Poor, sad, TV-less Bill.
Those bastards at Sony refused to take any responsibility for my never having been sent a renewal notice for my renewable extended warranty.
Bastards!
In any case, they jerked me around till late afternoon on Friday - by which time it was too late to get the TV looked at - so it looks like I'll have to wait till Monday to have the set checked by a tech who will give me the estimate... and then it's either fix the set or buy a new flat-screen instead.
Oh, well... either way it's only money... and if I have to buy a new TV then, well, I'll have a new TV!
In the meantime...
I'm a bachelor this weekend!
Mary drove up to Boston yesterday to spend the weekend with Kim - a mother/daughter weekend!
Good for them!
8 comments:
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/09/29/checkbook_diplomacy
* SUBTITLE: "HILLARY CLINTON'S STATE DEPARTMENT IN ACTION"
* FOLKS... CLICK THE LINK... READ THE EXPOSE.
(*SHRUG*)
* OH... THERE'S MORE! AFTER CLICKING ON THE ABOVE LINK AND READING THAT EXPOSE, YOU THEN NEED TO CLICK:
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/09/29/how_i_became_a_state_department_outcast
* IT'S A NIGHTMARE, FOLKS.
* YOU MAY ALSO BE INTERESTED IN... http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175446/tomgram%3A_peter_van_buren,_wikileaked_at_the_state_department/
* AND... http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0805094369/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=fopo-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=0805094369
http://blog.heritage.org/2011/09/29/morning-bell-obamacares-soaring-price-tag/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Morning%2BBell
On January 21, 2009, Barack Obama stood on the steps of the U.S. Capitol and, in his inaugural address, pledged to America that he would “wield technology’s wonders to raise health care’s quality and lower its cost.”
* SO... FOLKS... HOW'S THAT WORKING OUT FOR YOU?
(*SMIRK*)
What he did wield, of course, was a 2,000-page bill known as Obamacare. More than a year on, we now know that health care costs are soaring, and the President’s signature legislation is to blame.
(*NOD*)
Most Americans know that medicine is getting more expensive, but a new survey puts a shocking sticker price on the rapid increase. The Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research and Educational Trust report that between 2010 and 2011, family premiums increased by 9% and for individual premiums by 8%. According to the survey, “The average premium for single coverage in 2011 is $452 per month or $5,429 per year … The average premium for family coverage is $1,256 per month or $15,073 per year.”
According to Kaiser Family Foundation CEO Drew Altman, the President’s health care legislation [ObamaCare] was responsible for approximately 20% of the increase in premiums.
* SO... FOLKS... LET ME ASK YOU: DOES ANYONE SUPPOSED THAT ALLOWING "CHILDREN" UP TO THE AGE OF 26-YEARS-OLD TO REMAIN ON MOMMY AND DADDY'S INSURANCE ADDS TO RATHER THAN SUBTRACTS FROM THE ASTRONOMICAL COST OF "FAMILY" COVERAGE?
(*SMIRK*)
* OH... AND AGAIN, FOLKS, THOUGH I KNOW I'M EITHER PREACHING TO THE CHOIR OR TALKING TO A BRICK WALL (DEPENDING UPON WHO IS READING!) THE FACT REMAINS THAT A SYSTEM THAT DOESN'T TAKE INTO ACCOUNT ACTUARIAL REALITY AND DOESN'T INSIST UPON COUNTING EACH INDIVIDUAL AS AN INDIVIDUAL WITHIN THAT CONTEXT IS A SYSTEM DESTINED TO BE DYSFUNCTIONAL.
The bad news is that Americans can expect costs to go even higher. (For starters, the full force of the law won’t even kick in until 2014 - in other words, there’s an onslaught ahead.)
* REPEAL. REPLACE. RATIONALIZE!
* TWO-PARTER... (Part 1 of 2)
http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2011/09/28/in_doing_the_twist_bernanke_leaves_out_production_99280.html
* YOU SHOULD READ THE FULL PIECE, BUT IN THE MEANTIME...
As is well known now, and similarly well commented on, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke announced last week his latest attempt through central bank machinations to "revive" the U.S. economy.
Bernanke's hubristic and absurd presumption that he possesses the ability to boost economic growth from Washington will only make things worse.
Stock markets seem to agree.
(*SMIRK*)
Captive to the false notion that a revised housing sector, along with the wilting corpses that are U.S. banks will lead our rebirth, Chairman Ben is set once again to quadruple down on the various mistakes and authors of same who delivered on us our present malaise.
* AND, FOLKS... OTHER THAN BY... er... REMOVING BERNANKE FROM HIS POST... THERE'S NOTHING THAT CAN BE DONE TO STOP HIM. WE'RE WATCHING A SLOW-MOTION CAR CRASH HERE - AND WE'RE ALL GOING TO BE THE VICTIMS!
If he were head of Japan's central bank Bernanke would have long ago been forced to fall on his sword, but this being Washington, he'll get to persist in restraining our economy's natural ability to heal itself. Only in Washington do individuals get to fail upwards, and while history books will simply ask "Why" in addressing "Bernanke", "Fed Chairman" and "long, brutal tenure", those of us stuck in the present will continue to suffer a failed central banker's tinkerings.
(*NOD*)
As a Wall Street Journal news account of Bernanke's "Twist" plan observed, the idea behind it is to purchase long-term Treasuries and mortgages with an eye on lowering long rates, while boosting "investment and spending and provide a shot of adrenaline to the beleaguered housing sector."
(*BANGING MY HEAD AGAINST THE WALL; WISHING IT WERE BERNANKE'S HEAD*)
That too much debt, and specifically too much mortgage debt wrecked the banks and housing sector already doesn't seem to concern our micro-managing Fed head.
(*CLAP-CLAP-CLAP*)
* To be continued...
* CONCLUDING... (Part 2 of 2)
[I]f a revival of credit is the goal, the last thing a wise central bank head would do is attempt to force rates down below their natural market level. For one, during downturns it's desirable that rates reach their natural, market-clearing level as a way of ensuring that failed ideas attain no more financial capital to destroy. For two, higher rates ensure that those able to attain credit will borrow with more circumspection such that credit reaches as many worthy economic concepts as possible. Third, higher rates of interest will serve as a lure to those with savings to enter the marketplace with it; their savings replenishing the base of available capital.
* DUH! IF ONLY THAT ASS BERNANKE - AND GEITHER, OBAMA, AND THE REST OF THE CLOWNS IN WASHINGTON - UNDERSTOOD THESE SIMPLY CONCEPTS!
Looking at the purpose of the low rates sought by Bernanke, they delay the happy process whereby poorly run banks are swallowed by better managers. If allowed to be swallowed amid bankruptcy, the act itself ensures stronger economic growth as banks that didn't make mistakes would be allowed to enter the markets to buy up branches, customers and loans on the cheap. And having purchased on the cheap, they'd be able to aggressively lend in a way that a Bank of America still paralyzed by its past errors never will be able to.
The same applies to housing and commercial real estate more broadly. Rather than attempt to increase home construction and home prices amid a glut of housing, if left alone markets would have allowed a decline in both that would have shifted precious resources to where they're actually needed in a limping economy, while the prudent could have snapped up housing for a song on the way to the housing market reaching a necessary bottom.
* SERIOUSLY, FOLKS, BERNANKE IS A COMPLETE INCOMPETENT; EITHER THAT OR HE'S DESTROYING THE U.S. ECONOMY ON PURPOSE.
Considering commercial real estate, a natural market correction would have allowed those with cash to buy up office space very inexpensively, and for doing so, they'd be able to lease office space to new and existing businesses at a much lower cost. The buyers of the real estate would of course mint money despite renting at lower prices, and businesses would be better situated to achieve profits for their rental costs being lower. This scenario won't reveal itself in an economy enhancing way for Bernanke continuing to gamble on the failures.
* FOLKS... THIS IS NOT ABSTRACT THEORY - YOU NEED TO UNDERSTAND THAT BERNANKE, OBAMA, AND GEITHNER ARE DOING PRETTY MUCH EVERYTHING WRONG THAT CAN BE DONE WRONG!
As for government spending itself, simple classical economic theory tells us that during downturns governments should rein in their spending as a way of leaving as much credit to the private sector as possible. But with the Bernanke Fed having telegraphed yet again that buyers of the waste that signifies government debt will be protected, there exists little incentive for investors to sell Treasuries in favor of redeploying capital to worthy economic concepts.
(*NOD*)
Not understood by Bernanke, or perhaps the Fed Chair is unaware, is the elephantine truth that the U.S. economy contracted far more in 1920 versus 2008; the reason we don't hear about that collapse (unemployment at 11.2%) a function of how short it was. Quite unlike today, government spending was cut in half, the dollar's integrity was maintained, and by 1923, unemployment sat at 1.7%.
(*NOD*)
Bernanke is oddly said to be the Great Depression's foremost scholar, but due to his non-knowledge of what happens when economies are left alone - quite unlike during the 1929-30 downturn when Americans suffered mass, Bernanke style intervention - it's apparent once again that he learned all the wrong lessons from a period when government mistakes turned a downturn into a decade-long debacle.
(*SIGH*)
http://blog.heritage.org/2011/09/26/morning-bell-obama-circumvents-congress-on-education-policy/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Morning%2BBell
For the past few decades, the federal government has continuously increased its power over local schools, through funding with strings attached, with depressing results. Since the 1970′s federal spending on education has nearly tripled, yet student achievement has remained flat and graduation rates have not improved.
* ONE DEFINITION OF INSANITY IS DOING THE SAME THING TIME AND AGAIN AND EXPECTING DIFFERENT RESULTS...
(*SIGH*)
However, that increased spending has had a major impact on the amount of red tape, paperwork and administrative costs imposed on local schools and teachers, taking valuable time away from their core mission – educating children.
While federal policymakers are busy spending billions to make matters worse for public schools, they’re also busy preventing students from having better choices, at the behest of powerful teachers unions. While charter, parochial and private schools offer better results and graduation results, President Obama and his allies are trying to prevent children from enrolling in them through cost-effective aid for school choice that measurably puts them on a path of success.
(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)
This bleak picture of federal involvement in education should cause President Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan to step back and reevaluate the entire method of federal education involvement. But instead, on Friday, Obama doubled down, and did so by circumventing Congress and rewriting the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law unilaterally in the White House. In the Rose Garden, Obama announced one of the biggest education developments in a decade, unveiling an NCLB waiver program where states can get out of the onerous federal requirements so long as they meet President Obama’s own requirements. States would be trading one set of federal standards, approved by Congress, for another set, approved by unaccountable bureaucrats in Washington.
* IT'S A NIGHTMARE, FOLKS... AN ABSOLUTE NIGHTMARE. THE RULE OF LAW MEANS NOTHING TO THE DEMOCRATS - AND IT MEANS FAR TOO LITTLE TO FAR MANY REPUBLICAN OFFICEHOLDERS AS WELL. FRANKLY, OBAMA SHOULD BE IMPREACHED FOR THIS LATEST DELIBERATE BREACH OF THE SEPARATION OF POWERS DOCTRINE.
Conservative lawmakers have introduced the A-PLUS Act that would allow states to completely opt out of NCLB, and other alternative measures that would restore education decision-making to state and local leaders.
But rather than work through the legislative system, Obama is ignoring it. Heritage expert Lindsey Burke explains: "The Obama administration is unhappy that Congress has not yet reauthorized No Child Left Behind (President Obama wanted the law reauthorized before the start of this school year), so he is dangling waivers in front of states thirsting for relief in exchange for their agreement to adopt the administration’s preferred education reforms, including national standards and tests. And because of the conditions, the temporary relief states get from the waivers will be quickly followed by an increase in Washington’s power over state educational decisions."
There is no excuse for this latest Obama fiat. Facing high unemployment and a dragging economy, federal education decisions are doing more harm than good.
* WHILE FURTHER SHREDDING THE CONSTITUTION.
* TWO-PARTER... (Part 1 of 2)
http://blog.heritage.org/2011/09/23/morning-bell-the-latest-obamacare-implosion/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Morning%2BBell
Inefficient programs that don’t solve problems and are passed against the will of the American people seem to be the Obama Administration’s forte.
* YEP!
Now their high-minded aspirations of a health care revolution are quickly unraveling as fatal glitches in ObamaCare become apparent.
(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)
Next up for implosion? The Community Living Assistance Services and Supports Act, otherwise known as the “CLASS Act,” which creates a government-run long term care insurance program too costly to sustain.
(*SIGH*)
At a time when entitlement programs in America have spun out of control, liberal proponents of ObamaCare were pushing a new one that had no hope of staying afloat.
(*BANGING MY HEAD AGAINST THE WALL; WISHING IT WERE OBAMA'S HEAD*)
Now, they are trying hide the fact that they were wrong as another bungling layer of ObamaCare is exposed.
(*BURSTING BLOOD VESSELS*)
* To be continued...
* CONCLUDING... (Part 2 of 2)
From its creation, the CLASS Act was completely unsustainable as written into law. The problem? Due to the effects of adverse selection, the program would charge high premiums that would deter less risky individuals from participating. Indeed, participating in the CLASS program would only appeal to those in poor health expecting to need long-term care in the future, further escalating premiums.
* FOLKS... AGAIN... EITHER IT'S INCOMPETENCE - A SHOCKING LACK OF BASIC MATH SKILLS AT THE HIGHEST LEVELS OF THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION - OR ELSE IT'S A DELIBERATE ATTEMPT TO BREAK THE SYSTEM SO AS TO CREATE A "NEED" TO REPLACE THE EXISTING CAPITALIST ECONOMIC SYSTEM WITH... er... SOMETHING ELSE.
Last week, Heritage reported on internal emails sent prior to ObamaCare’s passage [- when democrats still controlled both Houses of Congress -] warning the Obama Administration of CLASS’s impending disaster.
While then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and friends were frantically shoving the 3,000 page health care bill through Congress, they were ignoring vital information about a program that was actuarially unsound and completely unworkable.
In fact, as Heritage’s Lachlan Markay reported, federal health experts told them via email that CLASS would result in an “insurance death spiral.” [The Democratic] Congress passed it anyway.
* AGAIN, FOLKS... IT'S EITHER A LEVEL OF BASIC IGNORANCE SO PROFOUND AS TO PRECLUDE QUALIFICATION FOR HOLDING PUBLIC OFFICE, OR... (???) (*SHRUG*) SERIOUSLY... HOW ELSE TO EXPLAIN THEIR ACTIONS?
[President Obama's] Health and Human Services secretary Kathleen Sebelius has since stated that CLASS is “totally unsustainable” and “financially unsound.”
* NOW SHE TELLS US...?!?!?!
The Department claimed it could "solve" these problems using its administrative authority, but the only way CLASS could possibly survive would be via a taxpayer bailout, varying premiums according to health status, or by mandating worker participation - none of which are acceptable [political] options.
Bob Yee, chief actuary for the Health and Human Services office that administers the CLASS Act, recently left the office after being told his services weren’t needed. He told The Wall Street Journal that other office staffers were being reassigned. HHS is subsequently denying that they are killing the CLASS Act despite no longer having any employees working in its office.
A bicameral group of Republican Members of Congress are demanding answers in an oversight letter sent to HHS requesting information on their latest moves and what they knew about CLASS before ObamaCare became law.
So while HHS tries to cover their tracks by claiming CLASS is still being analyzed, it’s clear that the only responsible thing for them to do is admit they were wrong in the first place and end this awful program before it’s too late. And more importantly, Congress should repeal ObamaCare before the biggest implosion of all hits the American people.
(*NOD*)
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/02/us-wallstreet-protests-idUSTRE7900BL20111002
Police reopened the Brooklyn Bridge Saturday evening after more than 700 anti-Wall Street protesters were arrested for blocking traffic lanes and attempting an unauthorized march across the span.
* SO... 700 FREAKS... 700 FREAKS IN NYC... NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT, RIGHT?
* WRONG!
A week ago, police arrested about 80 members of Occupy Wall Street near the Union Square shopping district as the marchers swarmed onto oncoming traffic.
The group has gained support among some union members. The United Federation of Teachers and the Transport Workers Union Local 100, which has 38,000 members, are among those pledging solidarity. The unions could provide important organizational and financial support for the largely leaderless movement.
(*PURSED LIPS*)
Similar protests are sprouting in other cities, including Boston, Chicago and San Francisco.
* THE THREAT OF LARGE SCALE DOMESTIC SOCIAL/POLITICAL VIOLENCE IS INCREASING DAY BY DAY IN THE AGE OF OBAMA.
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