POLITICAL: FTC protecting us from piano teachers?

Wednesday, December 4, 2013

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303562904579224251626379422?mod=Opinion_newsreel_2

POTOMAC WATCH
Strassel: Piano Sonata in FTC Minor
Music teachers, beware. The feds are onto you. Better not try to raise the price of your lessons.
By KIMBERLEY A. STRASSEL
Nov. 28, 2013 4:51 p.m. ET

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While this abuse of power has received no national attention, it has riled the music community. Brian Majeski, the editor of the journal Music Trades, lambasted the FTC in a December editorial, noting that “a consumer watchdog that sees piano teachers as a threat either has too much time on its hands, or badly misplaced priorities.”

That might be too kind. Whether it is the IRS targeting conservatives, the Justice Department hounding Gibson Guitar, or the EPA conducting an armed raid on an Alaskan mine—this administration has a tendency toward abuse of power. That’s how antitrust laws created to tackle megamonopolies end up being used to hound and hammer a nonprofit devoted to piano teachers.

*** end quote ***

Anyone still think that this isn’t Gooferment?

Argh!

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RANT: Corruption in the numbers?

Wednesday, December 4, 2013

http://www.forbes.com/sites/peterferrara/2013/11/27/did-the-bls-give-obama-a-major-election-2012-gift/

Peter Ferrara, Contributor
OP/ED | 11/27/2013 @ 8:00AM
Did The BLS Give Obama A Major Election 2012 Gift?

*** begin quote ***

Just before the election. How convenient.

That was totally unbelievable at the time, and I and others said so then.

In my Forbes column the very next week, “President Obama’s Unemployment Still Stuck at 14.7%,” I noted how inconsistent the supposed unemployment drop was with other contemporaneous economic data.

The sharp unemployment drop supposedly resulted from a total of 114,000 new jobs created in September, 2012, according to the Establishment Survey of business payrolls of the Bureau of Labor Statistics that the Obama Administration had been emphasizing throughout its first term.

But economist John Lott noted at Foxnews.com that the working age population had grown by 206,000 in September, 2012. With normal labor force participation during a recovery from a steep recession, that would have required 138,000 new jobs that month, just to keep pace with population growth, let alone to reduce the unemployment rate.

Moreover, the BLS also reported for September, 2012 that the number of full-time jobs declined by 216,000 in that month.

*** end quote ***

Nothing like “cooking the books”!

A CEO or CFO would be in prison.

A politician gets reelected.

And, no one inquires.

Argh!

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Where are the yellow dog journalists?

OH, yeah, it’s “their candidate” doing it.

Argh!

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RANT: A new report of ‘unarmed, barefoot’ officers

Tuesday, December 3, 2013

http://www.wnd.com/2013/11/whos-lying-benghazi-witnesses-vs-state-dept/?cat_orig=world

WND EXCLUSIVE
WHO’S LYING? BENGHAZI WITNESSES VS. STATE DEPT.
Narratives clash amid new report of ‘unarmed, barefoot’ officers
AARON KLEIN

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TEL AVIV – None of the security officers inside the U.S. compound were armed during the Sept. 11, 2012, attack and one was barefoot while another two were “riding around in a Land Cruiser,” according to the witness testimony given to a U.S. House panel.

Rep. Lynn Westmoreland, R-Ga., chairman of the House Intelligence Subcommittee, disclosed the details in an interview with Fox News earlier this week.

Unreported by Fox News is that the witness testimony of unarmed personnel directly contradicts the narrative in the extensive report released by the State Department-sponsored Accountability Review Board, or ARB.

The ARB report states the personnel inside the compound were armed and even describes how the security officers retrieved their weapons.

*** end quote ***

Anyone think that we will ever get the truth?

I don’t!

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MONEY: Public Defined Benefits Pension Plans are a disaster

Tuesday, December 3, 2013

http://unionwatch.org/how-unions-and-bankers-work-together-to-protect-unsustainable-defined-benefits

How Unions and Bankers Work Together to Protect Unsustainable Defined Benefits
by ED RING on NOVEMBER 26, 2013

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Greed is compounded with corruption and delusion, when in response for calls to bring public sector pensions into line with what is affordable and fair, unions and pension bankers claim 7.5% annual rates of return can be sustained forever. Their first mistake is suggesting that 7.5% rates of return is all they need. Current levels of underfunding mean either annual contributions go way up, or returns have to greatly exceed 7.5%. For example, CalSTRS is 67% funded, and to avoid becoming more underfunded, they must either earn 11.2% per year, or they must make a supplemental “unfunded contribution” of $4.1 billion per year – last year their unfunded contribution was only $1.1 billion. We are at the top of another bull market and in the terminal phases of a long-term credit cycle – anyone want to bet that CalSTRS is going to earn 11.2% a year for the next 30 years?

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If the private sector is abandoning them, what is the justification for the public sector?

And, please don’t tell me that the public sector earns less.

If the do happen to earn less, then that represents their “job security” premium.

However, most earn more than they could command in the private marketplace.

And, let’s not overlook the abuses: revolving door between regulator and regulated, “lobbying”, and (my particular favorites) “double dipping” / “part time pensions” / “multiple pensions”.

Time to move on!

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POLITICAL: Estimate 80 million with employer health care plans will be cancelled

Monday, December 2, 2013

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/11/26/evidence-shows-obama-administration-predicted-tens-millions-would-lose-plans/

HEALTH CARE
Almost 80 million with employer health care plans could have coverage canceled, experts predict
By Jim Angle
Published November 26, 2013FoxNews.com

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Almost 80 million people with employer health plans could find their coverage canceled because they are not compliant with ObamaCare, several experts predicted.

Their losses would be in addition to the millions who found their individual coverage cancelled for the same reason.

Stan Veuger of the American Enterprise Institute said that in addition to the individual cancellations, “at least half the people on employer plans would by 2014 start losing plans as well.” There are approximately 157 million employer health care policy holders.

*** end quote ***

I wonder if this will make a dent in the thinking of “The Sheeple”?

Probably not!

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CLOUD: Autoresponder responses

Monday, December 2, 2013

ProFlowers lost my reminders!

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On Thu, Nov 28, 2013 at 1:12 PM, Corporate Customer Care <corporate@customercare.providecommerce.com> wrote:
Dear Ferdinand,

Thank you for contacting Proflowers regarding your Reminders. Although we are always here to assist you, we have a helpful feature on our web site that allows you to make these kinds of changes or look ups to your account. Our Account Management feature provides you the security and convenience to make these types of changes in the future.

If you visit our online account management feature, you can view and maintain:

-Your Profile (includes changing your e-mail address)
-Payment Options (includes changing your billing address or deleting credit card information)
-Address Book (includes entering new addresses or editing existing addresses)
-Your Orders (includes tracking and modifying orders, when possible)
-Reminder Service (includes editing or adding event reminders)
-Preferences (includes catalog requests and signing up for e-mail savings)

To access your account, simply click on the link titled “Track Your Order” at the top of our home page and log in with a password.

Your satisfaction is our foremost objective, and it is only through your feedback that we learn whether or not we are achieving our goal, so please do not hesitate to contact us with any additional comments or concerns you may have. To reach us, we are available 24 hours a day 7 days a week at 888.336.1396.

Your survey comments state,”my reminders are gone! “

We appreciate your business and truly thank you for being our customer.
Sincerely,

CCSS Blanca S

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I love non-helpful stock emails. Autoresponder! 

Argh!

And, my “reminders” appear to have gone to data heaven!!!

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TSWIFT: “Never grow up”

Sunday, December 1, 2013

WalMart is using a Taylor Swift song for its commercial “Never Grow Up”.

@tswift13

Hope she’s collecting!

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RANT: Crony Drug War

Sunday, December 1, 2013

http://www.againstcronycapitalism.org/2013/11/crony-drug-war-a-government-crime-lab-chemist-with-close-relations-to-prosecuters-has-been-caught-intentionally-forging-signatures-and-tampering-with-evidence-in-as-many-as-40000-cases/

Crony Drug War: A government crime lab chemist (with close relations to prosecutors) has been caught intentionally forging signatures and tampering with evidence in as many as 40,000 cases
By Nick Sorrentino on November 27, 2013

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The drug war is a colossal disaster. It is a massive sociological experiment which because of crony capitalist forces (and other forces) continues on. Many groups make lots of money and have gained lots of power because drugs are illegal. They are not going to give up this power just because the lives of millions of Americans are destroyed by the policy every year. Hey, they’ve got to get paid.

There was a time when the war on drugs, as stupid as it is, had the hope of success. (Because it hadn’t been tried.) There was a time when thoughtful people could defend the effort (sort of.) But that time has passed. The below story is a reflection of an asinine, corrupt, horribly unhelpful policy put forward by big government nanny staters.

*** end quote ***

So when do we stop this suicidal self-destructive corrosive program?

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RANT: Fox has a “Heidi” moment

Sunday, December 1, 2013

Anyone notice that Fox couldn’t cover the overtime Bears Vikings game due to “league rules”.

Argh!

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INSPIRATIONAL: Google’s self-driving car

Sunday, December 1, 2013

http://www.impactlab.net/2013/11/28/burkhard-bilger-on-googles-self-driving-car/

November 28th, 2013 at 9:28 am
Burkhard Bilger on Google’s self-driving car

*** begin quote ***

The reality was so close that he could envision each step: The first cars coming to market in five to ten years. Their numbers few at first—strange beasts on a new continent—relying on sensors to get the lay of the land, mapping territory street by street. Then spreading, multiplying, sharing maps and road conditions, accident alerts and traffic updates; moving in packs, drafting off one another to save fuel, dropping off passengers and picking them up, just as Brin had imagined. For once it didn’t seem like a fantasy. “If you look at my track record, I usually do something for two years and then I want to leave,” Levandowski said. “I’m a first-mile kind of guy—the guy who rushes the beach at Normandy, then lets other people fortify it. But I want to see this through. What we’ve done so far is cool; it’s scientifically interesting; but it hasn’t changed people’s lives.”

*** end quote ***

A long read but well worth the time.

Maybe in my lifetime?

It would be nice to be driven!

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