Friday, September 30, 2011
Tim Suttle: The Irony of the Tea Party
"In a world of laissez-faire capitalism and absolute individual liberty, might is the only right -- that's fascism."
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Fwd: Preexisting condition
'Additionally, banning insurance companies from discriminating against people with preexisting conditions helps to ensure that every American who can afford it has insurance. We don't let people wait until after they've been in a car accident to apply for auto insurance and get reimbursed, and we don't want to do that with health care. If we're going to outlaw discrimination based on pre-existing conditions, people should not be allowed to game the system and raise costs on everyone else.'
Based on this car insurance companies should not discriminate against higher risk(cost) drivers, just because they have been in a few accidents
Fwd: Germany calls White house advice 'stupid'
Germany slams 'stupid' US plans to boost EU rescue fund
Germany and America were on a collision course on Tuesday night over the handling of Europe's debt crisis after Berlin savaged plans to boost the EU rescue fund as a "stupid idea" and told the White House to sort out its own mess before giving gratuitous advice to others.'
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
$1 Billion Vaccine Push Aims to Protect Children in Poor Countries
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2011/09/1-billion-vaccine-push-aims-to-protect-children-in-poor-countries.html
saudi-woman-faces-flogging-for-driving
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-09-28/saudi-woman-faces-flogging-for-driving/3025264
Fwd:
'Eighteen years ago this week, on September 13, 1993, the PLO signed the Declaration of Principles with Israel on the White House lawn. There, the terror group committed itself to a peace process in which all disputes between Israel and the PLO — including Palestinian statehood — would be settled in the framework of bilateral negotiations.
The Palestinian Authority was established on the basis of this accord. The territory, money, arms and international legitimacy it has been given was due entirely to the PLO pledge to resolve the Palestinian conflict with Israel through bilateral negotiations.
By abandoning negotiations with Israel two years ago, and opting instead to achieve its nationalist aims outside the framework of a peace treaty with Israel, the Palestinians are destroying the diplomatic edifice on which the entire concept of a peace process is based. They are announcing that they have no intention of living at peace with Israel.'
http://www.jewishworldreview.com/0911/glick091611.php3
'The Palestinians Want Peace --- Just Not With a Jewish State'
http://www.jewishworldreview.com/0911/prager.php3
How Civilizations Die: (And Why Islam Is Dying Too):Amazon:Books
The second is the importance of religious life in the modern world, especially for the educated class whose nihilistic, materialistic and low-fertility behavior threatens the survival of the nations they lead.
Monday, September 26, 2011
Friday, September 23, 2011
Fwd: Heartless
' Mitt Romney moved quickly Friday to capitalize on Rick Perry's debate comment that immigration hard liners are heartless.
"One of the things I still can't get over is the idea that a state could decide to give a $100,000 discount to illegal's to go to school in their state," Romney told the Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando Friday. "It is simply wrong to create that kind of magnet. It cannot be sustained."
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"My friend Governor Perry said that if you don't agree with his position on giving that in-state tuition to illegal's that you don't have a heart," he added. "I think if you're opposed to illegal immigration, it doesn't mean that you don't have a heart. It means that you have a heart and a brain."
He drew loud cheers and applause for his attack.
"Legal immigration, good for America," he added. "Illegal immigration, something I will stop if I am president."'
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0911/64267.html
Thursday, September 22, 2011
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Re: Mexico
larry.r.trout wrote:
'Suspected drug traffickers dumped 35 bodies at rush hour beneath a busy overpass in the heart of a major Gulf coast city as gunmen pointed weapons at frightened drivers. Mexican authorities said Wednesday they are examining surveillance video for clues to who committed the crime.
Horrified motorists grabbed cell phones and sent Twitter messages warning others to avoid the area near the biggest shopping mall in Boca del Rio, part of the metropolitan area of Veracruz city.'
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/mexico-horror-gunmen-dump-35-bodies-avenue-14570209
Any thoughts?
Yeah. Don't go to Mexico.
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Bridget Bardot
Additionally, in a section in the book entitled, Open Letter to My Lost France, Bardot writes: "...my country, France, my homeland, my land is again invaded by an overpopulation of foreigners, especially Muslims.". For this comment, a French court fined her 30,000 francs in June 2000. She had been fined in 1997 for the original publication of this open letter in Le Figaro and again 1998 for making similar remarks.
In her 2003 book, Un cri dans le silence ("A Scream in the Silence"), she warned of an "Islamicization of France", and said of Muslim immigration:
Over the last twenty years, we have given in to a subterranean, dangerous, and uncontrolled infiltration, which not only resists adjusting to our laws and customs but which will, as the years pass, attempt to impose its own.
In May 2003 the Movement Against Racism and for Friendship between Peoples (MRAP) announced they would sue Bardot for the comments. The "Ligue des droits de l'homme" (Human Rights League) announced they were considering similar legal proceedings
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brigitte_Bardot#Politics_and_legal_issues
Monday, September 19, 2011
Fwd: China
'At the end of August, General Xu, in the words of the South China Morning Post, said that "if China could no longer keep secret its missile launches, it would not be able to launch a surprise attack on the U.S."…
His unsettling comment came in response to a WikiLeaks revelation that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in a classified cable sent January 9, 2010, instructed American embassies to warn four friendly governments of upcoming Chinese missile launches two days later. The cable included details that had to come from one or more sources inside China's strategic missile corps…
Obviously, they have considered the possibility of launching a surprise attack on the United States—otherwise General Xu would not have blurted out his comment.
And his comment was not a one-off remark. Currently servicing Chinese generals have talked in public of initiating a nuclear exchange, thereby abandoning Beijing's no-first-use pledge. In 1995, General Xiong Guangkai famously mentioned the incineration of Los Angeles. In 2005, the People's Liberation Army upped the ante when Major General Zhu Chenghu said we should be prepared for the destruction of "hundreds of cities."'
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2011/09/09/will-china-launch-nuclear-11/?intcmp=obinsite
Fwd: War on Terror
From: larry.r.trout
'There's a lot to report on President Obama's very own "War on Terror." He's not calling it that, of course. But it's spreading fast from Afghanistan to southern Arabia, the Horn of Africa and even to Nigeria and West Africa, if the testimony of the general who leads the US Africa Command is to be believed. Ten years after 9/11, maybe the "War on Terror" really and truly will never, ever end.
First, an important new report from the Open Society Foundations and the Liaisons Office tells us that the administration's night raids in Afghanistan are deadlier than previously thought, creating swelling anger in that country (and, no doubt, more insurgents and "terrorists" than before)…
Second, just two days after the New York Times reported on a bitter internal struggle inside the White House and the Obama administration over limits on the use of force against suspected terrorists overseas, Obama's chief counterterrorism adviser, John Brennan, delivered a speech that suggested that there were few limits, indeed, to that use of force.'
http://www.thenation.com/blog/163470/president-obamas-very-own-war-terror-contd
Fwd: No Adults?''
'"746 hours of interviews were conducted with more than 200 individuals."
Some of those aides are quoted as being highly critical of either the president or the White House.
Former White House economic adviser Larry Summers, according to Suskind, told then-OMB director Peter Orszag that as far as economic policy, "There's no adult in charge. Clinton would never have made these mistakes.'"
: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0911/63754.html#ixzz1YMcQasrl'Sunday, September 18, 2011
Göring
Göring spoke about war and extreme nationalism to Captain Gilbert, as recorded in Gilbert's Nuremberg Diary:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_G%C3%B6ringNaturally, the common people don't want war; neither in Russia nor in England nor in America, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship or a Parliament or a Communist dictatorship. ...voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country.
Friday, September 16, 2011
Thursday, September 15, 2011
economics
I have been giving some thought to Paul Krugman and Keynesian viewpoints and the conflict with classical and Austrian economics. I feel that the whole aggregate demand argument has some minor merit, but regard this as a bit of a paradox.
I think that all the economic theories in the world can be countered with one thought: More government spending means more wasted resources.
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Friday, September 2, 2011
Voters and debt
"democracy in principle empowers whoever can garner 50% plus one of the votes. To an ambitious democratic politician, the optimal strategy to win elections is obvious: Promise the not-so-wealthy majority a wide assortment of government-supplied benefits in the hopes of passing on the costs to the wealthier minority."
Thursday, September 1, 2011
Fwd: White House sharply cuts U.S. growth forecast
From: larry.r.trout
'This projects GDP growth this year of 1.7 percent, compared with 2.7 percent expected back in February, with 2.6 percent forecast for 2012, down from a 3.6 percent prediction in February…
Under the new projections, the White House said the deficit would come down more sharply than expected to 8.8 percent of GDP this year, compared with the 10.9 percent forecast when the budget was released in February.
The improvement was largely due to spending cuts imposed under a deal struck last month by Obama and opposition Republicans to raise the U.S. debt ceiling, which will shave $1.45 trillion from the deficit over the next 10 years.'
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/01/obama-budget-idUSN1E7801AZ20110901
What Would Paul Krugman Do?
Except that banks don't really loan currency that way. That is to say, banks don't really loan out their deposits of Federal Reserve Notes, but instead issue loans by expanding the money supply. Say that same $10,000 in hard currency is deposited into bank A, but this time, the bank doesn't just loan out $9,000, keeping $1,000 in reserve. Rather, the $10,000 in deposits is the reserve from which the bank can then loan out an additional $90,000. It is still meeting its requirement to keep 10% in reserve. So if the deposits don't account for the loans, where does that loaned "money" come from? Why, it is simply created out of thin air! The bank punches some keys on a computer and—POOF!—extra digits show up on a borrower's account statement. Neat trick, huh? That's the magic of fractional-reserve banking.
The bank hasn't turned on some printing press and created more Federal Reserve Notes to place in its vault to represent the amount of the loan, the $90,000. The "credit" was just signed into existence when the borrower put his John Hancock on the loan agreement. So the "money" that was "borrowed" never existed in the first place. But the borrower can still gobuy a car or a house or whatever, because the seller will accept those digital numbers being transferred to his or her own account as value for the item sold. Works great, doesn't it? Well, sure, except that the borrower now owes the principal plus interest on the "money" the bank "loaned" him by creating it out of thin air, and, of course, if he doesn't repay it, the bank will take the house he bought with the "money" he borrowed—which is to say, in either case, that the borrower must repay something of real value representing the fruit of his labor in return for having borrowed something of no real value representing no labor or production.
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