The Roughneck, A Blue Collar Mid-Week Weekly
To make my blogging more regular, and not to piss off the throngs, hordes and masses (I wish) that come here only to be affirmed, yeah, he's too dumb too make views on politics, world affairs or high-finance.
So I decided on sort of a weekly opinion pieces to break that myth and hold forth about things that matter to me, me and me. It's important that I satisfy my lust first, before I make you cu- err, happy.
It's my free-wheelin' 'n easy take about the depraved, depressed and dangerous times we live in today.
Barack Hussein
The Roughneck wants this dude to win. Conventional Wisdom (CW) says it will happen. But recently, political pundits and pundeks (to hedge their bets in case the unholy McCain - Palin emerge triumphant) thinks what we're seeing is The Bradley Effect: Barack leads the polls early, and at the very last moment, lose.
And it doesn't make sense.
Why? Because we're humans. Some whiteys are even convinced B.Hussein is Muslim. Whites and Melayus (especially) are at the very core, racist. They tell the pollsters or the public one thing (so their neighbors or whomever will think them as enlightened beings) but in the secrecy of the ballot booth (or closed door UMNO sessions) they'll eventually break down and go for The God-Divined Plan. It's manifest destiny: Only whites, of the superior Aryan race, are fit to lead. Just like the Melayus - but only Melayus from UMNO. And better yet, UMNO Melayus of Indian, Arab or Javanese extraction. Melayus from PKR, PRS, DAP and GERAKAN are now the new Uncle Toms; oftentimes branded Chinese arse-lickers, sell-outs and traitors. I should know, I'm one of 'em.
So if you think Obama is going to win, think again. Think of the majority race there in the Unidos Estadas. Think of the times you say one thing but deep in your heart, you mean just the opposite.
The Roughneck has mixed feelings about this. His country, Malaysia, will never hold bloggers in such esteem. In fact, bloggers there are held with such contempt and revulsion; looked down with distaste and disdain, fit only to be persecuted and incarcerated like that Raja Petra fler.
It's my free-wheelin' 'n easy take about the depraved, depressed and dangerous times we live in today.
Barack Hussein
The Roughneck wants this dude to win. Conventional Wisdom (CW) says it will happen. But recently, political pundits and pundeks (to hedge their bets in case the unholy McCain - Palin emerge triumphant) thinks what we're seeing is The Bradley Effect: Barack leads the polls early, and at the very last moment, lose.
And it doesn't make sense.
Why? Because we're humans. Some whiteys are even convinced B.Hussein is Muslim. Whites and Melayus (especially) are at the very core, racist. They tell the pollsters or the public one thing (so their neighbors or whomever will think them as enlightened beings) but in the secrecy of the ballot booth (or closed door UMNO sessions) they'll eventually break down and go for The God-Divined Plan. It's manifest destiny: Only whites, of the superior Aryan race, are fit to lead. Just like the Melayus - but only Melayus from UMNO. And better yet, UMNO Melayus of Indian, Arab or Javanese extraction. Melayus from PKR, PRS, DAP and GERAKAN are now the new Uncle Toms; oftentimes branded Chinese arse-lickers, sell-outs and traitors. I should know, I'm one of 'em.
So if you think Obama is going to win, think again. Think of the majority race there in the Unidos Estadas. Think of the times you say one thing but deep in your heart, you mean just the opposite.
But I hope to dear God I'm wrong.
McCain-Palin (The Unholy)
I just a read a damning expose on McCain in The Rolling Stone. Apparently this Vietnam POW was no hero. When shot down over Hanoi lake, instead of just stating his name and rank, he blabbered to his captors that he was the son of a Navy Admiral to get preferential treatment, an offence which should've got him court martialled. But he's J. McCain III, progeny of 4-star Generals. The story littered with McCain having to drop his father's and grandfather's name on many occasions just to scrape through the Navy. He admitted as much, and was quoted as saying, 'My POW experiences make me a good sell'.
To me, he's just an opportunist of the highest order.
Palin? Palaat lah. Forget the 150,000 dollar wardrobe. The scathing diatribe by Bridget Bardot is what did me. Palin is a disservice to both women and animals. I agree.
The Economy
Stocks? Fuhgeddaboudit. The Roughneck, being un-schooled in the white-collar ways, was persuaded (some say, conned) by his Finance Department this past June to plonk down 10 percent of his hard-earned monthly salary - each and every month in condemned perpetuity - into purchasing company stock at a special employee price of 15 percent less prevailing market rate on June 31st. At the time it was over US 100.00 a share - about US 85.00. Five miserable months later it hovered around US 40.00 a share. That's half its value gone in a space of a quarter.
McCain-Palin (The Unholy)
I just a read a damning expose on McCain in The Rolling Stone. Apparently this Vietnam POW was no hero. When shot down over Hanoi lake, instead of just stating his name and rank, he blabbered to his captors that he was the son of a Navy Admiral to get preferential treatment, an offence which should've got him court martialled. But he's J. McCain III, progeny of 4-star Generals. The story littered with McCain having to drop his father's and grandfather's name on many occasions just to scrape through the Navy. He admitted as much, and was quoted as saying, 'My POW experiences make me a good sell'.
To me, he's just an opportunist of the highest order.
Palin? Palaat lah. Forget the 150,000 dollar wardrobe. The scathing diatribe by Bridget Bardot is what did me. Palin is a disservice to both women and animals. I agree.
The Economy
Stocks? Fuhgeddaboudit. The Roughneck, being un-schooled in the white-collar ways, was persuaded (some say, conned) by his Finance Department this past June to plonk down 10 percent of his hard-earned monthly salary - each and every month in condemned perpetuity - into purchasing company stock at a special employee price of 15 percent less prevailing market rate on June 31st. At the time it was over US 100.00 a share - about US 85.00. Five miserable months later it hovered around US 40.00 a share. That's half its value gone in a space of a quarter.
Nowadays, I don't even bother to look.
Smart, eh?
The real smart thing to do is to buy the shares NOW on the open market, sort of hedging or as a cut-loss measure. But I'm not real smart am I? - on top of being a coward when it comes to high-stakes finance.
But I'm a blue collar roughneck, so I am truly deserving of this folly. But you - with your fancy finance, MBA and accounting degrees - what's your excuse?
Actually I was lucky for a while, right around after the '00 dot-com bust. There was an ex-employee of my company, a University Malaya Physics graduate of the late 70s who went on to do an MBA at Yale and worked on Wall Street before striking out on his own in Milwaukee. I believe he has now traded his red passport for a blue one. So I trusted his brokerage and analysts, gambling (the right word, seen in today's light) up to six-figures of my kids future college fund to play the US market. And play them he did. At one time I held shares in, um, let me see . . . Microsoft, Apple, Tommy Hillfiger, Harley-Davidson, Viacom (MTV, Nickleodeon) - all good. Also, Harrahs and Anheuser-Busch (Budweiser, Sea World) - all bad. Owning shares in the world's largest casino operator and the world's largest brewer is definitely confirming my place where Satan reigns when all I had before had was merely a reservation. Hell, I never even liked Buds. Took me years to divest and samak (perform ablution) on the money. But I suspect I still got one leg in hell already. But hey, I've never been on my high horse, have I?
Indonesia's Pesta Blogger (Blogger's Festival) - November 22
October 27th was Indonesia's National Bloggers Day, an event sanctioned by its government and headed by Muhammad Nuh, Minister of Communication and Information, no less.
The Jakarta Post, in article yesterday, mentioned Ong Hock Chuan as 'Indonesia's top-three' - along with Enda Nasution (dubbed the "Father" of Indonesian Bloggers) and Budi Putra.
Whoa Ong... congrats, bro.
And bye the bye, in an SMS from Rocky The Bru, Jeff Ooi, the blogger (not the MP from Jelutong, at least not in that spirit I don't think) will represent Malaysia for the Pesta Blogger event come November 22.
The real smart thing to do is to buy the shares NOW on the open market, sort of hedging or as a cut-loss measure. But I'm not real smart am I? - on top of being a coward when it comes to high-stakes finance.
But I'm a blue collar roughneck, so I am truly deserving of this folly. But you - with your fancy finance, MBA and accounting degrees - what's your excuse?
Actually I was lucky for a while, right around after the '00 dot-com bust. There was an ex-employee of my company, a University Malaya Physics graduate of the late 70s who went on to do an MBA at Yale and worked on Wall Street before striking out on his own in Milwaukee. I believe he has now traded his red passport for a blue one. So I trusted his brokerage and analysts, gambling (the right word, seen in today's light) up to six-figures of my kids future college fund to play the US market. And play them he did. At one time I held shares in, um, let me see . . . Microsoft, Apple, Tommy Hillfiger, Harley-Davidson, Viacom (MTV, Nickleodeon) - all good. Also, Harrahs and Anheuser-Busch (Budweiser, Sea World) - all bad. Owning shares in the world's largest casino operator and the world's largest brewer is definitely confirming my place where Satan reigns when all I had before had was merely a reservation. Hell, I never even liked Buds. Took me years to divest and samak (perform ablution) on the money. But I suspect I still got one leg in hell already. But hey, I've never been on my high horse, have I?
Indonesia's Pesta Blogger (Blogger's Festival) - November 22
October 27th was Indonesia's National Bloggers Day, an event sanctioned by its government and headed by Muhammad Nuh, Minister of Communication and Information, no less.
The Jakarta Post, in article yesterday, mentioned Ong Hock Chuan as 'Indonesia's top-three' - along with Enda Nasution (dubbed the "Father" of Indonesian Bloggers) and Budi Putra.
Whoa Ong... congrats, bro.
And bye the bye, in an SMS from Rocky The Bru, Jeff Ooi, the blogger (not the MP from Jelutong, at least not in that spirit I don't think) will represent Malaysia for the Pesta Blogger event come November 22.
The Roughneck has mixed feelings about this. His country, Malaysia, will never hold bloggers in such esteem. In fact, bloggers there are held with such contempt and revulsion; looked down with distaste and disdain, fit only to be persecuted and incarcerated like that Raja Petra fler.
In Indonesia, they're feted and celebrated.
Self-styled arbiters of Malaysian morals like its Home Affairs Minister Syed Hamid, whose late father the Lion of UMNO Syed Jaffar, a Hadhrami Arab-Indonesian who migrated into then Tanah Melayu at the ripe age of 30 - knows something we don't?
