Podcast for 7-11-2011

[MrBogosity]

[bogosity-podcast]https://bogosity.podbean.com/mf/web/q9ayt/BogosityPodcast-7-11-2011.mp3[/bogosity-podcast]

News of the Bogus:

• NATO Admits Missile Hit a Civilian Home in Tripoli http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/20/world/middleeast/20libya.html?_r=1
  
  
  
  • Eisenhower's Farewell Address to the Nation http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/ike.htm
• Scientists Discover That Antimicrobial Wipes and Soaps May Be Making You (and Society) Sick http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=scientists-discover-that-antimicrob-2011-07-05
• 401(k) Law Suppresses Saving for Retirement http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303365804576430153643522780.html

Biggest Bogon Emitter: Dr. Cynthia Boaz http://www.truth-out.org/14-propaganda-techniques-fox-news-uses-brainwash-americans/1309612678

Idiot Extraordinaire: Millions of Americans http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/06/us/06casey.html

• The Innocence Project: http://www.innocenceproject.org/

This Week's Quote: “She’s cold, materialistic, unlikable, and it might bring you all pleasure to see her go to jail. But as for evidence to establish that she committed a murder beyond all reasonable doubt? It just isn’t there. The only possible route to a guilty verdict here is Schadenfreude.” —Alan Shore, from Boston Legal

[AnCap Dave]

I want to applaud you for the Idiot Extraordinaire segment.

The problem is, millions of Americans out there really DO believe that they are more insightful than the jury that was actually there to view the evidence, and now you got the emotional lynch mob is trying to make laws now. The people I talked to about the Casey Anthony case were actually furious that evidence was required to convict her in the first place!

The fact is, what happened to Caylee was a tragedy. That can't be denied. But just because it is a tragedy, doesn't mean you can just throw a face on it without some kind of evidence to back up your position of guilt. These people believe it, but these people are also dangerous to anyone who may be wrongfully committed of any kind of crime.

[FSBlueApocalypse]

The embedded player isn't working for me for some reason, but the player at podbean is.

[AnCap Dave]

Oh, Shane, I meant to ask. Could you post links to the information from the Innocence Project?

I want to use it for future debates.

[MrBogosity]

The stuff I used is basically scattered all over the site, but it's very easy to navigate: http://www.innocenceproject.org/

[MrBogosity]

The embedded player isn't working for me for some reason, but the player at podbean is.

It works for me. What browser/Flash version are you using?

[FSBlueApocalypse]

Firefox 4, whatever the latest version of Flash is

[MrBogosity]

I'm in Firefox 5, and I downgraded to the previous version of Flash because nothing was working right.

[Travis Retriever]

6.0 Beta for me.

[MrBogosity]

FSBlueApocalypse: Can you click the little mp3 player icon next to it and get the mp3 download directly?

[AnCap Dave]

And now there's a scam going on facebook claiming that there is a video of Casey Anthony confessing to her lawyer about the murder.



Obviously if you see it, don't click it. That being said though, it doesn't surprise me that a scam like this is happening, but the sad part is, the people that WANT Casey Anthony to be guilty will click it anyway.

[AnCap Dave]

Got this response for the 401(k) report.

The thing is, this ominous title holds no water to the actual content of the article and the issue at hand. In fact, the law increased enrollment rates, but due to the auto enrollment contribution rates remaining at a constant 3% (due to the companies, mind you), it appears that the saving plans have fallen short of what is required.

Moreover, employees are free to increase the contribution rates at their leisure,and even the article mentions a statement that "simple inertia" was in fact responsible for workers not increasing their contribution rates. In fact, it is the workers that held all the cards in the hand, and their lack of interest (or rather, their oblivion) is what caused this trend.

Of course, you can always argue that the government allowed for this false sense of security to occur, or that companies influenced the government in order to create this illusion of a good retirement plan, but that would be nitpicking, and being extremely prejudiced towards the government. I'm not saying that you shouldn't be, politicians haven't changed since the time of the Roman patricians, merely wanting to remain in power as long as they can, but not everything they do is detrimental to the people governed.

[MrBogosity]

They need to listen to what I actually said. If you start from a position of no retirement, you'll go ahead and sign up, and of course you'll choose what you think is an appropriate contribution. But if you're signed up automatically, it becomes less of a priority, since you'll mostly have to go through the same paperwork for something you're already signed up for anyway.

Besides, what's his solution? Take even more of people's paychecks against their will?

[AnCap Dave]

So apparently since people can't supply evidence, they'll just lump it with OJ Simpson and make stupid jokes based on other internet memes.

[AnCap Dave]

They need to listen to what I actually said. If you start from a position of no retirement, you'll go ahead and sign up, and of course you'll choose what you think is an appropriate contribution. But if you're signed up automatically, it becomes less of a priority, since you'll mostly have to go through the same paperwork for something you're already signed up for anyway.

Besides, what's his solution? Take even more of people's paychecks against their will?

Some people man...just some people.

But the point is that there was less enrollment before the law was passed. What, did people think that they can live without retirement, so that is why they did not enroll before? Moreover, considering that many of the employees did not increase their contribution,and the issue quite important, I would easily argue for a lack of sound judgement here.

As for my solution, first, it's not about taking money against people's will. It's whether or not people can make sound and educated decisions about their retirement. They have showed poor judgement in both instances, and personally, my solution would be information. Reduce administrative procedures, create an easy access system that will provide information concerning my personal retirement plan. It is obvious that they can make complex computer models concerning retirement, so there is no reason why it can't be personalized, telling me how much I should save for a specific plan. The problem has been inertia, and only properly informing employees, and providing the proper means of getting information, can jump start the situation.

Basically, things were already bad, and the government made a sh!t job in fixing it- they didn't solve the problem, just shifted the emphasis. At least now we know where the problem lies, so a more precision strike is required in order to solve it. But I have to agree that I do not think that the government will do anything useful at this point. But nevertheless, this doesn't prevent the everyday employee from fixing the problem on a personal level.