Friday, September 24, 2004

Do Not Remove Under Penalty of Law

Must individuals are aware of the phrase, above.  It can be seen on just purchased mattresses, furniture, and other such items.  Of course it doesn’t really mean you cannot remove the tag from one of those previously mentioned items, it simply means the seller cannot remove the tag prior to your purchase.

I wonder, though, if that phrase, may one day actually be applied to consumers, at the insistence of manufacturers of the clothes you wear.  Why do I wonder?  Because RFID tags are working their way down into your skivvies.

Take a look at these so called friendly purveyors of clothing, and their RFID supplier Checkpoint, displaying their wares at the recent Frontline Expo 2004.

After looking at that, you may want to invest in a very sharp scissors.

Hat tip to a reader.

Posted by John Venlet on 09/24 at 03:14 PM
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Well, That Explains It

Did you ever notice, that many dogs, when then approach you for some fawning attention, shove their nose into your crotch?  This may be why they do.

“Dogs Sniff Out Bladder Cancer"

Via Google News.

Posted by John Venlet on 09/24 at 10:24 AM
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Cowards

Thought about this while driving early this morning, while contemplating the post, below, titled “Can You?"

Individuals used to say, murderers who shot innocent, or not so innocent, individuals in the back were cowards.

They still are, as far as I am concerned.  Anyway, I Googled up the following phrase this morning, “coward+shot in the back," and was supplied with a plethora of links.  Not all of them are relevant, but, I hope you get my drift.

Terrorists are cowards.

Posted by John Venlet on 09/24 at 03:10 AM
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Thursday, September 23, 2004

And She's Clairvoyant

Teresa Heinz Kerry.  She’d be just another nobody without all those pickles, and bottles of ketchup, consumed over the years.  Now she can add clairvoyant to her resume.

"In regard to the hunt for terror leader Osama Bin Laden, Heinz Kerry said she could see the al-Qaida chief being caught before the November election.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if he appeared in the next month,” said Heinz Kerry, alluding to a possible capture by United States and allied forces before election day."

Posted by John Venlet on 09/23 at 04:56 PM
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Can You?

“Or, you can handle the concept of a “terrorist” without knowing where he is, or even who he is.”

Billy Beck asks the above question here, in response this to journalistic posing here.

Posted by John Venlet on 09/23 at 04:50 PM
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Monday, September 20, 2004

Cry Me an Effing River

"He is distraught and depressed,” Allawi said of Saddam, the man who was Iraq’s president for 24 years and is awaiting trial for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.

“Saddam and his colleagues are not the giants that the media sometimes talks about. Saddam sent us an oral message in which he begged for mercy. He said that they were working in the public interest and did not mean any harm,” Allawi said in an interview with the pan Arab al-Hayat newspaper."

Poor, pitiful Saddam.

“Iraq’s PM Says Saddam Depressed, Begs for Mercy"

Keep begging, ya tyrannical bastard.

Posted by John Venlet on 09/20 at 04:28 AM
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Sunday, September 19, 2004

A Quote for John Kerry to Consider

Surfing around, today, I stopped by Samizdata, a conglomeration of individuals who term themselves, "a bunch of sinister and heavily armed globalist illuminati who seek to infect the entire world with the values of personal liberty and several property." Anyway, Alice Bachini, in a Samizdata post, comments on, what is supposed to be, for John Kerry, an astute criticism regarding Bush’s handling of the situation in Iraq.

Kerry’s comment.

"With all due respect to the president, has he turned on the evening news lately? Does he read the newspapers?” Kerry said. “Does he really know what’s happening? Is he talking about the same war that the rest of us are talking about?"

Well, Mr. Kerry, I suggest you consider the following quote, from H.L. Mencken, before you start formulating policy based on what is being said on the teevee and in the newspapers.

"A newspaper is a device for making the ignorant more ignorant and the crazy crazier."

H.L. Mencken, A Mencken Chrestomathy, Sententiae, This and That, pg. 674

Posted by John Venlet on 09/19 at 09:07 AM
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For A Friend

A friend asked, in an email, why I had not posted anything about the lying CBS and Dan Rather.  I was thinking of writing something witty, but, now I don’t have to.  Greg Swann has posted the real reason why I haven’t posted on this little dust up.

"CBS, one of the largest news services in the world, uses phony documents to influence a presidential election in a time of war. What intelligent person could ever think this was a big deal?"

Greg spotted the above at Little Green Footballs.

There you go, Scary Ann.

Posted by John Venlet on 09/19 at 08:54 AM
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"provando e riprovando"

I like the above phrase, which serves as the title to this post.  I took it from a short, interesting article which discusses the misguided thinking of idealists regarding the role of science in the world, or, more specifically the misguided assumption that the sciences are taking us down the path to hell.  Bah.

The piece is titled “Testing, testing..." and was written by Umberto Eco.

Via Arts & Letters Daily.

Posted by John Venlet on 09/19 at 08:46 AM
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Friday, September 17, 2004

The Plague?

So, I stop by Drudge, earlier this afternoon, and read this for a headline, "FBI says nation nearing ‘epidemic’ of mortgage fraud." Because I have an interest in this industry, in more ways than one, I figured I better click the Drudge provided link, and check this out.

The headline the link leads to states this, “FBI: Mortgage Fraud Is Rampant in U.S."

Epidemic, rampant, mortgages, scary stuff, hey?  But, is there a rampant rising epidemic of mortgage fraud in the “nation” as the boys and girls at the FBI state?  Let’s consider, by looking at the numbers.  Here are the FBI’s numbers, and, let me tell you, they almost make your hair stand on end.  Well, not really, but here are the FBI provided numbers, as reported in the linked article.

"Through the first nine months of 2004, mortgage companies and banks have reported more than 12,100 instances of suspicious activity compared with only 4,220 in 2001. The FBI currently has 533 pending mortgage fraud investigations, compared with 102 in 2001."

Comparing 2001 to 2004, you will see that the numbers have increased three times, and five times, respectively.  Scary stuff.  But, the comparisons are simply numbers with no real meaning, unless the scary numbers are compared to the total number of mortgage transactions that actually take place in America each year.  So let’s look at those numbers a minute.  And I will be extrapolating here, based on my knowledge intermixed with reported data.

In the second quarter of 2004, twenty of the largest lenders in the nation reported mortgage sales of $537,600,000,000, as reported here. And a few of those twenty, hadn’t fully reported.  Anyway you consider that number, that is alot of mortgages.  But, we also must consider what the average mortgage balance is in the U.S., in order to consider the dangers the FBI is warning Americans about.  Remember the impending rampant epidemic?

I’m estimating, here, because I cannot find a link which reports the average home mortgage balance nationally, but, based on my experience, and knowledge of the industry overall, the average home mortgage balance in the U.S. is around $250,000.00, and possibly lower.  Now, if I utilize my estimate, and divide that number into the $537,600,000,000 mortgages originated, in just the second quarter of this year, that means 2,150,400 mortgages were originated in the second quarter.  Multiplying that number by four, comes to 8,601,600.  So approximately 8,601,600 individual mortgages may be made in U.S. in 2004.

Now, let’s take those FBI numbers, divide them into the numbers I have estimated, and see just how bad this supposed impending, rampant, epidemic is.

To do this, I will estimate, based on the data I supplied above, that 6,451,200 mortgages were made in the U.S., in the first nine months of 2004.  Now, lets divide the 12,100 instances of “suspicious activity,” as reported by the FBI in the first nine months of 2004, by the 6,451,200 mortgages made, in the first nine months of 2004, an estimate on my part, and see how “rampant” the “epidemic” really is.  According to my calculations, that means there is a .0018756 percent chance a mortgage that is made in the U.S. is “suspicious.” Not quite an epidemic, is it?

What is happening, here, in articles and suppositions bandied about by the FBI and other know nothings, is nothing more than the plague of central planning.  The plague, the epidemic, of the State, which is reaching out its grubby rat paws to an industry which supplies to the American people the ability to own a home.  Sure, there is some fraud in the mortgage industry.  Sure, there is fraud committed by borrowers.  But is there an “epidemic?” Is there an impending “epidemic?” Is mortgage fraud “rampant?” Hardly.

Update: I was just sitting on the front porch, it’s a beautiful fall evening, and it is still technically summer, and I thought, if the percentage of “suspicious activity” reported is a low as the FBI speculates, .0018756 percent of mortgage transactions, based on their data, this news should be something to crow about, rather than lament.

Posted by John Venlet on 09/17 at 02:46 PM
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A Little Advice to Phil Shapiro from Ludwig von Mises

Phil, your recent lament over the cost of a firewire cable, which I noted here, courtesy of Andy here, has awoken a concern for your reasoning in regards to achieving the ends you desire in matters of exchange.  I offer you the following guidance from Ludwig von Mises.

"The value of the price paid is called costs.  Costs are equal to the value attached to the satisfaction which one must forego in order to attain the end aimed at."

Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, A Treatise on Economics, Third Revised Edition 1963, IV A First Analysis of the Category of Action, 4.  Action as an Exchange, pg. 97

You can purchase the book here, for less the than the cost of the lamented firewall cable.

Posted by John Venlet on 09/17 at 03:27 AM
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Thursday, September 16, 2004

The New Miracle Drug?

Aspirin, over the years, one hundred or so, has been labeled the miracle drug, though its history goes back thousands of years, to when individuals looked to the willow tree for acetylsalicylic acid.  Is cannabis the new miracle drug? 

“Cannabis may help combat cancer"
“Cannabis helps ease the pain of multiple sclerosis sufferers"
“Brain creates its own marijuana-like chemicals, scientists find"

To your health.

Posted by John Venlet on 09/16 at 03:57 PM
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21st Century Marie Antoinette

The phrase, “Let them eat cake,” is attributed to Marie Antoinette, erroneously per this Dear Yahoo posting.  Be that as it may, the phrase brings to mind the actual nature of uncaring polticos, like, say, Teresa Heinz Kerry, who had this to say about hurricane relief efforts directed at individuals who have been driven from their homes.

"Clothing is wonderful, but let them go naked for a while, at least the kids,” said Heinz Kerry, the wife of Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry. “Water is necessary, and then generators, and then food, and then clothes."

Mommy knows best, I guess.

“Heinz Kerry Visits Hurricane Aid Center"

Also via Drudge.

Posted by John Venlet on 09/16 at 04:26 AM
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Death Notice

Johnny Ramone has left the building.

“Johnny Ramone of ‘The Ramones’ Dies at 55."

Via Drudge.

Posted by John Venlet on 09/16 at 04:22 AM
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Wednesday, September 15, 2004

Phil Shapiro Has Evidently Never Heard of Supply and Demand, Especially His Own Demands

Andy Stedman, adroitly, eviscerates Phil Shapiro, who is whining about the price he paid for a firewall cable at Radio Shack. Poor Phil, I think he is suffering from buyer’s remorse.

“Astounding, immoral, exploitative price gouging at Radio Shack"

And here I thought I was always getting a good deal at Radio Shack, but maybe I’m just one of the “vulnerable.”

Posted by John Venlet on 09/15 at 02:00 PM
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