James L. Paris's Blog, page 98

IRS Grants ���After School Satan Clubs��� Tax-Exempt Status Just 10 Days After Application

Is this a case of ���birds of a feather flock together?���

According to a report by the site Judicial Watch, the ���After School Satan Clubs,��� initiated last year by The Satanic Temple as a response to the widespread presence of the evangelical Good News Clubs afterschool programs in public elementary schools, were granted tax-exempt status by the Internal Revenue Service just ten days after making application���a turnaround time that���s nothing short of stunning.

If there is any doubt that The Satanic Temple is expressly seeking to counter the ���influence��� of the Good News Clubs with its own, decidedly-unique program offering, here is an excerpt from the Q&A page at afterschoolsatan.com:

How do I start an After School Satan Club in my school district?

If there isn���t a chapter of The Satanic Temple near you, but you���re interested in starting an After School Satan Club in your school district, please contact The Satanic Temple. Please keep in mind that The Satanic Temple is not interested in operating After School Satan Clubs in school districts that are not already hosting the Good News Club. However, The Satanic Temple ultimately intends to have After School Satan Clubs operating in every school district where the Good News Club is represented.  

Almost as unbelievable as the very existence of afterschool programs sponsored by The Satanic Temple���is how fast the effort came to receive tax-exempt status. Judicial Watch was able to obtain records from the Treasury Department showing that application was made on October 21, 2014, and tax-exempt status was granted just 10 days later, on October 31.

Making all the more odious the speed with which the cult received its valuable status���is just how poorly so many conservative groups were treated by Obama���s IRS. On that note, Judicial Watch reminds us that ���under the Obama administration, IRS political appointees illegally targeted conservative groups, either making them wait up to seven years for tax-exempt status or denying their application altogether.���

By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large

Did Popular Fox News Host Sean Hannity Point a Gun at Frequent On-Air Adversary Juan Williams?

Well, this is a little weird.

According to a piece over at CNN Money that has since been reported on by a variety of other news outlets, including The Hill, popular Fox News host and arch conservative Sean Hannity once pointed a gun at Juan Williams, a Fox political analyst and one of the network���s few resident liberal talking heads.

So���Hannity really pointed a gun at Juan Williams?

According to CNN���s sources, Sean Hannity aimed the firearm at Williams and engaged the weapon���s laser sight, which caused a visible red dot to reflect against William���s person.

The report, however, prompted charges by both Williams and Hannity that CNN took great liberties in its reporting of how things went down.

Williams, the supposed ���victim,��� was himself quick to take issue with what CNN had to say, declaring, ���This incident is being sensationalized.���

���Everything was under total control throughout and I never felt like I was put in harm���s way. It was clear that Sean put my safety and security above all else and we continue to be great friends.���

OK, but something clearly happened, though; after all, what is this ���everything��� to which Williams is referring in his statement?

Here���s what Hannity says happened:

���While discussing the issue of firearms, I showed my good friend Juan Williams my unloaded firearm in a professional and safe manner for educational purposes only.

���Every precautionary procedure that I have been trained in since the age of 11 was followed. I���ve had a conceal carry permit in five states for all of my adult life. Any other interpretation of this is outright false reporting.���

Interestingly, it wasn���t until late Thursday, through Twitter, that Hannity made any sort of denial regarding the specific allegation that he had pointed his piece directly at Williams.

���Never pointed at anybody. Let's be clear. Unloaded. Never pointed. I have been a gun safety advocate for years.���

Hmmm...

By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large

Billionaire Entrepreneur Richard Branson is a BIG Fan of Working from Home

While we tend to think of folks who work from home as being self-employed, the fact is that more and more companies are offering flexible work arrangements to regular employees. As technology and culture continue to evolve, formerly unconventional workplace arrangements have become increasingly less so, and many companies find the accommodative feature of these situations to be something that provides them with quality regular W-2 type employees in places that may be far away from where the firm���s operational base exists.

Clearly, working from home is obviously something to which many locked into the daily 9-5 grind aspire���and many in management seem to agree on the benefits the configuration can provide a company. That said, what do those at the very top of the corporate food chain think about employees working from home?

Well, as reported by CNBC.com, if it was up to Virgin Group billionaire founder Richard Branson, flexibility would be a standard feature of every workplace.

���I think work should be fun. It should be enjoyable. It should be satisfying," says Branson in a video posted at his blog.

���Too many companies don't realize the monotony of a lot of people's day-to-day life at work," he goes on to say. ���I try to encourage chief executives worldwide to make sure that there's as much flexibility in the workplace as possible.���

The good news is, you���re no longer in a position where you must leave the structure of a company in order to work from home. As mentioned earlier, remote work is not the sole province of the self-employed anymore ��� there is an ever-increasing number of telecommuting positions to be found at a wide variety of firms, including at some of America���s largest corporations.

If you���re interested in a more flexible workplace situation, but prefer to remain a part of a company environment, you can now find quality resources available to assist you in your job search efforts. If flexibility isn���t a strong suit of your present employer, consider checking out a website like FlexJobs. The folks at FlexJobs hand-screen flexible job opportunities and make available through their platform only those listings that are genuine. Of course, you can also go it alone, and visit company career sites and other job websites to search for opportunities characterized by ���remote��� and/or ���telecommute��� features, but the point is flexible jobs are out there in serious numbers now, and are so due in no small way to the fact that more people at the top of the corporate ladder see the world in precisely the same way Richard Branson does.

By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large 

Canadian University Removes Weight Scale from Campus Gym; Can You Guess Why?

Sure you can. Because a scale reading that tells you you���re overweight - which, if you are, is not likely some surprise revealed to you only because you stepped on a scale ��� may exert an unfortunate effect on your self-esteem, according to Carleton University of Ottawa.

A write-up over at Fox News about the school���s move to rid the campus gym of the evil device details that in place of where the scale once stood is now a sign that describes the school���s decision as one that is ���in keeping with current fitness and social trends.���

Social trends, maybe; fitness trends? Hardly.

A manager of the facility, Bruce Marshall, says that making weight the focus of one���s exercise goals can be a bad thing.

���We don���t believe being fixated on weight has any positive effect on your health and well-being,��� says Marshall. ���The body is an amazing machine and even when we are dieting and training it will often find a homeostasis at a certain weight.���

���It takes weeks, even months to make a permanent change in your weight. So why obsess about it?���

Right, except in this case, where the scale has been removed entirely, a student can���t even make periodic checks of his or her weight at the gym. Marshall tries to defend the gym���s decision by taking the assumptive position that everyone who steps on a scale is ���fixated��� on their weight, and that they ���obsess��� over it. Not true. People typically like to step on scale once in a while to see where they���re at. That said, if one chooses to ���obsess��� over their weight, shouldn���t that be up to them?

Not according to the folks at Carleton College, apparently.

By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large

 

Trump Budget Reportedly Puts U.N. Funding in the Crosshairs

Donald Trump tweeted last year that ���the United Nations has such great potential but right now it is just a club for people to get together, talk and have a good time. So sad!���

Now that he is president, Trump is putting his money where his mouth is when it comes to the U.N., if reports about his soon-to-be-unveiled budget are accurate.

Or, more correctly, he���s putting the American taxpayer���s money where his mouth is.

According to a Western Journalism article about a piece over at Foreign Policy discussing the proposed budget, it is expected that cuts of up to 50 percent in funding for various U.N. programs will be a feature of Trump���s fiscal package.

Richard Gowan, an associate fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, says the cuts proposed by the Trump budget would result in ���chaos,��� and that the massive shortfall resulting from the substantial drop in U.S. funding of the organization would ���leave a gaping hole that other big donors would struggle to fill.���

Presently, the United States pays enormous sums each year to help keep the U.N. operational. Total U.S. spending on the U.N. runs about $410 billion annually right now.

Dissatisfaction with the U.N. has long run deep within some political circles in the U.S., and an increasing anti-American and anti-Israeli posture at the U.N. has only hardened the animus some politicians, including Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, have toward the international body.

���I don���t think we should just be writing a blank check for a bunch of radical policies���a bunch of anti-Semitic, anti-Israel policies, a bunch of anti-American policies to simply spew out with our funding,��� said Cruz. ���I think we should use our power, use our influence, use our dollars, to focus the United Nations on issues that are in our common interest and not issues that undermine the interest of the United States.���

By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large

No More Homecoming King and Queen at the University of Minnesota; Only Gender-Neutral Royals

The march toward madness - not to be confused with NCAA basketball���s March Madness - continues.

As reported in the Daily Mail, the University of Minnesota has decided to drop the tradition of crowning a Homecoming King and Queen in favor of gender-neutral ���Royals,��� in a spirit of what school officials refer to as ���gender inclusivity.���

According to the university���s website, ���This change allows the University to select the best student representatives for the U of M based on campus and community involvement ��� regardless of gender.���

The Pioneer Press (St. Paul, Minn.) says that there will be 10 students selected for Homecoming Court, but ���this year the mix won���t necessarily be five men and five women.���

���Those 10 will be paired at random to compete in pre-Homecoming events, and their performance, along with a university-wide vote, will determine the two royals.���

The 2017 Minnesota Homecoming will be held October 15-21.

As it happens, the University of Minnesota is not the first school to drop the awarding of traditional Homecoming King and Queen titles in favor of something more ���inclusive.��� According to the Daily Mail, San Diego State University made this same change back in 2015.

���The reality is we don't live in a gender-binary system and so really recognizing that in a public way is really important and exciting,��� said Jessica Nare, San Diego State���s Women's Resource Center Coordinator Jessica Nare.

Apparently, the University of Minnesota agrees with you, Jessica.

As for those of us living here on Planet Earth, however���

By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large

What to Learn from the Profile of America���s Next Generation of Self-Made Millionaires

If you want to make a lot of money���or if you���re now thinking in terms of how your kids can make a bunch of dough���just think ���STEM.���

As in, ���science, technology, engineering and math.���

A CNBC.com article entitled, ���What to Learn from the Profile of America���s Next Generation of Self-Made Millionaires��� starts out by pondering who will be the world���s first trillionaire, as staggering a thing as that may be to consider. The piece cites research saying it might actually turn out to be Microsoft founder Bill Gates, but even if it is not Gates, the article declares ���that the lucky individual, like so many of the world's wealthiest people, will have a background in science, tech, engineering or math.���

If you���re not seeking to become monstrously wealthy, but would prefer instead to enjoy the ���lifestyle dividend��� that comes from working from home as a well-paid consultant, then a STEM background is still your smartest bet. The fact is, lots of folks dream of kicking the ���wheel-in-a-cog��� corporate existence and setting up shop from a home office. However, doing that successfully can depend a lot on your professional background. Jobs on the popular gig site Upwork that pay among the highest rates are reserved for those for those who have backgrounds heavy in technology, like people who have experience as software developers.

America may be the land of opportunity, but it doesn���t mean that you fall into riches or into an otherwise-enjoyable life simply by being here. You still have to make smart decisions, and some of the most important of those, in terms of your eventual net worth, involve deciding to study math and science. If it���s too late for you (and, with rare exception, it doesn���t have to be), it���s not too late for your kids and grandkids to get on the mega-money track by focusing on those academic areas that appear to provide the most direct routes to a big bag of money.

By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large

Efforts to Honor Obama in Illinois Met with Resistance

Rep. Andrew Thapedi, a Democratic state legislator in Illinois, has introduced a bill that would create a state holiday honoring Barack Obama in the land of Lincoln. You might think, given the former president���s ties to the state, and particularly to the city of Chicago, such a proposal would be a slam-dunk.

Well, you���d be wrong.

As detailed in an article over at Politico, making the holiday a reality is by no means an easy feat.

For one thing, there is the rancor over his presidency. Beyond the political agenda pursued by Obama during his time in office, many see his eight years in charge of the country as having ushered in a new and unfortunate era in politics, one where America is now so thoroughly divided that even ���regular folks��� possessed of differing political viewpoints find it difficult to get along.

Describing the variety of reactions to his proposal, Rep. Thapedi says, ���It has been a hodge-podge of responses, from one end of the spectrum to the other: joy, jubilation on one side; absolute, unadulterated venom on the other side.���

Outside of the particularly harsh criticisms of Obama���s political legacy, many think it is simply too soon to talk about a holiday. A lot of people find it peculiar to consider such an honor for someone who just left office and who remains a relatively young person.

According to Pat Brady, former chairman of the Illinois Republican Party, while ���Democrat or Republican, we should take some pride in��� the fact that Obama is ���the first African-American president in the history of the country,��� creating an actual state holiday right now would be pushing things.

���I think most people see [a debate over a day off] as: ���Why are we talking about this now?������

In California, where other official recognitions of Obama have been proposed, Harmeet Dhillon of San Francisco, a representative on the Republican National Committee, echoed the objection that not enough time has passed to make such efforts appropriate.

���I believe that privilege should really be reserved for people who have passed away,��� Dhillon said. ���I would take the same view on naming things after the Bush presidents, or after Clinton.������

To Dhillon, it is ���contrary to our concept of citizen-servants��� to bestow that kind of recognition on living politicians.

By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large

Trump's Big Agenda, David Horowitz Joins Jim Paris Live

What are the Democrats up to with the whole Trump-Russia narrative? Are Trump's greatest rivals Republicans? Is the new healthcare plan the type of reform that Trump promised in the campaign? What is the future of the Clinton's and are they pulling strings behind the scenes? Why has Barack Obama stayed in Washington, and what are his post presidency plans? Are liberals really tolerant or is this just a facade? What do the violent protesters at Berkley tell us about liberal values?

Donald Trump���s victory in the 2016 election was more than a historic upset. It was the beginning of a major political, economic, and social revolution that will change America ��� and the world.

One of the nation���s foremost conservative commentators, New York Times bestselling author, and a mentor to many of Donald Trump���s key advisers, David Horowitz presents a White House battle plan to halt the Democrats��� march to extinguish the values America holds dear.

 

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo Looks to Be Readying for a White House Bid

According to the New York Post, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, who said a few years back that ���extreme conservatives���have no place in the state of New York,��� is preparing to run for president in 2020. Cuomo has reportedly retained the services of two Florida-based consultants to assist him in building the war chest necessary to mount a viable candidacy.

One of the paper���s sources, identified only as a ���Democratic operative,��� said, ���Hiring out-of-state fundraising staff, particularly in a battleground state, opens up money spigots beyond what would normally be available and is a key first step to laying the groundwork for a run.���

Although Cuomo has previously said he has no desire to run for higher office, there has been speculation that since the Democrats fared so poorly in the last election, the governor has reconsidered that position. Indeed, some think Cuomo���s historical denials about running for president were made largely out of deference to Hillary Clinton, viewed by many Democrats at the time as the heir apparent to President Obama.

���When Hillary Clinton was running he never wanted to have anyone speculate he���s running, but now the strategy is pretty different,��� said former Cuomo aide Karen Hinton. ���He is positioning himself to be seen as a liberal who can speak to a national audience.���

What remains to be seen is if there is any bona fide liberal who can ���speak��� to a national audience, given the current climate, in the way that Donald Trump spoke to many disaffected Americans the last time around. While hard-left Democrats have largely doubled-down on their rhetoric and obstructionism since November 8, recent poll numbers seem to indicate an increasing receptiveness among the national electorate to Trump and his policy efforts since he assumed office back in January.

By Robert G. Yetman, Jr. Editor At Large