17 August 2010

Fun with Google Trends: Kyle Bass

It has since slipped to No. 2, but hedge fund manager Kyle Bass was the most Googled person in all of the USA this afternoon.  Seems that he was on CNBC giving almost all of their views heart attacks today as he discussed market conditions and more importantly sovereign debt problems.  Zero Hedge has the coverage.

Upstart Blog Goes Live! CCWStories: Pleas from Marylander's for Self Defense Rights

It is no secret that I am a concealed carry advocate.  Unfortunately, my home state illegally infringes my natural right to self defense and my enumerated right to keep and, more importantly, bear arms.  Though the Second Amendment Foundation, a local Vietnam Vet, and Alan Gura are attempting to rectify that problem, a fellow www.marylandshooters.com board member has started a new blog to change the political and legislative landscape for fellow advocates.

CCWStories will publish the stories of Marylander's who would seek handgun permits to wear and carry if the state's discretionary permitting process was changed to that of a shall issue policy.  Further, the blog owner is encouraging Marylander's with permits to detail the process they went through to obtain their permits, specifically their troubles in obtaining them, the hoops they had to jump through, or the restrictions donned upon their permit.

Non-Maryland citizens are also asked to offer stories of obtaining permits from their home states and what it is like to have the ability to exercise the right to self-defense.  Feel free to include information detailing the states you are allowed to carry in with either reciprocity agreements from your home state or non-resident permits you have obtained from other states in an effort to conceal carry nationwide.  Of course, actual stories of self defense are also welcomed! 

Most importantly, share this new blog with your friends, family and network.  It's time that the stories of law abiding citizens are published for all to see.  We have them [anti-gunners] on the run, let's show them no mercy in their retreat to the woodshed!

Fed Judge Rules Missouri Funeral Protest Ban Unconstitutional

From the Military Times, a Federal judge has ruled that Missouri's ban on funeral protesting is unconstitutional.

I guess Westboro Batnut Baptist "Church" will be free to infringe upon the civil liberties of those whom have made the greatest sacrifice for this nation.  I'm not quite sure why this cult seems to get off on the notion of wacky publicity, since most cults want to remain off the grid. 

The infraction of the Judge's unconstitutional ruling is that one man's rights, stop at another man's door step.  Do the Batnuts have the right to protest "God's revenge for homos?"  Sure.  Freedom doesn't discriminate against poor taste or moronic tool bags, but not at the expense of another man's right to grieve in peace.  There are far better forums for them to decry their inbred opinions than that of a soldier's funeral. 

Alas, there are several other cases pending to shutter these rejects from disgracing honorable men that are doing ridiculously hard work and making the ultimate sacrifices, so here is to hoping that the other Judges will get it right.  I guess we'll have to question their existence and necessity of their protests if the 9th Circus, and perhaps eventually SCOTUS, rule that same sex marriage are in deed, unconstitutional as well.  Something tells me though, a favorable ruling to the Wesboro Batnuts, won't stop them from protesting. 

WSJ'S ROI: A Crash Is Coming

I want to make sure that I got this simple and easy to follow article out in the hands of my readers.  Published last week from the WSJ's Return on Investment blog, Brett Arends details 10 simple and easy reasons to read why you should contemplate getting out of the market. 

Things continue to worse, and the cheerleaders continue to scream for more.  Bread and Circuses was the saying in Rome. 

HI JAPAN! We're You're Newest Lost Decade Member

Seems that Kansas City Fed President, Thomas M. Hoenig, is concerned we could be seeing the beginnings of a Boom Bust cycle much like Japan has experience for the last two decades.  The inflation hawk is concerned that free money is deteriorating the underlying structure of the US economy, and could stoke future inflationary challenges. 

In other words, Hoening isn't telling us anything we didn't already know, but just happens to carry some extra clout as a Fed member.  I wonder how many Yuan I can get for my thousands of dollars in about five years, perhaps I should purchase them now.

QOTD: Irrational Exuberance

"Instead, what we'll get for our money out of this particular jobs spending is a few high monkeys, a covey of stoned quail, and a bit of temporary employment for a handful of grad students and a few crack professors."

Today's QOTD comes from Ralph R. Reiland at the American Spectator and references just how much waste and absurdity exists from the Fed Gov.  Often referred to as Irrational Exuberance, the disconnect from Pennsylvania Avenue to Main Street, USA is so redunkulious, it can do nothing be fester a totally disgusting taste in one's mouth.

Reiland was examining just what was in the so called "jobs" bill and how it could have been better spent, if it was meant to be spent in the first place. 

"As part of the recent non-stimulating stimulus bills, Wake Forest University received $71,623 to "study how monkeys react under cocaine." There's also a grant of $181,000 to see how cocaine enhances the sex drive of Japanese quail.
"That's $252,623, enough loan money in this down economy to pay for a year's rent at a dozen storefronts, a strong incentive for the launching of startup companies that could well have the potential of hiring hundreds of people off the unemployment rolls."
Seems to me, that it is just further evidence from Today's other post that Mr. Roberts has it backwards on where we need to cut budget spending.

Laughable Solutions to Major Debt Problems

Paul Craig Roberts, writing for Alex Jones' INFOwars has a hit piece out yesterday detailing that it's time for an American Revolution.  Funny though that the piece never calls for a revolution until the final sentence, nor does it offer any realistic solutions to the debt problem that is ruling the USA.  Roberts' article starts out well with stated facts that we have a huge budget and trade deficit that are crippling the country but that's about where the good part stops. 

It seems that Roberts understands that we have been off shoring too many jobs and far too much debt, but he fails miserably to see that the USA has lost it's competitive manufacturing advantage.  To bring those lost manufacturing jobs home, he advocates for a tiered tax structure that would make a value added tax on companies who produce goods outside of the USA.  Unless Roberts has taken notice, almost everything sold on the store shelves of American retailers is made in some other country THAN the USA.  Not only would this asinine idea increase costs to American consumers, but these "tarrifs" would effectively spark a trade war with China and other trade "partners."  If Roberts believes continued deficit spending will ultimately spark a US dollar / debt purge by Treasury bond holders, there would be no better way than to do it by slapping a tax hike on imported goods.

If Roberts truly wants a competitive America, perhaps he should find a way to reduce the costs of business here in the USA.  Labor costs are currently as cheap as they have been in the last decade, but the hurdlers of business to meet OSHA protocols, union thuggery and legislative manipulation of the markets is what is truly dooming our country.  Failing to fix these things, along with a fair tax structure instead of the regressive and putative punishment of success, companies will flee to countries like China that have lower taxes, less restrictive zoning laws, no property taxes, less restrictive government oversight, and no labor lawyers and union bosses breathing down their necks.  Further, without double taxation of capital gains, dividends, and absurd confiscation rates, the real economy could then be built on investment instead of debt as Roberts seems to advocate against. 

Instead of those trade solutions and a serious reduction in social spending and pork bellies, the dimwit decides to loose all credibility and rail against the "neocon" and "military/security complex" of the country.  Roberts wants to fix the budget deficit by a reduction of military spending.  This seemingly "brilliant" idea discounts the fact that our biggest bond purchaser (besides the Fed), China, is in a full blown military arms race with the USA.  Unfortunately, the defense budget isn't even the biggest contributor to the budget deficits!  The winner of those titles can easily go to porkulious, TARP I & II, quantitative easing I (and hopefully not II), unemployment benefits, pay for teachers, medicare bailouts, health care, social security and pork barrel pet projects, pay for unions, and bailouts of the states! 

While continuing in Iraq and Afghanistan aren't exactly the best use of federal budget, leaving Iraq while real progress has been made is not currently justifiable.  I will conceded that Afghanistan is a lost cause.  Simple isolation and mitigation of the Taliban / terrorist threat from that country would suffice our national security needs.  However, when the defense budget of the US for Fiscal 2010 was 23% versus the 55% spent on social programs, we could have easily eliminated 2 trillion in waste that was simply vote buying for incumbents (source).  If that had been done, we would have had about a 1 trillion budget surplus (tax receipts vs spending).  True, Roberts is correct that US military budget "exceeds the budgets of all the serious military powers on earth combined," but that isn't what has made us bankrupt over the last 80 years.


Perhaps Roberts realizes that gutting the social programs is actually necessary to the survival of this country, even though it is not politically expedient.  Unfortunately, I would not believe that anything the crew from INFOwars publishes, actually has any real credibility behind it, since the wackos run the asylum.  I suppose though that we could toss Roberts a peanut for effort, even if it comes up a bit short sighted.