Marshall Tucker Band................................Can't You See
Saturday, October 22, 2011
If you wonder where it all goes........................
Seth Godin provides a public service, linking us to a handy
chart that details the Federal budget. The above snapshot
is just the teensiest bit of the whole picture. You can go to
Amazon and order the big picture. A very useful tool as we,
hopefully, begin talking about priorities and scarce dollars.
Opening paragraphs...............
In 1933 the first volume of Thomas Mann's Joseph and his
Brothers was published - a tale, according to the author, of
"love and hate, blessing and curse, fraternal strife and
paternal grief, pride and penance, fall and rise." An early
admirer of the work was a young German banker named
Siegmund Warburg, who read it while sailing from Hamburg
to London - a journey into exile not dissimilar from the one
Mann himself made later the same year. Warburg, it has
been suggested, was struck by the parallel between his own
family and Joseph's, with whom he himself closely identified.
Of course, the parallel was not exact. Unlike Joseph,
Siegmund Warburg had no brothers; nor was he being driven
into exile by members of his own family - rather, by a regime
bent on the expulsion and ultimately the destruction of all
the descendants of Jacob. Nevertheless, even a cursory
glance at the genealogy of the Warburg family indicates
why the parallel might have occurred to him.
High Financier: The Life and Times of Siegmund Warburg
by Niall Ferguson
Brothers was published - a tale, according to the author, of
"love and hate, blessing and curse, fraternal strife and
paternal grief, pride and penance, fall and rise." An early
admirer of the work was a young German banker named
Siegmund Warburg, who read it while sailing from Hamburg
to London - a journey into exile not dissimilar from the one
Mann himself made later the same year. Warburg, it has
been suggested, was struck by the parallel between his own
family and Joseph's, with whom he himself closely identified.
Of course, the parallel was not exact. Unlike Joseph,
Siegmund Warburg had no brothers; nor was he being driven
into exile by members of his own family - rather, by a regime
bent on the expulsion and ultimately the destruction of all
the descendants of Jacob. Nevertheless, even a cursory
glance at the genealogy of the Warburg family indicates
why the parallel might have occurred to him.
High Financier: The Life and Times of Siegmund Warburg
by Niall Ferguson
Oh hurry baby......................
The Newbeats........................................Run Baby Run
Friday, October 21, 2011
How I wish.............................
Pink Floyd................................................Wish You Were Here
On Leadership..............
"I have seen competent leaders who stood in front of a
platoon and all they saw was a platoon. But great leaders
stand in front of a platoon and see it as 44 individuals, each
of whom has aspirations, each of whom wants to live, each
of whom wants to do good."
-General H. Norman Schwarzkopf
platoon and all they saw was a platoon. But great leaders
stand in front of a platoon and see it as 44 individuals, each
of whom has aspirations, each of whom wants to live, each
of whom wants to do good."
-General H. Norman Schwarzkopf
Thursday, October 20, 2011
On the road again....................
Bob Seger..........................................Turn the Page
Life's geometry...........................
"Though a straight line appears to be the shortest distance
between two points, life has a way of confounding geometry.
Often it is the dalliances and the detours that define us.
There are no maps to guide our most important searches;
we must rely on hope, chance, intuition and a willingness
to be surprised."
-Gordon Livingston, Too Soon Old, Too Late Smart
between two points, life has a way of confounding geometry.
Often it is the dalliances and the detours that define us.
There are no maps to guide our most important searches;
we must rely on hope, chance, intuition and a willingness
to be surprised."
-Gordon Livingston, Too Soon Old, Too Late Smart
Travels................
"How far you go in life depends on your being tender with
the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with
the striving, and tolerant of the weak and the strong.
Because someday in life you will have been all of these."
-George Washington Carver
the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with
the striving, and tolerant of the weak and the strong.
Because someday in life you will have been all of these."
-George Washington Carver
Opening paragraphs...........
Normally a blunt, outspoken man, given to great bouts of
uninhibited conversations with friends and associates, A. P.
Giannini seldom talked at any length about his childhood on
the California frontier. On those few occasions when he did,
however, he claimed that it had been one of the most decisive
experiences in his life. "San Jose had a population of about
fourteen thousand," he said toward the end of his life. "It
was located in the Santa Clara Valley about fifty miles from
San Francisco. Back in the days of the gold rush, it had been
a pretty rough town. But then things settled down and
families began moving in to buy land on which to farm.....I
didn't care for farming, but it is sincere, honest work which
is the best recipe for happiness I know."
Felice A. Bonadio, A. P. Giannini: Banker of America
uninhibited conversations with friends and associates, A. P.
Giannini seldom talked at any length about his childhood on
the California frontier. On those few occasions when he did,
however, he claimed that it had been one of the most decisive
experiences in his life. "San Jose had a population of about
fourteen thousand," he said toward the end of his life. "It
was located in the Santa Clara Valley about fifty miles from
San Francisco. Back in the days of the gold rush, it had been
a pretty rough town. But then things settled down and
families began moving in to buy land on which to farm.....I
didn't care for farming, but it is sincere, honest work which
is the best recipe for happiness I know."
Felice A. Bonadio, A. P. Giannini: Banker of America
I just gotta say............................
Edison Lighthouse........Love grows where my Rosemary goes
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
....who told me....................
38 Special............................................Hold on Loosely
On encouragement................
"Encouragement is oxygen to the soul. Truly great work
seldom comes from a worker without encouragement. No
one ever lived long, happily, or productively without it."
-George Mathew Adams
seldom comes from a worker without encouragement. No
one ever lived long, happily, or productively without it."
-George Mathew Adams
Encouragement....................part 2
"The deepest principle in human nature is the
craving to be appreciated."
-William James
craving to be appreciated."
-William James
People...............
"One learns people through the heart, not the eyes
or the intellect."
-Mark Twain
or the intellect."
-Mark Twain
A good question...............
"We hear applause for our achievements, yet we never hear
our own applause. We’re told as long as we do our best,
that is enough. But why is it never enough internally?"
-Hugh MacLeod
The lonely walk along the extra mile.......
"There are two types of people who never achieve very much
in their lifetimes. One is the person who won't do what he or
she is told to do, and the other is the person who does no
no more than he or she is told to do."
-Andrew Carnegie
in their lifetimes. One is the person who won't do what he or
she is told to do, and the other is the person who does no
no more than he or she is told to do."
-Andrew Carnegie
I'm gonna love you anyway.................
The Supremes..........................................Come See About Me
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
The Trend Czar should get out more.................
Faithful readers will remember that GlobeSt.com offers news and
opinion about all things commercial and investment real estate. I
enjoy following their bloggers, even though I often have to dial up
my negativity filters. Jonathan Miller, aka The Trend Czar, has
his latest blog post here. Comment worthy excerpts here:
"We all know the economy has been flagging, but now the
impacts hit even our most impervious markets. The New
York State Comptroller forecasts Wall Street will shed
10,000 jobs by year-end 2012 and even recession resistant
Washington DC girds for possible unthinkable federal
government jobs cuts."
Nice to know that the "unthinkable" is being thought. About time.
"Investors who thought prices were too rich in the top
gateway markets and pulled back were right. The problem is
there are no bargains anywhere else, just increasing risk."
From what I can tell, there are bargains all over the Mid-West.
Might have to work a bit harder and do a bit more due diligence,
but good investments at reasonable cap rates are still available
in our market. For instance, a single tenant net leased building,
constructed in 2010, with a ten year lease, available at an 8%
cap rate. Do stop by.
opinion about all things commercial and investment real estate. I
enjoy following their bloggers, even though I often have to dial up
my negativity filters. Jonathan Miller, aka The Trend Czar, has
his latest blog post here. Comment worthy excerpts here:
"We all know the economy has been flagging, but now the
impacts hit even our most impervious markets. The New
York State Comptroller forecasts Wall Street will shed
10,000 jobs by year-end 2012 and even recession resistant
Washington DC girds for possible unthinkable federal
government jobs cuts."
Nice to know that the "unthinkable" is being thought. About time.
"Investors who thought prices were too rich in the top
gateway markets and pulled back were right. The problem is
there are no bargains anywhere else, just increasing risk."
From what I can tell, there are bargains all over the Mid-West.
Might have to work a bit harder and do a bit more due diligence,
but good investments at reasonable cap rates are still available
in our market. For instance, a single tenant net leased building,
constructed in 2010, with a ten year lease, available at an 8%
cap rate. Do stop by.
Opening paragraphs...........
It may come as a surprise to those who bear in their minds a stereotypical impression of Hernan Cortes that when he was a baby he was so puny and sickly that his wet-nurse many times placed lighted candles for him on the altar of the little church in Medellin as she chanted prayers for his survival. Cortes was not suckled by his mother, Dona Catalina Pizarro Altimarano de Cortes, though she was well endowed with milk, because stylish young ladies of lineage in 1485, when Cortes was born, believed that breast feeding led to excessive enlargement of their bosoms. Consequently Dona Catalina's husband, Martin Cortes de Monroy, found a servant-woman who happened to be fresh, after having lost a child of her own, and hired her to nurse the baby. Martin Cortes owned a few stony acres in Estremadura, which is in the interior of the Iberian peninusla not far from the Spanish border with Portugal; often strapped for money, he had cause to grumble over the avoidable expense, yet in deference to his wife's pride and vanity (and perhaps because he liked her figure as it was) he bore the cost; and on the milk from those hired breasts the colicky infant endured.
-Cortes: The Great Adventurer and the Fate of Aztec Mexico
by Richard Lee Marks
-Cortes: The Great Adventurer and the Fate of Aztec Mexico
by Richard Lee Marks
Monday, October 17, 2011
Days uncounted....................
Grand Funk Railroad.....................................I'm Your Captain
I'm shocked, shocked...............
WRM cites a story in the Economist suggesting that any of us counting on pensions....shouldn't. Those greedy corporations have almost been as feckless as state and local goverments in setting aside enough cash to fund their obligations. Who would have believed that?
The bad news is that corporate and public pension plans are horribly and perhaps irredeemably underfunded. Years of lies, accounting sleight of hand and unrealistic assumptions about returns have now reached the point where private final salary pension programs in the US are now underfunded by about half a trillion dollars. Small change compared to US public sector pensions, where the pension gap at over $4 trillion is eight times the size, but it looks increasingly as if a lot of people aren’t going to have the money they’ve been told to expect.
WRM suggests we all start saving, and then save some more. Full post is here
Kids say the darnedest things...............
I've seen this photo at various way-stations along the Intertunnel. Don't know if it is real or staged for effect.
Doesn't really matter. It just reminds me how silly we all can be while growing up. I grew up when the newspapers were full of stories about urban riots, war protests, and the "counter culture" whose considered wisdom amounted to "never trust anyone over the age of 30."
When I was about half-way through my liberal arts college years, I made, one day, a snide remark to my Dad about our "materialistic life style." Not angrily, but very wise to the ways of youth, he merely said, "Ok. I'll tell you what. If you are willing to go to the local community college instead of Denison, I will pay your tuition and donate the difference in the cost between the two to the charity of your choice." I believe that is known as calling a bluff. It was not my finest hour, but I did learn a lot about my Dad, myself, and what the real world is like.
My Dad was a special man. He worked at the same business - with time off to serve overseas in the Army from 1942-1945 - for his whole work life. He ran the place the last thirty years, never making more than $50,000 a year. When he retired, they had to hire three people to replace him and paid all three more than they had paid him, yet he always felt he had been treated very fairly. Mom never worked out of the house. Her thing was hearth, home, family and volunteering. While I was in Junior and Senior High School she would spend two to three hours a day typing medical textbooks in braille. I suspect there are more than a few blind folks who were able to grow professionally because of her dedication as a volunteer. Mom and Dad bought the house that we still consider home base for our extended family in 1961. They made their last mortgage payment and the last college tuition payment for their two kids on the same day in 1973. At the time of Dad's death, our current president would have considered him "rich." These are the people I thought were "materialistic." Like I said, not my finest hour.
So, I guess I'm willing to cut the "occupiers" some slack. Foolishness is not terminal. My hope for them is that their parents are as wise as mine.
On equal opportunity............
"Don't buy all the gloom and doom. Realize that recessions
and depressions don't last forever. It's an equal opportunity
plan that impacts everyone. Don't just go through tough
times. Grow through them."
-Willie Jolley
and depressions don't last forever. It's an equal opportunity
plan that impacts everyone. Don't just go through tough
times. Grow through them."
-Willie Jolley
Monday's poem...................
Friend, hope for the Guest while you are alive.
Jump into experience while you are alive!
Think... and think... while you are alive.
What you call "salvation" belongs to the time
before death.
If you don't break your ropes while you're alive,
do you think
ghosts will do it after?
The idea that the soul will rejoin with the ecstatic
just because the body is rotten -
that is all fantasy.
What is found now is found then.
If you find nothing now,
you will simply end up with an apartment in the
City of Death.
If you make love with the divine now, in the next
life you will have the face of satisfied desire.
So plunge into the truth, find out who the Teacher is,
Believe in the Great Sound!
Kabir says this: When the Guest is being searched for,
it is the intensity of the longing for the Guest that
does all the work.
Look at me, and you will see a slave of that intensity.
-Kabir
Jump into experience while you are alive!
Think... and think... while you are alive.
What you call "salvation" belongs to the time
before death.
If you don't break your ropes while you're alive,
do you think
ghosts will do it after?
The idea that the soul will rejoin with the ecstatic
just because the body is rotten -
that is all fantasy.
What is found now is found then.
If you find nothing now,
you will simply end up with an apartment in the
City of Death.
If you make love with the divine now, in the next
life you will have the face of satisfied desire.
So plunge into the truth, find out who the Teacher is,
Believe in the Great Sound!
Kabir says this: When the Guest is being searched for,
it is the intensity of the longing for the Guest that
does all the work.
Look at me, and you will see a slave of that intensity.
-Kabir
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Ungraspable..................
The tiny particles which form the vast universe are not
tiny at all.
Neither is the vast universe vast.
These are notions of the mind, which is like a knife,
always chipping away at the Tao,
trying to render it graspable and manageable.
But that which is beyond form is ungraspable, and
that which is beyond knowing is unmanageable.
There is, however, this consolation:
She who lets go of the knife will find the Tao at her
fingertips.
Chapter 13
Hua Hu Ching: The Unknown Teachings of Lao Tzu
Brian Walker
tiny at all.
Neither is the vast universe vast.
These are notions of the mind, which is like a knife,
always chipping away at the Tao,
trying to render it graspable and manageable.
But that which is beyond form is ungraspable, and
that which is beyond knowing is unmanageable.
There is, however, this consolation:
She who lets go of the knife will find the Tao at her
fingertips.
Chapter 13
Hua Hu Ching: The Unknown Teachings of Lao Tzu
Brian Walker
Sunday's verse............
From the Book of Common Prayer, Holy Eucharist, Rite 1,
according to the use of the Episcopal Church:
Hear the Word of God to all who truly turn to him.
Come unto me, all ye that travail and are heavy laden,
and I will refresh you. Mathew 11:28
God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten
Son, to the end that all that believe in him should not
perish, but have everlasting life. John 3:16
this is a true saying, and worthy of all men to be received,
that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.
1 Timothy 1:15
If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father,
Jesus Christ the righteous; and his the perfect offering
for our sins, and not for ours only, but for the sins of the
whole world. 1 John 2:1-2
according to the use of the Episcopal Church:
Hear the Word of God to all who truly turn to him.
Come unto me, all ye that travail and are heavy laden,
and I will refresh you. Mathew 11:28
God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten
Son, to the end that all that believe in him should not
perish, but have everlasting life. John 3:16
this is a true saying, and worthy of all men to be received,
that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.
1 Timothy 1:15
If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father,
Jesus Christ the righteous; and his the perfect offering
for our sins, and not for ours only, but for the sins of the
whole world. 1 John 2:1-2
Imperatives..........
Look at the birds
Consider the lilies
Drink ye all of it
Ask
Seek
Knock
Enter by the narrow door
Do not be anxious
Judge not; do not give to dogs what is holy
Go; be it done for you
Do not be afraid
Young man, I say, arise
Stretch out your hand
Stand up, be still
Rise, let us be going
Love
Forgive
Remember me
-Kathleen Norris
Consider the lilies
Drink ye all of it
Ask
Seek
Knock
Enter by the narrow door
Do not be anxious
Judge not; do not give to dogs what is holy
Go; be it done for you
Do not be afraid
Young man, I say, arise
Stretch out your hand
Stand up, be still
Rise, let us be going
Love
Forgive
Remember me
-Kathleen Norris
Three things I pray.................
Godspell...............................................Day by Day
(click through to Youtube. Copyright issues)
(click through to Youtube. Copyright issues)
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