MONEY: Your right to use Gold & Silver

Wednesday, April 4, 2007

http://www.libertydollar.org/ld/legal/legalissues.htm

Legal Defense Fund
Your right to use Gold & Silver is at risk.
Bernard von NotHaus
Monetary Architect

***Begin Quote***

The US Mint would have us believe that it is illegal for Americans to exchange gold and silver (such as the Gold and Silver Eagles minted by the US Mint or any other gold and silver for that matter) on a voluntary basis between consenting adults. Just imagine that at a time when “consenting adults” can legally exchange “fluids” between themselves, the US Mint would have us believe that you and I can not trade gold and silver between ourselves. This is ridiculous and an assault on the concept of a free market.

Of course the US Mint allegation is not the law, in fact, it is a lie. For that reason, the Liberty Dollar has filed a federal lawsuit: Liberty Dollar v Henry M. Paulson, Secretary of the Treasury, Alberto Gonzales, Attorney General of the United States, Edmond C. Moy, Director, US Mint for a declaratory judgment.

Since the US Mint posted their warning, over six months ago, no further action has been taken. No arrests. No indictments. No investigation. Nothing. The warning has been purely a scare tactic. Unfortunately it has been very successful, until now. You will not be arrested for having, using, or helping the Liberty Dollar at this hour of need. Nobody is going to chase you down for a $20 Silver Liberty.

***End Quote***

First, everyone should support their attempt to defend our right to honest money. Let the moth out, and contribute and / or buy something.

Second, clearly the gooferment doesn’t want to turn off their “automatic theft machine”. Inflation is the gooferment’s best revenue raiser. It’s silent; no votes required. It’s insidious; you don’t realize it is happening. You really don’t think that houses, like mine, that sold in 1950 new for 8k$ are really worth 300k$ today. Did the wooden boards in them get scarce when we weren’t watching? No, it’s the dollars that are different! AND, the gooferment gets the additional benefit that everyone is inflated up the income brackets. That allows the gooferment to take more of your money and “generously give back” tax cuts! How stupid are we?

Third, A much more subtle question has been rattling around in my head. Why did the gooferment select NOW to pick a fight with the “lunatic fringe” of gold bugs. I don’t understand. The Treasury itself sells gold and silver bullion coins. SO why now? It’s not like New Hampshire is using hard currencies to the exclusion of the fiat Federal Reserve Banknote (i.e., the dollar?). Did Ithaca dollars scare them? What does the gooferment see as a threat? Even the OPEC Arab Muslims could NOT get their “gold dinar for oil” program started. (I believe that was what Iraq is all about. It wasn’t about “oil”. It was about the “oil bought and sold in gold not dollars” that Iran was pushing with Iraq. It that had happened it could have signaled the end of the USA dollar as the world’s reserve currency. If that happens the FED’s game would have been up big time as all those dollars overseas would be looking for a home.

So, I think you need to take some action now: (1) donate something to the legal fight; (2) buy some bullion to balance your investment portfolio (i.e., 5%); (3) tell your congress critter and any politician that will listen that you want the gooferment to back off; (4) read something anything even Wikapedia about the post ww1 German hyper inflation; if that does not scare you than nothing will; (5) think about how your financial plan will handle the current uncertainty (i.e., the bust of the baby boomers; the social security ponzi scheme; the medicare drug benefit; taxes; inflation).

It’s pretty bleak fmpov!

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Posted by reinkefj

TECHNOLOGY: I’m playing with a FEEDBLITZ alternative FEEDMAILER

Wednesday, April 4, 2007

http://www.feedmailer.net/

FEEDMAILER

***Begin Quote***

Feed Mailer sends you RSS feed updates by email. Updates can go out every hour, every 12 hours, daily or weekly.

***End Quote***

Didn’t take long to find an alternative. I’m testing it now.

Funny but they don’t make it easy to add an icon to a website touting their service. Nor do they have away to contact them. Not a good omen.

More when I get it.

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Posted by reinkefj

RANT: NJ non-sense labeled as “tax reform”

Wednesday, April 4, 2007

Ahh, once again, the Nu Jerzee State Gooferment is up to their old tricks. They promised “tax reform” and we are been given a “welfare program”. Property taxes are high here to fund the Gooferment’s Youth Propaganda pre-Prison Training Facilities. So, now we will have lower property taxes, “sort of”. But, not for everyone, based on your “income”. What a joke. A property tax based on income. Isn’t that an “income tax”? How stupid are the tax payers in NJ? First chance I get I’m joining the Free State Project http://www.freestateproject.org and moving to NH.

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Posted by reinkefj

TECHNOLOGY: FEEDBLITZ fails again and misses a day’s posts Argh!

Wednesday, April 4, 2007

Argh! FEEDBLITZ did it again. It missed a whole day of especially valuable pearls!! Guess I’ll have to look for a replacement.

==========

https://reinkefj.wordpress.com/2007/04/02/
interesting-a-new-blogger-who-i-think-will-give-you-an-interesting-read/

http://tinyurl.com/2f9r3s

INTERESTING: A new blogger who I think will give you an interesting read
April 2nd, 2007

http://glcavalier.wordpress.com/

“Connecting the World One Beverage at a Time”
by Cavalier, G. Lane [EUN] [LKDN] [PLX] [TRKY]

===========

https://reinkefj.wordpress.com/2007/04/02/
money-james-turk-urges-new-hampshire-to-remonetize-gold-and-silver/

http://tinyurl.com/22b5u2

MONEY: James Turk urges New Hampshire to remonetize gold and silver
April 2nd, 2007

http://bbs.freetalklive.com/index.php?topic=12824.0

GoldMoney founder James Turk, editor of the Freemarket Gold & Money Report and consultant to GATA, is among those urging the New Hampshire legislature to pass a bill allowing citizens to require state government to use gold and silver in payments to them.

==========

https://reinkefj.wordpress.com/2007/04/02/
writing-blog2book-project-interesting-conclusion-that-i-now-agree-whole-heartedly/

http://tinyurl.com/2yzlcu

Everybody Can Write One Good Book
by Sergei Boukhonine

Anyone can write an autobiography!

==========

https://reinkefj.wordpress.com/2007/04/02/
fun-italian-math/

http://tinyurl.com/2y9hg7

FUN: Italian math
April 2nd, 2007

An Italian man wants a job, but the foreman won’t hire him until he passes a little math test. “Here’s your first question,” the foreman said.

==========

https://reinkefj.wordpress.com/2007/04/02/
jobsearch-jibberjobber-offers-itself-at-a-discount/

http://tinyurl.com/2kbh9p

JOBSEARCH: JIBBERJOBBER offers itself at a discount
April 2nd, 2007

JibberJobber offers an 80% discount for a week!

==========
==========

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Posted by reinkefj

RANT: REALID has a racial aspect

Tuesday, April 3, 2007

http://www.downsizedc.org/blog/2007/apr/03/brazil_or_rwanda

“Brazil” or Rwanda
Today’s Downsizer-Dispatch . . .
Please share with concerned friends . . .
Subject: Ethnic ID
Perry Willis
Communications Director
DownsizeDC.org, Inc.

*** begin quote ***

No one intended it to happen. It was a small thing — just a few letters printed on identity cards. Certainly no one in the Belgian colonial government of Rwanda had any idea that the words “Hutu” and “Tutsi,” printed on pieces of paper, would later enable the murder of between half a million and a million people.

Likewise, no one in the Department of Homeland Security intends anything bad by establishing standards for REAL ID cards that include a designation of ethnicity. In fact, this is an entirely voluntary aspect of the REAL ID program. State governments can choose to designate ethnicity, or not.

*** end quote ***

Of course, it can’t happen here. Japanese internment aside. Governments kill their citizens! REALID is an abomination, or at least it should be, to all Americans.

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Posted by reinkefj

LIBERTY: Gary DeVercelly is a casualty of gooferment.

Tuesday, April 3, 2007

I thought there was an interesting juxtapose of two stories. I find anyone’s death very important. A young person, full of potential, even more so. Perhaps, the nanny state can’t substitute for parenting. AND, by that nanny state interfering with people parenting, children and young adults are put at risk.

{Story #1}

http://www.nbc4.tv/news/11469409/detail.html?subid=10101581

Long Beach Teen Dies in N.J. Frat Drinking Incident
POSTED: 6:41 am PDT March 31, 2007

LONG BEACH, Calif. — An autopsy is expected to be done Saturday on an 18-year- old Long Beach man who died after drinking a large of amount of vodka at a fraternity party at his New Jersey university. Gary DeVercelly, a freshman at Rider University, died Friday at a hospital in Trenton, N.J.

{Story #2}

http://www.lewrockwell.com/lora/m.lora33.html

Let Kids Buy Vodka!
by Manuel Lora

*** begin quote ***

Let’s share an anecdote. A few years ago I was at a bar with my wife’s family. It was a large group with several adults and some “underage” children. We all sat at the bar and ordered drinks. The bar tender saw my wife’s underage cousin (who had ordered a soft drink) and said that she could not sit there because of some law. So far so good right? This is something that we’re used to by now. Truth is: this kid’s mother was there. The law has replaced parental guidance.

So let’s see. Instead of parenting, we have laws and regulations, and greedy and faraway politicians. When kids break the law, however, the parents get blamed, not the politicians! How in the world does this make sense? Those in government want to have it both ways. They impose norms on society but they are almost legally untouchable when things go wrong.

How, then, do anti-vice laws strengthen communities? They do not. Instead of letting families set standards, these kinds of law break communities apart. What’s worse is that families that don’t even “get in trouble” still have to pay for the enforcement of others’ problems with the government in the form of taxes. One would wish that it stopped here but when the police begin to enforce vice laws (part of that eternal “victimless crime” category) they have to devote less time dealing with real crime like murders. Of course, the police department could hire more police, but this means more taxation and more enforcement of the same laws.

Parental responsibility involves having both the right and responsibility to set rules. This right belongs exclusively with the parents. The state has nothing to do with parenting at all.

*** end quote ***

So as I see it. the vice laws enforced by the gooferment caused this problem.

(1) The gooferment intrudes into parenting. Gives parents a false sense of security. Creates a “prison” (i.e., Rider University is a gooferment school) with “drug” problems.

(2) The gooferment diktats precludes people from learning about “drinking” from their parents in a safe environment where mistakes wouldn’t be fatal.

(3) Then the gooferment wants more diktats and budget to “solve” the very problem it creates.

When I first visited Vegas on a family trip, there was no speed limits, no drinking age, and no gambling age. I didn’t see any kids drinking, gambling, or hot rodding. And, I looked ’cause I was convinced I was in paradise. They even had legal prostitution. But, the family set a few rules of its own. And, I escaped sin city, virtue in tact.

We don’t need Mommy Government smothering us with “what’s good for us”. Nor do we need Father State throwing millions of us in jail for “our sins”. We need to just leave everyone alone to respect the rights of others.

I think that Gary DeVercelly is a casualty of gooferment. End the Drug War now!

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Posted by reinkefj

ADMINISTRIVIA: Attempt a BLOGLINES blog claim

Tuesday, April 3, 2007

<!– ckey=”3EE2EF9A” –>

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RANT: 1015 sports report this morning skipped the NCAA mens bball

Tuesday, April 3, 2007

I went to sleep before the end of the Florida – Ohio State mens bball game last night. (TV schedules don’t match my schedules. But, that a different rant.) So this morning, I was interested in who won. The 0609 sports report on 1015 had lots of commercials, the fact that many of the pro teams were idle (Who cares? I assume that, if you don’t report a score, then they didn’t play.) But nary a mention of the 2007 NCAA Final Game. In terms of significance, as if any “game” could be significant, the this has to rank right up there. But, no, no mention. Argh!

p.s., Florida won

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TECHNOLOGY: “free” WORDPRESS is too expensive

Tuesday, April 3, 2007

http://www.legalandrew.com/2007/03/29/
get-your-own-domain-and-wordpress-for-your-blog/

http://tinyurl.com/25e39j

Get Your Own Domain and WordPress for Your Blog
posted March 29, 2007 by Andrew Flusche

***Begin Quote***

Free hosts are great for the casual blogger, but they’re not right for companies or individuals wanting to distinguish themselves. The primary reason is control. If you own your domain and pay for hosting, you control your blog. You decide what you can and can’t do.

***End Quote***

Of course, being a giant turkey, and not knowing any different, I commented. How else does one learn?

Ferdinand Reinke says:

I guess I’ll say I don’t understand. Sorry, maybe I’m being a little dense. (1) What do I want to “control” that I can’t do on the free blog at WordPress? (2) I’ve been doing the “free thing” for over a year now and have a substantial amount of content on the free WordPress blog site. If you convinced me to move to a paid WordPress account somewhere, what would be the benefits, challenges, and migration activities? Maybe I’m just being more than a little dense, but I have not seen anything “bad” at the free WordPress offering. And, I think I’m pretty critical. Thanks for the education, fjohn

To which Andrew replied, both in his blog and by an email:

***begin quote***

Ferdinand,

I definitely don’t think WordPress.com is “bad.” In fact, for many bloggers, it’s a great option. It just wasn’t right for me, mostly because I didn’t have ultimate control over my blog. Here are some thoughts on limitations of a free blog:

With a free blog, you don’t actually own the domain or the blog. You’re just using someone else’s space. I like having the keys to my blog, and knowing that I can do anything I want; I’m not at someone else’s mercy.

Free blogs are inherently limited when it comes to customization. You’re usually stuck with a number of preset themes. WordPress has tons of plugins, but only certain widgets are allowed on WordPress.com.

You also can’t do some things on free platforms, due to the Terms of Service. One example is PayPerPost. We can debate the paid posting model, but the fact is that WordPress.com won’t allow you to do it. I like flexibility.

Migrating to your own custom WordPress installation shouldn’t be too hard. I did it last year. I copied each and every post from WordPress.com to my new installation. There’s probably a way to automate this, but I’m not sure. The biggest issue of migrating is that you’ll lose some referral and search traffic, if you’re not careful. You can put redirects on each old page, but this is time consuming. Once again, maybe there’s an automatic way for this to work.

Best of luck in whatever you decide,
Andrew

PS: I’m happy to help with a specific issue or question. I hope this answers some general questions.

***end quote***

Now, I know about the widget restriction. Javascript is basically verboten on the free site. And, I doubt I’d ever attract the readership to make any money out of this. So up to now, the idea of moving off the free site, never interested me. But, like bozos who use a hotmail email address for their jobsearch, maybe I am being “dense”. I started to look at WordPress’ preferred hosting vendors. One has some gripes about their availability and others are focused on webhosting with barely a mention of WordPress.

Have to think if that effort is worth the cost in dollars and attention.

One item of note: I found Legal Andrew as a result of a blog carnival hosted by Jason Alba of JibberJobber http://www.jibberjobber.com. So, one truly has to keep your eyes open and connect the dots to learn all the “tricks of the trade”. Blogging trade that is.

I was exchanging email with G. Lane Cavalier of “Connecting the World One Beverage at a Time” http://glcavalier.wordpress.com/ about my thoughts on this topic. I referred him to the blog and he came back and asked where I had blogged about it. Of course, being lost in the subject, I had forgotten to hang it out here. Duh. That’s for the reminder Lane. P.S.: Listening to my favorite podcast http://www.freetalklive.com I’ve been know to drive by my exit in the morning too.

Bottom line: I’m not sure that moving off the free WordPress is a good idea or easily done. Still thinking about that/

by ,

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Posted by reinkefj

INTERESTING: A new blogger who I think will give you an interesting read

Monday, April 2, 2007

http://glcavalier.wordpress.com/

“Connecting the World One Beverage at a Time”
by Cavalier, G. Lane [EUN] [LKDN] [PLX] [TRKY]

Note: You’ll notice that I have him “tagged” with certain badges. I use that to remind myself of key facts. He’s an Execunet-ite, a LinkedIn-ite, a Plaxo-ite, and is a member in good stand of the Loyal Order of Turkeys. The prime (only) qualification of that group is having been in “transition” at least once.

I think he’ll have many good things to say and I’ll be reading his blog. What higher recommendation can I give you?

Disclaimer: Lane is the Head Cheerleader of my Chicago Fan Club. (Yeah, I know. How did I acquire so many networking contacts in Chicago? Beats me. Just seems like every time a newly minted turkey wanders in for my help, there’s a Chicago connection. They’re from Chicago. They’d like to be from Chicago. They want to move to Chicago. They can spell Chicago. I have no idea. But I have so many, I actually have an Outlook email Distribution List called “My Chicago Turkeys”. It makes it easy to communicate with them as a group.)

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Posted by reinkefj

MONEY: James Turk urges New Hampshire to remonetize gold and silver

Monday, April 2, 2007

http://bbs.freetalklive.com/index.php?topic=12824.0

James Turk urges New Hampshire to remonetize gold and silver

***Begin Quote***

GoldMoney founder James Turk, editor of the Freemarket Gold & Money Report and consultant to GATA, is among those urging the New Hampshire legislature to pass a bill allowing citizens to require state government to use gold and silver in payments to them. Turk’s recent testimony to a New Hampshire legislative committee was published in the FG&MR this week and has been reprinted at Jim Puplava’s Financial Sense Internet site here:

http://www.financialsense.com/editorials/turk/2007/0326.html

To claim “economic rent” from someone Else’s labor when applied to land, which is something no one can own outright, is in itself, to claim landlord status over raw nature. It is an attempt at coercive monopoly power that is at the root of statism.

***End Quote***

I am as much of a gold bug as anyone. BUT, it doesn’t describe how the idea will work.

Says’ Law tells us that bad money will drive good out of circulation. So paying the Gooferment in gold or silver will not put gold or silver in circulation. The legal tender laws are what is the problem. It dictates that everyone has to take the fiat currency.

Even if bullion coins start to circulate, they won’t circulate very far. Logically, if you have a fist full of FRBies (Federal Reserve Bank pieces of paper) and an equivalent bag of gold coins, then which will you spend first?

Under the theory that you have to have an answers or options.

My personal strategy is to move a percentage of my savings into bullion coins. You can’t eliminate your use of FRBies. You can’t not save. You can’t know when the collapse is going to come.

SO what you do is think like y2k. No debt, prepare for societal breakdown, develop “real” skills, and allocate a portion of your savings to gold bullion coins.

Read about the hyperinflation in post-ww1 germany, and the other fiscal disasters.

Good Luck,
fjohn
from behind the lines in the
peepuls republik of nu jerseee

 

 

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Posted by reinkefj

WRITING: BLOG2BOOK project – Interesting conclusion that I now agree whole heartedly

Monday, April 2, 2007

http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig7/boukhonine8.html

Everybody Can Write One Good Book
by Sergei Boukhonine

***Begin Quote***

During out conversation, one lady shared a simple yet profound thought. In a nutshell, she said that most anyone can write one good book, or at least a few interesting and insightful articles. Most of us have quite a few interesting experiences under our belts.

***End Quote***

I think that that lady hit the ball right out of the park. Everybody can at least write an autobiography. And, in today’s inet, it can be found by anyone. And, like I found out with Lulu, you can actually have a real physical book cheaply.

Amazing.

I wonder what Gutenberg or Pi Sheng would have thought about it today.

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Posted by reinkefj

FUN: Italian math

Monday, April 2, 2007

An Italian man wants a job, but the foreman won’t hire him until he passes a little math test. “Here’s your first question,” the foreman said.

“Without using numbers, represent the number 9.”

“Without numbers?” the Italian says, “Datsa easy.” and he proceeds to draw three trees.

“What’s this?” the boss asks.

“Ave you got no brain? Tree and tree and tree makea nine,” says the Italian.

“Fair enough,” says the boss. “Here’s your second question. Use the same rules, but this time the number is 99.”

The Italian stares into space for a while, then picks up the picture that he has just drawn and makes a smudge on each tree. “Ere a you go.”

The boss scratches his head and says, “How on earth do you get that to represent 99 ?”

“Each of da trees isa dirty now. So, it’s dirty tree, and dirty tree, and dirty tree. Dat is 99.”

The boss is getting worried that he’s going to actually have to hi re this Italian, so he says, “All right, last question. Same rules again, but represent the number 100.”

The Italian stares into space some more, then he picks up the picture again and makes a little mark at the base of each tree and says, “Ere you go. One hundred.”
The boss looks at the attempt. “You must be nuts if you think that represents a hundred!”

 

 

 

 

 

(You’re going to love this one!!!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Italian leans forward and points to the marks at the base of each tree and says, “A little doga came along and crapa by eacha tree. So now you gota dirty tree and a turd, dirty tree and a turd, and dirty tree and a turd, datsa makea one hundred. So, when I’m a gonna start?”

###

Courtsey of one of Frau’s High School buddies purportedly from Lucille Centonze, a US IBM-er

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JOBSEARCH: JIBBERJOBBER offers itself at a discount

Monday, April 2, 2007

http://www.jibberjobber.com/

***Begin Quote***

JibberJobber 01

 

***End Quote***

I like this service. Not at 500$, but at a 100$ it’s a bargain. Or, you can always be a monthly. Of all the ideas that I have seen pitched to those in transitions, this certainly is one of the best. I can tell you that this is not some type of scams aimed at separating the newly out of work from their savings.It surely won’t get you a job, but it will force you to be disciplined about your activities.

Can you duplicate it on your own? Maybe. Can you do without it? Sure Can you exploit it to you benefit for 100$? Absolutely.

Disclaimer: I’ve been one of Jason’s “critical testers” for a few months now in response to a mutual friend asking me to “kick the tires”. As Jason will attest and as I have blogged here, I kicked pretty hard! Some of the features, he put in in response to my “suggestions”. Some, he ignored. All I can tell you is I like it, the wheel don’t fall off when you use it, and you can get your data out of it if you change your mind.

If a new transitioning turkey, or one of those complacent “I gotta job” people, asked for a list of things they could spend money on to aid in their current or future job search, this would be one of three things on that list.

###

3 Comments | JOBSEARCH | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj

INTERESTING: One Of The Smartest Things I Ever Did

Sunday, April 1, 2007

http://www.thomsinger.blogspot.com/

Sunday, April 01, 2007
One Of The Smartest Things I Ever Did

***Begin Quote***

One of my favorite bloggers is Mike Sigers of The Simplenomics Blog. I discovered a link to a nice post on The Self Help Blog that I think is a great idea. The author encourages bloggers everywhere to write a post titled “One Of The Smartest Things I Ever Did” (you must leave out getting married or having kids, as that is a given for many).

***End Quote***

http://selfhelpdaily.com/one-of-the-smartest-things-i-ever-did-was/

One of the Smartest Things I Ever Did Was…
March 28th, 2007 · 2 Comments

***Begin Quote***

But I’m even a firmer believer in sharing with others. Whether it’s clothing, money, food, or advice – we should never hold onto anything that could help another person. That’s why I thought of an idea that might be kind of cool. If you have a blog, I propose that you do this: In an upcoming post, write about One of the Smartest Things You Ever Did. Then, encourage your readers to do the same.

***and***

One of the smartest things I ever did was instill a love of reading in my daughters. They have been very, very successful in their studies and they score way above average on any test set in front of them. I think a lot of this comes from the fact that they’ve always been voracious readers.

***End Quote***

This challenge was relatively easy.

In High School, I was open to take a chance. Took it, did well, and it set me in a “rut” / “groove” for the rest of my life.

When I was in Manhattan Prep High School, one of the Christian Brothers from Manhattan College came in towards the end of my junior year and said he was interested in hiring some of us to work in the Manhattan College data center. To qualify, we had to learn something called a “computer language”. He’d teach us for an hour in the morning before class, we’d have to give up our lunch, and a few Saturdays. After 6 weeks of torture, we’d have an exam. He’d hire the top people for his datacenter at the stunning sum of $4 an hour. (It was a long time ago!). We could then have up to forty hours a week assuming we got working papers. (I already had my for my various summer jobs. My Mom thought “idle hands”! And I got to keep HALF of what I earned. I called her share GRAFT! The split was AFTER tax. Any wonder I HATE taxes!) Despite all my peers telling me I was nuts to “give up” all that time, I signed up. (Surprising since I was very subject to peer pressure.) I was motivated by the money! I jumped thru his hoops, and surprise surprise, despite being a smart but mediocre student, I was the top scorer in his test with a 98. I later learned that this was CDC’s Systems Programmming Test, CDC used to decide if they would allow customers to touch their operating system. The Brother had only gotten a 96 on it. (I still think the question I missed was ambiguous. And, told everyone why! NO good.) From there it was like I was in a groove. I made lots of money, met the Engineering Faculty of the College, decided to go Electrical Engineering, and was the Number #2 guru of the computer center. Sophomore Year of College, I met the fellow running the AT&T Treasury datacenter and found out that they were paying $14/hour. So I started to do both. I graduated (surprisingly) with the lowest index 2.0106 [It was the 6 that won!], won the anchor pool (~$400), and had the highest starting salary (AT&T made my a Senior Systems Programmer making 65k PLUS OVERTIME!?!) I was happy. The best time in my life! It set me on a path that I have been following ever since. I wonder how things would have been otherwise?

But clearly, it was one of MY first conscious decisions (i.e., sacrifice time for training that translated to earning power). And, it turned out well? So I’d call it the best decision I ever made.

Thanks for letting me play in your “challenge”.

###

2 Comments | INTERESTING | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj

WRITING: One of my “pithy” gooferment comments slips into a good resource

Sunday, April 1, 2007

RISKS-LIST: Risks-Forum Digest Saturday 31 March 2007 Volume 24 : Issue 61
ACM FORUM ON RISKS TO THE PUBLIC IN COMPUTERS AND RELATED SYSTEMS (comp.risks)
Peter G. Neumann, moderator, chmn ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy

This issue is archived at <http://www.risks.org> as
<http://catless.ncl.ac.uk/Risks/24.61.html>

***Begin Quote***

Date: Tue, 20 Mar 2007 14:49:52 PDT
From: “Peter G. Neumann”
Subject: Alaska Government worker formats wrong disks, backups unreadable

A computer technician accidentally wiped out Alaska’s huge data file (and the backup disk) containing nine months worth of information on the annual payout from the state fund (reportedly worth \$38 billion) that pays dividends to Alaskans out of the oil revenues. Seventy people had to work overtime for six weeks to re-enter the lost data from 300 boxes of paper. The error cost the state \$220,000 in overtime and consultants. [Source: CNN, 20 Mar 2007; PGN-ed, with thanks to Lauren Weinstein.]

[F. John Reinke also spotted this one (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17702021/) and commented:

Gooferment IT at its best. Great design and architecture. How come the only two copies of the data were in the same time zone? Where was security that one “custodian” could access both copies? Where was IT Leadership that had processes and procedures that could fail so miserably? An interesting object lesson. In business, there would be terminations for all involved. FJR

PGN]

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Makes my day when I get included in RISKS. Peter is a fussy editor (Sorry, Peter.) And, he rejects or ignores some of my submissions. But every once in a while, I slip one by the “catcher”.

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LIBERTY: A usually apolitical newsletter steps on my “tax” toe. Kabooom!

Sunday, April 1, 2007

http://www.resourceshelf.com

ResourceShelf Newsletter 303

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—–Original Message—–
From: Gary Price
Sent: Thursday, March 22, 2007 11:50 AM
Subject: ResourceShelf Newsletter 303

ResourceShelf Newsletter
Number 303 March 22, 2007
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Resource of the Week: National Library Service for the Blind and Physically
Handicapped

By Shirl Kennedy, Senior Editor

National Library Week isn’t until next month (April 15-21), but an
interesting press release from the Library of Congress (LoC) crossed our
radar screen this week describing the extensive services of LoC’s National
Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS). We felt that
this outstanding free program — now in its 75th year of operation (who
knew?) deserved some attention. In an era of large-scale government waste,
fraud and abuse, Resource of the Week: National Library Service for the
Blind and Physically Handicapped

By Shirl Kennedy, Senior Editor

National Library Week isn’t until next month (April 15-21), but an
interesting press release from the Library of Congress (LoC) crossed our
radar screen this week describing the extensive services of LoC’s National
Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS). We felt that
this outstanding free program — now in its 75th year of operation (who
knew?) deserved some attention. In an era of large-scale government waste,
fraud and abuse, this service is truly an excellent use of your tax
dollars..

{Extraneous Deleted}

***End Quote***

—–Original Message—–
From: r at reinke dot cc
Sent: Saturday, March 31, 2007 12:01 PM
To: Shirl Kennedy
Cc: Gary Price
Subject: RE: ResourceShelf Newsletter 303

> this service is truly an excellent use of your tax dollars.

Dear Ms. Shirl,

At risk of being considered a grinch, hateful, or a loon, permit me to object to an “excellent use”.

Taxes are theft. AND, when you have to use force to fund something, then that to me is the hallmark of a bad idea.

You have to take into account the “hidden costs” view as first expressed by Frederic Bastiat, 1850 http://bastiat.org/en/twisatwins.html and think about what is precluded by this “excellent use”.

Taxes, and their “excellent uses”, are immoral, ineffective, and inefficient.

They are immoral because you are initiating force on another human being.
You have no right, authority, or justification to do that. By benefiting from that force, one becomes complicit it the brutality of it.

They are ineffective because while this may be an “excellent use”, you can’t tell what better “excellent uses” were precluded from being created. When the government gives a “free good”, it is impossible to compete with it. If a service is provided by a marketplace, it is “molded” by competitive pressures. It has to deliver value for what it charges. It is also necessary to attract paying users or it shuts down. When do gooferment programs “close down”? Never.

They are inefficient because you are paying a tremendous overhead. The gooferment makes it impossible to measure precisely how inefficient, but in the USA the federal “handling fee” is guesstimated between 50 and 75%. So, if the Federal Government does something, anything, it is by definition more expensive than if has to be. For example, the Salvation Army has an overhead of about 15% and the 911 Fund (gooferment run) was in the 80% range.

So, let’s talk about the “excellent use” that you cited.

If there was a real need and no gooferment program occupying the “space”, then there would be a business or charity to fulfill that demand. I don’t think, even with the tax load USA-ites are under, they would have any trouble raising funds. Look at the 911 fund, the Tsunami, or Katrina.

Add in the fact, that the gooferment denies us the opportunity to be charitable, and deny us the ability to properly “choose” and supervise our donations.

So, I would urge you to reconsider your cavalier attitude to basically what is “loot”. There are NO “excellent uses” for taxes except refunds to the payers!

IMHO,
fjohn

{Note: Challenge “socialist” thinking at every opportunity. Good people are deluded by the gooferment’s propaganda into thinking that gooferment can do anything that we could not do better, cheaper, or faster if left on our own. The Intelligent Designer gave us brains. Let’s use them. From time immemorial, us weak hairless monkeys have taken over the planet by VOLUNTARY cooperation towards mutual goals. Only recently, have some of use been infected with this mental virus of “socialism”. The meme of “government” has hurt us worse than any other idea in our history. Perhaps, “religion” but that’s another topic for another day.}

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Posted by reinkefj

TECHNOLOGY: Here’s a interesting little toy?

Sunday, April 1, 2007

http://www.sowesay.com/

So We Say

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SoWeSay, a company created by two Yahoo alumni, launched the first symbiotic social networking site (www.sowesay.com) that allows users the freedom to create profiles, rate and review anyone they know or encounter online and offline. SoWeSay also gives users a powerful social networking tool “SayWhat?” to gain candid feedback from anyone. SoWeSay is the fun destination to find, share and learn about new individuals directly from the people who know them best.

***End Quote***

Now using my amazing power of negative thinking, I would think this would be a good place to place the “LEAD WEIGHTS” in one’s life. I think their methodology is flawed unless one wants to be incredibly negative about someone. All a bozo will see is negativity.

Correct me if I am wrong?

I don’t think our brains are wired this way. IMHO it only works by pair-wise comparison. For example, even if we accept their dimensions of “Generosity, Intelligence, Likeability, Sense of Humor, and Trustworthiness” — I’d have my own as would you –, how can you rate “likeability” on a sliding scale. I can say that I like X more than Y, or I like X, or I dislike Y, but to slide the “likeability” bar. Nah, I’m no psysicy-ologist just an old injineer who can’t spell them bug wurds. My brain doesn’t work that way

And, to put someone on this site, you really have to know a lot about them.

So imho it’s a good page for the lead weights in your life.

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