Ken Nelson

Ann Barnhardt, a successful long term broker in the futures and options markets decided today that she could no longer take her customers money in good faith:

The futures and options markets are no longer viable. It is my recommendation that ALL customers withdraw from all of the markets as soon as possible so that they have the best chance of protecting themselves and their equity.

She then adds:

The rule of law is non-existent, instead replaced with godless, criminal political cronyism.

I’d have to say that things really aren’t looking “up”.

I’m organizing a couple big shooting events in the coming months. These things barely cover the cost of doing them, and certainly don’t generate enough to pay staff, so we rely on volunteers.  I’d organized a core staff of about 30 folks shooters, and an auxiliary of 35 (or so I thought) of local youth helping out as a fundraiser.

Alas today, as I’m reading this prescient article “The Young and the Lazy” by Gavin McInnes I get an e-mail from one of the Scout leaders saying his kids won’t be coming, and that he just can’t get them “up” for doing anything.  The kicker was that they were looking forward to another shooting event where we supply the guns, ammo, and high quality (as in among the best in the nation) instructors.  Uhmm… right.

So I’m left with 20 from our local Sheriff Explorers – who are on a track for law enforcement or military careers – and who once committed can be expected to be there, in uniform, working their butts off.  They will work, and they will also get thousands of rounds of ammo, and days of cool times on the range in the coming months.

And I wondered… when did Scouts get lazy?

My next call… our local Jr. ROTC liaison. That’s the only group of kids I can think of that I think will understand the value of working from dawn to dusk on a Saturday.

As to Gavin’s article… read it (be prepared for salty language).  I’ve had some encounter with the “meh” attitude  towards work he’s encountered, but not as bad as he’s had.  And generally during interviews of folks I didn’t hire.  But he is in the belly of the best – NYC – and hiring from the worst of the worst – eastern “elite” colleges. 

My advice to Gavin… search for his interns amongst returning veterans. They will empty his trash bins with glee – and figure out a better way to do it while at it.

Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.

George Washington

via EconomicNoise.com

The Tea Party represents all the people working, producing, and PAYING for everything, while the Occupy movement represents all the people wanting to TAKE things from those who have earned them.

TakiMag.com

Another inappropriate gesture?

I confess to not liking Herman Cain that much. He is 100000% better than Obama, but he bugs me. He is supposed to be a scientist – having a degree in Math, doing Ordinary Differential Equations as a mathematician for the Navy, then he got a Masters in Computer Science, and held various IT positions as he climbed the corporate ladder.

But he doesn’t talk like a scientist. His thoughts and speech patterns seem chaotic and he wanders all over answering questions, when he answers them at all.

I understand his attraction to the typical conservative. And I’ll vote for him, but I have concerns, and it seems like yet another “blah” candidate option in the decades long failure of our political process to actually offer up decent people.

I was once accused of sexual harassment. Although almost 20 years ago, I remember it quite clearly, because I was first, mad, and second, a bit scared.  The woman in question had been fired for poor job attendance and drug use. She retaliated by bringing a lawyer and an accusation hoping to fish for $.   After hearing our presentation and documentation on why she was fired, the lawyer apologized and bowed out.

For Cain to not “remember” the details of the accusations and their legal aftermath smacks of flat out lying, or frankly, cover-up.

Now, given my experience, I can readily believe that some money grubbing slacker female decided to attempt legal extortion. I can REALLY believe that is the case.  What I can’t believe is Cain doesn’t remember it happening.

I also can’t believe he didn’t dump this to a friendly reporter months ago.  It smacks of continued amateurism.  I don’t want a smooth politician, but I wouldn’t mind a hint of competence.

Oh… and I never liked Godfather Pizza’s pizza.

http://pointsandfigures.com/2011/11/03/new-words-ineptocracy/

1. Ineptocracy
*_Ineptocracy_****(in-ep-toc’-ra-cy) – a system of government where the least

capable to lead are elected by the least capable of producing, and where the

members of society least likely to sustain themselves or succeed, are rewarded

with goods and services paid for by the confiscated wealth of a diminishing number

of producers*

Via Instapundit

I don’t think about China much. I’m a busy fellow. BUT  I knew they had nukes. And Herman Cain did not.

I don’t understand why Presidential candidates need to espouse on things they don’t have firm opinions or knowledge of.  I’d be happy to accept  “I’m not ready to discuss that, I’m more focused on my 9 9 9 plan now”.

But the gaffe did get me thinking about China. And, frankly, they don’t worry me.  Oh sure, if they wanted they could take Taiwan. Or Japan. But why would they go to that trouble when they could just let a few hundred million “volunteers” absorb the Asian provinces of the old Russian empire?

So when I think about China, I think less about nukes, and more about Greece.  And in particular how little old Greece is putting a hurt on all of Europe just because they let them borrow money and screw around with their currency.

Sound familiar?  Well, we’ve got a lot more debt with China than Greece did with the EuroFools. And they’ve been holding their currency at wacky rates so they could make stuff and lend money to us so we could buy it.  And we are rapidly proving ourselves to be as irresponsible as Greece. I’d say we have China just about where we want them…

So if I were in charge, I wouldn’t worry too much about China. I’d worry more about getting our systems (free market, hard work, democracy) back in order so we can capitalize on their fall.

Greeks – even those fiercely opposed to Pasok from the left and right – are resigned to the fact that the country faces years of painful restructuring. The real question at issue is a) under whose control and b) in whose interest?

Those are the questions for Greece. But they apply to us as well. Greece is just farther along the failure trajectory.

Obama, to me, isn’t really a socialist. Well, he is, but that isn’t what drives his decisions. He is a cronyist acting on behalf of his cronies, financial supporters and voters.  He is willing to accelerate our failure as long as his team does better than the others.

So, under Obama, and the DemocRATs,  failing solar companies, General Electric, unions, public employees, will get larger slices of a shrinking pie.

It makes no economic sense. But economic value isn’t his standard.

College has been oversold. It has been oversold to students who end up dropping out or graduating with degrees that don’t help them very much in the job market. It also has been oversold to the taxpayers, who foot the bill for these subsidies.

Alex Tabarrok
College has been oversold
Marginal Revolution

My son, although just 14, seems fairly clear on what he wants to do as a grownup. He wants to run a small manufacturing concern that builds custom firearms and designs and builds firearms enhancement products (like better triggers).  To do this he will need to know machining, welding, CNC programming, plastic injection molding, as well as math and spreadsheet/analysis skills.  He will also need to design brochures, write business documents, magazine articles, negotiate and build relationships with vendors, customers, and employees, and know how to interpret a balance sheet/income statement.

There is no “college” degree for this.  So is it better for me to drop $40K (or more) on some college degree, or $10K getting training in these fields, and $30K on machinery to start the business, while arranging mentors on some of the business specific things?

Note that paying $40K for an extended adolescence, or letting him borrow for the same, isn’t part of the plan.

I am definitely too stupid to understand how corporations steal anything from me. Unless they’re receiving government subsidies, I’m not forced to buy anything they produce. Not like I’m forced to pay taxes. And it’s the government, not the corporations, that claims a monopoly on violence. Only the government can throw you in jail and call it “incarceration” instead of “kidnapping.” I’ve never seen a corporation claim the exclusive right to wage war, but that’s the government’s reason for getting out of bed in the morning.

Jim Goad
Taki’s Magazine

Anything I can’t say no to…whether government, a religion that doesn’t believe in free agency, or my wife… concerns me.

http://www.vlingo.com/apps/android

Short:  Pretty useful in quiet environments (out to eat, in office). Doesn’t handle background noise well when driving but can save pesky typing.

I recommend it.

Longer:

I use my Android phone to talk, text, e-mail, navigate, and search Google for information about something that has come up in a conversation.

Vlingo does a very good job replacing typing in Google searches.  It also handled navigation searches pretty well.

Vlingo does a fair job starting texts and getting the wording right. But not good enough that I would send a text it generates without checking it.

And I wouldn’t let Vlingo anywhere near my e-mail, which I need to be accurate, typo and wrong word free.

I like that it has a one button launch (on my phone the searched button pressed long will launch Vlingo).

Examples that worked for me in a nice quiet environment were:

Today’s weather

weather in new york city

text devin thursday 1pm

launch  angry birds

get directions to Rowdy’s Range

google images christina hendrickson

text paula "how is your trip to NYC going?”

My results varied in a car. In my truck it worked similarly. While riding in a smaller car, with more road noise, it would get it close, but usually miss a word.

All in all, I find it pretty useful and worth installing. I recommend it.

Two views on what “government should give”

Ace describes the difference pretty well:

As someone said, both groups don’t like crony capitalism, but OWS wants to keep the cronyism and ditch the capitalism. The Tea Party, the opposite.

That sums it up well.  I, too, don’t like the Wall Street shenanigans, but it only matters when I can’t say NO to it.  I can fire a Wall Street business, except when they are spending government money taken from me, given to them, in return for campaign support.

I really only worry about things I can’t say no too – government being the only large example.

Good synopsis of government math:

“Evidence illustrates that there is a persistent robust negative relationship between the level (and expansion of) government expenditures and the growth of GDP.  Our findings indicate that a 10% increase in government expenditures as a percent of GDP results in approximately a 1 percentage point reduction in GDP growth.”

Read the whole thing…

“Take this down, Siri, Remind me to buy Helena Flowers”.

So Alexis Madrigal talks to his iPhone 4S, the latest launched this weekend to a 4 million unit (in 2 days) success.

I hope it works that well.  The voice recognition on my Motorola Droid X certainly isn’t that smart. I try it, but it doesn’t recognize particularly well, and the interface to use it is awkward.

Siri came out of Nuance Communications which spun out of SRI back in the early 90’s.  I was in the speech recognition game back then and we all had high hopes that speech recognition would take off as something used by most people.  That hasn’t happened yet.

Perhaps Siri hearkens an age when it will. I’d love to just tell my phone to remember something – and have it work. 

BTW: Mashable likes it but says… “work in progress”.

Amazon Prime Video has the 1st season of 24 streaming for free. I’ve had it on in the background as I did other stuff.  It is amazing how dated it seems. It seemed so “cool” back then.

And I forgot how much I hoped Jack Baur’s wife would get killed.  Boy is she irritating. By design? No idea. I don’t recall her in later seasons so I suspect the show’s producers concluded similarly.