May
14
2019

URLs du Jour

2019-05-14

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  • If you've been nursing the suspicion that your blogger isn't a very nice guy, I have some evidence for you.

    Yesterday, Mrs. Salad was reading news online, and told me: "Jimmy Carter broke his hip."

    My immediate response: "Doo dah, doo dah."

    Maybe you have to say it out loud. But in any case, I am not proud of myself.

  • I've been a Red Sox fan of varying intensity ever since the 1975 World Series. (Yes, kids, I saw Pudge Fisk use his telekinetic powers to entice his walk-off home run to stay fair in Game 6.) That means putting up with a certain amount of nonsense. For example, as recounted by Kyle Smith at NR: The Red Sox and the Norm-Shattering Left.

    It was a saddening spectacle when the Boston Red Sox were invited to the White House to honor their World Series win and nearly all of those who showed up were white. A slate of black and Latino players, plus Puerto Rico–born manager Alex Cora, pointedly declined to attend. Cora made it clear in statements that this was an act of political opposition.

    Naturally the media blamed the target of this calculated mass protest. “Did Donald Trump honor the Red Sox or the ‘White’ Sox?” asks columnist Edward Montini in the Arizona Republic, adding, “Trying to pretend that President Donald Trump has not caused a widening racial and ethnic divide means not believing what you can hear with your own ears and see — clearly — with your own eyes.” MSNBC guest and former Joe Biden chief of staff Ron Klain said, “I bet [Trump] was happy today that he was able to say that the white players were here and players of color weren’t. That’s the kind of division he fosters deliberately.”

    Also see the on-again, off-again relationship between the Red Sox and Curt "Bloody Sock" Schilling.

  • In Granite State news, at the Josiah Bartlett Center, Drew Cline lists Five reasons Gov. Sununu was right to veto paid family leave wage tax. First:

    The tax to fund a mandatory, state-run paid family and medical leave program was entirely unnecessary. The governor had proposed an alternative program that would allow businesses to opt in. With a voluntary option on the table, there was zero need to create a state-run program funded by a $168 million annual tax on workers’ wages, and which cost $6 million a year to run.

    After that, four additional reasons would seem superfluous, but … they are there if you want to check 'em out.

  • The Google LFOD alert rang for a recent article in the Bellingham (WA) Herald Know anyone who got a ticket for not wearing a seat belt?. And, yes, it's yet another slam at our state for declining to nanny its adult population. After noting Washington's 95% seat belt rate…

    The state with the lowest rate of seat belt use? New Hampshire at about 68%. Its state motto is, “Live free or die.” I’m pretty sure General John Stark was not thinking about seat belts when he wrote that in 1809, but that’s the reason many New Hampshirites give for why they don’t want a seat belt law.

    Notes:

    • The article describes how they measure seat belt usage: they deploy "trained observers" at "pre-identified locations around the state." It's "not really spying", the article assures us.

      Um. Except that it is really spying.

    • We keep returning to this page from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. Despite Washington's goody-two-shoes 95% buckled-up rate, their traffic deaths per 100K population stat is the same as New Hampshire's (specifically, 7.6). And their traffic deaths per 100 Million miles travelled are greater than New Hampshire's (0.92 vs 0.76).

      Seat belt use isn't a panacea, especially if it causes drivers to drive marginally more recklessly.

    • This isn't to say you shouldn't buckle up. You should.

  • And USNews ranked us pretty high on its "Best States" list. Yay! Here's their article, concentrating on: Foreign-Born Population in New Hampshire Finds Opportunity.

    Many left countries at war, or foreign refugee camps where their lives were in limbo. Some came for a better life, a safe place to raise a family and educate their children. All were willing to grapple with the massive culture shock of moving from Africa, Southeast Asia and the Middle East to a place with a different language, foreign customs and harsh winters.

    That place is New Hampshire, No. 2 overall in U.S. News and World Report's 2019 Best States rankings and No. 1 for opportunity. And while the Granite State is long known for its homogeneity (it's 94 percent white), the foreign-born population is an increasing presence, with the international population growing by more than 53 percent, between 2000 and 2017.

    And of course:

    Independence is a stubbornly held trait in New Hampshire, where the state motto is "Live Free or Die." It has no personal income tax. "Undeclared" voters outnumber Democrats and Republicans.

    That last link is kind of interesting, by the way. Since Election Day 2016, the count of registered Democrats has gone from 288,808 to 284,174, a 1.6% decrease. Democrats have gone from 308,808 to 307,360, a 0.47% decrease. Undeclared: from 409,786 to 415,316, up 1.35%.

    I don't know what that means, but I went through the calculation, so …


Last Modified 2024-01-24 6:21 AM EDT