Gay Marriage

00:01 With the world tipping point just 10 days away, time for your weekly interlude from two guys who know nothing about anything. Call it a match made in heaven call it no agenda From Gitmo Nation West and The Condo Overlooking The Bay I'm Adam Curry And I am John C. Dvorak up here in Silicon Valley North A non-existent location, but somehow I feel substance. Substance no less. Or substantive, I guess... not sure Hey John how you doing? It's Saturday afternoon 1125 here on the West Coast and uh..I think i've solved the disconnect problems from last week it's a weird one though

00:42 Oh yeah, what was it? For some reason my router gets confused when I have three machines here. I have an iMac that's one of those desktop things and then I've got the MacBook Pro which I record the show on and then my phone And what was happening was It was getting conflicting IP addresses you know where two machines try to grab the same IP address I think it has to do with the phone actually because that's That's the new piece that was introduced most recently. Ah, did you turn the phone off? Yeah I've turned it off completely so... ummm....I think maybe once in a while maybe the router looks to check or something is going on which i'm sure also part of the router but for whatever reason ummm..... I get conflicts between uh... the MacBook Pro and then the other machine So just turned if off hopefully should be okay One of those deals.

01:38 I went to dinner on Thursday, a 10th anniversary little party they had for a company called NetSuite. Yeah what do they do? They make kind of an all-purpose... essentially are SAP in the clouds is what it really amounts too Oh my god did you stand there and say you guys are doomed! The cloud will never work! I don't believe in it! It's BS Well, the type of cloud computing they do is something that is doable in the cloud because it's very targeted. It's not like mass market stuff. So it's just like enterprise stuff? Is that what it is? Yeah, it's all enterprise stuff but small companies can utilize this. It's actually an interesting product people should check out if they have a small company and want to computerize everything

02:27 The Oakland A's are on it. You know John, your bandwidth is crap man once again you're warbling all over the place but anyway we're connected so... You know what weird since were both on Comcast we have better connection when your in England Yeah no kidding and its messed up I was going to unfortunately didn't do it but this week I was gonna talk to the Comcast folks and have them monitor this conversation And tell me what's wrong with it, because I have high speed. They might die of boredom! Don't have them actually monitor the conversation... Well you know, monitor this stream It's weird, it's like your upload speed You've got mega mega mega megabits right? Don't you have the massive Comcast connection? Yes, I'm a 5 up and the thing is that with everybody else I don't have a problem to ship with you at that location I hate it Alright Anyway so NetSuite, you had dinner

03:21 Yeah. Is that the pictures you sent? That's what that was of? No, one picture was the dining room. Mm-hmm. That's at Larry Ellison's house. That's where we had the dinner Oh! That's his ship then?! No no...that's Tom Perkins' ship. Excuse me I get them confused. Yeah one is Blofeld and the other one is..I can't remember the other evil character but uh Perkins is definitely Blofeld with that ship. That thing is amazing, I mean it's a world famous ship right? It's the only one of its kind, a sailing ship that is completely automated...I think was actually built in the Netherlands didn't the Dutch build that? Turks! Turks huh same thing Well I'm sure the Dutch taught the Turks But anyway so you try to get on but they won't let you on

04:14 You know, since he's at... you know he is one of the founders of Clive Perkins. You should be able to get on seems to me Yeah but I have absolutely no desire and by the way i'm against parties on boats This party was not a boat The party was at Larry Ellison house Just on the way to the house I went past this boat And I stopped and took a picture of it Oh wow There's a lot to wish for still, I guess. Holy moly! Well, I don't think Allison even stays at that house by the way you have to take your shoes off when you go in there It looks like more of a crash pad in the model of the lobby of The Four Seasons

05:03 Is this the Japanese place? No, no that's his place in Woodside. Oh okay so how many people were invited there are 22 oh man you're on the list you're in the inner circle well for that party yeah well since and anyway since one of the guys that Lord the CEO of the company is a wine collector he gave me access to his his database, and then so I picked the wines for the dinner. And they were all...I'm gonna have to blog this because it's another example of how people get caught up in essentially overpriced California wine. For anyone out there who follows this, by two guys are not going to know what I'm talking about but we had essentially a six

05:49 A bottle of horizontal tasting of the 2002 vintage which included two cold gins, an Ebreu and a Raho. A Bryant family. And I overall these wines are 500-600 bucks a pop or more if you bought them today. And, you know some day I next couple days later had just a second wine from Bordeaux for like 20 bucks. It was better. Oh man... Somehow it's a lot less interesting when i wasn't there to taste it How come I wasn't your bitch? How come I wasn't your date? What's up with that? Nobody had dates. It was just people were invited and nobody could bring anybody. Okay. Was is really nerdy? A whole bunch of guys in cockies sitting around drinking $500 bottle wine No not really

06:41 Mostly entrepreneurial class. Ah, yes. Although Dan Farber was there from ZDNet. ZDNet right? Okay so that was nice you had table conversation I know half the guys there. I'm glad we didn't go out last night We were planning our dinner last night we were still on for tonight or not Yeah but i'm thinking here's an interesting idea and I think people get a kick out of this About a month or two ago. I was floating around San Francisco and to meet somebody and I was over in the part of Chinatown where there's this There's a classic, San Francisco restaurant that I don't know how old this place is But for years and years and years it always won the most beautiful restaurant in San Francisco award You know and more I thought about it I've only lived here forever And I don't know that I've ever eaten at this place, and it's a classic old

07:34 Really pretty Chinese restaurant that is probably as faded as anything could be semi-decadent Called the Empress of China Oh, okay. I think I've walked by it once when I was on one of my... It's a big thing! It's up in the air. Yeah. It's like on the 10th floor of a building that overlooks Chinatown or something. Cool. And so anyways, I'm walking around and I go and I had some time to kill So I went into the elevator to visit the restaurant to see what it was like and I roamed around. Still, it looks like it's still in pretty good shape. I'm wondering about... About choosing that as our destination for the season? Well, I was saying it would be kind of interesting as a- because I've never been there. It's a landmark! I think our audience who once and awhile frequent San Francisco would enjoy the review Yeah, I think so too Is it worth going to is the question Well you know, I lay my trust completely in your hands Anyway, this is change of pace

08:32 Especially after having this high-end meal I had, which is like drinking these wines. I was so irked about the wines not that they weren't good. They were all decent except that I didn't like the Colgens at all and I never have liked that winery but when I was looking at the bottles and realized why? The alcohol in those wines is ridiculous! That's 15%? 15 5%, 15 7%. That makes you hammered real quick Yeah, and it gives you a headache and you have all kinds of issues with it. I don't even know why they're pushing them up that high with that kind of alcohol And when you smell the wine trying to look for a bouquet or anything all you smell is ethanol This wine is $500? Are you kidding me? Pour that in my tank! I mean I can go get some Everclear Excuse me can I just dabbed my napkin on that to clean the glass table for a second yeah there we go nice

09:23 Anyway, but I'll blog it. Yeah Oh man This is so weird it you know? I don't like doing our shows when we're both on the same coast or in the same country actually besides the connectivity I just feel so Disconnected from the rest of the world when I'm in San Francisco Well, you've been reading the Financial Times. You were very disappointed this week because you ran into the Financial Times article on Sequoias complaining about something or other? No that was actually just before I left! That was last... Was it? No no, you're right it was Monday or Tuesday. When did I arrive? Tuesday?! When did I get in? I don't know. Yeah, what is it? See, I don't know either You came in Monday night Right okay so yeah It was a Monday's Financial Times on the plane The front page above the fold said... I wish I knew exactly what the headline was but it was like Silicon Valley and dire straits or something like that And referred to What is now really old news which broke on of all places Vallywag

10:23 that one of our investors actually, Sequoia Capital, they had an all-hands meeting two... no almost three weeks ago. and they had all of their companies come in, they had three guys speak and you know they had a common PowerPoint deck. And the deck started off with a tombstone, a picture of a tombstone that said rest in peace good times. And essentially the message from... which was insulting to start off with honestly. You know what do I mean good times? I'm working my ass off here And the message was, we're all going to die. Your companies will die you have to cut 60 percent You have to plan to have... The amount of cash you have right now, you have to plan to have the exact same amount of cash in one year from now If your not making money your gonna be dead and that was their message Now we had other investors who had very different messages I'll say but this is really they brought everyone together and they did a really stupid thing

11:24 they sent out a video of the event and the powerpoint through email, the video was not password protected and it said confidential. Like all those people who were at the meeting like they're going to keep it confidential so of course that showed up everywhere within an hour including a valley wag and you know dad insult injury than the financial times picks up on its two weeks after the fact that makes it a headline story uh... and then quoting you know with a quoting like Loic Lemire of seismic who had just you know let seven people go and you know it was just like man if this is their reporting if this Is there they're they're great in-depth award winning reporting crikey I got to start thinking about the value of other shit. I read in that paper It's disappointing does that happens all the time when you read something in the newspaper You absolutely know something about and it's never right you have to question the rest of it

12:24 Yeah, I know that happens all the time. In fact you run into that...I ran into that by the way a lot with Alex Jones Oh from Infowars? Yeah and he brings up certain things that I happen to have personal knowledge of and it's like what are you talking about? Well we all do it obviously in then yeah there is no truth I guess is the message No its all entertainment Yes So talking about entertainment, I've come to some horrible conclusion about the election. It's no longer fun? Well no it's getting a little old but...

13:05 But what's getting to be kind of fun is watching the smugness of the Democrats creep into the picture. I mean, if you watch this week's Bill Maher show... These guys are sitting there and it's actually kind of interesting because it will be so offensive after a couple years of this. So I realized that I made a huge mistake. Uh-oh! Yeah. Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute Here it comes! A huge mistake. I made a huge mistake and the thing was is that i violated my own basic tenet when I made this mistake, and that is about two years ago when I started to pick up on the way this election was going to go which

13:53 I believed it was going to be at times... You believed it was going to be Hillary as the Democratic candidate, then you said that it would be a Clinton-Obama ticket but McCain would win regardless. So far your batting zero? I was also predicting McCain was going to be the nominee, and I also said that... but i said the vice president is gonna be Giuliani. But that was kind of the way.. these guys got shook out at during the primaries and who knew Obama was gonna push out Hillary? Because it wasn't really in the cards Anyway so when I still think they're trying to submarine his campaign but they can do it! The thing I overlooked was a wrote a column which I'm gonna re-blog. I just basically wrote this column for the blog A few years ago about how the media

14:38 is going to force the issue on the way the electoral college works and make a popular vote be for the president because when they target states, which Obama's not necessarily doing because he has got a 50 state strategy. And it has got a huge lead. But when they target states, they take money out of the coffers of media companies who get all this election campaign money But meanwhile I've been arguing vociferously, every time it comes up in the conversation and people who know me have probably heard this from me numerous times over the last decades is that there's never going to be campaign finance reform.

15:18 ever, because it would limit the amount of money that goes to these campaigns that then goes to the true beneficiaries of the campaign. Which are the media companies? Which are the media companies so they're not going to put up with it They're essentially going to screw over anybody who tries to do campaign finance reform because its money out of their pockets Right So what am I doing putting my money on McCain When he takes public funds, even though Obama agreed to it and Obama just said yeah. Yeah right. Gotcha! Psych! And so Obama's got the 200-300 million God knows how much money he has got and he is spending it and still collecting it He charges for bumper stickers for god sake They're desperate they are so desperate to spend their money We should probably delve into this just lightly John To explain our non American listeners how it works In fact many of our American listeners don't know how it works

16:10 he because you can't spend that money after the campaign right I think you can put it into the next campaign. I think you can carry it forward like a credit. Right, okay so obviously he's trying to spend everything which explains what is doing as in Wednesday when he's spending $1 million per network for a prime time half hour special for which baseball was even being delayed by 15 minutes and which is the kicker to this story because Fox of all networks is actually delaying The World Series so they could take Obama's money And by the way, a million bucks for an half hour? That seems cheap.

16:50 Yeah, it does seem cheap. I think it's pre-prime time or something like that? It's not prime time or is it well before the baseball game this may be my dollar figure may not Be accurate and may have been negotiated. I don't know okay. Yeah, that's true. I'm just going by what I hear That's true yeah could be something else so let's just understand this first Let me just delve into the to the campaign finance. Let me just play it to you the way I understand it if you go with public money then there's a set amount of that you can use and you get that basically for free. If you take other forms of money, and I'm very fuzzy on what other forms of money is then you can't take the public money but then the amount you could get in and spend is essentially unlimited And I am not quite sure how it works How do you... where does this money come from? Can you raise it any way you want As we know and we'll get into later Obama's literally selling his bumper stickers How does that work

17:47 Well, it's pretty... you know this is a... nobody knows. Nice and transparent in the Banana Republic It's like there are bunch of little money come pouring in that they don't track so could be from Africa You're not supposed to be taking foreign money. Which is illegal, right? You're not supposed to take foreign money. Yeah you can't take foreign money and but you can't track it because all going on through the internet so and then there's these big donations and there's a thousand dollar minimum but yet those people that give more somehow I mean the whole thing has really gotten weird in their used to be this problem with so-called soft money and hard money and i don't even know what they did fix that and then we got them public money that goes to do you know one or both candidates since different

18:29 ratios. John, it's alright to say you just don't know? I don't know! I mean, i just know that there is an awful lot of money on one side of the campaign and then the do-gooder who wants to do campaign finance reform because the reason for campaign finance reform is what we're describing We don't know how this works, we don't where this money coming from It could be coming from Saudi Arabia for all we know And its being funneled in all kinds of different ways companies, and they would like to fix that because there's a corrupting factor to it. But it's never going to be fixed and we have to get over it because the media is not going to let that happen so they got these two candidates and you wonder why? Because I was still baffled by why would General Electric, a big contracting company put all its weight

19:13 behind Obama in such a way that they've actually created a network, MSNBC. That is essentially the Obama channel. And they just give you know as far their concern it's all about Obama all the time. Well then why do you question it? I don't understand why...that makes total sense to me! Well it makes total sense when you think of the fact that they don't want a campaign finance reform guy winning Because obviously that's money out of their bottom line every four years or every two years with the congressional elections. Yeah, but oh dude! But come on General Electric think about the power they're going to have when they come knocking and say yo Barack baby remember we hooked you up with the with that Barak channel? That's what gonna happen. I don't think that's the basic reason to do it

19:55 Because it was always risky. I mean, because they were going on Barack's side when the election was even and what would happen if McCain won? The reason everybody... If you look at all these newspapers that are including the Chicago Tribune that never advocated for a Democrat even though he is a local boy. They said, yeah we want Obama. Every newspaper editor which is usually always saying a Republican while the staff is Democrat they're all saying vote for Obama nobody's saying vote for McCain and the reason as far as I'm concerned it's just like they look at the bottom line and say look this Obama guy he's throwing 300 million into the system our money

20:32 and in this cheapskate McCain, he's got some public funds? Do we want a future with the president running under those circumstances? Who is not going to pay us?! Who is not going to pay the man! So, I made this bet not thinking because i have always said for years that campaign finance reform is never going to happen because the media is the beneficiary. The media controls public opinion and the media would be shooting themselves in the foot to be promoting it. Am I missing something? Is there campaign finance reform on the horizon what am I missing here

21:09 No, McCain has always had a couple of bills go in trying to do it. He's a big shot here by taking public funds. It is always on the horizon and gets talked up every once in awhile but when it comes this close and you got a guy who's going to be president who's really big time campaign finance reform guy, McCain They have to kill him, you know with the... by making sure he doesn't get in. So they say don't vote for him, you know all the editorials are against them He's an idiot and he is old You know one thing or another I hope people... Somebody out there will go well Obama is better I'm saying like Obama, they could have put anybody in. I really hope people understand the significance of this and by the way there was a Dutch reporter...I think i sent that to you couple weeks ago..a dutch reporter who donated money to Obamas campaign and then she wrote an article about it saying hey you know that's actually illegal for you take my money of course that went nowhere In fact when I donated too, I am just realizing now when I donated

22:05 Dr. Ron Paul's campaign, I did it on a Dutch credit card so technically that would also be an illegal donation but this is what i've been saying for a long time that in the United States we choose our presidents the same way we buy our soap and our washing powder It's all through advertisements, its all through manipulation and paid manipulation of the media And it's the people who are behind the candidates who are really running the show Last Thursday When we had the beautiful, I love C-SPAN. uh... investigative committee about the uh... the financial crisis and you had greenspan sitting there you had cox from a security exchange commission and snow the former treasury as secretary of the treasury and um... davis the republican on the committee uh... he's he asked these three jabroni steveson liars he said do you have any idea in the past twenty years which presidential candidate in twenty years time which presidential candidate has received the most

23:09 campaign finance donations from the subprime mortgage lenders, which is just another word for the Wall Street thieves. And none of them knew the answer and of course the answer is Obama because that's where his money is coming from it's coming from Wall Street! It's coming from Wall Street were big companies like GE are listed in its one big money game and the fact that we don't see through this certainly as Americans is sad Well I think the market is going to skyrocket once he gets in Market, market. I'm so uninterested now in... Yeah well that's because you're in gold bars No it's.. You know what? I've really calmed down a lot because I see now that clearly we're not going to stop the freight train unless something really radical happens Obama is going to win and were headed for at least two more years until we hit your cycle our huge depression and its gonna be very very serious

24:10 And it's and we brought this shit on ourselves. Well, the funny thing is it's gonna be all Democrats you know, running everything so that we'll see how they do. But um... You know the Barney Franks of the world. Oh! That guy! I wouldn't buy a car from that guy What a dick he looks like your crazy ass uncle the one who always sets up the slide shows? Yeah it's like what a horrible horrible man and yeah you can just tell is full of crap oh I hate that guy really with a passion And the way he talks He's not the only weird talker. The other one is, what was his name? Rankle or that black guy who has got the screechy hair. I don't know him but you know Dodd is another one and he looks so completely untrustworthy And even Nancy Pelosi man! What planet is she from?! I don't know...I think she had way too much Botox last time around She can't even move her face Botox in that helmet that she calls hair is frightening me

25:09 She's like, looks like she is perpetually scared. Well enough about the personal attacks but yeah I mean totally... It's not right to talk about people physical appearance but... Well when they're all Botoxed up it's okay. There are people in my family who use Botox and people in my friends I know so what am I going to say about her? But, it's a... for me it's just winding down. I'm exhaling already and like okay we'll see what happens and then we're gonna see all that smugness when everyone is going to be ha-ha-ha aren't we great? And we rule or change the world and then wake up one day

25:51 I'm trying not to swear, but we're going to be screwed. We're gonna be so screwed and that's what i'm waiting for when I can say okay told you so now can we please get together and change this and make it right? You know...I'm angry John! I'm angry, I'm disappointed and dismayed when I hear what Obama is going to do You look at, you know this is the only... I've tried running companies in countries that are socialist which is the direction United States is headed and what you get it's impossible. At least for me It is not possible to run a small-to medium sized business We are the ones that are going we're absolutely our company is the one that's going to get screwed

26:35 Because we're gonna get all of the tax crap, all that shit's gonna come down on us. We're the ones that are actually working and people who are lazy bitches are going to be sitting around taking handouts and not want to do anything! This is not what America is about." And it's upsetting to me really really upsetting and I've had small medium businesses and I've run them successfully, and i love doing it but when your government is there jabbing a poker up your ass its like why bother you know? I'll just take my gold and go sit somewhere else. Go to Paraguay and screw all of ya! Seriously! Paraguay... Well that's where all the bushes are going, thats where they have their compounds for when the riots break out

27:18 You know, it's really honestly seriously upsetting because I am a patriot and it upsets me. Do you disagree with that happening? Well, you know the thing is that it happens so there's still a slow boat. I mean he doesn't happen overnight yet learned that too it takes awhile and you know there's a lot of resistance in the US only damage here's what the Democrats have to do they got it pretty much not doing anything except me knows fix a few leaks and maybe look at the regulatory landscape a little bit, make some adjustments for two years so things are kind of on an even keel.

28:00 And then they can keep their plurality. Because if they start screwing around right away and things start to fall apart, the Republicans will be right back in office in the Congress and Senate overnight because the public is fickle! They're not going put up with you know here we are going give you a congress, we are gonna give you the president whatever you want, pick any Supreme Court justice you want, you can have the senate or house everything it's yours now do what your supposed to which is fix things If they don't do it, they're done. Because this is... In fact I'm surprised that they're going to pick up more seats because it's been the Democrat Do-Nothing Congress that got in two years ago and they were gonna get us out of the war and they were gonna do this and they were gonna do that and they did nothing except...

28:45 be partially responsible for this financial crisis by you know that doing anything about what we handle president when i hear our cultural leaders of the elite mind you when I hear Jon Stewart on his show talking about well isn't it time we spread the wealth around a little bit In other words, it's okay for people to receive checks from the government for not working. That really angers me! That is not the way its supposed to work. The way its supposed to work... 75% of American business is small business. It's only 25% that are huge conglomerates and mega-corporations You know, this is the guy with the corner stall. This is the guy with a little shop. This is couple of guys with 50-60 employees and we're supposed to be able to create jobs which creates wealth and creates an economy that actually runs on real product in people doing real work. And that's how you spread the wealth around not by giving handouts because it

29:41 It breeds contempt. I've seen it happen! We've talked about this Yes, but what also breeds contempt for example is the guy who took over that bank for two weeks and walked away with $300 million dollars Oh yeah of course Of course but don't... This bailout is not about actually fixing anything I'm just saying that we have a bunch of interesting executive packages that are out there. These guys, look what I've got here and people doing one. I make more as CEO than you are making 200 million a year and you're only making 150 million. That kind of thing which is basically shoving it in the public's face

30:21 Because these guys can't either shut up about it, or they can't find some other way to get paid. I mean even like Jack Welch wasn't paid that kind of money and so you get a blowback on it and this is what's going to happen. So they're literally gonna do what the Democrats can do when they take over And its just simple old phrase that goes around soak the rich. Eat the rich Well, but it's the Democrats who set all this up. It's the Democrats who forced this bailout You know they're doing it I'm at a loss for words and I am disappointed Yeah well election is not over yet It's not over till its over That is absolutely true But you know I would hate to think what would happen if Obama lost

31:10 That would be bad too. I'm very worried. If it turns out that he was born in Kenya... Yeah, this is getting weirder. I was reading yesterday that because Obama did not respond to this lawsuit that was filed in Pennsylvania that actually creates a legal problem for him. Essentially all he has to do is produce his vault version of his birth certificate and he's good to go, right? And he's not doing that. Right! The rule is if you're not a natural born American you cannot be president whether it's fair or not that's the rule

31:48 and uh... this trip to hawaii i've read somewhere else in amongst my many fellow conspiracist uh... you know that his grandmother is a is apparently ill or very ill and so he stopped his campaign for two days to go to hawaii the the general conspiracy thought out there is it is there with his lawyers trying to finagle and fix his birth certificate issue because that's where his uh... his so-called birth certificate is from is from hawaii Which I kind of would buy into almost. Yeah, I thought it was kinda weird that he would have this issue with his grandmother out of the blue like this just two weeks before hand although i think right now that both Obama and Biden would be better off staying off the campaign trail and coasting home

32:36 on an empty tank because there is less chance of getting into a wreck as it were. Yeah, well this Biden thing where he at a fundraiser was recorded saying oh you know this guy's gonna get really going to be tested there's gonna be a... Something bad is gonna happen Well but he said that it was going to be orchestrated event Hello. And he knows the people who are going to do it, that was literally what he was saying That's what he kind of hinted at but you know they're... The thing is you gotta remember there is an eight year cycle uh...of attacks

33:14 by Al Qaeda in the United States. I mean, the 93 attack on the World Trade Center... You better get your book out quick John! This is The 8 Year Cycle Book so that means we're due in 2009 for another al-Qaeda attack this is also in a cycle? you serious right? you really telling me this now absolutely please and swell when it happens you're gonna go my god i did this to work is unbelievable now i don't think as i think it's a i think it's financial i think its structural i think it's uh... um... it's going to be the reset of the reserve currency screwing the dollar that's what i believe that's going to be there's not gonna be uh... physical attack will be a financial virtual attack and they got a blow up los angeles

34:00 And why do I say that? Yes, please. I wouldn't mind knowing because i'm going there tomorrow it will be okay can if I leave on Tuesday am I safe Well, the reason I say that is because they seem to... whoever's behind all these crazy things which i would assume has been Laden but you don't know. They always keep coming back to this thing that didn't get done the first time and so World Trade Center tried it in 93, they tried to blow up from bottom-up with a bunch of explosives in the basement and it shook the whole place but nothing happened. And well, a couple people died? Yeah some people died but I'm just saying it wasn't didn't bring the building down and then they you know so then they re-you know thought the process and into eight years later over after a lot of planning these guys aren't you know kind of just scatterbrained about it after a lot of planning they do that thing on 9 11 now during that same period

34:59 uh... there was an attempt and they were going to go to this los angeles airport in blow up that that horrible looking at the other spaceship look into all the added on restaurant yeah and um... they did brought these guys in through port angelus my washington home as a matter of fact are these guys are coming from canada and the guy screwed up and panicked and we're sorry running around if you know it anybody knows anything about their area when your inner olympic peninsula does one road out And it was like being on an island in that regard. You can't get out, I mean you can get out by plane but driving out or running out is what this guy was doing... You're not getting anywhere, you're going to be eaten by bears. Anyway so.. Well they also tried to uh wasn't the talk of them trying to attack the Sears Tower in Chicago as well? There was talk about it but there wasn't anything where there's actual effort and where guys were caught

35:53 and there was also talk about the space needle in Seattle during the fireworks. But why bother with that? That is not symbolic, you know if... You gotta get something that has... No I agree with that! I think this space needle's not symbolic it's just a space needle and nobody cares about it. That bill, I think blowing up LAX uh... well that would cause some actual economic the because all kinds of problems have been disaster as opposed to this space needle which i think was stupid you once a rumor came out about the space and they cancel fireworks display is the other seattle it's all panic cuz and then there are no less than a man most account everything everybody in those areas thinks everything's about them

36:39 Well, that's just like San Francisco dude. Believe me. Yeah it is true but anyway the point is that they got really freaky about which was ridiculous and yes the thing these guys would like to do something that really has an economic impact which the World Trade Center definitely did and whole idea of airplanes So, blowing up an airport which is what they tried to do once eight years ago or seven years ago coming on the eight years. It seems like a logical target and if I was down in Los Angeles I'd be very...I don't know what to do about it but I think

37:17 So, so let me ask you a question. If Obama is going to save us which of course is what everyone believes and he's going to bring our troops home and end this war I can hear Joe Biden saying it What incentive do they have? You know, if... I mean of course you know that there even is such a thing as Al-Qaeda beyond the brand name and Bin Laden. If he's still alive it's irrelevant and i don't believe that 9 11 was done by al Qaeda or terrorists with box cutters yeah go ahead go ahead call me a cuckoo nut job whatever I didn't call ya nut job but I'd call ya nutter But anyway just go back to the topic So what's the incentive? Why do they want

37:56 get us again is this uh... just to keep on going forever i mean are we have showing our good side here and i'm honest bullshit this has been done by the same people who were electing or trying to get obama and mccain into government they'd just be just want to kill us all at times i'm sorry it's a it's ridiculous it's absolutely ridiculous as geopolitics is nothing new anyway so no it's not but it did not start it is It is absolutely nothing new. We're going through this, you're right John we are going through the same cycle The exact same things have happened throughout history and were so stupid and so undereducated And our governments keep us so dumb that we don't even recognize That what is happening it's just a cycle it goes through I mean the same thing all over again and its probably done by the same people or their descendants

38:49 And it's not guys with sheets on their head climbing on monkey bars in the desert, which is our vision of Al-Qaeda. I didn't know about the monkey bars. You've never seen that video footage? So anyway the point is back to what I was saying There's an eight there is a cycle involved with that do what they're planning and the execution in this eight years And there's been a couple of There was a really good article written to London Times, and I wish I could find it You know I had a link to it on this little site that. I put up during the 9-11 period I had all these links to all these stories It was actually quite a good discology hot side it was Quite interesting to read all this stuff so people can get to an understanding of what's going on with the fundamentalist Islamist and

39:38 I had a link to this article in the London Times which disappeared, unfortunately. And I'd have to go get the paper, I guess... was written by one of the professors at one of the big universities like Oxford or Cambridge who's a professor of war studies And he claimed that the, uh... That this... The Arab methodology for war from back from the 1400s and whatever or before was always a hit-and-run style. It was like you'd come in and do as much damage as you could then run away fast as you can. Then stay away then come again when it's least expected

40:16 And his thinking was what we did when we pounded Afghanistan immediately thereafter, was the exact right thing to do. You have to like, you know just start making them miserable. Are you John? a question of conscience are you proud to be an American when you talk about all these things when you hear what we're doing and And it basically what the government's are doing I don't hate anyone in Afghanistan. I don't hate anyone in Iraq I don't hate anyone in Russia Do you are you proud to be an American and have these people represent you with death? Well, I don't like the representation with death by any means but the fact of the matter is that we've structured this society in such a way that we have been given this role and there's nothing we can do about it. What role? We have been given the world's best

41:07 big country with the number one economy and it's a police, we've been given the police state role. We've been given that? By whom? Who gave that to us? Well we got in World War II! Who gave it to us?! essentially I think all of everybody else. It wasn't like somebody, it wasn't like here's a piece of paper where we're signing off you guys can go do all this stuff. It's just the role that we ended up with. I don't know who gave it to us or any one person because there is no A person that gives anything like that. You don't think its possible that we as in our government took it? Took that role instead of just staying back and saying hey guys... Well ya know I think it's a possibility that we could have stayed back and went back to our isolationist ways

41:48 before World War I and i don't think that would have been necessarily a bad thing. Well but it's not bad to have commerce with other people, but to go set up camps and then have military represented... we have camps in 200 places in the world! I think is too many. Of course its too many And they've been there since the second World War Germany we still have bases Why? to protect us from the evil russians i mean come on this is it's just a way of moving money around well okay oh thank you all right so as long as we all recognize that it boils down to money at the end of the day I'm just sick of it john I'm really really sick of it. You're getting weirder no, No I am not there's nothing to be positive about and I see this Obama guy coming and...and..I know what its like reading

42:43 Like reading the dictionary, you know? I know we're going to wind up at Z eventually and I know that Zebra's gonna be there. It's just like... it's so obvious what's going to happen and you're right! We go through these same cycles over and over again And I'm frustrated because I wish I could change it and I wish we weren't such moronic idiots We reset the whole country when this next cycle comes around by my thesis, so I'm not worried about it. Is that the 12 o'clock train I hear passing? It's funny isn't it? That guy... This is one guy He always he always uh, oh hey, well he died that but he yeah. He just makes noise or there's no there's no crossings Seriously there's no crossing safety it but he just makes noise the whole time I don't know what he's making it about maybe this shape takes to chase birds off the Off the track. I have no idea is just a maniac

43:34 Once in a while, there was a period of time that... I don't know what caused this. There's a period of time when these trains are going by at 2 in the morning and they guys would be honking the whole time right through residential areas in Berkeley. And so they got a bunch of complaints and stopped doing it but uh... I think is just something you do when your engineer. Well that's the whole reason to become an engineer isn't it? Exactly! Purr purrr look at me, I'm an engineer Well, and then now it turns out by the way that engineer that caused a big train wreck is supposedly texting someone on his phone. You believe that? You actually believe that? No I believe the later report! That he saw green and went and some screw up at the base yeah because you had three witnesses of course but you know its another great way to take away some freedom let's turn off texting that's next

44:30 Well, they got busted on that so that's not gonna happen. Although you know the thing is it's almost like everything else well it could have been from text messaging so we better be safe than sorry turn off texting you can't do it or get fired exactly We'll see how... We had that with my favorite thing was during the era this actually started in the 80s The era when laptops and people were bringing electronic devices onto airplanes in the early days, when they first started showing up on the scene. Early IBM laptops And there was this big thing about before the cell phone revolution About you got to turn off all your electronic stuff and then all of a sudden it became like You know we're doing that because it's better to be safe than sorry cuz some plane veered off course they think you know Cuz somebody had his laptop on so they well let me tell you as an airman. It's horseshit, it is horse shit

45:27 It makes no difference, it cannot influence these instruments. It does not influence these instruments The main reason for turning off your cell phone and that is true Is that when your cell phone is searching for a tower And you hear this on television all the time You hear the interference, you hear... Right? With the Blackberry doesn't a lot and then will interfere with audio and you will hear that in the cockpit, and that's annoying without a doubt. But that is the only reason there is nothing else that affects these instruments...there just isn't! At some point they relented and let people use their laptops in the air. In the beginning, by the way that was controversial They weren't going to even let you play on your laptop when you're flying around But now you've got Wi-Fi and you can do video conference from the air It just proves the point that it's horseshit! So here is my story I'm in Brazil And I think Tam

46:29 and I'm sitting in the Fanta Lays someplace in northern Brazil, at an airport. I'm on this plane and it's not going to take off for half-hour so open the laptop up and start doing some work. And then the stewardess comes over and she tells me that I have to close my laptop. And I said why? She says you can only use the laptop after we get to 10 thousand feet. But that by the way is the altitude which on 9 11 cell phones worked Yeah, right. So anyway so I said but we're still right we're just sitting here we were just here landed you know and then she says no that's what the rules are let me go kill his phone call yeah sure go ahead You know how to answer it? Hello? Yeah there he goes. Special insights see how hear how terse he is when he talks to people on the phone. Yeah, yeah, uh-huh I'm busy oh can't talk now gotta go dig your name in any other line

47:35 What time? Oh, geez. Getting away... getting a reservation at dinner Okay cool excellent I'm so happy we didn't have dinner last night would have absolutely nothing to talk about Much better this way now tonight i can just enjoy the dinner because we'll have nothing to talk about that's great okay Now, you can cut that out or leave it in but what it is... I'm gonna leave it in. Okay well uh shi- I didn't go last night out and I wanted to go to Chapeau Ah And so they have a seat seating somebody canceled then gave us six o'clock after we take that would go the Empress of China next time okay So we're going to Chapeau tonight? Is that what you're saying yeah okay cool where's that It's not in the middle of nowhere San Francisco someplace on the avenues 14th and Clemente something like that

48:23 There was one time, I'll take that back. Do you remember before the Blackberry? RIM actually had a mobile messaging network and this...I'm talking 1990 I want to say 95 and you could buy a little, remember the little HP kind of like a flip open plastic thing that had a keyboard and LCD screen. You could shove a PC card into the side of it? Yeah So uh... and you can join up to the RIM network which was countrywide. Yeah i remember that And you can send messages email messages That's how they got their start That's right

49:06 and these things were one watt which is an amazing amount of power which is probably what three to four times the power your typical cell phone these days no it's a lot more than that. Those things are like 50 milliwatts right? yeah so incredibly powerful and Ron and I both had one. They were incredibly handy, you know we had our... Surprised you didn't have a big bald spot next to your head! Well indeed so ummm.. We're flying coach cross-country and Ron was in like 15 seats up ahead of me and i was behind it yes what was cool about these things is they actually would work up to like you know five six seven thousand feet with these ground stations could get one watt can go along way if its unrestricted

49:48 and so we're beep-beep, we're beeping messages back and forth between each other. And the captain actually came on and said... uh... we're having an issue with the one of our navigation systems are right now it's like everyone to close that closed down all cd players all electronics equipment and but like heads were whipping around because of course we were really cool at the time writer was a while as i thought some men you send them to be sending these messages wirelessly and have been put into headlight whipped around us alike gives the evil eyes like you're gonna make us crash Now I'm still not sure if that actually influenced it. That could have, the one-way... It could have but you know it's a well known fact that CD players in particular of course nobody carries those around anymore thank God we have a huge amount of RF coming off them like massive amounts and its all over the place they're just a noise machine But at what frequencies do you know? They are all over the place is a mess Really Yeah Hmm

50:46 So it may not have been you, but it probably was. A lot's a lot! Well you see in the old days really... I mean there are three basic navigation systems two of them based on radio frequencies that is the NDB which is essentially on the AM band if you ever listen to... If you ever scan through the AM band you'll hear these signals going purrrp or sometimes its a Morse code So that's actually an identifier. And then we have the FM version which is a VOR, so it's a beacon and you can... It's directional finder beacon but on todays modern aircraft it's all GPS based

51:25 At the very end, when you're landing on an instrument landing system once again you do get these radio frequencies into play so honestly it does make sense to not have any risk of any other weird harmonics floating around that could potentially throw something off course. But this stuff is... These receivers and these transmitters they're pretty good This isn't just like a Radio Shack 101 project kit we are talking about here said maybe on a Russian plane. No, not even those...not even those Well you've never flown Aeroflot? Oh yes I have! Absolutely! Yeah well a lot of them still had tube uh amplitube transceivers in them and everything had big bolts

52:17 So I'm on the Aeroflot, first time I took Aeroflot. I had a...I would never fly them unless I had to by the way. Although they're using American built planes now. I was on an Iliach 62 which i think has like four engines in it all and the back hook to the tail or something like that. Right right crazy looking machine Yeah and cramped these...and the only difference between business first class there was a first-class of business class and a coach and the only difference between, they're exactly the same seats. No difference there's just a little curtain. They add like an inch of leg room for the business class and then two inches of leg room for the first-class but there is no... The seats are identical That's the same when you fly either KLM or British Airways when you go from London to Amsterdam They don't have a first class, they have a business class It is exactly the same seats but there's a curtain separating you from the we people in the back And you get like a sandwich

53:11 So, they served a pretty big meal. I think I was in coach on the way and business on the way back or something like that, can't remember but it was really cramped. Talking about cramped it was unbelievable Anyway, so they serve like a... For dinner they actually cook a meal and then they divvy it up. It's not like all this pre-packaged stuff at least back then. This is just before the fall of communism, like the year before. So we're cooking fish! Oh gosh! Not like that smells! The plane is reeking efficiently. They come out with these platters, these aluminum tin... You know? It's like being in prison

53:52 Not that I've been in prison, but I'm guessing you have a tin plate. You can bang against the seat back. Hey comrade ski! I want some food! And so they have these tin plates and then they also somebody warned me about this one They said all the sodas and everything were in big bottles had no individual servings of anything is just giant bottles or anything And it was all served in plastic containers that were reused so they're all washed a million times So it's like a plastic cup that you'd normally get and as an American we throw it out But it was reused so it was washed and wash your washer. It was all scratched That's not but anyway, but what was interesting? Was that these the women because this was a flight out of London We're all

54:35 There's apparently a number of outstandingly beautiful crews on a number of these flights and this was one of them. And all the girls I guess had gone when they went to London, the first thing they did was got out...I guess the first place that they went was to all the makeup stores that could find because they were wearing so much makeup. It looked like the whole place, it looked like you were being serviced by hookers. Yeah well in those days you couldn't get makeup in Russia In fact I remember when I was there in 88 I actually took some you're supposed to take some trinkets with you to get shit done and i remember taking Was they advised me it was makeup lipstick? Give me anything You could you could do you could slip along in your suitcase would get you stuff Would be like a phone call amounts because yeah, they bring a lot of ringety Yeah cuz on my where i was staying the woman on the floor there's a woman under

55:26 On every floor. Yeah, who does the phone right out there after the outside the elevator? She's sleeping most of time but everyday you'd have to give her a little bit You know like a little Kate one of those little yeah, you gotta get her trinket bar Yeah, no Halloween candy bars always a winner chocolate and also a little up another good thing You can bring over there which are because again you have to pack for lightness so he can't bring any big things like a lamp you Bring a little those little cars the matchbook cars that you have, slide along for kids. Huge big deal! Just going back to cooking in the air it's been a while since I've flown British Airways and pretty sure they don't do it anymore but in 2000 I flew British Airways first class and they would cook your breakfast and they would make you a boiled egg It takes nine minutes to boil soft-boiled egg at altitude

54:35 There's apparently a number of outstandingly beautiful crews on a number of these flights and this was one of them. And all the girls I guess had gone when they went to London, the first thing they did was got out...I guess the first place that they went was to all the makeup stores that could find because they were wearing so much makeup. It looked like the whole place, it looked like you were being serviced by hookers. Yeah well in those days you couldn't get makeup in Russia In fact I remember when I was there in 88 I actually took some you're supposed to take some trinkets with you to get shit done and i remember taking Was they advised me it was makeup lipstick? Give me anything You could you could do you could slip along in your suitcase would get you stuff Would be like a phone call amounts because yeah, they bring a lot of ringety Yeah cuz on my where i was staying the woman on the floor there's a woman under

55:26 On every floor. Yeah, who does the phone right out there after the outside the elevator? She's sleeping most of time but everyday you'd have to give her a little bit You know like a little Kate one of those little yeah, you gotta get her trinket bar Yeah, no Halloween candy bars always a winner chocolate and also a little up another good thing You can bring over there which are because again you have to pack for lightness so he can't bring any big things like a lamp you Bring a little those little cars the matchbook cars that you have, slide along for kids. Huge big deal! Just going back to cooking in the air it's been a while since I've flown British Airways and pretty sure they don't do it anymore but in 2000 I flew British Airways first class and they would cook your breakfast and they would make you a boiled egg It takes nine minutes to boil soft-boiled egg at altitude

56:18 Did you know that? Yeah, but the cabin's pressurized. So that should make up for it. It's pressurized to 8000 feet! Oh right then it would take a while yeah I remember saying make mine three minutes no more she said okay that'll be nine minutes like no no what are talking about making three minutes so nope takes nine minutes to make a soft-boiled egg at eight thousand...at altitude pressure huh I don't remember, I've flown on British First Class a couple times and I don't remember them ever cooking me breakfast. I flew in Canadian once and they may have done it there because I took a Canadian air flight to England out of Toronto

56:58 We woke up in the morning. It was a good re-landing and they cooked the breakfast for us But it was an English breakfast with them with a heart, you know just like yeah Yeah, and with a goose some tremendous high quality bangers which are almost impossible to find in the United States You know what that sage flavor and a lot of rusk I was I was not commenting on savoring the recall of the taste Yes so Anyway, where were we? I forgot. We're bitching about something. Uh... well... About Russia. Hey, Russia seems to be in trouble! Yeah you know i got a copy of this video that there was a thing on the Russian you know that this new generation of russian kids

57:43 You know, that are the sons and daughters of the criminal group that came in and took over the oil companies and everything. And made themselves billionaires. Now they have a bunch of children who are just entrepreneurial style but they're the ones who you know buying up Dom Perignon and their big spenders and there's uh... out of control morons they're out of control there they are the worst in the twenty nine somethings with them or with the uh... maserati's that we have well i would have noticed is a you know we've been looking for houses and i think he's actually close i don't know yet at that and then home for awhile i think she closed on the new place um... but the uh... though there was all kinds of weird checks they were doing on on background which has nothing to do with the financing just purely about your character checks

58:31 And Patricia is great. I get immediately, I get all like offended and what the fuck do you want? What's wrong with you people?" She is much more calm about it so she's talking to these guys and they said well we've had a lot of problem with Russians It has to do with who we bring into the neighborhood Who are going to be dealing with...and I presume It's the same level, same age group of people. And they really just don't want them anymore. They're trouble! Yeah... big time. You know and then they are pushy, they are pushy, they're trouble, it is a terrible group So anyway guy sends me a note and he says I think you and Adam should discuss currency investment during this economic downturn i think its particularly relevant

59:20 And not just because I've been asking you about this, he wants to buy and sell the dollar. Okay well let me make a minor statement Something very interesting has happened to me personally So it's our own company and we take a salary It's not a huge salary, its not shit but its not a huge salary There are many people in our company making more than Ron and I But right now, because of the way the dollar stands against the pound and actually the euro but the pound in particular. I got like 20% more pounds in a month than I had two months ago. Yeah! Which is nice but of course that's bound to swing the other way. Right?

1:00:08 Well, I'm not a big fan. I think currency investment is a... Well the only way you can do it is if you're into swaps because that's what and that's part of this problem so what you do is you take a position in foreign exchange and then you insure that with a swap and that of course is these really unstructured on non-transparent none you know not officially traded not regulated uh... derivatives that have caused a lot of the problems that will not we need it because the financial sector a lot of problem so i feel and look i'm not really I'm an investor in real companies. I don't invest in publicly, oh I used to but I stopped a long time ago...I don't invest in publicly traded companies because I've run one and it's full of shit they lie to you their numbers are bullshit uh... its trickery everyone is on the plot why do think Arthur Anderson went down the tubes? They were all part of this system It's a big lie

1:01:04 and most people if you're not somehow on the inside like you are perhaps with uh... with andrew horowitz you gonna get screwed you will get screwed if u by into stocks if you buy into currency same thing because you're not a part of the big game you're not a part of this is that you cannot win as a small guy just trying to make an investment my i would agree with that would agree with that uh... pretty much yeah i think it's encouraging stuff in particular really takes a yet bus skills professional I mean, you can just slop around because you think the dollar is going to go up and the dollar's gonna go down. And if you feel that way find some exchange traded fund that is... Or just quit and become a day trader! I'm doing something very crazy John. I'm doing something called um what does it call again? Oh saving. That's what it was yes. I'm saving my money isn't that crazy well some would think

1:01:58 Yeah, I know that's a good point. If you want to become a day trader and sit there all day... This is like becoming ... I always say to people it's like one of the reasons I think professionals do so much better is becoming a professional gambler. I've known two of them and the professional gamblers tell you the same thing they win all their money, the amateurs lose all their money and that's the way the game is played in. Typically a professional gambler not those guys you see who win all those poker pots but typically a professional gambler will make a hundred to two hundred thousand dollars a year if he's full-time and he knows what he is doing. And, uh... He has a knack for it I mean it takes us a lot of skill to do and you can make money doing but that's what you have thats that is your job yeah that you have to do with full time you gotta buy in the end of the in the big game with everybody else otherwise there's just no way to win no way period

1:02:46 So, and it's all these little guys. And that's the reason I don't think this economic crisis we're going through right now is the big one because the public is not in the market and its always the public at large that takes it into shorts when you have an economic collapse. They're the ones left holding the bag, just like the amateurs who are amateur gamblers they're left holding the bag or you have the addicted gambler those poor bastards. But there are millions of people who are getting shafted I mean this is...you can't deny that Yeah but thats a different kind of shaft where your you know your getting

1:03:22 It's a roundabout shaft. It's not as though you were in the market, and you're all pumped up about it and putting everything in it. You go on margin, borrowing money or taking out the mortgage on your house because you know that Juniper Networks is going to double and blah blah blah. This is such an American thing because of course our quote economy was built on this system of publicly traded uh... equities and uh... and dad etcetera in europe you can go ask uh... a hundred people on the street and maybe one of them will actually be actively engaged in any kind of trading with their money people just don't do it there to me they're unfortunately they trust the government put all their money into pensions and uh... and you know that they gets

1:04:06 They get diluted that way, but it's a very American thing to invest in companies and oh yeah I think it is good company or you know like the products so I'm gonna buy stock on them. That no longer has any relevance to what these companies are doing. You're much better off either starting your own business, or used to be. It's over now with Obama much better off starting your own business or helping out investing in a small business because that's where you can actually over the long term you'll probably make more money and you might even have more fun I would agree with that. But people do like to get into the stock market, especially when it's going up like crazy and they all get in... Yeah because we're greedy ass bastards and we think we can play the game! And they all get out when its down at the bottom. I'm always amazed by that. The thing is bouncing around on the bottom? Yes

1:04:58 Bang, bang, bang. You can feel it and you can see it and you watch it and people are bailing out." Wait a minute this is not the point where you bail out I mean the old rule still applies. You buy low sell high when did they go the other way? Now we're all selling low and then they get to the top they'll be buying in and then there will stuck holding their bag its unbelievable And of course they'll sell again when it bounces off the bottom again In 2013 Well that's just like gambling if you don't know what your doing The minute you lose, crap im gonna go home now It's like, then you lost. You cannot win people so to our listener who said what should I do? Save your money my friend that is what I would say save it. People want to get into these weird kinds of things John do you remember back in the day when you would lay away does that still exist in America? Lay away

1:05:46 This being revitalized, there was just a news story about it the other day. There's some of these stores because of the credit crunch and they can't give cards away or whatever people are rejecting credit cards thank God their layaway is now being revitalized by some other big department stores absolutely. A lot of people don't remember it Great idea! So the concept is you look at the thing in the shop window and you go on your say I really want that can I do a layaway? And they'll say okay give me 10% When you've paid it off and sometimes you'll get a range like, come pay something every week or every month. And when it's paid off then I'll be yours and keep it safe for you." It was fantastic system! You know what? It was so much more rewarding!

1:06:28 Oh man, I really want that new bike. You know? I'm gonna save for it or do it on layaway and when you got it you appreciated it and you were careful of it and loved it and proud of yourself And that was a feeling that is gone It's just gone Now its like... Let me see if pay off another hundred bucks in my credit card maybe Its reverse saving! It's dumb Well the credit card thing is a disaster So, yeah well of course nowadays you know you could do the layaway. You get to see the bicycle and go get it and put all your money down. And finally take the thing home. Of course if was made in China then the wheel falls off. It has a lot to do with... True! The quality of the product. Well you get what you pay for. And of course if didn't really pay for it you borrowed it. Saps stop this people stop it. Stop it please.

1:07:21 Oil down to $67? Yeah, well I've been short oil for some time now. That's my only investment people say oh you know you're writing about this and that so I have one investment period. I mean I have some options that I hold for something. Between the two of us we're doing good! I got the gold you got the oil yeah Well I got on the oil thing you know but we talked about it million times is obvious that you know was going down uh... an exchange traded note it's my entire retirement fund is in it d t o anyone was a check with me and what did i just want to see your entire retirement fund is in it my four one kate's separa

1:08:02 So yeah, I mean why not? And because it was so obvious that oil was gonna go down. So I just bought in and the thing goes up like every time the market goes down 500 points this thing goes up four points. It's hilarious to watch it. Everyone is moaning and groaning and I'm going hey! Looks good to me. I'm happy with it! I just had to figure out what the bottom is for this oil because now it's at 60-something... I'm hearing 50, is what I've heard right now. I think that we're still looking at 40 Really? So and it is translating somewhat to the... You know when this all began you know the oil was a 25 when this whole bullshit run up came up Yeah well um I'm happy about that although I don't think we're quite seeing it and we were seeing some difference of the gas pump

1:08:41 It's pretty noticeable here. It is already under $3 a gallon in a lot of places, my wife just bought a bunch of gas for the van for 279 and she was paying like four something just like three or four months ago So then shouldn't food prices come down? Shouldn't whole bunch of things come down what is now creating the inflation if it's not the oil prices they can use that as an excuse anymore so its gotta be the currency Well, you know the dollar's going up. That's another interesting thing Yeah that's nuts! That's got to be artificial there are just no two ways about it It just makes no sense Well its always been artificial

1:09:18 But the way I see it, I still think that the dollar was oversold to an extreme because of the fact is and people always say well. The only reason you're saying this is because you don't understand how things work. Here's what I'm saying... And I don't care about taxes. I factor in taxes in. I can buy a bottle of quality Bordeaux wine in San Francisco at half the price I'd pay for it in Paris And when the dollar is the other way, it would be pretty much the same price. But now I'm paying twice as much in France for their wine than I am paying for it here? I think that might have changed a little bit now with the euro being down to like 127. That's changing! When I had the best time was when the euro was 80 cents and you were in France and could live it up

1:10:07 And that's when I should have bought an apartment or something there because the prices were right. But now it's... I just completely missed it. Why is it necessary for the Federal Reserve and central banks to manipulate our money? Why is that necessary? Is that for our benefit? Supposedly! I saw a... Well, so to keep the economy from getting into that boom-bust cycle which is... Please! It's what creates the boom bust cycle. What are you talking about? The regular business cycle has this has to be somewhat how controlled in some way and they think with these theories but the interest rate controlling things that they can manage to keep things on an even keel because they don't want, the banks for example do not want of all things and inflationary environment because then... The banks! Yeah. The banks but listen isn't this exactly what Greenspan just said? He said oh well there was a flaw in the system of how the world works I didn't really understand it as his nose is like five times longer than normal Do you see his nose is huge

1:11:06 I think he's got rosacea or something is wrong with his nose. Yeah, it's called lying Yes, kids when you lie your nose grows. It's absolutely true! I saw a Ron Paul video on YouTube from the 80s and he said something very interesting he said it's not just wrong from a financial perspective for the central banks to be controlling our money and effectively diluting it by printing more. He said it's a moral issue and this is what I thought was interesting, he said its the same as if the government decided to dilute your milk to make more of it and that was a pretty good analogy Yes some dairies do that Yeah which is immoral

1:11:53 Yeah, it is. Well same thing as using that crazy chemical to make the cows pump out more tasteless milk I mean if you've ever had that stuff and I've tasted its horrible its tasteless Now what is that? Tasteless milk? What is that? It's that BST That bovine hormone that makes you shoot up these cows Is that what it was for? Yes so they produce like 20-30% more milk You know, on a daily basis so you get cheaper. The dairy farmers can make more money and they were beginning... Monsanto was trying to ban anybody from saying that the milk had it or didn't have it. Oh yeah of course. Monsanto there you go. They had a patent on it of course. Patented cows! So anyways they're pumping this stuff out but meanwhile the milk is crap

1:12:32 Unbelievable. I get a lot of pushback from the greenies listening to this show, you must have gotten some of that? Nope! Oh really maybe they've just given up this was the last for the last of the Mohicans. They've given up on me a long time ago. I mean some newbie will show up once in awhile and send me something and then i'll just blast them... I don't know. I don't know what their problem is. If people want to take their green thing and they want to go crazy, fine. It's not like killing me it just impinges on all kinds of normal living And I also don't like the idea of everything being politicized. And the whole green thing is vegans are the worst, they eat based on politics! I eat based on quality and tasty food... And stuff that's good for me? You know.. Let me ask you a question just to switch gears briefly because there is a lot of talk right now in the United States about gay marriage and here's what I do not understand maybe if you can help me

1:13:33 Is it not so that there is a separation between church and state? Why is this an issue, why are there even propositions in California we have these you know with elections you have all these propositions which is the closest thing we have kind of to a referendum where you can vote on some law. And uh... and then the big one now is gay marriage and I just don't understand how why is that actually a law? Isn't the church... No, because marriage has got nothing to do with the church. Especially in United States marriages is a civil contract that is really governed by the states and the feds insofar as how you divide up the money when one of these it's not a corporation but its like a partnership that you sign-up for and uh... it's got nothing to do with this churches okay but so in California does a civil union exist

1:14:27 The reason for that, and it does exist in Massachusetts and other places. And they don't want the use of the word civil union because everybody wants to use the word marriage I mean people who want this to be legalized It is kind of at the moment but they're trying to de-legalize it Because their state voted against it Obama as well by the way That's what he says. But anyway, eventually it is going to have some binding. The thing that was always behind it at least according to the cynics was the only reason that gays wanted to get married, they could always just be happy. They could go someplace and get married. Next question is what's the benefit? What's the legal benefit? The benefit is for health an insurance benefits so if you've got a gay married couple working at Mevio and one of the partners who's not working at Mevio but married to the person who it is they get the same health benefits. You have to pay for health benefits for that person. And its really mostly about benefits

1:15:23 I mean, there's the psychological need for people that want to be married which is whatever it is. But there are also these other contracts and being able to visit them in the hospital because you're their wife or husband which you can't do if you're just some guy walking off the streets where you're in intensive care for example. And also when there's a dissolution who owns the dog? You know, how do you split the kids up? I mean you can't do that if they're never really hooked up legally and it's just people shacked up. So they wanted to get that out of the way because this actually causes more trouble. Civil unions are

1:16:02 I think result in less troublesome legal crap. Yeah, because it's a set process right? Then you know what's gonna happen and it's just done with... Yeah! It's not a crapshoot so I mean I don't have a problem personally with the whole idea doesn't bother me I don't know bothers a lot of people and some then we watched that when they had that one week of there is somehow there was something overturned there was everyone getting married left to right in San Francisco because of Newsome who's weirdo to say the least Newsom is for gay people. Oh absolutely, he's trying to run for president eventually on the back of that thing but there were people getting married these couples you know they looked like they were happier than a clam I mean it was unbelievable It was actually kind of sweet so i'm not

1:16:49 Yeah, I'm all for it. I mean...I want every person in the world to have the same benefits that i have of being married You know? I want you to have the kids! I want you to have all the...you know when you get a divorce I want you to go through the same shit Please! Have all those benefits But that's okay..that's not...thank you for explaining that I thought that now was clearly confusing The marriage part with the church part so that is completely separate Well Biden said, you know, I am against gay marriage I won't have it I mean, there's a lot of people that are against gay marriage. Usually they're church goers and they're... Right but that has nothing to do with it! That has nothing to do with the union. No it doesn't, you know, but just like anything else... Let me ask you is it maybe just because we can't accept... There's a resistance towards calling it something else? Calling it a partnership or a union or something like that? You know, its one of those things where it's just a point of contention

1:17:46 To me, I don't care what they call it because I'm not on that side of the argument that is going to be affected by it one way or the other. but apparently they do care and they don't like the idea of being i think it has to do with this kind insulting to be in a different class or category yeah we're married but you are just about uh... you know say you're not really married yes again i really mean movies and meal bs and so and i think a lot of these you know there are some liberal churches that would you'd like to do marriages with these people too when i think uh... I think it's just a, you know they're probably the argument for the use of the word marriage in this regard is probably... That's got to be part of it. It's going to be, these things you can argue until your blue in the face and maybe if your very fundamentalist church person you'd think its an abomination because you know the Bible says that it's a bad thing. I think their opinion isn't going to change

1:18:42 But I think it's a foregone conclusion, you know because it's just you know this is dragging on too long. It's ridiculous. Foregone conclusion what? That it's not ever going to happen? No! It IS gonna happen. It's a foregone conclusion that it's gonna happen. But no under Obama because thats exactly what he said nor under McCain. Its gonna happen under Obama Well, it won't happen under McCain I can assure you. But it's going to happen under Obama at least is gonna start happening Okay, so then why does Joe Biden say I'm against it? Why did Joe Biden say he's against it? I think they're both full of crap Thank you. I think they're both full of crap on this and I think they're lying

1:19:20 Well, people who think Obama is the messiah... you can't have it both ways. You can't have them lying about one thing to get in office and then expect they're not going to lie about other things Just doesn't work that way A liar is a liar is a liar Well as a politician So I mean its not like a shock But what they are gonna do And I think Biden said this too The Republicans had really kind of cool approach to this Which was leave it to the states Why should we, the feds, get involved? Which is exactly what the Constitution says. Right! So... but the Democrats hate that they'd rather have everything done at the Fed level and I'm sure they're going to be pressured to do something about gay marriage at the federal level but i think they can legitimately say you know it could be for or against doesn't make any difference let the states decide go to your state and have them change law locally

1:20:13 and then you know of course they are going to move another state go go somewhere else well you know there's an argument against that which is the following being here in the bay area personal time a year all this stuff constantly that's why i have but i know these arguments the argument is where are you now case so we get married and in illegal state like uh... massachusetts which is called union we got married in Massachusetts and then we moved to Connecticut, and then we got divorced. And now with the laws...the local laws won't protect me." Well that's an interesting argument except for the fact that with divorce laws it is the same thing state-to-state it varies a lot you move with your wife

1:20:53 to a different state and then she divorces you, she may not get as much as she would like in California or some of these states where there's no fault laws. Or places where they can just ream you and take everything! So I mean that's a specious argument unfortunately it sounds like it makes sense. Let me tell ya the Adam Curry strategy to that... Umm..I put everything on my wife's name Everything We're married And so whatever she has, I get half of it. So I don't have to deal with that crap Okay, and by the way she's making three times the money I am now So she better watch it But for some reason And we didn't get married because we want to get married. We got married for a green card. I'm not gonna lie about it

1:21:38 uh... we had no intention of getting married fortunately it's worked out been pretty good david marie a long time ago were more work on twenty two years so you know not not bad at all but the hell of a green card where we literally went down to city hall on that friday afternoon and what did she want the green card in junior was a deal we haven't sold uh... here we had a a toward and very public affair in the netherlands And, you know we'd been together for about a year and then this opportunity to work for MTV came up. And they called me and said do you want to come at work? I said well hold on a second. Patricia here's the deal they'll give me two-year contract if you wanna move with me it will be whole new start. We get out of all this craziness paparazzi hiding out in trash cans stupid shit like that

1:22:25 And I said, if you don't want to go, I'm not going to. She said let's do it so we picked up her 12 boxes of clothing and our car and moved to America. So basically she had to leave the country every three months in order to have a valid visa And then at one point she said to me, you know so we were living in New York and about three quarters of a year. She says you know okay I gave up everything, I gave up my career, um you know I love you, we're having a good time but what if all the sudden whatever it just doesn't work out anymore? What do I have? I have absolutely nothing, I have no standing in this country, I have nothing at all. You know can we think about putting together some kind

1:23:08 agreement that you would give me some protection fair question by the way it is a young i'm giving a very short abbreviated version and i like the way the women work us yeah so uh... unlike crap like in and then of course i had this genius like all these in the easiest ways to get married you know that there's a contract it split down the middle it says easy And she said, okay. And then we still had to do blood tests at the time in New York... You might still have to a blood test in New York I don't know? To see if you're not marrying your cousin or whatever the hell that's for No no, the blood test was always for syphilis Oh okay well let me That was my understanding though The reason those blood tests were really that was the point where you could stop venereal disease and with syphilis mainly Those blood tests go back into this

1:23:56 the pre-penicillin era. Because of course you only actually have sex when you're married, got it? So that makes total sense so we uh... you know he got all the paperwork and then there was like a friday afternoon and I and it was a beautiful sunny day in a call drop and said hey how about today she said yeah sure and so i grabbed steve leads the guy who is doing talent coordination they said your my witness who went down to city hall nick in a communicar which like a car service had the car circle block I was actually a witness for a couple that came before us, because their witness hadn't shown up. We got married and we had a bottle of champagne on the way back up to 56th Street and then we were married! And then 10 years later we did a real party in a proper celebration but that gave her green card and that was the only reason why we did it because we loved each other anyway

1:24:47 It didn't make any difference. But of course we had that luxury because we weren't a gay couple, so I can understand where... but by the way they were you know they do check on you! A year later we had to both come to an interview and they interviewed us separately and then they checked if the answers to the questions matched up and it was like besides the obvious where's your address? What color eyes does she have? You know all these really weird, I wish i had written them down. It was a whole bunch of weird questions where you actually kind of felt uncomfortable it's like oh crap man! I hope don't fail this. They might ask me something strange and had to prove that yeah you have bank accounts together and all that but they really did check it. Yeah now I understand they do that

1:25:31 So, um... Because there's a lot of scammers out there that are just coming in here. You know? There are people who do the marriage for the green card and they don't even live together! They're just a whole phony deal. Well meanwhile if you actually want to bring in some talent from overseas it is impossible particularly in Silicon Valley It's impossible to do. You cannot bring in talent from overseas We've tried. This can't be done What talents are you looking for uh... well it's arguably its talent that you could also find here but when we were looking for him to google um... up until their stock drop down in half you know was had everybody there he was impossible to get anyone in silicon valley because they all want a google stock and the end date the free google food meanwhile little do they know that they are the surfs on the slaves of the master over there believe me it's no no picnic working at google

1:26:29 But there's free food. Everybody I know that went to work for Google, with one exception has gotten fat. Yeah exactly! From that healthy free food no less Well, I mean it's weird because some of them have gotten fat because it is free food and they just eat and eat. And how hard must it be? This what we are seeing changing if you're at Google right now... They don't pay tremendous amounts. You know they're pretty much on scale and they went through some craziness there but their main currency was their stock So you came in when it was six or seven hundred dollars and you got all these options thinking well I'm gonna be a gazillionaire in a couple years and then punch out no go do my own startup

1:27:08 and they forget about it was the stock at now three three-and-a-half some like a three twenty five punching if i'm not mistaken it can bumps up in the four right everyone's stock uh... start their own water really don't want to know where that we use is underwater now if they were real real men I mean real men, this is something that Ron and i did when we took our company public. We went public at $7 a huge public offering for an 11 million dollar raise which was nothing by today's standards of course this was 1996 And we immediately got you know it was the whole...We weren't in the game at that time so we got, I'll just say we got fucked

1:27:52 So we went to 725 on opening day and then it went down to 6, 5, 4. Everyone was just dumping the shit. It was all retail no institutional investors. We didn't know what were doing and everyone was freaking out because their options were under water. We restruck the option pool. We took it out of our own stock and gave it to employees and that's I believe one of the main reasons that we actually could come together as a company and become successful believe me you won't see eric schmidt or sergey or uh... larry doing that they want to get anything out of their pocket to do it

1:28:28 for their employees. Your serfs! So they apparently bought a new jet another one? A jet fighter Oh of course I figured they'd fly up and shoot down Microsoft's Jet Fighter How about Larry Ellison's Jet Fighter He's got a MiG He's had a Jet Fighter for a long time Yeah he has a MiG right, I thought he had a MiG-20 or something like that Or a Sabre Jet one of the two Hey that's green boys way to go Drive your Prius and fly your MiG. Uh-huh Well actually they bought an Italian jet of some sort Really? Yeah, there's a picture I think we blogged it Check it out. I'm so disconnected. I haven't been that's no big deal. So they got a jet you know, I just you know think of the Look, I'd love I'd love a jet believe me But you know how can be so holier than thou and then do that That's crap

1:29:20 Yeah, it is. It's not good working for the CIA Don't don't be evil. Don't make me laugh So anyway yeah the Google stock is way down. It's interesting Huh well of course? It was it was inflated and you know look at their business that you know their business is is AdWords And that business is down. It's just down, you know? That's part of what happens in this economy. Interestingly our advertising business is definitely under pressure but our transactional business... the budget renter car and with the coupon codes that's off the charts! it's off the freaking charts! It is such a beautiful system

1:30:07 Yeah. I gotta do something with the budget rent-a-car thing on my Tech 5 thing, I keep forgetting to mention them. Well, I'm setting it up... Do you want to do eHarmony on this show? Because that's going to be in the next one is eHarmony We could have some fun with that. Well we could if you wanted. I'd rather do Budget personally but because its actually a company I use Why don't we ask the audience what they would like a deal on? Well they get 10% off on a budget rent-a-car What are talking about 30 percent! I thought was ten No Really? 30% new one is the new deal is thirty percent. No, I think it's uh... let me check. I think its ten percent off a weekly rental. I could be wrong. Um..I'm bringing up now. Well I think it's 10%. Uh well you know what we'll give your carbon credits. We ought to set our own carbon trading. Oh no! I'm sorry it's $30 off the weekly budget rental or ten percent of any amount that's right then Brookstone ten percent off Brookstone but no

1:31:11 And we still have the E-music. Pet meds, that was out of control! Pet meds? Yeah! Medicine for your pet... You don't have a dog right? Do you ever take your dog to the vet? Once in awhile? Yeah, ever look at the bill? It's too high! But there is this new veterinarian system There is this group and in fact we had one of them in Berkeley I can't remember their name it was like a chain Of extremely...and unfortunately all good surgeons are in these chains Extremely slick operation. Oh yeah, and their computer we got them in the UK as well they're called pet doctors is what they're called Yeah there's something else called maybe it's the same operation at the base but whatever the case is like wow! It's way too slick its extremely expensive And I love when they say please you have to give your dog this special food that we sell

1:32:05 right here in the united russians and stuff effect might be good to have an operation my dog and they would give his always you know drugs a whole shitload of them and i'm thinking I don't see that, just a dog. You know the dog's gonna be wizz-woozy enough and screwed up enough from the damned operation that i should be like now doping her it didn't seem like a good idea she fines find you wasn't whining or crying or anything else is fine to healed on those end of it it's a total dog now though we could get the i get sold all the time on pet insurance if you got back no god what's the point of that yeah well anyways for the pet meds uh... one of our most successful guys does a show or

1:32:43 produces a decision about uh... equestrians our horses and making appealing on the on the horse medicine really yeah because it's really expensive what you think dogs are expensive you want to go visit in one of these these posh equestrian doctors that do horseshit are you kidding me as outrageously expense they buy it in huge bulk and the other producer gets a get a cut of that and its food you can't get a better price I immediately went online to see if they were spitting if there was something special K but unfortunately they didn't have Was a drug reference John you wouldn't get it. I didn't special K is a is a horse tranquilizer No that humans take ah and It's quite popular hmm, so they don't drink Bordeaux That's all I do yeah five that's 500 bucks a bottle I Wish you don't have to spend that kind of money to get good wine That's the point hell you just have to know what you're doing but can or ask somebody

1:33:48 Anyway, those are California ones we had that tasting. All right? All right what time is our dinner tonight? Six oh you like the early dinner don't ya well it gets me I did yeah, I do Not to the point where I'm going through the four o'clock dinner But which is a reference to of course Seinfeld in Florida but I don't know that Yeah, cuz you get in you get out The place is fresh you be this helps not You know killing him and they're not like slammed Because you start going later, I mean the optimum time is... If I'm in Brazil yeah I eat dinner at midnight. But the optimum time typically where places really packs up is between 730 and 830 and the place is slammed! The service goes downhill they're out of stuff You know? I hate going to a place that says wow this is one thing I've always wanted to eat Oh sorry we don't have that anymore because it's sold out

1:34:42 and anyway. Alright, so let me just tee this up So we are doing another show that'll be November 1st so will talk about the elections which will be on Tuesday November 4th We probably should do a show on November 5th wouldn't that make sense to you think? Uh, instead of November 1st? No no no. Instead of the 8th and we're not going to wait until the Saturday after that Oh yeah yeah yeah The 5th would be okay I should be available And it'll be in the UK so it will have a European perspective on all of it Alright! I'm sure people will be very interested with uh... I mean I'm sure Europeans are gonna be thrilled They just love that guy You know what they don't care

1:35:28 I told you this last, they don't care. People stop... Do you have any idea how horrible the situation is in Europe? You think it's bad here? No but maybe going to Portugal next month. Isn't that interesting by the way that election day is exactly six months or half a calendar year away from tax day Wouldn't it be better to have tax day and then election day right after it? Yeah, but then these guys would be booted out. Well that's the whole point! Have election day right after tax day and then that will really determine if people want to keep you in office or vote you in or vote you out It can't by accident that its exactly six months separated for those two events

1:36:18 Think about it. No, I got it's funny no, it's not funny It said all right. I think we're done yeah What was this? Oh man we're talking this long about nothing that's amazing. It's even funnier than how long did we go? 97 minutes yes about right That's what we do We do about 90 minutes every time and I had about the break in the middle where I had to talk to the restaurant So will subtract that from your quota sir don't worry. We'll give you some carbon credits in return oh Alright, um... Good! So I don't know what's coming up this week other than the Obama special which of course i won't be able to watch. It'll be back- it's Wednesday right? I think so Yeah well maybe it will be on Sky or something and we'll be able to record it for you put in a DVD yeah then I can have it by December fantastic if your lucky

1:37:13 Alright, you on Twitter tomorrow? You don't know. I don't know maybe okay i'm going to LA tomorrow got this Digital Hollywood panel i'm on I got so excited is it on Monday that's monday yeah and we're gonna panel a digital hollywood everybody who was listening To the show go down and say hi to Adam hey John thanks bring money I'm doing sales calls Monday and Tuesday as well should be fun All right, that'll wrap it up for this week from the Curry condo. My name's Adam Currie and I'm John C Dvorak in northern Silicon Valley We'll talk to you again next week right here on no agenda