Silliness, and Reality

by JDH on November 27, 2010

I may need to reconsider my comments from last week, where I started by asking the question That Was It? That’s was the big Tipping Point? Did I miss it? Well, perhaps I did, because no sooner had I finished my commentary when all sorts of crazy stories started percolating in the press.

Of course we have the continued nonsense with airport security. It doesn’t appear that there were any excessive delays this American Thanksgiving week; time will tell if air travelers will continue to let the TSA violate their privacy in the name of security, or if they will rebel, and/or stop flying. At least we have lots of people on the internet creating videos about it. Thanks to Sidewinder’s blog for posting this one:

Even more crazy was the controversy started by no other than The Pope himself, who said in a new book that condom use may be justified in some circumstances. As you know, the most common use for a condom is to prevent pregnancy, but the Pope is against that, because sex is only if you are married and are making babies, so condoms are a sin. But now, if you are a male prostitute, then condoms are okay, because they may help prevent the spread of sexually transmitted diseases.

Huh?

So if I’m a woman who already has ten kids and I don’t want number eleven, asking my husband to use a condom is a sin, but if I’m a male prostitute I’m good to go? Sheesh, with logic like this I wouldn’t be surprised if at some point in the future we hear about a big scandal involving sexually repressed priests behaving inappropriately with young boys, and then having the higher ups cover it all up. (Oh wait, that already happened).

When the head of a big institution comes out and changes one of their fundamental policies, that’s a tipping point. Of course it has nothing to do with the collapse of the financial markets and all of the other problems we were expecting, so it doesn’t fulfill any predictions, but it’s a start.

Is the impending marriage of Prince William and Kate Middleton a tipping point? There’s lots of whining about it, so maybe. Personally, I wish them well, and I couldn’t care less.

Could the fact that the President was injured and required 12 stitches during a basketball game be a tipping point? I doubt it, but I loved the press report after the game, describing other presidents who required medical attention while president:

Recent presidents have had a number of medical scares.

George W. Bush choked on a pretzel and briefly lost consciousness, falling and hurting his head.

Bill Clinton had surgery and used crutches for months for a torn tendon in his knee when he stumbled on steps at the Florida home of golf pro Greg Norman.

The elder Bush, George H.W. Bush, was hospitalized for an erratic heartbeat while jogging at Camp David, a problem later diagnosed as a thyroid ailment. The senior Bush also collapsed at a state dinner in Tokyo, which the White House blamed on an intestinal flu.

Jimmy Carter fainted briefly while jogging near Camp David.

Ronald Reagan was shot in the chest in a 1981 assassination attempt.

Yup, one guy choked on a pretzel, one guy tripped on the stairs, and oh yeah, one guy was almost assassinated. I’m guessing the assassination attempt should probably get more attention than the pretzel incident, but that’s just me.

Of course there are more serious problems in the world, like the soon-to-be war between North and South Korea. But hey, let’s not worry about that. Let’s talk about all of the crazy Black Friday shoppers, looking for the deals. You know, like the mall food court locked down after reports of gunshots. Or the Marine who was stabbed at Toys R Us.

My point is this: the main stream media gives equal weight to stories about war, and stories about male prostitute condom use. Our task is to filter out the noise, and determine what’s important, and what isn’t.

What’s important is what is always important: real life. We continue to live in a world of massive government deficits and debt, high unemployment, a collapsing real estate market, and general economic malaise. It’s not a pretty picture. Insiders can see that it’s not a pretty picture; that’s why insider selling is at record levels.

So my plan continues, with some modifications for the coming week.

This past week, as stocks dropped in value, I added to my holdings of:

This week my plan will be to increase my holdings of junior precious metals stocks, and, for the first time in two years, to start dipping my toes back into the uranium market, which has been very hot of late. (In fact it may be too hot, and I may have missed it; I’ll investigate that this week).

Which uranium stocks look good? I haven’t decided yet, but feel free to share your thoughts over on the Buy High Sell Higher Forum (which will save me from having to do extensive research)

Thanks for reading, and see you next week.

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