Pun Salad

Christian Britschgi tells of the latest effort to whittle away at your liberty: Ted Lieu Wants To Criminalize Glue Traps.

I assume Lieu does not have a rodent problem. Or, if he does, he can easily afford (2018 estimated net worth $3.5 million) to hire top-of-the-line extermination services, and he won't have to witness any of the messy details.

Good for him. But bad for him: arrogantly attempting to deny a cheap and effective strategy for those not in his enviable privileged situation.

As I type, the proposed legislation, H.R.7018 has one (1) co-sponsor, a guy named Adam Schiff, another California Democrat (with a mere $70 million in net worth). Schiff is running this year to replace Dianne Feinstein. The WSJ describes Adam Schiff’s Telltale 2024 Agenda, with some proposals that might have a bigger impact than a glue trap ban:

I suppose if your student loans are forgiven, that will make up some for your rodent-infested dwellings.

Also of note:

• Get it? Half-baked? Bwahaha… Charles Fain Lehman writes in City Journal about New Hampshire's Half-Baked Marijuana Policy.

  New Hampshire is the only state in New England that hasn’t legalized marijuana, but it looks likely to do so this year. Last year, a legalization bill passed the New Hampshire House of Representatives, then failed in the Republican-controlled Senate. But after the bill’s defeat, Governor Chris Sununu indicated his willingness to sign a more restrictive version, under which the state would operate marijuana retailers directly.

  This first-in-the-nation approach seemingly was inspired by the major challenges other states have faced with legalization.

  “Every other governor will tell you that their system sucks,” Sununu reportedly told cannabis lobbyist Don Murphy in a conversation leaked to Marijuana Moment. “Every governor has told me that. They hate their systems. . . . They want to maybe legalize it, but they hate the way it’s been done because it’s mostly been driven by ballot initiatives where you have, basically Big Tobacco—Big Marijuana 2.0—driving the rules and regulations.”

  Lehman writes with approval about a "state-store system". Why? Because it "lets the state keep prices high and moves all profits to the state treasury".

  Dude, that sounds like a bad idea. A recipe for a continued black market selling product of dubious safety. But whatever, man…

• University Near Here woes. Siobhan Senier is unhappy. She describes: The true cost of the latest round of cuts at UNH.

  You may have seen the headlines this week: “University of New Hampshire to lay off 75 employees to help save $14M.” The headline conceals the true costs of these cuts, which are only the latest round in many during recent years. The university is also losing many talented, beloved professors who do not have permanent contracts and who are thus, in Orwellian parlance, being “non-renewed” rather than “laid off.” In an extraordinary and unreported move, the university is also shuttering its art museum.

  It’s hard to believe that these cuts actually save that much money. The art museum is tiny, already operating on a shoestring, and might cost around $1 million, a tiny fraction of the university’s overall budget, which is somewhere around $900 million. But who knows, really? Because no one is explaining where the mandate to cut $14 million came from, or how that figure was arrived at. The university spokesperson, who is undoubtedly paid better than most professors, has declined to answer reporters’ questions about how much money these cuts actually save.

  Siobhan Senier is identified in the article as "a professor of Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of New Hampshire, and vice president of AAUP-UNH."

  I don't want to be snide, but the 2022 USNH Salary Book listed the Executive Director of Media Relations, Erika Mantz's, base salary $122,804.85. That same document had Professor Senier's salary at $103,560.00. So it's close!

• I used to think that I was cool, driving around on fossil fuel. And I still do. At least I'm not worried about a cold, dead, Tesla. Kevin D. Williamson points out: Fossil fuels — not renewables — remain the real engines behind economic growth.

  In 2023, the US economy grew while greenhouse gas emissions declined, according to a new report — a good environmental outcome and a good economic outcome brought to you by our old friend: petroleum.

  Wait, what?

  “Up until a few years ago, a better economy meant more fossil-fuel consumption,” reported NPR climate correspondent Jeff Brady. He continued: “The fact” — and here, let’s take a good long look at the word “fact” — “that those two are decoupling, that growth can happen without using more fossil fuels, shows that the country can potentially address climate change without a lot of economic pain.”

  That would be a fascinating fact if it were a fact, but it isn’t.

  The overall decline in US greenhouse gas emissions was driven by a large reduction — 8% — in emissions from power plants.

  That didn’t happen because we started using unicorn smiles and good intentions to generate electricity.

  I assume KDW's editor changed that from "unicorn farts".