Romney: How I'll tackle spending, debt

USATODAY.com

excerpts:

• I will bring federal spending as a share of GDP down from last year's staggering 24.3% to 20% or below
• With economic growth of 4% a year, meeting this goal will require approximately $500 billion of spending cuts in 2016
• three approaches, applied systematically throughout government, will produce a fiscal turnaround
• What I propose will not be easy.

He talks the talk, but can he walk the walk?

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In Desperation, Obama Turns to Herbert Hoover

Morning Jay| The Weekly Standard

excerpt:

Obviously, all of this amounts to an incredibly weak reelection strategy. But what else does President Obama have to run on? The macroeconomic climate is terrible, and unlikely to improve enough to make things feel better for average people. The debt has gone through the roof. The health care bill, his chief domestic achievement, remains massively unpopular.

What else can he do, but deflect blame, tout the things he’s done (not their effectiveness), and castigate the GOP as the party of anti-American radicals?

You need one more thing to beat Obama:  a strong candidate.  If the Republican nominee doesn't measure up, we are in a world of excrement.  Unfortunately, people don't pay much attention until election time.  Now is the time to pay attention because the only alternative to Obama is being decided upon now.

John Maynard Potemkin

Real Clear Markets

excerpt:

He and his followers have endorsed much more wasteful spending: digging and re-filling holes, building pyramids, and in Paul Krugman's case, everything from real terrorist attacks to a fictional alien invasion. And what is their biggest alleged example of a successful Keynesian stimulus? World War II. Wars might be justified or necessary. But from an economic standpoint they are a violent, deadly version of digging holes and filling them back in: a huge portion of the economy is diverted to the task of building things that will get blown up. Wars represent the destruction, not the creation, of wealth. [ comment: Of course.  This is a legacy of World War II- the belief that massive government spending can bring about an economic recovery.]

What has also been believed was that stock market crashes cause depressions.  It didn't happen in 1987.  It didn't happen with the dot com crash in 2000.  This should be considered a logical fallacy- correlation as cause.  For example, just because your mama broke her back when you stepped on a crack, doesn't mean that stepping on cracks broke your mother's back.  It is silly superstitious fallacious thinking.  Such thinking can be ruinous.

Budget problems

A glance at the numbers tells the whole story. The problem is this: will people accept a solution? First the chart

Ok, here's the main thing to notice:  Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid cost nearly 1.5 trillion, but the taxes dedicated to pay for these raise only 865 billion, which is over 600 billion short.  There's the problem. These programs have been self supporting in the past, but aren't now. Not even close.

The solution?  Raise taxes or cut spending or both.  But the problem is that these expenditures fall on the poorer part of the population, so raising taxes upon the working people won't be popular.  Cutting spending won't be popular either.

No wonder they can't solve it.  Politically, this is an impossible problem.  No matter which way you turn, you will lose.  Any politician who tries will be committing political suicide.

Russia 2045 project aims to eliminate death and disease

Next Big Future

This proposition is just plain wild.  It does make me go back and re-evaluate my idea of Kardashevian Aspirations.  Were men meant to be immortal?  There's a different frame of mind that is expressed in the song by Merle Haggard that I'd like to point to:

When the world wide war is over and done,
And the dream of peace comes true.
We'll all be drinkin' free bubble-ubb,
Eatin' that rainbow stew.

The song basically says that these ideals are ideals only and cannot be achieved by mortal man.  There's no such thing as free bubble-ubb nor any such thing as rainbow stew.  The dream of peace is just a dream.  Each is implausible as the other.

I would like to defend the idea of Kardashevian Aspirations, though.  I think it has some good logic behind it. I figure as long as there exists a radical abundance of everything, there is little need for warfare.  People don't fight over ownership of the air we breathe.  It is radically abundant and available to all.  Generally speaking, if all resources were as abundant as the air we breathe, there would be no incentive to fight over resources. That alone would be a great aid in achieving peace.  It wouldn't be a panacea, as people would still be people.  But it would reduce the motivations for fighting.  Prosperous societies don't go to war with each other.

But this idea of immortality strikes me as strange.  Yet, the potential of it is obvious, as people don't like the idea of dying.  I think this is even more true when you are younger.  As you get older, I think you just get tired.  Maybe if you can fend off aging long enough, you can maintain that youthful vigor- that life force.  But just staying alive for its own sake seems strange to me.  If you can't maintain youthful vigor, what's the point?

But this goes much further than that.  This goes all the way and have people escape their own bodies.  Now, that is really weird.  What kind of society would it be if all the people in it aren't even people, but just personalities transplanted into a machine?

The idea in the article is raising some issues about the meaning of life.  It isn't easy to answer those questions. In the end, can technology save us, or we at the mercy of own natures?  If technology can't save us, what does the future hold?  One shudders at the thought.  But if technology can save us, will this be a future that we could embrace?  People need to remain people, or it means little.  It would be hard to embrace a fellow machine.

Does America Deserve Obama?

American Thinker

excerpt:

Elections change nothing, because they are not causes, but results. The U.S. Congress now has an all-time low approval rating of nine percent. This is nothing more than an indication that we have lost the ability to govern ourselves. After all, we elect our congressional representatives. We have the government we deserve. Prosperity and freedom will return only if and when the American people again become educated, virtuous, and intelligent. [ emphasis mine]

I think this judgment is too severe.  The people cannot be blamed for what the leadership is doing.  But we do have the ability ( at least for now) to choose our leaders.   We can become better informed if we stop listening to the worthless media and stop lying still for the takeover of the minds of our young.  The young are indoctrinated by the left.  Time for that to stop.  These two steps can set things on a better course for the future.  We just need to make sure we elect the leaders who will see this through.

Cain Catches Flak, but Will It Sink His Candidacy?

Rasmussen Reports™

It is hard to say what one would do if one is in someone else's shoes.  You have to fall back on your own experiences as a guide, if that's possible.  That said, I think Cain should just say "no comment" to all questions. Until such a time as they have any details about what happened, that is.  If anybody can't come up with anything, why should he help make their news for them?  Let them dig up the news themselves, if they have anything.

After all, its their job, not his.

Italian cold fusion machine passes another test

MSNBC  | 11/3/2011 | Natalie Wolchover

There's more and more coverage, but is there more and more acceptance?

New York, ‘Drop Dead’ and President Ford

Infamous ‘Drop Dead’ Was Never Said by Ford

excerpt:

“Ford was good for New York, because he made us clean up our act,” said Henry J. Stern, a former parks commissioner and city councilman.

People may want to look at history when judging whether or not to do bailouts.  New York survived and thrived, even though the people at the time demanded financial assistance from Washington.

Recently, bailouts have become a thriving industry in Washington.  Might this historical example show as an example so that a case can be made for stopping this?  All that seems to have been accomplished with these bailouts is that Washington has amassed more power while the rest of the country stagnates.  The highest per capita income is now in Washington DC, not on Wall Street.

The worst effect of bailouts is the moral hazard.  People need to learn from their mistakes.  Protecting people from their mistakes only invites repetition of the same behavior that caused the problem in the first place.

Busy Bees and Biofuels

The Oil Drum

It's easy to say 'busy as a bee'. Are bees busy?

One calculation has it that 450g (1 lb) of honey represents visits to two million flowers.

No wonder they want to sting you if you take their honey.   A comparison is made between the effort it takes to make a biofuel ( like honey ) and to extract it from the ground ( like oil).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:HoneyBeeAnatomy.png#filelinks

Surfer Almost Swallowed by Whale?

Not that close. But it makes an interesting title that gets pageviews. /snark

Hope of a breakthrough cure for high blood pressure that could save millions of lives every year

Next  Big Future

excerpt:

Researchers believe they may be able to control production of an enzyme that can trigger the condition.

Comment:

Great news if it holds up.  Many nice things seemed to be "just around the corner" but didn't show up.

Maddow About the Damned Dam?

Arthur Herman - National Review Online

MSNBC commentator Rachel Maddow has pointed to the 726-foot-high, 660-foot-wide dam as proof that some projects are just too big for private enterprise.

Only trouble with what Maddow says is that the dam was built by private enterprise.  It was contracted out and built by private enterprise, despite all the efforts the government made to interfere with the construction, it was completed under budget and on time.

It was also begun before the New Deal started, which is kind of strange that the left wants to take credit for it.

If the left got its way today, they would tear it down.

Class Warfare is Here!

‘South Park’ mocks Occupy Wall Street, Michael Moore [VIDEO]

Commentary Magazine: dueling outlooks, which one seems right?

The Case for Pessimism
Mark Steyn
excerpts:

• societies advance when their citizens are able to fulfill their potential in freedom
• in five years’ time, the preeminent economic power on the planet will be a one-party state with a Communist Politburo
• There were three great citadels of Western civilization: Rome, Athens, and Jerusalem. It took a fourth, London, Washington’s immediate predecessor as the dominant power, to disseminate the ideas of Athenian democracy and Roman law and the Hebrew Bible to the farthest corners of the earth. America has signs of decline that follow the examples of all four.
• The evil of big government is not that it is a waste of money, but that it lays waste to people.
• as all dominant nations learn, when money drains, power drains
•  In 1969, in a poem about the end of the British empire called “Homage to a Government,” Philip Larkin wrote: “Next year we are to bring all the soldiers home/For lack of money…/We want the money for ourselves at home/Instead of working.” The narrator keeps saying that “this is all right,” but he concludes with this: “The statues will be standing in the same/Tree-muffled squares, and look nearly the same./Our children will not know it’s a different country./All we can hope to leave them now is money.” 

The Case for Optimism
John Podhoretz

• The fault lies not in Democrats, nor in Republicans, not in unions or cosseted banks; the fault, dear Brutus, lies in ourselves.  It is a powerful argument. But it is wrong.
•  As long as the music is playing, you’ve got to get up and dance.  
• The point is that ordinary people didn’t just get up and dance because it was fashionable. They were presented with powerful motivations to do so
• And when we think about what it will mean to change course, we are all discouraged. It can’t be done.
  
  Of course it can.  The evidence that a change in trajectory is more than possible can be found in the American political system over the past few years.
•  the American system has functioned because its revolutionary acknowledgement of the primacy of the individual also confers on the individual a sense of responsibility for himself
• There are surprisingly few signs of social instability even as the financial crisis enters its fifth year
• The first temptation has been to direct the behavior of the citizenry through the manipulation of the tax code, which (over time) creates a system of perverse incentives.
• The second temptation is to secure long-term control over public office by creating a constituency among public-sector workers through contracts that have, over time, made those in the employ of the government or those receiving retirement benefits from the government twice as wealthy as the people who are employing them.
• And for the first time, in 2011, politicians have begun to address the crisis seriously.
• we can be confident in this: the American people have made rational choices in the past, and there is no reason to believe they will cease making rational choices in the future

Comment:  I would add that a society that is free will tend to be more creative and flexible in terms of meeting its challenges.  If our society remains free, we will be alright.  If we abandon freedom, we will be in big trouble.

Tesla Motors presents the 3rd Millennium electric sedan- MODEL S

Tesla Motors presents the 3rd Millennium electric sedan- MODEL S

excerpts:

• Tesla Model S offers the responsiveness and agility expected from world’s best sports cars while providing the ride quality of a sedan.
• Tesla’s uniquely quiet powertrain have been combined with scrupulous noise engineering to obtain the sound dynamics of a recording studio.
• Assume average energy usage per mile is approximately 300Wh/mile (188Wh/km).
• can bring tough competition for cars such as the BMW 5-series
• 3,825 pounds (1,735 kg) 
•  0–60 mph (97 km/h) in 5.6 seconds
• base price of US$57,400 

This article could have been better written.  It is hard to tell from reading it what its actual range is.  It may be up to 300 miles.

Model S offers pioneering architecture with three battery option each achieving unprecedented range of 160 miles (standard) when fully charged using a 42 kW·h battery pack (24 kW·h/100 mi, 108 mpg) and battery pack will contain 5,000 lithium-ion cells, 230 miles and 300 miles. [comment: Huh?  Is it 160, 230, or 300?  Maybe it is an option, but that could have been made clearer here.] 

Electric cars are still no bargain.  But it appears that Tesla is approaching the market with a strategy that makes sense.  But this won't make much of a dent in the demand for oil.

Are you a betting man? revisited

I was just thinking about this again this morning.  What would it take to end the controversy?  A friendly bet? Something that would satisfy even the most hard core skeptic?  How could you arrange this?

There's somebody I won't name who might be interested in seeing, but not necessarily betting, on a possibility of just testing this thing under certain conditions.  One that might satisfy him would be to collect the water that goes through the E-cat, and then measure the heat in it and its mass.  This would take place after shutdown.

I checked the amount going through the E-cat on the Oct 6 test.  The rate was  .91 g per sec.  That figures out to  3276 g or 3.276 liters per hour.  Multiply that by 8 hours for a test and you get 26.208 liters for an entire test.  The idea is to insulate it so that it would keep its heat throughout.  Such a container would not be terribly big.  It could be insulated and a small pump installed that could keep the water mixed.

One problem is that the water is actually steam, so it has to be cooled down a little before going into the container.  To do that, just repeat that part of the test that was done on Oct 6th.  Run it through some heat exchangers until it got below the boiling point, then let it go into the container.  Then you can measure the heat from that process, plus the remaining heat in the container in order to measure all of the heat generated during the test.

A second problem is from the secondary water source.  I'm thinking of making this a small scale demo so that we won't have to use much hardware.  That means cooling this water down too so that it doesn't get too hot.

In order to do this, just set up a radiator, such as one that you may see in a car.  This can cool down the water so that you can recirculate it over and over again.  We are measuring the delta t at the heat exchanger, so it doesn't have to be any one set temperature.  Just as long as the difference is such that it can cool down the steam coming off the E-cat.

In the Oct. 6th test, the rate of flow on the secondary heat exchange was 640 liters per hour.   That would require a pretty large container.  In order to avoid that, the radiator can be called upon to cool the water back down.  Perhaps a fan that blows through the radiator would be helpful as well.  Perhaps at this point, you could limit the amount of water at the secondary to about 80 liters, or about the size of a 20 gal barrel.

At 640 liters per hour, it would circulate the complete contents of the barrel 8 times every hour.  This means that it has about 8 minutes to cool down after going through the radiator.  This may be enough to keep it cool. The return could come in at the top and be drawn from the bottom.  It would first go through the radiator and then empty back into the barrel.  You would need a pump that could pump at that rate for that long. Probably no big deal.

In terms of equipment, you now have 3 20 gal barrels, two of them filled with water.  One of these is to go through the E-cat, and one would go through the heat exchanger.  The third is to collect the water and measure its temperature at the end of the test.  It could be already half full, since you are not going to use all of that one barrel.  This third barrel will be fully insulated and have a pump to recirculate the water so that it always well mixed.

The location of the test should be remote in order to eliminate the possibility of any hidden energy source.

To test remotely, you need to be far away from the grid.  That means a portable generator which can power up the E-cat device until it reaches self sustain mode.  The generator will need to run the pumps and so forth. Such a generator wouldn't be all that big.  It just needs to be big enough to do this task, which isn't all that demanding.

All of this equipment could fit into a van, I would estimate.  The generator, the 3 barrels, the pumps, the control equipment and the E-cat unit itself.  None of these items are all that big.  It shouldn't be too demanding a task to get it all into a van.

Take the van out into the countryside, and set up the equipment.  Run the test.  Take the measurements and see who's right.

The costs?  You may be able to rent some of this stuff, so you won't have to buy it.  It shouldn't be terribly expensive.

The last part may be the most difficult.  Getting an E-cat to test.  That may mean buying one.  Who would want to buy one of these things?  Not me.  Rossi wants 2k for each kilowatt.  A 2.7 killowatt device would cost 5400 bucks.  You would need to buy one and set the sucker up and so forth.  The test could run in the thousands of dollars.  Then you would have to have a way to judge who won the bet.

If enough people wanted to, they could set up the scenario and share the expense.  The losers would end up paying for the test.

Let's say it would cost 10 grand to buy an E-cat and set it up.  If you can get enough people to get in on the bet, you may be able to cover that cost by a factor of two.  Then you would need even money on the bet.

Twenty grand may do it.  Ten grand to buy the E-cat and set it up.  Ten grand purse to pay the winners and make it a no lose if you win.  The losers lose their ten grand.

Arrggh!!!

Pipe stall could be grim: CEO

What the hell goes through the head of somebody who says something as stupid as this:

Mr. Obama said environmental concerns would weigh just as significantly in his ruling as U.S. energy security or economic growth.

It is stupid because he is being judged on economic growth and what he just said is that it comes in second to environmental concerns.   It is stupid because he could actually lie about it.  For example, he could say he is for economic growth but this won't help it.  It is stupid because- instead of denying benefits of the pipeline, he admits this may actually help economic growth, and he would be against it anyway provided that it meant any risk to the environment.

Note: emphasis added

 

Why Libya Is Headed Back to Tyranny

Walter Williams

I guess that means Bush's idea of democratizing the Middle East has been a failure. Notice that the left is now embracing what Bush wanted to do and Williams is distancing himself from it. Curious how that works. Frankly, it is an idea that sounds good, but is doomed to failure. Democracy isn't in these people. Stop wasting time, money, and blood on these people. Fix what's wrong here.

Rent Seeking

Something that was linked to in Instapundit this morning reminded me of a phenomenon which caught my attention recently.  It isn't about what the article was about, but the deeper meaning, as I see it.   Let me quote:

Here's what interest me: why do the journalists and professors so fervently believe in things they cannot possibly verify on their own?

The behavior is what interests me.  I think of it as rent seeking behavior.  In particular, so as to not get lost in semantics, the kind of behavior thus described:

when a third party deprives one party of access to otherwise accessible transaction opportunities, making nominally "consensual" transactions a rent-collection opportunity for the third party.

This is in connection with so called "climate change", whose adherents attempt to impose costs and restrictions upon those who wish to engage in transaction opportunities in the field of energy.  Such as mining and production of fossil fuel energy which we need in order to sustain our standard of living.  

Journalists and professors fall into the category because they really don't produce anything.  Journalists could produce something of value, which could be useful information for the citizenry.  But journalists are worse than worthless because not only do they not inform anybody, they do the exact opposite.  What value does this add?  It adds nothing, but assures themselves a paycheck, for which nothing has been given in value in the exchange.  Likewise, professors could actually teach something of value to the younger generation, but increasingly the value of what they "teach" is of no real value at all, but it supports their own meaningless and useless parasitical existence.

Why do they believe in things they cannot prove?  Because it accrues more political power upon themselves as a group.  As this parasitical group gains power, it does so at the expense of the larger group who are still productive.  In other words, they spout the party line because they know which side of their bread is buttered on.  They have to support fellow rent seekers so as to keep their mutual racket going.

You can expand this principle further and thus get at the real problem facing the country and the West today.

There's too much unproductive behavior which is being rewarded.  The rent seekers are actually impeding productive behavior while expanding their own unproductive behavior.  It is a political phenomenon.  At some point, it will become so onerous that it will cause all the rest of the productive sector to cease functioning due to the insatiable demands of the rent seekers.  When that happens, who will they blame?  There will be nobody left but to blame themselves.  Perhaps they can impose rent on themselves, but without any productive capabilities of their own, they will fail.

It may ultimately come down to an ever increasing cannibalistic effect.  Otherwise known as "spreading the wealth."  Notice that creating new wealth is not on their agenda.  This is actually frowned upon.

Those who participate in such behavior don't add wealth because they don't believe in it.  The world is a zero sum game, which means that they intend to grab everything they can for themselves because the amount of good stuff cannot be increased.  It never occurs to them that they could increase the amount of good stuff so that everybody, including themselves, can have more.  Even worse, what they believe acts in the manner of a self fulfilling prophecy- as their rent seeking becomes more and more onerous, there is really less and less good stuff to go around.

The cure is to encourage wealth creation.  But in order to do that, wealth creation must be legitimized.  Rent seeking must be delegitimized.   The current path is exactly the opposite of what is needed.  As long as the current path is followed, troubles will multiply.  But we will at least be equal to each other.  We will be equally unproductive and as useless as all the other rent seekers currently protesting Wall Street.  If they would wise up and just look in the mirror, they would discover what's ailing them- their own useless and counterproductive behavior.

Subscribed videos 11/1/11

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The Break Up Song (w/ Nanakitty)
Uploaded by RhettandLink on Oct 31, 2011



Russia Saves the Space Station!! China Launches Their Own!?!
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Pamela Geller | Wednesday Morning Club

Daily Ticker: It’s the Leverage, Stupid

Jon Corzine’s MF Global Goes Bust

This is a rather sanitized version of events. Another take on it would have Corzine doing a perp walk.

ACLU: Obama “Authorizing Agencies to Lie”

ACLU: Obama “Authorizing Agencies to Lie”

Yep, people who listened to the media bought the bull known as "hope and change".  The media lies.

Skynet, anyone? II

The world gets weirder everyday.

FBI says Russian spies got close to Cabinet

Washington Times

spying has been around with us since the Old Testament. It’s with us now and it will be with into the foreseeable future

The more things change, the more they stay the same.  I'm seeing a lot of troubling stuff lately.  Not lately, right now, actually.  We live on the knife's edge.  Disaster could strike at any time, it seems.

Update:

More of the same theme:   Book Review: Suicide of a Superpower

The Rise of the Entrepreneur

The Rise of the Entrepreneur

by Robert Ringer

Monday, October 31, 2011


Increasingly, it appears that the far left has found a straw dog to replace its long-cherished, but now embarrassingly discredited, global-warming hoax: “unequal distribution of wealth.”

Of course, class warfare has been around for thousands of years, so it was just a matter of reviving a tired old idea. And, unfortunately, it’s an idea that works nearly 100 percent of the time — at least with those who are ignorant of history and unwilling to study or think.

But as the ne’er-do-well in the White House and congressional Democrats continue to cast the entrepreneur as a greedy, avaricious villain whose success comes at the expense of the working man, a healthy backlash is occurring. With the word entrepreneur becoming increasingly popular with media pundits on both the right and the left, more and more people are coming to realize that entrepreneurship was the driving force behind America’s widespread prosperity — prosperity that few Americans could have imagined as recent as the mid-20th century.

After all, many of the Founding Fathers were entrepreneurs, and perhaps the two most famous in that regard are George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. They also are good examples of just how far apart the results of individual entrepreneurs can be. Though they were both farmers, Washington was one of the richest men in America, while Jefferson struggled financially throughout his life and died broke.

Jefferson’s financial difficulties are a reminder that there are no guarantees for the entrepreneur, who labors away without the luxury of a safety net. In fact, perhaps the single greatest attribute of an entrepreneur is his willingness to take risks — including the risk of losing everything if he fails.

By everything, I’m not just referring to savings, stocks, bonds, and collectibles. I’m talking about his house, his furniture, his cars — everything he owns — not to mention his credit and his self-esteem.

In this vein, ultra-liberal Barbara Walters, of all people, did an excellent special last week on self-made billionaires. The slant of the show belied the rhetoric of left-wing politicians who frantically try to convince the public that being rich, of and by itself, is evil. Their words clearly imply that rich people somehow prevent others from getting ahead financially. The truth, of course, is that most wealthy people achieved their success by creating products and services that others want.

Barbara Walters’ first guest was Guy Laliberte, founder of Cirque du Soleil. Laliberte, who has a net worth of $2.5 billion, struggled early in his career as a street performer in Montreal before venturing out as an entrepreneur. Today, his multibillion-dollar business showcases in 271 cities worldwide, employing tens of thousands of people in the process. His costume shop alone, the biggest in the world, employs more than 400 people who design and produce the wardrobes for his troupes.

Do down-with-the-rich proponents really believe that the thousands of people Guy Laliberte employs would be better off today if he had not used his entrepreneurial talents to create and operate Cirque du Soleil? I wonder.

Most important, when Walters asked him if he still takes risks, Laliberte quickly responded, “Every day.” Wall Street Journal Wealth Reporter Robert Frank, who added his insights throughout the show, then explained, “Part of the risk-taking personality is the ability to overcome failure. … One of the things that makes billionaires successful is their reaction to failure.”

Unfortunately, the true-believing progressive who spews out class-warfare rhetoric is clueless about the risks the entrepreneur takes in his quest for success. Or about the self-evident principle: The greater the risk, the greater the potential reward.

As a result, lefty politicians have a stubborn habit of stepping in and trying to curb the natural rewards of the marketplace, insisting that “it’s unfair” for the super rich to make so much more than the average working person. That’s right, no other explanation other than “it’s unfair.”

It goes without saying that from a moral point of view, their position is indefensible. If people are truly free, they should be free to become as wealthy as their talent, creativity, and hard work can take them, so long as they do not use force or fraud against anyone else. And, fortunately, we already have more than enough laws on the books to bring to justice those who commit fraud or use uninitiated force against others.

And from an economic viewpoint, it’s a no-brainer. Contrary to what progressives would like us to believe, it’s impossible for anyone to become rich without creating jobs. Wealthy folks start and expand businesses and, in the process, employ others — not just by hiring people, but through the jobs that are created indirectly by those who furnish the raw materials, parts, transportation, etc. that their businesses require.

But what about someone who spends hundreds of millions of dollars indulging himself in such luxuries as mansions, private jets, and yachts? It doesn’t take a Ludwig von Mises to explain that workers are needed to build those mansions, private jets, and yachts, not to mention to produce the materials and thousands of parts and accessories that go into them. Then, once built, it takes people to operate and service those mansions, private jets, and yachts — which means long-term employment.

Thus, economic reality makes it clear that the entrepreneur is not the villain progressives tout him to be. On the contrary, he is a bona fide hero who creates jobs and wealth for everyone who is willing to work. As such, entrepreneurs who accumulate great fortunes should be admired rather than scorned. To vilify someone for having “too much” is the height of asininity and self-destructiveness.

The single most important fact about entrepreneurs such as Bill Gates and the recently deceased Steve Jobs is that their great wealth not only does not prevent others from becoming successful, it actually gives their customers the tools to become wealthy themselves. Think computers, hand-held electronic devices, and cell phones, to name but a few of the more obvious of such tools, all of which are easily available to even the most financially challenged among us.

The optimistic side of me wants to believe that truth may be on a roll here. If so, it needs all the help it can get. As the angry socialist from the mean streets of Chicago continues to preach about lame abstracts such as social justice and fairness, those of us who know the truth need to spread the word.

We need to explain to all who will listen that the entrepreneur who aspires to great wealth by creating products and services people want is not the cause of America’s problems, but, rather, the solution to its problems.

And what about hope and change? I’m all for it. When people focus on hard work, resourcefulness, and wealth creation — and are willing to take risks — it gives them a lot more hope than being on the dole. Specifically, it gives them hope that positive change in their lives is inevitable.

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Copyright © 2011 Robert Ringer
ROBERT RINGER is a New York Times #1 bestselling author and host of the highly acclaimed Liberty Education Interview Series, which features interviews with top political, economic, and social leaders. He has appeared on Fox News, Fox Business, The Tonight Show, Today, The Dennis Miller Show, Good Morning America, The Lars Larson Show, ABC Nightline, and The Charlie Rose Show, and has been the subject of feature articles in such major publications as Time, People, The Wall Street Journal, Fortune, Barron's, and The New York Times.

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Probably my last Chris Laird newsletter

Newsletter - Edition 280 - 30 October 2011
By Christopher Laird
Old money and banking system creaking and dying a slow death.
EU debt summit
When will the bank crisis come?
Link to Serbia article
1.4 T bailout funds from Brics? Laugh
The Great Change
Social media

If doomsday stuff is your preference, you can pay for it, as it is a subscription based service. Find the link in the products section, as always.

I found another doomsday service for nothing. Nothing is better than something when it comes to paying for stuff.

Hey, it is a new era. Everybody who isn't a bum is about to become one. And that's if you're lucky. Bad stuff. I'm trying to fight it here. But the world ain't listening. That's part of the problem.

Rossi claims to have sold several more 1 megawatt E-cat plants

Next Big Future

Believing in Cold Fusion and the E-Cat

Mark Gibbs, Forbes.com

excerpts

•  Rossi has previously conducted several demonstrations of the E-Cat
• revealed results have done little to convince the skeptics
• A subgroup of the Believers which I shall call the “Suppresists”, appear to be firmly convinced that there is a conspiracy by commercial interests and or the government to prevent any device that upsets the energy economy status quo from being developed and made public. [ comment:  I can believe this, yes sir.  It is naive to believe that with so much on the line in terms of money and power, that those affected would stand by and do nothing to stop it.]
• So, if Rossi isn’t in it for the money, then what else could he be in it for? If his goal was the betterment of mankind, he’s going about it in a very strange way. If it’s for fame and glory, his current way of promoting the E-Cat makes no sense. [comment:  Yes, of course.  Don't underestimate the power of incompetence.]
• So, as with the other E-Cat tests, we’re really not much better off than we were prior to the 28th.[ comment: Yes, but that can be corrected to a certain extent.  Not necessarily the way this guy says, but in a way that can satisfy reasonable people.  Rossi isn't going to allow third parties to check it out.  But maybe he doesn't have to.  Or he could do it in a novel way, like by demo on the internet or something like that.]

Rebuttal to Krivit's Accusation that Andrea Rossi is a Fraudster

FreeRepublic

Well, I guess people may be persuaded by this, but not me.

Hard data please.

In a perfect world...

Nobody's perfect. You've heard that a million times. I know I have.  It has been said so many times that it is one of the most overused phrases in the English language.  Yet, nothing more true could ever be said. We live in an imperfect world with a world full of imperfect people.  Yes, in a perfect world, there would be peace and goodwill amongst all. In a perfect world, the truth would be told.  Freedom would reign and we would live happily ever after.  But such a world does not exist.  We have to take it as it is.

I wanted to write something about the E-cat yesterday, but I saw I wasn't accomplishing anything with the line of thinking I was on, so I gave up on it.  That is an example of my own imperfection.  I was barking up the wrong tree, I was messing up.  Yet, I want to write something about the E-cat, and especially something about this most recent test.  What to do?

Frankly, the test was a bit of a let down.  I expected more, but this is all we are going to get.  How disappointing.  Why?  It seems that it is in Rossi's power, if he so chose, to silence all the critics.  But he didn't do that.  Even more, he almost seems to not want to do that.  In a more perfect world, he wouldn't have to. But this isn't a perfect world.  In a perfect world, such an invention would be embraced enthusiastically, but that is not the case, now is it?  Ok, what would I have Rossi do?

But, some might say, why should he do anything at all?  To answer that, I'll reiterate that this is an imperfect world.  Not everybody is reasonable, intelligent, and open minded.  The world is full of jerks, to put it bluntly. Sometimes, you just have to accept that, and try to deal with it the best you can.  How to do that?

I'd like to think that there's enough open minded, intelligent people who can be persuaded.  But you can't just expect these people to seek you out.  You have to seek them out instead.  Those who can be convinced have to be reached.  If you don't try to convince them, inertia will claim them, and the progress you might have made will be forfeited.

Rossi doesn't want to do demonstrations.  But in order to reach as many people as possible, I think he must. Otherwise, the jerks will continue to make the most noise and that noise will drown out the voice of reason.  I'd like to think the voice of reason is louder than the jerks, but experience has taught me otherwise.

Someone said on one of the comment threads I recently visited that the truth will win out.  No, that is not always the case.  I'm here to tell you that is not always the case.  It may not even be close to being the case. In order to win, you have to make the effort to win.  Even then, you may still lose.  Make no mistake, there is going to be active opposition to this E-cat.  There are people who stand to lose a lot if this succeeds.  They will oppose this with all their strength.  To prevail, you can't just trust blindly to some forlorn hope that truth will out in the end.  You must make sure that the truth wins.  Otherwise, it may not.

Rossi has called his critics "snakes".  But name calling won't win the argument.  He will have to prove his point, or otherwise, he just looks like a madman or a fool.  You can't reach reasonable people unless you are willing to consider the critics as having some valid points.  Dismissing them all as evil won't win over the crowd.  This is not a perfect world.

No, Rossi is going to have to continue doing demonstrations.  He will have to make the demonstrations better and better.  Only by doing enough of them, and constantly improving upon them, will he be able to convince the broad masses that this E-cat can work, and will work.  If he doesn't do that, he is inviting controversy.  Perhaps that is what he wants.  Who knows?  Maybe in my own imperfect way, I am advocating a losing idea.  All I'm doing though, is approaching this as I would like to be approached myself.  If I see a controversy I'll say: "Show me the facts, and let me decide."  I'm sure that there are enough open minded people out there that this approach could work.  But I could be wrong.  In the end, people may be too blind to see the truth no matter what you say.  But I am hopeful, despite all the imperfections, that reasonable people can be reached.

 I consider myself to reasonable, intelligent and open minded.  I saw this and I am convinced it could work.  But even for me, doubts remain.  These doubts must be vanquished for all time.  Otherwise, inertia will win, not the truth.  To me, that would seem be a shame.  That's because it would be a lost opportunity.  The consequences of such a loss may be hard to fathom.  Wars are fought over things like this.  Think about it.

Hans Rosling's 200 Countries, 200 Years, 4 Minutes - The Joy of Stats - BBC Four

Uploaded by BBC on Nov 26, 2010

If I may throw a little cold water on it all, the US should have gone to Mars by now.  With bases on the moon and so forth.  Sometimes stupidity and/or foolishness will hold you back, or even send you backward.   Not to mention that some people would rather that none of this progress should have happened at all.

"We Are All Greeks" - SocGen Presents The New World Order

Submitted by Tyler Durden- Zero Hedge

Comment:

Just as I thought.  When Obama was elected in 2008, I thought that was just exactly the wrong thing to do.  The future may not be any different.  People will continue to do just exactly the wrong thing.

Schieffer blasts Cain for encouraging smoking in web ad

POLITICO

Comment:  Who give a plop what Schieffer thinks?  Cain should have told him to go jump in a lake.

Could We See World War Three in Our Lifetimes?

Could We See World War Three in Our Lifetimes?

If energy and space isn't conquered, the future is uncertain.  Hey!  That's too wishy washy.  Tough.  It's my blog.  Just following a certain a certain person's example I won't mention.

Europe accepts the inevitable

GHEI: Washington Times

The fundamental problem in Europe is one of growth.

Comment: Amen to that.

Rural rebellion brewing

Steven Greenhut

Comment:

I am reminded of the red/blue divisions in the country.  The red areas are outside the cities, while the blue areas are in the cities.  But the cities can't exist without the countryside, which feeds them.  Curious how they keep antagonizing the very ones who sustain them.

I am also reminded that a lefty guy, might have been Lawrence O'Donnell, once suggested that certain regions of the country should secede if Bush won the presidency.

There's a great danger in believing your own bullshit.

EGO OUT: INFORMAVORE's SUNDAY No., 479

EGO OUT: INFORMAVORE's SUNDAY No 479: Dear Readers, A lot of quality info- the most interesting – for me was- “Bad is stronger than Good” Please demonstrate that it does not te...

Comment: Bad is stronger than good?  That's not nice.  But it just may be the truth.  Here's my impressions on some of this smorgasboard of information:

High-Tech Hydroponic Farm Transforms Abandoned Bowling Alley  Comment:  I ran the numbers 100 tons from 15,000 sq feet.  That yields 13 pounds of produce per square foot per year.  Very impressive.

The economy in haiku   Comment:  Here's mine:
Everybody's wrong.
More money not more jobs make.
Paper boys not rich.


A rest, a meal, then death for 5,000-year-old glacier mummy: Scientists consolidate results of research into Ötzi’s state of health and his death  Comment:  Well, at least a saber tooth tiger wasn't chasing him.


Technology can now see what people are thinking. Be afraid  Comment:  I don't lie anyway, so what's the big deal?

Boolean Search: Make Your Searches Smarter  Comment:  I wonder what this one will get?
Texas NOT big.

Believe it or not, I got this: