Is A Nationwide 'Yes Means Yes' Affirmative Consent Law In Our Future?

File this one under “Just when I thought they couldn't get any stupider.” (Yes, this is the second time in two days I've used that tagline.)

It's bad enough when the so-called “Yes Means Yes” requirement is put forward on college campuses. It's worse when a state (California) passes a law that requires “affirmative consent” (meaning Yes means Yes) that applies to college campuses. Now two legal 'geniuses' want to make such a law nationwide that applies to everyone.

They don't seem to care that it will leave men so open false accusations, even years after the sexual encounters. (Think it won't happen? Just ask any divorced dad who had to fight for custody about false accusations of child abuse that came up 'suddenly' during the custody battle.)

It's bad enough the government has been making almost everything illegal, but now they want to make sex illegal too. Excuse my language, but are these fucking morons serious? This is taking the feminist-driven PC crap too damn far. I thought these liberal assholes wanted to get the government out of our bedrooms, not into them.

What's next, getting the lawyers involved before each sex act?


I'm afraid that's what it will boil down to in the end. There will also be a requirement for video proof and/or an impartial third party to witness all such sexual interactions, and then only after duly notarized contracts are signed by both parties.

If it ever comes to that it would be best of we burn everything down and start from scratch because the lunatics will indeed be running the asylum.

Thoughts On A Sunday

Here it is, almost at the halfway point in the year, and time seems to be flying by. It seems like it was only a few weeks ago we were still hip deep in snow, waiting for spring to come.

I have no idea where the time goes.

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The rains arrived last night, at times heavy with driving wind. That means we will have no real outdoor activities today other than maybe a trip to the local farm stand for some fresh baked goods. (Quality control, don't you see...)

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You know Title IX has become a hydra-headed monster when references to it are included in every college class syllabus.

This crap is getting ridiculous.

Title IX original intent was to deal with discrimination in colleges based upon gender. It has morphed into an all consuming nightmare that has had a chilling effect on all aspects of campus life and has been trying to institutionalize gender bias against men, tacitly painting all male college students as rapists.

I have a feeling the only way this is going to end is if some court case ends up in federal court, with Title IX being struck down as unconstitutional. If nothing else the Office of Civil Rights in the Department of Education should be abolished and its employees indicted for civil rights violations and abuse of office.

Title IX has had a number of unintended consequences that are only getting worse:

Title IX has created a chilling effect at UD [University of Delaware] as students no longer feel that they can be open in discussions with their class and their professors. Every student has different experiences that allow them to add to class discussions in constructive ways. These candid discussions about sexual assault on campus can create an open, supportive environment where victims can speak about their experiences. However, by forcing professors to report sexual misconduct, Title IX is interfering with the choice a victim has as to whether he or she wants to report the incident or not.

Yeah, that's really helping...absolutely no one.

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In regards to the above, are we seeing the death throes of our Republic? Rand Simberg seems to think so.

When we ignore and sidestep the Constitutional and legal process to achieve a desired end, the bedrock starts to turn to sand.

We have a president who seems to think that our laws and Constitution don't apply to him, rogue government agencies that ignore the law and court orders and go far outside their charters, and a Supreme Court that makes up constitutional rights out of thin air in direct contradiction to the Constitution and legal precedent.

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You know it's gone right past ridiculous and fully into ludicrous when the term “trigger warnings” is in and of itself now a trigger that will cause many of the special Fragile Snowflakes to get a case of the “vapours” and require the presence of a fainting couch. Writes Skip:

Serious, the issuance of “trigger warning” is now a trigger?  These females should not be allowed out in public, they are so weak-kneed...

This is just plain absurd...

Here, I disagree with Skip. It's outright insane.

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Here's one unintended consequence of the SCOTUS ruling on gay marriage – it mandates nationwide concealed carry reciprocity.

I doubt any of the gun-grabbers have glommed on to that little side effect of the Court's ruling.

Read The Whole Thing.

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Color me shocked!

It seems an overwhelming majority of Americans (about 83%) are not in favor of Big Government enforced neighborhood diversity. The Rasmussen poll cut across all lines, showing that it isn't “just white folks” being against it.

The poll questioned 1,000 people who are likely to vote and determined that 83 percent of respondents say it is not the government’s job to diversify neighborhoods in America so that people of different income levels live together, but 8 percent say that it is a role for the government and 9 percent are not sure. An additional 86 percent say that government should not play a role in deciding where people can live, while a small 8 percent says that the government should.

How much do you want to bet that those who believe government should be involved are guilt-ridden white liberals?

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David Starr takes note that a rising number of visitors to his blog are using Linux rather than Windows.

I've seen the same thing in my stats, too, though not to the level David has. But I have to wonder whether it's because more people are using Linux or because more Linux users prefer our blogs than Windows users.

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This is the only mention I'm going to make about CNN's idiocy in believing an ISIS flag was present at a London Gay Pride parade. As more than one commenter pointed out to CNN, “Take a closer look at that 'ISIS' flag.”

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First, the government wants to enforce neighborhood 'diversity'. Now it wants to force your doctor to warn you about climate change.

Just when I thought they couldn't get any stupider....

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I think this explains a lot of the past six-plus years:

As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their hearts desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a down right moron. – H.L. Mencken –

Heh.

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This is something we all must remember, but more so the Progressives amongst us:

Jesus never called anyone out for racism or our other popular sins. He did call people out for self-righteousness.

But since the quote above it mentions Christ I expect it to be devoutly ignored by the Left, some of which are the most self-righteous, close-minded and judgmental people I've ever come across.

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As a follow up to the above, AVI has another observation that matches with my own well earned prejudices.

But when I encounter people who have some education and status, who have some idea how systems work, how power is distributed, and have the verbal cleverness to put their opponents down and put in a good word for their friends, I consider them very dangerous, possibly evil, and self-righteous enough that they cannot be reasoned with, and must be simply opposed.

'Nuff said.

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I agree wholeheartedly with this: The GOP debates should include all candidates.

While it may not be easy to do, it's something the GOP should do if for no other reason than some of the less popular or well known candidates may have ideas the others don't. That's also a reason I have always supported New Hampshire's “First in the Nation” primaries.

Being in the debate allows these less well known (and less well funded) candidates a national forum to speak their piece. That is also true of the New Hampshire primaries because it's all retail politics and money plays a very small role in the success of candidates as compared to primaries in large states which require millions of dollars in ad buys and little time for personal appearances or interaction with the man-on-the-street voters.

If nothing else it will make for interesting television.

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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the rains have come, Fourth of July is rapidly approaching, and where summer is in full swing.

SCOTUS On Gay Marriage - Who Cares?

Now that the Supreme Court has made a decision about gay marriage, I can state my honest opinion about it: I don't really care.

I figure it this way – Why shouldn't gays have the same opportunity to be as miserable as heterosexuals? They want it? They got it...in spades.

The only fallout I can see from this Court decision, other than some of the politicians being hoist upon their own petards, is how it will affect churches, synagogues, temples, and mosques. Will SCOTUS end up sticking their noses in if/when a gay couple decide they want to be married in a religious ceremony and the religious leaders say “No”? Will the various religions be forced to perform and sanction gay marriage even if it against their deeply held beliefs? We've already seen that happen with some businesses so it wouldn't surprise me to see something like that happen when it comes to religion.

I figure it's just a matter of time before someone somewhere decides to go after religion on this matter.

SCOTUS Makes The Wrong Decision On King vs Burwell

It appears the Supreme Court has put yet another nail in the coffin that holds what is left of our Constitution and our nation.

If nothing else the King vs. Burwell decision has proven to me that Chief Justice Roberts does not have the best interests of the American people at heart, siding with the liberals on the Court (again) to defend that piece of crap legislation called ObamaCare (again). It appears Roberts buys the bullshit that our Constitution is a “living document” and that the original intent of the Framers and the Amendments mean nothing.

He and the others continue to saddle the American people with this feel-good, do-nothing, very expensive and ineffective program that hasn't delivered on the promises made by The One, Pelosi, or Reid. It will in the end destroy a once great health care system and replace it with artificial shortages, forced rationing, and rapidly increasing costs to be followed by decreasing quality of care and a reversal of the trend towards longer and healthier lives.

It's time to end this bullshit put forth by the “but it makes me feel better even if it doesn't really help anyone” leftists. To them results don't matter as long as their intentions were good. We've seen again and again how that's worked out over the years.

I'm beginning to think the only way we can solve the decay within our nation is to start fresh. Maybe it's time for a Second Civil War. If not that, then maybe it's time for a divorce.

Thoughts On A Sunday

It was a busy day at The Manse yesterday, pushing to get some of the never ending yard work done knowing Sunday was going to be rainy. Even BeezleBub had to put in extra time at work Saturday, trying to get the haying done and the bales put away before the rain started.

One thing that that many of us are looking towards is the end of Motorcycle Week, which ends today. Though there isn't much in the way of bike traffic as I write this (because it's raining), there will be plenty later this afternoon once the rain clears out and the sun returns.

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After the GOP won a resounding victory in both the House and retook the Senate, I had hopes that some sanity would return to Congress. It turns out my hopes have been dashed.

It appears the GOP leadership has started ignoring the more conservative branch of the GOP members in Congress, kowtowing to Democrats while punishing conservative Republicans in Congress, in effect treating them as a political enemies to be crushed,, in one case stripping Representative Mark Meadows (R-NC) of chairmanship of House Government Operations Subcommittee in retaliation for not toeing Speaker John Boehner's line and voting in favor of the awful Obamatrade bill, for one.

I have to agree with Mark Levin on this one: It's time to declare open warfare on Boehner and his cronies. They aren't doing this nation any good and are dividing the GOP when it needs to be cohesive in light of The One's push to further weaken the Constitution.

Boehner, McCarthy, and Scalise have got to go as these three are working hard to make sure the GOP becomes a non-entity in Congress.

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The Barrister comments upon things we did as kids that would get someone arrested today.

The kids today are being turned into weenies.

Who is to blame for this? Weenie Dads? Tort lawyers? Government? Mom-headed households? Truth is, when I was ten I would disappear all day on bikes with friends, exploring woods, swimming illegally in reservoirs, building forts (snowball fights in winter, rock and stick wars in summer), shooting BB guns, fishing, sailing a Sailfish, playing vacant-lot baseball, shooting hoops on the asphalt-covered schoolyard, enjoying occasional fistfights, stealing candy from the candy shop, smoking cigarettes stolen from parents, teasing girls (mainly the ones we liked). Home by dark of course. That was the rule.

These days parents would be jailed and their kids put into foster care because they let them be kids.

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I have to agree with Matt Ridley on this one: So-called climate science as it is promoted has caused me to lose trust in science. That's because these days it's all about politics and funding and not about actual science anymore. It's all about consensus and not rocking the boat rather than discovery and learning new things. It's Lysenkoism brought forth into the 21st century.

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As I've said before and I'm going to say again, if you want a perfectly good and recent example of why socialism is an awful economic system all one needs to do is look at Venezuela It was once a prosperous country with a strong economy. Then Hugo Chavez took over, instituted sweeping changes based upon the Marxist Economic Handbook and turned it into an economic wasteland. It's gotten so bad it's selling off fixed assets as a stopgap measure to hold of fa total economic collapse. Unfortunately that will only put off the inevitable for a short period of time. Once those assets are gone, so is the money the Venezuelan government needs.

As Maggie Thatcher said, “Socialism works until you run out of other people's money.” Venezuela has just about reached that point. I have a feeling Argentina won't be too far behind.

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Should we cut to the chase and just add a crawler to the bottom of the TV screen that CNN is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Obama White House and the DNC? It might be easier and more truthful since CNN is willing to back up just about everything Obama says even if it's a blatant and easily disproven lie.

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Is there anything it can't do?

The latest bit of Climate Change stupidity: Someone actually found a way to tie the massacre in Charleston to climate change.

Really? These folks need to get help.

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By way of Instapundit comes this tweet about the reactions to any mass shooting:

Every time a crazy person shoots up a place, the press demands Republicans – who had nothing to do with it – answer for the crime.

And how many times have we found out the shooter isn't some right-wing radical but rather left-wing, often a Democrat, and almost always either insane or an wannabe Islamic jihadi?

Yet it's the GOP who are the 'haters'.

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It's the first Father's Day since my dad passed away. I didn't think it would affect me all that much. While his birthday last month passed without bittersweet feelings overwhelming me, this day had me missing him so much it hurt.

I love you, Dad.

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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the roar of motorcycle engines have faded away, summer has officially arrived, and where yet again Monday has returned all too soon.

A Rabbi's Lament - The Old America Is Gone

Received via e-mail: While this post by Rabbi Steven Pruzansky refers to the aftermath of the 2012 presidential election it is just as poignant today as we head into the 2016 elections. Perhaps it's time we started paying attention.

The most charitable way of explaining the election results of 2012 is that Americans voted for the status quo – for the incumbent President and for a divided Congress. They must enjoy gridlock, partisanship, incompetence, economic stagnation and avoidance of responsibility. And fewer people voted. As I write, with almost all the votes counted, President Obama has won fewer votes than John McCain won in 2008, and more than ten million off his own 2008 total.

But as we awake from the nightmare, it is important to eschew the facile explanations for the Romney defeat that will prevail among the chattering classes. Romney did not lose because of the effects of Hurricane Sandy that devastated this area, nor did he lose because he ran a poor campaign, nor did he lose because the Republicans could have chosen better candidates, nor did he lose because Obama benefited from a slight uptick in the economy due to the business cycle.

Romney lost because he didn’t get enough votes to win.

That might seem obvious, but not for the obvious reasons. Romney lost because the conservative virtues – the traditional American virtues – of liberty, hard work, free enterprise, private initiative and aspirations to moral greatness – no longer inspire or animate a majority of the electorate. The notion of the “Reagan Democrat” is one cliché that should be permanently retired.

Ronald Reagan himself could not win an election in today’s America.

The simplest reason why Romney lost was because it is impossible to compete against free stuff. Every businessman knows this; that is why the “loss leader” or the giveaway is such a powerful marketing tool. Obama’s America is one in which free stuff is given away: the adults among the 47,000,000 on food stamps clearly recognized for whom they should vote, and so they did, by the tens of millions; those who – courtesy of Obama – receive two full years of unemployment benefits (which, of course, both disincentivizes looking for work and also motivates people to work off the books while collecting their windfall) surely know for whom to vote; so too those who anticipate “free” health care, who expect the government to pay their mortgages, who look for the government to give them jobs. The lure of free stuff is irresistible.

Does anyone think that the lure of 'free stuff' is any less now than it was then? Haven't both Hillary and Bernie promised more 'free stuff'? Of course they still haven't come right out and told anyone who is actually going to pay for all that 'free stuff', but I'll give you a hint: It ain't gonna be the wealthy progressives, that's for sure. Instead it will be the working men and women still struggling to recover from the past six-and-a-half years of Obama's jobless recovery and broken promises (all of which turned out to have an expiration date).

To delve deeper into the rabbi's thinking on this, please Read The Whole Thing and take it to heed.

The Three Stooges Of The Apocalypse

When I first saw the title of this opinion piece by Michael Goodwin in the New York Post, the first name that came to mind was Obama. Seeing as the Post is a New York paper, I figured the next two names wouldn’t be out of Washington, and I was right. Still, Goodwin got it right, including both New York governor Andrew Cuomo and New York City mayor Bill de Blasio.

A new world order may be coming, or it may just be a long period of bloody disorder. The only clarity is an unshakable conviction that something fundamental is changing for the worse.

The biggest change is that America, the modern world’s anchor of stability and security, is being roiled by a never-ending loop of turmoil and division. Mankind’s last resort feels unsettled and unreliable, adding to the sense of impending danger.

The lion’s share of the blame belongs to our awful governments, from New York City to Albany to Washington.

I can think of no other period when we simultaneously had such terrible leaders and ineffective lawmakers at all three levels. They seem to feed on each other’s worst instincts, competing to lay claim to the most sweeping changes, no matter the method or impact.

All three are clueless and singularly unaccomplished prior to gaining elected office.(Obama was still unaccomplished even after gaining elected office, particularly in the US Senate where he did absolutely nothing of note). They gladly wear ideological blinders that keep them from seeing the world (or at least their areas of responsibility) as it really is, turn a blind eye to “corruption, incompetence and arrogance, trickling up and trickling down”, and don’t give a rat’s ass about what the citizens really need because, after all, everyone else is wrong/greedy/stupid/unworthy. Their only accomplishments so far have been to damage the economy, alienate even those who support them, generate divisiveness where it will benefit them, and pee on our backs and tell us it’s raining.

They make things worse and while telling us things are getting better. It’s sounding more like the old Soviet Union all the time, telling us we’re on our way to a “glorious socialist future” that never arrives.

Their very public failures? Here’s a short list:

Obama – ObamaCare, Smart Diplomacy (Iraq, Syria, ISIS, Libya, Iran), the wasted $878 billion stimulus, a stagnant U6 unemployment rate, and the lowest labor participation rate in over 4 decades, just to name a few.

Cuomo – Banning fracking, widespread corruption in state government, his office under investigation, and handing out 10-year tax incentives for new businesses while taxing the bejeezus out of existing businesses.

De Blasio – Utterly clueless about what’s need to run New York, pushing wealth redistribution while riding high on the hog himself, backing away from the highly successful “broken windows” policies instituted by Rudi Giuliani and continued by Michael Bloomberg, hamstringing the NYPD in other areas which are bringing back the bad old days of “Fort Apache – The Bronx” with rapidly rising murder rates and shootings.

The least thing New York and this nation need are more of the same. These three stooges symbolize everything that’s gone wrong over the past six years and they’re doing their best to make sure things get even worse.

Thoughts On A Sunday

Motorcycle Week started here in the Lakes Region of New Hampshire with the arrival of the first wave of bikers on Friday. We can count on hearing the roar of motorcycle engines until some time next Saturday evening.

At least the weather looks like it will be cooperating, with the only rain being forecast is showers on a couple of days during the upcoming week.

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BeezleBub and Horse Girl attended the Toby Keith concert last night at our local concert venue.

Not a bad way to start the concert season.

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Government has got to get a grip, particularly when it comes to kids. Far too often someone in Child Protective Services (or the equivalent thereof) goes out of their friggin' minds when kids are doing stuff that normal kids do, but without their parents hovering over them like the proverbial helicopter.

The latest bit of insanity: A Florida couple was arrested after their son was 'caught' playing basketball in his own back yard for 90 minutes.

Excuse me?

Yes, his parents weren't there, being delayed by traffic and heavy rain. The boy, 11-years old, wasn't neglected, mistreated (except maybe by CPS and the local police), or in emotional distress.

This is almost as bad as the case of a new mother in New York some years ago who called a counselor when she wanted to know if having a sexual flush while breastfeeding her newborn was normal. (It is.) The counselor referred the case to NYCPS and the newborn was taken away because they believed the new mother might be molesting her baby. It took months for mother and child to be reunited and the CPS personnel were cited for their failure to perform due diligence. (A call to an OB/GYN or to one of the many clinics that deal with breastfeeding would have told them it is a normal reaction.)

Why everyone in government has come to believe 24/7 surveillance of children by their parents is the only way to raise children is beyond me. This overwrought reaction by child welfare offices and others who seem to think children are being kidnapped by the millions every day is doing far more harm than doing nothing more than what our parents did while raising us.

Frankly, I blame the media for a lot of this.

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David Starr disses the EPA for forcing yet another useless but expensive 'fix' for a problem that doesn't exist. In this case, they want to impose air pollution regulations on aircraft emissions, something they're doing to collect 'air pollution credits', not to make aircraft more fuel efficient.

As David writes:

With jet fuel at $2.50 a gallon the airlines have all the incentive necessary to conserve fuel as much as possible.  The air frame builders have every incentive to improve fuel burn, namely,  planes that burn less fuel have better range and can haul bigger loads.

In a nutshell, market forces have made air travel as fuel efficient as possible.  EPA regulation won't improve anything, it will serve in place of a tax.  In the depths of Great Depression 2.0, we don't need more taxes.

The aircraft industry is doing everything it can to make their aircraft more fuel efficient which has the byproduct of making them pollute even less. After all the biggest expense any airline has is fuel cost. The EPA may state they're doing this to make aircraft more fuel efficient, but they're using it merely as an excuse to take even more money from businesses using unrealistic regulations knowing full well no one can meet the requirements.

It's time to do away with the EPA and start from scratch.

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David Starr also has some suggestions for police departments to set things right in relation to the events in Baltimore, Ferguson, and New York.

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While I understand the intent of a bill put forth by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO), I do not believe either one really understands what's actually happening on college campuses in regards to sexual assault.

While sexual assault is an ongoing problem, they're making it out to be a much bigger problem than it is. One of the biggest issues their bill is supposed to address is the “all it takes is the accusation to convict” attitude being promoted on campus. Colleges aren't competent to investigate criminal cases, nor should they. But the thrice-damned “Dear Colleague” letter is forcing them to do just that.

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One has to wonder why people in Baltimore, specifically certain sections of Baltimore, who demanded lighter police presence are so surprised that violent crimes and murders have skyrocketed in those areas. What did they expect?

When the police switch from being proactive to reactive to crime, is it any wonder the criminals will be more active knowing the police won't be around until well after they've committed their crimes?

As Cap'n Teach writes:

Funny, most articles and preachings fail to mention what their ideas for better policing are. Most tend to be squishy feel good Kumbaya notions that fail to reduce crime. They also fail to mention what they will do to get the people in their neighborhoods to be less criminal.

Yeah, funny about that.

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Want to see the future of more California cities if the Golden State doesn't get its head out of its ass? Then all one needs to do is look at San Bernadino.

The thing is that there are plenty of other cities across America heading towards the same fate and for the same reasons: lengthy one-party rule, systemic corruption, over-the-top influence by public employee unions, and unchecked tax-and-spend policies, just to name a few.

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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the roar of motorcycle engines can be heard day and night, the weather is cooperating, and Monday has once again returned too soon.

Connecticut Is The Latest Blue State Basket Case

It's not news that a number of states have gone from being robust and business-friendly to economic nightmares and business-hostile. Four that come to mind immediately are California, Illinois, New Jersey, and New York. Not that there aren't other states that are or are becoming more hostile to businesses or increasing the tax burdens on their residents to pay for every nice-to-have their legislatures (and the lobbyists) can think of. They seem to think the individual taxpayers and businesses are an endlessly full ATM to be used at the whim of tax-and-spend politicians, not understanding that there is a tipping point where residents and businesses say “Enough!” and either revolt, go Galt, or pull up stakes and move to greener pastures.

One of those states that that can now be added to the four I listed above is Connecticut, once “widely known as the Switzerland of New England.”

The recent passage in Connecticut of a $40 billion budget that seeks $1.5 billion in tax increases and fees, makes permanent a 20 percent surcharge on business income, and for the first time taxes corporations on their foreign earnings has predictably attracted national attention. How did Connecticut, which just over two decades ago had no income tax….so quickly become the third highest-taxing state in the nation, the most indebted on a per capita basis, and, according to Barron's, the worst managed?

It once had a 3% sales tax, one that applied only to certain goods. Now the sales tax is 6.35%, with some higher sales taxes applying to things like car rentals (9.35%), jewelry (7%), clothing (7%), and cars above $50,000 (7%).

Much of the fault must be placed upon the all but one-party rule that has been in place for a couple of decades, much of which was funded by the public employees unions.

It hasn't helped that three of the state's counties – Fairfield, Litchfield, and New Haven counties – have been so-called bedroom communities for Manhattan for decades. The residents there really don't care all that much about taxes as long as they are even a little bit less than what they would pay in New York.

Even the town where the WP Clan's former Connecticut beach house is located, one that had been in the family for 50 years, fell prey to the PYS's (Pretentious Yuppie Scumbags) from New York moving in and driving out families that had been there for generations. (A note: Most of the PYS's moved there and other shoreline towns in New Haven County because they couldn't afford to live in the wealthy communities of Fairfield and Litchfield counties, having only 7-figure incomes rather than the 8, 9, or 10-figure incomes of those required to live in those affluent counties.)

The tax-and-spend policies that have weakened Connecticut may also drive out some of its largest corporations because the cost of doing business is getting prohibitive, if not punitive. “Much has made of the fact that three of Connecticut's largest corporations....have finally expressed their displeasure over this last round of tax increases along with not-so-veiled threats to move their headquarters to friendlier jurisdictions.” They might not just pack up and leave in one fell swoop. As one commenter to the piece linked above put it, they'll locate new operations out of state and expand some of their existing operations in states other than Connecticut. Eventually those corporations – General Electric, Aetna, and Traveler's Insurance - will have a much smaller footprint in the Nutmeg State and only then will they pull up stakes and move the rest of their operations out of Connecticut.

It isn't just businesses that have been suffering under the increasing fiscal burdens being placed upon them, but the local schools as well. School enrollment is a pretty good indicator of the health of a state's economy. Unfortunately, even the better schools in many communities are seeing a decline in enrollment.

A far more likely catalyst for change is the unexpectedly dramatic drop in public-school enrollment. As far back as 2005, the National Center for Educational Statistics predicted a 6.3 percent decline in the state's school census versus a 10 percent increase nationally.

Estimates commissioned since then by individual districts suggest that even towns with highly regarded schools are destined for stunning loses. Lyme will be down 21.9 percent by 2020, Simsbury 25 percent by 2021, Litchfield 18.5 percent by 2022, and Easton 27.4 percent by 2024.

These towns are not poor or even middle-class towns, but rather well off and even they're seeing the effects of the crushing burden of always increasing taxes, profligate spending by the state, and the corruption of one-party rule.

Between that and the wealthiest retirees leaving for states with less confiscatory income and estate taxes, Connecticut is heading towards a downward spiral that will leave most of it looking like its already decaying cities – Bridgeport, Middletown, New Britain, and Waterbury – all once healthy middle class cities. It will go from being one of the wealthiest states in America to one of the poorest, all within two generations. What's sad is that it could have been stopped. It still can, but only if the good people of Connecticut finally wake up and throw the corrupt pandering spendthrift Democrat political machine out of office lock, stock, and barrel.

Denim Versus Suits

I think this pretty well explains it.

(H/T Maggie's Farm)

Thoughts On A Sunday

It was a twofer yesterday, with a lot of yard work being done and brush and leaves and other removed vegetation being hauled away. And then there was a graduation party to attend.

In this case it was Horse Girl's graduation and we gladly attended, though perhaps not for as long as we would have liked as there were other things that still needed to be finished at The Manse before the day was done.

All I know I was left a bit sore and out of sorts at the end of the day and ended up taking more than a few analgesics to help with the discomfort.

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One welcome change to our small town here in central New Hampshire: Our general store has changed hands and the new owners are looking to keep it going, making a few minor changes and performing a number of much needed repairs and renovations.

Fortunately the new owners are not Flatlanders, so they have a pretty good handle on how things work up here. In fact, they live one town over from here, were successful in construction and real estate, and decided the store fit in with their plans for 'retirement', as young as they are.

For those of you in more urban or suburban settings, the small general store tends to be a place where one can pick up anything from coffee and donuts to the latest information about the doings in town. It's a hangout. In our little town people of all ages are patrons of the store, with most of the adults being there in the morning before work and in the afternoon on their way home from work. The kids show up at lunch time and again after school, and some times after some of the after-school activities have finished.

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I know the New York Times is a shadow of its former self, having become quite decadent in its genteel decay, but I have to wonder whether it is so far gone that it is suffering from the journalistic version of dementia. The latest bit of evidence this is so is its calling SEAL Team 6 “America's Most Evil Gang.”

Does anyone at the NYT understand the purpose of the SEALs, particularly SEAL Team 6? If a situation comes to the point where they go in it ain't because they're going to be serving tea and crumpets. It usually means a number of Bad Guys are gonna die. What don't they understand about this?

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Valuable information for the 21st Century: How to Become Gluten Intolerant.

Well worth watching.

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Obama's claim that “America is the most respected country” doesn't stand up to scrutiny, and one person, Judge Jeanine Pirro, rips the President a new one on the matter.

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“You Are Now Leaving The American Sector”, a sign that should be posted at all of the entrances to American colleges and universities because,quite frankly, it appears our constitutional rights no longer exist once we enter the halls of academe. It will be a reminder that you have no freedom of speech, religion, or due process once you are on college grounds.

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David Starr comments upon Voter ID, particularly as it pertains to small town America.

The dems have been bad mouthing it.  Could it be that they fear it would weed out illegal democratic voters?  Actually where I am, it doesn't matter much.  I know the poll workers, and they know me. It is small town America up here.  But, having the ability to ask for a photo ID from people they don't recognize, does tighten things up.  And everybody has a driver's license in America.  And they all have photo's on them now.  I don't believe all the sob talk about what a terrible burden it is to obtain a photo ID, every one has a driver's license.  Otherwise how do they get to work?

I came across one small flaw in David's post, that being he assumes everyone works. But even those who don't work and are collecting government benefits has to have an ID, so the argument Democrats put forth about the 'burden' of getting an ID is just so much hot air.

David goes on to suggest doing away with “same day registration”, something we both see as a means of abusing the system and allowing ineligible voters to cast a vote.

One thing the New Hampshire Legislature has done is pass a bill that requires a minimum 30 days of residency in order to register to vote. This does away with the so-called “drive-by residency” of many campaign workers during the presidential primary season here in New Hampshire. I have no idea if the governor, Maggie Hassan, will sign it or not. Somehow I'm inclined to believe she won't as such a bill would hurt possible future Democrat candidates for office. I hope I am proved wrong.

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The Lonely Conservative asks us to imagine a world with no inequality.

It sounds like a horrible place.

Then again, we've seen more than one nation try the whole “everyone's equal” social experiment over the past few hundred years. Every. Single. One. Failed.

(H/T Pirate's Cove)

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You know this Title IX “rape epidemic” faux crisis has gone too far when a college persecutes (not prosecutes) a male student who was so incapacitated by alcohol that he couldn't possibly give consent to a sober female student before she fellated him.

That's right. He was passed out. She proceeded to have oral sex with him. He stands accused of sexual misconduct.

What's wrong with this picture?

Needless to say, the now expelled male college student is suing the college that did such a shabby and wholly incompetent and biased investigation.

I hope he gets millions.

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Motorcycle Week here in the Lakes Region of New Hampshire starts next weekend!

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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the weather has been cooperating, the smell of BBQ grills have been ubiquitous, and sounds of summer are making themselves known.

Time To Abolish The TSA

Billions of taxpayer dollars spent. Over a dozen years spent trying to perfect a screening system. Long wait times waiting for security screenings at airports. All of this in an effort make sure flying would be safe for passengers and crew.

All of that time, effort, and money spent on the TSA and it turns out they were as effective in stopping various weapons from being smuggled on board aircraft as doing nothing at all.

What's worse is that too many of the people who were supposed to help ensure the flying public's safety were merely uniformed thieves.

I think it's time to so away with the TSA as they have proved to us that they aren't doing the job the American taxpayers have been paying them to do. Why keep a government agency that serves no useful purpose at all?

Unprepared For Real Life

Reading about the spread of this “trigger warning” nonsense and its accompanying “safe spaces” crap, one has to wonder how these fragile snowflakes will ever make it out in the real world if they can't handle minor incidents within the relative safety of the halls of academe.

As Fred Reed writes about this latest social non-problem (for that's what it is):

Any girl who feels “unsafe” on reading classical poetry belongs in an asylum (some would argue that at Columbia she already is) or else she is engaging in forever-thirteen passive-aggressive rebellion against professors confused with her father. She obviously has no interest in Ovid.

"Oh...oh ...Ovid said rape two thousand years ago and I feel so...so unsafe!" Poor widdle fings. I assume that real women laugh.

It is easy to parody these twits--I choose my vowel carefully--but they represent a class whose rule does not bode well for the country--helpless, self-absorbed, sheltered--aye, there's the worst of it--and desirous of forcing their values on everyone else.

Is it any wonder that some college professors have been modifying their curriculum in order to help shield these weaklings from the realities of life? Some have done so to prevent even the possibility they'll be brought up on unspecified charges by one of these...these...people because they heard something that didn't fit in with their twisted and wholly unrealistic view about life and they felt offended.

Were I a professor at one of these institutions that used to provide higher education rather than coddling these self-made 'victims', this is the what I would say to them on their very first day in my class:

“Welcome to Real Life 101. I am Professor Pundit and I'm going to tell you right now that I don't believe in trigger warnings.”

“You will be hearing and seeing things you should have been exposed to earlier in life, but that your misguided and ignorant parents chose to shield you from, meaning you arrived here unprepared to deal with life as it is.”

“I also expect that a good portion of you were told all through school that you were special and never had to worry about losing because 'everyone gets a trophy for just showing up'. Unfortunately you were lied to because very few of you, if any, are special. Instead, you're average. No, strike that. You're below average because you have no idea what it's like to fail. When you do you'll have no idea how to deal with it and you'll fall apart. You aren't prepared for failure and that's one of the biggest failings of your parents and teachers.”

“One of the first things I'm going to teach you is this one solid and perpetual truth: Life isn't fair. It never has been and it never will be. Get used to it. If you can't handle this, then I strongly suggest you drop this course and salve your wounded psyche by taking Basket Weaving 100 or Bunny Hugging 110 and leave real life to the rest of us.”

“I intend to flush out all of the crap that has been force fed to you over the previous 12 years of your scholastic life and teach you how to think, not what to think. I will help you develop the skills you need to survive out there in the real world where there will be no trigger warnings, no safe spaces, no college tribunals to take your side because you were offended by what someone said, wrote, or did that everyone else in the world sees as trivial and not worth mentioning.”

“I am going to shove reality in your face. I'm not going to sugar coat it or make it easy for you to coast through this course. I'm going to show you that not everyone can be reasoned with. I'm going to prove to you that there are people out there who don't give a good goddamn about you or your feelings, nor should they. I'm going to show you that there are evil fucking people out there who wouldn't think twice about raping you and then slicing your head off with a knife because it pleases them to do so to someone they see as sub-human. (Yes, this means you, Miss Sorority Pledge.)”

“I'm going to prove to you that the only person you can count on is you when you're out there in the real world. Your mommy or daddy won't be able to bail you out and none of the teachers from your schools will lend you a helping hand once you leave this place. You'll be on your own. If you fail to learn these lessons and the others I hope to teach you, then you will be truly and totally fucked. The only way you'll survive is to move back in with your mommy and daddy and live in their basement. At worst, you'll be curled up on your bed down there, stuck in a semi-catatonic state because you were set up by your parents and your teachers to fail, being totally incapable of dealing with real life as it is, not as you want it to be.”

“Any questions before we begin? No? Good. Then let's get started....”

So endith the lesson.