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?

# # # # #

Leave a Comment » | Technology | Tagged: , , | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj

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!

# # # # #

1 Comment | SOCIALISM | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj

POLITICAL: DO we need gooferment?

Friday, September 25, 2009

http://tslrf.blogspot.com/2009/09/motivation-and-greed-rant-2.html

Sunday, September 20, 2009
Motivation and Greed, Classism and Perks- Rant #2

*** begin quote ***

The concept that you should be able to keep 100% of your income is a fine one. It would not work because at the end of the day we need some level of government (how much can be debated hotly) and that costs money.

*** end quote ***

I was with you up to that point.

I’m not so sure that is self-evident.

True, with only a few exceptions, we’ve always had “government”. We’ve also had social diseases too. That doesn’t mean we NECESSARILY have to have them.

Government IMHO is the meme that kills. It gets out of control so EASILY and QUICKLY. Maybe we could do without it.

Maybe, just maybe, we could buy insurance. And, insurance companies would buy protection for us.

Government is the only entity that can force us to buy products and services that we don’t want, can’t use, and at a price we can’t afford.

SOOooo, maybe we can do without it.

It’s interesting that someone will spend millions to get a job that pays thousands. That’s the tip off that there is something very wrong with the whole proposition of government.

imho.

# # # # #

Leave a Comment » | LIBERTY, Political | Tagged: , , | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj

RANT: Liberty; not gooferment

Thursday, September 24, 2009

  Anonymous said…

*** begin quote ***

   The consumer is king? No, he’s not. What’s my choice for electricity and gas? PSE&G or PSE&G? Or I have to move to another state. In many cases, one or two companies have a monopoly of a certain type of business or there is often price fixing and collusion between corporations. That is certainly true of the private for profit health insurance industry.

   What the hell is some poor working stiff in West Virginia supposed to do against giant coal mining corporations that are polluting the water, soil and air of their neighborhoods? Oh yeah, they have the option to move from their homes where they may have roots going back generations. We have no choice about how the energy is transmitted to our abodes. The only way to deal with these great polluters is through the power of the government or the legislature. We need a trust busting Theodore Roosevelt and an army of Upton Sinclairs to take on all these giant corporations which are raping the environment and our wallets. Corporate America has too much power, they are unelected but they control the media and have undue influence over Congress and our legislatures, (local, state and federal).

   We need strong unions to give workers a voice and to level the playing field.

*** end quote ***

Blogger reinkefj said…

   >The consumer is king? No, he’s not. What’s my choice for electricity and gas? PSE&G or PSE&G?

   OK, let’s take PSEG. Who gave them a monopoly? The Gooferment. So aim your ire at the “state”! That’s why you don’t have a choice.

   Even when given a monopoly, that still doesn’t completely insulate the monopoly service provider. Comcast was the monopoly. Then, came DirectTv. Then, Dish. Then, Verizon FIOS.

   >In many cases, one or two companies have a monopoly of a certain type of business or

   > there is often price fixing and collusion between corporations.

   There is NO monopoly without GOOFERMENT. Competition disolves “natural monopolies” in a few years. Everyone always cites the Rockyfeller oil monopoly which lasted (I think) THREE years before competitors came in and took percentages.

   >That is certainly true of the private for profit health insurance industry.

   There is NO such industry. The Federal and State Gooferments regulate EVERYTHING about healthcare. AND, those companies LOVE it. It prevents competition. “Regulatory capture”, restriction on suuply, mandated coverages just make it expensive.

   >What the hell is some poor working stiff in West Virginia supposed to do against giant coal

   >mining corporations that are polluting the water, soil and air of their neighborhoods?

   Where’s the Federal and State EPA that are supposed to be preventing that?!? In fact, the gooferment is the biggest polluter. (Check some of the DOD and DOE sites.)

   If you had a fair judicial system, then they’d have a recourse. Read Healing Our World by Dr. Mary Ruwart. http://www.ruwart.com/Healing/chap14.html

   >Corporate America has too much power, they are unelected but they control the media

   > and have undue influence over Congress and our legislatures, (local, state and federal).

   It’s called Facism. Where the State and Business become “bedfellows”.

   >We need strong unions to give workers a voice and to level the playing field.

   Yeah, right. Like the UAW, Teachers Union, or SCIU are weak. Please, don’t make me laugh. They are AS corrupt as the politicians.

   So who’s going to save you now?

   The answer is we have to rescue ourselves. It’s our thinking that needs to change. We have to demand freedom and liberty. We can start by voting out EVERY incumbent. Call it voter imposed term limits. Demand TRUE deregulation. No licenses, no permits, no gooferment oversight. Liberty will protect us.

# # # # #

Leave a Comment » | LIBERTY, Ranting | Tagged: , | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj

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”.

# # # # #

Leave a Comment » | Political | Tagged: , , | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj

CORRUPTION: Shills for the gooferment shilling the party line

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

http://www.ncc-1776.org/tle2009/tle537-20090920-05.html

That Sinking GM Feeling
by Jim Davidson
Special to The Libertarian Enterprise

*** begin quote ***

Later he lies again, “So we’re putting our money where our mouth is.” No, you bastard, you stinking lackey of big government, you filthy thief, you aren’t. GM tried putting their money where their mouth is, and they lost. They went under. So now they are putting our money where their mouth is. He isn’t a nice old man, he’s an evil old liar.

*** end quote ***

Absolutely correct.

This gooferment stooge ADMITTED he know nothing about cars. Didn’t do much for AT&T either. Guess he contributed big and get his reward.

Special place in eternity for all of them!

# # # # #

1 Comment | CORRUPTION | Tagged: , | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj

LIBERTY: A real single payer

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=109854

How ’bout a real single-payer system?

Posted: September 15, 2009

*** begin quote ***

What did we do, back during the years when most Americans had no medical insurance? I did what most people did. I depended on a “single payer” – myself. When I didn’t have the money, I paid off my medical bills in installments.

The birth of my first child was not covered by medical insurance. I paid off the bill, month by month, until the time finally came when I could tell my wife that the baby was now ours, free and clear.

In a country where everything imaginable is bought and paid for on credit, why is it suddenly a national crisis if some people cannot pay cash up front for medical treatment?

*** end quote ***

We have 310M people with 15M “uninsured”.

So we are going to mess up 295 to possibly “insure” 15?

Sorry, but everyone should just pay their own. And insurance and charity care for the big bad wolf!

Start by making insurance tax deductible for everyone.

# # # # #

Leave a Comment » | LIBERTY | Tagged: , , | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj

POLITICAL: Government pay now double

Monday, September 21, 2009

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2009/09/government_pay_now_double_that.html

September 15, 2009
Government pay now double that for the private sector
Rick Moran

*** begin quote ***

Cato Institute’s Chris Edwards takes a look at a new study that shows government bureaucrats now earning twice the pay and benefits of workers in the private sector

*** end quote ***

There’s NO way to get this monster controlled.

# # # # #

Leave a Comment » | Political | Tagged: | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj

INTERESTING: Gooferent can’t see the consequences

Sunday, September 20, 2009

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/20/world/africa/20cairo.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss

Belatedly, Egypt Spots Flaws in Wiping Out Pigs
Pigs were the champion garbage consumers in Cairo. Goats just don’t seem up to the task.
By MICHAEL SLACKMAN
Published: September 19, 2009

*** begin quote ***

When the government killed all the pigs in Egypt this spring — in what public health experts said was a misguided attempt to combat swine flu — it was warned the city would be overwhelmed with trash.

The pigs used to eat tons of organic waste. Now the pigs are gone and the rotting food piles up on the streets of middle-class neighborhoods like Heliopolis and in the poor streets of communities like Imbaba.

*** end quote ***

“unintended consequences”?

The only difference between their gooferment’s stupidity and ours is in size, scale, and topic.

TARP makes killing pigs look small. “Healthcare”, “Health Insurance”, or whatever they are trying to do will impact one SEVENTH of our economy. Misdirected swine flu versus psuedo climate change.

How stupid can gooferment be?

Very!

# # # # #

Leave a Comment » | INTERESTING | Tagged: | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj

RANT: The role of the police today — revenue agents

Saturday, September 19, 2009

http://www.lewrockwell.com/grigg/grigg-w109.html

*** begin quote ***

Witness the case of Jamie Lockard, a 53-year-old resident of Lawrenceburg, Indiana, who was stopped last March on suspicion of driving while intoxicated (DWI). A roadside Breathalyzer test determined that Lockard’s blood alcohol was under the legal limit.

Since incriminating Breathalyzer results are regarded as infallibly conclusive for the purpose of securing a conviction, a negative result offers immediate exoneration – correct?

One would think so. And one would be wrong.

*** end quote ***

SENT TO A FRIEND:

And you AGREE with this?

HE RESPONDED:

I would like to see more respect for authority. Lack of it will get you in trouble, and rightly so.

THAT SENT ME INTO ORBIT!

Oh, yes, right or wrong, we can’t be disrespectful to the massa!

Authority EARNS respect.

Cops have become nothing more than revenue agents for the state. Roadside radar traps make them into highwaymen who robbing innocent travelers who fail to follow their posted warnings.

Seriously, who designs a road for NINETY or a HUNDRED, then posts it with 45, 50,55, 60 or 65, to nail the unsuspecting.

Seriously, roadside checkpoints for license, registration, insurance, drinking, drugs, and anything else we can think of, belong to an old WW2 movie about Nazi Germany. Where are your papers? Comrade, citizen, subject.

Argh!

Take DWI or DUI! It’s an excuse to hassle folks. OK, if you have an accident or, heaven forbid, hurt someone, then you should get the book tossed at you. (Unless your name is Ted Kennedy!) Otherwise, forget it. All the horror stories, come from repeat offenders — some with 10 or 15 “convictions” — or even police officers.

Sorry, but they have lost “respect”, because of their conduct.

The “Dial 911 and die!” is a toungue in cheek recognition that they are no more than a clean up squad. If they weren’t busy collecting revenue, then maybe they could go after real criminals.

End the drug war now. Pardon all the non-violent drug offenders. Close the FDA, DEA, and BATF.

Liberty and freedom for all!

# # # # #

Leave a Comment » | Ranting | Tagged: , | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj

« Previous Entries
Next Entries »