Private Accounts

Chile has private retirement accounts. New York times columnist John Tierney compared their performance against American Social Security and found it pretty excellent: After comparing our relative payments to our pension systems (since salaries are higher in America, I had contributed more), we extrapolated what would have happened if I’d put my money into Pablo’s … Continue reading “Private Accounts”

Chile has private retirement accounts. New York times columnist John Tierney compared their performance against American Social Security and found it pretty excellent:

After comparing our relative payments to our pension systems (since salaries are higher in America, I had contributed more), we extrapolated what would have happened if I’d put my money into Pablo’s mutual fund instead of the Social Security trust fund. We came up with three projections for my old age, each one offering a pension that, like Social Security’s, would be indexed to compensate for inflation:

(1) Retire in 10 years, at age 62, with an annual pension of $55,000. That would be more than triple the $18,000 I can expect from Social Security at that age.

(2) Retire at age 65 with an annual pension of $70,000. That would be almost triple the $25,000 pension promised by Social Security starting a year later, at age 66.

(3)Retire at age 65 with an annual pension of $53,000 and a one-time cash payment of $223,000.

American Democrats don’t want us to have this much money when we retire – prosperous people vote Republican.

Vacancy

The resignation of San Diego mayor Dick Murphy opens up a slot on the list of the three worst big-city mayors in the US. I nominate Portland’s Tom Potter, the terrorism-friendly mayor who doesn’t want the FBI looking for bad guys in his town. Here’s what the local paper said about his hissy-fit against the … Continue reading “Vacancy”

The resignation of San Diego mayor Dick Murphy opens up a slot on the list of the three worst big-city mayors in the US.

I nominate Portland’s Tom Potter, the terrorism-friendly mayor who doesn’t want the FBI looking for bad guys in his town. Here’s what the local paper said about his hissy-fit against the FBI:

“We have a population of extremists who engage in criminal behavior in our community,” Foxworth wrote the mayor. “Nonsupport of the JTTF would cause long-term damage to our reputation and credibility within the law enforcement community. This will likely weaken our relationships with remaining law-enforcement partners and break down lines of communication.”

Translation: Portland’s withdrawal from the task force would only help to disconnect the dots. And that’s chilling. As we all remember, the intelligence failure that enabled the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to succeed was a failure to share and synthesize information.

Portland, as a crucial member of the FBI task force, second only to the FBI, is a key dot. Its withdrawal would only diminish the effectiveness of FBI anti-terrorism investigations. The mayor and the Portland City Council should do everything in their power to keep those dots tightly connected.

And they endorsed him.

Portland officially haven for terrorists

It’s official: Portland, Oregon is the best city in America for terrorists: The city of Portland is pulling its police officers from an FBI-led anti-terrorism team, after federal law enforcement leaders said they couldn’t go along with a suggested compromise that would have given the mayor more oversight over the kinds of cases Portland officers … Continue reading “Portland officially haven for terrorists”

It’s official: Portland, Oregon is the best city in America for terrorists:

The city of Portland is pulling its police officers from an FBI-led anti-terrorism team, after federal law enforcement leaders said they couldn’t go along with a suggested compromise that would have given the mayor more oversight over the kinds of cases Portland officers investigate.

This makes Portland the very first American city to withdraw from the Joint Terrorism Task Force, and will allow it to continue nurturing such folks as the Portland Seven, lead by convicted terrorist Maher Hawash.

Such a fine legacy would make this city attractive to, I don’t know, Ward Churchill maybe. Aha, guess where he was this Sunday?

Portland: the city that parodies itself.

John Cole on Radio

Check out John Cole on Jeff Goldstein’s radio show today at 3:00PM EDT. John is the spokesman for rational conservatism, meaning those of us who oppose tyranny and aren’t god-botherers. UPDATE: He did well. There has traditionally been conflict between conservatives and libertarians in the Republican Party, the conservative overreach on Schiavo, judges, and creationism … Continue reading “John Cole on Radio”

Check out John Cole on Jeff Goldstein’s radio show today at 3:00PM EDT. John is the spokesman for rational conservatism, meaning those of us who oppose tyranny and aren’t god-botherers.

UPDATE: He did well. There has traditionally been conflict between conservatives and libertarians in the Republican Party, the conservative overreach on Schiavo, judges, and creationism has brought it to the surface again. Unfortunately, most (religious) conservatives have very little respect for the rule of law when it means their religion has to recede into the background.

A billion new bloggers

According to RCRNews.com: Chipmaker Intel Corp. announced its first WiMAX product, a move that could push the WiMAX industry similar to how Intel’s Centrino products advanced the Wi-Fi market. “As a standards-based, high-speed Internet access solution, WiMAX can provide the platform for the next generation of Internet expansion, connecting the next billion Internet users,” said … Continue reading “A billion new bloggers”

According to RCRNews.com:

Chipmaker Intel Corp. announced its first WiMAX product, a move that could push the WiMAX industry similar to how Intel’s Centrino products advanced the Wi-Fi market.

“As a standards-based, high-speed Internet access solution, WiMAX can provide the platform for the next generation of Internet expansion, connecting the next billion Internet users,” said Scott Richardson, general manager of Intel’s Broadband Wireless Division. “In addition to delivering the first flexible, highly integrated WiMAX system-on-chip, Intel has worked with a number of parties, including carriers and equipment manufacturers, to prepare the industry for the next wave of wireless technology.”

Maybe this will get my traffic up.

Study describes how HIV beats body’s defenses

A new study shows how HIV hijacks T-cells, one of the great puzzles in AIDS research: One of the first hurdles facing AIDS researchers in the early understanding of the disease was that they could not grow the virus in a dish of T-cells until they learned to put in chemicals that activated those cells. … Continue reading “Study describes how HIV beats body’s defenses”

A new study shows how HIV hijacks T-cells, one of the great puzzles in AIDS research:

One of the first hurdles facing AIDS researchers in the early understanding of the disease was that they could not grow the virus in a dish of T-cells until they learned to put in chemicals that activated those cells.

The latest research, conducted by Dr. Warner Greene and colleagues at the Gladstone institute, provides a plausible reason why HIV can only infect T- cells when they are active.

Greene said most scientists had assumed that resting T-cells were missing some crucial element that HIV needed to get inside them. Instead, his laboratory discovered that resting T-cells have a powerful anti-viral defense wired into their genes.

“Resting T-cells deploy an anti-viral shield that is amazingly effective against HIV,” Greene explained in an interview. “Unfortunately, the shield ‘goes down’ when the T-cell is activated.”

Once the mechanics of this “shields up-shields down” response are fully understood, researchers may be able to design drugs to keep the natural defenses deployed, or turn on similar shields in other cells vulnerable to HIV.

The shield is a naturally occurring protein known as APOBEC3G.

This is interesting if you’ve been watching the arguments put up by the so-called AIDS dissidents who argue that HIV is either non-existent or has nothing to do with AIDS.

I happened to see a bit of their propaganda recently, a pseudo-documentary called The Other Side of AIDS put out by Christine Maggiore and her husband. The film was actually quite hilarious because it was not only utterly non-persuasive, it actually put the the star Maggiore in an extremely bad light. Most of the footage was shot while she was holding forth on a radio program, but the highlight was a presentation she gave to a very bored Willie Brown while cuddling a kid who looked to be about 4 or 5 years old.

Most of us know that If you’ve got an important message to deliver to an important public official, it’s probably a good idea to get yourself a baby sitter, but Maggiore is an attachment parenting fanatic in addition to being a professional AIDS dissident.

The Other Side is very much like a Michael Moore film, but even more like the infamous What the Bleep do We Know? classic of stupidity put out by followers of JZ Knight, the alleged channel for the 35,000 year old warrior spirit Ramtha.

These films hope to capitalize on the fear of religion and ignorance of science that are rampant in our culture by offering perfectly ridiculous claims wrapped-up in scientific terminology.

Professor Irwin Corey would be proud.

Bread and Circuses

Jeff Jarvis is down on sports: In newspapers, according to studies I once read (but can’t Google now), about 20 percent of a newspaper’s audience reads sports. And sports sections get little advertising, apart from tire ads. Yet a large proportion of the editorial and paper budget of a paper goes to sports and in … Continue reading “Bread and Circuses”

Jeff Jarvis is down on sports:

In newspapers, according to studies I once read (but can’t Google now), about 20 percent of a newspaper’s audience reads sports. And sports sections get little advertising, apart from tire ads. Yet a large proportion of the editorial and paper budget of a paper goes to sports and in these days of declining revenues, that’s an important consideration. (More on that in a bit.)

On cable TV, I have to pay for lots of sports channels I never watch. Why should I? Maybe everybody else should help pay for my broadband internet bill, huh?

Let’s correct one misunderstanding: Jeff isn’t paying for “a lot of sports channels” on cable TV. He’s paying for ESPN, and the sports fans who subscribe to the extra-cost channels are subsidizing his TV bill; he should thank them.

Then he shoots at an easy target, public funding for pro sports stadiums:

In New Jersey, the state just agreed to build a new $750 million stadium to keep the Giants — a profitable, independent business, last I checked — with considerable taxpayer support. But very few taxpayers will ever get to see a game at that stadium; hell, season tickets are only inherited.

This is a complicated fiscal issue. While it’s not clear that public funding ends up costing the tax payers in the long run, it is clear that pro sports are manna for working people. So it’s appropriate for people in Jeff’s income bracket to show a little appreciation for the people who wash their toilets and cut their lawns by giving them a few bucks toward a baseball team.

When did we get so miserly that we begrudge people of modest means a little happiness?

Latest in WLAN Switch Protocol wars

So Aruba and Trapeze have decided not to roll over and play dead while Cisco tramples the wireless switch industry: Aruba Wireless Networks and Trapeze Networks Inc. submitted SLAPP (Secure Light Access Point Protocol) to a group in the Internet Engineering Task Force known as CAPWAP (Control and Provisioning of Wireless Access Points). The group … Continue reading “Latest in WLAN Switch Protocol wars”

So Aruba and Trapeze have decided not to roll over and play dead while Cisco tramples the wireless switch industry:

Aruba Wireless Networks and Trapeze Networks Inc. submitted SLAPP (Secure Light Access Point Protocol) to a group in the Internet Engineering Task Force known as CAPWAP (Control and Provisioning of Wireless Access Points). The group has worked on a switch-to-access-point protocol for more than a year. The deadline for submitting drafts to CAPWAP was March 31, and the companies barely made the deadline.

This was sort of a desperate move, but what the hell.