The War Room

Nice job Team Cruz

It’s all in the math

We have beaten the drum for years, here at the blog.

Pension security is nothing more than a math equation.  Whether you’re talking about private pension plans, multiple employer pensions, or the grandadday of them, Social Security, you cannot continue to pay existing benefits without bankrupting the fund.  It’s simple math.

It’s emotional, too.  Especially if you’re passed your optimim working age, and have made your financial plan using the rules at hand.  It’s not like you can  just jump back into the workforce.  This is a situation that we Baby Boomers are going to have to face, and overcome if our retirement years are anything like we desire.

And now, one of the nation’s largest private pensions is crying uncle.  Uncle Sam, that is.  they have applied to the US Treasury for a waiver of the rules, allowing them to reduce their pension payments.  Significant reductions:

“This is going to be a national crisis for hundreds of thousands, and eventually millions, of retirees and their families,” said Karen Friedman, executive vice president of the Pension Rights Center.

It’s the math.  You can argue with me all you want, but it doesn’t change the math.  Time to get busy, folks.  Nobody is going to do it for you.

Source

 

 

 

Throwback Thursday

Bryan Adams, principled exploitation

You may have heard that the Governor of Mississippi recently signed into law a bill which would prevent gay activists from bringing legal action against clergymen, bakers, and florists who decline to participate in homosexual weddings for deeply held religious reasons.

This kind of thinking is considered backwards and illegally discriminatory by those on the progressive left who believe that lifestyle, gender, and matrimony are matters of preference.  It really shouldn’t be much of a surprise that more consertative parts of the country would object, and would try to push back against the tide.  But to hear the Left tell it, it is morally wrong, and should be punishable by law to not allow their march to a society in which no one’s actions should be judged against the Standards which have held for centuries to continue unabated.

Enter singer Bryan Adams.  Jeff Clark has an interesting piece in the Sun Herald regarding the performer’s decision to cancel his gig in Biloxi due to the recent passing of this bill.  Supposedly, Mr. Bryan Adams was deeply offended by the bill, much like Mr. Bruce Springsteen with his recent decision regarding North Carolina’s “Bathroom Bill.”

In full disclosure, the show was not selling very well…

It was reported in March that about 1,000 tickets had been sold and about 3,000 tickets needed to be sold to break even.

It’s interesting that he would cancel a show in Biloxi because of HB 1523, yet he’s played concerts in India where it is illegal to be gay.

So, Mr. Bryan Adams, was your decision to cancel your show in Mississippi based on having your sense of justice be so deeply offended, or is this maybe a bit of opportunistic career preening, or is it just plain old poor ticket sales?

 

Execution Watch: Pablo Lucio Vasquez, Texas

submitted by Mark R. Execution Watch Editor

On April 6 we will have our second execution in a little over two weeks, and our fourth of the year, that of Pablo Vasquez.

In the Rio Grande Valley town of Donna, Texas (home of the Donna Redskins, the only Valley high school ever to win a state football championship, Class 2A in 1961) Vasquez and his then 15-year-old cousin, Andy Chapa, met 12-year-old Daniel Cardenas at a party.  They invited Cardenas to join them afterwards, then
killed him by blunt force trauma to the head (pipe and shovel) and buried his body.  Vasquez took a ring and necklace from Cardenas’ body.

From the above information (taken mostly from TDCJ’s website) this would appear to be little more a nondescript robbery-murder.  But as Paul Harvey would say, there is “the rest of the story.”  For Vasquez’ motive in killing Cardenas wasn’t robbery—it was his desire to drink Cardenas’ blood as part of an occult ritual ceremony.  (In addition to the blood, Cardenas’ body was found missing one arm and part of the other, as well as no skin on his back.)

Vasquez was found guilty and given the death penalty.  (Chapa, being under 18, was too young to be given the death penalty for his part in Cardenas’ murder.)  Along the way, a few minor issues were remanded to lower courts, but ultimately all appeals were DENIED and there do not appear to be any further appeals pending in this case.

Pablo Vasquez wanted to engage in occult practices.  Sometime after 6PM Huntsville time he may very well meet the Devil—and then it will be too late to engage in anything else.