Thoughts on Zero Dark Thirty

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Merry Christmas to One and All

Yes, Merry Christmas to One and All

Merry Christmas to one and all, but especially to Christians in the Arab World. Your religious convictions are being tested in the heart of three great religions as the Arab Spring descends into darkness.

Try to respect your neighbors, but don’t turn the other cheek if they try to kill you.

Remember the teachings of Christ on this joyous day.

Be tolerant of others.

Do not read into the Bible that which is not there.

Merry Christmas, even if you not a Christian. You can still enjoy the Holidays in Christian countries.

Enjoy the time with your family; enjoy your life and health.

Remember the great times as you exchange cards with those from the past and present.

A very Merry Christmas even to the Grinches of Christmas present: The Arkansas Society of Free Thinkers, Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee, and Sarah Childs of the one finger Christmas salute.

Extend Christian charity to them. They need it, but don’t know it.

Be kind to those who have to work Christmas Day.

We are a multi-cultural people, but our values are based on our Judeo-Christian heritage.

Listen deeply to the great Christmas carols.

See Lincoln on Christmas Day, and rent Amazing Grace.

Rejoice.

Enjoy Midnight Mass.

Give thanks because you can.

It's OK in Iowa to Fire a Woman for Being an "Irresistible Attraction"

Melisa Nelson started working as a dental assistant in 1999 at age 20 for Dr. James Knight in Fort Dodge, Iowa after graduating from community college. She worked for Dr. Knight for 10½ years. He is now 53.

Both the dentist and the dental assistant were married with children. She viewed him as a ”father figure.” Both marriages had lost much of their romance.

They began texting each other outside of work, mostly about family issues. At one time when she texted about infrequency of sex in the marriage, he responded “That’s like having a Lamborghini in the garage and never driving it.”

Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder; it is subjective, but his feelings clearly started getting aroused. He complained to her about wearing tight clothes, although she claims she wore scrubs on the job. He once said to her “that if she saw his pants bulging, she would know that her clothing was too revealing.”

The record shows no evidence Melisa flirted with her boss or dressed provocatively to arouse him.

Perhaps the real question is “Can a woman be too beautiful?”

The answer may seem obvious, but let me tell you about two law students several decades ago interviewing for the same opening with a small law firm. Let’s call the young man Tony and the young woman Helen of Troy, for she was a beautiful Greek American. Both were highly qualified and competent.

Tony got the job and Helen did not. He asked the senior partner many months later why he and not Helen was offered. The answer was “Because I would never be able to explain Helen to my wife.”

We know people discriminate on the basis of looks, often on first impression. We know hiring decisions are often based on attractiveness. Mad Men may be a TV show, but I remember the two companies I worked for as an undergrad in the mid 1960's. One was a large, national insurance broker and the other an import-export company, both in San Francisco.

You were met by the reception desk when you got off the elevator. In both cases the receptionist/PBX operator was a beautiful, single young woman. That was no coincidence.

Airlines, especially PSA and Braniff, emphasized sexuality in their flight attendants. The industry, with the exception of Delta, only hired young, single women as flight attendants. The stewardesses would automatically lose their jobs upon marriage or turning 35 – all of which is clearly illegal under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

My long term dentist died when I was in law school. My new dentist had a staff of about 10 – all attractive young women. Perhaps a coincidence, but I doubt it.

That brings us back to Dr. Knight, a dental geezer experiencing middle age male menopause. He engaged outside the office in a year and a half of texting about personal matters with an employee who was turning him on.

His wife, who also worked in the office, discovered the texts in 2009. She demanded that Melisa be fired. After consulting with their pastor, rather than an employment discrimination lawyer, they agreed. The otherwise exemplary employee was fired in 2010 with one month of severance pay after 10 ½ years of loyal work.

The dentist explained to Melisa’s husband that she was a big threat to the dentist’s marriage and that he might attempt to have an affair with her.

She filed suit under Iowa’s Employment Discrimination Act. The Iowa Supreme Court on December 21, 2012 unanimously ruled against her (Merry Christmas Melisa).

The Court cited precedence, not fully applicable, to hold she was not terminated because of impermissible discrimination or sexual harassment, but to save his marriage.

Justice Edward M. Mansfield, wring for the Iowa Supreme Court, said “The question we must answer is …. whether an employee who has not engaged in flirtatious conduct may be lawfully terminated simple because the boss views the employee as an irresistible attraction.”

This decision, a pdf of which is available on line, will not go down in legal history as a leading case abrogating gender based discrimination. It does give us the term “irresistible attraction” which is not to be confused with the hallowed term “attractive nuisance.” 

The purpose of the anti-discrimination statutes is to do just that – prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex or other proscribed classes – not to save a marriage, not to promote domestic tranquility at home. If the spouse is jealous because of the texts, or for other reasons, then the problem lies within the marriage, as with the law firm senior partner, and not the woman. Trust is clearly lacking in the marriage or the spouse has some deep-rooted underlying issues.

The Court held the termination was based on “feelings and emotion” – not gender. Much discrimination is based on feelings and emotions, which is not otherwise protected by the anti-discrimination statutes.

We know the law would not protect his action if the wife had told him to fire a “Black” or “Latino” to save their marriage because she had bias towards non-whites.

The Iowa Supreme Court was wrong. Melisa Nelson in an interview a few days ago said it best “I don’t think it’s fair.”

Random Thoughts on the Mayan Calendar

Random Thoughts on the Mayan Calendar

It’s 9:00PM Pacific Time; the doomsayers, aka Mayan Calendar this time, are wrong again - just the usual assortment of minor earthquakes, drought, floods, blizzards, cold snaps, lava flows, and flight delays. Last Resort was canceled, but we’ll survive.

I wasn’t sure this morning. We were at the annual Chapman University Christmas Party. This year for the first time the festivities included a competition for the best gingerbread house. The winner was a set of Mayan temples. That might have been a sign.

Or not.

Are you reading this blog?

If you are reading this, we are still here. If you are reading this, the Mayan Apocalypse has not arrived. Plan B failed and we are facing the fiscal abyss, which was neither predicted by the Mayan Calendar nor Nostradamus.

When are we going to stop following, listening to, or giving airtime to doomsayers? History is full of failed prophets of doom.

A random thought on survivalists – How do survivalists expect to survive the end?

What are their preppers going to do now? Shouldn’t National Geographic celebrate their failure?

It can’t be doomsday. We are still receiving junk calls from “green” developers in spite of the Do Not Call List?

There can’t be an apocalypse in the near future. President Obama is not letting the Mayan calendar or the fiscal cliff delay his long planned 17 day vacation in Hawaii.

Maybe it is internet doomsday after all. Our inbox is jammed with spam from retailers. Walmart tells us "There's still time"; that's reassuring. L.L.Bean says  "Last-Minute help is here." That' great.A little extra counseling, and a few added prayers won't hurt.

How did you prepare for today?

Several Michigan school districts cancelled school today. Was it because of the end of days or the last day before the Christmas break? Why not” Detroit autoworkers get the first day of hunting season off. Why shouldn’t students also get a break?

Did you cash out, get stoned, where legally permissible, smashed, or orgy out in anticipation of December 21?

Did you stop buying Christmas presents or turn off your Christmas lights?

Did you cash in your IRA?

Did you at least start the long Christmas weekend early?

How many final day(s) offers did you see? From retailers?

I never knew if the Mayan Day of Doom was based on Mayan time, Yucatan Mayan Temple time, Greenwich Mean Time, Pacific Standard Time, New York Time, or bar time.

Can you tell me?

December 21 arrived early for 48% of the American people – November 6 to be exact when a few believe the Anti-Christ was reelected President of the United States.

They’re wrong; America will survive. So will the world.

President Obama's Use of Crisis management

Rahm Emanuel, President Obama’s first Chief of Staff, famously said in 2008 “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. And what I mean by that is an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before.”

President Obama has taken that advice to heart. Indeed, it’s become his governing mantra since 9/11/2012.

He’s experienced four “crisis” since 9/11. Let’s see how he handled them.

The first was the terrorist attack on the American Consulate in Benghazi, resulting in the death of Ambassador Stevens and three other Americans.

The second was Tropical Storm Sandy, which devastated the coastal areas of Connecticut, New Jersey, and New York. The third is the ongoing “fiscal cliff.” The most recent is the horrific killings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.

The 9/11 Benghazi attack posed a political problem for the President. He was campaigning on the statement “Bin-Laden’s dead; GM is alive.” He was also saying that the Al Qaeda threat was gone. In addition, President Obama was responsible for the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi, Libya’s dictator, and eased out President Mubarak of Egypt.

The President could find no political advantage in admitting he was wrong about the threat of terrorism, especially Islamic terrorism, and the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and possibly Libya.

The approach therefore was to deny it and engage in a campaign of disinformation. His Administration blamed the disturbances on an anti-Muslim video on YouTube eventhough they knew from the beginning that the demonstrations did not exist. U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice made the tour of TV News shows blaming Benghazi on the mobs reacting to the video.

An investigative study released this week by the State Department disclosed not only that there was no riot or demonstration, but also that no mention was made in Libya of the video until the days after the killings.

Tropical Storm Sandy was a natural disaster. The President quickly flew to New Jersey and publicly declared his Administration would do whatever it would take to help the communities recover. He was recorded in a famous embrace with New Jersey’s conservative Governor Chris Christy.

He was contrasting his Administration with that of President Bush’s with Katrina. Having reaped a highly favorable press coverage, he then left the Northeast. The impacted communities are not receiving the promised assistance, but the media is giving the President a pass.

He has though rediscovered the impacted Atlantic states by proposing a 94 page, $60.4 billion federal relief fund. The purpose of the act is the standard disaster relief, but it turns out to be another pork-laden bill with provisions that cannot otherwise be enacted by Congress. Senate Democrats say it’s non-negotiable.

Some of the provisions include $150 million for fisheries restoration, including Alaskan salmon as well as oysters and blue crabs in Mississippi. Another $200 million will go to the Secretary of Health and Human Services to use in her unbridled discretion as she sees fit. Eight million dollars would be appropriated for new cars and trucks for Homeland Security and the Justice Department. The Smithsonian would receive $2 million for roof repairs.

Those are the petty cash provisions.

Up to $28 billion would go for future mitigation costs rather than current disaster relief. $17 billion would be granted in community development block grants. Another $10.7 billion would be in ”emergency” spending for public transportation projects.

In other words, it would be business as usual for Congress.

President Obama saw Sandy as a crisis opportunity to push through a bill, such as earlier with the Stimulus Act, to reward Democratic constituencies.

President Obama revealed, and the media discovered, the “fiscal cliff” two days after he won reelection. Suddenly the economy will collapse on January 1 unless we raise taxes on the 1%, the 2%, the wealthy, those making over $250,000. It’s for “fairness,” not to grow the economy.

He wants substantial tax increases, which are deadly to the economy in a time of economic distress, with the tax increases fueling increased government spending. That’s not quite how he says it, but that’s the fine print. Remember all those shovel-ready jobs in the Stimulus Bill, followed three years later by “Shovel-ready were not as shovel-ready as we expected.”

All to avoid crashing over the fiscal cliff!

The horrific tragedy at Sandy Hook is now being used to push gun control through Congress, more background checks, a ban on assault weapons, a ban on high capacity magazines.

We still don’t fully know what happened; we still don’t know what motivated the deranged killer; we don’t even know yet if the Bushmaster was used in the killings.

And yet the drumbeat continues to impose restrictions on the purchase of guns that would not apply to Adam Lanza who killed his mom and stole her guns. The shooter in Clackamas, Oregon similarly stole the gun he used.

The full court press is on to push gun control through Congress. It’s become the President’s “central issue.”

The shootings are the story to most Americans. The tragedy or crisis is a political opportunity for the Obamanistas.

He’s not going to waste the crisis.

House Republicans have responded that it’s time to mourn, not to debate policy.

From crisis to crisis, that’s how the President plans to transform America. The crisis of the day will trump the Republican House of Representatives.

Ignore the rhetoric; ignore the crisis mentality.

Look  carefully at the details.

A serious crisis is too good to waste.

Gerald Departieu Departs France: A Lesson for California and President Obama

The socialist Francois Hollande ran for President of France earlier this year against the increasingly unpopular Nicholas Sarkozy on a campaign of taxing the rich He proposed raising the top tax rate to 75% on income of €1,000,000 or more “out of justice.”

Sound familiar?

The French said Vive Le France! Viva Hollande!

Hollande got his 75% tax, up from 48%, as well as a 60.5% marginal capital gains tax and a wealth tax of .5% on assets exceeding €800,000. France also has a national sales tax of 19.6%.

The “oppressed” rich responded by adopting the French equivalent of “Vamonos, amigos,” (I would use the French equivalent, but the two weeks of French classes did not take) and voted with their feet. The traditional place of European tax refuge is the Principality of Monaco. Switzerland and Belgium are now enjoying a boom in French émigrés. Belgium offers chocolates, waffles, NATO, and a substantially lower tax rate (53.7%).

French chateaus and high end Paris properties are being dumped on the market.

Bernard Arnault led the exodus. He’s the chief executive officer and primary owner of LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton, the luxury goods company. His estimated net worth is $24.1 billion. The leftist French paper, Liberation, said “Get lost, you rich idiot.” Bernard is applying for Belgium citizenship.

Belgium has not only a lower income tax but also neither a capital gains tax on shares or stock nor a wealth tax.

Gerard Depardieu, the great French actor, announced he’s moving to the quaint Belgium village of Nechin across the border from France. About 27% of the village’s population are French émigrés. He’s listed his 20,000 square foot Left Bank town house for $65.4 million.

The France Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault then called Depardieu “rather pathetic” and unpatriotic.

Depardieu responded in an open letter December 16 to the Prime Minister. He stated he paid over €145 million in income taxes over 45 years and has fully paid his 2012 taxes, which came out to a 85% tax rate. He has 80 people working for him in France. He added “I give you back my passport and social security card, which I have never used.”

He was quite explicit: “I’m leaving because you think success, talent and anything different should be punished.”

That sums up the approach of President Obama: “You didn’t make it.”

Aurelie Filippeti, the French Minister of Culture, responded to the departed actor “French Citizenship, it’s an honor.” She added “It is rights and duties, too, among them to be able to pay taxes.”

Senator Joe Biden stated in September 2008 that paying more in taxes is the patriotic thing to do for wealthier Americans. President Obama echoed the Vice President in August 2012 on the patriotic duty to pay taxes. 

The French and American leaders call redistribution “patriotism.”

President Obama went even further at the February 2012 National Prayer Breakfast. He stated Jesus Christ would support his tax the rich policy. Merry Christmas to those making over $250,000 in the high cost, high tax Blue States of California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Taxachusetts.

The new American paradigm under President Obama and Governor Brown is that success should be punished. 

Success is failure.

That brings us to California and President Obama. Voters in California just voted in a tax increase to raise the marginal tax rate to 13.3%. That’s just the California marginal tax rate. When you include the federal income tax, it adds up to 57.4%, less some itemized deductions for state income tax subject to the vagaries of the dreaded Alternative Minimum Tax. 

We also have to add in the federal social security and Medicare taxes, which will be 3.7% for the self-employed under ObamaCare. The effective marginal tax rate will exceed 60%, not including property taxes and California’s sales tax, which approaches 10% in some cities.

The exodus of wealth creators from California over the past two decades has been well documented. Arizona, Florida, Texas, Utah, and even Nevada are very attractive tax havens to Californians and their corporations.

A couple of examples from New York illustrate the pattern of tax migration. Rush Limbaugh continued to broadcast some EIB shows from New York after moving to Florida. New York enacted a “millionaires tax.” Limbaugh announced he would discontinue all operations in New York, effectively depriving the city and state of his income and that of his employees.

The response of New York’s interim Governor Patterson was “If I knew that would be the result, I’ve would’ve thought about the taxes earlier.”

Driving legitimate business out of the state is not a wise economic policy.

Tom Golisano, founder of Paychex, ran for Governor of New York in 1994, 1998, and 2002 on the Independence Party ticket.  The billionaire announced in 2009 that he was moving to Florida to escape New York taxes.

A tax structure in which the government takes from your earnings more than you get to keep is a disincentive to economic growth, and drains both investment capital and discretionary spending from the private center.

Leaving the United States to escape paying taxes is not easy. An exit tax must be paid. An increasing number of Americans though are voting with their feet. 3,805 left in 2011. An estimated 8,000 may leave this year. Famous expatriates this year include Eduardo Saverin, co-founder of Face Book, and Denise Rich, of the infamous Clinton pardon of her ex husband, the fugitive Marc Rich.

Are America or California going the way of France, Spain, Portugal, and Greece?