Party like it's (almost) 2014

Where has the time gone? I remember distinctly the New Year going from 1999 to 2000 and here it is already 14 years later. Whoa. Mind blown.

We don't have any plans for the evening. I'm making taco salad for dinner. Nothing really on TV to make an event of so I'll probably either read or play on my Fire or watch an episode or two of Elementary. Or I may fall asleep since I didn't get a whole lot last night. There was a conspiracy, I swear, between the boys and Steve to limit my sleep time.

When I was in my babysitting years, they always showed the same three movies, year after year: Top Hat, Showboat, and Casablanca. I looked, but sadly there's not even Casablanca. AMC is doing That's Entertainment which is fun but I'm not sure if I'll bother. I won't know my mood until I get there.

I still haven't settled down with a book to read consistently. I don't know what that mood is yet either. How moody am I? I mean really. :)

Have a lovely, safe New Year's Eve.

Much love,
PK the Bookeemonster

Current Events - December 31, 2013

President Obama would like to remind you that 2014 is an election year

While we’re all gearing up to cheerfully ring in the new year tonight, President Obama has already launched the 2014 campaign season and asked for money.

This email hit his supporters’ email inboxes this morning:

Friend –

When the sun comes up tomorrow, it’ll be an election year.

That’s an opportunity to finish everything we set out to do. But it also means we’ll have to go to work protecting the progress we’ve made.

So when I say that tonight’s deadline is important, it’s not an overstatement.

Chip in $10 or more right now, if you can:

https://my.democrats.org/Deadline-2013

Happy New Year, and let’s resolve right now to make 2014 count.

Barack

Ten New Year's Resolutions For You, Mr. President

By George Leef
Dear President Obama,
Face it — 2013 was terrible for you. If it were a baseball game, you’re like the starter who is getting shelled, alternating between wild pitches and ones that get belted out of the park – and yet you keep throwing the same old stuff. That won’t work.
I suggest some major changes, and this would be a good time to make them as New Year’s Resolutions. Half are to stop doing things that are bad habits, and half are ideas for new behaviors. Ready?
First, stop saying nasty things about other Americans who happen to disagree with you. Throughout your presidency, you have repeatedly impugned the motives of your opponents, for example insinuating that anyone who disagrees with your gun control ideas must be in favor of letting dangerous people have access to guns. And the rhetoric of your associates often goes far into uncivil territory. You should ask them to stop, say, comparing Republicans to terrorists.
Second, stop making empty, windy speeches. If you have anything new to say, by all means say it, but spare the nation those speeches that merely regurgitate statist tropes we’ve heard over and over. Of course, many of those speeches are aimed at the faithful at party fundraising events, but you should stop spending your time on those.

The Year Washington Fled Reality

'Message discipline' can win elections but is not a healthy way to run a country.

By Senator Tom Coburn
The past year may go down not only as the least productive ever in Washington but as one of the worst for the republic.
In both the executive branch and Congress, Americans witnessed an unwinding of the country's founding principles and of their government's most basic responsibilities. The rule of law gave way to the rule of rulers. And the rule of reality—in which politicians are entitled to their own opinions but not their own facts, as Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan liked to say—gave way to some politicians' belief that they were entitled to both their own opinions and their own facts. It's no wonder the institutions of government barely function.
...The culture that Mr. Obama campaigned against, the old kind of politics, teaches politicians that repetition and "message discipline"—never straying from using the same slogans and talking points—can create reality, regardless of the facts. Message discipline works if the goal is to win an election or achieve a short-term political goal. But saying that something is true doesn't make it so. When a misleading message ultimately clashes with reality, the result is dissonance and conflict. In a republic, deception is destructive. Without truth there can be no trust. Without trust there can be no consent. And without consent we invite paralysis, if not chaos.
Taking unilateral, extralegal action—like delaying the employer mandate for a year when Mr. Obama realized the trouble it would cause for businesses—is part of a pattern for this administration. Immigration and border-security laws that might displease certain constituencies if enforced? Ignore the laws. Unhappy that a deep-water drilling moratorium was struck down in court? Reimpose it anyway. Internal Revenue Service agents using the power of the state to harass political enemies? Deny and then stonewall. Unhappy with the pace of Senate confirmations for nominees? Ignore the Constitution and appoint people anyway and claim that the Senate is not in session.
The Obama administration hardly has a monopoly on contributing to Washington's dysfunction. Congress more than earned its 6% national approval rating, a historic low.
Congress's most significant action this year was Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's decision to undo 200 years of precedent that requires a supermajority to change Senate rules. To speed the approval of executive appointments and judicial nominations, Sen. Reid resorted to raw political power, forcing a vote (52-48) that allows the Senate majority to change the rules whenever it wants. In a republic, if majorities can change laws or rules however they please, you're on the road to life with no rules and no laws.
The supermajority safeguard that prevented senators from destroying the institution in which they serve is now largely gone. Gone also are members of the majority who understood the need to protect minority rights. There are no more Robert Byrds to quote Cicero, who said, "In a republic this rule ought to be observed: that the majority should not have the predominant power."
Instead, we have a majority leader who has appointed himself a Rules Committee of one. Referring to the right of the minority to offer changes to bills under consideration, Mr. Reid said: "The amendment days are over." Like President Obama, Mr. Reid is great at message discipline but weak on the rule of law and reality. His narrative about Republican obstruction of appointees is a diversion from his own war against minority rights. Even before his wrecking of the supermajority tradition, Mr. Reid had already used Senate rules to cut off debate and prevent the minority from offering amendments 78 times—more than all other Senate majority leaders combined.

...If Congress wants to get serious, and be taken seriously, it can start by doing its job. It can debate and pass individual appropriations bills—a task that Congress has not completed in eight years. And perhaps Congress can cut some of the stupidity in government spending. The House deserves some credit for trying—it passed four appropriations bills—but the Senate deserves none. Mr. Reid did not pass a single appropriations bill in 2013, thus shielding vulnerable members of his party from having to make tough votes.
How the nation's leaders perform in Washington is a reflection of the country, and culture, they represent. Moral relativism and postmodern disregard of truth has been promoted by academia for decades; sometimes it seems that the best students of that thinking can be found in Washington. We live in a time when laws and rules are defined however the holders of power decree, and "messaging" is paramount, regardless how far the message is from reality.
The coming year presents an opportunity to Americans who hope for better. Despite Washington's dysfunction, "We the People" still call the shots and can demand a course correction. In 2014, here's a message worth considering: If you don't like the rulers you have, you don't have to keep them.

A New Year and Old Problems

By Thomas Sowell

...What ObamaCare has done, thanks to Chief Justice Roberts' Supreme Court decision, is reduce us all from free citizens to cowed subjects, whom the federal government can order around in our own personal lives, in defiance of the 10th Amendment and all the other protections of our freedom in the Constitution of the United States.
ObamaCare is more than a medical problem, though there are predictable medical problems -- and even catastrophes -- that will unfold in the course of 2014 and beyond. Our betters have now been empowered to run our lives, with whatever combination of arrogance and incompetence they may have, or however much they lie.
The challenges ahead are much clearer than what our responses will be. Perhaps the most hopeful sign is that increasing numbers of people seem to have finally -- after nearly five long years -- begun to see Barack Obama for what he is, rather than for what he seemed to be, when judged by his image and rhetoric.
...The question then is: What can be done about it? Nothing can be done about Obama himself. He has three more years in office and, as he pointed out to the Russians, he will no longer have to face the American voters.
ObamaCare, however, has no such immunity. It is always hard to repeal an elaborate program after it has gone into effect. But Prohibition was repealed, even though it was a Constitutional Amendment that required super-majorities in both houses of Congress and super-majorities of state legislatures to repeal.
In our two-party system, everything depends on whether the Republicans step up to the plate and act like responsible adults who understand that ObamaCare represents a historic crossroads that will determine what kind of people we are going to be, for this generation and generations yet unborn -- citizens or subjects.

Good Ol’ Boy, Inc.

Reality shows about gold miners, ax men, and ice-road truckers are a far cry from the Kardashians. 

By Victor Davis Hanson
...There are lots of theories why watching these good ol’ boys at work has caught on. The zoo hypothesis suggests that American suburbanites are amused by exotic creatures that they rarely see at the mall or biking about the trails in Spandex — in perhaps the same way as Petronius wrote for his literate audience about smelly soldiers and crafty innkeepers. The miners and cutters certainly don’t act like the Prius crowd in Menlo Park or the wine-tasters in Napa Valley.
Instead, just as grizzly bears and Bengal tigers are a big draw at the zoo, so too white-boy reality shows allow us to get close to these perhaps-endangered species. And as long as they do not stick their paws and snouts too far out between the bars to mouth off about gays, minorities, or feminists, there is a quaint appeal in — safely — watching these men cuss, and occasionally fight, while sawing and drilling in the wild. Why go on safari to their usual haunts in Alaska, Louisiana, or Wyoming, where bad things are said to happen to outsiders, when A&E can bring the perpetrator class, slightly sanitized, into your living room? A metrosexual can enjoy Duck Dynasty or Ax Men without necessarily being fond of the political wing inhabited by Sarah Palin or Mike Huckabee.\Aside from the idea of glimpsing rare species in their natural habitat, a second theory suggests that viewers are smugly satisfied that they are not like these uncouth white boys, who are certainly worse spoken, more emotional, less mature, and more intolerant than the viewership. For all the MSNBC talk of “white privilege,” these reality shows remind Americans of a non-minority underclass (fabricated though it is for TV) that is a bit worse off than the Latina newscaster who trills her Rs each evening on the news.
...So good-ol’-boy reality offers glimpses, premodern though they may be, of unrestrained freedom. In our upside-down world, the eighth-grade teacher understands that one wrong word, an ill-timed joke, a casual pat on the shoulder can end a career, pronto — while his punk student with the gang-banging parent who shouts profanity at him are mostly exempt from worry. The boss at the DMV accepts the fact that the whiff of a sexual-harassment suit, the rumor of an impending racial-discrimination allegation, the suggestion of inhospitality to the handicapped are more terrifying than the rowdy 16-year-old who pulls in to take his driving test in a monster truck. In our dreams it is better to be an ax man, where it’s Mother Nature, not the local diversity czar, who is after you.
The crabmen and lumberjacks don’t seem to worry about what they say or whom they offend — to the degree that such screw-it attitudes can be hinted about on politically correct camera. They are not fellow subjects who live among us in our kingdom of lies, in which you both dare not confess to profiling and dare not walk in a particular Philadelphia neighborhood. In contrast, these mythic men of the wild act as if they do not care about second-hand smoke or the right zip code. They apparently buy fast food, and their kids can watch bad TV — in a world where Mayor Bloomberg and Michelle Obama do not exist. There are no neurotic college-prep kindergartens with long waiting lists outside the trailer park in northern Alaska.
That freedom from our thought police and the Pajama Boy scolds and the social aspirations of the yuppie mesmerize the viewer — all the more so in that it usually entails giving up the good life as defined by the normal upper-middle-class cursus honorum. 

The Trillion-Plus Heist

By  Sylvia Bokor
Government produces nothing. It creates no wealth. Yet the District of Columbia is ranked as the richest area in the nation.
Politicians and bureaucrats shriek that business people are "greedy." But facts show differently. Imagine voting yourself a raise and millions of dollars in allowances. Imagine 5-figure bonuses. Lifetime pensions to which you contribute only 1.3%. Imagine opening 3 or 4 offices around the state for which you pay not a dime.
Politicians and bureaucrats are diseased with avarice -- and complain with self-righteous indignation when CEOs arrive in private jets for a White House meeting.
D.C. is the richest area in the nation not only because an annual salary of $174,000 is paid to congressional members, 261 of whom are millionaires, not only because most of the appointed cabinet secretaries are multimillionaires, but also because federal employees are paid salaries over three times what the average taxpayer earns.
The source of all that money is taxes levied on production.
Business people -- both employers and employees alike -- produce all of the services and products that provide our as well as politicians and bureaucrats' comfort, health, safety and pleasure. Business people create the nation's prosperity. They are the nation's wealth -- and are regulated by those that produce no economic values whatsoever.
...

Recap:

Executive -- 6,546,673 employees; salaries ..... $ 549,126,870,330.
Legislative -- 12,835 employees; salaries ....... 5,250,599,780.
Judicial -- 1,324 employees; salaries ....... 199,418,700.
Agencies -- 5,298,867 employees; salaries ....... 569,886,700,000.
Total = 11,859,699 employees; salaries .... $ 1,124,463,588,810.

The consequences of these stupefyingly large numbers are far more devastating than can be seen directly. To grasp the extent of that destruction, consider the level of prosperity that employers and employees achieve today despite regulations, taxes, permits, fines, and wasted time on government paperwork.
Because of government confiscation of producers' time and money, gone are the businesses that would have been started with that income. Never to be recouped is the time that would have been spent on innovations, inventions, discoveries and products that would have been made. Never to be retrieved is the prosperity that would have inevitably raised the standard of living, elevated the destitute and eventually wiped out poverty.
The money that politicians and bureaucrats have looted has gone and continues to go into the pockets of the nonproductive. Vying with one another to ingratiate themselves with the most politically influential, politicians and bureaucrats toss around their loot to raise the height of the soapbox before which others rush to kneel. None of that money creates wealth. It stops dead, going no farther.
...The individual business person's right to life and property is being brazenly violated. Today's politicians and bureaucrats are the self-appointed plutocrats of this nation. And they have forced business people -- employers and employees alike -- to be their feudal serfs by means of how much of their income earners are allowed to keep.
When Obama or some other Retrograde (AKA "Progressive") complains about the growing "gap between the rich and the poor" they expect one to understand that the "gap" referred to is between the productive rich and the non-productive poor.
But knowing something about the mammoth amounts of money that bureaucrats and politicians routinely rip off from taxpayers paints a different picture. The actual gap is between the nonproductive rich -- politicians and bureaucrats -- on the one hand and on the other the productive of our nation that are the victims of over a trillion dollar heist.

Red versus Blue States: A Divide Worth Having

By J Robert Smith...Stated another way, progressives, through the federal courts, principally, and legislatively, began the process nearly a century ago of breaching constitutional limits that thwarted ambitious politicians and factions from crimping liberties and imposing themselves through government. Politicians and parties today are better able to manipulate the system and impose themselves because constitutional constraints have loosened; that loosening has occurred in states, too.
...But Balz's Post article hints that liberals are uneasy with the growing red-blue divide among states -- and not for the "good government, let's split our differences" trope Balz offers, but because "experiments in democracy" might lead to choices that the left would prefer not be made: either the overturn of liberal dominance in blue states or the continued - if not accelerated -- drain of productive citizens and enterprises from liberal states. (See Joel Kotkin's article, "Blue States Double-down on Suicide Strategy" at Forbes.)
Without overdoing the comparison, liberals may be discovering that they have a dilemma similar to that of the old communist regimes: the ambitious don't often stay where liberty is constricted or outright denied (though crony capitalism and big government have their adherents among the ambitious, for they see the potential to profit from either or both).
...The Obama presidency has been largely an attempt by the left to reenergize and reassert national government at the expense of true federalism. President Obama is the "anti-Reagan." The left wants leftism regnant in every state and locality and is using a bolder national government to impose itself.
But the left's error may be in thinking that conservative Americans will eventually go quietly into the good night, permitting the left to work its will. Big fights loom if the left continues to try to ram its agendas down the throats of red state Americans (ObamaCare is a first critical battle). There's now a long history of leftism in America. The right's rejection of leftism is grounded in the left's demonstrated failures and in cultural and societal constructs that conservative Americans view as wrong-headed and deficient. The lines have been drawn and set.

Yellen, Keynes and Copernicus say the Debasement of Money Overthrows the Social Order

By Ralph Benko
...These policies in slow motion are, in the opinion of this columnist, at the root of the very political, social, and cultural dysphoria — uneasiness or generalized dissatisfaction — predicted by Keynes:

Lenin is said to have declared that the best way to destroy the capitalist system was to debauch the currency. By a continuing process of inflation, governments can confiscate, secretly and unobserved, an important part of the wealth of their citizens. By this method they not only confiscate, but they confiscate arbitrarily; and, while the process impoverishes many, it actually enriches some. The sight of this arbitrary rearrangement of riches strikes not only at security, but at confidence in the equity of the existing distribution of wealth. Those to whom the system brings windfalls, beyond their deserts and even beyond their expectations or desires, become ‘profiteers,’ who are the object of the hatred of the bourgeoisie, whom the inflationism has impoverished, not less than of the proletariat. As the inflation proceeds and the real value of the currency fluctuates wildly from month to month, all permanent relations between debtors and creditors, which form the ultimate foundation of capitalism, become so utterly disordered as to be almost meaningless; and the process of wealth-getting degenerates into a gamble and a lottery.

Lenin was certainly right. There is no subtler, no surer means of overturning the existing basis of society than to debauch the currency. The process engages all the hidden forces of economic law on the side of destruction, and does it in a manner which not one man in a million is able to diagnose. 
An almost identical point was made almost four centuries before Keynes by iconic savant and polymath Nicolas Copernicus.
Copernicus commenced a study composed for the Prussian and Polish governments around 1525, On the Minting of Money, with these words:

ALTHOUGH THERE ARE COUNTLESS MALADIES that are forever causing the decline of kingdoms, princedoms, and republics, the following four (in my judgment) are the most serious: civil discord, a high death rate, sterility of the soil, and the debasement of coinage. The first three are so obvious that everybody recognizes the damage they cause; but the fourth one, which has to do with money, is noticed by only a few very thoughtful people, since it does not operate all at once and at a single blow, but gradually overthrows governments, and in a hidden, insidious way. 

...Madame Yellen? Whether one follows Keynes or Copernicus … it is time to return to the principle of meticulous monetary integrity — as exemplified by the classical gold standard — to restore legitimacy both to to the social order and to government. 

Marc Lamont Hill: Romney Grandson Photo Was Exploitative To Begin With

 

By Caleb Howe

Marc Lamont Hill: “Some would say maybe that it’s an exploitative picture that they’re exploiting the kid by hauling out this black person …”
[crosstalk]
“They were pointing out the fact that the picture itself was sort of a spectacle and they were sort of making fun of the Republican party. I don’t think they were making fun of the baby. If they were I’d be right on your side. This was a light moment making fun of Mitt Romney”

Clear? This was just good old-fashioned, harmless, light, fun-poking based on the self-evidently silly and mockable notion of Mitt Romney exploiting a black child to make up for being so white. Isn’t that fun and light-hearted and tra la la?
Please note the New Rule in Hill’s comments. Taking a family photo with a member of your family is exploiting that family member. Using that photo to make fun of republicans as racists is not exploitative at all, it’s just clean harmless horsing around. Why any second now Hill is going to snap a towel at Mitt in the locker room and oh, how we’ll laugh. Good times.
Not for nothing here, but in order for it to be exploitative, wouldn’t it need to have some degree of visibility? This photo wasn’t exactly plastered on posters in Times Square. It was, in fact, sort of difficult to find online.
Hill goes on later in the segment to say, in response to host Lemon’s comments that the panel was using a baby to score points, that “you could argue that [the Romneys] were using a baby to bring attention to their political progressivism.” So again, it’s really Mitt Romney who is at fault for his son adopting the kid. Because he only did it to get off the hook for being so super white and republican!
Now what do people on the left call a black person who ends up in a photo or on a stage or on TV among white conservatives? I can’t recall. What’s that word? Oh now I remember. Token.
Like the original panel participants, Marc Lamont Hill is taking it as a given that the adoption of the child was some sort of ploy on the part of the Romneys to make up for .. well, for being the Romneys. That takign a family photo with the child is by its very nature an exploitation of the child.
Finally, if it weren’t clear enough at this point, Lamont Hill says it is fine when Bill de Blasio brings his adopted black son into photo ops because in his case, its not exploitative. You know, because democrat.

A deep sickness on race on MSNBC and CNN

By Thomas Lifson

"Everybody loves a baby picture," Harris-Perry said, "and this was one that really, a lot of people had emotions about this baby picture this year. This is the Romney family. And, of course, there on Governor Romney's knee is his adopted grandson, who is an African-American, adopted African-American child, Kieran Romney."
As Harris-Perry made the introduction, panelist Pia Glenn sang "One of these things is not like the others, one of these things just isn't the same," a tune whose original lyrics read "one of these things doesn't belong."
"And that little baby, front and center, would be the one," she added.

"Doesn't belong"? She is actually telling a small child that he doesn't belong with his parents? This is monstrous of itself. But it gets worse:

Comedian Dean Obeidallah chimed in by reducing the baby to a token. "I think this picture is great," he said. "It really sums up the diversity of the Republican party, the RNC. At the convention, they find the one black person."

So the premise here is that Mitt Romney somehow persuaded his child to adopt a black baby so as to provide political cover for the GOP? The kind of person who make such an assumption is the kind of person so alienated from human feelings as to contemplate such a thing -- treating an adoption as a political maneuver, not as an act of love, an opportunity to nurture a future generation. In this view, babies are mere political objects.

Planned Parenthood app tells kids ’12 or under’: masturbate as much as possible

By Eric Owens
Planned Parenthood, a group founded on the premise of limiting the number of little kids in the world, just can’t stop advising little kids about the joys of sex and, especially, masturbation—lots and lots of masturbation.
The birth-control organization, founded by racist eugenicist Margaret Sanger, is a self-proclaimed authority on “fingering” and that burning, eternal question: “Are you still a virgin if you’ve used a dildo?”
Planned Parenthood is also attempting to appeal to young teenagers as well as children 12 years of age and younger with “Apps for Teens” available on cell phones.

Ohhhhh.... Monday

Started out not feeling very well today but got better around noon. But oh so tired. I'm definitely going to bed early tonight. Earlier than my usual early-ish.

Both the Cowboys and the Steelers are done for the season. I'm ok with it; I won't be emotionally attached to any team in the playoffs except that the Broncos lose.

I'm not really sure what to read next. I'm not in any rush to finish anything today or tomorrow, I've already read a lot of books this year. Maybe I'm in the mood for something fluffy? I don't know...

Here's what I compiled for 4MA of top ten mystery reads of 2013; this is with notes.

Slaughter, Karin  UNSEEN
I absolutely love and adore Will Trent. I'm so not happy that Slaughter's 2014 book is a stand alone.

Penny, Louise  HOW THE LIGHT GETS IN
Extemely satisfying tying up of loose ends from previous book(s)

Raybourn, Deanna A SPEAR OF SUMMER GRASS
Thought she just nailed the 1920s Africa and strong female character

Harris, C.S.  WHAT DARKNESS BRINGS
My favorite historical mystery series. Regency period. I like the relationship between Sebastian and Hero.

Huber, Anna Lee  THE ANATOMIST'S WIFE
1830s Scotland and good female protagonist

Griffiths, Elly  A DYING FALL
Even though written in present tense, I really like the main character, flaws and all.

Todd, Charles LEGACY OF THE DEAD

The whole series is good, of the approximately 9 of this series I read this year, it was difficult to choose one

Gregory, Susanna  DEATH IN ST JAMES' PARK
She writes two series a year, this one is during the Restoration and maybe a little more complex

Robb, J.D. THANKLESS IN DEATH
Fantastic police procedural set in the future. Thank goodness she writes two per year.

Robertson, Imogen  CIRCLE OF SHADOWS
Set in 1784, a sort of Sherlock/Watson relationship and well plotted.

Bottom:
Trent, Christine  LADY OF ASHES
I can't remember what it was about this book that made me dislike it so much but I remember wishing it would get over with already

Non-mystery
DIVERGENT, INSURGENT and ALLEGIANT by Veronica Roth
At long last, a trilogy worthy of THE HUNGER GAMES. Really.

ENGAGING THE ENEMY, MARQUE AND REPRISAL, TRADING IN DANGER, COMMAND DECISION, VICTORY CONDITIONS by Elizabeth Moon.
Everything I want in a female protagonist space opera. I wish I could read them anew all over again

Susanna Kearsley
Though she has locked into memes of past lives touching the present in every book, I've enjoyed four of her books this year.

Much love,
PK the Bookeemonster  

Current Events - December 30, 2013

 

Obama parties hearty in Hawaii

By Thomas Lifson
Saturday was a financial ordeal for Skydive Hawaii owner Frank Hinshaw. President Obama and his family attended a barbecue at the oceanfront house of his Punahou School pal Bobby Titcomb on the North Shore of Oahu. That meant that Skydive Hawaii, based at Dillingham Airfield just across Farrington Highway from the shoreline villa, had to close down for the entire day. The Honolulu Star Advertiser reports (subscription required):

Owner Frank Hinshaw said Saturday's weather was near-perfect for sky diving.
"We'd have 100 customers here," he said. "That's about how many we canceled yesterday when we got news of the president's trip out here."
Hinshaw estimates he lost $20,000 to $25,000 while his business was grounded. Still, he said he's fortunate because Obama stays in Kailua, on the other side of the island, and comes to Mokuleia for just one day.

This puts an Obama visit in the same category as a typhoon: one counts oneself as fortunate when it stays away.

A Large New Tax on Small Business

The latest ObamaCare levy takes effect Jan. 1.

ObamaCare includes so many taxes that it's hard to keep track, but one of the worst takes effect on Jan. 1. This beaut is a levy on health insurance premiums that targets the small business and individual markets.

At $8 billion in 2014 and $101 billion over the next decade, the insurance tax is larger than ObamaCare's taxes on medical devices and prescription drugs combined. The Internal Revenue Service classifies the tax as a "fee" but it functions like an excise tax on premiums. The IRS collects an annual flat amount specified by the Affordable Care Act to be allocated among the insurers according to market share.

But not all markets. IRS regulations published in November excluded "any entity that is a self-insured employer to the extent that such employer self-insures its employees' health risks." Since about four of five employers with more than 500 workers and most union-negotiated health plans are self-insured, they are spared from the tax. So is insurance on behalf of "government entities," such as original Medicare (but not privately run Medicare Advantage).

This political selectivity means the most gold-plated public, private and labor plans are exempt and the tax burden falls on the saps who work for small businesses, the self-employed and individuals—i.e., the people who can least afford it.

The White House tells business that the tab will be picked up by deep-pocketed insurers, which is good for a laugh. The Congressional Budget Office reports the tax will be "largely passed through to consumers in the form of higher premiums" and "would ultimately raise insurance premiums by a corresponding amount." The Joint Tax Committee and private economists, such as former CBO director Doug Holtz-Eakin, say the tax will boost insurance costs about 2% to 2.5%. The consultant Oliver Wyman estimates the take will rise to as much as $500 per covered worker by decade's end.

Wasn't the Affordable Care Act supposed to be about expanding coverage in part by lowering premiums, not slapping on more overhead? By this liberal logic taxing cigarettes should create more smokers.

Oh, and to salt the wound, this "fee" is not deductible for corporate income tax purposes. In other words, health plans pay the tax and then federal and state taxes on the taxed amount. Mr. Holtz-Eakin estimates this unusual taxes-on-taxes rule means that the effect on premiums is 54% larger than the dollar amount of the tax itself.

The research arm of the National Federation of Independent Business calculates that the higher insurance costs will shrink hiring by 146,000 to 262,000 jobs over the next decade, with 59% of those losses hitting small business. They'll also be further encouraged to dump coverage and send their workers to the mercies of the ObamaCare exchanges. The latter was probably a main liberal purpose from the start.

Louisiana Republican Charles Boustany and Utah Democrat Jim Matheson's repeal bill already has 229 cosponsors, or a House majority, including some dozen Democrats. The White House naturally promises a veto. Happy New Year.

Gay Couple Marrying in Rose Parade Admits Making Political Statement

Contrary to the claim of AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) President Michael Weinstein that the gay wedding of Danny LeClair and Aubrey Loots on a float in the Tournament of Roses parade is 2330 intended as a political statement, check out the real story from the blissful couple themselves.
According to the aidshealth.org website:

Leclair and Loots, who own three LA hair salons together, had planned to wed after the Supreme Court in June allowed same-sex marriages to resume in California. But they sped up their plans once they realized the vast platform the Rose parade presents.

Not a political statement?

Chicago pension crisis called worst in nation

 By Rick Moran
The city's underfunded pension system for teachers, firefighters, police, and transit workers threatens to punch a hole in the city budget that would devastate city services. The teachers' alone are $1 billion short of funds, while the city as a whole is looking at a whopping $27 billion shortfall.

The state of Illinois is even worse off with more than $100 billion in unfunded pension liabilities. Where is the money going to come from to fix the problem?

Financial Times:

But this month, after years of inaction, Illinois passed a bill to tackle its unfunded pension liability. The state hopes the new law will save $160bn over the next 30 years - savings that will come from cuts in retirement benefits for state workers and forcing the state to make its pension contributions. The law has won plaudits as a first step towards fiscal reform. But it comes only after repeated downgrades that have left Illinois with the lowest credit rating of any US state.
Now it is up to Mr Emanuel, the hard-nosed former Obama administration official, to do the same for Chicago. Any proposal to solve the city's pension problem is bound to look much like the state deal - cutting benefits for public workers and raising contributions.

Left is getting desperate over Pajama Boy

By Thomas Lifson
....The resulting sting obviously has psychologically wounded the Left.
How else to explain this from the Foward: "Obamacare 'Pyjama Boy' Controversy Wrapped in Anti-Semitism."

Jay Michaelson of that site (a loose affiliate of the Socialist Party of America) writes:

What's interesting about the Right's freakout about men who don't measure up to the standards of the 1950s is how Pajama Boy's obvious Jewishness has been subsumed by...other characteristics.

Obvious Jewishness? Subsumed? This language sounds like that of a Jew-hater. I have read a LOT about Pajama Boy, and nowhere have I seen religion mentioned. One has to be on the prowl to identify Jewishness to even think about imputing a religion to this character.

Jewishness, obvious or not, was not subsumed, it was not mentioned. Not considered. Not occurring to anyone but Mr. Jay Michaelson. That author keeps on the digging the hole he has just excavated:

Yes, Virginia, Pajama Boy is a member of the tribe. Look at him. Pale Ashkenazic skin, Jew-fro'd black curls, Woody Allen specs. Even the smart-ass expression on his face screams of the Wise Son from the Passover Seder.

So Jews are to be identified by a smart-ass expression? Spot the Jew-hater.

Michaelson goes on to attribute all sorts of evil to those who mocked Pajama Boy. Toward the end, he even calls it a "fascistic outlook."

This desperation involves a lot of projection. If Mr. Michaelson is interested identifying anti-Semites, he need only venture as far as the nearest mirror.

The 10 Worst Regulations of 2013

There are many things 2013 will be remembered for, not least the miles of red tape that were imposed on Americans. It has been a very busy year indeed for regulators, who imposed new dictates on everything from the food we eat to the loans we obtain and the health insurance we buy.
Which are the worst? There are no objective standards to measure such things, but here is our take:
1. Failed health mandates. Finalized early in 2013, these rules — a key part of the Obamacare health insurance scheme — impose coverage requirements for individual health insurance policies. Required services for all policies range from maternity care (regardless of sex) to substance-abuse treatment to pediatric care (even for the childless). This mandate famously caused millions of Americans to lose their insurance policies, despite presidential assurances that “if you like your plan, you can keep your plan.” For that, it earns our recognition as the worst rule of 2013.
2. Finance for lawyers. The 900-plus page “Volcker Rule,” adopted by five separate financial regulatory agencies in early December, limits bank “proprietary” trading, meaning trades on their own accounts, rather than on behalf of clients. For three years, the rule was stalled as regulators tried to separate undesirable speculation from economically essential investment. It’s still doubtful they got it right. What it does do is create a boon for lawyers in the inevitable litigation to follow.
3. Mortgage micromanagement. The new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau went into high gear this year, issuing hundreds of pages of new rules restricting mortgage writing. Virtually every aspect of financing a home will be governed by rules set in Washington.
4. Diet dictates. The diet dictators at the Food and Drug Administration want to ban trans fats in food under the notion that any ingestion of any amount of this food additive is inherently unsafe. The cost of the ban is estimated at about $8 billion, in addition to Americans’ loss of some of their favorite foods.
5. Carbon inflation. In June, government regulators, not supported by economics or science, increased by a whopping 50 percent their estimates of the value of decreased carbon-dioxide emissions. This bloated estimate, while not in itself a regulation, will allow regulators to “justify” a host of new carbon dioxide restrictions, even if their benefits do not really outweigh the costs to the economy and consumers.
6. Pay-cap populism. The Securities and Exchange Commission in September proposed to require companies disclose the ratio of CEO compensation to the median earnings of all employees. This was among several dictates in the Dodd-Frank law with no purpose other than to stoke populist anger about wage “inequality.”
7. Billions for boilers. The Obama administration in January finalized a punishing set of regulations controlling emissions from some 17,000 boilers nationwide used to generate electricity and provide heat for factories. The Environmental Protection Agency estimated upfront costs of the rule at nearly $5 billion, although this is disputed as absurdly low by those affected.
8. Mail mandates. The U.S. Postal Service is hardly known for its efficiency. Part of the reason is that this government-owned enterprise operates under strict limits imposed by Congress. Thus, for instance, plans this spring to move to five-day-per-week delivery were blocked by congressional rules. No wonder the U.S. Postal Service is losing loads of money and putting taxpayers at risk.
9. Genetic-testing gag order. In early December, the Food and Drug Administration ordered a company called “23andMe” to stop marketing its home genetic-testing kits. There was nothing unsafe about the product; the FDA simply says that the tests might not be accurate and could prompt other, unnecessary, medical testing. Surely, that is a decision Americans can make for themselves.
10. Forced flacking for Christmas trees. In its latest version of the $1 trillion farm bill, the House approved a provision to require the Department of Agriculture to impose a tax of 15 cents on every fresh Christmas tree to fund a promotion campaign for the industry. This is a reincarnation of a program USDA wanted to impose in 2011, scotched as a result of a public outcry.
As active as regulators were in 2013, do not look for them to slow down next year. Already in the pipeline are dozens of new rules covering health care, finance, global warming, and more. It is anybody’s guess which will be on the 2014 list. The only safe bet is that consumers will lose choices and that all Americans will emerge with less freedom.

Booze, Pole Dancing, and Luxurious Hotels: Top 10 Examples of Government Waste in 2013

The latest budget deal, passed by a bipartisan majority in both the House and the Senate, suggests that Washington agrees with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) when she said that “the cupboard is bare. There’s no more cuts to make.”
The cupboard, however, is overflowing with liquor, crystal glassware, and more.
Here is our list of the top 10 examples of wasteful government spending this year, serving as a reminder that there is no shortage of excessive spending in Washington.

10. Outhouse in Alaska: $98,670. The Interior Department spent nearly $100,000 to install an outhouse on an Alaskan trail, which includes a single toilet with no internal plumbing.


9. A bus stop with heated pavement for the Washington area: $1 million. A lavish bus stop with heated pavement was built in Arlington, VA, but it has failed to keep commuters warm or dry.

8. Grant for a pole dancing performance: $10,000. Utility poles, that is. The National Endowment for the Arts provided a grant to PowerUP for Austin Energy employees to perform an artsy dance with 20 utility poles, accompanied by a live orchestra. 

7. Pizza — from a printer: $124,995. NASA gave a six-figure grant to a company that aspires to make pizza from a 3-D printer.

6. Study to find out if couples are happier when the woman calms down after argument: $335,525. “[M]arriages that were the happiest were the ones in which the wives were able to calm down quickly during marital conflict,” found a study of 81 couples funded by the National Institutes of Health.

5. Booze and crystal for the State Department: $5.4 million. The State Department went on a bender the week before the government shutdown, purchasing $5 million of “exquisite” crystal glassware to presumably drink the $400,000 in booze they purchased in 2013.

4. Monitoring depression on Twitter: $82,000. The National Institutes of Health is funding a study “to use Twitter for surveillance on depressed people,” according to the Free Beacon.


3. Seven-figure stack of rocks at the London Embassy: $1 million. The American Embassy in London will be receiving a granite sculpture from an artist “whose work resembles stacked piles of paving stones,” according to the Daily Mail.

2. Artwork for Veterans Affairs offices: $562,000. The Department of Veterans Affairs went on a spending spree during “use it or lose it” season, purchasing over half a million in artwork and millions in furniture in a single week.

1. Government employee trip to luxury hotel in the Caribbean: priceless. Federal employees took a taxpayer-funded trip to the Buccaneer Hotel in St. Croix—the same hotel made famous on TV’s “The Bachelor.” The bill was divided among a number of agencies, making a final tally difficult to come by.

Honorable Mention
A Super Bowl champion Obamacare campaign: $130,000. The Baltimore Ravens were paid $130,000 in taxpayer money to sponsor the Affordable Care Act.

An overwhelming, bipartisan majority of Americans thinks that Congress can find more ways to cut government spending, and there are numerous programs of questionable value that Congress should eliminate.
America did not end up $17 trillion in debt overnight. Congressional refusal to cut spending and prioritize taxpayer money more appropriately year after year got the nation to this point. Congress will have another opportunity before January 15, when considering the 2014 spending bill, to do better. Fiscal restraint is long overdue.
For other examples of government waste, see Heritage’s 2013 edition of Federal Spending by the Numbers and Senator Tom Coburn’s 2013 Wastebook.

But I don't WANT another Monday

Sorry, the days got away from me, no posts for a couple.

We went to see The Hobbit movie yesterday. I enjoy Peter Jackson's movies; I loved all three Lord of the Rings movies - those and The Hobbit part one are beautifully rendered and filmed, let me say that outright. BUT... one has to let go of any thought that this Hobbit movie is based on the book, THE HOBBIT. It is not. The movie was long, too long, it needed editing big time. And the ending? Don't get me started. Seriously, a cliffhanger beyond all cliffhangers. It just STOPPED.

I haven't gotten much accomplished this weekend but oh well.

I took the boys to the field today for a run. Mostly they were good. Ryker took a couple side trips.

And so we go back to work tomorrow. It's another week with Wednesday off ... where Thursday becomes another Monday. Uff da.

Much love,
PK the Bookeemonster

Current Events - December 29, 2013

 

 

Dave Barry’s Review of 2013, the Year of the Zombies

By Dave Berry
...But getting back to the zombies: It wasn’t just people who came back alarmingly in 2013. The Cold War with Russia came back. Al-Qaeda came back. Turmoil in the Middle East came back. The debt ceiling came back. The major league baseball drug scandal came back. Dennis Rodman came back and went on humanitarian missions to North Korea (or maybe we just hallucinated that). The Endlessly Looming Government Shutdown came back. People lining up to buy iPhones to replace iPhones that they bought only minutes earlier came back. And for approximately the 250th time, the Obama administration pivoted back to the economy, which has somehow been recovering for years now without actually getting any better. Unfortunately, before they could get the darned thing fixed, the administration had to pivot back to yet another zombie issue, health care, because it turned out that Obamacare, despite all the massive brainpower behind it, had some “glitches,” in the same sense that the universe has some “atoms.”

Obamacare Vending Machine Mandate Expected to Cost Millions

By Sarah Jean Seman
Not even vending machines are outside the scope of Obamacare mandates. Under the bill's new labeling regulations nutrition information must be placed next to each slot of candy bars, chips, peanuts and cracker-jacks.
Around 457 pages into Obamcare, section 4205 stipulates:

"the vending machine operator shall provide a sign in close proximity to each article of food or the selection button that includes a clear and conspicuous statement disclosing the number of calories contained in the article."

This new mandate will cost the vending machine industry an estimated $25.8 million initially and an additional $24 million for every subsequent year.
...It is difficult to say whether or not seeing the nutrition information next to a Twinkie will deter someone from buying it. However this regulation will certainly be a burden to businesses forced to pay millions more each year and is evidence of the expansion of the nanny state.

DNC sends out email warning of Obama impeachment

By Thomas Lifson
Guilty conscience? More likely, just a device to open the pocketbooks of Democrat donors. But nevertheless it is quite a sign of the times that the Democratic National Committee is raising the specter of impeachment as a means of urging financial supporters to prevent the GOP from taking over the US Senate. Patrick Howley of the Daily Caller reports:

The Democratic National Committee (DNC) sent out a paranoid email Saturday evening urging supporters to vote for Democrats so that Republicans can't impeach President Obama.

The email, subject line "Impeachment," was sent to Obama for America supporters, imploring them to contribute to the DNC's 2014 efforts. "What do these people all have in common?," the email asked, featuring quotes from Republican Sen. James Inhofe of Oklahoma, Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, Rep. Kerry Bentivolio of Michigan, and Rep. Blake Farenthold of Texas discussing the possibility of impeaching Obama for one of his numerous instances of presidential misconduct.

There is little doubt in my mind of two things:

1.      Obama has committed impeachable offenses. His knowing lie about keeping health care coverage materially enabled the passage of the Obamacare law on fraudulent grounds;

2.      There is no political upside for the GOP to sponsor impeachment legislation. Not only did the Clinton impeachment backfire, but Obama's status as the first black president (sorry, Bill Clinton but you don't qualify, Maya Angelou to the contrary notwithstanding) would make the political blowback intolerable.

Open Letter: Veteran Blasts Rep. Paul Ryan Over His Back Room Budget Deal “With the Enemy”

To Congressman Paul Ryan
Today at 8:19 AM
Congressman Ryan,
Please note that this request by you for a cash donation from me is extremely unfortunate and very ill-timed. You see sir, I am one of the military retirees your “bipartisan” budget just impacted. You and every Republican (both in the House and Senate that voted to pass this travesty betrayed and broke trust with me and everyone like me. You may not know us by name, but we’re the people, Congressman, who answered our Nation’s call, some of us at a very early age to willingly serve YOU and others LIKE YOU so you could safely attend college and pursue your personal ambitions without fear of harm.
You might also want to note that for at least 20 years, my brothers-in-arms answered that call of duty EVERY SINGLE DAY, without fail, without complaint, without enough money to sustain our loved ones we had to leave behind while we DID OUR JOB in every corner of the Earth. And for that service, we were given absolute assurance our so-called retirement benefits would be protected by law. The very law you shattered in your zeal to impress your Democratic cohorts in your back room deal–with the enemy. Yes, I said it. The liberal Democrats are an enemy to the American people and our Nation. Your lack of judgement and eagerness to compromise on the backs of us who protected you is sickening. Congressman, you and every Republican that voted for injuring military retirees have engaged in a complicit, sordid affair with the Democrats who’s objective has always been to dismantle the military. By climbing into their bed on this issue, you have confirmed you are absolutely no better than they and have proven it with your vote.
Congressman Ryan, the audacity which you display is noteworthy, but to unceremoniously snatch earned money from a small group that has added so much more value than the paltry $6B you looked to “save” (which is all smoke and mirrors and you know it), is reprehensible and insulting.
We have, despite the hardships, meager salaries and harsh conditions, have performed with honor and excellence…in silence, which is something most members of Congress have no idea about doing. Our job approval was, is and always be better than yours. We knew our mission and we got it done, then handed it off to a new generation in better shape than we found it.
Your ability to look us in the eye, take money from us (apparently there was ZERO, other source of waste within the federal government that you could have recovered this money from…right, got it), while simultaneously holding your hand out to beg (with passion) for our cash is stunning. Your actions have proven you do not have the tremendous intellect you’ve sold the American people on. I say, with all seriousness, Congressman, what you lack in intellect and spinal rigidity, you make up for in cajones.
I hope you and your cowardly, Republican “colleagues” hear a message from me loud and clear. You will NEVER receive another cent of financial support from me. Further, if you happen to be at a Capitol Hill dinner or at a K Street cocktail party with RNC Chair Reince Priebus, Rep. Ron Barber, Sen. Jeff Flake or Sen. John McCain, I would be honored if you communicate with them that I am launching an effort to ensure NONE of you traitorous “representatives of the people” ever receive another vote from a military retiree. Remove me from your contact lists.
Chuck Wooten,
Chief Master Sergeant, USAF (Ret)
 

Krauthammer: Obama Siding with Mullahs Over Congress on Sanctions

SHANNON BREAM: And Charles, the news today, the head of Iran’s atomic energy agency saying uranium enrichment is progressing and new centrifuges are being built. He calls them “a new generation of centrifuge” he says, are now under development. Does that square to you with what was negotiated in the short-term deal?

CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER: Yes. The only surprising thing is here is that the Iranians are so confident about how supine Obama is on this, is that they stick their finger in his eye and announce it publicly. There is nothing in the agreement that stops the Iranians from producing more uranium, or from producing the machines that enrich the uranium. That was the problem at the beginning, that’s what made the agreement a farce at the start. Unless you go after the uranium enrichment, unless you curtail or destroy the machines that enrich the uranium, you have done nothing to stop the progress of Iran. So at the same time there are reports of Iran using loopholes in the agreement to get all kinds of new commerce going, we know there are Japanese, Indian, Chinese, Russian and even European concerns that are now talking with Iran about a wide range of relations. They know the sanctions have been weakened and Obama speaks as if he can turn them on at will. And he can’t. And for him to take the side of the mullahs against the Congress, if he really was serious about this, then why wouldn’t he use the fact that Congress is being tough and say the Congress is the “bad cop.” You go to the Iranians and say “look I’m trying to be reasonable but the Congress is out of control and they want to wreck your economy unless you shut down your program. I can’t hold them back. So are you going to negotiate seriously or not?” But instead of doing that, he’s arguing with the mullahs against the Congress and that shows to me a total lack of seriousness which is what the gulf Arabs and the Israelis have seen at the beginning of the process. The president is simply not serious and the Iranians know it as well.

The End of Erdogan’s Cave of Wonders: An I-Told-You-So

By David P Goldman
Turkey is coming apart. The Islamist coalition that crushed the secular military and political establishment–between Tayip Erdogan’s ruling AK Party and the Islamist movement around Fethullah Gulen–has cracked. The Gulenists, who predominate in the security forces, have arrested the sons of top government ministers for helping Iran to launder money and circumvent sanctions, and ten members of Erdogan’s cabinet have resigned. Turkey’s currency is in free fall, and that’s just the beginning of the country’s troubles: about two-fifths of corporate debt is in foreign currencies, so the cost of servicing it jumps whenever the Turkish lira declines. Turkish stocks have crashed (and were down another 5% in dollar terms in early trading Friday). As the charts below illustrate, so much for Turkey’s miracle economy.
...Turkey is a mediocre economy at best with a poorly educated workforce, no high-tech capacity, and shrinking markets in depressed Europe and the unstable Arab world. Its future might well be as an economic tributary of China, as the “New Silk Road” extends high-speed rail lines to the Bosporus.
For the past ten years we have heard ad nauseum about the “Turkish model” of “Muslim democracy.” The George W. Bush administration courted Erdogan even before he became prime minister, and Obama went out of his way to make Erdogan his principal pal in foreign policy. I have been ridiculing this notion for years, for example in this 2010 essay for Tablet.
The whole notion was flawed from top to bottom. Turkey was not in line to become an economic power of any kind: it lacked the people and skills to do anything better than medium-tech manufacturing. Its Islamists never were democrats. Worst of all, its demographics are as bad as Europe’s...
...Now that Turkey is coming unstuck, along with Libya, Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq, we should conclude that the entire project of bringing stability to the Muslim world was a hookah-dream to begin with. Except for the state of Israel and a couple of Sunni monarchies that survive by dint of their oil wealth, we are witnessing the unraveling of the Middle East. The best we can do is to insulate ourselves from the spillover effect. 

Rose Parade to Feature Same-Sex Wedding Float

By William Bigelow
The Pasadena Star news reports that a San Diego woman has called for the Rose Parade to be boycotted because it will feature a gay wedding atop a float. The float, sponsored by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), is titled, “Love is the Best Protection.” The parade will be watched by an estimated 68 million people around the world.

San Diegan Karen Grube, who said her protest is not out of her religious convictions, and says she is opposed to having any wedding featured in the parade, has requested that corporate sponsors drop their funding of the parade if the wedding proceeds, asked the Tournament of Roses to ban the float, and established a Facebook page to look for additional supporters. Grube said, “Gay marriage is illegal in over 30 states, why would they promote something that is blatantly illegal? That’s just stupid.” She added that the Tournament shouldn’t support a “political agenda,” and concluded, “It used to be a family thing, to get up on New Year’s Day morning and watch the parade. It no longer is.”

Danny Leclair, one of the two hairdressers getting married on the float, said that some of the negative responses to the wedding are “heinous,” and continued, “It’s something that they don’t understand and so I expected it. We’re not dissuaded or upset or concerned. We’re simply acknowledging it … There’s a lot of people who think we’re doing this as a political statement. It couldn’t be further from the truth. Our stance is love is love and love will save lives.”

Ralph E. Shaffer, a professor emeritus of history at Cal Poly Pomona, disagreed, saying the wedding is an “in your face” act that might make people angrier toward gays. Shaffer, noting there will be several kisses between LeClair and his intended, Aubrey loots, added, “The problem is going to be the wedding kiss … I don’t know what the response is going to be.” he said.