I don’t mind losing money. I really don’t. Throughout the years, I’ve lost so much money, I am numb to the process. On the eyes of God himself, I am grateful that my wins have outstripped my longs by a factor of 1 trillion, life to date, allowing me to speak to you in a very condescending tone.
I’m buying airlines today, fairly decent size too. I cannot remember the last time I bought airlines, since I fucking hate the sector. But, with oil “high as fuck” up here and WORLD PEACE on the verge of happening, one could only surmise that airlines will be making some coin here.
Crack spreads continue to widen, now up almost 2% for the day to $24.30. I have no idea why VLO and WNR are weak. However, I do know where those stocks will be in 2 weeks: higher.
For a +140 day, the action is tepid. I mean, most stocks are up; but the tone is somewhat gay. Then again, there is a shot that Tokyo will become a wasteland. I surmise that is not good for “global growth.” All in all, as always, “The Fly” endeavors to outstrip you, in all things to do with finance. Some of you manage little baby hedge funds or have piker books of business, acting all sophisticated and shit. The reality is, you are nothing more than a huckster. I spit, mind you, into your clam chowder.
Top picks: LCC, DAL, TER, WNR, VLO, MAS
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World Peace – that’s funny.
who knows, might make the chowdda taste betta
I think that the rulers in the countries with civil unrest have a great opportunity now to squash there rebellions. All eyes will be on libya near term so expect massacres to accelerate.
i dont think so,cause now he knows the real guns are coming for his ass,yea, he might want to take some more down,but if he does,when the calvary gets there, he may not have a life either. same goes for the rest…qadaffi WILL BE THE EXAMPLE for them in that area, this un shit,just opened the doors to kick other ass.
Ha ha – love the picture. Thought this was fitting. Hat tip #6
The Karate Kid: A defense of Johnny Lawrence and why Daniel LaRusso was a jerk, and the real antagonist of the film
This thread has been a long time coming and necessary. The catalyst for me writing it was the thread about the guy punching a woman over a parking space. I’m not sure how it derailed into a discussion of the Karate Kid, but the fact remains, Johnny Lawrence was brought up in a bad light. I’ve seen this happen many times and it needs to stop. The truth is, Johnny Lawrence was a good kid, was pretty much justified in everything he did during that film, and frankly, Daniel LaRusso was a real *******. It’s time to set the record straight.
I wasn’t sure how to go about this at first. Would a list do? No, probably not convincing enough. I have today off from work and it’s raining out, so you know what, I’m re-watching the whole film and doing a running diary, which will prove beyond a shadow of a doubt, that Johnny Lawrence was justified, and yes, even a brave teenager.
*Spoilers beyond*
The first four to five minutes are a boring opening montage to allow the viewer to know that Daniel and his mother are moving from Newark to California. Why? Who the hell knows. Supposedly, it’s for a job, yet it never comes through. Dubious at best. And really, does anything good ever come out of Newark? That place is a dump. One point against LaRusso already.
5:02 First act of violence. Daniel LaRusso unnecessarily kicks open a gate. He was moving a bike with a bag over the handlebars. He couldn’t do that with one hand? Of course, the gate swings and hits another kid in the skull. You just know that story is getting back to the local high school. This new kid is not to be ****ed with. This my friends, is how a bully starts to build a reputation.
8:15 First meeting between LaRusso and Miyagi, otherwise known as the evil Okinawa mastermind. Side note, it’s incredible that Pat Morita went from being on Happy Days to being nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in the space of a year. That’s a hell of a jump.
10:00 We first meet Ali (with an I) at the beach soccer gathering. I might add, looking might fine in an 80’s way. And yes, I checked before I wrote that, she was 20 when this movie was filmed. Also, this is some of the worst soccer playing I’ve ever seen. Can anyone explain to me why everyone got in a circle and appeared to just be kicking randomly? Atrocious.
11:30 – 14:00 And Johnny Lawrence enters the picture. Now let’s start showing you how stand up this kid is. His first action in this movie is to REFUSE A BEER from his friends as he doesn’t want to drink and motorbike. This is a kid who is responsible. Plus which, he talks about how this is his senior year and he wants to make everything work. Responsible and goal oriented.
And it’s time for confrontation #1. Now look at this through Johnny’s eyes. You can tell from the tone of the conversations that his breakup with Ali is very recent, and it’s always a difficult phase. He is refusing beer, setting goals for himself, one of which is to win back the girl that he cares for so much. He arrives to talk to her, and the first thing he sees is a new kid pawing at her. After all, from his point of view, they had just falled to the sand. So you can imagine there’s a little blood rush there as he sees his plans hit a snag. Especially when you consider that he risked getting sand in the engine of his bike just to see her. He is making sacrifices.
Now let’s examine the confrontation itself. Johnny asks Ali to talk and she says no. He turns off her radio (probably because it was interfering with her ability to hear how much he meant it) to ask again. Instead of answering, she just turns the radio back on, minimizing his worth. Now I’ll admit, he acted a little immature here by taking the radio from her, but again, his heart was hurting and he just wanted to talk, dammit.
And then she just pushes it by taking the radio, smirking at him (lok closely) and then turning it on again. It’s as if she was saying “That’s right buddy, you saw me rolling around with the new kid and I’m glad you did.” At this point, I can’t blame him for smashing it, he was antagonized by this vile temptress.
And I can’t blame him for his next action. He tells Daniel LaRusso not to touch the radio and yet LaRusso does anyway, prompting Johnny to grab it away. Well of course he would, Daniel was ABOUT TO STEAL THE RADIO! Mid-80’s New York was a crime hole, and Newark still is. Everyone from there was probably a thief. I have no doubt that if Johnny hadn’t grabbed the radio, LaRusso would have run off with it. And the radio shove…well, he’s trying to talk to his ex, to win her back, and this new kid who he saw pawing her is interrupting. Seriously LaRusso, take a hint and go roast another hot dog.
Now as to the fight itself. LaRusso was the aggressor. Who charged who? LaRusso charged at Johnny. Twice. And Johnny, being the patient, non-violent sort, only stepped aside and tripped him. He was trying to end this as peacefully as possible, but LaRusso would have none of it. After the two trips, LaRusso gets up and PUTS UP HIS FISTS! He was the first one to do so. At this point, Johnny knows he can’t get away from this aggressive Jersey kid and tries to end things with a kick to the gut, which will knock the wind out of you but is hardly a debilitating blow. Again, trying to end this with as little violence as possible; he just wants to talk to his ex.
Next, Johnny asks Daniel if the fight can end, only to be sucker punched in the nose. Note this again, Daniel not only put up his hands first, he was also the first one to throw a legitimate punch. At this point, Johnny has to do what is necessary, and I’ll note that he did it quickly and at a minimum amount of blows. And mentioned to Ali that none of this would have happened if she would have just talked to him. And he’s right, not that he started any of it. The blame lies squarel on her and Daniel.
18:50 Set to “Cruel Summer” by Bananarama (an awesome song, and yes I’m defending Bananarama here, shut up) Daniel continues to hit on Ali (looking great in this scene) in front of Johnny, and gets kicked off the soccer team. How does this occur. One of Johnny’s friends trips him on a breakaway. Now note, it wasn’t Johnny who did this, it was a friend of his. Fouls like this happen in soccer all the time. You take your free kick and play on. What does Daniel do? He gets up and tackles him, and then PUNCHES HIM IN THE FACE while the kid is lying on the ground. What an over-reaction! I’m beginning to think Daniel has anger management issues. And no father figure at home, obviously.
Not much happens for awhile other than Daniel continuing to his on Ali, and invading the karate studio where Johnny trains. Daniel just will not leave this kid alone, now he can’t even train without being harassed by this Newark street punk. Oh, we also learn that Johnny’s karate trainer is an *******. More on this later.
Another note, we learn that Daniel’s mother didn’t really have a job in computers, now she’s entering a “management program” in a “restaurant.” Combine this with the move from Newark and the Italian names, and I think it becomes fairly obvious that not only is Daniel a bully, but his mother is connected to the Mob and is setting up some sort of sham business to launder money. Now, not only does Johnny have to deal with Daniel’s bullying, but the possibility of Salvatore showing up to put two in his skull.
26:00 Confrontation #2, if you can call it that. Daniel again antagonizes Johnny’s friends. Look at where he’s biking…it’s a dirt track. Probably where they race their bikes. So Daniel just decides to put his stamp on yet another area of their lives. This is getting ridiculous. And let’s examine his fall down the hill. For one, not a single member of Johnny’s group touched Daniel. They were riding next to him, but no one touched him. He went down the hill on his own. Not only that, they were trying to help him. One of them told him that if he wanted to learn karate, the first lesson was to learn how to take a fall. Well I’ve got news for you, when I studied martial arts (Jiu-Jitsu) learning to fall and get up properly (to avoid hurting or exposing yourself) is one of the first lessons I was taught. When you look at it closely, they were almost trying to welcome him. They can’t possible be blamed for him falling off his bike and tumbling down the hill like a spaz.
Around this time, Daniel realizes his bullying way may not cut it in California, and throws his first “Sand in Vagina” fit.
…Daniel continues to push it, hitting on Ali and rubbing it in…
38:00 And Daniel goes off the deep end, deciding an appropriate course of action is to drench Johnny in a bathroom stall while Johnny is trying to roll a joint. Ruining perfectly good weed is a pretty serious offense. Especially considering Johnny wasn’t going to smoke it himself…remember his speech at the beginning of the movie. He was rolling the joint for his friends, and now it’s ruined, so he has to answer to them as well for the loss of the weed. When is Daniel just going to leave these poor kids alone? Oh, and Ali gets a negative mention at this juncture for tripping Johnny’s group when they just wanted to ask Daniel why he would do such a thing.
39:20 Daniel causes a car accident due to his negligence and stupidity, running into the street. Then disrespects another person’s car by jumping on the hood. You’ll note that in chasing him a few second later, Johnny and his friends ran AROUND the car and didn’t mess up the paint job.
40:20 Confrontation #3, where Daniel deservedly gets smacked around. And note, one of the group actually wanted to let him off easy, the same kid that Daniel punched during soccer tryouts. They have forgiveness in their hearts, but as Johnny says at this juncture, he couldn’t leave well enough alone. He had to continue to be an ******* to them. And this time, it was even worse because….
This whole thing was a setup. Daniel purposely ran to this one spot, absorbs a few punches (which he had earned, let’s face it), and his evil Okinawa overlord suddenly jumps poor Johnny and his friends, leaving them brusied, battered, and without any dry weed to make themselves feel better.
46:00 Daniel has “sand in vagina” fit #2, yelling at Miyagi for not accompanying him to confront the mean karate instructor. Seriously kid, sack up and do it yourself instead of asking an 80 year old (though competent) to defend you. Also, Miyagi establishes that nothing Johnny does is actually Johnny’s fault, using the false premise of “no bad studnet, only bad teacher.” This is false because we’ve already proven that everything is Daniel’s fault.
48:00 Daniel drives a car without a driver’s license.
52:30 Sand in vagina rant #3. Miyagi buys Daniel San time to train without distraction (so long as he doesn’t cause it himself) and he complains about it.
***Training montages start, Daniel consumates his *******ry by asking Ali out, then does the manly thing and has his mother drive. Seriously dude, take time out from antagonizing the locals and get your damn license.***
1:15:00 First of Miyagi’s special massage tricks, which is borderline uncomfortable to watch as he rips Daniel’s shirt open and presses his palm into his chest.
1:25:20 Johnny makes another appearance, this time pleasantly talking to Ali at a country club dance, discussing how he doesn’t want all the bad stuff to continue, though he started none of it. Later he attempts to rekindle the flame of old love with a kiss, and of course Daniel ruins the moment by spilling pasta all over himself. Ali then slaps him for no real reason.
I might add, the only reason Daniel was in the country club in the first place was because he was trespassing. How many laws is this delinquent allowed to break, anyway?
1:42:00 Sand in vagina meltdown #4. Daniel accuses Ali of going behind his back to Johnny. Oddly reminiscent of what he did to Johnny on the beach at the beginning of the movie. What goes around comes around, hell Daniel used that very phrase in the middle of the movie when he dumped water on Johnny and ruined the weed. What a douche. Ali’s friend puts him in his place nicely.
1:45:45 Daniel and his Evil Overlord Okinawa master lie about his belt level during registration. To the untrained eye, Daniel “lied up”, he supposedly had no training and was competing with better fighteres. But come on, Miyagi had him trained to deal death from no less than 623 strikes and angles. They “lied down” in this case, this was like putting Daniel in with 5th graders. Friggin bullies. Johnny and his friends are black belts, and registered themselves as such. Honesty and integrity. Also, of course Daniel would bring Ali to the tournament just to taunt Johnny and ruin his concentration.
1:46:20 Daniel ignores Dutch, one of Johnny’s friends, big-timing him and acting like he’s better. Dutch shoves him, perhaps the only real unwarranted act of agression in the entire movie that Daniel wasn’t totally responsible for. And even that is up for debate. Side note, Dutch is Chad McQueen, son of the great Steve McQueen.
1:48:00 Ali explains the rules of tournament karate to Daniel, one of which may not be accurate. We’ll explain this more later on.
1:48:50 Daniel’s first match. Like many bullies, when finally confronted, he runs away, out of the ring in this case.
1:49:30 Daniel wins his first match, starting the fight montage, with a great song playing. “You’re the best Around” by Joe Esposito. Awesome song, perfect foe this scene.
1:50:00 Johnny wins his first match with a controlled kick to the head. Notice what adjective I used to describe that kick. Soon after, Daniel defeats a member of Johnny’s studio (though not a member of his group) who is better known as playing the gay nerd Lamar in the Revenge of the Nerds series.
1:50:25 We see a really good karate fighter who is not part of Johnny’s group. For background, his name is Darryl Vidal, he was the choreographer and expert for the film, and if you remember the scene where Daniel sees a shadow of Miyagi doing the crane kick on the beach…it was really this guy.
1:51:30 Daniel defeats the first member of Johnny’s inner circle even though he only scores one visible point, when you need two to advance. Odd….
1:52:15 It happens again!!! Daniel faces Dutch, who is obviously better than him, and appears to win after scoring a single point. You remember my theory earlier about how Daniel’s mom is actually in the mob. Yeah…you draw your own conclusions, the bully had this rigged in his favor from the start.
1:54:00 Semi-finals…Lawrence is of course matched up against the toughest opponent in Vidal. (And honestly, breaking from the whole “we have to have Johnny and Daniel fight at the end” this Vidal kid should have won the tournament hands down.) Lawrence prevails in fine fashion, including another controlled kick for one of his points.
1:54:50 The mean karate instructor gives the out of commission order. Johnny and his friend are obviously taken aback because they’re good kids at heart, they don’t want to do this, but they have no choice. Also, all of Daniel’s bullying and harassment probably makes it an easier pill to swallow.
1:55:30 The friend is disqualified for committing a foul and immediately apologizes. Because he’s a fine example for everyone. Honestly, I’m not even sure the foul was disqualification-worthy, but Ms. LaRusso already had this tournament bought and paid for, so who can really be surprised. The foul is listed as excessive and deliberate contact.
1:57:45 Special Miyagi massage trick #2. I have no words.
1:58:00 Daniel LaRusso is going to fight. Of course, he sends Ali out to make the announcement. Anything to take the wind out of Johnny’s sails. Man, this kid played head games. Johnny has put up with so much and prevailed in the end, only to have it ripped away from him by this punk from New Jersey and his ex girlfriend that he still pines for.
1:59:45 SWEEP THE LEG. Awesome! Even though Johnny obviously doesn’t want to, even after everything he’s been through.
2:00:50 LaRusso runs out of the ring again.
2:01:25 Tied 2-2, with the next point winning, Johnny is not awarded a point for a punch to the face. Note that this was not a full strike, it was controlled, yet mysteriously, no point is awarded.
2:02:00 GET HIM A BODYBAG..YEEEEAAHHH!!! Double awesome!
2:02:20 The Crane Kick for the winner, and the ultimate injustice. For those who don’t know, tournament karate generally scores points for clean shots to the torso region. In some forms, the head is also allowed so long as the strike is controlled. Now through this tournament, we saw head shots, so it can be assumed that they are using a form which allows head contact.
We already saw Daniel win a pair of matches only scoring one of the required two points. We saw a kid get disqualified for hitting him in the leg just so Daniel could make the finals, yet oddly, when Johnny commits a foul in the final match, he isn’t disqualified. But here’s the kicker, it should have never got to Johnny’s foul. Before that, Johnny was mysteriously not awarded the trophy. The match was tied 2-2, and he hit Daniel with a clean, controlled head shot where no point was awarded. No wonder he fouled after that. He was robbed of his deserved third All-Valley Karate trophy. Robbed! And to rub salt in the wound, Daniel wins the tournament on an illegal strike. I rewatched this over and over, the Crane Kick fits no definition of a controlled strike, it is an out of control kick to the face, yet Daniel is awarded the point and the trophy that Johnny had already legitimately won a minute earlier.
Mob connections, I’m telling you.
2:02:40 Even though Daniel has proven to be an out and out ******* this entire film, tormenting Johnny and his friends, stealing his woman, ruining his pot, and then winning his trophy illegally, Johnny still is gracious enough to hand him the trophy like a man. If only Daniel had been able to meet such a standard on his own. Sadly, he did not.
And let’s not forget, in the sequels, no matter where Daniel went, people hated him. They hated him in Japan, and they hated him again in California. Daniel is like the guy who gets divorced multiple times and doesn’t seem to realize the common link in these divorces is him. He just rubs people the wrong way, and it’s a combination of his bullying, woman stealing, cheating, mob connected persona. Johnny Lawrence was a victim in this movie.
**** you, Daniel LaRusso.
Got off the phone with a dude from a US nuke engineering firm.
The take.
fucking media doesn’t know shit. They don’t understand the difference between radiation and contamination, which are two entirely different things.
the big to do is this weekend. If as expected the Japanese manage to provide an AC line to the reactors from the grid the problem will be gone after a few days.
Although the problem is serious , it’s nowhere near as catastrophic as generally thought.
Don’t believe the media, but we are supposed to believe random bloggers without a name, or a face?
Believe the authorities who say the radiation is 1/1,000,000th of a harmful amount. Fear mongering sells papers and gets ratings.
And makes uranium stocks very attractive.
Demark 13 sell on WNR
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
The Board of The First National Bank of Jerkoff is pleased to announce that it has been cleared by the Federal Reserve to declare a dividend for all stockholders payable for the record date of 7/1/2085.
The dividend will be equal to a yield of 195% per week.
“…allowing me to speak to you in a very condescending tone.”
“I spit,mind you, into your clam chowder”.
Thanks for more laugher Fly. …Laughter while trading alone is rare.
You make it happen over and over.
Wonderully twisted mind you have.
As always, thanks,
F
Nice flow!
If Tokyo is wiped out it will have to be rebuilt. Much coin will be minted in that process.
Don’t get too excited. I’d put odds of abandoning Tokyo permanently at less than 5% (1 in 20).
THE Chinese must be so pissed at the moment. They hit the market with a RRR hike even with Japan in Crisis and the PCP Market (great metaphor Fly) keeps coming at them. I was just reading about the Reactors in Japan, no one knows if the pumps will work even if the electricity is connected AND Bloomberg indicated that the Wind should be changing to move over Tokoyo this weekend. That G7 action Should have been Dollar Positive but all this buying of EUR/JPY and GS going long Eur/USD is just again not lining up with Chinese plan of controlling Inflation. My head hurts and the market is just fustrating…..maybe if we throw the PCP Market into the Nuclear Reactor it will FINALLY die.
Folks taking profit and running on WNR thanks to douchebaggery at The Motley Fool.
http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2011/03/18/is-western-refinings-cash-machine-shutting-down.aspx
I seriously doubt any big money managers even know that article exists, much less act on it.
BTW, the author of that “article” has put out thousands of articles exactly like it. Same graphs and charts, same wording, everything. He just changes the ticker and the financials.
No but…….there may be 10,000 little guys with $5,000 apiece in that stock waiting with baited breath on his every word.
The Motley Fool are the same idiots who recommended National Bank of Greece in the $3 range. See how well that has worked out. They aren’t called fools for nothing.
am shorting TER (fingers crossed)
So long as Fly isn’t as I am along for the ride on the buy side. Why short it? Uncross your fingers.
VLO is holding back my gains…
VLO is going to be decent eventually over next two weeks
FNSR- not really into knife catching but this seems way over done and sitting on some pretty strong support. Looking to buy a $15 Jan leap any thoughts?
Good Sir Fly,
Is a “crack spread” what one would find in the centerfold of Hustler magazine?
ha!
not to mention the crack spread widening…..page 86
“Plumbers Quarterly”.
Excuse me, but Woodshedder’s blog is taking on gay overtones!
Power line connected to Fuka U plant.
Fire back up the Mario Factory!
Shouldn’t you be snow skiing right now?
Well if the basketball games are boring this weekend, we might be able to watch aerial bombing footage in Libya!
wow..no reaction to the mrk after prez speech…no panic with quake and maybe a war?? and we are up!! $TNA