Odracirys

The Next Bear Market Sometimes, I predict things and keep them to myself.  Then, when they happen, I don't get credit.  I have written publicly about things that turned out to be true.  Check the first post of my blog if you want to see a few examples.  This time, too, I want to make some predictions publicly.  If I'm wrong, then I'm wrong, and you can tell me about it.  But if I'm right, then I'll refer back to this to show you how smart I am! Anyway, it looks like the next bear market is nearing.  A bear market is a stock market downturn.  And by using technical analysis (just looking at charts to find patterns), one can see that we're nearly at the turning point. First, some background.  Since March 2008, just after Obama took office, the stock market turned around and over the past three and a half years, we have witnessed one of the fastest stock market increases in history.  To be sure, unemployment didn't decrease nor did ...

Intelligence Squared Debates - BETTER ELECTED ISLAMISTS THAN DICTATORS http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLJ4AKdXZ44 I actually don't think that this question can be answered simply.  I generally tend towards elected Islamists, because people generally grow to hate any government in charge of them.  People always expect the world.  Their expectations are set so high that no government can satisfy them.  On top of that, there are various scandals that come to light, and Islamist governments are sure to keep their populations in dire poverty, through lack of scientific education and an aversion of others to those regimes.  Thus, I feel that if only Islamists stay in power for long enough (and democracy survives for that long), the people will end up hating them one way or another.  Whether they go to an even more radical group or a more liberal group is uncertain, but there has to be a point at which their government becomes the most radical.  At some...

How Mitt Romney and Joe Biden Won Their Debates (or How We Are Making Society Worse) I do listen to what others say, but I always apply thought to it and never just follow the herd.  This is what happened during the recent American presidential and vice presidential debates.  And I came to the exact opposite conclusions as were generally announced in the media. Now, the way I determine if someone won a debate is whether I feel they did a good job getting across their message in a good way.  I may not agree with someone's message at all, but if I think that person got it across better, I'll give that person the win.  Such was the case when I saw Thunderf00t (a YouTube atheist) debating certain creationists.  In most instances, I felt that the creationists won...not because they were right, but because Thunderf00t's showing made me feel embarrassed for him.  He just has trouble debating. Now, I watched the debates before I heard any of the ta...

Fighting Klanophobia I'm always hurt when I see bigots offend groups of people.  All too often, people paint a group, "the other" with a broad brush and stereotype them as being evil, even though the crimes that are associated with them are only committed by a tiny minority fringe element within the larger group. Such is the case with the Ku Klux Klan.  Most people don't like to associate with them.  There is a lot of prejudice directed towards that group, particularly among blacks and Jews, but this hate is widespread.  If you see a klansman wearing his cultural garb, how do you feel?  Do you become nervous?  Do you think that he'll do something violent?  If so, you're part of the problem. The KKK is an organization of peace.  Most of its members are peaceful and only want to go about their lives without being harmed...like most people in this world.  Sure, there are a few members who preach hate, but that's true in almost every grou...