Well, I guess that'll teach me to post about wild market gains.  I logged in today, and I'm down $750.  :-)

I should have liquidated when I had the chance.  Now I'll have to wait for another upswing.

UPDATE:  Make that down $1000.  Drats.

Tomas Sowell has a great column today regarding the desire of many in the US to be more like Europe.  I've honestly never understood this desire, especially as someone of Greek heritage.  I've been to Greece, of course, and it's a great place to vacation.  But you couldn't pay me to live there.  It's a freaking mess. 

Among the points well made in the column:

The American economy produces the largest output in the world — more than Japan, Germany and Great Britain combined. Measured by purchasing power, output per capita in the U.S. is the highest of any large nation.

And yet we want to adopt labor laws more like Europe's why?

Anyway, it's a great read.

So, for reasons to be explained later, I am soon going to have to liquidate an online trading account I set up a few years ago.  However, I wanted to get an idea of how we'll I've done so far, so I did a little research.

On July 16th, 2004, I opened this account with $11,107.66.

As of some time today, the account is currently worth $26,869.12.

That's an increase of almost 240% in less than 4 years.  Not too shabby.

Now, some of that came from a few lucky stock tips on penny stock companies, but on the whole, I'd even take 100% over 4 years, which I can safely say I accomplished.  Man, if only I'd started with more.  :-)

I have a few friends whom I've introduced to the market over the years, and it's potential.  Sadly most of them, at one time firm believers, have given up trading individual stocks, in favor of either ETFs or bulking up their mattresses.  The market is too hard to play, they say.  It's too difficult to pick individual stocks, or it takes too much time.  You have to learn to invest with the cycles, etc.

Poppycock, I say.  I can assure you that I don't spend nearly as much time researching the stocks I own as I should.  I don't read financial reports, listen to conference calls, etc.  I know I surely should, but I don't.  However, I think that to say I'm lucky with the above returns would also be missing the point.  I look for good companies that have fallen on hard times (Apple a year or two ago being a good example), and ride them out.  I've made close to 150% in that one stock alone in the last 12 to 18 months. 

Anyway, I'm just sad I have to stop playing for a while.  But, it's my own damn fault.

This continues to be a year of very tough lessons.

As some of you know, I intend to support Bob Barr for President in 2008.  A good friend of mine recently made up this picture for me.  :-)

This was my reply:

That might be true, and I know you are only poking fun, but sometimes it's about the principle. 
 
I'm as Machiavellian as they come, but this isn't about winning the election.  No matter who wins, this election is already lost.  It's about expressing a voice.  The party of Reagan is dead, but those of us who still believe will not just give up.  We may never win, and we will tilt at windmills occasionally, because not to is to capitulate.  Call me an ideologue, if you must, but I simply don't see it that way.
 
You and Newt and Kasich, et. al. can fight the good fight inside the party, if you wish.  I understand and respect that point of view, and will even join it when appropriate (Drill Here, Drill Now).  However, Reagan became a Republican when the Democrat party left him behind.  And now the Republicans have left me behind. 
 
Bob Barr is not a Libertarian nut, as some have been in the past.  He has served in the House.  He was once appointed by President Reagan to serve as a US Attorney.  He's a true small-government conservative, and he has my vote.

This just in:  Kiss have vowed not to record any new music until illegal file sharing stops. 

In related news, The Monkeys have vowed not to record any new music until someone realizes they've stopped.

I didn't blog about this at the time, but a few weeks ago I signed the Drill Here, Drill Now petition over at American Solutions.  We have so much untapped oil available to us right here in this country that it is absolutely absurd, bordering on the criminal, that we don't avail ourselves of this opportunity to reduce our dependence on foreign oil.  But now with oil prices going through the roof, we might finally be able to change all of that.

Anyway, I just learned today that Chuck Norris has joined the cause.  And we all know how much I love Chuck Norris.  After all, he IS the only man alive who can slam shut a revolving door.

But seriously, it's nice to see this movement getting some wider exposure.  On June 9th, Chuck wrote a great column outlining the issues, and throwing his support behind the petition.  If you haven't already, get on over there and sign the petition, or Chuck will kick you and Congress in the Medulla Oblongata!

Old joke: “I have enough money to last the rest of my life. But I have to die Tuesday.”

Today is the youngest you will ever be.  Act Like it.

  -  Stolen from Mark Cuban.

For the first time in years, I'm missing Bonnaroo.  :-(

So, not only did I come home to a clean house today, and a new Epson scanner, but when I fired up the TV to watch a little soccer, I noticed that when I went to delete the program, the Tivo did not ask me to confirm my delete.  WTF? 

Well, it turns out that DirecTV has updated my Tivo software, which I pretty much thought was never going to happen again.  Not only do I now have a "deleted items" folder, but I now have clip protection, so that when the freaking networks schedule one of my shows for 62 minutes, I don't automatically lose the show coming on after it!

Woo Hoo!

(I know, I get excited about little things, but the way this year is shaping up, that's all I've got.)