Which Councilman will flip for the Lake County Income Tax?

I read enough weasel words that either Ted Bilski or Tom O'Donnel could be "The Flipper":

Councilman Tom O'Donnell, D-Dyer, a key vote if the council is to overcome a promised veto by the county commissioners, said his constituents are strongly opposed to the income tax.

"People just don't want it, and until we start showing some initiative to make some serious budget cuts ourselves, I can't support it," O'Donnell said.

Councilman Ted Bilski, another potential swing vote, said he too expects to again say no.

"I represent communities that are running pretty lean, frugal operations," Bilski said. "Asking homeowners living in my district to shoulder another tax burden right now doesn't make sense."

Bilski said he would revisit the income tax question if elected officials in the communities he represents tell him they need the revenue.

Who wins and loses with a Lake County Income Tax?

The Lake County Income tax is still being talked about. A new analysis shows who wins and loses with the 3 new distribution formulas the state has given us.

1. Keep the income tax revenue in the municipality where it is raised:

All cities and towns get back as much as their residents put in, but the unincorporated areas of the townships have variations because the bill treats all of them as a single entity, so ...

Estimated Income Tax

Total Township Production Credit-Option 5 Gain/(Subsidy)

Calumet $17,013,000 $10,587,000 $(6,426,000)

Cedar Creek 1,925,000 2,163,000 238,000

Center 5,220,000 6,221,000 1,001,000

Eagle Creek 294,000 389,000 95,000

Hanover 1,482,000 2,057,000 575,000

Hobart 6,312,000 4,496,000 (1,816,000)

North 25,568,000 25,694,000 (874,000)

Ross 7,480,000 9,890,000 2,410,000

St. John 12,332,000 16,241,000 3,909,000

West Creek 940,000 1,231,000 291,000

Winfield 1,439,000 2,025,000 586,000



2. Use the funds solely to decrease the county government property tax levy:

Estimated Income Tax

City/Town Production Credit-Option 6A Credit-Option 6B Gain/(Subsidy)

Cedar Lake $1,401,000 $1,401,000 $- $-

Crown Point 4,050,000 4,050,000 - -

Dyer 3,240,000 3,240,000 - -

East Chicago 3,276,000 3,276,000

Gary 12,636,000 12,636,000 - -

Griffith 3,240,000 3,240,000 - -

Hammond 11,583,000 11,583,000 - -

Highland 4,941,000 4,941,000 - -

Hobart 4,617,000 4,617,000 - -

Lake Station 1,782,000 1,782,000 - -

Lowell 1,215,000 1,215,000 - -

Merrillville 5,832,000 5,832,000 - -

Munster 5,670,000 5,670,000 - -

New Chicago 302,000 302,000 - -

Schererville 6,075,000 6,075,000 - -

Schneider 49,000 49,000 - -

St. John 1,782,000 1,782,000 - -

Winfield 405,000 405,000 - -

Whiting 729,000 729,000 - -


Unincorporated Township (1)

Calumet $1,377,000 $- $610,000 $(767,000)

Cedar Creek 932,000 - 1,097,000 165,000

Center 1,126,000 - 1,472,000 346,000

Eagle Creek 292,000 - 362,000 70,000

Hanover 85,000 - 588,000 503,000

Hobart 559,000 - 72,000 (487,000)

North - - - -

Ross 34,000 - 79,000 45,000

St. John 1,742,000 - 1,723,000 (19,000)

West Creek 616,000 - 812,000 196,000

Winfield 964,000 - 913,000 (51,000)


3. Distribute 60 percent of the funds where they are raised and the other 40 percent to municipalities based on population:


Credit-40% Based on Population

Estimated Income Credit-60% of

Tax Production Option 6A or 6B Formula in Option 7 Total Credit Gain/(Subsidy)

County $11,016,000 $- $11,110,000 $11,110,000 $94,000


Credit-40% Based on Population

Estimated Income Credit-60$ of

City/Town Tax Production Option 6A Formula in Option 7 Total Credit Gain/(Subsidy)

Cedar Lake $1,040,000 $841,000 $211,000 $1,052,000 $12,000

Crown Point 3,015,000 2,430,000 447,000 2,877,000 (138,000)

Dyer 2,405,000 1,944,000 318,000 2,262,000 (143,000)

East Chicago 2,769,000 2,236,000 742,000 2,978,000 209,000

Gary 9,380,000 7,582,000 2,356,000 9,938,000 558,000

Griffith 2,405,000 1,944,000 399,000 2,343,000 (62,000)

Hammond 8,592,000 6,950,000 1,905,000 8,855,000 263,000

Highland 3,668,000 2,965,000 541,000 3,506,000 (162,000)

Hobart 3,435,000 2,770,000 583,000 3,353,000 (82,000)

Lake Station 1,329,000 1,069,000 321,000 1,390,000 61,000

Lowell 907,000 729,000 172,000 901,000 (6,000)

Merrillville 4,333,000 3,499,000 703,000 4,202,000 (131,000)

Munster 4,212,000 3,402,000 492,000 3,894,000 (318,000)

New Chicago 224,000 181,000 49,000 230,000 6,000

Schererville 4,507,000 3,645,000 570,000 4,215,000 (292,000)

Schneider 36,000 29,000 6,000 35,000 (1,000)

St. John 1,325,000 1,069,000 191,000 1,260,000 (65,000)

Winfield 311,000 243,000 117,000 360,000 49,000

Whiting 547,000 437,000 52,000 489,000 (58,000)


Credit-40% Based on Population

Estimated Income Credit-60% of

Unincorporated Township (1) Tax Production Option 6A or 6B Formula in Option 7 Total Credit Gain/(Subsidy)

Calumet 826,000 366,000 - 366,000 (460,000)

Cedar Creek 559,000 658,000 - 648,000 99,000

Center 676,000 883,000 - 883,000 207,000

Eagle Creek 175,000 217,000 - 217,000 42,000

Hanover 51,000 353,000 - 353,000 302,000

Hobart 335,000 43,000 - 43,000 (292,000)

North - - - -

Ross 20,000 47,000 - 47,000 27,000

St. John 1,045,000 1,034,000 - 1,034,000 (11,000)

West Creek 370,000 487,000 - 487,000 117,000

Winfield 578,000 548,000 - 548,000 (30,000)


Credit-40% Based on Population

Estimated Income Credit-60% of

Total Township Tax Production Option 6B Formula in Option 7 Total Credit Gain/(Subsidy)

Calumet 2,313,000 - 2,292,000 2,929,000 616,000

Cedar Creek 264,000 - 243,000 243,000 (21,000)

Center 705,000 - 603,000 603,000 (102,000)

Eagle Creek 44,000 - 39,000 39,000 (5,000)

Hanover 198,000 - 201,000 201,000 3,000

Hobart 859,000 - 910,000 910,000 51,000

North 3,613,000 - 3,797,000 3,797,000 184,000

Ross 1,013,000 - 888,000 888,000 (125,000)

St. John 1,674,000 - 1,231,000 1,231,000 (443,000)

West Creek 132,000 - 113,000 113,000 (19,000)

Winfield 198,000 - 159,000 159,000 (39,000)

Republican signs I've seen

Despite there not being any Republican primaries for most of the house districts in NWI, I've seen a few yard signs for Republicans.

They were all for Joe Hero of the 15th district, but on the back side they listed all the other Republicans running for house (Urzua in the 1st, Janic in the 12th, etc.).

I told you that these guys were getting together to coordinate their campaigns. Looks like that includes yard signs. Good job.

I'm going to have to get myself a couple!

Obama's racist pastor throws Indy under the bus

Obama's racist pastor gave a sermon at a church yesterday morning and said that he was "disinvited" from speaking at two Indianapolis churches because they were afraid of the KKK.

So in addition to everything else, Obama's racist pastor is trashing Indianapolis and Indiana.

He is so full of shit. There's no KKK in Indiana, and even if there was, they're not going to do anything to any church in Indy.

More nitwitery from the Obama campaign.

Town of Munster v. The Times on user fees

The latest in the Times' user fee jihad is a column by Mark Kiesling taking Munster Town Council President Helen Brown to task for Munster's "outrageous" speeding ticket fines.

President Brown's position is that the town needs to get money from somewhere, and better user fees than taxes.

Kiesling's point is that fees are a slippery slope, and police officers should not be tax collectors.

I think that they're both right. User fees are better than taxes, but there is a danger that they do turn police officers into tax collectors. We as citizens need to be vigilant to make sure that President Brown and her officers are doing their job and not just harrassing citizens with user fees.

But that in no way invalidates user fees as a concept, which I think is the whole point of the Times' jihad.

What does an illegal gun look like?

This is a picture of an illegal gun used to shoot two people in Hammond yesterday. See story here.

What can we learn from this picture?

1) Gun is in very poor shape. The grip is so bad that it has been wrapped in electrical tape. The barrel is rusty. The finish is very worn on the frame, and is non-existant on the safety and the hammer.

2) This looks like a very old .38 special to me. The .38 special was a very popular gun a couple of decades ago, but most conceal carry holders go for semi-autos these days, as do all police forces and the military.

3) Being a revolver, this gun is not one that is targeted by liberals (like assualt weapons, high capacity semi-auto handguns, etc.)

My conclusion is that this gun has been around a long time. I'm guessing that it was stolen from a law abiding citizen long ago, and perhaps has been used in multiple crimes and been passed from crimial to criminal.

This in a nutshell is why gun control does not work. It doesn't take much for a criminal to get an old jalopy of a gun like this one. There are enough old guns like this floating around the underground economy that, even if all law abiding citizens were disarmed, crimes like the one in Hammond will go on.

Who are the Republicans running for Fran Dupey's County Council seat?

There was a Republican debate last night for the 3rd District of the Lake County Commitee.

Former Hammond Mayor Duane Dedelow Jr. is the big bannana in the race. He is opposed by two nobodies.

I'm still trying to figure out if Dedelow is really a Republican or not. He is not 100% opposed to the county income tax. Not a good thing.

Dedelow has name recognition, but I'm not sure that it's good name recognition or not!

One word: Homentum

The results in Pennsylvania go to show that when there is a CLOSED DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY (i.e. only DEMOCRATS choose the nominee, and independents, Communists, Republicans, etc. can't interfere in the results) Hillary wins overwhelmingly.

Hillary Clinton is the choice of Democrats. Case closed.

Barack Obama dated and lived with a white woman?

Whoa. News to me.

He also worked with white foundation officials to secure grants and support. He lived in Hyde Park, an integrated neighborhood that is home to the University of Chicago, and dated and lived with a woman who wasn't African-American, according to Mr. Kellman. They broke up when he went east to law school.

Okay, she was "not African American". What was she? Asian? Hispanic?

Times columnist Mark Keisling gets the danger of the COIT

If Mayor McCheeze of Hammond wants a county income tax, every good citizen should be against it.

It's that simple.

The law for the COIT is such that it is not limited to 1%. Once it is implemented, the COIT can be raised by 1% point per year. The first year it could be 1%, then 2%, then 3%, etc. There is no upper limit.

That is quite a contrast to the property tax, the levy of which is currently frozen, and the rate of which is currently capped.

There is no way in hell that we citizens should give the Lake County Democrats access to the COIT. Very dangerous.

Earthquake wakes up Buzzcut

I forgot to mention on Friday that I was awoken by the earthquake. The bed was shaking vigorously. I thought that perhaps Mrs. Buzzcut was flipping over or something, but she was just snoring away. In the back of my mind I thought that it might be an earthquake, but it was 3AM, and I went back to sleep pretty quickly.

This is the second earthquake I've felt. I felt one in Buffalo that was like 3 on the Richter scale.

Buzzcut's hero...

...is an 18 year old African American female, motivational speaker, abstinance educator, and... virgin.

Taylor Moore is what I want Barack Obama to be. And that doesn't mean that I want him to be an attractive 18 year old woman!

Michelle Obama is a liar.

Liar, liar, pants on fire.

Michelle Obama is pretending to take a call, thumb and pinkie finger up to her face, telling how she and her husband used to get calls from loan debt agents not that long ago.

"I remember those days clearly, sweating to get that mail," she said. "That collection agency, the loan debt people calling you telling you that you've got a few more days before you're in trouble."

WTF? This is a family that has made more than $200,000 per year for a decade or more. Barack has been an Illinois Senator since '96.

This story is total BS. Then there is this:

Also, she doesn't come with documentation to back up her story about financial hardship. Asked to provide evidence of the Obamas' recent debt or contact from bill collectors, a campaign aide said the family was trying to find the personal records in response to a Tribune request last week but could not do so immediately.

Bullshit. Nothing but bullshit.

Why do politicians lie like that? Do they really think that they won't get called on the carpet for it?

Michelle Obama stil bitching in NWI

Michelle Obama was in Merillville on Friday, and she's STILL bitching about her and Barack's student loans!

Michelle Obama told the audience she and her legislator husband only recently finished paying off their own student loans from Princeton -- and only then by a miracle.

"The only reason we're not in debt today is because Barack wrote two best-selling books," she said. "That was like winning the lotto. It wasn't a thought-out financial plan. We were blessed."

This is total BS. The Obama household income hasn't been below $200,000 since 2002. Obama wants us to believe that she couldn't pay off their loans on that amount of money?

And just why do they have those loans? Because they went to very expensive colleges. If she had gone to the University of Illinois and not Princeton, she wouldn't have the debt that she and Barack had.

Obama is a whiner. She caters to whiners. In fact, if Bill Clinton had "the politics of meaning", Obama's is "the politics of whining".

Who is Cindy McCain?

This got Buzzcut a little verklempt:

In 1991, Mrs. McCain came across a girl in an orphanage in Bangladesh. Mother Teresa implored Mrs. McCain to take the baby with a severe cleft palate; the senator's wife did so without first telling her husband. The couple adopted the girl, named her Bridget, and has seen her through some dozen operations to repair her cleft palate and resolve other medical problems.

When Bridget drops into the campaign, Mrs. McCain goes out of her way to point her out. "I want to make sure everyone knows she's a part of us, too," she said. (The dark-skinned child was the subject of a "dirty trick" during Mr. McCain's presidential run in 2000, when unknown operatives spread the rumor that Bridget was the product of an affair.)

That's pretty damn amazing. What would you do if your wife brought home a baby from Banglesesh? One who needed a dozen operations?

The McCains also have a 19 year old son in Iraq, and another at the Naval Academy.

Buzzcut's obsession is coming to Merrilville

Michelle Obama will be in Merrilville on Friday.

I'm going to see if I can get tickets.

Can you imagine if she had a question and answer, and I asked her why she failed the bar exam the first time? Or why her children should benefit from affirmative action, when she and Barack made $1.5M last year.

Larry Blanchard says that "all options are on the table"

Lake County is facing a $15M deficit next year, and Lake County Councilman Larry Blanchard says that "all options are on the table" for closing it.

Could Buzzcut be wrong, and instead of O'Donnel or Bilski being the one to flip their vote and vote for the income tax, it will be staunch Republican Larry Blanchard?

Blanchard says that the COIT is "repugnant" to him. But he didn't say that he would NEVER vote for it, as Democrat Commiteemen DuPey and Steub have done.

I will see if I can give Blanchard a call to discuss!

Lake County Democrat incompetance starts in Gary

The City of Gary was short $8 MILLION because of "errors and omissions" in the calculation of their levy.

They are already appealing to the Department of Local Government Finance to try and stop the 2% tax cap, even though the 2% cap only "cost" them $1 million.

The City of Gary is run by incompetants. Sadly, because Gary is so big, these incompetants have their hands in Lake County government, which affects us all.

Who did I see driving to work this morning?

On the way to work this morning, I was behind a black BMW 330i, driven by a woman, with a giant "Philpot" sticker.

Interesting thing was the license plate. It was the old Indiana plate (cornfield?) and it said, "45 v 8".

My guess was that it was Lake County Auditor Peggy Holinga Katona. She seems like a person to drive a 40 thousand dollar foreign car.

I was in Highland, on Indy, about to go into Hammond.

Maybe it was Mayor McCheeze's wife?

Lake County property tax "rebates" in the mail?

Lake County is as competant as usual, saying that our property tax "rebate" for '07 is ALMOST in the mail.

I found a couple of items interesting:

1) the size of the rebate is 10 to 13 % of your bill.

2) the rebates will be truncated for those who enjoyed the 2% tax cap.

If my rebate is 10% of taxes actually paid, my check is going to be huge.

What % of all property taxes should bidnesses pay?

The stats for Lake County:

Blanchard said his study of county government tax statistics indicates it cost $666 million in 2002 to run municipal, township and county government and schools in Lake County.

That year, business and industry paid two out of every three of those dollars, Blanchard said. Residents and farmers combined to pay the remainder.

He said legislation to lower taxes on the steel mills and BP refinery -- to encourage industrial development -- dramatically shifted that formula, reducing industry and business' share of the county's property tax burden from $451 million, or 67.82 percent of the total, in 2002 to $402 million, or 49.5 percent of the total, in 2007.

The residential share of property taxes went from $209 million, or 31.5 percent of the total, in 2002 to $404 million, or 49.7 percent of the total. Agriculture's share in that same time increased from $4.6 million, or 0.7 percent, to $6 million, or 0.74 percent.

Any way that you look at it, bidnesses were getting absolutely raped by property taxes before HB1858. There is no justification for making bidnesses pay 66% of all property taxes. Even 50% is a lot.

Look, residents consume government "services". There is very little that a local government does for a business. So why on earth should they be charged so much in taxes?

Buzzcut's healthcare plan in the Wall Street Journal

Pay for your own damn healthcare. I'll pay for mine. Get rid of the insurance companies, except for catastrophic care.

To make matters worse, it was a shot of Crown Royale!

Good god, she's a fool!

If you're going to drink something as nasty as whiskey for political purposes, don't drink a FOREIGN WHISKEY!

There's this place in America called Kentucky that just MIGHT make the best whiskey on earth. Look into it.

Democrats are effette elitists, part 1 million

Hey Hillary, that's a shot of WHISKEY, not a chardonney!

Jesus Christ, somebody tell her how to slam a shot.

White Sox on a roll.

Two grand slams in one game!

I just have to say that I love Joe Crede as much as a heterosexual man can love another man. Thank God he seems to have recovered 100%.

I don't know if the Sox can beat a team other than Detroit, but at least we OWN one team in our division.

10 games into the season, and 2008 has already been more enjoyable than 2007 (excepting Buhrle's no hitter, the only bright spot last season).

Director of Finance for Lake County Auditor drops income tax bomb

Think Lake County government needs to go on a diet? Think again.

But [Director of finance for the Lake County auditor, Mike] Wieser warned shortfalls caused by the property tax caps will be made up another way. "I can almost guarantee there will be a (county) income tax, and it's not going to be 1 percent," he said. "It's going to have to be more like 2 to 2 1/2 percent to fill the gaps."

He guarantees that there will be a 2-1/2% county option income tax?!?

I will guarantee YOU that this is going to be an election issue this November. I am personally going to stick this quote to every Lake County Democrat running for office this November.

Democrat legislators complain about problems THEY created

This is cute.

The legislature's passage of a property tax relief package seems to have created more questions than answers in some region communities.

To help provide answers, three members of the Indiana General Assembly pulled together representatives from Hammond, Munster and Highland to educate taxpayers at a public forum Thursday evening at Munster Town Hall.

State Reps. Linda Lawson, D-Hammond; Mara Candelaria Reardon, D-Munster; and Dan Stevenson, D-Highland, provided the information together with Indiana House Democrat Policy Director Brian Tabor.

Tabor explained how the 1 percent property tax caps on the assessed values for residential properties, 2 percent for rental and 3 percent for business will be phased in over two years. He also explained how those percentages would not be reached in many Indiana communities until towns, cities and counties pay off bond debts.

Tabor also sought to assuage some concerns over how schools and other institutions would survive on fewer property tax dollars.

The legislation provides $120 million to offset the effect of the tax caps on schools and allows schools to hold referendums.

Communities that will lose more than 5 percent of property tax collections will be allowed to appeal to the Distressed Unit Appeal Board.

The board then could increase the tax caps in those communities or put debt levies outside of the tax caps.

I wish that I had known that this was happening, I would have gone there and asked these clowns why they voted to force a COIT down Lake County's throat. And why they voted to screw Lake County out of its rightful tax caps.

The Obama campaign is obviously monitoring Buzzcut

When Obama says this:

"If your child is misbehaving in school, don't curse out the teacher. You know who you are. It's not the teacher's fault if your child is misbehaving," said the father of two. "Don't blame the teachers and the government and the schools if you're not doing your job."

he's obviously trying to win the Buzzcut vote.

If he keeps talking like that, he may just win my vote.

More Michelle Obama nitwitery

She's still complaining that she had to pay back those student loans to Princeton and Harvard.

The latest from Michelle Obama: "They tell you to raise money, you raise money," she said. "They tell you to build an organization, and you build an organization."

"And you work hard and you reach that bar. Sometimes you surpass the bar and you look around and all of a sudden the bar has moved. The bar has changed on you and you wonder what happened."

And cf. the AP News explanatory note that accompanies the direct quotations: "Obama told the crowd that when she and her husband left law school, the monthly payments on their school loan debt was (sic) more than their monthly mortgage payment."

Some questions. Who are "they"? Those who made her husband the best-funded Presidential candidate in election history? And what is "the bar"? The need to pay back Ivy-League law school loans when at the same time one must also contribute over $20,000 to the cause of Rev. Wright? And is it written in stone that one must live in a $1.6 million home, go to Harvard, or give to a church to facilitate the hate-speech spewing pastor's acquisition of a 10,000 sq. ft. gated estate?

Unfortunately, I doubt there are too many Americans who are sympathetic to the dilemma that when a couple earns $1 million per year, their appetites and expenses likewise adjust. Is that the always elevating "bar"—private school tuitions for kids? Elite summer camp? An extra adjoining parcel to expand the garden? Rev. Wright's justified need for decent housing?

All this proverbial "they" rhetoric in the past has worked well among Chicago neighborhood audiences, and perhaps even among head-nodding white elites. But the Obama campaign should really put it under wraps, since the whiny Ivy-Leaguer with a six-figure income will not play well in the general election in Bakersfield. Apparently her Princeton and Harvard experiences with the philosophy of victimization seem to have given the message that race always trumps class, or that her own present angst of a professional African-American lawyer earning a third-of-a-million dollars is comparable to the anxieties of a poor white single mom with children or a Vietnamese immigrant or rural Hispanic farm worker.

It's going to be a long campaign, and the Obama staffers need to write out the script, insist she sticks it, and expunge from her vocabulary "they" and the "bar".

top 10 search terms to this blog

From google analytics:

1. blue county in a red state 40 1.02 > 00:00:00 20.00% 97.50%
2. save whiting 30 1.67 00:01:09 93.33% 66.67%
3. michelle obama senior thesis 27 1.30 00:00:42 100.00% 74.07%
4. michelle obama hates america 22 1.14 00:00:17 100.00% 86.36%
5. michelle obama's senior thesis 19 1.53 00:00:31 100.00% 68.42%
6. michelle obama bar exam 18 1.06 00:00:03 88.89% 94.44%
7. obama hates america 18 1.22 00:00:24 94.44% 83.33%
8. obama bar exam 17 1.06 00:00:10 94.12% 94.12%
9. can obama win indiana 15 1.07 00:00:02 86.67% 93.33%
10. 2008 "illinois bar" results

Buzzcut neglecting his blog for the comments section

Here.

My views on Michelle Obama, her failing the bar, and what that says about her intelligence, are still not very popular, and my arguments remain unconvincing, evidently.

Who are the Republicans running against Visclosky?

There's a full slate.

I'm supporting Chuck Barman. Here's his quote about why he's running, and it is very good:

Barman chose to run after lobbying against Visclosky's plan for a $1 billion extension to the South Shore commuter rail. A construction contractor, Barman nonetheless opposes measures that promote suburban sprawl.

"Visclosky is a pork-barreler, and that's why the Republicans never run anyone against him," Barman said. "Like the rail line. He says he's going to give you $1,000, but you'll have to make $1,500 to make up for the taxes you lose."

Hooking up at a "Catholic" University?

This article, about the out of control hookup scene on college campuses, was written by a prof from BOSTON UNIVERSITY.

What kind of world do we live in when Catholic universities are Catholic in name only?

Good quotes in the commentary:

The question remains, though, why students who feel bad about hooking up, who wish their peers would act less casual about sex and who dream of living with at least some restrictions on their sexual relationships then choose to act as they do. The answer lies in community. Most campuses do not provide an environment where acting on romantic desires, rather than sexual ones, is feasible. It takes a village to set standards for dating.

Again, I emphasize that this is a CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY. Why is the culture there so... f-ed up? Literally.

This is why I don't bother to send my kids to Catholic schools. What the hell are people paying for?

Buzzcut is right, Lawyers are wrong

I'm getting a constant stream of lawyers chiming in that the fact that Michelle Obama failed the Illinois bar exam on her first try doesn't mean that she isn't intelligent, nor that she went to Princeton and Harvard Law on Affirmative Action (both of which I contend).

But none of these anonymous lawyer commenters presents ANY evidence.

Here is a study by the New York Bar showing:

1) African Americans score a standard deviation below the mean of whites on the bar exam. Surprise, surprise, African American mean IQs are a standard deviation below whites.

2) LSAT scores and bar exam scores have a 0.49 correlation (a high correlation).

And then there is this about those who fail the bar the first time:

As noted above, the mean overall bar performance of the repeater groups was consistently below the score of 660, such that the passing rates of this group are quite low. Overall, 21.1% of the domestic-educated repeaters passed the July 2005 bar exam, whereas 23.4% would have passed had the passing score remained at 660. There were 15 students in this group who failed the bar exam but would have passed if the passing score had been 660. If the passing score had been 675, 15.9% of the domestic-educated repeaters would have passed, with 50 candidates failing to
pass who would have passed had the passing score been 660.

Looking at domestic-educated second-time bar takers by ethnicity, the passing rates are very low even had the passing score remained at 660, with 37.7% of the Caucasian/Whites, 33.3% of the Asian/Pacific Islanders and 20.5% of the Black/African Americans achieving that score.

That is quite a racial disparity. How does the bar explain it?

They said that African Americans are more likley graduate from "more prestigeous schools" than whites. i.e. Affirmative action.

Question to you lawyer Buzzcut hatas out there: how can AA be good for African Americans if they can't pass the bar after they graduate?

Lasik complications

I got a comment from someone about my Lasik surgery:

LASIK was the worst decision of my life. Since I had LASIK I have spent much of my spare time researching LASIK complications. The medical literature and FDA clinical trials report that chronic dry eyes and night vision impairment occur frequently after LASIK. The complication rate is actually quite high and varies depending on which study you read. Moreover, the LASIK flap only heals to 2% of the cornea's original tensile strength, and the biomechanical strength of the cornea is permanently reduced by about 50% after LASIK. LASIK patients face problems with glaucoma screening, future cataract surgery, and persistent decrease in corneal cells called keratocytes which are vital to the funtionality of the cornea. You can read more about LASIK risks and long-term complications on my website at www.lasikcomplications.com

I have some of these complications. I have dry eyes and "starbursts" at night. I also know for a fact that you can have future Lasik surgeries without cutting the flap again. The doctor can just open the flap without cutting, which kind of proves that, "the LASIK flap only heals to 2% of the cornea's original tensile strength, and the biomechanical strength of the cornea is permanently reduced by about 50% after LASIK."

I also am a little more far sighted than I used to be (more trouble reading, but not enough to need reading glasses).

Carl still doesn't get it.

We hear from my good buddy Carl again:

First off, be careful you are not mixing and matching your undeserving targets because although, "We simply can't pay for everything everyone wants and "needs" in healthcare" I can't imagine you would include cancer treatment in that category. As if the police officers treatments were something he decided to do because he thought he "needed" it. Nothing better to do now that he's retired!!

Carl, you just don't get it, do you?

Cancer treatments are EXACTLY what is going to get cut under socialized medicine. Any other country in the world, the retired cop is NOT going to get those cancer treatments.

Cancer treatments are leading edge healthcare. They're oftentimes experimental. They're very expenive. For what it costs to treat one cancer paitent, you could provide "preventive care" to thousands of people.

This is how countries like France can spend much less money than the US on healthcare and have health statistics that are no worse than ours. One old guy dying of cancer does not change your longevity stats one iota. But saving him can skew your health care spending enough to notice on a statistic.

The question facing us is how to pay for all this expensive, technology laden health care while not bankrupting the country.

Going to socialized medicine is one way to do it, clearly. I just don't think that people will like the results, because guys like our retired cop are NOT going to get the care they feel that they are entitled to. We simply can't afford it.

Under my system, there will be savings from people being smarter health consumers when they pay for more of their care out of pocket and save more for their retirement health care themselves.

Will that savings be enough to pay for cancer treatments and whatnot? Good question.

Lawyer to Buzzcut: You're an idiot

So says an anonymous commenter:

You're an idiot. First of all, lots of law students choose not to take the Bar exam the first time they're able; right after finishing three years of law school, it's very hard to turn around and start studying, literally, three days later.

Second of all, so what if she did? Passing the Bar is absolutely no gauge of your intelligence or your ability to practice law (which I assume you're not aware of given your high-and-mighty attitude). It's merely your ability to take standardized tests and your ability to regurgitate a vast number of facts that really don't have a real-world application.

Try going to law school first, and then pass the Bar on the first go-around. Once you do that, you're welcome to criticize from your little corner of the web...

Nice comment. One little problem: the facts don't jibe with this opinion.

Point of fact: intelligence is VERY highly correlated to test taking. An intelligent person is going to do better on any exam than a non-intelligent person.

If you look at any study that correlates IQ to test taking, they are very highly correlated. I daresay that a study of bar exam results would show that they are correlated to IQ. I'll check and see if any such study is on the 'net.

BTW, based on my GRE score, my IQ is 130. I daresay that, should I ever go to law school, I will pass the bar exam on the first try.

Your first place Chicago White Sox!

After playing Cleveland and Detroit the first week of the season, who would have predicted the Sox would be in first?

Let's see how the do against the Twinkies. If they win this series, I may have to revise my prediction of the Sox finishing in fourth in the Central.

I may have to bump them all the way up to third!

Dumbass Trucker makes my commute interesting this morning.

Going to work this morning, a trucker rolled his rig coming off the eastbound Bohrman onto northbound Cline.

I'm pretty sure it was one of those covered flatbeds with the steel coils going to Mittal.

He took the ramp way too fast. I'm pretty sure that ramp has a decreasing radius at the end. Kind of unusual, and a little dangerous.

Is it me, or are the trucks going into and out of Mittal particularly beat up and crappy?

If the trucks look that bad, what kind of drivers is Mittal getting? Bunch of illegals from Serbia on the lam for war crimes or something, I bet.

Polling changes in Munster

Some changes are afoot in Munster.

There will be some polling location changes for precincts 21,22,24 and 23. Precinct 23 will change to the social center with precinct 17. Precinct 21,22, and 24 will move to Centennial park.

With the usual competance of Lake County government, this change in polling places has not been publicized.

How many voters are going to show up at the "old" polling place and not be able to vote because they don't know where the new polling place is?

Is this a conspiracy to stop "Operation Chaos"?

Who should be responsible for your healthcare?

Carl chimes in again:

Yes, the police office made some choices that put him in this position. He retired to early. He didn't save enough. God forbid he worked at a job all of his life where he couldn't save the needed money to provide himself healthcare. What if had been a school lunch matron? Or a casino worker? What if he had been a CNA or worked at Union Tank. Can we expect them to save for healthcare and retirement? That's the problem with your argument. It doesn't allow for those (a great many people mind you) who will never be in a position to save enough. Good people. Hard working people. They just didn't make the right "choices". What can we expect them to do? Somebody has to work those jobs.

-Carl (really, that's my name)

I don't think that Carl understands the health care situation. Health care spending is literally bankrupting this country. Medicare and Medicaid are growing at double digit percentages per year. We can't raise taxes fast enough to keep up with their growth.

More old people, who require more care, is driving this growth.

Technology is advancing rapidly, which also drives growth.

Our system of "insurance pays anything and everything" is also driving this growth.

We need to ration care, plain and simple. We simply can't pay for everything that everyone wants and "needs" in healthcare.

What's the best way to ration care? YOU pay for routine care. YOU buy insurance with AFTER TAX MONEY for health care in excess of some large amount, say $5000 per year. You're on the hook for the first $5k, the insurance company picks it up after that.

And like I said, for retirees, that number increases to a very large number, like $100k, to be spent over their retirement.

Will low wage workers be able to afford this? Yes. Young people would make out like bandits with this system. They're healthy. They wouldn't spend anything on health care. And they'd be making interest on what they pre-save for their health care.

What about those too stupid to pay for a system like this? I think that you'd still need a system like Medicaid to pay for those who trully can't afford their health care. But those that knowingly don't prepare for these forseeable health expenses?

Too bad.

Remember, the alternative is societal bankruptcy. It is more and more of our national income being devoted to health care, and less and less being available for other sectors of the economy (like, for example, tank cars!).

"Sky-Busted"?

How much do you want to bet that as soon as SkyBus came to Gary, the Times had this headline made up for when SB undoubtedly went out of business?

Man, this is a record time to bankruptcy for a Gary airline!

Gestapo tactis by Democrats to stop "crossovers"

Indiana Democrat Chairman Dan Parker is spreading bull**** lies about Republicans trying to "crossover" and vote Democrat.

This is from an e-mail I just got:

First of all the Times article is incorrect on Indiana law.

The "reporter" and Lake County Elections Supervisor Michelle Fajman STILL have not corrected the false impression they created in the story when it says challenged voters would be asked to sign an "affidavit, swearing under oath that they voted in the last election for a majority of the regular nominees of the party."

Indiana laws states something different:

"...affidavit, asserting that they intend to vote for a majority of the candidates of the challengee's Party of choice in the next General Election.
Nevertheless, since General Election ballots are cast in secret, the intention expressed in the counter-affidavit by the challengee is impossible to enforce."

So Dan Parker's attempt to scare voters into not voting is not enforceable, in fact it is not constitutional.

No one can tell my "intent" on May 6, 2008 when I ask to vote in the Democrat primary. And yes, that intent may change by November, but there is no way to tell that! Is Dan Parker going to administer truth serum or lie detector tests? Is he going to follow me into the sacred polling booth in November and see if I vote for a Democrat?

This was discussed on Limbaugh's show.

"Carl" still thinks that Buzzcut is a heartless sob

Anonymous commenter "Carl" chimes back in:

I'm stunned that you bother to even mention your Lasik surgery in any relation to this man having cancer treatment!! As if they are comparable.

Yes, it would be nice if we had individual health accounts to pay for our medical bills. I wonder how much we would have to save to cover any of the unexpected costs that would help us live into our, oh let's be reasonable here, 80's? Doesn't seem like to much to ask for. I wonder how much we would have to save? Do you have any idea what that figure might be?-Carl

Carl, Lasik is healthcare. Quite expensive healthcare, at that. Myopia is as much a medical condition as most anything. Lasik is one of the treatments. I don't like glasses or contacts (or not seeing!), so I chose Lasik. I saved up for it, and I got it.

Is it on a level of cancer? No. But neither is my wife's heart condition, but you didn't object to me bringing that up.

Regarding saving for our healthcare needs in retirement, everyone is going to spend a lot of money on healthcare at some point in their retirement. Because of that nasty little fact, retiree healthcare is not something that you can insure against. It is something that you need to save for.

How much should we be expected to save? There probably needs to be a study for the exact number (maybe take 85% of the median spent on post-age-65 health care), but the number should be in the hundred of thousands. If you exceed that amount in spending, maybe the government could then take over paying.

The retiree would be responsible for, say, the first $100,000 of medical care after age 65, and Medicare would pick up everything after that. Or something.

Garbage to ethanol?

There's been a lot of talk about a garbage to ethanol plant in Lake County.

The idea is to process garbage in a factory, recover as many recylcables as possible, and ferment and distill whatever is left. Here is a Wired article on the process.

I'm not opposed to the idea in general. I'm not a NIMBY either. Hell, I live withing a mile of the old Munster dump, and I'm downwind of it too. So a North Lake County location is just fine with me.

My beef is that Lake County is totally unqualifited to be involved with this thing. This is new, untired technology. Can you say cost over-runs?

Lake County can't even get tax bills out on time. You expect them to pull off a cutting edge project like this? Not going to happen.

Is Whiting going the way of the Dodo?

The mayor of Whiting denies it, but the rumour going around is that Whiting is going to be annexed by Hammond.

The mayor doesn't think that would be a good idea. But if using Hammond water saves $9 million, what kind of savings would be had by consolidation?

The rumour is going around because annexation just makes too much sense.

Buzzcut is a heartless sob

An anonymous commenter takes issue with my opinion on retiree healthcare:

Man, you are a heartless sob. Answer this question.....Is healthcare affordable in the United States?

I guess that depends on your definition of healthcare. Certain healthcare is. Certain healthcare isn't.

My wife has a heart condition that is controlled by a generic drug that costs $4 a month at Target. That's pretty damn affordable.

I haven't been to the doctor in a couple of years. That's VERY affordable.

I did get Lasik at Christmas. It cost 4 grand. Expensive, but still affordable.

The retired police officer that is getting cancer treatments is receiving healthcare that obviously isn't affordable to him. But he had the opportunity to buy COBRA insurance, work longer at a job that provided insurance, not to retire, or simply save more for contingencies like this. He didn't do so. Why exactly should I feel sorry for him?

Because I'm a heartless sob.

Technology and demographics are driving health care costs. We have more old people who require more health care. The question is, who is going to pay for this healthcare. I have no problem with the people recieving the care paying for the care. They should be doing this by saving more during their working lives.

Yet MORE evidence of insane taxes

From the P-T:

In Lake County, however, nearly 52 percent of the revenue loss will be borne by local municipalities, according the legislative agency.

Hobart, for example, could see its general operating fund cut by $331,582 due to the 1 percent tax cap on residential properties, said John Julien, an Umbaugh partner.

Lake Station stands to lose $484,618, Crown Point will lose an estimated $48,853.

The biggest financial pinch will be felt in East Chicago, Gary and Hammond where the Umbaugh represtatives said the property tax cap will cost Gary an estimated $45.5 million; Hammond, $8.9 million, and East Chicago, $23.1 million.

Julien said the financial hit could be even greater if the estimate did not take into consideration the factor Lake County’s tax levies have been for frozen by the state.

Once again, the numbers for North Lake County are insane. Where did they get off charging people that kind of money for property taxes?

More evidence that North Lake County has insane taxes

We've seen the predictions that cities like Hammond, East Chicago, and Gary will lose hundreds of millions of dollars of their budgets under the tax caps.

This is an indication of just how insane property taxes are in these communities.

Need another indication? The Gary Library will lose 4.8 MILLION dollars when the caps are fully phased in.

Lake County will lose a couple hundred thousand.

Wow.

I've got one word for you: consolodation. Hammond, Whiting, East Chicago, and Gary libraries need to be rolled into the Lake County library system.

Is the Lake County Property Tax Still Frozen?

I looked through the property tax reform law, and it says nothing about Lake County having to pass an income tax or have its levy frozen.

The only mention of Lake County is to provide the extra options for distributing an income tax, and to exempt Lake County Municipal debt from the tax cap.

So if Tom O'Donnell or some other politician tells you that the levy is frozen next year, he's a liar.

The Obamas are REALLY stingy bastards

How much did the Obamas give to charity in 2000 to 2004?

They averaged 1% of their income over those years.

They claim that they had a lot of expenses and couldn't afford to give.

This was a timeframe where they averaged $244,000 per year.

Even now, when they're making money hand over fist from Barack's books, they're only giving 5 to 6% to charity.

In contrast, the Cheyneys gave away $6.9 MILLION dollars last year, over 70% of their income.

Once again, it goes to show that Democrats don't care about anyone other than themselves. They're willing to spend other people's money, but not their own. They are only concerned with increasing their own power, not actually helping people.

Sales tax jacked up 16.666% today.

Today is the day that the sales tax increases from 6 to 7% in Indiana.

Bastards.

I took the opportunity to buy a new chest freezer on Saturday. Saved $2.28. Money in the bank.