It is always good to return to the City of the Angels (and I never tire of referring to our humble burgh by its original name, either).

On Thursday, I flew to Mazatlan, Mexico, for a quick business trip, and came back on Friday afternoon...I was there to have lunch with some state government officials. It is interesting that in Mexico, it has become fashionable for very wealthy folks to take mid-level type positions in the State and/or Federal Government for a few years. One of the goals, I think, it to reduce corruption. The main guy we met with owns a sizeable business in Mexico and has a personal net worth in excess of US $100 million....so if someone were to offer him, say $50,000 to approve something or expedite something, he would laugh in their face. And no, that's not what I was there for! One of our partners is friends with this guy, and our firm simply never engages in that kind of shenanigan; it's not a part of our playbook.

Links:

I have rec'd a few interesting links recently. The first was to a video of Hezbollah rallies with children chanting "Death to America." It's the kind of thing that could have been faked, but I doubt it. We have all probably seen similar videos before, but it's chilling every time for me. Anyway, the source was pretty good--it was from a pal who was the former US Ambassador to Zimbabwe and a senior domestic policy advisor in the Reagan Administration. But the problem is, I just tested the link and it is broken. So you will have to take my word for it, that this was a very chilling video. The intensity on the kids' faces would be hard (but not impossible) to fake.

The next is from a close friend and neighbor who deals in quality and intelligence, but sent a disclaimer with this link that he can't comment on authenticity/veracity of this piece. Nonetheless, here it is. Even if only partly true, it's very interesting to me. And I sort of suspect it's all true. Spin cycle.

And for a complete change of pace, the final one comes from an old friend of mine who I shared an office with, who graduated at the top of his class at the Air Force Academy and was a fighter pilot instructor. The reason I mention all that is that as an aside, he tells one of the all-time great stories...the Cliff Notes are that many years ago, he was training a Saudi fighter pilot in the US, and my friend was showing the Saudi how to get out of a flat spin (think Goose in Top Gun). The Saudi fails twice, and then takes his hands off the controls, and wails, "I give my life to Allah!" My friend shouts "F--- that!!" and uses his duplicate set of controls to pull the fighter out of the spin while the Saudi pilot was struggling with the ejection seat. Anyway, here is the link he sent. If you are easily offended, skip it. No nudity, but "jackass" style humor.