Dutch's Blog

An Amazing Story of Oppression, Courage, and Freedom

noreply@blogger.com (George "Dutch" Hoffman) — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 14:16:00 +0000

You may never have heard the name of Dr. Orly Taitz from Southern California. But you should know her and her story. The complete article is on World Net Daily. Please read it. It's a fascinating story about this amazing woman!.

She was born and raised in Moldova, which was part of the former Soviet Union. As she describes life in the Soviet Union, "Markets were bare, people had no desire to work. . . ."

She describes the time and effort it took simply to shop for the staples--for basic sustenance:

"We'd stop at the store, and the food stores were empty. I remember we had to stand in lines for hours in the cold. We were in a bus, going home and suddenly we'd see a line. We wouldn't even know what they were selling, but we knew something would be there – some food. We'd stand for two hours to buy maybe a pound of salami or a half a pound of butter."

When she was a young child, Taitz asked her father why the market shelves were empty. He explained that in the Soviet Union, farmers were part of a socialist system of collective farming and were compensated equally – regardless of output. He told her, "If a farmer is bright and hard working, at the end of the month, he will get 100 rubles. And if the farmer is a lazy bum and he does nothing, he gets the same 100 rubles."

Dr. Taitz told WND, "People had absolutely no incentive to do anything. They had no incentive to work. The best doctors were getting maybe 150 rubles. That's why the standards for medicine were so low."

"In America, they have everything," he would tell her. "The stores are full. . . ." because "Americans were interested in working and received paychecks based on their productivity."

One of Dr. Taitz's greatest fears is that the United States is being pushed toward a socialist state where the government dictates your beliefs and actions. Obama's proposed "youth corps" is chillingly remeniscent to Taitz to the Communist youth corps in the Soviet Union. She offers great detail about many oppressive practices there, and shares her fears of what we are beginning to see--the first hints of those same types of practices here.

I've left out many important and truly inspiring details about her life. Please read the entire story on WND.

Take care.

--Dutch

On an elevator with two extremely large, intimidating, hired guns. . . .

noreply@blogger.com (George "Dutch" Hoffman) — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 03:40:00 +0000

Back in the summer of '98 or '99, I was in my hotel in Manhattan, trying to finish reading a deposition transcript on my way to my office. Standing in front of the elevator, waiting, I was reading, and writing, reading, highlighting, completely absorbed when the "ding!" announced that the elevator had arrived. The doors slid open and directly in front of me, blocking the door, were two extremely tall and extremely built gentlemen blocking the door. I glanced up enough to see past their legs to see that there was a lot of space in the elevator. There was only one other man on the elevator and he was toward the back right corner. But those two guys wouldn't let me on!

I, being oblivious to the world, said to myself, "WTF?" and coolly and confidently, and without a hint of a "flinch" stepped forward between them, politely excusing myself as they had to move. I turn around to face the front, still reading my transcript. The elevator was silent until the tension was broken by a loud (almost shocking) "CLICK!" that came from the third gentleman on the elevator. He was shorter than I am and standing to my left. My brain perked up and in my peripheral vision I could see that he was holding a small child, and then another "CLICK!". He was "clucking" his tongue at his child, and then the child would "cluck" back. The man's tongue "clucks" truly were extremely loud.

As I realized what a touching moment this really was, I felt like a heel for thinking the thoughts that ran through my head. I looked at the man, smiled, and when we exchanged smiles I realized that it was Arnold Schwarzenegger and his son! The two men were his bodyguards! When I realized I pushed past the Terminator's bodyguards (and how tough do you have to be to qualify to be the bodyguard of the former Mr. Universe and three-time Terminator?), I gave a chuckle. The doors opened on the ground floor and we all walked out into the street and went our separate ways.

Who told you that?

noreply@blogger.com (George "Dutch" Hoffman) — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 16:54:00 +0000

Here is a great post that I ran across. For all of those little nagging voices inside of us that try to create doubt in us (and we all have those from time to time), this is a fantastic response. I found this on the website of Pastor Steven Furtick, who based the text on one of the passages in Genesis:

Who told you that?

After the fall, Adam began to explain to God how he was ashamed and afraid because he was naked.
I love the way God responded:
“Who told you that you were naked?”
Genesis 3:11

Obviously Adam had been influenced, informed and instructed by a voice other than the voice of God. God was perturbed about it!
“You think you need to hide in shame and be afraid?
Who told you that?”

I wonder how many times God has the same objection when He hears the lies we believe:
Who told you that?

Who told you weren’t capable?
Who told you one little compromise wouldn’t hurt?
Who told you you’d never accomplish anything significant?
Who told you it was too late to start over?
Who told you that you couldn’t be forgiven?
Who told you that you had to settle for that?
Who told you you’d never gain victory over that sin pattern?

So many voices compete to create a cacophony of confusion concerning the things we believe about ourselves.
God’s voice resonates with clarity, wisdom, and vision.

Who misled you?
Who talked you out of your dream?
Who convinced you that you didn’t measure up?

Who told you that?

Squidoo

noreply@blogger.com (George "Dutch" Hoffman) — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 20:44:00 +0000

Have you seen that site called "Squidoo"? It's pretty neat. You build your own site on whatever topic you want. What are you passionate about? On what topic are you an expert? About what topic would you like to share information?

I built two sites. The first is about Freemasonry.

The second is about one of my favorite target rifles, the AR-15.

Feel free to take a look!

Steve McQueen & Racing

noreply@blogger.com (George "Dutch" Hoffman) — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 02:50:00 +0000

I loved Steve McQueen. The essence of cool. Here is a great quote of his:

"Racing is life. Anything before or after is just waiting."

That's all for now,

--Dutch

Great book to teach kids common sense

noreply@blogger.com (George "Dutch" Hoffman) — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 04:09:00 +0000

I just ran across a book called An Island Called Liberty, which is "a cross" between Dr. Seuss and Ayn Rand's Atlas Shruggedand is a great addition to the kids' library.

Younger children will enjoy the rhyming verse and beautiful, full-color illustrations on every page, and the book offers older children and adults a strong message that speaks in favor of free markets and against excessive government regulation, bureaucracy, and taxation.

Read and enjoy!

--Dutch

Mistakes

noreply@blogger.com (George "Dutch" Hoffman) — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 04:00:00 +0000

"People who don't take risks generally make about two big mistakes a year. People who do take risks generally make about two big mistakes a year."
--Peter Drucker

Setting Goals--Part I

noreply@blogger.com (George "Dutch" Hoffman) — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 22:55:00 +0000

I've been thinking a lot about goals recently. I've moved my wealth management practice from Merrill Lynch to Morgan Stanley and in conjunction with that move I updated my business plan. The business plan has to include goals.

Everyone should have goals: business goals, financial goals, personal goals, fitness goals, etc. I'd rather set a high goal, do my best to achieve it, and fail rather than aiming low to score (there is no pride in that).

Over the next few weeks, many of my posts will focus on goals and setting goals. The first step is to create the goals. To think big. To paraphrase Brian Tracy from his "Goals" program, "What would you dare to dream if you knew that success was assured?" You should set that as your goal.

I'll reference my Chicago experiences by quoting the great architect and city planner, Daniel Burnham:

Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men's blood. . . . Make big plans, aim high in hope and work.
Daniel H. Burnham
US architect & city planner (1846 - 1912)

Great Book

noreply@blogger.com (George "Dutch" Hoffman) — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 21:51:00 +0000

I highly recommend this book: Our Oldest Enemy: A History of America's Disastrous Relationship with France, by John J. Miller and Mark Molesky. It lends a new, and more critical perspective to Franco-American relations. Especially poignant after Mssr. Obama urged us crass and ignorant Americans to take a lesson from the French.

C'est la Vie.

This is Dutch; all for now.

Lasik

noreply@blogger.com (George "Dutch" Hoffman) — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 18:07:00 +0000

I've been out of action a bit for the past day and a half. Yesterday morning I had Lasik surgery. It was a fascinating process to go through. No pain, a fair amount of discomfort during the procedure, but it was about ten minutes long. If that. I think it was about two minutes per eye. It took as long to get me to cooperate with them holding my eyelids open as it did for the entire procedure. They spend time at the end washing down the eye and making sure that the "flap" has properly taken hold. The first hour or so was uncomfortable. I fell asleep and woke up again at about 5:00p.m. Eyes felt a little scratchy. This morning I woke up and forgot that I had the surgery until I could actually see the alarm clock from across the room. My eyes felt great. The follow-up appointment went well, and I'm very happy to have it done.

Now, I don't know where Lasik is in the whole baby-boomer process, but I can't say enough good things about the VISX equipment. The surgeon loves the VISX equipment, too. That is one company I'm going to research in detail.

Note: I'm not making any kind of recommendation on that company's stock, so don't read more into this statement.

All for now. Dutch, signing off.

The Power of Words

noreply@blogger.com (George "Dutch" Hoffman) — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 12:41:00 +0000

This morning, over my second cup of coffee, I was listening to a podcast about the power of words. Being trained as a lawyer, I've always focused on the meaning of words, but the podcast focused on the impact and the power of the words that we choose.

In answering the question, "What difference can a few words make?", consider the effect of these:

Patrick Henry said, "Give me Liberty or give me death!" and a nation united and fought.
The Declaration of Independence--1328 words and a new nation was created.
The Gettysburg Address--256 (roughly) words in total, but after "Four score and seven years ago" a nation began to reunite.
FDR told the nation in the depths of a grueling economic depression that "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself," and the nation saw a glimpse of hope for the future and began the march toward recovery.
MLK told a group of people that he had a dream, and because of those four powerful words, today people dream who at the time had not the hope to allow them to dream.

But lest you think that these are rare occasions and would never happen to the average person, think of this phrase: "You have a beautiful health baby. Congratulations!" When I was in the delivery room and the doctor offered a similar statement to me, it was one of the most powerful moments in my life. Yes, that handful of words changed my life forever.

My thanks to Zig Ziglar for reminding me of the power of words and for the examples above.

One more thought--High, Low, High

noreply@blogger.com (George "Dutch" Hoffman) — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 04:42:00 +0000

I just saw a comment that the Dow is "almost back where it was eight years ago." Eight years is a long time. A new associate at a prestigious law firm starts her first day, and suddenly it's eight years later and she's still at the same firm. What's wrong with her, has she made no progress? Avoid taking numbers out of context. Just as in her eight years at the firm, she's gone from knowing practically nothing about the practice of law (no offense--I was there too!) to becoming a respected equity partner in the firm.

The Dow . . . back to the Dow. Let's see:
Jan. 14, 2000: 11,723 Dow.
Oct. 04, 2002: 7,528 Dow (36% decline from high).
Feb. 20, 2004: 10,619 (at the first "shoulder" of the bull market and a 41% increase from the low).
Oct. 12, 2007: 14,093 (peak).
Jun. 11, 2008: 12,084 (only a 3% gain from the 2000 high; a 60% increase from the '02 low; or a near 14% gain from the first shoulder for those people who like to 'time' the markets by missing most of the bullish days but holding on for white-knuckled dear life while the bear is on the street).

My point with this is two-fold. First, the comment that triggered this little missive of mine--that comment was extremely negative and not conducive to rational investing. Second, although it is a tough market--there is no doubt about that--this is where a tough financial advisor or investment manager can mean the difference between failure and success.

Now, it is truly time to sign off.

End of Day Recap--More Woes for Wall Street

noreply@blogger.com (George "Dutch" Hoffman) — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 04:20:00 +0000

It looks like Citi, MER, and UBS are not out of the sub-prime woods yet. It appears that they will collectively write down another $10B related to the sub-prime debt that the banks hold. For Merrill (my former employer), I believe this will be the third quarter of writedowns of the same pool of "assets." [Full Story.] To be fair, it is difficult to value an asset that nobody wants to buy.

Think of how it would have happened in the former Soviet Union:
Comrade A: "Sell this for 100."
Comrade B" "But Comrade Supervisor, no one will pay 100. Should we sell it for 50?"
A: "Nyet. That is why I am the Comrade Supervisor. It should sell for 100 so it sells for 100."
--One year later--
A: "Comrade, have you sold it yet?"
B: "Nyet. People will not buy it for 100. No one has offered more than 15. Should we sell it for 15?"
A: "Nyet, Nyet. That is why I am the Comrade Supervisor. Sell it for 85."

Today, the Dow dropped about 1.7% (206 points). While some were expecting last quarter's earnings reports to be the last of the writedowns, this news adds more ripples into this widening "crisis," and more uncertainty to the markets. We're still hanging on to the 12,000 level, though, and tomorrow is another day. This is when that "portfolio insurance" comes in handy.

This is Dutch, signing off for the evening.

Business-Owner Confidence at 28 Year Low

noreply@blogger.com (George "Dutch" Hoffman) — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 17:34:00 +0000

The NFIB (National Federation of Independent Businesses) (www.nfib.org) noted on Tuesday that the small business owners' confidence in the economy has dropped to the lowest level since 1980, at which time we were in a recession as well as a national "malaise". Full story.

What do we need? A rational economic policy that focuses on common sense and the big picture rather than simply raising taxes to pay for every new program. We need our politicians to realize that business owners help their employees create financial stability, and should not be regulated to death or taxed to the point of "just-not-worth-it." We as a country need to hold our heads high and start remembering that we do more good in the world than most (if not all) other countries, and we definitely do more good than harm.

And maybe, because this is an Olympic year, we need another dream team to help boost us from our "malaise." After I had the chance to chat with Jim Craig, goalie for the 1980 U.S. Olympic Hockey Team (the "Dream Team"), I watched the movie "Miracle". I'd highly recommend it even if you're not a hockey fan.