Lessons I’ve learned as an investor...

It’s been almost 30 years since I bought my first stocks and began investing, but I had no idea, what I was doing.

It’s only since the early 2000s that I have have become a more serious and steady investor; let’s say 15 years. I’ve made mistakes, made some good moves and in general, been quite lucky.

I have learned that no one knows anything about what the market will do, no matter what their credentials. I have also tried to live by Warren Buffet famous quote: “We simply attempt to be fearful when others are greedy and to be greedy only when others are fearful”.

I also have discovered that I shouldn’t stress so much when the market goes down or when I’m missing out on a market going up without my participation.

In summary, I’ve learned to be very diversified, more calm, quiet, patient and not worry too much.

Is the stock market ready for the plunge?

After breaking all records lately, the U.S. stock market shows no sign of weakening in spite of all the trade uncertainty and the recession rumor-mill. So my question is the following?

Is the Market overvalued and, as an investor, should I be mindful of it. Morningstar, my usual benchmark says that it’s only overvalued by 2%, while the CAPE ratio (cyclically adjusted price-to-earnings ratio) is a valuation measure that applies to the US S&P 500 equity market and that is defined as price divided by the average of ten years of earnings (moving average), adjusted for inflation.

It is also used to measure if a stock is undervalued or overvalued by comparing its current market price to its inflation adjusted historical earnings record. It is like the more popular price to earning ratio but it is calculated by dividing the current price of a stock by its average inflation adjusted earning over the last 10 years. It’s he brainchild of the American economist Robert Shiller.

While it’s not intended as an indicator of impending market crashes, high CAPE values have been associated with similar events. It’s not as bad as it was in 1999, but it’s still pretty high… Time to watch out?

Happy Thanksgiving !

If you are not American, Thanksgiving Day is a national holiday celebrated on various dates in the United States, Canada, some of the Caribbean islands, and even in Liberia.

It’s a day of giving thanks for the blessing of the harvest and of the preceding year, but has turned into a big commercial event that culminates the following day (Black Friday). It’s celebrated on the second Monday of October in Canada and on the fourth Thursday of November in the United States, and around the same part of the year in other places.

Although Thanksgiving has historical roots in religious and cultural traditions, it has long been celebrated as a secular holiday as well and today, many question its place as it relates to the treatment of natives by European colonists.

The power of a (good) story

Last week, I attended (briefly) the 14th Annual Filmmaker Showcase at Park City, an evening of short film from Utah filmmakers and artists. I went there in quest for inspiration, but didn’t find much of it.

They were more use of drone, image manipulation and technical tricks, but it mostly was a confirmation of what I already knew: At the base of any great film is a compelling story that is well told, and that the shorter the movie, the more difficult it is to tell the story well.

I love to produce family videos and I’ll keep producing them as long as I can, by giving it my very best and adding a zest of my personality to it!

When gastronomy doesn’t meet expectations

This past Sunday night we decided to have dinner at the Montage, this “famous”, luxury Deer Valley Hotel.

The Apex is their best restaurant, and when we entered the dining room it was all but empty, something quite predictable in that period of off-season when everything looks dead. The room sure was impressive, the menu as pricey as we had expected it, but pretty confusing too.

As for the wine-list, it was as extensive as the bottles were expensive! We ordered, sat for a while and pretty soon, the cold coming from the exterior glass door was as noticeable as it was biting.

The quality of the food was not able to make up for that little inconvenience and the whole experience left us quite disappointed. Main Street, Park City, is a hell of a lot closer, tastier and much more affordable.

The worst news is that we already had lunch there in 2011 and that I had totally forgotten about it! Our take away is that, from this point forward, we’ll leave the Montage for those who get too easily confused between pompous setting, as well as obsequious service on one hand, and fine tasting food in a convivial atmosphere on the other.

Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me!

Back on skis for another season!

After toiling on tuning up the family skis, installing my ski rack on the car and checking on my other important gear, I was fully ready to begin my 67th ski season, one day after the official Park City’s opening date and less than six month after hanging up my boards for the summer.

This past Saturday, the sun was up, and while the air was cold, I had a nice couple of hours skiing, without any line, the only work I had to do was dodging other skiers and finding a path on a narrow band of icy, man-made snow.

With new snow in the forecast for today and the rest of the week, I feel ready and mentally prepared to embrace another fun-filled ski season…

“Chin up!”

Many decades ago, while I still lived in France, I once happened to feel very sad and depressed about an outcome that was eluding me and was told “chin up!”, perhaps as a way to cope with my state of mind and help me draw the capacity to move on.

At the time, my English was quite limited and I failed to fully understand the meaning of the two words. I’ve since learned that “chin up” is something said to someone facing a difficult situation, to encourage them to be brave, not to be sad and “face the music” as it were.

Of course, “chin up” is ambiguous in and of itself and was handwritten on a note from a non-native English speaker, so all parties involved might have missed a lot – or not - out of an entanglement of ambiguities...

Can John Bolton be the whistle-blower?

Even though he wasn’t in the infamous July 25 phone call, that on the American side included Donald Trump, Mike Pompeo, Robert Blair, Mick Mulvaney, Keith Kellogg, Jennifer Williams, Charles Kupperman, Timothy Morrison and Alexander Vindman, John Bolton may have heard plenty about it and could have been – in my humble opinion – the mysterious whistle-blower who filed his complaint on August 12.

He sure had an ax to grind as far as this rigged Trump-Guiliani transaction was concerned. He resigned from his National Security adviser post on September 10, one day before the funds earmarked for Ukraine were released.

Bolton had probably no desire or incentive to testify, which could cause his cover to be blown, and is probably eager to continue being a good soldier for the GOP. This, however, doesn’t preclude my question. I’m not that much into conspiracy theories, but this one makes a lot of sense to me…

Not getting any clearer!

This is what I thought after watching Wednesday night 5th Democratic Debate.

One would expect that as that form of selection process goes along, it sorts itself out and I was utterly disappointed when I realized that the cards had been reshuffled and that I was still confused about who I should vote for during the primary elections.

For reasons of age and vulnerability to Trump, I still don’t think Biden is a good choice. Sanders did much better than usual in that debate, but is still old, stodgy and continues to call himself a “socialist”.

Warren, with her subversive anger, her unrealistic plan and her wealth tax has lost much of her appeal to me. There’s now something in Buttigieg that doesn’t quite click with me and I have no longer faith in Harris.

Klobuchar would now be my favorite, but based on my recent experience, I might as well wait until the next debate to update my disorientation!

Ski redemption

This week, I’ve been “working” on the family skis. Including my “rock skis”, this amount to five pairs in various state of disrepair, the rock skis being the worst.

This is the moment of the year when it’s time to pay for the bad encounters made with stumps, rocks and pieces of gravel as they made their marks on the bases during an entire season.

Actually, I should be grateful that last season was as well covered in snow as it was, and only the first weeks of winter did most of the damage I could see.

Well, nothing that some P-tex and energetic hand-filing couldn’t solve…

All this to say that all this handy work should serve as a good reminder that I need to think twice before I engage my boards into unknown and unfriendly territory during the upcoming ski season!

Legalized lying

Our president has introduced the United States of America into a world of widespread lying and had showed that – up to a point – it does work.

Not only has he popularized falsehood, but he has also made incivility mainstream, and more and more acceptable, this includes insults and name-calling which says a lot about his pedagogical skills and his remarkable creativit6.

Of course, the results are terrifying and don’t stand as the kind of example we’d like to impart on a new generation. Makes me regret a more “politically correct” style.

I guess this is what happens when the pendulum swings to far into the wrong direction...

Steve Bannon’s technique

A few weeks ago, I offered an extensive analysis of Steve Bannon and last night, I just saw a recent interview of the man on the channel Vice, conducted by Liz Landers, a very capable millennial journalist (watch it below).

In it, I observed once more that Mr. Bannon use a few tools that are essential with “B.S. Artists”; namely, that they speaks very, very fast so no one has time to analyze what is actually said and at the end, this endless juxtaposition of string of words, that make not much sense, are also devoid of any hard-hitting and convincing facts.

Furthermore, Bannon doesn’t live much room for interruption, interaction or just dialog, as it is essential that he blabbers all the time, without discontinuing. Finally, his unique presentation (slob style, bad teeth, unshaven, dirty looking) is a further distraction from the content – or lack thereof – of what is says.

Bullshiters the world over, follow his modus operandi if you want to make a strong impression upon the mentally under-served!

Seasonal anxiety disorder

When I decided on pursuing a career (?) as a ski instructor, just 50 years ago, I knew that I would need another gainful occupation for the other seven or eight months of the year.

From the get go, I had already developed a built-in “seasonal anxiety” that would stick to me obsessively for the next five years. From my family working experiences, I had little attraction to becoming an innkeeper, a restaurateur or a souvenir merchant.

At first, I set my goal on becoming a land surveyor. This attempt to what I thought would be an honorable career took me, in the spring of 1970, to the Saint-Gervais ski resort, right below the Mt. Blanc, where I worked for about three months before throwing the towel.

The following fall, I tried my hand at being a Quantity Surveyor, a rather odd activity in home-building which didn’t turn me on enough to compel me to pursue it.

Then, during the two following summers my seasonal anxieties took a well-deserved break when I taught skiing in Australia during the Austral winter season. This activity, while being super fun and making sense on paper, failed to pay the bills and wasn’t sustainable in the long run.

The following year, I focused on acquiring more language skills (German and Italian). In addition, I spent the month of May of 1973 in Paris, selling and prospecting for Skis Duret, at my friend Michel Duret’s demand; at that point, I had no idea this exercise would be crucial in preparation for a career that I had not envisioned yet!

Finally, in January of 1974, my friend J.P. Chatellard suggested that I might try my hand at a job in the ski industry and more specifically in the realm of racing services.

I heeded his advice, followed several of his leads, landed a job with Look bindings and put a final end to my recurrent seasonal anxieties!

Trump’s deep nature

To our surprise, we watched the entire impeachment hearing involving Marie Yovanovitch, the deposed U.S. Ambassadress of Ukraine. I guess, the entire show was simply mesmerizing to us.

Of course, Trump couldn’t resist twitting disparaging comments about her, right in the middle of her deposition, which came down to shoot himself in the foot.

This reminded me of the Russian tale of the frog and the scorpion, in which – you guessed it – Donald Trump is the scorpion:

A scorpion, that can’t swim, asks a frog to carry it across a river. The frog hesitates, afraid of being stung by the scorpion, but the scorpion argues that if it did that, they would both drown. 

The frog considers this argument sensible and agrees to transport the scorpion, but midway across the river the scorpion stings the frog, dooming them both. 

The dying frog asks the scorpion why it had acted in this manner, to which the scorpion replies: "It's in my nature, I couldn't help it."

OK, Boomer

I must have been living under some rock, because it’s only recently that I became aware of the generation-splitting interjection called “OK, Boomer!”

That slang expression isn’t actually that old as it took off early this year, and is traced to millennials and Generation Z, as a reply or reaction to older users, conveniently identified as “baby boomers”, that are posting material judged to be condescending by these younger generations or can in some cases, exacerbate their sensibilities.

Call it a knee-jerk response, if you want, to a generational war of words. Some will see it as a predictable answer from teens and young adults to grumpy videos, resistance to technological change, climate change deniers, Trump’s tweets, and basically any comments dismissive about the upcoming generations, originating from individuals over 40.

From what I’ve read or heard, a large number of baby-boomers haven’t responded too well to “OK, boomer”. Some time ago, Bob Lonsberry, a radio host caused quite a stir by tweeting that “’Boomer’ is the N-word of ageism.” That comment didn’t go over well, with some responding that the “N-word” is one of the most offensive words in the English language.

While this duel that may go on for a long time, I do not feel too concerned because I continue to think that I remain very young in spirit, I'm still super progressive, and I do not feel concerned at all if I happen to hear "OK, Boomer", I'll remain convinced that this call isn’t really intended for me!

Going Solar !

This past Wednesday, we finally went solar.

It’s true that with an average of 229 days of sunshine per year, we’d be foolish not to tap into that power. It’s also probable that our next vehicle will be electric vehicle and that we can recharge it while the sun is shinning.

There’s also global warming and the likelihood we’ll need more air-conditioning in years to come. Finally, it could be to atone for my excessive air travel of years past, even though my past carbon footprint can’t be erased and forgiven so easily.

Even if we don’t consume much electricity at the moment, these are plenty of good reasons to step forward and do a tiny bit to preserving our ailing planet!

Of course, just as my wife did, I’m sure you’ll ask “but how does a photo-voltaic panel turns sun rays into electricity?”

I’ll answer, “Excellent question. It’s in fact a combination of sun and sand, and you can watch this story in more details in the video below!”

From running to walking...

For decades we’ve been dedicated runners and it’s only a few years ago that we slowed down and switched from running into walking.

I had a tough time climbing up a steep hill on our regular course and my wife was concerned about her knees.

Today, our running isn’t just leisurely ambling around, but walking fairly fast. Researchers tell us that a 160-pound person, walking at a brisk, 3.5-mph pace for 30 minutes will burn about 156 calories. On the other hand, running at a 6-mph pace for that same 30 minutes will burn more than double the calories (about 356).

Another way to look at it, is that it will take a bit more than twice the time to accomplish the same amount of exercise and burn as many calories.

The main difference is that running is less efficient and more strenuous than simply walking, so it burns more calories per minute.

The good news is that we now have much more time available to us and can comfortably afford to walk our 6 miles a day (10 km) instead of running!

The Emperor of Insult

The only Trump talent is to insult others, and particularly his opponents. We’ve all heard him calling Biden “Sleepy Joe”, Sanders “Crazy Bernie”, Clinton “Crooked Hillary”, Pelosi “Nervous Nancy”, etc.

If I were the victim of his name-calling mania, my gut reaction would be to find one that fits the man and his crime, but most smart people say not to give energy to the other side by responding to the author of the insult as it’s not worth to expand energy into a style of communication we don’t believe in.

Being insulted is certainly not pleasant, but it quickly become dependent on how we react. If the person attacked takes the bait, Trump wins.

Under other circumstances, and insult style, there might be an an opening, exemplified by former Defense Secretary James Mattis who was qualified as “overrated” by Trump: "I’m not just an overrated general. I am the greatest, the world's most overrated general," Mattis said during a speech at the white-tie Al Smith Dinner. "I'm honored to be considered that by Donald Trump because he also called Meryl Streep an overrated actress. So I guess I'm the Meryl Streep of generals, and frankly, that sounds pretty good to me. And you do have to admit that, between me and Meryl, at least we’ve had some victories.”

Mattis doesn’t have to defend his record because it speaks for itself and this enabled him to ridicule Trump’s nasty attack...

Selling “Population Control”

Little Greta Thunberg was extremely effective in making people discover that flying was bad for the environment by crossing over to America and returning to Europe by boat.

Now, “cool” folks also believe that commercial flying should be banned or at least curtailed. Forbidding certain behavior like smoking or forcing Chinese couples into having only one child never works. The change in behavior has to come from within.

In the 70s, when it became clear that tobacco use was killing people, America was able to paint smoking as “uncool” and rather quickly, the habit dropped at a fascinating rate. Our planet deterioration (warming, pollution, etc.) is the direct result of overpopulation.

In 1800, at the beginning of the industrial revolution, the planet’s population had just reached the 1 billion mark. Today, it’s at 7.7 billion and still growing. Stopping that growth would be fabulous before we can begin to think of reversing it to more sustainable levels, but to accomplish this, we need to convince most of the world that it would indeed be a very cool idea.

Concepts like “kids are expensive to raise”, “better have one well-educated child than many that will struggle to find a good spot in society”, “robots are killing jobs, why add to the jobless ranks”, etc. The idea is to make having no more than one kid cool, that’s all.

Sure, there will be plenty of push-back from economist and politicians that like or want continued growth, but by now, we should all know that growth for the sake of it, is killing the planet and all of us at the same time.

Greta, it’s now time to show the world how to use a condom!

Back to the 60s?

Last night, we ran into the re-incarnation of the iconic VW bus of the hippie era.

This time, it took the appearance of a mostly recent Toyota minivan, complete with the right paint-job and earth and peace loving symbols.

I fell transported into my not-so-distant youth and, for a long moment, thought it might be good to step into it and commence a road trip through a much transformed America!

Fences, walls and humanity

Yesterday, at the ceremony marking the 30th anniversary of the collapse of the Berlin Wall, Angela Merkel said that the event “proves that no wall is so high and so strong that we could not break it.”

In spite of her words, we still have too many walls, like those between Israel and Palestine and between the United States and Mexico. Just like walls, fences or hedges around homes are forbidding and send a sign of fear, not human brotherhood.

If they are not in place to contain mean dogs or protect small kids they should all go. The planet wasn’t built to be fenced in, and the best use for a wall is to turn it into tourist attraction like the Great Wall of China or the token piece of Berlin wall that is just meant to frame selfies!

SKI resurrects its resort rankings

Last year, SKI magazine announced that it was discontinuing its ranking of American ski resorts, but just like a relapsing alcoholic, it decided to reinstate them this year. The result isn’t pretty, at least from my own personal opinion.

While the issue of SKI devoted to the survey doesn’t explain its methodology, I suspect that the magazine polled its readers.

Of course, we don’t know how many folks read SKI these days. The publisher’s advertising rate card claims a circulation of 300,000 copies (which always is a bit exaggerated), of which less than half is paid circulation, which might leave between 100,000 and 125,000 paid copies.

This season, Deer Valley ceased to offer a free SKI subscription with its season passes, which reduced the number of voters and explains in part why the Utah resort moved from its usual top 3 position down to 5.

What’s clear is that one resort offering a free subscription to its pass-holders and aggressively campaigning for them to vote for the place where they ski, may dramatically skew the results, and since we have no idea how many readers did cast their vote, this might explain the rather surprising results.

We all should beware of that kind of ranking “resurrection” as it will invariably spawn its own “zombies”. This said, I strongly feel that this poll should be based on the destination (i.e. Park City for both Deer Valley and Park City Mountain, or the Vail Valley for Vail and Beaver Creek, etc.) and not just the ski hill.

This would be far more indicative of what a mountain destination has to offer, from its skiing to its complete array of amenities and entertainment.

Will someone listen to me out of the white expanse of wilderness? I doubt it seriously!

What are my values?

Recently, I read a book that asked for my “core values”, in other words, those personal values that are important to me, like the specific traits and behaviors motivating and guiding my own decisions.

I must admit that I found myself put on the spot, incapable of thinking of anything in particular. This prompted me to pick up a pen and a sheet of paper and begin brainstorming in an effort to answer the question.
I came up with a few ideas that, I believe, reflect closely who I am:

• Adventure, enjoyment, risk taking 
• Effectiveness, perfectionism, focus on quality 
• Creativity, simplicity and determination 
• Love for people, for life and for healthy living Competitiveness, ambition and success 

As you can read, my values are probably not the same as yours, as we’re all different, and what makes one person happy may leave another feeling uncomfortable or disengaged.

Yet, taking the time to define our personal values and being able to live by them, is an important step towards feeling more fulfilled and making choices that will bring us happiness, even if others can’t fully share them or understand them.

Getting high on a spiritual trip!

Around the late 80s, I was importing Koflach ski and mountain boots into the United States and frequently visited Austria for my work.

Once, while sitting on the tarmac at Vienna airport, I observed two Austrian Airlines planes, with their tails facing each other as they were parked at their respective gates. I couldn’t believe what I saw, next to the international civil aviation code for Austria, “OE”, where the letters “LDS” on an MD-81, and “LSD” on a Fairchild Metro.

For those of us living in Utah, we all know that LDS is the Mormon acronym for their preferred name, Latter-Day-Saints, and LSD is Lysergic acid diethylamide, a famous hallucinogenic drug. Two unlikely acronyms united by fate, I guess. I’ve always regretted not to have a camera at my fingertip then, so today I did some research and traced back the two unlikely neighbors.

Yeah, what an explosive combination these two planes next to each other created! Both acronyms offered their own highs in and out of any airplane, but both were highly incompatible, the stuff of what memorable “trips” are made of!

A life-changing vote

Yesterday was election day in Park City and this reminded me that about 50 years ago, I too was the subject of a vote that would have a tremendous impact on my future and my entire life.

Back then, I walked through what looked like a boat door that lead into the small office of the Avoriaz ski school, near my hometown of Montriond, in the French Alps.

Once I passed that hatch, I found a dozen ski instructors, boys and girls, sitting there and ready to decide if I were worthy of joining their precious little universe.

I can’t remember what I said to make my case, or how I answered some of the questions I was asked, but suffice to say that I passed the hurdle and got admitted, under the condition that I would attend a one-week clinic to become an assistant instructor.

I was thrilled, and deep inside, I knew that my acceptance by this group of people I barely knew would usher a wonderful life for me...

Paying for Medicare for all?

We’re currently witnessing an idiotic exchange of arguments about “Medicare for All”, that magic potion concocted by Sanders, embraced by Warren and rebutted by Biden. Among other elements, it shows that none of the Democratic candidates has a basic understanding of the subject they all talk about.

To start, let’s say that the entire healthcare in America amounted to $3.5 trillion in 2017. Without inflation an extra expensive medical services, one could say that a total expenditure over 10 years would be $35 trillion, right?

This is precisely what Biden said that the original plan, sketched by Warren late summer, would cost. Well, this makes sense, because that would be the same amount of money currently spent on healthcare except that everyone would be able to enjoy it, right?

So it’s merely a question of deciding how this sum will be distributed, who’ll pays how much, between insurance companies, Big Pharma, constituents and government? Right. Now, if we contrast to these numbers the annual cost of Medicare (including Medicaid) and covering some 46 million people we’d get to $582 billion in 2018. This brings the cost to $12,652 per participant, a pretty hefty one! Of course, caring for old people like Medicare members isn’t cheap!

If we now go back to the total, national cost of healthcare in 2017, we would get a for a population of 326 million, we’d get down to $10,736 per capita. Okay, let’s say that in 2019 this would cost $12,000 per person. For 330 million Americans, this would translate into $4 trillion of a $21 trillion GDP. This wouldn’t include the savings from health insurance profits and renegotiated drug costs, but still it shows that Elizabeth Warren’s $2.05 trillion a year is woefully underestimating the real cost and is merely a tool to become the nominee.

Instead of a prudent phasing-in of a public plan, Warren advocates a shock therapy that would scare the bejesus out the business community, plus all independent voters, and by so doing secure her loss against Trump if she were to receive the Democratic nomination. Warren means well, but lacks pragmatism and practical development experience.

Let me explain: She builds her plan on an ultra-optimistic, best-case scenario that can’t possibly happen if she wants America to go “cold turkey” on her new plan. In budget planning, my rule number one was always to minimize receipts and increase expenses, thus creating an indispensable “buffer”.

Obviously, she should think incrementally, offer Medicare first to motivated parties, i.e. early retirees, independent contractors and folks that don’t receive employee coverage. She should fund that first phase with a fairly aggressive progressive income tax increase for all, she should – as she advocates - put the IRS back to work and go after tax evaders, change capital gain taxes, negotiate lower pharmaceutical prices and start chipping out at hospital and healthcare providers’ fat incomes.

This alone would be a tall order and a fabulous one if she could put it in place during her first term, in spite of foreseeable strong “push-back” from the opposition. What’s even more amazing is that all of the other primary candidates show no visible grasp of the matter and numbers involved with healthcare. If they did, they would have long rebuffed Biden and Warren.

This said, Elizabeth Warren’s current plan is pure wishful thinking and she needs seriously retool it if she wants to become the Democrat nominee and the next president of the United States…

Skating Ducks

Early this week, Park City became a freezer with temperature registering minus four Fahrenheit in the morning!

The next day, as we took our walk, we caught these two ducks attempting to get traction on a seemingly transparent sheet of ice, which reminded me that we are entering into a season when a sure footing is key and that it’s now time to get new tires for my car.
Thank you ducks!

Do I really need new skis?

The answer is no and I dont deserve even half a pair, but I still went to the annual Park City Ski Swap yesterday afternoon to see what was available.

We got there at 1:30 pm, there was no line, few shoppers and while my wife was checking out the soft-goods, I went straight to the skis and picked a pair of Dynastar identical to the ones I currently ski on.

I love those, there’s still made in France and they perfectly works for me. Life being what it is, I rationalize my move by calling that purchase a “replacement pair”.

Yes, we all need or can use a “replacement pair”, just in case it’d disappear, was stolen or broken, as we still can’t precisely predict our future...

Is proselytizing ethical?

It seems to me that the Crusades started the trend and provided European Christians with a seemingly legitimate reason to spread their their influence, greed and economic power under the guise of evangelizing, by using it as a seemingly legitimate reason for invading and stealing from indigenous populations.

While proselytism is illegal in certain countries, “invasive religions” like most Christians, and Mormons, like to refer the right to convert to another religion as what’s enshrined into Article 18 of the UN Declaration of Human Rights.

This, in fact, isn’t exactly what Article 18 says; instead it speaks about the right of a person to change his/her religion, not being coerced or persuaded to do so.

The fundamental problem that I see with proselytizing is that forcing, or teaching beliefs that are woefully irrational shouldn’t be allowed, especially with group of people that have little critical judgment and no assistance in verifying the veracity of what they’re been told, or with children who are highly impressionable and totally defenseless.

Without question, his is unethical and is a clear form of mental abuse. I must also observe that there are not many religious members outside of Christianity that are engaging in evangelizing others. Unlike Western Christians who broadcast into places too dangerous for missionaries, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists and even Muslims do not engage in such wide-scale and shameless proselytizing.

These simple observations are more arguments in favor of simply making proselytizing absolutely out of bounds and illegal.

Measuring another Halloween

Last Halloween night should have been measured by its temperature that spanned between 30 and 25 during the early evening hours, instead of by the number of kids who came ringing our bell.

This definitely impacted the number of small visitors who came to claim their treats. Compared to the past two years, we were down by 30%, so this left us with plenty of candies to spare – or eat ourselves – and made us look forward to a far better attendance next year!