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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Posted by reinkefj

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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Posted by reinkefj

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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Posted by reinkefj

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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Posted by reinkefj

MONEY: The worst is not yet over

Friday, September 18, 2009

http://www.vtcommons.org/blog/2009/09/15/daily-maul-under-obama-big-banks-get-bigger-shocker

DAILY MAUL: Under Obama, Big Banks Get Bigger – Shocker!
Submitted by Rob Williams on Tue, 09/15/2009 – 4:57am.

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In promoting and subsidizing the takeover of failing banks by the biggest banks and investment houses, the Post notes, the government violated federal antitrust regulations, which prohibit any single bank from controlling more than 10 percent of deposits nationwide. They also violate Justice Department antitrust advisories on the degree of control over regional financial markets by individual banks.

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What a surprise!

So the next time, the problem will be even bigger. And the gooferment will have a bigger role in the “solution”.

Argh!

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MONEY: Ignore the 5% “rule” at your own financial peril

Thursday, September 17, 2009

http://tinyurl.com/q2c7fp

Tales From Lehman’s Crypt
By LOUISE STORY and LANDON THOMAS Jr.
Published: September 12, 2009

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“I spent a long time being very angry,” says Mr. Schaefer, the former Lehman executive turned gas station owner. “Angry for working so hard and doing so much. More importantly, for my family and all the time I was away traveling — the time I put in away from them. Now all that money I earned, the money paid in stock, is gone. I can’t go back and remake it.”

*** and ***

When Lehman closed its origination business, Mr. Linton lost his job. Rich and single, he has pursued a life of leisure since then — sailing in his 37-foot boat, playing jazz trombone and, at the moment, taking a week to learn how to fly Russian fighter jets and gliders in New Mexico. He briefly considered attending culinary school.

Although Lehman laid him off in early 2008, his departure turned out to be a boon for Mr. Linton. Being forced out convinced him to bet against the firm’s stock as a counterweight against the Lehman shares he still owned, which protected him when the stock’s value plummeted. Combined with a well-timed sale of his Manhattan apartment and a stream of income from real estate investments, the moves gave him financial padding that frees him from job worries.

“I have been fortunate to have some nice toys,” he says. “And they are all paid up. It’s a nice situation to be in.”

*** end quote ***

I don’t understand a lot of things.

I didn’t understand how smart people, with dependents, working on Wall Street, don’t have life insurance. 91101 exposed they didn’t.

I don’t understand how these ex-Lehman people, who worked on the Street, have all their portfolios so heavily weighted with Lehman. Guess they never heard of options or derivatives.

I don’t understand a lot of things. Wall Street’s “rules of thumb” have been time-tested. Ignore them at your own peril.

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Posted by reinkefj

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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RANT: Too big to fail?

Saturday, September 12, 2009

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=aUTh4YMmI6QE

Lehman Monday Morning Lesson Lost With Obama Regulator-in-Chief
By Alison Fitzgerald and Christine Harper

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“They should be broken up and sold off,” Fine, 58, said he declared, as Geithner scribbled notes before thanking him for his time and ushering him out into the January chill.

The Treasury secretary didn’t follow through on Fine’s suggestion, just as he didn’t act on the advice of former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul A. Volcker, or Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. head Sheila C. Bair, or the dozens of economists and politicians who pressed the White House for measures that would limit the size or activities of U.S. banks.

One year after the demise of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. paralyzed the financial system, “mega-banks,” as Fine’s group calls them, are as interconnected and inscrutable as ever. The Obama administration’s plan for a regulatory overhaul wouldn’t force them to shrink or simplify their structure.

*** end quote ***

Washington is corrupt.

Big financial entities make BIG financial contributions.

We probably don’t know half of the stuff that goes on below the surface.

So, we the taxpayers, get screwed repeatedly.

If you were the regulator, and you were presented with an “easy” solution (i.e., break up, sell off, and limit the future size), what would you do?

Seems easy to me.

Pick a big number say 1B$ (that’s billion with a B) and say “No finaincial entity insured by the Fed or the Federal Government gets bigger than that!”

Seems trivial to me.

But, where would the big campaign contributions and payoffs come from?

Washington and all the little DCs are corrupt.

We need more work, workers, and a lot less politicians.

Every wonder why there are SO MANY lawyers?

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Posted by reinkefj

RANT: Big insurers may gain from Obamacare

Thursday, September 10, 2009

http://tinyurl.com/cato090309

Cato Daily Podcast, 09/03/09
Cato Institute

“Big insurers may gain from Obamacare,” featuring Michael D. Tanner. [MP3] (09/03/09)

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I am shocked — “I’m shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!” Captain Renault in Casablanca — to hear that.

But I knew it when they started advertising for its passage.

Argh!

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Posted by reinkefj

MONEY: UN says kill the dollar!

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/currency/6152204/UN-wants-new-global-currency-to-replace-dollar.html

UN wants new global currency to replace dollar
The dollar should be replaced with a global currency, the United Nations has said, proposing the biggest overhaul of the world’s monetary system since the Second World War.
By Edmund Conway, Economics Editor
Published: 6:45PM BST 07 Sep 2009

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In essence, the report calls for a new Bretton Woods-style system of managed international exchange rates, meaning central banks would be forced to intervene and either support or push down their currencies depending on how the rest of the world economy is behaving.

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And, why are we in the UN? We’re financing this “barbara streisand” against our own self-interest. We “nuked” Sadam for suggesting oil should be priced in Gold not dollars. Let’s see if we do the same to the UN for a similar suggestion!

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