The ground around The Manse has almost dried to the point where I can start on the yard work, something I hope to deal with before everything starts greening. If the weather cooperates, I can get started on that tomorrow. (I'm taking a mental health day tomorrow, using up a very small portion of the large number of vacation days my employer provides.)
**************
I had the opportunity to chat with one of the 'regulars' at the local laundromat yesterday, and one of the subjects that came up was education, and particularly the push towards Common Core. I didn't hear anything different from them, meaning they didn't like it and thought it was yet another attempt to destroy what's left of our public education system and replace it with even more 'feel good' indoctrination.You'd think that with the disastrous results from the self-esteem building curriculum foisted upon us in the previous decade that this one would have been a non-starter. But since the reason for this push is to replace education with indoctrination, I expect the pressure for school systems to adopt it will increase.
As more than a few web pundits have put it, sending your kids to public schools should be considered child abuse.
**************
If I were you I wouldn't take the White House claims about the number of ObamaCare enrollees without a huge frickin' grain of salt. After all, it's in their best interest to lie about it because the truth will be unpalatable to the Obama faithful and prove the the rest of us what a disaster it really is.What's particularly galling is when ObamaCare causes widows of municipal retirees to lose their health insurance coverage.
**************
By way of Maggie's Farm comes this quote from Frederic Bastiat that is becoming increasingly true, particularly when applied to the Obama Administration:"When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men living together in society, they create for themselves in the course of time a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it."Indeed.
These days it also hard not to break at least 5 laws a day just living our lives...but then that's just what the authoritarians/totalitarians in government need. It gives them ever more control over every aspect of our lives. And of course they make sure they exempt from those same laws.
**************
By way of Skip at Granite Grok comes this piece of irony from the mis-titled Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which has nothing to do with protecting consumers finances.It appears the folks at CFPB are renovating a building that has housed a number of small businesses, some of which have been operating since the early 20th century. Those businesses are being forced out by the government, which means most of them will close because they have no place else to go, putting a number of people out of work. Yeah, like that ought to help them protect their finances, right?
One would think that with the hundreds, if not thousands of empty government-owned buildings in the greater Washington DC area they could find one for the new home of the CFPB that wouldn't destroy existing businesses.
**************
What does the White House think this means?I'm just waiting for Russian troops with no insignias on their uniforms to start landing in Alaska in order to “protect ethnic Russians.” Not that I would expect the White House to do anything other than send yet another strongly worded message to Putin by way of John Kerry.
Such are the spoils of Smart DiplomacyTM.
I think it's time to return to the time of Roosevelt, in this case Teddy Roosevelt - “Talk softly and carry a big stick” - rather than staying in the Obama era - “Talk a lot and Kerry a Big Shtick.”
**************
It seems that hypocrite Harry Reid is upping the ante in his ethically-challenged behind-the-scenes dealings with the Bundy Ranch, painting the anti-government protesters as “domestic terrorists.” As Glenn Reynolds states, “That’s a lie, but it’s a dangerous one, since it seems to pre-justify government violence while egging on tension. That’s unwise. If they decide to actually become domestic terrorists, Harry, I expect you’ll be among the first to know.”It's time for Harry Reid to step down, or to be investigated by the Congressional Ethics Office, or maybe even the DOJ. (Yeah, like that will ever happen while Holder is the AG.)
**************
Bogie shows us the even in 'urban' areas of southern New Hampshire there are plenty of natural wonders to be seen.**************
Yet another male wonders why he can't get the women he'd like to date out of the so-called “Friend Zone”. It's simple, really, there being two reasons:First, he's a gamma male. Strike one.
Second, he somehow has come to believe “he's entitled to be with good-looking women, rather than being forced to make do with the ordinary-looking women who are actually interested in him.” Strikes two and three.
If he allowed himself to go after ordinary-looking women he may find that once he gets to know them he'll see they're really quite attractive, but that he just hadn't noticed at first.
For me Deb was like that. One of the first things I noticed about her is that she had a beautiful smile. The second was that her eyes were also quite beautiful, even hidden behind the glasses she wore.