Missed this two weeks ago, not that it really matters

Ct Attorney General George Jetson first hears there’s a spending cap

CT Attorney General rules that our state constitutional spending cap is null and void.

I don’t think our Hartford goons have ever abided by the law limiting spending, they’ve simply avoided it through various subterfuges, such as  shuffling items off budget – just as our national government hides things. Nevertheless, the decision, released just as the legislature convenes in special session to try to fix the budget deficit of $300 million (the deficit for next year is already estimated at $1.2 billion, and climbing, so watch out, Fairfield County) is …convenient.

Maybe the Junior League should reexamine its policy excluding Jews

Junior League Headquarters, 231 E. Putnam Avenue

Steve and Alexandra Cohen have donated $1.5 million to Neighbor-to-Neighbor. If the ladies of the JLG make nice, here’s a couple who could buy them a pool in Byram.

Or, if that’s too much, maybe the girls can just donate their clubhouse to the charity – it’s right across the street.

UPDATE: How about giving the nod at least to Presbyterians, who have just donated $100,000 to the Neighbor-to Neighbor building fund.

If you were Putin, what would you do?

Useful Idiot parade

The same thing all his Soviet Union predecessors did:open a fifth column.

Russia faces domestic disaster if oil hits $30 a barrel and stays there. Wouldn’t it be great if the US were to curtail its own oil and gas production and keep prices high? Wouldn’t it be great to fund and organize various “green” groups to accomplish that? To find a willing dupe and install him as president?

Russia, Saudi Arabia and Iran couldn’t find a better friend than the Obama/green coalition, and our country could find no worse enemy.

Most satisfying news of the day

Skelos, Cuomo and Silver. Two down, one to go.

Publius alerted us to the news that New York’s former senate leader, Sheldon Silver was convicted this afternoon. Albany has been run as a corrupt fiefdom for decades, with the spoils divided between Silver for the Democrats and, most recently, Dean Skelos batting for the Republicans; the jury’s still out, literally, on Skelos, but he’s probably not going to be pleased with the result. All of the state’s governors played along and got rich during the process, but Andrew Cuomo’s in office now, and his are the freshest crimes. I’m looking forward to him being up next in the battered box.

Sheldon Silver, for decades one of the most powerful politicians in New York state, was convicted Monday of honest-services fraud, extortion and money laundering in a trial that is likely to reshape the business of Albany and embolden prosecutors with an appetite for public-corruption cases aimed at the Capitol.

The Democratic speaker of the New York state Assembly for more than 20 years, Mr. Silver was found guilty by a 12-person federal jury in Manhattan of four counts of honest-services fraud, two counts of extortion, and one count of money laundering.

His conviction triggers his automatic expulsion from the Legislature, where he has served since 1977.

The verdict brings a stunning end to the lengthy political career of Mr. Silver, 71 years old, who stood as one of the most powerful if inscrutable figures in Albany, presiding over a tightly controlled Democratic conference and earning a reputation as a masterful negotiator against the governor and other legislative leaders.

This will undoubtedly come as bad news to Hillary Clinton, who has called her friend Sheldon a “stalwart voice on behalf of the needs of New Yorkers.” It’ll be fun to see how quickly she runs away from her words and her friend.

Read more:  http://dailycaller.com/2015/11/30/clintons-stalwart-voice-found-guilty-on-all-counts-in-federal-corruption-charge-video/#ixzz3t1N52RXs

 

Price cut on Stanwich

292 Stanwich Road

291 Stanwich, new construction, from $6.695 million to $6.495. Nice house, but this is still a huge price for Stanwich. Still, the one behind it, same property – it was subdivided – sold for $6.9, so lightning could strike twice.

 

 

When fakes collide

Can you tell which fake has his hand on the other’s wallet?

Panhandling Santa outside Macy’s upsets other panhandlers.

A bad Santa was bagging cash right and left from kiddies and their parents while panhandling in a prime spot outside Macy’s in Herald Square on Sunday — hitting them up for $5 a pop to take a single photo with him.

The fake fat man held a Christmas choir bell in one hand — and a red knapsack full of cash and clothes in the other — as he asked for “tips’’ and “donations.’’

I can’t quite parse this term, “fake fat man”. Does the reporter mean that, beneath that role-polly figure lies a lean, hungry man? Or does he mean a fake Santa – is there any other kind?

Either way, is the panhandler any worse than any of the Democrats currently running for office?

Finally, a scrap of real estate news

I’m not being niggardly with reports on activity, there’s just been, literally, nothing reported to the MLS. Perhaps more later as the day wears on, but until then, here’s today’s sole transaction:

53 Glen Road, $1.325 million, reports a contingent contract.

53 Glen Road

That’s it; stay tuned.

And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death

Obama does Paris: This summer I saw the effects of climate change firsthand in our northern-most state Alaska. Where the sea is already swallowing villages and eroding shorelines. Where permafrost thaws and the tundra burns. Where glaciers are melting at a pace unprecedented in modern times. And it was a preview of one possible future, a glimpse of our children’s fate if climate keeps changing faster than our efforts to address it. Submerged countries, abandoned cities, fields that no longer grow.

And I saw a beast coming out of the sea. It had ten horns and seven heads, with ten crowns on its horns, and on each head a blasphemous name.

After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands.

 

Remember when we worried about the decline of reading and writing skills?

Mao reads Stalin

Well no longer – the government now wants to kill those skills off.

Common Core driving fiction from classrooms.

The adoption and implementation of the Common Core State Standards Initiative in more than 40 states around the country since 2010 has wrought two major changes: (1) a notable decrease in the use of fiction and literature in America’s reading and English classes and (2) lower reading and math scores on the U.S. Department of Education-mandated National Assessment of Educational Progress.

The Common Core standards — now instituted in more than 40 states — mandate that nonfiction books constitute at least 70 percent of the texts read by high school students.

The nonfiction-heavy reading regime has forced English teachers nationwide to ditch short stories, poetry and literary classics such as “Huckleberry Finn” and “The Great Gatsby” in favor of dry how-to manuals and dated dispatches from the Federal Reserve.Common Core “is having an impact on the content of reading instruction, moving from the dominance of fiction over nonfiction to near parity in emphasis,” Brookings Institution education policy analyst Tom Loveless wrote last week.

Loveless notes that there is little evidence that the shift toward nonfiction has had any positive effect on the collective reading ability of America’s public school students.

“Reading more nonfiction does not necessarily mean that students will be reading higher quality texts,” Loveless notes.

A list of suggested “informational texts” which have replaced world-class literature in public schools under Common Core includes “Recommended Levels of Insulation by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency” and “FedViews” by the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.

There’s also “Executive Order 13423: Strengthening Federal Environmental, Energy and Transportation Management,” a publication of the General Services Administration.*

In 2009, about 36 percent of the material America’s fourth graders were reading was nonfiction. About 25 percent of the material America’s eighth graders were reading was nonfiction. In 2015, under Common Core, the percentages of nonfiction reading material have climbed to 45 percent for fourth graders and 32 percent for eighth graders, according to the Brookings Institution.

As far as test scores, scores under the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) have failed to increase — and possibly decreased — since the implementation of Common Core.

Practice may not make perfect, but it can improve skills. Instilling a love of reading in (admittedly, “some”) students will encourage them to spend more time reading and therefore, practicing. As for writing skills, the color and forcefulness of words is learned by reading what skillful writers do with them: As Mark Twain wrote, “The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug”.

Today’s students will have no longer heard of Twain, let alone read him.

• Sample:

  (b) implement within the agency environmental management systems (EMS) at all appropriate organizational levels to ensure (i) use of EMS as the primary management approach for addressing environmental aspects of internal agency operations and activities, including environmental aspects of energy and transportation functions, (ii) establishment of agency objectives and targets to ensure implementation of this order, and (iii) collection, analysis, and reporting of information to measure performance in the implementation of this order;

Another example of why “loser pays” should be the law

Former member of Stratton Oakmont’s board of directors and head of corporate finance, one Andrew Green, sues makers of “Wolf of Wall Street” for defamation. (Again – his first case, seeking $25 million, was thrown out, so now he’s back seeking $50, basing his claim partly on the mean things the movie says about his “cheap wig”, but mainly because of its portrayal of him as a coke-sniffing thief.

As honest as his hair

Stratton Oakmont’s sole purpose for being was to defraud investors – there wasn’t a shred of legitimacy in its DNA, so anyone who worked there in a capacity higher than janitor was – is – a crook and a swindler. Statton Oakmont only stayed in business because it was protected by Long Island’s favorite corrupt politician,senator Al D’Amato, who at the time served as head of the Senate Banking and Finance committee. When Al was finally tossed out of office, the feds could finally move against this boiler room, and they did.

Greene is a lawyer, or at least attended law school for a period, so he should know that truth is a complete defense to a claim of libel. If there were any justice in our legal system, he should be forced to pay Paramount Picture’s legal fees, as well as his own.

Who knew Greenwich Time could be ironic?

“Greenwich leadership sworn in”

Judging from the age of this crowd, the ceremony was held at the Nathaniel Withered Home

Put him in a can and seal the lid

Prince Albert II of Monaco, and family, march in anti-Global Warming parade.

Yeah well, here’s my response to that:

Prince Albert’s boat

Prince Albert’s Falcon

Prince Albert’s house

Oh, just one more bash at the Greenwich Junior League and then we can move on to real estate

Greenwich Junior League Cotillion, 2013

I had dinner with Pal Nancy and the girls last night, and Nancy reminded me of the time in 1983 when, with much misgiving, she accepted an invitation to join the JLG (it was invitation only, back then). After two years of JLG nonsense she’d had enough, and the birth of our second child gave her the perfect excuse to resign.

The perfect excuse, perhaps, but not to the Junior League, which demanded  she pay a $500 quitter’s penalty before they’d accept it. Her pleas that we were a single-income family with two infants to care for fell on deaf ears: pay the penalty, she was warned, or she would be ruined in Greenwich society and her name put about as a deadbeat.

I pointed out to Nancy that she was eligible to join the Mayflower Society – not that she ever would – and members of my own family were Sons of the Revolution, so the family name could easily survive the scorn of a group of mean spirited nouveau arrivistes with long legs, genetically developed by generations of their ancestors walking, rather than riding around Europe. But Nancy was new to town, and nervous about the threats thrown at her by these wretched people, so we caved, and paid the money.

That, of course, was not the Nancy of today, and the story was almost forgotten, but being called a bully by certain JLG members last week for picking on their dreadful social club brought it back; if I’m a “cyber-bully”, according to these parasites, what do they consider behavior that threatens a young women with slanders against her name and her exclusion from “proper society”?

A pox on their enchanted forest.

.

The hot air to be released this week will send global temperatures soaring

1.5 million gather at the Place de la Republique to celebrate their annihilation

50,000 delegates to assemble in Paris for Global Warming celebration.

Add a million or so protesters and celebrities and we’re headed for 100 degrees centigrade.

These are the people teaching your children, and ruining our unversities

Chinese Cultural Revolution: Intellectuals and professors learn the error of their ways

Occidental professors to vote on giving students veto power over what’s taught in their classrooms and will undergo reeducation classes.

Presumably, we’ll soon see them toiling on the farms, helping a thousand flowers bloom.

We recognize and are inspired by the leadership of Oxy United for Black Liberation and their call for widespread institutional changes in the culture of the College. We affirm that Black lives matter and also affirm the broader ideals of social justice to which their call speaks. We recognize that the structural racism and other forms of oppression of the College violate our commitment to ensuring equity and excellence in our educational programs for all of our students. We also acknowledge that our collective inaction as a faculty body makes us complicit in the failures of the College to make our Mission a lived reality. For this we apologize for failing you, our students.

The students will get many of the things they want, if the full faculty body approves the Plan of Action. The resolution would mandate diversity and ally training for all faculty, beginning in January 2016. “We empower the Dean of the College to ensure compliance,” the plan reads.

The plan also obligates professors to place a much greater emphasis on topics relating to race and ethnicity—even if they don’t teach subjects that call for much examination of social or cultural issues. “All departments must incorporate issues of cultural and racial identity and diversity in their curricula,” the plan reads. Does all departments include mathematics? Physical sciences? I imagine that it does.

The plan calls for a microaggression monitoring system that would allow students to report faculty members for offending them. The plan explains that this is necessary to correct “power imbalances between faculty and students.”

And a truth for the day

Thought for the day

We’re all playing in the same band

Joseph Romero dresses for school

Wisconsin school district (part of Madison, naturally) suspends its plan to force students to read book about a transgender it.

“Parents and their children don’t have to believe differently or agree with what is being taught. You can still have your personal beliefs but in the schools, we expect people to be respectful of each other and this is one of the ways we have that conversation,” Juchems said.

“It is our primary responsibility to provide a safe and nurturing environment for all of our students.”

Really? That’s the primary responsibility, not teaching academic skills? I’d   say Madison schools’ see their primary responsibility as indoctrination.

1.6 percent of Americans identify as gay or lesbian, and 0.3 of those identify as transgender, but what about another confused segment of the population, “otherkins”, who believe themselves to be descendants of elves, stars, or animals? Do Wisconsin’s public schools recognize their responsibility to provide a safe space for these people? Does that include recognizing their need to have sex with animals, as the “furry” sub-division insists on?

And what about the “plushies”, a sub-sub division of the furries, who get off on sex with stuffed toys? Must kindergartner plushies be given a private room in which to express their natural sexual self?

In Madison, sure. Maybe not yet in the rest of the country.

UPDATE: Related? “It’s a sad world where women are having sex with Sugar Bear for bragging rights”

 

It’s not just terrorism to worry about, it’s their culture

Assistant professore drags his niece from school by her hair for not wearing hijab 

Missouri: An assistant professor at an American university has been arrested for allegedly grabbing a 14-year-old female relative by the hair and dragging her into a car after he noticed she wasn’t wearing a hijab.

Youssif Z. Omar, 53, was reportedly at Hickman High School on Tuesday when he spotted that the girl did not have the traditional Muslim headscarf.

Officer Latisha Stroer told the Columbia Tribune in an email that Omar grabbed the girl ‘very violently by the hair’.

He then allegedly slapped her across the face, and pulled her by the hair down and flight of stairs and into his car.

Already, honor killings and forced female genital mutilation arena the rise in the US., And honor killings are just the culmination of the entire Muslim suppression of girls.

Let’s leave aside the question of whether or not such violence is more common in some immigrant communities than in others. Let’s leave aside the whole vexed question of religion or culture. For now, let’s just get straight what is happening to girls in America. And let’s do something to stop it.  

The first step is to understand the phenomenon. Honor violence is rooted in the perception that the behavior of a woman or girl, betraying her chastity, is an affront to the honor of her family and community. Examples of such dishonorable behavior include premarital relationships, dating someone not accepted by the family, or simply wearing clothing considered to be immodest or “too American.” 

At first, relatives attempting to control a girl’s sexuality may simply impose non-violent restrictions on her social life, access to education, health care, employment opportunities, and civic participation. But if such forms of pressure do not suffice, a girl may be subjected to threats, harassment, assault, rape, kidnapping, torture, and even murder.

Where does our nation’s president stand on this? Where do you think: “Don’t change a thing about your culture”.

“It’s not about changing who you are, it’s about adding a new chapter to your journey… and to our journey as a nation of immigrants,” Obama narrates in his two-minute video urging almost 9 million resident migrants to sign up for citizenship so they can vote in 2016.

Muslim gang rapes ignored in England for years, for fear of offending Muslims

 

This is gonna make for one weird insurance claim

Burglar gets stuck in chimney, career ends when homeowner lights fire.

Police say a burglar died after becoming stuck in the chimney of a California home Saturday afternoon when the unsuspecting homeowner lit a fire.

Fresno County Sheriff’s Lt. Brandon Pursell said a homeowner in the rural town of Huron heard someone yell after lighting a fire in his fireplace.

Pursell said the homeowner called 911 and also tried to put out the fire as his house began to fill with smoke.

Firefighters who rushed to the chaotic scene used jackhammers to break open the brick chimney in an attempt to rescue the man.