Holiday Season 2009
As we approach the Holiday Season, formerly called the Christmas season many of the same old issues are still lingering on:
On the issue of climate Change, recently hacked E-mails from Britain’s Climate Research Unit point to fake data and fraud. When Obama greets a foreign leader, it seems that his first subject to discuss is climate change, when economic recovery and increasing the standard of living of the particular nation is the real concern. There is a sizable amount of data that suggests that the “Cap and Trade” and “Carbon Ooffsets” is a flawed theory that could create economic disaster in order to reduce global temperatures by an immeasurable amount, if at all. Recent events such as decade long cooling trends are part of natural and cyclical patterns. In the McClatchy newspapers, a headline From the N.Y. TIMES, quotes that the Decade of 2000 to 2009 appears to be the warmest one in the modern record. The World Meteorological Organization in their recent analysis, reported. according to Mark Levin’s book Liberty and Tyranny”. a quote by Dr. Edward Wegman, a professor at the Center for Computational Statistics at George Mason University, chair of the National Academy of Sciences’ Committee On Applied Theoretical Statistics. “The assessments that the decade of the 1990’s was the hottest decade in a millennium and that 1998 was the hottest year in a millennium cannot be supported." ( Page 132 of Levin’s book.)
When I was working for Morgan Stanley, I was enrolled in a HSA or health savings account. This flexible spending account permitted me to put aside funds for future medical expenses. These funds are pre-tax funds for out of pocket medical expenses that an insurance plan does not cover. About 40% of tax filers with HSA’s earn under $60,000 per year, according to the IRS. Without getting into the details, HSA’s give individuals more control over their medical expenses verses letting government control our health coverages even more than they do now. This is why the Democrat health bill writers oppose HSA’s or want to cut back on benefits available to our citizens. It is all about control.
A recent article in Forbes, 11/30/09, confirms my past comments on states with strong labor unions, high taxes, massive public spending, out of control public retirement benefits and no strategy to increase private industry jobs. The article goes on to say that “virtually all of the blue states have suffered below-average job growth throughout the decade. For example, Portland and New York added almost no new jobs, others like San Francisco, Boston and Chicago have actually lost positions over the past decades. San Antonio, Orlando, Houston and Dallas boast at least 5% more jobs than a decade ago. Phoenix is also included in this select group. Large public spending increases over the past decades in Calif, New Jersey and New York have ended up in the pockets and pensions of public employees. Please do not forget Michigan and the disastrous economics of the current governor.
I would like to comment on the late Pope Pius XII, Eugenio Pacelli. On my trip to Europe in 1957, the three of us (Covered in my book Straight Talk from a Blogger) were among many visitors to Rome and the Vatican. We saw the Pope then and we all were in awe of the immensity and history of the Vatican and in particular, the Sistine Chapel. The play entitled "The Deputy" opened in 1963 and was written by a German playwright and laid the blame of the Holocaust on Pope Pacelli. Privately, Pius took great risks: he ordered churches to hand out baptismal certificates to thousands of Jews. He spent much of his private inheritance to pay for refugees travel. He also ordered Catholic facilities to hide Jews. After Germany surrendered in 1945 the World Jewish Congress gave a financial gift to the Vatican in recognition of the Pope’s wartime efforts. The source of this information is Christopher Ruddy in the September edition of Newsmax.
My last comment concerns December 7, 1941. I can remember where I was and what I was doing. At 10 years old, it is still vivid in my memory. I was playing in a vacant lot across from our home, when my father yelled to me and said that Pearl Harbor was bombed and that we were going to war. I came inside and listened to our radio since I had never heard of Pearl Harbor. From that day on, the news got very bad and everyone was affected by the War. Along with it came "Victory Gardens", "Ration Coupons", zinc pennies and the internment of our Japanese population. Movies were all about the war and our brave service men and women.
Gary E. Marsella