April « 2010 « POWIP

26Apr/106

St. Cloud Muslim: Hospital Discriminated Against My Wife

Saying her headscarf was (potentially) dirty.

But those service dogs, on the other hand . . .

I do side with this Muslim, though.

What charming people.

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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26Apr/100

Brainstorming Brainfarts Provoked Shitstorm

Britain’s Foreign Office issued a hasty apology Sunday to Pope Benedict XVI after publication of an internal memo in which officials joked he could open an abortion clinic, launch a range of condoms or sing a duet with Queen Elizabeth II during a four-day visit in September.

The document, sections of which were published in the Sunday Telegraph newspaper, also proposed the pope could bless a gay marriage, and acknowledge the clerical sex abuse scandal by establishing a hot line for abused children, or honoring abuse whistleblowers.

Junior officials wrote the memo following a brainstorming session intended to discuss ideas for the visit, the first to Britain by the head of the Roman Catholic Church since Pope John Paul II in 1982.

The chief brainstormer has been transferred to other duties.

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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26Apr/101

GM Means Governmental Malfeasance

Another watchdog about to be summarily dismissed:

Previously unreleased documents supplied to The Washington Times reveal that GM specifically used funds it received from the Troubled Asset Relief Program to pay off the government loan. According to Neil Barofsky, the special inspector general for TARP, $4.7 billion of $6.7 billion - 70 percent - of what GM paid back came from TARP money the company received. "The one thing a lot of people overlook with this is where they got the money to pay the loan," Mr. Barofsky told Fox News' Neil Cavuto on Wednesday. "It isn't from earnings." The numbers are based on a quarterly report Mr. Barofsky's office provided to Congress last week.

Jared Bernstein, chief economist and economic policy adviser to Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., disputes the special inspector general's findings. "That is not correct, I don't think that is correct," Mr. Bernstein told The Washington Times. "[General Motors] repaid with funds from their own cash accounts, from their own earnings." The cash used by GM to pay back the loan "is the property of General Motors, there is no question about that," he insisted. Some of the money used to pay off the loans may have originated from TARP funds, but "it is really hard to know," he equivocated, because the funds are mixed together and "it is like trying to put an omelet back together again."

The Treasury Department's press office also disagreed with Mr. Barofsky's characterization that GM paid off one credit line with another credit line. The watchdog, however, won't budge. When asked how to tell whether the $4.7 billion used to pay off the government loan came from TARP funds and not some other source, a spokesman for the Special Inspector General's Office explained: "We have a letter from General Motors requesting that they take the money out of escrow and pay the other debt down. And the money in the escrow was clearly TARP funding." That letter has been released by the Special Inspector General's Office.

The only thing with which this administration is parsimonious is the truth.

Related: One-Note Walsh can't tell the difference between enforcement and reform when it comes to immigration. She's an embarrassment, but I guess she's not guilty of discrimination. Maybe she should focus on these outrageous calumnies. She also cites the financial reform bill. NPR couldn't find a single expert who said it would do what ObamaCo say it will. Here's Fausta on the subject, and Michelle Malkin, with some good links.

Also related: Stephen Hawking not down with diversity, immigration "reform". Meh, he's a white guy, anyway:

Xenophobe Jay Tea appears to side with Hawking.

According to the Obama administration, there are certain things that one should not have to provide documentation to prove. Among them:

* That you are in the United States legally
* That you are old enough to obtain birth control or an abortion without parental consent (or even knowledge)
* That you are the voter registered to vote

On the other hand, there are certain things where you absolutely should provide documentation to prove. Among these:

* That you possess health insurance
* That you are old enough to buy alcohol or tobacco
* That you have honestly reported every bit of income (unless, of course, you're part of the Obama administration)

Here's an elegant solution: when pressed for documentation, simply claim to be an illegal alien.

It's a bit of a sad commentary when it's actually more advantageous to be an illegal alien than an American citizen, but those circumstances are becoming more and more common...

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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26Apr/100

New Black Panthers: Nightstick-Wielding Thug Punished Enough

An honest terror. Witch hunters don't know how bad he's got it:

In its first public comments about a controversial voter-intimidation case, the New Black Panther Party said it did not break any laws and praised a decision by Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr.'s Justice Department to dismiss a civil complaint in the matter.

A written statement by the party, issued Friday during a hearing of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, conceded that one member — Minister King Samir Shabazz — should not have brought a nightstick to a Philadelphia polling place on Election Day in November 2008, but described it as "an honest error."

"What these Republican witch hunters repeatedly fail to mention is that the individual member involved in the nightstick incident was in fact legally penalized, and prohibited by law by Eric Holders Justice Department from polling places through 2012," said the statement from Minister Hashim Nzinga, chief of staff to party leader Malik Zulu Shabazz.

"What these complainers against Attorney General Eric Holder also consistently fail to mention is that this member, who we believe made an honest error but still deviated from organizational policy on that day, was actually suspended from the New Black Panther Party until January 2010 as a result of this mishap," it said. "The New Black Panther Party made it clear then and now we dont support voter intimidation."

Well, that . . . that . . . that is severe. Related: Dog bites dog.

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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26Apr/100

The Sorry Truth About the NHS [UPDATED]

I doubt there will be anything more important to read today than this piece by an NHS doctor about the structural inadequacies of the NHS (or what I like to think of as inevitable unacknowledged consequences) and the UK government's attempt to hide its real costs.

We all know that the elephant in the room at this general election is the figure 167 – the number of billions of public debt. Ignore the word billion, it clouds the issue. Note that political parties are bandying the figures 6 and 12 as their ostensible debt reduction plan. But if you are super-obese at 167kg shifting 10kg will make no difference to your health prospects. Radical measures are essential, despite protestations that healthcare will be sacrosanct. We have an ageing population, so we must not reduce services provided by people who work "face to patient".

But we have had 13 years of Labour policy designed to get more people on the public payroll and converted into Labour-voting slaves who have no interest in enhanced efficiency. We have assimilated a quarter of a million extras, literally supernumeraries, within the voluminous tent of the NHS.

Just outside the tent is the sand into which billions of taxpayers' money soaks without trace. Identification of these individuals is easy; look at the hospital telephone directory, and note how often the following descriptions occur: coordinator, commissioner, facilitator, compliance, liaison, outreach, project, regulator, controller. All of these staff require computers, salaries, paid holidays and final-year pensions. Look too at the Personnel, i.e. "Human Resources" Department. A five- page pro forma to apply for a parking permit? A senior female consultant asked by a 22-year-old clerk to produce her passport in order to identify herself before starting work at a new hospital? This is the reality of modern hospital bureaucracy.

Ask any experienced consultant whether the employees described above expedite or delay patient care.

PLEASE DO NOT FEED THE BOFFINS.

UPDATE: NHS should provide injection facilities for heroin addicts.

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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25Apr/104

Muhammed is a Goat Blower

Cartoonist Molly Norris pulls a "~~Cartoon Network~~Comedy Central" here.

I am NOT involved in "Everybody Draw Mohammd Day!"
I made a cartoon that went viral and I am not going with it.
Many other folks have used my cartoon to start sites, etc.
Please go to them as I am a private person who draws stuff:

Likewise, Facebook guy paints himself yellow.

With many people all standing up for their right to depict Mohammed if they so chose, we would make an important point about how we were not going to cower before a handful of Muslim zealots.

I am aghast that so many people are posting deeply offensive pictures of the Prophet. Y'all go ahead if that's your bag, but count me out.

I am sure they do believe in Free Speech (or whatever) - but not to the tune of insulting the sensibilities of The Others. I mean, we're talking careers on the line here and stuff.

Enoch_Root

AKA. Bobby Donn Brubaker (the most popular man in Mesa, AZ), the Umbrella of Terror, Jack Ketch.

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25Apr/100

Wet Dreams of My Father

Aquila Infidelis

Lady Liberty with balls.

Enoch_Root

AKA. Bobby Donn Brubaker (the most popular man in Mesa, AZ), the Umbrella of Terror, Jack Ketch.

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25Apr/100

Time to Outsource Our Federal Porn Watching

The revelations regarding the SEC employees who surfed porn while the economy was collapsing has risen again, after some months, into the public eye. And now it turns out that the National Science Foundation is all tied up in internal investigations into the many employees who did the same, albeit in some cases for humanitarian reasons:

For instance, one senior executive spent at least 331 days looking at pornography on his government computer and chatting online with nude or partially clad women without being detected, the records show.

When finally caught, the NSF official retired. He even offered, among other explanations, a humanitarian defense, suggesting that he frequented the porn sites to provide a living to the poor overseas women. Investigators put the cost to taxpayers of the senior official's porn surfing at between $13,800 and about $58,000.

"He explained that these young women are from poor countries and need to make money to help their parents and this site helps them do that," investigators wrote in a memo.

Certainly it would be cheaper to outsource the viewing of pornography, and to let these well-paid and highly-trained public servants get on with . . . the other pressing tasks at hand.

Mostly unrelated: I can't wait for the Lifetime movie.

From AnthropoCon, an Earth Day retrospective, 40 Years of Imminent Doom Goofball: The World (which we know through the human mind) Would Be Better Off Without Us. I agree with Lance that Mardi Gras and St. Pat's are likely candidates, but I never said that Neanderthals were the same thing as Troglodytes; however, that some Neanderthals were Troglodytes is inarguable.

Heavy on West Coast and American breweries, but GQ's 50 beers bucket list is worth perusing, and could even be a manageable ambition. Via William Teach

ATF hard-on for Airsoft

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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24Apr/101

Public pension lexicon: Spiking

I'm starting off my pension lexicon with the concept of spiking.

As most public pensions have a benefit formula based on one's wages over the last few years of work, there's an incentive to boost that final pay in many ways so as to maximize one's pension benefit. Wages are usually set in union contracts, but there are ways.... many time unused vacation days, overtime, and other special considerations are included in the average final wage calculation.

Why is this a problem?

It obviously makes pensions more expensive, but also you won't know about this expense earlier on. When actuaries value pensions, they need to put in assumptions like how the salary will increase over time, so as to make an estimate of the ultimate cost of the pension. [We will visit other assumptions later.]

If the assumption does not include the spiking that happens in many plans, the pension will look a whole lot cheaper than it actually is. The worst situation are plans where the benefits are based off of final salary, as opposed to an average over a certain number of years.

In New York, AG Cuomo [likely gubernatorial candidate] opened an investigation into various areas with higher-than-average pension costs.

Let's look at the story of one area Cuomo is investigating:

By working more than 1,600 overtime hours in his last year on the job, a Rochester firefighter retired in late 2007 with an annual pension of $103,952 — despite a base salary of $60,121.
....
Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is seeking payroll and other data from the city and area fire districts, among 64 jurisdictions statewide, looking for cases of "pension padding" — where employee wages have been markedly inflated just before retirement. Cuomo, in town earlier this month, blasted the practice as "defrauding taxpayers," and said he hopes his investigation will make the case for reform.

Here's the problem with Cuomo's investigation: spiking is legal.

As mentioned in a sidebar on that article, there are anti-spiking measures in NY to prevent the final pay from being boosted too much....but still it can be done if one plans for the final three to five years of employment [as opposed to just the final year].

So, AG: I'm not hearing about any illegality here. I love how you're following in your predecessor's footsteps by going after legal, but unpopular, actions.

Now, the unions do not have the power that once they have, so it might not be in their interest to ask why the AG is investigating something where there is no reason to believe that anything illegal was done [I'm sure he's hoping to find people who padded with overtime that didn't actually do it, but I'm going to guess the majority of the spiking is legit.]

Spiking looks sleazy to the electorate, but unions and pols both knew the various exploits of th benefit design when they created it. The benefits, as designed, were inherently rich.

I'm still trying to figure out what Cuomo is trying to do: is it that he wants to argue that the DB pensions are still ok for public employees, but dagnabbit, people are being all tricksy? This is a dangerous route if all the spiking is legit.

Is Cuomo trying to use this exposure of sleazy-looking behavior as a negotiating tool against the unions when it comes to future budget cuts? Hmmmm.

Is Cuomo trying to be a faux populist? "Hey, look guys, I'm on the right side in this class war of govt class v. taxpayer class"

If I were a member of the unions, I would be watching my back.

Remember my previous post where I talked about retiree leverage:

-The top five city retiree pensions are, on average, 45 percent higher than the employees' base salaries. While the city pays pension costs for those workers, none lives in the city.

Don't live in the city, you say? Can't tax them more to capture some of that largesse back? They can't strike and have any effect? Wow, that gives one ideas....

Meep

Meep is a member of the Irish Catholic mafia, having a suspiciously high number of green-eyed, red-haired friends. While she doesn’t have red hair herself [except when she goes into the sun (rare for any vampire)], she does have green eyes. She’s a raving Papist and is a life actuary on the side [i.e., she counts dead people]. An amateur pain-in-the-ass [willing to go pro!], she likes covering retirement, mortality, math, and education issues.

Tagged as: public pensions 1 Comment

24Apr/105

Resident Evil

There once was a man (who I'll call Frank) whose office was adjacent to mine. About ten years ago or so. We worked for different companies, but we had occasion to speak to one another in the hallway, in the parking lot, at the picnic table. Chit-chat. He was an older man - I would judge to be in his late-fifties/early-sixties at the time. Thinning, greasy hair. Leather-esque smoker's skin. Tanned hide stretched over a small, delicate frame. Dentures, bridges, gold dental work. Frothy at the corners of his mouth. Pre-arthritic, bulbous knuckles and cocaine-length fingernails. Brown. I guess the overall impression was that of the area behind the old radiator that has gone decades without being tended to. Or the place behind the framed family pictures stacked like record albums on your great aunt's dresser in a spare bedroom used instead as a spare closet. Or an old leather baseball mitt at the bottom of a box of junk in the garage rafters. Aside from his overall Gollum-like physical aspect, he also emitted a seriously uncomfortable vibe. A certain dis-ease was always present and tangible when Frank was around. I noticed it straight-away and I felt awful for picking up on it. I felt shallow and judgmental. So I made an extra effort to be kind. I made a point not to make a point to avoid him. I made a point to ignore his beady, jaundiced eyes, his snarled grin (the kind you might see if you happen to put an open bottle of nail polish under the nose of a small poodle), his less-than-elegant cadence, his inappropriate inflections, the intermittent dry cough and emphysemic rattle which ran a couple leagues beneath his nasally voice. I made a point to go the extra mile and to befriend him. Truth be told, as repulsive as he was to every fiber of my being, I needed only to imagine being him to become sympathetic of him. I figured God had put Frank in my life for a reason. Though I cold not see what that might be, I decided if anyone could look past Frank's curiosities, I should be that person.

It was a mistake. There was no good in Frank. No matter what came forth from his mouth... no matter how many times he insinuated the theme of the Lord as "his personal Savior" into our conversations... no matter how many Bible passages he recited in order, I suppose, to suggest himself above reproach and questionable intent ... there was no good in Frank.

The details of how I came to trust my instinct are unimportant here. Suffice to say I came to believe that Frank was not the only one home in the body belonging to Frank. I don't even know if I ever met Frank. I mean the real Frank. His body was still called Frank...

I was naive an should had trusted my instinct. Frank was a snake. Or at least whatever possessed him was.

Maybe that was the lesson I was supposed to learn. There is actual evil at work in this world. I mean demon spirits. I speak of the Fallen Ones. Dark entities of a very high order that do find satisfaction in f*cking with God's Favored Creatures.

The reason this is on my mind so many years later is I have someone in my extended circle of "friends and family" that I have decided is likewise possessed.

I do believe in Dark Entities - demons. I do believe that for various reasons people choose to engage them, entertain them, and permit them to take up residence with them. I do believe that there are humans who give themselves over to the Darkness. I do believe I have met perhaps 3 in my entire lifetime.

Anyone but me encounter any of this sort of shit? I mean creepers of a magnitude that defies comparison? CREEPY which blows way beyond psychological damage - coming instead from somewhere entirely else?

Two good books on the subject of possession:

Interview With an Exorcist: An Insider's Look at the Devil, Demonic Possession, and the Path to Deliverance

Hostage to the Devil: The Possession and Exorcism of Five Contemporary Americans