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Mindconnection eNL, 2011-08-07

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In this issue:
Good News | Product Highlight | Brainpower | Finances | Security | Health/Fitness | Factoid | Thought 4 the Day

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1. Good News

And now, for news! (Sorry, Mr. Harvey)

  • 12JUL. In May, manufacturers placed more than $388 million worth of manufacturing technology orders. Year-to-date orders reached almost $2 billion, a 108% increase over 2010. Source: Control Design (a magazine I've written several articles for).

    Unlike our typical good news items, this one is BIG.
     
  • 11JUL. Government motors is investing $328 million into its Flint, MI assembly plant. You may recall Flint was devastated in the 1980s when GM pulled out of there. But with GM's share  the full-size pickup gas guzzler market growing to 40.4% in May, the execs are pumping $328 million into that plant.  Source: Industry Week.

    I'm guessing GM's share grew because sensible mfrs are backing out of a market that makes no sense today. Anyhow, this plant will  build next-generation Chevrolet and GMC models The investment (such that it is) saves 150 jobs. For now. I wonder how many jobs they would have saved by investing into where the market actually is going.
     
  • 22JUL. In August, Polyplex USA begins construction of a $187 million polyester film plant. The plant will hire  150 people over the next five months. I can tell you that some of these jobs will pay rather well. The film industry is very interesting in that respect. One of the lowest-cost producers in the world is a high-wage plant in Connecticut (also a high tax state).
     
  • 26JUL. R3 Composites Corp. (based in Iowa) announced it's going to create a manufacturing center in Allen County. Over the next three years, this will result in maybe 400 new jobs in Grabill, IN (a little down in northeast Indiana).
     
  • 15JUL. Closer to Mindconnection headquarters, New Millennium Wind Energy plans to sink just over $20 million into a wind turbine plant factory in Newton, KS. This will create more than 350 jobs over four years. Source: Wichita Business Journal.

    I've been to several technical presentations on wind power, and have also written articles on the NEC requirements for same. The level of technical skill for maintaining these is extremely high, and the jobs pay well. No, they absolutely cannot be outsourced to India or done by clueless govt paper pushers. There's a very low ceiling on how much wind power can be installed. It's not a solution to our reliance on oil, but it will help.
     
  • 35% of small business owners plan to hire full-time or part-time staff this year. That's up from 9% in 2010. Source: American Express Open Small Business Monitor.

    The catch: Small businesses need capital, and the banksters either don't loan it or present odious terms. American Express has moved onto that turf, providing small businesses with affordable ways to bridge cash flow gaps and invest in projects that create jobs. Maybe we should outsource the role of CONgress to AMEX.
     
  • We may be more than halfway through Obamageddon. If you can hang on for a couple more years, there is hope of change for the better. As Obama recently passed FDR for the bronze medal in the All Time Worst Presidents Contest (and the All-time Most Damaging Presidents Contest), it's unlikely The Party can find someone even worse to replace him. Someone this bad comes along only every few generations. So we may get some relief after the 2012 non-election for President.

To speed up the development of good news, contact your misrepresentative in CONgress and ask him/her to work harder to reduce runaway federal spending, especially the waste like the $10 billion a day burned up in Afghanistan.

Remember, the capital that creates jobs is part of a zero sum game. You can't use the same money for different things. If you doubt that, try handing the clerk the same dollar bill 40 times and see if you can buy $40 of groceries for a buck. The lie that govt creates jobs by spending depends on that being true. Go ahead, test it out.

2. Product Highlight

I really like this cordless phone system. I have one its ancestors, and it's served me well for quite a long time. But this latest generation hugely improves on it. And it looks great!

The Panasonic KX-TG6513B Cordless DECT 6.0 Phone system is expandable and comes with 3 nonslip (rubber grip) handsets that have headset jacks.

Its features include:

  • Large lighted display.
  • Call block.
  • Silent mode.
  • Caller ID and call waiting ID.
  • 4-way conferencing.
  • Handset locator.
  • Energy-saving mode.
  • Intercom (handset to handset).

Wall mountable, but looks great on the desktop.

 

3. Brainpower tip

Be careful of what you accept as fact. Lies upon lies do not make something true. By accepting a complex of lies as the basis for conclusion, you effectively negate your brainpower.

To avoid being a victim of this problem, you must be diligent. Let's look at a particular mess of lies, and I'll show you what I mean. I'm going to use, as an example, the most hated group of deviants on the planet. That way, I don't risk offending anybody deserving of respect.

Lie: The IRS exists to administer the federal income tax. Evidence: Circumstantial, at best.

Truth: The IRS exists to subjugate the people through systematic abuse and terror. Evidence: The Hoyt Fiasco, for one thing. The IRS spent several times more money to abuse the victims of Kevin Brown's fraud (Brown was a high-ranking IRS employee) than it could possibly collect from these people. The IRS has its nasty reputation for a reason, namely "Abuse as standard operating procedure." It's why Senator Roth had those hearings in the 1980s.

Lie: The IRS funds the federal government. Evidence: None.

Truth: The IRS costs far more than it collects. These costs include compliance costs (about 5 x the taxes raised), which have a huge dampening effect on the economy. So do illegal liens, illegal seizures, kangaroo Tax Court shenanigans, and other abuses. And that's by no means a complete list. Eliminating the IRS would result in a net gain in federal receipts to the Treasury.

Side bonus: a huge increase in good-paying jobs. Even the people employed by the IRS could find useful work instead of what they are now doing.

Lie: The IRS was established by Constitutional Amendment, and an Amendment would be required to abolish it. Evidence: None.

Truth: My Constitutionally-illiterate former CONgressman (Dennis Moore, consistent winner of an F-rating from various citizen advocacy groups) spewed this particular lie. So do many other people. They are referring to the 16th Amendment, which says, "The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several states, and without regard to any census of enumeration."

It says nothing about buying 70,000 shotguns in a single year (as happened in 2010) to arm a bunch of psychopaths under the guise of tax collection. It just gives CONgress the power to collect income taxes without considering relative population levels. Though the 16th wasn't actually ratified by CONgress, it has become law via the courts. But it's irrelevant to the question of who created the IRS.

Lie: The IRS was established by the Federal Reserve Act. Evidence: None.

Truth: The FRA is just an Act signed into law by the worst president in US history, Woody Wilson. The Act does not establish an IRS. In fact, nobody seems to have an answer as to when the IRS was actually established or who established it. The IRS Website contains several obfuscations that pretend to answer this question, implying first that the IRS dates back to 1862 and then implying it was created by the 16th Amendment. But it seems no record exists to show that the US Congress created the IRS.

My guess is some idiot in the Treasury Department created a goon squad so he'd have more people to stupidvise, thus justifying a raise and a promotion for himself. Things got cancerous from that point forward.

Lie: If the IRS is abolished, we can't collect taxes. Evidence: None.

Truth: As this agency exists illegally and does massive financial damage to the Treasury, civil rights, human rights, and the nation at large, there is a moral mandate to abolish it. As for taxes, the federal government levies many kinds of taxes. Several of those are income taxes (if you have a paystub, look at the taxes on it). More evidence of this lack of need for the IRS (financially) exists in the demographics. Nearly half of US households pay $0 for this 1040-based tax. In fact, the net federal revenue comes from other sources.

Do you see the pattern, here? Lie after lie, and lies based on lies. Consequently, most Americans believe there is actually justification for the IRS. Sadly, many members of CONgress, who surely must know better, spew this nonsense as if it's true.

Why did I use this organization as an example? Because I rarely run into people who have put their own brains to the question of whether it should exist. Anyone who applies brainpower to that question comes up with a resounding no, because:

  1. It's an illegal enterprise. It does not appear that CONgress has a record of creating it.
  2. It does the opposite of its commonly stated purpose (fund government "services").
  3. Its actual behavior toward citizens is appalling, immoral, costly, and socially devastating.

If you want an example of "brain off" acceptance of propaganda, this one is hard to beat. Of course, there are many other examples.

I'm not saying you need to treat every statement as needing research before acceptance. But for important things, you really should take that approach.

When an agency has the power to destroy businesses and individuals for no particular reason and with no particular justification, that's important. When Mr. Brown and his cronies can make $103 million "disappear" and then spend maybe half a billion of your tax dollars on a cover-up operation that involves illegal attacks on 4300 law-abiding American citizens, that's important.

Some tips on sniffing out the lies:

  • Get basic definitions clear. For example, people talk about "health care" but they mean "medical services" and those two are often mutually exclusive in practice.
     
  • Try to solve for who, what, when, where, and why. Answer those important investigative questions from primary or secondary sources, and you can be fairly certain you know what you're talking about regarding the topic. Most people never bother.
     
  • Look for weak arguments, evasions, and inconsistencies in the official version. As noted earlier, the ridiculous idea that the IRS funds government "services" has no merit and we can prove that just by noting that half of American households pay $0 in the 1040-based tax (there is plenty of other evidence, as well). The govt is funded by many other sources, which it has to be due to the net cost of having the IRS exist.
     
  • Look for patterns. Notice when something just does not fit.
     
  • Ask for the actual evidence. Notice above, there was no evidence for any of these lies. None that will pass the smell test, anyhow. Lies cannot serve as evidence to prove the veracity of other lies (except for the IRS in Tax Court, in which an IRS attorney's obvious lie is often considered the truth and a documented assertion by the victim is ignored).

Closing Notes:

  • Lest anyone somehow misconclude from the above that I am a "tax protestor" I assert right here that I am not a tax protestor. I am only a crime protestor.
  • As the IRS is a crime-infested organization that costs more than it collects, objecting to it is not protesting taxes (if anything, it's the opposite). I pay all of my taxes, and always have. I encourage you to do the same.
  • Unlike IRS employees, I do not spend half my work day at the office surfing p*rn and gambling sites (source: GAO) and then falsely accusing people who work like dogs 60 hours a week and take work calls at home.

4. Finance tip

If your diet is low in protein, you will have serious health problems. Thus, your grocery bill is going to include sources of protein. Unfortunately, protein sources tend to be a bit expensive. In this issue, we'll talk about how to save money on protein.

We will discuss two major cost factors: assimilation and sources.

Assimilation

An average sized adult male can digest about 35 to 40 grams of protein per meal (half that much, if it's a whey isolate). Anything more than that, the body cannot use. It just gets turned to fat. This has implications for meal timing and portion size. Adjust this for your size, up or down, depending on your size.

On meal timing, it's very simple. Six small meals a day. This isn't debatable, or something to experiment with. This schedule is based on how the body works. Go more than three hours without food, and your body goes catatonic. It starts digesting muscle and conserving fat. You also screw up your hormonal environment when you miss meals.

Yes, you do go catatonic each night when you sleep. But that is no excuse for ALSO going catatonic during the day when you can prevent that.

To assimilate protein properly, you must divide your total daily protein needs across those six meals. Your body can assimilate only so much protein at once; the rest turns to fat. So if you decide to have a bagel (please don't) or something else that's just wasted calories and then "make up for the missing protein" at your next meal, that is not going to work. It's just double damage. First, you go catatonic due to missing that first meal. Then, you pile on fat at the second.

How much protein can you eat at one time? If you eat 40g of protein with each meal, your intake will be 240g per day. For most people, this is far too much protein.

A hard training athlete needs about 1.5 to 2g per pound of lean body weight. Most people do not know what this means, so I will explain. It is your total body weight minus the pounds of fat you are carrying. To know what these numbers are, use a Tanita body fat scale. Just as a benchmark, an American male weighing 170lb typically has about 125lbs of lean body weight.

So this typical guy needs probably 30g per meal. Anything beyond what he needs will just add to that 45lb of fat he's carrying around. His best bet is to start with very little supplemental protein and work on getting rid of that fat.

Of course, this isn't exact. Your protein needs vary from day to day. And maybe you don't want all of your meals to be so similar in protein intake that they start tasting the same. Fair enough. You can have some variance. Maybe 25g at one meal and 35g at the next. What you can't do is some big variance like 5g at one and 55g at the next.

Some major sources

  • Because the meat supply in the USA is so contaminated, meat from the big packing houses is off-limits unless you really enjoy eating poop and/or getting various expensive illnesses. Fast food joints buy their meat from those packing houses. Alternatives include meat from co-ops, organic meat, and meat butchered by real butchers. Wild game is another alternative.
     
  • Dairy products. Same issues as meat. Generally, avoid anything but organic varieties. Also, with their high fat content and other issues, dairy products are probably best left off your list.
     
  • Fish. If you have an aversion to getting Alzheimer's or other brain diseases, almost all sources of fish are off-limits. Tuna, especially. So you can save quite a bit of money by not eating fish. Mostly, money of the nursing home variety.
     
  • Beans and rice. A good source. Pick up a chart of proteins, and you can use that to match beans to other incomplete protein sources. Popcorn (pan popped with olive oil) is a good complement to beans.
     
  • Vegetables. Nearly all vegetables have some protein, but it isn't enough to provide your needs. Your diet should be mostly vegetables.
     
  • Eggs. Excellent source. At 7g each, you will go through a large number of eggs daily to provide your protein needs. So, make these a supplemental source. How to tell if the eggs you're buying are safe to eat: Test the shells. The thicker the shells are, the healthier the laying hen was. What contributes to healthy hens? Good food (grass, not corn), and room to move about. Free range is perhaps the gold standard, but at the bronze level (so to speak) you're still getting good eggs.
     
  • Protein powders. These are a mixed bag, due to variances in quality. Read the ingredients. If it contains any hydrogenated anything, it's garbage. Same for sugar, or corn anything. Be sure you do not opt for a pure whey product, unless you intend to ingest it only within an hour of a workout. For general protein needs, use a blend or what's called a Meal Replacement Powder (MRP). Personally, I use the MRP. [This changed in 2014, with the disappearance of quality MRPs from the marketpace; they just could not compete with the hyped up garbage sold by unethical companies].

Three related facts that bear on this issue's finance column:

  1. Medical care consumes 1/7th of the nation's economic output.
  2. Health care is the single most effective means to reduce medical care costs.
  3. Nutrition is the single most important aspect of health care.

Now we've addressed how to get one of your macronutrients cost-effectively. You've heard the expression, "They get you coming and going." In this case, you are saving money coming and going. You save on the cost of protein, while also using proper assimilation and sources to prevent disease.

5. Security tip

In this issue's Brainpower Tip, I used organized crime as an example. The organization, in particular, was the Infernal Rotten Scoundrels.

Actually, some of the people on their payroll are decent human beings. I was once audited by a particularly honest individual who simply wanted to do his job and wasn't out to rob me or break any laws. So while I castigate this useless and harmful agency, I want to point out that not everyone on its payroll is a degenerate or psychopath.

That said, you are unlikely to encounter someone decent when dealing with this agency. You'll face someone who has already judged you and is just looking for a way to deceive and hurt you. Especially if your file goes to Collections (those folks are particularly immoral, according to GAO reports and other unimpeachable sources).

Your best defense is to record what this person says and does. And we have just the thing for that: spy watches. We have them in men's and women's styles (click the pics).

In addition to capturing the threats, lies, and intimidating gestures for later use in your defense, you can also eliminate the "I told you" lies in any followup encounter.

 

Spy Watches 

 
 
You don't have to limit use of a spywatch to only this kind of scenario. This is also perfect for security officers, HR people, hiring managers (replay the whole interview!), travelers harassed by TSA, or anybody else needing to record what happened and who said what.

https://www.mindconnection.com/category/0002SPYGEAR.html

6. Health tip/Fitness tips

This issue's finance tip covered protein assimilation. While that was from a cost reduction viewpoint, obviously proper timing and sourcing of protein has benefits for health and fitness.

Let's talk a bit about the other two macronutrients. People have asked me if I got my shredded look from a low fat diet or a low carb one. My answer is no. To both.

One key to being lean and muscular is the assimilation we covered for protein; it also applies to fats and carbs. Timing and sourcing.

A rule I practice is "Never eat a carb by itself." My initial reason for this was to avoid any glycemic effect. But since the carbs I eat are low glycemic anyhow (because they are fruits and vegetables), that glycemic issue is rather moot.

Age 50.

The reason not to eat a carb by itself is you want to make each meal count. Your body needs fats, carbs, and protein. A good, balanced meal will have all three. And it will be rich in vitamins, minerals, and micronutrients.

Here's a short list of carbs to avoid: processed grains.

See? I told you it was short! I don't bother to count carbs. I just get them from good foods.

What about fats? I buy my olive oil in quart or half gallon containers, which is an indication of how much I consume. Fat does not make you fat; you need dietary fat to burn body fat. I measured mine yesterday; it was 5.6%. I seriously doubt my fat intake is making me fat....

Olive oil is great, but not in everything. So I also use safflower oil for baking.

Saturated fat has been maligned, but your body actually needs it and can handle it in small amounts. Not only that, it makes things taste good! Which is why I use organic butter in small amounts for certain dishes. Your body cannot tolerate hydrogenated oils. So, eliminate those.

An oil touted for its alleged health benefits is canola oil. The reality is it just lacks the health costs incurred by, say, hydrogenated oil. But it doesn't have the health benefits that you find in many other oils. To me, it's a waste of calories.

Eggs are a big source of fat in my diet. Eggs that are properly sourced are very high in omega 3 fats. These make our arteries very happy. What about Egg Beaters and the like? Don't they protect you from cholesterol? No, they are a waste of calories. By eating that junk, you give up the artery-friendly fats in the egg, along with the vitamins and other nutrients. Not to mention the flavor.

A final source of fat in my diet: green leafy vegetables. I eat prodigious amounts of kale, bok choy, broccoli, and other nutrition power houses. These contain essential fatty acids, among other great nutrients.

Can you see a pattern in these food choices? Every calorie counts! Yet, I don't bother ever to count calories. I just manage the protein assimilation and timing, making sure to get my fats and carbs at the same time.

At www.supplecity.com, you'll find plenty of informative, authoritative articles on maintaining a lean, strong physique. It has nothing to do with long workouts or impossible to maintain diets. In fact:

  • The best workouts are short and intense.
  • A good diet contains far more flavors and satisfaction than the typical American diet.

7. Factoid

A dime has 118 ridges around the edge. CONgress spends 118 dimes for every dime we earn (actually, it's far more than that--if you divide the $200 trillion debt by 80 million workers it comes out to 250 million dimes for every dime we earn!).

8. Thought for the Day

If life seems to be full of irritations, try focusing on what's going right.

Please forward this eNL to others.

Authorship

The views expressed in this e-newsletter are generally not shared by criminals, zombies, or brainwashed individuals.

Except where noted, this e-newsletter is entirely the work of Mark Lamendola. Anything presented as fact can be independently verified. Often, sources are given; but where not given, they are readily available to anyone who makes the effort.

Mark provides information from either research or his own areas of established expertise. Sometimes, what appears to be a personal opinion is the only possibility when applying sound logic--reason it out before judging! (That said, some personal opinions do appear on occasion).

The purpose of this publication is to inform and empower its readers (and save you money!).

Personal note from Mark: I value each and every one of you, and I hope that shows in the diligent effort I put into writing this e-newsletter. Thank you for being a faithful reader.

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