http://weshouldlive.com/blog Ben Bateman's Blog Mon, 21 Apr 2008 02:55:36 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en As the Democrats tear each other apart over their primary, fate has delivered to those of us on the Right another unexpected present. You've probably heard about the fundamentalist Mormon cult that was raided by Texas Rangers. The whole story stank from the beginning, and the authorities wildly overreacted. ... http://weshouldlive.com/blog/archives/281 So sad: An Italian woman artist who was hitch-hiking to the Middle East dressed as a bride to promote world peace has been found murdered in Turkey. The naked body of Giuseppina Pasqualino di Marineo, 33, known as Pippa Bacca, was found in bushes near the northern city of Gebze on Friday. She ... http://weshouldlive.com/blog/archives/280 After decades of openly hating all things masculine, American universities are shocked to discover that young men have become less enthusiastic about higher education. Actually, the academicians haven't yet figured out that enthusiasm might be the problem. In their view, it's just that young men are slacker sexist ... http://weshouldlive.com/blog/archives/278 The Far East is apparently the world's epicenter of anti-obesity mania. Last fall we saw a story about an immigrant to New Zealand whose wife was refused entry into the country because she failed a Body Mass Index test. Now Japan has raised the stakes in the contest ... http://weshouldlive.com/blog/archives/276 at least not in the sense that the author of the WWII-era song meant it.  Via Ace of Spades: UK Bus Driver Kicks Passengers Off Bus...So He Can Pray! The white Islamic convert rolled out his prayer mat in the aisle and knelt on the floor facing Mecca. Passengers watched in amazement as ... http://weshouldlive.com/blog/archives/275 From WSJ.com: Foreclosure on Las Vegas Casino to Begin The developer of the Cosmopolitan Resort Casino, a $3.9 billion condo-hotel complex on the Las Vegas Strip, has been notified by its primary lender that it will begin foreclosure proceedings. The move by Deutsche Bank AG, the lender on a $760 million senior loan, ... http://weshouldlive.com/blog/archives/273 If you live long enough and pay attention to the news long enough, these sorts of stories become routine: Series of blunders turned the plastic bag into global villain: Scientists and environmentalists have attacked a global campaign to ban plastic bags which they say is based on flawed science and exaggerated ... http://weshouldlive.com/blog/archives/272 The People's Cube has an entertaining quiz that asks you to guess which socialist uttered a given quote.  It's not too hard to guess most of the right answers, just based on the differences in language from past to present.  Be sure to click on all the wrong answers, too.  ... http://weshouldlive.com/blog/archives/271 Global warming is dying.  Mother Gaia keeps refusing to provide the eco-fanatics with the tropical apocalypse that they've been dreaming for so long: Madison, Wisconsin just finished its second snowiest December on record. Temperatures in Siberia are expected to reach -67 degrees Fahrenheit, which is too cold even for that region's hardy ... http://weshouldlive.com/blog/archives/270 The bears are in charge, folks. Yesterday the market was at a turning point.  It could have rallied, maybe, if the latest economic statistics had been better, or if Fed chairman Bernanke had said something different in his speech today.  But it didn't work out that way.  Instead we got a ... http://weshouldlive.com/blog/archives/269 It was a wild day. We started with a lower open, rallied up for just a few minutes, then crashed down until about 10:50 EST.  Some sort of economic report came out better than expected, and this set the buyers in motion.  Dammit.  The market rallied up up up until about ... http://weshouldlive.com/blog/archives/268 Mike Nifong has filed for bankruptcy, buried under $180 million worth of civil claims brought by the young men whose lives he attempted to ruin for political gain. I'm not sure how much good it will do him. Last I checked, liability for willful and malicious torts is not dischargeable ... http://weshouldlive.com/blog/archives/267 It's nearly impossible to predict which technology will most shape our lives in the future, and even more difficult to predict how it will change them.  Here's one of my top contenders: Microsoft is developing Big Brother-style software capable of remotely monitoring a worker’s productivity, physical wellbeing and competence. The Times has ... http://weshouldlive.com/blog/archives/266 Investopedia doesn't really cover this, so let's start with a brief introduction to candlestick patterns.  It is said that for centuries the Japanese used this system of recording prices, especially in their rice markets.  Supposedly they noticed various configurations of candlesticks as correlating with subsequent price movements.  As you might expect ... http://weshouldlive.com/blog/archives/265 General advice for the beginner on how to go about learning technical trading. When I started this blog two years ago, I was passionate about improving the quality of my writing. As part of that project, I had the idea of doing a series of "How To Write" posts, working ... http://weshouldlive.com/blog/archives/264 We had a strong down day, but not a full-fledged panic. China turned down Citigroup's plea for funds, though maybe China already sank all their available cash into other troubled financial companies. Other governments in the Middle East and Southeast Asia grabbed some bargains on Citigroup stock, but its earnings ... http://weshouldlive.com/blog/archives/263 I haven't yet written about Canada's Human Rights Commissions (HRCs), because I haven't thought of anything interesting or witty to say that hasn't been said a dozen times elsewhere.  These Commissions are kangaroo courts set up by liberals to harass conservatives.  Until recently, they were a tool for activist liberals ... http://weshouldlive.com/blog/archives/261 Today was a tough day for me.  I stayed out of the market, and tomorrow I'll know if that was wise. Here was my temptation: As I mentioned earlier, Citigroup (C) reports its earnings tomorrow, along with Merrill Lynch (MER).  Merrill Lynch is probably the more familiar name to the public, ... http://weshouldlive.com/blog/archives/260 We got our bounce. All the indexes are showing higher daily highs and lows over yesterday. Today's highs were in the same general range as the highs from day before yesterday. In a less scary market I would be tempted to anticipate a few days' worth of bull market ... http://weshouldlive.com/blog/archives/259 We finally got a rally after eight trading days of neutral or down trading. Expect a few days of buying interest driving prices up slowly, then another crash. I expect resistance on the Dow between 13,000 and 13,150, resistance on the S&P 500 (SPX) at 1440 to 1460, and resistance ... http://weshouldlive.com/blog/archives/258 Remember The New Republic?  It's the bi-monthly political magazine that disgraced itself so severely in the Scott Beauchamp affair.  For those fortunate enough to have missed that mess last summer, TNR published an article in which a soldier serving in Iraq confirmed all the darkest stereotypes that the left holds ... http://weshouldlive.com/blog/archives/257 Prices bounce at support---except when they don't. This is the lesson of today's market panic. The market was actually moving pretty normally until about 2:30 EST, when the CEO of AT&T said that some of its business lines were softening. Then it was straight down from 12,850 to a ... http://weshouldlive.com/blog/archives/256 One of my New Year's resolutions is to start blogging consistently about technical trading, which takes up much of my time these days. I'm thinking of two lines of posts: One will be a simple diary about what the market did and what it's likely to do. The ... http://weshouldlive.com/blog/archives/255 I try not to link to everything that Mark Steyn writes, but this article is exceptional: Just for a moment, let us take it as read, as Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins and the other bestselling atheists insist, that what happened in Bethlehem two millennia is a lot of mumbo-jumbo. As ... http://weshouldlive.com/blog/archives/254