Reach For Your Gun!

Remember back in the “Old West” when gun fights were a common occurrence and the words “reach for your gun” were prominently portrayed in the movies?  Apparently those words are back.

The trial of George Zimmerman for the killing of Trayvon Martin will be the test for the   Stand Your Ground laws which have been adopted in 25 states in the last decade.

Could a criminal use Stand Your Ground to justify a delib­erate homicide? It’s happened on multiple occasions, say critics of the law. One such case occurred in 2008, when a wild gunfight broke out between rival gangs outside an apartment block in Tallahassee. Some 30 shots were fired, and one of them resulted in the death of 15-year­ old Michael Jackson. Two young men were arrested for his murder, but they were subsequently freed after claim­ing they had acted in self-defense. An angry Judge Terry Lewis said he had no choice but to order their release. “The law would appear to allow a person to seek out an individual, provoke him into a confrontation, then shoot and kill him if he goes for his gun;’ Lewis said. “Contrary to the state’s assertion, it is very much like the Wild West.”

Facebook Folly

How many website do you subscribe to?

The say 800 million people have Facebook accounts. Those accounts are free. I am one of those subscribers and most likely so are you. I have never purchased anything as a result of having that account. I only go onto the account when I am bombarded by e-mail messages telling me that I have messages that require my response. Usually the messages are from people I do not know but want to be my friend. These are people who “maybe” did meet me somewhere but I can’t remember where and their faces are not familiar to me.

 I must agree with Betty White when she presented her monologue on SNL. “I really have to thank Facebook … I didn’t know what Facebook was, and now that I do know what it is, I have to say, it sounds like a huge waste of time. I would never say the people on it are losers, but that’s only because I’m polite. People say ‘But Betty, Facebook is a great way to connect with old friends.’ Well at my age, if I wanna connect with old friends, I need a Ouija Board. Needless to say, we didn’t have Facebook when I was growing up. We had phonebook, but you wouldn’t waste an afternoon with it.”

Betty White Monologue

Apparently Mark Zuckerberg convinced himself and millions of others that his free social media site could be a marketing tool. Betty White is correct. He is trying to sell access to the telephone book.

Buy a share of Facebook? Why? How many people will reach their purchasing decision based upon the things they see on that site. Facebook’s number three advertiser, General Motors, has discontinued their advertising on the site.

Creative Destruction

The capitalist system is also the system of Creative Destruction.  It is industrial evolution driven by the rise of new innovations and the downfall of old technologies.  Kodak’s demise is a perfect example.  Kodak developed the first digital camera and then buried the development to protect its very existence.

Excerpt from Why Nations Fail by Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson

in 1589 William Lee, an Englishman, had perfected a knitting machine and presented it to Queen Elizabeth for a patent.  She refused to grant Lee a patent, instead observing, “Thou aimest high, Master Lee. Consider thou what the invention could do to my poor subjects. It would assuredly bring to them ruin by depriving them of employment, thus making them beggars.” Crushed, Lee moved to France to try his luck there; when he failed there, too, he returned to England, where he asked James I (1603-1625), Elizabeth’s successor, for a patent. James I also refused, on the same grounds as Elizabeth.

Both feared that the mechanization of stocking production would be politically destabilizing. It would throw people out of work, create unemployment and political instability, and threaten royal power. The stocking frame was an innovation that promised huge productivity increases, but it also promised Creative Destruction.

I don’t know the solution.  I do know that there aren’t many blacksmiths or candle makers anymore.

‘all robot’ Manufacturing

May 13, 2012 – LOS ANGELES (MarketWatch) — Japan’s Canon Inc. (JP:7751)(US:CAJ) plans to fully automate its digital-camera production by 2015, becoming the first camera maker to swap out all its workers in favor of robots, the Nikkei business daily reported Monday without citing sources. Canon, the world’s No. 1 digital-camera maker by virtue of an approximately 20% global market share, plans to keep employees displaced by the robots by engaging them in production-control jobs or at “new divisions in growth fields,” the report said. The plants involved in the first phase of the move are located within Japan, but if the fully automated lines are successful, Canon will duplicate the move at three overseas facilities, the report said.

This topic brings up the question of employing the world in an era of automation.  Automobiles were welded by hand held machines but today they are fully automated.


Cisco’s commercial on CNN shows a fully automated factory.  There are no humans to be seen.  One robot breaks down and another says “I can fix that.”  It does and all the machines resume functioning.

So what will people be doing in this new high tech world?  I have not read a solution to that question.

Political Party In Power Makes No Difference

It was the late 1960s.  I really didn’t start paying attention to politics until I joined the Beverly Hills Young Democrats.  I didn’t join because of a party loyalty.  I joined because it was a singles group with lots of attractive young women.  Despite my wish to stay non-partisan that club did impact my views on a host of subjects.

 In all the ensuing years from LBJ to Barack Obama the one thing that has been consistent is the promises by the candidates that things would be better for Americans if they won the office.  The reality is that nothing did get better.  The cost of living went sky-high from those early days, most women had to go back to work after having children to sustain their life style, and the rich became ever more wealthy.  Even worse, factory jobs were sent overseas making the fight for the remaining decent jobs even harder.

 So why should I care who is elected in November?  We have two wealthy people who will be protecting the system we have.  Ross Perot was correct when he predicted “the sucking sound” of lost jobs if NAFTA becomes law.  Today most of the products you buy were made elsewhere.  Today when you call for service from some of America’s biggest companies you find yourself speaking to someone in India, the Philippines, or elsewhere in the Far East.

I don’t hear either Mitt Romney or Barack Obama saying he has a plan to return those “ordinary jobs” to America.  No, they simply tell us how they will make things better using generalities about how bad the opponent is and how that opponent will only make things worse.

So whether it’s Barack Obama or Mitt Romney who wins, nothing will really change.

Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton – LVMH


LVMH is a French multinational luxury goods conglomerate headquartered in Paris.  Unknown to most people this giant company is the owner of many well known brands throughout the world.  The company came to my attention after an article about Hermes, a competitor, appeared in Businessweek recently.

Hoover’s Company Profiles says “LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton is the world’s largest luxury goods company,  with brands that are bywords for the good life and everything showy.”
Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/lvmh-mo-t-hennessy-louis-vuitton-sa#ixzz1v3LJCxUc

The company operates six segments: fashion and leather goods, its largest and oldest; watches and jewelry; wines and spirits; perfumes & cosmetics; selective retailing (including Sephora and airport duty-free retailer DFS); and other (including publishing). Higher-profile brands include Louis Vuitton, Fendi, Givenchy, Tag Heuer, Hennessy, Moet & Chandon, Glenmorangie, and Benefit.

From their own web site the range of products includes

Wines include

  • Champagne Moët & Chandon
  • Dom Pérignon
  • A Total of 22 brands

Fashion and Leather Goods include

  • Louis Vuitton
  • Givenchy
  • A Total of 12 brands

Perfumes and Cosmetics include

  • Christian Dior
  • A Total of 11 brands

Watches and Jewelry include

  • Bulgari
  • De Beers Diamond Jewellers
  • A Total of 8 brands

Selective Retailing include

  • DFS
  • Sephora
  • A Total of 5 brands

Listed on an American stock exchange.  The company has a P/E ratio of 19.4 and last year’s sales of over $23 Billion.

It proves there are lots of very wealthy people in this world.

Should You Invest in Facebook on Day 1?

General Motors has announced that it will stop advertising on Facebook after determining that the ads on the social-media site are ineffective.

The hype over Facebook’s IPO really is extraordinary. While many younger people are fans of the social media giant, there really is no indication of the actual earning power of the company. I saw Your Money on CNN this past weekend and two of the three guests were totally positive that making an investment in this company would be a wise move. The third, Ned Riley (Riley Asset Management) said the shares will likely start at about $60 a share and go lower by this time next year.

Apple struggled for years before finding its strength. Google just kept building its strength from the start. Other social media web sites have struggled. Which retail web site comes in third place behind Amazon and E-Bay? I don’t know the answer.

For those people who are willing to gamble the investment is a wonderful opportunity. For those of us who want some real performance numbers this investment seems very suspect.

Echoes of 1967: Israel is preparing to act

An important commentary by Charles Krauthammer .  If he is correct, Netanyahu has sent a message to Obama.

David Bancroft

—

IN May 1967, in brazen violation of previous truce agreements, Egypt ordered U.N. peacekeepers out of the Sinai, marched 120,000 troops to the Israeli border, blockaded Eilat (Israel’s southern outlet to the world’s oceans), abruptly signed a military pact With Jordan and, together with Syria, pledged war for the final destruction of Israel.

May 1967 was Israel’s most fearful, desperate month. The country was surrounded and alone. Previous great-power guarantees proved worthless. A plan to test the blockade with a Western flotilla failed for lack of participants. Time was running out. Forced to protect against invasion by mass mobilization – and with a military consisting overwhelmingly of civilian reservists – life ground to a halt. The country was dying.

On June 5, Israel launched a pre-emptive strike on the Egyptian air force, then proceeded to lightning victories· on three fronts. The Six-Day War is legend, but less remembered is that on June 1, the nationalist opposition (Menachem Begin’s Likud precursor) was for the first time ever brought into the government, creating an emergency national-unity coalition.

Everyone understood why. You do not undertake a supremely risky pre-emptive war without the full participation of a broad coalition representing a national consensus.

Forty-five years later, in the middle of the night ·of May 7-8, 2012, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shocked his country by bringing the main opposition party, Kadima, into a national unity government. Shockking because just hours earlier, the Knesset was expediting a bill to call early elections in September.

Why did the high-flying Netanyahu call off elections he was sure to win(

Because for Israelis today, it is May 1967. “The dread is not quite as acute: The mood is not despair, just foreboding. Time is running out, but not quite as fast. War is not four days away, but it looms. Israelis today face the greatest threat to their existence – ‘apocalyptic .mullahs publicly pledged to Israel’s annihilation acquiring nuclear weapons – since May 1967. The world is again telling Israelis to do nothing as it looks for a way out. But if such a way is not found – as in 1967 – Israelis know they will once again have to defend themselves, by themselves.

Such a fateful decision demands a national consensus. By creating the largest coalition in nearly three decades, Netanyahu is establishing the political premise for a pre-emptive strike, should it come to that. The new government commands an astonishing 94 Knesset seats out of 120, described by one Israeli columnist as a “hundred tons of solid concrete.”

So much for the recent media hype about some great domestic resistance to Netanyahu’s hard line on Iran. Two notable retired intelligence figures were widely covered here for coming out against him. Little noted was that one had been passed over by Netanyahu to be the head of Mossad, while the other had been fired by Netanyahu as Mossad chief (hence the job opening). For centrist Kadima·(it pulled Israel out of Gaza) to join a Likud-led coalition whose defense minister is a former Labor prime minister (who once offered half of Jerusalem to Yasser Arafat) is the’ very definition of national unity – and refutes the popular “Israel is divided” meme, “Everyone is saying the same thing,” explained one Knesset member, “though there may be a difference of tone.”

To be sure, Netanyahu and Kadima’s Shaul Mofaz offered more prosaic reasons for their merger: national service laws, a new election law and negotiations with the Palestinians. But Netanyahu, the first Likud prime minister to recognize Palestinian statehood, did hot need Kadima for him to enter peace talks .. For two years he’s been waiting for Mahmoud Abbas to show up at the table. Abbas hasn’t. And won’t. Nothing will change on that front.

What does change is Israel’s position vis-a-vis Iran. The wall-to-wall coalition demonstrates Israel’s political readiness to attack, if necessary. (Its military readiness is not in doubt.)

Those counseling Israeli submission, resignation or just endless patience can no longer dismiss Israel’s tough stance as the work of irredeemable right-wingers. Not with a government now representing 78 percent of the country.

Netanyahu forfeited September elections that would have given him four more years in power. He chose instead to form a: national coalition that guarantees 18 months of stability – 18 months during which, if the world does not act to stop Iran, Israel will.

And it will not be the work of one man, one party or one ideological faction. As in 1967, it will be the work of a nation.

Charles Krauthammer is a columnist for the Washington Post. Readers may contact him via email atletters@!charleskrauthammer.com.

Social Issues Will Now Be Consequential in the Presidential Race!

My theory!

Social Issues are not the really consequential topics in the presidential race!  However, President Obama and his re-election team see this as an opportunity to distract attention from the dismal condition of the economy  and his health care program.

A May 12 Associated Press article is titled “Gay marriage, abortion back in campaign spotlight“.  The first paragraph reads, “Abortion and gay marriage. For years, they’ve been lumped together as the paramount wedge issues of U.S. politics — hot-button topics in the vortex of sexuality, personal freedom and public policy.”

Vice President Joe Biden appearing on Meet the Press this past Sunday said he had no problem with two people of the same sex marrying.  That brought a substantial response from the news media but no remarks from the Republican Party.  The White House appeared to try to evade the issue even as the commentators quoted the president’s earlier statement that his views on gay and lesbian marriage were evolving.

Everyone thinks VP Biden is just a fool who can’t keep his mouth shut.  That is his reputation.  The president’s re-election committee is counting on you believing that.  So he appears on MTP this past Sunday and has the media mouths going.

What you do not realize is that the Obama team has accomplished a diversion.  Defending the president’s economic program is impossible.  They realized they needed to change the topic.  They have succeeded.  Obama’s ability to argue the social issues is his strong suite.

Romney’s strength is business and the economy.  The Republican Party wants to talk about social issues.  Obama wants to change the subject and the Republicans are giving him a gift.  The AP reports “Republicans controlling the House are pressing for cuts to food stamps, health care and pensions for federal workers as an alternative to an automatic 10 percent cut to the military next year.”  It’s a perfect diversion.