What A Croc

There's a saying that goes "good ideas have a very short shelf life. Bad ideas take on a life of their own." Via Overlawyered we learn that the lawyers are going after the makers of Crocs sandals over a 47% decline in the stock price of the company following a decrease in earnings despite a 130% increase in sales. Apparently the company is dealing with distribution issues and a build up in inventory, which ties up cash and can be indicative of a slowdown in sales.

One brilliant theory as to why sales might be slowing down is that sandals are a seasonal item and demand might just fall off a bit with the arrival of Winter. That may be so (and I'm not putting the theory down), but I have an additional observation.

Crocs is a one trick pony. Its sole (no pun intended) product is a line of garish, neon-colored, ugly, plastic sandals. I have a hunch that the market for such a product might be somewhat finite and once the demand is satisfied, sales are going to crash unless the company comes up with a way to reignite demand or comes up with some new products. Crocs apparently hasn't.

Like most fad investments, unless you invest in it early and look to get out before it peaks, you will get burned. Once everybody else has already noticed, it's too late. I have no sympathy for the kind of herd mentality investors who get into these things and then start whining about it when the bubble pops, as it inevitably does. I hope the plaintiffs get thrown out of court.

Amazon Black Friday Deals

Amazon has decided to go head-to-head with the shopping mall on Black Friday, otherwise known as the day after Thanksgiving. Go to this link if you have some Christmas shopping to do. It beats fighting the crowds and it will help this humble blogger, an Amazon Associate out with his own Christmas shopping. Many thanks for your patronage.

Mark Steyn on Thanksgiving. And Starbucks?

Mark Steyn's column this week is about the uniquely American holiday of Thanksgiving, and why the rest of the world should be thankful for America. He also had a comment to make about Starbucks:

"Who would have foreseen that the nation that inflicted fast food and drive-thru restaurants on the planet would then take the fastest menu item of all and turn it into a Kabuki-paced performance art? What mad genius!"

Of course he had a larger, more serious point to make.

"We know Eastern Europe was a totalitarian prison until the Nineties, but we forget that Mediterranean Europe (Greece, Spain, Portugal) has democratic roots going all the way back until, oh, the mid-Seventies; France and Germany's constitutions date back barely half a century, Italy's only to the 1940s, and Belgium's goes back about 20 minutes, and currently it's not clear whether even that latest rewrite remains operative. The U.S. Constitution is not only older than France's, Germany's, Italy's or Spain's constitution, it's older than all of them put together."

As Always, it's worth your time to read the whole thing.

An Exceptionally Eloquent Argument For Gun Rights

Via Instapundit, this short but well written and very persuasive essay: "Why The Gun Is Civilization." A sample:

"Human beings only have two ways to deal with one another: reason and force. If you want me to do something for you, you have a choice of either convincing me via argument, or force me to do your bidding under threat of force. Every human interaction falls into one of those two categories, without exception. Reason or force, that's it."

Read the whole thing.

The Democrat Debate - A Blow By Blow

The inimitable Vodkapundit, Stephen Green, drunk/live-blogged the CNN sponsored Democrat debate the other night. I thought this line was hilarious:

"7:44pm Three out of four undecided voters on CNN are pear-shaped middle-aged women with a tendency to ramble, and who want things from the government. Don't blame me if you think that's cruel--I'm just reporting what I see."

It's all pretty amusing really.

A Word To The Unwise

Your public defender has some advice for you. Let's just hope you actually learned to read somewhere along the way. (via Instapundit)

Accomplished Meterologist or Al Gore - Who Are You Going To Believe?

A friend forwarded me this post on global warming today. It was authored by John Coleman, founder of The Weather Channel and a trained meteorologist. Among other things, he had this to say:

"I do not oppose environmentalism. I do not oppose the political positions of either party. However, Global Warming, i.e. Climate Change, is not about environmentalism or politics. It is not a religion. It is not something you “believe in.” It is science; the science of meteorology. This is my field of life-long expertise. And I am telling you Global Warming is a non-event, a manufactured crisis and a total scam. I say this knowing you probably won’t believe a me, a mere TV weatherman, challenging a Nobel Prize, Academy Award and Emmy Award winning former Vice President of United States. So be it. "

I'm far more inclined to take Mr. Coleman's position on global warming/climate change seriously than a rather indifferent student who only took two Natural Sciences courses as an undergraduate, pulling a D in one course in his sophomore year and a C-minus in another course in his senior year, Nobel Prize winner or not. As I have said before, it has to be one of the most undeserved Nobels in the history of the prize.

Michael Yon Shows You What the MSM Won't. Again.

Via Instapundit, another great story plus an iconic photograph from Michael Yon. The MSM continue to studiously ignore any good news coming out of Iraq, that is unless they can find a way to put a negative spin on it.