Archive for May 20, 2009

Credit Card Winners and losers

Posted: May 20, 2009 by datechguy in opinion/news
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Well Michael Graham is going on about the changes and charges concerning credit cards.

Since I’m not one to pay fees it means that I’ll be using my card much less if I don’t cancel them. Lucky for me there is this wonderful invention called Cash and another innovation called checks I will be using these new things more often. The end result will be as follows:

The first loser is of course the credit card company. They lose the 3% on every purchase that they were making from the people who accepted cards. Every new purchase and every bill I don’t pay with those credit cards is 3% they don’t make.

Since I will need the cash etc that means less discretionary spending that means retailers and resturants that I would normally have spent money at won’t get it. They Lose.

Since I won’t be earning Amazon coupons I’ll be going there less, I invariablly spend more than the coupon so those purchases go.

And of course the Amazon coupons that I would give as gifts are gone too, that much less those guys get.

There are some winners. Providers of necessary items and utilities win since they aren’t paying the 3% to the companies.

However the gas station loses since it’s cash on hand I won’t be getting the car wash I would get with my fill-up.

And since I’m waiting on the paychecks rather than a time of the month no extra stuff to buy at the supermarket.

This also means that I’ll be paying bills with checks instead of credit cards too so the

Since there is this wonderful invention called Cash and another inovation called checks I will be using these new things more often.

Hey if they don’t want my money I have no problem keeping it.

Two State solution, two Arab states that is

Posted: May 20, 2009 by datechguy in war
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Jeff Jacoby gets it:

International consensus or no, the two-state solution is a chimera. Peace will not be achieved by granting sovereignty to the Palestinians, because Palestinian sovereignty has never been the Arabs’ goal. Time and time again, a two-state solution has been proposed. Time and time again, the Arabs have turned it down.

He also points out some pre-Israel history.

In 1936, when Palestine was still under British rule, a royal commission headed by Lord Peel was sent to investigate the steadily worsening Arab violence. After a detailed inquiry, the Peel Commission concluded that “an irrepressible conflict has arisen between two national communities within the narrow bounds of one small country.” It recommended a two-state solution – a partition of the land into separate Arab and Jewish states. “Partition offers a chance of ultimate peace,” the commission reported. “No other plan does.”

But the Arab leaders, more intent on preventing Jewish sovereignty in Palestine than in achieving a state for themselves, rejected the Peel plan out of hand. The foremost Palestinian leader, Haj Amin al-Husseini, actively supported the Nazi regime in Germany. In return, Husseini wrote in his memoirs, Hitler promised him “a free hand to eradicate every last Jew from Palestine and the Arab world.”

I thought it was the west bank and gaza that was the cause of the trouble? That’s what we’ve been told. He cuts to the chase:

To this day, the charters of Hamas and Fatah, the two main Palestinian factions, call for Israel’s liquidation. “The whole world” may want peace and a Palestinian state, but the Palestinians want something very different.

The only thing the Palestinians want from the Jews are their lives.

Update: Nordlinger hits it out of the park in his entire Impromptus today but these two paragraphs complement this post perfectly:

There are major Arab excuse-makers here by the Dead Sea — and the leading one, I would say, is Amr Moussa, the longtime secretary-general of the Arab League. He is the epitome, the purest representative, of the Old Guard. But you know who most of the excuse-makers are? Americans and Europeans. Middle Easterners themselves are far more likely to be candid and clear-eyed.

They’re the ones who have to live with these problems. They’re the ones who have to live with a lack of progress. Americans and Europeans can sit in their free societies, fat and happy, and say, “Damn those Israelis, and damn us meddling, injurious Westerners.”

Read it all.

5 years vs two generations

Posted: May 20, 2009 by datechguy in opinion/news
Tags: ,

I mentioned last week that it would take two generations before the damage from changes such as “Gay Marriage” shows up. (The two generations rule often works with positive things too btw) but Maggie Gallagher finds some effects that show up after only 5 years:

A further 36 percent of voters who oppose gay marriage agreed with the statement, “If you speak out against gay marriage in Massachusetts you really have to watch your back because some people may try to hurt you.” (Twenty-six percent agreed strongly.) Fifteen percent of voters who oppose gay marriage say they personally know someone who experienced harassment or intimidation because of their belief that marriage involves a man and a woman. (emphasis mine)

This can’t be, supporters of Gay Marriage are supporters of tolerance right?

The NOM/MFI Massachusetts Marriage Poll thus documents a fairly significant level of apprehension among voters who oppose gay marriage about the consequences of speaking openly or acting on their belief that marriage means a husband and wife.

Nothing like a little fear, particularly in a bad economy. Believing Catholics need not apply I guess.

What difference has gay marriage made five years later? Support for the idea that children need a mom and dad has dropped, and a substantial minority of people believe it is risky to oppose gay marriage openly.

Yet another reason for my boys to go.

Well the Mass senate has passed a bill that will raise state revenue…

Posted: May 20, 2009 by datechguy in local stuff
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…unfortunately the state they will raise the revenue is New Hampshire:

The Massachusetts Senate approved a 25 percent increase in the state sales tax by a veto-proof 29-10 vote on Tuesday.

and that’s not all!

On a voice vote, senators also agreed to lift an existing exemption from the sales tax on beer, wine and alcohol purchased in stores — a change that could bring an estimated $80 million for substance abuse programs.

One of those rare creatures in Massachusetts known as republican senators had this to say:

Opponents pointed out that, of the five states bordering
Massachusetts, only Rhode Island, at 7 percent, has a sales tax rate above 6.25 percent. Only eight states nationwide have a higher rate. They warned that the higher tax rate would hurt the state’s ability to recover from the recession.

“Maybe we should call this the New Hampshire economic stimulus
bill,” Senator Robert L. Hedlund, a Weymouth Republican, said with sarcasm.

Massachusetts isn’t a large state and New Hampshire is not more than 90 minutes from any point in the state. This is about as stupid as it gets.

There is a reason why New Hampshire has so much development just across the border.

I was reading the story to my son who starts college in the fall. He is an almost straight A student. He will make something of himself, but it won’t be in Massachusetts. He is exactly the type of person who is going to get out of here.

I’m nearing 50, my mother is 84 and has years ahead of her, I’ll be staying here but if this state doesn’t want my honor student boys then so be it.

And people wonder why there are tea parties…

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