Archive for November 2014
Crime wave in East Central Wyoming?
Well, not quite that bad. But, A crime surge has accompanied Wyoming’s oil boom. Serious crimes including aggravated assault and larceny are up 17 percent in the Douglas area since 2009, according to the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation. Wyoming oil booms have been accompanied by crime surges in the past as well. A feature film…
Read MoreSign of the times
Officer Darren Wilson’s case for self defense in the death of Michael Brown
This is just one small part of Darren Wilson’s testimony before the grand jury. He testified that he asked Michael Brown to come over to this car. As the officer started to exit the vehicle Brown pushed the car door back against him and started to punch him in face through the open window. Apparently,…
Read MoreThe Pilgrims’ Real Thanksgiving Lesson
While giving thanks today for all that we have, we should remember that it was the institution of private property rights by Governor William Bradford that saved the Pilgrims from starvation and misery. That’s what they were thankful for at the first Thanksgiving [on August 9, 1623]. The story is recounted by economist Benjamin Powell…
Read MoreCommunalism Did Not Protect the Pilgrims From Starvation in the Winter of 1620-1621
A recent [2010] television production on the History Channel titled “The Real Story of Thanksgiving” made the entirely false declaration that the system of communal property first established at the Plymouth colony protected them from starvation during their first winter in America. The truth is exactly the opposite.
Read MoreThe Real Story of Thanksgiving
The Real Story of Thanksgiving After three years of starvation and want the Pilgrims, under Governor William Bradford, abolished the practice of farming in common, which was they practice they brought with them from England. The harvest of 1623 was bountiful while the previous years had been lean. The Pilgrim’s first Thanksgiving resulted as a…
Read MoreBeware the $100 bill on your windshield
You’ve heard of it, the $100 bill a car jacker sticks on your windshield to get you to step out of your car so he can steal it. But you recognize this as nonsense, right? An urban legend. Karen Straughn doesn’t get the joke. She believes it’s real. So what, you say? So there’s another…
Read MoreThanksgiving table extended family political discussions
“It’s difficult to banish the glum suspicion that life in the 21st century, for all its economic and technological benefits, necessitates putting up with much more bullshit than our ancestors had to.” — Ace
Read MoreI think these phenomena are connected…
First, to lay the foundation upon which to build an idea: The way we gain understanding of what’s going on in the world around us is related to our ability to see what is connected and what isn’t. It’s not always obvious. For example, when a politician comes out strongly for an increase in the…
Read MoreAlbert Bierstadt, 1830-1902
Bierstadt was first a member of the Hudson River School of painters whose painting of the Hudson River Valley was called luminism for its attention to detail with the use of glowing light. Bierstadt soon, however, became infatuated by the American West and along with contempt Thomas Moran (1837-1926) created art sometimes referred to as…
Read MoreConservatives understand liberals; this doesn’t work in reverse
William Voegeli, senior editor of the Claremont Review of Books [the best one around these days], and author of The Pity Party: A Mean-Spirited Diatribe Against Liberal Compassion, writing today at The Daily Signal: Just before the recent midterm electionsThe Daily Beast’s Michael Tomasky called the GOP “as intellectually dishonest and bankrupt and just plain…
Read MoreHoisted on his own petard again
Senator Barack Obama, 2008: “The biggest problems that we’re facing right now have to do with George Bush trying to bring more and more power into the executive branch and not go through Congress at all. And that’s what I intend to reverse when I’m president of the United States of America.” You know, we’re…
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