Wednesday
Sorry to Bore You, But . . .
So I join a fantasy football league this year. I've been in a league for ten years, but just a family affair. This new one involves people in my community. I wanted to make a good show.
It didn't go well. For starters, out of ten players, Yahoo slated me tenth: DAL. Not a good start.
And my first pick? I ended up getting Frank Gore and Darren McFadden with the number 10 and 11 picks. Not too bad, but then I jumped on Reggie Wayne when he came around at number 20. I forgot that the Peyton connection is questionable, at best, these days. I then grabbed Dez Bryant, which my top-secret-FFL-resource-site assures me is the 20th best pick overall. I then got Matt Ryan and Dwayne Bowe . . . and I over-picked for both of them, but felt I had to.
Bottom line is, by the end of the day, I didn't get many steals, with the exception of my 9th and 10th round picks, which my top-secret service assures me should have gone in the third round (Danny Amendola and Davone Bess). All my other picks were either obtained with a premature pick or a mature pick.
Sorry to bore you with fantasy football talk, but I didn't have much time for blogging last night between the draft, my daughter's soccer game, and my other daughter's cross-country meet. This is all you're getting today, except a few quotes.
Quote Box
Gary North has some harsh, but apparently deserved, words for David Ramsey:
The caller, a young woman, said that her father was worried about a coming stock market crash. He was buying gold and foreign currencies. Ramsey said this advice was "absolutely ludicrous."
On that day, the Dow was at 12,270. Gold was at $880.25.
On Friday, September 2, the Dow closed at 11,240. Gold closed $1,884.50.
You tell me: Ramsey or Schiff?
But it gets worse. Ramsey's off-microphone research man told Ramsey that Peter Schiff is Irwin Schiff's son. Ramsey then went into a tirade over the father's tax protest advice. He then said this: "This kid's dad is a nutburger, which probably means the kid is a nutburger."
No, it means that Dave Ramsey is a disgrace. He verbally tarred and feathered Peter Schiff for a position Schiff personally opposes: the tax revolt.
The "kid" is three years younger than Ramsey. He runs a business. And, just for the record, he has never declared bankruptcy. Ramsey did ”“ and has become a multimillionaire by parleying that act of contract breaking into an anti-debt career. He is like the reformed alcoholic who says no one should take a drink. For the record, I hope he has long since repaid all of his former creditors with interest. "The wicked borroweth and payeth not again." (Psalm 37:21a).
Link.
I've never been a big Ramsey fan. I never loathed him or anything, but I couldn't believe he made millions with the kindergarten advice he dishes out. Maybe it's jealousy, but I applaud North for calling him out.
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Next, these thoughts from one of my investment newsletters:
Meanwhile, it seems U.S. diplomats have taken a keen interest in what Chinese media report about the nation's acquisition of gold. Or so we learn from a new stash of State Department cables obtained by WikiLeaks.
Upshot: China is clearly in the camp that believes Western powers manipulate the gold price.
“The U.S. and Europe have always suppressed the rising price of gold,” reads a commentary quoted from the Shijie Xinwenbao newspaper. “They intend to weaken gold's function as an international reserve currency. They don't want to see other countries turning to gold reserves instead of the U.S. dollar or euro.”
“Therefore, suppressing the price of gold is very beneficial for the U.S. in maintaining the U.S. dollar's role as the international reserve currency. China's increased gold reserves will thus act as a model and lead other countries toward reserving more gold. Large gold reserves are also beneficial in promoting the internationalization of the renminbi.”
These cables are mere summaries of what's in the Chinese press. There's nothing to indicate what the diplomats actually think of such matters. If they even understand them, heh.
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Finally, Mark Steyn about one of my favorite songs of all time:
Tennessee Ernie Ford's version was released on October 17th 1955. Nine days later, it had sold 400,000 copies. By November 10th, it had sold another 600,000 to become the fastest-selling million-seller in pop history, a record it retains to this day. By December 15th, it had sold two million. It was Number One for seven weeks before being displaced by Dean Martin's “Memories Are Made Of This”. Who'd have thought there was so much gravy in a singalong about the unrelenting grinding misery of coal mining?
Link.
