Leave the cats alone

Here is an interesting story about the six-toed cats at the Hemingway House in Key West. I guess the USDA is having a fit about all the cats running around down at Ernie's old place in Key West. Supposedly, the USDA wants the place to have an Animal Welfare License because there are so many cats.

Give me a break. Doesn't the USDA have more important things to do than bother a bunch of cats chillin' in Key West? Being a veteran of many Key West trips myself, I beleive that any type of "normal" rules should not apply to anything down there. I mean...this is the place that hosts Fantasy Fest every year for god's sake. Plus, the kitty picture I posted from our wedding in 2003 is cute.....so leave 'em alone.

Headin' North next week

Cheryl and I are heading to Pennsylvania next week for a few days of fun in good ol' Erie. The good news is that it will be August...one of the two months it is OK to visit without freezing your ass off. The other good month is July. I am actually looking forward to it as I haven't been back for a while. We are going to see Cheryl's family, some friends, and attend the Fairview High School Class of 1991 class reunion. Yep...the 15 year reunion. The more I look back at the year 1991, the older I feel. It sure seems a LONG time ago, doesn't it?

Johnnie Slick at it again

John Kerry is funny. He must also think that we are all REALLY stupid. Ol' Johnnie Slick was recently quoted saying that if he were President now, the recent problems in the Middle East wouldn't have happened. That's good to know.

NEWS FLASH........this just in.........if John Kerry would have been elected as President, Hurricane Katrina would never have happened. We are also being told that world hunger would no longer exist and that the cure for cancer would have been discovered.

Maybe I could use this line of thought in my business! Mr and Mrs Potential Client, if you would have had me watching over your portfolio the last few years, you would have never, ever had a month where your account went down in value. If I was watching over your accounts, you would have doubled your money in the past two years.

I, on the other hand prefer to tell the truth and be honest with people. Shame on me!

LINK

Close but no Cigar

I really thought that Chris DeMarco had a chance most of the day today, but Tiger pulled it out at the end. Sergio gassed it as usual in the final round...I should have known better that to root for him. At least Tiger didn't blow everyone away by five or six shots down the stretch. That makes 11 major titles at age 30...well on pace to go past Jack in the next 5-10 years.

Pulling for Sergio and DeMarco

I know that everyone loves Tiger and yes...he is leading after 3 rounds. Yes, he has never lost a major when leading after 3 rounds. And yes, he already has 10 majors so there is plenty of experience there. It's just that you gotta pull for the underdog every now and then. My two horses today are Sergio Garcia and Chris DeMarco. Both are great players and both are due to win a major...DeMarco in particular.

Major condolences go out to PimpBling on the new car. I guess he was tagged by one of the famous South Florida shitty drivers on Friday afternoon. It's not bad enough that someone backs out of a parking spot right into your car, but when it's a brand spanking new Dodge Charger SRT it really sucks.

And major thanks go out to Mr. and Mrs. Hickman for their hospitality last night at Cafe Frotuss. The dessert was great and it was good to see Leslie again. I'm sure that Cheryl will be much happier today as she doesn't have to take care of a hung-over moron who drank about two bottles of wine.

And now for something completely different...

I've been so wrapped up with work, politics, and house stuff that I just realized the Open Championship starts tomorrow! You would think I was living under a rock or something. It looks like the course is burned out and hard, which I think is great (note above picture). We golfing folk are way too spoiled in the United States with all our nice soft, lush, green golf courses. I'd much rather watch the best players in the world try to stop a ball on the concrete greens at Royal Liverpool. And I predict a non-American hoisting the Claret Jug this year.

Lou Dobbs is a turd

I used to respect Lou Dobbs, but his weekly "commentary" that cnn.com rams down everyones throats on Wednesdays front page has become more and more annoying and opinionated over the past months. This weeks edition seems to take the cake by saying the United States is stupid and that we are basically to blame for everything in the Middle East. Lou used to be a middle-of-the road guy that I respected, but I think the years in front of the camera has warped him. I just don't see how today's commentary in any way could be categorized as "news". It should be filed under "piece of shit" by CNN or maybe the editorial section, but it sure as hell isn't news.

I know...I'm back on politics and I apologize to my non-political readers, but I couldn't let this one slide. If you are going to bitch and complain about how things are in the world, at least come up with a few solutions or ideas to solve these problems. Don't just complain so you can hear yourself complain. Here is the article:

www.cnn.com/2006/US/07/18/dobbs.july19/index.html

Turmoil everywhere

What a week it has been. The train bombings in India...the problems in the Middle East...the stock market getting killed. In general things haven't been too positive this week. While I am not too worried about the stock market (translation: it's time to buy, which I personally did yesterday) and India, I am particularly worried about the Middle East. This could turn into something much worse very quickly.

I can't say I am an expert on the Middle East, but I can say that I have read enough about the history of the region to consider myself knowledgable. The Gaza situation with the kidnapped soldier was bad, but Israel going into Lebanon is a completely different thing. Going into Lebanon just ratchets things up another level. While everyone hopes for peace in the area, it just isn't going to happen anytime soon. I lean toward the Israeli side as I feel they at least make an effort to be peaceful most of the time. They aren't bombing buses full of civilians, firing rockets every day into Palestinian cities and encouraging the death of Palestinians. But there are always two sides to every story and Hamas and Hizbollah have their side too, including continued Jewish settlement of Palestinian lands in the West Bank...something Isreal years ago promised not to do.

As with everything, do your own research. Don't be a zombie and take the standard national news story as gospel. You have to remember that every story you see from a US newspaper is going to be pro-Israeli. Just some perspective....

Spending Money

I somehow feel that I am single handedly driving the South Florida economy. Over the last month I have paid off the loan on my truck ($1100), bought a new washer and dryer for the house ($750), had my oak trees trimmed ($400), bought some new shelves for the "ballroom" ($300), and paid my first 2006 Florida summer electricity bill ($160). Actually I was happy the FPL bill was only $160...normally they are closer to $200. I've definitely removed some things from my "to do" list, but this is downright silly. Rumor has it that there might be some more big expenses on the horizon. Time to start working harder I guess. In addition to the weather recently (will it ever stop raining?), I get the distinct pleasure of fulfilling my civic responsibilities at jury duty next week. Whoo-hoo...when it rains it pours, huh?

More on oil prices

I really am working with the wrong clients. Instead of dealing with these old, crabby South Floridians who complain about a monthly statement being down $100, I need to be dealing with these rich Saudi Arabian guys in the Middle East. You've got to beleive that someone out there is somehow involved in manipulation of oil prices, and who better than me to place their big trades?

It seems like the rhetoric in the Middle East works in a certain pattern. Someone in Iran calls the Saudis and they buy oil contracts in their offshore accounts. Iran then stomps their feet and makes a big deal about nuclear research and Israel and cutting off oil supplies.....oil prices rise and the Saudis make money by selling. Iran then calls the Saudis and tells them to short oil. All of a sudden, Iran says that they have talked to European negotiators and the talkes were "productive"...oil prices fall and the Saudis make money.

Not possible you say? I say "bullshit" to that. Here in the US this is difficult to do as there are lots of checks and balances, regulations on insider transactions, etc. But in less developed and less-regulated areas of the world this could and probably does happen regularly. I just want to whore myself out and do the trades. Money is money right? It might as well be me making the cash.

Happy 4th to everyone

I hope that everyone has a great 4th of July. As for me, the only thing of substance I plan on doing today is a little painting. As expected, Lucy and Onyx woke me up this morning right at 7am. Who needs an alarm clock when you live at the Margarita Lounge...the animals wake you up to feed them breakfast. Since then (of course) they have both been silent while I can't go back to bed by this point. Lots of interesting stories out there today, but nothing I have the energy to go into. Today's two most important things are the Germany/Italy World Cup game at 2:30 and the possible shuttle launch also around 2:30. Everyone have a good day.

Purporting?

What is it with this term? Everytime an audio tape shows up from Osama, the media uses this word religiously. How many times have you read this line in a news story in the past few years:

"A tape purported to be from Osama bin Laden surfaced today saying bla bla bla."

When did this word become the hip thing for journalists? And while we are on the subject, what is it with the audio tapes? You would think that a guy who is purported (ha ha) to be the great leader of terror in the world could do a little better than a little crappy audio tape. Get with the program Osama...anyone who is anyone has their own website. They even let me have one, which is funny. You can record your little diddies on a camera phone these days and give it to one of your boys to run on Al Jazeera. I can see it now...a dude with a long gray beard sitting in a dark cave in the middle of nowhere with a battery powered tape recorder. Not exactly the type of guy I would be following.