February 2010 Archives

BeezleBub returned from the WP In-Laws today, his last day of February vacation. To say he wasn't pleased to be home would be an understatement. It wasn't that he dislikes us or home rather than it meant he couldn't work on his Jeep for another month or so and that has to go back to school. (He likes learning, he just doesn't like his high school and particularly all the adolescent drama that consumes too much of the day.)

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One American import British citizens appear to be embracing? Tea Parties.

(H/T Instapundit)

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US Senator Judd Gregg (R-NH) believes the US economy is heading for a major collapse within the next 5 to 7 years unless some major changes are made in regards to the government's unsustainable spending.

Unfortunately I must wholeheartedly agree with him.

(H/T And Rightly So by way of Pirate's Cove)

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Bogie gives us a report on her snowstorm experiences. She also includes some photos, showing the snowfall and the high water aftermath.

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Skip Murphy has found that US Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) has discovered a heretofore unknown Right in the United States Constitution.

It never ceases to amaze me how many unwritten 'rights' our Democrat leaders have found in the Constitution over the years, even those that fly in the face of the actual enumerated Rights found there.

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David Starr reminds us that second hand stuff can be pretty good, particularly if the price is right, and that sometimes second hand stuff is better than new stuff.
Call it Yankee frugality.

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Al Gore attempts to rehabilitate Anthropogenic Global Warming, trying to ignore or minimize the scientific fraud committed at the CRU.

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During my return trip from picking up BeezleBub from the WP In-Laws I noticed quite a few trucks towing bobhouses away from the lake. (A bobhouse is a small shack set up on the ice to provide shelter while ice fishing.) With the weird weather we've been experiencing - snow, rain, high winds, and warm daytime temps - the ice on the lakes has been melting, making it necessary to remove bobhouses before the ice gets too thin to venture out to get them. Such a thing usually occurs in mid to late March.

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And that's the (abbreviated) news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the weather is schizophrenic, the ice is getting thinner, and the woodpiles are getting smaller.

A car in Washington, DC, abandoned in a traffic lane near a busy intersection close to an embassy remains there a week until public notice prompts the police to act. Harumph! And people pay taxes for this?

HT: Outside the Beltway

Wow, this is much-anticipated. Should the states be subject to the Second Amendment as they are to other Bill of Rights amendments? I think so. That's the issue with "incorporation," as first formulated by the Fourteenth Amendment.

This excellent background by the USA Today gives us Otis McDonald, the protagonist in this case, McDonald v. Chicago. All he wants to be able to do it protect himself and his wife. I think he should be able to do so.

But since 1982 the city of Chicago had denied home ownership of firearms. How un-American is that?

The decision is scheduled to come down in June. BTW, Mr. McDonald, a black man and a veteran, may be interested in learning that the origins of gun control were to keep firearms away from just such men as he on the basis of skin color, according to the wonderful organization Jews for the Preservation of Firearms (JPFO). You can view the short film, "No Guns for Negroes," on the subject here. What sends me over the top is the 1968 Gun Control Act is taken almost word for word from a Nazi law. Thanks to Sen. Dodd. Boy, the apple doesn't fall from that tree, does it?

The president of the JPFO, Aaron Zelman, can be heard on the G. Gordon Liddy Show in a thirteen-minute podcast. I hope Mr. Liddy's optimism proves warranted.

HT: NRA via Pro Gun NH

Should only state-sanctioned law enforcement types be allowed to do it? In NH, one can do it without permission of the state. When prompted, one needn't even produce identification. Cool.

But when the Brady Campaign weighs in on the topic, they focus solely on the negatives, of which there surely are. For example, I'd like to open carry near UNH. But even with my tenuous grasp on the virtue of prudence, I understand I'll soon be circled by law enforcement types, blowing out their chubby checks. The bedwetters become fire hoses. Yet, they think same-sex marriage is utterly constitutional, even when gun rights provisions in the state and federal documents stare them down like one of the presidents on Mt. Rushmore.

I imagine when they aren't frantically dialing 9-1-1 on their cellphones, they'd be belittling the person for his (or her) sexual inadequacy. They're classy like that, trained to respond like one of Pavlov's dogs: "Man with gun! Danger! Danger! Help, Police!"

Here's Joe Huffman, an American original, who thinks, "It is time for all Americans to start judging people by the content of the character rather than the color of their skin or the carrying of a self defense tool." He goes on:

Brilliant article by a smart man. Thanks, Herbert London. He's president of the Hudson Institute, where people work who are too smart for the Cato Institute. I hope you all recognize the reference to Freidrich Hayek's best-selling book. (The Russell Roberts' rap video is awesome on the contest between Hayek and Keynes.)

The road to serfdom is paved with rights and benefits. People want more of whatever for which someone else will pay. The casualty in this assessment is personal responsibility and liberty.

I didn't for my three sons, even though I am. I felt as though I didn't have the right to genitally mutilate them, severing up to fifty percent of their nerve endings.

Except for Jews and Muslims, the practice seems to be diminishing in the United States. Thank goodness for that. Even if I were a Jew, I'd still be against the practice even though it occupies a central tenet of that faith.

But with some Muslim groups female circumcision, which rightly makes normal people aghast, is sometimes practiced, esp. in northern Africa. But for both sexes the procedure is remarkably analogous...and should be considered equally repugnant. This was first explained to me by a medical doctor and doesn't, of course, include the especially disgusting removal of the clitoris. That's in a league by itself for cruelty.

Here's a recent Huffington Post entry on the subject.

We need you for the tax base in order to provide services that disproportionately go to people "of color." Whites are good for one color it seems, though. The same as Michigan State. I like the new darker green.

The story is here, about a community outside Philadelphia trying to stem "white flight."

HT: Am Ren

Today, Toyota announced a recall on yet another product due to unintended acceleration problems.

Let's go to the video:

This is a follow up to this post, specifically to the second half of the post.

A recap:

A laser source is received from a customer for repair, wrapped in a note that says "Toggle switch on top panel of unit is broken off. Can't turn on unit power."

The problem was immediately apparent to our faithful Repair Guy.

The toggle switch was indeed gone...because the unit in question never had one.

The power switch on the unit in question is on the front, a red circle with a vertical line in the center. The user's manual even shows a diagram of where the switch is located and what it looks like.

Today, our Repair Guy received an irate phone call from the same customer, demanding to know why his laser source wasn't repaired.

Our Repair Guy tried to explain to the customer why the unit didn't require repair, but the customer wasn't having it. So he asked the customer if he had the carrying case for the laser. When the customer answered that he did, the Repair Guy asked him to go into the case pocket and remove the piece of paper inside, then read it over the phone.

"The previous model DWLS2, discontinued over 7 years ago, did use a toggle switch on the top panel to turn on the power to the unit and select the laser wavelength."

"The present DWLS2 does not incorporate a toggle switch. Instead, there is a keypad on the front panel. The round red button on the lower left corner of the keypad is the power switch. Press and hold the button for 2 seconds until the indicator LEDs turn on. Press and hold the button again for 2 seconds to turn the unit off."

"For further information please Read The Fine Manual, enclosed."

Then the customer actually pushed the power button, turning on the laser...

...and then hung up his phone.

No "Thank you". No "Oops." No nothing, other than the sound of the call being disconnected. Our Repair Guy doesn't know if it was due to anger, embarrassment, or a fit of pique.

This incident proves that our Repair Guy understands our customers quite well and anticipates their needs, hence the piece of paper he included with the laser source when he shipped it back to the customer.

As I posted about last week, the superintendent of the Central Falls, RI schools threatened to fire every teacher and administrator at the high school because they weren't willing to go the extra mile to turn the failing school around. They wanted extra pay to do the jobs they were supposed to be doing to begin with.

Today the Central Falls School Board voted to carry out that threat, firing every teacher and administrator at the school as promised.

My grandfather retired as a superintendent of schools in New Canaan, Conn., when he was only 52 years old. He had served 27 years in that capacity and had spent three years or so teaching. After retirement in Naples, Florida, he was prodded to go back to work in order to qualify for Medicare. So he put his Ph.D. to work, spending five years as a part-time consultant to the big high-rise towers and their outdoor gardens. (He had been a former biology teacher.)

In that time he maxed out his earnings for Medicare so he and his beloved wife could receive the maximum benefit. Not bad.

Then the school gave him cost of living adjustments too. Not bad.

He died several years ago at nearly 92.

Shortly before this occurred, I stated to him that I thought Social Security was unsustainable. He would have none of it--it certainly had been good to him, giving him benefits over a longer period than his working career. That's not going to happen to me.

How can a highly intelligent person as he was be so misguided by thinking such a system could prevail indefinitely?

That's what Jay Ambrose talking about. It's a Ponzi scheme. Period. It worked great early on, but now it's rapidly tilting in the other direction.

My goodness, listening this morning (approx. one third of the way through the 41-minute podcast) to the invaluable BBC NewsPod, I came across recent debate of this story of the proposed implementation of teaching clinical sex ed to all students, regardless whether the school is private or religious.

Scary stuff. When people consider health more important than freedom, this is what happen. Gesundheit uber alles.

I, however, did enjoy listening to the British pronunciation of condom.

Makes me greatly appreciate the First Amendment we have in this country.

Keeping in mind President Obama's latest push for a lamely warmed over Senate health care reform bill, another appropriate preview of what we can expect should health care destruction make it through Congress can be found here.

Remember Danny Williams? He's the Newfoundland and Labrador Premier who decided that the Canadian socialized health care system just wouldn't cut it for his health. Why?

In an interview with The Canadian Press, Williams said he went to Miami to have a "minimally invasive" surgery for an ailment first detected nearly a year ago, based on the advice of his doctors.

"This was my heart, my choice and my health," Williams said late Monday from his condominium in Sarasota, Fla.

What it came down to was that he wanted the best medical care possible, so, rather than deal with what he would get in Canada, he came to America.

Should we go the way of Canada and many other countries with government health care, Canadians will have no place to go for superior health care. The problem is that we Americans will have no place to go either, unless the smarter doctors move their practices out of the country and start a cash only operation.

One upside should this happen? The medical tourism business will boom as those with the means will leave the country to get the medical treatment they need.

Received via e-mail:

The Washington Post's Mensa Invitational once again asked readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting or changing one letter, and supply a new definition. Here are this year's winners. Read them carefully. Each is an artificial word with only one letter altered from a real word. Some are terrifically innovative: 

1. Intaxication: Euphoria at getting a tax refund, which lasts until you realize it was your money to start with. 
 
2. Reintarnation: Coming back to life as a hillbilly. 
 
3. Bozone (n.): The substance surrounding stupid people, that stops bright ideas from penetrating. The Bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign of breaking down in the near future. 

4. Cashtration (n.): The act of buying a house, which renders the subject financially impotent for an indefinite period of time. 

5. Giraffiti: Vandalism spray-painted very, very high. 
 
6. Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it. 
 
7. Inoculatte: To take coffee intravenously when you are running late. 
 
8. Hipatitis: Terminal coolness. 
 
9. Osteopornosis: A degenerate disease. (This one got extra credit.) 
 
10. Karmageddon: It's like, when everybody is sending off all these really bad vibes, right? And then like, the Earth explodes and it's like, a serious bummer. 
 
11. Decafalon (n.): The grueling event of getting through the day consuming only things that are good for you. 
 
12. Glibido: All talk and no action 
 
13. Dopeler Effect: The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly. 
 
14. Arachnoleptic Fit (n.): The frantic dance performed just after you've accidentally walked through a spider web 
 
15. Beelzebug (n.): Satan in the form of a mosquito, that gets into your bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out . 
 
16. Caterpallor (n.): The color you turn after finding half a worm in the fruit you're eating. 
 
And, the pick of the lot... 

17. Ignoranus: A person who's both stupid and an asshole.

There are a few words in that list I plan to use from now on.

I know Chan has already dealt with it effectively here. But...I can't resist further discussion.

Give states like New Hampshire low rankings because of anti-gun bias while other states that happen to have far higher murder rates than New Hampshire's get by with much better grades? Come again?

As the link will provide you, David Hardy of Arms and the Law Blog writes, "A good correlation: the worse your Brady grade, the lower your homicide rate." Yep.

Is it any wonder public opinion in favor of gun control is at an all-time low? When this is the best you can do, you look foolish, Brady Campaign.

Tanner's op-ed is very effective in the New York Post. He shows that like a Roman emperor, Obama and Pelosi's old, old, old, old idea ain't gonna work. (There was certainly something to Thomas Sowell's statement during the campaign that Barack Obama was the youngest candidate with the oldest ideas.)

What's the idea? Controlling prices. Yet, using coercion leads to more coercion...waiting lines. Price controls=rationing.

Tanner provides ample evidence from today's society that this is so in similar places like Great Britain and Canada. I think it's irrefutable.

One datum that should be shouted from the rooftops so that maybe Jeanne Shaheen can hear is this:

Or Obama could try to tackle underlying health-care costs, by repealing government regulations that add as much as much as $169 billion a year to the cost of care, according to Christopher Conover of Duke University.

Gubmit causing problems? Can't be. It must be bad big business. At least that's been the progressive line for the past seventy years.

It's the seventh week and Skip has continued his downward journey to our mutual goal of 195 pounds. Unfortunately this week I hit another plateau, dropping only 0.1 pounds since last week. (I have a really lame excuse, though. Deb and I took BeezleBub and the WP In-Laws out to eat and I dared to overindulge. Of course I had to weigh myself not much more than 10 hours after that, so I was still carrying the delicious repast with me. But I can't take full credit for that excuse because Skip did the very same thing the previous weekend, which is why there was no report from him and no graphic to go along with it.)


Click on image to enlarge.

Stuart Taylor and KC Johnson's book on the Duke Lacrosse rape allegation and the ensuing madness on the left-wing campus never was the success it ought to have been. Great book, with a few minor typographical or grammatical errors.

The disgusting woman who started it all, Crystal Magnum, a real piece of backyard poop, is in the news. Again.

It's certainly worth the thirty minutes. And then some. He's great. Just say no to government encroachment and the sapping of energy and independence from dependency--which really took off under Republican administrations.

Beezlebub is on vacation this week and will be spending it down at the WP In-Laws, helping around their place and getting all the taps, tubing, and buckets set up to collect sap from sugar maples to make maple syrup.

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Speaking of sugaring, Bird Dog over at Maggie's Farm has a great post covering all aspects of making maple syrup (called sugaring), as well as the many uses for it other than covering your pancakes, french toast, or waffles. BD also has a number of useful links about sugaring.

In case you're wondering, we here at The Manse consume only the syrup made by the WP In-Laws or from Farmer Andy's operation, usually a dark amber Grade A or Grade B. I find them more flavorful than the light amber one finds in markets and from sugar houses via the Internet. We tend to keep the darker grades for ourselves.

We would rather do without than consume the colored/flavored corn syrup that masquerades as maple syrup that most folks consume.

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Deb's '91 Buick made its last journey late Friday afternoon. Despite it's structural shortcomings, it still ran like a top, making its last drive pleasurable while at the same time being bittersweet.

BeezleBub, the WP Dad, and I took the Buick to a salvage operator and got $175 cash for it as is. The fellow who bought it thought it looked pretty darned good for a 19-year old car, but he knew there were structural problems that made it too expensive to fix.

Before it made its last trip, BeezleBub took some pictures of it and took a few souvenirs to remember a car that has been part of his life for such a long time.

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As I mentioned last week, we bought a used 2004 Ford F150 4x4 to replace Deb's Buick. The truck was going to be hers and I would continue to drive the Intrepid. However, it didn't work out that way.

Instead, she has claimed the Intrepid as her own and I am now driving the pickup.

I think she planned it that way from the beginning.

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I thought I knew a lot about cats. But this was something new: Cats apparently have a gene that lets them love humans.

Cats, at least modern house cats, love their humans. Nothing else explains why cats demand petting, sleep on favored human's beds, sit in laps, and purr when picked up and stroked. They get terribly lonely when left alone. But what is the evolutionary origin of this gene?

The gene also shows they have intelligence, because they knew a good thing when they saw it and let the humans take care of them...just as it should be. I know Bagheera would agree with that.

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Are we now seeing deflation in spite of stimulus spending?

(H/T Instapundit)

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At least someone within the Federal Reserve gets it and is willing to say what needs to be said.

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It looks like the government is looking to do to your 401(k)'s and IRA's what they've done to Social Security.

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

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Fellow Granite Stater David Starr has a few ideas about how to cut the $1.6+ trillion deficit in Obama's latest budget.

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I must admit to a love/hate relationship with Anne Coulter. But this time around I happen to agree with her, particularly about this.

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Jennifer Rubin reminds us that Marco Rubio is not the Republican version of Barack Obama.

You see, they are alike because they are both non-white. Just like one another. Except that one speaks in short, comprehensible declarative statements about the greatness of America, and the other talks in vapid phrases, apologizing for America's ills. And except that one is a dogged advocate of the free market and a robust response to the war against Islamic fundamentalists, and the other isn't. And except that one inveighed against an inanely crafted pork-a-thon, and the other is still trying to convince us it saved us from an even worse depression. And then one said he's not prematurely running for president, and the other unfortunately did.

It appears that Rubio has a better chance of becoming the Republican nominee for US Senate than Florida Governor Charlie Crist and then defeating the Democrat challenger, particularly in light of the voter backlash against Democrats of all stripes.

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It's one thing when we slam the media for biased reporting, or worse, no reporting at all. It's another thing when Spain's government blames the "Anglo-Saxon" media as being the primary cause of all their economic woes. But could it be the real reason for Spain's economic pain be their unsustainable social spending and onerous fiscal policies under their socialist government?

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Could GE Hitachi have the answer to dealing with high-level long half-life nuclear waste?

Using reactors that make use of nuclear fuels other than U₂₃₅, like Pu₂₃₉, could greatly reduce the amount of 'traditional' nuclear waste to a small fraction of what presently exists. That would help, particularly in light of President Obama's abandonment of the Yucca Mountain storage facility.

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As happens around here almost every winter, a couple of guys decided that because Lake Winnipesaukee was frozen over where they happened to be (Welch's Island) that it was frozen enough everywhere. They were wrong.

Most of us around here know what areas are generally safe and what areas that need to be avoided at all times. The latter usually have thin ice or open water due to the way water flows in a given area. These two guys drove to an area on the lake where water flow keeps the ice thin or even non-existent.

This isn't the first time a vehicle has gone through the ice there, and I doubt it will be the last.

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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where a new round of snow is on the way, the local kids are on vacation, and where the ice is still thick enough to drive on...if you know where it's still safe.

Three words: Restrict the Franchise.

Even John Stuart Mill in On Liberty said those who are recipients of government largess--the Victorian way of saying on the dole--should forgo their voting privileges. Any right to vote in the Contitution? Not that I see.

Check out this wonderful (second) paragraph on the topic by C.J. Maloney's Making Democracy Safe for the World:

Yet, even when things look hopeless and all recorded history tells us our democracy is doomed, that's no excuse to give up the ghost. Even in the darkest of times people still give it their best because hope springs eternal, and as a great American once asked in another time of trouble, "was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor"? Hell, no, it wasn't, and there is still time to save our democracy, but to do so we must  remove the millstones that hang about our system's neck--we must restrict the franchise. Caroline Baum recently noted, "when half the population is on the receiving end of government programs and has no skin in the cost, they will encourage their elected representatives to vote 'yes' on every new benefit that comes down the pike." That, right there, is the root of America's overriding problem: our future-crushing, insurmountable fiscal deficits.

You mean the 84 percent of lifetime earnings children born today will need to pay in order to pay for the clearly unsustainable entitlement programs?

I had an outstanding history teacher at West Point my plebe year. Maj. Christenson had gone to Wisconsin and played both football and basketball on scholarship. He settled on one, which I can't remember, though I think it was basketball.

Well, he went to Officer Candidate School (OCS) after he joined the army, which he did after he received his master's in history. It was a very tough program, esp. for him being so educated. A real stud who did his best playing against the toughies with the Department of Physical Education in the intramural basketball games--an Academy tradition.

Fluent in Italian and posted there when Gen. Haig was somehow present there in the 1970s, he was told to acquire a Lamborghini for the general. Which he did. Then he got to ride with him. Just imagine Scent of the Woman with eyes.

A larger than life figure was Haig, obviously. Christenson admired him enormously.

P.S. I also learned to date all my work from that semester's work. I earned an A minus from Christenson's world history second semester class that never made it to my official transcript. A roommate discovered this looking at my grades the following semester. (I had struggled with chemistry and barely passed, and so wasn't inclined to even glance at the report.) So off to the registrar's office I tramped. After being contemptuously treated for a brief time--Was I the one in error?--they eventually turned me over a few days later to a colonel who headed the history department. A great guy. But by this time Maj. Christenson was stationed in West Germany (Yes, I know, it was a long time ago.) and had advanced up to LTC (lieutenant colonel). He was a air defense artillery person, and quite proud of it, thank you very much.

After giving the colonel my notebook that I luckily still had in my possession and his having made a few calls to Europe, the problem was ultimately corrected. The colonel, though,  did give me kindly words of wisdom: date all my work. The copious notes--which I had no intention on throwing away and, in fact, still possess--lacked that.

Now I'm a teacher and a stickler for just that, telling the students the same story I've told you. Minus the souped-up car.

While I understand the Brady Campaign's goals, namely gun control, I have a real problem with the premise of their campaign, that being heavily restricting ownership of guns by law abiding citizens will somehow stop gun violence. There are far too many examples both here and overseas of why this premise is false, showing that where the citizens are banned from owning guns crime goes up, and particularly violent crime. The other flaw in their premise is that criminals will abide by gun laws, which is naïve at best.

The Brady folks recently came out with their list of states and their gun control ratings, with '0' being the worst and '100' the best. New Hampshire scored a 6, meaning the Brady folks believe our state's gun laws are too lax. The socialist paradise of California scored a 79. Utah scored a 0, supposedly with the worst gun restriction laws in the nation. But one thing the Brady campaign has chosen to ignore: crime rates in those states as compared to the laxity of their gun laws.

As Bogie states:

Hmm, last I checked, there was less gun deaths in those scoring lowest as to highest (NH is #8 lowest for [percent] by population with a 6.1 versus 10.2 US average). Oh look, as of 2008, NH was the second lowest in murders at 50 (out of 51) versus California being a 12 (51 is lowest, 1 is highest on the scale). Also, last I checked, pointy objects were the cause of as many deaths as guns in NH (4 a piece with general beating deaths just behind at 3).

Around here gun control and registration means something entirely different from how the Brady Campaign defines it:

Gun Control (New Hampshire Dictionary): Hitting what you're aiming at.

Gun Registration (New Hampshire Dictionary): 1.) Making sure the trailer you use to haul your gun collection is registered. 2.) Ensuring your scope is aligned properly so your round goes where it's supposed to at 500 (or 1000) yards.

(Crossposted to One Voice)

I would have posted this next Tuesday, but it was too good to wait until then. So I bring you two more tales from the files of Tech Support.

The first tale of tech support woe came to my attention earlier today when I received a request to look into a customer complaint about two red laser sources that apparently failed after the customer had used them for about a week. Two laser sources were being returned because there was no visible output even though both of the indicator LEDs were on...one of them being the Low Battery indicator.

This indicator lets the customer know the batteries need to be replaced. If the customer had actually read the instruction manual he would have known that when the Low Battery LED is on, the red laser is disabled. So the customer sent his two red laser sources all the way back to our factory from overseas to have the AA alkaline batteries changed.

The second tale is related to the first.

While talking to our Repair Guy about the first incident, he mentioned that it isn't all that unusual for him to receive units for repair that required only a change of batteries to set them to rights. For certain pieces of equipment about 25% of the returns required only new batteries to 'fix' them. Some of this equipment still had the original batteries shipped with them many years ago.

These two tales prove what we've known for a long time: Customers don't read the user manuals. And as long as this is true we will continue to see 'broken' units that aren't really broken and only need new batteries.

As the old saying goes, some times you have to break eggs in order to make and omelet. And so it is sometimes when one is trying to fix a broken educational system, clearing away that which does not work and starting fresh.

The Central Falls, Rhode Island school system has been grossly underperforming for years, with 50% of the high school students failing and a graduation rate of under 50%. The school superintendent decided she had to do something about it.

Her plan calls for teachers at a local high school to work 25 minutes longer per day, each lunch with students once in a while, and help with tutoring. The teachers' union has refused to accept these apparently onerous demands.

The teachers at the high school make $70,000-$78,000, as compared to a median income in the town of $22,000.

The school superintendent has responded to the union's stubbornness by firing every teacher and administrator at the school.

When the teachers and administrators refused to be part of the solution, they proved they were part of the problem. It then became necessary to deal with the problem. The superintendent did just that in the most effective and dramatic fashion, sending the message "Lead, follow, or get out of the way." Since the union decided to neither lead or follow - to do nothing - which was an unacceptable solution, the superintendent decided they needed to get out of the way.

Sometimes the best way to stir things up is to do the unexpected, in this case getting rid of the obstructionists and starting with a clean slate.

Under threat of losing their jobs if they didn't go along with extra work for not a lot of extra pay, the Central Falls Teachers' Union refused Friday morning to accept a reform plan for one of the worst-performing high schools in the state.

After learning of the union's position, School Supt. Frances Gallo notified the state that she was switching to an alternative she was hoping to avoid: firing the entire staff at Central Falls High School. In total, about 100 teachers, administrators and assistants will lose their jobs.

Like unions across the nation have been finding out, calling a bluff these days has more often than not meant they have found themselves on the unemployment line. And so it was this time too.

Let's hope that the people and the governmental leaders of Central Falls will stand behind the school superintendent's decision and let her rebuild the school system into something that actually serves the children as it should.

Well, that must have sucked. BTW, what's a niqab? Could I have one when I go swimming in my lake this summer?

Sometimes the Precautionary Principle serves us well. Other times it comes back to bite us in the butt.

Today it proved to be the latter.

The Weather Guys™ predicted snow for today, with 5 to 9 inches accumulation expected here on the south side of Lake Winnipesaukee. The local TV and radio news outlets played up the first snowfall in over a month, trying to make it sound like the Apocalypse was coming. (To those of you not familiar with northern New England winters, 5 inches of snow is usually considered not much more than a dusting.)

Towns and cities all over central and southern New Hampshire canceled school today in anticipation of heavy snowfall expected in the early afternoon. But the joke was on them because the snow didn't start falling around here until well after the time the school kids would have been home on a normal school day. (A few towns on the southeast part of the lake decided not to cancel school, planning to send kids home early if the weather started deteriorating. Their gamble paid off because they got a full day of school in, meaning they'll get out that much earlier at the end of the school year.)

Normally I would be posting our Week 6 results, but i haven't received Skip's weekly weigh-in numbers yet, maybe because of the holiday weekend. Hopefully I'll have our results posted tomorrow.

BTW, I was at 232.1 lbs this morning, meaning I've reached 30.4% of my goal so far.

It appears Movable Type has been 'eating' comments, taking actual non-spam comments and kicking them into the Spam Comments folder. It wasn't until a new reader asked about why several of her comments were never approved and/or never appeared that I looked into why they'd all up and disappeared. (All fixed now, Paulina! At least I think so....)

So I spent a couple of hours going through the Comments and Spam folders, setting things to rights...at least for comments posted over the last week or so. I only have another 1360 comments to go through.

An end of an era came upon us yesterday.

I took Deb's trusty 1991 Buick LeSabre to our mechanic for its annual state inspection yesterday morning.

It. Failed. Big. Time.

The list of things needed to allow her car to pass inspection was lengthy and expensive, too expensive, at least for a 19-year old car. It made no sense to spend $3000 or more to keep a car that will require an ever increasing amount of work every year. It was time to put the Buick out to pasture.

So today we went car shopping, or more accurately, truck shopping. We found a 2004 Ford F150 4x4 with only 60,000 miles on it. We managed to negotiate a reasonable price, knocking it down $2500 from the original selling price.

(In case you're wondering, the truck was not my idea. It was Deb's. I thought she'd go for another Buick but after talking things over with her dad, she decided a pickup truck would be a good idea.)

For the time being I'll keep driving the trusty ten-year old Intrepid. I figure I can count on it for the next 5 years at least.

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As Coyote Blog reminds us, difficulty in passing legislation is a feature, not a bug

(H/T Viking Pundit)

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Some folks are sick, twisted individuals, particularly when it comes to animals.

The person that did this to a poor dog is living proof of that. And if they can be this cruel to helpless animals, what kind of cruelties might they visit upon their fellow human beings?

I find it hard to fathom the thought processes that allow people to be cruel to animals. The thought of someone abusing any of the feline members of our household fills me with disgust and anger. The thought of those kind of people abusing animals and people makes we want to make use of my S&W Model 1076 to punch some non-lethal 10mm holes in their hides.

UPDATE: The perpetrator turned himself into the police. All I can say about this guy: "What an idiot!"

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Ah, this explains it! I was wondering why those on the Left were so in the tank for Obama's economic pseudo-policies. Now we know.

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BeezleBub and I watched the Daytona 500 this afternoon, the opening race of a new NASCAR season.

With two red flags for track repairs with 78 and 37 laps to go, the race took a long time to reach the end, finishing well after dark.

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John Stossel comments on the forced unionization of daycare workers/owners in Michigan, something I covered back in December of last year. (Scroll down towards the bottom of the post.)

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The AGW fall from grace just keeps getting better and better, particularly now that one of the major players in ClimateGate, Phil Jones, is admitting to the fraud of cooking the books to 'prove' global warming, and saying that over the past 15 years there has been no statistically significant warming.

Stick a fork in 'em. They're done.

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To add insult to injury, you know it's bad when a 15-year old high school girl has a better handle on global warming and the problems with the ground stations used to measure temperatures here in the US than Dr. James Hansen of NASA.

(via Don Surber by way of Pirate's Cove)

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I mentioned last week that Bogie had placed her seed order for her garden. This week I can report she's received them, including three free packets of an experimental variety of bean.

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This is yet another example of "This is just plain stupid!"

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I'm beginning to like Liz Cheney more every time I hear, see, or read her. She's definitely her father's daughter. She was able to let Juan Williams have it with both barrels, after her blasting the Obama Administration for its rank incompetence.

I'm wondering if we could see a Palin/Cheney or Cheney/Palin ticket in 2012?

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Speaking of Cheney (in this case Dick Cheney), he's hasn't been shy about slamming the Obama Administration, either. Maureen Dowd gives us an inside (though fictional) view of a meeting between Cheney and Obama before Cheney's weekend appearance on ABC Sunday morning.

Because of Cheney's scheduled appearance this morning on ABC, Obama made Joe Biden available to the other networks to rebut Cheney's opinions or claims about the present administration's policies.

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Somehow it seems both contradictory and fitting that an piece about cheating spouses should appear on Valentine's Day.

It appears we Americans have two opposing opinions about cheating, frowning down upon it while tacitly condoning it in their own relationships at the same time.

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While out on our truck shopping expedition today, we had occasion to drive by Alton Bay, the southernmost part of Lake Winnipesaukee. Normally, that isn't noteworthy. But today was the annual Alton Bay Winter Carnival. There were hundreds out on the ice in the bay. There were cars, trucks, snowmobiles (including some drag snowmobiles doing speed runs), ATVs and, believe it or not, aircraft out on the ice. (A runway and helicopter landing pad were created on the ice.)

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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where winter carnivals have started, new trucks are being purchased, and where snow will return later this week.

Jews for the Preservation of Firearms (JPFO) has a powerful chart. I heard a man say on a YouTube video about guns being outlawed in England that when a country outlaws guns it has gone bad.

I agree. But Babara Frey, a gun grabber from Minnesota, disagrees. She's considered dangerous by JPFO for her role in drafting a United Nations treaty that would restrict guns to law officers. Protecting one's own would cease being an option.

There's nothing more I can add to this. 'Nuff said.

(H/T GraniteGrok)

Yeah, yeah. I know the name has been "evolutionary psychology" for fifteen years or so, at least since Robert Wright's very useful book The Moral Animal, which I felt compelled to read twice.

But I've been interested in this stuff too long to be calling it anything other than what it was when first coined by E.O. Wilson in the 1970s.

A Charlotte Allen Weekly Standard column is interesting stuff.

Men, eager for replication, are naturally polygamous, while women are naturally monogamous--but only until a man they perceive as of higher status than their current mate comes along. Hypergamy--marrying up, or, in the absence of any constrained linkage between sex and marriage, mating up--is a more accurate description of women's natural inclinations. Long-term monogamy--one spouse for one person at one time--may be the most desirable condition for ensuring personal happiness, accumulating property, and raising children, but it is an artifact of civilization, Western civilization in particular.

Are you monogamous? I am. Being faithful to one's wife is a laudable goal, to be sure. But the culture pulls at me not to be. I wish women would employ more modesty. As a curious note, my life is so monastic that the occasion for sin on the most regular basis--not porn on the web--is tightly covered female behinds at church. Policing my eyes takes an effort of will I'm not always inclined to employ. Harumph!

HT: Luke Ford

Remember the scene from Dickens' Tale of Two Cities? I thought of it when viewing this, about a State Department vehicle in the wrong and severely injuring a conservative blogger. Someone, as of yet unknown, contacted the woeful DC cops and had a ticket issued to the injured blogger for jaywalking--a false assertion, BTW--while in hospital.

Our new overlords. This is what caused people to take down their rifles some 235 years ago. We exist to perpetuate gubmit; you dupes thought it was the other way round, didn't you? Ha ha!

And I'm still trying to think why I shouldn't become an anarchist. The arguments I'm furiously putting forward seem more ineffectual by the day.

For a number of years I've linked to the so-called "Four Horsemen of the Ablogalypse". That list went up in 2003. Since then a number of changes have occurred, including one of the Horsemen withdrawing from regular political commentary and shifting his focus elsewhere. Two have shifted their views and politics sharply to the Left. One remains stolid and unswerving in his coverage. Therefore it is time to update the links to include three new Horsemen, kindly provided by Valley Of The Shadow.

The Old Guard (circa 2003):

Plague: Steven Den Beste (USS Clueless)
Famine: Charles Johnson (Little Green Footballs)
War: Andrew Sullivan (Daily Dish)
Death: Glenn Reynolds (Instapundit)

The 2010 Horsemen:

Death: Glenn Reynolds (Instapundit)
Famine: Jim Hoft (Gateway Pundit)
War: Pamela Gellar (Atlas Shrugs)
Plague: Robert Stacy McCain (The Other McCain)

The links on the left have been updated!

Listen to brave Jennifer Gratz speaking at Michigan State on how she successfully sued the University of Michigan for its palpably obvious discrimination. If you can start at 4:20 2:00, where she's absolutely spot on. How for years the university engaged in the most retrograde two-tier system of admitting students, and not thinking they were in the wrong whatsoever. Some lies are so big they're hard to see.



I'll never forget how my black West Point roommate got kicked out for academic failure in the middle of his junior year. He had a 0.7 GPA; I left after two years with a 2.1. He gets a full boat scholarship to an excellent school, Emory in Atlanta. I get treated with contempt by lessers--Indiana, Wisconsin, Miami of Ohio--since my GPA was far from the minimum 3.5 required for transfers. For lowly white guys, apparently. We don't count for much in university.

(My high school academic record was also much stronger than my roommate's, who had had to attend the prep school for a year, which they do for aspiring athletes and minority students and others with not-so-strong academic backgrounds.)

I really hope Beezlebub and my three sons aren't treated to the Trotskyite persecution I felt at university. In fact, I'm going to encourage my boys to attend tiny, right-wing colleges like Hillsdale in Michigan or St. Thomas More in Merrimack, NH. And they are going to pay for a significant portion of it. I'll take care of books and room and board. Tuition's on them. Better yet, learn a trade, sons. You should see what the sheet rock installer down the road has for a house. He makes a lot more money than I, who spend far too many years in the la-la land of academe.

A big problem we have with our legal system, particularly in regards to tort law, is that it is far too easy for those with trivial or questionable cases to go to court in the hopes of a big pay day. They risk little by filing suit, so suits are filed in great numbers, tying up the court system and driving up costs on a host of products and services, including medical care.

It's well past time to change that by making it less attractive for people to file such suits, reducing the case load for courts and ensuring only cases with merit make it to the dockets.

How do we bring about such change?

Make the losing party pay all the legal costs.

Plaintiffs and their attorneys will think long and hard about pursuing a sketchy suit if they know they are likely to lose and will have to pay the defendant's court costs.

Defendants who know they have been negligent will settle quickly since denying liability, delaying action and defending the indefensible will no longer make financial sense. Those with real claims may find justice will be swifter and fairer.

The typical defense against such a system is that poor people will no longer be able to get representation. The truth is, people with spurious cases will be weeded out before suits are filed, and people, rich or poor, with real cases will find swift and affordable justice.

Unfortunately there's little chance such a change could be made here in the US because the Trial Lawyers Association will do everything in its power to prevent it. After all, a change like that would deprive them of the opportunity to collect millions, if not billions of dollars through the courts. The TLA is probably one of the more powerful lobbies in Washington DC and will pull every string to prevent Loser Pays laws from being passed. (It doesn't help that many members of Congress are/were trial lawyers.)

Perilous straits. First, Lawrence Auster repeatedly made this point. Now Tom Tancredo echoes it: "Thank God McCain lost!"

Obama has energized the Christians and conservatives in ways unimaginable under RINO McCain, honorable man though he be.

It reminds me that Kelly Ayotte is of that same ilk, running anodyne ads that don't really portray her as a conservative, just a "get tough on terror" apparatchak. What about her role in opposing the castle doctrine. I want someone to ask her if she would vote for Ruth Bader Ginsburg, after following her record. Is she in favor of current lax immigration enforcement? What about affirmative action? Title IX? This is killing many men's sports teams because huge football teams skew the balance. What programs would she be in favor of ending? Does she think, for example, that the federal Dept. of Education, created in 1979 as a way of ending the leftward incursion of Teddy Kennedy against incumbent Jimmy Carter, has been worth the price tag?

Could someone ask her tough questions, please? As for me, I'm with Ovide all the way. Anyone whom Steve Forbes backs generally gets my approval, which is why I voted for Rudy for President the last primary.

Nearly six million viewings, and I can understand why. But what I can't understand is the rating of four stars, when it obviously deserves five. Move aside Iron Man, this may be the best superhero movie of all time.

HT: anarchist Rod Long (I'm trying to think why I shouldn't be an anarchist and am curiously coming up short of a rationale.)

...they could call it the Religion of Peace. Farmer admits he repeatedly had sex with a 12-year-old girl he apparently had taken in. His curiously incompetent public defender said he was Christ-like. Wrong religion, buddy.

Didn't the founder of a religion marry a nine-six-year-old, consummating it a few years later, when she was nine? Oh, yeah. And Aisha was his favorite wife. I wonder why.

And I'm supposed to respect the Religion of Submission? I certainly don't respect that farmer or anyone who would do such a thing.

Sen. Richard Lugar glowingly remarks on the "remarkable shift" that's occurred with one in eight Americans receiving some form of welfare. While I admit the food stamp program is a bargain compared to others that are bureaucrat heavy, it's disconcerting that we're losing our ability to engage in the traditional American mores of rugged individualism.

I'm reminded that there are fewer "forgotten men" that William Graham Sumner talked about, and the title of Amity Shlaes's wonderful book.

Anyone ready for the entitlement tsunami looming ahead? It's by far our biggest problem.

Boston University Professor Laurence Kotlikoff, who pioneered the concept of generational accounting to project federal tax burdens, calculates that with no change in current law, a child born today would have to pay 84 percent of his or her lifetime income in taxes to finance an entitlement programs and other government spending.

So what are our representatives on Capitol Hill doing about it? Why, proposing to expand entitlements, of course.

Denying our Second Amendment rights in Acadia National Park. As I've probably written here before, when I went there in late September for a week about four years ago, I never saw a cop the whole time except when going to the wonderful children's museum in Bangor. Only then he was parked outside the gates, looking for speeders. It was truly disconcerting. If I didn't have my sidearm, it could have been Deliverance if a local thought I had pretty lips.

Let's hope the measure gets struck down, but I don't hold out much hope. When a teacher's aid with a concealed carry permit accidentally brought her gun to the public school, the assistant district attorney said such a permit "is a privilege." Notice all the Dems supporting it?

No wonder our rights our being gobbled up by the rapacious government. People have forgotten their dignity, don't know their founding documents, couldn't even list their "unalienable" rights. Pity.

HT: Snowflakes in Hell

Remember that case of the divorced Meredith mother who homeschooled her daughter against her ex-husband's wishes? He sued to force her to send the child to a gubmit school and won.

The judge, called "marital master" in this state, memorably commented that the 12-year-old child needs to be exposed to "different points of view" or some such tendentiousness. Well, here's the good news: the judge may be in hot water, as Eugene Volokh reports.

I already own a lower-end AR-15, but I intend on using the moneys earned from writing a textbook and summer schooling to purchase this. Pooling resources to get the flawlessly operated gas system rifle designed by Ruger.

Expected purchase date: September 15, 2010. Good things come to those who wait.

National Audit in the UK has the sorry news: the death rate for major trauma patients is twenty percent higher for similar patients in the United States. Also, there has been no improvement in twenty years' time for such care in England.

More gubmit involved in health care creates lower quality and higher costs. Kinda like public education.

Source available approximately midway through this BBC Newspod.

Over the past few years the functionality of cell phones has grown to the point that there are so many functions built in that they rival many home computers in regards to the types and numbers of software applications they can run. They can act as organizers, send and receive e-mail, surf the web, text message, take pictures, record video and audio, play music, play games, give turn by turn directions, and perform a host of other tasks. But one thing they don't always do so well is make phone calls, something customers want them to be able to do.

Over 1,300 survey respondents were asked the open ended question, "What features are desired on your next phone?" The top three responses were better connectivity, better audio and simplicity.

In many cases vendors have been so focused on making complex camera phones, music phones or mobile Internet devices, they have lost sight of the fact that phone functionality is mediocre at best. How often have we seen someone with a finger in one ear and a cellphone pressed to the other ear, desperately trying to hear a conversation? Our survey responses suggest that there is an opportunity for vendors to develop phones with great audio quality, robust connectivity and antenna features that are simply easy to use.

I know there are times when I am not pleased with the quality of the connection and audio on my cell phone. It isn't a problem with drop outs that I find the most vexing, but the poor quality of the transmit and receive audio. It would be nice to have what is called toll-quality audio when I'm using my cell phone rather than the variable and consistently poor quality I deal with now.

After talking to our Repair Guy today, I knew I had to relate these two tales about customers and tech support.

It is tales like these that make me wonder just who the heck is actually running the technical side of our telecommunications companies.

The first tale of woe:

Field Supervisor from one of the major telephone companies, which shall remain nameless: "I need to send the laser source you sold us back for repair. It doesn't work."

Repair Guy: "What seems to be the problem?"

Field Supervisor: "I turned it on and there's no laser output. The indicator lights come on, telling me the source is on, but there's no output!"

Repair Guy: "Did you measure it with a power meter?"

Field Supervisor: "I didn't need to. I could see it wasn't working!"

Repair Guy: "What do you mean you could see it wasn't working?"

Field Supervisor: "I looked down the barrel of the output connector and I couldn't see any light coming out. It wasn't working."

Repair Guy: "What model is the unit?"

Field Supervisor: "It's a DWLS-2." (Model number changed to protect the innocent...and the guilty.)

Repair Guy: "Umm...Sir, that model uses infrared lasers."

Field Supervisor: "Yeah, so?"

Repair Guy: "Infrared isn't visible to the human eye."

Field Supervisor: "Oh. Uh...so it's working?"

Repair Guy: "Yes, sir. It is."

Field Supervisor: "Oh, OK. Thanks."

One would think that someone in charge of maintaining part of our telecommunications infrastructure would have a basic understanding of the technology he's supporting. Thinking otherwise is too scary.

Our second tale of woe:

A laser source is received from a customer for repair, wrapped in a note that says "Toggle switch on top panel of unit is broken off. Can't turn on unit power."

The problem was immediately apparent to our faithful Repair Guy.

The toggle switch was indeed gone...because the unit in question never had one.

The power switch on the unit in question is on the front, a red circle with a vertical line in the center. The user's manual even shows a diagram of where the switch is located and what it looks like.

It's no wonder why our Repair Guy either laughs all day or is tearing his hair out.

In week 5 Skip has pulled ahead, coming off his plateau and continuing his trek towards our goal 195 pounds. I've got some catching up to do!



Click on image to enlarge

New England dodged the storm that buried the mid-Atlantic states with over 2^1/2 feet of snow. All we got was a high, thin cloud layer that barely dimmed the sun. Beezlebub spent the day working at the farm, making use of the good weather.

Today's semi-nice weather (sunny, but cold with a nasty wind chill to deal with) allowed Beezlebub and I to move some more firewood into the garage. This batch has been seasoning for two years so it should burn quite nicely.

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"If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine."

Yup. I'd say that pretty well sums it up.

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From a comment made to the post linked above:

Progressives, despite claiming to be the party representing the "working man" have created a virtual social caste system, where if you didn't go to the right schools, or don't live in the right cities, or if religion is more than something you do on holidays, then your opinion can safely be discounted. They might pat you on the head, but ultimately they believe that you should be ruled by your betters. Lest we forget "Joe the Plumber". And Palin is tapping into that. During the Presidential campaign, there were a lot of Teamsters in PA asking why they should vote for two lawyers over the ticket where one of the candidates was married to a "brother member". When people throw out "right wing" and "fundie" they seem to lose sight of the fact that America remains a center right, deeply religious country, and given time to become comfortable with her negatives, a lot of the Democratic base will culturally self identify closer to someone like Palin than Obama. And at a certain point, the insults will make someone say "hey, they're basically talking about me." Especially if the "smart people" continue to demonstrate that even with massive majorities they still can't govern. I honestly don't think the average coastal/college town progressive understands the view on the ground in the hinterland.

To quote...umm... me, "Yup. I'd say that pretty well sums it up."

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I'll bet the Obama Administration didn't do it's math when it came to the "Cash for Clunkers" program. If they had they would have found they spent $8.57 for every dollar 'saved'.

I'd call that a major 'fail', wouldn't you?

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Skip at GraniteGrok delves more into Town Meeting and how it is democracy writ small. He also points out where the process can be used to deprive citizens of their property rights in favor of others. What's particularly disturbing is when the petitioner for change is the one that will benefit, while working to put a long standing family-owned family-oriented resort out of business.

This past Wednesday was our Town's Deliberative Session and an example of one of the topics that is most likely able to torque me up - that of using the force of Government for personal benefit used against your fellow neighbors or citizens.

There is a long standing animus between a business entity called the Ames Farm and a lawyer by the name of Stephen Nix here in my hamlet. For years now, the latter has tried to shut down parts of the operation of this 120 year cottage/restaurant/boat launch resort by using a number of legal maneuvers. In essence, he is trying to take away one of our basic Rights, that of Private Property, from this family so as to enhance the value of his property.

We have a term for folks like that borrowed from the South: carpetbaggers. That's even worse than being a flatlander. What makes this issue even more hurtful is that Attorney Nix grew up in our town, and as such, should know better.

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Apparently Obama's lack of understanding about economics also extends to Einstein's Theory of Relativity and freedom of speech.

Not only does Obama refuse to read physics textbooks before lecturing us on physics, he also refuses to read Supreme Court decisions before lecturing the Supreme Court on Supreme Court decisions. Justice Samuel Alito correctly mouthed "not true" when Obama made false statements about the Citizens United Supreme Court decision. Obama and Tribe's claims about physics are equally "not true."

Color me shocked!

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Ronald Reagan had the right of it.

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Beezlebub and I watched Super Bowl XLIV, rooting for the Saints.

I can safely say I've never seen an onside kick to open a half! The Saints' second-half gamble paid off, turning it into a touchdown and putting them ahead of the Colts for the first time.

In the end the Saints pulled it off, winning 31-17.

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Bogie's already getting ready for spring, placing her orders for seeds.

It's hard to believe planting will start in only three months (at least in greenhouses and indoors).

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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where winter still holds sway, the firewood pile is getting smaller, and where Daylight Saving Time will return in a month.

Massive journalistic failure? Yep. Just like the 1992 Boston Fed Study showing widespread racism in home mortgage lending. That was a crock, too.

The January unemployment numbers are out and at first look the fall in the 'official' unemployment rate - 9.7% - appears to be a signal that things may be getting better. But the fly in the ointment is the loss of an additional 20,000 jobs.

So how is it that even though more jobs have been lost, the unemployment rate has fallen? Businesses haven't been hiring, so it isn't that the unemployed have necessarily found new jobs (though 11,000 new jobs were reported). Could some of the reason for the fall in the jobless rate be because a number of unemployed have stopped looking for work that isn't there, dropping off the unemployment rolls? They are no longer counted but they're still unemployed. Others have taken part-time or temporary jobs outside their usual professions, further distorting the numbers.

Some tout the lower unemployment rate as proof the economy is improving, but there are others saying the numbers aren't reflecting the real job situation.

John Silvia, chief economist at Wells Fargo, said the drop in the unemployment rate wasn't a result of a shrinking labor force, which has held the rate down in previous months.

"It simply was, people found jobs," he said. The report is "consistent with continued improvement in the labor market."

But Paul Ashworth, an economist at Capital Economics, noted that the economy has been growing for six months, yet company payrolls are still shrinking.

"Based on what we've seen so far, we think it is fair to characterize this as another jobless recovery," Ashworth said.

Left behind are people like Aimee Brittain, 31, who said she can't get employers to return her calls. She's hunting for work as a secretary after being laid off from a commercial real estate firm near her home in suburban Atlanta.

"I'm fighting against people with master's degrees for receptionist jobs," Brittain said. "I can't compete."

How many of the 11,000 new jobs were taken by people in the same position as Brittain? How many will be relegated to jobs outside their areas of expertise, with wages well below what they made before? Unless those questions are answered then the state of the economy will not be accurately reflected by the unemployment rate.

I hiked Mt. Israel today. Very nice. I was alone until I made it back to the parking area. Great views of the Sandwich Range. As a unique happenstance, the summit of that small mountain is exactly the same elevation of the holiest city in the world--a place I most want to visit outside the States--Jerusalem. Two thousand six hundred and thirty-three. With my two dogs: Ruby, the dumb blonde (golden retriever) and loyal Beau, the chocolate lab. I should give you pictures.

I thought how Obama sucks.

I thought how lucky it is I have my health. It has given me wealth, working at UPS, which requires a tough physical effort every day.

I hope the Saints win tomorrow, but I wouldn't bet money on it.

I think our greatest threat is the entitlement crunch happening before our eyes.

I drink too much alcohol. If I don't watch it... It's not as though I need help. At least not yet.

I'm listening to the opera. I love the opera. I want to take my daughter to it. No one else in my family likes it. It's really a miracle I do. When I was in junior high in the Lansing, Michigan, area, all the schools were carted off to listen to Don Giovanni by Mozart in some big playhouse where Deep Purple played a little later. I developed a migraine headache. So for years, decades really, I associated the opera with a horrible pain in my head.

But gradually I guess that's dissipated. I heard of something like this happening before. For example, my favorite talk show host threw up after eating cantaloupe. And drinking way too much. But eventually David Brudnoy was able to eat cantaloupe once again. So it happens.

Speaking of talk show hosts, the one who stands head and shoulders above everyone else talent-wise is clearly Michael Savage. He doesn't sound crazy anymore like he use to when I first got interested in 1999. Here he is being very effective about the issue which liberals ignore. It's an outrage we allow so many unborn babies to be aborted. It's a much bigger problem than racism, poverty, or hunger in the United States. You should check out the five-  or six-minute episode on Patrick Madrid's blog.

One doesn't have to look far to find academics with a distorted view of America and its people. A local example: Prof. Leo R. Sandy a professor of Counselor Education and School Psychology at Plymouth State University.

The professor spouts the liberal/socialist line at every opportunity, in a weekly newspaper column and regular letters to the local papers. One of his latest pronouncements came in a letter to the editor (Laconia Daily Sun, Tuesday February 2, 2010), commenting upon Republican reactions to Obama's State of the Union address. (No direct link available.)

The Republicans had an oppositional air to them that causes me to question their commitment to the progress of this country. As regressives, they have been very effective in moving the Democrats so far to the right that nothing can be accomplished.

Excuse me? They've been moving the Democrats to the right? Not from what I and most of the rest of America have seen. With cap-and-trade, health care reform, stimulus, and a $1.6 trillion+ (and growing) budget deficit, I don't see how any of that can be considered moving the leftist Dems to the right.

Professor Sandy has never been shy about his political beliefs, espousing the leftist point of view for some time. Never mind that socialism in all its forms has failed miserably and done nothing but cause misery, poverty, and widespread diminishment or destruction of economic systems, supposedly 'for the good of the people'. He chooses to be blind to the downside of his political beliefs.

But then, he doesn't have to compete in the real world, worrying about meeting a payroll, filling out endless state and federal government reporting forms, ensuring compliance with US and foreign regulations, paying state and federal business taxes, and paying insurance premiums for a host of business policies (workman's comp, health insurance, liability insurance, etc). He doesn't have to worry about being laid off (if he has tenure), or paying for his health insurance (he's a state employee), so he's insulated from the effects of all the socialist policies and laws he supports. Then again, that's true of most academics in the soft sciences and liberal arts. They rarely have to deal with the real world. That's their biggest problem. With little or no connection to the real world, it is easy for them to support socialist ideals and policies abhorrent to average Americans.

UPDATE: Bird Dog asks the question "Why are Liberals so condescending?"

It is laudable when individuals or businesses deploy alternative energy generation systems, be they small or large. It's great...as long as they work.

In Minnesota, the Minnesota Municipal Power Authority erected 11 wind turbines in a number of cities around Minneapolis/St. Paul this past fall. The plan was to have all of them up and running by Christmas. The turbines were refurbished units originally used at a California wind farm. After reconditioning they were shipped from California to Minnesota and erected.

In southern California it's warm, even in winter. In Minnesota, it's cold from late fall through spring. In fact it's more than just cold, it's freakin' cold. Apparently the folks in California weren't aware of this fact.

The turbines sit idly in Anoka, North St. Paul, Chaska, Shakopee, Buffalo and six other cities, all members of the Minnesota Municipal Power Agency (MMPA). The refurbished, 115-foot towers had operated on a California wind farm, where they didn't have to worry about cold hydraulic fluid turning to gel and oil lubricants getting too sluggish.

Fluids and lubricants that worked well in California didn't work at all in below freezing temperatures, gumming up the works and bringing the turbines to a halt until spring. That turned them into expensive monuments to facts overlooked.

Oops.

I always try to showcase unpublished writers, specifically those with political or philosophical outlooks similar to the WP team.

Without further ado, I present guest blogger William Johnson:

A very simple truth about humans, human systems, and humanities development is...that there is no system that can be exercised or imposed from any outside source or structure, no matter the theme, onto humans or any human population that can rival the effectiveness and resulting productivity of any human construct that is created from within. Humans, and Nature, are dynamic and sometimes random beings. To exercise and focus the commonality from within is of greater respect and utility of that same nature, than it is to attempt to overwhelm it and rigidly orchestrate it. In hubris or lust of power, to rend that which is Natural into something that it is not, demands an all consuming endeavor to try to compensate for its inherent frailty.

In this knowledge, when the Natural order is subjected to an unrealistic ideology, the seed of the tyrant is found. In this knowledge is part of the why they need to be invariably inevitably cruel, murderous, and despotic despite its propaganda or original beneficial intent. When healthy systems are forced, from within or without, to be something different, or distanced from what makes them healthy, it will first be stressed and eventually decay into nothingness. If the cause for the distress is ideologically driven, if the cause for the distress is linked to mans pursuit of some goal then the injected disease will be progressive. Because unrealistic/unnatural ideologies are dependent on people that are compulsive/obsessive to only a small collections of ideas, though developed to a great degree, when challenged, they will not react dynamically, they will react by concentrating on their core beliefs. By trying to regroup to this small unhealthy collection of beliefs, they will continue to distill this internal dysfunctional. When these people are in positions of political power, they will, when challenged, react with a continuation of a distillation of an incomplete, incompetent, unsustainable, and overly rigid mindset, which in turn will lead to ever increasing aggression, irrationality, suspicion, desperation, misuse of language and facts, lying, propaganda, and manipulation by multiple means to achieve fewer and fewer ends.

The ongoing pursuit of an unsustainable, ideologically driven social order will demand an ever increasing amount and breadth of brutality to sustain its power structure.

"Do the ends justify the means?" is a question debated for centuries. A battleground of moral equivocation and effectiveness. There exists a number of seductive groupings of ideas and belief systems that claim to be able to cure all of mankind's failings if only they could be fully manifested. Yet, when an ideology claims to be able to dispel some injustice or all tales of woe but is not actually capable of curing the problems despite its propaganda's assurance, then the "ends", being unattainable, are proven to be no longer the point. It's the Means that are the point. The Means to pretend to fix some problem, while never genuinely fixing or even trying. No utopia of any Socialist or Communist regime has ever conquered poverty, or given decent health care to its citizenry, or given justice to those needing it. Nor were they ever able to dissuade human greed or lust for power. But they continued to expound their virtue to do so "at any cost" and continued the requisite absorption of power and wealth to fulfill the illusion to do so. So the question is forced to be "Do the means justify the means?"

One can only respond with "....wait, what?....no..."

And unless we all answer the question the same way we will suffer the same fate so many others have suffered before us.

It's time once again for us to exercise our rights in the annual expression of small town democracy. It's time for town meeting.

Town meeting in our fair town is tonight and I will attend, as I always have.

As the saying around here, "If you don't attend town meeting you have no right to complain about town spending or property taxes."

The political ideology shares with feminism a devotion to Marxist thought, analysis, and terms. Check this Boston Globe story on the fact the Emerson College has been found to be "too white."

This is offensive:

The Emerson report concluded that the college has done a poor job of nurturing and promoting black faculty, and said it should focus in the next five years on hiring black academics who are tenured elsewhere.

"There are to be found at Emerson unexamined and powerful assumptions and biases about the superiority, preferability, and normativeness of European-American culture, intellectual pursuits, academic discourse, leadership, and so on,'' the report said.

Left unexamined, the biases result in the "disproportionate undervaluing of African-Americans and the disproportionate overvaluing of European-Americans,'' it said.

If people only knew how many Trotskyites there are on American campuses, they'd be truly shocked.

There's a link to a newspaper saying that Massachusetts may liberalize its extremely arbitrary "may-issue" gun permits. My dad's hometown of West Boylston, Mass., just north of Worcester, is quite easy to have the required police chief signing off on a citizen's request for a concealed carry permit. But my good friend Mike, from North Andover, isn't so lucky. His police chief is notoriously niggardly about signing off on it.

The Worcester Telegram & Gazette reads:

I have to admit to feeling frustration with the "tax-'em-'til-they-bleed/leave" bunch. It has become quite apparent they lack two things: an understanding of economics and history.

It is this lack that drives the Obama Administration and a good portion of Congress. With history making budget deficits and plans to raise taxes to economy draining levels, it's quite clear they have unrealistic expectations of the revenues they'll collect, which in turn will drive them to raise taxes even higher, causing a further drop in revenues.

Whether it is a revolt of the kulaks, or mere tax avoidance, there is economic distortion from high rates of taxation.

The British are seeing this effect in their current budget, as wealthy Brits engage in tax avoidance (structuring their financial lives so as to legally avoid taxes) in anticipation of a rise from a 40% to a 50% rate.

Obviously the Brits are on a path to return to the bad old days of their 1970's economic malaise, when confiscatory tax rates drove the wealthy (and their wealth) out of the UK. The result was a moribund economy, high unemployment, falling tax revenues, and the failure of a number of long-standing British corporate icons (British Leyland, MG, and British Steel, just to name a few).

Two things to remember when it comes to taxes and government (from the comments):

The raising of T(axes) has the effect of decreasing I(nvestment) which in turn has the effect of decreasing Employment (N).

The larger the share of G(overnment) as a part of GDP, the worse off..the economy in the long run.

Turning this into an equation, we get the following: T=1/Ix → G=1/GPDy
(x and y are multipliers used to generate the correct ratio between the left and right side of the equation.)

But as we've already seen, those pushing for the ever higher taxes don't really understand math.

I'm selfish--I want them to be in a position to take care of me when I'm decrepit, which is now less than half a lifetime away. How'd it happen so fast?

Well, thanks to John Derbyshire's link from The Corner--ahem, have you read his new book? I loved it--we get the 13 careers for the next decade. Care to guess which is number one?

It took $833.69, a total of 15 hours 50 minutes, four trips to the Metropolitan Police Department, two background checks, a set of fingerprints, a five-hour class and a 20-question multiple-choice exam.

What a joke. It's a Washington Post reporter; the story is linked to here.

It's week 4 of the Weight Loss Challenge and Skip is still out in front. But as he posted today he's hit a plateau, just like I did last week. Hopefully I'll be able to catch up a bit as he marks time.

Here's the latest results:


Click on image to embiggen it.