Secession; palm-printing your children; STEM Act; Internet regulation by the UN

President Obama Honors Rosa Parks Anniversary With Picture Of…Himself

President Obama loves to insert himself in other people’s biographies. He also loves to honor people, most recently Neil Armstrong and Vice President Biden, with pictures of himself. All. About. Him. His laser-like focus never wavers from his own image.
And the narcissism continues: To honor the 57th anniversary of the day Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on the bus, President Obama paid homage with a picture of himself.  http://nation.foxnews.com/obama/2012/12/02/president-obama-honors-rosa-parks-anniversary-picture-himself
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Since Barack Obama's re-election, hundreds of thousands of petitions for secession have reached the White House. Some people have argued that secession is unconstitutional, but there's absolutely nothing in the Constitution that prohibits it. What stops secession is the prospect of brute force by a mighty federal government, as witnessed by the costly War of 1861

http://townhall.com/columnists/walterewilliams/2012/11/28/parting_company/page/full/

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-Instead of paying for their lunches with crumpled dollar bills and loose change, students in Carroll County schools are having their palms scanned in a new check-out system — raising concerns from some parents that their children's privacy is being violated.

The county is one of the first localities in Maryland to use the PalmSecure system, in which children from kindergarten to 12th grade place their hands above an infrared scanner. It identifies unique palm and vein patterns, and converts the image into an encrypted numeric algorithm that records a sale.

Though the school system does not store those images, some parents have complained about the implications of having their children's hands scanned. About 20 percent of parents have declined to participate in the program, said supervisor of food services Karen Sarno.  [I have a question.  Does anyone alive remember who "Big Brother" is?  And don't they see him everywhere these days?  Is that not a problem?]  http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/education/blog/bs-md-ca-school-scan-20121002,0,7431956.story

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This week the House of Representatives made a positive move in reforming the US immigration process by passing the STEM Jobs Act sponsored by Lamar Smith (R-TX).

This act does what our immigration policy should do: ensure a higher level of economic growth in the United States by encouraging the brightest and most talented students in the world to become permanent residents of the United States. It also reduces the wait for the families of the visa recipients to receive residency visas which is now at least two years.
It also eliminates the grotesque “Diversity Visa” lottery program which divvies up some 55,000 visas each year among applicants from countries that are deemed to have low immigration rates to the United States.
Now the left is all aflutter that yet another source of recruiting for the various ethnic ghettos is endangered. http://www.redstate.com/2012/12/02/house-passes-stem-immigration-reform-racialists-go-crazy/
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UN internet regulation treaty talks begin in Dubai

[We finally have some clarity as to just why the UN is demanding this action.  It is that redistribution of our wealth thing again and always.] From the BBC:  But the agency said action was needed to ensure investment in infrastructure to help more people access the net.
"The brutal truth is that the internet remains largely [the] rich world's privilege, " said Dr Hamadoun Toure, secretary-general of the UN's International Telecommunications Union, ahead of the meeting.
"ITU wants to change that." http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-20575844
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A State Department board of experts is calling for steep cuts in U.S. nuclear forces beyond the New START treaty limits and recommends unilateral or informal reductions to avoid expected Senate ratification battles. http://freebeacon.com/disarming-america/
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Admit it. Angus T. Jones was right. From “Glee” to “Girls” to “Two and a Half Men,” television has devolved into a vacuous wasteland where ordinary notions of morality, fidelity and decency are not just censored. They’re a joke.
TV shows present teenage virginity as a curse, human intelligence as a disease, and promiscuous sex as the norm, while average human attention spans are as alien as the Martian landscape.
That’s what Jones, all of 19, suggested when he made a video that went viral on YouTube last week, an impassioned, 20-minute religious rant that had Hollywood’s amoral glamazons shocked and appalled — while hiding the remote from their own children.
Consider the latest episode.
Jones, who plays Army recruit Jake Harper, giddily tells dad Alan (Jon Cryer) his girlfriend “gave me the clap!’’ Jake’s thrilled. Now everyone knows he’s having sex!
“So you’re telling people?’’ his dad asks incredulously. “I don’t have to,’’ responds Jake, “because I scream when I pee.’’ Two minutes of my life, irrevocably ruined.
And that moronic episode, all you connoisseurs of fine TV, tied the season’s highest rating. Nearly 14 million folks tuned in, proving that the public’s acceptance of “humor” of the lowest common denominator is not just limitless. It’s soul crushing.
That’s not to say “Two and a Half Men” is alone. Far from it. [Is it any wonder that after decades of purposefully debasing our culture thru tv, movies, education agendas, and music, we now have an America which would reelect a failed but "charming" President?]   http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/tv_air_pollution_eGCcNisGDI01RXo35uIRyL
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Larry Summers, chair of the White House National Economic Council when the 2009 stimulus was developed, suggested that President Obama will eventually tax and regulate junk food to drive people to eat more healthily — although he dinged First Lady Michelle Obama’s healthy foods initiative. http://washingtonexaminer.com/obamas-2009-stimulus-chief-says-taxes-and-rules-on-junk-food-are-coming/article/2514572#.ULaBKoZOmfW
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Should veterans deemed too mentally incompetent to handle their own financial affairs be prevented from buying a gun?

The issue, for a time last week, threatened to become the biggest sticking point in a $631 billion defense bill for reshaping a military that is disengaging from a decade of warfare.

Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., sought to amend the bill to stop the Veterans Affairs Department from putting the names of veterans deemed too mentally incompetent to handle their finances into the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, which prohibits them from buying or owning firearms. http://news.yahoo.com/veterans-gun-rights-sticky-issue-defense-bill-084034457--politics.html

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The 3.8 percent surtax on investment income, meant to help pay for healthcare, goes into effect in 2013. It is the first surtax to be applied to capital gains and dividend income.
The tax affects only individuals with more than $200,000 in modified adjusted gross income (MAGI), and married couples filing jointly with more than $250,000 of MAGI.

The proposed rules are effective starting January 1. Before making the rules final, the IRS will take public comments and hold hearings in April.
Together, the two taxes are estimated to raise $317.7 billion over 10 years, according to a Joint Committee on Taxation analysis released in June.
To illustrate when the tax applies, the IRS offered an example of a taxpayer filing as a single individual who makes $180,000 in wage income plus $90,000 from investment income. The individual's modified adjusted gross income is $270,000.
The 3.8 percent tax applies to the $70,000, and the individual would pay $2,660 in surtaxes, the IRS said.
The IRS plans to release a new form for taxpayers to fill out for this tax when filing 2013 returns.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/12/03/us-usa-tax-irs-idUSBRE8B21HA20121203
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