POLITICAL: Poor in the USA is a joke

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

http://www.intellectualconservative.com/2007/09/10/american-poverty

September 10, 2007
American Poverty
By Lisa Fabrizio

*** begin quote ***

The Heritage Foundation’s Robert E. Rector has written a fine piece cataloging the Census Bureau’s statistics and linked to all the pertinent data. If you’re anything like me, some of the highlights might not surprise you:

* Forty-three percent of all poor households actu­ally own their own homes. The average home owned by persons classified as poor by the Census Bureau is a three-bedroom house with one-and-a-half baths, a garage, and a porch or patio.

* Eighty percent of poor households have air conditioning. By contrast, in 1970, only 36 percent of the entire U.S. population enjoyed air conditioning.

* Only 6 percent of poor households are over­crowded. More than two-thirds have more than two rooms per person.

* The average poor American has more living space than the average individual living in Paris, London, Vienna, Athens, and other cities throughout Europe. (These comparisons are to the average citizens in foreign countries, not to those classified as poor.)

* Nearly three-quarters of poor households own a car; 31 percent own two or more cars.

* Ninety-seven percent of poor households have a color television; over half own two or more color televisions.

* Seventy-eight percent have a VCR or DVD player; 62 percent have cable or satellite TV reception.

* Eighty-nine percent own microwave ovens, more than half have a stereo, and more than a third have an automatic dishwasher.

The point being, that the depth of poverty that exists in too much of the world is basically nonexistent here. But although our poor are better off than those in most of the world — so much so that millions of impoverished foreigners are willing to risk their lives and break our laws to join them — some Americans do live in unfortunate, if not dire, circumstances. Of course, the major difference is that the poor in this country have the opportunity to improve their lot.

*** end quote ***

Here are two reasons why we have to get the gooferment out of the “war on poverty”. (1) Poor in the USA is not the same as poor elsewhere on the globe. (2) They demotivate people from working — both the takers who could work and the makers who say why should I bother to make more.

I learned this lesson when some TV show interviewed an illegal from Africa and asked why did he want to come to America. His astute reply “here poor people are fat”.

How “fat” we don’t ever realize.

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INTERESTING: when your hardware lets you down

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

http://www.i-am-bored.com/bored_link.cfm?link_id=25171

Based on my readings of Edward De Bono, I really began to grok:

* paradigm (a philosophical and theoretical framework of a scientific school or discipline within which theories, laws, and generalizations and the experiments performed in support of them are formulated; broadly : a philosophical or theoretical framework of any kind )

* perception (how our hardware influences our software to fool us)

AND

* meme (a convenient way of discussing “a piece of thought copied from person to person”)

Here’s an excellent example of how our hardware fools our software into thinking that is “wrong”.

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GOLDBUG: what are the Chinese going to do with 5T of worthless green paper

Monday, September 17, 2007

http://www.lewrockwell.com/north/north565.html

Bernanke’s Speech on September 18
by Gary North

*** begin quote ***

“We need a return to the free market. No more central bank follies in trying to set an appropriate interest rate – any interest rate. Let borrowers and lenders work this out among themselves. Why should anyone trust a group of academic economists with tenured positions in a government-created monopoly? I can’t think of a good reason.”

*** end quote ***

The Learned Lord North’s attempt to put words into “Helicopter” Ben’s mouth is amusing. At least, there’s no record of him advocating the Gold Standard like Greenspan and losing his mind when he became Fed Chairman. Like Darth Vader, Greenspan turned to the dark side — fiat money. Ben is just inexperienced in the obfuscation. When this Ponzi scheme runs out, maybe the people will be in the streets looking for someone’s head. I’m sure that all the FED will be “off shore”.

No, until we get honest money, we will all be poor and tempest tossed. The only humor is what are the Chinese going to do with 5T of worthless green paper.

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MONEY: One facet of advice is “immoral” imho

Monday, September 17, 2007

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=57563

Use salary hike to pay off debt
Posted: September 11, 2007 1:00 a.m. Eastern
Dave Ramsey is a nationally syndicated radio talk-show host and best-selling author. His life experience gives him an unusually deep perspective and insight into life and money matters.

*** begin quote ***

Dear Dave,

I’ll be graduating college in December with a degree in elementary education, and I have a job waiting for me. It will be the first time in my life I’ve made more than minimum wage, and it will bring our household income up to about $75,000. I’ve got $15,000 in student loan debt, $6,000 to pay off from a repossession a while back and $3,000 in credit card debt. How should I handle this salary increase?

Mickey

Dear Mickey,

Congratulations on your degree and the decision to get serious with a plan for your money! And here’s some more good news for you. If you guys keep living the way you have been and put the rest toward debt, you can have it knocked out in about a year.

But just because you’re making some money doesn’t mean you should double your entertainment budget or pick up a car payment. Sit down together and work out a written monthly budget. Give every dollar a name before you spend it, and don’t forget to work the debt snowball, too. List your debts from smallest to largest, pay minimum payments on the two largest and then attack that credit card debt with a vengeance! Chances are you can get these taken care of in a month or two. Once you’ve paid that off, roll the money from that payment over and apply it plus any other cash you can scrape up toward the car repo. If that debt has any age on it you can probably work a deal for 50 cents on the dollar and get out paying just half.

Once you done this, you’ll have a bunch of cash to throw at those students loans and get the debt off your back once and for all. Good luck, Mickey!

Dave

***End Quote***

I like Dave. He’s one of the sources I often cite. He wants people to be debt free. Admirable, but I’m not sure that I agree with that strategy.

Here’s a classic case of that disagreement.

I think that there is “good debt” and “bad debt”.

“Good debt” is a 30 year fixed home mortgage, a fixed rate student loan for an education that earns income, or such. I’ll even go so far as to call a fixed rate credit union car loan that is tuned to the depreciation of the car and enables one to earn a living as a “good” debt. I think that he’s wrong to characterize these in the same way as “bad debt”. The credit cards, the car leases, the home equity loans for frivolous purposes. Anything that is a variable interest rate.

I think that he ignores the tax aspects of some transactions. And, his advice borders on the immoral. (Which is why I’m blogging about it!)

Let’s take the example at hand.

There’s no disagreement about the credit card debt. That needs nuking right away. The fact that there is credit card debt implies that the person doesn’t have a budget. Which is really not OK. Even though lot’s of people do it. (When you don’t have a destination, any road is going your way.)

Where I have a moral quibble is about settling the repo for pennies on the dollar. Just because when CAN do it, doesn’t make it morally right to do it. If the person borrowed it and got repoed, they are MORALLY obligated to pay the whole thing. It’s about doing the right thing.

Now on to the “student loan”. I’m assuming that it’s a typical fixed rate low interest student loan. I’ll quibble about paying that off early.

I’d be stressing an emergency fund. (Maybe even before paying off the credit card or the repo!) I’d want a savings account equal to an appropriate number of months of the “burn rate”. The number of months is determined by how long it would take to replace the income stream.

After the efund, credit card, and repo, but before the student loan, I’d be thinking IRA. (Early money is so much more important than late money.)

Then, I’d be thinking of home ownership.

Those are two tax advantaged investments that shouldn’t be ignored in a sem-religious fervor to be “debt free”.

IMHO, I think he’s wrong. But, he’s the big columnist and I’m just an injineer. And, in the case of the repo, I think his advice is “immoral” which is why I took the time to write this post. Just a voice crying in the wilderness.

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POLITICAL: What options did we preclude

Sunday, September 16, 2007

http://www.lewrockwell.com/woods/woods81.html

What the Warfare State Really Costs
by Thomas E. Woods, Jr.

*** begin quote ***

Once again we are faced with opportunity costs. “The full costs of mortgaging the nation’s high technology policy to the Pentagon can be measured only by the lost opportunities to have done things differently,” writes Stuart Leslie. “No one now can go back to the beginning of the Cold War and follow those paths not taken. No one can assert with any confidence exactly where a science and technology driven by other assumptions and priorities would have taken us.”

If we are to come up with some idea of the impoverishing effects of the military establishment, it must include, at the very least, the factors we have described here. These additional costs of the warfare state help us to realize that it isn’t just war, but also the preparation for war, that is, in the words of Gen. Smedley Butler, a racket.

*** end quote ***

So once again, we learn from Basat. What options were crowded out by the choice we made? In the Trillions of dollars spent wastefully on the Military Industrial complex that Eisenhower warned us about, we can only imagine what could have been. Sigh! From Woods article, we can’t even begin to guess the miracles that could have been. Like abortion, it cuts off whole lineages of people and ideas.

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GLOBAL: Islam’s veil is symptom of their problem

Sunday, September 16, 2007

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=57573

Head of Reform Judaism says wearing veil should be respected
Posted: September 11, 2007 1:00 a.m. Eastern
Dennis Prager

*** begin quote ***

Anyone with even a cursory knowledge of fundamentalist Muslim culture – whether in the Muslim world or in the West – knows that, given the social, religious and familial pressures on women to wear a veil, the veil is not worn voluntarily in any meaningful sense of the word.

But while the rabbi respects Muslim women who choose to wear the veil, he had words of contempt for American women who choose to dress like Lindsay Lohan. Like others on the left, Rabbi Yoffie only has standards for Westerners, especially Americans, not for other cultures. It is the left’s soft bigotry of low expectations that has often been noted.

*** end quote ***

Well in my world view, everyone can do what they want to the extent that it doesn’t infringe on their neighbor’s rights.

If that section of the globe wants to disempower half of their population, then that’s their problem. Not mine.

I agree that the “liberal left” in the USA gives people a pass instead of expecting high performance.

As far as women “volunteering” to hide behind a veil, that’s fine. You only have the rights you are willing to fight for. It’s been that way since the dawn of time.

In the USA, we have to respect religion as a right enshrined in the Constitution. The gooferment has to tread lightly. We, as people, don’t. If you’re out in wackyland, I can call you on it. Just as you can, me.

I want everyone in the USA to be all that they can be.

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RANT: Walter E. Williams calls politicians what they are

Saturday, September 15, 2007

http://www.townhall.com/columnists/WalterEWilliams/2007/09/12/insulting_blacks

Insulting Blacks
By Walter E. Williams
Wednesday, September 12, 2007

*** begin quote ***

“I don’t feel no ways tired. I come too far from where I started from. Nobody told me that the road would be easy. I don’t believe He brought me this far,” drawled presidential aspirant Hillary Clinton, mimicking black voice to a black audience, at the First Baptist Church of Selma, Alabama. I’m wondering if Mrs. Clinton visits an Indian reservation she might cozy up to them saying, “How! Me not tired. Me come heap long way. Road mighty rough. Sky Spirit no bring me this far.” Or, seeking the Asian vote she might say, “I no wray tired. Come too far I started flum. Road berry clooked. Number one Dragon King take me far.”

*** end quote ***

Politicians pander. And, anyone who’s fooled by them is just a sheep to be shorn!

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POLITICAL: Ron Paul at USC

Saturday, September 15, 2007

http://redstateeclectic.typepad.com/redstate_commentary/2007/09/ron-paul-rally-.html

It’s most interesting how energetic he is espousing the principles of liberty. Makes me think we are back in the Revolutionary War times. Call out the militia. It’s time to take back the high moral ground.

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RANT: Military politicians?

Saturday, September 15, 2007

http://www.lewrockwell.com/reese/reese394.html

This Is the Month
by Charley Reese

*** begin quote ***

As a rule of thumb, don’t believe anybody above the rank of lieutenant colonel. That’s the rank most warriors are forced to retire at. Most of the rest are politicians in uniform.

*** end quote ***

Ahh, the old tank driver nails the “perfumed princes”. Wonder how the testimony would have been different if they flew in a Marine gunny right from the front. I bet they’d have heard in no uncertain terms about the “war effort” and results. Might even have made a few of them blush. But, I’d bet a paycheck there would be no powerpoint slides.

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TECH SERVICE: WORDPRESSDOTCOM has a tiny flaw

Friday, September 14, 2007

I love the free, and unequaled, wordpressdotcom, but I found a small flaw.

In building a site on GOOGLEPAGES, it just so happened that the page urls all routinely end in a period. However, when I put that url into the free, and unequaled, wordpressdotcom, it barfs building that link with the last period. Interesting. For the time being, my workaround is to use TUNYURL.

But I have to wait for Monday to report it to wordpress hq. They turn off the problem reporting mechanism to prevent Monday morning overload. I’m blogging it here because I always forget by Monday.

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TECH SOFTWARE: MICROSOFT is a steal all right!

Friday, September 14, 2007

FROM A PRODUCTIVITY PORTFOLIO EMAIL

http://www.timeatlas.com/mos/The_News/General/Students_Benefit_from_Microsoft_Office_Promo/
***Begin Quote***

I just noticed in the latest Microsoft Press Pass that they are starting a campaign today called “The Ultimate Steal”. The deal is only for students, but the savings are substantial. For less than $60, you get Office Ultimate 2007. As with all deals, there are a few conditions.

Wed, 12 Sep 2007 13:10:28 -0700

***End Quote***

Why buy Microsoft when you can get open source stuff for free?

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JOBSEARCH: Old seekers have to see the opptys!

Friday, September 14, 2007

http://www.garynorth.com/public/2448.cfm

Katie Couric vs. Age Spots
Gary North

***Begin Quote***

Why CBS rolled the loaded demographic dice is a mystery to me. CBS Evening News was in third place under Rather, third place under Shieffer, and remains in third place today. But Ms. Couric’s network rivals will age as men age. Ms. Couric will not.

***End Quote***

Remembering my quote about FOWG’s in job search —

***Begin Quote***

“Time has not stood still. Age is not respected. Experience is not valued. And, Education is not revered.”

***End Quote***

I think it’s obvious why CBS tried something different. If you’re stuck in third, in a three man race, it’s time to throw a “Hail Mary”. In this case, a “Hail Katie”. As is usual with the liberal media, they just don’t understand what business they are in.

They are in the “eyeballs watching ads” business.

The TV and Newspapers are shrinking; the inet is growing.

IMHO the “Hail Mary” strategy would be to embrace the change, be the change, grok the change.

Spending a lot of money on Ms. Katie could have been the watershed event of a new strategy. Integration with the web.

Here’s one idea. They probably have more stories on the hook then they can do. Have the inet audience choose the stories that they want to hear and see. Let assume that in a 30 minute show, they have 25 minutes of air time. Each story is 2 minutes. So they have 12 story slots. I’d guess they must have 50 stories in queue. Let the inet audience, pick the stories that get to air. Digg style. Involve the audience. Allow all stories to be on Youtube later in the evening. Of course, I’d put a sponsor on each one.

It’s about thinking innovatively.

If Ms. Couric had brought that type of thinking to CBS, then she’d have been worth her negligible weight in gold.

Jobseekers can’t become focused on problems or flaws. They have to see the opportunity!

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RANT: It’s just another disgrace on the reputation of Nu Jerzee

Friday, September 14, 2007

http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/index.ssf?/base/columns-0/1189484859197200.xml&coll=1&thispage=2

Obscene fans at Rutgers draw a penalty flag
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Mark Di Ionno

*** begin quote ***

Now that Rutgers is big-time, the old-time academic- and adult-minded fans are being elbowed aside by gangs of frat boys thrusting their fists and faces into the rolling ESPN cameras. What was it your old football coach used to say? Act like you’ve been there before. Not in the RU student section.

*** end quote ***

It’s a shame.

They have embarrassed everyone.

And, what makes it worse, my taxes pay for it. All of it!

That’s the difference between the gooferment and the marketplace. Who chooses?

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POLITICAL: Thompson was a lobbyist for 20 years

Thursday, September 13, 2007

FROM DICK MORRIS EMAIL

FRED THOMPSON: FIRST LOBBYIST FOR PRESIDENT
By DICK MORRIS & EILEEN MCGANN
Published on FoxNews.com on September 10, 2007

*** begin quote ***

Thompson was a lobbyist for 20 years before he was elected to the Senate, representing the Tennessee Savings and Loan Association, the deposed Haitian President Aristed and the National Planning & Reproductive Health Association.

*** end quote ***

You have to like when the dirt comes out. Hopefully the voters can look past the Law & Order gig and see what they are electing.

A plague on all their houses.

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FABLES: Roald Dahl’s version of “Little Red Riding Hood”

Thursday, September 13, 2007

http://www.clairewolfe.com/wolfesblog/00002675.html

*** begin quote ***

WELL, WELL. Google features this celebratory graphic today.* I had no idea what it meant until I ran my cursor over it and got “Roal Dahl’s birthday.” What a terrific thing to Googleate.

Since the topic today seems to be Things Literary … I just finished reading Roald Dahl’s Revolting Rhymes (on the recommendation, I think, of DA). I was going to blog later about this iconoclast classic. But since it’s Dahl’s special day, here’s a quote from his version of “Little Red Riding Hood”:

He sat there watching her and smiled
He thought, I’m going to eat this child.
Compared with her old Grandmamma
She’s going to taste like caviare.

Then Little Red Riding Hood said, “But Grandma,
what a lovely great big furry coat you have on.”

“That’s wrong!” cried Wolf. “Have you forgot
“To tell me what BIG TEETH I’ve got?
“Ah well, no matter what you say,
“I’m going to eat you anyway.”
The small girl smiles. One eyelid flickers.
She whips a pistol from her knickers.
She aims it at the creature’s head
And bang, bang, bang, she shoots him dead.

Ms. Hood — and her new wolfskin coat — also turn up later to play a pivotal role in the tale of the three little pigs. :-)

Happy birthday (even if truly and totally belated, since he died in 1990), Roald Dahl.

*** end quote ***

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USA: sometimes one’s own wisdom comes back to haunt you

Thursday, September 13, 2007

http://blog.wired.com/defense/2007/09/guess-who-said-.html

Guess Who Said This (in 1987)
By David Axe
September 12, 2007 | 1:39:59 PM
Categories: Strategery

*** begin quote ***

The Vietnam experience left the military leadership feeling that they should advise against involvement in counterinsurgencies unless specific, perhaps unlikely, circumstances obtain — i.e. domestic public support, the promise of a quick campaign, and freedom to employ whatever force is necessary to achieve rapid victory. In light of such criteria, committing U.S. units to counterinsurgencies appears to be a very problematic proposition, difficult to conclude before domestic support erodes and costly enough to threaten the well-being of all America’s military forces (and hence the country’s national security), not just those involved in the actual counterinsurgency.

*** end quote ***

Reminds me about what Greenspan said about gold BEFORE becoming the “maestro” of the FED.

This has to be the best find!

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VISTA: Observation GOTOMYPC install

Thursday, September 13, 2007

Interesting. I tried to install my GOTOMYPC on Frau’s Vista machine last night.

Using FIREFOX2, the install just hung. Using IE7, the install worked fine.

Huh?

And, when I tested connecting to it from my LUGGABLE with XP and FFOX2, everything worked fine.

So, maybe the Evil Empire still has some tricks up its sleeves.

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RANT: Isn’t a NC publik skoolz bound by that pesky First Amendment

Thursday, September 13, 2007

http://www.nbc17.com/midatlantic/ncn/news.apx.-content-articles-NCN-2007-09-11-0027.html

*** begin quote ***

SAMPSON COUNTY, N.C. – On the sixth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, students at one high school were not allowed to wear clothes with an American flag.

Under a new school rule, students at Hobbton High School are not allowed to wear items with flags, from any country, including the United States.

The new rule stems from a controversy over students wearing shirts bearing flags of other countries.

Gayle Langston said her daughter, Jessica, was told to remove her Stars and Stripes t-shirt.

“Today she wanted to wear her shirt, and I had to tell her no,” said Langston. “She didn’t like it at all because I knew it would get her in trouble. Of all days, 9/11, she could not wear her American Flag shirt.”

The superintendent of schools in Sampson County calls the situation unfortunate, but says educators didn’t want to be forced to pick and choose which flags should be permissible.

*** end quote ***

See! That’s ONE of the problems with gooferment skoolz.

(And, I’d dispute the assignment of the word “educator” to the babysitting service they provide.)

It’s a free speech issue.

Private schools can enforce whatever dress code they see fit.

“Public schools” are part of the gooferment. The gooferment is bound by that pesky First Amendment.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Hopefully, some of the patriots in North Carolina will “educate” these “educators” with exactly what that means!

Argh!

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RANT: When do we get to the truth about Lincoln?

Thursday, September 13, 2007

http://www.lewrockwell.com/dilorenzo/dilorenzo127.html

A Fitting Tribute to a Corrupt Tyrant
by Thomas J. DiLorenzo

*** begin quote ***

Lincoln himself was a corrupt corporate insider and a lifelong mercantilist. The economic policies that he spent his entire adult life championing – protectionist tariffs, corporate welfare for railroad and road-building corporations, and inflationary central banking – were nothing but an Americanized version of the corrupt British mercantilist system that the American Revolution was fought to discard. They were all designed to use the powers of the state to benefit a small, politically powerful cabal of (mostly Northern) manufacturers, bankers, and politicians at the expense of the rest of society. They were also designed to enlarge the state by tying all of these powerful interests to it politically.

*** end quote ***

Interesting how the liberal media and the gooferment skoolz have turned this fellow into an icon. The thing I really can’t understand is awarding him the appellation “freed the slaves”. Revisionists seem to have overlooked a whole lot of facts. Glad I’m an injineer where facts matter more than opinions.

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FUN: Uncle Jay explains “recess”

Thursday, September 13, 2007

From: My Favorite Luddite
Sent: Tuesday, September 11, 2007 10:58 AM
To: John Reinke
Subject: Uncle Jay ‘Explains the News’

Couldn’t resist…this is pretty funny

http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/26b0d09397

I agree. About the only think he left out is “why would someone spend millions to get a job that pays thousands”.

Hint for the politically challenged reading this: Think about the trio: “feather my nest; reward my friends; punish my enemies”.

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GLOBAL: Lest we forget who we are trading with

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20070911/D8RJBL081.html

Chinese Catholic Bishop Dies in Custody
Sep 11, 11:53 AM (ET)
By ALEXA OLESEN

*** begin quote ***

BEIJING (AP) – A bishop who led an underground congregation of Roman Catholics and was repeatedly detained in China for his loyalty to the Vatican died in police custody, a monitoring group said Tuesday.

Bishop Han Dingxiang, 71, was cremated within six hours of his death Sunday and buried in a public cemetery with no priests or other faithful present, both groups said.

*** end quote ***

… and lest we forget, who has 5T$, from our trading with them.

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BLOG: My response to Jason Alba calling me an “off topic blogger” :-) (Who cares what they say? Did I get a link?)

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

>>”off-topic bloggers”???

Hmmm, perhaps JA meant “oft topic”? “often to pick”? Or, “oaf topic”?

I think I’m concerned that I am just misunderstood. Maybe because when I look thru my pane in the Johari window (or is it pain), I see things that should be and ask why the heck not. Often. I admit that! Often! I’m outraged so often, it’s easy to get lathered up several times a planetary rotation. It’s just that some days the Planet in question is Mercury.

And, blogger?

I’m not so sure I qualify as that.

When I look at all the erudition slathered over the blogosphere, maybe I’m more like MySpace.

When I see some folk blogging for branding, I remember I’m unique.

My brand is ZBS! (zero “barbara streisand”) Call ’em as you see em’! And let the chips fall where they may. (Isn’t that being “colorful”?)

I call what I do “plogging”. A “personal (whine) web log” of what I find. My motto is “Wasting your time with things I find interesting, amusing, or enraging.” So maybe that IS the definition of an “off-topic blog”.

I always wanted to be an exemplar.

I can hear JA and others saying “See what happens when you don’t network, when you don’t brand, when you don’t manage your career … … you wind up like HIM!!” while pointing this way and looking down a Pinnochio’s nose.

In any event, I’m glad I was “listening” when JA put out the “bat signal” for crazy fjohn to participate. At least, I was first at something.

:-)

Guess, I should be happy to be invited at all. Maybe I should be more circumspect? To paraphrase Grouch, “I wouldn’t want to be part of any club that would have me as a member!”.

fjohn
the big fat old turkey hisself

P.S.: In counseling job seekers — usually FOWGs who didn’t see the axe being swung — I have a collected a slew of recruiter stories. Maybe one of these days, I’ll chronicle then in a series of blog posts. I’ll probably get sued if I name names. Be a different kind of carnival.

P.P.S.: Seekers can visit my “turkey farm” at http://tinyurl.com/lxu93. Just mention Jason’s name at the gate. (Just joshing, there’s no gate.) I give it all away trying to repay all the people that have helped me along the way.

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INTERESTING: Terrorists are not greatest threat

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

http://blogs.usatoday.com/onpolitics/2007/09/colin-powell-te.html

Colin Powell: Terrorists are not greatest threat to nation

***Begin Quote***

Powellingq In an interview with GQ magazine that’s scheduled to be put online here at 11 a.m. ET, former secretary of State and one-time potential presidential candidate Colin Powell has this to say about terrorism and the threat it poses to the USA:

“What is the greatest threat facing us now? People will say it’s terrorism. But are there any terrorists in the world who can change the American way of life or our political system? No. Can they knock down a building? Yes. Can they kill somebody? Yes. But can they change us? No. Only we can change ourselves. So what is the great threat we are facing?”

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OK, let’s get back to the America of our forefathers. (1) Honest money. (2) End gooferment welfare. (3) End the phony “War on Drugs”. (4) End gooferment education. In my lifetime, please.

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Posted by reinkefj

INTERESTING: Everett doing better

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=301474

ESPN is reporting that the fellow who was badly hurt this weekend, in a clean football play, is doing better. Silent prayers answered!

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Posted by reinkefj

GUNS: 95-Year-Old Woman Beaten In Manhattan; I’m not shocked

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

http://wcbstv.com/topstories/local_story_253224943.html

Sep 10, 2007 11:57 pm US/Eastern
SHOCK: 95-Year-Old Woman Beaten In Manhattan
Police Say Robbery Was Motive, Have Suspect On Tape
Hazel Sanchez
Reporting

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(CBS) NEW YORK It’s happened again, an elderly woman has been beaten over a lousy purse. This time, the victim is 95 years old.

Police on Monday were looking for a man they say beat and robbed the woman right outside her 17th floor apartment. The incident happened around 2:15 p.m. at the East River Co-op on the Lower East Side.

The victim’s friends are shocked by the attack.

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I’m shocked.

Casablanca-style

<<< And, I am shocked, shocked, SHOCKED to find there is gambling going on at Rick’s cafe. Now where are MY winnings. ;-) >>>

I’m shocked that in the Pepuls Republik of Nu Yauk Titty that anyone would be surprised that the law of the jungle abounds. The strong take from the weak. Kill or be killed. Streets running with blood.

That’s the liberal paradise.

Even if you are the Good Samaritan passing one of these assaults, you have to have a death wish to become involved.

That’s where the War on Drugs and Gun Control gets you.

The war on drugs makes sick people turn to crime to afford their fix. And Gun Control disarms all the law abiding and turns them into victims.

Now visualize a Libertarian America. The drug addict would be able to buy their fix for modest sums. (Estimates say that MJ would be profitable at a penny a cigarette. Heroin would be akin to cough syrup; five bucks a bottle.) Charitable organizations would be offering drug treatment programs. Crime would be zero. Criminals would have to guess which victims were unarmed and do it in such a way that avoids a Good Samaritan. Criminals that guess wrong are “retired” from the business. We’d all be a lot better off and a lot safer.

So I’m shocked that more people don’t see that the meme of gooferment force just makes us all worse off.

Even a 95 year old can be trusted to defend themselves from the jackals in human form.

Just sprinkle a few sheep dogs among the sheep and crime will be very unprofitable. End the war on drugs and there’s no need for it either.

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Posted by reinkefj

INTERESTING: claims of Pats spying on Jets

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=3012989

Sources: Camera confiscated after claims of Pats spying on Jets
By Chris Mortensen ESPN.com
Updated: September 10, 2007, 6:39 PM ET

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NFL security confiscated a video camera and its tape from a New England Patriots employee on the team’s sideline during Sunday’s game against the Jets in a suspected spying incident, sources said.

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I’m surprised at this. And, I thought I was un-surprise-able!

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Posted by reinkefj

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