MONEY: Banks aren’t safe

Friday, June 26, 2009

http://mises.org/story/3507

Dead Banks Walking
Mises Daily
by Doug French
Posted on 6/11/2009 12:00:00 AM

*** begin quote ***

On the other hand, if a legitimate banking system were in place, it would be based upon honoring property rights. Customers making a deposit in a bank expect the bank to guard, protect, and return their money — at a moment’s notice in the case of demand deposits. After all, that person has not traded a present good for a future good. The depositors believe the bank is warehousing the money for them and that it is available to them at any time. This deposit is not a loan — there is no fixed term, which would be required in the case of a loan — and availability hasn’t transferred.

However, we don’t have legitimate deposit banking but a fractionalized banking system that combines deposit banking with loan banking. Those that sympathize with fractionalized banking will contend that time certificate of deposit accounts are in essence loans from depositors, entitling the bankers to use the funds at their discretion for the term of the CD — just as long as the banker has the money ready when the CD matures. But if the money is lent secured by illiquid assets such as real estate, the banker is clearly not counting on those loans to satisfy expiring CDs and must count on attracting new CD money to pay off the old.

“There is no incentive for bank depositors to go to the trouble of determining a bank’s soundness if the government is going to guarantee deposits.”

Bankers, pressured to earn returns for shareholders and protected from bank runs by FDIC insurance, have over time lent not only more of their deposits but advanced the money for riskier projects. James Grant in a recent Grant’s Interest Rate Observer reminisced about National City Bank, which back in 1954 had only lent out 41 percent of its deposits, with less than one percent of the portfolio being real-estate loans.

By the end of last year, the total loan-to-deposit ratio for all US banks and thrifts was 87 percent, and 60 percent of all loans were classified as real-estate secured.

*** end quote ***

Bottom line: Don’t invest in any bank stock.

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JOBSEARCH: Another silent hazard in the job search

Friday, June 26, 2009

http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_12514244

Google recruiter: Company kept ‘do not touch’ in hiring list
By Steve Johnson, Elise Ackerman and Sue McAllister
Mercury News
Posted: 06/03/2009 07:00:44 PM PDT
Updated: 06/04/2009 10:14:46 AM PDT

*** begin quote ***

A recruiter who left Google last year says that the company had maintained a “do not touch” list of companies including Genentech and Yahoo, whose employees were not to be wooed to the Internet search giant.

That revelation could be significant in light of this week’s disclosure that the U.S. Justice Department is investigating whether Google, Yahoo, Apple, Genentech and other tech companies conspired to keep others from stealing their top talent.

Although Google declined to comment on the list or other aspects of the investigation, Palo Alto attorney Gary Reback, who has been involved in a number of high-profile antitrust cases, said having such a list is not unheard of and not necessarily illegal.

*** end quote ***

Argh!

Hard enough to get a job and the companies limit the opportunities.

A plague on all their houses.

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GOVEROTRAGEOUS: 10M$ for Cambodian education?

Thursday, June 25, 2009

FROM DRUDGE!

http://www07.grants.gov/search/search.do?&mode=VIEW&flag2006=false&oppId=48068

$10 Million tax dollars to improve education in Cambodia…

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How about improving education in Camden or Newark?

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GOVEROTRAGEOUS: Obama’s attempt to takeover health care

Thursday, June 25, 2009

http://channel-surfing.blogspot.com/2009/06/line-in-sand.html

Monday, June 15, 2009

A line in the sand?

Hank Kalet

*** begin quote ***

And one of these options needs to be a public option that will give people a broader range of choices and inject competition into the health care market so that force waste out of the system and keep the insurance companies honest.

*** end quote ***

The problem is that with the “government public option” is that having it in the mix will destroy the insurance market.

Just like Catholic parochial schools can NOT compete with “free” public-paid government supplied education.

Once the government has it’s “nose” in the tent, it will destroy the marketplace.

For example, why should an employer pay for insurance when the employees can get it from the government without costing the employer anything. For example, the government will set the rules about what must be covered (i.e., hair plugs), and the “competing insurances” must cover it. For example, the gooferment will define the records its competitors will have to keep and waive that for itself.

The same reasons why we rejected Hillary-care are the same reasons we should reject Obama-care. It’s just a step in the direction of totally government health care.

Sorry, but we can’t afford this non-sense. Nor can we survive having Health Care a la the Post Office. Rationing, and lower standards, will precede outright denial. Dialysis for old folks is expensive. Neonatal is expensive. ERs are expensive.

Well there is always “medical tourism”. But where can we go?

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QUOTE: Suitable for our congresscritters, politicians, and bureaucrats

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Grass mud horse n. Wildly popular on YouTube, this mythical, alpaca-like creature was conjured by Chinese citizens to protest Internet censorship. Though the grass mud horse looks innocent, its Chinese name—Cao Ni Ma—sounds like “fuck your mother” in Mandarin.

—Jonathon Keats

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For some reason, listening to the President on Healthcare, Barney Frank on Bill O’Reilly, and all the other people who want to tell us all what to do, this seems strangely appropriate!

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INTERESTING: GSN’s CATCH21 strategy

Thursday, June 25, 2009

http://www.gsn.com/shows/catch21/

Contestants don’t seem to understand the strategy of the final bonus game.

The “power chips” allow a player to discard a card. What they don’t seem to understand is that they have to tale at least ONE card after they use a power chip. So they MUST use ALL of their power chips before they cover their last “less than 10” column. If they blunder and bust, then they lose their bonus. It really is sad. Seen to many players hold their power chips and be force to quit with power chips unused or bust themselves when they blunder past that “point of no return”.

Reinke’s Rule: Players need to use their power chips before making all their columns greater than 10.

It seems so simple to me.

Argh!

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NEWJERSEY: Take advice aimed at California. Now!

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

http://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/21/california-bailout-reckless-or-inevitable/

June 21, 2009, 9:13 pm
California Bailout, Impossible or Inevitable?
By The Editors

*** begin quote ***

The Obama administration has told California not to expect a federal bailout. So how should the state deal with its $24.3 billion shortfall? Can it save itself? Or is it likely that the taxpayers of Iowa and Utah will end up picking up the tab of the state that represents an eighth of the nation’s economy? We asked Ron Paul and others for their views on what has to happen next.

*** end quote ***

Don’t Reward Exorbitance
Ron Paul, a United States representative from Texas and a medical doctor, is the founder of Campaign for Liberty. He ran for president in 2008 and is the author of “The Revolution: A Manifesto” and “End the Fed.”

*** begin quote ***

Californians know they are overtaxed

*** and ***

Instead of seeking federal aid, California should cut spending, rethink some of its unsustainable public pension programs, tame down the expensive and failed drug war, and repeal regulations that discourage economic growth. According to a 2008 piece by The Independent Institute’s William Shughart, the state owns more than 20,000 buildings and 6.7 million acres of land, a portion of which is “surplus” property that could be sold to private owners.

*** end quote ***

Sounds like advice that New Jersey could use as well!

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GUNS: Teaching self-defense

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

http://ncc-1776.org/tle2009/tle523-20090614-01.html

Letter from A.X. Perez

*** begin quote ***

In spite of warnings that submission to violent criminals only leads to their becoming more vicious, many liberals continue to advise not arming oneself to fight back, Their claim is that most people lack adequate training to fight back. It would be better to increase training.

Therefore the following is proposed as a change to publicly funded education (as long as we are stuck with public funded education.):

Students are to be trained in self defense with and without weapons from kindergarten through graduation from high school and even into undergraduate school in college. Besides instilling in people the necessary skills to defend themselves this should help instill the self confidence and independent spirit appropriate for members of a society of free people. It should also provide physical activity leading to pulmonary and cardiovascular health, greater physical strength, coordination, and flexibility.

*** end quote ***

Now that’s a great idea. Wish it had been around when I was growing up.

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SERVICE: ALUMTWEET doesn’t support adding schools?

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

# jasperjottingsIcon_lockhttp://alumtweet.com – Doesn’t have Manhattan Prepless than 5 seconds ago from web

# jasperjottings Just added myself to http://alumtweet.com – Manhattan Prep ’64 and Manhattan College ’68

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INTERESTING: Massachusetts is the latest example of why socialism doesn’t work

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/2009/06/03/the-economic-case-for-health-care-reform/

The Economic Case for Health Care Reform
Posted by Michael D. Tanner

*** begin quote ***

Ultimately, controlling costs requires someone to say “no,” whether the government (as in single-payer systems with global budgets), insurers (managed care) or health care consumers themselves (by desire or ability to pay). In reality, any health care reform will have to confront the fact that the biggest single reason costs keep rising is that the American people keep buying more and more health care.

*** end quote ***

We have examples of bad results from “health care solutions”:

(1) the VA;

(2) Canada;

(3) England;

(4) Medicare;

(5) Medicaid;

(6) Massachusetts!

Argh!

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INTERESTING: Gallup continues the false dichotomy — liberal versus conservative!

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

http://www.gallup.com/poll/120857/Conservatives-Single-Largest-Ideological-Group.aspx

June 15, 2009
“Conservatives” Are Single-Largest Ideological Group
Percentage of “liberals” higher this decade than in early ’90s
by Lydia Saad

*** begin quote ***

PRINCETON, NJ — Thus far in 2009, 40% of Americans interviewed in national Gallup Poll surveys describe their political views as conservative, 35% as moderate, and 21% as liberal.

*** end quote ***

This part of that “false choice” nonsense.

The labels — conservative and liberal — have zero meaning.

No one defines what they mean.

The Nolan Chart http://www.nolanchart.com is a much better way to assess views. It’s not single line spectrum.

Argh!

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RANT: BOYCOTT Simon Malls!

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2009/06/july_4_atlanta_tea_party_cance.html

June 23, 2009
July 4 Atlanta Tea Party Cancelled
Jason Lee

*** begin quote ***

With as many as 20,000 people attendance, the Atlanta Tea Party on April 15 was one of the largest and most successful Tea Parties in the country. The Atlanta Tea Party on July 4, 2009 had been expected to be just as large. Unfortunately, plans have changed. Simon Property Group has forced the cancellation of the Atlanta Tea Party.

*** and ***

Following the money, connecting the dots:

   1. Gwinnett Place Mall shut down the Atlanta Tea Party.

   2. Simon Property Group owns Gwennett Place Mall.

   3. Melvin Simon (a Forbes 400 billionaire) is Co-chairman of Simon Property Group, Inc.

   4. Melvin Simon has provided large political contributions to Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Al Franken, John Edwards, the DNC and many other Democrats and Democrat organizations.

   5. Melvin Simon was a major contributor to Barack Obama inaugural committee and has given at least $1 million to the William J. Clinton foundation.

   6. Melvin’s wife, Bren, personally donated almost $100,000 to various political candidates, was a fundraiser for Hillary Clinton’s presidential bid, and contributed to President Obama’s inaugural committee.

*** end quote ***

AND IN THE COMMENTS

*** begin quote ***

Two can play that game. Call for a boycott of all Simon Malls – there are plenty of alternatives looking for our dollar. Write to the merchants management and say why you will not shop at a Simon Mall – they suppress Freedom of Speech and the constitutional right to assemble. Boycotts worked in the South before, they will work again especially if wide spread throughout the country. Nobody tells Simon where to invest his money and it is his right to contribute to whichever candidate he thinks will benefit this country. But our choice of where to shop is beyond his reach. Not that one can’t smell the stink of perversion from Chicago via Washington. Hardball they want? Hardball they get.

*** end quote ***

BOYCOTT Simon Malls!

http://www.simon.com/findamall/noflash/find_mall.aspx

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FUN: The “tin foil” hat

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/items/tinfoilhat.xml

*** begin quote ***

“On behalf of the International Gnomish Conspiracy, I’ve got to inform you that we’re almost out of tinfoil.”

Every engineer knows that in order to achieve true greatness, it is imperative to always keep a clear, unclouded mind and to protect one’s secrets from those who would seek to steal or plagiarize the radical new designs of a hard-working genius. The Tinfoil Hat is the logical result of this profound insight, combining tinfoil’s powerful mental shielding properties with the excellent counter-hexing effect of troll tears and the outstanding mind-focus powers of one of Azeroth’s most precious gems.

However, besides keeping the wearer safe from mind spies and the thought police, it also removes the wearer’s character profile from the World of Warcraft Armory to further guarantee that no one will be able to divine all of the wearer’s tightly held secrets. Furthermore, wearers of the Tinfoil Hat will not show up in /who listings, and they will also be immune to inspection from other players.

The schematic for the Tinfoil Hat can be obtained by high-level characters from two faction-specific vendor NPCs in or around Area 52 that sell the schematic to anyone. There is, however, a catch. The creative masterminds who invented the Tinfoil Hat, special engineers Sculder and Mully, are extremely suspicious of any and all visitors. They use Gnomish Cloaking Devices and their own Tinfoil Hats to stay out of sight, and they will only reveal themselves to connoisseurs of their favorite foods — Dried Mushroom Rations for Sculder, and Dried Fruit Rations for Mully (these items can be bought in Thrallmar and Honor Hold).

The only drawback is that the increased focus provided by the Tinfoil Hat may sometimes lead the wearer to achieve a superlative level of mental clarity, through which he can see the manifold subtle connections between seemingly unrelated facts and events, revealing to the wearer a much sharper image of the truth. Resisting the urge to share this truth with other, less illuminated players can be difficult, indeed…

*** end quote ***

“Allows the wearer to see “the truth.” May lead to an incontrollable urge to share “the truth” with others.”
Yes, it does!
And, blogging allows me to share “the truth” with you so you can’t see my tin foil hat!
ROFL!
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POLITICAL: THe new “inside trader”

Monday, June 22, 2009

http://www.suntimes.com/news/1620776,CST-NWS-durbin13.article

Durbin cashed out during big stock collapse
WASHINGTON | Asset sales came after meeting with Fed, Treasury chiefs
June 13, 2009

*** begin quote ***

As U.S. stock markets plummeted last September, the Senate’s No. 2 Democrat, Dick Durbin, sold more than $115,000 worth of stocks and mutual-fund shares and used much of the money to invest in Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc.

The Illinois senator’s 2008 financial disclosure statement shows he sold mutual-fund shares worth $42,696 on Sept. 19, the day after then-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke urged congressional leaders in a closed meeting to craft legislation to help financially troubled banks.

*** end quote ***

Of course, there was no connection between the meeting and his actions.

The fact that Paulson probably said “I wouldn’t be holding any equities” and Bernake “I’m printing money like there’s no tomorrow”, never entered into his thoughts.

Inside information. Insider trading.

Only applies to non “public servants”.

Yeah, right!

Poor Martha! I’m sure she did less than this fellow. She didn’t create the mess.

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POLITICAL: Healthcare debate

Monday, June 22, 2009

http://channel-surfing.blogspot.com/2009/06/health-care-naysayers.html

Sunday, June 21, 2009
Health care naysayers

*** begin quote ***

Republicans were out in force, trying to kill the kind of healthcare reform that Americans — if opinion polling is any indication — desire and expect. All are claiming to support reform, but none seem to be listening to the majority, which repeatedly says it wants a public plan as an alternative to the current system — and that it trusts the government to manage health care coverage better than the insurance companies.

*** end quote ***

MY RESPONSE

(1) Put me down as a naysayer. And, I am not an R. Nor am I a D.

(2) Hope you’re not relying on that NY Times “poll”. Non-partisan stats lookers find that they polled 66% D’s versus 33% R’s. Polling partisans isn’t really polling.

(3) While the insurances companies may not be the ideal gatekeeper of health care, do you really want some version of Amtrak or the Post Office doing it?

(4) How about some “baby steps”, to make sure that we don’t kill what we got, disconnect employment from health insurance. Allow health care to be tax deductible to the individual and treat it like life insurance. (Note: see how cheap life insurance is and how expensive health insurance is. Why is that?)

(5) When Hillary tried to nationalize health care, everyone saw it as socialism. (Which works so well else where.) Her methods turned everyone off. Here is is again. Methods are slightly more “open”. BUT again, like the bailouts, we are being hustled and rushed. DO it now! Can’t wait. That’s the clear sign of a scam.

(6) The Government can not be both the participant in and the referee in this future fiasco. It will set the rules and then “compete” in the marketplace. Please lets not fool ourselves. EVERYONE knows that the Left’s objective is to takeover healthcare. It’s always been that. They have even said that in leaked audios and video. Sometimes they even say it in rare moments of honesty. So let’s not kid ourselves. It’s the Communist Manifesto playbook. This is all about ensure Democratic voters forever. This is all about control. This is a giant scam!

Government is the meme that kills and enslaves its citizens.

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GOVEROTRAGEOUS: Honeymoon used to expand the gooferment

Monday, June 22, 2009

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124407228244683091.html  

It’s the Economy, Stupid
The Obama presidency will rise or fall on results.
Karl Rove is the former senior adviser and deputy chief of staff to President George W. Bush.

*** begin quote ***

Until now, the new president has benefited from public willingness to give him a honeymoon. He decided to use that grace period to push for the largest expansion of government in U.S. history and to reward political allies (see the sweetheart deals Big Labor received in the GM and Chrysler bankruptcies). The difficulty for Mr. Obama will be when the public sees where his decisions lead — higher inflation, higher interest rates, higher taxes, sluggish growth, and a jobless recovery.

*** end quote ***

This pig is going in the WRONG direction.

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MONEY: Expect more intrusions and less roi

Sunday, June 21, 2009

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/5526129/Lloyds-Bank-hit-by-Obama-tax-purge.html

Lloyds Bank hit by Obama tax purge
Banking group drops American customers in UK ahead of costly proposals to stamp out tax evasion
By Louise Armitstead
Published: 9:39PM BST 13 Jun 2009

*** begin quote ***

This week American private client account-holders at Lloyds’s received letters informing them of an “important change in policy regarding clients who are resident, domiciled or linked to the United States by property or asset holdings”. They were told the bank had “no choice” but to “cease acting as your investment manager.”

*** end quote ***

Funny, here comes the unintended consequences!

It will be just the first.

More forms, more intrusive checking, more audits.

Argh!

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GOVEROTRAGEOUS: Fixing health care

Sunday, June 21, 2009

http://mises.org/freemarket_detail.aspx?control=279

April 1993
Volume 11, Number 4
A Four-Step Health-Care Solution
by Hans-Hermann Hoppe

*** begin quote ***

It’s true that the U.S. health care system is a mess, but this demonstrates not market but government failure. To cure the problem requires not different or more government regulations and bureaucracies, as self-serving politicians want us to believe, but the elimination of all existing government controls.

*** end quote ***

Summary:

1. Eliminate all licensing requirements

2. Eliminate all government restrictions on pharmaceutical products and medical devices

3. Deregulate the health insurance industry

4. Eliminate all subsidies to the sick or unhealthy

Permit me to add a fifth!

5. Make the tax code neutral with respect to benefits. Emerging form the WW2 wage and price controls, the gooferment has distorted the “playing field”. “Benefits” are deductible to the corporation and not to the individual. That has set up the situation where an individual’s health insurance is tied to their job. No job; no insurance.

How much better would things be if it was like life insurance or automobile insurance. I can buy 20 year term life cheap and no one cares who my employer is. I am required by the gooferment to have auto insurance (an absurd concept), but it’s not tied to my employment.

This seems to be an easy one.

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TECHNOLOGY: How to get privacy?

Saturday, June 20, 2009

http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2009/06/the_hidden_cost.html?nc=16#comment-378824

Bruce Schneier
A blog covering security and security technology.
June 15, 2009

The “Hidden Cost” of Privacy

*** begin quote ***

Forbes ran an article talking about the “hidden” cost of privacy. Basically, the point was that privacy regulations are expensive to comply with, and a lot of that expense gets eaten up by the mechanisms of compliance and doesn’t go toward improving anyone’s actual privacy.

*** end quote ***

I’m a fan of simple non-gooferment solutions. It would seem that “copyright” is an already existing “solution”. If your stuff (e.g., your NAME, your SSN, your PHONE NUMBER, and your EMAIL NAME) was “yours” (i.e., copyrighted), then each entity that wanted to “copy” it (i.e., save it in a database) should have to have your permission by some type of written agreement. Seems that would prevent Credit Reporting Agencies, Google, and such from being disinterested in our collective satisfaction. imho! Copyright metadata for privacy?

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MONEY: Commodity versus fiat money

Saturday, June 20, 2009

http://lewrockwell.com/orig10/hansen1.html

Will Radically Different Banking Plans Work?
Not until we abolish legal tender laws
by Betsy Hansen

*** begin quote ***

Because the fiat money system is both the strength and weakness of America’s tyrants. It bleeds the people’s wealth and labor, but it also threatens to collapse under its own weight – or whenever the scales fall off the people’s eyes. With its green engravings of famous Americans, electrons whirling around in bank computers, and loans created out of thin air, it is one vast confidence game.

*** end quote ***

The Federal Reserve Bank (which is none of those things) allows the congress critters, the Administration, politicians, bureaucrats, and their ilk to raise taxes without explicitly raising taxes.

The sheeple can’t even tell what they are paying in taxes. Inflation erodes their “savings” such that the gooferment can steal all their earnings in a given year. Even the worst tyrant of dictator of old used to have to leave the serfs enough to eat from year to year. And, the sheeple don’t even know they are being robbed.a

Imagine the uproar if a President said: “Sorry we have to take everything you earned this year for the good of everyone.” There would be riots in the streets. But the FED can inflate away. Since 1970, inflation has reduced the value of a dollar 97%!

Sheeple, how stupid can you be?

Independence Day? Don’t make me laff!

We’re not independent as long as the FED exists. Andrew Jackson and Thomas Jefferson, were right.

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WRITING: Sorry, it’s rationed (An Index Card Novel)

Saturday, June 20, 2009

The store had a color poster. A young blond Aryan-Looking woman in an apron raises her hand to take a pledge. “Food Fights for Freedom”. “Produce and Conserve” “Share and Play Square”. The older couple had survived the First World War with their victory garden. Now, with rationing, and their modest savings, it was hard to make end met. They were too old and too frail to put in a garden that they’d need to survive. Their Church provided some. Their family some. But eventually it was just too hard. They weren’t listed as casualties of war, but they were. The poverty of war. If all the young men weren’t off dying in some far flung part of the world, they’d have been to home and tending to the communities’ needs. The local guard. Contributing to churches, fraternities, and civil society in general. But, they were off dying. Just like the old couple, casualties of war.

+++++

The recently retired fat old white guy brought his equally old wife into the hospital’s emergency room. Heart failure was an easy diagnosis. Then the “fun” began. No more evil insurance companies to do battle with. No more hospital bills at all. Couldn’t pay if you wanted to. Couldn’t buy drugs anywhere at any price. Everything was “free”. Doctor Phil came into the old girl’s room. She wasn’t that old 60 something. But the “guidelines” were very clear. Palliative care. Hospice care. Informed of their “final options”. Those drugs were cheap! The “doctor” explained that they had nothing to offer them. The old gent was pretty funny. To the doc’s standard “just be a minute”, he’d replied “take two, we have lots”. The doc confided that there were drugs, operations, and therapies available “off-shore”. If she could survive the trip. If they could afford the trip. If they could keep it secret. (The Healthy Homeland Bureaucracy didn’t take kindly to their regulations being evaded.) In the end, there wasn’t much anyone could do. The old lady was a casualty of the war. Whatever the current war was that prevented society from treating its young and old humanely. Everyone was dying. Just like the old couple, casualties of war.

+++++

The hospital had a color poster. A multicultural group had their collective hands raised to take a pledge. “Health is a village responsibility” “One for all; all for the common good” “Play fair; do your part”

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INTERESTING: A health care plan alternative

Friday, June 19, 2009

http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/06/a_real_free_market_health_care_1.html

A Real Free Market Health Care Solution
By Frank S. Rosenbloom, M.D.

*** begin quote ***

Solution:

   * 1. Don’t pass any of the Democrat health care plans. Savings of at least $3 trillion over the next five years.

   * 2. Immediately do away with Medicare, Medicaid, and The Center for Medicare and Medicaid services. No other major industrialized nation has a separate system for the elderly, disabled and the poor. Scrap the Joint Commission on Hospital Accreditation. Savings of nearly $1 trillion in federal tax dollars yearly, $1 trillion in savings for states and billions in savings by dissolving the tyrannical Joint Commission.

   * 3. People should be responsible for purchasing their own health care, not the government or the employer, making health insurance completely portable. Scrap Hillary Clinton’s HIPAA act at a savings of billions yearly. Let’s make it HIPAA-posthumous.

   * 4. A Health Insurance Company must offer a good basic low-cost health care plan with expanded health savings accounts. Taxpayer cost zero dollars.

   * 5. No health exclusions for three years. Taxpayer cost zero dollars.

   * 6. Health plans should promote healthy practices and preventive health. Taxpayer cost zero.

   * 7. For the poor, government should subsidize the premiums, not be involved in paying providers. Taxpayer costs by my estimate around $600 billion per year.

   * 8. Retired people of lower means should be helped as above but should not have a separate insurance plan run by the government. Sorry, Medicare is dead. Promises were broken, but we are mature people and we need to get over it. Let’s not let it happen again! Taxpayer cost around $300 billion per year.

   * 9. End tax penalties for individuals purchasing individual health insurance. Taxpayer cost zero dollars as these penalties are merely punitive, designed to make people dependent.

   * 10. The health insurance companies in each state should have the option of creating a risk pool from some of their premium funds. Taxpayer cost zero dollars.

   * 11. Laws should be changed to allow for private health co-ops to be formed as an option for those so inclined. Taxpayer cost zero dollars.

   * 12. Patients should be free to change insurance plans at least twice yearly and since their insurance would not be controlled by their employer or the government no permission is needed from them. Taxpayer cost zero dollars.

   * 13. There should be no legal right for insurance plans to dismiss competent and qualified contracted physicians for “no cause”, when that no cause is really due to the physician acting as a patient advocate.

   * 14. Tort reform with penalties for frivolous lawsuits and the loser paying some of the costs.

Well, there you have it. The savings for taxpayers over three years: Nearly $5 trillion. Not requiring bills hundreds of pages long: Priceless! A few short regulations and we have a viable health care system for the future covering over 99% of the population, devoid of the treachery of Medicare and without dependence on the federal government. It’s very simple, very sensible, and so easy even a government official can understand it. It’s even short enough for Congress members to read fully, though some may require several days. Oh, yes, Mr. Obama, I want our $600 billion back.

*** end quote ***

Wow! What great ideas. Zero chance to kill Medicare. But, great ideas.

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Posted by reinkefj

FUN: Luddite sends me a joke

Friday, June 19, 2009

From:
Date: June 19, 2009 9:03:13 AM EDT
To:
Subject: Letter from the Boss

LETTER FROM THE BOSS:

As the CEO of this organization, I have resigned myself to the fact that Barrack Obama is our President and that our taxes and government fees will increase in a BIG way. To compensate for these increases, our prices would have to increase by about 10%.

But since we cannot increase our prices right now due to the dismal state of the economy, we will have to lay off 60 of our employees instead. This has really been bothering me; since I believe we are family here, and I didn’t know how to choose who would have to go.

So, this is what I did. I walked through our parking lots and found 60 ‘Obama’ bumper stickers on our employees’ cars and have decided these folks will be the ones to let go. I can’t think of a more fair way to approach this problem.

They voted for change; I gave it to them.

I will see the rest of you at the annual company picnic.

Signed,
The Boss

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ROFL

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Posted by reinkefj

TECHNOLOGY: Booting from removable media

Friday, June 19, 2009

http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/blogs/bizfeed/166570/new_macbook_pro_can_boot_from_an_sd_card_duh_so_can_pcs.html

BizFeed
Smart tech advice for your small business
Robert Strohmeyer, PC World | Friday, June 12, 2009 7:17 AM PDT
New MacBook Pro Can Boot From an SD Card. (Duh. So Can PCs.)

*** begin quote ***

In the wake of this week’s WWDC keynote, in which Apple announced that new MacBook Pro laptops will finally include an SD slot, the tech press is all aflutter about what they seem to think is a new possibility: booting from SD. Sorry to break it to you all, but this isn’t a new idea, and many PCs have been doing it for years.

*** end quote ***

I STILL don’t understand.

We could NOT have malware that embedded into the boot records if we used removable media for the boot process.

One of the great weapons that the bad guys have against us is that “reinfection” vector.

Microsoft has done us a great disservice if the whole architecture of the “personal computer”.

That’s why I’m moving to Linux.

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Posted by reinkefj

POLITICS: Use Sotomayor as a proxy for Affirmative Action

Thursday, June 18, 2009

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=100835

Miss Affirmative Action, 2009
Posted: June 12, 2009
Pat Buchanan

*** begin quote ***

Republican senators should use this Sotomayor nomination to put affirmative action in the dock for what it is – race-based bigotry against white males so that persons of color can receive the rewards of society that they could not win in free and fair competition.

Lay out the Sotomayor record – SAT scores, LSAT scores, bar exam score, law review articles and her opinions – so that we can see up close what those who eviscerated Robert Bork regard as academic and judicial excellence.

No need for name-calling.

*** end quote ***

Sorry, but in a lifetime job, we need the best.

Objectively, best. Not Subjectively.

We need to consign “Affirmative Action” to a time past when racism, even reverse racism, is unacceptable.

Something about “content of character; not the color their skin.”

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Posted by reinkefj

MONEY: What is the correct interest rate?

Thursday, June 18, 2009

http://www.bargaineering.com/articles/fdic-sets-bank-interest-rate-caps.html

Your Take: FDIC Sets Bank Interest Rate Caps by Jim Wang

*** begin quote ***

Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation SealNear the end of May, the FDIC Board of Directors approved a rule that capped the interest rate “less than well capitalized institutions.”

*** end quote ***

And, what part of fascism don’t you understand?

The gooferment is trying to run the banks.

What a joke.

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Posted by reinkefj

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