The Hiker's Guide to History - Joel McMahon's Blog

A Sneaky Suspicion

Why do I have the feeling that President O'Bama and his handlers are watching the news, and then deciding how to respond to the BP disaster?  Is this leadership?  Why has it taken so long to have a conversation with BP leadership, O'Bama? 

Let me clear: The Gulf of Mexico is too big to fail.  Fix it!

Let me be clear (part II): I voted for O'Bama and was an ardent supporter. We've fought and won wars in less time than it is taking to right the wrong in the Gulf.

What Defines a Good Day?

Some days are good and some days . . . not so much.  I’m a bit of a control freak, so I don’t like the feeling that my day, my direction or my destiny, for that matter, is somehow controlled by forces external or by people insignificant in my life.  Master of the house.  Captain of the ship.  Author of my own fate.  You get the picture.

With apologies to Horace, Carpe Diem has become an overused slogan and a trite cliché.  Rather than seize the day, as carpe diem implores, perhaps we should imperium diem . . .control the day. Drilling deep into daily tasks at such a micro level might appear at first blush to be a bit excessive, obsessive or compulsive.  This may be true, but if seven good days makes one good week; and if fifty-two good weeks makes a good year; and if many good years make a good life, then it calls to reason that controlling the direction of each and every day will logically result in a good life.  Who the heck wouldn’t want that?

If given a 24-hour period of time, which happens every day whether we like it or not, then what must we do to make sure that those hours fall into a that somewhat relative and ill-defined category of “good?”  I don’t know exactly what will happen tomorrow, but I do know that time and space will happen; I have no control over that fact.  To that, I yield.  But, how I fill both the time and space of tomorrow and any other day is entirely up to me.  My task, therefore, is to define “A Good Day” and commit to making each and every new 24-hour period one that I create, one that I control.  One day does not a good life make, but as Confucius so famously said, “A journey of a thousand leagues begins with but a single step.”

What defines a good day?  Well, I like lists, so here is my list of what I like to do each day so that when I put my head on my pillow at night, I am pleased enough to say: “Ahhh, a good day.”

1.   Experience sunrise

2.   Express gratitude

3.   Drink 100 ounces of water

4.   Take my vitamins

5.   Floss

6.   Enjoy a cup of coffee . . . or two

7.   Hike more than 10,000 steps

8.   Workout

9.   Physical, emotional and spiritual intimacy with my wife

10.  Read

11.  Make more money than I spend

12.  Teach

13.  Learn

14.  Laugh

15.  Write

16.  Sing

17.  Connect with a friend

18.  Share a meal with my wife (see #9 above)

19.  Walk my dog

20.  Compliment someone

21.  Eat chocolate, but not too much . . . it's good for the soul

22.  Plan a new trip or contemplate the next journey

23.  Take one step toward making a dream or goal a reality

24.  Pray

This list is a work in progress, but the 24 items go a long way to making each 24 hours darn good ones.  What should I add to the list? How should I expand or qualify items on the list?

My next task: Defining “The Perfect Day!”  Any suggestions?

Still hiking! Looks like the Hiker's Guige to History will return to the Blogosphere on St. Patrick's Day.

Stay tuned!

Still Hiking!

Well, I'm still on the trails . . . but in a metaphorical sense.  I'm finishing a couple of projects this month and next, so my goal is to be back in the blogosphere in January.  I see light at the end of the tunnel, so I'm eager to get a couple of monkeys off my back and rebuild my networks.  In the meantime, keep hiking!

See you 1/1/10!

Go Jackets!

Taking a Hike!

Summer is upon us! Though little of this summer is vacation for me, I will be traveling a lot and hiking in many groovy places.  I will be hiking in the following locations through September: Georgia, New Jersey, Arizona, Colorado, Michigan, California, British Columbia, Alaska, and New York.

As such, the Hiker is taking a blog break until September.  I'll send out a blast when I return to my keyboard.

Stay in touch at: joel@mcmahonadvisors.com

Remember: Life is an If/Then statement.

Diets Always Fail

According to almost every study I’ve ever read about the issue, nearly 90% of all diets fail.  Pick your diet fad: Atkins, South Beach, Grapefruit, Scarsdale, Abs, Soup, Oprah, Dr. Phil, the Biggest Loser, or any other passing fancy.  It matters not.  They all fail.  The reason: habits.  Good habits never replace the bad ones.  Thank God!

Why is this good news?  If you are an investor, I would suggest betting on the odds that America’s fickle love affair with lean personal budgeting will pass faster than …..America has been on an economic diet since September 2008, and personal spending dropped like a rock at the end of 2008 and into 2009.  Some claim Americans are entering a new age of personal fiscal responsibility and that new habits of spending and discernment are forming.  But American diets always fail. 

While not a scientific measure, I have notice an uptick in restaurant activity, lines at checkouts, and cars in mall parking lots.  And I have noticed it personally, as well.  I’m eating out more, my summer travel schedule is full, and my “Want List” is rapidly increasing in size.  Yes, Americans want to spend.  Just as the New Economy of the 1990s failed miserably and replicated the pattern of Old Economies and bubbles past, the New Frugality, likewise, will fail miserably. Americans want new.  Americans want shiny.  Americans want to buy.  Americans need to buy.  Americans need to want.  Going without is always temporary.

Warren Buffet said recently that the recession will be over soon, but that he’s not sure when exactly.  How profound.  In June 2008, I went to cash and sat on the sidelines.  I’ve been buying the market (QQQQ) since January and will continue to do so as the economy and the markets turn around.  The market is a leading indicator of the economy . . . by about six months . . . so over the course of this year we should start to see good news from American businesses.  American businesses and consumers are starting to spend again, so the impact will be profound.  Choppy markets ahead, no doubt, but as Americans kick yet another diet to the curb, it’s onward and upward in 2009.

Eat up!

Building Straw Men

If you’ve read any of my blog posts, you know I’m a Democrat.  Once upon a time, I was a Republican.  Then I watched Sean Hannity . . . once.  Hannity is returning to Atlanta next week for the Atlanta Tea Party, a hokey attempt at rallying the right behind the notion that the Democrats are to blame for the current economic crisis and that the government under Barack O’Bama has become too big, too expensive, too expansive and too  . . . well, too everything the right purports to oppose.

One of my resolutions for 2009 was to stop publicly blaming George Bush for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and stop publicly blaming the Republicans for perpetuating an era of irresponsibility, negligence and partisanship during the Bush years.  I still blame Bush and the bunch on the right, but I resolved to stop writing and talking about the failures of the previous administration.  I resolved to move ahead.  I wish the talking heads on the right would follow suit.

The mouthpieces of the right – Hannity, Coulter, Limbaugh, Palin, FOXNews, O’Reilly – engage in the “straw man fallacy.”  Rather than debate the issues, the popular pundits on the right use terms like “socialist,” “godless,” “unpatriotic,” “far left” to describe Democrats and Barack O’Bama.  Accusing O’Bama of being a socialist manufactures a debate about socialism, not a necessary conversation about the proposed policies or programs that are required to clean up the mess created over the last eight years.  The straw man (socialism) is easier to knock down than the real issues. 

Another straw man is the accusation that O’Bama is unpatriotic or un-American for taking responsibility for the global economic crisis.  Those who claim the President of the United States is unpatriotic manufacture a debate about patriotism, not the fact that the world is dependent upon a healthy American economy.  We in the United States cannot have our cake and eat it too.  We cannot take credit for global economic prosperity and pretend that we are not responsible for the global economic recession. 

In our role as the lone superpower, it is our responsibility to maintain both peace and prosperity in the world.  As the lone superpower, our responsibility is to spread democracy and freedom by setting an example, not by forcing our hand.  As the lone superpower, it is our right to maintain economic and political stability in the world so as to ensure our own security at home.  And as the lone superpower, it is our responsibility to own up to the problems we helped create and honestly build a community of nations that respects the leadership role the United States.

Calling O’Bama a “socialist,” or claiming that all Democrats are “far left radicals,” does nothing to further the conversation about ending the economic crisis or strengthening  America’s standing in the world. 

AIG and the American Dream

America is outraged at the hubris displayed by AIG in distributing over $200,000,000 in bonuses to a handful of executives.  The American People own 80% of AIG, yet the company and its government overseers, Secretary of Treasury Geitner and the Congressional committee chaired by Senator Christopher Dodd of Connecticut, saw fit to pay retention bonuses to the very individuals who ran the company into the ground.  America is angry.  And my perception of the obvious is most astute.

Some pundits say that the anger is unjustified and that it is just another expression of liberal "wealth envy" and hatred of capitalism.  I'm liberal, and I love capitalism.  What I believe drives most Americans' anger is not the desire to punish AIG executives, which I am sure is justified in some cases.  And I don't think many expect the AIG execs to somehow return their ill-gotten booty to government coffers so it can be redistributed to those who need it more. 

What angers Americans is that we want to see other Americans succeed in this horrible economic climate because they worked hard, made good decisions when the odds were against them, and made wise decisions in good times that would protect against the negative effect of a economic downturn. 

We want to hear about investors who had the savvy to pull out of the market just before the crash.  We want to hear about banks that knew not to jump into the cesspool of sub-prime mortgages.  We want to hear about insurance companies that remain solid in spite of hurricanes, wildfires, floods, and tornadoes.  We want to hear about companies who turn a profit because they have a superior product, not because they had a good run of luck in the derivatives markets. 

Americans want to see success rewarded because of smart work, hard work and good work. America does not want to see other Americans rewarded for failure, bad decisions, and costly decisions.  America does not want to reward the undeserving just because they negotiated a contract that included a few selfish turns-of-phrase or strategically placed words.  America wants to reward hard work in tough times, not well-placed words in a complex contract. 

To see failure rewarded runs contrary to the American Dream.  The American Dream is based on a healthy mix of hard work and good luck, not strategic words and loopholes.

Bull Trap

President O'Bama's critics, and there are many, have used the DOW as the measure of the man's ability to guide the nation through the worst economic storm since the Great Depression.  The DOW, Kudlow, Cramer, Matthews, Santelli, Hannity and Limbaugh claim, has dropped precipitously because of the election and inauguration of Barack O'Bama. The DOW, say the critics, is the measure of the future and the gauge of confidence the markets have in "O'Bama's plan."  Careful slaying monsters, lest you become one.

If a DOW drop is the measure of failure, the litmus test of the plausibility of profitability, would a DOW rally be the measure of success?  What will the critics say if the DOW runs toward 10,000, the floor broken during the Bush administration?  What will the critics point to when the DOW runs up three hundred points in a day . . . like today.  Last time I checked, 300 points of a 6500 DOW is darn close to 5%.  Oh, the days when we had 5% days!! 

If O'Bama receives blame for the drop in the DOW, should he not receive credit for the bull rally?  Have the hyper-critical O'Bama haters created for themselves a Bull Trap?

Limbaugh/Palin 2012

So it begins.  I like to get an early start on things, so I am throwing my weight behind the logical and foregone conclusion for the 2012 Republican Presidential ticket: Limbaugh/Palin 2012.  I am having bumper stickers printed this week, so if anyone would like one, please let me know. The reason I like Rush for president in 2012, besides the fact that his name is but one letter away from "Bush," is because of his views regarding race, gender and the Constitution are so . . . intriguing. 

Below is a compilation of  Rush at his best: 

"He is exaggerating the effects of the disease. He's moving all around and shaking and it's purely an act. ... This is really shameless of Michael J. Fox. Either he didn't take his medication or he's acting." --on an ad by Michael J. Fox endorsing Claire McCaskill for Senate for supporting embryonic stem cell research (Watch video)

"And don't forget, Sherrod Brown is black. There's a racial component here, too. And now, the newspaper that I'm reading all this from is The New York Times, and they, of course, don't mention that." --on the 2006 Ohio Senate primary race involving then-Rep. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), who is white

"This is no different than what happens at the Skull and Bones initiation...I'm talking about people having a good time, these people, you ever heard of emotional release? You ever heard of the need to blow some steam off?" --on the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal

"Too many whites are getting away with drug use...Too many whites are getting away with drug sales...The answer is to go out and find the ones who are getting away with it, convict them, and send them up the river, too." --in 1995

"I am addicted to prescription pain medication." --in 2003

"Feminism was established so as to allow unattractive women easier access to the mainstream of society."

"We're not sexists, we're chauvinists -- we're male chauvinist pigs, and we're happy to be because we think that's what men were destined to be. We think that's what women want."

"She comes to me when she wants to be fed. And after I feed her -- guess what -- she's off to wherever she wants to be in the house, until the next time she gets hungry. She's smart enough to know she can't feed herself. She's actually a very smart cat. She gets loved. She gets adoration. She gets petted. She gets fed. And she doesn't have to do anything for it, which is why I say this cat's taught me more about women, than anything my whole life." --on his cat

"She sounds like a screeching ex-wife." --on Sen. Hillary Clinton

"I've been racking my brain. I've been trying to figure out how Bob Dole's luggage got on my airplane...I told the doctor, I said, 'Look, I'm worried about the next election.' ... A misunderstanding." --after he was detained by custom officials for possessing Viagra with a prescription made out in someone else's name

"The NAACP should have riot rehearsal. They should get a liquor store and practice robberies."

"They oughtta change Black History Month to Black Progress Month and start measuring it."

"Look, let me put it to you this way: the NFL all too often looks like a game between the Bloods and the Crips without any weapons. There, I said it."

"Sorry to say this, I don't think he's been that good from the get-go. I think what we've had here is a little social concern in the NFL. The media has been very desirous that a black quarterback do well." --on Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb, while working as a commentator on ESPN

"The only way to reduce the number of nuclear weapons is to use them."

"There are more acres of forestland in America today than when Columbus discovered the continent in 1492."

"I know these people like I know every square inch of my glorious naked body." --on Democrats

Rush/Palin 2012

What else would a good Democrat want?