MONEY: H.R. 2755: Federal Reserve Board Abolition Act

Sunday, December 7, 2008

http://www.lewrockwell.com/huff/huff24.html

*** begin quote ***

You might also ask your US Representative to co-sponsor the Bill to Abolish the Fed. So far Ron Paul’s Bill has no co-sponsor. What does that tell us?

*** end quote ***

[JR: That politicians are happy with the blank check that the current system provides them? ]

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h110-2755

*** begin quote ***

Federal Reserve Board Abolition Act – Abolishes the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and each Federal reserve bank.

Repeals the Federal Reserve Act.

This bill is in the first step in the legislative process. Introduced bills go first to committees that deliberate, investigate, and revise them before they go to general debate. The majority of bills never make it out of committee.

*** end quote ***

Arhhh!

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NATIONAL: Pearl Harbor — A testiment to FDR’s duplicity

Sunday, December 7, 2008

http://go.footnote.com/arizona_memorial/?xid=376

Interactive USS Arizona Memorial

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Read “Day of Deceit” and then talk to me about FDR!

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Day of Deceit: The Truth About FDR and Pearl Harbor is a book written by Robert Stinnett. First released in December 1999, the book interprets Freedom of Information Act material as a refutation to the official story that the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise.

Richard Bernstein wrote in the New York Times in December 1999 that, “it is difficult, after reading this copiously documented book, not to wonder about previously unchallenged assumptions about Pearl Harbor” though concluded that one is led to read the book with a “strong dose of skepticism”. Tom Roeser, conservative broadcaster and former fellow of the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, writing in the Chicago Sun-Times described the book as “perhaps the most revelatory document of our time”.

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We have a lot of dead young men on this man’s watch!

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GUNS: How did “victim disarmament” cause the Indian slaughter

Saturday, December 6, 2008

http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lewrw/archives/024230.html

November 30, 2008
How Gun Control Laws Contributed To the Mumbai Slaughter
Posted by Butler Shaffer at November 30, 2008 07:14 PM

*** begin quote ***

An interesting article, from October, 2005, provided by http://www.gunowners.org:

Gun Control And Self-defense Against Terrorism In India
by Abhijeet Singh
Colonial Roots of Gun-Control

I live in India and I am a proud firearm owner — but I am the exception not the norm, an odd situation in a country with a proud martial heritage and a long history of firearm innovation. This is not because the people of India are averse to gun ownership, but instead due to Draconian anti-gun legislation going back to colonial times.

*** end quote ***

I blogged about this when I first heard it.

It’s not “gun control”; it’s “victim disarmament”!

Interesting how Colonial Laws from one set of politicians are quickly “updated” by another set of politicians. They all fear an armed people.

Riots? The Korean grocers showed how to end mob rule very quickly.

Gun rights, aka the right to defend yourself, is actually also a “women’s rights” issue.

The Holocaust demonstrated what happens when scapegoats are unarmed.

British home invasions, when the homes are occupied, skyrocket with “victim disarmament”!

Apparently the Indian slaughter in Mumbai was pulled off by 10 criminals. Reports have armed police refusing to fire on them. And, the “crack commandos” were like the Keystone Kops. (Remember Columbine, where the “heroic” police encircled the school, until the criminals finished killing everyone and themselves?)

Remember how Israeli schools and daycare centers were targeted until armed grandparents started providing security. And, the last massacre was on a school trip where guns were not permitted.

Wake up folks! Criminals don’t obey laws. Kops are just gooferment bureaucrats who are there to clean up the bodies and fill out paperwork. Dial 911 and die.

Of interest was in the 2006 article, the Indian writer cited Gandhi, the Dali Lama, Lenin, and a slew of the DOWGs! Fascinating.

“Among the many misdeeds of the British rule in India, history will look upon the Act depriving a whole nation of arms, as the blackest.” — Mahatma Gandhi (An Autobiography OR The story of my experiments with truth, by M.K. Gandhi, p.238)

“If someone has a gun and is trying to kill you, it would be reasonable to shoot back with your own gun.” — The Dalai Lama, (May 15, 2001, The Seattle Times) speaking at the “Educating Heart Summit” in Portland, Oregon, when asked by a girl how to react when a shooter takes aim at a classmate

“A system of licensing and registration is the perfect device to deny gun ownership to the bourgeoisie.” — Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

“I ask, sir, what is the militia? It is the whole people. To disarm the people is the best and most effectual way to enslave them.”— George Mason

From my cold dead hands … …

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HERE’S ANOTHER STORY!

http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/12/mumbais_harsh_lesson_on_gun_co.html

December 10, 2008
Mumbai’s Harsh Lesson on Gun Control
By Abhijeet Singh

*** begin quote ***

At the Jewish outreach centre, bystanders pelted the terrorists with stones in a vain attempt to ward off the attack, but had to retreat when the terrorists opened fire with automatic rifles. Our citizens were trying to ward off the terrorists with stones! I cannot think of a more extreme example of how helpless the government has rendered it’s own citizens. In the absence of guns, and thus incapable of offering any resistance, they were simply like lambs to the slaughter. On that fateful day, this was a story repeated again and again all over Mumbai: unarmed civilians, slow & inept emergency services, and mindless slaughter of innocents.

But we live in a democracy; hence at the end of the day it is each one of us who is to blame. It is we the people who must ask our representatives hard questions; it is we who must bring the right to bear arms to the forefront of the political agenda. We have the power to effect change through our votes and with elections just a few months away, let us not forget the lessons of Mumbai, let us not forget those that lost their lives there, many of who could have been saved if just a few of us were armed.

*** end quote ***


INTERESTING: Change your Brain, Change Your Life

Saturday, December 6, 2008

Change your Brain, Change Your Life 1/7 20080420

I watched this last night. Pretty interesting stuff.


POLITICAL: USA has a “de facto” one party system!

Saturday, December 6, 2008

http://www.lewrockwell.com/shaffer/shaffer186.html

Trust In the GOP?
by Butler Shaffer

*** begin quote ***

I have had a few people – fearful of our collapsing into a one-party system – ask me what should be done to restore the strength and integrity of the Republican Party, so that we may have the kind of vibrant political contest necessary for a free society. My answer has been to let the GOP collapse of its own dead weight. For more years than I can recount, we have long had a one-party system in America, disguised in the form of two branches that owe their allegiances to the country’s corporate owners, and who espouse minor variations on the same establishment-serving themes. If you doubt this is so, please explain to me how a Ron Paul – or his supporters – was literally forced into the wings of public debates and conventions, or why the efforts of “third parties” to get on ballots – or be interviewed by the mainstream media – took on a Sisyphian character. At the very least, the demise of the Republican Party can strip away any further pretense that there is any genuine difference in the principles by which political systems are governed in America.

The only alternative to what our nation has become is not to be found in the entities that created and profit from the mess; but in bringing about a major paradigm shift in our thinking about more free, peaceful, and productive ways of living together in society. Such a shift will not take place in Washington, D.C., or via network television, or in so-called “think tanks.” It will occur, if at all, only within your own conscious mind. Libertarian and anarchist philosophies can provide insights to facilitate this transformation but, ultimately, the change will occur only within yourself. Some of the best advice, in this regard, comes from James Wolcott, who tells us that “the lies the government and media tell are amplifications of the lies we tell ourselves. To stop being conned, stop conning yourself.”

*** and ***

December 6, 2008

Butler Shaffer [send him e-mail] teaches at the Southwestern University School of Law. He is the author of the newly-released In Restraint of Trade: The Business Campaign Against Competition, 1918–1938 and of Calculated Chaos: Institutional Threats to Peace and Human Survival.

*** end quote ***

Sorry, but the people ARE sheeple! Like lambs to the slaughter, they are mesmerized by the song of the “one eyed monster”, the “vast wasteland”, TV. And, it’s media clones “the free press”, Hollywood, “talk radio”, and the “illiterate”. Craven politician pander to the mobs every prejudice and have zero backbone. Using the Clinton playbook, when caught, they just look in the camera and lie! (Example, Barney Frank and Chis Dodd who are at the heart of the Fannie and Freddie mess just ignoring their role in it. Rangal and his rent-controlled apartments. Obama’s “public financing” pledge and his position as the “peace candidate”. And on and on.)
No, a plague on all their houses. They fool me no more!
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QUOTE: Pick your battles

Saturday, December 6, 2008

“Pick battles big enough to matter, small enough to win.” – Jonathon Kozol

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CRYPTO: Never underestimate the ingenuity

Friday, December 5, 2008

http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/20580

11 Stamp Stories Worth Retelling by the mag – November 30, 2008 – 11:11 AM

By David A. Norris

*** begin quote ***

A Penny For Your Mischievous Thoughts

According to legend, Sir Rowland Hill got the idea for the Penny Postage program one day while watching a barmaid tearfully plead with a mailman. Unable to afford the shilling demanded for postage, she begged simply to hold the letter sent by her beloved brother. Hill then watched as the girl scanned the envelope intensely, as if trying to read its contents mentally. Touched, Hill coughed up a shilling and gave her the letter. The girl stopped crying, but instead of being grateful, she became nervous. After the postman left, she confessed that the letter was blank. Her brother’s message was contained in secret marks made on the envelope. Apparently, the two had devised a system whereby they could send each other messages through the post for free.

*** end quote ***

Never hear that one. BUT, it certainly doesn’t surprise me. At all. If you can’t keep drugs out of prisons, don’t underestimate people’s ability to “game” the system.

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MCBA: Taking Macs off my recommended list

Friday, December 5, 2008

For all the griping about Microsoft and its problems with Operating Systems, Apple is rapidly moving into the same class. There is a very annoying problem that arrived with a required update. Now every so often the Mac Book Air stops working while it rescans and reconnects to the WiFi Access Point.

Browsing the web shows that this has been a problem since the First Quarter of this year.

Argh!

Don’t buy Microsoft or Apple. Bite the bullet and go directly to Linux. At least, when you have a problem, you’ll know you are on your own!

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POLITICAL: Think badly about O and get a visit from the Secret Service?

Thursday, December 4, 2008

http://ncc-1776.org/tle2008/tle495-20081130-03.html

THE LIBERTARIAN ENTERPRISE
Number 495, November 30, 2008
“The Thought Police have arrived.”

Entering the Age of O-ppression? by William Warren

Special to The Libertarian Enterprise

*** begin quote ***

“I certainly feel like they were trying to make me be quiet and trying to intimidate me and take away my free speech… That’s what really enraged me is that I thought ‘there’s a lot of people out there that if [the secret service] showed up on their porch, that’s exactly what they’d do—they’d be quiet’… I wasn’t going to be the one.”—Jessica Hughes, in an exclusive interview with ALG News, November 20th, 2008.

In the face of insurmountable intimidation and bullying from armed Obama lieutenants, Jessica Hughes of Lufkin Texas has remained defiant—like any good American who values free speech and views dissent as a patriotic duty.

*** end quote ***

Obviously, things are not going to improve with the “POLITICAL CORRECTNESS” when one doesn’t agree with the Obama “true believers”.

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NJ: Lonegan NJ Guv candidate — for lower taxes!

Thursday, December 4, 2008

http://lonegan.com/Where_Steve_Stands.aspx

Steve Lonegan
Republican for Governor

*** begin quote ***

Where Steve Stands On The Issues

Steve Lonegan is New Jersey’s number one fighter for overtaxed working families fed up with high taxes and an intrusive state government.

People know Steve Lonegan as a man of action — a champion for working families who don’t understand why their taxes keep going up and up.

Lonegan is a conservative concerned that state government has grown too big and out of control.

For too long, taxpayers have looked at Trenton as a hostile force working against the interests of working families and local towns. Those days will end when Steve Lonegan is Governor and taxpayers will finally have a friend in Trenton.

Thanks to Jon Corzine and his fellow liberals, New Jersey now has the worst small business taxes as well as the highest state and local taxes. Under Corzine and the Democrats, state government spending has increased from $21 Billion to $33 Billion — a 57 percent increase in just 8 years!

As Governor, Steve will put an end to out-of-control spending. Lonegan will veto liberal spending programs, eliminate wasteful agencies and completely overhaul state government.

New regulations on small business owners from landscapers to fitness trainers will be overturned. Regulations forcing high-density, Low Income Housing projects on our suburban towns will be repealed.

{Extraneous Deleted}

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Sounds good to me.

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RANT: Guess who will vote for a bailout?

Thursday, December 4, 2008

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/12/03/cbsnews_investigates/main4646424.shtml

Big Three Spending Millions On Lobbying
Auto Makers Drowning In Red, But Still Give Nearly 50 Million Dollars To Politicians
WASHINGTON, Dec. 3, 2008 | by Sharyl Attkisson

*** begin quote ***

The auto industry spent nearly $50 million lobbying Congress in the first nine months of this year.

And people tied to the auto industry gave another $15 million in campaign contributions, CBS News investigative correspondent Sharyl Attkisson reports.

*** end quote ***

So, the congresscritters have been bribed?

Argh!

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JOBSEACH: A budding engineer asks my opinion?

Thursday, December 4, 2008

>>Do we know each other or have some connection i’m blanking on?

>Nope, I’m just a reader of your blog and noticed you were on Facebook.
> Just thought I’d add you.
> Oh and I noticed you’re an engineer. I’m on my way to being a mechanical engineer and
>was wondering if you would recommend electrical over mechanical.

Well, I can’t say much about how you waste your time. :-) Reading my blog. Thanks. It’s a very confused modest effort. I’m happy to do the Vulcan mind meld with you on Facebook.

I’m more of a “computer” injineer. I took an EE program because that was how “computing” was done in those “old days”. My first degree was actually BEEE for Electrical and Electronic Engineering. Did the 148 credts for Electrical and an extra 28 credits of “Senior Level” courses for the “Electronic” side. Semiconductor theory, Compiler theory, and such. For the College, who was just dipping their toe in that “pond”, it eventually became their Computer Science major that was jointly offered between the Engineering and Business Schools. I went on to exploit it in the “business world”, as opposed to “scientific” or “theoretical”. The rest is history.

I’d say you’ve got a Chevy versus Dodge choice. It’s in the eye of the beholder. It really depends upon what your vision for your life is. Does electricity or mechanical systems float your boat. IT’s a tough economy out their right now, BUT, (there is always a big butt), I think “engineering” trains you to think in a certain fashion. Must be all the math. Two important caveats: (1) “Life” and “People” are not suitable for “engineering solutions”. You need diferent skills for dealing with them that you don’t necessarily get in engineering school. Engineers are very blunt; that’s not so good. (2) Engineers always think there is a “right answer”, add a safety factor, and everyone will agree. Doesn’t work that way with “soft” problems.

I can’t tell you to pick one over the other. I can suggest that life is much harder for your generation. Success for your generation is: (1) ruthless financial discipline — no bad debt; (2) a life long interest in learning — education — a degree — they can’t take it away from you; (3) a white collar job in order to save big bux; (4) a blue collar skill for hard times — never saw a poor plumber; (5) one or more internet based businesses — your store is always open; (6) a free time hobby that generates income; and (7) a large will-maintained network of people who can “help” you.

I think: (A) You need to talk to your Deans at school. I assume you have a Dean of Engineering, an “Electrical” Dean, and a “Mechanical” Dean. Seek their guidance. I think you’d find them to be very open and knowledgeable. (B) Talk to at least four alumni from your school. Two in each discipline. Get their opinions of their respective fields. (C) Talk to the jobs people at your school. Find out where the last few graduating classes went. (D) Finally, talk to your parents. (They know you best. And, have your best interest at heart.)

I’m jealous. I wish I was just starting out again. But, I’ve made my mistakes. Paid dearly for them and hopefully learned from them. You’ve got virtually unlimited possibilities. It’s a great time to spread your wings! The world is your oyster. If I were you, I’d seek what made me choose “Engineering” in the first place and carefully “follow your gut” from there.

Good luck, feel free to “stand on my shoulders” anytime. I hope this was helpful.

Your e-freind,
fjohn

P.S.: Begin to build your professional profile on LinkedIn and connect to me there also. It’s like “Facebook” for recruiters and job seekers.

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I’m humbled that (a) Someone actually reads my blog. (b) Actually asks my advice on their life.

That’s a very scary position to be put in. I could ruin his life and view of people. So I took the time to bang out an honest and complete answer. I include it here because I have always felt that when some one takes the time and courage to ask, then they deserve an answer. That and if there’s one questioner, there are others out their too timid to ask. Not that I am some “temple of wisdom”, but like I once heard a quiz show exclaim: “But I gave my answer quickly!” That’s me, maybe wrong, but quick. And, approachable. :-)

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RANT: Brits did a moral outrage for the US Navy

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

http://www.lewrockwell.com/pilger/pilger71.html

The Corruption That Makes Unpeople of an Entire Nation

by John Pilger

*** begin quote ***

During the 1960s and 1970s British governments, Labour and Tory, tricked and expelled the entire population of the Chagos Archipelago, more than 2,000 British citizens, so that Diego Garcia could be given to the United States as the site for a military base. It was an act of mass kidnapping carried out in high secrecy. As unclassified official files now show, Foreign Office officials conspired to lie, coaching each other to “maintain” and “argue” the “fiction” that the Chagossians existed only as a “floating population.” On 28 July 1965, a senior Foreign Office official, T.C.D. Jerrom, wrote to the British representative at the United Nations, instructing him to lie to the General Assembly that the Chagos Archipelago was “uninhabited when the United Kingdom government first acquired it.” Nine years later, the Ministry of Defense went further, lying that “there is nothing in our files about inhabitants [of the Chagos] or about an evacuation.”

“To get us out of our homes,” Lizette told me, “they spread rumors we would be bombed, then they turned on our dogs. The American soldiers who had arrived to build the base backed several of their big vehicles against a brick shed, and hundreds of dogs were rounded up and imprisoned there, and they gassed them through a tube from the trucks’ exhaust. You could hear them crying. Then they burned them on a pyre, many still alive.”

Lizette and her family were finally forced on to a rusting freighter and made to lie on a cargo of bird fertilizer during a voyage, through stormy seas, to the slums of Port Louis, Mauritius. Within months, she had lost Jollice, aged eight, and Regis, aged ten months. “They died of sadness,” she said. “The eight-year-old had seen the horror of what had happened to the dogs. The doctor said he could not treat sadness.”

*** end quote ***

Horrendous. More blood on our hands thanks to our gooferment.

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RANT: Daily News ‘steals’ the Empire State Building

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

http://www.nydailynews.com/money/2008/12/02/2008-12-02_it_took_90_minutes_for_daily_news_to_ste.html

It took 90 minutes for Daily News to ‘steal’ the Empire State Building

BY WILLIAM SHERMAN DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Tuesday, December 2nd 2008, 10:46 PM

*** begin quote ***

In one of the biggest heists in American history, the Daily News “stole” the $2 billion Empire State Building.

*** end quote ***

Ahh, gooferment! I bet there was a “fee” to be paid for this “service”.

What a joke!

Bet they could have registered the WTC transfer.

Why do we tolerate such nonsense?

And, I bet it can be done ANYWHERE!

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MONEY: Made in the USA?

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

http://www.lewrockwell.com/anderson/anderson235.html

Ignorance of Money and the Rejection of Austrian Economics

by William L. Anderson

*** begin quote ***

Austrian economists and the intellectual tools they bring to the table are needed more than ever, yet the response of the economics profession has been to be even more aggressive in denouncing Austrians as “quacks” and “charlatans” and making sure that they are excluded from any academic and political discussions about this crisis. However, if one wishes to see just how superior the Austrian position has been, the best proof is to watch clips

http://www.pointbite.com/2008/03/08/peter-schiff-on-the-us-bubble-economy/

http://www.google.com/search?q=peter+schiff+%2B+youtube&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

of Peter Schiff (Irwin’s son), who is a well-known investor and fund manager, debate mainstream economists and other “financial experts” by using the Austrian analysis against their viewpoints. Schiff clearly understands the nature of the crisis and how to stop the bleeding and cure the “patient”; the others blindly stumble about, citing the “expertise” of economic theories that lead to nowhere.

*** end quote ***

“America at one time flooded the world with high quality low cost goods!”

Sums up the problem.

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SERVICE: Microsoft FOLDERSHARE being replaced

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

From: Windows Live FolderShare <communications_iw_cs_enus@communications3.msn.com>

Date: December 1, 2008 7:21:57 PM EST
To: fjohn
Subject: Windows Live Sync replacing FolderShare: What you need to know

Dear FolderShare user,

We’re contacting you to let you know what’s next for FolderShare, and to make you aware of some important changes.

In December, we plan to announce a product called Windows Live Sync. You can think of it as FolderShare 2.0. It’s going to look familiar and offer the same great features, plus:

  • More folders and files—sync up to 20 folders with 20,000 files each.
  • Integration with Windows Live ID—no more extra sign-in stuff to remember.
  • Integration with the Recycle Bin—no more separate Trash folder to fiddle with.
  • Unicode support—sync files in other languages.

A huge part of Sync’s success story depends on FolderShare users like you. When Sync releases, FolderShare goes into retirement. That means your FolderShare software will stop working and will ask you to upgrade to Sync. Once you do, Sync will automatically rebuild your personal folders. We expect a lot of new users when Sync is released, so if you can’t sign in right away, please give it a little time.

Here’s the part you need to pay attention to: Sync will not be able to rebuild your shared libraries. If you have a lot of shared libraries, you should hop over to the FolderShare website while it’s still available and copy all that information. You’ll need it to rebuild your shared libraries in Sync.

Thanks for being a FolderShare user! We’re excited about delivering an even better file-synchronization experience to customers like you. We hope you’ll come along as we move forward with Windows Live Sync.

Sincerely,

The Windows Live Sync (formerly FolderShare) team

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Yup, it worked relatively problem free. SO we have to screw around with it! Can’t have that. AND, we can’t have a seamless transition, you have to redo all you’ve done with it.

And, they wonder why people HATE Microsoft?

I’ve started the painful process of emigrating. Digging that parasite out from under my saddle. My MCBA was a my first step away on my way to Linux.

Others would be well advised to do the same. You have no control of what “they”, (Microsoft, Google, or the “cloud computing providers”), do to you!

That’s just unacceptable.

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LIBERTY: Free market medical care

Monday, December 1, 2008

http://www.lvrj.com/opinion/34953434.html

VIN SUPRYNOWICZ: Free-market medicine and a ’74-week rolling average’

*** begin quote ***

“I have just such a medical practice in Cartersville, GA. I have the nicest office, most up-to-date EMR, digital EKG, next-day turnaround for any lab known to man and my prices are the lowest around. Office visit: $50. EKG, Labs, Injections, are all a small fraction of what you would pay anywhere. I make house calls. Check us out at thephysicianspractice.com.

“I take payment at time of service only, have almost no overhead and pass my savings on to the patient. I have been open for 18 months and my wife and I are the only staff we have and we are doing just fine. …

“I’m not the best doctor, I just have the best system: the Free Market! Everyone else is asleep and having a nightmare.

“If Universal Healthcare passes, my practice will BOOM! Oh wait … unless they make it illegal for me to work outside the system. If that happens, Nevada here I come!”

*** end quote ***

Here’s an example of what the cost of medical care COULD be. Extrapolate that across the whole spectrum and you can see what savings could be found in the current mess.

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