MONEY: Perhaps the gubamint has their proverbial “thumb” on the SSI “scale”

Saturday, September 30, 2006

http://www.bc.edu/centers/crr/facts/jtf_11.pdf

How Can the Actuarial Reduction for Social Security Early Retirement Be Right?
Natalia A. Jivan, July 2004
JTF# 11

***Begin Quote***

Traditionally Social Security’s Normal Retirement Age has been 65, but for the last 45 years both men and women have had the option to claim benefits at the Early Eligibility Age (EEA) of 62. In exchange for claiming early, individuals receive a smaller monthly benefit. The legislation that established the EEA reduced benefits by 5/9 of 1 percent for each month before age 65, so that a person claiming at age 62 would face a 20 percent [(5/9)*36] reduction. This publication explains the factor of 5/9 and why it has remained constant since the establishment of the EEA.

***End Quote***

Now we know the gubamint has a motivation to have a low inflation rate. It keeps the SSI COLA low. That means that it artificially makes a sick system look healthier.

It’s also, like inflation, a hidden tax on the fixed income elderly.

So if they haven’t reexamined the discount rate in light of interest rates, then we have discovered another proverbial “thumb” on the “butcher’s scale” when servicing the old people’s “guaranteed” program.

As I always say, if insurance company executives did what the gubamint as the social security administration does, then they’d all be in jail faster than the Road Runner.

<beep beep>

I does make you wonder how to play the “62.5” versus “65” versus the “full retirement age” versus the “wait til your older and hope you don’t get hit by a bus”?

Beats me!?!


TECH: A quick look at the new Google Reader (GoogRead 2.0)

Saturday, September 30, 2006

http://www.micropersuasion.com/2006/09/google_unveils_.html

Thursday, September 28, 2006
Google Unveils Big RSS Reader Upgrade

***Begin Quote***

Google today dropped a big update to its feed reader. They’re characterizing their RSS reader as “your inbox for the Web,” which I kinda like. One of the big new features is that each user now gets their own public page where they can share feed items. It’s similar to Bloglines’ clip blogs. Another feature is feed discovery tool.

***End Quote***

Now I’m not a bonafide guru with a big following, just a plodding injineer. I tried the google reader that everyone seems so hopped up about. I found two things that seem to need some fixin.

(1) It doesn’t suck up the entire blog. I pointed it at mine that has about 800 entries. [Nothing as erudite as yours, which I enjoy reading. I ramble about anything that piques my interest.] And the new Google Reader, as well as the old one, knocks off at about 564. Seems like an “interesting feature” fmpov. [I’m an old mainframe guy and I like to see control total balance.] If it doesn’t read it all, then how do we know it didn’t drop one in the middle. Smarter people than I may find this behavior explainable. I bet not many people checked.

(2) I have about 12 categories defined in WordPress for the various topics I ramble on about. It’s interesting that the new Google Reader things all posting belong to category #1. Now one would think that it would know about those things. Doesn’t matter much to me because I put the category in the beginning of every title. It would seem that a shiny new reader would know all about categories and translate them into tags automagically.

Just from a quick look, I’m not overly impressed with Google Reader 2.0.

(What’s wrong with giving things version numbers? It’s seems so “orderly” to me.)

BTW what do you do when there is not inet connectivity? I’m of mixed emotion about web based stuff. If you don’t have the net, all you have is a glorified game boy. I sort of like FEEDBLITZing RSS feeds into my email box so I have them offline to read. imho!

But thanks for an interesting blog.


TECH: MIXROSOFT WORD exhibits a new behavior

Saturday, September 30, 2006

I’ve been doing my alumni ezine in Microsoft Word for several years. I write it in WORD. Then save it as a web page that I post on my site.

All of a sudden, in the last week or two, long urls in a table cell are no longer wrapping. They are shoving the table right edge to infinity.

Arghhh!

Manually going thru, putting a line break in the url, allows the page to resume the expected boundries.

Now the question is how did this change happen?

I don’t do automagic updates? So, did Microsoft slide a change in unbeknownst to me. I’m getting suspicious of the whole platform.


JOBSEARCH: OpenBC, in the LinkedIn genre, will morph into XING

Saturday, September 30, 2006

Lars Hinrichs
Open Business Club GmbH, openBC, Xing openBC to become XING 28/09/2006, 3:42 pm

Dear member,

I would like to personally inform you about major changes to the openBC brand in the near future. The openBC platform will be re-launched by the end of the year with a new design and a new brand name:

XING

Why XING?
Our community has evolved immensely since it was first formed and has expanded well beyond the realms of a “Business Club”. Whilst entrepreneurs and business people still make up a valuable and valued part of the network, they have been joined by a diverse spectrum of professionals from all industries and backgrounds – from scientists and creatives through to academics.

Members also network on the platform in 16 languages, so we needed a brand image that carries meaning in different cultures around the globe. XING meets this requirement. The name XING is cosmopolitan, innovative and unique – all qualities that reflect our community.

What will change on the platform?
The Website has been re-designed with maximum user-friendliness in mind, making it simpler for you to navigate and use the interface. And I can assure you: All of your openBC personal data will remain secure and unaltered, and all the networking features you have come to value on openBC will be part of XING – with many new features ahead!

The XING Website will be launched in the fourth quarter. You can already visit www.xing.com to gain an impression of the new brand and preview the new, improved interface.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for being a part of the community and wish you continued success and enjoyment from your network on XING.

Best Wishes,

Lars Hinrichs
Founder and CEO, Open Business Club GmbH


LIBERTY: The youngsters read my email; here’s my thoughts of their reading

Saturday, September 30, 2006

http://www.freetalklive.com

Mark,

Here’s my notes from the FTL youngster’s rendition of my email:

“poddie” is my affectionate term for podcast listener.

“womyn” is how the women’s liberation movement wanted the word spelled; not a sexual joke.

“kill alternative” should have been better written “to kill all competing alternatives”.

“gubamint” is what the militia movement calls that gang in DC who has grown outside of its Constitutional bounds. The gubamint at Waco, Ruby Ridge, and the Japanese Internment camps are frequent uses of the word in militia literature. I think they are correct to assigned it a special name. Government is what the Constitution provides for; gubamint is what we have now.

We have to guard our words carefully. Orwell’s double speak is upon us. Let’s take back our language.

For example, the gubamint does NOT “invest”. So any time I read a news story where the write refers to “government investment”, I fire off an email or a letter. I don’t know if it makes a difference, but, I know, for example, none of my friends mention “government investing” around me. ;-)

affirmative action = initially applied to gubamint and all the contracted with or WERE REGULATED by gubamint AT ANY LEVEL! (In effect, de facto regulation of the entire economy. Note the Hooter’s sex discrimination case as a classic. The fellow actually got some Hooter’s boy “waitresses” just to make the EEOC look foolish. The EEOC caved.

Let’s go back a little further in history, the tyranny (English and French) Kings were counterbalanced by the Catholic Church. Run it forward to 60s America, the Churches were a counter weight to the tyranny of the Central Government. Note that the opposition to racism originated in the black Churches. MLK was minister before he became a Gandhi-like leader. Note that opposition to the undeclared VietNam war was originated in the convents and churches of the Catholic Church following its doctrine of “a just war”. Clearly, for gubamint to grow in power and influence it must destroy, marginalize, or it some way oppress competition for the spotlight. I think that the Churches were very powerful and influential. AND, they were the voluntary associations. (Tell Ian not let his personal atheism block the view that a church is a good alternative to a gubamint.) So, the gubamint, like their can only be one queen bee in hive, must NUKE the churches.

So to, it must NUKE the family so it can assume the role of child care provider. Remember the communists want the children so that they can mold them to worship the gubamint, see it as the solution to all their problems, and warp them to the needs of the state as cannon fodder, good little voters who select on of the two meaningless choices, and pay their taxes without question.

The family farm is a great metaphor for the American family. (We didn’t have farm, but the nuclear family I grew up in all lived in the same tenement.) Social Security Insurance gave the old folks the cash flow to leave the family, which they did. Leaving the gubamint to fill their shoes. The motivation might have been warmth but the SSI make it possible. The motivation might have been warmth, but the SSI make it possible. It put a check in their hands, with their name on it, and made it possible for them to kid themselves into thinking it would be OK! It may have started in the 30’s but I saw it happen in the late 50’s.

Don’t forget that insurance (i.e., life, accident, and disability) for the poor folks ORIGINATED with the Knights of Columbus (Catholic Church). It spread like wildfire to the Masons, the Italian clubs, the Unions, and all manner of fraternal organizations.
Here’s another threat to the power of the gubamint. Social Security was government’s response to another powerful (voluntary) force in people’s lives. I don’t need the gubamint to insure my life when I can get a better deal from my Local Order of Hibernians.

Catholic schools, Catholic Hospitals, Catholic Charities all led the way. And good for them, the Baptists didn’t want medical care from those vial Papists so they created their own like Baylor, the various things with Baptist in their name, and so on and so on.

Credit Unions also have to die.

Basically anything that obviates the need for gubamint has to be killed.

It does it through regulation! And offering a competing alternative or free!

Parochial schools killed by “free” gubamint skools! Sectarian hospitals by Medicare.
Fraternal Insurance by regulation. And, if there is any hint of wrong doing, they get right on that. Pedophile priests were (rightly) excoriated; pedophile politicians or any misconduct by a politician gets a free pass.

The leftist big-government media, which depends upon the gubamint, led the cheer leading.

You did correctly chastise me for not providing solutions. (In my defense, I was focused on defending the caller on his point that the gubamint needs to be the queen bee.)

I think that Free State Project is an idea. (I’m tied down by familial obligations, but I’d be there in a heartbeat if things were different.)

Here are the things I’m doing:

* prepare for the revolution.

Save your “money” (not those trashy worthless furbies aka FRBNs) Be debt free, so when the furbie goes to zero like all fiat currencies do, me and mine will be ok.

* educate

Make sure that everyone “knows” that gubamint isn’t the answer. For example, my nephews in law know that a dollar isn’t the same as an ounce of gold. But then they were easily impressed with a sleeve of american eagle bullion coins. Or is that medallions!

* laugh

Try to make the gubamint look silly. People can’t respect or be in awe when they are laughing at stupidity. The cell phone tax was repealed when everyone started talking about the Spanish American Was Phone Tax. The gubamint can afford to be laughed at!

* personalize

Find out what each person’s hot button is and point out how the government is screwing them on that point.

* sand in the machinery

Muck it up. Send in forms. Make calls. Bury the call centers. For example, when I get junk mail. I stuff it all in the business reply envelope, with the envelope they sent it in, and return it to them. I get a lot less junk mail. Some people send the empty envelope back. That’s too easy.

That’s my plan. A lot of jokes about jumbo shrimp and honest politicians. If we can get people laughing at the clown car we call gubamint, then we can shrink them down to size. Perception is reality! Let’s have more TSA horror stories — put more old nuns on the no fly list — molest more pregger moms dragging infants — make business men wait in the longest lines you have ever seen — and longer lines, much longer. Maybe I’ll go stand in one and move real slow. Nah, I have given up flying and tell everyone I know they should too. More people are beginning to agree with me on that one!

Thanks for reading my email,
REINKE

p.s., I’m impressed. You even pronounce my name right. How did you do that?


WRITING: Advice to new bloggers

Saturday, September 30, 2006

http://wheredidfreedomgo.blogspot.com/

***Begin Quote***

I have been thinking about starting a blog for a long, long time now and I have finally started one. It’s only been up for about a week and it is my first blog, I don’t know if for sure if I will keep it or not yet. I would like to know what you folks think of it, it is a libertarian blog, so I thought there would be no better place to introduce it and get some feedback. Feel free to post comments on the blog and in the thread to let me know what you think, I would appreciate it.

***End Quote***

I’m blogging also.

I’d suggest that you put up a FEEDBURNER and FEEDBLITZ for your blog. FEEDBURNER creates, and for free, gives you some insight into your readership. Then stuff that rss feed into FEEDBLITZ that gives you, also for free, a once a day email off all your posts that day. I have some other things I’ve tried, but those are the two things I tell new bloggers to do before they create to much content.

I use WORDPRESS; it’s free. And, have a had two burps that cost me some pearls. I understand that it’s not uncommon occurrence.

SO, I try to create my post in a text editor, save it locally, and then cut’n’paste it over. The posting online is seductive but you can lose stuff.


TECH: FEEDBLITZ creates one email

Saturday, September 30, 2006

FEEDBLITZ allows you to turn an RSS feed into emails. Neat. One email per day. It’s a perfect way for me to capture my rantings. AND! My one Luddite friend using it can read all my meanderings from my blog in one email. Perfect.

Then, I explored what else can I do with it. I read two other blogs of people I know personally. They focus on quality; some stuff is quite profound. (I OTOH focus on stream of consciousness rambling; that is no focus at all; quality you can determine; certainly quantity; DIKW all jumbled together!) SO I feedbliz them. And, today, for the first time, I saw the flaw in my logic. The both produced something on the same day and FEEDBLITZ put them in the same email. ARGHHH!

I think I have a fix. GMail help me! I can use the + feature of a gmail address. FEEDBLITZ if it takes it will think they are unique addresses giving me one email per author per day. I’ll lose the complete look at my subscription list. But I could keep two addresses active and throw the merged one away. Hmmm?


TECH: TECHNORATTI not without flaws

Saturday, September 30, 2006

Technoratti came up with a new way to claim your blog , as you might deduce from the last post, you have to put a message to them in it. Well that’s better than the old method that required some javascript. Since this is a free blog, WORDPRESS doesn’t allow javascript. So when I heard about the TECHNORATTI change I went and completed my change.

GRIPES:

(1) It thinks it was last updated 148 days ago. Not that I much care; I’m doing this for fun and to learn. But if this is the gold standard of technology, it has a long way to go. If my data is wrong, then which other sites are wrong.

(2) It takes an OPML file and then you can’t scroll down thru ones favorite. Clearly not a well thought out “feature”.

OK now I am bored with that. Let’s move on to something more interesting.