RANT: New York OFFICIAL L90975

Monday, April 20, 2009

Why is an “official” NY State plate speeding up Route 27 at 10:22 AM. Passing standing traffic on the right. And, speeding. (I caught up at the light!)

Argh!

Oh, did I mention it was a brand new gas saving Prius. ROFL! “barbara streisand”

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RANT: DC education vouchers

Sunday, April 19, 2009

http://www.reason.com/blog/show/132882.html

Education Secretary Shovels Dirt on D.C. Vouchers’ Grave
Matt Welch | April 14, 2009, 10:22am

*** begin quote ***

When congressional Democrats in February singled out Washington, D.C.’s school voucher program as just about the only federal initiative not worth funding as part of a $410 billion spendapalooza, some Democratic apologists were all, yeah that’s bad, but technically they’re continuing the program for one more school year, then requiring congressional reauthorization at that time, etc.

*** end quote ***

Hey, Obama’s kids are getting a good education!

Remember Walter William’s quote?

“The primary victims of Philadelphia’s public schools are black students whose chances for upward mobility are being systematically destroyed by callous politicians and teacher’s unions. If the Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan set out to destroy black academic excellence in Philadelphia, I doubt whether he could achieve as much damage.” Walter Williams, Jewish World Review, Dec. 19, 2001, “Education fraud in Philly”

This is no surprise. When will the sheep wake up?

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RANT: Hate Microsoft’s automtic fix and reboot

Friday, April 17, 2009

Argh! Found Frau’s machine automagically rebooted to apply “fixes”. And, lost some of what was onscreen at the time.

Imagine if GE could turn off your refridge any time it wanted to apply “fixes”. Argh!

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RANT: “Plastic pitchforks”? DOn’t think so.

Thursday, April 16, 2009

http://channel-surfing.blogspot.com/2009/04/astroturf-part-2.html

Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Astroturf, Part 2
Hank Kalet

*** begin quote ***

Thomas Frank knows about Republicans and populism.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123975925509119297.html

*** end quote ***

MY RESPONSE:

“Plastic pitchforks”?

I don’t think so. Admittedly I don’t know. It too could be another gigantic conspiracy.

But, I think not. For the first time in American history, the current generation in power is seeing — a lower standard of living for the next one, a dumbing down of “graduates”, and a net loss in their savings and earning power.

It makes me mad. It makes them mad. And, it scares the dickens out of everyone.

The political class, instead of providing leadership, has run around like chicken little spending money we don’t have to feather their own nests, reward their friends, and punish their enemies. Once again, the rich and powerful had their losses made good from the public treasury. Little people lost their 401ks and became the butt of late night comedian jokes about 201ks. At least, they noticed.

And don’t forget employment. We’ve gone from the 50’s America where it was possible for a high school student to earn a living wage on one salary to now, where to wage earners is barely enough to pay the taxes and stay solvent. Never mind live comfortably.

Astroturf?

I don’t think so.

And, it flows back into huge gooferments that suck up money like a vacuum cleaner. With bureaucrats that whine about 5 and 10% annual raises, lifetime health care, and artificially fattened pensions for their “lifetime” of “service”.

I think the “tea parties” are the undercurrent of political unrest that will make VietNam look like a walk in the park.

imho, but then I’m just one of those extremist vet that Nepaolitano and our version of the SS — Homeland Security — is watching out for. Got news for them, they could see a problem until it bites US in the A double Q!

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RANT: Too many drones; not enough workers

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/04/representation_without_taxatio.html

April 10, 2009
Representation without Taxation
By Alan Aronoff

*** begin quote ***

When beneficiaries of government policy do not sufficiently overlap the payers of those benefits, we have a governing system of representation without taxation. This type of system is not sustainable long term, but history suggests it may persist for some time under the pretext of ‘economic justice’ unless soundly rejected by the American people.

*** end quote ***

That’s the result of “progressive” taxation aka “soak the rich”.

The only fair tax is to make it voluntary. If the gooferment provides a service, then it should “tin cup” for donations.

At the very least, if EVERYONE had to pay a 1% tariff on imported goods. That would be “fair”.

As I proposed in page 616 of my book “CHURCH 10●19●62” (http://www.itstartedinchurch.com), a simple modest tariff collection mechanism would require little enforcement:

“Because the Government didn’t want to have a lot of checkers, the value is declared at the border. The tariff is two MILs per 10 ounces of value. The importer declares the value and pays the tariff. To ensure honesty, under estimation triggers a 100% penalty. So because the rate is so low and the penalty so high, importers typically add a zero to the end of the value number. For example, a truck valued of one thousand ounces would be assessed a tax of two ounces. So an importer, to be sure of compliance, would call it ten thousand ounces and pay a tax of twenty ounces. Not very fair, but very easy to administrate.”

We have reached the point where the “takers” outnumber the “producers”. We’ll we now see the diminished incentives lead to decreased productivity. Eventually it winds up that we look like a Communist country where the underground economy and “just getting by” becomes the national ethic.

Where are the pitchfork and torches?

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RANT: Begala says paying taxes is patriotic

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/04/15/begala.taxes/index.html

Commentary: April 15 is patriots’ day

   * Paul Begala: April 15 is one day most Americans sacrifice for government

   * Begala says paying taxes to support worthy government services is patriotic

   * “Tea parties” are being pushed by GOP supporters who lost election, Begala says

   * He says President Obama and Congress have cut taxes for most

By Paul Begala

CNN Contributor

*** begin quote ***

(CNN) — Happy Patriots’ Day. April 15 is the one day a year when our country asks something of us — or at least the vast majority of us.

*** and ***

This country has showered me with the blessings of liberty. So what do I owe my country in return? Paying my fair share of taxes, it seems, is the least I can do. Thanks to President Obama and the Democratic Congress, 95 percent of Americans will get a tax cut this year. No one — not even the wealthiest 1 percent — will have to pay higher income taxes until 2011.

*** end quote ***

Please don’t make me laugh. Or, insult my intelligence!

As a vet, a voter, and a taxpayer, why don’t I feel “represented”. My congress critters and bureaucrats no more represent my thinking than the pirates in Somalia. Congress is bought and paid for by the special interests.

I am oppressed more than any serf in the middle ages. At least the feudal lord left them half.

It’s impossible to day to figure out how much of a serf I am. It feels close to 100%!

And, perhaps, Komrade Begala can explain to me how this obligation was created.

The State has no specific duty to protect me; yet, I have an obligation to pay taxes for protection I don’t receive. So, how does what some dead old white guys agreed to in a room more than 200 years ago bind me? Sorry, but I didn’t, don’t, and won’t agree with tyranny.

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RANT: A good summary of why taxes are absurd

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

200904131402.jpg

http://libertarianchristians.com/

10 Things I Hate About Taxes

#10:

#9: Taxation is Theft

#8: Living in Fear

#7: Caesar’s Benevolence

#6: Withholding Taxes

#5: Your Tax Dollars at Work

#4: Privacy and Personal Income

#3: The Truth About Government Spending

#2: Newspeak

#1: Lost Productivity

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RANT: Can’t starve gooferment? Watch me!

Monday, April 13, 2009

http://channel-surfing.blogspot.com/2009/04/supermajority-super-bad-idea.html

Thursday, April 09, 2009
Supermajority a super bad idea
by Hank Kalet

*** begin quote ***

Taxes are not popular, especially now. Christie appears willing to pander to this disgust without taking into account the consequences that such a proposal would have.

*** end quote ***

reinkefj said…

*** begin quote ***

Yeah, geee, we can’t possibly STARVE the CRIMINALS in TRENTON and the bureaucrats and toadies from not having an endless supply of OUR stolen money to waste hither and yon.

They should be starved!

*** end quote ***

THEN FROM THE WOODWORK COMES “ANONYMOUS”

Anonymous Anonymous said…

*** begin quote ***

   Yeah sure, we don’t need any stinking roads, safe bridges, police, fire fighters, a judicial system, schools and screw medicaid. Let us all march into the wonderful libertarian paradise in which we just step blithely and gingerly over the bodies and rotting corpses in the streets. EMTs will require payment up front, otherwise, you just lay in the gutter until the vultures come. That’s the libertarian way. If your drinking water is polluted, TOUGH LUCK! In libertarian land it will be up to you alone to get rid of your own sewerage. Starve the beast so billionaires can get richer.

*** end quote ***

I’VE HAD ENOUGH OF HIS SNIPING

reinkefj said…

*** begin quote ***

You continue to misstate the Libertarian idea and glorify the big Gooferment solution. Sigh! Let’s try again.

>Yeah sure, we don’t need any stinking roads, safe bridges

Well we have stinking roads and bridges now. The Gooferment has raided the pennies from the gas tax to fund other wasteful programs so that there is no money for repair and maintenance. Are you arguing that what we have works so well, that we shouldn’t even consider something else? Think about the roads in Disneyland or Great Adventure. Are they in need of repair? As bloated as the Turnpike bureaucracy is, where there is a direct link between expense and the road, at least the road is in decent shape. So, do you think that if WalMart ran the road outside its store, would it be “beautiful” and smooth. I bet it would. So why do we allow the gang calling themselves North Brunswick, Middlesex County, and the State of New Jersey to rob us blind and provide substandard roads at an obscene price? Perhaps, stupidity. The unwillingness to think outside the box and consider a different way of organizing and paying for the road. Ever seen the private roads of a an adult retirement community? How do they do that without a gun toting force wielding gooferment? I bet if we had WalMart and UPS design and maintain highways, they’d be cheaper and better. I wouldn’t mind riding on WalMart #1 or UPS #27. But, I guess you’re in shock. Heck, I’d even let them put ads on the pavement. (The politicians do it. Ever see the signs thanking them for a road or construction or such! What chutzpah! They steal our money and put up a sign thanking themselves. Where’s the sign thanking the taxpayer!)

>police

Yeah, Brinks home security is completely unnecessary because your gooferment police do such a wonderful job. Next you’ll be telling us that the “police are our friends” and “never exceed their  authority”! We live in a “soft” police state now where they act alternatively between revenue generation agents, thugs, and criminals. Ever heard of “quotas”? Ever heard of “civil rights violations”? Ever heard of “drug warriors” helping themselves to the “drug raid results”? Some “friends”. With “friends” like that I don’t need enemies.

>fire fighters

Most firefighting in the US was and to some extent still is volunteer. Insurance companies and local organizations couldn’t be trusted to come up with a model that didn’t include goofement.

>a judicial system

Yeah, we cant have Judy Judy and the slew of other private arbitration providers handing out justice. Your gooferment justice system does so well. It’s half revenue production and half abuse. Think we fight the “drug war” for any other reason than keep the rationale for gooferment alive, the coffers full, and the prisons operating for the benefit of the politicians, bureaucrats, and their toadies? And even heard of “Project Innocence”? If a death row inmate survives long enough, these law students work on their case. 120 death row inmates freed due to DNA. But in YOUR court system, innocence isn’t the ultimate appeal. DNA testing is so much more expensive than killing these wretches. Ever hear of gooferment killing innocent people? That’s your justice system. Please, mine would be much more humane and cooperative. Back to the drug war, you do realize that more than half the prison population is non-violent drug offenders. What’s the % of minorities? But, your gooferment isn’t racist or opress the poor! Who cares what chemical people put in their bodies as longs as (1) they don’t hurt someone else; and (2) we don’t have to subsidize it!

>schools

Surely this is the most powerful argument for the Gooferment. By any measure, gooferment schools are merely training grounds for its prisons. “The primary victims of Philadelphia’s public schools are black students whose chances for upward mobility are being systematically destroyed by callous politicians and teacher’s unions. If the Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan set out to destroy black academic excellence in Philadelphia, I doubt whether he could achieve as much damage.” Walter Williams, Jewish World Review, Dec. 19, 2001, “Education fraud in Philly” Yeah, we sure need gooferment education here in New Jersey. And, how is it I incurred the obligation to pay to educate other people’s children? I don’t feed them. I don’t house them. I didn’t have them. Why do I have to pay through the nose to “eddykate” them. Back in the days of the Hands Across New Jersey Tax revolt, I did a white paper that showed if we divided the money spent on education by all the students, we could send everyone to the Hun School in Princeton and still have a 1k$ per kid left over. Bet that calculation is still true. Give education to McDonalds and everyone one will be educated. Ever notice all the non-gooferment preschools that abound. I think there are more than six within SBT alone. Imagine if all education was privatized, there’d be schools everywhere. And on the internet. And, in all sorts of flavors we can only imagine. But, let the gooferment do it. One size fits all that is obscenely expensive and corrupt is sooooo much better!

>screw medicaid.

Yes, all the religious hospitals never gave out charity care. Were not hospitals originated by religious organization? Saint Vincents, Saint Peters, Holy Cross come to mind. And how about Deborah — how did that originate. The gooferment has INTRUDED into areas of civil society where it has no business and does it so badly that it’s a disgrace. I had a very nice lady who ran a private welfare to work organization in Trenton tell me that the mission of the State and County welfare people was to ensure they had an ever growing case load to justify their employment. And the politically connected profited on the human misery of welfare. The State pays for week in a motel what an apartment would cost for a month. But, it makes it impossible for these poor women with families to claw their way out of the grasp. (NO sexism in that. I’m sure they make it just as hard for men.)

>Let us all march into the wonderful libertarian paradise

Yes, let us. Your gooferment imprisons us if we ever try to be free!

>in which we just step blithely and gingerly over the bodies and rotting corpses in the streets.

Not likely, someone will own that road or street and be very interested in keeping it clean and neat. Not like today, where a pothole can lay unattended for years!

>EMTs will require payment up front, otherwise, you just lay in the gutter until the vultures come.

No, but EMTs may have an annual fund drive where the community contributes voluntarily for their operation. And, the people will volunteer their time and effort to succor their fellow human being. And, religious communities will feel it is their moral obligation to help their fellow man. (I think it is humorous in NYC to see Orthodox Jews in their religious attire making ambulance runs on Wall Street.) AND, yes, after a service, you might receive a modest bill for the EMT organization for the cost of their service. With a polite request, that you consider defraying the expense of that service that they willingly gave you. And, once or twice a year, you may get a letter asking for your support of 15 to 30 dollars. Better than one enormous tax bill that you can’t tell covers what.

> That’s the libertarian way.

No, that’s the gooferment way. They put a gun to your head and take “their fair share”.

>If your drinking water is polluted, TOUGH LUCK!

The Gooferment is the acknowledged biggest polluter and the biggest enabler of pollution.

>In libertarian land it will be up to you alone to get rid of your own sewerage.

Yes, you will be RESPONSIBLE to clean up after yourself. Doesn’t South Brunswick Water and Sewer run as a separate entity. I sure pay them enough. Imagine if I had choices? SBW&S versus RotoRooter W&S versus WalMart W&S. Bet there’d be lower rates! And, if I had poluting runoff, what do you think Judge Judy would say? “Clean it up or we’ll do it for you?” And, I’d have an Insurance Company looking over my shoulder to “help” avoid problems.

>Starve the beast so billionaires can get richer.

Yes, because the current system doesn’t starve the poor and reward the rich. Ever wonder why their are so many rich people in gooferment? Argh! You are soooo blind.

All libertarians want is for everyone to be free and have the same choices we want for ourselves.

It’s been a universal drive since the first gooferment took power by force of arms. The People are stronger than any gang of crooks. No matter how they clothe themselves and propagandize themselves. They are and remain thugs who enslave us with our own memes and paradigms.

I’m not a slave. I may be opressed. But, I don’t accept it. See I’m free in my own mind.

“We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” Viktor Frankl 1946 “Man’s Search for Meaning”

Your gooferemnt can tax me, imprison me, and even kill me. But they can’t take away my liberty!

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   10:17 AM

AND IT CONTINUED

Anonymous Anonymous said…

   Sure there are many volunteer fire departments but who pays for the fire houses, the equipment, the insurances for all the buildings and equipment, the fire engines, the water system that supplies the fire hydrants and maintenance of the fire hydrants and all those miles of water pipes? Who pays? We pay through taxes, TAXES! Oh no, oh my God, taxes, that’s theft, that’s socialism. Alert the media.

   Wal-Mart roads? UPS roads? Not likely, UPS is cutting jobs, FedEx is cutting jobs nationwide. DHL is pulling out of America, so forget about DHL roads. When these companies go belly up or make drastic cuts because profits are down they will just abandon their roads. These are companies that only perform functions if there is a profit involved so they would charge for the use of their roads; if UPS takes ownership of Route 27 it would become a toll road. Let’s say that Wal-Mart takes ownership of Route 1, then Route 1 would become another toll road. If they don’t make a profit on these roads then they will just abandon them.

   Of course there are crooked corrupt police but there are a sheet load of crooked corrupt people in the private free market sector, too. Because there are crooked corrupt police we should just abandon publicly funded law enforcement?? I guess we should abandon capitalism, too, because there are so many crooked, corrupt, greedy and power hungry capitalists.

   10:27 PM

Blogger reinkefj said…

   >Sure there are many volunteer fire departments

   WOW, a concession to reality.

   >hydrants and all those miles of water pipes? Who pays? We pay through taxes

   Yes, men with guns extort us to pay for a service that we may or may not want. Now, why can’t we have a “McDonalds-like” solution. Why does every two-bit dictator decide what I will and won’t have? Business offer us services that I can pick and choose voluntarily. Why can’t we just say to the gang pretending to be “government”: “No thank you!”. No government is the Mafia. You will pay for their one size solution and shut up. What if we allowed insurance companies to worry about fire protection and I got to pick between: Allstate, State Farm, and None? Think that it couldn’t work?

   >TAXES! Oh no, oh my God, taxes, that’s theft, that’s socialism. Alert the media.

   Taxes are socialism and theft. Now you are beginning to get the idea. You have a right to keep your money and spend it as you see fit. Not as a gang of people with fancy dresses and flags say you have to. That gang can be in the SB municipal building, Trenton, DC, or in countless bureaucratic offices across the land. You should be offered choices; that you can make voluntarily. Sir, would you like fries with that? Choices. It’s a mindset. To us, little L libertarian there are few few legitimate functions of what you call “government” and we call “aggression”.

   >Wal-Mart roads? UPS roads? Not likely, UPS is cutting jobs, FedEx is cutting jobs nationwide.

   > DHL is pulling out of America, so forget about DHL roads.

   WalMart spent millions designing a truck with less drag to save gas and deliver lower costs. I’d love to see what they could do with a road!

   >When these companies go belly up or make drastic cuts because profits are down they will just >abandon their roads.

   Like the State does when they need the money for other purposes? ROFL, you have to be joshing me. When budgets get tight, the first thing the gooferment cuts is “services” to its “customers”. Where as a company cuts the fat.

   >would become another toll road.

   That’s only one idea in how to monetize a road. Advertising is another. Don’t try to guess what a company or a bright individual will do, you can’t. See that’s what makes a market so dynamic. Have you seen the “adopt a highway” signs. (Humorous, we pay taxes for the roads. Yet gooferment tin cups the clean up.)

   >If they don’t make a profit on these roads then they will just abandon them.

   Sure, you just throw away assets all the time. Even if you go to bankruptcy, someone buys the assets. Unless the gooferment is involved, then it’s often cheaper to abandon it. Like buildings and property taxes. And zoning and codes, that make it impossible to use. (Remember Sister Theresa in NYC was going to open a mission to help the unfortunate. She couldn’t because of all the city regs on property. When question why she didn’t have elevators, she answered that the Sisters would just carry the unfortunate from floor to floor like they do else where in the world. Denied. And, she went elsewhere.)

   >Of course there are crooked corrupt police

   Wow, another concession to the real world!

   >but there are a sheet load of crooked corrupt people in the private free market sector, too.

   First of all, there is no “free market sector” unless you consider the “underground economy” or the “illegal drug trade”. The Gooferment regulates everything. Even Madoff is a function of gooferment regulation. That fellow reported the fraud to the SEC for a decade. (Note: that covers BOTH of what you’d call “political parties” and I call “sides of the same coin”.) AND, in the supposedly “free market sector”, I chose who I give my money too. Madoff may fool me, but he didn’t force me. Fraud is a special form of aggression. BUT, he couldn’t have done it without the willing cooperation fo the gooferment.

   >Because there are crooked corrupt police we should just abandon publicly funded law enforcement??

   Yes. Not because it’s crooked, but because it’s root in force and aggression. I didn’t agree that they could use force on me, so for whence do they get the authority to hurt people. I can’t go club you. You can’t club me. So where do they get that authority to club people?

   > I guess we should abandon capitalism, too, because there are so many crooked,

   > corrupt, greedy and power hungry capitalists.

   We haven’t tried free market capitalism in this country for a long long time. Since before the Civil War. Ever since the Constitution was signed, the gooferment has been growing and intruding. Let’s try freedom and liberty. It’ll be a nice change.

   6:43 AM

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RANT: “House” jumped the shark

Saturday, April 11, 2009

http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/entertainment/House-Actor-Killed-Off-to-Work-for-Obama.html

“House” Actor Killed Off to Work for Obama
By CAITLIN MILLAT
Updated 7:44 PM EDT, Tue, Apr 7, 2009

*** begin quote ***

Ex-“House” actor Kal Penn, who was killed off the show on Monday, will work for the Obama administration as a public relations officer.

Kal Penn’s character was killed off on FOX’s medical hit “House” Monday so that he could leave his post at the doctor drama to work for President Barack Obama’s administration, Entertainment Weekly revealed Tuesday.

*** end quote ***

Has “House” now jumped the shark a la Happy Days?

It would seem that the show, and this actor in particular, has violated the rules of story telling. This was an avoidable external event. The “suicide” had no foundation. It’s absurd. Like “LOST”, it’s psychotic.

And, what makes Hollywood types think they are the “silver bullet”?

Where are the rejected candidates for this job? Was it “bid” out? Where’s the job spec? Or was it just created?

See that’s what’s wrong with the gooferment. Everyone gets to play on our credit card!

While not as bad as “barbara streisand” or “Hanoi Jane”, Actor turned bureaucrat Penn goes on my list of “Never Go See In A Million Years”.

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RANT: How do I acquire this “moral obligation”?

Thursday, April 9, 2009

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=93479

The moral dilemma of today’s statists
A Minority View Walter Williams
Posted: April 01, 2009

*** begin quote ***

There is neither moral justification nor constitutional authority for what amounts to legalized theft. This is not an argument against paying taxes. We all have a moral obligation to pay our share of the constitutionally mandated and enumerated functions of the federal government.

*** end quote ***

Unfortunately, I have to disagree with Professor Williams. I’m even further out on the Libertarian spectrum form him. I can refute his “moral obligation” with two words:

“Lysander Spooner”!

How is it I’m bound by what the DOWGs wrote before I was ever born?

And, that assumes that the Constitution in some way binds the gang in the District of Corruption!

Argh!

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