Gumby, Thank you for your patience and detailed answers. Forgive the simplicity of this observation. Given that debt has not been the magic elixir to prosperity in most countries, like those in Africa, might these observations be due to an effect, and not a cause? That a nation's ability to have a s...

But my point is more general than the discussions on saturated fats, whole milk, and the like. It is equally important to challenges to the validity of the unadulterated Permanent Portfolio in 2012. I am not sure what you are referring to in regard to the permport, but would love for you to flesh  ...

My Canadian pp (with some US asset) is down more than 3% since I started in two months ago. I expected some downside risk but not this much in a short period time. :(  I guess it was a good thing I put in only half of my money but it is pretty discouraging and I wonder if I should invest the rest i...

If it were possible to sequester such criminals from society permanently - short of execution - that strikes me as a reasonable alternative.  It is the durability of that permanence that is the problem. I agree with this, but I would add that some of these predators continue their attacks in prison...

If we presuppose that in all potential death penalty cases we are talking about whether to lock up the killer for life or kill him, I think that the idea that he will be returned to the streets to kill again should be removed from consideration I beg to differ. http://www.google.com/search?q=convic...

It also doesn't deter crime.  maybe. I am reminded of Thomas Sowell's quote on this subject: "I am prepared to admit that the death penalty does not deter if the opponents of the death penalty can show me just one case where a murderer who was executed then committed another murder." I ha...

Tough question, and one that bares our deepest beliefs about justice, often to conflict in my own case. I am left with a sense that there are some actions so depraved that it is reasonable for a just society to expect that the accused will forfeit his life if convicted. I do not think it blood-thirs...

Utilization (excessive), and insurance coverage that goes far beyond the traditional definition of insurance are important issues with regard to health care costs. Fraud is a politician's favorite target in describing ways to cut costs without decreasing service, but the only way likely to be succes...

"But he ignores the realities of hate crimes in our society:  A crime committed by a black person against a white person usually has nothing to do with race - it is simply a crime of a poor person robbing what he perceives to be a wealthier person.  A crime based solely on race is more offensi...

At work, we just went through another round of software upgrades, and as per routine, very few new benefits for me, the end user, but some features that I liked have been removed, or made slower or more cumbersome. As we are nearly dead in the water without this system, we have a healthy fear of the...

LonerMatt wrote: I'd certainly struggle to see how anyone could call Tolkein anything but complex and, in many ways, inaccessible.

Compared to Jacques Derrida or Noam Chomsky, Tolkien reads like Dick, Jane and Sally. I don't find him inaccessible, save for The Silmarillion.

Before I read the article I want to make a quick comment. I find this process of pinning emotional labels on things to be a very vexing problem which undermines clear, rational thinking. Creating labels like "liberal" is a way to get an immediate knee-jerk reaction out of people and it pr...

I was shocked at how fast I lost weight and fat sticking to this diet, and trust me when I say I did not restrict fat; in fact, I reintroduced some carbs sooner than planned. I am now in the process of titrating the appropriate amount, because I am already where I want to be weight-wise. I think thi...

Some of you may be familiar with it already but firecalc.com is a good place to get an idea of a safe withdrawal rate. Reub, and others, what do you use on firecalc for return, standard deviation, and inflation rate? Do you count social security? For me, I use 8%, 8%, 3.5% and no soc. sec. income. ...

I agree with you, Gosso. My suspicion is that there is no more one perfect diet than there is one perfect song. But, and I am sure you agree, the large amount of processed carbs in a typical American's diet is very likely a bad thing. Tailoring this concept to your own body seems to take time and ef...

i could easily be wrong about what some experts are recommending.. i would still consider the diet to be "low carb" after you stabilize and add "some" carbs back in (certainly relative to the typical American diet)..    and the range of how many carbs you can add back in and sti...

I am now on day ten. I have eliminated all carbs, save for green vegetables and some beans... no flour, sugar, potatoes, corn or grains. The low carb flu was not a myth...I had a fuzzy head, mild nausea and low energy for 3 or 4 days, but feel good now. My weight is/was pretty good, although I am ha...

mdsw,

Selling an asset will not remove it from your Roth, and would not be treated as a withdrawal. The cash from the sale would remain in the Roth, and then can be reinvested, much like the interest you would earn on your bonds if you left them there.

I don't know if our style of communication here is in any danger of going viral. I think it requires a critical mass of members devoted to it. This place is remarkable for how truly out of the ordinary a rude post is... It bothers me when I see one here, while hardly registering when I am reading o...

Doing the bull dance. Feeling the flow.

The other night satellite photo I think is great is of North and South Korea. I'll bet the star gazing in North Korea is awesome (if you can get the boot off your face long enough to look up): http://doctorbulldog.files.wordpress.com/2006/10/northkorea-at-night.jpg?w=450 This is the map people in N...

I believe balance should be the goal. Early retirement is a laudable goal, but no one is promised longevity, and life is about the journey, not the destination. With regard to work, there is no job that I am aware of that does not involve some drudgery. If it was always fun, interesting, and uplifti...

Jedi, I believe a more significant concern would be the tax efficiency of PRPFX if there was a massive sell off.

This is a loaded topic, because almost everyone knows someone that has been made worse by care that they have received. I work in these trenches, and can say that I have seen anecdotal evidence for most comments that have been made. That said, I have a couple of comments: the saddest cases that I se...

Matt, I think your plans are solid. Very few of us are able to remain pure due to limits of our workplace retirement accounts, but we do the best we can. Congratulations on pursuing an aggressive savings plan. Old Matt will thank you.