The Divided States Of America

MSFT Batman

Did Batman appear in Microsoft's stock chart late last year?  Doesn't look like he was able to save the day.

Can't wait to be best man

See more funny videos and TBT Videos at Today's Big Thing.

Nothing to do

Big Tex Gas

Big Tex lets out a stinky one or a tanker just exploded.

Financial Lessons Learned

This "crisis" we're in has taught me a few things.  When I was young and first learned what FDIC stood for and what they did I had no idea why something like that was in place.  I thought it was in place to protect customers in case their bank got robbed.  I never imaged there would be a time that a bank would go under.  I was about 13 then.  But even today, I never imagined that it would happen to 2 of the 3 banks that I have money in.  Well, not 2 yet, Wachovia is still trying to figure out who wins them.

 

That's not really what I learned though.  This latest crisis has taught me that the American people will always over-indulge to a point that they cannot support themselves anymore.  Once they reach this point they'll whine and complain and look for people to blame.  They'll blame the government which will scramble to point fingers at each of the parties.  The government will try to come up with quick fixes, none of which will work.  After a year or two the econmy will again stabilize so that Americans can get back to over-indulging and going through the same thing all over again.

 

The problem is that when Americans are in a good economy they never think about what it's like in a bad economy.  They're not cutting back their spending, driving less, eating out less.  They're charging as much as they can so that they can pay for it tomorrow.  This time, tomorrow came and it was black.

 

What I've really learned is that cash is king.  Cash may drop in value slightly over time, but it will never get cut in half over a 6 month period.  Do yourself a favor and set some cash aside before you start gambling in the stock market.  Don't start researching stocks and looking at P/E ratios and dividends and trying to find deals until you have a good amount of cash in a bank saved for a rainy day.  This time that rainy day has come, and if my stock picks in the past are any indication, any research you do in this market is worthless.

Presidential $1 Coins Are Back

As seen before here. Time to load up.

http://catalog.usmint.gov/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CategoryDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10001&catalogId=10001&identifier=8100

Bathroom Ads

What's the deal with those ads on the bathroom walls in bars.  Am I supposed to wake up the next day and remember what I saw on the bathroom wall and want to call them up and do some business?  If I'm at a bar the night before I doubt I will remember anything except for the skinny girl at the bar with low rise jeans and thong.  Can you name one advertisement you've seen on the wall at a bar?

UPDATE: Ok, found this picture. I took it I was drunk 5 years ago and wanted to capture one of the things that puzzled me that night, so you see how long this has been bothering me. Cafe Brazil is an exception, but who is going to remember Sun Country Airlines after a night of drinking?

Chick-fil-A Sauce

Note to self: "Chick-fil-A Sauce", the new sauce at Chick-Fil-A, tastes like cat taint.  Avoid if possible.

DSX Boosts Dividend 7%

Yield is over 10%.  Profit doubled over same period last year.

 

http://finance.google.com/finance?client=ig&q=DSX

Lexie - Cattle Dog

Lexie's not afraid of a big, pregnant cow. That cow's lucky that fence was between them.

Jack Ingram - July 4, 2008 - Gruene Hall

Here's a blurry picture from the best concert I've ever been to. I don't see how you can say you've done Texas until you've seen a concert at Gruene Hall.

Wipeout

I have to admit, the previews for the show were funny, but it looked like a show I would never watch. I was wrong. With John Henson, formerly of Talk Soup, and John Anderson commentating, this is the funniest show on television.



Watch episodes at http://abc.go.com/primetime/wipeout/index?pn=index

Russ Martin Arrested

Arrested in Southlake at Larry North Fitness on a charge of aggravated assault with bodily injuries with a deadly weapon.

Feel free to discuss and create rumors.
http://www.mebehost.com/yabbse/index.php?topic=4022.0

Presidential $1 Coins

Currently John Quincy Adams. Free shipping, No extra fees. Max $500.

http://catalog.usmint.gov/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10001&storeId=10001&productId=14506&langId=-1

Put it on your credit card to get points.

Update: Sold Out

Algae Ethanol

1/10th of New Mexico could supply the United States' energy demands.

Interesting video and another reason why corn for non-human energy is a waste of time/space/money/etc.

http://www.valcent.net/i/misc/Vertigro/index.html

I have no problem with ethanol being used for diesel engines. The government's 10% ethanol in regular gas is ruining engines. I spoke with a mechanic that has seen the problem over and over. It is now recommended that a fuel stabilizer be used in regular gas engines to offset the damage of ethanol.

CGMFX - No comments needed

Don't Lift the Ban on Offshore Building

Stop relying on oil.  It's time to find alternatives.  Japan just released a car that runs on water.  We're sitting on and drilling for tons of natural gas that is cheaper and will burn cleaner than oil.  Raise gas prices to make people become more efficient.  We're all a bunch of oil wasters.

Why Corn is Not the Answer

Big Corn and Ethanol Hoax

By Walter E. Williams

One of the many mandates of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 calls for oil companies to increase the amount of ethanol mixed with gasoline. President Bush said, during his 2006 State of the Union address, "America is addicted to oil, which is often imported from unstable parts of the world." Let's look at some of the "wonders" of ethanol as a replacement for gasoline.

Ethanol contains water that distillation cannot remove. As such, it can cause major damage to automobile engines not specifically designed to burn ethanol. The water content of ethanol also risks pipeline corrosion and thus must be shipped by truck, rail car or barge. These shipping methods are far more expensive than pipelines.

Ethanol is 20 to 30 percent less efficient than gasoline, making it more expensive per highway mile. It takes 450 pounds of corn to produce the ethanol to fill one SUV tank. That's enough corn to feed one person for a year. Plus, it takes more than one gallon of fossil fuel -- oil and natural gas -- to produce one gallon of ethanol. After all, corn must be grown, fertilized, harvested and trucked to ethanol producers -- all of which are fuel-using activities. And, it takes 1,700 gallons of water to produce one gallon of ethanol. On top of all this, if our total annual corn output were put to ethanol production, it would reduce gasoline consumption by 10 or 12 percent.

Ethanol is so costly that it wouldn't make it in a free market. That's why Congress has enacted major ethanol subsidies, about $1.05 to $1.38 a gallon, which is no less than a tax on consumers. In fact, there's a double tax -- one in the form of ethanol subsidies and another in the form of handouts to corn farmers to the tune of $9.5 billion in 2005 alone.

There's something else wrong with this picture. If Congress and President Bush say we need less reliance on oil and greater use of renewable fuels, then why would Congress impose a stiff tariff, 54 cents a gallon, on ethanol from Brazil? Brazilian ethanol, by the way, is produced from sugar cane and is far more energy efficient, cleaner and cheaper to produce.

Ethanol production has driven up the prices of corn-fed livestock, such as beef, chicken and dairy products, and products made from corn, such as cereals. As a result of higher demand for corn, other grain prices, such as soybean and wheat, have risen dramatically. The fact that the U.S. is the world's largest grain producer and exporter means that the ethanol-induced higher grain prices will have a worldwide impact on food prices.

It's easy to understand how the public, looking for cheaper gasoline, can be taken in by the call for increased ethanol usage. But politicians, corn farmers and ethanol producers know they are running a cruel hoax on the American consumer. They are in it for the money. The top leader in the ethanol hoax is Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), the country's largest producer of ethanol. Ethanol producers and the farm lobby have pressured farm state congressmen into believing that it would be political suicide if they didn't support subsidized ethanol production. That's the stick. Campaign contributions play the role of the carrot.

The ethanol hoax is a good example of a problem economists refer to as narrow, well-defined benefits versus widely dispersed costs. It pays the ethanol lobby to organize and collect money to grease the palms of politicians willing to do their bidding because there's a large benefit for them -- higher wages and profits. The millions of gasoline consumers, who fund the benefits through higher fuel and food prices, as well as taxes, are relatively uninformed and have little clout. After all, who do you think a politician will invite into his congressional or White House office to have a heart-to-heart -- you or an Archer Daniels Midlands executive?

http://www.townhall.com/columnists/WalterEWilliams/2008/03/12/big_corn_and_ethanol_hoax

HSLVY - Buy now for 10% dividend

HSLVY - http://finance.google.com/finance?q=NASDAQ%3AHSVLY

 

June 6 is the ex-dividend date for this dividend around 10%.

John McCain on Energy

John McCain will break from the past to lead a great national campaign to put us on a course for energy independence. No problem is more urgent today than our dependence on foreign oil. It threatens our security, economy and environment. The next President must be willing to break completely with the energy policies of past administrations. We must unleash the genius of Americans, and encourage industries to pursue alternative, non-polluting and renewable energy sources.

Obama voted for the same policies that created the problem. He voted for the energy bill promoted by President Bush and Vice President Cheney, which gave even more breaks to the oil industry. John McCain opposed it because we won't achieve energy independence by repeating the mistakes of the last half century. That's not change we can believe in.

To achieve energy independence, we need a president with a record of putting the nation's interests before the special interests. Obama might criticize special interests that give more money to Republicans, but he doesn't take on those that favor him. John McCain has a record of taking on the special interest. Sen. Obama does not.

John McCain has proposed a climate change policy that would greatly reduce our dependence on oil. His approach was opposed by President Bush and leading Democrats, and it was defeated by opposition from special interests.

 

http://www.johnmccain.com/decisioncenter/

Volvo Plug-In Hybrid

The technology has been there for years, so why don't we see more of these?

http://editorial.autos.msn.com/article.aspx?cp-documentid=481565&topart=hybrids

DSX - Buy today

By DSX. It's down on profit-taking by the big boys. Dividend yield is back around 10%. Buy today, tomorrow's the 85 cent ex-dividend date.

School Zones

Why do people slow down to 10 MPH right before they enter a school zone and then speed back up to 20 MPH?

EBOF: Time to buy?

EBOF's volume has been triple it's norm over the past few days and has increased about 75%. Are some big boys showing interest in EBOF's future? Could a penny stock become a dollar stock? EBOF's first BioWillie station is supposed to open in July.

Hydrogen or Compressed Natural Gas? Neither!

Why can't I find a gas-hydrogen hybrid? I bet you could get 100 MPG and decent power out of one, yet no one that I know of is making them. There are kits to convert your car, but do those work? I've seen studies showing they do, so why doesn't a manufacturer start puting them in their cars? Why are there incentives to buy CNG cars, yet no filling stations? I would have to drive about 25 miles from my house to fill up. It's not as cost effective as it could be. When will we see more efficient cars that rely something other than gasoline and are cost effective at the same time?

Beyond Natural Gas

We're running out of oil. Now what? Natural Gas. Then what? The Sun! Hold onto those traditional energy ETFs for now, but when they stop producing, look to TAN (currently 29.28). Long-term (over 5 years) I think an ETF like TAN has great potential. What will your car/house/yacht be running on in 30 years? My favorite thing about solar power is that it's free! Sure there's the initial cost of setting up a solar system (no, not that solar system), but once it's in place you should be able to run whatever you wish at no cost. More and more I expect companies to look to solar power to save money in the long run. Green is the trend now, and I don't see it going away until the globe cools back down (or democrats admit we didn't heat it up). TAN is an easy way to ride the wave that came from the melting glacier.

Buy Hold Sell

Buy
ETP under $52 (currently 50.18) - Great dividend, natural gas is the near future, target price about 30% higher.
DSX under $40 (currently 39.17) - Even better dividend, little recession exposure.

Hold
WMB (currently 38.77) - Just increased dividend 10%, natural gas is the near future, 52-week high.
MV (currently 24.85) - recently up on high volume seems to have settled just below $25.

Sell
ODP (currently 13.70) - Struggling behind Staples and OfficeMax, in the middle of a recession.
WM (currently 10.21) - Sub-prime mortgage is still an issue, I've seen target prices around $8.

I own all of these stocks except WM.