RANT: Captive Primate Safety Act

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0209/Fast_action_on_the_Hill.html

February 24, 2009

Fast action on the Hill; Forget the stimulus — this one moved really fast.

*** begin quote ***

From the Humane Society:

   U.S. House of Representatives Passes Captive Primate Safety Act

   WASHINGTON (Feb. 24, 2009) — Eight days after a chimpanzee kept as a pet attacked and critically injured a Connecticut woman, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Captive Primate Safety Act, H.R. 80, introduced by U.S. Reps. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., and Mark Kirk, R-Ill., to stop interstate commerce in primates as pets. The bill passed by a vote of 323 to 95. The bill now moves for consideration to the U.S. Senate, where the effort to pass the legislation is being led by U.S. Sens. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., and David Vitter, R-La.

*** end quote ***

Well, at least they are NOT wasting their time on investigating waste, or anything important.
There’s no voting bloc to oppose it.
I’m sure that there won’t be any problems. Right! Just wait until two zoos want to breed them. Heaven help them if they are international zoos.
You just have to shake your head.
Couldn’t the free market been allowed to handle this without politicians grandstanding.
Oh, I don’t know. Maybe insurance companies could exclude this risk? States, (you remember those forgotten entities), might have addressed it. But, no we need a FEDERAL law.
Argh!
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MONEY: Fiat versus commodity; we’re not free to choose!

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

http://www.amconmag.com/article/2009/feb/09/00016/

Fed Up
The popular uprising against central banking
By Thomas E. Woods Jr.

*** begin quote ***

Under a commodity standard, people could save for the future by accumulating gold and silver coins. The coins’ value appreciated over time because of their natural increase in purchasing power, as the relatively slow increase in the production of precious metals was outpaced by the much faster increase in the production of other goods and services. Today, only a fool would try to save for the future by piling up dollar bills. Everyone is forced to enter the financial markets, which are risky even for knowledgeable investors, in order to prevent the value of his retirement savings from vanishing before his eyes.

*** end quote ***

A timeless indictment of the Fed and its fiat money!

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POLITICAL: A minor oversight? Hogs at the public trough

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/feb/23/congress-will-investigate-postmasters-pay/

Postmaster’s pay to be probed
Raises, bonuses mount while service struggles
Jim McElhatton (Contact)
Monday, February 23, 2009

*** begin quote ***

Congress will hold a hearing next month into why Postmaster General John E. Potter has gotten a nearly 40 percent pay raise since 2006 and was awarded a six-figure incentive bonus last year, even as the U.S. Postal Service faces a multibillion-dollar shortfall that threatens a day of mail delivery.

Postmaster General John E. Potter received a compensation package totaling more than $800,000 for fiscal 2008.

“Last year, the Postal Service took a loss of nearly $3 billion and recommended that the public take austere cuts in service to allow it to operate, including cutting a day of mail delivery and raising the price of stamps,” Rep. Stephen F. Lynch, Massachusetts Democrat, said Friday.

*** end quote ***

Didn’t Congress and the President limit executive compensation of all those who took Federal bailout money?

Guess they just forgot this political, and all, political hacks.

What about Amtrak?

It’s all a giant joke!

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POLITICAL: Eliminate the corporate income tax

Sunday, February 22, 2009

http://www.reason.com/news/show/131556.html  

Economic Change We Can Believe In
To improve the economy, eliminate the corporate income tax
Jeffrey A. Miron | February 6, 2009

*** begin quote ***

President Barack Obama’s stimulus proposal entails an awkward tradeoff between spending and efficiency. Fiscal stimulation suggests large, rapid increases in spending, while efficiency means cautious, modest increases. Similarly, Obama’s plan favors tax cuts for low-income families, since they are most likely to spend rather than save, yet the drive for efficiency means cutting marginal tax rates on high-income consumers.

*** and ***

One policy change, however, can stimulate both the economy in the short-run and enhance efficiency in the long-run: repeal of the corporate income tax, which collects up to 35% of the difference between revenues and costs of incorporated businesses.

*** and ***

Corporate income taxation has other negatives. It requires a complicated set of rules and regulations, over and above the personal income tax system, generating compliance costs. Special interests ensure that corporate tax systems favor specific industries or activities, further distorting private investment decisions. Along those lines, corporation taxation reduces financial transparency, making it harder for investors to monitor corporate behavior.

So repeal of the corporate income tax is good policy independent of the state of the economy and would provide short-run stimulus.

*** end quote ***

Corporations don’t pay taxes; they hide them in the final price of goods sold!

Only people pay taxes!

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POLITICAL: Tax increases in a recession?

Sunday, February 22, 2009

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/21/AR2009022100911_pf.html

Obama’s First Budget Seeks To Trim Deficit
Plan Would Cut War Spending, Increase Taxes on the Wealthy
By Lori Montgomery and Ceci Connolly
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, February 22, 2009; A01

*** begin quote ***

President Obama is putting the finishing touches on an ambitious first budget that seeks to cut the federal deficit in half over the next four years, primarily by raising taxes on businesses and the wealthy and by slashing spending on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, administration officials said.

*** end quote ***

Companies don’t pay taxes; people do. So raising the corporate tax is essentially a tax increase for everyone; poor included.

Rich folks have the ability to defer income and shit it and even “coast”. Watch how revenues “fail to appear”!

Stupidity!

Ignores the lessons of Kennedy and Regan.

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GOLDBUG: Can we EVER get back to “honest money”?

Thursday, February 19, 2009

http://news.goldseek.com/JamesTurk/1232989200.php

Restoring Sound Money in America
By: James Turk, Founder & Chairman of GoldMoney.com
— Posted Monday, 26 January 2009 | Digg This ArticleDigg It! | Source: GoldSeek.com

*** begin quote ***

There is a determined grassroots movement in the United States seeking the restoration of sound money. There are many different groups comprising this movement, but all share the same aim. It is to restore gold and silver to its rightful role as the money of the United States, as mandated by the Constitution.

I have written about this movement before. In “The Quest for Sound Money in New Hampshire” in May 2005 I discussed the bill, called the “New Hampshire Sound Money Bill”, that was drafted by Constitutional scholar and lawyer, Dr. Edwin Vieira. It was presented to the New Hampshire legislature, but sadly, remains pending in committee.

If enacted, the bill will enable people to use gold and silver in their transactions with the state of New Hampshire. An article by me discussing this bill, the aims of its several sponsors and some important background information on the monetary provisions of the Constitution can be found at the following link: http://www.goldmoneybill.org/turk.html

*** end quote ***

Sad to say, imho, not without a revolution.

When the people realize that gooferment is funded with inflation of fiat dollars, then they might wise up.

Saving in gold ounces is one option still open to the average bloke.

Buy one or more gold coins from a “paperless source” and bury it in your backyard.

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POLITICAL: 110 Years to Pay for Those Denver Solar Panels?

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

http://www.reason.com/blog/show/131747.html

110 Years to Pay for Those Denver Solar Panels?
Ronald Bailey | February 18, 2009, 1:18pm

*** begin quote ***

   The museum wanted a solar system to support its educational mission and cut energy costs as well as the building’s carbon footprint. But the payout period would have been too long to make it financially feasible.

   “We looked at first installing it ourselves, and without any of the incentive programs, it was a 110-year payout,” said [Dave Noel, vice president of operations and chief technology officer for the museum]. “The [museum’s] board was supportive of the program, but said it had to make sense financially.”

*** end quote ***

There are so many many good projects to be done. The national electric grid needs an update. But, that would take time and not give a “sexy” photo op!

We could then ask, as we do with so many gooferment programs, “why is the taxpayer paying for this”?

So to with the Denver museum. If the museum is entertainment, why is the taxpayer subsidizing this?

Argh!

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JOBSEARCH: Layoffs are the American “Way of Life”

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Layoffs are the new American “Way of Life”.

For “salarymen” like us, it’s “early retirement”.

As a nation, I’m not sure we can afford it. It would seem that we need an ERISA-like law to protect the older workers. 40 plus!

Perhaps, instead of employment at will, it becomes a “default employment contract”. At 40, you have to get 12 months warning that your contract will not be renewed.

Figure retirement age for Social Security is 66. Society has some obligation to ensure you can work to that age.

At 60, it’s a six year contract?

F(40 years of age) = 12 F(60) = 72

x1-x2 = 60 – 40 = 20

y1-y2 = 72 – 12 = 60

3 months extension for every year of age.

45 = 1 year + 15 months. 50 = 42 months. 55 = 57 60 = 62 months

Not exactly sure how that would be formulated. Like pension vesting?

Clearly, only government workers have pensions. So industry got round that restriction. And, got back to being able to “nuke” people without a care in the world.

I’m also reformulating the advice I give turkeys in the 20 to 40 range. They need their own form of “unemployment insurance”. Try to convince them of it.

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UPDATE: No surprise here

http://www.newsvine.com/_news/2009/02/14/2434788-charlotte-in-same-predicament-as-wall-street?email=html

*** begin quote ***

After being laid off from his bank consulting job 11 months ago, Jim Edwards’ daily routine of networking, applying for jobs and going to the gym keeps his spirits up.

“I’ve been out of work and living on my retirement income,” said the 62-year-old, who added it’s been a struggle finding employment because no one is hiring.

*** end quote ***

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POLITICAL: Abortion is genocide

Saturday, February 14, 2009

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=87549

The George Bailey Effect
Posted: January 31, 2009
1:00 am Eastern
By Larry Burkett

Editor’s note: The late Larry Burkett, popular Christian financial counselor and author, penned this article in 1998. It is a compelling “response” to Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s recent statement that the economy benefits from “family planning.” Joseph Slife contributed to this column.

*** begin quote ***

As the preceding evidence demonstrates, abortion is not simply a matter of private conscience, but of public concern. Abortion-on-demand has effects that are rippling throughout our society and could even threaten our future liberties.

This is why abortion, even if all moral arguments are totally discounted, cannot be ignored in framing public policy. Simply writing off abortion as a “moral” or a “religious” issue is a short-sighted approach that fails to reckon its economic and demographic consequences.

We can’t undo the past, of course. We can’t undo the fact that we have had 35 million George Baileys, people never born, people whose lives were never allowed to touch other lives. Indeed they have left an “awful hole.” But for the sake of our nation’s economic future and national security, as well as its moral character, we must resolve to promote from this time forward an ethic that is pro-family and pro-children. Only then can America continue to have a wonderful life.

*** end quote ***

When Pelosi and the Obama Democrat “liberals” advnace the pro-abortion agenda, everyone has to think of the “George Bailey” effect.

Have we aborted the future of America?

Like a self-imposed genocide.

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RANT: No one knows what is in the “stimulus bill”!

Friday, February 13, 2009

DRUDGE: Dems Break Promise To Post Stimulus Bill Online For 48-Hour Public Airing…

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=30697

SURPRISE! Dems Break Promise: Stimulus Bill to Floor Friday
by Connie Hair
02/12/2009

*** begin quote ***

In a press conference Thursday, the House Republican leadership spoke candidly about being kept out of the House-Senate conference on the Obama-Pelosi-Reid so-called “economic stimulus” bill. They confirmed they had not yet seen the text of the bill as of 4 p.m.

Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) said he was unsure how many Democrats would vote with Republicans again on this bill but that he thought Republicans “may get a few” Democrats to side with them. The fact that the Demos have now broken their promise to have the public able to see the bill for 48 hours may drive more Dems into the Republican camp.

“[I] don’t know, ‘cause they haven’t seen the bill either,” Boehner said.

*** end quote ***

They don’t need to READ THE BILL they are voting on. Do they?

http://www.downsizedc.org/

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