Pension news roundup: June 6
- Highly unlikely to get a pension bailout:church plans
I feel a little sorry for them, but church plans generally never had enough people in the pool to justify having a separate pension plan. If employers really wanted to provide a lifelong income, they should've bought annuities for their employees....but under pension funding rules, pensions look cheaper than annuities. Anyway, some church groups do not have this problem, b/c they did do what I recommend above [with TIAA-CREF]
- Suing as a negotiation tactic: Baltimore public safety unions bringing city into federal court-they say the issue is that the city chronically underfunded the pension plan [I have no doubt this is true], and thus... they should be able to negotiate to keep their cushy benefits.
Um, right. Ok, if they really cared about the underfunding, they would've been suing 2 years into the underfunding, not after years and years. They're only suing this time is because in prior times that underfunding wasn't accompanied by benefits cuts [on paper... b/c the underfunding was really benefits cuts in fact]
- Marching as a negotiation tactic: Greek public unions are revolting! [I'd say].
1. They couldn't even get 0.1% of their membership to show up at a protest in the nation's capital. Pathetic.
2. Understand this, guys: you have no leverage. Germans who were already working til age 70 don't give a shit about 50-year-old hairdressers' "right" to an early retirement due to their years of exposure to black hair dye. - Speaking of unions freaking out b/c they're losing leverage: An article supposedly about general state pension problems, but is really about Chris Christie.
As a New Yorker, I never thought I'd say I was envious of NJ. I love that fat man.
- Pay-as-you-go public pensions in the UK-well, U.S. state pensions aren't at this point....yet.
- California pension delays asset return assumption recommendation - more on this another time. I'm waiting for the GASB to release its new valuation recs.
On the Anniversary of D-Day; June 6, 1944
After 66 intervening years it's easy to see how folks have lost touch with just how perilous, risky, and important the Normandy invasion was in hastening the end of WWII. Many of those who directly experienced the event are either dearly departed, on their way out, or living on the margins of society-so to speak. They are aged, weathered, and payed little attention by the larger world, save for a few fleeting moments here and there, much like the famous cliffs at Point-du-Hoc, the site of a pre-landing assault by Army Rangers, who despite the challenging terrain and withering German fire, took and held this important strategic point until relieved days later, though they suffered horrendous casualties doing so. Today, that Point, immortalized by Reagan in his famous speech on another Anniversary, is being shored up in the hopes it may last for another 50 years.
Do you think you could climb it, with all your gear, under withering fire from above? And after doing so, engage the enemy? It's an amazing feat, to be sure, but just one of many that took place, By the grace of God, to quicken the end of the fascist scourge in Europe. It would difficult, if not near impossible to rank any single facet of the operation as being more important, or more pivotal than others. It was the synergy of all the acts that led to the astounding success of the largest amphibous assault in History.
But there are plenty that deserve honorable mention indeed. The US paratroops, going in hours before the invasion began, overcoming disorganization and disaster to play a vital role in disrupting the ability for the enemy to freely travel in the rear behind the beaches to mount counter-attacks against the landing forces. The British paratroops seizing the Pegasus bridge, and holding it in the face of ferocious assaults in order to deny passage to the beaches in their sectors. The sailors and airmen who pounded the beach mercilessly or flew CAP overhead to ensure that the elements of the Luftwaffe that remained couldn't pose any real danger to the vulnerable landing forces. And of course, the soldiers coming ashore from small boats themselves in the face of terrible fire from reinforced bunkers. I've visited Normandy several times and have walked the beaches and examined the ruins. The terrain is very difficult, with high bluffs and escarpments rising right off of the narrow beaches. It would have been difficult going ashore without anyone shooting at the soldiers!
By the grace of God, the casualties were far less than expected, though still heavy; around 10, 000, of which 2500 were KIA. It could have been much worse. But, as they have over the years, American soldiers rose to the challenge. It is an oft used cliche, but truly that day uncommon valor was a common virtue. And many who went there never left; those that gave the full measure are buried at the American Cemetary near Omaha beach.
These days, when revisionists want to diminish the rich history of our nation and the role we've played over the years, it's important not to allow this great event to fade from memory; to be replaced with post civil rights act race baiters or hippies that picketed against the Vietnam war. We need to ensure that these real heroes are not replaced instead by glorified professional malcontents whose heroism consisted of what has commonly become known as speaking trooooooooof! to pow-ah. And we also need to be on the lookout for those who in their transnational zeal would award victory in WWII mainly to the Soviets. It took the efforts of many to defeat the Nazis, the synergy I mentioned, and the plain facts are that the Soviets, who suffered greatly at the hands of the Germans, would have suffered infinitely more had they not recieved materials, weapons, and food from the US and benefitted greatly from ULTRA decriptions from Britain. While the war would have been infinately harder had the Soviets been removed from the allied coalition, it would have still been within our grasp; the same could not be said for the Soviets without the help of the allied nations. Perhaps it would have been better anyway, for both the post-war world order as well as today. I mean, the far-left NO NUKES! crowd wouldn't be able to impute racist disregard in the use of atomic weapons as they clearly would have been used in Europe too.
But now I'm going down a revisionist road that I'd rather not travel...
Anyway, if you're a religious person, thank God for the success of the Normandy landings 66 years ago today. And if you're not? Well you can still take a moment to be grateful for the success of the day, and how it hastened the end of the second world war. And if you ever get the chance to travel there, I reccomend visiting the beaches themselves, the museaums, and of course, paying your respects at the Cemetary.
Russ at Ace's site has an excellent reprint of his take on D-Day last year.
Let me know, kind reader, any of your thoughts or experiences regarding this subject.
I’m at the NIH in Bethesda
Yesterday, Aidan and I arrived here at the Children's Inn at the NIH, where we met up with old friends Meredith Morgan and her son Parker. Parker arrived a week ago to be in the same study as Aidan, on transcranial electromagnetic stimulation, where a couple of pinpointed regions of the brain are stimulated with very low voltage. The treatment has been beneficial to some degree for some patients, and the side-effects are negligible, so both our families have agreed to put our Childhood Onset Schizophrenia kids into the study.
I'm going to be here until the 25th, and I'm hoping to meet up with Treach and some of the other Daily Caller people. Aidan's godfather, Bob Schwoch, may come visit, as well. Daily visiting hours begin at 4:30, so I'm probably going to have to watch The B-Cast on replay. I'll be posting, too, but I can't say yet whether it's going to be with any frequency, since I don't have a laptop, and I'll be relying on the shared computers here. I'll also be over there when Aidan undergoes his battery of brain scans and other testing.
Anyway, if you are in DC, or going to be in DC or the environs, and would like to meet up, contact me via email and we'll see what we can do.
UPDATE: Pretty clear that I'm going to have to use Safari, since whatever they've done with Firefox makes it incompatible with posting.
Slick Baracky?
Many of the O!ministration's motivations for their more puzzling and cynical acts have been encapsulated in the realpolitick motto of Obama's Consigliere Enforcer Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, " Never let a serious crisis go to waste". In the wake of the revelation that Obama knew from the beginning of the severity of the well failure:
The White House appears resigned to living with the BP oil spill for some time to come. But that’s not surprising—since President Obama and his team were briefed from the outset that the blowout at the Deepwater Horizons rig was epic in scope—and would not be fixable for a long, long time.
Carol Browner, director of the White House Office of Energy and Climate Change Policy, told Obama in late April that the blowout would likely lead to an unprecedented environmental disaster, a senior White House aide told The Daily Beast. Browner warned that capping a well at such depths had never been done before, and that they ought to expect an oil spill that would continue until a relief well was drilled in August, the aide said.
It kind of put's AllahP's snark into a little better, ahem, context :
This makes all those golf outings, sports-team photo ops, and celebrity jams with Paul McCartney over the past six weeks feel extra special, doesn’t it?
And also makes the more suspicious, and perhaps cynical, among us to wonder just what benefit O! & Co. are planning on getting out of this. Could it be a simple distraction from all of the economic good news that's just flowing our way every single day? Darleen at Protein Wisdom has her own ideas; she believes it's just a function of, "Bestest, most competent, most transparent Presidency, EVAH"!
Me, I'm just wondering if it's not a back door, or a third way, to achieve the result that the administration desired to achieve, in regards to government funded alternative energy research and subsidizing, in their economy shattering cap-n-trade bill; legislation that has temporarily stalled due to the combination of an especially severe winter as well as the revelations of the connivance inherent in the whole AGW "movement". It's no secret that Obama and the rest of the far left oppose offshore drilling of any kind; having their own pet ideas about just who should be the winners and losers in alternative energy technology-regardless of the failure of similar programs in Spain.
During the last election he openly said that high gas prices weren't the problem, just the rapid rate of increase, and that he'd prefer to see high gas prices to provide the motivation for the change that his ideological fellow travelers desired. But, he was forced to adopt the more pragmatic posture of seemingly allowing offshore drilling in order to increase domestic supply when large percentage of the public began to agree with an outlook captured by the slogan, "Drill baby, Drill!"
Now, maybe, they have the perfect crisis on their hands to deal with both issues. The magnitude of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, and the threat it poses to the industries and shorelines of the varioius states in the region has already dampened the public ardor for offshore drilling in just a short time. And, with the bad news of the disaster's fallout to potentially continue for the next two months, that may just enable the Obamites to not only ban all new offshore drilling, but perhaps ultimately lead to a moratorium on the process-at least here in the US. When considering what effect that would have it's important to realize that almost 1/3 of our domestic oil supply comes from offshore sources. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to imagine what would happen to gas prices? Unless, you know, maybe the whole double-dip recession, with it's concomitant deflationary pressures, acts to keep the price of oil low for a while anyway, and is what they're counting on.
Still, it may be a way to achieve the offshore drilling plan and award G.E. lucrative government contracts for windmills at the same time; withiout needing to pass cap-n-trade. How convenient, and demonstrative of Rahm's maxim.
Make no mistake, I'm not in tinfoil hat mode here, and am in no way, shape, or form suggesting that the Administration arranged for the oil rig to fail; that would be a ridiculous assertion prima facia. But, what I am saying is now that it's occurred I suspect that they are as interested in benefitting politically from it as they are with the phsical harm it will do; thet they're not going to let this perfectly good crisis go to waste. Moe lane is thinking similar thoughts, but sees a slightly different motivation; check it out at his site.
(Cartoons courtesy of Investors.com)
Paul McCartney – Classless Has been [Updated]
Connie Hair at Human Events Com reports:
Sir Paul McCartney's cheap shot aimed at former President George W. Bush at a White House event on Wednesday has prompted House Minority Leader John Boehner to demand an apology from the Beatle.
Boehner is quoted as saying,
“Like millions of other Americans, I have always had a good impression of Paul McCartney and thought of him as a classy guy, but I was surprised and disappointed by the lack of grace and respect he displayed at the White House,” Boehner told HUMAN EVENTS. “I hope he'll apologize to the American people for his conduct which demeaned him, the White House and President Obama.”
He is many things, this Paul McCartney... but "classy" is not one of them... maybe Boehner meant Sir Paul is as classy as, say, an Excalibur Kit Car.
McCartney is a has been. A philanderer. A poorly-educated sod. You can take the man out of Liverpool and all that. Wings? Really? Yuck.
UPDATE x1
Stupid Pop Stars
McCartney/Obama
mods inspired by Dan
You'd think that people would have had enough of stupid pop stars.
But I look around me and see the things they sew.
Some people wanna fill the world with stupid pop stars.
And what's wrong with that?
O'd like to know, 'cause here Paul goes again
You love me
You love me
You love me
You love me
I can't explain the feeling's plain to me, my love for me (You love me)
Ah, you give me more, you give it all to me, you must agree, (You love me)
And O's down with that
And you should know, 'cause here I go again
You love me
You love me
Bright doesn't come in a minute,
Sometimes it's just a dim bulb
Don't even know that I stepped in it
Aren't I lovely, aren't I silly, I'm not silly at'all.
How can I tell you about my loved one?
How can I tell you about my loved one?
How can I tell you about my loved one? (I love me)
How can I tell you about my loved one? (you love me)
I love me
I love me
I love me
You love me
They love me
She loves me
He loves me
I love me
You must agree that people love their stupid pop stars.
Just look around you and you'll see that it is so. Oh, no
Some people wanna fill the world with stupid pop stars.
And O's down with that
Jerry Wilson’s 5 Hottest Conservative New Media Women
His eligibility requirements are a bit more restrictive, but perhaps everyone should undertake a similar assignment.
Meanwhile, FCC looks for ways to subsidize preterited old media water carriers for increasingly discredited politics. When the Obama iteration fails, the true believers will of course say what they always say . . . that the attempt was half-hearted.
The Color Stupid
Couldn't they at least rename a toll plaza after her?
Oprah’s longtime partner, Stedman Graham, says Chicago doesn’t “appreciate” the daytime queen of talk and that she hasn’t gotten her “just due.”
“I think they take her for granted a lot,” Graham said in an interview this week on Fox Chicago News as he discussed Oprah ending her show.
“I really don't think they appreciate her,” Graham said. “I don’t think they understand the value of who she is as a human being and what she’s done.”
“A prophet has no honor in its own town,” Graham said.
Graham pointed to Oprah’s international reach, the attention she brings to Chicago, as well as the school in South Africa she has established.
“I’m just saying from an insider’s point of view, that, you know, I don’t think she gets the just due based on who she really is and what she’s done for Chicagoland area.”
I don't recall Oprah ever taking on the corruptocrats of Chicago, but YMMV.
Is Obama “jobbing” us about the jobs picture?
Teh Lightworker cometh!
I remember when the O!ministration promised to "pivot" and focus laser-like on jobs and the economy. But these days, I'm starting to wish that the lightworker could at least focus laser like on reality! In suburban Maryland, just outside DC, Obama chose to use a local small business for his latest public palaverings; hailing the BLS labor report, a statistical decrease in the unemployment rate, and-of course- remind us that "happy days are here again indeed".
President Barack Obama says the addition of 431,000 new jobs in May shows "the economy is getting stronger by the day."
The president says that even though the census jobs are only temporary, private sector hiring is growing, too.
Now I don't want to spoil the Presidents fun or derail his latest attempt at talking up the economy; or tell us how the stimulus saved us-again. Nor do I take any satisfaction in the BLS data falling far short of the mark that many had etimated it at, between 600 to 700k. I truly wish employment were growing, especially in the private sector, but that's just not the case.
As Jonah Goldberg points out at The Corner, and links to a more complete reference, not only did the number of private sector jobs increase pitifully compared to a month ago, but that overall participation in the workforce declined by a couple of ticks, to 65%, and that the decrease in the unemployment numbers was due to people leaving the labor force !
In fact, Tyler Durden at Zerohedge arrives at substantially the same figure, with respect to unemployment, of people being subtracted from the unemployment number by sifting through the BLS data and doing some simple arithmatic.
What's problematic for the White house is that prominent avowed Keynesian economists are starting to say that the economy is going south as well, such as former CLinton Labor Secretary Robert Reich; a gentleman I have had the pleasure of meeting a few times during my days in DC, and who generally speaks his mind whether part of the approved narrative or not. And I'm certain, that his latest observations are definitely not! part of the script:
We’re falling into a double-dip recession.
The Labor Department reports this morning that the private sector added a measly 41,000 net new jobs in May. (The vast bulk of new jobs in May were temporary government Census workers.) But at least 100,000 new jobs are needed every month just to keep up with population growth.
In other words, the labor market continues to deteriorate.
The average length of unemployment continues to rise – now up to 34.4 weeks (up from 33 weeks in April). That’s another record.
More Americans are too discouraged to look for a job than last year at this time (1.1 million in May, an increase of 291,000 from a year earlier.)
Of the small number of jobs created by the private sector in May, many came from temporary help services.
Admittedly, he seems to be under the impression that the answer is...wait for it...More Stimulus! But while I disagree with that particular solution, as it makes it harder to reduce federal spending whith all of these stimulo-bucks being tossed about in the hopes that something will stick, I find it interesting that while Obama insists on the rose-colored, unicorn riding, interpretation, Reich is bold enough to speak the inconvenient truths. Would that mean he's speaking TROOOOOOOOOOOF! to POW-AH!1!1!!eleventy?
And maybe as important is the question, when did Bob Reich become such a, well, you know...RAAAAAAAAACIST!
[Update] Jeff at Protein Wisdom has a post on the subject with a link to a Bloomberg news piece that scrutinizes the numbers also.
Image courtesy of Jabberinwookie
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