We’ve seen above average temps here at the lake in January, but February saw both some of our coldest and warmest temps of the winter. Our precipitation total is slightly above normal, but mostly due to rain, not snow. It looks like we’ll be making up for the lack of snowfall over the next week or so.
Oh, and sugaring – maple syrup production – has started in earnest. Quite a few producers started tapping trees a week or so ago. I am not aware of anyone who has started their evaporators yet, but they should any day now.
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I keep wondering how long it’s going to take before the clueless among us realize that “equity” has absolutely nothing to do with “equality”? While the words sound similar they do not mean the same thing, something which we must point out again and again as we fight the increasing push for DEI ‘requirements’ in schools, colleges, and businesses.
The clueless do not understand what equity entails - due either to ignorance or indoctrination – that being reducing everyone to the lowest common denominator. Well, everyone except the elite.
History shows that is a particularly abysmal idea as in the end societies that do that die, usually in fire and blood. (The elite will ignore that fact that it is usually their blood will be spilled by the people they reduced to that lowest common denominator, i.e. abject poverty and virtual slavery.)
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Why would a Virginia teachers union and Democrats in Virginia’s legislature oppose teaching children about the victims of Communism?
Although House Bill 1816, the “Standards of Learning; instruction on dangers and victims of communism,” passed the House of Delegates with some Democrat support, it ultimately met its demise in the Democrat-controlled Senate of Virginia, Fox News reports.Could it be that they want to hide Communism’s genocidal history, the death toll being somewhere north of 100 million (and counting)? Could it be they want to hide Communism’s/Socialism’s dismal 400+ year record of one economic failure after another? Why would they want to hide any of that...unless they want to make it easier to fool people into embracing Communism and Socialism as a cure-all for the ‘evils’ of Capitalism even though Capitalism has lifted more people out of poverty than any other system?
The bill was “passed by indefinitely” by the Committee on Education and Health, which means it could be reconsidered at a later date. If it isn’t, the bill essentially will be dead.
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The bill calls on the governor to “annually issue a proclamation setting the seventh day of November as Victims of Communism Day,” and that the day “be suitably observed” by all public primary and secondary schools.
It also directs the state board of education to update Virginia’s history and social science learning standards to include the “dangers of communism.”
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Is the real reason Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) was hospitalized is because he can no longer take care of himself?
Fetterman was sworn in as Senator on January 3 and kept a low profile until his office reported he had checked himself into George Washington University Hospital, in Washington, D.C. on February 8 after feeling lightheaded. His spokesman released statements that all tests on Fetterman came back negative and he was released after two days.Fetterman shouldn’t have run for office in the first place as he wasn’t physically up to the task. WRBA couldn’t lend a hand because they were so busy keeping Biden functional. They have even less resources available today since Biden requires a lot more ‘maintenance’ now.
What the spokesman did not disclose was that Fetterman was diagnosed with depression and was advised to see the Capitol physician, which he did the following Monday. The doctor recommended Fetterman check himself into the hospital for clinical depression.
It turns out Fetterman’s lightheadedness was the result of him not being able to take care of himself: He was not eating or drinking enough fluids to sustain himself.
Fetterman is on his own in D.C. His family did not move to Washington with him, opting to remain in their hometown Braddock. This meant that Fetterman, still recuperating from a debilitating stroke while starting a new high pressure job, had no one to look after him. His staff obviously wasn’t. They knew he was suffering from depression and that between the stroke and depression he was difficult to deal with.
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Is the flawed Equal Rights Amendment coming back from the dead?
The Equal Rights Amendment is once again up for debate in the Senate next week, and Democrats and weak Republicans want you to believe that the only “debate” this time around is a procedural one. The original proposal to amend the U.S. Constitution to include a clause to guarantee identical legal treatment of both sexes passed in 1972 with a seven-year ratification deadline. Despite extending the deadline to 1982, the ERA never received the requisite approval from 38 of the 50 state legislatures.I can think of a number of negative effects the ERA will have, particularly for women. Here are just a few of them I can think of right off the top of my head:
Seeking to win some political points by resurrecting the dead amendment, Sen. Ben Cardin, the Maryland Democrat, has proposed a resolution, concurrent with a House resolution passed in 2021, to strike the ratification deadline from the text of the ERA, thus, presumably, reopening the amendment for passage by state legislatures. The Senate will debate the resolution Tuesday, an event that Democrats hope to keep at the bumper sticker level: Who doesn’t value men and women equally?
The amendment, however, does not pose the question of the equal inherent worth of men and women, as Cardin and his colleagues on the right and the left would have you believe. The question, instead, as most political ones, is one of prudence. Is it prudent to treat men and women identically—or, reframing it, to treat women as men? History, and most of the women in it, issue a resounding “no.”
1. Women will have to register for the draft. (It’s not much of an issue now as it was back in 1972 because the draft isn’t active like it was back then...but it could be.)The Law of Unintended Consequences will come into play and the downsides are likely to outweigh the upsides, just as Phyllis Schlafly understood back in 1972, which is why she fought so hard against its ratification.
2. The dynamics of divorce will change, particularly when it comes to child custody. (This is something I can support as in general men get the short end of the stick, being awarded custody under 20% of the time.)
3. Women convicted of crimes will have to receive the same sentences as men for the same crime. Right now women receive lesser sentences for identical crimes.
4.It will mean an end to all sex-segregated spaces – locker rooms, restrooms...and prisons.
5. There will also be repercussions for men: “When you treat women identically to men, it turns out, society merely adapts standards to favor more feminine characteristics, enabling women to succeed but feminizing men in the process. With the ERA in place, it’s worth asking if any part of society would be permitted to exhibit the masculine virtues.” The answer to that is “No”.
Maybe Congress should take a closer look at the ERA to determine if it will cause more harm than good in its original form.
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And that’s the news from a snowy Lake Winnipesaukee, where February vacation is in progress, the ski resorts are busy, and more snow is on the way.