RadioActive with Steve Mitton: December 2010

Friday, December 24, 2010

Boy, 13, Busted For Illegal Marker Possession

"A 13-year-old boy was arrested Friday for using a permanent marker while in class at his Oklahoma City middle school, a violation of an obscure city ordinance.

According to an Oklahoma City Police Department report, the boy was spotted “in possession of a permanent marker” by Roosevelt Middle School teacher DeLynn Woodside. The 50-year-old educator told cop Miguel Campos that the student was “writing on a piece of paper, which caused it to bleed over onto the desk.”

Woodside, pictured at right, reported that the child, whose name was redacted by police from the report, attempted to hide the marker when she asked him for it. Strangely, Woodside’s Facebook page reveals that her “likes and interests” include the official “Sharpie Permanent Markers” page on Facebook

New census data shows that Idaho's population grew by more than 21 percent over the last decade, a slower rate compared to the last census.

U.S. Census data released Tuesday morning put the state's population at 1,567,582. That's a 21.1 percent increase over 2000, when 1,293,953 people lived in Idaho.

By comparison, the census recorded a 28.5 percent population increase in the state between 1990 and 2000.

Once again, as in 2008, Sen. John McCain has led conservatives over a cliff. Both defeats were a result of a conscious decision to unilaterally disarm morally and allow spurious claims to go unchallenged.

When an opponent advances by asserting moral authority, it's powerful even when wrong, as just occurred in the Senate vote to overturn the military's ban on homosexuality. The most effective defense is a superior moral offensive. That did not happen.

To his credit, the veteran soldier Mr. McCain, Arizona Republican, took up the cause. But weeks ago, he insisted that the debate be limited to combat readiness (a good argument, but in isolation, not a winning hand), procedure and timing. Even some pro-family groups bought into self-censorship. And the conservative talk show hosts were for the most part AWOL. That's why the moral invertebrates that populate some of the GOP leadership refrained from making a clear case. They also failed to examine the core issue -- homosexual behavior, and its impact on morale, health, discipline and the freedoms of soldiers to disagree.

A Better Dream

Immigration: With the amnesty-oriented Dream Act deep-sixed in the Senate last week, some serious thinking about dealing with hard cases without trashing rule of law can begin. Here are some suggestions.

The Dream Act went down in flames last week largely because the open borders lobby refused to acknowledge that it was an affront to rule of law and those who respect it.

They tried hard to browbeat the public into supporting the Dream Act by mingling it with leftist identity politics, and by painting anyone who raised legitimate questions about it as simply "anti-immigrant" and, of course, "racist."

It's snowing in Australia and California yet 'warm' in Greenland

The freezing conditions that have blasted Britain are being blamed on a series of weather patterns that are bringing Arctic temperatures to much of western Europe, California and even Australia.

One of the main factors is a change in the position of the jet stream - the fast-moving current of air that moves from west to east, high in the atmosphere.

Changes in the jet stream's path can cause massive changes in weather conditions across the globe and may be why Australians are now shivering their way through summer and the current freezing conditions in California.

In a normal British winter - when conditions are mild and soggy - the jet stream lies over northern Europe, at an altitude of between 35,000 to 50,000 feet.

Daily mean temperature anomalies around the world between 1st December and 20th December compared with the 30 year long term average between 1961 and 1990

During these grey winters, Britain's prevailing winds come from the west and south west, and bring with them warm and moist air from the sub-tropical Atlantic.

Yes, Virginia — you can say 'Merry Christmas'

A pair of high-spirited teenage girls scurried across a busy Manhattan intersection, braving the crowds and frosty weather to hit one more Fifth Avenue shop before closing time. I was a step behind them as they passed a Salvation Army Santa ringing his bell and a traffic cop in earmuffs.

"Merry Christmas!" one of the girls sang out to the policeman, who returned the greeting with a big smile and a wave.

Right away the mood changed.

"How can you say that?" the second girl admonished her friend. "I mean, what if he's Jewish?'"

"Well, I don't care, OK? I'm just sick of this 'Happy holidays' stuff."

Footprints remain after people walked on the snow-covered beach at Weston-Super-Mare, England.

Piers Corbyn not only predicted the current weather, but he believes things are going to get much worse, says Boris Johnson, London's mayor

The man who repeatedly beats the Met Office at its own game

Well, folks, it's tea-time on Sunday and for anyone involved in keeping people moving it has been a hell of a weekend. Thousands have had their journeys wrecked, tens of thousands have been delayed getting away for Christmas; and for those Londoners who feel aggrieved by the performance of any part of our transport services, I can only say that we are doing our level best.

Almost the entire Tube system was running on Sunday and we would have done even better if it had not been for a suicide on the Northern Line, and the temporary stoppage that these tragedies entail. Of London's 700 bus services, only 50 were on diversion, mainly in the hillier areas. On Saturday, we managed to keep the West End plentifully supplied with customers, and retailers reported excellent takings on what is one of the busiest shopping days of the year.

Government liabilities rose $2 trillion in FY 2010: Treasury

The U.S. government fell deeper into the red in fiscal 2010 with net liabilities swelling more than $2 trillion as commitments on government debt and federal benefits rose, a U.S. Treasury report showed on Tuesday.

The Financial Report of the United States, which applies corporate-style accrual accounting methods to Washington, showed the government's liabilities exceeded assets by $13.473 trillion. That compared with a $11.456 trillion gap a year earlier.

Unlike the normal measurement of government intake of receipts against cash outlays, accrual accounting measures costs such as interest on the debt and federal benefits payable when they are incurred, not when funds are actually disbursed.

Not too awful long ago I wrote about the Communist Party USA and their support for many of the identical principles endorsed by the Democrat Party here in the US. I listed the various similarities but now I have some

even more honest words from the Communists themselves. Joe Sims, co-editor of the Communist Party USA online magazine Peoples World states among other things "the possibility that the communists may be able to "capture' the Democratic Party entirely." Read that slowly and carefully..."the possibility that the communists may be able to "capture' the Democratic Party entirely."

Joe Sims is a proud little Commie. He goes on to brag that among other things, "heightened class and democratic struggle...all have combined to produce an unprecedented situation - and opportunity." How long have I been railing on against this Democrat Party effort to frame the current political debate as one of class? Clearly even the ones seeking to wage this struggle freely admit that is their effort and how said effort is an "opportunity" for them?

America's military isn't going 'gay' quite yet.

While President Obama plans this week to sign the repeal of the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy banning open homosexuality in the military, the policy must remain in force until the president, the secretary of defense and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff can certify that the change will not impair combat readiness.

Before that happens the military must rewrite laws and regulations that could affect same-sex relationships, such as the Uniform Code of Military Justice ban on sodomy, and also indoctrinate soldiers, sailors and airmen to tolerate open homosexuality. The transition period is expected to take a year.

"It's important for people to know that this is not over," said Robert Knight, a leading opponent of the homosexual political agenda. "There are no permanent victories or defeats in politics. And this can be reversed at some point, in a more conservative Congress."

Attorney General's Blunt Warning on Terror Attacks

Attorney General Eric Holder has an urgent message for Americans: While he is confident that the United States will continue to thwart attacks, "the terrorists only have to be successful once."

And while it is not certain we will be hit, the American people, he told ABC News, "have to be prepared for potentially bad news."

"What I am trying to do in this interview is to make people aware of the fact that the threat is real, the threat is different, the threat is constant," he said.

In a rare and wide-ranging interview, the attorney general disclosed chilling, new details about the evolving threat of homegrown terror, and touched on topics ranging from Wikileaks to the prisoners at Guantanamo Bay.

For gay rights, is repeal of 'don't ask' military ban the end or the beginning?

For the American gay rights movement, this is the big question that follows Saturday's landmark repeal of the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy.

Is the Senate vote the successful end of one struggle or a turning point for many others?

Activists are hoping that the repeal - which will allow gays to serve openly in the U.S. military - gives them significant new leverage. For the first time they can argue that if the Army trusts gay men and women with rifles, why shouldn't society trust them with wedding rings?

But some analysts say that while the vote was a sign of growing public support for gay and lesbian causes, it also illustrates the narrowness of that transformation

Nine years after the terrorist attacks of 2001, the United States is assembling a vast domestic intelligence apparatus to collect information about Americans, using the FBI, local police, state homeland security offices and military criminal investigators.

The system, by far the largest and most technologically sophisticated in the nation's history, collects, stores and analyzes information about thousands of U.S. citizens and residents, many of whom have not been accused of any wrongdoing.

The government's goal is to have every state and local law enforcement agency in the country feed information to Washington to buttress the work of the FBI, which is in charge of terrorism investigations in the United States.

The FCC's Threat to Internet Freedom

Tomorrow morning the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will mark the winter solstice by taking an unprecedented step to expand government's reach into the Internet by attempting to regulate its inner workings. In doing so, the agency will circumvent Congress and disregard a recent court ruling.

How did the FCC get here?

For years, proponents of so-called "net neutrality" have been calling for strong regulation of broadband "on-ramps" to the Internet, like those provided by your local cable or phone companies. Rules are needed, the argument goes, to ensure that the Internet remains open and free, and to discourage broadband providers from thwarting consumer demand. That sounds good if you say it fast.

Chavez seeks power to rule by decree for 1 year

CARACAS, Venezuela – Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Tuesday asked congress to grant him special powers to enact laws by decree for one year, just before a new legislature takes office with a larger contingent of opposition lawmakers.

The measure would give the president the ability to bypass the National Assembly for the fourth time since he was first elected almost 12 years ago.

Vice President Elias Jaua made the request on Chavez's behalf, saying the president will use the authorization to ensure fast-track approval of laws aimed at helping the nation recover from severe flooding and mudslides that left thousands homeless and in government shelters.

"The measures we have to take are deep. Almost 40 percent of the country was affected" by the heavy rains, Jaua said.

U.S. Corporate Tax Rate the Highest

Japan has announced that it will cut its corporate tax rate by five percentage points. Japan and the United States had been the global laggards on corporate tax reform, so this leaves America with the highest corporate rate among the 34 wealthy nations of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

That is not a good position for us to be in. Most of the competition faced by U.S. businesses comes from businesses headquartered in other OECD countries. America also competes with other OECD nations as a location for investment. Our high corporate tax rate scares away investment in new factories, makes it difficult for U.S. companies to compete in foreign markets, and provides strong incentives for corporations to avoid and evade taxes.

The chart shows KPMG data on statutory corporate tax rates in the OECD for 2010, but I’ve also put in the new lower rate for Japan. With the Japanese reform, the average rate in the OECD will be 25.6 percent. That means that the 40 percent U.S. rate is 56 percent higher than the wealthy-nation average.

Throw in towel on unwinnable war on drugs

When a young mother is killed trying to protect her 2-year-old son from stray bullets, then it is easy to understand why some of us are calling for the National Guard to help curb the violence.

So far, police haven’t said what motivated two armed men to storm into a barbershop in Sacramento, CA with guns blazing. The gunmen injured six people and killed Monique Nelson, as she tried to strap her son into a car seat and escape the violence.

But I’m willing to bet that drugs or gangs or both were involved.

This is the kind of tragedy that makes James Gierach’s blood boil. For decades, Gierach has been on a crusade to end the nation’s failed drug war.

School district implements guidelines for holiday decor

Ashland public schools can display a decorated pine tree if it is surrounded by symbols from other religious holidays, but they should not display a Christmas tree alone, in order to remain religiously neutral, Superintendent Juli Di Chiro told the School Board Monday.

District officials have implemented new holiday guidelines this year, after a controversy erupted at Bellview Elementary School last December over Principal Michelle Zundel's removal of a holiday tree, because a family complained that it was a religious symbol. After dozens of parents and students protested the decision, Zundel replaced the tree, adding other winter decorations and allowing students to decorate the tree with symbols from their own religions.

Iraq: Al Qaeda Planning Holiday Attacks in West

Iraqi authorities have obtained confessions from captured insurgents who claim al Qaeda is planning suicide attacks in the United States and Europe during the Christmas season, two senior officials said Wednesday.

Iraqi Interior Minister Jawad al-Bolani told The Associated Press that the botched bombing in central Stockholm last weekend was among the alleged plots the insurgents revealed. Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, in a telephone interview from New York, called the claims "a critical threat."

Both al-Bolani and Zebari said Iraq has informed Interpol of the alleged plots, and alerted authorities in the U.S. and European countries of the possible danger. Neither official specified which country or countries in Europe are alleged targets.

There was no way to verify the insurgents' claims. But Western counterterrorism officials generally are on high alert during the holiday season, especially since last year's failed attack by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the so-called underwear bomber, who tried to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas Day.

Why Do They Hate Sarah So Much?

What is the reason why the ruling class, including the GOP establishment, hates Sarah Palin so passionately? The left and its propaganda machine have always looked down on conservatives, but the attacks on Sarah Palin are unprecedented for sheer malice, scope, and decibel level. Everything about her incenses the left -- her bubbly personality, her high-pitched voice, her lively manner of speech and facial expressions, her colorful biography and way of life, her large family, her unabashed loyalty to Christian and conservative values.

She is ridiculed mercilessly by hordes of comedians who, plumbing new depths of vulgarity, make a nice living exploiting the Palin Derangement Syndrome. The press watches her, eagle-eyed, and pounces at the drop of a hat, twisting the most innocuous slip of the tongue into a monstrous gaffe, almost a federal crime. For all intents and purposes, she is hounded as Public Enemy No. 1. The left views all Republicans as enemies, but Sarah Palin stands apart; she is treated like dirt, like an alien life form. Why?

And why do the feminists outdo even their male allies on the left, evincing astonishing ferocity in attacking Alaska's former governor? One would think Palin is the one person they should defend and extol as a poster child of feminism, an icon of women's liberation.

The Islamic tsunami

Is an Islamic tidal wave coming? "There is a plan to take over Western civilization," warns David Rubin, "and we need to recognize it for what it is." Mr. Rubin is a native New Yorker who served as mayor of the Israeli town of Shiloh. He spoke to The Washington Times about his new book, "The Islamic Tsunami: Israel and America in the Age of Obama" (2010, Shiloh Israel Press).

According to Mr. Rubin, the first wave of the tsunami is Islamic terrorism, which he says is "a strategy intended to intimidate people so they won't speak out when the second wave hits." Mr. Rubin has firsthand experience with terrorist violence; he and his 3-year-old son, "Ruby" Rubin, were wounded in a Dec. 18, 2001, terrorist attack in Jerusalem. Afterward, he established the Shiloh Israel Children's Fund dedicated to helping relieve the trauma suffered by child victims of terrorism.

The second and more threatening wave is the creeping takeover of Western political and social institutions, something Mr. Rubin calls the "silent tsunami." The spearhead of this movement is "collusion between Islamic ideologues and the far left to promote the idea of moral relativism," he said, "that all values and ideologies are equal. But they are not. Americans have never believed this."

Reports Say Dick Cheney May Avoid Prosecution In Nigeria

Reports are dribbling in that Nigeria may drop charges against former U.S. Vice-President Dick Cheney and Halliburton over alleged bribery.

: Tom Pennington/Getty Images; Former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney may avoid prosecution in Nigeria. His former company, Halliburton, reportedly offered to pay a $250 million fine to settle the charges.

AFP and Reuters each reported that Nigerian anti-corruption officials met with representatives for Cheney and Halliburton in London. Reuters reported that the company offered to pay up to $250 million to clear the charges.

Femi Babafemi, a spokesman for the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission said to Reuters that the offer had to be cleared by the government and a decision would be made by the end of the week.

A Halliburton spokeswoman declined to comment to Corruption Currents, and a Cheney spokesman via email referred to his lawyer’s previous statement that called the Nigerian charges “entirely baseless.” Previously, Halliburton has denied any involvement in the project.

Declare ethanol a failure

We've tried the ethanol experiment, and it's failed.

Ethanol hasn't significantly affected our dependence on imported oil, nor has it significantly cut carbon emissions. It has, however, cost taxpayers a bundle, including raising food prices.

Corn-based ethanol is uneconomic as a fuel, especially compared with gasoline and diesel. Ethanol requires mandates to make motorists use it and a generous subsidy of 45 cents a gallon to get refiners to produce it.

Even if ethanol were a solution to any of our energy problems — and it's not — ethanol can be produced cheaper in countries like Brazil with abundant sugar cane. But to protect the domestic industry from competition, that government imposes a 54 percent-per-gallon tariff on ethanol imports.

The sensible course would be to let the subsidy and tariff expire on schedule at the end of the year. But, like all subsidies, ethanol has built up a powerful lobby dedicated to its preservation.

'Temporary' Tax Code Puts Nation in a Lasting Bind

WASHINGTON—Welcome to the world of the temporary tax code.

The U.S. tax code is slowly being turned into a temporary patchwork of provisions that need to be addressed every year or two, depriving individuals and businesses of the predictability they need for long-range plans. John McKinnon discusses. Also, Brett Arends says not only are the Democrats politically bankrupt and the Republicans morally bankrupt, but that this tax deal will play a big role in America's undoing.

In the late 1990s, there were typically fewer than a dozen tax provisions that had just a limited lease on life and needed to be renewed every year or so.

Today there are 141.

Now Congress, taking up a deal worked out between the Obama administration and Republican leaders, is poised to turn the whole personal income-tax system into something of a temporary structure. The plan embraces a broad range of provisions—an extension of Bush-era rates, a new estate-tax formula—but for only two years. A payroll-tax cut in the bill is for a single year.

Print|Email Reason.tv: Budget Chef Presents: How to Balance the Budget W/O Raising Taxes!

Using just a big piece of pork, a large knife, and a small knife, the budget chef shows how to balance the federal budget by 2020.

As a special treat, he does it without raising taxes from the current Bush-era rates!

It seems like a complicated preparation at first, but it's so simple that almost any elected official should be able to pull it off like a pro!

Domestic and foreign investors will love this, and it will also help create a stable environment conducive to long-term, sustainable economic growth.

Firms Feel Pain From Health Law

Big employers faced with incorporating the first round of health-care changes next month are grappling with how to comply with the long list of new rules.

Many companies are hiring consultants to help sort though the mountain of new mandates, which include extending dependent coverage to children up to age 26, and may eventually result in covering more employees. Some are also considering changes to their plans—including pushing costs to workers.

Brian Zak/Sipa Press

Borders Group Inc. has increased health-care-related consulting by around 20% to help it understand the law.

There is also some concern about how to digest the sheer volume of paperwork.

"There's administrative burden just to try and understand the 2,400 pages of the document," says Jenn Mann, vice president of human resources at software maker SAS Institute Inc.

As a result of the reform, SAS is doubling its legal and consultant expenses for 2011, says Ms. Mann. She declined to provide a dollar amount, and SAS wouldn't say what it currently spends on health-care overall.

SAS is also taking steps now to prepare for changes that take effect in future years. In 2018, a tax kicks in on employers with plans whose costs exceed certain levels. If SAS doesn't adjust its health plans, it estimates the tax will cost it approximately $20 million a year, says Ms. Mann.

Class warfare is not the ticket

he rich are different from you and me. They are swine.

So say many of the Democrats in the House of Representatives who would rather that jobless people lose their unemployment checks and middle-class people lose their income tax breaks than that the rich get a dime extra.

Some Democrats hate the rich. Most Americans, on the other hand, would like to become the rich.

Barack Obama understands this. Having grown up poor, he is today worth about $5 million, chiefly from writing books.

Americans do not resent their presidents for being wealthy. Of the four presidents on Mount Rushmore — George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln — three are among our top five wealthiest presidents.

'Billionaires On the Warpath'?

Say what you will about Bernie Sanders. During his Senate "filibuster" on Friday, the gentleman from Vermont asked a good question: When is enough enough?

Before Congress votes, lawmakers press for special-interest favors in the House and Senate bills. John Fund has the latest.

The object of Mr. Sanders's ire was the deal between the White House and Republicans that will keep the Bush tax cuts in place. "The billionaires of America are on the warpath," was his explanation. "They want more and more and more."

In his nearly nine-hour remarks, excerpts of which are now going viral on the Internet, he framed the lack of a tax hike for the rich as a surrender to greed. In so doing, he inadvertently raised another question: How come Republicans have such a hard time speaking just as forthrightly about the moral underpinnings of their side of this argument?

In general, Republicans tend to answer these class-warfare screeds with purely functional arguments. How, for example, higher tax rates aimed at "millionaires and billionaires" have a habit of hitting quite a few others (the Alternative Minimum Tax anyone?). How such taxes seldom produce the promised revenue bounty. Or how our real problem is not tax revenues but government spending.

Poll: Obama's losing support; Romney would beat him now

President Barack Obama's approval ratings have sunk to the lowest level of his presidency, so low that he'd lose the White House to Republican Mitt Romney if the election were held today, according to a new McClatchy-Marist poll.

The biggest reason for Obama's fall: a sharp drop in approval among Democrats and liberals, apparently unhappy with his moves toward the center since he led the party to landslide losses in November's midterm elections. At the same time, he's gained nothing among independents.

"He's having the worst of both worlds right now," said Lee Miringoff, the director of the Marist Institute for Public Opinion at Marist College in New York, which conducted the national survey.

FORTUNE -- What happens to a nation's collective psyche when millions of once-productive people remain out of work for months or even years? What happens when unemployed husbands resign themselves to relying on a wife's income, when unemployed wives feel trapped at home, when twenty- and thirtysomethings calculate that they'd rather live off their parents than face a cut-throat job market, when middle-aged men and women stop searching for jobs after realizing they're hopelessly lost in a haze of rapid-fire technological change?

The pre-holiday bickering over tax cuts and extending unemployment benefits is drowning out a December government number so frightening it should concentrate the minds of every posturing political leader in Washington: 9.8% unemployment. That is staggering, up from when the recession ended 18 months ago, and comes despite signs of recovery in retail, real estate, and corporate profits.

“F**k the rich:” Class-war arsonist on the loose

By Michelle Malkin • December 13, 2010 10:53 AM

Yes, I would like to know where all the civility police are to point fingers at Washington class-warfare demagogues for stoking dangerous hatred and violence-inciting, insane rage.

CapeCodOnline.com reports:

Police and fire officials are investigating an arson fire in Sandwich that has a disturbing similarity with a suspicious incident in Barnstable.

In both cases, the arsonist left a calling card, the message, “(expletive) the rich” at the scene.
Hotline

A confidential arson hotline is available 24-hours a day at 800-682-9229.

The Arson Watch Reward Program, funded by the state’s property and casualty insurance companies, provides rewards of up to $5,000 to help solve arson cases, according to the state Fire Marshal’s Office.

At 3:30 a.m. on Nov. 24, flames engulfed an unoccupied home still under construction at 16 Boulder Brook Road in Sandwich. Only the exterior of the house had been completed. The home, which was valued at $500,000, had a three-car garage and three bedrooms, but no plumbing or electric service, Sandwich Fire Chief George Russell said.

The heavy damage burned much of the evidence. But the state Fire Marshal’s Office was recently able to rule that an arsonist had set the fire, Russell said.

DADT: Will Open Gays in the Military Bring Back the Draft?

It’s been obvious for a long while that Democrats have little appreciation of the power of incentives and disincentives when it comes to setting marginal tax rates.

Democrats refuse to acknowledge, for example, that raising marginal tax rates sends powerful disincentives to every person on the planet that there are fewer rewards for hard work and innovation in the United States. And when such policies lead to fewer jobs and higher unemployment, the Democratic reaction is always to take actions that coerce businesses to keep jobs here and their money here that only leads to fewer jobs and higher unemployment.

In the current debate about overturning the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy (“DADT”), Democrats have shown themselves to have the same ideological blinders to incentives and disincentives.

“The Democratic Party is held hostage by its liberal base”

The Democratic Party is held hostage by its liberal base and desperately needs to repeal DADT to placate them before the new Congress convenes in January. How else could the Democrats ignore the conclusion of a Pentagon report that indicates that almost 40% of combat Marines (and 25% of combat Army) may leave the armed forces if Congress overturns the don’t ask, don’t tell policy — and then only seven days later — have all of its Senate Democrats (with the one exception of Senator Manchin of West Virginia) vote in support of overturning that policy.

Marriage and Middle America

A study on “When Marriage Disappears: The Retreat from Marriage in Middle America” was recently published by the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia and the Center for Marriage and Families at the Institute for American Values.

The report is both somewhat encouraging and quite alarming. First, let’s look at the encouraging side of things: among the affluent and highly educated (defined as those having at least a bachelor’s degree and who comprise about 30 percent of the adult population), marriage is stable and appears to be getting stronger. They now enjoy marriages that are as stable and happy as those four decades ago. W. Bradford Wilcox, director of the project, cites four reasons for this: First, they have access to better-paying and more stable work than their less-educated peers (stable employment and financial success help strengthen marriage and relieve pressure on families).

Second, highly educated Americans are more likely to hold the “bourgeois virtues” — self-control, a high regard for education, and a long-term orientation — that are crucial to maintaining a marriage in today’s cultural climate.

Discouraging Tomorrow's Entrepreneurs

Michael Wolfensohn, a councilman in New Castle, N.Y., recently inducted himself into the Bureaucrat Hall of Shame by calling the police on two 13-year-olds who — cue sinister music — were selling homemade cupcakes without a license.

Everyone loves to hate bullies who kick sand in the face of 98-pound entrepreneurs, so stories like this often make national headlines. But these tales are more serious than they seem because kid-entrepreneurs are canaries in the economic coal mine.

If a cupcake stand can't survive more than a few hours' exposure to bureaucracy, what happens to real businesses?

Opinion: So Who's Holding the Unemployed Hostage Now?

With Democrats threatening to block the Obama/Republican compromise on Bush-era tax cuts, does that mean they're the ones now holding the unemployed hostage until they get their way?

That was, after all, the charge Democrats and others had often lodged against Republicans.

Examples:

Earlier this month, Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., said: "We could take a major step toward fixing our economy today if Republicans stopped holding the Senate hostage to more tax giveaways for millionaires."

Last month, the liberal Daily Kos complained that the GOP was "holding 2 million unemployed hostage on behalf of richest 2%."

Back in July, President Barack Obama accused Republicans of "using their power to hold this relief hostage -- a move that only ends up holding back our recovery. It doesn't make sense."

St. Paul, Minn. — Minnesota 5th District Congressman Keith Ellison said Thursday that Democratic lawmakers "need to create a real crisis" to force Republicans to renegotiate the tax cut compromise.

House Democrats voted Thursday to reject the tax cut deal between the White House and Congressional Republicans.

The compromise would extend Bush-era tax cuts for all Americans, including the wealthy. It also would renew benefits for the long-term unemployed, a measure President Obama had pushed for to prevent about 2 million Americans from losing benefits in the coming weeks. Republicans had opposed extending unemployment benefits.

Federal Judge Rules Against Health Care Law

President Obama hosts a bipartisan meeting with members of Congress to discuss health reform legislation in February.

A federal judge today upheld a constitutional challenge to the health care law brought by Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, but denied an injunction to stop implementation of the law.

The decision from U.S. District Judge Henry Hudson, appointed by President George W. Bush in 2002, found that the insurance coverage mandate in the law “exceeds the constitutional boundaries of congressional power,” but chose to sever the relevant sections of the law, instead of invalidating the entire statute.

This is the first direct ruling on the constitutionality of the law's insurance coverage mandate in a case brought by a state challenger. But Hudson has also acknowledged that regardless of his ruling, the case is likely to make its way to the Supreme Court.

Rockdale Sheriff: Man Shoots, Kills Robber

Authorities say a Georgia man shot and killed an assailant who tried to rob him in a grocery store parking lot in Rockdale County.

Sheriff Jeff Wigington says Ryan Moore was heading inside an Ingles store in Conyers late Saturday when two men tried to rob him. He says one of the men had a knife.

The sheriff says Moore pulled out a gun and fatally shot one of the robbers. The other ran away.

Nathan Taylor, a friend of Moore's, says he fired his gun in self-defense.

A Tyrant's Thinking

Regulation: A member of the Federal Communications Commission appears to want Washington in control of broadcast news. What a shame that people with such ideas are placed in positions of power.

The FCC's Michael Copps suggested last week that a "public value test" should determine who holds broadcast licenses for television and radio. Speaking at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism, he said he was looking for "a renewed commitment to serious news and journalism."

So are we. We're weary of the hard-left bias ever so present in the media. We're fed up with celebrity treatment of all those on the left and contempt for all those on the right who aren't Republicans in name only. We've had enough of a press corps that makes no effort to understand economics and keeps promoting tired, freedom-choking, statist ideology.

Food Stamp Rolls Continue to Rise

More people tapped food stamps to pay for groceries in September as the recession and lackluster recovery have prompted more Americans to turn to government safety net programs to make ends meet.

Some 42.9 million people collected food stamps last month, up 1.2% from the prior month and 16.2% higher than the same time a year ago, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Nationwide 14% of the population relied on food stamps as of September but in some states the percentage was much higher. In Washington, D.C., Mississippi and Tennessee – the states with the largest share of citizens receiving benefits – more than a fifth of the population in each was collecting food stamps.

Socialism: Rearing its Ugly Head Again

Socialism is rearing its ugly head again, this time in the form of energy costs!

According to the Wall Street Journal, we may all have to start paying for wind or solar energy - even if we don't use it!

Get to know this acronym: FERC--the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

According to the paper, the commission has a plan to spread out the costs for the transmission lines to bring wind and solar projects to the national grid. A price tag that is likely to top $160 billion!

Residents in states such as California, Oregon, New York and Michigan will have to pay billions of dollars more in utility bills and they won't ever see such lines!

New NASA model: Doubled CO2 means just 1.64°C warming

A group of top NASA boffins says that current climate models predicting global warming are far too gloomy, and have failed to properly account for an important cooling factor which will come into play as CO₂ levels rise.

According to Lahouari Bounoua of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, and other scientists from NASA and the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), existing models fail to accurately include the effects of rising CO₂ levels on green plants. As green plants breathe in CO₂ in the process of photosynthesis – they also release oxygen, the only reason that there is any in the air for us to breathe – more carbon dioxide has important effects on them.

In particular, green plants can be expected to grow as they find it easier to harvest carbon from the air around them using energy from the sun: thus introducing a negative feedback into the warming/carbon process. Most current climate models don't account for this at all, according to Bounoua. Some do, but they fail to accurately simulate the effects – they don't allow for the fact that plants in a high-CO₂ atmosphere will "down-regulate" and so use water more efficiently.

Carbon Warfare Rules of Engagement

One cannot dismiss the claim that greenies have a warlike mentality concerning carbon energy use as hyperbole, when their own websites proclaim war. Yes, a flamboyant billionaire, AIG and Goldman-Sachs protégées, a green energy investor and a European lotto mogul have combined forces to promote their green energy investments by government mandate.

The CarbonWarRoom.com offers the myopic carbon dioxide scare-mongering and has homepage menus for ‘battles’ and ‘tactics’. It is only fair to disclose the ‘Rules of Engagement’ that these government forces have imposed on science, debate and truth. No question the greatest abuse of science in the history of the world.

The government has total control of the raw climate data base, the vast majority of the funding for research and appointments to authority positions. This level of control allows almost complete control of the direction of all science. To counter this monopoly, independent scientists have only their informed intuitions, their courage and empirical reality to oppose government enforced dogma.

Those who have placed themselves in charge of the rigged climate debate have also placed their assets into ‘charitable’ foundations that pay these benefactors in tax free director fees. These monopolists, royalists and statists are then free from another trap they set for the balance of humanity, draconian taxation.

Who is making this bold claim? Some right-wing global warming denier probably on the pay roll of Big Oil? Actually, it comes from none other than Phil Jones of the IPCC, which shared a Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore for global warming research and advocacy, by way of the British Meteorological Office (a reliable advocate of the global warming mythos):

[T]he data on the Met Office.s and CRU.s own websites show that global temperatures have been flat, not for ten, but for the past 15 years. …

Even Phil Jones, the CRU director at the centre of last year.s .Climategate. leaked email scandal, was forced to admit in a little noticed BBC online interview that there has been .no statistically significant warming. since 1995.

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Wednesday, December 08, 2010

The jobs O hates

For all his talk of job creation, Presi dent Obama has targeted many occu pations for extinction. Using un elected bureaucrats to implement a host of job-killing measures, his administration is generating piles of pink slips:

Oil: Even before the BP spill, Obama's Interior Department had cracked down on domestic drilling. In 2009, regulators allowed less than $1 billion in new oil and natural gas leases on federally controlled areas -- both onshore and offshore -- compared to $10 billion under President George W. Bush the year before.

Then, in response to the Gulf spill in April, Obama slowed down things even further, with a moratorium on deep-water drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. That proved so unpopular that the administration officially ended it -- but it remains in force unofficially, as regulators bottle up drilling permits with red tape and delays, keeping workers idle. Most recently, Obama regulators placed the entire Atlantic and Pacific coasts off limits to drilling.

Why married men tend to behave better

Researchers have long argued that marriage generally reduces illegal and aggressive behaviors in men. It remained unclear, however, if that association was a function of matrimony itself or whether less "antisocial" men were simply more likely to get married.

The answer, according to a new study led by a Michigan State University behavior geneticist, appears to be both.

In the December issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry, online today, S. Alexandra Burt and colleagues found that less antisocial men were more likely to get married. Once they were wed, however, the marriage itself appeared to further inhibit antisocial behavior.

"Our results indicate that the reduced rate of antisocial behavior in married men is more complicated than we previously thought," said Burt, associate professor of psychology. "Marriage is generally good for men, at least in terms of reducing antisocial behavior, but the data also indicate that it's not random who enters into the state of marriage."

Student Denied Free Speech Rights by Homosexual Activist Teacher

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Student Denied Free Speech Rights by Homosexual Activist Teacher

Daniel Glowacki, a student at a Michigan high school, has found himself at the center of a national controversy.

Recently his economics teacher, Jay McDowell, wore a t-shirt printed by a homosexual group. When the teacher demanded another student remove his confederate flag belt buckle, Daniel pointed out it was hypocritical for the teacher to wear a shirt with a message, and not let the student wear his buckle.

Then the teacher asked Daniel if he agreed with his shirt. Daniel replied he didn’t because of his faith. The teacher then kicked Daniel out of class while screaming he was a racist.

The teacher did receive a two-day suspension, but now Daniel has become the target of angry homosexuals, including Ellen DeGeneres.

'Faith gap' seen among married

In addition to an "education gap" in marriage, there is also a "faith gap," says the new State of Our Unions report on marriage.

"Middle America has lost its religious edge," wrote W. Bradford Wilcox, director of the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia, looking at trends over the past 40 years.

In the 1970s, the moderately educated — blue-collar, working-class Americans with high school diplomas or some college — were more likely to go to church every week than people with college degrees.

That has now reversed: Today 34 percent of college graduates attend weekly religious services, compared with 28 percent of moderately educated Americans, said the report, which was jointly issued by the NMP and Center for Marriage and Families at the Institute for American Values.

BP Oil Spill Stalls Gulf Loop Current

Oceanographic satellite data now shows that the Loop Current in the Gulf of Mexico has stalled as a consequence of the BP oil spill disaster. This according to Dr. Gianluigi Zangari, an Italian theoretical physicist, and major complex and chaotic systems analyst at the Frascati National Laboratories in Italy.

He further notes that the effects of this stall have also begun to spread to the Gulf Stream. This is because the Loop Current is a crucial element of the Gulf Stream itself and why it is commonly referred to as the “main engine” of the Stream.

The concern now, is whether or not natural processes can re-establish the stalled Loop Current. If not, we could begin to see global crop failures as early as 2011.

Alarmist Doomsday warning of rising seas 'was wrong', says Met Office study

Alarming predictions that global warming could cause sea levels to rise 6ft in the next century are wrong, it has emerged.

The forecast made by the influential 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which would have seen cities around the world submerged by water, now looks ‘unlikely’.

A Met Office study also rules out the shutdown of the Atlantic Ocean’s conveyor belt, which would trigger Arctic winters in Britain like those seen in the film The Day After Tomorrow.

Only in the movies: A Met Office study rules out the shutdown of the Atlantic Ocean's conveyor belt, which would trigger Arctic winters in Britain like those seen in the film The Day After Tomorrow (pictured)

However, the report says the IPCC was right to warn of a sea level rise of up to 2ft by 2100, and that a 3ft rise could happen.

The Full Cost of the Drilling Moratorium

While the original story of the new drilling moratorium was covered here at Hot Air, the new unemployment numbers which came out this week highlight an even more disturbing aspect of this proposal by the administration. Jack Gerard of the American Petroleum Institute (API) sent out a rather graphic warning to President Obama on Wednesday which laid out the danger of such a decision.

Jack Gerard warned that the administration’s decision today not to allow offshore drilling in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, the Atlantic and the Pacific in the government’s next five-year drilling plan could result in the loss of tens of thousands of American jobs, billions less in government revenues and an increasing dependence on foreign energy sources.

In a longer study compiled by API, some of the alarming facts and figures are brought to light.
Potential Jobs from Energy Exploration

Multiculturalism Hits The Wall

As year ten of the long war looms, the "multicultural" paradigm for defense against terrorism has slammed into a brick wall.

Recent developments reveal a policy in terminal disarray. The public revolt against the TSA, the ridiculous and humiliating Ghailani verdict, the still-simmering Financial District victory mosque controversy, and even the unmasking of the false Mullah Akhtar Muhammad Mansour in Afghanistan have highlighted the absurdity of attempting to meld the "multicultural" worldview with any serious effort against jihadi terrorism. And yet, government officials directly responsible for the defense of the country, from Obama, Holder, and Napolitano on down, insist on maintaining the "multicultural" paradigm despite undeniable evidence of its failure.

Multiculturalism has effectively controlled American security policy as regards terrorism from the very beginning. Islam, we were assured by no less a figure than George W. Bush, was "a religion of peace." Critical resources were invested in curtailing any "backlash" against American Muslims by the evil-minded white Christian majority. Organizations of dubious provenance, such as the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), and the North American Islamic Trust (NAIT), were appointed official representatives of American Muslims.

Watts/News

Wheeze, cough, pant. That's the sound of the national economy as it struggles to get off the canvas, spitting red ink like blood.

Friday came another blow. The U.S. gained just 39,000 jobs last month. Unemployment rose to 9.8%. The times are desperate, and desperate measures are the order of the day.

America needs a fresh round of economic stimulation - and this time it must be both effective and economically prudent.

President Obama's deficit reduction commission and an unofficial panel have both advanced the idea of declaring a payroll tax holiday that would free individuals and businesses from the burden of paying into Social Security for a year.

Author claims we're in the grip of a mini ice age

AFTER nearly two weeks of snow and sub zero temperatures rivaling those of Siberia, the old joke about global warming being a good thing has had a new lease of life. So what has happened to doom-laden predictions of the world heating up as glaciers melt? Mike Kelly reports.

A satellite image of the UK taken during last year's harsh winter

FIRST the good news. These bitter winters aren’t going to last forever. The bad news is that they will go on for the next 30 years as we have entered a mini ice age.

So says author Gavin Cooke in his book Frozen Britain. He began writing it in 2008 and it was published last year when experts were scratching their heads at the cause of the bitter winter of 2009/10 which brought England to a standstill. Some said it was a one-off event, with experts predicting snowfall becoming increasingly rare.

Now, 12 months on, the current sub zero spell makes last year look just a bit chilly. Just like kids enjoying ‘snow days’ off school, Gavin ought to be delighted with the cold snap. After all, he can justifiably say ‘I told you so’. But he’s as glum as the rest of us.

Obama To Call For Sputnik-Like Revolution In Research, Education

WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- U.S. President Barack Obama will Monday press Congress and the private sector to help the U.S. achieve a "Sputnik" moment that would unleash investments in research, education and infrastructure, according to a White House official.

Obama will make his case for a revolution in U.S. investments as a way to help accelerate the country's nascent economic recovery and keep the nation competitive in the global marketplace, the official said. He will also renew his opposition to tax cuts for top earners that aren't coupled with an extension of benefits for the unemployed.

Obama will make his pitch for the next Sputnik moment, referring to the name of a satellite Russia launched in 1957 that provoked a scientific and educational revolution in the U.S, while at a community college in North Carolina.

House May Block Food Safety Bill Over Senate Error

A food safety bill that has burned up precious days of the Senate’s lame-duck session appears headed back to the chamber because Democrats violated a constitutional provision requiring that tax provisions originate in the House.

By pre-empting the House’s tax-writing authority, Senate Democrats appear to have touched off a power struggle with members of their own party in the House. The Senate passed the bill Tuesday, sending it to the House, but House Democrats are expected to use a procedure known as “blue slipping” to block the bill, according to House and Senate GOP aides.

The debacle could prove to be a major embarrassment for Senate Democrats, who sought Tuesday to make the relatively unknown bill a major political issue by sending out numerous news releases trumpeting its passage.

Obama administration reverses plan to allow offshore oil drilling in Fla. Gulf waters

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - The Obama administration will maintain a long-standing oil drilling ban in the Gulf of Mexico off Florida after considering loosening it before the BP spill, a senior administration official told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

Just a month before the spill started in April, the Obama administration had announced plans to allow drilling in the eastern portion of the Gulf as part of the management plan for the Outer Continental Shelf.

"In light of the BP spill, we've learned a lot and understand the need to elevate the safety and environmental standards," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the decision hadn't been announced yet. "We took a second look at the announced plan and modified it to remove the Eastern Gulf of Mexico from leasing consideration."

The Dead Enders

'It is not a sensible way to run a country to have this magnitude of tax issues left to annual uncertainty," said Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner earlier this month, and he's certainly right about that. But at the current moment the single biggest obstacle to more certainty is his boss, President Obama, who still refuses to compromise on the tax increase set to whack the economy in a mere 30 days.

After meeting with Congressional leaders yesterday, Mr. Obama dispatched Mr. Geithner and budget director Jacob Lew to negotiate a deal. Yet the President is still holding out against even a temporary extension of the 2001 and 2003 tax rates. Republicans won 63 House seats running against those tax increases, but Mr. Obama still seems under the spell of the dead enders led by soon-to-be-former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.