JOBSEARCH: “Pastime into a Gold Mine” (Heard that before?)

Monday, January 19, 2009

http://www.scottcommonsense.com/DollarsAndSense/Articles/TurnyourPastimeintoaGoldMine.aspx?articleID=53&catID=5&wt.mc_id=scsc_csc_email

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Turn your Pastime into a Gold Mine!

These days, everyone’s looking for a way to maximize his or her earning potential. The answer to boosting your income could be right at your fingertips – especially if those fingertips are accustomed to typing stories, clicking a camera shutter or guiding fabric through a sewing machine.

Every year, creative people supplement their income by turning their hobbies into fledgling businesses. If you have a special talent or the professional-quality equipment that comes with a serious hobby, you could do the same. Here are some ways to capitalize on your resources:

If you’re a good writer, consider:

{Extraneous Deleted}

If Photography is your hobby, look into:

{Extraneous Deleted}

There are lots of opportunities if you are proficient in electronic media:

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Remember my 7 prong strategy for success?

“(6) a free time hobby that generates income;”

Here’s a page urging the same thing.

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Posted by reinkefj

POLITICAL: the only real way to economically “stimulate”

Monday, January 19, 2009

http://ncc-1776.org/tle2009/tle502-20090118-02.html

Collectivism’s Last Stand
by L. Neil Smith

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Politicians must be taught, in no uncertain terms, that the only real way to economically “stimulate” the Productive Class is to stop stealing their fucking money! If the government announced a total tax amnesty, as well as a complete, permanent end to individual and corporate taxes—repealing all unconstitutional economic regulations would help, too—this depression would be over by the end of the week.

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You have to admire how LNS can “turn a phrase”!

Wonder if it would take all the way to the end of the week?

“Next day” might be a better estimate.

But, we don’t have to worry. It will never occur to the congress critters!

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Posted by reinkefj

MONEY: Pensions are at risk! (Updated)

Sunday, January 18, 2009

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/US-companies-face-409-billion-rb-13997269.html

U.S. companies face $409 billion pension deficit: study
    * Wednesday January 7, 2009, 5:35 pm EST

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NEW YORK (Reuters) – Volatile markets have saddled U.S. companies with a $409 billion deficit on pension plans, reversing a $60 billion surplus a year earlier, and will cut into earnings in 2009, consulting firm Mercer said.

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Put aside the obviously corrupt Enron-type organizations like the State of New Jersey, GM (who wags call “a sick insurance company that happens to make cars”), and the other “captive of union contracts” companies, that make no pretension of even trying to honestlly fund their pension obligations.

This presents a problem for both companies and all of their pensioners. If the company doesn’t make money, the federal Pension Guaranty fund will eventually be saddled with it. Think the Delta pilots getting screwed.

(You weren’t still living in the illusionary world of the “gold watch” era. Were you? Where “companies” felt a moral obligation for the promises they made. Silly rabbit. That went down the drain with all the other ethos that made America great.)

So if you are owed a pension obligation, you better get vocal.

Better yet, like the Social Security Ponzi scheme, plan for it to not be there. It probably won’t!

Sad, but true.

You can only count on the gold coins in your back yard for your “retirement fund”. And then you have to pray you don’t get Alzheimer’s and forget where you buried them.

Argh!

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John Celenza on Facebook commented: “But haven’t pensions always been at risk? Invested as they were in stock. duh.”

My response:

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No, there is risk. And there is gambling. Back in the “gold watch” era companies, like AT&T and IBM, incorporated subsidiaries whose whole job was to pay those pensions. (That prevented things like Delta pilots getting screwed.) They staffeded it with execs nearing retirement to watch the pot. And they took it as a moral obligation to pay those and fully funded them. In IBM’s case, I know they over funded them to be certain. I suspect AT&T did the same thing. Today, it’s completely different. It’s gambling.  Except where there is not even a pretense of doing the right thing, that’s just fraud. imho!

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Posted by reinkefj

RANT: Officials at Occidental College challenged on Obama

Sunday, January 18, 2009

http://wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=86325

OBAMA WATCH CENTRAL
Eligibility battle rages on 3 fronts
Court, Congress and college challenged on constitutionality
Posted: January 18, 2009
12:05 am Eastern
By Bob Unruh

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Officials at Occidental College in Los Angeles, Calif., have been served with a demand to produce records concerning Barack Obama’s attendance there during the 1980s because they could document whether he was attending as a foreign national – in one of three fronts now established by those contesting the president-elect’s constitutional eligibility for the Oval Office.

The Supreme Court and Congress also both are being challenged to address the worries that Obama doesn’t meet the requirements of the U.S. Constitution that the president be a “natural born” citizen.

WND has reported on a long list of legal cases raising questions over the issue, and several of those have reached the U.S. Supreme Court already. Justices have so far declined to give any of the cases full hearings on their merits, but another conference remains on the Supreme Court docket for Jan. 23 on the issue.

“If Obama is sworn in as president, we will file a Petition for Writ of ‘Quo Warranto,’ a case that will challenge Obama as being ineligible to serve as president because he is ‘not qualified,'” said Philip J. Berg, a lawyer who has brought several cases to court. Berg, whose information is on his ObamaCrimes.com website, indicated the issue isn’t going away.

Orly Taitz, a California lawyer whose dispute remains pending before the high court, agreed, noting that one of the hearings already is scheduled for the days following Obama’s inaugural on Tuesday.

Taitz said her arguments rest on precedents from both the California Supreme Court, which years ago removed a candidate for president from the ballot because he was only 34, and the U.S. Supreme Court’s affirmation of that ruling. The Constitution requires a president to be 35.

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The biggest question was why, if a Hawaii birth certificate exists as his campaign has stated, Obama hasn’t simply ordered it made available to settle the rumors.

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Why indeed? What’s to hide? Why not?

On Tuesday, do we have the final nail in the Constitution?

If at some point down the road, like all the other Presidential “dirty linen” it comes out that he was not a US citizen, it will proove Spponer correct about the Constitution.

Fascinating stuff!

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Posted by reinkefj

SERVICE: Cell phone transforms into a personal security device

Sunday, January 18, 2009

http://www.mymobilewitness.com/

My Mobile Witness, a groundbreaking new cell phone service that turns your cell phone into a personal security device. My Mobile Witness stores photos or text and warehouses the information for use only by law enforcement authorities. The breakthrough technology is fast and simple to use: an individual takes a photo or creates a text message and sends it to their individual account where it is stored in the My Mobile Witness digital vault. The photo is time-stamped and stored on a site accessible only to law enforcement officials who have limited “active case” or subpoena access to the information when the images may be relevant. Think about getting that license plate of the hit-and-run you just saw.

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I think about the youngsters meeting in a bar. Their wingman can take serendipity pics to establish exactly who they were leaving with.

May sound crude. Maybe I’ve seen too many “Law And Orders” episodes. But makes sense to me.

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Posted by reinkefj

QUOTE: Gooferment debases the currency … ALWAYS! – Friedrich von Hayek

Saturday, January 17, 2009

“With the exception only of the period during which the gold standard was in effect, virtually all governments throughout history have used their exclusive power to issue money, as a method to defraud and plunder the people.” – Friedrich von Hayek

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Posted by reinkefj

INTERESTING: “Miracle on the Hudson” caused by gooferment “unintended consequences”

Saturday, January 17, 2009

http://www.lewrockwell.com/schmidt/schmidt12.html

Federal Policy Brings Down Another Airliner in New York
by Thomas Schmidt

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Well, the “Canada” geese are presumably migratory, and are covered by treaties: in other words, they are under the control of the Federal Government, which protects them from any harm. The fact that they do not migrate is immaterial: no state or local government can harm them in parks, and no private landowner of a golf course can shoot, trap or harass them from his property. Once again, uniform Federal rules have usurped local control and private property rights; thankfully, an accountable private airline’s pilot was there to protect us from our protectors.

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Knew it wouldn’t take long to find the gooferment in the “Miracle on the Hudson”. What should me call non-migrating Canadian geese? Dinner!

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PLATFORMS: Windoze7 is on the horizon

Saturday, January 17, 2009

http://windowssecrets.com/comp/090108/

Will the Windows 7 RTM make an early entrance?

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The official release of Beta 1 of Windows 7 to the public is widely expected to occur next week. If all goes well with the remaining testing, indications are that the final, RTM (released to manufacturing) version will be available as early as August. Lending support to this theory is the fact that the end-user license agreement of Beta 1, like all recent prerelease versions of Windows 7, states that the software will expire Aug. 1, 2009.

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With a tip of the hat to the folks at WINDOWSECRETS.COM … …

Why do I feel like I have seen this “morality play” before?

Because we have?

Now everyone will be urged to test and upgrade asap. Hardware won’t support it? It’s an Intel / Microsoft treadmill. Intel needs you to buy more hardware so Microsoft makes fatter OSes. Microsoft needs you to send them money so they need to inflate their OSes with more “features”.

For what?

To do websurfing, email, wp, spreadsheets, and some slides.

Ya gotta be kidding!

If your platform works — which for most home users it does — sit tight.

Windoze cruds up over time. Fact of life. So focus your energy in a “refresh”.

Or move to Linux. With free software.

And. get off the treadmill entirely. It’s not taking you anywhere you want to go. Except to spending more money.

Computing should now be a commodity.

A very cheap one.

imho

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Posted by reinkefj

MONEY: Watch out for the “liquidation” scam

Saturday, January 17, 2009

Circuit City to liquidate remaining US stores
Jan 16 12:05 PM US/Eastern
By MICHAEL FELBERBAUM and VINNEE TONG
AP Business Writers

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The buzz is that Liqudators mark all prices back up to the MSRP initially. THEN, start to mark stuff down.

I’ve seen this anytime I went for “bargains” when someone was closing down.

Don’t be fooled.

AND, if you have a Circuit City gift card, GET SOMETHING for it. It’s not going to be a collectable on the Antiques Roadshow. “YEs, Mister Doofus:: And, how much did your great grandfather pay for this 50$ gift card? Yes, well while it’s an original Circuit City gift card, no one cares. Sorry to say, it’s value is zero. But it is pretty.”

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Posted by reinkefj

MONEY: Questions for the investment climate

Friday, January 16, 2009

http://www.investorsinsight.com/blogs/john_mauldins_outside_the_box/archive/2009/01/07/setting-the-bull-trap.aspx

Setting the Bull Trap
John Mauldin’s Outside the Box
Posted Jan 07 2009, 05:00 PM

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   * Shouldn’t the consumer, after decades of over-consumption, be allowed to digest the over-indebtedness and save, rather than be encouraged to take risk?

   * Shouldn’t companies, no matter what state they reside in from a political point of view, if run poorly, be allowed to fail or forced to restructure?

   * Should taxpayer money be used to make up for the mishaps at financial institutions or should we allow them to wallow in their own mistakes?

   * Shouldn’t free markets be free?

   * When did Socialism make its way to our shores?

   * How do we choose who is bailed out and who loses?

   * Shouldn’t we place blame on the politicians, bureaucrats and other “decision makers” and put skilled people in place that know how to run the businesses?

   * Shouldn’t investors, led blindly down the primrose path of “buy and hold, diversify and don’t open your brokerage statement except once every 10 years” be allowed to follow the Prudent Man Rule?

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Certainly excellent questions to ask ourselves about what kind of country we are living in?
Investing in?
The investment climate we’ll all be taking investment risks!
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