Ruth

FYI Lindsay Perigo has been under attack from quite a few religious sites here in NZ recently. Sites include the Odious Flannigan's, NZ Conservative Wingnuts, and a National Front type site which I will not link to - Crusader Rabbit. Mr Perigo has written some great stuff recently regarding the evils and anti-freedom nature of Christianity, so credit where credit is due.

As my index predictions won me a lot of money on financial fora in 2009 I thought I would run this up the flagpole here for a bit of fun. I predict Dow 12,000 by close of business 31 Dec 2010. No doubt my nemesis, the clip-on tie wearing Gregster on SOLO, is calling Gold 5000 and DOW 3000. As Warren Buffet said "No one has made money in the long run by betting against America."

Thanks for your replies - I'm still looking. Middle Eastern cuisine seems to need specific ingredients which are not too easy to get here - preserved lemon, saffron powder and so on. I found a large tagine at the weekend - unfortunately it is not from North Africa but from France, and it is slip-cast instead of hand-made, but never mind! I've not tasted camel - but have tasted crocodile. It has a 'muddy' taste as you would expect. Goat is popular with the pacific island communities here as well - usually curried.

Adonis I have posted a question for you on the cookery forum if you can help me. Thanks.

I was wondering if Adonis could tell me where ras el hanout is sold in Auckland NZ. Also can one buy a large tagine anywhere in Auckland? I am a keen cook and a big fan of 'Moorish' flavours, including Claudia Roden's excellent book "Tamarind and Saffron". Thanks.

Here's some good news from NZ MSM: Pakeha is a European/White New Zealander. Whether any of the next generation take on any libertarian ideas remains to be seen - in my opinion there is no such thing as an Islamic Libertarian, just as there is no such thing as a Christian Libertarian - quite a few push that particular barrow as well. But the research shows Muslims here are certainly not "filthy savages" as some would have you believe. Link: http://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/3216195/Young-Muslims-adapt-well-to-NZ

Brant it surely hasn't taken you this long to figure that out? Gregster abused me back in Feb/March 2009 when I was buying US shares, calling DOW 10,000 and saying the stimulus would 'work' - calling me a mad bitch and being generally profane. Happily success is my best revenge as I have had the best year ever. Many go on about Ayn Rand's faults - to my mind her only fault was convincing clip-on-tie middle management dimwits like Gregster that they were all suppressed Warren Buffet's, Beethoven's and Einsteins who would flourish but for the awful state that suppressed them. Such creeps infest every walkway and underpass of life - business, and government - grabbing secretaries' backsides and so on...

The problem is fundamentalism - whether that be Islamic fundamentalism, Jewish fundamentalism, or Christian fundamentalism. Fundamentalists are not our allies and we should not pretend that they are somehow 'liberal'. It is most unfortunate that Adonis has had such an abusive welcome to NZ and to Libertarianz. In my view anyone who comes with peaceful intent and does not burden the taxpayer is welcome in this country. It is also worth noting that US interests here have not been threatened by Muslims or 'Islamists' over the last few years - in fact the threats and security alerts come from the redneck demographic who fantasise about assassinating Obama....

Not on topic, but I want to say that Perigo has been noted by the US Embassy here in NZ as a possible security threat after his "Shoot Obama" encouraging assassination comment. I had not seen it before, but Scherk reposted it. So who hates America?

Well if Mr Perigo gives 'Gregster' a serve I am all for it. This vulgar man called me a 'mad bitch' and all sorts simply because he disagreed with my correct prediction on the DOW. He is the most gratuitously insulting individual I have ever come across on the internet. His ugly words match his face.

It's really not even cultish behavior, though that has been examined (and I do believe there are cult of personality Rand folks, but they are insignificant). I'm not even sure it is tribal, because it does not have enough basic drive to it to really qualify as that.I agree with that. It's really too bad that Perigo has become what he is (and he never used to be like this - I have the first Free Radical to prove it), because there's genuine joy that he is missing. Not the faux joy of mean-spirited sneering, but the real joy of seeing someone else achieving and finding happiness. Let's face it: You can't enjoy your own victimhood unless everyone else is at least as miserable as you are. This attitude, which is childish in the extreme, is supported by a carefully constructed online environment of sychophantic commenters.

He is explicitly saying how Rand's ideas can help. This implies respect for the reader because it implies that the reader already bears a respectable mind with respectable thoughts in it without any previous input from him (or Rand). He is essentially telling readers that they are good and he knows a way to help them improve on that good. Not that they are evil for wishing others well. Agree. "You are all dumb" has often been the catch-cry of modern day libertarians/Objectivists. Brook is changing that. Certainly Rand never thought the populace was stupid.

This was excellent news Michael! The right- wingers (eg Malkin and co) have been in a spin about this one. Of course these pirates have been terrorising shipping lanes around the Horn of Africa for years, and you never heard a peep out of these clowns when Bush was in charge. Once again, the haters are left with egg on their faces. But it's another week, and I am sure the wingnuts will find something else to get all fired up about...:-)

Disrespect is an appropriate word, I think. People should be praised for being excellent at what they do. At heart I don't believe Perigo is a rude, ill-mannered man - but I may be wrong. He is certainly less rude than some of his fans. For example I will not engage with anyone who swears at me. He has never done that to my knowledge. I think a lot of his online hostility stems from frustration -- Rand's ideas have not been able to gain any significant traction here in NZ. I suspect a steady diet of National Review and Fox News has also been responsible for the doomsaying outlook we see now. And of course some people are not happy unless they have something/someone to hate. Obama currently fits the bill. A friend of mine who is a technical stockmarket analyst wrote a piece about group think. He wrote it about stocks of course, but I think it is relevant to life in general: See how the posters influenced each other with their comments - threads become support groups for those that have all made the same mistake. The effects of "group think" are all too evident as they lead each other down the garden path. These "toxic" threads share many similarities and are quite easily identified. Here are a few pointers :- Watch for a preponderance of overly loyal extremely positive contributions. Any negative posters are "run off the thread". Look out for multitudinous "cut and paste" entries of scarcely relevant articles from the net. Beware of threads where anyone posting a negative comment is personally attacked. Dissenting views should be encouraged, not rubbished. We learn nothing from those that agree with us. I used to get a bit 'obsessed' with certain people - but it is an energy sink Michael. Really they don't matter, and their opinions don't matter. Somewhere along the line Rand's adage 'Thou shalt think' became "Thou shalt think like me". Being proven correct and being successful in what one does is what is important.

Is there any segment of society actually preparing to "go Galt" in real life, or is this all just a lot of wind? The idea that in a capitalist system, the exodus of a large chunk of the executive class would do anything but open up a huge market for new entrepreneurs to seize the opportunity and take their place is pretty laughable. And most of the REAL capitalists know this, and would never do such a thing, which leaves a little group with pundit jobs who aren't about to influence anything. Anyway, Doug Mataconis at Below the Beltway says: Over at The Liberty Papers, Stephen Littau presents the definitive refutation of the conservative appropriation of Ayn Rand’s archetype: John Galt is not someone who merely caps the limits on his productivity to avoid being pushed into a higher tax bracket. What Galt does in Atlas Shrugged is much more radical: going on strike by refusing to produce anything for the benefit of society. Galt seeks out other high achievers and convinces them to do the same and help him build a society of their own. (…) To be invited to Galt’s Gulch one has to demonstrate that s/he has rejected the false virtues of altruism, collectivism, and mysticism (religion) and embrace his virtues of selfishness, reason, objective reality, and capitalism. While Malkin and Co. pay lip service to capitalism (especially when their people are not in control of the levers of power), their remaining values run counter to that of Galt’s. Is it not these very people who wish to erect religious monuments on government property, demand that Intelligent Design (Creationism) be taught alongside evolution in government schools, encourage individual sacrifice for the “greater good,” and wish to ratchet up the War on (Some) Drugs despite the evidence that the policy is completely counterproductive? As Stephen notes, the one good thing about the attention being paid to Atlas Shrugged at this point is that it might cause some people to read the book for themselves and discover what it’s really all about. Of course, when they do, they’ll find out that the Malkin’s and Limbaugh’s of the world never would’ve even been considered for residence in Galt’s Gulch. I totally agree with this, which is why SOLO's (and particularly Perigo's) drooling admiration for Limbaugh, Malkin, Palin and other anti-freedom wingnut conservatives is so destructive to Objectivism.

Hi Michael, Believe me I wish Austrian economics was seen as valid. I spent a year writing to newspapers about Mises and so on - all to no avail because reality got in the way. Perigo and his sycophants hate me for it, but I tell the truth. My family has had over 40 decades experience in high level finance, so we know what we are talking about. Both as a short term policy to save the economy, and as a long term strategy around which government and society were constructed to provide stability, the New Deal was seen by the people as an unqualified success. For their opposition to it, the Republicans were banished from legislative control for almost 50 years. Obama's stimulus package will be the same. Austrian claims that his package would delay recovery are patently false as we see recovery starting already. IMO Republicans will suffer the same fate as they did in the Roosevelt era. I may be wrong, but I doubt it.

Whether they are "discredited" with some undefined groups of persons - and whether their Bear Market position is profitable -- is irrelevant to the validity of their science. No it isn't. Reality is the final arbiter and final judge of their 'science'. If one is consistently wrong in the real world - not some ivory tower where results are not important- one is rightly discredited and sent packing. Human beings find bad news appealing - I can only assume this is because life keeps getting better and better - just look at life expectancy. Probably the bottom line for myself is that politics simply does not affect my daily life - be it left or right in the US or here in NZ. As a very wise libertarian said to me a few years ago " People are not interested in ideas - they just want to be told over and over again that they are right."

I would advise against buying gold for medium to long term hold -historically metals are one of the worst performing asset classes - they yield no dividend and are highly volatile. Most big US banks closed their gold books long ago. We are currently looking at one of the most impressive rallies in history! I'm trying to gauge the strength of this last rally... DOW closed up 500 at 7776 this morning breaking through the 7450 (7500) resistance. The next barrier for the upward DOW is that massive resistance band 7900-8500. Is the DOW strong enough to break through this 7900-8500...My initial thought is "no way", but with this massive 500 leap through the 7500 resistance area I'm now in doubt. It's very exciting for me here in NZ - I've been scratching around finding every last cent to invest in the hugely oversold US market over the last 2 months. Our market here is way too small and too easily manipulated. She's a big ship in the US - reminds me of the saying " Be careful sitting in a small boat with an elephant".

Congratulations Michael - I'm sure this new venture will go well for you. Always great to read about a Rand admirer who is not just peering through the slats of his shed, muttering as life's opportunities pass by. . .

Agree with most of your previous post. There will be no nationalisation and gov will exit their bank position in due course. I do believe austrian economics will end up rather discredited as the gov will take credit for the coming recovery. It's worth reminding people that mises org are permabears - everything is a catastrophy of biblical proportions be it High dollar, low dollar, deficits, surpluses - if you go back though the archives you will find they have a permanent forecasting position and nothing has ever turned out as bad as they predicted. In fact a friend of mine lost his house, boat, wife, and ended up in a trailer park about 6 years ago after investing on the basis of their forecasts. And if one had invested with Peter Schiff (who is being feted all over the place) over the past year they would have lost 75% of their money. The market is always right, and as Buffett says no one ever made money in the long run by betting against America. I disagree that it is a dangerous time to own stocks for investment - I am looking to the long term and average 150% return so far is serious money. It is not a strategy for the risk averse - maybe I should have made that clear, but there is nothing to fear as long as one has firm stops in place. As I have said before, I most certainly do not feel guilty about making money on the market. George Cordero wrote once that under-achieving objectivists are fond of lecturing those of genuine achievement. Certainly the pit-bull like aggression of some has been disgraceful. Go in peace.

Thanks - it's not something I usually boast about - I mentioned it on SOLO and thought it was a good news story - silly me! Really the abuse I copped about it is an elaborate philosophical justification for petty jealously. I'm not going to stew in misery at home because Bush/Obama are not Austrian economists. Good evening to you.

Thank you Michael. I agree with everything you said - and yes - those who play derivatives and other financial products do not meet 'producer' criteria in my book. Some people seem to object to the fact that I have been making money in the recession - especially in bank stock. So we have complaints about 'parasites' and so on, yet I make money and am a Communist because I take advantage of market conditions! Some of these men have foul mouths, which is tiresome. I am unsure why they have to resort to profanity.

I think you are very disappointed we are not seeing DJI3000 Brant. Facts are very irritating things. No doubt you would think differently if Bush was still president. Anyway I'm sick of misogynistic, abusive Objectivist views which are not grounded in reality.

Producers of the world, unite?!!! I would like 'producer' to be defined. Certainly Wall St 'businessmen' do not produce anything. I mentioned on a 'economic armageddon' or some such thread that the rhetoric resembles that of Soviet Russia. As for the 'going Galt' nonsense - it's nice to see some people feel so threatened by Obama that they have to retreat into this fantasy of taking their ball and going home. Where the John Galt metaphor falls flat is that Galt actually had something useful that he was going to withhold from society. I thought Perigo's essay was rather good overall.

I think quite a few people here - and on SOLO - have an unhappy regard for the opinions of others. I don't know who posts here and on SOLO - and I care even less. Probably Perigo feels the same. The Obamanoia irritates me - but at least Perigo doesn't go searching the world for bad news everyday, or choose his friends and enemies on the basis of their political affiliations.