POLITICAL: Stossel balances the budget

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

http://www.wnd.com/2012/02/my-plan-to-balance-the-budget/

GOVERNMENT ON A DIET
My plan to balance the budget
John Stossel: ‘We’re on the way to becoming Greece – while our ‘leaders’ stand and watch’

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The military is about a fifth of the budget. I want to support our troops, but we could do that and save money if the administration would shrink the military’s mission to what it is supposed to be: protecting us from external threats. We cannot put America on a road to solvency without cutting military spending, too.

Of course, what will really bankrupt America are entitlements, especially Medicare. That’s the big one.
Why even call it an entitlement? Are we entitled to the money? People think we are, but the money is taken from the taxpayers – by force. The program is totally unsustainable. We now live so long that most of us get back about three times what we paid into these programs.

So we have to raise the retirement age, maybe index it to life spans, and turn Medicare into an insurance plan that sustains itself. That will mean that if I want the latest in high-end medicine, I have to pay for it myself.

We’re on the way to becoming Greece – while our “leaders” stand and watch. A catastrophe is happening before our eyes, but the politicians won’t act to avert it. How did they ever end up with enough power to sink our society?

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This is easy to say but hard to do.

Too many vested interests; too few patriots.

What happens when the <synonym for excrement> hits the air movement device?

I feel for the future generations. Hope they all learn Chinese.

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RANT: Email option isn’t an option

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

–Original Message–Date; 2/24/2012 2;33;22 PMSubject; When will I get my first pension check?I turned 65 on 1/13/12. It’s says retire 2/1/12/.So where is the check?fjohnp.s., the secondary authentication questions are an invitation to identity theft.

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Pretty straight forward. I hate having phone sex with automated agents. Especially when a human (somewhere in the world) answers the phone and asks me my name.

So this is what I get back. Not so quickly. (I’m thinking auto-responder to clear away old email.)

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To FERDINAND J REINKE JRFrom Credit Suisse Benefits Service CenterDate 02-24-2012 12:00 a.m. Central Standard TimeSubject Re; When will I get my first pension check?Our Response Hello from Your Benefits Resources [TM].

Ferdinand,
Please call the Credit Suisse Benefits Service Center and request to speak with a pension representative. Benefits Service Center Representatives are available by calling 1-888-325-2732 between 9;00 a.m. to 5;00 p.m. Eastern Time, Monday through Friday excluding holidays.
Thank you for using Your Benefits Resources.

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So why bother with email.

So, I call. Nothing I love better than phone sex.

Six minutes of Q&A and holding.

“Name”!

ARRRRrrrrrgggghhhhhh!

Then the lady wants my computer password.

Argh!

And, she’s upset when it’s a 24 character random string.

(What stupidity is this? Why should I share my shared secret with another human being? I’d have never permitted it when I was their VP Info Sec.)

Lots of checking.

I’m getting a double check in March.

BUT, (and there is always a BIG butt), no apology or explanation of why.

SO who gets the interest for that month. You screw every retiree and I bet it adds up.

Argh!

If I had time, I’d get a Gooferment bureaucrat involved.

Argh!

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GAMBLING: Video Lottery Terminals not emulating a physical deck of cards

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

http://robison.casinocitytimes.com/article/do-vlts-emulate-playing-with-real-decks-of-cards-60150

Do VLTs Emulate Playing with Real Decks of Cards?
14 September 2011
By John Robison

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VLTs (Video Lottery Terminals) do not emulate playing with a physical deck of cards. A central computer system tells your machine (terminal) what the result of your spin or hand will be, and your machine will do whatever it has to do to give you that result.

Strategies are useless on these video poker machines because they don’t deal from fair decks and because the outcome of your hand has already been determined. Suppose the central system has determined that you should win the value of a full house. The machine may deal you a full house. You can discard the full house and the machine may either deal you another one, or it will deal you a garbage hand and a wizard will appear and award you the value of a full house. Whatever it takes, the machine will give you the value of a full house.

*** end quote ***

I didn’t know that!

Shocking.

Isn’t that fraud?

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FUN: You might be a libertarian

Monday, February 27, 2012

http://wendymcelroy.com/news.php?extend.4532

If you….you might be a libertarian

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* If you can wear down someone in an 4 hour debate about rights… you might be a libertarian.

* If your friends won’t discuss politics in front of you cause they know you will hand them their ass… you might be a libertarian.

*** end quote ***

ROFL! I bet folks think of me like this?

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Posted by reinkefj

JOBSEARCH: The “work till you drop” meme in employment

Monday, February 27, 2012

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/boomers-era-til-drop-160032353.html

For boomers, it’s a new era of ‘work til you drop’
By JOHN ROGERS | Associated Press

*** begin quote ***

Forty years into that run, the 60-year-old communications specialist for a Wisconsin-based insurance company has worked more than a half-dozen jobs. She’s been laid off, downsized and seen the pension disappear with only a few thousand dollars accrued when it was frozen.

So, five years from the age when people once retired, she laughs when she describes her future plans.

“I’ll probably just work until I drop,” she says, a sentiment expressed, with varying degrees of humor, by numerous members of her age group.

Like 78 million other U.S. Baby Boomers, Symons and her husband had the misfortune of approaching retirement age at a time when stock market crashes diminished their 401(k) nest eggs, companies began eliminating defined benefit pensions in record numbers and previously unimagined technical advances all but eliminated entire job descriptions from travel agent to telephone operator.

*** and ***

“My advice is above all don’t retire,” he says. “If you like your job at all, hold onto it. Because getting back in in this era is essentially impossible.”

*** end quote ***

“Jobs” is not a zero sum game. But it is an obsolete meme.

The “gold watch” meme was obsoleted in the early Eighties.

The first torpedo a midship was the ERISA rule that did 5 year pension vesting. We then became a nation of five year employees. “Pension harvesters”. I got two.

The second was the entrepreneurial meme that came into place big time in the late Eighties with the updated Sub S corporation rules.

When job requiring obsolete skills go unfilled because business can’t find anyone qualified at a price they could afford to pay, how is an old person taking it depriving someone younger person?

If anything, it’s “good” that boomers are clogging those old “jobs”. Like making buggie whips. This may induce youngsters to recognize the new meme and open their own biz. Growing the pool of “jobs”.

The pie isn’t a fixed size. We should want the yutes out creating new wealth; not laboring in dead end corporations.

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APPLICATION: FACEBOOK_IOS doesn’t update profile pic

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Change my profile picture today, but the iOS Facebook app still is showing the old one.

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MEMORIES: The year of mourning ends

Sunday, February 26, 2012

“My love, were it in my power, I would sadly grant thee this boon. But, we have to continue to follow His Plan for us. Let’s go forth and speak no more of this. Who ever is last will be last. It will be His choice; not ours. We’re but humble custodians of His temple on earth. It’s not our place to trump His plan. Whatever that plan be, know that I will be with you to my last breath.”

— character “John” in CHURCH 10●19●62 Volume 2 Page 399

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A year ago, I sent out the “Chapter Ninety Eight” message.

So, I’ll sadly  pick up my burden and begin the race to the Finish Line to rejoin her.

When it comes my time, who will send out the “Chapter Ninety Nine” message for me?

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“My love, were it in my power, I would sadly grant thee this boon. But, we have to continue to follow His Plan for us. Let’s go forth and speak no more of this. Who ever is last will be last. It will be His choice; not ours. We’re but humble custodians of His temple on earth. It’s not our place to trump His plan. Whatever that plan be, know that I will be with you to my last breath.” — character “John” in CHURCH 10●19●62 Volume 2 Page 399

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HARDWARE: New Valentine radar detector works

Sunday, February 26, 2012

It really sounds off around police cars. I guess they leave it ‘hot’ when not trapping. I’d be worried about radiation and cancer.

It hasn’t saved me a ticket yet. So we’ll see if it’s has an ROI.

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APPLICATION: GMAIL_IOS can’t save attachment

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Using the IOS GMAIL app, you can’t save an attachment. So it can’t replace a Personal Computer. Yet!

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QUOTE: “And I’ve lost her …” one year ago today

Sunday, February 26, 2012

“And I’ve lost her … . I’m so sad that I don’t have … . But I’m so grateful that she was with me … . 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 ala Tom Hanks in Cast Away (2000) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0162222/quotes

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From: John
Date: Sat, Feb 26, 2011 at 4:00 PM
Subject: Chapter Ninety Eight
To: theusualsuspects@reinke.cc

I say again “Chapter Ninety Eight”.

Dona Nobis Pacem.

Sadly,
Fjohn

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