Today's Tids Issue 3,029
Opening Stuff:

I wonder how I ever got through Winters before fleece, and all of those snowed-in nights before "House of Cards".

Seriously though, there is a great danger that in putting out this mess every day, your venerable morning wake up call could over time grow stale. Could become like every other monotonous media litany of current events. I worry about that, so let me know what you'd like, what you would like to see more of, less of, or vanish from the face of the earth. These words are only meaningful if somebody is enjoying them.

The guy didn't mind when he learned that a family dealing in stolen goods was moving in next door...because... fences make good neighbors.

The Polar Bears aren't leaving becasue of man's intrusion. They're leaving because the Grizzles are tougher, muscling in on the food supplies.

The Loud Music Murderer got a hung jury on the main count because the same Florida DA who overreached for 2nd degree murder in the Zim trial, overreached again here when going for the 1st Degree premeditated verdict. I'm quite sympathetic to the victim and impressed with his family. I know no real facts, but the shooter seemed to provoke the situation, and there was no way that ten shots were necessary. Looking at the shot pattern on the car body, it's amazing that he didn't kill more.

The Question:
Bonus Monday! 1. How many Italian Governments have there been since WWII. How many of them lasted a full five year term. Bonus: Why id Italy still surviving?

The Headlines:
--Dow Up 126; George Soros Ups Bet That S&P Will Fall, "Put" Position Now At $1.3 Billion; Other Big Hedgefunders Think Significant Correction Overdue.
--Workers At VW Plant In Chattanooga Reject UAW.
--Suicide Bomber Destroys Egypt Tour Bus; 4 Korean Sightseers Dead; Many Wounded.
--Iran Says Russia Could Build Them Nuclear Reactor In Exchange For Oil.
--Kerry Sounds Like SNL Skit Saying "Weather Is A Weapon Of Mass Destruction" With A Straight Face, Veep I plies 0-Man Has Powers Of Moses.
--Kerry Blasts Russia For Aiding Syria.
--Charleston WV Residents Still Wary Of Tap Water.
--Rome Bound Plane Hijacked To Geneva.
--US Law Firm Gets Caught In NSA Surveillance Web.

With the apparent success and general overall appreciation for the current Olympics, the national media has proven once again that it is particularly adept at finding and isolating a single disgruntled human being and from that extrapolating an apocalyptic scenario...which would be eventually proven to be utterly false.

Yesterday the despicable media, this time in the person of NBC's deplorable Kristen Cooper, hounded, badgered Bodie Miller about his dead brother until he cried, thereby setting up a news item for the nightly news. How much lower can they go?

How would you like to date Kristen Cooper?

When Big Hedge Fund people think a correction is over due, you have to remember that they have the funds to make it due!

Solar Fiasco Redux, Department:
One of the great things about the Tids is that we have so many intelligent people reading it -- sound thinking people who have the knowledge to turn the fantasies of the editor i to cold hard facts. For instance. I just assumed that a solar panel installation that took up 5 square  miles of good ole's American soil had to be inefficient. So a good reader who really knows about electrical power production and distribution fills us in. Simply stated, the the apple of Obama's alternative eyes, a solar powered thermal plant which only works when the sun is shining, cost $2.2 billion to build and could serve 146,000 homes. A comparable advanced gas turbine combined cycle power plant cost about $484,734,600 and would serve 750,000 homes. (Note: There are reams of supportive engineering data associated with this readers reply. It covers all potential sources for electricity productions. Take two aspirin and open this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cost_of_electricity_by_source 

The real WMDs are alternative energy boondoggles which will destroy taxpayer's pocketbooks.

Basically, the Mafia began in Sicily as a neighborhood watch.

The talk about legalizing marijuana here in RI is picking up speed. Frankly it isn't surprising at all. The big fear among many that this newest farm-to-market product will give rise to a Mafia distribution network. But, fears have been allayed after that announcement of the establishment of a State Marijuana Crimes Task Force which will be located in an old vending machines building on Atwells Avenue.

The next big overdone national opinion topic after the canonization of Jeter, after Bob Costa's eyes, after Michael Sam, will be a discussion on the new movie sensation (According to the critical elite) "Nymphomaniac: Volume 1. Yes...there will be a volume 2.

I still believe that the compass is one of the earths most amazing phenomena. I wonder who invented it? How many times have you been walking along and stumbled upon a magnetic rock? Well somebody did, and again it is not surprising it was the Chinese in about 206BC. The Chinese, discoverers and innovators of many human necessities -- from spaghetti to dynamite -- have always been technology leaders since BC, that is, before they learned how easy it was to steal from the US. The first application for the magnetic rock was used for Divination during the Han Dynasty. It became popular for maritime use around 1100AD, first with China then closely thereafter with Persia and Europe. But, that still doesn't explain to me how somebody figured it all out in the first place. But then, I'm a simple man. Must have been an early velcro thing. -- this is weird, how can I make millions.

Did you see where the workers at the VW Plant in Chattanooga Tenn rejected the bid by the UAW to unionize their plant? They probably took along hard look at Detroit, the classic result of overly aggressive Union marauding.

Some populist psychiatrists are trying to generate the theory that because of feminism and the gay rights movement, men are becoming confused about their masculinity. I say, rubbish. There are still plenty of men who warm their pizza slices on the hot end of irons combined with a hairdryer to melt the cheese. Works for me. When you think about it, an iron looks like it was designed for pizza.

After a pair or two, Olympic Ice Dancing bores me.

Starbucks had been selling 1 pound bags of coffee at the local supermarket -- 2 for $10.00. Something must be going on when the high priced spread drops prices so dramatically. Or are they just trying lure into their realm cheapskates like me.

Jimmy Walker of the  mid-1960's Providence College team was one of the first true "Athletic" basketball players. He could play today and dominate. He was compared to the Big "O", was the nation's leading score in his senior year and #1 Draft Pick...and along the dusty trials of the NBA, he produced a son, Jalen Rose. Who he never knew. I told you he could play in the Modern NBA.

This is NBA All-Star weekend?

To me, it isn't about whether or not ObamaCare is good or bad or helping people, it's all about increasing the size of a suffocating governemtn. And they didn't put it under the auspices of the intimating IRS because they wanted to be nice.

Only Don Quiote would have worried about the stability of the Italian Government.

I have it on good authority that a former well known Newsweek Editor would order reporters to write stories that would meet his preconceived conclusions. He would say, "Go find the facts and report this, and make sure it turns out like this." I'm sure this doesn't surprise anybody.

This Tids is much too long, so I'm eliminating "The Conscience" this morning.

The Answer:
Happy Presidents Day everybody! They say "Happy Prime Minister Day" often in Italy where their have been 61 governments since WWII. In fact, only the just evaporated Bunga-Bunga government of Berlusconi lasted the full five years, that just by a hair.  Bonus: Italy has survived very nicely because the people know how to laugh, know how to eat and know how to make love! Countries have always been about the people.

I think we are missing an opportunity. Out in Colorado the Pot sellers are having a real problem finding banks who will work with their growing businesses. One of the reasons seems to be the fact the Federal Law says the  marijuana smoking is illegal. Lets bring this one to the Supreme Court on the basis of Constitutionality -- State law supersedes Fed laws. Lets stop Fed encroachment once and for all. It's all about the 10th amendment and "the powers not specifically delegated by The Constitution to the federal government and not prohibited to the States, belong to the States". Ok find me the clause in the constirution that allows the Feds either by law or executive regulations to limit the intake or ingestion of foods and substances. This is great opportunity to begin to redefine the authority, the wonderful individuality of the States.

Hey, I love this snow. And I like the cold too. In between summer and winter days are worthless. You're only halfway to warm and golf balls don't travel well in mud. I'm not a big fan of extremes except for weather. Unless of course it is a weapon of mass destruction.

Well, that's about it for this Monday, Presidents Day 2014. Do you think George would be happy about the state of what he would be seeing out their today? I don't.