As IF Times

link Iowa Top Court: Firing of Attractive Aide Is Legal – ABC News.

“They know not what they do.”  This is probably the best way to sum up this Iowa court ruling’s consequences in the years to come. The fact that this ruling was made by an all male panel of judges is particularly quizzical, unless of course, they are all married.  In that case, we can assume there was some outside ‘influence.’

What this ruling does however is set a precedent for an entire generation of lawyers to live off the avails of more stupid lawsuits.  Corporations that are in the beauty business had better start taking note.  If people who are ‘attractive’ can be summarily fired just for their attractive appearance, there will be no incentive for people, women in particular, to doll up for their jobs.  Who is Bill Clinton going to get to work for him?

As  in most policies or laws that are enacted which run counter to common sense, the consequent results are often the opposite of what was desired.  Think about minimum wage legislation as an example.  Ostensibly implemented to protect lower rung  entry level workers, what this actually does is to discourage employers from hiring a worker with no experience, instead opting to hire the more qualified person for the higher wage.   This results in more unemployment for the lower rung workers, not more.  Think about the recent implementation of the so called Obamacare act.  All of sudden, employers are cutting back on full time workers and making part timers a larger part of their workforce.  So now, fewer people get medical coverage, not more.

In the case of being able to use appearance as a reason to dismiss someone, we can see HR departments all across the country getting ready to ax people for having greasy hair, tattoos, nose rings, shaved or Mohawk heads or being just plain ugly.  So what will happen is that attractive people will get jobs to the exclusion of uglies, fatsos and other visual undesireables.  Hmm, in that case, the daytime television show, The View may be on its last legs.

link Bill Clinton, Obamas New Secretary Of Explaining Stuff, Takes Show On Road : Its All Politics : NPR.

People can easily mistake what’s going on now on the U.S. political stage for resembling re-runs of Friends episodes.  Getting Bill to speak to the enamoured is not only smart, since he was much admired by them before, but also effective since they still think he’s a saint.   Apparently, unable to rally the faithful to the cause, the DNC brings back the old master with trumpets and rainbows, who earnestly endorses the White House incumbent.

This really makes very little difference to those “independents” who are wavering, but it does pick up the spirits of the legion who are already sold.  You can literally hear strains of Bruce Springsteen’s “Glory Days” in the background…

“Now I think I’m going down to the well tonight and I’m going to drink till I get my fill

And I hope when I get old I don’t sit around thinking about it but I probably will

Yeah, just sitting back trying to recapture a little of the glory of,

well time slips away and leaves you with nothing mister but boring stories of glory days ”

It’s political distraction at it’s best.  There is absolutely nothing that the incumbent can talk about which has been a success, so they bring out the entertainment.  It’s as if they were distracting a crying baby with a shiny thing on a string.  Hitching your faltering wagon to a shooting star is not a bad idea actually and the strategy is brilliant but expected.

What’s amusing though is Bill’s actual record. The narrative about Bill’s White House term has now morphed into 8 years of economic success and tranquil peace across the land.  The truth is at variance with this popular narrative.  As columnist John Stossel reveals in a recent column, the “Sainthood” conferred upon Clinton is revisionism at its best.  See here: http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2012/09/12/exploding-myths-about-saint-bill-clinton/?cmpid=GoogleNewsEditorsPicks&google_editors_picks=true

The salient point is that Clinton was able to preside over a period of tranquility ONLY because he was forced by a Republican congress on economic policies.  Sort of like Christopher Columbus being given credit for discovering America, except for the fact that he was headed to China at the time and was just stopping for a bathroom break.  And come on, do people really believe it when Bill looks them in the eye and tells them something is the absolute truth?