THE WINE YOGI IS TALKING BEER, CIDER AND TEA As we had to move Thirsty Thursday out of an abundance of sickness caution last week. Find all of the stuff we tasted today on her blog right here.
THIS RECOVERY APP CAN HELP IF YOU'RE TRYING TO BEAT ADDICTION And I've got the inventor of the app Mark Van Loucks in today to talk about Recovery Partners and how they helping addicts fight the good fight. Find out more about it by clicking here.
NOW YOU'LL BEGIN TO UNDERSTAND WHY TEACHERS UNIONS HATE CHARTER SCHOOLS This study done by Stanford University, which has the longest running department focused on educational outcomes, clearly shows Denver Public Schools Charter schools are outperforming their traditional public school peers in math and reading gains. Rather than go those schools to find out how they are managing to do this while serving a population that is a majority low income and minority, the Biden admin just passed a rule that is designed to cripple the, thanks to Dr. Jill. If educrats really cared about kids learning, they would simply ask, "what is happening here" instead of whining and complaining, but they don't.
EREBODY'S GOT COVID AGAIN And I'm pretty sure I had it last week, though two tests told me I didn't. I had the exact same symptoms as two women I know who also tested negative on a home test only to test positive at a doctor visit. I am much, much better now, but a lot of people have covid right now. If you're high risk, I may stay home until this one is over.
THE DENVER CITY COUNCIL LIVES IN AN ALTERNATE UNIVERSE And this editorial by the Denver Gazette rightly takes them to task for their list of priorities that seems to ignore the fact crime is a huge issue in downtown Denver right now. Read it here.
THE PROGRESSIVE FOCUS ON GUN CONFISCATION IGNORES WHAT THAT REALLY LOOKS LIKE And I know this one is paywalled but I'm sharing anyway. Matt Yglesias writes about what the progressive demands to stop gun crime really look like, and they are the things I've been saying for years. From the column:
The point is that preventing these kinds of murders, in which a person with no prior criminal record obtains a weapon and then kills at random, requires imposing very heavy burdens on ordinary gun owners. The overwhelming majority of law-abiding gun purchasers, including buyers of terrifying semi-automatic weapons, do no harm.
Removing all of those weapons from the market is asking innocent people to make a considerable sacrifice. And it raises the question of how to enforce such a sweeping ban. A mandatory buy-back program would likely generate lots of compliance — among people who aren’t criminals. To get guns out of the hands of criminals would require intrusive policing and prosecutions on a scale that’s hard to imagine.
This is precisely the “Only outlaws will have guns” scenario that worries even non-fanatical gun owners. They acknowledge that, in principle, a gun-free America would be safer than the current gun-filled America. But they look at cities such as Philadelphia, where gun violence set a record in 2021, and with good reason don’t want to bring that model to the exurbs and small towns where they live.
Maybe progressives will listen to him.
PROOF THAT LABOR UNIONS ARE A FUNDRAISING ARM FOR DEMOCRATS And more importantly not at all interested in their members. From the column written by The Freedom Foundation's CEO Aaron Withe:
Take, for example, the National Education Association, whose website describes it as an "advocate for education professionals" with a goal of "improving the quality of teaching, increasing student achievement and making schools safer, better places to learn."
And yet the nation’s largest teacher’s union last year devoted only a measly 8.5 percent of its revenues to anything remotely connected with teachers and students, with the rest used to line the pockets of union leaders and advance a radical leftist agenda at odds with the views of many of NEA’s own dues-payers — and arguably most of the nation’s parents.
According to the most recent LM-2 form submitted by the NEA to the Internal Revenue Service, the union raked in a staggering $377 million in dues and agency fees during 2021 alone. Of that total, however, only $32 million was earmarked for representational activity — ostensibly the NEA’s top priority. So where did the rest of all the teachers’ dues money go? By the union’s own accounting, it spent $66 million on political activities.
But that's not all:
But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. The LM-2 also lists another $117 million spent for "contributions, gifts and grants," that were primarily political in nature. Even more despicably, the NEA dispersed more than $55 million in benefits to union officers. That’s almost twice as much as it spent advocating for the teachers from whose paychecks the dues were confiscated.
Read the entire column here and it becomes apparent why Colorado Dems couldn't wait to force collective bargaining on counties and states. They want more money from the unions. Period.
THE LAWSUIT TO FORCE JENA GRISWOLD TO CLEAN UP OUR VOTER ROLLS MOVES FORWARD And we all owe Judicial Watch a big thank you for forcing our political player Secretary of State to do her job and follow the law. The law says she has to make sure our voter rolls don't have a bunch of people who aren't supposed to be on our rolls, and she has done almost nothing to that point. From this article:
In its lawsuit against Colorado Judicial Watch argues:
A 2019 study showed that 40 of Colorado’s 64 counties had voter registration rates exceeding 100% of the eligible citizen voting-age population. The share of Colorado counties with registration rates exceeding 100% was the highest in the nation.
Data Colorado itself provided to the federal Election Assistance Commission (EAC) showed that Colorado was lagging in the processing and removal of certain classes of ineligible registrations belonging to those who had moved out of state.
In the last two years, 60 of Colorado’s 64 counties had a higher percentage of inactive registrations than the national median.
In eight Colorado counties, more than one in six registrations belonged to an inactive voter.
The judge says there is enough there to push forward the suit.
WHAT IT'S LIKE TO BUY A HOUSE RIGHT NOW Our friends at It's a Southern Thing show it's not just here.
BIDEN'S NEW "INFLATION" PLAN WILL DO LITERALLY NOTHING I started laughing when I read this story today, yes, I really did. Our Fearless Leader has come up with three ways to fight inflation. One, let the Fed fix it. Two, do nothing on gas and oil, blame Putin, and pass clean energy tax credits and spend a lot of money we don't have building homes we have no business building for families who can't afford stuff because of the inflation government created. Three, go after shipping companies for responding to supply and demand when it comes to freight fees. That's it. Part two could be the really dangerous ones and is specifically why Republicans need to win the House to stop more spending that will just make inflation higher. He is the worst President of my lifetime and I was alive during the Carter Administration. Read his Op-Ed in the Wall Street Journal here if you'd like.
OUR GOVERNOR'S PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN CONTINUES Because if he weren't running for President, why would he have time to talk to TheHill.com and not me? Read his horse crap interview here if you want to read him extoll the virtues of freedom while downplaying how quick he was to rob us of ours for two years during the pandemic.
GAS IS ABOUT TO GET EVEN MORE EXPENSIVE Because oil prices just hit $120 a barrel, which means gas will go up also. Fill up today is my advice.
VETERANS NEED THERAPISTS WHO UNDERSTAND THEIR TRAUMA This is a really good story on how soldiers need help that understands what they've been through and that is hard to find. It's not so much that a civilian therapist is incapable to helping them, but more that in order to break through to those who need help, the soldiers need to feel they really get it. There are some cool programs that allow therapists to embed with military units to help them understand and I sure hope therapists do this. Read the rest here, but know this: therapy works. You may have to try one or two or five therapists to get to the right one for you, but keep trying. It will change your life.
RETIREMENT IS CHANGED, BUT IS IT CHANGED FOREVER? This is a good article about how many older people have re entered the workforce after retiring. The number of people between 65 and 69 years old working has gone up, but I think this is a function of better health as well as needing money. Read the rest here and plan accordingly!
CAN TWINS HELP EACH OTHER MEDICALLY? This story seems to suggest that. Here is the news story this is based on.
DOES SIZE MATTER WHEN IT COMES TO PRESIDENTS? Probably not but here they are from shortest to tallest.
DEMOCRATS PROPOSE REPLACING MEMORIAL DAY WITH A DAY HONORING THOSE HOW HAVE BEEN MISGENDERED And only the Babylon Bee has it.
AND NOW, A TURTLE TAKES A SPIN ON HIS SPORTS CAR