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An Exercise in Definitions and Concepts...

by: Les Carpenter
Rational Nation USA
Liberty -vs- Tyranny


Definition of COLLECTIVISM:

1: a political or economic theory advocating collective control especially over production and distribution; also : a system marked by such control

2: emphasis on collective rather than individual action or identity

Definition of INDIVIDUALISM:

1: a. Belief in the primary importance of the individual and in the virtues of self-reliance and personal independence. b. Acts or an act based on this belief.

2: a. A doctrine advocating freedom from government regulation in the pursuit of a person's economic goals.
b. A doctrine holding that the interests of the individual should take precedence over the interests of the state or social group.

3: a. The quality of being an individual; individuality. b. An individual characteristic; a quirk.
Definitions posted for the benefit of those who have difficulty in understanding the
the subtle differences. Example from a prior blog post: " Why is "collectivism" and "individualism" considered polar opposites?
Individualist

Collectivist














STRIKING c o l o r


bittersweet colours, New York, street style, Joe fresh, vintage, COLORS, fall colors, mirrored sunglasses, prints, Fabiola Pedrazzini bag, leopard print, striking color, Daniblack, Joe fresh

bittersweet colours, New York, street style, Joe fresh, vintage, COLORS, fall colors, mirrored sunglasses, prints, Fabiola Pedrazzini bag, leopard print, striking color, Daniblack, Joe fresh
bittersweet colours, New York, street style, Joe fresh, vintage, COLORS, fall colors, mirrored sunglasses, prints, Fabiola Pedrazzini bag, leopard print, striking color, Daniblack, Joe fresh
bittersweet colours, New York, street style, Joe fresh, vintage, COLORS, fall colors, mirrored sunglasses, prints, Fabiola Pedrazzini bag, leopard print, striking color, Daniblack, Joe fresh
bittersweet colours, New York, street style, Joe fresh, vintage, COLORS, fall colors, mirrored sunglasses, prints, Fabiola Pedrazzini bag, leopard print, striking color, Daniblack, Joe fresh
bittersweet colours, New York, street style, Joe fresh, vintage, COLORS, fall colors, mirrored sunglasses, prints, Fabiola Pedrazzini bag, leopard print, striking color, Daniblack, Joe fresh
bittersweet colours, New York, street style, Joe fresh, vintage, COLORS, fall colors, mirrored sunglasses, prints, Fabiola Pedrazzini bag, leopard print, striking color, Daniblack, Joe fresh
bittersweet colours, New York, street style, Joe fresh, vintage, COLORS, fall colors, mirrored sunglasses, prints, Fabiola Pedrazzini bag, leopard print, striking color, Daniblack, Joe fresh
bittersweet colours, New York, street style, Joe fresh, vintage, COLORS, fall colors, mirrored sunglasses, prints, Fabiola Pedrazzini bag, leopard print, striking color, Daniblack, Joe fresh
bittersweet colours, New York, street style, Joe fresh, vintage, COLORS, fall colors, mirrored sunglasses, prints, Fabiola Pedrazzini bag, leopard print, striking color, Daniblack, Joe fresh




     I hope you had a great week so far, I'm not complaining at all since I just returned from New York where I had such great time... more details about this trip soon...
Meanwhile here is my first outfit - my travel attire - 
One print incorporated in an outfit is ok... two even better... how about three ladies? There are no rules in mixing prints, just follow your intuition and feel good in it!
With this striking combo I said: Hello New York!!! 







                                                                         Shirt: vintage/ option Here and Here 
                                                                         Shorts: thanks to Joe Fresh/ Here 
                                                                         Blazer: vintage/ great option Here, and Here 
                                                                         Bag: c/o Fabiola Pedrazzini /option Here and Here 
                                                                         Shoes: Daniblack/ similar style Here and Here 
                                                                         Sunglasses: Foster Grant/ option Here 




The Cover-Up Continues ... J. D. Longstreet

The Cover-Up Continues   ...   J. D. Longstreet
The Cover-Up Continues
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet

******************

I wrote the commentary below -- and published it -- in late October of 2012, just days before the Presidential Election in November.  Here we are, some ten months later, and we seem no closer to the truth, or to answers for multiple questions that arose at the time of the incident.
 
WHY?

 So ... I'm publishing it AGAIN in the hope (vain, perhaps) that it will peak enough interest among readers that even more pressure will be brought to bear on Congress to stop fiddling around and begin playing hardball with the administration to force answers.

As you read below you will find that much of what I wrote ten months ago could just as easily have been written today ... that little has changed.  That fact alone tells us there has been -- and is -- ongoing obfuscation at a monumental level by the administration, in hopes (I believe) of leaving us baffled and/or bewildered.  Instead, it has left this scribe angry.

Our nation's honor has been besmirched.  The conduct of our government, on many levels, has been disgraceful and that disgrace has tainted our entire country.   Our national honor is in question.  And, dear reader, when a nation loses its honor, it has lost everything.

Understand this:  We Americans are all painted with the same brush. In America the government is representative of the people. When the government lies -- the people lie.  When the government allows four Americans to be murdered without lifting a hand, it means ALL Americans allowed four of their fellow Americans to be slaughtered -- without raising a finger to defend them.

Whatever happen in Benghazi was wrong, terribly wrong, whether planned, or unplanned, or part of a plan, it should never have happened.  But it DID happen and it is an ugly part of our history that will never be successfully swept under the rug. Honest Americans will not allow this horrendous blot on our past to go unnoticed or to be sanitized by the historical revisionists who have dipped their poisonous pens into the inkwell of lies and deceit to overwrite distasteful and even illegal errors in judgment by our national leaders.

When, however, it is the national leadership instructing the obfuscation, the sanitization, and the revision of facts pertaining to one of the ugliest of incidents in nearly two and a half centuries of national existence, much of it as a global leader, the people on whose behalf the so-called leaders hold office, have a responsibility, yea, a solemn duty, to insist they be held accountable and/or removed from the high office of trust and leadership bestowed on them by the very citizens they have betrayed by their disingenuous actions or inactions.

H. L. Mencken once said:  "Honor is simply the morality of superior men."   Men of honor tend to be, in my experience, men of high morals and character.  Mencken also said:  "The difference between a moral man and a man of honor is that the latter regrets a discreditable act, even when it has worked and he has not been caught."  EXACTLY! 

How fortunate this country was to have men of such high moral character and high standards of honor create, not only the founding documents of the country, but the foundation of the government itself.  It is simply beyond the scope of my understanding to envisage the gathering of these men in one moment in time, in one geographical location on the earth, in one particular struggle for freedom and independence, without -- repeat -- WITHOUT divine intervention.  I no more believe the congress of those men an accident of nature, or time, or circumstances,  than I believe the creation of man was an accident of nature.

I am, unabashedly, of the school of thought that America has had a divine mission since the toes of the earliest settlers settled into the wet sand of the beaches of our verdant continent.  It was, I believe, to offer the people of the world an example of how harmony between Providence and His creation could prosper a nation while the people of that nation maintained a close working relationship with their God AND their government and not succumb to the siren call of a theocracy.  Our new form of government would be responsible to the voice of God and to the voice of her people.

Now, however, our government has turned a deaf ear to both its principals.  It has become drunk on its own power and like unto a drunken man it is staggering and lurching into one disastrous situation after another, unable to resolve domestic or foreign problems as it relies solely on its own limited powers of understanding carefully camouflaged from itself by layers of shiny sparkling arrogance.

It is this ignorance, this arrogance, of America's leaders that brought us the horror of Benghazi.  And rest assured, it will bring more such disastrous incidents in our future.
Here, now, is what I wrote in October of 2012:
*********************
Benghazigate: What Are They Covering-Up?

Four Americans are dead and the American people are being lied to as to how and why they got that way.

Either the President is lying - and needs to be impeached, or he's NOT lying -- and needs to be impeached -- because he DIDN'T know what was happening!

Repeat: Four Americans are DEAD. And as much as it pains me to say it -- it doesn't look as if our government made a genuine effort to save them.

I have watched, listened, and read as much as we have been allowed to know -- plus -- information gleaned by non-mainstream media sources, and I have concluded there is a major cover-up at the top levels of the US government over the incident in Benghazi.

Now, let me be clear: I am not an investigative reporter. That is not what I do. I am a commentator -- an opinion writer ... nothing more. I have deliberately "hung back" on any in-depth comments on the Benghazi affair simply because there always seemed to me to be more THERE there. In other words, it was obvious, at least to me, that we were only getting drips and drabs of what really happened and, I felt (and still do) that we have been told nothing of WHY it happened. But, dear reader, even Helen Keller could see there is a major cover-up surrounding the incident in Benghazi!

That CIA "safe-house" has troubled me from the very beginning of this horrible story. What was the CIA doing there? There was no embassy in Benghazi. In fact, the building attacked was not even a consulate. If anything, it was a "mission." Had it been an embassy, I'd not question a CIA presence. They are practically a part of the furniture in any US Embassy. But, as I said, this was NOT an embassy.

Remember too, the last person our ambassador met with the evening of the attack was a Turkish diplomat. What was a Turkish diplomat doing in Benghazi, Libya, meeting with Ambassador Stevens at an unprotected site. Why not meet in the embassy in Tripoli?

It now seems that the ex-SEALS were not attached to the consulate, but were assigned to the CIA "safe-house." They (laudably) went against orders and made a rescue attempt of the US officials and staff at the consulate -- and lost their lives in the attempt.

There is now a fog of misinformation spewed up and out by the Obama Administration in what -- in my opinion -- is an attempt to cover-up an on-going scheme/operation to smuggle weapons into Syria through Turkey.

A few weeks ago, there was a report that Libyan militia members had been ordered to turn-in the weapons that had been supplied them in their struggle to overthrow Qaddafi. That report confirmed that many of those weapons had been turned in. Where did those weapons go? Perhaps, to the Syrian rebels?

It has been suspected for some time now that the US has been supplying small arms to the rebels in Syria for a while -- even though the Obama Administration denies it.

It is the kind of operation the CIA would be up-to-their-necks in and it would explain their presence on the ground in Libya in a safe-house a mile away from the consulate/mission.

For the sake of argument, suppose the guns gathered from the Libyan militia were being covertly sent to Turkey and then smuggled across the Turkey/Syrian border to the Syrian rebels.

I continue to cycle back to the question -- why was the Ambassador THERE , alone, without a security detail, at that particular time, meeting with a high Turkish diplomat. Remember, this was on September 11th. If there was going to be an attack by terrorists -- September 11th would be the day for it.

Now, I'm just hypothesizing here. I have no idea, at this point, what was really going on. But, I have confidence in my opinion that there was a covert operation underway -- one so black that sacrificing the lives of four Americans was deemed "worth it" by our leaders in Washington.

For whatever reason, the Obama Administration has chosen to tell the world a bald-faced lie about what happened in Benghazi.

So politicians lie, right? Yeah, they do. But this time -- four Americans are dead and the country wants to know why that happened and why the Obama Administration chose to lie to us about it.

It is clear now, that all the warnings from the political right about the penchant of this President and his administration for lies was absolutely correct. If they are lying about the "Incident in Benghazi," what else are they lying about?

Look. The cover-up of "Benghazigate" is far more important that Watergate ever was!

It is what it is. The Mainstream Media in America is an organ of the political left -- as is President Obama. There is simply no way we are going to get anything approaching impartial reporting or a REAL investigation of Benghazigate from the MsM.

For me, it is not just a matter of trust, it is a matter of honor -- NATIONAL HONOR.

America deserves better than we have gotten, or, are likely to get from Obama.

© J. D. Longstreet

Rand and Hitchens in Agreement...

by:Les Carpenter
Rational Nation USA
Liberty -vs- Tyranny


An interesting matching...

The Last Lecture...

by: Les Carpenter
Rational Nation USA
Liberty -vs- Tyranny


A Breath of Fresh Air From the Past...

by: Les Carpenter
Rational Nation USA
Liberty -vs- Tyranny


As we continue to find ways to advance collectivism in America and diminish individuality this Ayn Rand interview on the Johnny Carson show is indeed a welcome respite. Even if only for a brief 26 1/2 minutes.



I find it interesting how little the republican party represents the principles of Objectivism. Irrespective of what many have said.

The newest app for Google Glass, 'Field Trip,' displays data about destinations right before your eyes.


Here's another reason to covet Google Glass: it can serve as your personal tour guide.

One of the early so-called Glassware apps to arrive on on the search giant's high-tech eyewear, Field Trip becomes available today to the 10,000 or so Google's Glass Explorers. Those early adopters paid $1,500 to get the first pairs off the production line; final consumer models are expected in 2014.

Available for free as an Android app for a year -- and for Apple iOS devices for about six months -- Field Trip delivers location-based information about neighborhoods, cities and countries based on your interests. However, the app's full potential is unleashed on Glass, says John Hanke, vice president of Niantic Labs, which is a startup firm within Google.

Viewing information through Glass, he says, "is less distracting because it keeps your eyes free, which is the whole idea, that you can actually see the thing in front of you."

Field Trip uses GPS information to provide you facts about your environment, whether it's interesting tourist spots, landmarks and historic sites or -- for a local -- new restaurants and night clubs. As you make your way, say along a city street, small "card" of information marking important sites pop up on Glass.

Source

Murguia, Former Director Of El Centro Hispano Passed Away After Losing Battle With Cancer

Dr. Filiberto Murguia

Murguia served as executive director for the Council for the Spanish Speaking for more than three decades.

By H. Nelson Goodson
August 21, 2013

Milwaukee, WI - On Tuesday, Dr. Filiberto Murguia, 82, passed away after losing his battle with cancer. Murguia was admitted to the Zilber Hospice several weeks ago after deteriorating from liver cancer, his daughter Carmen Murguia announced. Dr. Murguia served as executive director for the Council for the Spanish Speaking, Inc., also known as El Centro Hispano or Spanish Center for more than three decades.
In 2010, the Council for the Spanish Speaking, Inc. renamed the Loyola Academy High School campus, 1645 S. 36th St., to the Dr. Filiberto and Carmen Murguia Campus. Carmen is Dr. Murguia's wife.
In 1964, El Centro Hispano became the first Latino serving non-profit community based organization in Milwaukee. A few years later, El Centro evolved into the Council for the Spanish Speaking, Inc., according to their website.
In 1973, Dr. Murguia became the CEO of the Spanish Center and then retired 30 years later in 2003.
Murguia's daughter in 2010 during her father's dedication ceremony of the Loyola Acadamy renaming said, that her father first came to the U.S. from Mexico and was using his brother's legal papers because he was undocumented and couldn't speak English. Just four months in the U.S., he was drafted by the military in his brother's name and served 60 months in the Korean War. He actually learned the Korean language first, before learning English. Soon after the war, he became a U.S. citizen and later became the CEO of the Spanish Center. When Murguia took over the Spanish Center in 1973, it had a budget of more than $200,000 and when he retired in 2003, the Council was operating on a budget of more than $5 million.
The Council operates on a yearly budget of more than $6.8 million (2007-2008) and manages six housing complexes for low income elders able to live independently. It operates an Adult Education Center, the Loyola Academy High School, Guadalupe Head Start (manages 7 Head Start locations) and a Family Resource Center at the Dr. Filiberto and Carmen Murguia Campus.

Real Pension Fund Reserves


Click to enlarge.

1. Quite the trend failure!
2. $15 trillion is a lot of money, but is it enough money?
3. Do pension funds still assume unrealistic future returns based on past performance?
4. What will happen when we get another recession?
5. How much will it spur the economy when pension assets are increasingly unleashed?
6. How much damage will it do to the stock and bond markets when pension assets are increasingly unleashed?
7. How much damage will it do to remaining pension assets when pension assets are increasingly unleashed?

Clearly the pension funds would not be worth $15 trillion today if every pension fund manager liquidated assets simultaneously. I'm just curious how much pain the typical pension fund manager (or individual investor for that matter) can expect if the pension assets are unleashed gradually.

August 5, 2013
Pandemic of pension woes is plaguing the nation

Across the nation, cities and states are watching Detroit's largest-ever municipal bankruptcy filing with great trepidation. Years of underfunded retirement promises to public sector workers, which helped lay Detroit low, could plunge them into a similar and terrifying financial hole.

This post inspired by Troy in the comments found here.

Source Data:
FRB: Z.1 Release
St. Louis Fed: CPI

Gold vs. Industrial Commodities


Click to enlarge.

Kinda scary.


Click to enlarge.

Kinda scarier.

Your opinions may vary of course. This is not investment advice.

Source Data:
St. Louis Fed: Custom Chart

Food vs. Industrial Commodities


Click to enlarge.

The housing bubble created some "pent-down" demand for industrial commodities (relative to food). Big shocker.

Source Data:
St. Louis Fed: Custom Chart

ribbon trim pillow diy

So last week I was all about bathrooms and this week it appears that pillows are the flavor of the day. But then again, when aren't pillows my jam? Never. The answer to that question is never.

My pillows pinterest board (say that five times fast) is full of wish list pillows and fabrics to make into more pillows. But since my Publishers Clearing House check still has not arrived, I need to get...creative on how to make these pillows happen.

1 // 2

Case in point.

I love these pillows long time. But they are a bit out of budget. So one day while drooling I thought, "I've got pillow cases and I've got ribbon, how hard can this be?"

The answer - it was so easy I almost feel foolish to share the step by step. Almost.


I started with a simple white pillow cover from IKEA (the Ritva, for only $7). I love the Ritva because its cheap (duh), it has great texture and a nice boarder.


Next was the ribbon - I sifted thru my stash and decided on this navy and white ribbon I used way back when. And if you remember that post you must be my mom as I'm pretty sure my mom was the only one reading this thing back then.


First step - layout your base lines and cut the ribbon/trim to size. I decided to use the natural boarder on the pillow as my 'end' which allowed me to get nice straight edges.


Second step - balance. What is that weird thing in the bottom of the picture? It's a tape measure. I know, weird and very uncharacteristic of me. But I wanted this to be as pretty as I imagined it in my head and for the design to work properly it does need to be accurate. Never a favorite word of mine, but I did it. The measurements themselves are totally arbitrary but once I decided on one side what looked best, I made sure to measure that same spacing out everywhere else.


Step three - add your diamond pieces. You will want to make sure that they meet precisely in the middle of the pillow on each of the four sides to ensure your pattern isn't lopsided. I'm not a fan of lopsided pillows.


Once everything is in place, grab that trusty fabric glue and go to town. Oh, and I did cut down each end and then iron the end of the ribbon to the underside of said ribbon in order to prevent fraying and give it that 'perfect' edge.


And it's (say it with me) just that easy!




Zoey is photo bombing my beauty shot. Don't focus on the dog, look at the pretty pillows. Ooohh. Ahhhh.

Very little work for very big impact. And so fast. I was done in 20 minutes. Give it a go, you know you wanna.

So I've used the words preciously, exact and measurements all in the same post. Doesn't sound like me at all. I must be growing, or hallucinating.

Are you precise with your DIY projects? Ever try a different path for your projects?

As Midnight Approaches...

As Midnight Approaches...
by: Les Carpenter
Rational Nation USA
Liberty -vs- Tyranny


... Those earlier cases have given the police broad discretion to search possessions on the person of an arrested suspect, including notebooks, calendars and pagers. The government contends that a cellphone is no different than any other object a suspect might be carrying. (Emphasis mine)

As the government of the people, by the people, and for the people under President Obama continues and even accelerates the march to the military state. As the people sleep.

Sadly the people of this once great and free nation are allowing the pompous, elitist. and thoroughly statist minded politicians and lawmakers of both parties to bamboozle us and in the process destroy the freedom and liberties this nation was built on.

All the political correct bullshit and pablum cannot change that which this nation has FREELY CHOSEN to inflict upon itself. It is midnight in America, one we chose to accept and settle for. The responsibility is ours. Sleep well America.

Continuing as the lights dim and soon go out...
The Washington Post - If the police arrest you, do they need a warrant to rifle through your cellphone? Courts have been split on the question. Last week the Obama administration asked the Supreme Court to resolve the issue and rule that the Fourth Amendment allows warrantless cellphone searches.

In 2007, the police arrested a Massachusetts man who appeared to be selling crack cocaine from his car. The cops seized his cellphone and noticed that it was receiving calls from “My House.” They opened the phone to determine the number for “My House.” That led them to the man’s home, where the police found drugs, cash and guns.

The defendant was convicted, but on appeal he argued that accessing the information on his cellphone without a warrant violated his Fourth Amendment rights. Earlier this year, the First Circuit Court of Appeals accepted the man’s argument, ruling that the police should have gotten a warrant before accessing any information on the man’s phone.

The Obama Administration disagrees. In a petition filed earlier this month asking the Supreme Court to hear the case, the government argues that the First Circuit’s ruling conflicts with the rulings of several other appeals courts, as well as with earlier Supreme Court cases. Those earlier cases have given the police broad discretion to search possessions on the person of an arrested suspect, including notebooks, calendars and pagers. The government contends that a cellphone is no different than any other object a suspect might be carrying.

But as the storage capacity of cellphones rises, that position could become harder to defend. Our smart phones increasingly contain everything about our digital lives: our e-mails, text messages, photographs, browser histories and more. It would be troubling if the police had the power to get all that information with no warrant merely by arresting a suspect.

On the other hand, the Massachusetts case involves a primitive flip-phone, which could make this a bad test case. The specific phone involved in this 2007 incident likely didn’t have the wealth of information we store on more modern cellphones. It’s arguably more analogous to the address books and pagers the courts have already said the police can search. So, as Orin Kerr points out, if the Supreme Court ruled on the case, it would be making a decision based on “facts that are atypical now and are getting more outdated every passing month.”

It has been said that ignorance is bliss. It seems ignorance and blindness can be synonymous.

Via: Memeorandum

"Our apologies to Matt Damon, we ran out of time." Kimmel told TMZ.com that he says this "for no good reason at all,"

"Our apologies to Matt Damon, we ran out of time." Kimmel told TMZ.com that he says this "for no good reason at all,"
Frequently at the end of the show, Kimmel thanks the guests as usual, but then adds, "Our apologies to Matt Damon, we ran out of time." Kimmel toldTMZ.com that he says this "for no good reason at all," continuing, "A star like Matt Damon would never be scheduled to appear near the end of the show where he can be bumped." Matt Damon told Parade magazine that Kimmel said he first did it at a low moment at the end of a show which had substandard guests. After hearing it, the show's producer doubled over in laughter, and Kimmel continued to do it on subsequent shows for their amusement.[5]
On September 12, 2006, Damon appeared on the show. A montage of clips demonstrating the numerous times Kimmel performed the bit was shown and, after a very lengthy introduction by Kimmel, Damon appeared on stage. After a few seconds, Kimmel apologized and stated that the show was out of time. He asked Damon if he could come back tomorrow, to which he replied, "Go fuck yourself." Damon continued to curse at Kimmel throughout the rolling of the credits, ultimately slapping the desk and walking off the set. In the December 17, 2006 issue of USA Weekend, Kimmel himself acknowledged that the Damon incident was a joke.[6] In the show which aired on June 5, 2007, Kimmel sent his sidekick Guillermo to the Ocean's Thirteen premiere to interview Matt Damon, though when he started the interview, he said that they were out of time, at which point Damon assumed that Kimmel sent him. In the August 2, 2007 episode, Kimmel then announced that Guillermo was taking on the role of Jason Bourne, who was played by Damon, for The Bourne Ultimatum. A clip was shown in which Guillermo was playing Bourne, until Damon showed up and thought that Kimmel was now trying to bump him from his movie. Damon tried to chase Guillermo but Guillermo slapped him and jumped through a wall. In Jimmy's 2010 post-Oscar show, he featured a clip called The Handsome Men's Club which ended with Damon telling Jimmy that "We're all out of time" and then bursting with evil laughter after Jimmy is ejected from the club for not being handsome enough.[7]
Damon was part of the all-star cast assembled by Kimmel for his 2012 Oscars parody, which was a trailer for a blockbuster called Movie: The Movie. Damon appears briefly, only to be informed his scene had been cut from the "film" after which he is shown storming out of the studio (as part of the trailer), cursing Kimmel.

The Middle Management Party Ended in 2000

First, start with the total number of private employees. Second, subtract off those who are production and nonsupervisory employees. Third, divide by the population. That's what the following chart shows.


Click to enlarge.

That's a scary trend, especially for those in college "racking" up student debt while pursuing their MBAs.



Like a child in his fantasy
Punching holes in the walls of reality
All my life I wanted to fly
But I don't have the wings, and I wonder why
I can't break away
I can't break away

January 7, 2013
There Are Officially Too Many MBAs

Universities are now conferring 74 percent more business degrees than they did in the 2000-2001 school year. Much of that torrid growth has been driven by part-time and executive MBA programs at less-than-prestigious institutions looking to cash in.

June 16, 2011
Your Well-Paid, Middle-Class Job Is in Danger

"A lot of traditional middle-class, upper-middle-class jobs have been disappearing. If you look at general managers and middle-management jobs, those are ones that have been in decline and will decline further," he said.

December 19, 2012
The Future of Middle Management - Scott Adams

When you imagine the upcoming Age of Robots, you probably see the robots replacing humans in jobs that involve manual labor. An assembly line is a good application for robots, for example. And I assume fast food workers will soon be replaced by robots too.

But I predict that one of the first occupations that will be entirely replaced by robots will be middle management, not skilled labor.

Source Data:
St. Louis Fed: Custom Chart

TRO Injunction Case Dismissed Against Perez, General Manager From Esperanza Unida

Irene Agape Correa and Manuel "Manny" Perez

Perez had denied sexual harassment claims by Correa, the head of a mental health clinic at Esperanza Unida.

By H. Nelson Goodson
August 20, 2013

Milwaukee, WI - On Tuesday, a temporary restraining order (TRO) injunction hearing resulted with a dismissal and the injunction denied against, Manuel "Manny" Perez, the current general manager for Esperanza Unida. Irene Agape Correa, 35, President of  United Hands Across the City, a mental health clinic run at the Esperanza Unida, 611 W. National Ave. filed a TRO on August 8, which claimed that Perez on several occasions grabbed her arm and once tried to grope her while caressing her, but when another person walked in on them and Perez stopped.
Two people, Daniel Martinez and Damon Dersey testified for Correa and four people, Jose Lopez, Kathleen Oleson, Evelyn Alicea and Robert Miranda, the executive director for Esperanza Unida testified for Perez, according to court records.
Martinez, Correa's father testified that he walked in when Perez was gripping his daughter's arm and then Perez left. But, a Milwaukee County court commissioner believe it was a misunderstanding between both Correa and Perez, "not sexual harassment." Correa will request a review, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Perez had denied Correa's claims and believed he would be exonerated in court, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported. Correa who runs a clinic rent free claimed, Perez had threatened to get rid of her from the Esperanza Unida building.
Correa has not announced, if she will pursue legal recourse against Perez or Esperanza Unida, since her request for a continuance of a TRO injunction was denied. Perez also has not released a statement concerning the outcome of the TRO in his favor.
Robert Miranda, the executive director of Esperanza Unida released the following statement from the Board, "the board is aware of and monitoring the allegations made against the organization's general manager, Manny Perez.Based on an initial inquiry and report by a member of the board, the board maintains its confidence in Manny's leadership. We were pleased that a Milwaukee County Court Commissioner reviewed the allegations and dismissed the complaint this week." The Esperanza Unida Board retained former U.S. Attorney Steven Biskupic to review and investigate allegations made by a committee calling itself "Friends of Esperanza Unida." Biskupic will evaluate the allegations and then report back to the Board about what appropriate action to take in the matter, according to Miranda.
Perez formerly worked for Governor Scott Walker in 2011 and resigned only five months into the job citing he had accomplished what he wanted to do in that short period. Perez was previously an owner of JNA Staffing Inc. and head of the Hispanic Republican group in Wisconsin that supported Walker. He also worked for Manpower Group.

The Housing Bubble in One Chart


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FAIL.

Source Data:
St. Louis Fed: Custom Chart

Privacy under attack? Stop-and-frisk vs. NSA surveillance

Privacy under attack? Stop-and-frisk vs. NSA surveillance
As Americans, we each have a guaranteed right to privacy. The online legal site FindLaw explains it this way: “The Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution protects personal privacy, and every citizen's right to be free from unreasonable government intrusion into their persons, homes, businesses, and property – whether through police stops of citizens on the street, arrests, or searches of homes and businesses.”

That seems plain enough, but how one interprets the word “unreasonable” provides ample opportunity for mischief, as well as for good law enforcement.

As for good law enforcement, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has credited the City’s stop-and-frisk policy with helping drive crime to record lows since the policing policy was implemented in 1994, with the murder rate falling by an astounding 82 percent by 2009.

New York’s stop-and-frisk policy seeks to prevent crime before it happens by deploying officers with pinpoint precision to critical street segments in high-crime areas where they interact with individuals displaying suspicious behavior: they approach, question, and sometimes frisk the individuals. That practice has led to fewer people, such as members of street gangs, risking arrest by carrying a weapon on their person, and with fewer gang bangers carrying weapons, there are fewer spur-of-the-moment shootings in New York, and correspondingly fewer deaths.

You might think that, given the obvious level of success in reducing the murder rate in the Big Apple, such a policy would fall outside the Fourth Amendment’s proscription against “unreasonable” searches. But you would be wrong, according to U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin, who believes that the policy indeed does violate the Fourth Amendment protection.

Mayor Bloomberg believes that the judge's decision will cause a reduction in the use of stop-and-frisk, which would reverse crime reductions and make his city a more dangerous place. And data indicates he is correct. In 2011, guns were used in 61 percent of all homicides, but in black neighborhoods 86 percent of young black males died from gunfire. Stop-and-frisk reduced the total number of deaths by reducing the number of guns on the streets.

The challenge to the policy arose because officers stop minority residents at a rate disproportionate to their number in the general population. But those stops are not disproportionate to the minority resident population in the crime-ridden neighborhoods or disproportionate to the number of crimes minorities commit in those neighborhoods.

As we have seen recently, there is the possibility that authorities may lose perspective and become abusive in the use of policies like this one, but supervisors are charged to competently manage their operation. And due to the depths of its crime problem when the policy was implemented, New York police applied stop-and-frisk more aggressively than other cities. But whether or not the City is too aggressive ought not be decided without considering its unique circumstances and surprising rate of success in reducing murders.

An opposite approach to systematically and thoughtfully targeting areas where crimes mostly occur and populations that most often commit them like New York City is doing is the blanket, indiscriminate, suspicion-less spying on telephone, email and other private communications and activities of millions of Americans by the National Security Agency.

The government’s spying on Americans is so egregious – eavesdroppers broke privacy rules or overstepped their legal authority thousands of times every year – it’s no wonder the administration wants to arrest and try Edward Snowden for making the information about its spying public.

Where New York police might appear to have been over-aggressive in implementing stop-and-frisk, the federal government’s policy itself is over-aggressive by design. Surely, observers familiar with the Fourth Amendment’s restrictions on searches would be unable to conclude anything other than that NSA spying is precisely why there is a Fourth Amendment.

As reported in The Washington Times, “A Top Secret internal NSA audit, leaked by Mr. Snowden to freelance journalist Barton Gellman earlier this summer and published online by The Washington Post Thursday night shows that, in the 12 months prior to May 2012, there were 2,776 incidents of ‘unauthorized collection, storage, access to or distribution of legally protected communications’ — those between Americans or foreigners legally in the United States.”

“Most were unintended,” according to The Post. “Many involved failures of due diligence or violations of standard operating procedure.” Even if the problems were unintended, sloppiness certainly is no excuse: The infringements are no less wrong, no less a breach of individual privacy, and no less intolerable.

The larger the scope of a program, the greater the chance that something will go wrong, and the more opportunities there are for something to go wrong. Congressman Peter King (R-NY) defends the program, saying that the situation is being blown out of proportion, that the rate of error is miniscule.

Maybe so; however, since the NSA program seeks to find a few fake grains of sand on a beach, and involves millions upon millions of records. For every million records, ten thousand mistakes can be made, affecting the privacy of ten thousand Americans, and the success rate is 99 percent.


Even if such gargantuan programs are run efficiently and competently, they are examples of unjustified government excess, and should not be allowed.