POLITICAL: If Health Care, why not sports?

Monday, August 31, 2009

http://lewrockwell.com/orig10/maymin3.1.1.html

Public Option Sports
by Phil Maymin

*** begin quote ***

The only conclusion one can reach from all this is public options are of course a great idea. They should also be applied to sports.

Sports and health care? Are the two even comparable in terms of impact on the economy?

They are. We pay about as much for health insurance as we do for sports. Health insurance companies had total revenue of $405 billion in 2007, according to the Highline Data Health Industry Aggregate. Total sports revenue, including the NBA, NFL, NHL, MBA and golf, are now around $400 billion a year, according to Plunkett Research, Ltd.

*** end quote ***

Makes “perfect sense”!

As a matter of fact, when these SOCIALISTS are talking about NATIONALIZING healthcare, just substitute in any other industry.

If I have a “RIGHT” to healthcare, don’t I have a “RIGHT” to food?

It’s absurd.

But follow it to its logical extreme and you wind up back in the USSR.

And, we all know how that turned out.

I just shake my head at our collective foolishness!

Vote them all out. Speak out against this radical left into Socialism!

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POLITICAL: Public pensions are really robbery!

Sunday, August 30, 2009

http://www.lewrockwell.com/spl/golden-parachutes-sink-us-all.html

Golden Parachutes for Public Retirees Will Sink Us All, Experts Say
by Teri Sforza

*** begin quote ***

Recently, the chief egghead for the gargantuan California Public Employees Retirement System said the same.

“I don’t want to sugarcoat anything,” said Ron Seeling, the CalPERS chief actuary, according to a story in the Capitol Weekly. “We are facing decades without significant turnarounds in assets, decades of – what I, my personal words, nobody else’s – unsustainable pension costs of between 25 percent of pay for a miscellaneous plan and 40 to 50 percent of pay for a safety plan (police and firefighters) … unsustainable pension costs. We’ve got to find some other solutions.”

*** end quote ***

No doubt, while the article studies California, every one shares this problem.

Socialism!

Private industry has long ago switched to the 401K.

Why not the public sector?

Then we wouldn’t care how much they got at retirement. And we wouldn’t be a risk for it.

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RANT: Responding to the Kennedy funeral

Sunday, August 30, 2009

>I was struck this past week by the positive images and stories being told by the family and friends of the late US Senator Edward M. Kennedy. >His life knew more than its share of tragedy, ambiguity, and even disgrace. >But his life also had lots of good stuff to counterbalance all the drama
I was struck how the rich and powerful are able to skate away from the tragedy they cause. Mark Steyn called it “Airbrushing out Mary Jo Kopechne”. I thought perfectly described it.
I grew up during the Camelot era. A product of Catholic schooling, everyone was enamored of the first Catholic President. Then over time, the inside joke got out. The sordid family history leaked out around the edges. Never an expose. Just an inside joke.
I was shocked — “I’m shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!” Captain Renault in Casablanca — to see Boston’s Cardinal Archbishop in the proceedings. Money talks; principles walk!
I followed the MJK story and an older wiser relative summed it up: “If you did it, you’d be in prison for a long time. But a kennedy, nothing will happen!” He was absolutely right.
Teddy was not a paragon. He was a typical “Liberal”. “Good for thee, but not for me.” He was born with all the advantages wealth could bestow. The womanizing, drugs, drinking, and such wouldn’t be so bad. Bad enough! But mainly self-destructive. He went to new depths when he killed a young girl in a particularly horrifying fashion (i.e., it took her an estimated FIVE hours to drown while Teddy sobered up and covered up)!
Where he really negatively excelled was in his role as “Senator”. He was the classic “Liberal”. He “knew” what was good for us! That ego would drive policy that would impact millions but not him. That’s the egotism of “liberals” that are “superior” to all the little people. He was a person who had it all given to him, and yet pretended to know what we all needed. In a different time, he’d not have survived. Somehow, in ours, he prospered. Guess it’s pretty easy when nothing, even murder, sticks.
My problem with him was that: (1) He masqueraded as a Catholic while active in the pro-abortion movement. That’s called giving scandal. We were always taught that was the worst sin. (2) He proscribed solutions while carefully exempting himself. Do you think he had Massachusetts care like an ordinary taxpayer of his state get mandated? (3) He had a particularly obnoxious habit — lately reported in the “liberal” media as if it were “cute” — of asking “if anyone had heard any good Chappaquiddick jokes”.
No, I wouldn’t call it drama. I would call it the tragedy of a wasted life. And, I fail to see the “good stuff”. He was a poltroon — where he was because of his family money, power, and influence. Like the modern day “super star” athletes, who should thank their lucky stars every morning, he should have been … … better.
Maybe great wealth is a great curse, but he certainly let it carry him down.
I think this is a motivator. No matter how much you are born with, you have to earn it. No matter how little your born with, you can do better.
It makes me sad. But not for the reasons on TV! Sad for what could have been.
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RANT: No privacy in Obamacare

Sunday, August 30, 2009

http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/08/26/taking_liberties/entry5268079.shtml

August 26, 2009 8:26 PM

Democratic Health Care Bill Divulges IRS Tax Data

Posted by Declan McCullagh

*** begin quote ***

One of the problems with any proposed law that’s over 1,000 pages long and constantly changing is that much deviltry can lie in the details. Take the Democrats’ proposal to rewrite health care policy, better known as H.R. 3200 or by opponents as “Obamacare.” (Here’s our CBS News television coverage.)

Section 431(a) of the bill says that the IRS must divulge taxpayer identity information, including the filing status, the modified adjusted gross income, the number of dependents, and “other information as is prescribed by” regulation. That information will be provided to the new Health Choices Commissioner and state health programs and used to determine who qualifies for “affordability credits.”

*** and ***

Over at the Institute for Policy Innovation (a free-market think tank and presumably no fan of Obamacare), Tom Giovanetti argues that: “How many thousands of federal employees will have access to your records? The privacy of your health records will be only as good as the most nosy, most dishonest and most malcontented federal employee…. So say good-bye to privacy from the federal government. It was fun while it lasted for 233 years.”

*** end quote ***

And, CBS couldn’t possibly have a prejudice!

Please, the article is disingenuous. With a slap at a “free market think tank” as if that disqualifies them from having brought forward an “interesting fact”. THey point out to anyone who can read that the bill ENSURES that your privacy is gone!

Argh!

How’s “change” working out for you? Me, not so good!

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LINKEDIN: Scammer sighted on LinkedIn

Saturday, August 29, 2009

OVER ON Vincent Wright’s MyLinkedinPowerForum

*** begin quote ***

I googled him and found out that in addition of being a LI member (http://www.linkedin.com/pub/mr-isaac-howells/13/7b1/35 and http://www.linkedin.com/pub/isaac-howells/12/b23/944 where you will notice that the same person works in two different African countries and has no connections), I also found out the Spanish based version of http://www.fraudwatchers.org/forums/index.php where warnings have been issued about this person being part of a worldwide fraud attempt.

*** end quote ***

The scammers “DO” social networking too. Forewarned is forearmed!
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GOVEROTRAGEOUS: Time to shut down the TSA!

Saturday, August 29, 2009

http://lewrockwell.com/orig3/monahan1.html

Coffee, Tea, or Should We Feel Your Pregnant Wife’s Breasts Before Throwing You in a Cell at the Airport and Then Lying About Why We Put You There?
by Nicholas Monahan

*** begin quote ***

Of course when I say she “told me later,” it’s because she wasn’t able to tell me at the time, because as soon as I demanded to know what the federal employee had done to make her cry, I was swarmed by Portland police officers. Instantly. Three of them, cinching my arms, locking me in handcuffs, and telling me I was under arrest. Now my wife really began to cry. As they led me away and she ran alongside, I implored her to calm down, to think of the baby, promising her that everything would turn out all right. She faded into the distance and I was shoved into an elevator, a cop holding each arm. After making me face the corner, the head honcho told that I was under arrest and that I wouldn’t be flying that day – that I was in fact a “menace.”

*** end quote ***

May suggest you read this account of an “encounter” with the TSA? I read it and found a few items of particular interest.

(1) The very expensive security theater it demonstrates.

(2) What I would call unconstitutional search (i.e., baseball cap; public humiliation of an obviously pregnant woman.)

(3) The topper: destroying evidentiary video after 3 days.

As a reaction to the TSA, I have only flown twice since 9/11. (I had no real choice! Business.) I refuse to get my bp up from this absurdity.

Perhaps you might comment on it in your blog and wake up a few more citizens.

We really should close down the TSA and return security and the airports to the airlines.

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POLITICAL: The Worst President in History?

Friday, August 28, 2009

http://www.lewrockwell.com/casey/casey16.1.html

Baby Bush: The Worst President in History?
by Doug Casey

*** begin quote ***

Catalog of disasters the Bush regime created.

   * No Child Left Behind.

   * Project Safe Neighborhoods

   * Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit

   * Sarbanes-Oxley Act

   * Katrina.

   * Ownership Society

   * Nationalizations and Bailouts

   * Free-Speech Zones

   * The Patriot Act

   * The War on Terror

   * The scope of the War on Drugs

   * Invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq

   * Dept. of Homeland Security

   * Guantanamo

   * Abu Ghraib and Torture

   * The No-Fly List

   * The TSA

   * Farm Subsidies

   * Legislative Free Ride

*** end quote ***

An impressive list. But Lincoln still holds the title for “worst” with the “Civil” War. No comparison! Hard to top that!

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TECHNOLOGY: Google Books and The Internet Archive

Friday, August 28, 2009

http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/08/22/nsfw-say-what-you-like-about-the-google-books-kool-aid-but-it-tastes-much-better-than-microsofts-sour-grapes/#comment-2942625

Say what you like about the Google Books Kool-Aid, but it tastes much better than Microsoft’s sour grapes
by Paul Carr on August 22, 2009

*** begin quote ***

But one aspect of the settlement wasn’t so uncontroversial, and that was the issue of so-called ‘orphan works’ – books which are still in copyright but where the identity of the copyright owner is, for one reason or another, unclear. As part of the settlement, the book industry agreed that, with certain restrictions, Google could scan orphan works without being held liable for breach of copyright claims if the rights owner subsequently came forward. In return Google agreed to create an independent (and open to all) rights registry letting authors of orphaned stake their copyright claim.
At first glance, the deal over orphaned works seems as reasonable as the rest of the settlement – these are books for which no-one is being paid and which otherwise would be hidden away in libraries and second hand bookstores. But still Google’s competitors are crying foul.
The Internet Archive is particularly annoyed, arguing that they too are scanning millions of books for the public good, but without any blanket copyright protection for orphaned works. And so, through a group they call Open Content Alliance, they hope to pressure the Department of Justice to extend the terms of the settlement to everyone, not just Google.
For the other companies joining the Alliance – including Microsoft, Yahoo and Amazon – there are more obvious and nakedly commercial reasons to oppose the settlement. But that doesn’t make their objections less valid. Back in April, Erick Schonfeld wrote a passionate – and compelling – argument for the immunity to apply to everyone so that Google wouldn’t have a monopoly position where they could effectively charge whatever they like for downloading digital copies of orphaned works.
*** end quote ***

It would seem we need a law change. If you even believe in “imaginary property”. (It seems absurd to call what the congress critters pass “a law”. Now the Law of Gravity; that’s a LAW!)

When a book goes OOP (Out Of Print), or is otherwise “hidden” from the public, it should enter the public domain. Wasn’t the purpose of copyright law to encourage sharing of “intellectual (imaginary) property”? When that sharing ceases, shouldn’t the protection?

Seems only fair to me.

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MONEY: In Gold We Trust

Thursday, August 27, 2009

http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig10/fink1.1.1.html

IN gOD WE TRUST
  by Gabriel Fink

*** begin quote ***

The merits of placing references to deity on currency is another debate. What should not be debatable to any of the three Abrahamic religions, is placing the name of God on something that is worthless, has no value, represents debt, usury, and facilitates war. The only type of currency that the phrase “In God We Trust” could be placed upon without taking the Holy name of the Lord in vain, is gold or silver coinage. After all, God indeed himself created these materials of intrinsic value, a feat the anointed Fed chairman can only feign doing in spite of his lofty seat in the marble temple in DC.

*** end quote ***

Without a question, the American motto should be:

In GOLD, we trust!

Clearly anything less is fraud.

And, let’s just go with ounces. No need for the word “dollars” anywhere.

It’s even OK with me if we want to be international friendly!

KILOGRAMS of gold!

See ounces have flavors; even grams do to.

We need a crystal clear measure.

A stone. (The old New England measure for potatoes!)

Heck we can call it a nano-STONE.

Let’s just be honest in our vocabulary. And our money!

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POLITICS: LBJ as a paragon?

Thursday, August 27, 2009

http://channel-surfing.blogspot.com/2009/08/lbj-lead-way.html

Saturday, August 22, 2009

LBJ lead the way

*** begin quote ***

Lyndon Johnson had his faults — arrogance, for instance — and he misread Vietnam. But he committed himself to the war on poverty and civil rights and got a slew of legislation passed that seemed unlikely before he began his push.

*** end quote ***

LBJ?

Seriously?

You’re not kidding?

The man who expanded the welfare warfare state. The man who was so bad that even his own party walked away from him about reelection. The man who could mke Chicago politics look honest.

Sorry, but if Obama is looking for inspiration, I wouldn’t urge him to look there. At least Carter was honest. Incompetent, but honest.

We need a true “peace” president. Let’s start closing bases and bringing the boys and girls home. Use the savings to pay down the debt.

We need an entrepreneurial president. Eliminate the capital gains tax; free up capital. Eliminate the corporate income tax; corporations will rush to HQ here in the USA. Besides, corporations don’t pay taxes; people do. Eliminate price supports and payments NOT to grow stuff. Let’s feed the world!

We need a “simple” president. Simplify everything. We need people to focus on “producing”; not “loophole finding”. Tort reform. End the psuedo drug war. Shut down the FDA. Shut down the TSA. Shut down the Department of Education.

We have a lot of work to do.

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