Old Jarhead Political
SitRep for March 23, 2013
Robert A. Hall
Saturday will be a 15-hour day, so no SitRep on Sunday. But
I have a couple of good Guest Posts I’ll put up for you. Enjoy. ~Bob
Excerpt: Now Cyprus
has wound up in the middle of the European Union’s meltdown as everyone
scrambles to salvage what they can from an unsustainable system at the expense
of everyone else. We are seeing the beginnings of bailout cannibalism as the
Eurocrats manipulate entire nations into fighting each other. The real purpose
of the deposit grab was to wreck Cyprus ’s banking sector and
continue the centralization of international finance.
Growth Dividend from a Lower Corporate Tax Rate. By Michael Schuyler
Excerpt: The United
States currently imposes the highest
statutory corporate tax rate in the developed world. Contrary to what some
believe, studies show that even the effective corporate tax rate in the United States
is one of the highest in the world. In a literature review of thirteen
credible, independent studies that estimated effective tax rates using a
variety of data sources and methods, Philip Dittmer reported that every study
found the U.S.
effective corporate tax rate to be substantially higher than the average in
foreign nations.[1] Across
all thirteen studies, the U.S.
effective corporate tax rate exceeded the foreign average by 7.6 percentage
points, if all countries are counted equally.[2] The U.S. effective
corporate tax rate exceeded the foreign average by 3.7 percentage points, if
countries are weighted by their gross domestic products (GDP). (A Progressive
would always raise taxes on the “rich” and on business, even if it brought in
less revenue for programs, because it’s “fair.” ~Bob.)
Workers Saving Too
Little to Retire
Excerpt: More Americans than ever before will soon be
retiring and evidence suggests many are not saving enough for retirement. A
combination of financial and demographic forces is making it more difficult for
households to prepare for their future, says the Wall Street Journal. An
updated 2012 report by the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) shows
that 57 percent of U.S.
workers reported less than $25,000 in total household savings and investments,
excluding their homes, which represented a 7 percent increase over 2008. Twenty-eight
percent of respondents in the survey had no confidence that they will have
enough money to retire, which is the highest level in the study's 23-year
history. According to the Society of Actuaries, as much as $97 billion could be
added to corporate pension liabilities because of rising life expectancy.
One in three elderly
have dementia when they die
Excerpt: Payments for health care, long-term care, and
hospice care are expected to increase from $203 billion to $1.2 trillion by
2050 for patients ages 65 and older. Medicare costs for an older person with
Alzheimer's or other forms of dementia are nearly three times higher than for
seniors without dementia. Medicaid payments are 19 times higher. The stress on
caregivers is estimated to result in the more than $9 billion in increased
health care costs.
Senate calls for an
end to medical device tax
Excerpt: The Senate on Thursday approved a bipartisan budget
amendment calling for the end of a medical device tax enacted as part of
President Obama's healthcare reform bill.
The amendment was agreed to by a vote of 79 to 20. (I
recently spoke with the CEO of a very large company that makes devices. He said
the cost of complying with the tax will be about $10M a year, with the tax
itself far higher. That money has to come from patients, from stockholders like
your retirement fund and/or from cutting back on employees. ~Bob.)
Three Marines die in
shootings at Quantico
Excerpt: Two Marines were shot and killed Thursday at the Officer Candidate School
Now Obama targets
your FedEx, UPS packages
Excerpt: The Obama administration is demanding the nation’s
two biggest shipping companies police the contents of Americans’ sealed
packages, and a FedEx spokesman is warning that the move “has the potential to
threaten the privacy of all customers that send or receive packages.”
Honors Night Nixed: Principal Says Awards May Be ‘Devastating’ to Others
http://conservativebyte.com/2013/03/honors-night-nixed-principal-says-awards-may-be-devastating-to-others/
Excerpt: A Massachusetts principal has been criticized for canceling his school’s Honors Night, saying it could be ‘devastating’ to the students who worked hard, but fell short of the grades. (Oh, BOO HOO. –Jer. Steadily our culture is removing the incentives for excellence. People do what they are rewarded for. Now mediocrity is rewarded the same, so why bother? As was said by someone else, Obama is the first president of the “Everybody gets a trophy” generation. ~Bob.)
Quote
Prohibition goes beyond the bounds of reason in that it
attempts to control a man's appetite by legislation and makes crimes out of
things that are not crimes.
--Abraham Lincoln
Video: Islamic
Slavery in Sudan
Excerpt: Where is the Left’s moral indignation about the Islamic-Arab
racism against, and enslavement of, African blacks? (Muslims now more PC than
blacks. You can be the next victim group loved by Progressives. ~Bob.)
Sources: Clements
murder investigation will look at Saudi prisoner connection
Excerpt: Investigators looking into the shooting death of
the director of the Colorado Department of Corrections will look at the
possibility that Tom Clements’
murder may be tied to the recent decision not to grant a
transfer of a Saudi man in a Colorado
prison. Homaidan Al-Turki was convicted in 2006 of unlawful
sexual contact by use of force and other charges. Prosecutors said he sexually
assaulted a housekeeper and kept her as a virtual slave for four years.
(He was just using “that which his right hand possessed,” as allowed by the
Holy Qur’an. ~Bob.)
Motorcycle bomb kills
1 boy, wounds 10 in Thailand
Excerpt: More than 5,000 people have been killed since an
Islamist insurgency erupted in the sub-region in 2004. (“Restive” is
reporter-speak for, “Don’t go there; the Muslims will kill you.” ~Bob.)
Car bomb at Pakistani
refugee camp kills 13
Didn’t get the “Islam is a Religion of Peace” memo. ~Bob.
Excerpt: In addition to the 13 killed, another 25 people were wounded in the
blast that happened just as hundreds of people lined up to get food, police
officials said.
The War on Easter
Generally, I'm a fan of Fox news, except when Geraldo Rivera
or Bill O'Reilly come on. But last night, before I could click from O'Reilly to
something more informative (like the Weather Channel), I caught him saying
something about a war being waged on Easter. I didn't hear much more after
that, because I really can't stand O'Reilly. His ego ate him up a long time
ago, and he just can't get over himself. Anyway, it seems like the people who
have a beef with Christmas are going after Easter now. And the Easter Bunny and
Easter Eggs. I didn't catch what they want the bunny to be called, but Easter
Eggs are henceforth to be called Spring Eggs. I was curious, but not curious
enough to keep listening to O'Reilly. I doubt that they really have a problem with
bunnies or eggs. They, like Santa Claus, are just collateral casualties in the
unrelenting cultural war against Christians and Christianity. The Easter Bunny
and Easter Eggs are the secular counterpoints to the traditional Christian
observance, aren't they? It must be the word "Easter" that's gotten
their panties all wadded up. And on it goes. –LLW
Eugene Robinson’s
op-ed on Assault Weapon ban, and reply to him
Mr.
Robinson: Please explain how restricting military-style weapons will accomplish
any reduction in gun violence. Rifles of all types are used in fewer murders
than hammers and other blunt instruments (FBI statistics). Effective control of
military weapons should start with preventing BATFE from shipping them to Mexico U.S.
Senate lets the
Navy’s ‘green fleet’ sail on
Excerpt: The Senate defeated a proposed amendment that would
have transferred money from the Navy’s biofuels program to increase the Defense
Department’s operations and maintenance funding.
Excerpt: A fast-talking, smarmy-looking guy, would make
outrageous claims along the lines of “It has more seats than the Astrodome” and
“It goes faster than a speeding bullet,” and everyone knew it was a takeoff on
every overly zealous, ethically-challenged, salesman who had ever tried to sell
you a lemon. Today, it seems to me that we have his cousin living in the White
House. I mean, is there anything our commander-in-chief says or does that
doesn’t remind you of the cheapest sort of huckster?
Excerpt: Unlike many nations in human history, America has
never really known want. Even the Great Depression of the 1930s does not begin
to compare with the famines of antiquity that devastated entire civilizations
and resulted in the starvation of millions of people. With such extreme
prosperity dominating the United
States , the average American cannot even
begin to imagine the kind of hunger that has characterized large segments of
humanity throughout history.
Administration
Refuses to Explain Why It’s Arming a Domestic Agency for War
Excerpt: Surprise, surprise! The most transparent
administration in history feels no need to explain its recent purchases of
ammunition, including 1.6 billion rounds by the Department of Homeland Security
(DHS.) It’s been estimated that’s enough ammo to carry on a war for over 20
straight years.
Wasserman Schultz: My
Aides Can't Afford Good Meals
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/03/21/wasserman-schultz-my-aides-cant-afford-good-meals
Excerpt: On Tuesday, FL Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz and
her colleague VA Rep. Jim Moran openly whined about the impacts of spending
cuts on their personal office budgets. Moran fretted that, with the looming
sequester cuts, he may have to cut one staffer from his office. Wasserman
Schultz upped his ante, however. She, almost literally, suggested that her
staff were on the brink of starvation, due to the cuts. (Sequestration is going
to force congressional aides into starvation? We've known for a long time that
this woman is ditzy, but she's moving into new records now. It's good to be
able to find humor in politics these days. –Del. Let them eat cake! ~Bob.)
Media Play Up Faulty Study Suggesting Link Between Guns,
Death Rates. By John R. Lott, Jr.
Excerpt: Do fewer guns mean fewer firearm deaths? If you
believe the March 6th issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association
of Internal Medicine, the answer is "yes." A study by Eric Fleegler
and four other co-authors received massive national news coverage from USA
Today to the television networks. But the report is based on embarrassingly bad
statistics that are rigged to get the result the authors wanted. (And people
wonder why defenders of the 2nd Amendment feel paranoid.... You're not paranoid
when there really are people out to get you! This example of educated
professionals who really should know better publishing a piece of total junk
science is a perfect example of why gun owners worry so much about all the
efforts to somehow make up new laws that are supposed to, in effect, cancel out
evil in human beings. Because it's the evil in criminals and crazy people that
cause the most egregious uses of violence, as in Newtown recently. Reasonable gun laws already
exist in many states, and the places with the most stringent gun laws, DC,
Chicago, Detroit ,
etc, still have the highest rates of gun violence. There's a lesson there, but
people refuse to see it. --Del )
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