JPA Rambling

Debt Ceiling Debate

2011-01-07T16:22:00.002-05:00

Here's the short article about the Debt Ceiling Debate that actually explains why we're talking about chickens and rabbits and bees and gardens while stocking up on other valuables like guns and knives and bullets and precious metals and commodities and food. I don't know when the crash is coming, and I truly hope it never does, but the train has already left the station and it's not coming back. The Demopublicans have been spending like drunken sailors and it will soon be time to pay the piper. Hyperinflation is real and has crashed at least 9 currencies in the past 90 years, including those of Germany Weimer Republic, Hungary, Chile, Argentina, Peru, Angola, Yugoslavia, Belarus and Zimbabwe. Think the USA currency is too big to fail? Think the Federal Reserver can just print more money to get us out of this situation? Somebody please tell me why I'm wrong about this.

End of rant.

http://www.prisonplanet.com/the-debt-ceiling-debate-really-doesn%E2%80%99t-matter-%E2%80%93-either-way-u-s-government-finances-are-going-to-crash.html

Here's the source on the 9 failed currencies:

http://www.mint.com/blog/finance-core/hyperinflation-the-story-of-9-failed-currencies/

Lincoln - Kennedy

2010-09-09T07:14:00.002-04:00

This is very old, but it just came in an email. So I thought I'd post it since I find it fascinating.

History Mystery

Have a history teacher explain this----- if they can.

Abraham Lincoln was elected to Congress in 1846.
John F. Kennedy was elected to Congress in 1946.

Abraham Lincoln was elected President in 1860.
John F. Kennedy was elected President in 1960.

Both were particularly concerned with civil rights.
Both wives lost their children while living in the White House.
Both Presidents were shot on a Friday.
Both Presidents were shot in the head.

Lincoln 's secretary was named Kennedy.
Kennedy's Secretary was named Lincoln .

Both were assassinated by Southerners.
Both were succeeded by Southerners named Johnson.

Andrew Johnson, who succeeded Lincoln, was born in 1808.
Lyndon Johnson, who succeeded Kennedy, was born in 1908.

John Wilkes Booth, who assassinated Lincoln, was born in 1839.
Lee Harvey Oswald, who assassinated Kennedy, was born in 1939.

Both assassins were known by their three names.
Both names are composed of fifteen letters.

Lincoln was shot at the theatre named 'Ford'.
Kennedy was shot in a car called 'Lincoln' made by 'Ford'.

Lincoln was shot in a theatre and his assassin ran and hid in a warehouse.
Kennedy was shot from a warehouse and his assassin ran and hid in a theatre.

Booth and Oswald were assassinated before their trials.

Overwhelm the system

2010-08-25T09:38:00.004-04:00

I'm often asked: Why don't you like Barack Obama. My standard answer is: it's not that I don't like him, it's that I disagree with his political philosophy. I believe in freedom and individual responsibility (per Thomas Jefferson), while Mr. Obama believes in big government and central planning (per Karl Marx). Most people just shrug their shoulders and change the subject.

The following was written by Wayne Allyn Root, and it explains things a lot better:

Obama's agenda: Overwhelm the system

Rahm Emanuel cynically said, "You never want a crisis to go to waste." It is now becoming clear that the crisis he was referring to is Barack Obama's presidency.

Obama is no fool. He is not incompetent. To the contrary, he is brilliant. He knows exactly what he's doing. He is purposely overwhelming the U.S. economy to create systemic failure, economic crisis and social chaos -- thereby destroying capitalism and our country from within.

Barack Obama is my college classmate ( Columbia University , class of '83). As Glenn Beck correctly predicted from day one, Obama is following the plan of Cloward & Piven, two professors at Columbia University . They outlined a plan to socialize America by overwhelming the system with government spending and entitlement demands. Add up the clues below. Taken individually they're alarming. Taken as a whole, it is a brilliant, Machiavellian game plan to turn the United States into a socialist/Marxist state with a permanent majority that desperately needs government for survival ... and can be counted on to always vote for bigger government. Why not? They have no responsibility to pay for it.

Universal health care . The health care bill had very little to do with health care. It had everything to do with unionizing millions of hospital and health care workers, as well as adding 15,000 to 20,000 new IRS agents (who will join government employee unions). Obama doesn't care that giving free health care to 30 million Americans will add trillions to the national debt. What he does care about is that it cements the dependence of those 30 million voters to Democrats and big government. Who but a socialist revolutionary would pass this reckless spending bill in the middle of a depression?

Cap and trade . Like health care legislation having nothing to do with health care, cap and trade has nothing to do with global warming. It has everything to do with redistribution of income, government control of the economy and a criminal payoff to Obama's biggest contributors. Those powerful and wealthy unions and contributors (like GE, which owns NBC, MSNBC and CNBC) can then be counted on to support everything Obama wants. They will kick-back hundreds of millions of dollars in contributions to Obama and the Democratic Party to keep them in power. The bonus is that all the new taxes on Americans with bigger cars, bigger homes and businesses helps Obama "spread the wealth around."

Make Puerto Rico a state. Why? Who's asking for a 51st state? Who's asking for millions of new welfare recipients and government entitlement addicts in the middle of a depression? Certainly not American taxpayers. But this has been Obama's plan all along. His goal is to add two new Democrat senators, five Democrat congressman and a million loyal Democratic voters who are dependent on big government.

Legalize 12 million illegal immigrants. Just giving these 12 million potential new citizens free health care alone could overwhelm the system and bankrupt America . But it adds 12 million reliable new Democrat voters who can be counted on to support big government. Add another few trillion dollars in welfare, aid to dependent children, food stamps, free medical, education, tax credits for the poor, and eventually Social Security.

Stimulus and bailouts . Where did all that money go? It went to Democrat contributors, organizations (ACORN), and unions -- including billions of dollars to save or create jobs of government employees across the country. It went to save GM and Chrysler so that their employees could keep paying union dues. It went to AIG so that Goldman Sachs could be bailed out (after giving Obama almost $1 million in contributions). A staggering $125 billion went to teachers (thereby protecting their union dues). All those public employees will vote loyally Democrat to protect their bloated salaries and pensions that are bankrupting America . The country goes broke, future generations face a bleak future, but Obama, the Democrat Party, government, and the unions grow more powerful. The ends justify the means.

Raise taxes on small business owners, high-income earners, and job creators. Put the entire burden on only the top 20 percent of taxpayers, redistribute the income, punish success, and reward those who did nothing to deserve it (except vote for Obama). Reagan wanted to dramatically cut taxes in order to starve the government. Obama wants to dramatically raise taxes to starve his political opposition.

With the acts outlined above, Obama and his regime have created a vast and rapidly expanding constituency of voters dependent on big government; a vast privileged class of public employees who work for big government; and a government dedicated to destroying capitalism and installing themselves as socialist rulers by overwhelming the system.

Add it up and you've got the perfect Marxist scheme -- all devised by my Columbia University college classmate Barack Obama using the Cloward and Piven Plan.

Civil War?

2009-02-09T17:21:00.001-05:00

So far, eight states have introduced resolutions declaring state sovereignty under the 9th and 10th amendments of the US Constitution. 20 more states are expected to be added to that list. You probably won't see anything about this in the mainstream media any time soon. It's about time the states start yelling at the arrogant SOB's in Washington.

Here's a short article from WND. http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=88218

Here's New Hampshire's version. I'm sure Civil War is a long way off (at least I HOPE!), but the posturing has begun. Maybe people are actually catching on to the fact that central planning just doesn't work and that collectivism is what got us into this mess.

http://patdollard.com/2009/02/new-hampshire-fires-first-shot-of-civil-war-resolution-immediately-voids-several-federal-laws-threatens-counterstrike-against-breach-of-peace/

A new president

2009-01-20T09:15:00.004-05:00

I just want to clarify my position on the new president who is being inaugurated today. I do NOT have a problem with his race. I DO have a problem with his political leanings - mostly towards more government. (Besides, I think he's really Irish. They just missed the apostrophe when he came over from across the ocean as a child. His name is really O'Bama.)

I also have a problem with the media circus surrounding this whole thing, and with the Messiah worship that I see going on out there. Talk about the masses being so easily brainwashed! Yes, I'm also brainwashed in many ways (my consumer mentality keeps me in debt), but there are so many people out there who think that Mr. Obama is going to wave his magic wand and turn the world into a utopia. I'm sorry, but utopia is an unrealistic hope and dystopia is the direction that Mr. Obama's MORE GOVERNMENT political leanings will take us.

What ever happened to the concept of the Free Market? So many people think that the free market is the Wild West and that we need government bureaucrats to make rules to restrain the greed and profit of the free market system. Well, government officials make rules that will fill the pockets of their political contributors, while telling the masses that it's for the benefit of "the people". What a crock. Basic economics tells us that greed and profit are what drives the free market and what makes the whole system work. Basic economics also tells us that when the government sticks it's nose into the free market, it throws the whole system off balance - and the winners are usually the powerful political contributors and the losers are the brainwashed masses. Greed and profit are also the driving force behind big government. The only difference is that they have the big guns and they use coercion to fill their pockets - rather than innovation, competition and the law of supply and demand.

Did you notice that Mr. Obama's campaign promise of increasing taxes on "the rich" has suddenly been put on the back burner - much to Ms. Pelosi's dismay? Well, as it turns out, "the rich" (including the mass media) are the ones who put him into office, so he owes them a huge favor. Luckily for him, he has the tax code at his fingertips (also, back to basic economics - "the rich" are the ones who provide jobs for the brainwashed masses, so it's good to see him break that campaign promise). A government that penalizes success (can you say IRS?) is a government that will eventually collapse. Hopefully, the system of checks and balances that the Founding Fathers put in place will be enough to prevent that collapse.

Meanwhile, Heil O'Bama.

The American Form of Government video

2009-01-12T06:52:00.003-05:00

This is the best video I've seen that explains the various forms of government. I suggest you take 10 minutes to learn more than you would in an entire semester at a public school.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2_21-CJy9I

Our Idol-elect

2009-01-03T18:21:00.005-05:00

I've been silent (at least on this blog) about the outcome of the election on November 4, 2008. Being a registered Republican but a voting and philosophical Libertarian, I knew going in that I would be unhappy with the outcome of the election. It didn't matter if McCain or Obama-rhymes-with-Alabama won, the outcome will be the same - more collectivism and socialism disguised as change or compassionate government or some crap like that. From my perspective, Ron Paul was the only candidate worth considering. Anyway, after reading way too much before and after the election, I'll share only one article with you (well, at least for now). Here it is:

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=82034

Please feel free to post comments. I don't think anybody is reading this. If you can read this, please post a comment! Even if it's just to say hello.

Plaxico Burress and victimless crimes

2008-12-03T09:25:00.000-05:00

OK, quick rant. I'm sure many will disagree, but that's why it's a rant.

Plaxico Burress (Super Bowl star) accidentally shot himself in the leg with an "unregistered" gun he had in his pants at a New York City nightclub. He's facing the end of his football career, along with 3 1/2 to 15 years in jail for the simple crime of carrying a weapon. Now I'm no fan of many of these overpaid thugs in the NFL, and their blatant disrespect for the rules, but how is it that we have allowed our elected officials to pass so many harsh laws for victimless crimes?

jpa

Here's a snippet from LewRockwell.com (the whole article is here: http://www.lewrockwell.com/kramer/kramer22.html):

Who's the victim?
To summarize, Burress is being prosecuted not for damaging another person's body or property, for which that person has filed a complaint, seeking restitution and/or damages; he's being prosecuted for not having a permission slip from the State to carry his own property. And the people who helped him get medical treatment are being threatened for not turning Burress in to the State for not having a permission slip and because the piece of his property, for which he didn't have a permission slip, involved in the victimless incident happened to be a gun; and for not cooperating with the State, once the non-crime came to its attention, in helping it gather evidence to prosecute Burress for the non-crime, and possibly to prosecute them for their involvement in the non-crime too.
The despicable treatment by the State of Burress, and the equally despicable threatening of those who went out of their way to help him with his accidental injury, is another example of the State's hegemonic relationship with the people it "serves," as Butler Shaffer has quipped, "the way a cannibal 'serves' his neighbor."
In a free society, Burress would be responsible for paying his hospital bill and for any damage to the nightclub, after which he could put the whole unpleasant accident behind him and get on with his life.
Instead, the State is going to ruin Burress' career and life, and cause unspeakable anguish for his loved ones, by locking him in a cage inside a socialist hellhole for a "crime" that hurt no one except for himself – and even that, just barely. The only victim in this "crime" is Burress.

The Chinese or Radical Islam?

2008-10-30T12:45:00.003-04:00

I sent the following email to some friends and relatives yesterday (October 29, 2008). None of them even responded, so I guess they think I'm nuts. Anyway, here goes:

My Dear Fellow Comrades,

I'm probably beating a dead horse, but couldn't resist another reminder about our future system of government.

http://www.lewrockwell.com/dilorenzo/dilorenzo155.html

So will it be "Heil Hussein" or "Heil McCain" or "Heil ObaMarx" or "Heil McMussolini"? For now, I'll start practicing "Heil, mein Führer" and then adjust as necessary once we figure out how Oprah's Messiah from Chicago prefers to be addressed! (Oh, "The One" is in Raleigh today! I love the road closings. He's not even been elected yet and He's already disrupting my ability to do business.)

So after the political elitists (that we continue to elect) finish shredding the US Constitution and ruin our country, economy and supposed freedom, who kicks our ass first? The Chinese or Radical Islam? I predict China, but since I stopped putting money in the basket a while back, I'll at least acknowledge the god of Mohammed just in case.

Zai Jian (goodbye in Chinese)
Fi Amanillah (may Allah protect you)

OK, I'll step down from my soap box for now. I'm just venting. Sorry if I offended anybody - well not really.

jpa

In case the link to the article doesn't work in the future, here's the contents of the article. It's reprinted without permission from www.lewrockwell.com (I suggest you add that site to your favorites and visit often).

Americans will decide next week whether the next president will be a socialist or a national socialist. Lest you think I exaggerate, consider McCain’ campaign theme of "country first" before everything else – your private life, your job, your children, your education, your marriage, everything. Ask yourself how this differs from the philosophy of German fascism, which preached "the common good comes before the private good" (see Paul Lensch, Three Years of World Revolution).
Or consider the fact that McCain supported the Wall Street Plutocrat Bailout Bill. A defining characteristic of fascism was that all profits were private, but losses were socialized. And oh yes, military imperialism (a.k.a., "national greatness conservatism") and a dictatorial executive were also key features of European fascism. Recall that McCain promised that if elected (paraphrasing), "I will order the Secretary of the Treasury to buy up all of the foreclosed mortgages." Is that really a part of the delegated powers in Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution?
Then there is Comrade Obama, who has announced that he wants to "change the world" by "spreading the wealth." Didn’t Marx and Engels say the same thing in 1848? As is well known, Obama has long had a close association with ACORN, the far-left political organization that employed him as its legal counsel in Chicago. It is ACORN-style "community organizing" that Obama claims is his political forte and qualification for running for president. He boasts of having worked with ACORN to register tens of thousands of new voters and has defended the organization against all critics. It is safe to assume that there must be a congruence of interests between Obama and ACORN.
So the question becomes, what does ACORN (and by implication, Obama) stand for politically and philosophically? It so happens that I researched and wrote about ACORN over twenty years ago when I co-authored a book and numerous articles on the subject of "tax-funded politics," i.e., the (illegal) granting of tax dollars to "nonprofit" organizations to fund political activities. ACORN was receiving single grants from the federal government in the half million dollar range as far back as the 1970s.
And what was ACORN doing with your hard-earned tax dollars? According to the 1983 ACORN Members Handbook, "We will continue our fight until the American way is just one way, until we have shared the wealth . . . our freedom shall be based on the equality of the many . . ." Socialism, in other words.
The Handbook published a very communistic-sounding "Peoples’ Platform." With regard to the energy industry, nationalization was recommended in order to "put people before profits," one of the oldest of Marxist slogans. The Marxists never understood that in the free market the only way a business could earn profits was to serve its customers.
All of the public utilities should also be nationalized according to ACORN, so that the prices of electricity, natural gas, etc. could be determined politically according to "social considerations." Nor would there be any discontinuation of service for nonpayment, said the ACORN Handbook, which begs the question, "why would anyone pay their bills under such a standard?"
Price controls would be the order of the day for industries that were not nationalized, and the "health care plank" of the "People’s Platform" called for socialized health care. All hospitals would be managed by "democratically elected community-based committees." "Throw doctors and hospital administrators off the boards of directors, and replace them with a low and moderate income majority," demands the People’s Platform. Can you think of a better way to totally destroy health care in America?
The housing industry would also be subjected to the ruinous policies of price controls and prohibitions of evictions of tenants who failed to pay their rent. Welfare indexed for inflation would be part of "the rights of workers" when out of work, as would a "guaranteed minimum family income." Corporations would be required to have low-income rabble on their boards of directors to give "the people" a "voice."
In short, ACORN has always advocated nothing short of the destruction of American capitalism and its replacement by the dumbest and most destructive forms of socialism. For years, it made millions for itself by "challenging" bank mergers and branch expansions, as allowed for by the 1977 Community Reinvestment Act. In return for millions in donations and promises to make millions more in sub-prime loans to unqualified borrowers (i.e., "the people" referred to in "The Peoples’ Platform"), ACORN would withdraw its protests (usually administered by the Fed) and the banks would be permitted by the Fed to carry out their plans. ACORN worked diligently for three decades to force mortgage lenders, though this policy of legalized extortion, to make bad loans to unqualified borrowers. And their defenders, like Obama, claim that the Community Reinvestment Act and all of the "community organizations" that it empowered had nothing to do with the sub-prime crisis. It was all caused by "greed," they tell us. Have we really become a nation of morons?
So here’s your choice on election day: McMussolini (as Ilana Mercer calls him) or ObaMarx. Take your pick. Or do the patriotic thing and stay home. Don’t vote. It only gives them a reason to claim that "the people have spoken" and that they have a "mandate" to ruin our country.
October 29, 2008
Thomas J. DiLorenzo [send him mail] is professor of economics at Loyola College in Maryland and the author of The Real Lincoln; Lincoln Unmasked: What You’re Not Supposed To Know about Dishonest AbeandHow Capitalism Saved America. His latest book, Hamilton’s Curse: How Jefferson’s Archenemy Betrayed the American Revolution – And What It Means for America Today, will be published on October 21.
Copyright © 2008 LewRockwell.com

Sober for six months

2008-05-28T14:24:00.004-04:00

OK, I've been telling my friends and family that it's time for me to take a break from drinking alcohol. I do NOT drink and drive, and I'm not going to say I'm an alcoholic or anything like that. But I am saying that I want to make sure I'm in control. A lot of my relatives believe that people in my extended family need to drink in order to be sociable because we're all so serious. I can't argue that. In fact, that's among my biggest fears about this.

I have some things that I really need to accomplish in order to stay out of trouble financially, and that needs to happen after business hours. However, given the choice between a few cold beers or focusing to accomplish those things, I will always opt for the beer(s) if that's one of my choices. So I just need to remove it from the list for a while and see what happens.

Right now, I'm thinking that I'll quit for six months starting on my 52nd birthday, which is June 30, 2008. So that gives me until New Years Eve to remain sober and see if that helps me with my priorities. I quit drinking beer (but nothing else) on my 42nd birthday and survived on liquor and wine for that entire year. It really wasn't that bad because liquor and/or wine are much harder to prepare.

With beer, you just reach in the fridge, pop the lid and drink it.

With wine you have to remove the cork (unless you drink the cheap stuff, which I'm OK with!), find a glass, pour it, re-cork it and put the bottle away.

With liquor, you have to get a glass, get some ice, get a shot glass (I really like to know how much I'm drinking!), get some soda or mixer, put it all together in the glass, find something to stir it with and stir it up. I don't put fruit in my drinks - that would be way too much work.

Anyway, the point is that I'm quite lazy and going through all that work for a drink isn't always worth it.

Here are some random thoughts on what I hope to accomplish:

1. I want to feel better physically

2. Hopefully my memory will improve (or at least not continue to get worse!)

3. Read more

4. Educate myself (this is the main reason - I have so much to learn in order to stay in business and get myself into a comfortable financial position - and all that takes a lot of time that I am now spending with a very nice enjoyable beer buzz)

Here are some random fears:

1. I don't socialize too well without a beer buzz

2. I have a tendency to think way too much in general (family trait?) and a few cold ones can keep that to a minimum, so I'll have to fight that.

3. Beer seems to be the glue that holds together my relationships with a lot of people. I need to stay connected anyway.

4. I truly ENJOY drinking beer! I need to find something else to distract my brain (like reading and educating myself)

That's it for now. I'll spend the next month or so preparing (checking out NA Beer, going without alcohol for multiple days in a row, going to a party or dinner or the bar without drinking, etc. - just to get a "taste" of it). I'll try to post updates as we go along.

Deleted E-Mail Recovery

2008-05-23T15:04:00.007-04:00

My First "Technical" Post! I just spent a lot of time recovering some deleted messages for an Outlook user who uses MS Exchange Server. Since I also documented my efforts, I thought I would post the steps here in case they help somebody that picks it up with a search engine. Here goes:

The following steps were used to restore deleted messages from a user’s mailbox when the number of days specified under the Limits tab in the Mailbox Store Properties was exceeded. You can also use this as a general guideline for setting up a Recovery Storage Group. Luckily we had a good backup from about 7 days after the e-mail had been hard deleted by the user (that means the message was deleted from the Deleted Items folder in Outlook). FYI, a hard delete can also be accomplished by holding the shift key while deleting the message from any other folder. Those files will end up in the same folder they were deleted FROM. This was done on a system called “BROOKSERV” running Windows Small Business Server 2003.

Jim Adams, BTSi 5/23/08

**Restore the Exchange Store
Run ntbackup – restore c:\program files\exchsrvr\MDBDATA directory to new directory called c:\Exchange Restore Master Copy (use Advanced button in Restore Wizard to Restore Files to Alternate Location)
**Make a working copy
Copy C:\Exchange Restore Master Copy\Program Files\Exchsrvr\MDBDATA folder to C:\MDBDATA (this gives us a copy we can mess with – if there is a problem, we still have the Master Copy to copy again)
**Repair the database From Command Prompt:
>CD \MDBDATA
>Path C:\Program Files\Exchsrvr\bin
>ESEUTIL /MH priv1.edb – this verifies the state of the database - when it finishes, scroll up near the top and note that it says “Dirty Shutdown” – this is normal for a file that was backed up while the store is mounted
>ESEUTIL /P priv1.edb – this repairs the database. It takes quite a while!
You can run another ESEUTIL /MH priv1.edb to verify that the state of the database is now “Clean Shutdown”.
**Create an Exchange Recovery Group and put the fixed Store in place
Exchange Manager – Servers – right click on server name (BROOKSERV in this case) – New – Recovery Storage Group…
Right click Recovery Storage Group – Add Database to Recover – there is only one choice – highlight it and click OK.
A Mailbox Store Properties window comes up. Click on Database and note where it expects to find the database (C:\Program Files\Exchsrvr\Recovery Storage Group\Mailbox Store (BROOKSERV).edb). Click OK.
A new level called Mailbox Store will appear under Recovery Storage Group (if not, click the refresh button on the toolbar). Right click Mailbox Store and click Mount Store. You will get a warning about restored databases – Just click Yes and the store should mount (actually it is creating a Blank store at this point). Click OK when it tells you the store was successfully mounted.
Right Click Mailbox Store under Recovery Storage Group again and click Properties. Database tab. Put a checkmark next to This database can be overwritten by a restore and click OK
Right Click Mailbox Store under Recovery Storage Group again and Dismount Store. Click Yes at the warning about making it inaccessible to any user.
Navigate to C:\Program Files\exchsrvr\Recovery Storage Group and delete all files in that folder.
Copy all files from c:\MDBDATA into C:\Program Files\exchsrvr\Recovery Storage Group. Rename “priv1.edb” to “Mailbox Store (BROOKSERV).edb”. Rename “priv1.stm” to “Mailbox Store (BROOKSERV).stm”. This is based on the observation from step 4c.
Right Click Mailbox Store under Recovery Storage Group again and Mount Store. Click Yes at the warning, then OK after it is mounted.
You will probably have to refresh the page (click the refresh button on your toolbar) in Server Management in order to see the Mailboxes that have been recovered.
At this point, you could just right click a specific mailbox in the Recovery Storage Group and merge it with that user’s mailbox in the main store, but I don’t know if that will recover “hard deleted” messages. I chose to use ExMerge because all I needed was some hard deleted messages.
**Download ExMerge
Just do a Google search for “ExMerge Download” and get the executable from Microsoft. (You might need to hold down the Control key when you click Download since you’re probably on a server!) Save it to a new folder called C:\ExMerge
Run the ExMerge executable, which will prompt you for a location for the files. I suggest you put them in the C:\ExMerge directory.
Navigate to C:\ExMerge\ExMerge. There should be four files in this directory. Copy them all to C:\Program Files\exchsrvr\bin
**Set Permissions so you can use ExMerge as Administrator
Right Click the Mailbox Store under Recovery Storage Group and click Properties. Security Tab. Click Advanced.
Uncheck Allow inheritable permissions from the parent… Click Copy when prompted.
Scroll through the list of Permission entries until you find “Deny” – “Administrator (BROOKSERV)” – “Receive As” and click Remove
Scroll through the list of Permission entries until you find “Deny” – “Administrator (BROOKSERV)” – “Send As” and click Remove
Click OK, Yes, then Yes again at the Warning.
Click OK to close the Mailbox Store Properties.
Log off then back on to update your access token
**Run ExMerge to save user’s mailbox to a PST file.
Navigate to C:\Program Files\exchsrvr\bin and double click ExMerge.exe
Click Next at the Welcome Screen
Leave the Radio Button on “Extract or Import (Two Step Procedure)”, click Next
Leave the Radio Button on “Step 1: Extract data from an Exchange Server Mailbox”, click Next
In the Field called “Microsoft Exchange Server Name”, just type in the name of the server (BROOKSERV)
Click the Options button. Under the Data tab, if you checkmark Items from Dumpster, this will recover “hard deleted” items from the user’s mailbox that were there at the time of the backup. There are numerous other options and tabs that I did not utilize, but could have.
Click OK
Click Next
There should be two choices here – checkmark Recovery Storage Group and Next
Select the user’s mailbox(es) that you want to recover.
Click Next
Leave the Default locale as English (US) and click Next
Click Change Folder and navigate to C:\ExMerge, click Next
No need to change the File Names or to Save Settings – just click Next
The process will take a while depending on the size of the user’s mailbox. Click Finish when the operation completes.
The User’s PST files are not in the C:\ExMerge folder. You can copy them to a shared location or to your local computer.
From Outlook, click File, Open, Outlook Data File and navigate to the location of the PST file. The entire mailbox, along with all hard deleted items is now available.
**Dismount the store and delete files (make sure you at least dismount the store or your SBS Backups will start failing with some strange errors! Also, if you’re going to keep the restored files for a while, you might want to exclude them from backups to keep the backup images a manageable size.)
Right Click the Mailbox Store under Recovery Storage Group and click Dismount Store. Click Yes at the warning.
Right Click the Mailbox Store under Recovery Storage Group and click Delete. Click Yes, then OK.
Remove the entire folder called Recovery Storage Group under C:\Program Files\exchsrvr\
When you are comfortable, make sure you delete all three copies of your restored Stores (C:\Exchange Restore Master Copy\, C:\MDBDATA\ and C:\Program Files\Exchsrvr\Recovery Storage Group\

References:
http://www.msexchange.org/tutorials/ExMerge-Recover-Mailbox.html
http://objectmix.com/microsoft-exchange/261763-recover-hard-deleted-email-tape.html
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa997796(EXCHG.65).aspx
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa998109(EXCHG.65).aspx
http://www.msexchange.org/tutorials/Recovering-Deleted-Items-Exchange-Server-2003-Part1.html

Fox News Again

2008-01-07T09:58:00.000-05:00

Fox News decided to exclude Dr. Ron Paul and Duncan Hunter from last night's (Jan 6, 2008) Republican Forum. There's a lot of discussion on the Internet about this, so I won't go into more detail. I just wanted to post my most recent e-mail to Fox (yourcomments@foxnews.com). Here it is:

I sent you an e-mail in October 2007 to let you know that I would no longer be watching Fox News or visiting foxnews.com due to your obvious bias during the presidential debates. The withdrawal from my Fox News addiction was difficult, but my eyes have really been opened since then.

Now that you uninvited two of the legitimate Republican candidates from last night's forum (one of them probably being the most successful fundraiser for the 4th quarter), I have decided to start contacting your advertisers to let them know I will no longer purchase their products and services as long as they continue advertising with you. I realize that I am only one person and will have no impact on your business. I can only hope that there are many more like me and that as a group we cause your business as much financial pain as possible.

I would fight to the death for your First Amendment rights regarding freedom of the press. I would even defend your legal (but not moral) right to include or exclude anybody you want from your forum, even under your supposed Fair and Balanced banner. However, as long as we have (the illusion of) a free market system, I will do everything in my power to use that free market to demand fairness from the likes of Fox News.

You should be ashamed.

Jim Adams
51 Year Old Lifelong Republican, former Fox News addict
Knightdale, NC

End the Income Tax

2007-12-06T06:38:00.000-05:00

Here's something I've been following for a number of years. It's a grassroots effort to end the state Income Tax in Massachusetts. Why would I care about such a thing, since I'm a resident of North Carolina? Well, I don't appreciate any government taking money by force - especially when they perform social engineering with the rules and deductions. A successful grassroots effort to end the Income Tax in one state (especially Taxachusetts) would hopefully motivate other people to use their voting rights to get rid of coercive taxes in their own state. Check it out:

http://www.smallgovernmentact.org/

EMail to Fox News

2007-10-22T13:42:00.000-04:00

I sent the following email to Fox News (yourcomments@foxnews.com) today:

As a 51 year old lifelong (except early college years!) conservative Republican who loves freedom and liberty, I wanted to let you know that I'm removing Fox News from my Favorites both on television and the Internet. I was very happy when Fox News became available through my local cable company, because I thought I finally had a channel that would give the "Fair and Balanced" coverage of the news that was advertised.

Over the years, I have become a bit cynical about the Fair and Balanced idea, since I can see clearly that Fox News is really an important part of the Military Industrial Complex. I guess there's nothing like a good war or two to keep the ratings up there. You even claimed to NOT be the president's lapdog when Bill Clinton was in the White House.

Something has changed. Your coverage of the Republican debates has shown where you really stand in the political arena. Your despicable treatment of Ron Paul during and after the debates has forced me to look at his record and his stance on the issues. I can see clearly that Fox News is doing it's best to shove him into a corner even though he presents actual solutions to our problems rather than just hot air and more government programs and more undeclared wars.

Thanks for opening my eyes and thanks for converting me into a Ron Paul supporter. I guess I'll have to go back to CNN (painful as that may be!). At least I know they lean to the left without claiming anything different. I'll be sure to only watch highlights of Fox News coverage on YouTube from now on so I don't have to watch your commercials or support your advertisers.

Jim Adams
Knightdale, NC

Ron Paul is the only Republican who can win

2007-08-28T09:41:00.000-04:00

Here's an interesting post. The jist of it is that:

70% of the population is against the war
Ron Paul is the only Republican candidate who opposes the war
If any Republican besides Ron Paul wins the primary, 70% of the population will vote against the war candidate, which means that a Democrat will win the presidency.
Compared to the Democrat front-runners, Ron Paul has always consistently been the peace candidate. He voted against the war even when Hillary voted for it.

http://ronpauldaily.blogspot.com/2007/08/vote-for-pro-war-republican-is-vote-for.html

Dog Attack Scare

2007-08-27T07:56:00.000-04:00

My friend Bryon and I went for our normal 5:00 AM jog this morning. As we rounded the first curve on the road, the chained up dog in the front yard of somebody's house was a little late with his viscious sounding bark. He must have been sleeping or something. We joked about that, since he usually seems to be waiting for us and he barks at us every time we go by. We went another mile or so when out of nowhere, two pit bulls came running and growling and barking at us from an open field on our left. Bryon and I have been running together for over 25 years, and have been chased by a lot of dogs. We normally just yell at them if they get too close and they back off. If not, we might stop and start running towards them - that always makes them back off. We've also been known to pick up rocks from somebody's driveway and toss them in the general direction of the dog - that always scares them enough that they keep their distance. Well, this morning was different. These two dogs meant business. We tried all of the above and these dogs kept at us. You could tell by their bark and their attitude and aggressive movements that they intended to do us harm. Most dogs take a defensive stance after we've given them the scare by yelling or chasing them. These dogs just became more agressive. They worked well together as a team and definitely had me scared. Somehow I even fell down. I remember thinking that I was in deep trouble while on the ground and trying to get up. Just as I was falling, I saw one of the dogs circling around ready to pounce. Somehow Bryon kept the dogs off me while I got up off the ground. But they still would not back off. Finally I turned slightly away from them and started walking away. At that point they both went after Bryon. He nailed one of them with a small rock, but that just pissed the dog off more. So I went back next to Bryon and we both were yelling at the top of our lungs and keeping an offensive posture and making motions like we were going to attack. Once again, that just made the dogs more determined. Finally one of the dogs took a couple steps back and stopped barking. Bryon and I took a couple steps back and the other dog stopped barking. We started walking away (back the way we came from) and the dogs didn't come after us. We walked back to my house. Bryon drove home, but drove by the scene on his way. He saw the two dogs sitting in the front yard of the next house up (1020 Bonaire Way, Knightdale, NC). Apparently, they had been out playing across the street in that field and when they saw us running by, they came after us in an attempt to defend their owner's house. When I got home, I woke Carol up and asked her to help me clean the scrapes on my elbow, knee and hand from when I fell down. I was more scared than I was hurt. I actually thought of my Mommy! Really! Anyway, my wonderful wife Carol took care of me as she always does - even when I don't deserve it. Bryon and I will be carrying some self defense devices when we run Wednesday morning. I just did a quick Google search and found that taking a non-aggressive stance might be a better way to deal with these dogs. I once read an article by G. Gordon Liddy that explained how to deal with a dog attack. He said to offer the dog your left arm, which he will take a hold of. Once he has your left arm in his jaw (ouch!), you put your right forearm behind the dogs head. Then you lift up with your left arm and push down with your right arm. This will break the dog's neck. I've been running with confidence from this knowledge for many years. Now I think I'll bring a non-lethal weapon. I still love dogs in general.

Oligarchy? Puppet A vs. Marionette B?

2007-08-25T09:57:00.000-04:00

I copied the following from http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig7/tonso5.html. It's actually a small part of a long open letter to Sean Hannity regarding his position on the war in Iraq. I found the oligarchy comment interesting. I didn't say I agree completely, but it's something to consider.

The following comments by LewRockwell.com blogger Steven LaTulippe, like [Ron] Paul a physician and former Air Force officer, might give you something to think about. That should be a new experience for you.

When evaluating his [Paul’s] chances, it’s important to accept one fact about contemporary America. This is not a democracy, and certainly not a constitutional republic. America is actually a carefully concealed oligarchy. A few thousand people, mostly in government, finance, and the military-industrial complex, run this country for their own purposes. By manipulating the two-party system, influencing the mainstream media, and controlling the flow of campaign finance money, this oligarchy works to secure the nomination of its preferred candidates (Democratic and Republican alike), thus giving a ‘choice’ between Puppet A and Marionette B.
Unlike the establishment’s candidates, Ron Paul is a freelancer running on three specific ideas:
The federal government must function within the strict guidelines of the Constitution.
America should deconstruct its empire, withdraw our troops from around the world and reestablish a foreign policy based on nonintervention.
America should abolish the Federal Reserve Bank, eliminate fiat currency and return to hard money.
This is not a political agenda. This is not a party platform. It is a revolution. The entire ruling oligarchy would be swept away if these ideas were ever implemented. Every sentence, every word, every jot and tittle of this agenda is unacceptable, repellent and hateful to America’s ruling elite.

Did you understand any of that, Sean? Who benefits from both open borders and the war? Not the American people. The various factions of our establishment aren’t concerned about us or our country; they’re interested in cheap labor (Indian, Chinese, Mexican, or any other), oil and other natural resources, manipulating our currency, selling expensive weapons systems, or implementing Utopian domestic or international agendas, etc., and maintaining social control through police-state methods and/or social engineering, primarily in order to acquire money/power for themselves and, in some cases, secondarily, for selected allies, associates, or clients.

Ron Paul sites

2007-08-25T08:50:00.000-04:00

Here are some web sites that you can visit for more Ron Paul information. His platform is quite simple: Peace, Prosperity and Freedom. His principles and voting record are very consistent.

http://www.ronpaul2008.com/

http://www.dailypaul.com/

http://www.ronpauldaily.blogspot.com/

Update 8/27/07 based on comment from karl:

http://www.ronpaulforpresident2008.com/ (this is a great site)

Update 9/19/07:

http://www.paul4prez.blogspot.com/

http://www.lewrockwell.com/paul

First Post

2007-08-24T14:17:00.000-04:00

I don't know exactly what to say on this first post. Random thoughts go through my head all day long. Hopefully, I'll be able to record some of them here. I'm interested in technology, business and politics. I'm a registered Republican and a card carrying Libertarian. I've been following the career of Ron Paul for quite a few years and am happy to see he's running for President of the USA. I'm sure there will be more on that subject in this blog.