I should be able to resume posting shortly.

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2009-06-30


This is interesting ...

2009-06-29

The U.S. government had been telling the American citizen for several decades now that there is no inflation in the American economy.
Of course, Americans know this isn’t true. Oil prices rose from $15/barrel to $150/barrel in twenty years. Housing prices jumped 150-500% is three years, after averaging an appreciation of 2.5% per year over a century. Health care costs explode year after year, averaging 9.5% growth, year-over-year for the last decade. The cost of college tuition has gone up by almost 1000% in thirty years. And we are told that there is no inflation.
It finally became clear to me, after years of musing on this phenomenon, that, there is no inflation, according to government statistics, as long as there is no wage inflation. And there has been little wage inflation – that is true. As long as wages stay low and do not chase the escalating costs of goods and services – and this is almost possible if the cost of credit stays low -- then the inflation spiral is muted. Of course, the consumer, in this scenario, becomes more and more indebted through this method of paying for myriad inflationary goods and materials. Apparently there is no moral dilemma in this. Business profits grow, wages remain low, and workers take on more and more debt. It sounds to me like a volcano that is bound to blow. But what do I know? I’m not an economist. Sometimes logic is only logic for those not sophisticated enough to know the difference between appearance and reality.
Interesting ... (and longish) ...
The new book opens six months after Pearl carved up the Russian mobsters who paralyzed his girlfriend, Jordan. Now in a wheelchair, she wants nothing to do with him. He's unemployed, having lost privileges at the hospital. And the cops know he's the mysterious sword-wielding vigilante. They just can't prove it. Worse, Tie Mei, Pearl's dead nanny and kung fu master, has stopped appearing to give him instructions. It was Tie Mei's ghost, after all, who commanded Pearl to become a night avenger in the first place. Desperate for guidance, Pearl seeks a new mentor, a search that leads him to Solomon Yu, owner of an exotic reptile import business who may have a connection to Tie Mei's past and the lost martial arts tradition from which she emerged.
Hmmm ... so much to do, so little time to read ...

I wonder if there is anyone anywhere that is actually buying any of this ...

2009-06-28

Hopefully, ammo prices will start to fall, a bit, too ...

Running a day late because of stormy weather, a United Launch Alliance Delta 4 rocket boosted a new GOES weather satellite into space Saturday to serve as an orbital spare for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's fleet of hurricane-tracking weather sentinels. The Delta 4, equipped with two strap-on solid-fuel boosters, ignited with a rush of flame and smoke at 6:51 p.m. EDT and quickly climbed away from launch complex 37 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, arcing to the east and accelerating toward orbit. "Three, two, one, and liftoff of the Delta 4 rocket with GOES-O, enhancing quality and reliability of the weather satellite for the forecaster," said NASA launch commentator George Diller.

According to the article, the Colorado findings suggest that “gun-control laws would have had little effect on the study subjects’ criminal behavior.” The impressive CDC Study and the even more massive NAS Study, which indicate that there is no substantial scientific evidence that gun control laws prevent crime, support this conclusion. (See my posts under the Category: “Research.”) Another interesting finding of the study in question is that some criminals would be deterred by liberal concealed carry laws. Wright and Rossi found that criminals are risk averse and, in effect, do a kind of risk/benefit analysis when selecting victims.


Why, it's ... inconceivable ...
There shouldn't be any 'let' involved ...

2009-06-24

I will be off the interwebs until Sunday night ...


You can learn a lot by watching the cats ...


Whenever we become content to leave our security in the hands of others, i.e. the police, military, etc., it's just a matter of time before we start to take on the appearance of 'lunch' for some predator. The only legitimate way to avoid violence is to be READY to confront it head on at a moments notice. There is no way to fake that readiness and once you have it the predators recognize it and go look for easier prey.

2009-06-23

After 9/11, Davis pushed for changes to open government laws that created an even larger shield for information that private companies gave to the government. Specifically, Davis won protections for companies that run critical infrastructure — such as railroads and chemical plants — allowing them to tell the Department of Homeland Security about dangerous practices without the fear that the public could petition to see the information. David Sobel, a Freedom of Information Act attorney, testified against that provision in 2002, when he worked for Rotenberg at EPIC. “We are discussing the desire of private companies to keep secret potentially embarrassing information at a time when the disclosure practices of many in the business world are being scrutinized,” Sobel said, referring to the overstated corporate profits that were being discovered in 2002. “If a company is willing to fudge its financial numbers to maintain its stock price, what assurance would we have that it was not hiding behind a ‘critical infrastructure’ FOIA exemption in order to conceal gross negligence in its maintenance and operation of a chemical plant or a transportation system?”

Hmmm ... this might be an effective approach.
Some Summer to start the summer ...
Congratulations to AZ if this is right ... although the guy writing the article doesn't sound very happy about it.

2009-06-22


It's a foregone conclusion that retailers will be getting along with less help going forward. What will probably end up happening is that costs will go up to cover shrinkage until a new equilibrium is found. The 'leaders' will be those that come up with the loss control strategies that work best at the margins.

How unfortunate ...

2009-06-21

It's important to make sure you understand exactly whose security is improved using surveillance in the above two examples. The casino patrons are allowing their own invisibility to be reduced in the hopes that the more costly invincibility that the casino has for itself will spill over to the benefit of the patron, and that is frequently a decent trade-off. On the other hand, if the agency is compromising the citizens invisibility so it doesn't have to provide any invincibility, it's hard to imagine any of the citizen's benefiting from it.

The Basij militia completely blocked off Revolution Square, one major gathering ground for the protesters. They are less accountable than regular security forces and, many witnesses said, were far more violent on Saturday. “Please go home,” one regular officer told protesters. “We are scared of the Basijis, too.”

Hmmm ... this wouldn't be happening if the Iranian citizens were heavily armed, too.
I do sooo love it when they fight back ...

2009-06-20

How secure a property room is usually depends more on the quality of the access control policies and how rigorously they are applied across time than on the type and quality of the construction.
This seems to be a popular accusation in the west, too ...
My suspicion is that it will mostly increase the number of friendly-fire casualties, but ...

Law #3: All security is individual and relative.
More evidence of what is truly happening in Mexico was brought out in a series of hearings held earlier this year. During those hearings, three representatives of U.S. law enforcement, one each from BATFE, the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), made it clear that the increase in violence in Mexico is being misinterpreted by the media and politicians. They testified that the increase in violence is a direct result of the actions taken by Mexican President Felipe Calderon to take on the cartels. The cartels, they testified, are being pressured more than ever before and are fighting back in desperation, resulting in casualties. (If you wish to view the hearings, please use the following links: House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere: "Guns, Drugs and Violence: The Merida Initiative and the Challenge in Mexico" , and Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Drugs: "Law Enforcement Responses to Mexican Drug Cartels") For American gun owners, the battle will be to make sure that politicians who see an opportunity to advance their gun ban agenda do not use Mexico as an excuse to sacrifice our Second Amendment rights.

2009-06-18

If we're going to spend taxpayer money anyway, I can't think of a better thing to spend it on ...

The written exam, given as part of Department of Defense employees’ routine training, includes a multiple-choice question that asks:
“Which of the following is an example of low-level terrorism?”
— Attacking the Pentagon
— IEDs
— Hate crimes against racial groups
— Protests
The correct answer, according to the exam, is "Protests."

I would hope that the proofreader just missed this ...

2009-06-17

As is ready access to some 'blam-blams' when the time comes ...
This is an excellent article, but I think criteria #5 should not be there. It's like admitting that your own acts would constitute terrorism if it weren't for an arbitrary exclusion in the definition.

As with the case of the letter from the 65 Democrat congress members in March, this letter did not get any news coverage, at least not yet. You can rest assured that if 23 attorneys general had signed a letter calling upon the Obama administration to push for renewal of the ban, it would have occupied all of the Sunday morning news/talk programs. The 23 state Attorneys General who signed the letter are:Arkansas – Dustin McDaniel Alabama - Troy King Colorado - John W. Suthers Florida - Bill McCollum Georgia - Thurbert E. Baker Idaho - Lawrence G. Wasden Kansas - Steve Six Kentucky - Jack Conway Louisiana - James D. Caldwell Michigan - Mike Cox Missouri - Chris Koster Montana - Steve Bullock Oklahoma - W.A. Edmonson Nebraska - Jon Bruning Nevada - Catherine Cortez Masto New Hampshire - Kelly A. Ayotte North Dakota - Wayne Stenehjem South Carolina - Henry McMaster South Dakota - Lawrence Long Texas - Greg Abbott Utah - Mark L. Shurtleff Wisconsin – J.B. Van Hollen Wyoming - Bruce A. Salzburg

One month after successfully tucking an amendment into the credit card reform bill that expanded gun rights, a small number of Senate Republicans are looking at the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act as another chance to score a victory for the Second Amendment. The possible plan — to add an amendment that would allow gun owners to carry their weapons from one state to another in accordance with concealed carry laws. The possible rationale — to defend gay rights. “It makes sense for a group of people who would be protected by hate crime legislation to support something that would let them defend themselves before or after the crime,” said one Republican Senate aid familiar with the discussions. “It’s relevant, and we want to work together with gay groups to get the message out.”


Whatever works ...
I do sooo love it when they fight back ...

2009-06-15

Critical information ...
Some cool pics from the start of the Giraglia Rolex Cup ...
Hmmm ... I wonder where these figures came from.
Sounds about right ...

2009-06-12

Home Invasion Roundup:

Perrysburg Township

Ann Arbor

Cinco Ranch

Adelanto

West Newfield
Yeah, or maybe the union could buy 'em ...

Let's hope so ...

"Even though Hayabusa is not actually an asteroid, it will be on a path that will cause it to collide with the Earth in the same way as an asteroid," said JAXA spokesperson Akinori Hashimoto. "We will monitor its movements, and the data will enable us to accurately predict the future paths of asteroids that are on course to come close to the Earth."


Good idea ...

2009-06-11

Home Invasion Roundup:

Hardin County - I do so love it when they fight back ... with guns!

Bolingbrook

Lawrence County

Glenn County

McDuffie County

St. Joseph County

HOUSTON

PORTLAND

Kent County

Bronx
I bet the employers of that 58% is proud to have such go-getters. If their policies are weak, shame on them. If your skills are weak, shame on you.
It would be useful in judging your statements to know whether the business structure was such that even if everyone in the joint was content to continue working there doing the same thing, the place would still have to close forever.

If it could have continued on profitably without Tiller but the terror of the act was just too much for everyone, then it might be legit to say it resulted from the act of terrorism (although terrorism is usually directed at government policies rather than individual enterprises.)

On the other hand, if the act of Tiller dying doomed the enterprise then it's rather opportunistic and unethical to go on and on about the terrorism winning when it was in fact the plain old criminal murder that actually did the job.
Were any parts other than their names linked?

2009-06-10

Home Invasion Roundup:

LaPorte

Laurens County

Mooresville

SPARTA

Cathedral City

WILTON

Orlando
Something missing from the speech was one of the most important cybersecurity policies of all: keeping truly critical communications off the Internet. The Internet is but one communications system. There are others, and more can be created. When security is truly important - such as in military communications, back-end financial services, and so on - communications can and should be on separate, dedicated networks. Something that wasn't missing from his speech was the hyperbole that is Washington, D.C.'s stock in trade. President Obama marched out the spectre of terrorist attacks over the Internet, citing a lame and corny threat model called "weapons of mass disruption." As to the $8 billion he says Americans lost to cyber crime in the last two years? That amount is a rounding error on the funds surging out of Washington since the Bush and Obama administrations agreed that propping up failed businesses is a good policy.


Hmmm ...
I think that if you want to support calling any particular act 'terrorism', then you would be better off using some type of definition/usage argument rather than just ranting "THIS is terrorism", "This IS terrorism", This is TERRORISM" throughout the whole post.
Cool ...
Interesting ... if it blew 599 years ago, we won't find out for another year.

2009-06-09

Very interesting ...
I hope they either figure out what a bad choice this was or find something else interesting to do with Summer Glau.
Hard to be prepared for this while still operating normally ...

2009-06-08

Home Invasion Roundup:

Evansville - I do so love it when they fight back!

Cannington

Kenner

CINCINNATI

South Bend

Norwalk

Middletown
The Security seemed competent enough ... I think they may have spent a little too much time wishing they weren't going to have to wrestle with a douche before they got around to getting on with it, but, on the plus side, they didn't get sucked into a wild goose chase where the baddie goes back around and gets to the principal a SECOND time with no Security around to protect him 'cuz they all chased after him. I'd call it a pretty solid performance based on the video attached to the story.
... and ...
It all makes sense now ...

The D.C. voting rights bill adopted by the U.S. Senate includes an amendment offered by Republican Sen. John Ensign of Nevada that repeals the city’s ban on semiautomatic weapons, repeals all registration requirements, removes criminal penalties for the possession of unregistered firearms and legalizes carrying a gun on the streets. “I am hopeful that the Ensign amendment will not pass,” Mendelson said. “It would be a serious blow to public safety.”

What public safety would that be?

2009-06-07

Hmmm ...
This is almost too much to ask for ...
Interesting ...

2009-06-05

His findings, reported in Anthrozoos: A Multidisciplinary Journal of the Interactions of People & Animals: half of the 18 people who ran when they were attacked escaped injury. The study also found, however, that those who ran had a slightly higher chance of being killed in an attack—28 percent (five) of those who fled died as a result of injuries, compared with 23 percent (eight) of those who remained motionless during big cat attacks. About 39 percent, or 28 people, who moved away slowly when approached by a mountain lion escaped without injury. On the other hand, people who froze were the least likely to escape injury when a mountain lion attacked. Only 26 percent of them escaped. They also had the greatest frequency of severe injuries: 43 percent of those who stood still in the face of a lion were badly injured compared with 17 percent of those who fled, according to the study.
Blam ... blam, blam ... blam, blam, blam! Let's eat!

Chaffetz's amendment says that whole body imaging "may not be used" as the primary method of passenger screening, and that passengers have the right to refuse it and "shall be offered a pat-down search" as an alternative. It also prohibits the storage or transmission of the whole-body images after they're no longer necessary for screening. "Whole-body imaging is exactly what it says; it allows TSA employees to conduct the equivalent of a strip search," Chaffetz said in a statement after the vote. "Nobody needs to see my wife and kids naked to secure an airplane."

And yet, this is, by far, the BEST security method in use for securing planes. Forget about no fly lists and all the other security theater. If you get on a plane without the means to interfere with the flight, you aren't a security threat. It doesn't matter who you are or what you've done in the past. If you can't, you won't.
Hmmm ... about time ...
Home Invasion Roundup:

New Castle

Webster

Redlands

CLARKSDALE

COEUR D’ALENE - I do so love it when they fight back!

HAPPY VALLEY
As long as they don't get on the plane carrying weapons or explosives, what possible reason could there be for preventing them from flying.
Ahh, federalism ...

2009-06-04

Now, I'm so afraid that I'm willing to immediately give up all my rights and grant unlimited power to the gubmint if they will just protect me from the awesome might of these rock-throwing weasels.
Home Invasion Roundup:

Meridian Township

Stephens County

Garner

Lincoln

Southwest Miami-Dade

Gladstone
It makes you wonder whose Security they think they're improving, because it clearly it isn't the subjects ...

Wilkinsburg lawmakers approved an ordinance Wednesday night that would penalize gun owners who fail to report to police their weapon has been lost or stolen within 24 hours. If Mayor John Thompson signs it into law as expected, the borough would join Pittsburgh and five other Pennsylvania towns that have passed controversial rules designed to crack down on gun straw purchasers.

Well, these guys should all be promptly voted out. It's too bad that passing patently unconstitutional laws isn't a crime.

2009-06-03

Their generation was also the first to have the entire law-abiding population disarmed for their added security...
I have a hard time seeing how capping any one person constitutes terrorism. Murder, yes! Tragedy, yes! Terrorism ... no!
It looks like that distinction may no longer be valid ...
A whole bunch of HDR ...
Lotsa cool pics, too ...

2009-06-02

Hmmm ... prodigy ...
Interesting list ...
Home Invasion Roundup:

Atlanta

Boulevard Park

Danville

Pensacola