Duck Duck Go is a web search engine that explains itself simply, in terms of other practices.

You can google= duck duck go

That gives you links. I give links. Here, here, here, here, and there is a user forum, here, with an example thread, here.

Two links discussing Duck Duck Go, here and here.

Wikipedia on "filter bubble," EFF, on "Do Not Track" and offering its "HTTPS Everywhere" for two browsers; an addon for Firefox [and an extension for Chrome]. Beyond that there is Adblock Plus [for both Firefox and Chrome], and NoScript [for Firefox]. The NoScript author also blogs.

As to browser preference, I keep and use both Firefox and Google Chrome, since for me Firefox is less helpful for some few functions than Chrome. I set Chrome as the default browser because if a site does not open sufficiently in Firefox with script blocking on, it is as easy or easier to open the page in Chrome as to alter NoScript page settings/exceptions [the addon "Open With" in Firefox is helpful]. I use Firefox more and prefer it, in general. I keep IE8 [Microsoft's Internet Explorer ver 8] for doing Windows Update, only. Among browsers, it alone has the updating for MS operating systems. WinXP, is the operating system I intend using into 2014, when Microsoft says they will no longer provide XP support, i.e., updating will cease, at which point I will change.

Also, despite any/all of the "tracking" and privacy considerations, I find Google searching to be better than other options, including Duck Duck Go. It seems that with web content bloat that Google search return quality is not what it once was, but they do a better job handling bloat and parsing a search than Bing or others.

Particularly helpful if using Google advanced search, is the ability to limit a search to a particular site, such as wanting City of Ramsey info, and specifying the site: http://156.142.212.178/weblink8/. If using only the single line Google search, one can specify

site:http://156.142.212.178/weblink8/

as part of the search string, just as

filetype:pdf

in a search string will focus the Google search to return pdf document format listings. I think Bing and Duck Duck Go use similar search parameter settings, but I admit I have not explored things.

Jan. 22 will be the 40th anniversary of the Supreme Court's release of the opinion in Roe v. Wade. Doubtlessly events will be scheduled.

No links. No commentary. Just look forward to the date and expect press coverage in the days before the 22nd.

Naming names. A map showing hash-marked parts of the US where spending cuts would be appropriate.

Busted for passing bad checks all around DC
using the pseudonym, "Cliff Fiscal."

Hand wringing, here, here and here. The turncoats. Quislings. Flog them. Parade them naked in chains around Lambeau Field during half-time. Throw them out of tall building top floors.

Actually, wallow in catharsis then Move On. In two weeks there will be the then current hobby horse debate/posturing. Bless them all. They all do it.

Naming names, here. Col. Kline votes in support of Boehner.

Map, here. Those who opposed revenue should expect the consequent spending cuts, and let the fiscal faithful then go back to district and explain it after the cuts. "Michele, what did you do to my pork," Federal Cartridge folks may keen, at least so, in a just world.

Krugman:

I’ve had communications from a number of people asking an interesting question relating to the debt ceiling and other issues: why does the Federal government have to borrow at all? Why can’t it just print money to pay its bills? After all, haven’t people like me been saying that this isn’t actually inflationary?

Now, it turns out that there really is a problem, or actually two problems — but they’re a bit subtle.

First, as a legal matter the Federal government can’t just print money to pay its bills, with one peculiar exception. Instead, money has to be created by the Federal Reserve, which then puts it into circulation by buying Federal debt. You may say that this is an artificial distinction, because the Fed is effectively part of the government; but legally, the distinction matters, and the debt bought by the Fed counts against the debt ceiling.

The peculiar exception is that clause allowing the Treasury to mint platinum coins in any denomination it chooses. Of course this was intended as a way to issue commemorative coins and stuff, not as a fiscal measure; but at least as I understand it, the letter of the law would allow Treasury to stamp out a platinum coin, say it’s worth a trillion dollars, and deposit it at the Fed — thereby avoiding the need to issue debt.

In reality, to pursue the thought further, the coin really would be as much a Federal debt as the T-bills the Fed owns, since eventually Treasury would want to buy it back. So this is all a gimmick — but since the debt ceiling itself is crazy, allowing Congress to tell the president to spend money then tell him that he can’t raise the money he’s supposed to spend, there’s a pretty good case for using whatever gimmicks come to hand.

That link gives a number of earlier Krugman posts, the quote being from today's latest.

A super coin for the Fed? Call it the Emancipation Krugmanrand, (symbolic of freedom from slavery to the Fed), and pass a law that the Fed has to take it at declared value?

Design possibility for Krugmanrand coin, here.

A minted fiat coin, exchanged for fiat paper. (I used to drive a Fiat when in law school. Some say it is an acronym for, "Fix it again, Tony." Then fiat money means, fix it one more time, Ben B. Ben B. He has that power and grace, in ways bankers can enjoy.)

And what would Ron Paul say?

Platinum isn't gold? His standard line?

Kabuki theater, next show starts tomorrow.

UPDATE: This item. Read it.

My guess is Obama used Biden to short circuit Harry Reid because Reid was pushing for a more level set of policy aims than Obama cared to give folks, independent of his campaigning rhetoric when he promised more than he is delivering.

During the campaign we knew we'd do better with Obama than Paul Ryan, where RYAN was on record as a known foe of the 99% while slogging hard for pork for bueiness enterprises in his district, but until now we had no real idea of how much Obama might sell out.

Now we see.

Campaigning on a firm promise to insist that up to the first $250,000 of anybody's and everybody's income would be protected from tax increase (if he could force such an aim into policy), then to cave in to largesse for high incomes being almost doubled to the $450,000 threshold, is a disappointing promise-vs-delivery pattern. Even for those not expecting much being different from the first four years where "CHANGE" ended up being small change, pocket change.

If Joe Biden thinks himself a candidate in 2016, the Democrats can do far better. He was the Obama errand boy in torpedoing Harry Reid as Senate Majority Leader in the course of negotiating things.

Biden pushed through a crappy deal, no two ways to it. Reid has positioned himself, true or not, as more favorable to Democrat rank and file than Biden. For what that's worth. Little, at a guess, but we shall see. Congress has earned single digit citizen approval levels in all this fiscal cliff posturing.

I scanned it twice and could not find Paul Ryan's name anywhere in the item.

This link.

RAMSEY - ABC Newspapers: "Ramsey council approves land purchase [reported] By Tammy Sakry on December 31." Near to, but not the Wiser Choice site.

This link.

$625,000 for 8019 146th Ave. N.W. seems an auspicious price for an inauspicious commercial parcel. This map closeup, and Google satellite-map comprehensive image:

(click any image to enlarge and read}

As noted, this parcel is adjacent to the Wiser Choice liquor store, across the intervening road. Because the liquor store is owned by a sitting council member, with newly elected members to be sworn in soon, the properties vis-a-vis one another are of interest. Here are county online tax records for each:

Assessed valuations are in line with my inexpert guess at what the properties would be worth in a market sale, even in today's cheapened dollars, with the city paying substantially more, and having had preliminary negotiations for the liquor store to be purchased for $1.1 million taxpayer dollars. Were I holding such wealth I certainly would not pay nearly such amounts for such sites. Would you? From your personal wealth, if having such amounts?

Sakry did not report whether the purchase decision was unanimous or whether council voting was split.

Sakry did report on ownership (and ongoing uninterrupted occupancy). This SoS registration, with the name Urban H Schmidtbauer prominent, whoever he is and whatever his political clout in town.

From here, here, and here, Diversified Paving is a firm doing business at the $625,000 site, controlled apparently by Schmidtbauer.

Doing a little back-of-the-envelope math, assuming the markup of value to $625,000 is legit as a market value vs the far, far lower assessed value; we can extrapolate to an equally kited Wiser Choice number:

8019 146th Ave NW, has had "assessed 'est. market' value" clearly trending down over 2011-2013, so take highest, $310,900 -vs- latest, $199,400 as "Est. Market" per our county's government taxing.

A Ramsey-acquisition inflation factor would then be

$625,000/$310,900 = 2.0103

Applying that Ramsey-acquisition inflation factor to Wiser Choice:

14590 Armstrong Boulevard NW, also has been blessed to have assessed value trending down substantially over 2011-2013; and again taking the highest "Est. Market," value of $406,000 and considering the inflation factor:

$406,000 x 2.0103 = $816,182

... that number being substantially below the preliminarily suggested buyout for Councilmember Wise, of $1.1 million.

Of course, each parcel of realty is unique, and litigation vs. negotiation might yield differing numbers on either parcel, if condemned instead of going with a negotiated price in public dollars for private real estate.

BOTTOM LINE: LOOKING AT THOSE TWO INAUSPICIOUS PARCELS AND THEIR ASSESSMENT RECORDS OVER THE LAST THREE YEARS, HOMEOWNERS ARE BEING SCREWED BIG TIME IN ASSESSMENT AND TAXING RELATIVE TO COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE IF THE RAMSEY NUMBERS ARE REPRESENTATIVE OF THE GAP BETWEEN ACTUAL MARKET AND THE ASSESSOR'S "EST. MARKET" NUMBERS; OR THE CITY FOR WHATEVER REASONS/MOTIVES IS GROSSLY OVERPAYING INSTEAD OF LITIGATING.

MY BEST GUESS - BOTH FACTORS ARE AT PLAY, AND THE HOPE WOULD BE COUNTY BOARD DISTRICT ONE COMMISSIONER MATT LOOK WOULD SEE THAT DISPARITY BETWEEN BUSINESS PROPERTIES - SOME BUSINESS PROPERTIES - AND HOME ASSESSMENTS, AND GIVE HOMEOWNING CITIZENS A FAIR BREAK WITH BUSINESSES HAVING TO PAY A RELATIVELY HIGHER SHARE OF TAX INCOME THAN AT PRESENT.

That is all for now, because county tax records are temporarily offline, this being the site message:

The Anoka County Property Records and Taxation site is currently down for maintenance from 12:00 am - 7:15 am. Please check back later. We apologize for the inconvenience.

____________UPDATE___________
Well county tax records are again accessible, with a major frustration. Curiosity being always good, I sought to determine tax assessment for Minnesota Taxpayer League Iman and County Watchdog Harold Hamilton; his business, Micro Control Company, in Fridley. To compare. However, putting into here the address "7956" and the town "Fridley" the search returned no parcels matching the address/town. That is the same procedure that correctly yielded the Wiser Choice and Diversified Paving site data.

Also it was the procedure used in checking Jim Deal's owned or related sites in Town Center, with four returned records as published at this earlier Crabgrass link.

It is auspicious how those earlier Jim Deal related assessed values differ from the Wiser Choice and Diversified Paving records, per "Est. Market".

Can any reader help me determine why I have a problem determining the property taxation record for Micro Control Company's business site in Fridley?


____________FURTHER UPDATE____________
As part of the theory, HOMEOWNERS ARE BEING SCREWED BIG TIME RELATIVE TO COMMERCIAL PROPERTIES IN ANOKA COUNTY, ON TAX ASSESSMENTS, I ran the Look home, the Wise home, and the home of the new Ramsey mayor each through a search; and none of the three showed any down-assessment trending comparable for the Diversified Paving and Wiser Choice business parcels.

Check your own home taxes. Are you paying more than you should, because commercial properties are being under assessed? If so, is that at all fair treatment?

Also the gap in assessed value between Jim Deal properties, in Town Center, and the two commercial properties directly adjacent to Town Center (but on the other side of Armstrong) is extreme, while there may be some plausible explanation for it beyond sheer arbitrariness. Building value on the Deal parcels would be greater, given that larger structures are involved. Yet it truly seems relative to the two Armstrong Blvd. parcels, that homeowners are paying more than a fair share. Clearly the info is anecdotal, and to prove a point either way a more widespread comparison would be needed. But it does seem that assessment practices may need more official scrutiny to assure fairness to homeowners.

Next, if the possibility of a federal tax code alteration to end the home mortgage interest deduction were enacted, how would home values nationwide be impacted; and how would that be reflected in tax assessment and levy rates. Presumably business property mortgage interest would continue to be a cost-of-business expense, so that commercial property assessments should not plummet as home values and assessments might. We must pay attention to any federal politicians suggesting that rocking that boat might be necessary or advisable. Romney-Ryan were never clear about whether the home mortgage interest deduction was one of the "loopholes" they railed against, in losing an election.

____________FURTHER UPDATE____________
It seems the ending part of the inartfully stated homily below the photo, here, should apply to homeowners as much or more than to business folks, who rely on others to buy stuff or else they sit on top of their plant and capital assets, and produce nothing - even if they be a Micro Control, producing capital goods for other capitalist business entities. Ultimately consumers who are home owning taxpayers need to be treated properly - which is NOT like sheep for fleecing. Without consumption of goods or services, by people like us, there is only capitalists playing Russian Roulette with one another. We buy the home furnace, we pay for the service of having it installed, we pay for natural gas monthly by the cubic feet.

Unless I miscalculate, today is the 150th anniversity of the Emancipation Proclamation.

Today's Republicans should emulate founding-father principles. Lincoln proclaimed that effective January 1, 1863, all owned slaves in the States in rebellion were free, without compensation of any measure to ownership property rights. Today's Republicans likewise should dump any/all pathologically simplistic obsessions with "PROPERTY RIGHTS!!" in honor of Lincoln.

That is only opinion. It is not an expectation.

______________UPDATE_____________
The anniversary is the 150th. See Guardian, Daily Beast, ISR.

Happy New Year, Ramsey. As you start, so shall you continue ...

Click image to enlarge and read

This somewhat related link.