MaryAnn McCarra-Fitzpatrick, Manhattan College Alumni – Class of 1989, is now blogging poetry at http://mccarra–poetry.blogspot.com/
MUNY: Risk / Reward of Bonds versus Stocks? Some times the only way to win is not to play!
Sunday, May 7, 2006Right now, there is no best bet on the market
By Scott Burns | May 7, 2006
***Begin Quote***
Viewed in terms of earnings yield (stock earnings per share divided by price), low-quality stocks at 18 times uncertain forward earnings have an earnings yield of 5.56 percent, slightly less than the earnings yield on five-year TIPS. High-quality stocks, meanwhile, have an earnings yield of 6.85 percent, only a small premium over no-risk Treasury obligations.
What's the bottom line?
This year is developing a really creepy resemblance to 1987. That's when both interest rates and stocks rose — until October, when stocks plunged 20 percent in two days.
***End Quote***
One has to learn the lessons of the past before they put you on your butt. A 20% drop in the market would certainly be typical of the secular bear market. A further market run up might break us out of the secular bear pattern. BUT, the economic factors around the current environment don't seem to favor that outcome. But what do I know.
MUNY: The majority of auto loans are now five years or longer.
Sunday, May 7, 2006THE COLOR OF MONEY
Longer loans defy common sense
By Michelle Singletary | May 7, 2006
***Begin Quote***
It appears we’ve hit another consumer milestone, and it’s not one we should be proud of either.
Last year, it was our savings rate. In 2005, for the first time since the Great Depression, the personal savings rate fell into negative territory.
This year, consumers have hit another landmark. The majority of auto loans are now five years or longer.
New vehicle loans over 60 months accounted for nearly 55 percent of loan originations, according to the Consumer Bankers Association’s 2006 Automobile Finance Study. Used vehicle loans over 60 months accounted for 40 percent of originations.
In 2000, five-year-or-longer car loans comprised just 22 percent of all such lending.
Have people lost their financial minds?
***End Quote***
Clearly so.
If one projects the “life” of a car at 100k miles, then one can calculate the accumulated depreciation. Ahh, but only businesses do that.
In the early 70’s I found Frau and I on that treadmill. Between us, we came up with an idea how to get out of that rat race. We figured the life of a car at 6 years. We’d go to the credit union for a 36 month car loan and plan to keep the car for a minimum of 6 years. We’d save for three years “painlessly” for the next car.
The credit union was the best place for a car loan since they didn’t use the rule of 78 in computing interest payments. The rule of 78 is a little know gem the auto loan people use to have you pay all the interest up front and the principal later. So if you pay off a loan early, you don’t save any interest. Credit Unions don’t use this fraud. You make your payment and your interest expense goes down. Have a windfall or a few extra bucks? You can pay it down faster and save interest expense at the credit union.
So we’d repay the car loan in 3 years and then continue making the same payment to the credit union for the next three. Our credit union encouraged this by keeping those payments separate from our checking, saving, or other loans.
Then, at the end of six years, we had a substantial downpayment for a new car. Don’t forget that for three of those years we were earning a nice interest rate. We even took CDs for the anniversary date and made a few bucks more. As we got better at it, we “settled” for cheaper cars (i.e., we didn’t get sucked into fancy accessories or “dealer incentives” or expensive options). As we got to the end of that road where we needed to borrow to buy a car, the saved downpayment often equaled the price of the car.
When we finally got out of that necessity to borrow to buy a car, in retrospect, we probably could have adopted a strategy that lowered our overall interest cost. That is take a holistic look at debt and rates and repayment terms. Saving in the car account may not have been the “best” use of credit when one, from time to time, might have had a credit card balance over a month.
But I would assert it was good “education”. It also would allow us to develop the concept of “financial silos”.
Like the early envelope system Frau used, it compartmented our thinking. Closed the water tight doors between compartments in our “financial” ship.
When the entertainment “envelope” was empty, we stayed home. We never raided the new car “envelope” for movie tickets. Not that I wouldn’t have, but she woudln’t let me. ;-)
Financial management was never taught in school, and it’s tough to learn.
RANT: Democrats Agenda “raise the minimum wage”
Sunday, May 7, 2006http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/06/AR2006050601336_pf.html
Confident Democrats Lay Out Agenda
Party Plans Probes Of Administration If It Wins the House
By Jonathan Weisman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, May 7, 2006; A01
***Begin Quote***
Democratic leaders, increasingly confident they will seize control of the House in November, are laying plans for a legislative blitz during their first week in power that would raise the minimum wage, roll back parts of the Republican prescription drug law, implement homeland security measures and reinstate lapsed budget deficit controls.
***End Quote***
As a Big L and a Little L Libertarian, I have no use for EITHER big government party.
But here is an example of the folly of voting for either.
The minimum wage benefits: (1) politicians allowing them to claim they are helping the poor; (2) government workers who all get a raise when the minimum wage goes up; and (3) union workers who all get a raise when the minimum wage goes up.
The minimum wage hurts: (1) the poor who lose those marginal jobs; (2) the young who lose those jobs as trainign for bigger and better things; (3) students who grab those jobs to tide them over; (4) small business people who can't afford to pay the higher wages and on the margin are driven out of business; (5) the consumer who now pays higher prices for the same good or service; and (6) the taxpayer who now has to pay for more expensive government big time, the welfare costs for all the people who are now out of work, and the opportunity costs of all those taxpayers who are now not paying any taxes at all.
So why would any one still advocate for a minimum wage?
(1) Who does the "political class", government workers, and union people ususally vote for?; (2) Their own economic stupidity that they never learned the "economic laws of gravity"; and (3) The economic ignorence of the voters allows them to fool the people.
I would advote voting Libertarian. If no libertarian is on the ballot opposing a "minimum wager", then write yourself in. It can't hurt! Vote communist. At least you'll get a certifiable fool rather than someone hwo is trying to defraud you!
TECHNOLOGY: Using freedownlodmanager, mp3split-ght, and some batch files to make life easy
Sunday, May 7, 2006To compensate for a cheap mp3 player which doesn't remember where in an mp3 it left off (i.e., it always starts at the beginning of a "song" arghh) and its lame fast forward function (i.e., hold down a button forever), I engineered my own solution.
I like to listen to the fellows over at http://www.freetalklive.com, who while sometimes a tad "juvenile" about what they are interested in and talk about, do have a show that talks about liberty. It does challenge one's assumptions. And, even for a cranky old Libertarian like me, it has developed my thinking. It's a good use of my commute time. And, they put their show out as a podcast, which means I can time shift. They rapidly wormed their way into my commute and become my favorite podcast. And, the podcasts are free unlike almost every other talk show like Rush, Bob Brinker, or such. Many talk shows don't even have a podcast for you to time shift with. From time to time, I listen to IT Conversations, but it's too much like work where I'm going to or coming from.
Any way back to compensating for the cheap mp3 player. The freetalkwebsite has the last six days of podcasts available as an http download. More than a year's worth are available by BitTorrent. So every Sunday, I get the last week's for my next week's drive time.
FreeDownloadManager http://www.freedownloadmanager.org/ is a download accelerator and manager. Free! Using this software you can easily download files from any web site. With FDM, I do my usual "save as" and FDM takes over from there. So I do six right clicks on the web site, select the right destination directory, first time takes a few more clicks, and FDM does the dirty work. It gets each one in turn; two at a time.
Then, I fire up mp3split-ght http://mp3splt.sourceforge.net/ and get ready to surgically split the nominally 3 hour mp3 from FTL into 12 ten minute segments. I experimented with 24 fives and that was OK; ten seems to be "better". SO I set my output destination the first time; it remembers after that. Select 600 minute blocks. And, select my input file. Usually by this time, FDM has all the files. So I run mp3split-ght and it creates my 12 ten minute mp3s.
Here's the tricky part, if I just went ahead an split the next file, it gives them the same name. (I haven't figured out that different name stuff in the program. Must have a feature. Just too lazy!) So I run a trivial batch file to rename the parts to Monday1 to Monday12. Yes, I have six batch files, one for each day.
I proceed to iterate. Split and rename five more times.
Then I use MusicMatchJukebox http://www.musicmatch.com/home.htm to nuke everything on the mp3player from last week and stuff this week's stuff on it.
The whole process takes less than 20 minutes. And which doesn't require my full attention all the time.
FWIW YMMV just in case you were interested in a cheap and lazy way to do it.
MUNY: Why don’t the web sites pay more attention to bonds?
Saturday, May 6, 2006(1) Cause it does NOT lend itself to trading and commissions?
(2) Buy the "right" bond and you get your prinicple and interest back. That's not exciting. No capital gains! No doubles, triples, or better.
(3) It ain't sexy. It's for the old folks and the poor.
For example, many many moons ago, I had some tax deferred money to roll over. When I did, I made what was in retrospect a very smart decision. I bought a bunch of those new fangled zero coupon bonds. Treasuries minus the coupons. Toxic waste they were called at the time. I bought all the broker's inventory for the year I turn 66 (don't ask). And when I still had money left, I bought some more for the following year. I remember the broker shaking his head at my insistence. They carried a high coupon. Treasuries meant little risk; as little risk as one could buy. I put them in the old brokerage account and virtually forgot about them. With treasuries now paying less than 5%, it turned out to be a dream. When I do retire, they will be worth over 200k for a 35k investment. Zero risk. No worry. Moral of the story, the broker, like your government, ain't your friend. He's a used car dealer without a good product. So bonds have an important place in a well-diversified portfolio. And, that doesn't mean bond fund. It means real bonds! Date certain maturity is the key phrase.
RANT: Unwinding the Social Security Ponzi scheme
Saturday, May 6, 2006Fox is ranting about the Social Security Ponzi scheme. How to unwind it? A crisis is looming. Going broke! Again! The gummamint has stolen the cash flow for its own uses.
Un injineers always pride ourselves on recognizing what reality is, defining where we want to go, and building that bridge.
So let's start building a solution.
We can't stop this thing tomorrow because people are depending upon it there. Let's look at how that fellow in Chile unwound their equivalent system.
http://www.cato.org/pubs/policy_report/pr-ja-jp.html
He created a three tier system. Current pensioners continued as they were today. Current workers could stay in the system or go out on their own with a "recognition bonds". New workers were automatically in the new private "social security system".
Why can't we do the same?
TURKEY: Turkeys need to conduct their monthly self-assessment. Even if they are employed!
Saturday, May 6, 2006Schedule of activities
(1) CEO report
– How did last month, last quarter, last year go?
– How will this month, last quarter, last year go?
(2) CFO report
– Cash reserves (How many months can we go without a paycheck?)
– Expense trend good or bad
– Look ahead?
(3) Chief Marketing Officer
– How is the employment market?
– How are my particular type of peanuts selling?
– Any discontinuities in sight?
– How are you testing the market for your skills?
(4) Chief Networking Officer
– How many contacts, calls, meetings last month?
– How many contacts were lost?
– How many new contacts made?
– What is your average days since last contact?
(5) Chief Product Officer
– What is your value equation?
– How are you delivering more value while retaining less?
– What new values are you offering?
YMMV FWIW,
fjohn
the big turkey
Why the politicians will NEVER ever take the taxes off anything!
Saturday, May 6, 2006http://www.lewrockwell.com/rockwell/gastax-hustel.html
The Gas-Tax Hustle
by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.
***Begin Quote***
Congress toyed with the idea of a tax holiday on gasoline as a way to drive the price down to address constituent complaints. But, as you might guess, they rejected it.
Why, oh why, did Congress decline to give us a bit more liberty, aside from the obvious fact that they like the revenue and power? Well, we can't go too much aside after all: they like the revenue and power. From their point of view, why give it up?
Here is the New York Times's explanation: "it was rejected as unworkable, partly because there were no guarantees that the oil companies would pass the saving onto consumers, partly because the tax pays for federal highway projects, and partly because many Republicans say the only answer to the problem of high gas prices is to increase supply."
{Extraneous deleted}
But let's say that the price of gas actually fell in one day by 18 cents (federal level) or a total of 41 cents (if states went along). Can you imagine? Consumers would flip out. It would be a real consciousness-raising moment. "You mean to tell me that every time I fill up my tank of gas, I'm forking over more than $8 to government? Hey, guys, what kind of racket do you have going on here?"
Then there would come a time for the holiday to end. What then? That might really inspire a revolt. Instead of being angry at gas stations, consumers would turn their vengeance on the party that truly deserves the blame. The real gougers would show their face, and they are likely to be pummeled with rotten fruit.
{Extraneous deleted}
This is why government has a principle: never ever, under any circumstances, abolish a tax unless your life depends on it. You might find that you can never get it back again.
***End Quote***
Yup, they'd have less money to spend. We'd learn that the economy would work a lot better with the load of gas taxes factor into every single thing we use or consume. AND, perhaps we would finally realize that if we don't keep government under control, it will control us.
TECHNOLOGY: wordpress appears to have posted something four times
Saturday, May 6, 2006Maybe it's me?
Kenya: Take the Guns Too, Like Everything Else (The first step to genocide?)
Saturday, May 6, 2006http://allafrica.com/stories/200605030248.html
Kenya: Take the Guns Too, Like Everything Else
The Nation (Nairobi)
OPINION
May 3, 2006
Posted to the web May 3, 2006
Gabriel Dolan
Nairobi
***Begin Quote***
The news that Internal Security minister John Michuki is launching a security operation to collect weapons in the North Rift may shock the rest of the nation, but it will hardly come as a surprise to the pastoralist communities affected.
{extraneous deleted}
So, in desperation, community leaders may well exclaim: "Go ahead, take our guns, too, since you have grabbed everything else."
They might even add that they would be better off left to their own devices anyhow, since all they have ever received from either "Crown" has been harassment, neglect and exploitation.
That is no exaggeration. Colonial governments forcibly evicted Pokots, Sengwers, Sabaots and others from the fertile highlands and confined them to the desert regions of the North Rift.
Together with the Turkana, the Samburu and the Marakwet, they were restricted to the Northern Frontier District and forced to pay "hut tax" – though living as nomads – and denied any access to development.
{extraneous deleted}
That is until the Government discovered that these regions could be exploited for the benefit of others.
***End Quote***
What a surprise a government abusing it citizens. And, now it wants to disarm them. The land that they were pushed to now has "new" value. You just have to shake your head.
Are humans for all their intelligence really really dumb?
We know from JPFO http://www.jpfo.org/jp-ques.htm that "gun control" aka "victim disarmament" is a necessary pre-condition to genocide. So anytime some one decided to take away guns, the Nazi death camps should leap to your mind.
It takes a government to pull of a genocide. Government is a terrible master.
If the US Government was really worried about "genocide prevention", it would list this as a key event in any governments progression from servant to killer. As a modest response, I'd mark that government, its officials, and diplomats as "persona non grata". Nope, we won't entertain you, keep your assets safe, or object if anyone assassinates you. Sorry, a government's only job is to protect people. You ain't so we ain't. Unless you have oil?
If I was in this situation, I'd have to be thinking when do I fight. Now when I have weapons or later when they are killing me and my loved ones. It's just that simple.
That's the hard question. When do you fight? I think it's when they take away your tools to defend yourself. They have no other reason to do that except to kill or enslave you. When they render you defenseless, you are a victim!
TECHNOLOGY: Azureus appears to have had its own brain freeze last night
Saturday, May 6, 2006Azureus, a really sweet BitTorrent client (free of course), appears to havehad its own personal brain freeze. What is noteworthy was that it was unrelated to network issues.
My internet connection is rock solid now that I had my ISP come out to investigate. It turned out that the darn squirrels hand chewed the wire from house to pole down to bare wire. I assume that every time the wind blew the wire would ground out. Amazing that there was an signal at all. Any way back to Azureues.
I use Azerueus to help the fellows over at Free Talk Live http://freetalklive.com, my favoite podcast, deliver their content. They uniquely have a more than a year of their show online for free. As anyone who knows me, I'm big on "free".
(Free software, free podcasts, free beer, free love. Never did get all that free beer or free love that they were talking about in the Sixties. I'll now break out into my rendition of "Born Too Late". Oh no audio on your end. Too bad. Your loss.)
I have all their content here and when I'm home I put fire up Azureus to help them deliver their content. Azureus does come in handy for downloading Linux distributions, my strategic direction, from time to time.
This moring I awake to find Azureus "stuck" with red ballons on most of the files. A red balloon mains something is wrong. It was bizarre. Some files couldn't be found. Some couldn't scrape. So I shut it down. And brought it back up. Green (good) and blue (sadly trying) baloons came popping up all over.
Hmmm.
Maybe it just got lonely. But everything was back to normal. I don't know why. Wish all my software problems were resolved so easily. Have to keeo my eye on thsi troublemaker.
Check out the comparison of eVoting and a Nevada slot machine!
Friday, May 5, 2006http://truthintech.net/2006/05/05/evoting-problems/
***Begin Quote***
The Washington Post has a decent article up about problems with eVoting systems.
***End Quote***
As an IT guy, I KNOW that eVoting will be fraudulent. It can't be other than that.
***Begin Quote***
That said check out the article and its comparison to Vegas Slot Machines!
***End Quote***
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/graphic/2006/03/16/GR2006031600213.html
I love it.
Best mechanized voting proposal I ever saw was the one that kept the system pretty much similar but, with Open Source software, the machine printed a "receipt" for your vote. You then "cast" that vote in the ballot box. Everyone got a quick tally from the machine and the ballot box was there for verification.
It wasn't internet, phone, or absentee balloting but it was fraud proof.
RANT: “Restraining orders work” … well maybe not in this case … or not at all?
Friday, May 5, 2006http://www.thnt.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2006605050409
Restraining orders work
Home News Tribune Online 05/5/06
By RICHARD KHAVKINE
STAFF WRITER
***Begin Quote***
Restraining orders work as intended the vast majority of the time: The person against which the order is issued will respect the law and stay away.
More often than not, the fear of serious consequences will sway a person to abide by the order's terms.
"Given the fact that someone has a restraining order against them, they are not a law-abiding person," said Rachel Partyka, an attorney concentrating on family law with Central Jersey Legal Services.
Still, restraining orders, usually secured through the Family Part of the Chancery Division of Superior Court, are useful in the majority of cases, said Sandy Clark, the associate director of the New Jersey Coalition for Battered Women.
"Those are the cases we're not going to see," she said. "They're very useful for many, many women for keeping a batterer at bay."
But, as events in South Amboy early Wednesday morning proved, taking out a restraining order is by no means a guarantee of safety.
"Unfortunately, a piece of paper can't protect you from a butcher knife or a bullet," said Partyka.
On Tuesday, Donna Beckmann-Palladino, 36, secured a final restraining order against her estranged husband, 32-year-old Joseph Palladino. Less than 24 hours later, both were dead.
Before jumping to his death from the Victory Bridge in Perth Amboy, he stabbed and shot his wife, killing her at her mother's South Amboy home, according to law enforcement. Donna Beckmann-Palladino's mother, Mary Jane Beckmann, also was killed.
***End Quote***
Given the anecdotal evidence that the reporter cites, and HNT liberal press bias, the headline is a joke. A more appropriate headline might have been "Restraining orders are not protection", or maybe "Restraining orders are good if everyone obeys", or even "Restraining orders are a bad joke".
If I had an abused daughter and she sought a restraining order, then I'd violate the gun transfer law in the People's Republic of New Jersey and give her my "abusive spouse discouragement device". It has the value of being 100% effective when used. When the abusive spouse came around to do her harm, in violation of the court's order, she'd have an alternative. No, not dial 911 and die! She could defended herself effectively. My advice would be shoot! And, keep shooting till its empty, Then reload and empty it again. (Admitted exaggeration; just slightly!) Problem solved. No 911 call needed; you know the police would be there in record time. Can't have an ordinary citizen doing their job. We might find out we don't need them so much.
When the Court issues a restraining order, the Sheriff's office should: immediately deputize her to enforce the order, escort the woman to the firing range, give her some lessons with practice, and "loan" her the pistol of her choice. We know that they are always confiscating guns, let's put them to good use. Further, the court should give her the PRESUMPTION of innocence in any shooting unless it's can be proved she went "hunting". With this type of a restraining order, any spouse would be wise to be extra sure about "staying away".
My personal recommendation is the good old 1911 Colt 45. While it may hurt the shooter's wrist, arm, or shoulder, the abusive spouse isn't gong to be be doing much of anything after receiving "treatment". It's only in the movies that people get shot and keep on going like the energizer bunny.
The dead old white guys, aka the Founding Fathers, recognized that "All men are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights. Among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." The Second Amendment was enshrined in the Constitution for just such people as Ms. Donna Beckmann-Palladino, Ms. Mary Jane Beckmann, Saoule Ms. Sveltana Moukhametova, and all the abused spouses usually women in New Jersey. They should have been able to protect themselves.
In better days, it was joked that "God made men and women. Sam Colt made them equal." We need to remember that.
Am I worried that it will be like the gunfight at the OK Corral?
No, I trust my fellow New Jerseyians to know when they are being threatened. Any woman who is a afraid is entitled to the full protection of the State. One of those protections is an express trip to the gun store. But, no, here in the People's Republic of New Jersey, all we give people is a piece of paper and expect that to stop an enraged or psychotic spouse. I like Sam Colt's solution better.
The Anti-Gun proponents would like to believe that we live in a peaceful civilized society where laws protect people. Us gun nuts know that the real world is a dangerous place. Two-legged and four-legged predators abound. Abusive spouses and bears come to mind. The article cites abusive spouses. Don't forget in California the jogger killed by a cougar and in Tennessee a child killed by a bear. Lest you think that the street will run red, consider the many jurisdictions where concealed carry is permitted; some without control. Florida was supposed to be where every road rage incident would devolve into shoot out. New Hampshire has had it for while. You know that the press would have dutiful reported even one incident. New Orleans demonstrated that it is the people who enforce a law and order society. When the good folks of NOLA were gone, crime ran rampant. Heinlein, a famous scifi writer, wrote "an armed society is a polite society". And, it is so true.
There are other benefits of an armed society. The value of concealed carry is that you don't have to carry to receive a benefit. If a criminal has 100 potential victims, then he has to pick one. If out of that hundred people ten are packing, then the criminal has a 10% chance of facing an armed victim. "Hmmm" says the criminal who should I pick? The gay guy. Ever hear of the Pink Pistols? The thin spindly blond woman. Agggg, that's Paxton Quigley and she's describing what a center of mass is to me with a laser assist sight. I know. says out hypothetical criminal, the squat little brownish guy with the big mustache, looks like an mexican arab. Ohhh, good day Mr. Massad Ayoob. Yes sir, I'd be happy to put my hands up. See the unarmed sheep are protected when we "salt" the flock with a few armed sheep. The criminal has to guess. Sometimes they will guess wrong … dead criminal! Don't have to worry about recidivism then. There's reason why burglars choose unoccupied houses. And remember that TV show that ask hardened criminals what they feared most? Not the cops, the courts, or jail. It was an armed potential victim!
There is no magic in a gun. It's just a tool. Dangerous? No more so then so are cars and chainsaws. Handle it with care, of course. Would all these women have survived? I don't know. But I do know they would have had a chance. And I for one would have liked them to have that chance.
So bottom line, I grieve for these women killed by our collective stupidity. We didn't give them the understanding, tools, and training to preserve their own lives. Worse, we fooled them into beleiving we'd protect them. Let's fix that now.
Any abused spouse is welcome to come by and chat!
RANT: LAPD issues a $114 ticket to an elderly woman trying to cross a street!
Friday, May 5, 2006http://freetalklive.com/wiki/index.php?title=FTL_2006-04-25
Well the FTL boys have certainly outdid themsleves this time. Just when you thought that they could NOT make Big Gummmint look any worse, an unnamed LAPD dummy hands them a softball. I had to check it out 'cuase I thought to myself "no one could be that dumb' but I was wrong. Father State's copy did give the old gal a ticket for "crossing too slowly". What a fool.
http://www.montereyherald.com/mld/montereyherald/news/14341752.htm
***Begin Quote***
How could an LAPD officer, as reported Monday in the Daily News, issue a $114 ticket to an elderly woman for struggling to cross a busy five-lane boulevard as the "Don't-walk" signal blinked?
***End Quote***
Will everyone now conceed that we were just fooled by the illusions that the cops are: "our friends", "just here to protect and serve us", and "do a dangerous job that needs doing"?
Sigh.
This is akin to the DC shortening the yellow duration on traffic signals when the installed the "red light" cameras. It's not about safety because accidents skyrocketed. It's about revenue which is automatically extracted from the driving public.
In this case, they must have run out of doughnuts at the police station and this fellow was in a bad mood.
Seriously, was this the proper response?
$114 from a poor old lady.
OK here's my suggestion.
Cop suspended without pay until some citizens determine if he should be prosecuted for misconduct or just fired. His boss ditto. His boss ditto. Up the line, until we reach the mayor.
The Mayor and the Governator should be made to cross that street four times every day for a year. For fun, lets give them those glasses that they use to demonstrate elder eyesight, put gravel in one shoe, and hunch them over with a weight around their neck. Then will give them a cane and a plastic sack with two six packs of ensure.
Betcha that light gets fixed before they ever arrive.
And, lest we forget about the "engineers" who deployed such a system. give them the cop treatment.
If the bathroom can be smart enough to turn the water on when I put my hands by the faucet, do you think the traffic lights at the intersection might be samrt enough to know when someone needs extra time? And, since I have sat at night at traffic lights waiting for the dumb light to give me the green when there is no one insight for miles, do you think maybe it should know that it should change?
See the one size fits all solution of Mommy Goverenment and Father State condems us to endure such stupidity!
You can't make this stuff up! If you did, people would say "can't happen here"!
TECHNOLOGY: ViaVoice could be the answer … if you get it working!
Thursday, May 4, 2006http://ezinearticles.com/blog/archives/2006/04/audio-to-articles.html
***Begin Quote***
As I was mentioning strategies to repurpose old content that was long forgotten, it sparked Daniel to ask and offer this nugget: Wouldn’t it be easy to talk into a microphone for an hour or any time frame, then pay someone to transcribe the MP3 into a MS Word .doc…break the transcription into 350-500 word articles and you’d have an instant set of 5-20 articles to put into syndication. Just add title, keywords, a default resource box and submit.
***End Quote***
About two years ago I pinched a nerve in my neck, after a couple of weeks of rest, treatment, and drugs, I was able to return to work. But my right hand for typing was useless; maybe good for five minutes. I got a copy of viavoice and was able to dictate as opposed to keyboard. It's fraught with difficulties but it MIGHT be worth considering. With training, I was able to get 99+% accuracy on dictation (speak directly to software) and transcription (record voice and pipe it into software). It's not for the timid or faint of heart but it can be done. The software will also read to you (i.e., as if you were blind) but it was a weird experience to be read to in your own voice. I did try to get this running for a doc who wanted to write a book and I am struggling with it. So to quote the knight in with the Holy Grail, "Choose wisely!".
TECHNOLOGY: LINKEDIN changed their UI (arghh!)
Thursday, May 4, 2006For the longest time, I would dump any contacts email address into LinkedIn with an appendage to the first name to remind me where I knew them from. If they susequently joined LinkedIn, then I'd pile on to connect with them. I rarely invite people. It's just to much hassle explaining it, cajoling them, and convincing them. If some one joins on their own, it is a done deal to do the old LinkedIn version of the Vulcan mind meld with them. So routinely dumping in large numbers of email address was a as needed task. Let them "stew" and once a week see who was "discovered".
Now LinkedIn doesn't let me put in "other contacts" so easily. Defeating an easy way to build a network. Arghh!
TECHNOLOGY: Need to figure out how to load a Google calendar from an plain old ascii file?
Thursday, May 4, 2006Interesting there doesn't seem to be an easy way to pour data into the Google calendar. I have a flat file of birthday and name. You'da thunk it would be easy to pipe that puppy into GCal. Yuo'da thunk wrong. Hmmm!
Gas prices too high? Why does the gummamint tax gas anyway?
Thursday, May 4, 2006http://www.lewrockwell.com/paul/paul322.html
***Begin Quote***
If we want to do something about gas prices, we should demand and vote for greatly reduced welfare and military spending, a balanced budget, and fewer regulations that interfere with the market development of alternative fuels. We also should demand a return to a sound commodity monetary system.
***End Quote***
Gotta love Ron Paul.
Let's start by declaring no level of government can impose taxes on any product. Let's start with gas and oil. That will immediately lower the price of a gallon by at least 75 cents.
We'll have to pay for it by nuking some programs. Let the gladiator games begin. There's a fixed amount of money up for grabs. Put all the special interests and their bought 'n' paid for legislators in a pit. And let just one emerge.
As an "unintended consequence", the price of everything transported by oil (i.e., trucks and planes), or supported by something moving using oil (i.e., workers that come to work or consumer who drive to stores) will drop like a rock. Faster than prices get cut at a WalMart. Betcha, WalMart's price come down fastest of all.
Hey Governor Corzine … … why do state cars speed?
Thursday, May 4, 2006… … why was td10933 doing 75 mph on Route 295 South MileMarker 43 at 0721 this morning? Rushing to get to work to serve the taxpayers of New Jersey? Guess we taxpayers don't have to save on the gas we buy. By The Way, he went right by one NJ plate holder aka sucker pulled over by the State Police presumably for speeding. Guess that sucker was just trying to get to work on time so as he could pay his taxes. Funny how I never see a state worker, state car, or such pulled over. Guess that is the divine right of the rulers not to be bound by the same rules as every one else in the People's Republic of New Jersey. We all know that no Prince of the State (i.e., a member of the State ruling body) would ever even be bothered by being pulled over since their cars (and those of their immediate families) have special adorned plates with the "regal crown" on them and laughably low numbers. And we'll never see any of the legions of "police" pulled over since they too have special "badges" on their cars (e.g., NJSP stickers; FOP & PBA medallions; etc.; etc.; etc.). No it's only Joe Six Pack who has to worry about being selected by the "Special Revenue Generation" teams aka the various "police" with radar guns and speed traps. Yup, it's not about safety silly taxpayer. It's about splitting the take from their scheme with local politicians thru their kangaroo courts. Visualize it as a bunch of jackels fighting over a rotting corpse of a taxpayer and then looking for the next victim. Hump, silly peasant, think that government is here to protect and serve you. DOn't they read the Supreme Court decisions that say we don't even have to try. We are good at that … … not trying … … anything but your patience. We need a good tax revolt NOW! Why does the gummamint tax gas? So we can watch the State's cars speed by.
JPFO always remembers the Shoah (aka Holocaust) and it’s important for us to do so also!
Wednesday, May 3, 2006http://www.jpfo.org/alert20060502.htm
***Begin Quote***
– Taxes sap away as much as 40% of our income, a small portion of which can be relieved if you agree to _register your children_ with the federal government.
– You can be fined, jailed, or held indefinitely without trial for _thousands_ of administrative "infractions" as decreed by any of a number of unelected federal agencies (our "Boot the BATFE" campaign (www.jpfo.org/bootbatfe.htm) shows just how arbitrary those "infractions" can be!).
– We endure checkpoints, random searches, and demands for our "papers" on a regular basis ( http://www.papersplease.org/cases.html ).
– And just around the corner is the National Animal Identification System, which will require you to register your name, property and any livestock you may own, and you get to pay a fee for the privilege.
***End Quote***
The JPFO regards our Second Amendment as what went wrong in Nazi Germany. Just look what a few guns did in the Warsaw ghetto. There is a striking similarty between the Nazi gun laws and the United States gun laws. In order for a governement to kill its citizens, or the residents of its country, or the occupants of another country, it's necessary that they be unarmed. Visualize the brown shirts or the Gestapo breaking into a Jewish home to drag them off to the camps. Add one crummy revolver. Let's say that the head of household only gets the first one of the intruders. Pretty soon the you run out of intruders when losing one intruder per apartment. Look at the Liberator pistol http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberator_Pistol (aka the only weapon that took longer to load, or reload, then it did to make). If you couldn't spit on it, you probably couldn't hit it. Imagine the Genocide in Rawanda or Dafur. Bad guy with machette meets poor slob with a Liberator. Result = sudden shortage of bad guys.
The question is what will it take for us to recognize a police state here in the US. And what will you do about it?
What will she do if you never told her? … She’d use the brains that God gave her!
Wednesday, May 3, 2006The gummamint's (government) anti-drug commercials are often stupid, down right dumb, or occasionally iritating. Tonight I saw one of the especially stupid ones. Reminds me of something I first heard from my now deceased mother in law.
Picture this. Young girl walks to car. A shimmering mother commands "Say thank you" to the socially inept kid. She gets in. The ghostly mother demands "Fasten your seat belt!" to the dumb kid. She's offered drugs. Silence. A stage voice says "What will she do if you never told her?"
I can hear my mother in law saying in a loud irritated voice: "She'd use the brains that God gave her!" which was her favorite rejoinder for any especially dumb idea, stupid action, or disastrous results.
I miss her common sense. I think the government has too much of our money to waste like this.
It's nobody business when people make bad choices, suffer the consequences, and have to overcome the results. Maybe then people will learn to make better choices rather than have Mommy Government to "protect" them paying for it by robbing everyone.
Arghhh!
Yahoo survey winds up into its own spam filter
Wednesday, May 3, 2006How could that happen? It was amusing. Trapped by their own trap.
P.S. The YIM75 install still isn't working. Arghhh!
Sigh, the FTL boys don’t know that Heinlein was a libertarian
Wednesday, May 3, 2006I was listening to the Podcast of FTL when I heard them chatting with a caller about Robert A. Heinlein (1907-1988) and "Starship Troopers". RAH was the fellow who turned me to Libertarianism. I read his stuff over and over again. The hosts at FTL have "Starship Troopers" all wrong. It is about personal liberty! The book celebrates democracy, individuality, diversity, and free choice, in peacetime first; then wartime. The clueless high school senior evolves as a result of his choices and events to an adult, ultimately earning his father's respect. The book is a easy "hard read". Just from memory, let me hit a few high points.
(1) RAH in ST first made me question suffrage. In his alternate world, you are allowed to vote only if you have done something positive for society. Seems reasonable. Just being born, doesn't confer "wisdom" upon you. But, if you have to "pay" a stiff price for a "privilege" of voting, then you will think long and hard about the choices you make. RAH made the "privilege" universally available, everyone would be assigned something dirty, dangerous, and hard. You had to pay a high price in RAH's world to be allowed to steer the ship of state. An excellent concept.
(2) RAH in ST made me think about democracy and the popular majority. People cannot vote themselves into prosperity. They certainly shouldn't be allowed to vote away my past, preset, and future. It makes you think about fundamental assumptions that you have never brought up before. He brought up interesting insights in the "History & Moral Philosophy" class. I especially liked the dialogue, "My mother always told me that violence doesn't solve anything. Really? I wonder what the city founders of Hiroshima would have to say about that." It completely destroyed my thinking about peace and aggression. That led me to Ann Rand and the Zero Aggression Principle. Capital punishment, juvenile delinquency, civic virtue all got skewered in his world. He pointed out that there were millions of people already in America before the Europeans came and ruthlessly slaughtered these 'subhumans' on their new property. That made me think differnetly about such diverse topics as Columbus, the Spanish "missionaries", religion, and the Japanese Internment.
(3) RAH in ST introduced me to the concept of wolves and sheep. Only warriors should vote because they "know" the true cost of freedom. Very powerful concept. If you aren't willing to die for your country, then why should you be allowed to lead it. Today's politicians put our boys and girls at risk without that visceral understanding of what it means. With the backdrop of American's dying in VietNam, it hit home. I'm no John F. Kennedy fan, because he had the morals of an alley cat, but he did steer the US thru a dangerous time with Cuba and VietNam. If was LBJ who escalated the war there. And, while I'm no John McCain fan, I bet he would be more circumspect about using the military. Heinlein backs up wolves with the logic that "revolt is impossible". I always looked after that if I was being lead by a real "leader" with experience, or one with paper credentials.
(4) RAH made his military 100% voluntary. A unique concept. If a trooper didn't want to drop, he didn't have to. Far cry from today's all "volunteer" force.
He used the juvenile fiction novel genre to "sneak into" our heads with personal responsibility, non-aggression as opposed to pacifism, and objectivity.
Heinlein is pure American and IMHO his ideas are almost Jeffersonian.
"Correct morals arise from knowing what man is; not what do-gooders and well-meaning old Aunt Nellies would like him to be."
The book was a treasure. The movie was a joke. I beleive the hosts confused the two together. The book had a provocative depth. I learned and taught myself a lot as a result of it. Perhaps because RAH was an engineer, he new how to connect to a future engineer.
Stealing a line from the movie "Would you like to know more?"!!!!
###
Why does any level of government have any business in the institution of marriage?
Tuesday, May 2, 2006http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewPolitics.asp?Page=/Politics/archive/200605/POL20060501a.html
Advocacy Group Launches Campaign Against Marriage Amendment
***Begin Quote***
(CNSNews.com) – A homosexual advocacy group has launched a postcard campaign urging senators to vote no on the Federal Marriage Amendment, which defines marriage as the union of one man and one woman.
***End Quote***
Would NOT a better question be: "Why is the Gummamint (Federal Government) involved in Marriage?"
One should question why any level of government has any business in the institution of marriage. Isn't that the province of the people and possibly the Church?
Why does one need the permission of one's government to marry? That's what a license is. Oh please, Mommy Government and Father State, may I have your permission to do this? It couldn't be rooted in the desire to keep the black men from marrying the white women? Remember we can trace most of the bad and restrictive laws to racial discrimination and fear of immigrants. The Saturday Night Special and Gun Control laws were designed to keep guns out of the hands of minorities and immigrants. In the days when immigrants referred to the Irish and the Italians!
No, the State should mind its own business. Was force or fraud used? If it was, then it has a duty to protect and serve regardless of what the Supreme Court says. (Remember the Dred Scott decision?) If not, so be it.
Butt out! The answer to the title question is "None whatsoever".
Evan Bayh: Abolish the Electoral College! (No, abolish dumb politicians!)
Tuesday, May 2, 2006http://www.newsobserver.com/102/story/434527.html
***Begin Quote***
Evan Bayh: Making a stand on stewardship
U.S. Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana
Rob Christensen, Staff Writer
Editor's note: Even though the presidential election is not until 2008, potential candidates to succeed President Bush are already making their way around the country. When they visit the Triangle, The News & Observer will try to ask them a few questions.
Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh was in Raleigh over the weekend to speak at the Democrats' annual Jefferson-Jackson Day dinner when reporter Rob Christensen caught up with him. Bayh was twice elected governor in Republican-leaning Indiana before being elected to the Senate in 1998. He is looking at running for president in 2008.
{extraneous deleted}
Q: Why do you think we should abolish the Electoral College?
A: "I think our president should be chosen by the majority of the American people. That is ordinarily the case. But in 2000, as we all recall, we elected this president with fewer votes than the other candidate got. I just don't think in the modern era that is appropriate."
***End Quote***
What a bone head!
Obviously, this Presidential candidate has never read the Federalist Papers, thought about the implications of the Electoral College, or taken a course in Engineering Measurements with Brother Austin Barry. The reporter and writer must have missed those experiences as well.
The electoral college is part of compromises made at the convention to satisfy the small states. Under the system of the Electoral College each state had the same number of electoral votes as they have representatives in Congress, thus no state could have less then 3. This ensures a republic; not a democracy. remember that the dead old white guys view democracy as mob rule and rightly so.
Thinking about the implications would expose a few hidden benefits. (a) The Electoral College presents the image of a plurality when the nation is closely divided. Thus, in 2000, 271 to 266 Electoral College vote disguises the razor thin popular vote. (b) It insulates the process from fraud. Stuff the ballot box in a red or blue state all you want, you'll only get that state's electoral vote. In a popular vote, that's a problem. (c) What happens if a candidate dies before inauguration? The Electoral College will solve the problem. The peaceful transition of power is the hallmark of the republic. (d) The States are sovereign entities. They make the rules for their own state. They could decide to pick them at random like jurors. (e) It ensures that the President MUST campaign in the small states. Popular vote could be decided in the big cities, even without fraud. The current system ensures that candidates know where New Hampshire and Iowa are. Remember if Gore had carried his "home" state of Tennessee, he'd be president. Kerry lost West Virginia. Ignore the small states at your own peril. (f) A state or local issue could bring a big turnout for someone in one state at the expense of another state. Turnout rates don't matter ACROSS state boundaries. (g) [My personal favorite] A third party elector could influence the election in ways that have not yet been seen. The Repubocrats and the Democans split the Electoral vote 267 each and NH elects 3 Libertarians. Those three guys extract promises to increase freedom, lower taxes, and curtail the growth of government from one side or the other. Probably the side that would lose by throwing the election to the House of Representatives. And the Libertarians could care less after that. Imagine the howls of "we wuz robbed" from the losers. And, the "winners" wouldn't be that happy either! Love it.
Finally, as Brother Austin Barry could have instructed the candidate, every measurement has blunders and errors. We don't worry about blunders, but we do worry about errors in measurement. Every measurement process has errors. Count a deck of cards ten times and you won't get the answer 52 every time. And we know the answer we are supposed to get. Unless the good Brother, took out a card or two OR stuck in a joker. Different people can measure the same thing and come up with different "correct" answers. Counting votes is no different (e.g., Florida recounts). The electoral system does not mandate that the vote tally be exactly right. Therefore it makes no difference if you win a state by 50.1% or by 80% of the vote you receive the same number of electoral votes. This confers the benefit that we don't need an exact nose count. "Close enough" is good enough. Some places don't bother counting absentee ballots when the plurality is larger than the number of absentees.
So the dead old white guy continue to earn my undying admiration for their political construction.
And, before anyone glibly says "amend the Constitution", remember all the bone headed results form messing with success. Prohibition gave us organized crime. Direct Election of Senators gave the States unfunded mandates. Presidential term limits gave us lame duck two term presidents.
Don't mess with what you don't understand!
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Posted by reinkefj 








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