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POPSNidal Hasan Terrorist Threat 'Not That Big a Deal'....Matthew Yglesias
I think a pretty good case can be made that this kind of situation actually is the main face of the terrorist threat. Not a big well-thought-out plot centrally directed from a “safe haven” in South Asia and undertaken by brilliant covert operatives, but the desperate violent act of a clearly disturbed individual. It’s going to be very hard to prevent this sort of thing. As long as the United States remains a country in which firearms are widely available"for the foreseeable future, in other words"we’re going to be unusually vulnerable to mentally ill spree killers of various kinds, including spree killers who nod in the direction of Islamist thinking. But the larger point is that while these incidents are serious crimes and major tragedies for the victims, they hardly rise to the level of a major macro-level social crisis. They’re certainly not a first-order national security threat. And even put in the lower-stakes context of violent crime in America
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POPSDrowning in Debt This is from Ross Perot's site (remember him?). One of the comments at the site that I thought was really good: "Our dollar is backed by faith, how much faith is left? Sheesh, they’re going to run out of paper, granted it’s all electronic transfer so maybe not. But man, I just don’t see how catastrophic inflation isn’t a forgone conclusion at this point."
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POPS It's the Spending, Stupid By John Stossel But the income tax is big and visible, so it's a problem that a growing number of people don't pay, but get benefits from those who do. Frederic Bastiat, the great 19th-century French economist, defined the state as "that great fiction by which everyone tries to live at the expense of everyone else." I don't know if he envisioned one half of the population living off the other half. It's important not to confuse the interests of the taxpayers with the interests of the politicians and other tax consumers. Yet that is done all the time. When the government bought toxic assets (of zero market value) from the banks, it said taxpayers would profit when the economy recovered and the assets once again commanded a positive price in the market. Even if we make the dubious assumption that the government is savvy enough to buy low and sell high, it's not the taxpayers who would benefit from any profits. The politicians will spend every penny, rather than cutting taxes.
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POPSEver Wish Obama Was More Like Reagan?
Even Ford and Carter did a better job at cutting government. Their combined presidential terms account for an increase of 1.4%—compared with Reagan's 3%—in the government's take of "national income." And in nominal terms, there has been a 60% increase in government spending, thanks mainly to Reagan's requested budgets, which were only marginally smaller than the spending Congress voted. The budget for the Department of Education, which candidate Reagan promised to abolish along with the Department of Energy, has more than doubled to $22.7 billion, Social Security spending has risen from $179 billion in 1981 to $269 billion in 1986. The price of farm programs went from $21.4 billion in 1981 to $51.4 billion in 1987, a 140% increase. And this doesn't count the recently signed $4 billion "drought-relief" measure. Medicare spending in 1981 was $43.5 billion; in 1987 it hit $80 billion. Federal entitlements cost $197.1 billion in 1981—and $477 billion in 1987. (Written in 1988)
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POPSLifeLock This site offers a great review of LifeLock's identity theft product.
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POPSProtect your Family with a Background Report If you have young children and need to go back to work, the only way to ensure that the nanny you use has never been in trouble is to pull a background report. Background Report, online records, people search, criminal records
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POPSTexas Drivers Education Texas Driver Education Course is DPS approved .By compeleting approved training Parent Taught Driver Education successfully, You will be elligible to get the Texas Driver License.This Texas teen driver course is designed for you to get Texas Driver Education Online.
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POPSWhat Can You Learn From a Fake Breast? From the way it looks there is silicone somewhere else, if not everywhere else. And should we all get some fake breasts just in case? The article sounds like a piece of fake breasts marketing, doesn't it?
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POPSUnfunded Mandates This is just the tip of the iceberg. There are $50 TRILLION UNFUNDED MANDATES RIGHT NOW! If you count up the numbers from pension plans, which are unfunded, the FDIC, Pension Benefits Guarantee Fund (PBGF) , and Social Security, we are in dip S***
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POPSCheck Indiana Arrest Records and Protect Your Children A little bit of assistance on the Internet and some information on vital records such as Social Security number, last known address, or date of birth will go a long way in your search--and it's worth it. Indiana Arrest Records, people search, online records
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POPSAn Outrage! I recently had my good credit ruined because I refused to pay an amount on my Sears card, because I never received the merchandise. Now even my debit card from my credit union is in danger of being revoked because of all the absurd late fees my Sears card has accrued since Dec. '07. Maybe I should go to the B of A and apply for a credit card there. However the story does not say how large the APR is. For the entire story you should click on the Snopes.com link, and read for yourself the whole crazy thing.
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POPSPresident Obama's Birth Certificate Has Finally Been Found! Gingham said that her mother Villavonda Cottonsox told her to put the birth certificate on eBay so that she could get some money to buy that little miniature horse she has always dreamed of. Sonatina said she put it on eBay for $635. She said that she had a call within 45 seconds offering to pay $145,000. The individual said that she wanted to buy it but she wanted to make sure that it was in fact the real deal and not some photo-shopped knock-off. Mrs. Gingham told the prospective buyer that the social security number was xxx xx 1204. The buyer said that she recognized that number as being the president's social security number and she made arrangements to personally pick up the birth certificate. The birth certificate was issued by The Good Sisters of The Coconut Creme Pie Hospital in Honolulu, Hawaii on August 4, 1961.
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POPSIdentityTheftPrevent.info You’ve probably heard about it in the news. It may even have happened to someone you know. The FBI calls identity theft one of the fastest growing crimes in the United States and estimates that 500,000 to 700,000 Americans become identity theft victims each year. Identity theft is a federal crime. It occurs when one person’s identification (which can include name, social security number, or any account number) is used or transferred by another person for unlawful activities.
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POPSSocial Security Administration $700,000 Getaway The Social Security San Francisco regional office anticipated spending about $700,000 on the convention, which started mid-day Tuesday and wrapped up Thursday afternoon for approximately 675 attendees. It will not know the actual cost until it collects and pays vouchers submitted by employees. Employees were required to pay their own expenses for entertainment, including a trip to a local casino. It was the first time that the regional office held such a conference since 2001, and agency officials say the meeting was well worth the expense. Leslie Walker, the Social Security Administration's regional communications director, said the agency was grappling with a wave of Baby Boomers who are becoming eligible for Social Security. At the convention, managers learned how to train employees on cost-saving measures such as encouraging the public to process documents via the Internet.
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POPSSSA exec's party with 750k taxpayers money SSA Says $700,000 Event Was Necessary to Reduce Stress Caused by Death Threats.......say what !!!!!!!!! I suppose the poor struggling to get by on the little they get aren't under stress though right. Fisrt AIG corporate greed and now this while economy almost same as in depression. Makes ya really want to get off the planet.
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POPSSocial Security Number Code Cracked? For all the concern about identity theft, researchers say there's a surprisingly easy way for the technology-savvy to figure out the precious nine digits of Americans' Social Security numbers.
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POPSSSN Required to buy Palm pre "Sprint requires your Social Security number in order to run a credit check before they will allow you to open an account, according to a store manager in Silver Spring, MD. Since Sprint is the exclusive carrier for the Palm Pre, if you are not willing to provide an SSN,
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POPSTwitter message could be cyber criminal at work Many people ask me why i don't want a lot of followers on twitter or follow a lot. Well among the reasons this is one one them in article. and number 2 is unless only going to sit at computer watching pop up tweets from those your following what good is it to be distracted every 2 seconds from the pages your reading on the internet. Same as social network sites, what good is it to have 2 gazilliion friends whom you could never possibly have time to get back to or interact with having so many. Yep call me a nut but i prefer a chosen few. Those i take interest in. Whose tweets are interesting. Not blabber mouths tweeting like a starving bird every 3 seconds. And specialty tweeters like download.com or feedmecheesy.com where i am notified of new content. I guess it's suppose to look impressive if you have lots and lots of followers. I look at them quite the opposite way..Like the old high school snobs yelling oh look at me, look at me....
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POPSStimulus Program fraught with waste, report says A Republican senator's office says stimulus funds are going toward dubious projects, such as a $3.4-million tunnel for turtles. Obama aides say the report is flawed. Around the Web Obama’s questionable stimulus plans|weblogs.chicagotribune.com
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POPS A Suspect's Long History of Hate, and Signs of Strain "He felt it was the direct result of someone in Washington looking at his Web site." In one of his e-mail blasts expressing his white supremacist views, the man police sources say shot and killed a security guard yesterday at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum told readers that they shouldn't expect to hear from him again. Von Brunn was shot and critically wounded by museum guards. He was about to give away his computer, his primary connection to the fringe world of radical racists. He was living hand to mouth. The e-mails were getting violent in tone: "It's time to kill all the Jews." Von Brunn, who lives in Annapolis, was known for decades to fellow white supremacists who read his elaborate conspiracy theories on his Web site and met him through a network of radical racist groups. The Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors hate groups, has kept an eye on him since 1981. Lately, it has focused on his Web site, www.holywesternempire.org.
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