Political Quiz : What You Don't Kown?

 I don't know if the author of this statement below is correct, but no matter,  'you are known by the friends you keep' and your history that is out there for everyone to see and understand. Ignore this history at your own peril.

The  following is incredible. I didn't get one correct answer. Prepare for a  shock at the answer and prepare yourself for the next election!!  Six  trivia questions to see how much history you really know.  Be honest,  it's kind of fun and revealing. If you don't know the answer make your best  guess. Answer all of the questions (no cheating) before looking at the  answers.

 

 1) "We're  going to take things away from you on behalf of the common  good."       

 A. Karl  Marx       B. Adolph Hitler   C.  Joseph Stalin    D. Barack  Obama        E. None of the  above

 

 2) "It's  time for a new beginning, for an end to government of the few, by the few,  and for the few...... And to replace it with shared responsibility, for  shared prosperity."

 A.  Lenin            B.  Mussolini          C. Idi  Amin        D. Barack  Obama            E.  None of the above

 

 3)  "(We).....can't just let business as usual go on, and that means something  has to be taken away from some  people."       

 A.  Nikita  Khrushev   B.  Joseph Goebbels  C. Boris  Yeltsin D. Barack Obama E. None of the above

 

 4) "We have  to build a political consensus and that requires people to give up a little  bit of their own ... in order to create this common  ground."       

 A. Mao Tse  Tung     B. Hugo Chavez   C. Kim Jong  II    D. Barack Obama    E. None of the  above

 

 5) "I  certainly think the free-market has failed."

 A.   Karl Marx             B. Lenin C.  Molotov            D.  Barack  Obama            E.  None of the above

 

 6) "I  think it's time to send a clear message to what has become the most  profitable sector in (the) entire economy that they are being  watched."       

 A.  Pinochet     B. Milosevic   C. Saddam  Hussein   D. Barack  Obama        E. None of the  above    

 

 

 

 

 

..........  Scroll down for  answers and  the  answers  are  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

 (1)   E. None of the above.  Statement was made by Hillary Clinton 6/29/2004

 

 (2)   E. None of the above. Statement  was made by Hillary Clinton 5/29/2007

 

 (3)   E. None of the above. Statement was made by Hillary Clinton  6/4/2007

 

 (4)   E. None of the above. Statement  was made by Hillary Clinton 6/4/2007

 

 5 ) E  None of the above. Statement was made by Hillary Clinton  6/4/2007

 

 (6). E.  None of the above. Statement was made by Hillary Clinton  9/2/2005

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Solar and Wind Energy Destroying Birds & Landscapes : Who Cares!

Who knew? Solar and wind renewable energy sources that are now destroying not only the landscape but birds and other protected species that happen to come near them. Mr Obama sees no problem here but when it comes to a Snail in California, thousands of jobs are lost so the Snail can survive.

And remember the oil pipe line from Alaska and how the Caribou that will b e devested if the pipeline is contrasted? The environmentalist fought tooth and nail to get it stopped but not peep from them on the killing of hundreds of eagles by wind turbines and how the turbines destroy the landscape.

It's just a matter of who has the power to give them a voice and who will benefit on the bottom line of the profit and loss sheet.

Earth-Friendly Energy Is Anything But
Source:  Deroy Murdock, "Earth-Friendly Energy is Anything But," National Review, September 26, 2014.

September 29, 2014

Environmentalists worship solar energy and wind power as Earth-friendly answers to their ecological prayers. Tortoises, bats, butterflies, and bald eagles beg to differ, says Deroy Murdock, media fellow with the Hoover Institution.

Consider the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System in California's Mojave Desert. It features 300,000 mirrors that focus sunlight on three 40-story towers of power. Inside, 900-degree temperatures yield steam, propel turbines, and generate electricity for 140,000 homes.
Ivanpah's environmental toll is stunning:

• BrightSource Energy, the project's owner, could have rehabilitated a brownfield, an abandoned commercial site, or a decommissioned military base. Instead, BrightSource developed 5.5 square miles of virgin desert.
• Tortoises native to that area became refugees once BrightSource relocated them en masse.
• Kit-fox dens were flattened during construction.

Monarch butterflies and birds should avoid Ivanpah at all costs. Those who traverse its highly concentrated sunbeams often ignite. Center for Biological Diversity ecologist K. Shawn Smallwood told the California Energy Commission last July that Ivanpah will roast an estimated 28,380 birds annually.

Meanwhile, environmentalists call wind power as benign as a summer breeze. In fact, wind farms have become avian killing fields.

• The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service reports that "wind turbines may kill a half a million birds a year." Wind blows away another 600,000 bats annually, primarily through lung hemorrhaging.
• While these "flying vampires" look bats actually serve mankind by pollinating crops and devouring mosquitoes. Fewer bats mean more mosquitoes. Swell.
• USF&WS explains also that "eagles appear to be particularly susceptible. Large numbers of golden eagles have been killed by wind turbines in the western states," as have smaller numbers of bald eagles.
• Team Obama -- which could not care less about America's beautiful, majestic national symbol -- almost never prosecutes wind companies for violating the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act. Even worse, Obama is granting wind-farm operators 30-year federal eagle-killing permits, to continue their mayhem - all in the name of "clean" energy.

To evaluate any energy technology, "we must remember that it's a process, starting with mining the materials necessary for the machines," Alex Epstein notes in his forthcoming Penguin book, The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels. Epstein observes that windmill manufacturing requires "hazardous substances like hydrofluoric acid in order to get usable rare earth elements."

Environmentalists should stop hallucinating about "sustainable" power sources that unleash puppies and rainbows at no cost to air, water, habitat, and wildlife. "Clean energy" hurts nature. Those who believe otherwise live in Fantasyland.
 

Germany's Energy Problem : Renewables Fail - Coal A Success

Climate changers and warmers have successfully convinced the German taxpayers, United States citizens as well, that they are at fault for everything that nature is throwing the world as the weather thunders around us. The only thing that will save us will paying more money to the few shouting from the cheap seats that they will save everyone if only they pay more for research.

Yeah, that all of the catastrophic events that were going to kill us all that these few fear mongers for decades hasn't happened is of no concern, what's important is what we are saying now, pay us more now or face emanate death.

Germany's Coal Binge
Source: Wall Street Journal, "Germany's Coal Binge," September 24, 2014.

September 29, 2014

The German shift to renewable power sources that started in 2000 has brought the green share of German electricity up to around 25%. But the rest of the energy mix has become more heavily concentrated on coal, which now accounts for some 45% of power generation and growing, according to the Wall Street Journal.

• Germany's feed-in tariff, which requires distributors to buy electricity from green generators at fixed prices before buying from other sources, was part of Germany's strategy to intervene in the market.
• Germans pay for market distortions, paying about $129 billion extra on electricity bills since 2000.
• The government estimates that these market distortions could cost the taxpayer 1 trillion Euros by 2040.

This intervention tried to generate more use of green energy, but ended up having the opposite effect. The tariff, for example, deprived generators of revenue and made it harder for them to forecast demand. The more attractive option was to favor cheap coal plants whenever renewables didn't deliver as promised.

Furthermore, with Germany's phase-out of nuclear power after the 2011 Fukushima disaster, utilities have had to find a source of power that is cheap and readily accessible. Again, they turned to coal. And finally, Berlin imposed a moratorium on fracking which prevents the access to shale-gas reserves, making coal, again, the attractive option.

Germany's coal renaissance is a cautionary tale for policymakers that try to intervene in the market to promote renewables and instead have to face economic realities.

Colleges Evolving : Academics Outdated?

It's the lotto mentality of 'live fast, love hard and die young'. The young are only taking their queues from the larger society, 'don't worry about anything, the government will take care of you.'  Colleges, it seems, are in the business of self enlargement and sustainability as an institution, not a place for the students to become a productive citizens.

Welcome to the real world where the cart is loaded to the brim with passengers but isn't moving very fast and slowing as the horses of prosperity that are tasked to pull are dying from exhaustion. Soon there won't be anyone in the harness to do the hard work.

But who cares, right? I have my IPhone so how bad can it be? It's party time! 

Colleges Drift Away from Their Academic Priorities
Source: Charles Lane, "Colleges Drift Away From Their Academic Priorities," Washington Post, September 24, 2014.

September 29, 2014

To compete for more students, colleges are turning away from academic offerings and are beginning to entice potential students with luxurious amenities.

• As of 2012, 92 schools have embarked on 157 recreational capital projects.
• Texas Tech, for example, is building an $8.4 million complex that includes a water slide and tanning deck.
• Together, these cost a total of $1.7 billion.

In a time when state funding for higher education is being slashed, tuition rates are going up, and student debt surpasses $1 trillion, is it wise for universities to divert scarce resources, often at the expense of students and taxpayers, to build luxury amenities?

Some say yes. According to a 2013 analysis of National Bureau of Economic Research, only a small number of potential students care about academic quality over amenities. Ivy League schools, for example, can compete based on academics. But for the rest, trying to entice students comes down to what amenities are offered.

• High end dorms, new gyms, and high-tech student centers are just some of the ways that schools aim to attract students. And perhaps this makes sense because in a time when funding is low, schools have to compete to get the most number of enrollees.
• But what kind of toll does this have on society. In one study, students improved hardly in critical thinking or complex reasoning skills. And none of those students in the study had any real incentive to work harder because they still achieved B-plus averages.

The reality that the institutions aren't preparing their students hits them when students enter the job market. In a new follow-up study, when graduates hit the job market, only 47 percent of the participants had full-time jobs paying more than $30,000.
 

Progressives Circle the Wagons : Ideology of Fear Losing

The messages for the progressives is always the same no matter who is delivering it, 'I didn't know or it was those people over there that did it'.

And yet they continue to get a pass with at least 40% of the voters. Why is that?

Vaccinations Decline : Diseases Rush Forward

The question that I have is why do so many among us now opt out of using common sense and logic based on intelligent observation and historical fact when making decisions? In the past decades, people did what makes sense, and in this case of vaccinating their children, they did what they needed to do to protect their children from disease.

Is it that now we have so many sources of information, many contradictory and wrong, that confuses the population when trying to decipher what it all means, and or being distracted by so many different events taking place at the same time, opt out of doing the right thing of vaccinating their children against predatory diseases?

Or is the life style of always leaving the hard decisions that demand their attention and study to the "officials" from the media that report that information from seats of intellect and power, the government. Always a huge mistake as history is riff with examples.

Little wonder the country is sliding into chaos when the citizens have begun to lose their sense of personal responsibility for their own action, believing machines, news scribblers and government bureaucrats have the answers they need to survive another day in the life.

The Anti-Vaccination Epidemic
Source:  Paul A. Offit, "The Anti-Vaccine Epidemic," Wall Street Journal, September 24, 2014.

September 26, 2014

Almost 8,000 cases of pertussis, better known as whooping cough, have been reported to California's Public Health Department so far this year. Why is this preventable respiratory infection making a comeback? In no small part thanks to low vaccination rates, says Dr. Paul Offit, professor of pediatrics and director of the Vaccine Education Center at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

In the 1990s, when new vaccines were introduced, the news media were obsessed with the notion that vaccines might be doing more harm than good. The measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine might cause autism, we were told. Thimerosal, an ethyl-mercury containing preservative in some vaccines, might cause developmental delays.

Then those stories disappeared. One reason was that study after study showed that these concerns were ill-founded. Another was that the famous 1998 report claiming to show a link between vaccinations and autism was retracted by The Lancet, the medical journal that had published it. But the damage was done. Countless parents became afraid of vaccines. As a consequence, many parents now choose to delay, withhold, separate or space out vaccines. Some don't vaccinate their children at all

• A 2006 study in the Journal of the American Medical Association showed that between 1991 and 2004, the percentage of children whose parents had chosen to opt out of vaccines increased by 6% a year, resulting in a more than twofold increase.
• Between 2009 and 2010 more than 3,500 cases of mumps were reported in New York City and surrounding area.
• In 2010 California experienced an outbreak of whooping cough larger than any outbreak there since 1947. Ten children died.
• In the first half of 2012, Washington suffered 2,520 cases of whooping cough, a 1,300% increase from the previous year and the largest outbreak in the state since 1942.
• As of Aug. 29, about 600 cases of measles have occurred in the U.S. in 2014: the largest outbreak in 20 years -- in a country that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention declared measles-free in 2000.

Who is choosing not to vaccinate? The answer is surprising. The area with the most cases of whooping cough in California is Los Angeles County, and no group within that county has lower immunization rates than residents living between Malibu and Marina Del Ray, home to some of the wealthiest and most exclusive suburbs in the country.

At the Kabbalah Children's Academy in Beverly Hills, 57% of children are unvaccinated. At the Waldorf Early Childhood Center in Santa Monica, it's 68%, according to the Hollywood Reporter's analysis of public-health data.

Parents might consider what has happened in other countries when large numbers of parents chose not to vaccinate their children. Japan, for example, which had virtually eliminated whooping cough by 1974, suffered an anti-vaccine activist movement that caused vaccine rates to fall to 10% in 1976 from 80% in 1974. In 1979, more than 13,000 cases of whooping cough and 41 deaths occurred as a result.
 

Retirement Fear : Not Enough Money Saved

Given what the historical facts show, most people are living for the moment and have not taken in consideration what the future holds for them. The mentality seems to be for many is 'take the money now and run', or 'live fast, love hard and die young' among other simplistic sayings.

Unfortunately for most of us in the real world, this is not a good alternative to commons sense saving and investment for our future. To have a plan for retirement it take will power and a sense of taking responsibility for your own retirement needs when your earning power is growing.

Neglect this responsibility at your own risk and then be willing to living in a cardboard box and waiting in the soup line for nourishment. It's up to you. Obama, and his friends in the democrat party want you in a cardboard box with no options but the soup line and voting for more soup.

Big Retirement Fear: Outliving Your Savings
Source:  Nancy Hellmich, "Big Retirement Fear:  Outliving Your Savings," USA Today, September 24, 2014.

September 26, 2014

Almost half (46%) of investors in this country are worried they will outlive their savings in retirement, a new survey shows.

According to the Wells Fargo/Gallup survey of 1,011 investors who have $10,000 or more in savings and investments:

• 36% of retired investors and 50% of investors who aren't retired are concerned they will run out of their own money so that eventually their main source of retirement income will be Social Security.
• For non-retirees, about 38% of their retirement savings is invested in the stock market; for retirees, it's 33%.
• About 58% of respondents have an income of less than $90,000; 42% make $90,000 or more.

Gary Schatsky, a New York City financial planner and president of ObjectiveAdvice.com, says, "With incomes dropping, with employment uncertainty increasing and with health care costs skyrocketing, one can only conclude that some level of concern (about running out of money) is warranted."

The Wells Fargo report found retirees say that Social Security accounts for about 30% of their retirement income. Non-retirees expect Social Security to account for about 26% of their annual income.

About 69% of investors say they're confident that between their savings and Social Security, they'll have enough money to maintain their lifestyle in retirement.

Other findings of the Wells Fargo survey:

• 68% of investors say they actively choose stocks for their long-term investment accounts, and 29% say they consciously avoid stocks in long-term investment accounts; 3% don't know or refused to answer the question.
• Of the investors who say they avoid stocks, more than half (56%) say they are not confident they can reach their financial goals without stock market exposure, but they still think it's better to avoid the risk.

 

Recovery For Middle Class A Financial Fantasy : Democrats Spin The Numbers

Recovery of the economy is a fantasy for the middle class, and for the media and the democrat dominated federal government to continually to proclaim our economy is on the move is fractious and harmful to the population of this country.

People keep looking for signs for the recovery but they are continually disappointed and frustrated when nothing happens that will improve their financial situation.

The Recovery That Left Out Almost Everybody
Source: William A. Galston, "The Recovery That Left Out Almost Everybody," Wall Street Journal, September 23, 2014.

September 26, 2014

Total employment has risen every month for more than four years. According to the Current Population Survey, more than eight million jobs have been created since the trough, while the number of unemployed has been cut by nearly six million, according to the Wall Street Journal. And despite the fact that the unemployment rate has fallen by almost 4 percent, average Americans continue to remain gloomy about the current economy and anxious about the future.

• According to a recent Pew Research report, only 21 percent rate current conditions as excellent or good.
• 79 percent view conditions as fair or poor.
• 33 percent agree that jobs are readily available, yet only 26 percent believe that good jobs are available.

Even though the recession ended five years ago, only 21 percent of people believe that the recession ended, according to the Public Religion Institute.

A recent report may resolve the paradox and help explain why there is a fundamental disconnect between official job numbers and what most Americans experience.

• Every fall, the U.S. Commerce Department issues a detailed analysis of trends in income.
• This year it found that median household income was $51,939, 8 percent lower than was it was in 2007.
• Furthermore, the Federal Reserve's triennial Survey of Consumer Finances confirms these findings and reports that median family income has decreased by 5 percent.
• Only families in the top 10 percent, those with annual incomes averaging $400,000, saw gains during these three years.

So while median earnings haven't changed much, there have also been fewer positions for Americans than there were before the recession. In 2007, 108.6 million Americans were working full time, year-round; in 2013 only 105.9 million were doing so. Although jobs are being created, too many of them are part-time to maintain growth in household incomes.

The American economy, despite a modest recovery, hasn't worked for average families since the end of the Clinton administration. The economy will only work by rewarding work and allowing family incomes to rise.
 

Nuclear Power Innovation Viable Alternative Coming : Thorium, Not Uranium

This is a little in the weeds about the cleanest power source around, but the innovation in nuclear power is very important that is discussed here, especially for the environmentalists that demand clean energy production.

Will it matter to the those that demand everything but are not willing to discuss 'progressive' ideas for clean energy? They believe there can not be any debate as the science is 'settled'. They are against 'fracking for oil and gas' or clean coal, no matter what it is they are against it unless it's solar, wind or biofuels which will never in our life time be a viable alternative to fossil fuels.

 But, no matter, we are right and everyone else is wrong.

The Potential of Thorium for Safer, Cleaner and Cheaper Energy
Source: Xinyuan Zou and Joe Barnett, "The Potential of Thorium for Safer, Cleaner and Cheaper Energy," National Center for Policy Analysis, September 2014.

September 26, 2014

Nuclear energy promised to generate low-cost electricity safely, with fewer environmental and health problems from air and water pollution than fossil-fueled power plants.  For a number of reasons, that promise has not been fulfilled, write Xinyuan Zou, research associate and Joe Barnett, senior director of policy research at the National Center for Policy Analysis.

However, in addition to new designs for uranium-fueled reactors, efforts are underway in a number of countries to develop commercial nuclear reactor designs that could solve many of the problems encountered with existing uranium-fueled nuclear power plants. This new generation of reactors will be fueled by thorium (Th-232) instead of uranium (U-235).

Thorium-fueled reactors have a number of advantages over uranium reactors, including less potential for nuclear proliferation and less waste.

• Thorium is three times as abundant in the Earth's crust as uranium, and there are thorium-bearing ores identified in many countries.
• Currently operating nuclear reactors are inefficient in extracting energy from uranium. Only about 3 percent of the uranium in the rods is consumed before the rods must be replaced, due to the buildup of fission byproducts in the rods.
• Fission byproducts in liquid thorium salts, by contrast, can be removed and reprocessed to produce additional fuel stock, while the reactor continues to operate.

Thorium-based reactors have been shown to be more economical than uranium-fueled reactors.  In contrast to conventional light water reactors using uranium, according to a 2013 report from the Bellona Foundation:

• The capital costs of thorium reactors would be lower than conventional nuclear reactors; a 1 gigawatt (GW) thorium power plant would cost at most an estimated $780 million in comparison to capital costs currently of $1.1 billion per GW for a uranium-fueled reactor.
• Less manpower would be required to operate the plant; for a 1 GW power plant, staffing costs may decrease from $50 million to $5 million.
• Less radioactive waste is produced, perhaps one-tenth as little, by volume; thus, nuclear waste disposal for a 1 GW thorium power plant would cost an estimated $1 million or even less per year.

There are technical challenges in designing an efficient thorium-fueled nuclear reactor, but current development efforts underway will likely lead to a commercially practical system. The relative abundance, greater safety and lower cost of thorium-fueled systems could help fulfill the promise of nuclear power.
 

Death Tax Eliminatation Increases Jobs & Prosparity

Just the idea that the progressives would even contemplate a reduction in revenue is out of the question. That eliminating the death tax would be benefit the off spring and the economy is not important, it's the money for more programs to bring more people under influence of the federal government and therefore increasing the voter base for the democrats.

Believe it is always about the money and the power to control all outcomes, never anything else. It is the ideology of progressive socialism.

The Economic and Fiscal Effects of Eliminating the Federal Death Tax
Source: The Heritage Foundation, "The Economic and Fiscal Effects of Eliminating the Federal Death Tax," September 23, 2014.

September 25, 2014

The federal estate tax is a tax on a person's lifetime accumulated property. Despite the fact it raises a small amount of revenue for the government, it imposes great costs on the American economy in terms of lost jobs and reduced growth rates, according to the Heritage Foundation.

• In 2014, the death tax applies a 40 percent tax to all accumulated wealth above $5.34 million.
• Eliminating the death tax could boost U.S. economic growth by more than $46 billion over the next 10 years.
• Furthermore, it could create 18,000 private sector jobs annually.
• Moreover, the tax will only account for about 0.5 percent of federal revenue between 2015 and 2024.

The death tax has its biggest effect on family-owned businesses. The reason is that many owners of family businesses have their assets tied up in the business, rather than having them liquid. When an owner dies, their heirs are forced to liquidate 40 percent of the business' value to pay the tax, often spelling out closure of the business altogether.

Proponents of the tax argue that it targets that ultra-wealthy which helps reduce income inequality. However, according to one recent study by the Joint Economic Committee, only 2 percent of income inequality can be explained by inherited wealth.

Furthermore, the death tax encourages people to consume more and invest less because there is less of an incentive to save if the government can end up confiscating 40 percent of assets. Investments and savings create a vibrant and dynamic economy.

Considering the effect that the tax has on the overall U.S. economy and marginal revenues it provides for the government, it should be abolished altogether.
 

Alaska Proves XL Pipeline Workable : 6 Years, Obama Ignores Reality

Mr Obama and the progressive socialist democrats do no care if XL Keystone is safe or not or whether the Alaskan pipeline has proven to be a success, the opposition to the XL pipeline is and always has been  about ideology of the progressives, fossil fuels are bad and must be stopped and if it means hardship for the citizens, so be it.

The progressive believe they are right which means the debate is over. Mr Obama has said the 'word' and therefore the word is law.

Reality is replaced by fantasy and wishful thinking, it just feels like the right thing to do.

Alaska's Lessons for the Keystone XL Pipeline
Source: Stephen Moore and Joel Griffith, "Alaska's Lessons for the Keystone XL Pipeline," Wall Street Journal, September 23, 2014.

September 25, 2014

Earlier this year the Obama administration again delayed a decision about the Keystone XL pipeline. The 1,200 mile, $5.2 billion pipeline could increase North American energy security and create more than 15,000 jobs, according to Stephen Moore and Joel Griffith of the Heritage Foundation. The unwillingness to approve the pipeline can be found in the insistence by many environmental groups like the Sierra Club that are vehemently opposed.

Yet there is a lesson to be learned about whether to proceed with the Keystone XL Pipeline from the debates that occurred during the construction of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline (TAPS) in which environmentalists also opposed the pipeline's construction.

• Since its completion in 1977, TAPS has flowed more than 17 billion barrels of oil worth more than $1.5 trillion today.
• However, the Pipeline was almost not built thanks to the propaganda campaign launched by many environmental groups, like the Wilderness Group.
• Court injunctions, fierce congressional debate, lobbying by environmental groups all delayed the construction of the pipeline.
• Since then, the pipeline has not been involved with any environmental catastrophes.

Many opponents of TAPS argued that there would be threats to wildlife, earthquakes, and massive oil spills along the Pacific Coast. None of these doomsday scenarios ended up transpiring.
In fact, a study delivered in 2002 to the American Society of Civil Engineers found that "the ecosystems affected by the operation of TAPS and associated activity for almost 25 years are healthy," and that the pipeline "is simply another feature on the landscape, to which the flora and fauna have habituated."

There was one major accident, the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill, which involved a tanker, not a pipeline leak. And even the impact of this disaster has mitigated with the passage of time. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association's 25th anniversary report, the "measurable impacts have diminished over the last two decades. In 2013, even two vertebrate species that had shown consistent and lengthy signs of exposure and effects -- harlequin ducks and sea otters -- appeared to have recovered."
 

Dogs Are Made for Compassion : God Knew This!

When others have decided they are too busy or uninterested in your problems, you always know who your real friends are when you need some comfort.

Dogs do not question whether they are too busy or not interested, they are always ready to give and never take.

So many lessons for us to learn but so little time to learn them.

Military Celebrated in Guinness Beer Commerical : Never Forget

Here is a beer commercial, Guinness, that has a lot of meaning for all of us - never forget those that have made the decision to risk it all for others and an idea that they believe is right and worthwhile. It's called having competence and integrity to stand and deliver.

God bless our country and her military.

http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=rx0MRawkrj4

Job Statistics Managed by BLS : Democrat Thumbs At Work

It seems that the Bureau of Labor Statistics, BLS, has their collective thumbs on the scale when complying the data on unemployment in Republican states and democrat states. This of course does not come as a surprise to anyone.

 

When the democrats are in power they use what ever club they can grab to beat the opposition into submission even if it means using tax funded agencies like the BLS, and of course the IRS, the DOJ, the FBI, the DHS etc. etc. When the democrats are in power all federal agencies are subjected to the heavy hand of tyranny to do as they are told, the Constitution be dammed.

 

As always, it's the motto of the progressive democrats, 'by any means necessary' to get and keep power no matter if the entire country suffers as a consequence.

 

Lies, Damned Lies and (Jobs) Statistics

WSJ

By Allysia Finley

 

Sept. 23, 2014 5:11 p.m. ET

Jobs numbers don't lie, but they don't always capture the entire truth. Just ask Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal, who was ridiculed by Democrats last week for suggesting that the gnomes at the Bureau of Labor Statistics were rigging state unemployment data.

 

"It's ironic that in a year in which Republican governors are leading some of the states that are making the most progress, that they almost, without exception, are classified as having a bump in their unemployment rates," Mr. Deal groused. "Whereas states that are under Democrat governors' control, they are all showing that their unemployment rate has dropped. And I don't know how you account for that. Maybe there is some influence here that we don't know about."

 

Mr. Deal is in an unexpectedly tight race for re-election against Democratic state Sen. Jason Carter, the grandson of the former president. Georgia's recent disappointing jobs numbers are figuring heavily into Mr. Carter's campaign. During the governor's first 40 months in office, the state's unemployment rate dropped to 6.9% from 10.1%. However, the rate has ticked up to 8.1% since April as 52,000 jobs were reportedly lost.

 

North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia have also recorded jobs losses and unemployment increases this summer, so the problem appears regional. The BLS may later revise the numbers up, though the timing of the downward blip is no doubt inconvenient for Republicans in Georgia.

There's no evidence that unemployment rates are spiking in GOP-governed states while plunging in Democratic ones. However, it's true that job gains in some Republican states like Kansas and Florida aren't being reflected in their unemployment rates because their labor forces have expanded equally fast. It's also true that unemployment rates in some Democratic states have fallen sharply in part due to a contraction of the labor force.

 

Case in point is Illinois, where the unemployment rate has slid to 6.7% from 8.7% since January. Gov. Pat Quinn bragged that "it's the steepest decline in unemployment in the last 30 years in Illinois." Yet during this period, 56,000 Illinois workers dropped out of the labor force, which isn't exactly a sign of a healthy economy. The Illinois Policy Institute notes that the state's labor-force participation rate is at a 35-year low.

 

The point here is that unemployment numbers can be misleading, which is why Republicans like Mr. Deal need to be able to cite significant policy accomplishments and present a broader governing agenda.

 

Spending Out of Control : Politics As Usual - Who Cares!

This is easy to understand and explain once you wake up to reality. This is politics as usual by the democrats and establishment Republicans. No one, except a few new Conservatives are ready to accept responsibility for making the hard decisions that will actually help the country.

Politics is about staying in power and close to the money that ultimately controls all outcomes. That this policy of out of control spending is a disaster is of little or no concern, it's more important to keep the ball rolling as long as one can to take what ever is left and run for the hills when it all goes bad. And as we all know, the bad is soon to come.

Zombie Spending
Source:  Michael Tanner, "Zombie Spending," National Review, September 24, 2014.

September 25, 2014

Aficionados of horror movies know that the monster is never really dead when you think it is. It may be down, but it will inevitably climb back from the dead at least one more time before the final credits. So it is with government programs.

• A tax long-distance telephone calls was enacted in 1898 to help pay for the Spanish-American War. That tax wasn't repealed for good until 2006.
• In 1954, wool as a "strategic material" since it was used to make military uniforms, making it eligible for wool and mohair subsidies. In 1993 Congress noticed that military uniforms were actually made from synthetic fibers and began phasing out the subsidies. But by 2002, military necessities aside, the subsidies were back, and this year's farm bill extends them until at least 2018, at a cost to taxpayers of $5 million.
• Likewise, the Rural Electrification Administration was created in 1935 to bring electricity to farm country. There aren't many farms without electricity anymore, but the REA, now called the Rural Utilities Service, still spent almost $800 million last year.

Now we are seeing two more examples of programmatic immortality.

• Under the complex rules for food-stamp eligibility, a family can qualify for higher benefits if it also receives benefits from the Low Income Heating Assistance Program (LIHEAP). A number of states have discovered that they could extract extra federal food-stamp funding for their states by providing families with a nominal amount of LIHEAP funding, in some cases as little as one dollar.
• Congressional Republicans sought to eliminate this loophole as part of the 2014 farm bill, but failed. They were able, however, to increase the eligibility threshold to require states to pay at least $20 in heating assistance before recipients could take advantage of the increased eligibility. It was expected that few states would continue trying to leverage the loophole once more of their own money was on the line, ultimately saving taxpayers $8.6 billion over tenyears.

But that underestimated the ingenuity of state governments when the lure of federal money is on the line.

• Of the 16 states that had been taking advantage of the "heat and eat" loophole before this year, twelve have announced their intention to continue the program.
• Eleven will rearrange their federal LIHEAP funds in order to keep the program going, while California will use its own money to maintain the loophole. The result will be to keep federal food-stamp money flowing to these states.

A second federal program poised to rise from the dead is the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), which provides health care to children in families with incomes too high to qualify for Medicaid. The program is funded jointly by federal and state governments and, depending on the state, can cover children in families with incomes up to $96,592 for a family of four.

However, those families are now eligible for subsidies under Obamacare, making the program redundant. It was, therefore, scheduled to end in September 2015. Already legislation has been introduced to extend CHIP until at least 2019. In fact, not only would the program be extended, but the federal share of its costs would rise from 71 percent to 94 percent. Taxpayers could be on the hook for both increased CHIP spending and replacing the foregone Obamacare funding.

This is how we end up with our massive welfare state and a $3.5 trillion federal budget. It's not just that we constantly add new government programs, it is that we seem fundamentally incapable of ever doing away with the ones we have.
 

Hospitals Forge Cost Cutting Rules : Procedure Management

This sure seems like a good thing, eliminating waste by having doctors run the show and setting limits for procedures. The only thing not mentioned here is what effect will this waste management have on lawyers and how they operate when things go wrong?

Hospitals Cut Costs by Getting Doctors to Stick to Guidelines
Source: Jeanne Whalen, "Hospitals Cut Costs by Getting Doctors to Stick to Guidelines," Wall Street Journal, September 22, 2014.

September 25, 2014

Health care costs are already high -- and unnecessary procedures only add to the strain placed on hospitals and consumers alike. Many procedures get overused due to doctors' personal preferences, institutional customs, pressure from patients and doctors' desire to avoid getting sued. Yet sticking to the guidelines produced by professional societies such as the American Heart Association enabled a Delaware-based hospital group Christiana Care to cut its daily costs by 70 percent without harming patient care.

The improvements seen in Delaware follow the American Board of Internal Medicine Foundation's "Choosing Wisely" campaign, which looks to cut clinical waste by decreasing the overuse of overkill procedures for everyday ailments. Examples of these procedures include the overuse of cardiac telemetry, MRIs for lower back pains, and imaging scans for uncomplicated headaches.
By sticking to the American Heart Association's guidelines for cardiac telemetry usage, Christiana Care:

• Cut the mean daily number of non-ICU patients monitored with telemetry by 70 percent,
• Cut the mean daily cost of delivering non-ICU telemetry by 70 percent, and
• Maintained the same level of patient care as before the movement, keeping mortality rates and "code blue" emergency calls stable.

The big difference for many doctors in the "Choosing Wisely" campaign is that the decisions are made by doctors, not administrators. "I think it's becoming increasingly accepted," said Dr. Marc Larochelle, a physician who helped implement a similar overhaul on blood tests at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center in Baltimore.  Encouraging doctors to consider costs is better than "having nonmedical folks try to figure that out and push down from above changes that make less sense."
 

Robots Move Into the Work Place : Marchers Outside Lose Again

Just think how much easier it will be for the owners of businesses as robots take the jobs of those people that are marching outside demanding more money for less work? And what will the unemployed people do when those jobs are gone for ever like the more then 2.5 million that have been lost already since the democrats took over in 2009?

Robots Work Their Way into Small Factories
Source: Wall Street Journal, "Robots Work Their Way Into Small Factories," September 17, 2014.

September 24, 2014

A new breed of so-called collaborative machines, priced as low as $20,000, provide companies with new incentives to automate to increase overall productivity and lower labor costs, according to the Wall Street Journal.

These machine are particularly useful for small manufactures like small jewelry makers and toy makers. One company, Panek Precision Inc., a toyshop, has 21 new robots.

• The robots place metal parts into cutting machines and remove the parts after they are done.
• The task was once handled by machine operators for $16.50 an hour.
• In contrast the robots require a one-time cost of about $50,000 to $60,000.

This is one illustration of a trend that is taking hold of small manufacturers. At Panek, one robot was even able to double the output from a machine that was previously operated by a worker because robots could work for as long as they were turned on.

The trend is further accelerated by the fact that machines are now smaller and cheaper, whereas in the past only large factories had to have large, expensive, and inherently unsafe machines doing some of the mechanical tasks.

Robots have easily transitioned into the workplace because some are now equipped with sensors and internal maps that allow it to move through crowded corridors and cluttered spaces. Whereas before it was a safety hazard to have robots moving around and bumping into people, the sensors are able to prevent collision with humans and other objects.

Some critics fear that workers will be hostile to the idea of robots overtaking what was once in the domain of human activity. However, some companies say that the robots allow their human workers to move on to better roles that require overseeing robots, rather than doing menial activity.
 

Graduates Under / unemployed : Sadly They Voted For It!

Welcome to the real world of democrats and their ideology of redistribution of wealth and centralized power. And who is to blame for the election and reelection of those that brought the economy of decline, why the very people that are unemployed and underemployed.

Who knew?

How Are College Graduates Faring in Today's Economy?
Source: Jason Keisling and J.D. Tuccille, "The Sluggish Economy Slams Recent College Grads," Reason.com, September 15, 2014.

September 17, 2014

As the weak recovery continues, the youngest college graduates are suffering the most. Over at Reason.com, Jason Keisling and J.D. Tuccille have developed an infographic showing exactly how recent graduates are faring in today's economy.
According to Keisling and Tuccille, underemployment -- in which those in the labor force are employed less than full time, or in jobs that are not commensurate with their educational training -- is a significant problem for recent graduates. For example:

• College graduates who graduated in 2007 have an underemployment rate of 9.6 percent.
• College graduates who graduated in 2014, however, have an unemployment rate almost twice that amount, of 16.8 percent.

One can see this underemployment by looking at the jobs held by college graduates and their educational requirements:

• In 2010, just 51.9 percent of jobs held by those with bachelor's degrees actually required a bachelor's degree or higher.
• More than one-third (37 percent) of jobs held by college graduates in 2010 only required a high school diploma or less.
• Eleven percent of jobs required something more than a high school diploma but did not require a bachelor's degree.

Moreover, the portion of college grads working part time (less than 35 hours per week) has risen. While 15 percent of graduates worked part time in 2000, 23 percent were working part time in 2011.
 

America On The Ropes : A Preference for Insanity?

Please explain how our nation has decided that insanity is a better form of life then reality? Also, how does someone like this get a job, and if he does, where will it be? Who would hire this man and to do what?

And maybe more importantly, what could the reasoning be to do this?

Crude Oil Shipped by Rail Increasing : KL Keystone Pipe Line Stalled - 6 Years

This article attributes the increased rail use for shipping crude oil to protesters, but the reality is a progressive environmentalist, Mr Obama's base. Every other aspect the Keystone Pipeline has been covered and approved but stalled for the last 6 years just for ideology. Who is hurt the most, the population but who cares, right?

The reason for the rise in energy costs that are causing havoc on the family budget is result of Mr Obama and the progressive democrats demanding solar, wind and biofuels which will not work to meet the demands required by the population and industry for decades to come that increases by more then 8% per year.

Yet $billions of dollars are wasted every year on 'renewable energy sources'. Oh wait, some of the money isn't wasted as $million are recycled into the coffers of the democrats. Remember the solar billions lost and those that were running those industries, democrat money bundlers Who knew?

Dangers Aside, Railways Reshape Crude Market
Source: Wall Street Journal, "Dangers Aside, Railways Reshape Crude Market," September 21, 2014.

September 23, 2014

The U.S. energy industry has had a dramatic change very recently in the way it ships crude oil. Once confined to transportation through pipelines, more and more crude oil is being transferred through railways.

Initially conceived of as a stopgap measure until pipelines could be constructed, and plagued by high-profile safety problems, crude by rail has nevertheless become a permanent part of the nation's energy infrastructure, according to the Wall Street Journal.

• Today, 1.6 million barrels of oil, close to 20 percent of the total pumped in the U.S., are being shipped by rail per day.
• Anything can run by through the railroad as long as terminals are built to load and unload the crude, which can cost $50 million for a large one.
• Revenues for the railroads have increased from $25.8 million in 2008 to $2.15 billion in 2013.

Crude by rail has been accelerated by the fact that new oil fields in Texas, North Dakota, and Colorado can move their product to the highest bidder. And, despite the fact that using railways are a little more expensive than shipping via pipelines, rail lines are more flexible and can reach the highest bidders.

Further accelerating crude by rail is the fact that there have been large protests against the creation of new pipelines. The most visible example of this is the Keystone XL pipeline, which will connect crude oil from Canada to parts of the United States, has been stalled due to protesting. Instead, crude producers have switched to simply shipping by rail. Moreover, the cost of building a large terminal -- about $50 million -- is the cost of building only one mile of the Keystone Pipeline.

Critics of several communities claim that crude by rail is a hazard to public safety, as trains can spillover and dump oil leading to many environmental concerns. However, regulators have proposed new rules to require sturdier cars to carry crude as well as requiring lower speed limits on rail lines. Additionally, rail lines have the added benefit of not intruding on property rights of landowners that would otherwise be required to build pipelines.

War on Poverity Design A Total Failure : $22 Trillion Later

We have spent $22 trillion so far on helping the poor become self reliant but to no effect, and now Mr Obama wants to spend another $13 trillion? It's ideology, it's socialism, progressive socialism. Guaranteed failure for the population. The progressive ideology is working?

The War on Poverty: 50 Years of Failure
Source: Robert Rector, "The War on Poverty: 50 Years of Failure," Washington Times. September 19, 2014.

September 23, 2014

This year marks the 50^th anniversary of the launch of the War on Poverty. Since President Johnson proclaimed his unconditional war on poverty, taxpayers have spent roughly $22 trillion dollars, which, adjusted for inflation, is three times the cost of all military wars since the American Revolution!

• Last year, the government spent $943 billion providing cash, food, housing, and medical care to poor and low-income Americans.
• More than 100 million people, or one-third of the population, receive some type of welfare at an average cost of $9,000 per recipient.
• Yet, as of 2013, 14.5 percent of Americans were poor, the same rate of poverty as in 1967.

The definition of poor, as defined by the Census Bureau, is interesting. It counts a family poor if income falls below a certain level. Yet it ignores the effect of welfare spending, making the figures of poor very misleading.

• For example, 80 percent of poor households have air conditioning' two-thirds have cable or satellite television; half have a personal computer; and 40 percent have high-definition televisions.
• In fact, less than 2 percent of poor are homeless and only 10 percent live in trailer homes.

President Johnson's goal was to turn "tax-eaters" into "taxpayers" and ensure that poor Americans could become self-sufficient and productive. However, the opposite tended to happen. More people are less capable of self-support today than when the War on Poverty began. The reason for this can be found in the incentive to not work and penalties on marriage. When the War on Poverty began, 7 percent of American children were born outside of marriage. Today, the number is 41 percent.

Rather than repeating the mistakes of the past, we should return to the goal of helping poor people help themselves, not give more handouts. Yet President Obama plans to spend $13 trillion over the next decade on welfare programs that will undermine social institutions and self-sufficiency.
 

British Columbia Carbon Tax : Misinformation, Managed Results

Anyway the media can spin the carbon tax as a success it will always be a loser except for those that have direct control of the increased revenue. All others will be losers as well as the country. Carbon control is just politics of those that seek to control the population by creating scarce energy, like limited health care. Control energy use and health care will control the population.

Using climate as a straw man to whip will hopefully soon fall on deaf ears, and as the lies about man made climate change has. Even when you tell a lie so often that it becomes the truth but is ignored, the lie as a false truth has no effect and is discarded.

Little wonder the democrats are rolling out the war on women again that worked so well, but is so last year now, but are forcing a new war now as the November election approaches.

Why British Columbia's Carbon Tax Is Not Applicable to America
Source:  Marlo Lewis, "Why British Columbia's Carbon Tax Is Not Applicable to America," Competitive Enterprise Institute. September 16, 2014

September 23, 2014

Many proponents of a carbon tax in the U.S. cite the success that British Columbia (BC) has had in their application of it. To get conservatives on board, proponents of the tax have shown how the carbon tax in BC was revenue-neutral -- that is, all the revenue it brings in must be used to reduce other taxes -- and that it generated an increase in gross domestic product (GDP).

However, the arguments for the tax are misleading for several reasons, according to Marlo Lewis, senior fellow for energy and the environment at the Competitive Enterprise Institute.
First, the tax doesn't lower taxes or boost GDP.

• During the four years that BC's GDP growth outpaced the rest of Canada's was only by an average of 0.1 percent.
• In 2012, BC's GDP growth was below both the Canadian average and the growth rate of its other provinces.
• BC's taxes already had low personal income taxes before it enacted the carbon tax. And yet, it has a higher corporate income tax than every U.S. state, with the exception of Iowa.

Moreover, the geological differences between the U.S. and BC means that enacting a similar tax would not yield the same benefits.

• Nearly all of BC's base-load electricity is zero-carbon hydropower, the second being carbon-neutral biomass, and the third being natural gas which generates only 6 percent of BC's electricity.
• On the other hand, the U.S. as a whole gets only 7 percent of its electricity from hydro power.
• Moreover, the U.S. can't construct large dams like BC has because of property rights concerns.
• Finally, coal generates no electricity in BC but provides the majority electric power in 21 states and is the largest single source of power in half the states.

The carbon tax is not as neutral as proponents would suggest. BC has had and continues to forecast budget surpluses for the foreseeable future. The U.S. on the other hand, has still a nearly half a trillion dollar deficit. It's easier to be revenue-neutral when a country is working with surpluses rather than deficits.
 

Health Care for End of Life : Health Care System Failing

Planning for end of life when one has the options of choosing of how it will take place is critical to enjoying your last years without destructive health accommodation that will burden others with having to impact their lives and  will be financially ruinous.

Health care will be center stage for everyone but most are not ready to tackle the problem including congress. They suffer the same mental block like everyone else, this is not important enough right now, we'll look at later. In fact, the reality is, much later.

But the chances of most young people planning for the end of life years can be connected directly to how they plan to just live when the they retire, they ignore it. More then 50% of retirees are not financially adequately ready to live without a paycheck each month.

I wonder who will pay the tab for all of those that are living the good life now and then suck on the system later to just survive?

Panel Urges Overhauling Health Care at End of Life
Source: New York Times, "Panel Urges Overhauling Health Care at End of Life," September 17, 2014.

September 23, 2014

The country's system for handling end-of-life care is largely broken and should be overhauled at almost every level, a national panel concluded in a report released on Wednesday, according to the New York Times.

According to some, the system is geared towards simply doing more toward the end of life which can be costly and not consistent with what the patients actually want. A report by a nonpartisan committee that was appointed by the Institute of Medicine has some recommendations for dealing with end of life care:

• First, Reimburse health care providers for conversations on advanced care planning.
• Restructuring Medicare, Medicaid, and other health care delivery programs.
• Eliminate perverse financial incentives that encourage expensive hospital procedures when low-tech services like pain management and home health care are available.
• Finally, accredited medical schools and groups as well as health providers should greatly increase training in palliative care.

Some recommendations, like changing the reimbursement structure so that Medicare would pay for home health services would require congressional action. In all, however ,the 507-page report, titled "Dying in America," said its recommendations would improve the overall quality of care and save a significant amount of money for our health care system.

Some critics argue that end-of-life choices that stem from the standpoint of economic savings would prompt the medical establishment to pressure people into rejecting life-sustaining treatment. However, in a survey of doctors about their own end-of-life care, many wish to be at home and simply free from pain. The conclusion of the study would not necessarily prompt premature deaths, but instead provide more choices for an increasingly diverse set of wants from a growing American population.

To accommodate this shift to more end-of-life planning, higher health education needs to be completely revolutionized to teach more palliative care skills and teaching. As it stands, many doctors are uncomfortable or ill-equipped to deal with the subject.
 

Benghazi Is Just Democrat Politics : People Died, Hillary Didn't Cry

 A picture that explains all we have to know just who and what Hillary Clinton is. The fact that she is responsible for the death of four Amerians is of no consequence. As she noted while the fight is going on, she and Mr Obama were discussing how to handle this for the politics.

That men were dying under fire while they discussed how to spin this to their advantage.

What are the good reasons to vote for Hillary or any other democrat given their collective voting history? Is this just democrat politics as usual?

Given the facts as history has recorded for decades, it is who they are and always have been.

Depart of Ag Food Stamp Program : A Zoo without Cages

That the progressive socialist liberal democrats don't make the connection that it's okay to force the human population into dependence but not for the other animals in our country is nonsense. They know exactly what they are doing and it's working. The construction of the zoo is only thing that differentiates one kind of animal from the other.

On the other hand it might not be necessary to make the connection as the progressive democrats are only concerned with the human population because this is the area where the power to control outcomes is centered.

A population that is dependent on the government for survival is a population that has no soul and therefore no future. Witness the democrats programs on all fronts designed and implemented to destroy individual freedom; healthcare and welfare are the most destructive.

Know, it's all about the politics that is based on an ideology of tyranny of the few and always has been. That the democrats have been successful in driving this ideology bodes poorly for out country.

EPA Moves to Crush Small Businesses : More Fees, Regulations

Again, carbon capture or green house gasses, climate change, has nothing to do with saving the planet. this is about "fundamental change of America", the destruction of capitalism and replacing it with a form of communism called 'democratic socialism' which is the very ideology of the progressive socialist liberal democrats.

The prevailing intelligence that has been seeking to find just who are the environmentalist that are demanding radical social change are from the demise of the communist ideology of Europe and the left radicals of the 60's that now are in positions of power.

Believe this is who they are and will not quit until the have what they want and that's total control of all outcomes. The tyranny of the few. Progressive socialist liberal democrats

The Latest Anti-Small-Business Effort to Stop Global Warming
Source: Diana Katz, "The Latest Anti-Small-Business Effort to Stop Global Warming," National Review Online. September 18, 2014.

September 22, 2014

The Obama Administration is at it again -- imposing costly and unnecessary environmental regulations-- this time on hydro fluorocarbons (HFCs). HFCS are coolants used in almost every building, home, and automobile, and the Obama Administration wants people to think they are the cause of global warming.

• In the first five years of the Obama Administration, regulatory costs have increased by more than $73 billion.
• Not surprisingly, the Environmental Protection Agency is responsible for the largest portion of costly regulations.
• Yet even as regulations have become more complex, there is no real evidence that warming has occurred over the past 15 years.

Moreover, no link has been established between HFCs and global warming, so it would be a waste of money. Ironically, the use of HFCs came about in the 1980's after the government tried to prevent the use of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) because they were tied to a thinning ozone layer. And even if HFCs were linked to warming, unilateral actions by the U.S. would unlikely halt the warming of the Earth but rather hurt American companies that are trying to compete globally.

In this particular case, the President has sought voluntary commitments from America's largest corporations like Coca Cola, Target, and more, to phase out their use of HFCs. However, the ones hit hardest by the new rules will be small companies that can't afford to convert to alternative coolants. Small businesses could not deal with the new rules and would have to inhibit their new and innovative products as resources will instead be used to find alternatives for HFCs.

The Administration's attempts are clearly misguided, just as past regulations have been, and will only seek to hurt American businesses.
 

Retirement Expenses Crushing Life : Home Mortages & Maintenance

It seems the prevailing attitude is among too many of us is live fast and die young. That most of the time that is just a fantasy never dawns on them as their entire lives are based on their IPhone and Pads, the biggest fantasy of all.  Who Knew?

Top Retirement Expense: Your Home
Source: USA Today, "Top retirement expense: Your home," September 17, 2014.

September 22, 2014

According to a new report by the Employee Benefit Research Institute, home and home-related costs are the biggest expense for people 50 and older. These costs include mortgages, property taxes, homeowner or renter's insurance, rent, utilities, home repairs, furnishing, cleaning supplies, housekeeping, laundry, etc.

• These costs account for 40 percent to 45 percent of household budgets.
• In 2011, people ages 65 to 74 spent an average of $18,720 on home and home-related expenses and those aged 75 to 84 spent $14,732
• On the other hand, health expenses increase with age.
• In households with at least one member between the ages 50 to 64, 8 percent of the household budget was spent on out-of-pocket medical expenses.
• This percentage increased to 19 percent with households that have people aged 85 or older.

The dollar amount may go down with age as older people spend less money on extraneous expenses, like transportation and entertainment, yet the share of the budget that goes toward household and household-related costs stay the same.

Another report from the same institute found that 36 percent of workers have less than $1,000 in savings and investments that can be used for retirement, not counting primary resident or defined benefits plans.
 

Industries that Expect Shortages : No, Not McDonalds

What this looks like is anyone that understands to make a life for yourself, you will have to make an effort. To stand around holding sign explaining you won't work unless you are given more money for doing less which means once the have more money for doing less it won't be long before they will want more for doing even less.

So, look in the mirror to try and understand who you are then act on what you see. For some just looking in the mirror, the image will be enough to make them want jump in front of the first bus that comes by. Little wonder then in lieu of the bus jump they wind up out front of McDonalds hold a sign.

Which Industries Are Expecting Labor Shortages?
Source: Peter Coy, "Do You Really Want to Pick That Major? A New Study Predicts Future Most-Wanted Jobs," Bloomberg Businessweek, September 2, 2014; "Growing Labor Shortages on the Horizon in Mature Economies," Press Release, Conference Board, September 2, 2014.

September 22, 2014

The world's advanced economies run a significant risk of labor shortages over the next eight years, says a new report by the Conference Board. Examining 464 occupations across 266 U.S. industries, as well as 40 professions in Europe, the report analyzes probable market-trends in many leading economies relative to declining working-age populations and the ongoing effects of the Great Recession.

The results, says Gad Levanon, Director of Macroeconomic Research and co-author of the report, are encouraging for workers but could paint a grim picture for employers. The most obvious stumbling block, looking forward, will be a company's ability to manage labor costs without skimping on labor quality.

According to the study, determining a country's short-term economic standing over the next eight years depends on current unemployment data and the estimated natural rate of unemployment. With this in mind:

• Canada Germany, Japan and South Korea are no longer seeing any affects of the Great Recession.
• By 2015, The United States and United Kingdom will likely fall below the natural rate of unemployment.
• Australia, Sweden, Belgium and Denmark are expected to reverse the effects of the recession by 2017.
• Greece, Spain, Italy, Portugal and France, who were most affected economies, will not reach natural rates of unemployment until after 2018.

Looking at existing labor-market tightness and future demographic developments, the study evaluates the probability of long-term labor shortages for countries in 2025.

• Germany, Hungary, Poland, Austria, Slovakia and the Czech Republic face the highest labor shortage risks.
• Because of minimal productivity growth and a working-age population in decline, Mediterranean countries are at a high risk.
• Japan and other Asia-Pacific countries are currently experiencing tight labor markets.
• The United States is at moderate risk due to working-age population growth and steady immigration.

So is there an upside to labor shortages? Peter Coy, writing for Bloomberg BusinessWeek, says yes. Of all the occupational concerns, STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) professions are not among them. Coy writes, "If you're an occupational therapist, podiatrist, or audiologist, getting a job in the next decade will be simplicity itself."
 

HealthCare.gov A Security Risk : Millions like Being Screwed

That the government health care system is full of security risks is not lost on anyone, anyone that has a brain which means they are awake most of time when the sun is shining and are able to hear the democrats lying and have eyes to see them lying about everything the democrats say the care about.

Center stage right now is climate change and health care. The democrats say we all about to die from the planet over heating, and if that's not enough we are about to die because we don't buy government run health care. And as this article points out if you don't parish from the first two calamities then others will steal what ever you have left after Mr Obama and the progressive democrats did not take from the first time they were elected.

But not to worry, million are ready and willing to give up everything, including the lives of their families and themselves to have the privilege of voting for more democrats.  An agenda like that is hard to understand given we all are living Mr Obama's failures, but no matter, it's how the democrat brain dead operate.

Government Watchdog: HealthCare.gov Full of Security Risks
Source: Louise Radnofsky and Stephanie Armour, "Federal Health Care Website Faces Security Risks, Watchdog Finds," Wall Street Journal, September 16, 2014.

September 22, 2014

HealthCare.gov is vulnerable to security risks, according to a report from Louise Radnofsky and Stephanie Armour at the Wall Street Journal.

The Government Accountability Office is set to address Congress this week to discuss the federal health insurance website and cybersecurity. The site -- into which millions of Americans have plugged in their personal information in order to enroll in health insurance plans -- contains a number of security risks that must be addressed, according to the GAO's director of information security issues Gregory Wilshusen.

Residents in more than 30 states have shopped for insurance on HealthCare.gov. In order to enroll in plans, as well as apply for federal tax credits to subsidize the cost of their insurance, people must enter several pieces of personal information, including income data and their family members' Social Security numbers. Even states that run their own exchanges use the federal site for certain purposes.
Apparently, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services did not assess all privacy risks, nor did it comprehensively test the entire HealthCare.gov system in order to weed out potential security problems. As of June 2014, the GAO found that security testing was still incomplete.

Among the problems identified by the GAO include the concerns that there was no alternate processing system available in the event that HealthCare.gov is disrupted, that infrastructure systems can access the Internet (increasing the likelihood of a third party reaching the website's data) and that various security patches have been applied inconsistently.
 

Decisions Based On Logic & Common Sense Lost : Voters Unaware of Reality

I would like to think this is a sign of the times but I have this sinking feeling that come November too many among us can't make rational decisions without being told by other people and organizations what the answers have to be.

To have the ability to see a situation and then have enough experience in life to understand what they are witnessing is contrary to reality, and then decide what decision will solve the problem will be based, for many, on how they solved problems in the past, to change ones thinking based on present facts is just too difficult and therefore rely on past history no matter how badly the past decisions turned out to be.

The low information or no information voter that is part and partial of the collective that is the democrat party will always, always, vote democrat.

The election and the reelection of Mr Obama, and the party of progressive socialist liberal democrats, is the best example of the complete failure to make rational decisions based on the voters living those failures of the near past and present history of the democrats.

Biden Headed to Wisconsin : But Burke Avoids Obama?

Old Joe is on his way to campaign for Mary Burke that is running for governor in Wisconsin against Scott Walker. I know, but she believes she is hear to take back the state and save it from the Republicans.

And seeing that Walker and Burke are tied in the polls even given all of the common sense that Walker has brought to Wisconsin, and running neck and neck with a progressive democrat that has no experience at all in government or anything else for that matter, sound familiar, Burke decided bringing in ol' Joe will boost her chances for success is telling in that these two are both intellectually challenged and both are selfless empty suits.

The question that remains is why would anyone actually consider voting a person, Mary Burke, that has no experience running anything in business and then wants to run an entire state, and then of all things, bring in another person that has a history of total failure in most everything he has been involved to campaign for her. This must be science fiction, right?

Just look at this man and then say, 'would I buy a used car from this guy'?