Boomers Going Bust

Notice the median value of retirement accounts from ages fifty-five to sixty-four is one hundred thousand dollars.  Can you recall twenty years ago when grandma passed away and she had the same amount in her savings account?  Also can you remember how many years since then that medical costs went up thirty percent a year?  That spells doom for baby boomers.  At a minimum it spells no retirement.

One major problem that has led to this is our reliance on the stock market for savings.  What many people now understand is that  the stock market is one hundred percent risk.  A one percent interest rate, which is pretty high nowadays, would have been better for savings, than losing forty percent of it in the recent downturn.  Note that the Dow Jones first hit ten thousand in March of 1999, and it sits there today.  Wall Street made a killing off of personal retirement funds, and individuals lost the farm.

The second major problem is Social Security.  This program was designed to supplement the income of the elderly in case of disaster.  It was designed to feed retirees if they had severe financial problems, in other words, a last resort to prevent financial devastation similar to what occurred during the depression.  Fiscal conservatives knew it when Social Security was implemented, and know it still today:  Handing people money changes their behavior.

The baby boomers had the greatest opportunities of anyone in American history for income growth.  Jobs in many sectors of the economy flourished from the 1960s through the 1990s.  There were many years of high interest rates, such as 6.5%, on savings accounts.  But the fact that social security was waiting in the wings for them meant they would never save their money. They learned the bad lesson from their parents that  Social Security, designed as an emergency stipend, could be used as a primary income source.   Yes, a primary income source if one loves to live a life of  near destitution.  So we continually hear stories that grandma cannot afford her medication.  Now, mom and dad are never going to retire, never going to get a chance to just sit back and relax, and enjoy the fruits of their lifetime of extremely hard work.  They thought that SS was going to pay all of their bills.  Keep in mind we have not had severe economic conditions until the economic collapse of 2008.    In my mind, Social Security has caused people to live in squalor, even though the conditions of the Great Depression, until now, have never repeated themselves!

The strange thing is that although Social Security has actually caused poverty, the same poverty it was designed to prevent, few people will consider making any significant changes to it.  This is called the public being on the government dole.  Everyone gets a government payment now, so even fairly fiscally conservative people want to make sure they get as much of the payoff as possible.

Far be it for me to criticize without suggestion a solution, which is to offer social security as optional. The politicians can talk all day long about the greatness of this program, but how about freed om of choice?  (Do not tell Nancy Pelosi or President Obama, but “choice” only exists for killing babies in their mind, and real choice should never exist:  The government knows best.)   Let us give a generation of people the choice of Social Security or not Social Security.  After forty years of observation we can empirically compare the lifestyles of those that opted into the program and those that opted out.  Those with the better lifestyle will prove that their decision was correct.

Along with allowing people to opt out of SS, the populace needs a steep education on money.  All Americans must save more.  Our real wages, with the collapse of 2008, have taken a permanent dip.  Unemployment is here to stay, part time jobs are here to stay, the ability to increase ones standard of living is going to be extraordinarily difficult from here on out.  Thus, personal savings are the key.

As part of the Social Security Opt-Out plan, the government shall mandate that the employer contribution be paid to the employee.  I will gladly take a 15% raise, and will no doubt prove that I can do much more with this money than the federal government of the United States.

JBM

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I highly respect this man and here is why: He is talking common sense. It is utterly negative and sounds like a conspiracy theory, but it all seems to match up to reality. I know little about economics, but have been telling friends for over a year that the federal spending is going to lead to a ten dollar head of lettuce at the super market. Even the citizens who voted for the people that put this colossal debt in place will be angry and highly motivated when they cannot fill their shopping cart. Batten down the hatches because the government is doing everything to create these problems while at the same time telling us how much improved the economy is. I know when I am being completely swindled, and like Celente wonder what the analysts are looking at. Every day the paper shows, “Unemployment claims rise unexpectedly.” Unexpected? For whom? Like Celente said how can fuel not be part of the inflation numbers? I paid a buck fifty for gas ten years ago and now gasoline has settled at three dollars. How can this not affect the average person significantly? The answer is: It is affecting us and not being reported. ”Jive Talk.” Right on Celente.

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To Randy:

1) The people should expect that with the largest corporate and government payouts in all of history, that the economy should improve significantly.  The economy is now tanking again after little improvement, making most of the president’s major financial actions completely ineffective.  If we realize that the these huge payouts could result in deflating the value of the dollar, and that as a result we may be paying ten dollars for a head of lettuce in a few years, these actions may result in absolute catastrophe.

2) Please see CNN’s observation of the unofficial White House statistician.  President Obama, very early in his presidency, has already played more rounds of golf that President George W. Bush played in his eight year presidency.

President Obama plays more than Bush

I do not have explicit feelings about Sarah Palin leaving the governorship and I am sure there are many factors that contributed to this, such as her want of the presidency, and the distraction of the perpetual ethics charges against her by her political opponents.  I can say this:  The presidency overtly affects me, the Alaskan governorship does not.  Randy you appear to be a clear fan of President Obama, and that is fine.  However, I wonder if you are interested in opening your eyes to the realities of today.  Now that you know that during the worst recession in our lifetime, and through the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, that the president has played more golf than an eight year president, do you have any concerns for the country’s short-term future under President Obama’s rule?

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Cancer

The money flowing into cancer charities must be spectacular by any count.   Quick Internet searches indicate that the American Cancer Society alone has put several billion dollars into cancer research through its history.  The list of cancer charities has grown much larger in recent years as people have it in their forethought to cure the mysterious illnesses classified as cancers.  However, what is the reality of cures and advancements in cancer medicine versus the dollars taken in?  The most popular treatments are radiation therapy, surgery, and chemotherapy.  According to Wikipedia, radiation therapy for cancer has been around since the late 1800′s!  Chemotherapy and surgery, while helpful, seem medieval in how they attack the human body.  For all of the donations, what has truly helped cure people of cancer?  The answer is early detection.  Yes, age-old, visit the doctor once a year, and have standard tests performed based on the patient’s gender and age. By doing so, one can catch the cancers that commonly afflict people who are similar to you.  Once a cancer is caught early, many times it is eliminated with the old barbaric cures I listed above.  There you have it in a nutshell:  Catch the cancer early, and attack the little blob before it gets out of control.  Now I want the reader to compare and contrast these treatments against the billions of dollars flowing into cancer charities and research.  If cancers overall are not being cured, where is the money going? I am certainly not new to introduce the concept of “The Inefficient Charity”:

American Cancer Society: The World’s Wealthiest “Nonprofit” Institution

One would think that charity funds, whenever possible, would be directed to research or to those individuals suffering from the affliction. This recent Wall Street Journal article points out that a great deal of charitable money may go to attorney fees atsome charities:

Charity Brawl: Nonprofits Aren’t So Generous When a Name’s at Stake

If a charity rides the coattails of another charity by infringing on a trademarked name, and collects more money as a result, does it matter to the victims of the affliction? Why would a charity be so vehement in protecting its name if it has the identical interests of helping the afflicted? I fear the answer is the same as always, “Follow the money.” The money provides salaries, jobs, and a certain lifestyle for those working for the charity. I question that charities with such selfish needs are truly charities. The major charities have overtly grown into businesses but we do not call them such.  They have a selfish interest to support themselves above any cause such as a cure for the afflicted.  Even comfort for those suffering comes secondary to many charities.

United Way

With layers upon layers of management, and six-figure salaries galore The United Way has taken its share of criticism from people like me.  I ask the average reader, do you make a six figure salary?  If not then why would you give to a charity to support its six figure salaries?  If you have read my writings you already know that I am not an anti-success or jealous person. On the contrary  I would like all hard workers and entrepreneurs to become wealthy so that they may take care of their own.  I simply find it impossible to identify large bloated organizations with huge salaries  as “charities”.  United Way is even a “pass through” charity, meaning they give money to other charities while taking a cut of the money for themselves.  This poses another question, why not give directly to the charities and leave out the middle man?  The United Way is a business.  It is supported by, among other things, coercive efforts in major corporations where employees are highly pressured to give to United Way.  Many workers find it mandatory to fill out Untied Way donor cards even if they never give to the charity, an embarrassment of a high order.  Clearly the management of major corporations makes efforts to pad the pockets of their executive friends at the United Way.  I find my personal experiences with coersion as downright repulsive and I dare call the corporate efforts “evil.”

The Bible has always set a good example as the moral examples in it always best any alternate ideas that modern man creates.  The Old Testament sets the example of a ten percent tithing to the church, and the New Testament reinforces the general idea of giving of oneself to the less fortunate.  While church hierarchies are full of politics and even abuse of funds, when I see my local church feeding and clothing people who live down the street from me, I cannot help think of the church as a worthy donee.  Church services are perpetuated mostly by volunteers and thus make an efficient charity.  There are other examples of efficient charities but I hesitate to present names as I find myself disagreeing with people over the same organization.  And debate is good as I really do not know a charity’s effectiveness without looking at the books.

What would I suggest if Americans were to pull a great deal of funding out of the non-profit segment?  The following article is the piece that helped me decide to put my overwhelming and negative thoughts about charity onto paper, or screen as it were:

Job Creation Is the Very Best Charity

I agree fully with this letter to the editor and understand that to some, this argument may sound like a hard-core right wing pro-business argument that neglects the needs of real people.  However, my dream world is one with escalating salaries, where Americans canalmost exclusively take care of themselves and their families without charity.  Americans do need to put more money into health insurance plans in order to combat the unlikely disasters that sometimes happen to loved ones.  We need to forego the iPods until we have made sure that our immediate family, include grandma, have the resources to pay for their medicines and medical treatments.  We must be responsible as individuals, and not spend all of our money on toys, then spend years worrying about grandma being able to afford her heart medication.  However, some things that are out of our control are nose-diving real wages.  Some studies show that the real wages for non-supervisory workers are one-half of what they should be when indexed against inflation over the past thirty years.  Congress and large corproations are alwya promoting H1B visas for educated workers which has turned into a proactive effort to reduce wages in America.  The deck is stacked against the average worker there is no doubt about it.

Despite overwhelming taxation which will perpetually fund Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare, all of which are broke, and America’s spectacular charitable giving, the roles of those in need never, ever seem to go down.  On the contrary, in the midst of this recession the roles have increased like never before.  I would like the reader to understand that despite their giving, most diseases are not being cured.  Charitable giving at most provides comfort to people (which is great!) but at the least gets eaten up by a bureaucracy of money managers, administrative assistance, and medial researches.  To help provide something better than the American Charity Economy, I encourage you to start a business, leverage the Internet and the ease of worldwide distribution, create great wages, and promote individualism to your children.  One must plan for medical costs, retirement, and unlikely disasters.  Teach as many people to fish as you can.  These tenets will help to make the so-called “charity” a nearly extinct species.  If charity were to become extinct it would only mean that the needy are finally taken care of.  That is the goal isn’t it?

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Next I ask why the president spent time shaking down BP for cleanup funds?  Why is he distracting the CEO of BP whose sole job now is to protect the Gulf of Mexico with any action he can possibly take?  The mayors and governors of the southeastern U.S., through the court system, will eventually get the funds they need.  Right now this disaster needs to be stopped, and it requires the non-existent actions of the president, as well as the army core of engineers, foreign countries and foreign companies.

With a daily disaster occurring in the Gulf Of Mexico, why is the president spending any time or effort on developing a lawsuits to fight Arizona’s new immigration policy.  From The Wall Street Journal:

U.S. Considers Arizona Lawsuit

This disaster may ruin the coast of a large area of the southeastern United States.  Every single day is an emergency day for us Americans.  Yet the president sits around and counts solely on British Petroleum’s solution which might be complete by December 2010.  America,

I am irate.  A significant ecosystem is being destroyed, yet the president of the U.S. is sitting around talking about how bad B.P. is, and how nasty Arizona is.  Was not there a campaign promise about “getting things done.”  With one of the worst disasters in human history, Obama has already proved he cannot get squat done.  How awful.

Can someone smarter than I please calculate the oil leak rate? Take the diameter of the pipe, the reserve pressure, the back-pressure the water exerts, and calculate the flow rate. I have always thought that a simple calculation could be determined and that we can ignore all of these federal government “estimates.”

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I think such in-your-face style demands are going to increase dramatically for president Obama.  With the excitement surrounding him during the elections, he certainly made it seem as though he would provide drastic relief in many ways for Americans.  Unfortunately, after billions of dollars in payoffs to his corporate buddies at the banks and General Motors, the president’s policies have had a net zero effect on the American economy.

Of course we here at the State of Affairs do not believe the federal government creates real jobs, so we do not rely on Washington unlike many others.   Additionally, while layoffs seem to have bottomed out, I do not see any substantial growth in jobs for five to seven years or longer.  What will that effect have on the presidency?  People vote their wallet, and with little improvement, the president with the most excitement surrounding him in all of history is clearly going to be out of a job come 2012.  The only remaining question will be if Hillary or other high ranking democrats can completely distance themselves from this administration in an effort to gain the presidency.  With the economic collapse of 2008 fresh in everyone’s minds, and with none of the promised relief from president Obama and the democratic congress delivered, the answer will most likely be “no.”

JBM

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Lost iPhone Brings Scoundrels, Sharks and Shysters Out of the Woodwork

The author of the above story poignantly demonstrates how sometimes morals are completely thrown out the window.  I myself would like to make one point from this story.   We are caught in an era where the populace will skewer the Wall Street Robber Barons ad infinitum, and rightfully so, for their colossal moral failures which have devastated the world’s financial economy.  We can plainly see though that individuals, nobody’s, will make deals with Satin all day long, just the same.  It is hard to point fingers at moral and ethical failures with a seemingly large proportion of our population that has no moral standards left.

Reading the above article I would surely believe that there are thousands of bloggers, lusting for cash, who would have done the same thing as the mentioned perpetrators.  There are certainly a large number of people who would sell their soul for the potential for such notoriety.  Too bad, I say.

A friend told a story about visiting Europe years ago.  This happened I believe in the 1980′s.  He left his camera equipment, a set of Nikon or some high-end hardware, in a high-traffic public place.   He discovered his mistake the following day, and went back to retrieve his camera equipment.  Astoundingly, it was sitting in the camera bad, on the public bench, exactly where he had left it.  It was completely untouched.

As you read this, you may be on one side or the other, but I sure long to belong to a community with such great respect for other people.  Unfortunately, no matter where one is, the ethics of the town are a crap shoot anymore.  How thoroughly sad this is.

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In lieu of the White House granting gay people the “right” to visit loved ones in the hospital, I wish to inform any Americans who see this as an advantage that it is meaningless. That is an important distinction because the president has now distracted many people from doing the things they need to do in order to assure that they do in fact have visitation rights! Please note I am neither gay nor an attorney so I have no stake in the recent proclamation, but all Americans in fact need to take the proper legal precautions or risk losing visitations to loved ones, or other significant financial problems.

If you have never retained an Estate Planner, please do so. You can contractually setup arrangements such as designating anyone your want be your beneficiary, have hospital visitation rights, etc. Your planner will guide you to state forms and procedures (yes, our freedoms truly lie with the states, not the federal government) that will guarantee your related needs. If a hospital were to violate these legal preparations they will in fact be violating the law. However, until you prepare, you are at risk, whether you are straight, gay, martian, or Purple Gambezian Poison Flower Chomper, of being turned away from your loved one’s hospital bedside unless you are in fact their legal guardian.

JBM

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TOP SUGGESTED NAMES FOR ACORN BRANCH OFFICES

1) Walnut (Wild And Looney Nuts Undercover Today)

2) POOP (Previously Ostercised Operational Politics)

3) PECAN (Prostitution Easily Can Annoy Non-leftists)

4) CASHEW (Communists And Socialists Helping Elevate Welfare)

Feel free to share your ideas!  There are thousands of branch offices doing covert leftist political work, prostitution, drug smuggling, and more, and they all will need unique names so that you cannot find them.

JBM

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Can Drew Carey save Cleveland?

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Justin Fox of Time Magazine has it nailed as to why I ignore the statistics that are published in the newspapers each day:

When Economic Indicators Aren’t Worth That Much

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Please see the following article:        The U.S. Needs an Industrial Policy

Perhaps it does.  However I believe in the free market and it seems counter-intuitive to ask the same government that has screwed up literally everything it has done to command yet another top-down economic policy.  On that level I disagree with Mr. Hofmeister.

I agree with one aspect of this editorial and that is no one in the world has replicated the spectacular movies that Hollywood has created.  Hollywood is so good at what it does (notwithstanding the garbage that it also spews) it seems to be the most irreplaceable asset we have!   If that does not leave you with an “UGH!”, nothing I say will.  That being said, thanks for “Pirates” Hollywood!

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This editorial talks of how the Super Bowl ads were crass and sexist.  Let us face the fact that class is nearly gone from Hollywood.

Super Game, Stupid Ads

I would like to know who is the marketing weasel who selected Won’t Get Fooled Again to be played as the players took the field?  The Who performed at half time, so that just reaked of not being original.  Oh well, Mean Joe Green, here’s to you.  And where have you gone Joe DiMaggio?

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Here is a chart produced by Wall Street Journal writers which ranks the top movies of all time.  Depending on how one looks at the list, it may differ dramatically from much of the uproar depicted by movie advertisers:

Reel Dollars

Sort the list by “Inflation-adjusted domestic box office”. AHA! Classic movies occupy a huge percentage of the top movies.    I am surprised to see how high Titanic truly ranks.  What was the draw to this movie?  A young talented, handsome actor?  Was not this a chick flick?  I cannot speak as I did not see it.

I am happy someone did their homework here, as I get tired of hearing about new movies being top dollar movies.  An adjustment for inflation eliminates most of the manufactured hype and gives us the reel [syc.] story.

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This is the my opinion regarding the supposed unintended acceleration of many different Toyota car models. To begin the conversatino I refer you to this brief but excellent article:

Toyota’s Ghost in the Machine

Jenkins points out that sudden unintended acceleration (SUA) complaints plague all manufacturers, and that strange things happen in small numbers when millions ob cars are in use.  He argues that despite not having a well-defined engineering problem, Toyota will define a problem anyway, and subsequently provide a fix for it.

I am in agreement with this author and will take this argument even further.  Does anyone find it strange that Toyota is declared the number one seller of automobiles in the world, and all of a sudden Toyota’s everywhere are ramming into bridge abutments without any input from the driver?  The conspiracy theorists out there can certainly glom onto this one:  The media has magnified SUA complaints against Toyota dramatically.  For unknown reasons they have put a hit out on Toyota to knock them off of their high perch.

If you have a recalled automobile, I would not worry one iota, unless your accelerator is actually sticking.  Sticky parts will happen in small numbers and that is why we have mechanics – to unstick them for us.  I refuse to believe there is a Hal 9000 lurking inside my own Toyota (not on the recall list) waiting to drive me into a river because of my body odor is smelling up the cabin, or because I weigh the car down with too many musical instruments on gig night.

What is difficult to understand is why the hierarchy of Toyota is playing along with this charade, the president even apologizing to the public.  A problem here is that respectful Japanese are shamed by the rumors, and feel they must fall on a sword in repentance.  Akio Toyoda, understand this:  We the American consumers are just looking for someone to sue, for any reason.  We will sue you, get a big grab bag of cash, and quit our miserable jobs, which we otherwise could never do in this post 2008 apocalyptic economy.  Keep in mind, we did the same thing to McDonalds when we spilled their hot coffee on our lap.   After doing business in the U.S. for seventy something years, you still do not have a clue about how we like to coerce money-rich corporations into funding our personal lives.   With all of your high quality cars, you Mr. Toyoda, still fall short on developing a basic understanding of the American public.

Before you go, check out this article which rightfully so rips hard on the American public.  Enjoy.

Toyota Can’t Get The Floormats Right

UPDATE:

I stand corrected by the man, the myth, the legend, Steve Wozniak.

Wozniak cites ‘scary’ Prius acceleration problem

Woz, being one of few smart people in the public limelight, seems to have discovered a problem that Toyota does not know about, or has not defined yet.  He has a Prius that is not on the recall list, and he can produce SUA in his car at will.  SOMEONE LISTEN TO THIS MAN.

March 16 Update:

Runaway Prius Tale Prompts New Probe

It certainly appears as though this Reality Show seeker kept his Prius at high speed intentionally.  Toyota notes that the brake was pressedd 250 times.  He clearly was letting up on the brake to speed the car back up.    Note also that the driver was on a freeway, at a particular time, which just happened to be so open that he could fly at 90 mph without fear of hitting anyone else. Toyota engineers will be able to note that the damage to the brakes is consistent with slight pressure over a long period of time, and not a stomping of the pedal.  Lastly, the reader should know that slightly pressing the brake over many miles will in fact destroy the brakes although this driver is going to argue otherwise.

The law enforcement of San Diego and of the state of California should immediately issue an arrest warrant for this man and press the most severe charges against him, including endangering the lives of everyone around him.  The warrant should be based solely on the objective testing returned from Toyota.  Two years in prison will signal to all Americans that we cannot destroy companies’ reputations for our own selfish purposes.  The engineering data from this case has already proven Balloon Prius Man to be a complete fraud.

Respectfully to the highway patrolman:  Just because you saw this guy acting like he was putting full force on the brakes does not mean he did it – He was ACTING, even for you, in a thoroughly pre-planned event.  Again, the car data proves this to be right, so do not let your eyes fool you.

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Try this article:

The U.S. Needs an Infrastructure Bank

The president of Oracle is correct. We have a one hundred year old infrastructure and our politicians have put little money aside for maintenance and repair. My argument against the author’s suggested new account is that the federal government has decided to pay for everything else: Social Security, welfare, Medicare, Medicaid, education, the list is endless. A full two-thirds of the federal budget is social spending.

I think the government should only do the things that only it can afford to do, such as protect us and maintain the infrastructure. Alas, our million man standing army is gone, our bridges are falling down, and we the tax payers are tapped out. Unfortunately lives will be lost as a result of this situation. Now that Americans in all groups understand that they may vote themselves pay raises, I see it as impossible for our fiscal system to correct itself.

JBM

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JBM, Inc. Overtime Pay Litigation

JBM

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Here is an article I just came across which seeded my brain into yielding some profound thoughts on the matter:

Why Don’t More Americans Believe Climate Change Is Real?

Since you have been inundated with an uncontrollable influx of Global Warming rhetoric, which succeeded the ink-wasting debacle of The Ozone Hole Forthcoming Calamity, I will toss you something you probably have not thought of.

Let us replace the Global Warming slogan with (not “climate control” which is taking over, due to the fact that the globe is measurably cooling) GLOBAL HEAT EXCHANGE.

Lava of several thousand degrees is pouring into the oceans from volcanoes all over the earth.  Periodically scientists discover new, massive volcanoes far beneath the ocean’s surface.  These volcanoes significant.  They release massive amounts of heat from beneath the earth’s crust into the water, and subsequently into the atmosphere.

This process is a convective and conductive process, much like the household oven, or a home’s air circulation.  Heat is transferring around the earth, but this does not mean that new heat is being generated.  The majority of heat that is being generated comes from the sun.  All other heat on earth is existing, or is being converted via a natural or man-made process.
Man converts fossil fuel into heat.  And the heat created by this process needs to be measured and compared with all of the other natural processes. Volcanic heat being released into the oceans and air needs to be measured just the same.   Imagine lava of several thousand degrees pouring into the ocean.  The natural currents carry that heat to the far reaches of the planet.  Some glaciers will melt as a result.  Some climates will see hotter air as a result.

The first step that needs to be taken to begin to understand global temperatures is that volcanic heat must be measured and compared to other heat sources.  Once measured, my theory is that the volcanic heat released on a daily basis far surpasses the heat that mankind creates over a much longer period of time, perhaps a month, six months, or several years.

With a proper investigation, we most likely will determine that man is not a significant factor in global temperature changes.  When basic sleuthing gives us an answer to this question, then we can focus more on a real, measurable  problem, and that is pollution.  Pollution generated by man, including solid waste and gaseous waste, should be continuously minimized through better manufacturing processes, better individual daily habits, and more recycling. Now that the first world has completed a long cycle of industrial evolution, we can use all of our lessons to lower the toxicity being created in China, India, and the rest of the third world, while at the same time allowing these areas to produce their way into a modern, clean, successful economy.

JBM

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America, please complete this two second survey. We would like to know if you support waterboarding Bernie Madoff in an attempt to recover the stolen investment money.

[The survey is expired.  Thanks!]

JBM

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Inspiration:

The Best Places to Launch a Career

This BusinessWeek article, from the purveyors of the “Best of” survey, states that Google was in the top 10 places to launch a career last year, and this year declined to participate. Not to pick on Google specifically, but this illustrates the folly of surveys. A survey that has a company at the top one year, and then does not even list the same company the following year is worthless. Imagine the surveys this year from the employees whose friends in the adjoining cube were laid off.  There is no solution to this, except mandating that once a company participates in a “great place to work” type of survey, it must always participate in perpetuity.  Hrm, that would keep the corporations a little more honest methinks.

I encourage the reader to think about this: A company being fantastic one year, and the next year it lays off a significant portion of its workforce. The bottom line is: Millenia 3 Worker make sure and take care of number one, yourself, in your career, because chances are the company will not.

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The following blog post is my inspiration for this post.  A bogus argument, repeated incessantly by many people, including Bill Gates, politicians, and this myopic blogger over at TechCrunch.  I actually wonder if she is this ignorant, or she just wanted to make everyone mad.

Foreigners Attending US Grad Schools Way Down: Wake Up, Xenophobes

To begin with, I am highly offended that because I believe in enforcing immigration limits that someone would call me a xenophobe. People should not throw the “x” term around as if it is candy. It is plainly insulting.

Sarah, for the record, I do not care what anyone’s skin color is, where they came from, nor if they are rich or poor. I always treat everyone with innate kindness, including strangers, employees, peers, and foreigners. My only interest is in improving working conditions here in the United States of America.

Regarding plummeting foreign grad student numbers you said, ” This is a huge blow for the United States, and particularly Silicon Valley.” I read everywhere from so called “experts” or “industry leaders” that we need more skilled immigrants. My response is: Prove It.

For one, understand this:

Job Growth Lacking in the Private Sector

Here one can see there have been no net job gains in the United States for the last ten years. I understand there are various industry sectors, and geographic areas. However, this overall picture illustrates a crushing point for the American worker: The American business sector is now a perpetual employer’s market, with little to no competition for employees. That means wage deflation for workers.

Secondly, real wages in the United States of America are now in a perpetually flat cycle. We should hold our long-term politicians perfectly accountable for this:

Wages and Benefits: Real Wages (1964-2004)

Couple this with tremendous increases in the cost of living, such as health care and the high cost of automobiles. This adds up to a population of middle class Americans stressed to their absolute limits over money.

Regarding the need for technology workers: How can Bill Gates, or anyone say that they need an “expert” in some field in order to perform some average technology-related job function? I mention Bill Gates because he is a big H1-b proponent. The next time Bill Gates is telling an audience that he needs high technology workers from overseas, I would like someone in the audience to ask him exactly what skills he needs. Let us then see if there is a person matching his needs, somewhere in the United States, and willing to work in Seattle. What do you need Mr. Gates? Network engineer? Mathematician? Algol68 or Magma programmers? Let us see if we can try to find that person here in the US first. That will provide the only empirical evidence to these arguments.

I took your suggestion Sarah and checked out the LinkedIn references. Why do you suppose Reid Hoffman thinks he gets one million new users every seventeen days? He talks about LinkedIn having a great deal of recruiter activity. Many of these people are looking for work. Of course, this is especially true in this lousy economy, but it illustrates the point that there is little competition for workers any more in the U.S.

Our government and corporations promote H1-b to get cheaper labor.  Period.  As a solution, I argue that the US should immediately stop all highly educated immigration. Our government should observe and gauge the reactionary forces. Wages and competition for workers should increase. We can then re-evaluage our immigration limits and adjust accordingly for the long term.

Our congress will do no such thing though.  Once, they are paid off by the corporations.  Number two, I now believe the U.S. congress is intentionally flushing the U.S. down the economic drain.  Lest you think this is conspiracy talk, ask yourself if there is any rational explanation whatsoever at the 14 trillion dollar plus debt that D.C. is racking up.  We are heading for disaster, and congress is steering us right into it.

UPDATE August 29, 2009

I agree with the premise of the following article. It mentions that productivity begets new jobs. At this time in U.S. history it is clear that productivity has far outstripped job creation. However, new products and technologies are indeed part of the solution to this morass.

Where Have You Gone, Bell Labs?
How basic research can repair the broken U.S. business model

JBM

Update February 6, 2009

What’s a Degree Really Worth?

I have been waiting for this article.  It uncovers the bloated projections of the earnings of college graduates.  When you read that a bachelor degree or a masters degree will pay you x dollars more in the long run, make sure you understand that those numbers are developed from manufactured projections.  I must note that I would not attempt to convince someone not to gain more education.  My point is that people should serious think about the costs of education and realize the monetary return may not be what they are promised by the establishment.

Update July 25, 2010

Do consider this:  Steve Jobs creates the iPod which quickly became one of the most popular product in all of history.  He manufacturers it in China.  Thus no manufacturing workers in the United States benefit from this invention.  A handful of highly technical people can create a device, the rest of society buys it, but few benefit with wages gained.  This is why the U.S. will never see another post-World War II growth again.  Because most of the businessmen with the serious money only care about their profit margin.  This is very ironic considering the United States consumer built Microsoft, as well as Apple, as well as Ford, as well as all of the U.S. corporations which are now multinational.  I am not suggesting any governemnt mandates to counteract free trade, although tariffs on imports may help solve this problem, but I do want to point out that these people do not care about their country. Plain and simple.

Here are letters to the editor of the Wall Street Journal.  In response to a recent story that demonstrated how real wages have plummeted over the years, these readers contradict the argument:

Real Wages Don’t Tell the Whole Compensation Story

These arguments are flawed.    Regarding fringe benefits, if these are government mandates like social security and medicare, the worker may very well prefer cash wages over these mandates.  (I am certainly speaking for myself!)  Considering inflation, while health care has skyrocketed, home prices do fluctuate.  Still in the midst of the 2008 recession, home prices are significantly lower than just a few years ago.  On the other hand, home prices are too tied to actual demand, which is driven by large builders.  If the demand was consumer driven, the increased cost of housing would be within a reasonable margin.  But currently, the housing market is mostly dead, large builders are buying properties at a huge rate.  So a house that is currently work $10.00 according to consumer demand (nil) has again skyrocketed in price.  The bottom line is the consumer is in fact getting creamed by inflation, whether the CPI statistics prove it or not.

Regarding the “knowledge-based economy”, computer programmers today make $30,000 if they can find a job.  As I wrote about above this is due to recruiting fo tech workers from other countries.  So the non-supervisory wage of $30,000 vs. an inflation adjusted rate of $60,000 applies to the workers of this great [sic] , new economy.

Lastly, how do I feel about unionization?  Unions are the other end of the spectrum.  They do not care about the employee, the business, nor the customer.  As such they have destroyed some of the greatest American businesses.  Only a stockholder who has a sense of love of country, ethics, and fairness, would make efforts to create more U.S. jobs when it is easy to offshore work or hire cheap immigrant labor.

Update July 27, 2010

The Great Decoupling Of Corporate Profits From Jobs

Robert Reich is dead on!  The U.S. public corporations have hit the extreme end of profitability.  The workforce cannot work any harder, the companies cannot produce any more widgets, and the profit margin cannot be any higher.  I am not advocating any mandates to reverse this trend, although some of the corporations are monopolies and a congress of yesterday would have broken them up into smaller companies.  I am simply stressing that America has had a fundamental shift to productivity, automation, and outsourcing, and there is zero relief in sight for the jobless.  Hello President Obama and congress, are you listening?

Update August 11, 2010

We must understand the following as it underscores why the U.S. economy will not providing the eighteen million lost jobs.  When the employment rate goes down, it will mostly be due to many people giving up on a job search, and many households resetting to a single income.

23 Occupations That Will Never Recover From The Great Recession

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Sponsor:

aGauge for the iPod and iPhone

Go ahead, spend a buck!

Alright, so I exaggerate. However, as if the cruise ship industry has not tanked far enough in this economic depression, one of these ships hauled a gigantic stinky dead fish all the way back to the tourist port. See the story here:

Dead Whale Gets Stuck in Cruise Ship Bow

No one knows the circumstance yet, but I am relieved that there is finally a real story where P.I.T.A. can justifiably protest and not look like a bunch of whack jobs. Here is a suggested line of attack for P.I.T.A. to approach the cruse line:

“Didn’t your pilot feel the whale collision? Or did the pilot know the whale was there but not have the correct tools for dislodging a whale body from the ship? Are you prepared to invest in whale-dislodging equipment for your next Caribbean cruise?”

JBM

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Sponsor:

aGauge for the iPod and iPhone

Go ahead, spend a buck!

Here is a wiki that explains all of the facts:

Tasty Tasty Taco dog

The Taco Bell dog died of a stroke.  The poor dog was heartbroken and in financial ruin after losing her job promoting the fast food chain.  A handful of Hispanic people protested the dog as some sort of racial stereotype  (I still do not get this one)  and killed the dog’s career.

I hope those who protested the Taco Bell commercials understand that they have blood on their hands.  This dog should not have died from a stroke during her golden years, but alas, the stress of the situation just got to her.  Rest In Peace  Gidget.

As for the alternate Taco Bell dog, Dinky, he was spotted with an AK-47, heading straight south at an unprecedented speed.  Dinky is looking to avenge Gidget’s death, and I would not want to be on the receiving end of that one.

JBM

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I have a theory that I wish to share with you. It has arisen due to President Obama, Ben Bernanke, and other fearless leaders talking of the recession ending this year, and a recovery happening next year. I do not think the recovery schedule will be that fast.

Everyone and their mother are presuming that the classic American economic growth patterns will take hold and will severely limit the recession.

The experts among us should take a second look. Most people in America already have a washer, a dryer, a radio, a television, and possibly a computer. Our economy is based on the flow of goods, and for the above reason, I do not see a great increase in sales in most sectors for the near future. We would need a post-World War II era manufacturing boom to relieve the country of this severe economic turmoil, and it is not going to happen. Even if it did happen, the United States no longer makes most of our staple household goods, so most profits would flow right back out of the country.   Additionally I think there is little trickle-down effect from the service sector, which comprises a large portion of our economy now.

President Obama’s ratings are going down slightly in some areas, especially those areas hit hard economically. I predict that by the end of this year, when average people see no financial relief in sight, President Obama will become perhaps the earliest lame duck president the country has ever seen. When he campaigned, the words he spoke made it sound like there was great hope on the way. While I hate to be negative, I really do, I write what I think and this is the direction I see: A prolonged U.S. recession and a great deal more suffering for the many people in financial trouble.

If you could prove me very wrong, believe me, I would rather have the good news than believe all of these negative thoughts.

JBM

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Joroto – iPod applications, Gift T-shirts for programmers

Question: What is “cancerschnitzel”? How about “tumorworst”?

Definition: The standard hot dog renamed to reflect an anti-meat group’s opinion about the hot dog. Why an anti-meat group is protesting hot dogs is a mystery unto itself.

A non-profit group of vegan members wants hot dogs labelled as cancerous. Here is your reference:

L.A. Times Article

Question: How many people will buy fewer hot dogs if they are labelled as cancerous?

I do not know if a hot dog increases a person’s cancer risk, although I figure that a hot dog is probably dangerous to the human body in ten different ways. However, I do not care as I love a hot dog with lots of onions and mustard, and will eat them until I am no longer able. Since hot dogs are processed ,mushy, and easy to eat even without teeth, I should be able to chow them until the day I die. And I figure the hot dog is the authentically vegan part of my diet.

JBM

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Today the senate of the United States of America approved a resolution to apologize to African Americans for slavery and Jim Crow laws.

I understand that people everywhere live more difficult lives due to discrimination. However, people need to educate themselves on history and first put slavery in the United States into perspective.

In the Civil War, more Americans died than in any other war. While the Civil War has many facets, the bottom line is that more Americans died in a battle about slavery than for any other cause. For congress to apologize in 2009 for slavery, congress is self-serving enough to think that their apology is greater than the hundreds of thousands of American lives lost for this same cause. To me, blood was spilled on behalf of African Americans, and this was the seminal event that people need to memorialize.

Since the Civil War the United States has had a slow healing process, and among many individuals, a continued disdain for granting black Americans the same courtesies and rights given to others. Unfortunately, this phenomenon exists everywhere in the world, and most groups of people have experienced the same horrors as black Americans did leading all the way up to the Civil Rights Movement. However, I believe that it is folly for the 2009 congress to apologize to black Americans in 2009 for legal issues that were solved fifty years ago.

Americans must read about the tumult throughout the world, even since World War I, and the horrifying acts that have occurred throughout the world. Yes, the U.S. had some nasty problems in the twentieth century. If one thinks that black Americans have suffered the most, take a week to read the book “Out of this furnace.” This will help one understand that the horror of humanity is universal.

The United States also eliminated our state-sponsored wrongs faster than any nation on the face of the earth. I think this new apology denies the significance of this. How many nations have child abuse, slavery, mass killings, torture and rape going on today. Let us call them all and demand apologies. Many Americans are only one or two generations distant from this barbarous behaviour that is happening to their friends and relatives around the world today. I have news for you though…there will be no apologies from North Korea, China, Indonesia, nor any other country.

In conclusion, with a country that is being completely destroyed financially by the spending in Washington D.C., punitive taxation, and a collapse in various manufacturing sectors, congress has decided to spend their time and energy apologizing to black Americans for events of one hundred and fifty years ago. This is clear evidence that they will not be fixing current problems. Backwards thinking remains the method of the day.

JBM

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After adding bits to this for weeks, and never concentrating on organizing and polishing this post, I am going to let it loose now. Feel free to comment on spelling, grammar, anything. We need to start discussing the monumental problems that are building daily in America.

I am an optimist, but one would not know it. I think times are bad for this country. The pockets of success will get slimmer and slimmer and the poor and former middle class are on the edge of revolt. Where is the balance and comfort of yesteryear for the average American? Here goes…

Foreign students are now going back to their home countries to work or start their own businesses. So we let people flood in and get educated here, and now that their countries are going through their industrial revolution, these students will help propel their homelands to be major economic competitors with us.

The good news: Engineering wages should finally go up in this country as the need for engineers increases and the supply decreases. This country needs wage inflation like I need a candy bar, and that is badly.

Taxes and accountants: The IRS code is extremely complicated, and intentionally so. The congress of the United States does not want the citizens to know or understand how much they actually pay in taxes, thus the unbelievably complex tax code. Let us imagine utopia for just one minute. Completely eliminate the IRS code save for one page. That page describes a national sales tax of 10 percent. To get that number I baked two parts of thin air with a sprinkle of realism and a dash of “the Bible states that the church should get ten percent, and what makes the government think they are better than the Almighty himself?” Now that we are all jumping for joy, as we pay zero, count them, zero taxes, unless we go shopping, we must analyze the devastating consequences. Many accountants and attorneys will lose a large portion of their work, the portion where they decipher the tax codes for poor slobs like me. In one fell swoop we eliminated a great deal of overhead from our lives, but it caused great pains for the tax industry. Therein lies the paradox: Spending so much of our resources on deciphering tax codes, estate planning based around tax consequences, and such is all a big waste of our money and time. However it seems impossible to eliminate it because of the people it will put out of work. The final question becomes, is a person’s livelihood really worthwhile if society is better off without creating the job-creating problem in the first place? In making most people’s lives easier, cheaper, and less stressful, we lose jobs, which we desperately need in the U.S.A. I am open to suggestions for solving this paradox!

Major companies are calling this economic slump a once-in-a-lifetime event. Example:

Boeing CEO calls slump ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ event

One must agree with the opinions of the CEO’s who are evaluating the books. However, just because this is the worst economy for much of the country, there is no inherent proof that the U.S. will completely recover. Just because we “recovered many times before” does not mean that it will happen again. Analyzing the Industrial Revolution, the Post WWII economy, and the computer and Internet boom of the 1990′s, can anyone say that there are enough products out there for us to make, and potentially export, to bring the U.S. back to its mountainous success of yesteryear?

I think the U.S. is now relegated to a permanent second-tier status as a result of the new, monumental debt that the federal goverment is amassing in 2009. A month after writing this little blurb, the stories have begun to pop from media everywhere. It is no longer a secret that the U.S. debt is crushing:

The next great crisis: America’s debt

Due to the vast array of video games available, the most people in history are simulating life rather than living the real thing. What does this cost us in health benefits (lack of exercise from sitting in front of a computer or iPod), and lost inventions (playing baseball one is bound to want to improve the game, but playing the video game will not have the same effect on ingenuity).

…jbm

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I immediately dismissed American Idol when my coworkers raved about it early in its tenure. It just sounded plainly dumb to me. Then I began watching it. As an amateur musician, the opportunity to critically analyze new talent sucked me right in. The show became an opportunity to analyze these singers based on the lessons that my music teachers taught me.

American Idol is a terrific show. Aside from the sometimes fruity pop austerity it brings to the table, it has a great redeeming quality. American Idol demonstrates the extreme hard work associated with becoming the best a singer can be. In many cases the singers who rise to the top do have quality voices with respect to the standards of pop music singing. Thus the show helps the average person to understand what a good voice sounds like, and what flawed singing sounds like also.

After watching a couple of seasons in a row, 2009 just seemed like a really boring season. Has the show lost its spark? Have I become numb to its overall format? Or were the 2009 contestants just plain boring? I may come back, but for for the short term I would rather surf the web, or do anything but watch Idol. Thanks Idol, though, for teaching us how to achieve supremacy.

I could probably copy most of this post and add the title, “America’s Next Top Model”. How to survive an extreme professional competition when just learning the trade. Tyra, you rock!

JBM

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The latest on what should have been a very cool federal appointment:

Google Executive To Become Federal Deputy CTO

The President, in a good move, created the Chief Technology Officer position for the United States. In a bad move, he appointed the Public Policy Chief of Google to the Deputy CTO position.

Google is one of, and possibly the most untrusted name in technology because of its perpetual use of peoples’ personal information. Just search the web for Google + big brother, or Google + trustworthy and read a bit about them.

Google’s montra is “do not evil”, but they do not hesitate to “do things that are unethical” and that has been proven many times over.

America, if you think your personal liberties have been perpetually eroded, whether you know much about the Internet or not, this political appointment should have you quaking in your boots.

JBM

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Recently a YouTube video surfaced showing a couple of Domino’s Pizza workers who used poor hygiene methods to create some disgusting pizza pies. It is single actions like this that can completely destroy an otherwise spectacular business.

[Here is the CEO's response.]

The State of Affairs calls on all United States citizens to financially support Domino’s in the near future. We need to show the business that we understand that this is an isolated incident, that teen boys will be teen boys and there is absolutely no way of preventing this sort of behavior. In light of my constant support for country and the people and businesses in it, I am asking you America to go out and buy food at Domino’s. Perhaps you prefer Pizza Hut. Do not do it! For once in your life, even if you have never been there before, go to Domino’s soon, and purchase more food than you normally eat out. Get yourself an extra, super-high margin cola while you are there. Give the waiter a twenty-five percent tip. Do not be your usual, 2009 Economic Collapse Stingy Self. Domino’s needs you, and America needs you. Fill up the Domino’s soon, so that there is a waiting line at every local Domino’s restaurant.

America, you will know that your job is done when you walk into Domino’s, the employees are crying their eyes out, and the staffs’ pockets are overflowing with dollar bills.

When all is said and done, sit back and congratulate yourself on being a good, (full bellied) United States citizen.

JBM

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While perusing BusinessWeek, I came across the following article about student loans. I know that student debt is a major problem for many Americans, and was curious about related news during this severe economic downturn.

Asking for Student Loan Forgiveness

Let me first address the issue of the cost of a college education. The education system as a whole in this country is a sham, designed to suck the livelihood from millions of people. Here is how the system works:

A school argues that it cannot compete with other schools due to aging infrastructure or lack of newer resources. It then demolishes perfectly good, but smelly, 100 year old buildings. It replaces the buildings with brand new, state of the art facilities. Tuition is then raised 20% a year for the next 20 years to pay the added costs.

In response to the skyrocketing school costs, government issues more loans and grants to try to ease the burden. Mostly loans though.

Since college students have all of the loans they need, and the school expenses are thus being paid, the school hikes its tuition even more. There is a pattern building here, in case you have not noticed.

A major problem with this cyclic economic torture factory is that many of the schools doing such are public colleges and universities. Such schools are supposed to be easily affordable for average people. If someone is not happy with the facilities, they can always go to a “better” private school.

Additionally, if the cost of public education skyrockets, the private schools must maintain their exclusivity, so their costs will go up just the same. The country ends up with an education system with costs that are ridiculously high. Yes, now being released are news reports about schools laying off significant portions of their staff due to uncontrollable economic factors. The feast is over.

To pile on the criticism, schools in general, both colleges and primary school systems, never work as private sector businesses do. American business has been trimming its fat for years. Many middle class workers spend more time than ever at the office, and one may argue do more work than one person ever did before. Nevertheless, schools pay their way via the slaves of America, and the slaves somehow keep turning over the dough. We need our schools, among other government institutions, to lean out, and significantly reduce the burden on the taxpayers and the paying students.

The Facebook Group Leader Robert Applebaum is a perfect example of how schooling has become a choice with a very poor financial return. For too many years, in too many cities across America, highly educated people like Appplebaum struggle to find a job, any job, to pay the bills. I am hopeful for him, and I think with years of experience, he will be able to bring good business to whatever firm he works at, and eventually gain a piece of the Jurisprudence Pie.

To those of you struggling with your student debt, I have some concerns. If you have graduated, are you working more than one job? One job, especially a low-paying service sector job that is not in your field, is not sufficient. Times are tough. You are (probably) young and have a great deal of energy. If you are in your twenties and struggling financially, you must have more than one job. Sacrifice a few years of your life. Work in the evenings or on the weekends to bring in supplementary income. Even at $7 per hour, this extra job will help ease your burden tremendously. Your new problem will be time and energy. You might wonder, “When will I enjoy life?” Do not worry, that time is coming, but you must pay your dues.

If you are an advocate for student loan forgiveness, I must be honest. You signed a contract to pay certain bills, and you really should pay them and not look for someone else to. Yes, that is easy to say as we watch hordes of people walk away from their homes, or declaring bankruptcy and not paying a dime of their credit card bills. My advice applies to everyone. There is no excuse for taking on debt then not paying it back, or at least making the best effort to pay it back. Again, do whatever you can to make extra money, and put it all into your loans. You will be a better person when you can honestly say you kept your agreements in life.

It is an interesting argument that student loans should not be exempt from bankruptcy protection. I never thought about this, and this article opened my eyes a bit. A car is a voluntary purchase and so is a student loan. Perhaps either consumer should be able to declare bankruptcy. I stand by my point though, as I think the greater issue is that it has been far to easy for anyone to declare bankruptcy in America. Yes, the rules became tougher more recently, and that is a good thing. Also, if Alan Collinge, rather than spending his time as an advocate, were to take my advice about a second (or third) job, he would be able to pay his $38,000 loan off in probably one to two years. I am not saying he should not fight the good fight, as he absolutely should fight for what he believes in. Ironically, he has a great opportunity cost associated with the path he takes.

Applebaum makes a major point of using federal economic stimulus funds to forgive student debt. I will save my tirades for other posts, but basically, the debt that our leaders are incurring is going to bankrupt the United States of America. These “economic stimulus” spending packages are almost pure waste, debts we will never be able to pay back, and debts that enslave our children even more. The current spending, I think, will relegate us to a permanent status as a second-tier nation. That being said, there is no rational argument I can think of for not giving these funds to students over any other scheduled recipient. The cash is being printed at an astounding rate. The governement has already paid off the financial firms for the pure evil that they have done. I have no argument against giving money to students, since it is being spent anyway.

From the article: “‘Sometimes I think going to school is the worst single mistake I’ve ever made,’ says Crow, a member of Applebaum’s Facebook group”…There have been studies done comparing a college education and professional job track to not getting an education and beginning a career in a position that requires no education. In the short term, the latter person will have greater financial success, but in most cases, the educated person will come out ahead in the long term. There are high-paying non-professional jobs too, I am just not sure what percent of the laborforce these represent. If you have any references for such studies, education versus no education, please post them here!

In conclusion, the core problem of schooling is the cost, and schooling costs must come down significantly in the United States. Our manufacturing output has dwindled, and as such exported goods bringing revenue into the country are dwindling. American businesses have shed just about ever last job they can shed. While an education is a good long term financial decision, it can be a devastating short term decision, and its cost needs to come in line with all of the economic factors surrounding us. When costs come down, there will not be the need for a Facebook group of 141,045 members wondering why Wall Street Stockbrokers got the mine, but the students got the shaft.

JBM

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I am not even going to comment on this. I do not need to. May the title of this story live in infamy.

Sen. Kerry Urges Asylum for Gay Brazilian Man Who Married in Massachusetts

JBM

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In gauging the citizens’ response to bailout recipient AIG’s paying of massive bonuses to employees, I feel the need to say that America needs to understand the congress of the United States better.

Congress handed big hay bales full of cash to large financial institutions. As the financial institutions ran away at full speed with the cash they heisted, congress then said, “Hey, wait, we have some rules you’ll need to foll…Hey! Wait a second!”

If you are broiling mad over this issue, please consider this: Is there anyone out there who thinks congress did not know that if they handed businesses more money than you and I could count in a lifetime, that the businesses would pay some of those funds to their employees?

The bailout institutions were paid off by congress for the evil that they have done, to paraphrase a friend of mine. Congress definitely knows what it is doing, at all times, with large funds that it hands out. For our representatives to pretend that the misuse of money represents new and unpredictable actions, is for congress to simply be the scoundrels that they are.

Do not hold your congressman’s or congresswoman’s dishonesty against him or her. Send them a sympathy card, and state that you understand that they were born with criminal minds, and to call you if they need moral support. (You will need to explain what that means to them.)

Ah, here were go. Senator Dodd admits exempting bonus pay!
Sen. Dodd Admits Adding Bonus Provision to Stimulus Package

AIG, do not give your bonuses back, you rubes! The law excplicitly states that you do not have to!

Yes, I always support the Law of the Land.

JBM

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Caught up in the hysteria, my business partners and I wrote a new application for iPhones and iPod Touches. Just search for the game “Trisaic” and you will quickly find it, or use the above link.

What is the iPod / iPhone application hysteria all about? Why is this happening? How can Apple garner so much success, and bring so many developers with it, during a time of economic disaster?

One explanation: Despite being expensive, iPods are on par, or less in cost than home gaming machines. However, they have the great advantage of portability. People can play games at work, in school, on the bus, anywhere they choose.

Secondly, the availability of games is stunning. One can download thousands of free games for their time-killing pleasure. (Trisaic has a free version for you to try out.) Additionally, paying for an iPod game is so easy to do. While most people have to carefully budget for a $50 cartridge for a home game machine, or gaming software for the computer, how does 99 cents, or $1.99, or $2.99 sound? If one finds something fun or interesting they can latch onto, the cost for hours of entertainment can be well worth a few puny dollars.

JBM

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The electronic book readers that are hitting the market by storm are very cool. Personally, I love the feel of a real paper book or magazine. I could change my mind someday after using an electronic device, but it just seems like blasphemy to digitize books and rip the paper from our hands.

Here is a warning for authors distributing books via Amazon’s Kindle 2:

Authors Guild irked by text-to-speech on Kindle 2

Authors feel free to chime in on this one. As an ignorant bystander, I would suspect that the audio rights of books are separate and distinct from printed publishing rights. In this case, when an author agrees to allow Amazon to distribute their book electronically, they must also be signing over audio rights to Amazon.

As these electronic readers will allow unknown authors to sell thousands of books, albeit at low prices, I do not anticipate these people complaining about the contrast post-signing. Experienced and published authors, on the other hand, are probably not going to give away publishing rights and audio rights for a low commission. If they have made money from a book previously, then they understand the value of these various rights and will be aggressive in pursuing deserved profits for their works.

JBM

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Here is an article referencing the new president’s proposal, which consists of mounds more spending on top of the previous president’s ridiculous budgets:

World worries how U.S. will pay for stimulus

My thoughts:

1) The President of Mexico (of all places) is the first world leader I have read about it who actually “gets it.”

2) With unemployment skyrocketing and manufacturing within U.S. borders at a low level, and even $7 Starbucks jobs flying out the window, we are not collecting the tax revenue to make this viable. There is also no time in sight when we will generate such additional funds again.

3) This proves that all Washington D.C. knows how to do is spend money.

4) There are bridges falling apart all across America because there was zero planning and zero savings for repair of the insfrastructure built in the early 1900’s. Now Washington D.C. calls rebuilding bridges and sewers, that were initially built with labor akin to slave labor, an economy booster? There is very little economic return for repairing the infrastructure. (It will have the intangible effect of SAVING LIVES.) Yet, the president sounds like he is creating an Interstate Highway System that will make the U.S. a superpower all over again.

5) The majority of the country voted for “change”. The president’s cabinet nearly mirrors the Clinton administration’s cabinet. In addition, ridiculous spending is concisely “the same old thing.”

6) I am seriously considering this spending to be the dagger that kills the heart of America. This has the appearance of a concerted effort to relegate the United States to a permanent status of second-class in the world.

JBM

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Whatever happened to human decency? For a glimpse of the worst of mankind, I suggest that you google “Obama assassination”. Seriously, you need to know what goes on, even on the vast web of interconnected idiots. Here is the outlandish result of such a Google search:

” Results 1 – 10 of about 2,750,000 for Obama assassination. (0.39 seconds) ”

There are nearly three million results for web pages that at least mention this phrase. OUTRAGEOUS! Millions of web pages, representing whom? I would like to know.

Regarding the alleged assassination plots that have been thwarted by law enforcement: Have there always been so many such plots against presidents of the US? Does it only seem like there are more because of the instant news delivery available from the web?

Here are results for previous presidents:

Results 1 – 10 of about 1,590,000 for carter assassination. (0.20 seconds)

Results 1 – 10 of about 1,420,000 for Nixon assassination. (0.14 seconds)

Results 1 – 10 of about 349,000 for Eisenhower assassination. (0.15 seconds)

Results 1 – 10 of about 2,230,000 for Johnson assassination. (0.16 seconds)

Results 1 – 10 of about 1,390,000 for Reagan assassination. (0.08 seconds)

Most results are not directly relevant to the search topic. For instance, the last search produces many results relating to President Kennedy. Note that the Reagan search has far few results than Obama, although there was an actual attempt on Regan’s life. This is strange. There seems to be more Youtube videos, and certainly racist propaganda information related to Obama. The ultimate question: Do not these sickos have anything better to pursue in life. I am confused by all of this discussion on the Internet. Just when I thought nothing more could truly surprise me in life.

JBM

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Purchase Three Classic Cleveland Browns Games

Cleveland is rebuilding, once again. Actually, I think this is part of their long-term planning: Rebuild every couple of years to keep things fresh. I need not describe how Browns fans are feeling as we all know the feeling too well.

The Cleveland Browns completely fell apart in 2008. There are clearly mental issues going on amongst the ranks. We played the Giants and looked like a Super Bowl team. We then proceeded to play the worst professional football every seen, by anyone, in all of history.

Yes, injuries have plagued the team. Even the wondrous Josh Cribbs has not looked the same since his preseason ankle injury. This team clearly needs rest. However, it also needs to hack off its diseased arm: Bralyon Edwards (Pun related to his staff infection intended.) Edwards, in all of his mental brilliance, thinks his bathroom visits do not smell. When Cribbs and Lewis, two first class professionals, and two of the most talented NFL players, allude to teammates not putting in the full effort, they MUST be talking about Edwards.

This is one problem that falls squarely on the shoulders of Romeo Crenel. Some disagree with me, saying that such a highly paid player such as Edwards must be put in the game. I however stated when Edwards dropped the first game critical pass (Help! Name it for me!) Crenel should have put him on the bench. I would have benched him, and put in a third string receiver. At least that person would make efforts to play. However, no changes were made and Edwards proceeded to drop critical passes in nearly every game since. His lack of performance heavily contributed to the Brown’s losses.

Braylon, a bit of advice for you:

1) You are a jerk, and no one owes you anything. If you are lucky enough to be here next year, figure out how to lose the “jerk” part.

2) You are tall and athletic. Any ball that hits your hands, you should catch. Practice catching during the off-season, or change positions. Remember, defensive backs are wide receivers that cannot catch, so there is a possibility for you.

Yes, I am holding Braylon to dad’s standard, that an NFL player should catch anything that hits their hands. Unfortunately, few receivers can comply with this standard. However, the Brown’s coaches should hold Braylon to this standard, with the threat of getting rid of him if he cannot hack it. Despite which outcome comes to fruition, the fans will win.

What else does Cleveland need? Do we need a huge cash influx? Is this now a cash-based game, like baseball?

Bernie Kosar talks about an “offensive offense” in The History of the Cleveland Browns. It is clear, most successful Browns teams had many receivers, including backs, to choose from on a play-by-play basis. I suggest that the coaches rebuild us into a multi-tool team. Back to Edwards – he was thrown to far too many times, and opposing teams easily picked up on that. If injuries take out some of the “hands” people, the coaches need to dynamically change the game play, and make sure that others are included in the passing threat. That means constantly alternating the tight end from a blocker to a receiver and if not handing off to the backs, putting them in passing positions. We do not need to “fool” anyone, we just need to have many players in place to catch the ball. The rest will take care of itself.

What is Bernie doing? Can we hire him as head coach? For once, can we get an offensive head coach? Sam Rutigliano, we miss ya.

JBM

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Check it out, interested Google fans:

Google Wants You To Be Its Unpaid Muse

Yes, there are a zillion great ideas. What makes one stand out? EXECUTION. Google, MS, et al of the behemoths have now forgotten how to execute, and to a mind numbing extent.

Putting aside petty jealousy that some of the commenters chide at Slashdot, aka the want to get paid for giving Google ideas, I see Google’s cheapness as very bad from Google’s side.

Google Layoffs – 10,000 Workers Affected

Google did what every lottery winner does, and what most hugely profitable dot coms do: They hired staff to absorb their entire budget. BOY ARE YOU DUMB GOOGLE. They should have kept the spirit of huge success and massive profits via great implementation of simple ideas. Lost are they.

That leads us to this story. If someone gives Google a spectacular idea, Google should drive to the inventor’s house, hand them one million dollars cash, and kiss their feet. After all, anything Google implements will get them 100 million in the end. Like all dumb companies though, they do not understand how expensive a salary is compared to progress.

Google will continue to make great profits for a long time based on their brilliant search engine advertising scheme. However, they seem to be transforming much like any century old Fortune 500 Company – relying on their original products, and continuing to make money despite their daily idiocy.

JBM

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The State of Affairs Bonobos Offer

This code gets you 15% off your first order with Bonobos.

JBM

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Reference article:

Feds say Bernard Madoff’s $50 billion Ponzi scheme was worst ever

The former Nasdaq chairman Bernard Madoff ran a spectacular Ponzi scheme, a system where the first participants receive extraordinary payouts, and all of the other participants receive bupkus. I fully support this scheme, without any regret. The reason is that the United States government runs a Ponzi scheme, by definition. If the government can do it, there should be no restrictions on what the citizens can do.

I am of course talking about Social Security. In the Social Security plan, the initial investors reaped the greatest monetary benefits from the plan. On the other hand, benefits are continually scaled back. This is accomplished by making participants wait more years before they can collect the full social security benefits. Since the initial participants receive a much greater benefit than others, this is a Ponzi, or pyramid scheme.

From economist Thomas Sowell (Thank you Wikipedia.)

“Social Security has been a pyramid scheme from the beginning. Those who paid in first received money from those who paid in second — and so on, generation after generation. This was great so long as the small generation when Social Security began was being supported by larger generations resulting from the baby boom.

But, like all pyramid schemes, the whole thing is in big trouble once the pyramid stops growing. When the baby boomers retire, that will be the moment of truth — or of more artful lies. Just like Enron.”

Social Security: The Enron That Politicians Have In the Closet

I hate to be a doomsayer, but the social security crisis of running out of funds has yet to hit. Moreover, if the value of the dollar plummets, years from now people will be lighting cigarettes with their SS checks.

But I digress. Back to the spirit of my support for Madoff: What is the value of lost benefits to those who were not initial participants in the social security plan? The numbers must be staggering, and exponentially greater than the paltry fifty billion dollars that Madoff processed. I hereby state that Madoff should be let go and given a completely clean slate. Either congress can stop the social security pyriamid scheme and give us all our money back, or rule that Ponzi scheme’s are now legal across the land. Either decision would be a fair one.

JBM

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News article, in case you have been sleeping:

Guitarist sues over 2008 Coldplay hit

Joe Satriani is suing the band Coldplay for allegedly plagiarizing one of his songs. Upon hearing of this lawsuit, I listened to both songs. The melody of Coldplay’s “Viva la Vida” does sound to me exactly like Satch’s “If I Could Fly.”

My initial reaction to this lawsuit was, “So what, both of these songs stink…badly.” Then I realize that Coldplay has made a major hit from this song, and is making a great deal of money from it. If guilty of copying Satriani, Coldplay has an ethical and legal obligation to fork over certain profits to ol’ Joe.

There is a saying among artists and designers: “Good artists copy, great artists steal.” This attests to several notions, one being that in some sense there are a limited number of ideas to work with. In music, melodies, for instance, have been repeated by different artists over all of history. The classical composers even copied each other’s melodies, and this is not limited to modern rock and roll artists. However, taking one melody and altering the rhythm of the song (perhaps a good suggestion for Coldplay) can result in a completely different musical experience. Spectacular examples of this involving, no less, the identical song include Eric Clapton’s versions of Layla (original electric version versus later acoustic version) and After Midnight (roots style similar to J.J. Cayle’s original version versus the later electric blues version.) Again, using the same song, lyrics, and chord progression, the artist still created two very different listening experiences.

Chord progressions are repeated in an uncountable manner. For a 1-4-5 chord progression, one can listen to Louie Louie (The Kingsmen), Here I Go Again (Whitesnake), I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll (Joan Jett), Twist and Shout (Isley Brothers), Get Off of My Cloud (The Rolling Stones) and probably a large majority of the rock and roll songs ever produced! A key to differentiating the songs, again, is giving them each a unique rhythmic pattern.

Led Zeppelin, while for years has been considered a great original act, is one of the most notorious copy bands of all time! This is a matter of knowledge and historical perspective. Their most famous acoustic guitar riff in “Stairway to Heaven” (recording began in 1970) is a clear copy of Spirit’s “Taurus” (1968), both in style and chord progression. Led Zeppelin had toured with Spirit also, cementing the path of the influence. The irony of this plagiarism is that no one would ever have heard this beautiful melody if it had not been for Led Zeppelin. While Spirit was more of “an artists artist”, making music for the sake of music, Zeppelin’ spearheaded all of their efforts with “How do we make money off of this venture?” Their efforts were successful, and the result is that all of civilization knows this song “Stairway to Heaven.”

On the other hand, I get frustrated that I never hear Led Zeppelin members (perhaps I have not listed to enough interviews?) giving credit to the artists they copied. The performed “Boogie With Stu”, a clear copy of Ritchie Valens’ “Ooh My Head”, and did not give Valens’ credit for their song until Valens’ estate won a lawsuit against them. In my opinion, Ritchie Valens was a genius rock and roll songwriter, and he died tragically when he was just getting started in the business. The least Zeppelin’ could do was give him credit for one of their lesser-known songs.

There are no punitive damages awarded in song plagiarism lawsuits. This is the dirty secret: Artists may copy a song, and the mantra is “Wait for the original artist to sue you.” If the original artist wins a lawsuit, then “lost profits” are calculated and awarded to the songwriter, but nothing more. I would guess, and I may be wrong, that most of the profits for a hit song result from the initial album sales. If so, the compensatory damages are somewhat of an expected, fixed cost for the artist that did they copying. They relinquish the money without an uproar. What would they care, the performing artists make most of their money from their resulting tours anyway.

In conclusion, artists inspire each other, and to some degree that will always result in ideas being shared, copied, stolen, you name the appropriate phrase. When outright stealing, the artist should be aware that they will have a liability hanging over the heads according to U.S. law, and may one day have to pay the piper that paid for their Lamborghini’s and mansions.

JBM

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Reference articles:

Search of BusinessWeek for the term “oil tumbles”

The best action the OPEC members could take is to do nothing right now. The $150 oil prices helped to kill the global economy. I do not think that the oil producing nations have any understanding of this. While the towering prices were mostly due to oil futures trading, OPEC received a great deal of profit as a result. They need to lay low now and allow oil prices to reach a natural equilibrium.

Lest you be warned OPEC: If you cut supply dramatically in order to raise prices, you may help drive several major nations into deep recessions, or even depressions. If commerce stops, transportation stops, and then you might as well kill your oil flow entirely. Be selfish now, and you will learn a new meaning of “What goes around…”

JBM

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The United States citizen should stop and ponder for at least a minute about the ongoing death and destruction in Mumbai. While America has been detached from most Muslim terrorist acts, we also suffered one of the worst acts in history with the annihilation of the World Trade Center in 2001. Let us pause, deliberate, and say a prayer for the thousands of people whose lives have been touched by the slaughter or their friends and families in India. May the Indian troops bring a swift end to the ordeal.

12/1/2008

There were many warnings about the Mumbai terror attacks, even as early as four months ago:

India had warnings of attack by sea, on hotel – source

We believe that we have created a civilized society, but we cannot even take credible information and prevent the horrible destruction of these animals. History repeats itself.

JBM

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Gauging the economy, the mood swings of the citizens, and their forthcoming actions has proven to be an impossible task; Just ask the thousands of economists who did not see the recession coming. The prices of retail goods are plummeting, with sales everywhere that will appear to be similar to post-Christmas closeouts. What will the American consumer do tomorrow, the day after Thanksgiving? Will the incredible sales entice people into buying?

Our family has finally reached the point where we have determined that the adults do not need Christmas gifts! The mantra from here on out: Make the kids happy. With a large extended family, the task of buying for everyone became monumental. The dollar cost is huge, even with a reasonable individual gift budget. I no longer have the energy nor the time that shopping takes either. I think many families are coming to similar conclusions. Additionally, with the economy in utter turmoil, this Christmas may be the best yet, as more people than ever make the conscious decision of enjoying their time with friends and family, and not feeling any sort of pressing need to spend the holiday season doing anything else.

Will the culture change dramatically from here on out? While Americans criticize themselves greatly for our consumerism and consumer-driven economy, there are other countries that have the identical problems that we have. It is human nature to want a higher standard of living, to want more goods that can provide entertainment and such. Great Britain was very credit driven, but their bubble has popped also.

The global economy has truly dragged down wages overall. The selfishness of completely corrupt CEO’s, the labor unions, and never forget the tax loving politicians, has dragged the United States into a low-paying, fragile service economy. Noting the various stings from the economic crisis hornet, the fragile nature has been proven as glass is now flying everywhere. I beg the question, how do we recover? We must manufacture more goods, end of solution. We cannot maintain a great society by flipping burgers, checking people in, serving coffee, building houses, and providing professional advice. We need to put people to work building tangible, “durable” goods. While Bill and Melinda gates, God bless ‘em, give away money to help with disease and starvation, who will take the reins and rebuild industry? Manufacturing is where our future lies. Without an industrial-rebirth, the United States is looking at ho-hum Black Friday’s from here on out.

We need to make goods before we even consider buying goods.

11/30/2008

According to the news reports, Black Friday sales are up three percent over 2007! One certainly has to wonder about all of the doom and gloom scenarious being tossed about. Is the average American doing just fine financially?

JBM

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Here is a teaser describing president-elect Obama’s economic plan:

Obama: Country Facing ‘Economic Crisis of Historic Proportions’

Here are the forthcoming comments, all of which I warn you are negative:

Number of jobs: The number of jobs in president-elect Obama’s plan is 2.5 million. Note that a normal growing economy will create this many jobs in one year without any assistance whatsoever from the federal government.

Timeframe: Over two years for this plan to be implemented. Fortunately for us, by 2011 the economy will have recovered to a great degree irrespective of the success or failure of this plan.

Plan coverage: It includes rebuilding roads and bridges and modernizing schools. The electorate is seeing the worst economy in their lifetime, yet this plan dares to increase government spending, and thus raise taxes, in order to hire more people to execute infrastructure work that should already be happening.

Conclusion: This plan is a ruse. In 2011, you may forget completely about this bad economy, and thus forget that president-elect Obama made any promises whatsoever. As far as his ambition goes, he got his new seat in Washington, but may not be worrying much about creating the real change he incessantly promised us.

The new president has not taken his seat yet, but he has already shown signs that his administration will proceed in a laissez-faire manner, creating nothing more than mousy policies. (Politicians take such a direction in order to avoid any actions that may become unpopular, thus assuring their re-election.) I hope for superior actions from the new president in the future. At a minimum though, the president-elect is beginning to risk severely disappointing those who elected him, those expecting him to pull this country out of its doldrums with great, progressive policies.

JBM

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I have listened for years to liberal pundits arguing that the 2000 election was “stolen” by voting impropriety at the control of republicans and rulings by a republican sympathetic court. This was hard to understand since the contested counties in Florida, to my understanding, were all controlled by the Democratic Party. Regarding the courts, I do not think I know a person who wants the courts to be involved in our elections, irrespective of party. Of course, I tend to hang around very reasonable people. However, there are too many people in the Democratic Party who welcome court intervention when the rule of law does not favor them. Al Gore went lawsuit happy in order to try to garner favor, and President Bush responded with counter suits. At that time I remember thinking that two recounts was enough, but Gore seemed to want to count the ballots until a new count favored him. It was a ridiculous site, and an embarrassment to our country.

Fast forward to 2008 and I can state unequivocally that voting fraud is as rampant here in Cuyahoga County Ohio as it has been historically in the most corrupt areas such as Chicago. I know of a witness (no names) who watched as a bus from New Jersey pulled up to a polling office in Cuyahoga County, and out came a horde of citizens who registered and voted at the same time. I can now discount Acorn’s statements that they assist people in registering, but if the registration is not legitimate, this never results in an actual fraudulent vote. In this particular case, the registration and voting happened all at once. So, who were the voters on this bus? According to my source, they all had thick east coast dialects. In presuming these are Ohio citizens arriving on a bus with Jersey plates, we may ask this: How many people leave New Jersey and come to glorious Cleveland to live, with its booming economy, wealthy citizens, and a temperature of 80°F year-round? Maybe a great number of people make this change in lifestyle, but I doubt it.

The vote in Cuyahoga County in particular was a blowout win for Obama, but the Ohio popular vote was separated by 205,000 votes total. That being said, the bottom line is that Illegal Ohio immigrants voted at Ohio voting booths this election. These busloads of people, and thus votes, were clearly bought by the massive funds that Senator Obama’s campaign raised. To those of you who have argued for years that Bush stole his first election, do you support this fraud as a getevenwithimism? Do the ends justify the means? Personally, I find this system where anyone can register and vote, and polling volunteers with few resources cannot uncover the fraud until long after an election, is downright terrible. Why can we not ask people to register to vote 60 days in advance? Why can we not mandate that everyone has a state identification to prove who they are?

Lastly, my area went back to a paper ballot where one fills in circles with a pencil. The electronic voting was excessively complicated and I prefer this system. However, there were not enough private areas to vote, and as we voted, some old lady was cheating off our papers. Well, I hope she got some of the votes correct.

JBM

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We now have a new president. I think it best for all Americans to pray for president-elect Obama, that he will make decisions to improve a country that has been on a downslide in many ways, for many decades.

I do fear that the plenary democratic control of the federal government may result in the bankrupting of America. Spending will be more aggressive than it has been, and it has been ridiculous. As the economy is in terrible shape, higher federal spending is going to put even more stress on the average American worker. If your stress about personal finances and the country’s direction was high already, I fear it is going to get even worse.

I am always willing to objectively analyze the forthcoming plans of the new government. However, the best ideas do come about through conflict, and that is something that will be missing in a purely democratic D.C. The montra America voted for is, “Let us take more money from successful people and businesses, redistribute it, and thus spend our way into a new and better America.” I find it hard not to be worried about the continued economic decline of a leading country with such a myopic plan of action.

Oh yes, I expressed that McCain would win this election handily and that prediction was a twenty-seven percent swing from the actual popular vote. This is why I am not a professional gambler. John McCain is one of the most unpartisan candidates we have seen in a long time. Many times people clamor for such in a politician, but instead, the votes swung far to the left. The congress gained many democrat seats, and the president who promised to redistribute wealth won handily. This at a minimum is a serious rebuttal to the Bush presidency, and at a maximum is a very serious shift to the left in economic policy. In any case, I feel no shame in emboldening the words, I was very wrong.

JBM

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Note that the “big money” candidate in 2008 is Senator Obama. At this point I think his campaign has twice the funds of Senator McCain’s. With years of relating republicans to the rich, including more recently relating big money with the Swift Boaters, the Democratic Party will not be able to intellectually argue this mantra anymore. This election will probably change political dynamics in several significant ways.

Senator McCain and Governor Palin brag about their career fights against pork spending. However, their proposed spending will result in even greater government borrowing than exists today. Yes, the democratic spending plan is much more aggressive. However, the fact remains that the budget is ten trillion dollars in the hole. Clearly, fiscal conservatism is dead, and all politicians have moved very left, apparently joining an all-encompassing Washington effort to payoff their constituents in order to get elected. The next president, irrespective of party, may be the person to bankrupt the United States of America.

Benjamin Franklin, rightly or wrongly is credited for saying, “When the people find they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic.” While the spending itself is not a country killer, the spending and taxing, combined with a private sector that has downsized dramatically and which is in terrible shape, is a recipe for disaster. This is a recipe that few qualified chefs seem to be commenting on. Although I did witness Allan Meltzer be somewhat of a lone wolf in completely rejecting the government financial bailouts.

There is something about the democratic party, where the candidates reject their mistakes as lies purported by the competition. From President Clinton we heard, “I did not have sexual relations…”, and “I didn’t inhale.” From Senator Obama we now hear about American Terrorist Ayers, “This is a guy who lives in my neighborhood”. Contrast this with Senator McCain’s book where he outlines every mistake he made, every dumb deed he did as a youth.

Everyone understands that we all do dumb things in life. Most people are embarrassed by their mistakes. I am surprised that a bigger deal has not been made about this contrast of character. Do not people in general want a straight-shooter who will admit to things they have done, rather than lie about them, or steer the conversation in a different direction? Kudos for Senator McCain for his intellectual honesty, and for revealing all of his flaws, which few politicians dare do. Lastly, this is something he never needed to do, which makes him a tremendously interesting figure.

Sorry, I just ran out of ink.

JBM

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Try this on for size as the federal government continues to go the wrong way down a one way street:

The end of American capitalism?

America, congress has walloped you twice. First, they neglected to implement basic rules that would have prevented the marketing of risky mortgages as highly rated financial instruments. Secondly, they taxed you greatly to pay for a huge stack of ineffective laws. Next (oh, I see this makes three wallops, not two) they now risk your money in taking control of banks, nationalizing them, and shredding the Constitution in the process. Never fear, though, as the president and both presidential candidates have talked greatly…lots of talk and more talk…about protections for you, the taxpayer.

JBM

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“It actually destroys the idea of a free-market economy.”
- Congressman Dennis Kucinich

Turning to congressman Kucinich and hearing the most intellectual quotes regarding the bailout is novel and refreshing. He was in the minority as the financial bailout bill passed its second congressional vote, but he did the right thing by voting no.

As you know by now, congress decided to purchase the caustic assets from failing banks with the goal of preventing an economic crisis. Of course, immediately after passage, news reporters were already stating that this funding would be a long-term process. I predict by the time that all is said and done, all of the congressmen who supported this bill will take credit for everything good that may happen, but Americans who paid for this bill will have no idea whatsoever if the spending was truly needed to sustain our economy.

JBM

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Everyone by now knows that Congress failed to pass the proposed 700 billion dollar bailout plan. Despite leaders of the congressional crew constantly telling America how good the plan is for us, calls to congress have been three hundred to one, yes, 300 to 1 against the bailout plan. A business partner of mine assures me that this bailout is needed because the economy will shut down completely due to tight credit. I say “hogwash.”

We are now in a low economic period. This economy is worse than usual, but is an exaggeration of a normal cyclic event. Wall Street is taking profit, and that explains some of the stock market’s loss. Just a day after a seven hundred-point plunge, the stock market gained five hundred points back. Yes, this is due to the expectation that a congressional bill will pass this week. However, it points out that the stock market is controlled by expectations and not necessarily the reality to follow, whatever that may be.

America, for your information, you have been set up mob style. Congress, of course, knew the bailout package would fail. I could not believe my ears when I heard Dennis Kucinich, the biggest free spender from my neck of the nape, vowed to vote “H*** NO” on the bailout package. Then, in the same breath he talked about his own proposed changes to the bill that would make everything okay. That is when the setup hit me. Are you feeling better knowing that minor tweaks to this bill will be implemented? You are about to get fleeced like a lamb on Orthodox Easter at the home of a proud Greek family. Fleeced of billions of dollars that is going straight to the banks. Those same banks that now charge you several dollars to use an ATM. Those banks that promised all sorts of fee free accounts, then changed the rules on you and started billing you a monthly maintenance fee. The banks you are about to bailout with money you do not have to spare are the banks that paid all of those well-known golden parachutes to CEO’s that acted knowingly in a criminal manner, and assured the death of many jobs and livelihoods.

If America voted three hundred to one against the bailout, I hope the Capitol’s phone rings off the hook with ten thousand calls against the modified bailout bill for each call in support of it. When will this country have had enough of banks consolidating, sticking it to all of their customers, and getting bailed out by the government?

JBM

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Dear Mr. Spielberg,

I just read that you have partnered with Reliance ADA Group, India’s largest entertainment company. While not being a part of the movie business, I do not completely understand the implications of this move with regards to jobs and the U.S. economy. However, my gut instinct upon seeing the headline to this story was to skewer you in an article detailing how the United States cannot afford any more job losses to other countries. In fairness to you, I would like to first ask you to respond to such criticisms. As the United States and its moviegoers have been the prime support of your vast fortune, how can you justify feeding an overseas entertainment company with your great creative products? I argue that you should solely do business in the U.S., which is in such desperate need of new business.

Thank you,

JBM

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April 30th, 2008, another blogger opened shop at “stateofaffairs.info”. They call it “The State of Affairs” also. They are certainly a formidable contender. After all, they say this about their site:

“The State of Affairs web blog is one of the most unique blogs on the web today. With topics that include Politics, technology, and music you can be guaranteed to find something worth your while.”

Must be great! Check out these outstanding topics of theirs:

Top 5 Ideas to Help Make Money Blogging
Check Out Everbody’s Blogs! [Someone call this guy and show him the F7 key on his keyboard]
Top 20 Best WordPress Plug-ins
New Web Site Design from Mt. Si Design.com
The Worst Song Misinterpretations
Iran: what are we just stupid?

This is what one can have with major funding: A slick looking web site, advertisements everywhere, articles promoting their own businesses, and absolutely nothing useful.

Does not this guy know that the New York Times is dying after using his same model for one hundred fifty years?

The only thing that bothers me is that some of the article searches I placed at Google should have returned my web site but did not. They search I did, including text on my site, however, returned this joker’s web site. Hey Google, how much of a payoff do you need to rank this older web site higher on your list? Alternatively, would you prefer I send funds to your favorite politician this season in exchange for a little “search graft”?

JBM

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It is probably a small portion of people who are die hard leftists, or democrats, I am not sure, and I have little interest in defining these people. Let them define themselves through their actions. However, the venom that they shoot at Governor Palin is remarkably sick, and that I must comment about.

After her short walk into the spotlight, it quickly became common knowledge that Governor Palin is pro-life; she believes that a baby, from conception, is a human being. A reasonable belief one would think. She herself has a Down syndrome child. By the way people are talking, it must be commonplace for people to abort babies that have a disability. Excuse me while I puke into my keyboard. I am sure people have abortions to get rid of babies they do not want for one reason or another, but thinking about this just makes me sick. It seems in the United States we allocate ourselves the same right that Adolf Hitler spouted, that the “inferior” can be slaughtered. Ugh.

Watching the reaction of the media, I find it distasteful to praise someone for not slaughtering a handicapped child. Killing the child would be morose. Not killing it is what everyone should do. So why are so many making comments? I do suppose that Governor Palin can be highly praised for practicing what she preaches. Yes, perhaps this justifies the talk. We have very few politicians that can demonstrate any sort of intellectual honestly. Let us all give her kudos, whether we vote for her or not.

Next on the list of personal transgressions that Governor Palin is being hounded over is her pregnant daughter. Yes, her young daughter who is going to deliver her baby, not kill it, and will also marry the father of her child. Like millions of families around the world, the Palins have a daughter that has acted irresponsibly. Additionally, the daughter can share the blame with her boyfriend. The family, despite the problems, is making all of the right moves. They are raising the children. Everyone makes mistakes, but few own up to theirs. This family is to be highly admired for doing all of the right things throughout their own personal turmoil. Thus, it boggles the mind that people choose to pick on Governor Palin as she struggles with problems, with children, who probably did not do what they were told, the same as all children.

It is astounding that the spirit of Margaret Sanger has infected this society so greatly, even today. We are supposed to be a skilled, knowledgeable people, always striving to be better human beings. We should correct our mistakes. We should reverse our bad decisions. We should do what is right, even though doing right seems to take a great deal more energy that doing wrong.

For those who do not know much about Margaret Sanger, understanding her philosophy is very important with regards to an intellectual discussion about abortion and our politicians who can affect the related laws. If we understand history, we can avoid the mistakes of our past. This goes for wars, industry, abortion, and just about everything.

Here is a web site devoted to battling against the philosophy of Margaret Sanger:

In Her Own Words

Margaret Sanger founded an organization that eventually became part of Planned Parenthood. She had a Hilter complex. Minorities and the poor, according to her, have an inferior genetic makeup. She promoted abortion and farm slavery as a way of cleansing our society from black people, among others.

Hearing the praise for Palin in keeping her baby, it became abundantly clear to me like never before: Handicapped people are being exterminated by the thousands in the United States, under the guise of “Choice.” In China, females are aborted as males are more coveted. We have a world society that has become Sanger’s paradise. When someone famous bucks the trend, and decides to actually deliver a handicapped baby, feed it, love it, and help it grow into a productive human being, they garner high praise. I think our focus is on the wrong people here.

I suppose those highly vocal political pundits who are critical of Palin for the above reasons could only suggest as solutions actions opposite of what she has taken. She should have killed her inferior baby. She should also encourage her daughter to kill her mistake. Everyone can then live happily ever after as Pro Abortion Americans. What am I missing here?

The greatest point that the staunch anti-Palin, or anti-republican crowd (you tell me who the critics are) is missing is that the family and children of politicians should be completely left alone. They did not ask for the spotlight. They are no more or less perfect than any of those that dare harass them. The Palin family is making all of the moral choices, and they make no fewer mistakes in life than you or me. Let us analyze Governor Palin’s philosophy about running the country, and leave her family alone. The same goes for Chelsea and ever other child of a politician.

JBM

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I have had enough of the idiocy of companies trying to provide products and services. Their gaffs can be funny, so I will start posting the silly things that happen to me on a daily basis. You are welcome to do the same. Try to keep your comments short so that readers can view many of these in a short sitting.

9/7/2008
Fox News has a banner that reads:
Government Ousts Executives of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac: Watch Live

I selected this link and the page that displayed showed: “Tracking Ike: Satellite feed” with a weather map of the southeastern United States. How am I supposed to detail how a government bailout of a bank is ridiculous? Oh, I just did. In addition, I can navigate to the articles BusinessWeek’s home page.

9/19/2008

My music download service sent an e-mail stating that my credit has been declined. I called my credit card company, and they assured me that no inquiry whatsoever had been placed on the card by this vendor. I called the download service’s support, and am sure by the dialects that I was speaking to people in India. (Yes, I hate that America cannot service itself.) I asked immediately for a supervisor, as I was not going to speak to some low level person over this. The low level person persisted to ask me every question in the book, so in a hard manner I asked several times, “May I speak to a supervisor now please?” I did get a supervisor who told me not to worry. She then said she was required to tell me that my account will be cutoff if there are X many rejections of my credit card. These people were demanding that I get angry! I stressed that my credit was not declined, that their systems were the problem, and that they should not send me one more message stating that my credit has been declined.

A few days after, I received a message for several minutes stating that my account does not exist. Since their support line was busy, I gathered they killed all accounts around the world and that all customers were calling at the same time. The account soon worked again.

11/30/2008

On Sprint’s web site:

Quick links
Choose Bill Format: If you receive your bill by email, fax, or regular mail, you can change the level of detail your bill shows for a phone’s cellular and Nextel Direct Connect™ calls.

Click on “Choose Bill Format” and you will then see this:

“Change Bill Format is not available with eBill, your current bill delivery method. To change this, go to Change Bill Delivery.”

Yes, another quick link to nowhere. Put me in a round room and tell me to stand in the corner. Brought to you by corporate America. Sprint, a dying company, and I bet they wonder why.

BLAH!

JBM

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I watched bits and pieces of the Republican Party convention. Overall, I think both parties spend too much time talking about how their candidates just love to serve the people. I would have liked more talk about concrete policies. I also think that policy talk would help attract more of the swing voters, who are political party agnostic. I do think it is exciting that the republican candidates are not party hardliners, but seem to have individual moral fortitude to do what is right. McCain and Palin come across as the biggest change candidates that we have seen from the major parties since Ronald Reagan. This will contribute to a major