David Carraturo's Blog, page 7

Tuesday Thoughts

Oh the outrage that is building since the beginning of the school year. New healthier eating standards are now in place at schools as a result of Michelle Obama receiving her request from Congress to pass a nutrition bill into law during the lame duck session in 2010. Passed into law in late 2010, it gave the U.S. Department of Agriculture broad new powers to regulate school lunches. The initial brush back has been wasted food and angry, hungry children.

Give me a break. Please, as a father of three school aged daughter’s, let me monitor their caloric intake and do what a parent should do – make sure they are growing up healthy in mind and spirit. This is a function of the parent, not the government and school bureaucracy. My kids are not the best eaters and I know darn well that if they are forced to eat the healthy fare in the gourmet school lunch line then they simply would not eat. In fact, my kids are such finicky eaters that they have been brownbagging it since the early days and they stuff their lunch with specific sandwiches as well as their drink and precious snacks. I am fine with this as the flip side is that they are all active. Even though they do not eat correctly – by the government standards – they are all healthy, thin and athletic.

Robust physical activity is the key component to a healthy lifestyle for children. I look back to my childhood and a broader measure of my eating and exercise habits over the past 47 plus years and exercise has been the driving force behind much of my life at every stage, not healthy eating. I love snacks, and even today (literally)for breakfast I regularly partake in chocolate chip muffins. In the aggregate I eat 2-3 meals every day in large portions and I crave my 1-2 snacks a day (cookies, candy bars, you name it…) and guess what, I have remained in a steady band of weight for most of my adult life. I may tip the scale at Christmas time at 195, but I also tip the scale around the Fourth of July at 185. I love to eat and I would be a fool to count calories, starve myself and dissect a menu when I go to a restaurant. I would much rather indulge as I like, unbutton my pants when I push away from a 2 hour Sunday feast and not play favorites at dessert time by not trying at least all of the different treats present on the table.

As a static activity, my type of eating is not acceptable and I would be a potential contestant on the Biggest Loser if I ate like this without exercising. However, that is the point, I do exercise and for as much as I love to eat, I also like to sweat and exercise 6-8 hours a week. Balance in life is the key and your body and mind will organically guide you to the optimum mix. The government did not tell me this, I figured it out all by myself.

Now, let’s get back to the nanny state of monitoring school cafeteria’s. Stop the cafeteria monitoring, you can not control it and the kids will find a way to eat their favorites and maybe even more. Shift the focus to the gymnasium. From what I see, gym class in school is a joke and it probably more of a cause for childhood obesity than unhealthy eating. Forty five minutes to an hour of exercise three-four days a week should be mandatory. There I said it, I do want the schools to treat gym class like they would physics – push the kids to perform to peak levels. I have seen gym glasses with the “Stackers” game as an activity and I also know that if a kid simply shows up they will pass the class. This is unacceptable. Resources should be focused on upgrading gymnasiums to be more like health clubs. How many schools have treadmills, rowers, stair climbers for multiple children to use at once? My guess is not many and the inventory of equipment the schools do have are subpar and not maintained properly. How many physical education teachers have ever taught an aerobics class before, how many look like they have ever worked out before? Forget volleyball, softball and traditional sports that the children play in recreational and leagues after the school day is complete. Focus gym class on healthclub activities and do not pass the child if they are not sweating head to toe at the end of the class.

Like many bad activities in life (smoking, drug use, drinking and gambling to name a few) good activities are also addictive. I would much rather have my child obsess over doing 500 crunchies or running four miles in 36 minutes than overdosing on drugs or binge drinking.

Children absorb all they see and will look to emulate the behavior of their parents before they decide to gravitate to darker activities. If the parent is responsible, they will do some basic functions. Number one, they will have dinner as a family, not scattered so the family unit can be together at some point of the day. Second, they will also not partake in bad activities, so stop smoking, drinking excessively, cursing, and gambling around them. Number three, be involved with them when they do want to try a sport or activity. Dance is a sport, cheerleading is a sport, theater club is a sport, even walking is a sport. If you sweat during it and you are not sitting on a couch doing it, it is exercise. If the kids are active, do not go crazy or overboard about what they eat or how good or bad they are in the activity they do. A tiny fraction of kids will play a professional sports or compete in the Olympics. Let kids be kids. Do not stress them out of they perform poorly or even quit a particular activity. Most likely, in a short time, they will gravitate to participate in another sport or activity. One of my daughters played softball, but her head was clearly not in it, however while briefly playing tennis in her younger days, she eventually gravitated back to the sport on her own and has been playing regularly since the sixth grade. I never pushed her in any direction but did support her in everything she did.

It is the responsibility of the parent to make sure their child is leading a healthy life. A lot of times this is not the case and quite frankly our society provides very little incentive or obstacles for children and adults to lead a healthy life. I find it ironic that in a day and age where there has never been more beautiful people (face and body), with people going to health clubs and partaking in the latest and greatest training program in what appears record levels, calorie and fat content disclosed on every item eaten and drank, the population of our country has nevertheless gotten even more obese. Heck, correct me if I am wrong but I believe the USA is the only country where our poor people are obese and not emaciated.

Clearly the message and infrastructure to live a healthy life are out there, but still the incentive to comply, at all ages, is not there. How does this problem get fixed? Health insurance should take the model of car insurance and reward good behavior and punish bad behavior. This now becomes a parent-adult decision. Would they rather pay $8,000/year for health insurance or $20,000/year. Honestly, I could care less what people do in their free time, but if it ends up resulting in an inconvenience for me to subsidize their bad behavior then that is a problem.

I really do not mind – and find it amusing -watching and walking by the outside smoking section. Let them smoke in a controlled setting. I also have no problem with an obese person having to pay extra to take up two seats on a flight. I am also fine with jail time for drunk driving. On the flip side, if my health insurance provider sends me a rebate at the end of the year because I met physical fitness guidelines, passed a physical, or did not need to go to a doctor for emergency care, I would be more encouraged to continue to live a healthier lifestyle.

On a side note, it is quite presumptuous of Mayor Bloomberg of NYC to regulate the size of soda containers that can be sold in the city. Now, do you really think that someone who was regularly consuming 18 ounces of soda would drop down to 12 ounces without a fight. That person will simply purchase two 12 ounces and consume 24 ounces. I am living proof to this but without the imposition of a new law. In the late 1990s and early 2000s I could not get enough of the Starbucks Frappuccino which came in a 7 ounce bottle. The problem was that 7 ounces was not enough, so I always purchased two of them. Eventually, Starbucks began to market a larger size (10 or 12 ounces) and I would buy that instead. All NYC will get from this ban is more 12 ounce bottles to recycle. What a joke.

Our healthcare system needs to be fixed and the answer is not Obamacare or the Affordable Care Act (whatever it is called). A career government employee is not qualified to make laws and regulations for a growing, weakening and dynamic health insurance market. The private industry, with less regulation and a more incentive driven business model would be better equipped to deal with our health insurance market.

Here is an example. Say, your employer provides okay coverage, but because you work for a large company your plan is standard and the algorithm spits out a premium with a higher risk factor than you need. However, you have to take it because it is your plan. Now, say there was free market choice. A spin off of a large insurance carrier decides that the growing “Cross Fit” member market is an excellent demographic to provide healthcare coverage. They are all in great shape, dedicated, eat well and in the aggregate do not strain the healthcare insurance market or doctors. The plan they offer could be far cheaper, but require you as a member to meet annual physical fitness requirements in order to participate. Sounds good to me.

I know I diverted from my original thought, but hopefully it all correlated. Let me know if you have any comments, positive or negative on this.

More can be read via my two novels, Cameron Nation: Going All-in To Save His Country and Columbus Avenue Boys: Avenging the Scalamarri Massacre. www.cameronnation.com.

Midweek Thoughts

In recent memory, the people of the United States can point to boom-bust cycles that (depending where you were on the curve) helped or hurt their economic well-being. The Internet bubble of the late 1990s and the Housing bubble of the 2000s and the subsequent Banking Crisis of 2008 created many millionaires before leading to the carnage of those entering the party late and resulted in the loss of many a life savings. Along the way, the federal tax coffer was filled with inflated revenue from capital gains and high incomes.

The U.S. is now at a time when we are in desperate need of a new boom to spur job growth and restore our gross national product to the 4% or more annual range we so desperately need to lift our economy out of the malaise. On the flip side, we do not need another devastating bust to signal the end of the cycle, even if it would more than likely transpire six to eight years down the road.

What type of boom could be the answer to our economic ills both in the short and long term?

Drill Baby Drill, Fracking, Black Gold, Texas Tea, ANWR, Drilling Permits, Bakken Play, Marcellus Shale, Keystone Pipeline, Saudi Arabia of Coal, Liquified Natural Gas, Energy Independent.

Get the picture. I am a person who believes the United States can (it has definitely started already) create the perfect boom cycle benefiting a multitude of industries with very little bust downside by exploiting our vast energy reserves. Yes, we would still have to import oil, but at a far lower rate. We have more than a 200 year supply of the best quality coal in the world held underground in over half of our states. We should be focusing on ways to reduce regulation and enhancing technology to burn coal more efficiently. Over the past ten years, there has also been a revolution in the natural gas industry and the United States has trillion of economically viable cubic feet of gas in all areas of the country. Correlated to the natural gas boom has been the discovery of billions of barrels of oil in the Dakotas. The natural gas and oil revolution would not have been possible without the significant enhancements in all types of drilling technologies.

We should be doing everything in our power to lower oil prices to below $80/barrel. High oil prices benefit oil companies (but they can still make a lot of money and will be encouraged to improve efficiency at sub-$80 oil) and radical Middle East regimes dependent on the high price of the commodity so they can keep their people happy and to also fund terrorist activity.

The benefits to our society are too numerous to mention in full if oil prices could decline by 25%. All industries and individuals would benefit by the lower fixed cost of their utility and transportation expenditures and consumer confidence would improve. In addition, while I would not support this, with energy prices under control the American people may even be amenable to a potential federal tax income tax increase because many of their other fixed expenses have declined and their cash flow would be relatively healthy. (The democrats clearly do not think this far out of their box).

In my opinion, the green energy extremists should be all for drilling the energy reserves of our country as fast as possible. Think about it, by drilling and depleting at an accelerated rate fossil fuel reserves would potentially be eliminated at a much quicker pace than through conservation. Conservation would simply prolong the “greenie” nirvana of a world without fossil fuels. After all, aren’t they in this for the long term and would want the ozone layer to repair. They should be all for unlimited drilling and consumption of oil, gas and coal. Then, when the finite supplies are gone the world would have no other choice than to face the reality of solar, wind, hydro, etc. as the perfect answer to our energy needs. Why wait till the year 2150 for this to happen, let’s drill it all up now and totally deplete the fossil fuel reserves in fifty or sixty years.

It is funny that the “green energy yahoos” are really out to fatten the wallets of the energy companies. Oil prices remaining above $100/barrell help Exxon, Anadarko Petroleum, BP, Halliburton, etc. the most. These companies would continue to make gobs of money in that pricing environment. At the same time, with the government providing the research and development and taking the risk for all types of future energy sources the established fossil fuel energy companies could take a wait and see approach and not commit their own private capital to the development of new sources of energy. Once a viable green energy technology emerges, then the cash rich established energy companies would hire their Wall Street investment banker to acquire the green energy start-up. In turn, the established energy company would have a new revenue stream to diversify their oil and gas assets. The Wall Street banker would also take their commission. In the meantime, the United States taxpayer would not benefit from this in any way. The taxpayer is taking the venture capital investment risk without the upside of the monetary reward instead of a company like Bain Capital. This is not how capitalism works.

For some reason, the Obama administration is out to punish the fossil fuel industries with broader regulation and restrictive policy mandates. Some examples are the Keystone oil pipeline not being approved, coal emission regulations tightening, permits to drill for energy reserves on federal lands have been reduced and gas fracking has been vilified. All of these impediments have already begun to make their way into the market. Earlier this week, Alpha Natural Resources (coal company) announced it would be laying off 1,200 workers and closing eight coal mines.

I am all for green energy. I would love to see the green energy sources at 10%-15% of the energy grid. However, because of the dynamic nature of the development and success of any new technology it is impossible to pick expected winners and losers. Let the bright minds and fat wallets of the private equity and energy worlds take the risk instead of the federal government and taxpayers.

More can be read via my two novels, Cameron Nation: Going All-in To Save His Country and Columbus Avenue Boys: Avenging the Scalamarri Massacre. www.cameronnation.com.

Monday Musings

With this the “historic” one year anniversary of the Occupy Wall Street movement I thought it would be a good time to give some random thoughts around this subject.

First, these staged, organized and coordinated Astroturf events which started popping up first on Wall Street, then to other U.S. cities, then around the world failed miserably to achieve their stated objective. In fact, if you ask ten Occupy veterans, they would all give you ten different answers about what they were protesting. I actually believe the premise of the Occupy movement was misdirected from the start but originated with a noble message. The goal was goad the government to get off both the right and left halves of its partisan butts and do something, anything, to extricate the nation from this financial crisis. That quickly morphed into a jumbled message from all of the fractions within (a hundred different messages, or 100 x 1% - a lot of noise with no clear leader). The protests were a disaster. Arrests & violence highlighted the real message of the participants – which was “let’s have a party and try and get some free stuff”.

They hated the bankers, but did not see the forest through the trees. The real culprit was economic uncertainty due to government intervention including most recently the passage of Obamacare and the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. Bankers lend money when economic and political conditions are clear. In our current state, our times are anything but clear so why should a banker take the risk (and risk losing their job). In the right economic and political climate, bankers want to do their job and that is assist the growth of private industry by lending money or putting corporate CEO’s in touch with well-healed investors to take a stake in the equity of their private enterprise. In return, these companies will invest capital, hire new employees and expand their businesses while the bankers and investors who took the risk of believing in their business model would make a sizeable return. Because of the magnitude of the dollars involved, these returns (and subsequent bonuses earned) would be in the millions or hundreds of millions of dollars.

And we all know what would happen if bankers returned to business as usual – the Occupiers would be outraged that the bankers made so much money, even though hundreds of thousands of people would now be working for these companies that now had the working capital to expand their businesses. However, over time most of these young Occupiers would get jobs and hopefully contribute to society and not have the time to protest any more.

This clearly left-wing liberal movement was embraced by the mainstream media, labor unions and many democratic politicians. However, it flopped because they were never taken seriously by a citizenry which did not camp out, had jobs, bathed regularly and did not believe they were entitled to free stuff. The real grassroot movement which Occupy so desperately tried to emulate was the Tea Party. The Tea Party was birthed in the Fall of 2009 after federal debt began to grow out of control due to the passage of the $800 billion economic stimulus package passed as one of the first acts of the Obama administration and the super majority controlled democratic congress. The Tea Party though had a clear message which was outlined in a ten point plan (Contract from America) and hinged on the federal government getting smaller. Their message resonated with voters and supporters in rapid fashion and by 2010 there were 138 candidates for Congress with significant Tea Party support.

I would say that the republican party was on the verge of losing many members, but alas all it needed was a cup of tea. Take that occupiers. When a OWS backed candidate wins an election, then I may start to take the movement seriously (but still probably not …).

I am not a jealous person at all. I do not begrudge an investment banker making millions. They worked hard to get where they are, serve a legitimate function in the private sector and took risk and were rewarded. I also do not begrudge an athlete or actor who did the same thing. Every walk of life has a 1%. This is also a ridiculous statement as it is really the 0.01% who the OWS leaches are jealous of. I know many Wall Streeters, and unfortunately we are not all ultra rich.

The downfall of living in the New York City area is that an annual income of $500,000 to $1 million does not go very far. I doubt anyone would shed a tear in Missouri, but most modest homes in the NYC area (2,500-4,000 sq feet) will be $700,000 to $2 million. Property taxes run another $18,000 to $25,000 and state income tax is 8%-10%. Also, don’t forget the federal income tax (and AMT hit) of 28%-30%. Before you know it that $500,000 income is down to $230,000 (taxes and mortgage payments) before you even decided to send your kids to private school, dance lessons, etc. What I am trying to say is that the cost of living is so high in Wall Street suburbia that a family living in many other parts of the country could have an equal or even better standard of living with 40% less income.

Another Occupier complaint I have is the thought that these people did not earn their millions/billions. Sure they did – as long as it was earned honestly. I have no problem with Tim Cook the CEO of Apple making $378 million as head of the largest and most innovative company in the world. I have major reservations with the federal government handing out a $500 million U.S. taxpayer loan to failed solar company, Solyndra. Now, if Solyndra succeeded on their own, and their solar technology ended up being a market leader then I would have no problem with their CEO making $500 million. But it did not and for government leaders (most of whom have legal backgrounds not private sector) to think so highly of themselves that they can pick the winners and losers in a dynamic free market capitalist society is a joke.

Let them invest their own money. Quite frankly, that is one of the traits of Mitt Romney I like. At Bain Capital, he used investor dollars to pick winners and losers in the free market. Some of these companies are bloated –over employed – focused on the wrong strategy. As a private equity investor, because it is your investor money (if you succeed then riches, if you fail you are on the unemployment line) you conduct the proper due diligence, make the optimal decisions and monitor the operations daily. I laugh at the democrats who say Romney was evil because some of the companies he took over he had to lay people off. Give me a break, when most of these companies ended up at the Bain Capital doors they were close to going out of business. So, instead of 1,000 employees laid off, there would have been 5,000 laid off because the company would have gone out of business. Do you want 100% of nothing or 80% of something?

I am a huge fan of the concept of competitive destruction. Let the free market fight it out. Sure, there will be individual companies who go out of business or downsize dramatically. But as the dust settles, new, better and stronger companies will emerge which will employ many more people who were laid off. In fact, these jobs will be higher paying and better quality as the basic functions will be outsourced to the emerging world. The emerging world employees will see these jobs as a step up from their prior ways of life. The pay will be better for them and in return they will turn around and buy goods and services from the United States. This is a “Win Win” scenario.

If you don’t believe me, here are a couple of top of real life events to think about.

In 1900, 41% of the population was employed in farming and today it is 3% yet we produce even more food. The onset of the modern industrial revolution transformed the workforce from the farm to the factory.

Earlier this year, Kodak filed for bankruptcy. For decades, the Kodak name was synonymous with picture taking – how could they ever go under and more importantly, would we ever be able to take a picture again? The answer of course was yes, we are taking more pictures as a society than ever before and a myriad of newer technologies.have more than filled the demand.

Apple has been in the news because they have outsourced much of the manufacturing of their iPhone production. Why aren’t these jobs in the U.S.? Well, first off, almost all basic manufacturing and production is done in the emerging world because it is cheaper. Secondly, Apple has in turn spawned a new industry of high paying jobs – the application sector. Guess what, all of the thousands of these high paying jobs are located in the United States and would not have been possible without Apple.

More can be read via my two novels, Cameron Nation: Going All-in To Save His Country and Columbus Avenue Boys: Avenging the Scalamarri Massacre. www.cameronnation.com.

Thoughts going into the weekend

The Federal Reserve undertook action for what I feel is going to end up being a disaster. QE3 (Quantitative Easing round three - after 2 rounds totaling $1.2 trillion in 2008-2011) was announced yesterday in an effort to jump start the economy.

Here is what I predict will happen. The stock market will rise another 3%-5% for the remainder of the year. Wall Street, hedge fund and mutual fund managers will be pleased.

Now for the bad news. QE is flooding the system with dollars, lots and lots of dollars. Since oil and gold are priced in dollar terms, what will occur is commodity inflation. So get ready for $1,800 or more gold and a barrel of oil to be comfortably in the $100-$110 bbl range and of course the price of a gallon of gas should remain high as well. In addition, food prices will also increase. This is not good at all for the average citizen’s pocketbook.

Disposable income will suffer and consumer confidence will remain muted even though your 401k statement just showed nice gains. On top of this, the world economy will suffer for the same reasons as “King Dollar” will be weak and European economies already in a recession will not recover quickly. (Like a snowball rolling down hill in my opinion.)

On a side note, QE1-2 is speculated to have led to the initial Arab Spring in Egypt as food inflation was a major trigger point to the masses Cairo initially protesting. The devil we knew (Hosni Mubarak regime) in Egypt was better than the devil we don’t know (Muslim Brotherhood).

Now this leads me back to Wall Street. Yes, I am partial to the Wall Street world as I have been employed at research and brokerage firms in some capacity since 1986. Is Wall Street evil – No. I can find extreme examples of bad, inefficient, ineffective behavior in all walks of life and the dollar amounts are all about the same. A trader, CEO, ballplayer, actor and musician get paid a few million dollars. They are the 1% - every walk of life has a 1% (even the Occupy Movement comically had a 1% fiefdom). However, Wall Street really does serve a purpose. An investment banker is paid on performance and takes the risk and commitment to fund start-ups and established companies in need of cash. Did the banker who advised Apple/Microsoft in the 1970s and provided them access to the capital markets deserve his multi-million fee? (I think so!). Now, if a singer does not put out a hit or an actor has a movie flops do they give that money back? A banker only gets paid if a deal sells, an actor gets paid regardless of the outcome. If the banker left society, commerce would theoretically stop. If the actor/athlete/musician left society we would go on without a blip.

On the flipside, 110 million Americans are on some form of welfare. This is a large amount. There are also over 25 million using illegal drugs and 40% of babies are born to unwed mothers. I bring this up as examples of people making wrong or unplanned decisions that lead to future consequences. Yes, some welfare recipients are in need of a helping hand. I am near and dear to this in many ways (every one has extended family drama!). In the short run, welfare/workfare is the answer. Then once on your feet, go back out to society. Drug addicts, convicted felons and unwed mothers are three examples of the subset of 110 million that made their own irresponsible decisions and I do not want to support their bad behavior with federal tax dollars. There are many philanthropic organizations which have funding to provide support and the guiding hand. They are better equipped with the proverbial fishing pole rather than the government fish to lift those less fortunate back to being contributing members of society.

I want to be clear that I am not for the rich and against the poor. I believe in helping the less fortunate, but it is a two way street. They have to accept the assistance with the understanding that they will eagerly try and get back to being a functional member of society. A welfare mother who collects $35,000 in assorted welfare checks, food stamps and rental assistance is not going to eagerly seek even a $40,000/year job (why should she!) The government dole is inefficient, corrupt and is taken advantage of at every level. Philanthropic entities are better equipped to deal with the less fortunate. Believe me, the 1% (I hate that phrase) are a sympathetic bunch and they will continue to open their hearts and wallets to assist the needy. I believe they could and would do that in greater numbers if their taxes were lowered as well. (I will leave the tax discussion for a later post).

I hope all of these rambling thoughts tied together in some way. Email me with your thoughts.

Thoughts for today

Right as we in the United States are remembering the single most horrific day in our history, the radical Muslim world commits two acts of war against our country. The U.S. Embassy in Egypt was stormed and the American Flag was replaced with an al-Qaeda black flag. Also, in Libya the U.S. ambassador and three embassy staff were killed as they rushed away from a consulate building in Benghazi which had been stormed by al-Qaeda-linked gunmen. These “coincidental” events occurred on the eleventh anniversary of the 9-11 tragedy and our president’s initial response is to disgracefully apologize for a movie produced in the U.S. which called the prophet Muhammad a fraud.

Where is the backbone of this president? In another coincidence, Obama blew off an invitation to meet with the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu when he is going to be in the U.S. next week. We need to support Israel at all costs. They are alone in a very tumulus time. Iran and Egypt are now speculated as working to form a new alliance. The Muslim Brotherhood has not hidden their hatred for Israel just as Iran has not either. This is eerily similar to the beginnings of World War One and Two. The sparks flying now are sure to ignite the next world war and a global depression.

I was one of those naively to believe that once we swept through Kabul and Baghdad that these third world – old world people would embrace western ways. Who would not want a Starbucks on every corner in Afghanistan and Iraq and every man, woman and child living freely and openly. This is where the actions based on the religious beliefs of the Muslim world could not be predicted. With over 2.2 billion Muslims, all practicing their version of their religion the way they feel is best, it is simply impossible to impose our democratic way of life upon them. Even if we could perfectly appease the Muslim world and make 99% like us, this would still leave 22 million (1%) radicals dedicated to destroying our way of life.

Quite frankly, it would be much better if we could just walk away and live in isolation like the other nations we protect and watch over. But we can’t. The United States is the world super power and the rest of the world should take heed. No other country will protect Israel. Russia would attempt to take advantage of any geopolitical power vacuum and try and reclaim territory. China would more boldly move to claim islands in the East China Sea. The financial meltdown in Greece, (and soon to be Spain) has just begun to escalate and the actions of the masses can not be predicted.

President Obama has a confused commitment to the Middle East. However, Iran and radical Islamists are not confused about their commitment to destroy Israel and the United States. What Europe does not seem to grasp is that any World War Three scenario would not take place on U.S. soil but most likely on their southern and eastern borders and most likely spilling over to countries like Spain, France and Greece. Their way of life and economies will be forever destroyed and they would have no one else to blame but themselves. Europe has to stand shoulder to shoulder with the United States against radical Islamic actions and they must commit greater military forces to help us.

The United States needs to fight stronger, smarter engagements and we need the support of our allies. If we do not get the full commitment from supposed friends then we should decrease aid and economic trade, close military bases and give them what they believe they wish for. After all, when you have a big brother protecting you at all costs the younger skinny brother can be emboldened and over time may take for granted the good gesture of the strong protector as a “right” and not a privilege and more importantly a two way street.

The United States needs to stay head and shoulders stronger than the rest of the world in military power. That does not mean that we equally deploy our men and women. It would be interesting to see what would happen if all of our military personnel left Europe and were redeployed on the U.S. – Mexican border or in Israel.

As my hero Ronald Reagan said, “Of the four wars in my lifetime none came about because the U.S. was too strong.”

Something to think about

September 11, 2012.

Okay, this is my first go at putting some of my thoughts down on a regular basis. My brain clicks through topics faster than my kids change the channels with the remote control, so I thought this would be a good idea to start a "Man Diary". All updates are also on www.cameronnation.com.

Today is the 11th anniversary of the terrorist attacks and I do not have to replay or remind people about how that changed the world we live in. I remember the lead story in the news for the few weeks before 9-11-01 was a over-aged little leaguer being busted. Front page news, oh how I wish that was the lead story in the news in todays world. The Fall of 2001 was also the last time I remember our country coming together as one. There was not a left wing and right wing - so refreshing to have all of America wave the flag, cry and hug togeher and mourn the devistating losses of that tragic day. Also, we can not forget the losses that followed as the brave volunteers walked unselfishly into the fire and toxic waste to rescue survivors, and sadly pieces of loved ones to be identified. These volunteers are still feeling the after effects of their bravery and some have already been lost due to cancer and lung disease from breathing in the air of what is now hallowed ground. Thank you to all and God bless all that have perished.

This brings me to my summer and my renewed zest for life and to give back to society. The good nature of the American people was a major theme of my novel, Cameron Nation. I believe philanthopic organizations are the true social net of the less fortunate, not the government handout. So, with this said, I devoted much of my free time (Teresa will say I devoted way too much of it, but that is another story) to raising money for charity events I competed in and exercising my body so I would be ready for those grueling events.

I competed in two Spartan races (www.spartanrace.com) and part of my entry fee went to charities. I also competed in the RBC Wall Street Decathlon (www.thedecathlon.org) and raised over $3,500 for the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. I am now addicted to two more things (poker is still number one!) staying healthy and raising money for good causes. Next on the agenda is February, when we are hosting a fundraising poker torunament and casino night for a scholarship fund in memory of a truly good friend who lost his life in November of 2010. More will follow on this, but I am honored to be a part of this and keep the memory of Louis Bellantoni alive for a very long time.

I will continue my sometimes insane workout regiment. It scales up from moderate exercise (4 hrs a week) to an intense (8 hrs a week) commitment prior to my next year cycle of events. If anyone is interested in my workout schedule let me know. I have been doing it for a few years now and have continued to refine and enhance it and I feel it is a great "Middle-aged Man/Woman" workout that all would like to do.

Say a prayer for those families who have lost so much today.

Interview today

I had an interview on August 29th with Jennifer Ciotta of Penceyxpages.com http://penceyxpages.com/teleseminar-s.... The discussion was a lot of fun and focused on Cameron Nation, Columbus Avenue Boys and the trials and tribulations of being a self-published author. Thank you Jennifer for your time and interest.

Columbus Avenue Boys- Kirkus "Critics' Pick in Indie"

Kirkus Reviews is highlighting Columbus Avenue Boys as a "Critics' Pick in Indie."

http://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-rev...

Check it out, a very well received story and only $1.99 Kindle/Nook or $12 paperback.

http://www.amazon.com/Columbus-Avenue...

Kirkus Review Magazine selection for Columbus Avenue Boys

Kirkus Review Magazine will include the positive review of Columbus Avenue Boys in the July 1, 2012 issue.

https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-re...

Book Launch Party

For all those in the lower Westchester County NY) area I will be hosting a book launch party for my latest novel, Columbus Avenue Boys on May 22 (Tuesday night) at the Quarry Inn in Tuckahoe.

7pm-9pm. Columbus Avenue Boys and Cameron Nation will both be available for purchase.

$20 gets you a book, a drink and appetizers.