The weather has been semi-cooperative, with a mixture of sun and showers throughout each day.
From here on out every weekend is going to be busy as we're close to full summer activities. Once the schools let out next month it will be full time summertime fun.
**************
Another bit of zero-tolerance BS has struck, this time a bit closer to home as a local high school's prom was canceled when two seniors attending were discovered to be in possession of alcohol.While the school administrators had warned students ahead of time about alcohol at the prom, it seems they didn't really think about the precedent they were setting, meaning they would punish everyone for the actions of a few. If they thought that would stop anyone from doing something stupid like sneaking booze into a dance, they thought wrong. Irresponsible teens will be irresponsible regardless of what they see as meaningless threats. Even I know that the two perpetrators either thought they wouldn't get caught (the most likely scenario) or they really didn't care one way or the other. By punishing everyone for the actions of these two morons, all they have managed to do is generate animosity towards the administrators. Yes, there will likely be some recriminations pointed towards the two girls who effed it up for everyone else, but it will be the administrators who will be the target of most of the anger.
Zero-tolerance polices do nothing but hurt the innocent, do little to prevent the very thing they are supposed to prevent, and lets school administrators off the hook when the policies backfire because they use the policies to absolve themselves of any responsibility for the outcome.
Rather than dealing solely with the two perpetrators, the administrators decided everyone had to pay the price. Did they really think the other students would somehow prevent the two idiots from bringing alcohol to the prom? If so, then they really don't understand the adolescent mind.
Even though school officials have said they will make it up to the students who were not involved, there's no way they can. Literally thousands of dollars were lost when the prom was shut down as the class had started fundraising for the prom since their freshman year. Will the school reimburse them for that? Obviously not. What should have been a night to remember has instead been turned into one the students would rather forget. List them as yet more victims of zero-tolerance policy madness.
**************
I have to agree with the premise that radical feminism will breed itself out of existence.It seems a lot of the radical feminists hate the idea of having children. As a result they'll have no daughters to whom they can pass on their pathological misanthropy. Since many of them see heterosexual sex as 'unnatural' and 'nothing but another form of rape', it is unlikely they will ever procreate. As such, much of their ideology will die with them. (Not that radical feminism will entirely die out, but its ranks will be greatly diminished as its adherents die off.)
My personal experiences with radical feminists is that they have a deep seated hatred for people in general (their misanthropy), even other women. Their hatred is even deeper for women who refuse to adhere to their radical view of the sexes and their roles, at least those assigned by evolution and biology. But time alone will see them disprove their own ideology as one by one they die, leaving no progeny behind them.
**************
Personally, I blame the schools for failing to teach economics at an earlier age.If our younger generation had a good grounding in economics, there's no way they would have supported Obamanomics because they would have been able to figure out it's a loser, particularly for them.
An intelligent young person should be able to figure out that Obamanomics (zero or slow economic growth combined with a deliberate effort to make as many people as possible dependent on government) has been a disaster for young Americans; Obamacare has raised the price of individual insurance by requiring lots of coverages that young people don’t need; young people are getting shafted by the entitlement state, and so on. But it seems that most young people have not yet figured out even these basic elements of their own self-interest. They are too caught up in gay marriage. Or something.Unfortunately too many of our younger generation have been indoctrinated for so long it is difficult for them to think outside the intellectual box they've been stuffed into by our schools. It isn't easy for them to figure it out for themselves...until it's too late. By then they've been handed the bill and they don't have the means of paying it.
**************
Bob Parks lays his much deserved Bitch Slap Of The Day upon Harry Reid.It seems Harry is once again delving into areas where he should just stay the hell out of. His latest foray into cluelessness – Pushing the NFL to force a name change on the Washington Redskins.
I agree. The Washington Redskins should change it's name because it is offensive. They should heretofore be known as just the Redskins. I find tying in the word Washington with that venerable football team to be highly offensive, considering that our nations' capitol has decayed into nothing more than a pit of vipers for sale to the highest bidder (particularly rent-seeking pseudo-socialist supporters of the Democrat Party).
(H/T Pirate's Cove)
**************
Yeah, I think this poster explains the insanity of the Left's opposition to Voter ID.It should be posted at every polling station and voter registration/town clerk's office across the nation. If nothing else it will remind everyone why we should ridicule anyone who says Voter ID will deny the right to vote to any citizen, particularly the poor and minorities.
**************
Can this be considered yet another nail in the coffin of Catastrophic Anthropogenic Global Warming?NOAA has predicted the number of tropical storms and hurricanes in the North Atlantic for 2014 will be below normal. The prediction includes the number of storms actually making landfall. This follows their previous predictions – all wrong – that we would experience above normal number and severity of hurricanes. None of those prognostications came to be, with well below normal levels and severity of storms. (Some might point to Sandy, which did widespread damage to the New Jersey and New York shorelines, but the storm itself was not the sole cause. A cold front that swept out of the west blocked the storm and wrung out an inordinate amount of rain that might not have otherwise fallen.)
We keep hearing about how Global Warming will create bigger and more severe hurricanes and tornadoes, but the reality is showing just the opposite. Some of the MSM coverage of thunderstorms and tornadoes throughout Tornado Alley over the past couple of years might make you think things are worse, but we have been seeing numbers well below average for a number of years.
**************
I got around to some much needed work her inside The Manse.The Official Weekend Pundit Clothes Drier bit it quite some time ago and we didn't have the wherewithal to replace it immediately. There were a number issues with it including the fact that it never really worked all that well, had a tendency to scorch clothing, and on more than one occasion wouldn't dry the clothes because the electronic igniter failed (it was a gas drier). I've had both gas and electric driers in the past, but this was the only one that ever gave me trouble.
Finally the means to replace the defunct drier became available and the search for a new one started. But two things needed to be addressed before actually purchasing a new drier – gas or electric, and replacing a section of the drier exhaust ducting that had been Mickey Mouse'd when The Manse was built.
Some of the places where we looked for a new drier stated right up front that converting a gas drier to run on propane would cost extra, anywhere from $30 to $300 more than the purchase price. So we expanded our search to include electric driers and figured in the cost of adding a 220V outlet in the laundry niche. However, when I checked with the retailer from whom I've bought from in the past, they said they only charged $30 for converting from natural gas to propane, regardless of the model. While gas clothes driers tend to cost more the electrics, they aren't that much more than comparable electric driers. So the change over to an electric drier has been abandoned and we're going to stay with gas.
When it comes to the venting, the builder put in a long stretch of the flexible metal accordion fold vent from the basement into the laundry niche rather than installing rigid vent pipe like the did out to the exhaust vent. I am working to remedy that by cutting out a bit more of the drywall where the venting comes through the wall and installing actual vent pipe. Once this is completed I can go an actually buy the new drier.
It will be nice not having to make the drive down to the laundromat or over to the WP Parents to dry the wash when the weather doesn't allow use of the clothesline.