I’ve been assembling this weekend’s linkfest — and I started to feel a little quesy. I couldn’t figure out what it was, and then it dawned on me: 9/11 overdose.
We are in for a total excess of "celebrations" — is that the right word? — of the 5th anniversary of 9/11.
That would be Wood, for you married couples. Instead of wood, we get tasteless Mini-series, crass comedic novels, fictionlized dramatizations, front page columns, magazine stories galore: The U.S. media, following the ugly lead of politicians, is about to engage in a full on festival of September 11th commericalization.
Its already cloying; 9/11 is now at risk for becoming another holiday, like Halloween or Columbus day. Macy*s
will have a white sale, halftime at football games will do a video
montage (aftr the 9/11tailgate party in the parking lot), speeches will be given, barbecues consumed. Take what has been already been done to Christmas: Sterilize, mass produce, fictionalize, and repackage it into one giant opportunistic shopping orgy.
Thanks, but no thanks.
I don’t want to see any of these things — don’t want to buy the book, see the mini-series, read the column. Shit, I don’t even want write about it. I already told my own personal recollection from a day of horror. That’s more than enough.
What asshole thought up making a commerative 9/11 coin? — and would they please choke on their own vomit in their sleep? (Thanks). A fictionlized version of events? Fictionlized? Are you shitting me? Can’t we have a more dignified way to honor our dead?
The greatest tragedy of the post-9/11 period has been the failure of our nation’s leaders to bring the country nation together. There was an enormous opportunity to take advantage of the crisis to unify the population and work together. That moment was lost. When the history of this period gets written 50 years from now, and blame gets apportioned for that, it will be none too flattering the collection of buffooons and incompetents (of both parties).
And people ask me why I am so cycnical . . .
Barry – I hear you. On the mini series, I love the politics of it all. Did you see the networks response to Clinton? Basically they said it wasn’t a documentary so Clinton’s concerns weren’t valid. Which just forces me to ask the networks creating a fictional backdrop for 9/11 and if so why.
The Bush team has done more to discredit us around the world than any President in memory. As a result of 9/11 (which happened on his watch!), the country seemed quite united behind the president’s objective of hunting down and killing those (groups) responsible.
However, invading Iraq only had 50% of the people’s support, which has eroded ever since. Turns out the other 50% were right, and despite denials, the intel was so faulty who can blame the conspiracy theory guys?
Iraq: If the “axis of evil” consisted of only three members, why did we pick the wrong country? Was it because it was easy? The oil? It’s geographic location?
Iran was always lurking as a growing problem. Yet, there we were taking out Iran’s true enemy in Iraq who was ruled with an iron first by a leader whose own minority party was a centuries old enemy of the Shiites. We managed to unite 1300 year old natural enemies when we invaded Iraq. And, talk about stable. Iraq was as stable as Israel (regardless of how brutal Sadaam was). What did we create? A country run by the Mullahs, where they were powerless before. In other words, we liberated the 70% Shiite and Kurd peoples who were brutally ruled by Sadaam but are now happy aligned with the cleric shiite rulers of Iran.
And, all the while: IRAN & N KOREA HAVE ADVANCED THEIR NUCLEAR WEAPON ASPIRATIONS WHILE WE LOOK ON AND DO NOTHING.
Forget the $ cost to date of the Iraq “adventure” (can anyone say Southeast Asia?), the true costs in medical bills and ruined lives will never be added in. And, our “prestige” around the world, our moral authority, is gone.
Just curious: why do we always have to go everywhere and do everything (with our military)?
Another problem today: We are having “Guns & Butter” and zero leadership.
“And people ask me why I am so cycnical . . . ”
WHAT BUBBLE?
Barry – thank you. I’m almost tempted to post anonomously lest the trolls strike but… Anyway hadn’t seen your personal recollections before and just finished reading them. While we all have memories (I live in CT, worked with people thereabouts, had friends ’round the country including one of the runway at LGA at 900, know a school on LI where every child lost a parent) it struck me how the thinking of that writing from three years had or hadn’t held up ?
Have we pulled together ? The coverage is, as you point out glib and superficial, but if you read the 911 Report (including the superb graphics novel version which compresses it down) you see the buildup over at least a decade that made possible this disaster because of a combination of bureacracy and our own unwillingness to acknowledge a changing world.
There were a lot of ‘the world is changed’ comments but really that was a wake-up call that it had been that we seemed to determine to ignore.
The Sleeping Giant looks he’d like to go back to bed but knows he can’t rather than facing realities. Perhaps you’d care to dissect the situation in the same way that you’re blog does so well at looking beneath the headlines ?
But, Larry: what about Sadaam’s violation of the UN resolution?
LMAO! The UN was in Iraq the whole time! You like resolutions? OK, I give you Iran & Lebanon. Have at it.
Name one counrty who doesn’t ignore resolutions since the UN does nothing.
We are offering huge incentives to Iran to stop it’s uranium enrichment program. Now, that’s funny. We could have “bought” Iran’s enemy (Iraq) with a lot less.
I am a registered Dependent and I plan on voting out the Republicrats in November!
Barry, I could not agree with you more. I’m doing my best to avoid the entire disgusting spectacle.
In hindsight, it seems it was both a careless & reckless move to lump N. Korea into the “Axis of Evil”. It’s not in the Middle Eastern theater and already has nuclear weapons. Demonizing the regime only gives it’s leader a treasure trove of pr to further brainwash his people with. But apparently W found it prudent to give a sleeping dog a kick… and the N. Koreans responded by restarting their nuclear weapons program. Now W’s looking for 6-party talks to bail him out of his “big Texas speech” mistake…
The media exploits it for profit. The political hacks exploit it for advantange. And while we argue over who is most to blame, the jihad continues against us.
Perhaps the jihadists are correct when they judge us as weak and soft – too spoiled to make any hard decisions, or to endure. Pathetic.
Thanks, Barry.
one thing I did appreciate was the interview with one of the widows on Larry King live last night. very simple and articulate reminder of what it’s all about.
Let em all talk. the surviving families, I mean.
Everybody else is selling something and should be ashamed.
I have a friend from El Salvador, who lived there during the civil war. She said her country lost the equivalent of our 9/11 loss every few months. She was disgusted by our lilly-livered obsession with our pain and suffering. Me too. As if only Americans matter. I also read of a congressional delegation to India about a year ago. Re 9/11, the congress critters were told by their Indian counterparts, in so many words, “we’re sorry for your loss, welcome to the world, get used to it.”
It goes without saying, but it doesn’t hurt to say it again: the whole thing is being used for political and monetary purposes.
You are not a skeptic, Barry. It is real.
9/11 was a tragedy. The opportunism of the government and big business to use the politics of fear to subvert personal liberties, wage a war of vendetta, and move towards plutacracy is an outrage.
It’s not as if we don’t all have vivid memories of that day, I still recall every detail as I imagine most people do.
I was living in the New York area when it happened, and am in western PA now. What is striking is the extent to which actual New Yorkers have lost ‘ownership’ of their own experience – I have actually had people say, in so many words, “well, WE remember 9/11, even if New York doesn’t!”
It goes far beyond commercialism – the whole tragedy has been transformed into a part of national mythology. Peel away one or two surface layers, and the myth is pretty clear. We thought we were safe, and we aren’t; we always knew that the outside world was frightening and dangerous, and look: we were right.
For reasons that should be obvious, the cult of 9/11 is stronger the further from New York you get. I keep hearing and reading of people in the remotest locations possible – small-town Indiana, ranch-country Montana – who still live in mortal fear of The Terrorists.
This would probably be the case even if such sentiments had NOT been deliberately encouraged. But what a sorry, pusillanimous bunch we look like, hugging our fears and trembling under the bed.
What liberties have been subverted? If you’re talking about banking privacy or ‘know your client’ rules, nothing has changed. Try not doing business with Islamic screwballs and you’ll be fine. The imagination of the American left is as wild as the Islamists.
This is not a troll. 9/11 was a horrible tragedy. That said, this is mainly an economics and markets blog, and maybe a bit of perspective wouldn’t hurt.
Not to diminish the loss of over 3000 souls in the terrorist attack, but how many Americans die needlessly in traffic? How many premature deaths result without comment or tribute from a degraded physical environment? How many from unsafe workplaces? I could go on, but you get the picture. The huge amount of resources and public attention to terrorism seems to suggest that those lives are more worthy than those lost in less dramatic but often more horrific and more easily prevented ways.
In the end, the sad irony may be that the hyperattention turns the tragedy to farce.
Thanks Barry it saves a lot of typing.
Iraq was invaded for reasons not plainly stated in public. I can guess at them but I will leave that to others. But it was the biggest gift we could have given the Iranians. But they still will not send us a xmas card! The much delayed 911 report comes out at about the same time as the abc mini series, which more people will surely watch than read the report. Why spend 30/40 million dollars to create a fictionalized account of the 911 situation and then have no commercials? Why did previews of the film go to conservative talking heads and not to people of a different political bend?
I am of the opinion that the neocons are deathly afraid of the Democrats getting control of the house or their worst nighmare both sides of congress while G.W is in office. Clinton lied about getting some adultrous sex on the side. It was wrong, but not worth an impeachment. There seem to be several Constitutional violations and certainly in many cases, law was not upheld by the white house. (The pres. swears to uphold these things.) These also seem to go to D. Cheney too.) So if that occoured the pres and vice are thrown out of office. Nancy Pelosi becomes president. (I am not sure if this would be good or bad.) Then there is a strong possibility that our govornment goes from complete Republican control to Democratic one. Then payback on a big time basis. Then excess hubris and the cycle starts again.
So does any one think that this scenerio is likely and how might we bet under this scenerio? I think devising several scenerios and possibilities for investment might be a good exercise for us here. Except for the trolls there seems to be some good minds here.
Re: Fictionalized events — I would say it depends on how it is fictionalized.
I mean, lots of tragedies in which many Americans (or other people) died have been fictionalized without people batting an eye about it. Omaha Beach, Pearl Harbor (more than once), and the Holocaust immediately spring to mind.
Of course, I may be misunderstanding the use of the term “fictionalized” here. Or maybe it really is too soon for fictionalization, although I thought that the conventional wisdom was that the generally good receiption of the movie Flight 93 cleared the way for other accounts.
In any event, I agree that there is something unseemly about how people are cashing in with “memorial” crap.
Larry…… are you talking to yourself? There are meds for that
I write this with tears in my eyes. I just read your account of 9/11 and all the e-mails that followed. In the days after the tragedy there was a lot of love out there. It is all gone now.
A reasonable question alexd but I don’t see the scenario you propose as that likely. Doubtless Democrats would love to deliver some payback but public opinion, as best I can judge, seems to suggest a swing back to the center is more likely with particular prejudice against: (a) incumbent politicians and (b) single political party control. It seems possible the swing could go further and the Democrats win both houses but even then I’m not sure they would pursue impeachment unless something really major came out of the hearings they will almost certainly hold.
Personally I would just like to see less evangelical fervor and more ethics and competence in Washington (a fellow can dream, eh). As it stands now we seem to have the worst of all possible worlds: a bloated government increasingly staffed by political cronies avidly pursuing poorly conceived and/or executed and/or underfunded policies while stuffing incumbent re-election coffers full to bursting; e.g., last year the lobbyist/congress-critter ratio hit 60:1 w/ 2.4 billion bucks spent to get favorable laws and/or earmarks — Tom Delay’s ‘K-Street Project’ was just the tip of big, rotten iceberg.
I think the economy is going to hit the rocks regardless of how the election turns out but if there is to be any chance of a better recovery next cycle then things need to change in Washington and in a fairly major way IMO.
In the meantime my investing is defensive and will probably stay that way at least until the end of the year.
And yes, my memories of 9/11 remain vivid and heartfelt; bowdlerized re-enactments and commemorative coins have no market here.
Instead of commemoratives, I wish people would read things like your original posting about your and Bill’s experiences. Very moving.
Barry,
Amen to that!
I agree completely! We need to keep in mind that it’s important to remember, but we don’t need to “re-live”.
-Grant
TheCornerOfficeBlog.com
“Larry…… are you talking to yourself? There are meds for that
Posted by: bill | Sep 9, 2006 3:00:09 PM”
NO, HE ISN’T. LARRY HATES IT WHEN PEOPLE POST IT THE THIRD PERSON.
HE ALSO HATES PEOPLE WHO GENERALIZE. FINDS THEM ALL DOPES…………
I just came across this:
http://www.gofuckyourself.com/showthread.php?t=38959
I am in the “Internet Porn” business, and many of the guys in this business discuss actively on just about everything on that linked board.
The link is to the original thread started just after 9AM on September 11, 2001. It is quite interesting to re-read- with five years of hindsight- everyone’s reaction as the events are unfolding.
Ah yes. Path to 911. ABC’s crockumentary…..Its godfather is far right activist David Horowitz, who has worked for more than a decade to establish a right-wing presence in Hollywood and to discredit mainstream film and TV production. On this project, he is working with a secretive evangelical religious right group founded by The Path to 9/11’s director David Cunningham that proclaims its goal to “transform Hollywood” in line with its messianic vision.
Bankrolled by Richard Mellon Scaife, billionaire right-wing nutjob behind The Arkansas Project (AKA the “Get Clinton Project”-remember Paula Jones?)
After the 1st installment of PT911, Dear Leader will give a speech—What better way to “celebrate” 911 than with a bit of Orwellian neo-con propaganda…..
It was certainly a day that changed the course of our country. Even the saturday Fox Business Block was focused on 9/11 before being interrupted with the space shuttle launch.
I think I’ll record the Path to 9/11 and watch football. If there are actual debates and controversies about the flick, then maybe I’ll watch it. Right now I’m just amazed that folks are making conclusions and taking their cues from the talking points of the Republicans or Democrats without even seeing the movie.
If everything is all blown out of proportion due to RNC and DNC talking points, I’ll delete the recording and save the 5 hours. I’ll need the disk space for the upcoming Fall TV season. Besides, I was watching CNBC live 5 years ago when it happened. That’s enough for me.
This is America and there are no sacred cows as it relates to commerce. The commercialization of 9/11 is as heathy for America as a Big Mac. We don’t have to buy into it. At least I don’t and I won’t. There are many who will and many who will profit from it.
I wouldn’t have it any other way…
The problem with this whole situation is that if this upcoming movie were slanted against Bush and for Clinton, even if it was just as inaccurate, liberals would be saying exactly what conservatives are now saying and conservatives would be saying exactly what liberals are now saying. You could almost, verbatim, flip the dialogue, change the names, and get an idea of how the heated arguments would proceed.
You’re all liars, all you political hacks. The reality is that both sides WANT their propaganda to succeed and be accepted as a genuine portrayal of the facts, while suppressing the other side’s propaganda. You’re all frauds. All your politicians and all your commentary is a mask for your real objective: to get your party in power whatever it takes. Left and right, you’re both the same in that respect. The people 1)who made the film, 2)who are supporting the film, 3)who are attacking the film, 4)who are trying to get it suppressed, all have political agendas in mind while hiding behind the lie that they just want to get to the truth!
The republicans practically forced Howard Stern off the air because they didn’t like what he had to say. Now I hear Schumer is threatening Disney with its license because the democtrats don’t like what will be shown on ABC. If you don’t like listening to Howard Stern, and you don’t like watching what Disney is showing, TURN THE FRICKING CHANNEL.
And we hold our nation out as one that champions freedom of expression? Right. OK.
yea. Play it down the center like that Muckdog… Karl Rove and his ilk love the “open-minded”-
All Americans owe “the glories” of the last 6 years to folks just like you.
semper fubar.
Bullshit anon.
“All politicians are alike” is code for “i’m an uniformed dumbass too lazy to weigh the evidence and come to my own conclusions” (the duty of every American)
bullshit bullshit bullshit!
That kind of cynicism and indifference is what totalitarian regimes are made of.
That kind of cynicism is, in fact, what they REQUIRE to exist.
I apologise for this Barry but NOTHING makes me more furious than “They’re all alike”.
brion
you
chimp
simmer down Brion , it’s the weekend
it bother me that people now think bush is more evil than the attackers. i would love for bush to just go march around the workd and launch attacks every where. the message would be “SCREW YOU ALL”. everyone talks crap about bush, other countries talk crap about america. they all love our money though. i wish americans would stop talking crap about bush and talk crap about the terrorist. 5 days after the attacks most americans would have loved to see the military unleash the fury. now…. they act like limp dicks.
“all you people are some kinda special fucking morons
Posted by: anon | Sep 9, 2006 5:32:26 PM”
YET, ANONAMOUSE, HERE YOU ARE HANGIN’ ONTO TO EVERY POST. *must be a yankee fan*
“All Americans owe “the glories” of the last 6 years to folks just like you.
posted by: brion | Sep 9, 2006 5:07:09 PM”
And, the 4,000,000 years before that to me!
“everyone talks crap about bush, other countries talk crap about america. Posted by: christopherrobin | Sep 9, 2006 5:49:14 PM”
NOT THE MULLAHS IN IRAQ. THEY LOVE HIM FOR KNOCKING OFF SADAAM.
you guys really need to stick to your meds-
http://www.washingtontimes.com/op-ed/20060704-110004-4280r.htm
how can anyone take Larry seriously anyways, what real estate bubble, right Larry???
“What asshole thought up making a commerative 9/11 coin? ”
Exactly, its not a celebration!
“Mr. Clarke, of course, was at the center of Mr. Clinton’s advisers, who resolutely refused to order the CIA to kill bin Laden. In spring 1998, I briefed Mr. Clarke and senior CIA, Department of Defense and FBI officers on a plan to kidnap bin Laden. Mr. Clarke’s reaction was that “it was just a thinly disguised attempt to assassinate bin Laden.” I replied that if he wanted bin Laden dead, we could do the job quickly. Mr. Clarke’s response was that the president did not want bin Laden assassinated, and that we had no authority to do so……………
Mr. Clarke’s book is also a crucial complement to the September 11 panel’s failure to condemn Mr. Clinton’s failure to capture or kill bin Laden on any of the eight to 10 chances afforded by CIA reporting. Mr. Clarke never mentions that President Bush had no chances to kill bin Laden before September 11 and leaves readers with the false impression that he, Mr. Clinton and Mr. Clinton’s national security adviser, Sandy Berger, did their best to end the bin Laden threat. That trio, in my view, abetted al Qaeda, and if the September 11 families were smart they would focus on the dereliction of Dick, Bill and Sandy and not the antics of convicted September 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui.”
Clinton viewed Americans with guns a bigger threat than N Korea, Al Qaeda, Iran, Pakistan.
Anyone recall Madelaine Halfbrights vile, disgusting visit to N Korea where she partied and feasted with Kim Jung very Il while the maniac was starving his country and making nukes?
….Most crucially, Berntsen tells of cornering bin Laden in the Tora Bora mountains — and what happened when Berntsen begged Washington to block the al-Qaeda leader’s last avenue of escape. In his book—titled “Jawbreaker”—Berntsen, a decorated career CIA officer (and lifelong Republican) criticizes Donald Rumsfeld’s Defense Department for not providing enough support to the CIA and the Pentagon’s own Special Forces teams in the final hours of Tora Bora, says Berntsen’s lawyer, Roy Krieger. (Berntsen would not divulge the book’s specifics, saying he’s awaiting CIA clearance.) That backs up other recent accounts, including that of military author Sean Naylor, who calls Tora Bora a “strategic disaster” because the Pentagon refused to deploy a cordon of conventional forces to cut off escaping Qaeda and Taliban members.
Berntsen was there at the battle of Tora Bora. They’d captured an Al Quaida walkie talkie and heard OBL apologizing to his troops for the aerial bombardment they were suffering. Berntsen further observed there were more memebers of the media than troops (about 50) at Tora Bora at the time…
btw anybody remember the infamous photo of Rumsfeld “shaking hands” with Saddamn before he became America’s 1st official “Hitler” in the war on terror™
how very “vile and disgusting” eh Phil?
Fictionalized? I thought it already WAS.
For the 5th anniversary of this calmity, maybe someone can explain to me what happened to WTC7.
Yeah.
btw anybody remember the infamous photo of Rumsfeld “shaking hands” with Saddamn before he became America’s 1st official “Hitler” in the war on terror™
posted by: brion | Sep 9, 2006 7:28:33 PM
YES: http://millionairenowbook.blogspot.com/2006/09/moral-or-intellectual-confusion.html
almost as vile and disgusting as your ignorance, brion. don’t confuse my anti retroliberalism as pro democan
“how can anyone take Larry seriously anyways, what real estate bubble, right Larry???
Posted by: phil | Sep 9, 2006 6:36:35 PM”
I DON’T WANT TO BE TAKEN SERIOUSLY HERE, PHIL. BTW, DO YOU MEAN TO SAY HOUSING BUBBLE OR REAL ESTATE BUBBLE? *I bet they are one in the same to this guy*
i guess N Korea just became a threat within the past 6 yrs, that’s pretty convenient-
“almost as vile and disgusting as your ignorance, brion. don’t confuse my anti retroliberalism as …..pro democan”
Ya lost me there bowser…
But then i AM ignorant of a lot of neo-con neologisms….
In sum, how many times did Bill Clinton lose bin Laden?
Here’s a rundown. The Clinton administration
1. Did not follow-up on the attempted bombing of Aden marines in Yemen.
2. Shut the CIA out of the 1993 WTC bombing investigation, hamstringing their effort to capture bin Laden.
3. Had Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, a key bin Laden lieutenant, slip through their fingers in Qatar.
4. Did not militarily react to the al Qaeda bombing in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
5. Did not accept the Sudanese offer to turn bin Laden.
6. Did not follow-up on another offer from Sudan through a private back channel.
7. Objected to Northern Alliance efforts to assassinate bin Laden in Afghanistan.
8. Decided against using special forces to take down bin Laden in Afghanistan.
9. Did not take an opportunity to take into custody two al Qaeda operatives involved in the East African embassy bombings. In another little scoop, I am able to show that Sudan arrested these two terrorists and offered them to the FBI. The Clinton administration declined to pick them up and they were later allowed to return to Pakistan.
10. Ordered an ineffectual, token missile strike against a Sudanese pharmaceutical factory.
11. Clumsily tipped off Pakistani officials sympathetic to bin Laden before a planned missile strike against bin Laden on August 20, 1998. Bin Laden left the camp with only minutes to spare.
12-14. Three times, Clinton hesitated or deferred in ordering missile strikes against bin Laden in 1999 and 2000.
15. When they finally launched and armed the Predator spy drone plane, which captured amazing live video images of bin Laden, the Clinton administration no longer had military assets in place to strike the archterrorist.
16. Did not order a retaliatory strike on bin Laden for the murderous attack on the USS Cole.
WOW, JM! WE SHOULD VOTE CLINTON OUT!
we should watch the movie Larry
Brion: I am shocked at how much energy is spent (wasted) by some who hate Clinton so much, they still bash him today, 6 years out of office.
It’s an amusing display because I assume they support the present administration, but they never ever mention anything that the current administration has accomplished. (wonder why)
They revel in the idea that their guy isn’t as bad as Clinton, in their minds. LMAO! Great stuff.
JM there are lies-damn lies-statistics and anything that comes out of an American right-wingers mouth (a la Bush)
To whoever posted under my screen name (Phil? Oh well, Barry can tell me later…)
“we should watch the movie Larry…”
I’d no more watch that right-wing piece of… propaganda than tune in to Al Jazeera’s version of 911…
“The Bush team has done more to discredit us around the world than any President in memory.”
you’re wrong there Larry. It’s Clinton’s fault. You see he was TOO well liked around the world, setting up an impossibly high standard for our dear leader. Bush did the appropriate thing by taking down our popularity to a more tolerable level.
As a result of 9/11 (which happened on his watch!)
again, Clinton’s fault. Had he not FORCED the moral high priests in congress to impeach him for his “vile and disgusting” behavior (lying about having his woody polished — treasonous!!!), Gore would have won in 2000 and 9/11 would be on Gore’s watch.
Agree Larry- I only wish i could LMAO…
These incompetent Neo-cons have hollowed out the U.S. economically, politically, militarily, diplomatically, socially ad nauseum, and we STILL have the bastards in our midst…(at least in the short term–God…?)
Now the mid-term elections are upon us and we have a whole new round of B.S. and propaganda to wade through….
Hey ja….I’ll bet you and jm own a lot of Kraftfood stock….makes sense considering all the kool-aid you fools must drink…
“cheers”…..
The painful truth is that Clinton dallied while al Qaeda rallied.
Now we are in a war that was not sufficiently planned. And Bush seems to have no real exit strategy.
Lots of mistakes have been made by both administrations. To pretending otherwise is to be ignorant of history. This will doom us to repeat it.
who cares “how well liked” the US is around the world, you must have some major inferiority complex son.
Hey Larry last time i checked clinton(s) are in office, this time they think they’re NYers. I bet you loved her anti semitic rants, didn you? Now get back to the used car lot.
No brion i didnt post under your name, ignoramus.
Five years ago my husband and I flew home to Los Angeles form Boston on Sep 10th. At Logan it was so quiet I remarked to my husband “what a sleepy little airport, I bet nothing ever happens here”. We had just been in NY to see my sis. We stayed at the Cosmopolitan hotel with a view of the WTC. We went ot the WTC with my nephew, but the wait was too long. “Don’t worry-we’ll come back next week” his dad told him.
Who told you that Zephyr? Rush? The Coultergeist? O’Lielly?
Where do you get your propaganda from?
The painfull truth Zeph is that we helped arm and train Al Quaida (including OBL)during our proxy war with the soviets in Afghanistan…..
The painfull truth is that Bush IS incompetent.
In war, any power that hopes to be victorious – MUST – be able to “Unite its’ allies and devide its’ enemies” instead, prez numbnuts has given us the opposite. Hell, Bushco has divided the elctorate itself at EVERY opportunity. And as I’ve posted here before, NO war can be won with a divided electorate…..
or do you STILL believe that Iraq is a “central front” in the “wore on terra”™
“No brion i didnt post under your name, ignoramus.”
Then i apologise jackass-
Brion, It’s history. Pretend it isn’t so if you like.
Bush’s degree of competence has no bearing on Clinton’s failings. Clinton could have and should have dealt with bin laden.
However, Clinton’s errors do not make Bush’s blunders any better, nor any more acceptable…
There is plenty of blame to go around – both administrations made lots of errors. More significantly, the bureaucracies reporting to Clinton and Bush failed miserably.
We must learn from these errors and find a better way to operate our security machine.
Zephyr. I can see you’re taking a “nuanced” view and you’re not a neo-con…but no way do i equate Clinton’s missteps with Bush’s.
W is in a whole ‘nother league of idiot.
“Clinton did it” is a neo-con strawman—
That Scaife creep (google Arkansas project) created a whole cottage industry of Clinton bashing (Clinton sold dope-Clinton Murdered people-whitewater-Vince Foster-The “Clenis” swings to the right-CLINTON let OBL get away…) Clinton and Al Quaida are simply all purpose neo-con boogeymen…..
Clinton shoulda?
Yamamoto DID blast pearl harbour after Jap dirty work in SE Asia.
Hitler DID invade France after Poland etc
Sadaam DID gas his own people (Kurds) after invading Kuwait and Donny Rumsfeld shook his sadistic little hand….
Historically we don’t have a good track record when it comes to precognition. Human nature says “yeah he’s nuts but he’s not THAT nuts” and then……BAM!
Why do you bring up Clinton when someone mentions Bush? Amazing. EVEN IF EVERYTHING (BAD) EVERYONE SAYS ABOUT CLINTON WERE TRUE, WTF DOES THAT HAVE TO DO WITH WHAT THE PRESENT ADMINISTRATION IS DOING TODAY?
uh, phil, I care about what other peoples and nations think about us in this global economy. Bush doesn’t and in return he’s going at this adventure in Iraq pretty much alone.
One last point…
“the bureaucracies reporting to Clinton and Bush failed miserably.”
In Bush’s case the “bureaucracies” were intentionally silenced.
Don’t you know that Bush and the neo-cons already had Iraq on the drawing board from day one?
It was to be “Iowa (and Exxon) on the Euphrates”.
We’re not and never were in Iraq because of 911.
We’re there with 400 Billion spent so far-20,000 wounded and 2667 killed-hated around the world-militarily spent and divided at home because of a freakin neo-con pipe dream. I will NEVER forgive them for that.
Forget the war for a second, (and the fake war in Iraq), the Bush team and the republican congress have spent us into oblivion and Robert Rubin ain’t walkin’ through that door to bail them out. We aren’t going to grow our way out since the economy is already so good according to Republican spokespeople.
We’ve never had bigger deficits, more waste and more fraud than we do today.
calm now, Brian with an “o”. have faith in your fellow americans. I think most have seen the light and will do the wise and honorable thing this November and vote these scumbags out…dear god I hope.
correction- JA that’s not kool-aid you’ve been drinkin it’s Haldol….
thats right brion, all your problems are a result of somebody else.
whos drinking the kool-aid, you’re ranting and foaming at the mouth about conspiracy theories on a finance blog! hilarious
Hey Phil,
You’ve got it all wrong about Madeline Albright’s visit with Kim Jung Il.
A second cousin of my uncle’s ex-girlfriend used to work for the CIA. He says that Albright was in North Korea to extract DNA samples from Jung Il. The plan was to create a perfect clone, assassinate the current Jung Il, and replace him with the clone.
Then the clone would be programmed to renounce communism, embrace market-based capitalism and the reunification of North and South Korea.
The plan unfortunately did not come to fruition since the Democrats lost the 2000 election. Bush Jr was informed of the plan but prefers his philosophy of “guns and stuff” to the Demo cloning scheme.
A clone, however, was actually created. Since 2000, the lookalike Jong Il has been running a corner grocery store in Baltimore under the auspices of the Witness Protection Program. He is apparently doing quite well.
So don’t diss Madeline Albright until you know all the facts.
ahem, “Financial” posts in this thread from “Phil”
…i guess N Korea just became a threat within the past 6 yrs, that’s pretty convenient…
…Mr. Clarke’s book is also a crucial complement to the September 11 panel’s failure to condemn Mr. Clinton’s failure to….
…focus on the dereliction of Dick, Bill and Sandy and not the antics of convicted September 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui.”
…Clinton viewed Americans with guns a bigger threat than N Korea, Al Qaeda, Iran, Pakistan…..
…Anyone recall Madelaine Halfbrights vile, disgusting…
Typical Republican hypocracy from Phil.
As to “all my probs are the result of someone else” i don’t even know what the F&%$ that means….typical right wing Ass-umptions.
Nice try jackass but i’m doing just fine…..My country, on the other hand has been suffering at the hands of the neo-cons and their brainwashed supporters (like yourself) for 6 years. Longer if you count the fellatio impeachment of Bill Clinton…..
It’ll be nice when AMERICA finally steps out from under the shadows of you losers in the Fall….
In the meantime you keep spewing the diatribes of your oxycontin addled hypocrite hero Rush Limbaugh….
America doesn’t need you anymore.
It is unavoidable in a country where Media is of such a low quality – over dose of 9/11. With Pres. Bush basing his entire election campaign on this event, there is no way of getting away from this excess. But the real culprit is Media. They are the most ‘shit’ part of today’s America. First they failed in publicizing the failure in connecting the dots and now under guilty producing some moronic programs. CNN is not much different than FOX; kind of brothers and sisters. ABC has joined this mess too.
Hopefully as Bush Republicans fade, 9/11 will start getting the realistic perspective. Till then there is no other option than suffering this excess. Better, do not watch TV. I like that option and it works well.
THIS, by the way Phil, is the ONLY thing Republicans have been good at (it certainly hasn’t been governing)
In a Pivotal Year, GOP Plans to Get Personal
Millions to Go to Digging Up Dirt on Democrats
By Jim VandeHei and Chris Cillizza
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, September 10, 2006; Page A01
Republicans are planning to spend the vast majority of their sizable financial war chest over the final 60 days of the campaign attacking Democratic House and Senate candidates over personal issues and local controversies, GOP officials said.
The National Republican Congressional Committee, which this year dispatched a half-dozen operatives to comb through tax, court and other records looking for damaging information on Democratic candidates, plans to spend more than 90 percent of its $50 million-plus advertising budget on what officials described as negative ads…..
Lies-smears-attack-propaganda-
They’re all you’ve ever had—
Uh, where did all the morons come from on this site? Perhaps it’s best to stick to economics here, since once the politics comes out, we get the right wing nutterbutter crowd out in force. Really a waste of time having to wade through all those idiotic comments.
Brion
good morning
time for some more hate today ????
Can’t see the forest for the trees.
I believe Chrchill said something similar to
“History shall view us kindly for we shall write it” Hold on let me get a few more quotes….
I got these quotes from http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/w/winston_churchill.html I hope they are accurate. Or at least hold true to intention. Churchill was a failure until he succeeed. He also was a leader where the very existance of the country was in peril. Of course being human he was far from perfect. Perhaps we can get some clues from these words. After all he is dead and cannot complain!
I think all this review of the past lacks a vision of the future. We can only change our view of the past, not the past itself. Perhaps we should discuss where America and humanity ( not the same) is headed, what it should be like, and what we can achieve if we actually put our backs to it.
Wars of ideology, no matter what the outcome, are eventually defeated by reality.
Heres the quotes:
“A fanatic is one who can’t change his mind and won’t change the subject.
All the great things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope.
However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.
I am never going to have anything more to do with politics or politicians. When this war is over I shall confine myself entirely to writing and painting.
If we open a quarrel between past and present, we shall find that we have lost the future.
It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read books of quotations”
The last one applies to me.
There is much ranting and so many trolls that I think we have the cast for the next Harry Potter movie.
We do have a huge deficit. The dollar has been falling (in terms of years not weeks) . Growth at current rates is probably not enough to cover the deficit. There are many uncertainties in the world. Look at the current volitility in gold and deny it.
Please add to the above paragraph as you perceive it.
Under the current political and economic scenerio is it better to be a value investor? A growth investor? In cash? Hedged? Short?
All the ranting here makes me think a lot of us are not focusing on what is important. Let us look at the characterisitcs of great leaders and emulate what was worthy and discard the rest. I suspect nobility of character and vision might do us well. So lets define it.
Then try to live it.
That’s all for now.
posting a little late here, but my reaction is the same as it was the hours after the attacks: HOw the hell did those guys get in the cockpit of the planes? It doesn’t take a degree from West Point to figure out the prevent for that one! How long have we been spending tens and hundreds of billions on “defence”. You can’t hurt a superpower, you can only gode it into hurting itself.
“Under the current political and economic scenerio is it better to be a value investor? A growth investor? In cash? Hedged? Short? ”
That depends entirely on your tolerance for risk, your time frame, and your overall financial position. The question is too broad.
Nevertheless, I appreciate your injecting a bit of equanimity and reason into this troll-infested debate. Nutterbutter indeed!
“good morning
time for some more hate today ????”
Sorry GG, but i gotta go to church right now and i haven’t had any coffee yet ;)
Naw…. Maybe Whipsaw or Alaskan Pete will play tennis with you zombies today but i used up all my “hate” last night…
Sorry gg ja jm :(
Babycondor,
Thanks. I hope the structure of the question provides a structure for others.
The questions are very general and really were intended to provide a launch site for anyone’s viewpoint.
Previously I have done well (30% a year) using what might be reffered to as a relative strength approach utilizing mutual funds. This year has been more of a challenge, due to my feeling that clear trends have been less than obvious to me.
But out of adversity opportunity can bloom. So after a lot of thinking (yes my head hurts from it) I have adopted a value based, fundamentalist/technical approach. Don’t worry boys and girls the technical side is not too arcane.
I found the “Little Blue Book That Beats the Market” usefull as a jumping off point. (jumping off a cliff no doubt!) Joel Greenblatt seems to be a person I can admire both through the superb results that he has acheived with the Gotham fund, and work he has done turning around a public school that was an educational swamp into one that was #14 in NY state. So now I am investing in 5/8 stocks that meet my criteria for value (basicly his) , my view of what investments and area are likly to benefit in a given situation and technicly whether my own indicators indicate hopefully a bias for ascent rather than decent. It is an interesting (real money) exercise. It is early in the game so I cannot provide any cumalative results worth discussing, but on an anecdotal side, it seems that there has already been three companies on my list of interest, that have been taken over. Obviously someone else found value there. (Or they are compulsive shoppers). I actually owned one which was EZM which stands for Eurozinc. The jig is up on that one. It is anticipated that when the deal comes through at the end of OCT it will be worth about 3.10 dollars USA per share. You might want to look at the company that is buying /merging with it since it seems to possess many of the attributes that I found interesting in EZM. It is a Canadian company that is pushing for AMEX listing so we cannot buy it on our American exchanges. But soon.
I also try to utilize the Kelly Criterion in my money managment approach. In that I try to find the ideal % to total equity , but then I choose to increase the number of positions (but not too much from that point.) This will likley reduce my potential maximum return but also will likly reduce drawdowns and risk too.
Grennblatt states that his approach is not dependent on macro econmic factors. Since so many people here seem to try to look into a shorter term crystal ball, what do you think of that? I am wrestling with it.
I am in need of suggestions on how to get involved in the investing business. I have worked as a financial advisor out here in glorious MI ( which is in a very real localized recession.) But I found that it was unappealing to suggest investments and approaches that were basicly commisioned based, rather than based upon what would be best in terms of my own criteria. Yeah I know welcome to the big world.
I do have a few stockbrokers who pay me for my suggestions, since they find them valuable (at least for their own portfolios.) The Detroit metro area is not exactly the hedge fund capital of the world so I suspect that finding gainfull and interesting employment that way will have it’s limitations.
Even worse I am an artist. So the two areas I really love are financial and art. A weird combination but on pych tests I came out as an analytical expressive. To quote “We don’t get many like you here”. I look at numbers and artwork with facination. Blessing and a curse if you ask me.
So any real suggestions or direction is most appreaciated. Please be kind.
I have also decided that watching that docudrama might be somewhat insulting to all who were sacrificed in both 911 and the Iraq war. I can read a book and if it turns out to be worth watching I am sure I will get the chance. Health , happiness and prosperity to all of you, even if you disagree with me!
Here’s a thought for those thinking that we are doing a wonderful thing in Iraq by bring our form of democracy after taking out that bad “dictator”:
ONCE WE LEAVE AND THE PEOPLE DECIDE (BY DEMOCRATIC VOTE) THAT THEY WANT A ISLAMIC FUNDAMENTALIST GOVERNMENT, WILL IT HAVE BEEN WORTH IT? (Hezbollah in Lebanon or Hamas in Palestinian Proovince). Remember, we move against Iran now, and the 70% Shiite majority in Iraq will be furious at their “liberators”….
outlaw islam
Posted by: JA | Sep 10, 2006 7:39:26 PM
Uh, HELLO, WE ALREADY HAVE AND IT’S GOIN’ OVER REAL WELL AOUND THE WORLD. REAL WELL.
Larry
Does anyone read your blog ???????
Vanity Fair’s James Walcott said it best:
“How many times and how many ways must the adrenaline be pumped, the tragedy replayed, and the suffering exploited? The fall of the towers has become a ritual fetish, an annual haunting, that doesn’t exorcise fear, but replenishes it.”
ditto
As a person who was late to work on that day to my office on the 80th Floor of WTC2, I have this to say to those making money off of 9/11:
I hope you spend it on chemotherapy.
There are a lot of idiots on here – who one day will realize that you cannot use kid-gloves on countries when there is a volatile world in place. If there is a better place than the USA, then move there. If you think freedom is free, move to France. Otherwise, shut the F-up!
VOTE REPUBLICAN!
gee gipper maybe -you- oughta move to North Korea….
I hear they do “shut the fuck up” really well over there…
also they prefer their citizens to be as politically simple and naive as you obviously are….
or perhaps Iran gipp…Yea, Iran…
AP-“Iran closed down two opposition newspapers on Monday, one of which had recently poked fun at hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the way his government has handled nuclear talks with the West.”
Guess the mullahs thought they were being “Un-iranian”
Dontcha just hate freedom of speech Gip??
I see you all enjoyed your 9/11 fear party.
Over 40% of Americans apparently still think “Saddam did it”.
This is factually incorrect. Good job someone doesn’t declare a “War on Stupidity”.
It takes a special kind of “talent” to reverse the global feeling of sympathy generated by that day.. all those years ago.
It takes a special kind of government to deny the truth and control it’s voters with fear.
No doubt my mania for free thinking is deemed irresponsible.
Freedom is Slavery.
i’m sure all of those freedom lovers around the world loves the US before 2001
you guys are so naive it’s ridiculous , then your answer is you’re an idiot , you’re a warmonger , Bush is an idiot ., Clinton’s a moron …….
all Einsteins
hey , how about coming up with a solution or is that a bit too hard to
jm you’re drooling again…..
welcome back Brion
we missed that hate
who’s “we” jm? How many voices are in your head today?
i have like lots of voices in my head to day lol