The last time we had such a storm we lost power here at The Manse for 16 hours, making us one of the fortunate ones because some folks were without power for two weeks. We didn't get Internet access back for a couple of days, leaving it up to my dear brother to relay updates until our access was restored.
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Pigs must be flying today!The New York Times has an article slamming ObamaCare as being unaffordable to a great many middle class families, an unintended consequence of one of the most poorly constructed and managed laws in decades.
One by one the serious flaws and weaknesses of ObamaCare are coming to light and the list of American's being damaged by it grows by leaps and bounds.
It's time to kill this ill-conceived and deceitful legislation.
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Is it time to break up California into two or more new states?One Silicon Valley investor has a plan to create six states from what is presently California and has submitted a ballot initiative to do just that.
I can see the appeal as far too often state politics punishes some of the inland and northern sections of California as it caters to many of the coastal cities and counties.
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David Starr reminds us of the upside of increased CO2 levels in the atmosphere: more green and less brown showing in satellite images.If increased CO2 is supposed to be causing devastation then why are we seeing increased plant coverage in places that were previously poorly covered by vegetation?
People are still acting as if there is only one correct level of CO2, that being barely above that required to keep plants alive. (Historically we are suffering a CO2 drought as CO2 levels have been much higher than they are today, even during mankind's existence on Earth.)
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Staying with the climate meme for a moment, it looks like 2013 will go down as one of the 10 the coldest year since 1895.It must be global warming and it's all George W. Bush's fault!
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The Men on Strike meme has been becoming more into the public eye. The latest trend is MGTOW – Men Going Their Own Way – because they have discovered they don't want or need to put up with the crap from modern day feminist groupthink.MGTOWs have “gone Galt”, after the titular character John Galt in the book Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand (in the hood, we call it “going Ghost”...); a growing, and quiet, group of Men in early 21st century American life who have come to the conclusion that said society is increasingly hostile to them in myriad of ways, and as a response, they have decided to withdraw in varying ways. That includes pulling back from any social interaction that involves Women, first and foremost, and then decreasing any involvement with society that indirectly involves Women – so, for example, there is a growing cohort of Men who don’t even bother getting involved in the mating game anymore; and either the same or yet another cohort of Men who have deliberately limited their participation in “on the books” working arrangements, where they rightly surmise their tax payments will go to subsidize Women as a group in some way (a good example of this is the Obamacare program, and most notably the “Sandar Fluke” aspects of it, to say nothing of various welfare programs that subsidize unwed mothers and the like, etc.). (Formatting changes made by yours truly – dce)Considering social conventions, laws, and the courts lay the blame for all of women's ills upon men, is it any wonder a growing number of men at all age levels have decided to pack it in and to withdraw from social interactions with women unless absolutely unavoidable? If this trend continues we're going to see some real changes in society and they won't be for the better.
If you need a little taste of what men are increasingly putting up with, this scene from American Beauty should do the trick.
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Here are the 30 best political quotes of 2013.My favorite:
#14 - What is going on here is that a cadre of people who have a very narrow skill-set -- primarily law or some public policy degree which featured very little math, and that math was Math for Liberal Arts -- have decided that they can comprehend the workings of everyone else's job in America, simply because they went to a Good School.Yeah, that pretty much sums up the Progressive mindset and where Obama is coming from.
Well, actually, most of them didn't go to a Good School (by which I mean a truly elite school like Harvard or Princeton); most of them went to lesser schools. But they have Harvard grads in their social circle, so they now count themselves as part of the club.
They do not know what they don't know.
They believe they are masters of the universe, but in fact are masters of almost nothing at all, not even the narrow range of material they studied before immediately going into a career of government work or government agitation.
They believe themselves to be transcendentally hypercompetent, a delusion that they are permitted to cling to only because they've never been in positions of actual responsibility where their decisions will result in well-defined failure or well-defined success.
Obama is of course the apotheosis of this type. He not just their high priest, but their demi-god, a half-god born upon the earth.
But they are all just like him -- sky-high on personal estimation of their capabilities, and yet scandalously short on actual accomplishments.
And these are the people who presume that they can run the world for us, and do our jobs better than us. -- Ace
(H/T Maggie's Farm)
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I saw this over at Jawa and I knew I had to share it.*************
Sultan Knish reminds us that Gay Rights do not trump Freedom of Speech, as much as many on the Left seem to believe it does. Writes the Daniel Greenfield:What do a reality show star, a cakemaker and a photographer have in common? They're all victims of a political system in which the mandate to not merely recognize gay marriage, but to celebrate it, has completely displaced freedom of speech.The only way the Left will allow you free speech is if you agree with them, which isn't free speech but is coerced 'agreement' with positions one may find disagreeable or repugnant. The Left also seems to think there is a Right to Not Be Offended somewhere in the Constitution, but I've never been able to find it.
The issues at stake in all three cases did not involve the Orwellian absurdity of "Marriage Equality". The cases of a Christian cakemaker and a Christian photographer whom state courts have ruled must participate in gay weddings or face fines and jail time were blatant violations of both Freedom of Speech and Freedom of Religion in the name of outlawing any dissent from gay marriage.
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I've been watching the New England Patriots play the Baltimore Ravens in Baltimore. At least the first half belonged to the Patriots, who outscored Baltimore 17-0. One thing that marked the first half was the huge amount of penalties, particularly against Baltimore.The second half didn't change anything for the Ravens as the Patriots scored 24 points in the second half while the Ravens managed only one touchdown, giving the Patriots a 41-7 victory.
Next week the Patriots play Buffalo at home.