Enjoy and concentrate on what you have rather than obsess over everything you might desire.
Author: Henry Barnard
I am a voracious reader and also enjoy writing. I often have a very different point of view than the popular one. I do see value in debate, and thought it might add to the public debate on controversial issues if I were to express my contrarian opinions. I also started keeping my poems recently (I've written little pieces my whole adult life but never kept any); and I've been a photographer now for over 25 years. So I will be adding an occasional poem and hopefully interesting photograph to the blog along the way, just to spice things up.
Toasty Potatoes
Small gourmet red potatoes. Wash and cut in half. In a big bowl, pour balsamic vinegar, apple cider vinegar, mustard, almond flour, curry powder, and stir. Put the halved potatoes in bowl and swirl with your hands (this is the fun part, a la playing in mud when you were a kid) until they are thoroughly soaked. Put potatoes smooth side down on a large baking pan with parchment paper. Sprinkle on rosemary and sesame seeds. Bake at 425 degrees for 35 minutes. Eat some hot that day but put the rest in a paper towel lined container and put in frig. Eat the rest cold for the rest of the week. Tart taste with a lingering curry aftertaste and toasty from the sesame seeds and the almond flour.
Stock Market Direction?
Everyone is wondering now if this is a V-shaped recovery or if we are going to retest the bottom (around 2200). If we retest and break through, there is a very strong support level at 1600 because that was the top of the market in 2000 and 2008. If we do see a collapse, I don’t think it will go below that level.
I’ve been seeing suggestions that the mortgage market is broken since banks are now demanding higher interest rates because they are anticipating layoffs and want to be compensated for taking on the credit risk. It could be the overpriced real estate market is very shaky here. So a collapse in the housing market could be the trigger — again.
Are You Deficient?
If you use cronometer.com, a free service, you can see exactly what your micronutrient profile is each day. No guessing whether you are deficient or excessive in anything. If you are into nutrition, it’s kind of fun. I’ve discovered I can be regularly deficient in lysine, iodine, and choline. Had no clue about this before using cronometer.
Ancient Rome
The Roman Empire perhaps reached its zenith under Marcus Aurelius in the 2nd century AD, but then the plague came.
Egomania
I think all the presidents have been egomaniacs to some degree — Trump is perhaps a little more conspicuous than the others…the boastfulness, the strong opinions about everything and anything. But Obama too was something of an egomaniac…he was known for lecturing people like a professor in a quiet but very condescending way, i.e., he knew better than you or anyone else. Egomania is a kind of qualification for the job.
Therefore, it is best to judge presidents not on their personalities, which, like most of us, can be pretty strange, but solely on their actions.
Layoffs and Savings
40% of Americans have less than $400 in savings. And we are now having gigantic layoffs. How are these people going to survive, how are they going to pay for the necessities? One pundit pointed all this out, and warned about riots in the streets over food. Farfetched? Not so sure.
Break With China
Not only should we blame China for this virus (second time around with them, which shows criminal negligence), but we should BREAK with China, a communist country with concentration camps.
Question
What do you really know and how do you know it?
Bale Out Nation
The negative side to all the various bale outs by the Federal Reserve and the government: more crony capitalism where weak companies that should fail and just disappear are kept alive. Why there has been such poor growth in the last 10 years — all these zombie companies that are unproductive. Bale out nation — that’s how you undermine capitalism. Assets are spent on unproductive companies.
Henry's Views 