Maynard's BlogWire
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The Road We’ve Really Traveled
by Maynard on April 27, 2012Andrew Klavan and Bill Whittle have given us a wonderful MST3K-style reworking of this recent sample of Tom Hanks's ordure -- sorry, I mean oeuvre --, "The Road We've Traveled".
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Why Obamacare is Illegal (and Why it Matters)
by Maynard on March 27, 2012Bumped up from October, 2010. This was posted over a year ago as the challenge to Obamacare passed a major hurdle on its way to today's hearings with SCoTUS. Some of the nuances being discussed, such as the distinction between a "tax" and a "penalty" and a "mandate", may seem like details to the layman, since they all compel you to pay. But under the Constitution, the government's powers are limited, at least in theory. Thus these distinctions are important.
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Maynard Sez: Obama Wants Civil War
by Maynard on March 6, 2012So I (Maynard) am sitting at my PC figuring out what I'll do for backup after I let my Carbonite contract lapse. I had planned on renewing it, but now I won't. But I don't want to talk about the fight with Carbonite. I want to talk about why we're having this fight. How did we get here? Did we have a choice? Do we now have a choice?
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Overview of Federal Revenue and Expenditures (and Why This Matters)
by Maynard on February 27, 2012This short video clip conveys a useful summary of how the Federal government gets its money, and where that money goes. We can't even begin to address the problem without understanding this framework.
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Liberal Supreme Court Justice Gets a Dose of Wealth Redistribution
by Maynard on February 16, 2012Did you catch this story? Justice Stephen Breyer was robbed last week by a machete-wielding intruder at his vacation home in the West Indies, a Supreme Court spokeswoman said Monday. The 73-year-old Breyer, wife Joanna and guests were confronted by the robber around 9 p.m. EST Thursday in the home Breyer owns on the Caribbean island of Nevis...
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Minimum Wage: Doing Good vs. Feeling Good
by Maynard on February 9, 2012Thomas Sowell reacted to Mitt Romney’s advocacy of a strengthened minimum wage law in his editorial, “A Defining Moment”. It clarifies our problem with a “compassionate conservative”. But I’ll skip over quibbling with Romney; I’d rather take a moment to highlight the meat of Sowell’s statement: We have gotten so used to seeing unemployment rates of 30 or 40 percent for black teenage males that it might come as a shock to many people to learn that the unemployment rate for sixteen- and seventeen-year-old black males was just under 10 percent back in 1948. Moreover, it was slightly lower than the unemployment rate for white males of the same age. Really? I had to go look that up. I found...
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Obama Declares War Against the Church…But What Gave Him the Power?
by Maynard on February 8, 2012Maybe you guys and gals know this already. But I was wondering exactly how Obama got the power to push into church affairs? I mean, Obama's not king. He doesn't get to make laws all by himself. And I don't recall Congress voting on this bit of overreach. So where did it come from?
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Maynard’s Reaction to that Detroit/Clint Eastwood Commercial
by Maynard on February 6, 2012I (Maynard) feel compelled to say something, but I don't know what. I have no reasoned arguments to lay out, no conclusions. I had a personal reaction to an event, that's all. My reaction struck me as somehow important, but I don't know what to make of it. So I'll set down some words and see where we go.
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Maynard’s Fantasy Fulfilled!
by Maynard on February 6, 2012Last week I posted my fantasy political advertisement. And lo and behold, someone has already done something that pretty much conveys the spirit my post..
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Maynard’s Fantasy Political Advertisement
by Maynard on January 29, 2012In a world gone mad, what do you do?, what do you say? Sarah Palin called on the Mama Grizzlies to arise and set us straight. Maybe that's our hope. But first the Mama Grizzlies must realize the danger. It's our task to sound the warning! I'm thinking about a teevee ad. That's the way we do it these days, put it on the idiot box. All we need is a theme...
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Should States Be Held Liable for Paroling Dangerous Criminals?
by Maynard on January 12, 2012Five families with children who were shot or traumatized at a Jewish center in Los Angeles in 1999 have filed a $15 million suit against Washington State for releasing the shooter on parole prior to his rampage.
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Why Government-Mandated “Green” is “Brown”
by Maynard on January 10, 2012Did you see that Drudge-linked NYT article, "A Fine for Not Using a Biofuel That Doesn’t Exist"? It's a tiny fragment of a huge problem.
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A Word on Incandescent Light Bulbs
by Maynard on December 16, 2011The ban on incandescent light bulbs -- perhaps about to be rescinded -- is stupid, intrusive, destructive, and generally un-American.
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Maynard Gets a Cat
by Maynard on October 29, 2011My ears perked up when Barry told me that a cat was living in the bushes next to the office. Call it a hunch.
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Man Bites Dog
by Maynard on October 21, 2011You’ve seen plenty of clips of kooks and loons from the OWS crowd, and you figure the facts don’t matter. Our guardians of public policy are going to sweep aside the ugly and illegal side of OWS, while condemning Tea Party for every imagined and imaginable offense. The double standard is so deeply entrenched and obvious that it’s almost ludicrous to speak of it.