RANT: CSFB stupid “security theater”

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

OBVIOUS STUPIDITY!

Call up to find out where my pension check is.

Called, went through all the automated questions, and then the operator comes on after a short wait and asks me for my password.

What password?

(Ignores the concept that a “password” is a shared secret. If I knew and told her, then it’s no longer a secret. And, a static password! Please. Even Google two factor authentication is better.)

So we can do anything without them mailing me a new temporary password.

Now envision that I sent them in all my paperwork by certified mail and suggest that number as an authenticator. Or that they call me back. Or that they send me a fax or an email.

Argh!

And, who says that US Mail is secure, unless it’s sent certified mail. (We know they won’t do that because it costs more.)

# – # – # – # – #  2012-Feb-15 @ 13:32

 

 


RANT: Cleaning the “housing” stable

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2012/02/a-modern-pecora-commission-could-right-wall-street-wrongs/

A modern Pecora Commission could right Wall Street wrongsEmail this post Print this post
By Barry Ritholtz – February 5th, 2012, 8:00AM

*** begin quote ***

• MERS: Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems was created by banks without any authority or enabling legislation. 
• Origination fraud: Why did lenders accept “stated income” loans? Why did they abandon traditional standards? 
• RMBS: Wall Street’s securitized mortgage pools (residential mortgage-backed securities) contained a broad variety of flaws, some so egregious that they amounted to fraud. 
• Insurance fraud: Look at a bank tactic in which legitimate home insurance is canceled and new insurance provided at a substantially higher fee through a subsidiary or affiliate of the bank mortgage holder. 
• “Pyramid” servicing fees: An illegal practice in which current payments are applied to past late fees, generating more late fees and additional interest owed and creating a delinquency where none existed. 
• Lost mortgage notes: How is it possible that the most important part of the mortgage contract — the promissory note — was consistently lost or misplaced by banks? 
•Document fraud for sale: There were many examples of alleged document fraud, but the one crying out for investigation involves Lender Processing Services’ DOCX subsidiary. 
•False affidavits, perjury (robo-signing): We do not know who ordered the robo-signing of foreclosure documents, the false notarizations, fraudulent written statements to courts and perjury. 
• Foreclosure mills, process servers: Law firms engaged in rampant fraud that corrupted the foreclosure process. 
• Soldiers and Sailors Relief Act: Federal law protects active-duty service members from foreclosure and eviction.

*** end quote ***

It would seem that these are easy to find, easy to investigate, and easy to get a conviction on.

As a notary, I’m insulted by most of these items.

There’s no excuse for prosecutors at all levels for them not doing their jobs!

# – # – # – # – #


ECONOMICS: True “National Debt” is 211+T$

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

http://www.npr.org/2011/08/06/139027615/a-national-debt-of-14-trillion-try-211-trillion

A National Debt Of $14 Trillion? Try $211 Trillion
by NPR Staff
August 6, 2011

*** begin quote ***

When Standard & Poor’s reduced the nation’s credit rating from AAA to AA-plus, the United States suffered the first downgrade to its credit rating ever. S&P took this action despite the plan Congress passed this past week to raise the debt limit.

The downgrade, S&P said, “reflects our opinion that the fiscal consolidation plan that Congress and the administration recently agreed to falls short of what, in our view, would be necessary to stabilize the government’s medium-term debt dynamics.”

It’s those medium- and long-term debt problems that also worry economics professor Laurence J. Kotlikoff, who served as a senior economist on President Reagan’s Council of Economic Advisers. He says the national debt, which the U.S. Treasury has accounted at about $14 trillion, is just the tip of the iceberg.

“We have all these unofficial debts that are massive compared to the official debt,” Kotlikoff tells David Greene, guest host of weekends on All Things Considered. “We’re focused just on the official debt, so we’re trying to balance the wrong books.”

Kotlikoff explains that America’s “unofficial” payment obligations — like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid benefits — jack up the debt figure substantially. Laurence J. Kotlikoff served as a senior economist on President Ronald Reagan’s Council of Economic Advisers and is a professor of economics at Boston University.

“If you add up all the promises that have been made for spending obligations, including defense expenditures, and you subtract all the taxes that we expect to collect, the difference is $211 trillion. That’s the fiscal gap,” he says. “That’s our true indebtedness.”

*** end quote ***

It’s simple. The “game” is rigged against the little guy. So why do us “little guys” still allow ourselves to be fooled?

Stupidity!

It’s like the old joke about the accountant keeping two sets of books!

“Plus shipping and handling”. Like the TV offers that are bait ‘n’ switch. The politicians and bureaucrats throw around deficit, debt, and “cuts” that cut nothing.

Time is running short.

What happens when the Chinese and the rest of the world cut us off. Credit card declined!

I didn’t realize what some unknown executives at AT&T and CSFB by making the defined pension plans fully funded separate legal entities. There was no funny business. Pensions were a sacred trust. The money was taken and invested prudently so that now I’ll get my benefit for the rest of my life.

We’ve “cheated” Social Security recipients, and various Federal and State workers. They are going to get <synonym for the past tense of the procreation act> because the contributions have been stolen by past politicians and bureaucrats to buy votes.

Argh!

We need an honest accounting. Just how bad is it? I know in the Pepuls Republik of Nu Jerzee, guvs of both parties have not funded the pensions. That’s just wrong. If a private company did that, the execs would be in jail. Why are the guvs and bureaucrats exempt?

Argh!

# – # – # – # – #

 


RANT: The sad truths of addiction; the “(pseudo) War on (some) Drugs” doesn’t help

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

http://www.xojane.com/entertainment/whitney-houston-dead

ON THE DEATH OF WHITNEY HOUSTON: Why I Won’t Ever Shut Up About My Drug Use
When Whitney died, I wasn’t surprised: women are using drugs all around you, and I’m one of them. Now why am I not allowed to talk about it again?
Cat
Feb 13, 2012 at 9:00am

*** begin quote ***

Remember Michael Jackson in his “This Is It” rehearsals? He looked good and he sounded good, and then he was getting put under anesthesia every night. Don’t you remember those horrible tapes?

It would be wonderful if we lived in a world free of drugs and drug addiction, but we don’t. In the end, the addict will die of overdose, of disease, or serious self-neglect, and half the time, you won’t even see it coming for her. So I am telling you that there are people all around you with one foot in the door—where you see them—and one foot out, where you can’t.

For a long time, it was like that for me: one foot in the door, the other out—and it could easily get there again. We all thought Whitney was better. She wasn’t.

*** end quote ***

The “(pseudo) War on (some) Drugs” distracts us from the real problem.

Legalization would allow addicts to fund their habit cheaply and allow “us” to identify them. Then, we can get them the help they need.

Triage.

While we may not be able to save everyone, we can minimize the collateral damage.

And, the accidental deaths.

# – # – # – # – #


GOLD: Asian gold theft crisis in the UK

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/jan/31/gold-theft-asian-families

The great Asian gold theft crisis
With its value at a record high, gold has never been more attractive to thieves. Now burglars with metal detectors are targeting the homes of British Asian families for their collections of high-quality ‘Indian gold’ jewellery
Emine Saner        Emine Saner        guardian.co.uk
Tuesday 31 January 2012 15.00 EST

*** begin quote ***

Five weeks ago, she came home one evening to find the door ajar. The downstairs floor of her house was relatively untouched but upstairs the bedrooms had been ransacked – drawers opened, wardrobes emptied, clothes and belongings scattered everywhere. “It was such a huge shock,” she says, sitting on the sofa, her voice breaking slightly. Her husband, Mr Rashid (neither want to give their full names), a big man sitting across the room, shakes his head. “They took it all,” he says.

The thieves who broke into this semi-detached house in Earley, near Reading, stole around £70,000-worth of gold jewellery. To those who are not from a south Asian family, it might seem remarkable to own so much valuable jewellery, but families such as the Rashids (Mr Rashid runs a small business) live in ordinary houses and are not particularly wealthy. Their gold collection – elaborate necklaces, rings, earrings and bangles – is treasure that has been handed down from generations of their families in Pakistan or bought as wedding gifts. It’s our savings, our security, says Mrs Rashid, visibly upset. If, in future, the family needed money, they would have sold some pieces. “It’s like paying a mortgage for 20 years and then having a house worth thousands of pounds afterwards – it’s the same thing with gold,” she says. “Our parents gave it to us, we would have given it to our children, they would have given it to their children,” says her husband. They tried to put their gold in the bank, but “there were no lockers available. Everyone is looking for one.”

*** end quote ***

Camouflage!

You have to not look like a victim. And, make it hard to find.

Crazy that you can’t be secure in your own home.

Tie that back to the UK’s dole, gun laws, and generally tolerant attitude towards crime.

# – # – # – # – #


RANT: YouTube behavior.

Monday, February 13, 2012

Any one notice an odd behavior from YOUTUBE? Latest Taylor Swift video was uploaded. I have YOUTUBE email me on anything new. (Yeah, old fool recapturing his youth?!) And, I received some “interesting” error messages. First was  “mobile not authorized” and second was “this video private”. But google’s cache delivered it?

Strange?

#####

Getting stuff input from an IPAD is difficult at best.

# – # – # – # – #  2012-Feb-13 @ 23:38


POLITICAL: Sarah hits a “home run” with her CPAC speech

Monday, February 13, 2012

http://bcove.me/yxrja47l (video)

http://www.buzzfeed.com/rosiegray/palin-on-obama-wtf (story)

Washington, D.C. — A few protesters mic-checked Sarah Palin’s keynote speech at CPAC today but didn’t last long. Nothing could touch Palin, who had the crowd on their feet for large portions of her speech.

The protesters in the back of the room yelled “Mic-check!” and were immediately greeted with a standing crowd — and Palin herself — chanting “USA, USA.” Security quickly whisked them out of the room.

“We just won — see how easy that is,” Palin said after they’d gone.

And at least in terms of reception, she did win today. Palin’s speech got the biggest reaction of any at CPAC — much more so than any of the presidential candidates. The audience gave her standing ovation after standing ovation and some even yelled “Run Sarah run!” — more telling of the GOP field’s inability to connect with voters than any poll.

*** end quote ***

An inspiring lady! I only agree with her on about ½ the issues, but I like her, her presentations, and her enthusiasm. And, I think she’s not a phony. Unlike the others, other than Ron Paul, who are “white men speaking with forked tongue.” Her writers really polished her message nicely with Rolling Thunder, Don’t Tread On Me, Red – White – and – Blue Americans, To Big To Bear Any More, and my favorite WTF “Win The Future” — “and, I’m the idiot”. About 35 inspiring minutes. Reminded me of RWR40 (Ronald Reagan).

# – # – # – # – #


TINFOILHAT: BHO44 “SIMPLY AMAZING”

Monday, February 13, 2012

LUDDITE forwarded this to me. But he’s “singing to the choir”.

By BHO44’s own admission, he’s inelligible to be Prez (i.e., his father was a dual citizen of UK and Kenya; hence BHO44 can’t be considered a “natural-born citizen” because his citizenship status at birth was governed by the British Nationality Act 1948.)

So this is interesting.

“We, The Sheeple” are stupid in permitting yet another insult to their Constitution. Is it any wonder that they are losing their rights?

*** begin quote ***

SIMPLY AMAZING

Isn’t it amazing that, within only one week of Tiger Woods crashing his Escalade, the press found every woman with whom Tiger has had an affair during the last few years? And, they even uncovered photos, text messages, recorded phone calls, etc.!

Furthermore, they not only know the cause of the family fight, but they even know it was a wedge from his golf bag that his wife used to break out the windows in the Escalade.  Not only that, they know which wedge! And, each & every day, they were able to continue to provide America with updates on Tiger’s sex rehab stay, his wife’s plans for divorce, as well as the dates & tournaments in which he will play.

Now, Barack Hussein Obama has been in office for three years, yet this very same press:

* Cannot find any of his childhood friends or neighbors;

* Or find any of Obama’s high school or college classmates;

* Or locate any of his college papers or grades;

* Or determine how he paid for both a Columbia & a Harvard education;

* Or discover which country issued his visa to travel to Pakistan in the 1980’s;

* Or even find Michelle Obama’s Princeton thesis on racism.

They just can’t seem to uncover any of this. Yet, the public still trusts that same press to give them the whole truth!
I find that totally amazing, don’t you?

Are you curious about our president’s background?
Or is it insignificant, in your judgement?

FYI

Some of these have been answered.WHERE ARE THE GIRLFRIENDS of OBAMA?

I hadn’t thought about this – but where are O’s past girlfriends – surely he had at least one? No past girl friends popping up anywhere? Strange – strange to the point of being downright weird!

OK, this is just plain old common sense, no political agendas for either side. Just common knowledge for citizens of a country, especially American citizens, who know every little tidbit about every other president (and their wives) that even know that Andrew Jackson’s wife smoked a corn cob pipe and was accused of adultery, or that Lincoln never went to school or Kennedy wore a back brace or Truman played the piano.

We are Americans!

Our Media vets these things out! We are known for our humanitarian interests and caring for our ‘fellow man.’ We care, but none of us knows one single humanizing fact about the history of our own president.Honestly, and this is a personal thing … but it’s bugged me for years that no one who ever dated him ever showed up. Taken his charisma, which caused the women to be drawn to him so obviously during his campaign, looks like some lady would not have missed the opportunity….

We all know about JFK’s magnetism, McCain was no monk, Palin’s courtship and even her athletic prowess were probed. Biden’s aneurisms are no secret. Look at Cheney and Clinton – we all know about their heart problems. How could I have left out Wild Bill before or during the White House?

Nope… not one lady has stepped up and said, “He was soooo shy,” or “What a great dancer!”

Now look at the rest of what we know… no classmates, not even the recorder for the Columbia class notes ever heard of him.

Who was the best man at his wedding? Start there. Check for groomsmen. Then get the footage of the graduation ceremony.
Has anyone talked to the professors? Isn’t it odd that no one is bragging that they knew him or taught him or lived with him.
When did he meet Michele and how? Are there photos? Every president provides the public with all their photos, etc. for their library. What has he released? Nada – other than what was in this so-called biography! And experts who study writing styles, etc. claim it was not O’s own words or typical of his speech patterns, etc.

Does this make any of you wonder?

Ever wonder why no one ever came forward from Obama’s past, saying they knew him, attended school with him, was his friend, etc.?  Not one person has ever come forward from his past.

This should really be a cause for great concern. Did you see the movie titled, The Manchurian Candidate?

Let’s face it. As insignificant as we all are… someone whom we went to school with remembers our name or face… someone remembers we were the clown or the dork or the brain or the quiet one or the bully or something about us.

George Stephanopoulos, ABC News, said the same thing during the 2008 campaign. Even George questions why no one has acknowledged that the president was in their classroom or ate in the same cafeteria or made impromptu speeches on campus.

Stephanopoulos was a classmate of Obama at Columbia – class of 1984.He says he never had a single class with him.Since he is such a great orator, why doesn’t anyone in Obama’s college class remember him?

And, why won’t he allow Columbia to release his records?

Do you, like millions of others, simply assume all this is explainable – even though no one can?

NOBODY REMEMBERS OBAMA AT COLUMBIA

Looking for evidence of Obama’s past, Fox News contacted 400 Columbia University students from the period when Obama claims to have been there, but not one remembers him. For example,Wayne Allyn Root was (like Obama) a political science major at Columbia, who graduated in 1983. In 2008, Root says of Obama, “I don’t know a single person at Columbia that knew him, and they all know me. I don’t have a single classmate who ever knew Barack Obama at Columbia … EVER!

Nobody recalls him.

Root adds that he was, “Class of ’83 political science, pre-law” and says, “You don’t get more exact or closer than that. Never met him in my life, don’t know anyone who ever met him.”

At our 20th class reunion five years ago, who was asked to be the speaker of the class? Me. No one ever heard of Barack!   And five years ago, nobody even knew who he was. The guy who writes the class notes, who’s kind of the, as we say in New York, ‘the macha’ who knows everybody, has yet to find a person, a human who ever met him.”
Obama’s photograph does not appear in the school’s yearbook, and Obama consistently declines requests to talk about his years at Columbia, provide school records, or provide the name of any former classmates or friends while at Columbia.

How can this be?

NOTE: Wayne Allyn Root can easily be verified. He graduated valedictorian from his high school, Thornton-Donovan School, then graduated from Columbia University in 1983 as a Political Science major in the same ’83 class in which Barack Hussein Obama states he was.

Some other interesting questions.Why was Obama’s law license inactivated in 2002?

Why was Michelle’s law license inactivated by court order?

According to the U.S. Census, there is only one Barack Obama – but 27 Social Security numbers and over 80 aliases.

WHAT!?

The Social Security number he uses now originated in Connecticut, where he is never reported to have lived.

No wonder all his records are sealed! Please continue sending this out to everyone. Somewhere, someone had to know him in school… before he “reorganized” Chicago and burst upon the scene at the 2004 Democratic Convention and made us swoon with his charm, poise, and speaking pizzazz.

One of the biggest CONS this country has ever seen, and getting away with it. Go watch the movie The Manchurian Candidate, with Lawrence Harvey ! Good movie!

FUNNY HOW HE GETS BY WITH ANYTHING— AMERICA DOESN’T CHALLENGE HIM!! SO SAD!! From now thru November 2012 this should be required weekly or at least monthly, reading BY ALL WHO VOTE!!!

Did you notice who Obama threatened when he wasn’t getting his way on raising the debt ceiling?He threatened to not pay: Social Security Retirees, Military Retirees, Social Security disability and Federal Retirees.

Now.. Let this sink in really good –

He did not threaten to stop payments to illegal aliens

He did not threaten to take frivolous benefits such as Internet access away from violent inmates

He did not offer to fire some of the thousands of unnecessary federal employees that he hired

He did not offer to cut down on his or his wife’s frivolous gallivanting around

He did not threaten to not pay the senators and representatives or any of their staff

He did not threaten to take benefits away from welfare recipients

He did not threaten the food stamp programs

He did not threaten to not pay foreign aid

He did not threaten to cut back on anything that involves his base voters. He considers these to be ‘economically critical entitlements.’The list could go on and on. He is in full political re-election mode!

Why are we allowing this person to destroy this wonderful country with his selfishness and his lies?

His type of change is killing our country. He needs to be stopped and only our votes can stop him. Do not forget about his tactics when it’s election time. Vote Obama outof the Presidency in 2012.

2012 – THE END OF AN ERROR!

Democracy… is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch.Liberty… is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote. — Benjamin Franklin

*** end quote ***

# – # – # – # – #


POLITICAL: Tony Bennett Calls For Drug Legalization

Monday, February 13, 2012

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/tony-bennett-calls-for-drug-legalization-in-wake-of-whitney-houstons-death/

Entertainment Tony Bennett Calls For Drug Legalization in Wake of Whitney Houston’s Death
Posted on February 12, 2012 at 2:47pm
by Madeleine Morgenstern

*** begin quote ***

Legendary singer Tony Bennett called for the U.S. government to legalize drugs during a tribute to Whitney Houston in the hours after her death.

“First it was Michael Jackson, then it was Amy Winehouse and now the magnificent Whitney Houston,” Bennett said. “I’d like to have every gentleman and lady in this room commit themselves to get our government to legalize drugs, so you can it from a doctor, not just some gangsters that just sell it under the table.”

*** end quote ***

How many decades have “we” been trying Prohibition?

Didn’t work for booze; won’t work for drugs. The Gooferment can’t even keep drugs out of its prisons.

Never mind that people die from “junk”.

Never mind that it corrupts our police force.

Never mind that it enriches the criminal cartels.

Let’s put WalMart in charge.

It’s guesstimated that drugs would be as cheap as aspirin. And “pure” (i.e., an adict would know what they were putting in their body.)

It’s further guesstimated that ¼ of the jails are full of non-violent addicts.

It’s estimated that ⅓  of the minority male population has a felony criminal record.

It’s destroyed the black community. (It could be argued with help from the welfare state enslaving the black community and destroying the black family with absurd rules.)

“We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.” — attributed to Einstein

“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” — attributed to Einstein

So can we try something else?

# – # – # – # – #


HARDWARE: What can you do with a $25 computer?

Sunday, February 12, 2012

http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/european-technology/raspberry-pi-how-a-25-computer-
could-spark-a-computing-revolution/123?tag=nl.e019

European Technology
Raspberry Pi: How a $25 computer could spark a computing revolution
By Nick Heath
February 9, 2012, 6:08 AM PST
Takeaway: Ultra-cheap computers like the Raspberry Pi could usher in a new wave of pervasive computing

*** begin quote ***

One of the machines at the vanguard of the low-cost computing revolution is the Raspberry Pi, a $25 Linux box that will go on sale before the end of February. Despite its budget price the Raspberry Pi still packs a punch, with the multi-media capabilities of an original Xbox console, 1080p video playback, and general processing power of a Pentium II/III. Specs-wise the credit card-sized computer is powered by a 700MHz ARM chip inside a Broadcom BCM2835 has a single USB port and 128MB of memory, with an additional $10 buying a souped-up version with two USB ports, 10/100 ethernet and 256MB of memory.

*** end quote ***

At the very least, it’ll be back to the days of Byte Magazine and hardware hacking galore. At the very least, those kids with all the time in the world will be computing savants.

Hard to imagine what it will be capable of?

Kids will probably break into two camps — 90% being the ipad Users and the other 10% will be the next hacking generation.

I’m going to buy some just to play.

This is stuff that was a dream when I was in injineering school.

p.s., I still have my slide rules. In case I have to design a bridge in TEOTWAWKI (The End Of The World As We Know It)!

# – # – # – # – #