I used to say, 'Things cost too much.'
Then my teacher straightened me out on that by saying,
'The problem isn't that things cost too much.
The problem is that you can't afford it.'
That's when I finally understood that
the problem wasn't 'it'
the problem was 'me.'
Jim Rohn
Patriot of the Day
From Patriot Post:
“I'm not going to enforce the no stopping or standing sign for a group of 90 World War II veterans,” said the unnamed U.S. Park Police officer who let them in. “I'm a veteran myself.”
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| Mississippi WWII Vets at Memorial on DC Mall Via Patriot Post |
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| Courtesy LFC on FB |
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| End the Fed Courtesy of Milton Friedman Group on FB |
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| 80% of federal workers on the job Zombie government: NSA, TSA, EPA, IRS, ... They need brains, which can't be found in government Day of the Living Nightmare |
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| As if any politician ever put in a decent day's work.... Courtesy of LFC on FB |
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| Courtesy of Laissez-Faire Capitalism on FB |
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| GO, INTERSTATE LEMONADE STANDS! Courtesy LFC |
One of the central issues I addressed in my academic and professional articles was the critically important aspect of the human-computer interface (including software and documentation). Just like guys often don't get a second chance on making a good impression with the ladies, the same holds true with computer application systems. Just like a lady can't infer a virtuous, kind-hearted, faithful man by appearance, it doesn't matter how efficient and effective the algorithms and data structures are behind the Procrustean interface. (Not that arrogant bureaucrats care; "we are the government, and we set the rules"). I can tell you the type of garbage should never have happened--certainly on my watch. It's incompetent IT management. I have been the tech lead on several projects; in everyday operations, I would even check training database infrastructure before a training class; a good thing because one time application processes were down (in Chicago) because an incompetent DBA contractor, without my knowledge or consent, brought down the database hard, corrupting application processes.. Of course, they'll fix these technical glitches, but that's not the point. They should never have happened in the first place; in the private sector, including in public sector contract work, we would go through at least 3 or 4 dry runs. This was just an initial step--but a well-structured task. The new healthcare entitlement is much more complex beyond user experience; I know this is not the exception to the rule, but the harbinger of things to come, exposing yet another "progressive" failed program.
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| Courtesy of Illinois Policy Institute |
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| Courtesy mwbowler |
Economy, Stocks, Central Banks and Gold
@HealthCareGov FYI, the exchange site is not working for setting up an account, nor is the chat feature for help. Any advice? - Tweet, Don M. Fox
One never knows how much the market has already priced in "bad news" like the government shutdown. An investor sometimes looks forward to bad days when even good stocks sometimes get punished. Instead, after a preceding chain of off-days on Wall Street, I found my retirement accounts surging to a new high, reaching price targets on a few issues. (I don't want to mislead readers; I'm not a day trader; not all of my picks pan out, and I don't earn Bernie Madoff-like returns. Plus, when the market is rising, making a gain can be like shooting fish in a barrel. But I have made a decent return with lower risk, keeping some powder dry.) Do I have the Fed to thank? No. The US economy has recovered from recessions and depressions in the past without the Fed trying to manipulate the economy through asset purchases and rigging interest rates. What the Fed has been doing is inserting regime uncertainty in the market as investors try to anticipate its moves; it's difficult to argue counterfactuals, e.g., what if the Fed had let interest rates be determined by the market. I personally believe that a perverse Hawthorne effect is happening.
Investment newsletter editor Michael Lombardi discusses two charts, embedded below:, increasing world central bank holdings in gold and declining holdings of dollars, as the world's de facto reserve currency. The implication is seen as a way of hedging against the dollar with gold as an alternative currency. A declining demand of currency has long-term negative consequences for the US economy: for example, we may need to hike interest rates to attract investors to hold dollars/notes. Lombardi also makes some spot-on observations:
Today, the U.S. economy has the biggest debt in monetary terms than any other country in the global economy. In fact, if you add together the national debt of Greece, Spain, Portugal, and Japan, collectively, their debts are less than the national debt of the U.S. economy.... Eventually, the only way to reduce the national debt, especially if interest rates rise, is to raise taxes. But it is a double-edged sword. Raise taxes and you stifle the U.S. economy, as higher taxes negatively affect consumer spending. Don’t raise taxes and you still have a problem with a mounting national debt.NOW do you understand why this blog is constantly telling the profligate Democrat spendthrifts that we need to cut spending--and I don't mean by a scalpel. I am frustrated by the fact that the GOP isn't whacking away at this budget with mallets. I know why: for example, just today, I'm seeing stories from the "progressive" propagandists blaming the shutdown for kids with cancer being deprived of medical care (they never point out the fat-ass six-figure federal bureaucrats making the lives of healthcare providers miserable). You know the ending of It's a Wonderful Life? "Teacher says every time a bell rings, an angel earns his wings." Well, I say 'Every time you cut a government budget, a crony unionist or capitalist cries...."
OF COURSE, the Democrats will fight any attempt to reduce their voter bribes for the next election! OF COURSE, they are not going to talk about redundant resources across agencies, vanity projects in their home districts or states. OF COURSE, they are going to argue, in their best Bernie Madoff voices, that there is no need to reform entitlements. Yes, they are going to argue that you are going to take candy from a baby and force Granny to eat cat food. That is standard issue from these immoral political parasites; it's time for the GOP to man up and expose the pathological liars for what they are.
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| Both charts courtesy of Lombardi Publishing I encourage readers to view the original source |
Cool Science
Malinvestment of Public Safety Funding: The Drug War
What's even worse than your brain on drugs? Sacrificing law enforcement resources in a losing battle against victimless crimes...
Political Cartoon
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| Courtesy of Glenn Foden and Townhall |
The Supremes, "You Can't Hurry Love"
