POLITICAL: “Tax the rich”? Absurd!

Saturday, April 30, 2011

http://cafehayek.com/2011/04/money-isnt-wealth.html

Money Isn’t Wealth
by DON BOUDREAUX on APRIL 20, 2011
in MYTHS AND FALLACIES,SEEN AND UNSEEN,TAXES

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Steve Landsburg – in his armchair or out of it – is brilliant, just brilliant. This post of Steve’s is a must-read.

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http://www.thebigquestions.com/2011/04/18/the-man-who-cant-be-taxed/

The Man Who Can’t Be Taxed
Published by Steve Landsburg on April 18, 2011
in Bad Reasoning, Current Events and Economics. 64 Comments

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Nothing makes my job easier than a journalist who writes about something interesting and gets it 100% wrong.

Thanks, then, to Elizabeth Lesly Stevens for her column in yesterday’s Bay Citizen. Stevens wants to tax the “idle rich”, her Exhibit A being Robert Kendrick, heir to the $84 million Schlage Lock Company fortune. According to Ms. Stevens, Mr. Kendrick appears to do pretty much nothing but park and re-park his four cars all day long. Taxing people like Mr. Kendrick, she says, has to be part of any solution to America’s fiscal crisis.

Here’s what Ms. Stevens misses: Assuming the facts are as she states them, it is quite literally impossible to raise revenue by taxing the likes of Mr. Kendrick. We could argue about whether it’s desirable, but because it’s impossible, the discussion is moot.

Here’s why it’s impossible: For the government to consume more goods and services, somebody else must consume fewer.

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Everyone has to go back to poor old Robinson Crusoe’s island where some kind of money is created — be it pretty seashells or giant totem poles.

Let’s assume for the sake of argument it’s Confederate States of America dollar — one fiat currency is as good as another. An let’s further assume that the price level has become stable over time, one CSA dollar trade for one fish. AND Ms. Stevens, who’s economic education is sorely lacking, steals all the CSA dollars. For her to consume more fish, someone has to consume less. The amount of CSA dollars she’s stolen is irrelevant.

Economics is the “dismal science” because it can’t make more fish. It does tell us that when any good is limited, that is fish, there are several ways the fish can be divided. Argh! The free market will, if allowed, “fairly” allocate that poor fish, but the money used to vote on it ain’t the fish.

Argh!

It’s so simple and yet so hard for liberals and some conservatives to grasp.

Money has real world consequences. Gooferment is the problem. And, politicians and bureaucrats are today’s high priests. At least, in the Aztec days, they had human sacrifice. But, I’ll be they didn’t use the politicians and bureaucrats!

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SERVICE: GOOGLE APPS FREE is getting “smaller”

Saturday, April 30, 2011

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From: Google Apps Team <apps-noreply@google.com>
Date: April 28, 2011 6:41 PM
To: @reinke.cc
Subject: Update on changes to Google Apps

Hello,

We recently announced upcoming changes to the maximum number of users for Google Apps. We want to let you know that, as a current customer, the changes will not affect you.

As of May 10, any organization that signs up for a new account will be required to use the paid Google Apps for Business product in order to create more than 10 users. We honor our commitment to all existing customers and will allow you to add more than 10 users to your account for reinkefaceslife.com at no additional charge, based on the limit in place when you joined us.

Sincerely,
The Google Apps Team

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It would seem that anyone with a domain should register it with Google Apps to preserve future flexibility.

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INTERESTING: Wednesday, I made a presentation …

Friday, April 29, 2011

<Broken Link>

Wednesday, I made a presentation …

… to some young ladies of Holy Family Academy. (Frau Reinke’s alma mater) Two groups 40 minutes each. 25 in group 1; 40 in group 2. Each group had two teachers as chaperones and the Library Lady listened to both. (Guess that was to monitor discipline. If you’ve read my book, you know there is always “discipline”.)

In exchanging emails with the powers that be, it became apparent that they wanted “guest speakers” and the topic of my book was of interest to them.

So, hey, I’m always up for some “fun”.

The essence of the spiel was “I did it. I published a book. And, you can do it too.”

I connected them to Frau Reinke by their school. I told how Frau Reinke told me to “do it or shudup!” Lovingly. I related about a day dreaming grade schooler. Early mornings, 5k words/day, and some of the challenges. Went thru the technology, step by step. (The second group actually wanted that repeated during the Q&A.) Riffed off the line about 197X FireFox kids doing it WITHOUT technology. And, challenged them to some things they could do.

It was interesting that three of the TEACHERS got really excited about the possibilities.

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After action report:

It wasn’t “fun”. It was tough. I guess it’s part of learning to deal with the “ouchie”.

It was difficult because I’ve never “performed” in front of an audience this young. And, as you know, I’m an ITSJ. So, that’s ALWAYS a problem. (Had to be extra careful that any “injineering” language didn’t slip out.)

It was interesting in that the children as NOT as “computer literate” as I would have expected. Most had never heard of an RSS feed out of FACEBOOK.

First group (high school freshman), I needed the filler: SFYG and the Burqa. Second group (English honors juniors and seniors), were more into “novel” and how to do it. We got into Burqa, “digital dirt”, and, then, into a repeat of the EXACT steps to move data from FACEBOOK to a book. The Principal had to call time because they were getting into the gory details.

(The Principal complemented my on my ability to take them as deep as they wanted to go and explaining it such that she could understand it. :-) The essence of a fat old white guy injineer is to make sure you use little words and speak slowly.)

In retrospect, I gave them the rough stats on copies published. Last time I checked. To one significant digit. I could have given them the exact numbers but I didn’t think that was a big deal. In retrospect, I probably should have given them exact. The zeros make a bad impression. Argh! Now I feel bad.

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The library had “brag books”. Evidently, each student had to put together a book of what they accomplished at HFA.

(I call it a “brag book” because I recommended something similar to my “turkeys” when they were doing “job search”.)

A lot of it was format stuff and some filler. But, in the forms they had, there was a self assessment. Leadership, speaking ability, yada, yada, yada. Rows of the stuff; maybe 20 rows? With four columns for grading. “Outstanding”, “excellent”, “good”, and “needs improvement”. I looked at more than 20 of them — I was killing a half hour — there was no one who “needs improvement”. I thought that was funny. Funny ha ha!

Now I recognize that if I’d have had to do one in high school. It would have been very very thin with accomplishments.

But, I’d have known I needed a lot of “improvement”. (Luckily, a young lady came along in my sophomore year of college and helped me “improve”.)

SO here we have 20 or so brag books, and NO ONE needs improvement?

That’s a failure.

I saw cheerleaders, Irish Dancers, Eucharistic Ministers, Drama Queens, … …

I didn’t see any Engineers, Scientists, or such …

I didn’t see any athletes …

I did laugh that many claimed that “marching in the Saint Patrick’s Day Parade” was an achievement. That sounded like filler to me.

Robert Byrnes cited “the gift to see ourselves as others see us”. Sounds like these teachers and students need some eyeglasses.

Everyone always “needs improvement”.

Even me.

That’s why I don’t take such tests.

Frau Reinke left that job unfinished!

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RANT: “Cotton Candy” wedding distracts “We, The Colonists” from our problems

Friday, April 29, 2011

http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2011/04/29/the-royal-wedding-live-blog/?mod=djemalertNEWS

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News Alert from The Wall Street Journal

Prince William and Kate Middleton were pronounced husband and wife Friday, after five months of breathless hype and anticipation for Britain’s royal wedding, a ceremony that was expected to be watched by as many as two billion people.

As the couple said “I do,” the crowd on The Mall erupted into cheers, the ceremony coming through on loudspeakers.

About 1,900 guests were in attendance at Westminster Abbey, including soccer star David Beckham and musician Elton John.

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Everyone loves a good circus.

And maybe the era of Princess Diana is now over.

We’ll see if Kate can become ½ the power that Diana was.

I hope that Kate has a better outcome.

But it’s all just silly.

Maybe tomorrow, “We, The People” can get back to the serious issues at hand — End the Fed, Bring the Troops Home, and cut the spending.

But, today, it seems “Royal Watching” is a international delusion.

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GOVERNACIDE: American soldier has died in southern Iraq

Friday, April 29, 2011

http://original.antiwar.com/updates/2011/04/28/thursday-39-iraqis-killed-51-wounded

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110428/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_iraq_us_casualties

– Thu Apr 28, 7:08 am ET

BAGHDAD – The U.S. military says an American soldier has died in southern Iraq in a non-combat related incident.

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TECHNOLOGY: Kindle E-book lending

Friday, April 29, 2011

http://www.macworld.com/article/159351/2011/04/kindle_lending_library.html

Amazon announces the Kindle Lending Library
by Lex Friedman, Macworld.com Apr 20, 2011 10:18 am

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E-book lending, periodicals reading in apps coming to Kindle

Amazon on Wednesday announced that later this year it will launch the Kindle Lending Library, a feature that will allow Kindle customers to borrow books from 11,000 libraries across the United States. The Kindle Lending Library—which Amazon is forming in partnership with digital media distributor OverDrive—will work with all Kindles, and all Kindle apps, including the Mac and iOS editions.

Once the feature launches, customers will be able to borrow Kindle e-books from their local libraries and start reading them instantly. If you check out a Kindle book a second time, or later purchase your own copy from Amazon, you don’t lose any notes and bookmarks you’ve added; they remain linked to your Amazon account. (And, in an advantage over old-school paper-and-binding books, you can make as many notes on your e-copy as you like without mucking up the book for the next person to borrow it.)

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The Gooferment and its “copyright” diktats have and will muddle this technology.

* Copyrights are now a centuries lock on the information. Weren’t patents and copyright supposed to expire and allow the public to benefit? Wasn’t, isn’t, that the only reason for giving an author a monopoly?

* Publishers allow books to go out of print. Disney puts stuff “back in the vault”. And, some copyrights have their ownership lost in time.

* A library, or a person, can “loan” or sell their copy. (The doctrine of “first sale” and all this “software licensing” nonsense.) Why is an ebook different?

* Libraries should be restricted to loaning out a single copy of e-books at a time as they would be with paper books. There shouldn’t be question.

* “Expiration”, like when publisher HarperCollins changed its agreement with OverDrive, dictating that its e-books should “expire” after 26 checkouts. That’s just wrong.

Did I miss anything?

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POLITICAL: Analyzing a Ron Paul run

Thursday, April 28, 2011

> April 25, 2011 10:25 PM
> Now the fun begins!
> http://www.nationaljournal.com/politics/ron-paul-launches-presidential-campaign-20110425

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> April 26, 2011 10:35 AM

> I think of all times this would be his best chance, except I think his age may get in the way. I know…didn’t stop Ronnie, but he had already proven himself. Should certainly be interesting though. :-)

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(1) Well, the “youngsters” have really screwed the pooch. And, the cow. And, the horse. And, just about every farm animal you can name.

(2) It may well be a game changer in forcing the debate to “Libertarian” topics.

(3) He may realize that it’s “hopeless” but is going to go down swinging.

(4) DNF the electorate and electoral calculus. ½ the folks don’t vote. If he can energize the Tea Party, and ½ of that ½ comes to the polls — Katie bar the door — the old political “wisdom” of “50% independent + 30% D’s + 20% R’s = election” is out with the trash. That “½ of a ½” swamps the “regular voters”. It’s what propelled Ike and Reagan to victory. The great “unwashed.”

(5) If he pick Michelle Bachman as his running mate, then he’s got a great chance to win. And, she’d be a shoe in to her own follow up run.

This country would be well on its way to the next 100 years of Pax America. I don’t see how we survive another 8 or 12 years of hack politicians.

I copied the usual suspects on this rant.

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INTERESTING: Losing the old values

Thursday, April 28, 2011

http://web.docuticker.com/go/docubase/64167

The New Digital American Family
April 14, 2011 02:36
Source: Nielsen

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• Ward and June Cleaver have left the building. The white, two-parent, “Leave It to Beaver” family unit of the 1950s has evolved into a multi-layered, multi-cultural construct dominated by older, childless households. Marketing budgets need to recalibrate to reflect the very different composition of the New Digital American Family.

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Sad to see that era pass. Women had to go back to work to pay the taxes. That’s not progress!

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HARDWARE: Newell Rubbermaid kills CARDSCAN sync and they try and sell me more hardware! I don’t think so.

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

http://links.mkt2703.com/servlet/MailView?ms=MzY1NDU1MjES1&r=NTE3MDUxMDQwMgS2&j=OTk5MDgzNzcS1&mt=1&rt=0

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DYMO, a member of the Newell Rubbermaid family of brands.

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You kill the CARDSCAN sync service and then have chutzpah to try and sell me something. Why should I believe ANY promise that you make?

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Why would you trust these people? Ever!

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GOVERNACIDE: The USA never learns from past mistakes

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

http://www.veteranstoday.com/2011/04/16/u-s-failed-to-learn-from-conquest-of-philippines-historian-says/

U.S. Failed To Learn From Conquest of Philippines, Historian Says
April 16, 2011 posted by Veterans Today
Unintelligent Design
By Professor Michael Chesson

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David R. Kohler (a Navy special warfare officer) and James W. Wensyel’s (a retired U.S. Army officer) essay, “America’s First Southeast Asian War” (1990), explains that the U.S. plunged into a war that would see 200,000 American soldiers sent to the Pacific, with 125,000 actually serving in the Philippines, and suffering 7,000 casualties.

About 15,000 to 20,000 Filipino rebels were killed, along with more than 200,000 civilians, all too easily dismissed as what would today be called collateral damage. There were mounting atrocities on both sides. The Americans used various forms of torture, including water boarding, to interrogate captured rebels. Though a few officers were court-martialed for sanctioning torture, their punishment was light. Our generals adopted a fortified hamlet strategy, free fire zones, and destruction of crops in the countryside to deny the rebels food.

Aguinaldo’s guerrilla tactics dragged out the war and made it one of attrition. His men received no outside help, despite pleas to Japan, because the U. S. Navy blockaded the islands. Our troops, with some exceptions, were better armed, fed, and supplied. America won the war, but paid a terrible price, the worst part of which was that neither our military nor civilian leadership seemed to have learned anything about the challenges of jungle fighting against a resolute foe supported by the local population at the end of a logistical chain ten thousand miles long. The lessons were forgotten, to be relearned in Vietnam sixty years later.

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And, relearned in Afpak, Iraq, Libya, and a thousand other places.

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