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Don Boudreax, Professor of economics and blogger at Cafe Hayek flips a standard question on its head and pulls it inside-out sideways:

Last night and this morning your news anchors introduced your report on D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray’s ambivalence toward the pending “living-wage” bill with this question: “Will the District force large retailers to pay their workers more?”

A more illuminating introduction would be “Will the District force low-skilled workers to demand wages that make many of these workers unprofitable to employ?”

The SEIU is the union that is principly behind the Fast Food Strikes held all over the country yesterday and the impetus behind the question.  Frankly, while the leadership there is pretty much all in the tank for Obama and would more at home in a Communist regime (“Workers Unite!  Death to the 1% (or at least force them to downsize to a single bedroom condo)), they are not stupid.  There is no way that those strikers are going to get $15 / hour.  The short term goal is, with the confirmation of Obama’s newest Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez, is to begin to shape the battlefield for “wage reform” and “work rules” – here is his “supportive fire“:

 Perez said job creation is a focus and that he views the Labor Department as “the quarterback in the workforce system,” bringing together workers, businesses and labor unions to build a “demand-driven” workforce that has the skills needed to meet employer needs.

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This is absolutely rich – the Most Powerful Man in the World is ridiculed by an 11 year old boy whose Dad happens to be Syria’s Bashar Assad’s son, Hafez al-Assad.  Worse, he taunts O’Bam by saying “Yo, Emperor, where’s your clothes?” After all, how bad can it get when Obama’s indecision and mishandling gets the opprobrium and disdain of a preteen – and it goes viral worldwide?

12 hours we waited…48 hours they said, we’re waiting…they may have the best army in the world, maybe the best airplanes, ships, tanks than ours, but soldiers? No one has soldiers like the ones we do in Syria, if you ask me what rank would I rank American “soldiers” I wouldn’t rank them the worst because the worst are soldiers, but America doesn’t have soldiers, what it has is some cowards with new technology who claim themselves liberators, they said they supported the “revolution” but actually they made it, right now we’re all Syrian it doesn’t matter if your with or against because that’s democracy, the abilty to express yourself in your own way so when people say that they are against the “regime” it’s fine but there’s a difference between those people and the people who claim our flag green, it’s like an offense to the country, but the worst is people who accuse the army of killing them, they accuse these men who are willing to risk they’re lives and die to keep us safe, of killing us, well when these people say that “the army is gonna end because America will attack” I can say that when America attacks it’s gonna attack every Syrian, with, against, terrorists, the army.

Yeah, the Nobel Laureate Peace Prize winner, Cowboy Obama, is getting called out by a mere boy; is that the height of incompetence?  Boy, that Rule #5 got around quick, eh?

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On Obama’s hellbent intentions of using “his” military (“Now, I have not made a final decision about various actions that might be taken to help enforce that norm,” Obama said. “But as I’ve already said, I have had my military and our team look at a wide range of options.” – since when was a decision made to make it HIS military versus the country’s?  ):

“So we’re bombing Syria because Syria is bombing Syria? And I’m the idiot?“

Obama right now, is whiffing.  His vaunted “redlines” have been shown to have been drawn in chalk – and it is raining.  So with today’s pronouncement that Obama IS going to wait for Congress to authorize military action (if there is to be any to “punish” Assad), he knows he’s going to get yet another free Political Pass of Voting Present – lots of sturm und drang, a flurry of fiery finesse, and in the end – a do nothing.

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Pretty much, this from Glen Reynolds sums it up:

Nor Mia Love, Dr. Walter Williams, Dr. Ben Carson, Dr. Thomas Sowell or SCOTUS’s Clarence Thomas  nor David Webb.  In fact, if you peruse the list of speakers, I didn’t see one black speaker that could be considered to be a conservative.  Or a white person.  Or even a person of color whose political beliefs vary from that list of speakers.

I’ve been reading the blogosphere with an eye to the recreation of the March on Washington – and pretty much got the idea of what was to happen.  And it did.  Most of us remember the sterling words of “they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character” and have thought ever since that the first March’s purpose to look beyond a person’s covering and into their heart and mind.    Sadly, in reading the various reports about the event (no, I did not watch it), it seems that to further the efforts of Dr. King, the Civil Rights movement’s leaders have adopted every single Liberal / Progressive nostrum known to earth.  Not only that, the ONLY explanations that were given in response to the push-back to these Progressive goals is that Conservatives like me can only be rationalized by racism.  Pure and simple – and no other explanation will ever be listened to.  Nice to see that a broad swath of America is viewed in such a manner (and the Progressives say that only we act based on  stereotypes?).

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For those  people who keep thinking “we live in a Free country”, here is yet another sign from the Progressives now running our Federal Government that they believe that the Constitution (ok, just by their Official Position in Government) allows them the notion that they should tell us what is good or bad behavior.  No, not what is criminal behavioral or not, but the “good and righteous moral behavior” they have blessed.  From CNSNews.com:

The “new energy future” will require the federal government to encourage “the right kinds of behavior,” Interior Secretary Sally Jewell told a clean energy summit in Nevada on Tuesday.   “When you are getting into a new energy future, you really benefit from having the support of states — and the federal government encouraging the right kinds of behavior and encouraging those incentives (for solar panel installation), she said.

Right – so if you don’t go right out and get solar’d up, if you don’t use renewable energy, you are a bad person (among all the other things that the Politically correct things that Smart People have decided are “right for the times” (without a note that, hmm, we change our minds about these things too). And as far as “getting into a new energy future”, this has all been decided for us – as in jamming it down our throats on the front end and making sure that we must “make the right decisions” by taking away energy resources on the back side (e.g., coal and nuke, for nothing says Freedom like limiting real choice, eh?).  “Right kinds of behavior”?  We’re back to the end goal of Progressives – the Administrative State whose technocrats will make all important choices for us.

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Today is the day where various unions (chief amongst them, the SEIU) are trying to have fast food workers conduct a strike across a number of large cities against the likes of McDonalds, Kentucky fried, Wendy’s, Subway et al.  CNN, the liberal new site, portrays this in Occupy (e.g., socialist / communist) language (thanks to the opinion writer):

Fast food and some retail workers in 50 cities around the country are striking today, and have mounted dozens of strikes over the past few months. Their demands are simple: a pay raise to $15 per hour — roughly double the federal minimum wage — and union recognition.  The “Fast Food Forward” movement began in New York City last fall and quickly spread to other cities. In some places it grew to include workers in other low-wage jobs besides fast food. Like the earlier Occupy Wall Street protests, this new movement has captured the imagination of millions of Americans angry about the ever-widening gap between haves and have-nots.

…They are struggling to support their families on jobs that pay at or close to the legal minimum, with few benefits. Adding insult to injury, full-time work is hard to find in the fast food and retail world. But many workers have no other options, since the Great Recession permanently wiped out millions of better-paying jobs.

From another CNN  post:

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The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money.“

– Lady (and former British Prime Minister) Margaret Thatcher

You know, I’m not sure if this is just the kind of creeping socialism that California has been practicing for the last few decades, or just dumb governance ideas gone crazy, or a willingness to participate in the kinds of “cooperative federalism” in which the Feds pass laws that offer much money to the “various States” but with strings attached.  Or, most likely, all of them at the same time (and a few more) (emphasis mine, reformatting):

The Sacramento Bee reports that the state’s Employment Development Department is about to cut its number of staff because the funding it gets from the federal government has been slashed.  Normally, the federal unemployment insurance program is the bulwark for the State Department, but the state will receive $150 million less through next June 15.  The federal program complains it is underfunded, blaming Congressional budget cuts, and is giving California less for two reasons:

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Living here in central NH, weather does go bump in the night.  Bizzards, severe thunderstorm, nor’easters, hurricanes – thankfully we get those but with some advance warning as opposed those Californians that get the “shake & bake” at almost any time with little notice (e.g., earthquakes or wildfires).  You keep food around, you keep a secondary source of heat around, even water.  We were here a few years ago during the great ice storm – we were out of power for almost two weeks.  You prepare accordingly.

You’ve heard about the Feds purchasing lots of ammo – far beyond normal limits for stated needs.  The rumor was 1.6 billion rounds, much of it for Dept. of Homeland Security (which they denied) to the point where Congressional inquiries were started.  At least today, it seems that prices and availability are starting to fall and go up, respectively, and headed back to normal levels.  And then I ran across this earlier this month (yeah, trying to play catch up once again):

This email was received by a company that sells preparedness and survival food stocks. What is the urgency of being able to supply rations within 24 hours?

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Issues that define the TEA Party movement?

• Fiscal frugality on the part of Government
• Constitutional boundaries – limits to Government (to protect us from Government)
• Free Markets

So, in advance of yesterday’s March on Washington on the 50th anniversary of MKL’s “I have a Dream” speech, what topic did a nationally known feminist blame the TEA Party for?

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No, the Farmers Almanac prediction for this winter (which is lent more than a little credence in these parts) is not using sophisticated sensors, sats in space, or high level math to have declared that we all ought to have our woolies cleaned and ready.  Watts Up With That? is one of the heaviest trafficed sites that is skeptical (to the point of being called a chief denier) that global warming is due mainly to human activities.  That’s not to say that the earth ISN’T getting warmer, just that the Warmists are going all enviro and seeing catastrophe around every bend, that humans are the curse and not the cure, and that only by submitting our lives to their Most Beneficient administration will we all get out of this alive in 100 years or so.  Hmm, we keep hearing this from regular type Progressives all the time – thus they have earned the title of Watermelon environmentalists (Green on the outside, Red on the inside (from a time when Socialists / Communists were red, not blue; such is rebranding)) but what is the measured reality vs the prediction of all the models that have been driving all this drivel that “we’re all gonna die!” by too hot (or not able to breath under water from rising sea levels).

And remember, back in the Stone Age of the ’70s, these self declared Smart People were the same ones hootin’ and hollerin’ that “we’re all gonna die” – but from a new Ice Age.  So, having heard that, I keep thinking that this latest stuff is the same thing, just the other side (and there is WAY more money going into this – as in “follow the money”).  Anyhow, WUWT has a post that has the summarization of the most frequently used warming datasets, shows the aggregate on a plot, and then shows that result compared to the IPCC predictions that is driving so much of Government policies in social engineering “for our own good”. The money question is – do the predictions match reality?

I’m afraid not.

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Farmers Almanac 2014 Winter Prediction

After the unusually warm and snowless winter of 2011–2012, many people questioned if winter could make a comeback. Well it did. Last winter was cold and especially snowy.

So, what’s in store for this winter? The “Days of Shivery” are back! ?For 2013–2014, we are forecasting a winter that will experience below average temperatures for about two-thirds of the nation. A large area of below-normal temperatures will predominate from roughly east of the Continental Divide to the Appalachians, north and east through New England. Coldest temperatures will be over the Northern Plains on east into the Great Lakes. Only for the Far West and the Southeast will there be a semblance of winter temperatures averaging close to normal, but only a few areas will enjoy many days where temperatures will average above normal.

Precipitation-wise, the Southern Plains, Midwest, and Southeast will see above-normal conditions, while the rest of the country will average near normal. With a combination of below-normal temperatures and above-normal precipitation the stage will be set for the Midwest, Great Lakes, and Central and Northern New England to receive lots of snow. Farther south, where the thermometer will be vacillating above or below the freezing mark, Southern New England, Southeast New York, New Jersey, and down through the Mid-Atlantic region will be seeing either copious rains and/or snows.

Well, let’s see what happens.  If this holds up, it certainly will put a lot of egg on those faces that have said “Our childrens’ children may never know snow!”

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