7/30/2017

Thoughts On A Sunday

It was quiet around The Manse all weekend. Deb was away and BeezleBub was working. I was left to my own devices and focused primarily on yard work, with mowing the lawn and cutting back the sumac that has been invading the property for years. (Sumac is a weed, insidious and fast growing. It takes constant work to keep it at bay and prevent it from choking out all other growth.)

A lot of cutting and hauling took place, with a couple of trips to the town's brush pile to offload what I'd managed to cut. (Some of the grass clippings were also hauled to the town's compost piles.)This was in between a trip to our town's annual Household Hazardous Waste Collection Day and to one of the local service shops to have the new Ram pickup get it's state inspection sticker.

It wasn't a bad day yesterday despite the work I did. I have to admit that I was worried that the injury I experienced this past winter would be aggravated by the work, but there was nary a twinge. I do have to admit that it did limit how much I could get done as there are still some duties that I did not dare attempt as I knew I wasn't quite up to doing them yet. (Yeah, it's an excuse. But it's a darned good one and one I can use with BeezleBub until mid-fall at least.)

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It's summer, so where have all the kids gone?

In this overly neurotic society where helicopter parenting isn't just encouraged, but darned near mandated by the busybodies driven by the Precautionary Principle, the kids are “contained in structured, adult-led, often indoor activities where they are told what to do, what to think, and how to act.” They are no longer allowed unstructured outdoor play where they can let their imaginations can run free.

Is it any wonder we're seeing more kids with mental health issues?

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Are the unions finally getting tired of the Democrats?

Yup, without a doubt. Particularly when the rank and file see the Democrats making it more difficult for them to keep their jobs by making it more attractive for some industries to move offshore or regulating their jobs right out of existence. The push by Democrats for a $15 minimum wage isn't helping things either as the 'experiments' with it in places like Seattle and San Francisco are proving to make jobs go away.

As an aside, I know a lot of union members from a number of different labor unions and good portion of them aren't Democrats. They belong to unions because they have to in order to work. Many would leave their unions if given the choice. Is it any wonder Right To Work has been making some inroads into some of the Rust Belt states?

New Hampshire has failed to go RTW, with the first attempt vetoed by then-governor Maggie Hassan, a True Blue Democrat beholden to the New Hampshire State Employees Association (an SEIU union). The second attempt failed in the legislature, failing by a bare minimum of votes.

Maybe next time. After all we did manage to get Constitutional Carry passed during this year's legislative session, though it took a number of attempts before it finally passed. Maybe RTW will pass next time it's presented.

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Ah, yes! One of my favorite examples of how government can take something that has worked well for generations and f**k it up beyond all reason by regulating the hell out of it. What am I talking about?

The oft mentioned and commented upon gas can.

It is something I've written about on numerous occasions as I see it as the perfect example of why government should butt out when it comes to the little things...and maybe even the mid-sized things (but I digress).

This latest tale starts with someone running out of gas because their gas gauge was broken and they had to call the local gas station to come out with a can of gas.

The gruff but lovable attendant arrived in his truck and started to pour gas in my car’s tank. And pour. And pour.

“Hmmm, I just hate how slow these gas cans are these days,” he grumbled. “There’s no vent on them.”

Who would make a can without a vent unless it was done under duress?

That sound of frustration in this guy’s voice was strangely familiar, the grumble that comes when something that used to work but doesn’t work anymore, for some odd reason we can’t identify.

I’m pretty alert to such problems these days. Soap doesn’t work. Toilets don’t flush. Clothes washers don’t clean. Light bulbs don’t illuminate. Refrigerators break too soon. Paint discolors. Lawnmowers have to be hacked. It’s all caused by idiotic government regulations that are wrecking our lives one consumer product at a time, all in ways we hardly notice.

Surely, the gas can is protected. It’s just a can, for goodness sake. Yet he was right. This one doesn’t have a vent. After all, everyone knows to vent anything that pours. Otherwise, it doesn’t pour right and is likely to spill.

Indeed.

I know I've spilled far more gasoline using the government 'approved' gas cans than I ever did in the four or so decades I used the old tried and true gas cans with vents. How much more gasoline vapors have been released due to more frequent and larger gas spills as compared to those released due to vents on the old cans? The latches on the new cans can be difficult to release and requires the use of two hands to do so while the old cans only required one hand. It is also far more difficult to control the flow of gas from the new cans as it surges and stops as a vacuum builds in the cans because there is no vent. (That's why I believe I see more gas spills than in the past.)

In this case the cure for a perceived problem was far worse than the problem it was supposed to cure.

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I like this idea from Iowahawk:

Let's have engineers invade a Diversity Trainer conference & force them to solve differential equations for an hour.

His tweet is in response to this bit of idiocy, something that greatly deserves all the mocking it receives.

This politically correct bulls**t has gone too far, takes up too much time, and has been shown to have little if any effect in regards to actual changes in regards to whatever The PC Powers That Be are trying to train people to avoid, be it microagressions, sexual harassment, LGBTQ issues, diversity, or whatever bit of PC lunacy they come up with next.

Leave me alone and let me get back to work so I can make the world a better place by inventing something new that makes everyone's lives even easier, thankyouverymuch.

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Why does the US, a First World country, have Third World cities?

Because the party in power in those cities (Democrats) made them that way.

Throughout the United States, I frequently come across what I call "third world cities in first world countries" - whether it is Detroit, Baltimore, or even my beloved New Orleans. These third world cities all have one thing in common: an absence of free and open markets.

There is a wide consensus amongst economists that economic freedom largely determines the wealth of nations and metropolitan areas are no exception to this rule. As Economist Dean Stansel, in his paper, "An Economic Freedom Index for U.S. Metropolitan Areas," states, “higher levels of local economic freedom are found to be correlated with positive economic outcomes.”

So regulating and taxing the heck out of businesses and business owners has a major negative effect on US cities that do so? Who'da thunk it?

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As if we need even more proof that California is committing slow-motion suicide, there's this:

California lawmakers pass 400% increase in gas taxes then give themselves free gasoline and cars.

Here is more evidence of California's decline:

California is in debt $1.3 Trillion. That means every citizen in California is in debt almost $33,000. That is, unless you just move out!!! This represents a significant debt burden even by international standards.

Not included are billions of dollars in deferred maintenance and upgrades to California’s infrastructure. To the extent California’s government has not maintained investment in infrastructure maintenance, it has passed this cost on to future generations who will have to issue additional debt to pay for this expense.

On top of that, California's AG has decided that the 'Calexit' secession effort can go forward. Even if it does happen, I still think that California should be broken up into different states as it is the coastal elite pushing for this. A lot of non-coastal California wants nothing to do with leaving the US as they are an entirely different political entity and identity than the coast.

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Twitter is losing almost $40 million per month and they can't seem to figure that the reason why is that they've pissed off half of their customer base.

There is an undeniable pattern of bias at Twitter, whose executives consider their political agenda more important than profit. Does anyone imagine that a company staffed by social justice warriors (SJWs) is a smart investment? Twitter management has effectively yielded control of the company to socialists, anarchists and other enemies of capitalism. Are you surprised that they’re losing nearly $40 million a month?

I'm not surprised in the least. If nothing else Twitter will be used as an example why SJW agendas should never be used as the basis to run a company. It will always fail.

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Oh, yeah, this will work out for them as well as that whole BLM kerfuffle worked out for Mizzou.

It appears the University of Michigan is hiring an administrator for Cultural Appropriation Prevention.

I have to ask whether the still to be named administrator will be preventing cultural appropriation only by white students or whether such appropriation prevention will be applied across the board? If I had to guess, I's say it is more likely to be the former rather than the latter. But that's just me.

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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where it's been a glorious weekend, the summerfolk have been well behaved, and the ice cream stands have been running flat out.