Author: southwerk

I am a 53 year old teacher. I have double major in Speech and Criminal Justice resulting in a Bachelor's degree from Northeastern State University in Oklahoma and a law degree.

Radiation Lies

On By southwerkIn corruption

nuclear reactor pd 1000643523Radiation Lies

What a surprise! It seems both the Japanese government and the United States Navy lied to the sailors aboard the USS Ronald Reagan about how much radiation they were exposed to. Please be aware the Fukushima crisis continues on day after day. The reactors continue to leak radiation. Every day workers have to go in and try to keep the situation under control. It’s a slow-speed crisis demonstrating the power of a nuclear disaster as opposed to other man made destruction.

What kind of ethical judgement was at play here? Surely a high radiation level is going to have long term effects? And in real life, conspiracies of silence only work for so long. 

This is a failure here to discern right from wrong. This is a failure to do everything possible to safeguard the lives of Americans on a rescue mission. And most of all, this is a failure of the Japanese government whose continued lies and incompetence have created an ongoing crisis for which they may be no cure in our lifetimes or even the lifetimes of our children. 

 

James Pilant

US sailors exposed to Fukushima radiation levels beyond Japan’s estimates | Al Jazeera America

Crew members of the USS Ronald Reagan’s March 2011 Fukushima relief mission encountered radiation levels that far exceeded the Japanese government’s estimates, according to a report in the Asia-Pacific Journal.

The revelations contained in the report could have a bearing on the lawsuit against Tokyo Electric Power Company by more than 70 U.S. service members who say they suffer from long-term health effects from their participation in the U.S. navy’s response to the nuclear disaster.

Kyle Cleveland, a Temple University professor based in Japan, obtained documents showing military officials aboard the carrier detected radiation levels that were 30 times greater than normal and significantly greater than what the Japanese government told them to expect.

Navy officials have maintained that the radiation levels service members were exposed to during Operation Tomodachi were not enough to cause health effects.

via US sailors exposed to Fukushima radiation levels beyond Japan’s estimates | Al Jazeera America.

From around the web.

From the web site, Japan Safety.

http://japansafety.wordpress.com/2014/03/01/atomic-suicide-the-tale-of-the-sailors-and-the-seals-climate-viewer-news/

March 11th, 2011 would have begun like any other day for the crew of the USS Ronald Reagan, except this particular day would go down in history, as the world learned of the 9.o earthquake and devastating tsunami that had struck Japan. The ship, which was already relatively close to Japan, would be changing course for the coastline of Honshu to assist in humanitarian efforts needed for the tens of thousands of people now displaced by this enormous disaster. The rest of the 7th fleet would join in the mission as well. In total, 70,000 members of the US military would participate in some way during the course and became known as “Operation Tomodachi”. Tomodachi happens to mean ‘friend’.

Over 1000 miles away, Alaskan ringed seals stretched lazily on ice floes, perhaps aware of a disturbance in the earths’ geomagnetic field, perhaps not. Either way, not much changes from a seals point of view, one day is not much different from another. You wake up, swim around, find food, and go back to sleep. The only time seals deviate from this schedule is if it is mating season, a tsunami is coming, you are being chased by a polar bear or killer whale, or if you have cubs to look after.

In Japan, as the 7th fleet anchored off Honshu, helicopter flights were readied, supplies prepared, gear was checked, and orders received from Naval Command stateside, who were taking their direction from the Japanese government, and later the NRC. What may have first seemed like an in-and-out mission, was immediately and drastically expanded. The widespread damage was much worse than first feared. It would be weeks, even months, that Japan would need help. The sailors prepared themselves accordingly. But it didn’t take long to see this mission may not go as planned. Within the first days, things started going really, really wrong on the ship. You could say, they went rather critical.  As well as a few nearby nuke plants on the coast of Honshu, and especially at Fukushima Daiichi.

I Liked Notting Hill.

On By southwerkIn Editorial

ill_067_smlI Liked Notting Hill. 

I was reading The Guardian this morning. One of the writers admitted to liking the film, Notting Hill. He was embarrassed. It was as if he had clubbed a baby seal. Well, I like the film too. 

I love a sappy, happy ending love story and this one fills the quota of “love will win out over every obstacle.” Love doesn’t win out all the time and my life is testament to that. But I still believe in love against all evidence and all experience. 

Please read the full review below. 

James Pilant

My guilty pleasure: Notting Hill | Film | theguardian.com

Films are there very largely to give you pleasure: they are pleasure-giving devices, and if a film succeeds in giving you pleasure, shouldn’t you have the courage of your convictions and own up to it? So it is with mixed feelings that I nominate Notting Hill in this category, directed by Roger Michell and written by Richard Curtis — his 1999 followup to the 1994 smash-hit Four Weddings and a Funeral. It is widely panned but I enjoy it, and whenever it is showing on ITV4 as I flick channels I always find myself stopping to watch. It was in fact the first film I ever wrote about for the Guardian.

Cast: Hugh Grant, Julia Roberts, Rhys Ifans, Richard McCabe

It is the story of a shy, floppy-haired bookshop owner (Hugh Grant), a lonely divorced guy who has a wacky Welsh mate called Spike (the role made Rhys Ifans a star) and who falls in love with a Hollywood A-lister, played by Julia Roberts. His heart gets broken. So does hers. Then they get unbroken.

via My guilty pleasure: Notting Hill | Film | theguardian.com.

From around the web

From the web site, Timothy Haslett’s Blog.

http://timothyrhaslett.wordpress.com/2014/02/03/why-we-all-love-notting-hill/

Like most good British romantic comedies, it’s the cast. In this case the two lead actors: Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts. Hugh Grant is the quintessential romantic comedy lead. If he had been in the troop of travelling players in Hamlet he would have been the actor for  Plautus but not for Seneca. He is perfectly pitched for this film, as is Julia Roberts.

Who else could deliver the line (ranked as one of the top 10 corniest lines of all times) “I’m also just a girl standing in front of a boy asking him to love her”? Can you imagine Cate Blanchett being able to do that? I suspect it would be completely beyond her.

An Examination of Voter ID Laws

On By southwerkIn Editorial

titlepageAn Examination of Voter ID Laws

I was fortunate to have found a substantive article on voter ID. It cites its claims and has many facts and stories about alleged voter fraud. I am placing the first three paragraphs here for your viewing but for the entire article you need to travel to the web site of A Liberal Thinker.

James Pilant

What’s the deal with State voter ID laws? | aliberalthinker

Voter ID laws are being introduced in a number of states across the United States, the majority of them being red States. The purpose of these laws are supposedly to combat voter impersonation fraud that apparently has become a serious problem in the view of conservative lawmakers and advocates. Liberal groups are calling foul, claiming that these laws do nothing but discriminate against minorities and the poor, those eligible voters who typically do not possess any form of photo I.D.

There shouldn’t really be a problem with requiring people to present identification in order to vote provided that state governments are willing to issue I.D’s to those without them, at no cost. If governments can demonstrate that they are willing to transition their constituents to get the necessary I.D in order to vote then I fail to see an issue. So how do we define “cost barriers” when it comes to voter I.D laws? Well to state the obvious, state governments will need to provide I.D’s to those requiring them at no cost. The assumption here may be that because State governments are offering free I.D’s to those who need it, the problem is solved, right? Well as the old saying goes, “there is no such thing as a free lunch”.

Cost barriers

To provide “proof” to attain those free government issued cards it may still cost those individuals to apply for them as those applications may in turn require documents not in possession by those individuals concerned. The application process may also daunting as, believe or not, many of the less fortunate do still work and they may not have the spare time to apply for those I.D’s due to work and family obligations. Another cost barrier to those individuals concerned may be their inability to travel to apply for those I.D’s (many of the poor live in isolated rural settings away from State buildings or post offices, many do not have access to the internet either). None of the State I.D laws that I am aware of offer a cost free solution to those less fortunate. Washington Post referred to a particular study that demonstrated the costs to eligible voters under voter ID laws (14):

via What’s the deal with State voter ID laws? | aliberalthinker.

From around the web.

From the web site, Propublica.

http://www.propublica.org/article/everything-youve-ever-wanted-to-know-about-voter-id-laws

Why are these voter ID laws so strongly opposed?

Voting law opponents contend these laws disproportionately affect elderly, minority and low-income groups that tend to vote Democratic. Obtaining photo ID can be costly and burdensome, with even free state ID requiring documents like a birth certificate that can cost up to $25 in some places. According to a study from NYU’s Brennan Center, 11 percent of voting-age citizens lack necessary photo ID while many people in rural areas have trouble accessing ID offices. During closing arguments in a recent case over Texas’s voter ID law, a lawyer for the state brushed aside these obstacles as the “reality to life of choosing to live in that part of Texas.”

Attorney General Eric Holder and others have compared the laws to a poll tax, in which Southern states during the Jim Crow era imposed voting fees, which discouraged blacks, and even some poor whites — until the passage of grandfather clauses — from voting.

Given the sometimes costly steps required to obtain needed documents today, legal scholars argue that photo ID laws create a new “financial barrier to the ballot box.”

From around the web.

From the web site, Milam Blues.

http://milamblues.wordpress.com/2011/11/07/voter-id-disenfranchising-democrats-all-across-texas/

One of the arguments in favor of voter ID is that most people have to show a photo ID in order to accomplish all sorts of normal, every day tasks like cashing a check or buying an airline ticket. Why should it be easier to vote than to cash a check?

Well, here’s why: those every day tasks that normally require an ID are privileges, not rights guaranteed under our Constitution.  Check cashing is a privilege. Voting is a right. The trend toward universal suffrage has been part of our democratic civilization for generations. Most democracies work to extend voting rights. Our state is actively trying to suppress voting rights.

Making it difficult to vote is the same as curtailing your rights to speak your mind, practice your religion, assemble peacefully, or (for some) own a gun. And while we all agree that society has an interest in making sure that only “responsible” people should own a fire arm, I doubt that anyone would want to apply the same argument to going to church or reading a newspaper.

Arkansas Disenfranchises Legitimate Voters

On By southwerkIn Editorial

1859_Colton_Map_of_Arkansas_-_Geographicus_-_Arkansas-colton-1860Arkansas Disenfranchises Legitimate Voters

The curse of fake voter fraud strikes innocent Arkansans. I went and had a look at the opposing sides on this controversy. Those who say there is hardly any voter fraud at all can call forth an utterly impressive array of factual data. How about the other side? They explain with breathless enthusiasm that millions and millions of dead Americans are on the voting rolls and therefore there could be a lot of voter fraud although the cases prosecuted number in the tens.

Maybe I’m just not the kind of bold thinker that the proponents of voter ID are, but it seems to me that if you are worried about dead people on the voting, it should be simple matter of computer matching of state databases to remove them from the roles. Am I mistaken? Wouldn’t it just be simpler to let state and county computers go through the voting rolls and remove the dead than taking the risk of disenfranchising legitimate voters?

Of course, a cynical person might believe that the legislature is seeking to make it more difficult to vote for the young, the poor, the old and minorities. However, it is obvious that the upstanding members of the Arkansas legislature would not attack any right as sacred as the right to vote. So, there must be another explanation.

James Pilant

Arkansas County Disenfranchises 1 In 5 Absentee Voters Thanks To Voter ID | ThinkProgress

Last Tuesday, voters in Pulaski County, Arkansas voted on whether to approve a tax that would fund improvements at a local technical college. Yet, nearly 20 percent of the voters who cast an absentee ballot were disenfranchised thanks to the state’s new voter ID law.

In 2013, the Arkansas legislature enacted a voter ID law containing a provision requiring absentee voters to include a copy of their ID along with their ballot. The result, according to a statement Pulaski County Election Commissioner Chris Burks gave to the Arkansas Times, is that 76 of the 384 absentee ballots cast in last Tuesday’s election were not counted. Burks added that, “[i]n my opinion, those absentee ballots returned without ID were 76 real people’s votes that would have otherwise counted but for the sloppily drafted Voter ID bill.”

via Arkansas County Disenfranchises 1 In 5 Absentee Voters Thanks To Voter ID | ThinkProgress.

From around the web.

From the web site, Charles O’Halloran Boyd.

http://charlesohalloranboyd.wordpress.com/2014/02/14/reflections-on-voter-id-laws/

Another reason I have for opposing voter ID laws is their disproportionate impact on minority voters. Any policy that is enacted with the goal of preventing people of a certain race from voting obviously ought to be vehemently opposed. But given the history of racial discrimination and disenfranchisement in this country, it is also imperative that we try to avoid policies that have even an unintentional impact disproportionately on voters of a certain race. In order to continue to move closer toward a more racially egalitarian society, it is important to have a multitude of voters of all races. I would also state that while, as I mentioned earlier, some supporters of voter ID laws are well meaning and non-racist, others are certainly racist and working to disenfranchise minority voters. Not long ago, Mississippi had a governor named Haley Barbour who venerated Jefferson Davis and the Confederacy and had documented ties with the white supremacist Council of Conservative Citizens. Barbour was also in support of voter ID laws, and I do not think I am being overly judgmental to conclude that he had nefarious motivations. A somewhat similar case exists in my native state of Georgia. Back when he was making an unfortunately successful attempt to get elected, our current Governor Nathan Deal was championing our state’s voter ID law and let his true feelings be known. “We got all the complaints of the ghetto grandmothers who didn’t have birth certificates and all that,” Deal said, derisively. While in office, he has promoted “Confederate History Month” and called an attempt from a liberal organization to gain his endorsement for a racially integrated prom (frighteningly, segregation of high school proms is still an issue in the South) a “silly publicity stunt.” Again, Deal’s motives don’t look so good. The country has made a great deal of progress when it comes to achieving universal suffrage and breaking down racial barriers to voting. But voter ID laws are a step in the wrong direction, and they must be repealed.

Pilant’s Business Ethics Gets a Facelift!!

On By southwerkIn Editorial
James Pilant
James Pilant

Pilant’s Business Ethics Gets a Facelift!!

I have revised the web site to improve your viewing and reading experience. My new upgrades put me on the cutting edge of blog design. I am looking forward to another year of blogging and I hope you come along for the experience.

I try to look at business ethics from a macro point of view. It is not just the individual act that must worry us but the international and national effects of corporate policy and unethical behavior. We live in a time of massive power shifts, large economic units competing with nation states for political influence and control. We live in a time where the rules that govern our behavior are under challenge. There are those that believe that religion, the great philosophies, and the moral beliefs of the large population are irrelevant. They believe that each moral decision must be considered under all circumstances by individuals.

No. Some things are wrong, evil per se. You don’t have to analyze them. You don’t have to consider them in the light of all the circumstances. You have an obligation to act responsibly to every other human being. We all have a duty to our nation and our fellow citizens. What’s more, religion is a guide in many people’s lives and is relevant. The great philosophies like virtue ethics will always be effective and intelligent guides to human behavior. And there is a wisdom that resides in the general populations about ethics matters.

My writing is along those lines and I don’t have any apologies for not writing about these issues in a purely academic style. There is a certain pleasure in being plain spoken.

Nevertheless I believe as time goes by that as I learn more about the subject in an academic format that my writing may turn more in that direction. We’ll see.

My thanks for your kind patronage!!

James Alan Pilant

 

Minimum Wage is Pathetically Low

On By southwerkIn Economic Justice2 Comments

c27aMinimum Wage is Pathetically Low

You can read it below: last years banker’s bonuses were twice the entire income of all those making the minimum wage.

Certainly, this should be considered evidence that the minimum wage is set too low. A good argument can be made that the social utility of what minimum wage earners do is far superior in benefits for our larger society than investment banking and some of the practices of regular banking.

It’s important to think about fairness and just deserts when dealing with this issue. In this country, the game is tilted toward those with influence and power. The minimum wage workers hardly register on either of those scales.

It is for the rest of us to add to their voice, to sometimes be their voice. What isn’t fair for our fellow Americans is a part of our responsibility.

We are not individual atoms floating in some kind of cosmic vacuum. We live, work and thrive with other people and those connections are important and a big part of what we consider civilization.

James Pilant

New report: Bankers’ bonuses more than double full-time minimum wage workers’ pay – Salon.com

The $26.7 billion spent on Wall Street bonuses last year was greater than the entire 2012 income of America’s full-time minimum wage workforce, according to a new report from the progressive Institute for Policy Studies.

Had that $26.7 billion instead gone to increased wages for the country’s 1,085,000 full-time minimum wage workers, writes report author Sarah Anderson, those workers’ wages ($15.1 billion total in 2012) would have more than doubled. Anderson estimates that such a raise for minimum wage workers would have done much more than bank bonuses to spur economic growth: In contrast to a $10.4 billion multiplier effect from the payouts to bankers, she calculates a $32.3 billion multiplier if the cash had gone into the pockets of those now making $7.25.

via New report: Bankers’ bonuses more than double full-time minimum wage workers’ pay – Salon.com.

From around the web.

From the web site, Arindrajit Dube.

http://arindube.com/2014/01/22/the-poverty-of-minimum-wage-facts/

So to take stock, if you consider the Sabia and Burkhauser simulation results  as “facts” you also are claiming that no worker reporting a wage below the old minimum will get a raise, and no one above the new minimum will get a raise. These are not very good assumptions, and they certainly are not facts.

Of course, you don’t have to make these assumptions. You could allow for spillovers. You could allow for wages to rise below the minimum. You could allow for measurement error in reported wages and other sources of income. But then you are not in a world where tabulating survey data gives you simple facts that are beyond reproach. You need to make additional assumptions to make causal claims. And we have not even begun to talk about behavioral effects—be they on labor demand side, or on labor supply side such worker search effort, etc. (And by the way those do not all go in the same direction.)  So you could add a lot more assumptions and continue with the simulation route, or you could use quasi-experimental approach used in almost all of applied micro-economics to empirically estimate the effect of minimum wages on poverty and other outcomes.  Of course, you would want to subject your identifying assumptions to specification checks and falsification tests to ensure you have reliable control groups; and you would account for possibly confounding policies such as state EITCs. And when you do all of that, and some more, you would probably end up with a paper like this one.

So where does this leave us?   As I said in my paper, policies like cash transfers, food stamps, and EITC are better targeted to help the poor, although even there minimum wages are better thought of as complements and not substitutes. More generally, however, motivations behind minimum wage policies go beyond reducing poverty. The popular support for minimum wages is in part fueled by a desire to raise earnings of low and moderate income families more broadly, and by fairness concerns that seek to limit the extent of wage inequality, or employers’ exercise of market power.  And the evidence suggests is that attaining such goals through increasing minimum wages is also consistent with a modest reduction in poverty, and moderate increases in family incomes at the bottom.

The U.S. Government is Spreading Malware

On By southwerkIn corruption

003thThe U.S. Government is Spreading Malware

Some years ago, I predicted the government was reading all of our e-mails and looking at our financial records. I thought I was on the edge of the curve, understanding what others did not. I was wrong. I only anticipated the edge of the iceberg. Those crazy bureaucrats sucked up more information than I could have imagined in my wildest dreams.

And now our pseudo-protectors are planting malware in our computers to evade our protections.

They are deliberately sabotaging our property. Others can piggyback in on the holes they are making in our anti-virus programs. They are making all of us vulnerable to hacking and theft.

Isn’t this a crime? If not, shouldn’t it be?

James Pilant

Mark Zuckerberg: US government surveillance is a threat to the internet | Technology | theguardian.com

The billionaire CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, criticised US government surveillance in a Facebook post on Thursday, saying it was a “threat” to the internet – and revealed he had called Barack Obama personally to air his concerns.

Zuckerberg made his remarks a day after the The Intercept website reported that the NSA has been using automated systems to spread malware over the internet, sometimes using “fake” Facebook servers.

“The US government should be the champion for the internet, not a threat,” Zuckerberg said in a Facebook post on Thursday. “They need to be much more transparent about what they’re doing, or otherwise people will believe the worst.”

In the post, Zuckerberg said he had called Obama to express his “frustration over the damage the government is creating for all of our future” and said he was confused by the government’s actions.

“The internet works because most people and companies do the same. We work together to create this secure environment and make our shared space even better for the world,” he wrote.

He went on: “This is why I’ve been so confused and frustrated by the repeated reports of the behavior of the US government. When our engineers work tirelessly to improve security, we imagine we’re protecting you against criminals, not our own government.”

via Mark Zuckerberg: US government surveillance is a threat to the internet | Technology | theguardian.com.

From around the web.

From the web site, Setanta Solutions.

http://setantablog.wordpress.com/2014/03/05/russian-government-accused-of-making-malware/

German computer security and antivirus detection company G Data Security has alleged that the Russian goverment has created, or has contributed to the creation of the newly detected malware known as “Uroburos”.

G Data bases its allegations on the Russian governement in the complexity of the malware and the presence of Cyrillic words in the malware sample. File names, encryption keys, and the behaviour of Uroburos are also being used to support G Data’s claim.

Another key piece of “evidence” according to G Data blogger “MN”, is that Uroburos functions by looking for a piece of malware that has been tied to Russia (although not its government conclusively).

The Flight of the Morpheus

On By southwerkIn Editorial

The Flight of the Morpheus

Morpheus is a lander similar in a way to the lunar lander that took Neil Armstrong to the surface of the moon. Watch the film. It’s pretty.

James Pilant

Morpheus test bed: NASA lander completes another test flight.

Over the weekend I wrote about Morpheus, a very cool vertical takeoff and lander being used to test advanced navigation for potential landings on asteroids and moons. On March 11, 2014, Morpheus made another short test flight that’s every centimeter as amazing as the first one:

via Morpheus test bed: NASA lander completes another test flight..

From around the web.

From the web site, Ibrahim El Merehbi.

http://elmerehbi.wordpress.com/2014/03/09/morpheus-and-loon-projects/

Morpheus is a vertical test bed vehicle demonstrating new green propellant propulsion systems and autonomous landing and hazard detection technology. Designed, developed, manufactured and operated in-house by engineers at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, the Morpheus Project represents not only a vehicle to advance technologies, but also an opportunity to try out “lean development” engineering practices.

Boomers are Doomed. I know.

On By southwerkIn Economic Justice

004dBoomers are Doomed. I know.

Just face it. The nation would probably be better off if the Baby Boomers had stayed in the womb. And yes, I am one of them. We took a nation with a thriving middle class and made it into the current economic nightmare. They should make all of us put an asterisk on our tombstones and a little note at the bottom – Part of a Generation that looked after the individual and forgot humanity.

I look to my students and tell them they are the great hope of this nation. I tell them they bear the responsibility of fixing the failures of my generation.

I’m trying to build a future for this country, one student at a time.

And let me tell you another thing – if there was ever an entitlement generation, it was mine not this one. We went to college when it was virtually free and absorbed a host of government benefits virtually all of which we deny this generation. And if this clearly hypocritical and nation damaging behavior wasn’t enough, we shower disdain and contempt on our young people.

We were always looking to find ourselves, the latest self help books, cultish belief systems, fashionable get rich quick schemes, self interest politics and a fascination with style over substance.

I’ll write about this more later. I’ve too much anger for one post and I want to think about it some more. There are a number of things that were admirable about my generation and it would not be fair to ignore those.

James Pilant

Baby Boomers retirement: Why Boomers are doomed.

“No one wants to talk about just how unprepared the Baby Boomer generation is for the years when they will no longer be able to work,” Oppenheimer’s John Stoltzfus told Business Insider in a recent interview.

Now he’s laying out reasoning. Here’s Stoltzfus’ 11 reasons to be concerned about this aging demographic:

  1. The wholesale demise or dismantling of traditional defined benefit pension programs by corporations looking to cut expenses and liabilities that has occurred in the past 10 to 15 years.
  2. The widespread underuse of 401(k) plans (defined contribution plans) by eligible plan participants as well as those who qualify for but don’t enroll in 401(k) plans at all. We’d note that 401(k) plans often replace traditional pension plans when an employer closes the defined benefit plan but still wants to offer employees a retirement savings plan in the employment benefit menu.
  3. Potential for increasingly later age requirements ahead to get full Social Security benefits as Washington lawmakers work to preserve the program for Boomers and generations that follow.
  4. Reduced cost of living increases likely ahead for those receiving benefits in a pro-austerity environment.
  5. A pronounced and general ignorance by the general public of the importance of asset allocation and long-term planning in allocating money within 401(k) plans.
  6. The tendency for 401(k) participants to select low yielding nonfluctuating choices on 401(k) menus as a result of the tech bubble, the financial crisis of 2008, other past bubbles, along with prominent news items that accentuate the negatives of investing vs. the positives in a landscape of job insecurity.
  7. General lack of discipline and commitment to a personal investment program by many individuals either as a result of job insecurity or personal choice.
  8. Emphasis by too many individuals on DIY programs that focus mostly on fee containment and present the individual with programs heavy on brochures or website generalities and little access to the 1:1 or team capabilities available from experienced market and retirement professionals.
  9. Taking early distributions from 401(k) plans to meet nonemergency needs.
  10. Taking early distributions from 401(k) plans as the result of personal emergencies tied to job loss, health, and other unavoidable issues.
  11. Low interest rates in traditional savings vehicles and in much of fixed income product over the past five years that has compounded the likely problem ahead instead of compounding the money placed in them.

via Baby Boomers retirement: Why Boomers are doomed..

From around the web.

From the web site, Larry Gross Online.

http://larry5154.wordpress.com/2014/03/10/a-baby-boomer-thinking-about-his-kids-and-the-younger-generation/

’m a baby boomer and while I used to associate those two words with being young, I no longer can fool myself. Being a baby boomer now means I’m older.

Being older also means not understanding young people—at least not all the time. I think this is why I found this article on The Huffington Post sort of interesting. It gives five reasons why we, the boomers, don’t understand young people. Of course, there are more than five reasons but it’s a start.

You can click here to read the article, then, when you come back, I’ve got some comments on three of the five reasons why us boomers don’t understand young people. I’ll wait for you.

Merkel Effect!!

On By southwerkIn Editorial1 Comment

CapitolBuilding_000Merkel Effect!!

The Merkel effect is when you are an elected official and the fact that intelligence agencies have probed into every aspect of the citizens’ lives doesn’t so much as raise a frown but when that same politician discovers she has been surveiled, the outrage rises to the boiling point.

Well. our pseudo-defenders and NSA enablers are having a hissy fit today.

Make no mistake. This is a form of justice. What kind of fool thinks that empowering the intelligence agencies to do every kind of evil and stupidity wouldn’t wind up back on their doorstep? Spying on me doesn’t really get an intelligence agency much. But spy on a member of Congress and get something on them; well that’s a different deal. Think of J. Edgar Hoover and the days of really excellent FBI budgets. It is fun to have something on an occasional Congressman and even better if you get put them all under the microscope.

Let’s see if our outraged Congress will actually do anything. After all, the NSA, etc. have probably already got a lot on them.

James Pilant

Senators Okay With Spying On Citizens, But Outraged It Happened To Congress

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), a staunch defender of government surveillance of ordinary citizens, took to the Senate floor Tuesday with the stunning accusation that the Central Intelligence Agency may have violated federal law to spy on Congress.

Feinstein, head of the Senate Intelligence Committee, railed against the CIA for compromising the legislative branch’s oversight role — a theme echoed by many of her Senate colleagues throughout the day. The outrage was palpable among lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, and some suggested CIA Director John Brennan should resign if the allegations are true. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who has stuck up for intelligence agencies in the past, declared a potential war.

“This is Richard Nixon stuff,” Graham told reporters. “This is dangerous to the democracy. Heads should roll, people should go to jail if it’s true. If it is, the legislative branch should declare war on the CIA.”

When former contractor Edward Snowden revealed last year that the National Security Agency was secretly collecting phone and electronic records from millions of ordinary Americans, the response in Congress was far more muted. Top senators insisted the surveillance was critical to U.S. counterterrorism activities.

“It’s called protecting America,” Feinstein said then. Graham said he was glad Verizon was turning over customer records to the government to ensure that his phone was not linked to any terrorist activity.

It was not until reports that the NSA had spied on foreign leaders and allies, such as German Chancellor Angela Merkel, that Feinstein offered criticism of the agency’s surveillance.

Snowden said Tuesday it was hypocritical for some lawmakers to finally express anger when the privacy of elected officials was breached.

“It’s clear the CIA was trying to play ‘keep away’ with documents relevant to an investigation by their overseers in Congress, and that’s a serious constitutional concern,” Snowden said in a statement to NBC News. “But it’s equally if not more concerning that we’re seeing another ‘Merkel Effect,’ where an elected official does not care at all that the rights of millions of ordinary citizens are violated by our spies, but suddenly it’s a scandal when a politician finds out the same thing happens to them.”

via Senators Okay With Spying On Citizens, But Outraged It Happened To Congress.

From around the web.

From the web site, Unredacted.

http://nsarchive.wordpress.com/2014/01/17/the-top-10-surveillance-lies-edward-snowdens-leaks-shed-heat-and-light-on/

“What I can say unequivocally is that if you are a U.S. person, the NSA cannot listen to your telephone calls and the NSA cannot target your e-mails.” President Obama, June 16, 2013, on the Charlie Rose Show

During the same June 16, 2013, interview with Charlie Rose, President Obama said the NSA is not allowed to target U.S. citizens, though Greg Miller reported in his June 30, 2013, Washington Post article, “Misinformation on Classified NSA Programs Includes Statements by Senior U.S. Officials,” that “the NSA has significant latitude to collect and keep the contents of e-mails and other communications of U.S. citizens that are swept up as part of the agency’s court-approved monitoring of a target overseas.” This information is stored, for up to five years, and can be accessed as soon as the FBI gets a National Security Letter, for which there are still no requirements to seek approval or judicial review when sending.