================================================= Expat Worlds Bi-Monthly Digest ================================================= 28 May, 2004 Vol. 6, Issue 08 .....IN THIS DIGEST..... ==== THE STORY =================== -=Lost in Space by Bill Bonner=- ==== OTHER EZINES ================ ==== EW SPECIAL ================== -=The Mail Drop=- ==== HUMOR, TRIVIA, NEWS AND MORE... == -=Trivia=- -=News Story=- -=Traveller's Tales=- -=Jokes=- ==== THE RESOURCE TIP ============= -=Spybot - Search & Destroy=- ==== INSIDE THIS MONTH EXPAT WORLD == -=Table of Content=- ==== THE STORY ================================== LOST IN SPACE by Bill Bonner Editors note: Bill Bonner is the head of a newsletter empire which has International Living newsletter as its flagstaff publication. Here Bill writes an article which we at the EW Digest agree with in all respects and think it needs wider distribution. So here it is: "We sense that we live in a time set apart." George W. Bush, State of the Union, 2004 A remarkable combination of self-delusion and self-satisfaction seems to be driving Americans to self-destruction. Limited government...balanced budget...fewer regulations - Republican principles from the Eisenhower era might have protected them. Too bad Republicans no longer believe in them. Never before has the nation been so deeply in debt. Yet, never before have any people been so eager to spend more. On the road to ruination...they press down on the accelerator. Here, from Bill King, are the average annual real increases in domestic discretionary spending: LBJ 1965-69 4.3% Richard Nixon 1970-75 6.8% Gerald Ford 1976-77 8.0% Jimmy Carter 1978-81 2.0% Ronald Reagan 1982-89 -1.3% George H.W. Bush 1990-93 4.0% Bill Clinton 1994-2001 2.5% George W. Bush 2002-04 8.2% (Source: Club for Growth, based on U.S. Budget, Historical Tables, 2004) We are talking, of course, of the usual slimy programs. George W. Bush, the conservative republican, is increasing spending more than 300% faster than his predecessor, Bill Clinton, the liberal democrat. But that is the charm of politics. Its shifty sands cover the creepy tracks of countless crooks and connivers. No sooner has a man piled up a few corrupt positions, policies and proposals... than the winds change, and his whole program is blown away. He re-invents himself as the opportunities present themselves. "It's strange how you never know what you're going to get with a President," writes Doug Casey. "Few people remember that Franklin Roosevelt ran on what was almost a radical free market platform in 1932, decrying the tax, spend and regulate policies of Hoover. One might have thought you'd have gotten a fiscal conservative with Reagan...but his policies sent the deficit through the roof. It was reasonable to anticipate a socialist disaster with Clinton, but government spending grew slower than the overall economy. Baby Bush, few now recall, made noises about personal freedom, and no more 'nation building' in foreign hellholes. "I'm not sure what conclusion one can draw from all this, apart from the fact that the kind of people who survive in the game of politics long enough to become President are, almost necessarily, pathological liars." We do not recall it, but according to legend, if not history, there was a time when republicans still might have had a claim to some small measure of integrity. The lumpen republican could hold his head high, for at least his party platform rested on what many took to be eternal verities - spend little, balance the budget, and mind your own business. Murray Rothbard saw the sand get into the Republican gear box more than 10 years ago. He wrote: "In the spring of 1981, conservative Republicans in the House of Representatives cried. They cried because, in the first flush of the Reagan Revolution that was supposed to bring drastic cuts in taxes and government spending, as well as a balanced budget, they were being asked by the White House and their own leadership to vote for an increase in the statutory limit on the federal public debt, which was then scraping the legal ceiling of one trillion dollars. They cried because all of their lives they had voted against an increase in public debt, and now they were being asked, by their own party and their own movement, to violate their lifelong principles. The White House and its leadership assured them that this breach in principle would be their last: that it was necessary for one last increase in the debt limit to give President Reagan a chance to bring about a balanced budget and to begin to reduce the debt. Many of these Republicans tearfully announced that they were taking this fateful step because they deeply trusted their President, who would not let them down. "Famous last words. In a sense, the Reagan handlers were right: there were no more tears, no more complaints, because the principles themselves were quickly forgotten, swept into the dustbin of history. Deficits and the public debt have piled up mountainously since then, and few people care, least of all conservative Republicans. Every few years, the legal limit is raised automatically. By the end of the Reagan reign the federal debt was $2.6 trillion; now it is $3.5 trillion and rising rapidly [ed. Note: $7 trillion as of today, Jan. 23, 2004]. And this is the rosy side of the picture, because if you add in 'off-budget' loan guarantees and contingencies, the grand total federal debt is $20 trillion. "Before the Reagan era, conservatives were clear about how they felt about deficits and the public debt: a balanced budget was good, and deficits and the public debt were bad, piled up by free-spending Keynesians and socialists, who absurdly proclaimed that there was nothing wrong or onerous about the public debt. In the famous words of the left-Keynesian apostle of 'functional finance,' Professor Abba Lerner, there is nothing wrong with the public debt because 'we owe it to ourselves.' In those days, at least, conservatives were astute enough to realize that it made an enormous amount of difference whether - slicing through the obfuscatory collective nouns - one is a member of the 'we' (the burdened taxpayer) or of the 'ourselves' (those living off the proceeds of taxation). "Since Reagan, however, intellectual-political life has gone topsy-turvy. Conservatives and allegedly 'free-market' economists have turned handsprings trying to find new reasons why 'deficits don't matter.'" Today, if you were to pose the question to the small-town republican, you might still find a faint residue of the Old Religion. But the poor man has been betrayed...by his party...by his representatives...by politics itself...and by his own fatal urges. Like investors, republicans have gone a little light in the head. They no longer aim for a balanced budget and modest programs; they aim for the stars. "You can't have a war, cut taxes, have the economy in a garbage pail and spend billions going into space," said an American quoted in the Economist. But this old-school Republican is sadly out of step with the times. The new-school conservatives are on the march...headed to buffoonery. It is fairly late in the day of what Bank Credit Analyst refers to as the "supercycle" of credit. The idea is fairly simple. All of nature works in cycles. You are born; you die. There are the seasons, the earth's annual movement around the sun, and its daily spin. Things go up and then they go down. The 'hog cycle' - in which hog prices rise and fall with production - takes only about 18 months. The presidential cycle takes 4 years. A supercycle is merely a cycle that takes a long time and includes many other mini-cycles. The key dates for America's supercycle of credit - also known to Daily Reckoning readers as the Dollar Standard Era - are 1913, 1933, and 1971. In 1913, the Federal Reserve was set up. In 1933, Roosevelt banned gold and brought European-style social welfare programs to America. And in 1971, Richard Nixon broke the last link with gold...creating an international monetary system based entirely on paper - or fiat - money. Not entirely by coincidence, 1971 was also the year in which the space shuttle program was launched. Since then, in current dollars, about $150 billion has been spent on the program. That may seem like a lot of money to you, dear reader, but it is nothing compared to the cost of the next phase. President Bush plans to put up a permanent station on the moon...and to move on from there to Mars. "The sky's the limit," says the Economist. Thus we see the full ambition of the new conservatives - to conquer not just this tired old ball we live on...but the entire galaxy. "This development will open new worlds; and its consequences will go a long way toward cleaning up and vastly enriching the old one. It will not be merely revolutionary: it will be Promethean." The writer is Rod Martin of Vanguard, a republican Political Action Committee, a man who seems to have spent too much time staring at the full moon. Now, he howls: "The only real question is who will exploit it. Will America colonize those new worlds, controlling the economic life of humanity to a degree today's Arabs can only dream of, or will we allow others to dominate us instead? "Will Washington and Madison's children continue to lead in science, military power, and political dominance, or will it cede that to the socialists in Brussels, or even the totalitarians in Beijing? "That question remains to be answered. But for today, while we wait for the new Orvilles and Wilburs to do their magic, George Bush is building - at a miniscule cost - the infrastructure to give America the early lead. The day may come when we and our children owe all we have to this single act of statesmanship." Here we have what must be the new-Republican manifesto. Gone is any trace of republican virtue...laissez-faire deference, humility, modesty, probity and thrift. Instead, we are expected not just to get along with our fellow man, but to dominate him politically...to outdo him in science...and to outspend him. Forget letting him run his own life. We are going to control "the economic life of humanity." They might as well be democrats! What words can stand up against this grandiose vision, dear reader? It is arrogant. It is audacious. It is proud and confident. It is loony. Yes, that is it...or lunatic. Root = luna, the moon. The trouble with the new republicans is that they don't really believe in civil society or free markets. Orville and Wilbur Wright launched the airline industry without taxpayer money. Now, according to the republican guardians of the modern capitalism, it will take more than a similar act of entrepreneurship to put us in to space...but an act of statesmanship. "I'm struck by...the grand idealism of the crowds..." writes our favorite Martian, David Brooks, in the NYTimes. "It's sort of inspiring in this cold Iowa winter to see at least some Americans who have preserved, despite decades of discouragement, a stubborn faith in politics..." Yes, thank God the rubes haven't caught on! ==== OTHER EZINES =============================== ASIAN TIMES ONLINE Asia most trusted source for news, business,commentary and analysis from throughout Asia and our world. (www.atimes.com). ----- Computer Help A to Z Get a free computer tips-kit and make working on your computer fun as well as productive. Discover and master the power of your personal computer without all the technical jargon. http://www.computerhelpatoz.com/ ----- japan-guide.com Extensive, up to date online guide on Japan living and travel related information. http://www.japan-guide.com/ ==== EW SPECIAL ================================= THE FIRST STEP TO PRESERVING YOUR PRIVACY - THE MAIL DROP --- Most of you our readers of old have read at least parts of the now out of print books (except EW still has the classic ones on a CD for sale) by W.G. Hill. You would then be astutely aware of the fundamental importance of a good mail drop. We are offering a street address mail drop in the crown jewel of S.E. Asia - Singapore for less than a dollar a day on a yearly contract. Mail drops prices have increased dramatically over the last few years worldwide but we've still managed to keep our price the same now for the past 15 years! A Singapore mail drop has a very distinct advantage over drops in the rest of the world. European countries like Spain, Portugal and Greece can he written off because the postal system is so inefficient. Much of the rest of Europe is too expensive - a cheap mail drop in the Netherlands charges at least 5 times the price of our Singapore mail drop. In the German speaking countries a cheap business center will charge as much for one month as our Singapore one charges for one year. And the bureaucracy in Europe concerning mail delivery, registration of residents and ridiculous business formalities makes for headaches when using a drop there. Frequently the post office will not deliver registered or recorded mail to a person who is not registered for instance. Indeed, you may well be asked to show a passport to the business center, who in addition may wish to see proof that a business is registered somewhere or you have a residence permit in the country of the mail drop. In many countries it is not possible to legally do business without a license or permit and this can be expensive and time consuming. In Canada a newspaper will not even accept an advertisement without seeing this permit. Who says that free enterprise exists in North America! In the United States it is illegal for a business center to operate without permission from the state and it must have all of its clients turn up in person, fill in a detailed form and show ID. Moreover the post office list of all these establishments on a disk which is installed on the computers of banks and credit reference agencies, etc. Fortunately, you can still get a cheap address through Expat World without showing ID or filling in intrusive applications. You do not need to turn up in person. All we need is your name OR the business name (only ONE accepted) and an address where you want your mail forwarded to. And the mail drop center can receive all your mail and courier packages for whatever name or business name you chose to use. The Singapore mail drop is a steal at US $350 a year which includes a $50 postage forwarding deposit. Get started today in the first step to protecting your privacy. Email us at office@expatworld.net for application form. ==== HUMOR, TRIVIA, NEWS AND MORE... ================ NEWS STORY Government computer surveillance rings alarm bells Privacy experts fear the effort could infringe on civil liberties News Story by Andy Sullivan MAY 27, 2004 (REUTERS) - Nine months after Congress shut down a controversial Pentagon computer-surveillance program, the U.S. government continues to comb private records to sniff out suspicious activity, according to a congressional report obtained by Reuters. Privacy concerns prompted Congress to kill the Pentagon's $54 million Total Information Awareness (TIA) program last September, but government computers are still scanning a vast array of databases for clues about criminal or terrorist activity, the General Accounting Office (GAO) has found. Overall, 36 of the government's 199 data-mining efforts collect personal information from the private sector, a move experts say could violate civil liberties if left unchecked. Several appear to be patterned after the TIA program, which critics said could have led to an Orwellian surveillance state in which citizens have little privacy. "I believe that Total Information Awareness is continuing under other names, and the [Defense Department] projects listed here might fit that bill," said Peter Swire, an Ohio State University law professor who served as the Clinton administration's top privacy official. Defense Department officials didn't respond to a request for comment. Data mining software has been used by the government and private businesses for years to make sense of large amounts of information. Banks use data mining tools to sniff out possible credit card fraud, for example. Most government data mining projects aim to improve service or cut down on waste and fraud, the report said. The U.S. Navy tracks each ship part ordered since 1980 to see which ones fail most frequently, while the Department of Education checks its student loan records against those held by the Social Security Administration to make sure it isn't loaning money to dead people. Other projects raised red flags for privacy experts, however. The Pentagon agency that handled the TIA program isn't working on any data mining projects, but another agency is mining intelligence reports and Internet searches "to identify foreign terrorists or U.S. citizens connected to foreign terrorism activities," the report said. That description prompted the Electronic Privacy Information Center's general counsel, David Sobel, to file a Freedom of Information Act request to find out more about the project. "Congress now needs to take a close look at ways to oversee and regulate the use of data minng technology within the government," he said. Sen. Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii) said he has asked the GAO, the investigative arm of Congress, to examine some projects more closely. "The federal government collects and uses Americans' personal information and shares it with other agencies to an astonishing degree, raising serious privacy concerns," Akaka said in a statement. The report shows that data mining can be a useful tool for the government, but safeguards should be put in place to ensure that information isn't abused, said Nuala O'Connor Kelly, chief privacy officer at the Department of Homeland Security. Swire said the report didn't appear to list any Department of Justice programs that use information from data aggregators ChoicePoint Inc. and Acxiom Corp., even though the agency has signed contracts with those companies. The Justice Department didn't return a call seeking comment. The report also failed to note a planned airline passenger-screening system that has drawn widespread criticism from lawmakers and air travelers. ----- TRAVELLER'S TALES GONE TO GROUND: A Singapore woman spent 15 years claiming her husband was dead and collected large sums of insurance money. But during that period she did a number of things widows don't normally do with their dead husbands, including remarrying him in a new ceremony and conceiving a baby with him. The scam was finally revealed when her brother hired a lawyer to see what other sums they could get out of insurance firms, in addition to the S$330,000 ($196,000) they had already taken, Reuters reported. The lawyer thought it odd that they were claiming money for the death of someone still walking around and tipped off the police. The woman has been charged. Her "dead" husband, meanwhile, has gone to ground--but that's nothing new for him. ----- Oxymoron: understanding editors ----- First you forget names, then you forget faces. Next you forget to pull your zipper up and finally, you forget to pull it down. -- George Burns ----- A guy comes home completely drunk one night. He lurches through the door and is met by his scowling wife, who is most definitely not happy. "Where the hell have you been all night?" she demands. "At this fantastic new bar," he says. "The Golden Saloon. Everything there is golden. It's got huge golden doors, a golden floor, the works - hell, even the urinal's gold!" The wife still doesn't believe his story, and the next day checks the phone book, finding a place across town called the Golden Saloon. She calls up the place to check her husband's story. "Is this the Golden Saloon?" she asks when the bartender answers the phone. " Yes it is," bartender answers. " Do you have huge golden doors?" " Sure do." "Do you have golden floors?" " Most certainly do." " What about golden urinals?" There's a long pause, then the woman hears the bartender yelling, "Hey, Duke, I think I got a lead on the guy that pissed in your saxophone last night!" ----- new error messages currently under consideration for the new Windows XP operating system... 1 Smash forehead on keyboard to continue. 2 Press any key to continue or any other key to quit. 3 BREAKFAST.SYS halted... Cereal port not responding. 4 Close your eyes and press escape three times. 5 File not found. Should I fake it? (Y/N) 6 Runtime Error 6D at 417A:32CF: Incompetent User. 7 Enter any 11-digit prime number to continue. 8 Bad command or file name! Go stand in the corner. 9 Windows message: "Error saving file! Format drive now? (Y/Y)" 10 Windows VirusScan 1.0 - "Windows found: Remove it? (Y/N)" ==== THE RESOURCE TIP ============================ Spybot - Search & Destroy Spybot - Search & Destroy can detect and remove spyware of different kinds from your computer. Spyware is a relatively new kind of threat that common anti-virus applications do not yet cover. If you see new toolbars in your Internet Explorer that you didn't intentionally install, if your browser crashes, or if you browser start page has changed without your knowing, you most probably have spyware. But even if you don't see anything, you may be infected, because more and more spyware is emerging that is silently tracking your surfing behaviour to create a marketing profile of you that will be sold to advertisement companies. Spybot-S&D is free, so there's no harm in trying to see if something snooped into your computer, too. Get it at ==== INSIDE THIS MONTH EXPAT WORLD =============== EXPAT WORLD NEWSLETTER (VOL.16 ISSUE 05) Table of Content: - KNOWLEDGE IS POWER, KNOWLEDGE IS FREEDOM - HOW TO GET ANYTHING ON ANYBODY - SECRETS REVEALED BEAT THE BUREAUCRACY - OUR HOTTEST NEW PRODUCT-VISA VIRTUON CREDIT CARD - DEATH IS ALMOST FUN THESES DAYS - ELECTRONIC WORLD - SPAM TACTICS - HELPFUL INFO FOR EW's Electronic World READERS - ELECTRONIC WORLD - BUSINESS - ADWARE AND SPYWARE. ARE THEY JUST A NUISANCE OR AN INVASION OF PRIVACY? - PRIVACY MATTERS - THE FIRST STEP TO PRESERVING YOUR PRIVACY - THE MAIL DROP - AROUND THE WORLD with Expat World - LETTER FROM AMERICA - INTERNATIONAL SNIPS and CLIPS - GET YOUR HEAD OUT OF THE SAND - THESE POLITICAL PARTY NAMES NEED NOT APPLY - SEX EDUCTION DUTCH STYLE - CRAPPER RAPPER - DON'T BE A FEMALE SUPERHERO - HILLBILLY VASECTOMY - TRUE TO LIFE YOU MISSING SO MUCH Each week the EXPAT WORLD DIGEST gives you just a smattering of what you can find in the EXPAT WORLD newsletter that we produce once a month. Why not get the whole story and subscribe now to our electronic version for just US $30 per year. 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