Jim Miller, RIP

It was about 12 years ago when I started hanging out at the Willies in Kenwood.

Over the years, I met some great guys; Bartman, Rick, The Unabomber, Vernon, Dana, Dave, Dan, Joe, Bob, Grif, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mizz among others.

We lost one of those in the group yesterday. Jim Miller. Jim was the Dan Fielding of Willies, Never shy about discussing his kinky sexual proclivities.

Jim died of liver cancer yesterday.

I didn't know Jim that well since he was more of a happy hour guy; I usually showed up for dinner later in the evening. None the less, Jim was a funny guy who was always good for a story you never heard before. He will be missed.

I just hope heaven is full of ball gags and leather chaps.

Snowy Conditions Proving Hazardous For Nation's Idiots

Feminism explained

How will they explain this?

You know how the Branch Gorvidians knew that global warming was responsible for the East Coast and Western Europe blizzards/extreme cold.

Now the last I checked my map, Phoenix wasn't along the east Coast. But, of course, that won't prevent the Branch Gorevidians from predicting how snow got to Arizona after the fact.

In fact, let's play a game and come up with a nonsensical reason to explain the phenomenon proving yet again how global warming exists.

I'll start.........

As a result of cow flatulence in the plain states of Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, the air currents rise above the current jet streams. As this stinky air rises, it provides sort of a buffer to the jet stream which gets nauseated by the smell.

The jet stream then reverses course and heads back to the West Coast where it hopes to avoid the stench of cow farts, taking with it all the cool moisture that would have been dumped on the plain states.

Given the length of the trip and the fact there are no good roadside rests along the way, the jet stream has no choice but to dump its cool liquid across the west coast.

And that my friends is how global warming causes snow in Phoenix.

Feel free to add your own in the comment section.

If it's good enough, the government will give you some money to prove it.

how hockey fans use a vuvuzela

So stupid, only a liberal could think of it

So we have a pack of Ivy Leaguer who believe that higher taxes on the rich is the way to get the economy revved up again.

Unfortunately, a bunch of dumb ass conservatives refuse to make rich people give up their wealth to a government, so these guys came up with a brilliant idea......

Give your "tax cut" to charity!

Seriously, they have a calculator that will compute your tax cut and then you can forward it to charity.

In all honesty, it's probably necessary for liberals to suggest that they can give their money to charity since so few understand what that means in the first place.

Last week, Ann Coulter detailed that lack of charitable giving among notable democrats and this is what she found.....

On average, a person who attends religious services and does not believe in the redistribution of income will give away 100 times more -- and 50 times more to secular charities -- than a person who does not attend religious services and strongly believes in the redistribution of income.

Secular liberals, the second largest group coming in at 10 percent of the population, were the whitest and richest of the four groups. (Some of you may also know them as "insufferable blowhards.") These "bleeding-heart tightwads," as New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof calls them, were the second stingiest, just behind secular conservatives, who are mostly young, poor, cranky white guys.

Despite their wealth and advantages, secular liberals give to charity at a rate of 9 percent, less than all Americans and 19 percent less than religious conservatives. They were also "significantly less likely than the population average to return excess change mistakenly given to them by a cashier." (Count Nancy Pelosi's change carefully!)

Secular liberals are, however, 90 percent more likely to give sanctimonious Senate speeches demanding the forced redistribution of income. (That's up 7 percent from last year!)

Maybe Joe Biden can fork over a few bucks more than the $350.00 he gave to charity last year. Someone just needs to forward him this site so he realizes that he can actually do that.

Meanwhile, as a conservative, you know what I think you should do with your tax cut? 1) You can save it 2) You can spend it on anything you damn well please 3) you can give it to a relative or charity or 4) give it to me.

Regardless of what you, do you'll get no criticism from this blog....... you earned it.

Life in "Progress" City - NY edition

So you can move to the south where you get a pay increase just from the lower taxes and lower cost of living or you can stay in NY where you get lots of snow and pay people lots of money not to remove it................

A newborn baby died after waiting nine hours for care, a Brooklyn woman had to wait 30 hours before getting an ambulance, and one person even had to spend an overnight with a deceased relative, according to the New York Daily News. And how do well-paid public employees respond to the complaints? By being annoyed.

A spokesman for the union representing employees of the New York City's Department of Sanitation said that snow clean-up workers are "getting annoyed over the fact that people are thinking there is a job action." But taxpayers are likely to be more annoyed when they find out how well the workers do financially, even in retirement.

According to the Manhattan Institute's "See Through New York" database of 2009 pensions, nearly 180 retired employees make over $66,000 year -- in other words, over and above the maximum salary of currently working employees. In fact, 20 retirees make upwards of $90,000 in retirement, up to $132,360.

Couple this with how notoriously difficult it is to fire a public employee, and you'll see why a public employee crashing a snow plow into a car doesn't rattle city officials.

Just to be clear, the top salary of $66,672 is only the tip of the iceberg for active sanitation worker compensation because it excludes other things like overtime and extra pay for certain assignments. For example, one worker in 2009 had a salary of $55,639 but actually earned $79,937 for the year.

Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/2010/12/new-york-city-streets-are-unplowed-least-sanitation-workers-retir#ixzz19hI842kY

Then and Now

I don't have a degree in any natural science. But in my limited scientific studies I vividly remember my instructors telling me that for a hypothesis to move up to a theory in the scientific word, the hypothesis had to have predictive qualities.

Meaning that you could predict some future event based on the nature of your hypothesis.

So how does that apply to global warming?

Let take the time machine back ten years ago and see...........

Then......................

Within a few years "children just aren't going to know what snow is." Snowfall will be "a very rare and exciting event." Dr. David Viner, senior research scientist at the climatic research unit (CRU) of the University of East Anglia, interviewed by the UK Independent, March 20, 2000.

Ten years later, in December 2009, London was hit by the heaviest snowfall seen in 20 years. And just last week, a snowstorm forced Heathrow airport to shut down, stranding thousands of Christmas travelers.

A spokesman for the government-funded British Council, where Viner now works as the lead climate change expert, told FoxNews.com that climate science had improved since the prediction was made.

Now.................

THE earth continues to get warmer, yet it’s feeling a lot colder outside. Over the past few weeks, subzero temperatures in Poland claimed 66 lives; snow arrived in Seattle well before the winter solstice, and fell heavily enough in Minneapolis to make the roof of the Metrodome collapse; and last week blizzards closed Europe’s busiest airports in London and Frankfurt for days, stranding holiday travelers. The snow and record cold have invaded the Eastern United States, with more bad weather predicted.

All of this cold was met with perfect comic timing by the release of a World Meteorological Organization report showing that 2010 will probably be among the three warmest years on record, and 2001 through 2010 the warmest decade on record.

How can we reconcile this? The not-so-obvious short answer is that the overall warming of the atmosphere is actually creating cold-weather extremes.

Here's a piece noting other predictions that haven't borne fruit.

And these Branch Gorvidians wonder why there are skeptics?

What do you expect? He's a liberal

Apparently, all that free love at the Playboy Mansion isn't so free and isn't so loving.........

These A-listers no doubt delight in their association with the legendary lover. But unfortunately for Hefner, some of his former ‘girlfriends’, as he calls them, have become disenchanted with life in his harem over the years.

One by one they have revealed what life was like behind the glittering façade of the Playboy Mansion. According to them, it disguises a grubby world where some girls feel they are no ­better than prostitutes, paid pocket money by an octogenarian obsessive who funds plastic ­surgery to turn them into his physical ideal, and yet must still take huge amounts of Viagra to manage sex with them.

More......

So simple, even Frank Sobotka gets it.

For years, I had friends tell me that The Wire was the best show on TV. Since I didn't even have cable, it was difficult for me to watch.

Now Direct TV is rerunning the series and I have to say that that my friends were right. If you get a chance to watch the series do so. Buy the DVD's if you can't catch them somewhere else.

I'm currently into season two that focuses on the illegal activity on the Baltimore Docks. What's incredible to me is the out and out graft that goes on in our ports. Whether it's human trafficking, drugs, out and out theft of cargo, the port is polluted with people gaming the system. It just makes you wonder how you can get a TV at Best Buy for under $10,000.

Yet, I had to find it hilarious when Frank Sobotka, the union head of the port, starts telling the guys that they need to clean up all the graft because companies are moving their shipments to other ports of entry and soon there won't be any jobs at the Baltimore port.

See even union guy Frank understood that everyone operates on a cost/benefit principle. Something our politicians can't seem to get their arms around.........

Heading into the new year, there's plenty of optimism about the stock market rising, corporate profits recovering and companies hiring. There's just one problem on that last jobs item: Many will be overseas.

On those rare occasions when it's not demonizing businesses as bastions of corporate greed, the White House and all its supporting players spend their time pondering why U.S. businesses, with mountains of cash, won't use at least some of it to hire workers. A mere 900,000 jobs were created in 2010, while U.S. companies sat on $1.1 trillion in cash.

Last week, President Obama went so far as to meet with 20 CEOs for several hours over this, "asking the attendees to dialogue with him on a shared agenda focused on moving our economy forward," according to a White House statement.

We don't have any inside lines as to what was said, but news is trickling out the Obama administration is starting to think about doing something big to end the jobs drought in the U.S.

The something big would be to lower the U.S. corporate tax, which at 35%, stands as the second-highest in the developed world. President Obama only told NPR that he discussed "simplifying the system, hopefully lowering rates, broadening the base."

If so, and if there are no accompanying sleights of hand to extract cash from businesses some other way, as some reports have it, it's good news. Nothing inhibits the creation of U.S. jobs quite like high corporate taxes and their accompanying regulatory regime.

The fact is, companies sitting on cash aren't doing nothing. They're hiring overseas, creating 1.4 million jobs in 2010 alone, according to the Competitive Enterprise Institute.

That's not because they prefer foreigners to Americans, but because the bad business climate here pushes them to do so.

The rest of the world is a vastly different place from Obama's U.S., which is characterized by high taxes and protectionist set-asides for politically connected unions that shut out free trade.

In places like Indonesia, Singapore, Taiwan, India and Thailand, nobody demonizes business or blasts trade. Instead great efforts are made by the state and the private sector to draw in foreign investment by becoming more competitive than their rivals.

U.S. multinationals go to these places not because labor is cheap but because these policies also create boomtowns with lots of customers. Incredibly enough, sometimes overseas profits and jobs provide a lifeline for troubled U.S. companies back home. Take GM — today, its Brazil and Korea operations help keep it afloat.

Article here....

Life in "Progress" City - NY edition

From the Big Apple...........

Selfish Sanitation Department bosses from the snow-slammed outer boroughs ordered their drivers to snarl the blizzard cleanup to protest budget cuts -- a disastrous move that turned streets into a minefield for emergency-services vehicles, The Post has learned.

Miles of roads stretching from as north as Whitestone, Queens, to the south shore of Staten Island still remained treacherously unplowed last night because of the shameless job action, several sources and a city lawmaker said, which was over a raft of demotions, attrition and budget.

"They sent a message to the rest of the city that these particular labor issues are more important," said City Councilman Dan Halloran (R-Queens), who was visited yesterday by a group of guilt-ridden sanitation workers who confessed the shameless plot.

Halloran said he met with three plow workers from the Sanitation Department -- and two Department of Transportation supervisors who were on loan -- at his office after he was flooded with irate calls from constituents.

Paying high taxes for no service?

Now that's "Progressive"!

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/sanit_filthy_snow_slow_mo_qH57MZwC53QKOJlekSSDJK#ixzz19bEheRHt

Life in "Progress" State - CA edition

It’s looking increasingly likely that California will get bailed out by the federal government. The Golden State is $70 billion in the hole. Analysts expect that figure to reach $150 billion within four years — and that’s not including the state’s $500 billion unfunded pension liability. Spending needs to be cut dramatically, but it won’t be; the state is too politically dysfunctional to do that. And the election of big-spender Jerry Brown will only make things worse. (Incidentally, Governor-elect Brown recently described his state’s budget problems this way: “It is much worse than I thought. I am shocked.”)

Most conservatives are adamantly opposed to bailing out any state, especially California. They argue that Californians in particular don’t deserve a bail out, that a bailout would set a bad example for other states, and that it would cost too much.

But these arguments assume that a bailout of California would come with no strings attached. That may be what ends up happening, but it doesn’t have to. It’s possible to make the bailout contingent on Sacramento making drastic budget cuts and passing constitutional amendments that radically reform the state’s political system.

Seriously? Is this writer a moron? How could you possibly structure any debt guarantees that would force the state to do what a total fiscal collapse wouldn't motivate them to do.

The City of Cincinnati is currently working to cut $60 million from a 2011 budget deficit. It has to be done by 1/1/11. These clowns are still pissing in the wind as the clock strikes 12 Friday. I would put up my life savings and wager that if the feds guaranteed anything for the city (regardless of the attached contingencies) the city would have even more incentive to kick the can down the street.

These governments need to come to grips with the fact that the credit card is busted and it's time to real it in. Allowing them any sort of wiggle room is the space they'll slime into.

More........

Life in "Progress" City - Detroit edition

Feds may have to bail out Detroit for a second time — If the federal government decides, in its finite wisdom, that poorly run states and municipalities do not deserve to sink or swim based on the electoral acumen of their residents (or lack thereof), and chooses instead to “bail out” bankrupt members of the American federation, there will be some irony in the decision. In Detroit, two of the city’s public pensions are under investigation for “risky investing” that cost the two funds $480 million in three years. According to the Detroit Free Press, “many of the investments involved secretive middlemen, who pocketed hundreds of thousands of dollars, or were vetted by controversial investment adviser Adrian Anderson and his firm, North Point Advisors.” Anderson is currently under investigation by the SEC, but has not been charged. In the meantime, “the pensions are paying the legal bills of Anderson and a second adviser who scrutinized failed real estate deals.” Have you heard the one about the burglar who fell through the woman’s skylight and then demanded that she pay for his medical bills? This is sort of like that.

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2010/12/27/thedc-morning-feds-may-have-to-bail-out-detroit-for-a-second-time/#ixzz19R7ukyJL

"Let my people go"

The Blue State Exodus continues.........

The Lone Star State is scooping up more than just our congressional seats -- some $846 million in personal income shifted from New York to Texas in an eight-year period during the last decade, according to an analysis of IRS tax returns.

Texas, which has no state or local income taxes and an enviably low cost of living, has been steadily poaching New Yorkers since the '90s, according to data from the Tax Foundation, a nonpartisan tax research organization based in Washington.

From 2000 to 2008, more than $846 million in personal income moved from New York to Texas -- with more than $212 million leaving in 2006 and '07.

I don't like the term poaching here. It's not like Governor Perry is rolling into New York rounding up the believers and telling Pharaohs Bloomberg and Paterson to let his people go.

But that is probably the only difference between the stories.

See, in so many ways, the Blue State Exodus mirrors the Biblical account of Moses leading the Jews from the Pharaohs.

Think about it. Taxpayers in NY, OH, MI, NJ etc. work so that the pharaohs of these state and local governments can seize the fruits of their labor, by force, to do what these please.

The plagues of locusts, frogs, death, etc. have been largely self induced pain caused brought about by the pharaohs own arrogance and defiance to truth. If you think about it, even the liberal abortion laws in these states has resulted in the death of the first born to many couples.

People fleeing the Pharaohs, need only cross the Ohio, the Hudson the Delaware to find freedom in the Promised Land.

Do you think the Pharaohs will be smart enough to give up their arrogance to avoid further migration out of town?

Let's just say we'll let Mike Bloomberg turn off the lights when he leaves.

More......

More on the "Blue State Exodus"

It's still the jobs stupid!!!!!!!!!

High taxes kill states. There can be no better evidence than the 2010 Census. The states that lost House seats -- because they're shrinking, relative to the nation -- had taxes 27 percent higher than the ones that gained seats.

Of the seven states that don't have a personal income tax, four (Texas, Florida, Nevada and Washington) account for eight of the 12 seats apportioned to the fastest-growing states.

New York and Ohio lost two more seats. Other losers -- down one each -- are Massachusetts, Missouri, Michigan, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Louisiana and Iowa. What do they all have in common? High taxes.

Texas, with the second lowest taxes in the nation, gained four seats, Florida picked up two and Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, South Carolina, Utah, and Washington state each gained one. All have low taxes.

The states that lost seats ranked an average of 24th in taxes and had an average tax burden of $2,267 per capita (weighted more toward the states that lost more than one seat).

The states that gained seats ranked an average of 39th in taxes and had an average tax burden (weighted) of $1,788 -- 27 percent lower than the losing states.

People vote with their feet and flee to low-tax states. It's not the climate; it's the taxes.

Without question people are moving from high tax states to lower tax states but I think many analysts are missing the boat as to why.

I don't believe that it's the high taxes by themselves that drives people away. The high taxes are symptomatic of a government culture that makes it more difficult for businesses to thrive. For instance, most of the high tax states are also very union friendly, have higher regulatory burdens, have more incompetent governance and a general attitude (displayed when Governor Patterson said good riddance to Rush Limbaugh and his millions in taxes) hostile to business development.

As a result, businesses with good jobs are relocating to places where they are appreciated. While the taxes are part of that appreciation, it's not the only thing.

People moving to these states is simply the last chapter in the story of the Blue State Exodus and when people arrive in the Red State Promised Land the lower taxes are like milk and honey.

More.....

The predatory student loan industry

Yesterday I posted on the OCC shutting down HSBC for Refund Anticipation Loans to low income people's tax refunds.

I wonder when the feds are going to crack down on their own for allowing students to rack up debt to obtain worthless degrees and never achieve the earning potential to pay the loans back. It seems kind of predatory to me..........

When the government subsidizes something, we wind up with more of it. When it subsidizes something heavily—and combines that subsidy with an aggressive campaign encouraging consumption of that thing from the presidential bully pulpit—we wind up with a lot more of it.

Oceans of federal money gush into higher education every day, and every administration promises more to come. That gush obscures the real demand for educated workers. The result is lots of cashiers and waitresses with B.A.s, and lots of people with student loan debt that's tough for them to repay. For most students, the federal subsides geared toward nudging them to consume more education actually result in the acquisition of more education debt.

On the corporate side (and the non-profit side, for that matter) the subsidy encourages institutions to shape their practices around grabbing as much of that "free" money as possible. As critics of for-profit education never fail to note:

Most colleges receive 75 percent of more of their revenue in federal loan funding; at others, like the University of Phoenix's parent company, Apollo Group, federal dollars comprise upwards of 90 percent of the revenue. (The legal limit is exactly 90 percent.)

The government makes the loan getting process easier and faster, and then the schools that live off loan money figure out ways to make the process smoother still. In fact, the getting of education loans has become so seamless that some of the less scrupulous actors out there have figured out ways for students take out and/or retain loans without realizing that they have done so:

Once again, when the government subsidizes you get more of it. Look forward to bailing out some young Women's Studies graduate soon.

More......

Fox News Viewers Are Misinformed Study, The Critique

Government whack a mole

I remember years ago, my ex-wife making the proclamation that the more laws government makes, the more advantageous it becomes for the law breakers to the point that it drives out law abiding businesses.

At the time, I thought that was a stupid statement. But I'm willing to own up to being wrong (according to her that was all the time).

Let's take credit availability to low income households. See, do gooder types thought it would be a great idea to change credit card laws so poor people wouldn't get locked into a mess of credit card debt.

What happened?

Banks quit issuing credit cards to low income people. So if you need a quick $200.00 to cover your car payment, what do you do? Of course, you roll into your neighborhood paycheck lender and pay an even higher rate of interest than a credit card.

Of course, the do gooders, not done doing good for the poor, are attacking HR Block for Refund Anticipation Loans (RAL's). Now, for the record, these loans are a total rip off. But I've told the stories before of people who have contacted this office and asked for one of these because they couldn't wait the 7 - 10 days a normal efile refund would take to get to them.

Frankly, I don't need this kind of client. They're idiots. But even idiots need service too.

So HR Block was more then willing to take $400 to do a tax return with one of these RAL's attached to it.

But Nanny Dogooder apparently doesn't want HR Block to service your neighborhood idiot, so this is how they took care of that.........

Tax prep company H&R Block announced on Friday that it had lost a contract with HSBC after a federal regulator told HSBC to stop offering refund anticipation loans. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency prohibited HSBC (HBC) from offering the loans, which forced the bank to end its long-term contract providing loans to H&R Block (HRB) customers, H&R Block said in its release.

H&R Block shares fell 8% in pore-market trading.

“As a result of the OCC’s decision, millions of taxpayers will be deprived of credit, or they will be forced to use higher-priced alternatives, without the slightest benefit to the solvency of HSBC or the banking system in general,” said Alan Bennett, H&R Block’s president and CEO.

H&R Block says refund anticipation loans (RALs) are much cheaper than other credit options — just $46 on a $1,500 loan. But the OCC has said that RALs are often unnecessary and costly.

“Although a refund anticipation loan may offer easy access to funds on a short-term basis, a RAL can be costly, and paying for a loan may not be necessary given how quickly you can get Office of the Comptroller of the Currency your refund from the IRS,” the agency said in a recent consumer advisory. ”These loans also may cost substantially more than other sources of credit that may be just as appropriate to your needs.”

So what's going to be the end result of Nanny Dogooder and her minions who want to protect the poor?

They're going to push these people towards Carmine, the neighborhood loan shark, who's not all that interested in trivialities like usury laws, collection laws, and the like.

All the while, legitimate companies will shrivel up in the process.

I guess I owe my ex-wife yet another apology.

Article here.......

Government at work

So the head of US intelligence didn't need to know about the arrest of London terrorist.

But hey, if we can have the head of the Treasury who doesn't know tax law. Why not?

Life in "Progress" City - the bankruptcy edition

Name a city where the bankruptcy courts are just waiting for them to show up.

Chances are really, really, good that a democratic mayor will be at the helm..........

Have a gander at America’s 17 most-bankrupt cities, and consider the party variable: Two Republican mayors, two independents, one city so bankrupt that it is in state receivership — and twelve Democratic mayors, meaning the Democrats lead 70.5 percent of the most-bankrupt cities, by my always-suspect English-major math.

And you thought their record was bad in Congress.

And get a load of the size of these budget shortfalls: Camden, N.J., at 15 percent, Hamtramck, Mich., at 17 percent, Paterson, N.J., at 24 percent, Central Falls, R.I., at 22 percent.

The state of California cannot afford to bail out San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, and San Jose; the state of Illinois cannot afford to bail out Chicago and Joliet; New Jersey cannot afford to bail out Camden, Patterson, and Newark. The outstanding municipal-bond obligations are huge. Vero has some thoughts here, and here’s one sleep-disturbing fact:

But municipal bonds have not yet lost their low-risk reputation. According to the Investment Company Institute, $84 billion went into long-term municipal bond mutual funds in 2010, up from $69 billion in 2009. And the 2009 level represents a 785 percent increase from the 2008 level of $7.8 billion. Artificial incentives have lured investors into thinking that lending cash to bankrupted cities will be profitable.

New Jersey already has been accused of fraud for running what amounts to a muni-bond Ponzi scheme.

Questions: Why do city voters continue to elect these mayoral specimens? .....

Nice to see that the Queen City of Cincinnati made the list.

That's been the genesis of this blog. While I have some chicken/egg theories, I'll probably keep doing this blog until someone answers the question. Is it the lack of intelligence voters who keep putting democrats in office or is it democratic policies that create ignorant democratic voters?

As Charles Barkley would say "how is it that poor people keep voting for democrats and they stay poor?"


More......

Life in "Progress" City - the gun control edition

Maybe guns keep outlaws in check?

We should ask all the mayors with felony charges waiting for them.......

I'd hate to be accused of Schadenfreude during the holidays, but I feel I must mention five recent news articles that tie in with my previous mentions of Mayor Bloomberg's Mayors Against Illegal Guns civilian disarmament pressure group:

• Port St. Lucie Mayor arrested for misappropriation of campaign funds
  
  
• Ex-Morristown Mayor Cresitello will pay state $11K over alleged campaign finance violations.
  
  
• White Plains Mayor Adam Bradley Convicted of Attempted Assault and Other Crimes
  
  
• Mayor accused of ethics lapses
  
  
• Inglewood Mayor Dorn pleads guilty to conflict of interest, resigns
  

The number of mayors in Bloomberg's group that are facing felony and lesser charges is simply astounding. Come to think of it, I have roughly the same number of friends as Bloomberg has members on the roster in his little hoplophobe club. But I couldn't imagine having a dozen of my friends facing felony charges. Oh well, I guess that's because I don't move in the same lofty circles as Mayor Bloomberg.

More......

Life outside of "Progress" City - NY edition

John Galt's not coming back anytime soon to the Big Apple.....

New York, I love you — but I can’t make the math work.

Like lots of media professionals (and fashion mavens, artists, musicians, et al.), I’ve penciled out the numbers for what it would mean to take a job in New York City. There’s barely enough room on the back of the envelope for subtracting the double-dose income tax hit from the city and state, and that’s before even adjusting for cost of living.

That’s one of the reasons I’m in Dallas. You know, Texas, the state that parlayed this year’s census data into four new House seats — pinching the two lost by the Empire State — because people actually want to live here.

But hey aren't they glad that Rush Limbaugh moved out.......

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/deep_in_the_heart_of_taxes_7zwO5qNacrIHzz50LIfbsM#ixzz19JhBaSCl

Merry Christmas

I don't know why, but this piece printed if the WSJ is one of the best things about Christmas for me. I guess it's because it really illustrates what the birth of the baby Jesus meant to humanity.

When Saul of Tarsus set out on his journey to Damascus the whole of the known world lay in bondage. There was one state, and it was Rome. There was one master for it all, and he was Tiberius Caesar.

Everywhere there was civil order, for the arm of the Roman law was long. Everywhere there was stability, in government and in society, for the centurions saw that it was so.

But everywhere there was something else, too. There was oppression—for those who were not the friends of Tiberius Caesar. There was the tax gatherer to take the grain from the fields and the flax from the spindle to feed the legions or to fill the hungry treasury from which divine Caesar gave largess to the people. There was the impressor to find recruits for the circuses. There were executioners to quiet those whom the Emperor proscribed. What was a man for but to serve Caesar?

There was the persecution of men who dared think differently, who heard strange voices or read strange manuscripts. There was enslavement of men whose tribes came not from Rome, disdain for those who did not have the familiar visage. And most of all, there was everywhere a contempt for human life. What, to the strong, was one man more or less in a crowded world?

Then, of a sudden, there was a light in the world, and a man from Galilee saying, Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's and unto God the things that are God's.

Read the rest......

Joke of the Day

Q How do your starve an Obama supporter?

A Hide his food stamps under his work boots.

Who's the racist here?

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on Tuesday sued The Washington Post Co.'s Kaplan Higher Education unit, alleging that it discriminated against black job applicants by refusing to hire people based on their credit histories.

The federal lawsuit alleges that Kaplan needlessly evaluated the credit histories of potential hires in a way that had a disparate negative impact on black job applicants. The commission said the practice has been in place since at least January 2008.

Now isn't it kind of racist to presume that blacks are going to have worse credit than whites?

More.....

Life in "Progress" City - Chicago edition

From the Windy city.........

Middle-class parents started bailing out of Chicago's failing schools decades ago, enrolling their kids in private schools or moving to the suburbs. As recently as 2004, a Thomas B. Fordham Institute study found that 39 percent of CPS teachers sent their own kids to private schools.

But public officials who opt out of public schools are a particularly sore subject. "There's something to be said for leading by example and having a personal stake in the system you seek to reform," said Chico, a CPS alum whose two daughters also graduated from Chicago schools. (Then again, Chico's personal stake led to claims that he'd pushed for the elite Northside Prep to be built near his home in time for his daughter to attend. He denies that.) Chico deserves real credit for launching a reform effort when Daley made him school board president in 1995.

As I've always said. I'm not the smartest guy in the room but I always watch what the people who know do (and not what they say). What I want to know is how many of the remaining 61 percent of the CPS teachers send their kids to outlying suburban schools.

Making the public eat what you wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole?

Now that's "progressive"!

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Life in "Progress" City - Pritchard AL edition

This struggling small city on the outskirts of Mobile was warned for years that if it did nothing, its pension fund would run out of money by 2009. Right on schedule, its fund ran dry.

Then Prichard did something that pension experts say they have never seen before: it stopped sending monthly pension checks to its 150 retired workers, breaking a state law requiring it to pay its promised retirement benefits in full.

Since then, Nettie Banks, 68, a retired Prichard police and fire dispatcher, has filed for bankruptcy. Alfred Arnold, a 66-year-old retired fire captain, has gone back to work as a shopping mall security guard to try to keep his house. Eddie Ragland, 59, a retired police captain, accepted help from colleagues, bake sales and collection jars after he was shot by a robber, leaving him badly wounded and unable to get to his new job as a police officer at the regional airport.

Far worse was the retired fire marshal who died in June. Like many of the others, he was too young to collect Social Security. “When they found him, he had no electricity and no running water in his house,” said David Anders, 58, a retired district fire chief. “He was a proud enough man that he wouldn’t accept help.”

It appears that Prichard is run by a democratic mayor and a democratic council.

You know, the conventional wisdom is that democrats have compassion for the little guy.

Does letting retirees go without their pension checks sound all the compassionate to you?

Stiffing pensioners out of their benefits?

Now that's "progressive"!

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This is gonna suck for SMU

Growing up near Columbus, there was always an ongoing joke that the NCAA got so upset with Ohio State and Woody Hayes, they gave SMU another year of probation.

I guess, it's not a joke anymore.........

Six student-athletes on The Ohio State University football team have been suspended for NCAA violations, the school said Thursday in a press release.

Mike Adams, Dan Herron, DeVier Posey, Terrelle Pryor (pictured above) and Solomon Thomas will miss the first five games of the 2011 season and must repay money and benefits, the school said.

Of course, not to piss off Buckeye nation, the NCAA will enforce the suspensions next year when the Bucs play that murders row of Akron, Toledo, Colorado, Miami and MSU. I guess it's just a coincidence that they'll be back for their first real game against Nebraska.

For these guys to claim ignorance is just ridiculous. From 1981 - 1986 I was on the UC cross country and track teams. Each and every year, every varsity athlete had to sit through a two hour long NCAA compliance meeting where they went over every freakin procedure in the book (Because you know how the boosters love to throw money in the hands of a high jumper or 50 meter backstroker). In addition, we were required to attend a substance abuse course required by the NCAA.

That was almost thirty years ago for a bunch of nobodies and you're going to try and tell me these guys had no idea.

Whenever I hear people talk about these guys being paid, many have no idea of some of the benefits these guys already get. For instance, while these guys are down in New Orleans they'll each receive "gifts" from the bowl game organizers. Here's a list of the crap these guys get just for traveling with the team. In addition, these guys get rings, watches, uniforms etc they can trade in for all kinds of favors/money after they leave school. Plus there's meal money, where you can pocket a few hundred bucks if you are thrifty on one of these longs bowl stays.

I personally know a guy who used to take in gear from the players at a local sporting goods store. If you were a nobody, he'd swap out your turf shoes for a warm up suit. If you were a great player, he'd cash you out for your gear (provided your signature was on the gear) and then resell the stuff to some guy with a nice man cave.

Today, the schools keep pretty good tabs on a lot of this stuff but there's still enough to keep these guys with money in their pocket.

None the less, how is it that USC gets probation for the sins Reggie Bush commits but OSU has avoided any sanctions for Maurice Clarett, Andy Katzenmoyer, and now this crap?

SMU better get ready for another death penalty.

This year's hot Christmas gift

So you're looking for that special gift for your liberal relative but can't seem to find it.

This year's cabbage patch kid, Tickle me Elmo gift shortage appears to be........cocaine.......

The cocaine market in the United States is under "significant stress," reports the White House's Office of National Drug Control Policy.

Cocaine production has dropped in Colombia due to recent eradication efforts, putting stress on the U.S. market in 2009, the office announced this month. And although a direct connection between data is not sufficiently made clear, use of the drug also dropped last year in the United States, where most Colombian cocaine is destined after being moved by Mexican drug-trafficking organizations.

So I guess you're going to have to fall back on a bag of weed.

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Happy Festivus

May Bartman ruin another Cubs pennant...........

THE DIGITAL STORY OF THE NATIVITY

This is cute

Thanks reader Tim

Education Spending in the US - Dissecting the Data

The Director of Cluelessness

What if this were Sarah Palin.



Great job Brownie

The Exodus from "progressive" policies

Since the census results have been released, much has been made of the changes to the electoral map.

But little has been made of why the mass migration from traditional "blue states" to "red states" is occurring in the first place.

Of course, your average liberal would say something "scientific" like "people are moving to warmer climates". But how does that explain Louisiana, the state right next to Texas who lost an electoral vote?

Or why hasn't California picked up yet another electoral vote given their kick ass climate and economic opportunities.

But the lessons don't end there. How does one explain the exodus of people from our once great cities to suburban and exurban enclaves.

Take the city of Cincinnati for example. In 1960, the city population proper was over 500,000. After this census, the population will probably be just over 300,000.

Or take Cleveland, where the population in 1950 was 914,000 and will probably be just over 400,000 in this census.

The metro area populations have remained fairly stagnant for these cities which means that people are leaving the mess known as the cities for areas outside of the city. Why?

Once again, your liberals will tell you that "white flight" is the main cause of the exodus. But is it simply because of people's skin colors that they choose to move or maybe these people are simply using their cost/benefit principle to decide to move.

Think about it.

For more taxes you pay in the city, you get more crime, more urban decay, horrible city services (unless you're from the underclass) shitty schools, etc. In fact, like most liberal policies, there and implicit and explicit statement that if you are rich you are not welcome (sound familiar?).

As a result, anyone with any means has to make the call. I can stay here and fight to change the culture and/or policies or I can move to where I am more welcome. Oh, by the way, I'm taking my wealth and values with me.

Which choice is easier?

What the talking heads also haven't addressed is that the flight of people from blue to red is not equal across all socio-economic groups. They're almost all people with wealth, education, and stronger values, leaving the derelicts of society behind.

All this exacerbates the problems in blue areas. More poor people needing public assistance with fewer "rich" people to carry the load.

Just look at what happened in Oregon, who last year decided to beat on those asshole millionaires one more time..........

Oregon raised its income tax on the richest 2% of its residents last year to fix its budget hole, but now the state treasury admits it collected nearly one-third less revenue than the bean counters projected. ...

In 2009 the state legislature raised the tax rate to 10.8% on joint-filer income of between $250,000 and $500,000, and to 11% on income above $500,000. Only New York City's rate is higher. Oregon's liberal voters ratified the tax increase on individuals and another on businesses in January of this year, no doubt feeling good about their "shared sacrifice."

Congratulations. Instead of $180 million collected last year from the new tax, the state received $130 million. ...

One reason revenues are so low is that about one-quarter of the rich tax filers seem to have gone missing. The state expected 38,000 Oregonians to pay the higher tax, but only 28,000 did. Funny how that always happens. These numbers are in line with a Cascade Policy Institute study, based on interstate migration patterns, predicting that the tax surcharge would lead to 80,000 fewer wealthy tax filers in Oregon over the next decade. ...

So the "blue staters" can bitch and moan about how the rich don't pay enough all while the rich continue packing their bags and heading to places where they are wanted and appreciated.

Do you think that any liberals will pay attention to this "science" and change their policies accordingly?

The Branch Gorvidians have a mental illness

So when it gets warmer, it's evidence of global warming. When it gets colder that's also evidence of global warming?

There were two silent calls, followed by a message left on my voicemail. She had a soft, gentle voice and a mid-Wales accent. "You are a liar, Mr Monbiot. You and James Hansen and all your lying colleagues. I'm going to make you pay back the money my son gave to your causes. It's minus 18C and my pipes have frozen. You liar. Is this your global warming?" She's not going to like the answer, and nor are you. It may be yes.

How about this theory. Maybe it's because of global cooling that it's getting warmer in other parts of planet earth..........

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Let's run more business out of town

As you are probably aware, the state of Ohio has a 5 1/2 percent sales tax. In addition to the state sales tax, counties throw on additional tax. Most counties in Ohio add another one percent (Cuyahoga county adds another 2.25%).

The tax in and of itself is bad enough for the consumer. But the sales tax requirement for the businesses collecting the tax for our Columbus pols is getting downright ridiculous.

For instance, last year, the state required all businesses to file their returns electronically regardless of the amount of tax due.

Now I still have clients who don't have computers so I have to file these returns for them adding fees to the process. In these winter months, I have to charge clients to do sales tax returns for months they have zero taxable sales. It's patently ridiculous.

Starting next month, the state is accelerating their collection. So for some tax collectors they'll now have to send in a payment by the 23rd of the month as an estimate for the taxes collected that month.

Meaning if Company A has taxable sales, by January 23rd they'll have to send the state an estimated tax payment of projected January sales. Then you are required to file your return and pay the rest of the sales tax by the following 23rd.

If the state doesn't get at least 75% of that month's sales tax by the 23rd, they'll be nice enough to throw you a penalty.

Now if you have the kind of business that generates lots of sales at the end of the month, if you don't pay enough tax in before you actually collect it, you're screwed.

So if you are a big ticket retailer that does lots of promotional sales towards the end of the month this is going to be yet one more straw on your camel back. Seriously, sales of big ticket items are really difficult to project. So how do you pay something when you have no idea what you're going to collect?

As I've said before, I'm rarely the smartest guy in any room but I watch what the smart guys do and then I emulate it.

Ohio has decided to do what successful states have done to attract business by following California's lead.

And we wonder why we're losing a couple of electoral votes this census.

That idiot Palin

Can you believe that idiot, Sarah Palin said this.......

“What I say to the American people is that… thousands of people are working 24/7, 364 days a year to keep the American people safe.”

Hey, that other day they're probably at a "C" word party

What? You mean it wasn't Palin but an Obamunist?

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Maybe we should call it the "C" word......

Apparently, an ignorant, NPR reporter (ignorant and NPR..... Is that redundant?) made the following quote about Christmas......

"And I was at--forgive the expression--a Christmas party at the Department of Justice and people actually were really worried about this."

Instead of apologizing for the expression, maybe this nut job should apologize for being at a party where they actually celebrated the birth of the baby Jesus.

For a liberal, isn't that akin to going to a Klan meeting or something?

I wonder if anyone got a photo of her wearing a hood..... oops..... I mean a cross on her neck.

Normally, I try not to give any more air time to air heads than they've already have. But in this instance, her ignorance is more than I could bear.

Life in "Progress" City - DC edition

From the nation's capital............

One day last summer, a man wearing a bus driver's uniform showed himself into the offices of the general counsel for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, where he served court papers on a receptionist.

It was an unusual event because process servers usually call up from the lobby. They tend not to be bus drivers, either. So WMATA officials launched an internal inquiry to find out whether the employee was serving court papers on official time.

What they learned was that even though the bus operator had been on extended leave for 13 years, he still had an active identification card and continued receiving holiday pay and uniform-cleaning allowances.

The investigation also raised questions about benefits to other employees on extended leave, according to documents from the WMATA's office of inspector general that were obtained through an open-records request.

The probe found that the former driver created at least an appearance of a conflict of interest by getting paid to serve legal papers on WMATA.

"The more important issue that came to light from this investigation, however, is that WMATA failed to monitor [the driver] and apparently other employees who were on extended leaves of absence and are allowed to maintain an active WMATA identification card which provides access to facilities and transit benefits," investigators wrote in a report.

The employee "had use of a valuable service that cost WMATA money - free transportation - for 13 years during which time he did not work," the report concluded. "He also received a monetary benefit from WMATA - cleaning allowance - for which there appears to be no logic........."

Logic? Government? That was so freakin' hilarious I blew a bunch of Mountain Dew through my nose onto my computer screen.

Paying people not to work?

Now that's "Progressive"!

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Life in "Progress" State - NY, MI, OH & CA editions

How crappy is life in traditionally "blue" states? Hey don't take my word for it, just look at the science (maybe you remember how "progressive" believe in "science"), and the science of demographics doesn't tell a promising story for the blue staters...........

New population data from the Census Bureau this week will reshuffle political clout among the states, and the power shift may be amplified by economic forces as well as demographic ones. Simply put, some states have been gaining people because they offer cheaper housing or more abundant jobs.

Consider that the state poised to gain the most new congressional seats is Texas, which happens to be home to strong job growth, low tax rates, and relatively light regulation of business.

Texas could gain four new congressional districts due to its rapid population growth over the past decade.

RELATED: 10 things you should know about Census 2010

Of course, one big driver of population growth in places like Texas is birth rates and immigration. But another factor behind this week's census data is that, in effect, Americans are voting with their feet about where they want to live.

Economic opportunities are one major factor behind those choices, researchers say.

Over the decade from 2000 to 2009, according to Census Bureau data estimates released earlier this year, Texas has added nearly 850,000 people who have moved there from other parts of the country.

California, by contrast, remains the most populous state but hasn't had incoming traffic from other states. Instead, the state has seen 1.5 million more people move out than in during that decade. That population loss is more than offset by other gains (such as from immigration), but the bottom line is that the Golden State may notch no change in congressional seats.

Critics of California say a key reason is that its economic climate is much poorer than that of Texas.

Turning your state into a Sahara of economic opportunity?

Now that's "progressive"!

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Life in "Progress" City - San Francisco edition

More than 800 people are hit by cars in San Francisco each year, making it one of the most dangerous cities in the state - and possibly the country - for pedestrians.

This is a city that last year was named the best walking city in the country by the American Podiatric Medical Association and Prevention magazine because of the many city agencies assisting in walking issues. Yet more than two pedestrians are hit each day on average, accounting for about a quarter of all injury crashes and, according to some reports, nearly half the city's traffic fatalities.

The streets of San Francisco are especially dangerous in December, when shorter daylight hours, holiday-swollen numbers of pedestrians and cars, increased alcohol use and winter weather lead to the highest number of pedestrian-vehicle accidents.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/12/20/MNR21GMJMI.DTL#ixzz18i29xaa9

Life in "Progress" City - DC edition

From the nation's capital where there hasn't been a conservative in city government since man invented time............

More than two years after an outside contractor was hired to run one of the city's most venerable schools, D.C. officials said Tuesday that Dunbar High remains plagued by a litany of troubles: Nearly half the senior class is not on track to graduate, more than 100 students are taking courses they've already passed and the campus is growing increasingly unsafe.

Interim Schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson made those findings and others public to justify her decision last week to oust Friends of Bedford, the New York-based contractor that former chancellor Michelle A. Rhee retained to turn around the 822-student school.

"In general, the building seems to be in turmoil at all times," Henderson wrote in a termination letter made public this week. "Well after the school day begins, many students are wandering around the building, strolling to class with absolutely no sense of urgency."

While problems at Dunbar have festered for months, the situation has turned into an early test of how Henderson and Mayor-elect Vincent C. Gray (D) will respond to school reform efforts that appear to go awry. On Tuesday, after a week of news describing disorder and disarray at the school several months into the academic year, Gray and Henderson joined Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) in an attempt to turn the page. They gathered at the school on New Jersey Avenue NW to unveil the design for a long-planned $100 million new Dunbar to open in fall 2013.

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Must see TV

I don't know that I've watched 60 minutes in 15 years.

But I did catch this segment yesterday...............

Hawaii marching band formation of a ball being kicked

Gun Free Zones - 1/2 Hour News Hour

Life in "Progress" City - Seattle edition

'Tis the season

It's that time of year when everyone gets their parties in a bunch because someone's banning Santa Claus and/or Jesus from the holidays this year.

Let me impart some wisdom to you atheists out there who seem to believe that the very appearance of a cross is some sort of forced attempt to convert you to Christianity.

For years, I was member of a gym who's membership was primarily Jewish. Every year, the place would put up a menorah at the check in area. In addition, there would be all kinds of work shops/programs offered for the Jewish community.

For some reason, I never felt like my Christian beliefs were threatened or that my very presence in the place somehow devalued my beliefs.

You what I made of the activity? That the place was trying to honor those who make up most of the community.... not a slam towards Christians.

The community this center resides in is also primarily Jewish. So much so that the public schools close on Jewish holidays as a result low attendance.

I've told the Lovely Mrs. Gekko that if we are ever blessed with a child. We are selling our place in Methville, and making a bee line to this school system. When we're there, I don't expect to raise a stink about the overwhelming Jewish nature of the community and observance of the holidays. Believe it or not, I would understand that it's not a personal affront to my faith.

You know when people see a great movie or go to a great restaurant, they tell their friends about it. If you are of the persuasion to believe that Jesus Christ is the best thing in your life, you going to tell people about it. If you take personal offense to that, what the hell's wrong with you?

But it's for the children..........

The state's largest teachers union Wednesday fired an early salvo in contract negotiations, serving notice that it wouldn't accept pay cuts easily and that it won't consider linking teacher evaluations to student test scores in the Los Angeles Unified School District.

The afternoon news conference, at union headquarters in Koreatown, was a familiar exercise in rallying the rank and file. But it also marked a renewed effort to lead the public debate over school reform, coming shortly after L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa labeled United Teachers Los Angeles the primary obstacle to improving schools.

The union "today is setting the record straight," said vice president Julie Washington, who heads the union's negotiating team and is running for president. "We are not the villains of education. We are the solution. We are dedicated and care about the children and the community. … We are going on the record pushing back."

Riiiiight.

Article here.......

Tow the feminist line

For years, the feminist have given a pass to any lecherous, male, predator as long as they toe the correct political (aka liberal) line.

For instance, kill a girl you get a pass (Kennedy)

Rape a 13 year old...... pass (see Polanski)

Pass child pornography.... pass (see Scott Ritter)

Rape an adult woman (see Assange)

I have an idea for a Planned Parenthood fundraiser. For every $1000.00 donation, they'll give you a free "get out of jail card" which you can use to rape and/or kill a woman, lie about national security or reveal national secrets (assuming they're only western secrets we wouldn't want those Russians or Iranians pissed off).

Fareed Zakaria to the American people: You are 'the big problem'

Here's a question for Fareed. When does the government need to sacrifice?

Life in "Progress' City - NY edition

From the Big Apple, where there hasn't been a conservative run the city since, Tag won the first club throwing contest...............

Of all the city programs that have ever gone wrong in New York, few could compare to CityTime, an automated system meant to streamline employee timekeeping.

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has called the project a “disaster,” and perhaps with good reason: the project’s cost has exceeded $600 million, nearly 10 times over budget, and is six months past its due date. Meanwhile, consultants who were hired to oversee putting the project into effect have been paid nearly $50 million — $46 million more than they were initially supposed to receive.

And on Wednesday, federal prosecutors in Manhattan charged several of the consultants with an $80 million fraud scheme that began in 2005, accusing them of manipulating the city into paying out expensive contracts to businesses that they controlled, and then redirecting some of that money to enrich themselves. They even submitted false time sheets, the authorities said.

Graft in big city government?

Now that's "progressive"!

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Life in "Progress" City - Birmingham AL

From the city of Birmingham, where there hasn't been conservative in city government since Gog grunted that off colored joke during the first mammoth BBQ/Christmas party..........

Birmingham police are investigating the early morning incident where copper thieves took decorations off the holiday display and burned down the tree. Officials say the incident occurred around 4 a.m. Thieves took off the lights and used gasoline to separate the plastic from the copper, resulting in the apparent accidental tree torching.

Public works crews this morning took down the charred remains of the holiday display.

The 35-foot tall Norwegian Spruce came from North Carolina and won't be replaced.
Melvin Miller, city parks and recreation director, said this is the first time there has been any major damage to the display.

"It's not good. It kind of dampens the seasons, but we still know what this season is all about. It's not about a tree," Miller said. "This is the first time that has ever happened. We've had ornaments taken from the tree but nothing like this."

Call me a cost/benefit kind of guy but it occurs to me that all the work it takes to steal a bunch of copper wiring and strip it with gasoline would be less profitable than going and getting a job.

Burning down a Christmas tree?

Now that's "progressive"!

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Maybe he was just born that way

So a prominent "progressive" has been charged with incest with a female relative.........

A popular Columbia professor was charged Thursday with incest - accused of a sick sex relationship with a female relative, prosecutors said.

Political science Prof. David Epstein, 46, bedded the young woman over a three-year period ending last year, according to court papers.

He was arraigned before a Manhattan judge on a single felony incest count.

"We ask that everyone remember that he is innocent until proven otherwise and that these allegations are nothing more than allegations," said Epstein's defense lawyer Matthew Galluzzo.
University spokesman Robert Hornsby said that Epstein "is now on administrative leave and will not be teaching students."

Epstein, who specializes in American politics and voting rights,
has taught at Harvard and Stanford and often is quoted by news organizations. He also has blogged on The Huffington Post.

So if you are of the ilk to back same sex marriage let me ask you some questions about this case.

Does the thought of having sex with a relative make your skin crawl?

Even the article references the relationship as a "sick sex relationship". How is it that the author of this article can judge this relationship as sick but yet call someone a bigot if they believe the thought of a man sticking a penis into another man's anus is just as sick? After all, I thought we established a long time ago that our sexual preferences were a result of "being born that way".

If you knew David Epstein personally, would his actions here change your opinion of him?

Instead of being charged with a crime, shouldn't he be allowed to marry this relative?

Why hasn't the relative been charged with a crime? Wasn't she a consenting adult engaging in the same behavior? They won't even publish her name?

I'm guessing that Columbia offers same sex benefits to their employees. Shouldn't Epstein be allowed to marry his honey so he can add her to his benefits?

If Epstein had sex with a male relative, would he have been charged?

So under what criteria does someone who believes in same sex marriage deny the obvious attraction between two consenting adults the same "right"?

My point here is that we have all kinds of laws regulating sex in this country, and actually few laws against gays that are enforced. In addition, we all have sexual preferences we find disgusting and/or perverted. Yet if you find the act of homosexuality one of those acts, you're labelled a bigot.

So if you think of this man as some kind of disgusting creep, are you not every bit as "bigotted" as people who do not want same sex marriage?

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