"In other words, we’re all but dependent on Chinese investments. Beyond this fund, China holds half a trillion dollars in U.S. Treasury bonds. For that reason economist Navarro says they have us over a barrel. If they don’t like our behavior, he says all, they have to do is dump all their U.S. investments. It’s known as the financial nuclear option.Really good article even if it is almost a year old.
"What would that do? That will cause interest rates to spike. Mortgage rates to spike. Inflation to spike. The dollar to go through the floor. The stock market to go into chaos," Navarro said. "We would be in deep, deep, deep trouble.""
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Urban Survival...
On one hand I am so excited to see this pop up; I have no desire to give my tax dollars to a lazy homeless sack who doesn't think enough of him/herself to help themselves. On the other hand, I hate the idea that this is one more agency growing within the Govt
Pass the Pee Cup Department
We see now that lawmakers in eight (or more) states want to make passing a drug test a precondition for getting welfare. OK, but turnabout is fair play: How about mandatory IQ testing for lawmakers?
I can see 'hard' drugs, like opiates, ecstasy, and such. But something like pot which can be grown free instead of being purchased (and taxed) by the booze lobby? So, here's my plan: If they include booze testing, fine. Otherwise, free from plants ought not to be a rule-out. I'm just saying, why should the booze biz benefit from higher consumption in hard times? Under the guise of what?
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You saw where DEA raided a [medical] pot dispensary in San Francisco just days after the Obama folks signals that such operations would not be interfered with if they operated within state laws, which it's claimed this one wasn't.
Let us know where the burning is so we can all go stand downwind, LOL. Same page, anyone?
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Ah the days of being a reporter. I remember being at the dock when the Helena Star, busted in international waters by the Coast Guard with 37-tons of pot aboard showed up on the Seattle waterfront under strong guard in 1978....those were the days. A ship off the coast instead of gangs at the border.
Boy, has enlightened federal drug policy come a long way, or what? Yessir...turned a cottage industry and a few high speed boats into a near war with Mexico. What a deal, huh? Plus spend how much in the past 30 years? And what's in your wallet? Not accountability, for sure.
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Spaced
North Korea is getting ready to test a long-range missile. What a load-a-crap! Launching missiles about is thought by many lesser country leaders to be a kind of international erectile dysfunction cure. It's not. It's a money sinkhole. Better: How about feeding NK citizens?
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Great monologue on time management and focus!
Coping: Pre-loading and Other PIM Concepts
You might want to spend some time working on PIM - personal information management. Very few people are conscious enough of their daily computer use to develop a 'personal information management strategy', but since I was discussing the concept of 'self profiling' with you earlier this week, I thought it would be a useful follow-up to also get into how Cliff at www.halfpasthuman.com and I share some commonalities with regard to how we use the net.
For one thing, since we have a pretty good idea as to when certain trends/changes seem likely to occur, based on the asymmetric language trend analysis (ALTA) reports, that gives us gobs of time to devote to forward-looking, deeper study of key developments. For example, we know that certain aspects of the weather are going to be worse/different this year than most, and we know the 'summer of hell/2009' language is abundant. Easily hedged to some degree, but most people don't (or won't) since they are bound up in day-to-day mindless crap; so their 'window of opportunity' to prep for what's next in this Year of Transformation dribbles out their DSL modem as they walk away from being in charge of their own outcome and instead join 'the herd'.
In other words, while there may be tons of news and discussion of something like this plane crash, that murder, or that Hollywood personality being in court for [whatever], but if you think for a moment "Does this have the remotest chance in hell of meaning anything in your personal life outcome 20-years from now?" In most cases, the answer is "No!".
Why do you do it? What do you do about it?
Example at a social level: Sure, there's something about watching the news - maybe it's the imminence of death' factor - that keeps people spellbound and worried about this possible next development, or that. It's like: Why do people go to NASCAR races? Is it really to see how fast automobiles can go while turning left? Or, is it something more...some imminence of death, danger shared with a crowd phenomena?
Don't get me wrong, I like car racing and all, but I'm more a do-it-yourselfer inasmuch as I like tracks that turn both right and left (I'm talking a road course here). Which is why instead of having a bunch of posters for this stock car driver or that, I instead invest in books like Car Lopez's Going Faster! Mastering the Art of Race Driving
My point is that using the 'net is reasonable analog to car racing. Some people are 'watchers'. They will read every joke sent to them, and then they will go to every video link, follow endless online discussions; but I ask "To what end?" Cliff's a 'mechanic' and good driver on the road course that is the 'net and I'm a decent rookie driver. Say, is that you up there in the stands?
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Avoid excessive depth in news reports as this has its dangers, too. Analysis can get so deep, so circular given the amount of information today, that making a judgment becomes all but impossible; there are so many facts on both sides to be considered. What's the old saying? Ah: "Analysis causes paralysis." So how does one come up with proceed? By taking a moment before doing any Google search or second/third/fourth version of one news item and asking "What am I going to do with this information once I get it?"
You could add lots of sub-routines to that one, for sure. Like "Is this going to be useful information? Will is change any of my behavior? Change any outcome now, or in the future in my life?" If the answer is often "No...but it would be nice to know...." that's one thing. But I've found myself wasting an incredible amount of time in the past surfing eBay and other sites, with no specific outcome in mind. Here lately, I've become a search & shopping Scrooge: If I can't use the information in some specific application now or in the near future, I won't do the search.
These couple of points alone can free up hours a day. The next one is how you parse (sort/decide what to read) in your email inbox. Although I appreciate people sending me jokes and pictures, I don't really have much time for that. If someone sends me 4 mb of video, I will be very judicious based on the cover email in my decision whether to watch. Most go right to trash.
Ultra-high efficiency guys like Cliff even go so far as to strip off all attachments, and cue mail into his Vortex Reader and slam through emails at 1,500 words per minute. I use my Vortex for longer documents and books...quadrupling my input speed.. If you don't know how to use an email router, I assure you, it's worth the effort. Clients come first, so they have boxes. Friends/relatives next, again, with boxes. Ditto Peoplenomics subscribers. Everything else has a heap. Gets read, but wow, does it go fast.
Then there's the matter of discussion groups. While these are nice, I only subscribe to a handful and of these, I'll only read one or two posts per day max, just to keep up on the flavor of the discussions. One discussion group on longwave economics and one on old-time Hallicrafters radios just to keep by electronics trouble-shooting skills current.
A 'danger' of discussion groups is that they lend themselves well to a kind of consensus-building that I'd just as soon not take part in; we've got plenty of group-think afoot in America already. Instead, I just pass on most everything available understanding, of course, that there are occasional bits of brilliance in such groups, but Cliff's linguistic spidering gets some of that and the rest I can live without. The problem with the group-think/consensus building? You lose independence of perspective.
It boils down to a framing something like this: "Do I want to spend a lot of time (say 200-hours a year) being involved in consensus-building? Or, do I just need 5-minutes of research time if the group purpose/consensus ever shows up in my life?" I'll take the latter, thanks. In the meantime, I can remain aloof, independent, and develop my own viewpoint which people can read, or not, as they choose.
Summary:
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Put yourself on a news diet: One or two mainstreams for 20-minutes per day.
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A handful of sites you enjoy which post daily (hopefully this one will remain on your list)
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Skip any email which even smells like a joke and trash all videos and 'forward this to everyone you know' because that's potential self-profiling material and/or just a waste of time
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No more than 15-minutes a day in discussion groups and no more than a single posting a week.
This may seem overly harsh, but people sometimes ask "How do you get so much done?" The answer is to cut out as much unnecessary bullshit from my life as possible. In the end Life comes down to only a couple of things (and you can arrange these in whatever order you want):
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Doing the things you have to do like
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Selling your time to make money
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Paying your taxes/living within social bounds
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Taking care of bodily functions
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Doing the dishes
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Doing the things you want to do
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Maintain a reasonable information input/filtering system
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Work on personal goals such as
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food, economic, and health independence
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Strive toward spiritual growth/find your Path and be on it
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'Course this is all debatable no end, but not much point to debate because again, that's one of those PIMS issues: Don't waste time arguing with people. It's not my job to change your mind, just one of my jobs to do this site since it 'calls to me' (see Path and be on it).
This is not a course in how to be a hermit. This is how you can improve your use of personal time immensely. Have you called your Congressman on this lousy Farm-busting bill HR 875? What's more important? Forwarding some mindless bullshit video and jokes or getting on the blower to Washington and demanding some of this crap end....now!
Or were you caught up in the latest flame war in some discussion group? See how the 'net can be used for social control? Too busy talking and no time on going. It's fine bread, and better circuses
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