GOVEROTRAGEOUS: The TSA is abusive

Thursday, August 12, 2010

http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig11/hjelm1.1.1.html

Our Stupid State Transportation Security
by Drew Hjelm
Ad Libertad

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On my way back from Mises University last Sunday, I had the opportunity to encounter the Transportation Security Administration. A week prior, I flew from Cedar Rapids. The security there is reasonable because it is a small regional airport. However, on my return trip I had to start out in Atlanta.

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And, the one big reason, I ain’t flying. The TSA.

Thanks, George Bush, for creating a massive federal intrusion into air travel. Security should be the responsibility of the airline. Another case of “socialize the costs and privatize the profits”.

Why “volunteer” to be abused?

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INTERESTING: Inet radio

Thursday, August 12, 2010

http://picocool.com/design/heritage-deluxe-table-radio-by-revo/

Heritage Deluxe Table Radio by Revo

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We’re not that happy with the typical iPod docks from Sharper Image – they’re a bit too shiny, a bit too soulless. Consider then, this Heritage Deluxe Table Radio by Revo.

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Needs to be wifi and have a “cheaper version”. It has to get in to where folks will buy it on a lark. The wifi support must allow the wifi lans to be predefined (i.e., like a hospital; home; work). Nice idea but incomplete.

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JOBSEARCH: Age Discrimination

Thursday, August 12, 2010

August 1, 2010

Jacqueline A. Berrien
Chair
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

Dear Ms. Berrien:

Not withstanding the Gross v. FBL Financial Services decision, it is STILL the consensus of most older American workers that age discrimination is rampant in today’s economy.

In my youth, I worked on the AT&T Equal Opportunity Reports. The employee, applicant, and contractor workforce demographics were parsed may different ways to demonstrate that discrimination was not be tolerated either by management action, systematic flaws, or even random chance.

Companies are a creation of the government and as such are subordinate to them. My question is why doesn’t the EEOC require all corporations over a certain size to report their demographics. If a corporation has a deficiency in a race, sex, or age pool, then there should be a de facto finding of discrimination. Now clearly there has to be some latitude for say NBA basketball teams who are deficient in short Jewish women, but I suspect that you will find that Wall Street firms are deficient in fat old white guys. As well as, a host of other corporations. To give time to adapt, you could start with a requirement on the largest ones and lower the size bar gradually to an appropriate level.

Unlike the AT&T EO Reports, this should be an electronic data exchange in XBRL. So large corporation should be able, with a minimum of overhead, supply this data directly from their payroll and personnel systems. SAP probably has a module to do it already for its European Customers.

As the Federal Government seeks to match Social Security to increasing lifespans, we as a nation have to address issue that older workers represent a too valuable asset to be “frozen out” of the employment market by de facto age discrimination. This “freeze out” is forcing 50 to 65 year olds to prematurely use their retirement savings, lose those high earning years when they are saving for their retirement. This is a double whammy. Just like the ERISA rules were necessary to stop the Aircraft industry from dumping engineers after their first five years in favor of younger cheaper engineers, so to the Commission must change the economics of discrimination. By requiring companies to report is the first step in bringing a dirty little “not so secret” secret into the daylight.

Make companies report their demographics by race, sex, and age. If they can explain it, all well and good. If not, then that’s the time for some serious conversations.

As an IT Architecture and Business Process Reengineering consultant, I know this can be done relatively quickly and cheaply. I can help or advise the Commission or its staff, at my own expense, by phone or email, anytime.

Thanks for your consideration of my input,
fjohn

Ferdinand J. Reinke
3 Tyne Court
Kendall Park, NJ 08824

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MONEY: Fan and Fred “leaking” wealth

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

http://biggovernment.com/publius/2010/08/09/freddie-mac-posts-6-billion-quarterly-loss/

Freddie Mac Posts $6 Billion Quarterly Loss by Publius

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Fannie Mae said last week it lost 3.1 billion dollars in its second quarter, and needed 1.5 billion dollars from the US Treasury to wipe out its deficit as of the end of June.

Freddie has sought more than 60 billion dollars in federal aid so far while Fannie’s bill has ballooned to more than 85 billion dollars.

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This can’t be good and needs to be addressed asap.

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LIBERTY: The pseudo “War” on (SOME) drugs

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

http://freekeene.com/2010/08/03/keenes-latest-drug-war-victims/

Keene’s Latest Drug War Victims
August 3, 2010 by Ian Freeman

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If there were no War on Drugs, drugs could be sold legally anywhere. People could go to the corner store, for instance, to buy their marijuana and other drugs. They would be manufactured safely and distributed with usage recommendations, just like aspirin. They’d also be cheap because in the regular market competition brings prices down when the distributors aren’t jacking their rates due to risk of arrest.

Since unfortunately there IS a War on Drugs, criminal thugs are frequently the only way to acquire the drugs that people are looking for. This is because criminals are the ones most willing to risk arrest to do business. Since people are going to do drugs regardless of their legal status, this puts a lot of buyers in serious danger of being ripped off, or worse. The Keene Sentinel reports on the “or worse” part of drug prohibition. When was the last time the clerk at Walgreens beat the shit out of a customer trying to buy some aspirin?

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This sparks my continued opposition to the PWOSD (“Pseudo War On Some Drugs”).

As usual, I’ll trot out my big three points: It’s immoral, ineffective, and inefficient. As with all Gooferment efforts as well as anything based on other than voluntary agreement between two or more people, it just doesn’t achieve the stated aims.

IMMORAL

Do you own your own body? If so, then NO ONE has the right to tell you what you can or can not put in your body.

A gangs of costumed people kill and maim in our name. Funded by wealth stolen from us. All under the guise of “savings us from the scourge of drugs”.

Prisons a full of minorities. Full of non-violent offenders. And, the inner cities are destroyed by the PWOSD.

INEFFECTIVE

The addiction rates have been constant over eons. How can they claim the PWOSD has any effect.

Children die from drugs cut with rat poison or drugs with unknown potency. “Illegal” drugs kill. There’s no second chance form that mistake. Legalization would put “clean” “safe” drugs out there.

Drug Lords and Terrorists are empowered by the money funneled to them by “illegal” drugs. Let WalMart put them in the poor house.

Doing “illegal” drugs has the allure of the forbidden. “Legalizing” eliminates the attraction.

INEFFICIENT

Prohibition didn’t work for alcohol; it CAN NOT work for some drugs.

The militarized police are running roughshod over the citizens’ rights.

Graft subverts the police, politicians and bureaucrats.

“Illegal” drugs should cost should be comparable to aspirin. At those prices, it should be able to hold a job while being an addict.

Money spent of punishment could be spent on rehabilitation.

AND IT JUST DOESN’T WORK

Can anyone think it does? Children tell me it’s easier for them to get pot than alcohol. How can that be? It just doesn’t work. Put WalMart, Walgreens, Duane Reade, CVS, … in charge of selling them and I’m sure they can do a great job of keeping it out of the hands of children. Prohibition doesn’t work. Ever see kids with cigarettes?

Argh!

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RANT: Where NOT get life lessons

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

http://www.pickthebrain.com/blog/10-life-lessons-learned-in-grade-school

10 Life Lessons Learned in Grade School
July 21st, 2010 by BestOnlineColleges.net

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Grade school was an impressionable time for everyone. It’s when we became immersed into a mini-society, learning valuable life lessons that have remained through adulthood. If you think about it, many comparisons can be made between life in grade school and life in the real world. For example, back then, we had to learn to coexist with our peers – for better or for worse. And for many, it has proven to be a never-ending learning process; though you’re hopefully better at it now than you were as an 8-year-old. Here are a few life lessons we learned during that fun yet trying time, when the world was fresh and we were a bit more resilient.

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I have to think about this one. But I’m sure that school was not good for me personally. I carry “scars” to this day that I’ve never gotten over.

OK, I thought it over.

  1. Don’t stand out from the crowd. (I later learned the psuedo-Chinese expression “The tallest nail gets hammered”.)
  2. Learn the rules of the game. (The stated rules of life are NOT the real rules of life.)
  3. Having the “right answer” quickly is of little value later in life. (You’re a pushy know it all.)  
  4. Your supposed friends will use you and you won’t even know it until it’s too late.
  5. Life can’t be learned from books no matter what your parent, relatives, or teachers tell you.
  6. Teachers are usually “wrong”, but won’t admit it, and may not even know it.
  7. School is poor preparation for life. It’s an artificial world that distorts your world view.
  8. There’s no substitute for TWO good loving parents; it can’t be substituted for or mailed in.
  9. You’re so dumb! (You don’t know what you don’t know. And, you don’t know how many “paths” you’re shutting off without even realizing it.)  
  10. You have to develop physical courage to stand up to bullies — no matter what costume they wear. (“They may torture my body, break my bones, even kill me, then they will have my dead body. NOT MY OBEDIENCE!” — from the movie Gandhi (1982) spoke by Ben Kingsley )

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RANT: The Gooferment! Can’t even run a website app

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/article/0,,id=102767,00.html

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Check Out Our Interview-style Application

No need to file a Form SS-4. We ask you the questions and you give us the answers. After all validations are done you will get your EIN immediately upon completion. You can then download, save, and print your EIN confirmation notice.

This EIN is your permanent number and can be used immediately for most of your business needs, including opening a bank account, applying for business licenses, and filing a tax return by mail. However, no matter how you apply (phone, fax, mail, or online), it will take up to two weeks before your EIN becomes part of the IRS’ permanent records. You must wait until this occurs before you can file an electronic return, make an electronic payment, or pass an IRS Taxpayer Identification Number matching program.

We are experiencing technical difficulties at this time and hope to have the issue resolved soon.

We apologize for an inconvenience this may cause.

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Argh!!!!!

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LIBERTY: Stefan Molyneux

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

http://freekeene.com/2010/08/05/important-video-the-sunset-of-the-state/

Stefan Molyneux (born September 24, 1966) is a Canadian blogger, essayist, author, and host of the Freedomain Radio[2] series of podcasts, living in Mississauga, Southern Ontario.

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He may be the most powerful Libertarian thinker in my time. TO envision a world without Gooferment is either loony or insightful. Either way, here’s a challenging 10 minute video that challenges the assumption of Gooferment.

Makes you think about evolution and revolution.

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INTERESTING: Constantly putting up a front is psychologically taxing; physically?

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

http://artofmanliness.com/2010/08/08/the-masks-men-wear

The Masks Men Wear by Brett & Kate McKay on August 8, 2010

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Researchers who study primates, like baboons, have learned never to tranquilize a male in front of his rivals. Once the male goes down, his competitors see the opportunity to pounce on him and will viciously attack the helpless baboon. No such problem exists when researchers tranquilize female primates. One can see then why male primates that are sick or injured will put on displays of vitality and vigor when their rival is around, only to go back to licking their wounds when once again by themselves. Biologists theorize that perhaps our human ancestors dealt with same issue-they couldn’t appear vulnerable or their rivals would see an opening, an opportunity. So our male ancestors learned to hide weakness and act tough. But constantly putting up this front can be psychologically taxing.

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So that’s why men die sooner than woman? Keeping that front up is hard work.

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RANT: The attendant was wrong, but the passenger was wronger!

Monday, August 9, 2010

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_upshot/20100809/od_yblog_upshot/jetblue-attendent-slides-down-emergency-chute-after-fight-with-passenger

JetBlue attendant slides down emergency chute after fight with passenger
By Holly Bailey

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Police arrested a JetBlue flight attendant today at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport after he got into a verbal altercation with a passenger and then fled the scene by sliding down the plane’s emergency evacuation chute.

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Excuse me! I’d suggest that they also arrest the <Expletive Deleted> passenger who set him off. And, when I was flying, the yahoos don’t give the “help” any cooperation. Sorry but I can understand the exasperation that the attendant was feeling.

I’d give him a firm slap on the wrist and send him on his way. And, I’d sentence the passenger to 30 days as an attendant. With me as a judge, I bet everyone follows the safety rules in my jurisdiction. All the other stupid rules would be rescinded immediately. Argh!

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