GUNS: Guns and selfies don’t mix

Sunday, March 6, 2016

http://www.cnet.com/news/man-taking-selfies-with-gun-fatally-shoots-himself-police-say/

Man taking selfies with gun fatally shoots himself, police say

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In Concrete, Washington, a 43-year-old man and his girlfriend were taking selfies while holding a gun.
Chief Chad Clark of the Skagit County Sheriff’s Office confirmed to me that the couple had been taking the photos periodically throughout Sunday.

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Stupidity abounds.

Add in a gun and the results are obvious.

First rule of firearms safety is that “every gun is loaded”. Even if you just “cleared” it, then you still ALWAYS keep it pointed in a safe direction.

It’s a tool. 

And, for the same reason one doesn’t juggle running chainsaws, you don’t do stupid things with a gun!

Argh!

Make life hard for responsible gun owners.

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Posted by reinkefj

POLITICAL: Corporations do not pay taxes

Friday, March 4, 2016

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2016/03/walter-e-williams/every-dime-youve-got/

What Is the Fair Share of Taxes?
By Walter E. Williams
March 1, 2016

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Our demagogues also claim that corporations do not pay their fair share of taxes. The fact of the matter, which even leftist economists understand but might not publicly admit, is corporations do not pay taxes. An important subject area in economics, called tax incidence, says the entity upon whom a tax is levied does not necessarily bear the full burden of the tax. Some of the tax burdens can be shifted to another party. If a tax is levied on a corporation, and if the corporation hopes to survive, it will have one of three responses to that tax or some combination thereof. It will raise the price of its product, lower dividends or lay off workers. In each case, a flesh-and-blood person is made worse off. The important point is that a corporation is a legal fiction and as such does not pay taxes. As it turns out, corporations are merely tax collectors for the government.

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I have known this ever since I took my first class in Corporate Finance. And heard it repeated over and over.

“Corporations are merely tax collectors; not taxpayers. They merely pass their costs along.” Lawrence Alan “Larry” Kudlow is an American economist, television personality, and newspaper columnist. August 26, 2014 0830 on WMAL Mornings on the Mall Brian Wilson and Larry O’Connor

But for some reason, “We, The Sheeple” don’t seem to understand.

Burger King goes to Canada. Drug Companies and Banks got to the Grand Caymans. Google and Apple store their cash in Ireland.

See a pattern here.

Like the beer trucks with signs on them “This vehicle pay $11,985 in taxes.” NONSENSE! The poor bloke who drinks the beer is paying those taxes.

Every can on beans you buy in the supermarket has hidden taxes build right into the purchase price. And, don’t get me started on “gas taxes for the roads”! Another fiction. Seen the roads lately? Where did all that money go? So every product delivered by a gas powered engine (i.e., plane; train; boat; truck) has a hidden gas tax that’s being paid for by “We, The Sheeple”.

So the correct corporate tax rate is ZERO, because only REAL people pay taxes. 

Ask you favorite politician about that concept!

I’m sure you’ll be told “it’s more complicated that that.” It ain’t! Argh!

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VETERANS: Senior VA execs get off scott free

Thursday, March 3, 2016

FROM Mike Berger’s March Bugle Blasts

Appeals judges reverse punishment for senior VA execs – source Military Times

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VA officials’ attempt to punish a pair of high-ranking executives over mismanagement issues has been knocked down by appeals judges who ruled the department’s other disciplinary moves have been too inconsistent to justify punishing those two. The news comes a month after Justice Department officials announced they would not charge the two women with any criminal activity, despite accusations from the IG the executives manipulated the hiring practice and unjustly pocketed about $400,000 in federal funds.

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Argh!

The corruption in Gooferment and its inability to “police” itself is demonstration that it’s immoral, ineffective, and inefficient. As well as untrustworthy.

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INVESTING: Evaluate “tuition” as an ROI

Wednesday, March 2, 2016

http://www.edelmanfinancial.com/radio

Episode 02.20.16

Topic: How to Handle Student Loans Later in Life

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No secret that I like Ric Edelman and I am a “client”.

He made what I thought was an interesting off-the-cuff observation with respect to “education” expense.

The caller was an older 50-ish woman who had a 20K$ student loan at less than 5% and wanted to pay it off. In delving into her circumstances, he found out that she was earning 45k per year after incurring that debt. And, he raved over the ROI.

Not sure that it’s that cut and dry, but I think it was an astute observation.

While she may have paid more than 20K$ for the “educational investment”, the decade, that she will be earning 45k annually, will earn 450K$. 450k/20k = ROI 22½. Roughly. Ignores the time value of money and that it was probably more than a 20k total investment. Ignore the opportunity cost of the time spent. Etc. Etc. Etc. But not bad for a radio show podcast.

And, also, importantly, that 20k$ loan NOT paid off should earn at least a ten year market average while preserving liquidity (i.e., the lady still has her twenty k if she needs it).

Many of the education “horror stories” reported in the media are from some very poor decisions. Picking some obscure specialties with no real market value and spending a few hundred thousand dollars that results in 100k to 200k of student loan debt is a recipe for disaster.

On 101.5 D&D show the other day, http://nj1015.com/tuition-and-wedding-costs-on-the-rise-stolen-bank-info-and-more-on-dd-today/ chatted about the cost of tuition and invited callers to tell their stories. Some of the tales were pretty interesting. The divided into two types — medical doctors with ½ million of debt and then “regular people”. Argh! Worst case: 200k$ debt for an ART DEGREE!

So this “national problem” is all about bad decisions amplified by poor Gooferment policy (i.e., cheap government insured loans at artificially low rates). 

What to do?

Make “good decisions” about education ROI and the financing of that education.

Hold the politicians and bureaucrats accountable for the stupidity of these policies.

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  • How to Handle Student Loans Later in Life

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HARDWARE: Maybe a fix for WiFi’s poor performance?

Tuesday, March 1, 2016

http://fortune.com/2016/02/23/eero-home-networking-review/

Struggle with Wi-Fi speeds and coverage in your home? Eero has the answer.

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A year ago, startup Eero surfaced with a bold claim: It had developed a product that would fix Wi-Fi in our homes. Using a series of small white boxes, Eero would create a smart network capable of providing a consistent connection to Wi-Fi hungry devices throughout your home.

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Steep price for a better experience.

One thing is for sure the current crop of wireless routers provided by ISPs are all no bargain.

I have FIOS, Optimum, and TWC. Gal pal has another optimum setup.

Performance is AT BEST less than perfect; in Gal Pal’s case almost unusable.

She is much less demanding and much more tolerant of the flaws than I am.

My standard is I pay to use it; not work around it, debug it, and reset things.

Argh!

Maybe I should go back to IT leadership as a career. At least, I might be able to fix the Customer experience?

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