Discrimination can be done by anyone

"They that live by the sword will die by the sword." Or, should I use "Those that live in glass houses…"?  This report from Boston.com kinda says it all. PROVINCETOWN — Town leaders here are holding a public meeting today to air concerns about slurs and bigoted behavior. And this time, they say, it’s gay … Read more

Living Wage

We’ll be commenting in the future about the "living wage" – especially why it is such a dunderheaded idea from a purely economic standpoint.

Be that as it may, what happens when activists and politicians are trying to ram something down the marketplace’s throat, and the marketplace decides to not play, pick up its ball and  go home? In Maryland, a law was passed that essentially targets Wal-Mart to force it to pay health care benefits to its norms (and the union activists behind the law, sore that all efforts so far to unionize Wal-Mart have failed).  I’ve been waiting to see what Wal-Mart was going to do.

Then this came up – from the Chicago-Sun Times:

 Target is putting plans to build three South Side stores "on hold" — and making veiled threats to close existing Chicago stores — if the City Council mandates wage and benefit standards for "big-box" retailers, African-American aldermen warned Thursday.

Uh-oh, the retailers, I think, have been pushed to far.  Why Target?  Well, it’s not just Target, it is any big retailer that fits this:

The saber-rattling is intensifying as the clock winds down toward a July 26 showdown vote on plans to make Chicago the nation’s first major city to establish a "living wage" for stores with at least 90,000 square feet of space operated by retailers with $1 billion in sales.

Here we go with the "living wage" meme again.  This is "playing chicken" in the economic sense – who is going to blink first?  My bet is the politicians.  Why?  They can only control what is within their jurisdiction – they are helpless if the retailer moves out….and then they will have to discuss the ramification with their angry constituents (some of whom will lose their jobs).  Why do I think this is likely?

Here’s the reason:

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City & Town. Voters & Tax Caps.

Besides public employee salary and benefit costs, nothing impacts local property taxes more than big construction projects like new $chools, mammoth libraries, and police $tation megaplexes. Throughout the state, and indeed the entire country, we see massive projects proposed or under way. Why not? The economy is good right now. People seemingly have enough money to continue paying the ever-rising cost of funding their government. Or do they? How often do we hear the liberal Democrats and their comrades in the news media tell us that the “Bush economy” only benefits the rich and leaves “the little guy” losing ground as their costs grow faster than paycheck raises? Perhaps one reason there may be a grain of truth to that notion is that the fiscal backsliding is being caused in large part by people’s ever-growing tax burden.
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Can it be that ordinary folks are beginning to understand that their local governments have a spending problem that finds tax bills digging deeper into their weekly paychecks? Let’s look at the “tale of two cities” if you will- Laconia and Gilford (actually, a town). Both locales have recently passed initiatives aimed at either directly, or indirectly, slowing the pace of government growth. In both, “It [is] the best of times, it [is] the worst of times.”

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I’ve heard of “Land for Peace”…

as that’s all we’ve heard for decades – give the Paestinians Gaza and the West Bank so they can have their own state.  I don’t think anyone is generally against the two state idea, except the Palestinians and their supporters.  As I pointed out here and here (and lots of places out in the blogosphere), … Read more

Ruminations on 7/13/06

As I wander around the ‘Net….. Couple of years ago, this was just an idea.  This past year, three worked.  Now, mountain climbing?  I kinda like this idea of promoting solar energy.  However: While a handful of US states still lack almost any meaningful incentives for encouraging citizens to generate power for their homes and … Read more

An example where money does not equal quality

I saw this over at Betsy’s Page a couple of days ago – I just didn’t have the time to really review it then.  I urge you to read it in its entirety as it shows examples of why just throwing money at a problem isn’t going to solve it.  Continuing on with the current state of affairs, procedures, and staffing isn’t going to solve these quality problems either. 

I have to admit – I may be taking our Education establishment to task here in my town of Gilford, but when I look at the amounts of money and the lack of results, putting things into context says Gilford ain’t so bad (but I will continue to "task" Gilford to reach for excellence). 

All these parents is what they feel is best for their kids – a good education.  They want the control back from the school system – they want institutions that can be held accountable.

Clint Bolick writes in the Wall Street Journal (subscription req’d) about a suit being filed in Newark, NJ seeking to give 60,000 students trapped in failing schools by giving their parents the money to transfer their children out of the horrible schools to attend schools of their choice.

Seeking to vindicate the state constitutional guarantee of a "thorough and efficient" education, the plaintiffs in Crawford v. Davy ask that children be allowed to leave public schools where fewer than half of the students pass the state math and language literacy assessments that measure educational proficiency; and that the parents of these children be permitted to take the pro rata share of the public money spent on their children, to seek better opportunities in other public or private schools. Supporting the families are three prominent New Jersey groups: the Black Ministers Council, the Latino Leadership Alliance, and Excellent Education for Everyone.

Sounds like groups that care more about students’ education than the public school teachers’ union.

Sounds familiar, right? 

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Need, want, or braggadocio?

UPDATE 2:  That there’s funny One man’s take on the issue. ==========================  UPDATE 1: It was pointed out to me that my dimensions for the football field were off.  Ed Engler at the Laconia Daily Sun has pointed out that "a regulation football field is 360-ft. X 160-ft.. . .a total of 57,600 square feet. … Read more

And you think universal health care is good?

"Universal Healthcare" seems to be a mantra we hear – millions without health insurance!  "How can we, the lone superpower, do this to our people!" are splayed across the pages. All we have to do is look at other Anglosphere countries that have it.  Look at Canada – their medical professionals are coming here to … Read more

I thought teaching meant education

I’d really rather not concentrate on the education establishment, I really don’t.  However, when they keep putting themselves up front and into the news, what else can I do? A lot of talk shows and blog sites talk often about the "dumbing down of America".  We older folks see it in the younger generation.  Heck, … Read more

Thought You Had a Tax Cap? Think Again…

MORE LOCAL (central NH) NEWS- KEEP READING- IT’S PROBABLY HAPPENING WHERE YOU LIVE TOO…(*followup to this prior posting on the Laconia tax cap issue*) …Now that the Laconia “Broken Arrow” City Council is proceeding with preparations for a tax-cap breaking, new middle $chool building construction bond issuance, the options left for the already over-burdened taxpayers are few. Back in April and then in May, the Broken Arrows led by Mayor Matt Lahey started the ball rolling with the approval of “supplemental appropriations” to pay for engineering and associated costs of the multi- million dollar project. While those actions were apparently not in violation of November’s voter- approved tax cap by the letter of the law (according to the AG’s office, the tax cap applies only to NEXT year’s budget) requiring an actual vote to specifically “override,” they certainly went against the spirit. I’ll bet money that those voting for the cap expected a cap- now.
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Moving forward with the spending commitment on a new middle school pitching the premise that new construction is cheaper than renovation, the Broken Arrow Council seems to have paid little heed to the City Manager’s forecast of future necessary tax cap- busting budgets even with NO new school being built. What will the hapless Laconia taxpayers do? The voters passed a tax cap and then elected big spending candidates who actively campaigned on an anti-tax cap platform with a promise of business as usual. With the manager’s dire predictions regarding upcoming budgets, the situation demands a radical alteration of how the city is conducting its operations.

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Israel and Gaza (and now Lebanon)

Let’s see if I get this right.  The Palestinians, the poster children for victimhood (via great PR and gullible Westerners) got their way. The intifadahs were partially about having Israel get out of Gaza (legally captured as war spoils during the Israeli – Arab wars).  Israel blinked and gave in – they cleared out.  Gaza was finally in the hands of the Palestinians.  Peace broke out.

Right?

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Facing the Face of Evil

The morning news tells us that Islamofascists in Iraq not only brutalized and killed two of our soldiers in June, they video taped the barbarous act.  Arab networks are running segments of this latest display of man’s inhumanity to man, this time against Pfc. Thomas Tucker and Pfc. Kristian Menchaca.  There seems to be an audience for that sort of thing among segments of the Muslim world.  For us civilians sitting safely at home in America, this act – and so many others like it – serve as a reminder of the nature of our enemy.  We should also be reminded – forcefully, constantly – that we have faced evil before, and that we once had the will to destroy it.

I wish that President Bush would address the county in prime time and give us a history lesson.  I wish he would use news reel footage and military reports from World War II to show the nation what it took to win a war against an evil, determined adversary.  In this address he would talk about the massive aerial bombings of European cities, the vicious combat on islands in the Pacific, the civilian casualties, the military casualties, the destruction of religiously-significant places, of loss of irreplaceable artifacts from our own culture.  He would explain why this destruction was required, and why our culture, our political philosophy, was worth defending in this manner.  Behind him on a big screen would be shown the fire bombings of Dresden, the destruction of Monte Cassino, Marines on Tarawa, and eventually the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

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Good answer, though

   Katie Couric, while interviewing a Marine sniper, asked:  What do you feel when you shoot a terrorist? The Marine shrugged and replied: "Recoil." ———————————————– Well, it looks like I did want to believe this one.  Since posting that earlier today, I have been advised to use an "Urban Myth" tag on this one.  However, … Read more

Claremont solved?

The legal fallout from the Claremont education funding edicts issued by the NH Supreme Court continues. Like the swallows returning to Capistrano and Massachusettes tourists returning to clog up our roads and restaurants here in the Lakes Region year after year, NH residents can count on some group of school districts suing the state for … Read more

Notable Quotes: Rumsfeld On Idealists And Cynics

"You may find people who will contend that patriotism is something to be a little bit embarrassed about or that honor is somewhat outdated as a notion and that concentrating on America’s imperfection makes you a realist. Not so. That’s the sign of a cynic. Being a cynic is easy. You can just sit back, … Read more

Notable Quotes: Daniel Webster on NH’s Old Man in The Mountain

"Men hang out their signs indicative of their respective trades; shoemakers hang out a gigantic shoe; jewelers a monster watch, and the dentist hangs out a gold tooth; but in the mountains of New Hampshire, God Almighty has hung out a sign to show that there He makes men."

How can we change our doctrine today?

From the LA Times, I just stumbled over this article discussing the meltdown of those Protestant denominations (the "mainline churches"). Much has been written here in NH, due to the ascendancy of Gene Robinson to bishop of the NH Episcopalian church (openly gay, recently admitted to a rehap facility for alcohol abuse). As an Evangelical Baptist, I have glumly watched, sometimes in horror, as these “high” churches (for their liturgical services) have changed their doctrines to suit the times and the norms of the public culture from their original doctrines of how to worship God. This is the last place (the LA Times), that I would have expected to see these liberal churches to come under fire.

The first paragraph is a great summary:

The accelerating fragmentation of the strife-torn Episcopal Church USA, in which several parishes and even a few dioceses are opting out of the church, isn’t simply about gay bishops, the blessing of same-sex unions or the election of a woman as presiding bishop. It also is about the meltdown of liberal Christianity.

 

 

 

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When will we take them at their word?

Six nations have been "diplomatically engaged" for a couple of years with North Korea – with no success. The EU-3 (Britian, Germany, and France, and the US in the background) have been "diplomatically"engaged with Iran for a few years – with no success.   Frankly, Iran and N.K. have played them for fools.  When will the leaders finally wise up and admit that diplomacy, the end-all-be-all for most liberals, will not work in these cases?  Do we have to endure an "event" in order to get action? 

From Little Green Footballs, I just saw this:

At the two-day conference in Iran we noted earlier, attended by officials from Bahrain, Egypt, Kuwait, Iraq, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Syria, Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called for the Islamic world to mobilize and wipe out Israel: Iran’s Ahmadinejad calls for ‘removal of Zionist regime’.

 

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But who “paid” for the tax cuts?

Wait a minute, I thought tax cuts added to the deficit? What is this? The New York Times (THE NEW YORK TIMES!) is reporting today (Saturday, where all good news that might help Bush gets relegated) that An unexpectedly steep rise in tax revenues from corporations and the wealthy is driving down the projected budget deficit … Read more

Acknowledging the right way

During lunch, I do tend to surf a bit.  A number of the blogs that I read are reporting this news (hat tip to Powerline and the article here) about the New York Supreme Court decision just handed down.  What they just ruled on was that the New York State Constitution has no inherent right … Read more

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