Daily Archives: April 28, 2014

04/28/14

It’s Groundhog Day: Government Taking Third Stab at Net Neutrality Power Grab

Gulag Bound

Motley-SetonBy: Seton Motley
PJ Tatler

This is at once obnoxious and pathetic.

Wheeler Tees Up Net Neutrality for May Meeting

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said Wednesday that he would be circulating a draft of the FCC’s new network neutrality rules to the other commissioners Thursday (April 24).

This is their third attempt at this particular power garb. It’s becoming fetishistic.

There was 2007.

Court Backs Comcast Over FCC on ‘Net Neutrality’

And there was 2010.

Verizon Wins Net Neutrality Court Ruling Against FCC

Yet here we remain – stuck in government overreach Groundhog Day.

We haven’t yet seen the Net Neutrality power grab order – but the fact that they’re trying again at all is at once obnoxious and pathetic.

Not yet having seen the order hasn’t stopped the Left from going apoplectic. Because the Left never allows the facts to get in the way of a good beating.

The FCC Tosses Net Neutrality Out the Window

So This is How Net Neutrality Dies, Under a Democratic President

Thanks to the FCC Net Neutrality is Dead

Obama’s Second FCC Chairman Fails on Net Neutrality

Stop the FCC from Breaking the Internet

Not at all over the top.

To all of which I say:

It’s disappointing – but not surprising – that the Obama Administration is yet again going to impose the Internet power grab that is Network Neutrality.

The federal government is twice bitten – and not shy. Having twice had their Net Neutrality impositions unanimously rejected by the courts – they remain undaunted in their desire to over-regulate the Web.

And it’s always a pleasure to watch the Leftist likes of Free Press and Public Knowledge preemptively freak out – over an order they haven’t even yet seen.

They are as always the perfect tool. The Leftist screeching visual aides that allow an overreaching government to pretend “See, we’re finding middle ground – both sides are angry with us” as they grab even more Leviathan-sized hands-full of the once-private sector.

Don’t drive angry.

photo from arstechnica.com, added by Gulag Bound

photo from arstechnica.com, added by Gulag Bound

04/28/14

Republican Party Suicide Watch – Revolt Or Die On Amnesty/Obamacare

By: Terresa Monroe-Hamilton

So, the elites in the Republican Party figure that they don’t need the approval of conservative voters anymore apparently. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (D-WA) came out and flatly stated what we all knew was coming if the Progressive Republicans got their way: Obamacare is here to stay and Amnesty will be a done deal by August. In case you don’t know who Rodgers is, she’s the House GOP Conference Chair. You people really, really want to go the way of the Whigs, don’t ya?

It would seem the usual suspect RINOs have been laying out plans to push Amnesty through. And they are playing word games, stating that this has everything to do with legal status and not Amnesty. Nuance. Not to be outdone on the DREAM Act, Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) proudly proclaims: “[we] will soon introduce a bill that will establish a path to citizenship for the minor children of illegal immigrants and a guest worker program.” Cheap labor and a permanent slave class for all crony capitalists! I’m sure it will be packaged with a red, white and blue ribbon when it is delivered to the US Chamber of Commerce. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL) said the Republican leadership is “as close as we have ever been” and, though “it is still a big, big, heavy lift… I think we’re going to get there.” You’ll try, but when you get there son, you won’t have a Party left to celebrate with.

All of these people, including Paul Ryan, keep saying that conservatives support this — that the American people are behind them on it. Either they are delusional or they think if they say it long enough, it will magically come to pass. Boehner has declared he is hellbent on passing Amnesty and has derided any conservative who stood in the way. With big business lining his pockets as well as his cohorts, Boehner has too much invested to not ensure the Republican Party toes the Progressive line.

Passing Amnesty will put Arizona and Texas into play for the Democrats and will all but ensure a Marxist voting bloc for the foreseeable future. With New York, California and Texas, the Progressives will have a stranglehold on the nation. I have warned many times on this blog that the likes of John McCain and Lindsey Graham would push Amnesty into being after the GOP primaries this year.

Sens. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) and Ted Cruz (R-TX) blasted the GOP leadership’s “immigration principles,” as Amnesty and rightly so. They and a very few others are calling the Republicans out for it and standing against it. The only ones I see fighting are Tea Party candidates. Read here on the five major problems with the GOP’s immigration policies. To summarize, they are:

  • Legalization Before Enforcement
  • Perpetual Amnesty for Children
  • Betrays American Workers
  • Obamacare Makes It Tougher for Americans to Buy What GOP Leadership Is Selling
  • Legislation Will Be Less Conservative than ‘Principles’

Read it all…

The best take down on all this betrayal from the Republican Party is penned by Judson Phillips of the Tea Party Nation, entitled An open letter to the Conservative Republican Members of the House. Judson captures the sentiments out there perfectly. As I have said before, the Tea Party needs to ascend within the Republican Party and take control. Barring that, a nasty divorce is coming which will spell the end of the Republican Party and will put the future of America up for grabs.

We’re done waiting and we are out of time. The conservatives within the Republican leadership must act now. As Judson puts it, they have a choice to make, “revolt or die.” The Tea Party is what brought the Republican Party back to life after Progressive weanies within its ranks brought it to the brink of extinction with prolific spending, taxing and regulation. We saved the Party and as thanks, we have been pilloried, vilified and constantly attacked by enemies within and without — all Progressive and or Marxist in nature.

In 2010, when we routed the Left, all that the Tea Party asked for was smaller government, less spending and a reduction in regulations that were suffocating business growth. We asked that Obamacare be stopped and turned back. Defunded if not outright repealed. Instead, Republicans doubled down and while saying they are against it, have done all they can to see it is entrenched forever in our way of life. Now Amnesty cometh and it will be the final nail in the coffin of a free America. No amount of wealth or power these people have been promised is worth that. It is suicidally short-sighted.

You have surrendered on the debt. You have allowed a whole raft of Marxist Executive Orders to be put in place. Our police have become militarized. The Constitution is shredded. We have never recovered fiscally. Our military prowess and standing globally has been made into a bad and dangerous joke. And instead of righting the conservative ship with some semblance of sanity, you keep running the same Progressive losers over and over for office. Sometimes winning, mostly not. Now you want to run Jeb Bush and Mitt Romney again. Americans don’t trust you or the Democrats. In reality, there is only one Party anymore — the Progressive Party. It is two sides of the same Marxist coin. You say tomato, we say Communist.

Again, it is time for the leadership of the Republican Party to make a choice: “revolt or die.” Either clean house and get rid of the likes of Boehner, Cantor, McMorris Rodgers and McConnell, or go the way of the Whigs and end the Republican Party. You don’t have until 2016… the make or break point is here and now this year and if you insist on pushing these suicidal policies, the Tea Party will split from the Republicans. I guarantee it.

If you are going to ram home Progressive policies such as Obamacare, Amnesty, printing more and more money, out of control spending, higher taxation and stifling regulations, then why the hell should we bother with you? Because if we don’t vote for you the Dems will win? What’s the difference?

There are true conservatives in America. I contend there are a whole lot of them. If you pass Amnesty, be prepared to watch them walk right out your door and tell you to pound sand and I’ll be there with them.

From Judson Phillips:

Either the House Leadership is replaced by conservatives or you will see conservatives walk this fall.

For any Republican Members of the House currently suffering from Potomac Fever, here is a clue. K Street cannot reelect you. The Chamber of Commerce cannot reelect you. The conservative activists in your districts are the ones who reelect you. It would only take a switch of 16 to 18 seats to put Nancy Pelosi back in the Speaker’s chair.

Vote them out because you oppose them on principle or vote them out and replace them with conservatives simply because you want to stay in the majority.

The choice is yours. Either live up to the conservative values that you claim you support or watch conservative voters leave the GOP for a new party.

Choose well.

Indeed, choose as though your Party’s life depended on it, because it does. America is officially on Republican Party Suicide Watch. The Tea Party will take a conservative stand — you can change and welcome us into the fold and embrace Constitutional principles, or you can choose political extinction. Revolt or die.

04/28/14

“Yom Hashoah”

Arlene from Israel


Credit: Rashi.org

A day of remembering the heroes and the martyrs here in Israel. Heroes, too, because there were those who resisted.

As the years go, and more of the survivors are gone, the act of remembering with immediacy becomes more difficult. Yet it is forbidden to us to forget. Not just because the six million of our people who were destroyed must be memorialized. But also because we cannot understand what we must confront now and in the future if we allow the memory to fade. We run the risk of being complacent. And that, too, is forbidden to us Jews.

The remembering here in Israel is different, and more intense, more universal, than elsewhere in the world. It is a national mourning, and a national remembering.

Last night there was an official ceremony at Yad Vashem, at which six survivors told their horrendous stories and lit torches. (More on this below.)

At 10:00 AM this morning a siren sounded, and everyone stopped, to remember and to honor:

Here you have Itzhak Perlman playing the theme from Schindler’s list (as he did for the movie itself). Beware, some of the video clips are close to unbearable to see – but must be seen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4nykpjPNvI

~~~~~~~~~~

Last night at the Yad Vashem ceremony, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu spoke.


Credit: Flashtrafficblog

From that talk:

”Very few world leaders understood the enormity of the threat to humanity posed by Nazism…

”So I ask: How is it possible that so many people failed to understand the reality? The bitter and tragic truth is this: it is not that they did not see it. They did not want to see it. And why did they choose not to see the truth? Because they did not want to face the consequences of that truth.

“…the leaders of the West operated on the basis of one axiom: avoid another confrontation at any cost, and thus they laid the foundation for the most terrible war in human history. This axiom of avoiding conflict at any cost, this axiom was adopted not only by the leaders. The people themselves, primarily the educated ones, shared it too.

“…When you refuse to accept reality as it is, you can deny it. And this is precisely what the leaders of the West did. They dismissed the murderous Nazi rhetoric as internal German politics; they downplayed the seriousness of the danger of the military build-up of the Nazis…

”Citizens of Israel, my brothers and sisters,

“Has the world learned from the mistakes of the past? Today, we are again facing clear facts and a tangible threat.

“Iran is calling for our destruction. It is developing nuclear weapons…it continues to develop inter-continental ballistic missiles that can carry nuclear warheads to threaten the entire world.

“Today, just like then, there are those who dismiss Iran’s extreme rhetoric as one that serves domestic purposes. Today, just like then, there are those who view Iran’s nuclear ambitions as the result of the natural will of a proud nation – a will that should be accepted.

“And just like then, those who make such claims are deluding themselves. They are making an historic mistake…

“Iran wants a deal that will eliminate the sanctions and leave their nuclear capabilities intact. Such a deal, which will enable Iran to be a nuclear threshold state, will bring the entire world to the threshold of an abyss.

“I hope that the lessons of the past will be learned and that the desire to avoid confrontation at any cost will not lead to a deal that will exact a much heavier price in the future.

“In any event, the people of Israel are strong. When faced with an existential threat, the situation of our people today is entirely different than it was during the Holocaust.

“Today, we have a sovereign Jewish state. As Prime Minister of Israel, I do not hesitate to speak the truth to the world, even when faced with so many blind eyes and deaf ears. It is not only my right, it is my duty. It is a duty I am mindful of at all times, but particularly on this day, in this place…

“Unlike our situation during the Holocaust, when we were like leaves on the wind, defenseless, now we have great power to defend ourselves, and it is ready for any mission. This power rests on the courage and ingenuity of the soldiers of the IDF and our security forces.

“On this day, on behalf of the Jewish people, I say to all those who sought to destroy us, to all those who still seek to destroy us: you have failed and you will fail.

“The State of Israel is stronger than ever. It is a state that seeks peace with all its neighbors – a state with a will of iron to ensure the future of its people.

“’The people will arise like a lion cub and raise itself like a lion; it will not lie down until it consumes prey, and drinks the blood of the slain.’”

http://imra.org.il/story.php3?id=63705

~~~~~~~~~~

Strong words. Necessary words.

But in the end, the people of the world will not hear his words. Their ears are closed.

And so it will rest to our prime minister to act with all necessary might to keep us safe.

Pray for this, please.

~~~~~~~~~~

A model of bravery, Hannah Szenes: a soldier who gave her life behind enemy lines during the Holocaust, and a poet. Eli Eli (My God, My God).

Sung by the great Ofra Haza, z”l

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFcXeGtDg7w&list=RDQkjsqUQSrhE

04/28/14

All Stock Market Indices are Fata Morganas

By: Wim Grommen
The Dutch version of this article “beursindexen zijn fata morgana’s” is published on several sites in the Netherlands and Belgium.

Have you ever wondered what information a stock market index actually gives? An index point is not a fixed unit in time and does not have any historical significance.

Two measurements during a marathon

Imagine the following two measurements:

– In the first measurement, the average time is measured which 30 runners need to run a marathon.

– In the second measurement the same runners start a marathon. However, after 10 kilometres the 10 slowest runners are replaced by 10 fresh. After 20 kilometres again the 10 slowest runners are replaced by 10 fresh and after 30 kilometres this happens again. Again the average time is measured.

In which measurement will the average time over 30 runners be the smallest? And what will happen to the average time if the stopwatch is running more slowly during the second measurement? In the beginning of the second measurement, there are 60 seconds in a minute and at the end this increased to 380 seconds in a minute. Does it still make sense to compare the two measurements?

If your answer to this question is no, you will probably have no problem qualifying stock market indexes such as the AEX, DAX, S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average as fata morganas.

All Stock Market Indices are Fata Morganas

The parallel with stock market indices is easy to draw.

An index is calculated on the basis of a set of shares. Every index has its own formula and the formula results in the number of points of the index. However, this set of shares changes regularly. For a new period the value is based on a different set of shares. It is very strange that these different sets of shares are represented as the same unit. In less than ten years twelve of the thirty companies (i.e. 40%) in the Dow Jones were replaced. Over a period of sixteen years, twenty companies were replaced, a figure of 67%. This meant that over a very short period we were left comparing a basket of today’s apples with a basket of yesterday’s pears.

Even more disturbing is the fact that with every change in the set of shares used to calculate the number of points, the formula also changes. This is done because the index, which is the result of two different sets of shares at the moment the set is changed, must be the same for both sets at that point in time. The index graphs must be continuous lines. For example, the Dow Jones is calculated by adding the shares and dividing the result by a number. Because of changes in the set of shares and the splitting of shares the divider changes continuously. At the moment the divider is 0.15571590501117 but in 1985 this number was higher than 1. An index point in two periods of time is therefore calculated in different ways:

Dow1985 = (x1 + x2 +..+x30) / 1

Dow2014 = (x1 + x2 +.. + x30) / 0.15571590501117

In the 1990s many shares were split. To make sure the result of the calculation remained the same both the number of shares and the divider changed. An increase in share value of 1 dollar of the set of shares in 2014 results is 6.4 times more points than in 1985. The fact that in the 1990s many shares were split is probably the cause of the exponential growth of the Dow Jones index. At the moment the Dow is at 16,437 points. If we used the 1985 formula it would be at 2,559 points.

The most remarkable characteristic is of course the constantly changing set of shares. Generally speaking, the poorly performing companies are removed from the set and companies in the growth phase, which perform well, are added. This greatly increases the chance that the index will rise rather than go down, you don’t need a probability calculation.

Should the European Union reindex the stock markets?

It makes no sense to compare the number of points with the number of points of a stock market index from 30 years ago. The time is ripe for the European Union, after the introduction of the euro, to reindex European stockmarkets to 100 points. A fata morgana is an optical phenomenon, and so is the graph of a stock market index.