Worms

Two new cans of worms have appeared. The first involves the confederate flag. This flag represents intolerance and hate to many people especially black Americans and to others it represents the historical past of the south. If states decide to remove the flag then it should be done but will it end there. Will the next move be to remove statues of Jefferson Davis the President of the Confederacy? What about Robert E Lee the famous confederate general and then on to George Washington and Thomas Jefferson who were both slave owners? The second is that today the administration announced that private families will now be allowed to pay ransom to terrorist. It has long been the policy of the government not to negotiate with terrorist but individuals will now have that option. Will this be an advantage to rich families? Will regular criminals start kidnapping and selling the victims to terrorist? Worms, worms, worms!

The Pope’s entrance into the morass of climate change is welcome but he left out some important facts. Over the past 100 plus years the use of fossil fuel has helped improve the standard of living of people around the world most especially the poor. The culmination of the industrial revolution brought with it advancements science and technology which have helped more people than all the charities and governments combined. In the past 50 years the production of food has grown faster than the population. When I was young farmers got 60 bushels per acre of corn and today they get 200 bushels. Chicken used to be a meal for the well-off but today everyone eats it. Last year the US exported 120 billion dollars in food products. By BILL AND MELINDA GATES Jan. 17, 2014 7:50 p.m. ET By almost any measure, the world is better off now than it has ever been before. Extreme poverty has been cut in half over the past 25 years, child mortality is plunging, and many countries that had long relied on foreign aid are now self-sufficient. Everyone who studies the problem of climate change understands that the increase in carbon dioxide is a problem but those who look deeper realize that the answer is methane hydrate. If you are not familiar with this product look it up and you will discover that it is the answer to climate change. I don’t think anyone mentioned this to the Pope.

Disrespecting authority

As I watched the video of the cop knocking down that teenage girl and then drawing his gun, I felt very uncomfortable. I sometimes sub teach at a school where they send students who have problems with authority. I had been there a couple of dozen times without incident but my last time there things changed. One of the students, a 14 year old male, said some things about my wife in the most vulgar of terms and I reacted by saying some vulgar things back. It was then that I realized that I was not properly trained to sub at this school and I will not be going back. The cop realized the same thing when he saw the video and he chose to resign. In my own way, I know how he felt. I am concerned about the students in this school as they have no respect for the authority of the teacher and this will likely carry over to law enforcement officials when they are older and out of school. When these students disrespect a teacher the punishment is one hour in a room by themselves. Will they learn from this that the penalty for disrespecting authority figures is a minor inconvenience? Will they one day be on a youtube video?

Rich techs

With all of the talk about income inequality and the emphasis on CEO salaries, it should be pointed out that the top 500 CEO’s combined income is 5 billion dollars and the nine top high tech billionaires are worth 70 billion and they are all under the age of 40. It seems surprising that this is never mentioned and it is likely because it is difficult to politicize.

Payroll taxes

Most people have payroll tax deducted from their pay checks. This is money that goes to social security and Medicaid. The employee pays 6.2% into social security and 1.45% into Medicaid and the employer matches those contributions. While income tax is collected on all wages the payroll tax in only collected on the first $117,000 of earnings. Since most people earn less than that they are not aware that there is a cap on earnings. Senator Bernie Sanders who running for president wants to remove the cap and collect payroll tax on all wages. This would bring in a tidy sum of about 90 billion dollars per year but it would have very little effect on the superrich since most of their income is from capital gains which are not subject to payroll tax. This tax would hit the rich who earn their money in the form of wages. These are business owners and corporate executives and other successful professional people. These are also the job producers and this flies in the face of Senator Sanders other priority which is creating middle class jobs.

Patriot Act

As the debate on the senate floor regarding the Patriot Act gets into high gear the ACLU is strangely silent but let someone put up a cross on the public square and they are all over it. They have publicly said they are opposed to most of the provisions in this Act but they are not protesting very loudly. Both liberal and conservative groups are against the Act as it presently stands but still the ACLU is quiet. Normally they would have spokespeople on every channel everyday fighting to protect the 4th amendment. Where are they! Maybe Rand Paul should hold up a cross when he filibusters.