How’d you like to be taxed at 100%?

Thousands of French Households Taxed 100%

Yahoo Finance: More than 8,000 French households’ tax bills topped 100 percent of their income in 2012, according to a French newspaper report.

Citing data from France’s finance ministry, the business newspaper Les Echos reported on Friday that in addition to those taxed at over 100 percent last year, almost 12,000 households paid taxes worth more than 75 percent of their 2011 income and that a further 9,910 households were taxed at more than 85 percent of their income.

The paper said this was due to a one-off levy imposed on the 2011 incomes of households with assets of more than 1.3 million euros ($1.67 million). The surcharge was introduced by socialist President Francois Hollande in an attempt to offset the cost of a rebate scheme and taxation cap introduced by former President Nikolas Sarkozy, the paper added.

“In 2011, 5,221 households had a tax rate of more than 100 percent on their revenues, Some 6,203 households had a rate of more than 85 percent and 6,343 house holds a rate of more than 75 percent,” the newspaper said but households could take advantage of a “tax shield” introduced by Sarkozy to cap an individual’s overall taxation at 50 percent of their income.

Last year, for the first time in 25 years, Les Echos reported, that cap was removed which “substantially increased [the tax rates'] impact.”

President Francois Hollande’s government back-tracked in 2012 over a proposed 75 percent tax rate on earnings over 1 million euros that he had pledged to introduce when he came to power.

The country’s Constitutional Council said such a high income rate was unfair and could be viewed as confiscatory, suggesting that the government should deflect it onto companies instead, in turn causing uproar in the business world.

Jennifer McKeown, senior European economist at Capital Economics told CNBC that the surcharge highlighted the fact that Hollande was not ready to ease his stance towards the country’s wealthiest. “I think it emphasizes that, despite the fact that the controversial “millionaires’ tax” has been watered down, Hollande’s policies are still targeting wealthy households,” McKeown told CNBC on Monday.

“The impact on consumer spending should be reduced by the fact that these households’ propensity to spend out of their income tends to be relatively low. But with unemployment very high and rising, average income households also have little reason to spend. And there is a risk that France’s ‘tax the rich’ policies cause it to lose some high earners and even entire successful businesses to overseas, which it really needs to boost its productivity,” she added.

France last week reported an economic contraction of 0.4 percent in the first quarter, compared to the same period a year-ago.

Good grief, a tax rate of 100%? Every democrats dream!

h/t Anon

DCG

France to open up a can of worms?

‘Parent 1’ and ‘parent 2’ could legally replace mom and dad in France

Washington Times: If France’s new Socialist government has its way, mothers and fathers will cease to exist — in legal  papers, that is.

Legislation that would legalize same-sex marriage and give homosexual couples  the right to adopt children also would replace the terms “mother” and “father” with “parent 1” and “parent 2” in all legal documents, including birth  certificates.

The proposal has outraged France’s religious  establishment and triggered a wave of criticism from many who say such changes  to French law should be put to a public vote. “A referendum must be held to allow a real debate,” Dominique Rey, Roman Catholic bishop of the southern region of Frejus-Toulon, said in  an interview with online news outlet Nouvelles de France. “A majority of the population agrees with the traditional view of marriage,” he said, warning against opening a “Pandora’s box” and “questioning the natural  order of things.”

Justice Minister Christiane Taubira  said the legislation, which is expected to be introduced in Parliament this  month, is needed to “secularize the bond of marriage” and allow same-sex couples  to adopt children under the same conditions as heterosexual couples. The bill also would allow one partner in a same-sex marriage to adopt the  child of his or her spouse.

Under current law, a person in a homosexual relationship or an unmarried  heterosexual relationship can adopt a child only as a single parent and only the  adoptive parent has legal rights over the child.

Government officials say the French already have expressed themselves on the  issue by electing Francois Hollande as  president in May. The measure was part of his campaign platform. “Have we ever hid our determination to authorize marriage for all as well as  to adopt?” government spokeswoman Najat Valaud-Belkacem said. “No, on the contrary, we had [openly] put it  forward.” Referring to Bishop Rey’s call for a nationwide vote on the issue, Ms. Valaud-Belkacem said, “In a certain manner, a referendum already took place  four months ago, during the presidential campaign.”

In a poll released Thursday by the French Institute of Public Opinion, 61  percent of respondents said they favored same-sex marriage, but only 48 percent  said they backed adoption by homosexual couples.

The Catholic Church is defiant  on the issue. After a meeting with Interior Minister Manuel Valls, France’s  senior Catholic cleric, Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, warned that “same-sex  marriages would pave the way for polygamy and incest. “It would amount to a breakdown in society,” the cardinal said. “The  consequences could be countless. Afterwards, they will want to create couples  with three or four members. After that, one day maybe, the taboo of incest will  fall.”

Reacting to the church official’s remarks, Bertrand Delanoe, the Socialist mayor of Paris and one of France’s few openly gay politicians, told French  radio Europe1 that Cardinal Barbarin clearly “flipped his lid.” “It is very shocking and even surprising coming from him because I consider  him a wise man,” Mr. Delanoe said. “I  don’t know what came over him, and what he said was downright ugly.”

Over the past few decades, French officials increasingly have moved to  secularize national law to rid it of any traces of religion. The movement often  has led to heated confrontations between the church  and state in the traditionally Catholic country.

However, the upcoming legislation has been subject to criticism from other  quarters of society. Francois Lebel, the conservative mayor  of a district of Paris, announced that he would refuse to preside over  homosexual marriages if the bill becomes law. Mr. Lebel, who officiated the marriage  of then-President Nicolas Sarkozy and supermodel/singer Carla Bruni in 2008,  said in a recent editorial that he would not officiate “personally, at any  marriage of this nature.”

“If the age-old taboo on heterosexual marriages is swept away, who and what  will stop other taboos from going the same way?” he wrote. “How could we  tomorrow stop polygamy in France, a rule which is  only a taboo in Western civilization?”

Mr. Lebel also suggested that the bill  could open the way for incest, as well as pedophilia and the marriage of minors.  He added that, while he will not officiate the marriage of gay couples, his “town hall will, of course, conform to the law.”

This “parent 1″ and “parent 2″ legislation could be a big mess for the courts.  Where do parental rights begin and end with multiple “parents” – biological and adopted?  Why not label the biological parents as “parent 1″ and “parent 2″ and then add “parent 3″ and “parent 4″ for homosexual couples that adopt? If you remove mom and dad, why stop at just two parents? If you don’t believe that there are other groups that want their “marriage equality” rights and support multiple marriage scenarios with multiple parents, you better check here, here, here, here, here, and here.

Course this movement fits in well with the communist agenda. Communism is both an economic system that seeks equality  among members of society and a political ideology that advocates a classless and  stateless society and rejects religion. Among their goals:

• Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as “normal, natural, healthy.”
• Discredit the family as an institution.

Removing mom and dad, discrediting the traditional family, and removing religion. Never a good way to ensure a healthy society.

DCG

Skippy’s Medical Breakthrough.

A doctor from France says: “In France, the medicine is so advanced that we cut off a man’s testicles; we put them into another man, and

in 6 weeks he is looking for work.”

The German doctor comments: “That’s nothing, in Germany we take part of the brain out of a person; we put it into another person’s head, and

in 4 weeks he is looking for work.”

A Russian doctor says: “That’s nothing either. In Russia we take out half of the heart from a person; we put it into another person’s chest, and

in 2 weeks he is looking for work.”

The U.S. doctor answers immediately: “That’s nothing my colleagues, you are way behind us….in the USA , about 2 years ago,

we grabbed a person from Kenya with no brains, no heart, and no testicles….we made him President of the United States , and now…….

the whole damn country is looking for work.

~Steve~                                  H/T    QV  Jean

Animals riot as war manual burned. Now for my opinion.

Let us get the hell out of this poop hole. Bring everyone of our troops home.

Enjoy the Taliban. Oh before we leave since our Troops are in Danger at their base bring in some nice Helicopters for some sight seeing and might as well check the weapon systems while there. Light em up. Eff their koran/war manual.

Our guys can’t have Bibles, screw you. JMHO, not endorsed by FOTM

————————————– ~ Steve ~ —————————————

Here are many links to story

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Afghan police have shot and killed three protesters in two separate incidents in the north and south of the country where riots broke out during demonstrations over this week’s Quran burnings incident.

The police say one protester was fatally shot and four people were wounded, including two police officers, when security forces and some protesters exchanged gunfire during a riot on Thursday outside the police headquarters in the northern province of Baghlan.

Police say another two protesters were killed and six were wounded in another exchange of gunfire during a protest in southern Uruzgan province.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — NATO says a man wearing an Afghan army uniform has turned his weapon on coalition troops, killing two service members.

NATO says the incident occurred on Thursday in eastern Afghanistan. No other details were disclosed.

The shooting is the latest in a rising number of attacks on NATO troops by Afghan police and soldiers or militants dressed in their uniforms.

The attacks have raised questions about the vetting of Afghan recruits and has heightened tension between foreign troops and their Afghan partners.

Last month, France suspended its training program and threatened to withdraw its forces from Afghanistan

a year ahead of schedule after an Afghan soldier shot and killed four French soldiers on a base in the east.

Screw em and let them eat cous cous and sand.

U.S. war with Iran has already begun

While we were transfixed and distracted by the Newt vs. Mitt drama in South Carolina, Obama has quietly begun war with Iran – without informing the American people (or Congress?).

This is the startling assertion made by James Rickards in an interview on January 13 with King World News.

Rickards is a Senior Managing Director of Tangent Capital in New York, whose advisory clients include government directorates around the world. He is  the author of Currency Wars: The Making of the Next Global Crisis (Penguin/Portfolio, 2011). Rickards is also the man who had negotiated the release of American hostages from Iran in 1981, and continues to be involved in US national security issues and the Department of Defense.

This is what Rickards told King World News about the situation in Iran:

“The fact that we, meaning the United States, are on a path to a war with Iran is very clear at this point.  It does seem the countdown has begun and it’s coming to a head sooner rather than later.

Things are moving very quickly. General Martin Dempsey, who is the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has arrived in Israel and Israel is integrating itself with the U.S. European Command or EUCOM.  So, at this point, the integration of the Israeli and the US operational capability, including NATO based in Europe, is very far along.

There are an enormous number of US troops in Israel.  I don’t know if people realize that, but they are operating the THAAD system (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense).  They oversee weapons that will shoot down incoming Iranian missiles.

There are joint exercises going on between the US and Israel.  At the same time Iran is conducting war games.  There are a lot of moving pieces on the chessboard at this point.  This is not just war gaming or thinking about what might happen, the pieces have actually begun to move on the chessboard.

For Israel this is really existential.  The US would really like to see a world where Iran did not have nuclear weapons, but for Israel it is not a preference.  If Iran gets nuclear weapons, Iran has said they will burn Israel to the ground.  So, this is not just a strategic rebalancing, this is life or death for the Israelis…..

All of the information I have is that the US is going to do it (attack Iran).  So the tension between Israel and the United States is being resolved in favor of letting the US actually launch the attack. 

Part of the reason for this is the retaliation vector.  If the US attacks and Israel keeps out, then Iran has no justification for attacking Israel.  They (Iran) will attack US targets in the Middle-East, but we’re ready for that, we’re prepared for that.  We will suppress the missiles and their air force is a joke, we’ll take that out in the first day.

But they do have a serious missile capability.  We’ll need anti-missile warfare and we will need to strike those bases.  We will need to do a lot of other damage to Iran, cyber warfare, take down the power grid, take down the command and control structure.  Do whatever we can to stop them from attacking our assets in the Middle-East.

This war will be fought with air power, sea power, cyberwarfare, financial warfare, sabotage, special operation, assassination, things like that.  This is already going on.  As an example, yesterday a prominent Iranian nuclear scientist had an unlucky encounter with a magnet bomb.

So this war is already being fought.  The other day the United States sanctioned the Central Bank of Iran.  By the way, we’ve been sanctioning them for years, but we’ve been dialing it up little by little.  It’s like the frog that’s boiled in a pot of water and doesn’t know until it’s too late that the water is getting hot. President Obama sanctioned the central bank about a week ago.  The Iranian currency, the rial, dropped 30% in a single day.  Hyperinflation has broken out in Iran.  This is financial warfare.

My point to the listeners is this is not theoretical, this is not a war game, not an exercise, it’s happening now and the clock is ticking.”

USS Abraham Lincoln

Rickards’ startling claim is verified by the UK’s Telegraph this morning.

In defiance of Iran’s threat to close the critical Strait of Hormuz, the United States, Britain, and France have deployed six warships to the Strait, led by the USS Abraham Lincoln. The 100,000 ton nuclear-powered aircraft carrier entered the Persian Gulf yesterday.  

That we are at war with Iran is also confirmed by a defense expert in the Australian government, a member of a military-strategic e-mail list I’m on. This is what he wrote about Rickards’ claim:

“Got back from leave today and had our first major brief. The interesting thing to come out of it was that everyone in the 4 Eyes community regard ourselves at being in warlike mode, even though there is no ‘declared’ war. We are at war. It’s just that the general public can’t see it. We are certainly of the view that we have been at a cyber war for the last 12 years.”

God help us.

Pray for our soldiers….

~Eowyn

Lady Liberty turns 125!

The Statue of Liberty, ‘Liberty Enlightening the World,’ was a gift of friendship from the people of France to the people of the United States and was dedicated on October 28, 1886, designated as a National Monument in 1924, and restored for her centennial on July 4, 1986. The 1886 dedication was attended by President Grover Cleveland, who proclaimed on that day that ‘Liberty’ would “magnify France beyond the seas.”

The statue is of a robed female figure representing Libertas, the Roman goddess of freedom, who bears a torch and a tabula ansata (a tablet evoking the law) upon which is inscribed the date of the American Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776. A broken chain lies at her feet. The statue has become an icon of freedom and of the United States.

Statue of Liberty on 28 Oct 1886

President Grover Cleveland, the former New York governor, presided over the dedication ceremony. On the morning of the dedication, a parade was held in New York City; estimates of the number of people who watched it ranged from several hundred thousand to a million. President Cleveland headed the procession, then stood in the reviewing stand to see bands and marchers from across America. General Stone was the grand marshal of the parade. As the parade passed the New York Stock Exchange, traders threw ticker tape from the windows, beginning the New York tradition of the ticker-tape parade. A nautical parade began at 12:45 p.m., and President Cleveland embarked on a yacht that took him across the harbor to Bedloe’s Island for the dedication.

Read more about the history and culture of the Statue here and here.

Looks pretty good for her age, don’t you think?

DCG

Puns for Educated Minds.

1. The fattest knight at King Arthur’s round table was Sir Cumference.

He acquired his size from too much pi.
2. I thought I saw an eye doctor on an Alaskan island, but it turned out
to be an optical Aleutian.
3. She was only a whiskey maker, but he loved her still.
4. A rubber band pistol was confiscated from algebra class, because it
was a weapon of math disruption.
5. No matter how much you push the envelope, it’ll still be stationery.
6. A dog gave birth to puppies near the road and was cited for
littering.
7. A grenade thrown into a kitchen in France would result in Linoleum
Blownapart
8. Two silk worms had a race. They ended up in a tie.
9. A hole has been found in the nudist camp wall. The police are looking
into it.
10. Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.
11. Atheism is a non-prophet organization.
12. Two hats were hanging on a hat rack in the hallway. One hat said to
the other: ‘You stay here; I’ll go on a head.’
13. I wondered why the baseball kept getting bigger. Then it hit me.
14. A sign on the lawn at a drug rehab center said: ‘Keep off the Grass.’
15. The midget fortune-teller who escaped from prison was a small medium at large.
16. The soldier who survived mustard gas and pepper spray is now a seasoned veteran.
17. A backward poet writes inverse.
18. In a democracy it’s your vote that counts. In feudalism it’s your count that votes.
19. When cannibals ate a missionary, they got a taste of religion.
20. If you jumped off the bridge in Paris, you’d be in Seine .
21. A vulture boards an airplane, carrying two dead raccoons. The
stewardess looks at him and says, ‘I’m sorry, sir, only one carrion allowed per
passenger.’
22. Two fish swim into a concrete wall. One turns to the other and says “‘Dam!’
23. Two Eskimos sitting in a kayak were chilly, so they lit a fire in
the craft. Unsurprisingly it sank, proving once again that you can’t have your
kayak and heat it too.
24. Two hydrogen atoms meet. One says, ‘I’ve lost my electron.’ The
other says ‘Are you sure?’ The first replies, ‘Yes, I’m positive.’
25. Did you hear about the Buddhist who refused Novocain during a root
canal? His goal: transcend dental medication.
26. There was the person who sent ten puns to friends, with the hope
that at least one of the puns would make them laugh. No pun in ten did.

~Steve~      H/T   Miss Cindy

Why Did the Brits Wear Red Coats in Battle?

 

During the Kate and William Royal Wedding, millions around the world saw that Prince William chose to wear a uniform that included the famous British “red coat”. Many people have asked “Why did the British wear red coats in battle?”

A long time ago, Britain and France were at war. During one battle, the French captured a British Colonel. They took him to their headquarters, and the French General began to question him. Finally, as an afterthought, the French General asked, “Why do you British officers all wear RED COATS? Don’t you know the RED material makes you easier targets for us to shoot at?”

In his casual, matter-of-fact, way, the British Colonel informed the French General that the reason British officers wear RED COATS is so that if they are shot, the RED-COLORED BLOOD won’t show, and the men they are leading won’t panic.

And that is why, from that day forward, all French Army officers wear BROWN TROUSERS.

~Steve~             H/T   W & NG

DOW Plunges – Obamas Go On Vacation

“The less they do, the more they vacation. Destroying America is hard work!” -Zorro

Breaking News

• Dow Plunges 520 as Economic Fears Return

• Bank stocks plummet amid economy decline and fears about France’s financial solidity.

But never fear!

Obama will still vacation with his family in the elite’s playground of Martha’s Vineyard, an island off the coast of the eastern state of Massachusetts, at the end of this month as he has done in years past, the White House said Wednesday.

For that matter, Michelle Obama is already on vacation.

On Monday, she had slipped out of Washington, DC, for a secret trip to visit her brother, Oregon State University men’s basketball coach Craig Robinson, at his home on Corvallis, Ore.

Michelle and family members jetted to Oregon on Air Force 2 — a Boeing C-40B, the military version of a 737. Landing in Eugene Airport at about 11 am PDT, they then headed out in a 11-vehicle motorcade for the ride to Corvallis.

The White House has so far said little about the trip, which was unannounced. It’s unclear how long the vacation will last.

~Eowyn

Joke of the Day: Cinco de Mayo

May 5,1862: Mexican President Benito Juàrez receives an urgent message from General Ignacio Zaragoza Seguín.

Seguín: Mr. President, glorious news! We won the battle today! Mexico officially joins the list of countries who beat the French in a war zone!

Juàrez: That’s the list we joined today? Maybe next week we can celebrate something a little less tedious, like joining all the other countries who entered the bronze age.

-Candance

(hat/tip Steven Thompson)