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.
Under the heading “Myth of Meritocracy,” for instance, the document asserts that saying “Everyone can succeed in this country, if they work hard enough” constitutes a microaggression, advising students and faculty members to respond to such statements by challenging the speaker to provide examples.
They are welcome to use me as an example. Meanwhile, I wonder how all of this nonsense does college kids any good. I had some blue-collar white privilege, but I did learn stats, calc, and physics. It was not easy but I earned my stripes. If you go to college today, you had best take on the hard stuff or nobody cares.
Policy think tanks across the country have analyzed the finding of Maine’s experiment and have called on their state governments to follow suit. Some even heralded the program as a model for the nation. The problem facing many action oriented states come from restrictions put in place by the federal system. While the Republican lead welfare reform of the 90s did a great deal to push welfare to the state level, it also left a great deal to be desired.
To function as independent bodies, as the federal system intends, and better serve their most vulnerable citizens’ states ought to have greater freedom to experiment with welfare reforms. Congress could act to give states a greater say in how welfare is implemented within their borders if reform is to be both helpful to those in need and sustainable.
It's an optimistic article. However, there are really no solutions. Modern societies will always have populations who will not or can not function very well. As far as the guaranteed government income idea goes, forget it. People too low-functioning to hold a job probably could not handle money well. The only thing that saddens me about American state and federal welfare programs are the numbers of potentially-functional people who settle for life on the dole and/or the underground economy instead of a life of dignity and self-reliance.
Because it is so interesting and intelligent. I do not always agree with him but he is a darn good speaker. Good explanation of the Trump phenomenon. Stay for the questions at the end.
It is an amazing state of affairs: A President of the United States who does not at all grasp the Office he occupies, and who thus entirely lacks the proper situation sense, or contextual knowledge, in which a President should exercise judgment or act. Let that sink in...
Insofar as that might be true, I think it is part of why he was elected.
Fact: 50% of Americans have below average IQs, so it's not too hard for Watters to find these people. Both political parties compete hard for their votes.
Europe refuses to see that they are being hijacked. In a predatory Islam, they are just dhimmis to be taken advantage of. Euroland gave up seeing evil the same time they gave up on God.
A BD addendum,Islam and the West: We Can’t Coexist?Wars of religion are different from wars over territory and resources. I am sure not every Muslim in the US or UK wants Sharia law to replace existing law, but I suspect many wouldn't mind. Some, as we can see, view it as a holy, sacred mission to destroy non-Muslims until they submit. In the UK, the government seems to want to semi-submit, but it will never be enough. Like student rioters, if you give them an inch they'll take a mile. Euroland is already getting used to having a nasty case of cultural cancer.
Even in the most soft-hearted practices of Christianity, we are taught that discernment (aka discriminating good from terrible, helpful from unhelpful, destructive from constructive, etc) must be a component of Christian wisdom and practice. "I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves."
Did a post-Christian world retain the dove part and forget the snake part? Why? Decadence, comfort, and cowardice?
Whether news or science, nobody can tell real from fake anymore. Everything seems to be from The Onion. Is there anything we can take at face value, or is everything fake?
Good morning, kids. I am actually sitting here absolutely stunned and amazed at the spectacle we are witnessing. A duly elected President and his advisors are being systematically, methodically crippled by a witch hunt that has been manufactured out of whole cloth by the media. It has been so pervasive and poisonous that the media's underlings in the Democrat party, along with their willing accomplices in the GOP wing, are now openly discussing impeachment proceedings, based on nothing. Actually, less than nothing. Nothing-Lite. Remember that the standard Leftist playbook is that the veracity of the allegation is not important: it's the seriousness of the charge. When Jeff Sessions recused himself way back when, it opened the door for the Left to demand more and more concessions and put the President and his team on perpetual defense. I'm not a fan of Dick Morris at all, but he's 100% correct in his analysis that the appointment of Robert Mueller as special counsel to investigate, again NOTHING, does one thing: puts a taint of guilt on the President and serves to delegitimize his entire agenda, which is exactly what the Left wants, impeachment or not. And let's not forget the crickets coming from our putative side of the aisle. Call it fear or call it collusion with the Left (let's face it, PDT is an enemy to the GOP-e as much as he is to the Left), this is sabotage, or as Jeffrey Lord puts it "a high-tech lynching of an uppity president."
But let's step back for a moment...
Read it all. Of course the press wants to take Trump down. It is just a partisan thing, the sport called scalp-hunting, because Trump isn't even a conservative.
... wait a minute! Isn't the President specifically allowed to reveal classified information to other countries if he wants to? Indeed, isn't that the very essence of being given the authority (by the Constitution!) to conduct the foreign policy of the United States? Of course the President has that authority! I would have said that the whole idea behind collecting classified information in the first place is to assist the President in conducting the foreign policy of the United States in whatever manner as he may see fit in his discretion. And, while Russia and the U.S. may be geopolitical rivals on many subjects, the two countries certainly share an interest in preventing having their aircraft blown up by ISIS terrorists. (Recall that an ISIS bomb blew up a Russian aircraft over Egypt back in December 2015.) Why wouldn't the President and senior Russian officials discuss this subject when they have one of their infrequent chances to meet? And why wouldn't they share information to help each other prevent future attacks?
So what is it about this story that makes it news at all, let alone front page news?
"His testimony last week before the Senate was viewed by many as so bizarre, so self-indulgent, so self-righteous, that that many people believed he had really lost it and could no longer effectively function as the leader of the FBI and they were absolutely correct."
At Zero Hedge, 
