The Adam Lee Commentary

In Syria Armed Conflict, Civilians are the Big Losers

Adam — Sat, 26 May 2012 14:15:57 +0000

I would hate to be living in Syria right now. Unfortunately the conflict is really a puppet show between Western powers such as the EU and the United States against Eastern powers such as China, Russia, and the Syrian government. Backers are sending weapons to their respective side, and as the weapons increase in number and power more civilians are bound to be slaughtered. Perhaps this is a testing ground to see how strong each governments’ resolve is, or perhaps it has more to do with resource/land control.

In terms of military interests I can see controlling Syrian ports to be vital for the US/EU to deliver supplies to the region from the Mediterranean Sea, while Moscow sees Syria as the largest purchaser of its weapons and potential ally.

Assad himself is making his stay (in his country and as a mortal being) a near impossibility with the brutal non-discriminate killing of civilians – just yesterday his regime sent a band of thugs into Jobar after shelling the town from end to end with mortars to kill men, women, and children on the street and in their homes. While this method is similar to methods used in the ancient times (think Assyrian Empire), today with internet and easily accessible recording devices (smartphones) all of this is really going to smash right back in his face and kill him – and his treatment of civilians has been worse than Gadhaffi’s!

The United States Should Cut All Pakistan Funding

Adam — Fri, 25 May 2012 01:30:46 +0000

It was a bit amusing to read that Congress passed a measure to cut aid by 33 million dollars – in response to Pakistan’s sentencing of the man who was instrumental in eliminating Osama bin Ladin to 33 years for treason. Pakistan has been nothing but a thorn in our side and the source of a vast majority of the enemies the US faces in Afghanistan. Why should be fund a hostile country billions while the money could be better used improving domestic infrastructure and helping build up domestic fuel production? After the cuts it is estimated that Pakistan will still receive a billion dollars for fiscal year 2013…

Talk About Scary, GMCR drops over 40% in after-hours Trading

Adam — Thu, 03 May 2012 04:46:59 +0000

So today after hours Green Mountain Coffee plunged over 40%, I’m glad that I decided this was not a stock I was interested in holding. Perhaps now is a good buying opportunity? The reports announced that sales were the slowest in five years, largely due to competition in the Keurig compatible K-Cups produced by other brewers such as Starbucks.

*Disclaimer – I do not own any GMCR but may purchase shares within the next 48 hours.

Automated News Delivery System

Adam — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 02:41:37 +0000

For the past few days I’ve been working on a program that will go out and grab headline news and links back to the original sources and put them into a list format. The only problem is that I was running that manually each day and yesterday forgot to post one. Today I figured out how to run a background process and automatically grab content and post it via email to my blog from my program. I might not do it this way since I don’t usually like leaving my computer on the whole day but I thought it was fun to figure out how to do.

For anyone interested in doing something similar all they need to do is build a program that will build an html email they would want sent and then use a free copy of visual studio (express edition) from http://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/en-us/products/2010-editions/visual-basic-express (Visual Basic) and http://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/en-us/products/2010-editions/visual-csharp-express (C#), and import System.Net.Mail and System.Net.NetworkCredential (since if you presumably want to send emails from your gmail account SSL is required).

If your interested in seeing this website that is comprised of my pulled together links see http://newshighlightsoftheday.blogspot.com

Below is a copy of the function I wrote to send the email for anyone interested:

Private Sub Button2_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button2.Click
Dim password As String = “yourpassword”
Dim client As New SmtpClient
client.Credentials = New NetworkCredential(“youremailaddress@gmail.com”, password)
client.Port = 587
client.Host = “smtp.gmail.com”
client.EnableSsl = True

Try
Dim maFrom As New MailAddress(“youremailaddress@gmail.com”,”Adam Lee”, Encoding.UTF8)
Dim maTo As New MailAddress(emailTo, Nothing, Encoding.UTF8)
Dim mmsg As New MailMessage(maFrom, maTo)

mmsg.Body = RichTextBox1.Text
mmsg.BodyEncoding = Encoding.UTF8
mmsg.IsBodyHtml = True
mmsg.Subject = “News Highlights for ” & Date.Today
mmsg.SubjectEncoding = Encoding.UTF8

client.Send(mmsg)
MsgBox(“DONE”)

Catch ex As Exception
MsgBox(ex.Message)
End Try

End Sub

If I Wanted America To Fail

Adam — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 19:25:25 +0000

I’ve got to agree with the majority of topics raised in this video, from the killing of the US coal industry by left wing politicians (especially Obama and his plan to bankrupt coal companies) while preaching that we need to rely less on foreign energy. Obama’s rejection the Keystone pipeline is a more complicated subject, since this project was included in a short term extension bill for the payroll tax cut – however given that many of Obama’s constituents adamantly refused to entertain the notion of the pipeline and threatened not to campaign for Obama his this was approved I’m sure this had something to do with his swift rejection.

However, this video fails to address the MOST important reason America is beginning to fail – Undeclared wasteful wars. Trillions of dollars wasted on needless wars with no discernible gain for our economy or people – in fact the only thing we have received from these wars is hatred from Arab countries and now Pakistan is openly harboring the Taliban and allowing them free reign in Afghanistan while we pay off this military government annually to the tune of 2 billion dollars. Can you believe that we would be paying a government who is openly lying to us and who we knew harbored Osama Bin Laden?

Furthermore I cannot help but mention the most damning aspects of the Bush presidency in turning 9/11 into the holy grail of freedom grabbing and transformation of our democracy into a police state where every email can be legally monitored and recorded without court action and old grandmothers cannot travel on planes without the shame of having their entire body revealed or groped by the TSA. Obama is no better than Bush in that he extended the Patriot act and has acted outside the bounds of US law in order to support a United Nations small arms registry so that the government’s violations of your freedom will be absolute and without hindrance.

Now, if I wanted America to succeed I would reduce the amount of money and lives wasted in unnecessary wars and use those resources constructively to improve our infrastructure and space technology while REDUCING THE NATIONAL DEBT. I would stop making it hard for law abiding citizens from obtaining guns when criminals can get them easily from the black market. I would fight defensive wars, not offensive ones where we get absolutely nothing in return.

Tomorrow Last Day to Fund Roth IRA for Tax Year 2011

Adam — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 22:01:51 +0000

Tomorrow is the last day you can fund your Roth IRA for tax year 2011. A Roth IRA exempts retirees from paying tax upon withdrawal, while a traditional IRA grants the tax break upon placing the money within the plan. The Roth IRA was named after Senator William Roth of Delaware who sponsored the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997 which gave birth to the new type of IRA.

Although it may be seen as a breach of contract, the US Government may change the rules regarding this IRA in the future which makes some people just use a traditional IRA and realize the tax benefits up front.

The Falkland Islands

Adam — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 22:19:32 +0000

The Falkland Islands are one of the current British overseas territories located 250 miles east of South America. The majority of islanders are of British/Welsh descent and have self determined to remain British – the islands have been claimed by Britain since 1690 when the first explorers landed. Argentinians view the Falklands as theirs since they believe the original inhabitants were removed from the islands, a claim the British deny. Regardless, the Falkland Islands are now the largest foreign colony left belonging to the British besides a chunk of useless land in the Antarctic.

Obama Seen as Loser at Summit of Americas

Adam — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 20:10:37 +0000

The Summit of Americas held in Columbia had a bad start for Obama – his secret service agents had to be sent back home after misconduct including but not limited to interactions with prostitutes and heavy drinking before his arrival. At the summit, much of the time was spent discussing why Cuba should not be barred from participation – a few countries skipped the summit out of protest and the US and Canada were the only countries who opposed Cuba’s participation. It seems like the US is having a diminishing influence on Latin countries as China now exceeds the US in trade volume with Brazil, Chile, and Peru. Drug legalization was also a major topic at the summit, as many of the countries supported the end of the war on drugs which they see as being the reason for powerful criminal syndicates in their countries. Argentina’s claim to the Falklands was also a heated topic, where the United States supported Britain’s claim to the islands and the Latin countries supported Argentina’s. The only redeeming quality of the summit was that Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez skipped out in order to tend to his medical needs in Cuba.

Rick Santorum Suspends Campaign

Adam — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 00:37:54 +0000

Rick Santorum suspended his campaign today after his three year old daughter was released from the hospital and his chances of victory against Romney seemed to be fading. This just leaves three candidates left for the Republican primary – Mitt Romney, Ron Paul, and Newt Gingrich. As for his delegates, 200 are bound to follow the candidate of his choosing and 83 are now free.

Parents, Don’t Grab The Easter Eggs

Adam — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 02:16:11 +0000

Easter egg hunts are for kids, and big adults diving for eggs is just a recipe for disaster. A mall that has been holding an annual Easter egg hunt for 11 years in Colorado Springs had to cancel its hunt after parents made it unsafe for the younglings (those 4 and younger) by having their older children go get eggs from those restricted areas.

The purpose of the hunt is to teach youngsters the meaning of capitalism – you get what you take. I guess when parents get involved it really hammers the reality in that there are forces in the world that are making it extremely hard to progress and achieve your goals. I’ll let you comment on what those are.