MONEY: Pirate’s chest

Friday, October 9, 2009

http://townhall.com/columnists/PeterFerrara/2009/09/10/making_up_crime

*** begin quote ***

When Fed Ex got started, the Feds charged it with violating the legal monopoly of the post office. When Fed Ex won that battle, it was a landmark victory for all Americans. The case against Liberty Dollar offers another potential landmark victory for American liberty.

*** end quote ***

Everyone needs competition and “dollars” are no different.

Here’s an entertaining thought experiment. You find a “pirates’ treasure chest”. Breathlessly you open it. What finding would excite you most:

(a) A chest full of 1940 Federal Reserve notes. (When our “pirate” buried a million “dollars”, it was worth the equivalent of a a hundred million. Reference: coffee was 22 cents per pound. You do the math.)

(b) A chest full of Confederate money.

(c) A chest full of Sadam’s Iraqi dinars.

(d) A chest full of GM stock.

(e) A chest full of gold coins.

Yea, I know what I’d pick. And, rebury them under the shore house. Just like our proverbial pirate. For the coming “rainy day”.

Argh!

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POLITICAL: An organ marketplace

Thursday, October 8, 2009

http://lifesharers.blogspot.com/2009/10/transplanting-kidneys-from-people-who.html

Friday, October 02, 2009
Transplanting kidneys from people who had kidney failure

*** begin quote ***

Nobody should think they’re too sick (or too old) to be an organ donor. People who need transplants would rather live with imperfect organs than die waiting for perfect ones.

As transplant medicine continues to advance, surgeons will continue to transplant lots of organs once thought unusable. Transplanting kidneys from people who suffered acute kidney failure will expand the supply of kidneys by about 1,000 per year. It’s a shame Americans continue to bury or cremate 10,000 transplantable kidneys every year.

*** end quote ***

Seems obvious. Better a poor substitute than the alternative.

10k kidneys every year? That’s criminal. We need a free market.

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POLITICAL: Opposition is NOT racism

Thursday, October 8, 2009

http://townhall.com/columnists/WalterEWilliams/2009/09/30/is_disagreement_with_obama_racism

Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Walter E. Williams :: Townhall.com Columnist
Is Disagreement with Obama Racism?
by Walter E. Williams

*** begin quote ***

Obama’s presidency is truly a remarkable commentary on the goodness of Americans and how far we’ve come in resolving matters of race. Obama convincingly won votes in states with insignificant black populations, such as the New England states, Iowa and Minnesota. For the nation as a whole, he managed 53 percent of the popular vote and 365 of the Electoral College votes when he only needed 270 to win. So now Jimmy Carter, Dowd, Rangel and other race-carders want us to believe that the massive discontent with Obama is racism. I say nonsense!

*** end quote ***

I agree with Prof W that opposition is NOT racism.

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GOVEROTRAGEOUS: Sheeple get a “bargain”!

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

*** begin quote ***

Subject: FW: Cash for Clunkers Math another Government Ponzi Scheme!!!!

Here’s what a friend had to say about “Democratic Math”. Ignore all the gas crap, and just look at how the stupid car buyer got taken to the cleaners:

If you traded in a clunker worth $3,500, you get $4,500 off for an apparent “savings” of $1,000. However, you have to pay taxes on the $4,500 come April 15 (something that no auto dealer will tell you). If you are in the 30% tax bracket, you will pay $1,350 on that $4,500.

So, rather than save $1,000, you actually pay an extra $350 to the feds. In addition, you traded in a car that was most likely paid for. Now you have 4 or 5 years of payments on a car that you did not need, that was costing you less to run than the payments that you will now be making.

But wait, it gets even better: you also got ripped off by the dealer.

For example, every dealer here in LA was selling the Ford Focus with all the goodies including A/C, auto transmission, power windows, etc for $12,500 the month before the “cash for clunkers” program started. When “cash for clunkers” came along, they stopped discounting them and instead sold them at the list price of $15,500. So, you paid $3,000 more than you would have the month before. (Honda, Toyota, and Kia played the same list price game that Ford and Chevy did).

So lets do the final tally here:

You traded in a car worth: $3,500

You got a discount of: $4,500

  

Net so far $1,000

But you have to pay: $1,350 in taxes on the $4,500

  

Net so far: -$ 350

And you paid: $3000 more than the car was selling for the month before.

Net so far: -$3,350

We could also add in the additional taxes (sales tax, state tax, etc.) on the extra $3,000 that you paid for the car, along with the 5 years of interest on the car loan but lets just stop here.

So who actually made out on the deal? The feds collected taxes on the car along with taxes on the $4,500 they “gave” you. The car dealers made an extra $3,000 or more on every car they sold along with the kickbacks from the manufacturers and the loan companies. The manufacturers got to dump lots of cars they could not give away the month before. And the poor stupid consumer got saddled with even more debt that they cannot afford.

Obama and his band of merry men convinced Joe consumer that he was getting $4,500 in “free” money from the “government” when in fact Joe was giving away his $3,500 car and paying an additional $3,350 for the privilege.

Thanks a lot guys!

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FUN: When the wife is mad

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Chris Rock on the View commenting on Letterman:

“When the bad guys are after you, you call the cops. When the cops are after you, you call your lawyer. When your wife is after you, there ain’t no one to call!!”

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RANT: Building stadiums at taxpayer expense!

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

http://spectator.org/archives/2009/09/30/bomberphobia

Sports Arena
Bomberphobia
By Lisa Fabrizio on 9.30.09 @ 6:06AM

*** begin quote ***

Yet, many of you secretly applaud baseball’s version of socialism, euphemistically called the Competitive Balance Tax, which has resulted in the Yanks paying out over $150 million in the last six years to their direct competitors. Meanwhile, Robert Nutting, the dastardly owner of the Pittsburgh Pirates who pocketed $40 million in revenue-sharing alone last year, saw fit to reduce his 2009 payroll to $20 million by selling off the few good players he had. Such doings make those who cooked up the Oil for Food program look like pikers.

*** end quote ***

MP4B = “Millionaires Playing For Billionaires”

Argh!

Before I would hold up ANY sports team as an exemplar of “conservative” values, I’d think about the stadiums they play in.

Taxpayer funded.

We don’t build McD’s. We don’t build WalMarts. We don’t build lots of things for businesses!

Why are we building stadiums for billionaires where they can exercise their millionaire “talent”?

Argh!

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GOVEROTRAGEOUS: VA care is disgraceful

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/s_645645.html#

Veterans Affairs won’t release any more care home reports

By Walter F. Roche Jr., TRIBUNE-REVIEW

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

*** begin quote ***

Facing congressional scrutiny over details revealed in a review of care given to veterans at one of its Pennsylvania facilities, the Department of Veterans Affairs slammed the door on the release of similar reports nationwide.

In a directive dated Friday, VA officials in Washington informed local agency officials that inspection reports like the one on the VA nursing home in Philadelphia are not to be released to the public.

The directive came less than a week after the Tribune-Review disclosed details of a 2008 report on the VA’s Philadelphia nursing home that concluded the VA “failed to provide a safe and sanitary environment for their residents.”

Such reports from the Long Term Care Institute — which the VA hired to inspect its facilities — are considered “protected” documents under the provisions of a federal law designed to promote improved quality, the directive states.

*** and ***

The report cited by the Trib was released by VA officials in Philadelphia under a public records request. It described how one veteran had to have his leg amputated after a serious infection had gone untreated for so long that it attracted maggots. It described blood-stained floors, a fly infestation and life-threatening treatment of veterans dependent on tube feeding.

Sen. Arlen Specter and Rep. Joseph Sestak — two Democrats vying for Senate in next year’s primary — visited the nursing home last week and questioned why it took a public records request to get the report made public.

Sestak called on VA Secretary Eric K. Shinseki to “release any other inspection reports of this nature.”

Withholding such documentation “only adds to the perception that the VA does not take the principles of accountability seriously,” Sestak wrote in an e-mail response Tuesday to the VA action.

“If the VA is unable to provide this necessary reform at the administrative level, legislation must be introduced,” Sestak wrote in a letter to Shinseki.

Specter also disagreed with the report-release ban. “This runs contrary to the VA’s desire to be an open and accountable agency,” his statement said. “I believe these documents should be made public.”

*** end quote ***

And, you want these same bozos to run our health care, health insurance, and anything else health related like drugs?

I wouldn’t let them run a dog kennel!

Sheeple, wake up!

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POLITICS: Obama is 0 (a zero)

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

http://www.politico.com/politico44/

*** begin quote ***

ONE STEP FORWARD… Consumer spending jumped by 1.3 percent in August – the most in almost eight years – thanks in part to the Cash for Clunkers program, AP reports.

… AND ONE STEP BACK: But, the wire service also reports, jobless claims rose to 551,000 – “evidence that jobs remain scarce.”

*** end quote ***

Obama was a ZERO.

Not O! That title still belongs to Oprah. At least, she’s a savvy business women. (I think she hurt herself and her ratings by getting to close to the ZERO and the Chicago Olympic bid.)

Obama could have:

(1) drastically realigned our troop deployments around the world. (I can hear the conversation now. “Sorry, <insert head of foreign country>, we have pulled the load for 60 or 100 years. We’re so done and out of here.”) Saving oodles of money.

(2) ended the psuedo drug war and pardoned all non-violent drug offenders. (I can hear the conversation now. “Sorry, <DEA, FDA, BATF, and FBI>, we shifting from Prohibition to Treatment.”) Saving oodles of money.

(3) stopped TARP, bailouts, and all sorts of raids on the Treasury. (I can hear the conversation now. “Sorry, <insert name of special interest group or Wall Street firm>, I’m from Chicago. I know how the game is played. And, I ain’t paying you off.”) Saving oodles of money.

(4) cut the capital gains tax to zero. Corporate income tax to zero. Cut the personal income tax to say 10%; just like the Bible. (I can see the corporate HQs relo-ing BACK to the USA as it’s a direct hit to the bottom line.)

(5) executively stopped the Patriot Act, closed the TSA, closed Homeland security, and closed the Department of Education.

The economy would have jumped back like a rocket ship.

And, he’d be on his way to a second term.

But unfortunately, the Sheeple elected 0 (zero) and not Ron Paul!

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TECHNOLOGY: Just use old technology with no added controls

Monday, October 5, 2009

http://tinyurl.com/yatdtgu

TN: Docs faxing patients’ data to Indiana company
Tennessean

*** begin quote ***

“Doctors’ offices in Tennessee have been accidentally sending patient information, including Social Security numbers and medical histories, to an Indiana businessman’s fax machine for the past three years. The sensitive medical information was supposed to be sent to the Tennessee Department of Human Services, but Bill Keith, owner of SunRise Solar Inc. in Indiana, says hundreds of confidential medical faxes having been coming to him. ‘This is a total breach of privacy,’ Keith said. ‘This is supposed to be confidential, and it just so happens we have some scruples here and wouldn’t do anything with that information. We’ve shredded them, but you can have a file an inch thick in no time.'”

*** end quote ***

The technology of fax has to be decades old. And, yet, the TN state gooferment still relies upon it.

There are so many things that could be done. Doesn’t take a genius to figure them out.

Why can’t they use encrypted email?

Why can’t they require a “handshake code” before faxing?

Why can’t the TN gooferment call the docs to pick up their forms?

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PLATFORMS: Separate out data

Monday, October 5, 2009

http://www.wxpnews.com/LEM1E6/090929-Save-the-PC

*** begin quote ***

Dividing the hard disk into separate partitions and keeping your data on drive that’s separate from your operating system is second nature to many of us – but it’s not what happens by default when you install an operating system. Now Jason Hiner is petitioning both Microsoft and Apple to make this the default behavior, so that people will be less likely to lose all their important documents, photos, music, etc. if the OS fails and a clean reinstall is the only solution. Do you agree, or do you think it’s a non-issue as long as we all back up our data as we’re supposed to?

*** end quote ***

It is a great idea.

Unfortunately, no one makes that easy.

IMHO all my data and all my “settings” should be on “MY SIDE” of the disk partition.

Then, all I have to back up is EASILY identified.

Wish it were so.

Microsoft is the biggest offender with the concept of the “registry” in the first place. That’s the thing that makes you have to reinstall in the first place. And, heaven forbid, you have a power drop while it’s writing to it’s precious registry. You may have an unbootable system.

Inexcusable!

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SOCIALISM: Cash for … Sheeple

Sunday, October 4, 2009

http://www.lewrockwell.com/decoster/decoster164.html

Cash for Clunkers, RIP by Karen De Coster

*** begin quote ***

The program was little more than a political redistribution of wealth from the people of America to politicians’ power base that includes unions, environmentalists, and social justice bulldogs. Along the way, a few select people who fell within certain purchase guidelines received a generous discount for turning in their paid-off cars in exchange for a new chunk of steel and a large chunk of debt. As with most government programs, a select group of people became empowered or enriched while the general population paid the bill.

*** end quote ***

To see perfectly good cars being destroyed shocked this old injineer.

Those cars were better than some of the wrecks I drove around when I was a “poor” student. (Poor in both a monetary and academic meaning!)

How many really poor people were denied a car they could afford by this absolute stupidity.

Even if you never studied “economics” and the parable of the broken window created by Frédéric Bastiat, you have common sense. Don’t you?

In what universe does destroying a perfectly good car make any economic sense at all?

If for no other reason than that, if your rep voted for this, then you should vote them out of office. There’s no excuse for having an idiot representing you.

Argh, sheeple!

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POLITICAL: It wasn’t about “war”; it was about politics

Sunday, October 4, 2009

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/Without-Bush-media-lose-interest-in-war-caskets-8310113-62427012.html

Without Bush, media lose interest in war caskets
By: Byron York
Chief Political Correspondent
September 29, 2009

*** begin quote ***

But these days, the press hordes that once descended on Dover are gone, and there’s usually just one organization on hand. The Associated Press, which supplies photos to 1,500 U.S. newspapers and 4,000 Web sites, has had a photographer at every arrival for which permission was granted. “It’s our belief that this is important, that surely somewhere there is a paper, an audience, a readership, a family and a community for whom this homecoming is indeed news,” says Paul Colford, director of media relations for AP. “It’s been agreed internally that this is a responsibility for the AP to be there each and every time it is welcome.”

Colford says the AP has a photographer who lives within driving distance of Dover and is able to make it to the arrivals, no matter what time of day or night. As for the network news, it’s not so simple; a night arrival means overtime pay for a union camera crew. And then there’s the question of convenience. “It seems that if the weather is nice, and it’s during the day, we get a higher level of media to come down,” says Lt. Winter. “But a majority of our transfers occur in the early evening and overnight.”

So far this month, 38 American troops have been killed in Afghanistan. For all of 2009, the number is 220 — more than any other single year and more than died in 2001, 2002, 2003, and 2004 combined.

*** end quote ***

So all those “anti war” zealots were just playing politics.

Despicable.

I’d like to see a congress critter at EVERY arrival. Some senior administration type too. Maybe we should have a Czar a day.

Sad!

These “representatives” should see the results of their decisions!

Of course, then the congress critters wouldn’t have tome to legislate. Not that is all bad either!

Argh!

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POLITICS: Increase savings and decrease spending at home

Saturday, October 3, 2009

http://www.lewrockwell.com/schiff/schiff49.1.html

The Price of Pretense in Pittsburgh by Peter Schiff

*** begin quote ***

Noting that a return to pre-crisis economics is impossible, the president assured the world that his administration will pursue policies to increase savings and decrease spending at home and challenged his Chinese counterparts to enact measures with the opposite effect in their own country.

While this is roughly what needs to happen, President Obama is actually doing everything in his power to prevent it. In point of fact, every policy move undertaken by his administration has exacerbated the very imbalances he supposedly wants to curtail. To so seamlessly profess one goal while simultaneously undermining it is an impressive piece of political theater. Unfortunately, this particular drama is likely to have an unhappy ending – and the ticket price will be staggering.

*** end quote ***

Upon reflection, when these very ugly chickens come home to roost, as also forecast by Reverend Wright, will there be any way to escape it?

It would seem that getting out of debt and getting very small in terms of exposures would be a good strategy.

Tactically, shift assets to durables, stockpile, and think defensively.

Argh!

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INTERESTING:Too many shots to the head!

Saturday, October 3, 2009

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/30/sports/football/30dementia.html?_r=1

N.F.L. Study Finds Link to Dementia
By ALAN SCHWARZ
  Published: September 29, 2009

*** begin quote ***

A study commissioned by the National Football League reports that Alzheimer’s disease or similar memory-related diseases appear to have been diagnosed in the league’s former players vastly more often than in the national population — including a rate of 19 times the normal rate for men ages 30 through 49.

*** end quote ***

It would seem that a whole bunch of sports have to reevaluate what is “safe”.

We can’t turn men into women or boys into girls. But, we can take “precautions”.

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TECHNOLOGY: Mediasaurus

Friday, October 2, 2009

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/1.04/mediasaurus.html

Mediasaurus
Today’s mass media is tomorrow’s fossil fuel. Michael Crichton is mad as hell, and he’s not going to take it anymore.
By Michael Crichton

*** begin quote ***

The extreme positions of the Crossfire Syndrome require extreme simplification – framing the debate in terms that ignore the real issues. For example, when I watch Crossfire, or Nightline, or MacNeil-Lehrer, I often think, wait a minute. The real issue isn’t term limits; it’s campaign finance reform. The real issue isn’t whether a gasoline tax is regressive, it’s national security – whether we’d prefer to go back to war in the Gulf instead of reducing oil consumption by taxing it more heavily, as every other nation does. The real issue isn’t whether the United States should have an industrial policy, it is whether the one we have – no policy is a policy – serves us well. The issue isn’t whether Mickey Kantor is a protectionist, it’s how should the US respond to its foreign competitors.

*** end quote ***

He hits the nail on the head. The media is just SO biased that it distracts from the data, info, knowledge, and wisdom from the “story”.

It’s a long article but it does highlight how bias and technology are making the “media” obsolete.

Interesting?

How do we capitalize on the replacement?

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POLITICAL: Why can’t we buy and sell human organs?

Friday, October 2, 2009

http://lifesharers.blogspot.com/2009/09/opting-in-vs-opting-out.html

LifeSharers: Opting In vs. Opting Out

*** begin quote ***

The United Network for Organ Sharing, which runs the national organ allocation system, has the power to put registered organ donors first. Sadly, it has not chosen to make this common-sense change. Americans who want to donate their organs to other organ donors don’t have to wait for UNOS to act. They can join LifeSharers, a national non-profit network of organ donors who agree to offer their organs first to other organ donors when they die. Membership is free at http://www.lifesharers.org/ or by calling 1-888-ORGAN88. There is no age limit, parents can enroll their minor children, and no one is excluded due to any pre-existing medical condition.

*** end quote ***

Until we wise up and allow a marketplace in human organs, we will always have shortages. The lack of a marketplace hurts the poor the worst. The rich always seem to have “connections”. The poor don’t get a chance to sell what they no longer have a need for and help their families. May sound grusome, but it’s a tough life being poor. Why further complicate a poor family’s life? They should be allowed, no encouraged, to sell their deceased family member for parts. Instead they get their arm twisted to “donate” and a bill for the funeral. Why is it OK for doctors and hospitals to make a buck doing transplants, but not for the “donor” to get paid? I can envision that some unfortunate’s child gets to go to college on his dead relative’s kidney. What’s so terrible about that?

See its our own thinking that kills us by preventing us from seeing the solution. All because it doesn’t fit someone’s preconceived notions. Free markets always clear the supply and demand. Only when the gooferment gets involved to we have shortages, waste, death, injury, and destruction.

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TECHNOLOGY: Protecting children on the internet

Thursday, October 1, 2009

If the Internet Service Providers had their heads screwed on straight, if the FCC or FTC was REALLY interested in protecting children, we could have rock solid “age” verification. No one can “prove” their age on the net now. But the ISPs could do it.

They “own” the customer relationship. They issue their paying customer a user id and password for their account. So immediately, we have a defined adult. (If a child steals their parent’s credit card to buy internet access, the parent will know it when the bills come in.) The ISPs are sure they are going to get paid.

They can then provide the mechanism for their Customer to define identiies for others. I’d suggest email addresses. If forced, and / or enabled by law, the ISPs could allow their Customer to define: Child, Tween, or Teen.

Then, a stylized form of communication between the Web Site Providers and the Internet Service Providers can occur.

The user, who may or may not be underage, registers at a website with their ISP email address. The WSP sends the request to the ISP. The ISP notifys the Credit Card Customer. Who agrees or disagrees. The ISP then communicates “Teen, Tween, or Child” to the ISP.

Problem solved!

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RANT: Ayers is closer to Obama then previously led to beleive

Thursday, October 1, 2009

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=110789

*** begin quote ***

Because, if it is true – and I believe it is – it confirms Obama lied boldly and blatantly about something so significant during the campaign. It would also confirm Obama as a close associate and trusted friend to one of the most despicable America haters on planet Earth.

You just don’t hire anyone to collaborate with you on your autobiography. You only choose someone you trust, someone who thinks like you, someone who really knows you and your innermost convictions and shares them.

The evidence is mounting that Obama selected Bill Ayers.

*** end quote ***   

The American People, in their rush to justly punish the R’s, has elected a “Manchurian candidate”. As we learn more, as the “legend” he’s created unravels, as he pursues hid true agenda, we are finding that we have really screwed up.

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