I just read an insightful editorial about debt and class warfare by humorist Ben Stein that ran in the New York Times in 2006. It bears a second look today. Here it is:

In Class Warfare, Guess Which Class Is Winning

NOT long ago, I had the pleasure of a lengthy meeting with one of the smartest men on the planet, Warren E. Buffett, the chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway, in his unpretentious offices in Omaha. We talked of many things that, I hope, will inspire me for years to come. But one of the main subjects was taxes. Mr. Buffett, who probably does not feel sick when he sees his MasterCard bill in his mailbox the way I do, is at least as exercised about the tax system as I am.

Put simply, the rich pay a lot of taxes as a total percentage of taxes collected, but they don’t pay a lot of taxes as a percentage of what they can afford to pay, or as a percentage of what the government needs to close the deficit gap.

Mr. Buffett compiled a data sheet of the men and women who work in his office. He had each of them make a fraction; the numerator was how much they paid in federal income tax and in payroll taxes for Social Security and Medicare, and the denominator was their taxable income. The people in his office were mostly secretaries and clerks, though not all.

It turned out that Mr. Buffett, with immense income from dividends and capital gains, paid far, far less as a fraction of his income than the secretaries or the clerks or anyone else in his office. Further, in conversation it came up that Mr. Buffett doesn’t use any tax planning at all. He just pays as the Internal Revenue Code requires. “How can this be fair?” he asked of how little he pays relative to his employees. “How can this be right?”

Even though I agreed with him, I warned that whenever someone tried to raise the issue, he or she was accused of fomenting class warfare.

“There’s class warfare, all right,” Mr. Buffett said, “but it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning.”

This conversation keeps coming back to mind because, in the last couple of weeks, I have been on one television panel after another, talking about how questionable it is that the country is enjoying what economists call full employment while we are still running a federal budget deficit of roughly $434 billion for fiscal 2006 (not counting off-budget items like Social Security) and economists forecast that it will grow to $567 billion in fiscal 2010.

When I mentioned on these panels that we should consider all options for closing this gap — including raising taxes, particularly for the wealthiest people — I was met with several arguments by people who call themselves conservatives and free marketers.

One argument was that the mere suggestion constituted class warfare. I think Mr. Buffett answered that one.

Another argument was that raising taxes actually lowers total revenue, and that only cutting taxes stimulates federal revenue. This is supposedly proved by the history of tax receipts since my friend George W. Bush became president.

In fact, the federal government collected roughly $1.004 trillion in income taxes from individuals in fiscal 2000, the last full year of President Bill Clinton’s merry rule. It fell to a low of $794 billion in 2003 after Mr. Bush’s tax cuts (but not, you understand, because of them, his supporters like to say). Only by the end of fiscal 2006 did income tax revenue surpass the $1 trillion level again.

By this time, we Republicans had added a mere $2.7 trillion to the national debt. So much for tax cuts adding to revenue. To be fair, corporate profits taxes have increased greatly, as corporate profits have increased stupendously. This may be because of the cut in corporate tax rates. Anything is possible.

The third argument that kind, well-meaning people made in response to the idea of rolling back the tax cuts was this: “Don’t raise taxes. Cut spending.”

The sad fact is that spending rises every year, no matter what people want or say they want. Every president and every member of Congress promises to cut “needless” spending. But spending has risen every year since 1940 except for a few years after World War II and a brief period after the Korean War.

The imperatives for spending are built into the system, and now, with entitlements expanding rapidly, increased spending is locked in. Medicare, Social Security, interest on the debt — all are growing like mad, and how they will ever be stopped or slowed is beyond imagining. Gross interest on Treasury debt is approaching $350 billion a year. And none of this counts major deferred maintenance for the military.

The fourth argument in response to my suggestion was that “deficits don’t matter.”

There is something to this. One would think that big deficits would be highly inflationary, according to Keynesian economics. But we have modest inflation (except in New York City, where a martini at a good bar is now $22). On the other hand, we have all that interest to pay, soon roughly $7 billion a week, a lot of it to overseas owners of our debt. This, to me, seems to matter.

Besides, if it doesn’t matter, why bother to even discuss balancing the budget? Why have taxes at all? Why not just print money the way Weimar Germany did? Why not abolish taxes and add trillions to the deficit each year? Why don’t we all just drop acid, turn on, tune in and drop out of responsibility in the fiscal area? If deficits don’t matter, why not spend as much as we want, on anything we want?

The final argument is the one I really love. People ask how I can be a conservative and still want higher taxes. It makes my head spin, and I guess it shows how old I am. But I thought that conservatives were supposed to like balanced budgets. I thought it was the conservative position to not leave heavy indebtedness to our grandchildren. I thought it was the conservative view that there should be some balance between income and outflow. When did this change?

Oh, now, now, now I recall. It changed when we figured that we could cut taxes and generate so much revenue that we would balance the budget. But isn’t that what doctors call magical thinking? Haven’t the facts proved that this theory, though charming and beguiling, was wrong?

THIS brings me back to Mr. Buffett. If, in fact, it’s all just a giveaway to the rich masquerading as a new way of stimulating the economy and balancing the budget, please, Mr. Bush, let’s rethink it. I don’t like paying $7 billion a week in interest on the debt. I don’t like the idea that Mr. Buffett pays a lot less in tax as a percentage of his income than my housekeeper does or than I do.

Can we really say that we’re showing fiscal prudence? Are we doing our best? If not, why not? I don’t want class warfare from any direction, through the tax system or any other way.

Ben Stein is a lawyer, writer, actor and economist.

Author Ayn Rand saw the future in 1957 and wrote it thusly:

"When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion - when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing - when you see money flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors - when you see that men get richer by graft and pull than by work, and your laws don't protect you against them, but protect them against you - when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a selfsacrifice - you may know that your society is doomed."

Despite the world's efforts to "X" out Christmas, this day truly is all about the miracle of the birth of Jesus, our Emmanuel--God with us.

"And the Word became flesh, and dwelt for a time among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth."

I wish you all the blessings of this mystical season and a New Year filled with hope, love and much joy.

This will seem an odd posting to qualify as "The Christmas Blessing:" Indeed, it's all about burglary, deceipt and violation, not the usual fodder for stories of hope and good tidings to all men. But a blessing it was nonetheless. Let me tell you about it...

Last Monday I came home from work to find that my modest home had been burgled. Someone used a pry bar to force the lock on my back door and ransacked their way through the house in search of high-ticket, easily-pawned small items (little did my bumbling burglar realize that I am Queen of the Trash Pickin' Thrift Shop Set and I did not have any "high-ticket items" in attendance except those that I use to earn my livelihood).

Although every item that was stolen is merely a "material thing" and therefore replaceable in theory, there are still those things I rue that cannot be replaced, like my mother's sterling silver wedding band, my beautiful Canon XHA1 miniDV video camera bought to finish my Pennhurst Project documentary and that beloved Sony ECM 717 stereo lapel microphone received as a graduation present from my brilliant thesis advisor, Veronica. And, oh, how to replace the chunky silver Moravian star pendant made in my senior year in high school or the hammered wire ring wrought as a testament to my 1970s free spirit. Or how about the gold watch that my friend Yvie gave me, along with a luscious chocolate cake, to celebrate my forced early retirement from The Morning Call? How do you even think about replacing such memories? Trouble is, I can't. The memories, that is. To every material thing that we attach ourselves to, it's the memory surrounding the acquisition of the item that remains uncorrupted and incorrigible. It's the blessing of memory that can't be stolen or violated by thieves and pillagers.

I wondered at the time why the burglar took what he/she did but left other things behind. A tip from my sister reveals that I may have been the victim of one of the "backpack burglars" that are plaguing neighborhoods across the country. These misguided souls come to an area wearing a backpack and knock on doors to find out who is not home, then quickly break in and take only what will fit in their backpack. They are in and out in ten minutes and therefore not usually noticed by anyone in the neighborhood. A guy wearing a backpack walking down the street doesn't attract too much attention, or so they think.

And although my humble abode was violated, my first response is to pray for the thief's ultimate redemption. Call me sentimental but this is, after all, the season of miracles. I know that God has done far more with much less. Like George Bailey in "It's a Wonderful Life," I was ready to throw my faith to the wind after yet another stroke of bad fortune. But then I remembered, like George, how blessed I truly am with a warm home and a new job and friends and family who truly care about me. The thief who invaded my home certainly can't have any of that, else why do what he did? So I will pray for him and the others like him who have no conscience. After all, if I don't, then who else will?  And I will continue to hold onto the hope that God will work His miracles in His own way and time.

As fellow blogger Ron Reed puts it:

     "[Christmas is a] time when refugees shelter in animal sheds to give birth, when politicos protect  their power with mass murder, when God sends messengers to keep saying over and over, "Fear not." A time when, against all odds and all fears, a baby is born, and lives long enough to make a difference.

     The deeper truth [in this film and in life] lies in sacrifice, community, leaving aside self-preoccupation to engage with other people's lives, to further other people's dreams. And that's where IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE shines. There's a maturity there - a Depression-raised, war-deepened realization that, in the final analysis, it's not all about me. "

"It's a Wonderful Life" 1946, Frank Capra

Thank God that I, like my old Building and Loan Pal George, still choose to believe. Yes, it truly is a wonderful life.

I wish you all a blessed and happy Christmas season.

And so, we have lived through an earthquake (albeit a small one), a hurricane four days later and a five-day deluge from tropical storm Lee a week later. While at my brother's this afternoon, we stood by my car on the passenger side looking at some tools when we heard what sounded like a roar and the sky just opened up with rain drops the size of quarters. We actually heard it coming. He yelled, "Run!" and I ran to the driver's side to get in the car but in that short time I was soaked to the skin. We both said that it was the strangest rain we have ever experienced. The sky actually seemed to open up with a roar and curtains of water sliced across the driveway.

Strange, strange times we live in, Master Jack.

Well, here's one for the history books! I was busy on my new computer this afternoon when suddenly the whole desk started shaking. My first thought was that it was my fat cat, Boo Boo, rolling around under there but then the shaking got worse. It only lasted for about 20 seconds. I didn't think much about it until my brother Jim called me from Maryland and asked if I had felt the earthquake here. An earthquake! Get out!

I checked the news and sure enough, that's what it was. The earthquake, a 5.9 magnitude (which Californians would call a teeny-tiny quake), was centered in Virginia but was felt all along the east coast from the Carolinas to Massachusetts and some reports say to Toronto, Canada. Jim said it felt like his whole building was about to lift off the foundation and fall away. He has a garage apartment near Elkton and was much closer to the epicenter. I have never felt an earthquake before and while it was happening I didn't realize that's what it was. My first thought was that it might be another gas explosion but this wasn't a boom—it was serious shaking. The USGS says that the quake is the largest to originate in Virginia since May 31, 1897.

One person commented that most of the places where the quake could be felt are on the Marcellus Shale or the Devonian Black Shale. Now that's interesting. Wonder if fracking has anything to do with the quake as it did in Fort Worth, Texas?

Also interesting is the fact that there was another quake in Colorado last night at 11:46 p.m. that sources say was the strongest there in over a century. A series of aftershocks continued throughout this morning.

In fact, as the USGS map below shows, in the last seven days, quakes have occurred in Yellowstone and around the Salt Lake City area and in odd corners such as Oklahoma, eastern Tennessee and the Ohio/Penn border. Kinda makes you wonder.

I just got the news that Grace P. (Oswald) Woodring passed away yesterday at Fellowship Manor at the young age of 105. I got to know Grace when fellow members of Seibert E.C. Church told me her age (102 at the time) and I wrote a story about her for a graduate writing class at Rosemont College. Her memories, still sharp as tacks, read like an oral history of Allentown in the early 1900s.  She was born in Emerald and the family moved to Allentown via horse and wagon in a raging snow storm, Grace holding her younger sister Loraine on her lap to keep her warm. She worked at several of the city's silk mills and had great stories of the people she worked with. She knew all the movers and shakers of Allentown, the Iaccocas and the Hesses to name but a couple.

Grace was a great lady, full of warmth and humor. She was known as the fastest walker at Fellowship Community and her roommate had a hard time keeping up with her when they went to dinner. I remember once when I was there she was commenting on how nearly everyone she knew was "getting their knees done" and she couldn't understand why. She then delighted us by demonstrating her own agility with some seated leg kicks. We joked that Grace had no aches and pains, still had all her own teeth and didn't even need glasses except to read very fine print.

"I didn’t think I’d hit 40, much less 100," Grace told me."I never thought I’d get old. My mother was 99. My grandfather was 99.When I hit 99, I thought that’s it. I’m next."

Grace was meticulous about her appearance. Every Wednesday morning like clockwork she had her hair styled in the Fellowship salon and on Sundays she would dress in her best and wait for the steady stream of visitors that came to listen to her stories.

She left a great impression on me and I will miss this dear lady very much. My sincere condolences to her family.

This weekend I had the extreme pleasure of hanging with two of the very talented musicians from my misspent past, Yoav Goren and Tate Simms. The three of us were in a touring show band called "The Rock Idols" back in the early 80s.

Yo plays piano and writes and arranges that sweeping epic orchestral music you hear on most of the movie trailers produced in the last few years (think big movies, like "Avatar," "Spiderman,"  "Lord of the Rings" and "Harry Potter"). He is also the founder of the British band Globus, whose single "Orchard of Mines" climbed to number 12 on the Billboard charts in 2009.

Tate is a talented singer/songwriter, plays guitar and bass and probably several other instruments, and has worked with stars like Latoya Jackson, Cheryl Crow and Andre Rieu. He and Yo have played together many times since the old "Rock Idols" days. He just released his second CD "Romantic Holiday." Hear more at Tate Simms.com.

On Saturday night Yo and Tate performed "Trailer Music Live" at NYU's Skirball Hall accompanied by the New York University symphony orchestra and the New York City Master Chorale. Think Trans-Siberian Orchestra with more emphasis on the orchestra and choir. Check out the video to get a taste of this fantastic epic musical genre. If you want to hear more, visit the Trailer Music, Globus and Imperitiva Records sites. And tell them Betty sent you!!

And just in case you are wondering, this is what The Rock Idols looked like back in the day! That's me, second from the left in the back row. Tate is in the middle on the left and Yo in the middle on the right.

And here we are after leaving the Idols to form our own band, Stages. That's me on the right with the Les Paul. Brings back memories...

At least five people, including a four-month-old baby, are known dead from a gas explosion that leveled two homes in the 500 block of N. 13th Street in Allentown last night. Six adjoining homes were destroyed by the ensuing fire and dozens more sustained damages from the initial blast. According to The Morning Call, family members and friends have confirmed the dead as: William Hall, 79, and his wife, Beatrice, 74, of 544 N. 13th St.; and Ofelia Ben, 69, Catherine Cruz, 16, and Matthew Manuel Cruz, 4 months, of 542 N. 13th St. 

Photo credit: Newsworking.net

Watch a video here. The following is the account from NewsWorking, a Lehigh Valley fire news site.

Gas Explosion Rocks Allentown Neighborhood, Fire Destroys a Row of Homes 

February 09, 2011 at 10:53pm

Allentown, PA - Just before 23:00 hours, Allentown transmitted box 2562 for a gas explosion with fire and entrapment at 13th and Allen Streets. Engines 4, 9, 10, Truck 1 and BN2 (Lanshe) respond. Lehigh County was getting multiple calls for a gas explosion from residents in Whitehall Township. The blast could be felt throughout Northern Lehigh and Northampton County.

Crews arrive to find a ball of fire at the intersection with multiple high power lines down and fire coming from the street. 544 N. 13th Street was totally leveled. BN2 transmits the second alarm immediately. Deck guns and tower ladders were placed into service. Engines 6, 13, 11, air 1 and cars 40, 41, 46, 48 respond on the 2nd.

With heavy fire and rapid extension of the fire into the bravo exposures, a third alarm was transmitted. Engines 14 and Truck 2 were brought in. Two tower ladders and two squrts are operating along with numerous large handlines and deck guns.

UGI worked for several hours trying to secure the gas leak. Fire was seen venting from the street several hours into the call.

Because of the freezing temperatures, Two volunteer companies were called into the scene. Whitehall Engine 2 and Wescosville Squirt 30.

A full Platoon was called in to man additional city engines. Engine 5 and 8 were special-called to the scene as well. The fire is equivalent to a 4 alarm fire.

Fire consumed all 8 homes in the row, 530 to 544 N. 13th Street. The fire burned well into the morning. Over 600 people were evacuated and relocated to Ag Hall at the Allentown Fair Grounds. Gross Towers, a 12-story elderly complex was evacuated as a precaution. A level 3 MCI was established for the evacuation of this building.

To help families of victims, call the Red Cross at 610-865-4400.

Photo: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg News

As most of you already know, I have been working for AOL's online community news service Patch.com since December. Patch sites are hyper-local sources of news and information geared for smaller communities across the U.S. Earlier today, AOL, Inc. announced that it was acquiring The Huffington Post for $315 million.

According to EVELYN M. RUSLI of The New York Times, "part of the reason AOL is willing to pay a high premium for the company is Arianna Huffington herself, who will now preside over AOL’s editorial content. The Huffington Post, which is profitable, has an army of thousands of contributors, most of whom are not paid; it also features dozens of big names like Alec Baldwin."

Ms. Huffington will become President and Editor-in-Chief of The Huffington Post Media Group which will incorporate all AOL entities including Patch.com. Does this bode ill or well with independent contractors like myself or not?  The phrase "most of whom are not paid" gives me chills. Will Ms. Huffington be nothing more than a glorified bean counter when she takes the reigns? Things to ponder over the next few weeks.

This from The New York Times Dealb%k:

Arianna Huffington questions newspapers "veneer of unassailability"/The New Yorker

By handing so much control over to Ms. Huffington and making her a public face of the company, AOL, which has been seen as apolitical, risks losing its nonpartisan image. Ms. Huffington said her politics would have no bearing on how she ran the new business.

The deal has the potential to create an enterprise that could reach more than 100 million visitors in the United States each month. For The Huffington Post, which began as a liberal blog with a small staff but now draws some 25 million visitors every month, the sale represents an opportunity to reach new audiences. For AOL, which has been looking for ways to bring in new revenue as its dial-up Internet access business declines, the millions of Huffington Post readers represent millions in potential advertising dollars.  

This is one of those strange times that we all live through once or twice in a lifetime. This time it's the weather. We in Northeast Pennsyvania—specifically here in the Lehigth Valley—are bracing for a "significant and dangerous ice storm."

"It's going to come down hard," Meteorologist Ed Hanna assured his local audience on the five o'clock news. "And don't be surprised if you hear a couple of rumbles of thunder tonight." Snow? Sleet? Freezing rain? Thunder??

The weather maps show a comma-shaped super storm that stretches from the Rockies to New England and from Chicago down to Texas.

Damaging winds and tornado warnings stretch from western Texas to the Florida Panhandle. One to two feet of snow is forecast for the midwest. Oklahoma City has basically shut down. In Abilene, Texas, lightning streaks the sky followed by the rumble of thunder as the rain overhead changes into snow.

The weather channels are urging everyone to have an emergency kit prepared and stocked in their homes or autos, consisting of flashlights, candles, non-perishible foods, water, a kerosene heater and a fully charged cell phone in case of power outages.

Following the storm, arctic temperatures will prevail along with winds gusts over 25 mph. Wind chills will be well below 0. The Jet Stream will dip below Texas by Thursday, ushering in bitterly cold temperatures across a huge swath of the country.

And here I was wondering why the Giant supermarket was so crowded at 5:30 p.m. on Monday afternoon? Strangely enough, the Wegman's up the road was not so crowded. Instead of the perennial bread, milk and eggs, the things I saw in patrons carts were toilet paper, batteries and rock salt.

This is another one of those monumental storms that gets all the cool adjectives like: "colossal," "dangerous," "destructive," "monumental," "crippling ice threat," "significant and potentially historic" and "Winter 'Beast.'"

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Australia is readying for the onset of the "strongest cyclone in years" now bearing down on the northeast coast, already inundated by flooding rains. Val Schier, Mayor of Cairns, called it the "biggest cyclone in living memory." It's summer in Australia. This isn't a severe winter storm — it's a severe summer storm. Schier called it "that huge system swirling around in the Coral Sea. You can't help but be in awe of it and very much afraid of it." She urged residents to flee the coastline before this "life threatening" storm makes landfall.

"Cyclone Aussie" is set to hit Cairns on Thursday morning with sustained winds of 140 miles per hour.

Strange forces, nature's rumblings and rootchings, perhaps as the planet prepares to throw the burden of mankind off its back. Maybe the Mayans were right...