Reinke Faces Life

… … why was td10933 doing 75 mph on Route 295 South MileMarker 43 at 0721 this morning? Rushing to get to work to serve the taxpayers of New Jersey? Guess we taxpayers don't have to save on the gas we buy. By The Way, he went right by one NJ plate holder aka sucker pulled over by the State Police presumably for speeding. Guess that sucker was just trying to get to work on time so as he could pay his taxes. Funny how I never see a state worker, state car, or such pulled over. Guess that is the divine right of the rulers not to be bound by the same rules as every one else in the People's Republic of New Jersey. We all know that no Prince of the State (i.e., a member of the State ruling body) would ever even be bothered by being pulled over since their cars (and those of their immediate families) have special adorned plates with the "regal crown" on them and laughably low numbers. And we'll never see any of the legions of "police" pulled over since they too have special "badges" on their cars (e.g., NJSP stickers; FOP & PBA medallions; etc.; etc.; etc.). No it's only Joe Six Pack who has to worry about being selected by the "Special Revenue Generation" teams aka the various "police" with radar guns and speed traps. Yup, it's not about safety silly taxpayer. It's about splitting the take from their scheme with local politicians thru their kangaroo courts. Visualize it as a bunch of jackels fighting over a rotting corpse of a taxpayer and then looking for the next victim. Hump, silly peasant, think that government is here to protect and serve you. DOn't they read the Supreme Court decisions that say we don't even have to try. We are good at that … … not trying … … anything but your patience. We need a good tax revolt NOW! Why does the gummamint tax gas? So we can watch the State's cars speed by.

The gummamint's (government) anti-drug commercials are often stupid, down right dumb, or occasionally iritating. Tonight I saw one of the especially stupid ones. Reminds me of something I first heard from my now deceased mother in law.

Picture this. Young girl walks to car. A shimmering mother commands "Say thank you" to the socially inept kid. She gets in. The ghostly mother demands "Fasten your seat belt!" to the dumb kid. She's offered drugs. Silence. A stage voice says "What will she do if you never told her?"

I can hear my mother in law saying in a loud irritated voice: "She'd use the brains that God gave her!" which was her favorite rejoinder for any especially dumb idea, stupid action, or disastrous results.

I miss her common sense. I think the government has too much of our money to waste like this.

It's nobody business when people make bad choices, suffer the consequences, and have to overcome the results. Maybe then people will learn to make better choices rather than have Mommy Government to "protect" them paying for it by robbing everyone.

Arghhh!

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12583997/

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Stocks fell on Monday after CNBC's Maria Bartiromo revealed on air that Ben Bernanke felt his testimony last week had been "misunderstood."

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This has so many aspects. Let's start with the "Federal Reserve Bank" is a misnomer. It ain't "federal"; it's a private club. It's sole purpose was / is to evade the Constitutional restrictions on fiat currency. Remember the famous Cross of Gold speech? This is taking that to it's absurd conclusion. Hyper inflation. Unelected minions enabling the Federal Government to spend more than it takes in by stealing your savings. And, if you're an economist who subscribes to the Austrian School of vonMises and Ben is "misunderstood". Aghhhh! But I did like the quote "money honey", perhaps Ben was seduced into confessing his feelings. Sex does move the blood from the thinking end to the other end! Madison Avenue knows that.

Dear Editor Hudzinski, Ocean County Observer,

May I call your attention to a few facts of life about speed limits?

(1) Let’s examine the motivations.

Let’s discuss speed limits. We had the 55 limit in the Carter years and it was a joke. You noted that doing the speed limit on the Garden State Parkway is a good way to get run over. The road is probably engineered for 100. Laws by government don’t change behavior. At best, they are suggestions; at worst, they are just taxes in disguise. So what could be Governor Corzine’s motivation? Increased revenue can’t be ruled out. But, perhaps more likely, the conceit that he knows what is best for all the sheep people.

(2) Let people be free!

People “know” that slower speeds save gas. But, time is money as well. People have a complex calculation that factor in the cost of gasoline, the value of their time, and a slew of other factors. Everyone’s values are differently. The results of those individual calculations are “perfect” decisions for them. When the government comes in and imposes its values and its solutions, it upsets those “ecology” that has served them over time. It takes awhile but they will find their own level again.

(3) Laws don’t do anything!

Since the current set of laws aren’t obeyed, what makes one think that a new set will be complied with better?

(4) If it’s about saving gas … …

How about making it a law that we will have random road stops to test tire pressure? That will save more gas then a speed limit. Most cars tires are under inflated.

(5) If it’s about saving gas … …

How about the state’s own cars? I see them speeding all the time.
And, what happens when the marketplace “fixes” the high price of gas, will those speed limits be raised? Right!

How about a counter proposal?

Let’s eliminate ALL taxes on gas and oil products!

My rationale is not only does it make gas more affordable, BUT, it also takes it out of every product or service that we buy. The bottom line is that the State will have to go on a severe fiscal diet. Governor Corzine’s Wall Street experience will serve us well if he reduces State Government in half.

They say that the State provides needed services. I’d say that it provides those services at the end of a gun. It the services are so needed, then people will voluntarily pay for them. If they don’t get voluntary support, then I guess they are NOT so needed.

It’s also said that democracy is two wolves and a sheep deciding what’s for dinner by majority vote. State services paid for by theft by taxes is the same thing. The voters deciding what services that the taxpayers will fund.

Liberty works better than government!

F. Reinke
A bennie in
Seaside Heights NJ

http://www.courierpostonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060428/COLUMNISTS13/604300317/1062/NEWS01

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Orderly racks of highly polished, formidable-looking guns are everywhere; guns made by various manufacturers (all the familiar names), guns of various calibers, guns of various vintages.

"To me, they represent the history of a country that emerged from nothing to what we are today," says Viden, whose two sons, Bob and Wayne, are partners in the business. His daughter, Wendy Copenhaver, is the company's bookkeeper.

"We're not a world power because of guns, but because of the freedom of having guns," Viden adds.

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The virtue of self-reliance is lost. Have a problem run to Mommy Government. Someone hurts your feelings ask Father State to pass a law. Caught in a natural disaster; don't worry, stick it to your fellow taxpayers.

We need to resurect the American spirit, the American energy, and the American values and ideals.

http://www.freemarketnews.com/WorldNews.asp?nid=12071

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He cites taped evidence showing that flight attendants from Flight 11 were in communication with American Airlines ground control "minutes after the hijacking began," and notes that American's management was more concerned with "keeping things secret" than with alerting other airlines, or even their own pilots, to possible further dangers. Had they done so, Ridgeway says, "There is a real likelihood people at least could have evacuated the second tower."

Meanwhile, he continues, Flight 93, which was at that time still "sitting on the Newark airport tarmac," might well have avoided its subsequent hijacking. The 9/11 Commission report found "no evidence…that American Airlines ever sent any cockpit warnings to its aircraft on 9/11," while only the relative "mutiny" of a United Airlines dispatcher, acting against the order to maintain silence, gave Flight 93's pilot a too-late warning about his own plane's possible jeopardy. – ST

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Interesting question. You would think that with the FAA "in control" someone would have passed along the information. At the very least, a smart pilot could have kept control,of his aircraft.

It also begs the question. Why are there doors to the cockpit? You'd think that that would be sealed off.

http://www.lewrockwell.com/edmonds/property-salvation.html

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In a free society with all property being privately owned, the problems would have been reduced or entirely prevented.

I'll begin with Katrina: No one can stop a hurricane, nor affect its strength. Remember, though, that the hurricane did ordinary catastrophic damage to Louisiana and Mississippi. It was the existence of "public property" that resulted in subsequent flooding and bungled relief efforts that harmed the greatest number of people the most. If property were private, there wouldn't have been government levees to fail. Either that section of New Orleans wouldn't have been settled, or private levees would have been in place and been maintained far better than the government ones.

A likely scenario for private ownership of the levees would have seen their ownership in the hands of investors, and their upkeep paid for by insurers. Insurers would then charge homeowners in the levee-protected areas enough to cover the cost of maintenance. As it was, since government money paid for maintenance, it was possible for that money to be diverted — as it was, in this case, by the Bush administration, toward the war on Iraq. Then, in the aftermath, government employees turned away private trucks loaded with relief aid. The State continues to squander money earmarked for relief efforts, such as with the non-flood-zone approved house trailers rotting in the mud in Texas and Arkansas. Private insurance companies, who have to compete with each other to retain customers, do better than this.

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There is no doubt that the private free market leads to peace and well-being. Only the gummamint with it's use of force, its unique ability to force "services" upon us, and its inherent unappologetic inability to deliver on its promises is given a free pass on criticism.

Its police ride around in cars that say "protect and serve" but the courts say there is no such obligation.

Its theft is legitimized by "informal ammendments" to the restrictive Constitution.

It just ingores the rules it itself promulgates.

Any other entity that had such a track record would be delt with swiftly and severely. Yet we think gummamint is different.

Yahoo support doesn't listen. Message after message, they keep acting as if it's the program that's crashing when it is the installer. Argh. If I ever run a support group again, then I am going to stencil everyone's hand with "Listen to the Customer!". Arghh.

http://www.contactmusic.com/new/xmlfeed.nsf/mndwebpages/gyllenhaal%20offends%20gulf%20war%20veterans_29_04_2006

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GYLLENHAAL OFFENDS GULF WAR VETERANS   
 
 
Also see:
JAKE GYLLENHAAL
JARHEAD

Movie star JAKE GYLLENHAAL has shocked American Gulf War veterans by joking they did nothing but "masturbate" during their time in the desert in 1991. The cheeky 25-year-old stars in JARHEAD, a movie exposing the US soldiers' lack of combat in the Middle Eastern conflict. He said, "The US soldiers were sent to the desert for 122 days and they sat in the same tent and did nothing, except a little too much masturbating."
29/04/2006 14:28  
 
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I guess this bozo was trying to impress his Hollywood friends by trying to win the Jane Fonda award for "most unpatriotic most ungrateful most insensitive Hollywood snob". Now I'm not for war. But you don't insult the the people that you sent there. Yes, by being part of the American gravy train, Hollywood has to accept blame for the decisions that send our boys and girls in harm's way. I  think that the Hollywood elite demonstrate their shallowness when they open their mouths with unscripted unrehearsed lines. They have been given a great gift by (Pick One: the Intelligent Designer; the American public; the hander out of lucky breaks) and have a chance to demonstrate their sensitivity, humility, and all the other good virtues that American's admire. My model for a Hollywood star is Bob Hope. I don't know if he agreed with any war; he certainly was sarcastic about generals and Presidents. But I do know that he was out do his part for the troops. Not tha the woudl, but if he said something like that, I'd give him a lot of slack. For an actor, who ain't done much for the public good, I give no quarter. By the way, I saw Jarhead and was disappointed. The whole thing stunk. Boring, predictable, and the acting left me "uninvolved". So to quote Nicholson in "A Few Good Men":

"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!"

My words to this fellow, and Hollywood in general, is:

"You have a lot of nerve. You benefit from this society more than anyone. Yet, from your position of privilege and honor, you insult the very people who make you possible. You better repent and atone soon 'cause retribution comes swiftly. Vets, even non-combat ones like me, have very long memories. Ask Jane Fonda. To this day, I shun her. If someone brings it up, I explain that you can NOT bite the hand that feeds you with expecting some adverse consequences. You can be sure that I will inform every vet I know to boycott you and your ilk."

By the way, I sent this is on its way to every vet I know, the American Legion, the VFW, and several thousand of my fellow alums.

I won't be watching any more of his work. He's in my "Jane Fonda" folder.

###

Is this activity of any use? I’m really not sure it’s being read. And if it’s being read, is it of value? And, value to whom?

All I get out of it is a toilet paper roll of random musings. At least they are all captured in one place. I does discharge that self-imposed need to discharge nervous energy. (I just typoed gry. What were those three words — hungry, angry, and ?)

See I am crazy.

Does this advance my thought that each individual has a duty to publish? To share their own particular data – information – knowledge – wisdom. When I do the alumni obits, I always ask “what have we lost”. Each individual has a unique value. Maybe that’s why I’m pro life. Maybe that baby is going to cure cancer, advance human thinking, or just make people laugh.

(I can see the groans on your faces! He’s going to tell the Wally Crowther Cave story again! Arghh! Run. He is “in a twisty maze of passageways, all alike” in his sick mind. Now he’s going to tell that story again. Run! Ahhh! Too late. Not fast enough!)

When I was at AT&T I found adventure. Not out on the plains of Africa, not in the dangerous streets of manhattan, not on a mountain. I found it at the end of a teletype terminal. I dragged it everywhere there was a phone line. I was hooked. Colossal Cave Adventure was the first known interactive fiction game, created by Will Crowther originally, to simulate his cave exploring experiences. I played Adventure so often that sometimes I would fall asleep at the computer, not go to class, or ignore everything. I made maps. And shared them with my fellow geeks. Meeting dwarfs and saying “plugh”. I figured out how to traverse the identical caves. I actually had the path memorized. When I was dropped in the maze randomly. All I need was one object (I always kept the empty bird cage for that purpose) and I could be out of the maze in no more than thirty two steps with the cage. I would find my way out and then go back to get may cage for when it happened again. I enjoyed the world that existed solely in my head and some far off server. Adventure by my keyboard.

Anyway, I became aware of the unknown value of a potential life from a stupid computer game. (No, I was not on drugs! It just came as one of my “insights”. You know, bang your head on the wall long enough and you get the “insight” that maybe it would hurt less if you stopped!)

Early in the game there’s a bird. Fifth or sixth move. And you can do lot’s of things with the bird. Kill it. Eat it. But if you leave it alone, then a few caves later, you’ll find a bird cage. And a few caves later, your progress is blocked by a giant snake. So having nothing much else to do, you go back get the cage, catch the bird, and release it at the snake. The bird drives off the snake and you are free to explore Walter’s world that everyone is raving about.

Now I introduced a number of people to the game. I was amazed at how many smart people for no good reason would kill the bird. It told me something about human nature and life.

(1) Killing things chokes off possibilities. That’s when I became a pro-lifer. Maybe we have aborted the person who will cure cancer, lead us to the stars, or just make us laugh. Look at Hawking advancing the forefront of physics and tell me that it can’t happen. So I formed my opinion, that we ought not be killing people. Before they are born, after they do bad things, because they are deformed, old, sick, or don’t conform to someone’s opinions of what should be.

(2) People do things for no good reason just cause they can. And, they are never aware that they have limited their possibilities. Eliminated a path of great possible reward. Scoped themselves down. Hence I relized that making choices is fraught with hidden risks and I always thought about my choices very very carefully. Choices end to be mutually exclusive. Doing X means you can’t do Y. That makes life tough.

By The Way, I never told any of them what they missed. It was perverse. But those of us who had gotten by the snake formed a sacred oath never to divulge the secret of the snake. It was hysterical to watch people spend literally hours trying to find the now permanently blocked path. Someone once said something about “experience is a hard teach but fools will learn form no other”.

Any way, does this blog matter? It represents a choice. By doing this, I am not doing somethign else. And you now know why choices are so hard for me. I know there is a lot I don’t know but I don’t know what I don’t know. Help me?

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2006/04/27/real_relief_on_gas_prices/?rss_id=Boston+Globe+–+Op-ed+columns

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''Gasoline price increases are like a hidden tax on the working people," President Bush said in a speech that called for a federal inquiry into possible price-gouging, an easing of environmental rules on gasoline production, and a halt to new purchases for the nation's energy reserve.

Bush conveniently ignored one built-in cost: Government levies include a federal 18.4 cents-a-gallon tax on gas; and the states tax on top of that.

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Hey, somebody figured out that the tax on gasoline gets added into everything we buy. Hmmm, think I heard that before. What are we stupid?

Dear fellow traveler,

I don't understand how forwarding an email that may or may not be authentic helps anyone. Usually I counsel people not to do this bcause:

(1) Cause it doesn't get read.
(2) It absorbs a lot of different kinds of "space".
(3) Exposing all those email addresses to spammers is a bad idea.
(4) It doesn't influence anyone.

[The reader's are urge to improve my list by sharing their own points.]

If you were moved by the underlying message, then tell us about your experience. Trim the text so it has a high signal to noise ratio. Distill it.

(By the way, pictures don't usually come thru the forwarding process well. And they take a lot of space.)

That adding, distillation, and trimming all has value and merit. And, it might influence your fellow XYZers to think about something, think about it differently, or Intelligent Designer forbid they might actually change an opinion. See the way you did it, forwarding a many times forwarded message with no value added, makes people think that it was done in a careless fashion. Where as, if you add some value to it by telling people why you think it's important to share it, then you might actually do some good.

Email is a wonderful tool properly used. This message did nothing for me but make me rant.

The New York Post
April 26, 2006 Wednesday
SECTION: All Editions; Pg. 82
HEADLINE: JASPER BIG 3 IN LIMBO
BYLINE: TIM SULLIVAN
LOAD-DATE: April 26, 2006

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Xavier, a sophomore guard from Pawtucket, R.I., who averaged 16.6 points this season, has a scholarship waiting for him at Providence if he’d like to transfer, sit out a season and play for his hometown Friars. The Big East might be too tough to turn down, but he is keeping all options open.

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It really not fair that the coach can change at will, and yet the players have to sit out a year if they transfer. It’s just rotten! Now, why doesn’t the coach have to sit out for a year?

Why do the players have to sit out?

At the very least, to compensate them for the “lost years” (i.e., for the time they invested in the departing coach who leaves them in the lurch), they should be allowed to play for some one else right away.

While I urge evryone to get the paperwork in order when they are young, (i.e., will, poa, hcp, and advanced directive), I predict that we all will get old. I have three old folk that I am responsible for. Tonight I am elder-sitting my Mom who just came home from the hospital. She lives in NYC and I’m in Jersey. This would have been so much much easier if I could have convinced her to move to NJ with the rest of the relatives decades ago. But her stuborness, and my inability to convince, and my failure to “make her”, puts me where I am today. She’s getting older and could have had an easier life by being closer.

So, under the theory that you dont have to pay tuition for every lesson (i.e., don’t make the same mistakes I do; learn from the mistakes of others; be a “fortune teller” predict the future), learn from my mistakes. If you are an only child, have your parents physically close to you. Whine, cajole, cry, snivel, snit, and even be down right nasty about it. Cause it’s a pay now or pay later situation. I’m paying now. And I regret not have prepaid for this trouble.

Well in this case it was not handholding that was needed but a solution. The product did install after a slew of retries, I lost count after 10, I was not eligible for a free first support because I was already a customer. I bought a copy a few years ago and it works for me. I foolishly showed my doc friend how neat it was and he had me buy a copy for him, install it, and help him get running. Even after getting it running, it stopped working (i.e., just will not execute the code). It works flawlessly on my notebook but not his. Oh and By The Way, Dragon is Nuanced also. Which is why I aimed him at ViaVoice as opposed to Dragon. Bottom line: Buyer beware.

http://www.boingboing.net/2006/04/07/word_of_the_day_fros.html

George Dyson explains my favorite (descriptive if not lengthy) German word is Froschmausekrieg. It means "war between the frogs and the mice" or the pointlessness of war or feuding.

"Emergency" run to the city to cure an "out of money" condition. Note to self: don't ever get old. Or, too stupid to plan ahead. No reason for the distance. Now it's just an giant problem. The old folks care depends on the kindness of strangers. Tired! And sad because it was all avoidable and preventable. Technology is so much easier.