Day: May 9, 2006

GUNZ: Trenton bear killing rekindles debate. (And one in central jersey!)

Published on by reinkefjLeave a comment

http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/local/states/new_jersey/14532465.htm

Posted on Tue, May. 09, 2006
Trenton bear killing rekindles debate
When the male was found in Trenton, state policy required his death. A game official's objection will lead to a review.
By Toni Callas
Inquirer Staff Writer

***Begin Quote***

New Jersey environmental officials will review a zero-tolerance policy that allows the killing of bears in cities after authorities killed a 3-year-old bruin in Trenton on Saturday.

State Fish and Game Council Chairman Ernest Hahn said he was stunned that fellow Councilman Len Wolgast had condemned the killing in a residential neighborhood. The bear, a 225-pound male, was the first killed under the state's 2004 Bear Exclusion Zone policy, Hahn said.

***End Quote***

I think that I recently opined on the world being a dangerous place despite what victim disarmament advocates would like us to beleive. There was a child killed in Tennessee, a bear wandering around midstate Jersey, and now a bear in Trenton.

If a NJ child is killed, then everyone will feel sorry for the bear!

LIBERTY: Raise gasoline prices to $4 a gallon! Are you out of your mind?

Published on by reinkefjLeave a comment

http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/P150649.asp

Jubak's Journal
My 4-point plan to cut U.S. energy use
By Jim Jubak at jjmail@microsoft.com
 
***Begin Quote***
 
I want us to get real about wasteful, gas-guzzling vehicles and other stuff that soaks up too much electricity. Now, it’s your turn: Tell me how we can boost supplies.

{snip}

Raise gasoline prices to $4 a gallon

{snip}

Make the price increase permanent

{snip}

Create a national energy-efficiency lottery

{snip}

Use the remaining gas-tax revenue to shore up Social Security

{snip}

My suggestion: Sequester the tax money — I mean, really sequester it — by using the 75% that remains after my =

{snip}

Okay, your turn.

***End Quote***

Dear Jim,

Permit me to say that I enjoy reading your investment advice. Please allow me to repay that advice with some of my own. Stick to financial advice. Politically your plan is a disaster for liberty and a windfall to the big government statist.

First rule of political discussions is that they always generate more heat than light. I've been arguing for more freedom for a long time but don't have the sensitivity of a Mary Ruwart or the polish of a Harry Browne, may he rest in peace. So I'll try and be as gentle as possible.

Are you out of your mind?

Let's start with the fact that you can no more legislate the price of gas, or any other commodity. If the legal price is lower than the replacement cost then gas lines will ensue because no one will make it. President Carter demonstrated that. If the legal price is higher than the value it represents, then the sellers will be unable to sell it.

Why don't people recognize that there are "LAWS" in economics as there is the Law of Gravity in physics. Ignore the real world laws at your peril. Politicians in Louisiana repealed the Law of Gravity to demonstrate their stupidity.

It just seems obvious that you can't make people behave the way you want. If you have to force your ideas on people, then they can't be very good ideas. If they were, then you could convince people to do things voluntarily. See that is the problem with doing things by "law", you have to back up the laws with guns and worse.

So in the spirit you asked, here are some ideas that perhaps might convince you that freedom could work better.

(1) Increase supply

(a) Let's repeal all government rules in ANWAR. As a matter of fact, let's sell ANWAR to the highest bidders and leave the problem to the new owners. Maybe the Greens could partner with the oil companies to figure it out. Give them each a fifty percent interest and let them fight it out.

(b) Let's repeal all government rules on new refinery construction. And, then walk away.

(2) Reduce consumption

(a) Instead of raising the gasoline prices to $4 a gallon, let's eliminate all taxes on gasoline.

(b) Instead of making the price increase permanent, let's agree to make the tax reduction permanent.

(c) Instead of creating a national energy-efficiency lottery, let's just let people select the their own projects.

(d) Instead of using the remaining gas tax revenue to shore up Social Security, let sell the government's stuff and unwind social security completely. Chile did it. Why not us?

(e) Sequester the gas tax money! Yeah right. Maybe we can put it in the empty social security lockbox. That works so well.

Sorry about the last one, I'm an injineer and we think sensitivity is an electrical measurement.

Seriously, the only way to work with government is to starve it of it's life blood … … money.

You have to realize some key things:

(A) By uncoupling the dollar from gold in 1913, we permitted the government to inflate the currency. That means that the government can spend money without bothering to tax us.

(B) By hoodwinking us into the Social Security Ponzi scheme, we permitted the government to have an inter generational slush fund. That means that the government can spend money without bothering to tax us.

(C) By allowing the government to "protect us" by regulations, we permitted the government to foul up the economy and distorting the economy. That means the government can "direct" what we can and can not do.

Centralized planning did NOT work for the Communists. What makes you think it will work here?

Freedom doesn't require the government to tell us anything. The free marketplace allows peaceful exchanges that every one benefits from to occur.

In short, let's unlock the creative power of the free marketplace and put the government back in pandora's box.

IMHO,
a casual investor

RANT: It would seem that politicians govern us rather than being “equal in front of the law”.

Published on by reinkefjLeave a comment

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=50094

***Begin Quote***

It's becoming increasingly obvious that we have two standards of justice in this country – one for you and me and the other for "the commissars" like Kennedy.

This guy was born, not just with a silver spoon in his mouth, but with a get-out-of-jail-free card in his back pocket. Because of their position, their money, their "stature," people like Patrick Kennedy – just as his father did – are able to get away with murder.

***End Quote***

RHIP (Rank Hath Its Privileges)

http://www.theconservativevoice.com/article/14417.html

***Begin Quote***

But like a lot of well-to-do Cape and Islands landowners and sailing enthusiasts, {Ted} Kennedy doesn't want to share his Atlantic playground with an energy facility, no matter how clean, green, and nearly unseen. Last month he secretly arranged for a poison-pill amendment <polnotes.typepad.com/windfarmblog/2006/04/the_language_in.html>, never debated in either house of Congress, to be slipped into an unrelated Coast Guard funding bill. It would give the governor of Massachusetts, who just happens to be a wind farm opponent, unilateral authority to veto the Cape Wind project. 

***End Quote***

RHIP

It would seem that politicians govern us rather than being "equal in front of the law".

When do the sheep rise up?

TECH: It finally came to me. My problem with web-based programs is … …

Published on by reinkefjLeave a comment

… based on my problems with the new version of Yahoo Messenger …

… … is that you are not in control of your computing environment. You have the illusion that you are but you're not!

 If I was, I could fall back to an old version of Yahoo Instant Messenger. I have the old version. At one time, I felt that I'd always wanted to keep what I was installing locally. Remember my winrot experience. But, now neither YIM version installs.

Reported earlier, LinkedIn changed their UI which disrupted my modus operendi.

It just seems that I keep losing control.

That loss of control wastes my time. Which is the most critical resource to me.

So officially declare me "not a fan of web based apps"!

TECH: BLUE FROG is getting more results … (i.e., spammer’s admins “inconvenienced”!)

Published on by reinkefjLeave a comment

http://www.wired.com/news/technology/security/0,70831-0.html

***Begin Quote***

"Blue Security is indeed hurting our business, but not by taking down our websites," the purported spammer wrote. "Instead, they create a daily nuisance to our server administrators."

***End Quote***

Awhhh, poor spam server administrators … have … daily nuisance. They better not make their identities known or they will have a hard time finding work in the industry.

Already, when they pop out of their rat hole, they get pounded.

A spammers website got "dug", (i.e., equivalent to slashdotted) and their link collapsed under the traffic (i.e., ping times a grazillion people tends to abosorb your bandwidth). Akin to Dlink's NTP fiasco. Only this time it was deliberate.

***Begin Quote***

There is a great discussion going on about BlueSecurity and the jerks at specialham.com. (Search for Spammers in Digg). 544 comments when I checked a few minutes ago. There's a lot of good tech info on how the bad guys jump around the globe hourly to avoid detection.

The Digg effect and the Digg Army did a great job of bringing specialham.com to its knees. Even though Alexa is not the most reliable source of information, you can see there was a huge increase in activity on Sunday at the specialham.com site. Here is a link to the most recent Alexa chart. The daily reach went from 25 million to 450 million in one day. That is a big RED FLAG for their advertisers and sponsors. http://www.flickr.com/photos/jbenson2/143175992/ 

***End Quote***

And one digg commentator summed it up nicely:

***Begin Quote***

A MESSAGE FOR THE BLUE SECURITY SPAMMER…

Since I've seen plenty of evidence that you're trolling anywhere on the web that people are discussing Blue Security and your deeds, I'm absolutely certain that you will read this.

Some things I need you to consider:

1) It's ridiculous for you to say "If you want to be removed from our mailing list, please opt out first." We tried that. You didn't listen. Blue Frog seems to make a concerted effort to *make you listen*. Seems to have worked. You're reading this right now, aren't you?

2) It's even more ridiculous for you to say "The point of it is to get Blue Frog software to stop turning its subscribers' computers into zombies that attack our servers". Why? Because you use botnets / zombies to do a bulk of your spamming. And you used them again to give Blue Security fits for a few days. The difference between Blue Security and you is that their software is on our computers by *our choice*. I don't think you can say the same of your vast botnet that sends spam.

3) The threats and lies you spread are so outrageous, I wonder how you think anyone is going to believe them — or for that matter — your whole facade of "I'm the the good guy" and "what these Blue Security people are doing is illegal." What you fail to understand, Mr. Spammer, is that this is a very sophisticated community of people you are dealing with; the early adopters of Blue Frog. We've put up with your Spam for years and years, we're mad as hell and we're not going to take it anymore.

4) It really doesn't matter if you have my email addresses. If my email addresses were so unbelievably private and well-guarded then I wouldn't have a Spam problem, now would I? So how do you think you can threaten me? Do you really think that I'm going to notice an increase in Spam as a result of your efforts when I routinely filter 500 a day? Think again.

5) The more attacks you pull on Blue Security and especially ** read this ** on regular guys like me, the more you draw attention to yourself and increase the possibility that the real big guns of the Net will get involved and squash you. And at the same time, you make Blue Security even more powerful and well known. Everyone I know is installing Blue Frog now.

I guess your threats had the reverse effect than you intended.

***End Quote***

DITTO!

Come on inet, let's get mad!

MUNY: I’d prefer to have my copies online somewhere. Protected but online!

Published on by reinkefjLeave a comment

http://www.lifehacker.com/software/credit-card/what-to-do-if-your-identity-is-stolen-172308.php

***Begin Quote***

Be smart, have copies of your CCs in a lockbox somewhere, track your credit report etc.

***End Quote***

"have copies"

This isn't too helpful if you are on a trip somewhere. My personal preference is to have a hidden directory on my website, password protected, with an encrypted file. That file contains my credit card information AND the 800 numbers for domestic or international to report stolen cards. In another file, encrypted and password protected, are scanned images of my birth certificate, passport, and drivers license. Ditto, for poa, hcp, advanced directive, and all important paper work that I might need in a pinch.

Recently when Mom was hospitalized, and the docs were giving me a hard time, I just gave them my website and two magic words, and they were able to see my Mom's designation of me as her Health Care Proxy. End of hard time.

The next day I changed the magic words.

I have an index card with all the words scrambled in my wallet. In case, I don't have my data fob with me. If I can get an inet connect, I can get to my info.

I think that's important.

LIB: Rockwell posits some excellenet questions … … (should be asked of every politician!)

Published on by reinkefjLeave a comment

http://www.lewrockwell.com/rockwell/british-dentistry.html

***Begin Quote***

Will he or you be the one to suffer if something goes wrong?

Who is going to be held to account if the plan results in deprivation rather than plenty?

What is the exit strategy for abolishing the system if it doesn't work?

Where is the guarantee that this exit plan will be followed?

***End Quote***

With all due respect to Lew, I'd suggest a few more.

(A) Where is the unequivocal universally agreed definition of the problem? It is not enough to say, for example, "homelessness", or "poverty" or "campaign finance".

(B) Where is the evidence that this proposal is a timely solution to that problem. Government and Politicians are great a providing solution to problems that are on their way to being fixed already only to make things worse.

(C) Who is going to pay? How much? And, who will make up the difference between your estimate and reality? The answers are universally the taxpayer, too much, and are you kidding. Estimates of cost are usually off by orders of magnitude.

IMHO