QUOTES: The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

“These are times that try men’s souls; the summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.” – Thomas Paine, from his essay “The Crisis”

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Perhaps, he should have written that “There are times in EACH generation that try men’s souls.”? Seems like we are being presented with ours. With politicians and bureaucrats that are as any as those that served King George!

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FUN: A bicycle can’t stand alone; it is two tired

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

http://www.myjokemail.com/jokes/lexophiles-lovers-of-words/

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Lexophiles (Lovers of Words)

1. A bicycle can’t stand alone; it is two tired.

2. A will is a dead giveaway.

3. Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana.

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I’ll have to create a new section on the blog for these pithy bits of wisdom.

I never heard some of these.

Zen-like

They all key off a double play on the words.

I can’t imagine how one would go about building one. Are they just discovered?

run — diarrhea / law versus diktat / table to be able place to eat versus some thing one looks up a value / medicine med a sin medium sin me dicin e

argh!

Not as easy as it looks and it looks hard!

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GUNS: Gun control should be about hitting what you aim at

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig10/ayoob28.1.html

CCW
by Massad Ayoob

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Having spent most of my life in New Hampshire, which issued carry permits regularly since long before this old man was born and reportedly was the lowest-crime state in the union last year – and now owning a home in Florida, which caused all manner of angst amongst the lightweights when it made carry permits readily available in the late ‘80s – I can testify that when good people carry guns, the streets don’t run red with blood. Quite the reverse, in fact.

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“An armed society is a polite society. Manners are good when one may have to back up his acts with his life.” —- Robert A. Heinlein

Remember that “gun control” was instituted so that balck could not defend themselves from the KKK.

So, it’s really about “victim disarmament”!

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TECHNOLOGY: Let the inet be free of Gooferment diktat

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

http://thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-valley/technology/109453-wsjs-mossberg-wants-a-broadband-plan-with-teeth

WSJ’s Mossberg wants a broadband plan with teeth
By Gautham Nagesh – 07/18/10 06:13 PM ET

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“We need a strong broadband policy on the part of the government not to run or take over broadband, but to set the private sector and the society on a course where we can make sure that we always have the kind of speed, availability and affordability of broadband that will allow the innovation around it that will keep us competitive or hopefully ahead of other countries and I do worry about that,” he said.

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No!

We need the Gooferment to step aside and let the inet grow and run free.

We don’t need it “managed”.

We do need an impartial referee stand off to the side call “fair” or “foul”. Prevent fraud. don’t let ISPs cheat their Customers (i.e., we know that there is NO justification for usage charges on the inet).

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POLITICAL: Gooferment waste (but then I repeat myself)

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/underemployed-overpaid-states-shell-unemployment/story?id=11118137

Labor Dept. Estimates $7.1 Billion in Overpayments to Unemployed
Overpayment Figure Increases From $4.2 Billion the Previous Year
By ALICE GOMSTYN ABC NEWS Business Unit July 9, 2010

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While many Americans are feeling the pain of expired unemployment benefits, some have gotten a good chunk more than they were legally eligible for.

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Gooferment screwup number what?

You can’t make this stuff up.

They can’t even give out money without screwing it up.

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POLITICAL: An unholy attempt to fix the Constitution in a back room! Cui bono?

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2010/07/mass_may_join_e.html

Mass. may join effort to bypass Electoral College
By Martin Finucane, Globe Staff

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Supporters are waging a state-by-state campaign to try to get such bills enacted. Once states possessing a majority of the electoral votes (or 270 of 538) have enacted the laws, the candidate winning the most votes nationally would be assured a majority of the Electoral College votes, no matter how the other states vote and how their electoral votes are distributed.

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The political elite are seeking to rewrite the Constitution via backroom deals and open conspiracy to disenfranchise the “small states”.

When will we learn NOT to mess with the wisdom of the Dead Old White Guys. They were possible the smartest men ever assembled in one lucky place at the right time in history. We can go thru the Amendments passed, and one unpassed, as a litany to pure collective stupidity.

The Political Effete and the Party Powerbrokers would love nothing better than to have to win the popular vote in California, Chicago, New York, and host of other corrupt places to be assured of a national win. Ballot box stuffing and recounts on a National basis would become the norm. Argh!

The Electoral College was put in to protect the small states. The Constitution would have never been adopted without that design. I don’t know if they intended it, but it does firewall ballot box stuffing. Go ahead and stuff all you want in Massachusetts, you’ll only get 12 Electoral votes. Now if this change was adopted, that stuffing could determine the national election. Ever read any stories where there were more votes than registered voters (Say “hi” to Al Franken) or a large “graveyard vote” (Sam Rayburn and LBJ) or “voting machine breakdowns” in the non-machine party’s precincts? How about “keep counting until you get the answer you want then stop”?No, that could never happen in America!

And who is to tabulate and certify that grand total that all the conspiratorial states will use to determine their votes?

Argh! How stupid can we be!

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UPDATE 01 August 2010

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2010/08/01/massachusetts_for_palin

Massachusetts for Palin?
By Jeff Jacoby
Globe Columnist / August 1, 2010

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IT IS Election Night, 2012. The polls have closed. State by state, the votes are being counted, and gradually it becomes clear, to the bottomless horror of some voters and the unbridled delight of others, that Sarah Palin, the Republican presidential nominee, has bested President Barack Obama in the popular vote nationwide.

In Massachusetts, where Obama crushed Palin in a 79 percent landslide — the most lopsidedly anti-Palin vote of any state — “bottomless horror’’ doesn’t begin to describe the political reaction. For in 2010, Massachusetts joined the National Popular Vote compact, making a commitment to cast all of its electoral votes for the presidential candidate receiving the most votes nationally, regardless of the results in Massachusetts. The compact took effect in December 2011, when California became the 15th state to join, thereby uniting enough states to control a majority of the Electoral College. Now Massachusetts, the bluest of the blue states, must award its presidential electors to a candidate Massachusetts voters overwhelmingly opposed.

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ROFL!

Twenty-second Amendment to the United States Constitution passed by the Republicans, to prevent a repeat of FDR’s four terms, term limited Ike. And, has dramatically altered the political landscape by making the President a “lame duck” in his second term.

That’s the best example of political stupidity.

The above Palin scenario would be absolutely hysterical.

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SERVICE: Citations and bibliography

Monday, July 19, 2010

http://www.freedownloadaday.com/2010/07/17/format-citations-and-build-a-bibliography-with-easybib/

Format citations and build a bibliography with EasyBib
July 17th, 2010

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It’s one thing to thoroughly research and write your paper, thesis, dissertation, or even letter to the City Council; it’s another thing to get all the citations right. After all, unless you’re only compiling your own data, you are no doubt depending on the work of others. And we all know that we need to give credit where credit is due, meaning you need to cite those sources. But how do you correctly and accurately give your sources? And what format should you use?

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http://www.easybib.com

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So of course I had to try it. :-)

Reinke, Ferdinand J. “RANT: Bailouts Are Welfare and Theft Is Just Theft « Reinke Faces Life.” Reinke Faces Life. WordPress, 19 July 2010. Web. 19 July 2010. <https://reinkefaceslife.com/2010/07/19/rant-bailouts-are-welfare-and-theft-is-just-theft/&gt;.

Seems to work nicely.

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GOLDBUG: a store of value

Monday, July 19, 2010

http://economist.com/node/16536800

Gold
Store of value
Low returns on other investments and fears about the world economy have caused the price of gold to soar. Don’t count on its continued rise
Jul 8th 2010 | Delhi and london

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The appetite for gold arises partly from the paltry, uncertain returns from more conventional investments. Gold’s main drawback is that it pays neither a dividend, like a share, nor a coupon, like a bond, nor a rent, like property. But monetary policy has been keeping official interest rates, and thus the opportunity cost of holding gold, low and seems set to do so for a while. The yields on the government bonds investors regard as safest, notably America’s and Germany’s, are also thin. Equity markets are weighed down by worries about economic growth. Investing in property, which lay at the root of the financial crisis, requires a boldness that many still lack.

At the same time, the looseness of monetary policy has made many investors fear the eventual resurgence of inflation. The wretched state of many governments’ finances makes some worry about states’ ability to repay their debts—or about the temptation to inflate them away. Banks’ exposure to sovereign debt and to a still-fragile world economy adds another layer of concerns. And when all governments would like their currencies to be weaker rather than stronger, whose paper money do you trust? Hussein Allidina, head of commodities research at Morgan Stanley, reckons: “Gold looks better every day with growing sovereign risks.”

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Over the past few years, the market’s net return has been zero or maybe negative depending upon the interval, so gold and siler look good.

Cheap insurance.

If inflation spikes, it’ll really pay off.

Depending upon what loon you listen to predicting the price of gold, it could be essential.

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RANT: Bailouts are welfare and theft is just theft

Monday, July 19, 2010

http://irisheagle.blogspot.com/2010/07/mortgage-bail-out-recipients-should-be.html

Saturday, July 10, 2010
Mortgage bail-out recipients should be publicly named

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I also have sympathy for those who find themselves out of work and can’t afford their mortgage, but again I would like any help that we taxpayers are to provide …

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Welfare is welfare. Theft is theft. And, there’s a “moral hazard” in this.

When the Gooferment takes over, “We, The Taxpayers” don’t get to decide who gets our charity and who doesn’t. Who’s worthwhile and who’s a bum! And, from thence all sorts of bad things come.

It’s welfare. Just more welfare. That enables bad behavior. Bad behavior on the part of the recipient, every one who knows about it, the politicians, and the bureaucrats. The recipient is not “encouraged” to make better decisions. Every one, who knows about it, takes on more risks “knowing” that “We, The Taxpayer” will chip in to our hard luck story. The politicians get to claim that they “care” — easy to care sending OPM Other People’s Money — while having favors, contracts, and jobs to dispense. And, last but not least, the bureaucrats can have high paying jobs with pensions while doing “good for the downtrodden”. Argh!

It’s welfare. It’s theft. And, it encourages future bad behaviors that we can only imagine.

To misquote the iconic Nike commercial, and to quote the stupid anti–drug one, “Just Say No”.

No Taxpayer-funded bailouts of any kind. Ever. No matter how sad the tale.

If the politicians want to pass the collection basket after putting in a few quid of their own, I’m happy to contribute. Just don’t rob me and expect me to be happy that the thief is doing good with my few scarce pennies.

Argh!

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RANT: NAACP targets the wrong villains; those politicians are not your friends

Monday, July 19, 2010

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=179633

Look who’s talking
Posted: July 16, 2010
Pat Buchanan

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As longshoreman-philosopher Eric Hoffer observed, every great movement begins as a cause, eventually becomes a business, then degenerates into a racket. Time for the Ford Foundation to pull the plug on its subsidiary (referring to the NAACP), whose time has come and gone a long time ago.

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There’s no doubt that there are people who are racists. Black and white. I can only imagine how screwed those people who were taken advantage of feel. But, calling names and getting all riled up, does ZERO to solve the problems of the day.

If I was in the NAACP, then I’d be after the scalps of the politicians and bureaucrats who put them in a virtual slavery and pander to keep them there. The psuedo “war” on (some) drugs have destroyed the Black Communities. The welfare system has simultaneously destroyed the Black Family, the Black Churches, and the initiative of anyone captured in their system. And, the worst “killer” of minorities is the education system. Walter Williams captured it perfectly: “If the Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan wanted to sabotage black academic excellence, he could not find a more effective means to do so than the government school system in most cities.”

Let’s begin to solve the problems: repeal the drug laws, free all non-violent drug offenders, let’s work to end the welfare system, and let’s free the schools. Then we can go after ALL the diktats that restrict inner city entrepreneurs (e.g., hair braiding licenses; dollar van restrictions; taxi medallions; food laws used to protect incumbents; minimum wage laws; zoning regs; rent control).

Let’s get everyone a slice of the American Dream! Expanding the pie can ensure that everyone meets the promise of the DofI — all men are created equal and endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among these are the right to life, liberty, and property.

Restore America to its ideal.

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