Slowest hurricane season in 30 years.

So what was it? Year six of the global warming alarmists predicting an active hurricane season? One year they will be correct just by chance. This reminds me of the climate change cult ignoring the fact that global temperature have been flat for 16 years now. All the while China has been growing by 15-20% a year and pumping out more and more greenhouse gases.

Better Luck next year.

P.S. The ice cap in Antarctica is largest ever and the ice cap in the Arctic has rebounded. Meanwhile, windfarms are decimating migrating birds, bats, eagles, hawks.

Never again! Well maybe just one more time.

I've often wondered how Jewish voters in America could be so staunchly Democrat at the expense of their homeland. It's like they don't care much if Iran wipes out Israel.  Seriously, I'm Christian and I feel like I'm more worried about their homeland than they are. WHY?

Jeff Berwick on Practical Solutions to a Collapsing World Order

A long but interesting read on what a libertarian's sees .

http://www.thedailybell.com/exclusive-interviews/34772/Anthony-Wile-Jeff-Berwick-on-Practical-Solutions-to-a-Collapsing-World-Order/

Obamacare: A Front For (WHO) World Health Organization, Complete With Legal Executions

Obama’s lies have been exposed one after the other. Now here is a revelation that no one is talking about yet. Obamacare is a front for (WHO) The United Nations, World Health Organization.

What Obama is not telling you yet,  is that the International Classification of Diseases (IDC) is a new code brought in by “Obamacare”. It is an INTERNATIONAL coding system as well!   This is NOW part of the “medical coding” under (WHO) the World Health Organization. 

Even more disturbing, is finding out American citizens have been subject to the ICP Medial code for many years. Thus, giving the United Nations, our private information through “coding.” This is not only is an invasion of our privacy, but has been done in silence without our knowledge.

From the 1961 Operation Coffee Cup Campaign against Socialized Medicine as proposed by the Democrats, then a private citizen Ronald Reagan Speaks out against socialized medicine. There is no video because this was an LP sent out by the American Medical Association

  This specific code is sure to make any American’s hair stand up on the back of their neck. The code is ICD 9 E 978. After reading this code it is a medical code in the United States for “Legal Execution.” Below are the results. Please follow the blue links to verify this information.

ICD 9 E 978 “Legal Execution
All executions performed at the behest of the judiciary or ruling authority [whether permanent or temporary] as:

• asphyxiation by gas
• beheading, decapitation (by guillotine)
• capital punishment
• electrocution
• hanging
• poisoning
• shooting
• other specified means
• INJURY UNDETERMINED WHETHER ACCIDENTALLY OR PURPOSELY
• INFLICTED

According to reports,more than 68,105 new medical codes are being added due to the Obamacare monstrosity. Doctors all across the nation have been complaining due to the overwhelming burden it places upon them. While some of these doctors are correct to state it will be even more of a burden, they are not correct to state this has come out of Obamacare itself. Please let me explain.
These codes were not created by Obamacare, however Obamacare is trying to implement every American citizen under international codes to link us to the “international” system. These codes were actually created by the WHO (World Health Organization) . The WHO is a specialized agency of the United Nations.
First, it is important to know what the meanings of the codes are to grasp a better understanding of the importance and depth of this “internal takeover” that has been going on for many years right under our noses. The first ICD (International Classification of Diseases) was created in 1893.

• WHO took control of clinical modifications in 1948.
• 1955 the WHO modified the ICD to track mortality rates.
• 1977 the 9th revision was published aka “ICD 9 Medical Codes” that are being used today within our medical system.
• 1988 Congress passed “Medicare Catastrophic Coverage Act” requiring the use of ICD 9 codes on all claims.
• 1996 Mandated codes to be of highest possible specificity.

As of October 1, 2014 the ICD 9 coding will no longer be used. ICD 10 “mandated” medical coding will add 68,105 codes. The ICD-10-PCS (Procedure Code System) has an additional 86,000 codes totaling approximately 155,000 new medical codes for medical professionals. I can see why this would be overwhelming, and I am sure this will be a burden on doctors. One does have to wonder why doctors have not spoken out against this international coding system in the first place. This “international” United Nations based code is used to track people in all countries that have signed on with the WHO plan. Their “coding” and “data” collections have been implemented all around the globe with a few exceptions. So why are American doctors being required to use international medical coding? Why haven’t doctors pointed out these are international codes? Why did congress sell out the American people in 1988 by passing the “Medicare Catastrophic Coverage Act” going along with and forcing “Sovereign United States Citizens” under “International rules, regulations, and coding”?

According to Wikipedia
The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) that is concerned with international public health. It was established on 7 April 1948, with its headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. WHO is a member of the United Nations Development Group. Its predecessor, the Health Organization, was an agency of theLeague of Nations.
The use of the word “world”, rather than “international”, emphasized the truly global nature of what the organization was seeking to achieve. The constitution of the World Health Organization had been signed by all 61 countries of the United Nations by 22 July 1946. It thus became the first specialized agency of the United Nations to which every member subscribed. Its constitution formally came into force on the first World Health Day on 7 April 1948, when it was ratified by the 26th member state. The first meeting of the World Health Assembly finished on 24 July 1948, having secured a budget of US$5 million (then GBP£1,250,000) for the 1949 year.
Andrija Stampar was the Assembly’s first president, and G. Brock Chisholm was appointed Director-General of WHO, having served as Executive Secretary during the planning stages. Its first priorities were to control the spread of malaria, tuberculosis and sexually transmitted infections, and to improve maternal and child health, nutrition and environmental hygiene. Its first legislative act was concerning the compilation of accurate statistics on the spread and morbidity of disease. The logo of the World Health Organization features the Rod of Aesculapius as a symbol for healing.
The WHO and the World Bank constitute the core team responsible for administering the International Health Partnership (IHP+). The IHP+ is a group of partner governments, development agencies, civil society and others committed to improving the health of citizens in developing countries. Partners work together to put international principles for aid effectiveness and development cooperation into practice in the health sector.
In addition, the WHO has also promoted road safety. Each year, the organization marks World Health Day focusing on a specific health promotion topic, timed to match the anniversary of WHO’s founding. Recent themes have been drug resistance (2011) and aging (2012). As part of the United Nations, the World Health Organization supports work towards the Millennium Development Goals. Of the eight Millennium Development Goals, three – reducing child mortality by two-thirds, to reduce maternal deaths by three-quarters, and to halt and begin to reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS – relate directly to WHO’s scope; the other five inter-relate and have an impact on world health.
The organization develops and promotes the use of evidence-based tools, norms and standards to support member states to inform health policy options. It oversees the implementation of the International Health Regulations, and publishes a series of medical classifications; of these, three are overreaching “reference classifications”: the International Statistical Classification of Diseases (ICD), the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) and the International Classification of Health Interventions (ICHI). Other international policy frameworks produced by WHO include the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes (adopted in 1981), Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (adopted in 2003) and the Global Code of Practice on the International Recruitment of Health Personnel (adopted in 2010).
The WHO regularly publishes a World Health Report, its leading publication, including an expert assessment of a specific global health topic. Other publications of WHO include the Bulletin of the World Health Organization, the Eastern Mediterranean Health Journal (overseen by EMRO), the Human Resources for Health (published in collaboration with BioMed Central), and the Pan American Journal of Public Health (overseen by PAHO/AMRO).
As of 2013, the WHO has 194 member states: all Member States of the United Nations except Liechtenstein, as well as the Cook Islands and Niue. (A state becomes a full member of WHO by ratifying the treaty known as the Constitution of the World Health Organization.)
As of 2013, it also had two associate members, Puerto Rico and Tokelau. Several other entities have been granted observer status. Palestine is an observer as a “national liberation movement” recognized by the League of Arab States under United Nations Resolution 3118. The Holy See also attends as an observer, as does the Order of Malta. In 2010, Taiwan was invited under the name of “Chinese Taipei”.

WHO Member States appoint delegations to the World Health Assembly, WHO’s supreme decision-making body. All UN Member States are eligible for WHO membership, and, according to the WHO web site, “other countries may be admitted as members when their application has been approved by a simple majority vote of the World Health Assembly”. In addition, the UN observer organizations International Committee of the Red Cross and International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies have entered into “official relations” with WHO and are invited as observers. In the World Health Assembly they are seated along the Financing and partnerships.
The WHO is financed by contributions from member states and outside donors. As of 2012, the largest annual assessed contributions from member states came from the United States ($110 million), Japan ($58 million), Germany ($37 million), United Kingdom ($31 million) and France ($31 million). The combined 2012–2013 budget has proposed a total expenditure of $3,959 million, of which $944 million (24%) will come from assessed contributions. This represented a significant fall in outlay compared to the previous 2009–2010 budget, adjusting to take account of previous under spends. Assessed contributions were kept the same. Voluntary contributions will account for $3,015 million (76%), of which $800 million is regarded as highly or moderately flexible funding, with the remainder tied to particular programs or objectives.

In recent years, the WHO’s work has involved increasing collaboration with external bodies. As of 2002, a total of 473 NGOs had some form of partnership with WHO. There were 189 partnerships with international non-governmental organization (NGO) in formal “official relations” – the rest being considered informal in character. Partners include the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation.

As you can see the WHO supports UN Agenda 21 through the “Millennium Development Goals” “Sustainable Development” agendas. President Obama, as senator, had a hand in attempting to increase U.S. political attention towards Millennium Development Goals, including The Borgen Project which worked with Senator Obama on “The Global Poverty Act”; a bill requiring the White House to develop a strategy for achieving the goals. The bill did not pass.
Even more disturbing, is finding out American citizens have been subject to the ICP Medial code for many years. Thus, giving the United Nations our private information through “coding.” This is not only is an invasion of our privacy, but has been done in silence without our knowledge.
The Department of Homeland Security of Wisconsin “List of underlying causes of injury death Framework of E-code groupings (ICD-9) 1989 – 1998″ conveniently leaves out the definition of code ICD 9 E 978, but does reference it at the bottom of the list as: “1. Includes legal intervention (E970-E978) and operations of war (E990-E999).”
This certainly makes me wonder why DHS would omit (“hide”) the code from the chart? Most people won’t dig to find out what the “medical code” means unless they have a specific reason to do so. One thing is for sure, whether omitted by DHS or someone else, there is a good reason this code was left out of their document. They definitely didn’t want most people to see what it means. DHS knows this code would create a stir with the American people if they found out there was a code for “Legal Execution,” especially with a guillotine and beheading.
ICD9Data.com also gives a list for “legal intervention.” Center for Disease Control“International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10)”
To read more about the “global” coding ICD 9 and 10 see below:
2013 ARHPC_ICD 9 CM
The questions that need to be asked and answered are:

1. Why has the United States been subjected to “International Medical Coding” without our knowledge?
2. Why are we allowing “coding” that goes against our principles and constitution?
3. Why do we have a code for “Legal Execution” which is illegal in America? With the exception of those given the death penalty after trial by jury.
4. When did the Department of Homeland Security find out about this coding? Why haven’t they addressed this (since they are supposed to protect the people)?
5. Why is DHS sending any kind of “Medical Coding” to the states?
6. Why haven’t the doctors spoken out to make Americans and Medicare recipients aware that their information has been given to an “International body”?
7. Why haven’t they made people aware that the WHO is a specialized agency of the United Nations and directly linked to the “League of Nations under the guise of collecting data?
8. Why would we allow forced medical coding through congressional bills to come from an organization that supports UN Agenda 21, Millennium Development Goals, and supports the eradication of “sprawl” (which is average people like you and I)?
9. Is law enforcement aware of this specific code? If so why haven’t they brought this to the attention of the American people?

I, of course, do not know the answers to these questions, but I am deeply disturbed that we, the American People, have been kept in the dark on such an important issue. I was never asked permission for an international organization being able to access any of my information through “coding.” I’ll bet you were not asked either. It is bad enough the out of control IRS will have complete access to our health information. Now, to make matters even worse, we find out the WHO will have access to every American citizens health information through “medical coding,” via Obamacare. When will enough be enough? When will the United States wake up and refuse to continue funding the United Nations and any organization that is affiliated with it?
One thing is for sure. This coding is directly related and tied to creating their “International One World Government.” While the WHO pretends to be for helping people, they create codes for “Legal Execution” by beheading. The more you research, the more you realize that the WHO isn’t all roses and sunshine. There is a much darker agenda at play. There is a direct connection between the “elitist” global banks and the WHO. The deeper you research, the more disturbing it gets. While American citizens have trusted our government to spend our money wisely, they have paid the WHO approximately $110 million dollars this year alone. Our government is inching us closer and closer to being controlled by a “One World Government” system and forcing us to pay for it. The repeal of Obamacare is important to our nation for many reasons, but pulling out of the United Nations and completely defunding them is imperative to our survival as a sovereign country and a free people.
Contact your representatives and demand that we defund and pull out of the United Nations now. Let them know about the “International Coding” system that is in place. I am sure many are not aware of this as they normally don’t even read the bills before they pass them ref: Obamacare aka ACA. If they won’t read their own bills why would we expect them to understand or know that the new medical coding is an expansion of a International Medical Code designed to track the world? This must be stopped. I am not and never have been a “global citizen”! I am an AMERICAN citizen! I am Red, White, and Blue through and through, and will continue to fight for our country, exposing corruption and spreading truth as long as I live.

California Smoking Ban Said to Be Most Stringent in U.S.

SAN RAFAEL, Calif., Nov. 22 (UPI) --
A California ordinance that prohibits smoking in residences with shared walls may be the strictest anti-smoking law in the United States, city officials say.



The ban, passed by the city of San Rafael, applies to both owners and renters, ABC News reported Thursday.



It covers any multi-family residence with three or more units, including condominiums, co-ops and apartments. The ban took effect Nov. 14.



"I'm not aware of any ordinance that's stronger," said Rebecca Woodbury, an analyst in the San Rafael's city manager's office who helped write the ordinance.



She cited studies that found secondhand smoke seeps through walls, ventilation ducts and even cracks as justification for the ordinance.



Critics jumped on Woodbury's reasoning and the ordinance itself.



"The science for that is spurious at best," said George Koodray, the state coordinator for Citizens Freedom Alliance and the Smoker's Club in New Jersey.



Steve Stanek, a research fellow at the free-market oriented policy group Heartland Institute in Chicago, supported the rights of smokers.



Stanek, a non-smoker, said, "My sympathies aren't with smokers because I am one, it's because of the huge growth in laws and punishments and government restricting people more and more."


Article Here: Smoking at Home banned




Perhaps we should demolish all housed affected by radon gas and pass and ordinance that if you have so much as a cold, you be removed to a communicable disease center for isolation...  heaven forbid a cold germ get through a neighbors wall or window....  and what about those damned curry smells.  Some liberal even legalize pot and make its smell a crime....


"Your activities should not pervade others' peace and ability to enjoy," said Denver Mayor Michael Hancock. "Marijuana is one of those elements that can be quite pervasive and invasive. I shouldn't have to smell your activities from your backyard."

Barbecue Next?

Liberals of course can't see where all of this is going...  They will read the above and say that it is only "shared wall" residence.   Except that it is the liberals who whole heartedly support the stack and pack housing provisions of Agenda 21.... of which San Rafael is a supporter.....

Of Course Their Is No Liberal Manipulation Of Public Education

Obama biography, required reading, tells fourth-graders that white Americans are racists

Some parents in Dupo, Ill. are not happy that a biography of President Barack Obama is required reading for fourth-graders. They say the book contains a host of controversial elements, not least of which is that it casts white Americans who disagree with Obama’s politics as racist.
Fourth-grade students at Bluffview Elementary School were instructed that they would be tested and graded on the book’s contents, reports EAGnews.org.
The book, called simply “Barack Obama,” is published by Lerner Publications. The author, Jane Sutcliffe, appears to specialize in these kinds of biographies. She has written similar titles about Jesse Owens, Ronald Reagan, Sacagawea and Milton Hershey.



The kerfuffle about the book originally bubbled up through a Facebook page called Moms Against Duncan (MAD). The group actively opposes implementation of the Common Core curriculum.
EAGNews notes that the Obama book is part of Scholastic’s “Reading Counts” program and an acceptable title under the Common Core State Standards Initiative, which attempts to standardize various K-12 curricula around the country.

You can view a sample of the bio on Google Books.

The book continually identifies Obama on a first-name basis. It bizarrely blames the evils of television for learning ways “to be black” that are hilariously caricatured, stereotypical and negative.

When Barry looked in the mirror, he saw a young black man. But he didn’t know how to be black. And no one was there to teach him.
He decided to act like the black characters he saw on TV. He started acting tough. He cursed. Was that what it meant to be black?
As he got older, he started smoking and drinking. He tried drugs. Was that what it meant to be black?

It’s not clear if Sutcliffe purposefully conflates being a black American with “acting tough,” cussing, “smoking and drinking” and doing drugs. Sutcliffe is white, according to her Amazon.com author page.

The Obama biography goes on to charge that white Americans did not want to vote for Obama because of his skin color. However, it neatly explains, America’s 44th president was able to bring everybody together in blissful unity.

But some people said Americans weren’t ready for that much change. Sure Barack was a nice fellow, they said. But white voters would never vote for a black president. Other angry voices were raised. Barack’s former pastor called the country a failure. God would damn the United States for mistreating its black citizens, he said.

The book then recounts Obama’s March 2008 speech about race.
“Barack decided it was time to speak to Americans about race,” the next paragraph pedantically explains. “Black people and white people were too often angry with one another. All people were going to have to work together to solve the country’s problems. Only in that way could Americans make a more perfect United States.”
It’s not clear if the book’s author believes the United States is now “more perfect” some six years into the Obama presidency.

Article Found Here: Barack Obama


Since when is an unproven figure taught in our schools?  Will history really find this man to be a net positive to America?  To the world?   And what lesson of respect does it bring to the office of the presidency when a sitting president is identified to such young minds by his first name?  This book was copyrighted in 2010 - we certainly had little information about him at that early date to write a definitive book on this person as a real rollmodel.  If the book wants to address race, that is fair enough but to do it in such a backhanded way is disingenuous particularly when it suggests that whites did not vote for him because he was black....   My ASS, I didn't vote for him because he was a flaming liberal.... I wouldn't have cared if his mother was Connie Chu and his father was Edgar Winters.

And liberals just shrug and wonder why their is so much opposition to the Common Core Initiative.

But of course... if it is a common core written by democrats.....  Its all right.

Round 2 of ObamaCare enrollment to be delayed until after 2014 elections

Do you think that they can fool the public again?

How spoiled Brats and Gutless Bullies wind up as loser Democrats.

When AmPol was rolling along back in the day there were numerous arguments from the left countered by the wails of pain from the right.  The left merely implied the right were racists... Fast forward to today.. is racism even mentioned or just endless failures?

Numerous Democratic House and Senate members currently serving are beginning to realize that their jobs, with all the perks that goes with it, are unsafe.  Imagine what the spouses of these fat cats will think when they are voted out of a job.  Harry has created the tipping point for firing of the Democratic Majority in the Senate, and at the same time shown all the voters in this country the most glaring issue that plagues the Democrats.  They are unwitting liars. A democrat will say anything, do anything to get elected.

If you look at a long term political strategy, one that guarantees you will be the party in power for all time, one only needs to follow the play book. 1. There's a depression 2. Give the voters money to get thru it. 3. Take no real action to fix the problems that created the depression. 4. Convince the majority of voters that they need government to provide the solutions, from taxes, to end the depression. 5. Add voters to the roles of the party that is providing the welfare to a point where the majority of voters are on welfare 6. Once in the majority, the party is now in power forever.

The Democratic Party playbook has just been shown to you, do you debate the realization that this is what is being done to us or do you refute that this is not happening?

Does this remind you of the 30's?

Nanny Nancy Pelosi and the Senate Dems are going to find out the hard way that forcing legislation down our collective throats was a big mistake.  Millions of voting Americans are getting kicked off their insurance policy, millions more are paying vastly more, many single males are paying for female issues, and millions more have had their insurance, which provided high quality hospitals and doctors/services stripped away for f'ing ever!

What have the Dems done about the debt, grown it, what have the Dems done about Middle East, allowed Iran to get Nukes, why?  Because Obama is the weakest foreign policy President in history.  The Afghan war... giving them billions to maintain the status quo.  GREAT, just what we need!

Issue by issue , failure after failure, when the revisionists try their collective hardest to laud Obama, the facts will shoot them down, his Presidency will be historic, for the worst employed workforce, the worst executed foreign policies, and perhaps he will foment the war against Iran.
Who knows how bad it will get?

Millions with no health insurance, lost wars, buying off countries to look good in the press, changing the rules of the Senate from its inception, the list is endless.

If Jersey still had the balls to post here or RD, would they defend or admit?

As for the rest of you lefties here, look in the mirror real hard, is the condition of the country your fault, or a glorified success?

Who Will Profit Most From Obamacare?

Here is the answer from CNN:

Cigna's 2009 profit was $1.3 billion. Next year, analysts are predicting net income of $2 billion. Aetna posted a profit of $1.3 billion in 2009 and Wall Street is expecting earnings of $2.3 billion next year. UnitedHealth earned $3.8 billion in 2009. The consensus forecast for its 2014 profit? $5.7 billion.

And that's a PR nightmare for the president since the launch of Obamacare has been, to put it mildly, a disaster. Okay. That wasn't mild.

Besides the technical snafus, there has been growing discontent about the fact that many insurers canceled existing health care plans for consumers because those plans did not meet the ACA requirements.

Obama was forced to announce a fix for this problem a week ago that may allow some consumers to extend their current plans for a year. But this is a stopgap measure as opposed to a permanent solution.

So while it may be unfair to label the ACA as an abject failure because of its rocky start, it does seem like there are way too many glitches and unintended consequences that have sprung up as a result of the law.

Consumers may not benefit from Obamacare as much as the president and other Democrats promised three years ago. But the insurance companies are in better shape now than they were in 2010.

That's not "immoral." It's capitalism at work. And that should be applauded. It's just unfortunate that the ACA was billed as something that would reshape the greedy insurance industry and force them to act more on the behalf of customers than investors. That hasn't happened. It probably never will.

Right now, the Big Five insurers have gained more from Obamacare than the average American. And that's something the president probably wasn't counting on when he was trying to score political points in 2010 by attacking the health insurance industry for its profits

Senate votes to limit filibuster after Reid goes nuclear, the Dems and Obama need to go!

The Senate voted Thursday to change its rules to prevent the minority party from filibustering any nominations other than nods to the Supreme Court.

The change was approved after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) triggered the “nuclear option,” which allows a change to Senate rules by majority vote.

The 52-48 vote dramatically changes the rules of the Senate and limits the minority party's ability to prevent confirmation of presidential nominees. Sens. Carl Levin (Mich.), Mark Pryor (Ark.) and Joe Manchin (W.Va.) were the only Democrats to vote against Reid's rules change.

It will allow all three of President Obama's nominees to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals to go forward, as well as his nomination of Rep. Mel Watt to lead a housing regulatory agency. 

Reid said the change was necessary to get the Senate working again.

“It’s time to change the Senate before this institution becomes obsolete,” Reid said on the Senate floor.

http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/191042-dems-reid-may-go-nuclear-thursday

Twinsdads comments:

This is the Democratic way, cast aside the rules to jam legislation down the nations collective throats, for what, some judicial nominations, no this is a complete take over of our government!!

Obama does it with Executive orders, and I am sick and tired of Democrats going around our laws and ways to get their own way.  We the people need to rise up and throw these folks out on the street and if you can't see that Democrats are the problem, have driven up the debt and destroyed the country, you are just a ________!! 

Should we consider a maximum wage law?

Here is one opinion:

(CNN) -- It's an idea that's radical in its simplicity.

Swiss voters on November 24 will consider capping executive pay at 12 times what the lowest-paid worker at a company makes -- the premise being that a CEO should make no more in a month than a low-level employee earns in a year.

 

The referendum, which is called the "1:12 initiative" and began after supporters gathered 100,000 signatures to put it on the ballot, is the kind of elegant solution to income inequality that we in the United States should consider more seriously.

OBAMA GOLFS 151ST ROUND, ATTENDS BASKETBALL GAME

MARTIN BASHIR APOLOGIZES FOR BRINGING ‘SHAME’ TO MSNBC WITH GRAPHIC ATTACK ON SARAH PALIN

Where does America rank in terms of top rate?

Taxes are fiendishly complex, so this post might have some errors.  I’m trying to see where America ranks in terms of “top income tax rate.”  Just to be clear, I am not including wage taxes, or corporate income taxes.  Nor am I interested in the maximum MTR associated with benefit and deduction phaseouts.  You’d have to be a rocket scientist to figure all of those out.  I’d like to rank countries according to the MTR as one’s income goes out towards infinity.  I believe the top 6 countries are:

1.  Aruba  58.95%
2.  Sweden  56.6%
3.  Denmark
56.455.6%
4.  Netherlands  52%
5.  Spain  52%
6.  US  51.4%  (but only in California.)

[Sources here and here]
Our top rate in a typical state is about 48%, which is roughly 10th in the world.  The top federal income tax rate is 43.4% (39.6% plus the 3.8% medical income tax.)  I got the California number by assuming their 13.3% top rate was deductible against the 39.6% federal rate, but not the 3.8%.

Update:  Mark Sadowski points out that California also trails Belgium and Portugal.

Update#2:  Steve points out that with the Pease phaseout California’s top rate is actually 52.6%, still number 6, but trailing Portugal and Belgium, not Netherlands and Spain.

Canada seems to have a top rate of 54.75% in Quebec, but only about 45% in a typical province, and about 42% in populous Ontario.  Their top federal rate is 29%.  (I assumed local taxes are not deductible at the Federal level, otherwise their rates would be lower.)  Progressives want Canada’s health care regime.  I want their banking system, military, and income tax regime.  And their sound public finances.  Oil-rich conservative Alberta’s top rate is 39%, versus 43.4% in oil-rich conservative Texas.

Recently a lot of zombie ideas have been resurrected by progressives (and even some conservatives.)  These include 75% tax rates, much higher minimum wages, and guaranteed annual incomes.  I realize that lots of people are worried about inequality.  But there are sensible ways to address the issue (i.e. wage subsidies.) Let’s not shoot ourselves in the foot.  There’s a reason that Aruba is the only country in the world with a top rate above 57%.

PS.  The New York Times did a story on the Swiss referendum on a proposal that would pay every Swiss couple $67,ooo/year to do . . . nothing at all.  Just for existing.  They left the impression that it was a good idea. How did they accomplish that seemingly miraculous task?  Simple, they “forget” to mention the size of the guaranteed annual income.

PPS.  I have a better idea for the Swiss.  Instead of giving $33,500 to each Swiss adult, at a total cost of $200,000,000,000, why not give $50/year to each human adult?

Regarding the minimum wage, here is some data for Western Europe:
There are nine countries with a minimum wage (Belgium, Netherlands, Britain, Ireland, France, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Luxembourg).  Their unemployment rates range from 5.9% in Luxembourg to 27.6% in Greece.  The median country is France with 11.1% unemployment.
There are nine countries with no minimum wage (Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Austria, Germany, Italy, Switzerland.)  Five of the nine have a lower unemployment rate than Luxembourg, the best of the other group.  The median country is Iceland, with a 5.5% unemployment rate. The biggest country in Europe is Germany.  No minimum wage and 5.2% unemployment.

Still want to raise our minimum wage to $10?  Germany used to have really high unemployment.  Then they did labor reforms to allow more low wage jobs, combined with subsidies for low wage workers.  Now they don’t have high unemployment.

Still want to raise our minimum wage to $10?

Find the article here:
http://www.themoneyillusion.com/?p=24759


**************

 Taxes are very counter-intuitive to some but the fact is, we tax people in this country too much...  We don't tax them fairly ... we don't use the tax money appropriately... and a certain segment of society is convinced that taxing people into government servitude makes for a healthy nation....

What do you think about those minimum wage stats (Emphasis Added).... another counter-intuitutive subject....?  Interesting just how many countries in 'Western Europe' (You know, the culture that we are trying to emulate), including Sweden, Finland and Germany who have no minimum wage...

WH Predicts: Taxes Will Hit Record $3T in FY14--$29,673 Per Full-Time Worker

November 14, 2013 - 2:03 PM
By Terence P. Jeffrey


(CNSNews.com) - The latest Monthly Treasury Statement, which was released on Wednesday afternoon, relies on the estimate made by the White House Office of Management and Budget to say that federal tax revenues will top $3 trillion for the first time in the nation’s history in fiscal 2014.

In fact, the record $3,023,004,000,000 in tax revenues that the White House is predicting the federal government will rake in during fiscal 2014 not only exceeds the inflation-adjusted revenue taken in by the government in any previous year, it also equals $29,673 in tax revenue for every full-time worker in the country.

It is also equals $9,534 for every man, woman and child currently living in the country.

Until now, the record-setting year for inflation-adjusted federal tax revenues was fiscal 2007. In that year, the federal government brought in $2,899,644,380,000 in constant 2013 dollars.

If the White House is correct that total federal tax receipts will hit $3,023,004,000,000 in fiscal 2014, that would represent an increase of $123,359,620,000 in constant 2013 dollars over fiscal 2007's record tax haul of $2,899,644,380,000. Real tax revenues this year, according to the White House estimate, will be 4.25 percent higher than they have ever been.

According to the Census Bureau, there are now 317,065,976 people in the United States. The $3,023,004,000,000 in taxes the administration plans to collect this fiscal year equals $9,534 for every single one of those 317,065,976 people.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were 101,877,000 full-time workers (who usually worked at least 35 hours a week) in the average month during 2012. The $3,023,004,000,000 in taxes the administration plans to collect this year equals $29,673 for each of those full-time workers.

For each household where there are two full-time workers, the federal government is planning to collect $59,346 in this fiscal year. In 2012, according to the Census Bureau, the median household income was only $51,017.

At the end of 2012, President Barack Obama struck a deal with Republicans in Congress to enact legislation that increased taxes. The deal included pushing the top income tax rate from 35 percent to 39.6 percent, increasing the top tax rate on dividends and capital gains from 15 percent to 20 percent, and phasing out personal exemptions and deductions starting at an annual income level of $250,000.

Despite the record tax revenue, the White House Office of Management and Budget predicts a deficit of $750,369,000,000. That would be an increase from the $680,232,000,000 deficit the Treasury reported for fiscal 2013, which ended on Sept. 30.

Emphasis added

CNSNews:
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/terence-p-jeffrey/wh-predicts-taxes-will-hit-record-3t-fy14-29673-full-time-worker

Which TV Network Leads in Diversity Programing?

To some here the word "diversity" is an obscenity used by liberals and progressives to the detriment of us real Americans.  Well folks, guess which network leads in diversity programming. Give up?
Here's the answer, my favorite network, Fox.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/codeswitch/2013/11/13/244988218/fox-says-diversity-leads-to-good-ratings-and-better-business?ft=1&f=1001

Churches post 'Thou shalt not kill' billboards around Detroit

Posted: Nov 12, 2013 4:48 AM PST 
Updated: Nov 12, 2013 5:33 AM PST

 

By FOX NEWS - 

 

A wave of gun violence in Detroit has prompted local church leaders to inundate the city with "Thou shalt not kill" posters and billboards in hopes of quelling the violence.

A coalition of clergy leaders held an emergency meeting on Nov. 7 to develop a plan to promote the message of the Sixth Commandment in the community, WWJ-TV reported.

“We all have to do what we can do, and right now we don’t have a respect in our communities for life; we don’t have a respect for many things,” a local minister, Ovella Andreas, told the station. “But we still have to create a standard to hopefully have a consciousness about God …. because even our people have become apathetic.”

The group, which spearheaded efforts to get the city to designate the 22nd day of each month as “Stop the Violence Day,” hopes to saturate the community with the campaign by placing posters on the sides of buses, billboards and at area businesses.

“This is an emergency; this is a crisis, and we have to come together now to do what we can,” Andreas told WWJ-TV. “I truly know if we do what we can, God will do what we cannot; but we’re not doing all that we can.”

Read more

Last week, three men were fatally shot in a back gambling room of an east side barbershop. Authorities have identified a convicted felon as a person of interest and believe the shooting may have stemmed from an ongoing feud.

On Monday, the autopsy on a 19-year-old woman killed on a suburban Detroit porch where she'd reportedly gone to seek help after a car crash confirmed that she died of a gunshot wound to her face.

Renisha McBride, of Detroit, who was black, was fatally shot Nov. 2 in predominantly white Dearborn Heights. Civil rights groups have called for a vigorous prosecution in the case, saying McBride was targeted because of her race.

Article Here:

http://www.myfoxny.com/Story/23942392/churches-post-thou-shalt-not-kill-billboards-around-detroit

***********

Those damn fundamentalists are at it again!  Notice how they didn't blame the guns...  They blamed the apathy... something that is, IMHO, promoted by and is all to common in progressivism.   'Progressives' will tell you differently but when high moral standards can't be voiced as it is 'fundamentalist hate', they are pushing apathy.  And progressives will raise their voices in condemnation of this 'religious interference' as they push their own conscious killing dogma.  

What will you do my conservative friends?

I ask that in all seriousness. As we look forward to the 2016 presidential election the democratic party seems to be in the hands of Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden. One of them will be the nominee unless Cory Booker can streak that far in the limited time remaining. I doubt that I think he will run in 2020. so Hillary and Biden definite front runners. Wait you say Benghazi! Well that will come up, but eventually Barack Obama is going to take one for the party and Hillary will be somewhat free of that unfortunate circumstance.
   On the right you have several prospects, Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, Marco Rubio, Chris Christie, Rick Santorum. What will you do?
   As it stands today Chris Christie a moderate stands to be the front runner. He doesn't always act the way you want him too, is very pragmatic, compromises for the common good, and is very outspoken not only against his opponents but sometimes against his own party. He is  (I hate to say it again) center right, charismatic , and most important can win. In New Jersey he won the Hispanic vote, he won the minority vote, he won the women's vote, all in a pretty damn blue state. What will you do?
Let's look at your options.

Ted Cruz he will have 3 years under his belt as a U S Senator, 5 years as Solicitor General of Texas. He had a short legal career but other then that nothing. I would have a problem with his overall experience.

Rand Paul. He will get the libertarian vote although he is much more mainstream then his father. He will have 8 years under his belt as a U.S Senator, provided he is re-elected in 2014. I see no problem with that for him. He's an Ophthalmologist by trade an eye doctor. Geesh if my daddy was a Gynecologist I think I would have followed him into the trade :). Rand Paul is already moving more towards the mainstream. It's where presidents get elected.

Marco Rubio. Well you're mad at him for his stance on immigration. By 2016 he will have 5 years in the senate and 9 yrs. in the Florida House. Hey that's about the same experience of our current president before he was elected. Nope gotta nix this one no experience.

Rick Santorum, 2012 presidential candidate and the runner up in the primary.  I'd have took him as my vice presidential candidate if I were Romney. He could have helped the ticket carry Pennsylvania. We know now that wouldn't have been enough but at the time it was pretty hotly contested, and carries more EC votes then Wisconsin.  2 term senator, 2 terms in the U S House, proven family man, high on family values, what's not to like? Except he probably is not electable on a national scale. I think you'd have the Mitt Romney, John Kerry type, all kinds of qualifications but can't connect with the common man. I think this hindered him during the last primary.

And ya got Chris Christie. 2 times governor of N J, 6 years District attorney for N.J. 3 years as a Morris County N.J. commissioner. Guys got it all and then some. Whats he got? Fundraising, fundraising, fundraising. While exploring his chances in 2012 this guy got the backing of the Koch's if he decided to run, he has Kenneth Langone CEO of Home Depot in his pocket. He has the Bushes behind him. He has endorsements from Scott Walker of Wisconsin, John Kaisch of Ohio and Rudy Guiliani if only he will run. What will you do. Christie has reliability issues, Christie will probably not run right to get the nomination and back center to run, it's just not his style. Christie can poll well among independents and moderate democrats and in early polling he runs the best race against Hillary Clinton. He is charismatic, he is electable, but he doesn't completely believe the things most of you do. He is the best choice right now to give you the white house but he has been, is and will remain a right center republican. What will you do?

Air Force Sgt. Matt Pinkerton Fires 2 Fatal Shots at Home Intruder - Now Faces 2nd Degree Murder Charge

In the wee hours of the morning on September 13th, Air Force Sgt. Matt Pinkerton and his wife were entertaining guests at their home when an acquaintance of Mrs. Pinkerton’s came knocking.

It was 2 AM. After being told to leave by Matt Pinkerton, who closed the door, Kendall Green decided that he’d kick it in and force his way into the home.

Matt Pinkerton, having armed himself with his Glock17 9mm prior to approaching the door, then proceeded to discharge two rounds into Green.

Green was subsequently killed in an obvious act of self defense.

Matt Pinkerton with his sons

But the story didn’t end there, as it should have.

The district attorney’s office has now filed second degree murder charges against Sgt. Pinkerton.

You may be asking yourself under what pretext?

According to the DA, Pinkerton exhibited “bizarre behavior” by grabbing his weapon when an unexpected knock came to his door at 2AM that morning. And, because he failed to call 9-1-1 between the time Green kicked in his door and rushed him, he has now been charged with murder by the state.

Mike Pinkerton, one of the guests and brother of Matt, recalls the incident via Bullets First:

“He (Green) kept coming forward so Matt fired. He rocked backwards and took another step forward at which time Matt took his second shot. He stumbled backwards and fell out the door onto the porch.”

“When the shots were fired Jessica called 911. Matt spoke to the operator; he removed the clip from his gun and the bullet in the chamber. Police arrived within five minutes.”

So what did Matt do wrong when a crazed man broke in his front door at 2am and was after his wife? To me, nothing.

Yet according to the state of Maryland, Matt should have called 911 first and waited for the police.

That isn’t some glib, pro gun caricature of the how when seconds count cops are minutes away. This is the reason he is being charged with murder. It doesn’t help that on top of the lack of a Castle Doctrine Statute the Assistant State’s Attorney, Glen Neubauer, is an rabid anti gunner himself.

Besides maintaining the ridiculous notion that calling 911 while a crazed intruder just smashed his way into your house is the only legal option, Neubauer also claims that even the act of grabbing the gun in the first place is “bizarre behavior in itself.”

Read the full report at Bullets First

As an important note, Mrs. Pinkerton was in no way involved with Kendall Green and a long list of evidence suggests they were merely friends, until Green decided he wanted more out of the relationship, at which point Mrs. Pinkerton ended their interactions.

Thus, it should be obvious that Kendall Green was likely demonstrating irrational emotional and mental behavior the morning he kicked down her door and entered her home.

The Pinkertons have set up a Facebook page in an effort to bring awareness to Matt’s plight against an overzealous District Attorney, who himself is a staunch supporter of anti-gun laws.

Through no fault of his own, Matt Pinkerton is now facing the real possibility of being imprisoned for doing what any self respecting, individually responsible person would do – defending himself, his wife, his guests and his home.

His legal expenses have already exceeded $25,000, plus an additional $25,000 so that Sgt. Pinkerton could be released on bond while awaiting his trial. The family was forced to take out loans in order to make these payments.

So, not only is the State now threatening the freedom of a man who defended those he loved, they are impoverishing him and his family for no other reason than to make a political statement.

The Pinkertons have received an overwhelming show of support since making their story public, with thousands flocking to their Facebook page. Matt Pinkerton was compelled to respond to his many supporters directly:

The monetary support is simply amazing! While I appreciate it, I don’t want anyone to overextend themselves. I am still working, and still getting paid. I received word that the GiveForward effort was reported. They shut it down when they learned it was not medically related. That said, they are cutting a check, IN THE AMOUNT OF $12,453!!!, give or take 20 bucks or so. Words can’t express my appreciation. I was standing guard at the gate when my wife texted me that our friend, Erica, set up the donation page. It’s a blessing to have so many supporters! From what I have been told, the reps at GiveForward suggested to Erica another site. I have since learned she has set something else up…or so I believe she has given the mass amount of emails I am receiving about PayPal donations/

I hate accepting money from anyone! I wouldn’t even allow my parents to purchase my first vehicle at the age of 16. However, I understand there are some that still want to help.

I have a LOT I would like to say. However, as you all likely know and understand, my lawyer would suggest I not. When this is all said and done, regardless of the outcome, I will share my story.

It is a travesty that Sergeant Matt Pinkerton has been put into this position.

The majority of people with any common sense at all know the answer to the question: What Would You Do If Someone Kicked Your Door In?

Matt had to make an immediate determination about how to respond to an intruder who had just kicked in his door, had made the decision to target him directly, and was making his way towards him.

He had mere seconds to decide, because 10 – 15 feet is not much ground to cover when someone is racing towards you with violence on their mind.

The last thing on Matt’s mind was whether he should call 9-1-1 at the particular moment in time.

We often say it’s better to be judged by twelve than carried by six.

This is a real life representation of the adage.

If you’d like to lend your support to Matt Pinkerton and his family, their friends have set up a crowd funding page to help with his defense.

Just let me copy that....................

What's up with Rand Paul? Ut Oh this might not be good. The last presidential aspirant
accused of Plagiarism, and admitting to it was none other then Vice President Joe Biden in 1988. He didn't dare to run again until 2008. This is not good although the right is much more forgiving of this type of thing. Spin city going on and Paul has found a permanent home to spout off his stolen text at breitbart.com. Cool beans.

from CBS news.com

Reports continue to emerge that Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., has a habit of using other authors' work in his own speeches and writings without giving them credit. The latest: an op-ed Paul wrote for The Washington Times on mandatory minimum sentencing borrowed verbatim from an article on the same topic written by Dan Stewart and published in The Week a week before Paul's own piece.
The overlap was originally reported by the website Buzzfeed, which found several copied sentences that outline the growth of the prison system, criticism of mandatory minimum sentencing, and tell the story of a Florida man named John Horner who was subject to a mandatory minimum penalty after selling some prescription painkillers to a friend who turned out to be a police informant.
"We've always known that the audience of The Week consists of smart, busy people who want to feel even smarter, including a lot of people on Capitol Hill," Bill Falk, the editor in chief of The Week, told Buzzfeed. "We'd like to thank Sen. Paul for his endorsement."
In an interview with the New York Times Tuesday, Paul admitted that he had "made mistakes" and said new procedures were being put in place to make footnotes available "if it will make people leave me the hell alone."
"In the thousands of speeches and op-eds Sen. Paul has produced, he has always presented his own ideas, opinions and conclusions. Sen. Paul also relies on a large number of staff and advisers to provide supporting facts and anecdotes - some of which were not clearly sourced or vetted properly," said Paul senior adviser Doug Stafford in a statement to CBSNews.com. "Footnotes presenting supporting facts were not always used. Going forward, footnotes will be available on request. There have also been occasions where quotations or typesetting indentations have been left out through errors in our approval process. From here forward, quoting, footnoting and citing will be more complete. Adherence to a new approval process implemented by Sen. Paul will ensure proper citation and accountability in all collaborative works going forward."
Paul also told the Times that no staffers were being fired over the incidents of plagiarism.
Paul has been under fire for borrowing language since MSNBC's Rachel Maddow accused him of citing Wikipedia descriptions of the movie "Gattaca" during a speech at Liberty University. Since then, the list of language copied from other sources has continued to grow, including the revelation that Paul's response to President Obama's 2013 State of the Union address included a line about increasing unemployment rates taken directly from an Associated Press report.
"It's been a footnote frenzy going on. They have looked at my works including all of my speeches which 98 percent of those are extemporaneous. I can't quote everything perfect. I'm not perfect," Paul said to Fox News host Sean Hannity Monday night, arguing that he was the only person being held to such a high standard because of political motivations.

Buying Voters

As the cost of health insurance plans and out of pocket expenses go up for the people who actually pay for their health care, people will find that it may be better for them to reduce their level of income so they can qualify for subsidies.  As they realize that qualifying for health care subsidies means that for a few less dollars of income per year will qualify them for food stamps and section 8 housing, they will trade their pride in independence for a comfortable, government supplied, lifestyle. As they become completely dependent on the government for their human needs, they will create offspring who know of no different lifestyle than being dependent on the government.  Long term thinkers in the democrat party must realize that increasing government benefits will increase the number of people on government support.  What do they plan on doing with all of these unproductive citizens?  Are they just perpetuating their political base?  Will the only requirement for government aid in the future be that the receivers must vote in all elections?  They will certainly have time for it.

ObamaCare (again)

It's funny to see them squirm and figure out how to convince people that Obama DIDN'T LIE. Which of course he did as internal memo says 95 Million people will eventually have their insurance canceled.

Say Carney's latest explanation is: If you like your insurance coverage and your insurance company doesn't cancel it, you can keep it.

Well DUH! Unfortunately, ObamaCare mandates require every insurance coverage to be changed, hence none are illegible to be grandfathered. That was PLANNED.



How about that liberal middle class married couple living in California? Huge ObamaCare supporters they were. They were SHOCKED to learn that their insurance was being canceled and that their new insurance would be $6000 more a year and with a higher deductible. So as good leftist activists they wrote their Congressmen to FIX it. LMAO, it is FIXED. It's doing exactly what it was designed to do. Transfer wealth from the healthy and middle class to the poor and the sick. Did they really believe that their premiums would actually DROP but $2500? Premiums don't drop, but out of pocket expenses do drop for the ENTITLED POOR. It's like saying socialism is GREAT it just needs to be fixed so it doesn't suck.

VOMEN! Move to Iceland!

Column: Why Scandinavian women make the rest of the world jealous

Thu, Oct 31 15:50 PM EDT

By Lynn Parramore

Icelanders are among the happiest and healthiest people on Earth. They publish more books per capita than any other country, and they have more artists. They boast the most prevalent belief in evolution — and elves, too. Iceland is the world's most peaceful nation (the cops don't even carry guns), and the best place for kids. Oh, and they've got a lesbian head of state, the world's first. Granted, the national dish is putrefied shark meat, but you can't have everything.

Iceland is also the best place to have a uterus, according to the folks at the World Economic Forum. The Global Gender Gap Report ranks countries based on where women have the most equal access to education and healthcare, and where they can participate most fully in the country's political and economic life.

According to the 2013 report, Icelandic women pretty much have it all. Their sisters in Finland, Norway, and Sweden have it pretty good, too: those countries came in second, third and fourth, respectively. Denmark is not far behind at number seven.

The U.S. comes in at a dismal 23rd, which is a notch down from last year. At least we're not Yemen, which is dead last out of 136 countries.

So how did a string of countries settled by Vikings become leaders in gender enlightenment? Bloodthirsty raiding parties don't exactly sound like models of egalitarianism, and the early days weren't pretty. Medieval Icelandic law prohibited women from bearing arms or even having short hair. Viking women could not be chiefs or judges, and they had to remain silent in assemblies. On the flip side, they could request a divorce and inherit property. But that's not quite a blueprint for the world's premier egalitarian society.

The change came with literacy, for one thing. Today almost everybody in Scandinavia can read, a legacy of the Reformation and early Christian missionaries, who were interested in teaching all citizens to read the Bible. Following a long period of turmoil, Nordic states also turned to literacy as a stabilizing force in the late 18th century. By 1842, Sweden had made education compulsory for both boys and girls.

Researchers have found that the more literate the society in general, the more egalitarian it is likely to be, and vice versa. But the literacy rate is very high in the U.S., too, so there must be something else going on in Scandinavia. Turns out that a whole smorgasbord of ingredients makes gender equality a high priority in Nordic countries.

To understand why, let's take a look at religion. The Scandinavian Lutherans, who turned away from the excesses of the medieval Catholic Church, were concerned about equality — especially the disparity between rich and poor. They thought that individuals had some inherent rights that could not just be bestowed by the powerful, and this may have opened them to the idea of rights for women. Lutheran state churches in Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Norway and Iceland have had female priests since the middle of the 20th century, and today, the Swedish Lutheran Church even has a female archbishop.

Or maybe it's just that there's not much religion at all. Scandinavians aren't big churchgoers. They tend to look at morality from a secular point of view, where there's not so much obsessive focus on sexual issues and less interest in controlling women's behavior and activities. Scandinavia's secularism decoupled sex from sin, and this worked out well for females. They came to be seen as having the right to sexual experience just like men, and reproductive freedom, too. Girls and boys learn about contraception in school (and even the pleasure of orgasms), and most cities have youth clinics where contraceptives are readily available. Women may have an abortion for any reason up to the eighteenth week (they can seek permission from the National Board of Health and Welfare after that), and the issue is not politically controversial.

Scandinavia's political economy also developed along somewhat different lines than America's did. Sweden and Norway had some big imperialist adventures, but this behavior declined following the Napoleonic Wars. After that they invested in the military to ward off invaders, but they were less interested in building it up to deal with bloated colonial structures and foreign adventures. Overall Nordic countries devoted fewer resources to the military — the arena where patriarchal values tend to get emphasized and entrenched. Iceland, for example, spends the world's lowest percentage of GDP on its military.

Industrialization is part of the story, too: it hit the Nordic countries late. In the 19th century, Scandinavia did have a rich and powerful merchant class, but the region never produced the Gilded Age industrial titans and extreme concentration of wealth that happened in America back then, and has returned today. (Income inequality and discrimination of all kinds seem to go hand-in-hand.)

In the 20th century, farmers and workers in the newly populated Nordic cities tended to join together in political coalitions, and they could mount a serious challenge to the business elites, who were relatively weak compared to those in the U.S. Like ordinary people everywhere, Scandinavians wanted a social and economic system where everyone could get a job, expect decent pay, and enjoy a strong social safety net. And that's what they got — kind of like Roosevelt's New Deal without all the restrictions added by New York bankers and southern conservatives. Strong trade unions developed, which tend to promote gender equality. The public sector grew, providing women with good job opportunities. Iceland today has the highest rate of union membership out of any OECD country.

Over time, Scandinavian countries became modern social democratic states where wealth is more evenly distributed, education is typically free up through university, and the social safety net allows women to comfortably work and raise a family. Scandinavian moms aren't agonizing over work-family balance: parents can take a year or more of paid parental leave. Dads are expected to be equal partners in childrearing, and they seem to like it. (Check them out in the adorable photo book, The Swedish Dad.)

The folks up north have just figured out — and it's not rocket science! — that everybody is better off when men and women share power and influence. They're not perfect — there's still some unfinished business about how women are treated in the private sector, and we've sensed an undertone of darker forces in pop culture phenoms like The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. But Scandinavians have decided that investment in women is both good for social relations and a smart economic choice. Unsurprisingly, Nordic countries have strong economies and rank high on things like innovation — Sweden is actually ahead of the U.S. on that metric. (So please, no more nonsense about how inequality makes for innovation.)

The good news is that things are getting better for women in most places in the world. But the World Economic Forum report shows that the situation either remains the same or is deteriorating for women in 20 percent of countries.

In the U.S., we've evened the playing field in education, and women have good economic opportunities. But according to the WEF, American women lag behind men in terms of health and survival, and they hold relatively few political offices. Both facts become painfully clear every time a Tea Party politician betrays total ignorance of how the female body works. Instead of getting more women to participate in the political process, we've got setbacks like a new voter ID law in Texas, which could disenfranchise one-third of the state's woman voters. That's not going to help the U.S. become a world leader in gender equality.

Maybe one day we'll decide to follow the Nordic example. But at the moment, we seem to be moving away from Iceland and closer to Yemen. Is that really what we want?

(Lynn Parramore is a Reuters contributor. The opinions expressed are her own)