Erica Payne’s Good Question

HOT HOTELS

Hothotels.com, advertised a lot lately, points you to a variety of hotels, then links you to Priceline, Expedia, Orbitz, and the rest for the actual booking. Their slogan: “Four-star hotels for two-star prices.” It seems to work.

EQUAL RIGHTS

“What would you do,” asks Erica Payne, “if you learned that two weeks from now a man repeatedly accused of aggressive sexual misconduct may decide whether women have the power to confront people who discriminate against them?” Click here for more.

PHOTO RIGHTS

Florida: Could Photo of Pigpen Get You 30 Years in the State Pen?
By Scott Edwards
Public Policy Director, Waterkeeper Alliance
Huffington Posted: March 18, 2011 04:42 PM

. . . [I]f a Republican state senator in Florida gets his way, [taking] a picture of a farm might [get you] 30 years in prison.

. . . Just to put the utter absurdity of this proposed bill into perspective, here’s a list of other first degree felonies on the Florida books punishable by up to 30 years in prison:

Murder
Kidnapping
Sexual Battery
Child Molestation
Robbery with a Firearm
Aggravated Child Abuse
Burglary with Assault and Battery
Trafficking in Controlled Substances

Why make it illegal for people to take pictures of farms? . . . It’s because there are things happening down on the farm that the senator and his agribusiness buddies just don’t want you to know about. Like rampant mistreatment of animals, irresponsible waste management, and free-flowing pollution — including nitrogen, phosphorus, sediment, residual antibiotics, hormones and various strains of fecal bacteria — coursing into our public waterways. . . .

☞ Why don’t Democrats ever introduce legislation like this?

WHAT ABOUT . . .

Ed Lewis: “You ask, ‘Any I have forgotten?’ BOREF, GLDD, PCL.”

☞ Not Guru stocks. But:

BOREF – As low as it’s ever been since first ridiculed here 12 years ago, BOREF remains (I think) a lottery ticket with compelling odds. To shorthand it, imagine there are two chances in three you will lose all your money but a third chance you will make a 10-fold gain. The odds may be even better. But in that example – with a 2/3 chance of losing everything – the “expected value” is $1,000 for every $300 you bet. I still own a ridiculous number of shares and retain high hopes.

(If you are thinking of taking a flyer on this wild speculation, be sure to buy with a limit order (“at $3 a share or better,” say) – lest your 500-share order double the price of this very illiquid stock.

GLDD – I stand by my comment of a couple months ago.

PCL – Up 62% since first suggested here seven or eight years ago – with significant dividends along the way –I don’t see it as particularly cheap here; just as a good long-term holding for the same reasons I first sketched out.