8 Crazy Hollywood Inventions That Actually Exist

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8 Crazy Hollywood Inventions That Actually Exist

US: ‘Indications’ exist that Malaysian aircraft may have crashed in Indian Ocean

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US: ‘Indications’ exist that Malaysian aircraft may have crashed in Indian Ocean

My conservative gay friend: Yes, they exist

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My conservative gay friend: Yes, they exist

Do "Digital Natives" Exist? | Idea Channel | PBS Digital Studios

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Do "Digital Natives" Exist? | Idea Channel | PBS Digital Studios

Sodomy laws still exist?!

Sodomy laws still exist?!

In part because of dawning awareness about what Americans were actually getting up to in the privacy of their bedrooms — thanks, Alfred Kinsey – sodomy was cut from the American Law Institute’s Model Penal Code in 1962. “Nearly simultaneously, as part of its updating of its criminal code, the State of Illinois became the first to decriminalize consensual sodomy,” explains Canaday. Several states followed suit — but reform got more complicated as sodomy “became even more closely associated with homosexuality in the decade after the Stonewall riots,” she wrote. “Simultaneously, the connection to homosexuality ‘became a reason, as well as an obstacle, for sodomy law reform.’”

And here we are today, with two states still explicitly outlawing gay sex (and several more banning sodomy regardless of sexual orientation). The Kansas law criminalizes sodomy between “members of the same sex or between a person and an animal.” (Because in some conservatives’ eyes, gay sex and bestiality are the same. No exaggeration — remember Rick Santorum comparing homosexuality to sex with dogs?) The Texas statute defines it as an offense for a person to engage in “deviate sexual intercourse” — defined as anal or oral — “with another individual of the same sex.”

Now, the 2003 Supreme Court ruling in Lawrence v. Texas rendered such prohibitions unconstitutional — but they are still used to justify discrimination, and conservatives have fought to keep them around for a reason. As Tim Murphy wrote in Mother Jones, “Conservatives in those states know they can’t enforce the laws, but by keeping them in the code, they can send a message that homosexuality is officially condemned by the government.”

This isn’t an issue of states not getting around to paperwork. Attempts at legislative appeal have been actively resisted — even as major efforts have been made to strike other outdated laws from the books. In 2003, Santorum responded to the Supreme Court’s decision in Lawrence v. Texas by saying, “[I]f the Supreme Court says that you have the right to consensual sex within your home, then you have the right to bigamy, you have the right to polygamy, you have the right to incest, you have the right to adultery. You have the right to anything. Does that undermine the fabric of our society? I would argue yes, it does.”

As recently as 2012, American Family Association spokesperson Bryan Fischer wrote in an op-ed, “We have been saying for years that homosexual behavior ought to be contrary to public policy because it is a menace to public health.” That same year, the Texas GOP’s party platform took an outright stance against “the practice of homosexuality.”

With the rise of same-sex marriage, homophobes have clung tighter yet to the remaining anti-gay sodomy laws. Only this year did Montana manage to get rid of its law criminalizing “sexual contact or sexual intercourse between two persons of the same sex,” even though it was deemed unconstitutional by a State Supreme Court 16 years ago. (Just two years earlier, a bill attempting to erase the code was killed by the House Judiciary Committee.) This year also saw Virginia overturn its sodomy law.

Of course, there are plenty of reasons to criticize in the Indian Supreme Court decision — but let’s not act like our hands are clean.

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IRS Refunds $4 Billion Child Tax Credits Per Year to Illegal Immigrants Whose Kids Do Not Live in US (and May Not Exist at All); Earned Income Fraud Another $13 Billion

Here’s an interesting video that came my way yesterday from a close friend. The video highlights a news investigation by Channel 13, WTHR in Indianapolis, regarding fraudulent refunds of taxpayer money to illegal immigrants living in the US. The refunds are based on child tax credits, when the kids live in Mexico or elsewhere.

Link if video does not play: Another Massive Tax Loophole!

Typically videos like this are not remotely true, but this one is according to FactCheck.

Q: Does the IRS pay billions in tax refunds to workers who are in the U.S. illegally?

A: Yes. The Treasury Department’s Inspector General determined that $ 4.2 billion was paid in 2010, up from less than $ 1 billion in 2005. Leading Democrats are resisting a bill that would stop future payments.

FULL ANSWER

This is a rare case of an Internet rumor with some substance to it. In fact, it’s shaping up as a major dogfight in Congress. At issue here are the federal child tax credits that can be claimed by persons with dependent children under age 17. Some Democrats are already defending these child tax credit payments that have gone to those without a valid Social Security number, accusing Republicans who want to end them of a heartless attack on children.

Several different versions of this viral email all cite a recent investigative story by an Indianapolis television station, but WTHR-TV is far from the first to notice. The Washington Post and others reported on this last year when the Treasury Department’s inspector general for tax administration issued a report on July 7, 2011.

The title of the report summed up the IG’s [Treasury Inspector General] finding: “Individuals Who Are Not Authorized to Work in the United States Were Paid $ 4.2 Billion in Refundable Credits.”

Problem Still Not Addressed

The WTHR video appears to be from 2012. The treasury inspector general report came out in 2011.

So Congress, the treasury, the IRS, and presumably president Obama have known about this for at least two years.

Fraudulent Bonanza for Illegals

The question I had this morning is a simple one: has anything been done yet?

It does not appear to be the case.

On April 16, 2013, The Washington Times featured an article by Edwin S. Rubenstein Collecting billions in a loophole, subtitled “Fraudulent tax refunds yield a bonanza for illegal immigrants”.

As federal services from air-traffic control to White House tours are ratcheted down thanks to the budget sequestration, millions of illegal aliens are now eagerly await billions in illegitimate Treasury payments, courtesy of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

Two programs, the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and the Additional Child Tax Credit (ACTC) provide cash payments to low-income parents who pay no income tax and fail to have a valid Social Security number.

The IRS knowingly allows illegal aliens who claim children to get Earned Income Tax Credit cash payments of up to $ 5,891 per household. This is one reason why these cash payments are expected to exceed $ 52 billion in fiscal year 2012 alone. The General Accountability Office (GAO) estimates that roughly a quarter of all Earned Income Tax Credit payments are issued improperly.

Compounding the problem is the Additional Child Tax Credit, which was added to the older Child Tax Credit program that became law in 1997. The Child Tax Credit reduces the tax low-income families pay by $ 1,000 for each child under 17. If the tax filer claims five children for a credit of $ 5,000 but owes only $ 2,000 in taxes, under the Additional Child Tax Credit the IRS sends the filer a check for the difference, or $ 3,000.

The federal tax agency makes no effort to verify the existence of children or the eligibility of the tax-credit recipients to work in the United States. Indeed, IRS managers reportedly encourage their staff to ignore questionable applications and blatant fraud for the sake of fast-tracking Individual Taxpayer Identification Number approvals.

The scandal prompted at least one congressman to act. Last year, Rep. Sam Johnson, Texas Republican, introduced the ITIN Reform Act. The legislation would require people claiming Additional Child Tax Credit refunds on tax returns filed without a Social Security number to verify their citizenship status in person at an IRS office. Currently, the IRS sends these refunds automatically, with no questions asked.

Total Illegal Immigrant Fraud Over $ 17 Billion Annually

General Accountability Office (GAO) estimates one-fourth of the annual $ 52 billion in earned income payments is fraudulent. The math here is pretty simple. One-fourth of $ 52 billion is $ 13 billion, so the total cost to taxpayers is $ 17 billion annually.

Democrats do not want to do a damn thing about this, nor does the IRS. Please play the video, it’s a real eye opener.

Mike “Mish” Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com

Mike “Mish” Shedlock is a registered investment advisor representative for SitkaPacific Capital Management. Sitka Pacific is an asset management firm whose goal is strong performance and low volatility, regardless of market direction. Visit http://www.sitkapacific.com/account_management.html to learn more about wealth management and capital preservation strategies of Sitka Pacific.

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IRS Refunds $4 Billion Child Tax Credits Per Year to Illegal Immigrants Whose Kids Do Not Live in US (and May Not Exist at All); Earned Income Fraud Another $13 Billion

UN Expert Worries About Killer Robots, Ignores The Ones That Already Exist

Autonomous war robots are coming. Panicking about them will only make things worse.

By Kelsey D. Atherton Posted 05.31.2013 at 5:00 pm

Fictional F/A-37 A fictional autonomous robot fighter plane from the 2005 movie “Stealth.” Wikimedia Commons

Yesterday, a United Nations expert called for a halt and moratorium on developing “lethal autonomous robotics,” or, in layman’s terms, “killer robots.”

His argument: once killer robots take part in war, there will be no going back. Christof Heyns, the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, told the Human Rights Council that now is the time to regulate and stop killer robots, arguing that “decisions over life and death in armed conflict may require compassion and intuition.” He also urged the council to form a panel that would study whether international laws in place today adequately address the use of killer robots.

Thing is, killer robots already exist. And they’re about the least compassionate machines we could imagine.

Actual Killer Robots: a pile of landmines in Cambodia.  Neil Rickards, via Wikimedia Commons

I’m talking about land mines, those notorious explosives that explode when walked over. Land mines are programmed to kill when certain conditions are met. That is the same principle guiding a killer robot.

But there are some key differences: A killer robot might make a decision based on algorithms and inputs, internal coding and pre-programmed combat behaviors. It might be programmed to understand the laws of war, and it might use surveillance technologies to make distinctions between unarmed civilians and armed combatants. The same principles that power facial recognition software could apply to robots targeting their weapons at other weapons, so they fire to disable guns and not to kill people.

Land mines, on the other hand, fail to distinguish between civilians and soldiers, between soldiers of different nations, and between animals or large children or small soldiers. Land-mine triggers cannot be easily shut off and are designed for durability not intelligence. At their worst, killer robots could be as deadly and as indiscriminate as landmines. Chances are, though, they will be much more sophisticated.

The task before lawmakers is not to ban a technology out of fear but to adapt the law to the technology once it exists. Making legislative decisions about new technology is tricky business. In the United States, electronic communication is governed by a law passed well before email was a regular fixture of life. Provisions that made sense to congressmen in 1986 trying to imagine email led to great weaknesses in privacy and personal security, all because the technology wasn’t understood when the law was written. The stakes are much lower in governing electronic communications than in authorizing robots to kill.

Killer robots are coming. Efforts to halt their introduction or ban their development are not only likely to fail, but they’ll drown out legitimate concerns about the safest way to implement the technology with Luddite fear-mongering.

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UN Expert Worries About Killer Robots, Ignores The Ones That Already Exist