Bruce’s Poor Man Survival Bulletin
A Digest of Urban Survival Resources
For Independent Minded People!
ISSN 2161-5543
In
This Issue:
1.
Lottery-a tax
on stupidity; let’s use it to fix the budget
2.
Why are police checkpoints legal in the land of the
free?
3.
Fee-free pre-paid debit cards
4.
ObamaCare the cause of weekly hours slashed for
workers
5.
Frugal food tips from Grandma
-- Thomas Jefferson
A tax on stupidity…
Another mega-lottery has come and gone, another spate of news reports and long lines at convenience stores, the same inane question from reporters (“What are you going do with all the money?”), the same closing shots of reporters with their own tickets, promising the chuckling anchors that “with any luck, you won’t be seeing me Monday.”
Left unasked by the reporters is how much money those eager buyers would have had if they’d banked what they spent on lotteries over the years—thousands or tens of thousands of dollars in far too many cases—or whether the spread of state lotteries to 43 states has seen a steady rise in compulsive gambling. (It almost certainly has.)
Left largely unexplored is which states have broken their promises to use the net proceeds from a combined $56 billion in annual lottery ticket sales to increase spending on education, rather than treating the lottery as an apparently painless, voluntary tax in place of the more painful, involuntary variety.
You can (almost) forgive the press for its role as an enabler of the inevitably labeled “lotto fever.” There’s something about the prospect of a humongous sum of money that triggers an almost chemical loss of reason. The result is not simply dropping a few bucks for a ticket in exchange for a few days of fantasies, but waiting on line for an hour or more, and/or spending a painfully large chunk of a painfully small disposable income when the odds of winning are pretty much the same whether you play or not.
All this explains why Voltaire is supposed to have called the lottery “a tax on stupidity.”
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PM’s
Compendium of Useful Resources
Cause and effect: Americans who
voted for Obama now seeing weekly job hours slashed below 30 as Obamacare kicks
in
(NaturalNews) It is the ultimate example of how you reap what you sow: Huge numbers of American workers who voted for Obama are now seeing their own jobs slashed below 30 hours a week as employers desperately try to avoid "Obamacare bankruptcy." Obamacare...
(NaturalNews) It is the ultimate example of how you reap what you sow: Huge numbers of American workers who voted for Obama are now seeing their own jobs slashed below 30 hours a week as employers desperately try to avoid "Obamacare bankruptcy." Obamacare...
Renewable energy could fully power a large electric grid
99.9 percent of the time by 2030 at costs comparable to today’s electricity
expenses, new research says; a well-designed combination of wind power, solar
power, and storage in batteries and fuel cells would nearly always exceed
electricity demands while keeping costs low, the study authors found…
The U.S. National Intelligence Council, the research arm
of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, yesterday released its
Global Trends 2030; the report’s authors say that food, water, and energy will
be more scarce; "Nearly half of the world's population will live in areas
experiencing severe water stress," the report notes; Africa and the Middle
East will be most at risk of food and water shortages, with China and India
also vulnerable; one bright spot for the United States: energy independence
sometime between 2020 and 2030…
Free Prepaid Cards With No Fees
It is estimated that about 40
million Americans do not have a bank account. The reasons for this vary. For
many, they are unable to qualify for a bank account because of past bounced
checks. Bounce too many checks, and you’ll find yourself in the Chexsystems,
which many banks use to evaluate potential new banking customers. For others
it’s simply a distrust of the banking system or frustration with limited hours
or the hoops one has to jump through to get service.
14 Frugal Food-Rescuing
Tips from Grandma
These simple tricks sure helped to stretch an already strained food budget during the Great Depression. Why not try a few of these time-honored and tested tips yourself?
These simple tricks sure helped to stretch an already strained food budget during the Great Depression. Why not try a few of these time-honored and tested tips yourself?
Cash in on unused
gift cards this holiday season sell it at GiftCardGranny.com or donate it to
charity!
The Nanny State Updates…
Tis the
season to be jolly. But then there's the TSA. No government agency inspires
"Bah Humbug" like the Transportation Safety Administration. For those
who travel, the agency is 65,000 employees dressed in blue to make airline
travel as annoying as possible.
Last week the House Aviation Subcommittee held a hearing to discuss common sense improvements for the agency in charge of transportation security but TSA boss John Pistole thinks he has it all figured out and refused to testify. The committee has no jurisdiction over his kingdom, so why show up? Pistole didn't even send one of his minions to be grilled. This is the third time he's snubbed the committee.
Last week the House Aviation Subcommittee held a hearing to discuss common sense improvements for the agency in charge of transportation security but TSA boss John Pistole thinks he has it all figured out and refused to testify. The committee has no jurisdiction over his kingdom, so why show up? Pistole didn't even send one of his minions to be grilled. This is the third time he's snubbed the committee.
The American public has become suckers
to government insanity. In the past decade taxpayers have been
forced to shell out $57 billion for an agency that has deprived of us our
rights and made flying an ordeal. All of
the groping and indignities we’re subjected to have been a waste – the TSA
has never caught a single terrorist. So
why does Congress keep up the charade and add to our deficit?
The European
Union, by contrast, refuses to adopt such technologies as full body scanners.
For the American who believes the government can do no wrong, how about meter maids that give out tickets before meter
expiration?
What is wrong with our government?
It seems they are doing everything in their power to destroy our
economy, our rights, and our country. There isn’t a day that goes by where I
don’t read about some incredible screw-up that some idiot as some level of government
has initiated against the public.
The editor of a prominent science journal
was viciously attacked and molested by the TSA recently. This just goes to show
you that even the self-proclaimed "scientific elite" are not immune
to the dastardly reach of unbridled tyranny.
http://www.naturalnews.com/038238_TSA_sexual_assault_science_editor.html
http://www.naturalnews.com/038238_TSA_sexual_assault_science_editor.html
89% - the percentage of Americans who don’t keep emergency contact
information in their wallet or cell phone.
Visit Emergencylink.com/ice/register to sign up for their free service.
The Parting Thought- More government thievery
Why are checkpoints legal if police need probable
cause to make a traffic stop?
It depends on the type of motorist checkpoint. Roadblocks, as they are referred to by the courts, fall under what is known as a special needs exception to the 4th Amendment. The special needs exception requires that the primary purpose of the search/seizure be for regulatory, not law enforcement, purposes. Under this theory, things like drivers license/vehicle registration checkpoints pass muster because the purpose is to ensure motorists have complied with state licensing requirements. And as stated below, if there are observable signs of other wrongdoing, police may also gain probable cause for further searches at this type of checkpoint.
DUI checkpoints require more though. When police officers extend the checkpoint from checking licensing with passive observation for signs of intoxication to actively testing every driver for intoxication (e.g. flashlight tests, simple cognitive tests, etc...), the purpose has shifted from regulatory to criminal enforcement. In Michigan v. Sitz, the court effectively ignored the regulatory requirement of special needs searches in coming to their holding that DUI checkpoints fall under the special needs exception (the court also likened DUI checkpoints to airport and boarder checks without addressing that there is no other way for the interests protected by those checks to be advanced). Rather, the court merely recognized that there was a compelling government interest, and that DUI checkpoints were a means of advancing that interest.
In a later case, Indianapolis v. Edmond, the Supreme Court held that "narcotics checkpoints" were an unconstitutional violation of the 4th Amendment. While these checkpoints were identical to DUI checkpoints, except that police would also lead a drug dog around the motorists vehicle. The court refused to extend the special needs exception where the "primary purpose" is "to detect evidence of ordinary criminal wrongdoing."
As such, motorist checkpoints are legal only so long as the primary purpose is regulatory rather than general criminal enforcement, except in the DUI checkpoint situation, and in border or airport security checks.
Government Thievery
Municipalities
around the nation are battling to stay afloat, and local police departments are
increasingly focused on profits instead of "protecting and serving."
Retired LAPD deputy chief of police Stephen Downing told FoxNews Latino,
"The federal government has turned policing into policing for
profit."
For example,
the police seized $30 million in cash on the southwest United States border in
2011. Where does the money go? Well, if the local cops make the seizure, they
keep the money. If the feds snatch the property, they keep it. If it's a joint
operation, they split the dough. Can you imagine the fights that must take
place over the booty these police pirates are confiscating?
As of Sept.
30, 2011, the departments of Justice and Treasury held $1 billion in seized
cash. So now cops are tracking down cash, rather than crime. Downing told Fox
that departments now direct police assets to generate cash, instead of
investigating murders and rapes.
What if
you're a New Jersey insurance adjuster driving through Tennessee as part of
your job? You're stopped for speeding and asked if you happen to be carrying a
large amount of cash. It so happened George Reby had $22,000 cash in a bag in
his back seat. He'd been negotiating for a car on eBay and wanted to be ready
if he could make a deal.
Officer Larry Bates of the Monterey, Tenn., police department seized the $22,000, figuring anyone carrying that much cash must be up to no good. "The safest place to put your money, if it's legitimate, is in a bank account," the officer explained. "He stated he had two. I would put it in a bank account. It draws interest and it's safer."
Officer Larry Bates of the Monterey, Tenn., police department seized the $22,000, figuring anyone carrying that much cash must be up to no good. "The safest place to put your money, if it's legitimate, is in a bank account," the officer explained. "He stated he had two. I would put it in a bank account. It draws interest and it's safer."
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1 comment:
Always intelligent, always useful!
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