Wonder why the Democrats are suddenly pushing marijuana?

Woooah, man, that’s a union rally!

Labor unions have cut a deal with the growers.

A study by Washington state’s Office of Financial Management said legalization could result in $1 billion in sales per year in the state, which is home to about 2 percent of the U.S. population.

For people like Dan Rush, who leads the UFCW’s cannabis division, the numbers hint at big things to come for the marijuana industry.

“Since Election Day, we’ve had a rush to join the union” in states where marijuana is sold legally, said Rush, who has become a key player in the union’s efforts to promote the legal use of the drug. “I can’t keep up,” he said. “That’s a direct result of the best poll in the world being Election Day.”

Rush said that if the industry expands, as he and others hope, it would support jobs across the country, from growers to truck drivers to carpenters to retail clerks.

The scale of the business could rival that of a major U.S. crop or the alcohol industry, according to UFCW officials who estimate that 100,000 workers could be added to their union in California alone.

By joining a union, marijuana workers could have more sway in pressing for higher pay and benefits such as healthcare.

Unlike business owners in other industries who typically view unions warily, some legal marijuana retailers welcome the prospect of a unionized workforce – for now, at least.

Marijuana retailers have invited the UFCW into their shops. They think the union could give legitimacy to their business and support against competitors who, the retailers say, undercut the industry’s standing by operating outside the law.

Ultimately, this will solve the drug problem as the union does for that industry what it’s done for the rest; in the meantime, it provides a useful insight into what the Democrats are doing and why they’re doing it.

In politics, there’s always the stated purpose and the real purpose and until now, I couldn’t figure out why the Democrats were mounting a national drive to legalize dope. Insert the magic word “union” into it and it all makes sense.

 

When there’s never enough

Al Gore’s green energy company Bloom Energy Corp is busted for smuggling in illegal workers from Mexico and paying them less than three bucks an hour – in pesos, yet.

“Why, I brought these boys in just to visit,” Gore told FWIW’s  B. Simonds. “I thought they’d like to see how I can heat my mansion with used tacos and chile husks, I never dreamed they’d end up working in mah battery factory. I suppose – sniff – they just want to help save the world, and is there anything wrong with that, really?”

Tooth and claw

National Nurses United knows what you need!

Latest Democrat group to oppose the Keystone pipeline? The nurses union! I wonder why it took so long for their overlords to notice their absence. I also assume that pipeline workers aren’t unionized – I mean, is there any other reason the “party of the working man” is so determined to extinguish the one bright spot in the economy?

For Hartford Democrats, Adam Lanza still breathes

 

Brown Shirt party

Long time Second Amendment foe state  Senator Martin Looney [ I didn't say it, his parents did - Ed] is rushing a gun control bill through the legislature using the “emergency certification” procedure to shut off debate.

Ballotpedia describes the legislative process thus:

Before most bills are considered in either the House or Senate, they must first go through the committee system. The primary exception to this rule is the emergency certification bill, or “e-cert,” which can be passed on the floor without going through committee first. The e-cert is generally reserved for use during times of crisis, such as natural disasters or when deadlines are approaching too quickly to delay action

The only emergency here is the fear that emotions may cool and reason return before the Democrats pass their bill. Gun owner or not, real democrats might be troubled by this evasion of the legislative process. Democrats with a capital “D”, however won’t care a whit.

Looney, by the way, who has also introduced a bill requiring that public schools teach “labor history” (gee, taught from what viewpoint?), has included in the grab bag of anti-gun laws he’s trying to pass a provision to register every buyer of ammunition, require background checks to do same and ban internet sales, all of which are aimed solely at target and recreational shooters and have absolutely no connection with preventing another Adam Lanza, the ostensible reason for this gun confiscation offensive.

Giving gun owners everywhere a bad name

Here’s the end of Kim Kardashian

“Reality Star” – seriously, that’s how they describe this creature – Kim Kardashian takes a break from persuading her followers [sic] to sign gun ban petition and buys herself a new revolver. 

She recently encouraged her Twitter followers to sign a pledge to help combat gun violence following the Sandy Hook shooting in December.

But that was clearly the last thing on Kim Kardashian’s mind as she tweeted a picture of a jewel-encrusted hand gun on Saturday.

Forgetting the pledge she made just a few weeks ago the pregnant reality star quickly deleted the image after presumably realising the hypocrisy of her move.

But it’s so cute!

And two more new listings

Both seem to at least recognize that something happened to home prices after 2006, which is encouraging.

4 Gisborne (photoshopped leaves?)

4 Gisborne Place, in Old Greenwich off Taconic Tomac (duh) and abutting the golf course, is listed at $1.775 million. Purchased for $1.915 in 2006. Gisborne’s a nice little cul de sac with just a handful – 4?- houses on it. Not much yard here but there is Innis’s yard to play on when golf is not in session and you can’t beat the location for convenience. I haven’t seen the house yet because it’s on tomorrow’s open house but it seems to have potential.

474 North St

474 North Street was built new, I believe, in 2006 and has been on and off the market since, starting at $5.459 and after six price drops is now $3.850. I really don’t remember the house but it’s on an acre, with a pool, and a driveway that I think exits onto Copper Beech, giving you an alternative route to town should you wish to avoid North Street’s rush hour. Across from St. Michael and again, open house tomorrow.

Study: Global warming propaganda goes only so far

 

When Gaia the Eskimo gets here ….

People’s belief in the Church of the Holy Gaia fluctuates with the weather.

Americans’ opinions on climate change blow with the wind—with more concern shown in years that are much warmer or much colder than normal—according to a new study released Tuesday.

Five of the nation’s top newspapers were also more likely to publish opinion pieces that showed “belief” in climate change during years that were colder or warmer than normal.

“It’s a goddamn shame”, Minister of Propaganda Albert Gore told FWIW’s quote checker, B. Simonds, “every time we whip the sheeple into a frenzy over GW, something comes along like Moscow’s snowiest winter in 100 years and the fools cool off. If only we had, I don’t know, a controlled press that would run during hurricanes and even earthquakes so we could keep the momentum going. But where on earth would we find that?”

When a house isn’t really for sale

 

Leaning Tower of Lockwood?

29 Lockwood Avenue in Old Greenwich, asking $3.495 million, has once again been withdrawn from the market.

Built by New Canaan developer Rick Girouard who was a widely respected builder until he was put away for bank fraud in 2010 , it’s a very nice house, although the choice to sacrifice a backyard for a pool probably wasn’t smart, but clearly the marketplace disagrees with the owners’ opinion of value, and neither will budge: buyers won’t buy it and the owners won’t cut their price. This has been going on for years, just about since the house was bought new for $3.1 million in 2005, and I believe the price has dropped $100,000 in all that time.

It is, of course, a property owner’s unfettered right to sell only at a price of his choosing, but it’s also the right of a real estate agent not to waste his time showing a house that’s not really for sale.

So it sits, until next time.

Look, a squirrel!

The Justice department refuses to divulge any information concerning its coverup, let alone its creation of its gun running operation “Fast and Furious”, is so stymied by the complexity of the current banking system that it can’t bring charges and has nothing whatsoever to say about any of the current cases of individual congressmen’s thievery and bribe taking, so what to do? How will citizens know that the DOJ is on the job?

Hey, I know, let’s prosecute Lance Armstrong! Can anyone suggest how drug use by professional athletes, be they bicyclists or baseball players, is of such national interest as to justify devoting a single second of the judiciary’s time or one penny of taxpayers’ money to investigate and pursue?

Smoke and mirrors, bread and circuses.

Waiting on real estate news

A couple of new listings of interest and if I hear back from my clients that they’re not interested I’ll post on them here. Otherwise, nothing is stirring, but tune in again later. Big snowstorm coming? That’s what I’m reading on the net but as with all New England weather reports, I’m skeptical until the event actually happens.

They’re coming for us, and stripping away our right of self defense is just a small part of it

Stymied by Congress, Barry Hussein readies administrative regulations to shut down the economy.

Barack Obama cannot deliver on his promise to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 17% without decisive new actions, a report warned on Wednesday.

America’s greenhouse gas emissions have fallen under Obama [while Obama has been in power, yes, but despite the man, not because of him - Ed] , as power plants burn less coal. But the country will still fall short of his commitment to a 17% reduction by the end of the decade, the report from the World Resources Institute said.

The president offered the 17% cut at the Copenhagen climate summit in 2009. But if Obama wants to make good on that commitment and the sweeping climate promises of his inauguration day address, he will have to tighten rules on coal-fired power plants and on the natural gas industry, the report said.

“The key point to us is that the US is not on track to hit the 17% target,” said Nicholas Bianco, the lead author of the report.

It will be an even greater stretch for America to meet its mid-century target. The report said America would not meet the 2050 target of an 80% cut in emissions without action from Congress.

But the WRI said Obama had it within his power to put the country on a course to meet the 2020 goal, by tightening Environmental Protection Agency rules for coal-fired power plants, reducing methane leaks from natural gas drilling, and raising the efficiency standards on household appliances.

“We are encouraged to find there are the tools available to get there without Congress,” Bianco said. “The other encouraging sign is that the administration appears to be ready to tackle climate in the second term.”

A number of environmental organisations have put forward climate action plans, mostly targetting carbon dioxide emissions from ageing power plants. Activists have urged Obama to block the Keystone XL pipeline project to pump crude from the Alberta tar sands as a sign of his commitment.

The warning from WRI follows encouraging signs that America was reducing its carbon dioxide pollution. The EPA reported on Tuesday that greenhouse gas emissions fell by 4.6% in 2011, because power plants were burning less coal.

But the move away from coal to natural gas, and to a far smaller extent renewables such as wind and solar power, would not on their own produce the cuts needed to prevent catastrophic climate change, WRI said.

Of course, our community organizer is not alone in his drive to impoverish the country and return it to the stone age. As usual, California regressives are already in the fray:

California greens waging all-out war against shale oil.

Massive shale oil reserves could give California one of the biggest oil booms on Earth, but the uber-powerful California green lobby is gearing up for the fight of its life.

The stakes of the battle could be huge, reports the New York Times. Hundreds of thousands of high-paying jobs for Californians, versus environmental concerns about fracking, pipelines, and greenhouse gasses.

The Monterey Shale formation, stretching 1,750 square miles from southern to central California, constitutes two-thirds of the country’s total estimated shale oil reserves. That’s an estimated 15.4 billion barrels, or four times as much as the Bakken Shale reserves in North Dakota, whose exploitation can now be seen from space.

But the green lobby will prove a formidable opponent to the oil and gas companies jostling for a piece of this giant pie. It is already hard at work trying to keep California’s newly recoverable energy reserves in the ground: Two powerhouse lobbies are suing the Bureau of Land Management and the Department of Conservation to prevent further exploration of the Monterey Shale and impose stricter regulations on fracking.

That was quick

Say goodbye

29 Twin Lakes, an acre of land at the bottom of Gilliam Lane in Riverside, was just placed for sale at $2.150 million and has an accepted offer 7 days later. I don’t know why we Fountain boys don’t demand a percentage of these sales because it was our moving off Gilliam that set the stage for the huge escalation in values, but what can you do?

So-so land, but in a location that should command $4.75 – $5 minimum, so the price made sense – to me, not to my builder clients, all of whom ignored my emails. That’s what makes a horse race.

Is there still time for him to provide tutorials on keeping up appearances on Round Hill?

Walter and I will be sunning on Mustique until, of course, we head to Monaco for the season

Obnoxious financial industry lawyer holds going away party for himself where he regales “friends” with tales of his upcoming ten year, around the world vacation.

Ten years unless he behaves himself, in which case he might come home early. DUI conviction is sending him upstate.

A pretentious Manhattan socialite hosted a swanky, “black tie optional” bash in January — where he sipped champagne with his fabulous friends and boasted of an upcoming years-long vacation to Europe he was about take.

Tabber Benedict bellied up to the bar at Chelsea’s Bungalow 8 — with a woman on his arm — and bent his friends’ ears about the planned jaunt and all the places he was going to visit.

But the finance lawyer was hiding the real, sinister reason he was saying his farewells.

He was going to prison for nearly killing a man.

About two years ago, the West Village denizen slammed his SUV into a Long Island dad after a night of hard partying in the Hamptons — and left his victim for dead, records show.

I’m thinking that up on Rogues Hill Road there are a number of folks who might appreciate hearing from one of their own how to explain their own absences of indeterminate length. Nothing disturbs a man’s solitude more than learning that cruel real estate agents are pressing his wife and her new boyfriend to list the house, or that the neighbors are poaching the nanny; Tabber can help keep those harpies away from the door.

And not just for tours of Otisville either. In the unfortunate event that a titan of Wall Street runs afoul of a DUI roadblock out of town, manned by officers who do not “know who he is”  a six-month jaunt at a Palm Springs rehab might be in order; well, wouldn’t Tabber’s advice be useful there, too? I think so.

Interesting perspective from Cos Cob Congressman Jim Himes

Jim Himes turns us over to the care of Officer Friendly

Why do leftists want assault weapons in the hands of policemen, but not by those whom the police control?

From an essay by  Joseph Farah, “When did the left fall out of love with guns?” :

Yes, the left still loves guns.  There is no other reason for the fawning acceptance of the vulgar SWAT raid tactics in which innocent men like Mr. Eurie Stamps get shot and killed.  These tactics are repeated all across America every day.

The left just doesn’t love guns in the wrong hands, and anyone who isn’t an agent of the state is the wrong hands.  Listen to Representative Jim Hines  [sic] (D – CT) tell you why high capacity magazines are still necessary in government hands.

There is absolutely no justification for weapons that were made for the explicit purpose of killing lots of people quickly to be in the hands of civilians.

Let that wash over you again.  “Killing lots of people quickly” and “civilian hands.”  The two don’t go together.

Leftists are by nature not liberals, no matter what label they have adopted.  Scratch a liberal, and find a Fascist.”