Child Labor

Are they your children, or wards of the state?

"The Department of Labor is poised to put the finishing touches on a rule that would apply child labor laws to children working on family farms, prohibiting them from performing a list of jobs on their own families’ land.
Under the rules, most children under 18 could no longer work “in the storing, marketing and transporting of farm product raw materials.”"

http://dailycaller.com/2012/04/25/rural-kids-parents-angry-about-labor-dept-rule-banning-farm-chores/

Alito not attending State of Union

 After experiencing an unbelievable banana republic moment, why would any justice subject themselves to that theatre?
-------------------------------------------
Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito made headlines back in January when he mouthed some mild disapproval during President Barack Obama's State of the Union Address as Obama made false statements about the Court's landmark free speech ruling in Citizens United v. F.E.C. Speaking in New York last week, Alito made it clear he won't be sitting through another such presidential performance.

http://reason.com/blog/2010/10/18/shocking-news-of-the-century-j

Mankiw on Taxing the "Rich" (Himself)

Mankiw shows how increasing taxes on himself changes his incentives.
He did not even factor in inflation!
------------------------------------
And I acknowledge that my motives in taking on extra work are partly mercenary. I don’t want to move to a bigger house or buy that Ferrari, but I hope to put some money aside for my three children. They will never lead lives of leisure, but I hope they won’t have to struggle to find down payments to buy their own homes or to send their kids to college.
Suppose that some editor offered me $1,000 to write an article. If there were no taxes of any kind, this $1,000 of income would translate into $1,000 in extra saving. If I invested it in the stock of a company that earned, say, 8 percent a year on its capital, then 30 years from now, when I pass on, my children would inherit about $10,000. That is simply the miracle of compounding.
Now let’s put taxes into the calculus. First, assuming that the Bush tax cuts expire, I would pay 39.6 percent in federal income taxes on that extra income. Beyond that, the phaseout of deductions adds 1.2 percentage points to my effective marginal tax rate. I also pay Medicare tax, which the recent health care bill is raising to 3.8 percent, starting in 2013. And in Massachusetts, I pay 5.3 percent in state income taxes, part of which I get back as a federal deduction. Putting all those taxes together, that $1,000 of pretax income becomes only $523 of saving.
And that saving no longer earns 8 percent. First, the corporation in which I have invested pays a 35 percent corporate tax on its earnings. So I get only 5.2 percent in dividends and capital gains. Then, on that income, I pay taxes at the federal and state level. As a result, I earn about 4 percent after taxes, and the $523 in saving grows to $1,700 after 30 years.
Then, when my children inherit the money, the estate tax will kick in. The marginal estate tax rate is scheduled to go as high as 55 percent next year, but Congress may reduce it a bit. Most likely, when that $1,700 enters my estate, my kids will get, at most, $1,000 of it.
HERE’S the bottom line: Without any taxes, accepting that editor’s assignment would have yielded my children an extra $10,000. With taxes, it yields only $1,000. In effect, once the entire tax system is taken into account, my family’s marginal tax rate is about 90 percent. Is it any wonder that I turn down most of the money-making opportunities I am offered?
By contrast, without the tax increases advocated by the Obama administration, the numbers would look quite different. I would face a lower income tax rate, a lower Medicare tax rate, and no deduction phaseout or estate tax. Taking that writing assignment would yield my kids about $2,000. I would have twice the incentive to keep working.


http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/10/business/economy/10view.html?_r=3&ref=business

Italy's Youth Exodus

Much of Europe, and especially Italy, has a huge exodus problem.
It simply does not pay to be young and educated when the inbred corporate state picks all winners and losers, the employed and unemployed.
The big problem is we are becoming more like them by the day.  Will our youth have opportunity here, or will we saddle them with the back-breaking obligations of entitlements for the "me generation" baby-boomers? Beyond our own, will the best and brightest from other countries still come here?  Will we even let them in?  At the margins, I sense we are already losing this battle. Sadly, in the worst case, I hope there will at least be a land of opportunity somewhere for our youth to go to.
-------------------------------------------------

It's not the type of advice you would usually expect from the head of an elite university. In an open letter to his son published last November, Pier Luigi Celli, director general of Rome's LUISS University, wrote, "This country, your country, is no longer a place where it's possible to stay with pride ... That's why, with my heart suffering more than ever, my advice is that you, having finished your studies, take the road abroad. Choose to go where they still value loyalty, respect and the recognition of merit and results."
The letter, published in Italy's La Repubblica newspaper, sparked a session of national hand-wringing. Celli, many agreed, had articulated a growing sense in his son's generation that the best hopes for success lie abroad. Commentators point to an accelerating flight of young Italians and worry that the country is losing its most valuable resource. And with reforms made all but impossible by Italy's deep-rooted interests and topsy-turvy politics — a schism in the ruling coalition seemed this summer to threaten Silvio Berlusconi's government once again — many are starting to wonder if the trend can be reversed. "We have a flow outward and almost no flow inward," says Sergio Nava,


Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2024136-1,00.html#ixzz124KvzWqj

The Individual Mandate and Raich

Interesting position on why the Raich case may not form a solid precedent supporting the Individual Mandate.
Basically, as I like to say, it is a "breath tax".  Are you breathing?  Ok, then, you owe the tax.  Nothing is produced, no goods or services change hands.  It is a tax on economic inactivity.

Well, I suppose since breathing emits CO2, maybe that should be regulated.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
I. The Court’s Definition of “Economic Activity.”
The Raich Court’s definition of economic activity is extremely broad, even ridiculously so. For example, it gives Congress the power to regulate your decision to eat dinner at home, since that decision entails the “consumption” of commodities such as food. Expansive as this definition may be, the mere status of being uninsured doesn’t qualify. Choosing not to purchase health insurance involves neither production, nor distribution, nor consumption of commodities. Indeed, an individual who chooses not to purchase insurance has chosen not to consume or distribute the commodity in question. And, obviously, he or she is also not “producing” any commodity by refusing to purchase insurance. By contrast, the Raich defendants were engaged in “economic activity” since they were both producing and consuming marijuana.

II. The Broader Regulatory Scheme Rule.
This rule too is very broad in the way it allows Congress to regulate even “noneconomic” activity so long as there is even a remote connection to some sort of regulation of commerce. However, the power outlined by the court applies only to the regulation of “activity.” The Court itself repeatedly uses the term “activity” to describe the object of regulation. It does not cover regulation of inactivity or the refusal to engage in economic transactions. Angel Raich and Diane Monsen had not been inactive or merely refused to engage in some transaction. To the contrary, they were actively involved in the production and consumption of homegrown medical marijuana. The Court’s logic could be extended to cover regulation of inactivity. But Raich itself doesn’t do this.

http://volokh.com/2010/10/05/gonzales-v-raich-and-the-individual-mandate/

Is Barney in trouble?

Somehow, I am stuck in Barney's tortuously gerrymandered district. Common sense would say you cannot lose to Barney Frank;
1) Clearly one of the chief architects of the financial meltdown. 
2) Former boyfriend of the Fannie Mae executive running the disastrous affordable housing initiatives.
3) Recipient of campaign cash from Fannie and Freddie
4) The Dodd-Frank bill; the patients running the asylum
I could go on, but I mean seriously- what does it take?!?

But Bielat is still heartened by the poll's main finding, which shows him trailing Frank by just 10 points. Frank's supporters say the lead is bigger, but Bielat believes he's within striking distance.
Ask Bielat to name the three worst things Frank has done in office and you get an idea of what his focus would be, if elected. "You've got to start with Freddie and Fannie and his unending push to expand homeownership," Bielat says. "He definitely played an enormous role in getting us where we are today in terms of the real estate bubble and the ensuing financial collapse."
Number two? "Financial reform, because it doesn't address Fannie and Freddie and vastly expands oversight of the financial services sector."
Three? "His view on what government should and should not do." Simply put, Frank wants an always-expanding federal government, and Bielat doesn't.

http://www.sfexaminer.com/politics/A-GOP-unknown-is-in-striking-range-of-Barney-Frank-1063388-104114343.html

Double Dip?

Hmmm:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704116004575521822940983434.html?mod=WSJ_newsreel_opinion

Pub Schools are 4 times Better than in 1970!

Oh, wait, never mind, just 4 times more expensive.

Privatize Libraries!

Privatizing public library operations!




http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/27/business/27libraries.html?_r=2&pagewanted=all

Segway Karma

Jimi Heselden, the owner of the Segway company, has died after riding one of the two-wheeled machines off a cliff and into a river.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/8027301/Segway-company-owner-dies-riding-two-wheeled-machine-off-cliff.html

Heavy Drinkers Outlive Non-Drinkers

Cheers!

But even after controlling for nearly all imaginable variables — socioeconomic status, level of physical activity, number of close friends, quality of social support and so on — the researchers (a six-member team led by psychologist Charles Holahan of the University of Texas at Austin) found that over a 20-year period, mortality rates were highest for those who were not current drinkers, regardless of whether they used to be alcoholics, second highest for heavy drinkers and lowest for moderate drinkers.

http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,2014332,00.html

Oh- Our Dear Leader!

Senate Votes to Spend Billions on No Name Bill

Seriously now.
Could we get a bigger gaggle of idiots converging in one place?
Bill to lavish money on public sector unions passed so quickly, it got no name.

I liked this comment on the subject from Radley Balko:

That’s right. A hundreds-of-millions-of-dollars spending bill made its way through Congress, and no one even noticed that the damn thing didn’t have a name. Which also means you can probably count on one hand the number of lawmakers who actually know what’s in the bill—and still have a finger left over to let them know what you think of this nonsense.

----------------------------------------------------
In the House and Senate, they often publish amendments ahead of time, and it looks like someone was in a rush to get the amendment together, because they left blank lines where the new name of the bill should have been.
Take a look for yourself. Down toward the bottom of this page in the Congressional Record, it says, “SECTION 1. This Act may be cited as the “_______Act of______”. (The Library of Congress’ Thomas reporting system picked that up as the “XXXXXXAct ofXXXX,” so that’s how it shows up on our site.)
Well, THAT’s the amendment they brought up and passed, so the new name of the bill is the “_______Act of______.”
And that’s the way it might be signed into law.
You see, the Constitution requires both Houses of Congress to pass identical bills before they can be sent to the president and signed into law. The Senate has left town for the rest of August, and the House is coming back next week to put its stamp of approval on the bill.
President Obama wants to sign it quickly—the bill is already up on the Whitehouse.gov “pending legislation” page (though posting it there before the bill passes Congress doesn’t count as Sunlight Before Signing). So the House has to approve this bill, with the name “_______Act of______.”
The only other alternative is for the House to change the name and have the Senate come back for another vote.
Congress seems always to be hustling to get things done—even when it’s spending billions of taxpayer dollars. This time, they were hustling so fast to get the money moving that they couldn’t take the time to give the bill a proper name.


http://www.washingtonwatch.com/blog/2010/08/08/senate-passes-the-______act-of____-no-foolin/

The Good Old Days

People in general (but especially certain flavors of collectivists) chronically romanticize the good old days, before the industrial revolution ruined everything.
---------------------------------------
The wealthiest place in the world in the 18th century was London.
• "London street dirt ... was a rich, glutinous mixture of animal manure, dead cats and dogs, ashes, straw, and human excrement. ... We complain of the pollution caused by petrol-driven engines. Imagine the sheer volume of faeces and urine excreted by the engines of eighteenth-century traffic -- that is, horses -- let alone the dung of the herds and flocks being driven through the streets to markets and abattoirs."
• London's water supply was contaminated with "the effect of rotting elm and lead, not to mention the miscellaneous refuse, dead dogs, and so on that found their way into the supply."
• "The kind of space we take as normal, at least separating children from parents at night, and having a room for sitting and watching television and doing homework, was a luxury only the prosperous enjoyed."
• "Nearly everyone had carious (decaying) teeth, even small children."
• "Riding in a chaise or chariot counted as exercise -- which shows how even the most improved vehicles bumped you about."
• "Butlers were entitled to keep and sell the ends of candles, an expensive commodity in the eighteenth century."
• "In the country the roads were abominable unless they had been 'turn-piked' and were maintained by a private company which charged for its services."
• "For 1751 the (life-expectancy) figure for both men and women in England and Wales has been estimated at 36.6 years. ... (B)etween 50 and 60 percent of London-born children died before their tenth birthday."
• "Pyorrhoea and scurvy were rampant. Both would loosen teeth. ... The leading French dentist Fauchard recommended one's own urine for cleaning one's teeth: always handy."
• "Soap was a major item in a family budget."
• "The life of a skilled or unskilled man or woman in the middle of the eighteenth century was unenviable. Hours were long, from five in the morning till seven at night from mid-March to mid-September, otherwise dawn to twilight, with one and a half hours off for meals, for a six-day week. Christmas, Easter and Whitsun were the only official holidays."
• "Working life began young. ... Master chimney sweeps took as many as four children at a time to do the dirty work, since none of them lasted very long, soot being carcinogenic. In 1785 Jonas Hanway estimated that there were about 550 climbing children in London. They were sometimes sent up even when the chimney was on fire. Extinguishing burning chimneys was the most profitable part of their master's business. They worked in soot and slept on soot, and had no way of cleaning themselves."
The above descriptions of life in the 18th century's wealthiest place warn us against romanticizing the past -- even a past as inspiring as revolutionary America. As important as the American Revolution was for preserving Americans' political freedoms, the Industrial Revolution was just as important for creating the high standard of living that we today take for granted.


http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/opinion/columnists/boudreaux/s_694274.html

US is Bankrupt- Worse Than Greece

Well, duh.  You only need 4th grade math to figure this one out, but Kotlikoff is better at measuring the extent of the nakedness of our Emperors than anyone else I know of.
-------------------------------------------------------------

How can the fiscal gap be so enormous?
Simple. We have 78 million baby boomers who, when fully retired, will collect benefits from Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid that, on average, exceed per-capita GDP. The annual costs of these entitlements will total about $4 trillion in today’s dollars. Yes, our economy will be bigger in 20 years, but not big enough to handle this size load year after year.

This is what happens when you run a massive Ponzi scheme for six decades straight, taking ever larger resources from the young and giving them to the old while promising the young their eventual turn at passing the generational buck.

Herb Stein, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers under U.S. President Richard Nixon, coined an oft-repeated phrase: “Something that can’t go on, will stop.” True enough. Uncle Sam’s Ponzi scheme will stop. But it will stop too late.

And it will stop in a very nasty manner. The first possibility is massive benefit cuts visited on the baby boomers in retirement. The second is astronomical tax increases that leave the young with little incentive to work and save. And the third is the government simply printing vast quantities of money to cover its bills.

Worse Than Greece
Most likely we will see a combination of all three responses with dramatic increases in poverty, tax, interest rates and consumer prices. This is an awful, downhill road to follow, but it’s the one we are on. And bond traders will kick us miles down our road once they wake up and realize the U.S. is in worse fiscal shape than Greece.

Some doctrinaire Keynesian economists would say any stimulus over the next few years won’t affect our ability to deal with deficits in the long run.

This is wrong as a simple matter of arithmetic. The fiscal gap is the government’s credit-card bill and each year’s 14 percent of GDP is the interest on that bill. If it doesn’t pay this year’s interest, it will be added to the balance.

Demand-siders say forgoing this year’s 14 percent fiscal tightening, and spending even more, will pay for itself, in present value, by expanding the economy and tax revenue.
My reaction? Get real, or go hang out with equally deluded supply-siders. Our country is broke and can no longer afford no- pain, all-gain “solutions.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-08-11/u-s-is-bankrupt-and-we-don-t-even-know-commentary-by-laurence-kotlikoff.html

Some Crazy Karma

The ex-Senator Stevens plane crash incident was interesting enough, but here is the fateful twist:

"Stevens was one of two survivors in a 1978 plane crash at Anchorage International Airport that killed his wife, Ann, and several others."

http://www.denverpost.com/nationworld/ci_15738904?source=rss

Health Inspectors Shut Down Lemonade Stand

I suppose the only good that could come from this is a 7-year-old Libertarian:


After 20 minutes, a "lady with a clipboard" came over and asked for their license. When Fife explained they didn't have one, the woman told them they would need to leave or possibly face a $500 fine.

Surprised, Fife started to pack up. The people staffing the booths next to them encouraged the two to stay, telling them the inspectors had no right to kick them out of the neighborhood gathering. They also suggested that they give away the lemonade and accept donations instead and one of them made an announcement to the crowd to support the lemonade stand.

That's when business really picked up -- and two inspectors came back, Fife said. Julie started crying, while her mother packed up and others confronted the inspectors. "It was a very big scene," Fife said.

Technically, any lemonade stand -- even one on your front lawn -- must be licensed under state law, said Eric Pippert, the food-borne illness prevention program manager for the state's public health division. But county inspectors are unlikely to go after kids selling lemonade on their front lawn unless, he conceded, their front lawn happens to be on Alberta Street during Last Thursday.

"When you go to a public event and set up shop, you're suddenly engaging in commerce," he said. "The fact that you're small-scale I don't think is relevant."

http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2010/08/portland_lemonade_stand_runs_i.html

Early Color Photos 1939-1943

I thought these were cool- government agency photos from a time when we expect everything to be in black & white.  Plays with your perspective- makes those days seem more recent. In the one below, note the handwritten news on the window at the newspaper office:

http://blogs.denverpost.com/captured/2010/07/26/captured-america-in-color-from-1939-1943/2363/

Ghosts of WWII

Amazing images (HT: Dan Lynch):

http://www.mymodernmet.com/profiles/blogs/the-ghosts-of-world-war-iis

Mama takes the Kodachrome Away

What do you shoot when you are entrusted with the last roll of film?

Betting its future on digital photography, Kodak discontinued the slide and motion-picture film with a production run last August in which a master sheet nearly a mile long was cut up into more than 20,000 rolls. McCurry requested the final 36-exposure strip. After nine months of planning, he embarked in June on a six-week odyssey. Trailing him was a TV crew from National Geographic Channel, which plans to broadcast a one-hour documentary early next year.

http://www.artdaily.org/index.asp?int_sec=2&int_new=39686

Obama unpopular because initiatives TOO SMALL

Yep, that's right- According to Reich, the people are against the Obama agenda because the stimulis was too small to work, the healthscare bill was "not large or bold enough",  not enough homeowners were bailed out, and the Dodd-Frank bill is not invasive enough.  If only these things were done on a grander scale, they would have worked, and we would all be praising Obama's boldness.  You see, his agenda is the right course, it was just too constrained by the opposition. Got it?

Consider the stimulus package. Although it's difficult to separate the consequences of fiscal and monetary policy, most knowledgeable observers conclude that the stimulus has had a positive effect. Real GDP is now increasing at an annual rate of 2.4%, and although the recovery is still fragile it's unlikely we'll fall back into a full-fledged recession.
Yet the official rate of unemployment remains above 9%, not including millions either too discouraged to look for work or working part-time when they'd rather have full-time jobs. Almost half of the jobless have been without work for more than six months, a level not seen since the Great Depression.
The central problem continues to be inadequate aggregate demand. The administration's original sin was not spending enough and focusing the stimulus more directly on job creation.
...
A stimulus too small to significantly reduce unemployment, a TARP that didn't trickle down to Main Street, financial reform that doesn't fundamentally restructure Wall Street, and health-care reforms that don't promise to bring down health-care costs have all created an enthusiasm gap. They've fired up the right, demoralized the left, and generated unease among the general population.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703999304575399420815017804.html?mod=djemEditorialPage_h

Really Cool Pool!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1289194/Marina-Bay-Sands-resort-opens-Singapore.html

Food crisis in Venezuela

Big surprise- price fixing leads to shortages, black markets, corruption...
------------------------------
Mountains of rotting food found at a government warehouse, soaring prices and soldiers raiding wholesalers accused of hoarding: Food supply is the latest battle in President Hugo Chavez's socialist revolution.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez says government-led raids of food markets will reverse exploitation of the poor, whom he needs for political support.
Venezuelan army soldiers swept through the working class, pro-Chavez neighborhood of Catia in Caracas last week, seizing 120 tons of rice along with coffee and powdered milk that officials said was to be sold above regulated prices.

"The battle for food is a matter of national security," said a red-shirted official from the Food Ministry, resting his arm on a pallet laden with bags of coffee.
...
Jose Guzman, an assistant manager at a store raided in Catia, watched with resignation as government agents pored over the company's accounts and computers after the food ministry official and the television cameras left.

"The government is pushing this type of establishment toward bankruptcy," said Guzman, who linked the raid to the rotten food scandal. "Somehow they have to replace all the food that was lost, and this is the most expeditious way." 

---

Food prices are up 41 percent in the last 12 months during a deep recession, government figures show, despite the government's growing network of state-run supermarkets that sell at discounts of up to 40 percent and are popular with his poor supporters.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/37786852

That's ok, schools are twice as good

What could go wrong here

Astounding Mineral Find in Afganistan

Who you calling 3rd world, losers?  Now let's see if they can handle winning the lottery without imploding.
Oh, and so much for that widely reported "peak lithium" problem.


http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/14/world/asia/14minerals.html?pagewanted=2&no_interstitial

$400 Million, small catch

Obviously the $400m is insane to begin with, but this is beyond:

President Obama promised a $400 million aid package for the West Bank and Gaza on Wednesday, as the United States scrambled to come up with a way out of the stalemate in the Middle East exacerbated by the Gaza flotilla incident last week.
Mr. Obama, meeting with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas at the White House, said that the money would go to housing and schools. White House officials said that the money also would help increase access to drinking water and to help address health and infrastructure needs.
The exact details of how such aid would be used in Gaza remained unclear. Nor was it immediately clear how Mr. Abbas, who has authority in the West Bank but no authority in Gaza, would be able to administer it.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/10/world/middleeast/10prexy.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

Spendulus Brilliance

I know, let's pay people money to destroy assets- that's the ticket! What could go wrong?
Worked exactly the way any rational thinker would have expected- accelerated purchases that were going to be made anyways:

Clegg! "A Bonfire of Unnecessary Laws"

 There used to be "leave us alone" aspects of the so called American "left" that I could rally behind, but the Dems excised their libertarian wing long before the Repubs did.  Both major parties here are very much about using the power of the state to bludgeon us into submission, just in somewhat different ways. Mark me down as surprised to be impressed by this "leftist" Clegg dude in the ever more totalitarian UK:

A “power revolution” in Britain will be promised by Nick Clegg today as he tries to put his personal stamp on the Government in his first major statement as Deputy Prime Minister.
The Liberal Democrat leader will hail his programme of political reform as the most ambitious and radical since the Great Reform Act of 1832. He has told aides that the coalition government has given him the opportunity to implement the changes that he came into politics to pursue.

I know what you’re thinking. I was thinking the same thing. That kind of soaring language usually precedes calls for a panoply of new government programs. But read on . . .

In a speech in London Mr Clegg will promise a “wholesale, big bang” rather than piecemeal approach, including:
* scrapping the identity card scheme and second generation biometric passports;
* removing limits on the rights to peaceful protest;
* a bonfire of unnecessary laws;
* a block on pointless new criminal offences;
* internet and email records not to be held without reason;
* closed-circuit television to be properly regulated;
* new controls over the DNA database, such as on the storage of innocent people’s DNA;
* axeing the ContactPoint children’s database;
* schools will not take children’s fingerprints without asking for parental consent;
* reviewing the libel laws to protect freedom of speech.

 http://pajamasmedia.com/instapundit/99613/

PIIGS House of Cards

Greece as the tip of the iceberg here (click to view):

Hypocritical Congress Critters

Short sellers are bad, unless they are us.
Imagine having the power to destroy the businesses you short...


http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703871904575216491495135642.html?mod=rss_Today%27s_Most_Popular

More Americans Denouncing Citizenship

This starts as a trickle, but expect a torrent. Note that these folks are likely to be top earners. This is just the beginning of a wave of brain and capital flight.
 --------------------------------------------
WASHINGTON — Amid mounting frustration over taxation and banking problems, small but growing numbers of overseas Americans are taking the weighty step of renouncing their citizenship.
...
American expats have long complained that the United States is the only industrialized country to tax citizens on income earned abroad, even when they are taxed in their country of residence, though they are allowed to exclude their first $91,400 in foreign-earned income....
 ...
Yet the notion of double taxation — and of future tax obligations for her children, who will receive few U.S. services — finally pushed her to renounce, she said.
“I loved my time in the Marines, and the U.S. is still a great country,” she said. “But having lived here 20 years and having to pay and file while seeing other countries’ nationals not having to do that, I just think it’s grossly unfair.”
“It’s taxation without representation,” she added.
Stringent new banking regulations — aimed both at curbing tax evasion and, under the Patriot Act, preventing money from flowing to terrorist groups — have inadvertently made it harder for some expats to keep bank accounts in the United States and in some cases abroad.
Some U.S.-based banks have closed expats’ accounts because of difficulty in certifying that the holders still maintain U.S. addresses, as required by a Patriot Act provision.

 
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/26/us/26expat.html?hp

How Mass Healthcare Law Reduces Employment

I have a fellow working for me as an hourly temp worker. W2 wages.  He was working 37.5 hours like everyone else. Turns out if he works more than 24 hours, we owe him health care benefits to the tune of 12k+ per year.  I want him to work 37.5 hours, he wants to work 37.5 hours, the owners of the company want him to work 37.5 hours. We can't give him a massive raise, nor a big paycut to fold in the benefits, so we had to cut his hours to 24.  Note that ALL parties are worse off for the lack of voluntary exchange here, and the collective is poorer for fewer goods and services being produced.

My first "real" job that positioned me for a career in my field was earned by working 80 hour weeks for hourly pay with no benefits, and I'm not the only one. This gateway to opportunity has been slammed shut by labor laws ostensibly written to "benefit" employees. Some benefit.

Unbelievable Volcano Images

http://www.flickr.com/photos/skarpi/

Trust in Government

Awakening

http://reason.com/assets/mc/rbalko/2010_04/PewTrustPoll.jpg

NV Women Gets Life Sentence for Letting Minor Touch Breasts

ELKO, Nev. — A Twin Falls woman convicted of forcing a 13-year-old boy to touch her breasts was sentenced Monday to life in prison.
Michelle Lyn Taylor, 34, was convicted of lewdness with a minor under 14 in November after a week-long trial in Elko County, Nev., District Judge Mike Memeo’s courtroom.
With the conviction, Taylor faced a mandatory life sentence, and Memeo set parole eligibility after 10 years, the minimum sentence. If released on parole she must register as a sex offender and will be under lifetime supervision.
The district attorney’s office did not offer a plea agreement in the case, said public defender Alina Kilpatrick, who argued the sentence is unconstitutional and doesn’t fit the crime.
“The jury was not allowed to know the potential sentence in this case and the Legislature doesn’t know the facts,” she said, alluding to the minimum sentence set by the Legislature in Nevada Revised Statute.
Kilpatrick said despite the parole eligibility after 10 years, there should be no mistake that it’s a life sentence for Taylor.

“She is getting a greater penalty for having a boy touch her breast than if she killed him,” she said.

Spot the trend

Explains a lot:

Happy Dependence Day

"We're being gifted with a health care plan written by a committee whose chairman says he doesn't understand it, passed by a Congress that hasn't read it but exempts itself from it, signed by a president who also hasn't read it and who smokes, with funding administered by a treasury chief who didn't pay his taxes, to be overseen by a surgeon general who is obese, and financed by a country that's broke.

"What could possibly go wrong?"

http://www.salemnews.com/puopinion/local_story_092212015.html?keyword=topstory

Dig Giant Hole- Dump Endless Money

Suppose they can fine Toyota enough to pay GM and Chrysler's liabilities?

DETROIT — The pension plans at General Motors and Chrysler are underfunded by a total of $17 billion and could fail if the automakers do not return to profitability, according to a government report released Tuesday.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/07/business/07cars.html

Why the "Pre-existing Condition" mandate will bankrupt the Health Scare system

Well, duh. Why buy fire insurance if you can just buy it after a fire?

Short-term customers boosting health costs

Lesson for US overhaul in gaming of Mass. system

The typical monthly premium for these short-term members was $400, but their average claims exceeded $2,200 per month. The previous year, the company’s data show it had even more high-spending, short-term members. Over those two years, the figures suggest the price tag ran into the millions.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2010/04/04/short_term_customers_boosting_health_costs/

Indiana Police Tase 10 Year Old

MARTINSVILLE, Ind. – Two officers called to a home day care to subdue an unruly 10-year-old have been suspended after one used a stun gun on the boy and another slapped him in the mouth, a central Indiana police chief said Thursday.
The child suffered no significant injuries. Both officers have been placed on paid administrative leave while police investigate the confrontation Tuesday at Tender Teddies.
Martinsville Police Chief Jon Davis said he believed the officers could have controlled the 94-pound boy without using force.
"I think they could have just restrained the young man," he said at a news conference. "Just held him down. Might have ended the situation."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100401/ap_on_re_us/us_police_shock_child

Ruling: Bush Admin Violated Wiretap Laws

About time already!
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Court Says President Bush Violated Wiretapping Laws With Warrantless Wiretap

from the wow dept

In a huge ruling, a court has said that the US government violated wiretapping laws in eavesdropping on phone calls without a warrant.

If you haven't been following the fight over the legality of warrantless wiretapping, this case, involving lawyers working with the Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation, is extremely important. When it was revealed that the Bush administration was wiretapping phonecalls without a warrant, lawsuits were filed -- but the "problem" was that the parties (such as the ACLU) that filed the lawsuits didn't have "standing" because they had no evidence that they, personally, were impacted by the warrantless wiretapping. This created a ridiculous Catch-22 situation. As long as the government hid its illegal activities and never said who it spied on, it could spy on anyone illegally. No one could bring a lawsuit, since there was no proof that they had been impacted by the illegal spying.

Then the feds screwed up. They accidentally sent the evidence of wiretapping some lawyers for the Al-Haramain group to those lawyers. Suddenly there was evidence. But, of course, the government tried to cover it up. For a while it claimed that even though it had revealed that it had illegally spied on these lawyers, and everyone knew it, since those documents were classified, everyone had to pretend that it was still a secret and no one knew about it. This resulted in a series of positively ridiculous hoops that lawyers had to jump through to bring the case, without actually using the document.
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100331/1228088813.shtml

I knew it!

Constitutional Convention?

SC Lieutenant Governor calls for Constitutional Convention to revoke Healthscare
Really long shot, but wouldn't it be amazing...

http://news.sc/2010/03/26/sc-lt-governor-andre-bauer-calls-for-convention-to-overturn-obama-healthcare/

Healthscare Can Be Defunded Over Veto

Think the Healthscare cannot be undone in face of Obama veto?
A mere majority can defund it.

Would Repubs actually do this if they take Congress? Probably not, IMHO. Power corrupts- when was the last time an entitlement was undone?  Welfare reform you might say? Truth is, the 'reform' part has since been undone. They would meddle about with it instead.

Amazon Filler Item Finder

Great idea
-------------------------------------

How To Ensure You Always Get Free Shipping On Amazon

Amazon’s offer of free shipping is a blessing and a burden. They’ll send your items at no extra cost, yes, but your basket of goods has to reach a certain price before you qualify.

And there’s nothing more annoying than being $1.29 short and buying a $15 DVD out of frustration to round out your order.
Moments like that one call for Amazon Filler Item Finder, an innovative tool that helps you find every item Amazon sells, listed by price.
The site is an exercise in simplicity.  Just enter the amount you’re short and you’ll see a list of products that match the price, starting from cheapest to more expensive.



http://us1.campaign-archive.com/?u=ea7544b086a8473bd90e4c1e3&id=805eec14cc&e=b93037bf0c

War on Fat is Making Us Sick!

Health Czars caught bare baked- one more reason we need to keep them out of our health (and diet) decisions.

Ultimately, saturated fat—named because it contains no double bonds, so all of its carbon atoms are saturated with hydrogen atoms—may be neutral for the heart. Meanwhile, some mono-unsaturated fats (which have one double-bond and are found in many nuts) and some poly-unsaturated fats (which have multiple double bonds and are found in fatty fish) could be good for the heart.

http://www.slate.com/id/2248754

Naked Nincompoops

"Without real, genuine, malevolent evil to fight against, we'd all be mindless nincompoops."

I don't know where I got this quote that I memorized years ago, or why I've always liked it, because it's not really accurate.

Most of us, unless we're with military, anti-terrorist or criminal justice forces, haven't had to fight real evil, at least directly — though our decisions as voters can make it easier or tougher for them. Most of us can keep mentally sharp by simply fighting those mindless nincompoops.

The tricky part is being able to tell the mindless nincompoops from the mindful manipulators. As a general guide, the latter are liberal politicians, and the former are the people who believe them when they say, "I'm from the government and I'm here to help you."

Take the health care debate. One manipulator said that the government must take over health care because an uninsured woman is wearing her dead sister's dentures.

Nincompoops said, "That's awful!"

A thoughtful person might ask: "If we can use a dead person's heart, liver or cornea, why not her dentures?"

Manipulators always have scapegoats — someone to blame for their own failures or the things that normally go wrong in the course of an imperfect life.

Nincompoops mindlessly repeat the mantra, "The insurance companies and Big Pharma are killing people."

Those of us who have insurance companies paying for surgery, cancer treatments, and chronic disease-controlling drugs created by the drug companies, are somewhat grateful for our increased life expectancy.

A manipulator says that adding a new giant entitlement program, which not only expands health insurance and prescription drug coverage, but also adds long-term care to the almost bankrupt Medicare and Medicaid systems, will cut the deficit by a trillion dollars.

A nincompoop will buy that fanciful notion, along with the assurance that new taxes on investment income and payroll won't damage the already hurting economy.

A thoughtful person is worried about further expanding the national debt, and horrified by the addition of 16,500 new IRS employees to oversee the mandatory insurance program.

Manipulators also say that with more government involvement, our health insurance premiums will go down.

Surely no one believes that!

But when it doesn't happen, the liberal politicians will say it's because we don't have a single-payer system and will make their move for complete government takeover of our health insurance. And once they have that, they will own us. If we resist higher taxes on anything for any reason, or don't support raising the national debt ceiling again, we'll be told the only place to cut is our health care.

Nincompoops will believe that and beg for higher taxes and more debt.

One thing that nincompoops and thoughtful people may have in common is an inability to understand the real motives of many manipulators. Most of us just want to live our lives, finding happiness within ourselves, our relationships, our productive work and enjoyable pastimes. We don't easily comprehend that some people find their happiness in power and control.

We may recognize the problem of bullying in our schools, but fail to see it in our government.

Some liberals are simply deluded, believing that they do good by forcing others to pay for their good intentions.

We can all understand this and even excuse it, while resisting it by citing the law of unintended consequences. We can agree with many good ideas, while facing the reality that we can't afford their implementation until we first get a grip on our existing debt.

But other liberals have another agenda. It's often hard for good people to recognize low-level evil, the beginner evil that gets its little kicks from making us do what it wants.

When it's grown big enough to control us completely, nincompoops might finally recognize it; the rest of us work throughout our lives on prevention and containment.

Nincompoops make fun of patriots who protest Big Government, with signs expressing support for the U.S. Constitution and longstanding American values. The mindless aren't mindful of history; or they somehow believe that history's uglier lessons won't have to be learned here.

Our Founding Fathers knew better, and did their best to protect us from what some of them feared might be an inevitable decline in the freedoms they gave us.

In any case, my first concern upon the passage of ObamaCare last weekend was that the tea-party activists might get discouraged. But all across the Internet they are already sharing plans for the next battle with already battle-hardened activists.

I watched President Obama sign the health reform bill Tuesday. His supporters were cheering; and were those women doing a little chorus-line dance?

Some puzzled citizens have asked me why the president and Congress are congratulating themselves for doing what many Americans don't want.

I suspect the manipulators believe that most Americans — both those who oppose them, and those who blindly follow — are a bunch of nincompoops, and will allow these politicians all the power that they crave. I think they are wrong, at least about us opponents.

---

The comments made and opinions expressed in her columns are those of Barbara Anderson
and do not necessarily reflect those of Citizens for Limited Taxation.

---

-- More of Barbara's Columns --

Man Creates $747 Space Camera

Putting NASA to shame:

Putting NASA and its billion dollar budgets to shame, a British space enthusiast took amazing photos and video from space with just a few hundred dollars, a home camera and a balloon.

Robert Harrison spent a mere $747 dollars to take his photos and video from 22 miles above Earth's surface.
http://www.ktla.com/news/landing/ktla-balloon-home-photos-space,0,5393976.story

Healthscare Bill Creates New Army

 SEC. 203. COMMISSIONED CORPS AND READY RESERVE CORPS.

(a) ESTABLISHMENT.—

(1) IN GENERAL.—There shall be in the Service a commissioned Regular Corps and a Ready Reserve Corps for service in time of national emergency.

(2) REQUIREMENT.—All commissioned officers shall be citizens of the United States and shall be appointed without regard to the civil-service laws and compensated without regard to the Classification Act of 1923, as amended.

(3) APPOINTMENT.—Commissioned officers of the Ready Reserve Corps shall be appointed by the President and commissioned officers of the Regular Corps shall be appointed by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate.

(4) ACTIVE DUTY.—Commissioned officers of the Ready Reserve Corps shall at all times be subject to call to active duty by the Surgeon General, including active duty for the purpose of training.

(5) WARRANT OFFICERS.—Warrant officers may be appointed to the Service for the purpose of providing support to the health and delivery systems maintained by the Service and any warrant officer appointed to the Service shall be considered for purposes of this Act and title 37, United States Code, to be a commissioned officer within the Commissioned Corps of the Service.

(b) ASSIMILATING RESERVE CORP OFFICERS INTO THE REGULAR CORPS.—Effective on the date of enactment of the Affordable Health Choices Act, all individuals classified as officers in the Reserve Corps under this section (as such section existed on the day before the date of enactment of such Act) and serving on active duty shall be deemed to be commissioned officers of the Regular Corps.

(c) PURPOSE AND USE OF READY RESERVE.—

(1) PURPOSE.—The purpose of the Ready Reserve Corps is to fulfill the need to have additional Commissioned Corps personnel available on short notice (similar to the uniformed service’s reserve program) to assist regular Commissioned Corps personnel to meet both routine public health and emergency response missions.

(2) USES.—The Ready Reserve Corps shall—

(A) participate in routine training to meet the general and specific needs of the Commissioned Corps;

(B) be available and ready for involuntary calls to active duty during national emergencies and public health crises, similar to the uniformed service reserve personnel;

(C) be available for backfilling critical positions left vacant during deployment of active duty Commissioned Corps members, as well as for deployment to respond to public health emergencies, both foreign and domestic; and

(D) be available for service assignment in isolated, hardship, and medically underserved communities (as defined in section 399SS) to improve access to health services.

(d) FUNDING.—For the purpose of carrying out the duties and responsibilities of the Commissioned Corps under this section, there are authorized to be appropriated such sums as may be necessary to the Office of the Surgeon General for each of fiscal years 2010 through 2014. Funds appropriated under this subsection shall be used for recruitment and training of Commissioned Corps Officers.

http://www.thetreeofliberty.com/vb/showpost.php?p=958482&postcount=2

Waiting for healthcare

Hopenchange 1775 Style

They tell us, sir, that we are weak; unable to cope with so formidable an adversary. But when shall we be stronger? Will it be the next week, or the next year? Will it be when we are totally disarmed, and when a British guard shall be stationed in every house? Shall we gather strength by irresolution and inaction? Shall we acquire the means of effectual resistance by lying supinely on our backs and hugging the delusive phantom of hope, until our enemies shall have bound us hand and foot? Sir, we are not weak if we make a proper use of those means which the God of nature hath placed in our power. The millions of people, armed in the holy cause of liberty, and in such a country as that which we possess, are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us. Besides, sir, we shall not fight our battles alone. There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations, and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us. The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave. Besides, sir, we have no election. If we were base enough to desire it, it is now too late to retire from the contest. There is no retreat but in submission and slavery! Our chains are forged! Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston! The war is inevitable--and let it come! I repeat it, sir, let it come.

It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace-- but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!

— Patrick Henry, March 23, 1775

Corporate bonds yielding LESS than Treasuries

The market is betting that many corporations are more credit worthy than the Feds:

Two-year notes sold by the billionaire’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. in February yield 3.5 basis points less than Treasuries of similar maturity, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Procter & Gamble Co., Johnson & Johnson and Lowe’s Cos. debt also traded at lower yields in recent weeks, a situation former Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. chief fixed-income strategist Jack Malvey calls an “exceedingly rare” event in the history of the bond market.
The $2.59 trillion of Treasury Department sales since the start of 2009 have created a glut as the budget deficit swelled to a post-World War II-record 10 percent of the economy and raised concerns whether the U.S. deserves its AAA credit rating. The increased borrowing may also undermine the first-quarter rally in Treasuries as the economy improves.

“It’s a slap upside the head of the government,” said Mitchell Stapley, the chief fixed-income officer in Grand Rapids, Michigan, at Fifth Third Asset Management, which oversees $22 billion. “It could be the moment where hopefully you realize that risk is beginning to creep into your credit profile and the costs associated with that can be pretty scary.”

http://seekingalpha.com/article/194790-all-roads-lead-through-healthcare

Healthscare is back!

Just watched the votes count up in the House. Sick to my stomach. Clearly bad for my health.

Oh, now Obama's on;  "A government of the people and by the people still works for the people"  say what? Bare naked, I tell you. "This is what change looks like". I'll take the status quo, thanks. Now he's bashing insurance companies again- how many times are you planning to spend their paltry 6% profit margin?

Let's just hope it hits some sort of technical snag in the Senate, because we are screwed.

Update:  Don Boudreaux states it well:

Watching tonight on television the charlatans who infest Pennsylvania Avenue gaudily pronounce their saintly motives and their deity-like powers to “guarantee world-class health care for every American” (as one creep put it to a NewsChannel 8 reporter here in DC) makes me want to vomit.
These people look like serious adults; the timber of their voices make them sound like serious adults; and their titles are ones that are assumed to be reserved for serious adults.  But, in fact, these people – from Obama to Pelosi to Hoyer to Reid – are nothing of the sort.

If they really believe even a quarter of the things they say, they’re imbeciles.  If they aren’t imbeciles, they’re scoundrels.  No third alternative is conceivable.

http://cafehayek.com/2010/03/venting-2.html

Outsourcing Space Travel

Looks like a promising trend- the space shuttle was cool, but poorly conceived from a cost-benefit standpoint.
The fact that we can pay to Russians a mere $15million per seat to hitch a ride to the space station shows how far out of whack the costs of operating the space shuttle were.
---------------------------------------------------

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) – Space Exploration Technologies successfully test fired its Falcon 9 rocket this weekend, clearing a milestone toward the inaugural flight of a privately developed spaceship to fly cargo, and possibly astronauts, into orbit, the company said.
Saturday's 3.5-second 'static' firing of the Falcon's nine kerosene and liquid oxygen-burning motors took place on a refurbished oceanside launch pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. It followed an earlier firing test aborted last week due to an improperly configured valve....
...
SpaceX, owned and operated by Internet entrepreneur Elon Musk, already holds NASA contracts worth nearly $1.9 billion to develop and fly Falcon 9 rockets and Dragon capsules for space station cargo resupply missions.
Virginia-based Orbital Sciences Corp has NASA contracts of similar value for its Taurus II-Cygnus system, which is scheduled to debut next year.
SpaceX says it needs about three years to develop a launch escape system for Dragon and other upgrades to have Falcon 9 ready for passenger service....



http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100314/sc_nm/us_space_business

Is China Bankrupt?

Interesting- not what you normally hear... should we really be surprised if China cooks their books? I mean, what are you going to do, file a request under the Freedom of Information Act?
---------------------------------

Is China actually bankrupt?

The nation has erected a complex system for magically making its debts disappear, but a look up China's sleeve shows that its IOUs may equal its GDP.

By Jim Jubak
Is China broke?
All governments lie about their finances. At worst, as in Greece and the United States, the lies are bold and transparent. Everybody knows the emperor has no clothes, but no one wants to say so. At best, as in Canada and China, the lies are more subtle -- more like a magician's misdirection than a viking raider's ax. Look at these great numbers, the lie goes, but don't look at those up my sleeve.

There's a good argument to be made that if you look at all the numbers, instead of just the ones the budget magicians want you to see, China is indeed broke.

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/JubaksJournal/is-china-actually-bankrupt.aspx

Bebo-Tax Code Encourages Destruction of Assets

AOL is likely to abandon Bebo, for which it overpaid, rather than sell it, due to tax incentives.
Just one more government structure that favors destruction of assets over preservation, production and prosperity.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Newly independent Aol is still struggling with the fate of Bebo, the social network they acquired for $850 million in 2008.
No one argues that Aol underpaid  [sic. overpaid] for Bebo. And the social network has fallen from 22 million monthly unique visitors when it was acquired to just 14.6 million today (Comscore worldwide). But even so, Bebo clearly has some value on the open market.
Despite that value, Aol’s best financial option for Bebo will likely be to abandon it rather than sell it, say corporate tax experts we’ve spoken with.
Here’s why – complicated corporate tax rules will let Aol write off the full purchase price of Bebo if they declare it worthless and abandon the asset. With Aol’s effective tax rate of around 45%, that’s $380 million and change in their pocket in taxes that they’d be able to avoid.
A sale of Bebo would almost certainly be less attractive. If someone were to pay them $100 million for the service, which is optimistic, Aol could still offset the remaining $750 million as a tax loss. But it could only apply against long term capital gains, and Aol doesn’t have any to offset against. They’d have to carry that loss forward and hope for future gains to offset it against.
One corporate tax attorney we spoke with wouldn’t discuss Aol specifically, but did confirm the logic of the approach. Bryan Smith, a partner at Perkins Coie, says “Without getting into any specific facts or companies, it will often be more attractive for a U.S. corporation to simply shut down a subsidiary and claim a deduction for the worthlessness of the stock against ordinary income instead of selling the stock at a distressed price and taking a capital loss, which may only offset capital gains.”
If Aol were to abandon Bebo they couldn’t pull any of the assets of the company back into Aol, say the experts we’ve spoken with. Otherwise it becomes a non-taxable liquidation. If Aol had debt or preferred stock on the books with Bebo, though, they could pull out assets to offset that liability.



http://techcrunch.com/2010/03/10/aol-bebo-tax-abaondon/

Dept of Education buying shotguns

 Hmmm. Militarization everywhere.

Added: Mar 08, 2010 10:39 am

The U.S. Department of Education (ED) intends to purchase twenty-seven (27) REMINGTON BRAND MODEL 870 POLICE 12/14P MOD GRWC XS4 KXCS SF. RAMAC #24587 GAUGE: 12 BARREL: 14" - PARKERIZED CHOKE: MODIFIED SIGHTS: GHOST RING REAR WILSON COMBAT; FRONT - XS CONTOUR BEAD SIGHT STOCK: KNOXX REDUCE RECOIL ADJUSTABLE STOCK FORE-END: SPEEDFEED SPORT-SOLID - 14" LOP are designated as the only shotguns authorized for ED based on compatibility with ED existing shotgun inventory, certified armor and combat training and protocol, maintenance, and parts.


https://www.fbo.gov/index?s=opportunity&mode=form&id=cb68cf9f3fa2fe18a83d1c3dee0039b2&tab=core&_cview=0

Water Usage During US/Canada Hockey Final

This is geeky cool:

http://www.patspapers.com/blog/item/what_if_everybody_flushed_at_once_Edmonton_water_gold_medal_hockey_game/

Commercial Jetpack!

Want.   $86k

http://www.engadget.com/2010/03/10/martin-jetpack-priced-at-86-000-mere-mortals-will-soon-be-able/

Are Stocks Expensive?

http://seekingalpha.com/article/192868-are-stocks-expensive?source=email

Senate warns staffers to avoid Drudgereport

SENATE WARNS EMPLOYEES TO AVOID THE DRUDGE REPORT
Tue Mar 09 2010 08:53:37 ET

Just as the healthcare drama in the capitol reaches a grand finale, congressional officials are warning employees to avoid the DRUDGE REPORT!

The Senate's Committee on Environment and Public Works issued an urgent email late Monday claiming the DRUDGE REPORT is 'responsible for the many viruses popping up throughout the Senate.'

The committee ordered hill staff: 'Try to avoid' the DRUDGE REPORT 'for now'.

On Monday DRUDGE served over 29 million pages with NOT ONE email complaint received about 'pop ups', or the site serving 'viruses'.

The site was seen 149,967 times since March 1st from users at senate.gov and 244,347 times at house.gov. [10,825 visits from the White House, eop.gov]

The Systems Administrator may want to continue taking her antibiotic until the prescription runs out.

Developing... 


http://www.drudgereport.com/flashsd.htm

MI Six Year Old Suspended for bringing weapon to school

Fear not for your safety- the offending fingers have been impounded.

Ionia kindergartner suspended for making gun with hand

By Brian McVicar The Grand Rapids Press

March 04, 2010, 10:39PM

IONIA -- To the little boy's mother, it was just a 6-year-old boy playing around.
But when Mason Jammer, a kindergarten student at Jefferson Elementary in Ionia, curled his fist into the shape of a gun Wednesday and pointed it at another student, school officials said it was no laughing matter.
They suspended Mason until Friday, saying the behavior made other students uncomfortable, said Erin Jammer, Mason's mother.
School officials allege Mason had displayed this kind of behavior for several months, despite numerous warnings.
"I do think it's too harsh for a six-year-old," said Jammer, who was previously warned that if Mason continued the practice he would be suspended. "He's six and he just likes to play."
Jammer says her son isn't violent, and there are other, more effective ways of teaching him not to make a gun with his hand.
"Maybe what you could do is take his recess away," suggested Jammer, adding her son doesn't have toy guns at home.
"He's only six and he doesn't understand any of this."

Our top export? Fraud!

In real dollars (such as they are), our top export may be fraud!
Note the equivalence to counterfeiting, and the quote from an actual counterfeiter.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There is a rational explanation why the public still grants a great deal of validity to the opinions of people I like to call the “men who cried wolf” – Ben Bernanke, Timothy Geitner, Gordon Brown, Alan Greenspan, et al.
The explanation is that the fastest growing export of the Western banking industry is fraud. This is not to say that the eastern banking industry is not guilty of this same fraud. Off the top of my head and from what I have see in my travels through Asia, I can think of at least three real estate markets in the Pacific Rim region that are bubbles waiting to burst – New Zealand, Thailand, and Hong Kong. If you study the Central Banking monetary policies in these countries in recent years, their present real estate bubbles are undoubtedly the architectural accomplishment of their respective Central Banks as well. However, the roots of this global monetary crisis lie with the most influential Central Banks in the world that include the ECB, the Bank of England and the US Federal Reserve....

This from a convicted counterfeiter:

 "These ‘experts’ will tell you that the present difficulties are simply the result of abuses and excesses in a system that is basically sound. All that is required is for some faults to be corrected. Do not believe them. The reality is that the problem is systemic and a little tinkering here or there will achieve nothing in the long term. What is needed is a root-and-branch re‑evaluation of that most curious of cultural inventions, money: how it is created, how it circulates, and how it can best be used to serve the interests of the community.”....

This is a powerful statement that should lead the majority of the world’s citizens to engage in some serious introspection. There is more truth in that statement than any statement I’ve heard in the last decade issued by any global banker, politician, or the latest Nobel-prize winning economist with whom the media is enamored. If you take the time to understand how money is created, how it circulates, and how it can best be used to serve the interests of the community, I guarantee you will immediately question the integrity of every derivative of our monetary system from carbon credits and taxes to mortgages to credit cards. If a convicted felon understands more about how our monetary system operates than 99% of all Congressman and even Nobel laureates in economics, let alone the common citizen, then we need to not only question why this is, but we also need to ask the following question:

“Who controls [aka manufactures] the flow of information so expertly that we now have a grotesque imbalance between the understanding of reality and the acceptance of fantasy?”

http://seekingalpha.com/article/192440-fraud-the-western-banking-industry-s-fastest-growing-export?source=email

Let's all go to work for the Feds

This USA Today article shows salary descrepancies between Fed and private sector jobs. Casually mentioned, but not expounded upon when presenting the stats:

"These salary figures do not include the value of health, pension and other benefits, which averaged $40,785 per federal employee in 2008 vs. $9,882 per private worker, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis."

 Whoa  now- that makes all of the data that follows completely misleading. This means the lowest paying Fed job, Janitor, pays $70k equivalent (benefits exceed pay), and unless you are an Optometrist, you a probably better off on the Fed gravy train.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2010-03-04-federal-pay_N.htm

Paul for President

Good stuff here. The only man in Congress who consistently speaks truth to power presents a roadmap back to a Constitutional Republic.

My Plan for a Freedom President
How I would put the Constitution back in the Oval Office

If Congress failed to produce a budget that was balanced and moved the country in a pro-liberty direction, a constitutionalist president should veto the bill. Of course, vetoing the budget risks a government shutdown. But a serious constitutionalist cannot be deterred by cries of “it’s irresponsible to shut down the government!” Instead, he should simply say, “I offered a reasonable compromise, which was to gradually reduce spending, and Congress rejected it, instead choosing the extreme path of continuing to jeopardize America’s freedom and prosperity by refusing to tame the welfare-warfare state. I am the moderate; those who believe that America can afford this bloated government are the extremists.”
Unconstitutional government spending, after all, is doubly an evil: it not only means picking the taxpayer’s pocket, it also means subverting the system of limited and divided government that the Founders created.
http://www.lewrockwell.com/paul/paul647.html