boilermaker75

Do you think there's more bad news coming and/or just more pain due to what's already out there? I have no clue, but if there is more coming then it will be an even better buying opportunity and I'll buy more. Edit: And I am writing puts, so I am trying to get a lower basis than where WFC is currently trading.

Wrote some WFC puts.

What no November edition?

It was between Musk and Bezos for me. They have both done things that have changed the world. I gave my nod to Musk because I think Tesla and SpaceX could eventually have significantly bigger impacts than AMZN.

This one is a pretty thorough discussion of options, https://www.amazon.com/McMillan-Options-Wiley-Trading-Lawrence-ebook/dp/B008L01IWK/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1473436864&sr=1-1&keywords=mcmillian+on+options#nav-subnav I read this one 20 years ago, but I recall that it was pretty good, https://www.amazon.com/Harrison-Roth/e/B001K8QPXW/ref=dp_byline_cont_book_1

It is, but the Night Tripper and Dragon's Milk are much better!

It is Saturday evening--cheers! That's my beverage refrig in the background.

Cheers!

Just discovered this while shopping at Meijer, New Holland has a beer barrel bourbon. I'll try it and report back!

I don't think there is really a difference. I couldn't tell the difference by just drinking them. Historically the strongest version of a porter was called a stout. 30 years ago I used to be a home brewer. No need these days with all the microbreweries.

All this talk is making me thirsty. I just cracked open a Left Coast Brewing Milk Stout!

These days mainly one, occasionally two, microbrews a couple of times a week. My favorite microbrews these days are from New Holland Brewing. If you like stouts you'll love several from New Holland--The Poet, Dragon's Milk Stout, and Night Tripper. Night Tripper being my favorite of the three. Note Dragon's Milk and Night Tripper are 11% alcohol. By the way, I never inhaled.

was he even born? Obviously he went back in time. He used the Tesla that comes with a flux capacitor.

Even if Tesla becomes a 0 in the future (certainly possible), there is no denying the positive impact that company has had on the auto industry and the world in general. The big automakers would have gladly sat around twiddling their thumbs with respect to electric cars had a viable competitor like Tesla not forced it upon them. And then there's Space-X which has arguably had a bigger impact on the world thus far and less of a chance of failure from this point forward. As far as I know, Elizabeth Holmes was a lot of smoke and mirrors before caving in. That's a big difference compared to a public company whose products we all use and/or see and a rocket company who we've all watched launch rockets. And land them!

I don't know if this really happened, but I hope it did! A crowded United Airlines flight was canceled. A single agent was rebooking a long line of inconvenienced travelers. Suddenly an angry passenger pushed his way to the desk. He slapped his ticket on the counter and said, "I HAVE to be on this flight and it has to be FIRST CLASS." The agent replied, "I am sorry, sir. I'll be happy to try to help you, but I've got to help these folks first, and I'm sure we'll be able to work something out." The passenger was unimpressed. He asked loudly, so that the passengers behind him could hear, "DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHO I, AM" Without hesitating, the agent smiled and grabbed her public address microphone, "May I have your attention please, " she began, her voice heard clearly throughout the terminal. "We have a passenger here at Gate 14 WHO DOES NOT KNOW WHO HE IS. If anyone can help him find his identity, please come to Gate 14." With the folks behind him in line laughing hysterically, the man glared at the United agent, gritted his teeth and swore "F*** You!" Without flinching, she smiled and said, "I'm sorry, sir, but you'll have to get in line for that too."

I am sorry to say this but this is got to be the worst joke here :) :) :) :) :) And I thought that jokes about German sausages are the wurst. LOL

When things in your life seem almost too much to handle, when 24 hours in a day are not enough, remember the mayonnaise jar and the beer. A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him. When the class began, wordlessly, he picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls. He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was. So the professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was. The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else. He asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with a unanimous "yes." The professor then produced two cans of beer from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar, effectively filling the empty space between the sand. The students laughed. "Now," said the professor, as the laughter subsided, "I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life. The golf balls are the important things--your family, your children, your health, your friends, your favorite passions- things that if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full. The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house, your car. The sand is everything else--the small stuff." "If you put the sand into the jar first," he continued, "there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls. The same goes for life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff, you will never have room for the things that are important to you. Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Play with your children. Take time to get medical checkups. Take your partner out to dinner. Play another 18. There will always be time to clean the house, and fix the disposal. Take care of the golf balls first, the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand." One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the beer represented. The professor smiled. "I'm glad you asked. It just goes to show you that no matter how full your life may seem, there's always room for a couple of beers."

Stockholders own the company, so theoretically they should be the ones voting against outrageous pay packages, or directors who support these pay packages. It would require the institutional investors to become active.

In early 2012 I needed cash, but had everything in the market including some margin. Since my house was paid for, I took out a mortgage. That is probably what I would do if I ever retire, count on taking out a mortgage to get cash if needed.

I also give to the WWF and the Wilderness Society, http://wilderness.org

Well, I was going to use a more sophisticated argument, but based on your reasoning thus far, I figured you wouldn't understand it. Economics means that we produce as much energy as is efficient to use. We produce where the supply curve intersect with the demand curve, and if we produce anywhere where these curves don't intersect, we are producing non-economically. However, there are huge negative externalities in oil production, such as the destruction of farmland, acidification of the oceans, extinction of organisms that can't handle the environmental changes, and death of people through wars and famine resulting from global warming. Thus, while the benefits are taken into account in the supply and demand curves, the negative externalities aren't. Thus, the reason people often focus on the bad things (i.e. negative externalities), rather than the good things is that the good things are already in the price of the commodity. If there were more good things that could be done efficiently by burning more oil, they would already be done. This fact means your argument makes no sense. Or, to put it another way to be more comprehensible to you: Eating is good, but overeating adds no extra value--it actually adds negative value. It's really that simple. +1

A man has to go on another long, dull business trip. He sits down in his cramped seat on the plane. Then he sees the most beautiful women he has ever laid eyes on walking down the aisle. There eyes meet and she smiles. This must be his lucky day, her seat is right next to his! They start talking and he asks her if this is a business trip or vacation. She tells him she is headed to a conference. She does research on human sexuality and she is making a presentation. She has done statistical studies of men related to their physical attributes and performance in bed. She has found that Native Americans are the longest, Polish men have the largest diameters, but the American red-neck is the best performer. She starts to blush and says, “I am telling you all this and I don’t even know your name.” Thinking quickly he responds, “My name is Tonto Janikowski, but my friends call me Bubba!”

Haha, just because someone disagrees with you and you don't understand why doesn't make them insane. If you look at fossil fuels in the big picture, both the positives and negatives, and evaluate them against a standard of human flourishing, they are overwhelmingly a good thing that everyone should be using more of. There's more to fossil fuels than pollution, and an honest evaluation of them requires carefully looking at the negatives AND positives. This is actually a point Munger made regarding Coke at the BRK annual meeting this year. "We ought to have a law ... where these people shouldn't be allowed to cite the defects without citing the advantage. It's immature and stupid." I'm willing to listen and change my mind if the facts warrant it. Tell me, what are the positives of a truck pulling in front of me while I am riding my bike and blasting black soot on me?

It's pretty simple - there's a lot of oil and coal money that supports the GOP that is at risk if we make a dramatic shift to renewables. While it's pretty easy to dismiss people that disagree with you by smearing their motives, there is actually a reasoned, thoughtful argument against the prevailing leftist view of climate change. It has absolutely nothing to do with left or right! Just some reading Don Fanucci: http://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/ What surprises me is the kind of opposition to clean energy from certain quarters. I can understand oil or coal companies cause it's their living. But what about the rest? Even leaving aside whether climate change is real or not. (I believe in science so I think it's real) Does anyone actually believe that the stuff that comes out from the coal plants' smoke stacks or the stuff that comes out of exhaust pipes is good for you? To me it seems that getting rid of pollution is reason enough to switch to clean energy. You would think any sane person would be supportive of clean energy. The only thing I can conclude is these people are insane, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolling_coal I was "attacked" once riding my bike back from work by one of these coal rollers. A blast of black soot in my face and I almost fell off my bike.

My daughter bought a condo in West Hollywood in March of 2012. She got lucky. Probably a once-in-a-lifetime event with the timing buying at the bottom. The condo just above hers just sold for about three times what my daughter paid. These are identical properties but the new owner is paying three times the property tax my daughter is paying. My daughter can't afford to sell and buy anything else because of the increase in property tax she would experience. Edit: Of course she is happy her investment has tripled. I was just pointing out the tax consequence.