Moral Side

"The Moral Side of the News" Topics for Sunday, November 20, 2011

The topics for "The Moral Side of the News" to be broadcast on Sunday, November 20, 2011, are found below.  You may comment if you like.

The program is broadcast on WHAS-TV on Sundays at 5:30pm and on the FAITH CHANNEL in Louisville via Insight at 12:00nn on Sunday.  On radio the program is broadcast on several Louisville stations on Sunday morning at 7:00am or 7:30am; and on Sunday evening on WHAS 840AM radio at 9:30pm.

TOPIC 1

Retail Employees, Shoppers Fight Black Thursday Openings

While many Americans are eager to take advantage of Black Thursday and Black Friday sales, Target employee Anthony Hardwick would rather spend time with his family and started a petition to urge his employer and its competitors to stay closed on turkey day.

Hardwick's petition on Change.org has about 100,000 signatures requesting Target open its doors at 5 a.m. on the day after Thanksgiving rather than at midnight, which requires Hardwick, 29, and other employees to get to work at 11 p.m. Target announced it would stay open from midnight to 11 p.m. on Black Friday.

"A full holiday with family is not just for the elite of this nation -- all Americans should be able to break bread with loved ones and get a good night's rest on Thanksgiving!" he wrote in the petition. "Join me in calling for Target retail stores to push back their original opening time of 5am on Black Friday."

Molly Snyder, a spokeswoman for Target, said Hardwick has never been scheduled to work on Thanksgiving or Black Friday. In early November, he informed his managers that he was scheduled to work at his other job on Black Friday and indicated that he needed the day off from Target, she said.

"We honored that request," she said in an email to ABC News. "Target does our best to work around the schedules of all of our team members, making every effort to accommodate their requests."

She added that Target will offer holiday pay to all hourly "team members" who work on Thanksgiving Day.

"Black Friday is one of the busiest and most competitive shopping days of the year," she said. "We have heard from our guests that they want to shop Target following their Thanksgiving celebrations rather than only having the option of getting up in the middle of the night. By opening at midnight, we are making it easier than ever to deliver on our guests wants and needs."

Hardwick said it was "bologna" that retail employees could not work on Black Friday if they choose.

"No one in retail requests Black Friday off and gets it. It's a blacked out date," he said.

Hardwick said he did not request Black Friday off and if his employer called to request that he work that day, he would comply "and not let my team members down."

When asked why he was not required to work on Black Friday, Hardwick said, "I guess if you start a petition and raise a national media stink" he made clear his preference.

"I didn't start this for my own personal gain," he said. "I started it for my team members and retail employees around the country."

Other stores have one-upped the midnight opening time. Toys "R" Us will open at 9 p.m. on Thanksgiving night for the first time, the retailer announced on Monday. Walmart announced earlier this month its stores will open at 10 p.m.

Meanwhile, Best Buy, Gap, Old Navy, Banana Republic, Macy's, Kohl's and Target are embracing a midnight schedule.

WATCH STORY: http://abcnews.go.com/Business/target-retail-employees-fight-thanksgiving-openings/story?id=14963563

QUESTION: What are your thoughts on this?

 

TOPIC 2

White House Shooting Suspect Arrested

A 21-year-old Idaho man suspected of firing a semi-automatic rifle at the White House was arrested today, authorities said.

"On Wednesday afternoon at approximately 12:35 p.m. EST, based on information generated by Secret Service agents from the Pittsburgh Field Office, Pennsylvania State Police Troop A located and arrested Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez at a hotel near Indiana, Pa.," according to a statement from Secret Service Special Agent in Charge Edwin Donovan.

Donovan said that Ortega-Hernandez was in the custody of Pennsylvania State Police after being found at a Hampton Inn.

The Secret Service fanned out across the country, coordinating with local law enforcement to find the shooter. The agency said that it had received information that Ortega-Hernandez was using certain hotels during his travels.

This morning, a hotel employee reportedly recognized the suspect from photos distributed by the Secret Service and contacted the agency.

The Secret Service said Tuesday that it suspected that a bullet fired in the shooting incident Friday may have hit the White House after a round was found in a window. The agency said they feared the suspect in the incident might be a threat to President Obama.

The round was stopped by ballistic glass behind the historic exterior glass, while an additional round was found on the exterior of the White House.

Police believe Ortega-Hernandez is mentally ill. He has an extensive record, ranging from domestic violence to drug charges. Sources say a police investigation uncovered evidence suggesting Ortega-Hernandez has a fixation on the White House.

At 9:30 p.m. Friday, police received reports of shots fired in the bustling area of 16th Street and Constitution Avenue

Authorities later found a car in the area. The suspect had fled, but what police discovered inside the vehicle left them deeply concerned: an assault-style rifle and empty shell casings.

Police linked the car to Ortega-Hernandez and started searching for him.

Authorities suspect Ortega-Hernandez had been in the area for weeks, coming back and forth to the Washington Mall. Before the shooting, he was detained by local police at an abandoned house. U.S. Park police say Ortega may have spent time with Occupy D.C. protesters.

Obama, who is currently on a visit to Australia, was not present at the White House at the time of the incident, and has been out of town for the last week.

WATCH STORY: http://abcnews.go.com/US/white-house-shooting-suspect-ramiro-ortega-hernandez-arrested/story?id=14966099#.TsQPuD0k6dA

QUESTION: What are your thoughts on this?

The Protestors Who Claim to Represent the "99%" Are Funded by One of the 0.0000001%

The "Occupy Wall Street" protestors claim to represent the 99% who alledgedly do not control the wealth of the USA. Really, the one's whom they do represent are the 47% who do not pay taxes against the 53% who do. Who is funding these protests?

There has been much speculation over who is financing the disparate protest, which has spread to cities across America and lasted nearly four weeks. One name that keeps coming up is investor George Soros, who in September debuted in the top 10 list of wealthiest Americans (one of the top 0.0000001%). Conservative critics contend the movement is a Trojan horse for a secret Soros agenda.

Soros and the protesters deny any connection. But Reuters did find indirect financial links between Soros and Adbusters, an anti-capitalist group in Canada (yes, that is correct, CANADA!) that started the protests with an inventive marketing campaign aimed at sparking an Arab Spring type uprising against Wall Street. Moreover, Soros and the protesters share some ideological ground.

"I can understand their sentiment," Soros told reporters last week at the United Nations about the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations, which are expected to spur solidarity marches globally on Saturday. Pressed further for his views on the movement and the protesters, Soros refused to be drawn in.

Soros, 81, is No. 7 on the Forbes 400 list with a fortune of $22 billion, which has ballooned in recent years as he deftly responded to financial market turmoil. He has pledged to give away all his wealth, half of it while he earns it and the rest when he dies.

Like the protesters, Soros is no fan of the 2008 bank bailouts and subsequent government purchase of the toxic sub-prime mortgage assets they amassed in the property bubble.

The protesters say the Wall Street bank bailouts in 2008 left banks enjoying huge profits while average Americans suffered under high unemployment and job insecurity with little help from Washington. They contend that the richest 1 percent of Americans have amassed vast fortunes while being taxed at a lower rate than most people.

BANKING LIFE SUPPORT

Soros in 2009 wrote in an editorial that the purchase of toxic bank assets would, "provide artificial life support for the banks at considerable expense to the taxpayer." He urged the Obama administration either to recapitalize or to nationalize the banks and force them to lend at attractive rates. His advice went unheeded.

The Hungarian-American was an early supporter of the 2008 election campaign of Barack Obama, who will seek a second term as president in the November, 2012, election. He has long backed liberal causes - the Open Society Institute, the foreign policy think tank Council on Foreign Relations and Human Rights Watch, the Tides Center, and MoveOn.org.

According to disclosure documents from 2007-2009, Soros' Open Society gave grants of $3.5 million to the Tides Center, a San Francisco-based group that acts almost like a clearing house for other donors, directing their contributions to liberal non-profit groups. Among others the Tides Center has partnered with are the Ford Foundation and the Gates Foundation. Disclosure documents also show Tides, which declined comment, gave Adbusters grants of $185,000 from 2001-2010, including nearly $26,000 between 2007-2009.

The Vancouver-based Adbusters, which publishes a magazine and runs such campaigns as "Digital Detox Week" and "Buy Nothing Day," says it wants to "change the way corporations wield power" and its goal is "to topple existing power structures."

SLOW START

Adbusters, whose magazine has a circulation of 120,000 and which is known for its spoofs of popular advertisements, came up with the Occupy Wall Street idea after Arab Spring protests toppled governments in Egypt, Libya and Tunisia, said Kalle Lasn, 69, Adbusters co-founder. "It came out of these brainstorming sessions we have at Adbusters," Lasn told Reuters, adding they began promoting it online on July 13. "We were inspired by what happened in Tunisia and Egypt and we had this feeling that America was ripe for a Tahrir moment. We felt there was a real rage building up in America, and we thought that we would like to create a spark which would give expression for this rage."

Lasn said Adbusters is 95 percent funded by subscribers paying for the magazine. "George Soros's ideas are quite good, many of them. I wish he would give Adbusters some money, we sorely need it," he said. "He's never given us a penny."

Other support for Occupy Wall Street has come from online funding website Kickstarter, where more than $75,000 has been pledged, deliveries of food and from cash dropped in a bucket at the park. Liberal film maker Michael Moore (easily one of the top 1% in wealth) has also pledged to donate money.

The protests began in earnest on September 17, triggered by an Adbusters campaign featuring a provocative poster showing a ballerina dancing atop the famous bronze bull in New York's financial district as a crowd of protesters wearing gas masks approach behind her.

Dressed in anarchist black, the battle-ready mob is shrouded in a fog suggestive of tear gas or fires burning. Some are wearing gas masks, others wielding sticks. The poster's message seems to be a heady combination of sexuality, violence, excitement and adventure.

Adbusters' co-founder Lasn dismisses that, reeling off specific demands: a tax on the richest 1 percent, a tax on currency trades and a tax on all financial transactions. "Down the road, there will be crystal clear demands coming out of this movement," he said. "But this first phase of the movement is messy and leaderless and demandless."

American Morale - Confidence in the Future and in Government Lacking

From Rasmussen Reports.

Most Americans continue to believe today’s children will not be better off than their parents, but they are a bit more optimistic about the possibility of someone working their way out of poverty.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 18% of American Adults believe today’s children will be better off than their parents. That’s down six points from the previous survey in June and is just a point higher than the lowest level measured to date. Sixty-seven percent (67%) don’t believe that today’s youth will be better off than their parents, while 15% are not sure.

Thirty-two percent (32%) think it’s still possible for anyone in the United States to work hard and get rich. A majority (55%) disagrees with that assessment, and another 13% are undecided. These findings have shown little change since January 2009.

Just under half (49%) say it’s possible for anyone in the United States to work their way out of poverty, the highest level measured since May of last year. Thirty-five percent (35%) don’t believe this to be true. Sixteen percent (16%) are not sure.

Americans remain divided on the possibility of someone finding work. Forty percent (40%) think it’s possible for anyone who wants to work to find a job, while 46% disagree. Fourteen percent (14%) are not sure. Adults have been closely divided on this question since March 2009.

Adults under the age of 30 are more confident in the future of today’s children than their elders. Younger adults are also more optimistic in the possibility of anyone finding a job.

Twenty percent (20%) of Americans with children at home say today’s youth will be better off than their parents, a view shared by 15% of those without children at home.

Fifty-five percent (55%) of men say it’s possible for anyone in the United State to work their way out of poverty, while 43% of women say the same.

Americans are more pessimistic than ever that the Americaan economy will improve during the next year. Consumer confidence fell in August for the third straight month, as the Discover U.S. Spending Monitor(SM) dropped to its lowest level since March 2009.

The Rasmussen Employment Index that measures workers’ perceptions of the labor market each month, slipped a point in August to the lowest level measured in one year.

A majority of voters nationwide like the idea of state governments offering jobs instead of welfare payments to those seeking work.

The Moral Side of the News for July 25, 2010 - Kentucky Governor Cuts Budget by Furloughing State Employees and Indiana Releases Two Women Who Attempted Murder

"The Moral Side of the News" - Sunday, March 7, 2010 - Senator Jim Bunning, Unemployment, and PAY-Go

We all have compassion for those who are out of work now.  As individuals and churches we should do all we can to help persons in our communities, churches, families, and neighborhoods who need help.  Certainly our government has a role in providing a safety net for persons who are in need.

Our government, however, must focus on the "macro" issue; that is, what is best for the nation as a whole.  The government needs to develop policies that will lower the unemployment level in our nation, putting millions of persons back to work.

Senator Jim Bunning of Kentucky has raised the question of how (or if) the government will pay for the extension of unemployment benefits.  What also needs to be asked is "Does the extension of unemployment benefits decrease unemployment?"

When President Bush and the Democrat majority in Congress extended federal unemployment benefits in July 2008 from twenty-six weeks to thirty-nine weeks, no one asked that question.  It feels good to enact legislation that rescues people, but does it actually help our nation get back to work?

Specifically, does a 50 percent increase in unemployment insurance benefits increase the unemployment?  You would think everyone would say “yes.” Yet, after the unemployment insurance benefits were increased in the beginning of July 2008, what happened?  Unemployment increased.  Of course, our national economy is a complex system, but is there a correlation between extending unemployment benefits and increasing unemployment?

I would argue that if we increase how much people get paid for being unemployed, we get more unemployment.  If we set a limit to benefits people start finding jobs.

Professor Robert Hansen, the Senior Associate Dean at Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business, said that more unemployment is a natural consequence of higher unemployment insurance benefits.  He noted that higher benefits mean that some people will leave their jobs that they wouldn’t have otherwise been willing to leave and that they will be willing to stay unemployed longer.

The higher unemployment rate has surely added to the feelings of gloom or even panic. Not only did the higher unemployment rate affect the election, but President-elect Obama points to the higher unemployment rate as justifying what the New York Times calls “Public Works on a Vast Scale.” The higher unemployment is claimed to have pushed forward the bailout for the automobile industry.

Take a simple comparison to Canada.  Surely, there are lots of differences between the United States and Canada, but while the U.S. unemployment rate rose from 5.5 percent in June 2008 to 6.7 percent in October 2008, the Canadian unemployment rate barely increased from 6.2 to 6.3 percent.

In the U.S., initial jobless claims had peaked in March 2008 and either fell or leveled off after that — until July 2008. The unemployment rate had also leveled off by June. Then new jobless claims started to rise and have kept on rising ever since.

So what changed in July in the United States and not Canada? Longer unemployment insurance benefits. The Iraq war-funding bill that President Bush signed on June 30, 2008 increased unemployment insurance benefits to 39 weeks from 26 for claims filed after the law went into effect on July 6.

Indeed, that one-week gap in time between when Bush signed the bill and it went into effect provides some evidence of how unemployment insurance distorts people’s incentives to become unemployed. By just waiting a week to file a claim, a person got the estended benefit, and indeed people waited to file. During that limbo week, initial claims fell by 14 percent.  After July 6, initial jobless claims soared, and there has been only one week when claims were as low as they were before President Bush signed the extension.

Higher unemployment rates from larger unemployment benefits are exactly what economists would predict. This includes Larry Katz, the Democratic chief economist at the Labor Department during the Clinton administration, who found that workers are almost three times more likely to find jobs when benefits are just about to run out.

But Katz is not alone - dozens of economic research papers predicted this same outcome. When the government extends or increases jobless benefits, unemployment is extended. If the government sets a deadline, people find jobs. We get more of what you subsidize, and here we are subsidizing unemployment.

Most research indicates that a 50 percent rise in benefits increases unemployment by those eligible for insurance by 50 percent. But total unemployment will not increase by that much because most people aren't eligible for the insurance - many unemployed were living in states that were already providing extended benefits and many others were not eligible for unemployment insurance.

Look at the states with the longest periods for unemployement benefits.  They have the highest unemployment.  In addition, most of the states with the longest provision for unemployment benefits also have the highest minimum wage - another factor that increases unemployment.

Professor Hansen pointed out the irony of increased unemployment insurance benefits: “Being compassionate has consequences, one of which is a greater demand for compassion.”

Finally, how long should unemployment benefits last?  If an extension is good, would not a lifetime guarantee be better?  We can easily see how destructive an extension of benefits can be if we extend them forever:  No one would want a job!

Our nation benefits from persons working. in jobs - not always perfect jobs, but jobs none the less.  Compassion must be exercised on the "Micro" level.  Sound judgment for the nation as a whole should guide the policies of our government.