RANT: Who’s missing from the list of bad guys?

Saturday, November 20, 2010

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704170404575624831742191288.html?mod=djemalertNEWS

News Alert from The Wall Street Journal

*** begin quote ***

Federal authorities are preparing insider-trading charges that could ensnare consultants, investment bankers, hedge-fund and mutual-fund traders and analysts across the nation.

The criminal and civil probes, which authorities say could eclipse the impact on the financial industry of any previous such investigation, are examining whether multiple insider-trading rings reaped illegal profits totaling tens of millions of dollars.

One focus of the criminal investigation is examining whether nonpublic information was passed along by independent analysts and consultants who work for companies that provide “expert network” services to hedge funds and mutual funds.

*** end quote ***

Conspicuously absent from the list are the politicians and bureaucrats!

I’m sure that no politicians were ever included in these ill gotten gains.

I’m sure that these “bad eggs” only contributed to the evil Republicans!

And all the politicians and bureaucrats are as “pure as the driven snow”. Like the now retired Dodd, Barney Frank, and Obama himself.

Argh!

It all just stinks.

# # # # # posted 2010-11-20 07:03

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Posted by reinkefj

POLITICS: Bush on BOR — an observation

Saturday, November 20, 2010

I DVRed BO’R’s show. I listened to the one about interviewing ex-President Bush … and had an observation.

He thinks picking Dick for VP was a good choice.

Still.

I thought that was a blunder when he made that decision. And, still think it to this day.

One important role of a CEO is “succession planning”. By picking Dick, he abdicated that responsibility. And set the R’s up for failure.

If he had no choice but to pick Dick for the First Term, he should have (imho) made Condi the VP in the Second Term. And say Colin Powell Secretary of State.

That would have set up a Condi for Pres and Collin for VP in 2010.

We should have a tradition of one term Presidents. Or even amend the Constitution to either make it one term or remove the restriction.

Argh!

Let’s secede and start over.

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Posted by reinkefj

FUN: Cleanliness and well-rehearsed marching

Saturday, November 20, 2010

http://www.impactlab.net/2010/11/18/top-10-photos-of-the-week-154/

201011192025.jpg

Counter to what some people believe,
cleanliness and well-rehearsed marching
does not win wars

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This was a hoot!

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FUN: No more coin flips

Friday, November 19, 2010

http://howto.wired.com/wiki/Win_a_Coin_Toss

Win a Coin Toss – Wired How-To Wiki
(Sent from Flipboard)

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No more coin flips. Digital watch second for odds or even?

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SURVIVAL: Always go with BOB!

Friday, November 19, 2010

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101111/ap_on_bi_ge/us_cruise_ship_fire

*** begin quote ***

“It’s been like a nightmare,” she said. “There’s been no food, no power, no electricity, no flushing toilets. I spent the night tossing and turning in my cabin in the dark.”

Family members anxiously awaited the cruise liner that left Long Beach on Sunday for a seven-day trip to the Mexican Riviera, only to return days early without ever reaching the beaches vacationers had hoped for. A fire in the engine room knocked out power Monday morning, leaving passengers with no air conditioning, no hot food, no hot water, no casino. The swimming pool was off-limits because there was no way to pump chlorine.

Paul Patrick Sr., 50, of Riverside, said his daughter, Sabrina Klinge of Laguna Hills, was married on Saturday and was on her honeymoon cruise. The 27-year-old texted her father on Wednesday saying it was dark and she was living on Pop-Tarts.

*** end quote ***

This is demonstration of why you always need your BOB, a 3 day kit, and 7 day kit. And, as my grandfather taught me about highways: “Limited egress means limited exits.”

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Posted by reinkefj

RANT: PTSD is pushed under the table

Thursday, November 18, 2010

The long road home
Boston Globe
by Bob Kinder

“Men and women, having seen years of combat in Iraq and Afghanistan, are killing themselves in record numbers. Many are divorcing. Some are addicted. Scores are angry and violent, unable to process their wartime experiences. Yet, routinely, these same brave veterans are kicked out of the service and denied benefits or hope of getting well. The problem isn’t new. … In 2007, under intense congressional pressure to improve mental-health care for combat veterans, the Department of Defense acknowledged it was unfairly discharging combat troops by erroneously claiming a service member had a personality disorder rather than post-traumatic stress disorder.” (11/11/10)

http://tinyurl.com/26ty47s

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Interesting. How does that jibe with the nation’s “care”?

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GOLD: If not golden Dinar, how about a golden Punt?

Thursday, November 18, 2010

http://irisheagle.blogspot.com/2010/11/better-euro-dies-than-we-leave-it.html

Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Better the euro dies than we leave it

*** begin quote ***

Okay, call me nuts and I don’t really believe that our government or Department of Finance folks have this sort of courage, but what if our government has suddenly realized that the euro doesn’t suit our economy? Would it be better to leave the euro with our tail between our legs or to hope for the complete collapse of the currency?

*** end quote ***

Ireland could become the “economic Switzerland” with one “modest” change. Very simple. Leave the euro, create an Irish Currency Unit (the golden Punt?), and tie it to some amount of gold. Forget the current price of gold. Figure out the number of Punts in circulation and how much gold or silver is in the Treasury. Then, the Central Bank opens the “gold window” to buy them back for gold and sell them for gold. Purchasable from the central bank in gold and redeemable by the average joe — paddie in your case — in gold. From the Central Bank’s concern it’s a near zero some game; they can even have a few basis points small commission on each transaction to cover their costs. As the world’s only non-fiat currency, it would quickly become the world’s reserve currency. It makes the Punt worth something intrinsically. internationally as the only non-fiat currency it becomes a proxy for gold. The Central Bank could even mint the golden punt — like the Sadam supported, proposed im Malaysia, golden dinar http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_gold_dinar . What a shock to the global economy. It would hamstring the Irish Gooferment to only spend what it could afford in taxes. But, wow, the recovery would be dramatic.

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CRYPTO: Crypto can’t be trusted

Thursday, November 18, 2010

*** begin quote ***

Date: Fri, 05 Nov 2010 17:47:43 -0700

From: Gene Wirchenko <genew@ocis.net>

Subject: Getting Crypto Wrong

Neal Ungerleider, How Haystack Risked Exposing Iranian Dissidents,

FastCompany.com, 20 Sep 2010

http://www.fastcompany.com/1690075/haystack-austin-heap-iran-fail

In 2009, Iran was in turmoil, and the Islamic Republic was blocking and monitoring sites used by opposition groups — until a team led by American IT specialist Austin Heap built a program, Haystack, and touted it as a secure and anonymous Web portal for Iranians. *The Guardian* lauded it, and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton personally praised Heap. The U.S. government even gave him rare permission to export his cryptological software to Iran. Among an elite group of beta testers — and many more unauthorized users — Haystack was a godsend.

Then in Sept. 2010, security experts discovered a problem: Iranian authorities, the very ones Haystack was supposed to circumvent and shield against, were exploiting massive holes in the encryption scheme to snoop on dissidents.

[Beware of anonymity-bearing gifts. As we have noted here before, ALWAYS look a gift (trojan) horse in the mouth. PGN]

*** end quote ***

It all comes back to how do you know the stuff works?

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GUNS: Seven years for being a responsible gun owner

Thursday, November 18, 2010

http://reason.com/archives/2010/11/15/brian-aitkens-mistake/1

Brian Aitken’s Mistake
A New Jersey man gets seven years for being a responsible gun owner.
Radley Balko | November 15, 2010

*** begin quote ***

Putting Brian Aitken in prison isn’t going to make New Jersey any safer. It might, however, make some of the state’s residents think twice before calling the police, particularly if they own guns. It might even make some New Jersey gun owners wonder if they have more to fear from the state’s ridiculous laws and overly aggressive cops and prosecutors than they do from criminals. Given what happened to Aitken, those fears wouldn’t be unfounded.

*** end quote ***

Where’s the appeal on Second Amendment grounds?

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POLITICAL: The “machines” vote

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Date: Tue, 26 Oct 2010 09:30:09 -0700
From: Lauren Weinstein
Subject: Voting machines selecting default candidates

*** begin quote ***

Some voters in Las Vegas have noticed that Democratic Senator Harry Reid’s name is checked by default on their electronic voting machines. By way of explanation, the Clark County Registrar says that when voters choose English instead of Spanish, Reid’s Republican opponent, Sharron Angle, has her name checked by default. *Slashdot*, 26 Oct 2010 http://bit.ly/cBXWSj

[Reid won re-election, perhaps because of the strong Latino vote. PGN]

*** end quote ***

And, we trust “elections”. Why?

If voting changed anything significant, do you think the elite would permit it? Think USSR voting.

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