Zak's Thoughts and Events

Socialism With a Human Face?

My tag line is: “George W. Bush is LBJ with a human face.” Now this is a take off from Alexander Dubcek the former Premier of communist Czechoslovakia when his attempt at liberalizing his country met with the Soviet invasion in 1968; he wanted to create “socialism with a human face”. Well LBJ was ugly and Bush has become an even bigger socialist than Johnson. Bush was definitely not a conservative, his foreign policy was too far reaching and reckless, his domestic policy was too expensive and tried to create a heaven on earth which is what one would expect from the left.

Freddie Hubbard Dies at 70

Freddiehubbard_240

One of the greatest, rest in peace brother Freddie.

Freddie Hubbard Link

The Great Contraction

I give President George W. Bush the dubious credit for destroying the remainder of Reaganism that his father didn't dismantle. I really think that the Bush family is poison for the Republican Party. There is no longer a vision that has political legs, which will propel America forward in the 21st century in the tradition of the Bill of Rights. The Washington DC culture is so corrupt that I doubt that America can be saved. 1913 when the 16^th Amendment and the Federal Reserve was passed may have doomed America to fascism/ socialism. Is this the death of the conservative movement?

 

The credit bubble was created by the Federal Reserve and Congress through the Community Reinvestment Act and allowing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to buy no document home loans. This last economic expansion was created artificially through the over expansion of credit.  Destroying the traditional standards that financial institutions had used before extending credit has ruined the balance sheets of most public companies that were in the business of extending credit.  Congress and the President have created more debt to throw good money after bad in bailing out insolvent companies. I find it terribly ironic that the institutions that created these bad loans like the money was free are getting bailed out with taxpayer’s money and debt while citizens who are in trouble because of their debt may actually face bankruptcy while in the long term be subject to additional taxation to service this debt and dollar repudiation.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_Reinvestment_Act

 

 

I am very sad for my country. Changing the President doesn’t create a positive reality. Barack Obama’s appointments are the same beltway insiders that created this mess in the first place. While I want my country to succeed, I am not a cheerleader for the Obama administration.

Killing the Land Line

We have been paying $40 to $60 per month for our landline through ACN. I have several friends that have abandoned their landline entirely and are strictly cell phone. I have been looking for a solution that doesn't rely solely on cell phone service. Voip "Voice over the internet protocol" seems to be the best choice. I signed up for Magic Jack to give it a try before I disconnect from my phone company ACN.

When we built the house 11 years ago I had a commercial telephone switching system installed with two phone lines. We still had dial up Internet service back then before high speed broadband was available so I needed the extra line. I had designed the electrical system and had my electrical contractor run a continuous “home run” connection from each telephone jack to the switchbox. I did the same for the coax cable for the TV system. Now we are going wireless and my wired telephone system is obsolete.

 

 

Magic Jack

The Gift of Wisdom

Thomas Sowell
      

Jewish World Review Dec. 16, 2008 19 Kislev 5769
This holiday season, give the gift of wisdom
By Thomas Sowell

 

http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | Good books are especially good to give as
gifts to the proverbial "man who has everything" because he (or she) may not
have heard of a new book that fits their interests.

Good new books are one of the few good things about this past year. Here are
some books that could make fine gifts, obtainable painlessly without battling
crowds at the mall— or even in the bookstores, if you order on-line.

The most outstanding political book of 2008 has been by Jonah Goldberg. It
shoots to pieces the prevailing ideas of who is on "the left" and who is on "the
right."

It can become especially relevant in the coming year, if the new administration
goes further with the government interventions in the economy begun by the
outgoing administration— the kind of economic policies that were at the heart of
fascism.

Fans of economist and JWR columnist Walter Williams will welcome a new
collection of his columns in a book titled "Liberty versus the Tyranny of
Socialism." Spiced with imaginative examples of economic principles in everyday
life, it is vintage Williams.
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It's not all economics, either. Professor Williams' columns are also on
education, law, politics and other subjects, all done in his own inimitable
style.

Another economist and columnist, Robert J. Samuelson of Newsweek, also published
a new book this year— one focused on a topic that is likely to be of growing
interest and growing concern in the years ahead. Its title is "The Great
Inflation and Its Aftermath."

It is an account of how the American economy went from price stability in the
1950s to the beginning of inflation in the 1960s, reaching dangerous levels of
inflation in the 1970s, with inflation then being brought under control with a
lot of tough decisions and painful consequences in the 1980s.

This is the kind of book that may be more fully appreciated by an economist but
it is written in plain English, with no graphs or jargon, so it should be
interesting to a lot of people who are not economists.

"The Great Inflation and Its Aftermath" also has that most uncommon
characteristic, common sense.

Not all the books recommended this year were published this year. "Greatness" by
Steven F. Hayward is an unusual book published in 2005. In its 170 pages of
text, it deftly compares Winston Churchill and Ronald Reagan as leaders,
revealing a truly remarkable range of similarities between these two men from
radically different social backgrounds.

Written at a popular level in an engaging style, "Greatness" is also a book from
which scholars can learn— except for those who think they already know it all.

A very different book is a little book of whimsical cartoons titled "Furry
Logic" by Jane Seabrook. It is good for a few moments of real pleasure and cheer
during the holiday season, perhaps especially good for people recovering in
hospitals or at home, but enjoyable by people of all ages and circumstances.

Books about the past can be relevant to the future, especially when the same
kinds of policies reappear under new names. It is good to have an understanding
of why these policies did not work when they were tried before, as a sneak
preview of what to expect from such policies the second time around.

Since so many of the approaches that Barack Obama has advocated under the mantra
of "change" are things already tried out during the 1930s by Franklin D.
Roosevelt, a devastating and very readable book titled "FDR's Folly" by Jim
Powell spells out just exactly what happened in the American economy when such
policies were put into effect.

My own new book this year is "Economic Facts and Fallacies." While I cannot
pretend to give an unbiased evaluation of it, I can point out that it received a
prize at an international gathering in Zurich and has already been translated in
Spain.

Since fallacies flourish during election years, you may already have heard quite
a few of these fallacies this year. "Economic Facts and Fallacies" can help
prepare you for what is likely to happen when those fallacies are turned into
policies in the new administration next year.

Life Stinks

199px-LifeStinks

Mel Brooks, Che Vita da cani - Life Stinks

Bah Humbug?

JoAnne and I went to the Tucson Mall last evening to do some Christmas shopping for our children and son-in-law.

 

There were so many store closings and bankruptcies with K B Toys, and Mervyns. So many closed stores and going out of business sales. The crowd was very thin as compared to last year; there were drastic discounts in every store.

 

This was very depressing and really dampened the holiday mood. Of course the fact that I have been laid off from my last three employers since November 2007 did not help my spirit either. Cash is really king and any one with deep pockets is finding deals galore, it’s just that I am still shaking off periods of both fear and euphoria. Bah Humbug?

 

Tucson Mall Owner Faces Bankruptcy

I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas

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Make Photo-radar Unconstitutional!

Pat Schwind Presents: Strategic Edge this Thursday, 12/18/8
 
 
 Bio-Terrorism: Real Threat or Outright Hoax?
 
 Minutes of 12/4/08
 
 
 I. Attended: Ted Goldberg, Frank Rickey, Mark Sorhdal, Brandon Mullan,
 Olga Strickland, Russ Wittenberg, Ernie & Donna Hancock, Geri Seckinger,
 Pat Schwind, Powell Gammill, Brian Mackey, Bill Blewster, Chris Braughton,
 Dan Gutenkauf, Jim Shahbazian, Howard Crowe, Rick Kolowinski, Vicki Allison,
 Dave Petersen, Tim Gufstafson, Jim Soudrette, Andy Vincent, Renee Houlihan,
 & our speakers, Dave 'DT' Arneson, & Corey Holmes, of CameraFraud.Com.
 
 II. I saw some folks from CameraFraud.Com, speak on the topic of "Photo
 Enforcement" of traffic laws, & "PHOTO RADAR" in particular, months ago
 at the 'Az. Breakfast Club'; (first Saturday of each month). They
 gladly honored my request to come out to the S/E. The white "Photo Radar"
 vans & fixed cameras you see all over 'The Valley', are operated by a
 couple private firms, (one's Australian). The law re: this type of
 enforcement is quite new, & some attorneys have told me it is
 clearly not "accused friendly". My personal experience convinced me
 that this aspect of "the system", is just "stacked against you".
 On 12/4, we heard lots of opinions about how to avoid receipt of the
 resulting tickets; most involved some form of vehicle registration
 in another county, or use of a 'straw owner', firm, 'trust' or 'PO Box'
 to avoid a 'process server'. I often prefer 'low tech solutions to
 high tech problems'; friends recommend Halloween Masks, but I advocate
 driving around wearing some form of widow's 'morning net'. But to me,
 there are two much bigger issues here, than avoiding an occasional
 ticket:
 
 1. This is just another step toward the "Surveillance Society", where
 we'll eventually be under scrutiny most of the time when outside our
 homes or workplace; & then eventually inside. It's not for 'security';
 it's about CONTROLLING the masses. They eventually want to "chip" all of us
 at birth, like we now do our dogs. The chips won't just be for "location
 & identification"; they'll be part of systems used to affect our
 bodies' chemical balance & neural functions. Farfetched? Didn't
 Galileo draw prototypes of helicopters & submarines? Hmmmm?
 
 2. Municipalities everywhere are drunk on the idea of revenue bonanzas
 from Photo Enforcement. Reminds me of the excitement the bureaucrats
 had about valley-wide recycling programs, that turned into failed
 experiments in socialism. Why do gov'ts swoon over the potential
 'money grab'? Simple! America's just flat broke, after almost 3
 decades of "Reaganism Gone Wild"! We sold our souls to RED CHINA, as
 we borrowed & spent ourselves into oblivion, at virtually every level
 of society. The GOP was so successful at "starving the beast", while
 throwing tax cuts & 'welfare to the rich', in classic "Reverse Robin
 Hood" class warfare. Most Dems stood by, "playin' with their puds";
 they had good ideas, but were too gutless to defend them. The GOP
 convinced so many Hockey Moms, Nascar Dads, & most stupid 'crackers'
 in the 'Greater Confederacy', that shifting gov't resources away from
 the stuff that made America great for so many years, (e.g. public
 education, maintaining our infrastructure, & "avoiding foreign
 entanglements"), while funding way more WAR, prisons & persecution
 of Gays & Brown folks, was a 'good idea'! Subsidizing bad ideas is
 very expensive; nefarious dirty deeds don't get 'done dirt cheap'.
 So the next time it takes an extra hour for a cop or the fire dept.
 to show up, or your parents or kids can't get the social services they
 need, thank the GOP!

Zak Klemmer’s comments: We need to use the Iniative Ballot Proposition

process to make photo inforcement unconstitutional in every state!

Take Any Road You Choose

On the day that the Confederates attacked Fort Sumter, a great physician in South Carolina was stopped on the road by a traveler asking directions. The traveler asked directions to an insane asylum. The Physician responded: “Take any road you choose this state is one vast asylum.”

America is now one vast asylum.