It's Not the "Privacy", It's the Hassle

Looks like I will be avoiding flights connecting in Amsterdam: Dutch to use full body scanners for US flights

Since I have the body of a Roman god, I really don't mind if some Dutch hottie (or dude) scans me. The problem is this is an individual system. Imagine the time, the lines, the hassle, the idiots in front of you who take extra time because they are clueless (like the baggage line), and the extra hours needed at the the airport to go through this system.

I wouldn't mind extra screening procedures if they had a reasonable chance to catch terrorists, but the fact of the matter is they don't - and they won't start catching terrorists until they start profiling.

Until then it will just be more and more hassles for travelers, raising the bar even higher for scheduling a business trip. Maybe the "Total Recall" scanner where you just walk through without slowing down will be invented, but that is a ways off. Until then I will be trying to travel less.

Walking Away From Debt

I have known people who have had a bankruptcy, have friends contemplating short-sales. In all these cases it involved a failed business or lost job, not stupidity, or walking away from a debt they could pay, or lying on a loan application. Bankruptcy has it's place - taking risk is a part of life and unforeseen circumstances change things - but I think people who are stupid or spend more than they can really afford should be thrown into debtor's prison.

So this article about deadbeats hits home. The woman who walked away from not one, but three mortgages, then goes out and buys expensive furniture is human scum in my book.

People from the Depression who couldn't pay off debts lived thriftily and modestly, the moral obligation of what happened to them hanging over them for years.

While You Were Eating Turkey...

The Federal Reserve's balance sheet hit a new all time record of $2.2 Trillion in assets

Add to this the "all time record" of our deficits, and you have to wonder why the bozos in Washington are furiously looking to add another trillion dollar entitlement.

One thought is that as long as the country is going to go bankrupt you might as well run up all the credit cards as high as you can. There is no conceivable way we can climb out of this mess other than massive inflation or default.

Printing Money and Handing it Out isn't "Growth"

Instapundit blurb on GDP announcement: U.S. Economy Is Growing Once Again. But here’s a cautionary note: “But we don’t think that rate of growth is sustainable because it is distorted by all the government stimulus. The challenge here is to get organic growth – growth that isn’t helped by fiscal steroids.”
There was no "growth" in the economy. There was the government shoveling money out the door, which will have to be paid for later. In the mean time the "economic good news" is that things "are not bad as forecast" on unemployment, foreclosures, debt, housing, earnings, etc., etc.

What we basically have is a bubble being created by quantitative easing and government spending. When one or the other eases off all this magic GDP "growth" will stop.

Overseas Business Quote of the Day

I got this in an actual business email from Asia: Sales always chasing two rabbit at the same time.

I think the first part of this quote was originally Confucius say....