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There’s always a high energy level at the semi-annual Enterprise 2.0 Conference, and I expect this June’s Boston event will be no exception. Please consider joining me there

Here is a question to begin this Friday’s Daily Reckoning: can there be financial stability in Europe if the assets of Europe’s banks are the liabilities of Europe’s governments and some of Europe’s governments are going broke?

We’ll get back to that question a bit later. But warming to today’s task, we’ll look at the mega-rally in U.S. stocks overnight and the big fight back/smack down by the leader of the nation’s bureaucratic class.

But first, there’s nothing like the smell of a short-squeeze in the morning, is there? Slipstream Trader Murray Dawes was calling for it all week. And he was busy getting into trades to profit from it should it arrive. Overnight it seems to have arrived with monster truck force.

The big blue chip Dow stocks were up 284 points, or 2.85%. But in the tech and small cap sectors, the gains were even bigger. For example, the Russel 2000 index of U.S. small cap stocks was up 4.34%.

That’s a good day’s work. It reminded us of the old adage that small caps tend to lead the market up when things are bullish and fall hardest when they are bearish. With that in mind, take a look at the chart below.

Australian Small-Cap Investigator editor Kris Sayce and your editor were talking about the advisability of making new recommendations in a market like this earlier in the week. Ultimately, along with Diggers and Drillers editor Alex Cowie, we decided that they ought to publish their best investment ideas regardless of the market. This means you focus on good companies – but you’re fully conscious the market you’re investing is dangerous.

Both Kris and Alex published their new recommendations last night. And according to the chart above, the timing could be good. Since mid-April Aussie stocks have fallen further and risen less fast than U.S. counterparts. The chart above includes Thursday’s U.S. trading session. But depending on how today’s session goes in Australia, that little green line at the bottom could be a lot higher.

Both Kris and Alex spent a lot of time in their respective reports talking about risk because there’ so much of it going around. You’ve got political risk in Europe. Geopolitical risk in North Korea. Sovereign risk here in Australia. And that’s all on top of the normal risk you take as a common stock investor in public companies engaged in enterprises with inherently unpredictable outcomes.

To be perfectly candid, with so many external forces whipsawing market prices, it is very difficult to be an investor in this market. It is more of a traders and speculators market. In our own newsletter, Australian Wealth Gameplan, we have a few core positions leveraged to a rising gold price and a falling Aussie dollar. Our value investing sleuth Greg Canavan pointed out earlier this week than in a market like this, the best strategy is to buy companies selling at a discount to book value to give yourself a margin of safety.

So, from the speculator to the bargain hunter to the generally risk averse (conscious of the possibility of the systemic collapse of leveraged global financial system), the market requires you to make a decision. Doing nothing is a decision, too. Yes, yes, it sounds post-modern, that inaction is a form of action. But in financial terms, being in cash because you prefer liquidity is a position too.

Our view is that the sense of relief over Europe’s sovereign risks is fundamentally stupid. Or ignorant. Or obtuse. Or wilful self-deception. The banks of Europe are stuffed with government debt. And when one man’s asset is another man’s liability, both parties are the poorer if the debtor cannot realistically repay.

His credits must be written down. His debts must be restructured. And the public balance sheet must be shrunk the same way private and non-financial corporate balance sheets have shrunk. Liquidate the bad investments and move on to a frontier of economic possibilities. That’s the future. For the present, we seem mired in the past.

“Whatever yardstick you care to choose,” writes Edmund Conway in the U.K.’s Telegraph, “share-price moves, the rates at which banks lend to each other, measures of volatility – we are now in a similar position to 2008. Europe’s problem is that the unfortunate game of pass-the-parcel came at just the wrong moment. It resulted in a hefty extra amount of debt being lumped on to its member states’ balance sheets when they were least-equipped to deal with it.”

So what if Europe’s problems haven’t really gone away? Does that mean rallies like this should be sold before the next leg of the Global Financial Crisis, where national governments really do default on their debt? And in the meantime, Europe’s panic attack has obscured very real structural problems in the U.S. and Chinese economies, both related to housing prices and the role they play with bank collateral.

Hmm. If it turns out the global balance sheet in the age of globalisation and securitisation was over-leveraged and debt-laden, then the next round of the GFC is going to make the first one look like a tea-party.

Not THAT kind of tea-party, although it’s fair to see that when a nation’s state finances collapse, the probability for social instability goes up a lot. Inflation and warfare are old bedfellows and campaigners. They know how to have a bad time.

Yet all of this might seem terribly far-fetched or unlikely to policy makers in Canberra and miners in Perth. The two continue to publicly quarrel in front of international capital markets to the detriment of Australia’s reputation as a safe destination for foreign investments. In order to save Australia, it was first necessary to castrate the mining industry.

Speaking to the Senate yesterday, Treasury Secretary Ken Henry knocked backed claims that the mining industry saved Australia from the worst of the GFC (which he apparently thinks is over). He said, “Suggestions that the Australian mining industry saved the Australian economy from recession are curious to say the least…. These statements are not supported by facts.”

We couldn’t find a quotation in which the Treasurer gave credit to Canberra for accounting for up to 60% of Australia’s exports in the last two years, by dollar value. But if he was referring to, say, the volume of words belched out by the government giving itself credit for being so smart, he’s probably right.

Really the most worrying words the Treasurer uttered, in our mind, were these: “Frankly, there is more than enough investment in train in the mining sector. The limit is access to labour and the capital needed to undertake the projects.” He was apparently responding to the claim that the new resource tax will lead to less investment, not more, as both he and the government claim.

The one factor in all this that Dr. Henry and the government seem to be leaving out is free will. Project decisions in the mining industry are not compulsory. The miners can’t walk away from projects that are already producing. This accounts for some of the fury over a tax that is retrospective.

But it’s as if the government believes many many mining projects will go ahead regardless of the policy…just because. As if the companies will stop making investment decisions based on the rate of return and the cost of the capital. They’ll just keep digging and drilling because that’s what they do, and if they don’t the government won’t have any profits to tax.

Beavers must dam. Fish gotta swim. Birds gotta fly. But miners don’t gotta mine in Australia.

In the real world of the private sector, decisions about what to produce are not determined by abstract public policy goals, which are themselves based on personal prejudices about the “appropriate” level of profit.

In the real word, final investment decisions are determined by what consumers want and whether a firm can deliver what the market wants at a profit. There is no requirement that Australia export iron ore or coal because it has them. If the miners can’t do it a profit that satisfies shareholders, they won’t do it at all, at least not here.

Perhaps that’s what the government wants in the end, to drive the mining companies from Australia, but not before confiscating as much revenue as possible. Perhaps the government wants the mining companies to hand back all their leases and turn the business of producing mineral wealth over to the people who really know how to do it: public servants and elected officials.

We’ll see how that works out. But it’s looking more and more like an international capital strike against Australia is a real possibility. For one, there’s a brewing credit crunch coming from an inevitable sovereign debt default in Europe.

Secondly, Australia’s public officials are looking anything but reasonable and sensible in the court of international capital market opinion. They are looking like grasping, blundering, bullying, but well-meaning dunderheads who have demonstrated a first-class ignorance of how wealth is created. The Rudd government has wanted to lead the world on a lot of issues. It’s well on its way.

Dan Denning
for The Daily Reckoning Australia

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SAIC is already one of China’s biggest automotive manufacturers, which means that by 2050, when China will have 500 million automobiles on its road, it will become one of the largest automakers in the world. Beyond its potential for growth, it’s the company’s futuristic thinking that most impresses us. It recently showed the groundbreaking YeZ Concept car, and its next concept car, which we bring you a sneak peak of here, is equally as thought provoking…
Continue Reading SAIC SheLL concept car: it’s an automobile … and a bedroom, office and gym

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A prize of US$200,000 is being offered for the first robot that can successfully move 10 km (6.2 miles) within 10,000 seconds. Sound easy? Well, to claim the “W” Prize the robot must also negotiate four sets of obstacles that would stand in the way of ordinary wheeled vehicles, but could be easily overcome by a pedestrian. The robot must also accomplish this task using no more than 10 kj per kg of machine mass – in other words, less energy than it would take for a human to do the same task…
Continue Reading Fleet-of-foot robots could win $200,000

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Crashing your BMW convertible is going to be devastating no matter what, but it helps to have a shoulder to lean on. This guy couldn’t find a shoulder to lean on, so he made one…out of his crashed BMW convertible. More »










BMW – Makes and Models – Recreation – Autos – 3Series

La compañía nipona ha detenido la producción de sus cuatro plantas en China debido a que 1850 de sus trabajadores en el área de autopartes se declararon en huelga; según un portavoz del fabricante japonés en China, Zhu Linjie, los obreros iniciaron el paro el 17 de Mayo.

El fabricante tenía la intención de resolver estos problemas rápidamente, sin embargo los trabajadores no cedieron durante los primeros acercamientos; así que Honda tuvo que anunciar el cese de actividades en las fábricas de la provincia de Guangdong el 24 de Mayo y luego en las instalaciones de la provincia de Hubei el 26 de Mayo.

Los trabajadores exigen que la compañía incremente su salario de 178 euros a 290 euros, una suma que iguala el sueldo de los obreros empleados en las fábricas de ensamblaje de Honda en ese país.

Según la información de algunos analistas China está experimentando una escasez de mano de obra en ciertos sectores, así que la actual coyuntura ha otorgado a los trabajadores un interesante poder de negociación que podrían aprovechar para mejorar sus condiciones de vida.

Yasuko Matsuura, portavoz de la compañía nipona en Tokio informó que es la primera vez que una huelga afecta la producción de la compañía en China; además indicó que Honda, así como representantes de los trabajadores y funcionarios del gobierno local proseguirán las conversaciones para poner fin a la paralización.

Se espera que el sábado 29 de Mayo las operaciones vuelvan a la normalidad.

Vía | Auto News

PIC reader Tolga M. wrote in with this eyewitness report of a Palm marketing effort currently underway this weekend in Times Square, New York City.

Hi there guys, was taking some out-of-town friends around NYC today for some sight-seeing and ran into a large group of people wearing snazzy Palm ‘uniforms’ in the middle of Times Square. They were giving out Palm branded lip-balm, bags, and other goodies, and demo-ing the Pre Plus to passers by, and had acquired a good-sized crowd. Interestingly they also had 4-5 ‘Smart’ Cars all decked out in Palm wrap-arounds. We were on our way somewhere and I forgot I had my camera so I don’t have any shots, but I briefly talked with one of the Palm reps and they seemed very knowledgeable and friendly and said they’d be there for a few days (probably taking advantage of the Memorial Day tourist crowd).

They are giving away 8 Pré’s per day via an electronic raffle that they can enter you for (you give them your email). So if you’re in NYC this weekend check it out. I think they have a billboard in Times Square too. All in all it seemed like they had someone with half a brain planning the event. Okay, have a great weekend!

Article Tags: Robert W. Felix

Temperatures have been warmer than today for almost all of the past 10,000 years

The revamped cap-and-trade (control-and-tax) bill that Senators Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) and John Kerry (D-Mass.) are trying to foist on the American public is predicated on a flat-out lie.

The control-and-tax proponents would have you believe that our planet has been enduring unprecedented global warming (now coyly referred to as “climate change”), but the facts do not bear that out. Facts. Oh, those damnable facts.

Created by Cuffy and Clow in 1997, and based on Greenland ice core records, this chart shows global temperatures for the past 15,000 years.

Source: iceagenow.com

Read in full with comments »   

The American recording artist, Alicia Keys, is now engaged with Swizz Beatz as they confirmed it to People’s magazine. It is a great revelation for the couple since they are also expecting a baby!

After a long time of dating and rumors, atlast! The couple has confirmed that they were really into each other. The two have been partners in the music industry and it seemed that their relationship moved to the next stage.

This will be the first marriage for Keys and second time for Swizz. Swizz was formerly married to Mashonda Dean and had a son, Kasseem Jr. He also has another  son, Prince, from his previous relationship.  For Keys, this will be her first child.

Alicia Keys has kept her relationship with her boyfriend for a long time and now they decided to go on public. However, it seemed that the ex wife of Swizz, Mashonda, is not in a good term with Keys. Rumors stated that Keys was behind the breakup.  Mashonda stated on her Twitter account last year, “If you are reading this Alicia, let me start by saying, you know what you did. You know the role you played and you know how you contributed to the ending of my marriage. You know that I asked you to step back and let me handle my family issues. Issues that you helped to create… This is not a publicity stunt, I dont have a record coming out. I just need to close this chapter in my life and that means confronting our issues. There is a small child involved. His dad loves him to death and he wants to spend more time with him but he’s afraid because he knows we don’t have a relationship. This is my main concern. My son NEEDS his dad and I NEED to be comfortable with you. For him!” Only this year, Mashonda took legal action against her ex-husband claiming he owes her $344,000 in back payments. However, Swizz denied this and said that he even gave her more than what she wanted.

We’ll just hope that Mashonda, Alicia and Swizz will settle things out so that they will be in good terms since they are in the music industry. We can’t take any sides since both parties have their own sides of the story.

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Homebrew coder WolfSpider has released a new version of DSOperators, a feature pack homebrew organizer with a wide-range of applications. The latest update of the homebrew has added some new features and various other improvements.
 
 
Download:

A team of scientists from Columbia University has found evidence that emissions of nitrous oxide from wastewater treatment plants may be significantly higher than previous estimates.  Nitrous oxide is a powerful greenhouse gas that is almost 300 times stronger than carbon dioxide. As for the good news, the team also found indications that much of the problem could be resolved by tweaking operations at existing plants and introducing more efficient design standards in new plants, rather than developing expensive new technology.

The Columbia study provides some insight into the potential for making significant but relatively inexpensive cuts in greenhouse gas emissions by working within existing infrastructure and technology.  It  also illustrates the key role that accurate measurement plays in targeting resources to achieve the biggest bang for the greenhouse gas reduction buck.  In doing so, the study supports the logic behind the U.S. EPA’s recent proposal to expand its new greenhouse gas reporting rules.

(more…)

[YouTube link]

It’s a brave new world with the addition of video chat on the Sprint HTC Evo 4G. And what better way to break in Fring’s new free video calling service than with one of our deepest darkest competitors dear friends in this Android world. In the video above, we chat it up with Taylor from Android and Me — both of us on the Evo 4G. It wasn’t the smoothest connection in the world — though I was on WiFi and Taylor’s in a 4G town — but it’s video calling, and we’re glad to see it.

This is a post by Android Central. It is sponsored by the Android Central Accessories Store

The SMH reports that the increased mandatory renewable energy target being proposed for Australia is likely to have minimal cost to consumers and win multi-partisan support in Parliament – Power bills will not bear cost of clean power boom.

A RENEWABLE energy scheme before the Federal Parliament will drive $14 billion of clean power investment by 2020 according to new modelling, but the head of the Climate Change Department has warned that Australia still cannot meet its promised emission reduction targets without a broad price on carbon.

Modelling released by the government yesterday shows the new renewable energy target – which requires 20 per cent of energy to be sourced from renewables by 2020 – will increase the average household power bill by $41 a year. The scheme amendments before the Parliament will be responsible for just $2 of that.

The modest price rises mean it is likely the changes will pass with bipartisan support, as the original renewable energy target legislation did, allowing billions of dollars of renewables investment to begin.

Google TV has the potential to be a game-changer in the pay-TV business, by bringing web-like search navigation to traditional channel surfing, according to a new report I wrote for GigaOM Pro entitled Google TV: Overview and Strategic Analysis (subscription required). I also foresee an eventual clash between Apple’s App Store and Google’s search-based platform for supremacy on connected consumer electronics devices.

I expect a slow initial ramp-up for the Android-powered Google TV devices, due to the high cost of implementation and uncertain consumer demand. The Intel Atom-based system-on-a-chip and software licensing costs are expected to add a significant premium to first-generation Google TV-enabled devices, including the Logitech set-top box and Sony HDTVs and Blu-ray players announced at the Google I/O conference. Consumer interest in surfing the web on a big-screen TV is also yet to be proved. If Google TV does prove popular with consumers, however, it could pose a highly disruptive challenge to traditional video service providers, set makers and competing TV app stores, according to the report.

“Google TV’s integrated search, combining results from the web and from traditional sources in a single user interface, encourages the user to separate the content from its source, or at least to treat the source as irrelevant,” I note in the report. As more content becomes available on the web, that dynamic will increasingly pose a challenge to traditional video service providers, whose business model is based on bundling content into high-margin subscription packages. “Search, by its nature, is the enemy of bundling,” it concludes.

Google TV could be a boon to TV set-makers by providing the software-driven functionality that spurs sales of Internet-enabled devices, the report states. On the other hand, adopting Google’s non-proprietary platform could rob manufacturers of a key point of differentiation for their products.

The Google TV announcement also comes just as fledgling TV app stores are starting to find their footing in connected devices, including the Yahoo Widget Channel, Vudu, DivX and the Roku Channel Store. While those providers obviously will be challenged by the arrival of Google TV, the report suggests a potential for market segmentation, with app stores dominating low- and mid-range connected TVs and Google TV reserved for premium models, particularly early on, given the higher costs associated with implementing the Google platform.

One app platform unlikely to concede the high end of the market to Google, however, is Apple’s iTunes App Store. Although Apple has not disclosed its plans for the digital living room, the report calls an eventual assault on the $53 billion pay-TV business “inevitable.” When it comes, it’s likely to involve extending the iTunes App Store platform to the TV, either directly, through an Apple-branded HDTV set, or through a set-top box.

In the report, I also envision a seamless, cloud-based version of the iTunes platform that will enable access to video and other content from Apple TVs, iPads and iPhones. At that point, the battle between Apple’s app-based and Google’s search-driven models for content acquisition and distribution will be fully joined.

Check out the full report, Google TV: Overview and Strategic Analysis, on GigaOM Pro (subscription required).

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Which event do you think will happen first? Polar meltdown? Discovery of extra dimensions? Looks like synthetic life is the favorite so far, but I think that depends on what your definition of “life” is.

Filed under: Advice, Happiness, Health, Fitness, Fit Family Guy

If you’re trying to lose weight, you’re going to have to start paying attention to your calorie intake. Large quantities of them can be hiding in places you don’t expect and you probably aren’t burning as many of them as you think you are.

Reality … Read more

 

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Two of the debutantes on the final frontier – SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket and the Planetary Society’s Lightsail 1 solar sail – will be making their debut a bit later than planned.

For the past week, I’ve been having one of those “you should have, no you shouldn’t have” arguments with myself. Since both sides of my brain seem equally divided, I thought I’d ask you what you would have done if you’d been in my place.

Here’s what happened. A week ago Sunday, my wife and I attended a concert at the Prince of Peace Lutheran Church on Amelia Island, Fla. If you live anywhere near there let me encourage you to check out the other concerts for this year’s Amelia Island Chamber Music Festival (www.aicmf.com). If you can’t attend any this season, then consider vacationing on that lovely island next May. It will definitely be worth it.

The Sunday night concert began with Christopher Rex, principle cello of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, performing Chopin’s Sonata for Cello and Violin. That was followed by William Preucil, concertmaster of the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra, doing an extraordinary job on the thousand-notes-a-minute (or so it seemed) of Camille Saint-Saens’ Sonata No. 1 for Violin and Piano. Elizabeth Pridgen did an excellent job as the accompanist on both.

After a brief intermission, though, came the real piece de resistance. Valentina Lisitsa, a truly amazing pianist, performed Beethoven’s magnificent Opus 106, the “Hammerklavier” (Piano Sonata No. 29) with all of the passion, skill and artistry that the Maestro himself could have wished. When she finished the audience sat spellbound for a moment or two before bursting into thunderous applause. They had heard magic that night and they knew it.

So what was my problem? It sounds like a truly wonderful evening doesn’t it?

I won’t say the concert was spoiled for me by what I saw two rows in front of me. That wasn’t possible. But the sight did put a blemish on the evening. As you can tell, I’m still bothered by it.

A gentleman two rows away was wearing a Che Guevara T-shirt. I’m sure you’ve seen the iconic image—a saintly looking Guevara staring off into space. The outline of his face and beret are in solid black, while the shirt itself is a deep, dark red—sort of like the blood of all the innocents Che helped murder.

The person wearing the T-shirt was no teeny-bopper rock-‘n’-roller, by the way. He was a rather handsome gentleman in his 50s or 60s, wearing a grey sports coat. He seemed very pleasant as he chatted with other guests near him. But every time I saw his shirt all I could think of was asking him, “Why are you wearing a shirt that honors a Communist murderer? And to a church, for crying out loud!”

If I could, I would have added, “Your hero was more likely to herd Christians into a church and burn them alive than to participate in a program here.” I imagined an entire conversation with the man—what he might say, what I’d reply and what other attendees might say if our own conversation got somewhat heated.

But as you know from this long preamble, I didn’t say anything. As my wife and I exited our pew I let him walk a few steps ahead of me. There was plenty of time to catch up with him in the foyer or even outside, but I let the moment pass.

My question for you is; did I do the right thing? Should I have said nothing? Miss Manners would probably say that silence was the socially correct response. Don’t rock the boat; don’t embarrass a stranger. And whatever you do, don’t pick a fight—or at least an argument—in public, especially not in church. Heck, even Garrison Keillor probably couldn’t imagine such a thing happening in Lake Woebegone.

There’s a still small voice inside my head that says, “Don’t worry about, it, Chip. You did the right thing.”

But there’s an even louder voice that keeps repeating, “No, you didn’t. You should have said something. You didn’t have to insult him or try to pick a fight. You could have gently and politely told him why you were offended by his T-shirt. He’d probably tell you he had no idea what his shirt might mean to others. Heck, he’d probably thank you for saying something.”

I’ll be the first to admit that the whole “Che Guevara As Hero” thing among many young people really frosts my cookies. It may be because my family was in Cuba when Fidel Castro seized power there and he and his Communist buddies (with Che as one of his most important lieutenants) began jailing, torturing and murdering their opponents.

But you didn’t have to know any of his victims personally to know that Guevara was a truly nasty piece of work. He was petty, mean and vindictive… a murderer without conscience or remorse. I’m frankly delighted that he met his end from a soldier’s bullet while trying to lead yet another revolution in Bolivia. The world became a better place with his death.

But enough about why I despise the man—and the fools in this country who honor him. Let me climb down from my soapbox and turn the microphone over to you.

If you had been in my shoes (or, more accurately, my pew), what would you have done? Would you have said something? And if so, what? Remember, you would have only a few seconds as you both made your way out of the church.

And what if he didn’t respond kindly to your remarks? What if he got angry or belligerent? What would you do then?

In my imagination I’ve thought of numerous possible outcomes. And I have to admit I don’t like any of them. So if you can come up with a better solution, please click on the “comments” bar at the end of this column and tell me what it is. I’d really like to know what you think I should have done.

Honor Our Defenders This Memorial Day
For too many of us, Memorial Day has become just a weekend to picnic and party. We forget the original purpose of this national day of remembrance. It should be a time to honor the men and women of the armed forces who made the ultimate sacrifice for us and our country.

I hope you will pause for a few moments this Memorial Day weekend to give thanks to those who laid down their lives to defend and protect us. Make it a time of reflection and appreciation. And yes, if you have one, please proudly fly our country’s flag.

To any members of the armed forces reading this, thank you. Thank you for your service, thank you for your sacrifices. And yes, thank you for your willingness to lay your life on the line for us.

Until next time, keep some powder dry.

—Chip Wood

*3 down, 532 to go. It looks like it’s going to be a tough year for incumbents. And it’s about time. Conservatives in Utah said “no thanks” to Bob Bennett’s attempt to turn the Senate seat there into a lifetime sinecure. Democrats in Pennsylvania told Arlen Specter to return to private life, despite Barack Obama’s less-than-all-out endorsement. In Kentucky, Rand Paul overwhelmingly defeated the Republican establishment’s hand-picked nominee. So much for the media argument that the Tea Party movement is just a tiny, ineffective fringe. Go get ‘em, guys.

*Which words do you see more often? CNN contributor and Redstate.com blogger Erick Erickson says that the words “Islam” and “terrorism” are seldom used in the same news stories. On the other hand, he reports, “you’re more likely to see the words ‘racist’ and ‘Republican’ together in the newspapers these days.” And on TV, too, Mr. Erickson—including that most unbalanced network you work for, CNN.

*Some strange things up north. I’m just back from five days in Montreal where I was the emcee for an investment conference. It’s a gorgeous city, filled with history. But they sure do things differently up there. These stories appeared in one section of a newspaper on one day: When a woman was arrested for shooting her husband she said she was innocent of any wrongdoing… because she had mistaken him for a bear. Another woman is suing her cell phone company because her monthly bill (which her husband saw) listed all of her calls to her lover. And finally, officials in Ontario are asking for help in collecting unpaid parking tickets. Seems the municipality has more than $1 billion worth of outstanding tickets. Sure glad those kinds of things could never happen in this country, aren’t you?

—Chip Wood