JOBSEARCH: A relo is a test of faith?

Thursday, January 21, 2010

http://www.irishcentral.com/ent/Conan-OBrien-will-leave-Tonight-Show-81160232.html

Conan O’Brien will definitely leave ‘Tonight Show’
By ANTOINETTE KELLY
IrishCentral.com Staff Writer
Published Monday, January 11, 2010, 2:43 PM

*** begin quote ***

“Conan uprooted his family, his life and moved to Los Angeles and they have not given him enough time” the friend said. “It is outrageous what they have done to him.” O’Brien’s family is extremely upset that the massive lifestyle change they made and the new responsibility O’Brien assumed has been taken so lightly by NBC.

*** end quote ***

It certainly is a good lesson to anyone considering a corporate relo deal.

I remember one fellow getting axed as his plane was enroute from Sweden to Houston and he was so screwed.

To relo, you MUST HAVE a contract. History is replete with lessons. If they won’t give you one, how can you trust them?

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INTERESTING: Dangerous impact of globalization

Sunday, January 17, 2010

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/agriculture/farming/6958013/The-dairy-farmer-reduced-to-tears.html

The dairy farmer reduced to tears
By Olga Craig
Published: 9:30PM GMT 09 Jan 2010

*** begin quote ***

All across the country, diary farmers are facing the loss of their livelihood. In 1985, there were 28,000 diary farmers in England and Wales. By last November, when Mr Rickatson became one of the nine dairy farmers that throw in the towel each week, there were 11,551 left. As recently as two years ago Britain was self-sufficient in milk. Now we import 1.5 million litres a day. For the farmers who struggle on, their working lives – and that of their herds – have become a grind: such is their despair that one a week commits suicide.

*** and ***

The chief villains are the supermarkets which, by driving down milk prices, are forcing farmers to intensify production or go out of business and leave the way clear for foreign imports. Currently one litre of full fat milk costs around 75p – of which farmers get around 26p, the exact cost of producing it.

*** end quote ***

Interesting.

And, what happens when “foreign imports” can’t or won’t come?

Surely this is happening all around the world. The movie Gandhi had moving sequences about national economics.

Maybe Pat Buchanan is right?

How does one maintain a minimum national capability to feed itself?

It must all revolve around the definition of money?

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MONEY: Prep for the USA bankruptcy?

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/a8486284-fee9-11de-a677-00144feab49a.html

Bankruptcy could be good for America
By Gideon Rachman
Published: January 11 2010 19:47 | Last updated: January 11 2010 19:47

*** begin quote ***

The result is that the US is piling up debt. A budget deficit of about 12 per cent of gross domestic product is understandable as a short-term reaction to a huge financial crisis. What should worry Americans is that, with entitlement spending set to surge, there is no credible plan to bring the budget deficit under control over the medium term.

*** and ***

Perhaps the most memorable thing said so far by an official in Barack Obama’s administration was the remark by Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff, that “you never want a serious crisis to go to waste”. Mr Emanuel was widely condemned for flippancy and cynicism. But an examination of world history over the last 30 years suggests he was definitely on to something. Those much discussed emerging powers, the Brics (Brazil, Russia, India and China) all needed a fiscal crisis to set them on the road to economic reform and national resurgence. America may one day be lucky enough to experience its very own national fiscal crisis. Let us hope it is not wasted.

*** end quote ***

While it might be “good”, it’s hard to imagine it would be good for the “little people”. The poor, the middle class, the elderly, the young, those on fixed incomes. They all lose in any kind of problem. The rich, the political class, the bureaucrats all seem to make out just fine regardless of the problem. Some like Wall Street actually prosper when they should be going broke!

So that’s the USA going broke, with no plan.

Argh!

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QUOTE: Jefferson “If the American people ever allow the banks … …

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

http://www.visandvals.org/Jefferson_s_Warnings.php

Jefferson warned, “If the American people ever allow the banks to control the issuance of their currency, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their fathers occupied … I sincerely believe the banking institutions having the issuing power of money are more dangerous to liberty than standing armies.”

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POLITICAL: Eviscerated the Fifth for nothing

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9C0O0SG0&show_article=1

Conn. residents: Pfizer land battle unnecessary
Nov 16 11:40 AM US/Eastern
By ERIC TUCKER
Associated Press Writer

*** begin quote ***

But the land where the homes once stood has remained undeveloped, and the community took another hit last week when Pfizer, a major economic engine in the city and its largest taxpayer, announced plans to close the $350 million research center and relocate about 1,500 jobs to nearby Groton.

*** and ***

Susette Kelo, the lead plaintiff and owner of a pink house that was sold to a preservationist for a dollar, said she was not surprised by Pfizer’s planned departure or by the lack of development in the area. Kelo, a nurse, was paid $442,000 by the state for her old property, which was moved less than two miles away, and she now lives in Groton. Other homeowners forced to leave were also compensated by the state.

*** end quote ***

Gee, the gooferment made a mistake?

I’m shocked — “I’m shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!” Captain Renault in Casablanca — and we are left with another bad Supreme Court decision. Think Dred Scott! And, do all these people get their homes back.

Wake up, Sheeple!

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POLITICAL: Who’s fault?

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

http://www.keywestlou.com/2009/11/good-morning-world-up-and-at-em-its.html

My Life in Key West
Tuesday, November 10, 2009

*** begin quote ***

The economic failures of 2008 can be laid largely at their doorstep.

*** end quote ***

No, I respectfully disagree. The failure is entirely do to the congress critters. imho!

CRA, and the corruption of campaign contributions is the proximate cause.

Going back a little, the FED’s creation in 1913 and FDR’s taking us off the gold standard allowed the expansion of the Federal Gooferment without any constraint. What we are seeing now is the same as the coin shaving of the various Louis’s of France.

(I saw an exhibit of the French Fran in the Smithsonian in the 1970’s that brought it into focus. The first franc was a hockey puck of gold; the last one a thin shirt collar button.)

Moral of the story: the bankers and their supposed “regulators” are the creation of and puppets of the congress critters. They should be in jail. And we all should have our heads examined for letting them to get away with it!

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NEWJERSEY: Holt is proud of his vote.

Monday, November 9, 2009

*** begin quote ***

Dear Ferdinand,

I just now voted for the Affordable Health Care for America Act. I want you to know about this development and what the bill means for you. This bill would provide secure and stable health coverage regardless of whether you change jobs or are between jobs, ensure Americans will never be denied care if they get sick, and extend coverage to those not well served by the current system.

This is a historic vote and the furthest we have come toward providing affordable and quality health coverage to all Americans.

Once this bill becomes law, it immediately would eliminate cases where insurance benefits run out because of an expensive illness, would allow young adults to remain on their parents’ insurance through age 26, and would shrink the Medicare prescription doughnut hole.

The bill would strengthen and extend existing programs. For example, those who have health insurance through their employers would benefit from caps on yearly out of pocket costs. Under the legislation, Medicare would be intact, only better – recipients would benefit from free preventive care and better primary care. Click here to read more about what the bill would do for you.

Reform would preserve the relationship between families and their doctors and shift to a focus on healthy outcomes and rewarding physicians for treating the whole patient.

It would do all these things without adding to the deficit, while it would hold down costs for families in the future.

This bill is the culmination of one of the most open and deliberative processes in recent memory. During the past few years, Congressional committees held more than 53 committee hearings, debated and voted on almost 240 amendments, and considered health reform for 167 hours. We have held thousands of town meetings, read hundreds of thousands of letters, and met with health care experts and patients. Many of the amendments addressed concerns raised by constituents, such as an amendment I championed to help small businesses pool together to purchase insurance at group rates, an idea brought to me by a Monmouth County small businessman.

When I considered health reform, I talked with patients, seniors, doctors, nurses, small business owners, and others to learn their perspectives. I received and responded to thousands of letters from Central New Jersey residents. The stories I have heard highlight the fact that health care reform is about real people who are disserved by the broken insurance system.

For more information and resources about the Affordable Health Care for America Act, including the text of the full bill and a bill summary, please visit my website. There you can also see my remarks during the debate on the House floor.

After carefully analyzing and reviewing this bill, I believe it will improve the quality of life and the economy of nearly all families and of the nation as a whole. I would not support it if I did not think so. I look forward to working toward completion of meaningful health care reform legislation and sending it to the President for his signature.

Sincerely,

RUSH HOLT

Member of Congress

P.S. Just a reminder: I always want to hear from you, but please don’t reply to this e-mail. Instead, please email me through my website at http://www.holt.house.gov, or call me at 1-87-RUSH-HOLT (1-877-874-4658) to let me know what’s on your mind. Please also note that you may unsubscribe from this list by clicking on the “unsubscribe” link at the bottom of this email.

*** end quote ***

Welll, when it comes time for reelection, I plan to campaign to replace you! Cutting Medicare with 30% more people coming on to it. And, inserting the Federal Gooferment into my wife’s medical care is unacceptable.

You, sir, may have done what you think gets you reelected, but I think you might have miscalculated.

And, please don’t blow smoke where the sun doesn’t shine.

This law if signed will be a national disaster!

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GOLDBUG: Why gold?

Monday, November 9, 2009

http://www.321gold.com/editorials/casey/casey110509.html

Why Gold Has a LONG Way to Go
Jeff Clark
Casey’s Gold & Resource Report
Nov 5, 2009

*** begin quote ***

Now ask yourself the same thing: how many of your family, friends, neighbors, and co-workers are buying gold and silver coins? Are any of them giving you hot stock tips about a fantastic gold producer, or telling you about the latest gold discovery made by a company in China? Have any fellow investors told you they’re dumping their brokers because they can select gold stocks better on their own? Anyone telling you they’re going to night school to learn the gold mining business?

*** end quote ***

Gold is the money of a thousand years. With the Gooferment spending us into oblivion, how else does one preserve wealth? And, after the “inflation tax” and “inheritance tax”, what’s left?

Argh!

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GOVEROTRAGEOUS: 5B$ down the rathole

Sunday, November 8, 2009

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Freddie-Mac-posts-5-billion-rb-3083454207.html?x=0&.v=3

Freddie Mac posts $5 billion loss
* On 7:00 pm EST, Friday November 6, 2009
By Al Yoon

*** begin quote ***

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Freddie Mac (NYSE:FRE – News; NYSE:FRE – News), the second largest provider of U.S. residential mortgage funding, on Friday posted a loss of $5 billion in the third quarter and predicted it would need more government support amid a “prolonged deterioration” in housing.

*** end quote ***

Well, isn’t that just great!

If it was a real business, we could just let it go to bankruptcy court.

Another “gooferment sponsored entity” that’s a rat hole for the taxpayer to pump more money into.

I’m sure the congress critters will certainly give them more money we don’t have.

Argh!

And, what’s the impact on the country, the taxpayers, and the people.

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POLITICAL: State theft for “eddykation”

Sunday, November 8, 2009

http://irisheagle.blogspot.com/2009/11/fee-paying-schools-cost-or-savings-for.html

Friday, November 06, 2009

Let’s pay more taxes to punish the rich!

*** begin quote ***

This morning’s Irish Times reports that taxpayers forked out €100m to “support” private fee-paying schools. Sounds like a scandal in these economically straitened times. Yet …

*** end quote ***

I’d suggest that the problem is that the taxpayer is being forced to fund yet another activity. Education is the parent’s responsibility. Not the taxpayers’. We taxpayers don’t get the decision to have the children so why are we forced to pay to educate them. Education should be a valuable service that parents should be willing to pay for. Then teachers could earn what they are worth. If we are concerned about “bad parents”, that’s a different issue. Here in New Jersey, old folks are being forced to leave the State due to high taxes. It’s just not “fair”. Argh! We need a new model based of freedom and liberty.

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SOCIALISM: More GMAC aid?

Thursday, October 29, 2009

http://www.freep.com/article/20091028/BUSINESS01/91028022/1322/GMAC-may-get-3rd-helping-of-aid

Posted: 8:40 a.m. Oct. 28, 2009 | Updated: 9:51 a.m. today
GMAC may get 3rd helping of aid
BY GREG GARDNER
FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER

*** begin quote ***

GMAC, the financial lifeline for General Motors Co., Chrysler Group LLC and their dealer networks, is asking the U.S. Treasury for more federal aid beyond the $12.5 billion it’s already received, because it remains billions of dollars short of a capital reserve requirement all bank holding companies must meet.

The request, which is subject to ongoing negotiations, comes as GMAC is caught in a financial game of chicken with Chrysler Financial that could drive some large Chrysler, Jeep and Dodge dealers out of business or force them to sell their operations.

*** end quote ***

More taxpayer participation required!

Argh!

More good money after bad.

Bankruptcy would have been so much cleaner.

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NEWJERSEY: Mob rule in SBTWP

Saturday, October 24, 2009

http://centraljersey.com/articles/2009/10/21/opinions/doc4adf8e896a7e2524530393.txt

DISPATCHES: Power to the people
Farm’s preservation shows that engaged citizens can effect change
Wednesday, October 21, 2009 6:47 PM EDT
By Hank Kalet, Managing Editor

*** begin quote ***

The lesson of all these efforts is fairly simple: If you want members of your local town council, county freeholder board, state Legislature or Congress to act on your behalf, you can’t sit on your hands. You have to get involved.

*** end quote ***

Ahh, the madness of crowds.

There is no way that the individual can stop the mob frenzy to do “something”.

Preserved farmland. How can someone be against that.

Too bad if you are, because your taxes have been used for it. You write as if these “governing bodies” have assets to “invest” in “preserving” farm land. They don’t. They only have that which was taken by force from one’s fellow taxpayers. TO pay for someone’s pet project.

Argh!

If those involved were to form a non-profit and raise money by donations to pull this off, then I’d be impressed.

Perform a mental experiment. How do you think effort would go? Would people VOLUNTARILY chip in? In the amounts you needed to pull this off.

(We both know he answer to that!)

No, see, all you can do is steal what you could not raise voluntarily. And, then the robbers — some of whom may not even realize what they have done — expect kudos for doing it.

Then, you go an urge us to do more of it.

Argh!

The Dead Old White Guys were very right to fear the mob rule of democracy.

Throwing in “health care” is just more of the same. In this case, you and the rest of the mob are stealing from future generations — just as the socialists did with Social Security. And, it is all not going to end pleasantly as the socialists are destroying the country.

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POLITICAL: Fixing healthcare? Not gonna happen with the gooferment involved

Friday, October 23, 2009

http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig10/scott-m1.1.1.html

Your Doctor Serves The State, Not You
by Michael Scott, MD

*** begin quote ***

While I agree that physicians commonly order tests and perform procedures that are medically unnecessary, this fact is due to two main reasons the author completely fails to mention: first, the tort system, which terrorizes doctors in their practices on a daily basis, and second, that patients have minimal if any financial stake in their care. As a consequence, they demand everything in excess, and are often angry when we suggest a desired test or treatment is not indicated, no matter how much time we spend trying to educate them. When people don’t pay for something with their own money, they hardly care about costs. They just milk others for all they’re worth, because after all, that’s what they perceive everybody else is doing to them, too.

*** end quote ***

Clearly, the current insurance system is broken. And, isn’t going to get fixed anytime soon.

We clearly have to get the lawyers out of suing the doctors for everything that goes wrong. They are docs ; not gods.

We clearly have to return to the days of yesteryear, when insurance was insurance. Car insurance doesn’t insure oil changes. And, patients have to pay a percentage of the true cost; not a “co-pay”!

We have to make health care insurance like auto or life; disconnected from employment.

Finally, we have to get the gooferment OUT of health, health care, and health care insurance completely. They can’t do anything right. It’s in their nature. (I still haven’t heard of then doing ANYTHING effectively. Never mind efficiently!)

Argh!

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TECHNOLOGY: “Smart readers”; too smart?

Friday, October 16, 2009

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/energy/6292809/Smart-meters-could-be-spy-in-the-home.html

Smart meters could be ‘spy in the home’

Smart meters could become a ‘spy in the home’ by allowing social workers and health authorities to monitor households, adding to conce rn at Britain’s surveillance society.

By Alastair Jamieson

Published: 10:30AM BST 11 Oct 2009

*** begin quote ***

The DECC document adds households could even have their power to some appliances turned off remotely to help the national grid if there is too much demand. It says: “In terms of potentially intrusive non-physical behaviour unrelated to data, smart metering potentially offers scope for remote intervention such as dynamic demand management, which is designed to assist management of the network and thus security of supply. This could involve direct supplier or distribution company interface with equipment, such as refrigerators, within a property, overriding the control of the householder.”

*** end quote ***

I always think of what can go wrong.

Turn off the refrig to “save the grid” and the food goes bad.

Turn off the heat to “save the grid” and people die.

Turn off power to politically “wrong” people?

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MONEY: Evening with Ric

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

http://www.ricedelman.com/

Went to one of Ric’s sessions. (Disclosure, I’m a customer.)

He did have many interesting points.

The one I thought was most interesting was his assault on the “dizzy blonde” and Dave Ramsey. Ric favors having a big mortgage.

For me the jury is still out on that.

He is dead set against anything but a low rate fixed 30 year mortgage regardless of your age. His point was that you can have a pile of cash to make investments AND the house. I remember when I got a 5% VA mortgage and was happy as a pig through the Carter inflation. I’m warming to his advice.

Especially when 30 year fixed are going for under 5%.

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RECOMMENDED: Donate to the crazies trying to roll back the MA sales tax; tax revolt now!

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

http://tinyurl.com/yav92p2

Carla Howell and Michael Cloud
Alliance to Roll Back Taxes
Small Government News
Wednesday, October 7, 2009

*** begin quote ***

Just Do the Signature Drive With Volunteers?”

Virtually every statewide political campaign in Massachusetts hires petitioners to collect signatures.

Senator Kennedy, Senator Kerry, Governor Deval Patrick, former Governor Romney, former Governor Cellucci, and the rest paid for signatures. For at least the last 40 years.

Why?

Because the petitioning requirements have been made so hard, the time for petitioning so short, the ability of opponents to block petitioning, and the ease of removing valid voters signatures from the ballot.

But it gets worse. Massachusetts requires 6-1/2 times as many signatures for Ballot Initiatives as they do for U.S. Senate and Governor candidates – and they give us 1/3 less time to collect them.

We have to collect over 96,000 signatures in 49 days. In the fall, when rainstorms or snowstorms can and do prevent petitioning for 1 day or 3 or 7 days — or more. Cutting petition time by 10% or 20%.

We have to print 351 DIFFERENT petitions for our initiative — one for each town and city in Massachusetts.

Our petitioners have to carry dozens of DIFFERENT petitions at each petitioning location – a mall, a store, etc – to make sure that we have the right petition for that voter.

If a voter mistakenly signs the Natick petition, while living in Framingham, his signature is disqualified.

If a signer or petitioner accidentally makes a “stray mark on a petition”, every one of the valid 12 or 15 voter signatures on that petition are disqualified.

Then we need to sort and separate the petitions into the 351 towns and cities, pre-validate 10% to 20% of the signatures, deliver them to 351 different town clerks all across Massachusetts – many town clerks offices are only open part time; if you can’t show up them…too bad for you. The town clerks physically check each petition signature against the each voter’s signature. Many are conscientious. Some are sloppy and disqualify valid signatures.

Next, we have a 7-day window to collect 351 petitions from the 351 towns — when clerks’ offices are open.

Then, if the town clerks have validated enough signatures to move us toward the ballot, we have to deliver the signatures to the Secretary of State’s Office — where the signatures are tallied.

While this is going on, the Teachers Unions and Government Employees Unions can challenge any or all of the validated signatures for any of a dozen different legal reasons.

This is why virtually all statewide political campaigns and ballot initiatives hire paid petitioners. So they can get on the ballot.

*** end quote ***

In the Pepuls Republik of Taxachusetts, there is a band of crazies that are trying to repeal the tax law.

(Regardless of where you live, if they succeed, it will help everyone. You may want to consider sending them a few bucks. Would you have sent money for munitions to the Militiamen at Lexington or Concord? Repealing the sales tax in MA would be modern day equivalent of “the shot heard round the world”! https://www.fbs.net/csg/RBTdonate.html)

It interesting to see how the political elite have insulated them selves from the peons. Why bother have petitions at all? You can’t practically impact the politicians.

Argh!

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MONEY: Pirate’s chest

Friday, October 9, 2009

http://townhall.com/columnists/PeterFerrara/2009/09/10/making_up_crime

*** begin quote ***

When Fed Ex got started, the Feds charged it with violating the legal monopoly of the post office. When Fed Ex won that battle, it was a landmark victory for all Americans. The case against Liberty Dollar offers another potential landmark victory for American liberty.

*** end quote ***

Everyone needs competition and “dollars” are no different.

Here’s an entertaining thought experiment. You find a “pirates’ treasure chest”. Breathlessly you open it. What finding would excite you most:

(a) A chest full of 1940 Federal Reserve notes. (When our “pirate” buried a million “dollars”, it was worth the equivalent of a a hundred million. Reference: coffee was 22 cents per pound. You do the math.)

(b) A chest full of Confederate money.

(c) A chest full of Sadam’s Iraqi dinars.

(d) A chest full of GM stock.

(e) A chest full of gold coins.

Yea, I know what I’d pick. And, rebury them under the shore house. Just like our proverbial pirate. For the coming “rainy day”.

Argh!

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POLITICAL: An organ marketplace

Thursday, October 8, 2009

http://lifesharers.blogspot.com/2009/10/transplanting-kidneys-from-people-who.html

Friday, October 02, 2009
Transplanting kidneys from people who had kidney failure

*** begin quote ***

Nobody should think they’re too sick (or too old) to be an organ donor. People who need transplants would rather live with imperfect organs than die waiting for perfect ones.

As transplant medicine continues to advance, surgeons will continue to transplant lots of organs once thought unusable. Transplanting kidneys from people who suffered acute kidney failure will expand the supply of kidneys by about 1,000 per year. It’s a shame Americans continue to bury or cremate 10,000 transplantable kidneys every year.

*** end quote ***

Seems obvious. Better a poor substitute than the alternative.

10k kidneys every year? That’s criminal. We need a free market.

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RANT: Building stadiums at taxpayer expense!

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

http://spectator.org/archives/2009/09/30/bomberphobia

Sports Arena
Bomberphobia
By Lisa Fabrizio on 9.30.09 @ 6:06AM

*** begin quote ***

Yet, many of you secretly applaud baseball’s version of socialism, euphemistically called the Competitive Balance Tax, which has resulted in the Yanks paying out over $150 million in the last six years to their direct competitors. Meanwhile, Robert Nutting, the dastardly owner of the Pittsburgh Pirates who pocketed $40 million in revenue-sharing alone last year, saw fit to reduce his 2009 payroll to $20 million by selling off the few good players he had. Such doings make those who cooked up the Oil for Food program look like pikers.

*** end quote ***

MP4B = “Millionaires Playing For Billionaires”

Argh!

Before I would hold up ANY sports team as an exemplar of “conservative” values, I’d think about the stadiums they play in.

Taxpayer funded.

We don’t build McD’s. We don’t build WalMarts. We don’t build lots of things for businesses!

Why are we building stadiums for billionaires where they can exercise their millionaire “talent”?

Argh!

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SOCIALISM: Cash for … Sheeple

Sunday, October 4, 2009

http://www.lewrockwell.com/decoster/decoster164.html

Cash for Clunkers, RIP by Karen De Coster

*** begin quote ***

The program was little more than a political redistribution of wealth from the people of America to politicians’ power base that includes unions, environmentalists, and social justice bulldogs. Along the way, a few select people who fell within certain purchase guidelines received a generous discount for turning in their paid-off cars in exchange for a new chunk of steel and a large chunk of debt. As with most government programs, a select group of people became empowered or enriched while the general population paid the bill.

*** end quote ***

To see perfectly good cars being destroyed shocked this old injineer.

Those cars were better than some of the wrecks I drove around when I was a “poor” student. (Poor in both a monetary and academic meaning!)

How many really poor people were denied a car they could afford by this absolute stupidity.

Even if you never studied “economics” and the parable of the broken window created by Frédéric Bastiat, you have common sense. Don’t you?

In what universe does destroying a perfectly good car make any economic sense at all?

If for no other reason than that, if your rep voted for this, then you should vote them out of office. There’s no excuse for having an idiot representing you.

Argh, sheeple!

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POLITICS: Increase savings and decrease spending at home

Saturday, October 3, 2009

http://www.lewrockwell.com/schiff/schiff49.1.html

The Price of Pretense in Pittsburgh by Peter Schiff

*** begin quote ***

Noting that a return to pre-crisis economics is impossible, the president assured the world that his administration will pursue policies to increase savings and decrease spending at home and challenged his Chinese counterparts to enact measures with the opposite effect in their own country.

While this is roughly what needs to happen, President Obama is actually doing everything in his power to prevent it. In point of fact, every policy move undertaken by his administration has exacerbated the very imbalances he supposedly wants to curtail. To so seamlessly profess one goal while simultaneously undermining it is an impressive piece of political theater. Unfortunately, this particular drama is likely to have an unhappy ending – and the ticket price will be staggering.

*** end quote ***

Upon reflection, when these very ugly chickens come home to roost, as also forecast by Reverend Wright, will there be any way to escape it?

It would seem that getting out of debt and getting very small in terms of exposures would be a good strategy.

Tactically, shift assets to durables, stockpile, and think defensively.

Argh!

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POLITICAL: Why can’t we buy and sell human organs?

Friday, October 2, 2009

http://lifesharers.blogspot.com/2009/09/opting-in-vs-opting-out.html

LifeSharers: Opting In vs. Opting Out

*** begin quote ***

The United Network for Organ Sharing, which runs the national organ allocation system, has the power to put registered organ donors first. Sadly, it has not chosen to make this common-sense change. Americans who want to donate their organs to other organ donors don’t have to wait for UNOS to act. They can join LifeSharers, a national non-profit network of organ donors who agree to offer their organs first to other organ donors when they die. Membership is free at http://www.lifesharers.org/ or by calling 1-888-ORGAN88. There is no age limit, parents can enroll their minor children, and no one is excluded due to any pre-existing medical condition.

*** end quote ***

Until we wise up and allow a marketplace in human organs, we will always have shortages. The lack of a marketplace hurts the poor the worst. The rich always seem to have “connections”. The poor don’t get a chance to sell what they no longer have a need for and help their families. May sound grusome, but it’s a tough life being poor. Why further complicate a poor family’s life? They should be allowed, no encouraged, to sell their deceased family member for parts. Instead they get their arm twisted to “donate” and a bill for the funeral. Why is it OK for doctors and hospitals to make a buck doing transplants, but not for the “donor” to get paid? I can envision that some unfortunate’s child gets to go to college on his dead relative’s kidney. What’s so terrible about that?

See its our own thinking that kills us by preventing us from seeing the solution. All because it doesn’t fit someone’s preconceived notions. Free markets always clear the supply and demand. Only when the gooferment gets involved to we have shortages, waste, death, injury, and destruction.

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MONEY: Insurance … the proper role

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/2009/09/23/renters-insurance-peace-of-mind-for-ten-bucks-a-month/

Renters Insurance: Peace of Mind for Ten Bucks a Month Print
Wednesday, 23rd September 2009 (by April) This article is about House and Home, InsuranceThis post is from GRS staff writer April Dykman.

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“We lost everything,” he says. Later they’d find out that it was arson. A former employee of the apartment complex stole rent checks and set the office on fire. Frank was moving into a new apartment in ten days, and the new complex agreed to let them move in early. “We moved in with a plastic bag of groceries, paid for with a $50 food voucher from the Red Cross,” he says. The other 70 displaced tenants stayed in Red Cross shelters.

*** end quote ***
This story may be of interest to the “preparing community”.
(1) Notice the lack of a bug out bag in the apartment AS WELL AS the lack of a bug out bag in the car. To be TOTALLY wiped out by a fire? Unthinkable.
(2) Renter’s insurance, and most insurance is cheap. I’m always amazed at all the Wall Street folks who died in 9/11 that had ZERO life insurance. It tells me that people are not thinking rationally about their “risk profile”. Consumers buy “appliance insurance” on a sub 500$ thing; can people even spell “self insurance”.
(3) On the topic of insurance, politicians want to mandate insurance companies to cover “maintenance” items. Like the previous “appliance insurance” discussion, it’s stupid. Like insuring your car’s oil change. Say it’s 50$ twice a year. The insurance company has to administrate the claims and make a profit. 100$ of oil changes probably would cost a $1,000! Sheer stupidity. Insurance should be for catastrophic things.
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POLITICAL: Socialism defined

Monday, September 28, 2009

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=110291

Smack out of money
Posted: September 19, 2009 1:00 am Eastern
By Dan L. White

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Socialism is stealing by the government. It takes from one person and gives to another, and the government bureaucrats always take their cut out of the middle. If I go to your house and take your stuff and carry it back to my house, that’s called stealing. If the government does the same thing, it’s called compassion.

*** end quote ***

I always am amazed that I am robbed by the Federal Gooferment. They take their cut. Send it to the State Gooferment. They take their cut. And, send it to the County Gooferment. They take their cut. And, send it to the Municipal Gooferment. They take their cut and provide a service. A service I may not want, can’t use, or can’t afford.

And, I pay taxes to every level!

Argh!

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MONEY: Why buy insurance?

Thursday, September 24, 2009

http://www.smartmoney.com/personal-finance/insurance/should-you-hurry-to-buy-life-insurance/?cid=1230

Should You Hurry to Buy Life Insurance?
Hough: Policy prices are rising. Here’s what you need to know.

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Avoid it <<insurance>>, unless both of the following statements apply:

1. Your death would put someone you care about in a financial bind.

2. You’re not rich enough to set money aside for that person now.

Note that caring about someone isn’t enough of a reason, because insurance is a money-losing proposition, making it a poor gift versus simply saving. The purpose of insurance is to turn the unknowable (the probability of financial disaster brought on by your death) into the known (the cost of premiums today). Buy only enough so that your loved ones don’t suffer financially, not enough to make them feel like they’ve hit the lottery. They’ll feel like lottery winners anyhow after seeing your savings and brokerage accounts stuffed with all the money you saved on insurance. Buy only cheap term insurance, not expensive whole life or anything else that builds investment value, because you can build investment value in your brokerage account with more control and lower fees.

*** end quote ***

I remember the old life insurance salesman’s canard: “A man who dies, leaving his family with no life insurance, doesn’t die; he absconds!”

I think this author nails it.

Worth a quick read.

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POLITICIAL: Gooferment insurance!

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

http://channel-surfing.blogspot.com/2009/09/helping-unemployed.html

Monday, September 21, 2009
Helping the unemployed

*** begin quote ***

Wall Street may think we’re coming out of this recession, but there are millions of workers who may disagree. That’s why Congress is considering another extension of unemployment benefits that “would provide 13 weeks of extended unemployment benefits for more than 300,000 jobless people who live in states with unemployment rates of at least 8.5 percent and who are scheduled to run out of benefits by the end of September.”

*** and ***

Unemployment is designed to help people as they seek other work

*** end quote ***

“Unemployment is designed to help people as they seek other work”

Herb, herb, herb, typically muddled “liberal” (not classical liberal) left thinking.

“UNEMPLOYMENT” is the invisible hand of the marketplace telling you that it doesn’t “think” it needs what you are selling. You then have some choices. Seek other ways to server your fellow man. For which service, the marketplace will award, or reward, you suficient “Certificates of Appreciation” to reinforce that you are doing “good”.

Thus, “unemployment” is designed to TELL people to seek other work!

Unlike a beehive, we need the individual bee to figure out how to make their contribution to “the hive”. We’ve discovered that cooperation (i.e., division of labor) makes “prosperity” (i.e., support a larger number of people). “Subsistence farming”, as opposed to “division of labor”, which is in vogue in Africa, is less prosperous.

Since humans take direction very badly unless very motivated, it has been found that “liberty” seems to be a very good strategy to get those pesky humans to “produce”. It’s all very messy. And, has all the appearances of chaos. But, like a crowded city street, it does have the result of getting everyone where they want to go. With a minimum of friction.

So.

Unemployment is a necessary evil to motivate those pesky humans.

On the other hand, “unemployment insurance” is a gooferment program that PREVENTS humans from engaging in a host of beneficial behaviors. Saving, planning, training, … just to name a few. That bad gooferment program steals from every WORKER to REWARD unemployment. Also, the gooferment has bureaucrats to administer this supposed “insurance” program. (Note that insurance is for those semi random things that are beyond the individual’s control. Like a hurricane, flood, or other natural disaster. Unemployment is NOT unforeseeable, NOT random, and NOT beyond the individual’s control.)

Imagine if there was NO gooferment unemployment insurance, then workers would save for the future. Those savings would provide capital to the marketplace for growth.

It’s hard to underestimate the damage that these so called “insurance” programs do to the people and the economy. It trains people to look to Mommy Gooferment to “save” us. The gooferment creates the problem and then rushes in to “save” us. Often making the problem much much worse.

Sigh, today’s left liberals have to learn that it is only by VOLUNTARY participation do we secure the blessings of liberty for ourselves and our posterity. (Think I’ve read that somewhere.) Keep your gooferment “solutions”. There’s a reason that African, seeking to emigrate here, to “the land of fat poor people”.

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