Now that I am finally done with school, my life has had a lot of BIG changes. Here are just a few things that I’ve experienced in the past month.

1. Graduating college. Sweet!
2. Paying for my own health insurance
3. Paying for my own car insurance
4.Purchased a car (with a loan, not with cash. I’m not that rich yet. Little joke.)
5.Invested some money. I purchased shares of Apple (Yeah, I’m jumping on the bandwagon) and Diageo.
6.And the big one. Got a new job.

The new job thing is huge. I decided to turn down some pretty good entry-level positions to try out the whole entrepreneur thing first. My father hooked me up with a local business owner to start up a few programs that I developed to increase her profitability. If the whole thing goes the way I think it will, my shares in the company will be pretty good. I finally get to have an influence (that I can actually see) on a daily basis. Every single job that I’ve held throughout my college career was pretty much pointless. I always had to listen to management even though they were completely wrong (at least that’s what most of my college textbooks said).This is the first job that I get to call the shots.I’m going to update everyone on my progress as the weeks go on.

Because I’m working for a small business (20 employees), I have to pay for my own private health insurance. I decided to go with Kaiser Permanente for low rates and the medical center is right by my house. It’s costing me $67 a month, which is a pretty reasonable rate for a man my age. It covers all the good stuff, but has a higher deductible.

Another huge financial event in my life was the purchase of my new/used car. My mother was in a small accident that ended up ruining her car for good (she wasn’t hurt). My parents and I decided that she would take my car and that I would purchase a new one. After so many hours of shopping online and visiting car dealers, I decided to buy a 2004 Honda Accord EX (IT HAS NAVIAGATION. SWEET!!) It set me back a good amount of money, but it will only cost me $300 bucks a month for five years. Hopefully, I will be able to pay it off way before the actually deadline so I won’t have to pay interest on a depreciating item.

A lot of new events will be unfolding in the next few months. When I get some time to sit back and write, I will be writing on a consistent basis. My life seems much more level now and I’ll be able to take the time and write about personal finance and politics again. I have to thank my co-writer Dave for helping me out with some wonderful political and social ranting. Thanks again for bearing with me during the past two months.

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We all know of many people that are forever dumping money into high risk investments trying to beat the market. Unfortunately, most people don’t even come close, due mainly because of the investors egos. Many people feel that they can time the markets (meaning get in and out at the right time).

The problem with this strategy is that people are emotional and have a hard time selling when a stock is up. Look at Nortel for example, near $800 in stock value fell and fell as low as $1. I’ll let you guess when the most people entered this stock and when most bailed.

There must be an easier way to get a high return without playing all the stock market games. Many people in the US have credit card debt. On the average most people carry a balance of $8000. With an average rate of 14.56%! Assuming no compounding, that’s $1165 per year that you’re losing. I challenge you to find another investment with that security and return! Think about it. Pay off the debt before you start throwing money in the stock market. When you have credit card debt with a high interest rate, your personal return is still 0 if you’re investing in stock (Your stock market return 11% your credit card interest rate 11%). Pay it off then invest.

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After a few days of moving into a new place, I have a few spare seconds to throw some thoughts on global warming out there. Is it happening? Yes. Is it 100% human caused? No. Alarmist and politically motivated? Absolutely!

Most of the global warming fears out there I see as a whipped up by fanatics or people with an interest in either:
A) Running for public office on an issue that they know will make them look like a compassionate good guy, while at the same time praying on the ignorance and boob-tube addiction of the American people (i.e. Al Gore).
B) The swift demise of the American economic machine (i.e. old school socialists and “progressives”).

I remember having a book given to me in elemenatry school called “50 Ways Kids Can Save the Environment” or some nonsense like that. It was basically and indoctrination book into the Church of Global Warming….excuse me, Global Climate Change. I recall even as a youngster wondering what all the fuss was, why there was a hurried, fanatic pace to limit environmental effects at that time. Where was it before–and it disappeared after. Looking back in copyrights and in recollection, it was late 1991, early 1992 — the middle of the 1992 presidential campaign. And those crazed concerns have disappeared until last year when Al Gore turned a slideshow into a self-serving “documentary”.

Look, I have no issue with trying to preserve the environment more effectively. None at all. If anything, I am more in favor of environmental controls than most with my economic and social beliefs. HOWEVER…why now? What spawned this? Why is the urgency here now? I think that some of the ideas being put out there are for dramatic TV news effect. I think Al Gore is going to run for president and is using this very serious issue to boost poll numbers. I think that this is a time in which alarmists are seizing on the ignorance of the public and the inability and unwillingness of people to do some of their own damn research on a subject.

Here is an interesting article looking at “faith-based” global warming, by an esteemed MIT meteorologist:

To close, I hope this inspires some thoughts and talk. I say, as I always do, be leary of what you see on TV or in the news. Get things from multiple sources. While Al Gore may say that we are at an irreversible point and that now is critical and we have to pass legislation that will cripple our manufacturing and other economic capacities, science points to otherwise. Many, many, many scientists who have dedicated their lives to climate research dissent and call the Gore-types alarmist, as do I. I believe scientists, not politicians. I urge you all to do the same. Regardless of your views, I hope that you find the article linked to above interesting none the less.

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**Disclaimer: no matter what you read into this, I am not a proponent of police brutality or the 1984 state. In fact, I would like to see this silly war on drugs go away. I just cannot stand the pastime of race pimping. Plus I really feel for the Junniers.**

Someone explain this to me. Remember the old woman whose house was raided for drugs on a bad tip that was killed by officers in Atlanta back in November? Remember the outrage that how dare do narcotics officers do their job? Screw them all. I am so furious that three officers were indicted on admittedly fluffed up charges — it is sickening. Al “douchebag” Sharpton and his deliciously unimportant, attention-whoring associate “The Reverend” Markel Hutchins were able to take down another white person (three) and cops at that. What an accomplishment.

Look, I am not negating this woman’s death. It was unnecessary, tragic, and downright sad. But hindsight is absolute. Let’s take a look at this through the eyes of the cops along the timeline. First, they arrest a guy who gives an address (fake of course), where he scored coke. He obviously did this to get some sort of preferential treatment, as this was naturally a multiple offense situation. They then contact a past informant and obtain the no-knock warrant based on this information. Keep in mind that at this point they have NO CLUE that this is not a drug house and that some old woman lives there.

Then they serve the warrant. They have to take off bars to get in, which is fine and dandy under the no-knock. Hell, they made noise, which startled this woman bless her heart and she got the gun she owned and started firing, hitting the cops multiple times, one man I know definitively at least 3 times. Again, keep in mind, that there is NO WAY IN HELL they know it is a 92 year old woman firing the shots and not a druglord protecting his stash. Even under the pansy UN rules, they cops can and do return fire, killing the woman. Only then do they find out that it was an elderly woman firing at them and that there were no drugs, computers, or cash in the house. Naturally, all the narc cops are put on administrative leave, as is customary and correct. However, this case and investigation takes a fun twist when the informant, a convicted felon and drug dealer mind you, runs from custody screaming that the police told him to lie. Hold the phone, who you gonna believe, a bunch of generally good cops or the slimeball of a felon? That’s yours to decide, but I believe the cops.

For this hindsight examination, the cops are going to jail (I know two have copped pleas, but the nature of which I’m not sure right now). They did what they are told to and trained to do, based on bad info and now they are going to jail for felony murder. I have heard one report say that the senior officer, a man with whom my family is acquainted with, closely at one time, Gregg Junnier will do 12 years minimum. Boy I hope that isn’t true. This guy is a good man, a family man with two great kids and a strong wife. He was a narc cop for many years and is now being thrown under the bus for the sake of the race pimps.

This woman didn’t have to die. It was a tragic mistake. However, should a police officer with a clean record and two kids have to pay with 12 years of federal prison time for a mistake that, while he led the team, he did not personally falsify any documents, he did not lie to investigators, he has cooperated at all times? I think this is a price too high.

What kind of world are we letting these shitheads create? This is my very emotional, tainted view. I will not argue these points.
1) Al Sharpton and Markel Hutchins have sacrificed a good man and a good cop at the alter of race.
2) Al Sharpton and Markel Hutchins took advantage of a sorry, awful situation for their own gain, to get their names in the paper, to help pay the bills.
3) Two great kids and a dedicated wife will miss their father for possibly 12 years not only because of a mistake (which by the way he and his team should be punished for, but not with felony murder), but I believe because he was born a white man. Because he is a white cop.
4)People like Al Sharpton and Markel Hutchins are creating a greater race problem in this country than they are helping. They are bullies who use race as a method of suppressing others. The fact that the word Reverend is in front of their names is a disgrace.
5) The media eats it up because of who is involved. Realize that while one woman is unnecessarily dead here, there are at least 7 lives that are changed forever (I cannot speak about the other cops families, just the one I am familiar with). I firmly believe that had this been a white woman, no one would have said a word.
6) I cannot believe that hindsight has indicted these men.
7) We are letting demagogues like Al Sharpton, Markel Hutchins, and Jesse Jackson shape public policy and influence public reaction.
The public believes what they are told to believe through the media. The media is tainted, the public is blind.

A final thought and another shot at race pimps. My roommate has a sticker in her room that says “Erasism”, referring to the desire to erase racism. How can we become color blind when it is referred to on a daily basis? How many “xxxx History Months” are there? How many times is someone the first xxxx person to do something? How many times have “reverends” paraded out victims of some “atrocity” and “obvious act of blantant racism”? This is what has to stop. I commend Al Sharpton for fighting for what they feel to be a worthy cause. However, instead of actually doing something useful, they pimp it for attention and defame the names of many times non-racist, normal people. Martin Luther King was a civil rights leader. Hosea Williams was a civil rights leader. Al Sharpton is a race thug in a reverend’s body. Stop giving these guys attentions gets us closer to “erasism”.

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