#NSA Secrets = Food Sans Ingredient List

Posted: January 22, 2014 in Anarchy Journal Constitutional
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by @anarchyroll
1/21/2014

Contrary to what FOX News would have you believe, the ACLU is not a terrorist organization.

American Civil Liberties Union…those four words, to me, couldn’t scream democracy more if Uncle Sam was eating a deep fried Twinkie, while driving a Hummer, and taking an IG selfie while making a duckface with the toaster filter all at the same time.

The ACLU is your friend, whether you care or not, whether you want to help them or not. They are the ones, playing within the system to change the system, and make it work for the people, by the people.

It should come as no surprise then, that they’re no fans of the NSA bulk surveillance program that was created in the dark, in secret, and exposed by whistleblower Edward Snowden this past summer.  Both Congress and President Obama have said the public debate Snowden started is a good thing for democracy, yet he is still a wanted fugitive, go figure.

The NSA has been using Freedom of Information requests to try and shed more light into the dark and shady world of the NSA’s metadata dragnet.  Surprise, surprise the government is just flat out refusing to grant the ACLU access to various documents. I thought this was America.

Snowden and the ACLU aren’t looking to put soldiers in danger or expose mission critical information that will aide or abed real, actual terrorists who wish to do real, actual harm to innocent civilians on American soil.

Snowden and the ACLU are simply looking to put all of the cards on the table for the American people to decide for themselves.  It is the same thinking behind listing ingredients in food.  We (the country) just want to know what we’re putting into our body (government policy) to make sure it isn’t going to harm us (evaporate our personal privacy).

Allergies, fitness goals, overall health dictate a person must know what their food is made of. Where did it come from? Is it organic? Is it processed? How much salt? How much sugar? What is polymethylsiloxane? These are things that we NEED to know for our own health and peace of mind.

The same goes for what exactly, specifically is the NSA doing with their $1.1 trillion (that’s trillion with a t) budget. How much info are they storing? How often? For how long? From what sources? Are they authorized? Is it legal? By whom? This is not the Soviet Union or Red China. We the people get a say, and at the least have the right to know. If it is important to know if our food has gluten, it is important to know if we are giving up our personal privacy in the name of national security.

Quantitative Easing = Economic Crack Part 1

Posted: January 17, 2014 in Excess and Algorithms
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eanda logo

by @anarchyroll
1/17/2014

Quantitative easing is a hard concept to comprehend and I would not classify it as easy to write about either. I wanted to write an article about the subject in August. I sat down to do my research and gather sources. When I decided to take a break, I saw that I had been reading articles, watching videos, and listening to audio clips on the subject for five hours. And I felt like I had barely scratched the surface of the subject. And I just wanted to write a blog, not a graduate school thesis.

The economic collapse of 2008 and the fallout of it, part of which being quantitative easing, are the fuel for me wanting to write economics articles in simple language.

QE (quantitative easing’s often used abbreviation) is a tool in the monetary policy tool belt of the a country’s central bank. In the case of the QE being used by the United States Federal Reserve Bank (not associated with the federal government) to ease credit flow or encourage lending by banks to small businesses and citizens, buy up government bonds with freshly printed money to keep the financial markets stabilized, and encourage large scale investors to invest in safer more boring assets than riskier/sexier assets (derivatives, credit default swaps).

So the Fed is printing money and buying government debt with it to stop the bleeding, close the wound, and aide in the rehab of the US financial sector and the global economy.

Sounds good right? The central bank of the United States is using their stroke to end a financial crisis and prevent another one…..except…Many signs and indicators are pointing to the economy becoming or already being dependent upon QE, hence the crack analogy/drug metaphor. There are also signs pointing to an asset bubble growing in the debt market. What do both of those last points mean? I’ll explain and expand in part two…

#ChiBears Cutler Contract & Coaching Conundrum

Posted: January 17, 2014 in Anarchy Journal Constitutional
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sportsroll

by @anarchyroll
1/17/2014

I’m a Chicago resident and the Bears are always in the news, mostly because the two baseball teams (Cubs, White Sox) are perpetually in the shitter due to both bad management and even worse scouting.  The basketball team (Bulls) had a historic run for a decade over a decade and a half ago. The hockey team (Blackhawks) finally started acting like a major market franchise when the cheapskate geriatric owner died and his son took over and ipso facto, they’ve won two titles in four years.

The Chicago Bears are the Chicago team. They crammed a century’s worth of success into one season (1985) and that white hot fire has evolved into a searing hot coal of football passion ever since. How else does Ditka still have a job at ESPN after falling asleep on air?  How is Dan Hampton allowed to be an analyst when he clearly has never even taken a community college public speaking class? Why did Walter Payton get a SI cover story in 2011 when he died in 1999? Because the Bears have that aura. They are the original NFL franchise, and are treated as such both locally and nationally.

The items keeping the Bears in the current news cycle is the contract extension of Jay Cutler and the defensive coaching shuffle.  In my opinion, both actions the Bears took are indicators of poor management decisions, that of an organization running on gravitas and reputation rather than intellectual talent and experienced decision makers.

There is NO reason Jay Cutler needed a contract extension for $50 million in guaranteed money.  Not with one playoff win anyway.  Firing defensive coaches after their first season in which four starting defensive players went down with season ending injuries does nothing to make a team better.  Jay Cutler needed to be rented with the franchise tag for one more season, and the defensive position coaches needed to be given a chance to coach all of their players for one full season before being given their walking papers.

The franchise tag is not a cheap option, I’m aware. In fact, it is an expensive option, that is why the concept was agreed to in collective bargaining back in the day.  But Cutler DID NOT and HAS NOT earned $50 million in guaranteed money, yet. He can, I believe he can, he has shown flashes of being able to prove he can, but he is a poster of inconsistency and being injury prone.  Those are not characteristics of someone you give a huge contract extension to, when you have the ability to franchise tag them and make them earn it for another year.

The Bears fans don’t want to rebuild, no Chicago fan ever wants to hear that word.  But if the Bears gave Cutler a year to prove himself of the contract he has just been given, that would have been the last year for a bunch of defensive veterans to know whether they are going to contend for a title in Chicago, or latch on to a contender elsewhere.  The Bears could have drafted a QB this year, made Cutler perform under the franchise tag next year, and by this time in 2015 we would know if he’s our guy or if it is rebuilding time.  Instead we get more high priced instability, let’s hope this gamble pays off.

As for the coaches that got fired. Lance Briggs, Henry Melton, Charles Tillman, Kelvin Hayden, Shea McClellin, and Patrick Mannelly all were injured for part or the bulk of the season. How can you fire coaches based on that? I know the Bears finished the season as one of the worst defensive teams, but that happens when the injury bug bites.  The winning franchises are pictures of stability and the Bears look unstable everywhere except at wide receiver as a team on Soldier Field and an organization at Halas Hall.

But it’s not all doom and gloom, we finished one win short of the playoffs two years in a row. A bummer yes, a sign to blow it all up and start over? No, not yet. Another year, with another coaching staff however means it’s time for the wrecking ball.

Pray for the #Heel

Posted: January 17, 2014 in Anarchy Journal Constitutional
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potatoshooterlogoby @anarchyroll
1/16/2014

I really hope Dolph Ziggler doesn’t end up as a never was, he deserves better. More importantly, he earned better.

I know I know, he got the world title twice and both mid card belts for like six months at a time. But in twenty years will he be remembered? If he has to retire due to concussions, he’ll only be remembered as a what if story. There are worse things than retiring young, with money in the bank, and a university education in your back pocket. Look at Chris Nowinski, his life is far more meaningful now than if he got a series of secondary, transitional title runs during the heyday of the roster split.

But Dolph Ziggler could have been money, he should have been money, he should be doing what Orton is doing now. Sure he had his slip ups. The black dye job head shave immediately comes to mind. As does every match he had with CM Punk during Punk’s WWE Title run. And of course being passively blamed for Jerry Lawler’s infamous on air heart attack (by Jerry Lawler himself on Austin’s podcast). But Ziggles survived his stretches of nothing to do, mid card pushes that went nowhere, and congruence tests management threw at him and won the world title in front of one of the hottest crowds in wrestling history at the RAW after Mania last year. Just thinking and writing about him cashing in that briefcase is giving me goose bumps. You could see it on his face what was about to happen, and when it did happen, you could feel the emotion through the television set. Which is how it’s supposed to be for the top guys with the big gold belts.

If Ziggler is done, he’ll always have that night in New Jersey. He earned the belt, for real, before it had to be taken from him, for real. In a fake sport that’s saying a lot. And Ziggler has a lot of talent. Move set, charisma, mic skills, looks, and cardio all in abundance. He got over as a heel and as a face with the internet fans and the common fans. His t shirts were so brightly colored that they are easy to see in the crowd in the HD era, and there were a lot of Ziggler shirts in the crowds from 2012-2013.

I don’t just hope he comes back, I hope he comes back and management trusts him enough to give him the Undisputed Title. Sure he’d look good with the white IC Title but he is bigger than that belt, better than that belt, and has earned the real thing. Ziggler is a talent you build the roster around like Bret Hart back in the day because he can work with anyone. But if he comes back as a mid card gatekeeper, it will be just as sad as him having to retire, because both mean the same thing. That his time at the top that he earned, was taken from him by external forces outside of his ability to control or influence. That would be sad for the fans and bad for business, no doubt.

#AK47 Creator Caused Death, Faced it & Repented

Posted: January 15, 2014 in Anarchy Journal Constitutional, Excess and Algorithms, Stimulus Space Response
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by @anarchyroll
1/14/2014

Who is Mikhail Kalashnikov? He invented the AK 47? The most notorious gun the world by a mile with the magnum 357, M16, and M4 with grenade launcher bringing up the rear. Nothing comes with the realm as the AK 47, just ask any fan of the James Bond franchise.

Kalashnikov died last month at the age of 91, a very very very very wealthy man. He had that military contractor money, aka fat stacks to the sky. He had that, all the money in the world, kind of money. He has the go to military arms dealer during the height of the cold war. So why is this the first line in a letter her wrote to a priest “”The pain in my soul is unbearable.” ???

A man who wasn’t just rich but wealthy, a hero’s hero to his country. Pain in his soul?

Because facing death makes one look back on life more independently, because we separate from our ego as we enter or complete the final chapter of our physical lives. Kalashnikov always knew deep in his soul he was making money literally from murder, death, and destruction. He knew he made the world a worse place while making his fortune.

I personally think anyone who works on Wall Street, for an oil/gas company, for a utility company, fast food company, tobacco firm, or as a lobbyist should read his quotes and wonder if they will think they same of themselves when they eventually die. People who make money polluting the earth, gauging people for money for basic elements of survival, make people sick and/or unhealthy, and influence legislation at the expense of the many for the sake of the few. What will they think of themselves, their lives, legacies when they are inevitably on their death bed?

This isn’t just CEOs, this goes all the way down to the clerks. Whether religious or not, none of us escape death, and we need not worry about St. Peter we need only about the last time we look in the mirror. We are responsible for our legacies. All the money in the world cannot buy one’s way into heaven or piece of mind and spirit when we are about to die.

Kalashnikov’s quote made me think about beginning with the end in mind, a principle of Stephen Covey. It made me think about the quest to have a comfortable living and peace of mind. It made me think about tribal society and how we’re all in this together whether we want it to be that way or not.  It made me think hedge fund managers, shady investment bankers, private military contractors will eventually think and feel what Kalashnikov thought on his death bed. What does it make you think of?

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