On the killing of Awlaki

In the case of anyone targeting American or other citizens (that is, a terrorist intent on killing defenseless non-combatants), I would be unhappy if the American President (whoever they might be) did NOT only want to terminate, but did not do so on a timely basis (meaning before they attacked non-combatants, if possible, and definitely before they did so, again).

Awlaki repeatedly attempted to do so and self-published videos of his actions and intentions. He can be considered an un-uniformed enemy combatant, so is not afforded any protection from the Rules of Land Warfare (it has provisions that say you can kill them as spies and saboteurs).

Lawyers who want to treat terrorism (and everything else) as a criminal offense, have a bad case of Maslow's hammer (everything looks like a nail). Hostis humani generis best befits terrorists.

SB 23: Improved but not there yet.

The “major overhaul patent bill” Mr. Obama signed Friday 9/16/11 is an example of government thinking and dealing with a simple problem.

Remarkably, SB 23 takes some litigation out of patents. Inventors have long been plagued by people claiming to have invented their creations after they’re up and running. Suits predicated on vague evidence, like high school notebooks, generate huge expert witness and attorney bills for the hapless inventor. Now, when you file it you own it, per SB23, Section 2.

700,000 patent filings await 7,000 US Patent and Trademark Office, USPTO, Examiners, 100 for each. SB 23 is supposed to reduce the three to five year normal examination period. Doubtful; that pile is job security for Federal bureaucrats. They know how to milk this cash cow.

Each of my patent filings generated 600 pages of correspondence from these folks. All are cranky. They pick fights. One rejected my application because I had not defined Claims in “steps.” I searched their system to find 80% of all patents granted did not include the word “step” and it has no synonym! They relented, but stuck me for re-filing fees.

In another filing I called for a fermentate, “must,” to be chilled in an underground tank to reduce energy to separate butanol. The Examiner rejected my application because Spanish Sherry had been stored in “solera,” barrels in caves! I have been to Jerez, Spain and learned caves were cheap, cold storage not for decanting, but “casting” yeast. Many letters and phone calls to USPTO superiors got reinstatement, more fees, of course.

On my next filing an Examiner called objecting to my not having a patent attorney. I replied I had one who had been Head of the Patent Department of a major corporation for 31 years, but he made many mistakes and violated our partnership agreement so I fired him.

I had done a study of 250 patents where I have expertise: 25% prepared by inventors were perfect in language, concept and science. Every attorney written patent had at least one error in language, concept and science plus three were provable frauds! While reciting those numbers I heard a “click.” I got that patent without additional fees.

If they really want to accelerate the patent process they will pay Examiners $500 for each patent examined. They are typically ten pages of text and a few of drawings. That stack will vanish in a few months in spite of the new patent bill.

Adrian Vance

Bachmann 1, Ethics 0

In debating Perry, Bachmannn called him out on his executive order that all school children in Texas receive the HPV vaccine. Fair enough, since this is reasonably a contention of philosophy. However, she couldn't leave it there; she had to add the vaccine caused mental retardation.

To be accurate, she said a mother came up to her after a speech, and told her that the vaccine had cause her child to become mentally retarded. Gives Bachmann squirm room while compounding the point against Perry.

Chances are overwhelming the vaccine did not cause retardation, assuming the mother even exists, but correlation is not causation. She did not, of course, cover the factoid that any Texas parent could have opted out of the inoculation. She did let the assertion remain that HPV vaccinations can cause mental retardation, even though CDC lists the worst side effects as a rash around the inoculation site. She also did not bring up the factoid that her own children had to comply with Wisconsin's mandatory inoculation requirements to enter school.

Because of her assertions, how many parents--dozens, hundreds, thousands?--will not have their daughters vaccinated, leading in twenty or forty years to how many--dozens, hundreds, thousands?--of premature, unnecessary deaths. Bachmann will not be held responsible, and even the parents may not remember their irresponsible decision or illogical reason why their daughter died prematurely.

However, Bachmann, for a shallow political point, contributed to those premature deaths. If she is this ethically unconstrained with but the power of a microphone, I would not care to see her further empowered.

American Stasi

Read this account of a lady detained on 9/11, then tell me who won the War on Terror. The Patriot Act was enacted five days after 9/11, reputedly having been written by Cheney, Rumsfeld, and their ilk, for continuity of the country after atomic attack. If its actions instead remind one of the East German Stasi, there might be reason.

http://shebshi.wordpress.com/2011/09/12/some-real-shock-and-awe-racially-profiled-and-cuffed-in-detroit/

Entitlement, My Ass!

Not only do workers contribute to Social Security; their employers do, too. It totals 15.3% of income before taxes. If a worker averaged $30K over his or her working years, the total is close to $220,500.

Calculate the future value of $4,500 per year (worker’s and employer's contributions) at 5% interest after 49 years of working gives $892,919.98. Withdrawing 3% per year, provides one $26,787.60 per year, which would last better than 30 years (say from age 65 to 95) and that's with no interest! Purchasing an annuity paying 4% per year, gives a lifetime income of $2,976.40 per month.

The average worker gets half that! The folks in Washington operate a bigger Ponzi scheme than Bernie Madhoff! And they call it an entitlement!

Just because they spent all the money does NOT make it a handout or charity. Bad investment, maybe, but that is why they make it mandatory.

But what really, really tics me off: My kids and grandkids generation now have to pay so I can draw my returns on investment. You "leaders" have stolen from me, now steal from them. Madhoff got 150 years for $60 billion; how much should you get?

What Our Leadership Has Wroth

This is an essay in progress. In the end, it will be much longer, contain references, and cover the nitty gritty to demonstrate my contentions. I also hope to have suggestions of what each of us might do to protect ourselves and to even correct the situation.

The political and bureaucratic leadership of the United States is responsible for this by screwing with the economy without end and spending monies they did not have. They didn't do it on purpose, but accomplished it with thousands of things, because they did not know they could kill it.

Basically, what they have done is allow whoever would donate to them to suck the country dry, and finally, in the case of banks, act flagrantly against the interests of the citizens without limit or fear of punitive redress. Fortunately a few state Attorneys General did not get the word, so are pursuing the "banksters" in spite of federal discouragement. One might notice that after the banksters trashed the world economy, none were even charged. Instead, trillions were made available so they would not self-destruct.

Now the government leaders have no clue what to do to correct it, and even would deny they did it.