Day: August 17, 2007

LIBERTY: Suspend pursuit and give sanctuary to the little people

Published on by reinkefjLeave a comment

http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MikeGallagher/
2007/08/17/churches_have_no_business_harboring_illegals

Churches have no business harboring illegals
By Mike Gallagher
Friday, August 17, 2007

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What happens when a criminal who seeks and receives sanctuary in a church in order to escape prosecution eventually leaves the church?

Good-bye, sanctuary.

Hello, real world.

The soap opera of a woman named Elvira who repeatedly snuck into our country in order to take a job and defy immigration laws is like an episode right out of “The Twilight Zone.” Somehow, she managed to find herself at the doorstep of some Methodist Church in Chicago.

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Sorry, I grew up on Robin Hood movie where the Church gave sanctuary from the King and the pueblo Franciscan gave sanctuary to the poor Mexican peasants. If an escaping slave in pre-Civil War America took refuge in a Church, then shouldn’t the practice of sanctuary have protected him.

If fact, imho, the First Amendment renders the gooferment impotent when it comes to Churches. Churches generically including all Houses of Worship. Just as we’ll free a hundred guilty men to keep one innocent man from being wrongly convicted, so to we will suspend our pursuits of “evil doers” when Houses of Worship are involved.

Now, let’s examine the validity of “immigration law”. Working within the historical perspective of Dred Scott, not every law is to be obeyed. On what Constitutional basis does Congress derive the power to regulate immigration. Seems from my reading that it is a topic that was left with the individual States.

Now let’s think about stray cats and the Statue of Liberty. If you feed stray cats, then don’t be surprised when you are overrun by freeloaders. One of the problems I have with soup kitchens feeding the “homeless” is that it encourages more “homeless”. The Statue of Liberty states America’s willingness to accept ALL yearning to be free. And, willing to work to earn their keep. So immigration law is to prevent freeloading immigrants. But, I object to freeloading natives just as much. So if we eliminate welfare, free medical care, and free education, then we can also eliminate the concept of “illegal immigrant”. I envision the “immigration fence” replaced with a red carpet that says “Welcome to America”, right this way for your free physical, and “do you need any directions?”. We make the operator of the plane or boat responsible for the return trip of the sick or criminals. And open up the Golden Door.

America can be the shining city again.

Sorry, Mike Gallagher, I think your wrong about sanctuary. The conservative big gooferment statists are as wrong as the liberal big gooferment statists. It’s only with a return to the Original Intent will we find the energy that made America a once great nation. Gooferment only makes all of us poorer and less free.

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FUN: Tagging as a good bit of Friday fun

Published on by reinkefj2 Comments

I got tagged by G. Lane Cavalier at http://glcavalier.wordpress.com. Who obviously has too much time on his hands and will do anything to avoid studying his Japanese. You can track back “Tagging” by visiting all the sites that have participated in this foolishness. You might even find something useful in this whole exercise..

*** begin quote ***
The Rules:
1. Post these rules before you give you the facts.
2. List 8 random facts about yourself.
3. At the end of your post, choose (tag) 8 people and list their names (linking to them).
4. Leave them a comment on their blog letting them know they’ve been tagged!
*** end quote ***

Quibble: Rule#1 has been garbled in transmission and I’m too lazy to track it back. I will guess that it should either read “you give your facts” or “you give the facts about yourself”. Hmmm, does a flawed rule mean that you can toss the whole thing? Since I have a huge ego, I’ll go along with he gag. But I doubt I have eight bloggers to tag.

8 Facts about me:

  1. In grammar school, after having been caught throwing paper airplanes on a Friday, I was given the punish lesson to make and number 100,000 by Monday. I called my Mom to bring a numbering machine home from work. And, did you know you can make a paper airplane in four folds that will fly. I was tired of paper airplanes after that.
  2. I served 4 Years in the USAF, and despite going to the three survival schools — air, water, and ground — other than basic training and the survival schools, I never left Maryland.
  3. I’ve traveled by car in 49 of the 50 states.
  4. My wife and I hung out in the same bar for at least a year before we met at my cousin’s wedding, but never met at that bar. She knew most of my bar friends, but never saw me there. (Maybe I was under the table by the time she’d arrive after work.)
  5. I was awarded the Joint Service Commendation Medal for my computer representation of non-English non-Cyrillic languages while assigned to the National security Agency. (As a result of that work, when I was discharged, I was designated as a ‘key intelligence asset’, had a twenty year restriction on foreign travel, and had to file an annual reports on myself and any contacts with foreign nationals. Arghhh!)
  6. In 2004, I had been to every major league baseball stadium at least once.
  7. I’m not “lucky”, but I am an observant injineer. When I was in LasVegas for Comdex, the Rivera was just introducing “loyalty rewards”. On slot machines, they put in ticket dispensers that counted down your play with each coin you gambled. When it reached zero, it spit out a ticket. You could redeem the ticket for prizes. Like a carnival. I realized that people would not leave a slot machine with a low number on it unless they went broke. Thus, the low number was an indicator that the slot hadn’t hit lately. Each break in Comdex session, I get twenty bucks and go play the “low count” slots. I won 22k in two days — several times summoning my wife to wait for the payoff so I could go back to the session. By the next trip 2 months later, when I was ready to kill ’em, they changed the system. Argh!
  8. I am an introvert. As such, I was great as a systems programmer in college. I love the internet because I can avoid people. :-) Like GLaneC!

Here are the Taggee’s:

Kent Blumberg http://kentblumberg.typepad.com
Andrew Flusche http://www.legalandrew.com
Liz Handlin http://ultimate-resumes.blogspot.com
Dave Opton http://execunet.blogspot.com/
Andy Roberts http://distributedresearch.net
Dave Taylor http://www.intuitive.com/blog/
Des Walsh http://www.thinkinghomebusiness.com
Vincent Wright http://linkedinbusinessdiscussionindex.blogspot.com/

(I’m astonished that I could come up with eight.)

FJohn

Categories FUN

MONEY: Creating a ladder

Published on by reinkefj1 Comment

No, not the kind you use to climb to the roof of your house, but the financial kind.

With the recent shakiness in the market, someone has asked me about my blog post about CD ladders. So, here’s a sanitized version of the advice I gave him.

You might be interested in a ladder to maximize the interest your receive on the savings part of your portfolio, you might want diversification to minimize risk, or you want a flow of readily available cash without forgoing a higher interest rate.

In building a ladder, you can use certificates of deposit, treasury bills and notes, or bonds. Regardless of what you use, the principles are the same.

For sake of discussion, let’s look at a simple ladder. Here’s a four quarter four year ladder:

Year Qtr1 Qtr2 Qtr3 Qtr4  
0          
1          
2          
3          
4          

Now assuming that you have 16K$ to invest, how do you: set it up, maintain it, and shut it down.

Let’s assume you are doing this at a credit union (I love credit unions.) where they have a full spectrum of terms available and a 1k$ minimum.

You walk in on January 2nd with your 16k$ and buy A one year, two year, three year, and a four year cd for 1k$ each. You also buy a Ninety day, One Hundred Eighty day, and a Two Hundred Seventy day cd for 4k$ each.

Now your ladder looks like this.

Year Qtr1 Qtr2 Qtr3 Qtr4  
0   4 4 4  
1 1        
2 1        
3 1        
4 1        

On the first business day of each quarter, you go in and redeem your maturing 4k$ cd. They will pay you some small amount of interest. So buy a one year, two year, three year, for 1k$. And a four year cd for 1k$ plus the interest.

Now your ladder looks like this:

Year Qtr1 Qtr2 Qtr3 Qtr4  
0          
1 1 1 1 1  
2 1 1 1 1  
3 1 1 1 1  
4 1 1+ 1+ 1+  

And, you are in “maintenance” mode.

Each quarter, you go in, redeem your maturing cd, and buy a four year cd for the matured amount.

Now your ladder looks like this at the end of year 1:

Year Qtr1 Qtr2 Qtr3 Qtr4  
1          
2 1 1 1 1  
3 1 1 1 1  
4 1 1 1 1  
5 1+ 1+ 1+ 1+  

Now, to just close the ladder out, you can just take every maturing CD as they come due.

OR if you are saving a big purchase like a car or college education, you may wish to “unwind” it.

Let say at the end of year 21, you are buying a house. in Year 17 you wish to begin to “unwind” it for year 20. It’s really simple. In Year 17, instead of buying the Four Year cd, you would buy a Three Year cd. In year 18, instead of buying a Four Year cd, you would buy a Two Year cd. In Year 19, instead of buying a Four Year cd, you would buy a Two Year CD. In Year 20, instead of buying a Four Year cd, you would buy a One Year CD.

In Year 21, with the First Quarter cd, you’d roll it over into a 270 day cd. Similarly, Second Quarter would roll into a 180 day cd. Third Quarter rolls into a 90 day cd. In the Fourth Quarter of Year 21, you redeem all the cds for the new house.

That’s how a ladder works.

Why do it?

* You are always getting the highest rate of interest.

* You always have cash becoming available for emergencies.

* You are minimizing your risk of interest rate fluctuations.

What is it useful for?

* You can have your own little annuity or steady pension plan (i.e., take the interest and reinvest the principle).

* You can have an emergency fund when you need it that earns a little more interest.

* Your savings can keep pace with inflation.

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GUNS: You have a right to defend yourself, your family, and your community

Published on by reinkefjLeave a comment

http://www.gazette.com/opinion/county_25986___article.html/sick_time.ht

Unarmed lawmaker mugged by reality
– Colorado Springs Gazette (Second article)

***Begin Quote***

The Colorado Springs Gazette writes: “We wouldnt wish getting mugged on anyone; being the victim of a violent crime is a terrifying experience. But we do hope other anti-firearms legislators can learn from DeBoses experience and realize that people have a right to defend themselves and their loved ones. In a free society, the government shouldnt prevent them from doing so.”

***End Quote***

The Right of the People to Keep and Bear Arms shall not be infringed.

Dead Old white Guys were pretty smart!

Too bad we’re so dumb. The police are just the clean up squad. By definition, they can’t arrive until after trouble starts. Like the bumper sticker says “Dial 911 and die!”.

It is ironic when the anti-gun legislator wishes he had a gun. Usually the “elite” vote themselves special privileges. Wonder how he felt being part of the serf class?

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INTERESTING: Imus Sued by Rutgers Basketball Player

Published on by reinkefjLeave a comment

http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/Story?id=3479449&page=2

Don Imus Sued by Rutgers Basketball Player
Star Center Kia Vaughn Names Imus, NBC, CBS in Civil Suit

***Begin Quote***

Earlier today, The Associated Press reported that Imus had reached a multimillion-dollar settlement with former employer CBS over his firing. ABC News has learned that Imus could be back to broadcasting as early as January, and is being courted by major media outlets. That settlement, said Ancowitz, rewards Imus while leaving little justice for the women of the Rutgers basketball team.

“He’s come out smelling like quite the rose. But what about these young women? How does Imus’ victory affect their self-esteem? Where do they go to get their reputations back?”

***End Quote***

Stick ‘n’ stones … …

I guess it’s not about one’s reputation, but the dead presidents.

While what Imus said was deplorable, and as a RU women’s bball fan I think he should take some lumps about it, there was an element of truth in his statement. He was comparing the LadyVols to the LadyKnights and there is definitely a difference in appearance.

Of course, saying that wouldn’t get him big ratings, so he had to say it in a more shocking fashion.

The moral umbrage of the politicians is understandable. They need to get their mug in front of the parade. (Remember where Gov Corzine was going when he wasn’t wearing his seat belt.) Politicians and bureaucrats can always be counted on to create a problem and then rush to “solve” it in such a way as it benefits them.

The RU women had the 15 minutes of fame and now will resume their proper place in the Universe. Reputations? There’s no doubt that Imus’ remarks were hurtful. But really, damage to a reputation? Sorry, I don’t see it.

A more interesting question is “does women’s basketball to closely emulate the man’s game?” In our “equality” society, are men and women truly equal? We send our women to die in foreign lands in the name of gender equality. But is that the “best” use of human talents?

Then, move on to the question of equality. Can men and women ever be truly “equal”? Are they not the complementary half of the male. If one has to halves of the clue, then can you say that one is “better” than the other. One is no good without the other. There is no “better”. there is no “equality”.

Of course, it would be easy to observe that both schools are gooferment creatures (i.e., state funded institutions of “higher learning”). Hence, they shouldn’t exist.

So, perhaps this is just about extracting some loose change.

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