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There was one interesting discussion about "Is there a gold bubble?" I say "No. There is no gold bubble. It's merely high inflation and hyperinflation."
If you invest in physical gold and silver, your inflation-adjusted return should be 0% minus transaction costs and storage costs. The bad news is that's the best investment available. In the stock market, you get ripped off by crooked CEOs. In the bond market, you get ripped off by inflation. With real estate, you get ripped off by property taxes. Gold and silver literally are the best investment.
FSK is a retard commented on
node.js Is VB6 - Does node.js Suck?.
Wow, Maybe you are just a retard that can't understand anything not written for retards.
Anyone who thinks PHP is a good language is clearly a retard since PHP was created by amateurs who built up a disjoint language full off illogically put together features, bugs and security flaws.
The fact you can't understand Ruby and Javascript, two simple and easy to test and maintain languages says it all.
Actually, saying you can't deal with calbacks shows you are single digit IQ retarded.
You are not intelligent, you are like Michelle Bachmann or Rick Perry, too stupid to know they are stupid.
If you're a typical person who likes node.js, then it's obvious that everyone who uses node.js is a twit.
Tincup commented on
Facebook IPO - Pump And Dump.
Good article. But I wanted to add a couple points. Might gold also be yet another pump and dump scheme? I don't think gold is a useful substance. I want to call your attention to a guy named Mike Stathis at AVA Analytics. Read a few of his articles with an open mind and then re-consider your stance on gold. In short, he believes the dollar is tied to oil and commodities given the USD is the currency used worldwide or these trades. Oil and commodities have use as opposed to gold. Mike thinks gold is just another pump and dump ponzi scheme.
Dismantling-John-Williams-Hyperinflation-Predictions.html
I also encourage you to read Mikes thoughts on the Face Book pump and dump. He is a very informed finance expert and makes very interesting arguments. He goes so far as to say the whole social media sector is in a bubble and is in and of itself a pump and dump. There are five parts to his articles. I will just post the link to the section of his firm's website that contains these articles. Take care and good post.
http://www.avaresearch.com/avanew/articles/938/Wall-Street-The-Media-The-Cia-And-Facebook-Confluence-Of-Fraud-Deceit-And-Espionage-In-The-Decay-Of-Society-Part-1.html
Oh boy! Not this subject again!
I strongly disagree with "There's a gold bubble." Actually, that's the true inflation rate, 20%-30% per year.
Here's a good link. If you look at "gold divided by national debt", there is definitely *NOT* a gold bubble.
I believe that gold/silver/platinum will outperform almost all other investments over the next 10+ years. If you look back 10 years, gold has *CRUSHED* the stock market by nearly 1% per month. Even if you overpay by 20% for gold, you still should outperform over 10+ years.
With stocks you get earnings and (maybe) a dividend. However, there's all the fraud/waste/corruption associated with a large corporation. With stock, the CEO gives himself huge share grants, diluting your ownership. Unfortunately, the fraude/waste/corruption is greater than the value of the earnings, making the stock market a losing proposition. The only people who really benefit from owning a public corporation are the CEO and other insiders.
The is more misinformation for gold and real money than almost every other subject. I'm offended when State shills like Warren Buffet trash gold and hype the stock market.
Tincup commented on Facebook IPO - Pump And Dump.
Thanks for your reply. I enjoyed your discussion of Facebook, which is why I am confused that you don't find the same type of mechanism being used to pump up the sheep to buy more gold. I am not going to claim I am an expert financial advisor and know for certain gold is merely a bubble, but I will make a few points some of which are philosophical and some which are grounded in the status quo realm of thought or "reality". But I do urge you to at least read the article by Mike Stathis (link below) which deals in the realm of "reality". You can find part 1 and part 3 of the article if you search his site. I must say, I have read articles from many financial "experts", but I am really impressed with what I have read from this guy thus far.
http://avaresearch.com/avanew/articles/293/Fools-Gold-Part-2.html
First, let me establish a small piece of credibility. I have worked for Fortune 500 companies for over a decade in finance (not the finance industry) and I have firsthand knowledge of the crap that goes on within companies to ensure executives get their nice bonus and stock options. I should know, I enjoyed those perks too. But now I am unemployed and have been so for quite some time. I look upon the whole financial and economic system in its current corrupt form as nothing more than a grand Ponzi scheme. For the record, I began to observe this when I was fully employed so it isn't bitter feelings that have motivated my point of view, but bitter feelings are coming out in the form of blogging about what I believe in regards to the economic Ponzi scheme. Some of my rants are aimed at the status quo, and some of my points of view fly off to space in the realm of philosophy.
Now, I assume you read Mike Stathis's article above. He deals with reality, but I am going to go off on a philosophical path to make an argument against gold. Gold may have made some sense from an investment perspective when it was tied to currency. There is a limited amount of gold therefore if paper money is tied to this scarce item the idea of value could be constructed by simple supply and demand dynamics. This paper money tied to gold is useful in that one can buy necessities and nice things to have via transactions. But, as soon as man developed the idea that he could simply print more money regardless of the amount of gold on hand this concept was violated and thus man invented inflation and learned of its devastating impacts. And eventually, man simply abandoned the linking currency to gold all together. Therefore, gold is simply valued for being a precious medal.
But from a philosophical level, what good is gold? What can it be used for? In of itself it can be molded and transformed into nice aesthetic things like chains, bracelets, and other forms of jewelry. It is nice to look at like as are other precious metals and stones, but what use does it really have? Can one drink or eat gold? No. And if we enter a crisis like many of the gold dealers push as a reason to buy gold, what do you think will be in demand? Well, the same things that the U.S. dollar is currently tied to and traded with in the world-wide market -- oil and food commodities. You would be better off stocking up on oil, gas, water and food than you would gold.
Now back to reality. Have you seen all those television ads promoting gold? You made fun of media ads pumping up Facebook (and I agree with you), but you must admit that gold ads are just as bad. When I watch those ads I tell myself the last thing I would do is buy gold. And, if you read Mike's article you will realize that saying gold has quadrupled in value would be misleading as inflation isn't part of the equation.
I have put Mike on a pedestal and I am willing to listen to your arguments. I haven't clicked on that link you provided but I am going to do so now.
OK, I read that link. I was not impressed. I've read a lot of blogs. I'm very good at judging an article just by a brief glance.
He's made a common pro-State troll fallacy, regarding gold. "All gold investors are idiots! 1980! HAHAHA!!" I've heard that lie so many times it's disgusting.
There are serious differences between now and 1980. In 1980, the Federal Reserve was serious about fighting inflation, jacking up interest rates. Now, the Federal Reserve is keeping interest rates at 0%, inflating like gangbusters and bailing out the banksters.
In 1980, the world's central banks owned most of the gold. After the spike in 1980, they adopted a policy of gradually selling gold to suppress the price. Anytime the price of gold rises, a central bank sells a huge chunk of gold. They have much less gold reserves now, making it harder to manipulate the price.
In 1980, a CEO was somewhat serious about making returns for shareholders. Now, CEOs grab as much as they can via option grants and share grants. That's why gold is much better than stock.
He also said "If you time the market right, you can outperform a buy-and-hold investment!" That's a lie. If you believe that, go ahead an gamble your savings away to banksters. "You can time the market!" makes as much sense as "If you make the right bets, you can win at roulette." A buy-and-hold index fund investment is a ripoff, losing to inflation. The best gold investment is taking physical delivery and hiding it someplace safe.
Groups like GATA claim there's a conspiracy to keep the price of gold down. Zerohedge also has some good bits. They point out when futures exchanges raise/lower margin requirements, manipulating the price. (On zerohedge, not all articles are written by the same person. There's some great stuff and a lot of nonsense.)
I once performed a "historic volatility" calculation for gold. I expected that gold would have nearly the same actual volatility as silver. Gold had much lower actual historic volatility then silver. That is evidence that gold is manipulated. Bubbles tend to have high volatility, not low volatility.
As the MF Global disaster indicated, the paper futures market can't be trusted. If you trade futures, you're risking that you'll get Corzined out of your investment. The real price of gold and silver may be higher than the "official" paper price.
Sometime in the next 5-15 years, there will be a default on one of the big PM funds (GLD, SLV, or another). That will cause a spike, when people switch from paper to physical. The conspiracy theory is that GLD and SLV are one big con. People are tricked into buying paper gold instead of physical. If you read the fine print of the GLD prospectus, they may lend out their gold to short sellers.
If you buy physical, your inflation-adjusted return should be 0% minus transaction costs and storage costs. Unfortunately, that's the best investment out there. In the stock market, you get robbed by crooked CEOs. In the bond market, you get robbed by inflation. With real estate, you get robbed by property taxes; via property taxes, you don't actually own real estate. Physical gold/silver/platinum is the *ONLY* investment where you get full allodial title.
The gold/silver ratio is around 50, close to the 20 year average. That is evidence for "no gold bubble".
Platinum used to be around 20% more than gold (per ounce). Now, gold is slightly higher than platinum. By that reasoning, gold is at most 20% overpriced. Even if you overpay 20% for gold, gold has been outperforming the stock market by nearly 1% per month! Even if you overpay by 20%, you'll be even with other investments in 2 years.
Also, if you look at a 10 year chart of gold/silver/copper/platinum, they track each other pretty closely.
There's another trick, to minimize your risk of exposure to bubbles. Dollar-cost-average. Buy an equal amount of gold every few months, rather than one big purchase all at once. That minimizes the risk that you will buy at a local maximum.
Even though gold is the best long-term investment, it certainly is possible that gold could go down 20% or even 50%. I would view that as an opportunity to buy more at a discount, rather than proof that all gold investors are idiots.
As another argument, if you look at prices 100+ years ago, quoted in gold, they are mostly unchanged. For example, a model T car cost about 20 ounces of gold. You can get a new car for less than 20 ounces of gold now. Gold preserves its purchasing power over time. For all good where there's a reliable 100+ year old price, gold has preserved its purchasing power.
The ads for Goldline *ARE* a ripoff. Most gold dealers that advertise on TV *REALLY ARE* con artists. They are selling "collectable"/numismatic coins, at high premiums to spot metal. That doesn't automatically mean that all gold dealers are con artists. There are respectable dealers like APMEX and Kitco. You should never pay more than a couple percent premium to spot, for gold and silver.
Here is another example, reconstructed M3. Reconstructed M3 is increasing by 20%-30% per year, which is very close to the rate of gain for gold. Also, "reconstructed M3" probably understates true inflation.
Gold isn't a bubble. Gold/FRNs is going up by 20%-30% per year, BECAUSE INFLATION REALLY IS 20%-30% PER YEAR. It isn't a gold bubble. It's dollar hyperinflation.
I don't understand why you're so eager to convince me. I'm pretty sure that gold is not in a bubble. Gold is an accurate measure of inflation. True inflation really is 20%-30%+ per year. In fact, I'm more likely to believe "Banksters conspire to keep the price of gold down!" than "Gold is in a bubble!"
Tincup commented on Facebook IPO - Pump And Dump.
Thanks for the thoughtful reply FSK. I liked your comment about CEO's in the 80's. My dad rose from dockworker to CEO for a Fortune 500 trucking company. He cared about the company, the people that worked there, and was a relatively good man compared to what you see today. And there are many stories he told us at dinner that taught me more about business than any educational program could ever accomplish.
I am not trying to convince you that gold is a bad investment. I am just exploring different points of view. But you did mention that if you had 20 ounces of gold one-hundred years ago you could buy a Model-T Ford and with 20 ounces of gold today you could buy a new car. This example shows that gold is safe maintains its purchasing power, but it really doesn't build wealth as an investment. You could buy a car with it 100 years ago and you can still buy a car with it today. So, if you are looking for a safe investment simply to maintain purchasing value perhaps that is a good argument. But, I wouldn't look to gold for big gains. Gold would be nice to have if market and economy collapses and perhaps nice to have if you are rich and want to diversify your portfolio.
I did say that, the expected return of a gold investment is 0% minus costs. The bad news is that's the best investment out there. Due to rampant corruption, a buy-and-hold physical gold/silver/platinum investment really is the best option.
I recently worked at a large financial institution, as a consultant. My coworkers thought I was really effective and really knew my stuff. I realized "Even if I work here for 20 years, I have zero chance of getting promoted to vice president, even though I clearly know my stuff very well." That was disappointing. My contract ended and I no longer work there.
There definitely are fewer opportunities now compared to 20 years ago. I'm not in the "management career track", even though I'm a really good computer programmer. I'm way overqualified for a grunt programmer position, but I don't have the experience to get anything better.
Rose commented on
Whitney Houston Drug Coverup.
I have arthritis, and I was put on so many prescription drugs by various doctors that I believe it was bad for my health and maybe even dangerous. I carried the full list around with me to each doctor I saw and expressed concern at the number of drugs and the lack of results. Rather than searching for the real cause of my problems, most doctors just added more drugs to the list. I had to figure out for myself which ones were necessary and which ones were not. No sick person should have to sort through dozens of presciptions and try to figure out which ones are needed! I am down to a half dozen prescriptions now, and finally have a correct diagnosis. Things could have gone way differently for me if I had trusted the over-prescribing doctors. I had to visit a dozen or more specialists to get proper treatment! For profit medicine is just plain wrong, everyone who made a buck off me being misdiagnosed and over medicated is in the wrong, medicine is supposed to help people, not hurt them to make a fast buck. Poor Whitney, I have no doubt her doctors are at least partially to blame for her early demise. Yet the doctors will retire in luxury!
For-profit medicine is not inherently evil. It's only evil when combined with the State. The State restricts the supply of doctors. The State restricts permissible treatments, promoting drugs at the expense of other things. The State regulates insurance.
That's a common fallacy. "Free-market X is evil!", while the evil in X occurs in collusion with the State.
I agree that patients should push-back and refuse drugs that aren't helping.
It took me more than 10 psychiatrists and several hospitalizations, before I found one who tried Seroquel. It's much better than the other drugs that were forced on me. If I hadn't refused the other drugs, I never would have had the opportunity to try Seroquel.
Anonymous Coward commented on
I Didn't Get Paid For My Sick Day!.
A stable job with an acceptable salary is worth more than an unstable job with a higher salary. Or a job with a manager that drives you mad. Or back-stabbing co-workers. Or idiot co-workers that destroy every software project they touch.
BUT...
I've had jobs where at the absolute minimum I've worked 50 hour weeks. Quite often working 55 - 65 hour weeks.
Unlike in the USA, back in the days when I was a recent graduate, starting salaries for computers programmers could often be quite low - in fact very low.
I started programming for a hobby in my teens. I did a very large programming project at university. So when I left university I actually had a lot of programming experience and even published software titles.
However companies discarded all the experience I got working for myself as they only consider working in company jobs! A lot of employers said they only take on people with 2 - 5 years experience.
So the only job I could get in a reasonable amount of time was a job paying a low salary. And for a company that boasted they had as customers a huge percentage of investment banks around the world. They had even won Export Awards. Within a few months my manager realized I was actually good at my job and my working week suddenly became a 60 - 65 hour working week. But my salary stayed crap.
I was a fool. I left to get another job. They said there would be a company pension but they lied. At the time that rankled. They delayed putting my salary up and so I left for yet another job. That was stupid. The company actually got the equivalent of several million dollars as an advance for the work I was doing a huge percentage of. It is stupid when an employee leaves a wealthy company just because the directors are too stupid to pay at least proportional to the hours work. At my second job, I worked at least 10 hours a week more than all the other people I shared an office with. But I actually got paid the least amount of money. Because I was doing an important project, the director in charge of me made it difficult for me to get any vacation time off at all. The guy that sat next to me actually took off more than his allowance of vacations.
It was really horrible working long, long hours and getting paid crap. So I know what you mean.
Later on in life, a couple of companies straight out cheated me out of thousands of pounds and dollars (I've worked in different countries).
But do make a properly informed and thought out decision. You may jump ship but your new job will just be lousy in different ways.
Don't expect to get everything from work. Get what you want in your evenings and at weekends.
It doesn't hurt to shop around. My current job is nothing special. I'm underpaid by 30%-50%.
For a direct comparison, my current job is much worse than my previous job. It's worse in terms of salary, interactions with coworkers, and overall work conditions. This definitely was a step backwards and not forwards, career-wise.
The vibe I get from my bosses is not "Wow! Mark really knows his stuff! We're glad to have him around!" It's pretty clear they don't respect me.
Anonymous Coward commented on I Didn't Get Paid For My Sick Day!.
In previous jobs, I've done more work than several co-workers put together. Yet, due to the stupidity of managers only paying similar to your last job, I actually got paid less.
A summary of my last moan here, is that my previous managers realized I was good at my job and gave me big, important projects that occupied sometimes 60 - 65 hours a week of my time. Yet, when it came to salary they were incredibly slow to fix things. In one instance I was doing a project that the credit card processing quality engineers (they were part of another, rather large, famous company) said usually a whole team would implement. They further added they were acquainted with the fact that single software developers do occasionally write whole systems and when they do the resultant solutions can be very high quality pieces of work.
So it was very stupid I left that job just because the directors got paid millions but were too stupid to pass anything of that on to me. I was living in an expensive city and was barely making living expenses.
Actually my work was very respect in my first two jobs. My work was also respected in my third job, although I got fired from that with about 40% of the work-force and the stupid employees were left behind. In political, nasty or stupid companies, good workers aren't respected.
Anonymous Coward commented on I Didn't Get Paid For My Sick Day!.
In my first job, I was contractual promised a pay rise after _x_ months of working there. I was told I was going to get a large pay rise as I was underpaid. Months rolled by and nothing happened. I was told my pay rise would be back-dated. Eventually I got a pay-rise but it was just a token amount. They even messed up back-dating it. I thought why should I bother working weekends and getting my software correct, when the idiots I was working for couldn't even bother to get back-dated salary properly worked out. I thought of all the weekends I had worked for "free" and they idiots were short-changing me.
Sometimes, more nasty political backstabbing occurs in a 10 person company, than in a large corporation.
For example, the other programmer was the sole programmer for a long time. Now that I'm there, he has less job security. He's less indispensable. That leads to tension. He isn't thinking "Wow! FSK is helping me and reducing my workload!" He's thinking "Uh oh! FSK really knows his stuff. I don't have any leverage with my boss anymore."
Ironically, the huge financial institution was the least dysfunctional place I worked at, in the past few years. I didn't notice any political backstabbing (although my contract did end). (I did suspect that some of my coworkers were sabotaging their software on purpose, so they could steal and launder money. I didn't say anything.)
Anonymous Coward commented on I Didn't Get Paid For My Sick Day!.
Couldn't you form an informal union with your co-worker i.e. if even one of you gets fired, the other one promises to resign or object?
When I was working in a small company, one co-worker deliberately didn't tell me things he did know. A few months rolled by and I heard him talking about the things, he told me earlier he didn't know about.
He then angled to be made a team leader and bizarrely his team only consisted of me. The directors knew this guy was lazy and not a software developer and they promoted him just to keep him happy (or shut him up). For the project, I was doing 99% of the work. The work he was doing was basically already done and he just needed to configure it. He actually couldn't write software at all. All he knew was mindlessly hacking lines of code and he couldn't even do that properly as he didn't understand C functions in any detail and wouldn't look anything up.
The directors were often overseas. So I had a team leader than wouldn't actually fight my corner and actually see whether I got my proper allowance of contractual vacation days and try to push for a pay rise to compensate me for all the hard work I was doing.
It was a recipe for disaster and I left. It was absurd I was working 10 - 15 hours a week more than anyone else in the office, but was paid the least.
I can't say enough how stupid this was as the company got millions of dollars as an advance for the work I doing. I was getting less than 1% (after tax) of the cash pile they were given. And then they would get even more when it was sold to their other clients! Very stupid.
If these people actually implemented my pay rise on time and allowed me vacation time when I wanted and actually gave me time-off if I had to work at the weekend (as they promised!), then I wouldn't have left. And pay should be proportional to the hours you work. It ain't rocket science.
Anonymous Coward commented on I Didn't Get Paid For My Sick Day!.
>The vibe I get from my bosses is not “Wow! FSK really knows his stuff! We’re glad to
>have him around!” It’s pretty clear they don’t respect me.
You misunderstand your position. It is not enough the directors get all the profit from the company, they have to be seen as the clever ones as well.
The manager is the clever one that does the brilliant design and architecture. The software developer is the stupid pleb.
Only you know that you do clever stuff. Maybe the manager knows as well, but he isn't going to say it out loud.
Anonymous Coward commented on I Didn't Get Paid For My Sick Day!.
>The vibe I get from my bosses is not “Wow! FSK really knows his stuff! We’re glad to
>have him around!” It’s pretty clear they don’t respect me.
It took the Black Death in England before the medieval peasants got respect from the landowners and Lords.
Less competition for work meant the peasants could start negotiating for better conditions.
That is why your clown managers farm out work to other countries and why they have the non-immigrant work visas.
Why should we pay FSK a decent wage when we can get someone else for half the money?
Anonymous Coward commented on I Didn't Get Paid For My Sick Day!.
Seriously, don't jump to another job until you have found a good job. Hint: Lousy companies have the highest turnover and so do the most hiring. Statistically that means the hiring companies are the worst companies and by chance the scumball companies will suck you up first.
I have had low paid jobs in the past, hated being taken advantage of and moved to new jobs too quickly and so the pattern repeated again.
Bide your time and only change job when you have done your research and found the best job you can get.
Are all of these comments by the same Anonymous Coward? I'm not sure, because this UK AC's ISP gives him a non-static IP address.
My strategy is "look for a new job while holding on to my current one". I'm going to be more picky this time.
That is an amusing selection bias. The worst employers are always hiring. Also, the same unemployable twits are always looking for a job. (Some people will say I'm an unemployable twit. I say that I have a hard time working for evil scum, which unfortunately covers most employers.)
I shouldn't have let them lowball me on salary. They offered me just enough that I would have lost my unemployment benefit, if I rejected it. Also, it was the end of November. I probably would have been stuck until January/February if I turned it down.
Most job ads are for at least 50% more than my current salary. I'm making 20% less than my last job, where I was for 2 years without an increase. I definitely got lowballed.
I am getting .NET experience, which is nice. However, it was easy to learn. I don't understand why people demand specific language experience. They aren't demanding 50 hour workweeks, which is nice. However, I can hold out for another job with reasonable hours.
The two main owners are barely computer literate. They can't tell that I'm doing well. I'm getting hostility from the other programmer, who was the sole programmer for a long time. He's concerned that he's dispensable, now that I'm there.
Regarding "forming a union", the other programmer is much more interested in CYA and holding onto his turf, than making a stand. There is no way he would get a lead programmer job anywhere other than here. From my point of view, there are plenty of other employers willing to disrespect me for a below-market salary.
That is a problem. The other programmer isn't going to say "Wow! FSK is awesome! He's a great bargain!" He's going to try to make me look inferior, so he protects his turf.
For another example, I've been there 4 months, and they haven't given me the production server password. That's an insult. With only 2 programmers, I should be the backup for production support. The other programmer doesn't want me to have the production server password, because then he's replaceable.
The bottom line is that I'll do my best while I'm there. I'm looking for a new job. I'm placing myself back on the market. I'm going to be more picky this time.
The last two times I was unemployed, I was only out of work for 2 months, so I shouldn't be too concerned.
Justin commented on
Reader Mail - 02/12/2012 To 02/18/2012.
Hey fsk I saw you are using open office. You should give lotus symphony from ibm a shot, its a free swt app, but it just seems snappier to me.
Really? I've used Lotus Notes as my work E-Mail client at two jobs. Lotus Notes is the only E-Mail client *WORSE* than Outlook.
I just spent some time figuring out how to get Open Office to do what I want. I'm not in the mood to try that again.
f commented on Reader Mail - 02/12/2012 To 02/18/2012.
I feel like there has been a definite, deliberate push against the internet recently.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204792404577229074023195322.html
>On Feb. 27, a diplomatic process will begin in Geneva that could result in a new treaty giving the United Nations unprecedented powers over the Internet. Dozens of countries, including Russia and China, are pushing hard to reach this goal by year's end. As Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said last June, his goal and that of his allies is to establish "international control over the Internet" through the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), a treaty-based organization under U.N. auspices.
>[author] Mr. McDowell is a commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission.
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-02/20/anti-terror-plans
etc
Are you referring to ACTA?
The "official reason" is copyright infringement and "child pornography".
The real reason is to crack down on freedom of political speech.
China has a pretty harsh Internet censorship system. The "country-level Internet censorship software" is mostly written by US companies!
Politicians in the USA wish they could censor the Internet like in China. A hardcore prosecutor could say that my blog "advocates criminal activity", by advocating for agorism, boycotting the Federal Reserve and IRS. If I'm put in jail, that requires a due process farce. It'd be much simpler if prosecutors could seize my website without trial.
Once you have the ability to censor websites for "copyright infringement", it's very easy to extend the censorship to other things. A judge will say "We already have the ability to ban websites for copyright infringement. We can use that same process to block FSK, because we don't like him."
Another trend is "Websites are responsible for the content of users." YouTube, FaceBook, and Twitter would be allowed, but it'd become illegal to make a new website that competes with them. It might become illegal to make a new website that allows user-generated content.
Another trend is "Real names required!" FaceBook and Google+ require real names. I sometimes work as a financial programmer. It'd be risky for me to criticize the financial industry while blogging under my real name.
commented on
Jeremy Lin Fnord.
Here's a good question for you. Have you checked out any of the Satanic Hollywood, Evil Movie Industry, etc. (there are a bunch of them under different titles, presumably from different YouTubers)? I was watching some the other day and it was scary as hell! But is any of it true? What do you think about this, and also, to make the question more general, what is your take on the conspiracy theories that everything is run by an ancient psychopathic/Satanic religion?
I haven't watch any of those specifically. Do you have a good link?
I have a more mundane explanation for the same outcome. Evil people will spontaneously cooperate and trade favors. I call then "pyschopaths". Almost every State leader has the same personality type as Bernard Madoff. This applies to politicians, CEOs, high-ranking bureaucrats, and other State leaders.
There are some honest-but-easily-manipulated people among the leaders. They are manipulated by the psychopaths to implement their agenda.
Here is my alternate explanation, to "evil Satanic cult". A bunch of evil leaders cooperating has the *EXACT SAME OUTCOME* as a massive coordinated evil conspiracy.
Bob Sala commented on
Andrew Napolitano's "Freedom Watch" Cancelled.
I would disagree that Judge Napolitano stayed close to the limit of the debate ceiling. I was a regular viewer of Freedom Watch and one of the main draws of the show for me was just how much he seemed to me to raise the debate ceiling. Topics such as ending the Federal Reserve, opposing war in the middle east, and the general anti-big government sentiment expressed on the show was something that was not seen anywhere else on television. Sure, you could argue that he should have gone further, but compared to everything else on television, he was head and shoulders above everyone else when it came to raising that ceiling.
If it is someday possible to say the full truth on TV, it will be a result of people like Ron Paul and Andrew Napolitano pushing the limits.
I'm definitely arguing that he should have gone further. On the other hand, if he did that, he would be fired and wouldn't get to push the limits at all.
I never watched him, because he wasn't that interesting. He was on The Daily Show a couple of times, and didn't impress me.
Steve commented on Andrew Napolitano's "Freedom Watch" Cancelled.
It is very saddening to see yet another voice for freedom and liberty and constitutional guarantees be silenced by the powers that are rapidly taking this country down a path to fascism. We will miss you Judge. I hope you will find another venue to continue to tell the sheeple what is really happening to their country.
Anonymous Coward commented on
Catholic Contraceptive Fnord.
Herein lies the truth.
commented on
Larken Rose Still Thinks Like A Statist.
Have you considered putting up a PayPal donation button so you can try to make a living off of writing? Not saying that it would work, but it might be worth a try.
I considered it, and decided it wasn't worth it (yet).
I have approximately 200 regular readers. If they each gave me $5, that's only $1000.
If I put ads back on the site, I may offer an option for people to donate to hide the ads. Of course, you could use adblock Firefox extensions.
If you pay me via PayPal, you're using the State financial system. I'd be obligated to report the income and pay tax on it. It would be evil for me to solicit donations, if a huge chunk of it wound up going to the State.
I considered asking for people to mail me silver rounds. Is that legal? I looked it up, and it wasn't clear. I'd much rather have someone give me silver rounds, than pay me via the State banking system. I'd be concerned that, if someone mailed me silver, the post office would scan the envelope, and either seize it or treat me as a criminal.
Also, I'm not sure about how PayPal works. Would I have to give out my real name, in order to accept donations?
I wanted to create a PayPal account so that I could buy some games and stuff. My parents said no. Technically, I'm an adult, but I'm forced to do what they say as long as I'm living with them.
Remember the #1 rule of PayPal. USE A SEPARATE ACCOUNT FOR IT, IN A BANK YOU DON'T USE FOR ANYTHING ELSE! This way, if PayPal freezes and seizes your account, you only lose your PayPal account, and not your entire savings. Only leave the minimum balance in your PayPal account.
The most likely way to profit from my blog, is using it to start some agorist businesses. That is risky. Some of my regular commenters may be undercover State spies! There's spying software that creates multiple online identities. If you're a full time propagandist, it's easy to troll many blogs and spread lies, and pretend to befriend bloggers.
commented on Larken Rose Still Thinks Like A Statist.
Yes, the state controls the internet. The state created the internet. The internet is a creation designed to keep tabs on a couple billion people. It also happens to be a powerful learning tool.
Who cares about state spies? The state spies on everyone who turns on a computer or picks up a telephone. The NSA is jacked into the telephone companies. Privacy in modern society is a myth, and they don't need human beings to do the spying - machines do that for them. (not saying that there are not plenty of pro-state trolls spread out across the internet - there obviously are, especially in the comment sections of articles about Dr. Ron Paul).
Machines have given the state the power to do pretty much whatever it wants. Personally I think the state has existed in various forms a very long time, at least thousands of years. What we're seeing is just another incarnation of Babylon The Great Mystery, in my opinion.
Not that there's anything overtly wrong with that - I appreciate some aspects of the state. I also appreciate the free market theory - I call it a theory because I'm not sure we've ever truly seen one.
For me, the concept is relatively simple. People should be given the freedom to do exactly as they please, as long as they're not hurting anyone else. That means all drugs would be legal and the prisons would be half emptied. I think all censorship laws should be removed permanently so that citizens are forced to think critically about their decisions instead of having them spoon-fed by their "betters".
And most importantly, I think that privacy should be restored to all citizens. Whatever your take on 9/11, it's safe to say that it was either an inside job or blowback, perhaps a bit of both. Either way, U.S. citizens are 100 percent innocent and should not be made to suffer from draconian collective punishment at the hands of a borderline-sociopathic power structure that revels in the death and destruction of hundreds of thousands of brown people in the middle east (racism never went away, obviously).
Yes, you probably have to use your real name to open a Pay Pay account, but I think only Pay Pal would see it, not your readers (but don't quote me on that). I appreciate your dedication concerning the silver. I admit that I wouldn't really care - silver, paper, whatever pays my rent. I'm not very idealistic when it comes to that stuff. If the S. hits the fan, what are we supposed to do, drag around wheelbarrels of yellow metal?
In my opinion, the only thing worthwhile these days is original, critical thought, because it is being actively obliterated by the state. They seem to prefer a bunch of mind washed drones to actual human beings. I think they are mistaken. Any society, utopian or otherwise, requires criticism.
Sociopaths need "regular" people to peacefully counterbalance their reckless behavior with peaceful political dissent. Without that, the sociopaths will eventually turn on each other and level the entire planet (which according to some historians has happened before).
Each time they convince themselves that they don't need us around. They build it up and knock it down, over and over again. What they fail to realize is that us "regular" folks have consciences that may help halt their cycle of destruction.
And, conversely, sometimes we need them around. Not everything they do is totally despicable.
I think our country would be better if Dr. Paul was president. Could he really change that much? Probably not. But it would at least show that we have taken a step in the right direction (for a change).
I don't need evil people to tell me what to do. I can figure it out on my own.
That is one of the problems. Under "normal" circumstances, evil people are restrained by the honest people around them. In the present, evil people have managed to pretty nearly completely remove themselves from any accountability.
Anonymous Coward commented on Larken Rose Still Thinks Like A Statist.
In your post you talk about not expecting much from lawyers and trials.
In previous posts you have spoken about representing yourself if you ever find yourself in court and not using a lawyer, because they will sell you down the river and the lawyer won't make the arguments that you want to make.
Interesting I saw film Woody Harrleson film called "Rampart" yesterday. In the film his character is talking to the District Attorney and he says that if she files charges against him, he will represent himself, not use a lawyer and use the court case to talk about his time in Vietnam and go through all the disorders he has. He said afterward he will get his own talk show and invite her on as his first guest.
My point is that he is using as a threat the fact that he will defend himself in open court and so may say some embarrassing things and drag the case out, therefore costing the county more money.
He also said that juries only consist of the mentally deficient and so he would be found guilty!
Even if you represent yourself, you may not be allowed to tell the truth. The prosecutor and judge can bar you from mentioning certain things. If you disobey, that's "contempt of court".
Judges and prosecutors do get uncomfortable, when a defendant is saying "WTF? This isn't fair!" for the whole trial. No matter how pro-State brainwashed you are, it's uncomfortable when an honest person questions your lies. If you use a lawyer, he'll be arguing legal technicalities, rather than "WTF? This is wrong!"
Trials are expensive. That does prevent prosecutors from going after everyone. They go after the big fish, and then claim to get everyone who disobeys.
If it's $20k in tax evasion, it isn't really worth an expensive trial, unless you're a high-profile activist.