Rag Hand

A simulation of a North American Parliament, designed to “develop the participants’ sense of belonging to North America” and “and promote the creation of North American academia networks” is currently taking place in Montreal.

Once again they are using this make-believe parliament to get people used to the idea of a North American Union.

While the meeting is billed as an exercise to debate these areas of policy, there is no simulated opposition to the overall agenda and the documents provided to participants represent little more than essays debunking opponents of NAFTA, attacking traders who do not adhere to a North American union model, presenting methods of control such as the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative which considers biometric RFID cards for border crossings, and promoting the agenda of NAFI itself which it makes clear is to forge North American integration.

Dubya refuses to deny that such a possibility exists. Instead he resorts to ridicule with no substance.

I can see the profit in such a plan for Mexico. Their government actively supports the illegal immigration from there to here, while whining about the same happening from Central America into Mexico.
The problem with Mexico is that it cannot support the majority of it’s people at anything more than the peasant level.

Canada will profit from this because they will be able to export and import goods at a much lower cost.

What does the USA get out of this?

Unlike Europe, where most of the countries involved were self sustaining, North America can only claim that Canada and the US are self supporting.
Mexico has so many poor that they had protests over the cost of tortillas. What do they bring to the table?

Some other import/export arrangement between Canada and the US should probably be worked out. But all our southern neighbor can bring us is cheap labor. That will only result in the average working person having to work for less in order to compete. Thereby driving our consumer based economy even deeper into recession.

NAFTA has profited us nothing, and this looks like a way to make an already bad situation completely untenable.

While the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) is ostensibly designed to stop services such as those provided by Pirate Bay. It is in fact an attempt to turn the internet into a police state with no regard for civil rights or existing laws.

To download this proposed agreement follow the links on this page Wikileaks.

This proposed trade agreement says in part:
“significant willful infringements without motivation for financial gain to such an extent as to prejudicially affect the copyright holder (e.g., Internet piracy).”
In other words they would prevent the distribution of “intellectual property” by anyone for any reason.

As with most well intentioned political gestures; this not only panders to special interests, the RIAA and their ilk, the wording and proposed enforcement are draconian in nature.

It is also a testament to the the money and influence of the RIAA, and the willingness of politicians to believe bullshit figures. Providing of course, the people providing the figures have deep enough pockets.

For more follow this link or this link or this link.

On the Pioneer Loan and Jewelry site there is a page extolling the benefits of using a pawnshop over a payday loan.
Their points are quite valid. Assuming of course you have something worth pawning.

The problem with using a pawnshop is a matter of economics. If you shop at Walmart the odds are what ever electronics you’ve purchased will not have much value.

The average pawnshop loans 10 to 20% of the retail value of your item. Which means that $29.95 DVD player you just bought is worth practically nothing as a pawn.

In the state of Nevada pawnshops charge 10% interest plus a one time $5 fee. The loans are for 120 days, at the end of which you can pay the interest due and extend the loan for another 120 days. This can be repeated indefinitely.

All of this means the $5 loan you could get on your $30 dvd player would cost you $12.00 at the end of 120 days. Most of the pawnshops I know of have a minimum loan amount of $10 which means repaying the loan would cost you $19.00.

The problem from the pawnbroker’s point of view is that most of their items the customers lose wind up selling for about 50% of the current retail value. Which is to say, the pawnshop expects to receive $19 or a $9 return on that $10 loan. Unfortunately, if you don’t pick it up they can realistically expect a $5 return for having their money tied up for 4 months.

This combined with the high failure rate of low end electronics makes the average pawnbroker unwilling to make these small loans.

Gold on the other hand is always welcome. It doesn’t fail over time, there is a certain demand even in these not so good economic times.
Do not expect to get spot price. These shops all have a per gram price depending on the purity of the gold, with the possibility of having to sell it as scrap built in to their figures.
— In other words they pay a great deal more per gram for a 24k chain than they do for a 10k class ring.

Payday loans are generally 2 weeks to 1 month in duration and interest ranges from 10% to 30%+.

A payday loan can either be a godsend or a nightmare depending entirely on your ability to repay the loan plus interest.
If you borrow $500, at the end of 30 days you owe on the average somewhere between $650 and $700.

That is to say:
Having spent the original $500 borrowed you not only have to come up with that amount you need to find a couple of hundred more.

Payday loans will get you out of a short term bind, but the cost is prohibitive for most people.

The best advice I can give is to see if your state offers free or low cost credit counseling services. They may give you some advice you do not want to hear, but they will help you get out of the hole you’ve dug.

Rich passed this story on to me after Covertress sent him a shout about it on Digg.

The story is your basic cautionary tale as told by a time traveler. While this tale has been told in many ways, this version conveys the message and creates the proper atmosphere without an excess of “filler”.
It can be found in it’s entirety here on Covertress.blogspot.com.

The author is Dan Simmons and this essay was presented as one of the “messages from Dan.”

Also from the “messages from Dan” series is the authors Response to Message from a Time Traveler.

It says in part:
“Do be warned that if you are new to my books and my writing and my web site and—perhaps most pertinently—to my monthly Messages, and if you were brought here by some blog- or web-link only to the “controversial” previous message, you will be disappointed by the following discussion. You’ll be especially disappointed if you are expecting polemics, apologetics, pure politics, or a simple reinforcement of whatever prejudice or passion you’re bringing to the proceedings.

This is a writer’s web site.”

This last is most appropriate. It is indeed a writer’s website. It is intended to give perspective on writing, to promote the author’s work, and to to present a forum in which writing can be discussed.

I recommend that you explore the site, especially the section titled “Writing Well.”

Fair warning:
His information is useful and well presented, but he sounds a lot like the professor from the lit. 101 class I slept through.

In case you missed this bit of “abuse of power:”
Sen. Specter wants an investigation into the “Spy-Gate” affair involving the Patriots.

Personally I think that Sen. Specter is pissed because the Eagles lost. I don’t think he gives a shit about anything else.

This is just a self important, too powerful child, throwing a temper tantrum.

This silly bit of rule, you notice I said “rule” not “law”, breaking has absolutely no bearing on the national economy, the war in Iraq, health care, taxes, education or anything else of any real importance.

The part of this whole debacle that bothers me the most is that it has become too common for congress to launch major investigations into things that are not matters of state, but rather matters of personal interest.

Sen Specter is nothing more than a symptom of the disease that runs rampant in the halls of power.

I’m afraid that congress has become more interested in “Bread and circuses” than the welfare of this nation.

As long as the politicians keep them entertained, the masses will never ask why they took all that money from special interests, or why they are helping to destroy the economy and the environment.

All congress wants to do is pretend to do something, to give lip service to what they think people care about, distract the unthinking fools with the current cause celebre, and give that next fat contract to their friends, family, and top donors. Or to find new and interesting ways to fold that next bit of pork into the nearest unrelated bill.

— It’s all a game. We have no real say, so I guess it’s a matter of “whatever floats their boat”…… Or lines their pockets.