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Classic Diversion: Obama's Robin Hood

By Charles Adler, QMI Agency

Thursday, January 26, 2012

 

Eat the rich. Folks, the Occupy movement has infiltrated the White House.

President Barack Obama wants the rich to pay the government’s tab with the American people. To stop the 1% from choking the life out of the American dream. To help eliminate the deficit and pay down those stimulus debts. To fix all that’s gone wrong with America. To overhaul the tax code by ending Bush-era tax cuts in order to fund entitlement programs like education, medical research and the care of military veterans.

End the tax cuts or end benefits to military veterans. He’s pulling heart strings in this ideological tug of war.

In a grand gesture of political theatre, Obama gave Warren Buffet’s secretary one of the best seats in the house at this state of the union address. You know, Warren Buffet’s poor, oppressed executive assistant who apparently pays a higher tax rate than the oracle of Omaha himself? The very representation of the repression of the average American, turns out his poor secretary makes up to $500,000 per year, according to Forbes. Obama’s tax aspirations, the “Buffett Rule,” would actually make her pay a whole lot more. 

But all this Robin Hood stuff is a classic diversion strategy to deflect the attention of the American people away from Obama’s failures. Twenty-four million Americans are still out of work or underemployed despite out-of-control government stimulus spending that has pushed America’s debt to new highs; debt that’s more like a Greek tragedy than the American Dream. Best to divert negative attention to a new enemy and make the rich wear the goat horns. Capital gains tax is in the crosshairs. A tax deferral tool for wealthy investors, Obama’s been wanting to revamp capital gains tax rules for years. After all, by raising those taxes the government makes a bundle — and the rich won’t miss it. They’re already rolling in dough, right?  

Wrong. Historical data confirms that raising capital gains taxes actually reduces government tax revenue. Why? Because it slaughters investment and economic activity.  His tax initiatives target those super-elite bankers but it’s those Mom and Pop businesses that would suffer. Those small businesses create real jobs that lead to real growth. Not the phoney kind of jobs from an ever-expanding public sector. 

It’s also a double taxation. American corporations already pay a 35% tax rate, one of the highest in the world. Any returns to the investors is already net of tax. Americans pay about 45% in combined taxes on their investment income. But that’s not all. Don’t forget the death tax. When an American investor buys the farm, they get dinged as much as 35% in estate taxes. Tax upon tax upon tax.

Does America still sound like a low-tax jurisdiction to you? Funny how Obama doesn’t mention any of these things in his rhetoric. Obama’s got his socialist blinders on. His personal views on fairness are more important to him than economic common sense. And that kind of thinking is both dangerous and destructive.

Obama talks a good game. He’s a great public speaker, but the last three years have demonstrated that style can only carry the America Dream so far. It’s time for a change. Canada’s future depends on it. And that’s Canadian common sense.

 

NOT-SO-SUPER SUNDAY

By The Menzoid

 

Savvy Canadian shoppers have undoubtedly noticed signage at retail stores that read, “Shoplifting costs us all.”

And it’s true, of course. When retailers experience “shrinkage” – that kinder, gentler word for thievery – it adds to the cost of doing business. The retailer either sucks it up by making less profit or increases the price of the merchandise to make up for lost revenue. That’s Capitalism 101.

But there’s another hidden cost that hurts the bottom lines of retailers... and the culprits here aren’t thieves, but rather, disingenuous cheapskates.

You see, as we head closer to the first Sunday in February – a.k.a., Super Sunday – you can expect the nation’s sporting skinflints to take a stand... and hurt the economy.

In the days leading up to the fifth of February, electronic retailers will typically experience a significant blip in sales of big-screen TVs. After all, nobody is going to invite the guys over and watch the big game if the rec room is festooned with a circa-1979 26-inch Zenith.

No, we’re talking at least a 55- incher if you plan on hosting a Super Bowl party in 2012. And if you can spring for a 70-incher, all the better.

But here’s the rub. Just as electronics stores experience an uptick in sales in the days prior to the Super Bowl, they also experience massive returns post-Super Sunday.

Oh, it’s true. You see, the sporting cheapskate only wants to impress his friends with the latest whiz-bang TV for the game but has no intention of living with the big ticket purchase for the months and years to come. So, within the prescribed 30-day period, those big TVs are returned along with some bogus excuse as to why the high-tech telly isn’t suitable anymore.

Of course, this all adds to the cost of doing business, and that means higher-priced electronic goods for the thousands and thousands of honest Menzoid Maniacs and trustworthy Adler Acolytes who wouldn’t dream of playing such a game.

But this year, The Menzoid decided to take a stand to reverse this odious trend.

Namely, for a few days, he patrolled the entrance ways to various Future Shops and Best Buys in the Rich Man’s Hill area, diligently keeping an eye out for those people who were purchasing large screen TVs in late January.

Clad in a rented naval uniform and wearing a pith helmet (which conveys an aura of authority), The Menzoid approached big-screen TV purchasers and asked them for a few moments of their time. That’s when The Menzoid went into his speech about how returning a TV post-Super Bowl is neither moral nor ethical. Please note, The Menzoid was not being paid by Future Shop or Best Buy. Rather, as previously noted, educating others is what The Menzoid likes to do.

As for the results of the impromptu Q&A: not a single shopper actually admitted to the fact that he or she was planning on returning the merchandise post February Fifth. But The Menzoid could see through their lies. How so? Simple. The Menzoid was also carrying a clipboard with a declaration which stated the following:

“I swear to God that I am not purchasing a television primarily to watch the Super Bowl and plan to return the television after the Super Bowl. I have been informed by The Menzoid that this is an unethical practice, and I hereby swear by all that is holy that I will keep the merchandise I have purchased for its normal lifespan. If I am lying, I hope I go straight to hell.”

The Menzoid then offered up a pen so that the person could sign his or her name in the space below the declaration.

Alas, The Menzoid is profoundly saddened to report that not a single one of the 40-plus customers he interviewed – not one! – agreed to sign his documentation. In fact, when The Menzoid began insisting on a signature as a show of good faith, many individuals became verbally abusive. One even dropped the F-bomb. Please keep in mind The Menzoid was, at all times, wearing a naval uniform and pith helmet.

Needless to say, The Menzoid was left shocked, saddened, and dismayed by the type of customer patronizing big box electronic stores today. The Menzoid is also ashamed by the lack of respect shown to authority figures given that The Menzoid would never dream of speaking with disdain to anyone wearing a pith helmet.

To add insult to injury, not a single employee or manager at any of the stores The Menzoid patrolled even had the common decency to thank him for his tireless service, which was sometimes conducted in sub-zero weather conditions.

Moving ahead, does The Menzoid have a solution to this problem? No. But let The Menzoid’s experience be yet another tell-tale sign indicating the ongoing degradation of the human condition.

Indeed, perhaps if more honest consumers of electronic products chastised those who buy big screen TVs in late January, we might be able to collectively turn the tide of these boorish borrowers. After all, The Menzoid simply cannot do it alone –even when clad in a naval uniform and pith helmet.

You’re welcome.

Adler and Bono discuss picky eaters

With psychologists pushing to have picky eating added to the guide on mental disorders, Mark Bonokoski and Charles Adler break down the lunacy.

Watch HERE

Fukushima's animals abandoned and left to die

By Kyung Lah, CNN

January 26, 2012  

Inside Fukushima Exclusion Zone, Japan (CNN) -- When you stand in the center of Japan's exclusion zone, there is absolute silence. The exclusion zone is the 20-kilometer (12-mile) radius around the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant, an area of high radiation contamination.

On March 12, the day after the quake and tsunami hit, 78,000 people were evacuated out of this area, believing they would return within a few days. As such, thousands of people left with their dogs tied up in the backyard, cats in their houses and livestock penned in barns.

Nearly a year later, animal carcasses litter the region.

Cows and pigs starved to death, their bones still in pens. Dogs dropped dead with disease. A cat skull sits on a neighborhood road.

This is perhaps an inevitable outcome to a nuclear emergency, but animal rights activists call it an outrage.

"It's shameful," says Yasunori Hoso with United Kennel Club Japan. "We kept asking the government to rescue these animals from the beginning of the disaster. There must have been a way to rescue the people and the animals at the same time following the nuclear disaster at Fukushima."

Japan's environmental agency tells CNN the government's position has been to rescue as many livestock and animals possible. But it points out that because of the risk posed to people entering the contaminated area, the government has chosen to take a prudent attitude toward animal rescue.

Last December, the government allowed animal rights groups like UKC Japan to enter the exclusion zone and rescue any surviving animals. Hoso entered with his members, carrying cages and food.

On one of those days, Hoso's group approached a house. A six-week-old female puppy lay dead in the living room in a pool of blood. It appeared to have died from disease. From the back of the house, the UKC volunteers heard weak barking. The puppy's two brothers were still alive, hiding in another part of the house. They were traumatized and afraid of the rescuers, having never been around people before. The volunteers soon rounded up their mother.

Those dogs now reside at the UKC Japan shelter near Tokyo. 250 dogs and 100 cats, all from the exclusion zone, live in cramped cages at the shelter. UKC Japan, which survives on donations, says it has tracked down 80% of the owners.

But that hasn't meant the animals can reunite with owners. Shelters and temporary apartment housing have not allowed the owners to live with their pets, Hoso said.

Unfortunately, he added, the owners can't live with their animals because they are homeless themselves.

***WARNING: Some of these scenes may be very disturbing for animal lovers***

 

Milroy Montage: Canadians Behaving Badly

Milroy Montage - canadians behaving badly