Aliens from outer space could abduct you if they know you read this. Does this possiblity concern you?

On a related note, from a Republican National Committee mailer entitled "Future of American Health Care Survey", this question:

"It has been suggested that the government could use voter registration to determine a person's political affiliation, prompting fears that GOP voters might be discriminated against for medical treatment in a Democrat-imposed health care rationing system. Does this possibility concern you?"

Read entire "push poll" mailer at The Washington Independent.
The Columbian of Clark County Washington broke the story.

Should President have emergency power to disconnect private-sector computers from the Internet

Article at CNET.com:

Probably the most controversial language begins in Section 201, which permits the president to "direct the national response to the cyber threat" if necessary for "the national defense and security." The White House is supposed to engage in "periodic mapping" of private networks deemed to be critical, and those companies "shall share" requested information with the federal government. ("Cyber" is defined as anything having to do with the Internet, telecommunications, computers, or computer networks.)

"The language has changed but it doesn't contain any real additional limits," EFF's Tien says. "It simply switches the more direct and obvious language they had originally to the more ambiguous (version)...The designation of what is a critical infrastructure system or network as far as I can tell has no specific process. There's no provision for any administrative process or review. That's where the problems seem to start. And then you have the amorphous powers that go along with it."

Translation: If your company is deemed "critical," a new set of regulations kick in involving who you can hire, what information you must disclose, and when the government would exercise control over your computers or network.

Robo calls illegal starting Sept 1st

FINALLY!

Beginning September 1, 2009, prerecorded commercial telemarketing calls to consumers – commonly known as robocalls – will be prohibited, unless the telemarketer has obtained permission in writing from consumers who want to receive such calls, the Federal Trade Commission announced today.

Read the press release at FTC.gov.

If you've never done it for some bizarre reason, here's the link to the Do Not Call Registry. It actually works great!

...and bizness is a boomin'

Tarantino was on Fresh Air yesterday. The interview was so interesting we went to see it last night. Wanna go? I'll see it again & again... Audio is available around 3pm est at NPR.org. Here's the transcript:

I just love movies. And I loved seeing, you know, I guess around the age of like 13 and 14 is when I started venturing out from just like, you know, the standard Hollywood movie to see a lot of these different exploitation movies or art films. You know, I guess like, say, like around my '76, where, you know, I guess the standard Hollywood movie would be "A Star Is Born," with Barbra Streisand, okay, that would be that movie.

Official site for Inglorious Basterds.
At Internet Movie Data Base. IMDB.com.
Tarantino's bio at IMDB.com:

First noted screenplay was titled "Captain Peachfuzz and the Anchovy Bandit," which was written in 1985.

Has stated that he would like to direct a James Bond movie at some point in his career.

When people ask me if I went to film school I tell them, 'no, I went to films.'

No meetings! The perfect place to work?

From Wired.com article about craigslist:

Only programmers, customer service reps, and accounting staff work at craigslist. There is no business development, no human resources, no sales. As a result, there are no meetings.

Hatip to kottke.org.

Financial institutions diversify into their level of incompetence

From FT.com:

Financial institutions diversify into their level of incompetence.

Then they blow up?

...It is therefore particularly easy for those who work in financial institutions to make the mistake of believing that their success is the result of exceptional skill rather than good fortune. What more natural to believe than that extraordinary talent will find pots of gold under other rainbows?

When you're considering diversifying your portfolio into stocks keep in mind on Tuesday, trading in 4 stocks represented 37% of the trading volume. Two of them are essentially insolvent companies too. Here's the scoop at Seeking Alpha.

So, could the big institutional traders, even mutual funds, be diversifying into their level of incompetence with your money?

What does it mean when 37% of the trading volume was in 4 stocks? That "big money" is thinking & investing rationally, or that Wall Street is basically gambling?

Warren Buffett's early strategy of investing was, as you probably know, buy & hold only companies he understood. Most people don't realize he believed a large portion of "his diversification" came from completely understanding each company he invested in, vs. throwing money at a lot of different companies without the appropriate due diligence.

The point? Be careful in your risk vs. reward assessment by not diversifying into your level of incompetency.

More about the Peter Principle.

Michael Steele's ideas on health care reform

From an interview at Fox w/Greta on August 25th:
Excerpts posted if you don't have time to read entire transcript.

VS: But can you sort of, you know -- you know, bring me in on the secret why the Republicans didn't do health care reform when they owned the House, the Senate and the White House? Do you have any idea?

S: No, I don't have an idea, and I think, you know, again, it's one of those -- those flaws of the past that, you know, we tripped ourselves up on. We had a perfect opportunity even when we didn't have control of the House and Senate during the early days of the Bush -- of Bush first term to at least put in place some of the -- some of the efforts to put, you know, our imprimatur, if you will, on the health care debate.

...What I do not applaud is the way they want to go about reforming our health care system when, in fact, the parts that they want to reform and don't need it, and the parts like Medicare that do need to be addressed, they're kind of slipping off to the side because everyone knows there's no money here, Greta, in about six or seven years. And so with all this spending now, where will the money come from to deal for our seniors in about six years when there is no money for Medicare?

From Washington Post opinion piece from August 24th:

Furthermore, under the Democrats' plan, senior citizens will pay a steeper price and will have their treatment options reduced or rationed.

...Many of the most significant costs of care come in the last six months of a patient's life, and every American household must consider how to treat their loved ones.

So part of the goal is to drive the conversation for health care reform to:

The parts like Medicare that do need to be addressed do not touch?

Continue to spend the most significant costs of care...in the last six months of a patient's life?

COLBERT launch scrubed

From NASA:

Wednesday Morning Launch Attempt Called Off
Mission managers have decided to scrub Wednesday morning’s launch attempt due to a stuck valve associated with the fill and drain plumbing of the main propulsion system within the orbiter aft compartment.

Previously.

How to be perfect in under a minute

At Major League Baseball dot com.

Did ya hear the one about the Mets losing from being on the wrong end of the first unassisted quadruple play?

AARP dismisses RNC's statement as misleading & alarmist

From Wall Street Journal:

The country's largest lobbying group for seniors, AARP, said it welcomed the RNC's commitment to protect Medicare. But the group, which supports efforts to overhaul the health-care system, also dismissed the RNC statement as misleading and alarmist.

"Change by itself is anxiety producing, but as we have analyzed the various bills [before Congress], the proposed Medicare savings do not limit benefits, they do not impose rationing and they do not put the government between patients and their doctors," said John Rother, AARP's executive vice president.

Check out the idea at the GOP's official page.

The Fed must release docs relating to "emergency lending"

From Bloomberg:

The Federal Reserve must make records about emergency lending to financial institutions public within five days because it failed to convince a judge the documents should be exempt from the Freedom of Information Act.

And:

Bloomberg said in the suit U.S. taxpayers need to know the risks behind the central bank’s $2 trillion in lending because the public is an “involuntary investor” in the nation’s banks.

Previously at Bloomberg:

The Fed began expanding its lending programs in August 2007 with the Term Discount Window program. The central bank’s loans don’t have oversight requirements or compensation limits that Congress imposed upon the TARP.

This is going to make some incredibly fascinating, & hopefully, "indictful" reading.

More info from Megan at Va Coalition for Open Government:

At the NFOIC conference in June, Bloomberg's inhouse lawyer, Charles Glasser, was a great panelist on the topic.

Here's a link to the blog coverage on his panel on fiscal transparency.
Video link to fiscal transparency panel.

More from Huffington Post, the docs from the lawsuit Bloomberg v. Fed.

COLBERT heads to space Tuesday morning

Combined Operational Load Bearing External Resistance Treadmill or COLBERT is launching in a few hours! Woo Hoo! [In your best Stephen voice.]

More about C.O.L.B.E.R.T. at NASA.
Space Shuttle Missions at NASA.

Check out the Official Patch:
















Seriously, it's the official patch. Check out the link about COLBERT at NASA.

Wanna get stupiderer ? Take a class at Occidental College

Occidental College Course Catalog 2008-2009:
Seriously. Don't be stupid. Follow the above link too.

180. STUPIDITY.

Stupidity is neither ignorance nor organicity, but rather, a corollary of knowing and an element of normalcy, the double of intelligence rather than its opposite. It is an artifact of our nature as finite beings and one of the most powerful determinants of human destiny.

Note: It's only a 100 Level course so you probably just touch on the subject.
Hatip to Huffington Post where I first saw this.

A friend has a question after reading this post:

I wonder if you have to get an "F" to pass this course?

That could be true, but it might not be good enough in Canada:

B.C. university adds grade worse than F

Article at the Calgary Herald.
Simon Frasier University News about new grade.

An idea for a national strike

I suggested you check out Change Congress here to learn what we can do to take big lobbying out of our government. Today, in an article by Larry Flynt, he has another idea:

As Thomas Jefferson famously quipped in regard to the insurrection: "A little rebellion now and then is a good thing. The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants."

Perhaps it's time to consider that option once again.

I'm calling for a national strike, one designed to close the country down for a day. The intent? Real campaign-finance reform and strong restrictions on lobbying. Because nothing will change until we take corporate money out of politics. Nothing will improve until our politicians are once again answerable to their constituents, not the rich and powerful.

Let's set a date. No one goes to work. No one buys anything. And if that isn't effective -- if the politicians ignore us -- we do it again. And again. And again.

The real war is not between the left and the right. It is between the average American and the ruling class. If we come together on this single issue, everything else will resolve itself. It's time we took back our government from those who would make us their slaves.

Read his whole article. I hadn't planned on linking to it, but several financial blogs I read pointed it out. They are livid, as you should be too, about the Wall Street bail out with seemingly little accountability plus a lot of the jerks who helped get us in this mess are still getting their obnoxious multi-million dollar salaries to "clean it up".