LIBERTY: A steroid policy? … here’s an idea. End the drug war now!

Thursday, June 1, 2006

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=16691777&BRD=1091&PAG=461&dept_id=425723&rfi=6

The South Brunswick Post
EDITORIAL
05/25/2006
Don't base steroid policy solely on test.

***Begin Quote***

The state and the athletic association that oversees high school sports competition want to keep steroids out of high school sports.

They will begin testing athletes who reach state championship games for a variety of performance-enhancing drugs. Under the new state policy, which received unanimous approval from the executive board of the New Jersey Interscholastic Athletic Association, 5 percent of championship-level athletes would be tested beginning in the fall. The tests would take place following championship-round games. Athletes found using steroids would be suspended for a year.
 
***End Quote***

Added: Thursday June 01, 2006
End the drug war now!

I can't think of a more intrusive demeaning thing that can be done to young people than the pee in the cup test.

It is a violation of human dignity.

People will always do dumb things. The dumbest is to think that the collective "we" can prevent people from doing what we consider "dumb things". When we allow this nonsense, human beings will demonstrate just how adaptable they are. You watch at the ways to evade, avoid, cheat, and otherwise take this "noble idea" and turn it into a joke. I recently read you can not only buy "clean" urine on the net. But you can also buy an appliance to make it look like its yours to the casual observer.

Where there is a will there is a way!

Keep on coming up with "dumb" ideas and crafty people will figure out a way around it.

End the drug war now! "We" lost.

Like most "wars", aka drugs, poverty, hunger, vietnam, terror, we lose! Stop them now!

f reinke, kendall park, nj


LIBERTY: State Department should “png” Zimbabwe leadership and diplomats!

Thursday, June 1, 2006

http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGAFR460082006

***Begin Quote***

In May 2005 the government of Zimbabwe embarked on Operation Murambatsvina (Restore Order), a programme of mass forced evictions and the demolition of homes and informal businesses. The operation, which was carried out in winter and against a backdrop of severe food shortages, targeted poor urban and peri-urban areas countrywide.
***End Quote***

In the sense of fair play, and "what is good for the goose is good for the gander", I would suggest that the US State Department declare any Zimbabwe diplomats persona non grata. Further we should give them 24 hours to clear out. Then the next day, bulldoze the embassy.

At the very least, all the leadership should be "png" and barred from visiting the US. All bank accounts should be frozen pending litigation from those 700k people who might want to be compensated for their losses.

imho

It takes a gubamint to oppress the people! 


LIBERTY: The “medicare drug benefit” has “some” unintended consequences!

Wednesday, May 31, 2006

Now I know that this will come as a complete shock to you …

… shocked a la Casablanca … 

… … … I am “shocked”. (Trying to do my best Claude Rains as Captain Renault “I'm shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!” in Casablanca imitation.) 

Here are some docs that say:

"Unintended Consequences of Caps on Medicare Drug Benefits"
http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/354/22/2349  

***Begin Quote***

Conclusions A cap on drug benefits was associated with lower drug consumption and unfavorable clinical outcomes. In patients with chronic disease, the cap was associated with poorer adherence to drug therapy and poorer control of blood pressure, lipid levels, and glucose levels. The savings in drug costs from the cap were offset by increases in the costs of hospitalization and emergency department care.
***End Quote***

Translation: Another gubamint program that (cribbing from the Five Iron Laws of Big Government): 1. doesn't work but never end!; 2. makes things worse for the people to be helped; 3. UIC (aka Un Intended Consequences); 4. costly and wasteful and under estimated; 5. diverts money and energy from other positive, productive uses! 

AND, it actually puts the country deeper in debt, marches us further down the road to socialism, and enshrines yet another benefit that can't never be taken back!

Guess we win the negative pick 6! 


LIBERTY: Druge alerts “STATES WARN RESIDENTS: YOU’RE ON YOUR OWN” … … this is a surprise?!

Wednesday, May 31, 2006

http://tinyurl.com/rgukp

May 31, 2006
As Hurricane Season Looms, States Aim to Scare
By ABBY GOODNOUGH

***Begin Quote***

This save-yourselves approach comes after government agencies were overwhelmed by pleas for help after last year's storms and strongly criticized as not responding swiftly or thoroughly enough to the public need. Now, officials have said repeatedly, only the elderly, the poor and the disabled should count on the government to help them escape a hurricane or endure its immediate aftermath.

Mississippi, where more than 200 residents died in Hurricane Katrina, unrolled a "Stay Alert. Stay Alive" hurricane awareness campaign in April. State officials told residents what to pack in a "go-kit" for evacuating (flashlight, radio, nonelectric can opener) and, like many others, commanded them to stockpile at least three days' worth of water and food.

***End Quote***

And, we pay all those high taxes for the gummamint's "protection and services"? Hmm, maybe if we didn't have to pay so much for those services we don't get, didn't want, and can't get, then we have enough to take care of ourselves, our families, and our neighbors. Do you think maybe the problem is NOT with the people but with the promises that you have made for these taxes?

Sigh!

Wake up folks you are ALWAYS on your own. You may get help. But it will come from your family, your friends, and your neighbors. Any help you get from government should be regarded as just dumb luck! And, you can bet there will be strings attached.


LIBERTY: Do the right thing regardless of the personal cost!

Wednesday, May 31, 2006

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/05/31/eveningnews/printable1670573.shtml

Hero Quietly Did The Right Thing
WASHINGTON, May 30, 2006(CBS)

***Begin Quote***

Hiram Bingham IV was U.S. vice consul in Marseilles, France, as Hitler began leaving his imprint across Europe. Even though he wasn't supposed to, he issued thousands of U.S. visas to Jews, allowing them to escape.

It wasn't good for his career.

But Bingham knew what he thought was right. And he did it. Quietly, but his actions nonetheless did not go unnoticed.

The visas issued without permission in 1940 got Bingham bounced from his job in 1941 and derailed what had been a promising career track in diplomacy for Bingham, who came from a prominent family: a father who was a Senator and Governor, a Tiffany heiress mother, and a grandfather and great-grandfather who were the first missionaries to Hawaii.

CBS News correspondent Wyatt Andrews reports Bingham said little about what he had done and his own family did not realize the scope of things until after his death in 1988, when they found the records he'd kept – hidden in the house.

Bingham's heroism was recognized posthumously in 2002, and Tuesday, a dream came true for his children as the U.S. Postal Service unveiled a stamp in Bingham's honor.

Elly Sherman – who was lined up with her family and other Jews outside the U.S. consultate in Marseilles, where they were saved by Bingham – doesn't need a stamp to jog her memory.

"My mother kept this document," said Sherman, pointing to the long-ago paperwork that allowed her family to flee as the Nazis marched forward into France.

Sherman's family, at the time the visas were issued, had already received an order to report to a concentration camp within two days.

And it was those two days which were the last two days that Hiram Bingham was still the vice consul in Marseilles – handing out visas to people who were not supposed to get them.

They weren't supposed to – because in 1940, it wasn't American policy to use visas to rescue Jews in danger because of the Nazis.

In comments recorded by his granddaughter, Bingham recalled being ordered to stop.

"My boss," Bingham recalled, "said 'The Germans are going to win the war. Why should we do anything to offend them?'"

But Bingham kept writing visa after visa, saving life after life. Among the many he saved were artist Marc Chagall, philosopher Hannah Arendt – and hundreds of Elly Shermans.

***End Quote***

Without a doubt, this fellow was a humanitarian. This story should be on the wall at the "employee entrance" of every embassy. Further, if I was the Secretary of State, then I'd create the "Bingham Award" for the employee who best exemplifies this value.


LIBERTY: The War on Drugs is generous to drug addicts and punitive to all others … … UI?

Tuesday, May 30, 2006

http://www.mises.org/story/2174

The Egregiously Destructive War on Drugs
by Gennady Stolyarov II
[Posted on Tuesday, May 30, 2006]

***Begin Quote***

The War on Drugs is generous to drug addicts and punitive to all others; the drug addicts are arrested at others' expense and given "free" food and "free" lodging at government prisons — free to the imprisoned, that is, but paid for by the taxpayers. Why should moral people pay to sustain others for those others' immoral conduct? Why should the drug addicts be given state handouts and be spared the requirement to earn their own living on the free market? Prison conditions may be miserable, but they are granted to the drug addicts automatically — as a taxpayer-funded gift for having broken a silly law. Why should drug addicts deserve even poor-quality food and shelter for ruining their lives?

***End Quote***

Here's a interesting view of Prohibition Version 2.0 now being "waged" on Drugs Other Than Alcohol And Nicotine.

See alcohol and nicotine are "good" drugs. All the other illegal drugs are "bad" drugs.

Understand the distinction?

If yes, explain it to me. If no, look for the politician responsible!


LIBERTY: Free to petition your government for the redress of grevances … … watch what you get back!

Tuesday, May 30, 2006

 

—–Original Message—–

From: reinkefj
Sent: Friday, May 19, 2006 10:05 AM
To: SenInverso@njleg.org; AsmBaroni@njleg.org; AswGreenstein@njleg.org
Category: EDUCATION – FINANCE

Subject: Reduce aid to higher education

Please reduce state aid to education to zero. It will actually improve education for the following reasons:

(1) Schools will have to respond to their true customers (i.e., the students and the people who pay the bills).

(2) The cost of education will rise and fall based on demand and benefit without the State's involvement.

(3) If you cut aid, you can give me back my money. If I think that a school "deserves" that money, then I'll give it to them. If lots of my fellow taxpayers, do the same then that is different than you forcing me to do it.

(4) Perhaps without the artifical support of government some schools will go out of business. That's good. We obviously didn't need them.

Basically, free the taxpayer from supporting what politicians think is important. If it truly is important, then we can do it on our own.

Mr. Ferdinand Reinke
Kendall park, NJ 08824

==

From: Senator Peter A. Inverso, R., NJ Legislative District 14 
Sent: Tuesday, May 30, 2006 10:25 AM
To: reinkefj
Subject: RE: Reduce aid to higher education

Mr. Reinke:

This is to acknowledge that our office received your E-mail on May 19th.

We will share your concerns with the Senator.

Sincerely,

Jim Hansbury
Legislative Aide
Senator Peter A. Inverso, District 14

==

Yup, I can just hear it now. "Senator, listen to what this wacko wants. His money back!" followed by a group laugh.

I'm sure the French Aristocrats laughed too when Marie said "let them eat cake"! 


LIBERTY: The FDA “protects” the sheep … … right into skin cancer!

Tuesday, May 30, 2006

http://abcnews.go.com/2020/Health/story?id=858453&page=2

Why Is the Best Sunscreen Blocked by FDA?
America Denied Sun Shield That Other Countries Enjoy
John Stossel
***Begin Quote***
June 17, 2005 — We think of July and August as the peak of summer, but when it comes to sunburn, now is the peak. Next Tuesday, June 21st, is the longest day of the year, when the sun is highest in the sky, so it's now that the sun does the most damage.
{extraneous deleted}
But even though dermatologists say Mexoryl is the best, you cannot legally buy it in the United States. It's illegal, because the Food and Drug Administration won't approve it. They won't even say why. The FDA is charged with making sure no drug is sold unless the government is convinced it's safe and effective. Dermatologists think it's just stuck in the bureaucracy. It routinely takes 12 to 15 years for a drug to get approval. After an approved drug — Vioxx, for example — gets bad publicity as a health risk, the FDA gets particularly cautious.
{extraneous deleted}
Everyone is always telling us, protect yourself from the sun, but then the government won't give us permission to have the best sunscreen?
Give me a break.  
***End Quote***
I was tipped to this article. That aside. (Note to self: put Stossel on a internet watch service!)

FDA "protecting" us, like a good Mommy Government agency should. After all we are to dumb to choose what to put in or on ourselves.

Wake up sheep! 

Close all those Three, Four, and Five Letter Agencies! Then we'll work on the "big words" like freedom, liberty, and limited government.


LIBERTY: Pope Benedict XVI visited the Auschwitz … … teaching us we are all “Jews”!

Monday, May 29, 2006

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20060528/D8HT21CO0.html

Pope: How Could God 'Tolerate' Holocaust?
May 28, 6:13 PM (ET)
By VICTOR L. SIMPSON
***Begin Quote***

(AP) Pope Benedict XVI prays in front of the memorial plaques at the former Nazi Death Camp Birkenau, in…

OSWIECIM, Poland (AP) – Pope Benedict XVI visited the Auschwitz concentration camp as "a son of the German people" Sunday and asked God why he remained silent during the "unprecedented mass crimes" of the Holocaust.
***End Quote***

There are two lessons in this story. 

One thing we should learn from the Pope's visit is that we have to consider ourselves "Jews", or "Mexicans", or "Black"! Or "green with yellow stripes" if that is what the current scape-dog class of human being is. We have to be like the legend of the Danish King wearing the yellow star. Didn't happen, but it should have happened. Or the non-Muslim woman wearing the Muslim head scarf. http://www.paloaltoonline.com/weekly/morgue/2001/2001_10_03.scarf.html 

 The other thing is that the only a government can commit a genocide.


LIBERTY: How to end the gummamint skoolz … … with a transition plan!

Sunday, May 28, 2006

We start with basic principles:

(1) It took us a long time to get into this mess. It will take us decades to get out.

(2) People have built their lives around the gummamint skoolz and need time to readjust to a free market.

(3) The new innovative private schools will need time to form, adapt, and adjust.

The vision is that the gummamint no longer runs or pays for skoolz. There are a host of reasons but the five big one are (a) it's not fair to steal from some people to educate other people's children; (b) the gummamint teaches stuff that are antithetical to the parent's beliefs; (c) the skoolz train the children that the gummamint is a God; (d) the gummamint skoolz are expensive, corrupt, and corrosive; (e) the gummamint does a very poor job of educating.

A free market in education will address all these problems by putting parent back in control of raising their children as they see fit. This means that we have to be ready to squelch a lot of hot air and stop trying to control people. We had freedom in this country before and we can have it again.

Let's assume that we need 4 decades to free our children from the specter of a poor gummamint education. If I was king, how would I do it?

For the first two decades, I would free about 5% of the children every year from the gummamint. This would allow the private sector to grown and the gummamint skoolz to wither. For the last two decades, I would reduce the subsidy of education 5% each year. See how nicely that works out. In the first two decades, the free market grows strong. In the second two decades, we wean the new industry off the gummamint ninny. At the end of forty years, we have solved the problem with a minimum of dislocation and maximized freedom.

Now lets examine the first two decades. We have some opportunities that have to be addressed. In the preparation for for Year  Zero, we have to address the existing gummamint skoolz, the people who work their now, the gummamint running it, the parents, and finally the students. Let's start in reverse order.

Dear Students: The State apologizes for making you the guinea pigs in a national experiment with gumammint skoolz. You will have to know that our transition plan will only help you a little bit. Rome wasn't built in a day. Hopefully the younger of you will benefit. The older will just have to be satisfied that when you are in the workforce you will no longer be burdened with this monster.

Dear Parents: The State is going to give you in NJ a 12k$ check to buy your child's education. Now before you go picking private schools, be advised that initially all checks will be RED. That means you have to redeem them at your local school. Every year for the next 20 years, the State is going to run a lottery. In this lottery, every child will be entered. Each year, 5% of the tickets drawn will result in that child getting a GREEN check. Those of you with a green check can spend that anywhere you want for your children's education. During these two decades, we will be licensing schools to accept green checks. Be advise the criteria for licensing will be financial stability NOT educational merit.  

Dear Teachers and Administrators: The State is getting out of the education business. It is great opportunity for you to deliver quality education while becoming an owner in your own business.

Dear Teacher's Union: The State is getting out of education. You should see if your members wish to participate in the brave new frontier of education. You as the union could seek to become a certified vendor of education in the state. In twenty years, there will no longer be any state employees in education. We urge you to plan accordingly.

Dear Taxpayer: Relief is on the way.

=== Notes about the first two decades ===

In the first "get ready" year, every child will get a "booklet" of 12 RED checks. It would be a twelve post dated checks to the first of each month. The gummanmint skoolz will take that red check booklet and redeem them monthly for their funding. This will begin simulating the buyer – seller relationship. Unlike today, the skoolz administrator and teacher have to get that red check from each parent. That should lead to some interesting conversations. The check has no value other than to get the process started.

Administrators and teachers are smart people. We don't necessarily want to lose them but we need to change the dynamics. Each skoolz will be "incorporated" with the existing people and assets. Let's call it the First Generic Neighborhood Skoolz. Two classes of stock will be issued to create the corporation with a twenty year lockup. Each worker in each FGNS will receive one hundred shares for each hundred dollars of their gross salary. They are now owners! Each municipality will give a long term lease to the assets in the skoolz to the FGNS in exchange for the Class B shares and a lien. Based of the free market value of the assets leased, the municipality receives one hundred shares for every hundred dollars of assets. In year zero, nothing trades. After that, everyone is free. The municipality releases the lien as the FGNS redeems its Class B shares.

The Government will transform into a referee. It's role is to certify the financial stability of those who seek to redeem RED CHECKS. Those entities have to post a performance bond to ensure that they deliver on promises. Just like any other government contract.

Year zero runs for a year, or two, to get the bugs out of the process. Then the "fun" begins.

Each year, for the next twenty, %5 percent of the children selected at random "go green". The parents receive a green check booklet that they can use at any approved vendor to buy an education for their child. They are the boss.

Each new child coming into the system will participate in an entry lottery. The appropriate percentage will be given green status. For example, in year 5, 25% are green. In year 15, 75% are green. Once a incoming child goes "green", they are green forever. If they are red, they may become green in a subsequent year. So the FGNS has a naturally declining population of "guaranteed customers". Guess they will be motivated to capture some of those "green kids".

Notice that inner cities skoolz are "interesting" in that they have a large number of "customers" in a single big group. Think there will be interest in running inner city schools?

=== Notes about the second two decades ===

We have now completely privatized education. Now we have to transition from a taxpayer pay to a parent pay.

Let's assume that we held the line an education checks are 12k$ per year. For the next twenty years, we will reduce the education check 5% per year. In twenty years, we will be out of using tax money to pay for education.

====

Comments?

 


LIBERTY: How to End the Statist-Collectivist Mass Delusion … … do something!

Sunday, May 28, 2006

http://jeffersonianlib.blogspot.com/2006/05/leftright-statist-collectivist-mass.html 

***Begin Quote***

How do we end this mass delusion and free the American people? First,we must be militant, radical and uncomprimising. No apologies for libertarian ideas or beliefs.
We must use the arts of propaganda, elections, and public issues to get the libertarian message out to the masses. We must reject and distinguish ourselves from conservatives. Libertarians are mistakenly considered conservatives. We are not anything of the sort. Libertarianism is radical, conservativism is not. Conservatism is a stagnant, rotten and corrupt statist delusion. We also must oppose the Left with more frequency. We must expose their hateful ideals of group identification, group catagorization, class warfare, anti-traditionalist statist agenda. We must defend free enterprise against statists, both right and left. One way is to expose the frauds of GATT, NAFTA,FTAA, and the WTO. These statist treaties are not free trade, but are statist government managed trade. We must also oppose all taxes, at all levels, all regulations, and all new laws designed to infringe on the right of people to live their lives as they see fit. We must show people the evils of empire and imperialism. We must point out the benefits of a Jeffersonian foreign policy of "Stategic Neutrality" and peace. All foreign wars must be opposed and all American troops brought home. We must show the American people that your life belongs to you and no one else! Without the right to own, control and manage your own property, you become a slave. Without the right to live your personal life by your own morals ( without infringing on the right of others to do the same), you are a slave. Without the right to be free of tyrannical laws and government, you are a slave. Without the right to associate or not associate with any one you choose, you are a slave. The worst type of slavery is the slavery of the mind. This type of slavery perpetuates the Left/ Right Statist Collectivist Mass Delusion. It is the type of slavery where you continue to think your free, but you are really in bondage.

Reject the slave mentality! Reject the idea that you exist to serve you "betters" in the Left/ Right Statist Collectivist Mass Delusion. Embrace radical libertarianism, and free the world. 

***End Quote***

Hmmm! Well, it's certainly not by writing long glumps of text.

We have to "DO" something.

My personal three targets remain:

(1) the fiat currency because it gives the gummamint a hidden tax to take all they want;

(2) the gummamint skoolz because they dumb down the future and train kids in socialism; and

(3) the gummamint's erosion of our rights by further inserting themselves into new areas.

How do we do that?

Ridicule them and their ideas. I don't think they take be made to look foolish well. And, people will say to themselves "well that's dumb". Every time that happens they lose a little of their power.

What have I done in the last thirty days to advance liberty?

(a) Chatted about the Spanish American War tax on cell phones to anyone who would listen.

(b) Expressed amazement everytime people give me stuff for "pretty little green presidential paintings" every time a buy somethings.

(c) Asked every parent if they wouldn't like to send their child to a private school instead of the government propaganda center.

While I often get looked at strangely, I don't get people saying "wow that's how to pay for a war", "yup those paintins r real pretty", or "no those zkoolz r gud nuff".

I think we have to "put a pebble in people's shoes" about just how much they want freedom. 


LIBERTY: How organs should be distributed? Not by the government!

Saturday, May 27, 2006

http://lifesharers.blogspot.com/2006/05/lifesharers-is-not-discriminatory.html

***Begin Quote***

Anyone can join LifeSharers. Membership is free. We welcome everyone, and we turn no one away. Can someone please tell me what is discriminatory about that?
***End Quote***

http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/14659413.htm

Organ donation club called discriminatory
By MELISSA SÁNCHEZ
STAR-TELEGRAM STAFF WRITER
***Begin Quote***

But this approach raises ethical questions about how organs should be distributed. The need for donors is overwhelming. In January and February, 4,508 transplants were performed in the U.S., but more than 92,000 people are on the approved federal waiting list.
***End Quote***

By whom? I read this article several times and I can't see who is call it "discriminatory". Is it the reporter?

Walter Williams, my favorite economic professor, wrote the definitive solution:

http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/williams091198.html

***Begin Quote***

Transplantable organ shortages would disappear overnight if people were permitted to sell organs. You say, "Williams, people shouldn't make money selling organs!" I say, "Why not? Everybody else is making money on the deal."

*** AND***

The fact of life is that there must be some way to decide which sick person gets an organ. One way to decide is to have a government mandate whereby the most critically ill gets first priority. That could result in waste because a not-so-critically-ill person has a greater chance of survival and a smaller chance of needing another transplant. Another way to decide is to allow the medical elite to put the rich and famous at the top of the list, as they did with Mickey Mantle, who received a liver transplant and died two months later. Allowing the medical elite to decide who gets transplants has already created despicable arrogance. I was watching one show where a doctor refused to give a patient who smoked cigarettes a heart transplant. While it's popular right now to dump on cigarette smokers, tomorrow that same physician might refuse to give a transplant to an overweight person, a low-I.Q. person, a divorcee or whatever suits the whims of a particular hospital physician staff.

We shouldn't allow America's elite to decide who gets what in health and other areas of our lives. We wouldn't begin to tolerate somebody deciding that housing, food, cars and clothing be distributed on a first-come, first-served basis or on a who-needs-them-the-most basis? If we did, there'd be desperate shortages in housing, food, cars and clothing just as there are shortages in organs available for transplant.

There are other benefits from allowing people to sell their organs. For example, I smoke cigarettes and cigars. If I knew that my heart and lungs could become a part of my estate, I would take better care of them. But since my heirs can't monetarily gain, it makes sense for me to die with completely used up organs just like I'd try to die with a zero bank balance if Congress wouldn't allow me to bequeath money to my heirs. 
***End Quote***

I happen to like that solution. Take control away from the gummamint, the elite, and return it to the fairest arbiter of need ever discovered … the marketplace.

One should acknowledge that one becomes rich in the marketplace by satisfying the needs of others. Bill Gates made people happy and they applauded by giving him their greenbacks. If he needs a transplant, why shouldn't he be able to use his "applause" as evidence of being the most worthy.

The poor would not be excluded from the marketplace. I already see charities for that purpose.

AND, even when today the system breaks down, haven't you seen whole communities rallying about an unfortunate case with gigantic fund raising drives?

One advantage of a marketplace solution is that it operates without a large overhead.  

No one has to run the marketplace. There are no government bureaucrats drawing pay and benefits to "decide" who should get this kidney or that liver.

It may sound "ghoulish", but letting people die is REALLY ghoulish.

We have seen what the "current system", or non-system, delivers. Death, suffering, and uncertainty. How about a change?  


LIBERTY: Federal Long Distance tax ends … … but look at inflation as a tax!

Saturday, May 27, 2006

http://www.averyjparker.com/2006/05/26/federal-long-distance-tax-ends/

***Begin Quote***

Federal Long Distance tax ends….

I think at one point I’ve said that once taxes are put in place they tend NEVER to go away. Well, I must admit I’m wrong. 108 years ago in an effort to help finance the Spanish American War, long distance telephone taxes went into place. The tax will no longer be in effect as of July 31, 2006. Supposedly, we will be able to file for a refund of our last three years worth of long-distance taxes for land/cell phones in the 2006 tax returns. I stand corrected… once taxes are put in place they ALMOST Never go away (and if it’s for a specific purpose, it may hang around long after that purpose is completed.)

***End Quote***

True. This tax final went away. Probably because people were tying the tax and the purpose together. It was making the gummamint look stupid.

Let's look at the biggest tax scam. It's not the Social Security "Insurance" ponzi scheme. Nor is it the Federal Income Tax. Nor is it the Alternative Minimum Tax. Nor is it the National Debt that they keep recapping higher and higer as needed. Now those are all big taxes. Between them, I'd estimate that more than half of your annual earnings are stolen by the gummamint.

No, the bigest scam is inflation.

Don't let the gummamint distract you by talking about price inflation. Get down to basics. What is a "dollar"? That's right, it is just a piece of paper with funny printing that people with give you stuff in exchange for them.

The biggest hidden tax is the inflation caused by the gummmint's printing press!

It is a tax on your savings. It's a tax on anything you accumulate. It's hidden.

It's corrosive. It has turned us from a nation of savers to a nation of debtors. Why save? You can pay back later with "dollars" that are worth less.

Let's assume you have a hundred dollars, inflation is 5%, and candy bars are a dollar each. You could buy a hundred candy bars. Next year, the gummamint inflates the currency 5%. Prices rise because there are now more dollars chasing fewer goods. The candy bar makes raise candy prices 5% just to stay even. That hundred dollars now will only buy only 95 candy bars. Where did those five extra candy bars go? You, right into the gummamint. It's the effect of owning the printing press.

Try it yourself. Play monopoly. And every time you pass go, inflate the money supply 5%. The bank has $15,140 in cash in standard editions of Monopoly. Give yourself an extra $757 everytime you pass go. That's an one orange $500 bill, two beige $100 bills, one green $50 bills, one pink $5 bills, and two white $1 bills. Watch what happens. I bet you'll win. Think the other players will catch on? You'll probably hear the exclamation "That's not fair!" followed by an appropriate punishment for ruining the game by counterfeiting.

So why is it different when the gummamint does it to you in real life?


LIBERTY: Free to … … watch what you are told to watch!

Friday, May 26, 2006

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/271473_echostar25.html

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"Consumers are free to choose to read The New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle or any other newspaper regardless of where in the United States they live," EchoStar said in a statement. "Broadcasters successfully orchestrated passage of special-interest legislation which prohibits consumers from watching network channels originating in other markets."
***End Quote***

I have some first hand experience with this issue. Being half way between NYC and Philly, we "get" both channels over the air. But when you sign up with cable or satellite service, you can't get the Philly NBC affiliate. Now, it just so happened that a show that Frau Reinke wanted to watch on a regular basis was "on" in Philly but not NY. Too bad, Frau Reinke! Your government will dictate what you can and can not watch.

A plague on all their houses.

Copyright law is a joke. Law is a joke. Unfortuantely the joke is on us!

Where is the common sense? If I can get it from an antenna, then why can I get it off the bird or the wire?

That darn gang with the guns making me a serf! 


LIBERTY: The “war on poverty” and the “war on drugs” has had “some” unintended consequences!

Friday, May 26, 2006

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=50377

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I recently learned a shocking statistic. Before 1965, the year in which President Johnson launched his war-on-poverty government handout campaign, 82 percent of black American families were two-parent households. Today, 83 percent of all black children are born out of wedlock and grow up fatherless. This contributes to high crime, poverty, drug abuse and illegitimate births in the black community. What destroyed the black family? Without question, the home wrecker is liberalism. 

***End Quote***

No question that the "war on poverty" and the "war on drugs" has had "some" unintended consequences. Although I'm sure there are conspiricy buffs out there who would claim it was all planned, I think it's just the UI in action! Time to end all these "wars" that do nothing for us but hurt us. imho


UK raises retirement age; Coming here soon?

Thursday, May 25, 2006

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/5015928.stm

Thursday, 25 May 2006, 11:39 GMT 12:39 UK
State pension age to rise to 68
***Begin Quote***

The state pension age is to rise to 68 from 2044, as part of government proposals to strengthen pension provision in the UK.

The link between the state pension and earnings will also be restored within the next Parliament, Pensions Secretary John Hutton said.

A new savings scheme will be set up with automatic enrolment for staff and compulsory employers' contributions. 
***End Quote***

Well the UK is addressing its Ponzi scheme. Soon it'll be "our" turn. What a joke. Chile can figure it out despite a huge illiteracy rate. BUT, Socialists won't give up on their impractical dreams without a fight.

How will you feel when they tell you the terms of the biggest "bet" of your life has changed?

If an insurance company or a bank did it, then all the execs would be off to prison. Politicians do it and they are lauded for making the "tough choices". See the politicians that made those promises are not around when the bill comes due. And the ones in office now say "We never said that"! And, we get left holding the bag.

And guess what's in the bag. Poop!

Don't even think about what all that "social security insurance" could be worth if it was just put in bank certificates of deposit. It's a sunk cost. The politicians have been taking the contributions and putting an iou in the "lockbox". Lockbox? What a joke!  

Poof, there goes your retirement, sucker! 


a spurious battle against an abstract noun … “war on drugs”

Tuesday, May 23, 2006

http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig7/floyd4.html

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The main engine of this mass incarceration has been the 35-year "war on drugs": a spurious battle against an abstract noun that provides an endless fount of profits, payoffs and power for the politically connected while only worsening the problem it purports to address – just like the "war on terror." The "war on drugs" has in fact been the most effective assault on an underclass since Stalin's campaign against the kulaks. 

***End Quote***

Well, I think we demonstrated the failure of yet another gummamint program.

Unless we don't understand that the "true purpose" of any gummamint program is to give more power to Father State and to get the serfs (what would you call people who have more than half of their earnings stolen by the ruling class?) to run to Mommy Government crying for "protection".

Interesting that the rate of addiction appears to be pretty consistent across human history. Interesting that we have given Father State our tacit approval to "discipline" ourselves. Like we couldn't decide what was in our own best interest. Clearly we didn't learn anything with the national experiment with Prohibition.

And, when it comes right down to destroying "drugs", the FDA has doen a fine job of making drugs expensive, unavailable, and dangerous. ("Dangerous" in that, unless the drug is SO SAFE as to be virtually worthless, it has zero chance of getting thru the regulatory process.) Like you and your doctor are too dumb to figure out what you need? And, the FDA has created a corporate protection welfare scheme that the big drug makers couldn't have created without the gummmint's help.

Note to self, when elected President: (1) End the unconstitutional wars (i.e., drugs, Iraq, Afghanistan, porn, etc. etc. etc. etc.); (2) Pardon all non-violent drug offenders; (3) Close the FDA; (4) Cut the Federal budget and taxes by the amount of the FDA; AND (5) Propose Constitutional Amendment forbidding Federalization of anything based on the mythical interpretation of the "commerce" or "general welfare" clauses.

Shouldn't the Federal Government restrict all of its "doings" to the fifty States? That's its constituents. Why should they interact with individual citizens? The Dead Old White Guys missed an opportunity to put another chain on the beast! Hard for them to imagine how stupid we could be. I can hear the conversation now "Tom (Jefferson), do you think we need to jot down that the Federal Government can't directly legislate to other than the fifty States? Nah, James (Madison), nobody would listen to them anyway. Like that restricting the general welfare clause you were talking about, we can save some ink because nobody would ever think of having everything run form New York (the original capitol)!" Yup, they must be stunned at what a mess we have made of it.


Mayor Bloomberg’s ridiculous ban on cell phones in New York City public schools

Monday, May 22, 2006

http://gearlog.com/blogs/gearlog/archive/2006/05/22/12456.aspx

posted on Monday, May 22, 2006 4:27 PM
When a Cell Phone is Like a Gun
***Begin Quote***

It is pretty safe to assume that as a gadget-lovin' Gearlogger I am going to come down against Mayor Bloomberg's ridiculous ban on cell phones in New York City public schools, but as a step-father with an 11-year-old riding the city bus to school, my opposition borders on outrage. The ban itself has been around a long time (1987, I think), but it has always been enforced with an appropriate amount of laxness. Show it, you lose it. Evidently, that wasn't good enough. Now kids are being patted down for telecommunication devices. Why? According to the Gotham Gazette:

Klein and Bloomberg say cell phones make it easier for kids to cheat on tests, take pictures in locker room and bathrooms, arrange drug deals or call in reinforcements for schoolyard fights. In a radio address, the mayor likened cell phones to guns and knives.

***End Quote***

Well, if you send your child to the gummamint reeducation camps, then why would you be surprised when they are treated like prisioners?

If they can't keep drugs and weapons out of their prisons and skoolz, then you don't have to worry. The lawless will have guns, drugs, AND cell phones.

The socialists didn't learn their lessons from the old Soviet Union. Government can't run "education" any more than it can do anything else.

As the boys at Free Talk Live (http://www.freetalklive.com) ask all the time: "Name ONE government program that works?" Haven't heard one yet.

So I'll sign your petition for all the good that it will do. 


Make a rule. Go ahead I dare you. Now if these guys would apply it to the IRS!

Sunday, May 21, 2006

http://www.start.com.my/blog/maximizing-your-roi-at-pizza-hut/

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Interesting story on how a group of Taiwanese students got together and circumvented the "One salad" rule at pizza hut.
***End Quote***

The pizza at Pizza Hut ain't bad but the universally bad service means it is low on the list. I haven't been there in eons and never heard of the one trip rule. 

These fellows should show us how to do it to the IRS!

The casinos in Vegas and AC better hope that this doens't become popular with the Senior Citizen circuit. While not as good as this, they can do a fair imitation of it. It looks like their last meal or that the food was gonna run out.


Iran inching closer to genocide.

Saturday, May 20, 2006

http://newsbusters.org/node/5436

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A number of Canadian news websites are reporting that the Iranian parliament passed a law this week requiring non-Muslims in the country to wear certain insignia identifying them as such (hat tip to Drudge). As reported by Canada’s National Post: “Human rights groups are raising alarms over a new law passed by the Iranian parliament that would require the country's Jews and Christians to wear coloured badges to identify them and other religious minorities as non-Muslims.” The article continued: “‘This is reminiscent of the Holocaust,’ said Rabbi Marvin Hier, the dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles. ‘Iran is moving closer and closer to the ideology of the Nazis.’" 

***End Quote***

The nut in charge of Iran already denied the Holocaust . Anytime government starts to "identify" its people you have to think GENOCIDE! If one was in Iran, near Iran, or even know an Iranian, then you have to be concerned. I KNEW an elderly Jewish lawyer who escaped Germany when he saw the trend. He was unable to convince his best friends, his family elders, or his friends in his community. They were all wiped out. Some of his friends were Catholic, Christian, Agnostics, or Anything. When the genocide begins, it doesn't matter what you are. You're grist for the mill. Only government can kill in numbers that are worse than a natural disaster. Pop over to http://www.jpfo.org/faq.htm#faq14 and read Paul Harvey's list of atrocities. I'd expect Iran to be next on the list.


Only a old exGI could call the National Guard to the border what it is “political theater”!

Saturday, May 20, 2006

http://www.lewrockwell.com/reese/reese281.html

Guarding the Border
by Charley Reese
***Begin Quote***

Using the National Guard for players in this political theater shows you that the president never thinks a moment about the plight of regular Americans. Young men and women join the National Guard willing to serve their country in an emergency. Our leaky borders are not an emergency. They've been leaking for the past decade. For six years, Bush has ignored this problem. The only emergency is the collapse of Bush's popularity and the Republican Party's fear that it might lose control of Congress this fall. 

*** AND *** 

But overseas personnel are just a drop in the bucket from which the president can draw his 6,000 men for the border. Excluding the National Guard and Reserves, he has 1.4 million full-time active-duty military personnel, and all of them not in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are doing housekeeping chores and running training missions at home and abroad. That's what armies do in peacetime. 

***End Quote***

Only a vet understands how the politicians abuse, overuse, misuse, and turn our military into props. That's on both sides of the duopoly — R and D — D or R — Blue or Red — Red or Blue. There's no difference! Bad polls? Rush the guard to the borders. Impeachment? Bomb an asprin factory. Everytime a Washington president needs to distract, disrupt, or mislead, they use the military to distract us. 

BRING ALL THE TROOPS HOME NOW! FROM EVERYWHERE! NO DELAYS! NO EXCUSES!
Everone is on their own.  We're not the world's policemen. We have our own problems.


Americans today should free “its children” by separating education and state!

Saturday, May 20, 2006

http://www.lewrockwell.com/hornberger/hornberger86.html

***Begin Quote***

What is amazing is that after so many years of government involvement in education, with all its dismal results, so few people ask basic and fundamental questions about the education of their children, such as:

  • Why shouldn’t families have the same sovereign and independent control over the education of their children as they have over religious matters?
  • Given that the free market produces the best of everything and socialism produces the worst of everything, why are people willing to submit their children to a second-rate product in an area as important as education?
  • Why should providing education to people be considered a legitimate function of government?

***End Quote***

It's all about socialism. Centralized state planning has put us in the mess we are in. The skoolz resemble the state's prisions. Money is wasted; sometimes it's lost, stolen, or misappropriated. Results are a joke.

Here in the People's Republik of New Jersey, we have litany of problems. Here's a few of my personal favorites:

  • Schools are "financed" by property taxes. Regardless, if one has any children, everyone is "assessed" to pay for the gummamint reeducation camps. Too bad if you're a senior living in the same house for 70 years and now on a fixed income, time for you to move to a different state. Too bad if you have multiple properties, you're too rich.
  • Schools are run by the gummamint, teaching the gummamint religion (i.e., Conserve Mother Earth like good little druids and honor the all wise State from whom all benefits flow), and dumbing down the population. I particularly like how the brag on their "achievements" (i.e., number of students going to college) but never mention their failures (i.e., GEDs) and figure out ways to "cook the books". Of course, this is all done for MY benefit (i.e., Good schools mean that people will want to move here and buy your house at a big profit. Ignoring the fact that I have to live somewhere!) by "selfless public servants". Silly me!
  • There is a Political – Educrat – Servicing conspiracy at work as a positive feedback loop. Politicians "save the children" with programs. The Board of Education, School Administrators, Teachers, and Unions all campaign for more money. Custodians, Builders, Service Providers all have lucrative contracts. The School Administrators, Teachers, Unions, Custodians, Builders, and Service Providers contribute to the Politicians with money, labor, and "needs". Politicians raise taxed to "save the children" with new programs. And on and on.

So we have to break the cycle. 

I don't pay to feed, clothe, or entertain your children. Why should I pay to "educate" them?

And, if I do have to pay, which I don't think is fair, why do I have to do it with government?

Could it be that you could not "convince" me to pay for it without the force of government to make me.

Remember the hallmark of a bad idea is that you can't convince people to do it voluntarily.

(I think somebody smart said that, but I don't know who. Do you?) 


llegals granted Social Security?

Friday, May 19, 2006

http://www.washtimes.com/national/20060518-114132-2456r.htm

llegals granted Social Security
By Charles Hurt
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
May 19, 2006

***Begin Quote***

The Senate voted yesterday to allow illegal aliens to collect Social Security benefits based on past illegal employment — even if the job was obtained through forged or stolen documents.  

***End Quote***

Another socialist idea bites the dust. Think "Social Security Insurance", Medicare, and its ilk are broke now. Wait until everybody starts to draw.

Seems to me like we need to end the Ponzi scheme NOW!

Those already collecting continue paid by taxes. Those not yet collecting get a Treasury "Recognition Bond" dated for when they will retire. Those that are not yet in the system are on their own. 

José Piñera did it in Chile. 

http://www.socialsecurity.org/pubs/articles/12-13-04.html

***Begin Quote***

A defined-benefit system is not only hostage to demographic trends, it also has a fatal flaw: it destroys the link between individual contributions and benefits, or, in other words, between personal effort and reward. 

***End Quote***

You think that is harsh? Just remember that when the Titanic went down more First Class Men were saved than Third Class children. It's a tough world out there. Survival of the fitest. We make things harder on ourselves than it has to be when we delude ourselves into thinking Mommy Government will take care of us or Father State will protect us. Want to be secure in your old age? Save your own gold coins. What protection? Protect yourself and your neighbors.

Anything else is delusional! 

We need to get out from under the Socialist Ponzi scheme deliberately misnamed "Social Security Insurance" before it sinks us as a people.


Police cited the woman for hunting without a license … … in her house!

Thursday, May 18, 2006

http://www.lp.org/yourturn/archives/000306.shtml

***Begin Quote***

Defending Yourself Against Alligators
Here's an excerpt from a Washington Post story that will make you think twice about moving to Florida:

"Yesterday…an alligator walked through the doggy door of a woman's house in Bradenton and went for her golden retriever. The woman grabbed a shotgun and blazed away. The alligator escaped with a flesh wound. The neighbors heard shots and called police, who promptly cited the woman for hunting without a license."
How can the police cite the woman for hunting without a license? Who ever heard of hunting in your own house? Unbelievable.

Posted by Matthew Dailey at May 18, 2006 12:41 PM

***End Quote***

Absolutely unbelievable! 


If gaming companies purchased I-15, it’s likely they wouldn’t even charge a toll!

Thursday, May 18, 2006

http://www.lewrockwell.com/french/french42.html

***Begin Quote***

If MGM Mirage can spend $7 billion on CityCenter and Boyd can spend $4 billion on Echelon, these two could finance the purchase and widening of I-15 in a heartbeat. The cost of that 316-mile stretch in Texas is $6 billion. LA to Vegas is 275 miles.

If a consortium of gaming companies purchased I-15, it’s likely they wouldn’t even charge a toll, especially for their customers, potential customers or vendors.

Does the idea sound crazy? Remember, the state of California is up to its neck in debt. If Gary Loveman, Terry Lanni and some other strip honchos would get together and dangle a few billion in front of Arnold, that never-gonna-happen idea for a bullet train can be mothballed once and for all, and a few more ribbons of blacktop will start materializing. And instead of burning up gas stranded in traffic, those Californians will be dropping money in slot machines like they want to be.
***End Quote***

I agree about that toll. But not about the train. They'd probably do both. They're interested in their money arriving safely. A train might be faster and safer and a more "novel" ride. They ran an airline until it became too much of a hassle. 

Trump, when he felt the disastrous Coleman skating rink refurb in NYC's Central Park was detracting from his premiere property, he got the job done in a tenth of the cost in a fraction of the time by a horde of contractors who want to be in his good graces and out of his notorious wrath. I believe he told a balky plumber that if a task was NOT done by the time he came down to turn the faucet that the plumber wouldn't work in NY again. It was done in record time!

I'd bet the job would be done ahead of time, under budget, with zero union trouble, and at a fraction of the "gummamint" cost.

To make people want to come, they'd probably serve drinks on the highway at the rest stops. :-)

All I know is it would be something to see. 


Hey Gov C wanna save some gas?

Thursday, May 18, 2006

18 may 06 @ 727 am 295 s milepost 60 TD10471 wizzed by >75 mphs.

18 may 06 @ 731am 295 s milepost 55 SG20608 passed me at 65 but at least he used his signals and got out of the left lane.

Imagine mere peasants thinking that the glorious state workers of the People's Repoublic of New Jersey should be held to the same rules that they make for the serfs and peons! How rude. Let them each cake and drive on the portions of the road we are not using.

Remember the French Revolution? It just takes one spark to set off the blaze.