Thursday, October 23, 2008

Well, That's A Relief

A smelly rotten-egg gas in farts controls blood pressure in mice, a new study finds.

The unpleasant aroma of the gas, called hydrogen sulfide (H2S), can be a little too familiar, as it is expelled by bacteria living in the human colon and eventually makes its way, well, out.

The new research found that cells lining mice’s blood vessels naturally make the gas and this action can help keep the rodents’ blood pressure low by relaxing the blood vessels to prevent hypertension (high blood pressure). This gas is “no doubt” produced in cells lining human blood vessels too, the researchers said.

This information will provide a handy excuse for breaking wind.  Though the information that drugs may be designed to enhance the production of H2S may become a bit bothersome in a crowded room of high blood pressure sufferers.  Additionally, the EPA may then claim they will need oversight of such drug production to protect the environment.

Stinky farts may help regulate blood pressure

Posted by John Venlet on 10/23 at 05:40 PM
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The United States Government is Lying to the American People About the $700 Billion Bailout

Reading the title to this post many individuals may laugh and say, “Well, that’s nothing new,” and in essence, they would be correct.  The American people have been lied to on many occasions, heck, even now, the candidates running for the office of President are lying to you, though they may believe what they are saying.

But the boldface lies being told to the American people now, about the $700 billion bailout of the financial industry, should set your teeth on edge.  Case in point, the following statement from a U.S. Department of Treasury press release (hp1199) wherein Neel Kashkari, the Interim Assistant Secretary for Financial Stability, is addressing the Institute of International Bankers.

Treasury is committed to an open and transparent program with appropriate oversight. We look forward to continuing to work with the Oversight Board, the Inspector General, the Comptroller General, and the Congress as we set up and execute this program. Transparency will not only give the American people comfort in our execution, it will give the markets confidence in what form our action will take. (bold by ed.)

Pay particular attention to the United States government’s alleged commitment to a “transparent program,” and the “comfort” us poor American people will take in the “transparency” of the execution of this $700 billion bailout.

Okay.  Now, let’s take a look at how transparent these goings on are.  The Bank of New York Mellon has contracted with the United States government to act as a financial agent.  Fine.  Well, here’s a copy of the bank’s contract with the United States government (pdf format) directly from the U.S. Treasury’s website.  Now, scroll down to Exhibit B - Compensation of this contract (page 25 of 28 pages) and take a look at how much of your money the United States government is going to pay The Bank of New York Mellon.

What, you can’t tell?  Oh, the United States government blacked it out?!  Tell me, is that transparent?  Are you being comforted by this?

Via Billy Beck.

Posted by John Venlet on 10/23 at 03:46 PM
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Government Money for Bad Auto Loans

Representative John Dingell (D-MI) and Senator Carl Levin (D-MI), and the rest of the professional jobholders from the State of Michigan, are yapping loudly in the ears of Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke about bailout money for the auto industry, which is heavily weighted here in the State of Michigan.  Let’s take a look at what they’re saying.

The state’s entire congressional delegation wrote Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke asking them to quickly use their powers under the financial bailout to buy troubled assets from auto finance companies.

Well, why would there be troubled assets in the auto finance industry, one may ask?  Would it have anything to do with this? Click on that link and take a look at the right hand column, or Google simply “auto loans.” The entire right hand column of that Google link is advertisements for “Bad Credit Auto Loans,” “Auto Loans for any Credit,” or “Bad Credit Easy Car Loan.” Are any of these offers sounding familiar?  Are not these ads mirroring exactly the type of pitch subprime mortgage lenders were making?  Do we really want to go further down that road, again?

Here’s a gem of a comment from Levin’s mouth.

"They need to do for autos what they’re doing for the mortgage industry,” said Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich.

Doesn’t that sound just like a little boy crying to his mother about Timmy having a Big Wheel so I should have one too?

But why is financing a tad more difficult to obtain today for purchasing an automobile?

Many banks and auto finance companies have tightened credit standards because they can’t borrow money to lend, or they have been reluctant to lend and risk defaults.

Doesn’t tightening credit standards make sense?  Of course it makes sense.  I assure you, if you are a borrower of good standing, you can still finance the purchase of a new car, but, if you’re a high credit risk, meaning you don’t pay your bills on time or at all, you shouldn’t be lent any money what-so-ever.  And if you’re a financial institution making loans to crappy borrowers, I wouldn’t lend you any money to lend either!

The financial system would not be in the straits it is currently supposedly in if known credit standards would have been adhered too by lenders, but the lenders screwed themselves when they knowingly threw the credit standards out the window.

This entire $700 billion bailout package is a collective f$#K and we will be paying for it for generations to come.

Mich. lawmakers want US help to free up auto loans

Posted by John Venlet on 10/23 at 02:28 PM
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Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Election SWAT Teams?

In The Hill this morning we read that the police are preparing for civil unrest.

Police departments in cities across the country are beefing up their ranks for Election Day, preparing for possible civil unrest and riots after the historic presidential contest.

I wonder if the police departments are coordinating with the First Brigade of the Third Infantry Division, which, under National Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directive (NSPD 51 & HSPD-20), could call out the First Brigade against any and all Americans if they get too uppity?

Police prepare for unrest

Posted by John Venlet on 10/22 at 09:55 AM
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It's Not Your Business, Nor is it Any of Your Business

A new pharmacy in Virginia, Divine Mercy Care Pharmacy, has decided that it will not sell contraceptives, even if you have a prescription, and this fact is raising some hackles.  The Washington Times has a poll up asking if you agree or disagree with the pharmacy, and the National Abortion Rights Action League states the following regarding the pharmacy’s stance.

“If this emboldens other pharmacies in other parts of the state, it could really affect low-income and rural women in terms of access,” said Tarina Keene, executive director of the Virginia chapter of the National Abortion Rights Action League.

In some areas of this country, where other pharmacies have taken the same stance, the courts have forced pharmacies to fill contraceptive prescriptions.

Now, some individuals will scoff at the pharmacy’s reason for not selling contraceptives, as the reason stems from their religious dogmas, but so what, this is America, isn’t it, and in the land of the free individuals should be able to decide what they want to sell or what they don’t want to sell, regardless of those prattling about low-income and rural women’s ability to access contraceptives.  You can’t tell me that another pharmacy down the street, or even five miles down the road, will not fill a contraceptive prescription.  There are Rite Aids, CVSs, or Walgreens almost everywhere and I’m certain any of those drug stores have all the contraceptive concoctions available by prescription, and they will probably compete with one another, price wise, for your contraceptive business.

If you don’t like the fact that the Divine Mercy Care Pharmacy will not fill a contraceptive prescription, take your business elsewhere.

New Va. pharmacy won’t sell any contraceptives

Posted by John Venlet on 10/22 at 08:08 AM
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Cryptographic

Lewis Diuguid, who evidently is an opinion columnist for the Kansas City Star, states that if an individual utilizes the word “socialist,” to describe Barack Obama, which Obama is by the way, the individual is actually using the word socialist to call Obama black.  You see it’s code.

...have simply reached back in history to use an old code word for black. It set whites apart from those deemed unAmerican and those who could not be trusted during the communism scare.

Diuguid breaks the code here.

If one utilizes the words black socialist, to describe Obama, what is that code for I wonder?

Link to Diuguid cryptographic breakthrough via Drudge.

Posted by John Venlet on 10/22 at 06:36 AM
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Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Keep Dreaming

What is Barack Obama’s book, Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance, worth?  To me, not a cent, but, as Jonah Goldberg notes, irrational exuberance is currently at work.

Sorry, but when a first edition copy of his 1995 book is for sale at the bargain basement price of $12,500, you just know there’s some irrational exuberance at work.

Posted by John Venlet on 10/21 at 03:10 PM
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Physics for Flyfishers

I recently visited a local estate sale and stumbled across a thin volume titled Essays in Science which was penned by Albert Einstein.  Since the book was only two bucks, I naturally engaged in commerce with the estate sale representatives and added the book to my library.  The book was originally published as Mein Weltbild by Querido Verlag, Amsterdam, in 1933.

Though I am not a physicist, I’ve found the book interesting, if not difficult reading.  But when I finally clawed my way to the essay The Cause of the Formation of Meanders in the Courses of Rivers and of the So-called Baer’s Law, I found I fully grasped the concepts presented in regards to the formation of meanders.

In the future, as I loll streamside, waiting for the rise, not only will I be contemplating entymology, while I enjoy a fine cigar, I’ll be contemplating Einstein’s essay, and wondering if he would have been a worthy flyfishing companion.

Posted by John Venlet on 10/21 at 02:11 PM
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Buffetting Warren Buffett

Karen DeCoster is criticizing Warren Buffett’s recent suggestion to buy American as was recently published in the The New York Times.

Karen titled her critique Warren Buffett, Government Propagandist? and posted it both at her site, and at LewRockwell.com Blog.

Karen’s most specific critcism stems from this comment of Warren Buffett’s.

"But fears regarding the long-term prosperity of the nation’s many sound companies make no sense. These businesses will indeed suffer earnings hiccups, as they always have. But most major companies will be setting new profit records 5, 10 and 20 years from now."

This spurs Karen to state,

He’s careful, here, to not “give out” strict advice because it makes him uneasy. So he’s telling us that the profits will be there in “5, 10, or 20 years.” Is it 5 or is it 20? Or anything in between? Or more than 20 years? Of course, no one knows, but to middle class Joes it makes a heck of a difference whether it’s 5, 10, or 20 years, or at all, because we don’t have the cushion to be wrong (and 20 years off the mark), as does Warren Buffett. Twenty years can be almost a half of one’s working life in the middle class, and that kind of time is not available to most folks to find out whether or not they won or lost the roll of the dice.

The supermajority of the population cannot ever have an investment strategy like that of Warren Buffett. We can take much (and I do) from his business conduct, value investing blueprint, and sensible roadmap for avoiding speculative pitfalls while engaging serious investment analysis. But Joe the Plumber and his friends cannot afford to gamble away their financial futures on the hunch that the market “can never go anywhere but up.” On BubbleVision the other day - CNBC, that is - two desk jockeys also questioned Buffett’s BUY advice - amazing! - and they noted that since he’s working on a much bigger scale than the rest of us, how does his simpleton recipe for success apply broadly to a populace of terrified people who are about to lose big on a lifetime accumulation of wealth?

How can unsophisticated “investors” (they are really speculators) apply his big-picture advice knowing that every person he speaks to about the “long term” has a unique age, time to retirement, ability to save, and capability to bear risk?

Karen’s question about when profits will gained, at least from a sound stock investment strategy for the Joe Plumber’s of the world, is a bit juvenile, as it perpetuates the false assumption that getting rich quick while dabbling around in the stock market is a common everyday occurence, and it is not.  In fact the profitability of any investment, in most instances, is a long term endeavor, and not without risk.

When Karen asks the question, “How can unsophisticated “investors” (they are really speculators) apply his big-picture advice knowing that every person he speaks to about the “long term” has a unique age, time to retirement, ability to save, and capability to bear risk?,” these “speculators,” as she calls them, can weigh these matters and then make decisions regarding possible investment in the stock market based on their age, their time to retirement, their ability to save and their capability to bear risk.

Take myself, for instance.  I’m 48 years old and I’ve been investing in the stock market since 1994, not to get rich quick, but to build a portfolio of stocks which will, over time, garner me profits.  Even at the age of 48, the time frames Buffett speculates on in regards to profitability, 5, 10, 15, or even 20 years, allows for a long term view of investing more in stocks NOW, while stock prices are beaten down, so I can profit additionally in the future.  Should I be investing dollars in stocks of companies today that are unsound?  No.  I should be investing dollars in stocks of “the nation’s many sound companies,” and they are out there, today.

Karen then ends her piece with the statement,

Warren Buffett is just wrong this time.

I disagree.  Now is a good time to invest in sound company stocks, especially if you are between the ages of 20 and 55 years old, as the 5, 10, 15, or 20 year wait for the profits is hardly a burden, and getting rich quick is realistically not going to happen.

Posted by John Venlet on 10/21 at 08:22 AM
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The Cart is Before the Horse

I love the islands of Hawaii.  I rambled over all the islands during my fours years living on Oahu, well except Nihue.

This morning I read that Hawaii’s professional jobholders and other hangers on have allegedly come up with a plan to make the islands less dependent on fossil fuels for electricity production and ground transportation.  There’s only one problem, as follows.

But some of the biggest ideas in the overall deal _ including expensive undersea power cables to move wind-generated energy between the islands _ lack funding or even cost estimates for how they’ll become reality.

The undersea cables, which could cost hundreds of millions of dollars, would link potential wind farms on Lanai or Molokai to population centers on Maui and Oahu.

It’s unclear exactly where the money will come from. Private companies could step in, the state may pursue revenue bonds, or Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, could seek federal funds.

Yeah, that’s a plan alright.  Unrealistic, unfunded, and almost undone from the word get go.  I’d say the “plan” is as well thought out as Hawaii’s plan for universal health care.

Hawaii outlines renewable energy goals

UPDATE: A suggestion for Hawaii.  Before you begin implementing your so called plan for renewable energy goals, maybe you should get with the researchers at Ohio State University.

Researchers at Ohio State University have accidentally discovered a new solar cell material capable of absorbing all of the sun’s visible light energy. The material is comprised of a hybrid of plastics, molybdenum and titanium. The team discovered it not only fluoresces (as most solar cells do), but also phosphoresces. Electrons in a phosphorescent state remain at a place where they can be “siphoned off” as electricity over 7 million times longer than those generated in a fluorescent state. This combination of materials also utilizes the entire visible spectrum of light energy, translating into a theoretical potential of almost 100% efficiency. Commercial products are still years away, but this foundational work may well pave the way for a truly renewable form of clean, global energy.

New solar cell material achieves almost 100% efficiency, could solve world-wide energy problems

Posted by John Venlet on 10/21 at 07:48 AM
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Monday, October 20, 2008

I Call Bullshit

Here’s what CNNMoney.com is currently reporting in a piece titled Lots of banks interested in bailout - Paulson written by Tami Luhby.

The head of the American Bankers Association last week praised the program for being voluntary and noted the strong capital position of many institutions.

Voluntary?  Who are you kidding.

Some of the nation’s largest banks had to be pressured to participate by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, who wanted healthy institutions that did not necessarily need capital from the government to go first as a way of removing any stigma that might be associated with banks getting bailouts.

“We regret having to take these actions,” Paulson said. “Today’s actions are not what we ever wanted to do—but today’s actions are what we must do to restore confidence to our financial system."

As I noted here.

Pressuring banks to participate in this ill conceived bailout is not a voluntary action, and Paulson’s intimation that lots of banks are interested in bailout money is nothing more than denial of the fact that padded bludgeons are being wielded by the state to force banks into signing on.

Posted by John Venlet on 10/20 at 03:45 PM
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TSA "Security Theater" and Second Hand Store

Billy Beck has posted a link to a Jeffrey Goldberg story titled The Things He Carried published in The Atlantic.

In Goldberg’s piece he describes the false security provided by the TSA.  I guess Goldberg can take heart in the fact that items the TSA did not confiscate from him did not end up at the largest online second store, eBay.

The TSA reached a mind-boggling new low in customer service this week when it was revealed that one agent had single-handedly absconded with over $200,000 worth of travelers’ belongings, primarily cameras and laptops, and proceeded to unload his booty on eBay. His latest haul: A near-$50,000 camera that an HBO employee had been traveling with.

Times are tough, aren’t they?

TSA agent steals $200K worth of gear, resells it on eBay

Link to TSA second hand store story via The Agitator.

Posted by John Venlet on 10/20 at 01:54 PM
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Impending Car Wreck

GM-Chrysler push for quick deal

Negotiators hope to finalize a merger agreement between General Motors (GM) and Chrysler before the presidential election and are lobbying for government financial assistance to help clinch the deal, says a source who has been briefed on the talks.

And with “government financial assistance,” the wreck should be stupendous.

Posted by John Venlet on 10/20 at 10:08 AM
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A Little Subprime Lexigraphic Help for the Oxford Dictionary

Simon Winchester, author of “The Meaning of Everything: The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary,” notes in an op-ed piece titled Subprime, Pre-Slime that previous to the meteoric rise of subprime lending in the 1990s, specifically until 1991, that a subprime loan was a good thing.

Interestingly, the word arbiters at the headquarters of the Oxford English Dictionary have discovered something odd: “subprime” has suffered a surprising and unusually rapid evolution. Until 1991 it meant something eminently desirable and worthy of aspiration… The dictionary’s New Words Group began looking closely at subprime’s history late this summer, when the bat-wings of the current crisis began fluttering against Oxford’s mullioned windows. Team members discovered that when first applied to financial matters in 1976, “subprime” meant a loan offered below the prime rate and typically was offered only to the most desirable borrowers.

Winchester then notes,

In (sic) was not until 1993 that it took on a much less enticing guise...

I can appreciate the fact the lexigraphers of the Oxford Dictionary state that the term subprime loan “took on a much less enticing guise” in 1993, being as far removed from subprime lending as most individuals were at that point in time, but I would state the less enticing guise of the term subprime loan was known in the mortgage lending industry in the late 1980s, already.  As I mentioned here, and briefly excerpt for you.

This does not mean that there were not borrowers out there in 1987 that had bad credit.  Nor does this mean that there were not mortgage lenders out in the marketplace that wrote “B,” “C,” and “D” paper (subprime) mortgage loans at this time.  “B,” “C,” “D” paper borrowers, and lenders, were out there in the marketplace in 1987, though the subprime lenders willing to risk lending to subprime borrowers in 1987 were operating on the margins of the mortgage industry, and the number of subprime lenders doing business in 1987 was minimal.  “A” (prime) paper mortgage lenders just did not, or would not, work with these subprime lenders.  We called these “B,” “C,” “D” mortgages (subprime loans), and borrowers, “big chicken dinners,” for reasons which will soon be related.

In 1987, the overwhelming perception of “B,” “C,” “D” (subprime) mortgage lenders, held by “A” paper lenders, was that subprime lenders were “sharks,” preying on the financially unfortunate. There was a distinct, slimy stigma associated with subprime lenders, and most “A” paper lenders wanted nothing to do with these subprime lenders, or the borrowers they tended to feed on...

Maybe the lexigraphers at the Oxford Dictionary will add the term “big chicken dinners” to the evolution of the word subprime.

Posted by John Venlet on 10/20 at 09:31 AM
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Sunday, October 19, 2008

Barack Obama - Like Father, Like Son

Barack Obama desires to emulate his father and his father’s ideals.

If there is a mystery at the heart of Barack Obama’s Dreams From My Father, one thing is not left a mystery, the fact that Barack Obama organized his life on the ideals given to him by his Kenyan father.  Obama tells us, “All of my life, I carried a single image of my father, one that I .. tried to take as my own.” (p. 220) And what was that image?  It was “the father of my dreams, the man in my mother’s stories, full of high-blown ideals ..” (p. 278) What is more, Obama tells us that, “It was into my father’s image .. that I’d packed all the attributes I sought in myself.” And also that, “I did feel that there was something to prove .. to my father” in his efforts at political organizing. (p. 230)

Where will Barack Obama’s desire for emulation take Americans?  Greg Ransom delves into this further, complete with references, in this post titled Barack Obama Hid His Father’s Socialist and Anti-Western Convictions From His Readers (Reprise)

Posted by John Venlet on 10/19 at 10:31 AM
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