Tax the Rich, The Critique

On Dec 6th, Tunnel Wall posted this article about a video narrated by Ed Asner: Calif. Teachers Union Releases Cartoon Video Featuring ‘The Rich’ Urinating on the Poor. Accompanying it was text that included these words by Prof. William Jacobsen , who blogs at Legal Insurrection :

When Soviet-style propaganda comes to America, it will be published by the California Federation of Teachers and narrated by Ed Asner
"The video is reminiscent of Soviet anti-capitalist propaganda cartoons, with gross caricatures of voracious rich people feeding off the poor:"

Now we have a critique of this video with point-by-point refutation of Mr. Asner's claims.
"Lee Doren presents a scene by scene critique of the controversial cartoon ‘Tax the Rich’ which was paid for by a California Teachers Union."

Spaghetti with Regulation Sauce; Restaurant owners work overtime to figure out Obamacare.

As usual, wondering fearfully what our government will do to us next.
Weekly Standard "One common misconception about the health care law is that employers could avoid the mandate entirely by replacing their full-time employees with a greater number of part-time employees. That’s not going to work. They would still face a mandate, although it would only apply to their full-time employees.

floppingaces.net/

"There’s a reason the law refers not to full-time employees but full-time equivalents. Under Obamacare full-time employees are those who work more than 120 hours per month. Two part-time employees who each work 60 hours in a month would be counted as an additional full-time worker in determining whether the business falls over or under the 50-employee divide. So an employer must sum all the hours his part-timers work over the course of a month and divide that total by 120 to determine how many “full-time equivalent” employees he has. The only real way to avoid the mandate, then, is to keep your business small."
...."If you’re a business close to the 50 full-time equivalent mark, a heavy summer season or a holiday rush could put you over the top.
"The mandate takes effect in 2014 but will be based on the prior 12 months. So starting in January 2013, owners will need to keep a close watch on their employees’ hours. At the end of the year, they’ll know their situation better."

http://obamacartoon.blogspot.com/2010/09/obamacare.html

But wait! There's more! Domino’s Founder Files Lawsuit Challenging HHS Mandate  "Monaghan’s plight is a dramatic illustration of the coercive “incentives” built into Obamacare, which has concentrated broad powers in the hands of the federal government. This gross government overreach even extends to commandeering religious employers into directly paying for drugs and services that violate their faith despite conscientious objections."

I kinda like this sign...

Hey, it works in Israel.

Sometimes You Just Have To Do Something…

"In the meantime, I sympathize with liberals who say we need to do something right now…something like banning random types of firearms, for no particular reason. No, seriously–I get the fact that sometimes we need to do something, just to make a statement…to show that we care…even if what we do is only symbolic. I agree that this is such a time. So this morning, I joined the NRA."

From Power Line

New Study Finds Democrats Fully to Blame for Subprime Mortgage Crisis that Caused 2008 Financial Disaster

The Gateway Pundit  "In his early activist days, Barack Obama the community organizer sued banks to ease lending practices.

"State Sen. Barack Obama and Fr. Michael Pfleger led a protest against the payday loan industry demanding the State of Illinois to regulate loan businesses in January 2000. During his time as a community organizer Barack Obama led several protests against banks to make loans to high risk individuals."

Democrats and the media insist the Community Reinvestment Act, the anti-redlining law beefed up by President Clinton, had nothing to do with the subprime mortgage crisis and recession.
But a new study by the respected National Bureau of Economic Research finds, “Yes, it did. We find that adherence to that act led to riskier lending by banks.”....More...

Hat tip to The Infidel Bloggers Alliance

For you low-information voters who re-elected Obama, here is a summary of this story:  Obama and other Democrats applied pressure on the mortgage industry. I believe charges of "racism" were leveled and the industry buckled, giving loans to people who went in knowing they could not pay for these.
 In spite of warnings from the Bush Administration, the housing industry collapsed, causing the US economy to fall into what is called "the Great Recession" at the end of the Bush Administration. This led to the mess that Obama has repeatedly said he "inherited". Obama has pushed this "inherited" excuse for over four years (accurately enough, save for who caused it), blaming it on President Bush, unfairly.
All this has been absorbed by the low-information electorate (watchers of The View,Oprah, People Magazine readers, Obamaphone recipients,and all TV shows into the late evening,  et al) who number about fifty million.
I'm not sure news people on the networks, CNN and MSNBC could be classified as "low-information", but as collaborators. Rather than being "low-information" people themselves, they helped create those low-information voters.
I believe it is accurate to say that President Bush inherited this economic mess from Barack Obama. Obama is now doubling down on these actions, making them even more draconian, so we can expect the next administration to inherit a big mess from all this. TD

Stalin's birthday marked in Russia and beyond

Bruce Springsteen and Pete Seeger to lead the California Legislature in singing "Happy Birthday".

Sacramento Bee  "... several ethnic Crimean Tatars trashed a small street exhibition on Stalin. The entire Crimean Tatar population of Ukraine was hastily deported in cattle trains on Stalin's orders in 1944 for their alleged collaboration with Nazi Germans during World War II. Of the 200,000 Crimean Tatars, almost a fifth died of starvation and diseases, and the survivors were allowed to return only in the late 1980s.

"... Stalin ordered the deaths of at least 724,000 people during the purges and repression of the 1930s, while millions died as a result of the forced labor system in Gulags, the Soviet prison system.

"But, some people believe he was a strong and valiant leader whose grip on the nation was needed for security and his popularity in Russia has been climbing amid Kremlin-backed efforts to defend his image. "
Everyone but liberals have misunderstood M. Stalin and failed to see his real greatness.

The roots of mass murder

Charles Krauthammer 

"Every mass shooting has three elements: the killer, the weapon and the cultural climate. As soon as the shooting stops, partisans immediately pick their preferred root cause with corresponding pet panacea. Names are hurled, scapegoats paraded, prejudices vented. The argument goes nowhere.

"Let’s be serious:"....

...."The majority of those sleeping on grates are mentally ill. In the name of civil liberties, we let them die with their rights on.
"A tiny percentage of the mentally ill become mass killers. Just about everyone around Tucson shooter Jared Loughner sensed he was mentally ill and dangerous. But in effect, he had to kill before he could be put away — and (forcibly) treated. "

...."While law deters the rational, it has far less effect on the psychotic. The best we can do is to try to detain them, disarm them and discourage “entertainment” that can intensify already murderous impulses.

"But there’s a cost. "....

http://cartoonsbyhenry.com/

‘Queen James Bible' Scrubs 'Homophobic’ Passages

CNS News " “The Queen James Bible (QJB) is a big, fabulous Bible,” its website explains. Released on Nov. 27 by a publisher named “Queen James,” anonymous editors say they “wanted to make a book filled with the word of God that nobody could use to incorrectly condemn God’s LGBT children.”

" “And we succeeded,” they said.
"LGBT stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender.
"The "Queen James" Bible changes a total of eight verses in the King James Version that deal with homosexuality, which it says are used by “anti-LGBT religious activists” to condemn homosexuals."
More excerpts from the CNS article:
...." “We side with most Bible scholars who understand the story of Sodom and Gomorra(sic) to be about bullying strangers,” it states under “Editor’s Notes.” "
...."The editors also argue that Leviticus 18:22, which labels sexual relations between two men an “abomination,” would mean only “scandalous” in today’s world."...." “Given the definition of the Hebrew word … we suggest that by today’s standards, a biblical abomination would be understood to be ‘scandalous.’” "
...."“Commonly known to biographers but often surprising to most Christians, King James I was a well-known bisexual,” the editors write. “Though he did marry a woman, his many gay relationships were so well-known that amongst some of his friends and court, he was known as ‘Queen James.’” "

(UPDATED) Unverified Report Claims Westboro Baptist Church's Plans to Picket Sandy Hook Funerals Thwarted by Good Samaritan Bikers

Seeking confirmation of this story; The Newtown Bee has no mention of these bikers attending yet.  Nor does the Woodbury newspaper. Below is what we have found on the story. Tunnel Dweller.

Update from Dec 15th: Connecticut school shooting: Protest planned to stop Westboro Baptist Church  Counter-protest Facebook page here. Excerpt from the Facebook page:

There was a collection of mostly local people on the Woodbury town green from noon on, growing to over a hundred by 2pm. People ... formed a human wall to block the signs of any would be protestors. There was also a number of members of a biker club, and visible police presence. The Westborough Baptist Church ... did not show up. The atmosphere was quiet and respectful for the sake of the families. .... I believe our numbers and our determination to not create a media scene or any trouble they could capitalize off of dissuaded them from showing up today.

The Stir   "Anyway, after Westboro threatened to picket the funerals of these innocent children (but haven't actually done so yet so far as I can tell), strangers from all over traveled to Newtown to form a human chain to block messages of hate from the eyes of the grieving townspeople. These human chains have been formed before at the funerals of soldiers.

"This time, a line of motorcyclists formed on the streets to keep watch for the Westboro loonies. "All these guys see us and think we're bad. We're not. It's solidarity, is what it is," New York biker Jim Hannigan told a reporter. "I just felt I had to be here." Seriously, Westboro, do you want to mess with bikers?!

"I don't know what kind of God Westboro Church believes in, but it's not the God the majority of people believe in. The idea that God sent down a reign of terror on Connecticut because of its gay marriage laws is absurd. But, you know, there's all kinds of nutty people in this world. I think this group only gets attention because it calls itself a church. I really feel sorry for the children (most of them children of the pastor) who are stuck in this "church.""

Westboro Baptist Church to picket Sandy Hook funerals: 4 ways to respond "How do you solve a problem like Westboro Baptist Church? Here are a few options."

Photo above from Hells Angels-1 Westboro Baptist Church-0  This story is unverified by other sources; "A group of other "Angels" and their leather clad brethren formed a human chain along the road in Woodbury to protect the mourners at Sandy Hook Elementary School principal Dawn Hochsprung's services today alongside firefighters and town's folk. It worked, the WBC stood down. "

Left Wing Strategy Exposed in John Kerry’s Letter

John LaRosa  "On a more serious note, I found the text of Kerry’s letter to be quite revealing. It is a blueprint for the 2010 liberal game plan! The first paragraph sets the tone:

 track-em-down.com  from 2004

“I have been a senator for 25 years and I’ve never seen anything like this. As President Obama works to dig us out of a deep hole and build our country back up, the Republicans in Washington at the highest levels have adopted an entirely different goal: Force his failure. It disgusts me every time I see it.”

"Analysis: Demonize dissent. Imply Republican racism and personal animosity toward Obama. Remind people about the famous “inherited mess”. Label Republicans as “obstructionist” and “The Party of No”. Feign indignation." 

news.shm.com

Continuing further, Mr. La Rosa makes another point:

"Later in Kerry’s comical yet disturbing letter, he revealed the tired and increasingly ineffective strategy of isolating and demonizing Tea Party patriots.

“We must defend our majority against a Tea Partier crowd that wants to make the ideology of the far right fringe the basic operating procedure of the federal government.

"Analysis: Use the word “crowd” to imply “dangerous mob”. Label the Tea Party as “extremists” with the word “fringe”. Link a grassroots, bottom-up movement to a top-down GOP strategy."
(Emphases in the original)    Via Conservative Bloggers on Facebook

As the world ends, let's look back on 2012

Jib Jab, who else?  Since the world is about to end or fall off some cliff, this could be my final post, but it is a good one. The Tunnel Dweller

Commentary on the failure of Plan B

TD honestly has nothing but ignorance to pass on to you, so instead of doing that, here is the research I have been doing on the Plan B affair. Take it for what it is worth to you.

American Thinker; Boehner and Cantor Must Go "...Speaker Boehner's plan to raise taxes didn't woo GOP House caucus members or tea parties and grassroots conservatives across the republic. Boehner and his team were effectively trying to legislate against their party's conservative base and the outcome was thankfully predictable.

Human Events; House Speaker John Boehner on Friday morning blamed a Republican Party defection over his “Plan B” tax proposal on a misconception that the measure was a tax increase that could be used against the members.  "Boehner (R-Ohio) also told reporters he did not believe the late-night defection put his speakership at risk."  Plan B collapses; "The collapse was announced shortly after an emergency GOP conference was called at 7:45 p.m. to count votes and twist arms, just moments before the legislation was to be debated on the House floor."   Also this.

ABC's Jonathan Karl asks, "Now what?"   "Tea party groups including Heritage Action, Freedom Works and the Club for Growth –ruined Boehner’s Plan B." This and the next via Lucianne

American Spectator; Reagan’s House Heroes Stop Plan B  "What is the take away here? This was a botched GOP House Leadership issue. It is exactly what happens when the governing principle is deal making and not principle."  The article quotes Mark Levin:

I just don’t think he’s up to the monumental task of saving the country from Obama’s designs. It’s time for the Republicans to seriously reassess what they’re doing.

Legal Insurrection; Plan B fails — Now the House needs to consider Plan C

  "The basic premise is that no agreement can be reached with Obama this calendar year because any deal Obama will offer when he thinks we are under the pressure of a year end “cliff” will be horrible. And sure enough, what little movement the White House has made has been horrible."

WSJ; Plan B's Demise  "Some leadership aides now fear the terms of the deal with Mr. Obama will only get worse for Republicans after Christmas, or if we go over the cliff in a week and a half. The question almost no Republican could answer after Mr. Boehner's embarrassing setback is: What is Plan C?"

Pedophiles and the Regulation of Hugging

CATO  via Heritage  "Concerns about protecting children may deprive them of important physical contact."

http://imagesbycat.com/

My wife and I worked with children in AWANA for 25 years in a rough area of town with many, um, dysfunctional families represented among our kids. Many were badly in need of an adult's tender, loving touch and responded hungrily to love. We were circumspect in our giving of affection and diligent about screening our workers, but felt the warning not to hug your kids left all with an emptiness that cried out to be filled.

What is not appreciated is how pedophiles have indirectly harmed tens of millions of children, especially disadvantaged children, whom the pedophiles have never touched. This harm comes in the form of institutional policies on how supervising adults can interact—or, rather, not interact—with children. In the main, incidences of pedophilia, both proven and unproven, have led to institutional regulations that restrict adult caregivers, teachers, ministers, and coaches—among other adults who have regular contact with children—from hugging (or even touching)

children under their care and instruction. For fear of being wrongly accused of child molestation, many adults have increased the distance they stay from children.

The article gives us this advice on overcautious guidelines:

The problem with restrictive hugging policies is that hugs can be good for children’s souls, minds, and behaviors, which can have subsequent beneficial economic consequences.

I cautioned my leaders about the dangers of hugging, but one man told me, "These kids need to be hugged and I love hugging them!" I knew this man for decades and saw his gift with children,  how they loved him and his gift for making them feel loved. My misguided advice-regardless of it being well-intentioned- would have denied those children something they were badly in need of.
The Tunnel Dweller