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Prosper

While I was employed, I invested in a deferred compensation plan called a 457 plan. Similar to a 401K (but for government workers) money is taken out of your pay, pretax, and invested. When the stock market crashed in 2008, I lost more than half of the money that I had invested. Much of it was never recovered. Over $17,000 gone in the blink of an eye. While the market was crashing, I tried desperately to get my money out, to no avail. I had to watch as the amount in there dropped every day. At the same time, the value of my house fell to less than half of what it was worth when I bought it.

Since, I have decided to diversify. I have invested in physical gold, and direct lending. In direct lending, you join a network of people who lend money directly to consumers. As far as I am concerned, this is no different from buying stock, because stock is nothing more than you loaning money to a corporation. Like stock, diversifying your money among several borrowers limits your exposure.

The company that I use for this is Prosper. The way it works is that you open an account, and you look over people who have applied for loans. Prosper has already pulled their credit and verified employment. You then contribute some funds to each loan, and as the person makes payments, you get repaid with interest. Interest paid to you is part of the bidding process. Take a look. It can’t be worse than losing half your money in the market.

By Divemedic, ago

No weapons on campus

This is the weekend before midterms. There are many students that are practically living in the cadaver labs in preparation for the tests. I myself spent 5 hours there yesterday, and 4 this morning. There was an incident at the school that really irritates me. When I went in yesterday, I noticed that the lounge that we used had been trashed. There were things torn from the walls, and general vandalism. The other students told me that there had been a “scruffy looking” guy in there (and his face around the nose and mouth was covered in blue paint) when they arrived at 7 a.m., but that he ran away when challenged. Found in there were a number of stolen goods, including a television, food, and other personal items. Security was called and they took a report.
I stayed until 2 o’clock and left. Shortly after that, the guy returned. Security came again, and he fought with them, they pepper sprayed him, and he ran. They caught him several blocks away. There has been a campus safety notice advising us not to be in the building alone, as they do not know if he had accomplices. (Great, the weekend before midterms).
Of course the school has a “no weapons” policy, violation of which will get you expelled. I am sure that the dirtbags will follow that policy as well as they have the “no stealing” the “no trespassing” the “no vandalizing” the “no huffing paint” and the “no treating the school as a drug den/homeless shelter” policies, which carry the penalty of a warm place to stay and several hot meals.
The people who oppose campus carry frequently use the excuses:
– A gun distracts from the learning environment. I find it hard to believe that me having a concealed weapon will distract from the learning environment more than being attacked simply because I am alone studying in the lab.
– College students are immature, irresponsible drunkards. I am 44 years old, a graduate student, and in less than a year’s time I will be writing prescriptions and making decisions about people’s lives and health. If I am too immature and drunk to carry a gun, how can I be a health provider?
– You could use pepper spray instead. First- pepper spray is also prohibited, and note that the assailant RAN several blocks AFTER being pepper sprayed by security. If that were a young lady using that pepper spray, and he felt like fighting, how much good would that spray do?

By Divemedic, ago

Good and compelling: Be rich

So in Maryland, the rule to get a concealed weapons permit was that you need to have a “good and substantial reason” to carry a weapon, and reading this article, it appears that a good reason would be “I am an attorney and carry large amounts of cash.”

This indicates to me that if you are rich and need to protect your money, it is OK, but if you are poor and only wish to protect your life, then you deserve to die.

By Divemedic, ago

Thanks, suckers

This woman won a million dollars in the lottery. She still collects $200 a month in food stamps. According to her:

Clayton says it’s okay to remain on food stamps because she doesn’t have a source of income and has bills to pay. She also believes she’s entitled to it because she’s “still struggling” and has two homes to run.

What I don’t understand is how she has money for lottery tickets, but is on welfare. If you are so broke that you need to steal other people’s money to survive, how can you have money for gambling? To top it off, you get a half million after taxes, and still need to steal other people’s money.

So remember Ms. Clayton when you are doing your taxes this year. This is what your tax money pays for.

By Divemedic, ago

African Americans

Can you spot the African Americans in the following pictures?

The first picture is Charlize Theron, born in South Africa. The second is Oprah Winfrey, born in Mississippi. The third is Richard Dawkins, born in Kenya, and the last is Morgan Freeman, who was born in Tennessee. 3 of them are American citizens, two are African. Only one is an African American. Stop saying African American when what you really mean is black.

By Divemedic, ago

A serious question

One thing that I always try to do is be morally consistent. That is, do I apply the same rules in the same way every time. To do otherwise is to be a hypocrite. Most humans largely try to do the same thing. Of course, this results in people trying to justify heinous and immoral acts in order to assuage their own guilt of the hypocrisy. This is where today’s question comes from.

I can have camera footage of a crime. I can possess cell phone video of a fight, a murder, theft, or any other crimes and it is not illegal to possess that footage. There are even television shows that center around showing videos of crimes in progress. Most people do not have a problem with that.

Until the crime being filmed changes. Let me explain:
It is always a crime for an adult to knowingly have sex with a child. I don’t care how or what anyone says, I think that we can all agree with that one. Now, there could be a legitimate argument over what age a person ceases being a child, or what constitutes knowingly, but let’s leave that aside for now. The reason it is wrong and a crime is that a child cannot give consent. This is the reason why children can’t consent to any number of things from marriage, to contracts, medical care, and many others. This is also why it is a crime to have sex with certain adults with reduced mental capacity.

So with child pornography, what is going on here is that a pornographer is committing a crime in taking the picture in the first place, since that child is incapable of granting consent.

That is where my dilemma enters. The crime is the sexual act with a person who is victimizing a child. I am not trying to claim that child pornography should be legal, but I am trying to understand why it should be illegal to have a picture of one crime and not another, while still remaining logically consistent. Any ideas?

By Divemedic, ago

Irony

The government, through the Department of Agriculture, is distributing more food stamps than at any other time in history.
Meanwhile, the Park Service, another branch of the government, tells us not to feed the wild animals in the park, because they will become dependent and lose the ability to fend for themselves.

By Divemedic, ago