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TANSTAFFL – There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch.  No matter what it is, SOMEone has to pay when some service or product is consumed.  The only question is who will get the bill.  That said, it seems like the Republican elected officials want us to either:

• Not watch their hands while they play the Political 3-card Monte shill game on us
• Actually want us to believe that they are most able to suspend this most basic Law of Economics.

Or both.  I grow weary of the political charades by which Republican elected officials tell us things, contrary to any kind of common-sense, basic language skills, logical reasoning and the Platform, and in which we know is deliberately false.  Not only that, but for journalists that don’t bother to challenge them on these falsehoods to the point that I don’t know who is whose lapdog and sycophant.

Like this nitwittery of the Kabuki Republican Theater (reformatted, emphasis mine):

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“The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small,but whether it works — whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified.”

– President Barack Obama, Inauguration, 1/20/09

Nope, still ain’t workin’. That would be one justice system for us little people and another one for Government workers within the Obama Administration. To wit:

Justice Dept. declines to prosecute VA fraudsters

A pair of Department of Veterans Affairs officials who defrauded the VA for $400,000 will not face any criminal charges, despite an inspector general’s request that they both face a criminal investigation.  In an inspector general report made public in September, Diana Rubens and Kimberly Graves were both accused of manipulating a VA program meant to ease the strain of moving agency employees between cities. The watchdog referred the matter to the Department of Justice for a criminal inquiry.

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Cultural Appropriation – what a nonsense idea!  It’s all the rage with the PC college campi and Social Justice Warrior jihadists in that one culture (generally white because RACISM!) decides to seriously or lightheartedly take some aspect of an oppressed (generally non-white because RACISM!) culture (oops, I just appropriated “jihad” from a culture that is not my own).  Like simply using their language (“putz”) or some other artifact (eg. that college president that threw a Mexican party where attendees donned sombreros, wore fake mustaches, and probably sang “Ay yay yay yay, I am the Frito Bandito”) – oh, the absolute horror of it all!

Well, in this light, I thought this was just grand, in the lane of “what’s good for the goose is good for the gander” (reformatted, emphasis mine):

 Speaking of cultural appropriation, keep your mitts off mine. OK, fair is fair. As a white Christian, I won’t eat halal. I won’t eat Thai. I’ll even give up General Tso, which is something I actually do eat.  Now give me back the polio vaccine. It is part of the Judeo-Christian tradition. It was developed by Jews (there are two vaccines).

Also, give back pasteurized milk.

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That would be former DNC Chair, Clintonista bundler and current Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe (D) who ran on putting in place severe gun control and restrictions.  Well, he did get elected but the Republican Legislature denied him that action but did do some Executive Orders a la “Obama’s pen and phone”.  So, in a pique, his Attorney General (D) unilaterally decided that he would sever almost all reciprocity agreements concerning firearm carry laws.

This has not set well with the Republican Legislature – along the lines of if McAuliffe doesn’t like people having guns and has gone out of his way to deny them best he can, well (reformatted, emphasis mine):

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This caught my eye over at Big Government:

On January 1, California residents will have to accustom themselves to a number of new laws that will be implemented in the state. These are some the laws that will likely have the most profound effect:

SB 172: High school seniors will receive their diploma whether or not they pass or even take an exit exam; the law also applies retroactively to students who have graduated since 2004;

And I thought it was bad enough when former NH Governor John Lynch decided to turn around our high school dropout rate simply by redefining the age at which students could drop out of school.  I blogged about

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No, not THAT Trump – the reality that standards are generally there for a reason in life, safety, and the military.  Physical strength counts and counts for a lot (yes, I just got a reminder of that this weekend when *I* couldn’t open the Saab’s coolant cover no matter what I did and the Eldest simply grinned and opened it in 4 seconds).  The Youngest has only contempt for those in civilian command posts (and the PC General Staff that pander to them) that believe that women are interchangeable with men when it comes, not only in fighting in combat, but in hauling combat loads under difficult conditions without breaking down.

Or firefighting standards – this may well end badly but the PC Gender Social Justice Warriors must have their scalp (reformatted, emphasis mine):

A woman who six times failed the physical test to become an FDNY firefighter is being given another chance — and this time, critics say, the fix is in.  “She’ll graduate, no question,” said an FDNY member. “The department does­n’t want another black eye.”  Wendy Tapia was allowed to conditionally graduate from the Fire Academy on May 17, 2013, even though she had failed the running test.  After swearing her in, the FDNY gave Tapia five more chances to run the required 1.5 miles in 12 minutes or less, but she couldn’t do it. She quit — never having worked a tour of duty.

Now Tapia, 34, is getting yet another chance to join

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Prof. Thomas Sowell on Socialist centrally planned economies (run by the elite government few in a command-and-control) (emphasis mine):

The French Revolution was their chance to show what they could do when they got the power they sought. In contrast to what they promised — “liberty, equality, fraternity” — what they actually produced were food shortages, mob violence, and dictatorial powers that included arbitrary executions, extending even to their own leaders, such as Robespierre, who died under the guillotine.

In the 20th century, the most sweeping vision of the Left — Communism — spread over vast regions of the world and encompassed well over a billion human beings. Of these, millions died of starvation in the Soviet Union under Stalin and tens of millions in China under Mao.

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This first appeared in the Concord Monitor (reformatted, emphasis mine):

First, what is “net metering”? It is the process of using a new “smart meter” to monitor and record the flow of electricity at your home, business or municipal building, both to and from your local electrical utility.  My smart meter has been in place in Concord for four years. I enjoyed working with Unitil when I built my net-zero energy home with its associated photovoltaic panels. Without the ability to “net meter” with your local utility by using a smart meter, you can’t economically generate any of your own electricity for your own use without going “off-grid” – as in not connected at all to your local electric utility.

Today, people go off-grid only when it is too expensive to pay for the utility distribution wires to reach a remote location or, for whatever personal reason, they want to become 100 percent self-reliant, with no utility tie at all.

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Continuing on that 23 different types of deoderants, 18 different pairs of sneakers, and people making decisions all on their own and such; yet another post to which Statists would like you not to know (emphasis mine, reformatted):

Sorry, Socialists, But Capitalism Is Killing Absolute Poverty

To hear the global left these days, you’d think the only thing that matters is income inequality. Socialist candidate Bernie Sanders has even made income inequality a linchpin of his presidential campaign, as has millionaire presidential wannabe Hillary Clinton.”The issue of wealth and income inequality is the great moral issue of our time,” says The Bern , “it is the great economic issue of our time, and it is the great political issue of our time.”

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From Luke Chapter 2

7 And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn. 8 And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. 10 And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.

11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. 12 And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.

13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, 14 Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

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