Another week and hundreds more comments. We pick one from each day of the previous week, and you get to vote on who wins the honor. All we ask is that you read them and vote.
One maintenance note: We are waiting on the full backup to proceed with site changes. New management made a once simple task more complicated.
So, here they are!
Post: Promoted from Comments: “For a long time, parents have treated ‘public schools’ like some kind of birthright, to be funded at everyone else’s expense.”
Author: Houmid
Comment: The largest consumer of property taxes in New Hampshire are the school systems. Throwing more money at the schools is not improving our children’s ability to succeed and thrive. What that money is doing is driving more and more divisive programs that promote racial discrimination, sexual depravity, total confusion of reality, and a jobs program for so called educators that would never have been allowed to teach 100 years ago. More to the point, there are zero incentives for public school systems to halt rising costs, much less reduce them.
Property taxes make sense for the provision of necessary services that benefit everyone in a community. Municiple taxes for police, fire & rescue, and road maintenance are needs for everyone. Ditto water and sewage if your municipality provides them. Everything else is fluff. But property taxes for public schools is an abomination that never should have been allowed. Funding for schooling your children should have remained the responsibility of people with children, not everyone. Granted, nearly everyone benefits when education is provided to all children; so some limited taxation for those without children may be acceptable. Unfortunately, our governments suck when it comes to limitations.
The elderly, in general, have not had children in the public school system for over 20 years. The elderly, in general, have paid for 45 years into the public schools. The elderly, in general, will benefit from the services provided by those educated over that 45 year period. However, the elderly are most definitely not going to be benefiting from any further money dumped into the education system. Ergo, the justification for taxation of the elderly is non-existent.
Furthermore, the vast majority of the elderly are on fixed incomes. Their wealth saved over the years is static, or decreasing. Their property, should they own any, is usually their biggest source of wealth, and does not generate any wealth. In short, property taxes on the elderly for school systems is slow theft from the elderly.
New Hampshire currently has RSAs (72:39-a) permitting elderly exemptions from property taxes. The RSAs are convoluted, based on age, income, and assets. Most towns have a form almost as complicated as a 1040 to try to determine if you qualify. Basically, you have to be at the poverty level to qualify; which means it’s useless as a tool to discourage out of control spending.
I propose to simplify the situation. Rescind the current elderly exemption RSA 72:39; and replace it with a blanket exemption from all school taxes for any resident property owner 65 years or older. i.e. You have to own the property, you have to be living on it, and you have to be at least 65 years of age.
Post: Diversity Means, Less White People
Author: Hunter
Comment: All of us will be astonished when the time suddenly arrives. A consensus of the citizens in a situation like this is like a seed crystal dropped into a super-saturated solution. One moment there’s nothing but clear liquid, then one little speck falls in and suddenly there’s a huge mass of interlocking crystals. I doubt any of us will be able to predict the event or moment when the American people will have had enough, but it is pretty clear conditions are ripe. “Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable”, indeed. Just remember Jefferson’s next line.
What exactly will happen once that moment of clarity arrives, who knows? There are any number of actions which could conceivably completely alter the equation forever. Despite the pretensions of “the Men Who Would be Kings” they have nowhere near the power or knowledge to rule 340 million people scattered over 3.8 million square miles of often rugged territory, ESPECIALLY when the main thing uniting those people is a shared cultural heritage of liberty at least most of them know grew from the world’s most successful revolution. Something as simple as a campaign of passive resistance or even ‘malicious obedience’ is quite capable of bringing the entire corrupt edifice crashing down, to say nothing of sterner measures. Why do you think the “Men Who Would be Kings” flail about so desperately?
Their deepest fear is founded on the knowledge that America is only as governable as we CONSENT to be governed. A very large fraction of the population for a myriad of varying reasons is very close to deciding they no longer wish to play along. All that remains now is that spark, that clarifying event to finalize that nascent decision. Some day soon, the American people will remember that they are strong, and don’t HAVE to live in fear of those who are supposed to serve them. Then… things get interesting, in any of a multitude of ways. Only part of what happens after that I’m sure of is that it’ll sure suck to be one of “The Men Who Would be Kings” – just ask the ghost of Daniel Dravot.
Post: Trump Was Right — The EV ‘Bloodbath’ Is Already Here
Author: Kevin Scully
Comment: The fact that the Ford was able to turn a profit despite the breathtaking losses in the EV Division can mean only one thing. When you buy an over-priced ICE vehicle from Ford, you are actually paying for two cars. One for you and one for someone who wants their virtue-signaling EV toy.
Post: Night Cap: Food, Famine, Fear: Beware the Great Agricultural Reset
Author: Steve Smith
Comment: My wife and I have been working with the same institutional financial adviser for 20+ years, and this year when we asked what we should do to prepare for the future, he strongly suggested buying an emergency food supply and ammunition. This was not the typical investment advice, but we now have a 6-month food supply stored away.
Post: Homeschooling Survey: They Use Many Different Methods to Learn to Read
Author: CT Patriot
Comment: Thank you for this analysis, Jody. Even with this small sample of responses, I suspect the results can be extrapolated, applying as well to many more of the homeschool population.
I recall interviewing a high school teacher in Western Massachusetts about 20 years ago (on other matters), and asked him if he thought the literacy level was declining. He replied that at the beginning of every academic year, before he knew his students, he asked for a show of hands how many had parents who read to them–or with them–regularly. Very shortly, and continuing throughout the academic year, he observed that every single student who raised their hands was a fluent reader. Anecdotal results, to be sure, but very consistent.
Your survey results support Ian’s contention that you can’t force a child to learn when he doesn’t want to and, conversely, you can’t stop a child from learning when he wants to.
I guess it’s like the old Chinese saying (paraphrased): When the student is ready, the teacher appears.
Post: How Maine Gun Laws Help New Hampshire: Kittery Trading Post Threatens to Move All Firearms Sales to Granite State
Author: Recognizing_Truth
Comment: To determine whether a content- based law passes constitutional muster, courts generally apply a legal standard called strict scrutiny,
under which the government must show that the law is the “least restrictive means” of advancing a “compelling” governmental interest.
So, let’s take a look
1) A waiting period for a firearm has never been shown to diminish the number of suicides, so the argument that a waiting period is necessary because it will “save a life” of someone who is intent on killing themselves is unsubstantiated
2) A waiting period would not have stopped any of the shootings in Maine or elsewhere as every one of the criminals had the guns in their position for periods of time far exceeding “3 days”.
3) Criminals by nature do not follow laws. A waiting period for obtaining a gun will not stop a criminal who does not care about legal means of obtaining firearms, and only legal means of procuring are affected by the 72 hour waiting period.
4) The three day waiting period adds a hardship only with law abiding persons and businesses and adds an extreme hardship for those who have to travel to an FFL that is some distance from them (most of Maine is rural). One long trip to order and sign forms and have a background check. Then the long trip home. 3 days later another long trip to pick up the firearm and then the long trip home. The time, fuel, wear and tear on the vehicle, etc. significantly adds to the cost of obtaining the firearm and more adversely affects lower income individuals. The added fuel consumption in a state that claims all fuel burning should be curbed in the name of ending “climate change” is detrimental to the government’s other compelling interests.
The “government’s compelling interest” is unclear as none of the reasons given for adding this law clearly state what that interest is. As this doesn’t affect criminals intent on crime, but does restrict law abiding citizens in the exercise of their rights, the law does not demonstrate how it either would meet the government’s compelling interest, nor that it is the least restrictive method for doing so. It also more adversely affects lower income individuals and makes it less likely they will be able to exercise their Constitutional right. The law does NOT stand strict scrutiny and will fail judicial review as being unconstitutional.
Post: Night Cap: TWENTY (20) Percent Of Mail-In-Votes in 2020 Were Fraudulent
Author: notoriousBLOG
Comment: Three and a half years later and the “truth” that most on the right already knew is being told. What are we to do when Washington is so corrupted that this type of activity is actually orchestrated from the White House and the ABC agencies? The bigger question is will there even be an election this November? What do the powers that be have in store for us this go-round? Will it be another plandemic? Will it be martial law declared to cancel the elections? Or will the puppets find a way to lock up or otherwise eliminate Trump? This is going to be the year that determines the fate of our entire existence as a sovereign nation.
Vote: The poll is live from Monday, May 5, at 7 a.m. ET until Tuesday, May 6, at 8 p.m. ET. One person, one vote. No mail-ins. Postal trucks arriving after the poll closes will be turned away!
This poll is no longer accepting votes
