Entitlement Fraud

            Aren't we all getting sick of seeing President Obama give campaign speeches all over the country at taxpayers' expense? The speech never changes in tone or content; it's class warfare against wealthy Americans that he accuses of not paying their fair share.

            The top 1% of wage earners that Obama excoriates already pay 36.7% of income taxes, and the top 10 pay 71%. But that's not enough for the President. But has he ever mentioned that 47% of Americans don't pay any income taxes at all ? Has he ever asked these people to pay their fair share?

            The President asked the Simpson/Bowles committee to come up with recommendations for reducing the debt. It did. But Obama ignored them, including sound recommendations for reforming entitlements. Has the President ever proposed a solution other than raising taxes on the rich?

            The country is drowning in debt, yet we are on target to spend even more in 2012. In 2011 the House of Representatives submitted the Ryan Plan, a sound budget that addressed the problem of entitlements. But the Senate, led by Harry Reid, dismissed it out of hand. This is the same Senate that hasn't submitted a budget of its own in over two years.

            We have to borrow 40 cents on every dollar to pay for entitlements, yet the Administration and Congress can't agree on any solutions. So nothing is being done as the country sinks deeper in debt every day.

            If we can't agree on any reforms, couldn't we at least begin by eliminating the fraud? It is estimated that 20% of Medicare payments are fraudulent; up to a third of people on Medicaid shouldn't qualify; and thousands of people on disability aren't disabled at all.

            The recent investigation of Long Island Railroad employees on disability revealed that fraudulent applications abetted by complicit doctors and lawyers could cost taxpayers up to a billion dollars a year. And that's just for Long Island Railroad workers.

            The Department of Justice is now looking at law firms that specialize in helping people qualify for disability payments. One of them, Binder & Binder, has spent $20 million in advertising (you've seen the guy in the cowboy hat) and reaped a tidy profit of $88 million. How many thousands of successful applications do you think it took for the Binders to make that kind of money? And how many of them were fraudulent?

            Americans are a generous and compassionate people. Nobody wants to deny a helping hand to the less fortunate. But if we don't stop fraud and abuse by cheats and unscrupulous doctors and lawyers, we'll never get out of the hole we have been digging for ourselves.

             

A December to Remember

            December 2011 was a memorable month. It was the month we saw a captured American drone displayed on Iranian TV, and an apologetic President Obama plead for its return after rejecting advice to destroy it for fear of offending our avowed enemy.

            December is also the month in which two world leaders died. Kim Jung Il, despot of a belligerent nation with nuclear weapons and starving millions, left behind a world of diplomats completely baffled at the prospect of a 20-something Kim Jung Un taking over.

            By contrast we lost Vaclav Havel, a revered freedom fighter who led the struggle against Soviet oppression in Czechoslovakia, not with violence but with the truth. To the end, he warned that indifference to the freedom of others would lead ultimately to indifference to our own freedom. He supported our intervention in Iraq because it removed the tyrant Saddam Hussein, and I suspect he was disappointed by our policy of appeasement in Iran. His voice will be missed.

            At the same time we learned of the death of Christopher Hitchens, a brilliant  intellectual, a gifted writer, a fierce debater, and a militant atheist. He combined a great command of the English language with a sardonic wit that disarmed his opponents. Among his favorite targets were religious fanatics, the Church, and God. This is a man who called Mother Teresa a fraud and the pope a protector of those who violate the innocent, calling this a clear sign of where the Church truly stands on moral and ethical questions. He also derided President Obama's Nobel prize. He said it was "like giving someone an Oscar in the hope that it would encourage them to make a decent motion picture." Hitchens may have been outrageous, but he wasn't always wrong.

            Then we have sports, our nation's greatest obsession. In December we saw Albert Pujols demonstrate his loyalty to his adoring fans by turning down $210 million to stay in St. Louis and signing with the Angels of Anaheim for a mere $254 million plus another $10 million in bonuses.

 There were no reports of protesters occupying his front lawn.

            Meanwhile, Barry Bonds, who set home run records with the help of an assortment of performance-enhancing substances, was convicted of obstruction of justice and sentenced to 30 days of confinement in his 16,000 square-foot home. He is appealing this awful miscarriage of justice.         

            On Christmas Day NBA players returned to the court after a protracted lockout. The players, whose average annual pay is $5.84 million, had refused to play unless owners gave them more than half the profits. To demonstrate that money isn't everything, Laker forward Ron Artest changed his name to Meta World Peace.

            I guess it's all a matter of perspective.

Green Wars

            In case you haven't noticed, President Obama has declared war on fossil fuels. Delaying a decision on the Keystone XL pipeline until after the elections was a crass political move to deny Republicans a campaign issue, while reassuring environmentalists that the pipeline would never be built. Republicans were wise to force a decision in two months as part of the payroll tax holiday legislation. But that hasn't stopped the president's minions from carrying on the crusade.

            Stephen Chu, who heads the Department of Energy, is now famous for his role in the Solyndra affair. Promoting green jobs, no matter how costly to our economy, is at the top of his agenda.

            Ken Salazar, head of the Interior Department, has not only dragged his feet in approving drilling permits for oil in the Gulf, he has done even worse when it comes to issuing permits for coal mining. Tens of thousands of potential jobs have been lost in West Virginia because half of the permits take over two years for approval, causing a third of the applications to be withdrawn. And that's just one example.

            The greatest  job killer in the Administration, by far, is Lisa Jackson, head of the EPA. While we were being pounded in December by news of the political wars in Congress, Ms. Jackson was issuing a new 1,117-page regulation on coal-fired power plants that is sure to cause job losses and economic destruction, because the technology to comply with the mandate to install far-reaching emission controls will be extraordinarily expensive if not impossible. As a result, many plants will close, and, as President Obama once promised, energy costs will necessarily skyrocket.

            If the war on fossil fuels is crippling domestic energy production and costing hundreds  of thousands of jobs now, just imagine what will happen when President Obama's reelection removes any political restraints on his green agenda.

Ominous Signs

            As this contentious year nears its end, people naturally look forward to the next with a little more optimism. Not me. I'm not a pessimist by nature, but I look forward to next year with trepidation. I hope I'm wrong, but I think 2012 will be a year of worldwide catastrophe. I have long felt that if World War III becomes a reality, it will break out in the Middle East. Now I feel that it is almost inevitable. Let's look at the signs.

            What was at first called the Arab Spring has turned into the Arab Winter. Muslim extremists are in the ascendancy all across North Africa and the Middle East. Dictators and tyrants who managed to maintain some form of stability in their countries are falling one by one: Ben Ali, Mubarack, Qadaffi, Saleh, and, very soon, Assad. Royal families in Morocco, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia may not be far behind.

            Armed and inspired by Iran, Islamists are flexing their muscles everywhere: suicide bombers in Iraq, renewed missile attacks from Gaza, revolt against the army in Egypt, an attempted assassination of the Saudi ambassador on our soil, and, most recently, a government-sponsored attack on the British embassy in Tehran. I see these as signs that  the Muslim world is uniting to challenge the West with a brazenness that could very quickly turn into a broad and righteous conflict.

            Also troubling was Pakistan's response to the death of 24 of its soldiers caused by Nato bombs. Although there is some evidence that Pakistan may have been partly at fault for this tragedy, it ordered a blockade of Nato supplies into Afghanistan and permitted a huge demonstration that burned the American flag and Obama's effigy, hardly actions of a trusted ally.

            Which brings up a very important point. The Muslim world is encouraged by the weakness of the West. Europe, which is very dependent on Middle East oil, cannot afford to antagonize any more of its suppliers, especially now that the European Union is on the verge of financial collapse.

            Here at home, President Obama's policy of engagement with Iran has proven to be no more effective than Chamberlain's appeasement of the Nazis in Munich. On the contrary, it has encouraged Iran to proceed apace with the development of nuclear weapons in the full confidence that it has nothing to fear from the United States as long as Obama is president.

            Lastly, Obama's inability to distinguish between friends and allies in the Middle East provides further confirmation to Tehran that the United States will not back Israel should that country take preemptive action to defend itself.

            At some point in 2012 I fear that Israel will indeed provide the spark that ignites a global conflict. From there you can create your own nightmarish scenario.

The Smell of Corruption

            As I grow older I find that some of my senses aren't as sharp as they used to be. My eyes need contacts to see clearly, my right ear is almost completely deaf, my taste buds don't appreciate fine food and wine like they used to, and so on. But one of my senses is as sharp as ever, and that is my sense of smell. Let me explain.

            A report in the Los Angeles Times on November 13 has set my nostrils flaring in anger at the smell of corruption emanating from Washington. It seems that investigative reporters have uncovered a $433 million government contract with Siga Technologies, a pharmaceutical company from New York, to produce 1.7 million doses of an experimental smallpox drug, even if it's not certain the drug is needed or will even work.

            Now, smallpox has been eradicated throughout the world; the last documented infection was in 1978. But just in case, this country stores enough smallpox vaccine to inoculate everyone in the country at the cost of $3 per. So why do we need a new vaccine? We're told it's just in case the disease somehow reappears and someone doesn't get vaccinated in time. Of course, we don't know if this new vaccine will work, since it's impossible to test it. The story gets worse.

            The report says that the new vaccine will cost $255 per dose. Outrageous, you say? That's nothing. Siga projects that it will make 180% profit on the drug. Now that's obscenely outrageous. How could our government possibly approve such a contract?

            Well, get this. The contract was awarded to Siga as a sole source, otherwise known as a no-bid contract. If this vaccine was necessary in the first place, competition to make it should have been open to all drug manufacturers. But it wasn't. The administration cleared the way for Siga to be the sole source and, thereby, to set any price it wanted.

            And consider this, also. Siga's controlling share is held by a man named Robert O. Perelman. He is one of the richest men in the world. If he believed this drug was really needed, he could have developed it on his own without a government subsidy. So how was he able to swing such a sweet deal?

            Well, it just so happens that Robert O. Perelman is a big Obama supporter and a major contributor to the Democrat Party. Gee. I wonder if there's a connection there. Does this remind anyone of the smell of scandal in the Solyndra affair?

            I don't know about anyone else. But for me the stench is overpowering.

Punter-in-Chief

            When he was an Illinois legislator Barack Obama voted "Present" 129 times instead of taking a stand on tough issues? Well, the Punter-in-Chief hasn't changed his MO.

            The President is in full campaign mode, flying all over the country at taxpayer expense to push his jobs bill, which can't even get passed by the Democrat-controlled Senate. He assures us that his first thoughts when he gets up in the morning and last thoughts before hitting the sack in the evening are about jobs.

            Well, there just happens to be a $7 billion "shovel ready" project that would create something in the neighborhood of 20,000 jobs. All it needs is a permit from the government, i.e., a Yes or a No from our leader.  Instead, President Obama has punted once again.

            The project is the Keystone XL Pipeline that would bring crude oil from the Alberta tar sands to refineries in Texas. It would make a huge dent in the amount of oil now imported from the Middle East. We can all agree that this is a good thing. Right?

            So what's the problem? This should be a no-brainer for the President, especially since most of those 20,000 jobs would be going to his union friends. But greenies, another Obama base, have objected on the grounds that the pipeline might contaminate the air, the ground, the water, and, I suppose, be a health hazard for wildlife. Why not throw in unborn babies while we're at it?

            Faced with making a decision that would displease either his union base or his green base, Obama punted. He ordered more environmental studies beyond the extensive studies that have already been done, and put off a decision until after the elections in 2012. In the words of John Boehner, "20,000 jobs have been sacrificed in the name of political expediency."

            Is there a downside to the President's non-decision? Probably not. The greenies will continue to vote for him, and so will the unions. After all, where are they going to go?

            But what about the oil? Where is it going to go? Well, if the Trans Canada Corporation can't pipe its oil across Nebraska to get to Texas, it says it can go directly to the west coast and from there directly to....guess where? China.

            And China doesn't fumble punts.

           

Welfare, California Style

            I recently saw a video in which a young single mother in California was discussing how much assistance she was getting each month from the state. It was astounding.

            First, she mentioned a payment of $221 for general relief (GR). To that she added $179 in free food per person She then mentioned that through the WIC (Women, Infants, & Children) program she was getting free housing, free utilities, and free medical and dental care. On top of all that, she said she received money for her children's day care, money that did not go to any day care center but to her friend who watched the kids and split the money with her.

            Assessing the value of all this assistance, the woman's final comment was, "Who would want to work in America?"

            Today the media floods us with news of the impending disaster in Greece due to unfunded liabilities in overly generous government programs. Can it be any worse there than in California?

            The latest statistics have California's overall unemployment rate at 11.4 percent, with the rate in one county at 18.1 percent. Those numbers don't include people who have stopped looking for work, are working part time, or who derive their income from the underground economy. And they don't include that young woman described above who can't imagine ever getting a job, because she couldn't possibly earn the kind of money and benefits she is getting from  welfare programs.

            California is the worst example of the nanny state. Is it any wonder it is sinking under the weight of financial debt?

            Is the rest of the country far behind?

Zuccotti Park

            The protesters in New York's Zuccotti Park have given us quite a show the last couple of months. We are getting reports that they have defecated on police cars, paraded in the nude, engaged in public sex, and defaced the park with mounds of garbage. That's called exercising your First Amendment rights. Thank you Mayor Bloomberg for your generous understanding.

            What does this unwashed rabble want? Well, we know from their signs that they favor, among other things, radical redistribution of wealth, civil disobedience, and violence, if necessary. Apparently, this is not a problem for President Obama and the Democrats. They have embraced this tattered mob. They are so envious of the Tea Party that they'll support any mass of protesters that mirror their left wing ideology. Appearance and odor notwithstanding.

            What do the Republicans say about all this? Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said in a recent interview that the protesters have a right to express their opinion. Wow! Now that's taking a tough stand!

            Actually, Republicans look upon the rabble as lepers; they won't go near them, much less embrace them like the Democrats. A mistake, perhaps? I think they are missing a great opportunity to score points, not by supporting the mob, but by agreeing with its greatest complaint: greed, especially the kind infecting Wall Street.

            What are the protesters so angry about? The lowest 150 million Americans have a lower net worth than the 400 wealthiest Americans, many of them looking down on the mob from their Wall Street office windows. Put another way, the top 1 percent of Americans have more wealth than the entire bottom 90 percent. You want more? The average salary on Wall Street is over $360,000 a year, and that includes pay for secretaries, messengers, and mail room clerks. That's five times the average salary in the rest of the private sector. Five times!

            Let's take just one example. In 2010 Goldman Sachs had a pre-tax profit of $13 billion, down from $20 billion in 2009. But that didn't stop the Board of Directors from raising the CEO's compensation to $13 million. This year Goldman's stock is down 43% and it showed a third quarter loss of $428 million. Still, that has not prevented the firm from putting $10 billion into the compensation pool. God forbid the CEO should take a cut in salary.

            What's wrong with this picture? Does the Occupy Wall Street crowd have a case?

            Republicans have been adamant about not raising taxes on high income earners. But there's a difference between supporting small business owners who create most of the jobs in this country and remaining silent about the unconscionable greed of a securities industry that produces nothing and is dedicated only to creating wealth--its own.

            President Obama's incessant demand that the fat cats pay their fair share will continue to resonate with the masses as long as the protesters rail at Wall Street's greed.

            Republicans will continue to be identified with that greed as long as they fail to see the difference between the real job producers and the suits in the windows above Zuccotti Park.

Courage with a Smile

            I love writing about heroes. My latest is Primo Viray, a member of North Carolina's Sound Golf Links.

            Primo is the most beloved member of the club, and with good reason. His life story is one of courage with a smile. Born in 1936 in the village of Lingayen on the island of Luzon in the Philippines, he survived four years of Japanese occupation in World War II. He lost two uncles in the war, but evaded the occupiers by constantly moving with his parents from one hiding place to another.

            In 1958 Primo earned a degree in nursing from the college of Santo Tomas in Manila where he met Rose, his future wife. From 1958 to 1960 he volunteered his services in Laos and then emigrated to the United States where he became a nurse in Chicago's Cook County Hospital and eventually rose to become the OR nurse supervisor at the Alexian Brothers Medical Center in Chicago.

            In 1962 he was reunited with Rose who had also emigrated to the United States and was working as a nurse for the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. They married and proceeded to raise a family of six girls, all of whom went to college on Primo's modest income. They number a teacher, an OSHA administrator, an engineer, a lawyer, a social worker, and a doctor.

            After Primo retired in 2004, the Virays built a home in Albemarle Plantation here in Hertford. Primo immediately endeared himself to the community with his sunny disposition, his marvelous sense of humor, and his passion for golf. At 5'4" and 140 pounds, he could be seen on the golf course every day swinging his 50-inch driver and outdriving most of his fellow golfers.

            While on vacation in the Philippines in 2008, Primo suffered a stroke that almost killed him and paralyzed his left side. After three months of intense therapy, he was finally able to stand without assistance. Months later he began walking, although very slowly, by using his body to swing his left leg forward.

            Upon his return home, friends and neighbors found that Primo had not lost his smile nor his sense of humor, despite his disability. More than that, they were amazed by his determination to return to the golf course. Swinging that 50-inch driver of his with only his right hand, Primo developed a fluid tempo that resulted in 150-yard drives with astounding regularity. With the club's permission for Rose to drive  his golf cart everywhere on the course, even to the edge of the greens, Primo could be seen playing every late afternoon when his slow pace would not hold anybody up.

            By 2011 Primo was ready to compete again. His entry in the Member-Guest tournament this October was applauded by his friends, although he was given little chance of making a good showing, even less of winning. Seeded dead last with his son-in-law as his partner, Primo surprised everybody by winning his flight, then shooting a net eagle in the shootout elimination round and a net birdie in the finals.

            When Primo won, his fans were delirious. Even his opponents in the shootout and the finals (me and my brother Phil) cheered wildly for the courageous little man with the perpetual smile.

            Primo Viray won the tournament. But he had already won the hearts of everyone who knows him.

Obama's Contempt

            With Obama's poll numbers on a downhill slide, it is not difficult to understand his growing desperation. He must find a way to get people to love him again. After all, it's not his fault that the economy is going down the tubes and people can't find jobs. Someone else is to blame: Bush, rich people who refuse to pay their fair share, Wall Street, the Republicans, the Tea Party. Everyone is to blame but the guy in the mirror.

            Obama cannot bring himself to accept that his poll numbers are going down because he is doing a lousy job. His popularity, which was sky high after his election, is plummeting like a burst balloon. Many of his formerly rabid fans who were once enthralled by his smile and his lofty rhetoric are now seeing him for what he really is: mendacious, radical, narcissistic, arrogant, and, in the end, transparently incompetent.

            In a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, Bret Stephens hit the nail on the head. In his view, it all comes down to Obama's contempt. Examples: insulting the British by returning the bust of Winston Churchill; slamming the Boston police for arresting a black professor; rebuking members of the Supreme Court in his 2010 State of the Union address; snubbing of Gordon Brown, Nicolas Sarkozy, and Benjamin Netanyahu. The list goes on: the Religious Right, gun owners, billionaires and jet owners, the Marine Corps, the American flag, the American taxpayer.

            Obama doesn't seem to care about tripling our debt and passing the burden on to our children and grandchildren. He has no qualms about riding around the country in Air Force One to make fund-raising and political campaign speeches. It doesn't bother him one bit to spend a couple of million dollars to buy two fancy buses made in Canada so he could ride into Mid-West towns in a phony attempt to show he is a man of the people. He has no problem spending millions to send his wife and her entourage on vacation in Europe and South Africa. And he has no apologies for wasting half a billion dollars on a failing Solyndra just to advance his green jobs agenda. That, my friends, is contempt at every turn.

             Worst of all, in my view, is Obama's contempt for America, a contempt that requires apologies to the world for our history of racism, our class inequality, our arrogance, our power, our success, our exceptionalism.

            Why can't we have a president who loves his country and is proud of it instead of being ashamed of it? Why can't we have a president who feels something other than contempt for his country and its citizens?

           

The Raleigh Dim-wit

            Well, whaddaya know. The North Carolina legislature passed a whole bunch of laws that I agree with.  I'll list just three.

            One law caps non-economic damages in medical malpractice lawsuits at $500,000. Tort lawyers will no longer be able to persuade pliable juries to award millions of dollars for things like pain and suffering. This will help control runaway costs of malpractice insurance that are, of course, passed on to the rest of us.

            The legislature had to override Governor's Perdue's veto to get this law passed.

            A second law reins in state government bureaucrats' power to issue regulations that go even beyond federal government regulations that we all know are already out of control. Doing business in North Carolina is difficult enough without our state government making it even tougher.

            The legislature had to override Governor Perdue's veto to get this law passed, as well.

            A third law requires city and state governments to verify job applicants' legal status before hiring them. Shouldn't they have been doing that already?

            Governor Perdue apparently didn't have an answer to that question.         

            The governor did make the news in one other area, though. She is quoted as saying, "I think we ought to suspend, perhaps, elections for Congress for two years and just tell them we won't hold it against them, whatever decisions they make, to just let them help this country recover."

            How do we characterize such a statement? Stupid, naive, ignorant, brainless, unhinged, laughable? All of the above, I think.

            Anybody who voted for this dim-wit should be embarrassed. Fortunately, there is no chance that the next North Carolina gubernatorial election will be suspended.

The Orlando Debate

For whatever it's worth, here is my evaluation of the Republican candidates following their debate in Orlando last night.

Winners:

1. Romney. Handled himself with aplomb, especially when fending off accusations from Perry. This guy is appearing to be more and more solid.

2. Huntsman. I expect his poll numbers to rise. He has the right perspective on domestic affairs and is by far the strongest on foreign affairs. A sleeper.

3. Cain. All his answers were right on. I'm not so sure his business expertise carries over into international affairs.

4. Gingrich. The brightest of them all. He proved it once again. Too bad he has so much baggage.

Losers:

1. Bachmann. A lightweight on every level. Her hour is past.

2. Paul: I love his acumen. If only he could get off his campaign against the Fed. His anti-war stand scares me.

3. Santorum. He has passion. No question about that. But is he a realist?

4. Johnson. I'd love to give him one year in the White House to clean up Washington. Otherwise, he is too scary for me.

5. Perry. I was a fan of his even before he declared. Now that I've seen more of him, I have to conclude that he is not the brightest bulb in the chandelier. Good record on jobs in Texas. But there has to be more than that to restore my initial opinion of him.

Codes Galore

            If you have any doubt that Obamacare is out to micromanage health care in this country, take a look at the latest medical billing system devised by the Health and Human Services Department called the International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision.

            Most people who receive statements relating to medical care that is charged to insurers might notice codes associated with every diagnosis, treatment or hospital inpatient procedure. These are meant to improve payment strategies and care guidelines. Right now there are 18,000 of these codes.

            Now get this: the latest revision has expanded the number of codes to 140,000. There are codes  to specify precisely which part of one's anatomy is hurt or diseased; codes for where a patient got hurt (there are nine of them for mobile homes alone); codes for what caused the injury; codes to indicate how many times this injury occurred; and of course codes for the diagnosis and the treatment. Here's how it might work:

PATIENT:  I need help, Doc.

DOCTOR: What's wrong with you this time?

PATIENT:  I broke my nose.

DOCTOR: I'll have to look up that code. Is this the first time you broke your nose?

PATIENT:  No. It's the third time.

DOCTOR: I'll have to look up the code for the third time. Where did it happen?

PATIENT:  At my home. My motorhome.

DOCTOR: There's a code for that, too. Exactly where in your motorhome?

PATIENT:  I ran into the flag pole outside.

DOCTOR: There's a code for that as well. What caused you to run into that pole again?

PATIENT:  I was being attacked by a chicken.

DOCTOR: I have a code for that, too, and one for fixing your nose.

PATIENT:  What should I do after that?

DOCTOR: I have the perfect treatment plan for you.

PATIENT:  What's that?

DOCTOR: Move the pole.

PATIENT: You have a code for that, too?

DOCTOR: No. But when HHS finds out that for the third time you broke your nose running into the flagpole outside your motorhome while being attacked by a chicken, they'll come up with one. You have to understand that when it comes to the government, there is no such thing as a limit to absurdity.

Noise for Quiet Cars

            Ever since the government got into the car manufacturing business with its bailout of GM and Chrysler, it has salivated at the chance to tell Detroit how to build cars.

             I couldn't believe my eyes when I read about this beauty of a directive: By the end of next year it seems car manufacturers of hybrid and electric cars will have to add noise to their vehicles because they are too quiet. The reason is that blind people rely on sound to know if a car is coming. And pedestrians too consumed with their cellphone conversations might not check for oncoming traffic before stepping off the curb.

             I kid you not.

            So manufacturers of quiet cars are now scrambling to come up with the right sound to alert people trying to cross the street. A bird's tweet? A jet's roar? An engine's growl?

            To top it all off, the government is thinking of requiring quiet cars to have noise-makers at the rear as well as the front, because blind people need to know when a car has gone by.

            But I'm not finished. The warning noise will come on automatically whenever a quiet car slows below 20 miles per hour. Can you imagine the annoyance of neighbors in a peaceful suburb who will have to endure these warning sounds whenever a "quiet" car rolls down the street or into the driveway next door?

            I'm all for making sure the blind can cross the street safely. But since moving to North Carolina nine years ago, I haven't seen a single blind man trying to cross the street. I'm sure I can say the same for most people living outside of urban areas.  So, rather than mandating that manufacturers install on every quiet car hundreds of dollars of equipment that may never serve their intended purpose, might there be a more sensible and economical way of warning pedestrians?

            How about a horn? Doesn't every car have one of those?

Perry's Ponzi Scheme

            Rick Perry has been blasted for calling Social Security a Ponzi scheme. How could he have said something so stupid?

            Let's see. A short definition of a Ponzi scheme is an operation that is fraudulent because it pays returns to investors not from actual profits earned, but from money paid by subsequent investors.

            Hmm. Social Security pays retirees not from an empty Social Security Trust Fund, but from current Social Security payroll taxes on current employees and their employers. Where did all that Trust Fund money go? Why the government took it to fund other things. Like the stimulus package, for example. So there is no money to pay future retirees. In the real world that's called an unfunded pension liability.

            Sounds like a Ponzi scheme to me.

            To make matters worse, President Obama is proposing to cut payroll taxes yet again, to the tune of a $175 billion tax holiday.

            Not to worry. The Anointed One says Social Security will still receive every dollar it would have gotten otherwise through a transfer from the General Fund into the Social Security Trust Fund.

            The General Fund? Isn't that the one that's $14 trillion dollars in debt?

            Sounds like a double Ponzi scheme to me.

            Rick Perry didn't say something so stupid after all.

What Would Bierce Say?

            The wicked wit Ambrose Bierce defined a Christian as "one who follows the teachings of Christ insofar as they are not inconsistent with a life of sin."

            Were he alive today, Bierce might have offered this variation: a White House ideologue is one who professes faithfulness to the Constitution insofar as it is not inconsistent with his socialist agenda. You get the same formulation if you substitute the words "will of the people" or "the rule of law" for "the Constitution."

            It is simply amazing to me how this administration repeatedly thwarts all three.

            The Constitution calls for a clear separation of powers. Specifically, it places lawmaking responsibility on Congress. But when Congress doesn't pass legislation desired by the administration, our chief executive uses regulatory agencies to achieve his goals. The National Labor Relations Board and the Environmental Protection Agency don't need Card Check and Cap and Trade legislation--they just make rulings and issue regulations to get what they want.

            A majority of Americans did not want Obamacare, but President Obama and a veto-proof Congress shoved it down our throats just the same.

            Arizona passed laws to protect its citizens from the invasion of illegal aliens and drug smugglers, but the Department of Justice blocked their enforcement. And when Congress didn't provide a clear road to amnesty for illegals, President Obama decided to do it himself, beginning with halting deportations required by law.

            Is it any wonder our government gets such low ratings from the citizenry? Do we not recognize the truth in the cynicism of an Ambrose Bierce as applied to today's leaders?

Birds Big and Small

            Every morning at breakfast I am entertained by birds feeding outside my window. Most go to the feeder strung up high to keep squirrels away (or so I thought). Others, like doves and thrashers, won't fly up to the feeder, so they feed on the seed I toss on the ground for them.

            But the other day I witnessed an extraordinary scene.

            A brown bird that I had never seen before sat on the ground shivering its feathers and calling open-mouthed like a nestling demanding to be fed. Before long a tiny sparrow, a quarter the size of the brown bird, began to pick seeds off the ground and pop them into the larger bird's gaping mouth. This went on for several minutes until the sparrow finally flew away. Thereupon the larger bird stopped shivering its feathers and began to feed itself from the seed on the ground.

            I couldn't help thinking that I had witnessed a perfect metaphor for the way out nanny state operates. Here was a large bird demanding to be fed while it was quite capable of feeding itself. Instead, it accepted food from a hard-working cousin with a sense of compassion and social responsibility.

            It has been said that our democracy will founder when more than half our citizens depend on the government for some form of sustenance. Aren't we there already? A shrinking labor base no longer capable of financing Social Security benefits for a growing number of retirees; a Medicare program facing exploding costs that will bankrupt the system before the end of the decade; Medicaid rolls that will increase by 30 million when Obamacare is fully implemented; Food Stamps now handed out to 1 of every 7 people.

            Last year President Obama knew he had a looming debt crisis when he appointed a bi-partisan commission, familiarly known as Simpson-Bowles, to look into reforming the system. The commission did a commendable job of recommending, among other things, tax reform and sensible ways to control runaway entitlement costs. So what did the president do with the commission's report? He trashed it.

            And the mess got worse. We got the debt ceiling crisis, the S&P downgrade, and the panic on Wall Street, not to mention the housing collapse and persistent unemployment.

            What will our anointed leader do for us next? He promises to tell us after Labor Day. Why wait? He could start right now by telling us he plans to stop feeding the birds who are quite capable of feeding themselves.

            But don't hold your breath. Those birds are now in the majority. And they vote.

Etched in My Memory

            The tawdry spectacle is over.

            Sounds of the disgusting battle in Washington over the debt ceiling have been muted. But for me, three things are etched in my memory.

            1. Corporate jets. They became the prime symbol on the banner under which President Obama waged his class warfare against the rich. Yet, the president never once mentioned the biggest and most expensive corporate jet of them all: Air Force One. His private conveyance to speeches, rallies, and fund raisers all over the country costs the American taxpayer hundreds of thousands of dollars each time he pulls it out of the hangar. And let's not forget the trip to New York to attend a Broadway show with the First Lady, or her vacations to Mexico, Spain, and South Africa. The royal couple's hypocrisy knows no bounds.

            2. Life on the planet. Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi famously said that failing to solve our debt ceiling crisis would end life on the planet as we know it. Has there ever been a more wild-eyed exaggeration than this?  Is the sense of self-importance more bloated anywhere than in the halls of Congress? Al Gore is right about global warming. It is indeed being caused by mankind. Not the burning of fossil fuels, though. It's the hot air spouting from our capital.

            3. Terrorists. One statement in the heat of battle was even more astounding to me than Pelosi's apocalypse. And that was Vice-President Biden calling the tea partiers terrorists. Imagine the man one heartbeat away from the presidency equating American citizens who want to control spending in Washington with the madmen who bombed us on 9/11 and who dress their children in explosive vests and send them off on suicide missions. Is there a more morbid symptom of the depravity of our leaders than this?

            Yes, the sights and sounds of the battle have faded. But let us not forget.

Heroes

            "True heroism is remarkably sober, very undramatic. It is not the urge to surpass all others at whatever cost, but the urge to serve others at whatever cost."           

            This quote is from Arthur Ashe, an inspirational hero himself for his personal performance on and off the tennis court. Well, the other day I met three people who fit Ashe's description of heroism.

            The occasion was a dinner party for Colonel Patrick Hynes who had just returned from his latest tour in Afghanistan. Since graduating from West Point in 1991 he has been on multiple assignments, including eight deployments to combat zones. There is hardly any room on his uniform to display all his ribbons, awards, and medals, including two Bronze Stars. He is now on a high level training assignment at the Industrial College of the Armed Forces (ICAF) from which he no doubt will emerge a brigadier general. This is a true hero in my eyes. His dedication, his commitment, and his years of service to his country reflect his urge to serve others at whatever cost.

            The second hero I met was his wife Eleni. When I asked her how many times she has had to move over the years, she started counting, but gave up after nine. "Only a life lived for others is worth living," said Albert Einstein. Eleni is the one who has had to pack up the kids and the dog whenever duty called her husband. Except that many of her moves were to a home filled with worry, loneliness, and the burden of going on without her partner. Einstein would have agreed that her life meets his definition of a life worth living.

            The third hero is a lady named Dolores who has a small flag with two red stars hanging in her dining room window. The stars represent her two sons who are active military. One is Patrick, the other his brother Kevin, whom I would like to meet someday. Kevin is an Army captain and a JAG officer with his own record of deployments to combat zones.

            No man can fully know the heart of a mother who sends two sons off to war. I surely can't. I can only recall what Joshua Chamberlain said: "Heroism is latent in every human soul, however humble or unknown." He was referring to the veterans who served under him at Gettysburg. He could have just as well have been thinking about their mothers.

            Heroes have a thousand faces. I feel privileged to know three of them.

A High Five

            In my recent blog on my visit to Austria, I did not mention an incident that stuck in my mind and led me to thinking about things.

            One late afternoon I was standing on a corner in Salzburg waiting with fellow tourists for our tour bus. Nearby was a group of young school girls waiting for a local bus. They appeared to be only mildly curious about us, which is understandable in this city flooded with tourists at this time of year..

            I was wearing a tell-tale tourist get-up: shorts, collared shirt, sneakers, and a camera around my neck. But one of the girls noticed something else about me:  my favorite navy blue cap with the big, red "B" on the front. With the joy of recognition in her eyes, she walked up to me and pointed to my hat. "Boston Red Sox," she exclaimed. I nodded and smiled. Then she raised her right hand and slapped me a High Five.

            Citizens of Red Sox Nation are everywhere in this country. I'm used to having people recognize my hat, even in North Carolina. But I was surprised that it enabled me to make a connection with an Austrian school girl.

            This made me think about ways to connect with others, especially those who might not share my love of baseball, jazz, or history. I can think of any number of ways to break the ice with a stranger or with a new neighbor. But at the extreme end of the human spectrum, how would I connect with a jihadist who would kill me if he could? Or a drug dealer who would poison a child for profit? Or a trafficker in human slaves?       

            The inescapable fact is that there are a lot of bad people in this world. Connecting with them might be impossible. On the other hand, one might argue that there is some good in everyone, even in the face of utter depravity, corruption, and inhumanity. If one can choose evil, can't one also choose good?

            "Why can't we all get along?" asked Rodney King. Indeed, why can't the best and the worst of us find something to High-Five each other about, even if it's something as unimportant as a Red Sox cap? It would be a beginning.

            Can a Child show the way?

           

Tone-Deaf in Washington

            Is Washington completely tone-deaf?

            The country is broke, but Washington continues to spend more money than it takes in. The CBO estimates that our debt, which now equals 40% of GDP, will eclipse our entire economy in less than ten years. That means we will soon be bankrupt if we don't change our ways. Yet, here were recent headlines in our media:

            "Leading House Democrats Say Social Security Cuts Are a Non-Starter." And any suggestions to the contrary, I suppose, mean that Republicans want to shove grandma over the cliff.

            "Dems Call for Stimulus in Debt Deal." You gotta be kidding. After wasting close to a trillion dollars in Obama's first stimulus, Democrats want to spend more on programs like Cash for Clunkers? And that's even after Obama admitted, jokingly, that there had been fewer shovel-ready programs than he thought.

            "Lawmakers Grumble over Secret Biden Talks." Have we forgotten the backroom deal that shoved Obamacare down our throats? Already we hear that there won't be enough time to analyze the "Biden deal" before voting on raising the debt ceiling.

            "Families with Income up to $63,000 Eligible for Medicaid." Speaker Pelosi said we needed to pass Obamacare to find out what's in it. Well, now we're finding out.

            "The Tide of War Is Receding." The President is withdrawing 10,000 troops from Afghanistan this summer and another 30,000 next September when fighting is at its peak, but just in time to influence elections. The decision pleases nobody, not those who want us out of Afghanistan now, not the ones who want to stay as long as it takes to win, and certainly not the generals who have advised otherwise. Oh, but the Taliban is pleased, of course, to know what our plans are. Meanwhile, the war in Afghanistan is costing us $6.7 billion a month.

            "Jacob Zuma Snubs Michelle Obama." The First Lady is drawing raves from the mainstream media for her goodwill visit to Africa. But the President of South Africa had it right. He saw her trip for what it really was: another vacation (remember Mexico and Spain). Let's tell it like it is. The highlight of Michelle Obama's trip wasn't a meeting with Nelson Mandela, but a private safari in Botswana. Why else would she take along her daughters, her mother, and her nephew and niece, not to mention an entourage of aides and fawning media? And at what cost to the American taxpayer?

            Haven't we had enough of tone-deaf lawmakers in Congress and royal pretenders in the White House?

           

Lessons from Austria

            Travel abroad can be a great educational experience, especially when it opens our eyes to other cultures. On a recent trip that included a few days in Austria, I came away with some lasting impressions.

            I was struck by the apparent affluence of the population, no doubt fueled by an unemployment rate of 4.5%. Everybody who wants to work has a job. Austria has done some good things for its economy, like joining the European Union, which gave it free access to European markets, and privatizing industry, which has made the country more competitive.

            Austria's affluence shows. Vienna, the capital and largest city, is booming. Since 1990, when I last visited it, the city has added a ring of modern industrial complexes. But it is still the center of the city that reflects its vitality. Tourism represents 10% of Austria's economy, and Vienna has a major share of it, because it has so much to offer its visitors. Hotels, restaurants, hundreds of cafes offering a unique variety of coffees and pastries, museums, concert halls, parks, palaces, churches, and architectural wonders, all contribute to the city's appeal.

            Little things, too. Like a clean, modern subway system with electronic boards that show arrival times and intervals. Like clean streets that are closed to vehicular traffic after 10:30 in the morning. Like public toilets that are clean and free of loiterers (because you must pay a small fee to use them). Like bicycle lanes for a slim and trim population that frowns on indolence. I did see a few tattoos and some nose studs, but no sagging pants or knee-length T-shirts. I heard church bells and strains of Mozart and Strauss, but not a single vibrating boom box.

            Still, there are some disturbing signs: an aging population with a negative growth rate largely supplemented by Muslim immigration; labor unions that are dedicated to perpetuating unproductive work rules; a government addicted to socialist welfare policies; and an increasingly secular population that has seen a drop in churchgoers from 90% to under 40% in fifty years. I have to wonder if these are the seeds of self-destruction.

            On Austria's superb no-speed-limit highways, you can see one brand new car after another whizzing by at speeds up to and over 100 miles per hour. I wonder if this is not the perfect metaphor for a country enjoying the best of everything while waiting for a fatal crash to happen.

            We could learn something from that.

Friend or Foe

            "Let me be clear." This is how President Obama prefaces his remarks when he wants to make sure we don't misunderstand what he is about to say. Well, remarks he uttered in several speeches during the week of May 16th make it clear where he stands on Israel.

            Since the Six-Day War in 1967 between Israel and its neighbors, American policy stated by every president since Lyndon Johnson has been that Israel need not return the West Bank, the Golan Heights, and the Gaza strip to Arab control or to repatriate Palestinian refugees. President Obama has now reversed that policy.

            To his credit, Prime Minister Netanyahu said to the most powerful man in the world, right to his face and in front of the cameras for all the world to see and hear, "That will not happen." Bravo.

            Oblivious to the crushing deficits he has promoted, President Obama that week also declared that the United States would provide billions in additional aid to the Palestinians and the Arabs of North Africa. These are the same people who cheered in the streets after 9/11, the same people who support Hezbollah, Fatah, Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood in their midst,  organizations that openly advocate the destruction of Israel and America. 

            This was the same week that Obama focused all the attention on himself when speaking about the killing of bin Laden. Yet leaks keep coming out of Washington that make us suspect that Obama withheld approval of the action for weeks for fear of offending his Muslim friends. On the eve of the action, with everything ready and the CIA and the Pentagon pressing him for action, the president still needed to sleep on it. It may very well be that the decision was made for him while he slept. If true, that would have been a gift to the president: had the action failed, he could have blamed his advisors for usurping his authority. When it succeeded, he was able to take credit for the fateful decision, while the others obviously could not.

            Finally, evidence surfaced that week that Iran and Hezbollah helped al Qaeda in planning the attacks on September 11, 2001, and in facilitating the hijackers' training and travel. This is the same Iran that Obama chooses to "engage" rather than confront, the same Iran that crushed a popular rebellion that cried out for support from a silent Obama. It is also the same Iran whose first nuclear plant is expected to be operational in a matter of weeks, bringing it that much closer to having nuclear weapons.

            Israel had stated repeatedly that it cannot permit Iran to have nuclear weapons. If Israel is forced to act unilaterally against Iran, will it have the backing of the United States? I don't know. But I am reminded of the old adage that a friend of my friend is my friend, and the friend of my enemy is my enemy. Israel has every right to ask Obama: Whose friend are you?  

           

The Facts about Nuclear Energy

         

            Ever since the Fukushima nuclear disaster, any mention of nuclear plants in this country, whether existing or planned, is met with hysterical rants from anti-nukes and uninformed environmentalists. This calls for a re-examination of the facts.

            To put it simply, of the three major sources of electricity in this country (coal, gas, and nuclear account for 90%), nuclear energy is the cleanest, most cost effective, and  safest source of power we have. Let's take one point at a time.          

            First, I have never understood why environmentalists who rail against emissions of CO2 by coal and gas-fired plants haven't become big supporters of nuclear energy, which emits none. We have 104 operating nuclear plants in this country, and they produce clean, emission-free energy. Period.

            Second, nuclear energy is also cost effective. It takes six to eight billion dollars to build a nuclear plant, but once it is built, it requires only basic maintenance; we have plants that have been in operation for over forty years and will continue to operate long into the future. The fuel itself, uranium, is plentiful and cheap; moreover, if the Japanese figure out how to extract it from seawater economically (they're working on it), we could have enough uranium to meet our needs for the next thousand years.

            Electricity produced by nuclear plants is probably the cheapest of all. France learned this lesson years ago when it built 59 nuclear plants that provide 80% of its electricity at a cost that is among the lowest in the world. In fact, France produces so much electricity from its nuclear plants, it sells its excess to other countries. We could learn from France's example.

            Third, U.S. nuclear power plants are very safe. Our first nuclear power plant was started in 1958. Since then, the U.S. has built 132. In addition, the Navy has put 140 nuclear-powered ships out to sea. None of these plants or ships, not even Three-Mile Island, has ever caused a single death due to a nuclear accident. Compare that to the record of the coal industry, for instance. Yet, vocal and influential anti-nuke groups have managed to get the number of power plants reduced to 104 and have effectively prevented the building of new ones for decades.

            Another concern brought up by opponents is the problem of storing spent nuclear fuel. This is no problem for the French who recycle spent fuel. But Jimmy Carter thought that stored plutonium waiting to be recycled presented a security risk, so he opted for permanent storage of nuclear waste. The Yucca Mountain storage facility became a perfectly adequate solution. But Nevada's Senator Reid didn't want nuclear waste in his back yard so he called in a favor from President Obama, and the president obliged by cancelling Yucca Mountain. So much for playing politics with nuclear fuel. But another solution is available.

            There are enormous salt domes beneath Texas and New Mexico. In fact, one of these domes in Carlsbad, New Mexico, has been used for 12 years as a repository for defense transuranic waste material from our nuclear weapons program. Steel casks containing the waste are buried deep in a salt dome, and the heat from the radioactive waste causes a melting of the salt, a process called plastic deformation. The salt surrounds the casks and seals them. Unfortunately, this solution would make the nuclear waste very expensive and impractical to retrieve, if we ever changed our minds about that. Yucca Mountain, on the other hand, was designed for retrievability for 100 years. So much for the $12 billion of taxpayer money already invested in Yucca Mountain.

          This is just another piece of evidence that our country's energy policy is weak, muddled,  confused, and politicized. It is high time we put a lid on venal politicians and hysterical anti-nukes, and become enthusiastic advocates for clean, efficient, and safe nuclear energy.

             

Oil Policy Madness

            Madness. This is the only word that adequately describes the energy policy of this administration.

            With gas prices at the pump  going up daily, Obama's solution is to investigate oil companies for fraud. Is he really that clueless?

            Fraud is not the problem. It's a question of supply and demand. But President Obama doesn't understand that.

            In 1970 the United States was producing 9.6 million barrels of oil a day and importing 3.16 million barrels. Today it is still producing over 9 million barrels, but importing 11.3 million barrels a day.  

            It doesn't take a genius to figure out that we need to produce more. But our leader said in a recent speech, "Even if we increase domestic oil production, that is not going to be the long-term solution to our energy challenge." No? What is? Windmills and solar shingles? Can he be so totally uninformed? Or has he gone mad?

            President Obama has said that our country has only 21 billion barrels of oil, about 2% of the world's proven oil reserves. He's right. But his numbers don't include technically recoverable off shore reserves, ANWAR, and the Bakken oil fields in North Dakota, all of which total some 134 billion barrels. Plus it doesn't include another 30 billion barrels in the Chukchi Sea off the west coast of Alaska.

            So what has the administration been doing about recovering all that oil? It has maintained a de facto moratorium on drilling in the Gulf of Mexico; it has denied oil leases for drilling off the east and west coasts; it has persisted in blocking production in ANWAR. And now comes the best of all.

            In 2008 the United States auctioned off leases to the Chukchi oil fields for $2.6 billion. Shell Oil alone spent another $2 billion during its pre-drill exploratory phase. That was under the Bush administration. But in 2010, with Obama running the country, environmental groups sued and a federal judge agreed to halt exploration pending a more complete environmental statement. Oil companies complied, but now the EPA has blocked the appeal, stating, among other things, that oil companies ignored--GET THIS--the potential effects of carbon dioxide emissions from ice breakers on nearby communities.

            The nearest inhabitants are 70 miles away in the village of Kaktovik, population 245.

             "Know Thine Enemy." We know it very well. It is not the oil companies: It is the EPA, and it is holding our president prisoner in the White House of Madness.