http://www.darwinawards.com/darwin/darwin2006.html
Named in honor of Charles Darwin, the father of evolution, the Darwin Awards commemorate those who improve our gene pool by removing themselves from it.
FUN: The 2006 Darwin Awards
Saturday, December 30, 2006
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FUN | 
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Posted by reinkefj
LIBERTY: The FEC is an unconstitutional nightmare
Saturday, December 30, 2006http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/
news/editorial/16340275.htm
Posted on Fri, Dec. 29, 2006
FEC fines could bring undemocratic silencing
Bradley A. Smith
served as chairman of the Federal Election Commission in 2004 and is a professor of law at Capital University Law School in Columbus, Ohio
***Begin Quote***
Two weeks ago, the Federal Election Commission fined MoveOn.org, the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth and two other groups a total of $629,500 for violating campaign-finance laws during the 2004 election. According to the FEC, these “527” organizations (so named for the tax-code provision governing their activities) should have registered as political action committees, which would have limited their ability to receive large donations and probably would have shut them out.
***End Quote***
Now the government will decide what speech is “approved”.
Remember this contribution to free speech when you see Mc Cain and Fiengold.
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Posted by reinkefj
LIBERTY: End the supposed “war” on drugs … … now!
Saturday, December 30, 2006http://www.lewrockwell.com/reese/reese330.html
Right and Simple
by Charley Reese
***Begin Quote***
The right thing to do, of course, is to legalize the stuff and conduct a public-education campaign against its use. It works with tobacco, and it would work with illegal drugs. Thousands of people are criminalized for no good reason except a bunch of stupid laws on the books and politicians too cowardly to change them.
***End Quote***
It’s immoral (to tell people what they can do with their own body), ineffective (does prevent the harm that people do to themselves and inflicts damage up to death on innocent people), and inefficient (inflicts massive costs on ourselves and inflicts tremendous collateral damage far in excess of the problem it is attempting to solve).
Start off the new year demanding an end!
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Posted by reinkefj
ALUMNI: Starting a Jasper group for LinkedIn-ites
Friday, December 29, 2006
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Posted by reinkefj
XPfails – luggable – PAYTRUST website won’t authenticate
Friday, December 29, 2006I actually had to call their support and undergo a lot of pain “authenticating”. Will someone please tell me how knowing my details authenticates me? Now, if they said “we’ll call you back”, then I might believe it. Asking me my address and phone number and email address doesn’t “authenticate” squat.
And, don’t tell me you are “doing it for my protection”! That’s Barbara Striesand. They’re doing it for their protection.
No explanation of why it worked yesterday but not today. No explanation of why it didn’t work today. They want me to use IE (I don’t!) Telling me that their site is not “optimized” for Firefox or Opera.
PFooey.
And, that they were voted the best bill payment service. By who, their employees.
The only reason, I put up with this … (PayMyBills was acquired by the competitor Paytrust after I selected PMB over PayT. Subsequently acquired by Quicken.) … is that they are the only service that will receive a paper bill, scan it, and email me. And, they keep pushing ebilling!
Their idea of ebilling is that I do all the work and setup an online account with a biller. Then turn over all that authentication information to them so that they can then go pretend that they are me. I don’t think so!
Any way, if there was a competitor, I’d sure consider it.
Arghh!
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Posted by reinkefj
RANT: Hey Governor Corzine … … still wanna hear about state cars? … (continued) …
Friday, December 29, 2006You don’t? TOO BAD!
This morning 29 December at 0700 est on Route 295 south exit 47… …
… … a white TD 10986 … …
… … down route 295 at a leisurely something over 72 (Your serf speed limit is 55)
… … in lots of traffic
… … tailgating the poor peon in his way
… … never left the left lane!!
Arghhhhhhh!
P.S.: Dear reader, I don’t write these every day. Just when I ARRIVE early for work, particularly agitated aggravated and have to wait for my employer workstation to get online.
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Posted by reinkefj
MONEY: Printing press money impoverishes us all
Friday, December 29, 2006http://www.brianrwright.com/index_files/feds_fear_liberty_dollar.htm
Monopoly Money: Feds fear Liberty Dollar alternative
01 December 2006
Brian Wright
***Begin Quote***
Live free and flourish!
Part of the noble equation of liberty is honest money. Fortunately the National Organization to Repeal the Federal Reserve Act (NORFED) has given us the Liberty Dollar system to help us achieve just that.
***End Quote***
With the monetary inflation rate being unknown due to the US Treasury no longer publishing the M3 number, one has to guess. To me, it “feels like” between 5 and 10%. My experience has been that the demand deposit rate is usually a smidge less that the inflation rate. During the Carter Inflation in the 70’s when the published rate was 21%, savings deposits were paying 17%. In the 90’s, when inflation was a “low” 4%, demand deposits paid 1%. The sad part is that inflation erodes the purchasing power of savings, “inflates” one into higher tax brackets, and when one sells assets “capital gains” tax is on inflation.
It hits the poor, those on fixed incomes, and the financially illiterate worst.
I like to tell the story of my now deceased Father-In-Law, who was always proud that he had a Fifty Dollar bill in his wallet. He put it there as a kid so that he’d never be broke. It was in there about 50 years. When he put it in, it was valuable. When his heirs took it out, it was worth about a penny in terms of the purchasing power it once had! In an inflationary economy, money fails in one of its key roles as a store of value. He’d have been better off to have used it and been broke. It was an illusion.
At 1% inflation today’s “dollar” is worth 74 cents in 30 years. 10% yields a 6 cent dollar in the same 30 years. I like to think of inflation like a balloon. Want a bigger balloon, just put more air into it. Until it pops!
Imagine playing on a football field, where each year the definition of a “yard” changed. It doesn’t change the same each year. One year the field is really 106 yards in “real yards” and the next it might be 116.1! Talk about nightmare. And what good would records be? Think it would be confusing. Why is it different when the gubamint prints more money? And, it’s not actually the gubamint printing money. It’s the Federal Reserve Bank, which isn’t federal, doesn’t reserve anything, and isn’t a bank. It’s just a private club with a license to steal.
Economists like to reference Robinson Carusoe’s island, Caruso and Friday are on the island. Caruso fishes and Friday picks bananas. They work out an exchange. But put some more people on the island and you need money to have an easy exchange between fish, bananas, and coconuts. So one day a “Federal Reserve Banker” comes along and prints some paper “dollars”. The marketplace finds the right price for fish in terms of bananas, coconuts, or “dollars”. Now suppose our Federal Reserve Banker prints double the dollars. Just lots more “dollars”. Twice as many in fact. Now just printing more “dollars” doesn’t do anything to increase the wealth of the islanders. There are not twice the fish, bananas, or coconuts. Rather quickly the market price will double the price of fish, bananas, and coconuts. Increasing the money supply doesn’t make everyone rich. It just increases prices.
Why do it? Because the printer are unjustly enriched. He gets to spend those dollars before the prices adapt. Money that has nothing backing it of value (i.e., gold; silver; or even tiki lamps) is just paper. Worthless the minute that the fraud is discovered.
Read about John Law, the South Sea Bubble, the post WW1 german hyper inflation, the south american hyper inflation, and the Carter Inflation in the 70s.
So, sooner or later, the Arabs will get tired of getting pictures of dead presidents for oil. Ditto the Japanese for Toyotas. And the Chinese for plastics.
One needs to NOT hold paper money! But what should one “hold”. Things that appreciate in value (i.e., collectables). Real estate. Things that earn value (i.e., stocks that are recession / depression proof). Commodities. And precious metals. Debt in a recession is bad.
That brings us to NorFed and their alternative currency.
I think the jury is still out on that.
Here’s my thinking. The NorFed Twenty “dollar” coin is an ounce of silver that costs $20 FRB. Silver’s volatile. It varies currently from 12 to 18 Federal Reserve Banknote “dollars”. So, why pay a premium for basically an ounce of silver. I’d just buy (i.e., have bought and will buy more) bullion coins from reputable dealers. Is the paper NORFEB warehouse receipt worth that premium? Maybe? It’s better than a Federal Reserve Banknote. Called a FRBbie (pronounced FUR-BE!) by its detractors.
Note: Gold bullion 1 OZ American Eagle coins trade at Kitco who buys at 630.10 and sells at 667.92
INTERESTING: I doubt this will be up there long!
Thursday, December 28, 2006Snl Tv Funhouse Conspiracy Theory Rock Censored By Nbc Only Aired Once
<http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=965683749801668899&q=snl&pr=goog-sl>
2 min 26 sec – Oct 15, 2006
Description: priceless.
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Posted by reinkefj
RANT: Amish children are going hungry
Thursday, December 28, 2006http://www.reason.com/blog/show/117512.html
Amish Refusal to Accept Food Stamps Makes Welfare Workers Look Bad
Ronald Bailey | December 27, 2006, 2:16pm
*** begin quote ***
This story from the Cleveland Plain Dealer is a couple of months old, but it’s a fascinating example of how government tries to insist on “helping” people who are not so evidently in need of its “help.” The Ohio Office of Family Stability is demanding that local welfare workers somehow get Amish people to sign up for food stamps. Why? Just because they are eligible on the basis of income. By refusing to sign up, the Amish are lowering the local food stamp participation rates which makes the agency look bad.
*** end quote ***
Now here’s one we can laugh at! Amish children are going hungry according to these fascists. The people of Ohio are being robbed by the tax collectors to pay these fools who want to force the self-reliant Amish on to food stamps. You couldn’t make this stuff up.
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Posted by reinkefj
LIBERTY: The RIGHT of self-defense
Thursday, December 28, 2006http://www.hawaiireporter.com/story.aspx?cde4e557-3773-42b1-a4a6-7229688f4b8f
Freedom to Report Real News
Wednesday, December 27, 2006
Right to Arms, Self-Defense Debate a Universal Issue
By Joseph P. Tartaro, 12/26/2006 11:31:16 PM
Joseph P. Tartaro is the Executive Editor of Gun Week magazine.
http://ww.gunweek.com
***Begin Quote***
There is universality to the firearms and self-defense debate that surfaces in almost every country of the world. The debates over public policy in each country sound very similar to those we experience in the United States.
Perhaps that is because the issues are universal: people everywhere can debate the moral and social arguments for arming the good people against the threat of the evil ones who seem to be everywhere.
The British have pretty much outlawed not only guns but self-defense and crime has skyrocketed.
*** and ***
“Zahid Mahmood says this is the third time he has been robbed while delivering pizzas for Super Crown Pizza. The first time in 2004, he says he was pistol-whipped by the robber. The second time he says he was ambushed in June 2006.
“The 44-year-old Mahmood has a state license that allows him to carry a handgun. He says he has had the gun for years, but says Sunday night was the first time he had ever used his weapon.
“He says he was walking back to his car after dropping off a pizza at an apartment, when three young men approached him, demanded his money and car keys, and ordered him to walk away.
“Mahmood says he did what they told him, but he says that wasn’t enough. He says one of them followed him, and insisted he hand over his cell phone. He says that at that point, he thought his life was on the line.
“ ‘He was posing under his jacket like a gun,’ Mahmood said. ‘He showed me and said that he would shoot me if won’t give him my cell phone. I said, “Okay, hold on, I’ll give you my cell phone.” And I grabbed my gun and instead of my cell phone, I pulled my gun out, and then I shot—just to hurt him, that he could get away from there.’ ”
“Mahmood says he fired a total of three shots, one of which hit and killed 14-year-old Kenyatta Calhoun. The other two young men at the scene got away, according to police.
“Police have referred the case to the Fulton County District Attorney’s office, so prosecutors can decide whether or not to file any charges against Mahmood, who insists he acted in self-defense,” the news reports concluded.
What will happen to Mahmood in the future remains to be seen. But the fact that the he had been robbed and beaten in the past and his life was threatened by three street thugs is more important than the fact that one of the thugs who was 14 years old had his criminal career cut short. The media’s focus on the fact that he was 14 is just another way of coloring the universal debate.
***End Quote***
I really really don’t understand the debate.
There is NOTHING that equalizes a fight like a gun. A physically stronger man confronting almost any woman can be stopped DEAD (either figuratively or literally) by a gun. A bunch of thugs threatening a single person can be similarly stopped. There’s no reason to tolerate the tyranny of the strong over the weak.
So why do we have this debate?
Politicians know why. It’s impossible to oppress an armed citizenry. Look at Switzerland. Look at the Warsaw Ghetto. Look at the veterans in Athens GA. You try to intimidate an armed populace and you could wind up dead.
It’s a racial issue. “Gun Control” laws arise out of the post civil war South, when the Klan was intimidating Blacks. While you can lynch an armed man, you can lose a few bigots in the process.
Even today, it’s a racial issue. Crime makes a bad neighborhood. So why do we deny the residents protection? They’re not getting it from the government. Let them protect themselves.
And, if you eliminate the drug laws, then even that “crime” will go away. You’d empty the prisons and stop the collateral damage of the “drug war”.
It a feminist issue; women have the right to be secure. So, don’t “handcuff” them with inadequate tools. I chuckle when I think of my now-deceased paternal grandmother describing her travel on the Oregon trail and asked “Granma did you kill any men?”, replied with a twinkle “No child, just varmits.” Tell her that she’d have to be afraid. I don’t think so. I think most women are more like her then even they imagine. I trust them to know when to shoot.
I never understood the joke that we call “police protection”. They are more like the sanitation department, cleaning up the mess long after the fact. Writing reports and taking statements. As a matter of fact, the Supreme Court says that the police have no obligation to protect anyone. So exactly who are the “protecting and serving”? Themselves. The Politicians. It’s an illusion. Your protection comes from your neighbors. Community standards of behavior, when violated, will get your neighbors to support you. Look at NOLA. When the good folks left, (some rich; some poor), all that was left was the victims and the thugs. Some of those criminals were uniformed.
In the end quote, we have a ne’er-do-well who was killed. The fact that he was 14 shouldn’t even enter the debate. Other than we should hold him, his parents, and his family accountable.
There is an illusion and a lesson here. The illusion is “TV Shoot Out”. Unlike what people see on the TV and in the movies, you can NOT shoot the bad guy and “just wing him”. You are trained that, when you shoot, you aim for the center of mass. And, you shoot until the threat is eliminated, or you’re empty. The lesson is “sheep dog”. When you have concealed carry, it’s hard for the criminals to tell the sheep from the sheep dogs. We need more sheep dogs and fewer sheep.
Self-defense, “gun control” aka victim disarmament, should NOT even be open for debate.
Every person, black or white, woman or man, has the RIGHT to defend themselves as they see fit.
And, if you fall afoul of any one of the numerous gubamint’s diktats (aka 20,000 gun laws), I hope I’m on your jury because you’ll walk. Better to be judged by twelve than carried by six.
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Posted by reinkefj
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