of fighting ‘illegal guns’ and crime,” says Nic Leobold, a local Gun Rights activist and libertarian who thought up the idea for the protest. “Fortunately, most people who own ‘illegal guns’ in New York and the rest of the United States are neither criminals nor violent. They’re just decent, respectable, honest and responsible citizens who want a dependable way to defend themselves and their loved ones and defend their Liberty, and they know Michael Bloomberg or various other government thugs will seize their guns if they register them.”

Jim Lesczynski, the organizer of the famous “Guns for Tots” toy gun drive for the Manhattan Libertarian Party, who is endorsing and participating in Monday’s rally, is just as adamant: "'Illegal gun' is an oxymoron," says Lesczynski. "Any law that purports to prohibit or regulate gun ownership in any way is un-Constitutional on its face and therefore null and void. The only people who should feel threatened by armed citizens are tyrants and criminals."

The rally will also feature several politicians seeking office in the November elections, including John Clifton and Jeffrey Russell, the Libertarian Party candidates for New York State Governor and United States Senator, respectively.

Fat, overweight children..............

I am not talking about children who have genetic abnormalities or thyroid problems here. I am talking about children who have an unhealthy diet (parents) coupled with a lack of legitimate exercise (parents). Why should American taxpayers be asked to foot the bill for school programs to combat the liberal agenda of helping these poor "victims" obtain a healthy lifestyle. We shouldn't.

We know what the cause is. We know what the cure is but ignorance and lack of intelligence can not be legislated. Maybe America could come up with laws to have all children under, say 14, keep Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday as days to be "video game free" or television free or X-box free or whatever freedoms they want to preserve to stay healthier. Imagine if each child in America had to read just 20 minutes a day after school.

Opium and the Taliban.............

The former fuels the desires of the latter.

Probably the finest example of why the war on drugs needs to be continued. Afghanistan farmers, under "protection" of the Taliban are increasing their cash crop. How do we curtail demand and can we decrease supply?

Amazing.................

Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON — The Census Bureau collects the most personal information about Americans, from how much money they earn and where they spend it to how they live and die. It's all confidential — as long as no one steals it.

Lost or stolen from the Census Bureau since 2003 are 217 laptop computers, 46 portable data storage devices and 15 handheld devices used by survey takers.

To all our Jewish friends............

Remember, Rosh Hashanah begins 18 minutes before sunset on Friday, September 22 on the civil calendar. L'Shannah Tovah!!

Halt the illegal immigration, drugs, meth, dope, etc......

September 20, 2006
Indian Tribe To Block Border Fence
An Indian tribe, whose members regularly help smuggle illegal immigrants and drugs into the U.S., will not allow a fence to be erected along a vulnerable stretch of the Mexican border which happens to be on tribal land.

The Tohono O’odham Indians own the second biggest reservation in the country, about 2.8 million acres in the Arizona desert, and it happens to include a 75-mile border with Mexico that is used daily to smuggle drugs and migrants. Tribal members have vowed to fight the double-layered fence, approved by the House and set to be approved by the Senate this week, along their portion of the Mexican border.

Evidently the tribe of around 15,000 wants to keep the privilege of crossing the border regularly to visit relatives and friends and even perform native ceremonies in both countries. One tribal council member said “animals and our people need to cross freely.”

Unfortunately, that also means that illegal immigrants and drug smugglers will also cross into the U.S. freely. A few years ago, a Congressional investigative report revealed that more than 100,000 pounds of marijuana, 144 grams of cocaine and 6,600 grams of methamphetamine were seized on the Tohono O’odham Nation.

Additionally, migrants are destroying the sensitive vegetation and endangered species as they trample through the desert, leaving more than 4 million pounds of trash annually as they cross it.

Apparently, the Tohono O’odham—which means desert people--are more interested in the trafficking money than preserving their land. A Tribal Police Sergeant says members are offered $400 per person to transport illegal immigrants from the tribal territory to Tucson and much more to carry drugs. A fence would certainly diminish those profits.

Who was paid off in this stupidity??

The Associated Press
Wednesday, September 20, 2006; 6:01 PM


ST. IGNACE, Mich. -- Gambling is the only thing missing from a new Indian casino in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, mistakenly built in an area where gambling is illegal.

The $36 million Kewadin Shores Casino and Hotel opened in June and has restaurants, a lounge and an indoor pool, overlooking Lake Huron's Horseshoe Bay north of the Mackinac Bridge.

But its 29,000-square-foot casino with 800 slot machines and 26 gambling tables has been unable to operate because the U.S. government says part of the casino was built on land where Indian gambling is not allowed.

Members of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians are debating who was responsible for the mistake, with the tribe's current and former chairmen blaming each other, The Detroit News reported Wednesday.

The tribe now is quickly building a $2.5 million replacement casino at the site in Mackinac County's Forest Township, north of St. Ignace.

"It wasn't until after we had the pilings and foundation in place that we realized that something wasn't right," current Chairman Aaron Payment said. "We did another survey and found that all but 30 feet of the casino was on ineligible land."

"Payment knew about the problem before I left office and has had 2 1/2 years to work it out," former Chairman Bernard Bouschor said. "It wasn't me. It was a nice try by him to blame me, but I don't accept any responsibility for his screw-up."

There are 17 Indian casinos in northern Michigan, and two are to open in the next two years in southern Michigan. The state's Indian casinos took in $983 million in 2005.

Health on the Rez in South Dakota

A study recently released by Harvard University shows people on South Dakota's nine reservations have some of the shortest life spans in the United States. The average age is 66-years. A tribal health official say life expectancy among Natives in the state won't improve without more health care funding.

I say that the elders need to exercise. Every day. To lead the reservation youth by example in maintaining great health.

I say that the elders need to eat right. Every day. The best way to shut down diabetes is exercise and eating right. Every day.

Toss out the pills, throw out the smokes, stop indulging in alcohol. Just do it.

There is no money in great health. Doctors won't make a dime if everyone were healthy. Getting healthy and staying healthy is the greatest component of anyone's net worth. Instead of pills the pharmacy's should dispense great walking shoes.

Every day.

Gunslingers or Guru's?....or how to lose $5 billion last week

http://www.sec.gov/rules/proposed/s73004/kwachter091504.pdf

Potential Hedge Fund Regulation

Isn't it sad that our esteemed Congress in the attorney-laden city of Washington, DC wants to regulate the cowboys that are gunslinging massive pools of money around and making binary bets on commodities? Doesn't America have far bigger problems than very wealthy, rich investors who turn their money over to firms that are NOT registered with any regulatory body? (unlike Chippewa Partners and a zillion others)

These markets are zero-sum. I bet if the "winners" were to turn over a fraction of the billions made from the "other side" of the Amaranth trading last week and deposit afew bucks in the coffers of the Congressman or even the lobbyists the problem will continue to simmer but not boil. We have been through this within the last year. Enough money changed hands then to keep hedge funds unregulated.

What has changed?