Power of Governments....

This is from a letter that The Daily Reckoning published on Friday. It is amazing how much wealth the government of Zimbabwe has destroyed in just four years. Watch Argentina and Venezuela for a possible similar type of result. Anarchy with private property anyone?

"I came across this recently and thought it a sufficiently interesting illustration of inflation and a collapsing economy that I should share it with you...

"At one time, agricultural output accounted for about 45% of the Zimbabwean economy, and tobacco was by far the single biggest export. The Zimbabwean government deserves credit for the entirely successful implementation of a policy: redistribution of land to poor peasant farmers.

"It's just a pity they got it backward; instead of sharing the wealth at the top with the poor masses at the bottom, they shared the poverty of the masses throughout the system!

"Zimbabwe tobacco production 2000: 237 million kilograms Zimbabwe tobacco production 2004: 64 million kilograms One packet of 20 cigarettes in 2000: $22 One packet of 20 cigarettes in 2004: $4,500

"Zimbabwe wheat production 2001: 314,000 tons Zimbabwe wheat production 2003: 50,000 tons One loaf of bread in 2000: $21 One loaf of bread in 2004: $3,500

"Zimbabwe milk production 2001: 160,000 tons Zimbabwe milk production 2003: 100,000 tons One liter of milk in 2000: $15 One liter of milk in 2004: $2,600

"One dozen eggs in 2000: $36 One dozen eggs in 2004: $7,500

"One bag of sugar in 2000: $40 One bag of sugar in 2004: $5,303

Harare Agricultural Show total livestock exhibits 2004: nine cattle, two goats, three sheep.

Zimbabwe tourism earnings 1999: $200 million Zimbabwe tourism earnings 2003: $44 million."

I end this week with numbers using a quote from the Zimbabwe Independent: "Baton-wielding riot policed on Wednesday broke up pro-democracy demonstrations in the capital, arresting at least 44 activists."

LewRockwell.com Blog: Mandated Mental Health Testing:

This is awesome....

"So the government wants to test all kids for their mental health? Hmm. I noticed after I graduated high school that peak drug use was from 10th grade to 12th. After that, it dropped off tremendously. School'll do that to you. So, I suggest the feds perform this experiment: test the mental health of those forced to go to public high school, against a group that isn't. Since the latter group will test much more healthy (and use far less drugs), the government will be forced to close all public high schools. Next test: grade and middle school."

Mises Blog: "Free market" magazine attacks free markets and thrift in "communist" China:

While I was reading the Economist this week, I was thinking the samething as Stefan Karlsson, whose post over at Mises I am linking to. What is up at the Economist?

"Allegedly according to The Economist, the abandonment of Mao Zedong's wise health care policies in favor of more free market oriented policies has brought on countless evils, including lower life expectancy and higher infant mortality. What is also extraordinary is that another alleged evil that the free market oriented health care policies create is a higher savings rate which according to The Economist is and I quote 'Public anxiety over the collapse of affordable health care is reflected in China's high savings rate...Worries about the fast-rising costs of health care and education...is restraining consumer demand and thereby imperiling China's long-term economic growth.' That's right, The Economist thinks that a high savings rate is 'imperiling long-term economic growth'. "

The Onion What Do You Think? -- Kobe Bryant Case Dissmissed

"At last, Kobe is vindicated before the eyes of the nation: He's not a rapist; he just constantly cheats on his wife."

Fraud In Venezuela's Electin...Shocking

WSJ reports that some economists from Harvard and MIT have shown that the recall of Chavez was corrupt. This throws dirt in the face of Jimmy "attacked by crazy rabbits" Carter and the US government who said that the election was fair. Governments not telling the truth....wow.

Instead, the CNE insisted on its own program, run on its own computer. Mr. Carter's team acquiesced, and Messrs. Hausmann and Rigobon conclude that, in controlling this software, the government had the means to cheat.

"This result opens the possibility that the fraud was committed only in a subset of the 4,580 automated centers, say 3,000, and that the audit was successful because it directed the search to the 1,580 unaltered centers. That is why it was so important not to use the Carter Center number generator. If this was the case, Carter could never have figured it out."

Mr. Hausmann told us that he and Mr. Rigoban also "found very clear trails of fraud in the statistical record" and a probability of less than 1% that the anomalies observed could be pure chance. To put it another way, they think the chance is 99% that there was electoral fraud.

via the Devil's Excrement

The New York Times > Business > Business Travel: The Cellphone That Doesn't Work at the Hotel

Are hotels illegally jamming cell phone signals? This is an interesting theory, unfortunately I don't travel enough to have an opinoin.

The doubts are not limited to guests. When a recent PricewaterhouseCoopers survey showed the number of calls made from hotel room phones had fallen by 40 percent in the last four years, the firm's lodging consultants wondered whether hotels were fighting back by investing in wireless jamming technology.

An investigation, however, turned up nothing. "It's possible that there are hotels using cellphone jammers," said Bjorn Hanson, a PricewaterhouseCoopers hotel analyst. "But we couldn't find them."

Then again, it is nearly impossible to prove that jamming technology is being used. "If you turn your phone on and it says 'no service,' then that's the only hint that you're being jammed," said Barry Zellen, editor of Technologyinnovator.com, a Web site that covers wireless security issues. "If you're in an area that has good coverage and you pull into a hotel driveway, and suddenly there's a dead zone, then you can probably speculate that there's something unnatural going on."

Adding to the intrigue is the fact that the Federal Communications Commission, which could easily sniff out a blocker with its direction-finding equipment, has never issued a fine for the use of a cellphone jammer, according to an agency spokesman.

Not everyone sees that as proof that the devices are not in use. "The F.C.C. rule prohibiting cellphone jammers is unenforced," said Howard Melamed, the chief executive of the CellAntenna Corporation, a cellular-communications technology company in Coral Springs, Fla.

At the same time, consumer complaints to the F.C.C. about telecommunications service quality, a catch-all category that includes possible cellular-blocking devices, busy signals and roaming service, surged to 704 in the fourth quarter of last year, the latest period for which numbers were available, from 450 in the first quarter.

"If you do the math, if you connect the dots, it's obvious that these cellphone jammers are catching on," said Mr. Zellen of Technologyinnovator. "Especially in the hotel industry."

hmm.....

Reason 3,081 that Politicans are Morons

"Christ would not stand idly by while an infant child in that situation died," Keyes said. "And I'm not the only person, obviously, who thinks if you are a representative of me, I cannot vote for you if you would ignore the dignity and claims of that child's life. So, yes, I did respond quite logically -- you'll see it's quite logical, right -- with the conclusion that Christ would not vote for Barack Obama, because Barack Obama has voted to behave in a way that it is inconceivable for Christ to have behaved."

This is a dumb as Christ caring that Terrel Owens just scored a touchdown or caring what Bush does as president. Joke is on us.

Morons Run for Office Example 3,080:


"Vice President Dick Cheney on Tuesday warned Americans about voting for Democratic Sen. John Kerry, saying that if the nation makes the wrong choice on Election Day it faces the threat of another terrorist attack."

Why vote, they are all fools?

Germany in 1800s vs US and A of today

Historical analogies are always enjoyable because as they say, "History always repeats itself." After checking out the Andrew Sullivan quote from below I ran into this interesting email of the day on his blog.

"The new Kaiser, Wilhelm II, was cool to this approach and thought it limited Germany's freedom of action in things like colonial policy. So, with the departure of Bismarck, Germany, now clearly the dominant economy in Europe, set out to make its way outside the nuanced collective security system. It let lapse the Reinsurance Treaty which set in motion a dynamic which eventually resulted in an alliance between France and Russia clearly aimed at Germany. France began a long term effort to establish an entente with Britain, up to now its chief rival. Germany, seeking to project its power overseas, began to build a major navy, finally pushing Britain, on the eve of the Great War, to an understanding with France and Russia.
The irony was that Germany, in trying to assert itself more forcefully, now found itself isolated, surrounded by the other powers, and less secure than ever.
Any resemblance to current events is purely coincidental."

2blowhards.com: Dems or Repubs? Feh

Great post from 2blowhards.com about the difference or lack there of between the two dominate parties in American politics. As I've posted and stated numerous times there really is no difference between the parties and these guys do a good job of exploring that topic.

The extent to which the parties have flipped positions on the little-guy/rich-guy divide is illustrated by research from the Ipsos-Reid polling firm. Comparing counties that voted strongly for George W. Bush to those that voted strongly for Al Gore in the 2000 election, the study shows that in pro-Bush counties only 7% of voters earned at least $100,000, while 38% had household incomes below $30,000. In the pro-Gore counties, fully 14% pulled in $100,000 or more, while 29% earned less than $30,000 ...

The financial pillars for Democrats are now super-rich trial lawyers, Hollywood entertainment executives, and megabuck financiers. Both parties have their fat cats, obviously, but Federal Election Commission data show that many of the very wealthiest political players are now in the Democratic column.

Today's most aggressive election donors by far are lawyers. As of July, law partners had donated $112 million to 2004 political candidates; by comparison, the entire oil and gas industry donated only $15 million. And wealthy lawyers now tilt strongly Democratic: 71% of their money goes to Democrats, only 29% to Republicans.

Wall Street, traditionally thought of as a GOP bastion, is no longer any such thing. Ultra-income brokers and bankers now give heavily to the party of Andrew Jackson. Six of the top 15 contributions to Democratic nominee John Kerry came from partners at firms like Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and J.P. Morgan.

more...

In a good piece (not online) for The American Conservative magazine, James Kurth argues that Leftie political elites root for French Englightenment ideals, and Rightie elites root for British Enlightenment ideals -- but that neither elite expresses the slightest bit of caution about Enlightenment absolutism:


Ever since the coming of the Enlightenment, Western elites have adhered to a variety of secularist and universalist faiths, which in effect have been religions without God ... The universalist ideology of Olympian elites is largely consistent with, and perhaps reflective of, the expanding interests of global corporations ... Those in the intellectual sectors are largely multiculturalists; those in the business sector are largely globalists; and those in the political sector largely represent these business and intellectual views. All adhere to the universalist ideology.

And they quote Andrew Sullivan's comments on Bush's speech...

Just remember all that Bush promised last night: an astonishingly expensive bid to spend much more money to help people in ways that conservatives once abjured ... I look forward to someone adding it all up, but it's easily in the trillions ... To propose all this knowing full well that we cannot even begin to afford it is irresponsible in the deepest degree. I've said it before and I'll say it again: the only difference between Republicans and Democrats now is that the Bush Republicans believe in Big Insolvent Government and the Kerry Democrats believe in Big Solvent Government.

Scary stuff these Bushie and Kerry clowns...eh?

Yoga no good for weight loss

I like Yoga and went in the winter (beach volleyball in the summer) and thought this study was interesting. Good for flexibility, but maybe not much else.


"Yoga offers less than half the physical benefits of even a light to moderate walk, the study by researchers at Texas State University concluded.

'Yoga's a good form for flexibility and muscular fitness, but it's not so good for weight loss and aerobic conditioning,' said Lisa Lloyd, an assistant professor of health, physical education and recreation at Texas State. "