Free The Animal

To those who know what incident I’m referring to: When I say that I will not accept a lie that I know to be a lie, no matter what the cost, it is exactly what I mean. Let me boil it down for everyone. There is no value in the universe, up to an including my own life — my most cherished value — that is worth willfully swallowing an abject contradiction of reality that I very well know to be a contradiction of reality (a damn lie). I would quite literally rather die than pretend the truth of something I know to be false, and therefore, I am quite unconcerned with the [conveniently overblown and exaggerated] potential repercussions of the actual truth being told. This position and oath is as eternal as existence itself. It will never change. While it may feel as though I’m being overly dramatic, never forget that I live by principles, and what I’m talking about, here, with all of it’s applications and historical implications, is the cornerstone of all principle and all life. Go read it, again.

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I’ve recently observed that there are numerous ways to become a villain. Of course, there always exists the old conventional ways that everyone knows about, but there’s another way too: Simply insist, uncompromisingly, upon an unpleasant truth. That’s what I’ve done, publicly even, which now makes me the ‘very bad guy.’ Of course, it will be protested that it’s not that I’m insisting on the truth, but the way I’m going about it (exposing obvious lies and all that impolite stuff). Now, mind you, I’m not talking about controversial topics where there is room for reasonable disagreement. I’m talking about the truth related to a serious, seemingly uncharacteristic harm that one person has caused another. The actual harm is unpleasant enough, but then, somehow, the truth becomes even more unpleasant than the actual harm it describes. In this case, some portion of the truth is enough for some people; it’s all they want. And, once they’re satisfied with this portion of the truth, they turn from demanding the truth to supporting and defending what is, ultimately and in reality, a lie. And whatever you do, keep it all quiet, please. It’s not so much that the victim doesn’t deserve to…

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I’ve really been a terrible blogger, lately. Even I can’t read my own blog without becoming bored. Anyway, here’s a collection of random updates and observations in no particular order. We sold our house in the ‘burbs and moved back to the city. Love it. I can walk to a dozen cool restaurants & bistros, and even a 12-screen cinema with stadium seating. I’ll have to snap a picture from my new home-office setup in the new place (a loft). To paint a mental picture, imagine 18 ft. ceilings with my desk at about the 9 ft platform level, looking out the front, which is mostly window. In the spirit of downsizing and getting sportier, I sold my Hummer H2 and got a 2006 BMW X5 with the 4.4 liter V8. That’s 315 HP in a car that weighs in less than 5,000 lbs. It has a, get this: 6-speed automatic transmission. I can tell you that I am very, very good with a stick and clutch, going way back. If you were in an automatic, I could spot you a whole lot of horsepower, ’cause there was no way you were going to out-accelerate me. That’s all changed, now….

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I had the opportunity to speak with two attorneys for the City of San Jose last evening down at the Tied House brewpub. One is a relative, so I can’t be too harsh; and besides, he beat an ex-cop in court a few years back. She sued the city ’cause they “harassed” her, she claimed, on account of her sexual preferences. Anyway, I jumped on them because San Jose’s newly-completed, multi-bazillion-dollar city hall building now occupies the spot formerly occupied by some local establishments I used to frequent when I previously lived downtown–Taco Bell being prominent among them. City Hall is now the largest, tallest, most prominent building in San Jose–although it should be pointed out that there’s a height restriction to the west–where most of the buildings are–due to final approach into the airport. Adobe, because they couldn’t go high, built three separate towers that I think look great. So, a brief discussion of eminent domain ensued. And, during that discussion, I learned that the landowners “made out like bandits.” The city didn’t “have to” undertake an eminent domain action. I didn’t think I’d get much mileage pointing out that it doesn’t matter what price the landowners received because…

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I’ve never taken an online course of study, before. Sure, I’ve researched a million things on my own over the years and sometimes scanned through dozens and hundreds of pages on a single topic. It’s really remarkable how quickly you can become conversant on virtually any topic within minutes, if you know how to use this vast Internet resource and you’re not so dumb that you believe something just because it shows up on a computer screen. I’m beginning to lightly dabble in the area of currency trading, having finally settled in on a profitable options trading strategy that nets a pretty consistent 5-10% return per month. Problem is, it’s boring. It involves trading bear call spreads and bull put spreads on the SPX, which is the index traded fund representing the S&P 500. Essentially, you make your plays at the beginning of the month and wait for the options to expire. These are credit spreads, so the option you sell is more valuable that the option you buy (as a hedge), the difference being the credit that you keep. So long as your spread stays out of the money by the time the options expire in a few weeks,…

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