Friday, April 25, 2008

TIME Magazine slips inconvenient truths past it's readers


An absolute cracker of an editorial in a business paper that I picked up while in a recent visit to San Francisco.


The paper gives a more enlightened and investigative view rather than the left wing drivel that comes from the likes of the New York Times and Washington Post.


On issues like so-called climate change the papers writers are spot on. In reference to the latest dross written in this weeks TIME magazine the magazines authors leave out the inconvenient truth(thanks Al) about an article they wrote in 1974 about an impending ice age. They do not reference THAT article in their 2008 diatribe.


Politicians in New Zealand and globally would do well to pick up and read such fact based writing, for the fairy dust stuff they are basing economically disastrous rorts such as carbon trading and associated taxes is only going to see an end to our way of life as we know it.

Food shortages because of wasteful and environmentally unfriendly bio-fuel production is only the start.



By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY Posted Friday, April 18, 2008 4:20 PM PT


Media: Time calls green "the new red, white and blue" and likens global warming to the fight against Nazism and fascism. As it insults World War II vets, the magazine seeks to impose a tyranny all its own.

We never cease to be amazed by the inability of the left to feel shame and its lack of reverence for America and those who defend its freedoms, including the right to be stupid. The cover of the April 21 issue of Time, taking the famous Joe Rosenthal photo of Marines planting our flag on the blood-soaked island of Iwo Jima and replacing our flag with a tree, qualifies for obscenity of the year.

It echoes the greenie theme first advanced by Al Gore in his book "Earth In The Balance" that the internal combustion engine is the greatest threat in the history of mankind. Gore and Bill Clinton have both said that global warming is ultimately a greater threat than terrorism.
That, admitted Time managing editor Richard Stengel, was the thinking behind the cover story. "One of the things we do in this story," he said last week on MSNBC, "is we say there needs to be an effort along the lines of preparing for World War II to combat global warming and climate change."


This trivializing of the sacrifice of American blood and treasure to defend freedom ignores the fact that in World War II we faced a real enemy with a terrible agenda. The bombs that fell on Pearl Harbor were quite real, not the output of some badly fed computer model.
"Global warming may or may not be a significant threat to the United States," Tim Holbert, a spokesman for the American Veterans Center, told the Business and Media Institute (BMI): "The Japanese Empire on February 1945, however, certainly was, and this photo trivializes the most recognizable moment of one of the bloodiest battles in U.S. history."


It was not that long ago that the media, including Time, was singing a different tune and waging a different war.


An article in its June 24, 1974, issue entitled "Another Ice Age?" told of how, "when meteorologists take an average of temperatures around the globe, they find that the atmosphere has been gradually cooler for the past three decades."


Time spoke then of a "global climatic upheaval" and "climatological Cassandras who are becoming increasingly apprehensive, for the weather aberrations they are studying may be the harbinger of another ice age."


Reputable scientists and satellite and other observations have noted another cooling period under way since 1998. Declining solar activity in the current cycle correlates with other cool periods in Earth's history. It ties in perfectly with climate history that shows the warming and cooling of Earth is a natural and cyclical process.


A man who knows a little about fighting totalitarianism, Vaclav Klaus, president of the Czech Republic, wrote in the Financial Times last year:


"As someone who lived under communism for most of his life, I feel obliged to say that I see the biggest threat to freedom, democracy, the market economy and prosperity now in ambitious environmentalism, not communism. This ideology wants to replace the free and spontaneous evolution of mankind by a sort of central (now global) planning."


Lt. John Keith Wells, leader of the platoon that raised the flags on Mt. Suribachi, told BMI: "That global warming is the biggest joke I've ever known." He knows a real enemy and a real threat when he sees one.


Related Political Animal reading
Kyoto critic comes to town - Sunday Star Times
Ponder the Maunder - 15 Yr old Kristin Byrne explodes the GW myth

c Political Animal 2008

Notes from San Francisco


Just some observations before I kick off writing on the Share Investor Blog again next week.

I have spent the last week and a bit touring around San Francisco and attending the wedding of my Texas outlaws.

I have been commenting for several months on the nature of the credit crunch, economic conditions and things sub prime and it is interesting to see and hear the reality of things when you actually get to speak to the people that it is most directly affecting.

The majority of individuals that I spoke to were largely uninterested in talking about important issues like the coming election or the state of the economy but those who were seemed unconcerned about a probable recession and generally viewed such things with a stoic matter of fact nature.

Getting on with the business at hand seemed the order of the day.

Talking to Chuck from Manhattan, a real estate investor with years of experience, on the airport shuttle to our hotel in Geary Street, I was engaged by the positive attitude to his investment outlook. He was in San Francisco to do business and back in New York he was buying commercial property with a view to a long term gain by buying run down properties on Long Island and refurbishing for higher rentals.

Americas favorite pass time, shopping, seemed in good health in San Fran, as I imagined it would be, and tourists like my good self, from inside and outside America, were spending bucket loads of money on food, goods and services.

On the unfortunate side,depending on which side you are on, one of my Texas outlaws has just spent US$220,000.00 on a foreclosed house in Dallas that cost the previous owners $325,000.00. She has a 30 year mortgage at 5.75%! Kind of puts New Zealand rates of nearly 10% in the shade huh?

In a related matter, it seems the sub-prime lesson hasn't been learnt yet. Glancing at bank windows with "sweetheart" interest rates of 0% for business loans left me with a cold uncomfortable feeling. Like the sub prime loans for mortgages the low rates were for a limited time, after which more substantial rates would kick in.

I know there is cheap state funded credit out there but I'm just hoping the borrowers are such that they can afford to repay their loans. We don't want to be re-visiting a similar credit blowout story a few years from now.

Finally I'm heartened and disgusted at the same time by the huge numbers of "homeless" people begging for money on the streets on San Francisco.

Heartened because at least Americans don't hide their indigent by handing out welfare and disgusted because, well, these people are walking the streets and have no shame anymore.

American capitalism at its best, or worst, depending on ones world view.

Oh, the Golden Gate was lovely...Dude.

Related Share Investor reading


State backed Sub-prime Mortgages in NZ a recipe for disaster

Current credit crunch a blessing in disguise
What happened to risk?

c Share Investor 2008

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Helen Clark: Ian Wishart's "Absolute Power" book

Absolute Power - coming soon, pre-order now for guaranteed delivery

www.helenclarkbook.com

Looking for Ian Wisharts full account of the donations for passports scandal involving Yang Liu, Shane Jones and Dover Samuels, currently engulfing the Labour Party in October 2008? 

Please go here.

Related Political Animal reading

Labour's State control out of control

Trevor Mallards anti Violence advert
Sign anti smacking petition
Anti smacking law puts young boy at risk
Electoral Finance Bill: The purpose is clear
Ian Wishart: Passport Scandal- two ministers, one MP implicated

I must have been asleep over the last 3 weeks since this wee ditty was announced.

Now I'm not a big Ian Wishart fan but I'm guessing that this is going to have a decent sort of impact when it comes out and as Wishart has said in his statement below he might be lucky not to have an injunction served on it by the great leader herself.

Having said that the book's contents may have me dancing and singing like some demented Labour Party member with a fetish for Kenny Rogers and John Key and I could well celebrate with a cheeseburger and Coke, before the Food Police pass new sweeping powers to stop me having a coronary.

On the other hand I could get so angry with malice over the mere thought of the cover photo of the beautiful leader and throw an item of clothing at my child, get arrested and charged with assault under the new anti smacking law and then have the case thrown out of court.

Its serious stuff and deserves far more serious consideration than I can give it in my present mood but this is probably all the subject of the book requires.



COMING SOON: PRE-ORDER THIS TITLE NOW OR RISK MISSING OUT! JUST DAYS AWAY

*APRIL 21*

Ian Wishart's major new title, "ABSOLUTE POWER: The Helen Clark Years" is coming soon. We used to joke “buy it before they ban it”. But now the Electoral Finance Act has been passed. All we can say is, if you don’t pre-order a copy for Day One, you might not get a chance on Day Two.

SEE THE ONLINE TV COMMERCIAL FOR ABSOLUTE POWER BY CLICKING HERE


c Political Animal 2008

Monday, April 14, 2008

Why did you buy that stock ? [Goodman Fielder]


To be honest I bought Goodman Fielder[GFF] because I noticed just about everything I shoved in my fat mouth was made by the company.

Everything from Vogel's bread, Olivani olive spread Tararua milk and cheese products and a whole range of food for breakfast lunch and dinner.

I thought before buying, that this company has a huge clutch of branded, staple, food products that New Zealanders and Australians have grown up with and people simply keep buying them!

What more could you want from a business?

That is pretty much the the main reason why I bought the company. Goodman's dominant brands give it the "economic moat" advantage that Warren Buffett talks incessantly about and the fact that the company, what it sells and how it functions, is very easy to understand, puts it above other more complicated industries, whose balance sheets are only decipherable by specialist forensic accountants with xray vision.


Why did you buy that stock?

Why did you buy that stock? [Kiwi Income Property Trust]
Why did you buy that stock? [Hallenstein Glasson]
Why did you buy that stock? [Briscoe Group]
Why did you buy that stock? [Fisher & Paykel Healthcare]
Why did you buy that stock? [Pumpkin Patch Ltd]
Why did you buy that stock? [Ryman Healthcare]
Why did you buy that stock? [Michael Hill International]
Why did you buy that stock? [Mainfreight]
Why did you buy that stock? [The Warehouse]
Why did you buy that stock? [Goodman Fielder]
Why did you buy that stock? [Auckland Airport]
Why did you buy that stock? [Sky City Entertainment]

Discuss Goodman Fielder at Share Investor Forum


Goodman's competitive advantage over its competition lies in its ability to leverage off those strong brands, excel during good economic times and plod boringly through the tough years, as we are having now-we all have to eat and that will never change.

Going back to Buffett again, he has a massive holding in Kraft Foods[KFT], a company similar in its branded food focus to Goodman Fielder, but alot bigger of course and he has been adding to his holding over the last year as the stock price tumbles.

Would I buy the stock again today? of course, I still hold it and have done for around 4 years and have been adding to my portfolio over the last few months.

The only crimp for the short to medium term are commodity prices like wheat and raw dairy ingredients, which add to retail product cost but are not always able to be passed on to the consumer.


Related Share Investor reading


Goodman Fielder hit by high commodity prices
Goodman Fielder a Hedge against an economic slump
Goodman Fielder pie gets bigger


Related reading

Kraft good in a recession -Everything Warren Buffett
Goodman Fielder - Corporate Website


c Share Investor 2008