Lest we not forget------TaxProf Blog: The IRS Scandal, Day 214

TaxProf Blog: The IRS Scandal, Day 214:
"The IRS Scandal, Day 214
By Paul Caron Share

Bloomberg Video: Will IRS Scandal Lead to GOP Retaking the Senate?
Breitbart:  Treasury IG Office: Audits of ObamaCare Critics Just a Coincidence
Conservative Happenings:  Obama Dismisses IRS Targeting of Conservatives: ‘They’ve Got a List, and Suddenly Everybody’s Outraged’
Discriminations: Obama, Flip-Flopping, Now DEFENDS IRS Targeting of Conservatives!
The Other News: Obama: There Was No IRS Scandal – It Was Just Made Up By the Media
Mike Price:  IRS: The Evolution of a Scandal in the President’s Mind
Reason:  Obama Dismisses IRS Targeting of Conservative Groups as Non-Issue, Complains About "So-Called Progressives" Who Thought It Was
Washington Times editorial:  IRS Doubles Down:  Tax Man Prepares Another Crackdown on Free Speech"

Gonna be a busy item---------Detroit Police Chief Craig backs sensors to track gunfire

Detroit Police Chief Craig backs sensors to track gunfire | The Detroit News:
"Detroit— Detroit police are considering making a second run at using “ShotSpotter” technology that uses sound sensors to find where gunshots are coming from, Chief James Craig said Friday.

...Mayor Dave Bing pushed two years ago for the city to sign a three-year, $2.6 million contract to use ShotSpotter, but the City Council narrowly rejected the measure.
Craig recently started drafting a plan for using the technology but has not requested funding from the city, said Detroit Police Sgt. Michael Woody, a department spokesman."

If it turns out to be "bad", blame Bush and Palin......Scientists Discover Huge Freshwater Reserves Beneath the Ocean

....if it turns out to be "good" credit our "leader" B Hussein Obama ....... right?
Scientists Discover Huge Freshwater Reserves Beneath the Ocean - Slashdot:
""Scientists have discovered huge freshwater reserves beneath the seabed on continental shelves off the coast of Australia, North America, China and South Africa.
'The volume of this water resource is a hundred times greater than the amount we've extracted from the Earth's sub-surface in the past century since 1900.
Fresh water on our planet is increasingly under stress and strain so the discovery of significant new stores off the coast is very exciting.
It means that more options can be considered to help reduce the impact of droughts and continental water shortages' says Dr Vincent Post of the National Centre for Groundwater Research and Training (NCGRT) and the School of the Environment at Flinders University.""

If they build it, we won't come------Work on M-1 started?

More money to the "connected" to build another boondoggle for Detroit.
Follow the money!
Work on M-1 started? Blog offers photo | Crain's Detroit Business:
"Has work begun on Woodward Avenue for the M-1 Rail streetcar line?
Maybe, sort of, possibly.
A photo published Dec. 4 by real estate blog Detroit.Curbed.com showed overnight underground street work being done at Woodward Avenue and Congress Street.
M-1 project spokesman James Canning said he couldn't confirm whether the work being done in the photo was, in fact, related to the $137 million streetcar effort. 
The M-1 project itself hasn't begun such work.
However, Canning did say utility companies such as DTE and Comcast have received approval to begin the underground work required before construction of the 3.3-mile streetcar line can begin in the spring."

"Concerned statements" seem to be all they are producing these days--------U.S. Students Slide on International Measure

U.S. Students Slide on International Measure | Heartlander Magazine:
"The latest international test scores, released Tuesday, show U.S. students sliding further behind their global counterparts in math, reading, and science.
On the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), a test administered every three years, U.S. students came in 20th in reading in 2012.
In 2009, they were tenth. On math, U.S. students ranked 30th this year. In 2009, they ranked 24th.
And in science, U.S. students were 23rd of the more than 65 countries tested, four below their 2009 ranking.
The results generated a raft of concerned statements."

WeMOG hike for Wed. 12/11/2013

Hike Nordhouse Dunes

Wednesday, December 11

1:00

Nordhouse Dunes is between Ludington and Manistee at Lake Michigan.  If not too windy, we will hike the ridge trail overlooking Lake Michigan.  If too windy, we will

stay on the more sheltered wooded trails.  The hike will take about

 2 1/2 hours. Trail is uneven and moderately hilly.

Car Pool - 10:30 at Russ' on Holton Road, soouthwest corner of the parking lot.

Hike begins by 1:00 at the Nurnberg Trailhead.

Coffee and sustenance at Big Boy on U.S. 10/31, east of Ludington following the hike.

Cancellation or weather related change of plans by 8:00 a.m.

Directions - Take U.S. 31 North to the Ludington exit and turn right (east). Go about 2 miles to Stiles Road (light) and turn left (north).  Go 8.6 miles to Townline Rd and turn right (east).  Go 1/2 mile to Quarterline Rd. and turn left (north). Go 1.5 mi. to Nurnburg Road and turn right (west).  Go 6.5 miles to the trail head. 

 With the leaves down, the views from the ridge are spectacular.

Note: Nordhouse Dunes is the only Federally designated wilderness area in the lower peninsula.

Call or email me with questions:My phone: 231-421-4409 My E-address EyeOnMuskegon@gmail.com

Tomorrow (Tue. 12/10/13) morning! Save on blood work-hey, I got a BIG deductible.

Mercy H.E.A.R.T. Center

The following are program of the Mercy H.E.A.R.T. Center at 1212 E. Sherman Blvd., Muskegon.

Cholesterol, Lipid and Glucose Screening

Second Tuesday of each month, 7 a.m. to noon

$6 for cholesterol or glucose screenings, $15 for a lipid profile and $21 for both.

No appointment needed. To learn more, call 231-672-3648.

Somehow this doesn't surprise. -------Michigan Schools Promoting Large Number Of Students Who Cannot Read

Michigan Schools Promoting Large Number Of Students Who Cannot Read [Michigan Capitol Confidential]:
"More than half of the third graders at Three Lakes Academy in the Upper Peninsula failed to score proficient on the state reading test in 2010-2011.
But none of the school's 14 third-graders were held back.
At Howell Public Schools, none of the 35 third-graders who didn't rate proficient at reading were held back.

OMG! There won't be a smart bra! ---'Smartbra’ To Combat Stress-Related Overeating Is A Bust

'Smartbra’ To Combat Stress-Related Overeating Is A Bust | CNS News:
"There are smartphones and smart appliances, but Microsoft has discovered that smart technology goes only so far.
The tech giant has decided not to pursue the idea of a “smartbra” with embedded sensors dreamed up by a team of researchers to combat stress-related overeating."

Quotations of the day: William Taft and the NY Times

Quotations of the day: William Taft and the NY Times | AEIdeas:
"Carpe Diem
Quotations of the day: William Taft and the NY Times
Mark J. Perry | December 7, 2013, 8:46 pm
1. “No tendency is quite so strong in human nature as the desire to lay down rules of conduct for other people.”

~William Howard Taft referring to the temperance movement of the early 1900s that was a major force in America’s First War on Drugs Peaceful Americans Who Chose to Use Intoxicants Not Currently Approved of by the Government, Who Will Lock Users Up in Cages if Caught.

2. “Once men get in the habit of helping themselves to the property of others they are not easily cured of it.”

~The NY Times editorializing in 1909 against the federal income tax.

MP: Unfortunately, our tolerance of: a) busybodies telling other people how to behave, and b) the practice of theft by taxation and civil forfeiture, has increased over the last 100 years, and the War on Drugs has contributed to both forms of despicable behavior."

Shockingly, they are NOW out of money.... your money..... and they want some more....City Spends $8 Million on Theater — Sells It Eight Years Later for $135,000

Will someone follow the money?
PLEASE!
City Spends $8 Million on Theater — Sells It Eight Years Later for $135,000 [Michigan Capitol Confidential]
"Eight years after the city of Pontiac spent $8 million renovating a theater that city officials say never reopened, the city sold it to a developer for $135,000.
Pontiac Emergency Manager Louis Schimmel said the deal is expected to be completed within two weeks."

Coming Soon: Obamacare Burns Down Volunteer Fire Departments

The PJ Tatler » Coming Soon: Obamacare Burns Down Volunteer Fire Departments

Through the magic combination of Obamacare and the IRS, volunteer firefighters may be considered “employees,” and their volunteer fire departments may be forced to give them healthcare. Or pay penalties that would force them to shut down.

The International Association of Fire Chiefs has asked the Internal Revenue Service, which has partial oversight of the law, to clarify if current IRS treatment of volunteer firefighters as employees means their hose companies or towns must offer health insurance coverage or pay a penalty if they don’t.

“It could be a huge deal,” said U.S. Rep. Lou Barletta, R-11, Hazleton, who is seeking clarification from the IRS. “In Pennsylvania, 97 percent of fire departments are fully or mostly volunteer firefighters. It’s the fourth highest amount in the country.”The organization representing the fire chiefs has been working on the issue with the IRS and White House for months.

So far, the IRS hasn’t decided what to do.

Efforts to reach spokesmen for the IRS were unsuccessful.

One would think that since volunteer firefighters aren’t paid, usually belong to small fire departments that operate on a shoestring and don’t work more than 29 hours per week fighting fires, Obamacare wouldn’t touch them. But the IRS considers all volunteer firefighters and EMS personnel to be employees. So the IRS could well rule that they must be extended healthcare, or their fire departments face penalties. The IRS hasn’t decided if it’s going to continue that thinking applied to Obamacare.

If it does, then volunteer fire departments will face a world of hurt. They could go away, leaving rural communities vulnerable.

How to destroy a nation

The Religious Makeup Of America

The Religious Makeup Of America - Business Insider:

When you take decades to destroy a great city, tough questions will follow-----Pensions in play in Detroit bankruptcy: What's equitable?

And no one in Muskegon county government seems to have a clue what's happening to Detroit.
Pensions in play in Detroit bankruptcy: What's equitable? | Crain's Detroit Business:
"All pensioners may have been made equal to other unsecured creditors who hold contracts with Detroit, by a federal bankruptcy court judge — but that may not necessarily put them on equal footing.

Now that Judge Steven Rhodes has found the city's 21,000-plus retirees are no different than many other creditors who have rights under a contract with the city, attorneys expect the city will submit what federal law calls a "fair and equitable plan" to restructure its debt by late February.

But what is equitable, for example, to former city employees who have been retired for years, are physically unable to return to work, do not receive Social Security if they were police officers or firefighters, and received promises from a city that was once in much better shape? "

Can we get those "clunker" cars back? Report: Scientists predict a century of global cooling

Report: Scientists predict a century of global cooling | The Daily Caller:
"German scientists found that two naturally occurring cycles will combine to lower global temperatures during the 21st century, eventually dropping to levels corresponding with the “little ice age” of 1870.

“Due to the de Vries cycle, the global temperature will drop until 2100 to a value corresponding to the ‘little ice age’ of 1870,” write German scientists Horst-Joachim Luedecke and Carl-Otto Weiss of the European Institute for Climate and Energy."

Welcome to Obamacare-----New Affordable Care US health plans will exclude top hospitals

New Affordable Care US health plans will exclude top hospitals - FT.com:
"Americans who are buying insurance plans over online exchanges, under what is known as Obamacare, will have limited access to some of the nation’s leading hospitals, including two world-renowned cancer centres.
Amid a drive by insurers to limit costs, the majority of insurance plans being sold on the new healthcare exchanges in New York, Texas, and California, for example, will not offer patients’ access to Memorial Sloan Kettering in Manhattan or MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, two top cancer centres, or Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles, one of the top research and teaching hospitals in the country."

Why not $100/hr? -----The True Cost of a Higher Minimum Wage

The True Cost of a Higher Minimum Wage - Zachary Karabell - The Atlantic:
"What’s not clear, however, is whether mandating a higher wage will do anything to change that. Nearly 20 states have a higher minimum wage than the federal rate.
That means that the federal law has little effect in wide swaths of the country.
What’s more, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, only 5 percent of all workers are paid at or less than the current minimum wage. 
Thus, increasing it will make precious little difference in most people’s lives.
.....Under a higher minimum wage, a significant number of companies would likely trim payrolls in order to maintain profits."

"Choice" is an option...if you're rich------You Want to Keep Your Doctor? ‘You Can Pay for It,’ Says Obamacare Architect

You Want to Keep Your Doctor? ‘You Can Pay for It,’ Says Obamacare Architect | CNS News:
"Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, a former health policy adviser in the Obama White House, grudgingly admitted on Sunday that President Obama did promise the American people that they could keep their doctors if they liked them under Obamcare.
“No one guaranteed you that your premium wouldn't increase,” Emanuel, a medical doctor, told Fox News Sunday.
“The president guaranteed me I could keep my doctor,” Chris Wallace told Emanuel.
“And if you want to, you can pay for it,” Emanuel responded. 
“As a matter of fact, choice is something we all understand, and we all understand that for more choice, more benefits, you have to pay more.”"

This plan will work. Unless the democrats and unions stop it.Paul unveils plan for Detroit 'economic freedom zone'

Paul unveils plan for Detroit 'economic freedom zone' | The Detroit News

Kentucky U.S. Sen. Rand Paul unveiled Thursday his plan to save Detroit two days after a judge officially declared the Motor City bankrupt.

Paul, widely considered a 2016 potential presidential candidate, said he will introduce legislation Monday to create “economic freedom zones” by dramatically lowering taxes in depressed areas and loosen visa rules to encourage foreign entrepreneurs to immigrate to the city.

“We hope to create taxes so low you essentially are able to bail yourselves out,” Paul said Thursday in a conference call outlining his plan."

Obama's america--Hate-criminal--Waitress Accused of Lying About Anti-Gay Customers Denying Her a Tip Now Out of a Job

I wonder how many lawyers have contacted he about an unfair firing lawsuit.
Waitress Accused of Lying About Anti-Gay Customers Denying Her a Tip Now Out of a Job | Video | TheBlaze.com:
"Morales received more than $3,000 in donations via PayPal, Gothamist reported, and promised to donate the money to the Wounded Warriors (which she hadn’t as of this week).
Some individuals have indicated receiving refunds from Morales after her story began falling apart, Gothamist added.
(The couple whom she accused of not leaving a tip and leaving an anti-gay note instead presented a receipt with a tip and no note as evidence of Morales’ apparent hoax.)"

Anyone hear from Al Sharpon on this? Veteren Jim Vester murdered after arranging to buy iPad from Craigslist

I assume if Obama had any sons they'd look just like these two scumbags......
Veteren Jim Vester murdered after arranging to buy iPad from Craigslist | Mail Online:
"Tyron Kincade, 19, and his brother Tyshaune Kincade, 18, have been arrested and charged with Vester's murder"

This ain't good-----Japan Press: "China-Japan War To Break Out In January"

Japan Press: "China-Japan War To Break Out In January" | Zero Hedge

Following China's unveiling of its air defense identification zone (ADIZ) in the East China Sea, overlapping a large expanse of territory also claimed by Japan, the Japanese media has, as The Japan Times reports, had a dramatically visceral reaction on the various scenarios of a shooting war. 

From Sunday Mainichi's "Sino-Japanese war to break out in January," to Flash's "Simulated breakout of war over the Senkakus," the nationalism (that Kyle Bass so notably commented on) is rising.

Which side, wonders Shukan Gendai ominously, will respond to a provocation by pulling the trigger? 

The game of chicken between two great superpowers is about to begin.

Via The Japan Times,

Five out of nine weekly magazines that went on sale last Monday and Tuesday contained scenarios that raised the possibility of a shooting war.

No more potash? Potential ... with a grain of salt

Well, we still got pot in Michigan.
Potential ... with a grain of salt | Crain's Detroit Business:
"Only weeks after a swirl of media reports trumpeted that potash soon may become a $65 billion industry for Michigan, the owner of the only potash mine in the state stopped production of the mineral and laid off a dozen workers."

They STILL had a statue of Lenin?!!! Protesters in Kiev Topple Lenin Statue as Rallies Grow

Protesters in Kiev Topple Lenin Statue as Rallies Grow - NYTimes.com:
"KIEV, Ukraine — Protesters in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine, toppled the city’s main statue of Lenin on Sunday and then pounded it into chips with a sledgehammer as a crowd chanted and cheered.
The destruction of the statue was a cathartic moment in the biggest day of demonstrations so far against President Viktor F. Yanukovich’s turn away from Europe."

Face it. Our rulers just don't like us to have a choice about anything. Except killing babies.........New York City proposal seeks ban on electronic cigarette use in public

It's the look they don't like?
New York City proposal seeks ban on electronic cigarette use in public | Fox News:
"New Yorkers who say electronic cigarettes helped them quit smoking asked city lawmakers at a hearing this week not to ban the nicotine inhalers from restaurants, workplaces and other indoor spaces, saying there isn't enough evidence they pose a health risk to justify their exclusion.

"The facts are that this isn't smoking," Jesse Gaddis, a representative from Brooklyn-based Bedford Slims, an e-cigarette company, toldThe New York Post as he exhaled wasps of white mist during his testimony. "This is vapor."

Another attendee at Wednesday's meeting said, "These people would try to get you to prohibit penicillin ... if there was grant money in it.""

The predictive powers of media-----1993 Independent Article About Osama Bin Laden

These MSM bozos couldn't predict tomorrow's weather..... oh, wait. They have. And they're wrong about that too!
1993 Independent Article About Osama Bin Laden - Business Insider:
"This article from Dec. 6, 1993, by Robert Fisk of The Independent, titled, "Anti-Soviet warrior puts his army on the road to peace," is stunning to consider 20 years later.

Osama bin Laden, fresh off the US-backed mujahadin's victory over Russia in 1989, flew his men, materials and money down to Sudan, ostensibly to start public works projects.

When asked if they were militant training camps, the "Saudi entrepreneur" and future leader of al Qaeda told Fisk: "I am a construction engineer and an agriculturalist. If I had training camps here in Sudan, I couldn't possibly do this job.""

Theatre Full Of Bikers And Only 2 Seats Left. What Would You Do?

Theatre Full Of Bikers And Only 2 Seats Left. What Would You Do?

British writer: Michigan State beats Ohio State with class, celebrates with class

British writer: Michigan State beats Ohio State with class, celebrates with class | Detroit Free Press | freep.com:

US-based British sportswriter Simon Veness revels in a win for the ‘good guys’ in Indianapolis.

We have a saying in British sporting circles – form is temporary, but class is permanent. 

And that never seemed like a greater truism afterthe events at Lucas Oil Stadium on Saturday night.
....And it owed everything to the class of Mark Dantonio, who has – in the eyes of this observer-from-afar – created an atmosphere of nobility in competition and respectfulness in attitude, two qualities that probably seemed as outdated as the idea of 12-win seasons and Rose Bowl bids back in September.

...."At the same time, we wait to see if the apparent hubris of OSU’s leader is affected in defeat, if an upset in this manner counts for anything in Columbus. I may have missed it, but I didn’t see a quoted word from the head coach admitting that the better team carried the day; that the Spartans are deserving of their ticket to Pasadena; anything, in fact, that showed an awareness of a world beyond his own.

So, if Urban Meyer really wants to learn the lessons of his first defeat with the Buckeyes, he needs to look not at the game tape of how his team were substantially and indisputably undermined on the field – but at how the opposite sideline conducted itself off it.

In this case, class may not necessarily be permanent, but it has certainly lasted since November 2006, when Mark Dantonio took up the reins at Spartan Stadium. And it will probably last as long as he fancies the task of pitting MSU against college football’s ‘super-powers.’"

WeMog-Tomorrow-Everyone invited

Meet at Picnic Shelter Parking lot (ski trails)

 at 12:25 at Hoffmaster State Park,

Monday, December 9.   

Boots hit the trail at 12:30. 

Plan to hike a couple of hours. 

There are lots of options, so group can choose trails.

Happy Hiking