Pro Commerce

Trial of Dan White

(Third of three blogs related to this subject)

There is a highly overlooked subject that is not recorded in most of the histories of the Dan White trial. The relationship of the DA and the police and the consequences.

I, along with nearly everyone else, was stunned by the insignificant manslaughter sentence handed down by the jury and judge (7 years commuted to 5) but I shouldn't have been.  I had been told in advance about what was coming.

In March of 1979 I was walking downtown, months before the trial, and ran into my paternal uncle, Richard Guggenheim. We chatted for a few minutes and I asked a social question "Do you think Dan White will get the chair?"  "Hell no" replied uncle Dick, the fix is in, he is going to get Douglas Schmidt as his lawyer and with help from the DA he'll serve very little time. 

My uncle was an insider in the police/union world.  I didn't believe what he said was possible but I also knew my uncle Dick to be humorless and very 'police-loving' 'good-boy-scout' oriented.

As the trial was underway I was out one evening with Supervisor Carol Ruth Silver and we were talking about the case.  She told me that Dan White had come looking for her, to kill her, but with a warning she was able to hide in her office.  She also had been following the trial and said the DA, Joe Freitas was making no effort to prosecute the case...none whatsoever.  She vowed at that moment to go in the next day and demand to testify, which she did.

Carol Ruth Silver was the only witness against Dan White.  The DA presented no witness evidence, just forensic material and White's confession. The jury had to explain to themselves why White, who's defense was mental distress, had extra bullets in his pocket and reloaded his pistol after killing the mayor. White then went looking for Harvey Milk, Carol Ruth Silver and Diane Feinstein (who was out of the building).

Why did this terribly weak case get presented. The DA was very close to the police department and had been lobbied for nearly a year to present a weak or non-existent case.  Which he did. 

Freitas, the DA, was defeated in the next election.

Playing with loaded guns

I'm not comfortable playing with loaded guns.  Congress is doing that today as I write.

I know I have to suffer for a few weeks until the Joint Committee comes up with the final stimulus bill while both the House and Senate version today have a provision that makes Ahmadinejad's nuclear weapons look mild.  The provisions are the: buy American steel, iron and equipment.  That is flat out protectionism of the Smoot-Hawley (main cause of 1932-41 depression) kind that will cause a global depression. No person who knows the slightest economic history would dispute this fact. Our allies and most of the American companies expecting to be harmed have already said so.

Ahmadinejad with his bomb and radiation can only kill a few million people.  The Democratic Party, with just this simple legislation can cause a trade war and a subsequent global depression which will starve many millions of people and harshly punish several billion people.

Congress playing with guns really can't be justified just to appease union supporters or for any other reason. Stop doing disgusting things like this. 

The murder of Harvey Milk

(Second of three blogs related to this subject)

There are two elements of the San Francisco milieu that directly bear on the story of Dan White's murder of Supervisor Harvey Milk and Mayor George Moscone that are rarely or never covered.

First was the hysteria that was building from the first reports seven days prior to the the Dan White rampage about the deaths in Jonestown of hundreds of San Franciscans.  By Friday, three days prior, the number of deaths were believed to be more than 900 people.  The tension, distress, anxiety and hysteria were palpable in the City.  I wrote about it a few months ago.  This hysteria affected everyone including Dan White.

Second was the history of Mayor George Moscone and the San Francisco Police Department.  George considered the SFPD to be out of control. At the time at least 50 policemen were dangerous rogues who were a law unto themselves.  The 50 were also active in the Police Officers Association, the union later headed by Paul Chignell.  Mayor Moscone's solution was to appoint an outside professional policeman to be the chief: Charles Gains.  Gains recruited the first openly gay policeman, the first Asian policeman and moved the police department much closer to the values of San Francisco.

The white traditional police in San Francisco hated Chief Gain.  They hated him with a vehemence not seen until Lefties started hating President George W. Bush 30 years later. The police boiled with hatred so intense that among policemen it was common to talk about who would get into a bar fight with Chief Gain and shoot him.

Gain knew about the murderous talk among the rank and file and he knew about the plans to shoot him.  Months before Dan White killed Mayor Moscone and Supervisor Milk, Chief Gain held a press conference in which he publicly declared that he would no longer wear a pistol.  He made this declaration into a photo opportunity announcement in front of a the American flag and the San Francisco flag while sitting at his desk.

With the opportunity to kill the chief and claim self-defense gone, the rogue police force began directing their hate at the man behind Chief Gain, Mayor Moscone.  The daily vituperation directed at Mayor Moscone was often accompanied by hatred of the 'liberal forces' that the police believed had destroyed San Francisco and turned it into a gay/hippy town. 

Dan White was a former San Francisco policeman.  For years after he left the department and in 1977 for the entire year while he was on the Board of Supervisors, he regularly had coffee with two other police officers at a coffee shop on Ellis near Van Ness across from the old Northern Station.  One of the police was Paul Chignell, the other was my source.

As Dan got to know the Mayor and his fellow supervisors during 1977, he joined the other two policemen at morning coffee in expressing their personal and departmental hatred of the mayor, and two supervisors: one was Harvey Milk, whom they called a fag and the other was Carol Ruth Silver a very strong liberal who wore boots and drove an old pick-up truck (a woman I dated during this period).

PS. Ironically the photo of the former Northern Police Station is now a Harvey Milk Center.

Harvey Milk

(First of three blogs related to this subject)

Many people are asking me if I have seen the movie Milk.  The answer is no. The reason is that I never see movies or read books about people or events I know personally.  Media, books and film, overwhelm my memories of real people and events. I knew Harvey Milk and I knew others in the murder of Harvey and Mayor George Moscone.

I met Harvey in early 1975 when he joined the Briarpatch Network as owner of Castro Camera.  As was customary at that time I brought several of my apprentices and the Briarpatch coordinator to meet with Harvey on a Wednesday morning to see if we could help him with his business.  I had gone by his shop a week earlier to suggest we would be most helpful to him if he had his books ready to show us. Harvey and I ran into each other socially over the years.

Harvey had no books to show us at our Wednesday meeting and he had little interest in getting business advice for his camera-film shop. He wanted to find out about the Briarpatch, his role in it and to chat with all the people who were with me.

Harvey was kind, a good listener, a true New York expat in both accent and impatient candor.  Harvey was also clearly a Jew and several of us related to that. (I doubt Harvey would have liked having, Sean Penn, a friend of Jew-hating tyrants, play Harvey Milk in a movie 35 years later.)  He had his hair pulled back in 'clean hippy' style. Harvey had a large nose with a mustache like several others of us in that group....which I still remember.  Harvey's demeanor was to stand up straight, then lean on the counter, then be somewhat meek and always to let you know he was a warm, hugging friendly guy. 

The group sat and talked for close to two hours. We were a bunch of hippies being relaxed, very upbeat and confident that the world was going to be the way we were making it.  Harvey knew the three other Briarpatch businesses on Castro St. and all the Briarpatch businesses were supportive of each other. Harvey was explicit about his interest in the Briarpatch as a place to meet potential political supporters and we encouraged him to come to parties and meet people.  Parties were the only structural form of the Briarpatch at that time.

Good for laughs

Few things could be funnier than a serious academic piece that demonstrates the absurdity of academia. From the U. of Chicago Chronicle sent to alumnae. Based on a study done by the School of School Service.

“In Chicago, almost 80 percent of the high- and extremely high-poverty neighborhoods are in areas with low levels of service accessibility,” he said. In Los Angeles, 72 percent of extremely high-poverty neighborhoods have low levels of service, while in Washington, D.C., 63 percent of the neighborhoods have low levels of service.

“That means that in a poor neighborhood there may be five or six people in line for every client slot, while in a better-off neighborhood, there only may be one or two people per slot,” Allard said.

To me the two funniest (most ludicrous) parts of this report are the blind failure to understand the problem: (1) Hey, dude, even social workers aren't stupid enough to go to work in dangerous neighborhoods.

(2) This U. of Chicago department is one of the oldest in the world on this subject.  It has nearly 110 years of never having made a dent in poverty or improved the lives of poor people. Never.  Yet it is still operating, much like a government agency that has never produced any benefits.  

Funny, in a sad way.

Are you alive?

I pondered the question of whether a person was alive or not when I was much younger, particularly because I knew so many people in my corporate environment who didn't seem alive to me.

By alive I mean having something that gets you excited, being spontaneous, enjoying life.

But I wanted a more rigorous definition of being alive.  So I conceived of the animatronic Lincoln life-sized doll that was at Disneyland at the time.  I imagined doll-Lincoln programmed with everything Lincoln was known to have said, particularly answers to questions.  Then I asked myself how a friend of the real Lincoln's would have known the difference between the alive Lincoln and the life-sized doll?

My answer was: to know that Lincoln was alive he would have to be capable of saying or doing something unexpected. That is a rigorous definition of being alive.

The validity of that definition became clear when my granddaughter was given, for Christmas,  the very lifelike dog robot (photo on the right) that could do 90% of what a live dog can do.

My granddaughter made the robot perform a dozen pre-programmed behaviors for an hour. Then she went off to play with the real dog.

Global BS alert

The average global temperature for December was just posted yesterday.  That gives us the average global temperature for 2008.  It was .325 degrees centigrade above the year 1940 (the zero point for the 20th century).  This temperature is lower than nearly every year since 1997.  The temperature of the earth has been level or declining for more than a decade. If you want to get hysterical about this data...go ahead.

(I can't help mentioning the absurd fact that the Clinton/Gore years were an average of .2 degrees centigrade above 1940 and the Bush/Cheney years were only .3 degrees above. A rather small change, one tenth of a degree, over a 16 year period.)

Anyone who looks at this data and believes we are in a long term warming period due to human CO2 emissions has to be suffering an ideological malady. Source.

For a marriage to survive

I disagree with Dr. Laura about the nature of marriage.  She believes that if the wife makes sufficient effort to be sexy and appealing, the husband will not seek sex outside of marriage.

I consider the following statement to be a core truth in marriage for humans under 45 years of age: in the majority of cases one or both partners are too horny to be monogamous over a long period of time.

If that is true, and I'm certain it is, then marriage must be able to deal with that truth.  I suggest that there is only one solution, a policy of 'Don't ask, don't tell'.  Why?

If the spouse tells about an indiscretion and believes that there is such a thing as acceptance (and secretly expects the solution to be open marriage)... then both partners are too involved in wishful thinking to sustain a marriage.  Hippies tried open marriage and found that there was no such thing.  Many gay men have tried open relations too....it doesn't last very long. 

Acceptance of a straying spouse may happen once but it won't happen again, except in spouse abuse cases.

That explains the don't tell part.  The don't ask part is even more important.  I believe that any partnership, any marriage, is based on trust and trust can not survive dishonesty.

Therefore neither partner can put the other partner in the position of having to admit to sex outside of marriage or being forced to give a dishonest  answer.

That is why 'Don't ask' is vital.  A spouse who asks suspicious questions such as 'Where were you those two hours?', 'Did you meet anybody else at that conference in Chicago?' is going to force the partner to be dishonest and ruin the trust ( which will destroy the marriage slowly) or to be honest and end the marriage promptly.

Do you follow the logic.  One core truth: majority of young people are too horny for monogamy.  One core thesis: honesty is necessary for marriage and partnerships.  Reality solution to stay married: 'Don't ask, don't tell.'

Might I add one thing: I had a late-in-life wife who was always suspicious.  Most of the suspicions were totally unwarranted. But I said to myself 'why waste my time being scrupulously monogamous if I'm going to be suspected anyway?'  The observation is: a jealous spouse virtually creates philandering.

Sales call improv

About 95% of the phone calls on my land line phone are sales calls.  When I feel that the call is coming at a strange time of day I answer the phone.  The reward I give myself for the endless stream of sales calls is to practice improvisation on the caller.  Many of my improv identities are famous among my friends, especially if they heard it live.

A few years back I got called four nights in a row from an MCI call center in Oklahoma.  After the first night shift heard my improv, they called back successive nights and put my call on the loud speaker as I riffed away on how bad MCI was.  I could hear the echo and the chuckling in the distance.

Yesterday I saw the downside of my approach.  I got called four times in two hours from the same sales office just to hear my latest improv. Four calls in two hours was too much.  I finally used an off color identity and that stopped the calls.  (I claimed the call interrupted sex I was having with my father [long dead]).

Three empty, one full

To me and many others one of the great paradoxes of business is the common sight of three restaurants on a block that are empty or nearly empty and a fourth one that has a line out the door. This disparity can go on for years.

The obvious question many people ask is 'why don't the empty restaurants copy some of the things the full one does?'

To understand my explanation you need to know two things.  First this happens only in the trade form of commerce (individual restaurants are in the trade category). Commerce includes two other forms: industrial and clientric.  Industrial commerce is driven by forces aiming for the lowest costs (think a chain restaurant).  Clientric commerce is driven by the desire for a lifetime relations with the client (think personal chef).

In the trade form of commerce, individual restaurants, there is only one criteria: each sale is final and the mark-up must include enough money to keep the trader in business. Traders already know that their business works.  Their mark-up on food costs are 5 to 1. If they own the building or have a very long term cheap lease, have their family in the kitchen or doing all the work, they see all of that mark-up as being good business (maybe they even wash and iron their table clothes if they have any).  So 50 customers a week at $15 per customer average (minus food cost) is $600 gross margin per week.  Unless, there is a profitable demand for their space, as long as they pay little or no taxes...they continue doing what they are doing for the $600 a week.

The second reason they don't change is equally common and complimentary to the main reason: there is a non-business reason to stay open.  Examples: the business is a cover for money laundering (restaurants have plenty of reason to take cash and the IRS doesn't know how many customers came in), drug dealing, a spouse-cousin-son-in-law needs a respectable job, the owner is too old to change, the business is the center piece in a family legal battle or the jobs are good cover for immigration related issues.

That is why you can have three nearly empty restaurants and one bursting at the seams.

Switch in our brain

I'm willing to speculate in psychology because it is largely a field with few interesting hypothesis and one hell-of-a-lot of Puritan theories.

My thesis concerns tantrums and deep depression, both.  I suggest that parents build a switch (metaphorical switch) into the brain of their child for future use in both these circumstances. 

I've seen this happen several times.  A child is having a tantrum in public or at home or somewhere that the child is able to talk to the parent on the phone.  The parent can say something that calms the child.  The same seems to be true for deep depression.  I've seen it happen in full grown people who are in a suicidal depression but when they spend time with a parent or talk to a parent on the phone they are able to pull out of the depression.

I see no pattern in the specific nature of the switches.  Sometimes the parent is stern (Stop that!) sometimes the parent is encouraging ('You are too wonderful to be doing that') or the parent is merely physically loving and touching. 

But I suggest that the switch is important in most people and we would do well to figure out what it is in each case where we have a problem.

Intellectual readers

My intellectual readers will love Stanley Fish's analysis of Obama's inaugural speech.  Fish is an important thinker on the subject of literary text.  He points out that the inaugural was primarily a string of words, like beads, that formed a necklace laid flat.  It didn't go anywhere; it was entirely about the present.

I personally liked the 'we will triumph in the war on terror' part because I am a great George W. Bush fan.  I also like the George Washington ending of the inaugural because I am also a George Washington fan.  Washington, like Bush, fought an eight year war of liberation, relentlessly struggling against bottomless domestic opposition. Like Bush, Washington had help from two brilliant strategists Alexander Hamilton and Marquis de La Fayette.

Fish suggests we will get more such textual analysis of future Obama speeches. Good.

Up is a sign of failure

When someone moves up to a new and different position to promote their idea or policy I have often found it to mean the idea or policy was a failure.

My best example was the idea of 'appropriate technology'.  AT was an idea first advanced by E.F. Schumacher in the early 1970s that third world development required a specialized form of technology that was designed specifically for use by the indigenous people who would use the technology.

I saw the idea applied in many third world countries, 95% of the time it failed but in a few cases where the idea was uniquely modified it suited the third world circumstances.  I did see an efficient stove, designed in Amsterdam, made by metal-smiths in Dakar, Senegal that was sold and appreciated in the local markets.

But what I mostly saw was that people who promoted the idea of AT saw it fail and then began to say that it required a different kind of government structure, more money and more international support.  They took their failure to a higher level of action.  They got good international jobs at the higher level but the idea still failed.

Lawrence Lessig is another good example.  Lessig is now promoting himself to Harvard to work on 'corruption'.

For the past half decade Lessig has been a Stanford professor advocating a free and unhindered Internet  with a weak patent climate.  He has failed to find an audience for his ideas which are generally wrong.  He has failed completely to get Congress, any legislative body or any regulative body interested in his ideas.

So he has concluded that legislatures ignored his ideas because legislators are being bribed by big telecom companies.

To solve his problem of failure, to redeem his ideas, he is going up a level and attacking the resistance to his ideas as the result of corruption.

As I say in the heading of this blog: 'Up is a sign of failure.'

In defense of relativism

In the conservative circles that I am occasionally fortunate enough to enjoy, there is a standard contempt for relativism.  There is a pervasive belief that relativism is hostile to truth, religion and traditional social values.

Relativism is not hostile to truth, religion or traditional social values.  Relativism is a pure American form of intellectual thought that grows directly out of the great American philosophers from Peirce to James, to Dewey, to Goodman to Rorty. 

Relativism is the understanding that you and I see the world from where we stand. 

Where I stand, I see the world as a twice married heterosexual male, who has grown accomplished children and grandchildren, has wonderful brothers, who flies a single engine plane, lived and worked in San Francisco during the formative hippy years, had parents who were ADA ACLU lefties and who (I did) worked in Israel after college at the U. of Chicago.

 How can I see the world the way a woman who grew up in Osaka, is a 23 years old art major and is looking for a job in Kyoto sees the world? I can't.

That is relativism. I can see and hold as many truths as I want.  I can worship any god or no god. But for me to tell you that my truths are universal truths that you must agree to my religion, is foolish, unAmerican and crass. 

I can favor any view of traditional social values I can cobble together.  I can be for them or against them.  That says nothing about the nature of the traditional social values I'm talking about.  An open minded, thinking American will readily admit that very few people could come to rigorous agreement about what the traditional social values might be. Does it include saluting the Confederate flag, opening the car door for a woman?

Relativism is pure pragmatic American thinking. 

Nuclear threat to democracies

The North Korean military leader went on TV to tell South Korea that he had used the 31 kilos of plutonium on hand to nuclearize five missiles and that he would attack South Korea unless the South released food and other aid to the North.

Just in case you are one of the too-smart-by-a-half strategic thinkers who believe it is OK for Iran to have nuclear weapons, this is what a crazed government can and will do.

We don't know what the democratic conservative government in South Korea is going to do with this direct threat to its existence but democracies are particularly vulnerable.  A democratic public doesn't usually want to be wiped out.  Keep your eyes on this one to see what happens.

We also learn three things from this press report:

First, there is an expert on North Korea: Selig Harrison, a scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars, a policy institute in Washington D.C.  There is always a genuine expert for loony little countries.
Second, "Kim Jong-il appears to have given up handling many day-to-day tasks after suffering a stroke." Shouldn't that have been headline news in the U.S.?
Third, what I already knew....6 kilos of plutonium (the size of a lemon) can make a nuclear weapon that can destroy Chicago's downtown. Chicago would end up looking like Detroit.

Incredible

I am no Jon Stewart fan, but this piece is fantastic, brilliant and accurate.

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Changefest '09 - Obama's Inaugural Speech

Barack Obama Interview
John McCain Interview

Sarah Palin Video
Funny Election Video

Double proof to me

I have argued about the reasons for anti-Semitism.  I have cited Norway as a unique exemplar in Europe and Scandinavia in its high level of anti-Semitism. Here is the latest outrage: a Norwegian foreign service officer is openly, publicly, a Jew hater.

Norway is a unique exemplar for two reasons that support my thesis about anti-Semitism. Norway has very few Muslim immigrants which is the false reason often given for the anti-Israel position of other European countries. Norway is anti-Israel with virtually no Muslim immigrant population.

Norway has the most blatant and well establish hereditary upper class in Scandinavia...which supports my thesis.  The hereditary upper class uses anti-jew hate as a distraction from attention paid to the hereditary upper class.

PS To get a sense of how bad jew hate is in Norway check Dave's comment below and the citation he gives. Its shocking.

Great divide

This is a photo taken in Longmont Colorado of ordinary everyday blue collar Americans in a traditional coffee house that serves a big steak and eggs breakfast.

These people are contemptible.  Right?

If you say yes you are among the Lefty elite of America and the majority of Europeans.

What is the evidence of this contempt and why does it exist? 

The evidence is what happened to a member of this working blue collar America who was chosen as the Republican Vice Presidential candidate.  More hatred, opprobrium, venom and vindictiveness was directed at this strong woman than at any human being in the past century by the vast American media....no exceptions for Castro, Mao, Hitler, Ahmadinejad or Stalin.

Why is there such hatred of the working blue collar America by the Lefty elites?  I find three reasons:

(1) The overwhelming majority of this group of workers refuse to join unions and consequently call themselves political 'independents'.  That completely negates any and all Marxist ideological fantasies.
(2) This group of Americans are deeply conservative on social issues ranging from homosexual marriage to abortion to affirmative action to open immigration from Mexico.
(3) This population is highly pragmatic and has little respect for the theology of Lefty cosmopolitan, pro-European, Starbucks, global warming, wine drinking, effete snobs.

Goodbye humanities departments

I recommend two articles by Stanley Fish, a truly clear and candid thinker.  One is a comment and reprise of Frank Donoghue's book on the end of the academic humanities.  The second is Fish's peregrinations on that subject.

Donoghue argues that the humanities departments have been on a long straight decline and will continue to.  He says that two thirds of teachers in all academia are not tenured or on the tenured track these days.  When it is 3% I will celebrate.  Nothing is as overrated as the idea that tenure somehow makes a better teacher, or more independent mind.  Tenured academia is in the thrall of Lefty ideology which is itself proof of the absurdity of any claim for the benefits of tenure.

Fortunately the world of commerce has no need for humanities graduates.  The schools, the students and employers in the marketplace know it. Private for-profit schools can only survive by graduating students with specific market skills (I've had several colleges and universities as clients.)

Fish in his second article tries to argue for the personal benefit of the humanities and recognizes no need for the world to subsidize his dream-world. 

I disagree, somewhat, on this specific point.  The seminars I had in college related to the Great Books material (not in graduate school) opened my mind in ways that I never experienced on my own previously.  For that I am grateful to the humanities non-tenured faculty and the unique U. of Chicago environment.

However, in my entire life I have met only .001% (that is one one-thousandth of a percent) of the educated population who studied the humanities who has a functioning open mind in later life.  The existing schooling for that minuscule population is meaningless, trivial and irrelevant.  There are other ways to achieve the same result at far less cost and without producing the millions of humanist trained brain dead lefties who mire the landscape.

Yes I have a rigorous definition of a functioning open mind: the mind of a person who resolves perceived intellectual conflicts in his own mind with a fresh, startling and dramatic new insight.  Most people ignore conflicts within their own minds.

Israel developments

One Israel development of some interest is the finding of a large reservoir of natural gas off the coast of Haifa. Important because the less Israel depends on foreign oil (gas and oil can be interchangeable over time) the less leverage her European and global enemies have over Israel.

Two, and most interesting is the development of a new weapon to replace the M16 rifle that I used in the 1960s. The new weapon, the Tavor, is to go into service in the next few years The Tavor is both a short urban assault weapon and a pin-point sniper weapon. The weapon was developed to counter the Arab tactic of using children as shields in front of Arab terrorists.

My son argues that the Tavor is an example of a compassionate tool.  Compassion, he describes as clear intention.  His example of a compassionate act would be a wolf attacking the jugular of its prey rather than biting off a leg and trailing the prey, if wolves had emotions we could identify.

My definition of compassion is offering solace to one who is different from oneself.  Sympathy is solace to one who is like oneself ('there but for the grace of god go I'). Compassion is to offer it to someone different such as a Brahman to a Dalit in India or a successful OR doctor operating on a filth encrusted wino in the U.S..

Three cheers for the Tavor.  It should be a great global export item and it is compassionate by both my son's and my definition.

Mood the day before

There is no way historians can ignore the mood of the country the day before the coronation.

Just in case, I am posting this photo of the front of my neighbor's house.  It is a religious shrine, with flashing lights.

I've heard it suggested that the incoming president will have a wreath of thorns put on his head.

Many expect that three days later the White House will be opened to find the anointed one has been resurrected.

Good American branding

I have often cited Harley Davidson as one of the great branding achievements. 

It is great for two reasons.  You can measure the value of the brand.

(1) The same motorcycle design by Honda sells for $10,000 less than the Harley. (See right photo.)

(2) Everything about the Harley brand fits into everyday living.  That includes logos, cigarette lighters, coffee cups, long trips to Harley events, Harley riding friends and the Harley rider's perceived personality.

Nothing else in the world of branding or even the idea of branding comes close.  Harley has made some lemons, quite a few actually, but it has never phased the brand. 

Part of Harley's success comes from the love of the product by the Hell's Angels MC which no corporation could ever hope to duplicate.

BBC gives inside story

For those of you who don't have a good sense of the kind of bias that Europeans are exposed to, here is a satire on BBC.  Unfortunately, it is hardly satire.  It is too close to the actual daily BBC reporting.

Forbidden City

In 1978, I was staying at the Esprit house in (Kowloon) Hong Kong. My host and later owner of European Esprit, Peter Buckley, mentioned the Forbidden City in Kowloon.  Peter had heard that it was a square block that neither the British nor the Chinese lay claim to and therefore was a truly outlaw world.  He said no foreigner was known to have come out alive.

I wanted to see and explore it. Peter joined me along with my girl friend Carole and two gorgeous clothing models who were staying at the house.

We walked half way around the Forbidden City block and finally found a tiny entrance that opened into a small narrow passage way.

The passageway was three feet wide and seven feet high with fetid sewer pipes hanging from the ceiling. 
The floor was slimy. Big rats ran away from us in every direction. Most of them did.

I have a good memory for directions.  I could remember our route in the maze for about 20 minutes.  Peter took over for the next fifteen minutes.  The passage-way stayed below ground level with iron gates that had stairs going up every 30 feet. The structure above us was six to 15 stories high.  We passed iron gated rooms every five feet, lighted with men playing card games, doing other gambling games and smoking hash.  There were many rooms with racks of people doing opium. There were occasionally rooms under construction with heavy beams holding up the ceiling but no obvious use of architecture or engineering.

After 35 minutes we decided not to take a chance on getting lost in the maze forever and having the women sold off.  Fortunately within five minutes we saw a shortcut that opened to the outside that was evident from the inside but had not been visible to us when we were walking around the outside.

Outlaw city....I've never forgotten it.  The photo above is where we were.  Its gone now.

Hippies created modern torture

The Turks have a millennium old reputation for being the world's worst torturers, followed closely by the Arabs.

But both groups now have to compete with the hippies for the world's worst torturer title.

Two hippie creations:

First is the contribution of the Hippy New Agers.  They introduced every conceivable health and healing treatment, many imaginary.  My favorite, one that actually works, is the Netipot.  Netipot is small specially shaped jar into which you pour salt water; you then pour the saline solution into one nostril with your head upside down and blow the saline solution out the other nostril.  Clears your sinus...very well.

The Netipot is waterboarding.  A popular current torture. Soldiers practice with a Netipot so that waterboarding won't scare them.

The second great torture contribution came from the Hippy stoners.  They invented rock music.  Rock music is the most popular current form of torture.  It was first used to drive Manuel Noriega out of his Papal sanctuary in Panama City, when he was surrounded with loudspeakers blaring rock music.

These days, I'm told, three days of loud, incessant rock music will get any torture victim to yield any desired secret information.

My big question, if any of my readers are in the torture business, is what bands drive people to beg for mercy first?  Are they San Francisco originals like the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Big Brother or Quicksilver?

Nuclear physicist needed

In an interview with Stephen Hayes in the Weekly Standard, Dick Cheney mentioned that the North Koreans have a reactor producing plutonium and cerium.

Is this a leak?  I know nothing about cerium.  He must mean cerium 144 which is radioactive, has a half life of 8 months and generates heat as it decays.  But what are its weaponry uses?  Would it be used in a dirty bomb?

Please answer if you know why the North Koreans would want to produce cerium 144.

4th Reich

Reading the daily news is very disturbing for me. I keep saying, in this blog, that we live in the 4th Reich and we do. Hitler's ideas have conquered the world. Only a few American Jews, all Israelis and a few of our friends have the slightest grasp of the extent and horror of this hate Jews era.

Every national leader except Germany's (the U.S. is now equivocal) and the entire U.N. is saying 'Die Jews die'.

We've just lost the only important friend Jews have had in 2,500 years (George. W. Bush). We have been thrown to the dogs.  Jews are to be hunted like rabbits and offer no more resistance than rabbits are allowed.

Proportional response, ceasefire, negotiate with Hamas, excessive civilian casualties...these are all euphemisms for 'Die Jews die.'

Postscript: To know how bad things can get in England these days read Melanie Phillips (no immediate relation)...There will be 1/10th the number of Jews remaining in anti-Semitic England in a decade.

Random Berkeley test

The Phillips model of a random legislature was tested in the late 1980's.

Ernest Callenbach, my co-author on Citizen Legislature and I got 50 Berkeley California citizens to come to a Saturday meeting.  The random sample came from the voter registration roles and the invitation was sent by the Berkeley Mayor Loni Hancock.

I just came across a photo of this historic event; in the upper right.

We broke the 50 Berkeleyites into 4 facilitator moderated sub groups to discuss issues of concern in Berkeley. We then convened two new groups to combine and synthesize the four sub groups; that is the group in the photo.  The results were presented in the afternoon to three members of the Berkeley City Council and the Mayor.

What did we learn? Three important findings.  

1) Ordinary citizens working in a group are extremely cooperative and fully comprehend the needs and operations of city government. They made short lists of needed improvements and agreed on them. They always found a source of revenue for any expense they agreed was needed.

2) All of the citizens had tried at some point to participate in their government and all found, with no exceptions, that the abusive language, personal vendettas and base level of discourse in political environments was off-putting.  They all stopped trying to participate in local politics...the process was too demeaning and unpleasant to warrant further effort.

3) When the City Council members listened to the rational well thought-out citizen presentations the council members responses were so stupid, poorly behaved and easily seen as disgraceful that the citizens were fully confirmed in their decisions not to participate in local politics.

My economic forecast

Too many people ask my opinion about the economy.  Too many, because I view forecasting as voodoo.

However I will suggest that 'other things being equal' meaning no significant exogenous factors such as Iran bombing the Straits of Hormuz, or similar economic tsunamis, the worst is not very bad.

I've said the bottom of the financial markets has passed, that has become clear to me by now. 

The bottom of the residential real estate market has been reached in a dozen locations where the new economy exists, Bay Area, Colorado, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Texas, D.C. New York, Atlanta and Seattle. The rest, old economy, is going to go down for a few more months. The new economy is the same as the new blue chips: Intel, AT&T, Oracle, Pharma, Healthcare, private-for-profit education and telecom.

I expect the GDP to be down 2-4% in the first and maybe the second quarter but it will be positive by the 3rd quarter.

Unemployment could keep rising to 8-9% by May but will start falling thereafter.  The U.S and Japan will be the first big economies to start growing.  The stock market will not climb very fast, investors will be leery for awhile.

The stimulus package is somewhere between harmless and inflationary.  It will come too late, much too late, but the government investment in telecom will be worthwhile.  A deficit is neither beneficial nor seriously harmful, based on the 1990 Japanese experience. 

Tariff barriers would be suicidal, but even the union-owned-democrats aren't that stupid.

Good economic source here.

Grace

This is the time for a lighter note. 

I was introduced to this Paul Tillich quote from his book The Shaking of the Foundations (pp161-162) by Sam who runs a coffee shop in Lyons Colorado. I knew Paul's son Rene in college.

I find this Christian definition of grace to be awfully close to Buddhist satori.

"To be struck by grace does not mean that we are simply making progress in our moral self-control, in our fight against special faults, and in relationships to others.  Moral progress may be a fruit of grace, but it is not grace itself.

"Grace strikes us when we are in great pain and restlessness.  It strikes us  when we walk through the dark valley of a meaningless and empty life.  Grace strikes us when our disgust for our own being, our indifference, our weakness, our hostility, and our lack of direction and composure have become intolerable to us.

"Sometimes at that moment a wave of light breaks into our darkness and it is as though a  voice were saying:' You are accepted. You are accepted by that which is greater than you..

"...Do not seek for anything; do not perform anything; do not intend anything.  Simple accept the fact that you are accepted."

If that happens to us, we experience grace.  After such an experience we may not be better than before, and we may not believe more than before.  But everything is transformed.

All the news...3 years late

I happened to see this NYTimes article while traveling and wondered how the NYTimes could be so late in getting the story. 

The S.F. Examiner has had a weekly (example) mixologist column for about 3 years and a few of our friends have been featured.  S.F. has been the innovative center for mixed drinks for several years.

I saw the beginnings when restaurants that couldn't get liquor licenses because of standard Puritan San Francisco activist neighbors, began concocting shochu (Japanese gin) drinks because shochu is legal with a beer and wine license.

This innovative cocktail spirit spread to standard liquor license bars and restaurants.

Simple test

Are you intelligent, open minded and able to recognize candor when you see it. Or are you blinded by ideology?

The test involves FIRST reading the New York Times description of George W. Bush's final press conference. 

Now compare it to the Wall Street Journal version which I have included below.  Both are about the same length, fairly short.

 By JOHN D. MCKINNON, WASHINGTON -- President George W. Bush called a surprise farewell news conference Monday to give an accounting of his time in office, making new concessions to his critics while offering sometimes-emotional defenses of his handling of Iraq, Hurricane Katrina and the war against terrorism.

President George W. Bush speaks during his final news conference at the White House press room.

During Monday's 47-minute morning news conference, Mr. Bush recalled the urgency that he and his aides felt after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, as they searched for the proper responses, and hinted that his critics at home were only adding to the problems.

"You remember what it was like right after September the 11th around here?" he asked. "People were saying, 'How come they didn't see it? How come they didn't connect the dots?' Do you remember what the environment was like in Washington? I do. When people were hauled up in front of Congress and members of Congress were asking questions about, 'How come you didn't know this, that or the other?' And then we started putting, you know, policy in place, legal policy in place, to connect the dots. And all of a sudden people were saying, 'How come you're connecting the dots?'"

As a result, he said, "In terms of the decisions that I have made to protect the homeland, I wouldn't worry about popularity," he said. "What I would worry about is the Constitution of the United States, and putting plans in place that makes it easier to find out what the enemy is thinking, because all these debates will matter not if there is another attack on the homeland." 

During his final press conference as commander in chief, President Bush reflects on his eight years in office. He spoke on a range of topics, including the economy, the Israeli-Hamas conflict in Gaza and his actions concerning Hurricane Katrina.

He denied that the U.S. has lost moral standing around the world as a result of its response to 9/11, except among "some of the elite." He added that "people still understand America stands for freedom, that America is -- is a country that provides such great hope."

Mr. Bush also defended the administration's response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The huge storm unleashed flooding that devastated New Orleans. He said he has "thought long and hard" about the hurricane response, but concluded that he would have hindered rescue efforts if he had personally visited the stricken area sooner -- a sore point for critics.

He added later that the administration's broader response had been misjudged. "You know, people said, 'But the federal response was slow,'" Mr. Bush recalled. "Don't tell me the federal response was slow when there was 30,000 people pulled off roofs right after the storm passed....That's a pretty quick response."

He conceded that other aspects could "have been done better," an apparent admission that the federal effort to tend to other victims -- such as those in the Superdome -- was inadequate.

In other areas, Mr. Bush was conciliatory to his critics. He termed the Abu Ghraib prison scandal in Iraq "a huge disappointment," while the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq was "a significant disappointment" given intelligence assessments. He repeated his admission that the "Mission Accomplished" banner on a U.S. aircraft carrier "sent the wrong message."

"I don't know if you want to call those mistakes or not, but they were -- things didn't go according to plan, let's put it that way," he said.

He also acknowledged that the administration made a mistake in 2005 in seeking to overhaul Social Security. He said the White House should have pursued immigration reform instead. His push for Social Security personal accounts fell flat amid bipartisan opposition.

Mr. Bush had warm words for President-elect Barack Obama, calling him "a very smart and engaging person" and wishing him the best as he assumes office Jan. 20.

Offering a personal reflection on the extraordinary -- sometimes exhausting -- times in which he has led, Mr. Bush spoke of the pressure that comes with the office, predicting that "there'll be a moment when the responsibilities of the president land squarely on his [Mr. Obama's] shoulders....All I know is he's going to feel it. There'll be a moment when he feels it."

But he held out hope for the Obama administration's prospects, despite the tough economic times and the constant threat of a terrorist attack on U.S. soil. "President-elect Obama will find, you know, as he makes these tough calls and tough decisions, that he'll be supported by a lot of really good people that care -- care about the country as well," Mr. Bush said.

The president said Mr. Obama's election reflects a welcome breakthrough for U.S. race relations. "I consider myself fortunate to have a front-row seat on what is going to be a historic moment for the country" when Mr. Obama is inaugurated, Mr. Bush said. "It's going to be an amazing, amazing moment."

On Thursday night, Mr. Bush plans to deliver a farewell address to Americans. He is expected to look back on his time in the Oval Office and the changes the country has made. In addition, he is expected to offer his assessment of the biggest challengers the nation faces and recommendations on how best to meet them.

As for the political future, he said Republicans can recover from their recent setbacks, as they did after Barry Goldwater's defeat in 1964. But to do so they must become more inclusive.

"We've just got to make sure our message is broad-gauged and compassionate and that we care about people's lives and we've got a plan to help them improve their lives," he said.

As for himself, Mr. Bush suggested he is likely to stay involved in policy matters, including a planned book. "I'm a Type A personality," he said. "I just can't envision myself, you know, the big straw hat and Hawaiian shirt sitting on some beach."

6 Rules to keep your money

In this era of Bernie Madoffs there are a few simple rules that can keep my readers safe from out-right money fraud.  I have been a consultant to parties involved in more than three major financial frauds.

1. No investment that YOU can get returns anything much better than the average in the market. If it does, it is a fraud.

2. If anyone could make a lot of money investing, they sure as hell will not let anyone else in on the deal...they can make a fortune by themself.  Don't believe any other explanation of why you are getting in on a great deal.

3. Nobody is your friend in the investment world unless you went to elementary school with them, married them, or gave birth to them.  Even then you should be doubtful unless you have seen their own bank account for the past five years.

4. There has never been a situation where putting up a small amount of your money will help you or someone else get back a 100 fold increase in the money. Never, never, never.

5. If you don't fully understand an investment mechanism, understand it so well you could do it yourself, don't put your money in it. Nobody is too dumb to understand a financial investment mechanism. Don't accept secret or trade secret as a reason you can't be exposed to the financial mechanism. Secret and trade secret are code words for fraud.

6. Always ask yourself whether the financial idea you are offered could work for hundreds of people.  Pyramid schemes don't work past the first ten people.  Bernie Madoff's puts and calls system couldn't have worked for 20 real accounts.

White House/Estate tax

I love the fact that Mrs. Obama has her mother living in the White House. Now that is something totally human that I can connect with and so can most of black America.

I'm also glad to see that she rejected the foodie fanatics who wanted her to eat local.  The foodie fanatics probably wanted the White House garden to grow watermelon and rejected all the food the rest of America enjoys: pineapple, oranges, bananas, blueberries, coffee, chocolate, hundreds of species of fish, and everything that grows in Mexico and the Southern Hemisphere.  Goodbye and good riddance to the foodies.

Lastly, you couldn't guess from the Pro Commerce title of this blog that I don't object to the estate tax.  The estate tax is the least distorting of all taxes, it has no negative effect on commerce.  Having an estate tax just means (1) that con-artists don't get as much to work with.  19 out of 20 heirs and heiress's lose their inherited money quickly, commonly to wives and con artists; (2) Heirs and heiress's will find it harder to move to San Francisco and cast their radical Lefty vote here (we already have three time too many heirs and heiress's). (3) Only dysfunctional families get taxed...which is good for the business world (see the next paragraph).

Nobody has to pay the estate tax if they either give their money to a charitable group, or pass it on to their children via a partnership.  However, only a functional family can pass on money via a partnership. If you get along with your children you can give them anything in the form of a partnership.

That is the rub because the offspring (heirs) get real control of the assets while the parent is still alive. Dysfunctional families can't pass on assets via partnerships because they don't trust each other.

The estate tax is a tax on dysfunctional families.

Enough is enough

I sent the following letter to the Wall Street Journal:

"Please stop calling the Madoff story a Ponzi Scheme.

If Bernie Madoff used a scheme he would have stashed away $25 billion.  He didn't, he probably has a personal net one-thousandth of that amount.  This was no scheme, Madoff didn't even charge management fees.

Bernie Madoff is a man who found he could give people back part of their own money, keep his accounting secret and people loved him.  Any one who was with him for more than eight years at 12% per year pay-out got their own money back.

Bernie Madoff found a respected Long Island accounting firm that could be counted on to use standard accounting methods and do a lousy job and he quickly found that the Securities and Exchange Commission was incompetent over long stretches of time."

Not a Ponzi scheme It is that simple and that clear.

No degrees of separation

I figured it out this morning.

If you read five blogs, you are getting the same basic Internet news and data as nearly everyone else who reads five or more blogs.  There is no degree of separation among any of us. All of us blog readers have the same news and data base...worldwide for English.

Here is how it works.  I read 5-10 blogs or blog-like sources.  Each of them does the same, which is the reason I pick the ones I read.  In just 8 to the 5th power we have 32,000 blog and news readers who are certainly reading the few hundred thousand relevant blogs. The reality is that some of the blog and newspeople  just one degrees away from me are reading 10-15 sources, which gets us to 250,000 blog-news sources in just 4 degrees away from me, total. Four degrees and we have the entire English newsworld.

Please understand, having the same data and news sources does not result in the same opinions.  Opinionated data come to us through different channels as well as being filtered by our own ideology. Our own favorite blogs sort the raw data and news into forms that fit our ideology (or worldview).

I tested my thesis.  Only a sample of one is needed. 

I asked a regular Lefty blog reader if he knew about the civil war in Gaza.  Of course he did and he knew that Hamas was shooting Fatah men in the leg and killing many of them.  That is why nobody in the West Bank has even thrown a rock at Israel.

Why is this a good test?  Because, as of today, the mainstream media hasn't seen this story yet. Every blog reader knows about it.

Here are the blogs and news sources I read everyday:

Bookwormroom: a great writer who reads many dozens of blogs and articles daily, including British.
Commentary (contentions): the best thinking and scanning in the blog world.
Jerusalem Post: the first newspaper in the world to live by Internet viewership.
Debka: insider Middle East news, 50% accurate, the rest untestable.
Weakness with a Twist: my son's brilliant insights.
American Thinker: Occasional good source for scanning the Right side Internet.
Wall Street Journal (subscription): a prime source, the only national medium not afraid of numbers.
David Brooks, William Kristol and Virginia Postrel.

I also get email summaries from friends who scan the NYTimes, LA Times and Washington Post and cover Washington D.C., Tel Aviv and Tokyo gossip.

Anthropomorphizing

No comment needed for this, seen at a motel in the San Francisco Castro district.

Macho and machito

The machito guys (I only overheard their conversations) in the cigar bar a few nights back talked about football, golf, dogs (probably large ones), beer and gadgets.

Why have I created the word machito to compare to the traditional macho? Traditional macho was talk about cars by guys who could fix cars, talk about guns by guys who could use them and about chicks by guys who probably were terrible lovers.

There is probably some feminization of men going on that I will get around to writing about some day.  This is just my first stab at it.

I find that men who work with their hands using tools other than a keyboard or massage oil tend to be macho in the traditional sense.  I hang out with dozens of gay guys so I have a sense of what isn't macho.  However, plenty of openly gay guys are macho.  Often they don't show it because it isn't good for picking up every guy one might want to have sex with.

One of my gay friends is an ice hockey player, several others drive racing motorcycles and love of powerful cars is not uncommon. Several are contractors and superb carpenters. Only one even looks at the sports pages.

Macho, when I finally think about it is the willingness to defend others physically.  It is derived from the warrior ethic. 

Women tell me not to stand between a mother and her children when they are threatened.  That may be true, but that is defense. In threatening public situations, I have seen 20 men step forward to physically defend another person for every 1 woman I have seen do it. Protecting children is probably not macho or warrior.

Most of my gay friends lack that warrior willingness to use his own body to protect another person.  That could be the macho I don't see in the guys who talk about 'football, golf, dogs (probably large ones), beer and gadgets.' Macho is warrior self abnegation on behalf of others.

Have I got the difference between macho and machito?

The S.F. Chronicle doomed

The Seattle PI just gave its staff 60 days notice.  The PI is owned by the Hearst Corp. which also owns the money losing S.F. Chronicle.

A reasonable guess gives the S.F. Chronicle only a few more months.

It felt good

I went to the Pro/anti Israel rally at the San Francisco Civic Center today.

There were 250 pro-Israel demonstrators and 600 anti.  The police did a good job of keeping the groups separate and being professional.

The anti's were wallowing in hatred. Much younger than the pro side of the street.

I enjoyed the pro-Israel crowd.  It felt good to know that for the first time in 1,000 years Jews can gather safely and defend their rights without the hatred around us being a serious threat.  We must thank the America of 2009 after eight wonderful years with the Jew's best friend in history as the American president.

Changed my name

When I order espresso the name I give to be called when the espresso is ready has been Condi.  For eight years I have been Condi; most baristas have no idea I am referring to Dr. Condoleezza Rice. 

Two reasons for using the name Condi.  First, I am in a gay neighborhood and Michael is the 4th most common name after Scott, Paul and Bruce. If I used Michael I would be hearing my name incessantly. 

Second, I chose Condi because I admire her.  Most people have never appreciated the extraordinary accomplishment of this black woman in the world, not just in America. She, like the only other real black who made it to the top, Justice Thomas, went from the bottom of our society to the top in a quarter of a century by the power of her deep personal merit. Both did it in the face of hatred and bigotry by the entire Left wing of America.

Since Condi showed that she has gone native a few weeks ago (and done much worse), I am now, 'Ariel' after the inert body that was formerly the magnificent Ariel Sharon. Condi went native, meaning she was absorbed by the mandarins of the State Department, as shown by her use of the word 'proportional' in the current Israeli (wholly justified and belated) defense action in Gaza.  The mandarins have owed their allegiance to to the UN for 60 years not to the U.S., unfortunately.  We need our own State Department.

Corruption on the commission

In talking about the different nature of bribery between Illinois and California, in a conversation with a former member of a the commission that I testify before, I got the story of several bribery attempts, one of which was fascinating.

The former commissioner tells about a boring hearing in San Diego about a rate increase for the local utility.  A lovely woman lawyer for the utility sat down next to the commissioner's wife in the audience and started talking about how boring the session was. 

The lawyer finally suggested that she and the commissioner's wife leave and go shopping.

I realized that on a shopping spree one woman could easily buy the other woman $50,000 in gift merchandise. That would be quick efficient bribery.

With friends like these

Two articles I want to call to your attention in today's Wall Street Journal. 

One is an op-ed by Edward Luttwak ( I interviewed him..a great guy) pointing out (1) that Israel did win the 2006 war against Hezbollah.... who has consequently refused to help Hamas in any way. (2) The Israeli strategy that spares civilians in every way possible has resulted in vast cooperation by Gazans who have given Israel the intelligence information needed to find Hamas targets of people, offices and weapons.  Lastly, I'll add, even the remaining 1.5 million Arabs in the West Bank have done nothing to help the Gazans.  With only Lefty intellectual friends in the U.S. and the whole Left in Europe as allies, the Gazans are really screwed.

Two, Carl Bialik gives us numbers on porta-potties we'll all need to remember.  Looks like the crowd for the coming Inaugural will need between a low estimate of one porta-potty per 50 people and a high of one per 100.  The actual number available will be more like one per 200.  A standing crowd is estimated to take up 5 square feet per person. Many expect this year's crowd will make a porta-potty waste mess.

Expect to get a good porta-potty number after the Inaugural.

Advice to Meg

Meg Whitman is running for governor of California in 2010.  I've run campaigns (never run one at the gubernatorial level) and I offer my advice.

First, you will probably be running against Jerry Brown.  If it looks like Brown will easily win the Democratic primary, you should make sure that another person in the Democratic primary paints Brown with the hippy label and the anti- Prop 8 (Prop 8 de-legalized gay marriage).  Neither issue will hurt him in the Demo primary but the mud will stick on him.  The great Nixon campaign manager, Murray Chotiner, taught me and others willing to listen, to get the mud smeared on the opposition candidate in his primary, never throw mud in a general election.

It might also be possible in the primary for an Oakland black to say Brown was a terrible mayor of Oakland.

Second, your job is to get Southern California and Latino votes.  I would start right now and get on two Latino Art boards and get them one hell of a lot of money...to have important Latino art shows in the South that everyone knows about. 

That is all it will take to win.

Simple living and pro commerce

There is a connection between pro commerce and simple living.  In my book (with Rasberry) Honest Business I emphasize the importance of starting a business with capital that is borrowed from friends and family and keeping the costs low as well as keeping the capital in a business small.  Simple living is the way to start a business.

Here (WSJ subscribers) is Seth Tibbott who started Tofurkey that is in every supermarket these days (sold 275,000 roasts in 2007).

'You started the business .. officially in 1982 by borrowing money from your brother and mother. How did you keep things going after that?

"I tried to live as cheaply as I could in the beginning. In 1984, I built a tree house which I lived in until 1992. I paid $25 a week to a guy who was renting the trees out for that express purpose. I had a wood stove, a phone and hot and cold running water."

Seth is my simple living- pro commerce hero.

Portfolio updates

I've mentioned two portfolios over the years.  The first, in Jan 2004 was a humorous non-PC portfolio made up of the evil corporate empire of that year: Citicorp, Microsoft, Hallibuton, Walmart, Starbucks and MacDonalds. Well the non-PC is down 9% in five years while the Dow is down 15%.

The second portfolio I recommended is made up of one U.S. index ETF, one Japanese index ETF, one Asian index excluding Japan and a European index ETF.  I recommended it in January 2007.  In the subsequent two years my recommended portfolio went down 43% while the Dow went down only 30%.  Diversifying internationally has not been helpful at this point.

The world of finance is not diversified, in fact, the world has the flu when the U.S. has a cold.

Good debate and good business

LG has started hiring for debate skills according to its CEO Nam Yong.

I met one of my good friends when I was a judge at a debate contest in Tokyo.

Debate contest....what is that?

That was the idea of Matsumoto, Michihiro who was a TV commentator and avid fan of America.  It was his belief that the success of American business comes from our ability to argue with each other, in a business setting, without losing our civility or our friendship.  He believed that vigorous confrontation of ideas was the best way to develop new ideas and new solutions. Japanese never argue.  Never, without losing a friend.  So Matsumoto san was trying to teach the Japanese how to argue peacefully.

I agree with him and his analysis.  We Americans either overlook this positive quality of ours or deny its importance.

What brings up the issue is that a South Korean corporate giant, LG has started hiring foreigners into top management with the intention of provoking open debate.  Here is the article in Businessweek.

International cheat

One of my wonderful readers had a problem of international fraud.  The reader, like half my readers, lives outside the U.S.  He ordered some second hand equipment that he bought online and had shipped to him.  The company that sold the equipment sent crap but the cost of shipping it back exceeded the value of the heavy equipment and the seller ignored all pleas for recompense.  Not much to do.  My reader asked what I would do about this fraud.

First, if I were ever going to be in the town where the fraud operates his business I would buy a local baseball bat and break his knees, especially since my appearance is unknown to the fraud.

If that is not possible or acceptable then I would begin a letter writing campaign with two key components: first use real letters, snail mail, addressed to real individuals; second target a dozen official people.  With enough targets there is likely to be action.  Each letter must be in clear English and directed at motivating the recipient.

Example: I would write to the local District Attorney pointing out that a successful local fraud operator, unrestrained unpunished, will attract other fraud operators to the same town and create future problems.

Example: Write to the local Congressman pointing out that other members of Congress and people in the Executive Branch could very well start looking into the types of fraud in the congressional district exemplified by this fraudulent exporter.

Got the idea?  My experience is that enough letters, including local press will get action.  Don't waste a stamp on the Better Business Bureau or the Chamber of Commerce...99% will do nothing or worse pass your letter on to the fraudulent operator.

Goodbye Wedgwood

Many business historians consider Wedgwood the first industrial company.  It started producing dinnerware on a large scale in the late 1770s.  Wedgwood Ltd. lived until 1986 and was bought-out by Waterford Crystal.

Waterford-Wedgwood died yesterday.  The longest running success in industrial commerce...240 years.

I don't believe Wedgwood was the first company to produce products on an industrial scale, that was never a unique accomplishment.  I believe the genius of Wedgwood was industrial marketing.  All products in England in 1770 had to pay to sell their products to the Royal House (it is true today 'Purveyors to the Queen' label is still for sale). So Josiah Wedgwood made a set of dinnerware for the Empress of Russia (whether she paid for it or not is unknown).  He displayed the set in London along with great publicity.  He started selling copies by the thousands all over Europe.

Marketing genius and a testament to the power of an unsullied brand name.

Steve Jobs appreciation

I don't have an Iphone, Ipod nor a portable mac.  Nevertheless I appreciate the technological, aesthetic and managerial genius of Steve Jobs.  We are fortunate that the two founders of Apple included one with such great managerial potential.  I believe we should be praising Job's genius and extraordinary contribution to commerce while he is alive. He uniquely deserves it.

All praise and gratitude to Steve Jobs.

My personal sources tell me that modern medicine isn't helping Jobs.  He is often seen eating ice cream on the Peninsula because it is the only way he can get enough calories...which he is still not getting.