Thoughts On A Sunday

The local farm stand opened this weekend, meaning BeezleBub was busy all week at the farm, getting things squared away for the opening.

On Monday he'll be back in school, his spring vacation over for now.

While he loves working at the farm, I think hell be glad being back at school if for no other reason than he won't get as tired as when he puts in a day at the farm.

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Another sign of the upcoming summer: our clothesline is back up and in use. Deb ordered one last summer (it's one of those umbrella frame types) and BeezleBub put it up. We got about two and a half months use out of it (it went up in July) and decreased the use of the gas clothes drier and the propane to run it considerably. In the time we had it up last year we used 40 gallons less propane. Since it's up almost 2 months earlier this year I expect we'll save even more propane.

We'll still use the drier, but usually for drying towels or on rainy days.

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Rachel Lucas experiences questions about her Texas drivers license while trying to buy hard cider in England. Somehow the clerk didn't think she was over 18. Rachel is 37.

I was standing three feet away from her with no makeup under MOST unflattering lighting. I will not lie to you. No sane person would ever in a million years guess I was a day younger than 32 at that moment, and that may be generous.

She also gets asked constantly about how she's enjoying the weather in England.

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In an earlier post I mentioned the White House would start collecting 'protection' money from businesses if Obama kept doing things “The Chicago Way.” It turns out I forgot this gem which basically explains how TARP is being used to skim funds from and take control of the nation's banks.

I'd say that qualifies, wouldn't you?

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According to the Boston Globe, Senator Arlen Specter (D..er..R...umm..D - PA) has shown he has shown little courage.

Arlen Specter would never have made it into "Profiles In Courage." Unlike the senators described in John F. Kennedy's book - men who remained true to their principles, even when it meant paying a steep political price - Specter has never been celebrated for his backbone.

Forty-odd years ago, Specter abandoned the Democrats in order to win election to Congress as a Republican; five days ago, he abandoned the Republicans in order to win reelection as a Democrat. As he announced his defection, he all but admitted that he was acting out of naked expediency.

The surprise? That it's the liberal Boston Globe slamming Specter.

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From the same article, the tales of two women who stood up for their beliefs despite the probably fallout – Mary Ann Glendon and Carrie Prejean.

Carrie Prejean and Mary Ann Glendon could hardly seem more dissimilar. Prejean is a 21-year-old California beauty queen and model; Glendon is a Harvard law professor and a former US ambassador to the Vatican. What they have in common is a greater respect for honesty than for political correctness, and for the obligations of moral witness than for their own personal prestige.

Glendon made news last week when she refused to accept the University of Notre Dame's illustrious Laetare Medal, the most distinguished honor in American Catholic life. The medal was to have been presented on May 17, when President Barack Obama will receive an honorary degree and deliver the commencement address.

In a letter to Notre Dame's president, Glendon expressed dismay that the university would bestow a high honor on someone so hostile to such a fundamental Catholic principle, in flat disregard of church guidelines. Worse, it was using her appearance to deflect criticism, suggesting in its "talking points" that Obama's address to the graduates would be balanced by Glendon's brief remarks. Unwilling to let her presence be exploited in this way, Glendon renounced the medal.

Unlike Glendon, who had weeks to reflect before making her decision, Prejean had only seconds. In the final round of the recent Miss USA Pageant, Prejean was asked by one of the judges - the gay gossip blogger who calls himself Perez Hilton - whether she thought every state should legalize same-sex marriage.

She gave the honest answer. "I think it's great that Americans are able to choose one or the other," Miss California replied, but "I believe that a marriage should be between a man and a woman. No offense to anyone out there, but that's how I was raised."

Both stuck to their guns and did not allow political correctness temper their beliefs.

Again, the surprise that it's the Boston Globe reporting on this. Anyone knowing the Globe would think they would have been dragged through the proverbial mud because their beliefs contradict the leftist dogma.

There may be a glimmer of hope for the ailing newspaper.

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Raven takes a look back at the now departed winter of 2008/2009. Other than the nasty ice storm that started out the winter, it was not nearly as bad as the previous one.

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George Will details California's economic and financial crisis and how it will probably get worse.

For four consecutive years, more Americans have moved out of California than have moved in. California's business costs are more than 20 percent higher than the average state's. In the last decade, net out-migration of Americans has been 1.4 million. California is exporting talent while importing Mexico's poverty. The latter is not California's fault; the former is.

If, since 1990, state spending increases had been held to the inflation rate plus population growth, the state would have a $15 billion surplus instead of a $42 billion budget deficit, which is larger than the budgets of all but 10 states.

A lot of the blame must go to California's Assembly, which never saw a spending or tax bill it didn't like. Too often they chose to ignore the consequences, or worse, never even considered them before moving forward with expanded social programs. They've found the truth of the Thatcher Axiom - Socialism works until you run out of other people's money.

That's where California finds itself now. But there may be a silver lining to this fiscal cloud...but only from those states willing to learn the lesson.

California has become liberalism's laboratory, in which the case for fiscal conservatism is being confirmed. The state is a slow learner and hence will remain a drag on the nation's economy.

California shows how not to do things, and that may be as important as anything else we may learn.

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Will President Obama end up making Jimmy Carter look like a bad-ass?

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Is the hysteria about H1N1 influenza a greater danger than the flu itself?

I've heard a radio host dub it the Overblown Flu. That may be closer to the truth than many realize.

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Skip Murphy explains the differences between internal and external governors of behavior, with the help of Dr. Walter Williams.

As Skip explains:

Dr. Williams is right - in the headlong rush to allow almost everything under the rubric of "rights", we have allowed society to "ungovern" itself. While Liberals whine about their rights; they often have willfully neglected to retain the complementary side of rights - that of responsibility. While rights are God given, the price of those rights and of freedom is self- responsibility. Without the ability and discipline, they willfully will allow their rights to be subsumed by the State in an ever increasing snare of external laws by Government instead of relying on the inward sense of "maybe I just shouldn't do that".

The Left has abandoned the internal governors that have been in place for generations, replacing them with 'rights'. And then they end up having to replace those rights with laws (external governors) because the internal governors no longer exist and behavior becomes unacceptable. None of it would be necessary if internal governors (morality and rules of behavior) were still being taught to children by their parents.

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To quote BlackFive: “No words.”

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Now Muslims are stoning Dutch girls in the Netherlands. At the moment the clash of cultures is being won by Muslim extremists because they're willing to impose their culture upon others and ignore the laws of the countries to which they've immigrated.

This can be solved by using 12-gauge shotguns loaded with rock salt on these miscreants. If they aren't going to abide by the law, it's time for them to leave. The time for being polite is over.

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It appears I'm not the only one that misses Condi Rice, particularly in light of her smackdown of some uppity know-it-all 'progressive' Stanford University students.

(H/T Pirate's Cove)

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R.S. McCain has declared this week National Offend A Feminist Week.

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A great new find for the blogroll: Serr8d's Cutting Edge.

Found through a semi-convoluted route starting at R.S. McCain's. Check out this post.

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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where summer preparations continue, boats have been going back into the water, and where summer can't get here too soon.