Reinke Faces Life

http://dailycaller.com/2014/12/26/report-massachusetts-auto-insurers-subsidized-and-calling-the-shots/

Report: Massachusetts Auto Insurers Subsidized And Calling The Shots
5:23 PM 12/26/2014
PETER FRICKE
Contributor

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A recent investigation has found that Massachusetts not only spends millions to subsidize private auto insurers, but also suspends drivers’ licenses at their request.

According to WHAV News, employees of the taxpayer-funded Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles (RMV) “process paperwork and otherwise subsidize private insurance companies in the administration of ‘Driver Retraining Programs’ even when there is no state interest—criminal or civil—at stake.”

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I am shocked … “I’m shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!” Captain Renault in Casablanca … that the State Gooferment and Big Insurance are in cahoots.

Imagine how much cheaper “insurance” would be if it was not “regulated”.

Just as “life insurance” is cheap and easy to get and keep.

The greater the Gooferment involvement, the more expensive and “crony” it is!

Argh!

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http://patch.com/new-jersey/middletown-nj/middletown-physician-charged-five-others-running-prescription-drug-ring

New Jersey Physician Charged With Five Others For Running Prescription Drug Ring
A suspended Middletown physician was busted along with five others for selling forged Oxycodone prescriptions for $300 to $400, police say.
By Caitlin Brown (Patch Staff)
December 20, 2014 at 8:19am

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Detectives have dismantled a prescription drug ring run by a suspended physician Thursday night following a monthlong investigation, announced Acting Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher J. Gramiccioni.

Six people were arrested for their respective roles in a prescription drug ring, including Dr. Kenneth Lewandowski, 51, of Tatum Drive in Middletown, who is charged with six counts of third degree Conspiracy, six counts of third degree Forgery and the Unlawful Practice of Medicine – a third degree crime.

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“Drug addiction is a menace to our society. The Middletown Police Department remains firmly committed to working closely with our law enforcement partners to apprehend and prosecute anyone involved in illegal drug sales. This case is a great example of how law enforcement is working together to address this deadly issue,” said Middletown Police Chief R. Craig Weber.

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“We cannot fail to recognize that drug dealers don’t just hang out on street corners or in parking lots. Sometimes drug dealers wear familiar uniforms, have specialized degrees and they live and work within our communities,” Gramiccioni added. “Our preconceived stereotypes are challenged when a trained physician turns his back on his duty to save lives so he can rake in cash at the expense of others enslaved by these drugs.”

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Don’t buy into the “(pseudo) War on (some) Drugs”?

All the force that the Gooferment has applied to this “problem” and the Unintended Consequences are the real problem.

With all the “laws”, diktats, and regulations haven’t budge the rate of addiction.

And the prisons are filled with “offenders”.

Time to recognize that Prohibition didn’t work for booze and it’s not working against certain drugs.

Sad that in the Gooferment Skrules it’s easier to get Marijuana than booze.

All this does is make it “cool”. 

And very dangerous.

Let’s turn from the meme of “force” and “prohibition” to the meme of it’s a “medical problem”.

In the meantime, let Walmart be our weapon against the illegal drug dealers who kill the unfortunate addicts. It’s rumored that if there was a free market in drugs, that the junk would be cheaper than aspirin. And a lot safer.

Envision that an addict could be a burger flipper and afford his addiction.

And, we could shift the budget from “enforcement” to “treatment”.

Laissez-faire is an economic system in which transactions between private parties are free from intrusive government restrictions, tariffs, and subsidies, with only enough regulations to protect property rights.

Want to kick the habit? Then there are resources available. Don’t want to? Make it cheap and safe for an addict to indulge. 

It’s immoral to coerce people to behave the way the Gooferment thinks is “good for them”.

Argh!

Time to end the “(pseudo) War on (some) Drugs”!

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http://techcrunch.com/2014/12/18/ending-the-invisibility-of-homelessness/

Ending The Invisibility Of Homelessness
by Kevin F. Adler

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Last night in San Francisco, 6436 of our neighbors slept on the streets or in shelters.

The lack of affordable, safe, and supportive housing is a scourge on society. It costs $90K to maintain a human being on the streets for a year, compared to $18K to provide supportive housing to a previously homeless person. Over the last 10 years, an influx of 75,000 people have moved to San Francisco, while only 17,000 new housing units have been built.

We can end chronic homelessness by 2020 by providing affordable, safe, and supportive housing options to the homeless and by electing representatives who will fight for housing as a basic human need.

But providing support means understanding that the needs of the homeless extend beyond housing.

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I empathize with the plight, and I blame the Gooferment for it.

Between “rent control”, zoning, and welfare, the Gooferment has created the problem.

Add to that the deinstitutionalizing of vast numbers of the mentally ill and breaking the promise to provide “community support”, Gooferment made the problem worse.

Throw in the “(pseudo) War on (some) Drugs” and the mess is complete.

Gooferment drove out the “charity” in our hearts by taking over and providing the “safety net”, which is more like a trap.

Argh!

Separation of Charity and State is the answer. That and rolling back the diktats of the State that make house unaffordable. 

In word, the Gooferment isn’t helping.

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http://ncc-1776.org/tle2014/tle801-20141214-02.html

A is A: A Thing is Itself 
by L. Neil Smith

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“Americans don’t torture people,” My uncle and grandmother explained, something that, sadly, couldn’t truthfully be said of us today.

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The third excuse is pure, epistemological silliness: that you can obtain useful information by systematically mistreating people. They may hold out for a while, but eventually they’ll break down and tell you exactly what they think you want to hear. I know that I certainly would. And our many “successes” in Aghanistan illustrate that pretty well. The government, to my knowledge, has never offered an example of torture saving the day—and there are so many unanswered questions about the killing of Osama bin Laden, it is too contaminated for such use.

I was brought up by my mother and father believing that only the bad guys torture people. The Spanish Inquisition, Italian fascisti, the Nazi German Gestapo, Darth Vader threatening Princess Leia with a floating torture machine. And guess what, Rush. My mom and dad were right.

We’re the bad guys.

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Sadly, there’s no excuse for this.

Time to roll back the warfare / welfare state.

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http://www.smartertravel.com/blogs/today-in-travel/cash-on-arrival-new-game-plan-for-airport-atms.html

Beware the New Airport ATM Scam
December 9, 2014 12:26 pm by Ed Perkins

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A representative of the Civil Aviation Authority, the agency that monitors consumer issues in air travel in Britain, told me that the retail foreign exchange folks have cut deals with airport management to oust the real banks and give retail foreign exchange outfits a monopoly, for which privilege they pay fat fees to the airports. A representative of ABTA, the association of travel agents and tour operators and U.K. equivalent of ASTA, summed it up by saying, “The worst place to exchange currency is at an airport.” This consumer issue hasn’t loomed large on the British scene because locals can, in fact, withdraw pounds with no fees; the practice hits only visitors.

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Anything it can get away with!

Argh!

I’m sure it in EVERYTHING that Gooferment does!

Screw the little guy.

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NASA’s $349 million monument to its drift
Construction of a test tower in Miss. continued long after the rocket project was scrubbed
http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/national/2014/12/15/nasas-349-million-monument-to-its-drift/?wpmm=AG0003409

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You have to read this one!

Another example of the Gooferment being immoral, ineffective, and inefficient!

So here we have a multi-decade multi-billion boondoggle.

Argh!

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http://www.judicialwatch.org/press-room/press-releases/judicial-watch-documents-reveal-obama-hhs-paid-baptist-children-family-services-182129786-four-months-housing-illegal-alien-children/

Obama Lawless Amnesty Costs Exposed – Congress AWOL?

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Despite all the budgetary pressure impacting vital programs of importance to the American people, the Obama administration apparently feels there’s still plenty of money to go around for illegal aliens. That’s what we learned back on September 9, 2014 when we obtained documents from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that showed the Obama Administration paid Baptist Children and Family Services (BCFS) $182,129,786 to provide “basic shelter care” to 2,400 “unaccompanied alien children” (UAC) for four months in 2014. The BCFS budget included charges for $104,215,608 for UACs at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, and an additional $77,914,178 for UACs at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas.  

These documents were obtained in response to an August 1, 2014, Freedom of Information Act request seeking BCFS applications for funding, correspondence between the HHS Administration for Children and Families (ACF) and BCFS, and correspondence within ACF relating to BCFS. The records we received include the “Budget Information and Project Narrative portions of the BCFS applications funded in calendar 2014” for both the Ft. Sill and the Lackland AFB facilities. 

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I don’t know about you but I don’t want to pay for any of this!

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http://online.wsj.com/articles/andrew-g-biggs-public-pensions-need-gamblers-anonymous-1417563447

OPINION
Public Pensions Need Gamblers Anonymous
Retirement funds for Illinois and California hold 75% risky investments. The Texas teachers’ plan: 81%.

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Managers of government pension plans counter that they have longer investment horizons and can take greater risks. But most financial economists believe that the risks of stock investments grow, not shrink, with time. Moreover, while governments may exist forever, pensions cannot take forever to pay off their losses: New accounting rules promulgated by the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) and taking effect this year will push plans to amortize unfunded liabilities over roughly 15 years. Even without these rules, volatile pension investments translate into volatile contribution requirements that can and have destabilized government budgets.

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FROM FACEBOOK by O’Connell, Bill (MC1976)

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The real solution is to do away with defined benefit pension plans and replace them with defined contribution plans. That way when the individual leaves an organization, he takes with him all that has been contributed on his behalf and the relationship with the organization ends. No more actuarial headaches calculating how long someone will live, how to invest pension contributions to match that, no more shorting the contributions this year with the intent of making it up in the future. Every year should stand on its own. You work, you get a contribution to your retirement; done.

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Agree.

And, at least in New Jersey, there are many added political scams.

Like part-time jobs that get pension credit. Rightly or wrongly.

Like politicians who get pensions for their “public service”.

Like politicians and bureaucrats who “retire” and go back to work to earn more “pension credits”.

Like politicians and bureaucrats who double dip.

Time to end Gooferment pensions, period.

Try finding a non-Gooferment job with a defined benefit pension plan today.

Argh!

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he real solution is to do away with defined benefit pension plans and replace them with defined contribution plans. That way when the individual leaves an organization, he takes with him all that has been contributed on his behalf and the relationship with the organization ends. No more actuarial headaches calculating how long someone will live, how to invest pension contributions to match that, no more shorting the contributions this year with the intent of making it up in the future. Every year should stand on it’s own. You work, you get a contribution to your retirement; done.