August 24, 2009
What Is the Foundation Of Your Economic Beliefs?
By Bill Frezza

What is the moral foundation of your economic beliefs? Do economic beliefs even require a moral foundation?

Do you find it natural to accept the varied religious beliefs of others even if they contradict your own? On the other hand, are you often at odds with people who espouse different economic beliefs and policies? Why, especially if the former forms the foundation for the latter?

Would you ever use the ballot box to force others to practice your religion or make them pay to build you a church? Why do you find it easy to do this with your economic beliefs, compelling others to foot the bill for the public policies you promote?

Do you believe that wealth is prima facie evidence of thievery? Of privilege? Do you think wealth can only be created off the backs of the poor? Is there a fixed amount of wealth in the world for all to share? If so, where did it come from and how has mankind been getting richer for the past 200 years? And if the poor wish to escape exploitation by the rich, why do they keep sneaking in to our country rather than out?

Do you admire highly paid sports figures yet disdain highly compensated business executives? Why? Does it matter whether the shareholders in the companies that employ these executives feel they are getting their money's worth? And if you're not a shareholder, what makes this issue your concern?

Is poverty an absolute indicator of worthiness? Do you believe the poor bear any responsibility for changing their condition? If not, whose responsibility is it and why? Should the poor be held accountable if they don't make efforts to help themselves? Who should hold them accountable and how?

If a poor person becomes rich through hard work then resists handing his money over for the benefit of the poor, is he a traitor to his class? Should he be treated differently than someone who inherits great wealth? How about someone who wins the lottery? Why?

Does every poor person have a moral claim on every rich person regardless of how they got rich or poor? Where does this claim come from? Are claims limited to people living in the same country or do they extend to all humanity? Why? Is it the job of government to mediate these claims? If you believe highly progressive taxation and expansive government entitlements are necessary to reduce economic inequality, does it matter to you if the attendant incentives and disincentives reduce the total amount of wealth available to be shared? Is making all people equally poor an acceptable solution to inequality?

Are you careful not to judge people by the color of their skin yet sometimes quick to make judgments based on economic status? If so, do you make distinctions based solely on wealth or lack thereof or does it make a difference to you how an individual became rich or poor?

Would you steal money from your own children? Would you steal money from other people's children? What makes it socially acceptable to let Congress do this for you?

Do you contribute to charity? Would you gang up with your neighbors and force others to contribute to your charities? What makes it OK to hire Congress to do this for you?

Do you believe in a right to privacy? Should citizens accused of a crime be considered innocent until proven guilty, with the burden of proof falling on the prosecution? Do you believe the accused have a right to remain silent? How would you feel if the government compelled a vast network of informers to file reports on the behavior of citizens whether or not they've been accused of a crime? OK then, what is the moral principle that allows you to make exceptions to these beliefs when it comes to a person's income and investments?

When you see corruption between business and politicians, are you inclined to shrug and accept it as the nature of man? If corruption touches your own business are you impelled to speak out, do you tolerate it in silence while sticking to your principles, or do you seek your share of the spoils because everyone else is doing it?

Do you resent being asked to justify your economic beliefs or the moral foundation they rest on? Do your ends always justify your means? Do you feel entitled to having your beliefs respected solely because they are yours? Would you feel the same way about your mathematical beliefs?

Are you comfortable holding contradictory beliefs? When was the last time you questioned them? What do you do when you discover you hold two beliefs that contradict each other?

Are you happy to see the state to which we've fallen - pressure group pitted against pressure group, old against young, citizen against citizen all fighting to grab a share of the swelling portion of our national income funneled through the hands of Congress? What other outcome would you expect when moral foundations crumble?


Bill Frezza is a partner at Adams Capital Management, an early-stage venture capital firm. He can be reached at bill@vereverus.com. If you would like to subscribe to his weekly column, drop a note to publisher@vereverus.com.

I was hearing about that! That's great news.
Thanks for the links, keep up the great work!

Obama Administration: Home of the Whopper
By Bryan Riley
A recent Washington Post op-ed by Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius suggests a new motto for the Obama Administration: "Home of the Whopper." The Sebelius piece contains no fewer than 10 health care whoppers, including:

Whopper Number 1: Americans are too stupid to buy their own health insurance.

SEBELIUS: Americans are left to worry about whether they'll get laid off and lose their insurance or wake up from surgery with a $10,000 bill because they didn't read the fine print on their policy.


FACT: Most health care policies are fairly straightforward. My own Health Savings Account plan is so simple that even a congressman could understand it. I pay everything up to the deductible, and the insurance company pays everything after the deductible. According to the America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), the number of Americans covered by these plans has grown from 0 in 2004 to 8 million today.

Whopper Number 2: Americans can't get coverage for preexisting conditions.

SEBELIUS: The current health-care system gives insurance companies all the power. They get to pick and choose who gets a policy. They can deny coverage because of a preexisting condition.


FACT: That's not true for the 177 million Americans who have group health insurance, where it's illegal to deny coverage to someone who has a preexisting condition. It's true that someone who waits until after they're sick to apply for an individual policy can be denied coverage or charged a higher premium, but once they're approved their coverage can never be dropped or their premium increased due to a change in their health.

Whopper Number 3: Government health care will promote stronger doctor-patient relationships.

SEBELIUS: Imagine a system in which your doctor spends as much time trying to keep you healthy as treating you when you're sick, in which you and your doctor have all the information you need to choose the treatments that work best for you, in which you never have to fill out the same paperwork twice. Health reform is the first step in that direction.


FACT: This ABC news report on how Medicaid-financed dental care works for children demonstrates how government health care programs could work for the rest of us:

Little boy: "They said if you don't stop crying, um, that I couldn't see my mom again."

Little girl: "I was like crying for my mom and I was crying because they were hurting me".

Reporter: "And did anybody stop?"
Little girl, shaking head: "Hmm-mmm. I told them to stop but they wouldn't stop."

Mom: "He (her five-year-old son) comes walking out of that door, his whole shirt was full of sweat, he had blood dripping from his mouth, and all I could see was silver shining through."


Whopper Number 4: Young college grads have a tough time finding health insurance.

SEBELIUS: When my two sons graduated from college, I had mixed feelings. I was incredibly proud of their accomplishments, but I dreaded the fact that they would lose their health insurance when they left school.


FACT: If her sons lived in Kansas, they could have bought the same type of policy I have for $36 per month, less than most people spend on cable television. If they didn't qualify for that plan and didn't get a job that offered coverage, her family still could have afforded the guaranteed-issue insurance plan available to anyone in the state who has no other options.

Whopper Number 5: Americans shouldn't waste their time trying to understand the details of Obama's proposal.

SEBELIUS: [W]e can't let the details distract us from the huge benefits that reform will bring. Nor should we let ourselves be distracted by attacks that try to use the complexity of health reform to freeze Americans in inaction.


FACT: An insurance agent who advised his clients to ignore the fine print in a proposed policy could wind up in jail. Anyone who says "don't worry about the details, this is too complex for you to understand anyway," probably has something to hide.

Whopper Number 6: More government means more choices.

SEBELIUS: By giving Americans choices, health reform will switch the roles. Americans will get peace of mind and insurance companies will start getting nervous.


FACT: It is difficult to see how people will get peace of mind if they are forced to switch control of their health care from their current insurance plans, which 72 percent of Americans are satisfied with, to Congress, which 24 percent of Americans are satisfied with.

Whopper Number 7: The Obama plan will help entrepreneurs.

SEBELIUS: Right now, many entrepreneurs are paralyzed by our fractured car insurance system. They know that if they leave their job, they might not be able to get car insurance for their families.


FACT: I misquoted Sebelius by replacing the phrase "health insurance" with "car insurance." As long as someone can pay their premiums, they never have to worry about losing their car insurance just because they change jobs. But the federal government's tax and regulatory policies deny people the same flexibility when it comes to health insurance.

Whopper Number 8: The Obama plan will slow health-care costs without slashing benefits or reducing the quality of care.

SEBELIUS: By acting now, we have the chance to slow health-care costs in a way that doesn't slash benefits or reduce care.


FACT: Previous federal efforts to meddle in health care, including misguided tax policy and flawed Medicare reimbursement schemes, have resulted in skyrocketing insurance premiums. The best way to slow health-care costs is to give more power to consumers, and the Obama plan would do the opposite.

Whopper Number 9: Government health care will deliver incredible results at low prices.

SEBELIUS: Instead, we can make investments in prevention, wellness and health information technology that will allow the health-care system to deliver incredible results at prices we can all afford.


FACT: Because government programs under-pay doctors and hospitals for their services, those health care providers are forced to make up the difference by shifting costs to people who have insurance. According to Milliman, Inc., Medicare and Medicaid under-payments increase the cost of health insurance by $88 billion. Instead of fixing this problem, President Obama has proposed even more Medicare cuts.

Whopper Number 10: There is no alternative solution to the nation's health care problems.

SEBELIUS: We've learned over the past 20 years that "socialized medicine" and "government-run health care" are code words for "don't change anything." With some insurers raising premiums by more than 25 percent and 14,000 people losing their health insurance every day, Americans want to hear something more from their leaders than "wait and see" and "more of the same."


FACT: It is the Obama administration that has blocked change by rejecting simple, mainstream proposals to improve health care, for example by providing financial support to people who can't afford insurance or giving a tax break to individuals who buy their own insurance.

Unfortunately for Americans, the Obama administration has chosen to cloud the health care reform discussion by throwing out new whoppers every day rather than engaging in an honest public debate.

moderated...

Thanks so much for adding me!

Hey, idiot, get a new page theme besides This. Get over it.

8th Grade Exam from 1895
What it took to get an 8th grade education in 1895...

Remember when grandparents and great-grandparents stated that they only had an 8th grade education? Well, check this out. Could any of us have passed the 8th grade in 1895?

This is the eighth-grade final exam from 1895 in Salina , Kansas , USA . It was taken from the original document on file at the Smokey Valley Genealogical Society and Library in Salina , and reprinted by the Salina Journal.


8th Grade Final Exam: Salina , KS - 1895


Grammar (Time, one hour)

1. Give nine rules for the use of capital letters.
2. Name the parts of speech and define those that have no modifications.
3. Define verse, stanza and paragraph
4. What are the principal parts of a verb? Give principal parts of "lie,""play," and "run."
5. Define case; illustrate each case.
6 What is punctuation? Give rules for principal marks of punctuation.
7 - 10. Write a composition of about 150 words and show therein that you understand the practical use of the rules of grammar.


Arithmetic (Time,1 hour 15 minutes)

1. Name and define the Fundamental Rules of Arithmetic.
2. A wagon box is 2 ft . deep, 10 feet long, and 3 ft . wide. How many bushels of wheat will it hold?
3. If a load of wheat weighs 3,942 lbs ., what is it worth at 50cts/bushel, deducting 1,050 lbs . for tare?
4. District No 33 has a valuation of $35,000. What is the necessary levy to carry on a school seven months at $50 per month, and have $104 for incidentals?
5. Find the cost of 6,720 lbs . coal at $6.00 per ton.
6. Find the interest of $512.60 for 8 months and 18 days at 7 percent.
7. What is the cost of 40 boards 12 inches wide and 16 ft . long at $20 per metre?
8. Find bank discount on $300 for 90 days (no grace) at 10 percent.
9. What is the cost of a square farm at $15 per acre, the distance of which is 640 rods?
10. Write a Bank Check, a Promissory Note, and a Receipt.


U.S. History (Time, 45 minutes)

1. Give the epochs into which U.S. History is divided
2. Give an account of the discovery of America by Columbus .
3. Relate the causes and results of the Revolutionary War.
4. Show the territorial growth of the United States .
5. Tell what you can of the history of Kansas .
6. Describe three of the most prominent battles of the Rebellion.
7. Who were the following: Morse, Whitney, Fulton , Bell , Lincoln , Penn, and Howe?
8. Name events connected with the following dates: 1607, 1620, 1800, 1849, 1865.


Orthography (Time, one hour)
[Do we even know what this is??]

1. What is meant by the following: alphabet, phonetic, orthography, etymology, syllabication
2. What are elementary sounds? How classified?
3. What are the following, and give examples of each: trigraph, subvocals, diphthong, cognate letters, linguals
4. Give four substitutes for caret 'u.' (HUH?)
5. Give two rules for spelling words with final 'e.' Name two exceptions under each rule.
6. Give two uses of silent letters in spelling. Illustrate each.
7. Define the following prefixes and use in connection with a word: bi, dis, mis, pre, semi, post, non, inter, mono, sup.
8. Mark diacriticall y and divide into syllables the following, and name the sign that indicates the sound: card, ball, mercy, sir, odd, cell, rise, blood, fare, last.
9. Use the following correctly in sentences: cite, site, sight, fane, fain, feign, vane , vain, vein, raze, raise, rays.
10. Write 10 words frequently mispronounced and indicate pronunciation by use of diacritical marks and by syllabication.


Geography (Time, one hour)

1 What is climate? Upon what does climate depend?
2. How do you account for the extremes of climate in Kansas ?
3. Of what use are rivers? Of what use is the ocean?
4. Describe the mountains of North America .
5. Name and describe the following: Monrovia , Odessa , Denver , Manitoba , Hecla , Yukon , St. Helena, Juan Fernandez, Aspinwall and Orinoco .
6. Name and locate the principal trade centers of the U.S.
7. Name all the republics of Europe and give the capital of each.
8. Why is the Atlantic Coast colder than the Pacific in the same latitude?
9. Describe the process by which the water of the ocean returns to the sources of rivers.
10. Describe the movements of the earth. Give the inclination of the earth.
Notice that the exam took FIVE HOURS to complete.

Gives the saying "he only had an 8th grade education" a whole new meaning, doesn't it?

Also shows you how poor our education system has become and, NO! I don't have the answers

You might recall that John Hinckley was a seriously deranged young man who shot President Reagan in the early 1980's.

Hinckley was absolutely obsessed with movie star Jodie Foster, extremely jealous, and in his twisted mind, loved Jodie Foster to the point that to make himself well known to her, he attempted to assassinate President Reagan.

There is speculation Hinckley may soon be released as having been
rehabilitated. Consequently, you may appreciate the following letter from Nancy Reagan to the staff at the mental facility treating Hinckley reports to have intercepted:
*
*
*
To: John Hinckley
From: Mrs. Nancy Reagan

My family and I wanted to drop you a short note to tell you how pleased we are
with the great strides you are making in your recovery. In our fine
country's spirit of understanding and forgiveness, we want you to know there
is a nonpartisan consensus of compassion and forgiveness throughout.

The Reagan family and I want you to know that no grudge is borne against you for
shooting President Reagan. We, above all, are aware of how the mental stress
and pain could have driven you to such an act of desperation. We are
confident that you will soon make a complete recovery and return to your
family to join the world again as a healthy and productive young man.

Best wishes,
Nancy Reagan & Family



P.S. While you have been incarcerated, Barack Obama has been banging Jodie Foster like a screen door in a tornado. You might want to look into that.

The Wheel and Beer

-----------------------------...

For those that don't know about history ... Here is a condensed version:

Humans originally existed as members of small bands of nomadic hunters/gatherers. They lived on deer in the mountains during the summer and would go to the coast and live on fish and lobster in the winter.

The two most important events in all of history were the invention of beer and the invention of the wheel. The wheel was invented to get man to the beer. These were the foundation of modern civilization and together were the catalyst for the splitting of humanity into two distinct subgroups:

1. Liberals, and
2. Conservatives.

Once beer was discovered, it required grain and that was the beginning of agriculture. Neither the glass bottle nor aluminum can were invented yet, so while our early humans were sitting around waiting for them to be invented, they just stayed close to the brewery. That's how villages were formed.

Some men spent their days tracking and killing animals to B-B-Q at night while they were drinking beer. This was the beginning of what is known as the Conservative movement.

Other men who were weaker and less skilled at hunting learned to live off the conservatives by showing up for the nightly B-B-Q's and doing the sewing, fetching, and hair dressing. This was the beginning of the Liberal movement.

Some of these liberal men eventually evolved into women. Those became known as girlie-men. Some noteworthy liberal achievements include the domestication of cats, the invention of group therapy, group hugs, and the concept of Democratic voting to decide how to divide the meat and beer that conservatives provided.

Over the years conservatives came to be symbolized by the largest, most powerful land animal on earth, the elephant. Liberals are symbolized by the jackass.

Modern liberals like imported beer (with lime added), but most prefer white wine or imported bottled water. They eat raw fish but like their beef well done. Sushi, tofu, and French food are standard liberal fare. Another interesting evolutionary side note: most of their women have higher testosterone levels than their men. Most social workers, personal injury attorneys, journalists, dreamers in Hollywood and group therapists are liberals. Liberals invented the designated hitter rule because it wasn't fair to make the pitcher also bat.

Conservatives drink domestic beer, mostly Bud or Miller. They eat red meat and still provide for their women. Conservatives are big game hunters, rodeo cowboys, lumberjacks, construction workers, firemen, medical doctors, police officers, engineers, corporate executives, athletes, members of the military, airline pilots and generally anyone who works productively. Conservatives who own companies hire other conservatives who want to work
for a living.

Liberals produce little or nothing. They like to govern the producers and decide what to do with the production. Liberals believe Europeans are more enlightened than Americans. That is why most of the liberals remained in Europe when conservatives were coming to America . They crept in after the Wild West was tamed and created a business of trying to get more for nothing.

Here ends today's lesson in world history.

It should be noted that a Liberal may have a momentary urge to angrily respond to the above.

A Conservative will simply laugh and be so convinced of the absolute truth of this history that they will record it immediately for historical value and to generally tick liberals off.

__________________
The best things in life aren't things!

from: http://hotair.com/archives/20...

0: The number of unrehearsed, unscripted questions asked of President Obama during his “Town Hall” on health care reform.

13: The number of teeth that British veteran Ian Boynton pulled out himself with pliers “because he couldn’t find an NHS (National Health Service) dentist… [he] could not afford to go private for treatment so instead took the drastic action to remove 13 of his teeth that were giving him severe pain.”

14: The percentage of all patients in Britain who wait more than one (1) year to receive treatment after a referral by a general practitioner. Half of all National Health Care patients in Britain wait between 18 and 52 weeks for treatment.

37: The “health care ranking” assigned to the U.S. by the World Health Organization among the world’s countries. This oft-quoted number is used to justify an overhaul of the U.S. health care system and lists countries like Italy (2), Andorra (4), Malta (5), Singapore (6), Oman (8), Portugal (12), Greece (14), the United Kingdom (18), Ireland (19), Columbia (22), Cyprus (24), Saudi Arabia (26), the UAE (27), Morocco (29), Canada (30), Chile (33), the Dominican Republic (35) and Costa Rica (36) ahead of the U.S. Considering that no U.S. citizens travel to these countries when experiencing a life-threatening situation, it’s worth questioning the methods by which the WHO arrived at these rankings. Their criteria included subjective and political assessments such as “Fairness in financial contribution“. Suffice it to say that the WHO’s rankings are clearly fraudulent and are designed to influence U.S. policy.

60: Average cancer survival rate (all types) for patients in the United States. Canada’s survival rate is significantly lower at 55%, while Europe’s is a dismal 48%.

81: Average percentage of those who survive a diagnosis of prostate cancer in the United States versus 43% in Britain under their National Health Service.

90: Number of days, on average, each Canadian patient must wait for an MRI under the Canadian government-run health care system.

750: The estimated number of people waiting in line (in the pouring rain) at Britain’s Bury Office attempting to register for dental care.

2050: By this year, “Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid (health care for the poor) will consume nearly the entire federal budget.” And by 2082, Medicare spending alone will consume the entire federal budget. This trajectory is, quite obviously, unsustainable for our children and our grandchildren. Congress is bequeathing our descendents a bankrupt health care system — for just the third of the medical system that the government already runs!

10,000: Number of Canadian breast cancer patients to file a class action lawsuit against Quebec’s hospitals because, on average, they were forced to wait 60 days to begin post-operative radiation treatments.

280,392: The number of jobs that employers would shed if government levied an employer mandate, requiring them to insure all employees. A 2007 study by Katherine Baicker of Harvard University and Helen Levy of the University of Michigan (“Employer Health Insurance Mandates and the Risk of Unemployment“) found that “0.2 percent of all full-time workers and 1.4 percent of uninsured full-time workers would lose their jobs if a health insurance mandate were written into law. Workers who would lose their jobs are disproportionately likely to be high school dropouts, minority, and female.”

443,849: The number of British patients of the National Healthcare Service (NHS) who waited four or more weeks for inpatient admittance into a hospital (Excel file) in May of 2009 (more than 75% of all patients).

1,500,000: The number of Canadians who do not have — and cannot find — a general practitioner/primary care physician due to shortages in medical staff: “In Norwood, Ontario, 20/20 videotaped a town clerk pulling the names of the lucky winners out of a lottery box. The losers must wait to see a doctor… Shirley Healy, like many sick Canadians, came to America for surgery. Her doctor in British Columbia told her she had only a few weeks to live because a blocked artery kept her from digesting food. Yet Canadian officials called her surgery ‘elective.’ …’The only thing elective about this surgery was I elected to live,’ she said.”

12,000,000: number of illegal immigrants who would qualify for free health care and — in all likelihood — additional health care rights for relatives under the Democrats’ universal health care plan, according to a reported statement by the office of Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and spokespeople for the racial separatist group La Raza.

$311,000,000 ($311 million): The amount of additional funding requested last month by the Obama administration simply to combat Medicare fraud. Medicare fraud is estimated at $60 billion annually.

$3,600,000,000 ($3.6 billion): The amount of added malpractice insurance costs to the current health care system instigated by an out-of-control trial lawyer lobby that donates heavily to Democrat causes.

$10,000,000,000 ($10 billion): The estimated amount of Medicaid fraud, based upon FBI estimates. Criminal practices include billing for nonexistent, overstated, or unnecessary services, kickbacks to patients, inflated costs, etc.

$60,000,000,000 ($60 billion): The estimated annual amount of Medicare fraud, due to widespread criminal operations that victimize taxpayers and specialize in dead doctors, fake patients, non-existent treatments and the like.

$107,000,000,000,000 ($107 trillion): The estimated shortfall of the Medicare and Social Security programs, which are utterly and completely bankrupt; they can be legitimately called an “enormous version of Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme”.

Canada and England don’t pay as high a price for their health care because they freeload on American innovation. If we utilized their systems, Americans might worry less about paying for health care, but we’d get 2009-level care and long lines. Those are the immutable laws of supply and demand. Government monopolies don’t innovate. Only the free market innovates.

Furthermore, government bureaucrats already raped the Social Security Trust Fund — there is no trust fund. They raped the Medicare Trust Fund — there’s nothing left. They raped the Highway Trust Fund — it’s empty. I could go down a long list of things the government said it would do, but hasn’t done. Because the big government statists are liars. They even moved these massive expenditures “off the books” to conceal the damage they’ve done.

And now the Democrat Party, the union bosses and the trial lawyers are launching the most massive attack on the American people in the history of government.

They promise health care for everyone, but they will not — and they can’t possibly — deliver it. The numbers don’t lie