Thursday, July 10. 2014
 I like Guggenheim S&P500 Equal Weight (RSP). For equities, I prefer it to S&P 500 funds, which are weighted by market cap, but I keep my equity money to a relatively small % of my modest pile of financial assets.
My Godfather was one of the original inventors of mutual funds. At the time, he only sold his funds to rich guys.
His first fund was simply to sell shares of his own portfolio from his inheritance from his family. He had done well with it, and had sold the family business.
When I was a kid, he would tell me that he was certain that, in the future, retail funds would be a big business, diluting risk. I didn't really know what he was talking about. He was slightly ahead of his time but made enough money to build a custom 92-foot sailboat which is all he ever dreamed of.
Guy did not leave me a penny, but left me the memories of his companionship and the example of his Christian faith which has been a great gift indeed. I never told him that before he died at his desk in his office, aged 88.
I do not care to pay for actively-managed money. When it comes to investing on the retail level, I have always said that one can never get rich that way unless one is blessed with the same combination of recklessness and luck that wins the Powerball. Like investing every penny you had in Microsoft when it first went public in 1986. Some office secretaries did, though, just like all the regular citizens of Omaha invested in Berkshire 40 years ago just because they knew Warren from around town.
Over time, however, one can hope to maintain one's financial assets and keep up with inflation and sometimes exceed it. Public equity markets are a sophisticated casino. Over the years I have gotten some very good tips, but a prudent person without inside info never wants to risk enough for it to make a meaningful difference in the end. I will confess that I own a few individual stocks.
It's those occasional base hits in bullish markets which keep retail citizen dopes like me coming back to the casino, while the people making big money in markets are those who construct and sell the financial products we little people buy, and the people in the non-public markets (eg venture capital, hedge funds, etc).
I am still waiting for a major market crash or correction. I have cash waiting in my "retirement" account, but that ammo is getting rusty.
 Is the era of blogs past?
3 Simple Ways To Make The Most Of Your College Summer Vacation
Map of what’s across the ocean if you’re on the beach
The Thousands of Volunteers Who Grade Millions of AP Tests
Six examples of how 3-D printing is changing our world
Tuition Discounts at Private Colleges Are at Record High
Bummer: “Climate Change” Could Cause Gingers To Go Extinct
Die, Ex-Im Bank! Faster, Faster!
Feds Spent $430,608 to Get Mothers to Dance With Their Daughters
Is Hillary Clinton past her sell date?
MSNBC: Obama’s Policies Gave Illegals The Impression They Could Stay
It’s Not True that 20 Million Americans Gained Coverage Under Obamacare
Some “Children” Illegally Entering U.S. Are Gang Members, Killers
Will Single Women Save Democrats In 2014?
Sultan: Gandhi's bit of genocidal madness has now become mainstream in Jewish circles.
Former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin was sentenced Wednesday to
10 years in prison for bribery, money laundering and other corruption
that spanned his two terms as mayor — including the chaotic years after
Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005.
EPA Goes on Road Show to Missouri to Spread Lies and Misinformation About its Farmland Takeover:
...farmers harvesting hay may be exempt from needing a CWA permit only if they follow NRCS Conservation Practice Standard No. 511: four pages of criteria covering timing of the harvest, moisture content of the hay, length of the cut hay, stubble height and much more.
Bull gores Pamplona survival guide author
Return of the Fence: Immigration crisis spurs renewed calls for border barrier
Obama Fundraises as the Border Disintegrates
Coburn: 'For $8M, We Can Put them All on a First-Class Seat Back to Their Homes'
Border Patrol Protects the Nation From the Terrifying Threat of Canadian Pot Smokers
The Border Crisis Is Obama’s Hurricane Katrina? Don’t Be Ridiculous!
The Government vs. the People: Rebuilding Trust in the Midst of the Illegal Alien Tsunami
"Moderate" Fatah Also Firing Rockets
Hamas unveils bigger, better rocket arsenal against Israel
New York Times Criticizes Israel for Trying to Save Lives in
Gaza
Wednesday, July 9. 2014
 Up here in the northern hemisphere, July and August tend to be slow times for websites. It's vacation season. Nevertheless, it's a good time to ask our readers to spread the word about Maggie's Farm. As we say, a growing readership is our main reward for doing this. You don't have to be a Libertarian-Conservative to learn from, and to enjoy, our eclectic site. We may sometimes piss off Liberals, but Lefties need to see other points of view just as we do.
Anyway, please help us get the word out - or we'll shoot that dog.
The Ultimate Bachelor Pad is Being Built in New York
A Zorba's Dance flash mob
The silent screams of plants
Things Christians should not say to hurting people
In support of death panels
Soccer, a Game of Chance
Just pretend this dead lion is a human baby, and then you won’t be so upset
Backlash has begun against gluten-free dieters
Obama and the Verdict of Posterity - Thanks to liberal historians, the 44th president will probably get much higher marks than he deserves.
For what?
What’s behind Chicago’s carnage?
Can the US adjust to a cooling climate?
The Pied Piper of Permisos - Our president—and his party—owns the immigration mess.
UN Urges US to Accept Thousands of Illegal Immigrants from Central America
MS-13 gang members and jihadists let in over the border as children
'A Country that Won't or Can't Control Its Borders Is Not a Country Anymore'
MS-13 Gang Members Leave Graffiti on Bathroom Walls of Nogales Border Patrol Processing Center
Bled dry by the New Class of government workers
Good news: D.C. public schools forced to actually convince people to go to them
“All Kids Can Learn,” and Charter Schools are Raising the Bar
Common Core Becomes a Legal Nightmare
Not the federal govt's job
NYT backs off on climate alarmism
The liberal and conservative case against National Flood Insurance
A new organization: Gay Conservatives of Color
Is Germany leading the euro zone toward the no-growth cliff?
The Myth of Ethnic Inequality in Israel
Saddam's WMDs. I thought Bush lied.
Gov. Perry to Obama: Pound Sand You Grandstanding Useless Piece of Shit
Tuesday, July 8. 2014
An English war for American independence:
It is fashionable today to view the Revolution as one might a traditional war between foreign powers, but, in truth, the break of 1776 was the latest in a series of fallings out between brothers — a civil war fought by men who were separated by an ocean but not by a history. Reading through the extraordinary profusion of pamphlets and gripes that the crisis produced, one cannot help but be impressed by how keenly the revolutionaries hewed to existing principle. Thomas Paine, perhaps the most radical of the agitators, may have believed that he could start the world all over again, but the colonists who marched with him mostly definitely did not. Instead, they sought a restoration of their inheritance, the Constitutional Congress asserting in 1774 that British subjects in America were “entitled to all the rights, liberties, and immunities of free and natural- born subjects, within the realm of England.” In the same year, William Henry Drayton, a lawyer from South Carolina who later served as a delegate to the Congress, fleshed out the claim, establishing in a tract of his own that he and his countrymen were “entitled to the common law of England formed by their common ancestors; and to all and singular the benefits, rights, liberties and claims specified in Magna Charta, in the petition of Rights, in the Bill of Rights, and in the Act of Settlement.” With this popular sentiment, Drayton and his acolytes set themselves up as the Roundheads of the New World, linking spiritual arms with the parliamentarians of the English civil war, with the seditious architects of the Glorious Revolution, and with all who had established colonial outposts in the name of English freedom.
 Beer: It's Good for Your Health
Pig Sex Is Becoming a Thing of the Past
Gay divorce
7 tips for having a great one-night stand
Is that the new normal? Women's Lib? Erica Jong?
The black slavery in Africa today
“This could be about information considered embarrassing to Saudi Arabia”
More make-work jobs for the youth?
A case for getting rid of Indian reservations
Why do we have them? Indians are just people, just Americans. I am one myself, technically, and it worked out for my family that the squaw Jane left the Indian ghetto to marry my ancestor farmer in Norwalk, CT.
Here’s How We Feed the Future
If You're Reading Reason.com, The NSA is Probably Already Following You
What's the matter with this country?
Government: All your children belong to us
Real Change in Egypt?
More Illegal Immigrants from China Crossing Border
HHS Will ‘Muzzle the Media’ During Tour of Immigrant Child Housing
School nutrition group turns on Michelle O, now fighting federal lunch regulations
VDH: California’s Hydromania
Clive Crook: I've reluctantly concluded that the U.K. needs to consider its options for becoming a non-European Union country.
This guy thinks the Texas Republicans are insane
"If I were Ted Cruz..."
Excellent choices. Problem is, Cruz scares people. He doesn't seem warm and cheerful.
George Gilder: Do you pass the Israel test?
Volokh, via Protein's “If Only Thomas Jefferson Could Settle the Issue”
“If Only Thomas Jefferson Could Settle the Issue”
The assumption of natural rights expressed in the Declaration of Independence can be summed up by the following proposition: “first comes rights, then comes government.” According to this view: (1) the rights of individuals do not originate with any government, but preexist its formation; (2) The protection of these rights is the first duty of government; and (3) Even after government is formed, these rights provide a standard by which its performance is measured and, in extreme cases, its systemic failure to protect rights — or its systematice violation of rights — can justify its alteration or abolition; (4) At least some of these rights are so fundamental that they are “inalienable,” meaning they are so intimately connected to one’s nature as a human being that they cannot be transferred to another even if one consents to do so.
This is powerful stuff.
Monday, July 7. 2014
I am not sure why Obamacare rules require coverage for sexual conveniences. Sex is not a disease and, indeed, it is a sign of health. I recall that major medical policies frequently do not even cover labor and delivery because pregnancy is not a disease either.
The Obamacare rules do not require coverage for cosmetic surgery, at least not yet. Somebody will lobby for "Sagging Jowl Syndrome," you can be certain, in the future. When government gets involved with medicine, medicine becomes politicized and "diseases", "disorders", and "dysfunctions" proliferate.
 It's the hurricane of illegals.
Not an Act of God, but an act of governments. Mexico is funneling these people through, and the administration doesn't really mind.
I care more about the status of people who attempt to immigrate legally. It can take many years, even if you are a nurse, an MD, or a Physics PhD, and even then it might not be OKed.
Don't we have enough unemployed Americans? Or have we given up on them by giving them food stamps, welfare, and disability? When you quit having citizenship expectations of people, they often quit having those expectations of themselves. A sad fact of human nature, especially for the weak-willed or the rent-seeking.
Sunday, July 6. 2014
Is it American? A good piece for Revolution weekend: Professor Hamburger argues that administrative law is unlawful, unconstitutional and illegitimate. A quote:
The history of government is largely a story of elite power and popular subservience. Americans, however, turned this old model upside down. By establishing a republican form of government, they eventually made themselves masters and made their lawmakers their servants. More than two centuries later, the shell of this republican experiment remains. Within it, however, another government has arisen, in which new masters once again assert themselves, issuing commands as if they were members of a ruling class and as if the people were merely their servants. Self-government thus has given way to a system of submission.
Thursday, July 3. 2014
The Problem With a Culture of Excellence - Asian Americans have become a model of academic achievement. This is bad news for basically everyone.
Is it?
Krauthammer: "If Fences Don't Work, Why Is There One Around The White House?"
Limbaugh; You Can’t Dump Your Dog on the Street – But Can Dump 50,000 Kids From Central America
These people can't wait to get arrested. It means they're home free. San Diego Border Patrol: One Airplane of Illegals to Arrive Every 72 Hours
 Building a Better Pig
Life at 60 - How does the former alcoholic drug addict AA Gill feel about reaching this milestone? Surprised, mostly, but happy to ruminate on sex, travel and friendship
Americans Have Almost Totally Lost Faith In Government
It's un-American to have faith in government
Good Americans: Ace, Hayek, Hoffer, Sowell
How the Supreme Court Changed America This Year - Nineteen legal thinkers run down the court’s most important decisions.
A Nuclear Weapon Free World and Other Delusions
Mark Zuckerberg Group Not Giving Up, Urges Congress to Pass Amnesty ASAP
Why?
Williamson:
So, liberal friends and neighbors, how’s everybody liking their one-size-fits-all, federally dominated model of health care this week? A wee bit less than you were liking it Monday morning, I’d wager. I understand, completely...
Lefty Media Slam ‘Parasitic’ Ridesharing Companies Like Uber
Why?
Concerns about Islamic Extremism on the Rise in Middle East - Negative Opinions of al Qaeda, Hamas and Hezbollah Widespread
Wednesday, July 2. 2014
July 4 photo above of girls killing the planet by burning carbon and eating meat is from Pirate
10 Reasons Why El Camino Santiago Sucks
Are You a Breeder?
I have heard gay guys refer to women as "breeders and bleeders."
Dante And David Brooks
Fight Birth Control Battle Over the Counter
Dude, You Need to Get Into Nursing
Fantasizing, in writing, on the internet, about terrible crimes — cannibalism — when is it a crime?
Happy Birthday, Bastiat!
Bastiat was one of the first economists to warn us of the dangers of crony capitalism and protectionism, one of the most eloquent and articulate defenders of individual freedom and liberty ever, and probably the strongest advocate for the consumer in human history.
Buffalo Makes Kindergarten Mandatory
New York’s highest court strikes down cyber-bullying law
Where are the Palestinian Mothers? A culture that celebrates kidnapping is not fit for statehood. (WSJ paywall)
UConn Grad Student Files Anti-Affirmative Action Claim Over Scholarship Switch
‘Freedom’ is just another word for nothing left to buy
World Cup erases women?
Barone: The Tyranny of Sclerotic Government - Three new books show how clunky statism and overregulation stifle our economy.
Hillary Clinton thinks SCOTUS upholding a law that her husband signed is "deeply disturbing":
Tuesday, July 1. 2014
"Walking around money" has been a feature of big city politics for 100 years, but it's rare for any Democrat to get busted for it. Republican THAD COCHRAN CAMPAIGN MANAGER Busted in Vote Buying Scheme.
It's difficult to believe that this guy, a pastor, incriminated himself in the interview. He is going to need a very good lawyer.
 Image stolen from Am. Digest
San Francisco: It’s America’s largest gated community.
Jolene, slowed down
Millennials 101: How to Enjoy Your Parents' Basement
BlackRock ETFs near $1 trillion as it loses market share to Vanguard
Borges hated soccer
On the imaginary hobgoblin of ‘income inequality’ and the 80% reduction in world poverty, thanks to freedom, markets
Legal Pot in the US Is Crippling Mexican Cartels
Laundering Illegal Money? There's Ultraluxury New York Real Estate For That
What is debt?
Let Your Right Brain Run Free - For too long, conservatives have ceded the popular culture to the Left
How Liberals Make It Harder for Blacks to Succeed
Lefties seem to believe that black Americans cannot compete in the marketplace
Republicans Should Just Say No To Export-Import Bank
Another Plea to Global Warming Alarmists on the Phrase "Climate Denier"
I agree with him completely
Science needs women?
Basketball needs Asians
Hillary said this: “It’s my turn. I’ve done my time, and I deserve it.”
I tried saying that once, and it did not work
D’Souza’s America - Dinesh D’Souza takes on Obama, Hillary, Saul Alinsky, and Howard Zinn in a single bold film.
Kaus: Obama’s amnesty strategy isn’t a partial shambles
ISIS Promises to Destroy the Kaaba in Mecca
Sheesh. Religion of peace.
But... Huffington Post Has Seen the Real Face of Evil: The Bacon Cheeseburger
Yum.
Want birth control? Go buy it. Nobody is stopping you.
Chinese teens trafficked into US through Central America
Barack Obama may be Silicon Valley's last hope for immigration reform in 2014
Sumner, via Cafe Hayek:
Can anyone imagine that the masterfulness, the overbearing disposition, the greed of gain, and the ruthlessness in methods, which are the faults of the master of industry at his worst, would cease when he was a functionary of the State, which had relieved him of risk and endowed him with authority? Can anyone imagine that politicians would no longer be corruptly fond of money, intriguing, and crafty when they were charged, not only with patronage and government contracts, but also with factories, stores, ships, and railroads? Could we expect anything except that, when the politician and the master of industry were joined in one, we should have the vices of both unchecked by the restraints of either?
Monday, June 30. 2014
Bill Clinton: States should experiment with marijuana legalization
Pot should be decriminalized everywhere, state by state. It should never have been criminalized in the first place. All it does is make you stupid, lazy, and hungry. If you want to be a pothead, be my guest. Like heroin, you can already buy it cheap on any street corner in the US. It's a free country. Waste your life if you want, but not on my nickel.
How screwed up is the Ukraine? Very.
Canada pulls the plug on the U.S. Keystone Pipeline – will send oil to Asia
Such a greenie victory, to let the Chinese burn it. Great.
The SCOTUS decisions today? They don't really mean that much, despite the howling hysteria.
The racket begins to unravel, but only a little. US Supreme Court: Public union can't make nonmembers pay fees
Operatic Naiveté - The Metropolitan Opera’s indefensible decision to stage The Death of Klinghoffer
The home refrigerator, a vital but modest technology, is 100 years old.
5 Year-Old Bullying VICTIM Forced to Sign ‘Sexual Misconduct’ Confession
Peaceful Indians: Evidence of Hobbling, Torture Discovered at Ancient Massacre Site in Colorado
The race to stop Las Vegas from running dry
Duh.
US regulators okay Israeli-made robotic legs
Should You Get Your DNA Tested to See if You’re More Likely to Get Cancer?
Pentagon: Young Adults Too Fat, Tattooed, Uneducated for Military
All Education Is For-Profit Education
An Open Letter to Swarthmore's Board of Managers
Common Core Tests: So Difficult, Bureaucrats Had to Implement a Curve Under Which Kids Can Guess Randomly and Still Pass
The Week’s Climate Embarrassment
Putting Americans First…Not So Much
Barney Fife Meets Delta Force - Hypermilitarized police departments are more dangerous than whatever they fight.
How the middle class is hobbling the economy - Unless
incomes for these Americans can rise along with productivity growth
again, the country may suffer a long period of stagnation
What to do in a post-Great Books age?
Roger Simon on moral narcissism
Liberals Delude Themselves About the Tea Party
Dear Feminists: In The Name Of Fighting Poverty, Can We Call A Truce About Marriage?
From Sultan:
The ongoing problem on the right is that it talks 'extremist' and
legislates 'moderate' while the left talks 'moderate' and legislates
'extremist'.
Sunday, June 29. 2014
Gallup: Only 22% of Americans Favor Increased Immigration.
This poll did not ask about legal vs. illegal, it was just general. I think Americans feel that we already have enough unemployed, able-bodied, dependent people. Country is full of them, almost everywhere. At the same time, I don't think anybody minds legal immigrant math, physics, and computer geniuses from China and India. Lots of them in NYC, taking jobs from decadent and lazy Americans. It's not about race, it's about what you have to contribute to society.
If people want to change the immigration laws, then change them, but open borders ought to apply to Canada and China and The Philippines, not just Mexico.
Saturday, June 28. 2014
 Greedy Group to Sue Chief Wahoo for $9 Billion
#Instagramming Africa: The Narcissism of Global Voluntourism
A pic of ENIAC
Ted Dalrymple (Anthony Daniels, MD) takes a look at the Brit underclass
Transgender kindergarteners allowed to pick bathrooms in CA
"Unscheduled, unsupervised, playtime is one of the most valuable educational opportunities we give our children.
10 TIPS AND TRICKS TO PICK UP ANY LANGUAGE
Can Residential Solar Be Competitive Next Year?
Study: All Employment Growth Since 2000 Went to Immigrants
Despite White House Claims, Up To 80% Of Migrant Children Can Legally Stay In
Country
The EPA Overreaches Again - A new EPA rule is a disaster for farmers and the traditional
understanding of the relationship between the federal government and the
states.
Sweeping income and corporate tax cuts on the way…in Spain?
Is a Hillary Clinton Presidency Inevitable?
Elizabeth Warren: The Obama of 2016
Shocking Audio of Race-Baiting Ads Used In #MSSEN Race
It’s Jew-Hatred, Stupid
Chuck DeVore: Small businesses give CA 'F' grade
San Bernardino Surrenders - The bankrupt city gives in to California’s public pension giant.
Now what?
Of all the nations in the world, why is Israel the only one with a Divest Movement?
Fact Or Fiction: Humanity Still Surprised That 'Megalomaniacal Pricks' Decide Everything
“My old boss, my sorority president, my congressional representative, my current boss—they’ve all been soulless, backstabbing dickheads whose only concern is getting what they want,” said administrative assistant Sheryl Gittens of Fort Worth, TX, who went on to list the bully back in her seventh grade class, her homeowners association president, and the coordinator of her Bible study group among the legions of selfish jagoffs who have inexplicably been granted commanding roles by the acquiescent masses. “What’s even more annoying is that we essentially reward these people for only thinking of themselves and repeatedly screwing us over. If you stop and think about it, that’s pretty messed up.”
“Jesus,” she continued. “What the hell’s wrong with us?”
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The 
10 of Ben Franklin’s
Newly discovered 50,000-year-old poop proves the Neanderthals ate better than you do