Thursday, October 07, 2010

The Best Way to Objectively Measure Just How Bad This President Is

Epiphany: please consider the following historical chart for the price of gold. The red line represents the price in 2010 inflation-adjusted U.S. dollars while the black line reflects the nominal price in dollars.

I've highlighted the two worst spikes in gold prices which correspond -- shockingly -- to the erratic presidencies of James Earl Carter and Barack Milhaus Obama.

It would appear that the price of gold is an excellent proxy for the level of horror the world feels when the American president is incompetent and/or an ideologue.

The Carter era was riddled with crises: Russia rolled into Afghanistan unopposed; the Sheiks touched off an oil crisis; the Iranian clerics deposed the Shah and launched the hostage fiasco; etc. The uncertainty caused a massive spike in gold prices as investors around the globe sought a safe haven to hedge against disaster.

Similarly, the Obama administration has displayed a complete disregard for the Iranian nuclear menace, exhibited indecision in Afghanistan; has devalued the U.S. dollar with debt monetization and unsustainable deficit spending; has created new entitlement programs when the old ones are heading for disaster; and callously disregarded the will of an angry American electorate.

Put simply: when gold spikes, you know the American President is sowing investor uncertainty, whether through incompetence, ideology or malice. That people are scurrying to gold tells you that this President is a walking, talking catastrophe.


Postscript: It's worth noting that the left also played a significant role in undermining the Vietnam War effort and, ultimately, touching off the resignation of Richard M. Nixon (who truly was a shyster). That era, too, corresponds with a spike in gold.

Hat tips for chart: Wikipedia and RealTerm.de.


Larwyn's Linx: You Can’t Fix the Courts Without Winning Elections

Have a great link you'd like me to review? Drop me an email. You can also install a Larwyn's Linx blog widget.

Nation

You Can’t Fix the Courts Without Winning Elections: Patterico
Democrat Dirty Tricks: A Primer on Stealing Elections: AT
Leftist Groups Up To Usual Tricks In Florida: Riehl

The Two Faces of Michelle Obama: Malkin
Why Blacks, Hispanics May Win Race for Fiorina: Uncoverage
Lawyer Lobby Looks to Destroy Second Amendment: PJM

Economy

Good News: The Deficit Is a Myth: Wizbang
'Superman': Finally, Liberals Attempt to Break Teachers' Unions: Econ
New GM, Same Old Union?: McArdle

Labor Unions Look to Rescue Feingold in Wisconsin: PJM
Another Fed Investigation Launched Into Delphi Disaster: Malkin
Feds Build $1B Office Complex, Forget Parking and Roads: RWN

Obama, Bernanke Have Us Facing the Abyss: PJM
Under the TARP: AT
Bob Etheridge’s Death Tax Flip Flop: RWN

Climate & Energy

'Green Supremacists': Driscoll
Soros, Ford Foundation Behind Video Game AgitProp: Ameristroika
White House blocked scientists from disclosing BP spill details: GWP

Media

Explaining November: Sense of Events
A Post for New, or Striving Bloggers: Riehl
Whitman’s Ex-Housekeeper’s Attorney has Ties to Terrorism, Democrats: Uncoverage

A cover-up on Able Danger?: Hot Air
Thank the NRA for the Death of 'Disclose': AT
Stunner. Media Misreports Todd Palin Non-Scandal & Leaks His Email Address: GWP

Erasing America: Barack Obama's Motivation and Method: AT
Lindsey Graham and Cap-and-Tax: Hewitt
Incumbents clam up about their track records: Sowell

World

Jan of Arizona: Babalu
This Week in Eugenics!: Zombie
Kapo Street Co-Founder Daniel Levy: Israel’s Creation “An Act That Was Wrong”: Mere Rhetoric

While Obama Is Golfing, Mexico Is Tearing Itself To Pieces: RWN
This quiet soft spoken revolutionary will destroy the euro union apartheid state--and, he will do it from prison: WinterSoldier
Welfare Queens: Who Should We Really Be Outraged At?: RWN

SciTech

The .ly domain space to be considered unsafe: Ben Metcalfe
Government wants cars to get 659 MPG by 2050: BlogProf
Libya Shuts Down Vb.ly - Bit.ly, Ow.ly Next?: RWW

Cornucopia

The Odds over at InTrade: Ace
The Top 20 “Why I’m Voting Democrat” Tweets: RWN
When Sean Bielat Isn't Killing Terrorists, He's Building Robots That Scare The S*** Out of Barney Frank: Ace

Images: Maktoob
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Retire Barney Frank

Wednesday, October 06, 2010

Top and Right

This pretty much explains it.




Hat tip: Via Daieny.

10 Most Outrageous Government Pay Packages #taxpayer #ripoff #seiu

After the arrests of city officials in Bell, California -- where a city manager was pulling down the paltry salary of $800,000 -- you'd think state and local officials would become hyper-sensitive to outsized compensation packages. But, since we're discussing Democrats and union bosses, you'd be wrong.

According to MSNBC's RedTape, 10 of the worst offenders include these fine fellows:

1. San Diego, CA: A retired police officer un-retired, draws $190,000-a-year in salary, another $90,000-a-year in pension and collected $562,000 in a lump-sum pension payout.

2. Sacramento County, CA: 53 retired county sheriff's deputies were paid $300,000 in pension checks while also collecting unemployment.

3. Highland Park, IL: a park director in this Chicago suburb made $435,000 annually (salary and bonuses) and retired with a $166,000-a-year pension.

4. Bellwood, IL: a retired city administrator in this town west of Chicago made $472,000 in 2009, then retired and is now paid $250,000 a year annually in pension payments.

5. Miami, FL: The city faces a $118 million budget shortfall and may lay off 200 city workers. Meanwhile, the county manager makes $425,000 a year and about 100 city workers make over $200,000 annually.

6. Laughlin, NV: This tiny town of about 7,000 paid its top ten public employees $3,000,000 last year.

7. Jefferson County, AL: The county attorney makes $375,000-a-year in arguably the most disastrously managed county in the land. A series of screwed-up financial transactions left it owing $6 billion to debtors.

8. San Juan Capistrano, CA: The tiny town of 36,000 employed one man in two jobs, allowing him to initially escape scrutiny. His total pay package: $324,000-a-year.

9. Vernon, CA: This tiny town, population 96, employed one bureaucrat in five jobs, allowing him to collect $500,000 annually in pension payments. As a bonus, he's also awaiting trial on embezzlement charges.

10. Avenal, CA: The prison dentist earned $621,000 last year. In fact, 37 state dentists earned around $300,000 or more.

The serial abuse of the taxpayers in California and Illinois defies rational explanation, until you stop and remember that the liberal majority keeps electing Democrats and crooks. But I repeat myself.


Harry Reid's Plan D: "None of the Above"

In Nevada, voters can actually choose a non-candidate named None of the above on their ballots.

With Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's popularity slipping to a disastrously low 40% in his home state, Democrat tacticians appear to have launched Plan D.

Plan A, of course, was to ride the popularity of ObamaCare, Porkulus, TARP and 15% unemployment in Nevada to an easy victory. After 17 seconds, the Democrat brain-trust switched to Plan B.

Plan B attempted to paint Sharron Angle as an extremist tea-bagger who wanted to slash the size of government so that it would live within its means. After about 12 minutes, Democrats realized that approach might be a problem as well.

Plan C was designed to cleverly split the conservative vote by introducing a fake Tea Party candidate. After a long weekend, that bizarre plot imploded with the expected splash-back on the guilty Democrat coordinators.

The current plan, codenamed 'Plan Delta', is to concede that Reid is wildly unpopular. Seeing as how "None of the Above" is a valid ballot choice, Reid is intentionally marketing that selection as a logical alternative.

If that doesn't work, Plan E is, of course, the Democrats' traditional modus operandi: use illegal immigrants, ACORN-style vote fraud, felons, deceased voters and other Democrat stalwarts to swing a 400-vote victory, a la Al Franken.

Bottom line: support Sharron Angle for U.S. Senate now and we won't have Harry Reid to worry about much longer.

I call that Plan F Harry Reid.


Hat tip: Michelle Malkin.

The Obama Omen

For a man fixated on the trappings of power -- to the point that he used a faux presidential seal during his campaign -- this had to be a tad discomfiting.

Barack Obama looks for the presidential seal after it falls off his podium at Fortune magazine's Most Powerful Women summit.

Dan from New York adds, "After less than two years, his empire is crumbling. Video proof here."


Time-Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes: We Don't Care What Channels You Want, Peons, You'll Get What We Tell You--And You'll Like It

Today's Wall Street Journal features an op-ed ("The Coming Golden Age of Television") by Time-Warner Chairman and CEO Jeff Bewkes that perfectly illustrates all that's wrong with the cable industry.

Consider that video on the Internet -- YouTube, Hulu, LiveLeak and many others -- has revolutionized and democratized on-demand media. Cable television, on the other hand, offers virtually no choice, with "packages" or bundles of channels sold almost exclusively in blocks. A central planner sitting at Bewkes' side decides what channels you'll get, when you get them, and how much you'll pay. Innovative!

And rather than try to morph cable into a consumer-centric, Internet-like palette of infinite choice, Bewkes and his emissaries in Washington are trying to freeze time in the mistaken belief that it will stabilize their revenues.

...television is at a critical moment in its evolution. Whether audiences continue to enjoy this golden era of TV will depend largely on whether content creators continue to stay apace of consumer needs and make strategic decisions that favor long-term sustainability over short-term dollars.

In other words, content creators shouldn't try to go direct to the consumer and bypass all of the added value of cable companies like Time-Warner. That added value consists of bandwidth and... uhm... well, er, eh... bandwidth.

I believe the best path for TV's next phase is clear. For the past 15 months, Time Warner, along with a growing number of content and distribution companies, has been implementing a new strategy called TV Everywhere. It operates on a simple but powerful premise: If you have access to television in your home—whether through rabbit ears or a paid cable, satellite or telco subscription—you should be able to view all the channels you receive on demand on whatever broadband device you wish... That means on-demand access to your favorite shows not only on the TV in your living room but also on your laptop or tablet...

Brilliant, Bewkesy! TV everywhere means: rather than bring the power of the Internet to TV delivery, the cable industry wants to bring its limited choices to the Internet. Absolute genius!

Because TV Everywhere is an idea and not an object, it may lack some of the glitz factor of new devices and services recently announced by Amazon, Apple, Google, Sony and others. These "over-the-top" devices and services allow companies to tap into viewers' love of TV... But let's be clear about what these new entrants are not: They are neither programmers nor distributors. Of course many of them want to turn themselves into content retailers or aggregators of programming, or they want to create another layer between content creators and their audiences.

Yes, they want to displace the cable industry for two reasons: because it is stuck in the delivery model of the nineteen-eighties and, eh, because it sucks.

One of the reasons why television has performed well while other media industries have struggled is that TV has developed a system of dual revenues from subscribers and advertisers that has served viewers successfully in digital formats for three decades now, leading to an explosion of choice for consumers at a reasonable value and programming that is ever more original, diverse and daring.

As long as that programming is allowed by the central planners at Time-Warner, that is.

...Networks with strong brand identities—ESPN or the Discovery Channel, for example—are able to program to a very specific voice, allowing advertisers to reach targeted consumers in a way most media cannot...

Is Bewkes saying that it's harder to target consumers on the Internet than on cable TV? Yes, he is -- and he deserves to be roundly ridiculed for such a laughable falsehood. Google, X+1, MediaMath, Turn, and other advertising platforms provide the most precise consumer targeting on the planet. Combined with on-demand, democratized video publishing and delivery, cable companies could launch a veritable explosion of innovation -- perhaps a "Web 3.0".

But, like the music industry in the era of Napster, the corporate bean-counters and bureaucrats in cable-land can't read the writing on the wall.

TV Everywhere is not about favoring one TV network model over another, or protecting outdated paradigms. It's about harnessing technology to redefine TV in the 21st century in a way that continues to give viewers the best possible experience, and ensures that great programming will continue to be created and enjoyed.

What a load of manure.

If the cable industry cared about consumers, it would have begun piloting GoogleTV and other systems that blend the Internet and video delivery in new and creative ways. They would test consumer-centric entertainment solutions built around choice and that harnessed the wisdom of crowds.

Instead, like the wireless carriers who wanted to build "walled gardens" and limit consumer choice, the cable companies are living in the past. They can't see the far higher profit potential that awaits the companies brave enough to innovate around the consumer.

The wireless carriers' walled garden plans were quickly blown to smithereens by the iPhone, the BlackBerry and other wonderful and innovative devices. So too will the cable bundles of yesteryear disappear. Bewkes and his blinkered accountants appear to have all the vision of the geniuses at the record labels who shut down Napster when they could have built a magnificent and profitable new music platform.

Mr. Bewkes: best I can foresee, the "Golden Age of Television" will begin when you and your unimaginative competitors figure out what's best for the consumer will also be best for your bottom line.


Larwyn's Linx: Exposed: Brown, Allred, and the Whitman Smear

Have a great link you'd like me to review? Drop me an email. You can also install a Larwyn's Linx blog widget.

Nation

Exposed: Jerry Brown, Gloria Allred, and the Whitman Smear: Riehl
Hey Progressives, Are You Motivated Yet?: LegalIns
“Hispanics” Are “Disillusioned”?: Babalu

Five Bad Omens for the Left: RWN
Angle Builds Lead; Fake Tea Party Candidate Skirts Law: GWP
Clueless GOP appeaser of the day: Joseph Cao: Malkin

Zombie Apocalypse Election: Ace
The Liberal/Democrat Civil War: Troglopundit
Meg Whitman’s Nightmare, Marc Van der Hout, a UN Narc: WZ

Economy

Ouch: McMahon Stumps Blumenthal--How Do You Create a Job?: GWP
I.G. tackles Obama's use of tax records against Koch: WZ
Hip Hop Curriculum Teaches Kids to Hate Our Great Presidents: RWN

Five Societal Trends That Signal Nation’s Decline: PJM
About that burned-down house: Q&O
Obama and the Fed courting disaster: NJ

Climate & Energy

China, the rare earth metals crisis & Obama’s green agenda: Malkin
Are You Ready For A Study On How Camel Poots Affect Climate Change?: RWN
Brrr... Severe Spring Storms Kill Off Hundreds of Thousands of Lamb in New Zealand: GWP

Media

This Autumn I Hear the Drumming, More Brain-Dead in Old WaPo: Driscoll
L.A. Times’s Fake Front Pages Nothing New — And Doing Nothing to Save the Paper: Patterico
Rep. Loretta Sanchez and the Bathos of Race: Hanson

Single Biggest Complaint With the Media: RWN
Media Research Center’s Campaign Begins – Challenges ‘Liberal’ Media To “Tell The Truth”: RWN
Obama Gets Advice From Another Proven Winner: Malkin

Liberal Assclown o' the Day Winner: Richard Cohen: Powers
Obama's been working on his "rap palate": Pundette
Todd Palin vs. Joe Miller: the Email War: Patterico

World

For Obama, Mexico Comes First: AT
Government-Run Health Care: UK pundit advises the murder of all disabled children: BlogProf
George Schultz Observes That Obama Is Out of His Mind: RWN

“Moderate” Indonesia: Nearly 60% Oppose Allowing Christians to Build New Churches…: WZ
The Left's Terror Folly: AT
Why Americans Need to Support Geert: AT

SciTech

Google: Oracle's Java patent suit invalid: CNet
Pushing Junk Science on Children: AT
The BlackBerry Tablet: Engadget

Cornucopia

Why I'm Voting Democrat: Ace
Presidential Podium Blooper: New Ledger
Michelle Solicits Me: Surber

Image: Barking Crayon.
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Buh-Bye, Harry Reid

Tuesday, October 05, 2010

The Road to Single-Payer: Record High 26.3% of Americans Already Have Government-Run Health Care

Years before its full implementation, Obamacare has already had quite an impact: it has forced companies to terminate retiree health care benefits; it has pushed health insurers out of the business; and monthly premiums are skyrocketing.

Bottom line: if you like your current health care plan, too freaking bad, peon. The Democrats are on the way to single-payer with their top-down, Soviet-style health care 'law' passed during the dead of night in the form of a 2,600-page monstrosity that no one bothered to read.

More American adults reported having government healthcare -- Medicare, Medicaid, or military/veterans' benefits -- in September (26.3%) than in any previous month since Gallup and Healthways began tracking it in January 2008, at which time the figure stood at 22.5%.


The increase in government insurance partially offsets the decline in employer-based insurance seen since January 2008 -- a decline that started in the fall of 2008 as the financial crisis exploded and large-scale layoffs began. The 45.4% of adults who reported they had employer-based coverage in September is statistically unchanged from the summer months, but down from earlier this year, and significantly lower than the 50% who said the same in January 2008.

The percentage of Americans without health insurance was 16.1% last month, about on par with the 16.6% in August, but still higher than the 14.8% in January 2008.

Oh, Melvin: he's so historic.


Report: UN names GOP celebrity as UN ambassador to aliens

FWR writes:

You know that UN 'ambassador to aliens' position? Behold, Princess Lisa of the planet Oligarchon:


She's quite a prize.


Hey, Obama was right! The rise of the oceans IS slowing and the planet IS healing, if the 'coldest winter in 1,000 years' is any indication

"...this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal; this was the moment when we ended a war and secured our nation and restored our image as the last, best hope on earth. This was the moment—this was the time—when we came together to remake this great nation..." -- Barack Obama, 3 June 2008

Dude! Obama fixed global warming! He was right for once! He's healed the planet!

Coldest winter in 1,000 years on its way


After the record heat wave this summer, Russia's weather seems to have acquired a taste for the extreme... Forecasters say this winter could be the coldest Europe has seen in the last 1,000 years.

The change is reportedly connected with the speed of the Gulf Stream, which has shrunk in half in just the last couple of years. Polish scientists say that it means the stream will not be able to compensate for the cold from the Arctic winds.

According to them, when the stream is completely stopped, a new Ice Age will begin in Europe...

Al Gore's career counselor could not be reached for comment at press time.


Ruh Roh: In Just the Last Few Months, China Has Suffered a $100 Billion Loss on its Investments in U.S. Treasuries

Tyler Durden observes that the United States' biggest loan-shark -- the People's Republic of China -- has suffered a $100 billion loss in its investment in Treasuries.

...at the end of July... China owned $847 billion in US Treasury bonds. Since then, the world's reserve currency, which is what said Treasuries are denominated in, has lost 4.7%, or $40 billion in real terms. Yet an even more jarring observation is that from its June highs, the USD has dropped 12.4%. Expressed in real terms from the perspective of China's State Administration of Foreign Exchange, this means that our biggest creditor has lost over $100 billion when adjusted for the purchasing power loss in the dollar.

how much longer will Beijing tolerate the USD devaluation by Ben Bernanke? Instead of Congress being so focused on getting China to revalue the Renminbi, perhaps they should be more concerned what happens when China realizes its investment in US securities now carries the threat of total loss at the pace Bernanke is destroying the reserve (for now) currency.

And this calculation should also be applied to the Fed as well: instead of parading how much money the Fed has made on behalf of taxpayers on its $2.4 trillion UST holdings, perhaps Bernanke can adjusted this number for the dollar value loss. Somehow we think the result would not be quite as attractive.

If you owe a loan-shark, say, $15 grand -- and come up short one week -- odds are that three thick-set men wearing leather coats will show up in your living room at 3am. And then the best possible outcome is a broken leg. I mean, I'm just guessing here, not that I know first-hand. Seriously. No, I mean it.

So what happens when your economic policies cost your loan-shark $100 billion, President Obama?


Good news for Floridians: EPA levies water regulations that are 'nearly impossible to meet' and will require 'staggering costs' to implement

Isn't a giant, unelected, unaccountable, and unconstitutional bureaucracy wonderful?

The Northwest Florida Daily News describes the latest efforts by the EPA to bankrupt state and local governments. Consider: the EPA consists of thousands of crackpots whose entire job revolves around dreaming up new ways to regulate you. Their latest brainstorm: 'Numeric Nutrient Standards' that will cost just one small city in Florida $32 million to implement.

A contentious federal rule regulating nutrients in Florida’s waterways could cost the city $32 million to implement, officials say... The Crestview City Council has joined cities across the state by approving a resolution that condemns the Environmental Protection Agency’s requirement titled Numeric Nutrient Standards... The regulation imposes water pollution standards critics say will be nearly impossible to meet.

...The EPA has singled out Florida for implementation of the rule, which is scheduled to take effect Nov. 14. Opponents say the agency is using the state as a guinea pig to test the new rules... Iannucci said an analysis of the EPA directive shows it requires the state to make spring water even cleaner than naturally occurring spring water already is, “which is technologically impossible.”

...The EPA agreed to set the rule to settle a lawsuit by environmental groups and to comply with federal law... The cost could be staggering if the new rule is implemented, Steele said... "The only way we could come close to it (the new guidelines) would be reverse osmosis," a process that could cost $32 million and that "still isn’t guaranteed to work," he said.

The EPA needs to be de-funded completely.

That will throw thousands of eco-Marxists out of work, which will force them to get real jobs. And learn how the private sector works.

And it will also reduce the EPA's carbon footprint.


Hat tip: S&J.

Larwyn's Linx: Another Massachusetts Miracle--Toppling Barney Frank

Have a great link you'd like me to review? Drop me an email. You can also install a Larwyn's Linx blog widget.

Nation

Wanted: Another Massachusetts Miracle--Toppling Barney Frank: RWN
Obama's Pumpkin: AT
Colorado Watch: Tancredo for Governor: Malkin

'OneNation' Was Actually A March Of America’s Enemies: Strata
#OneNation Under Obama Has No Respect for America: PJM
Christine O'Donnell Ad: She’s Awfully Hard to Hate: AmSpec

The Urban Plantation: AT
The Federal Suit Against Arizona: PJM
Destroying the First Amendment: RWN

Economy

AFT distributes Soviet-style cartoon propaganda: Ameristroika
Democrat Introduces Legislation to End Right-to-Work States: BigGovt
Golden State 'Outsourced' By Boxer: IBD

Oh, Noes: Special Interest Campaign Spending Way Up!: RWN
Princeton Study Links Obama to Current Financial Meltdown: GWP
The Erosion of American Higher Education: AT

$69M in Cali Welfare Spent Out of State; $12M in Vegas: GWP
York: The Unions Show Their ‘Diversity’: S&L
ObamaCare Breaks the Top Ten: AT

Climate & Energy

Bin Laden Jumps the Shark: Endorses Global Warming Scam: Moonbattery
Giving Car Salesmen a Bad Name: Moonbattery
The Green Agenda: IBD

Media

ABC Sanitizes Left Wing Rally, Excludes Communist and Socialist Signs: NewsBusters
Lefty Bloggers Eating Each Other, White House Not Amused: RWN
Daily Kos Founder: Scott Rasmussen is a "Chickensh--": PunPre

Pelosi To Punish Dems Who Criticize Her: S&L
They're All Socialists Now: AT
Mondale Decries Obama’s Use of ‘Idiot Boards’: Driscoll

World

Annals of Outreach: Hamas Operative Escorted into Top Secret Counter-Terror Site: Power Line
Thugocracy: Hugo Chavez’s latest farm grab: Malkin
This is what the thuggish redistribution of wealth looks like: Malkin

NASA ‘Outreach’ Chief Visits Saudi Arabia: S&L
European Terror Threat Related?: Drone strike kills 8 Germans in northwest Pakistan : Jawa
Britain Plunges Headlong Into Totalitarianism With Equality Act: RWN

SciTech

Toshiba unveils glasses-free 3-D TV: Globe & Mail
Partners Can Embed SugarCRM in Custom Applications: NewsFactor
New Claim: 'Coldest Winter in 1,000 Years On Its Way': RT

Cornucopia

I Wonder, Woman?: MOTUS
Separated at Birth?: Moonbattery
Daley Buddy Not Billed for Years of Water Use: RWN

Image: Maktoob -- Paris Motor Show
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Retire Barney Frank

Monday, October 04, 2010

Beautiful: Having torn the health insurance industry asunder, Democrats appear ready to lay waste to the life insurance industry

What else can one make of today's Wall Street Journal 'news' article that makes the bizarre claim that life insurance is somehow abused by the rich?

To be clear, while the op-ed page of the Journal is decidedly conservative, the news operation is something altogether different. In this case, the news editors seem to have permitted blatant propaganda. The article's theme is one of out-and-out class warfare and mimics the playbook of the Democrat Party. Worse still, the target is one of the few remaining healthy industries left standing after the meltdown of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the 'too-big-to-fail' institutions nurtured for decades by the Party of Weakness.

The life-insurance industry has enjoyed beneficial tax treatment for its products for nearly a century. Whenever Congress tried to change that, insurers always had a mantra at the ready: We protect widows and orphans.

Life insurance needs to be free from income taxes, the industry said, because of its special social function. It keeps survivors from a life of penury when a chief breadwinner dies.

But in a development all but unnoticed outside the industry, life-insurance companies gradually have shifted away from their broad historical base of middle-class households...

...Instead, statistics show, an increasing portion of insurers' business consists of selling large policies to wealthier Americans, often as part of complex estate-tax plans.

Gee, I wonder why? Perhaps the government's incessant meddling with estate taxes -- one year nothing, the next oppressively high -- makes life insurance a valuable weapon for anyone to wield?

The shift means that a growing proportion of the tax benefits of life insurance goes to the well-off, not to the middle class that once was the industry's backbone.

The industry's safety-net role is eroding just as Congress is scouting for new revenue sources amid gaping budget deficits, raising concern among insurance executives that lawmakers could revisit the industry's tax advantages.

In fact, a comparison of the chart at left illustrates that the distribution of life insurance gains (above) is far more egalitarian than that of typical investments.

For you consumers, the executive summary of this article should read: Democrats continue to find new ways to steal your hard-earned money.

And for those in the life insurance industry: consider this story a canary in the coal-mine.

Mark 'life insurance' down as industry #203 that has been demonized by the class warfare rhetoric of the modern left. Never mind that America has no static class structure -- the rich become poor and the poor rich every day of the week. Never mind that life insurance has protected those of modest means for centuries.

Never mind all that. The progressives have American society to tear down. And more taxes to collect in their plot to redistribute everyone's wealth.


Exciting Photo Contest: Guess the Foodstuff!

Can you guess what this foodstuff is?

Your guesses are:

A. Unprocessed strawberry yogurt
B. Tomato concentrate
C. Wesabe sauce prior to green dye injection
D. McNuggets

If you guessed D, you're today's winner and you'll be carting home a 55-gallon drum full of three-day old nuggs. As for the manufacturing process? Well, it's kinda like that car wreck on the other side of the highway. You want to look away... but... you... just... can't help yourself.

This is mechanically separated chicken. Chickens are turned into this goop so we can create delicious chicken nuggets and juicy chicken patties. It's obscenely gross and borderline alien but it's not going to stop me from eating nuggets...

The process works a little something like this... ...because it's crawling with bacteria, it will be washed with ammonia, soaked in it, actually. Then, because it tastes gross, it will be reflavored artificially. Then, because it is weirdly pink, it will be dyed with artificial color.

Mmmm. Just like the McNuggets Mom used to make!

Image: Gizmodo.

The Anti-Obama for President

AmSpec reports that Ambassador John Bolton is seriously considering a presidential run in 2012.

The only thing that would drive the moonbats crazier would be a Bolton-Cheney ticket.

I believe that a Bolton run is an extremely positive development. Constitutional conservatism is the antidote to tyranny*, which is the path that Democrats have forged for America. They are designing more unsustainable entitlement programs, bankrupting every level of government including the U.S. Treasury, employing corrupt politicians and bureaucrats, waging a war against free enterprise, and rewarding unions, trial lawyers and illegal immigrants.

Bolton has had a lot of fans among conservatives ever since his bitter confirmation battle during the Bush administration. Though he's unlikely to have a broad enough appeal to capture the nomination, he could still have an impact on the race. He's consistently been one of the most articulate voices for a muscular U.S. foreign policy, and a leading critic of the current administration when it comes to international affairs, dubbing Obama our first "post-American president."

In short, Bolton represents the anti-Obama. As an AmSpec commenter observed:

...its time we went as far right as we did to the left when we elected [Obama]. This country needs the strongest leader we can find to take us back to being a world leader...

Now that I think about it, perhaps a Bolton-Palin ticket would be the best way to drive the leftwing crackpots wild.


* Credit for 'antidote to tyranny': Mark Levin.

Obama Lied, Health Plans Died: 3M Retirees Lose Their Company Coverage, Get Body-Slammed Into Medicare

Runner-up Headline: Dear 3M retirees: if you like your current health plan, you can go pound sand

Today's Minneapolis-St. Paul Business Journal reports that 3M is dropping its health coverage for retirees thanks to ObamaCare. Oh, and that Medicare program they'll be herded into, cattle-car style? The Democrats slashed it by $500 billion, so the hundreds of thousands of additional seniors covered should really be in fine fettle.

3M Co., citing new federal health laws, said Monday it won't cover retirees with its corporate health-insurance plan starting in 2013... Instead, the company will direct retirees to Medicare-backed insurance programs, and will provide reimbursement for that coverage...

...Maplewood-based 3M (NYSE: MMM) is one of the first large companies to indicate that it won't tap a large federal-government reimbursement program created by Congress as part of the health insurance reform package... The rebate program was meant to encourage employers to keep in place their health-insurance plans for retirees.

...3M noted that these changes affect current and future retirees of 3M, regardless of their retirement date... The new policy is likely to save 3M money because it reduces the risk to the manufacturer for rising medical costs...

Just wondering: when is President Obama going to apologize to Joe Wilson?

Countdown to another Chavez-like threat by Kathleen Sebelius in 3... 2...


Update: 840,000 lose their health care coverage to ObamaCare... so far.

Hat tip: RoF

Larwyn's Linx: The Republican Young Guns Of Color

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Nation

The Republican Young Guns Of Color: Babalublog
Tea Party dominance was inevitable -- and I told you so: Reynolds
Progressives and Communists: Out of the Closet -- Together: AT

Jan Schakowsky Trashes Her Oath of Office: ChiNow
Unmotivated, Lethargic Astroturfers Trash the Nation’s Capital: LATL
Bueller, Anyone? The Crowd Attending the Progressive Rally: Hengler

Economy

'Pre-existing conditions' coverage under ObamaCare skyrockets: RWN
Astroturfed OneNation Policy a Bust: Photographic Proof: WZ
54%: No to Government Motors: Surber

The Looming Standoff: AT
Obama and the Teachers' Union Summit: Ameristroika
Lessons from my frugal father: MSN

Students Get Class Credit for Attending OneNation: GWP
Is Quebec the Future of the U.S.?: PJM (Solway)
Illinois Investigates the Save-A-Life Foundation: WSIU

Climate & Energy

The Curious History of 'Global Climate Disruption': AT
The Final Solution to the Global Warming Skeptic Question: Greenroom
Obama's Costly Green Jobs Project: AT

Media

Data: Liberal Websites' Readership Drastically Down: PunditPress
Faint Heart and Narcissistic Psyche: Dr. Sanity
Las Vegas Review-Journal Endorses Sharron Angle; Recommends Firing Harry Reid: LVRJ

Schakowsky: Those radical Republicans talk about self-government!: Hot Air
Has the media reached a turning point -- a bad one -- on Islam?: JOdysseus
Barney Frank may lose his seat because of the 'right-wing radio talk show hosts': Pol & Fin

They Don’t Know Their History at All—This is Elitism Straight Up: RWN
Rand Paul b****-slaps Jack Conway on Fox News debate: Cubachi
Newsweek: Terror's Being Caused In Europe By Anti-Muslim Extremists!: Ace

World

Good Golly, Miss Molly: You're on Your Own: AT
What is North Korea up to at Yongbyon?: Pol & Fin
Wilders in Berlin: Against Islamization in Germany, Europe, and America: NER

After Opposition Makes Big Gains in Legislative Elections, Hugo Chavez Vows to “Radicalize the Socialist Revolution”: WZ
WTO Helping China Loot Caterpillar: AT
China is attempting to contain India within greatly foreshortened land and sea borders: JoongAng Daily (S. Korea)

SciTech

Bill Gates wants to kill 1 billion people by vaccination to save planet from non-existent global warming: BlogProf
Verizon Wireless Paying up to $90 million in Refunds: L&S
In which the sistah talks about sex, baby: Toldjah

Cornucopia

We The People Said No: Americans Speak
Nostalgia from PJTV: Pundette
Remnants by Dale M. Brumfield -- a Book Review: Global Village Idiot

How To Beat Up Bigfoot: Maxim (It's Maxim, genius!)
Your Own Personal Jesus: Ace
The 2010 Smart Girl Summit In Pictures: RWN

Image: The Daily WTF.
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Support John Gomez for U.S. Congress!

Sunday, October 03, 2010

While the Public Sector Welfare State Collapses Around the Globe, the Democrat-Public Sector Union Complex Keeps Expanding

The only analogy I can come up with is that of an economic suicide belt. That is what the unholy alliance of Democrat politicians and public-sector union bosses are trying to strap onto taxpayers at every level of government.

Unable to pay its bills, California is set to issue IOUs for the second year in a row. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania is close to complete economic collapse. Illinois is paying its bill six months late and has another looming hole in its budget in the form of interest for loans it never should have taken in the first place. And that's just the tip of the iceberg.

In light of this, what are Democrats advocating? More borrowing and more spending. More public sector union bosses in key positions.

Well, folks, it's not gonna end well. Please consider the following headlines from around the globe, highlighting the collapse of the public-sector welfare state.

Merkel calls for calm as rail protest turns ugly


Chancellor Angela Merkel called for calm Friday after riot police used what critics called "Rambo" tactics to disperse thousands of opponents of a contentious rail project... Demonstrators said that more than 20,000 protestors, including more than 1,000 schoolchildren, were dispersed by close to 1,000 police in riot gear using water cannons, pepper spray, tear gas and batons...

Students and families join French pension protests


French families, students and private sector workers joined mass demonstrations on Saturday as trade unions ramped up pressure on the government to drop pension reforms... Opposition to [plans] to raise the retirement age to 62 from 60 showed no signs of abating and hundreds of thousands across the country marched in the fourth round of rallies in as many months... Unions said that about 2.9 million had marched, while police said the crowds numbered 899,000. The union figure was about the same as at the last demonstrations on September 23. The police figure was slightly lower... About 230 protests took place across the country with a bigger turnout of families,

Irish Woes Get Worse


It's hard to know what to say about Ireland's revelation that it expects the cost of cleaning up Anglo Irish Bank to come to a staggering 21% of GDP. Profanity is too weak, really. The total cost of the bank bailouts looks as if it will be well over a quarter of GDP... Ireland is massively dependent on foreign credit, and if it flees--well, the second letter in the country's name might as well be a "c". That means cutting the budget elsewhere to send a credible signal to the bond market--because without that credible signal, an even worse financial crisis seems like the most likely outcome...

Around the world we see that the era of public sector unions is drawing to a close. Yet the SEIU, AFT, NEA and other public union bosses appear out to destroy the taxpayer. And to what end?

Who knows? The Democrat Party has long been immune to logic, facts, history and reason, so your guess is as good as mine.

Unless the destruction of Capitalism and the rise of a new totalitarianism -- as plotted by Cloward and Piven -- is all there is to it.

This is no joke. It's deadly serious. It's November or never.