Paradigms and Demographics: October 2012

Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Today's Only Post! A Must Read Article!

Editor's Note: I have deliberately made this singular post the only post for the day because I want to make sure it doesn't get lost among a host of topics. This post is a "Must Read Article!"

Obama’s EPA Plans for 2013

By S. Fred Singer

….Obama has already promised to make climate change the centerpiece of his concern—with all that implies: “Green” energy policy, linked to loss of jobs (Keystone pipeline disapproval), rising gas prices (ethanol mandates), and crony capitalism (Solyndra).” ……He has also been uncharacteristically quiet about his efforts to “make electricity prices skyrocket.” But there is more in store if he is re-elected and unleashes the full regulatory apparatus of the EPA.

Senate report

Earlier this month, Senator James Inhofe (R-Okla. ), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, released a new EPW Minority Report entitled, “A Look Ahead to EPA Regulations for 2013: Numerous Obama EPA Rules Placed On Hold until after the Election Spell Doom for Jobs and Economic Growth.”

This report enumerates the slew of environmental regulations that the Obama-Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has delayed or punted on before the election while President Obama is trying to earn votes; …………….

(There is so much here that you must read the whole article. RK)

Summary

This lengthy catalog of EPA horrors does not include schemes being hatched but not yet disclosed. Nor does it include initiatives by “junior EPAs”—such as the cap-and-trade plan by CARB (Calif Air Resources Board).

Clearly, if Romney-Ryan are elected, they will have their hands full just reining in the EPA—an essential step in restoring economic growth. They will need all the help they can get from the next Congress. To Read More.......

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Today's Posts and Links

· History Lesson For the Day

Africa

· What Mali’s Crisis Means for the Future of Western Military Intervention

Benghazi

· Scapegoating Free Speech To Hide Massive Government Failures?

China

· How China Fights: Lessons From the 1962 Sino-Indian War

· The new China looks too much like the old one

· Outspoken China officers a challenge to the party

Leftism

· The Christian Left’s Humanitarian Hypocrisy

· Anti-Wilders Mob Goes Mad

Ohio

· Kingmakers and Heartbreakers: Ohio’s Crucial Independent Voters

· In Ohio – The Center of the Political Universe

Regulations

· CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week In Regulation

Russia

· Russian-backed Eurasian parliament planned

· Russia: Friend or Foe?

Science

· Science policy discussion…on MTV

· Organic Food: Lies, Damned Lies & Dr. Oz

· From The Climate Policy Network

· Science and religion are united in a shared sense of wonder

· Italy’s war on science and reason

Unions

· Others feel wrath of police unions

United Nations

· UN-good Waste for U.S.

History Lesson For the Day

From Robert McNamara, your Guide to 19th Century History

New York City Faced Disasters In the Early 1800s

With much of the media focused today on how Hurricane Sandy will impact New York City and the rest of the Northeast, we're reminded that the city faced disasters in the early 19th century ranging from storms to plague to a colossal fire.

An enormous hurricane pummeled New York in 1821 and its fury was described in the New York Post the following day:

"The falling of slate from the roofs of buildings, and broken glass from the windows, made it unsafe for any one to venture into the streets."

New York City recovered from what became known as The Great September Gale, but faced... Read more

What Mali’s Crisis Means for the Future of Western Military Intervention

By Vivienne Walt, Oct. 29, 201212

Why should Americans care about Mali? Many probably asked themselves that question during the last presidential debate, when Mitt Romney twice mentioned the northwest African nation, a place most Americans might be hard-pressed to locate on a map. Yet seven months after Islamic militant groups seized control of northern Mali, the Western-designed military strategy to push them out could have real consequences for future antiterrorist operations, including for the U.S., according to some analysts. As the pieces steadily fall into place for a military assault on northern Mali, the intervention could serve as a model for future conflicts, at a time when Americans and Europeans have no appetite to fight another war. “We’re moving to a form of intervention which is much more typical of the post-Afghanistan era than anything we have seen before,” says François Heisbourg, a special advisor to the Foundation for Strategic Research in Paris. “If you are looking at future military interventions, it will not be like Iraq and Afghanistan.” To Read More…..

Editor's Note: I posted this on October 13th. On to Timbuktu! A New Jolly Little War We Can’t Find on a Map

Scapegoating Free Speech To Hide Massive Government Failures?

by Hans Bader on October 29, 2012

Earlier, I wrote about how the U.S. government had scapegoated free speech for the terrorist attacks in Libya, claiming that the attacks were an outgrowth of “spontaneous” protests over an obscure, amateurishly-produced film in the U.S. that depicted Mohammed negatively — when in fact, there were no protests at all against the video that day in Benghazi, the city in Libya where the U.S. consulate was attacked. (The attack was by terrorists with ties to Al Qaeda, not protesters of any kind.)

As I have explained in The Washington Post and elsewhere, the Obama administration has sought to restrict free speech on the grounds that it constitutes, or incites, discrimination. That would severely undermine freedom of speech, because a vast array of speech; employment, land use-, housing-, or factory-location decisions; and exercises of freedom of association, can be depicted as being intentionally or unintentionally discriminatory (i.e., “disparate impact”) by government officials (and also because wackos can claim that even perfectly legitimate speech incited them to commit wrongdoing). To Read More.....

China steps carefully with protesting middle class

GILLIAN WONG | October 29, 2012 09

NINGBO, China — A victory by protesters against the expansion of a chemical plant proves the new rule in China: The authoritarian government is scared of middle-class rebellion and will give in if the demonstrators' aims are limited and not openly political.

It's far from a revolution. China's nascent middle class, the product of the past decade's economic boom, is looking for better government, not a different one. They're especially concerned about issues like health, education and property values and often resist the growth-at-all-costs model Beijing has pushed. To Read More…….

The new China looks too much like the old one

Mark Baker October 29, 2012

The venal actions of the party elite belie all the talk of modernisation. On the cusp of next month's 18th congress of the Chinese Communist Party, the carefully crafted theme song trumpeting reform and modernisation has been suddenly replaced by the old anthem of corruption and venality.

A startling report by The New York Times has revealed that the family of outgoing premier Wen Jiabao has stacked up a fortune in excess of $US2.7 billion in the decade since he joined the Politburo. According to the Times, Wen's wife, mother, children and assorted relatives have traded the family's revolutionary rags for the riches of an investment empire of banks, jewelers, tourist resorts, telecommunications companies and control of Ping An Insurance, one of the world's biggest financial companies…..The survival of the regime will again be threatened if it can no longer sustain growth and deliver further improvement to living standards - or if an increasingly affluent and well-informed population demands a more democratic system of government and comes to regard as intolerable the corruption and excess in the ruling elite. To Read More…..

How China Fights: Lessons From the 1962 Sino-Indian War

Brahma Chellaney Oct 29, 2012

China gave India a “lesson” in 1962. Study it now. The rest of the world may have forgotten the anniversary, but a neglected border war that took place 50 years ago is now more pertinent than ever. Before dawn on the morning of Oct. 20, 1962, the People’s Liberation Army launched a surprise attack, driving with overwhelming force through the eastern and western sections of the Himalayas, deep into northeastern India. On the 32nd day of fighting, Beijing announced a unilateral ceasefire, and the war ended as abruptly as it had begun. Ten days later, the Chinese began withdrawing from the areas they had penetrated on India’s eastern flank, between Bhutan and Burma, but they kept their territorial gains in the West—part of the original princely state of Jammu and Kashmir. India had suffered a humiliating rout, and China’s international stature had grown substantially. To Read More….

My take – Perhaps the Chinese think that Japan needs to be taught a lesson also. Please read the comments. There is one that is interesting in that it seems to be an attempt to divert attention from China’s actions by declaring the Indian government is trying to hide their incompetence. The fact that Indian diplomats didn't take warnings seriously, and the Indian military was ill-equipped to deal with the Chinese is immaterial and a logical fallacy. There are two components to “shuami’s” comments that should be addressed.

1. Has China has been the aggressor, i.e. "bully" over and over again? I would say the Tibetans would think so, and they were clearly the aggressor here.

2. Was China been "sneaky" in their attack on India? Since they didn't issue a declaration of war and it was a "sneak attack" I would have to say yes.

Any comments about declassifying documents are red herrings. Logical fallacies are only difficult to overcome when you don’t recognize them. Once they are recognized they are easy to overcome and those who use them are then lost because it is an attempt of divert attention away from truth….and truth is hemlock to these types.

Please read Nothing Is Ever As It Seems In China!

Outspoken China officers a challenge to the party

By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN, October 28, 2012

BEIJING (AP) — China’s government has demanded talks with Japan in their latest dust-up over a set of tiny islands, but a high-ranking Chinese military officer has suggested drastically more belligerent responses.

Dispatch hundreds of fishing boats to fight a maritime guerrilla war, says Maj. Gen. Luo Yuan. Turn the uninhabited outcroppings into a bombing range. Rip up World War II peace agreements and seize back the territory, now controlled by Japan but long claimed by China.

‘‘A nation without a martial spirit is a nation without hope,’’ Luo declared at an academic forum this month in the southern city of Shenzhen while officials in Beijing continued to urge negotiations. To Read More…..

The Christian Left’s Humanitarian Hypocrisy

October 29, 2012 By Raymond Ibrahim Comments (4)

The world’s double standards concerning which peoples qualify as oppressed and deserving of help is staggering. Two recent stories make this clear: First, a report exposed, in the words of the Turkish Coalition of America, “Turkey’s continued interest in expanding business and cultural ties with the American Indian community” and “Turkey’s interest in building bridges to Native American communities across the U.S.” Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.) even introduced a bill that would give Turks special rights and privileges in Native American tribal areas, arguing that “This bill is about helping American Indians,” it is about “helping the original inhabitants of the new world, which is exactly what this legislation would do.”

The very idea that Turkey’s Islamist government is interested in “helping American Indians” is preposterous, both from a historical and contemporary point of view. In the 15^th century, when Christian Europeans were discovering the Americas, Muslim Turks were conquering and killing Christians in Europe (which, of course, is why Europeans starting sailing west in the first place). If early European settlers fought and killed natives, only recently, Turkey committed a mass genocide against Armenian Christians. And while the U.S. has made many reparations to its indigenous natives, Turkey not only denies the Armenian holocaust but still abuses and persecutes its indigenous Christians. To Read More…..

Anti-Wilders Mob Goes Mad

October 29, 2012 By Bruce Bawer Comments (2)

The other day I wrote here about a Norwegian TV documentary – to use the term very loosely – in which Robert Spencer, the consummate Islam critic and expert, was expertly demonized. The program showed him in Stockholm last summer, addressing an outdoor audience from a platform. While he stood there in suit and tie, his demeanor entirely calm and reasonable, and delivered his talk – or tried to – a violent mob a few feet away spewed out its venom: “F……g racists! No racists in our streets!”

Meanwhile a small army of riot police struggled to hold them back. It was not easy.

To look at those faces twisted with hatred – those human beings transformed into ferocious beasts, filled with savage indignation and, by all indications, prepared to tear their fellowman limb from limb – was to stare into the very heart of contemporary Europe’s darkness. It’s one thing to read about the history of Europe from the storming of the Bastille to the present day; it’s another thing to see the most cataclysmic, psychopathic turning points of the last couple of centuries vividly mirrored, as it were, before one’s eyes........So much fury! So many men bullying women in the name of human sensitivity! To Read More……

Kingmakers and Heartbreakers: Ohio’s Crucial Independent Voters

By Matt Hurley October 29, 2012 Comments (2)

Do not trust anyone who claims to know what is going to happen in Ohio on Election Day. The sheer number of variables in play here are plenty, and even the most experienced political observers are having difficulty decoding the Buckeye State.

Polling the electorate in Ohio is tough, and many public polls over-sample Democrats enough to skew results beyond their stated margin of error percentages. This is nothing new for Ohio, though, as typical polling of just about any race in Ohio will show whether the election is an issue race or an election of officials. To Read More.......

In Ohio – The Center of the Political Universe

Bruce Bialosky Oct 29, 2012

When I moved from Shaker Heights (Cleveland), Ohio, at 15 years of age, little did I know that I would be excluded from the world of presidential politics as a grownup by being a Californian. In 2012, I have returned to Ohio for the last two weeks of the campaign -- and what a difference 2,000 miles makes. There is actually an election going on here.

It does not take long to confirm the reality that you have entered the epicenter of Election 2012. The local news reports that Biden and Obama were here today (Tuesday, October 23rd) for a rally in Dayton. On Thursday Romney will be here doing multiple events, but a Romney son was also here on Tuesday doing events with Governor Kasich. Watching local news you see commercial after commercial for the candidates trying to cross the finish line in first place. To Read More.......

CEI’s Battered Business Bureau: The Week In Regulation

by Ryan Young on October 29, 2012

This week in the world of regulation:

Last week, 77 new final rules were published, up from 71 the previous week. That’s the equivalent of a new regulation every 2 hours and 11 minutes — 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. All in all, 3,135 final rules have been published in the Federal Register this year. If this keeps up, the total tally for 2012 will be 3,825 new rules. Last week, 1,043 new pages were added to the 2012 Federal Register, for a total of 64,313 pages. At its current pace, the 2012 Federal Register will run 78,553 pages.....There Is Much More....

Russian-backed Eurasian parliament planned

by F. Michael Maloof

WASHINGTON – Just as Russian President Putin pushes for a customs-free economic Eurasian Union involving Russia and the countries of Central Asia, an additional prospect he sees is the creation of a Eurasian parliament, similar to the European parliament of the European Union, according to a report in Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin. The issue recently resurfaced in Russian-Kazakhstani discussions where Emukhamet Ertysbayev, a political adviser to Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, admitted there have been discussions, but he doesn’t expect anything to happen immediately. He said that there first needs to be harmonization of legislation in the Customs Union to ensure integration of their various laws Not to be derailed by such technicalities, however, Putin is pushing full-speed ahead with the concept.

My Take – If Putin is for this......his neighbors ought to be against it. It seems to me that Putin is clearly attempting to create a Russian hegemony over his neighbors beyond the what the EU bureaucrats have done with Western Europe and create his own NATO style military power base....which is understandable since the Russian military is a mess due to all the corruption in Putin's government. If he pulls this off, which I doubt since his neighbors most likely dispise him, Putin will make all the decisions, impose all the regulations and steal all the money. This is the first I have seen anything on this, so I intend to add this to the list of things I will follow.....and report on.

Russia: Friend or Foe?

Anya Schmemann, October 29, 2012

In last week's foreign-policy debate, while many countries and regions were left unmentioned, Russia was invoked ten times. GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney defended his assertion that Russia is America’s “number-one geopolitical foe.” He added, “I'm not going to wear rose-colored glasses when it comes to Russia, or Mr. Putin.”…..Russia is undeniably large and important, and it often acts as a significant spoiler on the global stage. But certainly it no longer ranks among the top foreign-policy priorities or problems for the United States.

Russia occupies a lot of space, but much of it is frozen tundra, and it is only the world’s ninth most populous nation. It has significant mineral and energy resources and is a major producer of oil and natural gas, but it will require massive new investments to extract new reserves. Russia also maintains a sizeable military force and possesses a substantial stockpile of nuclear weapons, but its military is weakened and in need of modernization. Russia's economy is also sputtering, and its long-term challenges include a shrinking workforce, population decline, high levels of corruption and poor infrastructure. To Read More……..

Science policy discussion…on MTV

Posted on October 28, 2012 by sandyjfs | 7 Comments

President Obama went on MTV Friday and used the interview to discuss climate change and tout the successes of his administration. “I believe scientists, who say that we are putting too much carbon emissions into the atmosphere and it is heating the planet and it is going to have a severe effect,” Obama said. Obama On MTV: ‘Huge Contrast’ On Climate Change Between Me And Romney ........To Read More…..

My Take – Do I really have to comment on this?

Organic Food: Lies, Damned Lies & Dr. Oz

By Jeff Stier

Remember the large-scale study from Stanford last month that said that organic foods aren't necessarily healthier? The study has spurred a raging debate between organic food advocates and skeptics who think conventional produce is just as safe and wholesome. A discussion on Dr. Oz's popular television show earlier this month represented the pro-organic position. Dr. Oz said we simply shouldn't believe the Stanford study. He said all the headlines got it wrong. Dr. Oz wants us to eat organic food because he thinks the pesticides used in conventional farming put us at risk, while organic food – even though pesticides are used to grow it too – are safe.

Dr. Oz's unopposed guest, Dr. Alan Greene, said, “Organic food by definition is grown without ‘toxic synthetic pesticides.’” Wait a second.  Is organic food really grown without synthetic pesticides? No. The USDA permits organic growers to used approved synthetic pesticides.  The USDA's National Organic Program states, “In general, synthetic substances are prohibited unless specifically allowed and non-synthetic substances are allowed unless specifically prohibited.” To Read More….

From The Climate Policy Network

Germany’s Christian Democrats Commit Green Suicide

Welcome Back to the Dark Ages….Europe!

People who make themselves green will be gobbled up by goats. -Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Good quote, but I prefer this:

To be green is to be morally defective! - Rich Kozlovich

Germany’s modern populace who live in cities and no longer vote for the Christian Democratic Party (CDU) are beginning again to look for a political party they can vote for. Especially in the affluent Southwest of the Republic the conservative party is under growing threat by the green party. First the CDU lost the state election in Baden-Wuerttemberg to the Greens, and now they also lost the mayoral election in Stuttgart to the Green Party. In Germany, the electorate today is divided along these lines: those who vote for the authentic Greens, those who stay at home, and those who do not change their voting behaviour. As a result, the decline of the party of Konrad Adenauer and Ludwig Erhard will not be halted any time soon.--Günter Ederer, Fulder Zeitung, 25 October 2012

The southern German city of Stuttgart has a new mayor: Fritz Kuhn of Die Grünen. It is the first state capitol to elect a Green Party mayor and the first time in decades that the post has not gone to a candidate from Chancellor Merkel’s conservative CDU. Stuttgart is the capital of Baden-Württemberg, until recently also an unassailable stronghold of Germany’s conservatives. However, in March 2011, the state elected Green Party candidate Winfried Kretschmann governor, an unheard triumph for the Green movement which typically gets around 10 percent of the vote. –Michael Rass, The World, 22 October 2012

Britain’s utilities face a 2-billion-pound ($3.2 billion) bill in 2013 from schemes to cut carbon dioxide emissions, Reuters data show, risking higher prices for consumers and more discomfort for a government anxious to keep energy costs down. Climbing environmental fees have contributed to the latest hikes, according to utilities, and these are set to soar next year when requirements under the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) and a domestic tax applied by the government kick in. Complying with these schemes will land a sixfold increase in costs for British utilities next year compared with 2011, according to Reuters calculations. --Susanna Twidale, Reuters, 26 October 2012

Consumers are having to bear the cost of big green subsidies. Rising bills are a guaranteed vote-loser, but the government is forging ahead with policies that make them unavoidable. --Danny Fortson, The Sunday Times, 28 October 2012

The wonders of US shale gas continue to amaze. Swathes of American industry have acquired a massive and lasting advantage in energy costs over global rivals, demolishing assumptions about US economic decline. Europe is going in the opposite direction, drifting towards energy suicide. --Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, The Daily Telegraph, 29 October 2012

Science and religion are united in a shared sense of wonder

Jeff Forshaw , The Observer, Saturday 27 October 2012 , Jump to comments (41)

As human knowledge expands, some claim science has the answer to the deep questions in life. But what of the mystery of existence? As a scientist, I like to feel as if I am exploring a cosmic mystery of the greatest significance. I am awestruck by the beauty that saturates the laws of physics and suppose that what I am doing is rather more than merely helping to solve an elaborate crossword puzzle. Or perhaps I am just too optimistic – brashly engaging in an ultimately futile attempt to lift my spirits in the face of a meaningless and eternal oblivion.

Fortunately, I don't spend much time on the horns of that dilemma, although that did briefly change recently when I had the privilege to attend a conference on the banks of Lake Geneva organised by Wilton Park, a forum for international dialogue, in partnership with Cern. The event drew together particle physicists, cosmologists, theologians and philosophers in the name of dialogue and mutual understanding. Some might say that Cern should stick to science but I don't agree. A major reason for the popularity of fundamental physics is that it is seen to tackle some pretty "deep" questions – the kinds of questions that really "mean" something – and the quest for meaning is not something best left to scientists…..To Read More…

Italy’s war on science and reason

Alex B. Berezow, 9:08 PM 10/28/2012

Italy is a country that, for good or for worse, was at or near the center of the world for much of the past 2,000 years. Home of the Roman Empire, wellspring of the Renaissance and birthplace of Christopher Columbus, what happened in Italy often didn’t stay in Italy. Oh, how things have changed. Europe appears to be in the grips of an Anti-Renaissance — an almost laughable rejection of technology and a revolt against reason itself. Italy is the poster child of this insanity….. Last week, a judge issued a six-year prison sentence and a fine of $10 million to six scientists for failing to predict an earthquake. The prosecution claims that it understands that scientists are neither prophets nor able to predict earthquakes; instead, it accuses the scientists of providing contradictory information and false assurances. It’s a distinction without a difference. Science was put on trial, and science lost. Just a few days later, Italy’s supreme court ruled that cell phones can cause cancer. Let’s set aside the extremely flimsy epidemiological evidence upon which this link has been posited. There is also the rather pesky problem that it is physically impossible for cell phones to cause cancer because the electromagnetic radiation they emit is not strong enough to break chemical bonds, which is necessary to cause the mutations which lead to cancer…..To Read More….

Others feel wrath of police unions

By: Steven Greenhut 10/29/201

FULLERTON, Calif. — Many people were outraged this summer after a private investigator, with ties to a law firm that represents 120 police unions in California, made an apparently false police report that a Costa Mesa councilman stumbled out of a bar, appearing drunk, and was weaving all over the road as he drove home.

When police showed up at his door, Councilman Jim Righeimer was found stone cold sober. The clear goal of the phony call was to embarrass a lawmaker who had been leading the charge in his city for public employee pension reform, outsourcing services and other cost-saving measures. Subsequently, officials in other cities revealed similarly disturbing tactics from their police unions. To Read More.....

My Take - As I read this my first thought (by the way it gets a lot worse as you continue reading) was where is the Mayor and the Chief of Police, or Safety Director? I have to believe this is a much more massive problem than appears on the surface. I appears that there is a war within the city government between the City Council and everyone else, and apparently that includes all the police unions and their hired lackeys in the state.

Quite frankly it appears to me as if this town is being run by public employees that have taken on all the earmarks of organized crime. It would also appear to me that somewhere in all of this someone is violating federal RICO statutes. I think the Feds have gone after people under RICO for less; as an example this is the law the Feds charged Blagajevich with. Below is what RICO is and the section that I think applies

“The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, commonly referred to as the RICO Act or simply RICO, is a United States federal law that provides for extended criminal penalties and a civil cause of action for acts performed as part of an ongoing criminal organization………

(Here is the section I think applies. RK)

There is also a provision for private parties to sue. A "person damaged in his business or property" can sue one or more "racketeers". The plaintiff must prove the existence of an "enterprise". The defendant(s) are not the enterprise; in other words, the defendant(s) and the enterprise are not one and the same. There must be one of four specified relationships between the defendant(s) and the enterprise: either the defendant(s) invested the proceeds of the pattern of racketeering activity into the enterprise; or the defendant(s) acquired or maintained an interest in, or control over, the enterprise through the pattern of racketeering activity; or the defendant(s) conducted or participated in the affairs of the enterprise "through" the pattern of racketeering activity; or the defendant(s) conspired to do one of the above. In essence, the enterprise is the illegal device of the racketeers. A civil RICO action, like many lawsuits based on federal law, can be filed in state or federal court.

It is clear to me that they are deliberately intimidating honest citizens, corrupting the system and making false charges in order to destroy people’s reputations for personal gain. What is going on here is criminal extortion. However....this is California and I have difficulty feeling sorry for these people since they brought this on themselves due to their failure of courage, intelligence and common sense over decades.....and it is now coming home to roost. Yet even now when they are going broke the citizens are still too stupid and cowardly to stand up and say enough is enough. And this is the state the lefties point to as the examplar of civic responsibility. Is it any wonder that the sane are leaving this lunatic asylum in droves? And taking their taxes with them!

UN-good Waste for U.S.

Posted by Lloyd Billingsley Tuesday October 23rd, 2012

Millions of American workers can’t find jobs and even the free spending Obama administration has frozen federal salaries for two years. But the situation is different at the United Nations, which gets approximately 25 percent of its budget from the United States.

The UN employs 489 executives, more than the number of equivalent positions (484) in the executive branch of the U.S. government, according to a recent report. And the many “special envoys” and such put the UN figure higher, just like the UN salaries. These can be more than 50 percent higher than U.S. government executive salaries because of a “post-adjustment multiplier” which is 61.3 percent in New York, site of UN headquarters. So the actual salary of a UN boss is 161.3 percent of what the UN pay chart shows, and higher still because the UN brass pay no income taxes. The UN even deploys a special compensation fund for American employees who by law must file U.S. tax returns. The United States has been bankrolling this kind of gold-plated waste for decades, getting little in return. To Read More......