† Higher Taxes For Thee, But Not For Me: In a post on New York Times blog Economix University of Chicago economics professor Casey B. Mulligan  cites a 2008 doctoral dissertation, “Essays on the Economics of Individual Tax Compliance,” by his colleague, Oscar Vela, who makes the case that people pay taxes not because of fear of IRS fines, but because a tax conviction would damage their professional reputations and lower their income:

 

Dr. Vela looked at the importance of integrity in job performance in the Occupational Information Network and found that the occupations where integrity was especially valued coincided with the occupations where the I.R.S. found tax compliance rates to be the highest.

 

The chart below shows some of Dr. Vela’s results, with tax compliance measured as the fraction of business income that was found by the I.R.S.’s special compliance study to be underreported. 
 

 

For example, the construction trades do not appear to value integrity as much as other occupations do – Dr. Vela found the occupation to be ranked third from the bottom, based on the Occupational Information Network. Construction is also one of the top occupations in terms of underreporting business income. [Editorial Note: And one of the top business sectors flouting U.S. law by hiring forged documented aliens.]

 

Another finding is that the much-disparaged legal occupation is near the top in terms of valuing integrity, and that lawyers underreport a relatively small fraction of their business income.

 

Here’s why:

 

Vela found that people in professions where the appearance of integrity seemed to matter were the most likely to pay their taxes. His conclusion was that as much as we would like to think so we pay taxes out of the goodness of our hearts, or even because we are fearful of fines or worse. Instead we based the decision on how it will affect our careers [emphasis, The Stiletto].

 

Based on Vela’s reasoning, the Stiletto doesn’t find it at all surprising that lawyers are likelier than other taxpayers to truthfully report their incomes. A tax form is akin to an affidavit – take a closer look at the signature box; you are attesting that "Under penalties of perjury, I declare that I have examined this return and accompanying schedules and statements, and to the best of my knowledge and belief, they are true, correct, and complete."

 

Similarly, The Stiletto doesn’t find it surprising that scientists - who understated their income by as much as 35 percent, on average - and journos - who understated their incomes by 25 percent, on average - are not particularly honest when reporting their incomes, even though the appearance of integrity also matter in these professions. Think of the fraudulent autism-vaccine research and pervasive data manipulation underlying the global warming hoax (fourth item), and the numerous journalistic scandals involving plagiarism, fabricated quotes and undisclosed conflicts of interest. Unlike scientists and journos, good moral character - not merely the appearance of it - is a professional requirement for lawyers – and a lawyer who is convicted of tax fraud will lose his license, and may even be subject to harsher civil or criminal (if the misrepresentation is found to be willful) penalties than most Americans would.

 

† Living In These Mad, Mad, Madoff Times: WOAI-AM (San Antonio, TX) reports that Texans who live near the Mexican border are “ducking to avoid the bullets from the gang wars, to gas up at prices which are as much as a dollar lower than prices in the United States”:

 

Why is gasoline so much cheaper across the Rio Grande?  Two main reasons.  First of all, Petroleos Mexicanos, the state-owned oil company, controls prices with the assistance of the Mexican government, which is not keen to see the price of gasoline go up too high for fear of public unrest.  Also, Mexican environmental laws are not as strict as laws in the U.S., and gasoline sold in Mexico is not required to have many of the special blends designed to hold down air pollution, which jack up U.S. prices. …

 

Traveling into Mexico to buy gasoline is not considered smuggling and is not against the law.  The gasoline in the tank does not have be ‘reported’ to U.S. Customs officers at the border, and customs duties do not have to be paid on it.

 

† AZ Becomes The Epicenter Of Civility: Another job for the worthies running the University of Arizona's National Institute for Civil Discourse: New York Times columnist David Brooks cites a survey published in the journal Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity and the Arts that finds between 1980 and 2007 pop music lyrics that “use of words related to self-focus and antisocial behavior increased, whereas words related to other-focus, social interactions, and positive emotion decreased.” Or, as Brooks puts it: “We’ve gone from ‘Love, Love, Love’ to ‘F.U.’”

 

† Updates To Previous Posts (last item, Now Is Not The Time To Talk About Race): What’s the difference between these two “portraits” of our current president and his predecessor? 
 

Most Americans across the political spectrum will instinctively say the one on the left - which was disseminated via E-mail to Orange County GOP officials by Marilyn Davenport, an elected member of the party’s central committee - is an abominable racial slur, whereas the one on the right is acceptable political commentary.

As The Stiletto pointed out in a different context, political cartoonist Thomas Nast routinely depicted the Irish as chimpanzees, and because of America's “virulent and shameful history of anti-Irish racism” depicting George Walker Bush, who is of Scots Irish descent, as a chimp “is as racist – and racist in the exact same way” - as depicting Barack Hussein Obama as a chimp.” She stands by her observation.

 

† Updates To Previous Posts (fourth item, Iraq Was Supposed To Become Like The USA - But The Reverse Has Happened: Part II): Maricopa County (AZ) Superior Court Judge Roland Steinle sentenced Iraqi immigrant Faleh Hassan Almaleki to 34 ½ years in prison for running over and killing his 20-year-old daughter, Noor, because she became too Westernized, The Associated Press reports:

 

The case caused outrage nationwide after prosecutors deemed it an "honor killing" because Faleh Almaleki had said his daughter dishonored his family.

 

[I]n a statement, Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery, whose prosecutors handled the case, said "the killing of one's own child is more than just a violation of the law."

 

"It is an offense against parenthood itself and the awesome responsibility parents have for nurturing and protecting their children," he said. "Dishonor, disrespect and other cultural mores can never serve as a justification for the taking of an innocent life. Mr. Almaleki will have an appropriately long time in prison to ponder this truth."

 

A jury found Faleh Almaleki guilty of second-degree murder for the killing and aggravated assault for running over the mother of Noor Almaleki's boyfriend. Jurors also convicted Faleh Almaleki of two counts of leaving the scene of an accident.

 

† Updates To Previous Posts (penultimate item,  The TSA Emperor Wears No Clothes: Part II): So, what, exactly are those Israeli-type "behavioral markers" the TSA is using in American airports - after tweaking them to ensure that Muslims do not get profiled and would-be terrorists do not get caught? If you call TSA screening procedures "Kabuki theatre" you will be intensively screened. If you complain about having to take of several articles of clothing while noting the number of TSA agents who have lost their uniforms and badges, you will be intensively screened. If you complain about having to take put your laptop, camera, cell phone, keys, loose change in bins while pointing out that TSA agents routinely keep doors to secure areas propped open to save themselves the hassle of swiping their entry cards (second item), you will be intensively screened. CNN reports:

 

CNN has obtained a list of roughly 70 "behavioral indicators" that TSA behavior detection officers use to identify potentially "high risk" passengers at the nation's airports.

 

Many of the indicators, as characterized in open government reports, are behaviors and appearances that may be indicative of stress, fear or deception. None of them, as the TSA has long said, refer to or suggest race, religion or ethnicity.

 

But one addresses passengers' attitudes towards security, and how they express those attitudes.

 

It reads: "Very arrogant and expresses contempt against airport passenger procedures."

 

TSA officials declined to comment on the list of indicators, but said that no single indicator, taken by itself, is ever used to identify travelers as potentially high-risk passengers. Travelers must exhibit several indicators before behavior detection officers steer them to more thorough screening.

 

But a civil liberties organization said the list should not include behavior relating to the expression of opinions, even arrogant expressions of opinion.

 

"Expressing your contempt about airport procedures - that's a First Amendment-protected right," said Michael German, a former FBI agent who now works as legal counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union. "We all have the right to express our views, and particularly in a situation where the government is demanding the ability to search you."

 

"It's circular reasoning where, you know, I'm going to ask someone to surrender their rights; if they refuse, that's evidence that I need to take their rights away from them. And it's simply inappropriate," he said.

 

TSA’s screening procedures inspired China - the exemplar of statist human rights abuse – to issue a report card on political freedom and human rights meant to mock a similar effort by the U.S. State Department. In a startling editorial, The Washington Times admits, “As hard as it is to say this, China has a point”:  

 

At airports, for example, U.S. customs officials have confiscated laptops and cellphones from thousands of international passengers - including U.S. citizens and journalists - to download all of the information contained on the devices in a dragnet sweep looking for a crime. "There is no provision for judicial approval or supervision" of these techniques, the Chinese report notes. Despite court rulings on the subject, it's impossible to rationalize this conduct under any reasonable interpretation of the Fourth Amendment. Likewise, many states allow police officers to attach GPS devices to vehicles as a means of covert tracking without first obtaining a warrant.

 

The abuses turn personal when the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) uses technology to strip innocent passengers naked and photograph them prior to boarding an airplane. Recently released video evidence shows blue-gloved TSA agents groping young children in a way that ought to put them on a sex-offenders list for the rest of their lives. …

 

Before we wag our fingers at the abuses of other countries, it's worth taking the time to examine and correct our own faults. We would have much more credibility on the world stage were our own government to take the Constitution more seriously.

 

Case in point, after an enhanced pat-down at Denver International Airport on April 5^th, frequent flyer Geoff Biddulph of Berthoud, CO, says "I felt like I was sexually assaulted," KDVR-TV (Channel 31, Denver) reports:

 

Biddulph says he was line at the security checkpoint waiting to go through the metal detector when a Transportation Security Administration agent tried to force him to go through the body scanner.

 

"A TSA agent literally started pushing me towards this other line," he told us.

 

Biddulph asked the TSA agent why he was being moved, and that’s when he says the agent called a supervisor, threatened to kick him out of the airport and began an “inappropriate pat down.”

 

Biddulph says the TSA agent rubbed his groin area, buttocks and stuck his hand down his pants.

 

"He was only focused on my private parts," Biddulph said.

 

Biddulph filed a report with Denver Police and filed a complaint with the TSA.

 

Biddulph said, “We have the right to reasonable search and seizures. This is not reasonable. It's not reasonable to have somebody shoving his hands down your pants.”

 

† Updates To Previous Posts (last item, There’s No Such Thing As Free Healthcare): On the fifth anniversary of RomneyCare MA Gov. Deval L. Patrick (D) is trying to replace fee-for-service medicine with an “integrated care” model that would pay a lump sum to a team of doctors that would provide head-to-toe care for a group of patients, reports The Washington Post:

 

The rationale is that such a system rewards more care rather than coordinated treatment and upfront care that can lessen the need for more expensive services later on.

 

The biggest move is being made by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, the commonwealth’s largest insurer. In 2009 it began a new payment system called Alternative Quality Contracts with some of the doctors and hospitals in its network.

 

The arrangement is a version of the accountable care organizations that the federal government also is trying to encourage in Medicare. They pay teams of doctors or hospitals a lump sum or what is called a “global budget” for the patients assigned to them. If a team can provide care for less, it keeps some of the savings, assuming it also meets enough of 64 measures of quality that Blue Cross has defined. Today, about one-third of the primary care doctors in Blue Cross’s network are taking part. A half-million HMO patients have been put in them - but not told by the insurer [emphasis, The Stiletto]. …

 

Some doctors are embracing the new way of working. David C. Pickul is the medical director of the physicians group affiliated with Lowell General Hospital, in an economically bruised community about 30 miles northwest of Boston. The group is in the third year of a five-year “alternative quality” contract with Blue Cross involving a hub of 70 primary care doctors and a looser group of 200 specialists who are responsible for 20,000 HMO patients. The team now has a financial incentive, Pickul said, to track down patients when it is time for their mammograms or for eye exams for those with diabetes. Under Blue Cross’s quality rating, Lowell has soared the past two years. …

 

Skeptics urge caution. House Majority Leader Ronald Mariano (D) says the state “ought to take more time. You turn the system upside down, you don’t educate people sufficiently, you are going to have a repeat of what we had in the ’90s with the [backlash against] HMOs.”

 

And Alice Coombs, president of the Massachusetts Medical Society, is especially concerned about physicians who work alone or in small groups, older physicians who might choose to retire rather than switch or new doctors who might leave for other states.

 

Among the biggest unresolved questions - for critics and supporters alike - is what the government would do if the shift to global payments and integrated care did not reach the goals by 2015. Patrick is admittedly vague on the question. “Yes, there should be accountabilities,” he said. “I am not persuaded that the market is going to get this right all by itself.”

 

† Updates To Previous Posts (fifth item, Is This Any Way To Run A Transition?): Mary Tillman, whose son Pat left his NFL career with the Arizona Cardinal to serve as an Army Ranger and was killed in Afghanistan by friendly fire in April 2004, is calling for the removal of Gen. Stanley McChrystal from his recent appointment by the White House as co-chair of a commission on military families. McChrystal - the commander of special operations in Afghanistan at the time - admitted being involved in the cover-up of the circumstances surrounding Pat Tillman’s death, and Mary Tillman said that President Barack Hussein Obama’s appointment of the now-retired general “makes him look foolish.” Amir Bar-Lev, director of the critically-acclaimed documentary "The Tillman Story," likens the appointment to “putting Bernie Madoff in charge of a commission on pensions.”

 

† Updates To Previous Posts (sixth item, A To Z Approach On Illegal Immigration In AZ): The GA legislature passed a slightly modified version of AZ’s beleaguered anti-immigration law, which Gov. Nathan Deal (R) is expected to sign, The New York Times reports:

 

Lawmakers modified the Georgia bill slightly from Arizona’s and softened requirements surrounding use of the federal E-Verify program, which helps employers confirm online whether potential employees can legally work in the United States.

 

That helped appease at least some of the state’s powerful agricultural and business interests, which had lobbied against the bill, and gave Mr. Deal, a Republican who had been noticeably silent on the issue, enough confidence to throw his support behind the measure. He has 40 days to sign the bill but is expected to do so much sooner. …

 

The Georgia bill also requires the state Agriculture Department to study creating a guest worker program. Utah, the only other state to pass a law aimed at curbing the population of illegal immigrants, designed a guest worker program aimed at helping businesses keep workers. But it does not supersede federal immigration law.

 

In all, 30 states have considered anti-immigration legislation, most of which are styled after Arizona’s. Many measures died in the legislative sessions. Similar bills have passed at least one chamber of state legislatures in Alabama, Indiana, Oklahoma and South Carolina and remain in committee in several others.

 

The Stiletto wonders how many states the Obama Department of Justice will sue before President Barack Hussein Obama realizes that declaring war on millions of Americans and their local representatives is not going to be helpful to his re-election effort.

 

† Updates To Previous Posts (last item, 10 Reasons Michelle Obama Should Be Proud – Really Proud – Of America): This latest installment in The Stiletto Blog’s ongoing series meant to help instill the necessary pride of country in Michelle Obama’s consciousness to enable her to serve as an unofficial ambassador focuses on LeAnn Rimes, who admits that collecting shoes and handbags is “a vice” of hers. People magazine reports that when the country singer Tweeted that she’d just spent “3 SOLID hours” cleaning out and organizing her closet, one of her fans, Peggy Joyce Tweeted back: “anything u want to donate to me? From OH and lost job and have a 16 month old. Bad year..I will pay for shipping. Thanks!! XO” Rimes arranged to send Joyce “a few pair of flip flops for the summer and tennis shoes in your size.”