Beginning with the opening drum roll of Springsteen’s “Badlands”, and the patented Telecaster drone of “Because The Night”, Bethany Cosentino also channels Liz Phair as the Crystals through Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound. There’s never been a summer song that layers wistfulness over a hint of menace like “Boyfriend” does, from “Crazy For You” streaming online now at urban outfitters;
Archive for July, 2010
Today, on LRC, Fred Reed ticks almost all the boxes (categories) with this one;
“Perhaps the US should recognize that it has a second-rate military at phenomenal cost – an enormous, largely useless national codpiece. It is embarrassing. The Pentagon’s preferred enemies are lightly armed, poorly equipped peasants, which makes for a long war and thus hundreds of billions of dollars in juicy contracts for military industries. Yet the greatest military in history (ask it) gets run out of Southeast Asia, blown up and run out of Lebanon, shot down and run out of Somalia, with Afghanistan a disaster in progress and Iraq claimed as an American victory rather than Shiite. Do the aircraft carriers intimidate North Korea? No. Iran? No. China? No. For this, a trillion dollars a year?”
“By casting the net so wide and continuing to collect on Americans and aid organizations, it’s almost like they’re making the haystack bigger and it’s harder to find that piece of information that might actually be useful to somebody. You’re actually hurting our ability to effectively protect our national security.” – Adrienne Kinne, NSA whistleblower
I got involved in a Facebook discussion of Social Security (I know, I know) with a Social Security Disability recipient. He argued against my assertion that SS is not an entitlement, insurance, or investment (but rather is a transfer / welfare scheme) by claiming that SS is an annuity.
…took me two minutes, but I came up with the Supreme Court decision FLEMMING V. NESTOR (363 U.S. 603 – 1960) (on the Social Security Admin WEBPAGE) which states ,I think, unambiguously;
…2. A PERSON COVERED BY THE SOCIAL SECURITY ACT HAS NOT SUCH A RIGHT IN OLD-AGE BENEFIT PAYMENTS AS WOULD MAKE EVERY DEFEASANCE OF “ACCRUED” INTERESTS VIOLATIVE OF THE DUE PROCESS CLAUSE OF THE FIFTH AMENDMENT. PP. 608-611.
(A) THE NONCONTRACTUAL INTEREST OF AN EMPLOYEE COVERED BY THE ACT CANNOT BE SOUNDLY ANALOGIZED TO THAT OF THE HOLDER OF AN ANNUITY, WHOSE RIGHTS TO BENEFITS ARE BASED ON HIS CONTRACTUAL PREMIUM PAYMENTS. PP. 608-610.
(B) TO ENGRAFT UPON THE SOCIAL SECURITY SYSTEM A CONCEPT OF “ACCRUED PROPERTY RIGHTS” WOULD DEPRIVE IT OF THE FLEXIBILITY AND BOLDNESS IN ADJUSTMENT TO EVER-CHANGING CONDITIONS WHICH IT DEMANDS AND WHICH CONGRESS PROBABLY HAD IN MIND WHEN IT EXPRESSLY RESERVED THE RIGHT TO ALTER, AMEND OR REPEAL ANY PROVISION OF THE ACT. PP. 610-611.”
I guess I should have expected it, but he SAVAGELY attacked me ad-hominem, again and again, while never substantiating his argument with even ONE contrary cite.
So tell me. am I reading this wrong? Do we have a contractual and property right in a Social Security annuity after all? Do I owe this jughead an apology?;
Vince Daliessio: ”(A) THE NONCONTRACTUAL INTEREST OF AN EMPLOYEE COVERED BY THE ACT CANNOT BE SOUNDLY ANALOGIZED TO THAT OF THE HOLDER OF AN ANNUITY, WHOSE RIGHTS TO BENEFITS ARE BASED ON HIS CONTRACTUAL PREMIUM PAYMENTS.”
Unless you can show that this has been reversed or modified by jurisprudence or statute, I rest my case.
Scott (name witheld): “you never had a case as you can not read! That paragraph states that it IS an annuity! What a fool! If you had a 12 th grade reading level you would understand the meaning of the sentence.
Vince Daliessio: Read Justice Black’s dissent, if you want to know the history of the case, the clear violations of Article 1, Section 9 of the constitution, which prohibits the passing of bills of attainder and ex-post-facto laws.
Scott: I have no need to cite anything, YOU are sitting here spewing untruths based on your inability to understand what you obviously can not read. You interpret the fact that congress is the final governing body of the Social Security Administration as congress can limit who can get benefits, yet Scotus stated otherwise, that they only can set ..
Vince Daliessio: Where does it state that? It clearly states the opposite.
Scott: Again you display more nonsensical garbage… you can opt out of Social Security therefore there is no constitutional violation. Do you argue with the wall when you are taking a dump?do you argue with a brick? You ARE NOT a Lawyer, Nor are you anywhere close. Stop trying to act like one
Vince Daliessio: You don’t cite it because you can’t. Congress can set the benefit level at zero. It can set the retirement age at 200. It can set the tax rate at 200%. It can, according to Flemming, pass a law today outlawing behavior that occurred 15 years ago, and use that to invalidate benefits, since they have pronounced that you have no legal property right in SS. No insurance company can do this with a real annuity – they would be sued for treble damages and lose.
Scott: Look IDIOT I suggest you research Schoemann v Social SecurityAdministration of the United States and try your fucking bullshit then. YOU know absolutely Nothing about what you try to speak… you sit here spreading lies and pretending to be the authority. You’re nothing but a know it all punk without an education. Now say good bye boy
Vince Daliessio I CAN’T opt out. I don’t know where you get that idea. Only certain tightly-defined groups under the statute can opt-out.
Scott: Title 26 learn it live it love it
Scott: Gotta love know it alls and troll
Vince Daliessio: You made a statement – that SS is an annuity. Flemming clearly contradicts that. Your argument isn’t with me, it’s with the Supreme Court. I don’t know why you have a beef with me. I stipulated that if you are dependent on the program, you should be taken care of.”
Shiny, but not TOO Shiny
http://artofmanliness.com/2010/07/14/balding-gracefully-tips-and-hairstyles-for-balding-men/
Coming from a long line of baldies on my mother’s side, I knew well in advance it was a possibility, but the process didn’t become noticeable until one summer Saturday in 1992 when a 3-hour ride to the shore with the top down resulted in a nasty scalp sunburn.
I kept trying to deny it, Rogaine worked for a while, but ultimately it was a losing battle. The buzz cut helped, but did not totally work because I have patchy, uneven tufts at the front of the scalp, probably as a result of a gruesome but not serious scalp wound (30 stitches!) I got years ago.
So I started shaving the irregular islands off completely. At first my glowing-white scalp betrayed it as a half-measure, but eventually I got enough sun exposure to induce some nascent pigmentation, enough to do the job. I tried a full shave, but it didn’t feel like ‘me’, plus I still had some extra weight at the time which detracted from the “badass” look. I still might give it another whirl when I reach my goal weight.
But shaving the front, combined with a ‘power donut’ on which I use a #1 clipper, I have created a look I can live with. I feel it is the best approach to a dignified hairstyle for me. And the maintenance cost is a fresh pack of blades every 3 or 4 years in the old Norelco, and a few drops of oil on the clippers.
PLUS, the missus digs it.
WHEW.
via Balding Gracefully: Tips and Hairstyles for Balding Men | The Art of Manliness.
14
Jul
What Have We Done? (2005)
Still A Weapon Pork Barrel In Search Of A Mission
Or rather, what have our supposed representatives done? Among the thousands of anti-Constitutional things they have done this week, we highlight the following;
- passed a permanent extension of the USA PATRIOT Act
- passed a bill spending $30 billion on corrupt foreign dictatorships
- passed a bill combining various government and non-governmental aid workers into an “Active Response Corps“, an appalling name for a group that will subvert the democratic process in nations that we identify
- gave assent to a draft Iraqi constitution that guarantees no rights to anyone except to government and to the Mullahs (Iranian Mullahs)
Along with that, one of our local public servants, Rep Curt Weldon (R – Boeing Vertol) got orders placed by the government for the inherently unsafe, WAY over budget ($24 million $30 million $40 million $71 million $159 million EACH), and Marine-killing (30 so far and counting) V-22 Osprey Hybrid.
Quite a week, even for our normally diligent parasites!
(PHOTO: Coming To A Forward Operating Base Near You, if you are unfortunate enough to be in Iraq.)
Marine-Killing V-22 Osprey Aircraft Sent To Iraq
Time Magazine is reporting that the V-22 Osprey is being deployed to western Iraq for use by Marines there. The V-22, for those of you who haven’t been following the unfolding tragedy for as long as we have, is an aircraft that, much like one of the Transformers of movie fiction, can transform from a helicopter-like rotary-wing aircraft into a fixed wing aircraft, and back again. Except this transformer also turns into, with alarming frequency, a flaming pile of twisted metal splintered carbon fiber and dead Marines.
If you have even the slightest confidence in the wisdom or utility of this, please read here, or here, or, watch this clip from CBS, then tell us with a straight face that you believe this is a good idea.
If this is anybody’s notion of how we should be “supporting the troops” I would have sincere doubts as to that person’s real intentions.
One of the prime movers of the program since its inception was Congresscritter Curt Weldon (R, Boeing Vertol) representing the district in Southeastern PA we all grew up in, who horse-traded and threatened his colleagues in order to get part of the aircraft built in the Boeing facility that dominated his district (in his mind, anyway).
For those of you who aren’t familiar with the estimable congressman Weldon, here’s a shot of him participating in a Washington D.C. ceremony where the Reverend Sun Myung Moon had himself declared the Messiah, complete with an apparent Orthodox Rabbi blowing the Shofar to announce it to the assembled politicians (Moon, er, moonlights as publisher of the Washington Times, an erratically conservative newspaper and neocon propaganda outlet).
Weldon wrangled a key part of the project into the fading Boeing plant at the behest of the unions in exchange for political support. Even though the evil Weldon’s lengthy congressional career was subsequently slain by his own greed (a probe into shady deals involving his daughter’s “consulting company”) as well as reformer-cum-”Bizarro Weldon” Joe “Sleestak” Sestak, Weldon’s pet project V-22 Osprey, aka the flying pig that wouldn’t die, wouldn’t, well, die.
The “program”, as a protracted expenditure of pelf of this nature without successful production of a working piece of ordnance is called, was abandoned long ago by the Army, which was to have shared the cost of it with the much-smaller Marine Corps. Since that time, this flying deathtrap has grown to consume 90% of the Marines’ aircraft procurement budget. We are told that the helicopter it is replacing, the venerable CH-46 (not the also-deadly Hawker Harrier, as some erroneously report, is well past its service life and must be retired, along with 40+ years of experience, improvements, and development. So why then has the army continued to upgrade its fleet of CH-47 Chinooks (sister design to the Sea Knight) rather than replace them?
The Moral Naturalists
Of the above named researchers, neocon mouthpiece David Brooks inadvertently gets one thing right;
“Our minds respond more powerfully to the plight of an individual than the plight of a group.”
…which is why, when government is desperate, it reaches out to put an innocent victim in front of the public to bask in reflected sympathy.
via Op-Ed Columnist – The Moral Naturalists – NYTimes.com.