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JSmith

"Jimmy Carter was elected. He has been revilled as the worst President ever but this is pure insanity."

Gas lines... "stagflation"... Iran... malaise... disco... "country rock"... there's very little good to remember from the Carter Presidency.

I voted for Jimma in 1976 (the first Presidential election I was old enough to vote in), and I regard that as an enormous mistake - bad enough to make me vote Republican for the next 30 years.

He's recently lost the title of "worst ever", but he's a close runner-up.

"Paying for East Germany consumed German finances for more than 10 years, integrating that impoverished sector of Germany is still ongoing."

Which is why reunifiying The Koreas is such a great idea!

"IBM adopted a new policy a year ago to sharply reduce business method patent filings and instead stress significant technical content in its patents."

"Business method" patents are just awful - the patent office should never have started approving those things.

Elaine Meinel Supkis

He did many important things including cutting back the massive military machine. Of course, we decided this was not good and instead, have launched THE PRESENT MESS.

And this damn mess is going to utterly and totally destroy our empire. Sorry about that, hahaha.

shargash
Gas lines... "stagflation"... Iran... malaise... disco... "country rock"... there's very little good to remember from the Carter Presidency.

Almost all of that he inherited from Ford & Nixon. Carter did some good things related to energy, but then the Saudis opened the spigots & Reagan was elected. When Peak Oil hits home in the next 12 months and oil prices go to $100/bbl, and then $150 and up, remember that Reagan actively undid all the good work Carter had set in place.

I was an Independent when Reagan was elected in '80. Reagan turned me into a Democrat. I haven't voted R in over 30 years, and I can't imagine that changing any time soon (though Reed & Pelosi have managed turned me back into an I).

Voltaire

Carter was the last honorable and decent president the US has had.

PFO

Hello Elaine,

Re your comments:

"The US 'saves' lots of money via Social Security excess funding. SS pulls in much more than it spends even now. But none of this money, not one penny, becomes 'Sovereign wealth' and is then used to make more money. It all went into the budget of the US government where it pretty much vanished in that vast sea of red ink."

Unfortunately, the United States, Inc. a Trust established for the benefit of the several sovereign united States of America cannot own a trust fund; the definition of the Social Security 'trust fund' according to the US Supreme Court in the case of Helvering vs. Davis (1937).

The Supremes concluded that SS taxes are like all other payroll taxes and therefore subject to disposal at the whims of Congress. THERE HAS NEVER BEEN A TRUST FUND OR ACCOUNT OR ANYTHING REMOTELY RESEMBLING SAME.

In the case of Fleming vs. Nestor (1960) the Supremes noted that SS 'benefits' were not ‘contractually guaranteed’ and are in fact subject to the discretion of Congress.

‘Socialist Insecurity’ as I call it, is nothing more than a giant Ponzi scheme that requires succeeding generations of sheeple to keep the delirium going.

Unfortunately, due to the scourge of Abortion and destruction of the family via the various macro-economic whips which you so eloquently describe; America is missing 1.5 generations since the 1960’s, so the SS pyramid must shortly collapse.

Naturally, this occurs exactly as the ‘Baby Boomers’ start to retire, with absolutely NO SOLUTION available to remedy the situation. Ego, we can invent yet another new paradigm of Human perspective, or simply return to the family centered Judeo/Christian culture of life enjoyed by our ancestors.

Kindest regards,
PFO

Roberto G

Somerset Maugham did his "Summing Up" only once. It would be nice to have a similar economic-politico "summing up" a few times a month.... how all the puzzle pieces seem to be laying and what it foretells on a guesstimated timeline. Utility for the commons!!

DeVaul

"or simply return to the family centered Judeo/Christian culture of life enjoyed by our ancestors. "

Holy Cow! No thanks!

I am all for family and clan, but no such thing existed among the Judeo/Christian cultures. They ripped that to pieces, along with just about everything else.

Bring on the new paradigm. I'll take my chances with the devil I don't know this time.

blues

Why you shouldn't bounce spam and viruses.
http://www.dontbouncespam.org/#BVR

~The short version of this whole page for those who are too busy to read all of it: DON'T BOUNCE SPAM, THE FROM IS FORGED. You should only send non-delivery notifications to your own users, anything else that can't be rejected during the SMTP transaction and is later found to be undeliverable should be dealt with locally, don't bounce it or your server becomes part of the problem. Thank you.~

~[....]~

~The reason that spam (and viruses) shouldn't be bounced is that the From and Return Path are invariably forged.~

~[....]~

[THIS IS THE IMPORTANT PART! —]

~It's possible to scan headers and body for spam and virus indicators before the final acceptance of the email, which means that they can be properly rejected. Most servers seem to accept the email BEFORE they scan it, then BOUNCE it. Exim (and probably other servers) can be configured to not acknowledge the final acceptance of the email body until the scanning is complete, allowing it to be properly REJECTED.~

~[....]~

~Bouncing is done after the receiving server accepts the email and the connection with the sender is closed. So the email has to be SENT somewhere instead of simply REJECTED. The only way to determine where to send it at this point is to look in the headers, normally the From or the Return Path. TQMCube.com and Spamcop now consider misdirected bounces as spam, and they are treated as such. At least some other anti-spam organizations feel the same way. If your server is bouncing spam you WILL eventually get listed as a spam source.~


I use Mailwasher (For Windows only, it seems), and it lets me personally read the "From" and "Subject" of incoming mail, without downloading the body of the message, and I can sort out spam myself 10,000 better than any AI "filter" (which I am sure would block tons of my wanted mail). I NEVER bounce spam, I merely delete it from my IP's server.

I have kept a main e-mail address for two years, and I get 100 wanted newsletters and professional journal articles per day. BUT I RARELY GET MORE THAN 10 ACTUAL SPAM LETTERS PER WEEK. So I must be doing something right.

blues

PFO said —

~Unfortunately, due to the scourge of Abortion and destruction of the family via the various macro-economic whips which you so eloquently describe; America is missing 1.5 generations since the 1960’s, so the SS pyramid must shortly collapse.~

WRONG!!! It simply is not the case that we lack enough warm bodies to support vital industry. What we have been steadily losing since the "Reagan Revolution is the vital Aggregate Productive System (ASP) that is the only thing that could ensure our survival. We now lack the productive infrastructure and shilled workers to support any real economy, most of it has been effectively been sent offshore. We now have lawyers, accountants, burger flippers, and druggies. That is what will destroy us.

Plus, an army of unthinking personal counselors, police, lawyers, legislators, and mass media producers has methodically disintegrated community and family relationships, so we are not even communicating on any community level now.

Thus we are screwed.

blues

Aggregate Productive System = (APS), not ("ASP"). This is a HUGE issue for me! I will talk more about our dwindling AS APS!

Neuro Artist

The fine things in life created by the judeo/christian culture, like stoning, crusades, jesuits, inquisiton, witchburning, papal bulls, zionism, fascism, communism, colonialism, apartheid, neocons, not to mention all the 'just wars'. All the while mummy is at home baking cookies with the starched apron on. HOW LOVELY!

DeVaul

Yes indeed, we might very well miss out on all the "finer" things in life without the former system. It's tough. :)

However, I am willing to risk it.

mark1147

PFO's "Judeo/Christian culture of life enjoyed by our ancestors" was very light on the Judeo content, at least in the USA, right through the 1960s. I suggest he view the 1947 film "Gentleman's Agreement," starring Gregory Peck, for a good look at how even cosmopolitan New York City had more than mixed feelings about the Jews' role in our culture -- as evidenced by their place in society.

As for the "missing 1.5 generations" due to abortion, hasn't substantial immigration since 1965 (the last major immigration reform) more than made up for any decline in the birthrate? The nation's population has more than doubled since I was born 60 years ago. Something tells me there's no shortage of younger workers available to contribute to Old Age pensions.

Elaine Meinel Supkis

100% correct, Mark.

WHen worry about the baby boom retirees is voiced, I get very angry. The US has always used immigration for this purpose. Or my ancestors would have shut the gates back in 1800. And the natives, before 1492.

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