This isn’t even the best part.  Read the entire article.  If i could fly without rupturing my eardrums i wouldn’t due to the insanity of “gov’t security” which is a total joke.

Let me make myself clear: I am very interested in not being blown to smithereens by some Islamic Nutjob who believes his personal path to a bunch of virgins lies in killing “infidels.”

But let me also be very clear: It is not little grandmas, 40 year old white businesspeople, or families with a couple of young kids (all of whom have the same, non-muslim or arabic last name) that have or are attempting to blow up airliners.

In this case said nutjob recently visited a place known to be a terrorist hotbed, we knew he was there, and even more damning, the NSA knew he was on the plane before it entered American airspace – yet that flight was permitted to proceed all the way to Detroit where he tried to set off his device (and it failed to detonate, most likely because he was tackled by another passenger, thank the Christian God!)

Even better, this jackass' name is “Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab”. Is that your first clue that there's a materially higher risk that he's a terrorist than, say, “Sam Smith”?

The American people have been subjected to outrageous and insane restrictions and inconvenience with regards to air travel since 9/11, all in the name of “improving security.”

via Starve The Beast: Airlines – The Market Ticker.

You know it’s going to be bad and that the media is lying about how we are done with the recession when they put this stuff out:

I like it how Karl Denninger calls cnbc cnbs..msnbc could be msnbs as well.  Along with fox, dnn, abc and cbs.  With many of our manufacturing jobs permanently offshored don’t expect us to come back anytime soon.  Remember Japan’s “lost decade”?  We are about to have one as well.  runaway gov’t spending along with domestic hostile policies are going to continue to send jobs offshore as wlel as our money.  If you think this was incompetence…think again.  This is purposeful.

A decade of high unemployment is looming

WASHINGTON – Call it the Terrible Teens.

The decade ahead could be a brutal one for America’s unemployed — and for people with jobs hoping for pay raises.

At best, it could take until the middle of the decade for the nation to generate enough jobs to drive down the unemployment rate to a normal 5 or 6 percent and keep it there. At worst, that won’t happen until much later — perhaps not until the next decade.

The deepest and most enduring recession since the 1930s has battered America’s work force.

The unemployed number 15.4 million. The jobless rate is 10 percent. More than 7 million jobs have vanished. People out of work at least six months number a record 5.9 million. And household income, adjusted for inflation, has shrunk in the past decade.

Most economists say it could take at least until 2015 for the unemployment rate to drop down to a historically more normal 5.5 percent. And with the job market likely to stay weak, some also foresee another decade of wage stagnation.

Even though the economy will likely keep growing, the pace is expected to be plodding. That will make employers reluctant to hire. Further contributing to high unemployment is the likelihood of more people competing for jobs, baby boomers delaying retirement and interest rates edging higher.

All this would come after a decade that created relatively few jobs: a net total of just 464,000. By contrast, 21.7 million new jobs were generated between 1989 and 1999.

Economist David Levy, chairman of the Jerome Levy Forecasting Center, says the country faces a new era of chronically high unemployment, averaging 8 percent or more over the next decade.

The “New Abnormal,” he calls it.

Levy thinks the New Abnormal also means average pay will dwindle, along with consumer prices. That would make it harder for households to pay down debt, he warns.

By the Federal Reserve’s reckoning, the jobless rate could remain as high as 7.6 percent in 2012. And it would take two or three years after that for the job market to return to normal, the Fed says.

It’s possible jobs won’t return to pre-recession levels at any point over the next 10 years, Levy says.

That’s mainly because the economy’s recovery, sluggish by historical standards, isn’t expected to regain its vigor over the next few years. As a result, companies will be in no rush to ramp up hiring.

Other analysts think the economy will recover the jobs wiped out by the recession by 2013 or 2014 but that the unemployment rate will stay high. They note that the healing economy will cause more people to stream back into the labor force, vying for too-few jobs.

In addition, baby boomers whose retirement accounts have shrunk could put off retiring and stay in the work force longer. That would leave fewer positions available for the unemployed.

Other contributing forces — businesses squeezing more work from employees they still have and relying more on part-time and overseas help — have intensified. And record-high federal budget deficits and the threat of inflation could drive up interest rates, which could hobble growth and restrict job creation.

All those factors could combine to keep unemployment high.

“It will be the mother of all jobless recoveries,” predicts economic historian John Steel Gordon.

On the other hand, it’s possible some technological innovation not yet envisioned could generate a wave of jobs. Yet at the moment, most economists aren’t betting that any such breakthroughs will rescue the labor market.

The last time the jobless rate reached double digits, in the early 1980s, it took six years to bring it down to normal levels.

Unemployment hit a post-World War II high of 10.8 percent at the end of 1982 as the country was emerging from a severe recession. The rate fell to around 5 percent in 1988. It took less than two years for the number of jobs to return to its pre-recession level.

In this recovery, the economy is far more fragile.

Hard-to-get credit is exerting a drag. Wounds from the banking system’s worst crisis since the Great Depression will take years to fully heal. People and companies, scarred by the crisis, are likely to restrain borrowing, spending and investing.

Some analysts think the jobless rate might have already peaked at 10.2 percent in October. But most economists predict the rate will peak at around 10.5 percent by the middle of next year.

“We are digging out of a very deep hole,” says Lynn Reaser, chief economist at Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego and chief economist for the National Association for Business Economics.

Reaser estimates it will take until 2015 for the unemployment rate to drop to 5.5 percent.

A sputtering job market carries other consequences. One is flat wages. When many people compete for few jobs, employers have no incentive to raise pay.

The economic shocks of the past decade already have cut into Americans’ incomes. That’s among the reasons why people feel they’re standing still economically.

Median household income, adjusted for inflation, fell to $50,303 in 2008, according to the U.S. Census. That gauge combines wages and salaries, investment income and government benefit payments like Social Security. It’s down 4 percent from a peak of $52,587 in 1999, when incomes were bolstered by stock gains from the dot-com boom.

That bubble burst in 2000. Since then, workers have seen meager wage gains. Adjusted for inflation, wages grew about 13 percent in the past 10 years — the slowest pace in five decades, according to calculations made by Scott Hoyt of Moody’s Economy.com.

That trend is predicted to continue.

“There will be a continued hollowing-out of the middle class,” says H.W. Brands, a historian at the University of Texas.

He points to productivity growth, which has let companies produce more with leaner work forces, the offshoring of service-sector jobs and the shrinking of factory jobs.

That’s why Vicki Adriano, 51, who works at a General Motors plant in Lordstown, Ohio, looks ahead to the coming decade with trepidation.

The economic wreckage of the past year means she’ll probably have to work longer than she had expected at the factory —  at least seven more years. She frets about the loss of economic security.

“Everything you worked for all those years can be gone in a minute,” she says.

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34601256/ns/business-us_business/

Shatner’s Raw Nerve – On BIO Channel.

I have always liked William Shatner as an actor.  Now I have been watching this series of his and he’s a great interviewer as well.

When, not if, it is you will discover the what I have said all along is the truth purpose of this so-called “reform” – a single-payer system.

Here’s how it will happen.

1.

Congress will pass and Obama will sign something containing this “individual mandate.”

2.

This will generate immediate lawsuits which will begin their way through the system, headed for the United States Supreme Court. That process will take several years. Note that the so-called “benefits” of this reform will also take several years to show up. This is not an accident.

3.

Meanwhile, the taxes begin immediately. This is exactly what happened in the 1930s by the way – taxes were raised right into the maw of an economic recession, and helped turn it into a Depression. Such it will be this time as well.

4.

Young, healthy people will pay the “fines” under protest and refuse to buy coverage (it’s cheaper than complying with a $15,000/year mandate to pay the $750/year fine!) and join said lawsuits in Step #2. This will in turn begin to force private companies out of the system (remember, there are also price controls in there!) as adverse selection will not be eliminated as promised.

5.

At some point the courts will strike the individual mandate. Free to not pay the fine or buy insurance and prevented from raising rates adverse selection will collapse the remaining private health insurers.

via The True Intent of Health “Reform” – The Market Ticker.

Energy-efficient traffic lights can’t melt snow – Yahoo! News.

Energy-efficient traffic lights can’t melt snow

MILWAUKEE – Cities around the country that have installed energy-efficient traffic lights are discovering a hazardous downside: The bulbs don’t burn hot enough to melt snow and can become crusted over in a storm — a problem blamed for dozens of accidents and at least one death.

“I’ve never had to put up with this in the past,” said Duane Kassens, a driver from West Bend who got into a fender-bender recently because he couldn’t see the lights. “The police officer told me the new lights weren’t melting the snow. How is that safe?”

Many communities have switched to LED bulbs in their traffic lights because they use 90 percent less energy than the old incandescent variety, last far longer and save money. Their great advantage is also their drawback: They do not waste energy by producing heat.

Authorities in several states are testing possible solutions, including installing weather shields, adding heating elements like those used in airport runway lights, or coating the lights with water-repellent substances.

Short of some kind of technological fix, “as far as I’m aware, all that can be done is to have crews clean off the snow by hand,” said Green Bay, Wis., police Lt. Jim Runge. “It’s a bit labor-intensive.”

In St. Paul, Minn., for example, city crews use air compressors to blow snow and ice off blocked lights.

Some communities began installing cool-burning LEDs more than a decade ago, and it wasn’t long before drivers started complaining about the problem.

Illinois authorities said that during a storm in April, 34-year-old Lisa Richter could see she had a green light and began making a left turn. A driver coming from the opposite direction did not realize the stoplight was obscured by snow and plowed into Richter’s vehicle, killing her.

“Would the accident have occurred if the lights had been clear? I would be willing to bet not,” Oswego police Detective Rob Sherwood said.

Authorities said dozens of similar collisions have been reported in other cold-weather states, including Iowa and Minnesota.

Not every storm causes snow to stick to the lights, but when the wind is right and the snow is wet, drivers should beware, said Gary Fox, a traffic engineer for the city of Des Moines, Iowa.

Exactly how much a technological fix will cost is unclear, but it will surely cut into the savings and the energy efficiency many cities are enjoying.

Wisconsin, which has put LED bulbs at hundreds of intersections, saves about $750,000 per year in energy costs, said Dave Vieth of the state Transportation Department. LEDs installed seven years ago are still burning, while most incandescent bulbs have to be replaced every 12 to 18 months, he said.

“With LEDs we have energy savings in excess of 80 percent, and we don’t have to have crews replacing them as often,” Vieth said. “So it’s clear the overall savings are pretty significant.”

In Minnesota, where authorities have upgraded hundreds of traffic lights to LEDs, the Transportation Department occasionally gets reports of an obstructed light. But by the time a highway crew arrives, the wind has often knocked out the snow and ice, said traffic systems specialist Jerry Kotzenmacher. Minnesota is experimenting with weather shields.

One reason there have been so few deaths is that drivers know they should treat a traffic signal with obstructed lights as a stop sign, traffic experts say.

“It’s the same as if the power is out,” said Dave Hansen, a traffic engineer with the Green Bay Department of Public Works. “If there’s any question, you err on the side of caution.”

___

Associated Press writers Patrick Condon in Minneapolis and Melanie Welte in Des Moines, Iowa, contributed to this report.

Did you ever wonder why the United States isn’t even hinted at in the Bible?  OPEC is getting their own currency, China is going to head that way.  It is only a matter of time now before there is a truly one world currency.  To think I saw this on a financial blog hwo is worried aobut hte US currency pretty much going to zero.  What he misses is hte ramifications of the moves other countries are making.  Hang onto your hats folks…this is no longer an earthly thing..this is a heavenly thing!

Today’s lesson in falsity is the announcement, long rumored, by the Gulf States that they will be forming a common currency, breaking the formal and informal dollar pegs that have controlled the price of oil and kept the petro-dollar recycling mill operating, allowing The United States to force our inflationary policies down the Arabs' throats.

“The Gulf monetary union pact has come into effect,” said Kuwait’s finance minister, Mustafa al-Shamali, speaking at a Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) summit in Kuwait.

The move will give the hyper-rich club of oil exporters a petro-currency of their own, greatly increasing their influence in the global exchange and capital markets and potentially displacing the US dollar as the pricing currency for oil contracts. Between them they amount to regional superpower with a GDP of $1.2 trillion (£739bn), some 40pc of the world’s proven oil reserves, and financial clout equal to that of China.

Potentially displacing my tailfeathers. That displacement is now assured.

Oh, and it doesn’t stop with just money either:

The GCC also agreed to create a joint military strike force – akin to the EU’s rapid reaction force – to tackle threats such as the incursion of Yemeni Shiite rebels into Saudi territory earlier this year.

They nevertheless repeated on Tuesday that “any military action against Iran” by Western powers would be unacceptable.

Well there you have it.

China will be next with a Pan-Asian common currency and exchange system. The rumblings have been coming from there too, and they’ll be followed by action – if for no other reason than that with the unpegging of oil from the dollar there is no longer any reason for China to continue to maintain a dollar hegemony of its own, and in fact doing so could be extremely damaging to China's economy.

via Calling The Time “Person Of The Year”: Jackass – The Market Ticker.

The reason is becuase the Frederick County BOCC is telling Brunswick that growth areas INSIDE Brunswick City Limits cannot be ceveloped.  Nice try guys..but you can’t do that inside Brunswick’s city limits.  unlike Rosemont Brunwick is an incorporated municipality and has rights boverned by state law.  Only if the judges decides to summarily rewrite the law is the county going to be able to do this.

Rosemont, Knoxville and others are not incorporated so they relaly can’t do much..the judge may not see it that way though.

Municipalities across Frederick County plan to challenge a new county ordinance in court, according to the local chapter of the Maryland Municipal League.The ordinance, approved in November, will apply development restrictions related to school capacity on newly annexed properties.

via Towns, cities intend to sue county over new growth ordinance – The Frederick News-Post Online.

officially not a fan of the time of the year nov 20th through jan3rd. too much crap..too much choas..too much stress. Tired of bickering. I know it’s me…:) I’m weird like that..next year..this is going to be a stress free zone.

FOXNews.com – Get Ready for Health Care ‘Sticker Shock’.

REad the entire article.  for folks who have coverage you are going to pay more.  If you refuse they will make you pay in tax penalties…socialism in healthcare.  BTW remember that mammogram test they did?  They wanted to see if folks would accept that kind of rationing being voluntary.  That was an absolute no so it’s going to get forced on us.  For all you who voted these crooks in over and over..you are getting your just desserts and unfortunately the rest of us are having to pay..literally.

I guess this is a case of keep your friends close but keep your enemies(vets) closer?

At the end of fiscal 2008, approximately 480,000 veterans were employed within the federal government.

The Obama administration wants to boost that number significantly through the Veterans Employment Initiative the president established recently to recruit and train veterans and increase their numbers within the executive branch.

via Careers.