Transgender Inmate Sues Indiana Department of Correction to Obtain Hormone Therapy

Transgender Inmate Sues Indiana Department of Correction to Obtain Hormone Therapy:

"A transgender inmate is suing Indiana’s prison system for denying his requests to undergo hormone therapy.
Anthony Loveday, 55, claims the Indiana Department of Correction’s (DOC) decision to deny his hormone therapy is cruel and unusual punishment, according to the complaint obtained by the Indianapolis Star.

Loveday, who is biologically male but identifies as female, stated in the lawsuit that he experienced depression, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts because the state would not provide him hormone therapy."

Prosperity and Taxation: What Can We Learn from the 1950s? | International Liberty

Prosperity and Taxation: What Can We Learn from the 1950s? | International Liberty:
Prosperity and Taxation: What Can We Learn from the 1950s?
In my decades of trying to educate policy makers about the downsides of class-warfare tax policy, I periodically get hit with the argument that high tax rates don’t matter since America enjoyed a golden period of prosperity in the 1950s and early 1960s when the top tax rate was more than 90 percent.

Here’s an example from Politico of what I’m talking about.

Well into the 1950s, the top marginal tax rate was above 90%. …both real GDP and real per capita GDP were growing more than twice as fast in the 1950s as in the 2000s.

This comparison grates on me in part because both Bush and Obama imposed bad policy, so it’s no surprise that the economy did not grow very fast when they were in office.

But I also don’t like the comparison because the 1950s were not a halcyon era, as Brian Domitrovic explains.

…you may be thinking, “But wait a minute. The 1950s, that was the greatest economic era ever. That’s when everybody had a job. Those jobs were for life. People got to live in suburbia and go on vacation and do all sorts of amazing things. It was post-war prosperity, right?” Actually, all of these things are myths. In the 1950s, the United States suffered four recessions. There was one in 1949, 1953, 1957, 1960 — four recessions in 11 years. The rate of structural unemployment kept going up, all the way up to 8% in the severe recession of 1957-58. …there wasn’t significant economic growth in the 1950s. It only averaged 2.5 percent during the presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower.

For today’s purposes, though, I want to focus solely on tax policy. And my leftist friends are correct that the United States had a punitive top tax rate in the 1950s.

This chart from the Politico story shows the top tax rate beginning on that dark day in 1913 when the income tax was adopted. It started very low, then jumped dramatically during the horrible presidency of Woodrow Wilson, followed by a big reduction during the wonderful presidency of Calvin Coolidge. Then it jumped again during the awful presidencies of Herbert Hoover and Franklin Roosevelt. The rate stayed high in the 1950s before the Kennedy tax cuts and Reagan tax cuts, which were followed by some less dramatic changes under George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama.

What do we know about the impact of the high tax rates put in place by Hoover and Roosevelt? We know the 1930s were an awful period for the economy, we know the 1940s were dominated by World War II, and we know the 1950s was a period of tepid growth.

But we also know that high tax rates don’t result in high revenues..."

Read on!

AM Fruitcake

History for November 15

History for November 15 - On-This-Day.com
William Pitt the Elder 1708 - Known as the Great Commoner, 1st Earl of Chatham, Georgia O'Keeffe 1887, Ed Asner 1929


Petula Clark 1932, Frida Lyngstad (ABBA) 1945, Beverly D'Angelo 1954



1777 - The Continental Congress approved the Articles of Confederation, precursor to the U.S. Constitution.


1806 - Explorer Zebulon Pike spotted the mountaintop that became known as Pikes Peak.


1864 - Union Gen. William T. Sherman and his troops began their "March to the Sea" during the U.S. Civil War.


1901 - Miller Reese Hutchison patented an electrical hearing aid.


1939 - U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt laid the cornerstone of the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, DC.


1969 - In Washington, DC, a quarter of a million protesters staged a peaceful demonstration against the Vietnam War.


1986 - Ivan F. Boesky, reputed to be the highest-paid person on Wall Street, faced penalties of $100 million for insider stock trading. It was the highest penalty ever imposed by the SEC.


1993 - A judge in Mineola, NY, sentenced Joey Buttafuoco to six months in jail for the statutory rape of Amy Fisher. Fisher was serving a prison sentence for shooting and wounding Buttafuoco's wife, Mary Jo.

University of Maryland Students Vote to Install $20,000 Napping Stations in Library - Breitbart

University of Maryland Students Vote to Install $20,000 Napping Stations in Library - Breitbart:

"The student government at the University of Maryland recently voted to install two napping stations in the school’s library that will cost over $20,000.
“The order for two pods — including shipping, delivery, assembly and installation — would cost a combined $21,818.20 after applying a learning institution discount of $6,470,” reads a report from the school’s newspaper on the pods."

You Have to Hand It to Hillary – the Girl Can Smear

You Have to Hand It to Hillary – the Girl Can Smear:

"With the help of the DNC (broke, but forking over millions to this end), Hillary pulled off what Kimberly Strassel rightly calls “one of the dirtiest tricks in U.S. political history." She hired a smear outfit (Fusion, headed by Glenn Simpson) which put together ludicrous claims, leaked them to willing press cohorts, including David Corn at Mother Jones, hired Christopher Steele (GPS) to concoct a fairytale about Donald J Trump and had Steele give the Dossier to the FBI in July 2016. Then press megaphone Michael Isikoff at Yahoo News -- obviously tipped off by Steele -- reported, “U.S. intel officials probe ties between Trump advisor and Kremlin.”

Having generated this nonsense, handed it off to the FBI, and shared the news of that handoff to Isikoff, Hillary “jumped all over it, spinning its own oppo research as a government investigation into Mr. Trump.” She and her surrogates hit the airwaves with it:"

The way we were-----Stand By Me, Ben E King, 1961

Boob-tube-----Top 10 Best Super Bowl 50 Commercials (2016 Funniest Ads)

Crash Of The Tu-144 – The Higher You Rise, The Farther You Fall | Frontline Videos | Raw, Uncut, Real Videos From The Frontlines

Crash Of The Tu-144 – The Higher You Rise, The Farther You Fall | Frontline Videos | Raw, Uncut, Real Videos From The Frontlines:
CONCORDSKI.

The quest for the best supersonic aircraft is one that drove a wedge between Russia and the rest of the world. ..

“Just wait until you see us fly. Then you’ll see something.”

– Mikhail Kozlov (Tupolev Tu-144 Pilot)

The Tu-144 launched with a steep climb and everything was going fine until its nose started to dip. In this clip, BBC News shows film of the tragic crash as well as an interview test pilot John Farley who witnessed the crash.

Teaching Millennials How Not to Think Stupid | Minding The Campus

Teaching Millennials How Not to Think Stupid | Minding The Campus
TEACHING MILLENNIALS HOW NOT TO THINK STUPID

"...Here is the speech I gave them.

Before I can teach you how to reason, I must first teach you how to rid yourself of unreason. For many of you have not yet been educated. You have been dis-educated. To put it bluntly, you have been indoctrinated. Before you learn how to think you must first learn how to stop unthinking.

Reasoning requires you to understand truth claims, even truth claims that you think are false or bad or just icky. Most of you have been taught to label things with various “isms” which prevent you from understanding claims you find uncomfortable or difficult.

Skip All Terms Ending in ’ism’

Reasoning requires correct judgment. Judgment involves making distinctions, discriminating. Most of you have been taught how to avoid critical, evaluative judgments by appealing to simplistic terms such as “diversity” and “equality.”

Reasoning requires you to understand the difference between true and false. And reasoning requires coherence and logic. Most of you have been taught to embrace incoherence and illogic. You have learned to associate truth with your subjective feelings, which are neither true nor false but only yours, and which are constantly changeful...."

...So, here are three ground rules for the rest of the semester.

1.  The only “ism” I ever want to come out your mouth is a syllogism. If I catch you using an “ism” or its analogous “ist” — racist, classist, etc. — then you will not be permitted to continue speaking until you have first identified which “ism” you are guilty of at that very moment. You are not allowed to fault others for being biased or privileged until you have first identified and examined your own biases and privileges.
2.  If I catch you this semester using the words “fair,” “diversity,” or “equality,” or a variation on those terms, and you do not stop immediately to explain what you mean, you will lose your privilege to express any further opinions in class until you first demonstrate that you understand three things about the view that you are criticizing.
3.  If you ever begin a statement with the words “I feel,” before continuing you must cluck like a chicken or make some other suitable animal sound.

To their credit, the students received the speech well. And so far this semester, only two students have been required to cluck like chickens."

Read it all!

Court-ordered deportations surge after Trump ends Obama-era delay tactics

Court-ordered deportations surge after Trump ends Obama-era delay tactics:

"Government data shows the Trump administration has already shifted the "culture" of immigration attorneys, who used to have more tools under the Obama administration to delay court decisions on whether to remove illegal immigrants, but are now being forced to push for a final verdict more quickly.

Under Obama, immigration attorneys were more likely to leave cases for illegal immigrants in limbo, thus preventing them from ever ruling on whether they needed to be removed from the U.S. An official from the Executive Office for Immigration Review explained to the Washington Examiner that attorneys would push for an administrative closure, or a pause in the proceedings before an administrative judge."

Interesting take!-----Scott Adams: Trump Tweeting About Kim Jong Un is "Little Bit Theater and...

Thin gruel-----Mona Shores superintendent resigns following paid leave | MLive.com

Mona Shores superintendent resigns following paid leave | MLive.com
"NORTON SHORES, MI - Mona Shores Public Schools superintendent Greg Helmer, who has been the subject of scrutiny after he was reprimanded for retaliating against an employee and was placed on paid administrative leave last week, has resigned.
The plan was established for Helmer after Principal Jennifer Bustard filed a complaint that alleged Helmer had engaged in a pattern of "bullying, harassment and intimidating behavior to 'get rid of her,'" according to an investigative report released to MLive in October.
She later filed a second complaint alleging that Helmer tried to "intimidate and undermine" her in retaliation for filing the first complaint, according to the report.
...Helmer's annual salary was $133,500, according to Mona Shores' most recent transparency reporting of W-2 compensation exceeding $100,000. 

Total compensation in 2016 was $211,624..."

Read the report: https://www.scribd.com/document/362785993/Mona-Shores-Investigative-Findings-Report-for-FOIA-10-23-17

Lunch video-----Why Do Millennials Idolize Brutal Communist Dictators? | The Daily Signal

Noon-toon

Stop Forcing Taxpayers to Fund Public Broadcasting | The Heritage Foundation

Stop Forcing Taxpayers to Fund Public Broadcasting | The Heritage Foundation:

"When President Johnson signed the Public Broadcasting Act on Nov. 7, 1967, he spoke of a future in which non-commercial broadcasters would function as nationwide replicas of Ancient Greece's "agora," or marketplace. But he added a dark warning: If mishandled, they could "generate controversy without understanding ... mislead as well as teach."

Conservatives quickly realized it was not going to be the agora."

Local Governments Are Not in Debt Because of Less Revenue Sharing [Michigan Capitol Confidential]

Local Governments Are Not in Debt Because of Less Revenue Sharing [Michigan Capitol Confidential]:
"The largest problem facing local governments is the amount of debt they have for workers in retirement.
The debt comes in two forms: pension liabilities and government-funded medical insurance. 
The political debate is how to solve the debt problem.
Local governments can stop racking up pension debt by shifting their employees to 401(k) retirement plans as soon as possible.
...Local governments would always like to have more money from the state.
But that’s not the real problem.
The problem is that municipalities have made promises they are pushing off onto future taxpayers. These problems are self-inflicted and, because there is no right to retiree health care, local managers already have the tools necessary to fix them..."

BARACK BIPOLAR OBAMA, THEN AND NOW. Shot: Obama had always had a high estimation of his ability …

Instapundit » Blog Archive » BARACK BIPOLAR OBAMA, THEN AND NOW. Shot: Obama had always had a high estimation of his ability …:

BARACK BIPOLAR OBAMA, THEN AND NOW.
Shot:

Obama had always had a high estimation of his ability to cast and run his operation. When David Plouffe, his campaign manager, first interviewed for a job with him in 2006, the senator gave him a warning: “I think I could probably do every job on the campaign better than the people I’ll hire to do it,” he said. “It’s hard to give up control when that’s all I’ve known.” Obama said nearly the same thing to Patrick Gaspard, whom he hired to be the campaign’s political director. “I think I’m a better
 speechwriter than my speechwriters,” Obama told him. “I know more about policies on any particular issue than my policy directors. And I’ll tell you right now that I’m gonna think I’m a better political director than my political director.”

—“Obama: I Can Do Every Job Better Than Those I Hire to Do It,” Jim Geraghty, April 24, 2012.

Chaser:  “Fifty Times Obama Reminded Us His Job Isn’t Easy,” Washington Free Beacon video supercut, Thursday.
Posted by Ed Driscoll at 7:40 am

#1 This day 1966-----The Supremes-You Keep Me Hangin' On

Teenagers who smoke cannabis damage their brains for LIFE and may be more likely to develop schizophrenia | Daily Mail Online

Teenagers who smoke cannabis damage their brains for LIFE and may be more likely to develop schizophrenia | Daily Mail Online:

• Teenagers who smoke cannabis damage their brains for LIFE and may be more likely to develop schizophrenia
• U.S. study found that mice exposed to even small doses of marijuana for 20 days suffered lasting brain damage into adulthood 
• Results highlight how teenagers who regularly smoke weed may have a greater risk of developing schizophrenia

Teenagers who regularly smoke cannabis suffer long lasting brain damage and are in much greater danger of developing schizophrenia..."
Read on!