New York Post is running a story in today’s paper that state and local D’s are putting poll workers on the payroll with tax documents to make the unemployment rate look better than it is. Poll workers are “employed” for a training day, primary day, and election day. Then, “unemployed”. Some boost to employment numbers. But may fool the press and public enough to keep thm from voting everyone out.
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Ranting | 
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Posted by reinkefj
Criticism of Obamacare
Michael Barone
Gangster Government Stifles Criticism of Obamacare
*** begin quote ***
Sebelius objects to claims by health insurers that they are raising premiums because of increased costs imposed by the Obamacare law passed by Congress last March.
She acknowledges that many of the law’s “key protections” take effect later this month and does not deny that these impose additional costs on insurers. But she says that “according to our analysis and those of some industry and academic experts, any potential premium impact … will be minimal.”
Well, that’s reassuring. Er, except that if that’s the conclusion of “some” industry and academic experts, it’s presumably not the conclusion of all industry and academic experts, or the secretary would have said so.
*** end quote ***
First of all, as part of the Gooferment, the Health and Human Services Secretary is restrained by the First Amendment. If she feels that the Gooferment is being maligned or the public is being mislead, the Gooferment has a plethora of lawyers. In the 17 tons of diktats, surely she can find one to charge the Insurance Companies with. Fraud, defrauding consumers by raising prices while blaming the Gooferment. Perjury, get them in front of Congress, like Roger Clemens.
Second, it’s only common sense, if I’m the insurance company and I know have to cover “children to age 26” starting today, that cost has to be spread over everyone in the pool. Insurance is just sharing a small guaranteed annual loss to avoid a random gigantic one at an inopportune time. Sort of like a child’s balloon, squeeze one end and the the other end bulges. If there a million people in the pool and the risk of some one’s college kid hast be covered, then every one in the pool has to cough up one millionth of the probably cost. If you have no college age “children”, find a better pool to be in. Argh! It’s just common sense. Only the gooferment can level the pool by taking water from the “deep end” and pouring it into the shallow end.
So, the H&HSS should just shut up!
Obamacare is a disaster and no amount of jawboning insurance companies is going to change it. Argh
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Posted by reinkefj
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2010/09/east_brunswick_man_crashes_int.html
East Brunswick man is charged with drunken-driving after hitting police car en route to work
Published: Monday, September 13, 2010, 11:51 AM
Updated: Monday, September 13, 2010, 12:56 PM
Tom Haydon/The Star-Ledger
*** begin quote ***
SOUTH BRUNSWICK — A man with four prior drunk-driving convictions was arrested on the same charge Sunday after he crashed into a vehicle driven by a South Brunswick police officer heading to work, authorities said.
*** end quote ***
As a little L libertarian, I think the the DWI laws are: dumb, poorly enforced, and do little to protect innocent people who share the roads.
I don’t believe in the one size fits all law that tries to use a number as the criteria for enforcement.
First of all, people are different. Their tolerance of alcohol is hugely different. I know guys and gals, who after a drink or two, shouldn’t be allowed to operate anything from a car to a cell phone. I know others, who can down prodigious amounts of beer and go on and win parlor games of strategy, dexterity, and / or concentration.
Giving the police more power to enforce an arbitrary law is an invitation to sexual / racial harassment, favoritism, and abuse. The TV commercial, aka a PSA, that shows uniformed officers stopping every car and demanding “have you been drinking tonight”, is “show us your papers”.
That being said, if one causes an “accident” that results in damage, or –heaven forbid — injury or death, then those questions and physical testing is not only appropriate, but mandatory. And, it should NOT be called an “accident”. It should be called exactly what it is “assault with a deadly weapon”. Anyone, who uses a tool, any tool, be it a car or a gun, while under the influence of any chemical, is reckless. Should damage or injury occur from reckless behavior then that is a foreseeable consequence of the choices that were made.
Choices have consequences!
So the “DWI” law needs to be tuned. There has to be an accident, injury, or death to initiate an arrest.
Also, the current tolerance that politicians and bureaucrats have for multiple DWI convictions is completely insane.
In the cited example, the man has FOUR convictions. And, he is driving? He has outstanding warrants.
I can understand some leniency for a first conviction where there is damage but no personal injury. It should be more than a slap on the wrist, but less than incarceration. A second conviction, or injury in a first conviction, demands that civil society be protected from someone who is obviously not fit to be trust to behave reasonably towards the society. A third or fourth should trigger longer “adult time outs”.
Never mind “punishment” or “rehabilitation”. We need “protection”. Someone convicted of this new tougher DWI law should be isolated and prevented from harming innocents.
Four convictions? A decade of protection might be prudent.
Cars are too ubiquitous. A convicted felon, who has served their time out, must be allowed to drive. But, as a condition of their readmission to civil society and license to share the public roads, might be required to agree to spot checks. A special license plate for those with multiple convictions, like four, would encourage police to stop and check their sobriety. A special drivers license for those with one conviction would alert police to check sobriety, if stopped for a traffic violation. In either case, it self-preservation to check those, that have forfeit their rights by harming and further endangering others.
In summary:
(1) No spot checks on drivers who have not offended in the past.
(2) Harsh treatment for whose cause damage or injury.
(3) Longer “time outs” for multiple offenders.
(4) Aggressive enforcement on multiple offenders.
Note: I oppose the Psuedo War On Some Drugs. I don’t care what my fellow Americans put in their bodies. As long as I don’t have to pay for their care. But an impaired driver, who causes harm, should be treated the same. Regardless of their chemical of choice.
imho.
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Leave a Comment » | Political | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
*** begin quote ***
People who live in the in the Crestmoore neighborhood told reporters thay had complained to Pacific Gas and Electric about the smell of gas in the area and wondered why the utility had apparently not done anything about it. Late Friday, the California Public Utilities Commission established a toll-free number and an email address for anyone who has information on a natural gas smell in the San Bruno area in the weeks before Sept. 9 explosion.
*** end quote ***
How many of us, if we smelled gas, would activate our GOOD plan? Sounds like nine people have paid the ultimate price for complacency. Complain to the Gas Company, or other quasi-Gooferment bureaucrats doesn’t help those 9 people. Clearly, before every other skill, one must have situational awareness. imho!
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Posted by reinkefj
“Money is a matter of functions four, a medium, a measure, a standard, a store.” He repeated that four times like poetry. “Six Characters in Money: Portable – Durable – Divisible – Uniformity – Limited Supply – Acceptability.” CHURCH 10●19●62 (Vol 1) 978-0-557-08387-9 page 110
I’ve changed my mind. Our biggest problem is NOT the Gooferment. It’s a big problem, but not our biggest. Our problem, my problem, is that we have accepted the Gooferment’s definition of money. The definition of what we will accept.
The Federal Reserve Note originates in a secret banking monopoly, called the Federal Reserve Bank. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Reserve_System> It was created in 1913 by the two rival banking giants. And, we have been the losers for it. BTW the Federal Reserve Bank is not “federal”, doesn’t “reserve” anything, and is not a “bank” in any meaningful sense.
Through miseducation and propaganda, they have deluded us into thinking that what were once glorified “dry cleaner receipts” for gold and silver are really just funny green rags. Mostly cotton, they have for the most part “dead presidents” on them and, other than artistic value, they have no value. The only value they do have is that other deluded fools will give you “stuff” (e.g., food, drink, gasoline, clothing, bullets, band aids) for them. Talk about “The Emperor’s New Clothes”?
Imagine a football game played on a 100 yard field. Each year the lines were repainted a little closer because some bureaucrats somewhere redefined a “yard” as some random percentage less. Since 1913, a “yard”, OK call it a “dollar” has been silently redefined to what is now 95% less. So what is a “dollar”. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dollar> Quote from wikipedia: “Count Hieronymus Schlick of Bohemia began minting coins known as Joachimsthaler, named for Joachimstal (modern Jáchymov in the Czech Republic), where the silver was mined.”
So, how can it be a “measure”? Measure of what? If I have ten pounds of apples, there is general agreement of what constitutes an “apple”. I can say 5# of apples is more that 4# of apples. Apply that to dollars? There’s no agreement as to what constitutes a dollar. It caries over time.
So, how can it be a “standard”? It’s purchasing power varies over time (i.e., decreases due to inflation). Some standard!
So how can it be a “store”? Put that dollar in your pocket for a year and see how you make out.
P.S.: If you have a Morgan Silver dollar (24.057 grams 0.848585703 ounces $16.86 cents), it’s worth between $30 and $66,000 Federal Reserve Notes. Why is that?
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Leave a Comment » | MONEY | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
http://dailyreckoning.com/if-gold-were-money-again
*** begin quote ***
In his short but trenchant analysis in 1994 of fractional reserve banking, The Case Against the Fed, Murray Rothbard laid out another methodology for establishing an benchmark price of gold based upon liquidation value of the Federal Reserve. For perspective, in 1994 gold closed the year at $384/ounce, while the broadest measure of money having been printed in the United States (M3) stood at $4.4 trillion, or only 31 percent of its 2008 quantity. When he performed this exercise using the balance sheet of April 6, 1994, he calculated that shutting down the Federal Reserve and distributing gold bullion to its creditors would reset the dollar’s value to $ 1,555 per ounce.
*** end quote ***
If it were, we could be sure that the Gooferment was not plundering us by the invisible taxation of inflation. And, none of this deficit nonsense, if they want to spend it then we have to pay for it. Remember the Spanish American cell phone tax! At least, our forefathers had the stones to pay the bills for what they wanted done and not leave an I_O_China for our progeny to pay off.
Argh!
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Leave a Comment » | GOLDBUG | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
“Anything you really want, you can attain, if you really go after it.”
–Wayne Dyer
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Leave a Comment » | Quotes | Tagged: Quotes | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
http://www.lewrockwell.com/luongo/luongo12.1.html
How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Respect the Chicken
by Thomas Luongo
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To me, the history of humanity can be summed up thusly. There once was a group of people living peacefully until some jackass decided that because he controlled a resource he had leverage over them and thought it a good idea to enslave them to his control. That attempt to control can be rendered moot by vacating that place, which some members of the group did. However, they can only do so if they have the means to sustain themselves. Well, to me, the chicken and the goat represent the two animals that give you the best chance at survival on your own. Both can turn low-quality land into high-quality food and other resources. Both can work with a nomadic group. Cows can’t do that, neither can sheep. Horses provide work and transport once you have become established in a place. They all need high-quality land to survive, no less thrive. But, the chicken and the goat, well, to me, they just scream liberty in a way that few others can1. The Free State Project missed the boat on their choice of mascot. My choice to raise these animals is on the one hand accidental (the chicken) and on the other planned (the goat) but both represent the life I want as well as the world I want to live in. They form the foundation while the others provide the super-structure.
*** end quote ***
Chickens and goats in a survival situation.
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Posted by reinkefj
http://www.keywestlou.com/2010/09/day-of-remembrance.html
*** begin quote ***
Then there is this minister who wants to burn the Quran. In poor taste, also. But…..the Muslims burn my flag and hang my President in effigy. So why not!
*** end quote ***
A few reasons why not:
(1) This is America and we have religious tolerance. It affords us a measure of peace that is not enjoyed elsewhere. We don’t need to import that problem. Especially not due to the action of some pastor of a no name Church with 30 members.
(2) When teams go into a game, you don’t give your opponent “bulletin board” material. Stuff to motivate them to strive harder. Our boys and girls, some mere children, are in <Expletive Deleted> harm’s way and this bozo is making it more dangerous. I’d think every vet in his vicinity would explain the facts of life to him. With or without tar and feathers as necessary.
(3) There probably is no more stupid act than to burn a book. Any book. It represents the DNA of humanity. Even it’s totally wrong (i.e., the Earth is flat); it’s important in it shows the errors in our thinking at that point in time. Too much dikw (i.e., data, information, knowledge, wisdom) is lost; we don’t need to make it an acceptable activity. Ever. Besides isn’t that what Nazis do?
(4) If he wants to burn something, try a politician. (Just joking, I’m a Right to Life fellow who abhors the death penalty.) Not only did the Gooferment fail to protect 4,000 Americans on 9/11, they have failed to lead us. I blogged today how we should have had a national priority to rebuild the twin towers with an extra ‘middle finger” building in the middle, that was one story taller than the old buildings, and align it to face the Middle East. (I’m a little L libertarian; not a pacifist. I don’t start fights; I finish them!)
So we should tell this bozo to put a cork in his gas can. And, if someone overseas wants to burn the President in effigy, we should send them some more effigies of other “political leaders” to throw on the pyre. Saves us the gas.
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Posted by reinkefj
http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=6105570
Ground Zero Memorial Service: 9th Anniversary of Terror Attacks
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I empathize with the 9/11 families. I think the 9/11 responders got screwed. I would hope that we can do better in the future.
I blame the political leadership.
We should have the WTC rebuilt in record setting time. Any bully knocks you down, you jump back up and get in the fight. I would, if I was “King”, have selected the three tower design with a larger middle tower that was exactly one foot taller. And. I’d have “faced” it towards the Middle East.
Also if I was “King” I’d have bought every “first responder” a Gooferment employee health insurance plan. And, I’d have ensured that all the families were appropriately compensated for this colossal Gooferment failure. The Gooferment has only one job and that’s to protect us from force or fraud. They failed miserably.
Now, I’d be looking at the kooks who want to burn books or build mosques to mark the conquest. Isn’t that out of the Nazi playbook? The Gooferment has NO role telling them what they can and can’t do with respect to religion. But this is about PR. And, yes, in foreign countries they burn stuff. We’re not responsible for that. But I would “encourage” my fellow citizens to express their opinions to these kooks. I’d proved police protection from bullets to them. However if unorganized citizens want to deliver a load of “barbara streisand” to them, I’d step aside and let the free market operate. Where are these poeples’ relatives and neighbors? (BTW what union iron worker is going to build that mosque?)
BUT, politicians can spare me the faux sympathy and ersatz patriotism.
They failed in their duty because they were too busy jerking around playing political games.
A pox on them.
GBA!
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Leave a Comment » | Ranting | 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
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