It's ironic considering it's been getting warmer over the past few days and will be in the upper 60's on Monday. I let the woodstove go out this morning because it will be warm enough without it for the next couple of days.
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The News Junkie wonders about the timing of David Petraeus' resignation, calling it something right out of a Tom Clancy novel. He also brings up a point I wouldn't have thought about:Nobody gets a senior job without a meticulous colonoscopy. If you were ever cheating, they pursue every rumor and know all about it. Unless one is an elected Democrat, of course, in which case one's sexual history is irrelevant.It sounds more like the Obama administration needed a means of deflecting questions about its failure in Benghazi and decided the throw Petraeus under the bus. It also means he probably won't be testifying in any congressional hearings now that his reputation has been besmirched and any testimony he gave would be suspect.
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I have found one means of keeping the squirrels and chipmunks away from the bird feeder on our main deck – make sure there are plenty of blue jays around. When ever we have seed that appeals to the jays they drive off the squirrels and chipmunks trying to partake of the seed we've put out. When the jays arrive the rodents disappear.Unfortunately when the jays appear the other birds also disappear.
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And speaking of birds, both Scary Yankee Chick and Bogie have pictures of some wild birds that have graced their back yards over the past few days, including Evening Grosbeaks and even a few Harris's Sparrows. Neither is all that common to upstate New York or New Hampshire.************
As David Starr reminds us, Alexis de Tocqueville warned us that we will exist “until that time when the voters they can vote themselves largess from the public treasury.”I have a feeling that the 2012 election will be the turning point considering many voted for Obama to get “free stuff.” Only that free stuff isn't free and inevitably those receiving the free stuff will be shocked once they get the bill, particularly once the rest of us are bankrupted by these folks. As the old saying goes, TANSTAAFL (“There ain't no such thing as a free lunch.”).
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If you need yet another in an endless list of examples of what a Progressive Utopia looks like, you only have to go as far as Oakland, California for a preview.It's gotten so bad that criminals are committing crimes against news crews while they are on the air, live. Now news crews will require armed guards to protect them, just like in a number of Third World countries. Then again California is becoming more like a Third World country, at least as far as its government and tax tax tax/spend spend spend economy is concerned.
(H/T Instapundit)
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The New England Patriots came off a bye week to play the Buffalo Bills in Foxboro this afternoon. The managed to beat the Bills 37-21 despite the defense playing only 3 ¾ quarters.************
Cap'n Teach has started referring to California as “Brokeifornia”, an apt description. He also links to three stories detailing Brokeifornia's deepening fiscal troubles.As if the rest of us didn't see this coming.
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Apparently spending isn't just a problem in Calfornia. Brevard County in Florida may have to close four of its elementary schools because voters rejected a ½ cent sales tax increase. Never mind that school enrollment has dropped by 7,000 students over the past few years (and by 705 students this year).That tells me they have a spending problem and not a revenue problem. Maybe it's time to shed some of their excess school personnel since they're no longer needed for students that are no longer in the school system. That alone should free up millions of tax dollars that are otherwise wasted.
(H/T Pirate's Cove)