Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Monday, December 28, 2009
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Saturday, December 05, 2009
A Brief Media Critique
"It is amazing that a scandal that has appeared on something like 14 million web pages (per Google, though ymmv as I see people getting all kinds of numbers) in a matter of just 2 weeks has yet to appear on the US mainstream network news. I mean, these were the guys who spent breathless hours of live coverage reporting every breaking rumor about changes to Michael Jackson’s coffin.
No real point. Not calling for government intervention, obviously. Just amazing how irrelevant the networks have become. If it weren’t for Time and Newsweek, and I would say they were the least relevant major news outlets in the country.
Some major, must-report outcome is going to come out of this Internet hype, and at that point the networks will find themselves in a position they have already been in several times this year — trying to explain significant actions resulting from a long-standing scandal or controversy they never reported."
Can it be that the MM is invested in the warmista religious position?
Nah.
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Boom. Bust. Underemployment.
By: Karen De Coster
Yahoo published a piece on the “real” unemployment rate last week, putting that number at 17.5%. That’s still a government statistic, so you can bet it’s understated. The looming problem for many families is underemployment. The guy who came to fix my cable TV issue (Wide Open West) was an experienced and skilled carpenter who worked on luxury houses during the boom years, when McMansions became the norm. He told me he took his current job — because he needed a job, any job — for one-third the salary of his carpenter job. These stories abound, especially in my neck of the woods. Keeping up with current bills plus rising costs, while taking a reduction in wages, is a stressful and nightmarish situation to endure.
Yet when the government uses interventionist measures to “create jobs,” they measure those numbers and claim success merely because a job — any job — was created. The qualitative aspect that is missing, however, is what kind of job is created — unskilled labor? temporary work? low-wage job? The government never takes into account the people that lose higher-paid, skilled jobs and have to accept a lower-level job that keeps them underemployed.
The effect of the boom period is to lure people into living a more prosperous lifestyle based on their new wages (including overtime payment), even when they aren’t living beyond their means. Many times, they are appropriately raising their lifestyle to accommodate what they believe to be their new level of prosperity. The fallout and bust can no longer accommodate all of the home builders, electricians, carpenters, machinists, and other skilled workers whose labor was in high demand during the false prosperity years. And what about the marginal jobs that were in demand because of too many people with too much credit, such as home media consultant, home interior consultant/designer, etc.?
Then there are all of those specialty stores that were opened by entrepreneurs looking to cash in on hobbies and luxury buys that were fueled by the Fed’s boom — stores specializing in birding, scrapbooking, spas and game rooms, fireplaces and grills, perfume, expensive trinkets, party supplies, smokers’ supplies, kitchen gadgetry, feng shui, and overpriced gym equipment. And remember all of the shops that opened up to sell flooring, carpeting, tile, and blinds? Everyone had magical equity in their homes and used them as ATMs to fund their home renovations, hence all of the businesses popping up to accommodate the demand.
The number of businesses that opened up to meet the needs of eclectic discretionary purchases was unsustainable from the beginning. In my neighborhood, most of these businesses that sprang up during the boom have already closed.
Yahoo published a piece on the “real” unemployment rate last week, putting that number at 17.5%. That’s still a government statistic, so you can bet it’s understated. The looming problem for many families is underemployment. The guy who came to fix my cable TV issue (Wide Open West) was an experienced and skilled carpenter who worked on luxury houses during the boom years, when McMansions became the norm. He told me he took his current job — because he needed a job, any job — for one-third the salary of his carpenter job. These stories abound, especially in my neck of the woods. Keeping up with current bills plus rising costs, while taking a reduction in wages, is a stressful and nightmarish situation to endure.
Yet when the government uses interventionist measures to “create jobs,” they measure those numbers and claim success merely because a job — any job — was created. The qualitative aspect that is missing, however, is what kind of job is created — unskilled labor? temporary work? low-wage job? The government never takes into account the people that lose higher-paid, skilled jobs and have to accept a lower-level job that keeps them underemployed.
The effect of the boom period is to lure people into living a more prosperous lifestyle based on their new wages (including overtime payment), even when they aren’t living beyond their means. Many times, they are appropriately raising their lifestyle to accommodate what they believe to be their new level of prosperity. The fallout and bust can no longer accommodate all of the home builders, electricians, carpenters, machinists, and other skilled workers whose labor was in high demand during the false prosperity years. And what about the marginal jobs that were in demand because of too many people with too much credit, such as home media consultant, home interior consultant/designer, etc.?
Then there are all of those specialty stores that were opened by entrepreneurs looking to cash in on hobbies and luxury buys that were fueled by the Fed’s boom — stores specializing in birding, scrapbooking, spas and game rooms, fireplaces and grills, perfume, expensive trinkets, party supplies, smokers’ supplies, kitchen gadgetry, feng shui, and overpriced gym equipment. And remember all of the shops that opened up to sell flooring, carpeting, tile, and blinds? Everyone had magical equity in their homes and used them as ATMs to fund their home renovations, hence all of the businesses popping up to accommodate the demand.
The number of businesses that opened up to meet the needs of eclectic discretionary purchases was unsustainable from the beginning. In my neighborhood, most of these businesses that sprang up during the boom have already closed.
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Not War?
Friday 13 Nov 2009 By David Horowitz
Rudy Giuliani [has] underscored the obvious. We tried prosecuting terrorists as criminals after the first World Trade Center attack in 1993. It got us the second attack. What is it that the Obama doesn’t understand about the word “war?” How can he wish to inflict this nightmare on the families of 9/11 and the City of New York? Senator Sestack on Fox this morning was absolutely pathetic, meandering on about how we need to defend our “ideals” and therefore try terrorists as though they were American citizens gone wild. No we don’t. Foreigners who hate us so much they are willing to kill tens of thousands of indiscriminately at a clip need to be tried as enemies of our country not as ordinary perps. This decision coming on the heels of the collective blindness of Democrats and so-called liberals to the obvious fact that Major Hasan’s atrocity was an act of war sends a message to the rest of us that is both ugly and alarming: 0ur commander in chief and his lieutenants at Justice and Homeland Security present a danger to all of us unlike any we have ever faced from domestic sources. The days ahead are uncharted and will not be pretty.
Rudy Giuliani [has] underscored the obvious. We tried prosecuting terrorists as criminals after the first World Trade Center attack in 1993. It got us the second attack. What is it that the Obama doesn’t understand about the word “war?” How can he wish to inflict this nightmare on the families of 9/11 and the City of New York? Senator Sestack on Fox this morning was absolutely pathetic, meandering on about how we need to defend our “ideals” and therefore try terrorists as though they were American citizens gone wild. No we don’t. Foreigners who hate us so much they are willing to kill tens of thousands of indiscriminately at a clip need to be tried as enemies of our country not as ordinary perps. This decision coming on the heels of the collective blindness of Democrats and so-called liberals to the obvious fact that Major Hasan’s atrocity was an act of war sends a message to the rest of us that is both ugly and alarming: 0ur commander in chief and his lieutenants at Justice and Homeland Security present a danger to all of us unlike any we have ever faced from domestic sources. The days ahead are uncharted and will not be pretty.
Thursday, November 12, 2009
The Enemy
A good place to start is just one little question: How many uauthorized e-mails is acceptable for a US Army major to exchange with an al-Qaeda-affiliated imam in Yemen?
Consider these photos of two different snakes, which share a common territory and habitat. They look similar, but are 2 species-is it important to identify which is which?
Well, one of them is utterly harmless, even beneficial as a predator of rodents. The other one is very dangerous, with an exceedingly deadly venom.
Is it important to identify which is which?
If we are going to kill any snake we come upon, identification is not important. But if we hope to live and let live, we had better be able to identify them accurately.
source
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Hair of the Dog, or...
Senators and Congressman are now compelling General Motors to make business decisions that are solely driven by the legislators' own political considerations, not the best interest of the taxpayers who now own the company. Such a dynamic is now underway in nearly every facet of our economy. An efficient allocation of resources – the only path to economic growth – is only possible when market forces, not Beltway bureaucrats, call the shots.
In the end, this stimulus, just like prior doses, will only worsen the condition it is meant to cure. When it wears off, the resulting recession will be even bigger than the one that everyone assumes has just ended. Until the impulse to fight recessions with government stimulus is quashed, genuine economic growth will never return. A string of ever-worsening recessions will eventually lead to what will be the next Great (Inflationary) Depression. But for now, enjoy the bubbly.
Source
Friday, October 23, 2009
Republicans Do What They're Told???
By: George Joyce
During a fundraiser in New York Barack Obama let loose with probably the most laughable claim so far during his faltering presidency:
“Democrats are an opinionated bunch . . . y’all are thinking for yourselves. . . The other side [i.e. Republicans] . . . they just kinda, sometimes do what they’re told . . .”
Let’s see. Democrats are an independent thinking, opinionated bunch while Republicans do what they’re told. This is a strange claim in light of the White House’s recent attempt to isolate and stigmatize Fox News and conservative talk radio in order to protect liberal ideology.
In addition, Obama surely could not have been classifying the 95% of black Americans and the 75% of Jews who voted for him in the “opinionated bunch” category. Most of us know in other words that the party of “diversity” is rather more likely to be populated by virulent true believers than by independent critical thinkers.
As for the GOP -- try telling those Tea Partiers to do what they’re told . . .
During a fundraiser in New York Barack Obama let loose with probably the most laughable claim so far during his faltering presidency:
“Democrats are an opinionated bunch . . . y’all are thinking for yourselves. . . The other side [i.e. Republicans] . . . they just kinda, sometimes do what they’re told . . .”
Let’s see. Democrats are an independent thinking, opinionated bunch while Republicans do what they’re told. This is a strange claim in light of the White House’s recent attempt to isolate and stigmatize Fox News and conservative talk radio in order to protect liberal ideology.
In addition, Obama surely could not have been classifying the 95% of black Americans and the 75% of Jews who voted for him in the “opinionated bunch” category. Most of us know in other words that the party of “diversity” is rather more likely to be populated by virulent true believers than by independent critical thinkers.
As for the GOP -- try telling those Tea Partiers to do what they’re told . . .
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Friday, October 16, 2009
The Federal Reserve and the Warfare/Welfare State
By Richard Hoste
The ability to print money gives the government unlimited power. If you tax the people too much they rebel. But if you declare your paper to be the only thing used as legal tender and allow yourself to print as much of it as you want, there’s no limit to what you can do. The effects of inflation are as real as any tax. It’s just that the people are slower to notice and connect their lower living standards to the actions of the government. The scariest power that the Federal Reserve gives government is that to wage war.
Under a regime of sound money government would have to pay for war, or anything else it did, by taxation. Since war is costly, heads of state tried to avoid it. If war did start, governments would try to settle as quickly as possible. With the ability to print money, the state could finance ambitious projects and scapegoat others when it wrecked the economy. As Paul puts it, “It is no coincidence that the century of total war coincided with the century of central banking.”
The ability to print money gives the government unlimited power. If you tax the people too much they rebel. But if you declare your paper to be the only thing used as legal tender and allow yourself to print as much of it as you want, there’s no limit to what you can do. The effects of inflation are as real as any tax. It’s just that the people are slower to notice and connect their lower living standards to the actions of the government. The scariest power that the Federal Reserve gives government is that to wage war.
Under a regime of sound money government would have to pay for war, or anything else it did, by taxation. Since war is costly, heads of state tried to avoid it. If war did start, governments would try to settle as quickly as possible. With the ability to print money, the state could finance ambitious projects and scapegoat others when it wrecked the economy. As Paul puts it, “It is no coincidence that the century of total war coincided with the century of central banking.”
Why the Left Had to Lynch Limbaugh
By Thomas Dilorenzo
October 15, 2009
Rush Limbaugh is famous for being extraordinarily generous towards the people who work for/with him, especially his longtime producer, “Bo Snerdley,” a black guy. While in South Florida recently, I picked up the Palm Beach Post and read a story about Limbaugh, who lives in Palm Beach, where he stopped in a not-very-expensive restaurant, spent under $100 on a meal for two, and left a $1000 tip.
The moral conscience of the Democratic Party, Al Sharpton, knows that Limbaugh would combine his legendary generosity with his love of football to rapidly become enormously popular among NFL players, some 70 percent of whom are black. That would go a long way toward puncturing the leftist superstition that all non-leftists are racists, sexists, homophobes, opponents of bestiality, etc., etc. That’s why the racist and anti-Semite Sharpton, and his like-minded sidekick Jesse Jackson, had to libel Limbaugh.
October 15, 2009
Rush Limbaugh is famous for being extraordinarily generous towards the people who work for/with him, especially his longtime producer, “Bo Snerdley,” a black guy. While in South Florida recently, I picked up the Palm Beach Post and read a story about Limbaugh, who lives in Palm Beach, where he stopped in a not-very-expensive restaurant, spent under $100 on a meal for two, and left a $1000 tip.
The moral conscience of the Democratic Party, Al Sharpton, knows that Limbaugh would combine his legendary generosity with his love of football to rapidly become enormously popular among NFL players, some 70 percent of whom are black. That would go a long way toward puncturing the leftist superstition that all non-leftists are racists, sexists, homophobes, opponents of bestiality, etc., etc. That’s why the racist and anti-Semite Sharpton, and his like-minded sidekick Jesse Jackson, had to libel Limbaugh.
Thursday, October 01, 2009
Money and Counterfeiting
By Gary North
Those few economists who defend the use of gold and silver coins as the basis of the monetary system are dismissed as gold bugs. The reason why they are dismissed is that their opponents believe that the government should be sovereign over money, and that politicians and bureaucrats are the proper sources of economic policy. These critics of gold do not trust the free-market social order. They do not trust individual decision-making. They especially do not trust individual decision-making with respect to how much money an individual should possess. They have a fundamental hostility to individual responsibility, and this is manifested most obviously in their hostility to gold and silver coinage as the foundation of the monetary order.
They dismiss what they call the theology of gold. They dismiss it because they are great believers in the theology of state sovereignty. As high priests of civil government, they are contemptuous of defenders of individual responsibility regarding the quantity, quality, and physical form of the monetary unit. So, it is never a question of the theology of gold. It is always a question of whose theology of gold: pro-gold or anti-gold.
In the 20th century, the theologians of fiat money have predominated over the theologians of gold and silver coinage. This is another way of saying that the theology of state sovereignty has predominated over the theology of the free market.
There are certain features of the original commodities that have become money historically. These features gave the original money metals an advantage over all of the other commodities that might have served as money, and in some cases historically have served as money.
There are five of these characteristics: recognizability, divisibility, portability, high value in relation to weight and volume, and continuity of value over time. Any physical commodity that possesses these five characteristics is a candidate to become the monetary commodity of a particular social order.
Historically, gold and silver have possessed these five characteristics to a greater degree than any other commodity. There have been rivals. Salt has been a rival. Animals have served as money in history. Even women have served as money in certain societies. (The problem with women as money is the problem of divisibility. Half a woman is not much use as a monetary unit.)
A gold coin standard or silver coin standard provides continuity that fiat money systems do not provide. Such a standard makes life difficult for counterfeiters. This is why governments do whatever it takes to substitute a fiat currency unit for a precious metals coinage. The government wants to benefit as the nation's monopolistic counterfeiter. It will share this only with commercial banks and the central bank. It does this only because the central bank promises to be the lender of last resort to the national Treasury.
Read more
Those few economists who defend the use of gold and silver coins as the basis of the monetary system are dismissed as gold bugs. The reason why they are dismissed is that their opponents believe that the government should be sovereign over money, and that politicians and bureaucrats are the proper sources of economic policy. These critics of gold do not trust the free-market social order. They do not trust individual decision-making. They especially do not trust individual decision-making with respect to how much money an individual should possess. They have a fundamental hostility to individual responsibility, and this is manifested most obviously in their hostility to gold and silver coinage as the foundation of the monetary order.
They dismiss what they call the theology of gold. They dismiss it because they are great believers in the theology of state sovereignty. As high priests of civil government, they are contemptuous of defenders of individual responsibility regarding the quantity, quality, and physical form of the monetary unit. So, it is never a question of the theology of gold. It is always a question of whose theology of gold: pro-gold or anti-gold.
In the 20th century, the theologians of fiat money have predominated over the theologians of gold and silver coinage. This is another way of saying that the theology of state sovereignty has predominated over the theology of the free market.
There are certain features of the original commodities that have become money historically. These features gave the original money metals an advantage over all of the other commodities that might have served as money, and in some cases historically have served as money.
There are five of these characteristics: recognizability, divisibility, portability, high value in relation to weight and volume, and continuity of value over time. Any physical commodity that possesses these five characteristics is a candidate to become the monetary commodity of a particular social order.
Historically, gold and silver have possessed these five characteristics to a greater degree than any other commodity. There have been rivals. Salt has been a rival. Animals have served as money in history. Even women have served as money in certain societies. (The problem with women as money is the problem of divisibility. Half a woman is not much use as a monetary unit.)
A gold coin standard or silver coin standard provides continuity that fiat money systems do not provide. Such a standard makes life difficult for counterfeiters. This is why governments do whatever it takes to substitute a fiat currency unit for a precious metals coinage. The government wants to benefit as the nation's monopolistic counterfeiter. It will share this only with commercial banks and the central bank. It does this only because the central bank promises to be the lender of last resort to the national Treasury.
Read more
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Paper vs Gold
By Doug Casey
[P]aper money is an excellent means for governments to tax people indirectly, surreptitiously, through inflation. That’s one reason central bankers love paper money, but also, phony economic theories, like those of John Maynard Keynes, hold that the government not only can but should meddle with the economy, and the ability to print paper money gives them a means to do that.
In today’s world, not only do people around the world take it for granted that paper is money, but that it should be so.
But it’s all nonsense. It’s one reason for taking a gloomy view of humanity – people will believe almost any kind of claptrap, if the story is retailed by those in authority.
After the current system collapses, as every paper money system in the past has collapsed, some form of money will have to replace it, and it’s almost certainly going to be gold....Dollars today say "Federal Reserve Note," not "XYZ Bank Note" on the back, because they aren’t redeemable for anything besides more Federal Reserve notes. That’s why today’s paper money substitutes are called fiat currencies; they have zero intrinsic value and are not redeemable for anything, but are accepted because the government will put you in jail if you don’t. It’s a fiat accomplished by force, not real value recognized by those who accept the notes.
[P]aper money is an excellent means for governments to tax people indirectly, surreptitiously, through inflation. That’s one reason central bankers love paper money, but also, phony economic theories, like those of John Maynard Keynes, hold that the government not only can but should meddle with the economy, and the ability to print paper money gives them a means to do that.
In today’s world, not only do people around the world take it for granted that paper is money, but that it should be so.
But it’s all nonsense. It’s one reason for taking a gloomy view of humanity – people will believe almost any kind of claptrap, if the story is retailed by those in authority.
After the current system collapses, as every paper money system in the past has collapsed, some form of money will have to replace it, and it’s almost certainly going to be gold....Dollars today say "Federal Reserve Note," not "XYZ Bank Note" on the back, because they aren’t redeemable for anything besides more Federal Reserve notes. That’s why today’s paper money substitutes are called fiat currencies; they have zero intrinsic value and are not redeemable for anything, but are accepted because the government will put you in jail if you don’t. It’s a fiat accomplished by force, not real value recognized by those who accept the notes.
Monday, September 28, 2009
Garbage Dump on Turtle Bay
By Mark Steyn:
"It's a good basic axiom that if you take a quart of ice cream and a quart of dog feces and mix 'em together the result will taste more like the latter than the former. That's the problem with the U.N.
"The day after the U.S. president addressed the U.N., the prime minister of Israel took to the podium and held up a copy of the minutes of the Wannsee Conference at which German officials planned the "Final Solution" to their Jewish problem.
This is the pathetic state to which the U.N. has been reduced after six decades: The Jew-hatred of Ahmadinejad and others is so routine that a sane man has to stand up and attempt to demonstrate to lunatics that the Holocaust actually happened.
more here
"It's a good basic axiom that if you take a quart of ice cream and a quart of dog feces and mix 'em together the result will taste more like the latter than the former. That's the problem with the U.N.
"The day after the U.S. president addressed the U.N., the prime minister of Israel took to the podium and held up a copy of the minutes of the Wannsee Conference at which German officials planned the "Final Solution" to their Jewish problem.
This is the pathetic state to which the U.N. has been reduced after six decades: The Jew-hatred of Ahmadinejad and others is so routine that a sane man has to stand up and attempt to demonstrate to lunatics that the Holocaust actually happened.
more here
Monday, September 07, 2009
The Lyin' Sleeps
By: Vin Suprynowicz
Read the paeans from the left, praising [Ted Kennedy] as a “lion of the Senate.” They speak of his endless concern for the “underprivileged,” though they’re woefully short on specifics.
The socialists and redistributionists always seek forgiveness for their errors and excesses – the policies that have driven this country to the brink of bankruptcy and hyperinflation – in terms of what they meant to accomplish for “the poor and the downtrodden.” But who is it who suffers worst in the hard times their policies have brought about? The hard-working poor, who find their jobs gone, their mortgages “upside down,” the once-proud currency in which their savings and investments are denominated increasingly worthless.
The welfare classes will do all right – for a while. But what favor have the condescending handouts of the Ted Kennedys of Washington done them, by locking them into multiple generations of fatherless, spiritless, smoldering angry dependence, while gradually sapping and enervating the larger, entrepreneurial, once vibrant free market economy which could have offered them real opportunity?
Listen to the tuneful, harmonic music – whether joyful or sad – that came out of our inner cities in the 1920s, 1940s, 1950s and ’60s. Now listen (not that you have much choice) to the hate-filled obscenities and thumping, droning, tuneless paeans to crime and whoredom blasting out of the stereo of the young man’s car pulled up next to you at the stoplight. Can this be insignificant? [...snip...]
The family wealth, power and privilege got Ted Kennedy back into Harvard after that little cheating thing. It got him a suspended sentence for “leaving the scene of an accident” after his drunken driving caused the death of Mary Jo Kopechne … if that’s really what happened … just as the family wealth and power covered up that little problem when young Lt. John Kennedy ignored all advice and continued his affair with that lady German spy during World War II.The Kennedy boys were taught that their family wealth and power would get them out of anything. But will they get US out of anything? Are Americans more free today than before Ted Kennedy put on his engineer’s cap and started running the little toy train set he inherited from his older brothers?
More Here
Read the paeans from the left, praising [Ted Kennedy] as a “lion of the Senate.” They speak of his endless concern for the “underprivileged,” though they’re woefully short on specifics.
The socialists and redistributionists always seek forgiveness for their errors and excesses – the policies that have driven this country to the brink of bankruptcy and hyperinflation – in terms of what they meant to accomplish for “the poor and the downtrodden.” But who is it who suffers worst in the hard times their policies have brought about? The hard-working poor, who find their jobs gone, their mortgages “upside down,” the once-proud currency in which their savings and investments are denominated increasingly worthless.
The welfare classes will do all right – for a while. But what favor have the condescending handouts of the Ted Kennedys of Washington done them, by locking them into multiple generations of fatherless, spiritless, smoldering angry dependence, while gradually sapping and enervating the larger, entrepreneurial, once vibrant free market economy which could have offered them real opportunity?
Listen to the tuneful, harmonic music – whether joyful or sad – that came out of our inner cities in the 1920s, 1940s, 1950s and ’60s. Now listen (not that you have much choice) to the hate-filled obscenities and thumping, droning, tuneless paeans to crime and whoredom blasting out of the stereo of the young man’s car pulled up next to you at the stoplight. Can this be insignificant? [...snip...]
The family wealth, power and privilege got Ted Kennedy back into Harvard after that little cheating thing. It got him a suspended sentence for “leaving the scene of an accident” after his drunken driving caused the death of Mary Jo Kopechne … if that’s really what happened … just as the family wealth and power covered up that little problem when young Lt. John Kennedy ignored all advice and continued his affair with that lady German spy during World War II.The Kennedy boys were taught that their family wealth and power would get them out of anything. But will they get US out of anything? Are Americans more free today than before Ted Kennedy put on his engineer’s cap and started running the little toy train set he inherited from his older brothers?
More Here
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Progressive "Life Support"
Detroit public schools are the worst prison system in the nation, with less than 30% of its inmates receiving a high school diploma. It is also the most corrupt system, run by amateurs and thieves and liars that reside within the city’s Marxist power structure. The fraud is so lowbrow that insiders have resorted to putting ghost workers on the payroll.
Emergency Financial Manager Robert Bobb, appointed by Jennifer Granholm to oversee DPS, hinted at ghost workers back in April and earlier this month took the unusual step of forcing the district’s estimated 13,880 workers to pick up their checks in person.
…Thirty-seven paychecks and 220 direct-deposit slips totalling approximately $208,000 were not picked up, according to the Detroit Free Press.
It has also been determined that at least 500 people were illegally receiving health care benefits. Employees throughout the school system have stolen money and assets at will, and that includes low-level workers such as cafeteria workers and clerical staff. One payroll manager got away with almost a half million dollars in four years.
Among the five charged was a clerical worker at an elementary school who wrote herself 15 checks and made 17 withdrawals from district accounts that netted her more than $25,000, Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said. Also charged were a high school teacher’s aide, a food service coordinator at an elementary school, a truck driver and a district controls office worker.
The charges come after an audit last week revealed the district has been paying $2.1 million per year for health coverage for ineligible dependents, unused cell phones and 11 motorcycles.
Adam B. Schaeffer of CATO writes:
Detroit is crumbling, with public schools leading the way toward total dissolution. After decades of mismanagement and malfeasance, after countless scandals and promised reforms, after losing about half of its student population since 2001, the end seems finally, perhaps mercifully, here. The Detroit public school system is on the edge of bankruptcy.
Millions have been found to be misappropriated. School officials were receiving inappropriate loans and shoddy bookkeeping is helping to cover up years and years of fraud. Also, $1.7 million was transferred from the tax-exempt district to the city of Detroit – but no one has yet to explain where that money went.
Now for the final, merciless statistic: the DPS budget for 2009 calls for it to spend $13,500 [annually] for each student.
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Our "Brilliant" Socialist in Chief
The "messiah's" intellectual superiority on full display.
This would have been spread over the entire MSM 24-7 had "Dubya" been seen as the "Fool".
This would have been spread over the entire MSM 24-7 had "Dubya" been seen as the "Fool".
Thursday, August 27, 2009
The Republican Party is Evil
By Laurence Vance
I don’t mean all members of the Republican Party, although many of them are (especially Religious Right defenders of torture), but certainly the leadership and the party itself. Mr. Rockwell’s post about the Republican Party backing the opponents of Rand Paul and Peter Schiff is merely example no. 5,396 that the Republican Party is not the lesser of two evils.
The Republicans can sometimes talk a good talk about liberty, free markets, and limited government, but when a Republican candidate comes along who actually believes in these ideals he is rejected. Even worse are the Republicans who are now talking about much they loved Ted Kennedy instead of how much they loathed him.
I don’t mean all members of the Republican Party, although many of them are (especially Religious Right defenders of torture), but certainly the leadership and the party itself. Mr. Rockwell’s post about the Republican Party backing the opponents of Rand Paul and Peter Schiff is merely example no. 5,396 that the Republican Party is not the lesser of two evils.
The Republicans can sometimes talk a good talk about liberty, free markets, and limited government, but when a Republican candidate comes along who actually believes in these ideals he is rejected. Even worse are the Republicans who are now talking about much they loved Ted Kennedy instead of how much they loathed him.
Friday, August 21, 2009
A "Big Apple" Medical Solution?
Let’s say you have a city that currently has one of the highest unemployment rates in the country, e.g., New York City. And let’s say you are an economically-ignorant New York City politician (but I repeat myself). What would you do to “help” alleviate the unemployment situation in New York City?
Would you:
a) Cut or—perish the thought—abolish corporate taxes so that employers have more money to hire people?
b) Push for a law that requires (i.e., forces) employers to spend more money than they would have, thereby having less money to hire more people, or to at least keep their current workforce employed—especially in these economically challenging times?
If you guessed “b,” go to the head of the class. It seems that economically-ignorant New York City Councilwoman Gail Brewer has come up with a “progressive” idea mandating earned sick time for New York City workers. This would cover all low-paid workers who are currently not paid for sick leave and, therefore, sometimes have to work while they are sick—thereby possibly giving other workers or customers the “sniffles” (i.e., they also get sick and can’t go to work—therefore, productivity is cut down).
Of course, as you’ve been hearing in the media for the last 100 years, New York City has had an “epidemic” of people getting sick from other people at work, so this mandate should really make a “big dent” in improving the health and financial well-being of every New Yorker. Or perhaps, depending upon the number of employees an individual employer has, even more New York City employees will be collecting unemployment after they lose their jobs because their employers couldn’t afford to keep them on anymore due to this added cost. (Obviously, the thought has never occured to Brewer that all of the employers, who are obviously smart enough to still be in business, know what works best for their own companies regarding their employees’ health and productivity—and their customers’ needs, if it is a service company.)
Someday, perhaps in the next millenium, politicians will take the time to read Henry Hazlitt’s Economics in One Lesson.
Thursday, August 20, 2009
By Mark R. Crovelli
When one comes to realize just how amazing and miraculous Mr. Obama’s [cash for clunkers] program really is, an obvious question comes to mind: If Mr. Obama’s program can really make us richer by destroying cars and tricking people into buying new cars, then why don’t we give this miracle program a try in the housing sector? Indeed, since the financial crisis struck most severely against the housing sector, then is that not precisely the sector where Mr. Obama’s miracle program is most direly needed? The program is easily adaptable to housing, after all. All that is needed is to give people an incentive to buy a brand new house that they can scarcely turn down (or afford), and, once they move into their new home, simply burn the old house to the ground.
Think of the amazing stimulus the economy would get from having tens of thousands – or even hundreds of thousands – of perfectly usable homes burned to their very foundations. Masons, carpenters, roofers, and appliance makers would all suddenly be reemployed to the hilt. The American housing stock would be made more energy efficient, aesthetically pleasing – and more "eco-friendly," to boot.
There’s no reason to stop with just the housing sector, though, when the clothing retailers are struggling mightily. Mr. Obama could simply pass a similar law to encourage people to go into debt buying a brand new wardrobe at the GAP (or a more "eco-friendly" retailer, to save the Earth at the same time), and then round up the shoppers’ old wardrobes and sink them to the bottom of the ocean.
Just think how much better off we would be if Mr. Obama could manage to destroy half of the supply of cars in the U.S., half of the supply of homes in the U.S., and half the supply of clothing in the U.S. It boggles the mind to think how rich we would be.
For the time being, we will just have to content ourselves with Mr. Obama melting down half of our cars.
When one comes to realize just how amazing and miraculous Mr. Obama’s [cash for clunkers] program really is, an obvious question comes to mind: If Mr. Obama’s program can really make us richer by destroying cars and tricking people into buying new cars, then why don’t we give this miracle program a try in the housing sector? Indeed, since the financial crisis struck most severely against the housing sector, then is that not precisely the sector where Mr. Obama’s miracle program is most direly needed? The program is easily adaptable to housing, after all. All that is needed is to give people an incentive to buy a brand new house that they can scarcely turn down (or afford), and, once they move into their new home, simply burn the old house to the ground.
Think of the amazing stimulus the economy would get from having tens of thousands – or even hundreds of thousands – of perfectly usable homes burned to their very foundations. Masons, carpenters, roofers, and appliance makers would all suddenly be reemployed to the hilt. The American housing stock would be made more energy efficient, aesthetically pleasing – and more "eco-friendly," to boot.
There’s no reason to stop with just the housing sector, though, when the clothing retailers are struggling mightily. Mr. Obama could simply pass a similar law to encourage people to go into debt buying a brand new wardrobe at the GAP (or a more "eco-friendly" retailer, to save the Earth at the same time), and then round up the shoppers’ old wardrobes and sink them to the bottom of the ocean.
Just think how much better off we would be if Mr. Obama could manage to destroy half of the supply of cars in the U.S., half of the supply of homes in the U.S., and half the supply of clothing in the U.S. It boggles the mind to think how rich we would be.
For the time being, we will just have to content ourselves with Mr. Obama melting down half of our cars.
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
The Obamunists Blink
I tried to report David Kramer’s flaming right-wing opposition to ObamaCommuCare and his horrifying disinformation campaign to my White House superiors, but the snitch line (flag@whitehouse.gov) has gone kaput. Gone and done. It ran out of approval. The White House has lied about this, and it has lied about the spamming campaign, and now Gibbs, the dough-faced, White House shill, is at the liar’s microphone to make up a great big story about how people got spammed from those who were collecting the Enemy List. But we are to believe there is no enemy list. That’s just conspiracy, tinfoil hat stuff for whackos who oppose a black president. But then again, these same soldiers of propaganda were stupid enough to think that this, posted on the White House website, would pass muster with the press and the awakening masses.
There is a lot of disinformation about health insurance reform out there, spanning from control of personal finances to end of life care. These rumors often travel just below the surface via chain emails or through casual conversation. Since we can’t keep track of all of them here at the White House, we’re asking for your help. If you get an email or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy, send it to flag@whitehouse.gov.
So now they have replaced ‘Snitch to Daddy Obama’ with ‘Reality Check’. YooHoo! Look how dumbed-down and cartoon-ish the site is. Just what soft Boobus likes. Plenty of eye candy, huge logos, and diversity for the TV-educated sheeple with half their brains tied behind their Crocs.
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Pizza, The New Weapon of Choice?
One of the dubious “advantages” provided by the government school system to its inmates is the knowledge that they can enlist the State as an ally in petty disputes within the home.
This is the likely reason why a 38-year-old Gainesville, Florida man is behind bars tonight for the grave alleged offense of hitting his daughter with a pizza slice. The daughter promptly called 911 and within minutes the father was in handcuffs and facing felony charges.
According to the Orlando Sentinel: “Deputy Nick Vickers says the man used racist and sexist terms when he asked his daughter to turn off her computer, and she fired back with some crude language of her own. Vickers says the father `intentionally threw a slice of pizza at the victim’” — note the use of the term “victim,” not alleged victim, thereby planting the assumption of guilt — “`striking her at the back ot the neck, against her will.’”
Presumably, if the daughter had explicitly consented to being hit in the neck with a slice of pizza, everything would have been copasetic. As it happens, the father was charged with “child abuse without great harm,” which is a third-degree felony.
Rational people would recognize that the father’s act involved no measurable “harm” whatsoever, and thus no crime over which the State could claim jurisdiction. But we should not forget that the State claims all children as its property — whether for purpose of criminalizing parental discipline (or, in this case, trivial fits of pique) or — when permitted to – for the purpose of conscripting them into the military for use as trigger-pullers and coffin-stuffers.
Monday, August 10, 2009
Gun Control: How's That Working in Chicago?
People Die in Obama’s Unarmed Chicago
By Karen De Coster
A reader sent me this amazing article. The disarmed Chicago citizenry is getting slaughtered. The article refers to Chicago as a bloodbath. He summarizes:
The #’s total were 48 dead 210 wounded with the most draconian laws in the country. We don’t need to mention the 624 armed robberies (handgun), 1454 burglary’s (forceable entry) or the others.
From the article:
See this map of July 2009 shootings in the city of Chicago. Almost NOWHERE do I see reports on this perpetual bloodbath. Except NPR covered it. But of course, as soon as some alleged “gun nut” shoots a few people, or cops, the cries for gun control are amplified from the left-wing rafters. Chicago disarmed peaceful people so that parasitic criminals could have their way with the sitting duck citizenry. But then again, people like Alan Gottlieb, of the Second Amendment Foundation, knew this long ago.
This is Obama’s city. This is what Obama and his minions (Emanuel, Holder, Frank, Pelosi, etc., etc., etc), who all have hordes of personal security, want for America. They want you unarmed in the name of …… “peace.”
In this age of a sissified, feel-good, group-hug America, how do the Chicago police intend to get this under control? They are holding anti-violence marches. Holding up signs that say “Working together to keep our neighborhoods safe.” I’ve got a better idea – how about a new motto for the Chicago PD: ”We’re there when you’re not.” What have the Chicago public schools students been taught about this situation? They’ve been told to rally and demand more gun control.
By Karen De Coster
A reader sent me this amazing article. The disarmed Chicago citizenry is getting slaughtered. The article refers to Chicago as a bloodbath. He summarizes:
The #’s total were 48 dead 210 wounded with the most draconian laws in the country. We don’t need to mention the 624 armed robberies (handgun), 1454 burglary’s (forceable entry) or the others.
From the article:
" As of July 30, at least 42 people had been shot and killed, and 183 more had been shot and wounded since July 1. Among the injured were a 9-year-old girl, an 8-year-old boy, a UPS driver who was on a break after making a delivery, and two Chicago police officers serving a drug warrant.
Here’s a perfect example of a sitting duck in Chicago. A UPS driver, taking a break to pick up a snack, was robbed and shot in the back. Another amazing comment:
There were several especially bloody nights in the month of July. At least eight people were killed and almost two dozen others were wounded on July 4 and 5, four of whom died during a bloody six hours. Overnight July 28 and 29, at least 15 people were shot and wounded – seven of them in a single incident at Homan Boulevard and Walnut Street in the East Garfield Park neighborhood.
See this map of July 2009 shootings in the city of Chicago. Almost NOWHERE do I see reports on this perpetual bloodbath. Except NPR covered it. But of course, as soon as some alleged “gun nut” shoots a few people, or cops, the cries for gun control are amplified from the left-wing rafters. Chicago disarmed peaceful people so that parasitic criminals could have their way with the sitting duck citizenry. But then again, people like Alan Gottlieb, of the Second Amendment Foundation, knew this long ago.
This is Obama’s city. This is what Obama and his minions (Emanuel, Holder, Frank, Pelosi, etc., etc., etc), who all have hordes of personal security, want for America. They want you unarmed in the name of …… “peace.”
In this age of a sissified, feel-good, group-hug America, how do the Chicago police intend to get this under control? They are holding anti-violence marches. Holding up signs that say “Working together to keep our neighborhoods safe.” I’ve got a better idea – how about a new motto for the Chicago PD: ”We’re there when you’re not.” What have the Chicago public schools students been taught about this situation? They’ve been told to rally and demand more gun control.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
An Oxymoron: Government Health "Care"
By Michael Prell
"The Greatest Canadian," according to Canadians themselves, was Tommy Douglas: the socialist who created socialized health care. Canadians from coast to coast regularly wait up to 36 weeks for an MRI. The average emergency room visit is 6 hours -- just to be seen. Stretchers pile up in hospital hallways. People wait years to get family doctors. And my mother's three year ordeal with pain was so dehumanizing she almost killed herself.
"The Greatest Canadian," according to Canadians themselves, was Tommy Douglas: the socialist who created socialized health care. Canadians from coast to coast regularly wait up to 36 weeks for an MRI. The average emergency room visit is 6 hours -- just to be seen. Stretchers pile up in hospital hallways. People wait years to get family doctors. And my mother's three year ordeal with pain was so dehumanizing she almost killed herself.
These are the people who voted for their slavemaster as The Greatest to ever walk among them. That is what public health care will do to you. It won't just make you a prisoner of the system. It won't just destroy the great American spirit of self-reliance. It will weaken you to the point where you look upon those who enslave you as your heroes.
Read more here
Read more here
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
The Lying Liars
How Politicians Lie About “Budget Cuts”
An old political game is for a governor of a state to PROPOSE say, a $2billion increase in next year’s budget, and then when the legislature can “only” squeeeze another $1.5 billion out of the poor, hapless and helpless taxpayers, the Gov. then decries a “half billion dollars in budget CUTS.” Since most newspapers are little more than the propaganda arms of big government in each state, there is then a chorus of crying, sobbing, moaning, gnashing of teeth, whimpering, and doomsaying over the social catastrophe that is surely imminent.
Of course, there have been no budget “cuts” at all, but a gigantic budget increase of one and a half billion dollars in my example. This dishonest scam is currently being played out in Maryland (and in most other states). The front page of todays’ Baltimore Sun, the propaganda rag of the state Democratic Party, screams, “[Governor] O’Malley Proposes Millions in Cuts“!!!!!!!!!
If one scrolls down to the sixth paragraph of the article, one reads in the first sentence that “Since taking office [three years ago], O’Malley has reduced spending by more than $3 billion.” But then the last sentence of the paragraph contradicts this, saying: “[T]he size of Maryland’s overall budget, which includes federal funds . . . has grown over the past three years” (emphasis added).
So what has been “cut” is O’Malley’s pie-in-the-sky wish list of billions of dollars of goodies to be passed out to any and every special-interest group in the state. In reality, Maryland state government is still growing by leaps and bounds and should be cut at least in half — for starters.
Monday, July 13, 2009
Greens Hate the Poor
By Lew Rockwell
Concerning Rob’s comment below, the whole environmental movement is an attack on the poor, when it isn’t just plain anti-human. Virtually everything that movement advocates is designed to make life better, as they see it, for the upper-class types who founded it and have always run it, at the expense particularly of the poor and working class. Even their foot soldiers are upper-middle class types. Folks, our anti-capitalist enemies are by and large the rich who want to use the state to keep them that way, and to prevent others from getting rich through the market. Their slogan might as well be, “No Upward Social Mobility.”
Concerning Rob’s comment below, the whole environmental movement is an attack on the poor, when it isn’t just plain anti-human. Virtually everything that movement advocates is designed to make life better, as they see it, for the upper-class types who founded it and have always run it, at the expense particularly of the poor and working class. Even their foot soldiers are upper-middle class types. Folks, our anti-capitalist enemies are by and large the rich who want to use the state to keep them that way, and to prevent others from getting rich through the market. Their slogan might as well be, “No Upward Social Mobility.”
The Left Hates the Poor
By Lew Rockwell
The Left, which represents the wealthiest people in society, can’t stand the poor unless they are on the state payroll and enlisted in its army of crime. Why else the hate campaign against Wal-Mart, which has done more for the poor than all the non-profit charitable programs put together, and certainly more than welfare? And now look at this: IKEA, the progressives’ favorite (and one of mine too), is a problem because it also promotes the idea of low prices. Stephanie Zacharek of Salon, which caters to the wealthy Left, in reviewing a new anti-poor book, longs for the days of expensive, detailed craftsmanship. How horrible that cheap goods are available to society. IKEA, she says, is “as bad as Wal-Mart.” This is criticism? Save Money, Live Better.
UPDATE from Rob Worsnop:
And also isn’t the ridiculous “Cash for Clunkers” program an attack on the poor? In order for this program to be judged “successful”, surely we would be seeing large numbers of vehicles, whose value happens to fall below $3500 or $4500, disappear from the market. So then what is left for the poor to buy? New vehicles? I don’t think so.
I was thinking yesterday what a disgrace it would be for my 1996 Nissan Pickup, with only 90K on the clock, to be crushed under supervision of the Federal Government instead of being sold on to someone of modest means.
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