TECHNOLOGY: Voting irregularities are “convenient”?

Monday, November 8, 2010

http://www.fox5vegas.com/news/25511115/detail.html

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Clark County Registrar of Voters Larry Lomax said there is no voter fraud, although the issues do come up because the touch-screens are sensitive. For that reason, a person may not want to have their fingers linger too long on the screen after they make a selection at any time.

*** end quote ***

At best, poor design. At worst, fraud. I don’t understand why a paper ballot isn’t produced from the machine and then “cast”. I think the entrenched politicians and bureaucrats like the system just the way it is “broken”!

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MONEY: Default, hyperinflation, or seizing the IRA/401k money

Monday, November 8, 2010

http://www.lewrockwell.com/holland/holland32.1.html

2010 Is Just Deck Chair Politics on the USS Titanic by Ron Holland

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Confiscation of Large Retirement Fund Accounts – The long-term confiscation and control idea is to eventually force all retirement benefits under the new automatic/mandatory IRA program where everything will be combined with and managed like your Social Security benefits. Wealthy and productive Americans will find their retirement benefits used to support the trillions in underfunded union, state and local government employee plans.

Solution: When possible, move your substantial retirement assets legally offshore to escape a future liquidity crisis when the theft will occur and drawdown your balances by taking withdrawals as soon as you can without an early retirement penalty.

The Risk of Private Gold Confiscation Will Go Up – When the dollar and Treasury market crashes, Washington will enact legislation against gold investors to curtail your profits, add a confiscatory non-productive asset tax or confiscate your gold with some type of fiat currency exchange. In any case, they plan to end up with your gold as this will be the basis of a restored dollar.

Solution: Move most of your gold offshore in a legal and reportable manner but outside the threat of closed or paralyzed banks, US investment firms and desperate politicians.

*** end quote ***

He makes it sound pretty bleak. But, I have to say, I don’t see how the Gooferment steers it’s way out of this debacle. They need trillions of “dollars” in wealth to somewhat balance the international books.

That means default, hyperinflation, or seizing the IRA/401k money.

There’s nothing else in the sizes that they need. Of the three options, seizing is the “easiest”. They only have to order a few hundred “custodians” to hand over the loot. Those “custodians” are companies that operate under the thumb of the Gooferment regulation, are beholding to the “bailouts” in one way or another, and are the fat cats who will be well rewarded for betraying the Sheeple.

The only question in my mind is does this bring on a full scale armed revolt. It’ll MIGHT make the tea parties look like a Boy and Girl Scout’s Jamboree. Think storming the Bastile. And, in the words of that often quote but possibly never said famous star-crossed Japanese Admiral: “You cannot invade the mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind every blade of grass.” — apocryphal unsourced quote attributed to Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto

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IPAD: Is held hostage by ITUNES and docking

Monday, November 8, 2010

So far the only way I have found to get a book into, or is it onto, the IPAD is via ITUNES. You either have to buy through their store (and boy do they make that convenient) or to import into ITUNES, dock the ipad, and sync it on board. That’s a pain. Amazing that the IPAD and the MACBOOKAIR are both sitting next to each other and they can not communicate by wifi or bluetooth. It’s no wonder that APPLE gets the label “CLOSED” and “DUMB”. Amazing for as good as their hardware is — novel, useful, and thought provoking, their implementations leave a lot to be desired.

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POLITICAL: Theodore Sorensen wrote “Profiles in Courage”; not JFK?

Sunday, November 7, 2010

I thought you would be interested in the following story from The Wall Street Journal.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703708404575587340376814562.html

Theodore Sorensen Dies at 82

Around my high school — eons ago, told to me by Brother Cronin, in a rare moment of honesty, that he thought — and several of the other Brothers thought — that Sorenson wrote JFK’s ‘profiles in courage’. And, further that old Joe paid ‘Theodore’ a princely sum to do it and keep his mouth shut. That earned ‘Theodore’ seat at the table and they knew he could compromise his ethics for a check. I just wonder….. when I read this headline I remembered that. FWIW. It was my first “tin foil hat” experience that I remember. Where an authority figure speculated that we might be consuming a load of “barbara streisand”. As Judge Judy says, “I should have put on my listening ears”, because I think we have been fed a lot of “barbara streisand” from a lot of “authority figures”. Argh! Too late we get smart?

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POLITICAL: Here a bag, there a bag, everywhere a bag bag … of votes!

Sunday, November 7, 2010

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/06/nyregion/06ctgov.html?_r=1&bl

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Still, Connecticut voters could have been forgiven for wondering whether Friday’s official results would actually spell an end to a race that featured an unprecedented two-hour extension of voting hours in Bridgeport because of a ballot shortage, dueling transition teams from both candidates and a spat on live radio between Mr. Foley and the state’s top election official, Secretary of State Susan Bysiewicz — not to mention a bag of uncounted ballots, discovered two days after the election.

*** end quote ***

Yeah, I’m sure that if the party bosses need some more votes they can discover them. And, you expect “justice” in America?

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JOBSEARCH: Seeing more of these “mistakes”

Sunday, November 7, 2010

I’m seeing more of these “mistakes”. (Mistakes imho)

• Folks put their “corporate” twitter on LinkedIn. It’s not “yours”; it’s corporate pr.

• Folks put their “personal” twitter on LinkedIn. With all the “social updates”. That definitely won’t help your “brand”.

(You know I disagree that you can “brand” yourself. A “brand” is a collective typing of related things to convey a standardization and imply value — Kellogg’s cereals, Big Bertha golf clubs, Hilton Hotels. You’re unique; you must sell your unique value equation <UVE>. You can have “attributes” which can be “standardized” (i.e., Degree; PMP; Outward Bound survivor); you can fashion your own UVE-advanicing attributes — if you can prove, demonstrate, or have external validation. But you can’t brand yourself imho. “Image creation”, maybe.)

• Folks put their “corporate” web page on LinkedIn. It’s not “yours”; it’s also corporate pr. (You are NOT your job.)

• Folks put their “personal” web page on LinkedIn. Or worse, FACEBOOK with “social updates”. Or worst, MYSPACE.

• Folks mix up their LinkedIn & Facebook effort. I tell my turkeys to use a “professional name” like Ferdinand J. Reinke and “personal name” like Fjohn Reinke to make it more difficult to “align” information. With different pictures. (My tin foil hat says that’s like a finger print. And folks use the same profile photo.)

• Folks put up the corporate email address on LinkedIn and / or Facebook. Or they use an email connected to something other than their own domain. (No joke; actually saw ‘studmuff @ free mail service dot com. Great image maker; not! Have also seen worse, but can’t cite them in mixed company.)

(I suggest that everyone have your own domain! The common wisdom, or is that common whizdumb, is to own your own name as a domain name. I own “reinke.cc”. (I like saying “sea sea me at reinke.cc”! me@reinke.cc will actually work!) I gives one quite a bit of control. And, it’s very cheap. I know three solutions at 15$/year using wordpressdotcom with gmail, 25$/year email only with 1and1, and 60$/year for domain+email+webspace also at 1and1. My point is not that you should use 1and1. I could care less which one you use. It’s that getting on to your own domain with email is cheap and easy. And, it’s not hotmail, yahoo, or gmail. It IS your own “personal permanent eternal locator”.)

I also caution that NO dikw (i.e., data, information, knowledge, wisdom) should be put online with out careful consideration. I use the “Mom test”. Would I be happy to show this item to my now deceased Mother? She expected the best from me at all time. That’s the standard I try to use.

• Folks don’t have a personal web site with all the good content that they create. Sanitized if done for work. Everything can be used if if is designed to communicate DIKW for the benefit of the reader. (I really don’t care if it is “how to clean a toilet”. Any thing can advance your image as a caring communicating human being who shares.)

Just some thoughts.

FWIW,
fjohn
the big fat old turkey hisself

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POLITICAL: Helping the R’s cut spending

Saturday, November 6, 2010

http://gopleader.gov/Contact/default.aspx

May I suggest the idea one inet pundit had? A flat 10% across the board cut. We’re paying a lot of bureaucrats well, let them figure out how to do it. If the administration wants to favor one program over another, fine. As long as the year over year total is 10% less, I’d suggest that you agree. Simple, easy to communicate, and dramatic. Then insist on the same every year. imho!

p.s., if the math is too complicated for those smart folks, as a fat old white guy injineer I can demonstrate “move the decimal” and cut that amount.

fjohn reinke

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MONEY: Just don’t

Saturday, November 6, 2010

http://www.lewrockwell.com/bonner/bonner438.html

Rising Food and Energy Costs to Add to Retirees’ Problems by Bill Bonner

*** begin quote ***

Our advice: don’t grow old. Don’t retire. Don’t get sick. Don’t trust the feds. And don’t sell your gold.

*** end quote ***

Yup, it’s gonna be tuff to be old!

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RANT: Unemployment?

Saturday, November 6, 2010

>In regard to unemployment, if you need to rely on that to survive

Agreed. Unfortunately, they pitched it as “insurance” and it ain’t. Unemployment is not an uninsurable risk. It’s not random. (Learnt that in the MC eckynomics class; I am after all a fat old white guy injineer with a low index.)

>So let’s agree to disagree.

Agreeably.

>government stands to make a profit. As they have on the bailout money.

So, they stole 10K$ from my wife’s retirement fund to enrich the unions, Wall Street, and the big banks. Then they sell the proceeds of that theft, make a profit, and me as the victim are supposed to be happy about that? If they had been forced to go thru bankruptcy, she would have gotten some money back. Estimates were 25¢ on the dollar. So we got screwed; I’m not happy. It was only a small percentage of her retirement and our portfolio. But it was the principle. By allowing anyone to avoid bankruptcy, the Gooferment took the pressure off the various managements to find a solution. By allowing Leman Brothers to fail but bailing out others, they created a mess. Goldman Sachs was picking winners and losers. Lehman was the biggest GS competitor. Timmy and others were all ex-GS people. It was a raid on the public treasury.

>I know you’ll never agree with me, but that’s my humble opinion.

You’re right about that. I’ve worked on Wall Street and I KNOW how the sleeze think.

>I believe most of today’s unemployment is due to skills gap.

> There are a lot of jobs out there, but individuals don’t fit the profile.

Might be. I think that the unemployment is due to the uncertainty that the Gooferment has introduced.

>I fear those jobs will not be coming back.

Well you could get them back if there were tariffs. But then, like Smoot Hawley, will create a worse Depression. We have to reinvent America. I think we have a natural global advantage in the production of food. So instead of paying farmers not to grow, we need to incentivize the food production process.

>This due to improper planning and reliance on another stipend from uncle
> sam, social security.

Another welfare program designed to transfer control to Washington DC. And, racist, xfer $ from poor minority men to rich white women. And, another mislabeled program; how can you “insure” old age?

>Why is Obamacare socialism when Medicare is a sacred cow?

Both are “socialism”!

>I think the free market is a viable option, with premiums being tax deductable.

I think we should just leave everyone alone to chose what they want and STOP using the guns of Gooferment to “social engineer”?

>Unfortunately, I do agree the Bush tax cuts must be repealed for the more wealthly americans.

Sorry, but when you take the money away from the rich, who will save and invest?

>Its an effective way to deal with the deficit. (Which Bush did wonders to increase.)

Nah, the Lafer curve, and the fact that you’re not dealing with idiots, will frustrate you. Lowering taxes will generate more revenue as it frees up people locked in by taxes. And, rich people aren’t stupid. How many docs will choose leisure over treating folks when their income is going to exceed 250K. And don’t forget it’s 250k$ on small business, so you’re paying on gross not net of expenses. It’s stupid. So like Maryland found out when they levied a “millionaire’s tax” over ½million, about ½ of their millionaires disappeared. Moved or feathered back their taxable income.

> legacy costs, defense and servicing debt.

I like the idea of a 10% across the board cut every year. But, no one is allowed to impact the citizens. Should drive the bureaucrats nuts!

>All of business is not hurting, this could be a record year on wall

>street. Bonuses are back up and greed is back in vogue.

You know that looting the public treasury is very profitable.

>Additionally, whether Republican or Democratic, I support my government.

That’s where we disagree. I’m a little L libertarian like Jefferson. It’s NOT my government. If we were having a beer, I could go into great detail about why it ain’t. :-)

> I disagree with some legislation, but I know it is a basic

>part of what makes this country great.

No, what makes this country great is liberty. And, then people make the most of it. Then, everything flowed from their “greed”.

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IPAD: Reports to HQ?

Saturday, November 6, 2010

The IPAD today popped up, or perhaps it would be better reported that when the IPAD was syncing ITUNES popped up on McBa and requested permission to report to HQ how the IPAD was being used. For my benefit, of course.

I wonder what it is reporting. User played KLONDIKE. (Who cares?) User updated CARINGBRIDGE. (Now were into medical privacy. HIPPA?) SAFARIed to the following websites. (Now we’re treading close to that privacy line.)

Who knows what gets reported to HQ?

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