Week in Review

Parents spend a lot of time telling their kids ‘no’.  Telling them not to smoke, drink or do drugs.  And to wait until they are more mature before having sex.  That’s why the Democrat Party attracts the youth vote.  They are so not like their parents.

Democrats talk to our kids as if they are mature adults.  Who want to help them to have sex by providing free birth control and access to abortion.  Making the morning-after pill available to girls as young as 15 without a prescription.  Even making contraception a women’s health issue during the 2012 election.  Saying the Republicans wanted to make people pay for their own birth control.  Which was, of course, code for taking it away.

For Republicans wanted to force women into loveless marriages.  Turning them into baby factories.  They didn’t want to empower women.  They wanted to imprison women.  Because they hate women.  While the Democrats love women.  (Some more than others.)  Even encouraging them to explore their sexuality.  (Preferably with enlightened Democrats who love women).  Which was how you empowered a woman.  Letting her have consequence-free sex.  And if she develops a consequence there are things she could do to get rid of that consequence.  With all of these resources available courtesy of Democrats there was nothing limiting the amount of sex young people could have.  Making the Democrat Party the party for them.  Which is why the Democrats remain the party of women.  Even though their policies end up destroying women’s lives (see Sex Superbug Could Be ‘Worse Than AIDS’ by Mark Koba posted 5/2/2013 on CNBC).

An antibiotic-resistant strain of gonorrhea—now considered a superbug—has some analysts saying that the bacteria’s effects could match those of AIDS.

“This might be a lot worse than AIDS in the short run because the bacteria is more aggressive and will affect more people quickly,” said Alan Christianson, a doctor of naturopathic medicine…

“Getting gonorrhea from this strain might put someone into septic shock and death in a matter of days,” Christianson said. “This is very dangerous…”

According to the CDC, about 20 million a year contract a sexually transmitted disease (STD) and result in about $16 billion in medical costs. More than 800,000 of STD cases reported are gonorrhea infections, with most occurring in people between the ages of 15 and 24.

Gonorrhea is transmitted through unprotected sexual contact. Untreated, the disease can cause a number of health complications in women, including infertility. In men, the disease can be very painful and lead to sterility. It can also trigger other life-threatening illnesses, including heart infections.

Gonorrhea can be hard to detect. It often shows no symptoms in about half of women and in about 5 percent of men. Gonorrhea infection rates were at historic lows until two years ago, according to the CDC…

But Smith said more needs to be done. In a briefing on Capitol Hill last week, he urged Congress to target nearly $54 million in immediate funding to help find an antibiotic for HO41 and to conduct an education and public awareness campaign.

“I’m hopeful we’ll get the additional funds, but I can’t say for sure,” Smith said. “What I do know is we don’t have the resources to fight this as it stands now.”

Avoiding the disease completely is the best course, experts said.

We actually have an education and public awareness campaign.  We call it parenting.  And if the Democrats haven’t been undermining parents in their parenting perhaps these kids would listen to them.  But it’s hard to tell your kids to wait until you’re older and more mature before having sex when the government is providing free birth control in our high schools.  And providing the morning-after pill to girls as young as 15 without a doctor’s prescription or parental notice.  Because kids will be kids.

And then you have a liberal curriculum put together by the radicals of the Sixties.  Teaching them to be different than their parents.  Even blaming their greedy parents for trying to kill the planet with global warming.  And attacking religion and our traditions as backward relics of a medieval past.  The 1950s.  So thanks to government and our educational system our parents have little moral authority with their kids.  Who would much rather listen to their teachers, professors and government when it comes to sex.  Because they say it’s okay.  Which is why there has been an explosion in STDs (See Sex and the Superbug by Jerome Groopman posted 10/1/2012 on The New Yorker).

The sexual revolution of the nineteen-sixties ushered in rising rates of gonorrhea, as condoms, which effectively prevent transmission, were abandoned in favor of oral contraceptives. Only after the risk of death from AIDS began to increase, in the nineteen-eighties, did condom use again become a norm. A federally funded gonorrhea-control program, started in 1972, perhaps made a difference; by 1997, the number of yearly cases of gonorrhea reported to the C.D.C. had fallen by nearly three-quarters compared with its peak, in 1975. In 2009, the number of gonorrhea cases in the U.S. was at an all-time low. “Ten or fifteen years ago, we thought it was going to be eradicated in some Western countries,” Unemo told me…

The microbe carries specialized proteins that help it attach firmly to the surface of cells and other proteins that blunt a host’s immune-system response and prevent white blood cells from ingesting and degrading it. Together, these tools grant the gonococcus the ability to fasten to and invade the cells that line the human urethra, cervix, rectum, and throat, and the lining of the eyelid and eye.

In some respects, N. gonorrhoeae is a fragile organism; dry conditions, changes in temperature, and the ultraviolet rays in sunlight destroy it. As a result, it is transmitted only through intimate contact with body fluids; it doesn’t thrive on inanimate objects and can’t be picked up from toilet seats. Yet it is far more contagious than H.I.V. A woman who has unprotected sex with an H.I.V.-infected man has roughly a one-in-a-thousand chance of contracting the virus. The transmission rate among gay men having anal sex is an order of magnitude higher, about one in a hundred. In contrast, with gonorrhea a man has a twenty-five-per-cent chance of catching the microbe from an infected partner. For women, the odds are as high as sixty-six per cent.

The pill liberated women.  And many unsuspecting women did not believe they had to be careful anymore.  So they weren’t.  They took their oral contraceptives.  And if that failed they could get an abortion starting in 1973.  Making the Seventies a magical time for men who wanted to play the field.  And they did.  Spreading disease.  And it was the women who suffered the most from their sexual appetites.  As an infected man infects two out of three women he has sex with.

Interestingly, the resurgence in gonorrhea corresponded with the Democrats winning the White House in 2008.  With President Obama, Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House (until the 2010 midterm election) and Harry Read as majority leader in the Senate the country could move further to the left than ever before.  There was nothing the Republicans could do to stop them.  Case in point: Obamacare.  Which is replete with free preventative health care measures that include birth control and abortion.  The left was giddy with joy.  And apparently they celebrated their even more consequence-free sex lives, appropriately, in the sack.

In effect, the human pharynx is a spawning ground for resistance… And, because pharyngeal gonorrhea rarely produces symptoms, it is more likely both to go untreated and to be passed on unknowingly.

A driving factor behind the rise in gonorrhea infections, as well as the trend toward total antibiotic resistance, is our complacent attitude toward oral sex…

In many circles, however, especially since the era of H.I.V., oral sex has been embraced as a safe alternative to intercourse… Recent statistics from Los Angeles County suggest that the proportion of pharyngeal to genital gonorrhea cases among adolescents has increased sevenfold since 1988…

According to the C.D.C., adolescents and young adults account for nearly half of all new cases of sexually transmitted disease, even though the group represents just twenty-five per cent of the sexually active population. The adaptive nature of the gonococcus, coupled with the prevalence of unprotected oral sex, all but insures that drug-resistant gonorrhea will eventually take root in the general heterosexual population. Unemo warned, “When you get into the population of young heterosexuals, it can very quickly spread.”

It turns out that consequence-free sex has some serious consequences.  And these numbers are just shocking.  Only 25% of the sexually active population is responsible for nearly half of all new STDs.  The adolescents and young adults.  Who overwhelmingly vote Democrat.  A demographic exploited by the Democrats to remain in power.  No matter how many lives they destroy.  And yet they say the Republicans have a War on Women.  Those sexual prudes who want their kids to refrain from having as much sex as the Democrats are encouraging them to have.  Because they fear for the wellbeing of their children.  As they understand the risks of sexual activity.  They try to be good parents and protect their children.  Especially their daughters who are paying the highest price of the Democrats’ Sexual Revolution.  But it’s difficult to do when government and our educational system is fighting so strenuously to turn their kids against their parents.

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Fundamental Truth

Some want to Lower the Voting Age despite our Teens’ Penchant for Making Poor Decisions

Parents can’t tell their kids anything.  Because they know everything already.  Despite doing a lot of stupid stuff.  They smoke cigarettes.  Do drugs.  Binge drink.  Drink and drive.  Have unprotected sex.  And a whole lot of other things that can have lasting consequences.  Consequences such as cancer.  A drug addiction.  An arrest for driving under the influence.  An arrest for vehicular manslaughter.  Catching a venereal disease.  Becoming a single mother while still in high school.  Or becoming a single mother with a venereal disease.  While still in high school.

Teens and young adults have a history of making poor decisions.  Why?  Is it because they are stupid?  No.  It’s because they are young.  Inexperienced.  And grow up in an environment that tells them they are far wiser than they are.  As they grew up people constantly told them that they are smart.  They are wise.  And that we need to listen to what they say.  For they are our future.  Some even wanting to bring them into the political process earlier.  By lowering the voting age.  Which is an odd thing to do.  Considering their penchant for making poor decisions.

Of course kids are all for lowering the voting age.  For if they could vote earlier there would probably be more than 2 states that have decriminalized marijuana by now.  And they could lower the drinking age, too.  For let’s face it kids are going to binge drink no matter what we say.  Just as they are going to smoke marijuana and have sex.  So we might as well help them do these things.  And lowering the voting age will be a step towards making that happen.

The Founding Fathers wanted a Government of the People not a Ruling Elite in a Faraway Place telling them what’s Best for Them

So we know what kids want.  Less parenting.  And more fun.  They want the freedom to enjoy whatever they want to enjoy.  And believe they are enlightened like our Founding Fathers were when they wanted the freedom to do what they wanted to do.  Of course, the Founding Fathers’ Enlightenment was a lot different from that of the kids’ today.  The Founding Fathers were interested in science, economics and religious freedom.  They were familiar with the history of Greece and Rome.  Magna Carta.  The Protestant Reformation.  The English Civil War.  They were proud of their membership in the British Empire.  The most enlightened and free empire, or country, in the world.  Thanks to their representative government.  But when Parliament did not let them have any representation in that house while passing laws to govern them, well, they didn’t love the British Empire as much as they once did.

The Founding Fathers weren’t fans of mercantilism.  Then the dominant economic policy of the day.  European powers fought each other for colonies.  Their colonies shipped raw materials back to the mother country.  Who then used them to manufacture finished goods.  That they then sold to the world.  And to their colonies.  Keeping the net flow of gold and silver flowing to the mother country.  While exporting more finished goods than they imported.  With the state helping a few well-connected domestic businesses.  Keeping the state coffers flush with money.  While the people paid higher prices than they normally would have paid.  Thanks to those government policies favoring the well-connected businesses.  Basically like what China is doing today.  Maintaining a strong export economy with cheap labor.  That doesn’t benefit the Chinese masses all that much.  Creating basically two Chinas.  The rich in the cities.  And the poor and impoverished everywhere else.

The Founding Fathers wanted liberty.  Political liberty.  And economic liberty.  Laissez-faire capitalism.  Where the people taking the greatest risk profited the most.  Not the state.  They wanted a limited federal government.  Just large enough to protect the nation.  To treat with other nations.  Those things best suited for the federal government.  While the vast majority of power belonged to the states.  Closer to the people.  And not in some distant land.  They wanted a government of the people.  Not a ruling elite in a faraway place telling them what’s best for them.  That’s why they fought for their independence from a distant power in the first place.  The British Empire.  And they sure didn’t want to trade one distant power oppressing them for another.  They didn’t want money corrupting the federal government.  They wanted the seat of financial power and the seat of government power separated.  For the greatest abuses of power came when wealth joined power in the Old World capitals.  London.  Paris.  Madrid.  Thomas Jefferson wanted the federal capital as far from the bankers and merchants in New York as possible.  Which is why they placed the new federal capital in a swamp on the Potomac River.

Sadly, those who Know the Least often determine who Wins Elections

Those who have studied history understand how the United States came to be.  And what made it the world’s number one economic power.  Laissez-faire capitalism.  Free trade.  Sound money.  In particular the gold standard.  They saw history prove Say’s Law.  Supply creates its own demand.  No one demanded personal computers or the Internet.  But when those who brought these to the market place showed how wonderful they were demand soon followed.  They saw history prove David Ricardo’s comparative advantage.  How free trade lets nations produce what they do most efficiently and trade for what they don’t.  Thus increasing the economies of all nations trading freely.

People who know history understand that the prevalent economic policy today, Keynesian economics, is a failed policy.  For Keynesian economic policies are more like mercantilism than free market capitalism.  Calling for more government intervention into the market.  Inflationary monetary policy (i.e., printing money).  As well as tax and spend fiscal policies so the government can redistribute wealth.  So the government can choose winners and losers.  Not the free market.  Policies that all go against what made America the world’s number one economic power.  The Seventies, a time when the Keynesians got everything they wanted when President Nixon decoupled the dollar from gold, saw double-digit inflation, high unemployment and a stagnant economy.  Everything the Keynesians tried failed to improve the economy.  In fact, their policies only made the economy worse.  And the only thing that pulled us out of the stagflation and misery of the Seventies was Ronald Reagan.  Who embraced the classical economic policies that made America the number one economic power in the world.  Laissez-faire capitalism.  Say’s Law.  David Ricardo’s comparative advantage.  Sound monetary policy (i.e., noninflationary).  The policies we call Reaganomics.

People who study history know this.  But teens and young adults?  Those more interested in drinking alcohol, smoking marijuana and having sex?  They haven’t a clue about economics or their history.  Yet they often determine elections.  Sad but true.  And it’s just not teens and young adults who don’t understand economics or know their history.  Thanks to the hippies of the Sixties moving into education most people coming out of our public schools don’t.  For the hippies of the Sixties changed the curriculum.  To help them in their quest to destroy capitalism.   By dumbing down the curriculum.  So it’s easier for Keynesians to keep passing the failed policies of the past.  To help them keep expanding the size of government.  To turn this nation back to what the Founding Fathers fought to get away from.  The mercantilism of the Old World.  Of present day China.  Where the few in power have all the power.  And all the wealth.  All because people think they know more than they know.  And vote as if they know everything they need to know.  But there’s more to know than most people know.  And, sadly, those who know the least often determine who wins elections.

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Economics 101

When Children get their Allowance their Faces light up as they Think of all that Spending they’ll Do

Parents try to teach their kids to be responsible.  And to understand that they are not rock stars.  They can’t have “everything all the time.”  Because if you can you get bored.  And look for new ways to kill that boredom.  Like developing a coke habit.  (“There were lines on the mirror, lines on her face.”  Life in the Fast Lane.  The Eagles.)  Which is bad.  Very, very bad.  So this is where a weekly allowance comes in.  It teaches kids to be responsible.  And to budget their wants.  To make choices.  If they want more of one thing they learn they have to have less of another.  This is economic reality.  And the sooner they learn it the better off they will be.

So what does a kid want?  Food, candy, games, toys, comic books, going to the movies and consuming a lot of concession food and drinks.  And other stuff.  What does a parent want?  Their kids not to want so much of these things.  And not to whine.  Especially that.  They also want them to learn the importance of saving money.  To spend less and save more.  So later in life should they lose their job they will have savings to live on while they look for another job.  Without having to move back home.  So they may give a child an allowance of $100 a week.  Telling that child it’s for those things they want.  And for putting a little in the bank every week.  So they can have some money for later.  During a time they really need it.  And when the child gets that $100 his face lights up.  Thinking of all that spending he’s going to do.  While thinking nothing about saving.

The parent watches with proud satisfaction as their child budgets his wants.  For 5 weeks he pays for his school lunch.  Spends a fixed weekly amount on candy.  When he wanted to spend more on games, toys and comic books he cut back spending on movie night.  Even not going to the movies at all in Week 4 because he chose instead to buy an expensive game.  The parents are happy to see their child live within his budget.  But are disappointed that he spent all of his allowance without putting any of it in the bank.

With this Easy Credit he soon realizes that he can have Everything all the Time

Then the parents divorce.  The mother remarries.  The new stepdad really wants his stepson to like him.  While he is bitter about his parents’ divorce.  The stepdad keeps the same allowance structure in place.  But in a desperate attempt to get him to like him he is more than willing to make advances on his allowance.  Loaning money easily.  But charging interest.  To continue the lesson of responsibility.

With easy credit and wanting more toys the stepson borrows money in Week 2.  $10.  And buys more games and toys.  Paying $1.10 for the allowance advance.  Liking the ability to buy more at the toy store he goes back for another loan in Week 3.  This time $20.  Paying $3.42 in total interest charges at the end of the week.  Losing the lesson of living on an allowance he goes back to borrow more.  This time $30.  Paying $7.10 in total interest.  With this easy credit he soon realizes that he can have everything all of the time.  And in Week 5 he borrows $40.  With his interest on the outstanding balance adding up to $12.28.  Which is almost enough to buy his school lunches for a week.

At the end of Week 5 he owes $100 in allowance advances.  Which he will have to eventually pay back.  Seeing how irresponsible the child got the stepdad refuses future allowance advances.  Upset the kid starts whining.  A lot.  Annoyed the stepdad calls in the loan.  He gives the child his $100 weekly allowance.  And then takes it back.  The child whines more.  For he can’t buy anything that week.  Not even school lunch.  Having to brown-bag it.  A peanut butter sandwich and an apple.  Making pizza day a living hell.  For he has no savings to live on during this difficult time.  As he was a spendthrift with his money.  Ignoring the sage advice of his parents to save for a rainy day.  So he suffers the most painful time of his life.  Extreme austerity for a week.

When they can’t reduce Defense Spending anymore they simply Borrow Money to keep Spending

This example is similar to how the federal government works.  The taxpayers are the kids.  And the stepdad are the politicians in the federal government trying to make taxpayers like them.  So they keep voting for them.  Only the politicians don’t want the people to learn to be responsible.  To budget their wants.  To understand that if they want more of one thing that they have to have less of another.  No.  They want them to believe they can have everything all of the time.  If only they vote for them.  How can they do this?  Unlike a parent the federal government can print money.  Making it the best stepdad in the world.

One of the reasons the Founding Fathers created the federal government was to provide for a common defense.  After winning their Independence they couldn’t get the British to leave our soil.  Or prevent the Barbary pirates from capturing our merchant ships and selling our sailors into slavery.  The new federal government was to provide a military force to protect Americans.  The Founding Fathers wrote this into the Constitution.  What they didn’t write into it was all the social spending we see today.  Often at the expense of defense spending.  The great political debate of how to divvy up spending between defense and the social stuff we see today is the guns vs. butter debate.  Where strict constructionists wanting to keep spending per the intent of the Founding Fathers.  All guns and no butter.  The ‘butter’ being an issue for state governments.  While progressives and liberals want all butter and no guns.  Because they hate the military.  And think they can talk to our enemies and make them like us.  Most other people want something in between.  As shown by  this graph.

If you spend 80% on guns that only leaves 20% for butter.  If you spend 50% on guns that leaves 50% for butter.  If you only spend 20% on guns that leaves 80% for butter.  And so on.  Progressives and liberals want to move as far to the left on this graph as possible.  Because the farther left they go the more they please their stepchildren.  Who become accustomed to all that spending.  And show their appreciation by continuing to vote for their stepdad.  Of course they can’t reduce defense spending to 0% because there are people out there who hate us and want to hurt us.  So when they can’t reduce defense spending anymore they simply borrow money to keep spending.  So they can keep spoiling their stepchildren.  Whose faces light up when they think about all the spending they are going to do.  With the added benefit that they will never have to repay that spending.  Or learn economic reality.  Until, that is, the government gets so overextended they have to implement a little austerity of their own.  Only it won’t last a week like it did for that spoiled child.  Instead it will be more like it was in Greece.  It will last years.  And include some rioting.

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Fundamental Truth

The Cost of Teachers’ Salaries, Health Care and Pensions are so Costly that there is Little Left to Spend on the Children

The Chicago public school teachers’ strike is over.  And the teachers got enough of what they wanted to go back to the classroom.  Or else they wouldn’t be going back to the classroom.  Which proves the benefit of belonging to a union.  In exchange for those union dues they get a lot of political muscle.  Which they greatly leverage by having children out of the classrooms.  Suffering.  For the kids are losing out on their education.  Worse, parents are stuck with their kids longer.  And must wait longer before they get their break from having their kids home all day long.

And speaking of the children one thing you didn’t hear in the list of demands was more supplies for the classroom.  Despite good teachers everywhere dipping into their own pockets to pay for classroom supplies.  Why?  Because the cost of teachers’ salaries, health care and pensions are so costly that there is little left to spend on the children.  And that pay and those benefits are pretty generous.  Especially considering with all the time off teachers get they’re technically working part-time jobs (30 hours a week or less).  With about two and half months off during the summer and the breaks during the school year teachers work about 9 months out of the year.  Which comes to about 1,548 hours a year.  Compared to the 1,560 hours (30 hours X 52 weeks) a year a part-time worker can work.  With far fewer benefits.

But yet it’s always about the children.  Higher pay and benefits for teachers benefit the children.  At least that’s what they tell us.  The ability to retire with nearly their full salary.  And free health care until Medicare kicks in.  All paid by the taxpayers.  That’s what’s important to maintain.  So the children get a quality education.  By having their teachers live a higher quality life and retirement than these children’s parents.  Who are paying for both their own quality of life and retirement.  As well as their kids’ teachers.

Big Cities set up Generous Public Sector Pay and Benefits based on an ever Expanding Population Growth Rate

Whenever a city is having trouble paying their bills they always threaten to lay off police officers and firefighters.  As if that is the only expense a city has.  They never talk about cutting back on their health care plans or their pension plans for all city workers.  Like everyone working in the private sector has gone through.  How many times have you been told by your employer that they cannot make a contribution to your 401(k) retirement plan this year because business was down?  It happens a lot.  And that’s the retirement plan most people have today.  It’s mostly what you put away for your retirement.  Pensions in the private sector are long gone.  Only those unionized sectors with enough political clout still enjoy generous pension plans.

Recessions reduce tax dollars flowing into city coffers.  But that’s only part of the problem.  The bigger problem they have is a flat population growth rate.  All these big cities set up generous public sector pay and benefits based on an ever expanding population growth rate.  But that growth rate flattened out in the Sixties and Seventies.  Thanks to widespread use of birth control and, to a lesser extent, abortion.  Women stopped having a lot of babies.  Which means there are a larger number of people retiring than there are entering the workforce to replace them.  So you have a higher growth rate of those consuming taxes.  While you have a lower growth rate of those paying taxes.  Which means cities will pay more out than they collect unless they raise tax rates.  Which they often try to do.  While threatening to lay off police officers and firefighters if voters don’t approve a new millage.

Things can be especially hard for some city workers because of that flat population growth rate.  Not to pick on the firefighters but look at a typical firehouse.  Say a firehouse with one engine/ladder truck and one rescue squad.  That’s about 6 firefighters.  If a city has 30 firehouses that’s 180 firefighters.  If they are 24 hours on duty and 24 hours off that brings it up to 360 firefighters.  If a firefighter academy graduates 100 new firefighters a year that’s about a third of all firefighters.  Now unless each firefighter only works 3 years there will always be more firefighters than open positions.  New building technologies and fire alarm/suppression systems have greatly reduced the number of building fires.  All of this on top of a flat population growth rate makes it very difficult for anyone wanting to be a firefighter these days.  Making matters worse a lot of the old cities are actually seeing population decreases.  Which cities respond to by closing firehouses.  Which reduces the number of firefighters.  Making it even harder for aspiring firefighters.

A Union Represents those who pay Union Dues—not Children, Taxpayers or Patients

Cities collect property taxes to pay for the services they provide.  As well as other taxes and fees.  From that pot of money they collect they divide it between the various departments they have.  Such as for education.  From that money educators have to pay all their bills.  From classroom supplies.  To teachers’ salaries, health care and pensions.  They can only spend this money once.  So if they give more to the teachers there is less for the classroom.  So when teachers strike and say it’s for the children it is probably not for the children.  For the children pay no union dues.  As unions don’t represent the children anymore than they represent the taxpayers.  They represent the teachers.  Because they pay the union dues.  And it is their job to get as much of that money spent on education to the teachers as possible.

There are some moves to unionize nurses and other health care workers.  In fact, that will happen under Obamacare as health care workers will all become government workers.  And eligible to join public sector unions.  Which is why all the unions were so adamantly for Obamacare even though many of them have gotten waivers to opt out.  Because it will swell the ranks of the public sector unions.  While greatly increasing the cost of health care.  And hurt the quality of our health care system.  For if we pay nurses like government bureaucrats we will shift more health care money to these new public sector workers while leaving less to spend on patients.

It is remarkable how selfless all public sector workers are.  For they never want more taxpayer money for their own selfish needs.  It’s always for the children.  The safety of our citizens.  And when Obamacare fully kicks in, the quality of health care our patients receive.  It’s just a coincidence that while protecting the children, the taxpayers and our patients that they benefit, too.  Funny how that works.  Which is what happens when you belong to a union and pay dues.  For a union represents those who pay union dues.  Not children, taxpayers or patients.

www.PITHOCRATES.com

Week in Review

It could be the end of an era.  And of happy childhood memories for future generations of children.  Who may not know the joy of a delicious Twinkies snack cake.  Otherwise known as childhood nirvana.  The best part of taking your lunch to school.  The best part of coming home from school.  Soon to be no more.  All gone.  Instead, sadness.  And weeping (see Hostess Sends Layoff Notices to All Workers by Jacqueline Palank posted 5/7/2012 on The Wall Street Journal).

Hostess Brands Inc. on Friday sent out letters notifying its more-than 18,000 workers that they could be laid off in the next two months.

The maker of Twinkies and Wonder Bread on Friday mailed out WARN Act notices to all of its employees, a Hostess spokeswoman confirmed to Bankruptcy Beat Monday. The federal WARN Act requires companies to give employees 60 days notice before closing a facility or ordering mass layoffs. However, sending the notices doesn’t mean a company is definitely going to lay off the recipients.

“The conditional WARN notices were sent to alert employees that a sale or wind down of the company is possible in the future. There are no immediate actions being taken,” spokeswoman Anita-Marie Laurie said Monday in an emailed statement. “Our goal is to emerge from bankruptcy as a growing company with a strong future—one that continues to provide good jobs with competitive wages and benefits.”

Hostess’s future remains uncertain, largely dependent upon the outcome of negotiations with its two big unions over the fate of their labor agreements as well as upon its search for new capital…

Together, the Teamsters and BCTGM represent 14,101 of Hostess’s 18,400 active workers.

Grownups.  Once again spoiling children’s happiness.  Do your homework.  Take your bath.  Make your bed.  Clean your room.  And now this.  The greed of grownups.  Threatening a childhood institution. 

Where’s the government bailout?  Like GM.  And Chrysler.  Oh, wait a minute.  These snack foods aren’t vegetables.  They’re delicious.  The very opposite of vegetables.  Which is why kids like them.  But, alas, they’re not ‘healthy’.  Like a stick of celery.  Yum.  And with this administration’s ‘war on fatties’ I guess we can say goodbye to these 18,400 workers.  Perhaps they can get some government retraining for a new career.  Something more healthy.  And wholesome.  Like picking vegetables.  That we can force feed to our kids.

And soon our children will go to bed.  Dreaming of a happier time.  When they looked with joy at the Twinkies Mother put in their lunch bag.  Others will dream of the stories they heard about those magical times that they never knew.  And children everywhere will try to fall asleep curled up in the fetal position.  In a pool of their own tears.  Because the mean grownups took away their Twinkies.

www.PITHOCRATES.com

Week in Review

The Obama administration has declared war on unhealthy foods.  Because we’re too fat.  And are in general poor health.  Because our mothers aren’t packing healthy enough lunches for their kids.  And McDonald’s and Taco Bell are killing us with unhealthy ground beef (see Seven Million Pounds of “Pink Slime” Beef Destined for National School Lunch Program by Sarah B. Weir posted 3/8/2012 on Shine from Yahoo).

McDonald’s and Taco Bell have banned it, but now the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is buying 7 million pounds of beef containing ammonium hydroxide-treated ground connective tissue and meat scraps and serving it up to America’s school kids…

According to TheDaily.com, the term “pink slime” was coined by microbiologist Gerald Zirnstein, formerly of the USDA Food Safety Inspection Service. He first saw it being mixed into burger meat when he was touring a Beef Products Inc (BPI) facility in 2002 after an outbreak of salmonella. “Scientists in D.C. were pressured to approve this stuff with minimal safety approval,” Zirnstein told The Daily.

“Pink slime,” which is officially called “Lean Beef Trimmings,” is banned for human consumption in the United Kingdom. It is commonly used in dog and chicken food…

Another issue is the ammonium hydroxide, a chemical that is used to kill pathogens such as E. coli. The FDA considers it safe for human consumption but a 2009 expose by the New York Times questioned its safety and efficacy.

Well if that ain’t the pot calling the kettle black.  It turns out that McDonald’s and Taco Bell hold themselves to a higher standard than our government.  For our government will feed dog food to our children in school.  McDonald’s and Taco Bell won’t.  Even though the government will.  But they heard public opinion.  And they’re going to give the public what they want.  Unlike our government.  Who takes a high moralizing tone when it comes to healthy eating.  But then tells our kids ‘dog food is good enough for you’.  At least, when they’re paying for it.

This is an important lesson here.  The private sector wants to please us and gives us a higher quality food.  The government wants to change us and make us take what they give us.  A lower quality food.  And their snarky criticism about our poor eating habits.  Now just imagine the level of quality we’ll get under Obamacare.

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Week in Review

The US is not the only country having problems with their public education.  The public education in the UK is getting so bad that parents are hardly seeing their kids anymore.  Their kids are either spending long days at school that include 2 or 3 school-provided meals.  Home work clubs.  And after school activities.  Or they’re simply going away to boarding school.  So their parents can work the extra hours to pay for a better education in a private school (see Private schools ‘acting as parents to middle-class children’ by Graeme Paton posted 3/6/2012 on The Telegraph).

Teachers are effectively acting as surrogate parents for thousands of pupils who often eat breakfast at school and remain in extra-curricular activities until the early evening, said Andy Waters, chairman of the Society of Heads of Independent Schools.

He said “more and more responsibility” was falling on schools during the economic downturn because of the sheer rise in parental workloads…

“Our often beleaguered parents need us to provide wrap-around care, breakfasts and evening meals, homework clubs and extra-curricular activities so that they can work the hours needed to earn the wherewithal to pay school fees,” he said…

The comments were made after figures showed an increase in the number of young children being enrolled in boarding schools as a result of the pressure on family life.

No doubt some in government like this trend.  The disintegration of the family.  For the sooner they can get these kids the sooner they can make them proper Social/Liberal/Democrat voters.  So these high-spending governments can keep spending.  Creating greater budget deficits.  And greater stresses on the family.  Until the family will be no more.  And we live in that socialist ‘paradise’ envisioned by George Orwell in Nineteen Eighty-Four.  Where the state is supreme.  And its citizens suffer abject despair.  Living a life of subsistence in a grey world.  While those in the government do quite well.  As they always do. 

For awhile, though, there was a time when the people lived well.  And the government served the people.  It was a good run.  Kicked off in England when they introduced us to representative government.  (Which reached back to Ancient Greece.)  Which makes this development in the UK particularly sad.  A great nation in decline.  As are all the social democracies of Europe with their crushing debt burdens.  All of them clearly on the wrong path.  Yet it is the path the current US administration has chosen.  To follow these nations like a lemming to that financial cliff.

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Fundamental Truth

Liberals want us to Treat Kids as Adults when it comes to Sex and Drugs

Liberals want to hand out condoms in school.  And they want to teach school kids how to use them.   They want to give them access to birth control.  And abortions.  Because kids are going to have sex.  No matter what we say.  So live and let live they say.  Let these kids have their fun.  And we’ll deal with the consequences later.  Such as an unwanted pregnancy.  A venereal disease.  Or rape.  Should a young girl get scared and change her mind.  Should a boy not understand that ‘no’ really means ‘no’.  Or believes consent is nonrefundable.  Especially after getting all riled up in school learning about sex.  In an academic setting.  Where it seems like just good clean fun.  Rather than learning it the old fashioned way.  From a parent.  Who tells you to wait until you’re a responsible adult.  Because it’s not just good clean fun.  It’s serious.  And can have some serious consequences.

Liberals would like to decriminalize drugs.  At least marijuana.  Because kids are going to experiment.  No matter what we say.  Marijuana is harmless, they say.  And they poo poo the naysayers who say it can be a gateway drug.  Marijuana won’t make people tire of it.  And look for a higher high.  Because heroin, coke and meth addictions just happen.  Spontaneously.  Just like alcohol addiction.  Some people have a predisposition for addiction.  And the drugs themselves are in no way to blame.  It’s a person’s DNA.  So live and let live they say.  Because drugs don’t addict people.  People do.  Those with a predisposition to addiction.  But it’s not their fault.  They’re just hardwired that way.  So we shouldn’t blame them.  Or drugs.  It just happens.

You see, people are adults.  Even kids.  That’s why we need to treat them as adults.  And if we do they’ll make adult decisions.  Partake in sex and drugs responsibly.  Like adults.  And there will be no consequences we can’t manage after the fact.  Like adults.

Liberals aren’t all that Concerned about Unwanted Pregnancies, Venereal Disease or Drug Addiction

So kids may be adults.  But their parents aren’t.  Liberals don’t want them making ‘adult’ decisions.  Such as what to eat, drink or smoke.  Like kids can about sex and drugs.  No.  Liberals want to use the power of government to make these decisions for adults.  Because they can’t be trusted to make the right decisions.

They want to tax fast food.  And soda pop.  Like they tax cigarettes.  To make them very expensive.  So they can make people choose correctly.  To choose what liberals want them to choose.  And not what these adults want.

You see, liberals aren’t all that concerned about unwanted pregnancies, venereal disease or drug addiction.  But they are very concerned about trans-fat and sugar.  They don’t want you enjoying the occasional McDonald’s meal.  A bag of chips.  A Mountain Dew.  Or a cigarette.  And if they catch you lighting up a cigarette after a meal in a McDonald’s, look out.  You will get a look of contempt and pure hate like you’ve never seen before.  Because you’ve dared to expose children to second-hand smoke.  For kids smoking pot first-hand is one thing.  But breathing second-hand smoke is just unhealthy.  Wrong.  And could scar them for life.  Unlike an unwanted pregnancy, a venereal disease or a drug addiction.

Liberals want Kids to Think Sex, Drugs and Vote Democrat

Why do they want to help kids have sex and do drugs?  Because they want kids to like them.  And they will if they make high school and college as much fun as possible.  They want these kids to think sex, drugs and vote Democrat.  Because liberal Democrats need the youth vote.  For they can’t win elections without it.  And they don’t care if these kids get scarred for life from an unwanted pregnancy, a venereal disease or a drug addiction.

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The sooner Kids don’t Believe in Santa Clause the sooner they get Clothes as Gifts

When we were young the world had unicorns.  A jolly fat man in a red suit gave out toys once a year.  The Tooth Fairy paid us for our baby teeth.  Thankfully after they had fallen out.  And an Easter Bunny left hardboiled eggs for children on Easter morning.  Because kids love hardboiled eggs.  As well as the occasional piece of chocolate.

But that was once upon a time.  In a far distant land.  Our childhood.  And as we left our childhood we learned some hard truths.  They weren’t real.  Except unicorns, of course.  But Santa Clause?  The Tooth Fairy?  And the Easter Bunny?  Just childhood myths.  Existing only in our childhood.  Until the day our parents killed them.  Just to save a buck. 

Raising kids is expensive.  And these things just added to the cost.  Especially in large families.  The sooner your kids didn’t believe in Santa Clause the sooner you could wrap their clothes as gifts.  And skip the expensive toys.  Because Daddy worked hard enough.  And the money from that second job could buy Mommy some nice things for the house.  Or a new car.  Besides, there are only so many hardboiled eggs Daddy can eat.

Progressivism replaced Rugged Individualism with the Feminization of Men

Speaking of myths, there is another one many of us remember from our childhood.  Daddy’s paycheck.  He may not have earned a lot.  But he kept almost everything he earned.  And he could raise a large family.  Kids grew up with lots of brothers and sisters.  But then something happened.  And Daddy couldn’t do that anymore.

Government began to grow.  You can probably blame this on a war.  But probably not the one you’re thinking about.  Unless you’re thinking about the American Civil War.  For that war killed a generation of fathers.  Leaving a lot of children fatherless.  To be raised by widows.  During the 1870s and 1880s.  Some who would go on to enter politics.  And served in the federal government.  Joining the Progressive Party.  Which began the ending of rugged individualism.  And the feminization of men.

This was the founding of the nanny state in America.  Boys who lost their fathers in the Civil War had no male role models in their lives.  They were surrounded by women.  And went from rugged individuals to refined dandies.  In the Northeast, at least.  Overly sensitive to other people’s feelings.  Overflowing with empathy.  And filled with a mothering instinct.  Learned from their own doting mothers. 

(These Civil War widows went through unspeakable hardships.  Losing husbands, fathers, brothers and sons.  The Civil War killed approximately 2% of the population.  Some 620,000 people.  That same percentage of today’s population would equal some 6,000,000 people.  They lost so much that they doted on their remaining children.  As any parent would.  This is not a condemnation of their parenting.  These widows should be held up in the highest regard.  It’s just a story of numbers.  Such a large generation of fatherless children was destined to change the body politic.)

The Term ‘Gross Pay’ has gone the way of the Unicorn

The fatherless children of the Civil War began the growth of the federal government.  Where the best and brightest would make everything fair.  And better.  Woodward Wilson greatly expanded the federal government.  Then it was FDR‘s turn.  And then LBJ.  Every time government grew so did the cost of government. 

Wilson gave us the first income tax since the Civil War.  And gave us the Federal Reserve System.  FDR gave us the New Deal (including Social Security).  LBJ gave us the Great Society (including Medicare and Medicaid).  All expensive programs.  All requiring heavy taxation.  And where did those taxes come from?  Daddy’s paycheck.

During this period of expanding government a new term entered the American lexicon.  ‘Net’.  As in ‘net pay’.  If you got a pay raise or a bonus, your wife didn’t ask how much your raise or bonus was.  She asked how much will you ‘net’.  After taxes.  That part of the check you actually got.  Because by this time the term ‘gross pay’ went the way of the unicorn.  (Yes, I know unicorns don’t exist.)  Gross pay is a myth.  It may have existed at one time.  But now the term is meaningless.  Because of all the taxes taken out of your paycheck.

High Taxation and Inflation make it difficult for Daddy to Raise a Large Family Today

The gap between ‘gross pay’ and ‘net pay’ is now very large.  It is a very big part of the reason that Daddy can’t raise a large family anymore.  Even with working nights for a little extra money.  Now it takes two full time wage earners to raise a large family.  And a booming child care industry.

But this growth of government took spending to such heights that taxing alone could not pay for it.  So they borrowed a lot of money.  And printed a lot.  In fact, they were printing so much that President Nixon took us off the ‘gold standard’.  Which was the only real restraint on printing money.  And once he did, they printed away.  Giving us permanent inflation.  And a faster growing CPI.  Which shrank our shrinking paychecks even further.

It’s the one-two punch of high taxation and inflation that makes it difficult for Daddy to raise a large family today.  On a single paycheck.  Thanks to an ever rising CPI.  And an ever shrinking net pay.  It’s gotten so bad that kids often get socks and underwear for Christmas.  From Santa Clause.  Even when kids still very much believe in him.

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Thinking and Deciding

Boy, do people like to demonize CEOs.  I mean, they really hate them.  These chief executive officers.  Overpaid and underworked.  And then there are all those stock options.  Making them bazillionaires.  By increasing the value of the company to shareholders.  Without a whit of concern for the little guy on the factory floor doing the work.  It just isn’t fair.  Sitting in their plush offices.  Flying in their private planes.  Staying in 5-star hotels.  Living in mansions while vacationing on some island paradise that they might in fact own.  Living champagne and caviar lives.  For doing what?

Actually, for doing quite a lot.  Mostly thinking.  And deciding.  Making decisions that will impact every employee of the company.  Now.  And years into the future.  Decisions that will determine if there is even a future.  For a corporation is like a ship.  It is large.  Complex.  And has momentum.  It can’t turn on a dime.  One decision today could steer that ship into open waters for clear sailing.  Or into an iceberg. 

The world is a changing place.  Nothing is static.  Including the economy.  And consumer spending.  For the consumer can be a fickle person.  We know what they’re buying today.  But no one knows what they’ll be buying tomorrow.  And that’s the problem CEOs face.  The things they’re making today will sell tomorrow.  Or later.  In fact, factories they build today will make things that will sell years later.  So the decision to build that factory had better been a good one.  Based on some good market research.  Objective analysis.  With no personal prejudices involved.  Such as laughing at new innovation.  Saying there’s no way it will replace the current industry standard.  Such as a phone company not getting in to the cellular business because everyone will always have a landline into their house.  In fact, they’ll have a few.  One for their phone.  One for their fax machine.  And one for their dial-up modem.  “And what could ever change that?” said the fat-cat phone executive while chomping on a cigar.  Shortly before the board of directors fired him.

Pay not Commensurate with Responsibilities

Moms are lot like CEOs.  They, too, have to look long-term.  And it starts with choosing a husband.  When they are ready to settle down and raise a family.  And they’re not going to waste their time with men who don’t want to settle down.  Like Beyoncé says, “if you liked it then you shoulda put a ring on it” (Single Ladies).  It’s no longer about dating for fun.  It’s now about finding a life partner.  And women will choose carefully.  They’re looking for someone with a good job.  Someone who is responsible.  Someone they can trust.  Someone who is healthy and will sire healthy children.  Someone who is strong and self-confident.  Who can be both a provider and protector.  Perhaps someone who goes to church.  So they can bring their children up with strong morals.  They’ll start choosing their dates based on these criteria.  Then love can enter the equation.  Which it does.  And it’s often a deeper and more long-lasting love.  Because attraction is based on all of these things.  Not just physical appearance.

This decision is important to be a good mom.  Because it will affect the next 20+ years of her life.  And it will affect the lives of her children.  So she has to weigh a lot of things in making this decision.  Like a CEO’s vetting process choosing his or her officers.  Because it’s for the long haul.  She’ll work 7 days a week.  And must be available at all times of the day.  Even if she is sick.  Like a CEO.  Only NOT with pay commensurate with her responsibilities.  Unlike a CEO.  And those responsibilities include raising her children.  And managing the household.  While her husband works.  Old school.  Like Paula Cole says.  “I will raise the children if you pay all the bills” (Where have all the Cowboys Gone).

A CEO has a chief financial officer (CFO) to manage the finances.  Mom just wear another hat.  And manages the finances, too.  The husband works.  But he gives his wife the paycheck.  For although his earnings pay the bills, she writes the checks.  And balances the budget.  Which often take a little finesse.  Because there isn’t a lot of money in the beginning.  And raising children and owning a house can be very expensive.  So managing cash-flow becomes a fast learned skill.  Because groceries, school supplies, clothes, utilities, insurance, mortgage and taxes don’t all come due in pay periods equal to the amount of the paycheck.  Which means she has to put a little aside each pay period (like a sinking fund in corporate America) to pay the big things that come due at various times throughout the year.  Or tap her line of credit (i.e., credit card), making cuts in the monthly budget to service the new debt and pay down the high-interest loan as quickly as possible.  Oh, and she cooks and cleans, too.

“Are you wearing Clean Underwear?”

Some may belittle the classical housework of being a mom.  The cooking and cleaning.  But when raising children they can be the most important of her responsibilities.  Of all the animal kingdom, human offspring are the most helpless.  And they’re helpless for the longest time.  It takes 18 years before they leave the nest.  And they’re growing that whole time.  Fueling that growth with three meals a day.  Two if they buy lunch at school during the school year.  This is something a CEO doesn’t have to worry about with employees.  Being accountable for everything they eat or drink.  And not getting them sick in the process for food preparation is a dangerous business.  Especially when working with raw chicken.  So she’s health inspector.  And dietician.  Managing their growth with the family doctor.  Making sure they eat their vegetables.  Drink their milk.  Because it all matters.  To make sure their bones are strong and healthy.  And to have strong immune systems.  For the old maxim is true.  We are what we eat.  Which is a challenge for a mother.  Because kids don’t like eating healthy.  Or being clean, for that matter.

Yes, it’s true.  Mothers want their kids to wear clean underwear. But it’s not just to save them the embarrassment should their child be in an accident where someone may see his or her dirty underwear.  (Well, maybe a little.)  It’s because poor hygiene kills.  And there are few things more unhygienic than pooping.  These are some nasty germs.  They cause outbreaks of cholera when they contaminate drinking water supplies.  And cause E. coli food poisoning when transferred to our food supply (that’s why there are signs in restaurant bathrooms saying that all employees must wash their hands so they don’t kill anyone with their food).  Nasty stuff.  So mothers are fanatical about bathing their kids.  Making sure they wash their hands after using the bathroom.  And that they wear clean underwear.  Also not to pick up food that fell on the floor (that 5-second rule is a dad rule).  Or put things in their mouths that they shouldn’t.  And they’ll keep all their cleaning and plumbing supplies locked up and out of reach of their children.  Their medicines, too.  Because kids like to put things in their mouths.  And will eat or drink anything they find that isn’t a vegetable on a plate.

As protective as she may be, her child will most probably get sick.  Some other kid may sneeze in her child’s face.  Or some other kid may not wash his or her hands after using the bathroom.  Or use a door knob when they have a cold.  Or pass the measles to her child.  Then mother becomes nurse.  Carefully administering medicines.  Emptying barf buckets.  Cleaning her child and the bedding when he or she misses the barf bucket.  All the while cooking and cleaning.  And managing the household. 

Leading by Example

And the responsibilities never end.  There’re good manners to teach.  Honesty.  Morality.  Good behavior.  Inside the home.  And when out of the home.  The mother instructs constantly.  And sets a good example.  Dad, too.  When the kids are around they’ll watch their language.  Because they don’t want their kids to have potty mouths.  And Mom and Dad will treat each other with respect.  Because they want their children to grow up as ladies and gentlemen.  For boys to treat girls with respect.  Not to hit them.  Or objectify them.  And no matter what Mom may have done on spring break when she was in school, she will not do anything now that will set a bad example for her daughter.  Or give ideas to her son.  Like getting girls drunk so they make bad decisions is okay.

This is something moms share with CEOs.  Leading by example.  Because perception in the corporate world can make or break a company.  That’s why they have zero-tolerance policies for bad behavior.  Because a reputation of bad behavior (racist, sexist, hate speech, etc.) will give a corporation bad press that can take years to overcome.  Especially if it’s a high-level manager.  Or an officer.  In fact, it’s worse at that level because of the vetting process.  Like choosing a husband, these people are chosen for the long haul.  And bad behavior in these people reflects poorly on the CEO.  Because he or she chose them.   If your CFO is arrested for tax fraud it shows that you are a poor judge of character.  And have a poor handle on your business operations.  And if you’re CFO is committing tax fraud under your nose, you probably are doing a poor job.  And no doubt the board of directors will be looking for a new CEO.  As one of the best ways to get over a scandal is by cleaning house.

Being a CEO is hard.  So is being a mom.  There’s a lot of on the job training.  Which is more of just figuring things out as you go along.  You learn from your mistakes.  All the while being overworked.  And underpaid.  Working horrible hours.  With little sleep.  On call 24/7.  With no breaks or vacations.  Yes, there may be family vacations.  But Mom will still be working on those vacations.  Same responsibilities.  Just a different setting.  At least the CEO has a staff to handle things while on vacation.  At best a mom gets a quiet bubble bath while the kids are at school.  Or a quiet moment on the toilet.  Safe behind a closed door.  For a few quiet minutes. 

Moms and CEOs have their differences.  But their responsibilities are the same.  A corporation’s success depends on the good decisions of its CEO.  Just as the success of a family depends on the good decisions of Mom.

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