Alan C.
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Posts posted by Alan C.
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As usual a lot of the You Tube comments are ridiculous.
Paraphrasing...
"Stef hates women."
"Stef blames women."
"Stef hates his mother and takes it out on women."
It's overwhelming. These people don't listen and they can't think.
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Federal agencies spend millions on union business
“Taxpayers spent around $156 million on federal employees who did no federal work at all,” said Nathan Mehrens, president of Americans for Limited Government.Watchdog.org reported last week that union business — oxymoronically classified as “official time” — is subsidized by the IRS. Mehrens uncovered similar behavior at other agencies.At the IRS, 286 full-time staffers worked exclusively for the National Treasury Employees Union while receiving government paychecks in 2012 (the latest year for which statistics were available).. . .Veterans Affairs. The scandal-scarred VA has more than 250 employees working full-time for the American Federation of Government Employees, the National Association of Government Employees, the National Federation of Federal Employees and the Service Employees International Union.“At least one of these 250 doesn’t even report to work at a department facility, but rather ‘teleworks’ from a private AFGE office in D.C.,” Mehrens noted.Department of Transportation. Some 35 DOT employees exclusively on “official time” receive average annual salaries of $138,000. Some receive more than $170,000.Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA pays more than $1.6 million per year to employees who work for their union full-time.National Labor Relations Board. The NLRB has two employees working for their union full-time. Each makes more than $100,000 per year. -
Patent office filters out worst telework abuses in report to its watchdog
Some of the 8,300 patent examiners, about half of whom work from home full time, repeatedly lied about the hours they were putting in, and many were receiving bonuses for work they didn’t do. And when supervisors had evidence of fraud and asked to have the employee’s computer records pulled, they were rebuffed by top agency officials, ensuring that few cheaters were disciplined, investigators found.. . ....the agency’s army of examiners and other officials has been falling behind, with a backlog of patent applications swelling to more than 600,000 and estimated waiting times of more than five years.. . .They tend to be near the top of the federal pay scale, with the highest taking home $148,000 a year.. . .In one, an examiner missed 304 hours of work in a year but was paid for the time. Despite warnings, this examiner kept cheating and was caught twice but not fired.Another examiner claimed to have worked 266 hours for which there was no evidence she was on the job, and she received $12,533 in pay. She was never charged with time fraud because an assistant deputy commissioner refused her supervisor’s request to pull computer records, but instead she was charged with a lesser offense of not responding to a supervisor’s repeated attempts to get in touch with her. According to a patent official with knowledge of the case, the woman was never required to pay the government back.. . .More than 70 percent of the 80 managers interviewed also told investigators that a “significant” number of examiners did not work for long periods, then rushed to get their reviews done at the end of each quarter. -
Fast food self-order kiosk:
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Argentina calls for international action against "anarcho-capitalism"
Reddit (where I first heard about this)
The Argentine government on Tuesday called steps to fight the "anarcho-capitalism" which puts the world under the "sword of Damocles" from "tiny groups" as vulture funds, which believes that there are instances of appeal in the Court of The Hague to unlock the conflict debt.In his daily briefing, the chief of staff of the Argentine Government, Jorge Capitanich said today that the world can not be under the "anarcho-capitalism"."The world can not be with the sword of Damocles of tiny oligarchic groups" who "conspire against the stability of the economic and financial system" and violate "the status of a sovereign country" with an "unacceptable level of usury," he said Capitanich in reference to the conflict with the vulture funds.Also found this older article:
Cristina Fernandez: "We live in an anarcho-capitalism system and we must stop it"
Funny stuff.
Argentina is in all kinds of trouble, none of which has anything to do with anarcho-capitalism.
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There shouldn't be any laws against defamation because a person cannot claim ownership over thoughts in another person's mind, nor the equipment/materials used to convey the false allegations.
There's nothing wrong with yelling 'Fire!' in a theater if there is a fire. However, if there isn't a fire then the prankster responsible would be liable for financial losses incurred by moviegoers and theater owners.
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Americans Got $2 Trillion in Benefits from Federal Government in 2013
Most of the benefits doled out from the total of $2 trillion, or 69.7 percent, came from non-means tested government programs that, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, provide benefits to recipients who qualify regardless of income.These non-means tested government programs include Medicare, Social Security, railroad retirement, unemployment compensation, workers’ compensation, Veterans’ compensation and Veterans’ educational assistance. In fiscal year 2013, Americans received $1,399,253,000,000 in benefits from these programs. The two programs which contributed most to this total were Social Security, totaling $663,216,000,000 and Medicare, totaling $589,655,000,000 for a combined total of $1,252,871,000,000.Means-tested government programs, which require income to be below a certain level to be eligible for receipt, contributed to 30.3 percent of the total amount in benefits.Such government programs include public or subsidized rental housing, Federal Supplemental Security Income (SSI), food stamps, otherwise known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), Women, Infants and Children (WIC), free and reduced lunch programs, Pell Grants, refundable tax credits and Medicaid.These programs totaled $608,358,200,000 in fiscal year 2013.According to the treasury statement, the federal government totaled $3,454,253,000,000 in outlays for fiscal year 2013. This number encompasses all government spending, including things like defense, highway and transportation costs, public education, immigration services and government worker salaries, to name a few.This means that benefits, totaling $2,007,611,200,000, amounted to 58.1 percent of the total spending. -
Giving is kind, and it perpetuates a meme of generosity, but it's not an obligation.
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Ebola outbreak: fight against disease hampered by belief in witchcraft, warns British doctor
Benjamin Black, 32, a volunteer with the charity Médecins Sans Frontières in Sierra Leone, said that some of those in infected areas were not seeking medical treatment as they thought the disease was the work of sorcerers. Belief in witchcraft and traditional medicine is still prevalent in parts of west Africa, particularly the remote rural areas of Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia where the outbreak has been concentrated.In an interview with The Telegraph, Dr Black, who completed a four-day stint earlier this week at an Ebola treatment clinic in Kailahun, near Sierra Leone’s northern border with Guinea, said: “There is a section of population here who simply don’t believe Ebola is real, they think it is witchcraft and so they don’t come to the treatment centres."Sometimes, even those who turn up at clinics with symptoms of the disease will be resistant to the idea that they have it. They will say 'yes, people in my family have died already, but this is witchcraft rather than Ebola’." -
Housing Market in France in ‘Meltdown’ After Hollande Rent Caps
French President Francois Hollande’s government may have made a housing slump worse, pushing the construction market to its lowest in more than 15 years.Housing starts fell 19 percent in the second quarter from a year earlier, and permits -- a gauge of future construction -- dropped 13 percent, the French Housing Ministry said yesterday.The rout stems from a law this year that seeks to make housing more affordable by capping rents in expensive neighborhoods. To protect home buyers, the law also boosted the number of documents that must be provided by sellers, leading to a decline in home sales and longer transaction times. While the government is now adjusting the rules, the damage is done, threatening France’s anemic recovery that’s already lagging behind those of the U.K. and Germany.. . .Sales of new-build homes fell 5 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier and are down by about a third compared with their level in 2007...You can't legislate away a price you don't like.
People respond to incentives.
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How a Former Denny's Waitress Amassed an Empire of Over 75 Denny's Locations
Dawn Lafreeda began working at a Denny's in California at 16, making her way from hostess to waitress. During college, she took on a second job at a software company, where she learned about accounting and managing personnel.In 1984, when she was 23, Lafreeda was able to merge all her skills when she had the opportunity to purchase a Denny's restaurant in the tiny mining town of Globe, Ariz. She jumped at the chance. "I knew from a young age I was going to own my own business," she says. "I always knew I was going to be self-employed."Eighteen months later, impressed by what Lafreeda had accomplished, Denny's offered her four ailing restaurants in west Texas. It was a challenge whipping the stores into shape, but for Lafreeda the biggest hurdle was culture shock--she wasn't prepared for the area's depressed economy and arid landscape. Every week she called Denny's executives and asked them to sell her a store in the big city of San Antonio. Eventually they did, and since moving there, Lafreeda has increased her empire to 75 Denny's locations in six states, becoming the largest single-owner franchisee in the system.This worthwhile story illustrates how a person can work his/her way up from the bottom and become a successful entrepreneur.
Of course, one could also go the State violence route and use "civil rights" to simply plunder Denny's restaurants.
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My reason for not having a smart phone is that I can't justify the expense. Some of my co-workers spend $50-100 per month on their calling plans. Everyone at work has either an iPhone or Samsung Galaxy.
My phone is a Samsung SGH-T139, for which I paid $40-50 (can't remember), but they can be found for $30 or less at many places. I'm on T-Mobile's pay-as-you-go plan which costs $100/annually for 1,000 mins, and the unused mins carry over.
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People respond to incentives.
An example is the way in which businesses automate to avoid hiring people. The State continually makes employees more costly and risky, so businesses seek ways to avoid hiring.
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...insults I receive has nothing to do with me.
It's important not to take things personally. In situations in which you interface with customers, you will invariably deal with jerks.
I also interface with customers in my job. Most of the people I deal with are nice, but a handful are demanding, have an entitlement mentality, listen to nothing that we say and read none of the documentation that we provide, and think that they are our only customer.
The best way to deal with people like that is to tell them whatever they want to hear (without committing to anything or making any promises) so that they will think that they've won and move along. If you get into arguments with people like that, you will feel drained, frustrated, and exasperated.
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UCLA campus experienced a water main break which caused major flooding and loss of millions of gallons of water. The article says that the water main is 90 years old. This reminded me of my earlier post in this thread when I talked about century-old infrastructure which is literally disintegrating. This is nothing new to Los Angeles which experiences hundreds of pipe breaks annually.
Also see watermainbreakclock.com
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Tech Companies Reel as NSA's Spying Tarnishes Reputations
U.S. technology companies are in danger of losing more business to foreign competitors if the National Security Agency’s power to spy on customers isn’t curbed...ServInt Corp., a Reston, Virginia-based company that provides website hosting services, has seen a 30 percent decline in foreign customers since the NSA leaks began in June 2013, said Christian Dawson, its chief operating officer.“It ends up being death by a thousand paper cuts,” Dawson said in a phone interview.. . .ServInt clients told Dawson they no longer have the tolerance to allow their data to be hosted by a company based in the U.S.Additional actions are needed to reduce the negative impact on American companies facing declining sales and lost business opportunities, such as legislation limiting spying on foreigners and developing policies about when it’s justified for the government to secretly install malware on computers, the Open Technology Institute said.U.S. technology companies may lose as much as $35 billion in the next three years from foreign customers choosing not to buy their products over concern they cooperate with spy programs...
I'm sure it also doesn't engender confidence when the government seizes racks of servers in a data center.
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Feminist Professor Pleads No Contest to Assaulting Pro-Life Teen
A feminist studies professor at University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB) pleaded no contest to three misdemeanor charges of grand theft, vandalism, and battery this week after she attacked a young female pro-life protestor in March.As Breitbart News’ Warner Todd Huston reported, Associate Professor Mireille Miller-Young was charged after attacking 16-year-old Thrin Short, and her 21-year-old sister, Joan, who were distributing pamphlets for the Survivors of the Abortion Holocaust, a nonprofit pro-life group.Miller-Young, who teaches feminist and black cultural studies courses -- which includes classes on pornography, sex work, and a specialization in “queer theory” -- reportedly confronted the young girls by loudly talking over them at first, then she ridiculed them and called them names. The professor’s behavior escalated when destroyed some of the pro-life group’s signage and physically assaulted Thrin, inflicting minor injuries on the young girl.. . .In later interviews, Miller-Young claimed she had a "moral right" to physically attack the pro-life young people, stating that she viewed herself "like" a "conscientious objector." The professor also blamed the young pro-lifers for forcing her to viciously attack them, claiming Thrin had "triggered" her. -
The sad and unfortunate irony is that many women also end up finishing last. The ones who make immature and short-sighted decisions end up on singles sites when they're 40 with kids in a desparate attempt to find a guy like the ones they eschewed 20 years before.
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[Minnesota] Twins debut self-serve beer machines at Target Field
To get the beer, fans buy a vending card after showing their ID to a cashier. The card is then used at the machine to fill a beer cup to their liking.. . .Nancy Goldman, president of the Local 17 Twin Cities Hospitality Union, has her doubts. Her union represents the vendors that sell beer, food and other items to fans in their seats, and she said the self-serve machines have union members talking."You'll never be able to compete with seat vendors because I'd rather sit and watch the game and have a beer brought to me, but I'd say from an employment standpoint, it's just another attack on workers being replaced by machines," Goldman said. -
Where is the father? Why did she have four children?
Were they given the choice to attend choir and church?
Disrespect for authoritative figures is being reinforced by popular television programs that degrade adults.Wrong.
Authority figures are disrespected because they haven't earned it.
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It has been suggested, and the idea holds merit, that as humans migrated away from the equator, nature selected for higher intelligence in harsher climates because greater ingenuity, resourcefulness, and foresight were required to survive.
I recall that Hans Hoppe discussed this in one of his lectures in which he postulated that private property was a necessary requisite, but not sufficient on its own, to improve the human condition; and that higher intelligence was also required. For this, he was accused of advocating eugenics (even by fellow libertarians).
I think that some people are so terrified of the left-liberal/progressive smear-machine that they will even smear their own as a proactive defensive measure.
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That works for me. Does that work for everyone else?
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Any ideas on when you'd like to do this?
Hot Crazy Matrix - A Man's Guide to Women
in Self Knowledge
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