Originally posted 2010-08-06 21:10:46. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Originally posted 2010-05-23 07:58:49. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Hopefully you picked up on my sarcastic tone. If not, well I need to work on my writing. But anyways, Sarah Palin actually did something useful today. Despite being completely hypocritical, and somewhat impersonal and indirect, Sarah Palin made an attempt to silence the extreme, mistaken, angry republicans. No she didnt hold a press confrence, she didnt say it in a speech, she didn’t even say it on twitter– she said it on Facebook. Because what better way to reach angry, mistaken, republicans than on Facebook. In a note, she stated,

“There are many disturbing details in the current bill that Washington is trying to rush through Congress, but we must stick to a discussion of the issues and not get sidetracked by tactics that can be accused of leading to intimidation or harassment. Such tactics diminish our nation’s civil discourse which we need now more than ever because the fine print in this outrageous health care proposal must be understood clearly and not get lost in conscientious voters’ passion to want to make elected officials hear what we are saying. Let’s not give the proponents of nationalized health care any reason to criticize us.”

Palin is right. Stop making up ridiculous comments about health care. Stop yelling at congressmen! Stop talking about putting old senior citizens out to death! Stop talking about down syndrome babies dying from the new health care reform! Don’t call Obama’s health care plan a “death panel”! People who do these things are diminishing our nations civil discourse, it sidesteps the real issue. And its down right stupid. People should never say these things right Sarah Palin?

While its pretty clear she is covering for her last pretty outrageous statement on health care, her message is actually a good one and should be listened to. Even if it is ridiculously hypocritical. Cover your own ass, and be praised for restoring society–now that is politics at its finest.

Originally posted 2010-05-14 17:00:24. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Originally posted 2010-04-07 17:34:15. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Recently we’ve read the story of Alexandra Penney  who is blogging her plight in The Bag Lady’s Papers.  Check out the article here — Life savings gone — ‘Madoffed’ best-selling writer back at work. While she admits to owning other significant illiquid investments (prized jewelry and real estate) she apparently invested nearly the whole of her financial investment portion of her “life savings” with Bernard Madoff, the self-professed, current day Ponzi Scheme* architect. She and thousands of Bernie Madoff’s friends, and friends-of-friends had mistaken Madoff as a trusted financier.  Yet it turns out, he actively bilked thousands of individuals, foundations, and corporations out of what some estimate to be sums totaling 50 billion dollars!

Ms. Penney is a mature author and artist who has penned several installments of her personal diary, depicting her horror and angst at being “Madoffed”.   That statement implies that she has had something DONE to her, and it would follow in most people’s minds that she therefore is a victim.  Well, hurt she is.  Damaged she is.  A victim she is not because she is already writing about her response.

We would no more actually imagine Alexandra Penney shuffling around as a literal bag lady, than we would picture Queen Elizabeth serving up fries with a super-sized meal because of their status.  While Ms. Penney is surely not a Queen, her best selling author status commands respect and will ensure rapid success, as it should.  That said, I believe her story is still a very important one, especially for mature women everywhere.

Indeed so many fears are unfounded, yet when a fear is realized, or perceived to be realized, it’s shocking and more than unsettling; the earth moves under your feet.  Your mind races to the extreme negative, the absolute unimaginable: newspaper-crammed holey shoes pushing rusty, absent-a-wheel shopping carts, huddled together with perfect strangers to survive sub-zero winter nights.

Thankfully, what emerges eventually is a sense of degree, a sense of perspective.  While there are indeed FAR too many actual bag ladies (and bag men) alive and somehow surviving, the bag lady fears of most of us are often blown up– like Ms. Penney’s and her dolls.  We need to figure out singularly and together—remember Obama urging us to all pitch in?—how we can avert the most drastic of circumstances; becoming saddened, disheartened souls grasping onto life with white-knuckled fears.

I have delighted in Ms. Penney’s exquisitely languaged blogs and share her horror that Madoff isn’t behind bars!  What drugs are our law enforcers and judicial system on that would allow them to release Madoff on such a measly bail in the first place, and then upon his defying bail rules continue to uphold his freedom?

You may be interested to know that Charles Ponzi jumped bail and fled twice!  Minds like these don’t stop upon their initial arrest folks.  It’s time we organize a “jail Madoff” picket line protest around his posh Manhattan block and force the lazy hand of our Government to take far overdue action NOW!

No, that won’t replenish countless investment accounts, or put charity’s staffs back to work, or even allow some rich folks to raise another martini toast, but it would certainly send the kind of signal that all Americans are looking to see.  We’re waiting for our jails to be overcrowded with Wall Street, Banking, & Car Industry executive crooks.  Crooks who in their self-aggrandizing profit-driven madness, eschewed fuel efficient cars, feasted upon uncreditworthy applicants, and gorged themselves on indefinable, packaged investments. We’re looking for elected officials and corporate leaders to embody justice for all, not justice for “just us”.  We need to breathe new life back into capitalism, and hopefully close the chapter on cannibalism once and for all!

I am tired of the “old boy” networks, which grossly enrich each other with a simple wink atop Pebble Beach’s 7th hole or 50,000 feet above most of our realities in their posh Learjets, or texting on their Blackberries to buy into the next harebrained idea, built on a house of cards, and not able to be disclosed in any written or comprehensible document.

My limited knowledge of Madoff was that his investments continuously returned FAR superior returns to those of the “markets” and were absent any periods of negative returns.  Those two characteristics should have been a red flag to anyone daring to look.  Daring, I say because it takes intelligence (or guts) to imagine downturn amidst skyrocketing returns.  It takes real discipline to plan for a rainy day when all you’ve experienced (or chosen to remember) are the sunny ones.  Yet even squirrels collect acorns in times of plenty preparing for harsh winters sure to follow.

Every marketable investment suffers periods of loss or negative return because the markets naturally operate in cycles.  So, the mere absence of any negative returns should have given investors pause.  It should have eventually given the SEC pause too, but that’s fodder for yet another story.

I’m not jumping on the overcrowded stupidity-of-putting-all-your-money–in-one-place bandwagon here.  Many folks legitimately have all their money invested in one Mutual Fund Family in order to save on management or fund expenses, etc.  Rather the grandiose mistake is about putting all your money in one exclusive, members-only kind of ‘deal’.

Mutual funds’ third party custodians hold the mutual fund assets, unlike Madoff holding the once-famed Madoff Fund’s assets.  Mutual funds also publicly disclose their investments at least quarterly, and own shares of individual stocks and bonds, each of whose price can be verified several times each day.  I have no time for investments with anyone—regardless of the marquis name—in which there is no such disclosure.

Hedge funds came into their own with exactly that “secrecy allure”, so to speak.  20 something yr old wet-behind-the-ears hotshots royally confused brains with bull markets years ago.  They resigned from once prestigious Wall Street firms and the lowly 2 million dollar bonus plans (atop their 1 million dollar base salaries, meaty stock options, and the like) to form their own hedge funds.  People clamored to “get in” to these fat-with-excessive-fees schemes.   I knew we were all in trouble when Money magazine’s cover trumpeted hedge fund investments.

Hedge fund managers fiercely fought regulation by the Securities & Exchange Commission.  They attested that disclosure of their “tactics” would be detrimental to their success.  Like someone may have been able to spot (and jail) Madoff before he madeoff with so many zeros?

So I implore us to refrain from plastering Ms. Penney with all our collective angst and feelings of loss because, as she implied, we are all in this national financial carnage together.  The sooner we appreciate that pain is pain—perceived or real bag lady or Person of Reduced Circumstances status not withstanding–we will be able to collectively rise to the top, as a nation and as a global society.

I don’t remember any drowning person inspecting a life raft to see if it bore a republican or a democrat insignia, or was hurled by a rich socialite or a bag lady.  They furiously grab for the life raft, fight like hell to survive—whatever that means to them—and hopefully get around to thanking the person who hurled them one tool of survival.

No one can know where Ms. Penney will go with her new education, and her new still-fresh wounds.  I can only suspect that with her self-made know-how and creative can-do attitude, she will indeed resurrect herself.  In so doing, she will show us all examples of how we can regain our footing and confidence as well.  I further suspect that she will share some of her wealth with organizations that lend a hand-up to those less fortunate–those women in particular who lack the “back-up” assets that Ms. Penney fairly admits will buy her some valuable time.

Curiously, I can’t stop thinking about her last name.  Ms. Penney isn’t Penniless literally. This self-made woman would never be penniless, due to her creativity, work ethic, sense of humor, and some luck.  Yet you do remember that old, still true saying about luck meeting tons of preparation don’t you?  So, while a lot of her money is gone, no one can steal Ms. Penney’s mind.  I’m not Jewish, and I know and respect that.

Not that you asked for my advice, yet if you have not yet “made it” to the extent that Ms. Penney has, curb the urge and save the time it would take you to write jealous remarks, and reread the part where she outlines her working three jobs, etc.,.  Only in America right?  Refocus any veiled contempt and busy yourself writing the last chapters of your own success.  Yes, you are on the road, and you CAN finish big, but never by quitting.

We are all richer for Alexandra Penney (and anyone) telling her truth, and for a country which allows us to do so, and finally for an internet to give us both the instant and far-reaching platform in which to share.

Let’s create and embody solutions.  Let’s continue to offer a shoulder to anyone who is suffering, much like the inscription on the pedestal of our proud lady, the Statue of Liberty: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breath free”.  Let’s not excoriate people who say they feel down-trodden, especially when they flat out exclaim they don’t want our pity.

Footnote:  * There was no fundamental investment in the Madoff fund, into which thousands begged to be admitted.  After all, word spread like wild fire about how great his “returns” were.  (Many investors, once disgruntled at being “outside” nose-pressed-jealously -against-the glass entry door, are now breathing more than a sigh of relief!)  Rather the Madoff Fund was all a fraudulent pyramid scheme by which new investor monies repaid earlier investors, a concept mastered earlier by Charles Ponzi.

While Madoff’s scheme has currently impoverished principally Jewish investors and foundations, Ponzi’s scheme in the early 1900s preyed principally on Italians.  In both cases, friends and friends-of friends gave their “hero” money yet their “returns” actually were “returns” of other people’s money, and not a distribution of profits from any bona fide investment.  Both men’s “empires” crashed only when too many investors demanded their money back; i.e., the evaporation of new funds to repay existing investors’ liquidation requests exposed the fraud.  Both men, incidentally, were frantically attempting to raise new money at the time of their arrests.

Ponzi averted discovery numerous times, elongating his reign of abuse and contemptible lawlessness for decades.  We’ve yet to discover just how many times and for how long Bernard Madoff successfully tricked suspicion.

Originally posted 2010-08-10 15:06:03. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Originally posted 2010-06-18 21:30:52. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Originally posted 2010-06-01 13:25:23. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Originally posted 2010-04-05 04:05:03. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Originally posted 2010-07-14 16:25:34. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Like with other kinds of parties, bachelorette party planning starts with a couple of important decisions. Figure out the location, then move on the the fun stuff you can do during the party.

First, figure out where the bride would be most comfortable. The reason is because some of the activities can be a little embarassing. Having it in public may be more than the bride can handle.

If she doesn’t embarrass easily, having it out in public will probably work. If she’s shy, and doesn’t like a lot of attention, then giving her some of those naughty, male-member type gifts at the local bar probably isn’t a good idea. The name of the game is fun, so doing anything to totally embarrass the bride-to-be would be a waste her last night out as a single girl.

When planning your activities for the party, you can be as Conservative or as crazy as the bride-to-be’s personality will allow. You don’t want to plan anything like a male stripper for your friend if she’s extremely straight-laced and would hate you forever if you did it. On the other side of that, you don’t want to plan a knitting party for your friend who loves to party into the night at the local clubs.

Here are just a few of the fun bachelorette party games/activities that are available:

Suck for a Buc The Cherry Game A scavenger hunt Bridal Pictionary Bridal Shower Bingo Karaoke Pin the “Tail” on the Hunk

No matter which way you decide to go (Conservative or crazy), it’s a good idea to get the other ladies from the wedding party (not including the bride-to-be – she’s busy enough with wedding plans) to help you out. If the others aren’t take-charge kind of people, come up with a list of items you’d like to accomplish, and assign something to everyone.

Involving everyone in the planning process is not only more fun, but it will take the pressure off of you trying to get everything done by yourself. The whole bachelorette party planning process (say that 3 times fast) should be fun, so anything you can do to make it more enjoyable for everyone involved will make for a successful party.

Originally posted 2010-04-27 11:51:43. Republished by Blog Post Promoter