We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.
ObamaCare will hurt many among the poor and vulnerable.ObamaCare will reduce employment prospects for those lower in the wage scale.ObamaCare will reduce the economy’s growth that creates jobs, and pays the taxes for social and basic governmental programs.
Simple economic and business truth #1: Increase the cost of employing workers and fewer will be employed.
Simple economic and business truth #2: The more marginal workers and those with fewer skills will go first or not be hired.
Simple economic and business truth #3: To maintain or expand production, with fewer workers, substitute capital investment and use of more skilled workers.
Simple economic and business truth #4: Increased taxes on investments reduces the availability of capital and there’s less to invest or hire.
Simple economic and business truth #5: These truths don’t seem to hold for government workers, as taxes increase to keep them employed and their unions cut deals with politicians to not cut their wages, benefits or numbers.
I cannot find Bob's haunting solo version from his record, so I'll post a less impressive live version from '95.
The lyrics:
Oh, the gentlemen are talking and the midnight moon is on the riverside They're drinking up and walking and it is time for me to slide I live in another world where life and death are memorized Where the earth is strung with lover's pearls and all I see are dark eyes.
A cock is crowing far away and another soldier's deep in prayer Some mother's child has gone astray, she can't find him anywhere But I can hear another drum beating for the dead that rise Whom nature's beast fears as they come and all I see are dark eyes.
They tell me to be discreet for all intended purposes They tell me revenge is sweet and from where they stand, I'm sure it is But I feel nothing for their game, where beauty goes unrecognized All I feel is heat and flame, and all I see are dark eyes.
Oh, the French girl, she's in paradise and a drunken man is at the wheel Hunger pays a heavy prize to the falling gods of speed and steel Oh, time is short and the days are sweet and passion rules the arrow that flies A million faces at my feet but all I see are dark eyes.
We try to rotate our images on top of the site once in a while. That image is Mt. Tom on the Connecticut River, from the wonderful Currier and Ives who never would have imagined such a use of their pictures.
Many friends in town still without power etc. At some point, it gets a little old. A hot shower is one heck of a fine thing. A few more of my storm photos were posted earlier today. A few observations -
- You can get the phone co. to forward your regular phone to your cell phone on an emergency basis. That's a good service. Problem is, it pretty much wears out your cell battery while trying to get through to them.
- The power of nature is a majestic, frightening, unpredictable, glorious, exciting, humbling thing.
- Throwing out everything in your freezers is a bummer. Furthermore, the smelly garbage draws raccoons from all surrounding counties, who spill and drag it all around. Lovely. Thanks, fellas.
- It might be time to spring for a Home Depot generator like Gwynnie has. I am always the last person to have the techy thing.
- Memo to self: "Call your mother." Don't wait for an 80-something lady to call to see how you are doing. She said "Oh, we're fine. Your Pop and I are having quite an adventure with candlelight and the fireplace and the wood stove all going strong. We keep eachother warm. No stove though, so your Pop keeps sending me out five miles to Dunkin Donuts for coffee."
- The importance of fortunate timing: the BD pupette spent this week skiing in Utah with college pals - Deer Valley, where they offer you a hankie and a VSOP or glass of sherry on the lift line - instead of chilling here in the dark. Nice life to be a BD kid. I'd be happy to be one myself right now, around 20 years old with what I know now.
- No government was needed to get New England back up and running. All it took was neighborliness, dutiful utility companies, and tree companies from all over. The guys clearing our roads came down from NH and Quebec. I believe we also had every cherry-picker truck in Mt. Airy, NC, up here.
- No distractions: When you have no radio, TV, internet, phone, or power, you are pretty much stuck with your own thoughts. Sometimes that is interesting; sometimes it is living hell with memories, regrets, remorse, pain, etc. Dr. Bliss posted on this in A New Way to be Insane and in Try turning off the radio: Obsessions, Distractions and Diversions.
- My preferred living temperature is between 60 and 64 F. Keeps me alert, and comfortable in the proper dress code.
- All fossil fuel is just stored solar power. So is firewood. These things are solar power batteries. "Organic," too.
- It is said that fireplaces draw heat from a house. Perhaps that is true - but not in an unheated house. In an unheated house, a fireplace will radiate fairly well. Of course, a Franklin stove will do a much better job of that while burning less wood. Ol' Ben was quite a fellow, even if he was a jerk in some ways.
- Sheesh, Mr. Bruce Kesler! Now I see why people complain about the cheesecake on Maggie's. Every time I stopped by the library to check my email (they had power) and to see how Maggie's was holding up, out popped that seductive St. Paddy's leprechaun for all the world to see. I have to consider my reputation! However, she is one pleasant leprechaun.
Indeed, experience is the best teacher. If one avoids experience, one learns nothing. I once had a middleweight patient who sparred twice with Gerry Cooney. The first time, Gerry went easy on him. When he went back to Cooney's gym in Jersey six months later, he told him to give him his best shots. Gerry promptly knocked him out unintentionally, just testing him. Concussion. The old guy can still throw a left hook. Was highly apologetic at the hospital. They have been best of friends ever since. Boxing is one of the Manly Arts.
Gerry Cooney is one of the good guys.
Ed: George Bellows' Stag at Sharkey's (thanks, dear readers). Bellows chose a career in painting over a career in pro baseball, following his heart for better or worse:
Liberals and atheists are "more evolved." Everybody knew that already, didn't they? We ignorant uneddicated knuckle-dragging throwbacks nonetheless persist in clinging to Jesus and our firearms. Why they let we Neanderthals vote and have websites is beyond me.
Just like Crichton's novel: Warming goes on trial. It could be another Scopes trial: The warming religion vs. skeptical science
Maggie's HQ was fortunate to regain heat, cable, and power last night, after losing those fine modern conveniences on Saturday. Here's how we lost them:
Fess Parker died today at 85. If you want to hear the ballad of Davy Crockett that had a generation of boys wearing coon skin caps, the Washington Post has that video. I have a VHS of the original Davy Crockett: King of the Wild Frontier that started it all, and watch it with my boys. "Be sure you're right - then go ahead" is a good guide to living.
Here's another video, before the last battle at the Alamo.
The Democrats are exultant over the preliminary CBO score (preliminary because even the Congressional Budget Office hasn’t had time to examine whether it jives with the previous Senate bill) issued this morning. The score (costing) is on the Democrats’ reconciliation adjustments to the Senate ObamaCare bill that it remains under $1-trillion in spending and that together with added revenues will further reduce the deficit.
There’s increasing amazement at this bald-faced assertion. The real score will be seen this weekend in the Democrats' trickery vote and the consequences they face next November.
The Republican leadership is still trying to decipher the fine print, but are quickly getting to the bottom line.Senator McConnell issued a press release saying: “They get there with even higher taxes and deeper Medicare cuts than the first Senate bill.
“Let’s start with Medicare cuts.
“The Senate bill that Speaker Pelosi said Democrats are so afraid to take a vote on cut Medicare by $465 billion.“This latest bill increases those cuts by about $60 billion more.
“How about taxes?
“The Senate bill that Democrats are so afraid to take a vote on raises taxes by $494 billion.
“This bill increases those tax hikes by at least $150 billion.
“So if you were worried about raising taxes in the middle of a recession, this bill raises taxes even more.
“If you were worried about cutting Medicare for seniors, this bill cuts it even more.
That’s real.There’s more that’s real and unreal.The $500-billion taken from Medicare is real in its impact on seniors' health.That doctors will have their fees further reduced is not real, many already operating at a loss on Medicare business and losses being shifted on to private insurance plans.The tens of billions of spending in future years mandated upon the already near-bankrupt states for expanded Medicaid is real, though not counted by CBO.The negative impacts on employment and the economy are real.
One of the most stunning numerical changes is in the excise tax on Cadillac plans. While the bill changes the indexing from inflation plus 1 to inflation — strengthening the provision [ed: meaning another buy-off to unions] — it pushes back the entire effort to 2018 and significantly raises the thresholds. I suspect the bill makes up the difference with the payroll tax and the savings from the college loan provisions. More to come.
The Washington Post reports on throwing into the unrelated health care bill the entirely unrelated federal takeover (except for Democrat Senator Conrad’s state) of student loan lending:
The legislation would also spread some savings among other Democratic education priorities and reduce the deficit by $10 billion over 10 years.
Mr. Obama and White House officials reached a deal with organized labor groups to delay the implementation and limit the impact of that tax. As a result, the excise tax will raise only $32 billion over 10 years, according to the budget office.
Of course, that meant coming up with another $118 billion elsewhere to plug the hole. Not a problem: the final legislation imposes a 3.8 percent tax on “unearned income” such as dividends and interest, or on regular income above $200,000 a year for individuals and $250,000 for couples.
On page 8 of the report (found here) the CBO lists a quick add up of the kinds of new taxes and penalties they believe the American people will be facing in the next decade should this legislation pass. Turns out by 2019, this bill would be responsible for an additional 145 billion in taxes and penalties. Of which, 17 billion will be penalties paid by the uninsured (read: people making under $250,000) and 52 billion will be penalties paid by employers. Imagine trying to job hunt then! Whats more, thats really only a 6 year estimate because the politicians who crafted the bill wanted to make sure no new taxes were put in place before they had to face re-election. Which means a ten year score (2014-2024) of the taxes and penalties would be significantly higher.
Then there’s the timing shenanigan of loading revenues up front and costs at the backend of the first 10-years.
What else lurks in the hearts of the Democrats rammming down a non-roll call vote they are planning for this weekend? Will a stake be driven through it?
P.S.: Federal budgets expert Keith Hennessey adds much more info.
When I was in high school, our Headmaster never praised intelligence in his homilies on God and life in daily Chapel, but he did praise what he called "stick-to-it-iveness" and "going the extra mile" all the time. I thought "banal nostrums" at the time, but now I know better -
In the confrontation between the stream and the rock, the stream always wins - not through strength, but through persistence.
Buddha
Nothing in the world can take the place of Persistence. Talent will not: nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan 'Press on' has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.
Calvin Coolidge
Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.
Thomas Edison
I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.
Thomas Edison
If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Then quit. No use being a damn fool about it.
On Monday, after heavy rains, Gore held a teleconference to leap on the rain as proof of Apocalypse and Armaggedon: “Just look at what has been happening for the last three days. The so-called skeptics haven’t noted it because it’s not snow. But the downpours and heavy winds are consistent with what the scientists have long warned about.
Wasn't he warning us that weather wasn't climate just two weeks ago?
"Well, a lot of those folks, your employer it's estimated would see premiums fall by as much as 3,000 percent [sic], which means they could give you a raise."- President Obama in Strongville Ohio, March 15, as quoted on the White House Web site.
A math-deprived or learning-disabled White House site, for certain.
From sea to shining sea, the effect of RomneyCare in Massachusetts on Washington state.
The Seattle Timesreports that Walgreens and Bartell Drugs chains are no longer accepting new Medicaid patients for prescriptions.Walgreens says “the state Medicaid program is reimbursing Walgreens below its cost to break even on nearly 95 percent of brand-name medications dispensed to Medicaid patents.”
The report continues: “Washington was reimbursing pharmacies 86 percent of a drug's average wholesale price until July, when it began paying them just 84 percent.”
Why even lower since?: “Then in September came another blow. The adjusted wholesale price is calculated by a private company, which was accused in a Massachusetts lawsuit of fraudulently inflating its figures. The company did not admit wrongdoing but agreed in a court settlement to ratchet its figures down by about 4 percent.”
Thanks to our honorary New Englander team for keeping Maggie's flowing with stuff while we are without power up here at Maggie's HQ in Yankeeland (photo).
As of this afternoon, I see utility trucks from Quebec, Ohio, and Maryland buzzing around. I also hear rumors of a union slowdown during contract negotiations...no way to confirm that, of course.
Dad-daughter exchange from early a few mornings ago:
Dad, where's the yellow flashlight?
Honey, if I could find a dang flashlight I could find the yellow flashlight.
FWIW, the man I respected most of any I've met in my life and to whom I was closest to came out as gay. He was a Navy veteran, who'd served at Pelelieu and elsewhere in the Pacific during WWII. I sat with him through his last year before he succumbed to AIDS. He was an accountant when I knew him and learned from him, who insisted on honest and informative numbers.
The VetVoice Foundation’s poll of Iraq and Afghanistan vets’ attitudes toward Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell says that:
[B]y six points Iraq and Afghanistan veterans under age 35 lean toward favoring allowing gay and lesbian people to serve openly (41% favor to 35% oppose) while veterans over age 35 lean toward opposing by five points (31% favor, 36% oppose). This recent bipartisan survey, conducted among service members in the United States, in many ways runs counter to the idea being asserted by many, that service members and the military cannot handle this change and are unwilling to do so.
That may or may not be so.The poll itself, however, has some problems.
1. Its service composition is off. The poll has the following service who say they served in Iraq or Afghanistan, 50% Army, 12% Marines, 18% Navy, 22% Air Force.According to Stars and Stripes in March 2008, for example, when most who’d served had been in Iraq, 73% were in the Army, 18% in the Marines, 3% in the Navy, and 6% in the Air Force.
2. The poll does not distinguish those in combat units (although many in non-combat units often were subject to hostile fire).One of the key considerations regarding Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell is how it may affect combat effectiveness.
3. The methodology of the poll is clouded. Proper polling standards require full disclosure of the methodology.This poll doesn’t. This is all it says:
* Methods: Lake Research Partners and American Viewpoint designed and administered this survey, which was conducted by phone using professional interviewers. The survey reached a total of 510 veterans of Operation Iraqi Freedom (Iraq) and/or Operation Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan). The survey was conducted February 8-23, 2010. Telephone numbers for the sample were generated randomly from a military sample and a radius sample drawn from military bases in the United States. The margin of error for the total sample is +/- 4.4 percentage points.
The respondents’ answer to whether they served and to where is self-reporting and unverified.How the sample was chosen is not detailed nor its representative validity presented. And, as seen in point 1 above, the service composition is off, and from point 2 above a critical question not asked.
4. The sponsoring organization is partisan.Although claiming the pollsters themselves “designed and administered” it, it is frequent that sponsoring organizations influence the design.VetsVoice Chairman is John Soltz, and only one vet Board Member is listed, J. Ashwin Madia.
On John Soltz (who supported disgraced Democrat congressman Eric Massa):
Mass was endorsed by the tough guy Veterans Political Action Committee (PAC) VoteVets. VoteVets is led by tough guys like Jon Soltz, a veteran of four months of duty in a division extended for fifteen months in Iraq. So far since 2006, VoteVets (click here for the This Ain’t Hell breakdown) has lied about Body Armor issues in a multi-million dollar campaign commercial used against Senator George Allen, had another veteran lie about his service in a Missouri Senate campaign commercial for Claire McCaskill. Still following? VoteVets used a veteran who lied about being a veteran in Denver. A veteran who is not a veteran. There are lies and then there are VoteVets’ Richard Strandlof who is now facing jail time for claiming to be a wounded warrior.
For the past week, Massa has further disgraced VoteVets in a gay scandal.
This is the legacy of VoteVets. You can’t blame them. When you are so desperate to prove your argument, even though you are absent factual truth or first hand testimony, you tend to get that guy on camera quick. So when you meet a fellow defeatist, pro-victimizing veteran, you grab them with both arms. Sometimes vetting these liberal “war heroes” would a good idea. But if Jon Soltz and VoteVets vetted everyone in their group claiming to have served in a combat zone, hell even Jon Soltz wouldn’t be a member of VoteVets.
On J. Ashwin Madia (who served as a Marine JAG in Iraq, defeated as a Democrat for Congress in 2008: “The district was ranked as one of the top ten most likely to switch parties in 2008. However, after a challenging campaign, the district remained in the Republican column.”):
I have experience advocating on behalf of unemployed people, immigrants, disabled children, battered women, and the LGBT community. In fact, I was one of the first marines to successfully defend a gay marine from “don’t ask, don’t tell.”
Although influenced by Obama, I prefer to wait for the Department of Defense to complete and issue its study of Don't Ask/Don't Tell, in progress.
P.S.: I just received an Excel worksheet from the Defense Department's Press Operations Center breaking down by service and various demographics all those deployed from September 2001-January 2010. I'd be happy to email a copy to the pollsters or journalists.
Now, Medicare popularity did improve after it passed. On the other hand, it wasn't passed despite terrible polling, with a controversial process, by a political party that was tanking in popularity thanks to a grinding recession.
Nor was Medicare partisan.
Summary of Party Affiliation on Medicare Vote 1965
The old strategy rested on a global network of formal military and political alliances, mostly though not exclusively with fellow democracies. The idea, Averell Harriman explained in 1947, was to create "a balance of power preponderantly in favor of the free countries." Under Bill Clinton, and the two Bushes, relations with Europe and Japan, and later India, were deepened and strengthened.
What has Obama replaced it with:
Israelis shouldn't feel that they have been singled out. In Britain, people are talking about the end of the "special relationship" with America and worrying that Obama has no great regard for the British, despite their ongoing sacrifices in Afghanistan. In France, President Nicolas Sarkozy has openly criticized Obama for months (and is finally being rewarded with a private dinner, presumably to mend fences). In Eastern and Central Europe, there has been fear since the administration canceled long-planned missile defense installations in Poland and the Czech Republic that the United States may no longer be a reliable guarantor of security.
Meanwhile:
Who has attracted attention in the Obama administration? The answer, so far, seems to be not America's allies but its competitors, and in some cases its adversaries. If there were a way to measure administration exertion in foreign policy, the meter would show the greatest concentration of energy, beyond the war in Afghanistan, has been devoted to four endeavors: the failed first-year attempt to improve relations with Iran; the ongoing attempt to improve relations with Russia; the stalled effort to improve cooperation with China; and the effort -- fruitless so far -- to prove to the Arab states that the United States is willing to pressure Israel to further the peace process. Add to these the efforts to improve relations with Syria, engage Burma and everything with Af-Pak, and not much has been left for the concerns of our allies.
Obama's Wiley Coyote foreign policy is taking the US and its allies over the cliff with him.
Bird Dog continues to be without power, due to the storm damage in the Northeast. But every cloud has a silver lining.
Here in San Diego, it's 80-degrees and sunny. So, walking on the beach I happened upon a what I consider a Leprechaun's pot-o-gold, at the other end of the rainbow from Bird Dog.
I’m not one who shouts RINO at Republicans who differ from conservative lines, even when there is overwhelming agreement among conservatives about an issue.I’d have to be shouting at myself sometimes.
But, there’s a difference between taking a position that is defensible at the time and later recognizing publicly that one was wrong, as experience may dictate.
Yesterday afternoon, I looked forward to one of Hugh Hewitt’s informed, civil discussions on his radio show with former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney about RomneyCare.After the first question, isn’t it proof that ObamaCare will be harmful or something like that, to which Romney replied that it didn’t contain some of the extra bads of ObamaCare or something like that, their phone connection was lost.
Personally, I tend to like Romney.It’s true that the Mass. legislature went a bit to his Left in the final bill and since.But, what else is to be expected when dealing with a Democrat legislature or one that has many Democrats or if trying to be bipartisan with Democrats? Further, the fact remains that the original bill went in the wrong direction, though not quite as far as ObamaCare.
The consequences, then, of RomneyCare are particularly applicable to ObamaCare.If part way to ObamaCare has yielded such results as in Massachusetts, then ObamaCare (which Romney has opposed) will be even more harmful.
Grace Marie-Turner of the Galen Institute gives us some details in a Wall Street Journal op-ed today.It is behind the WSJ subscription wall, but here it is (via the Galen Institute website) below the fold:
Mary Pickford, Lillian Gish, Gloria Swanson, Marlene Dietrich, Norma Shearer, Ruth Chatterton, Jean Harlow, Katharine Hepburn, Carole Lombard, Bette Davis, Greta Garbo, Barbara Stanwyck, Vivien Leigh, Greer Garson, Hedy Lamarr, Rita Hayworth, Gene Tierney, Olivia de Havilland, Ingrid Bergman, Joan Crawford, Ginger Rogers, Loretta Young, Deborah Kerr, Judy Garland, Anne Baxter, Lauren Bacall, Susan Hayward, Ava Gardner, Marilyn Monroe, Grace Kelly, Lana Turner, Elizabeth Taylor, Kim Novak, Audrey Hepburn, Dorothy Dandridge, Shirley MacLaine, Natalie Wood, Rita Moreno, Janet Leigh, Brigitte Bardot, Sophia Loren, Ann Margret, Julie Andrews, Raquel Welch, Tuesday Weld, Jane Fonda, Julie Christie, Faye Dunaway, Catherine Deneuve, Jacqueline Bisset, Candice Bergen, Isabella Rossellini, Diane Keaton, Goldie Hawn, Meryl Streep, Susan Sarandon, Jessica Lange, Michelle Pfeiffer, Sigourney Weaver, Kathleen Turner, Holly Hunter, Jodie Foster, Angela Bassett, Demi Moore, Sharon Stone, Meg Ryan, Julia Roberts, Salma Hayek, Sandra Bullock, Julianne Moore, Diane Lane, Nicole Kidman, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Angelina Jolie, Charlize Theron, Reese Witherspoon, Halle Berry
Men of film:
Douglas Fairbanks Sr., Rudolph Valentino, Charlie Chaplin, James Cagney, Spencer Tracy, Fredric March, Errol Flynn, Fred Astaire, Clark Gable, Laurence Olivier, Gary Cooper, Humphrey Bogart, James Stewart, Tyrone Power, Cary Grant, Henry Fonda, Robert Mitchum, John Wayne, Kirk Douglas, Gene Kelly, Burt Lancaster, William Holden, Marlon Brando, James Dean, Rock Hudson, Montgomery Clift, Anthony Quinn, Gregory Peck, Richard Burton, Jack Lemmon, Sean Connery, Sidney Poitier, Charlton Heston, Steve McQueen, Peter O'Toole, Paul Newman, Clint Eastwood, Robert Redford, Dustin Hoffman, Roy Scheider, Warren Beatty, Dennis Hopper, Al Pacino, Jack Nicholson, Robert De Niro, Gene Hackman, Jon Voight, Harrison Ford, Kevin Kline, Kevin Costner, Michael Douglas, Christopher Walken, Mel Gibson, Sean Penn, John Travolta, Antonio Banderas, Tim Robbins, Samuel L. Jackson, Tom Hanks, Denzel Washington, Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, Russell Crowe, Kevin Spacey, Will Smith, Jamie Foxx, Leonardo DiCaprio, Johnny Depp, Matt Damon, George Clooney
Aside from waiting, and waiting, for Barbara Boxer – a usual friend of Israel – to speak out in its defense, I’ve been waiting for the Republican contenders for the US Senate seat.They and their surrogates and supporters have spoken and spokenabout who is a friend of Israel.As of right now, only Carly Fiorina has spoken, in a luncheon speech today at the Sacramento Press Club:
“Middle East policy has become an issue in this race, and that is because the U.S. Senate plays a vitally important role in national security decisions. President Obama said the relationship between the U.S. and Israel is ‘unshakable.’ Now his administration says our alliance is at risk over the construction of homes in Jerusalem,” said Fiorina. “Like most Americans, I believe Jerusalem is the capital of Israel. It’s clear that the threat to peace comes from those committed to Israel’s destruction, not those building new houses and schools in Jerusalem.”
Last week, the Israeli government announced plans to construct a new settlement in East Jerusalem in an area that is not part of the settlement construction moratorium. Vice President Biden and other members of the Obama Administration derided the move. As a result, the United States’ relationship with Israel has been weakened, and many experts agree the action has damaged progress toward peace in the region.
“The Obama Administration has failed even to restart peace talks between the two sides, despite the unprecedented concessions of the current Israeli government. We should not allow a zoning decision to undermine our relationship with Israel,” continued Fiorina. “It’s time to tone down the hysterical rhetoric of the Vice President and the Secretary of State and instead put the onus on the Palestinians to return to the negotiating table without any preconditions and without further delay. And today, I am calling on Barbara Boxer to add her voice to those in the Senate who have challenged the Administration on this matter.”
Regardless of the latest Rasmussen poll, if Campbell and DeVore are not capable of reaching a conclusion and quickly speaking out on an important issue, how will either get ahead of or respond in a timely manner to Barbara Boxer during a campaign?
I suspect that it is a genetic defect specific to married women which causes them to object to the heavenly fragrance of the finest legal and illegal cigars.
Before you marry the gal, she will have no problem with the habit. After you marry them, all you hear about is how the smoke gets in the draperies and upholstery and the insanely-expensive "window treatments."
I have a friend who installed an old 12" brass ship ventilator next to his desk in his library containing a powerful fan, exiting out the wall. A custom design with a baffle to keep snopw from blowing in, and very cool.
In order to preserve an otherwise acceptable marriage, many hedonistic fellows have thought long and hard about how to smoke indoors, and to avoid the humiliating and less-than-relaxing experience of having your smoke out in the rain and blow and snow like a naughty child who has been banned from home and hearth. As a commenter on a relevant site says:
I smoke cigars and can only indulge once in a blue moon and that is basically because I have to go outside to smoke them, I can only smoke during seasons when it's not too hot or too cold, there's nothing to do while smoking, etc. I'd like to have a room where I can smoke a cigar while sitting in a leather chair and watching some TV or a movie or listening to some music. Also I'd like a place where I can play poker with my friends and not have to force them out of the house to smoke cigarettes.
Well, OK. I guess every married guy is pussy-whipped to some extent (and often enough for good reason - many males seem not to domesticate well).
The cheapest solution is to create a negative pressure in your home smoking areas with a cheap window fan like this.
The so-called "air purifiers" are a joke, in my view - and especially if you are the sort who likes to have some windows open in your house. Unlike Al Gore, you cannot purify the planet.
$3.2 trillion. (More here.)Plus near that over a full decade for ObamaCare.Plus, the so-called Social Security trust fund is taking in less that is going out.Plus, Medicare is already broke.Plus, hundreds of millions of dollars added to states’ deficits by ObamaCare enlarging Medicaid. All adds up to minuses, from your pockets, from your health, from education and police and other services, from your future.
As the races for governor heat up in thirty-six states, the question of how to fix troubled state-sponsored pension plans may be one of the most challenging that candidates will have to face. State pension plans are underfunded by $3.2 trillion when misguided accounting practices are corrected according to research by Joshua D. Rauh, an associate professor of finance at the Kellogg School of Management, and Robert Novy-Marx at the University of Chicago, published in the Journal of Economic Perspectives. Furthermore, because pension funds are highly exposed to market risks, there is only a 5 percent chance that they will perform well enough to meet the needs of retirees in fifteen years.
- The problem with socialist solutions is always 
