Misnomers, or Myth-informed

These are all either misnamed or our perception has been faulty regarding what these really represent.

A peanut is not a nut, it’s a legume.
A panda is not a bear; it’s a relative of raccoons. Neither is a koala, which is a marsupial, like kangaroos.
There are no bald eagles, they simply have white feathers as adults, brown until then.
A firefly is not a fly, it’s a beetle.
A prairie dog is not a dog, it’s a rodent.
A lead pencil contains no lead, just wood and graphite, which resembles lead in color.
India ink is not from India, it’s from China and Egypt.
A Guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig, it’s a rodent from South America.
A shooting star is not a star, it’s a meteorite entering the earth’s atmosphere. Most burn up before reaching the ground, but all the earth’s platinum comes from meteors.
A Turkish bath is not Turkish, it’s Roman.
Mocha java is not a type of coffee, it’s any coffee shipped from the port of Mocha in Yemen; most of it is African.
A silkworm is not a worm, it’s a caterpillar.
A banana tree is not a tree, it’s an herb.
Mincemeat has no meat, it’s made of fruit.
A Mexican jumping bean is not a bean, it’s a seed with a larva inside.
Catgut is not from cats, it’s usually from sheep intestines.
Camel hair brushes are not from camels, they’re made from squirrel hair. However, red sable brushes are actually made from sable minks.
An English horn is not a horn, and it’s not from England, it’s an oboe from France. So why is it not simply called a French oboe?
A horned toad is not a toad, it’s a lizard.
A Douglas fir tree is not a fir, it’s a type of pine.
The funny bone is not a bone, it’s a nerve, the ulnar.

Myth-Information for Dinner
Chop suey is not a dish in China, it was invented in California by Chinese immigrants.

Pizza is not from Italy, it was invented in the United States. Italians invented tomato sauce because Europeans would not eat tomatoes, brought back from the new world, because they ate them raw like apples and they were a mess.

Hamburgers were invented in San Francisco which were preferred by sailors from Hamburg, Germany; they were eaten raw, which is also called Steak Tartar, so they can charge more.

Frankfurters were invented in the U.S. and named for sailors from Frankfurt, Germany; disputes abound over the original locale, New York City and San Francisco are the most likely cities.

Buffalo wings are not from the American bison, they originated in Buffalo, New York. (thanks, Judy!)

..and the pen is not mightier than the sword, it's lighter and easier to write with but too small for battle! This was probably said of Thomas Paine's pamphlet 'Common Sense' which sparked public interest in the American Revolution.

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Buying of Stocks Does Not Send the Price Up

The Nightly Business Report on PBS commissioned a study on the 1987 crash that took ten years to complete. They determined that there was net buying of stocks during the more than 30% decline in the Dow and S&P500. Therefore, stocks fell by one-third while there was more buying than selling.

Most people think that 'for every buyer there's a seller', which is not true. There's a portion of every company's stock that is unowned, called the 'public float' - technically not owned by the company or any individuals. The market-makers (called 'specialists' on the New York Stock Exchange) can buy or sell from this float, from their own inventories (and therefore move the price up if they want to sell their own, down if they want to buy more), or can simply match a buy order with a sell order of the same price, called crossing the trade. Ironically, these crossed trades do not have to be included in the daily trading volume reports, it's up to the mm's discretion. So if a big fund wants to sell 10 million shares of GE, and someone else wants to buy them, the shares may get reported in the volume or not; I'm not sure the rationale behind this, seems like even a big transfer of 500 million shares should be reported to the public.

Volume issues aside, the NBR study proved that the price tail wags the volume dog, or they create trading volume by changing the prices a lot. They raise the price a lot, it will generate selling (greed wants the profit), they lower the price a lot, it will generate buying (bargain hunters see a temporary sale). So the mm's can get the public and many others to sell by lowering prices, those who want a bargain will now buy, and can continue buying as long as we're selling - they have more money than we do. Conversely, when they want to sell to us, what better way than raising prices, getting us to buy something rising in value, while they sell the shares they bought when everyone was selling. Remember, these are big, multi-billion dollar firms, and old adage is "Wall St can stay solvent longer than any of us", or they can ride out a downturn while collecting stock at cheap prices, and we can't; we'll sell out for a loss and wait until prices are rising again before buying.

This is how the market works. There are some good films that show you the harshness of the insiders, how little they care for the public:
Wall Street - based on the story of Ivan Boesky, a takeover artist
Boiler Room - the story of a brokerage that pushes worthless stock to unsuspecting public customers
Rogue Trader - the story of the Barclay's Bank trader who lost that firm billions, and bankrupted one of the biggest banks in the world

The important thing to remember is that even in a bull market, over 60% of all stocks still go down, and that statistics show that about 80% of all stocks (most are very small) will go bankrupt over 10 years. The S&P500, though representing most of the capital in the market, is only 500 of over 9000 publicly traded stocks, half of which are worth less than 100 million each.

The market insiders also use the averages to send a message to influence policy: if a President says something they don't like, down it goes; he announces a policy favorable to the market or big companies, it'll likely go up. This is hardly economic or politicaly reality, it's basically manipulation by those in collusion to invoke their own policies by manipulating our wealth.

Never risk money you can't afford to lose, be skeptical of all you hear, for the insiders are selling stock to us for a reason, else they would keep it all themselves.

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Oswald Did Not Kill John Kennedy

[Source: Plausible Denial by Mark Lane]

We all remember the day in 1963 and the scamful Warren Commission later with bogus evidence and suspicous witnesses (two of whom could barely see 10 feet but made ID's of Oswald in a distant window), but no one even noticed when the CIA admitted contracting the Mafia for the hit during an 80’s trial, “Howard Hunt vs. Liberty Magazine”. Liberty-owned Spy Magazine implicated Nixon "plumber" Howard Hunt in the assassination using photos of him in the crowd there; Hunt's own family suspected him and said he was not in Washington at all that week. They were goading Hunt into a libel suit so they could, as defendant, subpoena CIA witnesses.

Eight former CIA heads testified, including one George Bush, and the same one who signed for and collected the physical evidence for the CIA in Dallas later censored and funneled in part to the Warren Commission, who admitted “the CIA has a policy to take out tyrannical leaders worldwide, including here, and that we had decided that John Kennedy had become such a tyrant”. Robert Kennedy had laid off 90% of the CIA personnel, vowing to "crush the power of the secret intelligence community." The CIA, fearful of losing the cold war, decided if JFK went, so would Robert (the dog wags the tail), and contracted the Mafia for the job, who hired hitmen from Europe (see below) in case they were caught there would be no obvious connection to anyone in the U.S.

There were three shooters as everyone suspected, and none was Oswald; he was eating lunch during the entire incident, as many co-workers testified. It's unlikely he knew anything in advance, being just a former military 'grunt' and errand boy for the CIA, who uses lots of soldiers as paid operatives for small jobs, usually privates in case they disappear, no one of 'importance' is lost, and no one with any real info to give up either - good policy (One of these ops once told me that they also use priests and medical workers who are usually 'above suspicion' and allowed free access, hence their value for small operations, usually information recon and nothing dangerous).

The shooters were all from Marseilles, France, according to A&E's documentary "The Men Who Murdered JFK": one is now dead, another in prison, the third is unknown. The one in prison would testify if the third would also, be he remains anonymous and free.

Even more interesting to me is that Oliver Stone's film "JFK" came out after this trial, yet none of it was included in his film, as if that film was a diversionary cover-up of the real trial involving Hunt and the CIA. Did Stone perhaps put out disinformation for the CIA to help confuse the real information being released in the trial? The alternative is that he was that poorly informed about the very subject of his major film.

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Washington Was Not the First U.S. President

John Hanson from Maryland, instrumental in getting that state to ratify the Articles of Confederation, was actually elected first president of the Congress of the Confederation, in 1783. (This face, portrait at left, should be on the dollar!) There were actually eight of these presidents in all before George Washington was elected after ratification of the current Constitution in 1789.

To be literally correct then, Washington was our ninth President.

I still like the story of his less-known quote. When Washington was boarding the rowboat to cross the Delaware, he had to nudge 300-lb Colonel Henry Knox aside to make room, with these immortal words, “Shift that fat ass, Harry, but slowly or you’ll swamp the damn boat!” To me, these are much more inspiring fighting words than “full speed ahead” or “I regret that I have but one life to give.” Knox has now achieved immortality.

Contrary to the famous painting, Washington wasn't stupid enough to stand up in the boat and present a big target, nor did he want to swamp the boat himself. I guess our fearless leader hunkered down with everyone else isn't very inspiring art. So where were the 'rays of God's light' shining down to show his approval? Now, that's art!

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