Month: September 2011

GOLDBUG: Return to a gold standard?

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http://www.nysun.com/national/plan-to-return-america-to-the-gold-standard-set/87495/

Plan To Return America To the Gold Standard Set To Be Offered at Washington
Lehrman, One-Time Member of Reagan-Era Gold Commission, Foresees Five-Year Transition
By SETH LIPSKY, Special to the Sun | September 26, 2011

*** begin quote ***

Step two in the Lehrman Plan would be the minting by the Treasury and authorized private mints of what Mr. Lehrman calls “legal tender gold coin in appropriate denominations, free of any and all taxation.” The taxation point is a key one. Currently, if the value of the dollar collapses while one is holding gold coins, one can be taxed when one spends those coins.

*** end quote ***

As a fat old white guy injineer, I have learned to ignore what politicians and bureaucrats say and look at results.

The Federal Reserve Bank — which neither “federal”, nor a “bank”, while “reserve”-ing nothing — is nothing more than an “OPEC” for a secret money cabal.

So let’s look at the track record of the FED. Now bear in mind that their stated objective, depending upon what mumbo jumbo you’ve listened to, is either or both “strong dollar”, “full” employment, “weak dollar”, “price stability”, or a “weak dollar”.

But let’s focus on the results!

Since 1970, the purchasing power of the dollar has dropped arguably between 95 to 99%.

If “money” is supposed to have a “store of value” attribute, then the dollar fails in that key characteristic.

A most telling argument from a recent Republican Presidential Debate was Ron Paul’s assertion that the price of gas in terms of silver hasn’t changed. Three pre-1964 dimes bought a gallon of gas in the 60’s and those same dimes when converted to Federal Reserve Notes today — 3 time $2.80 = $8.40 — would buy more than a gallon of gas anywhere in the USA.

SOOOooo it’s the value of the dollar that has eroded.

I wish this gallant warrior “Good Luck” getting the USA back to the gold standard. I don’t see it happening peacefully.

Secession is the only path.

When common folk begin to save their wealth in gold and silver, then the days of the FED are over.

When “We, The Sheeple” recognize that they’ve been defrauded, then we have a chance to recover.

All that has to happen is the repeal of legal tender laws, and the free market will fix the problem.

# # # # #

INTERESTING: Why DOES it have to be a …

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http://www.awaionline.com/2011/09/how-many-to-screw-in-a-light-bulb/

How Many … To Screw in a Light Bulb?
By Dan Kennedy

*** begin quote ***

At Disney, the oldest joke about the Imagineers – goes like this:

Q: How many Imagineers does it take to screw in a light bulb?

*** and ***

I call this the Open Architecture Concept. Very, very, very, very few people, in percentage terms, in ratio to population, conduct their businesses or live their lives based on Open Architecture. To the contrary, they approach whatever business they are in by getting a small rule book from somebody or by observing peers, then treat that as a box with cement walls.

Some cultures are still all about closed architecture: caste systems that confine people to the same status in society as their parents, arranged marriages, discriminatory laws that make women chattel and prohibit them from so much as leaving their homes unaccompanied by a husband, father, or brother. Before the interstate highway system, we were a relatively immobile society, so over 70% of the people lived and died and never left whatever town they were born in.

In my business life, narrowly and broadly, I’ve never accepted closed architecture. A narrow example: I never let the client define the assignment. The client says: How much to have you write a sales letter? I say: Why does it have to be a sales letter?

*** end quote ***

Ahhh, yes, getting outside the box. Maybe that’s why I find “Dharma & Greg” or Lucille Ball funny. Always in the extreme.

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INTERESTING: Chelsea Clinton BoD IAC?

Published on by reinkefj2 Comments

http://biggovernment.com/publius/2011/09/27/the-cheat-sheet-september-27-please-sir-may-i-pay-some-more/

*** begin quote ***

Of course: Barry Diller’s IAC, a global internet and media conglomerate, announced that Chelsea Clinton will join the company’s board of directors. The position pays an annual stipend of $50,000 and comes with stock options (!). A company spokesman explained the rationale:

‘Ms. Clinton is a keenly intelligent, insightful and inspirational young woman with experience in consulting and public policy, whose skills and background complement the existing areas of expertise of other board members.

She’s 31.

*** end quote ***

http://paidcontent.org/article/419-sec-watch-chelsea-clinton-joins-iac-board/

# – # – #

Does anyone understand what she brings to the table? Maybe Mom and Dad!

# # # # #

SERVICE: Anyone else seeing problems with GMAIL?

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Lately, I’ve been noticing poor response times from GMAIL, but not GREADER?

Strange.

Could the vaunted Google email infrastructure have problems?

A lot of folks have organized their personal lives and corporate careers around free Google apps like GMAIL.

Is their a chink in that armor?

# # # # #

INTERESTING: Vanishing cruise passengers and pink elephants

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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2040248/Why-165-people-gone-missing-cruise-ships-recent-years.html

The vanishing passengers: It’s a mystery as bizarre as it is disturbing – why have 165 people gone missing from cruise ships in recent years?

By NATALIE CLARKE

Last updated at 11:06 PM on 21st September 2011

*** begin quote ***

His case is far from unique. Over the past few years, there have been an alarming number of unexplained and unsolved disappearances on board cruise liners.

According to the U.S.-based International Cruise Victims Association, 165 people have gone missing at sea since 1995, with at least 13 this year alone — many of them from vessels popular with British holidaymakers.

*** end quote ***

Good way to: (1) get rid of a significant other with paying them off; OR (2) good way to disappear if things are not going so good — slip into a second identity — with a shill to “check in”; OR (3) easy to suicide.

No?

#2 is most interesting to me. One would assume that, if you were not as infamous as a “Bernie Made-off” or as famous as Angie Harmon, as well as well off to the tune of millions, then you could use this to skip.

We know that to “leave” the USA is very expensive as the IRS keeps tightening controls on wealth crossing borders. Perhaps this phenomena could be the ultimate exit strategy.

Assuming that the cruise ships have “pretty good” physical security — after all they want to get paid for all the passengers, stowaways are not permitted — one way to do #2 is to book two passengers — Identity #1 and Identity #2. The trick would be for one person to get them both “checked in”. Then during the cruise, morph from ONE to TWO. In the post 9/11 world, one would have to know the process in detail or have some inside help.

Wonder how the crew “checks off” the ship. Could a passenger become a crew member?

This is the stuff of a Sherlock Holmes mystery.

But me, and my tin foil hat, doesn’t rule out that it IS possible. Like a Pink Elephant, I can imagine it; so it must be possible.

# # # # #

RANT: 20,000 stingers loose in the world on BHO44’s watched

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http://www.dickmorris.com/blog/obama%E2%80%99s-blunder-missing-libyan-surface-to-air-missiles/

OBAMA’S BLUNDER: MISSING LIBYAN SURFACE TO AIR MISSILES
By Dick Morris And Eileen McGann 09.28.2011

*** begin quote ***

For twenty years – long before 9/11 – the danger of terrorists armed with surface to air missiles shooting at passenger planes has been the secret fear of many top political leaders. In the late 90s, a terrorist network was nabbed trying to bring them into Newark Airport, but the airline industry and the government have done nothing to equip passenger airplanes with any defense against these always deadly missiles.

Now Barack Obama has committed the ultimate sin: He has let 20,000 surface-to-air missiles escape from military depots in Libya. According to ABC News “U.S. officials had once thought there was little chance that terrorists could get their hands on many of the portable surface-to-air missiles that can bring down a commercial jet liner. But now that calculation is out the window, with officials at a recent secret White House meeting reporting that thousands of them have gone missing in Libya.” An estimated 20,000 of these “portable, heat-seeking missiles have gone missing from unguarded Army weapons warehouses.”

*** end quote ***

Are you kidding me?

And this happened on BHO44’s watch!

Anyone, who gets on a plane anywhere in the world, has to be thinking — all the terrorist needs is one!

Argh!

We are so <synonym for the past tense of the procreation act>!!!

# # # # #

RANT: Bill O’Reilly wrongly sanctifies of Lincoln

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http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/bill-oreilly-tackles-history-thriller-killing-lincoln/story?id=14609968

Bill O’Reilly Tackles History in New Thriller, ‘Killing Lincoln’
Sept. 27, 2011

*** begin quote ***

Fox News Channel talk show host and political commentator Bill O’Reilly takes a step away from politics and into history with his new book, “Killing Lincoln: The Shocking Assasination that Changed America Forever.”

In “Killing Lincoln,” the first work of history from the New York Times bestselling author, O’Reilly partners with historian Martin Dugard to deliver a true-crime account of the murder that shocked America, and took down an American president.

The authors recount the weeks leading up to and immediately following the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, from the final days of the Civil War to the manhunt for John Wilkes Booth, the man who quickly became the country’s most wanted fugitive as the prime suspect in Lincoln’s death.

*** end quote ***

Lincoln is my pick for WORST president ever. Far and away.

O’Reilly continues the sanctification of Lincoln.

Guess we can overlook that he was the first President that authorize unlimited warfare on civilians, a crony capitalist of the highest order, and a racist.

Sorry, but he’s not a sympathetic character in my eyes.

Not that he should have been assassinated. But, he initiated the force.

# # # # #

JOBFINDING: CA Top Secret LDS Password Synchronization

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Found:

Project is to implement and validate CA Top Secret LDS Password Synchronization with CA Siteminder Release 12.

• CA Identity Manager R12 SP5 or greater experience

• TopSecret r12 or greater experience

• Programming (development) experience (optional)

• Experience with CA SiteMinder password policies

• Using TopSecret LDS for password synchronization from TopSecret to Identity Manager

• Experience working in separate (decentralized or non-shared) security file environment

• Previous experience with TopSecret LDS with Identity Manager r8

Advise asap.

# – # – # – # – # 2011-Sep-28 @ 16:33

HARDWARE: Smarter roads?

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http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2011/09/27/massapequa-park-to-use-sensors-to-detect-illegally-parked-vehicles/

Massapequa Park To Use Sensors To Detect Illegally Parked Vehicles
Mayor Insists Move Has Nothing To Do With Money, But Villagers Not Impressed
September 27, 2011 9:37 PM

*** begin quote ***

MASSAPEQUA PARK, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) – Be careful where you decide to park your car.

Massapequa Park will be the first Long Island municipality to use electronic sensors embedded in the street to detect illegally parked vehicles.

Police can quickly slap a $25 fine on the vehicle after the wireless discs notify them of the violation by transmitting a signal to the officers’ cellphones.

*** end quote ***

Of course, it has everything to do with money.

But, this brings up an interesting opportunity.

Why can’t cars be instrumented to help the drivers. For example:

(1) Why couldn’t the sensors broadcast a priority message to the car’s radio informing the driver? As opposed to just facilitating a ticket.

(2) Why don’t we have a whole class of infrastructure that makes roads “smarter”? I seem to spend a lot of time sitting at red lights with no cross traffic. Maybe we need a “go on red at your own risk”?

(3) Why don’t roadways “broadcast” their parameters? For example, speed limits should be transmitted to a dashboard gadget; no speed limit signs would be needed. For example, “wrong way” should trigger a dashboard audible alert “stop”.

(4) Why don’t we have inter car communication?

# # # # #

RANT: Faking injuries

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http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/F/FBN_NFL_FAKING_INJURIES?

Sep 21, 5:59 PM EDT
NFL memo warns teams on faking injuries
By BARRY WILNER AP Pro Football Writer

*** begin quote ***

For the most part, such delay tactics have been considered gamesmanship, similar to a hockey goalie suddenly needing equipment repairs when his team is getting besieged. Or untouched soccer players writhing on the ground in pain to get a stoppage – and to slow momentum built by the other side.

*** end quote ***

Seems obvious to me?

The injured players need protection.

Any stoppage due to injury, that player or all players are out of the game for the quarter.

If it’s still a problem, make it a half.

If still abused, make it the rest of the game.

That should take care of it!

# # # # #

MONEY: Minimum Wage is NOT the problem

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http://www.catholicculture.org/news/headlines/index.cfm?storyid=11854

Nigerian bishops lament refusal to implement minimum wage
September 26, 2011

*** begin quote ***

The bishops of Nigeria are lamenting the refusal of state governments to implement a new national minimum wage.

*** end quote ***

Argh!

Economics is not faith and morals so the bishops are NOT infallible.

Maybe next the good bishops will opine on how to set broken bones?

Economics is called the dismal science because wishing doesn’t make it so. You can’t change reality by Gooferment diktat!

Implementing, or in the case of the USA raising, a minimum wage will ensure that folks will be unemployed.

So what’s worse, reality with people working or unemployment?

FYI, one should always stick to their area of expertise.

# # # # #

RANT: Epilogue To Kelo Case should be that the little people have no “rights”

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http://www.courant.com/news/opinion/hc-op-justice-palmer-apology-20110918,0,2543383,full.story

Apology Adds An Epilogue To Kelo Case
Supreme Court Justice’s Startling Apology Adds Human Context To Tough Ruling
By JEFF BENEDICT The Hartford Courant
September 18, 2011

*** begin quote ***

“Those comments,” he wrote, “were predicated on certain facts that we did not know (and could not have known) at the time of our decision and of which I was not fully aware until your talk — namely, that the city’s development plan had never materialized and, as a result, years later, the land at issue remains barren and wholly undeveloped.” He later added that he could not know of those facts “because they were not yet in existence.”

*** end quote ***

Recap: The woman’s house, and many others, was taken by the “City” and give to Pfizer for their corporate hq. The project went bust and never completed. The “City” was never punished.

The Fifth Amendment (i.e., the protection from public takings) was gutted with this decision. It’s hard to imagine a turning point going by with such little moral outrage. Might does make right! And, this poor woman’s house is an empty field. I hope there’s Justice somewhere for this.

What does it being barren have to do with the taking?

Little people have no protection from the Gooferment.

That’s why there’s a Second Amendment.

What hill do you want to die on?

# # # # #

GUNS: The ATF tried to suppress evidence?

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http://www.theblaze.com/stories/report-secret-recordings-uncovered-in-fast-and-furious-case/

GOVERNMENT

REPORT: SECRET RECORDINGS UNCOVERED IN ‘FAST AND FURIOUS’ CASE
Posted on September 19, 2011 at 4:14pm by Buck Sexton

*** begin quote ***

CBS News has posted what it claims is a secret recording between a senior ATF Agent and an Arizona gun store owner at the heart of the botched operation “Fast and Furious” weapons sting. The tape could be proof that the ATF tried to suppress evidence found at the crime scene of murdered U.S. Border Agent Brian Terry.

*** end quote ***

I don’t understand.

Where’s the Independent Prosecutor? Where’s the Grand Juries? Where’s the enraged “Woodward and Burnsteins”?

Where’s the howl?

# # # # #

GOVEROTRAGEOUS: ‘Your land is our land’ acording to the EPA

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http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=348077

YOUR GOVERNMENT AT WORK
EPA to property owner: ‘Your land is our land’
$40 million in fines pending over plan to build new home
Posted: September 23, 2011 9:50 pm Eastern
By Bob Unruh

*** begin quote ***

“The reality of the Sacketts’ situation is that they have been unambiguously commanded by their government not to complete their home-building project, to take expensive measures to undo the improvements that they have made to their land, and to maintain their land essentially as a public park until the property is ‘restored’ to the satisfaction of the EPA. They have been threatened with frightening penalties if they do not immediately obey; but they have been refused the prompt hearing they should have received as a matter of right in any court,” Pacific Legal argued.

*** end quote ***

Absolutely outrageous.

The Gooferment is out of control.

Secession is the only way out of this mess.

# # # # #

RANT: I think Dick is wrong about “illegal immigration”!

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http://www.dickmorris.com/blog/immigration-the-pivotal-issue-for-the-gop-dick-morris-tv-lunch-alert/

IMMIGRATION: THE PIVOTAL ISSUE FOR THE GOP – DICK MORRIS TV: LUNCH ALERT!
By Dick Morris 09.24.2011

*** begin quote ***

In this video commentary, I discuss how the dominating issue for the GOP primaries has now become immigration. Not jobs, not the economy. Immigration. Why? What’s the answer? What are its political ramifications?

*** end quote ***

Summarizing Dick Morris’ points:

(1) employer sanctions

(2) guest worker

(3) easy national id card

As a little L libertarian, I disagree with the underlying premise — that there is such a thing as “illegal immigration” or that the whole focus is on the wrong thing.

What’s wrong with attracting peaceful people who want to come here to work?

I guess Dick would put a giant black plastic garbage bag over the Statue of Liberty!

Perhaps, we should seek to get to the root?

We have always “welcomed” immigration. OK, maybe not so welcoming, but tolerating it. We recognized that more workers means more productivity. The transcontinental railroad was built on the bodies of Chinese and Irish immigrants.

The key issue is welfare.

No one wants to subsidize freeloaders. By “illegal immigrants” or native-born freeloaders. (We could also stand to eliminate the corporate welfare queens as well at the same time.

Now, the crime issue that Dick alludes to has it’s roots in the “(pseudo) War on (some) Drugs” and that “illegal immigrants” can be taken advantage of. That can be fixed by legalizing drugs and letting the free market apply itself to the problem. And, by a better green card system.

I’d OPEN the borders. When a NEW immigrant, or even a temporary guest worker, shows up at the border crossing, if I were “King”, there’d be a very simple entry process. Take fingerprints and DNA for a database and a high speed directory look up, criminals get arrested. A quick physical for dangerous communicable diseases. And, issue them a “green card” and a Taxpayer Identification Number. Have them watch a short welcome to the USA and send them on their way. (Maybe we could make a couple of bucks from Visa signing them up for a credit card and WalMart recruiting them for their stores. You get the idea.)

I’d also reduce the minimum wage to zero.

No employer sanctions needed. No “guest worker” program; just easy entry without welfare. No national id card required.

# # # # #

HARDWARE: Don’t trust driving directions

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http://news.slashdot.org/story/11/09/24/2346222/IBM-Seeks-Patent-On-Retailer-Rigged-Driving-Routes

IBM Seeks Patent On Retailer-Rigged Driving Routes
Posted by timothy on Saturday September 24, @07:46PM
from the go-here-you’ll-like-it dept.

*** begin quote ***

theodp writes

“On IBM’s Smarter Planet, you may drive further than need be to get to your destination. Big Blue’s pending patent for Determining Travel Routes by Using Fee-Based Location Preferences calls for the likes of Walmart, Starbucks, and Best Buy pay a fee in return for having your route calculation service de-optimize driving instructions to make you do a drive-by of their stores, and an additional fee if GPS tracking of your car indicates you actually took the suboptimal route. The same IBM inventors also have a patent pending for Environmental Stewardship Based on Driving Behavior, which calls for yet another fee to be assessed when a retailer-friendly-but-suboptimal route causes your vehicle to enter a congested area and produce more pollution.”

*** end quote ***

Wow, if it’s not ONSTAR selling your data, then it’s routing you the “wrong” way.

Seems like a FTC, FCC, DOJ, FBI, and SEC might take an interest in this one.

# # # # #

HARDWARE: Parking meters are a sign of a strategy

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http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/19/nyregion/uprooting-the-old-familiar-parking-meter.html?_r=1

The Last Days of the Old Parking Meter

By MICHAEL M. GRYNBAUM

Published: September 18, 2011

*** begin quote ***

The city will remove its last decommissioned single-space parking meter in Manhattan on Monday, transportation officials said, the start of a yearlong process that will eventually eliminate all the steel-and-sludge-hued meters in the city.

*** and ***

The old-fashioned, pole-mounted meter will now yield to the robotlike Meter of Tomorrow: a solar-powered box, equipped with Wi-Fi, that can handle eight parking spaces at once and can shut itself down on free-parking Sundays.

The city’s Transportation Department, which recently accelerated its meter retirement program, says the change will benefit city and citizen alike: the new meters read credit cards, speak seven languages, require less maintenance, and free up room on the sidewalk.

But the death of the classic meter also means an end to some of New York’s smaller pleasures: the satisfying clunk of a coin in its slot, the illicit thrill of finding an extra few minutes still counting down.

*** end quote ***

This hardware upgrade demonstrates that the strategy is raising revenue; nothing else.

Parking meters were originally intended to ration limited parking so that a spot couldn’t be tied up all day.

Europeans solved this with a plastic “sundial”. The driver upon parking would put the “sundial” on the dashboard after dialing in the current time. If you cheated and dialed in a later time, then you risk a ticket. If you overstayed, then you risked a ticket.

Zero capital investment; simplicity.

Argh!

Not all hardware upgrades are worth it. If you’re rationing parking spaces, you could use “sundials”. But if you’re raising revenue, then it’s not enough. The upgrade should be issuing tickets. This doesn’t.

# # # # #

RANT: The results of Your State U.

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http://news.slashdot.org/story/11/09/23/1343214/Your-State-University-Doesnt-Want-You

Submission: Your State U. Doesn’t Want You
Posted by Soulskill on Friday September 23, @10:13AM
money news education
from the unless-you’re-good-at-the-football dept.

*** begin quote ***

theodp writes

“According to a new survey of college admissions directors by Inside Higher Ed, the admissions strategy judged most important is the recruitment of more out-of-state and international students, who can pay significantly more at public institutions. Ten percent of those surveyed also reported admitting full-pay students with lower grades and test scores than other admitted applicants, and a majority of schools either use or plan to use controversial commission-paid agents to recruit foreign students (commission-based recruitment is barred in the U.S.). ‘This isn’t about globalization or increased educational diversity,’ asserts USC’s Jerome A. Lucido. ‘They need the money.’ So, should employees of a public university where the President’s annual compensation exceeds $1 million receive a full state-funded pension for educating 16,000+ out-of-state students?”

*** end quote ***

Guess this is yet another reason why the Gooferment shouldn’t be in “education” business?

The bureaucrats work for their own best interest; not that of the taxpayers.

Think that “We, The Sheeple” will ever wake up?

# # # # #

SERVICE: “mouse to spouse”

Published on by reinkefjLeave a comment

Read a fellow alum’s blog. It was too personal to link to. but she used an interesting turn of a phrase … “mouse to spouse”. Referring to the various dating sites. Having just attended a wedding that started with an internet chat, maybe she needs to rethink that disgust with such services.

Now I’m not shopping for a “spouse”, but a “mouse” might not be a bad way to go. As an ITSJ (sic), it fits my predilection.

To stay in my “mole hole” and pound away at the keyboard.

Argh!

# # # # #

GUNS: Concealed Carry Recognition Bill

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http://gunowners.org/a09222011.htm

Rep. Paul Broun Introduces Concealed Carry Recognition Bill
Thursday, 22 September 2011 19:11

*** begin quote ***

Pro-gun champion Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA) recently introduced a concealed carry recognition bill, H.R. 2900, that allows law-abiding citizens who can legally carry concealed in their home state to carry all across the country, as well.

*** end quote ***

It would seem that since driver’s license are accepted across the fifty states that gun licenses would the same thing.

Of course, a proper reading of the Second Amendment would make this law unnecessary.

Guns are just another tool.

And, as Heinlein wrote: “An armed society is a polite society.”

Why should the Gooferment monopolize the right of self-defense?

# # # # #

NETWORK: What do you do when the inet doesn’t inet

Published on by reinkefjLeave a comment

http://www.irishcentral.com/

*** begin quote ***

ferdinand-reinkes-macbook-air:~ reinkefj$ tracert http://www.irishcentral.com

-bash: tracert: command not found

ferdinand-reinkes-macbook-air:~ reinkefj$ traceroute http://www.irishcentral.com/

traceroute to http://www.irishcentral.com/ (67.215.65.132), 64 hops max, 52 byte packets

1 192.168.2.1 (192.168.2.1) 1.725 ms 1.114 ms 1.281 ms

2 192.168.1.1 (192.168.1.1) 2.185 ms 5.412 ms 3.534 ms

3 l100.nwrknj-vfttp-142.verizon-gni.net (173.54.118.1) 8.548 ms 6.758 ms 8.521 ms

4 g14-0-5-1442.nwrknj-lcr-04.verizon-gni.net (130.81.146.236) 9.607 ms 7.261 ms 7.487 ms

5 so-6-0-1-0.nwrk-bb-rtr2.verizon-gni.net (130.81.29.194) 13.408 ms 7.395 ms 7.574 ms

6 0.so-7-0-0.xl4.ewr6.alter.net (152.63.20.13) 17.648 ms 11.947 ms 12.394 ms

7 0.so-6-0-2.xl4.iad8.alter.net (152.63.0.130) 17.047 ms 52.156 ms 17.317 ms

8 pos7-0.gw4.iad8.alter.net (152.63.41.33) 17.796 ms 19.431 ms 17.285 ms

9 65.222.158.82 (65.222.158.82) 19.852 ms 22.606 ms 20.081 ms

10 * * *

11 * * *

12 * * *

*** end quote ***

Sort of like calling an old friend who’s cross country and the number just rings off the hook. Or they “go AWOL” from FACEBOOK or email.

Argh!

# – # – # – # – # 2011-Sep-23 @ 10:37

RANT: The essence of the struggle for the soul of America

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http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/16/opinion/krugman-free-to-die.html?_r=1

OP-ED COLUMNIST
Free to Die
By PAUL KRUGMAN
Published: September 15, 2011

*** begin quote ***

The second is that very few of those who die from lack of medical care look like Mr. Blitzer’s hypothetical individual who could and should have bought insurance. In reality, most uninsured Americans either have low incomes and cannot afford insurance, or are rejected by insurers because they have chronic conditions.

So would people on the right be willing to let those who are uninsured through no fault of their own die from lack of care? The answer, based on recent history, is a resounding “Yeah!”

Think, in particular, of the children.

*** end quote ***

http://krugman-in-wonderland.blogspot.com/2011/09/krugman-and-new-moralizing.html

Krugman-in-Wonderland

Analysis and criticism of America’s most prominent public intellectual and champion of Keynesian economics. I am part of the Austrian School of Economics, and I critique Krugman’s writings from that perspective.

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2011
Krugman and the New Moralizing

*** begin quote ***

According to Krugman, ONLY the Welfare State can ensure the moral outcomes; anything else is immoral, and those who object to any aspect of the Welfare State are immoral monsters who just want to see others suffer and starve. Am I exaggerating? Read the column and you will see what I mean.

*** end quote ***

Upon reflection, it seems to me that:

(1) The Welfare / Warfare State fueled by the Federal Reserve Bank’s printing press and controlled by all the “BIG” groups (i.e., the military industrial complex, Wall Street, the trial lawyers, Big Unions, Big Banks, Big Pharma, Big Auto, Big Gooferment, …) impoverishes everyone. The elite rich have the capability and resources to ride the storm that the poor, old, and middle class don’t.

(2) American’s are the most generous people on the planet. Even with inflation and high taxes, they continue to support charities. Why would that change when more wealth is retained by those who create it?

(3) The Gooferment is excluding all private efforts and transferring that control to bureaucrats. How can that be good?

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INTERESTING: Full Tilt poker; a Ponzi?

Published on by reinkefjLeave a comment

http://www.casinocitytimes.com/news/article/doj-says-full-tilt-was-a-global-ponzi-scheme-198602?contentID=198602

DOJ says Full Tilt was a global Ponzi scheme
20 September 2011
By Dan Igo

*** begin quote ***

“Full Tilt was not a legitimate poker company, but a global Ponzi scheme,” Bharara said in a statement. “Full Tilt insiders lined their own pockets with funds picked from the pockets of their most loyal customers while blithely lying to both players and the public alike about the safety and security of the money deposited.”

Lederer, Ferguson, former CEO Ray Bitar and Rafael “Rafe” Furst, all owners of Full Tilt Poker, are accused of distributing approximately $443 million to themselves and other owners of the company. The amended complaint alleges that Full Tilt mixed player funds with operating funds, despite public claims to the contrary by the site.

The DOJ said that by the end of March, Full Tilt Poker owed approximately $390 million to players worldwide, including $150 million to American players, but had less than $60 million in its bank accounts.

*** end quote ***

I was always suspicious of online poker.

I admit it was more about the risk of the computer programming. I could envision all sorts of compromises. Network, collusion, and malware leap to mind.

I didn’t think about our old friend Ponzi; I will from now on.

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TINFOILHAT: Did JFK plant the seeds of his own demise

Published on by reinkefjLeave a comment

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2039383/Relax-going-shoot-JFK-told-secret-service-agents-1960-election.html

Relax, no one is going to shoot me, JFK told secret service agents after 1960 election
By DANIEL BATES
Last updated at 12:16 AM on 20th September 2011

*** begin quote ***

President John F Kennedy ridiculed the idea of being shot – just three years before he was assassinated.

Following the 1960 election he told one of his aides that Secret Service security was excessive and he was not at risk.

Kennedy insisted: ‘They’re making me uncomfortable. Nobody is going to shoot me, so tell them to relax.’

In November 1963, however, Kennedy was gunned down by Lee Harvey Oswald in an assassination that would change the course of history.

Kennedy’s concerns emerged in a series of audio tapes made in the 1960s by his aide Kenneth O’Donnell and recently unearthed by O’Donnell’s daughter.

*** end quote ***

Ahh, the hubris of what we think we know. No one is immune.

Wisdom is knowing the boundaries of knowledge.

If nothing, this is a lesson to those charged with “security”. Part of the job is “target management”!

The tin foil hat in me asks: “Who put this idea in his head? Or reinforced his prejudice. And, what was their connection to the assassination cabal?”

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