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.
One of my proposals is for kids to learn stuff anyway they can, with degrees issued by degree-offering institutions following oral and written examinations.
You can tell quickly whether a person knows their stuff in an oral exam. You can ramp up your questions to determine the limits of their knowledge and thinking. If some kids need to be spoon-fed their education, so be it. There's been enough of this overly-costly "college experience" nonsense.
You can almost do that today, but you still have to pay. One of the brightest fellows I know got his BS in Physics from a highly-prestigious university in three years without ever going to class, while playing drums in a touring rock band. Picked up the syllabi, and showed up for exams.
His “Imagine” speech seemed calculated to ridicule every Leftist shibboleth with predictable effect. The Left lost no time characterizing him as a Christian bigot, a patriarchal supremacist, an uneducated, crazy, anti-poor, anti-abortion “uppity loudmouth” besides being that supreme abomination, a White Latino. If there’s some sacred cow in the Leftist canon Ted Cruz has left undefiled, he will soon enough defile it. That’s the plan.
Hey, hey. Hey, hey, hey, have you heard the news, folks? Have you heard the news? Some guy who has only been a senator for a short time, some guy without any real executive experience, some guy whose biggest qualification is he went to Harvard Law School, some guy with a foreign name and mixed ethnic background, some guy who has questions about his birth certificate, have you heard this guy's running for president? Isn't that crazy? And the Democrats are telling us this guy is not qualified, that he's dumb, that he's stupid, that he's incendiary, and that he doesn't have it right on global warming.
Why would any on-campus crime be handled any differently than an off-campus crime? Colleges today find themselves in a funny spot. Are they in loco parentis, or not? Do they enforce morals, or not? Do they have codes of behavior, or not? They certainly seem to have absurd speech codes. In any event, I would take them out of the criminal justice business.
Why the Ethanol Mandate Is Terrible Policy - Politicians of both parties may bow before Big Corn, but the biofuel requirement is an unmanageable economic distortion.
Connecticut remains the most heavily-taxed state in the US (and the wealthiest, per capita), with supposedly the most government services (or maybe just the most costly) and almost the highest-paid government employees (after California): Connecticut Residents Work 6 Weeks Longer Than Louisianans to Pay Taxes
We often wonder what is gained by contributing all of this money, but in a Blue State you are at their mercy so you just try not to think about it. With all its dying cities filled with government-dependents, its liberal gentry, and the union power, you're screwed.
The higher they raise them, the faster they drive away the people who can pay them. It's a shame, because it's a wonderful little state with plenty of history, recreation, rural beauty, schools and universities, educated people, social life, every kind of church, seaside, rivers, real seasons, etc.
Recently mandated “positive interventions” have only exacerbated discipline problems in the largely minority Santa Ana public school district, where middle-school kids now regularly smoke pot in bathrooms — some even in class — and attack staff — spitting on teachers, pelting them with eggs, even threatening to stab them, according to the Orange County Register
I recently read that there are only 1 million Americans with net worth of $5-25 million, and only 142,000 Americans with over $25 million in net worth. There are so many millionaires in NYC, you would think it's normal and end up with a distorted view of life.
All inequality statistics could be solved by confiscating all of these wealthy assets. However, it would not even put a dent in American's debt to China. Another problem is that those people would go out and do it again, so best just to take their money and houses and stuff and then kill them, and kill their kids too just to be on the safe side. Kill the kulaks.
Maybe better just to confiscate the wealth of old people who lack the energy to make money again. Hey - there's a policy to campaign on.
Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York City, Sperry observes, recently announced a similar, more “holistic” policy that, according to him, deals with the “root causes” of bad behavior and will provide “a safe learning environment.”
In Syracuse, New York, where the school district adopted “restorative justice” anti-discipline practices, Sperry reports that student behavior has worsened, with more fighting among teens, increased verbal abuse of teachers, and more student time spent walking around the halls.
The "root cause" of that teen violence is human nature, untamed.
I want to remind readers that the "morning link" post is a group effort by Maggie's Farmers, readers, friends, and others who suggest links. As is clear from our posts, we do not try to do the news but sometimes we just have to. Generally speaking, we post things of interest to us and things and viewpoints likely to be overlooked by the dogmatic part of the MSM. That's the idea, anyway.
Please feel free to submit ideas, but don't feel hurt if we don't use them. There is only so much time and space.
Hopeful news. Visiting Egypt is on my bucket list - not just to see the monuments, but to see the country. They had a golden age long ago, but the peasants there never had one and still do not.
I am not sure whether there is any dishonor or crime the Clintons could commit which would dampen their popularity. It's a puzzle to me. The Bonny and Clyde of American politics, I guess.
I read somewhere today that she had been fired from the legal team of the Watergate Commission and called a liar by her boss. But of course everything is just political smears or it's "old news."
Of course, none of this necessarily discredits her policy ideas, but I do not know what they are either.
Just about everything we thought we knew about the evils of cholesterol and fats has turned out to be wrong. The doctors, the nutritionists, the dietitians, the heart societies, the experts at Health Canada, the food pyramid that hung on the wall in school – the entire health and medical establishment, in fact, have been perpetuating a big fat fraud.
Did
economic incentives destroy lower-income families? - See more at:
http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2015/03/did-economic-incentives-destroy-lower-income-families.html#sthash.p1Uw1TKv.dpuf
Some thoughts about Mr. and Mrs. Clinton below the fold so as not to overburden our front page with annoying Clinton links -
It's an issue of character. We all know not to look for high character in those inclined towards careers in politics but, policies aside, I think the Left can do better than these grifters and con artists. Even their "marriage" is a fraud, and so is the Clinton Foundation.
I think even the MSM press is weary of them and their endless BS. I am, anyway. Rejected once; why try again?
And I'll ask once again, How does one accumulate a $200 million bank account and a $2 billion slush fund in "a life devoted to public service"? Perhaps that trick can be listed as one of her major life accomplishments. I am impressed by that.
She is the "I went to Wellesley, and I married a sociopathic redneck politician" candidate. Wow.
From one of our links below:
Clinton's political career was launched based on the record and relationships of her husband. She has no accomplishments to speak of from either her time in the Senate or as Secretary of State. But her personal network has put her in the position as the overwhelming frontrunner for the 2016 Democratic nomination.
In the liberal ghetto of Ann Arbor, several University of Michigan administrators recently gathered for a passionate brainstorm. The head of student affairs declared he was simply “going to die” if he heard about one more so-called micro-aggression on campus. When a colleague told him he was “acting crazy” for being so sensitive, he was shipped off to a mandatory session for freshmen where he learned about white privilege and determined that he would never say anything potentially controversial again. And with that, the Inclusive Language Campaign was born.
Academics often defend tenure, despite its many negative consequences, on grounds that it allows academic freedom for independent minds. Yet there are few places in America with more taboos and intellectual intolerance than academic campuses.
What scares the new atheists - The vocal fervour of today’s missionary atheism conceals a panic that religion is not only refusing to decline – but in fact flourishing
Of course loans of any sort should be discharged in bankruptcy. That's why lenders have loan officers. Lenders are responsible, and count on their debtors to do what they say they will.
I oppose any sort of government-guaranteed loans, whether mortgages, student loans, loans to solar companies, or loans to car companies. Also, the SBA loans. Government is not a bank. Government-guaranteed loans put taxpayers on the hook for things they would never lend to, including dumb and unmotivated kids.
The Millennial’s Guide To Reaching Adulthood - Here are seven ways millennials can reach adult milestones such as paying off student loans, getting married, buying a house, and starting a family.
The Greatest (Party) Generation - Raising children wasn’t always an all-consuming job. Humorist Dave Barry on his parents’ wild parties and the grown-up escapades of the ‘Mad Men’ era
Professor Judith Hall, of Northeastern University in Boston, said: ‘Benevolent sexism is like a wolf in sheep’s clothing that perpetuates support for gender inequality among women.'
I hold doors for both ladies and gentlemen. Some women can never be happy
It was what kept coming to mind as she stood before the cameras once again, under fire once again, aggrieved once again by Americans’ refusal to see and simply trust how well intentioned and virtuous and good for the country she is:
I received an email from my alma mater, the Maxwell School of Citizenship at Syracuse University. It was a request to join a social media campaign about professing what you believe citizenship is. The idea is to download a 'thought bubble', write your view in the bubble, take a picture of you holding it, then add the picture to a social media outlet with the #ToMeCitizenship on it. For those of you unfamiliar with hashtags, this is the social media equivalent of joining a discussion in a somewhat indirect fashion.
At first I considered joining, if only to share a slightly different viewpoint than the ones I'd seen posted (click and take a look). I saw comments like "Serving people & Loyalty to government" (loyalty to government? Why is this always absolutely necessary? What would Jefferson and Washington have said?). Or "Respect for Authority" (this is so wrong, I can't even think of where to begin. I'm not sure 'authority' is generated from winning a popularity contest). Then there are some really bizarre ones like "Identity, Belonging, Altruism" (not sure when being a citizen provided me an identity, helped me feel like I belonged and don't get me started on the concept of altruism).
So I figured, I'd start my own here and find out what Maggie's visitors consider citizenship to be. Here was my stab at it, the one I never posted:
To me, Citizenship is loving my country and the rights of the individual which are protected by the Constitution while questioning the nature of human authority. Acknowledge and respect individual rights while exercising individual responsibility which strengthens those rights. #ToMeCitizenship
John F. Nash Jr. and Louis Nirenberg 
Will Your Kids Go to College, or to the University of Everywhere?
Why 
It must be Spring - it snowed all night again.
It's Spring, with snow coming today, 1 below zero F in Rumford, Maine, and the migrating
I want to remind readers that the "morning link" post is a group effort by Maggie's Farmers, readers, friends, and others who suggest links. As is clear from our posts, we do not try to do the news but sometimes we just have to. Generally speaking, we post things of interest to us and things and viewpoints likely to be overlooked by the dogmatic part of the MSM. That's the idea, anyway.
Document theft and destruction nothing new for Hillary Clinton
Some thoughts about Mr. and Mrs. Clinton below the fold so as not to overburden our front page with annoying Clinton links -
An amusing book, and still accurate: 
Department of Corrections: Those Carville boxed quotes which we linked to yesterday were not real - but they are truthy