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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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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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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Minnesota based Granite State Progress got a permit to hold a rally yesterday at 11am out in front of the New Hampshire state house.   The purpose of the rally was to show support for Medicaid expansion in the Granite State.

Yesterday was the public hearing on the issue ( which I wrote about here).  The expansion is a bad idea but it is one progressives want and while turnout for the hearing was good there does not appear to have been any turnout at all for the rally.

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Would_banning_firearms_reduce_murder_and_suicide?

That is the title (link takes you to the 46 pg PDF) of a Harvard study that looked at violent crime, murder and suicide, in various nations, based on the prevalence of guns and gun owners.  As is typical of the white tower, researches who actually look at the data are surprised by the results.  There is no correlation and in fact, places where more citizens are legally able to own firearms have less murder and suicide.

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New Hampshire should not expand Medicaid. Hospitals will lose hundreds of millions of dollars and Taxpayers will be burdened with billions in unfunded mandates.  At least that is what the results of the NH Department of Health and Human Services own study determined.

…an analysis from the Lewin Group, a prominent health care consulting firm, finds that if New Hampshire expands Medicaid, Granite State hospitals will actually lose $228 million in revenue over the next seven years.

and…

While expanding Medicaid will cost New Hampshire billions of dollars in unfunded liabilities, the expansion would only reduce the number of uninsured individuals in the state by 22,300. A larger number would be moved out of higher-quality, private insurance, and into the dysfunctional Medicaid program.

This is from an analysis of the NH DHHS study.  It is how they are supposed to base their own consideration.   Easy enough.  Not right for New Hampshire.

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Over at The Blaze is a post about a Mom who watched the MTV VMA show – and saw it for what it was.  She has penned a letter (“penned” sounds so much better than “keyboarded”) and posted it on her blog. In essence, she is drawing a line in the sand for her daughter – and firing a shot against the Progressive values that have so much demeaned the value of self-respect and the value of truly knowing who you are.  Cyrus’s act perfectly shows the effect of the Progressive hard core emphasis on freedom of action (an adaption of Nike’s “just do it” – and do it all) and nary a word of self-limitation on moral grounds.

Remember Andrew Brietbart’s admonition to those of us who wish to change politics back to Constitutional values: “Politics is downstream from politics”.  Here is one Mom’s effort to change that culture for her beloved daughter:

Dear daughter, let Miley Cyrus be a lesson to you.

Yes, this is what happens when you constantly hear everything you do is awesome. This is what happens when people fawn over your every Tweet and Instagram photo. This is what happens when no responsible adult has ever said the word “no,” made you change your clothes before leaving the house, or never spanked your butt for deliberate defiance.

Unlike Progressives that believe every 11 year old has a right to Plan B and the right for her teacher to bring her to Planned Parenthood, this Mom says “here is my line in the sand on your behavior”.  In fact, she goes on to demonstrate that her daughter’s decisions WILL have Mom’s consequences follow through .

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I think a lot of Northeast Republicans were fairly happy when Scott Brown won the special election from “Marsha” Coakley  in MA to fill the Senatorial seat left empty upon the death of Ted “The Swimmer” Kennedy a few years ago now.  Occupying “the Peoples’ Seat” (as opposed to the “Kennedy Family Seat”), he pretty much met most expectations – not a Democrat, but not rock solid votes on Republican issues either.  Now, he’s making noises about running for election again – just unsure for what and from where (except for MA Guv, which was on the list but he just ruled out – maybe).  From NH, perhaps, due to his home out on the Seacoast?

Several people took note on him filling in – locally, Karen Testerman did (Note: Karen is an exploratory candidate for NH Gov).  Given that the Laconia Daily Sun only does “pictures of text”, that’s all I’ve got:

But Brown filling in for Bill O’Reilly also caught a national audience as well.

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