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.
Bill de Blasio’s got the broad narrative right: We’ve got two New Yorks today, with a fat and privileged overclass lording it over everyone else.
What de Blasio won’t tell you is that the class profiting at everyone else’s expense is the city’s public sector. Because the campaign-finance laws privilege this class, their chosen candidates start out any race far ahead. But de Blasio won’t tell you any of this because if he’s elected mayor, this is the New York he’ll be working for.
My grandfather had purchased after WW1 some land and a manor in Hungary. He had a doctorate in economics and expert knowledge of agriculture. In a country dominated by large, badly managed latifundia, from his small base he created the income of the landed rich. That he achieved by producing for the market – not by ignoring it as did the absentee owners of the neighboring estates. Irritatingly for these, he even paid his workers above the going rate. Furthermore, he was, as an old worker put it decades later, “his best hired hand”. The locals could not understand grandfather’s agribusiness and the natural origins of his success. In a typical reaction, the native found a logical, explanation. It was that there is a gold mine under the “Black Castle”.
Seems to be an excellent airplane despite initial glitches. Boeing designs, and builds a fair amount of it, but does all of the assembly. Similar to American auto manufacturers. There are engineers and manufacturers around the globe creating these wonderful things for us - people who know how to make useful things.
The family of a former Webster Thomas hockey player has sued the school
district and hockey coach for keeping him at the junior varsity level
for four years "in spite of his advanced skills."
England
is the only country in the developed world where the generation
approaching retirement is more literate and numerate than the youngest
adults - See more at:
http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2013/10/the-culture-that-is-england.html#sthash.9Vjx7b7u.dpuf
England
is the only country in the developed world where the generation
approaching retirement is more literate and numerate than the youngest
adults - See more at:
http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2013/10/the-culture-that-is-england.html#sthash.9Vjx7b7u.dpuf
ZERO
AMERICANS Sign Up for O-Care in Hawaii, Tennessee – Only 5 Sign Up in
Iowa - See more at:
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2013/10/zero-americans-sign-up-for-o-care-in-hawaii-tennessee-only-5-sign-up-in-iowa/#sthash.bPU1QEt2.dpuf
I don't want to spend time criticizing doctors. My father is one, after all. I also don't want to criticize the VA. I'm sure many of our readers utilize the VA services and may be happy with the care they receive. Or perhaps they aren't, I'm not sure. I don't use the VA and don't have personal experience, but my father did some work there while he was in the Navy years ago, and remains very critical of its administration to this day.
He always told me if I'd like a glimpse at what a government run program for health provision would resemble, take a look at the VA. My extended family members who have utilized the VA did so mainly because they could, and they lacked any other access to health services. None were particularly happy with it, except to say it didn't cost them much when they needed it.
I don't want to imply this kind of abuse can't happen in private practice. Certainly Hollywood stars have managed to find their fair share of enablers. But when it is the government running things, we're supposed to expect better, and when it's a single payer system, we won't have the range of choice to avoid charlatans.
If the legal criteria are "incapable of performing any job," then I'd guess 45% is a low number. It doesn't take much to sweep out a CVS, and it's honest labor.
The notion of fully open borders scares people, it should scare people,
and it rubs against their risk-averse tendencies the wrong way - See
more at:
http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2013/10/the-labor-market-effects-of-immigration-and-emigration-from-oecd-countries.html#sthash.chdEoPTy.dpuf
The
labor market effects of immigration and emigration from OECD countries -
See more at:
http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2013/10/the-labor-market-effects-of-immigration-and-emigration-from-oecd-countries.html#sthash.chdEoPTy.dpuf
The
labor market effects of immigration and emigration from OECD countries -
See more at:
http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2013/10/the-labor-market-effects-of-immigration-and-emigration-from-oecd-countries.html#sthash.chdEoPTy.dpuf
I am reflexively skeptical about anything titled "common," and I do not know what the federal government is doing by getting involved in local education. What I do know is that many people would opt out of many government things if given free choice.
For one hot example, how many would like to opt out of Obamacare? Who wants all of that "insurance coverage"? It's not even really insurance anyway. It covers hangnails, the flu, birth control pills and even pregnancy (why should I pay for your pregnancy if I don't want to? It's elective, and none of my business). It's a pre-paid communal medical treatment plan, and I want nothing to do with it.
Is government power benign, malevolent, or neither? I tend to think that concentrated power is dangerous, regardless of its intentions or of whether it is elected or not. Those who pursue power tend to want more. People like Colbert King see nothing but benevolence. He thinks I am a bad sort of rebel (maybe I am a rebel in opposition to either slavery or serfdom) and doesn't even consider the case for freedom or the dangers of power.
We confront the Great Solvers of the Human Problem who are determined to rearrange everyone to their liking. They began by controlling everything that people did. Now, they have moved on to controlling what people don't do. If you live, if you breathe, if you stir, move your muscles, track moving objects with your eyes, then there are obligations imposed on you.
ObamaCare is one of the final declarations that there is no opting out. Even if you don't drive, own a home, own a business, own a dog, or do one of the infinite things that bring you into mandatory contact with the apparatus of your government, you are committed to a task from maturity to death. Your mission is to obtain health insurance, and, in a system in which you become the ward of the government as soon as you taste air, it is the price that you pay for being alive.
In a free country, you are not obligated to do things simply for the privilege of breathing oxygen north of the Rio Grande and south of Niagara Falls.
Some people seem content with being subjects of a potent parental State which they trust will be filled with wisdom and care. Some (the aspiring adults, in my view) do not. There is a division there. It seems partly psychological. Old John Dean recently commented somewhere that he had become a Dem because Conservatives were the authoritarian party. I think he has it backwards, but he always did.
Nixon was a neo-Liberal. Goldwater was a good guy, as I read my recent history, a Don Quixote or a voice crying in the wilderness.
Their misrepresentation of data is ridiculous. In Fig. 1, the IPCC report purports to show warming of 0.5°C (0.9°F) since 1980, yet surface temperature measurements indicate no warming over the past 17 years (Fig. 2) and satellite temperature data shows the August 2013 temperature only 0.12°C (0.21°F) above the 1908 temperature (Spencer, 2013). IPCC shows a decadal warming of 0.6°C (1°F) since 1980 but the temperature over the past decade has actually cooled, not warmed…
Rep. Henry Waxman (D.-Calif.) (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
(CNSNews.com) – When asked by CNSNews.com whether he had read all
10,535 pages of final Obamacare regulations that have so far been
published in the Federal Register, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.)
asked in return whether it was "important" the he read them, dismissed
the inquiry as a "propaganda question," and did not ultimately anwer.
CNSNews.com: "What I was going to ask you is if you've read those [10,535 pages] of regulations."
Waxman said: “Have you read them?”
CNSNews.com: "No. Have you read them?"
Waxman said: “Is it important that I read it?”
- See more at:
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/penny-starr/waxman-10535-pages-obamacare-regs-it-important-i-read-it#sthash.GvW1C8YG.dpuf
Rep. Henry Waxman (D.-Calif.) (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
(CNSNews.com) – When asked by CNSNews.com whether he had read all
10,535 pages of final Obamacare regulations that have so far been
published in the Federal Register, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.)
asked in return whether it was "important" the he read them, dismissed
the inquiry as a "propaganda question," and did not ultimately anwer.
CNSNews.com: "What I was going to ask you is if you've read those [10,535 pages] of regulations."
Waxman said: “Have you read them?”
CNSNews.com: "No. Have you read them?"
Waxman said: “Is it important that I read it?”
- See more at:
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/penny-starr/waxman-10535-pages-obamacare-regs-it-important-i-read-it#sthash.GvW1C8YG.dpuf
Waxman
on 10,535 Pages of Obamacare Regs: ‘Is It Important That I Read It?’ -
See more at:
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/penny-starr/waxman-10535-pages-obamacare-regs-it-important-i-read-it#sthash.GvW1C8YG.dpuf
Waxman
on 10,535 Pages of Obamacare Regs: ‘Is It Important That I Read It?’ -
See more at:
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/penny-starr/waxman-10535-pages-obamacare-regs-it-important-i-read-it#sthash.GvW1C8YG.dpu
Waxman
on 10,535 Pages of Obamacare Regs: ‘Is It Important That I Read It?’ -
See more at:
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/penny-starr/waxman-10535-pages-obamacare-regs-it-important-i-read-it#sthash.GvW1C8YG.dpuf
When Doctors Decide Your Disease Doesn’t Actually Exist 
Today's artwork is via our friend 
Soldier's Angels
I don't mind being called a Redskin. It's a matter of family pride to have a little savage redskin blood. 
But then they had to backtrack: 
Image via 
