I hope you have seen the TV commercial for .xxx ...the commercial where the meek-looking man gets chased by a gang of thugs. The upshot of the ad is that if your business doesn't buy .xxx (along with .com and .net and .org and .co)...someone else will buy the domain and you will be the victim of blackmail. The Ford Motor Company does not want someone to open a site called ford.xxx The whole triple X thing means porn....not nice 4 door cars for happy families. So, the owner of ford.xxx could put porn on the site and then call Ford and say: "You need to pay me to close the site down." It was surprising to see a TV commercial that amounted to blackmail, but, there it was.

Really, though, it's not blackmail unless the blackmailer is threatening illegal/immoral/or unethical activity if you don't pay/obey/desist from doing something. There is nothing wrong with my saying, for example, I will say nice things about your business on my blog if you give me a discount on the product I am about to buy. Or, that I will write a truthful piece commenting about how you did me wrong if you don't fix it. Though, it would be blackmail to say: "I'll trash your company if you don't pay me money not to."

For example, I believe that in my other business I am being overcharged for a product. I have told the seller that if they reduce the price, I will write something nice about the product on that other company's blog.

Note: There will never be a steveduhl.xxx ...maybe, if I was younger.

Filing bankruptcy requires the filer (debtor) to value their own property...reasonably and honestly. Divorce requries the same thing...so do loan applications and college financial aid applications. Here are some guidelines:
-Usually, the question is what you could sell it for...not what you bought it for. You are not a used furniture dealer---though you do have a front lawn ready for a yard sale. What would someone pay? Depressing that the couch you paid $2,000 for is likely worth $200 on your front lawn? Nobody says you have to sell it.
-For popular cars and trucks, look at what people are BIDDING on ebay. Not what sellers are asking but what is being bid in by prospective buyers towards the end of the auction. Your stuff is worth exactly what you can find someone to pay for it.
-Small businesses usually have two possible values: A higher value if the "goodwill" goes with it---that is, if you introduce the buyer of your pool business to your customers ("My cousin, Tony, from Staten Island is taking over the business because I'm moving to Tahiti---Tony was always better than me, you'll love him.") and a lower value if you are going to walk away and let your customers pools go green with algae. In a forced sale, you will walk away. Will there even be a business in a few days?
-Houses are worth what your neighbors sold for; stocks are worth what the market says they are...at the moment you sell; your dog is worth $1. Sentimental value doesn't count because it is your sentiment---not the sentiment of the prospective buyer.

Of course, it doesn't really matter what you have. You can't take it with you. And, nobody really cares what you've got...except the courts, the spouse who is divorcing you, your creditors...and the people next door.

At the moment your hands are ripped from your car's steering wheel from the impact of the '96 Jeep Cherokee smashing into the passenger side door, you will probably not be thinking:

-People who drive '96 Jeep Cherokees probably don't have very good insurance so I should have bought...

-Collision insurance so my insurance would pay for the cost of repairing/replacing my car...

-Some uninsured motorist insurance (UM) so that my insurance would (in effect) pretend that they were the bum that hit me and pay me some money as if he actually did have good insurance...

-And, I regret that I bought my PIP (the thing where your own car insurance company pays your medical bills without regard to whose fault the accident is) with a deductible (even though my insurance agent made extra commission by selling me PIP with a deductible...and I want my agent to make LOTS of money) because ...unless I take an ambulance to the hospital...I might find it hard to find a doctor to treat me (unless I pay cash or have health insurance) until the deductible is used up.

But, in the split second after the impact, you probably WILL be thinking...

-I regret that I was hit by a '96 Jeep Cherokee.... because, in spite of my injuries, my life and future monetary prospects would have been more hopeful if I'd gotten hit by a Bentley or a Ferrari or even a nice, new Porsche.

..and in Palm Beach County (unlike the rest of the world) we've got plenty of those.

...as well of plenty of people who drive around with crappy insurance.

Because I can't seem to shake our 35 readers, I will publish another exciting entry within the next few days. The subject? Who knows? There is nothing new.


-Lawyers have become more and more annoying. I am no exception.
-Retired lawyers from up North seem to wander in regularly...glad to be out of the business.
-An acquaintance of mine who lives in China told me about a book by a Japanese professor premised on the idea that people can't possibly believe EVERYTHING that a group espouses. Yet, Republicans do....at least the ones who speak. And Democrats are not much better.
-I remain the only person I know who believes that all drugs should be legalized; that the war against drugs failed; and that DEA agents should be reassigned to fight white collar crime and corruption.
-I remain the only person who believes that politicians supported by the police and fire people are not "law and order" candidates but are just supportive of their pensions. (I will get a ticket for writing this...while my house is being allowed to burn down.)
-The most important quote in the history of quotations remains unchanged:

"IT'S FUN TO HAVE FUN BUT YOU HAVE TO KNOW HOW."

-The Cat In The Hat

How many people read the blog? The counter says around 35 a day. But, then the counter resets itself to 0.

Someone comes along and does something to rate the entries...a few at a time. I don't know how that get rated or what the ratings mean.

Nobody comments "Hey, Steve...that was the most insightful thing I've read since THE CAT IN THE HAT." (Like the Cat says: "It's fun to have fun but you have to know how."------you can't be much more insightful than that.) ........okay, sometimes someone shoots me a laudatory email.

Still, with the blog at iScootPalmBeach, I'm about written out. So, if anyone wants this blog to continue, send me an email. Feel free to remain anonymous....I'm anonymous at least half the time.