THOUGHTS ABOUT CASINOS AND THEIR IMPLICATIONS
Wheels are an inherently an “unfair gambling practice”.
You see the Big Wheel and you know that all the values are equally probable. The promise meets reality.
However on the Wheel of Fortune, and all the other slots where that’s a bonus, it’s not true.
The implication is that the results are all equally possible outcomes and they are not.
That’s deceptive.
And, should not be allowed or patronized.
Argh!
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2 Comments | 
GAMBLING | Tagged: FRAUD, GAMBLING | 
Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
http://www.cnbc.com/id/37507250
Weak Jobs Report Latest Sign ‘Recovery Is Still Pretty Tepid’
Published: Friday, 4 Jun 2010 | 10:23 AM ET
By: AP and Reuters
*** begin quote ***
Virtually all the job creation in May came from the hiring of 411,000 census workers. Such hiring peaked in May and will begin tailing off in June. By contrast, hiring by private employers, the backbone of the economy, slowed sharply.
*** end quote ***
Wow, what would that make the unemployment rate — 20%?
Argh!
Sorry, but we need a number that can’t be fudged, and can be audited. Weekly payroll tax receipts? That would show us “employed”.
Argh!
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Leave a Comment » | Political | Tagged: statistics | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
No complications. Not what they thought it was. (They thought cyst; it was “gunk”. Technical medical term?) Some what longer incision than I thought. Several days of care required. Two weeks later I get the stitches out. Then I’ll have a scar. Make me look like pirate?
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Leave a Comment » | ADMINISTRIVIA | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
May 6, 2010, Anxiety
Washing Your Hands Reduces Cognitive Dissonance
Soap reduces the effects of postdecisional dissonance.
By Matthew Hutson on May 6, 2010
*** begin quote ***
Some decisions just leave you gutted. Your iPad 3G or your finger. Your son or Sophie Jr. Paper or plastic. The only way to alleviate the anxiety that results from saying no to something you want is to convince yourself you didn’t really want it in the first place. Now there’s a way to reduce the effects of cognitive dissonance: Wash your hands.
*** and ***
Previous research linking disgust and moral purity has shown that recalling an unethical act increases the desire to atone and that this increase is attenuated by hand-washing. Lee and Schwartz suggest that that Lady Macbeth effect and their own results might both be subcases of a broader “clean slate effect”: washing may expunge the emotional power of past acts–perhaps even good ones–from the mental record.
*** end quote ***
I tried to explain to my friend about this “finding”. He listened patiently and added an interesting aspect. In the Gospel According to Matthew, Pontius Pilate washes his hands of Jesus and reluctantly sends him to his death
Hey, I didn’t even think of that!
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Leave a Comment » | INTERESTING | Tagged: Human Factors | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
APPLE TIME CAPSULE died. Some backup!
According to the Apple website, it’s out of warranty.
I’ll take it into the Apple store and see what they say.
Argh!
I’d have expected it to outlive the MacBookAir that I bought at the same time.
Did I say “Argh!”?
I see a “NOTRECOMMENDED” coming up.
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Leave a Comment » | HARDWARE | Tagged: APPLE, Backup | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
http://blogs.alternet.org/lawtalkingguy/2010/06/01/the-opt-in-constitution/
Posted by riverpirate at 7:35 pm
June 1, 2010
The “opt in” Constitution?
*** begin quote ***
If you want to remain silent, you’d better speak up.
That’s what the United States Supreme Court has told criminal defendants who want to invoke their Constitutional right to remain silent. In Berghuis v. Thompkins, the Court ruled on June 01 that police can continue to question an arrested suspect as long as the suspect doesn’t explicitly tell the police he doesn’t want to talk.
*** end quote ***
This is a mistake by the Supremes.
Pure and simple.
You MUST stand silent. Never ever talk to the police, politician, or bureaucrat.
The law is not there to help you!
Argh!
They got Kelo wrong as well. Dred Scott!
Those people in funny costumes make a lot of mistakes!
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Leave a Comment » | GOVEROTRAGEOUS | Tagged: Rights | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
http://www.thedailybell.com/1071/Hugo-Salinas-Price-Silver-Should-Be-Legal-Mexican-Currency.html
*** begin quote ***
Hugo Salinas-Price: The drug war is mainly between those who are in the drug dealing business and are fighting over territory. But this war also breeds criminals who take up other ways of getting money, by assaulting peaceable citizens. A US President once told a Mexican President: “Mexico is the spring-board for drugs into the US.” To which our President at once replied: “If we are the spring-board, you are the swimming pool.”
Legalization of drugs would greatly diminish the problem of outlaw drug lords in Mexico – but I mean, legalization in the US. We have a drug war, because drugs are illegal in the US and thus fetch a very high price. Legalize the business in the US and the price of drugs will come down to the price of corn. Mexicans will go back to raising vegetables. Remember, it was Prohibition that made Al Capone rich.
*** end quote ***
WalMart, Walgreens, and whatever drg company you can name can put the drug cartels OOB (out of biusiness) in a heartbeat.
Repeal ALL the drug laws today; end of drug violence tomorrow.
Will kids buy drugs? Sure. Who cares. They will be SAFE drugs. No more hot shots, ODs due to unknown strength, or drugs cut with rat poison.
Sad to say, but from time immemorial, we have had substance abusers. Nothing we can do about it, but get them help. Or, out of the gene pool. Tough love.
WalMart will be able to sell a carton of cigarettes cheap and easy. MaryJane is a weed; has to cost less than butts or beer. And, the “hard stuff”, less than the cost of aspirin. (Which is hard to make!)
Will drug use expand? I have no idea. I do know we will NOT have violent turf wars just like Prohibition.
The only question is what will all the unemployed drug sellers do? Get a job!
Argh!
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Leave a Comment » | Political | Tagged: Drug War | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
http://reason.com/blog/2010/06/01/how-high-canshouldwill-retirem
How High Can/Should/Will Retirement Age[*] Go?
Nick Gillespie | June 1, 2010
*** begin quote ***
[*] For the purposes of Social Security; retirement ages in the private sector should be decided by the individual affected or the company paying same.
Last week, French folks took to the streets when the government threatened to raise the age at which vous could collect public retirement benefits…from 60 years to possibly 61 or even 62! Zut!
*** and ***
There is something truly perverse about any system that takes from the young and relatively poor and gives to the old and relatively rich, which is what Social Security and Medicare do. Indeed, the system is not just economically inefficient but morally bankrupt. It reverses centuries of tradition in which children inherit from their parents. Adding to the insult is that Social Security benefits do not pass on to the next generation, meaning that all that payroll tax money is belong to us (with us being the government). I’m no fan of mandatory savings accounts in the place of payroll taxes but even something like that, which would give all workers something like a 401(k) account that could be passed on, would be far preferable to the current system.
*** end quote ***
It’s even worse than that. “Social Security Insurance”, which I have mistakenly called a Ponzi scheme (i.e., in a Ponzi, the chooses to play; with SSI, there are the guns of gooferment to rob you), actually transfers from poor minority men to rich white women. Due to the disparate death rates!
I can’t think of a single redeeming value for SSI.
* It single-handedly destroyed the extended family by enabling grandparents to move away “to Florida” with the SSI income.
* It set up intergenerational theft.
* When it was set up, FDR knew it couldn’t be stopped. (It will stop with the bankruptcy of the nation.)
* It made being on the dole acceptable.
* It set a “retirement age” that locked into people’s thinking. With one size fits all thinking!
* It was supposed to be a tax free benefit, but the perfidious Congress made it taxable
* It was supposed to be a retirement, but it became “supplement”.
* COLA is given by the gooferment; not reality.
Argh!
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Leave a Comment » | Ranting | Tagged: Social Security | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
http://www.forbes.com/2010/05/19/internet-ibm-cities-technology-breakthroughs-healthcare.html
Health Care
Staying Healthy In Big Cities
Rob Merkel, 05.20.10, 06:00 AM EDT
Why urban centers are the perfect place for ”smart health care.”
*** begin quote ***
This smarter approach is already beginning to take hold. In October 2009, during the height of the H1N1 flu outbreak, Duke University Health System used analytics tools to cull through 20 million electronic patient records for insights into chronic illness and medical history. High-risk patients, such as children with respiratory distress, were prioritized to receive the H1N1 vaccine. Via e-mail, Duke was able to update its patients on vaccine availability. It also used its system to contact more than 250,000 patients and provide education on how to avoid getting the flu and spreading it to others.
In the U.S. alone, an estimated $59 billion has been allocated for health care stimulus spending under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). With recent advances in technology and the improvements made possible by ARRA funding, we have the potential to infuse our existing health care systems with new intelligence. Technology alone can’t cure what ails us. But it can provide new ways to help those who treat our illnesses and battle major outbreaks do their jobs even better.
Rob Merkel is the Global HealthCare Service Line Leader for IBM Global Business Services. For 19 years he has helped many of the world’s leading health care brands, governments and institutions tackle their complex challenges.
*** end quote ***
Sorry, but your vision for elites deciding what’s best is communism. The recent swine flu with the gooferment in charge was a disaster. Immoral, ineffective, and inefficient. Immoral because the gooferment robs wealth at gunpoint to provide “services” that folks don’t want, don’t need, and can’t afford. This is but one example. Ineffective because the shots were late to the marketplace, misdirected, poorly prioritized. But, rest assured, all the elite, politicians, and bureaucrats got theirs first. Argh! Finally inefficient because the cost was absurd, the doses were late, delivered long after the need, and they expired unused.
No, we need to shoot the FDA and put Walmart in charge of health care. It’ll be good, cheap, and available.
Freedom for those cranky individuals to buy what they need when they need it will motivate greedy drug makers to get what we want to buy to us in plenty of time.
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Don’t overlook the bias of the author. IBM will make big buxs off of this particular form of “corporate welfare”.
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How many people died from the swine flu? And, after the vaccine was delayed by red tape?
None of the elite, politicians, or bureaucrats, I’m sure.
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Leave a Comment » | GOVERNACIDE | Tagged: Health Care | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
http://www.humblelibertarian.com/2010/06/gore-and-tipper-to-separate.html
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Gore and Tipper to Separate
From the Associated Press:
*** begin quote ***
“NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Former Vice President Al Gore and his wife, Tipper, are separating after 40 years of marriage.
*** end quote ***
Regardless of how much I think Gore and Global Warming are frauds, I am saddened when any long term marriage breaks up. I think it’s venial and self-destructive to revel in the failure. There but for … go you or I. Sorry, but I take no pleasure in their misfortune. And, I urge us to more prinicpled opposition.
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Leave a Comment » | Ranting | Tagged: Uncharitable | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
http://www.impactlab.com/2010/05/30/only-in-russia/
May 30th, 2010 at 8:01 am
Only in Russia
*** begin quote ***
This is not your normal run-of-the-mill get your pig drunk, load him into a cannon, and fire him into space kind of story. But then again, maybe it is. This amazing store has been captured for all to see.
*** end quote ***
Yah have to find this story funny!
Imagine being the pig.
And, it doesn’t tell the pig’s eventual fate. Dinner? Just doesn’t seem right to eat an astronaut.
Wonder how much that cost the Russian Gooferment?
LOL!
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Leave a Comment » | FUN | Tagged: Gooferment | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
http://www2.macleans.ca/2010/05/13/a-slow-burn-bonfire-of-liberties-2/
A slow-burn bonfire of liberties
MARK STEYN: Here’s what you get when the state hauls nobodies off to jail for quoting the Bible
by Mark Steyn on Thursday, May 13, 2010
*** begin quote ***
The other day, upholding the sacking of a black Christian for declining to provide “sex therapy lessons” to gay couples, Lord Justice Laws ruled that “law for the protection of a position held purely on religious grounds is irrational, divisive, capricious, arbitrary.” Actually it’s the law of Lord Justice Laws that is increasingly “irrational, divisive, capricious, arbitrary.” Or as George Orwell, in Animal Farm, formulated it: all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others. In the land of Laws, a gay is more equal than a Christian. A Muslim is more equal than anybody. A black man is more equal than a white man, unless the white man is gay and the black man a Christian. An eco-zealot is more equal than an Anglican. Not long before Lord Justice Laws’ decision on the “irrationality” of legal protection for Christianity, Tim Nicholson, a “Head of Sustainability” fired for questioning his property management group’s environmental policies, sued for wrongful dismissal under “Employment Equality (Religion And Beliefs) Regulations.” He wound up with the best part of one hundred thousand pounds after Mr. Justice Burton ruled that Mr. Nicholson’s faith in anthropogenic global warming was a “philosophical belief” on a par with religion. So the Employment Equality (Religion And Beliefs) Law protects belief in apocalyptic “climate change” but not in Jesus.
*** end quote ***
Yes, I know it’s overseas. BUTT (there’s always a big but), it’s coming here. You can see it.
“Political correctness” goes amuck.
And, civil discourse can no longer address race, sex, religion, or any other paradigm or meme that gets anyone upset.
Argh!
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Leave a Comment » | Political | Tagged: freedom | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
When I think about Memorial Day, I think of all the VietNam era vets. The Draftees, the “Volunteers” (who sought to pick as opposed to the draft), and the Escapees. Escapees sort into two categories. Those that went “underground” and those that fled to (mostly) Canada.
My best friend in High School went underground when I volunteered. Naturally, we lost contact. He had to hide and I couldn’t afford to be seen with him. He died in an auto accident and I didn’t find out about it until years later.
And, all I can as is “why”.
The politicians and bureaucrats should burn in Hell for a long time for what they did to this country.
Hence, as a little L libertarian, I’d adopt George Washington’s foreign policy and Ron Paul’s tactic for bring the boys and girls home (i.e., jump on the first thing smoking heading home). And, to ensure it never changes, I’d take Heinlein’s idea to make it so only vets can vote and you’d have to be a vet to run for any elective office. Then, we’d have peace.
Donna Nobis Pacem!
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Leave a Comment » | Ranting | Tagged: Peace | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
Read a rebuke of Pelosi on Facebook. Amazing the gall of that woman, Pelosi. CINO. I’m no saint by any measure. But, at least I try to listen to the teachings. The Catholic Church has done a very bad job of managing it’s brand. CINO politicians claim the brand so they can be elected but don’t adhere to the beliefs. And, even worse, give scandal. I thought that was an absolute no no. And, yet they fail to rebuke them. Could it be the pedophilia scandal has neutered them? Perhaps this battle is left to the laity to fight. Sigh, above my pay grade. The abuse scandal still dogs the Church.
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Leave a Comment » | Ranting | Tagged: freedom | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
Today, I think and pray for all the dead — vets, non-vets, the “draft dodgers”, and those that have had their lives ruined by wars throughout our history.
I’m reminded of Washington’s “entangling alliances”. I think of Heinlein’s “Only vets should vote” and decide when to send troops in harm’s way. I think of all the venial politicians and some of the larger mass murders, some of whom were Presidents; they have led us astray.
But mostly I pray for all the lost potential.
And, of course, for my fellow vets, for the boys and girls in the field, and for the “dim bulb” politicians and bureaucrats who can’t seem to steer us to peace.
Signed, a USAF vet 70-73, who defended Maryland to the best of his meager abilities!
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Leave a Comment » | GOVERNACIDE, VETERANS | Tagged: VETERANS | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
http://www.ksla.com/Global/story.asp?S=12544685
Obama to skip Memorial day tradition
Posted: May 26, 2010 8:28 AM Updated: May 26, 2010 8:28 AM
*** begin quote ***
WASHINGTON, DC (KSLA) – U.S. President Barack Obama, plans to skip a presidential tradition this Memorial day weekend for a trip back to Chicago.
Traditionally on Memorial day,the current President will lay a wreath at the tomb of the unknown soldier at Arlington National Cemetery.
*** and ***
What do you think of the President’s plan to return home for Memorial day instead of partaking in the traditional Presidential appearance at Arlington Cemetery?
*** end quote ***
I think that is the ULTIMATE insult to the brave men and women who have paid the ultimate price.
With troops in harm’s way, he’s got chutzpah to claim to be “president”. A President leads. He shows up at Arlington and acknowledges that these honored dead gave full measure of what was asked of them. And, maybe he add that he understands what he, and the nation, are asking from the boys and girls in the foreign fields. Argh!
It communicates a disrespect that is hard to explain away.
Sorry, but he’s … … … a politician!
As a vet, who had it “easy”, I’m disgusted!
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Leave a Comment » | Political | Tagged: VETERANS | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
May 30th, 2010 at 10:09 am
Scientists Believe a Near-Death Experience is the Last Gasp of a Dying Brain
*** begin quote ***
A Dutch study published in The Lancet in 2001 found around one in five cardiac arrest victims underwent a near-death experience. They found these patients tended to feel happier, more altruistic and less afraid of death later on.
*** end quote ***
We know so very little about everything?
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Leave a Comment » | INTERESTING | Tagged: Human Factors | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
The oligarchy runs the country for their own benefit. That hasn’t changed since forever. The “democracy” is all theater. At least since Lincoln, maybe just after Andrew Jackson. Clearly FDR, by the removal of the nation from the gold standard, set up the unlimited expansion of the gooferment. Wilson’s creation of the FED set up FDR.
Argh!
How do we unwind this? Can we silently revolt? Participation in the elections is just a sham. I don’t know how we can derail this. If no one votes, what happens? Can we just ignore them? I don’t think so. Preserve wealth by buying gold and gold equivalents. They can inflate the currency, but we don’t get hurt if we’re not holding dollars.
Thinking about Robinson Crusoe’s island, with coconuts and fish, and a banker. If the banker inflates the currency, how do Tom and Dick protect themselves? The price of goods and services must go up the amount of inflation. If money is being inflated, then Tom and Dick must avoid holding money. Clearly, they can exchange directly. How do we extrapolate this to the island called America? You must escape the fiat currencies. Buy things that will hold their value. Real Estate. Gold. Commodities.
But what does the little guy do? Emulate the Mormons and the Amish. Put up a year’s supply of food. Pay off any bad debt. Buy gold. Or at least silver. Get small. Get light. Remember the 7 points of success. Develop streams of income. Perhaps that crazy real estate guy who wanted everyone to have 12 single family homes as rental properties. That’s his idea to create a pension of sorts. By the use of leverage, the renters pay off the mortgages. At the end of thirty years, the properties are yours and the rentals become your income stream. Unfortunately, that’s an impossible dream. Let’s assume that houses are 200k each. 12 = 2.4 million. You have to start with one. 20% down = 40k$. Say 10k$ for start up expenses. 5% 30 fixed mortgage = 1400 $/month. It just doesn’t work. 2.4M$ @ 5% = 120k$ per year. With no work and no risk. But, with 30k$ per house, 12 houses, 360k$ starts the chain. So you could boot yourself into it. You need a real sharp pencil and something that works to deliver. It’s possible.
Argh!
What do you do? You need that white collar job to generate the money necessary to get started.
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Leave a Comment » | Ranting | Tagged: economic freedom, Tax Revolt | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
http://reason.com/blog/2010/05/29/maryland-cops-say-its-illegal
In Spite of State Law, Maryland Law Enforcement Officials Still Arresting, Charging People for Recording Cops
Radley Balko | May 29, 2010
*** begin quote ***
Graber’s case is starting to spur some local and national media discussion of the state’s wiretapping law. As I mentioned in my column last month, his arrest came at about the same time the Jack McKenna case broke nationally. McKenna, a student at the University of Maryland, was given an unprovoked beating by police during student celebrations after a basketball game last February. McKenna would probably still be facing criminal charges and the cops who beat him would likely still be on the beat were it not for several cell phone videos that captured his beating. According to Cassily’s interpretation of the law, if any of those cell phones were close enough to record audio of the beating, the people who shot the videos are felons.
*** and ***
Whatever their motivation, their legal justification is dubious. The McKenna case is a strong argument in favor of more citizen monitoring of on-duty police. The police not only beat the kid, they then lied about it in police reports. The security camera footage of McKenna’s beating, which is controlled by University of Maryland Campus Police, mysteriously disappeared. The officer in charge of the camera system is married to one of the officers involved in the beating. Does anyone really think the charges against McKenna would have been dropped—and the officers who beat him suspended—if it weren’t for the cell phone videos?
*** end quote ***
Video recording police abuse should be applauded; not prosecuted.
It would appear that “wiretap” laws need a Federal preemption that: (1) Permits recording any interaction with a gooferment official performing their duties. (2) Permits recording any situation where there is no expectation of privacy. (3) Guarantees any citizen being taped must have suitable controls to prevent it’s “accidental” deletion when the cops don’t like what it shows.
The cops have dash cams; why not the citizens?
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Leave a Comment » | GOVEROTRAGEOUS, LIBERTY | Tagged: LIBERTY | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
XXXXX told me an interesting story about his law practice. He gets most of his business from referrals. YYYYY is still out of work. Guess another not so fat old white guy is screwed.
Sad.
And, as an employment trend, it portends more problems for the country later on. If you can’t find work after say 50, 55, or 60, then we’re screwed as a country. During your working life, say from 20 to 50, you have to put away enough to carry you from 50 to 65. Where one assumes that “social security” and “pensions” will begin.
Argh! Bad assumption.
Let’s reuse that math principle I quote a lot (2.4M$ @ 5% = 120k$ per year) and apply it to our situation. In the 30 years in 20 to 50, you must save 2.4M$. Or, 80k$ per year!
Can’t be done. It not solvable. So what does one do?
I don’t know.
If someone had shown me this when I was younger, I don’t know what I would have said. Even now I’m speechless.
Go to work for the gooferment! You can’t be fired and you get a gold plated pension!
Argh!
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Leave a Comment » | Ranting | Tagged: Outrageous | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
ORIGINAL POST
FJohn Reinke
“With the Gulf oil leak: the state was revealed, once again, as utterly incompetent at anything but taxing and making war, that is, stealing and murdering. It was funny to hear Progs urging Obama to seize personal control and fix everything. He doesn’t want the political responsibility, of course, but in any event, the… state employs no one with any such ability, and if it did, he would soon be useless, thanks to the environment of public property. All the state can do is grab other people’s money and use some of it to hire favored private contractors. Virtually all its millions of uncivil servants are good only at being busybodies, and armed ones at that.”
Sadly all too true!
>One Lesson of the Gulf « LewRockwell.com Blog http://www.lewrockwell.com
>With the Gulf oil leak: the state was revealed, once again, as utterly incompetent at anything but taxing and
>making war, that is, stealing and murdering. It was funny to hear Progs urging Obama to seize personal
>control and fix everything. …
RELOCATING A COMMENT
*** begin quote ***
I am offended!! Some of us are highly skilled workers (not me of course, but there are some) who are not only competent, but very, very smart (again clearly not me). Policy makers and political appointees are typically the poor performers because they have no subject matter expertise and if they do it is outdated since … See Morethey probably haven’t had … See Morereal world, boots on the ground experience in a long time. This is a very clear failure on the part of private industry, which as a dedicated libertarian (unlike Rand Paul who was a poster child until he stepped on his you know what) is who you want running the world. BP wanted the lead and they dropped the ball- now everyone wants the gov’t to clean it up. Can’t have it both ways- either private industry is capable or they need oversight.
*** end quote ***
>I am offended!!
GOOD! If we can get folks’ Irish up, maybe, just maybe, we can change the “barbara streisand”!
>Some of us are highly skilled workers
I think we have “workers” that highly skilled. Even for the Gooferment!
The workers, (even you), are NOT bad people.
It’s just that “the ladder is leaning against the wrong wall”. Like the drunk looking for lost keys under the street light as opposed to looking by the storied “dark by the front door where those keys were lost”. It’s that 100,000 foot plan that is wrong.
You can put the best workers on the job, but the problem is that the “job” is completely wrong!
Argh!
>Policy makers and political appointees are typically the poor
>performers because they have no subject matter expertise
I disagree. They get poor results because they are working but have started with a poor meme (i.e., gooferment force) and have poor paradigms (i.e., centralized command and control systems don’t have the price and market mechanisms to guide them in decisions).
Reference: http://mises.org/etexts/mises/bureaucracy/section2.asp
Bureaucracy by Ludwig von Mises (1944): Section 2 Bureaucracy
“Bureaucratic management is the method applied in the conduct of administrative affairs the result of which has no cash value on the market. Remember: we do not say that a successful handling of public affairs has no value, but that it has no price on the market, that its value cannot be realized in a market transaction and consequently cannot be expressed in terms of money.”
An entrepreneur has profit and loss to guide decision making. A bureaucrat doesn’t have that. So decisions are “political”; not profit seeking. The cost of capital, the business risks, and the size of reward are all available for the entrepreneur to guide, measure, revise, and quit.
>This is a very clear failure on the part of private industry
Unfortunately, the “private industry” had willing unindicted co-conspirators in: both political parties, Congress, States, various Administrations, and the main stream media. Campaign contributions, regulatory capture, and incompetent gooferment all loom large in this disaster. I read that the gooferment had a plan for a spill, but never bothered to buy the booms needed for the plans. SINCE 1968! ROFL!
We don’t have “private industry”. We have a gooferment – big company – big labor paradox.
>which as a dedicated libertarian
Will reject your assumption that we have “private industry”!
>(unlike Rand Paul who was a poster child until he
>stepped on his you know what)
I think he was attempting to make a very valid point. The reason we needed a “Civil Rights Act” at all was that governments were forcing segregation.
Take look into the famous Rosa Parks and bus story. You’ll find that there was no segregation on the buses run by greedy businessmen who wanted all fares regardless of color. The Legislatures voted in a law about “back of the bus”. And the bus owners lobbied AGAINST it. (ROFL, yes those evil capitalists!)
What he was trying to say was that the law should not have applied to private property. Gooferment property, access, and such is a fine target.
I think what everyone needs to understand that the marketplace is a real-time ongoing election. You vote with your dollars. If there’s a racist business, then they will be at a competitive disadvantage. There competitors will eat their lunch. So the marketplace will “fix” the problem.
>Can’t have it both ways- either private industry is capable
>or they need oversight.
But we don’t have that either or. We have a muddle. With payoffs and a wink’n’nod!
>
Don’t forget that the “limited liability corporation” is a creation of the Gooferment!
For other examples, look at the FDA / Big Pharma. Look at Big Education and all levels of gooferment, politicians, and bureaucracy.
>
Don’t poke sticks in the little L libertarian’s cage! It’s not productive, doesn’t change anything, and annoys the Libertarian.
:)
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Leave a Comment » | Political | Tagged: economic freedom | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
Rofl?
Maybe they need an IT consultant?
May 28th, 2010 @ 1515 EDST
Argh!
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Leave a Comment » | Technology | Tagged: Human Factors | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/2320350,home-invasion-suspect-shot-052610.article
Man, 80, ‘did what he had to do,’ killing home invader
Intruder had a history of drug and weapons convictions, records show
May 26, 2010
By KIM JANSSEN Staff Reporter
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An 80-year-old Army veteran shot and killed an armed man who’d broken in to the two-flat where he and his wife live in East Garfield Park early this morning and fired at him.
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And, of course,t eh liberal press reports that the poor dead fellow was starting a new job next week.
Argh!
“God created man, Sam Colt made them equal.”
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Leave a Comment » | GUNS | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/25155
The Physics arXiv Blog
Friday, May 07, 2010
Benford’s Law And A Theory of Everything
A new relationship between Benford’s Law and the statistics of fundamental physics may hint at a deeper theory of everything
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In 1938, the physicist Frank Benford made an extraordinary discovery about numbers. He found that in many lists of numbers drawn from real data, the leading digit is far more likely to be a 1 than a 9. In fact, the distribution of first digits follows a logarithmic law. So the first digit is likely to be 1 about 30 per cent of time while the number 9 appears only five per cent of the time.
That’s an unsettling and counterintuitive discovery. Why aren’t numbers evenly distributed in such lists? One answer is that if numbers have this type of distribution then it must be scale invariant. So switching a data set measured in inches to one measured in centimetres should not change the distribution. If that’s the case, then the only form such a distribution can take is logarithmic.
But while this is a powerful argument, it does nothing to explan the existence of the distribution in the first place.
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Haven’t heard about this since injineering skrool. (Thanks, Brother Barry Austin. Engineering Measurements 101. I’ll never forget the difference between “blunders” and “errors”. I’ve made a lot of both since.)
Still don’t know what to make of it.
Perhaps, it’s like “the Name of God” in the Indiana Jones sense. The Ark! The key to creation?
Still fascinating! After all these years.
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Leave a Comment » | INTERESTING | Tagged: GAME THEORY | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
The Zen of Penny Slots
① You can lose lots of “real money” at Penny Slots; the casinos have them for a reason. (Don’t fail to underestimate just how much you can lose “chasing rainbows”!)
② “Money management” is essential to winning. (Machine limits, session limits, day limits, trip limits) It’s not “winning” unless you take “their” money; that’s management!
③ Any currency that you put in a machine is at risk; includes green backs or the paper take out amounts. (If it’s in YOUR wallet, then it is NOT in the casino’s till!)
④ For your bankroll, think about how many plays you want; then decide how much to play. Decide what you will risk and lose it. When in a hole, STOP DIGGING!
⑤ Play the first half of your machine stake with as big a bet as you can stand. (That comes from the “jump in your grave” strategy.)
⑥ Play the second half of your machine stake with an eye to staying around for the big hit. (That comes from “you have to be in it to win it.”)
⑦ When you hit the “big jackpot” or have seen all the bonus games, leave with what you got. That machine session is over. (That comes from how rare the big payoffs are.)
⑧ Never, ever, put more currency into a machine. The big payoff is NOT just round the corner. “Just another twenty and it will hit” is a logical fallacy and a wallet buster!
⑨ Never, ever, drink when gambling. (There’s a reason that casinos give out free booze to players.) Don’t gamble when you are tired or upset either. It’s supposed to be fun; not therapy.
⑩ Remember your vocabulary. It’s gambling; not investing. It’s a random number generator. There are NO patterns. Despite what you brain, heart, or other body parts tell you. Don’t be stubborn. (A big win is great; a big loss ain’t! Better a small gain taken quickly, smartly, and spritely. Even a small loss can be the best you can accomplish.)
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Leave a Comment » | GAMBLING | Tagged: GAMBLING, Human Factors | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/wire/sns-ap-us-obit-art-linkletter,0,634064.story
“Life is not fair … not easy.” Art Linkletter (Arthur Gordon Kelly; July 17, 1912 – May 26, 2010)
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Leave a Comment » | Quotes | Tagged: Quotes | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
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FJohn Reinke
Consultant at Technology Legacies LLC
Advisor, Computer Governance Committee at Manhattan College
Editor / Publisher at Jasper Jottings
Greater New York City Area
JJ Positraction JJ Endnotes Downsize DC
Philosophy of Liberty
I have NOT received any gagged governmental information requests
Reinke Faces Life 
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