Real Country Showed Up On The Fourth

Although I’ve been a journalist for more than 20 years, I am in no way a “news junkie.” I seldom watch TV news, nor do I listen to news on the radio (except the traffic report when I’m in the car). I read newspapers sparingly—that is to say, selectively. And of course, I have been trained to pick out the bias in all reporting (yes, it’s there; believe me, some more so than others!).
Most who do watch, read, and listen to mainstream news (and entertainment) media will no doubt tell you that the tendencies in today’s culture are to tolerate everyone’s point of view, celebrate (whatever the hell that means) everyone’s lifestyle, and crusade for what you believe i —i.e. speak your mind.
Undeniably you’ll travel a smoother road as long as your
point of view, your crusade, and your speech tows that cultural line: The one
painted so stealthily through our social conscience by the media.
So you should join the overwhelming majority (if media tendentiousness
is to be believed) of Americans who:
• Tolerate casual sex, infanticide, and animal worship.
• Celebrate homosexuality, bisexuality, and nature worship.
• Speak out against all outdated ideals, such as theism and patriotism.
Then you’d be well on your way to conforming to the contemporary
norm. You’d be solidly in line to becoming a secular humanist. (Sounds great
doesn’t it—Secular humanist? It’s one
of those hip phrases that pretty much means whatever the hell you want it to
mean. Stalin and Hitler would both have loved it!)
Not that I was ever seriously tempted to trust media predisposition
to their vision of the new American society,
but I had my faith physically and spiritually reinforced this Independence Day
at the parade in Pitman, New Jersey.
As a Christian, I’ve always been taught that Faith, Hope,
and Charity are the three cardinal virtues upon which true humanism, if you will, is based. Those three facets of our uniquely
human nature were obvious the morning of July 4th all along Broadway
in Pitman.(Excerpted from Good Writers Block)

Big Government Party Blocks Reforms

Big Government Party Blocks Reforms
By Matthew J. Brouillette

Why haven’t liquor privatization and pension reform passed yet here in Pennsylvania? Not why you think.

Most answers to this question begin with the fact that one party controls all branches of government in the Keystone State—the Republicans. Many people then posit that free-market ideas such as these should therefore be slam dunks. But this analysis is far too simplistic.

The reason Gov. Tom Corbett hasn’t signed either of those measures is that the true divide in the General Assembly is not between the Republicans and Democrats, but between the Big Government Party and the Taxpayer Party.

And while the Republicans may have a numerical majority, the Big Government Party—the coalition of interests that profit from higher taxes, more spending, cumbersome regulations, state contracts, and special privileges—has a functional majority. It just wielded it.

That’s how liquor privatization fell apart, in spite of bipartisan voter majorities favoring it. Special interests—both those profiting off the state monopoly and those seeking to keep out competition—worked to obstruct and water down privatization proposals.

Government unions representing the state store workers spent big bucks advertising against privatization and countless hours lobbying. Moreover, the union representing liquor store managers worked to hold transportation funding hostage if Senate leadership didn’t kill liquor privatization.

Not only that, the opposition to a longtime Republican priority was aided and abetted by a former Republican Senate leader and a team of former Senate Republican political operatives-turned-lobbyists. This is a case in point: The Big Government Party has adherents among both Republicans and Democrats.

Despite historic progress on liquor privatization in the House, the Senate struggled to get enough votes to join the other 48 states that don’t run complete government wine and spirits monopolies. And once transportation tax and fee increases fell through in the House, it became clear the Senate would make us wait longer.

Similar attacks thwarted pension reform.

The school employees’ union leadership launched a massive campaign to thwart any pension reform plan. They had both current teachers and retirees calling lawmakers saying, “Don’t take away my pension”—even though proposals wouldn’t touch retirees’ benefits or affect benefits already earned by current employees.

They used misguided analyses to argue that changing plans for new hires would cost more, but analysts from Pew Trust and the Public Employees Retirement Commission pointed out their flaws.

The most egregious myth perpetuated by opponents of reform is that pension investments will earn 7.5 percent every year, and that lawmakers will keep making full payments. These assumptions have proven wrong for years, creating our $47 billion and growing pension debt.

Indeed, if switching from a defined-benefit plan to a defined-contribution plan costs an employer more, not less, then why hasn’t the private sector reversed its decades-long move to 401(k) retirement plans?

While both the House and Senate advanced pension reform bills in June, special interests that benefit from the costly status quo created enough confusion to keep any bill from passing either body.

With a state legislature paralyzed by special interests—both internal and external—Pennsylvanians will see the bill for government services climbing without any sign their government is actually working for them.

They’ll simply continue to see rutted roads, endure an extra stop (or two) to buy wine and beer, and watch their property taxes rise to pay for escalating pension costs.

Voters want to see meaningful reform that uses their hard-earned taxpayer dollars wisely, and they don’t want to wait forever. The good news is, they won’t have to. Yes, the Big Government Party has a majority—but it’s a slim one, and more and more people are seeing how the game really works.

The Commonwealth Foundation was far from the only voice in these battles, but in our efforts alone, thousands of citizens wrote to their lawmakers urging that they side with the Taxpayer Party.

Make no mistake: Those people have had it, and they aren’t going away.

Matthew J. Brouillette is president and CEO of the Commonwealth Foundation

 

Big Government Party Blocks Reforms

Corporate Tax Rate And What They Really Pay

Corporate Tax Rate And What They Really Pay — The corporate income tax rate is 35 percent in the United States and is considered the highest in the world. The Government Accountability Office, however, has found that U.S. corporations with at least $10 million in assets paid an average effective federal tax rate of just 12.6 percent.

Who’d thunk it?

The reason of course is the loopholes and gimmicks that can be found by those able to afford high-powered accounts and lawyers.

Did you know that the most hip, liberal, “progressive”, “do no evil”
Democrat Party-supporting firms are among the worst offenders?

I’da thunk that.

Now some will point out that only people pay taxes not corporations, and that is basically true. Still, those businesses that  try to do the right thing and wish to follow the law should not be at a disadvantage to those that don’t.

Hat tip PJmedia.com

 

Corporate Tax Rate And What They Really Pay

Springfield Road To Close

Springfield Road To Close — Springfield Road will be closed starting, Monday, July 8,  for water main replacements from 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. between Route 1 and Old Marple Road in Springfield, Delaware County, reports PennDOT.  The work will last through the end of August. Traffic will be detoured over Sproul Road.

Hat tip Springfield Patch.

Springfield Road To Close

Omnibit 7-6-2013

World champion Jamaican sprinter Yohan Blake eats 16 bananas a day. Yohan Blake eats 16 bananas a day

Michael Arnstein, the reigning champion of the Javelina Jundred ultramarathon, eats an all fruit diet. It costs him $200 a day.

Arnstein should talk to Blake. It would save him some money.

Hat tip Outside Magazine.

William Lawrence Sr Omnibit 7-6-2013 Yohan Blake eats 16 bananas a day

Charter School Rescues Students

Charter School Rescues Students — Today’s link  comes from Commonwealth Foundation and describes how Propel Braddock Hills High is rescuing 250 kids from bad schools in a bad neighborhood in Pittsburgh.

Charter School Rescues Students

Divorce Agreement — Off the Internet

Divorce Agreement  — Hat tip Pat Keevil

DIVORCE AGREEMENT–
WRITTEN BY YOUNG COLLEGE STUDENT
The person who wrote this is a college (law) student.. Perhaps there is hope for us after all.

DIVORCE AGREEMENT

THIS IS SO INCREDIBLY WELL PUT AND I CAN HARDLY BELIEVE IT’S BY A YOUNG PERSON, A STUDENT!!! WHATEVER HE RUNS FOR, I’LL VOTE FOR HIM.

Dear American liberals, leftists, social progressives, socialists, Marxists and Obama supporters, et al: We have stuck together since the late 1950’s for the sake of the kids, but the whole of this latest election process has made me realize that I want a divorce. I know we tolerated each other for many years for the sake of future generations, but sadly, this relationship has clearly run its course.

Our two ideological sides of America cannot and will not ever agree on what is right for us all, so let’s just end it on friendly terms. We can smile and chalk it up to irreconcilable differences and go our own way.

Here is a our separation agreement:

–Our two groups can equitably divide up the country by landmass each taking a similar portion. That will be the difficult part, but I am sure our two sides can come to a friendly agreement. After that, it should be relatively easy! Our respective representatives can effortlessly divide other assets since both sides have such distinct and disparate tastes.

–We don’t like redistributive taxes so you can keep them.

–You are welcome to the liberal judges and the ACLU.
–Since you hate guns and war, we’ll take our firearms, the cops, the NRA and the military.

–We’ll take the nasty, smelly oil industry and the coal mines, and you can go with wind, solar and bio diesel.

–You can keep Oprah, Michael Moore and Rosie O’Donnell. You are, however, responsible for finding a bio-diesel vehicle big enough to move all three of them.

–We’ll keep capitalism, greedy corporations, pharmaceutical companies, Wal-Mart and Wall Street.

–You can have your beloved lifelong welfare dwellers, food stamps, homeless, home boys, hippies, druggies and illegal aliens.

–We’ll keep the hot Alaskan hockey moms, greedy CEO’s and rednecks.

–We’ll keep Bill O’Reilly, and Bibles and give you NBC and Hollywood .

–You can make nice with Iran and Palestine and we’ll retain the right to invade and hammer places that threaten us.

–You can have the peaceniks and war protesters. When our allies or our way of life are under assault, we’ll help p rovide them security.

–We’ll keep our Judeo-Christian values.

–You are welcome to Islam, Scientology, Humanism, political correctness and Shirley McClain. You can also have the U.N. But we will no longer be paying the bill.

–We’ll keep the SUV’s, pickup trucks and oversized luxury cars. You can take every Volt and Leaf you can find.

–You can give everyone healthcare if you can find any practicing doctors.

–We’ll keep “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” and “The National Anthem.”

–I’m sure you’ll be happy to substitute “Imagine”, “I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing”, “Kum Ba Ya” or “We Are the World”.

–We’ll practice trickle-down economics and you can continue to give trickle up poverty your best shot.

–Since it often so offends you, we’ll keep our history, our name and our flag.

Would you agree to this? If so, please pass it along to other like-minded liberal and conservative patriots and if you do not agree, just hit delete. In the spirit of friendly parting, I’ll bet you might think about which one of us will need whose help in 15 years.

Sincerely,

John J. Wall

Law Student and an American

P.S. Also, please take Ted Turner, Sean Penn, Martin & Charlie Sheen, Barbara Streisand, & ( Hanoi ) Jane Fonda with you.

P.S.S. And you won’t have to press 1 for English when you call our country.

Forward This Every Time You Get It ! Let’s Keep This Going, Maybe Some Of It Will Start Sinking In!!

Divorce Agreement

Omnibit Of The Day

Don’t ever water your lawn while it’s raining in Holyoke, Mass. It’s against the law.

–William W. Lawrence Sr.

Peak Oil Is Passe

Peak Oil Is Passe –“Peak oil” was the phrase used to express the belief that the world is running out of oil and we must all start riding bicycles.

Well, with new discoveries and fracking and such it appears the fad has passed.

The Oil Drum, an influential blog site dedicated to promoting the claim that oil has peaked, has announced that it is shutting down after eight years.

The site’s board says this is “due to scarcity of new content caused by a dwindling number of contributors. Despite our best efforts to fill this gap we have not been able to significantly improve the flow of high quality articles.”

Interest has “peaked” one could say.  The party is over. The parade has passed and the Elvis year has ended. Once upon a time every kid on the street had to have a Super Ball too.

Hat tip Instapundit.

Peak Oil Is Passe

30 Who Say USA Is 2013 Years Old

Here are 30 people who tweeted yesterday that America was 2013 years old.

Hopefully, at least some of them were joking.