As I leave the scene – okay, train wreck – after serving my time, I’m being presumptuous in making a few observations from which perhaps you can profit as you become the New Year. I’m using the pattern that 2009 left for me, putting it in doggerel, the better for its rhythm and rhyme to help you remember as you confront often strange and inexplicable circumstances:
Listen, my New Year, and you shall now hear
Just how it is at the end of this year,
The holiday firs are seen in their glow –
Once called Christmas trees…that name had to go;
Diversity wields its pure jihad toward God,
It is a religion, worldly and mod,
Look not for Jesus, except at Walmart...
While looking, of course, just fill up the cart.
Oh…Never look back at the promises made
A few months ago as the Truth was waylaid
When O and his pols predicted...perforce!...
That those out of work would number, of course,
A mere eight percent and that not for long
As government spent the economy strong;
“So...take heart, my dears, just go out and spend...”
The prexy said that…said the bad times would end.
Give thanks at this time that the demos hell-bent
On capping the gases that simply are meant
To make icebergs melt...catch folks unawares
And drown half the country, kill all polar bears,
Despite never reading the bill – cap-and-trade –
Since if they had done that they might have been made
To somehow defeat it...instead...seemed to dress
In jackets of strait…but the repubs…well, guess!.
Great things were enacted…the solons were bright,
Said “Don’t Ask, don’t tell” was simply not right,
And soon, the word is, that marriage will be
That he wed a him or her by a she;
The unisex thing the intellects know
Is now just the way that the nation must go,
So surrogate mothers or cloning is in,
The same-sexy parents all set to begin.
And think of the climate – especially just now,
This time of the year when to see a snow-plow
Is everyday stuff in much of the land
Where snow heretofore rarely managed to land;
And listen to Al, the guru of gore,
That soon will envelop this land more and more
As humans and beasts all succumb to the cold –
Frozen by warming as temps downward fold.
In case you’ve not noticed, remark now O’s CHANGE,
Admittedly…yes, well…it seems a bit strange,
But banking and autos are federalized
And everything everywhere must be downsized;
Put more air in tires and save on your fuel,
And use the right light-bulbs...yeah...don’t be a fool,
The planet is dying, the U.N. has said,
Stop breathing out carbon or Earth will be dead.
The prez said no oil wells offshore can be drilled,
Get used to the prices that you will be billed,
And mind you, he promised in campaigning mode
To skyrocket current right to overload;
And taxes he promised…and so did the veep…
To raise on the folks who succeed but are cheap,
He promised in two years those folks will pay up
When he wins again…the repubs’ bitter cup.
At year’s end think not of recession and such –
Obama’s guru of finance said as much...
Recession is over, thus said he to all,
So go to the mall and…well…have…a ball,
And simply pretend that the U.S. ain’t broke,
Just use credit cards and be part of the joke...
The veep said bankruptcy is nothing to fear,
Just borrow and spend and be of good cheer.
At year’s end don’t worry...the dollars are sound,
Just go to Beijing, where some billions are found,
And if you want jobs, go to Beijing and jive,
Those folks make our undies, our shoes...and they thrive;
Don’t look for those things where they used to be made,
“The land of the free,” now just a tirade,
Just wire the White House that you’re too big to fail,
Then wait for a check in the very next mail.
At year’s end fret not, for old Gitmo’s not gone,
Those terrorist dudes will not (gasp) face the dawn
In Brooklyn or out on the midwestern plain
Where they can chow down in the land of no pain
And laugh as they strut before TV’s bright light
And spew out their garbage in everyone’s sight,
Praise Allah and jihad...the prez saw the light –
Like all infidels, he would keep his head tight.
Do not hesitate…oh dear no, not a sec…
To keep in your mind your soft infidel neck,
When passing through airports, just take off your shoes,
Never start whining and don’t sing the blues,
And when they start scanning your skeleton rare
Just grin as your assets are laid out quite bare,
It’s not fun and games…the imams make plain,
That infidels jive…but only when slain.
At year’s end don’t worry if you might feel faint,
The Big O and demos are now your new saint,
Their health-care is promised for hangnails or plague
Or bones that are broken or feverish ague;
If old or if young, don’t worry at all,
For lines will not form until you need to call
And simply are told that in six months...about...
You get a knee-joint or a gall bladder out.
And as you get old toward the end of your year,
Just check the new rules and allay your fear,
The doctors are paid to counsel old guys
Just how to put death in a sort of disguise;
They put in perspective just how you should go,
Not kicking or screaming…just go with the flow,
With grace all around, just give up your space
And let some poor soul occupy that old place.
At year’s end chill out...don’t be stupid...oh no!
Not like policemen, as described by Big O,
Since he’s got your back from the crib to the grave,
And you from yourself he has promised to save;
And take it from prez, if you’re ever in doubt,
Teleprompters can help, with the stuff they give out,
And don’t hesitate if you’re asked to surmise
About the U.S. – be quick...APOLOGIZE!
With sympathy,
2010
And so it goes.
Jim Clark
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Monday, December 27, 2010
The Mathematician & the Ark
The self-appointed intellects who service the Lexington Herald-Leader with their wisdom have been banging away at the proposed Noah’s Ark Park soon to be built a few miles from Lexington, Ky. The claimed opposition by the paper to the park, which is scheduled to employ hundreds, has to do with tax incentives awarded by the state, thus making it a church/state violation since Noah is/was a biblical character. On this note, Roger Guffey, a former math teacher, furnished a screed of 26 December with a tongue-in-cheek request for equal treatment for an Evolution and Natural History Museum.
Guffey’s actual point: Only uneducated people believe there was such a thing as Noah’s Ark. His further point: “Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection is based on easily verifiable facts.” The fact that the two things have nothing to do with each other is simply beside the point. Guffey merely took the opportunity to rail against people whose understanding of the creation of the earth and all that’s upon it is different from his and, of course, those of all other intelligent people.
Later in the article, Guffey opines, “According to scientific estimates, more than 99 percent of all species that have ever lived have gone extinct.” In the first instance above, facts (Darwinism) are the things that matter and make the case. In the just noted instance, “estimates” will be gladly and unquestionably accepted. As a math teacher, would Guffey accept a fact with regard to the sum of 4 and 5, or would he prefer an estimate? The truth is that no one has the remotest idea of the number of species that have existed on the earth or what happened to them.
The intellectuals have always been troubled by their inability to explain “how God did it” or “how it happened (for the atheist),” the earth and Adam, that is. This a reason Guffey’s article is strange as relating to the church/state thing. Guffey obviously believes that man evolved from some type of lower form, though no one has ever been able to describe it…or even come close. However, Adam, Eve, Noah and family were people.
In the biblical creation account, God spoke with Adam and Eve, not with some sort of slime or a one-celled something-or-other perhaps swimming in a kind of primeval goo. The elitist does the easy thing and simply discounts the first 11 or so chapters of Genesis as MYTH, not actual facts…or even estimates, in order to cover all the bases. In other words, that part of the Bible, including the ark, has nothing to do with actual religion since it’s just a myth like the myths of Mt. Olympus and the Greek gods. Since neither Adam, Eve, nor Noah ever happened, how, then, could there be any connection of the park to flesh-and-blood religion and consequent church/state violations? The point, ipso facto, is moot and neither Guffey nor the paper should complain.
Guffey makes the case for the “survival of the fittest” (using bacteria in the hospital as an example) and few people will argue with that as it relates to the purely physical attributes or even mental acuity. Many, however, draw the line sharply between man and animal or bird or fish or tree, organisms that operate entirely on the basis of instinct or natural design that either succeeds or fails. The difference, of course, has to do with man’s ability to reason…in other words – as far as is known – to have a relationship with God, his creator, actually, according to scripture, even being made in God’s image.
There are people who believe in six 24-hour days of creation. So what! No one now living has the remotest idea of what happened in a given week – or any week – some 6,000 or so years ago. Others take the view biblically introduced in II Peter 3:8 that “with the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day” (NIV), and echoed in Psalm 90:4. It’s probable that nearly all Christians subscribe to this proposition (even squirrelly evangelicals), meaning that millenia could have elapsed between the first and fifth days of creation and more millenia between the fifth and sixth days, thus allowing for Guffey the mathematician and all the scientists enough creation-time to allow for pontificating and ridiculing the “flat-earthers” to their hearts’ content.
Oh yes…the LATEST! Drum-roll, please! Teeth thought to be 400,000-years-old and possibly belonging to the elusive “link” have just been found in a cave in Israel (27 December), thus shooting down the theory that man’s ancestors originated in Africa, even though, biblically, Baghdad seems about right, though not allowing for evolution of teeth. This will infuriate the Iranians and Somalis but perhaps Guffey will smile at the SCIENCE of it all, although the teeth might at one time have been on the ark. Who knows? If so, that would be a real bummer…the myth and all.
Oh well…Guffey made the case that this stuff doesn’t actually matter and that what does matter is how believers like himself make the world a better place. Right on!
And so it goes.
Jim Clark
Guffey’s actual point: Only uneducated people believe there was such a thing as Noah’s Ark. His further point: “Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection is based on easily verifiable facts.” The fact that the two things have nothing to do with each other is simply beside the point. Guffey merely took the opportunity to rail against people whose understanding of the creation of the earth and all that’s upon it is different from his and, of course, those of all other intelligent people.
Later in the article, Guffey opines, “According to scientific estimates, more than 99 percent of all species that have ever lived have gone extinct.” In the first instance above, facts (Darwinism) are the things that matter and make the case. In the just noted instance, “estimates” will be gladly and unquestionably accepted. As a math teacher, would Guffey accept a fact with regard to the sum of 4 and 5, or would he prefer an estimate? The truth is that no one has the remotest idea of the number of species that have existed on the earth or what happened to them.
The intellectuals have always been troubled by their inability to explain “how God did it” or “how it happened (for the atheist),” the earth and Adam, that is. This a reason Guffey’s article is strange as relating to the church/state thing. Guffey obviously believes that man evolved from some type of lower form, though no one has ever been able to describe it…or even come close. However, Adam, Eve, Noah and family were people.
In the biblical creation account, God spoke with Adam and Eve, not with some sort of slime or a one-celled something-or-other perhaps swimming in a kind of primeval goo. The elitist does the easy thing and simply discounts the first 11 or so chapters of Genesis as MYTH, not actual facts…or even estimates, in order to cover all the bases. In other words, that part of the Bible, including the ark, has nothing to do with actual religion since it’s just a myth like the myths of Mt. Olympus and the Greek gods. Since neither Adam, Eve, nor Noah ever happened, how, then, could there be any connection of the park to flesh-and-blood religion and consequent church/state violations? The point, ipso facto, is moot and neither Guffey nor the paper should complain.
Guffey makes the case for the “survival of the fittest” (using bacteria in the hospital as an example) and few people will argue with that as it relates to the purely physical attributes or even mental acuity. Many, however, draw the line sharply between man and animal or bird or fish or tree, organisms that operate entirely on the basis of instinct or natural design that either succeeds or fails. The difference, of course, has to do with man’s ability to reason…in other words – as far as is known – to have a relationship with God, his creator, actually, according to scripture, even being made in God’s image.
There are people who believe in six 24-hour days of creation. So what! No one now living has the remotest idea of what happened in a given week – or any week – some 6,000 or so years ago. Others take the view biblically introduced in II Peter 3:8 that “with the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day” (NIV), and echoed in Psalm 90:4. It’s probable that nearly all Christians subscribe to this proposition (even squirrelly evangelicals), meaning that millenia could have elapsed between the first and fifth days of creation and more millenia between the fifth and sixth days, thus allowing for Guffey the mathematician and all the scientists enough creation-time to allow for pontificating and ridiculing the “flat-earthers” to their hearts’ content.
Oh yes…the LATEST! Drum-roll, please! Teeth thought to be 400,000-years-old and possibly belonging to the elusive “link” have just been found in a cave in Israel (27 December), thus shooting down the theory that man’s ancestors originated in Africa, even though, biblically, Baghdad seems about right, though not allowing for evolution of teeth. This will infuriate the Iranians and Somalis but perhaps Guffey will smile at the SCIENCE of it all, although the teeth might at one time have been on the ark. Who knows? If so, that would be a real bummer…the myth and all.
Oh well…Guffey made the case that this stuff doesn’t actually matter and that what does matter is how believers like himself make the world a better place. Right on!
And so it goes.
Jim Clark
Friday, December 24, 2010
Philosophy & the Top 1%
It’s amazing what professors on liberal college campuses can come up with, and more amazing as they devolve into “emeritus status,” making one wonder if the maturing process is not in their genes. Brian Cooney, emeritus professor of – yep – philosophy at Centre College, Danville, Ky., lately in the news because of the performance of the Vienna Philharmonic there, delivered himself recently of philosophical caterwauling in an article in the Lexington Herald-Leader regarding the fact that the country is now a plutocracy, defined as “government by the wealthy.”
Okay…many if not nearly all members of Congress, as well as the president are wealthy, especially when compared to the hoi polloi. These entities are responsible for the conduct of the government; however, that was not even a consideration in Cooney’s essay concerning economics, obviously an area of expertise by any qualified philosopher. His target was the rich people (just the top 1%), but he didn’t describe how they actually rule the nation, especially at a time when liberals such as himself have been in complete Congressional control since 2007 and in total control since January 2009, with regard to the government itself.
Cooney began with this question: “Do the rich deserve their wealth?” His point apparently was that they don’t because that means they have more than others…and that’s not fair. Actually, the simple issue of envy may be at the heart of his obvious angst but on the chance that a philosopher would rise above that circumstance one is faced with deciding how “deserving” can be defined. If whatever the wealthy possesses has been acquired honestly, does that matter? With Cooney? No!
Cooney wrote: “In 2007, the latest year for which figures are available from the Federal Reserve Board, the top 1 percent of U.S. households owned 33.8 percent of the nation's private wealth, while the bottom 90 percent owned only 28.5 percent.” The other nine percent (not mentioned by the professor) owned 37.7%. College philosophy professors do not live anywhere near the poverty level, especially if their spouses also work – the norm) meaning that Cooney was probably in or near the elite top 10% that owned 71.5% of the nation’s private wealth, but it’s doubtful that in his exalted financial position he feels that his taxes should be messed-with. Hypocrisy is one of the most defining of all liberal philosophical principles.
According to mysalary.com, the median income of a liberal arts professor in the U.S. is currently $79,780. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median income of all workers last year was $38,168, or less than half of what the average professor received. Cooney’s point perhaps: Soak the rich rulers but leave me alone. If Cooney made the average when he was teaching, at least recently, he was taxed at 25% while the rich rulers paid 35% to Uncle Sam. Cooney’s tax rate was 40% less than the rich guy’s.
Here is vintage Cooney, from the article: “Any sensible person understands there must be enough income inequality to create incentives for the more talented and energetic members of society to do their utmost. Everyone benefits from such inequality.” Well…there went Cooney’s argument right down the drain. He railed against the perceived pernicious inequality and then said inequality is necessary…or else. Go figure. The fact is that he hasn’t a clue about economics.
More Cooney: “ … according to the Economic Policy Institute, the richest 10 percent received nearly two-thirds of total income growth from 1979-2007, while the bottom 20 percent received almost nothing.” Cooney didn’t mention the in-betweeners, 70%. Cooney was probably in or near that rich 10%, but his problem is with just the top one percent, so he very likely would not want the government to disturb his tax rate, even though 90% of citizens were worse off. Even if he were better off than just 70% or even 50%, wouldn’t that be too philosophically unjust to be tolerated?
More Cooney: “They [ruling class, whatever it is] are content to starve the public sector by depriving the government of revenue it needs to fund basic social programs.” The ruling class, whether Congress, the president, or rich people (Cooney insists upon the latter), makes the laws, but as far as is known, no plebiscite has ever been conducted among the rich people in order to effect the tax laws. One wonders how that could be done – maybe have every person with an income over x number of dollars register as a member of the ruling class and cast his/her vote in order not to starve the public sector…or, more likely, just starve it? Best not take a chance…that law of unintended consequensces thing!
In his last paragraph, Cooney asks: “Why should the members of a democratic society uphold the claims of the top 1 percent?” What claims? Why should the members of a democratic society uphold the claims (whatever they are – Cooney knows but didn’t say) of whatever percentage Cooney populates? What claims? He didn’t say. Most likely, there’s a deep philosophical angle to all of this, but it may escape the unenlightened altogether. Perhaps it’s fair to say that the government is responsible for upholding the laws of the land but that upholding everyone’s claims is just a bit vague, if not outrightly unphilosophical or maybe philosophical…who knows? Only the Shadow knows.
And so it goes.
Jim Clark
Okay…many if not nearly all members of Congress, as well as the president are wealthy, especially when compared to the hoi polloi. These entities are responsible for the conduct of the government; however, that was not even a consideration in Cooney’s essay concerning economics, obviously an area of expertise by any qualified philosopher. His target was the rich people (just the top 1%), but he didn’t describe how they actually rule the nation, especially at a time when liberals such as himself have been in complete Congressional control since 2007 and in total control since January 2009, with regard to the government itself.
Cooney began with this question: “Do the rich deserve their wealth?” His point apparently was that they don’t because that means they have more than others…and that’s not fair. Actually, the simple issue of envy may be at the heart of his obvious angst but on the chance that a philosopher would rise above that circumstance one is faced with deciding how “deserving” can be defined. If whatever the wealthy possesses has been acquired honestly, does that matter? With Cooney? No!
Cooney wrote: “In 2007, the latest year for which figures are available from the Federal Reserve Board, the top 1 percent of U.S. households owned 33.8 percent of the nation's private wealth, while the bottom 90 percent owned only 28.5 percent.” The other nine percent (not mentioned by the professor) owned 37.7%. College philosophy professors do not live anywhere near the poverty level, especially if their spouses also work – the norm) meaning that Cooney was probably in or near the elite top 10% that owned 71.5% of the nation’s private wealth, but it’s doubtful that in his exalted financial position he feels that his taxes should be messed-with. Hypocrisy is one of the most defining of all liberal philosophical principles.
According to mysalary.com, the median income of a liberal arts professor in the U.S. is currently $79,780. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median income of all workers last year was $38,168, or less than half of what the average professor received. Cooney’s point perhaps: Soak the rich rulers but leave me alone. If Cooney made the average when he was teaching, at least recently, he was taxed at 25% while the rich rulers paid 35% to Uncle Sam. Cooney’s tax rate was 40% less than the rich guy’s.
Here is vintage Cooney, from the article: “Any sensible person understands there must be enough income inequality to create incentives for the more talented and energetic members of society to do their utmost. Everyone benefits from such inequality.” Well…there went Cooney’s argument right down the drain. He railed against the perceived pernicious inequality and then said inequality is necessary…or else. Go figure. The fact is that he hasn’t a clue about economics.
More Cooney: “ … according to the Economic Policy Institute, the richest 10 percent received nearly two-thirds of total income growth from 1979-2007, while the bottom 20 percent received almost nothing.” Cooney didn’t mention the in-betweeners, 70%. Cooney was probably in or near that rich 10%, but his problem is with just the top one percent, so he very likely would not want the government to disturb his tax rate, even though 90% of citizens were worse off. Even if he were better off than just 70% or even 50%, wouldn’t that be too philosophically unjust to be tolerated?
More Cooney: “They [ruling class, whatever it is] are content to starve the public sector by depriving the government of revenue it needs to fund basic social programs.” The ruling class, whether Congress, the president, or rich people (Cooney insists upon the latter), makes the laws, but as far as is known, no plebiscite has ever been conducted among the rich people in order to effect the tax laws. One wonders how that could be done – maybe have every person with an income over x number of dollars register as a member of the ruling class and cast his/her vote in order not to starve the public sector…or, more likely, just starve it? Best not take a chance…that law of unintended consequensces thing!
In his last paragraph, Cooney asks: “Why should the members of a democratic society uphold the claims of the top 1 percent?” What claims? Why should the members of a democratic society uphold the claims (whatever they are – Cooney knows but didn’t say) of whatever percentage Cooney populates? What claims? He didn’t say. Most likely, there’s a deep philosophical angle to all of this, but it may escape the unenlightened altogether. Perhaps it’s fair to say that the government is responsible for upholding the laws of the land but that upholding everyone’s claims is just a bit vague, if not outrightly unphilosophical or maybe philosophical…who knows? Only the Shadow knows.
And so it goes.
Jim Clark
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Other Militaries & DADT
The “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” policy has been reversed by Congress, thus fulfilling what the president thinks is absolutely necessary in order to have a properly engineered military sex-wise or gender-wise or preference-wise or something-in-between-wise, never mind the advice by the top field commanders as well as a huge segment of actual combat personnel that this is a bad idea.
One of the prime reasons given for this change is that the countries of Olde Europe have long since recognized the need to similarly reconfigure their militaries and done the “right” thing. In and of itself, this is contrary to a sensible argument in that this country is also following the lead of Olde Europe in most everything else even as Olde Europe is desperately trying on its slippery slope to rescue itself from the things this country is emulating, such as health-care.
There are countries of significant military capabilities (and threat) that desire no part of homosexuals in the military. This is from the BBC of 13 March 2003: Russia is to introduce new regulations which will ban homosexuals, drug addicts and alcoholics from serving in the armed forces. The new rules - published in the official Rossiyskaya Gazeta - say people "who have problems with their identity and sexual preferences" can only be drafted during war times. The ban - taking effect on 1 July - also extends to those who regularly use illegal drugs and alcohol. Officials say the changes are aimed at tightening health requirements for conscripts - even though they come at a time when the Russian military is believed to be struggling to fill its ranks.
This is from the Atlantic Council of the United States in an article of September 2006 by Colonel Jeffrey Holachek: According to Russian MoD statistics, since 2002 the reported number of newly registered HIV-positive service members has begun to decrease steadily. It would appear that the Russian military was plagued by homosexually transmitted AIDS, decided to correct the problem in the most effective way (banning homosexuals from service) with the results being obvious. This should have been a lesson for the U.S. Congress, but it is a lesson too late for the learning.
This is from the Palm Center, a research organization, of May 2002: Military officials said that the policy governing gay soldiers in Taiwan does not refer specifically to homosexuality but to "sexual orientation impairment," which traditionally has been interpreted to include homosexuals. In 1994, the defense ministry stopped treating homosexuality as an illness, but that same year, the military agreed to exempt men from conscription if psychiatrists concluded they were homosexual, according to a China Post report. This speaks for itself and involves a country in which military readiness is of tremendous importance, especially in light of China’s constant threat to take it over.
This is from Pink News…Europe’s largest Gay News Service of 17 November 2008: The government of South Korea has asked the constitutional court to confirm the ban on gays serving in the country’s Armed Forces. Servicemen face a year in jail for homosexual acts. In August a military court asked for a review of the constitutionality of the ban. “The military has a unique characteristics,” a defence ministry spokesman told AFP. “It has to maintain good combat capability. It requires a sound group life. It works for the public interest rather than personal happiness.” In other words, South Korea, in a constant state of threat from the North, as recently exhibited graphically in the media with the North’s bombardment of South Korean territory and sinking of a South Korean Navy vessel, intends for no social engineering to disrupt its military readiness and capability.
In the recent DADT hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee, the matters of military readiness and unit cohesion, especially during a time of combat such as in Iraq and Afghanistan, top field commanders (general officers) in the Army, Air Force and Marines insisted that DADT should not be disturbed. The Congress hasn’t listened to them but has listened to Defense Secretary Gates and Joint Chiefs Chairman Admiral Mullen, who serve at the pleasure of the president and likely wouldn’t be in their positions if they disagreed with him. Gates will be gone in January, so would never have had to wrestle with the inevitable problems perpetrated by the Congressional mindlessness.
A handful of homosexuals are in the military but remain there because they do not exhibit it. What they do in private and away from duty is their business. Others get drunk, some visit prostitutes…nothing new about that. The notion that homosexuals are forced to lie, a premier argument of the homosexuals, has no weight because they are not asked, in the first place. The objective of the militant homosexual groups is the approval of their behavior as normal, something so off-the-wall as to be ridiculous. They know this, so they do the next best thing, which is to flaunt it, a sort of in-your-face approach, something akin to spite or revenge. The water will hit the wheel when the first service-member-homosexuals show up in the lurid “Gay Pride Parades,” with the proper insignia, making sure that every onlooker understands them to be an example of the military, when nothing could be farther from the truth.
This piece has remarked the problem with respect to health reasons. One can only wonder what the outcome will be socially when the homosexuals flaunt their condition…and that will happen.
And so it goes.
Jim Clark
One of the prime reasons given for this change is that the countries of Olde Europe have long since recognized the need to similarly reconfigure their militaries and done the “right” thing. In and of itself, this is contrary to a sensible argument in that this country is also following the lead of Olde Europe in most everything else even as Olde Europe is desperately trying on its slippery slope to rescue itself from the things this country is emulating, such as health-care.
There are countries of significant military capabilities (and threat) that desire no part of homosexuals in the military. This is from the BBC of 13 March 2003: Russia is to introduce new regulations which will ban homosexuals, drug addicts and alcoholics from serving in the armed forces. The new rules - published in the official Rossiyskaya Gazeta - say people "who have problems with their identity and sexual preferences" can only be drafted during war times. The ban - taking effect on 1 July - also extends to those who regularly use illegal drugs and alcohol. Officials say the changes are aimed at tightening health requirements for conscripts - even though they come at a time when the Russian military is believed to be struggling to fill its ranks.
This is from the Atlantic Council of the United States in an article of September 2006 by Colonel Jeffrey Holachek: According to Russian MoD statistics, since 2002 the reported number of newly registered HIV-positive service members has begun to decrease steadily. It would appear that the Russian military was plagued by homosexually transmitted AIDS, decided to correct the problem in the most effective way (banning homosexuals from service) with the results being obvious. This should have been a lesson for the U.S. Congress, but it is a lesson too late for the learning.
This is from the Palm Center, a research organization, of May 2002: Military officials said that the policy governing gay soldiers in Taiwan does not refer specifically to homosexuality but to "sexual orientation impairment," which traditionally has been interpreted to include homosexuals. In 1994, the defense ministry stopped treating homosexuality as an illness, but that same year, the military agreed to exempt men from conscription if psychiatrists concluded they were homosexual, according to a China Post report. This speaks for itself and involves a country in which military readiness is of tremendous importance, especially in light of China’s constant threat to take it over.
This is from Pink News…Europe’s largest Gay News Service of 17 November 2008: The government of South Korea has asked the constitutional court to confirm the ban on gays serving in the country’s Armed Forces. Servicemen face a year in jail for homosexual acts. In August a military court asked for a review of the constitutionality of the ban. “The military has a unique characteristics,” a defence ministry spokesman told AFP. “It has to maintain good combat capability. It requires a sound group life. It works for the public interest rather than personal happiness.” In other words, South Korea, in a constant state of threat from the North, as recently exhibited graphically in the media with the North’s bombardment of South Korean territory and sinking of a South Korean Navy vessel, intends for no social engineering to disrupt its military readiness and capability.
In the recent DADT hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee, the matters of military readiness and unit cohesion, especially during a time of combat such as in Iraq and Afghanistan, top field commanders (general officers) in the Army, Air Force and Marines insisted that DADT should not be disturbed. The Congress hasn’t listened to them but has listened to Defense Secretary Gates and Joint Chiefs Chairman Admiral Mullen, who serve at the pleasure of the president and likely wouldn’t be in their positions if they disagreed with him. Gates will be gone in January, so would never have had to wrestle with the inevitable problems perpetrated by the Congressional mindlessness.
A handful of homosexuals are in the military but remain there because they do not exhibit it. What they do in private and away from duty is their business. Others get drunk, some visit prostitutes…nothing new about that. The notion that homosexuals are forced to lie, a premier argument of the homosexuals, has no weight because they are not asked, in the first place. The objective of the militant homosexual groups is the approval of their behavior as normal, something so off-the-wall as to be ridiculous. They know this, so they do the next best thing, which is to flaunt it, a sort of in-your-face approach, something akin to spite or revenge. The water will hit the wheel when the first service-member-homosexuals show up in the lurid “Gay Pride Parades,” with the proper insignia, making sure that every onlooker understands them to be an example of the military, when nothing could be farther from the truth.
This piece has remarked the problem with respect to health reasons. One can only wonder what the outcome will be socially when the homosexuals flaunt their condition…and that will happen.
And so it goes.
Jim Clark
Friday, December 17, 2010
The Lady, DOJ & the Hajj
Dear Schoolteacher Safoorah Khan,
First, just let me congratulate you on your determination to get to Mecca before you die and risk going to hell for not making the Hajj. The school board in Chicago has refused your request for three weeks off to make the trip, thus forcing Attorney General Holder to sue the board to see that it either accedes to your request or pays you handsomely for some sort of academic PTSD and awards you a lifetime disability pension, the latter being my choice but to each his own. I am the CEO of the Institute for Modifying All Government Entities (known as IMAGE, for short), an organization designed for the purpose of helping people appear in the best light possible. Since most people (those uncouth Christians, mostly) probably object to your request (or even your existence), account your being Muslim, IMAGE can help you appear as perfectly normal, even admirable since most people with good sense are terrified of being trampled to death at Mecca, the usual extra-curricular activity vis-à-vis the Hajj.
The IMAGE agency that would deal with your case is known as the Headquarters for Official Liberal Damnation of Egregious Rendition, known for short by its acronym HOLDER. This outfit helped Sheik Khalid of 9/11 fame immeasurably, despite his admission of guilt and request to be exterminated, when it was thought that he would be tried in New York instead of Guantanamo since he had been in multi-rendition mode and spilled his guts, thus saving perhaps millions. Since you could never hope, as a Muslim female, to allow your holy self to get through airport frisking or scanning (forms of domestic rendition-torture), HOLDER can, possibly applying to Holder himself, mobilize action on your part in favor of skirting those regulations. Failing that, HOLDER could possibly disguise you as a man, though that might be problematic but only to the extent of maybe 20 years in the Big House. Are you up to that sacrifice for the Hajj?
William Ayers, a close friend of the president and a crafty much-appreciated domestic terrorist with the Weather Underground (known as American al-Qaeda) teaches at a university in Chicago and could also be helpful in any mobilization effort such as, for instance, demonstrating at the airport and maybe blowing up a restroom or two while you took advantage of the distraction to make it to the plane. There would be little danger in this since AG Holder doesn’t prosecute the New Black Panthers for violence and certainly would not prosecute a friend and ally of the president.
Since you are now in the public eye, you will need the IMAGE agency known as the Theatrical Organization for Righteous Temporizing Undergirding Rhetorical Efficacy, or TORTURE, for short. Everything that happens will be televised so you will need to present an image to the public of a caring, religious soul merely carrying out Allah’s will for your life. TORTURE will help you know just how far to go in playing to the cameras during this ordeal, as well as how to make your pitch to the public as a tortured victim of an insensitive country. Victimization is a hallmark of government these days. TORTURE’s expert on both style and substance is the Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright. He will teach you how to be heard over at O’hare or Midway without benefit of microphones. He will teach you the words of some old gospel hymns he uses in his sermons and even a bit of tune to use for effect. He will show you the appropriate African dress (he says Eden, whether Muslim or whatever, was in the Congo) and may even loan you some of his sermonic attires – wild when compared to the bongo-like delivery and the “pulpit shuffle.” You might even make American Idol.
IMAGE’s department responsible for properly stroking the powerful is known as the Consortium for Honoring Establishment Nincompoops and Egotistical Yahoos, known, for short, as CHENEY. Never underestimate the need for pandering, and the more shallow the pandered-to, the easier is the task. In a word, this simply means that CHENEY will get your case before a congressional committee if necessary, automatically inducing a hearing in the Senate, though the House might not be a possibility after this month. You teach in the Chicago system, which, like all other Chicago institutions, is, ipso facto, a mélange of democrats, whether alive or dead for voting purposes, perhaps the latter having a superior IQ to the former. This means that your problem could go before a judge whose elevator doesn’t reach the top floor, meaning that he might consider the Hajj to be a gambling joint susceptible to kickback schemes for licensing. I’m sure you, as a part of the establishment, get the point and see your need for help.
Since in your fame you will be required to make speeches and TV appearances on MSNBC against the government interference in your practice of religion, IMAGE is instituting an agency to help you, the Bureau for Legal and Theological Hajj-Ethics Rhetoric, known by its acronym BLATHER. The speeches, well-reasoned and different from the theatrics mentioned above, will be designed (and if necessary put on teleprompters) so that you can make the Hajj as religious an experience as a Baptist baptism in the river or a Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica or – to be fair to everyone – as spiritual as a chicken-beheading at a Satanist convention, nudist or otherwise. This will keep you from forgetting and mentioning Sharia Law or cutting off hands or beheading Kurds or stoning “those women.”
I hope to hear from you soon.
Respectfully,
I.M. Reverself, CEO
IMAGE
First, just let me congratulate you on your determination to get to Mecca before you die and risk going to hell for not making the Hajj. The school board in Chicago has refused your request for three weeks off to make the trip, thus forcing Attorney General Holder to sue the board to see that it either accedes to your request or pays you handsomely for some sort of academic PTSD and awards you a lifetime disability pension, the latter being my choice but to each his own. I am the CEO of the Institute for Modifying All Government Entities (known as IMAGE, for short), an organization designed for the purpose of helping people appear in the best light possible. Since most people (those uncouth Christians, mostly) probably object to your request (or even your existence), account your being Muslim, IMAGE can help you appear as perfectly normal, even admirable since most people with good sense are terrified of being trampled to death at Mecca, the usual extra-curricular activity vis-à-vis the Hajj.
The IMAGE agency that would deal with your case is known as the Headquarters for Official Liberal Damnation of Egregious Rendition, known for short by its acronym HOLDER. This outfit helped Sheik Khalid of 9/11 fame immeasurably, despite his admission of guilt and request to be exterminated, when it was thought that he would be tried in New York instead of Guantanamo since he had been in multi-rendition mode and spilled his guts, thus saving perhaps millions. Since you could never hope, as a Muslim female, to allow your holy self to get through airport frisking or scanning (forms of domestic rendition-torture), HOLDER can, possibly applying to Holder himself, mobilize action on your part in favor of skirting those regulations. Failing that, HOLDER could possibly disguise you as a man, though that might be problematic but only to the extent of maybe 20 years in the Big House. Are you up to that sacrifice for the Hajj?
William Ayers, a close friend of the president and a crafty much-appreciated domestic terrorist with the Weather Underground (known as American al-Qaeda) teaches at a university in Chicago and could also be helpful in any mobilization effort such as, for instance, demonstrating at the airport and maybe blowing up a restroom or two while you took advantage of the distraction to make it to the plane. There would be little danger in this since AG Holder doesn’t prosecute the New Black Panthers for violence and certainly would not prosecute a friend and ally of the president.
Since you are now in the public eye, you will need the IMAGE agency known as the Theatrical Organization for Righteous Temporizing Undergirding Rhetorical Efficacy, or TORTURE, for short. Everything that happens will be televised so you will need to present an image to the public of a caring, religious soul merely carrying out Allah’s will for your life. TORTURE will help you know just how far to go in playing to the cameras during this ordeal, as well as how to make your pitch to the public as a tortured victim of an insensitive country. Victimization is a hallmark of government these days. TORTURE’s expert on both style and substance is the Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright. He will teach you how to be heard over at O’hare or Midway without benefit of microphones. He will teach you the words of some old gospel hymns he uses in his sermons and even a bit of tune to use for effect. He will show you the appropriate African dress (he says Eden, whether Muslim or whatever, was in the Congo) and may even loan you some of his sermonic attires – wild when compared to the bongo-like delivery and the “pulpit shuffle.” You might even make American Idol.
IMAGE’s department responsible for properly stroking the powerful is known as the Consortium for Honoring Establishment Nincompoops and Egotistical Yahoos, known, for short, as CHENEY. Never underestimate the need for pandering, and the more shallow the pandered-to, the easier is the task. In a word, this simply means that CHENEY will get your case before a congressional committee if necessary, automatically inducing a hearing in the Senate, though the House might not be a possibility after this month. You teach in the Chicago system, which, like all other Chicago institutions, is, ipso facto, a mélange of democrats, whether alive or dead for voting purposes, perhaps the latter having a superior IQ to the former. This means that your problem could go before a judge whose elevator doesn’t reach the top floor, meaning that he might consider the Hajj to be a gambling joint susceptible to kickback schemes for licensing. I’m sure you, as a part of the establishment, get the point and see your need for help.
Since in your fame you will be required to make speeches and TV appearances on MSNBC against the government interference in your practice of religion, IMAGE is instituting an agency to help you, the Bureau for Legal and Theological Hajj-Ethics Rhetoric, known by its acronym BLATHER. The speeches, well-reasoned and different from the theatrics mentioned above, will be designed (and if necessary put on teleprompters) so that you can make the Hajj as religious an experience as a Baptist baptism in the river or a Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica or – to be fair to everyone – as spiritual as a chicken-beheading at a Satanist convention, nudist or otherwise. This will keep you from forgetting and mentioning Sharia Law or cutting off hands or beheading Kurds or stoning “those women.”
I hope to hear from you soon.
Respectfully,
I.M. Reverself, CEO
IMAGE
Monday, December 13, 2010
Cancun-by-the-sea...Farewell!
In balmy Cancun-by-the-sea
The I-P-C-C came to play
And thousands more insipidly
Joined in to play and look for pay;
They came from all the world throughout
To caterwaul of climate-change –
Claimed warming…yes…without a doubt,
Was making elephants act strange;
Nobelist Gore had made it plain
That man was messing with God’s plan
And, though some called him quite insane,
Insisted there were things to ban;
He said that light-bulbs had to go,
Their use of current quite too much,
He fought their incandescent glow,
Said only hard-of-heart used such;
He speechified…well…everywhere
That evil people hated ice
And thus deprived the polar bear
Of pleasant living – chilly, nice;
Yes, Algore made it very plain
That man kills Mother Nature’s way…
He causes earthquakes…stops the rain,
And kills the forests – gasp – so fey;
Obama’s reps were there to make
His case that carbon is so bad
That drastic measures we should take,
Lest all the world become quite mad
At Uncle Sam for burning coal
To make electric things…well…work,
That U.S. folks just have no soul,
Should pay the world for this strange quirk;
And gasoline – oh – say no more…
Is gross, so fossilized, impure,
Emitting evil, to the core,
And warmth the cosmos must endure;
He recommends to check all tires
And make their p-s-i just so,
Lest all the world have ghastly fires
As warming hovers to and fro;
Alarmists view the cattle herd
As damning air with methane gas
And claim that this is so absurd –
We die of beef, of course, en masse;
The prexy owns G-M, of course,
And, with the unions, Chrysler, too,
Yet, seems to want to try the horse
Since cars emit vile C-O-2;
If not the horse, then batteries –
But never mind the source of charge,
Which comes from coal-fired enemies
That poison air with their discharge;
Cancun was limping at its close,
The partiers…well…rather glum,
The Cancun temps at record lows
For days made partying so bum;
The coolness came from global heat
That mostly U.S. folks have brought –
At least that was the common bleat
Of those who braved the cold’s onslaught;
The beaches at fifty degrees
Invited mockery and flight –
Another reason global fees
The U.S. owes for such a plight;
Kyoto, with a whimper, went…
Japan and Russia…well…demurred,
And China promised to repent –
No one believed a single word;
The thousands on expense accounts
Or maybe through a U-N fund
Have left for home on fossiled mounts
With spirits sadly moribund;
So…Cancun is now history,
Like Copenhagen, laughingly,
COP 17 next year will be
In balmy Durban-by-the-sea;
The temps should reach eighty degrees,
But global warming could invade
As summertime brings gentle breeze,
And put Cancun in icy shade!
By then the warming may be moot
Since cooling has gone on for years,
But other culprits follow suit
To keep the world in doubts and fears;
Perhaps I-P-C-C will claim
That fateful cooling has set in,
That Bush and Cheney get the blame,
With Halliburton’s yang and yin;
These evil entities are said
By Truthers ranging far and wide
To do bad things, fill earth with dread
And laugh at simple fratricide
Like 9/11’s tragedy
When, with Osama, they bade well
To wreck U.S. economy,
Replace it with their greedy sell,
Or caused the levees’ weird collapse
When sweet Katrina swept the seas
Right through those wide and awful gaps
And brought Big Easy to its knees;
Yes, coolness is well on its way,
The I-P-C-C may suspect,
That’s why warm Durban-by-the-bay
Will sport the climate’s best effect;
The gurus at the C-R-U
Will not be there to scare the world,
The hockey-stick will be gone, too,
At Mann the insults would be hurled;
So…Cancun-by-the-sea…farewell,
You were a great time for hot air –
Not even it could make things jell…
For partiers, it was not fair.
And so it goes.
Jim Clark
The I-P-C-C came to play
And thousands more insipidly
Joined in to play and look for pay;
They came from all the world throughout
To caterwaul of climate-change –
Claimed warming…yes…without a doubt,
Was making elephants act strange;
Nobelist Gore had made it plain
That man was messing with God’s plan
And, though some called him quite insane,
Insisted there were things to ban;
He said that light-bulbs had to go,
Their use of current quite too much,
He fought their incandescent glow,
Said only hard-of-heart used such;
He speechified…well…everywhere
That evil people hated ice
And thus deprived the polar bear
Of pleasant living – chilly, nice;
Yes, Algore made it very plain
That man kills Mother Nature’s way…
He causes earthquakes…stops the rain,
And kills the forests – gasp – so fey;
Obama’s reps were there to make
His case that carbon is so bad
That drastic measures we should take,
Lest all the world become quite mad
At Uncle Sam for burning coal
To make electric things…well…work,
That U.S. folks just have no soul,
Should pay the world for this strange quirk;
And gasoline – oh – say no more…
Is gross, so fossilized, impure,
Emitting evil, to the core,
And warmth the cosmos must endure;
He recommends to check all tires
And make their p-s-i just so,
Lest all the world have ghastly fires
As warming hovers to and fro;
Alarmists view the cattle herd
As damning air with methane gas
And claim that this is so absurd –
We die of beef, of course, en masse;
The prexy owns G-M, of course,
And, with the unions, Chrysler, too,
Yet, seems to want to try the horse
Since cars emit vile C-O-2;
If not the horse, then batteries –
But never mind the source of charge,
Which comes from coal-fired enemies
That poison air with their discharge;
Cancun was limping at its close,
The partiers…well…rather glum,
The Cancun temps at record lows
For days made partying so bum;
The coolness came from global heat
That mostly U.S. folks have brought –
At least that was the common bleat
Of those who braved the cold’s onslaught;
The beaches at fifty degrees
Invited mockery and flight –
Another reason global fees
The U.S. owes for such a plight;
Kyoto, with a whimper, went…
Japan and Russia…well…demurred,
And China promised to repent –
No one believed a single word;
The thousands on expense accounts
Or maybe through a U-N fund
Have left for home on fossiled mounts
With spirits sadly moribund;
So…Cancun is now history,
Like Copenhagen, laughingly,
COP 17 next year will be
In balmy Durban-by-the-sea;
The temps should reach eighty degrees,
But global warming could invade
As summertime brings gentle breeze,
And put Cancun in icy shade!
By then the warming may be moot
Since cooling has gone on for years,
But other culprits follow suit
To keep the world in doubts and fears;
Perhaps I-P-C-C will claim
That fateful cooling has set in,
That Bush and Cheney get the blame,
With Halliburton’s yang and yin;
These evil entities are said
By Truthers ranging far and wide
To do bad things, fill earth with dread
And laugh at simple fratricide
Like 9/11’s tragedy
When, with Osama, they bade well
To wreck U.S. economy,
Replace it with their greedy sell,
Or caused the levees’ weird collapse
When sweet Katrina swept the seas
Right through those wide and awful gaps
And brought Big Easy to its knees;
Yes, coolness is well on its way,
The I-P-C-C may suspect,
That’s why warm Durban-by-the-bay
Will sport the climate’s best effect;
The gurus at the C-R-U
Will not be there to scare the world,
The hockey-stick will be gone, too,
At Mann the insults would be hurled;
So…Cancun-by-the-sea…farewell,
You were a great time for hot air –
Not even it could make things jell…
For partiers, it was not fair.
And so it goes.
Jim Clark
Wednesday, December 08, 2010
Obama & the Caste-System
It appears that the president will be forced to accept the extension of all the current tax rates. The talking-heads and others keep yammering about tax-cuts but, of course, nobody’s receiving a cut. The last tax-cuts took place in 2001 and 2003, representing a lessening of the burden enhanced by former president Clinton and a democratic Congress in 1993. Reversion to the old rates will take place in January unless the Congress acts to extend the current rates, as it seemingly will do.
Obama promised during his campaign that he would see to it that the rates reverted for only the people in the top rate (earning $250,000 or more), thus raising their taxes from 35% to 39.6% of income. Republicans have argued that this will unduly affect small-business operators, who need capital to finance their enterprises and prepare for the future. The fact that the nation is slogging along in deep recession, with an unemployment rate actually close to 20%, is proof that they mean business – or no business. Obama’s constant mantra was that the middle-class (whatever that is) deserved relief (though he promised no cut for them), while the upper class deserved to support the lower classes by paying nearly 40% of their income to government.
Thus, the tax arguments are class-related and, whether by design or not, induce class warfare. In this country, that war is not between the poor and the rich as much as between the so-called middle class and the rich. The differentiation in tax rates does what Obama said during his campaign that the Constitution neglected, i.e., redistribution of the wealth, something that would have gagged the founders. People in the middle class desire a certain life-style that they can’t afford, so through the tax system their life-style is to be subsidized by those who earn more than they, in Obama’s view.
The top tax-rate 1951-63 was more than 90% (everything over $400,000) every year. The guy who earned $1,400,000 in 1953 could expect to pay at least $920,000 in income tax, though, of course, he would figure an adjusted gross income like everyone else. This is the situation many people in this country would like to see now, the better to have life-styles they can’t afford but expect someone else to fund, using the tax system.
Current tax rates per (head of) household (adjusted gross income in dollars): 0% up to 11,950; 15% up to 45,550; 25% up to 117,650; 28% up to 190,550; 33% up to 373,650; 35% over that amount. Median household income in 2008: 52,029, income taxes – 13,007.25 less deductions. The guy who makes a million, if not 27 times as much, will still pay many times as much in taxes for the same protections and services as the head of that median household. That seems unreasonable, but the president wants to make that guy even further subsidize those who intend to live above their means on his dime by taking 39.6% of his income. The guy who makes a million will probably cough up close to 59 times as much as the head of the household earning 45,000. Just crunch the numbers, taking into account all deductions/loopholes (designed by Congress) for all parties. This is the stuff the media rarely if ever mentions.
The top tax-rate was 70% in 1980 (Reagan election) for an AGI of 215,400 and over. By 1988, while the nation prospered and the military was greatly expanded, that rate went down to 28% (29,750 and over). Reagan and the democrat Congress lowered the taxes, while George H.W. Bush and a democrat Congress raised the top rate to 31% in 1991 and Clinton and a democrat Congress raised it again to a whopping 39.6% in 1993. George Bush and a republican Congress cut it back to where it is, while the social engineers (mostly nutcase democrats and fast-asleep republicans) told every head of household he/she could own a house whether or not it was affordable, thus being the absolute and only cause of the recession as the truth set in. To his credit, George Bush tried to fight this as far back as 2003-04.
The whining middle class needs to admit that it intends to make those who honestly and legally acquire wealth subsidize their life-styles, thus putting themselves on the public dole. There’s no such thing as a fair tax though there are ways to make tax collections fairer, but until those in the middle class erase their envy and admit that they are simply trying to cadge everything they can out of those who might work harder, be smarter, take risks, or just get lucky this constant class warfare will continue.
Obama owes organizations like ACORN and the labor unions since they furnished the grunt-work to get him in office. This attempted tax rip-off of the better-off is his payback, but even many in his own party see it as foolish. This is not even to mention that Obama is surrounded by Wall Street types, did nothing to stop them from awarding themselves huge bonuses and is actually their apparatchik.
As it stands, a guy with an AGI of $260,000 has to cough up $91,000 to the government. Under Obama’s plan, he would be liable for nearly $103,000. That’s enough to give anyone pause with respect to investing in a business. Obama appointed a number of tax-cheats to offices in his administration, an indication that gaming the system is in order – like soaking the rich in the name of fairness. Disgusting!
And so it goes.
Jim Clark
Obama promised during his campaign that he would see to it that the rates reverted for only the people in the top rate (earning $250,000 or more), thus raising their taxes from 35% to 39.6% of income. Republicans have argued that this will unduly affect small-business operators, who need capital to finance their enterprises and prepare for the future. The fact that the nation is slogging along in deep recession, with an unemployment rate actually close to 20%, is proof that they mean business – or no business. Obama’s constant mantra was that the middle-class (whatever that is) deserved relief (though he promised no cut for them), while the upper class deserved to support the lower classes by paying nearly 40% of their income to government.
Thus, the tax arguments are class-related and, whether by design or not, induce class warfare. In this country, that war is not between the poor and the rich as much as between the so-called middle class and the rich. The differentiation in tax rates does what Obama said during his campaign that the Constitution neglected, i.e., redistribution of the wealth, something that would have gagged the founders. People in the middle class desire a certain life-style that they can’t afford, so through the tax system their life-style is to be subsidized by those who earn more than they, in Obama’s view.
The top tax-rate 1951-63 was more than 90% (everything over $400,000) every year. The guy who earned $1,400,000 in 1953 could expect to pay at least $920,000 in income tax, though, of course, he would figure an adjusted gross income like everyone else. This is the situation many people in this country would like to see now, the better to have life-styles they can’t afford but expect someone else to fund, using the tax system.
Current tax rates per (head of) household (adjusted gross income in dollars): 0% up to 11,950; 15% up to 45,550; 25% up to 117,650; 28% up to 190,550; 33% up to 373,650; 35% over that amount. Median household income in 2008: 52,029, income taxes – 13,007.25 less deductions. The guy who makes a million, if not 27 times as much, will still pay many times as much in taxes for the same protections and services as the head of that median household. That seems unreasonable, but the president wants to make that guy even further subsidize those who intend to live above their means on his dime by taking 39.6% of his income. The guy who makes a million will probably cough up close to 59 times as much as the head of the household earning 45,000. Just crunch the numbers, taking into account all deductions/loopholes (designed by Congress) for all parties. This is the stuff the media rarely if ever mentions.
The top tax-rate was 70% in 1980 (Reagan election) for an AGI of 215,400 and over. By 1988, while the nation prospered and the military was greatly expanded, that rate went down to 28% (29,750 and over). Reagan and the democrat Congress lowered the taxes, while George H.W. Bush and a democrat Congress raised the top rate to 31% in 1991 and Clinton and a democrat Congress raised it again to a whopping 39.6% in 1993. George Bush and a republican Congress cut it back to where it is, while the social engineers (mostly nutcase democrats and fast-asleep republicans) told every head of household he/she could own a house whether or not it was affordable, thus being the absolute and only cause of the recession as the truth set in. To his credit, George Bush tried to fight this as far back as 2003-04.
The whining middle class needs to admit that it intends to make those who honestly and legally acquire wealth subsidize their life-styles, thus putting themselves on the public dole. There’s no such thing as a fair tax though there are ways to make tax collections fairer, but until those in the middle class erase their envy and admit that they are simply trying to cadge everything they can out of those who might work harder, be smarter, take risks, or just get lucky this constant class warfare will continue.
Obama owes organizations like ACORN and the labor unions since they furnished the grunt-work to get him in office. This attempted tax rip-off of the better-off is his payback, but even many in his own party see it as foolish. This is not even to mention that Obama is surrounded by Wall Street types, did nothing to stop them from awarding themselves huge bonuses and is actually their apparatchik.
As it stands, a guy with an AGI of $260,000 has to cough up $91,000 to the government. Under Obama’s plan, he would be liable for nearly $103,000. That’s enough to give anyone pause with respect to investing in a business. Obama appointed a number of tax-cheats to offices in his administration, an indication that gaming the system is in order – like soaking the rich in the name of fairness. Disgusting!
And so it goes.
Jim Clark
Saturday, December 04, 2010
The Commanders Speak Truth to Power
It was almost painful to watch the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” Senate hearing in the Armed Services Committee via C-Span on 03 December. The panel of witnesses included the top military brass actually responsible for the performance of the various military branches of service. These men, some if not all of whom have been hardened by service in various military operations throughout the world (enough service ribbons and stars to decorate a Christmas tree), tried to do their duty under pressure created by the social engineers, the president, the Joint Chiefs chairman, Defense secretary and committee democrat honchos Levin and Lieberman, neither of whom, along with Obama, has served in the military, thus has virtually no idea of the ramifications of what they’re trying to ram through Congress in its lame-duck session.
These commanders, without being as blunt as they are in their milieu of operations, tried to tell the committee that homosexuals should not be in the military, though some are there without letting their homosexuality be known. The highest-profile military person in the country presently is PFC Bradley Manning, ensconced in a military prison in Quantico, Virginia, for his alleged theft of the classified documents appearing in the current WikiLeaks fiasco. Bradley is an un-closeted homosexual, who has written of his “orientation” on Face-Book and even of his boyfriend, a "self-described drag queen." I did not hear Manning mentioned but the facts of his case had to cloud the hearing.
The 256-page report put together by the Pentagon over the past months purportedly defining the attitude of military personnel concerning the matter has just been released, thus the committee members had had little to no chance to study it, but Senator Levin decided to stage the hearing anyway, starting with Secretary Gates and Joint Chiefs Chairman Admiral Mullen on 02 December, probably understanding that both the commanders and some senators such as McCain would tear it apart for the obvious propaganda it is. Levin’s party holds the cards, so it didn’t matter, especially since DADT is buried in the current Defense bill, which is in need of passing.
The glowing reviews given to the report alluding to no problem with repeal of DADT were totally negated by what was buried in the report, namely that huge percentages of the military, especially in the cadres serving in combat areas and on ships, are dead-set against repeal and even consider leaving the service if it is enacted and/or discouraging others from joining. The commanders made it plain that repeal during a time of war, as is currently the case, is unthinkable, putting the troops at greater than ordinary risk as unit cohesion breaks down. Levin and Lieberman seemed either unable to grasp this or simply didn’t care. Obama has promised it, notwithstanding the law of the land.
Perhaps a focal point of the matter has to do with the difference between a homosexual serving “silently” with regard to his orientation or preference – who knows – and the homosexual who flaunts his nature. It’s the knowing about the guy whose bunk can be touched in its closeness that is damning, even though service-members may sometimes suspect homosexuality in a comrade. It’s the knowing about the guy in the shower and using the same toilet facilities, with the knowledge of the perversions/filth of homosexual behavior. It’s the wondering about what will happen in combat.
Perhaps the greatest disservice to the argument has to do with comparing it to the difficulties encountered in the integration of African-Americans and women into the services. This is akin to comparing apples and oranges. Those two groups had to do with physical and mental normalcy, while the current flap has to do not with race or gender but with sexual perversion, regardless of race and gender. Blacks and women have been assimilated on the basis of how probably 99% of them function mutually, but just as one rotten apple can ruin a bushel of them, the commanders made it plain, at least inferentially, that one homosexual can ruin a unit. This is not what the president wants to hear.
Hanging over the entire process is the recent decree by a California female federal judge to effectively overturn DADT without even a fare-thee-well to the Congress, thus doing the president’s bidding without the hassle and predictable gridlock occasioned in the Congress. Her decree is in abeyance currently by a higher court but one can pretty well guess what the 5-4-oriented SCOTUS might do with the matter, notwithstanding the constitutional posture as it especially relates to national defense.
Gates and Mullen are political appointees, Gates from the presidency of the University of Texas. University campuses/faculties, hotbeds of ultra-liberalism, would approve orangutans for service regardless of their sex if they could demonstrate an ability to peel a banana. Perhaps Gates is afflicted with that mindset. The questionnaire used in the report-process was handled in the backdrop of the House vote to repeal DADT. Besides receiving far less than 100% response, the document was worthless on its face if for no other reason the fact that repeal was thought to be automatic no matter what any military person thought. Indeed, the question as to whether or not to repeal didn’t even appear on the document.
Never has a worse whitewash been perpetrated on the Congress or the public. The obvious purpose of the whole thing was not “whether or not” but “how to.” No wonder the shabby results happened. The respondents knew they had no voice. Stinks!
And so it goes.
Jim Clark
These commanders, without being as blunt as they are in their milieu of operations, tried to tell the committee that homosexuals should not be in the military, though some are there without letting their homosexuality be known. The highest-profile military person in the country presently is PFC Bradley Manning, ensconced in a military prison in Quantico, Virginia, for his alleged theft of the classified documents appearing in the current WikiLeaks fiasco. Bradley is an un-closeted homosexual, who has written of his “orientation” on Face-Book and even of his boyfriend, a "self-described drag queen." I did not hear Manning mentioned but the facts of his case had to cloud the hearing.
The 256-page report put together by the Pentagon over the past months purportedly defining the attitude of military personnel concerning the matter has just been released, thus the committee members had had little to no chance to study it, but Senator Levin decided to stage the hearing anyway, starting with Secretary Gates and Joint Chiefs Chairman Admiral Mullen on 02 December, probably understanding that both the commanders and some senators such as McCain would tear it apart for the obvious propaganda it is. Levin’s party holds the cards, so it didn’t matter, especially since DADT is buried in the current Defense bill, which is in need of passing.
The glowing reviews given to the report alluding to no problem with repeal of DADT were totally negated by what was buried in the report, namely that huge percentages of the military, especially in the cadres serving in combat areas and on ships, are dead-set against repeal and even consider leaving the service if it is enacted and/or discouraging others from joining. The commanders made it plain that repeal during a time of war, as is currently the case, is unthinkable, putting the troops at greater than ordinary risk as unit cohesion breaks down. Levin and Lieberman seemed either unable to grasp this or simply didn’t care. Obama has promised it, notwithstanding the law of the land.
Perhaps a focal point of the matter has to do with the difference between a homosexual serving “silently” with regard to his orientation or preference – who knows – and the homosexual who flaunts his nature. It’s the knowing about the guy whose bunk can be touched in its closeness that is damning, even though service-members may sometimes suspect homosexuality in a comrade. It’s the knowing about the guy in the shower and using the same toilet facilities, with the knowledge of the perversions/filth of homosexual behavior. It’s the wondering about what will happen in combat.
Perhaps the greatest disservice to the argument has to do with comparing it to the difficulties encountered in the integration of African-Americans and women into the services. This is akin to comparing apples and oranges. Those two groups had to do with physical and mental normalcy, while the current flap has to do not with race or gender but with sexual perversion, regardless of race and gender. Blacks and women have been assimilated on the basis of how probably 99% of them function mutually, but just as one rotten apple can ruin a bushel of them, the commanders made it plain, at least inferentially, that one homosexual can ruin a unit. This is not what the president wants to hear.
Hanging over the entire process is the recent decree by a California female federal judge to effectively overturn DADT without even a fare-thee-well to the Congress, thus doing the president’s bidding without the hassle and predictable gridlock occasioned in the Congress. Her decree is in abeyance currently by a higher court but one can pretty well guess what the 5-4-oriented SCOTUS might do with the matter, notwithstanding the constitutional posture as it especially relates to national defense.
Gates and Mullen are political appointees, Gates from the presidency of the University of Texas. University campuses/faculties, hotbeds of ultra-liberalism, would approve orangutans for service regardless of their sex if they could demonstrate an ability to peel a banana. Perhaps Gates is afflicted with that mindset. The questionnaire used in the report-process was handled in the backdrop of the House vote to repeal DADT. Besides receiving far less than 100% response, the document was worthless on its face if for no other reason the fact that repeal was thought to be automatic no matter what any military person thought. Indeed, the question as to whether or not to repeal didn’t even appear on the document.
Never has a worse whitewash been perpetrated on the Congress or the public. The obvious purpose of the whole thing was not “whether or not” but “how to.” No wonder the shabby results happened. The respondents knew they had no voice. Stinks!
And so it goes.
Jim Clark
Thursday, December 02, 2010
Osama, the Mullah & Mahmoud
It’s late afternoon in a cave near the Kyber Pass. Seated around a large hookah are al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar, and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, hereinafter referenced as O, M, and A, respectively, but not respectfully.
**O: Haven’t seen you for a while Mahmoud, praise Allah for good tidings of great joy which shall…
**M: You’ve been reading the Bible again, Osama…Allah, forgive this fool…
**O: I got tired of Dr. Seuss, Mohammed, and there was nothing else here…anyway, I’ll flush it as soon as I get to the part about the three Muslims and the star, praise Allah for more modern transportation today. Have you ever ridden a camel, Mahmoud?
**A: Allah be ashamed of these Sunni heretics! (ducks behind a boulder) Wait, Mohammed, nothing personal…take that AK-47 out of my eye. I meant the bad heretics – Karzai’s gang that never shoots straight…always high on the poppies his brother supplies. By the way, you wouldn’t have a little extra…
**M: That’s not poppies in the hookah, Mahmoud. Praise Allah for Marlboros…that’s tobacco and I’ll trade it only for some fresh figs.
**A: I thought good Sunnis didn’t use tobacco or eat pork but I think I smelled bacon as I approached the cave.
**O: Bah, Mahmoud! Mohammed is a Mullah, praise Allah for saving his one good eye…and he makes his own rules. You Shiites are so hopped up on stoning women that…
**A: And you, Mohammed…Allah forgive him…won’t let little girls go to school and your soldiers can’t read or drive trucks or…
**M: Enough! (fires a round into the cave-roof)
**O: Now see what you’ve done, Mohammed…Allah forgive him…bat entrails are in my hair and the latrine is overflowing again…look at my prayer rug, it’s…
**A: I’m deep in smelly stuff, Mohammed…Allah be not sniffing…how could you…just like my trip here in January when I told you to get ready for the Grand Imam, the Twelfth Mahdi.
**M: Bah! You and your Shiite babblings! We need to get down to business. What brings you here, Mahmoud…and it had better be good since I’m missing the American delayed TV-soaps?
**A: It’s the WikiLeaks thing, comrades…Allah be ashamed of Muslims for what has appeared in this garbage. Imagine King Abdullah…Allah give his bones no healing in America or wherever he is…begging the Americans to carry out a fatwa on me, putting me in the same low-class scum as Rushdie, who writes pages about things such as his lover’s pubic hair. He should still have a fatwa on him.
**O: You don’t say, Mahmoud! What book would that be…not that I’d be interested, of course?
**M: Not to worry, Mahmoud. The American president, the Obamessiah they call him…hoo hah…will not do that, even though he bowed before the king last year…praise Allah. He was born as one of us but – come to think of it – I don’t know if he’s Sunni or Shiite.
**O: He’s fighting us, Mohammed, so that makes him Shiite…unless he’s Kurdish or Wahabbi, of course, like the fat princes in Riyadh. If he’s Shiite…Allah strike him with a thousand scorpions…we must watch him, and you, Mahmoud – wipe that silly grin off your face – had better be careful what you say, especially in private.
**A: Why is that, Osama?
**O: The WikiLeak papers say Clinton tells her diplomats to spy on all other diplomats, especially at the UN and in embassies. You should hear what the one in Turkey said about the Turk foreign minister, right on the day he met with her…hahahahaha…Allah feel the joy! You should hear what the cables say about that worm Karzai!
**M: Oh hoo hah! That’s better than Jimmy Carter calling Tony Blair compliant and subservient to the USA…and he was in England when he said it. Allah be amused! Of course, he could have forgotten what country he was in. Maybe he thought he was in France. The Frenchies don’t like anyone.
**A: Don’t take it the wrong way, Osama, but your shoe- and skivvy-bombers are either too dumb or they have second thoughts about that promise of the 72 virgins. And the one with all the bombs in his SUV in Times Square…hahahahaha…he pushed the button and made only smoke.
**O: Oh hoo hah, but we’re winning, Mahmoud. Maybe those guys had never worn shoes or underwear and hadn’t been trained how to…but just try getting through an American airport now. Everybody’s underwear is on display…hahahahaha…Allah be not mortified but amused! I love the scan-pictures on American TV, especially those skeletons of women. Just a little imagination and…
**M: Stop that lewdness, Osama. Remember, I’m a mullah…the power of life and death! I would gouge out one eye for that remark since it would be better to go one-eyed into heaven than to…
**A: A-A-R-R-G-G-H-H…that’s the Bible, Mohammed. The virgins are in Paradise. Remember!
**M: Like Osama said, there’s nothing to read here and…
**O: Even worse, no pictures…Allah, forgive the whining but I’ve been in these damnable caves for nine long years now and…
**M: You need to pray more than five times a day, Osama.
**O: I do but I just found out that the compass Chavez gave me as a gift for the 9/11 massacre points to Caracas as true north and I’ve been praying toward the North Pole and the evil Santa Claus instead of Mecca and Allah.
**A: You would have been praying toward the evil Abdullah in Mecca, Osama, as well as Allah, so try getting a new compass…may Allah reform your ignorance! But what should we do about the WikiLeaks thing before it gets out of hand and starts a war somewhere?
**M: Especially a war in Iran…eh, Mahmoud? Maybe you should invite the Secretary Clinton in for an afternoon tea. That might give her a shove toward unseating the Obama in 2012. By the way, why haven’t you met with him…Allah be disappointed at such intransigence! He said no preconditions.
**A: Bah! I have made the preconditions this time and he’s refused to see me. He offered me three prisoners from Gitmo for a meeting but I’m holding out. He offered that little government in the South Pacific mega-millions of dollars to take the Chinese Muslims off his hands…oh hahahahaha…Chinese Muslims. Whoever heard of Chinese Muslims? Praying toward the east for them would be praying toward the evil Obama…impossible!
**O: Do to WikiLeaks what you always do, Mahmoud, when you have a problem…Allah give him wisdom.
**A: And exactly how would you behead the Internet, Osama? I can’t even give it a thorough stoning and nobody can find the WikiLeaks devil…he’s on the lam, as the crazy Americans say, for rape and sexual abuse in Sweden. Maybe you could offer him a cave where they could never find him, Osama, and then I could…
**O: Only if he can bring pictures…maybe from those airport scanners…
And so it goes.
Jim Clark
**O: Haven’t seen you for a while Mahmoud, praise Allah for good tidings of great joy which shall…
**M: You’ve been reading the Bible again, Osama…Allah, forgive this fool…
**O: I got tired of Dr. Seuss, Mohammed, and there was nothing else here…anyway, I’ll flush it as soon as I get to the part about the three Muslims and the star, praise Allah for more modern transportation today. Have you ever ridden a camel, Mahmoud?
**A: Allah be ashamed of these Sunni heretics! (ducks behind a boulder) Wait, Mohammed, nothing personal…take that AK-47 out of my eye. I meant the bad heretics – Karzai’s gang that never shoots straight…always high on the poppies his brother supplies. By the way, you wouldn’t have a little extra…
**M: That’s not poppies in the hookah, Mahmoud. Praise Allah for Marlboros…that’s tobacco and I’ll trade it only for some fresh figs.
**A: I thought good Sunnis didn’t use tobacco or eat pork but I think I smelled bacon as I approached the cave.
**O: Bah, Mahmoud! Mohammed is a Mullah, praise Allah for saving his one good eye…and he makes his own rules. You Shiites are so hopped up on stoning women that…
**A: And you, Mohammed…Allah forgive him…won’t let little girls go to school and your soldiers can’t read or drive trucks or…
**M: Enough! (fires a round into the cave-roof)
**O: Now see what you’ve done, Mohammed…Allah forgive him…bat entrails are in my hair and the latrine is overflowing again…look at my prayer rug, it’s…
**A: I’m deep in smelly stuff, Mohammed…Allah be not sniffing…how could you…just like my trip here in January when I told you to get ready for the Grand Imam, the Twelfth Mahdi.
**M: Bah! You and your Shiite babblings! We need to get down to business. What brings you here, Mahmoud…and it had better be good since I’m missing the American delayed TV-soaps?
**A: It’s the WikiLeaks thing, comrades…Allah be ashamed of Muslims for what has appeared in this garbage. Imagine King Abdullah…Allah give his bones no healing in America or wherever he is…begging the Americans to carry out a fatwa on me, putting me in the same low-class scum as Rushdie, who writes pages about things such as his lover’s pubic hair. He should still have a fatwa on him.
**O: You don’t say, Mahmoud! What book would that be…not that I’d be interested, of course?
**M: Not to worry, Mahmoud. The American president, the Obamessiah they call him…hoo hah…will not do that, even though he bowed before the king last year…praise Allah. He was born as one of us but – come to think of it – I don’t know if he’s Sunni or Shiite.
**O: He’s fighting us, Mohammed, so that makes him Shiite…unless he’s Kurdish or Wahabbi, of course, like the fat princes in Riyadh. If he’s Shiite…Allah strike him with a thousand scorpions…we must watch him, and you, Mahmoud – wipe that silly grin off your face – had better be careful what you say, especially in private.
**A: Why is that, Osama?
**O: The WikiLeak papers say Clinton tells her diplomats to spy on all other diplomats, especially at the UN and in embassies. You should hear what the one in Turkey said about the Turk foreign minister, right on the day he met with her…hahahahaha…Allah feel the joy! You should hear what the cables say about that worm Karzai!
**M: Oh hoo hah! That’s better than Jimmy Carter calling Tony Blair compliant and subservient to the USA…and he was in England when he said it. Allah be amused! Of course, he could have forgotten what country he was in. Maybe he thought he was in France. The Frenchies don’t like anyone.
**A: Don’t take it the wrong way, Osama, but your shoe- and skivvy-bombers are either too dumb or they have second thoughts about that promise of the 72 virgins. And the one with all the bombs in his SUV in Times Square…hahahahaha…he pushed the button and made only smoke.
**O: Oh hoo hah, but we’re winning, Mahmoud. Maybe those guys had never worn shoes or underwear and hadn’t been trained how to…but just try getting through an American airport now. Everybody’s underwear is on display…hahahahaha…Allah be not mortified but amused! I love the scan-pictures on American TV, especially those skeletons of women. Just a little imagination and…
**M: Stop that lewdness, Osama. Remember, I’m a mullah…the power of life and death! I would gouge out one eye for that remark since it would be better to go one-eyed into heaven than to…
**A: A-A-R-R-G-G-H-H…that’s the Bible, Mohammed. The virgins are in Paradise. Remember!
**M: Like Osama said, there’s nothing to read here and…
**O: Even worse, no pictures…Allah, forgive the whining but I’ve been in these damnable caves for nine long years now and…
**M: You need to pray more than five times a day, Osama.
**O: I do but I just found out that the compass Chavez gave me as a gift for the 9/11 massacre points to Caracas as true north and I’ve been praying toward the North Pole and the evil Santa Claus instead of Mecca and Allah.
**A: You would have been praying toward the evil Abdullah in Mecca, Osama, as well as Allah, so try getting a new compass…may Allah reform your ignorance! But what should we do about the WikiLeaks thing before it gets out of hand and starts a war somewhere?
**M: Especially a war in Iran…eh, Mahmoud? Maybe you should invite the Secretary Clinton in for an afternoon tea. That might give her a shove toward unseating the Obama in 2012. By the way, why haven’t you met with him…Allah be disappointed at such intransigence! He said no preconditions.
**A: Bah! I have made the preconditions this time and he’s refused to see me. He offered me three prisoners from Gitmo for a meeting but I’m holding out. He offered that little government in the South Pacific mega-millions of dollars to take the Chinese Muslims off his hands…oh hahahahaha…Chinese Muslims. Whoever heard of Chinese Muslims? Praying toward the east for them would be praying toward the evil Obama…impossible!
**O: Do to WikiLeaks what you always do, Mahmoud, when you have a problem…Allah give him wisdom.
**A: And exactly how would you behead the Internet, Osama? I can’t even give it a thorough stoning and nobody can find the WikiLeaks devil…he’s on the lam, as the crazy Americans say, for rape and sexual abuse in Sweden. Maybe you could offer him a cave where they could never find him, Osama, and then I could…
**O: Only if he can bring pictures…maybe from those airport scanners…
And so it goes.
Jim Clark
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