Post #400

This is my 400th blog entry since I started it almost 10 years ago(!)  (I'll have to throw a party in July when the actual 10th anniversary arrives.)  I'm going to do what I've done in past 'century' posts, which is to review some of what I wrote about since my 300th entry.  The time gap between the 300th and 400th is going to expose how I don't write as much as I used to -- it's taken me twice as long as the prior 100.

I wrote about several recurring annual topics, including the Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting (soon to be post #410), my advice to graduating seniors, RAGBRAI musings, and things for which I'm not thankful. 

I wrote about how smart people have many advantages in the world, but are disadvantaged by a lack of numbers, and so many stupid people holding them back.

I wrote about new cities and regions of the country I visited, including attending the Rose Bowl.

I wrote about how great social media technology and platforms could be, if not for the all of the people who use social media for evil and not for good.

I wrote more about our country's slow, inexorable march toward decriminalization and legalization of marijuana, which can't come soon enough.

I wrote a few more times about financial issues, and starting my own firm.

I wrote a handful of times about great songs and songwriters, a dying breed with the exception of a few hip-hop and country artists, to which I rarely listen.

Nearly 100 entries apart, I wrote about my observations at the funerals of my father and mother.

I wrote about how religion separates people (and in many cases, harms people) at least as much as it brings people together.

I wrote about the dysfunction and hatred of this decade's politics and politicians, which is in many ways related to the last item.

I wrote about how today's baby boomer parents are ruining not only their kids' lives, but society in general, with their awful parenting.

I wrote a few items of self-reflection, on what happened in the past, and what I might do differently if I knew then what I know now.

400 posts.....bring on the next 100!

Post #300

This is my 300th blog post since I started it around six years ago.  As with post #200, let's take a look at some of what I wrote about over the past 100 posts spanning about two years:

I wrote with more practical, real life advice for high school and college graduates.

I wrote about a variety of investment issues, client-approved of course.

I wrote about how a political lackey masquerading as a university president ended VEISHEA.

I wrote more about the best songwriters and lyrics from yesteryear.

I wrote about how pop culture should start ignoring Lolo Jones, well before pop culture came to the same conclusion.

I wrote about major cities I visited.

I wrote more about taxpayers getting fleeced, and the primary non-profit fleecers.

I wrote about how medical doctors are self-centered, not patient-centered.

I wrote about what turning 50 years old meant to me, in a mostly non-philosophical way.

I wrote about a variety of ways that people / politicians / governments refuse to accept the evolution of social issues, such as how dumb it is to oppose both medical marijuana and decriminalization of marijuana, and how dumb it is to allow 2,000+ year-old religious doctrine control all of their secular decisions.

I wrote a little bit about a lot of other things, all in the name of getting things off my mind.

My Police State

Last week, our little neck of the woods got a bit of national attention for the way law enforcement handled a home raid.  To very briefly summarize, a suburban police force sent in multiple officers in SWAT gear to execute a search warrant at a house in a credit card theft and fraud case.

The homeowner and his do-gooder national blogger sympathizers questioned the heavy-handedness of the raid, including using a battering ram to open the door.  The police chief countered that the homeowner was a registered gun owner, and that they used the information they had to make a decision.

You'd think the libertarian side of me would agree this was too much police force.  You'd think wrong.  Let's recap the what happened and the outcome:

* The homeowner admitted he had a 9mm gun that he drew but then re-holstered when he heard it was the police.  And he was in the bathroom when he did this.  Carries his gun everywhere, I guess.

* This suburban home had surveillance cameras outside and inside the house - what suburban Iowa home does that?  Isn't that a bit of a tell that the homeowner has something to hide?  The police chief noted that they disabled or covered up the cameras as standard procedure, so others could not monitor approaching officers.

* There were three other unrelated people in the house, along with the homeowner's mother, who's probably really the actual homeowner.  Two of them were arrested on unrelated warrants, and time will tell if they were involved with or know who was involved in the credit card theft and fraud.

So to recap, not only was there potential criminal activity in the house, and at least one loaded weapon, there were also actual criminals.  But somehow, the story is all about the manner in which the police chose to protect themselves.

We don't have a police state in Iowa (or the U.S.), and bloggers or media-types who use examples like this to say otherwise should give it a rest.

Post #200

Since July of 2009, I've been writing random thoughts out in this blog.  This is post #200, so just as I did with post #100, let's review some of what was covered in the last 100 posts, or basically the past two years.....

I spent a little time writing about the importance of certain singers and song lyrics.

I spent some time writing about finance and investing, which is the work I do for a living.

I spent a good deal of time writing about politics, particularly in 2012 as related to the presidential election.

I spent a bunch of time writing about people who are dishonest, how to identify them, and calling them out.

I spent too much time, but will probably spend more, writing about the moral hazards of religion.

I spent a lot of time, and will definitely spend more, writing about how taxpayers are being shafted by people in government who make selfish decisions.

The Social Media Trifecta

After months, even years, of avoidance and threats, last week I joined the world of Facebook.  I consider this to be the third leg of the social media trifecta:  Blog, Twitter, and Facebook.  (Yes, I'm on LinkedIn as well, but there's no practical social element to that, that's all business.)

On balance, this is a good thing.  Facebook has become a primary means of communication for a lot of people, so if you want to deliver a message, you'd better include that in your communication toolbox.

Unfortunately, social media complicates your life before it simpifies it.  For one, there's going to be a learning curve.  For two, I need to figure out the most efficient and effective use for it, both personally and professionally.  For three, I need to decide whom I want to see it, and whom I don't, if anyone.

Near term, one thing I'll use it for is to point people to this blog.  I got as many Facebook friends in one day as I have Twitter follows.  Goes to show you, adults are using Facebook, but not Twitter.  (I've thought for a long time that that's kind of strange, since Twitter is so much easier to use.)

Would you like to be my Facebook friend?

How To Tell If Something Is Fake

This time of the year there are an awful lot Santas out there. So how can people tell the real Santa from all of the fakers? It's simple really. The dude at the end of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade is the real Santa. Anything else you see between then and Christmas Eve is just a faker, or as I told my kids, Santa's helper. God-given common sense should tell you the real Santa has too much to do at the North Pole!

Fake Santas may not be the best example of how to tell if something is real, but God-given common sense is. This brings me to today's actual topic: Bristol Palin's Facebook Page.

I don't use Facebook; I'm still trying to figure out how to leverage my Twitter account. However, Facebook-ers often use it to communicate crazy things that get mainstream media play. Bristol used it this week to defend herself against a fellow Dancing With The Stars contestant, Margaret Cho, who blogged that Bristol's politically famous mother, Sarah, made her do the show.

It would be perfectly fine and even righteous for Bristol to defend herself using her Facebook page - if it was really her writing the entries. If anyone reads the Cho defense entry, and compares it to the actual verbal quotes of this in-over-her-head (like her mother) kid, no one with any God-given common sense could believe that she actually wrote it.

Let's deconstruct it: She uses the word "canard". She refers to her mother's "bestselling book, Going Rogue". She even makes an analogy that includes KD Lang and the Indigo Girls! When someone who normally communicates at an 8th grade level ends up writing something that sophisticated, and with political innuendo, my 'faker' radar goes off.

So that same God-given common sense tells me this entry was written by a Sarah Palin political operative for damage control. Normally that would be fine - most 'celebrities' and executives use publicists or ghost writers to write statements or even books. But a Sarah Palin ghost writer on her own daughter's Facebook page? It sort of gives Cho's blog entry credibility - that Mama Grizzly is controlling what her kids say and do.

In a way, I feel for Bristol. She didn't sign up to be a Palin, to be under the microscope, and criticism sucks, especially through the media. But when Bristol signed up for reality TV (and the cash that came with it), she put herself on the media-watch list. (Um, that is assuming it really was her and not her mom that made her do it.)

The best path for Bristol now is to live her life with a quiet confidence, and stay out of the limelight a la Chelsea Clinton at her age. In the meantime, she can hope her mom's political ambitions don't take over her life.

The Return Of the Blog

What do you call a blog with no entries in nearly a month?

Not a blog.

So I've been busy. Trust me, it hasn't been for a lack of things to write about.

I shall soon return with a steady stream of insight.....