Weekend Pundit http://weekendpundit.org/ Opinion, Politics, Mostly True Stories, and Plain Tomfoolery as only New England Yankees can do it, don'cha see en Copyright 2013 Sun, 19 May 2013 23:11:05 -0500 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/ http://www.rssboard.org/rss-specification Thoughts On A Sunday

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Bogie marvels at the determination of the squirrels around her home to get at the seeds in her bird feeder. It seems that no matter how hard we humans try, squirrels find a way to get to the seed meant for the birds.

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Eric the Viking gives us three links showing how the White House and the Democrats are trying to spin the IRS, Benghazi, and AP scandals.

I don't think their efforts are going to work.

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Apparently it hasn't been just Tea Party and other conservative political groups that have been targeted by the IRS. A number of religious groups have been undergoing heavier than usual scrutiny and lengthy delays in processing their tax exempt applications as well.

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I have to agree with Sabra on this one.

What's the problem with kids today?
Adults today. How many times have we seen adults screw it up for kids because they think kids will cheat, be scared, or somehow be offended by something no one in their right mind would be? That's why lots of things we used to enjoy as kids are no longer allowed, particularly in school.

Scary Yankee Chick has her take on the matter, in this case from personal experience. (Fortunately for me I didn't have the same problem because my teachers knew I read well above grade level and a lot faster than they did.)

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You that many of the gun control efforts by some states (and the federal government) are in trouble when law enforcement officials file lawsuits against them.

In this case fifty four Colorado sheriffs filed suit against two anti-gun laws passed by state lawmakers in March, stating the laws violate the Second and Fourteenth Amendments and Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

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Speaking of gun control legislation, there has been an ongoing effort by out-of-state gun control advocates to paint Senator Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) as being against background checks because she voted against the Manchin-Toomey bill that would have broadened the scope of an already defective background check system. Even gun control advocates have stated they know the defeated bill would not have prevented the shootings in Newtown or Aurora, so why push so hard for something that was nothing more than feel-good legislation?

Ayotte has stated more than once she believes the existing system needs to be fixed, part of that fix being better mental health laws that would go hand-in-hand with the background checks. Without the first, the second part wouldn't prevent those who are dangerously mentally ill from procuring guns.

It might help if those who are lambasting Ayotte for her vote against Manchin-Toomey had actually read the proposed bill.

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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where summerfolk have been here in droves, summer camps and cottages are now open, and where the local police have their hands full with the increased traffic. ]]> http://weekendpundit.org/2013/05/thoughts-on-a-sunday-246.html http://weekendpundit.org/2013/05/thoughts-on-a-sunday-246.html Sun, 19 May 2013 23:11:05 -0500 The White House Is Feeling Increasing Pressure About Scandals "worst Washington scandal since Watergate."

The reputation of the Obama White House has, among conservatives, gone from sketchy to sinister, and, among liberals, from unsatisfying to dangerous. No one likes what they're seeing. The Justice Department assault on the Associated Press and the ugly politicization of the Internal Revenue Service have left the administration's credibility deeply, probably irretrievably damaged. They don't look jerky now, they look dirty. The patina of high-mindedness the president enjoyed is gone.

As always it comes down to trust. Do you trust the president's answers when he's pressed on an uncomfortable story? Do you trust his people to be sober and fair-minded as they go about their work? Do you trust the IRS and the Justice Department? You do not.

Obama has been arrogant his entire career and that arrogance carried forward into the White House. Like all arrogant men, their arrogance often leads to a downfall. In this case it has fed the prejudices of Obama's underlings and set the tone for his administration. To them they thought nothing was forbidden to them and they worked to destroy anyone foolish enough to question The One. Now that work is coming back to haunt them and their Dear Leader, and rightfully so.

Reading the comments to Noonan's piece it appears the Left is working hard to deflect any criticism of Obama by building every straw man argument they can think of, in most cases trying to paint a picture that shows Nixon was far worse than Obama. But Nixon's downfall wasn't the actual break-in at the Watergate, it was his efforts to cover it up. Obama's downfall may well be that he was either directly or indirectly involved in the actions that created the scandals now plaguing him. That's a big difference from what Nixon did. For one thing it has made everyone on both sides of the political aisle question the integrity of the government. Once people of all political stripes stop trusting the government the government is in trouble. And so it is with Obama.

Another thing so different from the Nixon era? The 24/7 news cycle.

Between the news channels and the citizen journalist - aka the blogosphere - there's little that escapes scrutiny. Fact checking is so much easier due to the Internet. The ability to claim "I didn't say that!" or "I was misquoted" has almost disappeared, particularly with help from websites like YouTube. While Nixon was skewered by the press, the press is the least of Obama's worries.

Congressional Democrats are distancing themselves in greater numbers, not wanting to be associated with the debacle that is the IRS, Benghazi, and the AP. They are less likely to put themselves on the line to pass legislation Obama needs "right away" or to push unpopular programs no one wants just because he does. When he's lost members of his own party you know he's in trouble.

Obama's only four months into his second term and he may already be a lame duck president.

How fitting.]]> http://weekendpundit.org/2013/05/the-white-house-is-feeling-inc.html http://weekendpundit.org/2013/05/the-white-house-is-feeling-inc.html Sat, 18 May 2013 22:44:09 -0500 Another Higher Education FAIL don't really learn anything of value.

Recently a loud protest was underway in NY City on 3rd Ave and 32nd St. What was it about? Who was protesting?

The delivery crew from a Dominos Pizza site was on the warpath about its wages, protesting as loudly as possible. There were a few dozen and they were given space near the sidewalk to march with their signs and chant about the evils of corporate operations, though this time it was more about olive oil rather than crude oil.

Several policemen were assigned to the protest to ensure order, though, due to the noise, the stretch of sidewalk was largely avoided by pedestrians. The protestors remained in the area delineated by the blue saw-horses that had been delivered earlier by the police department.

A couple of protestors carried signs that said, "I didn't spend so much on tuition as Swarthmore so I could be paid so little at Dominos."

They went to an expensive liberal arts college and got a degree in order to get jobs at a pizza joint? What is wrong with this picture? They could have gotten the same job at Domino's while still in high school and saved $200,000 by not going to college. A follow on comment asked "I wonder what degrees they earned? Maybe something that ended in 'Studies'?"

Probably. Heaven forbid they actually get degrees in something useful that would have helped them get jobs that paid more than minimum wage...plus tips. ]]> http://weekendpundit.org/2013/05/another-higher-education-fail.html http://weekendpundit.org/2013/05/another-higher-education-fail.html Fri, 17 May 2013 22:18:56 -0500 Scandal Surrounds The White House It appears the nearly impenetrable walls that have surrounded the Obama Administration have started to crack and crumble.


The IRS scandal - targeting conservative groups seeking tax exempt status for 'special' scrutiny - has put the White House on the defensive. Unlike the previous four years, the media are not cutting the president any slack. Many of the MSM are asking questions of the type we haven't heard since the Nixon administration: "What did the president know and when did he know it?"


While in the past the president made jokes about having the IRS audit his political adversaries, it appears someone in the upper echelons of the IRS took him at his word and started targeting numerous conservative groups and individuals who had the audacity to question the level of government spending and taxation.


Where will all of this lead? No one really knows, but if I had to guess I'd say it will lead to an even weaker presidency as congressional Democrats distance themselves from the White House in an effort to not be dragged down.


And then there are the questions about Benghazi.


From what's been revealed so far there's more than enough blame to go around for that tragedy. As Harry S Truman stated more than once during his time in office, "The buck stops here", meaning the Oval Office. I doubt there's any way the Obama administration is going to be able to sugar coat that royal screw up. As e-mails released under the Freedom of Information Act show, there was a concerted effort to try to downplay the attack on our embassy, trying to spin it as a 'spontaneous' reprisal to an obscure YouTube video when in fact it was a full out attack by an Al Qaeda splinter group. No amount of PR or spin is going to be able to change that or the fact that the State Department abandoned our ambassador in Libya, leaving him to die at the hands of our enemies.


It's going to be an interesting time in Washington as the full breadth of these and other scandals come to light. Here it is we were thinking that Obama was another Jimmy Carter when it turns out he was also channeling Richard Nixon at his worst.

]]> http://weekendpundit.org/2013/05/scandal-surrounds-the-white-ho.html http://weekendpundit.org/2013/05/scandal-surrounds-the-white-ho.html Wed, 15 May 2013 21:09:34 -0500 How's That College Experience Working for You? that don't require a college degree. That would be me, my manual labor union job that keeps me fit and provides the medical coverage and pension.

Solution? Don't go to college. Learn a trade. Buy a house. Get married. Make more money than those who did go to college. Ladies, whom would you rather hitch yourselves to, a UPS driver or a history major like yours truly?

A friend told me of a recent hire at the public school who make  $28k a year but has a $680 a month school loan bill. Yikes!

I'm glad you guys paid for over half my schooling at Woo Poo. I never had a cent of debt.
]]> http://weekendpundit.org/2013/05/hows-that-college-experience-w.html http://weekendpundit.org/2013/05/hows-that-college-experience-w.html Tue, 14 May 2013 20:15:25 -0500 Compliant Liberal Media
I date it starting when in 1992 the media went nuts on a non-story. The Boston Fed had reported that blacks--they were not yet African Americans--had been bypassed more than whites on mortgage lending.

The headlines screamed "red lining."

It was all full of sh-t. Asians had better rates than whites; furthermore, important factors like credit and job history were ignored. Even the report's author denounced the findings as reported in the media.

Years later, it got worse when the Obama administration resurrected a demonstrably failed Bush administration effort, which it had subsequently abolished, to send guns to Mexican drug cartels with radio beacons inside them. The cartel members learned of it and simply dismantled the receivers.

When the National Rifle Association tore apart the allegation, which Obama has recently stated again, that the majority of guns in violence-torn Mexico hail from the U.S., he felt that by shipping guns willy-nilly to Mexico and the corresponding complicity of the media, he could Saul Alinsky the Second Amendment: blame us for Mexico's many tragedies.

Now Benghazi. Here's what a commenter says on Lucianne.com (hurry, it only lasts for a few days) in response to an LA Times op-ed by Jonah Goldberg, the son of the webpage proprietor:
]]> http://weekendpundit.org/2013/05/compliant-liberal-media.html http://weekendpundit.org/2013/05/compliant-liberal-media.html Tue, 14 May 2013 19:07:46 -0500 A Space Oddity


Somehow I doubt David Bowie could have made a better video. ]]> http://weekendpundit.org/2013/05/a-space-oddity.html http://weekendpundit.org/2013/05/a-space-oddity.html Mon, 13 May 2013 23:23:58 -0500 Thoughts On A Sunday
Rainy weather precluded some of the other outdoor work I'd hoped to complete, but it will wait a few more days until I can get to it after work.

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BeezleBub has finished his classes for the year and is back at work full time at the farm. Horse Girl still has a few weeks of classes to attend before she's out for the summer and starts working full time at her job. It will be a time of adjustment for both of them to make the transition from school to ful time work schedules.

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Bogie has an interesting take on farm tractors versus cars.

At least BeezleBub can use this to attract chicks if he and Horse Girl don't work out...but maybe that's what attracted her to him to begin with! (Only kidding, B!)

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The expanding IRS scandal is showing how a supposedly apolitical government agency was set upon conservatives in an effort to silence them. Even the Washington Post sees this as a gross misuse of government powers.

Back in the days of the Cold War it was understood that the KGB and GRU didn't fear the CIA or FBI nearly as much as they feared the IRS, knowing it didn't have to 'follow the rules' in regards to American law.

(H/T Pirate's Cove)

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The IRS scandal reminds me of the Congressional hearings chaired by former Senator Fred Thompson (R-TN) that looked into IRS abuses of its power. The hearings highlighted decades of institutional abuse of taxpayers by overzealous revenue agents and regional IRS offices ignoring the agency's own rules and regulations.

A new series of hearings should be held to determine just how far the rot has set in. It's obvious the reforms enacted after the Thompson hearings have fallen by the wayside and the IRS has now become nothing more than a government arm of the DNC.

One way to solve the problem? Eliminate the income tax and go to a national sales tax, which in turn would make the IRS as it exists now an agency without a purpose. It could be restructured because it wouldn't require the thousands upon thousands of employees it now has in order to make sure the proper sales taxes were collected and remitted. The tax code could be reduced from the 70,000 plus pages it is now to one not much more than 5 or 6 pages.

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If we need even more evidence of Leftist douchebaggery there's this little bit showing New Jersey Democrats forgetting the one rule that everyone in a public forum should remember: Never assume the microphone is off.

In this case a number of New Jersey state senators were caught talking about how what their state needs now is a bill to "confiscate, confiscate, confiscate" all guns. Part of this drive may be explained by the mistaken belief that gun crime is up. But the government's own figures show that all violent crime is at the lowest level in decades and still falling, so it isn't the only reason the gun-grabbers want to take away our guns.

Don't try to tell me the Leftists don't want to disarm all law abiding citizens. After all it means the populace will no longer be able to resist any of the follow on legislation that will further strip us of our rights.

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It used to be only media like Fox News and many of the more conservative media covered the debacle that was Benghazi. But now the rest of the media, including some of the Big Three networks and the more liberal leaning print media are starting to question the actions - or should we say inaction - by the government in regards to guarding our embassy.

I have to wonder if there is an ulterior motive for the non-conservative MSM to begin covering Benghazi. If there is I think I can state it in two words: Hillary Clinton. Why? Someone on the left doesn't want her to become the Democrat nominee for president in 2016.

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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where weekend weather hasn't cooperated, outdoor chores have gone unfinished, and where Monday has yet again returned too soon.]]> http://weekendpundit.org/2013/05/thoughts-on-a-sunday-245.html http://weekendpundit.org/2013/05/thoughts-on-a-sunday-245.html Sun, 12 May 2013 22:49:23 -0500 Great Quote by Charles Murray on Public Education What It Means To Be a Libertarian, p. 91:

Public education is the Soviet agriculture of American life.
]]> http://weekendpundit.org/2013/05/great-quote-by-charles-murray.html http://weekendpundit.org/2013/05/great-quote-by-charles-murray.html Sun, 12 May 2013 09:55:06 -0500 Georgetown Student and Paul Ryan Protestor Is Shallow tries to explain why she is protesting Paul Ryan's baby-step budget proposal--baby steps in the direction of future fiscal solvency, where a mere slow down of an increase is called a draconian cut--but is not able to do much to justify her leftist leanings, other than to dispute the fact that Paul Ryan is even Catholic.

Now if pro-lifers would adopt the same strategy, I think they'd be on firmer ground.
]]> http://weekendpundit.org/2013/05/georgetown-student-and-paul-ry.html http://weekendpundit.org/2013/05/georgetown-student-and-paul-ry.html Sun, 12 May 2013 09:42:22 -0500 New Health Care Law Will Cause a Rush to the Exits Why Obamacare Is Wrong for America: How the New Health Care Law Drives Up Costs, Puts Government in Charge of Your Decisions, and Threatens Your Constitutional Rights, p. 140:

So let's look at the incentives here: Your employer will be fined $2,000 per employee if it doesn't offer coverage. But the coverage may cost your employer several times that amount--at least. It could make more sense for it to just drop your coverage, pay the fine, and send you to the exchange. No employer wants to be the first, but once it happens, there will be a race for the exits.
]]> http://weekendpundit.org/2013/05/new-health-care-law-will-cause.html http://weekendpundit.org/2013/05/new-health-care-law-will-cause.html Sun, 12 May 2013 09:31:13 -0500 Sad Cat Diary

WARNING!: Do not drink any beverages while viewing this video. Ignoring this warning may lead to said beverage being spewed upon your monitor and keyboard.]]> http://weekendpundit.org/2013/05/sad-cat-diary.html http://weekendpundit.org/2013/05/sad-cat-diary.html Sat, 11 May 2013 11:59:41 -0500 Common Core Standards Foisted on Unsuspecting States
And they have been attempting to implement it on the national scale.

In preparation of this talk I have been listening to a discussion moderated by Kevin Avard with Doris Hohensee and Ann Marie Banfield. After the point was made that this decision to implement common core standards, which will necessarily require new texts in various classes, was made without an financial impact assessment, the discussion continues.
]]> http://weekendpundit.org/2013/05/common-core-standards-foisted.html http://weekendpundit.org/2013/05/common-core-standards-foisted.html Sat, 11 May 2013 10:43:47 -0500 Another AGW Prediction Failure To Add To The List
The rapid rise in sea level that is supposed to inundate coastal cities by 2100 (or sooner) hasn't been happening. The rate of increasing sea levels hasn't changed a bit, meaning our coastal cities are safe for at least another thousand years.

The more numerous bigger, more powerful hurricanes that were supposed to devastate our coasts haven't been happening. In fact we've reached a stretch where the number and strength of damaging hurricanes has decreased. (Sandy was a weak Category 1/strong tropical storm when it hit the northeastern US last year.)

The unprecedented droughts that were supposed to wipe out farming haven't happened, though there have been droughts. However none of them were outside what we've seen over the past couple of hundred years. (I haven't seen a return of the Dust Bowl. Have you?)

Forest and brush fires were supposed to become more common, more widespread, and more damaging. But that isn't what has happened, media reports about the annual battle against such fires to the contrary. The actual number of such fires has been decreasing. That most of them still occur in arid areas isn't surprising. It's to be expected. But the ecosystems survive because they require such fires in order to regenerate. That human beings live in those areas makes them vulnerable to those fires.

Another dire prediction has been that the number of tornadoes will increase, but in general that hasn't been the case. The number of tornadoes seen over the past 12 months has fallen to the lowest level in 60 years. If this trend continues I thing we can put a stake through the heart of this prediction.

I must state that I am not denying that climate change is happening. I doubt anyone can really deny that for the simple reason is that it changes all the time. It's never static. What I am questioning is the many predictions made about how bad things would get because of warmer temps. How did the "We're all gonna DIE!" CAGW folks make those predictions? Did they make their predictions by assuming only one factor in our semi-chaotic atmospheric system would change and project the consequences from there? Or did they pull out a climate dart board and throw darts to generate their predictions?

One last dig: I still see a lot of the AGW faithful sticking by their guns that things are getting warmer even though global temperatures haven't risen for the past 15 years. The actual temperatures have flattened, fallen out of the 'envelope' of the myriad climate models. Many expect the temperatures to start falling, particularly in light of the very weak sunspot Cycle 24. (The sun's 11-year cycle has some effect on climate, both here on Earth and the other planets in the solar system. Weak sunspot cycles, called minimums, seem to coincide with cooler temperatures. Some solar physicists believe we're entering a lengthy period of lower sunspot activity which mighty mean cooler temps here for a few decades.)

How many other dire predictions will fall by the wayside over the coming years? ]]> http://weekendpundit.org/2013/05/another-agw-prediction-failure.html http://weekendpundit.org/2013/05/another-agw-prediction-failure.html Fri, 10 May 2013 12:41:59 -0500 Quotes Of The Day
The first comes by way of Samizdata and reveals a truth too many without understanding of economics might find enlightening:

"If prices are information, then subsidies are censorship." - Russ Nelson

Anyone with a modicum of economics knowledge knows that prices are a means of feedback in a market economy. Subsidies distort feedback and skew prices, causing them to rise or fall from their normal level depending upon what is being subsidized and why. In the end it causes a distortion in the marketplace which will hurt some other part of the market.

The second quote is a takeoff from a phrase coined by Hillary Clinton many years ago, in this case describing our present president's effect on us:

It takes a community organizer to raze a village (and a country).

There's little I can add to that.]]> http://weekendpundit.org/2013/05/quotes-of-the-day.html http://weekendpundit.org/2013/05/quotes-of-the-day.html Thu, 09 May 2013 23:04:32 -0500