The Atlantic turned up this great Rumsfeld memo, released in concert with his book.
Posts Tagged: Need
21
Feb 11
Bayne’s victory is just what we need – FOXSports.com
CBC.ca |
Bayne's victory is just what we need
FOXSports.com FOX race analyst Larry McReynolds has more than 30 years of NASCAR experience as a mechanic, Daytona 500-winning crew chief and broadcaster. Trevor Bayne's victory in the historic Wood Brothers No. 21 car in the Daytona 500 was exactly what our sport … Trevor Bayne wins Daytona 500 Trevor Bayne: 'I don't know if I'm the next big thing' Strong Earnhardt effort cut short at Daytona |
20
Feb 11
Need for mediator reveals how far NFL, players have to go for new collective … – NOLA.com
Kansas City Star |
Need for mediator reveals how far NFL, players have to go for new collective …
NOLA.com When the eyes of the world were on the NFL during Super Bowl week in Dallas, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell was a model diplomat. Michael DeMocker/The Times-Picayune archiveNFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said a deal … A look at the NFL's labor dispute, and the possibility of a lockout NFL owners, players agree to mediation NFL and Union Quiet on Meeting |
19
Feb 11
No Need To Get Snippy About It
For a good part of our history, circumcision has been a process that we performed without much thought. It was a suggested process for cleanliness and health reasons, but without much scientific backing. In the 1960s a trend began where parents did not circumcise their male children, and according to this article nearly half of male children born in the US are not circumcised. The anti-circumcision group drew from the Center for Disease Control’s neutrality on the subject. Due to some recent findings, that neutrality has changed to leaning towards circumcision again, as a way to improve overall health and in particular sexually transmitted diseases.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Academy of Pediatrics, currently neutral on whether to circumcise, are drafting new policies in light of recent studies suggesting circumcision helps prevent transmission of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases.
The studies driving the new recommendations, based on clinical trials in sub-Saharan Africa and published in recent years in the Lancet medical journal, found that circumcised men had a 60 percent lower incidence of contracting HIV from heterosexual sex than their uncircumcised peers.
Another study, published in January in the Lancet, found that women with circumcised partners were 28 percent less likely to contract the human papillomavirus (HPV), a common STD that can cause cervical cancer, than women with uncircumcised partners.
The article does a good job of explaining both sides of the argument. Both sides agree on the most important thing: this shouldn’t be done without research and consideration. It’s up to the parents to decide whether or not to circumcise their children, but to do it without any reason beyond “I want him to match his father” isn’t making a solid choice.
19
Feb 11
NARN, the We Need Some Stinkin’ Badgers Edition!
1-3 CT, with live video & chat!
The Northern Alliance Radio Network will be on the air today, with your hosts Mitch Berg and Ed Morrissey, on from 1-3 CT with live streaming video and chat. If you’re in the Twin Cities, you can hear us on AM 1280 The Patriot, or on the station’s Internet stream if you’re outside of the broadcast area, […]
19
Feb 11
Lawrence: Knicks need to give up ‘Melo drama, turn to Plan D, as in Dwight – New York Daily News
 Fox News |
Lawrence: Knicks need to give up 'Melo drama, turn to Plan D, as in Dwight
New York Daily News The Knicks may be better off passing on Carmelo Anthony (r.) and trying for Magic center Dwight Howard (l.) in free agency to pair with All-Star power forward Amar'e Stoudemire (below). Who should the Knicks focus on adding to the team? … As rumors circulate, Anthony offers no clues Berger column on melo N.Y.-area teams make final Carmelo Anthony push |
18
Feb 11
Obama at Intel: Stresses Need For Kids to Learn Math and Science
ABC News’ Neal Karlinsky and Wendy Brundige report: President Obama came to a massive, cutting edge Intel chip making plant in Hillsboro, Oregon Friday to learn how to make American kids more competitive in math and science. “One of my…
Political Punch
18
Feb 11
Americans Are Right: Children Need a Father
The results are in: The majority of Americans continue to agree that children should be raised by both parents.
In a nationally representative study by the Pew Research Center, researchers found that most people still believe that “the growing prevalence of mothers who have no male partners around to help them raise children is bad for society.” While study participants were divided on many issues of changing family trends, nearly all agreed that this trend is negative for the nation.
Said Professor Andrew Cherlin of Johns Hopkins University: “Many people, including single parents themselves, question single-parent families. There’s still a strong belief that children need two parents.”
Considering that a strong body of research that shows the negative implications of father absence for children—along with the economic difficulties faced in single-parent homes—the poll results are good news.
Unfortunately, the growth in unwed birthrates continues its upward climb. Since the 1960s, the rate of unwed childbearing has soared. Today, one in four babies is born to a single mother, and the rates are even higher for minorities. Nearly 75 percent of African-American children and over half of Hispanic babies are born outside of marriage.
These trends are nothing less than tragic for women, children, and society. Children who are raised in single-parent homes experience more emotional and behavioral problems, are more likely to engage in risky and delinquent behavior, are at increased risk of dropping out of high school, and are more likely to be abused. While some of these problems are connected to the higher poverty rates in single-mother homes, “improvements in child well-being that are associated with marriage persist even after adjusting for differences in family income … [indicating] that the father brings more to his home than just a paycheck.”
However, this in no way means that poverty in single-mother homes should be ignored. In fact, it cannot be overlooked if the nation plans to get welfare spending under control. This is because children raised by single mothers are nearly six times more likely to be poor than are children raised by married mothers with the same education levels. And it is within single-mother homes that 80 percent of the nation’s long-term poverty occurs. Thus, as single motherhood has skyrocketed over the last decades, so too has government welfare spending.
Today the United States spends nearly $ 1 trillion a year in welfare assistance to the poor, or approximately four times the amount it would cost to pull every single poor family in the country over the poverty line. Nonetheless, poverty levels have remained nearly unchanged and the government continues to pour more taxpayer dollars into welfare. If the unwed birthrate continues its upward trend, it is likely that more families will be dependent on government aid.
If the United States is really interested in decreasing the out-of-wedlock birthrate and getting welfare spending under control, it should take steps to support marriage. Policymakers should eliminate laws that penalize marriage, and increased attention should be placed on supporting healthy marriages, especially in low-income communities.
It is promising that Americans continue to understand the benefits of a child being raised by both parents. The next step is to take action to support healthy marriages and families to ensure a strong civil society and an economically sound nation.
18
Feb 11
Obama Takes Hope Away from Chinese in Need of VOA
With an equal measure of audacity and malice President Obama has proposed a budget for 2012 that ends the Voice of America’s shortwave broadcasting in China.
American Thinker Blog
18
Feb 11
Obama Takes Hope Away from Chinese in Need of VOA
With an equal measure of audacity and malice President Obama has proposed a budget for 2012 that ends the Voice of America’s shortwave broadcasting in China.
American Thinker Blog
17
Feb 11
Jeff Flake (R., Az): Birthers Need To Accept The Reality That Obama Is A Natural Born Citizen
Arizona Congressman Jeff Flake is one of the first Republicans to do more than dance around the birther issue, saying this morning that birthers need to accept reality:
Rep. Jeff Flake said people who don’t believe President Obama was born in the U.S. need to “accept reality.”
Responding to a question Thursday on CNN about a recent poll that found a majority of Republican primary voters don’t believe President Obama was born in the U.S., Flake said he didn’t believe the findings.
“Well, I have a hard time believing that poll,” Flake said. “I think that most people understand and accept the reality. The reality is that, yes, he was born in the United States.”
Flake said the notion that Obama isn’t a U.S. citizen needs to be put to rest.
“Barack Obama is a citizen of the country,” Flake said. “We ought to get off this kick. And there are plenty of differences we have with the president between Republicans and Democrats than to spend time on something like this.”
See, Speaker Boehner, it isn’t very hard at all.
17
Feb 11
Do We Need Social Security Reform Now? Yes…Yes…Yes.
When pols in Washington lie, it’s business as usual. When they actually seem to believe the nonsense they’re spouting, however, it gets scary. President Obama’s recent comments about Social Security suggest that with respect to this issue, the man is so deeply immersed in kinky Beltway thinking he’s lost touch with reality.
The president has been criticized for not taking on the entitlement overhangs in his new budget proposals — entitlement programs that along with the military make up the bulk of federal spending. He ducked on Medicare and Medicaid entitlement spending, saying they were issues that would be addressed at a later date. Fine. But when it came to Social Security, he noted there’s no immediate worries about meeting benefit obligations.
His reasoning? Because although last year the Payroll Tax brought in less than it paid out in benefits, and this deficit will grow dramatically as baby boomers queue up at the Social Security window, interest generated by the Social Security Trust will make up this deficit a least until 2039, and perhaps even longer because the interest that flows into this trust from its bond holdings will also grow in coming years.
Duh.
A Social Security 101 reality check shows just how wacky is this interpretation. Some 30 years back that titan of economic brilliance and Ayn Rand devotee Alan Greenspan headed a so-called reform of Social Security financing. Instead of doing what most other developed countries do to meet financial challenges in this realm — have a pay-as-you-go system (usually part of general revenues) that each year collects the taxes it needs to meet its benefits obligations, Greenspan concocted the fiscal monstrosity we have today.
This involved a Payroll Tax that for 30-odd years collected more each year from poor and middle income earners than it paid out in benefits, with this tax capped to exclude earnings from the well-to-do (this cap today is about $ 106,000). All these excess Payroll Tax collections for three decades went toward the purchase of Treasury bonds that have accumulated in what is laughingly termed a “trust” — the Social Security Trust.
The rich loved this approach because the country’s largest entitlement program is funded by one of the most regressive taxes on the planet. The Beltway crowd loved this system as well, because the excess Payroll Tax collections for 30 years that purchased only government bonds was not counted as part of yearly deficits so the actual size of government’s overspending could be disguised. As for most people in the general public, well, they just paid in and looked forward to the day they could take out, without worrying too much about the details.
Now, alas, this country’s longest running and largest ever Ponzi scheme is hitting the wall. Hitting it today, not 27 years down the road as Beltway head-in-the-sanders pretend. The reason is that the interest on the governent bonds held in the Social Security “Trust,” the interest that is supposed to make up for Payroll Tax collection shortfalls, is interest that will have to be generated with either new taxes, or more likely, more government borrowing.
What’s happening her, in other words, is that the government is borrowing with one hand to give to the other hand which in turn hands it out to people who will be responsible for servicing this borrowing down the road.
This is why Social Security is a fiscal time bomb today. Today! Not decades from now.
This bomb can be defused, of course. The very best way would be this: Since this “trust” is a flangrant shell game, just abolish it and pay any deficit in benefits from borrowing — which, in fact, is what is happening anyway. Abolition of this “trust” would have the added benefit of making our nation’s overall debt situation look a lot better immediately.
But forget that solution. This is America 2011.
The progressive way to defuse this creeping horror is to subject all earned income to the Payroll tax while capping benefit pay-outs to present inflation-adjusted levels. Or if this sounds too progressive (it’s socialism, mama, grab the M-16s and head for the shelter!) simply raise the income level subject to the tax annually and gradually by just enough to meet pay-out obligations.
Or we could just keep fudging and lying to each other about the true nature of the Social Security “Trust” in hopes it will somehow resolve itself with no added pain to anyone.
My all time favorite cartoonist was Rube Goldberg. Little did I suspect in the years when his stuff was appearing in the funny papers that it was serving as an inspiration for future government policy makers. Silly, silly me…
More from this writer at http://blog.wallstreetpoet.com
17
Feb 11
Do We Need Social Security Reform Now? Yes…Yes…Yes.
When pols in Washington lie, it’s business as usual. When they actually seem to believe the nonsense they’re spouting, however, it gets scary. President Obama’s recent comments about Social Security suggest that with respect to this issue, the man is so deeply immersed in kinky Beltway thinking he’s lost touch with reality.
The president has been criticized for not taking on the entitlement overhangs in his new budget proposals — entitlement programs that along with the military make up the bulk of federal spending. He ducked on Medicare and Medicaid entitlement spending, saying they were issues that would be addressed at a later date. Fine. But when it came to Social Security, he noted there’s no immediate worries about meeting benefit obligations.
His reasoning? Because although last year the Payroll Tax brought in less than it paid out in benefits, and this deficit will grow dramatically as baby boomers queue up at the Social Security window, interest generated by the Social Security Trust will make up this deficit a least until 2039, and perhaps even longer because the interest that flows into this trust from its bond holdings will also grow in coming years.
Duh.
A Social Security 101 reality check shows just how wacky is this interpretation. Some 30 years back that titan of economic brilliance and Ayn Rand devotee Alan Greenspan headed a so-called reform of Social Security financing. Instead of doing what most other developed countries do to meet financial challenges in this realm — have a pay-as-you-go system (usually part of general revenues) that each year collects the taxes it needs to meet its benefits obligations, Greenspan concocted the fiscal monstrosity we have today.
This involved a Payroll Tax that for 30-odd years collected more each year from poor and middle income earners than it paid out in benefits, with this tax capped to exclude earnings from the well-to-do (this cap today is about $ 106,000). All these excess Payroll Tax collections for three decades went toward the purchase of Treasury bonds that have accumulated in what is laughingly termed a “trust” — the Social Security Trust.
The rich loved this approach because the country’s largest entitlement program is funded by one of the most regressive taxes on the planet. The Beltway crowd loved this system as well, because the excess Payroll Tax collections for 30 years that purchased only government bonds was not counted as part of yearly deficits so the actual size of government’s overspending could be disguised. As for most people in the general public, well, they just paid in and looked forward to the day they could take out, without worrying too much about the details.
Now, alas, this country’s longest running and largest ever Ponzi scheme is hitting the wall. Hitting it today, not 27 years down the road as Beltway head-in-the-sanders pretend. The reason is that the interest on the governent bonds held in the Social Security “Trust,” the interest that is supposed to make up for Payroll Tax collection shortfalls, is interest that will have to be generated with either new taxes, or more likely, more government borrowing.
What’s happening her, in other words, is that the government is borrowing with one hand to give to the other hand which in turn hands it out to people who will be responsible for servicing this borrowing down the road.
This is why Social Security is a fiscal time bomb today. Today! Not decades from now.
This bomb can be defused, of course. The very best way would be this: Since this “trust” is a flangrant shell game, just abolish it and pay any deficit in benefits from borrowing — which, in fact, is what is happening anyway. Abolition of this “trust” would have the added benefit of making our nation’s overall debt situation look a lot better immediately.
But forget that solution. This is America 2011.
The progressive way to defuse this creeping horror is to subject all earned income to the Payroll tax while capping benefit pay-outs to present inflation-adjusted levels. Or if this sounds too progressive (it’s socialism, mama, grab the M-16s and head for the shelter!) simply raise the income level subject to the tax annually and gradually by just enough to meet pay-out obligations.
Or we could just keep fudging and lying to each other about the true nature of the Social Security “Trust” in hopes it will somehow resolve itself with no added pain to anyone.
My all time favorite cartoonist was Rube Goldberg. Little did I suspect in the years when his stuff was appearing in the funny papers that it was serving as an inspiration for future government policy makers. Silly, silly me…
More from this writer at http://blog.wallstreetpoet.com
17
Feb 11
BBL: UK women at Georgia; UK men need to stop the 3
(H-L photo/Jonathan Palmer)
Big Blue Links for Thursday:
- UK women have evolved since first loss to Georgia, writes Jen Smith of the H-L.
- Kentucky hoops playing for seeding, writes T.J. Walker of the Kernel.
- The Jasmines clicking for Georgia women, writes Roger Clarkson of Banner-Herald.
- Dunlap’s family never far away on game day, writes Mark Story of the H-L.
- Kentucky on L.J. Rose’s list, reports Dime Magazine.
- Cal says Cats need to avoid late-game extremes, reports Jerry Tipton of the H-L.
- Cats having trouble with foes’ three-pointers, reports Aaron Smith of the Kernel.
- The numbers when it comes to guarding the perimeter, provided by Tailgate Review.
- Cats won Tuesday because they were home, says State-Journal’s Brian Rickerd.
- Mitch Barnhart bans the SkyCam, reports Tipton.
- Hopefully, that’s last we see of that camera, writes Jeff Eisenberg of The Dagger.
- Minutes are adding up for UK’s players, writes Richard Skinner of the Enquirer.
- Lady Dogs fighting for second in SEC, writes Ryan Black of Red and Black.
- DeAndre Liggins’ off night gets the attention of WLEX’s Mary Jo Perino.
- Michael Gilchrist has a huge matchup ahead, says Nation of Blue.
- Jostling for UK’s final roster spot in 2011, writes Wildcat Blue Nation.
- E-mailers were very upset about the SkyCam, writes Larry Vaught of the A-M.
- ESPN’s Customer Care gives an answer to All Ky Hoops.
- A win is a win is a win for Kentucky basketball, writes Tom Leach.
- Getting to World Series is UK’s softball goal, writes Matt Levine of the Kernel.
- Cat Scratches has videos previewing the UK-Georgia women’s game.
- A Sea of Blue is searching for the pure joy of baskeball.
- A transfer could be headed UK football’s way, says Bleed Blue Kentucky.
- Renardo Sidney’s phone gets the attention of KSR.
- Will UK fans have a say in new arena? asks UK Sports Info.
- No more wacky camera angles, says WHAS.
Hat tip to Aaron’s UK Basketball Blog.
17
Feb 11
“No DISemployed need apply”
U.S. employers review nine applicants for every two available jobs, William E. Spriggs, assistant secretary of Labor for policy, said at the hearing. Weeding out the unemployed has a disparate effect on Latinos and blacks, he said.
“The chances of considering an ethnic minority are decreased by one third when one limits unemployed workers,” Spriggs said.
Owens said a telephone company in Atlanta, which she didn’t identify, ran an help-wanted ad saying only the employed should apply. Jobless applicants were also turned down by a temporary staffing firm and a Texas recruiter because they were unemployed, she said.
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