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TRYING TO MAKE A BUCK IN BELGIUM |
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Written by Mercury Traveler
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Thursday, 08 May 2008 |
This is a personal story of what it's like doing business in Europe -
specifically a part of Europe called Wallonia, or French-speaking Belgium.
In 1976 Occidental Oil constructed the Claymore Alpha gas production
platform for the North Sea.
The platform had a total steel component of more than 600,000 tons. The
modus operandi was to construct the platforms with prefabricated modules of 500
tons weight max each and put them together module by module. Since the North
Sea only allows a good weather gap of 1 to 2 months each year in summer time,
the costs and time delays were staggering.
A Dutch maritime engineer-pioneer, Pieter Heerema, had the fantastic
idea to start constructing with 5,000 ton modules, ten times as big as before.
He was the first to use an old tanker, welding compartments in it, and with the
help of sensors and computer steering pump with massive pumps seawater in or
out of the different compartments to counterbalance the heavy loads.
But he had a very big problem. I made the mistake of trying to solve it in Belgium.
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TRADE VISION DEFICIT DISORDER |
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Written by Neal Asbury
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Thursday, 08 May 2008 |
At a time when our country is fixated on a protracted
political process passionately promising to cure all our ills, this would be an
excellent time for our presidential candidates to put forward their vision to
solve the most critical economic issue of our time: our degenerative trade
deficit.
Unfortunately they appear to suffer from Trade Vision
Deficit Disorder (TVDD), or are simply too fixated on more electability issues.
We must take it upon ourselves to provide the remedy.
Unlike other seemingly impossible challenges we face,
our trade deficit is something we can correct in a relatively short period thus
creating millions of well-paying jobs. It is as straightforward as establishing
an environment where American exporters are allowed to compete.
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IF YOU'RE SERIOUS ABOUT SECURITY FOR YOUR DATA |
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Written by Marco the Wizard
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Thursday, 08 May 2008 |
In this week's
tips, we first talk about a security application that is from the open source
community and is cross platform compatible for Windows, Linux, and Mac OSX.
The name of this
application is Truecrypt and it
truly is a secure application to store your data.
Say you want to
create a lock box vault on your hard drive for storing critical files. Possibly examples could be taxes, credit
card info, banking or investments and passwords.
Other utilities
can do this, however Truecrypt allows
you to encrypt with several protocols at once. You create a volume of files
that is hidden and invisible on your hard disk and you encrypt it with AES,
Twofish, Serpent and other encryption protocols. Be sure and click on (and read!) the Protection of
Hidden Volumes Against Damage link in Truecypt's left side bar.
No other program
out there will offer you this kind of protection.
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WISDOM FROM AVIATION/MILITARY MANUALS |
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Written by To The Point News
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Friday, 09 May 2008 |
"Whoever said the pen is
mightier than the sword obviously never encountered automatic weapons." -
General MacArthur
"Tracers work both
ways." - U.S. Army Ordnance
"Five second fuses only
last three seconds." - Infantry Journal
"Any ship can be a
minesweeper. Once."
"Never tell the Platoon
Sergeant you have nothing to do." - Unknown Marine Recruit
"If you see a bomb
technician running, follow him." - USAF Ammo Troop
"Though I Fly Through the Valley of Death, I Shall
Fear No Evil. For I am at 80,000 Feet and Climbing."
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HALF-FULL REPORT 05/02/08 |
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Written by Dr. Jack Wheeler
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Friday, 02 May 2008 |
What could be more delightful than the Dems tearing
themselves apart? That they go broke
doing it.
The best news of the week - Jeremiah
"God Damn America" Wright trashing Obambi and Obambi trashing him back -
shouldn't qualify for the HFR as the glass is just too intoxicatingly,
overflowingly full. And, besides, we
discussed this in Obama
in Greece.
But right in second place has got to be Democrat Coffers
Run Dry. The Dems have raised so
many millions - and blown them all.
Only Democrats could do this.
What do they know about living within their means, anyway? Even a DNC official admitted that it's "nuts
that we're spending so much money fighting each other instead of
Republicans."
To which we can only say, don't stop now. We're enjoying seeing your IQ-challenged
donors seeing their money go up in smoke, for nothing. We're also enjoying listening to the grinding and
gnashing of Democrat teeth over...
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THE COMING DESTRUCTION OF RUSSIA |
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Written by Dr. Jack Wheeler
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Friday, 02 May 2008 |
Which of two kinds of fascism do you think are more
dangerous - one stemming from a culture's or a people's feeling of inferiority
or superiority?
If a country possessing a Fascism of Inferiority got into a
war with a country possessing a Fascism of Superiority, all else being equal
which do you think has a better chance of winning?
Russians are xenophobic because they deeply suffer from a
lack of cultural self-confidence and an inferiority complex towards the
West. Han Chinese are xenophobic
because they feel they are a culturally and racially superior form of
humanity. Westerners, Japanese, Blacks,
Tibetans, et al, are all sub-human compared to the Han.
Russia is dying - literally. Life expectancy is lower than that of Bangladesh. Millions of Russian men drink a gallon of
vodka a week. Millions of Russian women
are sterile after having so many abortions.
This is a culture with a death-wish, one that does not want to survive.
The conclusion that CIA Director Michael Hayden draws from
Russia's demographic collapse, given in a speech
at Kansas State yesterday (4/30), is that Russia will have to import millions
of foreign workers. There's only one
place that can supply a sufficient number of such workers: China.
The question really is, will Russia surrender peacefully or
put up a fight - maybe even a nuclear fight?
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OBAMA IN GREECE |
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Written by Dr. Jack Wheeler
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Friday, 02 May 2008 |
If you could bring the
playwrights of Ancient Greece - Sophocles, Aeschylus, Euripides, Aristophanes -
from 5th century Athens to watch the Democrat primary race of today,
they would recognize it instantly. It
is a perfect Greek tragedy.
All the incredible amounts of
money being spent, all the frantic energy and hysteria, the entire swirling
maelstrom created by a vast cast of characters - all of it is for naught, for
there can be only one outcome, an inescapable outcome of doom.
The old playwrights would scoff
at our naïve notions of free will, our arguments that each of the participants
in the tragedy - such as the "superdelegates" - really do have the capacity to
act for themselves.
No, they would say, the
characters have no choice, for no matter what they do, they are drawn into a
trap of ineluctable fate, like a fly caught in a web of invisible silk strands,
so invisible he doesn't know he's caught while the spider approaches.
The 5th century
Greeks would have understood the play.
A 4th century Greek would understand what happens to the
audience watching the play.
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OBAMA AT WRIGHT'S MERCY |
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Written by Jack Kelly
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Friday, 02 May 2008 |
Rarely in the history of American politics has a bigot had
as much power as the Rev. Jeremiah Wright enjoys today.
Support for Sen. Barack Obama has plunged nationally and
(more importantly) in North Carolina since Rev. Wright confirmed at his
National Press Club appearance Monday (4/28) that he does indeed hold racist,
lunatic, anti-American views, and implied that Sen. Obama has been insincere in
separating himself from them. "He had to distance himself, because
he's a politician," Rev. Wright said.
If you're running as the candidate of hope and change who
will "bring us together," it is hard to imagine how things could get
worse. But they can.
Jeremiah Wright could destroy his former protégé in a single
interview. Obama is at the mercy of a man who hates the country of which he wants to be president.
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THE BEST FRIEND OF TERRORISTS IN IRAQ IS THE NEW YORK TIMES |
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Written by Jack Kelly
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Friday, 02 May 2008 |
If James Glanz wins a prize for his reporting from Iraq, it
will be for fiction.
Mr. Glanz is the bureau chief of the New York Times in
Baghdad. When Iraqi troops began an offensive March 25 to take Basra from
the Mahdi Army, an Iranian-backed militia nominally headed by the Moqtada al
Sadr, he and his colleagues described the fighting (which spread to other
cities in southern Iraq and to the Sadr City section of Baghdad) as a military
defeat and a political catastrophe for Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al Maliki.
After three weeks of reporting nothing but alleged Iraqi
government setbacks, it must have come as a shock to subscribers of the New
York Times to read, in a dispatch April 20 from Mr. Glanz and Alissa Rubin,
that "Iraqi soldiers took control of the last bastions of the cleric
Moqtada al-Sadr's militia in Basra on Saturday."
Ignorance and stupidity alone cannot explain how the New
York Times reported this story so wrong for so long.
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THE LIBERAL HAT TRICK OF IGNORANCE, ENVY, AND DELUSION |
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Written by Richard Rahn
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Friday, 02 May 2008 |
Have
you ever wondered why so many people see higher taxes and more government as
the solution to every problem, despite the empirical evidence that more
government reduces economic efficiency and growth, plus diminishes our
liberties?
As will be shown, the arguments from the big government
advocates are usually based on a combination of economic and historical
ignorance, envy, and just plain delusional thinking.
The
New York Times editorial page has long been a bastion of this delusional
thinking. On April 24, the paper produced one of its classic inane editorials
in favor of higher taxes on labor and capital, which contained this gem of a
sentence: "Memo to McCain: 401(k) savers get no benefit from a low
capital-gains [tax] rate."
Everyone
who has ever taken basic economics should know a lower tax rate on an
investment (i.e., the capital-gains tax) will lead to a higher rate of return,
and hence the investment will be worth more. Though
this concept is not difficult for most people to understand, it seems beyond
the knowledge and reasoning ability of those who write editorials for the New
York Times.
Unfortunately, the Times has plenty of global
company when it comes to economic ignorance, envy and delusional thinking. We
find it among many politicians in almost every government world-wide.
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INTEGRITY AND CLASSICAL LIBERALISM |
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Written by Dr. Joel Wade
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Friday, 02 May 2008 |
I had John Nehring in
mind as I wrote this, and would like to dedicate this column to the memory of
this great and dear man. John, you are well loved and sadly missed.
A Classically Liberal
political and economic system makes it much easier for more people to live with
integrity.
The act of integration is the act of bringing together all
of the elements of your life and weaving them together in an integrated whole. Living with integrity
is what you do when you own your own life, and want to take good care of your
property.
Owning your own life in many ways is an internal process.
But to live that process openly in relation to the real world implies a legal
right to that life; and living with integrity in the sense of actively speaking
and behaving in congruence with your beliefs and knowledge requires the political
and economic freedom to do so.
For much of human history, and throughout much of the world
today, this kind of legal right and freedom has been and continues to be limited.
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WHAT A CRAZY LANGUAGE |
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Written by To The Point News
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Friday, 02 May 2008 |
English is a crazy language.
There's no egg in eggplant, no ham in hamburger, neither apple nor pine in
pineapple. English muffins weren't invented in England, nor French fries in
France. Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads aren't sweet and they sure
aren't made of bread.
Quicksand works slowly, boxing
rings are square and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor a pig. You can make amends but not one amend. If
you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do
you call it?
In what language do people
recite at a play and play at a recital? Or ship by truck and send cargo by
ship? Park in a driveway, and drive on a parkway? Have noses that run and feet
that smell? How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise
man and a wise guy are opposites?
How can your house can burn up
as it burns down, how can you fill in a form by filling it out, how can an
alarm go off by going on?
It drives people crazy trying to
learn to speak English. Here are some
reasons why:
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JOHN NEHRING 1942-2008 |
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Written by Dr. Jack Wheeler
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Friday, 25 April 2008 |
One of the most beloved members of our To The Point family
has passed on.
Anyone who knew him could assure you that you'll never meet
a kinder, more decent man than John Nehring.
There was a sweetness, a gentleness to him, combined with a profound
love of liberty and a core of pro-American steel.
An Eagle Scout and National Merit Scholar from Columbus,
Ohio, John graduated near the top of his class at the Air Force Academy. He was an F-4 Phantom fighter pilot in
Vietnam, got a Masters degree in economics at Georgetown, taught business &
economics at the Air Force Academy, served in the Air Force for 30 years and
retired as a full bird colonel.
For the past several years, John taught economics at
Embry-Riddle University in Colorado Springs, opening his students' eyes to the
great advocates of economic freedom, such as
Ludwig von Mises, Frederic Bastiat, and Milton Friedman.
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HALF-FULL REPORT 04/25/08 |
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Written by Dr. Jack Wheeler
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Friday, 25 April 2008 |
We open the HFR this week by asking: Dare we hope for Hillary?
It's a fun debate over who would be easier for McCain to beat, Obambi or the PIAPS, almost as much fun as watching them rip each other's political guts out. McCain could score a Reagnesque electoral victory over either of these two losers, but I want him to go up against Her Shrillness. There's suddenly real hope that he will...
... Which brings us to the delightful subject of the North Carolina GOP Anti-Obama ad. It is fabulous -- And it is really funny to see how many smart conservatives - even Rush Limbaugh who's normally really smart - have been suckered by John McCain's denouncing it...
... Let's raise a more than half-full glass of congratulations to the brave leaders of the North Carolina Republican Party. We need more Republicans with their courage. What we need fewer of is the editorial writers of the New York Times, whose op-eds provide the propaganda marching orders for the entire liberal media. Looks like we get our wish...
... We close the HFR this week with absolutely the most thrilling and uplifting headline of recent times: Food Crisis Starts Eclipsing Climate Change Worries
How great is that? Nothing like a little mass world-wide starvation to make people doubt in the religious dogma of warm-mongering. Finally - finally - it just may be that people aren't willing to go back to the Stone Age in order to placate Algore.
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ENDING CHINA'S THREAT TO TAIWAN |
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Written by Dr. Jack Wheeler
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Thursday, 24 April 2008 |
The single greatest threat to
peace in the world, the one with the most potential to escalate into all-out
and even nuclear war between China and the United States, lies in the Formosa
Straits, the 100 miles of ocean separating mainland China and the island of
Taiwan.
At this moment, the Communist
Chinese have 1,400
CSS-6 and CSS-7 short-range ballistic missiles aimed at Taiwan. The handful of Tien Kung-3
(Sky-Bow-3) air defense missile batteries (based on our Patriot II system) the
Taiwanese have is wholly inadequate against this massive threat.
What Taiwan needs is a missile
defense system that can blanket its west coast facing the mainland as well as
its cities, that is cheap to build, quick to build, easy to operate, and very
effective. A system that would allow
few if any Chinese missiles to get through, that would blow any Chinese
attacking warplanes out of Taiwan's skies, and against which any Chinese
landing craft in an amphibious invasion would be dead ducks.
This system could be put in place within 24
months. Once it is, China's threat to
Taiwan is essentially gone. Here's how
Taiwan can do it.
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