The Goat Pen

So, the dad of my son's best friend (the one who has the 4th floor apartment with a back yard) just retired. Dude may be 41, tops. I applaud him.

Now, the reason I applaud him is not because he retired at the age he did (nor the fact that his apartment is not even the fancy home...that title goes to the Hampton's crib). I applaud him because he probably amassed no more than about $50M in assets (maybe as much as half that), if he played his investments right, and decided to walk away at a time where he could essentially print more money for 20 years and try to quadruple that number. In NYC, the pressure to amass more and more is so strong, having the fortitude to "Dave Chappelle" it and say "fuck the money, I'm out" is fantastic. He easily could have kept going and said "I'll stop after I get a helicopter and a private jet share," or something like that.

I was not particularly jealous of his success, as no one would cry over my life story...I've done ok, but I fully admire him now.

Translation:

"Yes...yessssss...he's out of the game...soon that helicopter and jet will be mine....muahahahaha."

I can relate - I mean, I can afford the supersize, but I don't need it.

LIfe to me if about getting a smaller nut

I retired 14 years ago this month. Now I just dabble in stuff.

"So, the dad of my son's best friend (the one who has the 4th floor apartment with a back yard) just retired. Dude may be 41, tops. I applaud him."

I do, too. That's true freedom. Or at least one form of it...

not a big fan of the wall streeters

I think that whole nitch in society is sucking penny by penny the middle class into extinction--if you make less then 100 K you can barely make ends meet if you have a family of 4 and live in a modest house. I think the rich are getting richer and richer an richer taking a bigger slice of the pie each year. there are a whole slew of those multimillionaires created from deregulation and underscrutiny of wall street in general

ecats whole trade bill debate benefits in a large way im sure the big money moochers on wall street

I know greed is good but Christ on a cross the wealth of this country is being sucked away along with the middle class

Teddy Roosevelt said that government is the only effective counterbalance to unabated capitalism - and he was a Republican

He also tied couch cushions to his body and had stick fights with a diplomat on a regular basis in the white house, boxed with professional fighters (until he lost his eye site in one eye) and then took up Karate.


so you know...that happened

We just need a good red vs white civil war to set us straight.

Pure Capitalism is no more of a viable economic system than pure Socialism. One of Government's job is to strike the balance on those systems, lest it drives our world to anarchy. So, yeah, I agree with eCat and Teddy.

eCat wrote:Teddy Roosevelt said that government is the only effective counterbalance to unabated capitalism - and he was a Republican

He also tied couch cushions to his body and had sticks fights with a diplomat on a regular basis in the white house, boxed with professional fighters (until he lost his eye site in one eye) and then took up Karate.


so you know...that happened

Hand in your Libertarian card, sir.

What I don't like about Wall Streeters is that there is no risk in their business decisions. If they screw up, they get bailed out. I'm the biggest capitalist there is; however, it's not capitalism when there is no risk/reward. Right now, they have no risk. That's why I'm for the reinstatement of Glass-Steagall. If we have to bail you out because of your shenanigans then we need a regulation to keep you from fucking it up.

I've said all along my view of libertarian is different - I happen to believe there is no turning back the clock on the direction capitalism has taken - when 5% of the people own 40%+ of the wealth in the country, when the descendents of Sam Walton are wealthier than entire nations , the solution is either effective government or revolution

and revolution is anarchy

"He also tied couch cushions to his body and had sticks fights with a diplomat on a regular basis in the white house"

LMAO. I saw where they were replaying the documentary on the Roosevelts on PBS around here. I saw it the first time around, great documentary. Tried to watch it again last night but was outvoted by the MIF and her daughters, they wanted to watch something called Southern Comfort or some shit, a "reality" show set in Charleston. I watched about 5 minutes, these fools make the usual infighting b/w the Real Housewives of Wherever look like a debate b/w Noam Chomsky and Henry Kissinger...

its a great series. I've watched it twice now

It's pleasing to know that amid all the world historical stuff about the Spanish American war and the Panama Canal, the thing that has stayed with you is the part about the couch cushions and karate...

Teddy was kind of a badass as far as presidents go.

The Panama Canal was a big deal but I was more impressed with this handling of the coal strike.

Absolutely. Ditto. Jackson.

"The Panama Canal was a big deal but I was more impressed with this handling of the coal strike."

But not as much as the way he handled his patented roundhouse "Teddy Strike" he used to use during the couch cushion karate sessions with diplomats...

I know it's cracked.com, but the write-ups on bad ass presidents is pretty funny.

http://www.cracked.com/article_15895_th ... -time.html

Some good lines in there. In reference to Andrew Jackson's nickname "Old Hickory": "If you're wondering how a guy we're calling a bad ass got such a lame nickname, it's because he used to carry a hickory cane around and beat people senseless with it."

That was good. John Calhoun looks like a mixture of Jim and Bobby from Taxi.