The markets have noticed in no uncertain terms that Italy will not be able to repay its debt. Interest rates have soared for Italian debt, and they have a big bond balance coming due next year.
Greece was a sideshow... Italy was always the big dog in this fight.
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Friday, October 21, 2011
Why Our Constitution is Failing Us
The U.S. Constitution is failing us. Or at the very least, the people we have empowered to "support and defend" the Constitution are failing us.
Look how the world view's the U.S.! The offending officer, a high ranking NYPD detective, lost 10 days of vacation pay for what would have been an aggravated assault case for you and I! If there are no penalties for the authorities when they violate our Constitutional Rights then, by definition, we HAVE NO CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS.
This man is a disgrace. Anybody can make a mistake, but he says he would do it again! Is ANYBODY out there comfortable with this miscreant walking around with a gun and a badge?
High ranking NYPD officials have experienced a LIFE TIME of being above the law. How do you expect them to react? Sources report that the offending officer was SURPRISED that this video went viral and that the world was appalled! This old bastard must still have a f***ing rotary phone at home. Everywhere you go, everything you do, is recorded. Not just you and I, but government agents, too.
These agents had gotten used to a lifetime of getting away with some nasty stuff. No more. My bet is this won't stand any more than the "you can't video tape police officers or other government officials doing their job" thing.
Dear Abusive Government:
We, The People, are watching YOU.
Look how the world view's the U.S.! The offending officer, a high ranking NYPD detective, lost 10 days of vacation pay for what would have been an aggravated assault case for you and I! If there are no penalties for the authorities when they violate our Constitutional Rights then, by definition, we HAVE NO CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS.
This man is a disgrace. Anybody can make a mistake, but he says he would do it again! Is ANYBODY out there comfortable with this miscreant walking around with a gun and a badge?
High ranking NYPD officials have experienced a LIFE TIME of being above the law. How do you expect them to react? Sources report that the offending officer was SURPRISED that this video went viral and that the world was appalled! This old bastard must still have a f***ing rotary phone at home. Everywhere you go, everything you do, is recorded. Not just you and I, but government agents, too.
These agents had gotten used to a lifetime of getting away with some nasty stuff. No more. My bet is this won't stand any more than the "you can't video tape police officers or other government officials doing their job" thing.
Dear Abusive Government:
We, The People, are watching YOU.
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
The Tables are Turned on Big Brother
Ubiquitous video and cell phones that tracked our every movement used to scare the snot out of me because of the potential for government abuse. On balance, it seems I should have not been so concerned. These technologies have completely turned the tables on the NYPD in their confrontations with the Occupy Wall Street protestors in New York.
(And I am not all that aligned with the sensibilities of the protestors, many of whom are just kids and very young adults who have little experience and less sense. That is not the point. The point is is that I am, and we must all get to be, a strict constructionist when it comes to the rights and freedoms guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution. That OWS will be used by Obama supporters to deflect blame on the economy is of course true - and completely beside the point.)
Watch this video, particularly the footage from 1:40 to 1:55.
It would appear that a brawny police supervisor is punching a young woman in the face/head. Such blows can render a person unconscious and unable to protect their head/brain as they fall to the pavement. This incident is under "investigation". No reasonable person can conclude this was an honorable decision by this officer under any circumstance. This is not to say the police are not in an impossible situation - they are. There is a fine line between maintaining order and brutality.
The days of privilege for government officials, to be able to get away with such behavior, has come to a close (in public). What they do in the "back room" is still an issue, but I think the tables have been turned on Big Brother.
(And I am not all that aligned with the sensibilities of the protestors, many of whom are just kids and very young adults who have little experience and less sense. That is not the point. The point is is that I am, and we must all get to be, a strict constructionist when it comes to the rights and freedoms guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution. That OWS will be used by Obama supporters to deflect blame on the economy is of course true - and completely beside the point.)
Watch this video, particularly the footage from 1:40 to 1:55.
It would appear that a brawny police supervisor is punching a young woman in the face/head. Such blows can render a person unconscious and unable to protect their head/brain as they fall to the pavement. This incident is under "investigation". No reasonable person can conclude this was an honorable decision by this officer under any circumstance. This is not to say the police are not in an impossible situation - they are. There is a fine line between maintaining order and brutality.
The days of privilege for government officials, to be able to get away with such behavior, has come to a close (in public). What they do in the "back room" is still an issue, but I think the tables have been turned on Big Brother.
Monday, October 17, 2011
An Open Letter to the Men and Women of the New York Police Department
From a U.S. Marine Corps veteran of the wars. "There is no honor in this!" Indeed.
------------------------
From me:
Dear Officers of New York Police Department:
Over the past several days and weeks the NYPD has been at the center of a media storm concerning the "Occupy Wall Street" assemblers. I have taken the time to speak to several of your members including your media representative (who really should be in another capacity, if I may be kind). It appears to me that the attitudes of the sworn officers I have spoken to, and of the officers filling the screen on my computer from all of the video that comes our way, is that you are just doing your job. Just following orders.
Fair enough. Given that, a definition of "your job" and what, exactly, are legitimate "orders" is then necessary.
First, let us be clear that all of you are sworn officers. You hold appointed office, and have taken an oath for that office. Herewith is the oath that you have sworn:
Were these mere words to you? Or is it that "support and defend" and "bear true faith" take a back seat to protecting your upward mobility within the NYPD and/or your pension? Have you read the U.S. Constitution? You know, the one you are sworn to support and defend and bear true faith to? So which is it? Do you support the U.S. Constitution and its protections of free assembly and speech or do municipal ordinances requiring permits to assemble override, in your mind, the intentions of the Framers? Clearly, the U.S. Constitution does not require any such permits for assembly and speech... does that mean your allegiance is to the City Government of New York? Then why take an oath to support and defend the U.S. Constitution? If you refuse to follow it for personal or professional conveniences, perhaps your oath should be to the NYPD or the City of New York. Oh, that would be illegal, wouldn't it? If you are an American, be an American. The American People rallied around you and the FDNY after 9/11; is this how you respond to them in a time of national crisis?
Think about it, Sworn Officers of the New York Police Department:
Refusing to pepper spray some college girl for exercising her Constitutionally protected rights of association, assemblage, and speech is not the same thing as refusing to confront a violent felon. YOU DON'T HAVE TO DO THESE THINGS. YOU WILL NOT BE FIRED NOR DISCIPLINED FOR REFUSING TO VIOLATE YOUR OATH!!
Let me also appeal to your self-interest, if not your honor: Following unethical, immoral, or illegal orders can come back to haunt you; perhaps even destroy you.
If your allegiance is not to your fellow Americans you do not deserve to wear the uniform or carry the badge. The American citizens assembling in New York deserve your protections, not your institutionalized violence.
------------------------
From me:
Dear Officers of New York Police Department:
Over the past several days and weeks the NYPD has been at the center of a media storm concerning the "Occupy Wall Street" assemblers. I have taken the time to speak to several of your members including your media representative (who really should be in another capacity, if I may be kind). It appears to me that the attitudes of the sworn officers I have spoken to, and of the officers filling the screen on my computer from all of the video that comes our way, is that you are just doing your job. Just following orders.
Fair enough. Given that, a definition of "your job" and what, exactly, are legitimate "orders" is then necessary.
First, let us be clear that all of you are sworn officers. You hold appointed office, and have taken an oath for that office. Herewith is the oath that you have sworn:
I [name] do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defendRegarding the arrests of the members of "Occupy Wall Street" assemblers: You have taken an oath to "support and defend the Constitution of the United States" and to "bear true faith and allegiance to the same".
the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign
and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same;
that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or
purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the
duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.
Were these mere words to you? Or is it that "support and defend" and "bear true faith" take a back seat to protecting your upward mobility within the NYPD and/or your pension? Have you read the U.S. Constitution? You know, the one you are sworn to support and defend and bear true faith to? So which is it? Do you support the U.S. Constitution and its protections of free assembly and speech or do municipal ordinances requiring permits to assemble override, in your mind, the intentions of the Framers? Clearly, the U.S. Constitution does not require any such permits for assembly and speech... does that mean your allegiance is to the City Government of New York? Then why take an oath to support and defend the U.S. Constitution? If you refuse to follow it for personal or professional conveniences, perhaps your oath should be to the NYPD or the City of New York. Oh, that would be illegal, wouldn't it? If you are an American, be an American. The American People rallied around you and the FDNY after 9/11; is this how you respond to them in a time of national crisis?
Think about it, Sworn Officers of the New York Police Department:
Refusing to pepper spray some college girl for exercising her Constitutionally protected rights of association, assemblage, and speech is not the same thing as refusing to confront a violent felon. YOU DON'T HAVE TO DO THESE THINGS. YOU WILL NOT BE FIRED NOR DISCIPLINED FOR REFUSING TO VIOLATE YOUR OATH!!
Let me also appeal to your self-interest, if not your honor: Following unethical, immoral, or illegal orders can come back to haunt you; perhaps even destroy you.
If your allegiance is not to your fellow Americans you do not deserve to wear the uniform or carry the badge. The American citizens assembling in New York deserve your protections, not your institutionalized violence.
Sunday, October 16, 2011
This needs to go viral
Please watch this important video and share it with as many people as possible.
Statist jag-offs should watch this video over and over until they get it. One minute the State is doing your bidding... the next, it is eating you alive... the unintended consequences of funding State enforcement arms is replete throughout history.
Statist jag-offs should watch this video over and over until they get it. One minute the State is doing your bidding... the next, it is eating you alive... the unintended consequences of funding State enforcement arms is replete throughout history.
What is it We Want? What if that is no longer Possible?
At first I was dismissive of the Occupy Wall Street crowd. No more (as of 10 or 12 days ago).
No, most of these folks don't know exactly what they want... and, no, this is no uni-faceted special interest group... there are a lot of pieces to the puzzle, and many of those pieces are MIA.
I have no answer for the crowd. I DO have some suggestions for individuals within that crowd.
Trust me when I tell you, you are NOT all in this together. It may feel that way now... take a look at the people involved at the Woodstock festival lo these many years ago... some of the performers and organizers are on their last leg; others are multi-multi-multi millionaires. Somehow, I doubt the folks on the right side of that equation are interested in providing for any of the needs of those on the wrong side. Nope, in the end you are on your own... unless you have family... and even then family is not like government... you are required to give as well as take.
I hear the complaint about no jobs and crushing student debt. Ok, fair enough. What if there are NEVER going to be enough jobs in the corporations you folks are protesting to provide you with the standard of living you expected when you signed the doted-line for that student loan? What then? Are you going to protest until death do you part? The government can't FORCE corporations to hire you (at least not yet... and command economies have not experienced much success throughout history)... what are you going to do if you can't have the job you expected, the house you expected, the car you expected, the vacations you expected, the engagement ring you expected...?? Because I think that that is the case from- now-Mother-F***in on... or at least for a decade or 2, which for our purposes is the same thing.
I watch in horror as young adults (late 20's early 30's) endlessly discuss what the president "should" do... yet they don't notice that time is getting away from them. In my experience, the only folks that can "catch up" from spending half of their young adulthood in school are people with critical and barrier-to-entry training, such as surgeons, certain legal specialists, and technology wonks.... not working until 30 while going into debt for an education that does not include actual training has demolished the futures of millions. Heck, 75% of American families either could not, probably not, or probably could come up with $2000 in an emergency... got that? The second best economic quartile is not entirely sure they could come up with $2000!
It would seem that most people don't know how to provide for themselves in the information and industrial economies... and they no longer know how to take care of their basic needs like billions do in the 3rd world everyday (ever been to the mountains of Peru? The jungles of Columbia or Southeast Asia? I have... saw a great deal of subsistence living going on with no Food Stamps from the government nor rioting)... but they do know how to go to school and get into to debt... they just don't know how to operate in the real world sufficiently to be able to put together $2000. None of that will get fixed by protesting - unless you go after the really bad guys:
The University/Industrial complex.
And why are these guys getting a pass??
We need to educate the populace... but who can afford $200k for an undergrad degree in the humanities? The children of the 1%, that's who. The University/Industrial complex saw the limits there and convinced millions to take out a mortgage for an undergrad degree. Somewhere along the line the children of the 99% felt that they were entitled to storybook weddings, and diamonds, and vacations in the South of France, and a total of $400k in private school educations for the lovely couple, etc... I've been poor and I've been rich. Rich is better - but you don't get there by going into debt for education (as opposed to training. There is a huge difference between the 2... surgeons are trained, accountants are trained, plumbers are trained, engineers are trained... if your education did not give you specific training that would enable you to make a living, it was just that - an education. Don't you feel smarter, Ms. Starbux barista with the "women's studies" degree?). The 99% really need to understand what defines financial security - and it ain't 6 figures in student loans, a mortgaged house, and a leased Bentley.
So protest! I was dismissive at first but have come around and applaud your efforts... but I won't delude you like the Woodstock generation (who have taken complete advantage of you folks). There may never be a job in a corporation with health benefits and a pension for you. You might not be able to live in New York, vacation on the Vineyard, and BBQ with Muffy and Biff on the weekends the way the brochure from the admissions department of your University said it would be... In fact, I am pretty sure that for the vast majority of you that that is a certainty.
The other certainty is that it is very likely that you will never pay back your student loans. Yet I doubt the government is going to forgive those loans irrespective of how much you protest. Best to ask for things that can actually be had. I leave that to you.
So keep at it, get what you can... and then get to work building your lives... because the government can't do that for you... not to put too fine a politically-incorrect-point on it, but the group most associated with protests and marches in America has not exactly benefited too much from that activity.
In the end it is your own decisions that you must live with.
No, most of these folks don't know exactly what they want... and, no, this is no uni-faceted special interest group... there are a lot of pieces to the puzzle, and many of those pieces are MIA.
I have no answer for the crowd. I DO have some suggestions for individuals within that crowd.
Trust me when I tell you, you are NOT all in this together. It may feel that way now... take a look at the people involved at the Woodstock festival lo these many years ago... some of the performers and organizers are on their last leg; others are multi-multi-multi millionaires. Somehow, I doubt the folks on the right side of that equation are interested in providing for any of the needs of those on the wrong side. Nope, in the end you are on your own... unless you have family... and even then family is not like government... you are required to give as well as take.
I hear the complaint about no jobs and crushing student debt. Ok, fair enough. What if there are NEVER going to be enough jobs in the corporations you folks are protesting to provide you with the standard of living you expected when you signed the doted-line for that student loan? What then? Are you going to protest until death do you part? The government can't FORCE corporations to hire you (at least not yet... and command economies have not experienced much success throughout history)... what are you going to do if you can't have the job you expected, the house you expected, the car you expected, the vacations you expected, the engagement ring you expected...?? Because I think that that is the case from- now-Mother-F***in on... or at least for a decade or 2, which for our purposes is the same thing.
I watch in horror as young adults (late 20's early 30's) endlessly discuss what the president "should" do... yet they don't notice that time is getting away from them. In my experience, the only folks that can "catch up" from spending half of their young adulthood in school are people with critical and barrier-to-entry training, such as surgeons, certain legal specialists, and technology wonks.... not working until 30 while going into debt for an education that does not include actual training has demolished the futures of millions. Heck, 75% of American families either could not, probably not, or probably could come up with $2000 in an emergency... got that? The second best economic quartile is not entirely sure they could come up with $2000!
It would seem that most people don't know how to provide for themselves in the information and industrial economies... and they no longer know how to take care of their basic needs like billions do in the 3rd world everyday (ever been to the mountains of Peru? The jungles of Columbia or Southeast Asia? I have... saw a great deal of subsistence living going on with no Food Stamps from the government nor rioting)... but they do know how to go to school and get into to debt... they just don't know how to operate in the real world sufficiently to be able to put together $2000. None of that will get fixed by protesting - unless you go after the really bad guys:
The University/Industrial complex.
And why are these guys getting a pass??
We need to educate the populace... but who can afford $200k for an undergrad degree in the humanities? The children of the 1%, that's who. The University/Industrial complex saw the limits there and convinced millions to take out a mortgage for an undergrad degree. Somewhere along the line the children of the 99% felt that they were entitled to storybook weddings, and diamonds, and vacations in the South of France, and a total of $400k in private school educations for the lovely couple, etc... I've been poor and I've been rich. Rich is better - but you don't get there by going into debt for education (as opposed to training. There is a huge difference between the 2... surgeons are trained, accountants are trained, plumbers are trained, engineers are trained... if your education did not give you specific training that would enable you to make a living, it was just that - an education. Don't you feel smarter, Ms. Starbux barista with the "women's studies" degree?). The 99% really need to understand what defines financial security - and it ain't 6 figures in student loans, a mortgaged house, and a leased Bentley.
So protest! I was dismissive at first but have come around and applaud your efforts... but I won't delude you like the Woodstock generation (who have taken complete advantage of you folks). There may never be a job in a corporation with health benefits and a pension for you. You might not be able to live in New York, vacation on the Vineyard, and BBQ with Muffy and Biff on the weekends the way the brochure from the admissions department of your University said it would be... In fact, I am pretty sure that for the vast majority of you that that is a certainty.
The other certainty is that it is very likely that you will never pay back your student loans. Yet I doubt the government is going to forgive those loans irrespective of how much you protest. Best to ask for things that can actually be had. I leave that to you.
So keep at it, get what you can... and then get to work building your lives... because the government can't do that for you... not to put too fine a politically-incorrect-point on it, but the group most associated with protests and marches in America has not exactly benefited too much from that activity.
In the end it is your own decisions that you must live with.
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Not Liking what I am Seeing in Europe (and maybe China)
I have reconsidered holding energy equities at the moment... and have sold out more than half of my positions.
There is an old saying in Hedge Fund Land... "If you can't be sure you are right, be liquid."
I am liquid. I feel much better prices are to be had over the course of the next couple of quarters.
Thursday, September 22, 2011
If not now, WHEN?
This is another moment to be buying stock in high dividend oil producers. This is not investment advice, and this is not a "trade". If you buy a top names yielding 4% or 5%, you will be THRILLED with the results over the next decade.
Thrilled.
Thrilled.
Friday, August 19, 2011
The Problem is not Peak Oil... the Problem is our Politics
"It's incredibly troubling to us as a free society that people would plead guilty to something that they actually did not do." Kay Levine, Professor of Law, Emory University
America's justice system continues to disgrace all Americans... I don't think I need to comment on this. Read it for yourself. Either they are guilty or they are not... being able to win a conviction from the Nancy Grace jury pool is not the point.
--------------------------
I don't know the writer's politics... but Libertarians will love this. I look forward to the day that America can get over its post-war self and respect the rights and liberties of its own citizens while it eschews confiscating the people's resources in order to serve the inflated egos of (self)important politicians. Especially presidents (and that's coming from a guy that refuses to engage in "pathological hatred of the president posing as patriotism" and, I'd like to add "posing as an informed opinion" to that.
------------------------
Prosecutors claim not to have enough evidence in this case of 2 Miami Beach police officers beating a civilian for turning them in for police brutality - evidence such as a broken nose, black eyes, cuff marks... yet have no problem bringing sexual assault cases (especially in custody cases) without any physical evidence whatsoever... that politics and corruption has infected the justice system with perp walks, attempts to taint the jury pool, selective persecutions... and judges that condone the whole sorry affair... well, we can do better than this.
-------------------------
The equity markets energy sector seems to be forecasting a steep decline for price of Oil... and it might happen (temporarily)... but I have been sitting with cash and put most of it to work in high dividend paying energy equities, which I view as trading at steep discounts... I don't know that I have ever mentioned names before, but now that I am no longer a "registered person" in the securities industry I am free to do so (and this is not investment advice or a recommendation.... you are on your own!).
Here are some names I have bought recently: Royal Dutch Shell (RDSB), Total (TOT), BP, Exxon (XOM), Conoco (COP), Chevron (CVX), Hess Petroleum (HES), Petro Bras (PBR), SeaDrill (SDRL, and ENI (E)... all but SeaDrill trade on the NYSE. I also own most of the offshore drillers. Please notice that with the exception of PetroBras, these equities all pay big dividends; the average dividend is twice the yield on the 10 year Treasury. Oil might head lower in the short term... and it might not... that's the risk you take... but I will quote a smart guy I had dinner with recently... he's an energy analyst of sorts... "at this time we are FAR BELOW (my emphasis) the equilibrium price of Oil".
I think Oil can double from here, and I think the energy equities can go 3X or 4X in that scenario. Time frame? Before Dec 2013. Its just a guestimate... arrived at by eyeballing the inelasticity of the price of Oil... if the data changes, I reserve the right to change my mind (unlike most American's and their political belief systems... if I am wrong, I am GONE).
Of course, I am wrong quite often... its not how you handle the winners that matter in this biz... its how you handle the losers.
America's justice system continues to disgrace all Americans... I don't think I need to comment on this. Read it for yourself. Either they are guilty or they are not... being able to win a conviction from the Nancy Grace jury pool is not the point.
--------------------------
I don't know the writer's politics... but Libertarians will love this. I look forward to the day that America can get over its post-war self and respect the rights and liberties of its own citizens while it eschews confiscating the people's resources in order to serve the inflated egos of (self)important politicians. Especially presidents (and that's coming from a guy that refuses to engage in "pathological hatred of the president posing as patriotism" and, I'd like to add "posing as an informed opinion" to that.
------------------------
Prosecutors claim not to have enough evidence in this case of 2 Miami Beach police officers beating a civilian for turning them in for police brutality - evidence such as a broken nose, black eyes, cuff marks... yet have no problem bringing sexual assault cases (especially in custody cases) without any physical evidence whatsoever... that politics and corruption has infected the justice system with perp walks, attempts to taint the jury pool, selective persecutions... and judges that condone the whole sorry affair... well, we can do better than this.
-------------------------
The equity markets energy sector seems to be forecasting a steep decline for price of Oil... and it might happen (temporarily)... but I have been sitting with cash and put most of it to work in high dividend paying energy equities, which I view as trading at steep discounts... I don't know that I have ever mentioned names before, but now that I am no longer a "registered person" in the securities industry I am free to do so (and this is not investment advice or a recommendation.... you are on your own!).
Here are some names I have bought recently: Royal Dutch Shell (RDSB), Total (TOT), BP, Exxon (XOM), Conoco (COP), Chevron (CVX), Hess Petroleum (HES), Petro Bras (PBR), SeaDrill (SDRL, and ENI (E)... all but SeaDrill trade on the NYSE. I also own most of the offshore drillers. Please notice that with the exception of PetroBras, these equities all pay big dividends; the average dividend is twice the yield on the 10 year Treasury. Oil might head lower in the short term... and it might not... that's the risk you take... but I will quote a smart guy I had dinner with recently... he's an energy analyst of sorts... "at this time we are FAR BELOW (my emphasis) the equilibrium price of Oil".
I think Oil can double from here, and I think the energy equities can go 3X or 4X in that scenario. Time frame? Before Dec 2013. Its just a guestimate... arrived at by eyeballing the inelasticity of the price of Oil... if the data changes, I reserve the right to change my mind (unlike most American's and their political belief systems... if I am wrong, I am GONE).
Of course, I am wrong quite often... its not how you handle the winners that matter in this biz... its how you handle the losers.
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
"Education"
I read this article about professionals that had spent nearly a decade of their lives foregoing income in order to get an advanced education so that they could make more money... only to, for one reason or another, be forced to do something for a living that they could have done right out of high school. (And I get it the whole enrichment thing... but we are talking money and finances here... something that can actually be measured.)
The writer explores the issue reasonably well... but without examining the most fundamental issues: Were these people financially "harmed" (please! let's forget intellectual "enrichment") by the educational decisions they made?
Education is often mis-credited as the source future wealth... but if that were true, why are the majority of student loans in default or deferment? The answer is simple and unavoidable... speaking in the aggregate for most "educational investors", otherwise known as students, the cost/benefit analysis is financially negative. While education CAN be a path to wealth - Surgeons and Trial Lawyers seem to do pretty well - it does not always work out that way... and while I have done no scientific study... we all know that with the human lifespan being what it is that there is a point of diminishing returns in paying to stay in school rather than getting paid to work.
In fact, judging by the nearly $1 Trillion in U.S. student debt... it would appear, that with the exception of Social Security and Medicare, that the university educational system is the greatest transfer of wealth -from the future earnings of today's students to the present day university faculty and administrators - in the history of such heists.
I remember when I went looking for work in the securities business... people would ask me where I went to business school... I replied "I don't have an MBA"... "then how are you going to work on Wall Street?"... I had already run a successful business that I started out of my 1 room apartment (after working for a few years in order to save some dough... I had all manner of sh#! jobs, and one good one) that had a couple million in revenue and a very acceptable bottom line before within 5 years... wasn't that good enough? As it turns out, the people hiring did not come from that type of background (working class, self-educated, and self made), so it was a pain in the a$$ catching on, but as it happens, luck was with me. I caught on at one of the top investment banks, and proceeded to tear into Graham & Dodd's "Securities Analysis" until I could quote the passages complete with page numbers... it is amazing what you can learn with a $2 library card or a $29.99 investment at Barnes & Noble... and in spite of my lack of "education", I was the number one producer of new business at the next 3 firms, firms that were populated with all manner of "credentialed" (the question should really be "Credentialed by WHOM"?) folk, I worked for before starting my own shop... Imagine that? Relying on your own wits. Who'd a thunk it? Certainly not the university/industrial complex... after all, one can't possibly think without their training... I have a 2 word comment for these folks... and it ain't "Thank you".
The point is this: there are all manner of opportunities in a market economy... the university/industrial complex has done an incredible job of convincing young people that their only hope of future success is through their choke hold... and the university/industrial complex will not let go of that choke hold (of course, the Web is going to disrupt them terribly... but notice that in this case the continued choke hold attempt of withholding the CREDENTIAL but not the education... Bizarre... ) until you are so deep in debt that you can never get out... this, despite the unassailable empirical evidence that the source of most millionaire's (not talking Billionaires here) wealth is their small business, savings, and home. So why are the dreams of the young people mentioned in this article being scaled back? Because somebody is trying to scare the sh#! out of them for their own self-interests, not the interests of these young adults. The bottom line is this: If it is financial security/wealth you seek open a business of some sort, buy a home, and have a family. If not, feel free to go into a lot of student debt, consider yourself more educated than the millionaire next door, complain relentless about the unfairness of the system, divorce, have no children/one child... sound familiar? I don't have to label them here... we all know who they are...
Young people: Don't you believe a word of this horse sh#! Go to work, save money, have a family, open a business, fail, try again, succeed, save, buy a modest home, buy modest cars, save, invest, work some more, and in between enjoy yourselves... you'll get there... and you will be far better off getting there and starving these M***** F*****'s while your'e getting there. You need enough money... but you won't get there by going into massive debt unless you come out the other side with a barrier-to-entry professional license that the market actually needs (think dentist, not accupuncture.. or as I call it inaccuratepuncture... and why, exactly, do dental schools require undergrad degrees in humanities? Do you walk to school or do you bring your lunch?).
I don't know how these f*&&^%!er's in the university/industrial complex live with themselves.
The writer explores the issue reasonably well... but without examining the most fundamental issues: Were these people financially "harmed" (please! let's forget intellectual "enrichment") by the educational decisions they made?
Education is often mis-credited as the source future wealth... but if that were true, why are the majority of student loans in default or deferment? The answer is simple and unavoidable... speaking in the aggregate for most "educational investors", otherwise known as students, the cost/benefit analysis is financially negative. While education CAN be a path to wealth - Surgeons and Trial Lawyers seem to do pretty well - it does not always work out that way... and while I have done no scientific study... we all know that with the human lifespan being what it is that there is a point of diminishing returns in paying to stay in school rather than getting paid to work.
In fact, judging by the nearly $1 Trillion in U.S. student debt... it would appear, that with the exception of Social Security and Medicare, that the university educational system is the greatest transfer of wealth -from the future earnings of today's students to the present day university faculty and administrators - in the history of such heists.
I remember when I went looking for work in the securities business... people would ask me where I went to business school... I replied "I don't have an MBA"... "then how are you going to work on Wall Street?"... I had already run a successful business that I started out of my 1 room apartment (after working for a few years in order to save some dough... I had all manner of sh#! jobs, and one good one) that had a couple million in revenue and a very acceptable bottom line before within 5 years... wasn't that good enough? As it turns out, the people hiring did not come from that type of background (working class, self-educated, and self made), so it was a pain in the a$$ catching on, but as it happens, luck was with me. I caught on at one of the top investment banks, and proceeded to tear into Graham & Dodd's "Securities Analysis" until I could quote the passages complete with page numbers... it is amazing what you can learn with a $2 library card or a $29.99 investment at Barnes & Noble... and in spite of my lack of "education", I was the number one producer of new business at the next 3 firms, firms that were populated with all manner of "credentialed" (the question should really be "Credentialed by WHOM"?) folk, I worked for before starting my own shop... Imagine that? Relying on your own wits. Who'd a thunk it? Certainly not the university/industrial complex... after all, one can't possibly think without their training... I have a 2 word comment for these folks... and it ain't "Thank you".
The point is this: there are all manner of opportunities in a market economy... the university/industrial complex has done an incredible job of convincing young people that their only hope of future success is through their choke hold... and the university/industrial complex will not let go of that choke hold (of course, the Web is going to disrupt them terribly... but notice that in this case the continued choke hold attempt of withholding the CREDENTIAL but not the education... Bizarre... ) until you are so deep in debt that you can never get out... this, despite the unassailable empirical evidence that the source of most millionaire's (not talking Billionaires here) wealth is their small business, savings, and home. So why are the dreams of the young people mentioned in this article being scaled back? Because somebody is trying to scare the sh#! out of them for their own self-interests, not the interests of these young adults. The bottom line is this: If it is financial security/wealth you seek open a business of some sort, buy a home, and have a family. If not, feel free to go into a lot of student debt, consider yourself more educated than the millionaire next door, complain relentless about the unfairness of the system, divorce, have no children/one child... sound familiar? I don't have to label them here... we all know who they are...
Young people: Don't you believe a word of this horse sh#! Go to work, save money, have a family, open a business, fail, try again, succeed, save, buy a modest home, buy modest cars, save, invest, work some more, and in between enjoy yourselves... you'll get there... and you will be far better off getting there and starving these M***** F*****'s while your'e getting there. You need enough money... but you won't get there by going into massive debt unless you come out the other side with a barrier-to-entry professional license that the market actually needs (think dentist, not accupuncture.. or as I call it inaccuratepuncture... and why, exactly, do dental schools require undergrad degrees in humanities? Do you walk to school or do you bring your lunch?).
I don't know how these f*&&^%!er's in the university/industrial complex live with themselves.
Monday, August 15, 2011
"Why the Left Fears Libertarianism"
Read this excellent article.
Thank Goodness! Somebody else sees the character assassination the Liberal Media and the Far Right (as well as their infiltration) did on the "Tea Party".
The Tea Party began as a Libertarian movement within the Republican party... how it morphed into being led by Bachman makes me ill...
We were so close.... yet so far... we just don't have the numbers yet to go it alone without the Religious folks that bring the debate exactly where the Left wants it. Bachman's anti-Gay and the Left pro-Gay debate is simply beyond unimportant, and as always, when jerks get together they bring the debate far away from where it should be - namely, that government has NO PLACE in the marriage business or our bedrooms.
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BHO.... GWB.... the only thing separating these guys is Abortion. The major parties simply cannot govern.
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Hoo- Boy! I gotta get my boots on from some stuff. The B.S. just gets deeper and deeper.
Bernake is not responsible for screwing your grandmother... he is responsible for the U.S. banking system and is not terribly concerned with his "double mandate" at the moment. nor should he be.
If the U.S. government were to go back on the "Gold Standard", wouldn't that be tantamount to abandoning the $$'s position as the global reserve currency? (In effect, wouldn't gold become the reserve currency?) There might well come a day when that might happen... when it does, you won't be reading my blog... or any other blog for that matter... you will have far more pressing problems.
The U.S. banking system is back on the ropes... that's what the equity market just told everyone... Europe's financial leaders may or may not get it done... no matter what, none of it is inflationary.
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The U.S. equity market got killed for a couple of weeks, and last week I felt that valuations on energy equites were simply outrageous... so I bought a bunch. Sometimes one should be buying the commodity... and sometime's the equities of the commodity producers... at these prices, I like the equities of the producers more.
Thank Goodness! Somebody else sees the character assassination the Liberal Media and the Far Right (as well as their infiltration) did on the "Tea Party".
The Tea Party began as a Libertarian movement within the Republican party... how it morphed into being led by Bachman makes me ill...
We were so close.... yet so far... we just don't have the numbers yet to go it alone without the Religious folks that bring the debate exactly where the Left wants it. Bachman's anti-Gay and the Left pro-Gay debate is simply beyond unimportant, and as always, when jerks get together they bring the debate far away from where it should be - namely, that government has NO PLACE in the marriage business or our bedrooms.
------------------------------------------
BHO.... GWB.... the only thing separating these guys is Abortion. The major parties simply cannot govern.
-------------------------------------------
Hoo- Boy! I gotta get my boots on from some stuff. The B.S. just gets deeper and deeper.
Bernake is not responsible for screwing your grandmother... he is responsible for the U.S. banking system and is not terribly concerned with his "double mandate" at the moment. nor should he be.
If the U.S. government were to go back on the "Gold Standard", wouldn't that be tantamount to abandoning the $$'s position as the global reserve currency? (In effect, wouldn't gold become the reserve currency?) There might well come a day when that might happen... when it does, you won't be reading my blog... or any other blog for that matter... you will have far more pressing problems.
The U.S. banking system is back on the ropes... that's what the equity market just told everyone... Europe's financial leaders may or may not get it done... no matter what, none of it is inflationary.
-------------------------------------------------
The U.S. equity market got killed for a couple of weeks, and last week I felt that valuations on energy equites were simply outrageous... so I bought a bunch. Sometimes one should be buying the commodity... and sometime's the equities of the commodity producers... at these prices, I like the equities of the producers more.
Saturday, August 13, 2011
Whoa, Boy!
I have been going through a round of de-motivation. I have been blogging about what I see going on around me, admittedly from my own perspective, for 6 + years.
Watching the U.S. rack up $1Trillion budgets - 3 years in a row - so that no one has to "suffer", watching 50% of American children growing up with subsidized housing, or subsidized food, or subsidized healthcare, or housing or.... whatever (and growing up not to be self-supporting men and women but cowed slaves of the benevolent Big Brother), culminating in last week's S & P downgrade of U.S. debt... (and actually... I only WISH that were the culmination)...
Whoa, Boy! "May you live in interesting times"... and then I had the great pleasure to read this article today... only Mr. Podhoretz did not go far enough. I have said it before and I wills say it again:
The Left has been reduced to a One Issue movement or political group - and that issue is ABORTION.
Obama and his ilk have failed at everything... and have ruined anything and everything they have put their hands on... and yet, the intelligentsia still support these knuckle heads... WHY? Because, in the final analysis, they are being held together, and are surviving by, just one issue. Doubt this?
Think about it... if Obama and a couple of other big shot Leftist said that they stand by ALL of their silly Keynesian horse sh#!... BUT, had come to their senses and now reject the idea that somehow abortion is not killing innocent human beings for convenience... their party, movement, whatever you wish to call it... would disintegrate overnight. (Not long ago, they were the party of abortion and divorce... but the evolution of pre-nuptual agreements and the outright rejection of marriage took them down to the one issue...)
What does the Left stand for? Abortion and benevolent government (and an electorate addicted to that government's services). Benevolent government is imploding around us as we speak, irrespective of our willingness to notice... can you name something else the Left stands for? Come on... they are STATISTS... and the State has failed.... and yet they are still bound together... and by what? Abortion... with a little, and I mean very little, Gay marriage on the side.
Look, our system has some failures... the diversion of wealth to a very small fraction of the population is a glaring example... but maybe.... no, probably, much (with a large helping of political buy offs by the Elite) of that has to do with the values of the people participating and supporting the system... maybe by not saving and investing, by not demanding that our government run its finances appropriately, by not living within our means, being good neighbors and citizens that do not demand so much "free stuff", and believing that something can be had for nothing... the problem is US.
The Left is dead. They killed themselves with abortion (look at the offspring of the U.S. Supreme Court, the U.S. Senate, and the State Legislatures... the Republicans out breed Democrats nearly 2 to 1) and with failed policies.
Who will fill the void?
Who will fill the void?
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
Lawlessness and "Thuggery"
The U.K. is experiencing U.S. style riots, at first mostly in its Black communities (I do not wish to offend... African American does not fit U.K. subjects)... and now spreading to other "working class" and impoverished areas.
The cause of liberty and small government are certainly NOT served by rioting, looting, vandalism, and violence. The cause is served by hard work, diligence, respect for one's neighbors and the community at large, and the effort to further the interests of one's family through enlightened (as opposed to criminal) self interest. Did I mention not harming your fellow man? That, too.
The U.K. has, for the most part, no history of African slaves on its soil (although the U.K.'s merchant fleet seems to have trafficked in African slaves quite a bit)... why, then the outcome of hopelessness and lack of economic participation?
Me thinks the export of America's media has not helped the Black community in the U.K., if I make use of understatement.
I have feelings of solidarity for my fellow man when they are being oppressed, but I have little sympathy for those that will not help themselves, and nothing but scorn for those that would profit by exporting disaster to others. That would be you, Hollywood and the low life's running the world of Rap.
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For the media nit-wits State-side that continue to stoke the flames of anger and resentment for political gain:
Please take a hard look at what is going on in London... and then keep in mind that the U.K. has a history of police restraint which the U.S. lacks... and that the U.S. has guns aplenty, something the U.K. lacks. There is enough dry tinder here to do some real damage to real people... no need to walk around setting off sparks and lit matches... that is, if you have any humanity at all.
The cause of liberty and small government are certainly NOT served by rioting, looting, vandalism, and violence. The cause is served by hard work, diligence, respect for one's neighbors and the community at large, and the effort to further the interests of one's family through enlightened (as opposed to criminal) self interest. Did I mention not harming your fellow man? That, too.
The U.K. has, for the most part, no history of African slaves on its soil (although the U.K.'s merchant fleet seems to have trafficked in African slaves quite a bit)... why, then the outcome of hopelessness and lack of economic participation?
Me thinks the export of America's media has not helped the Black community in the U.K., if I make use of understatement.
I have feelings of solidarity for my fellow man when they are being oppressed, but I have little sympathy for those that will not help themselves, and nothing but scorn for those that would profit by exporting disaster to others. That would be you, Hollywood and the low life's running the world of Rap.
----------------------------------------
For the media nit-wits State-side that continue to stoke the flames of anger and resentment for political gain:
Please take a hard look at what is going on in London... and then keep in mind that the U.K. has a history of police restraint which the U.S. lacks... and that the U.S. has guns aplenty, something the U.K. lacks. There is enough dry tinder here to do some real damage to real people... no need to walk around setting off sparks and lit matches... that is, if you have any humanity at all.
Monday, August 8, 2011
The Delirious States of America
I listened to the President's speech today with dismay. So did every other market participant.
Clearly, the president is only interested in being re-elected, and has no interest in finance, mathematics, or economics (but he does seem to like to quote Warren Buffet... I am sick of Buffet-philes). The U.S. cannot tax its way out of this problem.
IF the U.S. were to increase the government's revenues as percentage of GDP, net revenues will decline.
Does anybody not get that? That is, besides the "professional Left"?
The U.S. government has become a parasite on the world economy according to Vladimir Putin, current Prime Minister of Russia... unfortunately, the U.S. government has become a parasite on its own people. The parasite has to be scaled back, one way or another...
The dereliction of duty by the professional Left is simply a disgrace. So many of our "best and brightest" have taken leave of their faculties and have taken refuge in the balkanization of the Web, associating only with those that tow the party line... and allowing a few very twisted "experts" to do their thinking for them.
Keynesianism has failed humanity and much of humanity refuses to do the math because it doesn't comport with their belief systems... data be damned.
Clearly, the president is only interested in being re-elected, and has no interest in finance, mathematics, or economics (but he does seem to like to quote Warren Buffet... I am sick of Buffet-philes). The U.S. cannot tax its way out of this problem.
IF the U.S. were to increase the government's revenues as percentage of GDP, net revenues will decline.
Does anybody not get that? That is, besides the "professional Left"?
The U.S. government has become a parasite on the world economy according to Vladimir Putin, current Prime Minister of Russia... unfortunately, the U.S. government has become a parasite on its own people. The parasite has to be scaled back, one way or another...
The dereliction of duty by the professional Left is simply a disgrace. So many of our "best and brightest" have taken leave of their faculties and have taken refuge in the balkanization of the Web, associating only with those that tow the party line... and allowing a few very twisted "experts" to do their thinking for them.
Keynesianism has failed humanity and much of humanity refuses to do the math because it doesn't comport with their belief systems... data be damned.
There is no point in "I told you so"
I'll spare you the "I told you so".
None of the actions taken by the U.S. Federal Government and regulatory authorities fixed anything over the past 3 years. Some of the actions taken were absolutely necessary to prevent the inconceivable... but since that time, no action has been taken that will actually fix ANYTHING.
The political battle of the "Know-Nothing's" continues... it seems that neither electorate identifying with the Right nor (ESPECIALLY) the Left, knows a g**-d*** thing.
Bright, educated people taking rock hard stands on issues that they have taken no time to understand... relying on the affirmation of their fellow "Know-Nothings"... this is no way to participate in the body politic... and yet it has become the entire body politic.
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The financial markets continue to show deflationary pressures are upon us... the 10 Year U.S. Treasury note has a yield under 2.5%... even with the S&P downgrade. And speaking of THE downgrade... you have been put on notice... one way or the other, this will get sorted out, and under no scenario that I can foresee will deflation not be the bigger threat.
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Oil is a volatile commodity... and right now the price of WTI is in the low to mid $80's.... but most of the world's consumed Oil is NOT prices by WTI. Energy equities appear cheap to me (although they could get cheaper).
It is (long past) time to get small, and stay small.
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We can't fix Afghanistan... we can't even fix Detroit. Af-Stan is not worth a single American serviceman's life.
None of the actions taken by the U.S. Federal Government and regulatory authorities fixed anything over the past 3 years. Some of the actions taken were absolutely necessary to prevent the inconceivable... but since that time, no action has been taken that will actually fix ANYTHING.
The political battle of the "Know-Nothing's" continues... it seems that neither electorate identifying with the Right nor (ESPECIALLY) the Left, knows a g**-d*** thing.
Bright, educated people taking rock hard stands on issues that they have taken no time to understand... relying on the affirmation of their fellow "Know-Nothings"... this is no way to participate in the body politic... and yet it has become the entire body politic.
------------------------------------
The financial markets continue to show deflationary pressures are upon us... the 10 Year U.S. Treasury note has a yield under 2.5%... even with the S&P downgrade. And speaking of THE downgrade... you have been put on notice... one way or the other, this will get sorted out, and under no scenario that I can foresee will deflation not be the bigger threat.
----------------------------------
Oil is a volatile commodity... and right now the price of WTI is in the low to mid $80's.... but most of the world's consumed Oil is NOT prices by WTI. Energy equities appear cheap to me (although they could get cheaper).
It is (long past) time to get small, and stay small.
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We can't fix Afghanistan... we can't even fix Detroit. Af-Stan is not worth a single American serviceman's life.
Sunday, July 31, 2011
I'm Back
Where was I?
Or, more appropriately, where are we?
Projected GDP growth has proved to be non-existent, our body politic has reduced our ability to govern to mush, and the U.S. and the rest of the West are now fully under surveillance at all times by our friendly police state courtesy of the internet and mobile communication technology.
I have theory... it goes something like this... our government has gotten so efficient at regulating and has educated our population how to take complete advantage of this, that nothing outside of the Big Corporations functions anymore. Small businesses can't hire a receptionist, or a cleaning person, or ANY entry/low level employee anymore... if they do they will have brought on themselves a sexual harassment claim, a "slip and fall" disability claim, an improper termination claim, etc...
Our government "revenue agents" have destroyed the black market in part time "off the books" workers... and now these people are on the government dole. The legal profession has incentivized all manner of contrived claims and special interest groups, from the NAACP to the Women's Movement to the Catholic Knights of Columbus to Jewish Media Moguls, into believing that they are operating under an aggrieved status... and now everybody hates everybody else, and everybody is a victim. (My response? Stop over for a glass of wine and a walk through my garden... and I don't care what victim class you belong to).
Clearly, I am not the first to attempt describe this... the media and our government has been in the business of creating a series crisis/catastrophes for a number of reasons: "The Lawyer Full Employment Act" (my brother's)... Michael Crichton coined it the "Politco/Legal/Media Complex"... I called it the "Marriage/Divorce Industrial Complex" year's before I read Crichton's excellent book "State of Fear"... but its all the same thing.
In the West, the legal profession is overpopulated... and they desperately need a new crisis-de-jour in order to get paid... the judiciary and Law Enforcement fit in here, too... the primary vehicle, despite what you might think, to get the vast majority of Lawyers paid was the War on Drugs, liability and personal injury, and divorce/family law. There just aren't that many suckers like the Dow-Corning Corp. and their multi-billion$$$$ award to lawyers for silicon breast implants...
The media needs an audience... and nothing sells like disaster, crisis, fear, and victimhood... and as Will Rogers famously quipped "all I (we) know is what I (we) read in the newspapers"... and who consumes the most media? Who controls consumer spending? Well, whoever "they" are, that is the group that all of this "victimhood" is most directed at... and the consequences? Eating disorders, depression, BPD, anger, hate, rage, divorce, abuse.... all from people that have never missed a hot meal and always sleep in a warm clean bed. Go figure.
And here we are watching the debt debate in Washington, DC! What a freaking joke! We have only loonies and innumerate lawyers conducting this debate... and given my dim view of the media and their coverage of anything... oh, never mind... in the end, fiscal discipline will be forced on the U.S.... and not by a Balanced Budget Amendment... not by the "fiscal conservatives" (they don't really exist... we have better chance at sighting a unicorn...)... and certainly not by America's Left (ROFL!!! The only people more evil than people that describe themselves as "religious")... Nope. Fiscal discipline will be forced on the U.S. by the Bond Market. When, you ask? I don't know... exactly... soon enough and with certainty.
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I hear knuckleheads saying crazy things like "watering the tree of freedom with blood" or whatever silly sh#! these folks have to say. Wanna be a "patriot"? Really??!!
The ultimate display of patriotic civil disobedience - don't drive/don't consume.
Here's the best thing you can do for yourself. Unplug. Focus on having a good time and working hard and smart (being frugal). Life is short. Stay out of ANY entanglement with the government, law enforcement, lawyers... to do that, shrink your life... the biggest risk of any collision with those evil bastards is in your car... that means, drive as little as possible. If you are not behind the wheel, you can't get: shot by the police for "failure to obey", arrested for DUI, sued for an accident... its just probability theory in practice... every mile driven increase the odds of all of the bad things that happen while driving... I have tried to cut driving out of our lives as much as possible, and have taken up hobbies and interests that do not require me to do so... when I venture about, I take great care... pay your taxes in full and on time... want to rage against the machine? You'll do it best by staying home and not consuming.
As an organized political force... a well organized group of 3 to 5% of the electorate could do more to force the government's hand than all of the loonies with their shoot-em-up fantasies could ever dream of. I have already mentioned action number 1: stop driving and consuming. Action 2: Get on a jury and exercise your ABSOLUTE RIGHT of jury nullification. When Courts (the Judiciary) see hung jury after hung jury for victimless crimes... that will be the end of that... because defendants will stop taking plea deals and will go to trial... the Court system would have to stop being an armed government extortionist and start functioning as they were intended because the number of defendants that choose to count on their fellow man to actually do their job and PROTECT them from our government would increase many fold. Drug crimes, prostitution, tax crimes, and crimes where the punishment does not fit the crime... let jurors have be conscience of the facts AND the morality of the underlying law itself, and watch how fast that system comes around.
Starve the f***ing beast.
I hear knuckleheads saying crazy things like "watering the tree of freedom with blood" or whatever silly sh#! these folks have to say. Wanna be a "patriot"? Really??!!
The ultimate display of patriotic civil disobedience - don't drive/don't consume.
Here's the best thing you can do for yourself. Unplug. Focus on having a good time and working hard and smart (being frugal). Life is short. Stay out of ANY entanglement with the government, law enforcement, lawyers... to do that, shrink your life... the biggest risk of any collision with those evil bastards is in your car... that means, drive as little as possible. If you are not behind the wheel, you can't get: shot by the police for "failure to obey", arrested for DUI, sued for an accident... its just probability theory in practice... every mile driven increase the odds of all of the bad things that happen while driving... I have tried to cut driving out of our lives as much as possible, and have taken up hobbies and interests that do not require me to do so... when I venture about, I take great care... pay your taxes in full and on time... want to rage against the machine? You'll do it best by staying home and not consuming.
As an organized political force... a well organized group of 3 to 5% of the electorate could do more to force the government's hand than all of the loonies with their shoot-em-up fantasies could ever dream of. I have already mentioned action number 1: stop driving and consuming. Action 2: Get on a jury and exercise your ABSOLUTE RIGHT of jury nullification. When Courts (the Judiciary) see hung jury after hung jury for victimless crimes... that will be the end of that... because defendants will stop taking plea deals and will go to trial... the Court system would have to stop being an armed government extortionist and start functioning as they were intended because the number of defendants that choose to count on their fellow man to actually do their job and PROTECT them from our government would increase many fold. Drug crimes, prostitution, tax crimes, and crimes where the punishment does not fit the crime... let jurors have be conscience of the facts AND the morality of the underlying law itself, and watch how fast that system comes around.
Starve the f***ing beast.
Monday, July 25, 2011
No More Timothy McVeigh's - PLEASE
"So long as governments set the example of killing their enemies, private individuals will occasionally kill theirs." - Elbert Hubbard.
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92 People have been slaughtered in a political statement by an individual in Norway. The killer was quoted as saying the killings were "atrocious, but necessary".
Isn't that what government's say from the safety of their offices when when they drop a bomb from an airplane or joy stick guided predator drone kills 75 people in a wedding party?
Timothy McVeigh used a car bomb to blow up a Federal Building, killing 168 innocent people.
He did this, according to all reports, to take the "fight the enemy"... a government that killed 82 people in gun battles and by a fire that erupted in the Branch Davidian compound at the Waco, Texas; and, 3 people in the Ruby Ridge incident.
Unintended consequences are everywhere.
I have no idea how the Norway killer's claimed beef would lead him to kill innocents. Crazy people often invent their own... but any American with any sense watching this has got to be saying "there but for the grace of G-d go us"... but that's wishful thinking... whistling past the cemetery... because something like this will almost certainly happen here.
We have a media that does NOTHING but incite political hatred, special interest groups with no sense of restraint or responsibility, and a government hell bent on micro-managing and regulating our lives... people who are healthy and well fed and who sleep in a warm bed every night and who have never missed a meal are as angry and as full of rage as a starving hoard... and over what?
Please tell me what these people are so angry about? Not a thing. Their anger has been contrived by special interest groups and given to them on a media platter in order to manipulate government policy for the purposes of gaining access to the cash cow of government deficit spending.
Here's an idea. Today, and just today, don't be angry. Don't watch Oprah or Keith Olberman or Glenn Beck (he's off now, isn't he? Sorry, I don't watch TV) and, at all costs, stay clear of the Matron de Rage - Nancy Grace.
----------------------------------------------
My old desk partner from Bear Stearns sent this to me today: "In Africa, Wealth Breeds Rage"
Dear New York Times Columnist: Wealth is breeding rage here, too. I've been a stone cold free market capitalist my entire life... and what we have here in America IS NOT free-market capitalism.... it is free-market corporate cronyism.... and it has placed us at risk.
------------------------------------------------
I have been doing some research into the reproductive habits of our elected officials and political pundits and bloggers (where I can find the data) to support or disprove my theory that the Left's procreative habits are dooming them politically. Without question, elected and appointed Democrats have fewer children than Republicans... women elected to the Senate, the House, and appointed to the SCOTUS has fewer children than men in the same positions... pro-Life officials have significantly more children than their pro-abortion counterparts... I was doing this just for fun and not terribly scientifically... but I think (not "sure"... I said think) I have noticed a trend... a disturbing trend... and I want to ask for some help from anybody willing to do a little research... here's the trend that I am noticing:
Elected and appointed officials, and... Bloggers and pundits and activists in the Left/Feminist camp seem to have more female children in proportion to male children than would be expected. Look, I am just saying this is what I am noticing and I want to make it clear that I have not selected the data set by any particular scientific method... only by availability. That disclosure aside, I do think that this issue deserves a proper examination. Accordingly, I am looking for some volunteers to help compile the data.
Any takers? If not you, perhaps you could forward this to someone interested in the abortion debate. No doubt there are people out there that might find this to be worth pursuing... though, once again, this is more a nagging doubt than anything. However, I do have a knack for picking up patterns in data...
I would think the best data set would be the offspring of record for the graduating classes of 1978 to 1988 of the 3 largest and most prestigious universities with close ties to the Left and a data set of the offspring of record for every person elected to the U.S. Senate, U.S. House of Representatives, each State House, the U.S. Supreme Court and each state Supreme Court. That should be a large enough sample.
Let the truth take us where it may.
Libertariananimal (at) yahoo (dot) com
------------
92 People have been slaughtered in a political statement by an individual in Norway. The killer was quoted as saying the killings were "atrocious, but necessary".
Isn't that what government's say from the safety of their offices when when they drop a bomb from an airplane or joy stick guided predator drone kills 75 people in a wedding party?
Timothy McVeigh used a car bomb to blow up a Federal Building, killing 168 innocent people.
He did this, according to all reports, to take the "fight the enemy"... a government that killed 82 people in gun battles and by a fire that erupted in the Branch Davidian compound at the Waco, Texas; and, 3 people in the Ruby Ridge incident.
Unintended consequences are everywhere.
I have no idea how the Norway killer's claimed beef would lead him to kill innocents. Crazy people often invent their own... but any American with any sense watching this has got to be saying "there but for the grace of G-d go us"... but that's wishful thinking... whistling past the cemetery... because something like this will almost certainly happen here.
We have a media that does NOTHING but incite political hatred, special interest groups with no sense of restraint or responsibility, and a government hell bent on micro-managing and regulating our lives... people who are healthy and well fed and who sleep in a warm bed every night and who have never missed a meal are as angry and as full of rage as a starving hoard... and over what?
Please tell me what these people are so angry about? Not a thing. Their anger has been contrived by special interest groups and given to them on a media platter in order to manipulate government policy for the purposes of gaining access to the cash cow of government deficit spending.
Here's an idea. Today, and just today, don't be angry. Don't watch Oprah or Keith Olberman or Glenn Beck (he's off now, isn't he? Sorry, I don't watch TV) and, at all costs, stay clear of the Matron de Rage - Nancy Grace.
----------------------------------------------
My old desk partner from Bear Stearns sent this to me today: "In Africa, Wealth Breeds Rage"
Dear New York Times Columnist: Wealth is breeding rage here, too. I've been a stone cold free market capitalist my entire life... and what we have here in America IS NOT free-market capitalism.... it is free-market corporate cronyism.... and it has placed us at risk.
------------------------------------------------
I have been doing some research into the reproductive habits of our elected officials and political pundits and bloggers (where I can find the data) to support or disprove my theory that the Left's procreative habits are dooming them politically. Without question, elected and appointed Democrats have fewer children than Republicans... women elected to the Senate, the House, and appointed to the SCOTUS has fewer children than men in the same positions... pro-Life officials have significantly more children than their pro-abortion counterparts... I was doing this just for fun and not terribly scientifically... but I think (not "sure"... I said think) I have noticed a trend... a disturbing trend... and I want to ask for some help from anybody willing to do a little research... here's the trend that I am noticing:
Elected and appointed officials, and... Bloggers and pundits and activists in the Left/Feminist camp seem to have more female children in proportion to male children than would be expected. Look, I am just saying this is what I am noticing and I want to make it clear that I have not selected the data set by any particular scientific method... only by availability. That disclosure aside, I do think that this issue deserves a proper examination. Accordingly, I am looking for some volunteers to help compile the data.
Any takers? If not you, perhaps you could forward this to someone interested in the abortion debate. No doubt there are people out there that might find this to be worth pursuing... though, once again, this is more a nagging doubt than anything. However, I do have a knack for picking up patterns in data...
I would think the best data set would be the offspring of record for the graduating classes of 1978 to 1988 of the 3 largest and most prestigious universities with close ties to the Left and a data set of the offspring of record for every person elected to the U.S. Senate, U.S. House of Representatives, each State House, the U.S. Supreme Court and each state Supreme Court. That should be a large enough sample.
Let the truth take us where it may.
Libertariananimal (at) yahoo (dot) com
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Technology Catching Up With Government Officials
A rash of fraud crimes by L.A. County Deputies.
Outrageous disparities in criminal sentences.
The days of folks working in Law Enforcement and the Judiciary getting away without anybody noticing are over. So, get over it, folks.
Cameras are everywhere. Your cell phone is tracking your movements (the deputy in the L.A. article's cell phone gave the lie to his alibi). You simply can't get away with this B.S. anymore, and you will be forced to stop protecting each other. So while you are at it, since cameras are everywhere, it is time for the state and federal legislative bodies to issue statutes preventing law enforcement from arresting people for using cameras. Arrests require force, and there are endless youtube.com videos of police pointing guns at people for nothing more than using a camera... considering that police cars have dash cams, and officers have chest cams, and every commercial establishment and many homes have cameras going 24/7... this seems to be an outrageous criminal abuse of human rights.
Get with the program.
-------------------------------------------------
I loved this article. Maybe it reminds me of my childhood.
I can tell you from personal experience that the path to "freedom" is not in consumption... it is in living small and being self-reliant. My own experience of living far, far under my means has led to a certain peace of mind... I recommend it very highly. I am not recommending poverty... Living small nearly always yields abundance. My little house has a little electricity bill and a little property tax bill... and no mortgage. I haven't had a mortgage since my late 30's... and its not that I inherited money or anything... I lived small, saved money, and lived debt free. I had some big earning years... and rather than buy a $100k car, I kept my old pickup truck. When we got married, we had a nice party for a few thousand $$ and spent no money on rings or limosines (actually, one of my buddies gave me the use of a limosine as a wedding present to take us to and from the party... I am not above accepting gifts... but our wedding was a "bring no gift" affair)... in fact, we don't own any jewelry (though I do own plenty of gold and silver bullion) whatsoever. I don't even own a watch. Accordingly, I don't have to worry about people breaking into our home to steal anything of value... because I don't own anything of value! (Personal safety is another issue.)
Here's the upside. Because I live small and modestly, my family and I are going to spend next winter someplace tropical, on the beach, and surf every day... and it won't be at the Ritz, either. I'm thinking of Rio... Or Costa Rica... in a little apartment with a couple of beach towels, toys for the kids, and our surf boards... I will all of this for about 25% of what it costs to live in an executive neighborhood with a couple of BMW's in the driveway... maybe less. You gotta enjoy this life, but you don't need what the Corporations want you to need, and you do need to start young. If you stay in college until 30, you better come out as a surgeon or Harvard lawyer... otherwise, its the grind for you.
There are no "do overs". You don't get your 20's back. Going to work young and starting a business will give most the best opportunity for financial independence.... because its just math. By 30, you should have half of your house paid off and money saved. By 40, no mortgage and real money saved. By 50, you should be coasting... some business owners will go through bouts of failure and success... I went "broke" twice... but people that know how to go out and get customers/clients and hustle a service that the market needs ALWAYS come back. Corporate folks put out to pasture in middle age? Not so much.
Don't buy the BullSh#!... and there is plenty of it. Get your boots on and wade through it. Every year counts. All your spending decisions count.
My favorite quote of all time comes from the book/movie "Fight Club":
"Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need."
And there it is.
Outrageous disparities in criminal sentences.
The days of folks working in Law Enforcement and the Judiciary getting away without anybody noticing are over. So, get over it, folks.
Cameras are everywhere. Your cell phone is tracking your movements (the deputy in the L.A. article's cell phone gave the lie to his alibi). You simply can't get away with this B.S. anymore, and you will be forced to stop protecting each other. So while you are at it, since cameras are everywhere, it is time for the state and federal legislative bodies to issue statutes preventing law enforcement from arresting people for using cameras. Arrests require force, and there are endless youtube.com videos of police pointing guns at people for nothing more than using a camera... considering that police cars have dash cams, and officers have chest cams, and every commercial establishment and many homes have cameras going 24/7... this seems to be an outrageous criminal abuse of human rights.
Get with the program.
-------------------------------------------------
I loved this article. Maybe it reminds me of my childhood.
I can tell you from personal experience that the path to "freedom" is not in consumption... it is in living small and being self-reliant. My own experience of living far, far under my means has led to a certain peace of mind... I recommend it very highly. I am not recommending poverty... Living small nearly always yields abundance. My little house has a little electricity bill and a little property tax bill... and no mortgage. I haven't had a mortgage since my late 30's... and its not that I inherited money or anything... I lived small, saved money, and lived debt free. I had some big earning years... and rather than buy a $100k car, I kept my old pickup truck. When we got married, we had a nice party for a few thousand $$ and spent no money on rings or limosines (actually, one of my buddies gave me the use of a limosine as a wedding present to take us to and from the party... I am not above accepting gifts... but our wedding was a "bring no gift" affair)... in fact, we don't own any jewelry (though I do own plenty of gold and silver bullion) whatsoever. I don't even own a watch. Accordingly, I don't have to worry about people breaking into our home to steal anything of value... because I don't own anything of value! (Personal safety is another issue.)
Here's the upside. Because I live small and modestly, my family and I are going to spend next winter someplace tropical, on the beach, and surf every day... and it won't be at the Ritz, either. I'm thinking of Rio... Or Costa Rica... in a little apartment with a couple of beach towels, toys for the kids, and our surf boards... I will all of this for about 25% of what it costs to live in an executive neighborhood with a couple of BMW's in the driveway... maybe less. You gotta enjoy this life, but you don't need what the Corporations want you to need, and you do need to start young. If you stay in college until 30, you better come out as a surgeon or Harvard lawyer... otherwise, its the grind for you.
There are no "do overs". You don't get your 20's back. Going to work young and starting a business will give most the best opportunity for financial independence.... because its just math. By 30, you should have half of your house paid off and money saved. By 40, no mortgage and real money saved. By 50, you should be coasting... some business owners will go through bouts of failure and success... I went "broke" twice... but people that know how to go out and get customers/clients and hustle a service that the market needs ALWAYS come back. Corporate folks put out to pasture in middle age? Not so much.
Don't buy the BullSh#!... and there is plenty of it. Get your boots on and wade through it. Every year counts. All your spending decisions count.
My favorite quote of all time comes from the book/movie "Fight Club":
"Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need."
And there it is.
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Its the Judiciary, Stupid - part 1
America is ANGRY. Very ANGRY. And while the media spends its time bashing the politicians, I spent some time talking to my peers - every one a middle aged man/middle class millionaire (40 - 60 years of age) that is/was the primary or sole provider for their wife and family; remember.... these are MY peers, not society's peers - and I asked them:
"What pisses you off?"
It wasn't the deficit, or their congressman, or the president... nope. What pissed them off was their wife (almost universally) and their kids (about half as much). For the most part, these were the other half... the 50% of marriages that survived... and these guys were none too happy. Far more than half said they would have left their marriages years ago but were terrified that they would be financially destroyed by a divorce.
I asked the obvious: "Do you feel that your wife knows how you feel?"
To which the reply almost always came as: "Are you kidding me? My wife feels entitled to everything. We have a nanny and a cleaning lady... and the kids are in high school or college!... my wife does not make any contribution to my life or to the family... its all about her... my love life is non-existent... and I am stuck here."
When I asked about how bad could a divorce would be, considering what they just told me... the answer was invariably: "Are you kidding? I have worked hard and have been successful. My friend just went through a divorce and the legal fees for both sides totaled $500k. His net worth was only $2 million. After the settlement, alimony, and child support he was left with a few hundred thousand $$$... after a life time of work? I can't believe where I am."
Got that? How is it that a Court would let this happen to a family? Let them lose 25% of their life savings in a divorce proceeding? Is it that hard and complicated to divide up some assets and declare a marriage ended? REALLY??!!
BULLSH#!! The lawyers in that courtroom representing plaintiff and respondent are members of the local legal community that funds nearly the entirety of that judge's political campaign. Its just another payoff.
Our Court System has created a monstrosity, one that served their interests nicely, at the expense of the people... And in serving their interests, they created an entitled class (the non-earning spouse's of professionals and business owners that fund the majority of the system that is oppressing them) of miscreants and a new generation of men that do not wish to marry under any circumstances (and when they do, it is with a 95 page pre-nup agreement) leaving many children to grow up in fatherless homes... among man, many other unintended consequences.
Yet nobody calls these people out onto the carpet. Why? Why is it nobody criticizes our Judiciary? Uneven sentencing, drawn out decisions, tolerating prosecutorial abuse... why does this branch of government get a pass? Don't they matter?
More soon.
"What pisses you off?"
It wasn't the deficit, or their congressman, or the president... nope. What pissed them off was their wife (almost universally) and their kids (about half as much). For the most part, these were the other half... the 50% of marriages that survived... and these guys were none too happy. Far more than half said they would have left their marriages years ago but were terrified that they would be financially destroyed by a divorce.
I asked the obvious: "Do you feel that your wife knows how you feel?"
To which the reply almost always came as: "Are you kidding me? My wife feels entitled to everything. We have a nanny and a cleaning lady... and the kids are in high school or college!... my wife does not make any contribution to my life or to the family... its all about her... my love life is non-existent... and I am stuck here."
When I asked about how bad could a divorce would be, considering what they just told me... the answer was invariably: "Are you kidding? I have worked hard and have been successful. My friend just went through a divorce and the legal fees for both sides totaled $500k. His net worth was only $2 million. After the settlement, alimony, and child support he was left with a few hundred thousand $$$... after a life time of work? I can't believe where I am."
Got that? How is it that a Court would let this happen to a family? Let them lose 25% of their life savings in a divorce proceeding? Is it that hard and complicated to divide up some assets and declare a marriage ended? REALLY??!!
BULLSH#!! The lawyers in that courtroom representing plaintiff and respondent are members of the local legal community that funds nearly the entirety of that judge's political campaign. Its just another payoff.
Our Court System has created a monstrosity, one that served their interests nicely, at the expense of the people... And in serving their interests, they created an entitled class (the non-earning spouse's of professionals and business owners that fund the majority of the system that is oppressing them) of miscreants and a new generation of men that do not wish to marry under any circumstances (and when they do, it is with a 95 page pre-nup agreement) leaving many children to grow up in fatherless homes... among man, many other unintended consequences.
Yet nobody calls these people out onto the carpet. Why? Why is it nobody criticizes our Judiciary? Uneven sentencing, drawn out decisions, tolerating prosecutorial abuse... why does this branch of government get a pass? Don't they matter?
More soon.
Monday, July 18, 2011
A Nation of 12-year-olds
"Through violence, you may ‘solve’ one problem, but you sow the seeds for another." - The Dalai Lama
--------------------------------------------------
The drama coming out of Washington, D.C. is all about the 2012 elections... and not a cent of it is about fixing the essential problem, and that is this:
Over the past 30 or 40 years or so, the Washington establishment overreached on every front and in every capacity, and said establishment is having a difficult time coming to grips with this and how it might affect them. The Washington Establishment is completely unconcerned with you.
Our founder's knew this, and had made provision for it... but then a Great Depression came along and the establishment during that time had "to do something" about that... which "required" them to subrogate their political expediencies for the U.S. Constitution.... and here we are.
Our political system (the Constitution) was not designed to withstand the government itself ignoring it... The Constitution would only work if the government abided by it. And to be fair to FDR, Lincoln was the first U.S. president to completely depart from our founding document... funny, as a result each of these dead president's was favored for this with a likeness on U.S. coinage... but I digress...
Now read the above quote again... the government has a monopoly on violence... we know it as "Law Enforcement". Whether a cop with a gun or the IRS with a tax lien, the government uses its monopoly on violence to fund itself and its programs, be they Constitutional or not... as the Dalai Lama so rightly points out, when you solve one problem using "violence" you sow the seeds for other problems... and that is exactly what all of the social programs cooked up by the FDR and Great Society folks have done. They solved one set of problems - temporarily - and have sowed the seeds for myriad other problems... which we are trying to sort out as I write this... Government loves this. Each problem will require a new commission of bedfellows of the establishment, new powers and new laws - which must be enforced... which leads to new restrictions on our freedoms, more prisons and prisoners, which means more and more police/judiciary/justice personnel and the budgets to pay them... and massive taxes on the private sector... and in order to secure the votes for the programs somebody has to benefit from this largess, and those that benefit build their lives around this benefit... our government is in the business of addicting people to this largess.
(And I am not suggesting the government shouldn't have the monopoly on violence. The alternative is a "War Lord" society. What I am suggesting is that the sheer size of that monopoly is endangering the Constitution itself.)
This includes not just the social programs and the prison/"justice"/industrial complex... but the military industrial complex, too. In fact, the social programs require the military/industrial complex be of the size and scope that it is in order to enforce US$ hegemony... after all, without that why would the world fund the deficits that fund the social programs? They wouldn't. In the final analysis, it is the LEFT far more than the RIGHT that supports the U.S. War Machine.
The Left can't stand to hear this, yet absolutely, positively refuse to answer the charge... always preferring to obfuscate the chain of events I raise with arguments about income distribution, abortion, and gay marriage. Of course the Right is equally as delinquent... having done such a poor job of politicking, the Right has been left with no choice other than to align itself with some very objectionable people. And the result? America's body politic has been divided up between our "educated intelligentsia" on the Left whose 2 primary issues are the right to kill unborn babies and the right for 2 people who can't possibly have children together to marry; and the Right whose primary issue is to raise the bile of superstitious white people concerned with school prayer and "under G-d" and other such non-issues in "fly-over land". WTF??!!
No wonder the fastest growing political affiliation is the Independents, mostly comprised of Libertarians, Constitutionalists, and other Thinking Peoples. If you are a thinking person affiliated with one of those other monstrosities, its time come on home.
--------------------------------------------------
The drama coming out of Washington, D.C. is all about the 2012 elections... and not a cent of it is about fixing the essential problem, and that is this:
Over the past 30 or 40 years or so, the Washington establishment overreached on every front and in every capacity, and said establishment is having a difficult time coming to grips with this and how it might affect them. The Washington Establishment is completely unconcerned with you.
Our founder's knew this, and had made provision for it... but then a Great Depression came along and the establishment during that time had "to do something" about that... which "required" them to subrogate their political expediencies for the U.S. Constitution.... and here we are.
Our political system (the Constitution) was not designed to withstand the government itself ignoring it... The Constitution would only work if the government abided by it. And to be fair to FDR, Lincoln was the first U.S. president to completely depart from our founding document... funny, as a result each of these dead president's was favored for this with a likeness on U.S. coinage... but I digress...
Now read the above quote again... the government has a monopoly on violence... we know it as "Law Enforcement". Whether a cop with a gun or the IRS with a tax lien, the government uses its monopoly on violence to fund itself and its programs, be they Constitutional or not... as the Dalai Lama so rightly points out, when you solve one problem using "violence" you sow the seeds for other problems... and that is exactly what all of the social programs cooked up by the FDR and Great Society folks have done. They solved one set of problems - temporarily - and have sowed the seeds for myriad other problems... which we are trying to sort out as I write this... Government loves this. Each problem will require a new commission of bedfellows of the establishment, new powers and new laws - which must be enforced... which leads to new restrictions on our freedoms, more prisons and prisoners, which means more and more police/judiciary/justice personnel and the budgets to pay them... and massive taxes on the private sector... and in order to secure the votes for the programs somebody has to benefit from this largess, and those that benefit build their lives around this benefit... our government is in the business of addicting people to this largess.
(And I am not suggesting the government shouldn't have the monopoly on violence. The alternative is a "War Lord" society. What I am suggesting is that the sheer size of that monopoly is endangering the Constitution itself.)
This includes not just the social programs and the prison/"justice"/industrial complex... but the military industrial complex, too. In fact, the social programs require the military/industrial complex be of the size and scope that it is in order to enforce US$ hegemony... after all, without that why would the world fund the deficits that fund the social programs? They wouldn't. In the final analysis, it is the LEFT far more than the RIGHT that supports the U.S. War Machine.
The Left can't stand to hear this, yet absolutely, positively refuse to answer the charge... always preferring to obfuscate the chain of events I raise with arguments about income distribution, abortion, and gay marriage. Of course the Right is equally as delinquent... having done such a poor job of politicking, the Right has been left with no choice other than to align itself with some very objectionable people. And the result? America's body politic has been divided up between our "educated intelligentsia" on the Left whose 2 primary issues are the right to kill unborn babies and the right for 2 people who can't possibly have children together to marry; and the Right whose primary issue is to raise the bile of superstitious white people concerned with school prayer and "under G-d" and other such non-issues in "fly-over land". WTF??!!
No wonder the fastest growing political affiliation is the Independents, mostly comprised of Libertarians, Constitutionalists, and other Thinking Peoples. If you are a thinking person affiliated with one of those other monstrosities, its time come on home.
Sunday, July 17, 2011
This will make you sick...
Watch this video of a Seattle Police Officer Paul Schene beating the snot out of a 15 year old girl.
A grown man, under "color of authority" beats this girl severely... it is a miracle that she is not brain damaged or dead...
Here's the best part:
He was tried on 4th degree assault (only because there is no 5th degree assault... that would be defined as massage with healing-warm-oils) on 2 separate occasions, and in both cases the case resulted in mis-trials with hung juries.
Got that?
Watch that video again. Now, imagine a set of circumstances leading up to that beating... and tell me what kind of people would give this man the "benefit of the doubt"?
Answer: Nancy Grace viewers.
---------------------------------------------------
Not only is it illegal to ride a skate board but apparently it is illegal to videotape police officers beating people.
Our elected officials and the Courts need to wrap this up... cameras are now EVERYWHERE... what kind of human being would point a gun at someone for using a camera?
----------------------------------------------
I have been trying to get data on police killings by year since from 1940 on... my sense is that, as a percentage of population police killings of unarmed citizens has risen dramatically... but I am looking for empirical data... I have written the FBI... if anyone out there has any data please email me:
Libertariananimal (at) yahoo (dot) com
A grown man, under "color of authority" beats this girl severely... it is a miracle that she is not brain damaged or dead...
Here's the best part:
He was tried on 4th degree assault (only because there is no 5th degree assault... that would be defined as massage with healing-warm-oils) on 2 separate occasions, and in both cases the case resulted in mis-trials with hung juries.
Got that?
Watch that video again. Now, imagine a set of circumstances leading up to that beating... and tell me what kind of people would give this man the "benefit of the doubt"?
Answer: Nancy Grace viewers.
---------------------------------------------------
Not only is it illegal to ride a skate board but apparently it is illegal to videotape police officers beating people.
Our elected officials and the Courts need to wrap this up... cameras are now EVERYWHERE... what kind of human being would point a gun at someone for using a camera?
----------------------------------------------
I have been trying to get data on police killings by year since from 1940 on... my sense is that, as a percentage of population police killings of unarmed citizens has risen dramatically... but I am looking for empirical data... I have written the FBI... if anyone out there has any data please email me:
Libertariananimal (at) yahoo (dot) com
Saturday, July 16, 2011
Judge, Jury, and Executioner
I was recovering from an anti-biotic resistant bronchitis... and then relapsed again... or maybe it was the research I have been doing for my documentary series.
The sheer volume of incidents of abuse of American citizens at the hands of their government(s) is simply overwhelming, staggering, and depressing...
Rogue prosecutors, excessive-use-of-force-NAZI-like police killings, arresting members of the press for filming and keeping the public informed, police abuse of power, again, and again... I could literally link all day... to spew off meaningless descriptions... "outrage" comes to mind, just doesn't cover it.
Here you have government agents that have sworn an oath to "uphold", "protect", "support", and "defend" the Constitution of the United States... and then making a mockery of everything the United States stands for. Somewhere along the line (I pinpoint FDR's stacked Supreme Court... feel free to pick your own... but please, do so and defend it!) this has all become acceptable, perhaps because the Constitution has become a "living document" (snicker). My response is that it is exactly these instances which will most likely lead to political violence here in the U.S. One day soon one of these asinine police killings is going to set off a firestorm... I can foresee the father of one of these police killing victims seeking revenge, Timothy McVeigh style, with a mushroom cloud appearing over some local police station - or worse... are we ready to accept responsibility for that? Well, I'm not. This has to stop now before things get really, really out of hand.
Many of these "outrages" are linked to the War on Drugs in the form of unintended consequences.... others are part and parcel of the collective anger running rampant in America.... I have just ONE QUESTION:
WhoTF is watching the people watching us? One nation, under surveillance, with stricken liberties, and injustice, for all.
The sheer volume of incidents of abuse of American citizens at the hands of their government(s) is simply overwhelming, staggering, and depressing...
Rogue prosecutors, excessive-use-of-force-NAZI-like police killings, arresting members of the press for filming and keeping the public informed, police abuse of power, again, and again... I could literally link all day... to spew off meaningless descriptions... "outrage" comes to mind, just doesn't cover it.
Here you have government agents that have sworn an oath to "uphold", "protect", "support", and "defend" the Constitution of the United States... and then making a mockery of everything the United States stands for. Somewhere along the line (I pinpoint FDR's stacked Supreme Court... feel free to pick your own... but please, do so and defend it!) this has all become acceptable, perhaps because the Constitution has become a "living document" (snicker). My response is that it is exactly these instances which will most likely lead to political violence here in the U.S. One day soon one of these asinine police killings is going to set off a firestorm... I can foresee the father of one of these police killing victims seeking revenge, Timothy McVeigh style, with a mushroom cloud appearing over some local police station - or worse... are we ready to accept responsibility for that? Well, I'm not. This has to stop now before things get really, really out of hand.
Many of these "outrages" are linked to the War on Drugs in the form of unintended consequences.... others are part and parcel of the collective anger running rampant in America.... I have just ONE QUESTION:
WhoTF is watching the people watching us? One nation, under surveillance, with stricken liberties, and injustice, for all.
Thursday, July 7, 2011
If you have been following the world's Oil supply situation, the spread between Europe's Brent and America's WTI has made trading the American contract a freaking nightmare. Nightmare... unless you are one of the midwest refiners buying your crude from Cushing... in that case its a wet dream.
American and international energy equities are the place to be if you want exposure to energy... and I want exposure to energy.
---------------------------------------
Did someone know that Obama was going to tap the SPR? Smells bad to me... of course, it could be a coincidence... but I don't believe in them for the most part.
--------------------------------------
Remember how the Feds said they needed the USA PATRIOT ACT to protect us from terrorists? In the final analysis, our Government used the 9/11 crisis to enact a permanent security state... there is NEVER an action without unintended consequences. EVER.
A society completely addicted to government programs will never be able to stand up to government.
---------------------------------------
Hey Feds: We don't need an Export Import Bank. There's another program that can go...
---------------------------------------
Another nail in the coffin of the War on Drugs. The criminal justice system in general, and Law Enforcement in particular, has been a total failure when measured against the goal of lessening drug use. I would assert that they have had a "boomerang effect". By securing convictions and prison time against a huge portion of the population these (the effect of a criminal conviction on an individual's economic future and the effect of putting young men in prison together... which gives them the time to form associations (gangs)...) our system has created an economic nightmare for the state and local budgets while doing nothing in the way of achieving their goals and actually increasing crime and drug use. Way to go, fellas...
"That which is not measured is not managed."
American and international energy equities are the place to be if you want exposure to energy... and I want exposure to energy.
---------------------------------------
Did someone know that Obama was going to tap the SPR? Smells bad to me... of course, it could be a coincidence... but I don't believe in them for the most part.
--------------------------------------
Remember how the Feds said they needed the USA PATRIOT ACT to protect us from terrorists? In the final analysis, our Government used the 9/11 crisis to enact a permanent security state... there is NEVER an action without unintended consequences. EVER.
A society completely addicted to government programs will never be able to stand up to government.
---------------------------------------
Hey Feds: We don't need an Export Import Bank. There's another program that can go...
---------------------------------------
Another nail in the coffin of the War on Drugs. The criminal justice system in general, and Law Enforcement in particular, has been a total failure when measured against the goal of lessening drug use. I would assert that they have had a "boomerang effect". By securing convictions and prison time against a huge portion of the population these (the effect of a criminal conviction on an individual's economic future and the effect of putting young men in prison together... which gives them the time to form associations (gangs)...) our system has created an economic nightmare for the state and local budgets while doing nothing in the way of achieving their goals and actually increasing crime and drug use. Way to go, fellas...
"That which is not measured is not managed."
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
"We have met the enemy, and he is us"
"We have met the enemy, and he is us" - Walt Kelly
I love July 4th, Independence Day.
Yet America is the land of the dependent. We depend on Social Security to save for us. Medicare and Meicaid to care for us. Food stamps to feed us. We are dependent on foreign oil, tobacco, alcohol, drugs (both illegal drugs and prescription drugs). We are dependent on "comfort food"... just take a look at us... and like a bunch of over indulged, snotty kids of privilege, we are angry with our national "Daddy Figure" - whatever man is sitting in the Oval Office (Liberals blame the Religious Right, the Right Blames the Liberal Media... but everybody blames the President).
John Bon Jovi's excellent rock band raked in $135 million dollars last year. A number of bands did better. Most of this largesse was earned by touring in concert (why is it American's seethe about CEO compensation but not about Rock Band compensation? Go figure).
yet...
50% of Americans probably cannot lay their hands on $2000 in an emergency... another 25% probably could raise the $2000 in an emergency. Probably?
The average concert held about 17,000 fans... a large enough sampling that the fans were likely representative of Americans at large. The average ticket? Nearly $100 bucks.
Ergo, half the folks in the seats at those concert halls probably can't raise $2000 for an emergency, but they can raise $200 for a couple to go to a rock concert.... WTF??!! Did I miss something here? Is concert going some kind of "Right" or obligation?
We have become a nation of completely Full of SH#! whiners... dominated and regulated and controlled by a bunch of government regulatory agents (but at least MOST of them aren't dressed up like they are about to invade Poland... so we got that going for us)...
This is Independence?
Americans need to spend more time looking in the mirror and less time watching T.V... and I don't mean literally looking into a mirror... I mean taking stock of our selves and our lives... taking responsibility for our own weight and our own savings... If you spent every hour that you now spend watching T.V. doing odd jobs for neighbors in no time you would have $2000, and then $5000, and then OMG!!!... $10,000 in your mattress! Well, that is if you don't spend $200 on concert tickets, $4 on a cup of sweetened dirty water at StarBucks, and $400 per month on a car lease...
You wanna know why you are poorer than you should be? Because you made OTHER people rich. Every debt you owe is owed to somebody else. Your liability is their asset, and it is these assets/liabilities that make some people rich at the expense of others... Just bought an IPhone? Congrats! You just made Steve Jobs richer! Just bought a Louis Vitton bag? Sucker! OK, maybe you need an IPhone because of your job (and that $100+ per month cell phone bill per family member?)... maybe you need 300 cable channels... maybe you need... oh, come on. If you have less than $2000 to your name, what you really need is to save some money... and stop blaming everybody else.
I love July 4th, Independence Day.
Yet America is the land of the dependent. We depend on Social Security to save for us. Medicare and Meicaid to care for us. Food stamps to feed us. We are dependent on foreign oil, tobacco, alcohol, drugs (both illegal drugs and prescription drugs). We are dependent on "comfort food"... just take a look at us... and like a bunch of over indulged, snotty kids of privilege, we are angry with our national "Daddy Figure" - whatever man is sitting in the Oval Office (Liberals blame the Religious Right, the Right Blames the Liberal Media... but everybody blames the President).
John Bon Jovi's excellent rock band raked in $135 million dollars last year. A number of bands did better. Most of this largesse was earned by touring in concert (why is it American's seethe about CEO compensation but not about Rock Band compensation? Go figure).
yet...
50% of Americans probably cannot lay their hands on $2000 in an emergency... another 25% probably could raise the $2000 in an emergency. Probably?
The average concert held about 17,000 fans... a large enough sampling that the fans were likely representative of Americans at large. The average ticket? Nearly $100 bucks.
Ergo, half the folks in the seats at those concert halls probably can't raise $2000 for an emergency, but they can raise $200 for a couple to go to a rock concert.... WTF??!! Did I miss something here? Is concert going some kind of "Right" or obligation?
We have become a nation of completely Full of SH#! whiners... dominated and regulated and controlled by a bunch of government regulatory agents (but at least MOST of them aren't dressed up like they are about to invade Poland... so we got that going for us)...
This is Independence?
Americans need to spend more time looking in the mirror and less time watching T.V... and I don't mean literally looking into a mirror... I mean taking stock of our selves and our lives... taking responsibility for our own weight and our own savings... If you spent every hour that you now spend watching T.V. doing odd jobs for neighbors in no time you would have $2000, and then $5000, and then OMG!!!... $10,000 in your mattress! Well, that is if you don't spend $200 on concert tickets, $4 on a cup of sweetened dirty water at StarBucks, and $400 per month on a car lease...
You wanna know why you are poorer than you should be? Because you made OTHER people rich. Every debt you owe is owed to somebody else. Your liability is their asset, and it is these assets/liabilities that make some people rich at the expense of others... Just bought an IPhone? Congrats! You just made Steve Jobs richer! Just bought a Louis Vitton bag? Sucker! OK, maybe you need an IPhone because of your job (and that $100+ per month cell phone bill per family member?)... maybe you need 300 cable channels... maybe you need... oh, come on. If you have less than $2000 to your name, what you really need is to save some money... and stop blaming everybody else.
Saturday, July 2, 2011
No Coincidences
"I do not recognize anyone's right to one minute of my life. Nor to any part of my energy. Nor to any achievement of mine. No matter who makes the claim, how large their number or how great their need. I recognize no obligation toward men except one: to respect their freedom." - Ayn Rand
------------------------------------------------
So the maid accusing DSK worked at the hotel as an in house prostitute (anybody surprised by this? I lived in New York most of my life, and NYC just isn;t Mayberry RFD)... there are no coincidences in this world. SOMEBODY got to her and set him up - excellent work on their part... I guess "they" could do little about her background... it would have been hard to get Maureen Dowd to take the mission on... I suspect they got what they wanted. Perhaps it had to do with the IMF... more likely with the French presidency.
It is also fairly amusing to listen to America's women respond to all of this... a fair majority just cannot fathom how DSK's wife doesn't ditch him with a good slap in the face for the cameras... I suspect that the DSK's have an interesting and amusing love life arrangement. Good on them.
---------------------------------------
This is how FOS we have become... living in a land of Disney animal character fantasies as we pick up our beef burger (slaughtered cow) sandwiches in the driven-thru complete with plastic toys of said animal characters... ever notice that none of the characters are cows? We have laws preventing the slaughter of horses in a country that slaughters millions of cows, hogs, and chickens every year? In what universe does that make sense? Is there a hierarchy in the "rights" of animals? Really? Show me where it is written. The Bible? The Constitution? The Magna Carta? In one breath/scream certain elements were calling for the execution of Michael Vick for killing/fighting dogs... and in the next they were setting rat traps in their basements. Anybody see a lack of consistency there? Certainly not the prosecutors that got famous in the Vick case or the defense counsel that got rich... Millions of $$ in resources squandered in a nation where 1 in 7 people are on FOOD STAMPS... just another example of the complete absence of cost/benefit analysis within our governing bodies.
------------------------------------------
Read this article on a Canadian Court's ruling on Medical Marijuana. This is happening in a country that shares a 3000 mile border with the U.S. The tide is going to overwhelm the lunatics supporting/promoting/provoking our insane "War on Drugs".
------------------------------------------
A first, baby step, to end the insanity of the War on Drugs.
-----------------------------------------
I am not a fan of the President's policies... BUT... Under no circumstance would I refer to a sitting U.S. President as a "D**k" in a public forum. WTF is with us? I watched in horror the Looney Left's "Bush Derangement Syndrome". I watch in equal horror at the equally Looney Right's "Obama Derangement Syndrome". I could not agree more with the moniker that John Avlon hung on all of this: "Pathological Hatred of the President Posing as Patriotism". I reject it out of hand as being beneath us as a democratic people and nation. This not political discourse. This is biting the heads off of chickens.
For all of our troubles, the U.S. is still our homeland and country. We have democratically elected leaders. No president is ever going to win 100%, or 90%, or 80%, or 70% of the popular vote... ergo, there will always be a sitting president whom a great many people did not vote for... yet whoever that individual is... he is still THE PRESIDENT of the United States of America.
I couldn't care less about Monica's dress, GWB former drinking habits, or BHO's former Cocaine use... when they are sitting in that seat, I care about their performance of their duties.
--------------------------------------
One of the problems for Libertarianism in the past is that we won't pay people off for voting for us. Perhaps this is a time where we might gain support without that.
------------------------------------------------
So the maid accusing DSK worked at the hotel as an in house prostitute (anybody surprised by this? I lived in New York most of my life, and NYC just isn;t Mayberry RFD)... there are no coincidences in this world. SOMEBODY got to her and set him up - excellent work on their part... I guess "they" could do little about her background... it would have been hard to get Maureen Dowd to take the mission on... I suspect they got what they wanted. Perhaps it had to do with the IMF... more likely with the French presidency.
It is also fairly amusing to listen to America's women respond to all of this... a fair majority just cannot fathom how DSK's wife doesn't ditch him with a good slap in the face for the cameras... I suspect that the DSK's have an interesting and amusing love life arrangement. Good on them.
---------------------------------------
This is how FOS we have become... living in a land of Disney animal character fantasies as we pick up our beef burger (slaughtered cow) sandwiches in the driven-thru complete with plastic toys of said animal characters... ever notice that none of the characters are cows? We have laws preventing the slaughter of horses in a country that slaughters millions of cows, hogs, and chickens every year? In what universe does that make sense? Is there a hierarchy in the "rights" of animals? Really? Show me where it is written. The Bible? The Constitution? The Magna Carta? In one breath/scream certain elements were calling for the execution of Michael Vick for killing/fighting dogs... and in the next they were setting rat traps in their basements. Anybody see a lack of consistency there? Certainly not the prosecutors that got famous in the Vick case or the defense counsel that got rich... Millions of $$ in resources squandered in a nation where 1 in 7 people are on FOOD STAMPS... just another example of the complete absence of cost/benefit analysis within our governing bodies.
------------------------------------------
Read this article on a Canadian Court's ruling on Medical Marijuana. This is happening in a country that shares a 3000 mile border with the U.S. The tide is going to overwhelm the lunatics supporting/promoting/provoking our insane "War on Drugs".
------------------------------------------
A first, baby step, to end the insanity of the War on Drugs.
-----------------------------------------
I am not a fan of the President's policies... BUT... Under no circumstance would I refer to a sitting U.S. President as a "D**k" in a public forum. WTF is with us? I watched in horror the Looney Left's "Bush Derangement Syndrome". I watch in equal horror at the equally Looney Right's "Obama Derangement Syndrome". I could not agree more with the moniker that John Avlon hung on all of this: "Pathological Hatred of the President Posing as Patriotism". I reject it out of hand as being beneath us as a democratic people and nation. This not political discourse. This is biting the heads off of chickens.
For all of our troubles, the U.S. is still our homeland and country. We have democratically elected leaders. No president is ever going to win 100%, or 90%, or 80%, or 70% of the popular vote... ergo, there will always be a sitting president whom a great many people did not vote for... yet whoever that individual is... he is still THE PRESIDENT of the United States of America.
I couldn't care less about Monica's dress, GWB former drinking habits, or BHO's former Cocaine use... when they are sitting in that seat, I care about their performance of their duties.
--------------------------------------
One of the problems for Libertarianism in the past is that we won't pay people off for voting for us. Perhaps this is a time where we might gain support without that.
Friday, July 1, 2011
The Duke Rape Case's LOOOOOOONG Shadow
DSK can thank the North Carolina Bar Association and their handling of the prosecutor in that case, Michael Nifong. In the past, almost without exception, when the famous or infamous have been accused of a crime prosecutors have been all too happy to score political gains at the expense of justice.
While I worry endlessly about the impacts of technology to follow our every move, record every phone call, and read every email... it is these technologies that saved the day for 3 innocent college kids from a life time of eating prison gruel in the Duke case. What got them off the hook was the geographical location data from their cell phones. Without that, the rush to judgment would have overwhelmed everything else... at best, they could have hoped for a decade of "professional defendant" status while the lawyers picked their bones clean. I have come to value my smart phone.
The sad fact is that even though the young men in the Duke Rape case were found to be "Factually Innocent" (which is very, very different from "Not Guilty"), their accuser was never charged with a crime. Several years later she stabbed her boyfriend to death.
Read this story. A woman fabricates a brutal sexual attack for the purpose of winning custody of her child and ridding herself of the inconvenience of the boy's father. The man spends 83 in solitary confinement, loses his job, his life savings, only to have TECHNOLOGY prove that he was "Factually Innocent". His accuser had tried to kill him using the criminal justice system... yet she has faced no charges as of yet.
WHY?
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Corn, Wheat, Chavez, DSK...
Wheat plunges to 11 month low; Corn lock limit down on USDA report. As it turns out, it appears farmers have planted right up to their wive's flower boxes. Not that the marginal acres aren't below average - they are.
The stock piles number, while not all that great, was better than expected, too. The U.S. and the West appears to have dodged another bullet, for another year.
----------------------------------------
Hugo Chavez has cancer? The battle to succeed him is now ON. I can only hope that the U.S. stays out of it.
----------------------------------------
U.S. backs Assad in Syria? Why? Isn't that up to the Syrians? I know the devil you know is often better than the devil you don't... and I realize that this is an attempt to stop the domino effect in MENA, particularly Saudi Arabia... but, once again... it is time to cut funding to our far flung diplomatic corps. If not, there will be no return of troops from abroad absent a political convulsion... a convulsion I would rather pass on.
---------------------------------------
I just went over the Constitution again... Nope. Nothing in there about trying to influence prices in the marketplace for anything. I guarantee this gets f***ed up, and gets someone serving in the Military killed... which leads to more funding of stupid policies that get more guys killed... so that we can fight over an Oil supply that will not be there in my life time (and I am old).
--------------------------------------
It would appear the case against former IMF head DSK is on the rocks. I kept quite about this since the incident... but I have met DSK, and I want to say this kindly... the guy is an elderly runt... what I mean to say is, he farts dust... He would have had to plan FAR in advance to make sure the Viagra kicked in before he was going to force any kind of penetration... even then, he would be in need of a step ladder or stool... There is not a maid in New York that couldn't kick his ass blind folded and with one arm tied behind their back... Did I mention that all of the early "facts" were disgusting manipulations of the jury pool? Remember that story that he ran to the airport so fast he left his cell phone? LOLOLOLOLOL!!! Research that, among others. I think of all those nit wits that showed up to cast aspersions at him as he was led into Court... can you imagine them on a jury? Well, who do you think is sitting on our juries?
Look, prosecutors and politicians: you guys have gotta show a little backbone (or another masculine body part) when dealing with the mercenary/rapacious (pun intended) Feminazis... And buy (another pun... its all part of the "Lawyer Full Employment Act") the way... that whole "Perp Walk", thing? Ditch it - and do it quick. A clearer violation of the Fourth Amendment in this era of digital technology I cannot dream of... using a man's image against him... tsk, tsk.
SOMEBODY wanted him out of the IMF... Cui Bono?
DSK goes on to win the French Presidency... and he is going to get even with a lot of people. Whoever set him up should be looking for Real Estate in the Trobriand Islands.
---------------------------------------------
The sad fact is that the Tea Party folks have not proved to be Libertarians or Constitutionalists... and not even fiscal conservatives. They have squandered a sure thing presidential victory and are left with an up hill battle at the moment. "I fart in their general direction". What a disappointment. All that work and effort, and they drag in another sub-zero.
I was truly hoping that a 3rd party of Libertarian leaning folks was going to form in the Senate... all it would take is 5 or 6 Senators. I "thought I heard the voice of the people. Must of been something else".
The stock piles number, while not all that great, was better than expected, too. The U.S. and the West appears to have dodged another bullet, for another year.
----------------------------------------
Hugo Chavez has cancer? The battle to succeed him is now ON. I can only hope that the U.S. stays out of it.
----------------------------------------
U.S. backs Assad in Syria? Why? Isn't that up to the Syrians? I know the devil you know is often better than the devil you don't... and I realize that this is an attempt to stop the domino effect in MENA, particularly Saudi Arabia... but, once again... it is time to cut funding to our far flung diplomatic corps. If not, there will be no return of troops from abroad absent a political convulsion... a convulsion I would rather pass on.
---------------------------------------
I just went over the Constitution again... Nope. Nothing in there about trying to influence prices in the marketplace for anything. I guarantee this gets f***ed up, and gets someone serving in the Military killed... which leads to more funding of stupid policies that get more guys killed... so that we can fight over an Oil supply that will not be there in my life time (and I am old).
--------------------------------------
It would appear the case against former IMF head DSK is on the rocks. I kept quite about this since the incident... but I have met DSK, and I want to say this kindly... the guy is an elderly runt... what I mean to say is, he farts dust... He would have had to plan FAR in advance to make sure the Viagra kicked in before he was going to force any kind of penetration... even then, he would be in need of a step ladder or stool... There is not a maid in New York that couldn't kick his ass blind folded and with one arm tied behind their back... Did I mention that all of the early "facts" were disgusting manipulations of the jury pool? Remember that story that he ran to the airport so fast he left his cell phone? LOLOLOLOLOL!!! Research that, among others. I think of all those nit wits that showed up to cast aspersions at him as he was led into Court... can you imagine them on a jury? Well, who do you think is sitting on our juries?
Look, prosecutors and politicians: you guys have gotta show a little backbone (or another masculine body part) when dealing with the mercenary/rapacious (pun intended) Feminazis... And buy (another pun... its all part of the "Lawyer Full Employment Act") the way... that whole "Perp Walk", thing? Ditch it - and do it quick. A clearer violation of the Fourth Amendment in this era of digital technology I cannot dream of... using a man's image against him... tsk, tsk.
SOMEBODY wanted him out of the IMF... Cui Bono?
DSK goes on to win the French Presidency... and he is going to get even with a lot of people. Whoever set him up should be looking for Real Estate in the Trobriand Islands.
---------------------------------------------
The sad fact is that the Tea Party folks have not proved to be Libertarians or Constitutionalists... and not even fiscal conservatives. They have squandered a sure thing presidential victory and are left with an up hill battle at the moment. "I fart in their general direction". What a disappointment. All that work and effort, and they drag in another sub-zero.
I was truly hoping that a 3rd party of Libertarian leaning folks was going to form in the Senate... all it would take is 5 or 6 Senators. I "thought I heard the voice of the people. Must of been something else".
Saturday, June 25, 2011
Obama's Release of Oil from the SPR
I needed to noodle the release of Oil from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve for a few days (and I have been under the weather... which tends to slow my noodling). CNNMoney had this not too dumbed down article recently:
1. "A warning shot to speculators in the Oil market." Hmmmm..... This is so wrong on sooooo many levels... but OK, we live within a body politic filled with dingbats and dumbbells... true believers and complete deniers... wing nuts and fruit loops.... Here's my take:
Our command economy control freaks have undertaken an incredible effort to stimulate the economy (most of these efforts are doomed to fail or have a cost/benefit ratio f***ed up beyond recognition). Some of this attempt at command and control had some unintended consequences - just take a look at the US$ - and so the control freaks think they can micro manage aspects of their efforts to increase speculative activity that they find unappealing - even if there is only (and barely) circumstantial evidence that the original efforts to increase risk appetite were the driver behind Oil prices - by driving out speculators?? After all, energy was one of the worst performing sectors in the commodity markets... WhoTF is advising these people? Commodity trading is a Zero Sum Game. For every buyer there is an equal and opposite seller. The market price will ALWAYS get to equilibrium eventually via the supply/demand price discovery between producers and consumers. Reducing the number of trades in between Exxon and Mrs. Smith will absolutely, positively not change the AVERAGE outcome of price... it WILL, however, increase the volatility in the market price... which might have the unintended consequence of reducing risk taking at the Exploration and Production level.
Politically, these knuckleheads have been able to label "speculators" as the evil doers... so this might appeal to the non-thinking viewers of the likes of Oprah and Nancy Grace.
2. "A wake up call to OPEC". ROFL!!! OPEC is keenly aware of their precarious position - there ain't a damn thing they can do about it. IF, and its a BIG IF, OPEC has ANY spare capacity at the moment it almost assuredly is in The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and KSA has already said they are going to increase production... my bet is that that was just propaganda... and we will know the truth soon enough.
I am quite sure that a "Wake up call to OPEC" was not part of the administrations thinking... or at least I hope not. While the ruling OPEC's elite might benefit from selling the West and the BRIC's their oil as fast as they possibly can under NO CIRCUMSTANCE is this in the interests of the PEOPLE living in the OPEC countries. The West's ongoing War with Islam has been the predictable result, and the Arab Spring is just the latest chapter in this ongoing saga.
3. "A looming supply shortage". We need a definition for "shortage". There will be no shortage of $150, or $200, or $300 per barrel Oil... and no $100 per barrel Oil to be found. There will be no "shortages" unless governments attempt to ration by inconvenience. If "rationing" occurs by price, the market will handle everything... now you might not like that; you might have to drive fewer miles and in a smaller car and live in a smaller dwelling and grow your own food and share bath water... amongst all manner of other adjustments. But you will adjust. The problem for the Federal, State and local governments is that this will simply destroy their budgets. The good news is that the "smaller government" folks are going to win by default without having to throw a single punch.
4. "Economic Stimulus". This is just too silly to even address. The amount of Oil in the SPR might, MIGHT, get these folks through the 2012 elections... and then what? Is our economy "stronger" by destroying contingency funds? "I fart in the general direction" of this one.
In the final analysis, this is just another cluster f*** coming out of the 2 Headed 1 Party (2H1P) Monster that has been eating us alive since the end of the Civil War... but the fat is gone, the muscle is gone, and the Monster is gnawing at the bone of the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
Four reasons are emerging for President Obama's surprise decision Thursday to release 30 million barrels of oil from the nation's strategic reserve -- economic stimulus; a looming supply shortage; a wake up call to OPEC; and a warning shot to speculators in the oil market.I think that that line of reasoning is essentially correct... so lets take it apart one item at a time, but in reverse....
1. "A warning shot to speculators in the Oil market." Hmmmm..... This is so wrong on sooooo many levels... but OK, we live within a body politic filled with dingbats and dumbbells... true believers and complete deniers... wing nuts and fruit loops.... Here's my take:
Our command economy control freaks have undertaken an incredible effort to stimulate the economy (most of these efforts are doomed to fail or have a cost/benefit ratio f***ed up beyond recognition). Some of this attempt at command and control had some unintended consequences - just take a look at the US$ - and so the control freaks think they can micro manage aspects of their efforts to increase speculative activity that they find unappealing - even if there is only (and barely) circumstantial evidence that the original efforts to increase risk appetite were the driver behind Oil prices - by driving out speculators?? After all, energy was one of the worst performing sectors in the commodity markets... WhoTF is advising these people? Commodity trading is a Zero Sum Game. For every buyer there is an equal and opposite seller. The market price will ALWAYS get to equilibrium eventually via the supply/demand price discovery between producers and consumers. Reducing the number of trades in between Exxon and Mrs. Smith will absolutely, positively not change the AVERAGE outcome of price... it WILL, however, increase the volatility in the market price... which might have the unintended consequence of reducing risk taking at the Exploration and Production level.
Politically, these knuckleheads have been able to label "speculators" as the evil doers... so this might appeal to the non-thinking viewers of the likes of Oprah and Nancy Grace.
2. "A wake up call to OPEC". ROFL!!! OPEC is keenly aware of their precarious position - there ain't a damn thing they can do about it. IF, and its a BIG IF, OPEC has ANY spare capacity at the moment it almost assuredly is in The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and KSA has already said they are going to increase production... my bet is that that was just propaganda... and we will know the truth soon enough.
I am quite sure that a "Wake up call to OPEC" was not part of the administrations thinking... or at least I hope not. While the ruling OPEC's elite might benefit from selling the West and the BRIC's their oil as fast as they possibly can under NO CIRCUMSTANCE is this in the interests of the PEOPLE living in the OPEC countries. The West's ongoing War with Islam has been the predictable result, and the Arab Spring is just the latest chapter in this ongoing saga.
3. "A looming supply shortage". We need a definition for "shortage". There will be no shortage of $150, or $200, or $300 per barrel Oil... and no $100 per barrel Oil to be found. There will be no "shortages" unless governments attempt to ration by inconvenience. If "rationing" occurs by price, the market will handle everything... now you might not like that; you might have to drive fewer miles and in a smaller car and live in a smaller dwelling and grow your own food and share bath water... amongst all manner of other adjustments. But you will adjust. The problem for the Federal, State and local governments is that this will simply destroy their budgets. The good news is that the "smaller government" folks are going to win by default without having to throw a single punch.
4. "Economic Stimulus". This is just too silly to even address. The amount of Oil in the SPR might, MIGHT, get these folks through the 2012 elections... and then what? Is our economy "stronger" by destroying contingency funds? "I fart in the general direction" of this one.
In the final analysis, this is just another cluster f*** coming out of the 2 Headed 1 Party (2H1P) Monster that has been eating us alive since the end of the Civil War... but the fat is gone, the muscle is gone, and the Monster is gnawing at the bone of the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Forget the Alamo, Remember Vincent Hodgkiss
I barely knew Vincent Hodgkiss. The fact that I knew him at all was one of the vagaries of life. The 3rd anniversary of his murder at the hands of the Pembroke Pines police, and the fact that all of people in on the murder were "cleared", has sent me into action.
I am producing a documentary about this killing, and will be airing it out on my blogtalkradio show, The Libertarian Animal.
I spent yesterday and today trying to speak by phone with the Mayor, Frank Ortis; the Chief of Police, Dan Giustino; and, the Administrative Law Judge for Florida's Broward County The Honorable Sharon Zeller. The Judge's administrative assistant has been playing telephone tag with me, but the Chief and the Mayor have yet to call me back.
I hope they will open their doors and answer some questions... I can assure them that I will be showing up, and soon, with a camera crew in tow.
I will be putting up a link shortly to my radio webcast on what I have come to find in the Hodgkiss Killing.
Americans War Weary?
The writer made the incredible leap that Americans are "War Weary".
Really? I hope so. But weary of which War? The 10 year old war in Af-Stan? The 7 year old War in Iraq? The 40 YEAR OLD War on Drugs? The 50 YEAR OLD WAR between the sexes?
WTF happened to us? We seem to have forgotten how to cook good food, make love, and drink wine. To enjoy the seasons of our lives and revel in the buoyant surge of just being alive, rejecting that philosophy and instead tuning in to watch Nancy Grace bite the heads off of chickens and Gloria Alred display the latest victim of some "evil doer's" sexual conquest (I always wondered where the Male equivalent of Gloria has been hiding - after all, there are no shortage of gold digging, money grubbing, leaches among the fairer sex... marrying for money, divorcing for money... or divorcing for a lack of money... he could set up shop in Boca Raton... the supply of "Material Girls" is simply endless there... not a set of natural boobs in the place... Wait. That's not manipulation, is it?). We have forgotten ourselves and our humanity and have filled our prisons to overflowing with non-violent drug users... and have taken leave of our senses by rejecting the health and beauty of youth for an extra 50 pounds of body weight kept cool in an Air-Conditioned mirage of Television "Media Rooms", Barco loungers, and anti-depressents.
It is a complicated equation that landed us here: Vietnam x Gloria Steinem ÷ Billy Graham √ Jesse Jackson ∑ Charles Manson to the 3rd power of the prison/industrial, marriage/divorce, educational/student loan Industrial Complexes.... or something like that. The other side of the = sign contains even more bizarre data - far too disparate to recount here.
(Now, the only sensible people in the West when it comes to enjoying the fruit of our existence are under attack from Maureen Dowd & Co. I pray that the French do not crumble before the onslaught of the "The Angst of Empty Beds and Empty Wombs" (that quote is my own, and I place it in quotations as it is the title of a long essay I am writing). Anything for a perceived political gain, eh Maureen?)
America's "Make War, not Love" culture has put billions into the pockets of weapons manufacturers, Law Enforcement and Prison Budgets, Lawyers of all persuasions, Politicians, and a cadre of other miscreants... while most of our wineries are going bust. Clearly, something is wrong with that equation.
Are Americans really ready to Make Love not War? Not with Gloria Alred on duty.
NAZI Coward Police Officer
This is not America. Yet another case of government agents SWORN to uphold and defend the U.S. Constitution... and then trampling on the spirit and letter of our founding document.
I pray that this officer's career is finished. Assaulting citizens under "color of authority" should result in a hefty prison sentence and a felony conviction. He is nothing but a coward and a piece of sh#!
The various State legislatures and the Courts had better wrap their collective minds around the new reality - cameras are EVERYWHERE.
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Somebody noticed War Spending?
Wow.
"Sagging economy draws attention to War spending"? No F***ing Duh.
I gotta tell you how disappointing I found this... some how it was OK to kill innocent people with drone missiles and get American teenagers killed and maimed... but its not OK because war costs money?
I swear that it tastes like somebody just sh#! in my mouth.
"Sagging economy draws attention to War spending"? No F***ing Duh.
I gotta tell you how disappointing I found this... some how it was OK to kill innocent people with drone missiles and get American teenagers killed and maimed... but its not OK because war costs money?
I swear that it tastes like somebody just sh#! in my mouth.
Sunday, June 19, 2011
The First Casualty of War is Truth
The EMU is unwinding, with Greece its first jettison.
The 20th Century will eventually be viewed as the Century of social/fiscal experimentation... with the conclusion being something we adults knew all along - there is no such thing as something for nothing. NOTHING is free, and anything free is NOTHING worth having. Unfortunately, this won't stop people in the future from believing in something for nothing or stopping others from trying to take advantage of people by promising them something for nothing.
I had a nice conversation with Stu Staniford of earlywarn.blogspot.com the other day. I share his view that a Greeek contagion slow down could spread to the other PIIGS... and drop European demand for Oil to its knees (it is my sense that that will be the time to buy Oil).
But I think the Greek thing is small potatoes when compared to the international Corn Crop and Demand picture. In fact, a powerful recession in Europe might be helpful in taking pressure off of Food prices in addition to Oil prices.
Its all about the weather in the growing regions. World inventories of grains (outside of rice... rice is in pretty good shape at the moment) are at multi-decade lows. A weather catastrophe in a major producing region would be very, very interesting politically - even here in the U.S. If you think $5 gasoline is problematic for the 2012 election pols, try $10 per gallon milk.
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