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Thursday, April 24, 2014

Miscellany: 4/24/14

Quote of the Day
The people I distrust most
are those who want to improve our lives
but have only one course of action.
Frank Herbert

Rant of the Day 

From Jimmy Hogan on a Reason thread arguing basically both Dems and GOPers are spendthrifts:
To lump W in with Obama on spending is simply intellectually dishonest. Bush's deficits averaged in the low hundred billions even considering the dot.com bubble burst, the enron / worldcomm debacles, 9/11, two wars and several unprecedented natural disasters. His last year deficit had a $600B offsetting receivable from TARP and the GSEs which was repaid to the with interest.
Obama blew the repayments and then used that exception one time spending as a new baseline for deficits $1Trillion a year over the earlier trend-line. Until this history is corrected and people start defending Bush on his merits rather than pulling an Obama and blaming every failure on him the Republicans will never regain control. 
Via Rational Environmentalists

The Government Pushes a Vice



Daddies and Their Daughters



Bullies and Heroes





Facebook  Corner

(Reason). A new bill making its way through the Connecticut legislature would ban daycare centers and home childcare providers from serving whole milk or 2% milk to the kids in their care.
Well, the pasteurized, antibiotic filled crap they sell at the store probably shouldn't be given to kids, or anybody.
No, the pasteurized product has been consumed by millions of people without health issues. However, an argument can be made that nutrition varies by any post-milking process, but pasteurization provides a degree of safety if you worry about the potential of contamination in the production process. 

My Dad spent much of his spare time during his teens working at a relative's farm; he swears by milk straight from the cow. When the farm women left blueberry pies cooling outside, he and his co-workers swiped one of them and ate it, washing it down with fresh cream off the top of raw milk. (They got caught despite denials when the ladies counted one missing and demanded the boys stick out their tongues...)

My position is let the market decide, not a government official olivious to the documented human tradition finding nourishment from the milk of cattle, goats, etc.
(on a separate thread discussing dietary fat, obesity, etc.)
Come on, people. Obesity is a complex phenomenon. Certain overconsumption, particularly of certain carbs, and a sedentary lifestyle exacerbate health issues. But it's the responsibility of the family and their physician to make relevant fixes; regulating what kids eat at school during say a 7-hour span half the days of the year is, at best, going to have limited effectiveness, and let's keep in mind that the purpose of education is education--not being Big Nanny. We need to promote competition, not micromanage student diets with a one-menu-fits-all approach. (For example, student athletes need more calories because their activity level requires it.)

See here for more

Let's not forget their contribution to the economy by enabling businesses to achieve objectives without artificial constraints on willing workers and/or starting new businesses to meet consumer demand....
I have owned several small businesses over the last 30 years and I never felt I needed to exploit illegal aliens to further my enterprise. Anyone who does should be shut down and fined . BTW, I always required proof of citizenship from all of my employees before they were hired long before we started requiring it.
It depends on the nature of the business and the labor requirements, but there are a number of businesses whom have found a necessity, whom have found the government has gotten in the way by manipulating the labor market through a century of counterproductive restrictive immigration policies. What right do you or any government to interfere in someone's business, whether it's getting enough workers to harvest crops, some raw materials or parts with mostly foreign suppliers, or some rigorously trained IT specialists? I don't have any trust in the central government, whether it's regulating businesses, implementing dysfunctional social welfare policies, or rigging immigration policy in some morally bankrupt anti-competitive, anti-business growth populist agenda to scapegoat aliens for bad public policy.
Remember the Star Kist tagline 'We don't want fish with good taste--we want fish that taste good.' Similarly, we don't want government with lower cost--we want government that does and costs less.

Courtesy of CAGW
What is it about environmentalist trolls on these threads? This is yet another corrupt goverment bargain with crony Big Green at taxpayer expense. If you are not using your own money to outfit your own homes and businesses, why is it right for the government to use your money to outfit their locations?

(Drudge Report). 8-Year-Old Disabled Boy Charged with Multiple Felonies...
Another part of the problem is adults can not physically handle children in any if they need controlling. If any Adult touches the child in a manner of restraint or punishment they risk arrest, prosecution and being sued. Heck even if another child does something to a misbehaving child, they risk unfair consequences. Bring bACK THE PADDLES and adults rights to discipline children as necessary. Sometimes a good rap on the ass cures problems, As well as the fear of a good rap on the ass
No. Just because you're obviously poor excuses for parents, giving school officials the right to physically abuse your or other parents' children is inexcusable. Learn to deal with the situation without violence.

Political Cartoon
Courtesy of Michael Ramirez via Townhall
My iPod Shuffle Series

Rod Stewart, "Maggie May"