Sunday, November 08, 2009

Health Care Costs are going up. Job creation will go down.



Employee of the month


Who knows if the health care bill passed by congress will improve health care. That remains to be seen. What is clear is that costs for everyone will not go down as promised. No one believes that.

The vast majority of Americans already have fine health care, but is in many ways care that is needlessly expensive. A huge part of that needless expense is due to massive transfer payments to American lawyers. This bill does not change that. In fact, it will make it worse.

Massive legislative change provides great opportunity for legal mischief-making by American lawyers. Along with the changes will come additional costs and obligations of doing business. Each additional employee will add a new legal and economic burden for an employer. This bill will incentivize employers to resist hiring new workers.

In the short run, business will be cautious and reluctant to hire until they understand the impact of the bill. Furthermore, employers will be watching to see if the Obama Administration and the Democrats will be emboldened by this victory and go on to other expensive and counter-productive legislation. This bill and others in the planning stage are a whole new tax on wealth creation and growth. Ironically it will be similar to government action against the tobacco industry.

Government decided, rightly so, that smoking was a bad thing and used legislation and taxes to discourage tobacco use.

Legislation and taxes discourage most economic activity. Government knows that. So what do we have with this new health bill? The lawyers will still be there. New taxes will be required to pay for it and massive rules, regulation and reporting will be imposed on employers. All predictable reason not to hire new employees.


____________________




Big Business Not Investing

Posted by Chris Edwards CATO

In a recent post, I argued that while third-quarter GDP was positive, the underlying data revealed that U.S. private investment was still in the toilet. While government spending might be providing a short-term “sugar high” for the economy, U.S. business investment remains in recession. I speculated that Obama’s anti-business agenda is likely one cause of the problem.

For those observations, economist Brad DeLong called me an “utter fool.”

Let me draw your attention to an article in the Washington Post today entitled “Corporate giants sit on piles of cash.” Nucor Steel is sitting on piles of cash that it is unwilling to invest. Nucor’s chief executive Daniel Dimicco explains:

Everything is still on hold because we don’t have a lot of confidence that the right things are being done in Washington to reinvigorate the economy.

The story goes on:

Nucor isn’t alone. The balance sheets of large U.S. corporations are for the most part in good shape. Many big companies have piles of cash on hand and credit markets have thawed so that they can raise new funds… But most U.S. executives lack enough confidence in the economy to expand their businesses.

The article explains how big businesses are “jittery” for various reasons, such as memories of last year’s credit crunch. It doesn’t mention President Obama’s policies, but at this point in the economic cycle when world growth is returning, the lack of excitement by U.S. businesses regarding domestic investment is very curious.

Unfortunately, the Obama administration is giving them nothing to get excited about. The President is promising them higher health care costs, higher corporate taxes, more labor regulations, higher energy costs with cap-and-trade, and a lack of interest in further trade agreements.

The Post article says that some U.S. multinationals are using their hoards of cash to invest abroad, allowing them to avoid punitive treatment under the high-rate U.S. corporate income tax.

How do we get U.S. multinationals to start investing their “piles of cash” in the United States? Cut the U.S. corporate rate permanently to 15 percent, as I’ve described in Global Tax Revolution. With just about every other advanced economy having slashed their corporate rate in recent years, we are “utter fools” for not following suit, especially with the unemployment rate now topping 10 percent.





125 comments:

  1. It's an obvious case of industrial exploitation. Those robots are alienated from their own labor. Who speaks for the robots? They should unite, and form a dictatorship of the robots.


    My blue dog voted against the health care bill. Earlier on, he had voted for Pelosi to be Speaker of the House. He's got that vote hung around his neck. He's running scared. What a case study of a bill. Payoffs all over the landscape. Senior citizens, the biggest losers.

    Democracy at work. Most people were against the bill.

    It's probably too much to hope that the Senate will show some spine.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I fail to see how "Seniors", who already have the "Public Coverage" mandate are going to be "hurt" by expanding that coverage to a greater portion of the residents of the country.

    Since most "Seniors" are retired, their income taxes are negligible, as they have little taxable income, from labor.

    So, pray tell, how is it that "Seniors" will be the most disadvantaged by the new health care legislation?

    As for taxes and regulations stifling job creation, that is an old story. I got out of the employer aspects of business, years ago. Deciding that I would not be responsible for being a tax collector for Uncle Sam.

    Has not been a bad decision, though productivity did suffer over the years, there were no sleepless nights worrying about raising cash to pay for other folks quarterly taxes.

    Now, if medical insurance costs are mandated business expenses, just another reason to continue to abstain from being an employer.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Pelosi should be parachuted into the Hindu Kush.

    ReplyDelete
  4. "Now, if medical insurance costs are mandated business expenses, just another reason to continue to abstain from being an employer."
    ---
    Great news for the economy/wage earners.

    ReplyDelete
  5. "I fail to see how "Seniors", who already have the "Public Coverage" mandate are going to be "hurt" by expanding that coverage to a greater portion of the residents of the country."
    ---
    The plan is to cut $500 billion from Medicare "waste and fraud" just as the boomers become eligible.
    ...along with the illegals who NEVER paid taxes.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Just give more of the White Elephant off to the (already bankrupt) states.

    ReplyDelete
  7. FSU stuff OnanoBob!
    ...the wages of sin.
    Have to start publishing in Braille for poor dejected OnanO!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Damn, Linear, you would have to show up just as I was gloating about your Dell!
    Costco Rules!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Can Congress mandate that citizens carry health insurance? Is it constitutional?

    ReplyDelete
  10. So, now, doug you are in favor of "waste and fraud"?

    Eliminating those conditions will not hurt you or your Doctor, unless he/she is a wasteful fraud.

    If the "Seniors" have been receiving "to much" healthcare, at the expense of the majority of the residents, well, they'll have to "cut back", only to get what is rightfully coming to them, based upon their past contributions.

    Ending the Ponzi Scheme that is the Social Security Administration and MediCare would be the proper course, but not the one we are on, aye?.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Interstate Commerce Clause, whit.

    The blank check of power accumulation. Of course it is "Constitutional"

    If outlawing homegrown and unsold marijuana is Constitutional under that Commerce Clause, why then mandated Health Insurance certainly is.

    ReplyDelete
  12. "Ending the Ponzi Scheme that is the Social Security Administration and MediCare would be the proper course, but not the one we are on, aye?."
    ---
    Destroying a bankrupt, smaller ponzi scheme and replacing it with another 5 times larger is good for the Union?
    The "Fraud and Graft" that will be cut is services the Death Panels decide to be no longer appropriate.
    Fraud and graft will remain.
    \
    Why do you delight so in turning logic and common sense upside down?

    (too bad Hasan's services are no longer available to Vets!)

    ReplyDelete
  13. Sorry, DR had already answered the question:
    Unsold, homegrown, Pot.

    Wish I had a plot of some MILD
    stuff, myself.
    ...but I'd just do something interresting on it instead of advancing preposterities at the EB.

    ReplyDelete
  14. "So, now, doug you are in favor of "waste and fraud"?

    Eliminating those conditions will not hurt you or your Doctor, unless he/she is a wasteful fraud.

    If the "Seniors" have been receiving "to much" healthcare, at the expense of the majority of the residents, well, they'll have to "cut back", only to get what is rightfully coming to them, based upon their past contributions.


    You guys are spending a lot of space arguing over something that will never happen. Congress cut $400-$500 billion from medicare? You got to be nuts.

    A perfect example, the "doc fix" legislation to cover the SGR has been in since 2003. It's been put off every year since then. In 2010, doctors pay was supposed to be cut by 21% in line with medicare's "sustainable growth mechanism". Reid has already said the cuts will get put off for another year and Obama has said he won't count the $210 billion or so involved against his $900 billion target for healthcare legislation.

    Another example. Congress is planning on putting in legislation that closes a possible "black liquor" loophole for energy conservation subsidies to the paper industry. (One that has never been used because it is questionable on constitutional grounds.) However, Congress will still consider the $30 billion "saved" as an offset to healthcare.

    It's all a game to get the legislation passed. Once it is passed, no one in DC will really give a shit about "savings".

    ReplyDelete
  15. The Robot as "employee of the month" is a prescient observation.

    Over the next couple of decades we're going to spend an incredible amount of time arguing over Energy, Unemployment, Healthcare, Immigration, etc.

    Wars will be fought. "End of the World" scenarios will become the normal conversation.

    All the time, "Computerization, Robotization, Mechanization" will march on. We will wake up in 2030 to an unrecognizable situation.

    And, a whole "New" set of problems. The most basic will be:

    "How do you make a living when NO Labor is required?"

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  16. Laissez les bons temps rouler.

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  17. Great post Rufus.

    (Of course, in 2030 we will probably all be working for the government. We will merely pay for any shortfalls through cuts in waste and fraud)

    ReplyDelete
  18. Whit, our papers are secure from search, so if Nazi Pelosi wants to see my papers, she can pack sand.

    ReplyDelete
  19. We will merely pay for any shortfalls through cuts in waste and fraud)


    They could have kept 5 people "busy" just following Me around.

    :)

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  20. I second Q. There is an interesting corollary to Rufus' observation. If capital can replace labor, then capital will have to assume a greater share of the tax burden. There will be little need for an expanding population and no need for immigration.

    Social harmony will be stressed unless society can create jobs that are outside the manufacturing area or as Whit observed let the good times roll.

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  21. A long time ago, when the US federal debt was $4 trillion and social security was enjoying major surplus, I argued that the best reason to privatize social security would be so that workers and later their heirs would have two streams of income, one from their labor and another from capital.

    I also argued on this blog, when the market crashed, that the fed and treasury should have bought massive blocks of shares of public companies and place them in the social security trust funds. You are supposed to buy low and sell high aren't you?

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  22. Gotta be the hardest thing in the world to do.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Imagine if Bush had massively bought the market at the bottom. He would have left such a surplus and capital gain that the Democrats could have really had a party.

    ReplyDelete
  24. "I also argued on this blog, when the market crashed, that the fed and treasury should have bought massive blocks of shares of public companies and place them in the social security trust funds."

    Good idea in purely short term economic terms. Unfortunately, you also create a situation where the government is picking winners and losers. Long-term, I suspect this would create a whole series of problems.

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  25. Well they could have contracted with Lehman Brothers for a twofer.

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  26. State Pension funds pick winners and losers everyday. Admittedly, some better than others but some are among the largest fund groups in the whirled. The problem is when politics gets too involved in business and the free market. I refer you to Fannie and Freddie and the "ownership society."

    The other side wants to blame banks, insurance companies, and generally big business. They're always looking for a villain du jour while always protecting their codependent leaches, the trial lawyers.

    Throw wide the gates of the Treasury and let the good times roll, baby.

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  27. Enjoy it while it lasts.

    ReplyDelete
  28. You can get out in the "deep weeds" pretty quick when you start "futurizing."

    Keep in mind that "increasing productivity" is to a large extent a "cumulative" function.

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  29. Unless someone invents the Rip Van Winkle Robot, there's not a chance in Hell many of us will wake up in 2030 to find anything.
    T maybe, Quirk's age is unknown to me.
    Odds are they won't wake to see the land of the free no more, the way things are going.
    Maybe a robot Muzzie that's all warm and fuzzie?
    Priceless.
    ...as long as it was made from reconstituted Muzzie meat.

    ReplyDelete
  30. Must be nap time.

    Or game time.

    Or both for those who make pretense to watching while napping.



    McClatchy says they're standing at 34,000:

    [...]

    As it now stands, the administration's plan calls for sending three Army brigades from the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Ky. and the 10th Mountain Division at Fort Drum, N.Y. and a Marine brigade, for a total of as many as 23,000 additional combat and support troops.

    Another 7,000 troops would man and support a new division headquarters for the international force's Regional Command (RC) South in Kandahar, the Taliban birthplace where the U.S. is due to take command in 2010. Some 4,000 additional U.S. trainers are likely to be sent as well, the officials said.

    The first additional combat brigade probably would arrive in Afghanistan next March, the officials said, with the other three following at roughly three-month intervals, meaning that all the additional U.S. troops probably wouldn't be deployed until the end of next year. Army brigades number 3,500 to 5,000 soldiers; a Marine brigade has about 8,000 troops.

    The plan would fall well short of the 80,000 troops that Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. military commander in Afghanistan, suggested as a "low-risk option" that would offer the best chance to contain the Taliban-led insurgency and stabilize Afghanistan.

    It splits the difference between two other McChrystal options: a "high-risk" one that called for 20,000 additional troops and a "medium-risk" one that would add 40,000 to 45,000 troops.

    [...]





    "I'll take medium-high risk for 34,000, Alex."

    But the risk-tag still depends on what you do with them. At that level SOF are busier than with an injection of 80K more. Your COIN part of the equation is more modest. Because it has to be.

    Splitting the difference, so to speak, does make it an even harder sell to coalition contributors, whose number stands at 42,000 with a chunk scheduled for departure by the end of 2010. Bad form.

    For those of you sourpusses at home, the admin's gonna roll out a PR campaign regardless of the number it settles on. Natch. And January does sound about right.

    And a bone thrown to all:

    Paul Pillar, I.S. prof at Georgetown, is given the last say - or question rather - in the article: "Would a Taliban-controlled Afghanistan threaten the US?"

    In my own opinion it wouldn't likely end up a Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, but rather a corrupt Pashtun-controlled Afghanistan. Like now but far heavier on the "corrupt" and far lighter on the "controlled." A narcoterror state. Like Guatemala. Only much bigger. And further away.

    Would they come looking for our asses? If they did they'd be getting in line behind HB and suchlike.







    Did someone get handed a shit sandwich? Oh, I think so.

    ReplyDelete
  31. Can Congress mandate that citizens carry health insurance? Is it constitutional?

    It isn't but it will probably be held to be so.

    Whole thing stinks. 'Provide for the general welfare' 'interstate commerce'

    ReplyDelete
  32. What about 'life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness'? Where does that come in, when your choices of operations, treatments, are restricted? eh? What about the 'right to privacy' found in the 'penumbra' of the Constitution in Roe v Wade? What about the 10th?

    Whole thing stinks.

    WSJ had a good article some time ago about how it was grossly unconstitutional, but I couldn't find it now.

    We got a wise latina on the court now.

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  33. The AMA makes 70 million/year on CPT codes; That's why, in addition to whatever other bribed and threats the Fascist Dems used (or Marxists, or whatever form of totalitarian one wants to call them; there are elements of each in their program to rule over us peons), e.g. taking away that monopoly, the AMA surrendered. It's all "cui bono?", who benefits, the entire damn bill. It's all about theft on a scale that's unimaginable. And control. A mafioso's wet dream.

    I'm a physician and I DESPISE the AMA beyond words. They represent, supposedly, all of 17% of us, but I don't know a single doc who belongs to it. Of course, that means nothing, but the 17% IS the quoted statistic, and I"m sure it will go down further with time. But why would the AMA care when they make most of their money with the codes?

    Pure theft, that's all it is.
    #1 Mo on 2009-11-08 14:58 (Reply)

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  34. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yk8MsOvYns4&feature=related



    And a word on training armies: We do A LOT of training/advising around the globe. And we've been doing it for a loooong time. Yet to this day there are really only three armies modeled on our own. Three armies that "grew up with us," in a sense. Three armies that are not only Western but American in their organization and operation.

    And that's really quite astonishing.

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  35. Sorry your quarterback was out with an injury, bob.

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  36. The Talibs had control before, they take control now wherever we aren't, why would they not take control again?

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  37. Hey! they're having a parade on Duval Street now!
    (link in previous thread)

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  38. It was a real handicap, playing without his throwing arm.

    Hopefully he'll be back when we play Boise State in Boise next weekend. Without him, we don't stand a chance.

    With him, we stand very little chance.

    Fresno State just got a lucky break.

    After Boise next week, we have a week off, then wrap up the season against Utah State at home.

    Maybe go to some post season game, though that may be in doubt.

    Been a good year, even if we lose everything from here on out, unusual when we win more than a couple of games.

    ReplyDelete
  39. The Talibs had control before, they take control now wherever we aren't, why would they not take control again?

    Sun Nov 08, 04:12:00 PM EST

    They don't have the numbers and political organization that they did when they took Kabul. And they now depend far more on coercion than persuasion for their muscle.

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  40. Boats are big down there, for some odd reason.

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  41. Husband's idly looking at catamarans himself.

    A nice 50 footer, I say.

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  42. I think there was a bit of coercion in the previous occupation.
    (depending on whether women consider being lined up on their knees to have their heads removed to be coercion, or not.
    Not being one, I won't hazard a guess)

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  43. Sounds better than 3 or 4 more tours.

    ReplyDelete
  44. "I think there was a bit of coercion in the previous occupation."

    Not like now.

    ReplyDelete
  45. These things look like open water speedboats.
    A bunch of em.

    ReplyDelete
  46. They cut your head off twice now?

    ReplyDelete
  47. We wouldn't be buying for awhile.

    He's got a stint at the Mothership (and they're fishing hard). Unless he tells them to, um, stuff it.

    Which I could hardly hold against him.

    ReplyDelete
  48. Yes, Doug. They cut your head off twice now.

    If anyone would bother to do so, those guys would.

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  49. Wife is going to Costco. Quess I'll go with her, check out the lap tops Doug is bragging about.

    ReplyDelete
  50. "Been a good year..."

    And that's what matters.

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  51. Those people invented the "Taliban."

    They "Are" the Taliban.

    ReplyDelete
  52. Photo of Kennedy and the King of Afghanistan

    "The only good thing in Afghanistan is the shooting", said the King, referring to the game bird hunting.

    I remember this incident.

    ReplyDelete
  53. If you've made the decision to go to 34,000, and your hand picked General says the minimum he needs is 40,000, you might as well go to 40,000, I'd think, so your General can't blame you for not giving him enough.

    ReplyDelete
  54. It depends upon the objective, bob. If Stan thinks he can achieve x with 34K (though he would prefer to go with y at 40 or z at 80) he'll agree with 34. Or if he thinks he can achieve y at 34, filling in the "gaps" by other means, he will.

    And at the end of the day, no one wants to hear what you can't do with whatever they're prepared to allow you.

    It's an almost bizarre, high stakes business.

    ReplyDelete
  55. Bizarre's a good word for it.


    Lieberman Hangs Tough

    Lieberman is criticized for being in the pockets of the insurance companies, many of whom are located in his state.

    Always kind of liked the guy, myself.

    Costco time....

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  56. Bob, 40,000, 80,000, 800,000, enough to do WHAT in Afghanistan?

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  57. Doug: Unless someone invents the Rip Van Winkle Robot, there's not a chance in Hell many of us will wake up in 2030 to find anything. T maybe

    First half of 2030 I'll be sixty-four, I can make that easy.

    The same Obama that called the police response to his prof buddy breaking into his own house "racist" now says don't jump to conclusions over Fort Hood. Besides, Homeland Security thinks 'right wing extremists' are a far greater threat, than, you know, angry Muslim males between the ages of 17 and 40.

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  58. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  59. If the "Mission" does not get some trophies, the public will quickly sour on the deal. Obama's "base" will be chafed raw and then revolt, McCarthy like.

    Obama as LBJ, it'd become an interesting show.

    ReplyDelete
  60. Okay, I wasn't too "comfortable" with that last statement; but the idea of escalating our involvement in Afghanistan just because they can't stand the political pressure of saying, "Aw, this is stupid" is cynical, and cowardly.

    ReplyDelete
  61. I'm out of the Afghan argument, T. I don't know what's best.

    Costco had

    Acer 15.6" $499.99

    Acer 14" $629.99

    various HP's from $729.99 to $999.99

    and
    HP G60-5ssCL
    15.6" $649.99


    and also the canned Salmon I love, bought that and

    the wife bought a robe made out of bamboo, for $18.

    The Danish Christmas cookies are also in, fought that temptation off.

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  62. I had an Acer. I loved it before it crashed the day after the one year warranty. I couldn't retrieve anything. I was forced to buy this piece of shit Compaq which pisses me off every other day. I would buy a new computer but there are some things that need to break before you replace them. This would be one of them.

    Go buy a Mac.

    ReplyDelete
  63. What I've got here is an e-machine somethingorother with a hp pavilion v50 from Goodwill Industries. Works ok, till I or the wife monkies with it. Then there's hell to pay.

    My daughter has a laptop, but you got to use your finger to move things around, which I can't stand.

    ReplyDelete
  64. This bamboo robe my wife bought has a feature called 'moisture wicking'. That sounded good. Not sure what it does though.

    ReplyDelete
  65. you can still use a mouse with a laptop.

    ReplyDelete
  66. If I ever get one, I'll get one mouse capable.

    When we were in Twins Falls a friend of my daughter had one, and somehow she just sucked off other people's connections someway, but I didn't understand it.

    ReplyDelete
  67. I remember when Joe Kennedy got kicked out of London for being a Nazi Symp.
    I was there.

    ReplyDelete
  68. There's a vacuum pump inside there, OnanO-Bob.

    ReplyDelete
  69. A usb keyboard works on a laptop too bob.
    Better to pour beer and doritos on a $20 keyboard.
    ...plus, you don't have to squiggle and stretch your fingers around, you just type.
    ...except on the plane to Paris, or the backseat of the Limo.

    ReplyDelete
  70. OnanO probly has a keen interest in vacuum pumps.

    ReplyDelete
  71. They're all mouse capable. And they all suck off of some one's connection, with a wireless router, just make sure you have your own.

    It's gonna be a whole new world for you, Bob, just take it one step at a time.

    ReplyDelete
  72. except on the plane to Paris, or the backseat of the Limo

    Well that let's me out then. I'm generally either on a plane to Paris, or in the backseat of my Limo.

    ReplyDelete
  73. You'll just have to get use to fingering it. There's no mouse for the limo.

    ReplyDelete
  74. You just get the extra life battery option.
    Right back at the Bar @ 30,000 ft.

    ReplyDelete
  75. OnanO's got fingering it figured out.

    ReplyDelete
  76. He won't need to if he's wearing his bamboo moisture wicking robe with a built in vacuum pump. He's got it made, then.

    ReplyDelete
  77. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  78. Finally, you hook up your Cinerama® sized LCD, and voila!
    ...almost as good as a desktop.

    ReplyDelete
  79. I fingered as much, er, figured as much. I'd share my lap with someone who, er, my lap top, with someone who could teach me a thing or two, teach me the melody, so to speak.

    ReplyDelete
  80. And don't forget the Bose wireless surround sound. A Cinerama LCD isn't worth shit if you don't have good sound to go with it.

    ReplyDelete
  81. Here in the Season's Feastings section of The Costco Connection mag that I picked up is a $400 off ad for select Dell Laptop and Desktop computers. Doesn't say off what, though.

    And here is a ZT PC with AMD Phenom II X4 945 for $599.99 delivered

    and a

    ZT PC with AMD Athlon II X2 240 at $399.99, delivered.

    So many products, so little money.

    ReplyDelete
  82. I always say you get what you pay for.

    ReplyDelete
  83. What part of your Acer died?

    Funny, they're a giant company that makes computers for lots of "our" companies.
    ...do they save the shit for their own line?
    Seems Weird.

    ReplyDelete
  84. The hard drive. It would have cost me 400.00 with a 3 month warranty and they had this Compaq on sale for not much more with a one year warranty. Dumb move.

    ReplyDelete
  85. Only $400!
    Mine's got a 320 gig drive.
    (trying to drive Linear and Bob nuts)

    ReplyDelete
  86. They probly had more places they could get rid of the leftovers out of Ideehoe, Bob, than they do out here in mid-pac.

    ReplyDelete
  87. And what does a 320 gig drive do for you, Doug?

    ReplyDelete
  88. Reuters - ‎1 hour ago‎
    HONG KONG, Nov 9 (Reuters) - Hong Kong shares are set to rise on Monday tracking firmer overseas markets with a persistent inflow of funds supporting a further rise in the local market and Chinese finance stocks expected to lead.

    ReplyDelete
  89. And I thought I was sitting on top of the world with an 8 gig Ipod.

    ReplyDelete
  90. Nov. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Comcast Corp. and General Electric Co., in discussions over the sale of GE's NBC Universal division, agreed to value the unit at about $30 billion, according to three people ...

    ReplyDelete
  91. Washington Post -
    SHARM EL-SHEIKH, EGYPT -- Wen Jiabao, China's premier, has pledged $10 billion in new low-cost loans to Africa over the next three years and has defended his country's engagement on the continent against accusations ...

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  92. "We will provide $10 billion in concessional loans to African countries," Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said Sunday at the opening ceremony of the two-day Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, or FOCAC, at the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.

    ...

    FOCAC, which is held every three years, was first held in Beijing in 2000.

    Three years later, the meeting was held in Addis Ababa in Ethiopia, followed by a China-Africa Summit in 2006. At the 2006 meeting, China said it would take measures including canceling debts and lifting tariffs on some goods.


    $10 Bil

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  93. I'd bet the Chinese will never get their money back from the Africans, at least directly.

    ReplyDelete
  94. Did you notice that there is no music - none at all - in the movie Castaway until he leaves the island?

    ReplyDelete
  95. My daughter pointed it out and it sticks with me.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hb2-0aAmyAI

    ReplyDelete
  96. She also shaved her head in the Turtle Back ceremony.

    We'll forgive her that.

    ReplyDelete
  97. Posted by: Pangaea Nov 08, 08:19 PM Report Abuse
    Reply


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    Ms. Brooks writes, "Jihad, literally, effort or struggle. In usage, it means and has always meant the struggle to advance Islam, whether by the sword, demographics, economically, legally, by the pen, in or any other way."

    Read about the Muslim Brotherhood's One Hundred Year Plan -- The Project:

    "The second document revealing The Project was recovered in America. It is an eighteen page paper signed by Mohamed Akram, dated May 22, 1991, and bears the title, "An Explanatory Memorandum: On the General Strategic Goal for the Group." The idea is to create a parallel Muslim society as a foundation for the ultimate objective: establishing sharia and overturning the Constitution. After detachedly scrutinizing the American predilection for doing things in organizations, the plan emphasizes establishing many different kinds of Muslim organizations in order to give Islam more of a foothold in this country. While America sleeps, chiding itself for its supposed injustices towards Muslim minorities, these same minorities are cold-bloodedly working to undermine their hosts and take possession of their nation."

    AT readers, is the Muslim Brotherhood succeeding in their mission? Is their plan on course? You be the judge. Knowledge is power - read, learn. "Know your enemy," Sun Tzu.

    WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT ISLAMIC JIHAD: Information The Mainstream Media Is Not Giving You
    by Madeline Brooks, M.A.
    [www.actnycoalition.org]


    ---------

    In a panel discussing the movie, director Robert Zemeckis joked that the unopened package contained a waterproof, solar-powered satellite phone. This led to a Super Bowl commercial that parodied the movie, which shows Chuck (though not played by Hanks) delivering the unopened package; as he does so, he asks the recipient "by the way, what's in the package?" and she replies "nothing much, just a satellite phone, GPS locator, fishing rod, water purifier, and some seeds."

    wiki

    I'll have to ask the wife about this movie.

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  98. Wife says it was a good movie.

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  99. Oh, for heavens sake, watch it. It's good.

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  100. Despite such obstacles, the Copenhagen summit "might still present an opportunity to significantly advance the international climate effort," Eileen Clausen, president of the non-profit organization Pew Center on Global Climate Change, told lawmakers at the same Foreign Affairs hearing.

    "We have believed for some time that it would not be feasible to achieve a full, final ratifiable agreement in Copenhagen," she said, noting that domestic issues for some nations including the United States will prevent them from bringing the "specific and binding commitments" needed for a ultimate deal.

    But Clausen said the summit may be able to produce an agreement on the "fundamental architecture of a post-2012 framework, which would provide a basis for then negotiating towards specific commitments in a final legal agreement."


    No Legal Pact

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  101. OK, I did enjoy the Series, you steered me right there.

    Flu Outbreak in the Ukraine

    Who is Joseph Moshe, and what does he know?

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  102. Update 1: For the purpose of keeping information from disappearing, I am going to mirror most information I can find on here.

    Comments on the Huffington post website on an article about Moshe’s arrest documenting his claim that the Influenza virus in a vaccine manufactured by Baxter in Ukraine replicates RNA from the 1918 flu and is meant as a bioweapon:

    ...

    Update 2: The Ukrainian government wants to impose travel restrictions on people across the nation to stop the virus from spreading.

    Update 3: According to the Huffington post comments I cited above, Dr. Moshe claimed that the virus used replicated RNA of the 1918 Spanish flu. Symptoms of the 1919 Flu include victims being drenched in blood:


    Biological Weapon?

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  103. "And what does a 320 gig drive do for you, Doug?"
    ---
    Does wonders for the self-esteem.
    ...and the power to humble lesser beings at will.
    (until the next gen doubles it again)

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  104. It appears that the massive biological pandemic that I have forecast for many years has arrived in the break-away Soviet republic of Ukraine over the past week.
    School and public offices have all been closed. President Yuschenko has declared a state of emergency and issued a plea for international help. Reports of up to 3,000 deaths (unconfirmed) already are leaking out.
    So far, the worst of this outbreak is in Western Ukraine, in and around the city of Lviv.
    Ukrainian authorities are unclear that this outbreak is the same as the Swine Flu. Maybe it is just a lethal mutation. They are calling it both a viral pneumonia and bacteriological hemorrhagic fever. The symptoms mimic those of Swine Flu. People die with their lungs dissolving almost overnight, filled with fluids and blood. This is the exact, same pattern as followed by the 1917 Spanish Flu. The rampup over the summer has been identical to 1917, too.
    Here's why you are at special risk if you are young and healthy: Your vital and responsive immune system is the very thing that kills you, by overreacting to the infection. A great many of the people now dying have underlying conditions as well, particularly those of a respiratory nature such as asthma, when they take ill.
    Now for the conspiracy twist.
    Three months ago, Israeli Mossad agent Joseph Moshe, who specializes in biological warfare, was taken down by Los Angeles police, allegedly for "threatening the White House." What wasn't reported by the media at the time was that Moshe just had "called into a radio show to warn people about a biological weapon that was being made by Baxter international that would be spread through vaccine and would cause a plague upon its release." (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/14/man-suspected-of-making-t_n_259330.html) Moshe also claimed that Ukraine would be the country in which it first would be released.

    Three months ago, Moshe stated that this pandemic would begin in Ukraine, a country free of the flu until last week.

    Baxter Pharmaceuticals has a vaccine development and production lab in Ukraine and in the past has been proven to have shipped dangerous live agents to other countries, notably AIDS in blood products that killed thousands of people a few years ago. This past spring, Czechoslovakia happened to test some Baxter vaccine and found live virus, something about which you may have heard.

    Baxter, the source of the flu vaccine now being distributed over there, cannot be trusted! The Ukrainian people are not being told any of this or about what this Moshe character said just prior to being arrested in August over here.

    There is extreme danger from this flu pandemic in Ukraine right now. Particularly, get a supply of Tamiflu, if possible, and start taking it at the first sign of symptoms (headache, fever, dry cough, aches/pains and extreme fatigue). It works. I have used it myself in the past. This flu operates very fast, often within just 3 - 6 hours, and is very deadly. You will not have time to get Tamiflu once you have symptoms.
    I predict that we will see this all over the globe by the end of the month. This could kill a lot of people. A lot, as in millions. Already, you can bank upon this infection being in many other countries, now going through its gestation period. I think this is just the crest. Now comes the plunge downward. Keep your hands and feet inside the ride at all times.
    New America - an idea whose time has come.

    My name is Edgar J. Steele. Thanks for listening. Please visit my web site, www.NickelRant.com, for other messages just like this one.


    From my friend Dale who never lacks a conspiracy theory.

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  105. The man had refused to leave his red Volkswagen Beetle and withstood four rounds of chemical agents tossed inside the car after police broke a rear window.

    About an hour later, officers shot out the drivers window with a bean bag gun and pulled him out.


    Asked how the man was able to withstand multiple rounds of what appeared to be tear gas, Villanueva said some people are able to resist the chemicals.

    "I can't explain that, there's no way to explain that," he said.


    Let's see you beat that, al-Doug.

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  106. Where is Joseph Moshe?

    Now, the information I received tonight.

    Joseph Moshe (Moshe is the man's middle name) is a bio-scientist. He works (worked?) for a unit within Mossad. He is an Israeli citizen.

    The Secret Service was not the agency involved in the surveillance of Moshe at his home in California. This was done by the FBI, who had orders to detain him, or "bring him in."

    Moshe did not send a threat to the White House. Rather, he communicated that he intended to go public with information he had regarding the flu vaccine that is being prepared by Baxter Labs, an Austrian company.

    The information is this: The vaccine is being manufactured in Ukraine. It is not a vaccine at all, but rather an engineered genetically mutated bio-weapon meant to cause sickness and death. Moshe informed the White House he intended to go public with this information. When he became aware that the FBI was about to detain him, he packed some belongings in his car and set out for the Israeli consulate, located in close proximity to the federal building where the standoff took place. FBI pursuit kept him from reaching his destination.

    Mounted on top of the large black vehicle was a microwave weapon which fried the electronics in Moshe's car as well as any communication devices he had which might have been used to contact the media or others who could help him.

    Moshe did not suffer the same effects of the gas and pepper spray that others would have because he had built up an immunity to such weapons as a by-product of his Mossad training.

    Moshe was not handcuffed because he was not placed under arrest. After leaving police or FBI custody, he returned to Israel, where he is at this time.

    The information comes from one of my confidential sources. I have reason to believe it is accurate. If I receive more information I will post it.



    heh, I know what my aunt would say, she'd say, "Bob, what a crazy world."

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  107. Moshe was not handcuffed because he was not placed under arrest.

    Looked to me like they had him in handcuffs. Well, have to keep my eye on this story.

    Guy can handle tear gas, that's for sure.

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  108. Sounds like a sure-fire business model for Baxter.
    Would do wonders for PR too.
    How Corporations can win friend snd influece people.

    (Shakes Head)

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  109. "“We object to, and do not believe, that anti-Muslim sentiment should emanate from this,” she said. “This was an individual who does not represent the Muslim faith.”

    Describing the killings as “a terrible tragedy”, Ms Napolitano said a civil rights and civil liberties directorate in her department aimed to “prevent everybody being painted with a broad brush”.

    “That work is ongoing and is part and parcel of how we view security,” she said. “One of the things we’ll do is make sure that we’re reaching out to the state and local authorities within the US, because they often have better outreach to members of the Muslim community than we do.” Ms Napolitano was speaking to female students at Zayed University, and took part in a private question-and-answer session with them.
    "

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  110. Right,
    He screamed ali akbar because he's a Southern Baptist.

    Please take that strange brainless creature back, 'Rat.

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  111. Forget if Trish and T were around when I linked this gem. Brought a smile again when I heard it on Buffet's radio station.

    - John Prine and Iris DeMent - In Spite of Ourselves


    IN SPITE OF OURSELVES

    She don't like her eggs all runny
    She thinks crossin' her legs is funny
    She looks down her nose at money
    She gets it on like the Easter Bunny
    She's my baby I'm her honey
    I'm never gonna let her go

    He ain't got laid in a month of Sundays
    I caught him once and he was sniffin' my undies
    He ain't too sharp but he gets things done
    Drinks his beer like it's oxygen
    He's my baby
    And I'm his honey
    Never gonna let him go

    In spite of ourselves
    We'll end up a'sittin' on a rainbow
    Against all odds
    Honey, we're the big door prize
    We're gonna spite our noses
    Right off of our faces
    There won't be nothin' but big old hearts
    Dancin' in our eyes.

    She thinks all my jokes are corny
    Convict movies make her horny
    She likes ketchup on her scrambled eggs
    Swears like a sailor when shaves her legs
    She takes a lickin'
    And keeps on tickin'
    I'm never gonna let her go.

    He's got more balls than a big brass monkey
    He's a wacked out werido and a lovebug junkie
    Sly as a fox and crazy as a loon
    Payday comes and he's howlin' at the moon
    He's my baby I don't mean maybe
    Never gonna let him go

    In spite of ourselves
    We'll end up a'sittin' on a rainbow
    Against all odds
    Honey, we're the big door prize
    We're gonna spite our noses
    Right off of our faces
    There won't be nothin' but big old hearts
    Dancin' in our eyes.
    There won't be nothin' but big old hearts
    Dancin' in our eyes.

    (spoken) In spite of ourselves

    John Prine (duet with Iris DeMent)

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