Never Forget 9/11? Who’s Forgetting?
Cover of Howard Stern
I know people mean well when they say never forget 9/11, but seriously, who’s forgetting?
Yes, I remember where I was. A typical nice cool September day in Michigan delivering a truckload of Budweiser. I was listening to Howard Stern partake of his liberty with his freedom of speech. At first I thought it was a joke, but there was no hint of it in their dialogue. A few minutes into it, these jokers were doing a better job at reporting than what I heard on the national 24 hour news outlets later. I distinctly remember them reporting, “We know who did it, it’s the damn towel heads that did it!”. No kidding.
A few hours into the events, a message came across the truck’s Qualcomm, “U.S. attacked. Terror Alert. All trucks guard your loads.”. Nobody really knew what was going to happen next. The company I was with had 13 trucks in the immediate area of the World Trade Centers.
We all knew who it was. We all know who it will be in the future. We know because they come to our country and make no effort to deny that they hate us. How hard is it to figure out? Oh, it could have been someone like McVey right? No. McVey attacked a single government target right after The Clinton Administration had done all they could to inflame anyone on the fringes with Waco.
To this day, I still respect Howard Stern and his cast for being the only ones in the media to just come out and say it with no apologies. What’s to apologize for?
So who’s forgetting and who’s forgetting what. The media seems to have amnesia. They don’t want you to see the film footage any more than they and the government sees fit. They want to tell you that Americans are to pay the price with loss of liberties from the Patriot Act, groping in the airports, and a whole list of indignities and revoked rights that the average American has. The system wants you to feel safe in it’s overbearing protective stance while they label anyone who recognizes the real enemy as a bigoted hatemonger. In short they prefer that you shut up and turn a blind eye. They’ll take care of it with your dollars and you just do what you’re told. They’re keeping you safe you know?
So in the 10 years since the attack the U.S. government has been infiltrated by some people that have no respect for the Constitution and they’ve ravaged our economy. I’m not forgetting when these people got the green light to do what they’d been yearning to do for many years before. I’m not forgetting at all. I’m not forgetting who’s paying the ultimate price for all of this. I’m not forgetting where we were then and I’m not turning a blind eye to where we are now.
It would seem like some sort of psychological trick. Why would the mantra, “Never Forget!”, be repeated over and over for an event that I’m sure nobody is ever going to forget? Is there a certain version that we’re supposed to never forget? In the process of never forgetting, take the time to learn about the events that have occurred after as well.
Here is the broadcast that I heard that morning. No other radio stations had the coverage in the area. At that time, the only New York syndicated radio show that reached the rural area was Howard Stern. I consider myself lucky. Who would have thought a comedian like Stern could have done a good job at a time like this? As I listen to these old broadcasts, I certainly will never forget.
Howard Stern 9/11 Broadcast Part 1
Howard Stern 9/11 Broadcast Part 2
Howard Stern 9/11 Broadcast Part 3
Howard Stern 9/11 Broadcast Part 4
Howard Stern 9/11 Broadcast Part 5
All of Our Jobs Going to China? Really?
Don’t you hate it when you believe something just because it’s easy to take news outlets at their word. I can’t say that I’ve heard it on Fox, but I’ve watched and read numerous stories on mainstream news and I’ve even seen an entire documentary on PBS telling me that all of the jobs are going to China. I’ve talked to friends that explained that they designed processes at companies where they worked, only to have it all shut down and shipped to China. I don’t spend days pouring over what goes to China, so I just accepted this as at least a little bit factual. All of that changed when I found this graph.
Production Output Of The U.S.
I started looking for facts on China after listening to an unrelated story on the radio. There was a gentleman from the Reagan administration era who said he was a member of the intelligence community. I didn’t catch the exact info on the guy. He was stating that Russia was never much of a threat at all. He claimed that they could barely feed their people and had been teetering on collapse for a long time. It’s certainly believable with Communism. Of course, all that Reagan had to do was call them out on it and the game was up. My suspicion is that any leader we had before could have done the same, but it’s always handy to have an enemy if you’re in the defense business.
I thought, “Maybe history is repeating itself. Isn’t China supposed to be our competitive threat? Maybe even a potential military threat?”. If all of our jobs are going to China, how are we producing more now than ever before in history? There could be reason for this that I don’t understand. I’ve read that the bulk of this industrial output is military, but I’ve found no stats to support that.
So why is the output higher than ever? I’ll make my bets on technology and population. More technology and people than ever would certainly explain it to me. It would also explain why the output is through the roof yet unemployment is too. If the military output is the major part of this high output and we’re buying it all on borrowed money, we’re in a for a hard fall.
3/5th’s a Person? Really?
Glenn Beck made a very profound statement about the Constitution’s history of calling a slave 3/5th’s of a person. In part of the indoctrination that we all went through, I remember my teachers spending an inordinate amount of time telling us how evil all of the white people were. The 3/5th’s of a person rule was supposed to really make a point about just how evil white folks were. “We didn’t even consider them a full person!”, yeah right.
Glenn Beck showed how this wasn’t true in the respect that we didn’t consider them full people, but that their representation was only worth 3/5th’s of a vote. There was a strong Abolitionist movement that didn’t want their vote counted at all. It was the slave owners that wanted their vote counted. As a slave, their vote was certain to be whatever their master told them to vote. For most, it was illegal for them to read, let alone vote. A full vote for a slave would have weakened the Abolitionist position in Congress as they worked to free the slaves.
I have never heard that argument. I doubt any blacks have heard that argument. I can’t find any opposition to it. I would assume that it really destroys the idea that only a tiny minority of whites opposed slavery. There would have had to have been at least enough opposition to make an obvious compromise on the representation of slaves at the polls. I don’t think anyone could have pulled the 3/5th’s idea out of thin air. It’s an obvious compromise.
All of this is irrelevant when one considers that whites have fought for the end to slavery and the progression of equal rights since before the inception of the country to modern times. What a disservice it is for the left to constantly state that the majority of whites are racists. It’s as if they have a motive to look for reason to split the nation in any way that they can. They need their voting block to have an enemy. If there is no enemy, one is created.
As for Glenn Beck, you bet he has some ideas that are out there, and for this he is constantly mocked and called an idiot(or some derivative of the word). I listen to his show frequently and nearly every time he states something, he requests that you check the facts out for yourself. He’ll tells you what his opposition says, what to reference to find that opposition, and why they oppose him. I would have never known that there was no racist intent with this statement without looking it up. If you want racist intent, it’s there, but it’s not with blacks it’s with Indians. Here’s a link that explains the Constitution on race a little deeper.
If you have the time, you can see the ridiculous responses from the left. All that I have found is the typical name calling and hateful responses that lack any substance to dispute the matter. I’ve seen Beck state some points of view that were way out there and this one seemed like one until further inspection. This time, Beck’s done a find job at exposing just how out of touch our public education is with the reality of our country’s history.
Related articles
- Congress Will Read The Constitution, Minus The Icky Slavery Parts [Censorship] (gawker.com)
- “Slave” And “Nigger” (andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com)
- Beck: It Was ‘Cowardly’ to Skip Slaves in Constitution Reading (newser.com)
The Google Low Corporate Tax Example
Google appliance which has been a major advance for companies to mine information from their documents.Image via Wikipedia
It’s old news, but there’s an important lesson – Google doesn’t pay it’s fair share of taxes. Google and many other very profitable corporations shuffle money around the globe to avoid corporate tax. Google tapped the U.S. taxpayer resources for many of it’s initial research, but decides to not let the government share in the proceeds.
The lesson is that companies who are taxed heavily cannot compete. We wouldn’t have the great tools that Google provides to everyone at free or low cost if they would have not taken advantage of legal loopholes. Some may even claim that there are loopholes created specifically for them! Is it fair? Of course not.
What Google has done is created entirely new professions, made small shop owners wealthy, provided educational tools so far ahead of the old standards that traditional textbooks are virtually worthless, and changed the way we use information. It wasn’t fair, but it worked. They didn’t pay their perceived fair share of taxes, but they did improve our lives far better than any other government entity, except maybe the military who safeguards the freedom to allow any of this to occur.
I notice at the end that the Liberal argument shows how much good the government could have done with the taxes Google didn’t pay. I can’t see this as valid because without those tax breaks, there would have been no profit for Google to begin with. They could not have beat their competition and created the tools that allowed them to become so profitable to begin with.
I can understand the argument that without public funding, Google would not have happened either. However, employees do not come to Google already trained. The public education system did not provide Google with a person trained specifically for creating new software, they only provided them with the basic education needed for any other profession.
What I don’t understand is how they are such darlings of the left? Their business model proves the standard conservative ideal that lower taxes allow for more profits. Even their low percentage has provided huge tax bills. Why does the left feel that it’s fine for Google and other select companies to operate with low taxes, but that other businesses who wish to remain in the U.S. do not deserve the same tax rates? Why doesn’t Google promote the right who agrees that high corporate taxes promote wealth?
Related articles
- Google Warns Irish Government Against Tax Increase (tech.slashdot.org)
- Google slips $3.1bn through ‘Double Irish’ tax loophole (go.theregister.com)
- Don’t be evil, or too reliant on Ireland’s tax regime (ftalphaville.ft.com)
- The Truth Behind Google’s Teeny-Tiny Tax Rate (fool.com)
Anti-Capitalist Making Huge Money in a Capitalist World
It doesn’t happen often that a movie trailer catches my interest. Usually, I get a recommendation from someone about a movie before I bother with it. All it took to grab my interest for Michael Moore’s new movie was the title, Capitalism A Love Story. The irony that that one of the nations richest Anti-Capitalists was making a movie explaining the wrongs of the system that has made him one of the uber-rich sounds like a comedy, mystery, documentary, and drama all rolled into one.
Take one look at a list of Michael Moore’s material
For example, in Bowling For Columbine, he rants about gun control and links them to school killings. Not once does he mention that ALL school gun rampages were fueled by youths on psychotic drugs. He is so clueless to the real problem, that he wants to remove 2cnd Amendment rights as a response to poor parenting, poor medical diagnoses, and improper school supervision of children on psychotic drugs. Not to mention the education system actually receiving more money for the every child that they can claim to have a psychotic problem. Since I know he’ll never mention this root problem, I know that viewing his movie is a pointless liberal rant I can view nightly on MSNBC.
In Farhenheit 911, he’s going to tell us the “ugly truth” that the war in Iraq is all about oil. No kidding?! What investigative reporting. Everything you consume or use is derivative product of oil. Our entire modern way of life depends on it. Iraq has a bunch of oil. So is going to war over oil such a hard concept to grasp? That’s not the only reason we’re at war in the Middle East, but of course it’s a major concern. Anything this goof has to say on the matter, I can hear nightly on MSNBC.
And so goes my thoughts on everything he’s ever created, just more whining Liberal talk that provides no solution. But now, this guy has grasp my interest with Capitalism, A Love Story. My first thought is, “Is he going to come clean and explain why he actually loves Capitalism? Is he going to explain that America is so free that you can make your fortunes bashing it with unsubstantiated claims, while you enjoy the fruits of the system?” I look further into it and I find out that he’s going attack all corporations. At 10% unemployment, why not kick the country’s employers around a little right?
In the previews I already notice he’s going to start stepping on his own toes. One mention is a story in Pennsylvania where juveniles were sent to facilities on the most minor of charges to fill a private company’s pockets. Millions were tracked back to the judges. I thought that story would turn our entire system on it’s ear and we never heard a follow-up on the story. As he starts to explain that the government should never be tied to private interests, I think that he’s finally had a Conservative awakening. He even uses some quotes from the forefathers about the dangers of banking. Considering he cannot understand The Second Amendment, I was shocked that he understood anything our founders had written.
This interview with Larry King is very humorous and revealing. Mr. Moore gets very uncomfortable when he explains that 1% of the country holds 95% of the wealth, and he is in that top 1%! He then justifies that by simply explaining that it’s ok because he got his money making documentary films? You’re left scratching your head. Then he proceeds to explain the wrongs of the mortgage crisis using the Conservative viewpoint of how Capitalism SHOULD work. Then in the end, he twists everything back around by claiming that Liberal solutions could solve all of this.
Mr. Moore’s humble beginnings as an overpaid union auto-worker at GM makes me smile. Just the thought of this bafoon trying to operate on an assembly line had to be hilarious if you were not his boss. Mr. Moore got his media start by suing the Mother Jones magazine for a wrongful dismissal. He couldn’t follow instructions and as their editor, created a magazine that was even to far left for their taste. He’s taken that $58,000 win and used the stock market and and entertainment corporations to boost his net worth into well over $100 million. His current state of politics sounds like a 30 year old that has just figured out why Liberal ideals are childish and destructive, but yet he’s already profited beyond his wildest dreams from the system that he loathes.
His story could only happen in America and I think that is why I am so compelled to see this movie. I am pretty sure that my end decision will be finding a way to view the movie for free. I just can’t stand the thought of contributing one cent to Michael Moore’s fortunes.
Cuban National, Luis Grass, Makes It to American in a Buick Boat.
I remember this story of a group of Cubans almost making it to America in and old Chevy truck. I was amazed at the ingenuity and dedication to leaving a communist country.
Obviously, these immigrants were a notch above those coming here seeking the freebies that we hand out to illegals. They were not seeking the easy life and I can just imagine what it took to accomplish this. They were not going to settle for a gamble of some flimsy rowboat, they put some thought into getting a craft together that could make the trip. They used resourcefulness and intelligence to make they’re dream come true.
Unfortunately, the first attempt was a failure. They just missed making it to land where we would have taken them in. I thought this was the end of the story. I was telling a friend about how these people did this and looked up a link to show him. I found out that Mr. Grass and his family made another attempt in a Buick and they made it! I was really happy that they made it here. I would love to know what he is doing now and I hope that he’s doing well. With his skills, I fear that many companies in America would not want him. This would really redefine that “out of the box” crap they’re always talking about. That’ll get you canned quick at many places.
Imagine this guy at many companies that we endure today.
- 1951 Chevy’s are not “green” enough. How dare this guy do this. What if it leaked oil into the ocean?
- His equipment couldn’t pass inspection! Cubans have been using Russian engines and transmissions to keep their treasured vintage cars going for years.
- He was risking his family’s life with this craft. I don’t even see life jackets in the photo. This is endangerment.
- He didn’t follow any procedures.
- His actions could damage Cuba’s reputation. What if the other communist countries like France find out of about this? Do you want the ocean littered with Renault’s and also have the French authorities all over all of us?
- He never ok’d this with authorites.
- He wasn’t a licensed Captain. Not even a temporary permit.
My point is, if we’re going to let immigrants in, these are the ones we want. Other countries, like New Zealand, have a very detailed list of requirements concerning your skills and abilities, why can’t we? We need folks like this to lead the way. If you look at how our current CEO’s are handling things, I think we’re ready for some new leaders who know how to get things done and how to take some risks.
Here is another post from cubasource.org
February 12: A family of three Cubans will be sent to the US Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, where their requests for political asylum will be reviewed. An asylum officer with the Department of Homeland Security said in court papers that Luis Grass Rodriguez, who pushed off Cuba’s shores in a 1959 tail-finned Buick with his wife, Isora Hernandez Hernandez, and their 4-year-old son, Angel Luis, has demonstrated a “credible fear of persecution” in Cuba. (Sun Sentinel, 12/2/04)
Good luck to you Mr. Grass. I bet you’re journey is going to get even more challenging now that you’ve made it here.
Technology – The Most Overlooked Aspects of the U.S. Financial Crisis
For myself and a fast growing segment of the nation, the financial crunch is hitting home. Jobs are disappearing at unprecedented rates in all sectors of the economy. The finger pointing is everywhere and many of us are shell-shocked at the news we’re getting from the news and from our weary managers with walking papers in hand. The one buzz word that rang out in a previous small recession was a burst of the technology bubble. Technology speculation was all the media talked about that market correction, but I haven’t heard it mentioned once in this one.
I really don’t have proof about what I’m about to write, just a gut feeling from years of observation of how technology is used and misused in modern business. I think the lending institutions misused their technology to make speculations in the market. I think that the ultra-rich like Madoff, with the resources to gain ultra-intelligence have used technology to scam. I think that the auto industry has underused technology in their production model, while overusing it their lending targeting. I think that insurance companies have misunderstood how software should improve their business and they write software for some strange manipulation for underwriting. I think the small business sector is undertrained. I think that even the home computer user has been hoodwinked into overspending on software and gadgets that are of very little use. Most of all, I think that information technology is not being used efficiently to correct the business problems we are facing today.
Since the housing lending institutions are being credited for this failure. I’ll pick on them first. Every amount of information a bank needs about a borrower is available and it is inexpensive. They know everything about us, and they ask us to verify in great detail for any home loan. If you’ve ever bought a home, you know the anal examination I am referring to. Would I be out-of-line to suspect that the banking industry used computer models to gain the knowledge of to grab at high risk customers and knowing when to run? They obviously knew that there were very high risks and they sold those risks to overseas lenders and other unsuspecting orginizations easily with their unusually high and steady growth. Somehow, many of the ultra-rich remained relatively unharmed and bailed in time. How did they know when such a tangled web would begin to unravel? I feel that they had to have obtained the information from their computer models.
Then I look at the auto industry. These companies were making serious gains from the financial sectors. They figured out exactly where to set the price and manipulate buyers into leasing and purchasing cars under very appealing financial terms. Many were buying cars that were way out of price range on vehicles that are very overpriced, simply because the monthly payment could be shoehorned into their budget. The cars themselves seem to break down, just after the warranty runs out. Computer aided design and testing can easily model the design for a car to break down shortly after the warranty runs out. Computer controlled fuel systems are tuned for high fuel consumption and power, when older non-computerized system got much higher MPG. So I ask, was the technology really used to create a better product and to produce a better lending system? No, they used it to produces high immediate gains and to know when to run. Now the U.S. citizens who were their victims are going to “bail” them out. If they put the same amount of effort using technology to improve their product as they did to scam customers, there would be no need for a bailout.
As for Wall Street in general, it’s obvious that the very wealthy are privy to unprecedented levels of knowledge. The system should allow for anyone to get into the market on fair playing field with any amount of investment. Technology provides the tools to make this happen. I never have put money in just because I know that any decision making information I get is tailor made to make the average investor put his money where it shouldn’t be. When a company gets in trouble, that’s when the news sources start touting how good that company is doing, and they use some pretty flaky data to persuade. Guys like Madoff are working off of an entirely different set of information, and they’re even capable of manipulating the information the rest of us get at will. And if anyone, like Madoff’s Son-In-Law, a fine SEC official, sees the misdeeds, they couldn’t explain it to us if they tried. The average investor will not know until it’s to late. Technology used for good, could correct everyone of these problems and make Wall Street thrive for all of us. The data made to elite few, simply needs to be made available to all. If you own a publicly traded entity, with all of the benefits that a priveledged corporation gets, there needs to be stiff penalties for withholding data from the public. The technology is here, it’s just a matter of current laws being updated to allow for use of today’s technological advancements.
Technology provides Insurance companies methods to calculate risks at a very low cost. The computer models have been improved to such a high level that the cost of underwriting has dwindled to a very minimal amount. An insurance company can figure out the underwriting for huge groups cheaper than they can pay the janitor to clean the building. All that an insurance company wants to work with is large groups. The same technology can be applied to large numbers of individuals, but that breaks tradition and would require some investment in modern applications. They want to pump up profits by finding ways to skim off of those large groups. They improve their programming to find ways to not pay for anything that they possibly can find reason to deny. They use their software to shave payments to health care providers, but never pass that savings on to the individuals in the group health care plan. They’re supposed to be providing a service and producing a profit, but using technology only for profits and reducing the service level is the focus. How do you think that will work out in the long-term for them?
The home and small business users, always the most savvy, are finding ways out of the technology snare. Open source, Web 2.0 applications, and others are increasing our knowledge and communication abilities. We’re starting to be our own best news source. Everyone knows that you can’t believe much on the Internet, but we’re changing that by creating groups of trusted friends. If you need computer goods, you can go to your favorite Web 2.0 apps and find groups that will inform you of their experiences. If you need your computer repaired, you can find a remote repairman that can fix your situation for a fraction of the usual service call. The list goes on and on.
The main point of this post is that people need to think about how technology is being used with the companies they do business with. Check their websites, ask employees, and see who their business partners are. Look at who the failures are partnering with. For example, you can bet that there is no Open Source software at General Motors, none. I would lay money on it. They partner with IBM, Microsoft, and numerous fancy consulting firms that have special ways of influencing the purchasers. The cost of all of this is passed onto the customer. In contrast, many new startups are doing some similar tasks with software that is completely free of charge! Open Source doesn’t charge for the software because the vendors contribute to the product and make their money providing support! They realize that the software license itself is a ridiculous thing to charge for.
Occasionally I’ll post information about some common Open Source software, but there is so much of it, that the “Google is your friend” action really should be considered. Keep your eyes open for companies breaking out of the 1980′s IT molds and do some research before you ridicule their methods. You can bet AIG, Madoff, and the Big 3 Automakers really, really enjoy things 80′s style.
