Friday Post

Just in time for the week-end...


There have been revolutions over things like these:

The ranks of Ontario’s top-paid government workers grew 9 per cent over the past year, with everyone from electricity executives to subway fare collectors to a television talk show host swelling the ranks of the so-called Sunshine List.

The annual disclosure of public-sector workers who earned more than $100,000 in 2013, released Friday, grew to roughly 96,500 people in 2013, up from 88,412 the previous year. The average salary on the list decreased slightly, from $127,576 to $127,433.

The release also reveals a substantial severance for Dalton McGuinty’s former chief of staff who, it was revealed this week, is under police investigation for allegedly orchestrating the destruction of documents in the former premier’s office. An even heftier payout – more than $240,000 – went to Chris Spence, the Toronto District School Board education director who resigned in January 2013 over a plagiarism scandal.

And, it turns out, Premier Kathleen Wynne’s chief of staff, Tom Teahan, not only made a lot more than she did, he even pulled in bigger bucks than U.S. President Barack Obama’s chief of staff.

 
When you're at home tomorrow night drinking a hot or cold beverage and thanking God for not getting polio, take a moment to remember why you're not doing this:

Few cries for attention are less effective than turning off the lights and sitting in the dark for an hour. Who can watch if they cannot see? Nevertheless, the World Wide Fund for Nature is encouraging people around the world to honor, or celebrate, or mourn, or whatever, during “Earth Hour,” Saturday night between 8:30 and 9:30.

The idea is to persuade everybody to renounce technology with the flick of a switch, raising “awareness” of the need for big government to rescue the globe, indeed even the universe, from the scourge of global warming. ...

Earth Hour paints humanity as the villain pillaging Mother Earth and perpetuates the Luddite myth that modern technology is the enemy of nature. That’s not even close to being true.

Advances in science have kept the skies and water cleaner than ever, contributing to sustainable practices that make humans thrive, and plants soak up the abundant carbon dioxide to grow ever taller and greener. ...

That’s the idea behind Human Achievement Hour, the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s response to Earth Hour. Rather than sitting in the dark on Saturday night, Human Achievement Hour encourages people to “celebrate a human achievement that has improved their lives — everything from indoor plumbing to computer technology, to access to consumer goods and affordable energy.”

The free-market think tank encourages people to participate by enjoying a warm (or even hot) shower, to crack open a cold beer, watch a basketball game on TV, text a friend on a smartphone or enjoy any of the simple joys of life made possible by the energy and innovation of free men.

More of the world’s problems have been solved by human ingenuity and the free market than by sitting around in the dark and feeling guilty (for the wrong things) for an hour.

Related:

See what Dora just did there? He used the shock value of the WHO's pollution death figures to slip three Big Lies under the impressionable reader's radar.

First, he's trying to make out that outdoor pollution is as big a problem as indoor pollution. It isn't: nowhere near. Many of the deaths the WHO links to the former are very likely the result of the latter (cooking and heating in poorly ventilated rooms using dung, wood, and coal) which, by nature, is much more intense.

Secondly, he's implying that economic development is to blame. In fact, it's economic development we have to thank for the fact that there are so many fewer pollution deaths than there used to be. As Bjorn Lomborg has noted, over the 20th century as poverty receded and clean fuels got cheaper, the risk of dying of pollution decreased eight-fold. In 1900, air pollution cost 23 per cent of global GDP; today it is 6 per cent, and by 2050 it will be 4 per cent.

But the third and by far the biggest of the lies is the implication that the UN's policies on climate change are helping to alleviate the problem.

Remember when Obamacare was supposed to be good for everyone?

Just how costly are the Obamacare plans for young beneficiaries?

We ran the numbers. Here are our results:

Overall, the Federal government reports that 32% of on-exchange enrollees as of March 1st are under the age of 34. And many of these are teenagers who are part of family policies, not the young yuppies that Obamacare is fervently targeting. Earlier estimates showed only 20% of enrollees were between the ages 18 and 34.

The final number of young enrollees is well below the required cohort. Premiums will rise next year as a result of the adverse selection of older, and probably less healthy consumers. Why are young adults staying away? In one word, economics.

Obamacare is asking young adults to effectively subsidize the healthcare costs of older Americans. So far, Millennials are resisting this age-based transfer of wealth. Many are clearly opting instead to remain uninsured, or else they are buying cheaper health plans that don’t conform to Obamacare’s regulatory dictates.

So this is how they are ramping up numbers:

Health Care insurance navigator groups hosted an Obamacare enrollment fair on Tuesday in the Mexican Consulate’s Brownsville office, The Rio Grande Guardian reported last Friday, where Mexican nationals among others were counseled about enrolling in the ACA.

“The Mexican consulate is a very reliable source of information to the Latino community. And therefore when they host their events, yesterday being the health fair, there are several hundred people that show up,” Medrano said.

Under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), undocumented immigrants aren't supposed to be receiving government-run health benefits or subsidized coverage. However, President Barack Obama told Latinos in early March that the Healthcare.gov website would not be used to find out about an individual’s immigration status. 

“None of the information that is provided in order for you to obtain health insurance is in any way transferred to immigration services,” he said.

Yeah, I don't think so:

Controversial billboards in Columbus, Ohio, reading "Jesus is Muslim" and "Mohammed is in the Bible" are drawing protests from local Christians who say Muslims are "hijacking" the name of Jesus. 

This would be the same Jesus who is: not the Son of God (Surah 4:171), only a prophet (Surah 5:75), did not die on the cross for the salvation of man (Surah 4:157) and, the most impardonable sin, is a Jew.

Yeshua ben Yosef: not a Muslim

Over at the Fur: hospitals in England are accused of fudging their statistics; Trudeau panders to the Islamic vote (rather like someone on the US one might know) by claiming that Harper's support of Israel is insincere; an Irish judge tells it like it is; could some schools in Nigeria be recruiting terrorists? Possibly; and much, much more!



And now, bears doing human things. Enjoy.