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.
Her argument comes down to something like "It might maybe help kids from low-functioning families a tiny bit for a year or two." Weak argument. Don't have kids if you can not raise them well, teach them well. We already have free government birth control...
Wrong, because the true Progressive argument is more unionized "teaching" jobs. We all know that "Pre-K" is a euphemism for babysitting. Prosperous moms use nursery school so they have time to volunteer, get to the gym, and play tennis. And, of course, to get a break from the brats.
"Education"? Well, if your parents can't teach you to speak, count, add, or recite the alphabet, you are in trouble anyway. Blame your parent(s) for a crappy start in life, and get yourself going.
Why do you like Trump? Is it because you think he is the only Repub who can win, is it his attitude and the atmospherics, is it plain hope, or is it his policy tendencies?
Besides immigration, in my view nothing he says about policy makes any sense to me. So why Trump? Tell me. I am persuadable.
Ted Cruz is the only candidate, Democrat or Republican, who understands and is prepared to address the twin dangers of executive overreach and the stealth statism of regulatory bloat.
What a disgraceful person she is, the worst German chancellor since ...well, I don't want to go all Godwin's this early in the piece. But a few years ago, when Maclean's and I had our triple-jeopardy difficulties with the Canadian "Human Rights" Commission, the Ontario "Human Rights" Commission and the British Columbia "Human Rights" Tribunal, the response of many of my fellow Canadians to the eventual outcome was along the lines of: "Well, I don't know what Steyn was making such a fuss about. The process played itself out and he was acquitted. So the system worked."
Some of these people were genuine innocents who've never been caught up in a time-consuming seven-figure legal battle before. But many others were making the argument cynically. They know that, if you can tie up a book or a magazine article in court, then there will be fewer books and magazine articles.
The litigants win whether they win or lose. Exxon can afford the lawyers and the time, but can you? Thus self-censorship and paranoia.
Maybe Ted Cruz is more appealing than I thought. He is not warm and cuddly. He is incisive. Not a lightweight. Maybe he deserves more attention than just as a placeholder. (h/t Schneiderman)
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Donald Trump won’t like it if he loses despite entering the convention with the largest number of first ballot votes, but if that happens to Trump, he won’t be the first GOP front-runner to fall behind in the course of convention balloting. It has not happened recently, not since 1940, but Donald Trump would actually be the 23rd of 22 men who had exactly the same experience (two of them, John Sherman and James G. Blaine, twice).
The more the West indulges its humanitarian sentiments–that is, its squeamishness in the face of absolute evil–the more calamities will befall Muslim civilians, because Muslim leaders from Raqqa to Ankara have learned to weaponize horror. Staging humanitarian catastrophes in order to blackmail the West has succeeded for the most part.
Americans tend to prefer to care more about the details of their personal lives than about national politics, but at some point they can feel kicked enough to wake up. At some point, people realize that they might not be too interested in Washington, but that Washington effects them more than they wish. Kick, kick, kick.
"My thinking now is that the election is likely to be a blowout landslide, somewhere between the elections of 1980 and 2008 in scope. I just don’t know which way."
Freud waxed creative on the topic of cultural taboos, identifying them as unconsciously or consciously interesting, but forbidden, fruits. He never, to my knowledge advocated violating cultural rules and taboos.
Homosexual temptation has been around forever, but sometimes illegal and sometimes it has been impolite to mention the topic so the taboo in that case had more to do with conversation than with behavior. In many cultures, adultery, fratricide, patricide, and matricide are basic taboos. Judaism and Christianity have abundant taboos.
Psychiatric organizations are challenged by the gradual cultural acceptance - to some extent, anyway - of behaviors once considered taboo or debauched by the culture, and perversions by Psychiatry. Despite media attention, most people still regard much behavior with revulsion. To turn the tables, often those with discomfort or revulsion are now labeled neurotic "phobics." Thus a gradual normalization of fantasy translated into real behavior.
I suppose parts of our culture have arrived there, even without Communism.
Here is a run-down of some of the outlandish things going on these days, often reminiscent of Nero and the Roman Empire. As the narrator says, nothing "sweet and innocent" here. Or loving, either. The entire "I identify as..." trend is a curious turn of phrase. I think it means "I like to pretend...". The unbound human imagination at work:
The seal population around the Cape and the Islands has rebounded remarkably since the Sea Mammal Protection Act. Seals attract Great Whites, and when they are around the seals get out of the pool.
The aerial video is stunning witness. Watch it. In summer, we often swim amongst these big guys, up to 600 lbs. Not cuz we want to, but because they seem to like to swim over to say hi.
In a recent interview, Bill Nye confirmed his authoritarian credentials by making the following statement.
“The introduction of this extreme doubt … about climate change is affecting my quality of life as a public citizen,” he said. “So I can see where people are very concerned about this and are pursuing criminal investigations as well engaging in discussions like this … they’re keeping us from getting to work, they’re holding us back.”
As far as I know, nobody has impinged upon Nye's quality of life (certainly in no meaningful way, he's still getting his voice heard and making money as a shill), and nobody is stopping any 'work' that I know of. Conservation efforts on the part of Nye, Ed Begley, Jr., and Leonardo DiCaprio are certainly still taking place. They are all doing 'work' to pursue their beliefs in stopping the god of warm.
Obviously, what he's implying is that my choice to not agree with him or his cohorts is criminal and worthy of fines, jail, or other punishment he deems adequate. He also feels I should pay into his religion to perform work deems necessary and I don't. Nobody is hurting him. I'm not sure what a public citizen is, at least any more than I am a public citizen and I don't feel I'm being hurt by his behavior. Of course, he does want to hurt me by throwing me in jail, so maybe I'm just wrong about that. Gotta get mine in before he does, so I'll take my shots at him with words, rather than criminal proceedings or taxing him to death to build a temple to the god of warm.
Bill Nye, the Shill Guy is moving closer to beingBill Nye, the Fascist Guy. I think people who misrepresent themselves with the label scientist, when they are really just entertainers, should be faced with criminal punishment. But I doubt that would get very far (yes, I know he has a BS in Mechanical Engineering, but so do my accountant, my financial planner and my plumber, but they aren't making broad proclamations on climate change and law).
Michael worries about dying old mill towns in upstate New York and similar places and wonders why the party of free enterprise doesn’t have more to offer people dwelling in them. He imagines a disability fraudster dwelling in Garbutt, N.Y., and asks what we (we conservatives) are going to do for him and his sad little town. (Among the many dishonest responses to my piece were those treating the addled fraud artist in Garbutt as my hostile literary invention rather than Michael’s sympathetic one; no doubt Michael will have a lot to answer for the next time he visits the Greater Garbutt Chamber of Commerce.) My answer is that if there’s nothing for you in Garbutt but penury, dysfunction, and addiction, then get the hell out.
Singer, actress. "The American Beauty." She was a 200-pounder in this photo.
One of her husbands was Diamond Jim Brady. Diamond Jim liked jewels and food. Probably had Binge Eating Disorder, but all prosperous guys over-ate in those days.
YouTube and THE SECRET RULES OF THE INTERNET - 
Tax Day: 
The 
Singer, actress.