January 26, 2011 –
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RELATED TICKERS: BALT
Every time I touch this thing it drops 10% in 2-3 days. Each time the chart shows some support it fails. Dividend yield over 6%, aand in a dividend hungry world, one would think it would price some underlying support to the stock.
Somethings up here. Either market doesn't believe in the dividend...or....??
January 22, 2011 –
Ticker symbol WITE. Unfortunately not optionable, as I love to sell calls to lower my basis. I still think I will buy it. My belief is that white metals will outperform Gold, because they will do well "either way". If we have a recovery, they will be in demand, and if we don't, they will appreciate as a de facto rejection of fiat money. Platinum is 16 times scarcer than gold, but only a tad more expensive. [more]
January 17, 2011 –
Monday is MLK day. There will be ceremonies, wreaths lain, and numerous people will make their obligatory speaches about what King did and what we must still do. We've named hundreds of streets, schools, and edifices aftef him, but my que...stion today, is do Americans, especially African Americans truly understand the greatness of the man? History is one of those funny things in which social forces slowly gather momentum to correct great injustices, but spark that finally lights the match is usually found in one person who comes along at just then right time. Think Washington, Lincoln, King, Kennedy. But like any great acheivement in America, once successful we immortalise it and then completely forget the important lessons it taught us. We fall in love with symbols and songs, but forget the sacrifice. Many Americans, even those my age don't remember what it was like to live in a just post segregationist society, as the 1960's was the beginning of radical social and political change. Laws guaranteeing equality were on the books for decades, but there was an institutionalised racism, escpecially in the south that festered for decades. That is why the civil rights movement came to be and grow in the south, because that's where the glaring injustices remained. To be black in the south was to live under a set of invisible rules, of where you could live, eat, drink, travel, work, and play. Interactions with the police were rarely about law enforcement and more about intimidation. Many jobs were off limits, and a good education was not the priority of the "separate but equal" docterine that held sway over many states and counties. This was a stark contrast to the north, especially in urban areas, where African Americans had made great strides towards a functioning equality in life and living. It took the courage of MLK to ask Americans of all colors to look in the mirror and see if they liked what they saw. Enough of all colors didn't that the movement grew enough strength to coerce a reluctant government that was largely content with the way things were to enact powerful and sweeping legislation that laid the groundwork for political and social change. Our Declaration of Independance said "All men (people) are created equal, and are endowed by their Creator with certain INALIENABLE rights, among (but not limited to ) them life, liberty, and the persuit of happiness. It took the death of several hundred thousand Americans of all colors in 1860-1865 to confront politically and legally that principle, and anohter hundred years for the social forces to confront the institutionalised inequialities that still remained.
So my question today, is how have we done, and what measuring stick do we use to answer the question? Answer this question with the understanding that we will never create or live in a perfect society, and that racism (among many other human failings) will exist amongst all races, white, black, and hispanic in this country. It is the manifestation of sin through ignorance. If we were all the same color, we would find other ways to be unjust to our fellow humans.
Dr. KIng specifically envisioned a world where we would be judged and judge by nothing more than "the content of our character", just as Lady Liberty holds the scales on the courthouse steps wearing a blindfold. SO have we succeeded? In many ways, beyond our wildest dreams. And yet in many ways, we have failed. We have succeeded in ways that I know because I interact with so many people in so many ways and see that people have formed friendships, love, marriages, relationships, businesses that are completely blind to race and ethnicity. We have succeeded in that it is politically and socially unnaceptable to express negative or prejudicial opinions. We have succeeded because I raised children (including 2 of mixed race) in which I never saw race to determine who they dated, friended, or in any way formed opinions of CHARACTER. We have succeeded when African Americans own television networks, sports franchises, retail store chains, and yes, are able to escape justice based on race in high profile cases (OJ Simpson). Yes, our success in many ways shows that we have lived up to the promise of our Constitution. But in other ways I think we have failed. Dr King and his followers waged a war of not only equality of treatment, but of equality of opportunity. An education was always culturally valued in America as the way to get ahead, where anyone ...could succeed, unlike most other parts of the world where sucess and wealth was based on a "caste" system wherte social strata was what you were born into. And yet in the last 40 years, something unexpected has happened in our cities and towns. Americans, and in larger proportion minorities, have turned away from the idea of an education and what it stands for as the path to the American dream. It is the "elepaht" in the room that only Bill Cosby has had the courage to speak alout of, but an elepant the quietly should frighten all of America's leaders, especially those in the NAACP etc. Today, 1 in 4 African Americans does not graduate high school in a land where education is FREE through 12th grade and available on scholarship for many people based on academics alone! ANd it is a prize that goes untaken. There has been a failure of cultural role models outside of sports and music to inspire a generation to greatness in science and mathematics, while the Chinese and Indians of Asia overtake us. There has been a failure of the Church to minister spiritual and godly teachings to the Communities, instead they many become caught up in the political "Al Sharpton" views of America, because it is easier than confronting the real truths. And mostly, there has been a failure in our educational system to prepare ALL students for life in a post manufacturing world, where technical skills are a must for economic prosperity. And so, in this realm, there is much to do. So where do we go from here? For ALL AMERICANS I highly suggest that on this day, we take the Holiday that was bought in the blood of a modern martyr, and do something I bet 80% of Americans have never done. Go back and read the "I have a dream" speach. It is equal in greatness and truth to the Emancipation Proclmation of Lincoln. In terms of oratory and juxtaposition, it is probably the greatest speach of all time. Spoken at the Lincoln Memorial, one could not miss the political and symbolic meaning that MLK intended. It was as if Lincoln himself was standing behind King, as KIng was coming to cash the check Lincoln had written and paid for in his own blood. If you have never done so, go read the speach, as I think every American has a moral obligation to do so. I have included it for your convenience "I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.
Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipatio...n Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.
But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.
In a sense we have come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds." But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check — a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quick sands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.
It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.
But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.
We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. They have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.
As we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied, as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating "For Whites Only". We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.
I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.
Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.
I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of f...ormer slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.
I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.
This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.
This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with a new meaning, "My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring."
And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!
Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado!
Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California!
But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia!
Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee!
Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.
And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!" Now if you have read that, you can come to glimpse the man who was martyred on the hotel balcony in Mephis. He was one of those great human beings who come along only once in centuries (Martin LUther in the Protestant reformation). And he is responsible for the fruit of so many changes we enjoy today. We have a responsibility to uphold that. For the little white girls and little black girls of tomorrow. [more]
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