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Pirate Poop #2 Exclusive to STR Here
are some useful items that caught my Pirate eye this week. Enjoy! When the Taxman Freezes Your Bank Account Credit Agricole: Start Hoarding Gold Earth
to sheeple…Hello?…Testing 1, 2, 3…Is anyone out there? The Next Major Stop for Gold, $875 Vanguard Closes VGPMX to New Investors You snooze, you lose. Total return is 64% in 12 months. It’s up 15% since I bought mine ten days ago. Productivity Declines for First Time in Five Years All is well! Chavez Warns U.S. Over Refineries Got energy? VGENX’s 12-month total return is 54%. Regulators Concerned Over Risky Lending Practices Say it isn’t so! “The
new Z$50,000 note is not enough to buy a bottle of beer or a
newspaper.” Berlin and Bundesbank at Odds Over Gold Sales Stand By for Higher Interest Rates And
everything that goes along with them. Structural Deficit is a Dollar Killer Default
notices are rising in California. No, really? These
Houses Can Take a Lickin’ Architects
are creating housing that could survive the next devastating disaster. Iran Vows Enrichment After U.N. Referral World
War V is the abyss before us. (WW ARGH!
Can’t wait to see this film. A
short course in global politics, not a chick flick, but recommended. Alternative
Fuel by DH I'm
nearing completion on my newest tax-saving project. I purchased two
diesel Volkswagen Jettas, an '82 and an '86. Both were running, but they
needed some TLC to make them road worthy. I've got the '86 up and
running like a top. My plan is to run waste vegetable oil in them any
time the temperature stays above 30 degrees F. The oil I get for free
from the cafeteria at school. There
are several ways to go about it. To run straight vege oil, a conversion
is necessary to preheat the oil to lower its viscosity enough to go
through the injection system. The method I am going to employ involves
mixing 85% vege oil with 10%K1 kerosene (available in bulk at Fleet Farm
with no road tax added) and 5% regular unleaded gasoline. The
concoction is good to 30 deg. F with no conversion necessary on the car.
It is way easier than making biofuel from the oil, and it saves the
trouble of converting the vehicle. The
only road tax paid is on the 5% regular unleaded gasoline. Several
additives are helpful, but not necessary—mostly to keep the injection
system clean, and the oil from gelling in cooler weather. With the cost of filtering the vege oil and all of the additives, the total cost is under 45 cents/gal. A very small part of it is going to be used to build bridges to nowhere in Alaska, or pay for snowmobile trails that never see a snowmobile—like around here this winter! Scanning
the Horizon by JCN Pirates constantly scan the horizon, looking for changes in the environment. This has been a week in which much has changed. We
have a new Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank. A good Pirate will
spend a few hours online researching him since he can reach very deeply
into the pockets of every man, woman, and child on the planet. The power
of the President is nothing when compared to the power of the Chairman
of the We
have a new Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, appointed for life.
He will be deciding law for a long time and the best we can hope for is
that he does not want to create law the way the We have a very divided legislature, as seen during the President’s State of the Union address, and we have an election this year. Promises for everyone will be the order of the day, and better yet, someone else will get to pay for it . . . but not you. Do not believe a single word of any of it. Also, watch out for those who are totally without redeeming value. They will be the ones who offer blame, but no real ideas. Everything you hear you will hear again and you have heard it all before. Still, one can benefit. The Baby Boomers recently started turning 60. This is not a personal problem just for them, the ramifications of those birthdays will effect you more and for much longer into the future than for them. Still, one can benefit. The President is now officially a lame duck. Who cares? Why Pirates don’t—and should not—give a damn about who is in the White House will be a separate lesson. News flash to all anti-war activists: Iran is trying to build or obtain a nuclear bomb; if they do, they will use it no matter what you do to appease them. Your homework assignment: read the Quran; if you don’t read it, you will remain clueless. Nothing you say will have any truth in it, it will just be feeling and emotions . . . two things that Pirates keep in very short supply. Still, one can benefit.
discuss this column in the forum Joe
Blow
is a
privacy advocate with proven subspecialties in strategic planning.
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