In Defense of Penn State

Today that bastion of hypocrisy, the NCAA, lowered the boom on Penn State in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky scandal. Included in the package of goodies were was a $60 million fine to be paid by the university (which coincidentally is the estimated annual take of the Penn State football program), the loss of 10 scholarships for each of the next 4 years; post season game prohibition for 4 years;  probation for 5 years; and forfeiture of all games from 1998 to 2011 thus robbing Joe Paterno of 111 victories and his place in history as college football’s winning-est coach.

Those who investigated the tragic circumstances know better than me how bad the cover up was. There is no excuse for what happened. In Ohio, if you are aware of child sexual abuse you are required to report it to the authorities. Apparently Joe Paterno did report what he had heard to his superiors, and then nothing happened. Sandusky left the employ of Penn State, but continually showed up at the university using football as the drawing card for his young victims…and everybody supposedly knew it.

But here’s the thing. Punishment should be meted out to those who did the crime. The perverse results of the NCAA investigation and punishment is that the people who will be paying for this despicable behavior will be those who didn’t do it, and more likely than not knew nothing about it. Current students, football players, innocent contributing alumni, football fans and the taxpayers of Pennsylvania will bear the brunt of the punishment for deeds committed by people who are no longer in the employ of Penn State.

The crimes committed at Penn State were not collective crimes. These were crimes of individuals and should be punished by immediate employment termination of any person who had the slightest inkling that this was going on and failed to report it to the police, including revocation of pensions and any other post retirement benefits of both current and past culpable employees. Appropriate criminal charges should be brought against those who failed to report it to police with appropriate jail time and criminal fines. There shoould be complete replacement of the university Board of Trustees, along with the President of the University and high ranking officials who failed to implement proper guidelines and procedures within the University to keep this from happening.

Sanctions against the university as a whole may assuage the guilt of a money hungry NCAA which fosters the type of environment that allows this to happen in the first place, but does nothing to those unsuspecting folks remaining at Penn State other than to piss them off and demoralize the alumni who will quit giving to the University. At the end of the day, it is the students and taxpayers who will end up paying the price for those who actually did the crime.

The only way to stop this type of behavior in the future is to hit the guilty individuals who allowed this to happen hard and in the pocket book. If state law does not allow for criminal sanctions against the enablers, then the law should be changed to throw these folks in jail. Anything other than that is window dressing, and will destroy an otherwise great institution.

A word about Joe Paterno.  He is not the first person in history to live a glorious life only to meet his end under a cloud of shame.  The removal of the statue was appropriate.  His victories will always be his victories but the attempt to remove them from the record book is also appropriate.  But the man also accomplished more good than most of us could ever hope to achieve.  The fact that he failed to live up to his own ideals that he tried to instill in others is tragic and sad, but not as tragic to what was suffered by those children who trusted those around him.  Time will determine his legacy, and perhaps bring closure to those who suffered the indignities of his assistant coach.

Lies Obama told the Catholic Church - Beware!

When President Obama was elected, the entire nation including myself wished him the best. Being the first African American President of the United States is no small feat. He is an attractive man with an attractive family. He promised a new era of bipartisanship…there is no red America; there is no blue America; just the United States of America. Promising hope and change he was going to fundamentally change America.

But now the truth is out. It was a lie, a complete ruse. He suckered punched the American public and became the most partisan president this country has seen in my lifetime. His good natured smile masked the hate and disdain he had for the American people, clinging to their guns and bibles. He used the most onerous and underhanded tricks relating to Obamacare I have ever witnessed. He looked the American public in the eye and lied…over and over and over again on just about everything. The lies were so bad, the public went into a funk not understanding what they were seeing or experiencing. No one wants to call the President of the United States a liar…but he is. And now he has made the upcoming campaign one of the most hateful and negative we will ever witness…deliberate deceit as he shows his disdain for the American public. I am afraid to say what is behind the compelling smile…but it is not good.

The worst of it, the one that scares me the most, is his attack on religion. Among the other ugly nuggets found buried in its 2300 pages, Obamacare provides a new definition of religion. Barack Obama defines religious institutions as those entities that are operated by the religious entity for the members of the religious entity only employing members for the religious entities.

Using Catholics as an example, a Catholic entity would only enjoy constitutionally guaranteed protection if the entity was run by Catholics, for only Catholics, and employing only Catholics. In other words, outside of the church itself…and even that is questionable under this definition…there is no religious exemption for any outreach project. Catholic High Schools allow students to attend who are not Catholic. They employ teachers who are not Catholic. The same goes for Catholic Charities and Catholic Universities. Even within a church itself, if a non-Catholic housekeeper or secretary were to be employed by St. Dominic’s Church, then it would lose any heretofore constitutionally protected exemptions…like offering health insurance to employees which does not contain abortions or contraception as a benefit. Barack Obama lied to the Catholic Church when he told them don't worry about it, those provision don't apply to you. He lied. He lied. He lied. Surprise...they do!!!!

In fairness, the definition of a religous organization is not quite as onerous as I portrayed above...but it is darn close using the terms like "primarily" and "mostly."  What does that mean to a Catholic High School where 25% of the student population is non-Catholic; or to a Catholic university where over 50% of the population is non-Catholic; or to a Catholic hospital serving mostly non-Catholics.  Look at the testimony of the Georgetown University student boo-hooing about the church paying for her birth control. 

This is dangerous stuff. If this definition of religion is allowed to stand, it is not much of a leap to believe that it will spell the end to Catholic Schools, Catholic Universities, Catholic Charities, and Catholic Hospitals. You will see this sectarian ideologue and/or his minions expand the use of the definition and attempt to remove the crucifixes from the hospital rooms and religious classes from Catholic High Schools if non-Catholics are anywhere on the premises. And don’t believe him if he tells you otherwise. He has lied already. He will lie again.

The press may hesitate in calling Barack Obama a liar. I won’t just as Obama is now calling Mitt Romney a “felon.” Hard core left wing progressives have no qualms about using every dirty trick in the book, including lies and deception, to achieve their vision of the world. This is nothing new. Barack Obama is no exception. Beware of what is hiding behind that deceitful smile.

Flash! It's a Tax!

Leave it to the Supreme Court to take a bad situation and make it worse. To my credit, during the last days before the ACA ruling from the Supremes I told my family that they would find some convoluted way to uphold it. I just didn’t know how convoluted.

It is personally disturbing to me as an attorney that Chief Justice Roberts would actually rewrite the law to call what was intended to be a mandate with a penalty a “tax,” especially when outside of court arguments, the President and his cabal in Congress made it a point to say it was NOT a tax. Oftentimes the court looks to the history of a piece of legislation to interpret it or to decide if it is constitutional, but that isn’t even in the realm of possibility here. The history shows it was drafted this way to avoid calling it a tax by an ideologically driven president and congress. No…Justice Roberts simply rewrote the legislation.

There are those who said he did it to show the court was nonpolitical. He was afraid of a 5-4 ruling would injure the reputation of the court. Since when? I can give you any number of decisions that were 5-4 to the liberal side and nobody from the liberal side complained about those. Justice Roberts said it was not the court’s job to decide on the merits of a law. He was right. Is it constitutional or not? That’s all the court had to decide. That is there job. Instead, from a court that has continually upheld abortion rights (under the nonexistent right of privacy in the Constitution), we now have a piece of bad legislation justified by bad law.  Given that the law is already considered to be illegitimate, look for trouble in the country and system of health care sprining up outside the law for those who can afford it.  

It’s clear to me that Justice Roberts was motivated by nothing but politics. When a decision is so convoluted it defies explanation, there is always a singular explanation. He was for the law, and he found a way to vote for what he wanted. Perhaps it is because he is an epileptic and knows that if he were a private citizen, he would be unable to buy health insurance. That makes sense, and it would have been better if that was the motivation he say it outright rather than disgrace the court, the legal profession, and himself with this type of ruling…a ruling that rewrote the words of the law as well as the intentions of those that passed it.

That being said, maybe he stumbled across the truth. Maybe he decided to call it what we all know it is. It is a tax. You either buy health insurance, or you will be taxed. In his twisted decision, Justice Roberts actually stated the limitations of the Commerce Clause of the Constitution, and pretty much said that the slight of hand of the Obama and his then Democratic/Progressive Congress did not work. You can have your law…but I will call it what it is. Now go into the political arena and defend it.  On the other hand, the goverment is now clear to use tax law to coerce behavior changes.  Get ready for penalty taxes on everything from not eating vegetables to drinking too much lemonade.  It's coming folks.

The Wall Street Journal analyzed the tax provisions of Affordable Care Act, and they are anything but affordable. Most of them won’t hit until 2015. These include both direct and indirect taxes on over the counter medication, a tax on medical devices, a tax on bio-fuels (you know…what were are supposed to use instead of oil), and excise taxes on policies that cover more than the government says they can cover (what?). All in all, there are over 20 over taxes and elimination of tax deductions in the system established under the act…and most of them will be borne by people making UNDER $125,000.00/year, per the Wall Street Journal analysis. The middle class, once again, will be nickel and dimed to death under a bureaucratic nightmare….enforced by the Internal Revenue Service.

That’s right, it will be enforced by tens of thousands of new IRS agents that are being hired right now. And it will all fall down on you…unless you are one of Obama’s exempted cronies.

IRS enforcement? Maybe Justice Roberts was right afterall.