A New Baloney Sandwich and News

Okay, I am going to include some websites that I don't necessarily agree with entirely. I don't like paranoia (except in my personal life) or fear mongering. I also have said many times that I don't believe buying gold will protect you against anything. If any website promotes gold purchases than ask yourself why they don't point out that any transaction for gold worth more than $500 must be reported to the government and that if you have gold that you cannot prove was an approved sale can be confiscated. In either case, the sources were pointed out by these websites so I shall link to them rather than just scavenge the information.

Zerohedge - Jon Stewart Disembowels SecTreas Geithner. A good interview with Timothy Geithner; but, still fails to hit the obvious. Geithner was head of the Treasury and uses the same old baloney that nobody saw what was coming when the economy crashed; but, that is a LIE. The truth is that an inverted yield curve occurred prior to the crash and that is one of the number one things that the Fed looks at to predict recessions and depressions. Greenspan (the then head of the Federal Reserve) was specifically asked by congress if he was concerned about the inverted yield curve and he said that he didn't think it mattered this time. Do you really believe that the Treasury didn't listen to Greenspan when he spoke to congress?

EndoftheAmericanDream - Government Plan Would Transform Israel Into The World’s First Cashless Society. The point is that countries all around the world are moving to cashless. I thought it was interesting that 80% of all transactions in America are electronic. Those of us that are older still use cash and checks and we don't notice how few others do. That which you abhor and ignore becomes invisible to you. I talk to people my age and older and mention these things and they say they never pay attention to them or that they don't want to use electronic payments, they miss the point, this is what is coming. The younger people on the other hand complain that they have to wait while people write checks or pay in cash.

Wired - Forget Robots. We’ll Soon Be Fusing Technology With Living Matter. Where is PETA when you could actually use them. I read this article a while back about a pig in China who lived a tortured life with a tube in it's stomach to retrieve some sort of bile from it. It had a baby piglet and they did the same to the baby so it killed the baby rather than see it live in such pain. When we play with the genetics of other species are we not evil? I don't mind eating meat, I like it. I do however detest torture on any living being.

Yahoo - Google Reveals Self-Driving Car with No Steering Wheel or Brakes. Here is the thing about a world of self driving cars, you won't be able to drive them to places you are not allowed to even if you want to.

Nigel Farage and Other News

For the past couple of years I have mentioned and Englishman named Nigel Farage. Mr. Farage is the leader of UKIP which is sort of the British version of the Tea Party. They have been pretty much vilified by the existing British parties and were deemed a fringe group. They are against open immigration with other EU countries and want to leave the European Union.

Now most Americans have probably never heard of UKIP or care about whether or not England is part of the EU. Heck, most Americans don't even know what the EU is. The European Union is a financial and political organization that includes most of Europe. The EU began as a free trade zone and overtime morphed into something more. Now about 70% of the laws in Britain come from the EU. It began to prove it's real intent and that is to be a United States of Europe, one large nation.

Now, if the Europeans want to become one country, I certainly would not have a problem with it. People should be free to organize as they like. The problem as Mr. Farage and others see it is that the people did not get a chance to vote on whether or not they would be in the EU. The people in the EU do not even get to vote on who the President of the EU is and most people do not know his name. His name is Herman Van Rompuy and is Belgian.

The reason I bother mentioning any of this is so that you understand what is happening and what is coming. Mr. Farage wants to see England vote against membership in the EU and all the other parties support being in the EU. Well, on Sunday Mr. Farage's party got more votes than the other parties and now he will be pushing even harder for a vote on EU membership and it has a lot of EU supporters scared. The story of his party is the story of the week, not the story of the shootings in Santa Barbara or the Kardashian marriage. Nope, the story that is going to effect you and all of us is the future of the EU.

Now to other news.

Investors Business Daily - Apple might buy Beats Electronics with foreign cash. So the word is that Apple was looking to buy Beats electronics with money made overseas so that they won't have to pay taxes in the United States.

Wired - Prepare for Nightmarish Swarms of Google Robot Cars, Says Zipcar Founder
. The bottom line of the article is that the person who heads Zipcar (a car sharing service) sort of attacked the idea of self driving cars by saying that they would only cause more cars to be on the road doing errands for the owners without the owner having to experience the wait. The real story is what she said later, "The solution may be ensure that autonomous cars become the new public transportation, rather than private possessions. Instead of being owned by individuals, they should be owned by cities or by rental car and ride-sharing companies, Chase argues." As I have said many times, the attack is upon personal mobility, not mobility as a whole.

Wired - Darpa Turns Oculus Into a Weapon for Cyberwar. Oculus is a virtual reality headset and it was developed for gamers while the real intent has always been warfare.

Yahoo - Reuters - IMF's Lagarde calls for closer cooperation among central banks. The International Monetary Fund head is calling for more "cooperation" among the world's Central Banks, or a one world financial policy. Now this will not happen tomorrow; but, I see the EU ceding monetary control to the United Nations through either the World Bank or the IMF.

No Article - I don't usually talk about "popular" topics because there is more than enough written and said about them that they are not worth discussing until much later. I want to talk about what happened in Santa Barbara. Firstly, I attended some of the same schools as the killer and lived in the same area many years ago. He made a few videos and in the last one he said how he wanted to be adored by women and hated them for not doing so. Satan wanted to be adored, a friend of mine told me that about someone else. We can speculate as to why he came to believe the things he did; but, in the end he wanted to be God and was willing to do anything to prove that he should be, that he was better than humans who he referred to as dumb animals. The thought that led to the carnage was that people don't matter and they do. Everyone of you matters, even people like the killer; but, they choose to be their own gods and in the end they may get the hell they wish for. Lets be the best we can and pray for grace and forgiveness and show the same.

How about some music

The Pimpernel had to have a couple of hemorrhoids removed today. In the words of Curly from the Three Stooges, I feel like I am losing my mind. LOL. I was actually nervous going in and had had the procedure before. I even had the same doctor before. The end result is that I am feeling a fair amount of discomfort and just don't feel like reading the news that much, so I am posting some music.

YouTube - Carpenters - For All We Know

YouTube - Don Mclean - Dreidel

YouTube - Sailcat - Motorcycle mama

YouTube - Mouth & MacNeal - How do you do 1972

YouTube - John Fred & his Playboys-Judy In Disguise

YouTube - The Fortunes-Here Comes That Rainy Day Feeling Again

YouTube - Gary Puckett and The Union Gap Over You

YouTube - Kim Carnes - Nobody Knows ( Vanish Point Soundtrack - 1974 )

YouTube - Heart - Magazine

Just lots of news

Yahoo - Reuters - Cars could drive themselves sooner than expected after European push
. When you have to have a self driving car that talks to the other cars, will you be free to take the long way or does that waste too much gasoline?

Business Insider - 10 Amazing Superpowers Humans Will Be Able To Get From Brain Implants
The "amazing" powers that the list are: 1 - Hear a conversation from across a room, or in a crowded club. 2 - Give you the ability to see in the dark. 3 - Give you sight that can zoom in on things that are far away. 4 - Make you better at maths and navigation. 5 - Allow you to download skills like in “The Matrix.” 6 - Restore damaged memories. 7 - Cure depression and control mood. 8 - Enhance focus and energy, like stimulants without the drugs. 9 - Control machines with your mind. 10 - Search the web and translate languages.

Huffington Post - Ken Langone Actually Not That Sorry About Nazi Comparison. Like any good oligarch, Mr. Langone clarified that what he is really against is democracy and anyone other than the wealthy determining the law.

The Washington Post - Artificial intelligence has an amazing future. Dystopian movies get it wrong.
Transhumanism is very similar to Luciferianism, in the end it assumes that knowledge saves us rather than wisdom. It assumes that wisdom is the natural result of intelligence; but, it is not and never has been.

Mail Online - At the gates of heaven: A new book, drawing on the stories of dying patients and doctors, will transform the way you think about your final days.

Yahoo - A family of 4 lives in this tiny, 260-square-foot home. Yet another article discussing the joys of living in a space equivalent to two parking spaces.

BBC - Algorithm appointed board director
. Would a computer vote to have slave labor?

End of the American Dream - The Era Of Chimeras: Scientists Fearlessly Create Bizarre Human/Animal Hybrids. I would say that nothing scares me more than playing God with our genes and combining them with animals or altering them. No good can possibly come of this.

Yahoo - ABC News - Rent-A-Gent Allows Ladies to Hire Hunks for Dates, Chores. This is the job I want when I retire. A trophy date.

yahoo - Did Cooper Stock really have to die?. All your travel will be tracked in the future.

Yahoo - AP - Protesters arrested in pay fight at McDonald's HQ. The peasants are revolting and the response is the same as always, ignore them, ridicule them and arrest them. Didn't work in France under King Louis.

YouTube - Allan Sherman - You Came The Wrong Way, Old King Louis. You will love this song from the great Allan Sherman.

News that Should Distrurb

Yahoo - Reuters - Cars could drive themselves sooner than expected after European push. Bottom line, they changed the laws in Europe to allow for self driving cars. When all the cars drive themselves, who learn to read maps or know how to get places on their own or not follow their cars instructions which most efficiently get them to their destination?

Business Insider Australia - 10 Amazing Superpowers Humans Will Be Able To Get From Brain Implants. The future promises you the powers of God, just say no, you are not God, try being you and trusting in God.

The Huffington Post - Ken Langone Actually Not That Sorry About Nazi Comparison. Don't worry about the poor, worry about the poor abused billionaires. That is his message. Read the article.

Fear of Fairness

I am reading more and more things from wealthy people decrying the idea of poor people being given a chance or being treated fairly. They don't couch it in those terms and don't see it in those terms. The basic tenets of their belief system are what is known as "Social Darwinism", they believe that they were successful because they were genetically superior because their family genes and race has made them somehow better than the rest of us. This is the basis of monarchies. They also believe the inverse, they believe that poor people are genetically inferior and therefore should not have children. This is also why they hate the autistic with High IQs, they cannot compete with them.

I want you to understand why powerful people are against a minimum wage high enough to allow people to live on it. It is the same reason why they decry giving anything to the poor. They have a bitter and cynical view of the world, one in which it is everyone for themselves; but, expect that they will have all the privileges and advantages that are derived from living in this society. Much of their philosophy comes from a woman named Ayn Rand. In fact one of her followers was the Federal Reserve Chairman, Alan Greenspan. The same man that was against any regulation of Wall Street; but, was very much responsible for the bail outs of the banks which is far from capitalistic.

Bonner & Partners - Redistribute the Wealth!. The writer complains thatDrunken thugs to be fitted with tags that check them for alcohol: Bracelets will allow offenders to escape with a caution if they stay sober for 120 days the pope had called for helping the poor. He begins by dismissing God and religion as okay when not followed and that faith is just people faking it for etiquette's sake. He then wrongly states that the bible never called for giving away wealth. Maybe he doesn't understand the bible because he has never read the whole bible. One of the most important stories of the New Testament is where the rich young man came to Jesus and explained how he didn't sin and did good things and he asked Jesus what he needed to do to be saved. I cannot tell you if the young man was being sarcastic or sincere though the story is generally discussed as if the man was being sincere. In either case, Jesus responded by saying that the young man should give up all his possessions and follow him. They young man left because he couldn't part with his wealth. Jesus was asked about it and he said that it was harder for a wealthy person to be saved than it was for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle.

Mail Online - Drunken thugs to be fitted with tags that check them for alcohol: Bracelets will allow offenders to escape with a caution if they stay sober for 120 days. Your IWatch as tattle tale. In the future you will be required to wear an device that will monitor your physical condition and actions.

Yahoo - The Fiscal Times - 6 Housing Trends That May Surprise You. I have to start by saying that none of the trends surprised me and it makes me question why it surprised the writer. The trends are that home prices are going up, almost half of all housing purchases were in cash, young people and first time buyers are decreasing from the market, there are fewer people getting mortgages, jumbo loans are up and the housing market is not recovering. If one looks a little deeper they will see that hedge funds have been moving money out of the stock market and into assets including houses which they pay for in cash.

The Atlantic - Thomas Piketty Is Right About the Past and Wrong About the Future. There is a man named Piketty that wrote a book about income inequality. The book has shaken the financial world to it's foundations by questioning why income inequality exists. It is praised as being incredibly well researched and documented. It's basic premise is that capitalism leads to inequality and skewered wealth distribution or an unfair distribution of wealth.

The Atlantic - The Not-So-Distant Future When We Can All Upgrade Our Brains. People believe that soon we will be able to improve ourselves by genetically or technologically upgrading ourselves. There are people fascinated by the fact that they hope one day they will be able to buy brilliance. Aspergers is a form of Autism and those who of that nature see things that others cannot, this frequently makes them fit in poorly with society. The world is currently seeking to cure autism and use chemicals or technology to create people with the same abilities. There is this assumption that somehow we can have our senses improved drastically and it not have a toll or overwhelm; but, watch some videos of people hearing for the first time and read up on how they quickly come to feel overwhelmed and often turn down or off their own hearing devices. Some Autistic people smash their heads into the wall to make all the noises and input go away and now we have transhumanists who seek to put themselves in the same position.

There are those who believe in transhumanism and are seeking rules for it's use. One person has suggested five rules. They are as follow:

1. The right to self-knowledge
2. The right to self-modification
3. The right to refuse modification
4. The right to modify/refuse to modify your children
5. The right to know who has been modified

The meaning behind and the lack of morality behind all of these are interesting; but, I wish to focus on number 4. The right to modify your children without their permission or understanding. True permission cannot be given without understanding. There are people who argue that one should not be allowed to circumcise their children; but, they should be allowed to genetically or technologically modify their children.

Mail Online - Forget PINs - now you can withdraw cash with your VEINS: Hitachi rolls out biometric scanning technology for ATMs. I had previously written about this in relation to Japan; but, it is now being tested in Sweden which has become a cashless society where your biometrics are your identification for you to use your electronic currency.

Hope you enjoyed the post and that it gives you some things to think about.

Still Dangerous

I have a lot of mottoes. One of them is that there are two types of people in this world, the dangerous and the irrelevant. This particular saying only applies to wars and business. I used to be considered dangerous; but, the opinion seems to be that little old Pimpernel isn't what he used to be and as my retirement approaches there seems to be some question as to whether or not I have lost my abilities. In fact, I was called in at the last minute to deal with an audit. It has apparently been going on for around 6 months and all of our best have been working on it. Well, we had a meeting scheduled regarding the final report which I received Saturday morning and knew practically nothing about. Prior to the meeting our internal people meting and I requested that I be allowed to present the answers. There were those who questioned my ability to answer all of the questions which were wide ranging covering multiple disciplines and topics. Pimpernel felt insulted by such a question; but, as I had not been involved I understood it. I did however demonstrate the my answers were better than everyone elses and was allowed to attend. It turned out to be a good thing as many of the others who were to attend were taken away to a more pressing matter.

I attended the meeting with an old timer who knew our operations inside and out and had actually seen me do my thing once before and a young gun who had never seen me in action. Both of them had been involved from the start and each is intelligent; but, they had never seen me in a situation like this. I was exquisite. It was sublime. I left my opponents dazed and confused and my coworkers with a new found respect for my abilities including my ability to strategize and execute with no net. I was able to demonstrate my depth of knowledge of all fields and my industry. How well did I do, well half way through the meeting, the old expert on the other side asked me if I wanted a job as an auditor when I retired and I am not even a CPA and he knows it. It felt great. It felt great to know that I still have it and to see that everyone around me understood just how good I was.