How time flies.
One downside to this holiday weekend: The Official Weekend Pundit Lake Winnipesaukee Runabout – aka “The Boat” - will not grace the waters of the lake this summer. A number of factors drove that decision, including maintenance work that will be easier to accomplish while The Boat is out of the water (it really needs work done on the fiberglass, engine work neither BeezleBub or I have either the tools or the know how to perform, and some electrical system upgrades), and our personal budget.
It's been no secret that we here at The Manse have had to tighten our belts to ensure we weren't going to have problems paying our bills. We've cut back on 'luxuries' (we rarely eat out any more and we make our own pizza rather than getting it from the local pizzeria), did away with our landline phone (it costs the same as our cell phone bill and we practically never used it), do a lot of online price comparisons before buying anything, and clip coupons like crazy, just to name a few of the actions we've taken to rein in our spending.
Unfortunately The Boat falls under the luxury category (personally I think it's an absolute necessity as it brings tranquility into my life when I'm out on the lake). We could put it in the water, paying for the annual slip rental, or we could do some much needed maintenance. But we couldn't swing both. Reluctantly, we decided to do the maintenance and forgo any time out on the lake this summer.
Bummer.
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Skip points us to piece by Maggie Thurber which analyzes Union Derangement Syndrome and provides a well deserved fisking of a union VP of communications.***********
Has Washington learned it's hard stimulus lesson? Listening to Obama, members of his cabinet, and Democrat leaders in Congress, I'd have to say the answer is 'no'.Despite this, even Keynesians and Wall Street financial experts are now saying enough is enough. The question is, will Obama and the rest of the Democrats (and Republicans, for that matter) listen?
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Now for a really important question: Who is “ATM”?
The people have a right to know!
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Cap'n Teach asks whether we can call AGW a cult yet? He asks because apparently the UK didn't meet its goal of a reduction in CO2 emissions. Instead emissions went up 3% because of the demand for more energy during the cold winter in 2010. (I'm not going to say colder than normal because Britain has had cold winters like this in the past. Let's just say that the winter temps have returned to 'normal'.)CO2 reduction is a fine thing in theory, but when people are in danger of freezing to death theory has to give way to practice.
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As I mentioned in one of yesterday's posts, jobs for teens are scare as compared to even 2 years ago. This WSJ piece also covers this topic, and a number of commenters delve into the twisted logic of those who seem to think that mandating higher wages will solve all our problems. One comment in particular stands out, explaining how community leaders in the Bronx got it entirely backwards.How twisted is that? Celebrating zero jobs created as a victory? No wonder our economy is in such a mess with people like this trying to short circuit the market feedback mechanisms.
I've posted before about the Kingsbridge Armory in The Bronx. A developer wanted to turn it into a shopping mall, creating 2200 jobs. The City Council and the Bronx borough president insisted he agree to a "living wage" mandate i.e. $10 an hour + benefits or $11.50 an hour. He said it blows up the economics of the project and walked away.
The politicians hailed the creation of zero jobs at "living wage" as a victory, and crowed about it all over the papers. (emphasis mine – ed.)
Seriously. In their world, zero jobs at a mandated wage is preferred to a couple thousand at market wages. And people keep voting for these geniuses.
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Glenn Reynolds has three suggestions about what you can do for liberty over this July 4th weekend.***********
I knew California had problems with more than its share of clueless morons, but I didn't think it had gotten this bad.(H/T Pirate's Cove)
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Oh, no! Someone call AlGore!The Arctic Ice Basin is out of ice...except for 95% of area, which has plenty of ice.
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I think the Racine, Wisconsin firefighter's union is going to look incredibly stupid on this one.It certainly seems the public isn't backing them on this issue, and the last thing the union needs to do at this point is to piss off the people who pay their salaries.
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Will New Hampshire be the battleground for the 'soul of the GOP'? It seems to be shaping up that way...again.***********
Unfortunately, this is not a surprise to me.It appears that far too many of our kids are failing what we used to call civics (also known as social studies). Our children are showing their ignorance about how our democracy works, how our civic institutions are supposed to work, and what the Constitution says and means. That is a formula for disaster, for if they don't know our history, do not understand our laws and customs, they are in danger of losing it all.