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8:30 AM EST, Wednesday, December 5, 2007: The BIG money is made on Wall Street by anticipating the next fashion. Think previous fashions -- China. Bird flu. Alternative energy. Home builders. Oil service companies. Financials. The Internet and of course.... Technology. And even biotechs. Fashions blow in and blow out. Ride them well -- and fast -- make money. Stick around too long and you lose and lose big-time.

If you're Jim Cramer with a daily deadline and an audience hungry for the next fashion, you sometimes get desperate. Last night he predicted illegal immigration as the hot topic for next year's presidential election. He may be right. His thesis: We're going to build a 1,700 fence along the border with Mexico and Raytheon is gong to build it.

Fence map from BorderFenceProject.com -- "American Citizens securing the borders themselves."

Raytheon is a big, profitable and growing defense contractor, whose shares (like most everyone else) have stumbled recently.

Personally I don't see the fence being built. The cost is way prohibitive; the end effectiveness dubious. And I'm not sure we want to annoy Mexico, whose president is strongly against it. But discussion of the fence might boost Raytheon's stock. Maybe.

I was amused to read comments on Yahoo Finance this morning. The first one:

Dude,

US President and his Warhawk cronies are lame ducks. The Republican administration and all the Defense Lobbiest are out. Bail on DEFENSE STOCKS NOW!!! DON'T WAIT FOR THE BIG BOYS TO TAKE A DUMP ON YOU AS YOU BUY IN AND THEY SELL OUT.

DEMOCRATS ARE COMING TO OFFICE AND THEY WANT HEALTHCARE, STEM CELL RESEARCH, GREEN TECHNOLOGY, ALTERNATIVE FUEL, SOLVE THE HOUSING AND CREDIT CRISIS IN TERMS OF BIG BUY OUT. DON'T LET THE BIG BOYS OFF THE ROPES. DON'T LISTEN TO CRAMER AND HIS GOLDMAN SACHS LACKEYS.

- FROM THE BIG INSIDE

The second one:

Shorts Bashing Cramer Again! I LOVE IT!
What else can you do. RTN (Raytheon) is a great company and is lagging the others in the sector. He is absolute right in what he's saying.
And you shorts are just mad that you have to cover now and maybe try entering again at 68 or 69.
I would say this stock will push to a new high and then maybe back up a little.

I'm not playing this one. But I am amused.

Latest estimates on Iraq: $3.5 trillion.

Tips on pumping gas:
+ Only buy or fill up your car or truck in the early morning when the ground temperature is still cold. You get more gas for money.

+ When you're filling up do not squeeze the trigger of the nozzle to a fast mode. All hoses at the pump have a vapor return. If you are pumping on the fast rate, some of the liquid that goes to your tank becomes vapor. Those vapors are sucked up and back into the underground storage tank so you're getting less gas for your money.

+ Always fill up when your gas tank is HALF FULL or HALF EMPTY. The more gas you have in your tank the less air occupying its empty space. Gasoline evaporates faster than you can imagine.

+ If a gas truck is pumping into the storage tanks when you stop to buy gas, do not fill up. Most likely the gasoline is being stirred up, You will pick up some of the dirt that normally settles on the bottom.

Get yourself a flu shot: Study Shows Why the Flu Likes Winter. From today's New York Times:

Researchers in New York believe they have solved one of the great mysteries of the flu: Why does the infection spread primarily in the winter months? The answer, they say, has to do with the virus itself. It is more stable and stays in the air longer when air is cold and dry, the exact conditions for much of the flu season.

“Influenza virus is more likely to be transmitted during winter on the way to the subway than in a warm room,” said Peter Palese, a flu researcher who is professor and chairman of the microbiology department at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York and the lead author of the flu study. ...

Flu season in northern latitudes is from November to March, the coldest months. In southern latitudes, it is from May until September. In the tropics, there is not much flu at all and no real flu season.

If you like theater, you must see this:

Sold out in Chicago, now in New York, a wonderful (but very long -- 3 1/2 hours) drama of a family of serious nutcases set in Osage County, Oklahoma. This is powerful, funny, engrossing theater at its best. Tip: If your hearing sucks (like mine), get yourself the theater's earbuds. We saw the show last night, which happened to be opening night (a pure coincidence). For tickets, Telecharge.

When oil hits $100, there are options:

This guy raised an abandoned moose calf with his horses. He has trained it for lumber removal and other hauling tasks. Given the 2,000 pounds of robust muscle, and the splayed, grippy hooves, he claims it is the best work animal he has. He says the secret to keeping the moose around is a sweet salt lick. The moose disappears during the rut for a couple of weeks, but he always comes home.

I know I'm sick. But this is genuinely funny.

Kids - 1
A father was at the beach with his children when the four-year-old son ran up to him, grabbed his hand, and led him to the shore where a seagull lay dead in the sand.

"Daddy, what happened to him?" the son asked.

"He died and went to Heaven," the Dad replied.

The boy thought a moment and then said, "Did God throw him back down?"

Kids - 2
A wife invited some people to dinner.

At the table, she turned to their six-year-old daughter and said, "Would you like to say the blessing?"

"I don't know what to say," the girl replied.

"Just say what you hear Mommy say," the wife answered.

The daughter bowed her head and said, "Lord, why on earth did I invite all these people to dinner?"


This column is about my personal search for the perfect investment. I don't give investment advice. For that you have to be registered with regulatory authorities, which I am not. I am a reporter and an investor. I make my daily column -- Monday through Friday -- freely available for three reasons: Writing is good for sorting things out in my brain. Second, the column is research for a book I'm writing called "In Search of the Perfect Investment." Third, I encourage my readers to send me their ideas, concerns and experiences. That way we can all learn together. My email address is . You can't click on my email address. You have to re-type it . This protects me from software scanning the Internet for email addresses to spam. I have no role in choosing the Google ads on this site. Thus I cannot endorse, though some look interesting. If you click on a link, Google may send me money. Please note I'm not suggesting you do. That money, if there is any, may help pay Michael's business school tuition. Read more about Google AdSense, click here and here.
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