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To follow up on my Streisand Effect post it is now time to provide some details.  Mid-day, I get this call from a Dennis Senibaldi DEMANDING that I take down some posts.  Not posts that I had written but posts that Kimberly Morin had published both here and at Examiner.com; covering the Windham School Board circus of which he seemed to be Clown-in-Chief. (Actually, not so true as another decided to really out do him, but I do like that turn of phrase.). He said that they were inaccurate and that she was lying about him in those posts.  I was rather puzzled as I have generally found her posts to be well resourced, with links to foundational material (yes, I do require this of the Groksters – to always let our readers to go to the original material for background, and to make sure we’re not just blowing smoke when we talk about things).  We chatted for a bit and it was clear that there was an intimidation factor going on; he “leaned” on me by stating that since the Examiner.com had complied with his take-down request, I HAD to as well.

I don’t cotton well to someone’s demand to do ANYTHING just because someone was told to do such; you see, I learned my lesson well from Mom when she kept telling me “well, if everyone else was jumping off a bridge, would you?”  Yeah, telling her that if it was a real hot day and the water down there was wet and cool, it probably would be a great idea (just like when I didn’t clean my supper plate and she said “Children in China are starving!!” and I answered back smartly “Name two” – yeah, that didn’t go over well and I did learn a lesson about corporal punishment.  So, if the Examiner.com wants to wuss out and knuckle under, well, not a terribly good reason to join that cowering.

Well, I’ve been through this before

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A few years ago I hosted gay activist attorney Andrea Ritchie on my radio program and asked her whether she believed the homosexual lobby could peacefully coexist with traditional Christian morality. After a very pregnant pause, she responded pointedly: “Sure, if Christians will give up their resistance to our cause.”

(H/T: IndyStar)  Yes, we expect you to just totally abandon closely and strongly held Biblical beliefs – just give up.  The innuendo from Ritchie, with that line, was “Or it will go poorly for you” – and we have seen just that. We have seen it (“go poorly”) in the aftermath of Prop 8 in California and recently in the news as gay militants have used Government in forcing small biz Christians to either choose between their livelihoods and their beliefs.  And must I have to remind you of Mozilla’s Brendan Eich who was forced out of his CEO position simply because he donated to Prop 8 supporters?

This in a country that was founded on religious liberty and made explicit in our First Amendment. We have also heard similar things from NH’s Tyler Deaton, who has been vehement about Republicans like Rick Santorum not being allowed to speak at Republican events because HATE SPEECH as they support traditional families!  And NH GOP Committeewoman Juliana Bergeron, along with several other NH GOPpers have signed onto an amicus brief at the Supreme Court stating their opposition to the gay marriage bans in Ohio, Kentucky, Michigan and Tennessee.

From the NH GOP Platform: 

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Well, we have two “gentlemen” from the southern part of the state who obviously do not understand Free Speech and how blogs work.  They have also decided to raise a fuss given actions in the last election.  What is “The Streisand Effect” you ask?  Well, as these two are about to find out, it is a blogger’s delight:

The Streisand effect is the phenomenon whereby an attempt to hide, remove, or censor a piece of information has the unintended consequence of publicizing the information more widely, usually facilitated by the Internet.

It is named after American entertainer Barbra Streisand, whose 2003 attempt to suppress photographs of her residence in Malibu, California, inadvertently drew further public attention to it. Similar attempts have been made, for example, in cease-and-desist letters to suppress numbers, files, and websites. Instead of being suppressed, the information receives extensive publicity and media extensions such as videos and spoof songs, often being widely mirrored across the Internet or distributed on file-sharing networks.^[1][2]

So, I received a phone call from one this afternoon demanding I take down posts from one of my authors.  I subsequently found out that at another site (which shall remain linkless for now) did accede to their demands and did the takedowns.  Then I started to receive a series of emails from another “gentleman” absolutely demanding I do such – and has threatened legal action.

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There are times I bookmark a post and then promptly forget about it because lots of other stuff is going on.  I ran across this post last year and never got around to it – but it still rings true. If Government mandates higher taxes through one means or another, why shouldn’t a business let its customers know that the higher price they have to pay is NOT due to the business but because of the politicians that decided to raise their cost of living all the while trying to make someone else (i.e., the biz) the heavy?  Reformatted, emphasis mine:

Oasis Cafe in Stillwater, Minnesota, has started putting three words on the bottom of every customer’s receipt — and once word got out earlier this week, the restaurant’s move ignited a decidedly nasty war of words online, placing the tiny establishment in the center of a statewide debate. The three words? “MIN WAGE FEE.” That’s right. And the fee? A 35-cent surcharge to all bills.

The 35 cents per tab is offsetting what the restaurant said it has to pay as part of an increased minimum wage for tipped employees, reported WCCO-TV in Minneapolis. Oasis management said they estimate the wage increase is costing the establishment more than $10,000 annually, WCCO added.  And many are angry about the way Oasis handled its added expenditure.

Ah yes, we will see the confusion and politico-economic illiteracy right after the jump

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Betsy McCaughey was on our show recently and mentioned that she had this column coming on Hillary Clinton and give us permission to host it here:

HILLARY CLINTON’S expected presidential run is being hailed as a chance to shatter the glass ceiling. That’s nonsense. Hillary rose to power solely on her husband’s sleazy coattails. She’s not self-made. And it shows. The recent email scandal is the latest in a life-long pattern of entitlement and hubris, traits successful women know can torpedo a career.

Strangely, feminists ignore the damning facts about how Hillary got where she is. Recently, Hillary addressed 5,000 Silicon Valley business women: real career women. Vowing to “crack every last glass ceiling,” a hint at her White House ambitions, she urged them to demand equal pay and promotions. She invoked her own supposed early struggles to become the first female partner at the Rose Law Firm in Arkansas while a new mother.

But in truth, even then she was riding on Bill’s coattails.

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So yesterday, the Republican Leadership trick of stripping out most of a bill (HB 357) and make it a DOT funding bill / Gas Tax increase was severely shamed – the NH House Republicans trounced the attempt of foisting twice the level of the gas tax passed last year (yes, by Republicans, first started in the NH Senate).  For all the talk of helping the Middle Class, raising a regressive tax is totally screwing over that talking point.  And it seems that the Republican Leadership in the House may be ready to take another run at it, if we are to read a little into the words of a rueful (but unbowed?) Gene Chandler (with an R after his name, denoting in his own words, that he is a good Republican (even if he failed in raising taxes)); today’s Laconia Daily Sun 3/26:

“It was a non-starter today,” said Deputy House Speaker Gene Chandler. “This early in the process, at least, it was clear that Republicans weren’t ready to vote for a gas tax increase”.

What, you expect them to be ready – later? 

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From The Corner:

Much more serious than Bergdahl’s desertion is our commander-in-chief’s decision to hand the enemy a victory to retrieve a likely deserter, compounded by a decision to celebrate this serious defeat at the White House, and then to clumsily attempt to cover their political tracks by trotting out Susan Rice to deceive the public about Bergdahl’s service record. This is dishonor, from the highest levels of American leadership. And that kind of dishonor is much more grave, much more difficult to absorb and overcome than any given soldier’s decision to desert. Our culture — especially our military culture — is remarkably strong. It can (and has) withstood incompetent and corrupt leadership. It can (and has) faced and overcome dishonor at every level of leadership. It can and will withstand and survive the Obama administration’s grotesque incompetence, dishonesty, and political opportunism. However, if the Obama administration is in fact setting an enduring precedent for American leadership, where leaders hand our enemies military victories to score political points at home, where leaders lie to the public to conceal those mistakes and confuse the public about the facts, and then wax indignant when called on those actions, then our culture — including our military culture — will fray and crack at a fundamental level.

– David French, a US Military Combat vet

One of the reasons, I believe, that the Left hates the military is EXACTLY

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Bob Costas is one of those celebrities (in his case, a sports broadcaster) who has used his position to lecture we little people on different topics (on guns here, here, and here).  Well, he’s continuing to ride that bicycle by totally misinterpreting the Second Amendment (or, based on his previous outbursts), shows his Progressive nature and sneers at the Second Amendment while on the Bill Maher show:

Is this what the Founding Fathers had in mind? That Greg Hardy should be armed to the teeth? That private citizens should be able to purchase cop-killer, armor piercing bullets? That you should be able to have a AK-47?

The answer is yes, they DID expect citizens to be armed – to come to the defense of their new nation if needed:

 A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.

“Regulated” back then meant “in good working order” – an effective fighting force made up of ordinary citizens (and not an overbearing government bureaucracy defining every jot and tittle about how something or somebody is to function).  And being a militia, citizens were, in many cases, to bring their personal arms to such an assemblage (as government supplied arms were often non-existent).  And if that militia was to fight against another army, you bet that its arms should at least be equal to the arms the opposing force would have.  Which means that the citizens, bringing their own arms to the fray, needed to own just that (if financially possible).

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OK, last night I had a complete case of writer’s block.  I couldn’t type a period – sad, sad.  So this is a bit of late news:

Next week, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul is expected to kick off his own announcement with a five-state tour. More from the Washington Times:

Rand Paul will formally declare his candidacy for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination with a five-state, five-day announcement tour next month, Republicans knowledgeable about the Kentucky senator’s plans told The Washington Times.

Mr. Paul will make his announcement first in Louisville at noon on April 7, then head to New Hampshire on April 8, Charleston, S.C., on April 9, Iowa City on April 10 and Las Vegas on April 11.

The first Republican primary debate is set for August 15, 2015 in Ohio.

Sure, one of our on-going mantras lately is “screw DC, save NH” – but

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Just call it a Nanny Car – from Engadget:

Much as we’d like to emulate our NASCAR heroes, breaking the speed limit often comes at a price. Ford is hoping to prevent accidents and speeding tickets by introducing cars that can see what the speed limit is and preventing heavy-footed motorists from driving any faster. Ford’s Intelligent Speed Limiter tech will first appear on the new Ford S-Max that’s launching in Europe that could just change the way that we drive.

A camera mounted on the windshield scans the road signs on the sides of the highway and, when the vehicle enters a 20mph zone, the system reduces the top speed to match. Rather than controlling the speed with automatic braking, the car limits its own velocity by adjusting the amount of fuel being pushed to the engine.

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Honestly, these days incompetent beings who require protection is a pretty good description of feminists

(Image H/T: Liberal Logic 101)

Frankly, I grow weary of people who can find darkness 360 all around them all the time.  These are people who just can’t get over the fact that, by definition, life isn’t fair.  And when you take away manners (the grease of civilization) and any semblance of roles, you get this horse pucky: of mistaking chivalry and manners for a newly identified form of sexism:

Why chivalry may not always be what it seems: Men who hold doors open and smile may actually be sexist, study claims

Boston researchers carried out a study into types of sexism in men   They say there are two types of sexists, identifiable by their smile  ‘Hostile sexist men’ were less approachable and less friendly  Those who displayed ‘benevolent sexism’ were nicer and smiled more. If you’re the sort of gentleman who holds the door open for a lady – or the sort of woman who expects him to – then be warned. Such acts of chivalry may actually be ‘benevolent sexism‘ in disguise, according to researchers. Experts say this type of sexism is harder to spot than the ‘hostile sexism’ we are more familiar with – because it often masquerades as gallantry. It is typified by paternal and protective behaviour, from encouraging smiles to holding doors open.

This is like climate change between the sexism; global warming causes higher temperatures – except for when the temperatures fall.  It causes more extreme weather events – except when it doesn’t. So it is with this sexism; it is anti-woman behavior until it isn’t.

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