8/02/2015

Thoughts On A Sunday

The humidity fled from New Hampshire just in time for the weekend, making for wonderful weather. Deb and I attended to errands on Saturday, spending a good portion of the day out and about. I eschewed yard work on Saturday, not wanting to spoil and otherwise perfect day with something as mundane as yard work.

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Is this the first example of the unintended consequences of cocooning college students?

It appears a poor little snowflake has learned she doesn't set the JC Penney dress code.

It’s now “unfair” to require employees to wear appropriate attire, I guess. Hey, perhaps she could purchase her own store and allow employees to wear whatever they want. BTW, in quite a few workplaces, men have it much tighter than women. We have to have our shirts tucked in, we have to wear shoes and socks, rather than sockless shoes and sandals, and often have to wear ties. So, cry me a river.

Welcome the real world, snowflake!

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This is something I've known for a long time: Organic agriculture is a con job.

For the most part 'organic' vegetables aren't any better or any healthier for you than those grown using modern techniques. One reason they're more expensive is because yields tend to be lower.

There's also the cachet of “organically grown, all natural” that appeals to food snobs. All it means is that it gives the snobs an excuse to pay more money for food that isn't better than what most of the rest of us buy at the local supermarket.

As I wrote once a long time ago, the label of 'organic' is a license to (legally) steal. Our friend Farmer Andy once exploited this by selling “organically grown, solar dried” firewood, charging more for it than his regular firewood.

The joke: All of the firewood he sold came from the same wood lot, same wood pile. All of his trees were organically grown, and once cut down, cut to length, split, and piled to dry...in the sun. Most firewood is just like that.

The bigger joke: He sold a lot of the more expensive firewood.

As the man once said, never underestimate human stupidity.

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It seems the example the American Left has used as a model to promote socialism here – that being Sweden – overlooked one huge factor that doesn't exist here in the US that allowed it to succeed there as long as it did. That factor: a homogeneous culture.

American culture can in no way, shape, or form be considered homogeneous. That has been both one of greatest strengths and one of our weaknesses.

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A lexicon of nonsense, indeed.

A few of my favorites:

Philosophical = Using evidence and experience to create a well-thought out opinion on a matter of policy, culture, etc. = Whatever I believe

Ideological = Stubbornly sticking to a viewpoint, regardless of the facts = Whatever people who disagree with me believe

Free (via government) = Stuff other people will pay for, or that you’ll pay for in a way you may not realize

Compromise = Demanding that conservatives cave on beliefs

Read the whole thing.

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Stephen Moore writes about the demise of the small American bank.

This is something I knew would happen after that awful piece of crap known as Dodd-Frank passed. Chris Dodd and Barney Frank knew exactly what they were doing when they pushed their bill through Congress, following the orders of their Wall Street 'contributors' to ensure only the Too Big To Fail banks would benefit while their smaller competitors would be crushed by new regulations created by Dodd's and Frank's legislation.

This is yet another example of crony capitalism perpetrated by members of the very party who always say they're against it...until their corporate masters give them their orders to support it.

The hypocrisy runs deep in the Democrat Party.

The GOP isn't much better.

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On of my favorite media guys, John Stossel, informs us that the EPA is no longer an independent, science-based government agency, but a rogue organization governed by zealots who have no interest in facts, evidence, court decisions, or science.

These days the EPA is nothing but a government funded branch of the radical tree-huggers who so hate humans that everything they do is aimed solely at preventing anything we humans want to do even if the benefits far outweigh any of the negatives, no matter how minuscule they are.

It's time to clean house at the EPA and remove the bought-and-paid-for bureaucrats that have done far more damage to our nation than any of the so-called polluters they're trying to destroy.

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Call it a flashback to the bad old days of the Soviet Union.

One of the regular activities many Soviet citizens partook of on a regular basis was called “standing on line.” The old joke back then went something like this:

“Excuse me comrade, is this the line for the store that has no bread?”

“No. This is the line for the store that has no shoes.”

Flash forward to 2015 and we can see that particular activity has now made an appearance in Venezuela and for exactly the same reason: socialism.

Of course I expect the Maduro government is still blaming the Yanqui Imperialists for the failure of socialism rather than the socialism's built-in fatal flaws.

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Lawrence Mayo takes a look at what it is that is really dividing us, more accurately defining the political battle lines that exist. They aren't what you think they are.

Many people are under the mistaken impression that the political battle lines in America are Democrats vs. Republicans. Some even erroneously believe the battle lines are Liberal vs. Conservative.

But if you wish to understand modern politics in our country — if you want to make sense of the seemingly-irrational behaviors of both parties — consider the reality that the battle lines are actually Elitists vs. The People.

Yeah, I'd say that pretty well sums it up. Read the whole thing.

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It's bad enough that Title IX is being used for purposes for which it was never intended. Some are arguing it should be expanded to cover even more, and not by legislation but by fiat. It's being twisted from its original intent, to ban sexual discrimination, and being used to institute sexual discrimination. That no one amongst the Powers-That-Be sees a problem with this is frightening. That it is now violating the Fourteenth Amendment and will increasingly do so is being willfully ignored.

At this rate it I expect we'll soon see a proposal to expand it well outside its original intent and be applied throughout our entire society. I also expect the MSM and the Progressives will embrace that expansion with open arms. Then again they've never really been fans of the Constitution, have they?

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To quote Inigo Montoya, “You use that word a lot. I do not think it means what you think it means.”

The word? “Holistic.”

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You might be a liberal if....

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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the summerfolk are enjoying the weather, the ice cream is tasting better every day, and where work during the week intrudes upon or recreation time.