RANT: The Gooferment! Can’t even run a website app

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/article/0,,id=102767,00.html

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Check Out Our Interview-style Application

No need to file a Form SS-4. We ask you the questions and you give us the answers. After all validations are done you will get your EIN immediately upon completion. You can then download, save, and print your EIN confirmation notice.

This EIN is your permanent number and can be used immediately for most of your business needs, including opening a bank account, applying for business licenses, and filing a tax return by mail. However, no matter how you apply (phone, fax, mail, or online), it will take up to two weeks before your EIN becomes part of the IRS’ permanent records. You must wait until this occurs before you can file an electronic return, make an electronic payment, or pass an IRS Taxpayer Identification Number matching program.

We are experiencing technical difficulties at this time and hope to have the issue resolved soon.

We apologize for an inconvenience this may cause.

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Argh!!!!!

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LIBERTY: Stefan Molyneux

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

http://freekeene.com/2010/08/05/important-video-the-sunset-of-the-state/

Stefan Molyneux (born September 24, 1966) is a Canadian blogger, essayist, author, and host of the Freedomain Radio[2] series of podcasts, living in Mississauga, Southern Ontario.

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He may be the most powerful Libertarian thinker in my time. TO envision a world without Gooferment is either loony or insightful. Either way, here’s a challenging 10 minute video that challenges the assumption of Gooferment.

Makes you think about evolution and revolution.

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INTERESTING: Constantly putting up a front is psychologically taxing; physically?

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

http://artofmanliness.com/2010/08/08/the-masks-men-wear

The Masks Men Wear by Brett & Kate McKay on August 8, 2010

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Researchers who study primates, like baboons, have learned never to tranquilize a male in front of his rivals. Once the male goes down, his competitors see the opportunity to pounce on him and will viciously attack the helpless baboon. No such problem exists when researchers tranquilize female primates. One can see then why male primates that are sick or injured will put on displays of vitality and vigor when their rival is around, only to go back to licking their wounds when once again by themselves. Biologists theorize that perhaps our human ancestors dealt with same issue-they couldn’t appear vulnerable or their rivals would see an opening, an opportunity. So our male ancestors learned to hide weakness and act tough. But constantly putting up this front can be psychologically taxing.

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So that’s why men die sooner than woman? Keeping that front up is hard work.

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RANT: The attendant was wrong, but the passenger was wronger!

Monday, August 9, 2010

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_upshot/20100809/od_yblog_upshot/jetblue-attendent-slides-down-emergency-chute-after-fight-with-passenger

JetBlue attendant slides down emergency chute after fight with passenger
By Holly Bailey

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Police arrested a JetBlue flight attendant today at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport after he got into a verbal altercation with a passenger and then fled the scene by sliding down the plane’s emergency evacuation chute.

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Excuse me! I’d suggest that they also arrest the <Expletive Deleted> passenger who set him off. And, when I was flying, the yahoos don’t give the “help” any cooperation. Sorry but I can understand the exasperation that the attendant was feeling.

I’d give him a firm slap on the wrist and send him on his way. And, I’d sentence the passenger to 30 days as an attendant. With me as a judge, I bet everyone follows the safety rules in my jurisdiction. All the other stupid rules would be rescinded immediately. Argh!

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GOVEROTRAGEOUS: A new meaning for an army of diplomats?

Monday, August 9, 2010

http://www.vtcommons.org/blog/2010/08/04/wondering-about-obamas-diplomats

WONDERING about Obama’s diplomats…
Submitted by jcbrook on Wed, 08/04/2010 – 10:39pm.

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http://www.stripes.com/news/middle-east/iraq/state-dept-planning-to-field-a-small-army-in-iraq-1.111839

State Dept. planning to field a small army in Iraq [EXCERPTS]

WASHINGTON — Can diplomats field their own army? The State Department is laying plans to do precisely that in Iraq, in an unprecedented experiment that U.S. officials and some nervous lawmakers say could be risky….

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I don’t think this is what Old George (Washington) meant by a “humble foreign” policy. Could be wrong about it, but aren’t ambassadors supposed to carry portfolios, not m16s?

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GUNS: Ms. Tori should have had an “equalizer”

Monday, August 9, 2010

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/7934226/Young-woman-randomly-beaten-to-death-by-jobless-teenager-who-had-rowed-with-girlfriend.html

Young woman ‘randomly beaten to death by jobless teenager who had rowed with girlfriend’
By Heidi Blake
Published: 8:49AM BST 09 Aug 2010

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A young woman was allegedly beaten to death in a random attack by an unemployed teenager who had recently rowed with his girlfriend.

Toni Rudman, 24, was dragged off the street in broad daylight and beaten to death in a nearby builders’ yard in Plumstead, south London.

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This is a perfect blog fodder.

In the land of “no guns” and “no self-defense”, the strong criminal prevails. What about this woman’s “rights”. Supposedly protected by the Gooferment. ANd, taken away by a 19 year old rogue.

While technically correct, “teenager” is a misnomer. He’s a thug. Perhaps, you could call him a “young adult”, but “teenager” isn’t appropriate. He’s a criminal.

Now, I can’t be sure that a gun would have made a difference, BUT I would certainly like to see Ms. Toni Rudman given a fighting chance. Sam Colt is correctly applauded, “God made man, but Samuel Colt made them equal,” originated as advertising slogan for Colt Manufacturing. It should have been: “God made men and women, but Samuel Colt made them equal”! I can’t say for certain that a nice little 380 in Ms. Tori’s hand would have saved her life. But, I, for one, think that she should have had a chance to defend herself.

That’s what Sheeple on both sides of the pond would like to forget. The world is a dangerous place. And, as if the four legged varmints were not enough of a threat, “We, The People” have allowed a whole subspecies of two legged ones to thrive. While I am a right to lifer where babies are concerned, I’m a little L libertarian who thinks that Ms. Tori had the “unalienable right to life”. As does the “teenager”, up to the point where he initiated force on Ms. Tori. At that point, he made a choice. And, he suffers the consequences of that choice. Ms. Tori SHOULD have had the option to defend her life.

As an interesting thought experiment, if Ms. Tori had been “packing heat”, and if she dropped the “teenager” with a magazine load, then would she have been charged? Probably, because he was just “misunderstood” and she would have “over reacted”.

Another interesting thought experiment, if “open carry” was legal, and if she had on her stylish holster, do you think the “teenager” would have attacked her? Remember Robert A. Heinlein admonishment. “An armed society is a polite society. Manners are good when one may have to back up his acts with his life.” He wrote a whole book about an armed society. Juvenile science fiction? I think not.

We are living in a time when the Sheeple are convinced by their politicians and bureaucrats that the timeless laws are suspended. The old ones no longer apply. Just yesterday, I heard Mayor Bloomberg pontificating about “keeping firearms out of the hands of criminals”. The only way that is going to happen is if he cuts off their hands. Criminals don’t obey laws. It may be a bumper sticker, but it’s still true: “When guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns”. (I call Bloomberg a pontificator, because he has tax-payer supplied 24/7 armed security. And, even before he was mayor he had bodyguards. (I know I met him twice and saw him several times on Wall Street. He was a real SOB then. I doubt he’s changed. Thought he was right then; no doubt still does.) Unless you think the hulking guy, with the strategic bulge who was always with him, was really his “aide”.

Bottom line: I grieve for Ms. Tori. She was killed by the Gooferment. Just as surely as if they had beaten her to death themselves. England is the land of fools. They think that a Gooferment diktat can repeal the laws of nature. Those twits have made it back into the Jungle. Survival of the fittest. The strong can kill all those weaker than themselves. With just the barest of inconvenience. Watch the results. This “teenager” will be portrayed as: a poor helpless waif; totally misunderstood; who was failed by society which should have given him a job; and was a romantic rejected by his life’s love. Get out the violins and flowers. You will think he’s saint who stumbled.

Instead, he’s evil. A criminal who preys on the weak. To satisfy his blood lust. He deserves to be removed from the gene pool. Just as he did Ms. Tori.

I’d suggest a “must carry” law. And, mandatory gun training and swimming lessons for everyone. Especially girls. Since they seem to get the shit end of the stick.

Gandhi said “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.” Perhaps, he was wrong. Their self-delusion that they could legislate away the inalienable right to life and propagating that idea around the world will be the blackest. What they did to India was just a subset of that misdeed.

To arms, to arms, the British are coming. Even worse, their misguided idea have seeped into “liberal” minds here.

We need to revise that to the foolish idiots are coming to impose their will on us. Who care what costume they wear? All though lets hope they are nice and bright so were can aim at an easy target.

Sorry, Ms. Tori, you should have had a fighting chance. You should have been able to defend yourself with a true “equalizer”.

More importantly, we need to make Vermont-style carry the law of the land here. Nothing like “Ms Tori” should happen here. Arm all the women and girls. I trust them to make good decisions.

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RANT: Has The View become the “press office” of the White House?

Monday, August 9, 2010

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MONDAY, AUGUST 9, 2010

Vice President Joe Biden chats with the co-hosts. Plus, it’s Sherri’s birthday — so get ready to party! Gospel singer Fred Hammond performs.

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Strange?

Summer repeats, but interesting what they choose to repeat.

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INTERESTING: Moral Hazard

Monday, August 9, 2010

http://cafehayek.com/2010/08/successful-bailout.html

Successful Bailout? by Don Boudreaux on August 2, 2010

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Second – and more importantly – the chief economic case against the bailout was not that huge infusions of taxpayer funds and special exemptions from bankruptcy rules could not make G.M. and Chrysler profitable. Of course they could. Instead, the heart of the case against the bailout is that it saps the life-blood of entrepreneurial capitalism. The bailout reinforces the debilitating precedent of protecting firms deemed ‘too big to fail.’ Capital and other resources are thus kept glued by politics to familiar lines of production, thus impeding entrepreneurial initiative that would have otherwise redeployed these resources into newer, more-dynamic, and more productive industries.

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“The broken window fallacy”
— Frédéric Bastiat Ce qu’on voit et ce qu’on ne voit pas (That Which Is Seen and That Which Is Unseen) 1850

I know for certain that the 5k$ that Obama robbed from my wife’s IRA could have been used to do something she wanted to do. Even if the bankruptcy only gave her a dollar, it was still HER dollar; not his!

Seizure by the Gooferment. Worked for FDR; worked for Obama. I won’t forget it either.

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GOVERNACIDE: I’m stunned at the ignorance of some and the insensitivity of others

Monday, August 9, 2010

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/afghanistan/7931862/British-doctor-and-nine-others-killed-in-Afghanistan-ambush.html

British doctor and nine others killed in Afghanistan ambush
A British doctor, Dr Karen Woo, was among ten aid workers ambushed and shot dead by gunmen in a remote area of northern Afghanistan, it emerged today.
By Andrew Alderson and Ben Farmer in Kabul
Published: 1:44PM BST 07 Aug 2010

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A British doctor, Dr Karen Woo, was among ten aid workers ambushed and shot dead by gunmen in a remote area of northern Afghanistan, it emerged today.

The body of Dr Woo, whose family came from Stevenage, Hertfordshire, was found on Friday next to three bullet-riddled four-wheel drive vehicles.

The Taliban has claimed responsibility for the attack, which also claimed the lives of six Americans, a German and two Afghan interpreters. The attack happened in the Kuran Wa Munjan district of Badakhshan province in Afghanistan.

It is understood that the victims were lined up, robbed and shot dead with AK-47 rifles. “Yesterday (Friday) at around 8am, one of our patrols confronted a group of foreigners. They were Christian missionaries and we killed them all,” said Zabihullah Mujahed, a spokesman for the Taliban.

Dr Woo was returning to Kabul after working in an eye clinic in the Nuristan province when her convoy was attacked. She had previously worked for private health care firm Bupa before she decided to do aid work in Afghanistan. Her parents and two brothers were too upset to comment on her death.

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“An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind.” Gandhi

I’d say a plague on their house. And, walk away.

I’m touched by the human suffering. But only the folks there can upset the apple cart.

Clearly, the Taliban don’t want any help. So we should pull back. And, if they stick there head up to hurt us, then we help them back to the stone age “dog eat dog prison” that they have created. That means no “diplomatic” trips to NYC, London, or Paris. No personal foreign bank accounts. They’re in a jail; that we don’t have to pay for.

And we can use the power of Marque and Reprisal! (Think of a “get out of jail free” card and a “dead or alive” wanted poster with “alive” crossed out.

“We, The People” have to direct our representatives to get the hell out of this mess and save some lives.

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TECHNOLOGY: When a hospital’s IT system is dangerous to patient care

Sunday, August 8, 2010

“UPON FURTHER REVIEW”

Interesting. I finally had time to go thru the exit documents that they made her sign before they let her go. Those instructions are ten pages of virtually unreadable “barbara streisand”. Let’s examine what the hospital bureaucrats — no doubt advised by lawyers — wasted paper and toner on.

Under the heading of “just stupid”, this patient doesn’t smoke, virtually never has. (Me either. Ever kiss a smoker? Yuck. And it makes your wee willie shrink up prematurely. For boys and girls. Look it up. That should be enough to get any youngster to quit. Unless the don’t like using. TMI? Hey this is life. Face it. Like the blog title says.) So why are there THREE separate sections of this load of “barbara streisand” about quitting smoking. One section might be a mistake, two an oversight, three is just no one reads the “barbara streisand” pumped out.

Under the heading of “downright dangerous”, are the two pages of medication instructions. (I have yet to exit the hospital with Frau where these are correct. From my memory, EVERY time we’ve left — and we’ve left a lot — there has been at least ONE serious fmpov error.) SO let’s take score of these instructions.

— We have duplicate instructions on insulin. Literally, separated by incorrect insulin instructions. Luckily, DIABETICDOC#3 was clear with her instructions about what she wanted Frau to take. “Regardless of what is in your discharge instructions”. (So obviously the docs know that these instructions are cobbled together “barbara streisand”.) And, give her even more credit, Frau’s discharge was just a rumor when she gave her exit instructions. (You have to like someone who’s on top of their game. You could almost hear her say: “I don’t care what everyone else is doing. My part of the problem is done right.” She should be in charge. Her or the cleaning lady. Both have their act together.)

— In two items, dosages have been changed which MAY or MAY NOT be correct. (If the lesser dosage is right, then where are the RXes for the new form. Since these dosages were NOT given in the hospital, we’re assuming that this is wrong.)

— Two of her important medications have no instructions at all; so in one case we resumed her old regime and in one case we did not. (Maybe that’s right, maybe that’s wrong.)

— The instructions might as well be written in Babylonian cuniform. It has chemical name, followed by another chemical name in parenthesis sometimes, dosage, instruction, start date, the phrase “ordered as”, and the brand name. (Boy that’s as clear as mud.) The start date is always identical. No where does it say “Take it”. (I know that’s “obvious”. But we are dealing with humans here.) And there’s no indication of what doctor ordered what? (Did my cardiologist really order me to take this cardiac drug or is it one of the other docs covering for him? Who gets sued when it’s wrong and kills me?)

The entire ten page document is a virtually unreadable. I have 20/20 corrected vision. And, I know the tricks one can play with fonts and kerning to pack print on a page. There is a mix of fonts, bolding, and compression that make it a mess to try and read. (Didn’t these folks ever hear of “information mapping”?) As “evidence”, I have a the input from a sample of one, Frau. After scribbling her name on the last page, with it being literally the last thing between her and the door, she look at it, said to me “it’s junk. Can you see if there’s anything important in it?” And, that’s an opinion I can agree with.   

How would I improve it?

Well since not everyone getting out of the hospital has 20/20 vision or a Patient Advocate (PiA) to worry about the “barbara streisand”, I’d completely redesign it using the principles of Information Mapping. It’s not a form; it’s a letter. Signed by the principle doctor and nurse.

It should say. “In order to recover, we want you to take” and then a simple list of drug, dose, and time. And, leave the chemical jargon to the pharmacist. If the patient take Nexium, don’t tell them to Esomeprazole Delayed Release.

For each specialty, it should say: “your DIABETICDOC want you to take:”.

Then a section on follow ups. And don’t tell the patient to do the work. “We have taken the liberty to schedule the following appointments. DIABETICDOC on August 31 at 10AM, BLOODDOC on August 13 at 10AM, CARDIODOC on September 15 at 10AM. You, of course, are free to reschedule these as needed.” (Wow, do some value adding work? What a novel idea.)

Print it all in a nice clean 16 point font and we’re good to go.

Argh!

Information Technology Architecture and Business Process Reengineering are so easy when someone just cares about the results.

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