I won't aergue with you bear, i get the feeling you don't ever like anything, so be it.

Whatever gave you that idea? I like lots of stuff. I really like music - all kinds of music...

Hell, I even like Country and Western:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gzkllCIyww

I don't agree with much you have to say but don't squawk about it.

I don't expect you to agree with what I say. After all, I am being intentionally obtuse. Not without reason mind you. My goal is to shake things up a bit and see if we can't get a broader mandate going that hopefully will attract some of the old posters back to this board.

The original idea was a forum where virtually any topic could be discussed, although investment themes were the main item. We had a lot of very intelligent, focused people on the old board, but of course that happened for a reason - there was a lot of money on the table, which does tend to focus your attention.

As much of that spirit as possible was retained, but exhaustion had already set in for many. I know of several who dropped out of investing altogether because of what happened. Part of the motive for this board was to try and build a community where people could share not just investment ideas, but personal experience and advice. There's a lot of traps a person can step into in this game. Learning how to avoid them was also part of the mandate.

One of the biggest traps out there is the Appeal To Authority. This one's buried really deep in the human psyche and is hard to root out. Basically, people are social animals - we need each other to survive. No one want to be outcast - it threatens survival at a fundamental level. And so we seek agreement - some common theme or ideal we can all work to and feel comfortable with.

That in itself is not the problem. Without agreement we'd get nowhere. The problem stems from a basic fact of human psychology: there are people among us who essentially have no conscience, and who'll do anything they can get away with to further their own narrow interests. The clinical definition is "psychopathy" though not in the Hannibal Lecter sense. The garden variety psychopaths are much harder to detect and do far more damage. How do they attain that ability? We allow it. By believing in them. By accepting their Higher Authority. It can be by virtue of wealth, political power, religious persuasion - anything that works. Their motive is not money or things. Their only motive is power. Power over other people.

This can be mundane, in the form of relatively harmless cults that only take your money, or it can be horrific in the form of marching millions off to gas chambers. The underlying motives are the same. The difference is a matter of degree. How much we allow.

Someone on here suggested I was a skeptic. Damn right I am. I question anyone that claims to have my best interests at heart when I can't see a clear motive. If I warn you that a bus is about to hit you, my motive is clear. I don't want to see you hurt. But if I'm warning you on one hand about impending doom, while stretching out the other for a donation to support the cause, then I have to ask myself.... what cause is that? Keeping you in bling. and 3 squares? It's even worse when the claim is to make you rich. Greed and fear. Whichever one you're most open to is the one that gets worked.

There's a lot of clever people working this grift. It's an American Tradition. I'd like to think we have some traditions of our own down here on 300 street, like say... running them out on a rail. But this being the 21st Century and all, we have to be a bit more subtle, so mockery and derision are the next best thing.

It's not like I'm going after the gold bugs for any particular reason - that just happens to be the current grift. If this were 1999, I'd be mocking Abby Joseph Cohen and Henry Blodget. Cramer I wouldn't even bother with. Anyone who listens to him gets exactly what they deserve.

But don't take me as any kind of authority on the subject. All I'm asking is that people take a close look at what THEY believe, not what *I* believe. Ask yourself: why do I believe what I believe? Question Authority, but at the same time, question yourself. That's all.

ebear