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It appears the real cost of Obamacare is catching finally catching on. Texas Senator Ted Cruz introduced a letter to the U.S. Senate from Alan Tharp, Chairman and CEO of Old England’s Lion and Rose, LTD in San Antonio.

“Because of this law,” Tharp writes, “I have been forced to cut back every single hourly employee in each of my companies to no more than 28 hours a week.”

Ouch!

And I mean that personally, as I’m experiencing the same situation at my job. The broadcast company I work for cannot afford to have full-time hourly employees because they have a bottom-line to meet.

Under Obamacare – ‘full-time’ is defined as 30-hours or more.

So to avoid the fine for not putting employees on the federal healthcare program, they’re forced to cut back on work-hours. It’s either that, or pay the $95 penalty per person starting next year.

That amount will rise to $325 in 2015 year and once fully phased in by 2016, the amount jumps to $695 per person. And don’t forget the ‘tax’ increases each year beginning in 2017 because of inflation.

With 5,500 full-time employees across the country, the company I work for is looking at a start-up cost of over $500,000 next year. When it’s fully implemented, the cost skyrockets to nearly $4,000,000 annually.

So in jus’ under six and half year’s time – I’ve gone from 40 hours a week to a paltry 28 hours. I take solace in knowing I’ll not be alone though, you’ll soon be joining me – if you haven’t already.

What’s a workaholic to do?

A couple of months ago I commented to a friend, “The networks is softening us up or something with all these shows about polygamy in the last few years.”

This was in reaction to the latest called, “Polygamy, USA,” offered up by National Geographic. It follows shows like, “Sister Wives,” and the popular HBO series, “Big Love.”

So imagine my surprise, when I heard Kentucky Senator Rand Paul said the recent Supreme Court rulings on gay-marriage created the possibility for legalized polygamy. But, it was radio talk-show host Glenn Beck who said it while speaking with Paul.

“If you change one variable, man and a woman to man and man, and woman and woman,” Beck said, “you cannot logically tell me you can’t change the other variable: one man, three women, one woman, four men,”

He later added speaking of Sharia law in the U.S., “If I’m a devout Muslim and I come over here and I have three wives, who are you to say if I’m an American citizen, that I can’t have multiple marriages?”

In the end, polygamy is being mainstreamed. Seems Beck and I have drawn the same conclusion, though we came to it via different routes.

The Supreme Court’s confusing rulings now extend federal recognition to same-sex marriages in the states where they are legal. The twin rulings have no direct effect on the constitutional amendments in the 29 states that limit marriage to heterosexual couples.

As for the ‘Defense of Marriage Act,’  the court ruled against the part denying benefits to legally married gay couples, only. Same-sex couples, under federal law, will now, as a result of the ruling, be considered “married.”  The provision affects 1,100 federal laws, ranging from veterans’ benefits to complex federal tax laws.

So, the fight is nowhere near being over.

The City of Goldfield became a modern metropolis with the arrival of electricity and water hookups. Real estate in those early days was going at $210 a foot, a hefty price in 1905.

Another rich discovery in 1906 boosted the prices even higher, with lots selling for as much as $45,000. The city had everything except enough water, and the threat of fire was extreme.

A 12,000-gallon water tank was constructed on a hill south of town from which a 3-inch pipeline was laid to serve the residences, businesses and a lone fire hydrant in the downtown area. The pipeline and hydrant would be tested on March 4, 1905, when a gas lamp exploded near the Nye and Ormsby Bank, quickly spreading to Dunn’s Saloon and a nearby store.

There, the fire was stopped, thanks to the pipeline. The city wouldn’t be so lucky the next time.

The county commissioners banned the storage of explosives within the town and restricted the sale of gasoline. They also ordered a hose cart and other firefighting equipment.

But it was too little too late.

Jus’ four months later on July 8, a fire broke out in the Bon Ton Millinery. Volunteer firefighters arrived within moments, only to find the hydrant had no pressure.

Residents in the area, fearful that the flames would reach them, began filling all the containers they could find, depleting the water supply.

But an improbable hero came to the rescue: Bert Ulmer of the Little Hub Saloon arrived on the scene with an unlikely fire suppressant — two large kegs of beer. He and bartender Frank Heaton soaked blankets and sheets in the beer, then nailed them to the walls of surrounding businesses.

Meanwhile, volunteers saved a restaurant by throwing buckets of the brew on it. Soon other saloons did their part, contributing both kegs and bottles, the latter being used to quench the thirst of the tired firefighters.

The beer brigade was successful, and within an hour, the fire was contained.

Senator Dean Heller voted to add a $38 billion border security measure to the immigration reform bill, clearing the way for easier passage of the legislation. The amendment doubles the number of Border Patrol agents, adds 350 more miles of fence, invest in drones, radar and other surveillance equipment to help detect illegal border crossings.

Heller still isn’t saying how he’ll vote on the overall bill. Perhaps it’s because of a provision in the bill allowing Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to not build the fence at all.

“Notwithstanding paragraph (1), nothing in this subsection shall require the Secretary to install fencing, or infrastructure that directly results from the installation of such fencing, in a particular location along the Southern border, if the Secretary determines that the use or placement of such resources is not the most appropriate means to achieve and maintain effective control over the Southern border at such location.”

Illegal aliens would also be granted legalized Registered Provisional Immigration status once Napolitano submits a fencing plan to Congress, though she an choose not to put the fencing plan into effect. It’s 1986 all over again.

But hey — at least Heller got Nevada a seat on the Southern Border Security Commission, despite the fact that the state doesn’t share a border with Mexico.

There are more problems at the Internal Revenue Service than the fact that the agency is targeting political and religious groups. This one has to do with the report, “Substantial Changes Are Needed to the Individual Taxpayer Identification Number Program to Detect Fraudulent Applications.”

The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration says the IRS sent more than $18 million in tax refunds to the same address in three separate California cities in 2011. They include Oxnard, where the IRS sent 2,507 refunds worth $10,395,874; an address in San José,where the IRS sent 1,942 refunds worth $5,091,027; and an address in Arvin, where the IRS sent 1,846 refunds worth $3,298,877.

Meanwhile, two other California cities have been found to be some of the most often used addresses on Individual Taxpayer Identification Number applications in the nation. They are Orange, with 8,361 people and Los Angeles, with 8,337 people. Finally, an address in Thermal received 95 tax returns, for a total of $402, 274 in refund, with 67 people register to the address.

California isn’t the only state with multiple ITIN’s and addresses. The report shows there are a total of 154 addresses across the U.S. appearing on more than a thousand ITIN applications submitted to the IRS in 2011.

Metadata is more revealing than you’d think, that’s because voice content is hard to process. The National Security Agency could quickly drown itself, if it had too much voice content.

Not a bad idea, but I digress.

On the other hand, metadata and computer analysis are perfect for each other. And the more metadata, the better the analysis.

Metadata is information about who we are and the relationships between us. Collecting all the records of everyone in the U.S is like a map filled with push-pins and string showing who we’re connected too, how, why, where and why.

For example: You call your doctor and talk to him or her for five minutes, and then you call your local pharmacy and speak with the clerk for two minutes. Next you get in your vehicle and go to the pharmacy, and using your debit card pay for a tube of Valacyclovir.

Those three events, though seemingly benign, are now recorded.

A computer can analyze who you called, for how long, where you went, what you bought, how much you paid and it extrapolates — you have a disease. The information is then targeted and routed to the Internal Revenue Service and downloaded into your medical records.

By the way, the medicine you bought — Valacyclovir is an antiviral medicine used to treat genital herpes.  Jus’ what you want your friendly, neighborhood IRS agent to know.

It comes down to behavior patterns and groupings, and that makes it more insidious than actually having someone eavesdrop on our most intimate conversations. If you hold to the “six-degrees of separation” theory, you are only six mouse-clicks away from a terrorist.

On the upside, you’re also six people away from knowing Kevin Bacon, too.

A former NSA analyst and Bush-era whistleblower says the intelligence community ‘hoovered metadata’ on a range of people, including high-ranking military officials, lawmakers and diplomats. Russ Tice also made another allegation.

“They went after judges,” Tice says. “One of the judges is now sitting on the Supreme Court that I had his wiretap information in my hand.”

Add to this, Republican Senator Mike Lee of Utah, who believes Supreme Court Justice John Roberts changed his vote on Obamacare because of intimidation.  Lee admits he has “no evidence” anyone wiretapped Roberts.

“The opinion was written in a way to suggest he switched his vote,” says Lee.

Roberts wrote the court’s majority opinion in favor of the Affordable Care Act. His opinion came as a surprise to many when he declared the law constitutional on the grounds that it is a tax, and therefore falls within the powers of the federal government.

J. Edgar Vacuum Cleaner, would be proud.

The State of Nevada Department of Public Safety’s Division of Emergency Management and Homeland Security received a federal grant recently from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for more than $3-million. This is an increase over last year’s total by nearly $700,000.

The funding is to help enhance authorities in the preparation, prevention, and response to terrorist attacks and other disasters. It also keeps the State of Nevada and its citizens tied to the Federal Government’s apron strings.

This is jus’ another form of soft tyranny and a further erosion of our civil liberties.

Reno’s Mayor Bob Cashell asked the City Council, to begin drafting regulations for medical marijuana dispensaries, after Governor Sandoval signed legislation last week legalizing them. However, the Council voted to wait before determining where dispensaries are to be located.

Furthermore, the council also voted to do more research and drafting before proposing any regulations. They need figure out how they will comply with the new state law that allows Washoe County 10 dispensaries, but no more than 25 percent in a single jurisdiction.

This must be killing Reno’s  RINO-in-Chief.  It was two years ago, at the height of Nevada’s economic recession, that Cashell declared a personal moratorium on allowing anymore tattoo parlors, liquor stores or pawn shops in the downtown district, saying he and his wife believed them to be a blight on the city.

I love God’s sense of humor.