Arrogance of it All

Anyone that happened to watch Andy 'I am sold old I can say anything I want' Rooney las night on CBS' '60 Minutes' got a real look into why Liberal elitists who like to describe themselves in the pages of the ultimate self grandizing media will just never fully understand REAL America. Rooney had a laugh last night making fun in the most arogant and patronizing way President Bush's pronounciation of the word: nuclear as 'nook-lear'.

Rooney must be ignorant to President Bush's speech impediment. After six years in office, one would have thought Rooney would have been better educated.

Maybe someone should teach Rooney that the US has had many presidents with physical problems. I guess a 1941 Rooney would have made fun of the then president for leaning on aides as he couldn't walk on his own. Or perhaps a 1860 Rooney would have -as many critics did at the time, the then rather gangly not-so-handsome American president.

Someone at CBS should tell Rooney that the country years ago moved past Bush's speech problems and judges the President, rightly so, on what he does or doesn't do for the country. Perhaps Rooney should stop or aghast- even apologize for the Kerry-style put down of the 43rd President? Or are self-described intellectuals not smart enough to recognize when they act like children?

Rich States, Poor States-WSJ

What's the matter with New Jersey?

If you're searching for the next big thing in American politics, it's wise to keep an eye on the states. Here's one possibility: the abolition of state income taxes.

In Georgia, Missouri and South Carolina, Governors and state legislatures are drafting serious proposals to repeal their income taxes to promote economic development. St. Louis, one of America's most distressed cities, may overturn its wage/income tax as a way to spur urban revival. And in Michigan, the legislature is in the last stages of phasing out its hated business income tax -- the most onerous in the land. "States are now in a ferocious competition to attract jobs and businesses," says economist Arthur Laffer, who is advising several Governors and legislators on the issue, "and one of the best ways to win this race is to abolish the state income tax."

The timing for fixing state tax codes could hardly be more ideal because states are swimming in budget surpluses thanks to the booming national economy. This should be a big year for state tax cuts. Governors in Arkansas, Florida and West Virginia have already announced major tax relief plans for 2007. Even New York City has a $1 billion surplus and Mayor Michael Bloomberg is promising a property tax cut.

But the biggest target is the income tax. Newly re-elected South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford is talking of reviving his plan to phase out the income tax over 18 years. Mr. Sanford ran into opposition from the legislature in his first term, but he tells us that "I still consider this one of my top priorities and if the legislature wants to do it, I would be ecstatic."

Georgia may beat Mr. Sanford to the punch. House Republicans in Atlanta have announced that one of their top priorities is to use the half-billion-dollar budget surplus as a downpayment to "dismantle the current tax code." House Republican Majority Leader Jerry Keen tells us the debate in Atlanta is between a flat-rate income tax and a plan that would "do away with the personal income tax but broaden the sales tax by eliminating 107 exemptions. We're committed to a pro-growth tax plan that announces to the country that Georgia is open for business."
In Missouri the legislature is reviewing a plan by the state think tank, the Show Me Institute, that would increase the rate of the sales tax to 7.5% and limit spending growth to population plus inflation, in return for eliminating the state's income tax over 10 years. House Speaker Carl Bearden says "I would like to see a phasing out of our current tax structure in Missouri. . . . Eliminating the income tax can have a huge positive impact on a state's economy."
The idea of financing state services without an income tax is hardly radical. Nine states today -- Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, and Wyoming -- manage well without one. With a few exceptions, the non-income tax states are America's most prosperous. Meanwhile, the high income tax states, which tend to be congregated in the Northeast, keep surrendering jobs, people, and voters to the South and West.
State lawmakers also seem to have learned from two of the most recent states to adopt an income tax: New Jersey and Connecticut. As recently as 1965 New Jersey had neither an income nor sales tax, but managed to balance its budget every year. Now it has both taxes -- its income tax is the 5th highest in the nation -- but the state is facing what Stateline.org calls a "staggering budget deficit." Allied Van Lines reports that the Garden State is now one of the leading places for people to flee.

The latest state to adopt an income tax was Connecticut in 1991, but a new report by the Yankee Institute reveals that the tax has been a calamity. The state has ranked last in employment growth since 1991, losing 240,000 of its native born citizens between 1991-2002. No other state has since enacted an income tax, and lawmakers in Georgia, Missouri and South Carolina say Connecticut is now the model for how not to run a state economy.

Whether these states will be able to eliminate their income taxes in the next few years is an open question. But what's undeniable is that the debate in state capitals has swung decisively in the direction of chopping income tax rates, not raising them.

Last year NJ raises its taxes by more than any other state in the country. In fact, it raises them by more than double the next closes state (NY)!

In response to yesterday’s Op-Ed piece by Michael O’Hanlon titled “A Space Weapons Race is No the Answer for America”. Two points have to be cleared up.

First Mr. O’Hanlon states “most US satellites are not vulnerable to attack today nor are they likely to be in the year ahead”. This incorrect statement implies that we should find some sort of comfort that our satellites can’t be blow up today or tomorrow. Even if the statement of his opinion were indeed a fact, military thinkers would certainly consider it only a matter of time before the Chinese potential could be realized as China has now conquered the technological know-how. It would be irresponsible to wait for China to be blowing up all sorts of satellites before we prepare.

Secondly, Mr. O’Hanlon states “the Chinese anti-satellite test does put lower-altitude reconnaissance systems in greater jeopardy, but not higher-altitude communications and targeting satellites.” This is false. The fact of the matter is the Chinese blew a satellite that stands 530 miles above the earth’s surface. That is actually higher than all US military and communications satellites – which are, according to Union of Concerned Scientists, no more than 525 miles above earth.

With NJ raising sales taxes, property taxes, "stealth" taxes like water taxes and now even considering adding higher income taxes to the mix while at the same time Corzine's administration is considering selling state assets like the NJ Turnpike, any wonder the following is happening?

Home Mortgage Foreclosures Soar

Bidders at an auction of foreclosed housing; many lenders lowered loan-approval standards during the boom.

Borrowing costs and a weak housing market take an increasing toll
-Evelyn Lee, NJBIZ Staff, 1/1/2007

Rising foreclosure rates in New Jersey are likely to remain on the upswing in 2007, but experts say the odds are slim that the increases will signal a crisis for the state’s housing market or its economy.

For the first 11 months of 2006, home mortgage foreclosures in the state were 25,472, up 78 percent from 14,311 for all of 2005, according to Foreclosures.com, a real estate advisory firm in Sacramento, Calif.

Big increases occurred throughout the state. In affluent Bergen County, foreclosures jumped more than tenfold, from 104 in 2005 to 1,367 last year. In Monmouth County, home to many shore communities, foreclosures rose from 883 in 2005 to 1,533 last year.

An increase in foreclosure rates tends to be symptomatic of an economic downturn, when homeowners lose jobs and therefore lack the income to pay their mortgages, says Jeffrey Otteau, president of Otteau Valuation Group, a real estate appraisal firm in East Brunswick.
But this doesn’t apply to current circumstances, says Joel Naroff, chief economist at Cherry Hill-based Commerce Bank. “It’s not as if the New Jersey economy is falling apart, and unemployment rates are rising, and people are losing their jobs,” says Naroff. “That’s just not happening.”

Instead, rising interest rates that have increased housing payments for adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) holders, together with a weak housing market, have driven up foreclosure activity, Otteau says. Foreclosures are less common in healthy market conditions, he says, because homeowners are able to sell their homes quickly if they fall behind in their mortgage payments.

“But when you have people with an affordability issue on top of the fact that houses are taking a very long time to sell, that’s when the foreclosure market spikes,” he says.

These factors put subprime borrowers at particular risk. Such homebuyers may have relatively low credit ratings and therefore turn to nontraditional loan instruments like interest-only mortgages, or pay-option ARMs that let borrowers choose how large a payment to make.
Such instruments have been available for years and have become more popular recently, says E. Robert Levy, executive director of the New Jersey affiliate of the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) in Springfield. “Part of it was the rising cost of housing,” says Levy. “These loans made a house affordable for somebody that wouldn’t otherwise be able to buy it.”

But nontraditional mortgages can ultimately become more costly, according to Otteau. “In order for borrowers to be able to get a loan, they need to pay a higher interest rate than someone who has a good credit score,” he says. On top of that, “In the subprime market, the interest rate reset is much more dramatic than in the prime mortgage market.” For example, while the prime mortgage rate from two years ago, 5.5 percent, is resetting today to 6.5 percent, subprime loans from two years ago that originated at 7 percent are now resetting at 11 and 12 percent, according to Otteau.

With the housing slowdown, subprime borrowers increasingly feel the pinch. “Because of the imaginative mortgages kicking in, we’re now seeing foreclosures where we hadn’t ever seen them before,” says Naroff. “A lot of these mortgages are resetting, and as they reset, people are finding it difficult to either pay the higher reset levels or remortgage, especially in light of a housing market that’s softening.”

According to MBA’s National Delinquency Survey for the third quarter of 2006, 4.68 percent of subprime ARMs in New Jersey were in foreclosure, compared with 0.75 percent for prime ARMs.

Subprime foreclosures are clearly on the increase, according to the Center for Responsible Lending in Durham, N.C. It reported last month that subprime loans that originated last year in New Jersey have a projected lifetime foreclosure rate of 19.6 percent, compared with a projected 7.6 percent rate for such loans made between 1998 and 2001.

Mortgage lenders helped to proliferate the use of creative mortgages by relaxing their loan approval standards during the housing boom, Otteau says. Many lenders assumed that housing appreciation would continue, so they could recover the money that was borrowed if a loan went into default. “Mortgage lenders became very aggressive in trying to get their share of the market or increase their share of the market,” he says.

Amid concerns about the credit quality of loans that originated in recent years, mortgage lenders have become more cautious, says Keith Gumbinger, vice president of HSH Associates, a mortgage information publisher in Pompton Plains. “We could experience some moderation in the availability of mortgage credit,” says Gumbinger. “The people who are least able to qualify in the first place might not find credit conditions as welcoming for them.”

Most experts do not currently see the rise in delinquencies and foreclosures as cause for alarm. “The foreclosure inventory rate has increased somewhat from the very lowest point, but relative to where we’ve been in recent history, it’s still quite low,” says Mike Fratantoni, senior economist at the MBA in Washington, D.C. For the third quarter of 2006, less than 1 percent of the 1.2 million loans the organization tracks in New Jersey were in the foreclosure process, compared with 1.86 percent of loans during the recession in 2001.

“That the number of foreclosures is increasing was to be expected, because we were at an incredible low point here in terms of the amount of foreclosure activity in the market, so it could only go up,” says Otteau. The current numbers, he adds, are less than those in previous periods of high foreclosure rates, including the late 1980s and early 1990s, and the late 1970s and early 1980s.

What is New Jersey's Definition of a "Penny"?

After Corzine & Company were able to "sell" the 17% sales tax increase as a "penny increase" on the Jersey public -half of the newly raised money will go to the state union employees' pension of which Corzine's (ex) girlfriend runs, other Democrats are now trying to use the same language to sell more tax increases.

Raising the income tax is a better idea (than selling state assets) because:

"...a penny increase on each $1 or $2 earned, depending on income would generate at least $2.7 billion per year."

-Assemblyman Louis Manzo (D-Hudson County)

These tax and spend people will soon realize that govt's can't just tax and tax and tax. Eventually people will change their behavior. I predict that the estimated $1.1bln in new sale tax revenue will fall short as Jerseyans will buy their goods and services elsewhere. I predict that if the govt decides to increase the income tax, even though one of Corzine's campaign promise was not to, that more income earning Jerseyans will either cheat on their taxes or move out of the state. Odds are good that Corzine will violate this campaign promise as he broke other campaign promises within days of becoming governor.

As for the Corzine/Codey desire to start selling state assets to fund the state employee union pension, it would be more economical and efficient to just deposit state assets into their pension funds than to first sell state assets and deposit the proceeds. The state should just sign the NJ Turnpike and other assets over to the state employees. The state would avoid the transactional costs associated with such a sale.

Fire sale

NJ is looking more and more like a person that has been living beyond their means and needs to start selling their cars, furniture and eventually the shirt off their backs!

"Had Ronald Reagan not rolled back the higher fuel efficiency standards imposed on Detroit, we might need no Middle East oil today" -Tom Friedman, 1/19/07

One question: Are you kidding?This is a ridiculous comment as it is so far from being factual that it just blurs the debate. It makes us "green people" - my house is powered with solar, my car is a hybrid, seem so out of whack with reality that no one will take this debate seriously. Making such claims should not be done by someone interested in moving this debate from the fringe to the real world.

A bit of reality on this Gitmo detainee Jumah al-Dossari letter that has the main-stream media -which printed it verbatim as if what he wrote is fact and Gospel. Before anyone starts to think of this individual of being some sort of victim or martyr, consider his record first before you just believe what he writes. Then consider what several investigations into his and other detainee allegations revealed.

In 2002, al Qaeda operative Jumah al-Dossari was arrested in Pakistan for his terrorist activities. The US accuses al-Dossari of being present during the battle of Tora Bora in late 2001, the operation to capture Osama Bin Laden. He is also accused of fighting with Bosnians against Serbs in 1995 and fighting with the mujahedeen against the Russians in Afghanistan in 1989. Of course, he denies these allegations. One of the lawyers that he has, Colangelo-Bryan said his client was in Afghanistan in 2001 to "oversee a mosque building project but that he was not present at Tora Bora."

Yea right, he has nothing to do with al Qaeda, just so happens to be present at all al Qaeda hotspots. In other words, it’s his friends and not him.

Now as for his allegations...

Time again, these rumors about GITMO soldiers desecrating the Quran have proven to be false. This rumored story which was taken as a given truth before the US military had time to investigate started with a May 9, 2005 Newsweek article that US interrogators had desecrated the Quran (Koran) at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Separate investigations by the govt have all revealed them NOT to be true. Even Newsweek, realizing the story was FALSE, retracted the story on May 16, 2005. But it lives on in the detainee letters and their helpers.

"Based on what we know now we are retracting our original story that an internal military investigation had uncovered Koran abuse at Guantanamo Bay."

-Newsweek editor Mark Whitaker, May 16, 2005

Don't let truth get in the way of a good story...

Never mind this, the story is out there and is being repeated by the anti-Bush newspapers: LA Times, Washington Post, NJ Star-Ledger, etc. In fact, the NY Times, hardly a paper to shy away from criticizing the Bush administration, reported that four interrogators interviewed by The Times said they never saw intentional mishandling of the Koran, or even its use as a prop during an interrogation.

The US military conducted their own investigation, conducted by Brig General Hood. His investigation resulted in this statement:

"investigation revealed a consistent, documented policy of respectful handling of the Koran dating back almost 2 1/2 years."-The Hood Inquiry

What the Hood Inquiry did find was 15 cases of detainees mishandling their own Korans.

"These included using a Koran as a pillow, ripping pages out of the Koran, attempting to flush a Koran down the toilet and urinating on the Koran," Hood's report said. It offered no possible explanation for the detainees' motives. In the most recent of those 15 cases, a detainee on Feb. 18, 2005 allegedly ripped up his Koran and handed it to a guard, stating that he had given up on being a Muslim. Several guards witnessed this, Hood reported.

So who are we to believe?

Should we believe the US military or the detainees? The US military is hardly a propaganda brainwashed arm of the Bush administration as we saw with all these officers attacking Sec Rumsfeld over the past few years.

Without evidence to the contrary, I would tend to believe our brothers, sisters, sons and daughters down in Guantánamo, Cuba protecting our freedom by guarding the likes of Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, the mastermind of 9/11 and his associates.

"a model prison, where people are better treated than in Belgian prisons."

- Belgian Police official Alain Grignard (who came last year with a delegation from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe) after visiting Guantanamo just before Christmas. (Belgium you may recall is the country that wanted to charge Sec Rumsfeld for "Crimes against Humanity")

I studied Soviet economics in college and we had a term for this: “cooperative housing”. It is centrally planned socialist economics pure and simple:

In its landmark Mount Laurel decisions of 1975 and 1985, the state Supreme Court declared all New Jersey towns must ensure that their low- and moderate-income residents have affordable housing.
Under the state Fair Housing Act of 1985, the state Council on Affordable Housing determines the number of affordable houses or apartments a town needs. The council cannot mandate construction, however; builders have gone to court to force towns to accept developments that include affordable housing.

Why have the courts found it to be a “right” that everyone must be able to live everywhere?

In case one wonders of how economists view such policies, consider according to “Market vs. Rationing: The Case of Soviet Housing”, Michael Alexeev The Review of Economics and Statistics, Vol. 70, No. 3 (Aug., 1988), pp. 414-420:

“It is well known that the system of housing allocation in the USSR lends itself to improprieties, corruption, and the preferential treatment of certain customers.”

It’s sad and ironic that the Soviet Union failed in part due to such Marxist economic policies, but in New Jersey the same policies are alive and well. The “Garden State” should change its name to “Union of Socialist New Jersey”.

Minimum Wages

In regards to the New York Times’ tendentious article today titled “For $7.93 an Hour, It’s Worth a Trip Across a State Line”, the paper reports as if there are no negative consequences of a government dictating the price of labor. The article compares the State of Washington with its high minimum wage to Idaho with its low minimum wage. The paper’s article is so one-sided and that it doesn’t even belong in the news section but rather the paper’s Op-Ed pages. Politicians and partisans want to raise the minimum wage? Fine, but be truthful about the cost to society for doing so.

The fact of the matter is this: when a government mandates prices, there are always costs that must be borne. In the case of minimum wages, the cost is higher unemployment rates, lower economic growth and higher inflation. All one has to do is look at Europe with its strict labor laws to see what happens when a government puts significant constraints on businesses to, well to hire and pay workers market wages. Europe has double the unemployment rate that the US does with half the economic growth rate.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis,, Washington has unemployment rate (4.9%) that is 50% higher than Idaho (3.3%). Only five of Washington's 39 counties had unemployment rates at or below the national rate. In fact, two counties had unemployment rates more than twice as high as the national unemployment rate (4.6%). Idaho has much lower inflation while at the same time leading the nation in job growth. Higher unemployment and higher inflation is the cost borne by the State of Washington.

Finally according to the NY Times story: “Idaho has a far higher percentage of minimum-wage jobs than Washington (my emphasis)”. The NY Times is perplexed as to why more of those earning minimum wage would prefer to live in Idaho with its lower minimum wage than in Washington State with its higher minimum wage. Simple answer: people find Idaho a more attractive place to live than Washington.

Clinton Administration's National Security Advisor Samuel Berger Is a Criminal

"In May 2002 and in the summer and fall of 2003, President Clinton's former Natl Security Advisor Samuel "Sandy" Berger visited the Natl Archives and Records admin to review highly classified documents in preparation for being interviewed by a Congressional panel and the "9/11 Commission". Berger unlawfully removed some of the documents he examined. In spring of 2005, Berger pleaded guilty to this."

"The full extent of Berger's document removal, however, is not known, and never can be known. The Justice Dept. can't be sure that Berger did not remove original documents for which there were no copies or inventory."

"Consequently, the Dept of Justice could not assure the 9/11 Commission that it received all responsible documents to which Berger had access. Berger could have removed critical documents and no official would ever be able to know."

"Berger admitted to leaving highly classified documents at a construction site near the main National Archives facility in downtown Wash DC where they could have been easily found."

"One of the archivists with a very high clearance level who worked on the document production for the 9/11 Commission reported that he saw Berger hiding some documents in his socks and under his pants."

"These acts of concealment show the lengths to which Berger was willing to deliberately go to compromise national security."

-From: "Sandy Berger's Theft of Classified Documents: Unanswered Questions" -US House of Representative, January 9, 2007

These facts only lead to one conclusion: Samuel Berger has committed treason.
The Constitution of the United States, Art. III, defines treason against the United States to consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid or comfort. This offence is punished with death.

Berger deliberately and with forethought hindered and obstructed the 9/11 Commission investigation of the worst act of terrorism in US history. The evidence is clear and only leads to one conclusion: Berger gave "aid and comfort" to the enemy.


Full investigative report is found here: http://republicans.oversight.house.gov/Media/PDFs/BergerReport010907.pdf

N.J. and you: Not so perfect together
Migration study finds more residents move out, head south, west

New Jersey continued to be a good place to leave last year, according to an annual migration study released Monday by United Van Lines.

The review of United Van Lines' interstate moving business showed that 60.9 percent of the company's 10,259 interstate moves involving New Jersey were outgoing. In every year since 1997, the company has had more moves out of New Jersey than into it.

Nationally, New Jersey had the third-highest percentage of outgoing moves trailing Michigan and North Dakota, both at 66 percent. Generally, the study found people leaving the central northeast region for southern and western states. Neighboring New York and Pennsylvania were also high outbound with 59.5 percent and 57 percent, respectively.

Top gainer states included North Carolina, Oregon and South Carolina.

Though unscientific, the results, which represents about one-third of the 650,000 interstate moves in 2006, buoys Census Bureau figures released in December, in which New Jersey was bucked from the top 10 most populous states, overtaken by North Carolina. Census figures for 2005 showed New Jersey gained just 21,410 residents, while 72,000 moved to other states. Immigration bolsters the state's overall population.

a Rutgers University economist, said New Jersey continues to lose people because despite having incomes that average 33 percent higher than the nation as a whole, the state also has 52 percent higher housing costs.

“Fighting For Respect” – what a joke!

The average medical and dental benefits per teacher is $10,000 and is paid by the district, although teachers pay about 8 percent of that amount for dependent care. For the private work sector, private workers pay 100% of dependant care v. Chatham teachers’ 8% and while Chatham teachers pay ZERO of their health benefits of the 2/3rds of private co’s that pay for health benefits, the average employee contribution is 25%. Chatham teacher pay ZERO of their health benefits.

The starting salary for a new teacher in Chatham with a bachelor's degree and no experience is $43,630, school district officials said.

After 16 years, a teacher with a master's degree and an additional 60 credits of coursework, makes at least $96,000. The district's current median teacher's salary is $58,000, according to School Superintendent Jim O'Neill. The teachers are on a 10-month work year.
The average private worker in NJ makes $52k per year for A FULL 12 MONTHS OF HARD WORK. The Chatham teacher make therefore the equivalent of $70k per 12 months or +35% greater than the average NJ salary.

Apropos to our conversation since the NJ Supreme Court found the NJ marriage statutes as they exist, don't go far enough. The following story from Canada shows why court-mandated extension of marriage won’t work. No one has been able to make a logical principaled argument that the logica to extend marriage to homosexuals should not ALSO allow the extension of marriage to polygamists. Polygamy has been around for centuries; is an accepted form of relationship in many societies; is entered into by adults of their own free will, etc.

Also, note that many in the media and elsewhere confuse one point of this subject, and the plaintiffs in the NJ Supreme Court case didn't realize it but they actually sought more than they know in terms of the difference between the right FOR marry and the rights OF marriage.

As a matter of principle, if you extend marriage to non-traditional (can I use that word without being accused of being discriminatory?) relationships, where does it end? Why can’t you extend marriage to polygamists? Why deny these adults in loving relationships that they entered of their own free-will, the same “right”?


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ONTARIO COURT's PERILOUS DECISION RECOGNIZES THREE PARENTS

In a unanimous judgment written by Justice Marc Rosenberg on behalf of Chief Justice Roy McMurtry and Justice Jean-Marc Labrosse, the Ontario Court of Appeal chose to exercise it's parens patriae jurisdiction to "fill a legislative gap" and extend a child's parentage to three individuals — the biological mother and father as well as the mother's lesbian partner. This court has now recognized a "three-parent family" and opened the way to introduce many legal variations of the family unit.

Ruth Ross, Executive Director of Christian Legal Fellowship, a member of the intervenor Alliance for Family & Marriage, states, "There remain outstanding questions as to whether a family comprised of three legal parents is in the best interests of the child. The full implications of this major, precedent-setting change have not been thoroughly examined. Historically, policy decisions have been left to legislators who are charged with this responsibility."

This decision has international significance as it takes the lead into unstable territory most other countries have not ventured into — redefining the family as we know it to include three parents.

While the court exercised its discretion in this case, other jurisdictions, such as France, chose to investigate thoroughly the social science data through its legislative arm, and found one mother and one father to be in the best interests of children.

There is no doubt that this decision will cause a whole new vista of legal issues and many new court actions as it impacts parental rights and obligations particularly in marriage breakdowns or situations where one or more members of three parent families part company. Deciding what is in the best interests of the child in those circumstances will prove extremely complex, costly and potentially chaotic.

What will prevent this ruling from having similar application to heterosexual marriages upon breakdown and subsequent remarriage? Can one or two step-parents now apply for legal status as a parent and ultimately lead to four or even six parents being recognized by the courts as having say over the child's upbringing? Will the third or fourth or fifth or sixth parent be afforded equal say? What about the child? What say will he/she have in terms of which parent or sets of parents they choose to live with?

The court asserted that present social conditions and attitudes have changed, however, a societal shift of this magnitude may not be as clear as the courts would have us believe. This judgment warrants action from provincial and federal governments to examine the social data