Which is the (civil) servant

There are many things that can be said about the excessive salary and benefit deals politicians gave municipal employees as a reward for their support but the most egregious is requirement that governs the funding of their pension funds.
Past administrations have given in to the demand that the return on investment is at a guaranteed rate. Whether that guaranteed rate is set at the proper level is one issue another is what happens if there were to be an excess. We, the taxpayers, are on the hook for hundreds of millions (just on LI) to make up for the recent investment shortfall. Someday, we all devotedly hope, these pension fund investments are going to grow. When they grow, they will generate more money because taxpayers funded the current shortfall. So these pension funds benefit from funding a one year shortfall and get the compounded benefit of that shortfall. Does anyone think that will mean that the funds give money back to the state? Of course not. What will happen is that the benefits distributed to the pensioners will increase beyond there already generous levels. All funded by the taxpayer.

Hawking

Steven Hawking is hawking a new book and the story is that there is no God. I’m not a big God guy but I don’t follow Hawking (perhaps not surprisingly). He says "Because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing,"
Now I struggled mightily to get through College Physics but gravity is the force that attracts two objects together (At least it was a long time ago but don’t think that’s changed). If that is his argument, it seems weak to me. If there is nothing (and you don’t have two things that can attract each other), there is no gravity. If there is no gravity, you can’t pin this whole thing on gravity. As Newton would say, “Quod erat demonstrandum.”
Whatever is capable of starting something from nothing is God – whether it was the guy with the long white hair who can do anything or a quantum reaction between two bits of nothing which aren’t there (huh?)

By their friends ye shall know them

Louis Farrakhan supports building the NYC mosque.

Holi-daze

Glenn Beck has a rally. Sharpton is furious. The rally is on the 47th anniversary of the date and in the same place as MLK gave his “I have a dream” speech. Now certainly the MLK speech is justifiably memorable. But who remembered the date? Three weeks ago, it would have been interesting to have asked the population at large the date of that speech. The percentage of people who got it correct would have been less than the margin of error. It is doubtful that the people who attended Sharpton’s rally would have done much better.

Democrats aren't the only dopey ones

I attended the Republican Party committee meeting last night (8/26). I learned two things:
1. The three candidates for the Republic nomination to oppose Tim Bishop are all attractive candidates and espouse solid free market policies. Happily, the policy differences between the three are all but indistinguishable.
2. Democrats do not have a monopoly on stupidity.

The Conservative Party required their nominee to pledge that he would run regardless of the outcome of the Republican Party primary for the position. Mr. Altshuler plans on honoring his pledge. He is understandably in a bad spot and at least it is the honorable thing to do.

But if Mr. Altshuler does not win the Republican primary there will be two candidates opposing Mr. Bishop. Both will campaign on the same basic policies and on the fact that they are not Tim Bishop. Unfortunately, a candidate running only on the Conservative line will not win this election. So, a vote on the Conservative line will become a vote for Mr. Bishop! This will be of incredible benefit to Mr. Bishop’s chances for re-election since the margin of victory for this seat will almost certainly be less than the number of votes obtained on the Conservative line. Those votes must go to a candidate who can win.

The need to reverse the current economic direction is way too important and Mr. Bishop must be defeated by a candidate who has his head screwed on Right. The solution is for the Conservative Party to release Mr. Altshuler from that pledge if he does not win the Republican primary. To do otherwise is to support Mr. Bishop.

Providing Mr. Bishop with assistance in this manner is a disgrace to the Conservative Party. It can only be hoped that the Party is not doing the same thing in other election districts but if this any example that is a vain hope.

Looking the wrong way

The Obama administration has taken the position that there are so many illegal aliens that it is folly to try to do anything about them. Their plan is to make them legal aliens rewarding the people who are here illegally at the expense of other people who are waiting to get in - people who might actually have some marketable skills that do not involve a shovel or a paper hat.

Think about that. Their argument is that there are lots of them so let’s not catch any of them. There is ample proof that law enforcement does not catch all of the bank robbers, rapists pedophiles and perpetrators of assorted other illegal acts. But that is not taken as reason that because we cannot catch criminal A we should not try to catch criminal B. Doesn’t work that way.

Setback?

A judge ruled that a terrorist does not have the right to a speedy trial. The basis of the decision was not spelled out but the guy was arguing that he had 6th amendment rights. A judge has finally ruled that a foreign national that tries to blow up people is not entitled to the protections of the US Constitution. Good for the judge. The bad news is that the headline of the story was “Ruling a setback for high valued detainees”. These editors seem to think thisis a setback for someone. “Ruling a victory for people who want to prosecute terrorists” seems to be more appropriate.