Scapegoats and denial

Here. HT austinbay

Five things you don't know about me

This challenge was issued by Jeff, and by Walter, because I'm so slow at getting this post up.

1. I used to stutter. A lot. From age 4 or so to my early 40's. To make a long story real short, it had a major impact on my ability to connect with people.
2. I've never been married.
3. I went through an earthquake in Seattle in 1964. I was in high school.
4. I was in the Sea Scouts, an affiliate of the Boy Scout and Explorer program, during high school.
5. I flunked out of Colorado College.

Books

Found this while working on Jeff's challenge.

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the sentence in your journal...along with these instructions.
5. Don't search around and look for the "coolest" book you can find. Do what's actually next to you.

The closest book was "The Nature of Risk" by Justin Mamis. Page 123 was the end of a chapter, so I went to the next page. The fifth sentence was "Damned if we'll purr just because our belly is being rubbed!" from a chapter titled "The Ambiguities of Market Language". It's a book about the stock market and trading for a living, which I tried for 15 months and was unsuccessful at. In order to day-trade through the trading company I had joined, I had to get a Series 7 license, because, while I had put up some capital, I was also using the trading company's money for large positions. The most useful thing I got from this book was the High-Low indicator, which Mamis uses to determine if the market is going down or up. Every day, take the number of stocks making new highs and subtract the number of stocks making new lows. Sum that number for 10 days. If the number is greater than zero, the market is going up and you should be in the market; if less than zero, the market is going down and you should be out. He spends a whole chapter explaning why.

From the book I just finished reading: "People spoke about him in whispers, thinking, stupidly, that the nicknames and rumors would never get back to him." from "Debt of Honor" by Tom Clancy.

From the top of another pile "But before the Jackson amendment, real linkage was nonexistent." "The Case for Democracy" by Natan Sharansky. The Jackson amendment was introduced by Washington Senator Henry "Scoop" Jackson and linked the right to emigrate with free trade agreements with the Soviet Union.

HT Chris Riddoch

Charles Krauthammer on the Middle East

Must Read. HT instapundit

ISG

Here. Read this, too. HT neo-neocon