Sans Accoutrements

Catharsis

My pics--a sunflower using Adobe CS2 to provide different filters. Taken today in the waning sunlight.

I found great beauty in the imperfection of this sunflower.












Dictionary.com defines catharsis as follows:

ca·thar·sis Purgation, especially for the digestive system.

A purifying or figurative cleansing of the emotions, especially pity and fear, described by Aristotle as an effect of tragic drama on its audience.

A release of emotional tension, as after an overwhelming experience, that restores or refreshes the spirit.

Psychology

1. A technique used to relieve tension and anxiety by bringing repressed feelings and fears to consciousness.
2. The therapeutic result of this process; abreaction.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
My family has abandoned me this evening. The men folk have gone to something that involves racing cars. My daughter is doing who knows what.

Today is a very important day for me. Hopefully, you'll not think I'm a nut. First off I'm pissed off beyond anyone's (even my own) ability to measure. Why? Because here we are on July 11, 2008 and we've not been deprived of an honest objective opinion about the depth of this credit crisis.

When I saw Jim Cramer on CNBC as some supposed "expert" I totally went over the edge. First, he failed to see any of this coming. He was extolling the virtues of WFC and WB for quite some time. I turned the TV off. I've so disgusted with him and his clown antics, I have no plans to renew my Real Money subscription though I adore the folks on Rev Shark's blog. Another TH, Second, Diane Swonk, who is repeatedly trotted out on CNBC (though I think that she's very smart and articulate) was positively patronizing about the breadth and depth of the credit crisis last Spring-I've still not forgiven her--and why she is still a "go-to" person despite this error is a mystery . Don't even get me started on Larry Kudlow. And Paulson and Bernanke pegged the losses at no more than $50B--I think that we'll ring the bell and go beyond at $400B. Whose got a ticker for this mess. Where is there an objective, credible opinion on any of this? (I realize that I did a first, second and become sidetracked).

I'm outraged--spittingly, cussingly, hissingly, outraged, that a firm such as Goldman Sachs can (1) underwrite and sell these CDO's to investors with

• donor money such as not for profits, church and educational institutions;
• municipalities to include public works;
• public pension plans;
• privat pension plans; and
  
• other qualified investors.

I'm sure that there are others that I've left out, but you get my point.

I try not to be a whiner. I find whining unattractive both physically and intellectually. Accordingly, this is the last whiney post on the matter that you will see from me. BUT.....I plan to figure out a way to devote my time and talent toward ensuring that this sort of thing is not perpetrated upon innocent investors.

You expect the people advising you about your money--we are talking about deep fiduciary and trust issues here--to be working on YOUR behalf--NOT on the behalf of lining their filthy, bulging pockets with additional fees at YOUR expense.

Many are shuddering about taxpayer bailouts etc. "Let them fail" is the chant. My friends, if they are allowed to fail it imperils stuff you expect to be safe: your retirement, your bank relationship, your money market, your Social Security, your Medicare.

I can honestly say that I've NEVER been more angry nor more moved in my life. (But is that such a bad thing?!) Hence, I've entitled my post as Catharsis. I had it today. Angry, pre-menopausal women are very dangerous when provoked! (But some of you may already know that!).

Morning Post

Pressed Flower Art - Balance

Giclee Print

by Shelley Xie

As I have no feel for this market, unwilling to make any upside or downside bets, I've been mostly on the sidelines. In anticipation (that's a really nasty word I think!) of a bounce, I let go of my DIA SEP $125 puts as well as my BWA JUL $50 puts).

Under the guidance of M. Musashi's rule #9, "Do not do anything useless", I've been spending time going through charts--perhaps too much time as my eyes and neck remind me.

Over the past few days, the HMO stocks have gathered some strength. Yesterday that strength was punched away due to some changes in the Medicare Advantage Bill being passed. For all of the big HMO's, there is no one left to buy. Accordingly, growth in membership is tough unless you find a new pool. That new pool was Medicare. The bill that passed ended up to be a shark in that pool.

The point that I found interesting is that the run up almost seemed a bit of a feint. Here are thumbnails. It might be worth watching to see if these prices hold.

I've been enjoying getting re-acquainted with The Book of Five Rings. I did put my hands on Sun Tzu's The Art of War (Trans. J. H. Huang). It was languishing in my son's room--and I do mean languishing. It was stuffed in the bookshelf with the cover and about 10 pages folded over backwards. Half of the book is the translation, and the other half of the book is comments on the translation. It was odd to see my penned notes in the margins as they related to business strategy. The applicability of these texts to investing/trading is extraordinary.

There is a natural rhythm to everything, and these texts reminded me of that. In the translator's preface, Sun-Tzu's quotation as follows is highlighted:

"Not battling" is a form of strategy.

The Perplexing Vix

Today's perplexion is the VIX--specifically, why it has not gone higher amid all of the bonds dropping.

Helene Meisler on Real Money surmised that it was due to the fact that many institutional sellers have already sold--hence not needing to buy put protection. Marty Chenard had an opinion on it well. You can access that here: http://www.stocktiming.com/Wednesday-DailyMarketUpdate.htm


I'm going to discontinue the daily sector report for a bit. I'm still going to capture the information, but there have been too many changes in the last few days, and I need the dust to settle before I start formatting and have to reformat again.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I've also wondered why we did not hear of more hedge fund failures. While this is old new with respect to the frozen assets, this news is of the total liquidation:

From Bloomberg:

John Devaney's hedge funds, frozen a year ago because of wrong-way bets on mortgage securities, are being liquidated at a total loss to investors.

The Horizon group of funds run by Devaney's United Capital Markets Holdings Inc. couldn't meet a margin call from Deutsche Bank AG at the end of June, according to a letter to clients today obtained by Bloomberg News. Deutsche Bank then seized and auctioned off the collateral.

A. M. Post

In pulling together the sector numbers, I see that the WSJ has made YET another change (there seems to be a change a day for the last three days). I've "captured" the data, but I've not put it in my spreadsheet. I didn't have it in me to change the formatting last night. I'm just going to create a blank spreadsheet and dump it in.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My translation (Cleary) of the Book of Five Rings contains a second book, The Book of Family Traditions on the Art of War by Yagyu Munenori. Under the chapter entitled, The Killing Sword, there is this passage: "There is a science to the use of arms. If you try to kill someone without knowing the science, you will probably get killed yourself." Otherwise stated: If you try to trade without knowing the science, you will probably lose all of your money.

Human theater and Citizenship

Though I enjoy reading, I've never been a fan of biographies. But I read Ben Franklin and John Adam's back to back (on purpose). The John Adams biography most recently brought to life by HBO. The surprise of those proximate readings was my enjoyment of the Adams book over that of Franklin--not the writing, but rather the person.

Whenever we think that times have changed, people have changed and circumstances have change we need only pick up a book and be reminded that human DNA and the human theater remain intact--only the largeness of the theater and the sophistication of the props have changed. Our politicians and business men are no more flawed now than they were then. And if you think otherwise, I would tell you gently over your favorite beverage of choice that you were never a serious student of history or your powers of discernment are blunted by your own bias. But then, it would be that ole' DNA thing engaging again.


I am reminded that in business processes, a great process can achieve great results with average people. It's something that always stuck in my head in reading Peter Senge's The Fifth Discipline. In fact it was this book, which introduces the concept of "learning organizations", that greatly shaped my view of organizations. A poor process means you need extraordinary people and extraordinary processes. You can read a good overview here.

What is brilliant about our system of government is that for all of its warts, it is a process in which average people can do great things such as make laws, mete out justice, pay and provide for services, etc. I'm still happy to have the phrase: "Step into the conflict and reconcile". It ought to be the mantra of every person who desires to hold excellent outcomes over petty differences. If I were running for President, that would be my slogan.


Enjoy your holiday if you are in the US. Today is a good day to reflect on the quality of our own citizenship activities. My experience is that most people spend more typing griping about the process than becoming part of or working on behalf of positive change the process. And picking up John Adam's biography would be a wonderful way to read about a person's whose example you could model. For myself, I don't spend much if any time griping. I also don't spend anytime becoming part of the solution. I'll reflect on that and see if I cannot come up with something. At the very least, I will write my representatives and request of them to "step into the conflict and reconcile."

Step into the Conflict and Reconcile

I was going through my bookcase looking for another book, and I came upon The Miracle of Mindfulness, by Thich Nhat Hanh. Thich Nhat Hanh is a Vietnamense Zen Buddhist monk. His teachings are both simple and powerful and can be accessed by anyone regardless of their religious orientation.



It's been a good while since I've picked up this book, so I was curious about passages I had marked. I found one which I wanted to share with you--it is a sutra by Vimalakirti Nirdesa:

In the time of war
Raise in yourself the Mind of Compassion
Help living beings
Abandon the will to fight
Wherever there is a furious battle
Use all you might
To keep both sides' strength equal
And then step into the conflict to reconcile.

Vimalakirti Nirdesa

Step into the conflict to reconcile. Those are powerful words.

A Named Cat; A Violent Market; and The Wisdom of Patience and Not Blindly Following Others

(The picture is Mimi--finally named. She's a female and the other cat is a male. His name is Wyatt.)
Yesterday was a violent example of what happens when there is very narrow leadership in the market that gets kicked in the stomach.

While I have been frustrated with various positions that I've taken, overall, I've outperformed the indices--though I take small comfort in that. I've not lost money to this bear market, and I take much comfort in that.

A week or so ago GaryK noted the strength in the commodity sectors and stated that he was perhaps going to buy a coal stock. I was surprised given the extended pricing on these names. I stayed out. And the importance of making a decision such as that is that I realized that I had decisively crossed the threshhold from being a tentative investor to an very informed investor.

I'll not change the title to my blog--for I'm quite certain that I'll always be a perplexed investor. But what I've come to understand is that no matter how BAD things are, money is always searching for a home for it has an insatiable hunger for return. And that hunger sometimes addles the appropriate valuation of risk and consequently creates bubbles.

I was watching briefly Fast Money. One of the guests mentioned that the CME changed the margin requirements. Many of the shorts in oil had to cover, and they waited to do so until the last 5 minutes. NG notes the divergence in the oil service stocks and the price of oil. That's an important divergence. If oil is being bid up due to speculative, not demand forces, and oil service earnings are related to fundamentals, then such divergences are important to heed. My DVR calls are not doing so well!

Yesterday, and perhaps early, I closed out of my BNI JUL 90 puts. I left money on the table, but I took that drop as a gift to exit this position. I also want to share with you a habit of mine that I must correct. The habit is being too anticipatory. Here's how it plays out. I see a legitimate "issue". In the case of the rails, it was slowing volumes but "pricing power" due to their charging through a fuel surcharge. If outrageous fuel comes down (or even stays flat) this erodes future growth or can lead to a decline. It should also be noted (and I've not heard the media speak of this) that ADM had a suit against all of the rails for the surcharge. I think Dupont just won a case against CSX.

To my eye, this thinking was readily known. And umpteen money managers recited "we like the rails here". I hear that as, "We LIKED the rails, now we want to sell them to YOU!" When you hear the "story" from the media, please understand that the easiest money has already been made (though there are exceptions--and I would caution about the Walmart and Dollar Tree stories--those are getting long in the tooth). Here's a chart of BNI--:


More about my habit.....I bought my BNI puts because I thought it was over extended at $95. It proceeded to go up to 110. When you have $90 puts, that puts you under water fairly deeply--no treading water, no gurgling--just suspended in your pain of being wrong. So what happens is that once the position starts to improve, I just want to minimize my pain and get out. It is weighing taking a 25% loss v. a 100% loss due to time decay and some resiliency. Essentially, I have built a psychological box from which I cannot easily escape without leaving some skin on the edge of the opening.

---

To revisit a previous point..... There is so much made of investors such as Buffet and the like that people blindly follow what they do. Buffet went into HMO's at their peak. He went into BNI, and he is the single largest shareholder with 63m shares--a position 3.5 times larger than the next largest institutional shareholder. And lets not forget Carmax.

Please don't misunderstand me--I'm not knocking the strategy of one of history's greatest investors--but I wanted to provide an example of investors thinking for themselves. Taking positions in stocks when they are trading at their peak--and let's face it, that is when the stories are most compelling--can be capital-costly proposition.

I want to close with a reminder that the stock market fall began with the REITS more than a year ago. Market sectors do not fall in unison (and that is also a critical lesson for me to learn)--nor do they rise in unison. So watch for leadership in sectors previously beaten down.

Daily Sector Sort (07.01)

Sector/Subsector	Day	YTD (-1 day)
Specialty Finance	3.50%	-21.33%
Consumer Finance	2.81%	-12.69%
Biotechnology	2.62%	8.65%
Gold Mining	1.96%	3.35%
Home Construction	1.91%	-17.45%
Water	1.82%	-23.30%
Nondurable Household Products	1.76%	-16.28%
Computer Hardware	1.74%	-13.38%
Clothing & Accessories	1.69%	-4.74%
Broadline Retailers	1.59%	4.62%
Apparel Retailers	1.54%	-9.34%
Specialty Retailers	1.42%	-14.35%
Exploration & Production	1.35%	25.75%
Auto Parts	1.34%	-17.74%
Heavy Construction	1.29%	5.17%
Banks	1.28%	-33.36%
Food Retailers & Wholesalers	1.24%	-10.91%
Insurance Brokers	1.20%	-2.63%
Property & Casualty Insurance	1.09%	-16.67%
Diversified Industrials	1.08%	-21.82%
Specialized Consumer Services	1.06%	-15.46%
Restaurants & bars	1.05%	-7.19%
Gas Distribution	0.97%	12.85%
Tires	0.97%	-38.13%
Internet	0.94%	-20.02%
Oil Equipment & Services	0.90%	21.24%
Life Insurance	0.88%	-19.36%
Pharmaceuticals	0.80%	-14.21%
Full Line Insurance	0.69%	-49.30%
Commercial Vehicles & Trucks	0.68%	-9.73%
Reinsurance	0.68%	-19.24%
Platinum & Precious Metals	0.65%	27.52%
Financial Administration	0.61%	-8.74%
Electricity	0.59%	-3.72%
Tobacco	0.55%	-8.63%
Toys	0.54%	-4.85%
Medical Supplies	0.50%	-2.73%
Computer Services	0.41%	6.63%
Defense	0.40%	-7.26%
Integrated Oil & Gas	0.27%	-0.35%
Aerospace	0.26%	-22.93%
Commodity Chemicals	0.24%	-2.34%
Industrial Suppliers	0.22%	-3.31%
Mortgage Finance	0.21%	-51.35%
Real Estate Investment Trusts	0.20%	-2.52%
Automobiles	0.16%	-34.86%
Multiutilities	0.15%	-5.66%
Investment Services	0.08%	-36.77%
Real Estate Holding & Development	0.07%	-7.38%
Personal Products	0.05%	-10.31%
Asset Managers	0.04%	-19.55%
Brewers	0.02%	16.40%
Electronic Equipment	-0.06%	-5.84%
Telecommunications Equipment	-0.08%	-12.76%
Electrical Components & Equipment	-0.10%	-10.23%
Transportation Services	-0.16%	23.40%
Semiconductors	-0.22%	-14.86%
Medical Equipment	-0.25%	-3.28%
Containers & Packaging	-0.28%	-16.16%
Business Support Services	-0.28%	-2.77%
Publishing	-0.35%	-20.09%
Recreational Products	-0.43%	-32.34%
Soft Drinks	-0.44%	-17.30%
Industrial Machinery	-0.46%	-2.64%
Food Producers	-0.56%	-9.89%
Marine Transportation	-0.58%	-3.35%
Distillers & Vintners	-0.61%	-3.49%
Software	-0.61%	-16.05%
Fixed Line Telecommunications	-0.64%	-18.96%
Pipelines	-0.70%	14.53%
Specialty Chemicals	-0.74%	5.55%
Broadcasting & Entertainment	-0.80%	-11.48%
Home Improvement Retailers	-0.82%	-11.90%
Coal	-0.96%	73.11%
Drug Retailers	-0.98%	-8.99%
Furnishings	-1.00%	-24.72%
Health Care Providers	-1.04%	-33.51%
Trucking	-1.05%	9.92%
Footwear	-1.08%	-12.66%
Nonferrous Metals	-1.09%	6.36%
Electronic Office Equipment	-1.27%	-15.50%
Durable Household Products	-1.28%	-20.76%
Business Training & Employment Agencies	-1.35%	-13.05%
Consumer Electronics	-1.47%	-53.33%
Waste & Disposal Services	-1.63%	3.20%
Recreational Services	-1.73%	-30.72%
Media Agencies	-1.77%	-9.66%
Airlines	-1.85%	-44.49%
Delivery Services	-1.95%	-12.79%
Hotels	-2.22%	-21.61%
Paper	-2.45%	-31.54%
Building Materials & Fixtures	-2.45%	-14.98%
Railroads	-2.56%	22.27%
Travel & Tourism	-2.97%	-31.11%
Gambling	-3.08%	-44.65%
Iron & Steel	-3.23%	27.02%
Aluminum	-3.33%	-6.75%
Forestry	-3.95%	-28.46%
Mobile Telecommunications	-4.61%	-25.34%

Total number of sectors with data	99	99
Total number of gainers	52	19
Average gain (simple, not weighted)	0.96%	16.71%
Total number of losers	47	80
Average loss (simple, not weighted)	-1.31%	-17.00%

Daily Sector Sort

Sector/Subsector	Day	YTD (-1 day)
Mobile Telecommunications	4.66%	-25.21%
Pipelines	3.19%	11.77%
Fixed Line Telecommunications	2.70%	-20.58%
Coal	2.48%	70.56%
Exploration & Production	2.13%	21.48%
Railroads	2.10%	22.90%
Multiutilities	2.06%	-7.70%
Electricity	2.05%	-3.72%
Gas Distribution	1.81%	9.78%
Integrated Oil & Gas	1.76%	-2.34%
Delivery Services	1.59%	-12.45%
Diversified Industrials	1.32%	-23.66%
Pharmaceuticals	1.31%	-15.99%
Water	1.01%	-25.42%
Oil Equipment & Services	0.99%	18.98%
Industrial Machinery	0.96%	-3.12%
Personal Products	0.92%	-11.17%
Biotechnology	0.79%	5.05%
Medical Equipment	0.65%	-3.66%
Medical Supplies	0.63%	-3.82%
Iron & Steel	0.56%	30.53%
Aluminum	0.54%	-4.05%
Food Producers	0.53%	-9.85%
Paper	0.52%	-30.19%
Electrical Components & Equipment	0.48%	-10.57%
Nondurable Household Products	0.47%	-18.12%
Electronic Office Equipment	0.47%	-14.82%
Trucking	0.40%	10.65%
Heavy Construction	0.36%	3.47%
Waste & Disposal Services	0.33%	4.57%
Nonferrous Metals	0.30%	7.21%
Media Agencies	0.30%	-8.31%
Commercial Vehicles & Trucks	0.24%	-10.55%
Defense	0.22%	-7.83%
Toys	0.18%	-5.53%
Broadcasting & Entertainment	0.07%	-10.83%
Electronic Equipment	0.00%	-5.78%
Real Estate Investment Trusts	-0.01%	-2.52%
Distillers & Vintners	-0.03%	-2.86%
Soft Drinks	-0.10%	-16.85%
Tobacco	-0.12%	-9.03%
Brewers	-0.13%	16.52%
Health Care Providers	-0.18%	-32.69%
Commodity Chemicals	-0.18%	-2.41%
Business Training & Employment Agencies	-0.19%	-11.70%
Recreational Services	-0.30%	-29.29%
Drug Retailers	-0.32%	-7.80%
Building Materials & Fixtures	-0.36%	-12.53%
Containers & Packaging	-0.48%	-15.52%
Financial Administration	-0.60%	-8.74%
Gambling	-0.62%	-42.54%
Aerospace	-0.64%	-22.64%
Semiconductors	-0.68%	-14.08%
Software	-0.77%	-14.88%
Internet	-0.78%	-20.14%
Auto Parts	-0.80%	-18.17%
Broadline Retailers	-0.81%	3.83%
Durable Household Products	-0.85%	-19.04%
Marine Transportation	-0.87%	-1.94%
Publishing	-0.90%	-19.08%
Transportation Services	-0.95%	24.78%
Real Estate Holding & Development	-0.95%	-7.38%
Hotels	-0.96%	-19.06%
Business Support Services	-1.00%	-1.51%
Restaurants & bars	-1.02%	-7.22%
Computer Services	-1.09%	7.36%
Footwear	-1.13%	-10.69%
Gold Mining	-1.19%	2.58%
Insurance Brokers	-1.21%	-2.61%
Reinsurance	-1.22%	-18.79%
Computer Hardware	-1.24%	-13.79%
Consumer Finance	-1.43%	-13.85%
Specialty Chemicals	-1.45%	7.90%
Telecommunications Equipment	-1.52%	-11.34%
Food Retailers & Wholesalers	-1.54%	-10.63%
Asset Managers	-1.55%	-18.33%
Airlines	-1.56%	-42.55%
Industrial Suppliers	-1.59%	-1.96%
Apparel Retailers	-1.66%	-9.21%
Home Improvement Retailers	-1.71%	-9.62%
Furnishings	-1.91%	-22.48%
Automobiles	-1.91%	-33.69%
Specialty Retailers	-1.93%	-13.88%
Recreational Products	-1.99%	-30.67%
Property & Casualty Insurance	-2.02%	-15.87%
Clothing & Accessories	-2.06%	-4.34%
Investment Services	-2.10%	-35.47%
Consumer Electronics	-2.15%	-51.60%
Tires	-2.27%	-37.30%
Life Insurance	-2.33%	-18.15%
Banks	-2.37%	-32.60%
Specialized Consumer Services	-2.65%	-14.07%
Specialty Finance	-2.89%	-21.72%
Forestry	-3.95%	-28.46%
Home Construction	-4.08%	-15.55%
Full Line Insurance	-4.40%	-47.33%
Platinum & Precious Metals	-4.66%	32.90%
Travel & Tourism	-5.48%	-24.89%
Mortgage Finance	-6.45%	-48.09%

Total number of sectors with data	99	99
Total number of gainers	36	19
Average gain (simple, not weighted)	1.14%	16.46%
Total number of losers	62	80
Average loss (simple, not weighted)	-1.52%	-16.43%

Index Thinking

Gossamer

by Vicky Brago-Mitchell

I was reflecting on the indices yesterday. First, I've had this particular perturbation regarding the DOW given the number of new entries, exits and extants. Due to the changing composition of this small indices, can it really mean anything on a technical basis for this reason? I'm concluding no; however, it does represent an emotional bellweather.

Second, the S&P which was heavily weighted toward financials has now lightened up considerably. I think the percentage was above 30%, and I saw an article (Bloomberg--in fact it was this article that clicked the gear in my head), that stated that it might go down to 12% weighting. If that is indeed the case (and I believe that it is), then how can historical views of indices (v. sectors) be very telling with respect to tops, bottoms and the big fat middle?

It's a bit of a rhetorical question, but one worth asking. While we had a bust in 2000/2001 with the internet stocks--our so-called dotcom bubble--the banking system had not been bitch stomped (yes, that is an ugly term, but I'll keep it). As NG notes in comments, we are in unchartered waters. And perhaps overall the market, regardless of sectors that have been causal in a market debacle, still behaves the same way. However, as a reasonable person, I have to believe that there are differences. I'm going to continue hold sector activity ahead of indices activity for my own market thinking.

I'm always leery of wholesale analysis of this crash v. that crash. I do believe that we are seeing the "credit event" of our lifetime. And I'm reminded of Armstrong's work on the subject of the 1929 crash. Specifically he notes that off-index debt in the form of bonds--from many countries--was a large cause. When I read that for the first time last year (and posted about it here), I was struck by the currently unfolding credit derivative market.

But....I'm straying too far from my point which is simply to be a little suspect of wholesale technical analysis of indices.

I did want to leave you with a chart on AXA--If the 200DMA falls.....

The Book of Five Rings; Celebrating Old Wisdom as a Guide for New Experience

Levitating Sphere

Fine Art Print

by Marlene Healey



I was looking for one of my The Art of War translations. I found instead The Book of Five Rings (BOFR) by Miyamoto Musashi (translated by Thomas Cleary).

If you are not familiar with these books they are immensely enjoyable in their simplicity. But this simplicity belies the extraordinary wisdom--wisdom that is applicable to every aspect of life. If you are an active trader, you would welcome these books into your arsenal. The market is surely every bit as dangerous as the battlefield for those traders putting their capital at risk each day. So preparatory mental and physical wisdom for the warrior would benefit the trader, I think!

BOFR was written in 1643. The translator's preface (xiii) notes that there are

two essential elements of ancient martial and strategic traditions:

• The first of these basic principles is keeping inwardly calm and clear even in the midst of violent chaos;
  

• The second is not forgetting about the possibility of disorder in times order.

Seems to have some applicability to current times.

There are many quotables in this book. But there was something from p. 16 (from the author, not the translator's preface as before) that I wanted to share with you:

1. Think of what is right and true.
2. Practice and cultivate the science.
3. Become acquainted with the arts.
4. Know the principles of the crafts.
5. Understand the harm and benefit in everything.
6. Learn to see everything accurately.
7. Become aware of what is not obvious.
8. Be careful even in small matters.
9. Do not do anything useless.

I'll post more of these in the future. There is rarely any new wisdom in the world--merely new experience that can be guided and informed by old wisdom. Unfortunately, I sometimes think that many believe that old wisdom is obsolete. I'm not in that camp.

Today's Transport

Today was not an enjoyable, stress free day. Today was a hot, miserable day for both volunteers and dogs. Plus we had some challenges.

This is Mia (shelter's pic on left). She was my shotgun passenger today. I did a long run--from my home to Emporia (1.25 hours) then from Emporia to Fredericksburg (2.25 hours) and then from Fredericksburg to my home (1 hour). I also had a pregnant female, Twila (shelter's pic on right.) I had a number of other pup passengers to include this darling little bugger--part Border Collie.


Mia is dog-on-dog aggressive though she could easily be handled by humans. Because we had some logistical issues (two vehicles from the outset--all the dogs arrive in a van in crates). Mia had to ride with another tethered dog. All pups and small dogs are in crates.

We figured that Twilla could ride in the backseat along with the small cages for the pup, and Mia could ride up front with me. There was a 20 minute stretch where I wondered if this was a good idea. One of the rat terriers began to bark. Mia did not like this and leaned and looked toward the back. She was also eying Twila, who was turning about to face the barking dog's cage--almost as if she wanted to offer comfort. I started singing which is a horrid sound that typically comforts distressed pups. Today was no different.

Mia locked her gaze on Twila. No growls, but very locked on attention and tensing of muscles. I did not like it a bit. I put my hand firmly on her collar and pushed her forward. I also patted her head, covering her eyes with my hand. Lock on gazes are not good--and I wanted to divert that. Though she was tied off to the suicide handles, I did not want 60 lbs of bone, sinew and muscle (and teeth) hurling her boldness into the back seat. You would have been reading about me on the evening news and this space likely would be silent.

Oftentimes dogs in the back will want to poke their heads forward for comfort. Twila did not, though she wanted to. So we made the balance of the trip quietly, except for my horrid singing. I put my fingers back for the rat terrier, and it licked them and pawed them--a nice comfort for a distressed dog.

Mia finally settled down. As I rubbed her ears, I could feel scars on her ears. I could see scars on her muzzle, and her feet. On her lower middle back she had a scar that was perfectly round as if someone had put a cigar hour on her. I don't know much about fighting dogs, but I'd be surprised if someone told me this dog had never been fought.

I cannot over emphasize her gentleness and willingness to be handled by me. I also cannot overemphasize her alertness toward other dogs. We handled her carefully ensuring adequate space. It was a stressful day. That stressed was mitigated by my Very-Berry-Shake from Arby's and my early bailout off of 95 due to traffic backups--It took me by Secreteriat's birthplace.