New website that is becoming a daily must read for me...www.prudentbear.com. Specifically I am really feeling this article on the possible war with Iraq.

How to solve this problem? What are Bush’s real intentions? Simple: construct a military plan in Iraq which achieves the objective of “regime change” and disarmament whilst concomitantly becoming a self-financing proposition. Occupy the Iraqi oil fields. Forget about attacking Baghdad and dealing with the political fall-out of American soldiers being transported home in body bags. Enact the 21st century equivalent of a mediaeval siege.

The war build-up, coupled with detailed US-contingency planning for a post-Saddam Iraq has created the momentum for a vast, if uncertain commitment by the US in the region. How to pay for it at a time of unprecedented financial fragility and economic imbalances? In our view, the inexorable effects of imperial overstretch are clearly driving the US toward occupation of the Iraqi oil fields. We happen to agree with the assessment of Jay Bookman, an editor of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, when he asks, “Why does the administration seem unconcerned about an exit strategy from Iraq once Saddam is toppled? Because we won't be leaving. Having conquered Iraq, the United States will create permanent military bases in that country from which to dominate the Middle East, including neighbouring Iran.”

Check out my friend Meredith's website when you get a chance and enjoy her artistic brilliance.

Another fasinating editorial by Robert Tracinski that compares the current situation in Venezuela to the situation encountered in Ayn Rand's magnificent novel, "Atlas Shrugged." If you haven't read the book, pick up that book and check the link after you finish . Atlas is hands down my personal favorite and is an inspirational masterpiece.

The parallels between fiction and fact are striking. In Ayn Rand's novel, America is sliding into an economic dictatorship, so inventors and businessmen lead a secret walk-out, withdrawing their support from the "looters" who want to plunder the wealth they create. They declare that they won't return until the looters relinquish power.

Rand's working title for the novel was "The Strike." In an era of frequent, sometimes violent strikes by factory workers, it was shockingly original to suggest that the entrepreneurs, inventors and capitalists might go on strike.

Got a good question today about my article posted on tax cuts and my position on the issue. Basically, I am of the same train of thought as Mr. Friedman, the more tax cuts the better off we are. The more money that we take from the government coffers and place back in our wallets, the better off we will be as individuals and the economy will be through our decisions to allocate resources. The government has proven time and time again that it can not allocate resources in an effective and efficient manner. Unfortunately government will always be a necessary evil, however anything we can do to limit this beast should be done.

A good read from another publication that I subscribe too (yeah I actually subscribe instead of having my brother send me his freebies, assuming he would actually take the time to mail them of course), MIT Technology Review, that offers ideas how to further spurn creativity. This link was taken from this fabulous blog that offers ideas about the future.

One of the basics of a good system of innovation is diversity. In some ways, the stronger the culture (national, institutional, generational, or other), the less likely it is to harbor innovative thinking. Common and deep-seated beliefs, widespread norms, and behavior and performance standards are enemies of new ideas. Any society that prides itself on being harmonious and homogeneous is very unlikely to catalyze idiosyncratic thinking. Suppression of innovation need not be overt. It can be simply a matter of people’s walking around in tacit agreement and full comfort with the status quo.

A very heterogeneous culture, by contrast, breeds innovation by virtue of its people, who look at everything from different viewpoints. America, the so-called melting pot, is seen by many as having no culture (with either a capital C or a lowercase c). In rankings of students in industrial countries, U.S. high school students come across as average, at best, in reading, mathematics, and science. And unfortunately, the nation is unrivaled in gun-related crimes among young people. Yet, looking back over the past century, the United States has accounted for about a third of all Nobel prizes and has produced an unrivaled outpouring of innovations—from factory automation to the integrated circuit and gene splicing—that are the backbone of worldwide economic growth.

A Village Voice article that talks about one of my favorite magazines and websites, Reason. Some of the article is not chronologically correct, but it does offer some insight into a website that has been on the come up of late.

Just finished reading Lullaby by Chuck Palahntuk, who is probably best known as the author of Fight Club. The book was entertaining, not the heaviest of reading but a nice pick up for a short trip or for the train. I also recently finished reading The Millionaire Mind, which basically says to save, save, save, invest and save. Becoming a millionaire the millonaire mind way just doesn't seem all that fun, but it is probably the most likely way to become one.

The latest workout comes complements of this articlearticle. I have to say that this is probably the most demanding workout I've ever done. Then again how times do you feel like you are going to die at the end of your workout. Just began week three and I can't wait till it is over. On the plus side it is getting me ripped....

The amazing mind that is Milton Freedman offers this article compliments of opinion journal about the current Bush tax cut and any tax cut.

I have long said, "I never met a tax cut I didn't like"--though I would go on to say that I like some better than others. The reason for my flat, unhedged statement is neither the Keynesian attribution of an economic stimulus to a tax cut, which I believe is generally wrong, nor the supply-side attribution of favorable incentive effects to a tax cut, which I believe is generally correct. It is, rather, the effect of tax cuts on government spending.

I believe that government is too large and intrusive, that we do not get our money's worth for the roughly 40% of our income that is spent by government--federal, state and local--supposedly on our behalf, or the additional 10% or so of income that residents or businesses spend in response to government mandates and regulation. History suggests that Washington spends whatever it receives in taxes plus as much more as it can get away with.

Nice article about XM Radio and why we should support it. It also goes into decent detail about why FM radio is so horrific. Personally I have not listened to FM radio for a good four plus years (thank you mp3s, www.kcrw.com, and channel one- from bbc radio), but would think about getting XM. I have been to numerous stores that use it, and they play some good music that mr. clear channel would never play.


Who needs radio anymore?

You do, when it's good. Because there is something that radio can do that you can never do. Sure, you can download your entire CD collection onto your iPod and walk around with it. But those are the songs in your library, and even in random play there is a certain joyless satiety to that. The magic of radio long has been and will continue to be: You're alone in your car, flipping the dial, and, every so often, at exactly the right moment, exactly the right song comes on the radio. It makes you slap the steering wheel with happiness. The serendipity is spellbinding.

FM still manages to capture that magic, once in a while. But the response FM increasingly engenders is, "I'm so sick of that song."

But are we sick enough to pull out our checkbooks? Lee Abrams and his colleagues at XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. are betting their reputations and considerable money that we are. XM is a fledgling business, a company that beams satellite radio to your car or home for a monthly fee. Abrams, an FM radio legend for more than 30 years, is the man who dreamed up XM's 100 channels. He thinks XM can find that perfect song at the perfect moment for enough paying listeners that it can became a sustainable business.

Another hystericalOnion article that explains why McDonald's stock has been declining in value.

"Though still America's number-one hamburger retailer," McDonald's CEO Jim Cantalupo said, "we have entered a brief period of restructuring due to the steady growth of other convenience eateries and, more significantly, growing competition from producers and distributors of demonstrably nutritive matter, i.e. food."