URLs du Jour

2017-07-04

Happy Independence Day! Mr. Munroe summarizes the recent past and near future of the holiday:

[Fourth of July]

Mouseover text: "Strangely, they still celebrate by eating hot dogs. Since they don't have mouths, they just kinda toss them in the air and let them fall back down into their propeller blades. It's pretty messy."

Portsmouth, NH did a spectacular job with its fireworks last night. Parking hassles, sure, but worth it.

We now return you to our regularly scheduled programming:

Proverbs 24:29 might be connected to the previous verse, but also stands alone well:

29 Do not say, “I’ll do to them as they have done to me;
    I’ll pay them back for what they did.”

Good counterpoint to those who think the Old Testament was all about eye-for-an-eye.

@kevinNR writes on A People without a King:

King George III surely had courtiers and sycophants who demanded that the colonials “respect the office.”

And they meant it about the office: The idea that a people could not only survive but thrive without a king, or something very like a king, was seen as beyond radical and more like just plain nuts. Even the Most Serene Republic of Venice had its doge. The Americans thought differently, and they sent the king and his courtiers a public letter written by Thomas Jefferson: “Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government.”

That is polite 18th-century English for “Kiss my ass.”

As I've said: we're here because they were there. A good day to offer them silent thanks.

■ Perhaps it's the season, but my Google LFOD alert lit up with a number of items. Out in the suburbs of Chicago, there's a paper called the Daily Herald, with Jim Baumann penning a column called Grammar Moses. He shares:

[…] I received the following email from Stephen Foust of Batavia: "A while back I lived in New England where we enjoyed bucolic rural drives, particularly during foliage season. There often appeared on the back roads of New Hampshire a road sign declaring 'Fine for Littering.' I suppose that's fitting for the Live Free or Die state, but I am wondering if there are any other states where littering is fine. Or is that just in New Hampshire?"

Heh.

■ And there were two LFOD hits from the Union Leader. First was a story about the Firestorm over call for info on elections.

The sweeping demand from a new anti-voter fraud commission for state election officials to broadly turn over voter records has been met with bipartisan resistance while President Donald Trump doubled down Saturday on why he's asked for them in the first place.

Yes, some people are pretending that it's totally outrageous for one bit of government share data with another bit of government. And the LFOD…

"This broad net the commission is throwing is all about trying to promote a narrative that's got no basis in reality, that there was rampant voter fraud in New Hampshire and other key states," said Democratic National Committeeman Peter Burling of Cornish.

"Whatever happened to New Hampshire's tradition of Live Free or Die? Just say no, Mr. Gardner."

Mr. Gardner (the NH Secretary of State) has said he'll provide the same data to the "anti-voter fraud commission" that he currently sells to private companies for a few thousand bucks.

■ Hey, New Hampshire, what time is it? UL Business Editor Mike Cote has the answer: Time to get your mojo working, New Hampshire.

Start with a good, long look in the mirror. Some mornings, you simply don't like yourself much. And that aura surrounds you when you bump up against other states. It doesn't help that New Hampshire has been portrayed as a place to hide for criminals on the run in the final seasons of both "The Sopranos" and "Breaking Bad," each in episodes titled "Live Free or Die."

Mike thinks that a little more braggadocio on our part will help attract entrepreneurship.

■ In the Pun Salad Credit Where Credit is Due Department: recently President Trump tweeted:

And our state's senior Senator Jeanne shot back:

And Senator Jeanne is right. I know, a stopped-clock comment might be appropriate here. And I have my doubts whether this springs from some newfound commitment to free market principles; more likely it's due to special-interest pleading from our local chocolate producer Lindt & Sprüngli. (Motto: "With a name like Sprüngli, it has to be good.")

A principled recent argument against Trump's "deal" (and the crony capitalism involved) is available at the Daily Signal: Sugar Subsidies Are a Lose-Lose for American Workers and Consumers. Bottom line:

Americans deserve a much sweeter deal: End the U.S. sugar program once and for all.

That would be just fine.


Last Modified 2018-12-28 3:06 PM EDT