Defining What You "Need"

"From each according to his ability, to each according to his need." -- Karl Marx, 1875

"It's a tax on insurance companies that offer Cadillac, or quite frankly, Rolls Royce policies that in essence people don't need." -- Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs, 2-25-10

The day after Pres. Obama carped about people calling him a socialist, he sent his top spokesman out to describe a plan to tax health insurance policies that provide benefits more generous than what people "need."...MORE

And that's exactly what socialism, or statism if you prefer, does. Obama is either ignorant of what those terms mean or he thinks we are. Since he's been marinating in collectivist philosophy his entire life, my guess is it's the latter.

When they say your insurance policy covers more than what you "need", what they really mean is that your ability to buy that policy is unfair to those who can't. Therefore, you must be forced to relinquish some of your property to the state in order to satisfy the never ending needs of others and atone for the economic crime of being successful.

What else will the government tax that they decide is more than you need? Your house, food, computer, clothes...your Cadillac? And as the government gets bigger and the individual smaller, the "needs" of everyone gets defined downward as incentives shrivel and the economy stagnates.

Central Florida Rail: Region's game-changer?

It sure is. But not in the way Alex Martins thinks. He is the Chairman of Central Florida Partnership and CEO of the Orlando Magic. But that doesn't make him immune from having misguided opinions:

High-speed rail can make the difference when it comes to our ability to compete on the global stage. Tampa Bay has a population of 3.75 million and Central Florida has a population of 3.46 million. As a combined super region, we are the seventh most-populated region in the country, and the 10th-largest economy in the United States...

...We know that you build a professional basketball team by making strategic decisions over time. Likewise, we understand that Florida is committed to building a safe and efficient multimodal transportation network to serve residents and visitors. High-speed and commuter rail are just the first links in the transportation system that will better connect our communities.

...I couldn't agree more. Growing up in the New York metro area, I used the rail system to attend sporting events and Broadway matinees. That system grew to become the easiest, most direct transportation source for work and play. From my experiences, I know that high-speed rail will be a real game-changer for Central Florida.

That last paragraph is where Mr. Martins' argument runs off the rails, so to speak. The New York transit system, like those in Boston, Chicago and elsewhere, were built in densely populated areas that came of age prior to the advent of the automobile. Dense suburbs grew up close to them as bedroom communities for those downtown areas. So it was relatively easy to place stations within convenient reach of large numbers of people.

And lets remember that those systems were started as private companies with money raised from investors who thought they could make a profit. No private concern will do that in Central Florida because it makes no economic sense.

The population density of the N.Y. Metro area is 2,792 people per square mile, whereas the Tampa Bay and Greater Orlando Metro areas are 521 and 494 people per square mile respectively. There is no way to have enough stops to make rail work conveniently or efficiently under those circumstances. How will people get to those distant stations and what will they do when they get to their destination? Answer: They won't bother. One only has to look to places like Los Angeles and Seattle, where taxpayer funded rail schemes have failed, to see what will happen here.

Additionally, most people in places like Central Florida commute from suburb to suburb, not a central downtown location. There's no way to easily get around those places without an automobile.

Simply put, this will fail to attract any significant ridership just as it has in other places that were developed around the automobile. People can complain about living in a decentralized area while enjoying its benefits as much as they want. But pretending you're something you're not in order to justify building a wildly expensive white elephant, just creates more problems while solving nothing.

Lawsuit accuses Obama administration of failing to protect Florida panther

SARASOTA — A coalition of environmental and civic groups sued the Obama administration Thursday over its refusal to declare 1.3 million acres as critical habitat for the endangered Florida panther...Panthers once roamed the Southeast, but now about 100 panthers remain in the wild, prowling the swamps and forests south of the Caloosahatchee River in South Florida.

...In 2002 a group of panther and habitat mapping experts recommended the federal agency declare the area where the panthers now live as critical habitat. Doing so would subject any plans to alter that habitat — by development, farming or mining — to increased scrutiny and additional requirements to make up for the loss of land.

Instead the agency is now working with a separate coalition of environmental groups and major landowners to craft a cooperative plan to protect some habitat while still allowing development

...The lawsuit seeks enhanced protection of more than 3 million acres in fast-growing Collier, Lee and Hendry counties.

This is how radical environmentalists essentially steal property from individuals through government force by prohibiting its use. In this case, the Eco-Marxists seek to provide 30,000 acres per Panther of others land without paying one dime for it. This destroys wealth while increasing the cost of available land remaining.

No honest cost-benefit analysis can make this insanity pencil out. But it doesn't have to apparently, when you're hiding your uncompromising anti-private property agenda behind a furry feline. That agenda is vividly revealed in this unreasonable litigation.

Mother nature kills off dozens of species of flora and fauna every day. In fact, over 90% of all species that have existed are now extinct due to natural causes. Of course, there are many ways to preserve the Florida Panther without throwing a monkey wrench into private property rights. But the Panther is secondary to the fanatical nihilism of the enviros.

Drilling Bans Cost Trillions

Do the Hands Across The Sand knuckleheads know this or even care? Probably neither. Math is hard, but it will be illustrated perfectly when no one can afford to come to Florida's beaches. We're the only country in the world that deliberately leaves energy resources in the ground and off limits. Countries from Canada to Saudi Arabia are more than happy to enable our stupidity by selling us theirs:

"From trying to stimulate jobs in nonexistent ZIP codes at great expense to worshiping the false gods of climate change, our biggest deficit these days may be in the area of common sense. A new study shows that many of our wounds are self-inflicted as we forgo the wealth and jobs to be found in our waters and under our feet.

The study by Science Applications International Corp. at the request of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners, the Gas Technology Institute and others shows the U.S. economy will suffer $2.3 trillion in lost opportunity costs over the next two decades, monies that would go a long way to reining in runaway deficits and creating economic growth.

Critics will say this is another self-serving study paid for by oil industry groups, but unlike the climate change fantasies concocted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and Britain's Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia, the study's data can survive fact-checking and the conclusions are rooted in reality.

Drilling restrictions in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and in offshore areas such as the Chukchi Sea and Outer Continental Shelf, the report says, are denying us access to at least nine years' worth of total U.S. oil and gas consumption...

...These are not climate fantasies derived by running faulty assumptions and bad data through inaccurate computer models. This is simple math, common sense and Economics 101. Energy is expensive. We're leaving vast amounts in the ground while importing it from others. In a word: duh."

Nightfall In America

From the Wall Street Journal:

The federal deficit this fiscal year will be $1.6 trillion, or about 10.6% of gross domestic product. That is the largest deficit since World War II, and even President Obama's optimistic estimates show our deficits will not return to sustainable levels for at least the next decade.

The administration's projection of total federal spending over those 10 years (2011-20) is $45.8 trillion, while expected taxes and other receipts will be $37.3 trillion. The $8.5 trillion deficit is about 20% of spending. And all of these numbers are based on a full and lasting economic recovery, which, based on current experience, is a pretty optimistic projection.

Earlier this month, The Wall Street Journal's editorial page did an analysis of the federal government's debt that will be held by the public over the coming decade. When the Democrats took control of Congress in 2007, the debt held by the public was 36.2% of GDP. It rose to 40.2% the next year. This year it will be about 63.6%, next year 68.6%, then 77% of GDP in 2020. And the Obama administration's budget estimates 218% in 2050.

The reason for these rising deficits is the huge increases in federal spending--the intended growth of the federal government--that Congress and the president are pushing. The deficit in 2007 was $160 billion. In the next year the Pelosi-Reid Congress took it up to $458 billion, and when President Obama came into office in 2009 it hit $1.4 trillion. The current 2010 projected deficit is $1.6 trillion, which will lead to a tripling of our national debt from 2008 to 2020...

...This administration wants larger, not smaller government; broader, not lesser regulation; and greater government, not greater individual liberties. That would make our country weaker on the international stage, make it much more difficult for us to handle future recessions, and even more difficult to implement new programs or strategies that may be needed to improve our economy.

Democrats: Republicans are stimulus hypocrites, or something

Notice that Democrats aren't defending the stimulus, but are instead employing the "you did it too" tactic.



Once this boondoggle was passed, every American taxpayer became responsible for its payments. At that point, Republicans had the choice of either getting some of that money back for their taxpayers or keeping it in the slush fund to buy Democrat votes. The money was going to be spent no matter what.

So now the Republicans are hypocrites for trying to get back a piece of the pie Democrats stole from their constituents? Sure, they could have stood on principle, but the damage was already done. Leaving all the money in Democrat hands would have only made it worse.





More at Hot Air.

Where's housing headed? Follow rents?

Rents and vacancy rates are examined in various ways in order to gauge the overall health of the housing market. This report looks at the ratio of leasing versus ownership costs:

...That brings us to the Deutsche Bank studies. Its REIT research team first established a benchmark for a "normal" ratio of rents to ownership costs -- what it calls ATMP, or after-tax mortgage payment -- for 53 U.S. cities.

On average, DB found that families across America were spending about 87% as much to rent as to own in 1999. Hence, they were traditionally willing to pay a premium as homeowners, though not a big one

But by mid-2006, with the craze in full swing, the figure fell below 60%. At that point, Americans were spending an incredible 66% more to own than to rent. It was far worse in the bubble markets: In Las Vegas, Phoenix and Miami, homeowners were paying twice as much as renters, and in San Francisco and Orange Country, owners' monthly payments were triple those of their neighbors with leases instead of mortgages.

DB reckoned that housing prices are more or less reasonable when the ratio returns to its 1999 level. Why 1999? Because the ratio was relatively stable throughout the 1990s, and it was the year the steep rise in prices began in earnest.. At the end of the third quarter of 2009, the overall number stood at 83%, meaning renting was just a tad more attractive than owning.

In other words, at some point prices will fall and/or rents will rise to a point where it becomes more attractive to own than rent. But there are other variables at work here. Interest rates will almost certainly rise soon and big inflation shocks are inevitable when government spends, borrows and prints money at its current, unsustainable pace. Additionally, there is a shadow inventory of distressed homes that will continue to add to supply in record numbers.

Yes, there is pent-up demand, but there is also a lot of pent-up supply along with much economic uncertainty that our government is only exacerbating. Like any other measure, this one should be just one tool in the box.

Man accused of turning foreclosed homes into rentals

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing:

NEW PORT RICHEY — The homes had been vacated due to foreclosure when Stephen Bybel discovered them.

Authorities say Bybel attempted to seize the properties through an obscure state law, then posted the properties on Craigslist and filled the homes with tenants...But the Pasco County Sheriff's Office says Bybel was simply helping himself, collecting rent on dozens of homes he didn't own or legally control. In January alone, authorities say, Bybel pocketed $16,780 in rent...

...When Bybel found a foreclosure property, authorities said, he posted a notice on the home alerting the owner he would take "adverse possession" of the property unless the owner contacted him in seven days.

The notice cited chapter 95 of Florida Statutes, which spells out how someone can take possession of a property through squatter's rights. The law requires a person occupy the property for at least seven years and fulfill other legal requirements.

Had Bybel or this reporter taken my class, I would have told them the following:

First of all, adverse posession is not an "obscure state law" and it exists in various forms in all fifty states. Without getting too deep in the weeds, the history and purpose of adverse posession goes back centuries and is designed to place a statute of limitations on ownership of disputed property. In other words, a property owner has a certain amount of time to remove a hostile trespasser or they will lose that right.

Florida law not only requires a seven year waiting period, but also requires that the would be possessor pay the property taxes during that time. Among other things, it also says that you have to show evidence of some legitimate claim to the property, whatever that may be.


Nevertheless, you have to admire this guy's inventiveness, if not his stupidity. I'm impressed that he managed to take 71 houses and rented over 30 of them. If anything, this shows just how unmanageable these foreclosures have become.

The Green Death

With the Global Warming hoax crumbling, it's a good time for a reminder of the continuing genocide caused by radical environmentalism. Doctor Zero explains:

Who is the worst killer in the long, ugly history of war and extermination? Hitler? Stalin? Pol Pot? Not even close. A single book called Silent Spring killed far more people than all those fiends put together.

Published in 1962, Silent Spring used manipulated data and wildly exaggerated claims (sound familiar?) to push for a worldwide ban on the pesticide known as DDT – which is, to this day, the most effective weapon against malarial mosquitoes. The Environmental Protection Agency held extensive hearings after the uproar produced by this book… and these hearings concluded that DDT should not be banned. A few months after the hearings ended, EPA administrator William Ruckleshaus over-ruled his own agency and banned DDT anyway, in what he later admitted was a “political” decision. Threats to withhold American foreign aid swiftly spread the ban across the world.

The resulting explosion of mosquito-borne malaria in Africa has claimed over sixty million lives. This was not a gradual process – a surge of infection and death happened almost immediately. The use of DDT reduces the spread of mosquito-borne malaria by fifty to eighty percent, so its discontinuation quickly produced an explosion of crippling and fatal illness. The same environmental movement which has been falsifying data, suppressing dissent, and reading tea leaves to support the global-warming fraud has studiously ignored this blood-drenched “hockey stick” for decades. MORE...

A lot more resources are available HERE that outline the largely unreported slaughter of millions from politicized junk science.

I and a lot of other people have been extremely frustrated that this massive scandal has been ignored for so long. But now the time is right to draw parallels between this and the Global Warming fraud to further show that these evils have nothing to do with science and everything to do with progressive politics.

Here's a previous post on the subject:

Today's Global Warming campaign is endangering real, honest science. Global Warming superstition has become an international power grab, and good science suffers as a result.

...Pathological science kills people and ruins lives. Such fake science is still peddled by the PC establishment in Europe and America. Global Warming is only the most recent case. Rachel Carson's screed against DDT caused malaria to re-emerge in Africa, killing hundreds of thousands of human beings. Those human-caused disasters have never been discussed honestly in the media, and rarely if ever in science journals. The DDT scandal is still suppressed.

...Some scientists rationalize this corruption of their vocation by saying that people can lie for a good cause. The record shows otherwise. Fraudulent science and science journalism has led to AIDS going out of control; to DDT being banned and malaria gaining a new lease on life in Africa; to decades of famines in Russia; to children being badly mis-educated on such basics as reading and arithmetic; to end endless slew of unjustified health scares, like Mad Cow; and to a worldwide Leftist campaign cynically aiming to gain international power and enormous sums of money, based on a simple, unscientific fraud.

Most of the people killed by the DDT fraud are "people of color" in third world countries that the left likes to claim as their wards. The left needs to explain the efficacy of killing so many of the people they supposedly have unique compassion for.

Cold is Devasting Manatees

Global Warming can certainly be ironic:

So many manatees are turning up stressed from the extreme cold temperatures this winter that it's putting a strain on the statewide system for caring for the injured marine mammals.

Some facilities have become overcrowded, while others are making room by releasing back into the wild manatees that have been in captivity.

Yeah, I know weather is not climate. But since the Church of AGW has been ignoring that fact since day one of this hoax, turnabout is fair play. Besides, now they're telling us that cold weather is a sign of warming. Heads I win, Tails you lose science is anything but.

Three Big Firms Pull Out of Climate Partnership

The collapse of the biggest fraud in human history continues:

WASHINGTON—Three large corporations are quitting the U.S. Climate Action Partnership, a broad group of businesses and environmental organizations that has been instrumental in building support in Washington for capping U.S. emissions of greenhouse gases.

Oil giants BP PLC and ConocoPhillips along with Caterpillar, Inc., the Peoria, Ill., heavy-equipment maker, have decided against renewing their membership in the organization, according to a statement released by the group Tuesday.

Red Cavaney, ConocoPhillips senior vice president for government affairs, said USCAP was focused on getting a climate-change bill passed, whereas Conoco is increasingly concerned with what the details of such a bill would be.

"USCAP was starting to do more and more on trying to get a bill out without trying to work as much on the substance of it," Mr. Cavaney said.

These companies are now seeing their extortionist's power withering away. USCAP is an odd consortium of large industrial corporations
and parasitical environmental groups bent on their destruction e.g. Environmental Defense, Natural Resources Defense Council, The Nature Conservancy and The World Resources Institute.


In other words, USCAP is a protection racket that companies are forced to join in order to avoid nuisance litigation, bad publicity from a compliant media or the wrath of the Eco-Marxists statist patrons in government through regulation and legislation.

Drilling Protesters Gather at The Beach

SIESTA KEY - More than 250 people joined hands on the famous powdery sands of Siesta Public Beach on Saturday to show opposition to oil drilling as close as three to 10 miles offshore...The Siesta Key protest was one of around 60 across the state...Sarasota Mayor Dick Clapp joined the protests, saying that the local economy depends on the beaches to draw tourists.

Moss organized the local protest after hearing about "Hands Across the Sand" on local public radio.

Hands Across the Sand includes many local governments and various Chambers of Commerce. Obviously they have an interest in this but do they know or care who they are climbing into bed with?

Their website features prominent links to radical groups like Progress Florida and The Florida Green Party, which is part of the Green Party of The United States. Their mission goes well beyond protecting the environment as they are essentially Socialist groups that use environmental causes to destroy private property rights and the free market system.

There is a compromise here that could allow drilling up to say, fifty miles from shore, well over the horizon but much closer than the ridiculous distance of 225 miles now in effect. On top of the obvious economic benefits for Florida and the country, oil rigs will also provide much needed artificial reefs that will expand the fish population in the desert that is Florida's Gulf Coast.

But local governments and business groups will never find common ground as long as they associate themselves with Anti-American radicals that view them as a temporary ally.

'Airstream Ranch' along I-4 does not violate law, judges rule

A small victory for private property rights:

TAMPA — Love it or hate it, the Winnebago-sized installation known as the "Airstream Ranch" is legal, a three-judge panel has ruled.

This week's decision reverses a $100-per-day fine on Frank and Dorothy Bates, who put up the shiny row of silver RVs in 2007. Hillsborough County officials can appeal, but Bates plans to keep the trailers buried nose-first in view of drivers whizzing through Dover on Interstate 4.

Got that? This is along I-4! I don't know if it's art or not, but it certainly breaks up the monotony of driving to Orlando. The taxpayers of Hillsbourough must be pleased as punch that their money has been wasted on this lawsuit.

"The attraction has drawn tourists from as far away as Japan, was the backdrop for a fashion shoot and has been featured in a country music video. Two people asked about marrying there."

Prediction: In twenty or thirty years someone else will own the property and new busybodies will try to prevent them from taking it down because it's "historically significant".

St. Pete Beach eyes federal stimulus money for marina, Corey boardwalk

It's nice to see that at least some of my federal tax dollars might be wasted closer to home:

ST. PETE BEACH — A city-owned marina and a boardwalk under the Corey Avenue Bridge are ideas that just won't die.

Despite past funding setbacks, the city is now pushing to get $500,000 in federal stimulus funds to build a 725-foot boardwalk beneath the Corey Avenue Bridge to connect the city's historic Corey Avenue shopping district with the new $8 million community center and park on the north side of the bridge.

Perhaps they could call it The American Economy Memorial Marina and Boardwalk. No one locally wanted to fund this thing, having decided it was a waste of money. But using borrowed and stolen money laundered through Washington is OK. The people (and their children) of St. Pete Beach will pay for this inefficient nonsense anyway, so they might as well put their snouts in the trough.

Pinellas County Prescription Drug Sting

Here's the latest offensive in the war on some drugs:

PINELLAS PARK — A Pinellas County sheriff's task force is planning a Monday sting operation to round up suspects accused of prescription drug crimes...The task force of St. Petersburg police and Pinellas sheriff's investigators was created to help combat the pharmaceutical fraud and doctor-shopping epidemic, officials said...The task force of St. Petersburg police and Pinellas sheriff's investigators was created to help combat the pharmaceutical fraud and doctor-shopping epidemic, officials said.

I'm sure glad the police are out there protecting us against...what? This will accomplish exactly nothing other than wasting taxpayer dollars to screw up the lives of people who are already screwed up enough. The war will continue until people realize they can only be addicted to government approved drugs like alcohol.

The Biggest Jerk in Congress

From Human Events:

“Every school, club, or company has a loudmouth whose outrageous statements and failed attempts at humor cause his friends to shy away, feigning laughter and everyone to think ‘what a jackass.’ Congress always has more than its fair share of such people, and suffers them gladly. Well, most of them. But this congress contains a man who rises above the rest, distinguishing himself beyond all others as this session’s ‘Biggest Jerk In Congress.’ He is Representative Alan Grayson, a first-term Democratic Congressman from Florida’s historically Republican 8th Congressional District, which includes Orlando.”

I disagree. Grayson's world class jerkiness is merely a symptom of his underlying insanity.

Crist, Rubio Spar Over Counting illegals in Census

The argument is academic at this point, since the census has already begun. Nevertheless, Charlie Crist is taking the opportunistic stand as opposed Rubio's more principled one:

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Marco Rubio has come out against including illegal immigrants in the national census — even though doing so could significantly reduce Florida’s political power and share of federal funding. …

But, later, a spokesman for Rubio’s Senate campaign said that Rubio did “not support a congressional reapportionment process that counts illegal immigrant populations when allocating seats.” Alex Burgos said Rubio’s position “stems from a concern about rightful representation in Congress and ensuring that every voter has an equal voice.” …

Crist went to North Miami on Tuesday to urge everyone to participate in the census.

“The people of Florida represent a rich legacy of diverse cultures, backgrounds and experiences, and want to be represented accordingly,” Crist said. “Florida families should participate in the 2010 census to ensure our state receives the funding necessary to meet the needs of our citizens.”

Illegal immigrants are not citizens but Crist wants to redefine the word while resorting to the usual "diversity" pandering. He then goes a cynical step further in his criticism of Rubio:

“Florida deserves to have her fair share. And I think making sure that we count every single Floridian is vitally important. That’s why I went to the school yesterday in North Miami,” Crist said.

“It is important. It’s important to our state, it’s important to our people. And the notion that you would not want to accept federal funding to make a political statement is absurd.”

It's not just a political statement, it is a defense of the rule of law and the Constitution. What's absurd is Crist's acceptance of an overbearing federal government that forces states to beg Washington for the return of its citizens money in the form of pork. What's more absurd is the notion that illegal immigrants should be counted in the census in order to get more of that pork.

Perhaps if states didn't receive funding for illegals, they would be less accepting of the problem and would lobby Washington to do its job and protect the borders.

More from Hot Air:

But there is also $400 billion in federal programs available to states, allocated in large part on the basis of population. Crist wants a bigger piece of that pie, and Rubio also acknowledged that those kinds of considerations are not unimportant. That should demonstrate how federal programs distort political processes, though, and not give an excuse to pork feeders at the trough. The Constitutional requirement for a Census every ten years is to make sure that Americans have fair representation in the House, not to determine which little piggy gets the most slop.