RANT: Faking injuries

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

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!

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MONEY: Minimum Wage is NOT the problem

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

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.

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

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

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?

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GUNS: The ATF tried to suppress evidence?

Monday, September 26, 2011

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?

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

Monday, September 26, 2011

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.

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

Sunday, September 25, 2011

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.

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ADMINISTRIVIA: Gave another 720 ml of platelets

Sunday, September 25, 2011

That makes my third donation for the equivalent of 5 bags.

I have scheduled dates monthly through the end of the year.

Now if my BP would just come down.

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HARDWARE: Don’t trust driving directions

Sunday, September 25, 2011

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.

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HARDWARE: Parking meters are a sign of a strategy

Sunday, September 25, 2011

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.

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RANT: The results of Your State U.

Saturday, September 24, 2011

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?

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