Psychology is a “science” that studies human behavior but is itself morally bankrupt. That is, psychology is unable to scientifically define normality. It can’t. “Normal” depends on what the society (through “norms”) or the patient views as morally correct.
Democrat Supermajority Has No Interest in Solving the Property Tax Mess They Made
Democrats in the State House were parading around this week with a banner insisting, “If you make a mess, you clean it up!” Yeah! Big talk! They think this should apply to oil companies regarding climate change (another story I’ll get to soon), but apply that message to themselves regarding the colossal property tax tsunami of a mess they’ve made for us. Well, not so much.
G.E.T. R.E.A.L! T: Transportation Infrastructure (AKA Fix the Roads!)
G.E.T. R.E.A.L. is a solemn promise and a positive path forward for our state by Vermont Republicans focused on improving the quality of life of our people. It is a prescription of policy proposals, and this is the fourth in a series of essays explaining the program.
EPA Rules on Forever Chemicals Will Take Forever to Do Anything
Biden’s EPA has announced new rules for Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS), more commonly known as forever chemicals since they do not break down in the environment and build up in human bodies.
Gender Indoctrination in Vermont schools
“As a matter of law, young children cannot properly assess the risks of taking testosterone, let alone surgically mutilating their bodies and embracing infertility.”
They Made an Environmental Law So Huge No One Knows How to “Lift It”
George Carlin used to tell jokes about his time in Catholic school and his smart-ass interactions with The Church, like asking a priest if God is so powerful that he can create a rock so large that he himself can’t lift it. A similar situation has arisen closer to Earth. Vermont close.
Vermont Tax Revolt Continues …
The 2024 Property Tax Revolt continues, with two more budgets going down to defeat last week. As reported in VDC, 30 school districts rejected budgets March 5. Since then, five of six revotes (known to VDC) failed.
Climate Farming Dreams are a Nightmare for Diners
A recent study of Burmese pythons concludes that snake meat is more efficient to produce than traditional livestock, making it a viable protein alternative to cows or pigs. Given the primeval human aversion to snakes, this menu item may be a harder sell even than crickets or faux-meat nuggets. However, the omissions and biases inherent … Read more
New ‘Green’ Building Code to Dominate Housing Construction
The announcement of a “model” international building code might understandably elicit yawns. However, the 2024 International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) is cause for Americans to bolt upright and pay close attention. The vain imaginings of corporate and NGO “stakeholders” who propose to completely dominate American housing construction in the name of saving the planet promise … Read more
The Clean Heat Standard is too complicated to implement
The Clean Heat Standard (CHS), the “Rube Goldberg” carbon tax on home heating fuels, became law almost a year ago over the veto of Governor Scott. The Democrat/Progressive supermajority that passed the CHS did so without providing – or even considering in any significant detail – how it would work or what it would cost. … Read more
Climate Fear, Rewilding, the Green New Deal, and Other Absurdities
One of the most prescient, intelligent, passionate voices defending rural lands and rural agriculture has been lifelong Democrat Wendell Berry (though Wendell will tell you that he has no allegiance to any one party). The current Democratic Party appears to have no use for the considered wisdom of this Kentucky farmer, just as it has abandoned Martin Luther King, Jr., Thomas Jefferson, and the Kennedy legacy.
New SEC Climate Rules Are Burdensome – But Are They Constitutional?
Controversial new SEC Rules compel corporations to report the climate impact of each step of the supply chain. It’s complex, convoluted, and confusing at best – but is it constitutional? That was the question asked during a powerful hearing on March 18, 2024, before the House Subcommittee on Oversight and Regulations.
Lessons From the Eclipse – Electrifying Everything is Dangerously Asinine.
The total solar eclipse this week was totally cool, for sure. How lucky we Vermonters were that we could just walk outside, take in this once in a generation natural phenomenon, then pop back into our houses to resume whatever it was we were doing twenty minutes earlier. Not so for the estimated 160,000 tourists … Read more
Inflation Nation: Will America’s Economic Woes Worsen in 2024?
In his State of the Union address, President Joe Biden claimed US inflation is a result of price-gouging by corporate bogeymen. Recent statistics suggest other causes, some of which will likely persist through this election year – and the president’s narrative is not likely to hold up as rents, wages, and taxes rise, all increases that are hard to blame on corporate America.
Left Wing Logic: Nothing in Vermont Is Affordable, Why Should Energy Be?
Most people would say, if you’re in a hole, stop digging. Not Peter Sterling, the executive director for Renewable Energy Vermont, who testified before the House Environment & Energy Committee last week, posing the loopy logic that legislators shouldn’t worry about passing policies that drive up the cost of electricity because the cost of everything else is unaffordable too. What’s worse than the argument itself is that the lawmakers are apparently buying into it!
G.E.T. R.E.A.L! – E: Education Reform
Vermont’s K-12 public education system is broken. When Vermont passed Act 60 in 1997, our schools consistently performed in the top five nationwide. Since then, spending has exploded while student counts have dropped from 106,000 kids to less than 80,000, and test scores have been steadily falling for the past decade and a half.
Daily Mail Report Looks Like a “List” of US States You Should Get the Hell Out Of …
Perhaps without intending to, a recent article in the UK Daily Mail reported on a list of states that Real™ Americans need to either take back now or make plans to exit soon!
Another Dumb Constitutional Amendment….
The Democrat/Progressive Supermajority in Montpelier isn’t just oblivious to reality. They are actively hostile to it. One has to conclude that they are purposefully attempting to destroy our state economy because nobody could actually be this stupid by sheer accident.
If Burlington Thinks It Voted for Change, It is In for an Unpleasant Surprise!
Retiring Burlington, Vermont, Mayor Miro Weinberger is, by all sane accounts, left-wing, as was his anointed replacement Joan Shannon; in anywhere but Burlington, they are far-left Democrats. So when the city elected a “progressive” last week, well, guess what?
Vermont’s Dumb (and Unconstitutional) Bill to Fine Big Oil for “Emissions”
The confidence artists doing business as Vermont’s Democratic majority legislature have crafted a bill it thinks will make Big Oil pay for environmental damage which it claims is the result of years of detrimental emissions.