Pay Their Fair Share

Go back a generation and see one case where Congress acted to make sure rich people "pay their fair share." From the archives circa 1993.

Every now and then Washington does something so breathtakingly stupid that you can't even whistle -- you can only shake your head. The ill-fated ''luxury tax'' -- enacted as part of the 1990 deficit reduction law and largely repealed in this year's budget bill -- is such a thing.

The luxury tax crept quietly into the closed-door negotiations that led up to the 1990 budget deal. Its champions were Democratic Congressmen seeking to ensure that the rich would ''pay their fair share,'' as House majority leader Richard Gephardt put it at the time. Sound familiar? The Bush Administration went along, either cravenly or cynically, and the tax went into effect in 1991 -- a 10% excise on the sale of pricier jewelry, furs, and certain expensive planes and automobiles.

No public hearings were held and little heed was paid to warnings from people in the affected industries that the tax would have dire unintended consequences. The Chicken Littles, it turns out, were right. Consider the case of Beech Aircraft Corp., a Raytheon subsidiary that dominates the small ''owner-flown'' market for new planes. In 1991, Beech sold 80 fewer planes than it had been anticipating before the luxury tax took effect. The cost: $130 million in lost sales and net losses of 480 jobs for that year.

Just to make sure it was the - luxury tax and not the recession that had caused this crash landing, Beech management surveyed its dealers and sales force. They confirmed the anecdotal evidence that the tax was the culprit.

An industry trade group then commissioned Price Waterhouse to go back and document the findings. Meanwhile, the news from the revenue front was equally grim. The Congressional Joint Tax Committee had estimated that the luxury tax would raise $6 million from airplane sales alone in fiscal 1991. The actual take? $53,000.

The tax capsized the boat-building business too. Legislators from nautical states, such as Maine and Maryland, led the repeal effort. This sad tale provides an unusually clear example of one of the foggier concepts in economics: the ''dead-weight loss'' inherent in taxes. A dead- weight loss reflects a cost imposed on some individuals without any offsetting benefit to others -- a pure economic inefficiency.

Professors in the past were usually driven to wacky hypothetical extremes to illustrate the idea -- the impact, say, of a $1 million tax on poodles. No longer. The all-too-real luxury tax had all the elements: People who would have liked to buy new airplanes did not buy them, workers who would have been employed building the airplanes were idle, and the government got next to no revenue.

Heh.

I told you so

"I told you so" is generally regarded as a mean thing to say but I am human and can't resist.

For years I have had in the sidebar of my GREENIE WATCH blog the statement: "Against the long history of huge temperature variation in the earth's climate (ice ages etc.), the .6 of one degree average rise reported by the U.N. "experts" for the entire 20th century (a rise so small that you would not be able to detect such a difference personally without instruments) shows, if anything, that the 20th century was a time of exceptional temperature stability"

And the header to the blog also asserts effectively zero temperature change.

It now appears that I have very eminent support for that viewpoint. In his letter of resignation from the American Physical Society, Nobel-winning physicist Prof. Ivar Giaever said virtually the same. I quote: "The claim (how can you measure the average temperature of the whole earth for a whole year?) is that the temperature has changed from ~288.0 to ~288.8 degree Kelvin in about 150 years, which (if true) means to me is that the temperature has been amazingly stable"

Note that Giaever endorsed Obama for President so he is no Right-wing fanatic

Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.).

Ohio Woman Gets Life for Rape of Boy

(Cincinnati, Ohio) In August, a 27-year-old local woman, Kenya Gilliam, was convicted on six counts of rape of a child younger than 13.

As a result, Hamilton County Common Pleas Court Judge Jody Luebbers imposed six sentences of life in prison for Gilliam.

Gilliam's attorney asked for a lesser sentence, arguing that Gilliam has been abused as a child and ostracized because she is gay.

"She has been through a meat grinder," attorney Adam Bleile said. "She has been through an awful life."

That was no excuse to perhaps continue the cycle with her victim, the judge said, saying she imposed the maximum sentence possible as her attempt to end that cycle.

Obviously, Gilliam won't be molesting any boys from now on.

Tennessee Teacher Accused of Rape

(Pulaski, Tennessee) A 32-year-old 6th-grade teacher at Richland School, Ashley Lynn Raines, has been arrested for allegedly raping a 17-year-old girl.

Raines faces a charge of aggravated statutory rape. Raines' fiance, Johnathan Richard Herremans, faces criminal responsibility of aggravated statutory rape because he didn't report the offense.

According to the police, the victim is not one of Raines' students. The alleged offenses reportedly occurred last July and police suggest that more charges may be filed.

Raines was booked into custody. A bail amount hasn't been reported.

Party With A Corpse?



Robert Young & Mark Rubinson

(Denver, Colorado) Two men face charges after hauling around the dead body of a friend and using his ATM card to party at local nightspots.

Robert Jeffrey Young, 43, and Mark Rubinson, 25, have been charged with abuse of a corpse, identity theft and criminal impersonation.

The men found their friend Jeffrey Jarrett unresponsive at his house late on Aug. 27, before loading him into Rubinson's car and taking him to a local bar and grill, where they drank on his tab.

They then went to another bar, before returning Jarrett's body to his home and continuing their night out using their dead friend's ATM card to withdraw money. On their way home, they flagged down a cop and told him they thought their friend was dead at his house.

The cause of Jarrett's death hasn't been reported.

Tip: slwlion

Too Easy

A-10 Thunderbolt vs. Taliban

Thanks.

An explanation of politics for Democrat supporters

The folks who are getting free shit don’t like the folks who are paying for the free shit because the folks who are paying for the free shit can no longer afford to pay for both the free shit and their own shit. And this is creating a shitstorm.

The folks who are paying for the free shit want the free shit to stop, and the the folks who are getting the free shit want even more free shit on top of the free shit they are already getting.

Now, the people who are forcing the people who pay for the free shit have told the people who are receiving the free shit that the people who are paying for the free shit are the problem.

So, the people who are getting the free shit resent the people who are paying for the free shit because of the smears by the people who are forcing other people to pay for the free shit.

Can you believe this shit? We have let the free shit giving go on for so long that there are now more people getting free shit than paying for the free shit.

Now understand this, all great democracies have committed financial suicide somewhere between 200 and 250 years after being founded. The reason? The voters figure out they could vote themselves free shit by electing people who promised to give them free shit in exchange for electing them.

The United States officially became a Republic in 1776, 231 years ago. The number of people now getting free shit outnumber the people paying for the free shit. We have one chance to change that in 2012. Failure to change that spells the end of the United States as we know it.

ELECTION 2012 IS COMING. Vote the Shit Out. Vote a Conservative In

SOURCE

Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.).

Drive-In Love Stalls




(Zurich, Switzerland) The local city government has voted 74 to 30 to approve taxpayer-funded drive-in sex stalls in the community of Alstetten west of Zurich city center.

Ten garage-like booths will be erected on derelict land in an industrial area in Alstetten, complete with parking spaces and alarm buttons. The so-called "performance stalls" will be the first of their kind in Switzerland if the project goes ahead.

The city council agreed last week to sanction the 2.4-million franc ($2.8m) loan for the development pending parliamentary approval.

The issue remains controversial with Alstetten residents saying they don't want to become the "dump of the city." A November deadline has been established for formal complaints which could delay the project.

Note that designated "shagging" zones have produced mixed results at other European cities. Cologne has reported a positive experience while Dortmund canceled their plans after becoming a magnet for Eastern European criminals.

Court Reverses Amanda Goforth Conviction - Updated

(Jackson, Mississippi) The Mississippi Supreme Court has thrown out the conviction of Amanda Goforth, ruling she wasn't allowed adequate opportunity to confront a witness against her.

The Court also ruled that Goforth cannot be retried since the charges against her were too vague.

* * * * *
Amanda Goforth Gets 30 Years in Sex Case - Updated
[Previous 8/17/10 post]
(Decatur, Mississippi) Former Newton County High School teacher Amanda Goforth, 26, was convicted and sentenced last week for engaging in sex with a 14-year-old female student.

Almost stoic is how some might describe the 26-year-old's demeanor as she headed into court Friday morning. Following her sentence, it seemed reality had set in.

Given the nature of the crime, Circuit Judge Marcus Gordon fought back tears as he told the family, whom he says he knows personally, that he had no choice but to carry out the law. He then sentenced Goforth to the maximum of 30 years in prison for the first count, with five of those years suspended, and to an additional five years to serve for the second count.

Total prison time would be 30 years. Goforth was also fined $10,000, must register as a sex offender, and will have to serve five years probation after she's released from prison.

According to prosecutors, during the trial Goforth confessed to the incidents, which happened from April to October of 2009.

"The defendant admitted to the sexual conduct with the victim," said District Attorney Mark Duncan. "She claimed she was forced into it, but obviously the jury didn't believe all that."

"The judge is going to hold her without bond because it is a specific statute. So, we're going to expedite the appeal, if we can get it heard and disposed of as soon as possible," said Goforth's attorney, Charles Wright.

As for Goforth, once the school district turned the investigation over to law enforcement last November, she was placed on suspension and terminated from the job a short time later.

Thirty years! Obviously, Newton County is not the jurisdiction to mix it up with children.

Also, it's worth noting that Newton County is rural and not heavily populated which accounts for the judge knowing the family. In fact, chances are that everyone in the county knows everyone else so it's understandable that Goforth's crimes are being treated so harshly. The whole county is outraged.

Tip: Lame

* * * * *
Mississippi Teacher Accused of Sex with Female Student
[Previous 12/3/09 post]
(Decatur, Mississippi) A 25-year-old science teacher at Newton County High School, Amanda Goforth, was arrested last week for allegedly engaging in sex with a 15-year-old female student. She has been charged with five counts of sexual battery.

Newton County superintendent, Pat Ross, says it started with one accusation.

"This was Friday, November the 20th, we had the allegation. We interviewed a couple of students and we fairly quickly, that afternoon in fact, handed that investigation that we had over to the sheriff's department," Ross said.

Goforth was booked and allowed to go forth from jail on $100,000 bond.

Interestingly, the Sheriff's Department said that its camera is broke so there's no mug shot.

Woman Gets Prison in Child Porn Case - Updated

(Buffalo, New York) Mother-of-five Angie Jenkins gets prison.

A Michigan woman who developed a sexual relationship with a teenage boy she met through an online game has been sentenced to more than seven years in prison.

The U.S. Attorney's Office in Buffalo says 35-year-old Angie Jenkins of Lowell, Mich. received an 87-month prison term Thursday and was ordered to pay $4,480 restitution to the Buffalo, N.Y., victim.

One has to wonder what goes on in the mind of a 35-year-old woman which makes her engage in sexual communications with a minor and travel hundreds of miles across state lines to have illegal sex with the boy. Really, couldn't she find a 15-year-old in her home state?

* * * * *
NY Woman Guilty in Child Porn Case - Updated
[Previous 4/18/11 post]
(Buffalo, New York) Culminating an FBI investigation, 35-year-old Angie L. Jenkins pleaded guilty before Chief U.S. District Court Judge William M. Skretny to receiving child pornography from a 15-year-old boy.

The conviction carries a mandatory minimum sentence of five years in prison and a maximum of 20 years.

Sentencing has been scheduled for July 29 before Judge Skretny.

* * * * *
Female Online Gamer Faces Child Sex Charges
[Previous 9/23/10 post]
(Buffalo, New York) A 35-year-old Michigan woman, Angie L. Jenkins, has been accused in federal court with the crime of using the Internet to entice an underage person into sexual activity.

Jenkins, who appeared Tuesday in Buffalo's federal court, is from Lowell, Mich., near Grand Rapids. She traveled to Amherst on June 11 to meet a 16-year-old from the Buffalo area and have sex with him in a car parked in a department store parking lot on Transit Road, FBI agents said.

The youth was 15 when he met Jenkins online and was 16 when they had sex, Assistant U.S. Attorney Aaron J. Mango said.[…]

During a brief court proceeding on the felony charge, Jenkins told U.S. Magistrate Judge Hugh B. Scott that she has five children, has been married twice and receives public assistance.

There have been other instances where adult females have seemingly become enamored by boys playing Internet games. I don't understand the attraction.

MySpace pic from here.

Mark Twain conservatism

Attempting to categorize conservatism in the 21st century runs the risk of plunging into the briar patch of academic labeling or the fever swamp of left-wing vitriol. In the first category, one finds such designations as conservatism, neo-conservatism, and paleo-conservatism, while those things liberals say about conservatives may be relegated to the realm of overheated political rhetoric. But this still leaves those sympathetic to conservatism with the problem of self-definition, especially during a time when Tea Party enthusiasts have captured so much attention in the context of discussions about conservative views.

The word conservatism itself is usually and rightfully associated with political principles of the Founding Fathers, but the neo-conservative and paleo-conservative forms of conservatism seem puzzling to many. Not helpful on either score. And we have seen that even Tea Party metaphors can be dismissed with sound bites by liberal smear-aholics.

Here’s where Mark Twain comes to the rescue, especially since he was too busy mocking others to care about what others had to say about him, and his attitude toward politicians of every stripe pretty much says it all: “Reader, suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself.” Likely his observations of today’s congressional shenanigans would leave him rolling on the ground with laughter—or breaking down in tears. Either way, he would make great fun of it, no doubt with incredulity, skepticism, and no small amount of contempt. But does this make Twain a conservative?

The answer, I believe, is yes, for the following reasons. First, unlike America’s current ruling class, Mark Twain lived a very rich and full life, filled with events that burned the lessons of experience into his soul, all of which reinforced his understanding of the reality principle: that is, the relationship between cause and effect and taking responsibility for one’s actions. For instance, one does not advance to the position of river-boat pilot on the Mighty Mississippi with no more experience than negotiating a rowboat on a stream. His considerable income did not prevent him from losing all of it in failed business ventures; he traveled throughout the world, met thousands of people, was swindled by a few of them, became personally familiar with life’s many vices and tried briefly to give up smoking, drinking, lying and swearing, but couldn’t. The best he managed was to control his drinking and write an essay that was “An Appeal Against Injudicious Swearing,” which is as far as he would go on this very important topic.

In short, does anyone for a moment think that this man would be fooled by starry-eyed appeals for hope and change, to remake America, or to believe anything proclaimed by members of what he regarded as America’s only known criminal class, the U.S. Congress? Not likely.

His excellent short story, “The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg,” was a brilliant statement on humankind’s self-righteousness and gullibility, and should be required reading for everyone, especially those contemplating a political career. He did not believe it possible that politics could alter fundamental tendencies of human nature, a view that has been a staple of progressive thought since the 19th century.

Further, Mark Twain had contempt for that redemptive embodiment of liberal-progressive thought, from the publication of Edward Bellamy’s “Looking Backward” to (in modern times) Al Gore’s latest fulminations on climate change: the expert. After all, the experts responsible for the country’s current financial meltdown—for $1.5 trillion deficits—belong to the same type who, according to Twain, once figured that “just a million years ago next November, the Lower Mississippi River was upward of 1,300,000 miles long, and stuck out over the Gulf of Mexico like a fishing-rod” (“Life on the Mississippi”). No doubt, Twain would be appalled by his country in its current condition, but he would not be surprised; after all, it was designed by that most despicable of creatures, the political expert, those who likely had learned the art of the hoax from Twain’s very own, “The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County.”

All of which made Twain, and those who follow him, conservatives; that is, individuals who understand life by actually living it, who are skeptical of human nature and the pretensions of government, and who distrust the flimflammery of self-proclaimed experts. Call them Mark Twain conservatives, after the man who proudly claimed that he was not just “an” American. Like all true conservatives today, he was THE American: Mark Twain.

SOURCE

Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.).

Son Kills Mom & Dad

(Chicago, Illinois) A 17-year-old high school student, John Granat, has been accused of bludgeoning his parents to death after they threw out his marijuana. He faces two counts of murder.

Notably, before killing John Sr. and Maria Granat, John Jr. threatened to do so several times previously.

A few weeks ago, his parents found that he was growing weed at their suburban Chicago home, so they trashed the plants and threw them out. That's when John Jr. began telling friends he was going to kill them.

They say they pleaded with him not to, but they never went to the cops.

Meanwhile, the kid appears to have been a hapless murderer. After the bodies were discovered, John Jr. kept changing his story.

The cops pulled him over at 5 a.m. Sunday morning -- two hours before he called 911. In his car was a bottle of pool chlorine and $4,000 cash. Granat would later tell detectives he'd been out all night with friends, but none of the kids he named had seen him since 6 p.m. Saturday.

Besides the apparent marijuana use, John Jr. is also suspected to have taken steroids as part of a weightlifting regimen. Steroid rage would help explain the brutality of the murders.

Florida Woman Accused of Vampire Attack on Geezer

(St. Petersburg, Florida) A 22-year-old woman, Josephine Rebecca Smith, has been arrested for an alleged vampire attack on a 69-year-old wheelchair-bound man, Milton Ellis.

The incident transpired last week on the porch of a defunct business where Mr. Ellis was sleeping.

Smith told Ellis she was a vampire and then proceeded to bite him, tearing off chunks of his face and a part of his lip, St. Petersburg police spokesman Mike Puetz said, according to The St. Petersburg Times.

"After he fell asleep on the ground, he claims that she attacked him, started yelling that she was a vampire, that she was going to eat him and started biting him by his face and body," Puetz said.

Blood dripping from bite marks on his neck and face, Ellis managed to scramble back into his motorized wheelchair and reach a nearby Shell gas station, where he called police.

Smith was booked into custody on charges of aggravated battery on an elderly person. Bail was set at $50,000.

Tip: slwlion

Planet with Two Suns



Kepler-16b or "Tatooine"

The scientific community now has evidence that planets with two suns do exist.

Scientists at NASA and the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute [SETI] are informally calling the newly discovered world Tatooine, as homage to Skywalker's planet imagined by George Lucas.

The so-called circumbinary planet has been dubbed with an official name that's much less interesting: Kepler-16b.

Unlike the tagline of the Star Wars saga, Tatooine is not located in a "galaxy far, far away," it's right in our own backyard -- relatively -- about 200 light years from Earth in the constellation Cygnus. Getting to Tatooine aboard a spacecraft traveling at light speed -- 186,282 miles per second -- would take about two centuries.[…]

Using data from NASA's $600 million Kepler telescope now orbiting the sun, a team lead by SETI's Laurance Doyle detected the actual shadow of a planet as it crossed in front of its two suns -- a scientific first.

The two suns orbit each other every 41 days. Kepler-16b orbits both every 229 days.

Teacher Accused of Aiding Detainee Escape

(Prince William County, Virginia) A 53-year-old English and social studies teacher at a juvenile detention facility, Timothea Dzan, has been accused of helping four troubled teenagers escape.

Teens being detained were awaiting court appearances.

Dzan faces charges of aiding in the escape of a child and contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

[Dzan] allegedly told the four how to leave through a door that was not armed with an alarm and how to walk to elude security cameras, said Officer Jonathan Perok, a county police spokesman.

The boy and three girls, ages 14 to 17, were found several hours after the Sept. 8 escape and returned to the Judge Patrick D. Molinari Juvenile Shelter, at 8642 Wellington Rd., authorities said.

Dzan was placed on paid administrative leave after her arrest on Wednesday.

Sign of Hope and Change




Reportedly located in Madison, Alabama at the corner of Limestone and Capshaw. (h/t Graham K.)

Another Severed Foot Found on BC Coast - Updated



(Vancouver, British Columbia) Another severed foot has been found washed ashore, this time in Vancouver.

A boy found the foot and leg bone Tuesday near a marina in an inlet called False Creek, Vancouver Police said.

Foul play is not suspected, authorities told Canadian Broadcasting Corp. Authorities believe that because the remains did not have any evidence of trauma, the CBC reported.

It is the eleventh foot found since mid-2007 along the coast of British Columbia and Washington state. All have reportedly been in running shoes.

The first foot, discovered in August 2007 on Jedediah Island, northeast of Nanaimo, B.C., was associated with a deceased man whose name police withheld at the request of his family.

A man’s right foot found on Gabriola Island in August 2007 remains unidentified.

Two feet found on Valdez and Westham islands in July 2008 belonged to the same man.

And two female feet found in Richmond, B.C., in December 2008 belonged to the same woman.

In October 2009, a right foot was discovered on a beach in Richmond.

Additionally, three feet have been found along the coast of Washington at Whidby Island, Pysht and Tacoma. Investigators continue to search for an explanation.

Meanwhile, it's speculated that remnants of approximately 15,000 missing victims of the Japanese tsunami will wash up on the shores of North America in about three years. Apparently, one theory regarding the severed feet is that they migrated via ocean currents from Asia.

In any event, I would candidly disagree with the contention that dismemberment is not evidence of trauma nor foul play. It's certainly not a playtime boo-boo. Something is abnormal.

* * * * *
Six Four Severed Feet Wash Ashore
[Previous 5/24/08 post
(Vancouver, British Columbia) Over the last nine months, four severed, sneaker-clad right feet have washed ashore at different locations along the Strait of Georgia. Authorities are investigating.

[Update 6/19/08]

Two more severed feet have been found, making six total. Five are right feet, one is a left foot. Theories abound.

Amazing case from Australia: Single mother sues slimy cop -- and wins

She represented herself in court against a range of top legal brains and beat them all

I have in front of me a copy of the District Court judgment of today's date in the matter of Eaves v. Donnelly in which Renee Eaves was awarded the sum of $93,000 against Barry John Donnelly and the State of Queensland.

Ms Eaves is a very attractive blonde model from whom (I surmise) constable Donnelly wanted sex. He apparently was such a low character that he thought he could coerce her into it. She did not oblige him.

So he launched a campaign of harassment against her, secure in the assumption that a dumb blonde could never do anything to touch a Queensland cop.

He arrested her repeatedly on trumped up charges, all of which were thrown out when they came to court.

It was then that Renee showed her steel. She was NOT just a pretty face but a woman determined to get justice against the scum concerned.

And she stuck at it for years. She of course complained to the CMC -- where police investigate police -- and they rejected her complaint.

She then began to get media coverage of the matter, hoping that would shake some action loose. It didn't but it stressed out the cop. He went on stress leave for a year and then resigned.

But Renee still felt that the police had to be held to account -- to discourage oppression of other women by police. So she launched a damages claim in the District Court, where she showed she is not only a steely blonde but a smart one. She repeatedly cross-examined successfully.

During her long battle to get into the District Court, however, Renee ran out of money. Everything about the law is expensive and her means were slender. She in fact ran out just before the matter was due to come up so it looked as if her long battle was going to be for nought.

At that point I stepped in and paid her legal costs from that point on. I had never even met her but I have had a loathing against scum police ever since the extraordinary Barry Mannix case -- where the corrupt police got off Scot-free.

The real villain in this case, however is not the scum cop but rather the police service and the CMC who did nothing to pull him into line or attempt to make amends for his deeds. Except for the extraordinary courage of Ms Eaves, the guilt of the cop in the matter would never have been established.

And in the end it is the taxpayer who will pay -- well over $100,000 all up when legal costs are included.

Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.).

Texas Woman and Teenage Boys

(Houston, Texas) A 29-year-old local woman, Lindsay Ann Correa, has been accused of engaging in sex with two teen boys.

Correa faces four counts of sexual assault of a child under the age of 17.

Police say Lindsay Ann Correa sexually assaulted the first boy, her neighbor, multiple times between the ages of 15 to 17.

The teen neighbor said he would often hang out with Correa at her apartment and she would give him alcohol. On July 15, 2007, the two got drunk and had sex, according to court documents.

Correa allegedly assaulted the victim over a two-year time period.

Police said Correa started assaulting the second boy at the age of 14.

Correa was booked into custody with bond set at $120,000.

Teacher Not Guilty of Indecency with Child - Updated

(Lynchburg, Virginia) Earlier today, a jury found Valarie H. Casto not guilty of indecent liberties with a minor.

* * * * *
Teacher Accused of Indecency with Child
[Previous 7/30/10 post]
(Lynchburg, Virginia) A 39-year-old teacher at Paul L. Dunbar Middle School, Valarie H. Casto, was arrested Wednesday for alleged sexual exploitation of a child.

Casto faces charges of taking indecent liberties with a child while in a custodial relationship and attempted indecent liberties with a child while in a custodial relationship.

The juvenile male victim’s mother found “suspicious interaction with an adult female” on the victim’s cell phone and called Lynchburg police, authorities said in a news release.

Casto was booked into custody at the Blue Ridge Regional Jail with bond set at $10,000.