Nov 27, 2011

Ragbag Headlines

Over 200,000 Sign Socialist Petition Against Black Friday

Target Employee Anthony Hardwick and Best Buy employee Rick Melaragni have unwittingly fueled the growing socialist movement in America. They’ve just launched online petitions against their store’s extended Black Friday hours, claiming that the retail giants are asking them to miss the Thanksgiving holiday. The petitions have more than 200,000 signatures and growing. Other copycats are now starting online petitions against their employers as well.

At first glance, it reads like something from a Charles Dickens novel. (Incidentally, Dickens was a Christian socialist). These poor workers are made to work ungodly hours just so Target and Best Buy can make an extra buck this holiday season.

What Mr. Hardwick and Mr. Melaragni have failed to understand, however, is that the Friday after Thanksgiving is called “Black Friday” for a very important reason. It’s because this is the day where retail stores sell enough to dig out from being in the red (running a loss) to being in the black (turning a profit). Hence the name “Black Friday.” In our difficult economic times, stores must work harder than ever before to encourage customers to buy their products. This year, it means opening their doors even earlier.

The free market is demanding these hours. And if stores don’t comply, they may lose money. They may lose market share to their competitors. They may go out of business entirely. And where will Mr. Hardwick and Mr. Melaragni find themselves? Unemployed.

In a time when unemployment is at a record high in America, one would think these two young socialists would be thankful to have a job.

Lots of people have to work on Thanksgiving—Firemen, Police Officers, Doctors, Military personnel, etc.. I’m sure glad they’re working to protect me and my family. I own several small businesses. I will have to check my email, launch advertising campaigns, and make sure my web sites are running smoothly. I am not complaining because this is how I make money. And I use that money to put a Thanksgiving Turkey on the table.

I am afraid that young Americans have lost sight of the American Dream. They don’t understand how the free market works. They don’t appreciate what they have. They expect everything to be handed to them without hard work.

Wanting to spend Thanksgiving with your family is a good thing. But nobody owes them a Thanksgiving holiday. Like everyone else, they need to earn it. And if they aren’t thankful on Thanksgiving for their cushy job, I know tens of thousands of unemployed workers who would gladly take them! -Godfather Politics

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Taxing White People And Christmas

You might be asking, when have whites and Christmas been taxed? Tanning booths and freshly cut Christmas trees. Buried deep in ObamaCare is a 10 percent tax on tanning salons that went into effect July 1, 2010 to help fund the $940 billion health care overhaul bill. The targeted tax is expected to generate $2.7 billion over ten years. This means that customers are paying the tax four years before they will get any healthcare.

Only so-called white people go to tanning booths. Can you imagine what would happen if a certain hair product or procedure used only by blacks was taxed? Al and Jesse would be marching on Washington.

I know the tanning-white-people is a stretch, but it’s a stretch for a reason. Liberals want our money any way they can get it, and they will tax anything and everything they can to get it. They don’t care one wit about the consequences of a seemingly minimal tax (and most of the time we don’t either as long as they don’t tax us). “It’s only ten percent,” we say. There are some companies where ten percent can make a difference between success and failure. The assumption is that customers won’t notice the difference. Think again:

“This is going to close tanning salons,” said Joseph Levy, vice president of the International Smart Tan Network, which has 3,000 member salons. “You can’t just pass on a tax like this to customers and not have it hurt your bottom line.”

Levy estimates that about 9,000 jobs are in jeopardy and more than 1,000 salons are at risk of being forced to close their doors. The tax also targets middle-class and female business owners, with about two-thirds of tanning salons in the U.S. owned by women, he said.

In addition to putting thousands of employees out of work, Levy predicts the tax will ultimately generate 40% to 50% less than the projected $2.7 billion.

If government officials can tax one industry, they can tax any industry. We should be screaming as loud as we can, NO NEW TAXES FOR ANYBODY and CUT WHAT TAXES WE DO PAY!

In March of this year, “advisers to the Food and Drug Administration recommended tighter controls on artificial tanning, ranging from requiring parental consent forms to banning use by younger teens.” That’s interesting. It’s OK for a teenager to get an abortion without parental permission, but it’s not OK to get a tan. Are these people messed up, or what?

What about taxing a particular Christmas? It’s about a Christmas tree tax that became public today. The story got so much attention that “the U.S. Department of Agriculture is going to delay implementation and revisit a proposed new 15 cent fee on fresh-cut Christmas trees.” This is the brainchild of the National Christmas Tree Association to promote their industry. The Association says that it’s not a tax. Then why is the United States Department of Agriculture involved? No one is opposed to a business raising money through sales for advertising to promote their products. It’s part of doing business.

Here’s the Heritage Foundation’s take on the issue:

In the Federal Register of November 8, 2011, Acting Administrator of Agricultural Marketing David R. Shipman announced that the Secretary of Agriculture will appoint a Christmas Tree Promotion Board. The purpose of the Board is to run a “program of promotion, research, evaluation, and information designed to strengthen the Christmas tree industry’s position in the marketplace; maintain and expend existing markets for Christmas trees; and to carry out programs, plans, and projects designed to provide maximum benefits to the Christmas tree industry” (7 CFR 1214.46(n)). And the program of “information” is to include efforts to “enhance the image of Christmas trees and the Christmas tree industry in the United States” (7 CFR 1214.10).

To pay for the new Federal Christmas tree image improvement and marketing program, the Department of Agriculture imposed a 15-cent fee on all sales of fresh Christmas trees by sellers of more than 500 trees per year (7 CFR 1214.52). And, of course, the Christmas tree sellers are free to pass along the 15-cent Federal fee to consumers who buy their Christmas trees.

These two stories remind me of George Harrison’s song “Taxman,” the opening track on The Beatles’ 1966 album Revolver:

Let me tell you how it will be
There’s one for you, nineteen for me
‘Cause I’m the taxman
Yeah, I’m the taxman

Should five percent appear too small
Be thankful I don’t take it all
‘Cause I’m the taxman
Yeah, I’m the taxman

(If you drive a car car) I’ll tax the street
(If you try to sit sit) I’ll tax your seat
(If you get too cold cold) I’ll tax the heat
(If you take a walk walk) I’ll tax your feet

Taxman!

‘Cause I’m the taxman
Yeah, I’m the taxman

If you get a head head, I’ll tax your hat
If you get a pet pet, I’ll tax your cat
If you wipe your feet feet, I’ll tax your mat
If you’re overwieght, I’ll tax your fat

Now my advise to those who die
(Taxman!)
Declare the pennies on your eyes
(Taxman!)
‘Cause I’m the taxman
Yeah, I’m the taxman.

And you’re working for no one, but me
(Taxman!)

Yes, I’m the taxman
Yeah, I’m the taxman

Godfather Politics

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Most Honey Sold In US Grocery Stores Not Worthy Of Name

Most of the honey sold in chain stores across the country doesn’t meet international quality standards for the sweet stuff, according to a Food Safety News analysis released this week.

One of the nation’s leading melissopalynologists analyzed more than 60 jugs, jars and plastic bears of honey in 10 states and the District of Columbia for pollen content, Food Safety News said. He found that pollen was frequently filtered out of products labeled “honey.”

“The removal of these microscopic particles from deep within a flower would make the nectar flunk the quality standards set by most of the world’s food safety agencies,” the report says. “Without pollen there is no way to determine whether the honey came from legitimate and safe sources.”

Among the findings:

• No pollen was found in 76 percent of samples from grocery stores including TOP Food, Safeway, Giant Eagle, QFC, Kroger, Metro Market, Harris Teeter, A&P, Stop & Shop and King Soopers.

• No pollen was found in 100 percent of samples from drugstores including Walgreens, Rite-Aid and CVS Pharmacy.

• The anticipated amount of pollen was found in samples bought at farmers markets, co-ops and stores like PCC and Trader Joe’s. –Big Health Report

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Breakthrough: Israel Develops Cancer Vaccine

Vaxil’s groundbreaking therapeutic vaccine, developed in Israel, could keep about 90 percent of cancers from coming back.

As the world’s population lives longer than ever, if we don’t succumb to heart disease, strokes or accidents, it is more likely that cancer will get us one way or another. Cancer is tough to fight, as the body learns how to outsmart medical approaches that often kill normal cells while targeting the malignant ones.

In a breakthrough development, the Israeli company Vaxil BioTherapeutics has formulated a therapeutic cancer vaccine, now in clinical trials at Hadassah University Medical Center in Jerusalem. If all goes well, the vaccine could be available about six years down the road, to administer on a regular basis not only to help treat cancer but in order to keep the disease from recurring.

The vaccine is being tested against a type of blood cancer called multiple myeloma. If the substance works as hoped — and it looks like all arrows are pointing that way — its platform technology VaxHit could be applied to 90 percent of all known cancers, including prostate and breast cancer, solid and non-solid tumors. –Big Health Report

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