SCOTUS overturns Sotomayor Ruling 5-4

Supreme Court Rules In Favor of White and Hispanic Fire Fighters

While I think this is a victory for those of us on the camp of common sense, one does have to look at the fine print of this decision.

At the heart of the issue are a couple of questions: What determines discriminitory? What makes, in this instance, one firefighter more able to serve as captain than another? Certainly the White and Hispanic firefighters were under the impression that this test was one way in determining this outcome but in the original decision, the lower courts ruled in opposition.

Soon to be Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor said in the original lower court decision that the testing processed used was discriminatory because no blacks passed the test:

"We are not unsympathetic to the plaintiffs' expression of frustration," but the firefighters who filed the case don't have a "viable" claim under the law, the opinion said. (Sonia Sotomayor in her original ruling of this case)

But in a 5-4 ruling, Justice Kennedy said that the city (New Haven, CT) violated Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, stating in his majority that 'The city rejected the test results solely because the higher scoring candidates were white'.

As Justice Scalia wrote in his concurrence, that:

...the disparate impact standards "place a racial thumb on
the scales, often requiring employers to evaluate the racial outcomes of their
policies, and to make decisions based on (because of) those racial
outcomes"

Ginsberg, in her dissent, noted that she agreed with the lower courts ruling that the treatment of white firefighters and the dismissal of the standard test was fair, even though the only reason they threw out the outcomes was purely a racial decision...

I would like to hear your thoughts on this issue.

Grace & Peace.

PLW

Reminiscing

On Sunday, I ran into an old college-hoopster friend of mine at church.

It made me think of my years at St. Cloud State and the fondness of my time in college. As I reflected, though, a sobering thought came to me: What have I done since then? What mark have I left on the world (as a friend of mine once put it)?

The answers to this question came immediately: my children, my relationships, and my activities.

Long after we are gone, no one will know of the countless hours some have spent playing softball or basketball, nor will anyone care about how much money some have made or what one gives to local charities.

What really matters is what we have done with the responsibilities that God has given to us. Maybe its a little bit of money, or a skill-set of making things. Whatever God's gift to us is, we need to figure out how we can give that back to him.

As we work toward this endeavor, I pray that we will all use our talents and treasuries not for our own personal gain, but for the benefit of our Lord, and others.

It's late - I'm going to bed.

Grace & Peace

US Open

Congratulations to Lucas Glover, winner of the 2009 US Open. For those of you who, through rain delays, watched in anticipation of Tiger or Mickelson making a surprising comback, it didn't happen and a southern boy from South Carolina kissed the cup.

For a little nostalgia, I found this in the archives that a certain someone might find interesting...;)




Grace & Peace

Quotable

HT to Vox, this is a timely quote from my June 18th post about Obama's new financial plan seeking to abolish booms and busts...

"The remedy for the boom is not a higher rate of interest but a lower rate of interest! For that may enable the so-called boom to last. The right remedy for the trade cycle is not to be found in abolishing booms and thus keeping us permanently in a semi-slump; but in abolishing slumps and keeping us permanently in a quasi-boom.”- John Maynard Keynes

William Jefferson Bashing

Ok, I am sick of everyone saying that Bush put us into the position we are today (economically). Its ridiculous to think that his policy alone was responsible for the issues we face today.

For those of you looking to refute the Bush-bashers, there was an interesting article today from David Weidner of MarketWatch discussing the blunders from the Cllinton-era that proved 'toxic'. Here are the highlights:

1) 1997- Change to the amount a homeowner had to pay in taxes on the sale of their home(increased limit to $500k before taxes were owed). This made buying and selling a home pretty much a no-brainer in terms of tax efficiency and changed the marketplace from one of supply and demand to that of increased speculation

2) 1998 Bailout of Long-Term Capital Management's Hedge Fund being led by the New York Federal Reserve Bank of $3.6 Billion. After this, the administration didn't change or review the laws to increase the oversight on hedge fund managers and their investment tactics

3) The biggie, according to the article, was the repeal of the Glass-Seagull Act of 1933 which morphed into the Gramm-Leach-Biley Financial Services Modernization Act of 1999. This effectively tore down the barrier between commercial banks (savers) and brokerage houses (investors) (See Citigroup merger with Travelers). This Act is perhaps the biggest issue that regulators are now facing to try and re-work so as to keep speculation out of lending.

Just thought you might like a little history lesson...

Grace & Peace

Weekend Summary

After an evening out in support of my friend Chris Carr and his foundation Friday night, I woke up bright and early on Saturday morning (4:30am) to go with a group of guys to play hoops and share the gospel with some inmates in Wisconsin.

Needless to say, after 3 straight games of basketball with no subs, I was a bit broken down.

But, I came back on Saturday afternoon and met Heidi and the kids at a friend's house and enjoyed a beautiful Minnesota summer evening. It's those kind of days in Minnesota that make the long winters bearable.

I also had a chance to spend Father's Day with my father-in-law after church which involved watching the Twins lose to the Astros and playing some Bocce Ball in the lawn. A very relaxing weekend with some much needed rain on Sunday evening.

Grace & Peace

OU - Memory Lane

This thread is dedicated to my fellow Okie, Thomas...thanks for your friendship and love, kid. Give a shout out to 'her' and Rob, etc. for me.

PLW




Grace & Peace

Obama's New Agency

Obama Said to Create Consumer Finance Agency With Broad Powers (Allison Vekshin)

June 16 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama will propose creating an agency to protect consumers of financial products with the authority to punish offending firms with fines and penalties, according to a Treasury document.

The Consumer Financial Protection Agency, to be proposed tomorrow in the overhaul of financial regulations, will have the authority to write rules for banks and non-bank companies, and supervise and examine institutions for compliance, according to the document obtained by Bloomberg News.

“Lax consumer protections contributed significantly to the current financial crisis,” the document said. “The financial crisis, in turn, revealed inadequacies in consumer and investor protection.”

Obama’s plan is similar to a proposal introduced last week by Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd, who will lead efforts in the Senate to enact Obama’s proposals.

Dodd said the agency should have enforcement authority over credit and bank products and shield consumers from predatory practices of mortgage brokers and banks.

Hoops and Relationship

I have had the privelege to serve with my friend Donny in an organization called Hoops Church.

It started because a couple of guys from North Minneapolis wanted a place to play hoops but really couldn't find somewhere to play that was cheap and close to North. So, Donny opened up the church on Sunday evenenings and Hoops Church was born.

Fast forward to today, we now have 40-50 guys coming every Sunday, a variety of speakers and fellow church members coming in and sharing a little bit of the Word, and in general, having a great time.

The purpose is simple: Make friends, tell our story, and introduce them to Christ. Whatever happens after that is up to them, but they have been an extreme blessing in my life and I am lucky to have friends like Ed, Carey, Roofsie, Cal, Duan, Mike, Jerome, Rob, Herb, Billy D., etc. (I don't have the time to name them all but you know who you are).

Jesus said, 'It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance ' (Luke 5:31-32).

Romans says, 'For we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God' (Romans 3:23).

Sin keeps us from the holiness of God. It is precisely because of God's love for each of us, however, that He had to send His son to die for us in order that we may once again have relationship with Him. It's THIS relationship that will indeed change your life and bring meaning and purpose behind everything you do.

Grace & Peace

PLW

Lakers

What a weekend!!! Lakers win Game 5 to win the series, Kobe is MVP, the Penguins beat the Red Wings (the only team out of the past 18 Stanley Cups to win game 7 on away ice), nicest day in Minnesota YTD spent boating on Lake Minnetonka, water balloon fight with my kids, lawn looks great, and all of my cars are running - I should go to Vegas right now...

WSOTW

I'm on a roll - two weeks in a row!

Hunter's Story

The boys last day of school was on Thursday last week and they had a great school year. I was proud of their academic achievements but will definitely be using the summer to 'encourage' reading.

Going through their homework, I came across the following short-story/assignement from Hunter's folder:

Fortunately, I didn’t miss the bus.

Unfortunately, I was still in my
pajamas.

Fortunately, I had other
clothes.

Unfortunately, they had
holes in them.

Fortunately, I had a needle and
thread.

Unfortunately, I didn’t know how
to sew.

Fortunately, my friend did and
sewed them for me.
I put them on.

Unfortunately, I peed my pants so
I had to put on my pajamas
again, and had no other clothes.

Fortunately, my friend
did.

Unfortunately, she was a girl
…

Grace & Peace

PLW

Weekend Events

• Riding brother-in-law's motorcycle tonight


• Cleaning out garage and a nice wash and wax on the cars


• Working Saturday morning and helping a friend move


• Boys have baseball practice and a scrimmage Saturday afternoon


• Celebrating anniversary and neighbors over on Saturday night


• Boating on Lake Minnetonka on Sunday

Should be a swell weekend (wish I was up at the cabin with Scotty, though :))

Grace & Peace

PLW

Anniversary - 15 Big Ones...and 3 little ones

For those of you who don't know, I am married to the most amazing, beautiful, talented and patient woman in the world. Here's a quick list of things that she does on a daily basis:

Mother, Wife, Friend, Companion, Confidant, LOVA, Manager, Trip Organizer, Scheduler, Planner, 'Budgetor', Cleaner, Folder, Washer, Mower, Professional, Director, Singer, Networker, Driver, Shopper (not crazy about that one), Reader, Speaker, Cook, Landscaper, Weed-Puller (for the neighbors, too), Beauty (she defines it), and Christ-Follower.

I love you very much and look forward to many more amazing years.

PLW

We're Socialists, its official! (update)

It appears that my fears of caps on compensation have been kept at bay, for now. Here is a recent update on the executive compensation...

Obama Seeks Powers for SEC on Executive Pay, No Outright Caps

This actually makes me pause a bit (and I would welcome some feedback). But, having a securities license myself, I am blown away by the amount of scrutiny, paperwork, and red-tape that I have to go through to simply do my job as a self-employed independent representative. Banks have their own set of hurdles to jump through.

It is almost to a point now that regulators impose so many controls that it ceases to make sense to stay in business. But this isn't new to other industries as well. Take the construction industry. You have all kinds of issues (bonding, licensing, unions, OSHA, etc.) just to operate the business. These controls are hurting our productivity as a nation and will continue to until Congress get's their act together.

Grace & Peace

We're Socialists, its official!

Check out this excerpt from a May 18th Article in Bloomberg:

May 18 (Bloomberg) -- Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner ruled out setting specific limits for compensation as the Obama administration considers proposals to better align executives’ pay with companies’ long-term performance.

“I don’t think our government should set caps on compensation,” he said in answering questions at an event at the National Press Club today in Washington. “What I think we need to do is make sure we put in place some broad constraints on the incentives compensation systems create.”

Now, look at today's headline in Bloomberg:

U.S. Said to Seek New Powers for SEC Over Banks’ Executive Pay

"...Geithner is scheduled to meet today with SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro, Federal Reserve Governor Daniel Tarullo and executive- compensation specialists at the Treasury.

The Treasury chief said yesterday that the Fed and other bank regulators will define “standards and principles that supervisors would use to help bring about reforms in compensation practices in the financial industry.”

“A centerpiece of sensible reforms will be to tie compensation to better measures of long-term investment and return, and to adjust them to reflect the risk” incurred by executives’ decisions, Geithner said during a hearing at a Senate Appropriations subcommittee.

Changing executive pay practices is part of a broader initiative by President Barack Obama to overhaul U.S. financial rules in the aftermath of the crisis. Obama will unveil his “series of specific proposals” streamlining and reorganizing regulation on June 17, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said.

This seems strange to me. If I were a bank president and someone said that they were going to cap my compensation, I'm out. I'll go run a hedge fund or I'll start up my own business were there are no caps.

Does the government have this right to dictate to businesses how they can be compensated? Does anyone have the right to tell me how much I will get paid? Only if someone else is paying me, which is precisely why the government required the banks to take the federal TARP dollars. Its not about solvency, its about control.

Grace & Peace

Hunter!

I want to acknowledge my oldest son, Hunter, on his 10th birthday today. Hunter was born 10 pounds, 1 ounce and had a huge nob on his head (much to Heidi's dismay).

Hunter is an amazing kid and loves to read, play baseball and basketball, ride his bike and play with his friends. Hunter most recently was baptized and I could not have been any more proud of him.

He brings me joy, makes me sad, has taught me patience and continues to illustrate the love that God the Father has shown me. The love I have for Hunter pales in comparison to the love that God has for each of us and the relationship (like mine and Hunter's) that God wants with all of us.

Mom & Dad love you very much, Hunter, and we thank God everyday for you. We are proud of you.

Love, Dad

Economics

I recently attended a forum discussing, among other things, stock valuations, mortgage trends, and real estate markets (both commercial and residential).

Here were a couple of takeaways:

• Stocks are closer now to fairly valued. Many people are saying that stocks are very much undervalued, but the question they posed was 'compared to what?'. What I find interesting is that if jobs are disappearing, what is the level at which people will be able to afford to consume? It's economics 101- supply vs. demand.


• Look for a 'V' shaped recovery, but don't be surprised by 'W'. For those of you wondering what I am talking about, many people expect the economy to bounce back as quickly as it has gone down ('V'). But what some analyst are saying is that there will be another recession following this one ('W'). This reasoning is based on the simple question that once all of the cash that is sitting on the sidelines goes into the market, what will stimiulate the economy? We have already printed trillions of dollars with growing unemployment and a disencentive to the rich to make more. One dollar out of every 6 is supporting a government program today. Obama thinks that he can create 600,000 jobs. When? How? Borrowing money from the richest taxpayers? That's not job creation, that is simply 'fuzzy math'. As a nation, we have essentially stopped manufacturing, we have shipped out our industry for cheaper labor, and deviceiveness is the order of our lawmakers today. As a nation, we lack unity, lack production, and still expect a higher standard of living.


• Housing and inflation: Both are a direct result of jobs. On the one hand, housing will support a floor (and we are starting to see it) because of employment. It may loose its footing for the same reason. Inflation is largely income based. If incomes are decreasing, companies will find it difficult to charge more for the same things. One exception to that are short-term economic shocks such as oil and gas spikes.

Anyway, an interesting economics lesson using today's events as a backdrop. What I find encouraging is that despite the negativity and all of the ills that CNBC, CNN, etc. will spout off, we are still the greatest country in the world and account for nearly 35% of the world's GDP (http://www.cia.gov/). China, our closest competition, accounts for only 18.5%.

And finally, despite everything that is happening in the world around us, God still loves us and cares for each of us. That is the truth.

Grace & Peace

WSOTW

Long-time, no worship song... (thanks, Tim):



Grace & Peace

Leprechauns & Lakers

Leprechauns:
Jalen and Hunter played in front of the Prior Lake Mudcats (PL's amateur baseball team) and a nice audience. Before the game, Jalen was nervous because he was the starting pitcher.

We worked on (at home) his windup and I made a few adjustments to his form. When he took the mound, the first pitch almost went out of the stadium (a little nervous energy). He then settled in for a nice inning, striking out two and catching a lazy pop fly.

I wish I had a picture to show the smile on his face coming into the dugout.

Hunter also had a nice game catching behind the plate and showed a lot of hustle, running out a ground ball to second that looked like an easy play. Dad's chest was protruding out a bit after the events of last Thursday.

Lakers:
Kobe looked okay but they should have lost Game 2 of the Finals last night. If Lee makes the ally-oop with a second on the clock, they win and steal one from the Lakers.

It wasn't necessarily that the Lakers played terrible, but they missed some key defensive assignments, especially on Hedu and Lewis (Lewis had a great shooting night) and the Magic made some incredible shots.

As an Orlando fan, you have to be pleased with their turnaround performance from the thrashing they received in Game 1. Now, they have 3 games in Orlando, which will take some of the pressure off and give them a familiar surrounding in which to play.


Grace & Peace

Mother Nature

I have relatives in Southern California and I came across this yesterday...

Strong storms kill 2 in SoCal

"....One of the bolts hit and killed a 40-year-old woman as she was standing under a tree in a Fontana neighborhood, about 50 miles east of Los Angeles.

Police said residents found her face down on the sidewalk after hearing two claps of thunder -- one that killed the woman and another that damaged concrete 25-30 feet away. Her name has not been released.

"She was hit with a very significant jolt of lightning that left a gaping hole in her neck," Fontana police Sgt. Jeff Decker said. "It burned down her body and blew out the bottom of her shoes," Decker said. "Her upper body clothing was blown about 30 feet away from her body."

Death to Capitalism (Part2)

This is taken from a comment on my blog from Tuesday...

"Isn't this the same kind of "logic" we hear from gun owners who decry: "They're going to take my guns!" every time a 'liberal' candidate is on a ballot? I have not yet me a gunowner who's gotten so much as a knock on the door"

Knock knock...

Twins, Dodgers, Oh My!

Twins won a nice game against Cleveland last night as our pitching staff looked decent but our defense won the game. The new stadium looks awesome too except for the noticeable lack of a rectractable roof.

While staying up a little later to watch the Dodger game (ok I was driving home and listening to updates), as I pulled into the driveway, the score was 5-1 against the Dodgers. Next morning I hear the Dodgers scored 5 in the 8th to win it. Team of destiny??

Reminds me a lot of the Twins in the sense that they are playing small ball and even without the likes of Man-Ram, they are putting runs together when it counts.

Grace & Peace

Death to Capitalism

Very rarely do I get upset about politics. But the latest dealings of Big Brother has me extremely edgy these days. Here is an excerpt from Bloomberg this morning (talking about the banking industry):

'Once the Treasury has a voting stake, the bank might be pressured to tailor spending or financing decisions to suit partisan policies on the environment or labor issues, said Brown of Second Curve Capital. In recent years, environmental groups have attended Citigroups annual shareholder meeting to rail against financing for mountaintop strip mining.'

(Bloomberg 6/1/09)

Another example from the same article:

'Any government investment in financial institutions raises the prospect of banks being ordered to focus on “state-approved social objectives” instead of increasing earnings, according to a report last week from the Committee on Capital Markets Regulation, a 25-member group of financial-industry executives, lawyers, consultants and academics.'

Lawmakers know that the prospect of less capitalism and more government reliance is a goldmine politically. It guarantees reelection, guarantees positions of power in influencial committees, and guarantees an easy marketing platform. It also gives them another playing field that they have been so against all these years. The same companies that pay a kings ransom for taxes and employ the nations workers are now being controlled by those people. The same people that receive tax-payer money as a basis for their living are effectively taking the profit motive out of everything to promote their socialist and platform goals.

Karl Marx would indeed be proud...

General Motors

Its been all over the news so i thought I should weigh-in on the subject. My Grandmother worked many years as a telephone operator for General Motors in Oklahoma City. Up until last year, she had been receiving a full pension and full health benefits, and has been retired for 25 years (she will be 88 soon).

While this is a very healthy retirement package, its a bit costly and underscores the difficulty these companies face. For GM to simply meet it's pension oblibations per year costs them upwards of $90 Billion (with a 'B'). To put that into perspective, you could buy 100% of GM outstanding stock as of Friday's close for about $500 million.

People will tell you that this a terrible thing that one of the nations Blue Chip companies is going under. With friends in Michigan, I really feel for the people losing jobs, having to sell a house that they can't sell and to find a job when unemployment is rising.

In the end, these last couple of years will underscore the importance of saving for a rainy day, working harder and smarter for the companies we work for, and hopefully, giving God the thanks in all circumstances.

Grace & Peace