RANT: Former Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner

Sunday, November 17, 2013

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL Markets Alert
Geithner Heads to Private Equity
Former Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, one of the architects of the federal government’s rescue of the financial system, is joining private-equity firm Warburg Pincus.

Mr. Geithner, who has spent most of his career outside the private sector, said in an interview he plans to start in March at the New York-based firm, known for its role in buyouts of companies including Bausch & Lomb, Neiman Marcus Group and stadium concessionaire Aramark Corp.

At Warburg, he will serve as president and managing director.

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No revolving door here! Move along sheeple.

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MONEY: Don’t confront tyrants; laugh at them

Thursday, November 14, 2013

Sad what the Gooferment has done to this man. Just goes to show, it’s hard to directly confront tyrants. Need to get people laughing at them (i.e., the king’s new clothes). They can’t stand ridicule.

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All Quiet on the Court Front
Bernard von NotHaus
11:24 PM (18 hours ago)

LIBERTY DOLLAR NEWS:

October 2013 Vol. 15 No. 10

All Quiet on the Court Front

Dear Liberty Dollar Supporters!

Table of Contents:
1. All Quiet on the Court Front
2. 15th Anniversary of the Liberty Dollar
3. Gold Standard Is No Fairy Tale for the Middle Class
4. Brain Dead Idiots “Think” Inflation Helps
5. Feds Confiscate $29 Million BitCoins
6. Violent Crime is at a 42 year low!
7. Ten Most Disturbing Things About The FBI Since 9/11
8. One of the Greatest Failed Experiments in Economic History
9. NSA Paid ATT, Verizon and Sprint for Your Personal Info
10. Editorial RE 58% Support Cannabis Legalization & World Peace

1. All Quiet on the Court Front
Still no word from the Court regarding my Addendum to the Motion for Acquittal that was filed seven months ago. It’s now been two years and seven months since I was wrongfully convicted of counterfeiting US coins and still not sentenced up to 22 years in federal prison. Your patience to recover your wrongfully seized property is greatly appreciated. I will send a Liberty Dollar Alert as soon as I hear anything. Don’t give up the ship or the cause
it is right and good for people to have a choice between sound money vs. government issued fiat crap.

2. 15th Anniversary of the Liberty Dollar
While all the legal efforts and waiting for a positive closure to the BVNH case continue, the Liberty Dollar turned 15 years old on October 1. Looking back at its founding in 1998 as American Liberty Currency, the Liberty Dollar hit a live nerve and generated an amazing outpouring for a better currency. It gave voice to the thousands of people who knew that they were being ripped off by the government’s depreciating US dollar. Let us not lose sight that even though most people and nobody in academia could understand how a new private currency could be introduced and at a profit, you and thousands of supportive Americans took positive action and made a stand for the value based Liberty Dollar. Thank you for all the support and all those orders that made the Liberty Dollar – the second most popular currency in America. Happy Anniversary to all of you! Thanks for joining me in taking a historic stand for sound money!

3. Gold Standard Is No Fairy Tale for the Middle Class
The Gold Standard seems like a hot news item. Not that there are dozens of articles, but the increasing press regarding the Gold Standard is most encouraging. Forbes magazine continues to lead the charge to keep the advantages of the gold standard in the news and trumpet its value as the best monetary system. Here is a collection of the current articles of note:

For Struggling Middle Class Families, The Gold Standard Is No Fairy Tale
By Ralph Benko for Forbes
Conservatives spin fairy tales about the gold standard, dear Reader, because our reading of history shows gold to be unrivaled as a mechanism by which working families may prosper. We propose it to constrain the powerful and privileged and to lift humanity out of this “Little Dark Age” and onward to a Golden Age. Click title for the complete article.

Measured In Gold, The Story Of American Wages Is An Ugly One
by Keith Weiner for Forbes
Workers’ wages buy less and less. In fact, workers have lost purchasing power during the past half-century. Comparing prices to wages, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose more than six times from 1965 to 2011-while the minimum wage rose less than five times. Today’s minimum wage employee works 12 percent longer to earn enough for a gallon of milk compared to 1965, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Today’s senior engineer works almost twice as long to buy a gallon of gasoline, according to the Department of Energy. So, in real terms, wages have fallen. The drop is larger than it appears.

Is A Gold Standard Good Or Bad For The Middle Class?
By Nathan Lewis for Forbes
The U.S. middle class reached its peak of prosperity at the end of the 1960s. The typical one-income family could afford a house, car, decent healthcare and a college education, and still have enough left to maintain a 10% savings rate.

The United States had a gold standard policy from 1789 to 1971. At the end of that 182-year period, the U.S. middle class was the broadest and wealthiest in the history of the United States, and indeed the world. If a gold standard system is bad for the middle class, then how is it that, after nearly two centuries of a gold standard policy, the middle class was the best-off it has ever been?

Jim Rickards explains how a gold standard would be beneficial
By Herman James for Gold Seek
Mike Maloney asks Jim Rickards is there a better way?
Jim Rickards: Well I think there is a better way, and you’re right Mike. Central banking is 300 years old and it does go back to the creating of the Bank of England and now it’s a worldwide phenomenon. Yeah, bankers have always stood in the middle and taken a little bit out of every transaction, but for most of that time we were on a gold standard. So yes, bankers stood in the middle and they extracted a little profit, but the system as a whole had a governor – which was the gold standard – that came in various forms. Today we have no governor at all. We have the same system, with banks in the middle extracting profits, except there’s absolutely no limitation on the expansion of the balance sheet, the expansion of money, or currency as you call it. The word credit broadly defined. So it is out of control; it will collapse, it’s just a matter of time. I don’t think there’s any question about that.

The Gold Standard: The Case for Another Look
Sean Fieler and Jeffrey Bell argue in the WSJ that rise of the Tea Party movement is a sign that voters may be prepared to consider unorthodox proposals.

Washington’s elites are quietly preparing a post-election fiscal compromise that will fund much of President Barack Obama’s domestic spending agenda with huge tax increases. They aim to create a value-added tax and will argue that there is no alternative even though doing so will leave the United States resembling the stagnant, bureaucratic nations of Western Europe. But there is an alternative. The U.S. could return to a gold standard, a system that would not only prevent the government from running chronic budget deficits but would also curb attempts to manipulate the value of the dollar for political reasons.

Gold a Bubble? NOT – EVEN – CLOSE
By Michael J.Kosares October 2010

The Gold Standard, Issue #34, October 2013
The purpose of the Institute is to promote an unadulterated Gold Standard. Most proponents of free markets understand the practical and moral benefits of allowing people the freedom to produce and exchange, but fail to realize, or point out, that for a market to be truly free, money and credit must also be free – free from government control. As money is the foundation of every single commercial exchange, how can there be a free market if each exchange is distorted by a government monopoly?

Starved of gold, Indians may import record volumes of silver

4. Brain Dead Idiots “Think” Inflation Helps
Inflation is widely reviled as a kind of tax on modern life, but the Federal Reserve policy makers have a growing concern that inflation is not rising fast enough. Some economists say more inflation is just what the American economy needs to escape from a half-decade of sluggish growth and high unemployment.

If you can believe this crap, you qualify for a job at the Federal Reserve. Just when the wildest seeds of future inflation are being sown, now is the time to realize the depths of the evil partnership between big banks and big government. Inflation is theft of the people’s purchasing power! Click HERE for the complete article.

5. Feds Confiscate $29 Million BitCoins
Feds Confiscate Record $29 Million BitCoin Booty From Dread Pirate’s Hard Drive
After the FBI arrested Ross William Ulbricht – the creator of the now shutdown BitCoin -only “alternative” marketplace Silk Road also known as Dread Pirate Roberts, some were surprised that the Feds only confiscated about $3.6 million worth in BitCoins from Ulbrecht. Proving all doubters wrong, and that creating the first “libertarian” marketplace not subject to any rules and regulations, not to mention fiat monetary constraints, actually does pay quite well, it was revealed that Federal prosecutors found an additional $29 million, or 144,336 BitCoins.

6. Violent Crime is at a 42 year low!
Last week, the FBI released its national crime report for 2012. By a slight margin, the nation’s violent crime rate decreased in 2012 – relative to 2011 – making it the lowest since 1970. Compared to 1991, when it hit an all-time high, violent crime is down by 49 percent. The nation’s murder rate was unchanged in 2012 – still lower than any time since 1963 and at nearly an all-time low.

“Not once has the president remarked on these numbers. Neither has [anti-gun] New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg,” Miller wrote. “The liberal media pretend the statistics are written in invisible ink. Why the blackout? Because all violent crime – including gun homicide – has gone down over the last 20 years. The gun murder rate has gone from 6.62 per 100,000 inhabitants in 1993 to 3.27 in 2012, a decline of more than 50 percent.”

Who needs the government? Damn few!

7. Ten Most Disturbing Things About The FBI Since 9/11
As Congress considers the nomination of James B. Comey to lead the FBI for the next ten years, lawmakers should examine measures to rein in a bureau that has undermined civil liberties in the name of fighting terrorism a la the case against BVNH. This is a false trade off: we can be both safe and free. Click HERE for full article.

8. One of the Greatest Failed Experiments in Economic History
Jim Rickards, author of the best-seller Currency Wars, sees the world’s central banks embroiled in a “race to debase” their currencies in order to restore – at any cost – growth to their weakened economies. In the midst of the fight, the U.S. Federal Reserve wields oversized power due to the dollar’s unique position as the global reserve currency. As a result, actions by the Fed create huge percussive ripples across the battlefield, often influencing events in ways little understood by the players – and especially by the Fed itself.

In Rickards’ words, the policymakers at the Fed “think they are dialing a thermostat up and down, but they’re actually playing with a nuclear reactor – and they could melt the whole thing down.” It all ends in the collapse of the dollar. Click HERE for article.

9. NSA Paid ATT, Verizon and Sprint for Your Personal Info
The National Security Agency pay AT&T, Verizon and Sprint several hundred million dollars a year for access to 81% of all international phone calls into the US, according to a leaked inspector general’s report, which has been reported by the Washington Post, AP, and the New York Review of Books. In fact, this secret reports that “NSA maintains relationships with over 100 U.S. companies, underscoring that the US has the “home-field advantage as the primary hub for worldwide communications,” the New York Review of Books reported in its August 15 issue. These secret cooperative agreements were first made public by Edward Snowden, the NSA whistle blower. Click HERE for full article.

10. Editorial RE 58% Support Cannabis Legalization & World Peace
Article HERE.

Closing Remarks:
All this bad news and the sorry state of affairs in our great country and abroad simply confirm that when money goes crazy, people and especially the government goes crazy. The only way to correct such a disgusting government is to take the monetary powers back from the government. When the people lead – government follows.

Many thanks for your continued support. For it is only by banding together and adopting a free and independent currency that provides us with “just weights and measures” that we will be able to throw off the yoke of a manipulated monetary/tax system and generate a peaceful and prosperous society.

Thank you again for all your efforts to return America to value – one dollar at a time!

Bernard von NotHaus
Monetary Architect/Editor
Editor@LibertyDollar.org

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RANT: WebMD pockets Feds’ money to pimp Obamacare

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/nov/12/webmds-healthy-deal-with-obamacare-millions-of-dol/

Concierge medicine: WebMD pockets millions from feds to promote Obamacare
By Jim McElhatton-The Washington Times Tuesday, November 12, 2013

*** begin quote ***

WebMD says it doesn’t believe it had an obligation to disclose to its broad consumer base its $4.8 million contract with the government. The company says the contract, while awarded to WebMD, went through its Medscape platform, which provides continuing education to doctors in a password-protected portal and is run independently from WebMD’s news operation.

But a key senator disagrees.

*** end quote ***

I agree!

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RANT: 1M Californians

Tuesday, November 12, 2013

http://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2013/11/12/calif-insurance-commissioner-more-than-1m-californians-having-insurance-cancelled-due-to-obamacare/

Calif. Insurance Commissioner: More Than 1M Californians Having Insurance Cancelled Due To ACA
November 12, 2013 3:10 PM

*** begin quote ***

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (CBS Sacramento/AP) — Health insurer Anthem Blue Cross of California has agreed to a two-month extension of about 104,000 individual policies after failing to give the required 90-day cancellation notice, state Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones announced Tuesday.

*** end quote ***’

Can it get any worse?

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RANT: Does the sun rise tomorrow?

Monday, November 11, 2013

“I’ve lost her all over again. I’m so sad that I don’t have her. But I’m so grateful that she was with me on that island. And I know what I have to do now. I gotta keep breathing. Because tomorrow the sun will rise. Who knows what the tide could bring?” Chuck Noland (Tom Hanks) in “Cast Away” (2000)

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Why does this make me so sad?

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RANT: “from my cold dead hands” is more that bumpersticker

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

On Tue, Oct 29, 2013 at 4:40 PM, XXXX wrote:
http://www.wnd.com/2013/10/obama-gutting-military-by-purging-generals/

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Why torture me? I don’t like either party, or any pres. If martial law comes, “from my cold dead hands” is more that bumpersticker.

Remember:

“And how we burned in the camps later, thinking: What would things have been like if every Security operative, when he went out at night to make an arrest, had been uncertain whether he would return alive and had to say good-bye to his family? Or if, during periods of mass arrests, as for example in Leningrad, when they arrested a quarter of the entire city, people had not simply sat there in their lairs, paling with terror at every bang of the downstairs door and at every step on the staircase, but had understood they had nothing left to lose and had boldly set up in the downstairs hall an ambush of half a dozen people with axes, hammers, pokers, or whatever else was at hand? . . .” — Alexander Solzhenitsyn

and

“…if you will not fight for the right when you can easily win without bloodshed; if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival. There may even be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves.” -Churchill, The Second World War, vol. 1, The Gathering Storm (London: Cassell, 1948, 272, on the British guarantee to Poland in Spring 1939.

I will give a good acount of myself — I’ll take at least one with me.

If every patriot takes one, then the will run out of bad guys before they run out good guys resisting.

Buy a gun!

REMEMBER

“Son, we live in a world that has walls, and those walls have to be guarded by men with guns. Whose gonna do it? You? You, Lt. Weinburg? I have a greater responsibility than you could possibly fathom. You weep for Santiago, and you curse the Marines. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know. That Santiago’s death, while tragic, probably saved lives. And my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves lives. You don’t want the truth because deep down in places you don’t talk about at parties, you want me on that wall, you need me on that wall. We use words like honor, code, loyalty. We use these words as the backbone of a life spent defending something. You use them as a punchline. I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom that I provide, and then questions the manner in which I provide it. I would rather you just said thank you, and went on your way, Otherwise, I suggest you pick up a weapon, and stand a post. Either way, I don’t give a damn what you think you are entitled to.” Colonel Jessep in A Few Good Men played by Jack Nicholson

I’ll be on that “wall”. It may be like the Alamo. But better an honorable death, than life as a slave.

fjohn

—-

“The problems we face today are there because the people who work for a living are now outnumbered by those who vote for a living.” Anonymous

Ferdinand John Reinke
… a proud Virginian since March, 2012

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RANT: Obamacare ain’t “insurance”!

Saturday, October 26, 2013

http://techcrunch.com/2013/10/21/who-said-it-president-obama-or-an-infomercial/

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What a joke?

Billy Mays was more believable.

Consider the CONCEPT of insurance.

A bunch of people, who face the same risk, buy a “policy” that will pay if that event happens.

How is pre-existing coverage “insurance”?

I read somewhere that it’s like buying fire insurance after your house burns down!

Not even the Gooferment can refute economics!

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RANT: Canceling so-called “guaranteed issue” policies

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/Stories/2013/October/21/cancellation-notices-health-insurance.aspx&strip=1

Thousands Of Consumers Get Insurance Cancellation Notices Due To Health Law Changes
By Anna Gorman and Julie Appleby
KHN Staff Writers
Oct 21, 2013

*** begin quote ***

Some Policies Targeted

Both Independence and Highmark are cancelling so-called “guaranteed issue” policies, which had been sold to customers who had pre-existing medical conditions when they signed up. Policyholders with regular policies because they did not have health problems will be given an option to extend their coverage through next year.

Consumer advocates say such cancellations raise concerns that companies may be targeting their most costly enrollees.

They may be “doing this as an opportunity to push their populations into the exchange and purge their systems” of policyholders they no longer want, said Jerry Flanagan, an attorney with the advocacy group Consumer Watchdog in California.

Insurers deny that, saying they are encouraging existing customers to re-enroll in their new plans.

“We continue to cover people with all types of health conditions,” saidHighmark spokeswoman Kristin Ash.

She said some policyholders who may have faced limited coverage for their medical conditions will get new plans with “richer benefits” and the policies “in most cases, will be at a lower rate.”

Paula Sunshine, vice president of marketing with Independence, said the insurer hopes the cancelled policyholders will “choose Blue when they decide on a new plan.”

 *** end quote ***

Wow, Big Insurance gets to dump their “losers” on the Taxpayers and get all the healthy youngsters FORCED to buy their over-priced products. What could be wrong with that?

Remind you of Wall Street!

Suckers!!!!

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RANT: google does evil!

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

http://perezhilton.com/2013-10-19-taylor-swift-google-heart-sign-patent-stolen#sthash.Xgu7pUf9.dpbs

Taylor Swift Heart Sign Stolen! Patented By Google!
10/19/2013 6:01 AM ET | Filed under: Legal Matters • Tech Talk • Taylor Swift • GIFs

*** begin quote ***

Is Taylor Swift going to have to stop using her iconic heart hands?

Taylor has practically trademarked the lovely bit of sign language over the years, but Google decided to do her one better and patent it! For realz!

Google patented the “heart-hand gesture” for use with their new Google Glass technology, allowing people to use the sign to “like” things they see through the lenses.

*** end quote ***

Sorry, but how can Google “patent” something that is “prior art”?

Hope that I’m on the jury for that one!

They lose. (As well as all of the other stupid stuff that gets “patented”!!!)

Argh!

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RANT: “Phony” ceremonies

Friday, October 18, 2013

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/10/11/pentagons-stunning-admission-govt-has-held-phony-ceremonies-to-honor-fallen-u-s-soldiers-for-years/

GOVERNMENT
PENTAGON’S STUNNING ADMISSION: GOV’T HAS HELD ‘PHONY’ CEREMONIES TO HONOR FALLEN U.S. SOLDIERS FOR YEARS
Oct. 11, 2013 11:03am Billy Hallowell

*** begin quote ***

The Pentagon has admitted that dramatic repatriation ceremonies held at a Hawaii base have been fabricated to make it appear as though flag-draped coffins holding the remains of fallen U.S. soldiers were arriving that very day from old battlefields, NBC News reported.

In reality, the remains had already been sitting in American labs for months. The planes were also defunct and non-operational, so the notion that they carried the bodies back to the U.S. is an impossibility.

*** end quote ***

they sure fooled me. And I am <past tense synonym for urine output> off!

sorry, but I think the Congressman from the district, the Senator, and the President should be there when the remains return.

if that means “no golf” that day, then “tough <synonym for excrement>”!

Argh!

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RANT: My “concerns related to Syria” were to have the USA myob

Thursday, October 17, 2013

Dear Mr. Reinke,

 

Thank you for taking the time to contact me with your concerns related to Syria.

 

Since the April 2011 start of the Syrian conflict, more than 100,000 people have died, at least two million Syrians have become refugees according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and approximately five million Syrians are internally displaced. Based on the evidence that I have seen as a member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and the evidence presented in the UN Chemical Weapons Report on Syria, I believe that there were chemical attacks in Syria, and that the Syrian regime used chemical weapons against its own people. The evidence clearly points to the Syrian government being responsible for the attacks, which is part of a pattern of chemical weapons use by the regime. The use of chemical weapons clearly violates international norms and rejects international agreements banning the use of chemical weapons.

 

This grave attack, which United Nations (UN) Secretary General Ban Ki Moon has called “a crime against humanity,” requires a strong international response. We need to send a clear message that this kind of atrocity cannot be repeated, and those who perpetrated these crimes must be held accountable. I support efforts undertaken by the United States and other countries to reinforce the prohibition on the use of chemical weapons.

 

On September 14, 2013, the United States and Russia agreed to a “Framework for Elimination of Syrian Chemical Weapons,” which creates a series of conditions for Syria to meet its stated obligation to give up its chemical weapons. It takes into account the Syrian government’s decision to apply to join the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), which bans the development, production, stockpiling and use of these weapons. Syria is one of only five countries that has neither signed nor acceded to the CWC, and a specific condition of the U.S.-Russia framework is that Syria will accede to the CWC and commit to provisionally apply the Convention prior to its entry into force. Under the framework, international inspectors must be on the ground no later than November with an initial on-site inspection complete by the end of November. The Framework targets the complete elimination of chemical weapons material and equipment for the first half of 2014, and provides that if Assad fails to comply, this issue is referred to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC).

 

The adoption on September 27, 2013, by the full UNSC of a resolution that will ensure the Syrian regime’s compliance with its pledge to give up and destroy its chemical weapons is the most significant action by the Security Council since the start of the conflict in Syria, and I support this positive step. We should give this diplomatic route a chance to succeed as long as it is backed up with a credible use of force for non-compliance. Despite this positive trajectory, key issues remain. Implementation will be a challenge, and the Syrian government must meet tight deadlines. The international community, and the U.S. in particular, will need to verify Syria’s commitments, and inspectors must have unfettered and safe access to all chemical weapons sites. As past experience in Iraq has shown, this is not guaranteed, and we should continue to support longer term international efforts to resolve the crisis in Syria by political means.

 

As a member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, I have closely watched the crisis in Syria unfold over several years. I will continue to work to support international resolution of the Syria conflict that respects U.S. interests and the challenges we face at home and abroad today.

 

Again, thank you for contacting me. For further information or to sign up for my newsletter please visit my website at http://warner.senate.gov.

 

Sincerely,
MARK R. WARNER
United States Senator

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A fat lot of good it did?

# – # – # – # – #  2013-Oct-17 @ 19:54  


RANT: “Death Panel” thinking

Sunday, October 13, 2013

http://www.lewrockwell.com/2013/10/kimberly-paxton/high-school-death-panel%E2%80%A8/

LewRockwell.comanti-state•anti-war•pro-market

Forget Glee Club and Football – This High School Has a Death Panel!
By Kimberly Paxton
The Daily Sheeple
October 12, 2013

*** begin quote ***

Critics of the public school system will be pleased to know that St. Joseph-Ogden High School in Illinois is preparing kids for the future by teaching them practical skills.

That’s right – 15 and 16 year olds just had an assignment on how to distribute limited medical resources amongst a small sampling of the population. They got to pick who deserves to live and who deserves to die.

The lesson involves 10 people who are in desperate need of kidney dialysis.

*** and ***

“The assignment you are referring to is not a “Death Panel” assignment.  The assignment is one in the sociology unit of our Introduction To Social Studies class.  The purpose of the assignment is to educate students about social values and how people in our society unfortunately create biases based off of professions, race, gender, etc.  The teacher’s goal is to educate students in the fact that these social value biases exist, and that hopefully students will see things from a different perspective after the activity is completed.  The teacher’s purpose in the element of the assignment you are referring to is to get students emotionally involved to participate in the classroom discussion, and to open their minds to the fact that they themselves have their own social biases.  The assignment has nothing to do with a “Death Panel.”

*** end quote ***

Sure, surem sure.

Doesn’t look that way to me.

Implicit in the exercise is that the “student” has a moral imperative to make such decisions.

Or that, in fact, such decisions are made in our society.

Having known an older person undergoing dialysis, the free market, that wonder engine of chaotic order, has no such 6/10 shortage. 

It’s a limitation that doesn’t exist in the real world.

A while ago, more than a decade, I saw a brand new HUGE dialysis center by the airport. Far larger than would be needed by the small number of relatively healthy natives. I was curious so I called them talked to the Director. (Astonishingly he answer his own phone that was publicly listed.) He told me that it was built by the community with support from the hotels FOR TOURISTS who needed dialysis while they were on vacation. They accepted Medicare, all insurances, and cash. The “cash rate” was about a third of what my relative paid in NYC. And the fellow was very apologetic that the “cash price” was so high but all the critical supplies had to be airlifted in due to expiration dates.

I was floored.

So, let’s put “WalMart” in charge of everything. (WalMart is my metaphor for a truly free market.)

Argh!

So hospital with only capacity for 6 could put on a second shift for capacity of 12. Now we just have to figure out how to pay for it. How about a “Bake Sale”? Wanna bet if our society can sell naming rights of stadiums, our second shift’s name can be sold. 

I think “Reinke’s Ranters” has a nice ring to it.

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RANT: Phishing

Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Important Password Reset Information
To view this message in a language other than English, please click here.

We recently discovered that an attacker illegally entered our network and may have obtained access to your Adobe ID and encrypted password. We currently have no indication that there has been unauthorized activity on your account.

To prevent unauthorized access to your account, we have reset your password. Please visit http://www.adobe.com/go/passwordreset to create a new password. We recommend that you also change your password on any website where you use the same user ID or password. In addition, please be on the lookout for suspicious email or phone scams seeking your personal information.

We deeply regret any inconvenience this may cause you. We value the trust of our customers and we will work aggressively to prevent these types of events from occurring in the future. If you have questions, you can learn more by visiting our Customer Alert page, which you will find here.
Adobe Customer Care

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Yeah right!

If you’d come in on the correct address, maybe I might believe you!

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RANT: Governments are not restrained by pieces of paper

Friday, October 4, 2013

http://www.lewrockwell.com/2013/09/no_author/do-you-know-who-killed-the-constitution%E2%80%A8/

Who Killed the Constitution?
A transcript of the Lew Rockwell Show episode 003 with Tom Woods.
September 28, 2013

*** begin quote ***

And, by the way, Lew, that’s actually the argument that most turned me away from being a sort of traditional, old-fashioned constitutionalist, a constitutionalist-type conservative and into a more radical Libertarian, were precisely these arguments that governments are not restrained by pieces of paper. They cannot possibly be. And once you realize that, then that just opens up a panorama of alternatives that you never considered before. 

*** end quote ***

As we can see with BHO44 granting “exemptions” that he has no authority to grant. The IRS making Obamacare rules it has no authority to do. 

The revolution is coming!

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RANT: Pimco is crony capitalism at it’s worst

Wednesday, October 2, 2013

http://www.againstcronycapitalism.org/2013/09/special-report-pimco-shook-hands-with-the-fed-and-made-a-killing/

Reuters Special Report: Pimco shook hands with the Fed – and made a killing
By Editor on September 27, 2013

*** begin quote ***

The giant fund-management firm, led by co-founder Bill Gross, started buying tens of billions of dollars in mortgage-backed securities guaranteed by federally sponsored agencies like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. In the third quarter of 2011 alone, Pimco’s flagship Total Return Fund, the world’s largest mutual fund, doubled its holdings of these securities to $80 billion, according to a Reuters review of trading and other data.

While Pimco was building its hoard, the Fed, in a surprise move long before any word on quantitative easing, said it would start buying more of the same kind of debt, known in the trade as “agency MBS.” The U.S. central bank would acquire as much as $30 billion of the securities a month by reinvesting proceeds from its earlier purchases. Prices rose.

As 2011 slid into 2012, Pimco started enjoying big gains on its agency holdings. Even better, the Fed in September 2012 finally announced a third round of quantitative easing, nicknamed QE3. To keep supporting the U.S. housing market, it would buy even more agency MBS. Pimco’s Total Return Fund posted billions more dollars in gains.

*** end quote ***

Argh!

This is legalized theft.

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RANT: The IRS influenced the BHO44 reelection

Monday, September 30, 2013

http://www.theblaze.com/contributions/obama-and-thugs-pulled-off-the-heist-of-the-century/

OBAMA AND THUGS PULLED OFF THE HEIST OF THE CENTURY
Sep. 28, 2013 9:00am
WAYNE ALLYN ROOT

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What did the IRS get out of this? The answer is pure bribery. Republicans, and especially Tea Parties, believe in limited government, smaller budgets, fewer government employees, and cutting bloated salaries, obscene pensions, and early retirement for government employees. Another Tea Party landslide would have threatened the power of government employee unions. Many government employees would have been laid off.

Does anyone believe it a coincidence that Obama met with IRS union boss Colleen Kelley at the White House the day before the targeting of Tea Parties by the IRS began? If you do, I have a bridge to sell you in Brooklyn.

Barack Obama was fraudulently re-elected. Our country was hijacked by government employees protecting their cushy lifetime jobs, bloated salaries, obscene pensions, and powerful unions.

Think I’m wrong? Evidently IRS officials don’t. Several of them have been busy hiring famous and expensive law firms to defend themselves.

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RANT: Over the wall with a pair of hands

Sunday, September 29, 2013

http://www.cracked.com/blog/5-true-stories-behind-iconic-pictures-badass-women_p2/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=fanpage&utm_campaign=new+article&wa_ibsrc=fanpage

206342 v2

When Mrs. van Gorkum died eight years after husband, she wasn’t plopped down in the family plot at all; instead she was placed on the other side of the wall where her husband was buried. And the two graves were connected over the wall with a pair of hands.

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I really liked this one!

Screw the prejudices of others.

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RANT: Raging at the dying!

Thursday, September 26, 2013

http://zenhabits.net/changes/

The Pain & Beauty of Life Changes
By Leo Babauta

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The reason for our suffering is our resistance to the changes in life.

And life is all changes.

*** and ***

A loved one dies. One of the ultimate changes is death, of course, but what has changed? Well, the person is obviously no longer in our life (at least, not in the same way), but just as painfully, we are not the same person when a loved one dies. We have to change who we are — we’re now a widower instead of a husband, a father without his daughter, or a friend who is left alone (for example). We want life to be the way it was, but it isn’t, so we grief, we rage.

*** end quote ***

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Be like Dylan Thomas, and rage at the “dying of the light”.

Why do I always think of Rodney Dangerfield recitation of this poem?

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090685/quotes

==

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

===

To which is the movie, there’s a line: “I mad as hell! And, I don’t take no crap from anybody.”

That’s how I feel.

Raging at the dying of the light!!!

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RANT: Opposition to Obamacare

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Ted Cruz Is Talking Until He Can’t Stand Anymore
“I rise in opposition to Obamacare,” the Texas Republican began. This speech may go on for a while.

By Matt Berman, Matt Vasilogambros and Dustin Volz
Updated: September 24, 2013 | 7:50 p.m.
September 24, 2013 | 2:58 p.m.

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Has to stop somewhere?

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RANT: Flashback to 1992

Saturday, September 21, 2013

http://formerspook.blogspot.com/2013/09/passing-buck.html

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2013

Passing the Buck

*** begin quote ***

Perhaps Mr. Hagel and Navy Secretary Ray Mabus will expand the official inquiry to determine who “passed the buck” on an individual who should have been booted from the reserves for his conduct and denied both a security clearance and employment as a defense contractor. As more is learned about the former Petty Officer, we seem ample opportunities for intervention–opportunities that were continually ignored, for whatever reasons.

Sadly, this isn’t the first time that commanders and supervisors have taken a pass on dealing with a troubled individual, with deadly consequences. And we’re not referring to Fort Hood, either.

Flashback to 1992. A young man from Michigan with a long history of mental illness appeared at an Air Force recruiting office. Apparently, his problems never surfaced during the enlistment process; the individual either lied to the recruiters, or the service ignored potential warning signs. With a solid score on his ASVAB, the individual was allowed to enlist and shipped out for basic training.

*** end quote ***

Sorry, but everyone in the chain of command should take a serious hit for this, these, blunders.

But, politicians and bureaucrats don’t care!

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RANT: Surprised? Not me!

Thursday, September 19, 2013

FROM WSJ!

 

Pricing Glitch Afflicts Rollout of Online Health Exchanges
Government software can’t reliably determine how much people need to pay for coverage, as the launch of health-insurance exchanges nears.

If not resolved by the Oct. 1 launch date, the problems could affect consumers in 36 states where the federal government is running all or part of the exchanges. About 32 million uninsured people live in those states, but only a fraction of them are expected to sign up in the next year.

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POLITICAL: Kidnapped Anti-War Celebrities?

Saturday, September 14, 2013

http://www.buzzfeed.com/johnekdahl/14-principled-anti-war-celebrities-we-fear-may-hav-a1x1

14 Principled Anti-War Celebrities We Fear May Have Been Kidnapped
Our government is yet again marching us towards a war of choice in the Middle East and our non-partisan, peace-loving celebrities have gone missing since late 2008. We fear the worst.
posted on September 6, 2013 at 5:51pm EDT

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Can the Sheeple see the astroturf?

Not bloody likely.

Call them what they are: phonies, fakes, and frauds!

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RANT: Court Says TSA Can Lie

Friday, September 13, 2013

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130905/18570724424/court-says-tsa-can-lie-about-whether-not-it-has-information-youre-requesting.shtml

Court Says TSA Can Lie About Whether Or Not It Has The Information You’re Requesting
from the clearly-spelled-out-on-the-brand-new-FUIA-request-forms dept

*** begin quote ***

In theory, the Freedom of Information Act is great. It allows citizens to pursue disclosure from government entities in order to better understand processes or look for malfeasance. In reality, however, it’s often incredibly difficult to convince these agencies to actually free up any information.

Whatever isn’t delayed indefinitely is redacted heavily. Everything else that doesn’t hit these two extremes tends to run into various bureaucratic walls. FOIA request fulfillment is often handed off to whatever part of the agency seems least likely to want the job, either because of its natural antipathy towards the public or because it’s chronically understaffed.

It’s gotten to the point where people are regularly suing the government to get documents released. No one needs to point out the sheer insanity of a system that expends public money to keep public documents from the public, especially one that is governed by an act meant to make the wall between the public and its servants so thin as to be nearly transparent.

*** end quote ***

Hopefully, one of these days, the Sheeple will wake out and realize that the Dead Old White Guys were right and it’s Gooferment we have to fear!

Argh!

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RANT: Yet another rep who doesn’t represent my thinking!

Thursday, September 12, 2013

 

U.S. Senator Kaine <senator@kaine.senate.gov>
2:48 PM (6 hours ago)

to goa
Letterhead
September 11, 2013
Mr. Ferdinand Reinke
1641 International Dr Unit 414
McLean, VA 22102-4831

Dear Mr. Reinke:

Thank you for sharing your thoughts about the Senate vote on limited military action to punish Syria’s use of chemical weapons against civilians. This is a difficult issue and an important one.

First, I applaud President Obama for bringing the matter to Congress for a vote. Given a recent history where many Presidents have acted to initiate military action without legislative approval, I have been urging President Obama and his Administration to bring Congress fully into these decisions. We are stronger in any military action when the political leadership is united and Congress must go on record on a decision as serious as this.

Second, after significant classified and unclassified briefings, discussion with military and foreign policy experts, conversation with Virginians, and much thought, I voted in favor of authorizing limited military action. It has a specific purpose – to punish the Assad government for its use of chemical weapons and strongly deter any future use. The authorization is limited in scope and time, guarantees that no American troops will be deployed inside Syria for combat operations, and requires all diplomatic options to be exhausted before the commencement of any military strikes. These actions have helped pressure Assad to consider relinquishing his chemical weapons stockpile to international control. I welcome this development and will continue to carefully examine this and any other credible offers presented by the Russians and Syrians.

I voted for the authorization for a simple reason – there has been an international consensus against chemical weapons use since 1925 that has been followed in a near universal manner. The prohibition has protected civilians, as well as American servicemembers who have fought in Europe, the Pacific, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan without the threat of chemical weapons being used against them. If we allow Assad’s use of chemical weapons to kill combatants in a civil war and also innocent civilians, including hundreds of women and children, we can be guaranteed that he will do it again. He might use them against larger groups of civilians in Syria. Or he might use them against neighboring countries – Turkey, Jordan, Israel, Lebanon – with significant populations of American citizens and servicemembers. Unless we act to stop him now, we will send the message to other tyrants that using chemical weapons–is acceptable. That message jeopardizes the lives of our servicemembers in combat both today and in the future. It’s in our national security interest to defend the principle that has protected them from these inhumane weapons for nearly 90 years.

I believe that acting now to uphold the prohibition against chemical weapons will make us safer and avoid larger challenges in the future. I recognize the risk this poses, but I believe the risks of inaction are greater. If America leads, we will have partners. But if we do nothing, I am not sure that any nation will stand up against this horrific crime. I find the gassing of innocent men, women, and children intolerable, and believe there must be a consequence.

Once again, I appreciate your thoughts.

Sincerely,

Signature

Tim Kaine

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What does one do when one’s “representatives” never listen!

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RANT: Remember two things: 9/11 and Benghazi — both national disasters

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

9/11

A national disgrace. 

“We” rebuilt the WTC, but it’s a shadow of its former self. I would have put up a replacement with an extended middle finger.

Benghazi-gate

Obama, Clinton, many politicians and bureaucrats failed 4 good men. And, it’s a stain on the nation’s history. CYA still abounds. Considering the Sheeple never DEMAND the truth, it’ll never be cleansed.

Dona Nobis Pacem!

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RANT: Labor Day deaths!

Monday, September 2, 2013

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/09/01/6-people-including-2-children-killed-in-head-on-car-crash-in-pennsylvania/?test=latestnews

Look at the picture. 

The Bonneville was destroyed!

The Jeep seemed no where near as bad.

What speeds were involved?

Too do that much damage; 80, 90?

Argh!

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