POLITICAL: If this isn’t intergenerational theft, what is?

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100305/ap_on_go_co/us_budget_deficits_3

Congressional estimates show grim deficit picture
By ANDREW TAYLOR, Associated Press Writer Andrew Taylor, Associated Press Writer
Fri Mar 5, 6:17 pm ET

*** begin quote ***

WASHINGTON – A new congressional report released Friday says the United States’ long-term fiscal woes are even worse than predicted by President Barack Obama’s grim budget submission last month.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office predicts that Obama’s budget plans would generate deficits over the upcoming decade that would total $9.8 trillion. That’s $1.2 trillion more than predicted by the administration.

*** end quote ***

Time for a serious acknowledgment. This generation was “robbed” by the last in the Social Security Ponzi scheme, as well as the continual addition to the debt. So to are we “robbing” future generations by piling on the debt and unfunded liabilities.

So what is the answer?

Well, clearly each year, the demographics change as to the intergenerational population. So there’s MUST be year to year deficit neutral budgets. Since there has to be a true up in the next financial year. So any deficit must be corrected in the following year. Since we can NOT eliminate the debt build up over 70 years in a few years, we need to have a 70 year deficit reduction plan. CLEARLY, we can’t have unfunded liabilities or off-budget expenditures.

So, it’s a giant mess.

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POLITICAL: Bears and bureaucrats

Monday, March 15, 2010

http://www.dailyrecord.com/article/20100313/COMMUNITIES/303130002/Animal-groups-Could-ruling-lead-to-hunters-shooting-cats

Animal groups: Could ruling lead to hunters shooting cats?
BY COLLEEN O’DEA • STAFF WRITER • March 13, 2010

*** begin quote ***

The cat: Common, popular house pet or exotic, dangerous animal?

A number of animal activists have contacted state officials in an effort to head off a potential reclassification of feral cats, which could end the growing number of programs that trap, neuter and return them back into neighborhoods or the wild, and allow them to be hunted.

The state Fish and Game Council has condemned the idea of leaving cats in the wild and now another committee that reports to the state Department of Environmental Protection is studying the issue of TNR programs.

*** end quote ***

Argh!

What’s wrong with “hunting”? Is it more humane to let these past pets starve?

The NJ bureaucrat diddled with the bear population until, after a few “near misses” and one dead dog, they were forced to reinstate the “bear hunting season”. (My prediction is that is the last one will hear about NJ bears unless they are near extinction.)

How long before they are forced to do the same with feral cats?

An increase in diseases coming to humans a la the dear tick and lyme disease? An increase in children being threatened?

Maybe the remain bears will feast on the out-of-control cats?

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POLITICAL: Gooferment interferes in medicine

Saturday, March 13, 2010

http://channel-surfing.blogspot.com/2010/03/dispatches-and-loser-is.html

“Americans spent $7,289 per capita in 2006 compared with Norway’s per capita figure of $4,763. Canada, which has a single-payer system, spends $3,895 per capita.”

I’m just a fat old white guy injineer. But, you’ve got apples and oranges comparison here. You’re comparing the semi-socialist USA with the more socialist N and C. AND, then telling us that “it’s twice as bad”.

Sorry, but we have the worst of both worlds. Federal interference in the drug market place. Regulation of everything in sight “medical” at all levels of gooferment — federal, state, county, and municipality — adds enormous costs. Not all of which are accounted for. The costs are indeciperable.

I’m frustrated trying to demonstrate it to you.

Let’s compare insurance marketplaces. Medical insurance is disaster. Car insurance is better than medical, but still costly. Life insurance is cheap, and other than fiscal solvency, basically unregulated.

One problem is that “medical insurance” is more like pre-paid medical care; rather than “insurance”. Another problem is that the cost of regulation and bureaucracy is extraordinary. Pay a doctor in cash and you’ll find 50 to 75% discounts. Finally, drugs are the “technology” that will flatten the medical cost curve. But FDA and BigPharma are conspiring to keep the cost of entry high. Also, the FDA gets criticism if an “unsafe” drug gets out, but none if it never gets out at all.

Look at how we do “medical care” with all the government intervention. I have cold, sunburn, or a sprain. I need to go to the government licensed doctor, to get a prescription on a government approved form, take it to the government licensed pharmacy, where a government licensed druggist dispenses something aking to an aspirin. Note, I left out the government licensed and government regulated insurance company.

Argh! Recently, I got sunburned in a Third World Country island. I went to the local gas station and bought some lidocaine-laced aloe gel after consulting with the gas jockey (about the cost in US dollars). Also, recently, on a different trip, I was in a First World Country in Europe with a headache, needed an asparin, and went to the “drug store” to find out that I had to have “a script from a doctor” to buy such a “powerful drug”. Are you kidding me?

Finally, “We, The People” are free to do anything we want with OUR bodies. It’s the essence of self-ownership. If I want medical advice from an “unlicensed” provider and put “unapproved” drugs into it, that’s my business. Not the gooferment’s.

Keep your gooferment out of my body, my health, and my business. It’s only role is protect my rights from being abridged by force or fraud. “That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed ..”

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POLITICAL: Where do the homeless go?

Saturday, March 13, 2010

“… … … they will disappear just like the homeless do when a Democrat is elected President.”

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Very astute observation. Where do they go? Nowhere, they just are no longer useful to beat the Republican up with.

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POLITICAL: Wasn’t the Census used in the round up of the Japanese Americans for “internment” in WW2?

Thursday, March 11, 2010

http://www.lewrockwell.com/barnett/barnett18.1.html

The Census and History: It Is Not a Pretty Picture!
by Gary D. Barnett
…  is president of Barnett Financial Services, Inc., in Lewistown, Montana.

*** begin quote ***

I have been discussing the unconstitutional nature and danger of modern census taking for several years. By attempting to expose through my writing the very invasive practice of the “census,” and by educating others about the false reasoning for these government intrusions, my hope is that more and more people will contradict the accepted system by not complying with the census process. One can do this and still remain within constitutional bounds simply by refusing to give any information other than the number of people living in a particular home. This seems simple enough, but due to threats of fine or worse, and threats by the federal government to withhold tax redistributions from state, county and local communities, the populace at large continues to acquiesce to “State” pressure.

*** and ***

The point I want to make is that data-collection by government about the citizenry is always dangerous. Future uses of this private information can never be known. Besides the fact that it is anti-liberty, it allows the state to monitor its citizens, and also sets the stage for an easier path for government to control the people. While the U.S. Census may seem harmless enough to the masses, it could eventually lead to disastrous results. Today we are not only being counted by government, but are having our private information gathered and data-based as well. Our phones are tapped, our emails are captured, our movements are watched, our financial records are monitored and warrantless search and seizure is common.

*** end quote ***

Don’t forget the role of the US Census in the Japanese Internment!

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From: reinke, ferdinand
Sent: Wednesday, March 10, 2010 9:50 AM
To: gbarnett
Subject: with respect to the Census

Wasn’t the Census used in the round up of the Japanese Americans for “internment” in WW2?

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From: “Gary Barnett”
Date: March 10, 2010 12:02:19 PM EST
To: “‘reinke, ferdinand
Subject: RE: with respect to the Census

Yes it was, and I should have mentioned it in my article.

All best … Gary

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NOT bad for a fat old white guy injineer.

When it comes to ANY gooferment program, remember: ineffective, inefficient, and can be pervert to an evil purpose.

How do you tell when a politician, a bureaucrat, or “The Gooferment” is lying? Yup, when their lips move.

“The Census will never be misused.” Tell that to the approximately 110,000 Nisei Japanese Americans http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_American_internment who were forcibly “interned”.

(Much fewer in Hawaii. Why? No Germans on the East Coast. Why?)

(My Grandmothers, on both my Father’s and Mother’s sides, living on opposite coasts, spoke fluent German at home as their primary language. As did their brothers and sisters. They stopped after Pearl Harbor for fear of internment. How’s that for chilling? I could have been born in an internment camp. If this silliness got out of hand.)

Argh!

The Gooferment is evil.

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POLITICAL: The cost of “public educstion”

Thursday, March 11, 2010

http://centraljersey.com/articles/2010/03/04/opinions/doc4b902460b6719996011467.txt#blogcomments

EDITORIAL: Governor balancing books on students’ backs
Thursday, March 4, 2010 4:22 PM EST

*** begin quote ***

   Gov. Chris Christie has made a point of saying he plans to tackle the state’s budget crisis head on. Gone, he says, are the days of kicking the proverbial can (i.e., the state’s recurring deficit) down the road and hoping someone else will pick it up.

   But that’s exactly what he’s doing, withholding aid from school districts for this year’s budget and forcing them to make up the shortfall with money many districts had planned to use in 2010-2011.

*** end quote ***

Unfortunately, “We, The People” can’t afford “public education” anymore. A new solution will hae to be found. “Public Education” is inefficient and ineffective. Also it’s dumbing down and indoctrinating the next generation of voters to look to big gooferment as the “solution” to every problem. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but that the reality. Too expensive, too “one size fits all”, too corrupt.

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POLITICAL: Too many parks; Socialism’s economic calculation problem

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

http://channel-surfing.blogspot.com/2010/03/ill-gladly-pay-you-tuesday-for.html

Monday, March 08, 2010

‘I’ll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today’

*** begin quote ***

I am not the only New Jersey columnist who believes the state needs to rethink how its local governments are organized. Alfred Doblin, editorial page editor for The Record, takes on the sacred cow of home rule in his column today (http://www.northjersey.com/news/opinions/doblin_030810.html):

“What is more important: Quality education or a local school district? Is the firefighter less competent because he or she answers to a regional supervisor instead of a local chief? Does it matter if the municipality, county or an independent contractor removes snow as long as the snow is removed?”

He likens the state’s fiscal crisis to the Chicago fire that destroyed that city in the late 19th Century, saying New Jersey has “burned down” and adding that “We should not build it like it was.” As he says of the sacred cow of “Home rule” — a “very big cow”: “it’s time it either produced a beverage or became an entrée.”

“The fiscal reality is bleak. But there are ways of providing many of the services we expect while still spending less. We don’t have too many teachers. We don’t have too many parks. We don’t have too many roads. We have too many districts. We have too many municipalities. We have too many departments that essentially duplicate other departments.”

*** end quote ***

“We don’t have too many …”

How can any one possibly say that?

One of the problems that Austrian Economics points out is that socialism has no way of making these economic calculations.

In a free economy, the price mechanism determines how many of anything we have. (Evil) (business) people risk their own capital to “test” if something is needed. Then the economy efficiently allocates capital to the things that people want. And they “vote” for the things they want by spending their scarce dollars. Profit is the message that the invisible hand of the economy uses to attract more capital to a needed area. That’s if we had a “free” economy.

Now we have a semi-free economy. The gooferment at many levels intrude and distort the market signals. For example, the FED by distorting the core interest rate for capital encourages “malinvestment”. The Austrians fault malinvestments for the boom and bust we see in the economy. That one distortion alone has catastrophic implication on what risks people take. Bubbles would not be as big or as hurtful without the “money” distortion. Commodity money, or at least the repeal of “legal tender” laws, would allow the free market to adjust the interest rate. And, limit the ability of the gooferment to spend.

Now, when we have NO profit or price mechanism, the gooferment can’t do anything. Because EVERY decision becomes a “political” decision. Only at the very grossest level can we opine on government spending. Suppose that a park was a for profit operation, like Disney World, and it had to carry its costs. This is the specific argument that I have with the South Brunswick “Public Library”. They take money from property taxes and “fund raising” that they do. People in and around South Brunswick didn’t support a movie theater; it went out of business. How can the “Public Library” go out of business? It can’t. The State Gooferment “legislates” that there be one for every Municipal Gooferment. It’s politics; not economics.

You have to laugh at the Census advertisement saying that everyone should fill it out so that “the Gooferment can figure out how many schools we need”. That is the economic calculation problem. We never hear anything about how many McDonalds we need. Because some uncompensated person has risked their capital to fulfill what they perceive as a need. See if we left education to parents, as we do food, clothing, and a myriad of other things, then we would know EXACTLY how many “schools are needed”. Of course, the Gooferment with its “zoning regulations” still interferes. That’s why we have a McDonalds on Sand Hill and Route 1 where a jug handle should be.

In closing, I know that I’ll get the usual carping about “libertarian looniness”. But it is a real political and economic problem. It’s wasteful to have politicians and bureaucrats making what should be economic decisions.

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POLITICAL: Time to dump DC!

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

201003081726.jpg

http://dumpdc.wordpress.com/

*** begin quote ***

Here at DumpDC, we are dedicated to following the fast-growing secessionist movement in the united States of America.

Notice how I wrote “united States of America.” This is how Thomas Jefferson referred to the proposed new nation in the Declaration of Independence. He declared the states to be sovereign nations first, anticipating a loose confederation of the several states to follow.

I won’t take the time in this introduction to chronicle the complete history of secession in North America. It’s obvious that the English colonies seceded from England in 1776. The Confederate States of America tried to secede in 1861, and failed. So, secession’s batting average in America is .500.

Still pretty good.

Secession is on the lips of many Americans today. When they look at a Federal Government that is spinning wildly out of control, state secession begins to have an allure as a remedy. American has gone from a nation of sovereign states with a carefully defined Federal Government to a nation where states are but subservient territories of a rapacious, tyrannical ruling entity that entirely ignores any restrictions on its power.

*** end quote ***

Grab your pitchfork and torch!

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POLITICAL: One baffling thing about congress critter tax cheat

Monday, March 8, 2010

http://www.rollcall.com/news/43910-1.html

Levin Repays Property Tax Credit
By Jennifer Yachnin
Roll Call Staff
March 5, 2010, 8:49 p.m.

*** begin quote ***

Newly anointed House Ways and Means Chairman Sander Levin (D-Mich.) repaid a Maryland property-tax credit Friday that he should not have received, his office confirmed.

*** end quote ***

Well, that didn’t take long.

In the tradition of little Timmy “turbo tax is too complicated”, yet another tax cheat is uncovered.

I’m shocked — as in “I’m shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!” [Captain Renault as a croupier hands Renault a pile of money, in Casablanca] — that there is tax trouble in the District of Corruption!

There oughtta be a law. Oh, yeah, there is!

Argh!

The baffling thing: why? Did he need another 700$?

If you or I do it, we get slammed with fines or jail!

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POLITICAL: Taxachusett’s Tax Revolt still alive

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

http://campaign.constantcontact.com/render?v=001cHaZO6NvI
5XHSG7SWAU_e59U6hggXi352yc5JXaKqLeeU5vnUGQY70Zfd4
jkOmU2tu8iZPwb_0YvEUThaNVktjReGxuZdmYm-Ewe5vK80-I%3D

Is the 3rd Time the Charm — for Rolling Back Taxes?
By Michael Cloud and Carla Howell

*** begin quote ***

Our Ballot Initiative to Roll Back the Sales Tax is ahead in the polls.

*** end quote ***

The Massachusetts revolt continues.

Hope they can pull this off.

They have more lives that a cat and better patriots than here in the Pepuls Republik of Nu Jerzee!

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