:: meanders ::

:: perhaps it's 70s deja vu all over again...
Two of the market sites I visit have had the need to create "off topic" sites, where anything goes. That is, anything except market views. It's an old debate, where to draw the line of a news item being "market related". Of course, all news can and does, at some level affect the market. But as a trader, it isn't the news itself that is important, it is the price reaction to the news that matters. But all that is a digression to my purpose for posting today, which is to share my response to a post by another trader on an "off topic" site, who titled his post, Never any outrage!!! and, asking why so few had shown any "outrage" over the video showing the beheading of an American in Iraq, wrote

"Where's the outrage from these atrocities on the news and from those who were outraged at the abuse of the Iraq prisoners???"

My reply: The beheading was of one of the bad guys, someone who isn't being oppressed and surely must have enjoyed a life free of deprivation. Daniel Perle got coverage because he was in the club, a journalist. Had Perle been just a regular joe, just a self-employed contractor as was Mr. Berg, Perle's fate may have been just 'one of those terror things that happen'. Looking for outrage could be a useless search. Of course, I'm not being serious about Mr. Berg being a 'bad guy'. But as an American, and thus a de facto member of the occupying force, much of the vocal anti-war media just don't see this desecration as an outrage. Perhaps an unfortunate unintended consequence, and, maybe even something 'we' should have expected. But I don't want to indulge in cynicism over something this heinous. Remember the Silent Majority? I'm thinking it, along with so many things 70s like scraggly beards, shabby clothes, and disco, may be back. Unfortunately, this being an election year, we may not get confirmation of just which side of the fence the Majority is corraled until things get even uglier. Regardless, the darkness is upon us all. Whether the sun is rising or setting, casting such long shadows, is yet to be known. "