INTERESTING: The “Ghost Army”

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/world-war-2/7658261/Second-World-War-Ghost-Army-helped-Allies-win-war.html

Second World War ‘Ghost Army’ helped Allies win war
They were known as the ‘Ghost Army’, an eclectic group of actors, make-up artists and sound experts who together engineered one of the greatest deceptions in military history.
By Nick Squires
Published: 7:00AM BST 01 May 2010

*** begin quote ***

But now, more than 65 years on, the extraordinary work of the 23rd Headquarters Special Troops is being detailed in a documentary and an exhibition in the United States.

The top secret unit, which carried out its mission without firing a shot, consisted of around 1,100 make-up artists, actors, sound technicians, painters, photographers and press agents, many of them drawn from Hollywood.

*** end quote ***

Neat. Now that’s the way to “fight” a war. Smarter!

Now, if we could just avoid them in the first place.

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NEWJERSEY: “Public Education” is immoral

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

http://channel-surfing.blogspot.com/2010/05/voucher-hypocrisy.html

Monday, May 10, 2010

Voucher hypocrisy

*** begin quote ***

Bret Schundler jumps into the voucher hypocrisy pool, dismissing stats that contradict his claims and call into question his proposals.

*** end quote ***

Don’t you think that Gooferment-run schools propagandizing future voters is immoral?

Don’t you think that funding them by stealing wealth from unwilling victims is immoral?

Don’t you think ripping children from their families and imprisoning them for many hours a day for decades being “taught” to be good little robots is immoral?

Don’t you think allowing the Teachers’ Union to become an overpowering force in politics is immoral?

Don’t you think that “public education” in the inner cities (a failure by any measure) is immoral?

Answer those then we can chat about how it’s ineffective and inefficient.

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POLITICAL: I’ll defend the country; not the regime, administration, or the gooferment

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lewrw/archives/56783.html

April 29, 2010
The Quintessential Defender of the Military
Posted by Laurence Vance on April 29, 2010 07:40 PM

*** begin quote ***

<<Quoting a student who was upset with his blog post>>

“It comes down to patriotism and the saying the [sic] many people live by is Love It, Or Leave It. If you don’t love the country or those who defend it then there is no room for you here. The people who put their lives on the line everyday no matter what the politics are in a conflict, they are Hero’s. [sic] If you enjoyed the freedom of typing out this article, than you can thank the military. People join the military to do their duty to protect our freedoms for not only us but our future generations.”

*** end quote ***

My “humble” observations:

  1. “Luv it or leave it” — Why? I paid my dues. Taxes were stolen from me. Loving the country is not necessarily “loving” the regime, government, or its military.
  2. “Defend it” — As soon as the “enemy” comes across the border or lands on the beaches, I’ll be on the line. And, I’ll even bring my own gun.
  3. “Lives on the line every day” — If the government was observing its own Constitution, then we would not have several undeclared wars going on while having troops in about (I’m told) 170 countries. (When did WW2 end? “We” still have troops in Germany!)
  4. “Hero’s” — No, they are mercenaries. And, the word implies a value judgement. Values we clearly don’t share.
      
  5. “Enjoy freedom” — The Dead Old White Guys told me in their writings that my “rights” come from my Creator. And, that Gooferments were instituted among Men to secure these rights. Were they wrong?
  6. “Thank the military” — If they were defending the borders within their Constitutional bounds, maybe I’d agree. remember the Constitution only authorize the Army to be called up for two years. What ever did happen to that restriction?
  7. “Join the military” — Sorry, folks join the military for numerous reasons that has nothing to do with posterity’s freedom. Tuition, pay the bills, and shoot big guns leaps to mind.

I think we need patriots who will stay out of the military and fight the expansion of the gooferment. That’s heroic. And dangerous.

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POLITICAL: What about “free speech”?

Monday, May 10, 2010

http://www.sltrib.com/D=g/ci_15046518

Glover gets ovation, some boos at USU graduation
Some chided actor for not putting hand over heart at flag ceremony.
By Arrin Newton Brunson
Special To The Tribune
Updated: 05/08/2010 09:07:46 PM MDT

*** begin quote ***

He said he had been booed before. “People have problems sometimes with what I believe and who I talk to,” Glover told The Tribune . “I try to respect people, honor them.”

USU police Lt. Steve Milne, who prepared for protesters by banning signs inside the building during the ceremony, confiscated two posters.

“It is the Spectrum [arena], but this wasn’t a basketball game,” Milne told The Salt Lake Tribune .

It was the crowd surrounding critics that finally quieted the disruptive yelling. For Morgan Jackson, who came to watch her cousin Sidney Allen graduate, the constant booing a few rows behind her was “irritating.”

*** end quote ***

Danny Glover is a left wing “loon” imho. Not that I always disagree with him, his statements, or his actions.

“Patriotism”, to me, means living up to the ideals of the nation. One of those ideals is “free speech”.

Glover’s is big man; he can take a little heckling. And, apparently from the report, did handle it well.

My concern is the police “banning signs” inside the building.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but that is NOT the police’s job: interfering with free speech. Political speech!

I assume that USU — Utah State University — is a gooferment college. At least, that’s what it appears to be on their website.

Dee Glen Smith Spectrum is a building on the campus built with taxpayer funds.

I’m sure the University is well-involved with gooferment funding.

So will some one please explain to me how the protester’s free speech was abridged?

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GOVERNACIDE: The “War on (some) Drugs” kills people

Monday, May 10, 2010

https://secure.downsizedc.org/etp/campaigns/109

Help End the Mexican Civil War

*** begin quote ***

How do you weaken the drug traffickers? You take away their obscene black-market profits.

Al Capone and the mafia got rich running alcohol during Prohibition. When Prohibition ended the violence ended too. Jim Beam distributors don’t do drive-by shootings on outlets that sell Jack Daniels. And neither Jim Beam nor Jack Daniels are killing politicians, policemen, journalists, and private citizens.

Black-market drug profits fund criminal enterprises that threaten your safety, not only at home and in Mexico, but around the world. Taliban warlords in Afghanistan and Pakistan fund much of their operations through the illicit drug trade.

The solution to the coming spillover of the Mexican Drug War is simple: Stop doing the same failed thing over and over again. Do something different. End drug prohibition in the United States, and thereby defuse the Mexican Civil War and defund the terrorists in Afghanistan.

*** end quote ***

# – # – #

Please bring peace to both Mexico and the United States by ending the War on Drugs.

We, as a nation, didn’t learn from (alcohol) Prohibition. Let’s get smart now.

Repeal the federal “war on drug” statutes. (Advise President Obama to pardon ALL non-violent drug offenders.)

Call the big Drug Companies and the big Retailers and the big Drug Vendors up to Capitol Hill and tell them they are now responsible to keep drugs out of the hands of children. And you don’t want to see ads on TV! (You can threaten to make a law; that’ll scare the you know what out of them.)

Let’s try freedom. And, bankrupt our enemies.

(I always was upset when children are killed by “bad drugs”. Cut with rat poison, of unknown strength, or even unidentifiable. We can avoid killing and maiming our progeny by simply recognizing human nature. We can’t control what people will put voluntarily in their own bodies.)

Repeal the Drug War laws. They’re ineffective and inefficient.

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FUN: Sunday night with Mom’s pictures

Sunday, May 9, 2010

1970-04-01 award

I speechless at what she kept. I didn’t know she eve had this one. Even as a “slick sleeve” I was a real “winner”! Argh!!

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SERVICE: Back up your FACEBOOK data (FREE)

Sunday, May 9, 2010

http://givememydata.com/

Give Me My Data helps you reclaim and reuse your Facebook data.

*** begin quote ***

Give Me My Data is a Facebook application designed to give users the ability to export their data out of Facebook for any purpose they see fit. This could include making artwork, archiving and deleting your account, or circumventing the interface Facebook provides. Data can be exported in CSV, XML, and other common formats. Give Me My Data is currently in public-beta.

*** end quote ***

RECOMMENDED!

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QUOTE: You!

Sunday, May 9, 2010

“Luck is wining the lottery. Hard work is … …!”

(Please fill in the blank in the comment.)

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INSPIRATIONAL: Mothers’ Day memories

Sunday, May 9, 2010

Happy Mother’s Day!

I wish my Mother and Mother-in-law was here so I could wish them both a great day.

My Mom passed early in April. Her last years were hard on her: physically and emotionally. Her dignity was gone many years before. I know she was upset with her life in her last years.

My Mother-in-law passed 38 years ago. Way to soon. And, Frau was never the same after that. She went quickly and, while shocking, it was dignified. Wonder what would have been if she’d been permitted to stay around. Life would have been different!

Neither women tolerated fools well. Both we’re hard workers.

Both women grew up poor and that went with them throughout their life.

I have many regrets, but “Life Goes On”.

Miss you Moms!

(Interesting how “Mom” is defined in the media. Mother-in-laws probably have as big an impact on your happiness as your Mom does. THe popular phrase “If momma ain’t happy, no one is” is always applied to wives; I extended it to the Moms as well.)

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SERVICE: Using the user to … …

Saturday, May 8, 2010

*** begin quote ***

Dear Blue Cross Blue Shield of Georgia Member

   This weekend there was a patch implemented that corrected the Portal Error members have been receiving. Please go to the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Georgia website and try to access your account. If you continue to get the Portal Error, please give Web Support a call at (866) 292-6253 Monday-Friday 8 a.m. – 6 p.m. excluding Holidays. Please reference this email when speaking to a Technician.

*** end quote ***

I’d call this “using the user as unpaid debugging help”!

Argh!

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RANT: Sadly, this picture says it all

Saturday, May 8, 2010

http://www.resistnet.com/

201005081134.jpg

My Rx for our problems:

(1) End welfare. Corporate and private.

(2) End the “War on (some) Drugs”

(3) Bring our troops home. (From all 170+ countries!)

(4) End the Fed and return to sound commodity money.

(5) Repeal the Federal income, estate, and excise taxes.

(6) Close the Federal Department of Education, and a bunch more.

(7) Pass “Read The Bills”, “One Subject At Time”, and “Enumerated Powers Act”.

The that fellow in the picture would really have something to complain about!

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INTERESTING: Identify people; not so good

Saturday, May 8, 2010

One thing sucks on the net is identifying unique people.

Just try finding your classmates from your high school class.

Even fellow college alums are hard; high school is near impossible.

My advice: start collecting now.

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MONEY: Changing my position on “emergency funds”

Friday, May 7, 2010

From time to time, folks ask me for advice and “help”. I try hard to give them the best I can in both areas. Interesting that they don’t follow the advice and ignore the help. Yet, will return for more.

Guess I’m getting cynical.

Part of any financial plan, job search, or almost any kind of advice that I give is about having an “emergency fund”.

A financial plan starts with an emergency fund and then proceeds on to savings and later investments. (For the truly wealthy, after investments come speculation. I only know two people in that category. And they don’t need my advice.)

In the past, I advised an “emergency fund” in a demand deposit account, preferably in a Credit Union, equal to some multiple of the individual’s “burn rate” (i.e., how much you spend every month; what goes out). The multiplier was at least 6 but could be as high as 60 depending upon how secure your employment was, how hot your field was, how hot your industry was, and how old you were. IF you had a large savings and investments portfolio, THEN you could “sanity check” the multiplier.

Now, I’m getting older and wiser. I think that you need an “emergency fund” that’s the equivalent of a 5 year MONTHLY CD ladder. Yes, 60 cds. SIXTY. Each one equal to your burn rate.

It’s a tough world out there.

You could be locked out of your savings and investments. You need more security. You have to build up to this advice and it’s not easy. But we have hard times coming. And, six months of burn rate in nickels stored at home.

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POLITICAL: Massachusetts Ballot Initiative to Roll Back the Sales Tax from 6.25% to 3%

Thursday, May 6, 2010

http://campaign.constantcontact.com/render?v=001kpRLqd
WUZBx_0UsqDxwznii_dMU1uW53qmQM24Mgbwis-6HZh0z
QU37Fcvz0-tR-cUvgI7ZTtuV0s-U-2NELVTORi0R0MVlYXkWEBYrxAGU%3D

201005060920.jpg

Massachusetts Ballot Initiative to

Roll Back the Sales Tax from 6.25% to 3%

*** begin quote ***

Kelly-Williams is a nurse in Cambridge and a spokesperson of the union-funded Coalition for Our Communities, the main group opposing Howell’s initiative. She points out that the cut would leave a $2.5 billion hole in the state budget.

“And we already have a shortfall of $2.5 billion. Where is this money going to come from?”

Kelly-Williams says she already knows the answer.

“I fear devastating cuts to educational services, as well as fire and police safety for our communities.”

In any case it will certainly mandate some tough decisions from Bay state lawmakers who have $51.8 billion in total state spending to work with this year.

“This will mandate cuts that will be devastating,” said Kelly-Williams.

Howell isn’t buying it. “This is the Chicken Little, ‘Sky Is Falling’ defense. They say this about every effort to cut taxes.”

“These guys,” she said, referring to Massachusetts elected officials, “are addicted to spending. While the economy has been shrinking, these guys have been spending more money.”

She says the only way to stop them, is through a voter mandate.

“This is it,” she said. “They won’t stop on their own.”

Key Facts About the Massachusetts Sales Tax Roll Back to 3% Initiative:

2010 total Massachusetts state government spending is $51.8 Billion. $3 Billion Higher than 2009.

In 2009, the Democratic state legislature and Democrat Governor Deval Patrick raised the Massachusetts sales tax to 6.25%.

The Alliance to Roll Back Taxes’ Ballot Initiative to roll back the sales tax from 6.25% to 3% will be on the Nov. 2nd Massachusetts Ballot.

*** end quote ***

I applaud Ms. Carla’s tilt at the big gooferment windmill.

It unprecedented to have a roll back of ANY taxes.

Who knows what can happen when they get the “ball” rolling?

Maybe we could have the same in New Jersey?

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SERVICE: TABZON — not recommended

Thursday, May 6, 2010

http://www.tabzon.com

*** begin quote ***

The best little in-out board for your office.

Tabzon is a free online in-out board designed to help you keep track of your co-workers’ whereabouts.

   * Centralised Team

   * One-Click Updates

   * Quick Contact Lookup

   * No Software

   * Safe, Private, & Secure

   * Completely Free!

*** end quote ***

I tried it to solve a person problem. I learned about it on blog. (Unfortunately, I forgot which one.)

I thought it would be like a public bulletin board that who show anybody status. It only shows if you have defined users. So it’s a closed community that you have to “invite”. Argh! I didn’t get that from the description. It doesn’t have the granularity of control.

I gave them other feedback as I worked with it.

“You need to declare what it costs on first screen. Always will be free? Freemium? Something else?” (Addressed!)

“Email address restrictions should be up front. Not after you wipe out all the input I did. Argh!” (Don’t know.)

“Your activation email goes directly into spam folders. Unlike what others do. Something needs fixing.”  (Don’t know.)

I was trying to use it as a bulletin board for family to know when to call my wife.

Yes, realized. And, yes. It appears to “reset” to unavailable for no apparent reason.

On May 5, 2010, at 12:07 AM

>Hi again,

>Nice to see your finding the idea useful in a way we handn’t intended.

>This behaviour is odd indeed. Just a couple of things to confirm :

It’s always showing “unavailable”. I’ll try and find another solution. Argh! Sorry. It looked good.

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INTERESTING: Verify and validate “change”

Thursday, May 6, 2010

http://www.careerhubblog.com/main/2010/04/17-tips-for-dealing-with-volcanos-change-and-uncertainty.html

17 Tips For Dealing With Volcanos, Change and Uncertainty

*** begin quote ***

Ever-changing technology, globalisation and hyper-competition have conspired to make most of our professional lives an ever-changing landscape. Add to that a changeable economic climate, political uncertainty and a sprinkling of volcanic ash and voila – you have the makings of constant change and unpredictability.

While your ability to create and execute detailed plans may have served you well in the past, in today’s economy and work place, it’s your ability to operate in a much more fluid environment that determines your progress.

Regardless of whether you’re currently trying to lead a team through change or attempting to navigate your own career through a turbulence, here are 17 tips which may help.

1. Focus on clear outcomes instead of detailed plans

*** end quote ***

(0) Check your paradigms and memes. Change is a delta based on a previous perception. What if that perception is wrong? Our memes shape our perceptions and vice versa. Sunset is the other side of sunrise. Both are unique changes but they are inexorably linked. Are they one? Similarly, we have so many blind spots about some many things (i.e., time; culture; distance; interpretation). Those paradigms and memes might be wrong. Worse yet they can be silently invalidated by changes over time without us perceiving that change. So, very carefully, examine and reexamine your paradigms and memes. Challenge what you think is true. Test it. Don’t depend upon it without reexamination. It can bite you in the a double q.

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TECHNOLOGY: Interesting panel

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

201005052108.jpg

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POLITICAL: Fixing Arizona using power point?

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

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GOVEROTRAGEOUS: Stopping the Social Security Ponzi scheme! “Cold turkey”?

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

http://cafehayek.com/2010/05/stopping-the-social-security-ponzi-scheme.html

Stopping the social security ponzi scheme
by Russ Roberts on May 4, 2010
in Social Security

*** begin quote ***

The way to keep social security from bankrupting the country is to make it a welfare program for the elderly. But what about all the money I “contributed”? Alas, that was a lie. The money wasn’t set aside for the future. It’s like asking why don’t I collect food stamps even though I’m rich. Hey, I contributed so I should get food stamps. That’s a bizarre belief to have. That’s not the way food stamps work. That is the way social security is supposed to work, but it’s a bad idea, it was an illusion that your contributions were really yours and there isn’t enough money to keep the illusion going.

*** end quote ***

The problem is that the gooferment took the “seed corn” from everyone. They skimmed the “cream” off the top. We could have saved MORE for our own retirement, but they STOLE it early (when the savings would have had more impact) and OFTEN (by inflation eats up savings and raises costs). So everyone to now say “too bad, you’re screwed” is the perpetuation of a fraud and a theft. We didn’t get into this mess in a few years and won’t get out of it in a few years. It was decades. So, like Chile, we need time. <sub 40, recognition bond for contributions payable in 40 years; over 40 below 60, you get some choices; over 60, you get the old plan> And you work your way out.

I pitched a similar idea in the NY Tax Revolt in the 80’s. A twenty year plan to get out of gooferment education at 5% a year. Followed immediately by a twenty year plan, to get out of gooferment funded “education” completely. Forty years, like the time the Jews wandered the desert, gives you time to reeducate people and allow them to adapt to the new realities. Too bad they didn’t adopt it, we’d have been half way out by now. NJ’s education expense is crippling the State.

Paradigms and memes don’t change over night. And, folks have to be able to see the path, where it leads to, and how it can be accomplished with 960 (40 times 12) easy monthly payments of some modest amount gets them to Freedom.

# – # – #

Upon reflection, this would cause violence in the streets. Only the wealthy could survive this body blow. And, with the gooferment planning to “monetize the debt” (i.e., inflate the currency so it can pay off the debt), those on fixed incomes and retired will be slowly strangled. Think the German pre-WW2 hyperinflation that made Hitler possible.

No, we need an orderly multi-generational way to get form here to there. Peacefully. The Chile solution worked well; why not here?

One problem is they were all illiterate and could ignore the liberal media telling us the gooferment’s propaganda line. We’re too “smart” for our own good. And, the youth propaganda reeducation camps are ensuring continued stupidity!

Argh!

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JOBSEARCH: Myths are killers in job search

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

http://www.pickthebrain.com/blog/6-myths-that-stand-in-your-way/

6 Myths That Stand In Your Way
April 18th, 2010 by Mark Harrison

*** begin quote ***

1. Myth: There is time

2. Myth: You can rely on other people

3. Myth: You are important

4. Myth: You should put others before yourself

5. Myth: Conflict should be avoided

6. Myth: The difference between success and failure is LUCK.

*** end quote ***

Ahhh, myths, I can relate to this one. I was so … … stupid, lazy, dumb,

Shoulda, coulda, and woulda!

Paradigms are the way we perceive the world (i.e., the JoHari window). Memes, like genes for ideas, are the units of thoughts that transfer and modify behavior.

Myths are a erroneous paradigms and memes.

So is the problem, the difference, that we now perceive them as “wrong”. By what standard?

So we have paradigms and memes that, being wrong, interfere with a successful life and a successful jobsearch.

Some of them that have particularly screwed me up.

1. I believed people. They lied. I acted on those beliefs. And, I did damage that I can’t even know or assess.

2. I “coasted” when it would have been trivial to do the work. Again, another hit that can’t be assessed.

3. I read a mensa piece (i.e., human being owner’s manual) many many moons ago. I thought it was a joke. Little did I know how true it was.

4. I have heard many of the self-help gurus and read many of the self-help texts. Read, but didn’t grok. Preused but didn’t action.

5. I didn’t play the “political game” at my various stops along my career path. Who knows what could have been?

6. I urged people to forgive themselves. I have to do the same. The “more than a year” amnesty. All sins forgiven; not forgotten.

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TECHNOLOGY: MEGAMILLIONS site is overwhelmed

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Winning Numbers – Mega Millions Official Home

Winning Numbers: 4/30/2010. Mega Millions drawings are held Tuesday and Friday at 11:00 p.m. Five balls are drawn from a set of balls numbered 1 through 56; …

# – # – #

The page cannot be displayed

The request cannot be processed at this time. The amount of traffic exceeds the Web site’s configured capacity.

Please try the following:

   * Click the Refresh button, or try again later.

   * If this error persists, contact the Web site administrator to inform them that this error continues to occur for this URL address.

HTTP Error 500.13 – Server error: Web server is too busy.

Internet Information Services (IIS)

Technical Information (for support personnel)

   * Go to Microsoft Product Support Services and perform a title search for the words HTTP and 500.

   * Open IIS Help, which is accessible in IIS Manager (inetmgr), and search for topics titled Monitoring and Tuning Web Application Performance, Performance Monitoring and Scalability Tools, and About Custom Error Messages.

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GOVERNACIDE: Kent State murders

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

http://aaeblog.com/2010/05/04/the-state-in-action/

*** begin quote ***

Forty years ago today, Ohio National Guardsmen murdered four unarmed students at Kent State and wounded nine others, permanently paralysing one.

*** end quote ***

So soon we forget.

From whence does the State, any state, get the right to execute its citizens?

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POLITICAL: What a novel idea: voluntary funding of services

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

http://www.lvrj.com/opinion/the-audacity-of-deceit-92614219.html

May. 02, 2010
The audacity of deceit
VIN SUPRYNOWICZ
I don’t think Barack Obama tells the truth.

*** begin quote ***

The freedom ideal would be no compulsory taxation, at all — let all keep their own earnings to invest in growing the economy, while what minimal government is required would be supported by voluntary user fees.

The statists will pretend to object on pragmatic grounds. Let them first answer whether or not they agree this would be the ideal. If they do, then we can try to solve the pragmatic problems. I grew up in a small town, for example, where voluntary membership fees funded the ambulance and the volunteer firemen. The ambulance and the firemen would still respond to a home that had not subscribed — but that homeowner would then receive a bill for the full cost of their services. Few waited to get a second bill before signing up as paid members.

*** end quote ***

My gripe with gooferment is:

  • It uses force even when not needed;
  • We pay for “services” that we don’t want.
  • We pay for “services” that we don’t need.
  • We pay for “services” that we can’t afford.
  • We pay for “services” that are “over priced”.
  • We pay for “services” that are “under functional”.
  • We pay for “services” that are delayed or way overdue.

And pay, and pay, and pay, and pay.

Enuf is enuf!

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RANT: ABC broke The View for OBH44

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

ABC broke The View for OBH44 to “update the American people”. Argh! They never did that for Bush. And, he’s congratulating everyone.

Hey guys, we were just lucky that this fellow was so inept.

And, our technology infrastructure can’t track folks traveling to and from Pakistan.

And, our gooferment is still as inept as it ever was.

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MONEY: WW2 Wage and Price control were disasterous and carry through today

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

On Apr 24, 2010, at 5:58 PM, LUDDITE wrote:

http://finance.yahoo.com/focus-retirement/article/107923/8-great-companies-to-retire-from.html?mod=fidelity-changingjobs

At a time when some firms have cut back on benefits, these employers offer notably generous plans. Fortune picks some of the best.

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Good for you. But bad for us as a society. Pensions and benefits are a result of the WW2 wage and price controls. Big companies bent the salary cap rules by giving these inducements to get good workers. This was a gooferment distortion of the employment marketplace which as usual has had disastrous side effects. I’m not a economist; nor a social scientist, but let see if I can enumerate the ones I know about.

(1) Medical insurance tied to employment had several bad effects. It locked up workers who couldn’t or wouldn’t change jobs due to losing their benefits or the “pre-existing conditions of going to a different insurer. Lose your job due to poor performance, bad economy (i.e., recession), or structural changes in the economy (i.e., rust belt) lose your benefits. It disconnected the link between the expense and the pain of paying thus inducing folks not shop around, negotiate, or even look at the bills.

(2) Pensions are in effect deferred compensation. It locks up capital in the company pension plan — with its risk in bankruptcy — from the individual. So, for example, an employee, if they had that money, could have used it as they saw fit to provide for their own retirement. In my own case, I could have had an extra X$/month to pay down my mortgage sooner and had that capital asset for my retirement. It’s about Freedom and liberty. I was FORCED to trade X$ per month at that time for a future cash flow at age 65 assuming I lived so long. If I didn’t, it was lost. Like “Social Security”!

(3) Pensions were such an expense that the Aircraft companies were firing “old” injineers just before their pensions vested to hire new graduates cheaper. (The fact that much of their work was for the military and the gooferment made it hurt even more.) Hence, having created the problem, the Gooferment gave us the solution — more gooferment — the ERISA laws. (Argh!)

(4) Pensions and benefits, due to it hidden sunken costs, makes the workforce less flexible and nimble. You had to have a much bigger opportunity in a new job in order to justify leaving the security, pension, and benefits in an old employer.

(5) Increased regulation of the workplace, such as OSHA, FALSA, and NLRB, all sprung out of that New Deal thinking. And, was as taxation and regulation, a drag on our economy.

So that’s why this is bad for us as a nation.

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Posted by reinkefj

JOBSEARCH: Build a inet biz; it may take off

Monday, May 3, 2010

http://techcrunch.com/2010/05/01/advice-from-founders-who-bootstrapped-their-way-to-success-2

Advice From Founders Who Bootstrapped Their Way to Success
by Vivek Wadhwa on May 1, 2010

*** begin quote ***

It was founded in 2000, after Nickell, then a 20-year-old web developer, won a t-shirt-design contest. With an investment of $1000, he built a website to which people submitted t-shirt designs, and the favorites were printed in limited-edition runs. In 2006, the company had gained traction, was generating nearly $10 million in revenue, and took a small investment from Insight Venture Partners.

My Q&A with Jake:

Would you have taken a VC investment if you could have, when you started?

Definitely not, as I was starting a hobby and not a business. It’s kind of like asking if I would consider a VC investment to help me start learning to skateboard. Sure, I’d spend a couple hundred bucks on a board, some pads and maybe some materials to build a ramp, but I’m not looking for millions or even hundreds or tens of thousands to just create something for fun. Even if I was starting a business, I don’t think I was raised that way or have that type of personality. I didn’t even have my first credit card until I was maybe 23, so I really just don’t do well with spending money I don’t have.

*** end quote ***

This timely post reinforces my formula points #5 and #6. (imho)

Success for your generation is:

{Extraneous Deleted}

(5) one or more internet based businesses — your store is always open;

(6) a free time hobby that generates income;

{Extraneous Deleted}

In the cited example, the hobby became his internet business and it carried him away. We should all be so lucky.

But don’t over look the essential point, bootstrap a hobby into a source of income.

Thanks to my old workmate Vivek. Guess I should have listened to him more when we worked together. Who knew he was so smart?

(Sotto voce: He didn’t seem that smart at the time.)

ROFL!

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Posted by reinkefj

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