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

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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.

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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

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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.

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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

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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.

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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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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

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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

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“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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GOVEROTRAGEOUS: Beck calls the FED out

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Glen Beck on his show now just called out the FED.

“Helicopter” Ben testified that the FED would NOT monetize the debt.

Today, Glen, with some help, demonstrated that the FED auctioned debt to the “public” and the next month bought that specific debt on the secondary market.

Can you say “shell game”?

I bet the Chinese are really steamed with their 5T$!

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LIBERTY: The end of the American Empire?

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

http://justsamachar.com/international/how-lehman-brothers-ripples-spread/?r=http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/sep/04/lehman-brothers-aftershocks-28-days

guardian.co.uk
28 days that shook the world
How the collapse of Lehman Brothers pushed capitalism to the brink
The Wall Street titan’s bankruptcy triggered a system-wide crisis of confidence in banks across the globe
Andrew Clark in New York
Friday 4 September 2009 12.14 BST

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Barclays picked up parts of Lehman from the bankruptcy courts, salvaging about 10,000 of the bank’s 25,000 jobs. But many still question the wisdom of the US government’s decision to stand by and allow a vast investment bank to go bust, given the intertwined nature of Lehman’s trading relationships around the globe. Larry McDonald, a former Lehman vice-president, says the Bush administration could easily have offered the guarantee needed to help Barclays buy Lehman outright: “They put Lehman Brothers to sleep. They executed her. They put a pillow over her face.”

Researching a recently published book on Lehman’s failure, “a colossal failure of common sense”, McDonald interviewed more than 45 Lehman executives. They insisted that they warned both Bush’s treasury secretary, Henry Paulson, and the then chairman of the New York Fed, Timothy Geithner, of the consequences of inaction: “They were begging Geithner and begging Paulson. They were saying to Geithner ‘you’re going to unleash the forces of evil on the global markets – you don’t understand what you’re doing!'”

That is not to say that Lehman can shirk blame for its predicament. With $18bn of core equity on its balance sheet, the bank had taken positions of an astonishing $780bn in mortgages, stocks, bonds, oil, gold, derivatives and other investments. It had leveraged its books by an astonishing factor of 44 and it had opted to take a particularly huge punt on America’s teetering home loans market.

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This writer hits the 64k$ question, but doesn’t or can’t answer it.

Why does Lehman go under but everyone else gets rescued?

Perhaps the reason is Geithner and Paulson close relationship with Goldman?

Goldman makes out like a bandit in the chaos.

Not hard to leap to a conclusion there.

Bottom line: the taxpayer got screwed.

And, it began a series of actions to compromise “capitalism” and our liberty.

Misquoting Churchill: “the the American Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, ‘This was their worst hour.'”

Will this single event, the 2008 financial crisis, and the Bush administration’s response to it, be the single event that marks the beginning of the end of the American Republic?

Like the The Reichstag Fire, that allowed Hitler to accelerate the banning of the Communist Party, is Bush’s TARP1 the “October surprise” event that allows Obama to come to power and dismantle the American experiment.

Sad to think. Sadder still to think an old injineer see something that the political elite choose to ignore.

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