Recovery? Yeah, Whatever…

Mark Noonan46 Comments

From Mish’s Global Economic Trend Analysis:

The surge in employment fueled by part-time jobs and the Obamacare effect may finally be over. Although the establishment survey showed a gain of 88,000 jobs, the household survey, off which the unemployment rate is based, showed a loss of 206,000 jobs.

The unemployment rate edged lower by .1% because a whopping 496,000 people dropped out of the labor force.

Last month, voluntary part-time employment rose by a reported 446,000. It’s plain to see that last month’s numbers were a statistical aberration. This was a miserable jobs report from every angle….

Keep that clearly in mind – the unemployment rate dropped to 7.6% in a month when the source for the 7.6% figure showed a loss of 206,000 jobs.  The only reason it dropped – rather than shooting up – is because nearly half a million people dropped out of the labor force.  The labor force participation rate is now back to 1970’s levels.

This, my friends, is a dying economy.  Dying more slowly here than in Europe because parts of the country are still rationally governed (places like Texas and Florida, for instance), but still dying because of a sea of debt and fake money.Europe, too, was kept afloat for a while by France and Germany…how long can Texas and Florida make up for California and New York?

UPDATE:  Given that two more Democrat Senators have “evolved” (between November and April, astoundingly!) on gay marriage, Kruiser is dead on:

Gay marry the jobs report, that’s Plan B today.

So What Have You Missed?

Cluster54 Comments

If you’re the typical liberal, you’ve missed a lot. While everyone has been busy hyperventilating over gay marriage and restricting gun rights, a lot has gone on under the radar. First on the radar screen would be the President’s call to relax lending standards again, as Bill Clinton did back in the 1990’s, which led to the ultimate crash in 2007. Liberals like to refer to this as “predatory lending” because obviously it was all the fault of greedy banks who insisted on giving mortgages to people who couldn’t afford to pay them back. So off we go to another housing bubble, how exciting.

Next up, poverty, which is reported now to be at levels not seen since the 1960’s which as most of us remember was the impetus for the Great Society and the “war on poverty”. Now you would think that after the “summer of recovery” in 2010, the 2009 stimulus, Obama’s promise of a new “green” economy in need of well paid, skilled workers, and the Keynesian economic dream model he has been chasing, that Americans would be on easy street right now, right? Well you would be wrong. The latest jobs report is well below expectations and inventories are falling, which doesn’t bode well for future employment. On a positive note, Justin Timberlake is scheduled to perform at the White House soon, so it’s good to know that the Obama’s are not suffering from the sluggish economy.

Next up, Obamacare. It was announced this week that the administration will have to delay the implementation of SHOP, a key small business provision, that was instrumental in securing some needed votes for passage. The provision was scheduled to begin in January 2014, and was to allow choices of coverage for small business at affordable rates. Now the program has been pushed back a year, to January 2015, and will only allow for one single choice for those small business’s despite nearly 4 years to put the program in place. However, anyone who believed that we could reduce health care costs by adding more layers of bureaucracy and more free riders to the system, deserve what they get.

Finally, illegitimacy, which in my opinion, is the root of our societal ills. A recent report shows that now more than half of all births to all women under 30, occur outside of marriage. 73% of all black children are born outside of marriage, while that number is 53% for Latinos and 29% for whites. These numbers are alarming. Studies show that children raised in single-family households are more prone to drop out of school, use drugs, commit crimes, and wind up in prison and/or poverty.  And personally, I BLAME MEN!! Men need to man up, so to speak and take care of their responsibilities and their children. There is zero excuse for any man to abandon their child, and as a society, we should not condone that one bit. There are plenty of choices to be made to avoid pregnancy before the act of sex, which makes abortion not an option, and again, as a society we should expect better from everyone. How can we “progress” as a society if we continue to lower the bar? Progress should mean improvement, and from the current condition of our society, I am not seeing much improvement.

Liberal Fascist Perfection: Insurance Mandate for Gun Owners

Mark Noonan56 Comments

From Fox News:

A New York Democratic lawmaker is behind a national push that would force gun owners to buy liability insurance or face a $10,000 fine.

The Firearm Risk Protection Act, pushed by Rep. Carolyn Maloney and seven co-sponsors, follows efforts at the state level to create the controversial new kind of insurance for gun owners.

“For too long, gun victims and society at large have borne the brunt of the costs of gun violence,” Maloney said in a written statement. “My bill would change that by shifting some of that cost back onto those who own the weapons.” …

For a liberal Democrat, this is just the best thing ever:

1.  It punishes the law abiding.

2.  It restricts gun ownership to those wealthy enough to afford insurance (so that Hollywood stars can still have them!  Cool, huh?).

3.  It opens up massive opportunities for Democrat-supporting trial lawyers to rake it in using lawsuits against gun owner insurance policies.

4.  If you have to have insurance then the government needs to be sure you’ve got it – so, licensing of guns.  And, hey, we gotta make sure that insurance policy is in force – so we need to renew your gun license each year!

5.  It provides additional revenue streams for Big Government.

6.  Once everyone is licensed, registered and insured any DA or US attorney out there looking to boost his conviction rate can troll trough the registration records to see if anyone is in violation of some obscure provision of a local, State or federal gun law or regulation.  You didn’t know you were in violation because you stored your gun in the closet instead of in a federally certified gun case?  That’s your problem!  Pony up a guilty plea, surrender your guns (forever) and pay a $10,000 fine or go to jail for 5 years!

I could go on – and if such a provision ever becomes law, then federal and State law enforcement agencies will go on and on and on.  Make absolutely no mistake about it – gun confiscation is the Democrat aim and they will keep at it and at it and at it…hoping that if they throw 100 laws and regulations against the wall that one or two of them will stick.  And then they’ll throw another 100.  Lather, rinse, repeat.

We must stand absolutely firm against all Democrat gun efforts because all of them have the same gun confiscation aim.  Do keep in mind that in theory I am in favor of gun licensing and registration (I’m also in favor of abolishing the National Guard and re-instituting the State Militia…because that what guns are really for:  to arm our militia against all enemies, foreign and domestic), but as long as these liberals are involved, I won’t go an inch down that road…because they are not honest; they don’t want reasonable regulation of guns but an end to an armed citizenry.

Stockman: The End is Nigh!

Mark Noonan24 Comments

Quoting former Reagan OMB director Stockman over at Pajamas Media:

…The state-wreck ahead is a far cry from the “Great Moderation” proclaimed in 2004 by Mr. Bernanke, who predicted that prosperity would be everlasting because the Fed had tamed the business cycle and, as late as March 2007, testified that the impact of the subprime meltdown “seems likely to be contained.” Instead of moderation, what’s at hand is a Great Deformation, arising from a rogue central bank that has abetted the Wall Street casino, crucified savers on a cross of zero interest rates and fueled a global commodity bubble that erodes Main Street living standards through rising food and energy prices — a form of inflation that the Fed fecklessly disregards in calculating inflation.

These policies have brought America to an end-stage metastasis. The way out would be so radical it can’t happen. It would necessitate a sweeping divorce of the state and the market economy. It would require a renunciation of crony capitalism and its first cousin: Keynesian economics in all its forms. The state would need to get out of the business of imperial hubris, economic uplift and social insurance and shift its focus to managing and financing an effective, affordable, means-tested safety net…

Stockman notes that no one in power is going to do any of the things necessary to fix the problem – last week, I read a quote attributed to the Prime Minister of Luxemburg which went along the lines of, “we all know what needs to be done, but we don’t know how to get re-elected after we do it”.  Whether or not the PM said any such thing, it is precisely why our Ruling Class won’t make the necessary changes – because to make them means that whomever does it loses the next election, big time.  I agree with Stockman on what is wrong and why it won’t be fixed – I don’t agree in his laying a great deal of the blame for changing the budget dynamic on Reagan, mostly because Stockman still carries a grudge from waaaay back when…Reagan rejected some of Stockman’s policy ideas in the mid-80’s and Stockman hasn’t quite gotten over it, but his claim that Reagan brought us to fiscal irresponsibility is absurd given that Social Security – the first step in complete fiscal irresponsibility – came about nearly 50 years before Reagan.  That said, the basic thrust that things are collapsing and that it has been a bi-partisan effort to wreck things is completely true.

What do to?  Stockman advises to get out of stocks and bonds and in to cash – not so sure that is the way to go because our cash is already devaluing and will do more so as time goes on with Bernanke continuing to print.  Still, getting out of debt and having as much cash on hand as possible is a good idea – gold, silver and a supply of canned goods also isn’t a bad idea, either.  The main thing is to be prepared for a very rough time, and not too long in the future.  How long?  I don’t know.  No one does.  Could happen tomorrow – could hold off for five years.   Something will trigger the final collapse – our entire economic world is based upon fake money and debt and in a very real sense, the amount of debt in the world exceeds the ability of the entire world to pay for it. And the thing about debt that can’t be repaid is that it doesn’t get repaid.

I’m not at all worried or frightened about this.  We’re going to pay the piper for 80 years of sheer idiocy in government and economics.  A better and wiser people will emerge from the collapse.

UPDATE:  Stockton, CA, goes bankrupt.

UPDATE II:  Eurozone unemployment hits 12%.  Glad that we haven’t gone down their route of fake money and massive debt…oh, wait…

Happy Easter!

Mark Noonan20 Comments

He is risen, indeed:

At daybreak on the first day of the week
the women who had come from Galilee with Jesus
took the spices they had prepared
and went to the tomb.
They found the stone rolled away from the tomb;
but when they entered,
they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.
While they were puzzling over this, behold,
two men in dazzling garments appeared to them.
They were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground.
They said to them,
“Why do you seek the living one among the dead?
He is not here, but he has been raised.
Remember what he said to you while he was still in Galilee,
that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners
and be crucified, and rise on the third day.”
And they remembered his words.
Then they returned from the tomb
and announced all these things to the eleven
and to all the others.
The women were Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Mary the mother of James;
the others who accompanied them also told this to the apostles,
but their story seemed like nonsense
and they did not believe them.
But Peter got up and ran to the tomb,
bent down, and saw the burial cloths alone;
then he went home amazed at what had happened. – Luke 24:1-12

Roads & Bridges

Cluster18 Comments

Stop me if you have heard this before:

We still have too many ports that aren’t equipped for today’s world commerce.  We’ve still got too many rail lines that are too slow and clogged up.  We’ve still got too many roads that are in disrepair, too many bridges that aren’t safe,” – President Rinse and Repeat

That’s right folks, our roads and bridges are still in need of repair, despite the 2009, $800 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act! Don’t those words sound great together? Who could possibly be against Reinvesting in America’s Recovery? And putting Americans back to work at the same time?? It’s a win – win.  Why we were going to invest that $800 billion in rebuilding America’s infrastructure, improving deteriorating schools, and beginning the transition to green energy. What noble and heart warming causes, that only evil, backwater, troglodytes, (ie; conservatives) could possibly oppose. But alas, here we are again today, 4 years later almost to the day, and the cause continues. WE NEED TO SPEND MORE MONEY! We need to reinvest in America, don’t you know, and those obstructionist, heartless  Republicans are standing in the way.

Let’s call him President Rinse and Repeat. It seems to work pretty well, so why try and fix something that’s not broken? As long as we have roads and bridges that are in need of repair, the Democrats can get away with just about anything.

 

Regarding DOMA And Other “Assurances.”

Leo Pusateri100 Comments

OK– I’ll open the floodgates–time for a ramble….

Marriage is a word used to describe a societal institution, and it means something–or at least it has, that something being a relatively permanent, committed union between a man and a woman. Yes, I know that people have historically taken their own marriages too lightly and the Hollywood left and others have treated their marriages in much the same manner as middle-school kids treat crushes; but the essential accepted definition of the term, “MARRIAGE” has nonetheless remained intact for the better part of 2000 years.

Now, however, we are being told that we, in a new ‘enlightened’ era, must arbitrarily re-define the longstanding societal institution of marriage, for better or worse, to include same sex couples, and that it should be so under the 14th Amendment, and upheld between States under the “Full Faith and Credit” clause.

Fine and dandy, I guess…BUT–

We’re also told that that’s as far as it will go– and if we (those who are against gay marriage and/or those who are on the fence) think that it is the beginning of a slippery slope ‘anything goes’ redefinition of the institution of marriage, we’re just paranoid neanderthals.. 10 or 15 years ago, we were also told that there was no need to pass a defense of marriage amendment to the Constitution, because the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) protected that traditional definition.

Fine and dandy, as well, I guess;

However, up to this point, no one has been able to adequately explain how, if the SCOTUS decision tilts the “gay marriage” way, that polygamists, incestuous couples, etc., will not also want equal protection under the 14th Amendment, and sue for the right to marry, and that the term ‘marriage’ will have so many meanings so as to render what has been a veritable societal institution meaningless.

In other words, what is to prevent the slippery slope we’re being assured will not happen?

Personally, I’m of the mind that it’s a State issue, and that ALL unions should be civil unions. But should the term “Marriage” be so malleable so as to become meaningless?

Are people really thinking things through on this issue? Or are many merely living in the zeitgiest of the moment,  inconsiderate of and/or oblivious to the ramifications?

I’ve been thinking long and hard the past few days, and I can’t see any assurances that my worst nightmare regarding the institution of marriage, that it essentially becomes meaningless, will not come to fruition.

While many marriages have failed since time imemoriam, the institution of marriage on balance has unarguably been a net-positive as a building block for literally thousands of years into our civilization.

I guess all I’m saying is that we may be taking this issue a bit too cavalierly; jumping in the clouded pool without regard as to its depth and/or its potential consequences.

I await to be educated to the contrary.

UPDATE, by Mark Noonan – Mark Steyn nails it:

…It came up at dinner Down Under this time last year, and the prominent Aussie politician on my right said matter-of-factly, “It’s not about expanding marriage, it’s about destroying marriage.” That would be the most obvious explanation as to why the same societal groups who assured us in the Seventies that marriage was either (a) a “meaningless piece of paper” or (b) institutionalized rape are now insisting it’s a universal human right…

The thing about liberals is that, at bottom, they are just downright nasty – doesn’t matter what the issue is, they will always take the worst possible position and if it contradicts their previous position its no matter…as long as hatred the destruction of our civilization proceed, they’re just pleased as punch.

You Can’t Fix Stupid – Gay Marriage Cont.

Cluster114 Comments

And at this point, there is a whole lot of stupid walking around. I find it hard to believe that with gas prices nearing $4/gal., unemployment persistently high, GDP persistently sluggish, record debt, record deficits, higher taxes, increased food stamp dependency, and record number of people on disability, that gay marriage seems to be the most pressing issue. But according to liberals and the media, and again I apologize for the redundancy, gay marriage is paramount to all other concerns. And it isn’t even about equality, of course don’t tell your stupid liberal friend that, because they are bound to become unglued and call you an extremist, and when that happens you know darn well that racist word isn’t far behind. Every single human being in America has equal rights in terms of marriage – we are all free to marry a member of the opposite sex, whom is not closely related and of the age of consent. Love is not required, never has been. Therefore, every living being in this country is on equal terms. Expanding on that, none of us has the right to marry a member of the same sex, with the exception of nine states (can you see where I might be going with this?), nor do we have the right to marry a close relative, or a minor, so again equal terms. Expanding even further, legal rights really aren’t even in question here in that through wills and living wills (thank you Amazona), same sex couples can bequeath personal property to their partner, extend visiting rights and/or POA’s, so the only unsettled issue would then be the tax considerations extended to them on behalf of the IRS, which really would be a minor issue to resolve. What this issue really boils down to is the redefinition of a word and ultimate acceptance. Attitudes are certainly shifting on this issue as evidenced by recent elections at the various states, and this is of course where the issue belongs. If liberals were so confident in the shifting political winds on this issue, they wouldn’t be relying on nine robed justices to impose this mandate for them, but I believe that confidence is not as strong as they would have you believe. Equally wrong in my opinion, is their insistence to offend the hundreds of millions of people of Faith worldwide, who hold dear the timeless and rich tradition of the institution of marriage.

Enough of gay marriage – again hard to believe that this issue has risen to this level. In two other news items, which should be of much more import, unless you listen to the media of course, Kathleen Sebelius today has admitted that health care premiums will in fact rise. This announcement will only surprise the media and brain dead liberals, again sorry for the redundancy, as many conservatives have mentioned this since day one despite the persistent lies from the POTUS. And Janet Napolitano has stated that a pathway to legalizing illegal immigrants should come before securing the border, an effort of which has almost completely dropped off her radar. The cost of illegal immigration, the rising costs of entitlement dependency, the rising costs of SS and Medicare with no sensible reform in sight, and the legacy costs of public unions pensions, which is bankrupting our cities and states, is what our national dialogue should be centered around. Instead, we discuss ad nauseum, an issue of relatively minor concern that is quite frankly intellectually beneath us. Sadly though, you can’t fix stupid.

UPDATE, by Mark Noonan:  A libertarian in favor of gay marriage notes his problem…

…I have a feeling that if the push to end DOMA and Prop 8 were primarily the work of Reason or the Ayn Rand Institute, certain traditionalist conservatives would be at least slightly more amenable to it. This would be because the implicit threat of future civil-rights lawsuits against, say, churches that refuse to marry gays would be a moot point. No Cato Institute senior fellow wants to file suit against the Catholic Church for exercising its First Amendment rights. Social conservatives know this; they trust libertarians enough even if they don’t agree with them.

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Are We There Yet? – Open Thread

Cluster127 Comments

Another Sunday, another good day for an open thread. A few days back I posited a query to all liberals seeing if they are finally at a point where they might be growing disenchanted with The One They Have All been Waiting For. Evidently, we aren’t there yet, because not one of them is ready to criticize anything about their benevolent leader. Hard to believe though considering that there is so much material for which to do so. Starting with the sequester scare, followed by Obama’s recent pledge of hundreds of millions to Syrians and Palestinians. Now how can cutting a few hundred million dollars from some government agencies result in having to shut down White House tours, and vaccinations for children, yet somehow we found the money to help Syrian refugees. You would think liberals and the media would question that.

I am also always amazed at the false perceptions so many liberals have of conservatives. A notion implanted in their minds by the educational system and the media. My effort going forward will be to dispel those notions. I have begun a personal dialogue with Mitch who is a little older than I first believed and has a better sense of humor than I would have given him credit for. I don’t know how much political common ground we have but that will be discovered in the weeks ahead. I do hope that we can just have civil conversations, regardless of our disagreements, and I am happy that that has been the case thus far. I think Mitch is surprised to learn that I am just a normal human being rather than the false notion of conservatives he has construed in his mind. I think if conservatives can begin to reeducate the numerous misinformed liberals that have bought into the medias and democrats false ideals of who we are, we can begin to bring back some semblance of normalcy and civility. I have told Mitch that we here at the blog would welcome more liberal posters who could articulate their positions rationally and without lashing out at some false notion, but that far too often, all we get are hyper emotional rants.

This entire country needs to learn how to dial down the rhetoric. Do I think that we are in a really bad place in terms of debt, spending, restriction of liberties, and the soon to be calamity of Obama care? Yes to all the above. But it will require determined, measured, and well articulated positions on the conservative approach to convince those who are ingrained with false ideals, rather than just name calling.

Avoiding a “Morally Vacuous and Historically Ignorant” Foreign Policy

Mark Noonan45 Comments

Ran across a useful and interesting argument between the generally conservative and generally libertarian views of our foreign policy – especially as it relates to war and the use of force in general.  Here is Noah Rothman arguing against the essentially libertarian idea of non-intervention (using Syria as an example of why we should, at times, intervene), and here is the retort by Nick Gillespie forcefully arguing the libertarian viewpoint.  Both articles repay reading – but my view is that both of them got it wrong, to a certain extent.

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