RANT: The local liberal thinks Catholics should shut up

Sunday, February 12, 2012

http://channel-surfing.blogspot.com/2012/02/private-hospitals-are-public-facilities.html

Friday, February 10, 2012
Private hospitals are public facilities

The federal ruling that religious schools and health institutions are required to provide coverage for contraception does not violate the religious freedom of religious institutions.

While Catholic bishops throughout the country are taking to their pulpits to denounce the ruling, the reality is that the church’s decision to offer a public service to the larger public places the question in a very different context.

Catholic hospitals, like St. Peter’s in New Brunswick, serve more than just a Roman Catholic population. They serve the entire community.

In many communities, those hospitals are the only health-care facilities.

In almost all cases, the facilities get tax breaks and generally get federal money for services (Medicare, Medicaid, other health-care money).

These facilities benefit greatly from their roles as community facilities.

Given this, it is difficult to see how we can consider them private and allow religious exemptions.

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What are “public facilities”?

Is there some entity called the “public” that gambles their resources to do a thankless task? Is there a membership list for this “public” that sacrifice their own wants to be a “Good Samaritan”? Or is “the public” an imaginary construction like a “pink elephant”?

Of course, these Catholic institutions are composed of people who have First Amendment rights. And, as such, these institutions are the logical summation of all these people. Hence the “institution” has their First Amendment rights.

So the Gooferment, politicians, and bureaucrats have no authority to impose their view of morality on others.
If the Gooferment should prevail, then the Church has no choice but to shut down. Imagine Saint Peter’s is just closed. Boarded up.

Not sold; just closed.

Imagine that?

Peaceful civil disobedience. Like the apocryphal stories of good King Christian X of Denmark resisting the Nazis deportation of Jews.

Think about a world where Catholics just refuse to cooperate. MLK would be a good exemplar.

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In thinking further, if these “private hospitals” have become “public facilities”, then there is a Fifth Amendment argument to be made.

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MONEY: How can anyone not count food and gas in the CPI?

Sunday, February 12, 2012

http://www.veteranstoday.com/2012/02/05/hows-that-change-working-out-for-you

How’s that “change” working out for you?
Sunday, February 5th, 2012
Posted by Ed Mattson

*** begin quote ***

These government “number slingers” are the same bunch that tells you the Consumer Price Index increased 3.0 percent before seasonal adjustment to end 2011. Let’s see… 3% inflation. Do you really believe that? Have you been shopping lately? Have you purchased gasoline or diesel for your vehicle so you could go to work (if you still have a job)? Oh, that’s right.  THEY DON’T COUNT GAS AND FOOD IN THE INFLATION RATE!  I guess we don’t need food or gasoline.

In most families the women do most of the grocery shopping right? Men usually aren’t always up to current grocery store prices. Next time anyone talks about politics and how things are going, just ask them if they have purchased ten pounds of potatoes this past year, or stopped in at a gas station.  In 2009, 10 lbs of potatoes cost about $3.50 in Western Michigan (about $3.00 at Wal-Mart). Today the cost is over $5 any place you want to shop. Gas was $1.79/gal when Obama’s entourage slithered into Washington and today, down at the local discount gas station here in North Carolina, it’s $3.59. Is it any wonder they DON’T CALCULATE FOOD AND GAS INTO THE CPI?

*** end quote ***

Excellent point. If they did then they’d have to give a COLA to all the old folks.

It’s like the scam with ZERO interest rates by the FED. That keeps Uncle Sam’s 15T$ debt as a near zero expense.

When do “We, The Sheeple” wake up?

When does the World wake up?

You’ll know the scam is over when we have to pay for oil in gold or someone else’s national currency.

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POLITICAL: Forwarding me a “FW: KISS Concert – Patriotic” video really knotted my shorts

Saturday, February 11, 2012

On Sat, Feb 11, 2012 at 12:03 AM, LUDDITE wrote:

SUBJECT: FW: KISS Concert – Patriotic

And two inet forwards in the message:

>KISS CONCERT…. A GEM!!
>This was filmed in Iraq at a USO tour of a US Marine Base. If you believe in God and country, play it and spread it around.
>Just click below.
>
>God Bless America.

>>KISS CONCERT…. A GEM!!
>>Well, I got tears in my eyes! Who would have thought that KISS even knew the words or music to these songs!
>>No makeup and no costumes–just straight up!! It is truly worth a few minutes of your time to watch!
>>Don’t pass this one up! Kiss’ Military Salute. Some people may think that Gene Simmons & the band “KISS” were strange
>>people, but I think Gene got it right this time!This was filmed in Iraq at a USO tour of a US Marine Base. If you believe in
>>God and country, play it and spread it around. Just click below.
>>http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=5MtdIO23MKM
>>God Bless America.
>>Wow!!!!!
>>=

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SO I RESPONDED:

Properly used, I’d be as big a flag waver as the next guy. BUT, (and there is always a BIG butt), since at least WW2, the politicians have USED the military as a prop. We’re getting a lot of good girls and boys killed and maimed so that “We, The Sheeple” can feel good and sing patriotic songs and pat themselves on the back. I watched the video and looked at the faces. How many of them are dead, wounded, or destroyed by PTSD now? Vets have to tin cup on TV for Wounded Warrior to try and put the pieces back together.

Argh!

I guess I’ve finally grow up and like Dorthy keep looking behind the curtain. I keep seeing a crass manipulation of the booboisie.
Maybe I’m over reacting, but there’s now a big push to go to war with Iran. Ron Paul is painted as a crazy old coot because of his anti-war, anti-military adventurism, anti-foreign agression. And, we have chicken hawks running for office and pontificating on the boob tube advocating for war, who have never served a day in their lives. And whose children will never serve a day in their lives.
This video really put a knot in my shorts. I was at the AmLeg last night chatting with an 81 year old Korean War vet, and with both agreed that the politicians should be on the front line for this nonsense. And, they want women to have equal rights to come home in body bags.

We may not have the draft to scare kids, and the wars may look like video games, but they are just as deadly. And, like I say to old people about nursing homes, dying may not be the worst fate that can come about.

Argh!

I feel I’m a patriot because I support the troops. I want them all home today. OK that’s not practical, tomorrow. Spike the guns and, as Ron Paul says, “catch the first thing smoking heading this way”. Or something like that.

Argh! squared!!

:-(

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RANT: Home Schoolers locked out of sports

Saturday, February 11, 2012

http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/sports-authority

Sports Authority
Posted by Adam Schaeffer

*** begin quote ***

Home schooling is the most dynamic and innovative segment of K-12 education. But even with technological advances, co-ops and hybrid schooling, taking on that level of individual responsibility for a child’s education is difficult.

One particularly difficult problem for home school families in Virginia and elsewhere is competitive sports, particularly in high school.

A private non-profit organization, the Virginia High School League, governs high school sports for public schools in Virginia and determines eligibility for participation. Home-school and private-school parents pay taxes for the public schools, but their kids are banned from participating in local high school sports run through the government schools.

For private school kids, that’s not typically a major problem; they have enough students to field teams and schools for their own league. But home-schoolers, especially in rural areas, don’t have those numbers. And that means they are out of luck.

*** end quote ***

The problem isn’t the Gooferment closing home schoolers out of sports.

The problem is Gooferment Skrules, period.

In so many dimensions, the Gooferment running Skrules is wrong.

It violates the First Amendment. (I’m force to pay taxes to teach other people’s children things that both their parents and I disagree with. How immoral is that?)

Nuke the Gooferment Skrules and eliminate lots of problems.

Does ANY one think that parents would educate their children?

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POLITICAL: Women in Combat

Friday, February 10, 2012

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/02/pentagon-to-lift-some-restrictions-on-women-in-combat/

Feb 8, 2012 10:23pm
Pentagon to Lift Some Restrictions on Women in Combat
By Luis Martinez

*** begin quote ***

The Pentagon on Thursday will propose rule changes that will allow more women to formally serve in jobs closer to the front lines. 
Defense officials say as many as 14,000 positions could be opened up, though the restrictions on women serving in infantry combat units will remain in place.

The rule change reflects the ongoing reality that in a decade of war in Iraq and Afghanistan, women were already dying in combat with the blurring of the traditional definition of front lines.  Nearly 300,000 women have served in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and 144 of them have died in those conflicts.

The rule change is included in a report required by Congress as part of last year’s Defense Authorization Bill that has been overdue for months.  The new rules likely will not go into effect until the summer if Congress raises no objections to the change.

Women will still be barred from serving in infantry combat units, defense officials say, but the changes will  formally open up new positions at the combat battalion level that, until now, have been off limits.

*** end quote ***

Sorry, but I don’t see this as progress.

Men and women are not equal.

Now in Israel where there is no “front line”. I can understand the concept of women in combat. Where we have a choice, I don’t understand putting the women at risk.

Nature, the Universe, or the Creator — balances the male female balance at 1.07 to 1. So, men are slightly worth less than women. And, after doing their part in the creation of new life, men are pretty expendable. Women are OTOH are needed to nurture and raise the children.

Also, it reenforces the crassness of our society. Not, that we have to go back to the 1950’s of June Cleever, or the Sixth Century of Iran, or back when women were slaves. Equal but different.

Now as a little L libertarian, there’d be no foreign wars. We’d be like Switzerland. When the invaders hit the coastline, the militia (i.e., everybody capable of fighting) would be on the beach head fighting.

Then we can have this kind of “equality”!

imho

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MONEY: Mitt and his IRA

Friday, February 10, 2012

http://moneyland.time.com/2012/01/20/romneys-ira-big-and-possibly-misdirected/

Financial Planning
The Lessons of Mitt Romney’s IRA
By Dan Kadlec
January 20, 2012

*** begin quote ***

Mitt Romney’s IRA account is valued at tens of millions of dollars.

Mitt Romney may have made the classic IRA mistake: holding low-tax investments inside a tax-favored account. His IRA strategy isn’t clear, of course. Romney continues to guard his personal finances. But details are trickling out, and even if it turns out that Romney’s traditional IRA is built right for him, the securities he holds in it serve as a valuable reminder that not all investments belong in a tax-favored account.

Romney’s IRA is valued at between $20.7 million and $101.6 million, according to The Wall Street Journal. That’s an extremely wide range that the Journal found in Romney’s latest financial disclosure report, filed in August. His IRA produced income between $1.5 million and $8.5 million last year.

*** end quote ***

He has a tax liability of 3½M$ when he turns 70.

This was a “mistake” made twenty years ago.

Interesting to know what was the thinking going on at that time.

When the Congress first created IRAs, I was skeptical of the whole idea on betting what future politicians and bureaucrats were going to do.

I went in on it, but I’m always concerned that the “rules” will change in the future.

Recently, I advised someone to FOREGO participating in their company’s 401k because of the restricted investment choices and the high fees of those choices. I recommended nickels, bullion silver, or other such commodities.

Remember that Social Security was NEVER supposed to be subject to taxation. Then Congress changed the rules.

Who knows what these criminals will do in the future?

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RANT: BHO44’s “settlement” is a payoff to the banks in disguise

Friday, February 10, 2012

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2012/02/the-top-twelve-reasons-why-you-should-hate-the-mortgage-settlement.html

Thursday, February 9, 2012
The Top Twelve Reasons Why You Should Hate the Mortgage Settlement

*** begin quote ***

Here are the top twelve reasons why this deal stinks:

1. We’ve now set a price for forgeries and fabricating documents. It’s $2000 per loan. This is a rounding error compared to the chain of title problem these systematic practices were designed to circumvent. The cost is also trivial in comparison to the average loan, which is roughly $180k, so the settlement represents about 1% of loan balances. It is less than the price of the title insurance that banks failed to get when they transferred the loans to the trust. It is a fraction of the cost of the legal expenses when foreclosures are challenged. It’s a great deal for the banks because no one is at any of the servicers going to jail for forgery and the banks have set the upper bound of the cost of riding roughshod over 300 years of real estate law.

2. That $26 billion is actually $5 billion of bank money and the rest is your money. The mortgage principal writedowns are guaranteed to come almost entirely from securitized loans, which means from investors, which in turn means taxpayers via Fannie and Freddie, pension funds, insurers, and 401 (k)s. Refis of performing loans also reduce income to those very same investors.

3. That $5 billion divided among the big banks wouldn’t even represent a significant quarterly hit. Freddie and Fannie putbacks to the major banks have been running at that level each quarter.

4. That $20 billion actually makes bank second liens sounder, so this deal is a stealth bailout that strengthens bank balance sheets at the expense of the broader public.

*** end quote ***

How do you know when a politician is lying?

Lips move.

Did you listen to BHO44 tout this as a great accomplishment?

Argh!

Read the other 8, this blogger nails it!

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TECHNOLOGY: Strengthen All Your Passwords

Thursday, February 9, 2012

http://blog.lastpass.com/2012/02/resolutions-with-lastpass-10-strengthen.html

Feb 8, 2012
Resolutions with LastPass: #10 Strengthen Your Master Password

*** begin quote ***

For the last installment in our resolutions series, we wanted to touch upon an important aspect of using LastPass: the strength of your master password. At LastPass, we’ve always touted we’re “the last password you’ll ever need”. With only one strong password to remember and a host of customizable security options, you can let LastPass take care of the rest. So it goes without saying, then, that your LastPass master password should be strong and unique while still memorable.

*** end quote ***

Personally,

I never use (i.e., reuse) the same password anywhere. I used to use my SecureId token to generate random numeric passwords. When it died, I moved to a book code to generate passwords. Then, I generated pages of random noise with http://clsc.net/tools/random-string-generator.php as the tool.

(1) for websites that I won’t have to authenticate to manually, I let LASTPASS give me a random string that’s as long as the site allows.

(2) for websites that I will have type or tap in, I use four random words with a special characters as separators. And, I log in once from a real keyboard and let LASTPASS capture it.

(3) for bank accounts and other sites related to finances, I do the old fashioned random sentence like “wrong#sign#bridge#fall#down#nooo#partial#credit”. With a LASTPASS safe not with a reminder: “What did Doctor Zia say about a sign error? With #’s”.

I don’t trust anyone with my money. :-) Even myself.

Hope this helps?

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POLITICAL: Why doesn’t EVERY State have their own version of BND?

Thursday, February 9, 2012

http://www.vtcommons.org/blog/taking-rich-and-giving-tothe-rich

Taking from the rich and giving to…the rich
Mike Krauss

*** begin quote ***

As I reported months ago in this column, the administration is preparing legislation to provide rental assistance to those who need housing.

In other words, those who still have jobs and a home will be taxed to support “home rentership,” to make sure that the 1 percent get paid for the homes they effectively stole and will now rent back to the 99 percent.

Who will, of course, have little left in their paychecks or unemployment checks to maintain those homes rented from suburban slumlords.

Kiss your neighborhood goodbye, Morrisville and Lower Makefield. The Ozarks are moving in.

Is there an alternative. Yes.

Cities and counties from California to Michigan, Ohio, western Pennsylvania, and even nearby Reading, are moving to use public funds — the common wealth — to form partnership banks that can not only get critically needed affordable credit flowing in local economies, but can also take vacant homes by eminent domain, and work with community banks, homebuilders, skilled trade workers, realtors and housing authorities to maintain these properties and put people back in them on affordable terms as owners, and rescue their communities from the pending Obama nation.

*** end quote ***

It would seem that everyone is forgetting the “Bank of North Dakota”.

It’s unique in all the States. And, only does business with Gooferment entities. Political subdivisions MUST bank with BND. And, it has specific programs to buy assets in North Dakota. So a farmer’s mortgage may be held by the BND. So to corporate loans, mortgages, and venture capital funding.

They are in essence a one state version of the Federal Reserve working for the benefit of “We, The People”.

Surprisingly, it works and is apolitical.

Why doesn’t EVERY “State” have one of these?

Cause the Federal Reserve System would be out of business in short order!

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POLITICAL: Ron Paul is the “true conservative”

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

http://lewrockwell.com/wenzel/wenzel158.html

WaPo: The True Conservative Is Ron Paul
by Robert Wenzel

*** begin quote ***

So when WaPo says that Ron Paul is the “true conservative”, and this is what they are saying: That most conservatives are not neo-cons and that they are anti-war, small government conservatives, that is, Old Right conservatives.

*** end quote ***

The anti-war small-government candidate!

When will “We, The Sheeple” wake up?

Before it’s too late?

Hopefully.

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