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TMEW and I are no longer spring chickens, I guess.  I think we knew this, innately, but really haven’t wanted to face up to it directly (but few of us do, right?).  Well, reality has a way of intruding on one’s outlook – and it is persistent.  Like many, I was outside on Thanksgiving Day  trying to get rid of the snow so that our guests could get into the driveway and up to the house – wet, heavy and in a lot of places, just plain compacted “cement”.  And my back decided to let me know of ITS reality and all but quit on me (even with the John Deere snowblower).

Both the Youngest and the Eldest came over quickly and spent the next hour or so doing the rest of the cleanup – the pathway up to the house, finished snowblowing the driveway, raked the roofs, cleared out the mailbox on the street, and removed the veritable ice ridge at the end of the driveway from the plow trucks.  And that’s when it hit me…

….just like I used to do for my parents when my two were those ages.. 

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Michael Yon, former Special Forces and combat reporter, gives his takes on why there was no attempt to “shoot to wound”:

Ferguson: Why did the officer not shoot Brown in the legs?

Many people are innocently asking this question. The answer could go on for pages, but to be succinct, a couple handfuls of reasons:

1) This ain’t the movies
2) Most police do not fire their weapons much. Most are not great shots.
3) He would have to be an incredible shot to be crazy enough to fire wounding shots.

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Obamacare is in force and the big corporations that were in Crony Capitalism mode are slowly understanding that the only person that matters is Obama.  Deals struck with him, like all of his campaign promises, have expiration dates.  Matters not whether much money and efforts have been expended on his behalf earlier – you’re no longer needed.  From Yahoo News (reformatted, emphasis mine)

Exclusive: U.S. CEOs threaten to pull tacit Obamacare support over ‘wellness’ spat

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Leading U.S. CEOs, angered by the Obama administration’s challenge to certain “workplace wellness” programs, are threatening to side with anti-Obamacare forces unless the government backs off, according to people familiar with the matter. Major U.S. corporations have broadly supported President Barack Obama’s healthcare reform despite concerns over several of its elements, largely because it included provisions encouraging the wellness programs.

The programs aim to control healthcare costs by reducing smoking, obesity, hypertension and other risk factors that can lead to expensive illnesses. A bipartisan provision in the 2010 healthcare reform law allows employers to reward workers who participate and penalize those who don’t.  But recent lawsuits filed by the administration’s Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), challenging the programs at Honeywell International and two smaller companies, have thrown the future of that part of Obamacare into doubt.

The lawsuits infuriated some large employers so much that they are considering aligning themselves with Obama’s opponents, according to people familiar with the executives’ thinking.

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I guess this is, in part, the cover for Obama to start repatriating those Islamic fighters that have worked to kill Americans – after all, doesn’t “belligerants” sound more like just misguided people with an anger management problem?  Such is the Obama Administration trying all of the linguistic tricks in the books in support of his EVIL (not misguided, EVIL) policy in letting dangerous killers free to go back to the battlefields to kill again – Federation of American Scientists:

When it comes to Department of Defense doctrine on military treatment of detained persons, “unlawful enemy combatants” are a thing of the past. That term has been retired and replaced by “unprivileged enemy belligerents” in a new revision of Joint Publication 3-13 on Detainee Operations, dated November 13, 2014.

Hot Air adds more:

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This should enrage all taxpayers (emphasis mine, reformatted):

IRS staffers who owe back taxes will in some cases still be eligible for bonuses next year, the agency said this week.

In a statement, the agency said it would keep employees who willfully skipped out on their taxes from getting performance awards, but would be more forgiving of those who made honest mistakes. John Koskinen, the IRS commissioner, announced a new round of bonuses this week for 2014, to be paid out early next year. “It’s important to remember that not everyone at the IRS is a tax expert — some work in non-tax specific areas in occupations ranging from IT programmers, administrative professionals to human capital specialists,” the IRS told The Hill in a statement this week. “Where employees have been found to have made unintentional tax mistakes, they would generally still be eligible to receive performance awards they have earned.”

How ’bout those that haven’t PAID their taxes – at all?  John Koskinen – this is the guy that has waged a one man snark war against the CongressCritters in trying to find out who said and did what in the IRS / Lois Lerner targeting of Conservative / TEA Party groups in denying them tax status given to others.  It was clear that he’s stonewalled them – after all, how many months has it been that he’s obfuscated and outright lied about the “missing” Lerner emails that have just magically appeared?

The announcement that staffers who owe back taxes could still collect bonuses

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From End of the American Dream comes this question:

“If you could stay home and watch television, play video games and hang out with your friends all day at government expense, would you do it?”

It goes on to talk about the safety net vs what I call the Govt hammock with the soft cocooning that eventually either convinces one to just lay there – or traps them there.  Yes, I have used the former (as I have said many times before) – a hand up.  And I have known those that have answered that question above with a resounding “YES!”  The carrot is dangled out there, by the policies of the Left, who believe that government kindness is only kindness offered by their mindset (without ever saying thank you for those that actually fund them) – it is only one’s sense of morality that says “thanks for the hand up – no longer needed” or (in the cases I have seen) “you owe me more – I want more”.

So EofAD lists some of the reasons why Americans are falling into that dependency disaster that the Government offers (reformatted, much left at the above link, emphasis mine):

Of course most Americans that collect money from the government each month are not abusing the system.  Many truly are incapable of taking care of themselves, and others are just receiving government benefits (such as Social Security) that they feel that they have earned by a lifetime of hard work.  But with each passing year the number of Americans jumping on board “the safety net” continues to grow rapidly, and a lot of these people should be able to take care of themselves.

The Left doth protest too much when they say “YOU are cold-hearted and selfish!” but again, the only thing that is important to the Left is that they think they’ve done good (again, via someone else’s money and detriment), their intentions are good – but being accountable for those results are immaterial.

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In many countries, that would be true.  But we aren’t most countries (at least, not yet) – it is clear that our radical Founding Fathers determined that our Rights pre-exist the formation of Government (e.g., I didn’t happen to be safe from illegal search and seizure or posses the self-defense rights simply because the Constitution was signed).  Our Constitution, the practical manifestation of the philosophy in the Declaration only enumerates those Rights.

It does NOT grant them.  In fact, the Constitution was written to tell those in Government that THEY DO NOT grant (and therefore, having the ability to rescind) RIGHTS!  So why is yet another Government school claiming exactly that??

Note the phrasing in two of the points:

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Steve broke the news that Terry Bean, millionaire founder of the Human Rights Campaign, massive Democrat / Obama donor, and friend of NH Democrat Chair Ray Buckley, was arrested on charges of sodomy on a minor-aged boy (here) and the silence from the NH Democrats in NOT speaking to disavow that same important Democrat Terry Bean (here) even as they have no problem at all in going after NH Republicans for merely saying something they disagree with (which they used to do to us – except we punch back).

Well, here’s a story where a high ranking Democrat, formerly the IRS person who was in charge of approving charities for tax exemptions, approved a prostitution ring (you know her – the one that DISAPPROVED a lot of TEA Party groups because, well, she’s a raging Democrat – Lois Lerner).  Seriously – approving a group, Royal Order of Jesters, that, in some cases, used under-aged prostitutes and approved a museum as their charity “home”?  She protects her own ideological Party over political disagreement but approves a group that has abused young girls; am I the only one that thinks Lois Lerner’s moral pointers are all crooked? Reformatted, emphasis mine:

This reads like a James O’Keefe scandal.  Sandy Frost reported:

This seemingly boring property tax story began when attorney Ron Pruitt filed nonprofit incorporation documents with Texas’ Secretary of State on 7/11/2003.These documents were then filed with the IRS, where Lois Lerner, the former Director of Exempt Organization Rulings and Agreements, decided the Royal Order of Jesters deserved 501(c)(3) status as a charity and, on July 24, 2004, approved their application that classified their new headquarters as a “museum.”…

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Again, kudos to Steve for breaking the Terry Bean story here (and here) in NH (DNC Committeeman-bigwhig / Obama donor / NHDP Chair Ray Buckley) being rrested on charges of sodomy on a minor-aged boy and the NH Democrat Party stonewall silence – so as NOT to disavow Raybo’s friend?  Or avoiding the mud of this homosexual rape (I leave you all to connect the dots yourselves).  I’ve been watching the NH media (First in the Nation Primary and all – you’d think news of a Democrat National Committee member would make it into their conscienceness, eh?  Nary a peep.

And not at the national level with the lone exception of CNN; from the Media Research Center:

CNN Covers Sex Abuse Case Against Obama ‘Friend,’ As Big Three Censor Story

CNN stood out on Sunday and Monday for actually covering the sex abuse charges against Terry Bean, a “major fundraiser for President Obama,” as correspondent Erin McPike labeled him. The cable network devoted three full segments and two news briefs to the criminal charges against Bean, who is also the co-founder of the left-wing homosexual activist group Human Rights Campaign.  As of Monday morning, the Big Three networks have yet to cover the story on their morning and evening newscasts.

Republicans bad (even if for allegedly spitting on the sidewalk); Democrats good (even when allegedly committing under-aged rape).

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Government is what we pay for, to alienate our kids from us?

Is this the Proper Role of Government and OUR employees?  Yes, another case of our public servants decreeing that they are our Public Masters; from The Blaze (reformatted, emphasis mine):

Cassidy Vines was so horrified by what a teacher in Texas allegedly told her that she is planning on home-schooling her daughter after Christmas break. Vines told Glenn Beck on Monday that she recently began noticing a change in her daughter’s behavior. Her daughter — who is in kindergarten — started to “snap” at her when she corrected her homework, saying “I’m her mommy, not her teacher.”  Vines said a few days after her daughter first snapped at her, she started pronouncing a word incorrectly. Vines corrected her daughter “in the most gentle way possible,” but she said her daughter broke down crying, saying “that’s how she was taught, and I can’t tell her something different because I’m a mommy, not a teacher.”  Vines said she was horrified and asked, “Is somebody telling you this at school?”

“She said, ‘Yes, I’m only allowed to learn from my teacher,’” Vines remarked.

Yeah, I got that from my kids when they were in school, too – and trust me, having two STEM degrees, I knew the subject matter in which I was trying to help my kids far better than the teachers did.  “THIS is the way my teacher wants me to do it!”; tough noogies – I’m your Dad and until you do it this way (which you WILL see is simpler, faster, and less prone for mistakes), you aren’t moving from chair”.

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This from Instapundit (the rest is behind the Wall Street Journal paywall) (emphasis mine):

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Number of College Students Taking Remedial Courses Explodes. “The number of college students taking at least one remedial course rose to 2.7 million in the 2011-2012 academic year from 1.04 million in 1999-2000, federal data show. During the same span, the amount of federal grants spent by undergraduates enrolled in at least one remedial course rose 380%, after inflation, Education Department figures show. There was also a drastic rise in remedial students taking on student debt. . . . Now, the high dropout rate among remedial-education students—along with a sharp rise in student debt—is fueling debate about whether the government should be more stringent in awarding student aid. Critics—ranging from some think-tank academics and conservatives to a trustee of a community-college system in Texas—say aid should be targeted toward students who are better-prepared.” These are students who shouldn’t be in college. Colleges are letting them in because they want their money.

The above is about student debt – my emphasis is on asking the question “What about the student education? WHY are so many students leaving mostly government high schools SO unprepared for college level work?”  It can’t be that Gruber word: stupidity, right?

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These are part of our highest level of lawmakers – the Congressional Black Caucus.  One would expect that they would take the time to do what we pay them for – read the bills before voting on them.  Fat chance of that happening if you have EVER read their remarks concerning one bill or another – some are simply clueless about them or on other things (like Congressman Hank “we’ll tip over Guam if we put more troops there” Johnson) like this (reformatted, emphasis mine):

Congressional Black Caucus denounces Ferguson grand jury

Members of the Congressional Black Caucus on Monday called the grand jury decision not to indict Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson a “slap in the face” for those seeking justice for the death of Michael Brown.  “The Ferguson grand jury’s decision not to indict Officer Darren Wilson in the death of Michael Brown is a miscarriage of justice,” CBC Chair Marcia Fudge (D-Ohio) said in a statement released after the decision was announced late Monday evening in Missouri. “It is a slap in the face to Americans nationwide who continue to hope and believe that justice will prevail.”

The evidence given to the grand jury in Ferguson was just released today and somewhere I have bookmarked a post that says 60 witnesses and 4,900+ pages of testimony.  To my knowledge, there is no mechanism that automatically sends such evidence to black CongressCritters in cases where other blacks die in confrontations with whites (regardless of the circumstances) ahead of decisions.

Thus, when did CongressCritter Fudge have the time to read (or

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