POLITICAL: Can’t get the bad guys out of gooferment

Saturday, June 27, 2009

http://www.vtcommons.org/blog/2009/06/16/ashes-ashes-democracy-luxury-we-can-no-longer-afford

ASHES TO ASHES: Democracy Is A Luxury That We Can No Longer Afford
Submitted by Dan Weintraub on Tue, 06/16/2009 – 6:58pm.
Democracy Is A Luxury That We Can No Longer Afford

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The time has come to admit that we no longer live in a Democratic Republic. The people of the United States are no longer sovereign. Our political and financial leaders make policy decisions that do not represent the will of the goverened. And to say that we can simply vote these leaders out of office—thus replacing the corrupt leadership and thus retaining the sovereignty of the people—is false. It is false because Democrats and Republicans are opposite sides of the same coin. Bought and sold leadership knows no ideological boundaries.

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I’ve been in the tax revolts and there is just no way to get the varmints out.

Politicians, bureaucrats, family, friends, and their toadies live off the public trough.

The only way is to shut it down completely.

Argh!

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POLITICAL: France ponders a burqa ban: No cover up | The Economist

Saturday, June 27, 2009

France ponders a burqa ban: No cover up | The Economist

Shared via AddThis

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France ponders a burqa ban
No cover up
Jun 25th 2009 | PARIS
From The Economist print edition
The government takes on a “walking prison”

WHEN the French government decided in 2004 to ban the Muslim headscarf in state schools and other public buildings, it set off a heated debate over religious expression and women’s rights in a secular state. Now Nicolas Sarkozy has sparked another by calling the burqa, a head-to-toe Islamic garment, “a sign of subjugation…of debasement” that is “not welcome on French territory”.

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Wonder how this will play in America?

We have “religious freedom”. But, no overt religious symbols law, but will this stretch “tolerance”.

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GUN: Women’s rights

Saturday, June 27, 2009

http://tslrf.blogspot.com/2009/06/quote-of-day_06.html

“The gun is the great equalizer. It is the only tool that puts a 100 pound woman on the same level as a 250 pound rapist. Women’s self defense courses, emergency call boxes, and mace cannot compare to the power of a gun in a woman’s hands.”

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Like: “God made men and women; Sam Colt made them equal!”

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MONEY: Banks aren’t safe

Friday, June 26, 2009

http://mises.org/story/3507

Dead Banks Walking
Mises Daily
by Doug French
Posted on 6/11/2009 12:00:00 AM

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On the other hand, if a legitimate banking system were in place, it would be based upon honoring property rights. Customers making a deposit in a bank expect the bank to guard, protect, and return their money — at a moment’s notice in the case of demand deposits. After all, that person has not traded a present good for a future good. The depositors believe the bank is warehousing the money for them and that it is available to them at any time. This deposit is not a loan — there is no fixed term, which would be required in the case of a loan — and availability hasn’t transferred.

However, we don’t have legitimate deposit banking but a fractionalized banking system that combines deposit banking with loan banking. Those that sympathize with fractionalized banking will contend that time certificate of deposit accounts are in essence loans from depositors, entitling the bankers to use the funds at their discretion for the term of the CD — just as long as the banker has the money ready when the CD matures. But if the money is lent secured by illiquid assets such as real estate, the banker is clearly not counting on those loans to satisfy expiring CDs and must count on attracting new CD money to pay off the old.

“There is no incentive for bank depositors to go to the trouble of determining a bank’s soundness if the government is going to guarantee deposits.”

Bankers, pressured to earn returns for shareholders and protected from bank runs by FDIC insurance, have over time lent not only more of their deposits but advanced the money for riskier projects. James Grant in a recent Grant’s Interest Rate Observer reminisced about National City Bank, which back in 1954 had only lent out 41 percent of its deposits, with less than one percent of the portfolio being real-estate loans.

By the end of last year, the total loan-to-deposit ratio for all US banks and thrifts was 87 percent, and 60 percent of all loans were classified as real-estate secured.

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Bottom line: Don’t invest in any bank stock.

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JOBSEARCH: Another silent hazard in the job search

Friday, June 26, 2009

http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_12514244

Google recruiter: Company kept ‘do not touch’ in hiring list
By Steve Johnson, Elise Ackerman and Sue McAllister
Mercury News
Posted: 06/03/2009 07:00:44 PM PDT
Updated: 06/04/2009 10:14:46 AM PDT

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A recruiter who left Google last year says that the company had maintained a “do not touch” list of companies including Genentech and Yahoo, whose employees were not to be wooed to the Internet search giant.

That revelation could be significant in light of this week’s disclosure that the U.S. Justice Department is investigating whether Google, Yahoo, Apple, Genentech and other tech companies conspired to keep others from stealing their top talent.

Although Google declined to comment on the list or other aspects of the investigation, Palo Alto attorney Gary Reback, who has been involved in a number of high-profile antitrust cases, said having such a list is not unheard of and not necessarily illegal.

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Argh!

Hard enough to get a job and the companies limit the opportunities.

A plague on all their houses.

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GOVEROTRAGEOUS: 10M$ for Cambodian education?

Thursday, June 25, 2009

FROM DRUDGE!

http://www07.grants.gov/search/search.do?&mode=VIEW&flag2006=false&oppId=48068

$10 Million tax dollars to improve education in Cambodia…

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How about improving education in Camden or Newark?

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Posted by reinkefj

GOVEROTRAGEOUS: Obama’s attempt to takeover health care

Thursday, June 25, 2009

http://channel-surfing.blogspot.com/2009/06/line-in-sand.html

Monday, June 15, 2009

A line in the sand?

Hank Kalet

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And one of these options needs to be a public option that will give people a broader range of choices and inject competition into the health care market so that force waste out of the system and keep the insurance companies honest.

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The problem is that with the “government public option” is that having it in the mix will destroy the insurance market.

Just like Catholic parochial schools can NOT compete with “free” public-paid government supplied education.

Once the government has it’s “nose” in the tent, it will destroy the marketplace.

For example, why should an employer pay for insurance when the employees can get it from the government without costing the employer anything. For example, the government will set the rules about what must be covered (i.e., hair plugs), and the “competing insurances” must cover it. For example, the gooferment will define the records its competitors will have to keep and waive that for itself.

The same reasons why we rejected Hillary-care are the same reasons we should reject Obama-care. It’s just a step in the direction of totally government health care.

Sorry, but we can’t afford this non-sense. Nor can we survive having Health Care a la the Post Office. Rationing, and lower standards, will precede outright denial. Dialysis for old folks is expensive. Neonatal is expensive. ERs are expensive.

Well there is always “medical tourism”. But where can we go?

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Posted by reinkefj

QUOTE: Suitable for our congresscritters, politicians, and bureaucrats

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Grass mud horse n. Wildly popular on YouTube, this mythical, alpaca-like creature was conjured by Chinese citizens to protest Internet censorship. Though the grass mud horse looks innocent, its Chinese name—Cao Ni Ma—sounds like “fuck your mother” in Mandarin.

—Jonathon Keats

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For some reason, listening to the President on Healthcare, Barney Frank on Bill O’Reilly, and all the other people who want to tell us all what to do, this seems strangely appropriate!

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Posted by reinkefj

INTERESTING: GSN’s CATCH21 strategy

Thursday, June 25, 2009

http://www.gsn.com/shows/catch21/

Contestants don’t seem to understand the strategy of the final bonus game.

The “power chips” allow a player to discard a card. What they don’t seem to understand is that they have to tale at least ONE card after they use a power chip. So they MUST use ALL of their power chips before they cover their last “less than 10” column. If they blunder and bust, then they lose their bonus. It really is sad. Seen to many players hold their power chips and be force to quit with power chips unused or bust themselves when they blunder past that “point of no return”.

Reinke’s Rule: Players need to use their power chips before making all their columns greater than 10.

It seems so simple to me.

Argh!

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Posted by reinkefj

NEWJERSEY: Take advice aimed at California. Now!

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

http://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/21/california-bailout-reckless-or-inevitable/

June 21, 2009, 9:13 pm
California Bailout, Impossible or Inevitable?
By The Editors

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The Obama administration has told California not to expect a federal bailout. So how should the state deal with its $24.3 billion shortfall? Can it save itself? Or is it likely that the taxpayers of Iowa and Utah will end up picking up the tab of the state that represents an eighth of the nation’s economy? We asked Ron Paul and others for their views on what has to happen next.

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Don’t Reward Exorbitance
Ron Paul, a United States representative from Texas and a medical doctor, is the founder of Campaign for Liberty. He ran for president in 2008 and is the author of “The Revolution: A Manifesto” and “End the Fed.”

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Californians know they are overtaxed

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Instead of seeking federal aid, California should cut spending, rethink some of its unsustainable public pension programs, tame down the expensive and failed drug war, and repeal regulations that discourage economic growth. According to a 2008 piece by The Independent Institute’s William Shughart, the state owns more than 20,000 buildings and 6.7 million acres of land, a portion of which is “surplus” property that could be sold to private owners.

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Sounds like advice that New Jersey could use as well!

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