Tonight we hope that peace has returned to the Brickell and Simon household.
That their dust up served the honourable purpose of at least getting CNN searching for the plane in Connecticut. That a Bridge over troubled water was built and this only happens once in a blue moon.
Yeah, I suck, I know.
Pensions
Being in the forty-fifty bracket that Coyne identifies as ‘troubled’ I can relate.
We all just did our taxes. Being a self-employed small business owner I like doing taxes. They help me develop my annual plan and budget. I know I’m going to have to bump up my capital costs next year and that means I have to budget for new hardware and software. I know power costs are killing me as running four computers and a NAS 24/7 grossly inflates my power bill. So the percentage I declared as a business expense was more than the 12h/40% sq ft. function that I used with other utilities.
I also know what I put in retirement funds. You should know exactly how much CPP cost you last year. Now whether you think that’s a good investment or not is totally subjective. I know I’d very much prefer to have that money go into my self-directed retirement savings, and honestly, if I still lived in Ontario then having an even less trust-worthy gov’t handling my pension would scare the be-jesus out of me.
Ski-Jump
Scolding From Above
More items of possible interest, among which, this:
PC-brigadiers behave exactly like owners of a positional good who panic because wider availability of that good threatens their social status. The PC brigade has been highly successful in creating new social taboos, but their success is their very problem. Moral superiority is a prime example of a positional good, because we cannot all be morally superior to each other. Once you have successfully exorcised a word or an opinion, how do you differentiate yourself from others now? You need new things to be outraged about, new ways of asserting your imagined moral superiority.
Some helpful illustrations of this phenomenon are, of course, provided. For instruction, I mean, not laughter.
Benghazi
After Carney failed Thursday to paint Benghazi as a “Fox” story, after even MSNBC’s Morning Joe blasted that line of reasoning, perhaps…perhaps, we’ll get to the reason why four Americans were killed in Benghazi after every single credible indicator said, “Danger, Will Robinson, danger!”
But don’t count on it.
It’s politics, don’cha know.
Reader Tips
Your reader tips selection this evening comes to you from Louisville, Kentucky. Run For The Roses by Dan Fogelberg – a sappy little music video for the first Saturday in May.
Bait and switch
I don’t think anyone was surprised at the Ontario budget yesterday. It was a social wet-dream. Designed to be either DOA and/or Andrea Horwith’s Sword of Damocles, it was effective towards those goals.
That it was filled with unicorn farts is now moot.
I feel that based on the premise in paragraph one the Liberals are going to run to the left…hard. They’re going to try and out-left the NDP. In other words, they’re going to try a Trudeau.
Good luck with that.
The Sickness that is Coming
But if we were to extrapolate this trend, one where generations don’t mature, never grow up, and never change, just merely get older, the country is in for a world of hurt. For while I can’t believe people in my generation are heading up companies, working their way up the corporate ladders, or are educators and teachers in our schools, what’s coming down the pipe is scary – a mentally infected or diseased generation.
The Tolerant Left
Bigotry in the Gated-Community Community;
But of course there is one religious group against which it is perfectly acceptable to discriminate in 2014: Christians. Because in recent weeks the Law Society of Upper Canada and the Nova Scotia Barristers’ Society have both voted to ban from practising in their provinces any student who graduates from the new law school at B.C.’s Trinity Western University.
When It’s Done For The President, That Means It’s Not Illegal
Inside the IRS: IRS executives are confident in their lack of accountability because the decision makers in Washington will not hold them accountable. Ordinary people understand that misconduct and corruption in the national tax collection agency are a critical problem. They also understand the difference between right and wrong. Ordinary people, however, are not running things.
The Pussification of Men
“YOU GUYS ARE RUINING MY BEARD FETISH. Ever since I was a little girl, I’ve loved a man with a beard. To me, they meant strength, power, MANLINESS. Someone who could protect me. Unfortunately, you guys have turned it into a fashion statement. The beard has turned into the padded bra of masculinity. Sure it looks sexy, but whatcha got under there? There’s a whole generation running around looking like lumberjacks, and most of you can’t change a f**king tire.
Look, I get it. I really do. I understand the motivation behind your beardedness. In fact, I even pity you. Thousands of years of evolution priming you guys to kill stuff, and chase stuff, and f**k stuff….and now what? You’re stuck at a desk all day. No battles to fight. No wars to wage. So you assert your masculinity the only way you know how. You brew beer. You grow some hair on your face. I’ve seen you, hipsters, sitting in downtown eateries, with your rock chick girlfriends, dipping your truffle fries, trying not to get the aioli in your mustache. I’ve seen the quiet desperation in your eyes. I know you’re screaming into the void.
But I still hate you for it. You’re confusing me. It’s now on me to suss out who is the real man and who is the poseur. Sadly, I fear most of you are the latter. Before this explosion of whiskers on trendy men everywhere, if I saw a bearded man it was safe to assume certain things about him. Like, he probably owned a hammer. Or washed his hair with a bar of Irish Spring. His beard was probably scented with motor oil and probably had remnants of last night’s chili in it…..continue reading
The Green Police
This was the moment that the rise of the oceans began to slow and the jackboots polished their heels;
President Barack Obama’s $302 billion transportation bill gives federal regulators the power to enter the premises of car dealerships to determine if their vehicles are in compliance with federal fuel-economy mandates.
Reader Tips
How’s That Hopey Changey Thing Working Out For Ya?
China is now being forecast to eclipse the United States as the world’s largest economy sometime this year.
Blog Notes
On Quotas, Privilege and Really Bad Art
A round-up of things, among them, this:
Ah, but reality be damned. Morality be damned. We must have racial quotas in school discipline. It’s the progressive way. Because nothing says fairness like dishing out excuses according to how brown a student is. And attempting to reduce disruption and violence by punishing it less when racial quotas have been reached… well, what could possibly go wrong?
Reader Tips
Think of it as mood music – The William Tell Overture (Rossini). Your tips in the comments.
Honey, I Finished The Internet
Keystone?
Well, maybe it wasn’t a video
Allen West weighs in.
Ben Rhodes is hardly the “mastermind” behind this episode, but the email he sent out to a who’s who list of recipients is damning. Attkisson says, “White House officials copied on the Rhodes “goal” email include Press Secretary Jay Carney, then-Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer, then-White House Senior Advisor David Plouffe, then-White House Deputy Communications Director Jennifer Palmieri and Deputy Press Secretary Josh Earnest.
* Link fixed.



