3D Printer for $1,000

"A British firm is selling a 3D printer for home use for about $1,000. It’s for people who are technologically savvy, and who want to be on the cutting edge. Watch it build a gadget. This is the equivalent of the Altair 8800 microcomputer in 1975. Soon, there will be an Apple I, then a TRS-80. Then a PC. Then there will be the equivalent of Visicalc, a 'killer app' for business. That is when this technology will get into the general population. This will change the world. It will take a decade or two, but we can see what’s coming. When a home brew version starts out at $1,000, the cost will fall, and capabilities will increase." Continue reading

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Senators push bill to replace Fannie, Freddie with national mortgage insurance

"The two firms, which back nearly half of all new U.S. home loans, were chartered by Congress to expand mortgage finance but operated as private, profit-making companies. Given the central role they played in the financial system, the government felt compelled to bail them out when they ran into trouble. The bill would require private entities to buy mortgages from lenders and issue them to investors as securities. Private equity would be required to absorb a 10 percent loss of the principal underlying those new mortgage-backed securities if the loans went bad. A new guarantor, called the Federal Mortgage Insurance Corp., would replace Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac." Continue reading

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1,700,000 Foreclosures Are in the Pipeline.

"A government report says that 1.7 million homeowners are 90 days or more late in their mortgage payments. Fannie Mae and HUD will wind up with these homes on their books, unless they decide to let the homeowners live rent-free. This is shadow inventory. It hangs like the sword of Damocles over the housing market. If the government does nothing, these homeowners will receive a huge subsidy: a tax-free grant equal to their mortgage payment, month after month, year after year. But if it forecloses, what will it do with these empty houses. Then the subsidy goes to operators of the squatters. Will the government kick the can? Probably." Continue reading

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OKC hospital posting surgery prices online, creating bidding war

"An Oklahoma City surgery center is offering a new kind of price transparency, posting guaranteed all-inclusive surgery prices online. The move is revolutionizing medical billing in Oklahoma and around the world. Dr. Keith Smith and Dr. Steven Lantier launched Surgery Center of Oklahoma 15 years ago, founded on the simple principle of price honesty. 'What we’ve discovered is health care really doesn’t cost that much,' Dr. Smith said. 'What people are being charged for is another matter altogether.' Surgery Center of Oklahoma started posting their prices online about four years ago. The prices are all-inclusive quotes and they are guaranteed." Continue reading

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My Statement on Recent Attacks

Today’s article that brought my not-very-hidden radio pundit background to light does not accurately reflect me or my full, or true, views. The role of a radio host is different from that of a political operative. In radio, sometimes you’re encouraged to be provocative and inflammatory. I’ve been guilty of both, and am embarrassed by [...]

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Why did Charlie Chaplin renounce the America which made him world-famous?

"'It is not easy to uproot myself and my family from a country where I have lived for 40 years without a feeling of sadness. Since the end of the last world war, I have been the object of lies and vicious propaganda by powerful reactionary groups who by their influence and by the aid of America’s yellow press have created an unhealthy atmosphere in which liberal-minded individuals can be singled out and persecuted.' - Williamson Daily News – April 22, 1953" Continue reading

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Oregon Supreme Court Allows Unticketed Drivers To Be Searched

"James Kenneth Watson had been driving through Myrtle Creek when Officer Kris Malek recognized him and decided to pull him over. Officer Malek claimed Watson's car briefly crossed over the yellow painted lane divider stripes. When pulled over, Officer Malek decided not to issue a ticket. He asked for license and registration and began questioning Watson while he waited for dispatch to confirm the license and check for arrest warrants. Deputy Clayton Ruble arrived on the scene and claimed he smelled a 'pretty strong' odor of marijuana that Officer Malek had not noticed. An officer with a drug dog was called to the scene to sniff Watson's car. The dog indicated." Continue reading

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Who voted for the Reed Amendment in 1995 and 1996?

"The Reed Amendment — which bans people determined by the Attorney-General to have 'renounced citizenship for the purpose of avoiding taxation' — was an amendment to the Immigration in the National Interest Act of 1995. I was aware in a general sense that Republicans had taken back the House and the Senate in 1994, but I’d never really put two and two together until reading this list: Republicans formed a majority among the supporters of the Reed Amendment. Indeed, every single one of the Republican freshmen on the committee who joined the House as a result of the 1994 'Revolution' voted for Reed’s amendment." Continue reading

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What the Libertarian Candidate for NYC Comptroller Would Like to Ask Eliot Spitzer

"'I'll ask his position on prostitution. And if he thinks johns should be arrested and charged just like madams and prostitutes. If he thought it was fair that he was never charged as a john under his new felony law but that I spent four months in Rikers Island from which I returned penniless, homeless, and forced to take sex offender classes for five months with pedophiles and perverts while he returned to his wife in his 5th Ave. high rise without ever being fingerprinted, mug shot, remanded, or charged with a crime under the very law he signed.' 'But my guess is that he will use his vast money he used to pay high-priced prostitutes to try to knock me off the ballot.'" Continue reading

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