RANT: Gooferment “welfare” is immoral, ineffective, and inefficient.

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

http://www.dickmorris.com/blog/the-answers-on-immigration-dick-morris-tv-lunch-alert/

Dick’s answer to “illegal immigration”.

Wrong!

There should be no such thing as “illegal” immigration.

Eliminate welfare. Stop the “(pseudo) War on (some) Drugs”. And, eliminate the Federal Minimum wage.

Issue green cards at the border after a fingerprint / dna check.

The whole problem revolves around freeloaders — be they foreign or domestic — rich individuals or crony corporations — stop welfare by the Gooferment.

Gooferment “welfare” is immoral, ineffective, and inefficient.

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Posted by reinkefj

INSPIRATIONAL: The death of somebody close to you

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

http://www.pickthebrain.com/blog/5-ways-to-cope-during-a-life-crisis/

5 Ways to Cope During a Life Crisis
Written by Paul Browning
Categories: self improvement

*** begin quote ***

One of the great things about a life crisis is you get to find out what works. When life is easy and no major challenges are on the horizon, you can read all about affirmations, pray, meditate, firewalk or just read self-help manuals written by big-name gurus. Then life throws you a major health challenge, the end of a relationship, the death of somebody close to you and an unexpected job loss. Now what?

*** and ***

The center is the core of YOU, where you sense all your feelings and experience your emotions.

*** end quote ***

I’m not so sure that these tactics work for me.

Can’t hurt to try them.

I’ve never had a unique center in forty years. Hard to figure out where it is.

It’s easier to go back to bed. :-) Or blog, That’s the same thing.

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Posted by reinkefj

SERVICE: FOURSQUARE allows someone else to be mayor of my house?

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

https://foursquare.com/v/ferds–fremont/4c59d05b2091a593f7d65dd0

And, interesting rant about software, how is someone else the “mayor” of 51 Fremont?

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Posted by reinkefj

GOLDBUG: Confiscations in time

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/8829908/Biggest-haul-of-Roman-gold-in-Britain-could-have-been-found.html

*** begin quote ***

In other cases, someone who was under threat could have buried them because they wanted to hide their wealth.

Another regular occurrence was coins being recalled, so they could be melted down to produce more currency. When that happened, Romans would head into the garden, and bury their money to keep it safe for the future.

It will be fascinating to find out what is there in terms of coins, but also why, and how, it came to be buried there. “Every hoard is different, and the bigger the number of coins, the more we can find out about the history of the area.”

*** end quote ***

Wow, gold confiscations weren’t limited to FDR. Tell you anything?

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Posted by reinkefj

HARDWARE: SLINGBOX not recommended

Monday, October 24, 2011

SLINGBOX sucks.

I bought it with the intention that Our Girl would be able to watch her soap in the hospital.

Couldn’t get it to connect to the (at the time) Comcast router.

(At the time, I was working for Comcast and their official supprt reaction was “good”. No surprise there.)

SO, needless to say that was a waste and “Non returnable” to the Sling folks.

(Isn’t the first time I’ve gotten stuck with a “whte elephant” by a vendor. But like the elephant, I never forget. I have alist of “folk I’ll never buy from”. Hardware, software, carpet, windows, home improvement, cars, etc. etc. I get screwed a lot.)

Down the shore, I have a cable router that I can’t cancel for another year. So, let me see if I can get it working down there. Now it connects to the net, but when I go to register the website won’t give me anything other than “invalid password”. (How can any password be invalid?)

Go over to support, can’t get support on anything unless it’s within 90 days of purchase.

Argh!

(Maybe it’s time to annoy some Gooferment bureaucrats?)

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Posted by reinkefj

RANT: What is the real rate of unemployment?

Monday, October 24, 2011

http://lewrockwell.com/roberts/roberts329.html

The End of History by Paul Craig Roberts

*** begin quote ***

As statistician John Williams (shadowstats.com) has shown, the official inflation measures are rigged in order to hold down cost of living adjustments to Social Security recipients, thus saving money for Washington’s wars. When measured correctly, the current rate of inflation in the US is 11.5%.

*** end quote ***

Wonder what the real rate of unemployment is?

Not just new filings!

Bet it’s a lot more than 9%. I’d guess that a smidgen less than the Great Depression rate. What’s your guess?

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Posted by reinkefj

TECHNOLOGY: The secret of longer life?

Monday, October 24, 2011

http://science.slashdot.org/story/11/10/16/0215224/dna-sequenced-of-woman-who-lived-to-115

DNA Sequenced of Woman Who Lived To 115
Posted by Soulskill on Sunday October 16, @02:20AM

*** begin quote ***

chrb writes

“The DNA of W115 — an anonymous woman who lived to the age of 115 years and left her body to science — has been sequenced. Despite her old age, W115 showed no signs of dementia or heart disease, and tests at the age of 113 showed she had the mental abilities of a woman aged 60-75 years. Dr. Henne Holstege of the Department of Clinical Genetics at the VU University Medical Center in Amsterdam has suggested W115 had rare genetic changes in her DNA which protected against Alzheimer’s and other late-life diseases.”

*** end quote ***

Is this the secret of longer life?

I remember a Heinlein SciFi novel that postulated the premise that long life was genes. You wither had them or you didn’t.

Hmm?

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Posted by reinkefj

POLITICAL: Same old, same old; different sides of the same coin

Sunday, October 23, 2011

http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lewrw/archives/97324.html

October 22, 2011
Congressional Welfare Statists
Posted by Laurence Vance on October 22, 2011 11:08 AM

*** begin quote ***

The Senate recently voted, 84-15, to approve an amendment to an agriculture bill that would discontinue certain farm subsidies for people who have more than $1 million a year in adjusted gross income. The current limit is $1.2 million. Better, of course, to cut all the farm subsidies.

*** and ***

Why didn’t Republicans get rid of farm subsidies when the controlled the Congress under Clinton for six years? Why didn’t Republicans get rid of farm subsidies when they controlled the Congress for over four years under Bush the Republican? Why aren’t Republicans trying to get rid of all farm subsidies now? And you thought only Democrats were welfare statists.

*** end quote ***

Why are we subsidizing rich people? Could there be campaign contributions or plain old graft involved?

Stupidity!

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Posted by reinkefj

MONEY: The consequences of the new “Snooki” tax

Sunday, October 23, 2011

http://biggovernment.com/dmitchell/2011/10/15/the-laffer-curve-wins-again-snooki-1-irs-0/

The Laffer Curve Wins Again: Snooki 1, IRS 0
by Dan Mitchell

*** begin quote ***

I don’t know if that’s true, but let’s give it a try. I now have an example of the Laffer Curve for the MTV audience. Best of all, the story is from USA Today.

The IRS got red-faced trying to collect the new tanning tax, burning a hole in estimates on how much the levy would bring in to federal coffers, a new report said Thursday. …Tanning tax receipts for that nine-month period totaled $54.4 million, the report found. That was below projections by the Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation, which had estimated the tax would raise $50 million in the last three months of fiscal year 2010 and $200 million for the full 2011 fiscal year.

Let’s deconstruct the numbers from the article. The Joint Committee on Taxation estimated that this new “Snooki” tax (part of the awful Obamacare legislation) was going to raise about $50 million every three months.

Yet during the first nine months, the tax raised just $54.4 million, not $150 million.

*** end quote ***

The fancy name for this behavior is “dynamic scoring”.

Bottom line is that everyone adapts their behavior to the conditions. Conditions change; behaviors change.

For politicians and bureaucrats to make predictions, that assume “static” behavior, demonstrates stupidity.

But then doesn’t that perfectly describe ALL Gooferment actions?

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Posted by reinkefj

GUNS: A real life tool in action

Sunday, October 23, 2011

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/very-afraid-66-year-old-woman-shoots-and-kills-home-intruder/

CRIME

‘VERY AFRAID’: 66-YEAR-OLD WOMAN SHOOTS AND KILLS HOME INTRUDER

Posted on October 22, 2011 at 7:20pm by Christopher Santarelli

*** begin quote ***

An elderly Northern California-woman woke early Friday morning to hear an intruder attempting to break into her home. CBS 12 reports that the 66-year-old Donna Hopper is still shaken after shooting the 37-year-old intruder dead:

*** and ***

Hopper says she was terrified when she heard the intruder at her her door, firing two warning shots through her window to scare the man away. When 37-year-old Jesse Edward Theis persisted, attempting to come back in, Hopper fired a fatal shot in his abdomen, killing Theis on the scene.

*** end quote ***

I feel bad for this poor woman. To have that on your mind for the rest of your life, it’s a burden.

On a humorous note, after two warning shots, the fellow didn’t move along to an easier target.

Serendipity, a few hours ago, I posted about women and guns. About what fool would want to be down range from even a crazy woman sending lead in your direction!

So what happens if you’re in that situation. Do you, as the popular bumper sticker says, “dial 911 and die”?

Or do you reach over to your “safe”, cycle the action, and put two warning shots down range.

(I am rethinking using my 1911 and 45ACP as being too powerful for “home defense use”. But if it’s a bear or a druggie on speed, then it’s just right. Assuming I can hit what I aim at.)

Of course, my favorite for home defense is the old shotgun. It makes such a distinctive sound when you cycle the action. Like that favorite old joke about the Quaker who says to the intruder in a darkened room: “I mean thee no harm, but thou are standing where I plan to shoot. LOL! Dumb. The few Quakers I know would never shoot at any human under any circumstances. Us Libertarians would be carefully considering the balance. To use deadly force, one must be facing a deadly threat.

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Posted by reinkefj

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