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.
As she says, it's not from The Onion. The guy in the video is smart but pitifully emasculated. I guess it goes with the territory. Every assertion he makes ends with a question mark. Lame, and not a word about education.
I think these teen transgenders are probably just terribly mixed-up confused people. Some days I feel like I am trapped inside a human body, and not a particularly wonderful body either.
But I cope with it. I am taking a cute little gal on a fishing trip off Block Island this weekend. How good is that for June 15? Is that a keeper?
What could go wrong? And what are we doing in a Syrian civil and religious war anyway? Do we have a dog in that fight? Those are my tax dollars (more accurately, dollars borrowed from China in my name. Our Chinese credit card).
Government requires trust. Government by progressives, however, demands such inordinate amounts of trust that the demand itself should provoke distrust. Progressivism can be distilled into two words: “Trust us.” The antecedent of the pronoun is: The wise, disinterested experts through whom the vast powers of the regulatory state’s executive branch will deliver progress for our own good, as the executive branch understands this, whether we understand it or not. Lois Lerner is the scowling face of this state, which has earned Americans’ distrust.
Whatever inchoate anxieties predated this presidency are now worse: a politics rife with suspicion and retribution, and most of the people believing the government, for starters, threatens their freedom.
Diamonds are not scarce, are not investments (they depreciate), and are no more "forever" than any other rock. Their popularity as stones in engagement rings dates to the 1930s with DeBeers' very effective marketing campaign.
We covet diamonds in America for a simple reason: the company that stands to profit from diamond sales decided that we should. De Beers’ marketing campaign single-handedly made diamond rings the measure of one’s success in America. Despite its complete lack of inherent value, the company manufactured an image of diamonds as a status symbol. And to keep the price of diamonds high, despite the abundance of new diamond finds, De Beers executed the most effective monopoly of the 20th century. Okay, we get it De Beers, you guys are really good at business!
De Beers believes that a fellow should spend two month's income on a diamond. Wiki has a brief history of engagement rings and wedding rings.
Carpe Diem recommends fake diamonds, and real love and reliable companionship.
College grads are waiting on tables. Is that a bad thing? Is it a result of the terrible Obama economy? It's been decades since a college degree guaranteed a good career. BAs are commonplace now, and are not as elite as they used to be in the job market. Many graduate degrees aren't worth the cost in cash or time either.
Americans are using restaurants and take-out more than ever. It's a cultural shift in which home cookin' becomes something special and in which diners, McDonalds, and Thai take-out becomes the American middle class routine.
If it's not all about the Obama economy, some of it could be about what Cowen calls economic resets. Not enough work for the cognitively-talented, but I hear that a good chef can always find work. Cognitive talent is not rare, and probably never was. Social class and lack of opportunity kept a lot of it hidden and invisible.
As far as I'm concerned, if you don't know Calc and Stats, if you don't know the Gas Laws and Avogadro's Number, if you don't know about mitochondrial RNA, if you can't discuss Haydn's role in Western music and can't write a brief but elegantly-structured essay on any cultural topic at the drop of a hat, you have a degree but you ain't "eddicated." That's why people like me, who have risen in new businesses to the point of interviewing new hires, ignore resumes and ask probing questions. We want people who know a lot about everything because we are a pioneering business with, as yet, no annoying HR Department.
Cleta Mitchell: How to Investigate the IRS - Cleta Mitchell, the attorney who helped expose
the tax agency's abuses, has a road map for identifying the culprits. It
doesn't stop in Cincinnati.
Never, ever try to tell me that big government is benign. The road to hell is paved with the best of intentions; power corrupts; etc etc. Everybody knows this even if they hope government could be a benevolent parent to them. Our Dr. Bliss considers that notion to be a naive, infantile fantasy.
George Washington said that. He was a big-enough man to reject power and a truly reluctant public servant. Most of our so-called "leaders" are arrogant and ignorant. "Don't follow leaders, watch your parkin' meters..."
I was taught that even Karl Marx planned for the eventual dissolution of The State.
Duh. That's been mostly true since Woodrow Wilson. There is no "trust in government" crisis. Old-time Americans have always viewed government as a necessary evil and always subject to distrust.
Not only did we never fight for this sort of stuff, our country has consistently fought against it from the very beginning. America has an illness, and the illness is amoral central power. It is nauseating to think that the NSA and the IRS are using our tax dollars to scrutinize us. It's sick, and inspires rebellious emotions. Safety is no excuse.
On a related topic, in the planning for D Day the weather, sea conditions, moonlight, and tides were crucial to Eisenhower's planning staff. What was the weather like during D-Day?
I am reading a wonderful historical fiction book by the brilliant Giles Foden about the meteorologists, physicists, and math geniuses involved in the weather predictions for D Day: Turbulence: A novel.
As it turned out, the weather was lousy and the sea state unwelcoming, and thus the German defenders of France were not expecting a visit.
I am not sure whether 501 (c) 4 exemptions should exist, but as long as they do, they should be available to all who qualify. I'm not sure the IRS should exist either. Too much power. I'm open to other ideas about federal tax collection.
From Kling's Tribal Politics - Progressives, conservatives, and libertarians each have a mythology in which they are the heroes and the
other tribes are villains. Partisans of these three ideologies even
speak different languages.
"Right-of-center ridicule hasn’t stopped numerous white-privilege activists, professional and amateur, from continuing to bang the breast-beating drum. One of the most prominent these days is Tim Wise, 44, part Jewish, part Southern Scotch-Irish, who has devoted nearly all of his postcollege years to what might be described as white-privilege careerism, traveling from campus to campus—and also from corporate headquarters to corporate headquarters as a paid speaker—lecturing his fellow whites on the dastardly implications of their skin color. Wise’s extensive bibliography includes such books as White Like Me: Reflections on Race From a Privileged Son (2004) and Dear White America: Letter to a New Minority (2012)."
Where should transgender teens pee when at school? In some precincts, this seems to be a burning civil rights issue.
From George Will's 
Diamonds are not scarce, are not investments (they depreciate), and are no more "forever" than any other rock. Their popularity as stones in engagement rings dates to the 1930s with DeBeers' very effective marketing campaign.
Democratic Senator:
NSA Collecting Phone Records of Millions of Americans Daily
Regardless of politics, you have to like this regular, red-blooded, common-sensical guy: 
Sounds like